“We can’t leave, then.” Parade slumped against the wall and let out a bitter chuckle. “We’re just dead. Great.” The news of the Wonderbolts’ demise wasn’t going over well. “Even Rose and I…if the unicorns don’t get us then Celestia and Luna will…” The pale yellow pony put her head in her hooves and began to openly weep. “W-what’s even the point then…”

“We still have a chance. We have to try!” Lieutenant Golden seemed to be the only one still riding that train of logic. Everypony else, even the two prisoners, were broken. “We could distract them and create a gap for a breakout! There are bells all over Canterlot! We could…send somepony out to ring them. Right?”

“The bells that have been ringing once every hour forever?” Bulwark shook his head then joined Parade and slumped against the wall. “They’re used to it, LT. It’s just noise to them now…”

"What about the code for the radio?" Golden pointed a hoof at the little metal card that Spitfire had given Rose. "We could get up there and call for help! We could get reinforcements and get us out of here!" It was a mad scrabble for any kind of hope that he could get a hoof on, but nopony else was biting.

"Why, so you can watch even more ponies die?" Now it was Tempest's turn to join in on the pessimism. "Look at what they did to the 'mighty' Royal Guard, Equestria's supposed best defenders. Or what, you want to actually get ponies from the Crystal Empire down here? Are you that eager for another alicorn to turn?" The disabled unicorn seemed to hit the right buttons as Golden's eponymous coat turned from golden to red with frustration.

“I will NOT give up!” Golden shouted at his subordinates. “Neither will you! Am I clear?!” No one even bothered to respond, they just looked at him through bleary eyes. “We WILL find a way out and we WILL all survive! That’s my promise to each and every one of you!” Again, they all just looked at him, expecting him to break along with them. “Have some faith, okay?”

“My whole life has been about faith.” Rose muttered to nopony in particular. “All I’ve done is have faith and look where it got me.” Her mane was still sticking to her face with sweat from her frantic crawl back from the city. She was exhausted and felt like she was about to collapse, and her spirit was once again in pieces. With all she had seen, was faith even enough anymore? “Where did it go wrong? What did we do? Were we too prideful? Too comfortable?”

“What, you think this is some divine punishment?” Al scoffed at the thought of it. “You think our hubris caused this? Sweet Celestia, I thought you ponies died out moons ago.”

Rose stayed silent as her faith was mocked. It happened every time she opened her mouth about it. The fire deep inside of her chest burned a little brighter with quiet fury but she did not act on it. Where would it get them? Nowhere.

“Shut up Al.” Golden knocked a hoof against the bars. “Ponies cope in different ways. Let her make her peace in whatever way she wants to.”

This wasn’t an attempt to make peace, it was an attempt to rationalize. None of this made any sense. If it was airborne then surely Tempest and Al would’ve turned by now. It couldn’t be that. So why did it only attack unicorns? It had to be their hubris. They had the audacity to play with magic and so it finally struck back. That had to be it.

“The sun is a great and terrible thing…” She muttered her father’s old line. It felt more true than ever now. The sun was out there, ready to kill whoever and whatever stepped hoof outside. Its wrath was now made manifest and it was ready to dole out swift punishment. Maybe she should’ve followed Soarin and Spitfire. It would’ve been a quicker end than whatever met her here and would’ve been appropriate for somepony like her.

Rose got to her hooves and grabbed the jailer’s keys from a nearby hook. She then went over to Al’s cell and unlocked it. The door swung open and a baffled unicorn looked at her. She did the same for Tempest’s cell and received a similar look.

“If we die, we all deserve to die free.” Rose told them both and then promptly took up residence in the cell next to Tempest’s. She fell on the bed and let out a long low sigh. What was even next? What was there to do other than wait for their deaths to come?

—-

“Everypony get down!”

The melancholy moping that had pervaded most of the day faded as Golden spat out the order in a hushed tone. The Lieutenant had selected the cell closest to the door so he could keep an ear out for anything, and obviously he had heard something. His bulky yellow frame was crouched in front of the door, the solitary barred window just above his blue mane.

Everypony complied and got as low to the ground as they could. The ponies that could fit under the beds in their cells, so just Parade and Al, did so. Rose and Tempest were a little too tall and Bulwark was just too big all around. The muscular earth pony instead got behind the old weapon rack and covered as much of himself as he could.

After a few frenetic moments of silence, they heard it. The low mumbling growls of one of those things. Even from across the long hollowed out room of the dungeon the fur along the ridge of Golden’s spine visibly rose as the noises got closer.

Rose was so focused on watching the door that she didn’t notice Tempest moving until the unicorn was in her field of view and skulking towards the door with the one spear they had in her mouth. Her hooves didn’t even make a noise as she slinked across to the floor until she was right next to Golden Star. The two ponies whispered inaudibly to each other, then shared a nod.

It took about a minute as it seemed they were waiting for the creature to get closer to the door. When it was close enough, Golden Star nodded at the once-captive unicorn. This caused Tempest to rise to her back hooves effortlessly, the spear held in her front hooves. The tip of the spear was just inches from the small window in the door now.

Tink t-tink tink t-tink

Golden Star tapped a hoof against the bottom of the door in a continual rhythm. A sound of a hoof scraping against the other side of the metal door with some force. He then traced his hoof up the middle of the door, continuing the rhythm all the same.

Tink t-tink tink t-tink

All the way up he went, the sound of hooves, and what Rose could only imagine was a very sharp horn, scratching the other side and following it diligently. Golden stopped as he reached the bottom of the little window carved out of the solid metal block. That’s when the creature raised up on its back legs and tried to look through the window.

The unicorn was white with a mess of a blue mane that almost covered its shockingly blue eyes, and surprisingly a blue mustache sprouted from its upper lip, now overgrown and frayed at the edges. Beady blue eyes looked into the room as its deformed mouth tried to gnaw at one of the bars.

That’s when Tempest struck. In a smooth motion she pivoted so she was in front of the door instead of flanking it, planted her rear hoof and drove the spear forward. The monster had enough time to open its mouth to try to let out a howl, but that was it. That mouth was soon occupied by the tip of a spear that soon found its way straight through the other side of the head. The wet crunch of bone breaking and flesh tearing echoed throughout the cavernous dungeon.

With a grunt Tempest pulled the spear free and placed it gently against the wall next to the door. She mumbled something that sounded like ‘dumb animals’, then lowered herself to all fours once more and walked away from the door as silently as she had approached it.

“Good job. Smart.” Rose nodded at the mare as she passed and went into her own cell. She received only a side eyed glance in response. Unlike most other ponies in the city, and probably in the country as a whole, she was so calm in the face of violence and she was quick on her hooves in a pinch. Rose had seen that twice now, and been on the receiving end of it once.

While she had explicitly stated that the guardsponies couldn’t trust her, it was nice to have a pony like that on their side.

Day Six

The sun rose again. A fact that they had all discussed when it had done so. It couldn’t be Twilight, at least Rose didn’t think so. The note she had seen Princess Celestia receive on the day all of this started was ominous enough to rule out the Princess of Friendship for most things. They had all come to the conclusion that it had to be Princess Cadance. However this thing was spreading, there was no way it had reached the Crystal Empire yet. If it traveled the way the ponies thought, through the air or some form of contact, then the kingdom in the far north would stay safe.

That was little conciliation for the ponies here in Canterlot.

Rose was going around the room with her sack of pilfered food stuff and offering what she had. The guards had all taken a modest ration, while Al had taken more than he probably needed to survive. Then she got to Tempest, who was sitting on her cot with her armor on again, and just staring off into space.

“Here, take some.” Rose held the sack out to the unicorn and gave it a shake. Tempest blinked a few times, looked at the sack then reached in to grab some bread and a few pieces of dried fruit. “Mind if I join you?” She just received a nod from the unicorn in response.

This was a surprise, as Golden and Parade had both attempted to converse with the mare and had been swiftly and thoroughly ignored. Even getting a small acknowledgement was more than Rose had expected. So she sat on the edge of Tempest’s bed and fished out half of a loaf of bread with some dried apples.

“Yesterday, after you got back-” Tempest popped a piece of dried apple into her mouth. “-the other unicorn said he thought ‘you ponies’ died out moons ago.” She chewed the food as she talked and then swallowed. “What’d he mean?”

“You’re not from around here, are you?” Rose broke the piece of bread in her hooves and took a bite. The hardened loaf wasn’t tasty anymore, but it was carbs and it would keep her going for now. Tempest shook her head as they both ate. “Back in the old days, when alicorns were new and there were only two of them, ponies saw them for what they were. They were seemingly immortal, they looked like every pony race at once, and they had command over the heavens: they were gods.”

“Those two?” Tempest couldn’t help but let loose a bitter chuckle. “I mean, I guess I can see why. It’s just…weird. They’re just ponies.” She held back something, a venomous insult on the tip of her tongue which was bit back.

“That’s how most ponies think.” Rose nodded and took another bite of her bread. “They got used to seeing them around, they got used to ponies so powerful and…so above us that eventually they forgot just what they were.” How ponies couldn’t see what was before them, how they couldn’t see the inherent divinity in the alicorns, she would never know. Yes the familiarity made them more ‘normal’, but all they had to do was really look at them. “There were ponies that carried the torch of that old faith. They kept the belief that the alicorns were more than normal, that they were still divine.”

“You’re one of them?”

“”Not…exactly.” Rose turned over a piece of dried apple in her hooves. “I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was over a day’s trot from Las Pegasus and we didn’t have any neighbors. Just my folks and I.” She had fond memories of the little house they shared, of working out in the fields. It was hard not to feel nostalgic for it all. “My dad was pretty devout, but nothing really organized. There was no church, all he had was a book that had been passed down for generations with old scripture. I thought it was a bunch of nothing…until we went to the Summer Sun Celebration in Las Pegasus…then I was a true believer.” Her heart fluttered and she let out a wistful sigh. “Imagine being told your whole life about this pony that is so…powerful and majestic. You’re told how much she provides for you and how you should be thankful for her. Then you actually see her. You learn she can be touched, she is a physical being. If that wasn’t enough, then you see her raise the sun into the sky with nothing but a thought.”

“When you put it like that…” Tempest shrugged and took a bite of the stale bread without complaint. “You really think they’re immortal, though?”

“They certainly don’t age. Can they be harmed? I..I don’t know.” Rose blew air through her lips. “Chrysalis did a number on Princess Celestia, but I don’t know how bad she was actually hurt. I’ve spent most of my life trying to prevent that from happening.”

“What if we put it to the test?” Parade interjected from the door of the cell. How long the fellow guardsmare had been there, Rose wasn’t sure. “The immortality thing, I mean.”

“What are you talking about…?” Rose furrowed her brow. That suggestion implied things that deeply offended Rose, and she hoped that her reading of it was wholly wrong.

“All I’m saying…is that the biggest obstacles to getting off of this mountain are two giant monster princesses.” Parade nodded, a small smile spreading across her face. “We also have a giant ballista on one of the towers with a bunch of stuff ready to launch up there.”

“No.” Rose stood up and vigorously shook her head. The fire of passion that passion had built in her heart intensified into one of rage at the mere suggestion of using a weapon on the princesses. “We’re not going to try to kill one of the princesses! I refuse!” The crimson wings on her back spread out in a show of anger as she advanced on her comrade.

“Do you want a way out of here? Because the way I see it, that’s our shot.” Parade didn’t back down and instead puffed out her chest and ruffled her own wings to appear bigger. “If that’s the only possible way we survive this, then why shouldn’t we take the chance?”

“Because of our oath!” Rose pressed her forehead right against the other pegasus’ and flared her nostrils. “Does it mean nothing to you? We’re supposed to protect them, not kill them!”

“I think the oath went out the window the moment they turned into monsters who kill every non-unicorn they see!” Parade butted her head right back against Rose’s. Both mares had shed their armor some time ago, so if they kept this up one of them was liable to get another concussion. “So if you don’t want to do it, fine!”

“I don’t like it…” Golden joined the two mares and separated them with a hoof. “Who’s to say that the ballista is still intact? Plus, how would we even get up there? The tunnels only go to the ground floor and it’s at the top of a tower.”

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Rose was flabbergasted. Her mouth hung open and the fire in her chest continued to rage at the indecency of the conversation. “She’s talking about killing a princess!”

“A monster.” Bulwark corrected. “They’re not princesses anymore, they’re monsters.”

“What happened to yesterday, huh?” Parade challenged Rose again and tried to move Golden’s hoof out of her way to no avail. “You didn’t care if the monsters died at all, ‘they’ve killed innocent ponies’ you said! Well we saw Celestia and Luna kill ponies! We saw Luna eat ponies whole and we saw Celestia melt an entire wall with ponies still on it!”

“Yeah and you were saying I was cruel!”

“That was before we had no other option! A wall and two of the most powerful ponies in Equestria on your side makes a lot of difference!”

The two mares glowered at each other, both steadfast in their opinions on the matter. Neither was winning the battle for dominance that raged between them and an effective stalemate had been reached. Rose was very close to letting her hoof rocket across the shorter mare’s muzzle, but before she could act on that very strong desire she was interrupted by Tempest pulling her back.

“What if we think of it as a mercy killing?” Tempest chiming in wasn’t what Rose had even expected. “I’ve been…away for a long time, but one thing I still know is that Celestia wouldn’t want to hurt her ponies, right?”

“No, she wouldn’t.” Bulwark shook his head.

“Yeah so we have to save her and Luna from themselves.” Parade picked up the train of thought and stoked its fire a little more. “Imagine if somehow this all gets fixed, right? Imagine what killing all of those ponies would do to them. We’d be doing them a service.”

It certainly felt like the group wasn’t trying to rationalize the logic for themselves, it seemed all directed at Rose. It felt patronizing, and all that did was make her even more stalwart in her position. They were here to protect the princesses, not harm them. That was their sworn duty, no matter the current state of the world nor even the princesses themselves.

“No.” Rose stated flatly, which earned her a round of groans from the ponies around her. “I will not violate my oath and try to kill one of the princesses. Are you hearing yourselves? We are supposed to put our lives on the line in service of them!”

“I think we’ve done that, Rose.” Golden addressed her with a sigh. “If I ordered you to do it, would you? To at least go with Parade and help keep her safe while she carried out the deed?”

“Why me?” That was the question that wouldn’t stop raging around Rose’s head. “Why can’t you or Bulwark go? Why does it have to be me?” The tears started to well up in her eyes again and a familiar angry heat returned to her cheeks. It all felt like some punishment for her faith, a persecution from the very beginning. “Anypony but me, please…”

“We can’t go through The Dusties. Not after one of those things tried getting in here last night. So whoever does it is going to have to go through the tunnels, and we won’t fit.” Considering Rose had barely had enough room to move around in there, Golden was right. Maybe Al could go, but he was an old pony and couldn’t fight. “Parade can’t go alone.”

“Can I…can I just think about it?” She needed time. A thorough search of the soul was the only thing that could really get her through this. It wasn’t something she could even imagine being complicit in. The mere thought brought nothing but revulsion and contempt.

“We’ll give you the night.” Golden clenched his jaw and suppressed a sigh. “Come morning we’re carrying this out one way or another. So I expect your thoughts to be in order by then.” The crowd around Tempest’s cell quickly disbanded, with the other guards all gathering in a circle around Parade’s bed and whispering to each other about their plan.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Tempest whispered as she retreated from Rose’s back. “Betrayal, I mean. Thinking you know what ponies stand for only to see the facade crumble…” Rose turned around to see Tempest sitting on the bed with her back flush against the stone wall. “It really opens your eyes, huh?”

“What do you know about it?” Rose mumbled and joined the unicorn on the bed, opting to sit on the edge of it with her back to the other mare. Her one good ear was laid flat against her head as she tried to lose herself in the battle her soul was raging.

“I was like you once…I thought I could belong.” The calm cool demeanor left Tempest’s voice and that familiar bitterness coated the words as they left her mouth. “I thought that ponies could accept me despite the differences.” Even though they weren’t facing each other it was easy to hear the unicorn’s jaw clench. “Like you, I was wrong. It’s not an easy feeling to get used to.”

“It’s not new to me…” Rose twiddled her hooves and felt the wings on her back ruffle and readjust. “When I first got to Canterlot I wore it on my sleeve…I learned to keep my beliefs to myself pretty quick.” A hoof went to her neck and gripped at something long gone, something that had been taken from her. “I keep to myself now, or I try to. Sometimes a pony gets in though…”

“Then they just hurt you again.” Tempest finished the all too familiar refrain. “The same way. Every time. You see it all so clearly…the best way you can survive is all alone.” Rose turned just enough to see one of Tempest’s armored hooves go to the shattered horn that sprouted from her head. “I don’t know you but I do understand you, Rose. All too well.”

“So what should I do?” That question wasn’t even directed at Tempest. It was just cast about into the air for Rose to ponder aloud. She still felt betrayed by her fellow guards and the reality that they were so ready to abandon the oath they had swore. They were so ready to do harm to the pony they pledged to protect. Even getting around Rose’s spiritual objection to that plan, the mere facts would still boggle the mind. If you were to ask anypony before this to choose between their own life and Princess Celestia’s, surely they would overwhelmingly choose to save the sovereign.

“That’s up to you.” Tempest let out a long slow breath and closed her eyes. “I wouldn’t put up with it if I were you. Are other ponies, ponies like them, really worth it? What’s the price of who you are? How far are you willing to go to prove to them you belong?”

Author's Note

This story might end up being 75k words btw