Sun and Shield

Day Seven

“You’re gonna wanna follow the Q’s for the first good bit until you have to choose between it and an ‘AT’, then you’re gonna wanna follow that.” Al was talking them through the directions as he hastily drew a map in the dirt that gathered on the floor. “You should pop out in the astronomy tower, right in the fireplace. From there…uh…well, you probably know the place better than me.” The old smuggler rubbed his chin and sighed. “Used that route to get to my best customer…”

The guards all looked at each other, all of them acutely aware of what pony spent the most time in the astronomy tower. Princess Luna wouldn’t need a smuggler though, she was a princess after all. Why would she need anything smuggled in when she could just as likely have it brought in the front gate with little to no questions?

Another mystery that would never be solved.

“Astronomy tower…” The Lieutenant mumbled. “...not very far from where you all said the ballista was. I think you should be able to just follow the corridor past the Royal Quarters and get to the right tower from there. It’s nearly a straight shot.”

“Rose could probably get to the top of the astronomy tower and glide over to the ballista to make sure it’s clear.” Parade offered the suggestion and Rose was all too ready to reject it outright.

“No.” The red and gold pegasus shook her head vigorously. “I’m not flying, not with the princesses out there.” She had already seen what had happened to one of the best fliers in the entire world against those two and she was nowhere near their level. Her death would be magnitudes quicker and just as painful.

“The long way it is…” Parade said with a sigh. “So we get to the tower. I ready the ballista and wait for one of the princesses to get in a good position, then we…” She looked at Rose and decided to choose her words carefully. “...do the thing. What then? That thing is loud. We’re going to have the entire population of Canterlot chomping at our flanks in no time.”

“Get back here.” Bulwark stated.

“Well duh!” Parade thumped the solid wall of muscle that was Bulwark on the chest. “That might not be too easy though. We need a backup plan of some kind in case getting back the way we came isn’t really an option.” One of the pale yellow wings on her back twitched repeatedly as she thought through the options.

“Hide. Wait for them to lose interest.” Tempest was the first pony to offer a backup plan of some sort. “They’re dumb, just pick a closet or room nearby and bunker down. No matter how long it takes.”

“If all else fails I guess we could fly to the astronomy tower…” Rose thought about it in her head. There was a window on the lower level of Princess Luna’s favorite spot, one that they could make a break for if they absolutely needed to. “It’d be more a dive than a real flight. We’d just be letting gravity do a lot of the work.”

“I expect you both back here. I don’t care when that is, but I expect it eventually. Am I understood?” Golden Star stood ramrod straight and looked down at the two mares. Both he and Bulwark were the two left wearing the golden armor of the Royal Guard. The mares had abandoned it a while ago, and now they couldn’t wear it even if they wanted to. The restrictive tunnels prohibited that.

“Yes sir.” Both of the guardsmares gave their commanding officer a salute, not as crisp as it had been before but it was still some semblance of decorum. They hadn’t been in their armor for some time now and it now lay in a heap in one of the corners gathering dust.

“Good. Stay safe. Look out for each other.” Golden’s voice hardened into a very familiar dictatorial tone. “We’ve been arguing in here, but we’re all we’ve got right now. Out there, it’s just going to be you against all the monsters in Canterlot. Those are long odds, but I have faith in you two. You wouldn’t have made it this far without something on your side. Call it dumb luck…” He then looked right at Rose as he spoke the next words. “...call it providence. Whatever it is, just hope it doesn’t fail you now.”

“I’m going with them” Tempest suddenly appeared behind the mares with the spear strapped to one side of her armor. Everypony’s eyes went wide as they adjusted to the assertion they all blinked a few times before the Lieutenant spoke again.

“No. Absolutely not.” Golden put his hoof down and looked at the unicorn. “I am not sending you out there with my ponies.”

“I can handle myself, sir.” Tempest threw the honorific in his face and flared her nostrils at the imposing stallion.

“I don’t doubt that. I just don’t trust that you won’t stab my ponies in the back, or try to run and get yourself killed.” The two ponies, the guard and the spy, stared each other down. Neither wanted to back down, and it seemed like neither would.

“We could use her.” Parade spoke up in favor of the interloper. “She’s good in a fight, we know that. We know she’s killed at least two of those things, one with her bare hooves even. If this is going to be as dangerous as we think it is, then we need all of the help we can get.” That was all true. Tempest, as far as they were concerned, was the equalizer in all of this. Rose could attest to her prowess and how much of a wallop she could pack.

There were a few tense moments between Parade’s advocacy and what happened next. Golden Star advanced on Tempest which caused the mare to instinctively back away. He gave her a look, and she stood still for a moment. His hoof reached out and snatched the spear from her side.

“Fine. This stays here, though.” He put the weapon against the wall then his eyes fell on the entrance to the bug tunnels. “There’s weapons out there, you all know where they are. We need this, though. It’s all we have if something comes down here.”

“I have my dagger.” Bulwark added. “It’s…not much, but it is a weapon.” Everypony just ignored Bulwark.

“Get going.”

The mares broke from the little pow wow. In an unusual lack of coordination, Tempest spun on her hooves and bumped right into Bulwark’s armored chest face first. The unicorn gave a surprisingly flustered apology and patted him a few times before moving on. The little outburst earned varying degrees of surprised looks from the ponies in the room.

“Rose, you wanna take the lead?” Parade stepped to the side and gestured to the hole with a wing. “You’ve been in there before, so you’re the expert here.” That was a very very low bar, but she would accept the responsibility of guiding them where they needed to go. “Nu-uh, you’re not going to be last. You’re in the middle.” The other pegasus pushed Tempest right behind Rose and she took up the rear. “You’re not slipping away on us that easily.”

“Whatever…” Tempest scoffed and sighed as she glared back at Parade.

There was no use waiting around anymore and letting the group bicker even more, so Rose got down and crawled into the tunnel. The darkness crept in around her and the rock and dirt of the surrounding mountain pressed in on her sides. It was that feeling of being somewhere she wasn’t meant to be that made her chest tighten and heart rate rise. She kept crawling until she was sure that the other two mares could fit behind her.

“Everypony in?” She couldn’t even turn her head to make sure they could hear her. The volume at which she spoke meant her head rang with her own words from the close quarters. The vast network of tunnels carried her own voice forward enough that she could hear her own echo from multiple directions in the darkness.

“Yeah, we’re good!” Parade called up from the back. “Just let us know which way to go when we come to a split, okay?”

“Heard!” Rose responded.

Then off the train of ponies went through the track of tunnels that criss crossed through the core of Canterlot. At every major intersection where they needed to take a turn, Rose would call out the way they were going and the other two would call it right back to confirm. They went on for this for close to half an hour before one of them decided to break the monotony.

“So what are we doing about weapons?” It was Parade, because of course it was. “Luna might have some in her tower, but it’s probably all swords. You know how much the magic users love their swords.”

“I already have one.” Tempest joined in. “Swiped that stallion’s dagger off of him before we left.”

“You WHAT?!” Parade’s shout caused Rose to stop abruptly and wince. If one of her ears wasn’t already in constant pain, that would’ve done it. “You stole Bulwark’s dagger?! Why?”

“I need a weapon.” Was Tempest’s simple response to that.

“There’s a guard outpost across from it, remember?” Rose cut in and started crawling again. “It’s the night shift’s post…what was his name…Harker? He had an office there.” She would never get used to the batpony naming conventions. They were always strange and unwieldy for the tongue.

“You’re just ignoring the fact that Tempest stole Bulwark’s dagger?” Parade sounded incredulous, and Rose could imagine the other pegasus’ mouth agape as she crawled. “You’re not worried that a spy with a weapon is right behind you right now?”

“Do you want to go back so I can return it?” A faint whiff of mirth flowed through Tempest’s words. When she received a frustrated grumble in response, the unicorn chuckled. “I thought not.”

They went with no more complaints or questions, just silence between Rose reading the little stone letters in the ground and telling them which way to go. This path was far more circuitous than the one that led to the smugglers’ headquarters. It was most likely due to the face that they were climbing a lot of grades through switchbacks that were almost a little too tight to turn in. Then the general layout of the castle was working against them as well. Getting from the dungeon to Princess Luna’s tower was already annoyingly long on hoof, but getting there through the ground was far worse.

It was an hour and change before the trio reached their final destination. It wasn’t a grate or just a plain opening. It was in fact fake brickwork that took some real force to dislodge. It did eventually come off and fell into the awaiting fireplace with a clatter as it landed on some prepared logs.

Getting out of one of the holes that wasn’t at ground level was a lot easier than expected. It wasn’t so far off that her hooves couldn’t touch when she had her front legs all the way through, and that let her sort of just walk out. She didn’t even have to duck to get out of the fireplace either because of how large it was.

The room beyond was appropriately massive for its purposes. The walls were decorated in rich tapestries that mapped the night sky and connected stars in constellations that only the regent of the night could truly appreciate. There were astrolabes, models of the moon, and rows and rows of books all dedicated to the study of the star studded heavens. There was a massive window opposite the fireplace, its heavy blackout curtain currently open and letting the glorious light of the sun into the sanctuary of the night. A metal staircase hugged the inside of the tower wall and went all the way up to the very top, where it terminated in a landing. Above that, as anypony who looked at the castle would know, was a telescope.

The most important thing was, of course, that there were no unicorns in sight. The door was open, but the monsters were not going to bother them at this moment. They at least had time to exit and regroup.

“Alright, the coast is clear.” She called back into the fireplace before creeping over to the door and gently pushing it closed. Her eyes were too focused on making sure that she didn’t make any noise as she did all of this that she didn’t even look out into the hallway proper yet. Castle maintenance was still up to par as the door didn’t even squeak as swung on its hinges. Rose made sure to grip the handle with a wing and turn it before it hit the frame so it wouldn’t make any sound as it shut.

By the time Rose had returned to the fireplace Tempest was already out and looking around the room, but Parade was having a much more difficult time than the two taller mares. She was more of an average height for a pony and her legs didn’t reach the floor as they came out like theirs had. So Rose and Tempest watched as Parade tried to get out without incident. She eventually succeeded, but it was a very awkward minute or so.

“Thanks for all of the help…” The short pegasus grumbled as she emerged from the fireplace and pushed them out of her way. “There’s no weapons in here at all. Just nerd stuff.” Parade kicked at the floor and huffed. “I thought Luna was supposed to be the cool one.”

“Right there.” Rose ignored Parade’s disappointment and pointed a hoof at the solitary window. Through it they could spy their target, the tower with the ballista still on top of it. The angle was bad, so it was hard to see how functional it was but the fact they could still the very front of the frame and one of the arms was a good sign. It was a lot farther than she had thought as it looked to be a good thousand feet or more away. In the event of an emergency, that was a lot of air to cover for them to get back here. Could they even carry out that plan with Tempest here now?

“Time to get to work, then.” The motor of the other guardsmare kicked into gear and she went to the door. “First stop is across the hall to get something to fight with, right?” As her wing reached out to grab the doorknob, Tempest pushed it away and looked at them both.

“I’ll take the lead.” The unicorn did not ask, she insisted. Parade looked to have an objection on her tongue but after a moment of thought she swallowed it and stepped back to allow their third wheel to take the lead. The logic was plain as day to Rose: ‘If the spy wants to die first, she’s more than free to.’

Tempest opened the door slowly and stuck her head out to check for threats down either side of the hall. When she was satisfied that the coast was clear enough, she pulled the door fully opened and stepped out into the hall.

Right across the hall from Luna’s tower was indeed a door painted with the familiar silver sigil of the Night Guard, but between this door and that one was the remnants of a battlefield. Corpses of Royal and Night Guard alike littered the ground, their collective blood had stained the usually spotless white marble red. On either side of the hall had once been barricades, hastily made things from office desks and tables save for the one spiked barricade that they had somehow acquired. Upon the upturned wooden spikes of said barricade was the corpse of one of the monsters, the end of the spike jammed through its head but hadn’t come through the other side.

The smell was enough to make Rose retch. Bodies had been left out in the hall for days now, left to swell and rot. It filled the entire hall and clung to the mouths of the three alive ponies. When baths were an option again there would need to be a full day of cleaning to get the stench of death from their fur.

“To think, this is what the LT wanted to do…” Parade mumbled. The thought alone was enough to send a shiver up Rose’s spine. It had been a devastating decision in the moment to run and hide, but it looked like the correct one now more than ever. No matter how cowardly and reprehensible it seemed, it had been the right thing to do. “Idiots…”

The only criticism Rose had was the position itself. In the middle of the hall, intersections at each end. They were probably overrun in moments once the tide of monsters surged through. They could have held up somewhere else, maybe even in Princess Luna’s tower instead if they had the time to fortify the door. The observatory on top would’ve made a good defensible position because of the staircase.

She would make sure to pass along her notes if she ever met them in the afterlife.

They didn’t actually have to go into Harker’s office for weapons, as they were littered around the formerly fortified position. Both Rose and Parade picked up spears, weapons they had actually trained with and could use with some level of proficiency, while Tempest picked up a sword and put it on her back.

“Kinda hard to use a sword without magic, isn’t it?” The yellow mare asked, her pink eyes trailing up to Tempest’s broken horn. “A spear might better suit you for now.” The unicorn did not bother to respond. “Fine. Whatever.”

No more words were exchanged and Tempest trotted off down the hall towards their destination. Somehow her armored hooves didn’t make any noise against the marble, a trick that Rose would need to ask her about at some point. The two guardsponies couldn’t duplicate that feet and their bare hooves clicked against the floor with each step.

The castle itself was a mess. The walls were pockmarked from where magic had impacted, and all of the priceless valuables that had once lined the walls were now destroyed. The beautiful marble floors, when not marred by the bloodstains of the dead, were scuffed to the point that the janitorial staff would have a stroke if they saw them. It was hard to see a place that meant so much to Rose in such a state.

There was still one question as they moved along, though. A very important one. Where were the unicorns? The castle was a big place, yes, but there were thousands of those monsters in the city. The only thing that made sense was if they really were nothing but dumb animals now. Their last sight of prey had been outside, so they were still outside searching for more. It was the only theory that Rose had, and she hoped it was right.

A noise broke their collective silence. Big heavy hooves on tile. They weren’t clean hoofsteps either, you could hear the sound of the tips dragging against the ground as whatever it was put one hoof in front of the other. The mares all froze in place and waited. They were in the middle of a hall, far away from the shattered barricade and without any doorways to duck into.

One of the creatures lurked across the upcoming intersection. The long gangly legs of the thing were lacerated in multiple places and it had long dried blood running down to its hooves, which were almost all red instead of the uniform white of the rest of its coat. Its deformed head swiveled as it came to stand in the middle of the hall and eventually its eyes came to the mares. Then it opened its mouth to howl.

Something impacted its elongated face, a sphere of some kind that exploded into a gray green dust. The point of impact, which had been the things snout, quickly solidified into what looked like crystal. From there the dark substance spread across the unicorn's panicking body at a lightning pace until the fully malformed creature was consumed and turned into a statue.

“You did that.” Parade had the realization at the same time as Rose. She spoke in a whisper, just loud enough for the other two mares to hear but didn’t dare to speak any louder. “The one in the place where we caught you looked just like that! What even is that stuff?” One answered question only gave rise to many more that needed closure.

“Nothing for you to worry about.” Tempest gave a side eye to the inquisitive pegasus. “Besides, I only have one more now and I’d rather keep it for an emergency.”

“As long as you don’t use them on us.” Rose mumbled. She was certain that Tempest wouldn’t, not unless they decided to turn on her. With the unicorn being the most seasoned combatant of them all, they weren’t liable to do that.

They took a right at the intersection, which meant they headed in the direction the statue’d unicorn had come from. Tempest’s quick thinking had spared them from trouble, as one of those things was laying down in the middle of the hall with its back towards them. There was no visible wounds from where they were standing, so it didn’t look to be dead.

It was odd, though. This was the first time that any of them had seen one of the monsters in any sort of repose. This was not the growling and gnashing of teeth that they were used to. It almost looked serene in the soft light of the sun that beat down upon its pink coat.

“We got this one.” While Rose was more than content to let Tempest handle these things, it seemed that Parade was not. The shorter pegasus even made sure to bump into the unicorn as she trotteed by. “C’mon Rose.” With a sigh, Rose joined her fellow guard.

The two guardsmares crept up on the sleeping beast with as much care as they could muster. Both had their acquired spears held in a wing and leveled right at the thing’s back as they got close. The usually beady eyes were closed and it looked to truly be enjoying itself bathing in the sunlight. The enjoyment was ended swiftly as spears from either side were jammed into its twig of a neck. Whatever cry it tried to make turned into a gurgle as blood filled its throat and poured from the mouth full of teeth. Parade made sure to twist her spear a few times before pulling it free from the unicorn’s neck with a wild grin.

The monster thrashed for a few moments in obvious pain. Its eyes looked back and forth between the two mares that had taken its life as its legs kicked in the air. For a brief moment, Rose could see the fear of death in its eyes. She could see the equinity still there, deep down. The only solace Rose could find for the poor beast was that it at least was able to die in the light of the sun.

Tempest marched past both of them and Parade followed quickly behind the unicorn. Rose couldn’t though. She knelt down and placed a hoof on the bloated barrel of the felled unicorn and looked to the sun as it shone through the window. It had still found comfort in the warmth of the sun, so that meant it was still a pony. The others might not see it like she did, but at least now she knew that there was a chance at redemption for these poor creatures if the process that made them feral could be reversed.

“I’m sorry it had to end like this for you…”

“Rose!” Parade hissed and pulled the pegasus to her hooves. “We don’t have time for your nonsense, come on!” So she was pulled away from her ‘nonsense’ and was made to catch up with Tempest, who was dutifully waiting for them while keeping an ear out.

Their current hallway terminated at a T-shaped intersection, at which they took another right. The deathly quiet of the palace persisted as they trotted along, that was until they were spotted. One of the unicorns had come walking out of a nearby room and had nearly bumped right into Parade.

They couldn’t act quick enough to stop it from letting loose a blood curdling howl into the musty air of the palace. The sword from Tempest’s back was lodged into one of its eyes not soon after and then quickly retracted and placed right back where it had been drawn from, but the damage had been done. Howls and growls came from seemingly everywhere around them. The cavernous halls of the castle carried and amplified the noise, which only caused more of the horned creatures to join in the chorus.

“We have to get to the tower! Now!” Parade was already in the air and flying towards their destination by the time the word ‘now’ even left her lips. Tempest was already running too, her eyes narrowed and focused as she galloped down the hall. Rose was lagging slightly behind but declined to join her fellow pegasus in taking to what little airspace the interior of the castle provided.

A unicorn skidded out from a door in front of them. Its hooves couldn’t find purchase on the slick floor and its gangly legs gave and it slammed against the ground. While it was prone, the horn on its head still charged with deadly light and was pointed right at the unicorn of the group.

“Tempest!” Parade slowed so she was directly overhead of her temporary comrade. She extended her front hooves out to the unicorn, who nodded and jumped up to grab them. She struggled to lift them both, but she forced all of her might into her wings and got enough clearance that the beam of magic that had been aimed right at Tempest easily missed. When she was sure they were over the monster, Parade let go of the infiltrator. Tempest, to her credit, did not miss a beat and just kept galloping at full speed as soon as she hit the ground again.

Two more rounded a corner about fifty feet in front of them and let loose lances of light without aiming. One went wide and hit a window, while the other nearly grazed Rose’s wing as she ran. Only chance had saved her from taking one of those beams right to the chest.

Tempest grabbed the sword on her back and tossed it into the air in front of her, she then launched herself after it and slammed one of her hooves into the hilt. The blade went rocketing down the hall as if it was on a wire and it stuck into the chest of one of the monsters. The other let out a feral howl, which meant it wasn’t firing at them nor ready for what happened next.

Rose’s spear, which she had kept a hold of since she decided not to fly unlike Parade, pierced its chest. The pegasus didn’t stop running as she ran the monster through and as she tried to turn the corner she felt the shaft of her weapon give and then snap off completely. The tip, and almost the front third of her weapon, were now left in the unicorn’s body cavity. So she dropped the broken part of the weapon she had and kept following her comrades.

The entrance to the tower they had come all this way for came up quickly once around the last bend. Parade was the first one there, of course, and she threw open the door and waved the other two in with a wing. They hurriedly complied, the roaring tide of the monsters came up quick from the hall they had just arrived from.

The door was shut as quickly and quietly as they could manage and all three of them put their sides to the door and dug their hooves into the stone below. The hope that the ravenous horde would surge past them prevailed. A few of the beasts banged into the door in an attempt to open it, but the combined might of the mares held that off until they lost interest. They were lucky that the things weren’t keen on using their magic as battering rams unless they were absolutely sure there was prey behind an obstructed door. If that had not been the case then at least one of them would have lost their lives so close to their final destination.

They stood there bracing the door for ten minutes just to make sure it was clear. Even when they were mostly certain that nothing was going to try to batter the door down, Tempest left to grab a chair and lodged it under the handle. Was it enough to stop the monsters? No, but it would slow them down and give the ponies enough time to react or get away.

The tower they were in was nothing special. It was mostly bare stone, not even the white marble that most of the castle consisted of, just plain boring gray stone. It was a rare sight but there were little rooms all over the place. If Rose remembered her lessons on the history of the castle from her training days, they were some of the oldest parts. There were a few features that stood out amongst the dull rocks; the massive circular indent in the floor, the giant wooden crank affixed to the wall, and chains that went all the way up to the very top of the tower.

“It’s a lift.” Rose understood it after a few moments. “You keep the ballista in here and just raise it up whenever you need to use it.” It was pure old school pony ingenuity at its finest, back when they had actually used their heads to defend themselves instead of their hearts. She loved this old school warfare stuff. “Imagine trying to siege Canterlot and just seeing one of those things just come up from inside the castle…”

“Yeah, very cool.” Parade interrupted Rose’s moment of wonder and pointed to a long ladder that went all the way to a hatch on the ceiling. “C’mon, we have regicide to commit and no time to waste.” The yellow pegasus then spread her wings and took off into the musty air of the tower.

That grim reminder of their purpose sucked what little wonder Rose had left out with a quiet sigh. It didn’t help matters that Parade seemed a little too eager to do the deed, which should be a somber affair if it was to be done at all. It made that too familiar rage build in her heart once more and the fires would consume her if she dwelled on it for too long. It needed to be a distant thing, something that was out of reach and she had nothing to do with. She needed to dissociate from this moment and try to focus on anything else.

“It’s almost over.” The encouragement came from Tempest, whose hoof patted right between Rose’s wings. “We’ll be done with this and you can keep your hooves clean of the mess.” No, she felt that this would stain more than her hooves. It would be a stain on her very soul and it would never come clean.

Tempest started up the ladder and Rose followed close behind. She wasn’t even ten rungs up yet when Parade lowered her altitude until she was following Rose’s own slow progress. The question the other pegasus wanted to ask was clear and it was a few grueling moments of silence before she finally did.

“Why aren’t you flying? You have wings, y’know.”

“I don’t feel like it.”

“Did you get hit?” One of Parade’s hooves reached out to Rose’s wings but Rose just glared at her. “Okay fine. Sorry. Just find it weird you want to climb a super long ladder rather than fly.” Even after Parade began to ascend at a faster pace than the two mares could climb the ladder, Rose found her wings clinging tight to her body.

They finally made it to the top and they exited the hatch one after the other as quickly as they could. A slight breeze met them as they emerged into the relatively fresh air of Equetstria. It carried the same stench of death as the air inside of the castle but it wasn’t as concentrated. It was downright refreshing compared to the stale air inside.

They weren’t here for the fresh air. No, they were here for the siege engine that now sat before them. From down below it looked massive, but from up close it was downright brobdingnagian. The frame was twice as tall as any pony here and the arms looked to be close to twenty feet long each. The ancient weapon of war was a good fifteen or twenty feet long and the projectiles sitting nearby were at least ten feet long and looked to just be logs with metal tips fitted on them.

“Okay, we can be a little impressed…” Parade muttered as she stared at the massive weapon. “Sweet Celestia, how am I supposed to load this?” She looked right back at Rose, but quickly looked to Tempest instead. “Are you going to help me?”

“I can.” Tempest answered noncommittally.

“Okay…but will you?”

“I don’t see why not.”

The two went on like that as they haggled and then figured out how to load the weapon. While they did so Rose went to the edge of the tower and looked out onto the city she had called home for so long. It was just as she had left it yesterday, a husk of what it once was. The shining city on the hill had turned into little more than a dull smoking ruin infested with monsters. It hurt to look at its faded majesty.

There was something that wounded even more than the state of the city, though. It was something she saw in it. It wasn’t the throngs of monsters who had fanned out across the streets, it was one particular monster. She was sitting atop a building, her once pure white coat now stained with blood. The mane of fire that erupted from her head scorched the other buildings around and started old blazes anew. Princess Celestia sat atop the wreckage of her own capital and her blackened eyes scanned the horizon.

Rose couldn’t help but think of the unicorn from earlier, the one she and Parade had dispatched together. It had been enjoying the day, savoring its time in the sun. She had seen panic and pain in its eyes, and she had seen the light leave its body even as it was bathed in the sun’s majesty. She had seen its equinity and now she couldn’t help but to think of Princess Celestia’s. What if the regent of the sun was still in there? What if she just couldn’t control herself and was watching her body do things without her input?

Tears fell from Rose’s golden eyes and stained the fur on her face. From this distance she could see Princess Celestia and through the horrors of transformation she could see a certain sadness. Others might say she was imagining it or that she had projected her own feelings onto the monster. But she knew Princess Celestia as well as she knew the light that shone overhead.

The fire rose again in her heart and it burned throughout her entire body. The ephemeral sadness evaporated in its presence and was replaced with a righteous anger that the Royal Guards around her had been so set on this plan. Then that anger turned inward and she was even more furious at herself for going along with it.

Why had she agreed to come along in spite of her misgivings about the whole ordeal? Because if she didn’t Parade would’ve died? Maybe Parade deserved to die if this is what it led to. This was an affront to everything any decent Equestrian held dear and whoever wanted to do it should’ve been here to deal with the consequences. Rose shouldn’t be here though.

The wing on her right side twitched and curled in on itself.

“Okay, it’s time.” Parade appeared next to Rose and slapped her on the back with a hoof. “Aaand there’s our target. Good. What do you think…like half a mile out? It looks like it to me.”

“I think you’re blind.” Tempest trotted up behind them both. “I have the range set already, we just need to turn it now.”

Rose turned her head to look at the ballista. Loaded onto it was not one of the blunt ball-tipped projectiles that had toppled so many buildings around the castle. Instead there was a proper arrow, the broad flat pointed tip a good four feet long and razor sharp around the edges. This was it, then. They were really set on doing it.

“If you want you can go back d-” Parade froze mid sentence and the hint of a grin that had adorned her face fell away as her jaw opened in shock. The guardsmare’s head turned and her brilliant pink eyes fell on a dagger lodged firmly in her abdomen, right at an angle where the blade would go under her ribs. Blood trickled from the wound and down her barrel, turning the pale yellow coat of the pegasus crimson.

They could not be allowed to do it.

“R-rose…?” Parade’s wing gripped the handle of the dagger, a gilded thing designed to look like a griffon. As soon as the curved blade came free from her skin, blood poured from the now gaping wound in her stomach. “W-what…” Shock morphed into denial, and eventually betrayal, in Parade’s eyes as she looked from the blade back up at Rose.

“I…” A storm of emotions raged through Rose’s mind as she looked the other member of the guard in the eyes. It was all anger and sadness with more than a little religious fervor mixed in. “I’m sorry…” Her words caught in her throat as her body tried to reject the phrase from even being uttered. “I just…I can’t let you…I can’t let you do it.”

“You…you crazy…” Parade stumbled towards Rose. The shock wore off in her eyes and it was replaced with betrayal and rage. A bloody hoof came to rest right against Rose’s neck. “I..I should’ve let you die on that wall!” She growled out through gritted teeth even as blood began to pool on the stones around her. “I…you…”

The two mares looked deep into each other's eyes and found nothing but mirrored emotions. Tears streamed down both of their cheeks, hot and angry tears that fell and mixed into the blood that stained both of their hooves. Rose had nothing more to say. She couldn’t bring herself to admonish Parade anymore. The dagger in the belly was the final condemnation she had to give.

Rose put a hoof on Parade’s chest and pushed her away. The wounded mare stumbled back and her wings flapped uselessly as they tried to stabilize her. Blood trailed across the top of the tower and followed Parade’s trail as she got too close to the edge. Her hooves found nothing but air beneath them and she tumbled off the edge of the tower. The sound of ceramic roof tiles shattering was the only thing that let the ponies who still remained that the empty vessel that had once been Corporal Parade Grounds had landed.

Tempest had said nothing. When Rose finally faced the unicorn, she found those intense blue eyes fixed right on her. One of her eyebrows raised slightly and then she looked down at Rose’s hooves.

“So much for keeping your hooves clean of a mess.”

The zealot looked down at her hooves. Her coat was a darker shade of red than the blood that stained it. It was almost impossible to see the difference.

“They aren’t worth it…” Rose looked up at Tempest and echoed the words from their conversation last night. “Not at that price…”

“They never are.”