I Will Be Your Villainess

Chapters

Chapter 1.1: I adore you; love you.
Chapter ???: I want to help you; save you.
Chapter 1.2: So for you, I'll be the best; the greatest.
Chapter 1.3: Even if the world should turn against me...
Chapter ???: I won't let you fall.
Chapter 1.4: I will be... your Villainess
Chapter 2: Sister Tiara
Chapter 3: The Lands Lost To Frost
Chapter 4: Mother Berry
Chapter 5: Pilgrimage Of Souls

Chapter 1.1: I adore you; love you.

Ah... I’d almost forgotten how to move this body of mine. It’s difficult to control since it is so alien to me now. Several feet taller, heavier, and older than when I last used it. But I can’t falter here. I need to stand up straight and proud. Let none see the weakness in me. For if I am to save Mary, I will need every ounce of grace I can output. I will have to calculate every word perfectly, every slight movement just so. I will make her dreams for me a reality.

Foolish, spineless girl. Why did she go and wish the best for me of all ponies, even in her final moments? She was so happy with living in this world next to all of those who had finally given her a chance. So to whom do her tireless efforts go to if not for herself? She wished it for me. To live that ideal she didn’t know she desperately wanted herself.

It sickens me. To have to bow to them and retreat here, on this climactic moment. But it is necessary if I am to carry out my vengeance in Mary’s name. Ah, but what a comeback I’ve made... There is just something so sweet about their seething frustration. All their “evidence”, for naught. All their backstabbing, useless. They’ve driven me into a corner, sure. But they still have yet to break me, and it eats away at their pride.

Hm. Perhaps this is all just random babble to you, isn’t it? The you who is hearing this. Here, perhaps some context will do:

I’ve been away from Equestria for a long time. Never left it, but I haven’t been able to touch its soil in over a decade. You see, I was possessed when I was a young filly.

But you might be wondering... who would want to possess and take the place of one of the cruelest, nastiest little girls in all of Ponyville? Diamond Tiara. Well, if you’re thinking to yourself ‘Not me’, then join the club. Even I wouldn’t want to return to the me of those days. I was a spiteful, hateful little gremlin of a child. Always looking for opportunities to knock others down. Always looking to place myself above the rest. Self-interested until the very end of my reign.

Unfortunately, that’s just how my story was destined to be from the start. You see, some children are just a product of their circumstances. In my case, it was a self-reinforcing cycle of nastiness that kept me in that mindset. True to their greed, my parents cared more about money and status than they did their own child. So much so, love was something I never experienced from them. They thought me a nuisance and would have rather paid for the maids to distract me away from them. So I grew up with a void in me that fed my hatred and disgust for the ugly nature of their high-society world and subsequently the one below that, as many of the common folk seemed to inherently reject me for being born into wealth, not helped at all by my haughty behavior.

I had “friends”, or is it more accurate to call them like-minded conspirators? They were the type to hide behind my loud mouth and force of presence so that they could continue their cruel games with the peace of mind that they always had someone to blame if push came to shove their way. Ones who were only ever interested in what they could gain by sticking with me.

And just when I thought that things were finally going my way when I found out I could forcibly become an Alicorn and use that power to undo this two-faced Equestria, I was cast out from my body by another soul.

My rage was immeasurable. That was MY body after all. Who would DARE?!

Well, it turned out that soul was none other than Marianne Evergold, Mary for short. A “human” from a much, much different world than my own. A sentimental, benevolent, kind-hearted, optimistic, idealistic, unrealistic, foolish, spineless, and idiotic human girl. That big idiot...

So where was I during all this time? Well, I was still there. Stuck inside my own mind, left to float about the dark void inside my subconscious. Except, I was fully aware of Mary’s every step, every emotion, and every thought. Like some all-seeing eye, all I could do was watch as someone else lived my life for me. No amount of shouting or kicking or pleading within that void did anything to get me even the slightest bit heard by Mary or anyone else. For all intents and purposes, I no longer existed in Equestria.

I initially cursed whatever gods would even think of doing something like this to me, as if I were just some worthless punchline to their joke. But well... being trapped inside your own mind that long has a way of giving you ample time to reflect.

I’m sorry, that’s not entirely true. Time would’ve only compounded my bitterness and anger to its extreme if it had been left to fester just like that. No. I swallow my pride now, for the gods knew better. Because out of all the souls in this impossibly huge and endless existence, they gave me Mary. The one soul in two whole worlds who ADORED me. Every bit of me. The bad, the good... well, more bad than good really. She has odd tastes, to say the least.

Or perhaps they weren’t that odd if you could’ve seen Mary’s life like I could while I was trapped in my own mind. She looked up to me, because Mary didn’t have something that I did. Confidence. Grace. Poise. Willpower. The selfish hunger inside to bigger and better for your own sake. So many different little reasons. Eventually, her admiration for me grew until the point it could be stopped no longer. I had become a part of her long before she ever became me.

And right about now, you should be thinking an obvious question inside of your head. How did she know me before becoming me? The answer to this question is the answer to why I am speaking to you right now, actually.

In her world, Equestria in its entirety is fiction. It is a children’s series of books, comics, cartoons, shows, and movies. She knew me, because she had seen me before. She grew up watching out for me, from an early age. She talked to her parents, sister, and friends about me. She spoke about me in “online forums”. Everyone she talked to about me confirmed to her and to me what we always knew. That I was hated through and through.

This wasn’t just some alternate world either. Everything about the Equestria I know and the events that have happened within it were chronicled in her world’s media. I was exactly who I was ten years ago, having done all the same things.

Stranger yet, her media depicted my and Equestria’s future too. My bid to gain power and erase it... I met with failure long into my adulthood. I lived a horrible life all throughout, conspiring with the worst of Equestria’s villains like Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek, Sombra, and Chrysalis. Eventually, the one show that depicted my story ended on me being turned to stone forever from then on, as I would never be mentioned again. My heart colder than ice and darker than a void.

Anyone else might have been given existential dread to know that their whole life had been a fiction to someone else. But not me. For better or worse, my story had been altered in my own reality and I now knew what my future would’ve become had I kept to my course.

But even with all of this information, my outlook wouldn’t have changed even a bit had it not been for Mary herself. The gods be damned.

And it all started with her first arrival in Equestria. The very moment she awoke to my body, absolutely bewildered and floored by such a drastic change in realities.

It was the moment I had been freshly kicked out of my own body too. Sigh. I yelled such awful things to her. Even if she will never get to hear the words I uttered then, I am ashamed of what I had thought of her in those first few minutes of realization for the both of us. But you can’t stay mad for long at Mary. Her soul was so bright. Her feelings so warm. Her love so strong. And her sorrow so deep...

For a good long time, she cried. She cried, and cried... and cried. So much grief in one child. So much loneliness.

I can understand if the gods thought it fitting to punish me for my behavior, since I was truly detestable. But Mary...? What did she ever do to deserve this?

My parents, my “friends”, even the maids did not go to comfort her. She had no one to tell her it was all going to be okay. Her heart was drowning in sadness. She had, had a realization of the final moments in her world, and she knew she had arrived to this world never to be able to see her friends and family again. Between her crying, all that could be heard was her voice saying how deeply sorry she was that she had involuntarily abandoned them far too early into her life.

Mary cared more about others than she could ever do for herself. Her tears were not because of her own loneliness, but for the remorse in causing her loved ones that indescribable grief.

And I could feel all of that sincere hurting inside of her. We had been inexorably connected by our very soul, so my anger and frustration at this unknown girl were washed away by her terribly sad tears.

I had seen all of what could cause that kind of sadness. Every meal eaten together at a table. Every special moment spent together with family. Every nurturing comfort of a mother. Every reassurance of a father. Every bit of fun with a sister. Every sense of belonging with friends. Every bit of love, every bit of wonderful joy.

In that moment, I had finally experienced it. The things I myself never had.

And... I cried alongside her.

I could curse the gods and everyone else all I wanted, but Mary was the one person I could not get myself to hate.

Thankfully, Mary is not the type to be forever in the dumps over the trials of this strange life of ours. After getting herself together, she immediately went to check on her situation, wobbly on four new legs as she was. She was a smart cookie, that girl. A big idiot, but a smart idiot. She quickly surmised that because she hadn’t been born into Equestria, she must’ve taken the place of some existing pony. Without even knowing who it was that she had replaced, she worried endlessly about what must’ve happened to the original pony.

She was worrying about me... The first person in my life to do so.

It was honestly rather funny when she finally peered over a mirror after stumbling to it, only for her eyes to grow wider than I ever thought my eyes could go. She hit herself a couple of times and scanned my whole body through and through to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. But before she could lose herself in excitement at seeing physical confirmation that she was indeed in the world of Equestria and in the horseshoes of the one pony she adored above all others, her worry returned to her full force.

What had happened to Tiara? What had happened to me? For a while, these questions were all that she could think and worry on. But maybe she knew something I didn’t, as she seemingly stopped worrying about it one day and began to focus on a strange plan.

Trapped in my subconscious, I could replay anything within Mary’s mind. Her memories, her feelings, and her thoughts. It is how I learned of the human world, about the show that depicts Equestria, all of her knowledge on its sciences and technologies, the history of mankind, and its thorough lack of magic and deities.

But there was one vestige of her mind that I could not visit, try all I might. Her subconscious. Her dreams, to be precise. Maybe Luna was playing a role in all of this, but it seemed that Mary got a random idea stuck in her head after one such dream that allowed her to live her life in Equestria with more purpose.

That purpose? Well... she wanted to redeem me.

She wanted to change my ultimate fate. She couldn’t accept that the creators of the show had never done anything to make me a better person. To Mary, this new reality was a butting of heads with the fictions of her world. She began to honestly believe that this was her chance to give me that redemption. And so slowly but surely, she began to make strides and move towards that goal. And she did this almost like she knew... like she was expecting that someday I would return to my own body again.

But those thoughts never crossed her waking mind, so I don’t really know what must’ve given her this idea. There was nothing to suggest that it would happen.

It took her a few days to get her bearings as a filly. Humans, you see, have a tendency to walk on two legs. Adapting to four was a little hard on her, but she got there eventually. I feel a little embarrassed to say this, but it was the first time I ever felt pride for someone else’s accomplishments. It was the first time I ever felt a desire to spur on another person. And with words she would never get to hear, I cheered her on.

Mary’s unbridled optimism was her saving grace. She didn’t exactly take over my body with a clean slate. I had already done a number of things to all sorts of ponies all across Ponyville. I might have not been national news yet, but there was hardly a pony in that small hamlet that didn’t dislike my guts thoroughly. An occupational hazard for antagonists, I suppose. There was hardly a friendly face the likes of which Mary would’ve had the pleasure to be around.

Thankfully, Mary cares infinitely more about others than she does herself. She didn’t see her efforts as something she was doing for herself. She saw it as a way to redeem me. That simple fact alone was enough to give her all the heart she needed to push past the awful. To break through the cemented narrative my story had, had up until that point. Spineless? Not when it came to wanting to make friends for my sake and doing her best to make amends. Lacking willpower? Certainly not when she was training my body’s magical power in order to be strong enough to fight against the villains on her own, happen they to show up in this timeline of ours. No confidence? What is shame if you’re desperate to save another?

For ten long years, I watched her tireless efforts to try to redeem me.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I can tell you this... I truly came to love her. I loved her usual whacky antics. I loved her beautifully kind heart. I loved her sincerity. I loved her mind and how it works. I loved the way she smiled and laughed. She cared about me before I had ever cared about my selfish self.

For me, she always made sure to eat my favorite foods not knowing if I could’ve appreciated them. I did, strangely enough. I shared her senses to some degree. Taste being one of them. And she did any number of activities that she thought I would enjoy, hoping those experiences could be relayed to me.

She never had to do that begin with, since I was hardly ever bored. I'd found so much enjoyment within our interconnected minds, after all. Replaying her memories kept me endlessly entertained as I just loved watching her go about her human life.

But every time I saw the memories of her family and friends... I couldn’t help imagine what my life would’ve been like had we been born into the same world, the same place, the same time, the same family. So often I imagined that we’d be the best of friends or the closest, most dearest of sisters.

And so now I want you to imagine... Imagine the kind of vengeance I have planned for those who threw Mary into such an overwhelming pit of despair that she retreated from Equestria, into her subconscious and leaving me to take control of my body once more. Her sadness is so strong and her presence that I can feel within me is so tiny. It is as if she has closed her heart and has gone into a deep, deep sleep. A cage of her own making so much farther than my own within that void.

Ah... I already miss her so much.

Will my deeds get to her? Will she see how I redeem us? Will my voice ever reach her?

Will she know how much I love her?

Author's Note

This story is heavily inspired by “The One Within The Villainess”. I don’t often do heavily inspired stories, but it’s one of my absolute favorites and there’s just so much potential to twist it into something MLP related, I felt I needed to take that chance.

It was a bit rough workshopping this initially due to the surprisingly complex premise, as no single detail could have been done without or else the execution could’ve fallen flat on its face. Maybe with my writing it already did? But more so than if I had skipped or changed even a tiny detail.

Also, this was a great opportunity to reminisce about my own past. About a girl once named Mary and how much I cared about her.

In memory of.

Chapter ???: I want to help you; save you.

Poor Tiara. She deserved better. Everyone does, but her especially. Characters like her are always written unfairly. It started off with a few snide remarks and a lapse in judgment, which snowballed into light teasing of her classmates and from there, into full-on bullying. Then they must’ve felt like they had the perfect excuse to make her even more horrible and irredeemable since they would have rather used an existing antagonist for their plotlines rather than a throw-away villain, despite Tiara being just a filly who could’ve easily, and believably, made a change for the better and repent for her deeds.

But no. They never did redeem her. And why would they? It seemed like everyone was on the same page with her. They hated her. Was it just her design? Was it just the sour first impression everyone got of her when she acted all high and mighty in her first real appearance? That’s just it. Once a character has been struck by that awful image, it’s almost impossible to get them out of it. A lack of interest from the audience creates no good reasons to give Tiara any redeemable qualities for the show’s creators. The lack of redeemable qualities further drove the lack of interest in her character. So on, and so forth. A self-reinforcing cycle of nothing good.

Which ultimately culminated in her becoming one of the major antagonists of the show. Only then did she create some interest in her character. But what kind of interest was that? Well. People were real interested in seeing her fall.

It always left a sour taste in my mouth. Especially since they came so close to giving her that turning point. That split second where she seriously contemplated not going against Equestria... That minuscule hesitation in her steps could’ve been everything she needed. She was so close. But they made her refuse it, and the curtains fell on her story forever on. The ultimate bad end. The stone treatment, rather than being sent to Tartarus like the rest of the big Bads. Left to spectate the world without so much as a voice to yell out her frustrations.

To someone like Discord who could endlessly stay entertained within his own mind, turning to stone was an inconvenience rather than a punishment. But to Tiara... Oh, poor Tiara. Nothing of the shows, future generations, comics, books, or extras ever showed her returning from that imprisonment. How long must she have suffered in there?

It was of little use to air my grievances over this to my friends and family. The first question anyone would ever ask was, “Wait, you actually like Tiara? Why?” At first, I was more than happy trying to sell Tiara off to them all day if need be. But it was always a fruitless endeavor.

My argument was always the same. A combination of “I don’t know, I just like her. She’s just so confident and cool,” and the more sound point of “She’s just a small girl making a few mistakes. No reason to hate on her so badly.” But those few mistakes became many, and all the weight in my words fell off over time.

I guess the reason why I always liked Tiara so much was simultaneously more complicated and simple than that. Simply put, she had something I didn’t. Drive. Ambition. Grace. Beauty. Yes, even as a snotty young brat. She simply had a strength of character that I myself couldn’t. I could never even imagine myself standing up to others let alone putting all the effort Tiara did in trying to become the best. Also yes, even when she resorted to foul play.

Of course, like most people, I couldn’t agree with the methods she would use to achieve some of her goals, but her efforts were undeniable. She wanted it far more than anyone else did. Wanted what? Wealth? Power? Status? No. The way I always saw it... is that she just wanted to be happy for once. She grew up in a loveless, uncaring family after all. She had been propped up by fake friends who just wanted to use her as a scapegoat. And Equestria, nay, even my world seemed to hate her from the start.

Was she wrong? Were those things she wanted only capable of temporary comforts rather than true happiness? Yes, absolutely. But that pitiful girl fighting for the idea of happiness is what should’ve been what everyone took away from her.

And so this is where my strong feelings for Tiara became increasingly more complex. With everyone telling me that I shouldn’t like Tiara, after coming to care about her a lot, I began to feel indignant over their suggestions. Why am I wrong? Because people couldn’t understand the tragedy of her character? Because the writers further drove her into that corner? It was a sense of tribalism that connected me evermore to her, or perhaps even stockholm syndrome? Whatever the case, I would never admit that she was irredeemable. There were other better, kinder, more amazing characters in the show. Even greater villains than her. But none that had my unyielding investment and want to see her be redeemed.

And yet she never was.

So I want you to imagine my surprise when I awoke in Equestria and inside her body! Crazy, isn’t it? Maybe God is real and heard my heartfelt wish for her? Or maybe the gods of Equestria were the ones to do so? Wait, does Equestria even have gods? Not sure. Anyways, the point is, I was super excited to have become Tiara.

I laughed at the memory of my family and friends when I remembered that they always used to tell me to calm down after I went on Tiara-tirades. “It’s just a fictional character”, they’d say. Ha! I say. Yeah, I laughed and laughed...

But after laughing for a good while, I began to panic a whole lot. It was nice that I had become Tiara and everything... but what about Tiara herself!? What had happened to her?! The whole point of my heartfelt wish was to see her be redeemed and finally find happiness. What good was it that I would be the one to obtain that instead of her...?

Or? You know what... Maybe this was a test. I don’t know how I came up with this idea, but something was telling me that this was my chance. That I could ultimately save Tiara from her fate! Perhaps this was just the gods’ way of telling me that Tiara was too far strung along by the forces of evil to change all by herself, and that they needed me to take her place in order to create long-lasting relationships that would stick by her until the very end, no matter if she returned to her cruel self. Yes. Maybe that was my purpose for being here. All Tiara needed was someone to be there for her after all.

But I want more than just a few ponies to like her back. I want all of Equestria and the world over to see just how truly beautiful she can be. I want everyone to feel the same way I feel about her. I want her to be respected, admired, looked up to... loved.

To that end, I must train harder than I ever have before. For if I am to save Tiara, I will need every bit of grace I can manage. I will have to choose all the right words. And not for a second should I stop moving forward for her sake. All in order to make my dreams for her a reality.

Chapter 1.2: So for you, I'll be the best; the greatest.

Sometimes, I wonder if Mary is just naturally gifted at making friends. I mean... just look at her. Sitting out in the rain all by her lonesome and drenched from head to hoof. She's been there for quite a long time now, maybe a few hours. Any pony who could pass by on her would initially have thought it was just one more of Tiara's usual ploys to trick someone against their better judgment. But after ten minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, three hours... Well, it was hard not feeling sorry for her. Even the look on her face was pitiable.

But let me tell you this now: Being inside of her head was a wholly different experience. She wasn't sad or particularly hung up on something or other that had upset her. She was thinking. Those wheels were turning, and questions were churning out into her mind. Those pony passersbys were partially correct to assume Tiara was plotting something. Only partially because that wasn't me who was plotting.

Bam! A door flung open. "Haven't you made us look bad enough with that whole Gabby Gums incident?! We told you to scram already! No is NO!" And then Bam! again, it shut.

I was never particularly heads or tails over the Crusaders, honestly. It might've seemed that way thanks to the show's portrayal and the limited screen time shown of me, but I never exclusively singled them out for name-calling or bullying. In fact, I don't think I was ever truly angry at them or hated them. What I hated was this world in general, and they, like every pony in Ponyville, were just collateral damage to the anger within me.

But now they were actually starting to tick me off.

I tried to yell at the image of Mary still sitting out in the rain thinking on how she could begin to apologize and make it up to them after all that I had done before. But alas, she could not hear my spiteful namecalling and encouragements to abandon them entirely. The ungrateful curs! How dare they dismiss Mary's efforts so easily.

Okay, maybe it was my fault why Mary was having such a hard time... but still.

Flowers? Nah, too simple. Apology letter? They'd probably just rip it up without reading it. I could still try that cake idea I had in mind. That was Mary's voice speaking in an inner monologue like she so often did when thinking hard about anything. So yes, Tiara was plotting something. A good plot, for once.

And here comes the point why I asked if Mary is just a naturally loveable person, because even without actively trying or putting any of the miriads of plans she had into effect, she had stumbled into the opportunity to be forgiven. It was as if her good nature was a physically manifesting aura that other ponies could sense from her. Coupled along with the multiple days and hours she had sat by the Crusader's clubhouse almost everyday and asking to be forgiven each time, this finally wore down their resolve even without Mary knowing it. She was still in the middle of formulating the most elaborate apology cake known to pony kind when the clubhouse door kicked open one more time, and out appeared the three worried faces of the Crusaders to walk over to her where Mary sat in the muddied ground, the rain still kicking up a storm around them.

She hadn't even noticed them at first until an umbrella with pictures of apples on it blocked off the rain from hitting her further. Looking up, she found a white hoof in front of her, being offered so as to let her stand. Finally, it was the orange pegasus that draped a towel over her so that she could dry off and warm up within it. Silently, she followed their wordless beckoning towards their tree clubhouse, wiped her muddied hooves before entering, and shivered at the entrance while feeling like she didn't want to overstep further than she had to.

Scootaloo was the first to begin with the questions. "Alright, what is it that you want Tiara?" She did not hide her distrust and exasperation at all.

"We're only just getting back into every pony's good graces after those gossip columns you made us write, and now you're out here trying to make us look bad again?" Sweetie Belle huffed with indignation.

"Not to forget how many hurtful things you've said and done to us over the years!" Barked Apple Bloom.

"How could you go and tell every pony my secret that I can't fly! I can't even look Rainbow Dash in the face anymore..." Scootaloo's voice was small, and it showed how deeply hurt she was over it.

"Ever since you teased me about my singing, I've constantly had doubts about myself..." Sweetie Belle seemed to be facing her own demons too thanks to what I had done.

"And that time you told me I wasn't a real Apple because my Cutie Mark hasn't appeared with something apple related yet? I had nightmares for weeks. I sometimes still do..."

"So I'm going to ask you one more time, Tiara." Scootaloo's voice dropped menacingly, now showing off her rage. "What do you want? Why are you doing this? Because after all you've done, don't think for a second that we'll forgive everything you've made us go through."

"Not just us, but all of Ponyville. Let's not forget who tipped off Nightmare Moon about where Twilight and my sister were headed to for the elements of harmony." Apple Bloom continued.

"Let's not forget who sided with Discord when he turned Ponyville upside down." Sweetie Belle added.

"Or Trixie when she banished Twilight from Ponyville with that Alicorn amulet." Scootaloo said to end their statements.

At this, Mary flinched. She had been silently sitting through this bombardment of accusations she was never supposed to be responsible for, and for reasons only she and I knew, this particular incident had been the worst of them yet. Her whole body seemed to droop from how much it had shaken her resolve, and she could do nothing but look down towards the floorboards of that treehouse.

It's a bit of a good thing that she didn't have the ability to see the kind of expressions the Crusaders were making at that moment in time. She would've seen the horribly conflicted looks on their faces as they teetered between all-out worry now that their indignation was drifting away at the sight of what looked to be a truly broken down Tiara. Those three were good fillies at heart, and they couldn't stand to see even their worst enemy suffer to this extent. Mary looked extremely pitiable when she was thinking, after all. And right about now, she was thinking of that amulet.

If she had seen them, perhaps this coincidental spell she inadvertently created would've been broken. Mary is very honest, you see. She would've told them there and then not to worry about her, as she wasn't feeling sad over any of the things they had accused her with. They would've misunderstood her at that simple comment, and she would've been back to square one in trying to get on their good graces. But accidentally, wordlessly, she had convinced the Crusaders that Tiara had, had a change of heart and was truly looking to apologize despite the truth being so much more complicated than that in multiple ways.

"So what now?" Scootaloo began again, her question quiet and gentle. "How do we move on from all of this, Tiara?"

Scootaloo had asked a very good question. A very hard one at that. How does one move on from being enemies with someone? Think of your own bullies, if you have any. Maybe they haven't hurt you so deeply that you can't imagine yourself being friends with them, but try to. How could you begin to forgive them? What would they need to do? And would you even want that yourself?

Hate is that kind of sticky feeling that likes to cement itself. I should know, as my life has been that way since I was born. Hate will do everything to convince you that it is what's best for you. It'll tell you you're better, grander, and above all. It gives you strength when life inevitably goes wrong, and shifts the blame when you're the one that's wrong. It protects your pride and all the things you hold dear in life.

So when hate tells you that you want nothing to do with a pony, not even their redemption towards you, it's especially difficult to move on from it. And now the three ponies who had, had no choice but to breed that hatred due to what I have done to them for so long, were now looking towards Mary for answers to something they just couldn't seem to find an answer for. Lucky them that it wasn't me who they asked, because I don't think I'll ever have the answer to it.

And neither did Mary.

"I... I don't know... I really don't... I've been thinking about what I can do to make it up to you, but nothing seems to be good enough. Flowers, cakes, or gifts seem pointless and hollow. I've thought about it for so long now, and I keep turning up with no good solutions. I could spend all my life trying to make it up to you, and I honestly don't know if I ever could. I wish I could ask you to forgive me and be my friend, but if I put myself in your horseshoes even for a second, I don't think I could. So I won't ask that of you. You don't need to forgive me. I just want for you to hear my apology and know that I truly mean it. I hope that you can move on from the hurt I've caused you."

The truth of it is, there are no words, no gifts, and no actions you can do to apologize to another. No physical answer. Mary's heart seemed to break after she ended those words, and our body began to tremble and sob from within with her sadness. Perhaps even from my own. Because she was teaching me a truly important lesson I wish I had learned sooner before I had to subject Mary to such heartache...

Without knowing it, Mary taught me remorse for the first time. In my love for her, I found out exactly what kind of ugly consequence my actions had brought about. It felt like her words had been speaking to me directly, almost as if they were my own. Inside of my mind, I repeated my sorries to her over and over, knowing I could never truly apologize for the kind of hurt I was inflicting on her. It wasn't just the gods that had damned Mary to a cruel fate. I was the true culprit of this ugly life she had been handed.

But Mary also taught me another lesson. At that moment, the Crusaders each put a hoof out in front of Mary's and looked to her wordlessly, waiting for her to join hers to theirs. When she did, Sweetie Belle was the one to use magic to bring the towel up to her face so she could wipe away her tears and snot from that terribly heart-breaking display she'd put on.

"To be honest, forgiving and forgetting is so complicated." Apple Bloom began.

"It's exhausting to think about." Scootaloo followed.

"But what I do know is... I would also like to be your friend, Tiara." Sweetie Belle answered for the three of them, as the other two Crusaders nodded along, their concern for Mary on their face. "I don't know what happened to make you change like this, or whether this is even a good idea... But I'm willing to give you a chance."

"You girls are such fools." Mary said finally more contentedly, sniffling out the rest of the snot in her nose and smiling so brightly at them.

"I guess we all are." Apple Bloom said as she fetched another towel for her.

"Just... don't make us regret it, okay? We really want to trust you, Tiara. We don't quite forgive you just yet. But we rather you be our friend than an enemy, any day of the week." Scootaloo huffed.

"Thank you, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle." Mary and I said in unison at that moment.

Never had I felt more relief than when the Crusaders had given me another chance. I never truly liked them, and I never truly hated them. But now, I was really starting to like those three fillies. They hadn't given up on me, and as a result, they didn't give up on Mary. I was truly grateful for what they did that day. Against their better judgement and in the face of our long and terrible history.... They gave us another chance.

The other lesson that Mary had taught me... it was that there was no physical answer to begin apologizing to someone. The real answer, well, that is you yourself. If you don't hold that strong desire to be forgiven... If you don't have that deep feeling of remorse... Then no amount of gifts or words or actions in both these wide worlds would ever be enough to be worth being forgiven over.

They were never her burdens to begin with, but Mary adopted them for my sake all the same. It was agony to watch her suffer and toil through so many different apologies. Sometimes going so far as to stress our body until she'd return physically exhausted from trying to make amends with certain ponies. But thankfully, the Crusaders were always there lend a hoof when things became too much for her to bear alone. I could have never imagined myself being such close friends to the Crusaders before Mary had ever come into my life, but after a while, with all the effort and help they lent to her over the years, I could not come to think of better friends.

Strangely, in the same way hatred can breed more hatred, so too can love. My love for Mary eventually branched on to many other ponies and creatures who all pitched in towards her efforts. I once thought of Ponyville and all of Equestria as an ugly two-faced world with no amount of beauty in it. And Mary's world didn't seem all that different either. But all these experiences Mary was giving me was slowly opening my eyes.

I felt like I was waking up from a nightmare for the first time and only barely seeing the truth of it all. Sometimes... all we really need is to give things a second chance. Maybe even a third, a fourth... We can't stop trying. Because in doing so, we might ultimately doom our loved ones to a misery of our own design. And I wouldn't have learned any of this had it not been for her.

Mary was truly the best of us, at least for me. So for her, I will be the greatest.

Even if that means I have to become the worst of us all.

Chapter 1.3: Even if the world should turn against me...

Ah! Here we go. Magic Aptitude and Vessel Capacity studies by Star Swirl the Bearded. Something something something, innate magic in all creatures, yatta yatta yatta, vector conduit for casting magic and ancient relics...

"My, Tiara, it's already gotten quite late. Shouldn't you head home and inform your parents that you'll be staying over again today to continue your studies?" The Princess herself now too seemed worried for Mary, as she hadn't seen her step outside of the library in several days.

At first, Twilight's concerns were a result of having Tiara researching magic on length after she first appeared at her castle's doorstep. Now, she was really starting to concern herself with Mary's health as no one had seen her pry from those books in a long while. The Crusaders had come in and out to check in on her and feed her since she would often forget to do so, but none of Twilight's friends nor Spike had seen her so much as move an inch off the mounds of books at her table, much less roam the halls or step into the outside world.

What could have happened to put Tiara in such a desperate state? This must've been the question on Twilight's mind as she magically brought a mug of hot cocoa for her to consume mindlessly as she dared not stop reading.

To answer this question, we would have to look at what had disturbed Mary so thoroughly that she felt a deep desire to start training our magical vessel. Which is an interesting thing to note, because we are earth ponies, and we're not exactly known for casting magic. In absence of a horn and all that. But both Mary and I know that magic, or more importantly, the logic of this world lies further than the knowledge that exists of it now. The future of Mary's world had shown us possibilities not yet available to us. And now she was preparing herself, myself, for something yet to come.

And it all started with Silver Spoon.

"Tiara? Hey! Tiara, wait up!" Silver Spoon's voice had stopped Mary dead in her tracks.

Both Mary and I had dreaded this moment. Silver Spoon had distanced herself from us for a long time now, ever since Mary took over and began interacting with the Crusaders more. She was finally starting to enjoy her life in Equestria after gaining enough friends to not feel like she was all alone in this world. But this moment was the wake-up call that both of us needed.

"Oh... hi, Silver Spoon. Um, what do you need?" Mary responded meekly, not sure were to begin conversing with her.

In truth, both of our feelings for Silver Spoon were very conflicted. She had been Diamond Tiara's foremost partner in crime in Mary's reality and early in mine as well. While I was usually the one to take the brunt of punishment for any evildoings, Silver Spoon occasionally saw a bit of that too. Although unlike myself, she had a much milder personality and there were several instances in the show where she had been given enough reasons to be redeem. From not always agreeing with what I did, to actively refuting or going against me. She was a good pony at heart, but she had followed along with many of my plans and actions for almost similar reasons to Mary.

Silver Spoon partly admired me. But that's where the similarities with Mary ended. She only ever stood by my side to gain something. Money, status, power, or even her redemption, she never tried to talk me out of my ways or concerned herself with me when I fell. But do not think badly of her. I never gave her reasons to care for me. I actively pushed her away or yelled at her for any little thing that upset me. I only ever saw her as a lacky. A pony of little worth. But in a different reality... both Mary and I could imagine a life where we could've been good friends had I gone a different route.

Maybe this reality could've been just that. Maybe this was our opportunity to be a good friend to her, and vise-versa. But what she decided to do next took both of us off-guard.

She lead us away from our friends so that we could talk in private. Honestly, it should've been obvious to Mary that this wasn't going to be the chance we wanted to make up with her, as the location she chose was somewhere deep within the Everfree Forest. In a small clearing where a large pond resided. But Mary was hopeful, and she wanted it so badly after all. She wanted to make as many close friends as possible so that I could live my life with ponies I could trust. And so she didn't think twice about the kind of implications this whole meeting with Silver Spoon was bringing about.

The very air around her seemed to turn dark when she spoke to us at last. Mary was forced to her knees by the overwhelming forces of magic coming from the trinket that had replaced Silver Spoon's pearl necklace.

The Alicorn Amulet...

"Silver Spoon...?" Mary struggled in vain to pull free from the red energies that bound her to the ground, to no avail. My efforts to tell her to run since the moment she had entered the forest's perimeter had been in vain, and all I could do was watch as dark clouds began to loom over her in a twisted premonition.

"I'm sorry, Diamond Tiara. We just wanted to have a small talk with you is all. But we can't have you running away just yet. I'm sure you understand."

"We?"

Silver Spoon proceeded to tap on the Alicorn Amulet with one hoof, and from it darted the red energies of its magic, creating several visages of semi-transparent figures. Thanks to the knowledge that we had from Mary's world, we could easily tell what most of them were... Tirek, Sombra, The Storm King, The Pony of Shadows, and even Luna's and Celestia's regrets formed from their magical energies in the shape of Tantabus-like entities. Above them, the Windigos watched them all.

Strangely, there was also a new creature thrown into the mix that neither Mary or I could recognize. It was a green silhouette in the shape of a particular shape-shifter that we both knew, and who was strangely absent from the mix. But this figure was her, no doubt. Much like Luna and Celestia's Tantabus, it was a creature compromised of nothing other than magical energy.

"To think this weakling is meant to be OUR champion. What a joke. She is nothing more than a little girl. Look at her, shivering down to the bone at the sight of us." Tirek huffed indignantly as he laid eyes on Mary cowering for dear life.

Neither of us could have expected this outcome. It had come too suddenly. The show had never depicted anything like this, and we couldn't have known that this would be a possibility. How or why this had happened, we had no answer.

"Settle down, you oversized goat. The story is simple. Diamond Tiara is to lead us into glory, so whether you question her ability or not is besides the point." Silver Spoon responded back to him with annoyance in her voice.

"But how can we trust it to be real? Our futures seem set in stone. Some of us have already been defeated in exactly the same way as our visions predicted." Sombra bit back with his words, his image weaker and more transparent than the others.

"That's why all of you are here. Why I'm here. The future that we know has changed. Being together like this has proved it."

"Alright, we'll play ball for now, Silver Spoon." The Pony of Shadows replied. "Your champion better be all she's cracked up to be. We're only being given one chance here. And I'm not about to have you ruin it."

Silver Spoon finally turned to look at Mary and forced her to stand up with the amulet's powers.

"You are nothing like the Diamond Tiara I know. Making friends with the Crusaders of all ponies? Being so nice all the time? It seems the future has changed for us in more ways than one, but that won't matter. You will act out your role whether you want to or not."

At her words, fear struck my own heart as I felt an overwhelming pang of pressure fill our lungs.

"I won't!"

No! Mary... Do you not understand the position you're in?! You should know as well as I that these are not creatures you should be talking back to! You big moron! As if to signify how horrible those two words had been, the Windigos neighed in their discontent and thunder roared along with them at the anger that it had incurred in the rest of the villains there.

"What is the meaning of this!?" The Storm King brought down his staff in his fury to make an echoing boom throughout the forest.

"I'll never join your side! You villains!" Ah, my brave but stupid girl. I cannot fault your strong heart, even in the face of adversity like this. Much as I want to. Much as I REALLY want to.

"Calm yourselves!" The Alicorn Amulet in Silver Spoon's possession let out a resounding blast, tearing up the earth around her and amplifying her voice ten-fold, shutting everyone up from saying another word. "Diamond Tiara, dear, it's so strange to hear you say those words. I thought we were on the same page."

"I don't know what's gotten into you, Silver Spoon, but this is wrong. This isn't you."

"What do you know about me?!" She yelled back at Mary, practically letting her hate flow through. The malicious energy in the Windigos began to grow at this, evident by the clouds they rested on growing bigger. "You never bothered to learn a thing about me! Despite all that I wanted to be like you... My future was supposed to be filled with redemption. I should have been one of the good ones. But you just had to turn good before I could've been redeemed by piggybacking off of your fall. So guess who the most hated pony in Ponyville is now!"

Mary was silent at this. There were some serious implications in what Silver Spoon was saying. Inadvertently, Diamond Tiara's roll as a villainess had been filled by Silver Spoon replacing me. It seemed that Silver Spoon was taking this all very personally, so there was likely no indication that she was being possessed in the same way as I had been by Mary. The story had changed somehow. It seems the villains were now aware of their own future like it had happened in Mary's world. By who? By what? There was no way to find out now.

"I'm sorry Silver Spoon..."

Silver Spoon composed herself. In front of an audience, she needed to take charge as its new leader. At the very least, the other villains now seemed a little intimidated by her save for the Windigos who were feasting on all that hatred around her, so she was doing an excellent job of that.

"I despise you, Diamond Tiara. I always have. I tried to like you, and you spit on my good intentions. Don't think for a second that I'm going to let you back away from your role as a villainess. You will fulfill your duty. Whether you want to or not. I'll personally make sure of that. This will make sure of that." She flicked the alicorn amulet with her hoof and all the apparitions of the villains faded from view. "So run along now. I have no more need of you. I just wanted you to know you have no option to refuse me. Lest I tear down everything and everyone you've begun to care about personally." She proceeded to cast an invisible ring of magic around her throat. A spell that would make sure she could not speak of this to anyone.

So now we had a proverbial clock ticking in on us. Equestria's enemies understood that they could not win on their own, and we we're somehow a key to a future where they could. Too many questions, not enough answers. For now, it seemed that this conquest of theirs was far into the future.

Mary had thought that avoiding any conflict with the major villains would eventually lead to an ending where she would never have to confront the bad end that she saw for me in the show. But it seems my fate was too strong. My destiny was literally trying to chase me down. And the only thing that was going to give her the avenue to save me was to train my body to be strong enough to fight against it. And so began this grueling endeavor of hers to do just that.

Picking up where she left off with Twilight, she turned to the Princess after finishing her mug, and in a small whisper, she said, "It's okay, Princess Twilight. I'm sure my parents don't even know I'm gone."

Ah, Mary. How thoughtless of you. Saying such sad things without a hint of what that might cause. I know you don't brood over such uncaring parents, since the memory of your family in your world gives you all the love you need to continue on, but no one else can know that except me. I only wish you were a little more perceptive, you foolhardy girl, because maybe then you'd see the terribly concerned face on the Princess. She bites her lip and walks away without saying another word in order to leave Mary to her own devices.

Already she seems to be on a warpath towards the conquest of the purple regent herself, accidentally. She had already won a dozen or so ponies over in a similar manner, and now it hadn't taken much at all for this one to fall hook-line and sinker. If I had, had an ounce of Mary's natural talent, I might have won as one of the bad guys a long time ago. I just thank my stars that I didn't, for I've now seen the err of my ways thanks to her. As I watched her study and practice with such intensity, I could only feel grateful for how much she was willing to go through to save me.

Even if the creature is unable to cast magic directly, a large magical vessel can still be useful to them as it helps their magic resistance. The theory is always the same. I imagine it's like adding a drop of poison into a body of water. In a small glass, it will not take long at all for it to mix into every corner of that pool. But if a magic vessel is big enough... it would be akin to dropping that same drop of poison into an ocean, diluting it into ineffectiveness before it ever has a chance to cause ill-effects. Unfortunately, magical vessels are something we're born with so our maximum capacity is determined at birth. Although no method exists to increase one's own magic capacity, if a method is found, it could revolutionize our world as we know it. Already the forces of magic we have are powerful enough to shape the world and even the stars to what we want them to be. But if that limiter should ever be unlocked...

Then that could change reality entirely...

...

Is that really the case? Do we really have that option? Whose to say the gods won't intervene again then? Equestria's or Earth's? Or maybe even those writers that created the show initially... It certainly seemed that this story of ours was intent on having its way. I'll be honest. I was never hopeful that things would change. But Mary certainly seemed to believe that it could.

She already had the answer that Starswirl didn't. Because the one who found that answer initially was me. In my original future, I had stumbled upon it by accident. And I had almost destroyed everything in my hatred... We both seemed to tremble as we thought on it. Obtaining that power was the only way for us to assure that we could fight back... But the villains certainly seemed to think the we were the key to their victory, perhaps even for that reason.

But what kind of victory was that? My idea of victory was complete scorched earth... No. It was total erasure. A void with nothing in it. Maybe only then I could be surrounded with something so similar to what I used to be.

They want me to be their villainess, that much is for sure.

But even if the world should turn against me, I will fight this destined fate of mine for Mary's sake. For her vision of me. The future she so dearly wished for me to live.

If I am to be anyone's villainess, I will be...

Chapter ???: I won't let you fall.

Please... please make it in time. Please let nothing bad be chasing after me. I need to make it... I need to!

"Princess Twilight!" I yelled in a frenzy of terror, slamming my hooves onto that door. I could think of no other solution other than to seek her help, knowing that even her and her friends could not stop the future that awaited. She rightly hesitated to answer that door, since I had never been able to apologize to the princess before. But when she finally did answer it, I practically dropped at her feet. Err, hooves. "Twilight I need your help with...!"

"Er, Tiara? What was that?"

"We have to stop...!"

The Princess looked around making sure there were no traps, cameras, or something foul behind me. Then she looked me up and down again.

"What are you trying to pull here, Tiara?" She squinted her eyes to show her distrust of me.

"It's...!!!" Frustrated, I tried writing on the soft ground what I was trying to say. But it ultimately culminated in nothing of note. Somehow, I could not get my limb to jot down the words I needed. Like some serious case of dyslexia, I grew woozy just trying to picture those words in my head. Not even drawing a picture of those seven figures worked. Not for lack of artistic talent, but due to the same effect as before.

"Oookay... Well, uh, thanks for visiting." Twilight stepped back into her castle to close the door behind her, and I quickly dove for the entrance nearly getting the door slammed on my forelimb as a result.

"Please... Princess... I need help." Twilight looked noticeably troubled by the very idea that Tiara was sincerely asking for her help on something. History had shown that listening to that cry for help had been a terribly bad idea. But Tiara was still just a filly, and she was a Princess of Friendship. If anyone had a duty to protect her citizens no matter how rotten they had been, it was Twilight. After some more hesitation on her part, she finally pulled back the doors to let me in. But not before casting an extra protective spell on herself just to make doubly sure.

“I’m sorry about the spell. I wish I could trust you Tiara. But you’ve given me no reason to in the past. Know that I am willing to help you now only because I feel I must.”

“I understand, Princess...”

I’d heard those same words from so many ponies now. I wish I had the ability to instantly give them some peace of mind, but trust takes hard work to build. And luck. My efforts had been in vain with many until now, and rarely have I gotten an adult to trust me in all this time since arriving in Equestria. Even if I could speak the words I wanted to tell her directly, there was going to be no way Twilight would believe in me. Even if we were to become good friends, I doubt anyone would ever believe all the crazy things about myself, or of the awful future that awaited us.

That’s why I never thought to tell anyone about myself. Because after all, I’m not doing this for me. One day, Tiara will return and I will be gone from this world. So it doesn’t matter if every pony has been formative to my youth, teaching me the values of friendship and being a good person. It doesn’t matter how much I’ve grown to love every pony here. It won’t matter. Because this isn’t about me. This is about saving Tiara.

That’s why it’s doubly important for me to start doing something now. I thought that removing Tiara from the main events of the show would keep her away from turning into a villainess entirely, and from what I could tell, things seemed to be going well if not better than what had happened in the show. Since I never went to the Crystal Kingdom, I never took part in Sombra’s bid to regain power. I never stood in the way of Spike getting the heart to the center of the city, and ultimately, Sombra was defeated soundly and quickly. In the show, he was restored by the villains so as to make an ally of him and he refused out of selfishness, believing he could take them on alone. And while he succeeded at first, he was vanquished for his folly.

But now, both he and the other powerful bads understood that they could not win simply by letting fate take its course. They were aware of their upcoming destiny and were now making their own strides toward changing the future in their favor.

I should’ve realized it sooner. A part of me hoped that with Tiara out of the picture, the future really had changed for the better. When it came time for Equestria to face its second changeling invasion and for Starlight to grow into her own, instead, there was nothing. This timeline was different in many ways, after all. For starters, the changelings had already been freed from their corrupting madness. By Twilight and her protégé a long time ago even before I had ever arrived to Equestria. Queen Chrysalis herself was now in a magically induced coma from a deeply powerful spell, which not even Princess Twilight could tell when it would break or how. In her historical lessons on changelings, Twilight mentioned that the one recorded use of that spell had lasted over a century, having been powerful enough to outlast almost an entire generation of ponies.

So I had hoped that with the events of the show having been almost completely changed like this meant that things were turning out for the better. In hindsight, I should’ve worried and wondered endlessly as to what must’ve happened to the villains that never showed up. Stygian and The Shadow, The Storm King, or Tirek. I was such a fool...

They had all showed themselves now fully intending to work together with Silver Spoon to accomplish what sounded like a sure victory that seemed to lie far into the future. Strangely, something was still not sitting right by me. If all the villains knew of their defeat, where was Cozy Glow in that group? And why was Luna’s Tantabus and Celestia’s incarnation of that in the mix? It must’ve been due to never having fixed Luna’s regrets. Ponyville never went through that collective dream where Luna was finally able to forgive herself.

I never thought anything of it. If a Tantabus was running amok, Luna would’ve been noticeably bothered by it. It would have even shown up in the dreams of Twilight’s circle of friends. But neither in the dream world nor in the waking one was there ever a visible issue. If Luna had overcome her fears somehow, they must’ve been outside of what I could notice, without the help of Twilight or her immediate friends. And perhaps Luna hadn’t entirely won over her Tantabus as she would’ve liked since it now looked to have a physical incarnation in the real world.

But what about Celestia’s very own Tantabus? Its outline was similar to that of Daybreaker in its ethereal form, and it shown almost as brightly as a fierce desert sun. What had struck the Princess with such regret as to create it? Perhaps it had always existed, and someone had found a way to release her regrets like this?

Then there was that green one... Its shape was otherworldly. Twisted and contorted, full of holes in the ghastly image of Queen Chrysalis herself. Its maddening energies were lined with bright lights within its ethereal appearance, each giving off their own unique signature of magic. A collection of troubled souls whose magic had fed into this Tantabus... I had only heard a few tidbits here and there from Twilight’s lessons at Mrs. Cheerilee’s school and a bit from her protégé who didn’t much like to talk about it, but from what I gathered, that was the congregation of all the troubled changelings who had lost themselves in madness long ago during a tragedy of their old kingdom.

And while it was my own mindlessness that stopped me from being able to predict that they would team up like this, what I could never have expected was Silver Spoon at the helm of that group...

Oh poor Silver Spoon... because of me, she never got her own redemption. My sudden shift in attitude caused her to be stuck with all the infamy her and Tiara had garnered before I arrived, and she had likely been outcasted by everyone because of it. I had the fortune of giving my efforts to Tiara directly, so I never really thought about how difficult my journey to redemption in every pony’s eyes had been no matter how hard it got. But Silver Spoon had been all alone in that... It must’ve crushed her... Her having the Alicorn Amulet proves that.

However, I can’t let her simply do as she wishes and bring ruin to this beautiful world of love and harmony, no matter how much I empathize with her struggles. My heart aches for her, but I will fight her if I must, for the one I’m truly trying to save is Tiara. For now, I’m not nearly strong enough to do that, I realize. Not against a united foe of that magnitude.

Still, if the logic of Equestria is truly like I theorize it to be, then I still have a couple of avenues left to visit in order to gain that power. Now I only need to confirm it.

“So what is it that you needed help with, Tiara? You look quite shaken up, I must admit. I’m sorry if I can’t help in thinking that this is a trick, however.” Twilight levitated a comb to my hair to brush out all the sticks that had lodged themselves into my mane from when I ran with haste through the Everfree. She then proceeded to smudge out all the dirt from my coat with a handkerchief.

“I...” I couldn’t say it. Whatever Silver Spoon did, it wasn’t going to allow me to speak on what I had seen of them. But then again, it was like I had mentioned before. Twilight wouldn’t have believed me either way even if I could say it. “I really want to learn magic!” I yelled at the top of my lungs thinking that statement would be suppressed too. If I couldn’t speak of it to anyone, then the choice was obvious. I would need to become strong enough to fight against it on my own.

“You want to learn about magic?” There was clear doubt in her voice. “What for? Why the sudden interest? And why are you so rushed about it?” She prodded with her questions.

I scanned my brain for any amount of believable excuses for a while in an enduring silence, growing Twilight’s suspicion of me. What could she even begin to believe from me, of all ponies? The only thing I could think to do was play at her nature. Taken straight out of Tiara’s manipulative playbook 101.

“I’ve always been interested in magic for as long as I can remember. It’s just so... magical, you know? I’ve never had a horn so I never thought to learn deeply about it since studying it just felt like it would make me sad knowing I’d never get to perform it.” Not a lie. Humanity doesn’t have magic, so seeing it in the show was always so awesome. “I’m really sorry for always being rude and for jeering at your lessons when you’d go to visit Mrs. Cheerilee’s school or held seminars at your library before, Princess Twilight. I only wanted to seem cool to my friends.” Also not a lie. Tiara only ever grandstanded to gain some respect, even if it was from her terrible friends.

“I can’t say I approve, but I understand. Peer pressure is hard to overcome sometimes, so I’ll accept your apology for those incidents Tiara.” She tossed the idea of lending a hand to Tiara once more over in her head, then relented. “Alright, I’ll put my trust in you. If only because Chrys seems to trust you too, Tiara. She’s told me about some of the good deeds you’ve been doing lately. I’ll personally see to tutoring you in the ways of magic.”

“Oh thank you, thank you! You really don’t know how much this means to me, Princess.” I could just about kiss her lavender hooves.

“This is only conditional, Tiara. Break my trust even once, and I won’t allow you even a hundred miles from my castle, you hear?” Twilight worded with a more lax and airy tone, trying to stem her own happiness at having yet another pony to be able to give extensive lessons to on the intricacies of magic.

“I’ll do everything in my power not to! I promise!” At my words, the Princess gave me a hearty laugh, finally letting her guard down a little.

“Well, how about a quick introduction lesson then? Most ponies should already know this, but it’s important to review the basics. Let’s go over to the library where I can gather some reading material too.”

“I would love that.” I quickly followed up her steps as she walked to her castle’s library.

“Say, you never did mention why you had the sudden interest or the rush to learn magic, Tiara.” She said in between the silence of our galloping.

It’s a good thing she didn’t turn back to see my face. She would’ve caught my cold sweat from my lack of answers. Thankfully, I like to think that I’m of quick wit. “I visited Zecora earlier, and even though she doesn’t have a horn, I always found it fascinating that she can work with magic so expertly. Her brews, remedies, and knowledge of magic is something I wish I had. I also heard about how you, Starlight, and Sunburst fixed the Crystal Heart by using Sunburst’s wisdom on magical spells, despite his lack of magical talent. It gave me hope to at least learn about magic like they have, and so I ran as fast as I could here hoping you’d agree to teach me. Thank you for giving me this chance, Princess Twilight.”

Twilight laughed to herself contentedly, happy to be verifying her protégé’s words were proving to be true. “You can drop the ‘princess’, you know. If I’m going to be personally teaching you from now on Tiara, it’ll be better that way.”

“I-I’ll try...”

“But it’s always lovely to have one more interested mind in the magical arts. So, let’s begin shall we?” Twilight pushed the door to her castle’s library open to reveal the myriad of books within.

I shudder to think of the future. I’m scared to gain more power for Tiara’s sake. The villains seem to think that Tiara is the key to their success, somehow, and that I will in some way be twisted to join their side, even if they feel they don’t have to manipulate me so closely. That is evident by the fact that they only took away my words that could oust them, and nothing else like my free will. Maybe they know something I don’t. Maybe they strongly believe that I will bend to their will somehow, but I know in my heart of hearts I will never, no matter what.

What scares me is thinking that maybe Tiara will. Once she returns. I know she isn’t a bad person. I just know it. If given the chance, the friends, the love, I’m sure she will choose the right path.

But I also know what Tiara is capable of if she turns fully evil... If that were to happen, I know that she will find the way to gain that same power that nearly erased all of Equestria before. And I know that if she goes through with it in this reality, then with the help of the villains, she will undoubtedly be successful in her goals.

Even her imprisonment in stone felt like the lesser of two horrible ends. For if she manages to win, then there will be no truer tragedy for Tiara.

I can’t afford to second-guess myself. I need to trust that Tiara’s better nature will prevail. I need to do everything in my power to make sure there are still those who will support her for when the day she returns arrives. So that she knows she is loved and needs not turn to that path.

Tiara... with every bit of me, I promise you...

I won’t let you fall.

Chapter 1.4: I will be... your Villainess

Only a few steps now and my body feels heavier than I could've imagined. My joints are stiff and unresponsive. The corners of my mouth, eyes, and face already seem to be scowling with my scorn. My vision is so small and limited since I can only see what is in front of me. And my thoughts are quiet for the first time in a long time, with not even the voice of a second soul speaking to itself like it so often did before.

For the first time in what felt like forever ago, I'd felt it again. That overwhelming pit inside of one's stomach. That cold sensation that seemed to go against all logic, no matter how warm the outside world seemed to be. That pang of hurt that ran out across my chest with each heartbeat.

Loneliness. It was just me now. Just me...

Rest, Mary. You've done so much for me already. You don't need to keep casting your soul out to sea for me, like you have all this time. Do not weep, my beautifully kind girl. You did not go unheard.

I know you. I know that despite all the many times you said you were doing this for my sake, a part of you seemed to ache when you thought of having to abandon your friends and family again. I know, more than anyone, that you wanted this too. To be by their side. Every time you shared laughs and connected with them, or just found comfort in their presence, I know that a part of you realized that you wanted it for yourself too. Even if you kept denying it, saying that it was all just for my sake.

And every time you spoke of wanting to see me redeemed, or thought how much you wanted to see me happy... Slowly, I realized what that feeling was. Now, it is you who I wish to see one day be happy again. My most heartfelt wish.

So sleep my dear. And recover however long you need to. You've more than earned this rest. It serves that you will not be awake to witness what I will do next, for I doubt it is what you would've wanted for me to do in your name. I know that if you were here, you would tell me to lay down my hatred. You would plead for me to quell my anger. You would wish for me to become truly magnanimous of heart. But I cannot do that. I cannot change what I am, who I am. I cannot forgive those who have upended your life. Who have spat on your good name and broke your heart.

All your friends now sit in the amphitheater-like seats of Equestria's most important royal court rulings at Canterlot's Senate. Their silhouettes are shadowed by the marble pillars lining the risen podium of their seats high above where your own sits in the center, disguising their connection to you. Their faces are riddled with disgust. Laden with sadness. And for some, even hurt from their inner depths. We are bound by chains to the ground, keeping us from escape.

You have been betrayed by more than those who wished to see you fall. You were betrayed by those you loved and trusted. By the ponies you cared for deeply and thought that they would never do such a thing. You hoped, believed, and wished against all hope that somehow your actions since arriving to Equestria had gotten through to them. But one by one, they turned their backs on you, denying you your years of redemption.

Even before the court had gone into session, their jeers had not stopped. It only took one accusation to snowball into another. We both knew that once a person is stricken with that awful image, it's nearly impossible to get them out of it. It had taken years of effort on your part just to crawl and claw your way into everyone's trust. And now, it was all crumbling down in mere moments. With the court nearing session now, the ponies you cared for most turned away from you, not even wishing to witness the sad event of your fall from grace.

It wasn't the injustice in their actions that hurt you. It wasn't the fact that none of them could prove that you were truly guilty of any of the accusations against you that tore you up inside. What really hurt... was to see that they somehow believed you were at fault, and it pained them to think you had betrayed their trust yet again. You're quite kind and truly noble of heart in that way, Mary. You could've continued on if it had only amounted to just you being affected by all this. You're strong, after all. Stronger than the gods. Stronger than me. But even the strongest of hearts can break.

When your eyes darted across all of your friends and you saw as each one turn their backs on you, you frantically looked for even just one amongst them who would not. Your desperation grew with each and every single one of them. Despite all of the pain in your chest, you were still holding on to the one hope you had held onto since you had arrived to Equestria.

Even at that time, you were still thinking of me. Trying to save me...

Then your eyes fell on the last three ponies you could still call friend. The three ponies you had unbridled hope in. The three who had allowed you to be on this path since the very beginning, and who had been a constant reassuring presence in the last ten years. The first hint of hope you had found that seemed to point at the idea that saving me was a possibility. That your time in Equestria had not been in vain. That your efforts would give me the life you felt I deserved.

So when they too turned their backs on you... you lost all hope. Your heart shattered into thousands of tiny pieces.

And I...? I will never forget that moment.

I will never forget as I tried to catch each of those pieces of your broken heart as they rained down, down into the abyss of our mind. I will never live down that memory, as they passed through my hooves, my forelegs, my body like ethereal shards of shimmering glass.

I will forever live in fear of that image. I will see it in my deepest nightmares for many moons to come and until I expire. And all over again, I will feel that indescribable sadness at not being able to help you. I will burn with a fire of anger so intense, it will consume my thoughts until I'm old and grey. And I will curse the heavens until the end of time so long as my soul still persists within this world.

They say magic is so often born from emotion and willpower. They say that the legendary curses and artifacts of old were created due to ponies of magic in ancient, warring times having had no choice but to breed their sorrows and hatred into them. The greatest magics in Equestria have almost all been born from those extremes. The ponies may have forgotten them in their complicity of peaceful times, but those forces of evil have not gone away nor will they ever.

And now, a new curse has been born into the world once more. My vengeance will live eternal. The hunt has begun.

True to her word, Silver Spoon personally saw to destroy everything Mary cared about. When she finally began to demand more cruelty and villainess-like behavior from Mary, it was too late. Obviously, Mary refused. And much to Silver Spoon's surprise, her Alicorn Amulet was having no effect on Mary at all.

It must have been a real shock that power comparable to the Princess Alicorns could do nothing to Tiara herself. She tried throwing everything in the book at Mary. Mind manipulation spells, telekinetic type spells to control her body forcibly, even attack magic like fireballs and lethal laser beams after she had become truly fed up with Mary. Nothing worked against her. And Mary well... she never fought back. She was wrought with guilt at having turned Silver Spoon into a villain. Every single time, in every single encounter, she tried to talk her down from that stage. But it was all futile.

Silver Spoon became increasingly more unhinged as time went on. Eventually, she stopped taking the direct approach at trying to manipulate Mary with magic. Our training had born fruit, and she alone could not overpower us. I only wish Mary could've heard my words, my warnings. If there was anyone who understood the mind of a villainess, it was me. Mary should've known to be more careful after Silver Spoon stopped directly involving herself in our lives after we had grown older. Silver Spoon had hidden from the public eye to begin work on a plan that sprawled across many years.

Carefully calculated, executed, and covered up, what Silver Spoon decided to do next was a mass-mental sabotage the likes Equestria has never seen before on such a wide scale, putting Starlight's attempts to indoctrinate an entire town to shame. It had reached so far as to permeate into neighboring countries and cities, causing all sorts of civil unrest due to the real prospect of war brewing on the horizon. Likely with the aid of the villains, she had disturbed entire Equestrian cities to the point of causing riots. There was an increasing anti-princess sentiment sweeping the nation. Her revenge had come slowly and patiently, but Silver Spoon had managed to do the impossible. Her roots extended everywhere, even onto the Princess Alicorns like the royal sisters and to Twilight herself.

Although Twilight initially resisted, much like the rest of Equestria's normal ponies, she too seemed to succumb to the voices and headache in her head that were slowly pushing her thoughts one way.

This was the dastardly part of this plan of hers. This magic was truly evil. Above the loud mouth villains who openly enjoy cruelty, this magic was the kind that stirred at the very self. It did not outright manipulate a person, no. Otherwise, it would have tipped off Twilight long ago about something being wrong with everyone's sentiments growing darker by the day. Twilight had seen that same effect happen several times before, once with her protégé and again with Starlight. But it becomes infinitely harder to recognize the changes if they are so gradual and long-lived, you begin to believe that the voice in your head speaking to you in your own tone is actually your own.

Twilight and the rest were still holding onto a semblance of their old selves. You can't change someone's true feelings, after all. But the damage had accumulated enough in their minds that they were now convinced of a false truth. Just as what the voice in their head was saying, they were now in full belief of it. Tiara had been the culprit of this large scale sabotage, and had been the reason to a lot of the incidents and unrest across Equestria as of late.

Mary trained us to the point that we could protect ourselves from Silver Spoon's plan. But she hadn't accounted for protecting every other citizen in Equestria too. Before she had the chance to realize it, she had been apprehended, jailed, and taken to Canterlot's senate court to await Princess Twilight's judgement. The villains had not shown their face in Equestria for a long time, so this trial against Tiara was the single-most important event to date since Sombra's defeat at the newly discovered Crystal Kingdom so many years ago. We were now facing the capital charges of domestic terrorism. A title that had not been uttered in present-day Equestria in a century. A very dark omen indeed.

We were taken to the court in chains, walking through a few public streets to reach the castle. The winds were unusually bitter, the sky strangely dark. Mary was slowly starting to understand what had happened too, and was piecing together all of this information. Although before she had the chance to understand that this had been a long-term manipulative curse that Silver Spoon had created, she recoiled at the horror that was walking through what would've usually have been a brightly colorful Canterlot street. Many ponies had gathered for this event. None of them happy, quite the opposite.

It's one thing to be hated on in secret, with whispers to nettle at you from afar. It's another to be openly scorned and hated so harshly. And above the large crowds way up in the dark clouds that seemed to loom over all of Canterlot, there both Mary and I could see the chilling silhouettes of the Windigos.

Watching. Waiting.

I hadn't accounted for how heavy I would be. It's strange how important "mind over matter" is, since Mary had, had no issues in managing our limbs before. When she first arrived at my body, she did have some difficulties, but because she couldn't wrap her head around how strange a pony's physiology and motor functions were compared to that of a human. But now, it was me who was finding it difficult to control my own body, and I had no excuse of it since this was my own body I was retaking. Understandably, it was far different than when I was a child. It was much older, heavier, and more powerful than when I last used it. Yet, perhaps because I wasn't accustomed to putting even an ounce of effort in my incorporeal form within my own mind, I was finding it strangely difficult to summon the strength to use it properly now.

But I needed to. From here onward, I was Equestria's most prominent villainess. And if I am to redeem us, I must show the world what that truly means. Every word I speak from now on is significant. A single one out of line could doom my reputation further, and perhaps even forever. Every action I take, doubly so. It will not be genuine, no. As everything I do from here on will be filled with ulterior motives. But I will become the picture of grace and perfection. I will become a villainess so grand, that title will change to mean something else entirely.

I will blur the lines between 'villainess', and 'saintess'. Just as Mary had always wanted. Because if I am to be anyone's villainess, I will be hers alone. And I need to make sure that means something. Something she'll be proud of.

"The Royal Court is now in session." The Proceeder voiced across the court in order to quiet the rabble. He would have begun with the rest of the introduction had it not been for a raised hoof from Twilight that quieted him. She turned to me with a look of intensity, and spoke her next words.

"Diamond Tiara, you stand accused of high treason against Equestria. How do you plead?"

"I am innocent, your highness."

A crowd of Equestrian noble ponies and dignitaries from a few of Equestria's neighbors began to voice their objections. They erupted into a frenzy of nay-saying, stomping on the wooden floorboard of their podiums. Another raised hoof from the Princess towards them slowly but surely settled them down after a while.

"Why must you make this harder than it needs to be, Tiara?" Twilight placed down her long list of accusations against me. A decade's worth of 'quiet suffering' from the nameless citizens of Ponyville, and even a few outside of that. "We gave you so many chances. We opened our homes and our hearts to you, yet, you persisted down a terrible path. I personally brought you under my wing thinking that you had changed. But I don't know if that is the truth of it anymore."

I seethe with rage from within, but I must temper and still my tongue here. I cannot devalue my worth more than it has already fallen. "I will not confess to crimes I did not commit, Princess Twilight."

"You've said that already. But there's a slew of accusations against you. Years of concrete evidence and multiple testimonies directly from the mouths of eyewitnesses and some of my most trusted friends. And even I saw your kidnapping of Flurry Heart first-hoof. There are only certain things I can't forgive, Tiara. And hurting my family is one of them."

Her deadly serious tone was showing how much the Princess had grown into her own. If it was in her youth, she would've hesitated on these words. But now, Twilight was becoming a true monarch. She had shifted from the values of friendship and harmony to that of the careful balances in politics. And I was no longer a filly. A simple scolding and a slap on the wrist could not undo the allegations against me. Others in her kingdom would not take that lying down and would begin to put her rule into question.

Even if it was for the good of the Kingdom and in the face of this long-term indoctrination, Twilight was still hesitating on her judgment. A good heart struggles the most in life, it seems.

"I understand your frustration, Princess. Your hope was that I could admit to my faults so that you could lessen my sentence with the pretense that I am still worthy of being reformed, at least to appeal to public perception..."

"Then why won't yo-"

"However, in the same way you must do what you have to, to protect the Kingdom and her citizens, so to must I do what I need to in order to protect what is important to me." Her expression dropped from one full of hope to one of stormy disapproval. The crowd behind them could sense the tension in the court beginning to rise. "I'm sorry, but I WILL not admit to it."

"Then I'm sorry too, Tiara.... The laws of Equestria are straightforward in this regard. You are to serve a long sentence in Tartarus considering the severity of many of these allegations. Among the long list of petty crimes and instances of cruelty are the capital offenses. They include and are not limited to: Aiding Equestria's enemies and threatening her safety. Research and involvement in dark forbidden magics and rituals. Large scale sabotage of vital Equestrian infrastructure in multiple cities. Conspiracy to imbalance our neutral and allied neighbors into war. Conspiracy to usurp power from the throne by inciting a coup. And... conspiracy to kidnap a member of the crown." Twilight sighed a deeply sorry sigh. "Or so it would've been, Tiara. But there is still a voice of protest in your defense from many ponies. Including..."

"TIA!!!" Shining Armor could hold her no longer and the young filly burst into the court room, darting into my mane to hug me. The crowd began to whisper aggressively to themselves.

Ah, if only Mary was here to see this now. Her efforts had not been in vain, it seems. There was still one pony out there who seemed to still care for her. Flurry Heart has taken even me by surprise, to be honest. Since Mary had studied a lot alongside Princess Twilight these many years, it was only natural that she would've grown closer to Flurry whenever she'd visit. The older she grew, the more Mary found herself foal-sitting for Princess Cadence during their visits, and the two became almost inseparable at a point.

What had surprised me about Flurry was that she didn't seem to be effected in the same way as the others did. Even children were susceptible to the Alicorn Amulet's magic, yet, Flurry hadn't. It was possible that Flurry had escaped the effects of the amulet due to the same way Mary and I had, but it didn't seem that way to me. She had yet to grow into her powers, and stood to reason she was still vulnerable.

And yet... here she was, crying into my chest and hugging me for dear life.

"Get away from her this instant, Flurry!" Twilight demanded. While Twilight had finally grown into a commanding presence, unfortunately for her, there were still those she could not impression against. Her niece being among the few.

"No! Stop being mean to Tia!" She yelled right back with equal gusto.

"I'm not- This isn't-" Twilight sighed with exasperation and turned to look at me expectantly as if wanting me to straighten her out, an ounce of familiarity in her eyes.

"Well, well! Flurry can certainly talk back when she wants to, can't she? She'll make for a fine Princess someday." I did as Mary had always done and brushed her mane with one gentle hoof. Even when dealing with small children like this, she had taught me a lot. And Flurry had obviously meant a lot to Mary, so it irked me to see her so inconsolable. "It'll be okay, Flurry. I'll be okay." I whispered into her ear softly.

Still buried into my chest, that small filly shook her head vehemently. "That's not true! They plan to send you away! They can't do that!"

Princess Twilight let out a huff of defeat and sunk into her throne, putting a hoof to her temple. "Well, there you have it. That's the final verdict ultimately." The crowd within the court began to yell out their disdain at this decision, causing chaos within the court.

"Silence!" Twilight slammed her hoof down, creating a large boom that quieted the room forcibly. A simple commandeering trick she had learned from her protégé's mother which worked to great effect. "We are Equestrians! To our neighbors and allies, understand that goodness is what we value, and this what we are willing to do to uphold those standards. There is not enough evidence that ties Tiara to some of these events, which questions the validity of some of these accusations. In accordance to our laws and our morals, I do not wish to imprison Tiara if I can help it, as I feel my fellow ponies will agree. Imprisonment has never helped matters in the past, nor will they help to rehabilitate her either. In respects to the voice of protest in Tiara's favor, not only from my own niece but from many ponies in Ponyville and several across Equestria, the royal Princesses, my advising nobles, friends, and I have come to the conclusion that Tiara's sentence will be altered. From here hence forth, she is to be exiled from Equestria and placed under strict supervision at a monastery in the Frozen North lands. Where she will devote herself to becoming a better pony if she truly wishes to repent and return to our lands."

The Court was silent at this decision, save for Flurry who was yelling and kicking up a storm against Shining Armor trying to upturn it before being led away entirely. The mood had darkened considerably in the court room. The clouds outside that could be seen were becoming darker. Then, two voices rang out in the court.

"That's not enough!" Voiced a pair of ponies in unison.

Everyone turned to look at the two that had said it, as they made a show of disembarking the podium and walking up to Princess Twilight's throne to appeal directly to her about this decision.

I turned away to look at the ground. I didn't need to see them to know who it was, nor did I feel the need to grace them with even an ounce of my care. If they wanted me gone, so be it.

"Mr and Mrs Rich. What do you wish to address to the court that has not already been said?" Princess Twilight entertained them. Her gaze was ignoring them, and focusing on me from what I could feel.

"Our reputation has been destroyed by this little cretin! We, more than any pony else, tried to correct Diamond Tiara. And yet, for all our efforts, our businesses were tarnished thanks to her." Filthy Rich sneered. This was a lie. It was a rare occurrence if I'd get even an acknowledgement, let alone a stern warning about my actions from my parents.

"This punishment you propose is too lenient. Our shareholders need something more concrete so that they can feel safe knowing she will not be a liability in the future. Princess Twilight, you must take action!" Spoiled Rich demanded. At least now they were finally saying out loud where their priorities lay.

"But Mrs. Rich, she's your daughter..." Twilight tried to meekly argue, not understanding how a mother could be this way.

"Have you ever tried being a mother to a monster?!" Spoiled rebuked her.

Twilight dropped her head, seemingly shaken up by this statement. "Yes. They're not monsters..." She voiced so quietly that only those on the court floor could catch.

Domestic issues were usually handled at a separate, more private hearing. But there would hardly come a time where they could do this after I was truly well and banished. It was now or never. The Court had no choice but to be witness to this truly ugly scene. The Princess herself was deadly quiet. When I finally lifted my head to see her, her gaze had not broken from looking at me. There was a horrible mix of emotions on her face. It almost looked like Silver Spoon's spell was breaking.

But I can't have her break it just yet. This is not a part of my plan for vengeance. I'm sorry Twilight. I need you to play your role for a while longer.

"If I may, your Highness?"

Princess Twilight shook her head, taken out of that near-break. "You may, Tiara."

"I cannot understate how sorry I am that these accusations against me have hurt my family in this way." My parents sneered at these words. "This is not an admittance of guilt. But for them, I am willing to do anything to help them regain their lives. There is a simple solution that will help my parents once and for all. So that I will never again be a burden to them."

"What are you saying, Tiara?" The Princess sounded unsure of where I was headed with this, and worried. Well, I doubt any pony there could have foreseen my plan either. But it was something I needed to do, above all else. To honor a soul.

"I should be disowned."

The Court exploded with complicated conversation. This had been unheard of for so long in Equestria. Things this deep in nature had only ever happened to other races like the dragons, and even then, very very uncommonly. Disownment was a truly serious issue, and this had truly lit up the court in a way none of them could have dared to foresee.

"Hmm, yes, that does sound like a great idea. Then we can completely separate ourselves from having anything to do with Diamond Tiara and bring peace of mind to our investors." Spoiled Rich mused to herself.

"Mrs. Rich, do you even know what you're saying?!" Twilight had almost kicked into hysterics and stopped herself in time, composing her regality. "I understand the sentiment, Tiara. You want to protect what they have. But there has to be another way."

"No. I don't believe there is. I want to help my family here and now. The longer we wait, the more damage my name will do to my parent's lives. I cannot risk that. For their sake, I will take on this burden."

"Then..." The Princesses hesitated to bring up her hoof to signal the adjudication, looking pleadingly at Filthy and Spoiled Rich. But seeing them both nod, along with me sincerely asking for it, she had no other choice. The decision was made.

"As part of my disownment, Princess Twilight, I now appeal to you to change my name. We both know that names carry with them power in this world. So long as I hold onto the name 'Diamond Tiara', my parents will continue to be haunted by my existence. Therefor, I formally request this change by your power."

The Princess bit her lip, now being powerless to deny me anything of the sort. In Equestria, names are sacred. To want to change your name is the same as wanting to change one's cutie mark. It was a massively important decision, the likes of which rarely anyone ever did. Twilight had seen a share of ponies who had done so, and had seen their troubled history. But ultimately, she knew she could not deny me this.

"Then what do you propose, Tiara?" Twilight said at last.

I didn't have to give it another thought. I had long since wanted this, even before I came to this stage on this day. If there was ever a name that could tie me to someone... to a family I truly wanted to be a part of... well, that was obvious.

"Thank you, Princess. My name shall be... Evergold Tiara."

My parents laughed at my decision. "Evergold? Call it whatever you want, but gold is a lot less valuable than diamonds." Or was it? In Mary's world, diamonds were a dime a dozen. Artificially inflated by greedy, avaricious corporations. Gold on the other hand, was a lot more expensive by the gram. Its uses had far wider reaching applications, and it was the raw currency of many nations. So then, what is value? Of course, as both you and I know, I did not name myself Evergold simply for the sake of taking on gold's worth.

I named myself Evergold to take on the worth something far, far more valuable. Something that you cannot price. Something I'm willing to bet all of my heart and my life on.

And my Cutie Mark seemed to think the same too. That Court session, for all its importance, had turned out to be a real doozy of an experience for all the onlookers. It had drama, it had tension, it had surprises a-plenty! Because what happened next, well, it REALLY took everyone by surprise.

My Cutie Mark changed. Transformed. Grew. The very moment I changed my name, I began to glow in a bright white light, the likes of which can be seen on any blank flank obtaining their new marks. If you've never felt it before, that effect can leave you quite disoriented. But I could not show an ounce of weakness. I powered through that light. And I came out of it standing as regal and graceful as I could, my head held high.

I didn't need to see my Cutie Mark to know what it had transformed into. If a Cutie Mark is a representation of your destiny and calling in life, then mine had obviously transformed due to my shift in values and heart. That was made apparent the moment I changed my name. It had become a golden tiara, with roses to adorn where a bramble heart now rested below it. In terms of what it meant... well, I could hazard a guess.

It was truly a magnificent sight, and I couldn't help the smile that arose within me as I looked upon it. Mary was now a part of me, truly. Even the Equestrian gods had recognized that. Now, it was a matter of making the rest of Equestria do so too.

The villains' plans had failed. Their years of backstabbing, careful planning, and trickery for naught. Maybe I was being looked upon as a villainess by the citizens for now. But I will never be a true one. Mary's heart broke in a moment of weakness since she believed she failed in her ultimate task of saving me, despite all her efforts. But here today she proved that she truly had changed the future, despite all my doubts. Not everyone agreed that I was a villainess. There was at least one little filly who didn't believe that.

But even if that hadn't been the case, the horrible villainess Diamond Tiara would never have been born to begin with. She will never roam this world again. If what Mary said was true and I only needed one soul to save me from that fate, then I had long since obtained it.

My journey is long from over. I must gather more power. The kind that none can go against. For that, I need to work on my strength further. I must collect artifacts of unparalleled, godly strength. Armor that will protect me even from the most divine cataclysms. And a sword that can cut through the heavens themselves.

I will make those who have wronged me and mine rue the day they set free this Curse of Vengeance upon the world.

Author's Note

The art was created by DamayantiArts for this story. We drew something simple since I have a small plan to go along with it. Now that we've gotten the introductory chapters out of the way, we can begin the story for real.

Chapter 2: Sister Tiara

"Did you hear? About Sister Tiara..."

"Is it really true? How can it be?"

"Nobody knows for sure. But it's her we're talking about. It can't be true."

"Yes, I see what you mean..."

"I'll never believe it anyway."

"Good morning, Sister Myrtle, Sister Iris." I'd already mastered the precise approach I needed to take in this type of situation as I drew closer to the two gossiping mares, giving them a courteous bow and a gentle smile that did not betray the image that I had cultivated since I arrived at Sanctuary.

"Lovely morning, Sister Tiara! It's always great to see you so early in the day. And thank you again for filling the halls with your usual lavender bouquets last night. They must be so difficult to grow all the way out here!" Iris responded all while Myrtle nodded to agree.

"Just a bit of nature magic, or so the green thumbs of my old town used to say. Think nothing of it. Hmm, but by the sounds of it, I take it they were able to help the two of you sleep well last night?"

"Not just us, the whole of Sanctuary! I heard from the grapevine that even Abbess Berry has been having pleasant dreams lately." Myrtle exclaimed with enthusiasm.

"Really? Even Mother Superior?"

Myrtle looked around to see if it were only just the three of us in these winding halls. She was not one for subtlety when she felt a sense of security, and so she didn't bother to lower her voice at all for what she said next. "Yep! And it's even starting to show! I mean, you know how much of a grouch she can be at times, right? But lately, she seems... softer. Hard to describe it. But it's a welcome change!"

"I'm glad my efforts are bearing fruit. It's just a small gesture, but I'm happy to have helped this monastery."

"Small?!" Iris' voice sounded flabbergasted by the notion. "All of us had terrible dreams every single day since before you arrived. A lot of us are here due in no small part to them! You're a huge help, Sister Tiara. Not just with the lavender, but with helping around the Monastery. Our chores have lessened considerably thanks to you, and I'm finally starting to enjoy my stay here! It doesn't even feel as cold in here when you're around!"

As if to prove her words right, the high winds outside carrying large swaths of snow churned and bellowed for a brief moment, sounding their discontent at being unable to chill the spaces inside. If one could see past the snowstorm through the windows, they would only be met by the depressing sight of a winter desert. Life in the monastery had been cruel and difficult before my arrival, that much was true. But these were all just conjecture on their part, since they could not know the effort I had gone through to secure the monastery from the elements.

"You're a godsend, Sister Tiara! A true miracle that descended upon our little Sanctuary."

"Please, Sisters. I'm just a single pony. I'm not nearly so grand like you believe me to be. I'm sure there's some logical explanation to all of this that has nothing to do with my arrival here. Even the lavender bouquets are a trick I learned from Princess Luna, so I can hardly lay claim to all this praise."

"That's where you'll find that most of the mares here would disagree with you, Tiara. Even I concur with Myrtle and Iris. Their cutiemarks are in horticulture, and they can't grow a flower to save their lives out here in these frozen tundras. Also, who ever heard of a bit of lavender being able to quell the vicious nightmares of this abbey? And if even the magic from the Princesses of Equestria haven't been able to fight back against the almighty forces of nature outside, a wonder what kind of divine providence you carry to have brought warmth into this bleak and dreary Sanctuary of ours."

"Reverend Mother!" Iris and Myrtle froze for a second upon hearing her sharp voice and bowed their heads in respect.

"And while there's no evidence tying you to all of that, your presence seems to elicit that feeling of comfort that begs to question what the truth of it is. Forgetting all of that, just your tireless efforts here have afforded our girls a bit of leniency in their workloads. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to walk through a hall without feeling a layer of dust attaching itself to my hooves. That's a miracle all on its own." Her proud opal eyes fell on the two stiff ponies who were sweating, hoping she hadn't caught their conversation earlier. "At ease, Sisters. I'm not here to punish anyone, despite it being my usual duties." They seemed to relax for a second, until... "And I'll pretend I didn't hear that earlier statement for now since I have more pressing business with her." She pointed her darkly orchid-colored hoof over in my direction and then swished it toward her body to signal me to follow. "Tiara, a moment of your time? I require another favor from you. Let us speak in my office."

Calculated. Perfect. Sublime. I hesitated, looked towards the fearful mares, and looked back to the Abbess' patient gaze. "Only if you'll do me the favor of exercising mercy on 'future' punishments, Mother Tempest." The Head Mother scowled something fierce at my words, made fiercer by her sharp eyes and the scar that ran along one of them. Her broken horn seemed to glow ever so slightly as if relapsing into her old self from having her temper tested.

Without a doubt, humans had a wider berth of knowledge when it came to playing mind games and were unparalleled in power plays. Studying Mary's mind had given me the edge in all manner of conversation as I looked through the many examples that she had seen and read. Whether that was from books, fictitious media, or even her world's real history. When I realized I would one day need them before Mary's downfall, I studied humanity's inventions veraciously. My tutors were many. Cleopatra, Queen Victoria, Maria Theresa, and Catherine the Great among many others. And through them, I understood the ingenuity in grace and charisma. That wars were not always waged on battlefields.

But here and now, I was starting out small. First, I need to make a name out of myself. An image, if you will. To create that image I had to make an air about myself. A bubble that could be felt and seen without sight or feel. So while what I said might have sounded like I was playing my cards horribly wrong against the most prominent figurehead of this monastery, in truth, it was having a much more important effect on the image I was constructing of my character.

A truly graceful mare must never bend her will to another. Even in the name of peace, I needed to make sure that others would never find fault or weakness in my character. Powerful, fearless, ruthless, and even mercifully compassionate. I had insulted the Head Mother directly to her face and I had done so in the same breath that was protecting the two fearful sisters.

If their admiration for me seemed unwarranted, then perhaps it was. I had fabricated all of it, after all. I had long stood up for them in similar ways and had done more than they would ever know to secure their trust. I wasn't just the do-gooder saintly figure they needed me to be. I was a commanding presence when their motivations waned. A pillar that they could lean upon when they grew tired. A tree that they could find shade in when the sun shone too bright. A war-horn to inspire their fights when their willpower faltered.

Mary had shown me, in Flurry Heart and in Twilight, that a strong enough grasp on one's heart could outdo Silver Spoon's vile magic. So you best believe I will not give anyone the chance to rob me of what I love ever again.

I will dominate this world with my presence. I will give them no room to ever doubt me again. I will make them depend on my very existence. I will subject them to the same horrid hurt I felt when losing Mary if they are ever to lose me in turn. This is my curse upon the world.

"Tiara, you..." The Abbess' voice was in a low growl as she squinted her eyes, and was about to continue with what she was going to say before getting interrupted by the two fearful sisters from before.

"Please Mother Superior! It's my fault. I'm so sorry I called you a grouch. I'll take any punishment you have for me! Just spare Sister Tiara!" Myrtle pleaded.

"Or me! I'm always complaining to Myrtle about you, so it's my fault she's had that idea stuck in her head! Sister Tiara is only trying to look out for us, so please!" Iris joined in, the both of them bowing their heads to the Abbess.

The air was tense. I was honestly rather grateful to the Abbess. Without knowing it, she was playing her part effortlessly. When I first joined Sanctuary, I did not know what to expect. It would have been infinitely harder to create the image I wanted to create if an old, gentle, motherly mare had been the one in charge of the monastery. But thanks to her reputation and scary appearance, the air she had about her had made her the perfect jumping point for my plans. The extent of my grip on the hearts of the Sisters was something I was able to achieve in a manner of a few months, rather than a few years.

Right about now, however, it was finally the time to rip that perfect little band-aid off, as I had already won in that regard and needed not keep this farce going any longer.

"I keep telling you, Mother Berry. It's the eyes. Watch your eyes. They're real menacing when you scowl and squint like that. They say anger is quite unsightly and it's probably why you're getting more crow's feet by the day." It was hard to hide the amusement in my smile as the two mares from before looked over to me in shock and awe.

"And whose fault do you think this is, Tiara?!" Mother Berrytwist slammed her hoof with exasperation, flustered and composing herself with a dignified cough. "Again, at ease Sister Myrtle, Sister Iris. Like I said, I'm not here to punish you. I'm aware that I've been... abrasive in the past. I deserve those words. Taking over the position from the previous Head Mother when she retired hasn't been easy. The nightmares being a part of it. But I guess I was also not ready to start leading ponies. I'd grown too used to bossing the big hedgehog lugs from the lands beyond Equestria. They were the kind that required a more... forceful push, if I can describe it politely."

The two got up from this surreal conversation that they never thought in a million years they'd be having with Mother Berry.

"I-I'm..." Myrtle was still hesitant to speak, and Mother Berry's expression seemed to soften at this, feeling a bit hurt that her sincerity hadn't gotten through to them. But really, like I kept telling her, it was just the scowl of hers that was the issue. Myrtle found it a lot easier to speak to her at that point since it faded from her face. "I'm sorry Mother Berry... Even if you say it's okay, I don't think I should've said that about you. We just didn't know your circumstances and um... to be honest... you look a little scary at times." Iris nodded along with this.

"Well, can we all at least agree to blame the previous Head Mother for leaving it up to Mother Berry to look after Sanctuary when she left? I mean, what kind of bright idea was that?" Everyone seemed to chuckle at my small joke, and the mood had finally been defused with all of this.

The two sisters and Berry talked about a few things before they finally left. Mostly just breaking the ice that existed in the monastery between them for god knows how long. And even the stone-faced Fizzlepop seemed to finally smile when she got an unexpected hug from them before they went off to go do their chores. And off to spread the good word about her too among the rest of the sisters of the abbey. I got one as well, naturally, for having been the winds of change that was necessary for them to grow.

Not everyone was entirely appreciative of my efforts, however.

"I swear to all that is holy, Tiara. I will end you if you embarrass me like that again." Fizzlepop mouthed quietly from the corner of her lips once the two sisters were out of direct earshot for such a low-volume statement. I only returned it with a mischievous smirk. "I know you meant well, but at least warn me next time if you're going to bring up some old wounds."

"And here I was thinking that the Storm King's former lieutenant was made of sterner stuff. Seems a few jokes are enough to fell that mighty beast."

"What did I just say!?" She turned to face me, her eyes growing narrower and her face getting closer, sparks jutting out of her horn like a broken sparkler.

"That you'll end me." We physically butted heads when I dove my own head forward. "I'd like to see you try."

After a bit, Berrytwist stepped backward and began to laugh. "You're the bravest, or perhaps the stupidest pony I've ever met. I can't decide. But you're a riot, Tiara. And..." She sighed. "Thank you, for helping me all this time. All of us. I don't know what kind of tricks you're using on Sanctuary to make this brick tomb more comfortable, but it's working."

"Why, whatever do you mean?"

"You berate my appearance, but I think that big smile of yours is a little too eager for its own good. Gives you away. Ah ah, and that one you're making now doesn't quite reach your eyes and seems very sly." Tsk. Pesky magenta pony. "It's fine. We've all got things we rather not talk about. It probably has something to do with your sentence from the Princess, huh?"

"Something like that." I huffed my discontent. "What about you, Lieutenant?"

"Same." At this, we had now entered her offices to be behind closed doors. She seemed to relax now that she was in privacy with a kindred spirit. "Just have to trust Princess Twilight's judgment and hope for the best. I'm starting to think this whole atonement and friendship thing isn't so bad after all. But say, Tiara..." She shuffled in her seat uncomfortably. "About your sentence... Did you really do that to Her Majesty?"

"Ah, so that's what the whispers this morning were about." I leaned back in my chair, feeling all the pressure to be perfect slip in this moment too. Berrytwist was the only one I could do that around thus far. There were preying eyes on the prowl looking for any sign of weakness within the monastery, and with our chat earlier, I was able to confirm that Berry was herself here, so I felt more at ease. "What do you think, Fizzlepop?"

"A load of rubbish, mostly. I've been in that line of work, as you already know all about. It's subtle, but the details look fabricated. I only partly glanced at your files when you arrived at Sanctuary, but even back then and especially now, it seems too good to be true. Too clean, too concise. Evil doing is a messy art. If you really are innocent, you've got quite the target painted on your back. But that's just a what-if. I can't get a good bead on you at all, Tiara. So while I can't trust the accusations against you, I can't trust you either."

"That's why I like you, Lieutenant. Trust is so easily shaken nowadays, don't you agree? That's why I'm not giving you the whole truth. I need someone to always be questioning every bit of me. Only then can I be a truly honest person."

She sighed and put a hoof to her temple, annoyed. "I don't want to be a part of your mind games Tiara, but I owe you that much. At the very least, I feel like your intentions are good, and that's enough for me. But don't expect for me to heel and bark at a moment's notice."

"I wouldn't count on it."

"Okay, now that smile right there. That just sent a chill down my back. Please don't do that again." She went to go fetch a couple of papers from her desk and brought them out on top of it. "A wonder whatever happened to that meek and mild Tiara when she first walked into my office with the prettiest words I'd ever heard, on her first day here in Sanctuary. Oh right, I remember. She disappeared the moment that Evergold walked in here a few weeks later with all my history and background checks on her lap, cornering me like a pawn in a chess game."

"You're mistaken, Abbess."

"How so?"

"She never existed to begin with."

"Right, right. Of course she didn't. To this day, I wonder how you got a hold of my resumé."

"With an extensive information network, Mother Superior. A girl can't be walking around naked without one of her own nowadays, don't you know?" I brought one of my hooves to my direct sight to look at it carefully, twisting it around to see if there was even a speck of dust on it. As a show, of course. Vanity serves its own uses. "But even if I didn't have something like that, I think it's only right that you should know..." Berrytwist's ears seemed to perk up as I hung onto that sentence for dramatic effect. "I knew about you right from the start."

"Haha." There was a tinge of nervousness in that fake laughter she made. "Remind me to never get on your bad side, Tiara."

"Don't worry about it, Fizzlepop. It would take an ungodly amount of effort on your part to cross me."

"I wouldn't pray on it. I'm getting too old to be messing around with villains of your caliber." She slid the papers she had on the table over to me.

"That you are, Mother Berry." She squinted her displeasure and tapped on the papers with her hoof to signal us to change the conversation.

"Anyways, we’ve gone on long enough speaking in rhetoric. I have actual problems that need attending to, and you’re just the pony for the job.”

“Convenient.” I looked over the papers she was trying to present to me. At a glance, it was just a mess of numbers, dates, and names. The monastery’s taxation records over the last five years which Berry had inherited when the original Abbess stepped down. Nothing in them would’ve clued me into what Mother Berry was asking of me if I had been anyone lesser.

“Think your pretty little horseshoes can handle it? Just so you know, I’m not asking you to bookkeep here. This isn’t a desk job, what I need from you is-”

“If you wanted me to oust the local Equestrian lord for defrauding the monastery in its taxations, you could’ve just asked, Mother Superior. The inconsistencies here line up with many similar, individual cases for the residents of Yakyakistan and a few small businesses in the Crystal Empire. It’s safe to say this has been going on for far longer than the establishment of the monastery itself, and I’ve been building a case against him for several weeks now.”

“I... was going to say to just investigate this issue and speak to the Marquis about the numbers here being slightly off. I honestly had no idea that this was happening elsewhere. But if you’re the one saying it, then I can see how it would be a scam. If even I could not see into it, then this type of trickery is very subtle. How’d you figure all of this, Tiara? You got eyes on the back of your head or something?”

“I don’t, and I didn’t initially. Anyone outside of the grand design might as well be invisible or non-existent.”

“Look, I know I run a monastery now, but what are you going on about? Grand design, what?”

“Never you mind my words, Mother Berry. Just speaking my thoughts out loud. If you must know how I realized the Marquis’ ploy before anyone has, in this one case, it was a matter of happenstance. I’ve made it a ‘personal’ goal to investigate any connection that leads to my wonderful parents’ business, you see. You’d be surprised how far their money network goes and what they’re willing to do to grow it further. The Marquis here just happened to be one of my quarries as a result. As if the fate of Equestria wasn’t enough, I also have to keep those two greed mites in check.”

“Sounds like you have a very delicate and complicated relationship with your parents, and oh no, will you look at that, I don’t have the time to hear you out.” She brought out one of her hooves to hold it steady in front of us while she used another to imitate opening an invisible pocketwatch atop of it, wordlessly boohooing with her facial expression.

“Good, because I wouldn’t have told you about it anyway.”

“Excellent. I’ll be expecting a detailed report on my desk on your findings about the Marquis by this afternoon.”

“Alright, give me permission to venture outside the monastery for today so that I can solidify my case against the Marquis, and then you can do us both the honors of toppling him since I’m not supposed to be meddling in Equestrian affairs, after all.”

“Leaving me with the hard job, is it? I regret not giving this chore to one of my normal girls. Maybe then I wouldn’t be thinking about how I’ll have to testify against nobility on a royal court.” She sighed.

“It’s not so bad. If Twilight or the defense try to scare you at any point, just scrunch your face up and scare them right back with that nasty scowl of yours.”

“Haha, aren’t you funny. I suppose you would know from experience.” She organized the documents together to place them into a saddlebag for me, and magically levitated it onto my back to hold. “Well, don’t let me stop you, Evergold. The door is right there.”

“Aye aye, Lieutenant Tempest.” I was halfway out the door before she stopped me one last time.

“And Tiara? Don’t be long. I’m not technically allowed to let you out of the monastery. These concessions are in light of your wonderful behavior dear, so don’t test it. Oh, and for the last time, watch that evil-looking smile of yours.” Tsk. That bothersome old hag. “Your eyes are leaking your thoughts out, you know. And clicking your tongue is never a good look.

“Whatever you say, ‘Mother’.”

“Bye bye, don’t let the door hit you on your way out now.” She said before purposely slamming the door on my rear with her magic. I was half-tempted to atomize it with a kick there and then, but that would’ve been unsightly. So I took my leave for the day.

On my way out, I left the rest of the sisters with specific instructions on the monastery. I often acted as the Abbess’ right-hoofed mare, as the sisters looked to me to organize the monastery’s many tasks. Not only were my own efforts a huge help towards the abbey’s upkeep, but my synergized plan of action for the rest of the sisters had allowed their own efforts to reach farther and wider while giving them ample time to relax thanks to being ahead of schedule on their duties.

Many of the mares never even knew they had talents for other things like cooking, cleaning, or bookkeeping in the library since they had fallen into the complacency of the monastery’s unmalleable routines. Some were even reluctant to try other things and give up their old chores to other girls since their only anchor to the monastery was their duties. On many occasions, I had to win individual hearts by convincing them they had more purpose in life than the little pockets of comfort the monastery could offer.

Life in Sanctuary had been horrible for so long before my arrival, in more ways than the ferocious weather outside or the monastery’s bleak, grey brick walls. Many of the sisters there had become sisters for the monastery due to some severe issue or other. Whether that was the universal nightmares that all of them had that had driven them near to the point of insanity, or some mistake that they had made that had brought them to this cold lonely exile. Most of them felt like they had no real place in the world, and that their only tether to it lay inside those depressing walls. Walking through Sanctuary for the first time had been even more doom and gloom thanks to the departure of the original Mother Superior, since that old mare used to be the saving grace for many of the sisters, and were deeply saddened to see her be replaced by Berry, who unbeknownst to them had, had good intentions but just couldn’t compete.

So my plan of action to take over Sanctuary was a simple one. Improve it. And all it took was a bit of hard work, sweat, magical barriers, and forming a relationship with an Aspect of Hatred. A deal with the devil, if you will. In Mary’s terms. But is it really a loaded deal if it’s loaded in your favor? Or perhaps thinking about that statement backward would help to put things into perspective.

As I trudged through the thick snowy tundras of the Frozen North and towards Yakyakistan, once I was out of eyesight of anyone within the heavy snowstorm, I whistled as loudly as I could to get the attention of my patron spirit animal. For a second, the winds howled louder and stronger, beating across those white plains wildly. Then, the distinct ethereal and otherworldly neighing of its voice tore through the air as the Aspect jumped from cloud to cloud, making a pathway down to descend upon the earth in front of me.

This creature was majestic. Beautiful and graceful. I rested my two hooves beneath its long, refreshingly chilling snout. I cradled its forehead to mine and conjoined our spirits, letting it eat any warmth lingering on me. As I pulled away, it looked to me expectantly, like a puppy awaiting an order from its master lovingly.

Windigos. What loyal and intelligent spirits they were once you tamed them. They were such strange Equestrian phenomena that neither the history of this world nor the one in Mary’s offered clues for. Their existence was a universal law of this world, yet held feelings of reverence, respect, and even love. Do you understand how crazy that sounds?! Tell that to any other pony, and they’ll look at you funny. Aspects of Hatred can have love, what? Have you gone mad? But it’s true. This magnificent creature before me was proof of that. I had proven it. And Mary had proven it too, as she had tamed a similarly hateful beast.

“It’s great to see you, girl. You’re looking lovely as usual, you magnificent creature, you.” I focused my internal magic well over to my hoof by focusing on it, densely packing it with layers upon layers of raw magic. Then I held it out in front of the Windigo for it to feast on, taking chomps out of the air above it like invisible sugarcubes. I brushed her chillingly cold mane with my other hoof, using carefully controlled magic to gently stroke its ghostly mane so as to pet it, and not hurt it inadvertently. “Thank you for keeping the monastery warm with your powers, Yuki.”

Yuki was a name that I had given her. It is the abbreviated name of a similarly tragic and often maliciously portrayed spirit of ice and snow from Mary’s world, known as Yuki-Onna. And as to why I was treating her like an animal and not a pony, well...

It’s hard to explain. But the windigos don’t feel or think like people or ponies do. Not even Equestrian animals for that matter. To me, now that I was up close to one and interacting with it, it reminded me of a much more instinctual creature. One with feelings and thoughts, sure. But not one like those seen in Equestria, not even in its monsters. In fact, as it bobbed its head down to eat from my hoof, letting out its cold breath by blowing and snorting out noises of contentedness, this creature reminded me of an animal.

A horse.

No, again, not a pony. Not Alicorns. Not large stallions like Big Mac, Rockhoof, or Trouble Shoes. I’m talking about a horse in Mary’s world. A wild, free, nature-bound animal only truly guided by its internal design. It’s no wonder how no pony has ever been able to understand Windigos well up until now. They were so unlike anything in Equestria. So truly otherworldly. Ponies already feared the Everfree Forest for being natural, magical though it was by Equestrian standards. Now imagine what they must think of Windigos, ice spirits that feed on hatred and act more animal-like than even the animals of Equestria. Certainly doesn’t help that their features are closely identical to our own. It would’ve been the equivalent of you looking upon an evil ghost in the image of your species. You certainly don’t stop to think of its animal-like qualities. Especially if none of your animals act that way. But I had Mary’s blessing, and was able to ascertain their nature through that knowledge.

Curious as to how I even befriended a Windigo in the first place? Well, it’s actually really simple. If you ever find yourself in my horseshoes, all you gotta know is this one simple trick:

How do you tame an Aspect of Hatred? You overpower it with your own.

Perhaps that’s the reason why Yuki absolutely loves being around me. I have hatred to spare for an eternity. Every time I step outside the monastery, she quickly runs to my side to protect me from the elements and dutifully does what I ask of her. I had to train her real well not to follow me into the monastery itself, or show herself prematurely to others in her haste to get to me. If you’ve never trained an animal as large and innately magical as a Windigo before, just know it’s not a simple process. It runs counter to usual animal training. If your patience starts to wane and you become frustrated with one, you’ll just be encouraging those bad behaviors by feeding your hatred to them.

Still, as loyal as a Windigo can get, you also need to understand that its loyalty is only a result of the hatred within you. If at any point it starts to sense a slip and a softening of that hatred, you may yet feel its wrath. The ‘devil’ in this part of the deal.

But it goes without saying, this part of the deal is nothing to me. Perhaps it is Yuki who finds herself dealing with a devil.

I instructed her to keep looking after Sanctuary in my absence and had her disappear from view once I drew close to the walls of Yakyakistan. There I was able to meet up with a good friend I could count on, as she seemed relatively unaffected by Silver’s Spoons mass hysteria and was empathetic to my cause.

“Pink pony Tiara! Good seeing friend.”

“An absolute pleasure to see you too, Yona. It has certainly been a while. How’s working for Rarity’s boutique treating you?”

“Yona thinks it’s okay, mostly.”

“That’s not very reassuring. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing wrong with the work. The ponies, however...” She withheld from saying, not wanting to be rude and wanting to avoid stereotyping ponies in front of me.

“Speak freely, Yona. I’d like to hear your take on Equestria’s current state.”

“It’s... not like it was when Yona was smaller. Ponies ruder, meaner, and constantly bickering nowadays. Twilight friend circle and Sandbar only nice ponies left. Yona couldn’t stand it much longer. Took vacation and came back home for a while.”

“I see. It really hasn’t gotten any better, has it?” Yona shook her head sadly. “Thanks for telling me Yona. All we can do now is pray that things will get better from here on. I have faith in my fellow ponies. Kindness and friendship will prevail, just you see.” I graced her with my signature saintly smile and placed a hoof to her shoulder. Her worries seemed to melt at my words.

“Yona hope so. Yona and friends have tried many times to talk sense to ponies, but making little progress. Wish friend Tiara was with us.”

“Thank you Yona, that sentiment alone is enough. But I’m sorry. I cannot go back. Many still believe I am to blame for the way things are now. And by royal decree, I am still exiled. Even if I wasn’t... I don’t think I’m ready to return to Equestria just yet... I’m sorry.”

Calculated, perfect, sublime. I tilted my head downward to look sorrowfully at the ground, draping a foreleg over my mouth so as to only show my downtrodden eyes. To great effect, as Yona reached out to hug me in the traditional Yak way. Which was to hug the living soul out of you.

“Friend Tiara, it’s okay! No need to return. Always welcome in Yakyakistan forever. Friend of mine is friend to all Yaks.” She said in trying to cheer me up.

“It’s okay, Yona. Please, do not feel too sorry for me. If the newspapers are to be believed and I really am guilty, I don’t want you to share in that. Perhaps one day when my name is cleared and my heart is ready, I will rejoin my motherland. But until then, I must find atonement in the lands beyond.”

“Bah!” Yona smashed a nearby log in her frustration. “Ponies not know what they are talking about! Tiara friend innocent. Never believed such obvious lies. If you ever need Yona’s help, need only call.”

“Thank you, Yona. Truly. I’m grateful to call you my friend.” The lovely yak nodded to agree with the sentiment. “But onto lighter topics, did you bring my order of lavender seeds Yona?” She pulled out the bag I had requested from her with a big smile, which fell when she realized she might’ve overstuffed the bag in an effort to please me and looked much too big for me to carry. To her pleasant surprise, I thanked her while walking out with it with ease.

We parted ways after one last round of hugs and thus I began my true work here in Yakyakistan. Finishing my report on the Marquis. It was simple work. It mostly consisted of asking some of the yaks for the tax records. Well, maybe not so simple. Yaks aren’t exactly the bookkeeping, carefully organized types. But there were a few amongst their midst who cut through the mold and they thankfully had preserved a large part of the Yak’s history, whether historical or financial. And with them, I was able to get the last bits of information I needed.

The Marquis had walked into my spun web without realizing it. Almost quite literally, since my ‘information network’ was a family of spiders I had befriended long ago. Or I should say, Mary had.

Mary had spent a good bit of her days studying anything she could from Twilight’s group of friends. That included Fluttershy, who taught her the ways of kindness and animal speak. Mostly just animal speak, because Mary was a fountain of kindness and goodwill already. Thanks to that, Mary was able to make friends with a small little spider she had met at her windowsill one night.

Now, this spider was all sorts of scary. Its carapace was pitch black, mostly hairless. Its back was relatively flat, with an almost hexagonal yellow shape. At the edges of its back were long thin red spikes jutting out of every end. It was the kind of appearance that was made by nature to say something along the lines of “DANGER, this creature is deadly and evil”.

But again, as I’ve already told you before, Mary is not the kind to listen to warning signs like that. In case that wasn’t already evident by her taste in ponies. She spoke to this spider, took it in, and let it have the time of its life at her side.

Turns out, fate is a real trickster. This spider was not only NOT dangerous in any way, it longed to be accepted. Which is a hard thing for a creature that looks like it will murderize you just by touching it. The fate of every Orb Weaver spider, unfortunately. Most spiders, now that we’re on the topic. Some are dangerous, mind. So exercising caution is only natural.

In Equestria however, if you can look past your fearful prejudices and can give things another chance, you might find that the tiny spider you befriended might just be a magical one. One that will never forget the favor you’ve given it, and will stick by you until you yourself are old and grey. One who turns out to be a mother, and who passes those lessons on to her many children. And then they turn out to be intelligent little creatures that are good at spy work thanks to their tiny size and inconspicuous nature. You might even find yourself with an information broker’s empire on your lap suddenly, all because of one tiny act of kindness.

I’ll burn to dust before I let a debt go unpaid. I give my spiders any luxuries they desire. They are my eyes, my ears, and sometimes even my very limbs, so to them, I give willingly, passing on Mary’s virtue to them, and spreading the good word of their kind amongst my sisters and the yaks. I lay a small tray of sugar water before a particularly hard-working spider that had arrived to pass on its findings of the Marquis’ involvements within the Crystal Empire. I can’t help but smile at their devotion to my cause. They are tragic little creatures and yet they live for my dreams. One day, I will repay them in kind.

But for now, I needed every bit of their tireless efforts to help me. The battle I’m fighting now can not be won with reckless abandon. Information is golden, and I had almost none of it on Silver Spoon’s plans. But we were slowly starting to piece it together.

I took one sharp turn around Yakyakistan after the next. Information is a lot of things. It’s weaknesses, vulnerabilities, vantages. Its pathways, shortcuts, side paths. And it’s protection, privacy, security. Knowing who or what was chasing after you was equal measures of important to how you could shake them off your trail.

Yuki was a great way to keep outside forces from reaching the monastery since the snowstorm she called forth made for a rather impassible wall for those woefully unprepared. But outside its walls was a different story altogether. And even with my hundreds of wonderful tiny helpers, I still have many blind spots. I’ve spread many of my spiders thin in search of information far and wide. So right about now, I was on edge. I was vulnerable. I hadn’t had a slip-up yet, but I guess it was just the mind of a villainess playing tricks on me since I felt I needed to exercise caution anyway.

To be honest, I had felt this way even inside the monastery too. All because of a few words Twilight had said...

You might think I’m crazy for thinking this, but I don’t like to ignore even vague statements done in passing. Especially not from Twilight. Remember what she said? “This is only conditional, Tiara. Break my trust even once, and I won’t allow you even a hundred miles from my castle, you hear?” And what did she decide to do for my punishment? Exile.

So excuse me if I’m a little paranoid after she had said “From here henceforth, she is to be exiled from Equestria and placed under strict supervision at a monastery in the Frozen North lands.” during my hearing.

Whether that means Berrytwist keeping a lazy eye out to see if I’m regressing into my villainous ways or having someone incredibly adept at espionage looking after me 24/7 is beyond me, because if it’s the latter, whoever Twilight signed up for the job is extremely good. And it irks me. It feels like I don’t have precise control over my situation. But not all is lost, I should add. I’ve been acting and performing in accordance with the idea that someone might be looking at everything I do and relaying it back to her.

When it comes to the art of war, Mary’s world truly takes the cake. And some of my favorite lessons are in the art of manipulating information. Turns out, purposely feeding misinformation can be more lucrative than withholding any from the enemy.

It would take someone truly special to see past my outward persona. And so far, that façade of mine has yet to slip in public, of that much I’m sure.

I gathered the last bit of information I needed from the Yaks, making sure to not give anyone the suspicion that I was investigating the Marquis and left back to the monastery with the lavender seeds in tow. And I got my petty revenge on Fizzlepop when I burst into her office without knocking, spooking her from the suddenness of my entrance.

“You do not do warnings, do you, Evergold.” She said, annoyed.

“Evidently not, Abbess. Here’s what you asked for.” She glanced at the papers that I had left on her desk and then proceeded to give me a half-hearted smile.

“Great, you even added line graphs and pie charts. I’m sure the court is going to dig those.”

“I know a certain purple someone will, so consider it a bonus towards your case.”

She waved her hoof dismissively. “Sure sure, if you say so.” She glanced at me once over again and lifted an eyebrow. “So I’m guessing that massive saddlebag isn’t relevant to any of this?”

“Nope. This is lavender seeds.”

“All of that is?”

“Yes. A yak friend of mine prepared them for me.”

“Ah, say less. I get it. I still don’t see how a bit of lavender can stave off our nightmares, but I won’t argue with results. Well, thanks again for taking care of this for me, Tiara. Even IF you made more work for me in the end. At least this’ll get rid of that obnoxious penny pincher.”

“My pleasure. Just remember to not mention my involvement in this.” The Abbess busied herself reviewing all of my findings to confirm the case for herself, then looked up after a while to see me still in her office, hanging around in the silence.

“You got something you want to say? Why am I still looking at your pretty little mug, Tiara?”

“We still have to discuss my reward, Mother Berry.”

She sighed. “I already said that I won’t be punishing Myrtle or Iris.”

“Yes, I heard you. And that’s not what I’m asking for.”

“Oh?” She put down the papers to listen intently, crossing her hooves in order to lean a little in. “Do tell. What do you want?”

“Just one small little teeny weeny week-long vacation from the monastery is all.”

She exploded with laughter, twisting the last few laughs with a cruel, sadistic reveling. “I’ll get right on it. Tell you what, I’ll even go ask the Princess in person to approve your vacation days when I go see her in court. Sound fair?”

“Golden, Abbess.”

“And this is why I like you, Tiara. You’re reasonable when it counts. I just hope you’re not too disappointed when she says ‘no’. I’ll even try and put in a good word for you. It’s the least I could do.”

“One last thing, Abbess?” She laid out a hoof for me to proceed. “Do let her know that by ‘vacation’, I don’t mean returning to Equestria. Or even Equestrian influenced territories like the Crystal Empire or Yakyakistan.”

“Oh? If you cross those two out, there really is nothing out there. What are you going to do for that week, camp out in the blizzard?”

I shrugged. “Something like that.”

“Well, whatever. I’ll try and make it happen, Tiara, that’s my guarantee. If it does or doesn’t, that’s for the Princess to decide. Now scamper off. You’re ruining my concentration.” She said as she picked my reports back up.

I returned to my chamber, where a small spider was waiting for me on the windowsill. It was repeating the collected reports of many of his brethren in places all throughout Equestria. Through him and the many that I left behind, I was able to gauge the temperature throughout all of the Equestrian cities on the increasing civil unrest that Silver Spoon had brought about. I was also trying to locate her, wherever she was. But that too was proving difficult. Things were still relatively cool, but the cracks were beginning to show. City officials were scattering to appease the general consensus, to no avail. And Sanctuary’s unique circumstances were starting to become commonplace everywhere.

When can you begin to tell when the end is drawing near? When a story is at its peak, and it has only one way to go from there? When the world no longer seems to be spinning and turning the way it used to? Or is it when there’s still a moment of peace? A chance to catch your breath. A lull that’s driving you into a false sense of security and complacency.

Perhaps doomsday is still far away, biding its time. Patiently, gradually making its way towards us.

Whatever the case, I don’t know about you, but I don’t intend to sit around and find out. I’ll be damned if let myself go peacefully into the quiet night. I already have my next destination in mind. A hapless place ravaged by time and frost. A place twisted by cruel fate, and contorted by uncaring magic.

A place abandoned by all living things where even the gods don’t dare to thread.

The ruins of Pony-kind.

Chapter 3: The Lands Lost To Frost

A creature barely the size of a grain of rice slowly, methodically weaved its intricate web up upon a dark and moody corner of my room. Its art was meticulous, constantly turning circles and circles across its razor thin scaffolding, creating an almost mesmerizingly beautiful display of ghost white threads shimmering with a blue luster from the coursing magic imbued into it. Like a scrying glass, an image was shown to me of a far away place within that hexagonal shape. Instant communication was a rare and seldom used art, even in the magical Equestria. And yet these tiny little guys had managed it for ages.

In Mary's world, technology had progressed to the point that it permeated the very air using satellite communication. Any and all information could be obtained and transmitted in a near instant all across her world. Before the advent of the satellite, however, there was telecommunication. Phones connected via a vast array of cables and transformers the world over, changing the face of human development, and human warfare, forever.

It cannot be understated how powerful information can be, especially when you can obtain and transmit it in instants. And now I had an information conglomerate thanks to my small friends who had their own system in play with their magical threads, much like the telecommunication of Mary's world. With their help, I was able to find out more about Sanctuary and its Sisters before I had ever set a hoof within its halls.

The first thing I realized about Sanctuary was the distinctly unnatural weather surrounding it. Peering through the eyes of my many friends when I was still within Equestria, I could see a veil of violent snow swirling around that tiny monastery almost as if it resided within a blizzard hurricane. I always figured that Twilight knew about it before ever sending me to the monastery, since the guards that escorted me to it were powerful unicorns in their own right who used their magic to create protective bubbles strong enough to pierce through it. I half suspected she thought that would make a fine enough barrier to dissuade me from leaving Sanctuary at all.

No one would've suspected, or yet suspects, that I have tamed the beast that was creating that blizzard to begin with. Yuki was the one behind that swirling mass of magic that encircled the monastery. She'd been called to it due to the intense negativity exuding from the Sisters within, feasting on their blistering hot hatred and contempt for the world. And at night, their feelings seemed to grow that much stronger evident by Yuki's snowstorm gaining in strength.

The sisters themselves were reluctant to speak of it. Their ills where their own, being bottled up and left to fester. Even without the help of my tiny friends, I could easily hazard a guess as to what afflicted them simply by keeping awake at night to hear their shrill shrieks and tormented wallows. Their dreams were a hotbed for anguish, turned to nightmares by both a strong foreign magic and their own madness from years of suffering to the hands of it.

It didn't take a genius to know what the cause of them were. Tantabi, the only other beings tuned enough to the magics that could affect dreams. Now it made sense that I had seen Luna and Celestia's amongst the new league villains. They'd been left to feast upon a hapless Equestria for who knows how long. The strange part about this whole equation that I couldn't seem to understand was how they had gone unnoticed as long as they did. Mary knew of Luna's plights due to her knowledge of the show, and in our youth, she had even catalogued and planned for it in a calendar of hers. Every episode, every event, down to as much detail as she could remember. It was all in order to save me.

Strangely, Luna's Tantabus event never played out like it did in the show of her world. None of the main six mares, Twilight and her friends, spoke of it. No one in Ponyville seemed to know anything about it either, despite the whole town being involved in that fiasco originally. That day came and went with sound dreams and no more mention of magical apparitions. I myself had almost forgotten that Tantabi could even exist until I saw them in the new league of villains next to Silver Spoon and was starkly reminded of them again by the sisters of the abbey who lived constantly tormented by dark dreams and misty nightmares almost as if they were cursed. But it was no curse. Mary's blessing, our shared knowledge, came through again and I was able to put remedies to the test thanks to that. It took a lot of trial and error, enough to set me back a few weeks, but I found a fix for the Sisters’ Tantabi problem. Magical wards of sorts. I needed to conjure items with large enough radiuses of effect to bubble the whole of Sanctuary with veils that could ward off foreign magic. If not singularly powerful items, I needed many much smaller ones to have a similar effect.

And this is where the start of my problems began in Sanctuary, and why it took me months to conquer my first hold out. Items that could output the kind of magic I needed to project are rare. Horribly so, especially in the middle of a snowy nowhere like the abbey. It would take nothing short of a relic-grade artifact in order to withstand my magic for any longer than a few hours, since the output needed to be strong enough to drive back Tantabi of all things. Not just any Tantabi, but those of the royal sisters. Always easier said than done. Those two had lived long enough and faced so many difficult challenges in their lives as to fester a deep and resentful emotion now in corporeal form. Fighting against those things, then empowered by their years of harnessing strength from other's troubled dreams, was no easy feat.

My solution arrived to me in the form of Yona, who had brought a bouquet of flowers with her to Yakyakistan the first time I saw her after so long. My rapport with Berry had progressed to the point that I was finally able to step outside of the monastery for once so long as I was doing so for the purposes of improving and aiding it. That meant that she settled on me quite a large list of items to procure. She was likely still salty about how I tried to gain equal footing with her authority by ousting her history as Tempest Shadow, forcing her to acknowledge me and build a relationship with me out of necessity and compromise. She probably didn't believe I could even make it past the snowstorm and would turn back around as soon as the opportunity arose. That was, until I returned that same day hours later with everything she wanted and half scared out of her mind that I might have perished within that veil of snow.

On my second outing, I met with Yona. I'll spare you the story of our reunion, as it was just a lot of emotional Yak hugging. Which you can just imagine that it felt like the equivalent of being trampled over by a steam roller. She'd already been there a couple of days celebrating Yickslurbertfest and decorating her logs with flowers before smashing them to bits. Sounds strange? Well, Yaks work in strange ways. But it's not like they're completely alien. I can empathize with them, and I understand the therapeutic nature of violent smashing. I had done a lot of it for magical practice myself. In Yona's case, I think spending more time with Rarity opened her eyes to the aesthetic sense of things before wanting to smash them to bits. It's sorta like breaking a really beautiful vase compared to a plain and normal one. It's the same thing, but why is smashing the prettier one better?

Yes... Smashing pretty things... Yona and I are definitely very alike. Oh what I wouldn't give to get my hoof on that pretty little grey pony.

But I digress. Yona's whole act of smashing those logs with the flowers in tow gave me the perfect idea. Why focus on trying to find an artifact strong enough to withstand my magic, when I can just use something far more expendable and easy to replace? Better yet, organic livings things like flowers were better conduits for magic than most metals and would last through a few days if imbued. I hadn't entertained the thought before simply because expending a living thing for my purposes sounded macabre, but I doubt any pony would find doubt in using plants for it.

So with the conduit figured out, I now needed to find a good way to get a steady source of flowers and a way to fill Sanctuary with them without seeming too far-fetched as to arise suspicion. My more immediate problem of trying to source my flowers ended up being more difficult than I first imagined, since the snowstorm had a way of shredding them to bits when passing through it. I had not obtained Yuki's trust at that point, and so I had no way to stop the storm from undoing my plans. Not only that, if by some miracle I was able to protect hundreds of different bouquets through the snowstorm, enough to protect the twenty Sisters and Abbess Berry within for weeks on end, my supply would run short before I had to make the trek again and my constant outings would, again, rouse suspicion. Another suspicion arouser? Why flowers? Surely the sisters and the Abbess would have something to say about it. They were not very welcoming to changes in their environment, despite their environment being so bleak and dreary. Partly due to them being so high-strung and emotionally unstable. So my reason had to be as good as any could get.

That's when I realized that I could just grow them once I was in Sanctuary, since protecting seeds through the storm was loads easier and more plausible for me to do. It doubled down that carrying bags of seeds yielded more flowers due to their compact nature, so that meant less rounds outside of Sanctuary for me. I also defaulted on lavender flowers once I was in discussions with Mother Berry about what I wanted to do with them. I hadn't thought of my excuse very well by that point since I was scrambling to set everything else up in my head, so when Berry pushed back against my idea, I fell on the first excuse that popped into my mind. Luna used to line lavender in the halls of Canterlot castle for her guests so that they could sleep better. What better way to hide what you're doing than to hide it with itself? Hiding in plain sight, or so one would call it. None of the sisters would suspect that the lavender was not the reason why their dreams were improving, since they were all the superstitious sorts who had heard of their placebo properties before.

The problem then became actually growing them... Berry was right. Keeping anything like flowers out in those stormy tundras was practically impossible. Growing them turned out to be no issue. But perhaps it's still too soon to talk of how I went about in doing that. Keeping them alive on the other hoof long enough to do their purpose in those blistering cold hallways? An impossible task, even for me. I needed to get the temperature under control. That meant having to face the winter spirit head on.

Facing Yuki... Well, I think my hyper focused anger and hatred was actually a disadvantage in that confrontation. I bore Yuki no ill-will. She wasn't even part of the three Windigos that were floating about the new League of Villains, so I could not get myself to hate her even an inch. That stayed true even as her powerful, ethereal figure trotted over to me with a fearsome fire in its eyes. They scanned me thoroughly, looking for any signs of malice. And while she did manage to find it, it was surrounded by a softness. To her, it must have felt like being insulted down to the very core of her being. The fight that ensued was born of her own anger at seeing this from me.

Our battle lasted hours, with our magic tearing the surrounding landscape apart. I had enough foresight to plan for this eventuality so I made sure to stay faraway from Sanctuary when I did finally face Yuki. A great thing too, as I could not imagine the monastery or even the snowy hill it was parked on surviving that onslaught. Yuki was odd, even for the other Windigo. Her power was immense, far surpassing the legends of Windigos past. Her sheer size was that much more enormous to compensate, and could likely tower over Celestia and Twilight with ease. She was left to feast upon the abbey's malice for a near decade considering Sanctuary's creation and first admittance of its special sisters. But that alone could not explain the sheer difference in power and scale from her. Her ghostly coat bore more intricate designs as the lines that traced her body curled on endlessly, creating a beautiful tapestry of her body. Her mane was both beautiful to behold and incredibly unnerving, since it far surpassed that of normal Windigo in both length and majesty. When she was idle and calm, her mane neatly flowed like clouds behind her. When angered, it stood at end like whips and encircled the entire sky like a massive flying kraken. If I could straighten it out when she was calm, her mane would be able to touch the floor and extend several meters out in every direction.

Suffice it to say, like most things when it came to conquering Sanctuary, facing her was no simple task. And even after several hours of dodging and countering her attacks, I still could not get myself to hate her. How can you hate something so inherently beautiful? Something so innocent to the plight of ponykind... And that's when it hit me. At the same time she dropped a massive iceberg on top of me having created it from vacuuming the nearby snow all around us, I had my realization of how I could come to hate Yuki truly.

She was standing in my way.

Innocent or not, she was impeding my revenge. Working against it. Keeping me from my ultimate goal. Stopping me from doing right by Mary...

That tiny thought eked out a miniscule bit of my pent up contempt. But it was enough to force Yuki to kneel and to melt that massive slab of ice she’d called down on me. She could harness the power of the sun for all I cared, and even that would not burn nearly as hot as my anger. But a testament to her power, she remained defiant even as she was unable to move from where she'd been forcibly knelt, making every effort to break free. It wasn't until I started moving towards her that she finally stiffened up. The more I saw of her churlish behavior, the angrier I became. With every step closer I got, the more complacent and docile she became. Now not even a hoof-length's away and standing above her, with head bowed to the floor, I witnessed her body shiver for a moment. Was it possible to give an ice spirit a cold chill? Apparently so. All it took was an even colder, crueler, more intense emotion. Something so dark, it should remain in darkness forever. A thought to end her existence, there and then.

But watching her bow in reverence and fear of me, and remembering what Mary would've wanted of me, I faltered. It made me rethink what I was about to do. If I'd have stomped Yuki out for good there despite her intrinsically evil nature by Equestria's standards, I truly would've become the villainess that Silver Spoon wanted of me, not the one that Mary did. No pony would have bat even an eyelash if I had done it. I likely would have been recognized as the hero of the Frozen North for doing so. My status and my image would have gained significantly because of it. Magical apparitions like Windigos weren't alive, not in the conventional sense.

There really was no moral quandry to ponder. No one to throw me blame. And everything to gain. Mary had changed me in ways I never imagined possible for someone to do. I questioned the very nature of what would be considered evil. I wondered whom was worthy of second chances. And in those questions, I found my answer in Mary's actions towards me.

I spared Yuki ultimately. In turn, she became fiercely loyal to my hatred. And it wasn't difficult to train her to do all that I required, as she was eager to follow through and could understand commands easily when using the ancient language of unicorn sages of times long past. A language that needed magic in the voice in order to speak, as it was used to hide, invoke, and perform their derelict, old spells. Another trick that Mary had gifted the both of us, as her intense magic study led her to learning all of that bygone babble.

Gaining the trust of Sanctuary after that had it's own fair share of difficulties, all of which I've overcome. It took the wisdom, spirituality, and the benevolence that Mary taught me in order to be triumphant. Because as it turned out, mental and emotional troubles are that much more difficult than whatever magic and might can try to match with. Each mare was her own bag of mental worms that the Tantabi had preyed upon and made that much worse. And the closer I became to each mare, the harder it would then become, because I found myself being their singular beacon in life. They shed their simple grounded comforts they'd found in Sanctuary, and found their purpose in my warmth. In pleasing me, or being next to me. More than once, I felt the drain of a parasocial relationship grow roots in my friendships with the girls of the Abbey. Obsession was no stranger to the Sisters. Anxiety and defeatism, close buddies. Depression and those deeper and darker feelings? Looming over each horizon, ready to blot out their sun.

Like lost lambs, with Mary's blessing, I guided each to their own peace of mind.

I helped one find her worth in life, by convincing her that she needed to not focus her sole outlook in relationships alone. That she needed to love herself first, before she could honestly love another. And after several days of trying and soul searching, she was finally able to do just that.

Another Sister felt like life was too cruel and ugly to keep on living a normal life, and that Sanctuary was the place where she would live the rest of her life in. She never once bore thoughts of leaving or improving it, as she'd given up on everything in general. Her struggle with depression had lasted over a decade, as she was one of the oldest sisters there. And it took a lot to convince her otherwise. With candied words and a confidence that could not be matched, I assured her of the beauty in the world. I took her outside the monastery by force and showed her the great ranges that lead up to Mount Everhoof. I taught her new skills that even she could master and help Sanctuary with. And lastly, what finally inspired her were my spider friends. She was the first soul that I introduced them to, since I knew that she would find heart in seeing their plight and struggle, yet living on voraciously despite that. All it took was a matter of shifting her perspective and to see that she wasn't alone in that kind of struggle.

Myrtle, funny enough, was one of the few mares I had the most trouble convincing to like me. She held anger strongly in her heart. Lots and lots of anger. Happiness, love, and even sadness were all replaced by anger. Any quiet moment to herself, she'd default to thinking negatively of others. Any chance she'd get, she'd spread her anger in order to relieve herself of some of it. The sisters who did not spend their time habitually depressed and unmotivated were instead moved to anger by Myrtle's whispers and lies. She almost single-hoofedly created an incredibly toxic environment for all the Sisters in the abbey just with her words. I say almost, because Mother Berry certainly wasn't helping, as she didn't know how to interact with any of them beyond scolding them harshly like she had her hedgehog underlings. And that certainly caused a lot of friction with Myrtle and the rest of the sisters who spread this malice to any of the Sisters willing.

The key to Myrtle was not in ridding her of her anger. With her, I taught her the only thing that I, Tiara, could say that I had solely created and used myself to work on my own anger. Mary didn't hold even an ounce of that anger in her heart, so it was up to me to teach her my ways. And they're not something you can simply teach overnight. It takes a lot of stressful, hurtful, and emotionally tasking soul-searching in order to achieve. And that method came in the way of redirecting her anger. Finding more practical and more benign uses for it. At first, we tried to find reprieve in violence by smashing things, like how that Yaks tended to do so. But that was quickly untenable and unfeasible, and it did not seem to improve Myrtle's mindset one bit. Then we tried getting her to channel her anger onto someone else entirely. An enemy she truly hated, like I did. But strangely, Myrtle did not hate anyone. She was filled with anger for the world, but no hate. In fact, this caused her even more distress, because no one was more aware of what she was causing than herself.

The thing that ultimately worked for Myrtle was in redirecting her anger towards herself, strange as that sounds. That was an incredibly risky move on our part, as she could've gone from the extreme of anger to the extreme of depression. The worse of the two evils. It was a method that I left as last resort, and was thus pressed against the wall when everything else failed.

In all honesty, I panicked so much for Myrtle. I felt helpless to help her, and I was feeling like I would lose someone all over again. But thankfully, that final solution worked for her. In redirecting her anger towards herself, she finally found the willpower in that anger to change herself for the better. Everytime she found she'd begin to speak ill of others, she'd get angry with what she was doing and forcibly stop herself. Everytime she'd encounter bad thoughts, again it would give her the strength necessary to change. Eventually her anger subsided as she learned to temper it and control it now that it had weakened from constant positive reinforcement.

Getting on the good side of twenty one troubled mares was rough. It was a wonder how anyone had ever managed it before. But someone actually had done it once before. And it was that someone that had tied many of the Sisters to Sanctuary in the first place.

Of the information I gathered with the help of my spiders, the old Mother Superior was the one with the most secrets.

Tera Amare was her name... Commonly reported as an aged, all-white pegasus with a yellow mane. Stranger yet, some reported and remembered her as a unicorn. An earth pony? Perhaps a shapeshifter like a changeling or using some form of magic then, as none of their accounts line-up with each other as she seemingly had a different form for each of the Sisters and for anyone who knew of her. The one undeniable constant was that no matter what form everyone reported of her, they always mentioned the cloth around her eyes that seemed to suggest she was blind.

The original Abbess, whatever she was, was many things to all of the sisters, even to Mother Berry. From every single account I'd gathered, she was a shining example of the kind of pony I was hoping to become. Her dominion over the hearts of everyone still held strong to this day, and the sisters could often be heard still lamenting the Monastery's loss over her. On many occasions, I was often the shoulder they cried to when they would begin to miss her.

So strong was her influence, that during the transitional moments when she was training Berrytwist for her new role and could no longer be called "Mother Superior" due to her officially stepping down from it, the sisters instead took to calling her Grandmother out of respect and love. The only one who refused to call her anything different was Berry herself. None had more love for the Abbess than her, and had tried to emulate her so much, she eventually became Grandmother's first pick when it came time to choose the next Abbess.

The Storm King had abandoned his conquest partway through, likely from his understanding of the future and having joined Silver Spoon's league of villains. His aims never met Equestria, and so Twilight never had to step in to defeat him. And yet, somehow, as if the show had met at an impasse and it needed to continue on, Equestria still faced a similar issue almost to a down to the exact detail. Twilight still found herself heading to Mount Aris on a quest to obtain aid from the Hippogriffs. And she still ended up having to face a villain who had stolen the Alicorn's powers using the The Staff of Sacanas. Except the one who filled the Storm King's role was none other than Tempest Shadow, Mother Berry herself.

She personally led a secret attack against Equestria using only a handful of fleets she had commandeered and stolen from The Storm King with the help of the hedgehogs who were still loyal to her due to her much more aggressive nature when compared to that of the original show that depicted her. So the fact that she was solely responsible for the assault against Equestria's Alicorns ended up having worse consequences for Berry. Thankfully for her, this issue never reached the public's ears. The assault did not take place during The Friendship Festival since Berry had already long been fired and disbarred from her position in The Storm King's military, and so her attack was done in a more secluded area far later. She was also lucky that the ones she had tried to cast down were Twilight and her friends. Of course they would give her the option of redemption if possible. After being inevitably defeated, Twilight gave her the opportunity to repent at Sanctuary, and although fiercely reluctant at first that redemption would ever find her anywhere, she did end up finding it in the end.

She found it within Abbess Tera's forgiveness and love. She found it in the old Mother's almost supernatural way of sensing and cleansing turmoil in the heart. She found it in the way Grandmother used to speak of family and unity in a way none had ever managed to convince Berry that they mattered.

So in some strange twist of irony, Berry's refusal to call her anything else but Mother ended up being very apt in the end. With Tera stepping down from the title to give it to Berry who was now the Mother Superior to all the sisters, and with the sisters taking to call her Grandmother, it all just fell into place like a rather poetic set of events that were always meant to be somehow.

By all accounts, that blind mare was one huge mystery. No matter who I talked to, no matter how much information I gleamed from my spider friends, and no matter where I searched in Equestria for her, she remains completely illusive. I would have wanted to get to know her and understand her secrets if I could, but she seems to have vanished with most of them.

Note, I said 'most of them', because some still yet remain. When I first arrived at Sanctuary, Grandmother had already been long gone. Yet, as if waiting for me all along, in the stillness of my private room nestled and tucked into a hidden corner was a letter addressed to no one, but clearly meant for someone. It was hard to read since the letters were sloppy as if written solely by memory. And they were tilted from the page at an angle slanted across its page, as if the one who wrote it could not see the dimensions on its surface. A blinded unicorn using magic would have likely yielded the same results. No doubt, this was the work of Abbess Tera.

That letter turned out to be a story. A very relevant story to my goals. Almost uncannily so. That letter is the single reason why I've taken such a deep interest in Tera Amare, since it feels as if she knew of me long before I had ever been a whisper in the air. Long before I was ever unjustly exiled. And long before I had even been possessed... I understand it's impossible and that there's no real evidence to suggest that she did. But for me to be the first and only one to find this letter was no coincidence.

Here, maybe you'll agree. The letter read as so, beginning with a short limerick:

I am sure that you've heard this story before.
And I'm positive that you've heard many versions of it too.
Hundreds of different stories passed down now like tales of yore.
So fickle and finicky when told orally and all said to be 'true'.

That is just the truth about life.
We tend to forget, we tend to ignore,

The feelings and memories that now seem so far away.
We toss, we turn, we struggle and strive to live for tomorrow.
That's why yesterday can seem so muddy, so distant, and so grey.
So do not fret over what has been lost and listen to this tale of sorrow.

This is one of the many stories of kingdoms lost to pony kind, divided in race, divided in rule.
Of a long gone weathered land frosted over by cruel magic, and where the Alicorn Amulet got its jewel.

Fimbulpur once told me a sad tale of the three kingdoms past. I was too young to know of them, as my parents were already in the midst of fleeing south before I was of conscionable age. He mentioned that they were likely seeking refuge in the lands beyond Mount Everhoof since the three kingdoms had already long been in steady decline. The Windigos had now taken strong root upon the land, showering it with massive sheets of snow which made the land barren and inhospitable. Reaching no unified consensus, the three pony races all came to the same conclusion once the situation had gotten too dire for all of them now that food ran scarce. Their answer was to abandon their lands in search of newer one, untouched by the snow white fury of the Windigos.

Like many ponies in those times, my parents met their end in the Great Migration due to the gruesome trek and its many dangers. Somehow spared of it all and orphaned as a result, I was adopted as a foal by the Sage of Fate himself. He gave me eyes to replace the ones I'd lost. He taught me the value in family, even when not connected by blood, soil, soul, or world. He told me many stories of the lands now called Equestria, and of places I'd never be able to see.

Of the stories he told, my mind often drifted onto one of them. The fall of the three kingdoms. The rise of the Windigos. And of the terrible weapons, armors, and artifacts of war that were left to haunt their pedestals like ancient automaton batteries. Fimbul spoke of them grimly, as he mentioned that most of those items had been made with ill-intent and had absorbed the lingering souls of the fallen who could not make the journey to the now Equestria. Their contempt against the gods for abandoning them gave birth to the unholy mixture of magical metal which housed thousands of ailing spirits, with strengths and properties sometimes so outlandishly impossible, they were the stuff of myth and legend. But myth they are not, for if anyone knows the truth of things, it's Fimbul. He mentions three relics in particular. A sword, an armor, and an amulet. Each the symbols of the three kingdoms.

The Pegasi were a warrior culture who were often the protectors of the land, even from mother nature herself. So a sword of unparalleled sharpness was created to do just that. The kind that could rend even the heavens. Now the souls that lay within sharpen it endlessly to this day, making sure that it will always be ready to cut down the gods at a moment's notice.

The Earth ponies were cultivators, metal workers, and carpenters. What they lacked in magic and fighting ability, they made up in ingenuity, tenacity, and sheer craftsmanship. So for them, an immovable plate of armor was created to bolster their already impressive physical durability. Now the souls that lay within continue to temper, harden, and steel it further should it ever have to face the wrath of gods.

Finally, the Unicorns. A fragile race who made up their many weaknesses by focusing on the powers of the almighty Lady Magic. But despite their major advantage, they cannot call on her aid indefinitely. To stand equal footing with the other two races, they were tasked in focusing their best sages to control the shifting of celestial bodies. With their arrogance and pride bolstered by centuries of performing this sacred all-important duty, they grew complacent of their patron and were shamed countless times in their failure to do so consistently. But noble ponies like the Unicorns would not take that shame lying down. They aimed to create the greatest of the ancient relics. An artifact of incredible power, the kind that would allow a single unicorn to control the Sun, Moon, and Stars on their own.

The Alicorn Amulet.

It took nearly a century to make. Each minuscule indentation added to its magic adaptability. Each careful edge to its efficiency. And finally, it was the jewel at its center, a kind of gem that could only be found once in a world's lifetime, that was the engine and beating heart of this almighty artifact. Truly, it was a conduit unlike any other. Even an ordinary Earth pony could use it to manifest their latent magic for more than strengthening their muscles. A foal could take hold of it and raise the sun and moon with ease with only their tiny magic capacity, such was the fearsome nature of this artifact. It did not add to the wielder's magic, no. But it made using magic of any kind a microscopic cost of its original price. It was equivalent of being attuned to a particular kind of magic ten times over.

Thankfully, the Unicorns of that time were level headed enough to understand that such a relic should have never been birthed to begin with. One realization of what it could do made them scramble to hide it from existence itself. But we cannot fault them, so says Fimbul. As they could not know that the more you try to hide something, the harder it is to keep it hidden. When word inevitably reached the two pony kingdoms of its creation, they were outraged.

"You did not think to tell us of this artifact?!" Yelled the Chancellor. "When we created ours, we swore upon that transparency and we kept our end of the bargain. Tell me then, what reason have you to lie against our goodwill?"

"What would you even do with such power! Wield it against your neighbors!? Why else keep it secret!" Stormed the Commander. "This is nothing less than a declaration. The first act of war!"

It was then the Windigos appeared. They'd already been a long part of the world's history, and finally found their opportunity to feast upon this momentary seize of deadlock. The two rulers were ready to cut down the immediate threat before them in their haste to protect their own, and the windows just outside were frosting over with the tension in the room.

But thankfully, it was King Bullion's wisdom that calmed the situation then.

"Please! I know you're upset. But I cannot undo what I've done as the amulet is far too strong to be destroy now by normal means. It far exceeded what we were hoping to create, in that, you must hear it as truth. So I urge you, you should listen to my pleas and understand our plight. My fellow regents, for the sake of our kingdoms, you must hear my words." Silence at last. King Bullion, while a doting father to his newborn at the worst of times, was a fantastic King at the best of them. "I ordered the creation of the amulet not for the sake of my Kingdom, but for all our kingdoms. You will know I speak the truth by its very design." Carefully, he uncovered the cloth upon which the amulet sat on its velvet cushion.

There, the striking, unthinkable, unimaginable image of the races combined resided. A golden trinket with a beautiful blue gem at its center. Long had the races dreamed to be any one other race than their own. The grass always seemed a little greener on the other side of one's hooves, so it seemed. Yet never did they think to be all of them at once. If a singular symbol could unite the races together, than this was surely it. An Alicorn. It inspired the image of divinity, such was the effect that it seemed to have.

The Unicorns had created the amulet to wield godly power, in essence.

The Unicorn's plight was simple. They had created the amulet for a singular purpose. To lighten the burden of having to raise the cosmos everyday. The kind of magic needed to do so when not attuned to it was incredibly harmful and tasking to the many individuals who performed the ritual, and often the unicorns were left to apologize to other kingdoms for having failed in their task time and again. For more than just their vanity and pride being on the line, raising the sun and moon consistently allowed crops to yield higher results and make more predictable and manageable weather for the Pegasi to fight against. There were no end to the benefits that control over the stars meant for all of ponykind and even the other sentient races beyond them.

And for a while, none had an objection to this proposal as it truly did benefit all. The use of the amulet, by the accord of the three kingdoms, was heavily regulated and required the agreement of the three regents in order to be wielded for any other purpose. The balance had been made.

But the balance had been broken upon the decline of King Bullion's health, years later. Long was one winter with terrible illness abound, and the King was no exception. While not out of the count entirely, his ailing body could not do what a King's duty required of him. In his place, his daughter was left to take on the crown and throne in the name of her father and her fellow unicorns. And while she'd been raised with the ideas of nobility in her heart and serving the greater good, unfortunately, she was still too young for the role of a leader. Level-headed at the best of times, emotional at the worst. And from here, I think we all know the tales. The worst was coming to pass.

It was a gradual build up to how things got. It started with Princess Platinum's authority being questioned, and whether she had good intentions to use the amulet for the sake of the three kingdoms or not. The other two races demanded that the amulet should be relinquished for the sake of giving them peace of mind that she would not abuse its powers. The Unicorn's pride shaken once more and especially that of young Platinum, the Unicorns bit back with accusations of the other races being insignificant, bolstered by the idea that the amulet could grant them the power to protect themselves and their world all on their own.

Long had the Pegasi protected everyone's borders at the risk of their own lives, and were rightly insulted from their inner depths. Would the Unicorns just undo the work of all the Pegasi who had given life and limb for the sake of their lasting peace? But that's the truth of things you see. We tend to forget, we tend to ignore. When you're facing even one level of separation from the past, it then becomes harder to understand what sacrifices had been made, and what they must have meant to the living. Unfortunately, Platinum's generation could not see it.

In a similar vein, the Earth ponies, being the lifeblood of the three races by working year round the hard labor to cultivate their foods and create their weapons, armors, and tools, were rightly insulted too. Magic could never replace the careful work that they do.

Slowly, surely, the three kingdoms fell to the increasing differences in view. But it wasn’t until one particular moment that the Windigos who were standing watch in the sky patiently waiting for their time, finally got their chance to strike. The last straw.

The Alicorn Amulet had been stolen.

The accusations between the regents and even the citizens became horribly ugly, and they led to the kind of deeply rooted hatred that could give a Windigo the wind to her breath. And from there, you know the story. The Great Migration.

Fimbul says that the Amulet has had many hooves, claws, and hands posses it by now, as it has been traded and shifted amongst owners faster than one could bat an eye over the millennia since it was stolen. It remained largely unused. Why would an all-powerful artifact like that be untouched? Like any other relic of immense power, it too absorbed the souls of the fallen. It journeyed with the ponies outside of the three kingdoms, and preyed upon the souls that fell during their travels. It reached new lands, and preyed upon the souls who fell to establish it. And it has been feasting ever since, in lands vibrant with life. So many it has consumed over the years, it is said that its once golden luster has become pitch black with the souls’ malice. It's vibrantly deep-sea blue gem has become dark red with their anger. And the Alicorn that depicted it has become sinister to show the hatred that rests within.

One look, and it was imagined to be cursed. Contrary to what you might think, even if the ponies initially sought the amulet for power, they would think twice before setting it around their own necks. Such was the unnerving effect it seemed to have. Only a few dared to wear it for their own gains, and they were each met with disaster. The souls within were now the amulet's own magical fuel. A pool of unimaginable amounts of magic, bigger than the Celestial Sea and Luna Ocean combined. We can imagine that, that kind of power was something that not many could handle. And those that could, found the soul's presence within to be a corrupting influence that eventually led its wielders to ruin. With the amulet amassing stories of everything awful over its time in Equestria, its cursed nature became widely known. And yet even then, it passed through hooves like water through a river.

If the ponies of today knew the truth of how magical relics were made, they would be appalled. Most don't even question how they've come to be. They understand them to be rare, but they assume they are made through careful craftsmanship. These new age folk don't ask themselves why they don't see more relic smiths roaming around. They don't wonder why their regents don't just create new ones for every day use if they are so powerful and potent. They have dozens upon dozens of layers of separations from the times in which those relics were birthed, so it's understandable that knowledge of them has been lost or safe-guarded in the most secure libraries.

If they knew, however, they would likely call for them to be destroyed. Such things were an affront and an insult to all that is good in Equestria.

Call me an old fool, but I know that the one who will get to read this letter of mine will be much wiser than the ponies of today. They will be the only one to know that such perceptions of things are not truthfully so black and white. They will have a hunger in the heart to do right by this world, and will understand the true and tragic nature of such relics.

Should the world be threatened by someone ready to wield the Alicorn Amulet to it's utmost, Fimbul and I know that they will be the ones to cast it down.

So to you, readers of mine, heed my words. Find the relics of yesterday... and let the souls within find peaceful rest. I do not request this in part of Fate. I do so at my own personal discretion. Because I am one of the last few in this world with no degree of separation from them. For me, if for no one else, let my parents find rest at final last.

I'm sorry, Grandmother Tera. I cannot promise something like that. For all we know, I may not even be your prophesized hero. The one you speak of was likely Mary, who had that love in her heart to see past all of that evil in order to peer at the beauty within. I know myself. I KNOW myself. I know I can’t be the one to fulfill your request. Please forgive me.

I wish she were around to hear my words. I wish I could've spoken to her once. What I wouldn't give...

At the very least, my future has direction thanks to her guiding words. I know what I must do, and what I must obtain. I will venture past Mount Everhoof and further deep, deep within the Frozen North lands. I will make that same trek in where many ponies failed to make the travel across those dangerous planes. And I will reach the lands lost to frost, the resting place of the ruins to the three kingdoms of pony kind.

Only a few more days now before Berry returns from having convicted the Marquis, and having spoken to Twilight about my leave. No matter what the answer is, I will have to depart Sanctuary sooner or later, perhaps even for good if it is an answer not in my favor.

But it is necessary. If I am to go against Fate and the rest of the gods, I will do so with equipment that will see my plans through to the end.

If I must fight, I will do so with kindred spirits.

Chapter 4: Mother Berry

Ever since the moment that young Ursa cub took my horn away from me, from then on, all I could remember was a history dyed in contempt and anger. If it had only been that one incident, perhaps I could've learned to let go of those feelings. Maybe I could've learned to channel that anger instead, using it for something more productive and wholesome for others and for Equestria as a whole. I think all I needed was to have focus and clarity. An avenue to vent. A person to be there for me.

But fate is said to test all who lie under its watchful gaze. Some more so than others. My test began the moment I protected my friends, sacrificing a part of me to do so. And I was shunned for it. Even my own family did little to help or guide me when I was hurting. I felt so alone, so betrayed. So lost.

And while the Princesses were the first to give me a chance for redemption, Mother Tera was the first one to truly find me and show me a path I could take that would lead to somewhere. To a place I could call my own, surrounded by those I could call family. To a home.

She left too early. She left me with a responsibility I wasn't ready for. She left me to take care of a brittle home that was on the verge of collapsing, without ever properly teaching me how to fix it. Despite that, I do not resent Mother Tera for her decision. She was wise beyond her innumerable years. It's only now that I understand that. Blind as she was, she must've seen that I would find a way to fix the true burden plaguing our home despite not being ready for it. She must've sensed that the solution would come to me in time, and allowing me to fail and grow from it would teach me a lesson I desperately needed to learn.

I am Fizzlepop Berrytwist. I was Tempest Shadow, a rebel leader and a powerful mage. Even without my horn, my prowess in combat and leadership skills went unmatched. I alone had the power and cunning to bring Equestria to its knees. I thought, and was so sure, that my ambition would always be unmatched.

And yet, I couldn't even protect this new home of mine from slowly crumbling down.

I have been humbled. Once. Twice. Thrice. Every time we speak, I feel humbled. Every time I look into her eyes, I feel humbled. Her presence alone humbles mine. Every part of my life, she dwarfs. All the many long years I spent practicing my magic despite my addled horn, I feel as if she's placed efforts many times my own. All the brooding I've done, I feel as if she's done it for far longer. The tooth and nail grind of climbing to a position of respect and power... I feel as if my life has been a trifle when compared to her own.

It truly feels as if she has had three lifetimes worth of experiences, and the wisdoms that come from it. In that sense, she reminds me so much of Mother Tera. So much so, my heart can't help but gravitate towards her. She is a whole generation younger than me, and despite the air of confidence and wisdom she leads with an undaunting spirit and an iron hoof, she still feels... vulnerable. It's hard to explain. And I feel like it's just me, since none of the sisters seemed to have noticed it with their own eyes. But I can feel a tiny hint of something. A miniscule, microscopic something. I find I am always second guessing my ability to judge a pony's character when I look upon her. As I live and breath, I swear, Tiara's steps seem to hide such a sorrowfully desperate ambition. Contorted by contempt perhaps. In a way, she too seems to be lost.

Judging by her history, that would come at no surprise. The evidence in her case is spotty at best, which suggests everything she's been accused of is false. Both the jury and all participating audience members seemed to have been specifically selected by someone, which questions the unanimity of the final decision. The result of that was that no one even tried to testify in favor of her despite the many who still supported Tiara save for one grade school child, so it's safe to assume that whole charade of a "hearing" had been meticulously set up by someone. There was no deliberation, no due process. She stood completely alone on that day. Even her parents moved forward with disowning her at the time. At her suggestion but still... My own parents were neglectful, but never that outright malicious.

Whoever did it were out to get her, and robbed her of everything. Her home, her life, and any friendship she'd made. Any normal pony would be livid at this injustice. Or perhaps greatly saddened into depression. But she is no normal pony, that much is for sure. There is no telling with her what she's gone through, as none of it ever shows on her face.

The air that follows her is sophisticated and graceful, mature and beautiful. Her expression can always be seen with a collected and impenetrable smile, calm and friendly while also leaving no room for others to question her authority. It was as if a grand and regal Queen had stepped out of painting, carrying with her divine providence. Wherever she threads, blessings follow. Our nightmares ended shortly after her arrival. She quickly took command creating a better home for us almost seemingly overnight, as well as giving the sisters new outlooks and reasons for life. Even improvements we did not witness her do directly, we could trust it was done by her thoughtful hooves.

A wingless angel descend upon our temple. Or so the sisters see it. But maybe because I'm the only one that she will talk to more freely, perhaps I alone am privy to the mortal flaws of the one now known as Evergold Tiara. Even then, she keeps me at a far length's away from her. Her eyes never truly look at me, even when she looks directly into mine. Her smile never truly reaches her ears, even when she's trying to show genuine happiness. Her laughs ring hollow.

Mother Tera taught me well. I am painfully aware of why she is the way she is, as she reflects my own past self... She hides a hurt deeply rooted in the soul. She grieves from within.

She doesn't think of her parents highly, and they do not seem to distract her from that something else she seems so desperate for. She does not speak of any of the friends she might've had, and does not flinch at the mention of them either, so it seems as though she has no attachment to any of them. What then did she truly lose, I wonder?

We seem so alike, yet we're worlds different. She seems so close and yet so distant. I follow her lead up a mountain only a few short steps behind, but we might as well be continents apart.

Again, my heart can't help but gravitate towards her. I don't think she even realizes it herself, perfect as she thinks she's being. I've noticed it when she almost failed to save Myrtle. She wants to be adored, but is deathly afraid that adoration will fall apart at a moment's notice. She's desperately clinging to all the threads at her disposal, and weaving and weaving and weaving them hoping none of them snap. For now, she's in near perfect control. But that will only last her so long the more threads she piles on.

That's why I decided to go with her on her journey, leaving Sanctuary to the Sisters. If I was my sterner, younger self, I would've denied this until the cows came home. But I can say it now. I truly care about Tiara. I want to be there to catch her if those threads are ever to snap and she falls. She seems convinced that she needs to be putting every fiber of her being, every minute of the day, and every waking second in the service of others to get them to adore her. That's her only true failing, I feel. She doesn't quite understand these things. She doesn't have much experience with it. After all, in her life, it was rare that she was ever truly loved.

It's now that I see, that Mother Tera did not intend for me to fix Sanctuary in the first place. Tiara took care of that just fine. What I'm intended to fix is my "home". The place where I belong. And maybe that place is not a house or a temple or even a nation. Maybe that place is just one tiny area that likes to move around a lot.

Mother Tera showed me what a family is truly supposed to look like. Now it's my turn to be the kind of support and rock that a Mother is supposed to be to her children.

I could hardly breathe in a lung-full without the horribly icy air stinging like fire as it made its way down my throat. The sensitive skin around my ears burned from the layers of snow that had clung onto my coat. Even my runny nostrils ached from the watery solution of my snot having frozen from the sheer cold, making the already scarce, thin air that much more difficult to breathe as it plugged up my nose.

It'd been an age since I last left Sanctuary. It had always been cold, but never like this. Extreme winds carrying the frost thrashed all around you like an invisible hand always shoving you in each direction. It was no wonder why no sane pony or even Yak had ever attempted to cross these treacherous mountain ranges, and those crazy enough who did, well, they were never heard from again.

It was hard enough just to keep steady with the high winds pushing against us, but now I also want you to imagine the kind of terrain we were dealing with. Even with our specialized heavy cleated horseshoes, it was a struggle to maintain any sort of footing in these slick, iced-over rocky terrains weathered by mother nature herself into near frictionless slopes. Our only saving grace seemed to be grooves and footings etched into the very mountainside which were coincidentally in a pattern befitting the traversal of pony-kind. Something I can only imagine is a testament to the brave and foolish ponies who once tried to scale Mount Everhoof in vain.

Thankfully, not many were crazy enough to attempt such a climb. And those who were, were thoroughly warned and led away from those dangers by the pony who acted as the mountain's groundskeeper, who could always be heard saying that it was virtually impossible to scale thanks to the enduring magic from Gusty the Great. Apparently, she ended up sealing the mountain with powerful wind magic when she fought against an old Equestrian enemy known as Grogar. The old coot told us of how his family has been in charge of keeping foolish ponies like ourselves from climbing it ever since, as attempting the climb was tantamount to seeking an early grave.

No amount of warning would deter Tiara however. That was simple enough to see from the fire in her eyes.

Old Rusty Bucket initially looked as though he would not budge on disallowing others to take that risk. While from the outside the lanky stallion looked to be a joke considering his old age and terribly worn attire, his combat prowess was anything but. Even without hearing tales of his many feats throughout his lifetime, it was obvious that Rusty Bucket descended from the last few warrior families in Equestria who still vehemently valued their training as though war were only around the corner from tomorrow. A rare lineage indeed in these modern times.

The rusty bucket on his head might've given you the impression of his senility, but his words and mind were still as sharp as ever, and even his helmet was riddled with dents, scratches, and damage likely caused by all sorts of dangers. Tales of the creatures that lived near and around Mount Everhoof and the ranges beyond were all ghastly and dreadful, so I could only speculate as to what Rusty has had to fend off throughout his historied guard. The rest of his make-shift armor like his armored horseshoes and tattered old cape were all the same, and told a similar story. His shovel, despite it being almost as old as him by the look of the ancient gnarled wooden handle, was anything but worn. The steel shovel head was shiny and new, with a few scratches to it. Meticulously kept and meticulously used, with its edge as razor sharp as a knife. It was anyone's guess as to how many shovel heads he must've gone through in his time as groundskeeper. It was easy to imagine that "many" might be the appropriate word to use here.

Yes, it was plain as day that old Rusty Bucket was and perhaps still is the best close-quarters combatant that pony-kind has seen in ages. And he has likely saved many-a-life by using those honed skills of his to keep reckless ponies away from Mount Everhoof. Yet, Tiara did not budge on insisting that she travel past it. If it was obvious enough for me to see what a large obstacle Rusty Bucket was going to be, then it was likely just as obvious for her too. It's likely she even knew all about Rusty Bucket before ever meeting him, as she did not falter in his presence even as he became more forceful in his warnings against scaling the mountain.

To my surprise, that old coot relented in the face of Tiara.

The entire time he spoke to us, his eyes were sizing us up. At first, Old Rusty was his jolly self, happy just to see someone travel to his small cottage and to have someone to talk to after so long by himself in these mountains. But as he gave us his initial warning and looked upon a wordless Tiara and saw that sheer determination on her face as she looked towards Mount Everhoof, his expressions darkened. His eyes began to look closer, and his words became carefully calculated. When Tiara asked if anyone else had attempted to travel up the mountain, he mentioned that no pony had even thought about it in over 20 years. And strangely, Tiara was happy to hear that bit of news. Old Rusty must've understood what Tiara was planning to do, as he began to tell us the cautionary tale of the mountain's history and of the battle that took place between Gusty and Grogar, unprompted, disguised as his final warning.

I felt like I understood what was about to happen. I readied my horn for the ensuing battle against the groundskeeper. But all I ended up doing was embarrassing myself in the end. When Tiara began to move towards the mountain, Rusty Bucket shifted his stance as if he was about to strike at Tiara to keep her from continuing forward. I quickly pointed an ensnaring spell at the old coot in my haste to protect her, but I quickly found out that I was the only misguided one there.

Rusty did not move to stop her. On the contrary, he moved to kneel to her, as a show of respect.

"Come along, Berry. These mountains won't move out of the way for us, and precious daylight isn't known to be patient." She said as she looked back to me, mischievous grin spread across her face from amusement.

If there's one thing I don't like about Tiara, it's her tendency to joke and dig at you in similar ways. That's part of her charm, I suppose. And it was only ever something she did to to me on occasion, so I felt grateful for it in a way. But I wish she would exercise some restraint from time to time, and especially at a time like this, since I was left to pick up my flustered shame and apologize to old Rusty Bucket.

"Oh don't mind it young'un. I doubt you could've hurt me anyways. I might not look it, but I can best any unicorn any day." Rusty said to me after my apology, returning back to his jolly old self.

I let Tiara continue without me so I could quickly speak to old Rusty in private, to ask him why he had done what he'd done, and why he was allowing us passage.

"From time to time, we get a reckless pony or two wanting to attempt the climb. These mountains are extremely dangerous, and many have tried to bypass the groundskeepers like myself in the past since we're often the biggest roadblock for them. But we're not perfect of course. Especially now that its just me out here, there have been times where a few slip past my guard. See, part of my job is not only to stop passage to these mountains, but also to rescue any foolish soul that tempts fate out in the wilderness. There's many many a hungry creature out there. So me, my pa, my pa's pa, my grandpa's pa, and the pa of that pa, and so on and so forth all had one promise to keep with Pintsize the Brave, which we've continued and kept to this day, Miss." His eyes seemed to travel back to a time when he was a child as he reminisced about the times prior. "And that was to guard these mountains from those unworthy to cross it. And worthiness comes in many forms, not just in how strong and prepared a pony is to climb it. Today has been the first day since our promise was made with him all those many millennia ago, where I could truly say someone was worthy enough. And that pony is your friend over there. That's why I kneeled. To fulfill that promise."

I did not respond, not knowing what to say. I always figured Tiara was special from the moment I met her despite her trying to seem like a meek and mild golden child at first. But I never really understood just how special she really was until someone like old Rusty had said it.

"You take care of her now, will you? Hard to explain, but she seems a little lopsided. Although I am allowing you two passage, know that Mount Everhoof and the mountains beyond it are not for the weak of heart. If my intuition is correct and she really is unbalanced... then even she will need someone to support her." He poked at my foreleg.

"Way ahead of you, Rusty. Thank you." As I turned to leave, I figured I'd ask one more question that was bugging me about what he'd just said. "Say, your family promise... you said it was made with Pintsize the Brave. It wasn't with Gusty the Great?"

He laughed like someone had made a very good joke. "History tends to only remember those who dealt the finishing blow, and not the ones who contributed to peace the most. If I'm not mistaken, I think I read on the news some years ago of something similar happening in the Crystal Empire. Something to do with a small baby dragon." He smiled and waved us off goodbye as I ran back to catch up with Tiara, who hadn't progressed too far since she purposely slowed down for me.

Before I was out of earshot from old Rusty, I heard him speak to himself one last time in a soft and hushed voice. "The time has finally come to end this endless watch..."

What must he have meant by that? Did he truly believe that Tiara would put an end to the dangers of these mountains? It put to question just what kind of generational promise that Rusty's family had made. Was it really just as simple as protecting ponies from those dangers, or was he safe-guarding something far more valuable? Maybe he meant it in the way that he was becoming too old to continue his guard. He did mention he was the only one there now, as a way to say he was the last of his lineage and the last of the groundskeepers as a result? All just conjecture on my part.

It didn't do well to dwell on something that had no bearing on our journey. But without any conversation happening between Tiara and I, I couldn't help but be stuck inside of my own mind, overthinking everything. Even before reaching the depths of the mountains, it was ice-cold between us. I must have angered her somehow, as she seemed to be refusing to speak to me more than she needed to, only ever answering my questions with the shortest and most vague answers possible.

It must've started before I returned, although I can't remember for the life of me what I could've possibly done to upset her. Surprisingly, convincing Twilight to give Tiara the ability to venture out of Sanctuary and into other non-Equestrian territory like she had asked for was simple and easy enough. Although initially as confused as I was when I proposed it to her after my court hearing against the Marquis, Twilight gave her approval without much of a second thought, even without any proper or apt description of where Tiara intended to go. I tried a number of times to get Tiara to tell me, warning her that it would not help her case when trying to convince Twilight, but she refused every time and purposely kept it vague. Maybe Tiara knew Twilight would refuse if she told her, so she purposely kept it vague since she felt her odds might've been better then? But then why not lie about the location at that point?

Banking on the benefit of doubt... Tiara was a scary gambler. Scary in the sense that her reckless gambles kept winning. How much longer until she'd lose for real? Was she ready for such a thing? Take this approval for example. Would she have gone against Twilight's decision just so she could set out on her little journey even if it meant turning on Equestria a second time, sentencing her to an even worse fate as a result? Reckless, I swear.

As if to prove my thoughts right, the ledge that I had leveraged my upper body weight onto caved at that moment, sending me tumbling to secure my footing again while the debris of stone and rock stumbled down the dizzyingly looming heights of that steady incline. It brought a genuine smile to my face when I looked up after securing myself again, only to see Tiara take a step down from her own perch, having readied her body to catch me in the event of a more catastrophic fall. She must've realized the folly of her own selfless worry for me, as she quickly composed herself again trying to seem as though she hadn't worried at all there.

Tiara could be mad at me all she wanted to be, and for whatever reason. It wouldn't deter me any. And none of it could convince me that she didn't care about me just as much if not more.

"I'm okay." I said in-between short, pained breaths, being unable to help my smile.

"Every breath is a luxury up here, so save it and focus." She responded with.

I perfectly understood what she meant. There was no room for conversation up on Mount Everhoof. Speaking a few sentences was a quick way to exhaust any lingering air in your lungs, tiring you out just as quickly while also allowing the blistering cold air to nettle at your insides as they made their way through you. Tiara must have felt my smile through my mask since I could see a tinge of a flustered blush on her ears as she walked ahead of me. I say felt because she wouldn't have been able to see past the mask due to its thickness which was specifically made for mountaineering which allowed some degree of circular breathing in order to recycle your own warm breath as a way to keep from inhaling the pure might of the mountain elements.

Still though, that was a shotty excuse for the cold shoulder she'd been giving me since the moment we left Sanctuary, as the trek through Rusty's pass had been relatively passive and warm. Heck, I was still mostly in the dark about the kind of place Tiara intended to go. She mentioned "Mount Everhoof" and "Beyond it" only a few times when I tried pressing her.

What could I have done? Let's see... Did she resent me for all the errands I made her run in her time at Sanctuary? Nah, that can't be it. She seemed to have her own agenda, so it seemed like she would use each trip for her own gains too. We've had a bit of a rough and tumble relationship ever since she ousted me, and as commandeering as she likes to be at times, I am often the only one to she looks upon as an equal. It could just be she's fed up with sharing the spotlight. I half thought she intended to just rest control of Sanctuary from me, but no. So that can't be it either.

But there I go again. I might just be overthinking it, making her out to be larger than life with all these deep reasons. She could just be mad at me for something mundane and small. The time I slammed the door on her butt? Big maybe. Maybe when I told her that Princess Twilight's only condition for approval was that I would be the one to supervise her vacation? Getting warmer I think, but quite likely not the reason. Tiara should have known her request would come with a few caveats, especially since she kept the destination so vague. Hmm... what could it be...

Oh! I know! She was a bit upset at the time when I told her. Nothing that could be seen on her face unless you were adept at reading others as I was. That tiny split-second muscle twitch on her eyebrows immediately after I told her spelled out that she was not entirely happy with the decision. She's probably upset that she had to get mountaineering gear ready for another pony that wasn't her, since she likely planned to go alone. The gear we brought was not cheap and she likely paid out of pocket for me. It even took us a few weeks to depart from Sanctuary because every piece had to be special ordered from several places.

Our ropes, climbing picks, horseshoes, and harnesses were all made in Yakyakistan by expert yak crafters, since no one was more adept at mountaineering than the Yaks. Had to go there personally to get my hooves measured and fitted for the horseshoes, as well as give them my dimensions for the harness. As for our thick winter coats, masks, and camping gear, we had to special order it from the Crystal Empire. Mostly because Yaks were adapted to surviving in the mountain and didn't make any of that stuff normally, what with their naturally thick coats, bulky muscles, and tendency for violent smashing. Their coats allowed them to weather any cold weather, their strength to carry anything they needed on their back without a backpack, and their smashing habit was a good way to get lumber and all sorts of useful camping gear from nature, as they were also naturally good carpenters and most of them could have likely built a log cabin in the time it took a pony to set up a tent.

Although I'm starting to wonder why we even packed a tent. The winds were far too extreme to have any sort of stable tent out in these slopes, with no end to their ferocity. Good luck trying to find a clearing big enough to set one down anyway.

Thankfully, just as that thought had crossed my mind, Tiara signaled to me wordlessly to look in a certain direction. I could almost cry at the sight of it, but I did my best to stem my flow of tears since they would've stung if they froze upon my face.

It was a cave. My joy at seeing the cave was immeasurable and my relief was palpable. The sun was now nearing set since we'd been climbing for nearly a full waking day now. We would have to spend the night resting at the cave or the likelihood of losing our lives to exposure could have been incredibly real. It was hard to see anything past the overwhelming flurry of snow as we approached it, and entering the mouth of the cave was a near-instant godsend. The wind, once near the top, was all blowing in the opposite direction of the cave, so once we had made it inside, we were completely shielded from its strength. And boy what strength! If I hadn't been attached to Tiara via harness, I likely would've been swept away by it since, ashamedly, my barrier spells are relatively weak compared to my attack spells, so I could not use my magic to shield us even for a bit in that kind of condition. Still though, for as petite as Tiara seemed from the outside, she seemed to hide the strength of a yak inside. She is an earth pony, so it makes sense. But I couldn't have imagined just how strong she'd be. She weathered that storm like it was nothing.

Once inside, Tiara made herself busy by using the bit of tinder we brought along to light a fire after making an appropriate firepit out of the cave's loose stones. The ground all over the cave was damp in many places so she had me use my magic until we suitably dried the fireplace and a few other places to sleep in our sleeping bag. Next, all it took was a small spark from my magic to light the fire, and we had a cozying warmth slowly fill the space around us. The cave itself didn't look to be too deep, so it was being particularly good at retaining heat especially after Tiara partially closed the mouth of it using condensed ice blocks, which she had me make with my magic to compress them, and then used layers of loose ice to cement and coat it from both the inside and outside.

"Know anything about igloos? Domes and homes made from ice." She asked me in response to my question when I asked her how sealing the entrance would help, since the wind was already pushing one way.

"Can't say I do. I've never been to a place with snow that didn't have big lumbering beasts with enough fur on them to be their own walking cots. Yaks and Hedgehogs alike. But still, I don't understand how building your home out of ice will make it less... cold. Seems like a conflict of interest?"

"You would think right? But it's how the ice fundamentally works that actually creates the perfect seal for keeping heat in. The blocks themselves act as a physical barrier for the wind and cold, but the loose ice here will melt with the fire's heat. At that point, some of that water becomes steam and gets trapped in-between the blocks and the rest of the loose ice, creating bubbles of air that entrap heat even better than most solutions, like wooden or brick homes. The cave walls and this makeshift entrance we made out of ice is the perfect insulation barrier to keep not only the outside cold out, but the warmth of our fire in. At that point, we just need a small entrance so as to let air vent so we don't get poisoned by the fire's smoke over time. Simple."

"Simple now that you spell it out. I never would've imagined that water and ice could have that kind of property before. Certainly never heard of an igloo before you mentioned it Tiara. Where'd you learn all this?"

"From a faraway place and a faraway peoples." She said, going back to her sullen ways.

"I'm surprised you actually gave me a whole explanation like that." I said almost immediately, noticing the shift in her mood. I wasn't about to allow her to sweep this swing of hers under the rug. "And here I thought you were upset at me for a second."

Silence. Then, right before I could cut straight to the chase to ask her directly why she was upset at me, she answered.

"I'm sorry if I seemed that way to you Fizzlepop. I just needed to make sure."

"Sure of what?"

"That you were you." That response from her certainly got a good laugh out of me. I didn't expect her to make a joke after nearly a full day of acting all stoic and wordless. It was so unlike Tiara.

"Of course I'm me, Evergold! Who else would I be?"

"An old lady who grew a sudden interest in sticking her nose in my business."

"Ouch. And here I am, doing this as a huge favor to you."

"Are you?"

Silence.

Ah... Now I know why she was upset. She's annoyed at me because I lied to her. Boy, Tiara can be real scary at times. Maybe I should take her more seriously when she says she has a big information conglomerate at her disposal.

"Alright, you got me. With a hoof in the cookie jar and everything." I couldn't help but sigh as I looked down towards the fire. "Twilight didn't give any conditions for your extended leave, Tiara. I didn't have to come with you. I chose to, and lied to you about it so you couldn't turn me down. Are you happy now?" Tiara smiled at last. The glow of the fire seemed make it more sinister than it needed to be, and it helped to unnerve me since she stayed silent to contemplate on my little revelation.

"I am happy that you've told me the truth, yes. But I wasn't upset that you lied to me in the first place, Berry. I almost never tell you the full truth anyways. Some say that's the same as lying. It would be terribly hypocritical of me to reprimand you for such a thing at this point in our relationship."

"So then why the silent treatment?"

"Ah ah, don't make repeat myself now." Tiara had a real way of testing my patience. Was she serious about making sure that I was myself? What kind deduction was she getting at?

Before I had another chance to ponder on it at all, Tiara took a blanket from out of her own supplies and draped it over me. I hadn't even noticed that I was shivering. The fire hadn't had enough time to warm the cave enough, so there was still a chill in the air. And now that we had relaxed, my body's temperature had slowly begun to fall.

"Thank you Tiara. And even if you say you weren't upset by it, I'm sorry that I lied to you."

"Sometimes we lie for all sorts of reasons. Knowing you, I'd like to think you did it for a good one. So then, would you be against telling me why?" She said softly as she finished wrapping it around me as I was too stunned by my shivering to do it myself.

"Just looking out for you kid. I don't know where you're going or even as to why you're going, but something was telling me that I needed to come with. Is that a good enough excuse?"

"Sure, I guess. Stranger things have happened. Fizzlepop Berrytwist's intuition is almost never wrong. Except for that one time when it was." Now that was a quality joke at my expense, totally deserved. We both got a good laugh out of it. "I take it this has something to do with Grandmother Tera?" She followed up with.

"Good guess, actually. I'm surprised you know about Mother Tera, Tiara. She was the original Abbess that created Sanctuary."

"Oh please, all the other sisters loved her and I'd get my ear talked off everyday by some of them. And they mentioned how much you loved her too. And how much she loved you all as well. Must've been nice..."

"Tiara... do you miss your parents?" I asked, seeing the fault in her voice. This was new to me. I'd never seen this level of vulnerability from Tiara.

"Oh heavens no. Don't worry about me like that. I meant it in relation to Mother Tera. She sounded like a great pony and I would have loved to sit down with her and have a nice long chat."

"Haha, I guess that comes as no surprise to me what with the way you mention your parents. And yeah, I get that. She is a fantastic pony, and our conversations were always fulfilling. I hope I can talk to her again someday myself and ask her all sorts of things. It's only until someone is gone that you recognize how much a big part of you was filled by them, and how big of a void you're left with when they're gone."

"Yeah..." There it was again. But this time, that small response from her was so tiny and quiet. So... sorrowful. But as I turned to see her face now that she had gone back to sit opposite of me from the fire, all that I could see on her expression was an intense determination. Deeply, deeply intense. Like a fire was burning hotter inside her than even the flame between us. Then, her expression became soft again and fell. "Mother Berry, do you know about the religion of this world?"

"The what of this world? Huh?"

"Hmm, how to phrase it... I guess the faith of this world? The ideas of divinity and the powers that be."

"Other than the Alicorn Princesses, I guess I really don't know much now that I think about it. This is a strange question that came out of left field Tiara. Something on your mind?"

"A lot at all times, but right now I was hoping to finally tell you about where we're actually headed to. First, I'd like to ask you these questions and for you to answer them. What do you know of the Alicorn Princesses?"

"Oh, okay. Sure. Um let's see. There's the Royal Sisters, Cadence, Twilight, and Flurry Heart, right?"

"Right, right."

"And that's about it really. I never went to a traditional school so I didn't learn about Equestrian history all that much."

"That's alright, Berry. If it helps, almost all of Equestria's citizens know as much as you do in respect to their race and nature. Which is to say, almost nil. They know Twilight ascended from a Unicorn previously, but that's about it."

"She was just a normal unicorn before? No joke? Wow. What'd she do to get souped up like that anyway? Or any of the other Alicorns?"

"Twilight completed a special, unfinished spell by Starswirl the Bearded, which granted her ascension. No one knows how the other three came to be, but Flurry Heart is the obvious stand-out from them, as she was a natural born one. Something that both the royal sisters and Cadence mentioned that she was the first of her kind. But outside of them, no record exists of Alicorns beside them. Their history is dyed in mystery."

"Wait, so what does this have to do with the place we're headed to, Tiara?"

She ignored my question and continued on with her own. "Back to the question about religion. You're now the Head Mother and Abbess to Sanctuary, Berry. A monastery built specifically for worship and prayer. Our sisterhood exists for that reason. But I ask you, to whom do we pray and why? What is that god's name?"

"That's... huh..." I was at a loss for words. I had never given Sanctuary's purpose much of a thought. For all intents and purposes I always imagined that it was just a boarding house for troubled mares. But now that Tiara was putting this in a new light for me, I'm remembering all the times that Mother Tera had sat in silence and contemplation, with hooves gestured in prayer.

I never thought to ask her what the purpose of it was. Nowhere outside of Equestria or even within Equestria was there ever a practice like this 'religion' that Tiara speaks about, and so I crossed that practice out of my mind as though it were just some recreational meditation of sorts. Gods? The only thing that I could even think of remotely fitting that description where the Alicorn Princesses... But Mother Tera... She never struck me as the type to be praying to the Alicorns. She seemed... older than them. Far older than them, and much more distinguished. So then, to who...?

"Your silence is my answer, Berry. You don't know. But don't be afraid. The lack of answer doesn't mean that there's something more sinister at play, like information suppression. Sometimes the truth is more simple and more complicated than we give it credit for."

"Can you spare me the crypticism Tiara? You've already got me questioning my whole life here."

"I'll tell it to you straight then. Equestria, no, this whole world even outside of Equestria's borders is all governed by three gods. And when I say 'gods' I do not mean the likes of Princess Celestia or any would be power that you'd recognize, like spirits or monsters. In fact, these gods are not individuals. They have no body, shape, or form in this world. They exist as an immutable rule. They are more closely related to forces of nature than they are willing or willful powers."

"Then are they really gods at that point? This all sounds so complicated."

"Well, if I told you their names, you'd likely think it's the simplest answer in the world. Their names are..." Again with taking unnecessary pauses where I needed her to tell me without fanfare. Her pension for dramatics was annoying in its own right.

"Yes...?" The fire crackled as she loomed on that silence.

"Fate, God of Destiny and Story. Harmony, God of Virtue and Chaos. And Magic, Goddess of Life and Willpower."

"Ha. Haha." That's all I could muster. Three weak ha's. It took a while for me to reel in this information. It was simultaneously so simple and so complex all at the same time, like she promised. And all while I thought, Tiara let me contemplate in silence. "So the gods exist as concepts?"

"Not merely concepts, Berry. But true to life Gods. Gods that exist side by side with each other united almost as if they were one. Magic lending herself to Harmony and Fate. Fate transcribing meaning onto Harmony and Magic. And Harmony creating balance between the two." She tossed the kindling in the fireplace, opening up more fuel to burn so as to keep the fire going. "Even the most powerful beings in this world exist with rules set in place. They are fallible, as they must adhere to the powers that be. Take Discord for example, the Spirit of Chaos himself."

"Now that you mention him, you said Harmony is the God of Virtue and Chaos? So the same God that gives Alicorns their power is also the same God that gives Discord his power? Weren't they at odds at one point? How is that harmonious?"

"You'd be surprised in the ways that harmony is maintained. It is said that good cannot exist without evil. In that same mantra, Harmony cannot exist without Chaos. Because if everything is chaotic, then it's all harmonic in that chaotic fashion, and so on and so forth. So a balance is made. Discord exists as a spirit of chaos because he acts as a great equalizer to the balance of the world. I don't know if you've noticed, but Equestria and the rest of the world have been pretty harmonious in recent memory, and so his being was born in order to create that eternal flow. Discord has near unlimited power. As a Spirit made of pure Chaos magic, he can turn every fundamental law of the universe on its head. He could snap his fingers, and suddenly this whole mountain would come alive and be made entirely out of chocolate, with no regards for rhyme, reason, or logic. But did you know, there's a special little mineral out there that can completely mute his powers and render him completely useless? Were you aware that as a thinking and feeling individual, if he ever takes measures to stop being his chaotic self, he seizes to be entirely? The Alicorns are even weaker than that, and adhere to a stricter logic set out to them by the God of Harmony. True Gods exist, Fizzlepop. The kind with unlimited power, all-seeing eyes, and who control all the things in our lives. But they do not exist as individuals. The way you imagine them to be as concepts and ideas, is how they exist in our world. Tell me, have you never felt the invisible arms of magic wrapping around you? Never felt Harmony aiding and abetting you? Or..."

She didn't say that last sentence. She knew I understood exactly what she was getting at. My one hoof that raised to caress the stump of my horn suggested as much. Fate... I looked towards the solemn expression on Tiara's face. There was a hint of pity and sadness as she looked to me. A kind of genuine empathy and sympathy that could not be found from anyone else. She had adopted it... my hurt...

"Mother Berry... The place I'm going to... The place beyond Mount Everhoof, far into the Frozen North Lands... It's a very important stepping stone to the journey I'm on. It's fraught with peril and danger, the likes of which I would not wish upon you. I knew that you were lying to me from the start. And... I knew that I would not get you to back down unless I showed you a part of those dangers first-hoof. That's why I've allowed you to stay with me up until now. So now I need to you to understand that you cannot come with me. Come daybreak, I will escort you down to the base of the mountain so you can rejoin the sisters at the monastery. Sanctuary needs its Mother. But please, don't worry about me. Someday, I'll come back. And I'll return with the power necessary to fix everything. The kind of power that can even give you back your hor-"

"TIARA! ENOUGH!" I felt myself shout, bringing about the kind of silence none would wish to linger on. I was angry. Truly angry. Tiara had said something that upset me from my very core. It took me a while to un-grit my teeth enough to begin talking again, but I could still feel the emotion welling in my throat. "Do not speak for me. DO NOT decide for me. You have no idea h-"

"But I do!!" Tiara was now pleading, more emotional than I had ever heard her before. "I do know what you've been through! Your horn! You lost it protecting the friends you cared about from an Ursa Minor! You were abandoned, hurt by those you trusted! Broken, inside and out! Most ponies don't have to face even half of the the kind of grief you did in your life, so can't everyone just be a bit more understanding?! Can't they see the pony you can become if given a chance?! Does nobody trust that you can be better?! Can't there be someone to save you when you need it most?! JUST ONE pony... That's all you needed... All too little, all too late... You deserve a second chance more than anyone, Mother Berry. So please, let me do this on my own. Let me help you get back your horn. Please..."

Tiara had begun to shiver with sadness. She wasn't allowing herself to cry, so the only way that it was manifesting on her were in the form of quiet, dry sobs and the sounds of her teeth grinding from her effort to keep strong. A part of the ice wall had collapsed when I had raised my voice, so there was a noticeable chill in the air and the sounds of rushing wind was more audible now, drowning out Tiara's sobs.

I moved to her side to drape her with the other half of the blanket she had given me earlier, so that we could both be under it's warmth. I pulled her close and let her sob into my chest while I patted her back, in much the same way that Mother Tera had done for me so often when I was vulnerable. No one was ever too old to feel the love of a mother, or so she often said.

Gently, softly, I spoke to her once more. "Tiara, you really shouldn't interrupt someone when they're about to say something, you know that?" I rubbed her back to try and make her feel better, placing my cheek against the top of her hair. "So where was I? Oh yes. Tiara, listen up. Do not speak for me. Do not decide for me. You have no idea just how much I care about you. If you think I'm going to sit quietly while you embark on a life-threatening journey all by yourself, you've got another thing coming. What, you think I'm not strong enough to protect myself, or protect you for that matter? You're incredibly smart, capable, and competent Tiara. But sometimes you're incredible reckless, and thus, incredibly stupid. I don't even know half of the things about you, but I want to. I want to find this thing you're looking for. Fight this battle you're fighting. Don't worry about me. This old horn? You know, I've gotten pretty used to it. And lately, I've started to appreciate losing that part of me. So nah, I don't want it back."

"But how? You wanted it so badly before..." She said quietly muffled by her face digging into my chest still.

"Yeah, I've had a rough go of things. This horn... Fate... Was it Fate that allowed me to go to Sanctuary? So then, it's Fate that allowed me to meet Mother Tera. It's Fate that I got to lead the sisters and grow from my failures, and grow as a pony too. And Fate that I got to meet you. Win-lose, you know. It's not so bad, right?"

I could hear her sniffle and lighten up, as her sobs slowly came to a halt. "Which one is the win and which is the lose?" She said, still as quiet and still as muffled.

"Eh, lots of loses to be honest. But hey, I got a few wins. I won against the Marquis, thanks to you."

She now seemed more copacetic, and pulled away from me, laughing as she did so. I know she would never admit it, but it was likely Tiara had shed some tears judging by the frozen moisture clinging to my coat. Could've been snot too. Who knows.

"For my sake, please don't say such sad things like you'll be gone for who knows how long. You weren't planning to return to Sanctuary after this trip, where you? You made it sound like that two week 'vacation' would be more like a few years, by your choice of words. That's what made me mad initially. That, and the fact you were planning such a treacherous trip just for you alone."

"But it really will be dangerous, Berry. The creatures we will have to fight... The places we will visit... and the things we must obtain... they're mired in danger. Are you sure?"

"More than sure. Someone needs to watch your back. You can't carry an entire world on your shoulders alone, Tiara. Besides, Sanctuary will be fine now that Myrtle has taken the helm. And it's not like we're saying goodbye forever. You saw that farewell party they threw us. They knew it was only going to be for two weeks, but they still went and set it up for you anyway. They care about you just as much as I do. Sanctuary will forever be your home. Our home. For our strange little misfit family."

"Ain't that the truth!" She yelled heartily, a smile spreading across her face.

But this one was another first. This one was a genuine smile. The kind that spread all the way, and which conveyed a true happiness and mirth.

"Thank you, Mother Berry."

Turns out, we didn't need sleeping bags either. Tiara fell asleep that night with her head to my shoulders, blanket enveloping the both of us. I couldn't sleep. My mind was troubled with how Tiara had reacted. I couldn't get that look she gave me when she was mentioning my past out of my mind.

Her words earlier... They weren't meant for me.

A part of them were genuine sympathy for me, I understood that much. And despite it feeling like we had made real progress in our relationship, that didn't feel like the truth of it. I've never told anyone my past, not even Twilight or even Mother Tera. I was so sure I would live and die with no one ever knowing the true cause of my pain. But all over again, Tiara had spelled it out like she knew everything that had happened to me, word for word.

I stopped myself from pressing her about it. Something incredibly wounding had happened to her that made my situation relevant to her pain, and it showed. Her pleading felt like a reflection of her own wants, her own questions, her own pain. But it didn't seem quite right. Why was that? What did her words mean? For whom where they for? I couldn't tell, no matter how much I thought on it. "Trust is so easily shaken nowadays, don't you agree? That's why I'm not giving you the whole truth. I need someone to always be questioning every bit of me. Only then can I be a truly honest person." I whispered to myself as I remembered what she told me a while back.

Seems I've fallen hook, line and sinker to Tiara's mind games. So much so, I was questioning if that emotional outburst Tiara had had back there was ever really genuine at all. It didn't feel beyond her to be this kind of cunning.

I felt myself yawn from within with my eyes growing heavier and heavier. I was slowly dozing off, mentally exhausted by all this thinking I'd done thanks to Tiara.

Well, so what if I'm got? That's not such a bad thing, when it comes to Tiara. If it means that I can stay by her side and support her however I can, then I want to. I want to see that again. Over and over and over.

That genuine smile of hers.

Slowly, slowly, my eyes closed and my mind began to wander into that black haze of sleep.

But...

Right there before the darkness of dreams could overtake me...

Quiet as a mouse, and agile as a cat, Tiara stole away from my side.

I was too tired to break free from this sleep paralysis that had taken to me. But I dared not dream until I knew she was beside me again. Moments passed, and nothing.

Then after a while she returned, a strange dark green item on her person. She began to dig into my backpack from where I'd left it, sitting against the cave wall, and carefully concealing that thing she'd brought within the mess of tent parts and sleeping bags.

It all felt like a strange dream, since I knew that my eyes were closed, yet I could still see her in my mind's eye. Or maybe, I could feel her? My mind felt dull and slow from how tired I was and how desperate my body wished to sleep. I couldn't so much as question why Tiara was doing this, or what was going on with her. She must've realized I was partially awake since she came close to me, then met my eyes with her own despite mine being entirely closed. Her mouth moved, but my body had shut off my hearing altogether now as if it were powering down for the night so I could not hear a single word she had said to me.

What was she saying? I could read lips to some degree. A useful interrogation tactic for a tyrant, believe it or not. But it was never a one hundred percent success for me. From her lips, I made out the first sentence just fine. "I feel that I can entrust it to you, Berry, since you know our plight best. So I want you to have this, just in case."

And her next words...

No. No no no no... That can't be right.

Tiara wouldn't have asked that of me. Surely, it was just some translation error right? I was loopy. Sleepy. Dreaming even. My eyes were closed after all. Yeah, that's it. All just a dream.

"If I should ever stray from the path of good, be it from the will of the Gods or not..."

Just a dream.

"I will need someone capable, someone who will not flinch at what must be done. That someone being you, Mother."

Just a dream.

"If it should come to that, I will need you to end me."

All just one. horrible. dream.

Chapter 5: Pilgrimage Of Souls

I had a strange dream.

I saw... myself? At the edge of a mountain. Somewhere high. Somewhere I could overlook vast major cities and terrains just by looking right to left across the horizon. It was dusk, so the sun was beginning to settle over the edge of the world. The great big fires of some cataclysmic event were now on their decline, lighting the landscape like little wicks only really made visible by the ever-dimming day. The massive columns of black smoke from the fires that stretched far upwards were now beginning to disperse into the air, slowly but surely diffusing into that fire-stained sky.

The surreal sight came when the snow began to fall. As the moon poked it's illuminating light out to meet the setting sun, the reflective snow that had yet to reach the ground took on a gentle blue glow. But upon getting closer to it, those little icy mirrors bounced off the orange of the remaining flame that still lingered on the land. The earth and the heavens were split by snowfall in a strange dance of light on a massive scale. It was the kind of sight that had not been seen on Equus in millennia.

At the foot of my perch below where I stood, I could see an innumerable sea of peoples. Some of them ponies, some not. Dragons, griffons, yaks, hippogriffs, bovine, changelings, you name it. Even monsters and animals dotted that massive collection of souls. They all moved forward toward me. Their faces dejected. Their souls tattered. Now at the foot of my mountain, they look up at my face.

They wait. For me? To say something. To them? But why? I am only their overseer. Only their guide.

The one who they look for is much, much farther than where I am. Somewhere way beyond these mountains and waiting up ahead for them, waiting to save them. They must journey to reach her if they wish for salvation. Of what little remains of them, they must leave their hearths and their homes behind to cross this border. They must pick up their weary bodies and contest the elements with all the strength they can muster, for this path that lies ahead is not so easy and not so kind.

The old will not make it. If they attempt it, they will expire before they can make it across.

The frail were abandoned by the gods at such an inopportune time. If they try, they will surely fail.

Crueler yet, only the able-bodied young will manage the trek. If any are to survive and be graced by her presence, those who cannot will have to be left behind.

The heavy snowfall that descended from the heavens now blanketed the landscape, putting out any remaining fires with no signs of ever stopping. All anyone could do now was curse the cold that was picked up by the breeze. It chilled the bone and the spirit, making one forget how and why there were ever fires to begin with. A foreign calamity had a strange way of erasing bad history. A weird tendency to unite people under a similar banner. A bizarre manner of teaching the simplest of lessons.

With heavy hearts, the god-fearing peoples of tomorrow shed their weights and continued on. On and on and on past the mountains.

To meet with her.

"I found you."

I was awoken by the sharp tone of a whispered breath, like that of a super-heated dagger being drenched into a cauldron of water when the steam desperately tries to escape the drowning of its plight, hissing its burning contempt away. I opened my eyes slowly only to be met by the sight of Tiara's back sitting a ways away from me in that dim cave now that the fireplace had died out. A blue glow illuminated the edges of her outline as though she had a source of light in front of her. Even groggy and half awake as I was, I could feel the tension in the air and in Tiara since her very muscle fibers along her back seemed to be twitching in their composure to remain still and calm.

Whatever it was that Tiara had found, it was making her incredibly excited. Or was it... anger? The breath she took to compose herself didn't help at all to let me figure it out. It felt forced, but also relieved in a way. At that moment, she turned her head to look at the cave entrance where the wall of packed snow still lingered almost as if she were trying to hone in on Equestria due to the directional alignment of the cave's mouth.

There was just no way I was going to figure this pony out. Her smile pressed into her teeth with such force, she couldn't contain herself from baring them. The bridge of her nostrils trembled with the emotion of it, as did her eyebrows while they shifted between expressions in their conflict.

Even looking back at my youth, I couldn't compare myself to her. Whatever was causing that raw and powerful emotion, it was beyond my capabilities to understand it. Mine had been a steady and tempered resentment, like a slow river of lava that threatened to burn anything in its path. Hers... well hers looked more like a mighty volcano ready to erupt, promising to blot out the very sun in its fury.

From the corner of her eyes where she could see me just barely from the edges of her peripheral, she must've finally realized that I was waking up. Almost immediately, her face softened and fell back down to its normal pleasant facade, albeit with a bit of resistance from her own escaping emotion since I could still see the corners of her mouth twitching. The blue glow that surrounded her faded, although groggy from sleep as I was, I figured it was just a trick of the sunlight as it passed through the snow wall.

Feeling like this wasn't a good moment to test Tiara, I decided to act the fool. I slowly got up from the ground where I'd been sleeping with my face made half a mess, wiping at my mouth with a foreleg to get rid of any drool I might've had. I rubbed my eyes and gave Tiara one groggy "Good morning" before yawning nonchalantly as though I hadn't just awoken to the kind of sight that could put anyone on edge.

"Lovely morning, Berry. Slept well?" Her tone did not miss a beat, despite whatever might've caused that sudden shift earlier.

"Actually yes, surprisingly. I didn't expect to feel so well rested after having to make an emergency camp here. The hard stone floor is not exactly comfortable and my body aches a little, but rested I am regardless."

"Well they say that the more exhausted you are at the end of the day due to physical labor, the sounder you sleep. Honest work, and all that."

I let a yawn escape me, "Ugh, yeah, I can understand that. After that climb, I was knocked out cold." Strangely, I felt a twitch in the back of mind at my own off-hoof comment for some reason or another.

"You did sleep pretty heavily last night. You didn't even stir when I set you down so that I could tend to the fire." Tiara turned to the entrance of the cave, making her way over to it so that she could clear the wall of insulating snow.

But her comment had given me pause as well. What was it that I wasn't getting? You know, it felt a lot like when you can't even remember the thing you've forgotten about, but you do remember that it must've been something important. It's such an annoying and unsettling feeling. I looked all around the cave trying to see if anything within it could unlock my memory, to no avail.

"Noticed it too, did you?"

"Huh?" Was Tiara in on this weird feeling of mine...? "Noticed what?"

"You were looking around the cave. I thought you figured it out as well. This is not a natural cave formation."

"Is it not? You know, I hardly ever visit caves myself, so I wouldn't know."

"Maybe just intuition then. It's possible to notice inconsistencies even in something you have no knowledge about. The mind is pretty special that way. All it needs is the basic building blocks of logic to figure things out. Here, take this for example." She stopped what she was doing to walk over to the walls of the cave to run a hoof along them. She particularly singled out the sharp profusions on the wall that jutted out of the corners. "What can you imagine made this? Erosion from water and ice? Or...?"

I took a closer look at the cave walls. Now that she had called my attention to them and had put the idea in my head that they were not natural, there was something rather strange about them. Almost as if... "It looks like massive teeth marks...? Reminds me of a bite, but made while digging through. I imagine something similar to a worm boring its way through an apple. But there's now way that can be right...?"

"It could, yes, Berry." Oh I did not like Tiara confirming this for me at all. Not one bit. For some reason, it brought a chill to my spine. The cave was big enough to fit several ponies within just it's sheer width alone. Tiara gave an amused chuckle at my reaction. "Last night I did investigate the cave a little and tried going further in. This system is actually a lot bigger than we gave it credit for initially, it's just that a major part of the tunnel has been caved in after years of weathering and instability due to ice build up. You know, typically it's very rare for a cave to exist on such a narrow strip of mountain since we're near the top. Strong structural integrity of newly formed natural caves is much more common near the bottom, thus their proliferation at the foot of mountains."

"So you're saying that something made this cave then. Maybe it was hollowed out by ponies, you think? Rusty Bucket did mention that Gusty the Great and Grogar fought in these mountains once."

"Certainly possible, but something is telling me that's not the case. I fear it was not made by ponies at all. These patterns are all too familiar to me. I have seen these kinds of tunnels once before on sand rock, in a much different part of the world which is very, VERY far away from here. If my guess is right, it's actually quite troubling news."

"Well, don't keep me in suspense now. We're already on the highest mountain in Equus, I would at least like to know what kind of dangers we're facing out here."

"That's just thing Berry, why worry you over something that might not even be the case anymore? These tunnels are incredibly ancient. There has been no sign of movement or alteration in what looks to be many, many centuries. This whole cave wouldn't exist right now if whatever made it in the first place still existed here. Such a thing would disturb and destabilize the mountain just by moving through it regularly."

"Okay, you're doing it on purpose. Now I'm extremely curious to find out what you're talking about. Out with it, Tiara."

"Alright, but don't come crying to me if you can't sleep tonight. The creatures that make these kinds of tunnels are called Tatzlwurms. They are incredibly massive worm-like creatures of immense power and ferocity. Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence once fought one of them together and they had a lot of trouble just subduing the thing. By the stories I've heard, they had a lot of close moments where it almost won. Discord even mentioned that it was one of the smaller ones too."

"Seriously? Like, for real? You're not joking right? They're both ALICORNS, how is it possible that they had trouble with a monster?"

"Well, when it's hundreds of meters long, as wide as entire castles sometimes, and is not only as strong as an Ursa Major but also as incredibly magic resistant as an ancient dragon, ponies by comparison are quite powerless against it usually. It's only because they're Alicorns that they managed to repel it. If this is a tunnel made by one of them, I figure it's a small one by comparison."

"You. are. joking. Tiara. There's no way that's true. That thing sounds like an absolute nightmare. A living calamity."

"And if they were carnivorous, chaotic, and actively hunting for prey, they would be. But unless you accidentally find yourself disturbing its habitat and picking flowers you shouldn't be, then you're fine usually." Tiara took a small stone and began to draw on the cave walls by carving into them, making a surprisingly nice and clean illustration of the creature. "Fun fact, they have three very long extendable tongues that it uses to capture prey, a tripartite jaw mouth that folds outwards, and a whole arsenal of razor sharp teeth lining each mouth flap."

"I should've figured Equus was filled with scarier monsters than the Ursas, but heavens preserve me I was not expecting such a horrific creature."

"Oh don't worry, Berry. There's much scarier stuff out there still. We're lucky that most of them tend to be peaceful in nature."

"I hope so. Do you really think Tatzlwurms don't hang around here anymore?"

"That's what all the signs are saying. But I wouldn't be able to tell you if this is the case for all the mountains along this range, though. I wouldn't worry over it too hard, Berry. We'd sooner find a Yeti than we would another Tatzlwurm out here."

"Let me guess, another towering monster of nightmarish proportions?"

"No actually. Hmm, maybe a little? By pony size standards. Only a smidge bigger than a yak or a hedgehog, I'd say. But oh so much more ferocious. It has to be, what with living in inhospitable parts of the world and all. I'm surprised you've never seen one, Mother. They're native to the Frozen North, so if you spend enough time roaming the tundra outside of Sanctuary, I'm sure you'd meet a few."

"Okay, and what part of me looks like I venture outside of Sanctuary at all? I've never met a creature stupid enough to cross that snowstorm veil encircling the monastery outside of you, Evergold."

"Is that an insult on the sly, I spy?"

I gave her an unamused rise of an eyebrow. "Just returning to sender."

"Well you're quite sharp-tongued today, Berry."

"It's funny what dropping pretenses and weathering an arduous trek will do to an old pony like me."

"Hmm? What was that last bit again?"

"Yeah yeah, I'll be in my forties soon. I'm old, okay. I admit it." I grumbled my displeasure as I slung my backpack over my back, grunting from the effort as dictated by my aging bones. Which only served to give that annoying mischievous grin on Tiara's face more fuel.

"See? Isn't living in reality more liberating?"

"Not when my muscles ache for no reason and my knees refuse to bend the morning after a sleep with slightly bad posture. Can't wait to laugh at you for the same thing when you reach my age."

"Well when's the last time you've exercised at all? I doubt doing Sanctuary's paperwork twenty four hours a day and never going outside its walls for a walk gives you much of a chance to limber up."

"Not since my time serving in the Storm King's forces, I'd wager. But you see, it's because I was saving all my energy for the day a reckless pink pony decided to embark on a dangerous quest all on her own."

I had said it as a joke, but the mood between us dropped like a stone at that comment, and it reignited my memory of the night before. In an instant, I remembered the desperation in Tiara's face and voice when she had offered me my horn back. She had grown quiet as I relived our conversation last night. Once I was done, I turned to look at Tiara only to see her back turned away from me as she focused on clearing the wall of snow at the entrance.

What was she thinking about? What could someone like Tiara possibly want more than anything else in the world? Wealth? Power? If it was her, the way she was at this moment in time, she could build an entire empire all on her own if she so wanted and with ease.

Yet she was vying for something. Clawing and struggling her way towards that something. If I considered her situation even for a second, the answer seemed so obvious.

"Tiara. You... Are you looking for revenge?" I asked with the quietest voice I could muster, not sure if she could even hear it past the noise of crunching snow as she batted it away with a hoof. Regardless, my question had elicited a response out of her. Her whole body slowly arrived to a stop not even halfway towards clearing the snow, her back still turned from me.

There I had gone again, opening my big mouth as though I understood even a fraction of what she felt, believing we were one and the same. She reminded me so much of myself when I was younger, after all. It was dumb of me to simply assume. It's just... That's what everything on the surface was spelling out. Her parent's willing acceptance of her disownment. The rigged court case that exiled her. All the betrayal from nearly all her friends... If she had said that she wanted to burn Equestria to the ground, it would not come as a surprise to me.

But, and this is a major but, I had learned that there was always more to Tiara than the eye could see. She was one big question mark. A written sickle with a dot at the bottom to denote a question. A symbol used for confusion and mystery. One that was not written on to any paper, dirt, or stone, but made of mist and written onto the air. One that a slight breeze could change its outcome. An ever shifting question to an ever shifting answer. What had been Tiara's beginning? And what will be her end?

"Did you say something, Mother? Do speak up. You know, snow can be surprisingly noisy." Tiara broke my line of thoughts with her own question, all while she had readied her body to buck the wall of snow as hard as she could with her hindlegs, reminiscent of the Apples harvesting their trees.

With one mighty kick, she had applied so much force onto it that the wind gust her strength had produced had shot all of the wall and any nearby snow near the lip of it shooting outward as if shot from a party cannon loaded with triple the explosive powder. In a mesmerizing display, the plume of falling snow spread across a vast space of sky, becoming something closer to a cloud as it separated into tinier and tinier particulates whose falling speed decreased as they became smaller and smaller. Before any of the snow had, had a chance to reach the ground, it seemed to float away as a mild fog before disappearing into the frosty winds.

In that moment, my brain finally kicked me to realize that said frosty winds had... calmed? In fact, you could hardly feel them now. The wind couldn't have been more than a dozen Pegasi wing power, when before on the way up, the storm seemed to reach well over the thousands of wing power. It was the difference between a slight summer breeze being able to nudge any loose mane and coat hairs on your head, as opposed to the tornado-like ferocity of the ancient magic that Gusty the Great had employed.

"The winds... they've... stopped?" I couldn't help but word out in my astonishment.

"How fortunate. Our trek should be easier from now on." There was not a hint of surprise in Tiara's voice.

"No wait, how is this possible? I thought Gusty's ancient magic would remain on Mount Everhoof indefinitely. What changed?"

"Hmm? Indefinitely? What makes you say that?"

"Well, from the stories that Rusty Bucket told us."

"Those are old, OLD myths, Mother Berry. How can we trust them to be true?"

"I suppose we can't... but I sensed powerful magic in those ferocious winds yesterday. It felt like that gale could go on forever..."

"Hmm. Perhaps there might be truth to it then. Do we even know what the nature of the ancient magic that was cast on Mount Everhoof was?"

"How do you mean, Tiara?"

"Remember the basics of magical spells, Berry. You're a talented Sorceress so you should know this just as well as I. Every magic incantation has to be made with a ruleset of commands. To move a pen with magic, you must first dictate the location it has to move to. You have to think of the speed it needs to travel at. You have to output the necessary magic power to account for the force applied, weighing in external factors like air resistance and other obstacles. And finally, you have to give your spell an end point so that it doesn't exhaust your magical power needlessly after it has performed its duty."

"Right. Rudimentary spell construction. What are you getting at, Evergold?"

"It's impossible to create a spell that will linger forever with normal spells, since the magical power in the equation will exhaust itself given time. That's why end points are critical."

"Then how has Gusty's magic remained until today? How can her spell continue on for so long after her passing?"

"If it is a normal spell, the most likely reason is that her spell has no end point, and she has been fueling that spell with a relic artifact and banking on it to naturally run its power dry."

"An artifact..." Speaking of them brought up an old, nasty memory. "Like the Staff of Sacanas. Material magical batteries, so to speak."

"Exactly. And if that's the case, either the relic got removed from the spell, or the relic itself ran out of power."

"It's honestly insane to think that something could have been fueling that windstorm for so long. Just what kind of relic would have that kind of potency and capacity? It would have to be something stronger than anything in Equestria. Probably tens of times stronger than the Staff of Sacanas." A sharp pain on the temples of my head quickly spiked as I had said it, making me wince. It had vanished just as quickly as it had happened. Perhaps it had been the cold air or a migraine of some kind that had incited it, but the timing couldn't have been more perfect. Before I had a chance to think more on it, Tiara's voice snapped me out of my straying thoughts.

"My second theory is concerning the nature of ancient magic."

“You mentioned that earlier. What do you mean by the nature of ancient magic?”

“How much do you know of ancient magic, Berry?”

“Nothing at all except what is spoken about in old nursery rhymes. As far as I know, people consider ancient magic to be a myth.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“Hmm. Because it’s old and has been lost to time?”

“In a way. Though many of its spells have survived the ravages of time. Several have been especially well maintained and kept safe-guarded. The real reason why ancient magic is so rare nowadays is due to how controlled the knowledge of it is. Ancient magic is extremely powerful, extremely dangerous, and just as hard to control due to the unpredictable nature of those invocations. To give you an idea, ancient magic is the kind that was used to create relics and give them their unique powers. The kind of magic that allowed the sirens to rule over an infantile Equestria. The magic that was used to birth Windigos. And it’s the reason why Twilight ascended.”

“Geez, I can see why they’d be so secretive about it then. But what makes it so unpredictable and dangerous?”

“You could say it’s because of the ‘ruleset’ that it follows. Since ancient magic uses an enormous amount of power, the spells tend to take on a mind of their own. Old unicorn tribes used to believe that enough concentrated magic would allow Lady Magic to exercise her will upon the world. Whatever your initial plans and edicts for the spell changes without your input. Fail to control that magic, and you’d be faced with dire consequences. Not just you, but the world at large would be threatened by it. It was believed that the Windigos were a result of one such failure.”

“Are you suggesting that the ancient magic spells themselves are sentient?” I was slack jawed by what I was hearing.

“Indeed." Tiara let me contemplate in silence for a while, letting me soak in this revelation I could have never conceived of even if I had tried. "You see, Mother Berry, a normal spell cannot distinguish the difference in a pony's emotions. It cannot judge the morality of the character in question. And it cannot prove if someone is worthy or not. Normal magic is quite mechanical in nature, which makes it predictable and easily understandable, like any science. The only difference between Ancient Magic and Normal Magic, is that the former can. What then was only a science becomes something closer to an art with limitless possibilities. Those spells become something like a painting full of chaotic inspiration, full of ideals and philosophies. With no limit imposed on the immaterial, that magic is free to transcend its user and act on its own. It can fight for its own survival. Self-replicate, if need be. And even change its own programming to benefit its longevity. In that sense, it is no different from you or I. It is a magic that has come to life. That is why ancient magic is taboo, and considered dark forbidden magic. Practicing it is so forbidden in fact, that being found guilty of performing it is enough to land a pony several years in Tartarus.”

“That... huh.” Is all that I could muster to say. If what Tiara was saying was true, it opened up a plethora of existential questions I would have to wrestle with at some point. She had no reason to lie to me about something like this, and if I thought about it even for a second, it all made such perfect sense. Certainly many of the accounts of the mythical ancient magicks spoke of spells that could differentiate between such pony-made constructs and concepts, like one such legend of a magical sword said to be wieldable only by those of true heart. I mean... even the legends of the Windigos spoke of their monstrous personalities, deeply rooted in instinctual behaviors. They were said to be drawn to intense hatred and where hateful beasts in their own right. Made from Ancient Magic, none had ever been vanquished directly and were believed to have been repelled and ultimately died out for good after the unification of the pony tribes brought lasting peace and love amongst the three races. "If what you're saying is true, Tiara, would that mean that it's possible Windigos still exist if they found a way to keep their magic going?"

A strange smile spread across her face, the kind filled with secrets and pride. The kind that was unnerving if you didn't quite understand what it was for. "The Princesses sure do seem to think so. Hearth's Warming is a mainstay holiday in no small part thanks to royal meddling. Promoted and emphasized for millennia every winter for as long as Equestria has been a nation. Do you believe that the celebration of our unification was simple tradition? Many young ponies and professional stages throughout all Equestria put on a play every year which details our history so that we may remember our roots. It's important that none should forget where we come from, and why we are how we are. We are doomed to repeat history if we do not learn from it."

"So what do you believe, Tiara? Personally."

"Does it matter what I think?" Her questioned made me realize how well I was playing into her words, waiting on her own opinions on the matter as if they were hard truth. And who could blame me? Every word from her mouth had been so deliberate, and her tone made her sound so sure of herself. I'd grown up hearing these tall tales and theories in my own youth and magic study, but it never seemed as real as it was when it came delivered out of her mouth. It was hard to distinguish truth from fiction in her tales when she spoke of them. "Well anyways, whatever the case, if Gusty's spell really is ancient magic, it's possible that it manifested a way to make it's equation go on for as long as it has. It could be that the spell found a way to recycle the ambient magic in the space around it, thus creating a pseudo permanent loop. I say pseudo, because nothing is ever truly eternal. But it's too much of a coincidence to think that its life cycle must've ended on the day of our arrival."

Another sharp pain permeated the temples of my forehead, but this time, I knew exactly what they were for. It was my brain connecting the conversation I had, had with Rusty Bucket. Or more precisely, the last few lines he whispered to himself before we had left. The time has finally come to end this endless watch. He had said. Did Rusty know this would happen? Has it all really been just well-timed coincidence? Or poorly timed, in the sense that if only we had waited a day, we could have avoided the fierce winds entirely?

"The spell ended... no well, it could also be temporarily dormant? If I understand ancient magic a little better now, then couldn't that mean there's any number of other reasons why the spell has seized, temporarily or permanently?"

"My, my, Berry. Well done. Now you're getting it. It could be as simple as the spell exhausting itself entirely. It could be that the spell is only momentarily recharging. It could be that something in Gusty's plans or that of the ancient magic's has deemed us worthy of passage. Since we don't know what the actual rhyme or reason for this change of events is, would you like for us to hurry off this mountain before it possibly begins again?" Tiara motioned her winter mask back into place.

"You don't have to tell me twice. I'm set to go already." Following suit, I put on my own mask and followed her to the outside.

What awaited me was a breathtaking view of Equestria. The snow kicked up by the wind and the dusk of night had made it impossible to see much before, but now that all had calmed and daylight had broken through the edge of the world, the scenery that spread out before us was of indescribable beauty. Just by looking across the horizon, you could see most of Equestria's major cities and landscapes. It was a vibrant display of earthly greens from the wooded areas of Northern Equestria, sparkling light blue hues from the Celestial Sea and Lunar Ocean along with its maritime towns, the shiny greys and browns of Manehatten, the pearlescent whites of Canterlot sitting on the side of its mountain, the rich oranges of the Appleoosa range, the multicolored display of Cloudsdale's rainbow falls, and lastly shy to the right of where Canterlot sit, was the small homely yellows of the town of Ponyville.

Awed by this, I turned to look at Tiara to see if she shared my sentiment over the beauty of it all, but her eyes were not seeing any such thing. Her stare was blank and empty, full of thought. With the mask now back in place, there was no way I'd be able to see the expressions she was making outside of her brows and eyes, but not even they stirred. Tiara seemed to be floating in a space of her own, contemplating the secrets of the universe I don't doubt. After a bit, her meditation broke and she turned to face the mountains ranges behind Mount Everhoof that seemed to stretch on forever, with some of the mountains being as large, if not larger than Everhoof. They blocked all and any sight that could've lied within that opposite horizon with their massive and imposing walls of ice and stone. Whatever Tiara was looking for, it wouldn't be easy to find. Not from this perch at least.

"You chose this Berry, so now I need you to prepare your heart for what lies ahead. We must make it past these mountains deeper and deeper into the Frozen North. I have reason to believe the things I'm after lie in wait there. If legends are to be believed, we'll be walking into a dead wasteland of frost and snow with no chance of finding food or shelter anywhere. We'll have to make our supplies last as long as possible. A single mistake could prove to be the end for us, since returning to the Monastery will be a challenge on its own." She was speaking freely now despite the thin, frosted air atop the mountain. Without the harsh winds and now having acclimated to the altitude, it was much easier to exist at those heights, and so conversation was now a seldom but possible thing to do.

"What legends? I've never heard tale of ponies making it past Mount Everhoof, much less finding anything past these ranges."

"Oh you have, Mother. You just don't know which legends pertain to the area we’re meant to make it to."

"Care to spill the beans then?"

"No no. That's wasteful and we'll need all the beans we can preserve as food in this journey of ours. Besides, why ruin the surprise? Once we get there, you'll figure it out."

"Fine, keep your secrets. I'll see it for myself anyway."

It is a shame that there is not enough pages in my journal to detail all that happened on our travels. I almost wanted to jot down all my talks with Tiara, despite many of them not being of any real importance, just because I found connecting with her so fun and amusing. Those are things that I'll just have to keep close to my chest. And there really wasn't much to see on those mountain ranges except snow and rock. It really was a dead wasteland with not even the tiniest grasses growing from any of the surfaces that could be seen. Traveling through the mountains took nearly a full week to accomplish. Past Everhoof were the many, many mountain ranges of the Frozen North. The view ahead looked to be like a sea of white mountain tips, with nothing but snow and crag to differentiate one mountain from the next. Although the size of the mountains ranged wildly from peak to peak, a few of them were considerably smaller and interconnected between each other almost purposely and seemed to path out a direction.

It was as if a giant of impossible cosmic size had thread this path before and made the equivalent of a trail along the way, akin to dirt trails off a beaten path. We averaged crossing at least four or five of those small mountains thanks to their congruency during daylight hours. Come night time, conditions were far too hazardous and cold to warrant a journey, so we took the extra precaution of hunkering down at the very moment of dusk beginning its descent.

There truly was nothing out there. No animals. No monsters. Nothing but the cold blistering winds howling as they passed through the terrain.

That wouldn't be totally true, however. There might not have been anything alive out in those mountains, but there were other things lying beneath the snow. On our fourth day traveling, in-between our talks as usual while wading through loose ice, I had stumbled on something that had protruded only very, very slightly out of the snow. After Tiara had helped me back to my hooves, she took great interest on that very thing. Even with my magic, digging it out took a considerable amount of time and effort since the snow had been so densely packed after years of accumulating on top of this something that it was incredibly heavy and hard to move around as a result. With just her hooves alone, Tiara had done most of the excavating herself in the end.

What we found came as a huge surprise, and it lent credence to Tiara's journey. I initially thought she must've been crazy to travel through these mountains since there had never been tale of anyone journeying through them and there certainly didn't seem to be anything worthwhile in sight. But there and then we had discovered something truly historically astounding.

A broken down wheel cart, carefully preserved by the dense ice that had encased it. Its make was unlike any of the ones I'd seen in Equestria. Modern wheel carts had all sorts of new pony inventions to them, even for rural farmhands. Things like shock absorbers, suspension, and other innovations like motorization or simpler things like saddle compatibility. But this cart on the other hoof... This was as simple as simple could get. Quite literally just wheels on a wood platform, with bits of rough, crude metal for its axles and coarse uncomfortable fabrics from the rudimentary grain sacks that it was carrying, who thanks to being frozen in ice, still had a bit of their old contents inside after thawing. Although we left them untouched since eating such a thing would have been unadvisable.

"This in amazing discovery, Tiara! This cart must be at least millennia old. If we're the first to cross through these mountains since Gusty and Grogar's battle, then we're looking at-"

"Two almost three millenia, judging by the inscriptions." Tiara lifted a small metal plate that hung from the front of the cart. It was a small identifying plaque with the name of the owner and the date of the cart's make, written in an old, old version of ponyish. It was something I had to trust Tiara on, since I could not read it myself. The date on it went much further back than even the ruling of the Royal Sisters or the founding of Equestria. If it had been a proper archeologist who had stumbled on this find or perhaps even your average pony, this would've been the discovery of a lifetime. But for Tiara, it didn't seem to hold any such value. She only looked at the plaque with a grim look on her face.

"Oh come on, Tiara. Lighten up, this is really something you know! When we get back, we should inform the archeological instutitions about this."

"This at least shows us we're going the right way." Tiara said, ignoring my words almost entirely. "Thread lightly and with respect, Berry. We're walking through a graveyard."

"What?!" I instinctively lifted two of my hooves with appalment.

"Calm down, you're not likely to get cursed. Their souls are probably not here anymore. I say walk with respect only to honor their memory."

"What are you talking about, Evergold?!" I carefully put my hooves back down, still unsure.

"Do you remember the stories of the Great Migration?" My eyes widened in my surprise as she had said it. I looked over to the vast sea of snow-filled mountains that still lay ahead of us, and my mouth dropped in awe now that the answer to my question of where we were going was square on my face now. All while Tiara chuckled to herself at my reaction. "See. This is why we keep the beans until we need them. Because it's funny."

"The three pony tribe kingdoms, Tiara? Really?! Like from the Hearth's Warming myths?"

"Yes, really. And this is what I meant by thread with respect. Before there was ever this much snow to make the path less perilous, a great number of creatures, not just ponies, traveled through these very mountains once. Several people lost their lives out in these ranges, as they were monster-ridden obstacles not meant for the weak to cross. Only the strongest and luckiest of the tribes survived, and the survivors eventually found peace within Equestria. In a strange way, the Windigos' winter fury destroyed the land for so long, even the monsters that once inhabited this place had to move away to survive themselves. The snow called forth by their power weathered the terrain to be more forgiving to traverse. But with all flora and fauna gone, it is a dead land with little way to obtain food again."

"Safer but deader than ever. I can't tell if the Windigos were trying to hurt or to help..." I mused to myself not really meaning to suggest that the Windigos could or would help anyone for that matter, but that's just how it sounded like from the information Tiara was giving me.

"Whose to say? Ancient Magic has a mind of its own, after all."

"So if we're headed to the three kingdoms, what do you expect to find there anyway, Tiara?"

"That's a fantastic question, Berry." Tiara turned to keep walking, leaving the cart behind in its entirety.

"One that you're not going to answer yet, are you?" I said as went to go catch up to her. She smiled at me, confirming my suspicions.

I understood why we had left everything of the cart behind, as the journey itself would prove to be hard and long in its own right. We could ill afford another burden. It had been exhausting work just to put a hoof over the other in that kind environment yet Tiara was relentlessly forging on ahead with the stamina of a hundred bulls, determined to get to her destination. Her steps waded and cleared the way of deep snow, allowing me to traverse largely unimpeded through her trails. Still even with her leading the way like that, before the day was up, I would be run to the ground with exhaustion and her looking no worse for wear despite doing all the laborious effort. She would set up our tent, cook our meals, and tend to the fire for most of the night while I slept.

If I hadn't caught her sleeping once when I awoke in the middle of the night to relieve myself, I would have imagined her to be more machine than pony. Had I not tagged along, a part of me wondered if Tiara even had a need for the two tents she packed into my backpack. The second one was already useless since we shared a tent to stay warm, and so I had left it untouched in my backpack this entire time. If she had been alone, I imagined that she would continue the journey well past dusk without a regard for her own safety. And so without evidence, a part of me was touched to see her worry for mine.

Her sleeping face was precious in its own way. All her bravado and demure appearance seemed to wash away in her rest. It was soft and cute, and seemed to revert her to the young pretty pony she was meant to be. It was a night and day difference almost as if I were staring into the face of an entirely different pony. After returning from handling my business, I couldn't help stare at her as she rested for a while. It was a sight that would be a rarity to see, and so I wanted to take it in while I still could. But perhaps, it would have been better if I had gone to sleep upon my return.

They say dreams are a reflection of our soul. They show us our state of being, even when we don't want to see it. I've grown more and more superstitious with old age, and a part of me can't help but believe it to be true. Although, just as much, I wish it weren't. Tiara's dream that night shifted after I stared for long enough. Her brows furrowed and she tossed and turned in her sleep, showing signs of a nightmare. But this was no nightmare. It was a memory.

When I put a hoof to pat her on the chest to comfort her, she softly wrapped her head upon my foreleg and cried. Her tears flowed steadily downwards towards the snow, freezing near the ends of it with the frost traveling up the stream and towards her eyes. I kept awake for longer that night, making sure to carefully dry her eyes periodically before the frost could do her harm, gently patting her and whispering a hushed humming lullaby of no particular song, just whatever sounded lovely to me at the time. For the minutes that this continued, Tiara kept repeating something. Broken up and out of order. Barely even a whisper. She kept saying... "I'm sorry. Couldn't help. Not enough. Save you."

Was she... trying to save someone? And failed? Was this the reason for why she was going through all this? A wonder as to who it could've been. Nothing in her demeanor or files suggest she had a lover or a partner. Plenty of friends and some very close ones, by the personal accounts of Princess Twilight herself. But none of which are currently in any danger or were endangered by her alleged actions. None of her court case's testimonies describe anything of the sort either.

No point in dwelling over it. It's no use trying to pry it out of Tiara. I'd come to learn that she would tell me only when she felt it appropriate. Trying to stress it out of her now could only damage our relationship further. Like it or not, I would have to be comfortable with this distance between us for now and allow her to grow at her own pace. I let a quiet chuckle escape me right there and then. I wondered if this is what mothers felt over their unruly daughters. Was there really nothing else I could do but worry over her?

Even after she had stopped crying and returned to normal, I kept awake to brush her mane and hum to her for a while longer. A part of me imagined seeing a flustered Tiara if she had happened to wake up to me doing so. Had Tiara ever felt this kind of warmth before? How would she react to it? I found myself thinking similar questions about all sorts of things, imagining what her reactions would be. Why were these thoughts so amusing to me? Why did they matter so much? These are questions I feel that I can only answer with time.

I hadn’t realized when I had gone back to sleep that night. I awoke the next with a blanket tucked neatly on top of me to protect my warmth, with Tiara preparing our usual dehydrated soup using melted snow to reconstitute it back to normal. Even her packed supplies were practical and ingenious, since creating these unique meals allowed her to pack more of them in her backpack and could last us weeks and even months while needing only a fire and a source of water which could be found all around us. Her meals were also surprisingly delicious and nutritious, which is not what I would have expected to say after eating dusty dried soup the first time she presented the idea of dry preserves to me.

To say Tiara had prepared for this journey would have been an understatement. None of our tools and supplies felt needless, save for the second tent which I imagined was Tiara's insurance if something had broken our first into disrepair. Everything in our packs had seen extended use for what I would have thought initially to be niche issues we would not face on our journey across those ranges. Our snow horseshoes were spiked and were made to cling onto rocky, icy slippery terrain. They had even been outfitted with indentations along the sides so as to click any additions to the shoe cleanly into place, which we used to put on our snow rackets, another practical addition to our tools since the shape and strings of this hoofwear allowed us to through traverse deep and loose footings of snowy trails without sinking all the way through. Our picks were dual-headed, with one head being the pointed pick used to cleave into hard stone, while the other being a flat hammer head to clear surfaces of built up ice easier. On the opposite ends of the pick below the grip was a sharp little blade blade which we had used to cook and sometimes clear ice more precisely and delicately. She had even brought special heat resistant stones to warm up in the fireplace so that we could put them within a special pocket she had made in our coats close to our chest, so that we could place our hooves into that insulated pocket in order to warm our limbs back up in case they became numb from the cold, while keeping our center of mass cozily heated.

All of this had been meticulously sourced by Tiara. Tale was from the tailoring Yak who had made my horseshoes, is that Tiara had provided some very specific instructions. Construction of some these tools had never been heard of, yet her ideas for these things seemed like a natural evolution of what already existed. Practical and ingenious in their own way.

"Yak strength and bodies accustomed to life in Frozen North. What tools we have, they not see changes. If serves purpose, then we not see reason to improve it. Maybe because your friend is pony and not Yak, she have need of improvement. That why ideas so smart. She see what can be better. New tools will help Yaks. Younglings who not as strong will find easier time. Tiara good friend to all Yaks for many such contribution." Is what the outfitter had said to me then. But where those words really correct? Tiara was equally as strong as any fully matured Yak, if not far, far stronger. She probably had less of a use for such improvements, but sought to introduce them anyway.

As for what the tailor had said, in essence, the Yaks had been stuck in their mired traditions for centuries, and had not needed a reason to improve what they already had. It's not until Tiara introduced those upgrades to them that they noticed that life could be easier if they would only evolve their tools.

In the end, Tiara's outings to Yakyakistan had not only been for the benefit of our monastery in order to do my chores and procure essential goods for Sanctuary, they had also served to improve the Yak's way of life. For a long time, the Yaks seemed to be having a difficult time in the construction of their homes. Their natural strength and tendency to smash things created many issues even for the strongest of buildings, despite Equestria's ongoing help in their reconstruction efforts time and again. They needed more permanent solutions, and Tiara found it for them. Although the way she went about doing so was... tricky to say the best, as it had almost caused her friction with Equestria's and the Crystal Kingdom's royalty.

Apparently she had called in a favor from a good friend of hers. A friend that wasn't from Equestria or the Crystal Kingdom. A bit of a trickster in his own right, who hadn't the ability to speak up for Tiara or so much as attend her hearing due to his similarly checkered history denying him the right. This friend had provided Tiara with something called a Plunder Seed, which Tiara used in order to make the type of magically resilient wood that could grow big and strong even in a winter tundra like the Frozen North, and who could resist the brute-like strength of a Yak in a smashing fever. But by the sounds of it, this flora was all sorts of dangerous, since it had been imbued with a lot of malicious chaotic magic. It had once threatened all of Equestria until Twilight had been able to put an end to it.

Before it could become a national issue however, Tiara seemed to have somehow pacified it. Envoys from both nations had arrived on multiple occasions to confirm it was so. Even without her constant vigil, she had managed to make those plunder seeds grow only what the Yaks needed, and so they were finally able to gain smash-resistant homes without the plants those Plunder Seeds produced destroying their livelihoods. Her contributions eventually gave her official sanction by Twilight to roam out of the monastery, since she hadn't had approval before, though I doubt she realizes any of this since all this information reached and ended at my desk. In my own little way, I had been protecting Tiara in what ways I could politically. And not only because I had use for her talents. She eventually became a good friend and a confidant of mine.

Outside of this one incident, apparently she had also made several things that the Yaks would eventually find useful for their own purposes. Of the most notable of these, she had shown the Yaks how to make magnesium firestarters. As a Unicorn, it never occurred to me just how important such a thing could be, since making fire was like second nature. But for a Yak, or say an earth pony, starting a fire was not such a simple task. And doing so out in a wet and frozen landscape was doubly so. Yet this small metal stick she had concocted had not only trivialized the process, it had also seen its fair share of use in our campaign.

At the end of every day, I was far too exhausted from our journey to cast the necessary magic to start a fire. Tiara would use that same firestarter to light our campfires and cook our dinners. To say that I was ashamed of myself would have been an understatement. I had began this journey so sure that I would have to be the one protecting Tiara from her own recklessness. I quickly realized my usefulness was nearly zero in this whole thing. If anything, I was beginning to see how much of an anchor and a nuisance I must've been to Tiara. I had forced myself on this journey of hers, without an ounce of effort to contribute. I had left Sanctuary so sporadically, at the first mention of seeing Tiara go away. It's not something I would've found myself doing before. The signs were all pointing to the obvious.

The reckless one was I.

"I'm sorry, Tiara." These words finally reached my mouth after the seventh day, just as we had stopped to survey the land only to see another impossibly large mountain twice, maybe thrice the size of Everhoof. The path of mountains we were led through from the short interconnected mountains had made traversal straightforward, with only the occasional mountaineering climb to overcome, and most of the other mountains didn't seem like they could outdo Everhoof by more than a few miles. This mountain on the other hand absolutely dwarfed the others. Not only was it toweringly enormous, it's sheer width alone was a thing of awe and it made Everhoof look like a grey bony finger sticking out of the ground. It alone looked to be like the boundary that obfuscated the lands that might lie past the Frozen North Ranges. We had taken a small break before beginning our ascent to it, at the foot of the mountain. Laying eyes on this mountain had forced me to realize how over my head I had been about involving myself.

I was not young anymore. Even if I wanted to join Tiara in all her crazy ideas, whatever she had planned, I doubt I could continue this song and dance if this is what I could expect of her normal. I had given my feelings a lot of thought on our travels. This was the most I had ever interacted with Tiara in the time since I've gotten to know her, and it's been an incredible journey. I got to see so many new sides to her, from casual fun banter about nothing in particular down to her emotionally vulnerable sides. We had grown so much closer than we ever had in that week, and day by day I could feel her opening up to me little by little. It's safe to say that my feelings have only grown to match. I want to be there for her. I want to help her do whatever it is she thinks needs doing.

But... Tiara has a need to keep moving forward, and I'm afraid. Afraid that I could be the one to stop her.

"Well that came out of nowhere, Berry. Sorry about what?" Tiara asked. Initially amused by what I had said, her expression dropped when she looked at my eyes understanding that the apology I had made was no joke.

"I... haven't been pulling my own weight this entire time. I've done nothing but hold you back. I was so sure I could've been a help to you when we started this journey, and yet you've been the one helping me since the start. Not just with this journey, but with Sanctuary too. I realize that you were right. Once we get back to Equestria, that's it for me. I'm getting too old for these kinds of adventures anyway."

"Oh come now, you took one look at this mountain and got cold hooves? What happened Berry? You're not going to pull the age card now, are you? You're not even forty yet." Her tone was still trying to sound floaty so as to help the mood.

"Don't worry, I still got energy left in me for this adventure at least. But I concede that I'm not able to keep up with you as I'd like to, much less help you."

"I don't need you to help me every step of the way, and it wouldn't do you any good to compare yourself to me, Mother Berry. I'm not exactly a... normal pony." She sounded conflicted in insulting herself, as though her reputation was on the line.

"I know that all too well, Evergold. All the normal ponies are resting their heads back in greener pastures. Again, I'm real sorry for having butt into your journey like I did. It's only now that I realize how truly capable you are, Tiara. I promise I'll be out of your mane once this is all over. I'll return to Sanctuary."

At that moment, I saw something in Tiara I hadn't quite seen before. Her facial features dropped a little. Something so subtle, if you drew it onto a painting, ponies would argue for years and years to come about whether she was making that expression or not. A pout perhaps?

"What will you do once you return?" Her voice had softened and quieted, now illustrating the purpose of her expression even more.

"I don't know, honestly. Even though I don't think I was good at it, I've only ever seen myself in a position of authority. But I don't want to return to being the Head Mother. Maybe I'll just go travel Equestria and whittle out my days sight-seeing..."

"But you once told me you hated idling your life away. Would you be okay with that?"

"I doubt I'll be able to change that side of me, so I don't know. I'll just have to give it a try and see if it works out. If not, I'll find something else to do. Something that won't have me making things worse for everyone else under my leadership."

"You'd be lost, Mother."

"Aren't we all, at the end of the day?" Tiara was silent at my words, now clearly troubled by them. There was no question left in her expression. Her brows had inclined themselves inward and upward to show her concern and conflicted sadness at my statements. After a bit of silence, her voice finally spoke. Trembling and quite unsure of itself, almost cracking at the end of her statement.

"And what would you do if I said you can't leave?"

Wait, was she saying what I think she was saying? Was I understandings this right? Did she...?

Did she actually want me by her side?

I had come to learn a lot about Tiara. In a contradicting and strange way, the more I got to know her, the less that I could trust her words and the more I could trust of her character. A part of me wondered if everything she had shown me and taught me in the last week was ever really genuine, or perhaps just a ploy to lead me along. But a bigger part of me did not care if it was.

"Then... I guess... I would stay?"

Tiara turned away from me to look at the mountain ahead, almost as if she were hiding her face. She cleared her throat and thought for a bit. Without turning to look back, she answered my response.

"There are not enough ponies I can trust. And it wouldn't sit well with me either if you wasted your talents doing nothing but wandering aimlessly. So work with me, Berry. You're a great leader, of that much I am absolutely sure. I think you just got a loaded die these last few tries for a game you couldn't have won, so don't doubt your strengths. This world will have a need for ponies like you. At the very least I know that I still..." Tiara hesitated on her words, almost as if she were forcing herself to say them. "need you."

"Hmm? What was that last bit?" It's too bad our masks were still in place. Tiara would have seen just how big, wide, and proud my smile was when she turned to look at me. All the same, she must've seen it in my eyes, since I could clearly see the burning of flustered shame on her ears.

"I still have need of you, Mother."

Author's Note

Well what can I say! I channeled my inner ghost and died for a few months again. Apologies for the long wait but I do have a good reason that's more valid than just "Life issues" you know? Which also did happen but I digress. A big reason I was gone so long is because I wrote a whole separate story about what happened to a certain little someone who a fair amount of people wondered about, especially considering the twists and turns this story has taken.

And her story is meant to connect to this one in several ways! It'll help give some of you insight of the inner machinations and dynamics of this world-building, if you care about that sort of thing. Maybe it'll help you be just a little less confused about what's happening. Or maybe it'll just tack on more and more questions.

Whatever the case, if you're interested, check out Cozy Glow's story for yourself and find out! See what became of that little rapscallion and how her story deviated in this alternate future we're in.

EKnow That I Lived

Amidst her greatest scheme, Cozy is met with an enigmatic and mysterious fellow by the name of Víss ør-grandr, an entirely magic-less elk. Their meeting ultimately saves Cozy in more ways than she knows, and as if by fate, so to does it save Víss.

Darkevony · 34k words · 25 0 · 573 views

P.S. Almost forgot! Hope you all enjoy the new cover art by my wonderful artist, Damayanti. You might think it's a spoiler but trust me, it's not! There's all sorts of things this story will do, if I can get around to them in a proper time frame anyway.

Oh! And if you've noticed anything screwy with the chapter numbers, I apologize about the numbering conventions as well! I recently changed the first six chapters to better illustrate what they are meant to be, since it wasn't so obvious before. It's just meant for newer readers to figure out they're reading what's meant to be only the introduction to the story.

Until next time, ciao!