Foggy Overcast

Chapters

Good Morning Ponyville
That's what makes a friend
road to Unicornia
How we wish you were here
that's what I love about Christmas
Shine On
Colors of the Rainbow
squink
Two for the sky.
Epilogue - Bounce back ability

Good Morning Ponyville

Deep within the small village of Daffodilia, Twinkle Shine sat alone in her library, trying so hard to remember. She used to remember many things, she remembered that at least. Now she remembered little. She used to sing songs, not to help her remember, but she did remember that she used to sing. What was that song? No, it couldn't be that song. She remembered it wasn't real, she had never sung that song before... before… before what? Why couldn't she remember? Why couldn't she stop whispering it to herself? Her heart skipped over the melody, and jumped over the chorus. Focusing on the lyrics, trying to remember them.

“Jolly and pleasant, just for the present, no sign of trouble in sight…”

She wanted to repeat the words over and over again, instead she just sang from start to finish again and again as she stared down at the hardwood floor.

“Greeting the bluebirds, welcoming new birds, romping through meadow and wood…”

Then her heart froze, and small tears formed as she shivered and tried so very hard to blink them away.

“Winter… is… over… for… good!”

That was reassuring, every time she said that line. She hated winter so much, so very, very much. The library was good and insulated, her neighbors gave her little presents and they all sang songs and ate candies, and the little ones made snow angels while she would hang up decorations. Winter was… no- no... that was Christmas with Santa Claus and… it was warming- no it- it was warm. Christmas was warm. Winter was… that wasn't winter, it was… winter…?

Her mind had become foggy again, she couldn't think now, more small tears formed in her eyes as she began to cry into her hooves. Then came a small knock at the library door. She ignored it and continued to whimper the lyrics into her mind. She just wanted to remember. All she had wanted to do for as long as she could remember was just to remember. The knocking sounded again, still respectful and soft, then the door crept open.

Twinkle had not looked up to greet this visitor but, in a way, she was very happy they were here. In a moment they would ask her why she was crying, and she wouldn't be alone anymore, then she wouldn't have to focus on remembering anymore and that sweet, kind pony would try to cheer her up and she would be happy again.

The terminal blinked to life as Cake entered in a few simple command prompts onto the keyboard.

Daffodilia: population > 25, medium-density site,
Status of village: Unknown
Unicornia: population > 30, very high-density site,
Status of Princessdom: Unknown
Ponyville: population > 15, medium-density site,
Status of village: Green

Green. It was… it was working! Cake felt tears of joy slide down her face as she entered her report. The ponies were happily singing in the street, preparing for another great festival. Today, they were going to gather for a musical of sorts. They had separated themselves into 3 groups of 4, with the rest helping manage the festival and, of course, watching. One by one they went onto the tiny stage dressed in the costumes they had made from little arts and crafts to sing and dance like they had rehearsed for the week to the other ponies, who when it was time for their group did the same. Cake watched them from the tree line as they sang songs about ladybugs while dressed as ladybugs, they drank their juices and ate their little cakes and laughed. It was so perfect to her, no pony was shooting at one another, there was no curfew, no cults trying to burn a filly alive on a stake. She looked above at the perfect, blue sky. She knew it was going to rain soon, she had put the order in for rain herself. It would still be a beautiful day regardless; the ponies would have ended their show by then and put on their rain boots and they would go around town splashing in puddles. But then of course there were still problems, she stared at the terminal screen and adjusted her radio. There was nothing… static.

“This is Apple Cake! Hello, please report in!” Static. Cake flickered through a few more frequencies. “Apple Cake, reporting in from the Alpha sector, does anyone read me?” she said anxiously. She was worried her antenna would need repairs, and if that was the case it would be… bothersome. She was already worried the little ponies might have seen her creeping around their village as she did her weekly inspection, if they saw an antenna, they might… no. It was the rain, the weather always messed with the sensitive equipment. Even if the report was bad somepony would have filed it by now, you can't just leave your weekly report on ‘unknown’. And… and…

One hour, the rain outside was soft without thunder. Just the way she requested it.

Three hours. The rain had stopped. No report.

Six hours. No report. And the sun was falling on the horizon. She wanted to go and see the little ponies trot back into their cottages and see the little village, but… time to go fix that damn antenna. She looked through her boxes of equipment. The dish was what would have been broken, it was a prototype meant to be small and not very visible in the event of an invasion, but they hadn't made it very durable. She grabbed the bigger and more durable one, and went about tying it to her back to begin her hike. Night fell and she was now using her magic like a flashlight to walk up the mountain. She couldn't wait to teach her little ponies spells like these. She had done too much recently and didn't want them to start worshiping her as a gift giving deity, she would have to wait for Hearth’s- Christmas for that, she thought.

She began to climb up the little radio tower, disguised as a big pine tree, as she thought it over. There were a few unicorns in Ponyville she could give the spell to, who would then teach it to the others. Razzatwo was… no, last year she got the spell book for making balloon animals from clouds, this year she was due for socks. Daisy Maze however was perfect. She liked puzzles and games; a flashlight spell would mean she could play tag in the dark. Cake looked over the little dish and checked it for damage. She was not good with this stuff, but she had books and blueprints for this, maybe she could repair it. Maybe even upgrade it. Nah, who was she kidding, she hardly knew how to install it. She took it off, and carefully replaced it with the one on her back with her magic and began to slide her way down the ladder. She was just about to turn around and walk home when she heard it, the small rustling of leaves. Her mind was confident, it was… a bunny! A nice, soft white snow bunny she could give to Cottontail! Oh, how happy that little shy filly would be to have a bunny! Then, out came from the woods a marching, proud pegasus. Cake recognized her immediately and sighed. If she was here and not sending a distress call, it was not going to be good news.

“I fly all the way here from Daffodilia and you are just now fixing your dish! It's been three weeks, why haven't you been reporting in?” the Pegasus huffed. “Please tell me at least your village is green.”

Cake looked her over as the gears in her head started to turn and some ideas of what might have been happening started to go through her mind. “Green as the grass! My little ponies just finished throwing a little concert for one another! And I have been reporting in. In fact, I have done it on the hour of every week for a full year since we began. It's you and Tide Turner who haven't reported in this week. I even had to fix my dish because I thought it was on my end,” she retorted. “So, Yellow… how’s she doing?”

Yellow Diamond brushed her mane with a hoof while looking away. “Not good… she's trying to remember it. I've done everything I can to make her try to forget but she keeps trying. I even rewrote the entirety of Beginner’s Guide to Magic: Volume one… as Santa Claus! I'm a pegasus, Cake, I know you really don't want to be near her, but I think we should swap sites.”

There it was. The terrible, terrible news. Cake groaned loudly in disapproval of it, of all of it. Her stomach turned with grief. Why couldn't she just be happy again, that was all she wanted from them. Just to smile again. Just smile and forget all about winter.

“I’ll… figure something out. First, I could really use your help getting my systems working again, if it's a problem on my side,” Cake asked politely.

“I- well… I didn't want to bother you, but I haven't gotten any reports from Unicornia, and my ham’s been static for around a week now,” Yellow said meekly.

Cake trotted over to her and gave the blonde pegasus a hug. “Hey, let’s go get some tea and we can go see Tide Turner together, I still have some good diesel and a bike!”

That made Yellow Diamond smile, which made Cake smile too. The duo trotted back to the cabin together. Cake was happy to have friends who could help her in these trying times.

That's what makes a friend

Twinkle Shine was drinking from her tea cup across from her good friend Minty Brew. Minty was the best tea maker in Daffodilia , especially mint teas. But she always remembered Twinkle liked honey and bitter teas while she preferred hers to be cold with lots of sugar. She was drinking hers from a tall glass with ice as she relaxed in her chair and enjoyed the cool late night breeze from the window. Twinkle smiled at Minty and the dark green earth pony smiled back at her.

“Minty, how do um… how do you get ice for your teas?” Asked Twinkle

“From my refrigerator! I press this little button that has an ice cube on it, and then put my cup next to this little hole and ice comes out. Sometimes, I put my tea in first then get the ice and it makes a huge mess! Oh, and I have to put water in the fridge so it-”

“Where did you get the fridge from?” Twinkle asked, cutting her off.

Minty scratched her chin and looked over at the few books the library had. “I think I got it from Santa when I was… younger.”

That was always the answer the little ponies had for how they got things, they either got them from Santa, they always had them, or it was made by them. Twinkle always asked anyways, she was a curious unicorn, like every other unicorn in Daffodilia, she liked to know things. One last sip from her little white and gold tea cup, that Minty had given her, and she felt happy again.

“Minty, what do you do… when you feel sad?” Twinkle asked.

Minty giggled “I make some tea of course!”

That lined up, Twinkle though, with the little thing nearly every pony did. Breezy Winds flew kites, Horseshoe was always showing off his new shoes and Twinkle… she cried. She felt a little foggy again and quickly refilled her tea from the pot on the table. The pot didn't match her cup, it had little doves on the sides while the pot had golden leaves and stripes. Lots of things were like that in Daffodilia, and the ponies loved it. Things didn't match because everything was special. No two baubles on the Christmas tree were the same because no two ponies were the same. But that wasn't right because Twinkle remembered that word… it was in her books in the library, A twin! There were ponies who had twins and siblings… more fog rushed in to fill the branches of her mind. Drink the tea. Ask Minty another question. And don't think, Twinkle remembered.

“Minty, do you want to have a sleepover tonight?” asked Twinkle.

“Oh, I would love to but… I hate sleeping on the floor.” Replied Minty.

They couldn't sleep in the same bed of course, it would make Santa upset. But it was so late and Minty was going to leave at any moment.

“Actually, now that you mention it, I'm very tired! I’ll be back over tomorrow, okay Twinkie?” Asked minty.

“I’ll… see you soon, Minty.” Twinkle replied. Minty nodded and walked out, still taking long swigs from her jug.

Alone again. Can't read, reading makes her mind foggy and that makes her sad. Cant eat, already ate. Sleep? Of course, it was time for sleep. Minty would be over in the morning, or afternoon, and if she wasn't over in the morning then she could eat breakfast at Doodles Dinner and listen to the jukebox. She had a plan in her mind now and it was time to actually check off the boxes. Just… close her eyes and sleep, how hard could that be? But as she walked up the stairs she didn't feel tired, she didn't feel tired at all when she laid into her bed and blew out her lantern. She stared at the blank ceiling, at her stary blanket, out her window at the real stars, and still felt like she wasn't tired at all. It never felt right to her, like she was sleeping in the wrong place. No matter how many times she moved her bed around, or moved it to another room. It always felt like it was always in the wrong spot. It didn't help that the ceiling and walls were so bare, and the carpet so bland.

The motorcycle was racing across the empty highways, dodging potholes and burned-out tanks, Diamond was always a great driver, her wings were out, and she loved feeling the wind tickle her feathers. Cake held onto her, staring up at the clear blue sky. The bike was old, but the engine still worked much to their relief, Cake had done a decent job of taking care of it, keeping it under tarps in a nearby cave. She even took the time to sandpaper off the old insignias she always hated. It was a long road trip, it was going to take them at least a day to get to Unicornia, the landscape ahead was a blur to her. A constant changing wasteland of green grass, bomb craters, and skeletons. She wasn't blocking them out, she even made out the many landmarks she recalled on the journey. She was just too used to the sight to care. She shivered, feeling cold. It was about mid-day now, she wanted to get off the bike and stretch for a moment. She tapped onto Diamond’s shoulder, and they stopped, finding a nice flipped over halftrack filled with skeletons spewed out onto the grass beside the concrete road to park beside.

“Yellow, I'm going to take a leak, check for some trinkets for me, will you?” Asked Cake, as she looked over at the pile of bones next to them. Yellow Diamond nodded and quickly got to work, flying up to the top door and prying it open before fluttering inside while Cake walked off the highway and into the woods. Yellow began by looking at the skeleton in the driver seat, the highway had been firebombed a long time ago, she remembered the event. The skeleton was completely dry with their uniform burned off; their hooves melted into the steering wheel. There wasn't much left except for a small pin she saw wedged out of his teeth; she realized that in his last moments he probably stuck it there so they could have something to recognize the body if it was ever recovered. She took it out and looked over the little piece of metal. It was a simple Victorian cross, she frowned as she tossed it away, not worth keeping, and flew out of the cab. Cake was already trotting back to the bike, and yellow could see something was bothering her.

“What's wrong, Cake?” She asked as the unicorn closed the distance between the two.

“Do you feel… cold Diamond?” Asked Cake as she looked back up at the sky.

“N- no? I feel okay, I suppose. Even when it comes time for the snow, I don't really feel cold anymore though, not since… winter.” Diamond was a taller pony than Cake was, and she had wings. Cake was a skinny little Unicorn who was usually shivering, as Diamond recalled in their past together.

“We better hurry, Tide Turner’s got a lot to worry about taking care of 30 unicorns, he was eager to do it but even I couldn't take on that much responsibility,” Cake said, getting back onto the bike and taking the handles herself this time. Diamond flew up and spun around, flapping her wings. Cake took that as a sign she would prefer to fly while Cake drove, and the two set off again down the road.

Twinkle sat down in the booth beside the window, it was her favorite place to sit because it always had fresh daffodilly flowers in the vase on the table, the rest of the vases really just depended on what ponies brought in, and what was in bloom, but daffodillies where predictable, and grew all over Daffodilia, easy to eat and pretty to look at. Twinkle took one out and chewed on it as she looked out the window at the ponies going about their early morning activities. Tool Belt was working on an idea he had for a while, a street light as he called it, he wouldn't tell anypony where he got the metal pole, but he was quick to work with his friend, Rusty Shield, to put it into the ground and try to tie a lantern to it. Twinkle watched as Tool Belt climbed onto Rusty and was carefully trying to place the lantern and then… he fell. He had put too much weight onto his friend and caused him to stumble, making him drop him. Tool Belt collided hard onto the stone street and then she saw it, it was a tiny scrape on his chin, it would hurt for a few minutes, it would be sore for an hour, then he would forget about it. But Twinkle saw it, the smallest bead of crimson. She felt a shiver zig zag down her back, she looked away quickly, but she heard him cry out in pain, her mind was going to places she didn't want it too as she heard the pony outside trying to console and help his friend to his hooves. Images flashed over her eyes but then she heard hoof steps that pulled her from the trance. Dinky walked over and laid down the plate from her mouth as she looked at Twinkle holding her ears and placing her head onto the table.

“Twinkle Shine, do you not like what's on the jukebox? I can change it if you would like,” asked Doodle as she looked down at the shivering pony below her.

Twinkle tried to focus on that, the sweet music coming from the magical music box. Just focus on the sweet instruments and everything would be okay. “No… I um... Please don't change the music,” Twinkle whimpered. Doodle nodded and left the pony alone with her little croissant. The fog slowly faded, she decided not to give into her curiosity and look out the window to confirm the fate of Tool Belt, it was just a scrape what's the worst that could… no, don't even think about it. Just listen to the music. Bite the bread. Chew the bread… and breathe. And don't think. Clean, fresh air filled her lungs, and the fog was gone. The sound of the little bell above the door made her ears stick up as in walked her friend, Minty. She scanned the room for a moment before her eyes lit up at the sight of the lavender unicorn sitting alone in the corner booth.

“There you are! I was worried when you weren't in the library this morning.” Minty's smile beamed and brightened up the room as she trotted over to the booth and sat down across from Twinkle who felt the cold shiver leave her as she breathed a sigh of relief and returned her hooves to relaxing on the table. The curious unicorn's eyes focused onto the saddle bags Minty had carefully placed on the table with a little giggle. “I found something on my way to the library this morning!” Minty carefully opened up the large satchel bag and pulled out a bottle with a piece of wood or hard sponge, at the top. Twinkle had never seen anything like it before.

“What is that, Minty?” Asked Twinkle

“I have no idea! I was hoping you might tell me, I've never seen anything like it before! I found it floating down the river, snagged onto a couple rocks.” Minty said as she carefully laid the bottle into Twinkles hooves.

The label was faded and torn, they had gotten little things like this before. Preserves and jams, and an occasional potion with a similar but much smaller container, and of course when they really liked them, Santa would give them the recipes to make the goods themselves. “Red… ine? no wait, i think it might be Red One, five… cent. Red one five cent!”

“I don't know why, but I really wanna drink whatever it is, I don't even like cherry flavored things!” Minty said, giggling.

Twinkle was skeptical, she wasn't sure about drinking this weird river water potion. At least she thought it was a potion, it had that weird not-quite-wood thing jammed into it. Maybe it was the color or the large oversized shape of it, either way it didn't look very appealing. “I don't know Minty… it doesn't look that… drinkable. Remember when Slushy drank that tummy ache potion when she didn't have a tummy ache… and it gave her one…”

“Oh, don't be such a downer, Twinkle! I bet this is something you're supposed to drink all the time, it would have a warning on it if you weren't, all the other potions do!” Minty exclaimed as she took the top of it into her mouth and positioned the bottle between her legs, a few grunts and a hard pull where all it took to pop it out of the bottle, and she spat it onto Twinkle’s empty plate.

Twinkle could immediately smell whatever it was, it made her nose twitch and it didn't smell at all like cherries. “Ewww, don't tell me you’re really going to drink that stuff Minty!”

Minty turned her body facing out of the booth, lifting the bottle up to her mouth and drinking its contents in one long swig. It was like the movement was natural to her, she lifted up the bottle, accounted for the sloshing liquid and drank. She lowered the bottle and locked her lips and paused for a moment, then her eyes opened and her expression changed to a frown. Carefully, she lowered the bottle back down and looked back at the label.

“See, I told you that stuff was gross!” Twinkle said, about to lecture her friend.

“No, it tasted good, sweet even, and… it tasted like… home.”

road to Unicornia

Cake parked the bike two miles outside the site, it was a walk, but it was worth it for the Unicorns to not see them or hear the loud diesel engine. She had carefully thrown a net over it with some leaves, marked the tree it was beside, and began hiking to Tide Turner's cabin. “When was the last time you spoke to Tide, Yellow?” Cake asked.

“Two weeks ago, we were talking about you and if either of us had heard anything from you, he said there were strange things happening in Unicornia but that he could handle it and there was nothing to worry about.” Yellow spoke with a worried look on her face.

“I told him, repeatedly, that Unicornia was a bad idea, it's too dense and worst of all, it's all unicorns. I told him-” Cake stopped as she saw the cabin come into view. The door was laying down in the grass, like it had been kicked down from the inside. “Oh, this is bad. Really bad.”
Cake whispered as the duo crouched down and slowly approached the cabin. The inside was gutted, empty for the most part, all that was left was the table and pulled out drawers that had been tossed out and thrown onto the ground along with the cot Tide would have slept on.

“You think there's a chance… he could be building a new cabin and is just… moving things?” Yellow asked sheepishly as she looked around for any signs of a struggle.

“Not a chance...” Cake replied, as she entered the cabin properly. There was no indication there had been a fight, nothing was broken just… missing, or taken apart like the drawers. There were no signs of the radio equipment, and more importantly, the terminal.

“We are going to need to split up, I'll give you a trottie talkie, check around here for any clues as to where Tide Turner is, I have to make sure Unicornia is... not in red. Or worse.” Cake handed her the brick sized device, the large antenna sticking out of it made Yellow Diamond unsure of the tech, it looked like unenchanted junk, but she put it onto her service belt and gave Cake a salute that the commander just shook her head in response to. The unicorn trotted off in the direction of the princessdom as the pegasus took to the skies for an aerial view of the surroundings.

“Minty… Minty, where are we going!” Twinkle asked as she walked through the forest, trailing behind her friend, Minty was still taking long drinks from her bottle, and was humming a tune. Twinkle knew every tune and song the village had made to play on the jukebox, even the very special records with the pretty instruments that Santa had brought them. Whatever Minty was humming wasn't any of them, but it was also too complex and detailed for the tea brewing pony to have made it up on her slightly stumbly walk through the woods.

The bottle was filled to the brim when she had started, now it was down to a fourth, soon down to a fifth. She had a big smile on her face, but her eyes were bloodshot, like if she blinked, she might lose it. “Be quiet Twinkie, we are almost there!”

Twinkle didn't feel like they were going anywhere but deeper and deeper into the woods, let alone home. They had been walking now for almost an hour, with Minty taking little detours and changing her direction slightly. She wasn't sure why, but it did feel like they were following a trail of sorts, the ground was a little less twiggy and brush with the little changes in direction that Minty was taking. “Minty the sun is starting to set; can we please go back home?”

Minty stopped, took a long swig from her drink, she turned around and smiled at Twinkle “Are you not listening to me, friend?” she asked in a strange tone. She stumbled forward a little then, they had reached it. It was a metal round circle on the floor of the forest. Minty stumbled over to it and looked at it confused. “Oh, bloody hell, where's the handle?” she ran her hoof over two little metal stumps disappointed. “You, horny, give a lady a hoof here.”

Twinkle wasn't sure why but... she knew what to do. She covered the small metal… door, in her magic and lifted it open at an angle because… it had a hinge on it. How did she remember that? The hinge wasn't visible on the top, and… “Minty!” she called out as she watched her friend dive headfirst down into the hole in the earth, she expected to hear a thunk but, there was instead a soft poof, she trotted over quickly and looked down the hole, and there she saw the earth pony picking herself up off a bean bag. Bean… bag... Why do they call them that? They don't actually have beans in them they have-

“Hey! Are you coming or what?” Minty asked, interrupting Twinkle’s train of thought as she waved to her. She still had that smile on her face but left the empty bottle to roll on the floor as she giggled. Twinkle felt curious, and she couldn't ignore that feeling inside her, so she too jumped down into the hole, landing on the soft bean bag. She looked around the little… place. It was odd, there was a big fireplace on the far wall, a little cot, and a shelf filled with those bottles and a few too many thermostats on the wall. Minty was stumbling toward the shelf and she looked very happy with herself “Home again, home again! Finally! I'm going to have a nice big glass of.” She stopped, her eyes went wide, the bottles were all empty. Each one was missing the little wood sponge thingy that went into them. “No… no, no!” She sat down hard on the metal floor, and quickly began to mourn over the dead bottles. Twinkle did the only thing she could think of, she quickly trotted over to her friend and gave her a big hug.

“Don't worry, I'm sure Santa Claus will bring you more if you just write him a letter!” Twinkle said, hugging her friend tight.

“Who the hell is Santa Claus?” Replied Minty. She looked down the neck of an empty bottle and frowned. Twinkle broke the hug and sat beside her.

“He helps us, Minty. Don't you remember who brought you your sugar? Your favorite mug?” Twinkle sighed.

Minty shrugged. “I guess, still doesn't mean we really know who they are.”

Twinkle scoffed. “We don't need to know, we just need to be good, and be friends with one another, and then Santa will bring us things we can play with. Wouldn't you like it if Doodle got another batch of rainbow berries, or pancake mix?”

Minty scratched her head and looked around the room. “Hey, um… why does this place have so many thermostats on the walls?”

Twinkle gave her a confused look. “Minty, you are the one who brought me here.”

The little earth pony nodded. “Right… I did do that…” She smiled and rocked back and forth, humming a tune silently.

“Ugh, Minty you are acting weird! I told you not to drink that potion!” Twinkle shook her head. “What are you going to tell Band aid when you see her in the morning?”

“I’m fine Twinkie, just give me a moment. My body feels warm, but my mind is like it's going for a swim in the river.” She raised her hooves up to her head and hummed again as the unicorn huffed and sat back on the bean bag.

How we wish you were here

The princessdom was, admittedly, beautiful from the outside. Newly built and clean walls of painted and dyed concrete looked, in Cake’s mind, ripped straight from a fairy tale. The unicorn herself couldn't stand the old stories herself, but she made no attempt to hide that she was very impressed with the progress the site had made. She couldn't deny how valuable the idea Tide Turner had for Unicornia as she got to work climbing up a far wall after levitating up a few tied together vines to work as makeshift ropes. Already she could hear sounds of commotion, hooves hitting stone hard like marching platoons, shouts and commands she couldn't quite make out. The little spy pulled herself over the wall and onto the patrol path, dusting herself she quickly got a good look around her surroundings. Already making out unicorns on the streets below her, wearing crude bits of tied together metal and cardboard made to resemble… armor. They marched out of tune and kept their heads straight as they went by. Cake began to take deep breaths as she observed them. She decided to follow the two marching ponies from her position above on the walls, making sure to stay out of their line of sight and that she wasn't going to bump into another patrol.

“The empress is calling everyhorn to the plaza! Come out every unicorn!” One of them shouted while the other lifted half a rusted trumpet to their mouth and tried to blow into it. A few unicorns stepped out of their little homes made from abandoned storefronts and other tiny buildings and began to quickly make their way to the plaza. Cake found a staircase and descended down from the walls and easily blended into the panic and made her own way to the plaza. Looking up at the ‘castle’ in front of her, now she remembered. This was not something new they had built, the ‘castle’ was once a mall, a large one at that. The only part of it that baffled her was how well they did at hiding that fact. New columns made of concrete stood outside, illuminated by torches all over, and tables of candles that burned brightly. An aesthetic she had prayed to the stars never to see again.

“Yellow, entering castle now, situation red.” Cake whispered into her trottie talkie as she entered inside through a makeshift door where the fire escape used to be.

“Cake, I'm being stalked, do you copy?” Yellow responded through a small bit of static.

“Yellow, avoid being captured at all costs, fly as far as you can.” Cake commanded.

“Negative, they aren't-” a grumble of static then, nothing came from the other end.

“Yellow, Yellow do you copy!?” Cake was not doing very well at whispering now. But the other side was dead, she kept the antenna up as she stuffed the trottie talkie into her saddle bag and made her way quickly through a tight maintenance hall. Peeking through another makeshift door Cake looked into the plaza, it was filled with unicorns, all of them had made their way here, all of them staring up at the staircase that had previously led up to the second story of the mall. There sat an empty chair on the platform where the staircase had branched off. It was fancy, no doubt a throne. Then the few unicorns wearing ‘armor’ signaled for the crowd below to be silent as they pulled out their rusty instruments and began to try to play them. It sounded awful to Cake, but it seemed to get the full attention of the crowd as they all stared at the platform holding their breath.

“My loyal subjects…” Announced A pony who descended down the steps. “Your Empress Celestia has arrived.”

Cake was already fuming with rage as she looked at the pony on the platform, she was wearing a very well preserved all white wedding dress, she had dyed her hair blue and green poorly, not hiding her grey roots, but too top it all off was the crown. Cake wanted to see it as a disgusting mockery of paper, or perhaps just a cheap tiara. It wasn't, it was the real deal. Cake had no clue how she had gotten it, but now she knew where the pony had gotten the idea from.

“It is with great pleasure, my loyal subject, that we have captured… Santa Claus!”

“I'm sick of hearing about this guy, Twinkie.” Minty groaned as she held her head. She was now sitting on the bean bag while Twinkle was looking over the bottles.

“But he is real, minty! How do you explain the presents, you have presents from Santa too!” Twinkle exclaimed, pointing to the saddle bags laying on the metal floor.

“I… I don't remember where I got this from.” Minty said as she picked it up and looked it over. It was a pale yellow and had little butterflies on the side. “Hold on, there's a name stitched in here, but I can't read it, my vision is still a little wobbly.”

Twinkle took the saddle bag and looked over where it had the sticking.
“Fluttershy, huh… I think I… remember that name.” Twinkle scratched her head and stared at the little butterflies, she had never seen Minty use this saddle bag before, and the little butterflies on the side made her feel sad. A sadness that was growing and growing.

Minty started to frown a little too when she looked at the butterflies.
“You know that feeling… when you haven't heard from a friend in a long time?”

“Yes, I think I know what you mean, Minty.” Twinkle went in for another hug, trying to fight off the wave of sadness crashing into her. Minty returned the hug eagerly and they both sat on the bean bag, hugging and looking at the little butterflies. Ten minutes passed before Minty shuffled and broke the hug.

“We need to get back to the village, they’ll start to worry if we are gone any longer.” Minty said, turning and positioning herself as she began to climb up the ladder.

“Wait a moment, how did you know about this place, minty?” Twinkle asked, picking up the saddle bags and placing them onto herself.

“I… I don't remember.” The earth pony replied as she climbed out and shook herself off, and then turned to give Twinkle a hoof to do the same. The Unicorn took it and was happy to see that the sun was still high in the sky, and they hadn't been out for too long. “And… a part of me just doesn't want to remember.”

“What do you remember, Minty, please tell me. Because… I do want to remember.” Twinkle pleaded, a part of her that she had tried to suppress was clawing at her, gnawing almost as it rushed to force the words, she almost instantly regretted asking out of her.

“Remember what about what?” Minty said in a slightly agitated tone as she looked around, trying to remember the path they took to get there.

“I… I don’t know. It's like when you leave on a hot plate, you feel like you forgot something. Something terrible. But you just can't remember what that something is.” Twinkle explained as she took the lead, remembering the path while Minty followed behind her.

“I don't feel like that, it's like… When I try to… ‘remember’ it makes me feel so, so guilty, Twinkie. I feel like I did something horrible. Don't you, isn't that why you’re always sad when… you try to remember?” Minty let out a deep sigh. “Maybe you forget things on purpose sometimes. When was the last time you got a bruise, or… when was the last time you got sick?” Minty looked at Twinkle with a raised eyebrow while the Unicorn looked up at the blue sky.

“I can't remember the last time anypony got really sick. I don't remember when my own birthday is. But for some reason, I haven't been able to forget that I should know those things, Minty. I feel… I feel like I've been sick for a long time.” Twinkle slowed down for a moment and took a deep breath.

Minty walked over and placed A hoof on her shoulder. “Is there anything I can do for you, Twinkie? I don't want to see you sad anymore.”

“I don't know… Minty… I… Minty Brew…” Twinkle trailed off, she stared up at her friend with her ears low and looked at her for guidance.

The green earth pony looked at her confused, like she just heard her speak in a language she didn't understand. “Minty… Brew? My name isn't… my name is… its… Battle Brew. Why does everypony call me Minty?”

“Battle Brew? But you told me… when we met… when… when did we first meet each other Minty- I mean. Battle brew?” She now looked confused herself, the longer she stared at her friend the more she looked like an alien.

“We, I had come into the library a few months ago… I knew your name, Twinkle Shine. I asked you for a book and… you gave me that book about Tea Leaves, and when you asked me for my name I just… I thought my name was Minty.” She blinked and looked at the ground for a moment, then turned and looked at her cutie mark, it was a large barrel with a four-leaf clover beside it. “Twinkle, I think I'm starting to feel sick too. And… and I feel cold.”

Cake watched from the sidelines; the crowd too focused on their empress to pay her any attention. “Bring him out here! Show your victory to Alicornia!” the empress commanded. The unicorn guards, all four of them, focused their magic together and slowly the large earth pony, wearing a red suit jacket and tied very liberally to an office chair, levitated down the stairs. Cake felt a bit of relief they weren't dumb enough to just push him. “Now, my little ponies! Come up, one at a time, and ask Santa for whatever you desire, and your empress will make it so!”

One small unicorn excitedly walked up onto the platform. Tide Turner had been gagged and had around 30 feet of hard rope wrapped around him, he looked at her with cold eyes as she got close and whispered something into his ear. Tide Turner showed no reaction and after a few seconds the faux Celestia seemed to not like this one bit. She grabbed one of the many candles in her magic and held it over his leg. “Don't you worry, my loyal subject, Santa will give you whatever you asked him… or he will face the WRATH of the EMPRESS!”

While Cake had no doubt that this would do little to hurt Tide, she still wasn't going to let him get tortured for any longer than she had too, quickly channeling her magic she untied the ropes and casted a invisibility spell onto the earth pony.

“W- WHAT! No! This, this cannot be!” The Empress tossed the candle in her magic as she began to flail around and kick her hooves against the floor in rage. Already little whispers in the crowd began to form, some little ones started to cry believing that they had just lost Santa forever. Surely now he would never bring them presents after such actions. Everypony seemed to be regretting what they had done, except for the little unicorn who had gone up to ask Santa for something. Cake stifled a giggle as she watched Tide give the little mare what she had asked for, a hug. Then Tide Turner quickly ran up the stairs before some pony might have noticed the shimmering light of his presence.

Empress Celestia looked over her crowd of ponies and took a few steps back. “Y- your Empress will fix this! She just needs some time to think. Do not disturb me!” She very quickly trotted back up the stairs and towards her inner sanctum of the mall using the opposite staircase Tide Turner was climbing. Cake watched the little ponies slowly make their way out of the mall, ushered out by the guards to return to their homes. Cake waited for the knights to take their focus off the platform as the citizens were busy being pushed out the doors to regroup with Tide outside of the Empress’s Quarters, Cake recognized it as some high-end clothing store, guessing it wasn't a mystery where she had gotten the wedding dress from. The windows had been covered in different colored bed sheets, and the door was another plywood makeshift that had a sun painted onto it. Cake even let the thought of the dress being an original Rarity roll around in her head for a minute before her attention focused back onto Tide Turner.

“What the fuck happened; did you give her that crown!?” Cake said as the spell wore off, now that she had a better look at him, she could see the bruises on his body.

“Ma’am, it's bad. Really bad. They didn't capture me, I was jumped outside my cabin by cows, three of them. They handed me, and that crown, over to her. I- I'm sorry, commander.” Tide Turner looked at the floor for a moment. “But I do have something you will find interesting.”
He reached into his suit and handed Cake a pair of dog tags.

“The southern commune, Private Folklore.” Cake read it out loud and gave it back to Tide who stuffed it back into his suit. “Here, report in with Yellow, I’ll lead the interrogation and make it brief, it looks like we have a lead on the source of all our problems thanks to your nimble hooves.”

“Always was a good smuggler.” Tide Turner said with a prideful smile as he positioned his hind legs to the door, with one swift kick the lock broke and the door swung open.

The empress was sitting at a desk and turned to the noise, her face went from rage to fear as she looked at the duo. “Please… please don't turn me into coal! I'm so sorry! I just wanted my subjects too-”

Cake closed her throat in her magic as she walked into the room. She casted a spell that coated the walls and in a little pink glow as Tide Turner stepped in and closed the large piece of plywood behind them. “Now, we are going to ask you a few questions and then you are going to go back to your subjects and tell them that ‘Alicornia’ was a failure, and you are dissolving it and returning to ‘Unicornia’ to try and appease Santa. Do you understand, Inkwell?”

Inkwell coughed as she tried to breathe again “Y- yes… anything you wish.” she rasped as she took another few breaths.

“Good, now then. The lie, the idea. Where did you get it from.” Cake said as she slowly walked toward the mare. “For this… Empress Celestia.”

“Cows came in, they gave us Santa and said… They gave me the crown and told me to remember who it belonged to. I remembered who it was, it was… mine. I am not Inkwell, I am Empress Celestia!” She said, her eyes flickered for a moment as if saying it triggered something in her. “And you will respect that name!”

Cake shook her head at the sudden shift of confidence. “No, no you are not Inkwell. You may be correct; you are not just ‘Inkwell’ you were at one point in time… Raven Inkwell. You were an aid to Celestia, and then you became our inside mare against her when she became Empress Daybreaker. You remember it, don't you?”

Raven blinked her eyes, she focused onto Cake, scanning her face for a moment and before she made her mouth wrapped into a frown then small tears formed in her eyes. “No… no please… don't make me remember. I don't want to remember.”

“Then what are you doing, playing pretend, digging up the past in some hideous mockery. I needed you; I could have gotten another site with another dozen ponies if you had chosen to not forget. So why is it now that you want to… return to the old ways!” Cake got closer now, she wasn't quite tall enough to stand over Inkwell in her chair, but she made her feel like she was looking down at her regardless.

“I just wanted to see them happy. When they brought me T… Turner I… I just wanted to see them happy.” She broke down and began to openly sob into her hooves and into the soft wedding dress.

“The cows, where did they go, tell me Inkwell!”

“T- they said… they were going to… make us all remember.” Raven choked.

Cake gave a quick hug and took off the crown, she walked away from the still sobbing empress and trotted to the other side of the store where Tide Turner was explaining the situation to Yellow Diamond.

“Cows… yep… yeah you guessed it… yeah, we’re done here… you did what?... Alright… okay I won't.” Tide smiled and gave the trottie talkie back over to Cake who stuffed it into her saddle bags.

“Yellow Diamond is waiting for us back at the bike, and she has a surprise for you. She asked me not to spoil.” Tide was seemingly still cheerful about their situation despite everything which made Cake frown.

“This is a fucking disaster, Tide! Thanks to this, we are going to have to restart! Again! And that's not even to mention that these fucking cows are coming down sou-” She stopped, her eyes went wide as she focused on the window behind Tide, she pushed him out of the way to get a closer look, she stared out the window frozen for a moment before she began to breath heavily, holding a hoof over her chest.

that's what I love about Christmas

Twinkle and Battle Brew trotted back into the village, the duo stared around in confusion as the ponies galloped around, playing in the streets as they hung up decorations, the clear blue sky was quickly being filled with large clouds and already the villages trio of fillies were running around the large statue at the center of the village, trying to be the first one to catch a snowflake on their tongue.

“Isn't it a bit early for snow?” Battle brew said as she looked up at the sky.”

“I, um… I need to get home Minty- I mean brew. Oh… or should I call you Battle?” Twinkle asked.

“BB is fine, twinkie. I’ll see you tomorrow. I want to go home too.” With that the duo separated. Twinkle began to walk back to her Library. It had been a while since they had Christmas, at least four or five months now. It would snow for a few days, just a little bit, then the sun would come back, and her bright blue skies would return. She liked those better than the dark clouds overhead, and she didn't care much for the snow. That was always more of the foal's thing they enjoyed. Twinkle always preferred the hot teas and singing carols at dinner. That made her feel nice and helped her get over the sudden chill when she went outside.

“Where… where are you...”

Twinkle's ears shot up, she turned her head to see a mare crying on a bench, she seemed to be holding something in her hooves. She quickly trotted over to try and comfort her. “Is… is that you Lime?”

The dark gray earth pony was trying to cover her face behind her long light gray mane. “Where are they… Where are they…” She kept repeating to herself.

Twinkle sat beside and put a hoof around her, she looked down at what Lime was holding in her hooves, it was a small piece of pink cotton, Twinkle felt something echo in her head as she looked at it, like laughter or a old joke she had just recalled but found sad instead of funny.

“Where are they… what about the ponies in Stalliongrad… New Mareland… where are they…” She repeated to herself.

Twinkle felt sick, her mind seemed to be spinning, no she was spinning. The ground of the bench seemed to be twirling and her stomach was too. She quickly got up and tried to get up off the bench and run but she could hardly focus. The world around her seemed to be changing colors, the white snow was turning black and she- Vomited. She turned her head and vomited on the empty seat beside her on the bench, then she vomited again. Lime didn't seem to mind, she continued crying. The snow kept falling. The only one who seemed to stop to look was Pumpkin, the oldest of the trio of foals.

“Miss Twinkle, are you okay? Should I get you a potion?” She asked, keeping a fair distance away in case the librarian had anything left in her guts.

“No… no I... I just need to lay down for a little while. Um… please excuse me.” Twinkle said, she slowly got up. The world was still a little spiny and she could hardly hear the filly over her ears ringing, but she was able to stumble that last 40 meters back into her library where she collapsed onto the wooden floor.

The floor was cold, she hated that. She rolled over onto her back and just wanted to vomit again, maybe she would get whatever was in her out if she did. She looked up at the library's blank ceiling when she felt… strange. Like someone had tampered with it. It wasn't blank, it was supposed to have a sun on it, a large sun… and the table in the center, where was the sculpture on the table? And of course, who could forget…

“Spike…”

Twinkle cradled herself in the fetal position as she began to cry, tears already forming a small puddle on the wooden floor as she bawled her eyes out. She didn't even know why. Who was Spike, was he an old friend? An object? A book? She was in the library after all. But her mind kept screaming it at her. “Where is Spike” over and over again. She wanted it to stop. She just wanted to… not remember she had lost whatever this ‘Spike’ was. But she couldn't, not now. It was too late and she had already remembered it. Regardless, the tears wouldn't stop. And she felt colder now which made the problem even worse. She began to try and think of happy memories, times when she wasn't crying, or… remembering. When she and Minty hugged each other, when she got that book about levitation for Christmas. It wasn't like the other books in her library that made her sad. It didn't have any missing pages and it was very well formatted. Slowly the tears started to stop, not completely, but she slowly let go of her hind legs and stretched out onto the floor. She remembered something now, something that wasn't sad. Books. She looked around the library, despite being a librarian no pony ever seemed to come in to check out a book, and she never seemed to want to open them or read them. She had tried before but it didn't seem very… good. The books seemed to be quite thick to have so few pages in them, and they didn't seem very interesting.

Twinkle picked herself up, letting her curiosity guided her now as it helped her fight off remembering. She walked over to one of the bookshelves that weren't barren, with the exception of a few that had four or five books on them. She picked up a large tome about numbers and basic math. No, that was boring. A picture book on how to make sweets? She tried that one before, her stove still doesn't work and not even Tool Belt could fix it. Then the last book seemed to catch her eye. It wasn't really a book but a brightly collared magazine. She must have not seen it before. She swiped it and sat back down onto the floor as she read the cover.

“Power Ponies and the wrath of the mane-iac” she said out loud, it looked like a fun little paper book thing. It had all these brightly colored mares wearing skintight suits fighting some tall pony who had tentacles coming out of her head. She opened it and began to read through it, one page. Then eight pages. Then it was over. It was good but it felt so short. She looked around the library quickly searching for something else to read. Ponies' guide to comedy? Maybe she could tell BB a few new jokes. Daring do- that cover. She grabbed the book and stared at it for a few moments, the pony holding the little gold idol swinging on a branch, she looked so… familiar. Yes, she would need to read this too. Twinkle began to make a stack of books she was going to read, even shuffling in the power ponies magazine into the stack to re-read. In a flash she was in her bed, laying on her back reading happily under her covers as the snow outside seemed to just keep falling. Not a care in the world outside her little books, how could she have not tried giving reading a shot before? She didn't feel foggy at all.

Cake was running as fast as she could through the tree line with Tide Turner as they galloped to the motorcycle. Yellow Diamond waved at them beside a tree, sitting next to her was a cow, badly bruised. The unicorn scoffed before running over to him and greeted the invader with a hard punch to his muzzle, leaving a red hoof mark on his cheek.

“Fuck you! You revisionist! You can't make me talk.” He shouted before spitting at her, making Cake swing again and connect with the other side of his face.

“Unless you haven't noticed you fucking hamburger, its snowing in the middle of June. Now I'm willing to let you run your tail back down south and never ever come back here again. But only if you don't waste my fucking time. One lie and I will kill you. And if you refuse, I will leave you here.” Cake growled through her gritted teeth, Tide was catching his breath as Yellow looked at him and shook her head. “I left sector charlie, my home of Appleoosa in the hooves of Red Wagon. I know his plan, and I signed off on it. So why is he sending you filthy fucking cows here. What are your orders?”

The cow looked around, it had indeed started snowing, he seemed to look nervous at that. “Fine... okay I suppose I can tell you that. We are explorers. We were sent here to scout the land for tech to bring back home…”

“Why the fuck would Red Wagon send cows out here, into my sector, to steal our tech?” Cake asked through gritted teeth as she pulled the tip of a spear head from her saddle bags using her magic and pointed it at the cow's throat.

“Red Wagon died a long time ago… I- he died in his sleep. I got my orders from general secretary Longhorns!” The cow whimpered, a small bead of sweat falling from his brow.

“Who is leading this expedition?” Cake asked, her rage simmering down a little

“Strongheart! Captain Strongheart is, she told me to stay here and be on the lookout, then she and the others took everything from the cabin and said she was going to liberate the ponies.” The cow pony explained.

“Where did she get the crown?” asked Yellow.

“I don't know anything about her, or a crown, she's a buffalo. I- I don't like them. They act like they’re better than us…” He said, seemingly to relax a little now that he had gotten used to Cake pointing the spear tip at him.

“Okay, we wasted enough time on this one.” Cake said, the spear tip shot forward into his throat and back out in a quick motion.

“We only have enough diesel to get us to Daffodilia and we may be able to cut off Strongheart before she makes it to site zero.” Cake said, walking past the dying bovine and over to the bike.

“How do we know she’s going there, She could be still around here. She did leave this cow behind.” Diamond said as she flapped her wings and began to follow behind Cake.

“Wait, we are just going to kill this poor thing?” Tide asked, making the two turn to face him in annoyance. “He gave us what we wanted…”

Cake rolled her eyes. “Winter is starting, Tide. I'm not leaving anything up to chance. Now he got a quick death which is more than what we are going to get if he were to have let him loose to fuck things up more than they already had.” Cake threw the tarp off the bike and sat on it, waiting for Tide to get on the back. He sighed, gave the cow one last look, and then seated himself behind Cake. “We never got to look over the southern territories thoroughly before setting up site charlie, if I know the buffalo then they still have a full working memory of who we are. They would have to know where site zero is if they got ahold of Red Wagon. He always wrote down everything!” Cake levitated and the kickstand and turned the key, the bike roared to life and the trio began their race against the invaders.

The bike was not good for snow, but Cake didn't Care much about road rash when the alternative is starvation out in the cold. The bike was making good time, in her mind, at least. “TIDE, HOW LONG AGO WERE YOU CAPTURED?” Cake yelled over the roaring engine wind.

“SIX HOURS! INKWELL WOULDNT STOP STARRING AT THAT FUCKING CROWN!” He yelled back.

Yellow was flying behind them a few meters back struggling to keep up with them, it didn't help the snow just kept falling, it started out as a few flakes, now it was getting hard to see the road ahead of them.

Inkwell was sitting on the bed; she had ripped the white wedding dress to pieces and was looking out the window. The villagers were outside, a few were playing in the snow, a few just looked back at her sadly through the window. She had failed them. She had failed all of them, even the ones who were just pretending to be happy now. She knew what she had to do. She had a duty to them, orders from high up and… no. no if she sat here any longer, she would remember, and she didn't want that. She made her way out of her sanctum, walking out of the room her guard on watch saluted her.

“Good evening, Empress.” He said with a forced smile and salute.

She turned to face him, then levitated off his helmet. “Go home, Blue.”

He frowned and nodded. He slowly trotted away as she looked at the crappy cardboard helmet. When she told Solid Oak to make her a set of armor using papier mâché and tin cans, a part of her knew it wasn't right. Why did she believe she could be a princess… she had waited a full year to be chosen, but every month it was another mare or stallion who got to be princess, and then finally when it was her time… she had it all, she had her subjects smiling happily as they lit the candles as she donned her crown and told them she would make them all princesses as their new empress. That she would… no. It was all a lie. She dropped the helmet and walked away from it, down the stairs and out the door. The few ponies outside stopped to look at her, waiting for her to say something. She walked over the big fountain in the center of town, it wasn't cold enough out yet for the water it flowed to freeze quite yet. She stopped in front of it and cleared her throat.

“Unicorns, please. I just… I need to apologize to all of you.” She said, keeping her head down and staring at the concrete. One by one the ponies gathered around, even Blue Beak had waited to hear her words before returning to his home. “When we came here, to found Unicornia, we knew we all had left something behind. Something none of us wanted to remember. But we all knew that no matter what weather we would face, we must stick together. And I have failed that goal, as I have failed you.” Hearing the commotion more unicorns came out to gather around the fountain. “When we chose to have our system of rotating Princesshood, I was envious. Like so many of you, I waited patiently. I wanted to do great things like Sparkling Water did when she fixed this fountain and made it flow again. I wanted to leave my mark on Unicornia like Solid Oak when she showed us how to make concrete and made these tall walls that protected our little castle from the pain of our past. Instead, I betrayed our only friend, Santa Claus, who gave us gifts in exchange for the simple ask, that we be kind to one another. To always help our friends!” More unicorns had gathered now, everypony had once again come out to hear her speak. “But I did not help any of you. I was selfish. I was greeted by outsiders, who offered me my friend in bounds and a crown made of lies and gold. And I accepted that offer. I lied to you and myself.” She raised her head up now to look at them, she had to at least give them the decency of looking into their eyes, even if she couldn't make out their faces through her tears. “I’m so sorry. I failed you. I failed Unicornia…” She lowered her head again as small tears fell into the snow.

One small unicorn stepped forward. She didn't say anything, she simply walked over to her crying friend and did the only thing she knew how to do. She pulled her into a tight hug. Then another unicorn stepped forward and hugged both of them. Then another. Until the whole princessdom was standing outside the mall, embracing one another as equals and friends. No matter how hard the snow fell, not one unicorn felt cold.

Shine On

Battle Brew had returned home, she closed the door behind her and sat at her tiny dining room table, staring down at the wood and her own hooves. The alcohol in her system had faded and she was back to herself now. Minty didn't really understand why she had told Twinkle that name, maybe the potion she had carelessly drunk made her confused. “Battle Brew, what kind of name is that? What kind of mother would name her daughter Battle. That's no name for a pony, let alone a poor filly. A filly doesn't… doesn't belong in battle.” She thought to herself. Tea… She needed some tea right now. She got up and quickly ran to grab her favorite mug, checking the fridge she grabbed the gallon of sweet, iced tea she’d always make at the start of the week and filled her mug to the brim, quickly drinking down the sugar elixir. She didn't really care about how she had absolutely started putting on a little bit of weight, brewing her teas always made her happy. Santa probably expected her to- “Santa?” She thought to herself abruptly as she was pouring her second mug. She held it in her hooves as she began to think about it. She had found that oversized potion bottle in the river just a few days ago, she knew Tool Belt liked to wander outside of town for things a little bit for his new ‘innovations’ as he called them. Mostly they were things to improve the town, like when he found out they could take all those little metal cylinder things they dug out of the ground and melt them into spoons and forks. Of course, he was in for a little surprise when he tried to melt down one of the ones with the metal tips on them. After that they learned to leave those special cylinders alone and hide them. They made Battle feel fuzzy when she saw them. Minty finished her second mug and placed her tea back into the fridge. It was getting late, but she figured there was no harm in seeing what Tool Belt was up to right now.

“Tool Belt, are you home? Tool Belt?” Minty asked as she knocked on his door, suddenly she heard a noise of metal scraping as she watched the big garage door open.

“How are you doing tonight, Miss Brew?” The orange unicorn asked, he waved to her behind his desk with another one of his ‘prototypes’ sprew across it. The loud sound of a generator made Minty’s ears hurt a little as stepped into the workshop.

“I needed to talk to you, Belt. I know you like to go out and explore. You bring stuff back for us sometimes and…” Minty stopped as she watched him walk over and turn off the generator. His expression changed to one of skepticism as he looked at her.

“You have never shown any interest in my things before.” He said in a sour tone.

Minty rubbed her mane awkwardly. “I know, I know but… it's just, me and Twinkle found this old potion bottle, it was big. Like about three times the size of the ones we got from Santa. I was wondering if you might have ever found something like that?”

“Come inside, Miss Brew.” Tool Belt pressed a button on the wall next to the door leading into his home. Minty watched as little cogs and pulleys began to spin around and slowly shut the garage door behind her.

“How did you do that… without the generator?” She asked with an impressed smile on her face.

“That's just the thing, Miss. I don't have a single idea.” He opened the door and Minty followed him into his home. It was a mess with metal and tools everywhere, tossed into piles or half-finished projects with just enough room on the floor to form a tight trail as he led her deeper into the maze and down into a basement.

“Minty, I saw you and Twinkle leave earlier today. Did you see any other ponies when you were out there?” He asked as Minty followed him down the stairs, she was starting to think this might be a bad idea.

“No, we just found a little metal circle hole that led us into a room in the ground. It had a bunch of big potion bottles but they were empty.” Minty kept her eyes open and walked slowly. “Why do you ask?”

Tool Belt turned around and looked her over. “Yes, I um… found a few of those myself. All were mostly empty. Did you happen to find any old… trinkets inside it?”

Minty rubbed her ear with a hoof. “Just some old thermometers and… a bean bag. Oh, and those empty bottles I told you about.”

“Then that means it hasn't come for you yet…” Tool Belt guided her deeper into the basement and soon they came to a wall. The orange unicorn put his hoof over the concrete and pushed, slowly, the wall rotated revealing a secret room. He lit up a few candles inside and led her in.

“There's something out there Minty, it's stalking us. I have seen it looking at our little town through the tree line.” He pointed to a little photograph showing a yellow blur in the trees.

“What is that thing?” Minty asked as she stepped into the room, she looked closely at the photo and then back at Tool Belt. “Why are you showing me this?”

“I don't know, a few weeks ago I woke up on my couch with a migraine; I stumbled to my garage to find some of my things were missing. I don't really know if I can trust you but… I don't know who else to tell.”

“Missing? I mean… Tool Belt this place is kind of a mess.” Minty said looking around at how even the room they were in was covered with more blueprints stapled to the walls and bits of junk.

“I know, it's a lot but… Minty my couch has had junk on it for the past year. I use it specifically for stuff I know has grease on it so it leaks into the cushions and not on the floor… huh... Maybe I should invent something for- no no, wait… gotta focus.” He walked over to one of the blueprints on the wall and pulled it down. “Look, this is a machine for making electricity using sunlight. I got it after I used a magnifying glass to boil water to cook noodles in. But I don't have a single part on this paper!” Tool Belt exclaimed after he handed her the paper. Which Minty looked over and pretended to understand. “I have gaps in my memory, weeks where I apparently didn't invent anything at all and parts and things that go missing… I thought at first I was rightfully losing my mind, I am getting older but… just the other day I saw it. I was out looking for that metal beam for the lamp post idea I had when I saw it shoot across the sky. I was barely able to grab my camera and snag that photo. I knew I had seen it somewhere before, so I ran back home, grabbed my pencils and drew… this.” He pointed to another picture of the wall. It was a tall pony, judging by the little stick figure mare next to it, with huge wings twice the normal proportion and a unicorn's horn. “I'd have gotten some crayons to color it in but, I know how Flipper likes her yellows.”

Minty stared at it for a moment and stroked her chin. “You know… the other day I asked Twinkle what that Santa Claus is supposed to be exactly like some spirit, or ghost, or whatever and she says ‘No, he is a pony just like us, Telescope saw him and he's big and yellow.’”

Tool Belt flushed as he walked over and looked her in the eyes. “That's… Oh now it makes sense! I have been wondering where the connection is to this thing all this time, the little foals! They probably see more than any of us, hell they seem to always be filled with questions and they always come to me to ask-'' He paused his ramblings and trotted away and grabbed a small chunk of plastic from a desk. “For Christmas last year I got this, a small little yellow duck. I thought there must have been a mistake, maybe this was meant to go to Flipper. I mean, her cutie mark is a little duckling after all.” He squeezed it as he looked into the little plastic duck with a smile. “I meant to give it to her, but I was busy playing with the toys I had gotten, to be fair uh… anyways, a few days later we found another present we ‘missed’ under the tree. We open it up and it's another little plastic duck except it has sunglasses on it. And I thought that was weird, why would Santa go through the trouble of adding the sunglasses but then I realized… Santa isn't making these things!”

Minty looked at him confused. “Yeah, doesn't Santa have like… elves or something?”

“No, I mean, I don't know about that. But this stuff is old. I mean, the toys have cracks in them, some have chipped paint. I think that not only is Santa slowly bringing us old stuff, But it's deliberate. If we go out too far beyond the village, we are all scared we might get lost, so we don't, even the foals have that basic instinct yet need to be taught not to touch a hot stove. And then when I do anyways, I wake up on my grease covered couch, that's- I mean… I think somethings wrong, Brew, really wrong.”

The group sat together in the woods around the campfire, Tide Turner was eating beans from a can while Yellow was setting up the lean-to using the net Cake had for their bike and what leaves and sticks, she could tie together with twine. Cake was sharpening sticks with her metal spear tip while watching the embers of the fire silently. The weather had improved slightly, and the snow was now falling at a medium pace instead of the rapid downpour it was before. They would still not need to linger with the rapidly dropping temperature.

“Hey, didn't you used to have some kind of super enchanted spear or something, commander?” Tide asked in between bites.

“Used to? I still have it on my wall back at my little cabin. I made the mistake of packing light for this journey. I could have brought it with me if I made Yellow fly all the way…” Cake said, watching the work horse ignore her as she finished up the tent.

“I’m fucking exhausted, why didn't you set up the damn tent!” Yellow said, flying down beside Cake.

“Because, miss bright yellow and tall, you are going to be able to rest all day tomorrow. I’ll handle the ambush myself. I don't want any of them escaping and getting too close to site zero,” Cake said, looking up at Yellow who sat down next to Cake beside the fire.

“Hey Tide, what did you do before the great war?” Yellow asked, looking over at the earth pony.

“I was a sailor, as you might have guessed, and by the sea I did abide…” He sighed and looked at the tree line for a moment and smiled as if he was recalling some fond memories. “I sailed a schooner around the gulf of the Lunar Sea. I smuggled goods into Olenia for nobles and planned to buy a little home with a big dock in Tall Tale. Well, then the war broke out and Tall Tale ain't there anymore…”

“How did you meet up with Cake?” Yellow asked as she dug her hoof into the snow looking for flowers under the snow.

“Well… not much happens in Equestria that Smile doesn't know about. One day I get offered a barrel of bits to smuggle this little unicorn guard to the capital, um… must have been a year or two before the Changelings pushed into Olenia.. Anyways that's when I met Cake and helped her bring back the princess. I was very embarrassed that I hadn't cleaned up my boat, the Simpukan Helmi for Princess Velvet, but… she did insult my ship a lot, so I guess that's fair. Whatever happened to her?”

Cake shook her head and placed the newly sharpened stick to the side. “Changelings put a bullet through her head when they found her.”

Yellow Diamond frowned and took a little daffodilly in her hoof and looked at it. “I felt like after all they did to us, what we did to them was a mercy.”

“It was.” Cake said, starting on the next stick. “By my account, they are on foot. They probably are about 5 hours behind us, we didn't find them on the road, so they are not using the roads. Site zero isn't far from Daffodilia so we are going to stop in and get some supplies. Tool Belt still giving you trouble, Yellow?” Cake asked with a grin.

“Yeah, I caught him just a while ago stumbling across a tank, he even was writing down a blueprint of the treads to use to make a car, or half-track from it.” Yellow explained, she decided not to eat the daffodilly and laid it on the ground besides, looking at it solemnly.

“Hehe… you know, he really didn't seem like the pony who would want to forget…” Cake said as she began to hum a tune. Diamond looked over at Cake like she was going to say something before looking back to the fire. “We are going to need to do another full reset, but I am confident this may be our last one. Once we cut the head off the snake, maybe send a little gift back too southern commune, they won't be back here for some time… and if they do, well… we are going to fucking die to their stupidity.”

“Another reset? What are we up to now, 3?” Tide said as he tossed the empty can of beans behind him.

“This will be our fourth, I am going to get some shut eye, Tide you’re on watch, wake me up in two hours and we’ll swap.” Cake said, walking over to the tent.

Tool Belt and Minty made their way through the snow in the dark to the library. Minty pushed open the door and the scene in front of her left her in shock for a moment. Dozens of books lay scattered on the floor, Twinkle was dancing to the sound of a record player, singing along to the tunes with her back turned to them as she twirled a paintbrush over a large canvas in her magic.

“Twinkle, is that you?” Tool Belt asked, surprised to see this once shy shut in now acting a bit like himself when he had an idea.

“Huh? Oh, hey! What are you two doing here?” Twinkle turned around, turning the music down, but not quite off, as she smiled at them.

“We came here too uh…” Mintys eyes drifted towards the canvas like a moth to a flame. It called out to her with the bright colors and cartoon-esque depiction. like some kind of cereal box, or one of the old VHS taped cartoons the foals had. “What is that you’re working on Twinkle?”

“Oh, I asked Sea Green for a canvas, and she decided to just… give me all her art supplies! I have been working on this for about an hour now. I know, I'm not very good but it's been so much fun!” Twinkle grabbed Mintys hoof in her own and led her closer to the canvas. “I read this great little comic book about superheroes, and I wanted to make my own. Of course, I didn't have any paper on hoof, so I decided to just paint the cover!”

Minty reached her hoof out and pointed at the large, imposing villain looking down at a few not quite finished yet pony blobs. “What's that thing?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That's a dragon! I read about them; they breathe FIRE!” Twinkle said as she grabbed a different paintbrush and added some orange streaks coming from its mouth. “And these ponies are going to save the city by stopping him! This one's name is Apple Attack! And this one over here is called Rainbow Crash!” Twinkle looked at her little characters proudly.

Tool Belt seemed to get drawn into it as well as he quickly rushed over. “What's their abilities? How do they stop this evil ‘dragon’?”

“Well, Rainbow Crash is a pegasus and she's really fast, but she's also really, really nice! She’s going to try to talk to it while Apple Attack sets a trap for it! AA is a bit of a jerk, but she’s really a great friend.” Twinkle explained while doing hoof gestures to try and show them how the scene would play out. “But there's going to be about 5 of them, I think. I’m still brainstorming ideas… um… what did you two come over for?”

Tool Belt blinked his eyes while Minty looked up at the ceiling. “Hmmm… what was it uhm- Oh! Yes, now I remember! We need you to come with us to hunt Santa Claus!” Minty exclaimed.

“Uh… why would you ever want to do that? He left us that note to not do that…” Twinkle said with a frown. “He said he wouldn't give us any more presents. Please don't make Santa Angry…” Twinkle pleaded.

Tool Belt cleared his throat and stepped forward. “Miss Shine, um, Twinkle. Santa has been erasing memories from our minds! It's terrible! Can you remember anything from last year?” Tool Belt asked, bracing himself for Twinkle’s reaction as if he had just awakened a sleeper agent.

Twinkle blinked at him like he was explaining a joke and was waiting for the punchline. “Yes, I do. Is there something specific from last year I'm supposed to remember?” the unicorn asked while placing her paint brushes back into a cup of water beside her.

“How about your…” Tool Belt paused to think, or for dramatic effect. Twinkle rolled her eyes. “Birthday!”

“Yes, I remember it, not the exact date because Limey is the one with the birthday book and sets up the parties, so no pony knows when it's their birthday and it's always a surprise hehe… But yes, I remember the party.”

“Well… tell us some details then.” Tool Belt said with a smug look on his face. This was starting to make Twinkle feel a lot less guilty about not going out to check on him when she was at the diner the other day.

“Okay… I woke up and went to the diner as per usual for my morning breakfast. When I sat down, Doodle brought me a stack of pancakes with fresh blueberries on top, before I ordered, which was very nice of her! but I wanted a croissant, and the pancakes were way too heavy, but I didn't say anything. After I ate, I went home where Minty, Daisy Chain, and Carrot Leaf were waiting for me, and each gave me presents. You gave me my favorite purple scarf, Minty.”

Tool Belt’s smug expression changed to a smile. "Exactly! You can recall the day perfectly, like it was just last week. You even remembered the blueberries on the pancakes. Isn't that a little strange, I bet you can even recall what music Doodle had on the jukebox!”

“Yes, I… I can. She was playing that nice instrumental piece, with the piano. B- but that was a very important day, it was my birthday after all! What are you even implying, that Santa Claus messed with my memories so I couldn't forget my birthday?” Twinkle stammered, looking at the duo of ponies in front of her like they were trying to pull some kind of prank on her.

“Do you remember your…” Tool Belt looked over to Minty for help, the mare was still staring at the canvas until she felt his gaze drawn onto her, making her phase back into the conversation.

“Oh, oh right um… your mother’s birthday! No wait, um… or was it her name?” Minty scratched her chin again.

“My… my mother…” Twinkle put a hoof to her head, she was starting to feel sick again.

“Do you even remember what she looked like?” Minty asked with a sympathetic frown. “I couldn't remember mine…”

Twinkle's confusion was turning into a simmering rage. Her mother, she had no idea what her name was, what she looked like, all she remembered was that… she felt like the worst pony in the world that she had forgotten her. How could she have forgotten her own mother? And now here were these two so-called friends, rubbing it in her face.

“Get. Out.” Twinkle Shine demanded.

“Um, what?” Minty asked, confused.

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY LIBRARY!” Twinkle shouted, both of the ponies looked at each other in shock, this was not the reaction they were hoping for at all. Both of them quickly turned and ran right back out the door, leaving twinkle alone again.

Twinkle watched them leave in a hurry and quickly slam the door behind each other. She took a few deep breaths; she had really overdone it. She was already starting to regret what she had just done, and… it wasn't like they were wrong. Twinkle just… no, now was not the time for thinking. She turned her music back up and turned around, grabbing a paintbrush and drying it off then putting some new paint onto it. Now she just had to paint. Something. No, wait, the painting was all wrong. The dragon should be purple with green spikes not… and the pegasus should be yellow and… no. It was wrong, all wrong. “No no NO!” Twinkle exclaimed as she grabbed the canvas in her magic and ripped it in half, both pieces falling off the stand and onto the wooden floor, the wet paint already mixing to form a puddle.

“Fire! Fire!” Cake screamed as she jolted awake, along with Yellow and Tide, the duo quickly jumped out of their sleeping bags and into the snow in front of them before realizing there was no fire. Cake had a hoof over her chest and was breathing heavily before shaking her head.

“Damn it Cake, What the hell!” Yellow shouted as the little unicorn flopped onto her back, still breathing heavily.

“I- I was…” She looked around and took one last deep breath. “Hey, you were supposed to wake me up, Tide!” Cake shouted, tossing the blanket off herself.

“I- in my defense, we are all up now.” Tide said, shaking off the snow and walking back to the lean-to.

“Tide, I don't know when the last time you went hungry was, but the ground is covered in snow! If we don't take this seriously the last of pony kind is going to EAT EACH OTHER AND DIE!” She jumped up out of the makeshift bed and blocked his path to the ramshackle tent, getting into his face. “I do not have time for another fuck up from you. I overlooked the ‘Alicornia’ incident but if you fuck up again I will…” Cake bit her tongue and screamed with her mouth shut. Before refocusing back onto Tide Turner. “Go the fuck back to sleep.” She commanded.

Tide’s eyes went wide, and he nodded, Cake brushed past him and out into the snow and quickly disappeared into the tree line. Loudly cursing under her breath. “She… she still has them, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I still do.” Yellow commented, trying to ease the tension.

“W- what the hell was that?” Tide asked as he sat down in his bag.

“Someponys, we were made for it, you know. Our cutie marks, our foalhoods. We never really leave the battlefield.” Yellow explained as she flopped back down into her bag and folded it over herself. “Sometimes… I still see my friends, I think Cake does too.”

“I guess I should consider myself lucky I never saw a battlefield. And here I was trying to sound like I had experienced pain because I lost my old ship.” Tide sighed.

“We all lost something, I think out of everypony, Cake lost the most. She… She lost pieces of herself. One friend at a time.” Yellow whispered as she rolled over and shut her eyes, Tide didn't know what to say, so he followed her lead.

Colors of the Rainbow

Cake was looking at the small village of Daffodilia from the tree line. She wondered how her own little site was doing right now, were they out playing in the snow? Asleep with the fireplaces well stocked in their brick homes? Of course they were, they were good little ponies like that. It was far too late in the night for that. Still, Daffodilia was making great progress as Cake could tell by their single lone street light and already decorated tree. They were probably expecting Christmas to happen in the next few days with the snow on the ground. All the lights in the little village were off, well, most of them. The only building left lit up was the oversized police station converted into the town's library. Cake wished she had more time to fill the library with things, but according to Yellow, the mare inside didn't seem to like reading anymore. It was late, she needed to listen to her own orders, then again… watching over the two in the dark, with the snow falling, was almost pointless… if the buffalo were moving at night then they would absolutely try to investigate the town for leads to site zero… It wouldn't hurt to just pretend to be a concerned neighbor peeking in on Twi- no. no, she couldn't.

She sat down and just stared at it. Everything she had ever wanted was beyond those doors, she had never given into a chance like this before, for just a minute to pretend to be a normal pony. She shivered against the cold and held onto her lower hooves. The inside of the library was warm, in more ways than she could explain. She just couldn't resist it anymore, the clawing at the back of her mind. Cake picked herself up and slowly trotted, one hoof at a time towards the light. She knew she was a hypocrite, she knew she was not even worthy of it, considering she was even going after it instead of watching over her friends. She tried to focus on those thoughts, and the shame. But she was powerless to stop her desire.

“Hello, are you still awake?” Cake asked, gently knocking on the door. She could hear music inside but didn't want to barge in or knock too loud to seem like some kind of emergency.

There was no response. So she knocked again. “Hello… hello?” She was whispering at this point, shivering from the cold and mixture of anxiety.

The door slowly opened. Twinkle was looking at the floor in front of her, the warmth from the inside washed over Cake along with the alluring orange light from inside the Library. “I’m sorry Battle Brew… I- I shouldn't have-'' Twinkle looked up at the unicorn as her eyes bulged and she took a step back.

Cake awkwardly stepped in and closed the door behind her in her magic. “I, um… saw your lights were on miss. I just came in to see if you were okay.” Cake lied. She wasn't very good at lying, probably because the emotions on her face betrayed her as she looked up at the lavender Unicorn with an almost sadistic smile.

Twinkle backed up further and further, her face becoming more and more filled with dread until she was pushed back against a table. Cake closed the door behind her without turning away from the unicorn. “Y- you are… you already wiped their memories didn't you!?” Twinkle accused.

“Um… I don't know what you're talking about ma’am. I'm just a simple traveler, I mean um… I live around here. I just don't get out very much…” Cake pretended to fix her mane as she tried to change her expression, going to a deadpan stare. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” She repeated.

“Please, please don't make me forget anymore! I don't know what you want from us…” Twinkle slid down the desk until she was sitting on the floor, covering her face with her hooves.

Cake knew the act was over. Perhaps it was dead before she had even begun to spin the lie. She sighed, then walked over to the shaking Twinkle and extended a hoof out to her. “Get up…” She commanded in an emotionless, defeated tone.

Twinkle shakily took the hoof and stood back up, still avoiding looking at the face of the intruder in front of her. Cake didn't like this; she had tried going slow. Now was the time for a bit of confidence. She placed her hoof under Twinkle’s chin and brought her to level. “I didn't come here tonight to hurt you, and I haven't talked or… messed with your friends who I am guessing are already starting to… talk about memory lapses… Aren't they?” Cake said calmly.

“Yes, and I assume you’re going to put some kind of fake memories in them. So they will go back to their normal lives… whatever we are supposed to do in this prison…” Twinkle hissed as little tears escaped her eyes as she tried to blink them away.

“My, what a shockingly accurate assumption. You are getting better, you know. You’re really starting to take to that new life. This is not something I expected you to ever do, playing music and painting in the middle of the night.” Cake scanned the room as she finally found the record player and turned it off. “Tomorrow is going to be a very, very long day. How about we go have some water in the kitchen and we can play a game?”

Twinkle winced. “A game? I- I don't understand.”

Cake pulled her hoof away and walked to the kitchen, like she had already known the layout of the library. Twinkle shakily followed behind her. “Just a little game, don't worry…” Cake said, trying unsuccessfully to reassure her.

Cake pulled two bottles of river water from the fridge and placed them onto the table, she opened her own and quickly drained it down her gullet, then slumped down in the booth opposite to Twinkle who followed after her and sat at the table herself. “What's this game, exactly?” The curious lavender unicorn asked. Her voice still trembling as her hooves shaked

Cake blinked and sat up. “You have questions you need answers to. I do too. So, the game is simple, you tell the truth and I'll tell the truth, i won't lie or tell a half truth. I will be honest and I won't skip out on facts. And you can go first, go ahead, ask.”

Twinkle tapped her hooves on the table, thinking for a moment. “W- why?” She whispered.

“Hehe.. Oh, ain't that the question I am asking myself… You see Twink- no. That's not your name. Twilight is your name. You see Twilight, you and I were sisters in arms at one point in time so I feel like I should indulge this new side of you, Twinkle as you refer to it, or, yourself I suppose.”

“Twilight? Is that my… real name?” She asked, looking over at the smaller unicorn who had raised a hoof to signal it was her turn to ask a question. “Right… I’m sorry.”

“Don't be.” Cake reached over into the saddle bag and pulled out the crown she had taken from Inkwell and laid it on the table. “Do you remember who this belongs to?”

Twinkle looked it over, memories… painful little blurts of memories washed over her. Mostly that feeling of missing a friend, a very dear friend. And one of burning fires, screams… “No, I don't know.” Twinkle rasped, looking away from it. Cake sensed her pain and quickly placed it back into her saddle bags. “My name… Why did you call me that?” She asked, looking back into Cake’s eyes.

Cake groaned. “I guess there's no point in milking it out. Daffodilia is um… about two and a half years old now. You had a life before all of this. A very, very painful life that you could not return to. Everyone you knew, except I think… Tool Belt and maybe Inkwell Quill is dead, or has been missing for so long that we must assume they are dead. You wanted to start again, completely. For that we had to change your name because it was a trigger for old memories for other ponies here in this… village.” Cake looked away from her and towards the other untouched bottle. Twinkle slid it over to her.

“Has any other… strangers like me been through the town, any sightings of strange creatures?” Cake asked as she unscrewed the tap and drank some more water.

“Tool- I- no. we haven't.” Twinkle couldn't sell out her friends, even if it was obviously a lie.

Cake shook her head. “Your friends saw a bright yellow pony stalking the foals at night, didn't they?” Cake smiled at her and shook her head.

“Stalking… foals? No they…” Twinkle conceded the lie. If she played dumb she figured she would force the pony in front of hers hoof to act before she could warn them. “Tool Belt came over talking about wanting to hunt Santa Claus. He asked me some questions I didn't know the answer to and I- it broke me. So I told them to leave, aggressively.”

“Not the first time you have been in a tough spot and pushed away friends Hehe” Cake laughed, recalling some old memories. “Well, it looks like there's still some Twilight Sparkle left in there. Okay, your turn.”

Twinkle looked deep into Cake’s eyes. “Please don't hurt them, please… please!”

Cake reached forward and took Twinkle’s hooves into her own. “Look, I'm going to tell you why I'm doing this. Okay? This isn't exactly a secret, well… not anymore. You see, we live in a very, very magical land, Twilight. Equestria isn't dead as long we ponies still call this land our home. But we must remain happy. That snow outside is not meant to be there, when the ponies of Equestria aren't happy, and turn to anger and sadness. A terrible winter comes from the creatures our ancestors used to call… windigos! Now these horrible little parasites create this cold, cold winter because when we don't have food, or sunlight, ponies get cranky. Now it's going to keep snowing, it's going to snow until snow banks cover every home and not even the pegasi can crack the overcast. Until everypony is dead, Twilight. But… there is a way to prevent that.” Cake let go of her hooves and got up from the table and moved her seat right beside Twinkle. At this point the lavender unicorn hardly noticed as she was washed in terrible, terrible memories, stiff in shock. Cake leaned in close to her, lifting her head up to whisper into her ear. “They feed on bad emotions. If you don't feel anything, they can't feed, and they can't fuel the eternal winter. All the better, you can feel happy again, if you just forget and try to build that new life!” Cake waited for her to show a reaction. To show something. Twilight just looked down at her hooves. Cake had overdone it far too much it seemed. She pushed the unicorn to face her and, with one quick lick of her lips, leaned in and kissed her.

Twinkle’s train of thought came to a crashing halt as she felt her lips collide with Cake’s. Was this how she was going to erase her mind? Was this how she was going to suck her brain from her head and lick it clean!? Cake pulled away from the kiss as smiled at her.

“Not sorry, I stopped pretending to be a hero a long time ago. Anyways, I think I'm going to finally swap you out with Moondancer. You’ll be happier in Ponyville.” Cake laughed as she stood back up and took another swig from Twinkle’s water.

“Y- you! Why did you just… eww!” Twinkle spat onto the floor. Cake didn't put her tongue into her mouth but her breath was still horrid. And she didn't want to be kissed by this evil short little pony, let alone one so evil as to not brush their teeth.

“Hey, the only other way to break your trance was to pour the water over your head. It's like.. Science or something. An unmovable object needs to collide with an unstoppable force. Unwanted kissing works wonders for breaking someone out of a post traumatic recollection of their memories.” Cake shrugged. “Actually it doesn't, I'm lying to you even though I said I wouldn't… I just wanted to kiss you. Never got the chance to win you over before you decided. ‘Oh boo hoo all my friends are dead, might as well kill myself and become basically a zombie’” Cake mocked as she raised a hoof up too her head and closed her eyes dramatically. “You could have at least been happy about it you know…”

“I- I asked for this?” Twinkle asked, holding her hooves close to her chest.

“Everypony did! All of you were too sad and miserable to face it. What we had done to survive. Everypony else either left Equestria or… headed south with Red Wagon or east with the crusaders if they were young enough to be able to rebuild their lives. Staying here, in our heartland, with the skeletons and rubble… it was too hard on them.” Cake finished the bottle of water in one last swig and tossed it in the trash can in a fit of anger. “I gave everything I had to try and give all of you new lives. But you just keep remembering! And then, when you do, you ask me to make you forget again. What am I supposed to do… What would you have me do, right now?”

Twinkle was falling back into it again, she felt like she was spinning, maybe Cake’s breath was really starting to hit her now as the feeling of acid started to build in the back of her throat. “I… I get it. We can't stay happy with whatever we had done, and if you don't watch over us we are all going to get ourselves killed.”

“That's the concept of it. Now, the sun is going to rise soon, and I have a… unexpected factor to clean up. Any last questions Twilight?” Cake asked

“Why didn't you choose to forget, if it was so horrible… what happened to us?” Twilight’s face turned into a scowl, she felt horribly sick, on top of just generally being exhausted from being awake all night.

Cake laughed, loudly. “Because I never got to see that life that you had all lost so carelessly in your pursuits of peace and laying down and taking it, Twilight. I was seeing war long before the Nightmare Moon, years before Daybreaker. I had already killed so many ponies, zebras, griffons… all before the Changelings pushed past Acornage. I never once felt disgusted for a moment as I snuck past their lines to fire bomb their homes in the night. I never felt lesser than who I was when I ordered my soldiers to shoot the ones who tried to surrender to us. Because you, oh protege, may not remember who made me. Who forged us to be evil to protect that life you had. Celestia did that.”

She paused for a moment, almost hating saying the name.

“I never got a chance to be a filly, or to dance and sing in the streets. I was too busy learning how to properly prepare and cook the meat of my fallen enemies so I wouldn't starve if I was behind lines. Or, how to make improvised explosives, the kind that sticks to the skin and burns until there's nothing left." Twinkle wasn't even listening at this point, she was holding onto the table for support, trying to stop the spinning. If she had eaten anything more than the croissant the day before it would have come out of her mouth by now. “That was all I wanted! I wanted to be a pony too… I wanted to have foals one day! I would bring forward eternal night if Nightmare Moon would have taken me, but she wouldn't! I would have burned a million heretics for Daybreaker, but no! I was a filthy traitor; I was a disgusting Apple! So, she exiled me to the southern states!” Twinkle lost her grip and slumped forward, dry heaving onto the table. “I killed them. I killed them all. It was me alone, I stormed Canterlot. I ordered bombers to fly over Manehattan until there was nothing left. I gave Daffodilly the green light to bring that cobalt bomb to Vesapolis…”

Cake felt little tears start to form in her eyes as she pulled the crown out from her saddle bags. She held it in her magic looking at herself through the single purple gem in the center. She stared at the broken monster Infront of her and the tears falling down its cheeks. She didn't fight them off, she didn't even blink. She wanted to throw the crown at the wall, but she knew it wouldn't break. She wanted to bash it onto the table, but she knew it wouldn't bend. She wanted to put it on, but she knew it wouldn't fit. She placed it back into her saddle bags and turned to leave the library as Twinkle slowly fell from her chair, passed out onto the wooden kitchen floor.

“Wake up, Wake the fuck up!” Cake shouted as she started kicking the sleeping ponies still snoozing in their bags.

“Guh, what the hell Cake, you said at first light!” Yellow screamed, she was really getting tired of the terrible mood Cake seemed to be permanently stuck in and taking it out onto them.

“The clouds are too thick, have you seen the sky recently? I checked the clock on- look it's time to get up. We still have a few miles to go!” Cake kicked Tide Turner who rolled over.

“The clock in the town center isn't done yet, Tool Belt hasn't… Cake, where did you see a working clock?” Yellow prodded.

Cake grunted. “I don't have time for you two right now, get up or you can stay behind and let the buffalo ruin two years of hard work if you want! Snow doesn't taste so bad when you get frostbite on your tongue!”

Tide Turner opened his eyes and picked himself up, Yellow cursed under her breath as she threw off her unzipped sleeping bag and got up onto her hooves. “It’s still pitch black out?” Tide commented as he shook off the snow.

“We don't have time to re-pack. We will gather up everything when this is over. We need to reset the sites, deal with the buffalo, then… hope the clouds clear up and we can make some changes and re-try.” Cake sounded shaky in her voice, Yellow nodded and looked around trying to get a sense of direction.

“Cake, when was the last time you had some sleep?” Yellow asked.

“A few hours ago?” Cake gave her a strange look.

“That was less than an hour, and you woke up screaming! How long has it been since you have had a full night's sleep?” Yellow prodded again.

“It was... When you showed up at my cabin. You slept on my cot; I slept on the floor. Then we both left in the morning.” Cake turned away and started to trot through the thick snow, Yellow noticed the still fresh hoof prints pointing to Daffodilia. “Site zero is just a few miles, if we start now, we can get there in an hour and turn the heat on, get some water, and wait for the buffalo to come to us!”

Yellow didn't comment on the prints and focused on the allure of some heating and warm food as she followed behind Tide Turner who was dragging himself through the snow behind their commander.

squink

The trio was making good time, Cake was pushing ahead and lighting up the path with her horn as her subordinates kept lock step behind her. The snow was now up to three inches, it wouldn't be a big problem, if they were wearing boots and not trekking up and down hills, through bushes, and in the dark with the howling wind coming straight at them.

“It's just up ahead! Once we are inside, we need to start the process immediately!” Cake said with chattering teeth, her eyes were bloodshot, her head was pounding, the only thing keeping her going was how smug she felt stealing a kiss from Twilight. It felt like a small victory to her, a trophy still resting on her face even if her lips were chapped. One last blow to Celestia, even if she had obviously abandoned them a long, long time ago.

“There!” Yellow shouted, pointing to the bright glowing light coming through the falling snow. “Cake, the lights on!”

“Fuck!” That was not a good sign. Cake picked up her pace and approached the large silo doors. She walked over to the keypad as it glowed at her, she opened her saddle bags to look for the keycard “I don't have it! I don't have it!” She exclaimed in a panic.

Yellow pushed her out of the way and slid her own into the slot, the doors slowly began to part and reveal the well-lit interior of site zero. Cake focused her horn to reveal the large lettering on the sign past the huge steel doors. SOLAR INVICTUS, in that old font that the nobles of the past loved so much. “Come on, inside now!” Yellow shouted.

Cake drew out her sharpened makeshift javelins and held a few in her magic as she stepped inside. Tide Turner stumbled in behind her and shook the snow off himself as Yellow worked on the internal keypad to close the door behind them. As the doors closed, the 3 looked at each other and nodded. Cake threw one of her bigger sticks to Tide Turner who tied it to a belt on his side. Yellow shook her head at him as she took a pistol from her pack and pulled back the slide with her teeth. Then placed it into her mouth. “Take no prisoners.” Cake whispered.

Cake walked quickly through the nuclear silo, the place wasn't made for missiles, they hadn't been out of the prototype phase just yet, but for a less sinister purpose. The constant hum of the lights made Cake feel uneasy as she began to check out the reception area first. The desk was empty and the computer in front of it had been smashed. She walked over to it and signaled for Yellow to hit a button under the desk to open the security door on the far side of the room leading deeper into the facility. Yellow nodded and got into position. The pegasus tapped the button and quickly put up a shield spell as she charged the door slowly pulling itself up from the ground. Already there was shouting from the other side. Cake used her small frame to slide under it on her back, she could worry about the friction burns on her flanks later. Ahead of her was a young cow, his face went from confusion to fear as the stoic pony came into his line of sight, then a blissful peace as the makeshift javelin catapulted out of Cake’s magic and through his eye. Cake knew all good soldiers had a battle buddy and used her momentum to jump up and land on her hooves, finishing the slide at the end of the hallway and bringing her adrenaline down onto the cow who stood horrified at the sight of his friend still standing with the sharpened stick sticking out of his head. She ended him the same way as his peer, dropping him in an instant since they weren't wearing any helmets. She debated hitting him in the leg, forcing him to draw out his comrades to come help him as he cried out in pain. She figured she wouldn't, not in front of Tide Turner anyways, who was very loud announcing his arrival behind her as he galloped down the hallway. “Is that all of them, Ma’am?” He asked, wheezing a little.

“No. be quiet.” Cake whispered, she grabbed the rifle from the dead bovine and tossed it to him with her magic, then stepped over the corpse as she ‘reloaded’ her available javelins from her makeshift quiver. Yellow Diamond flew over the earth pony, keeping her pistol aimed to their flank to cover them as Cake continued her charge.
The bunker was silent now, they kept moving. Another set of empty hallways, down flights of stairs, and through the concrete crypt.

“Are… we still doing this, Brew?” Tool Belt asked as he looked at the wrench that he had tied a saw blade to on the table.

“Of course, we are, I know you said we would need Twinkle and her magic, but I insist. Whatever they have planned for us… It can't be good.” Brew replied in a huff as she cut out a piece of cardboard and duct taped it to a sheet of metal and tied it to her foreleg with fishing string.

The door behind Minty pushed open and cold air pushed into the house, Tool Belt scrambled to place the wrench into his mouth as the dark figure in front of him stood menacingly in the doorway. “You two are going to get yourself hurt or lost without my help.” Twinkle said as she stepped into the candlelight and slammed the door behind her. “I’m sorry about earlier, you caught me at a… let's say very, very bad time. But whatever is going on needs to end, nothing good can come from C- Santa Claus lording over our lives.” Twinkle adjusted her scarf and looked out the window. “It's still snowing? It's almost eight in the morning and there isn't a ray of sunshine outside.” Twinkle shivered as she turned over to face the group, Minty looked away from her and crossed her front legs.

“Why do you even care, don't you have something to be painting?” Minty said with a snort. Still bitter and not ready to let her grudge go.

“Minty. I am sorry for how I treated you two earlier but that snow out there is getting worse. We have to do something.” Twinkle turned her head over at Tool Belt who looked at her sheepishly and spat out his wrench onto the table. “Leave that behind, it won't do us any good. And you should be wearing something warmer than cardboard Minty, the river outside is frozen!”

“Frozen? Should we be going out in the woods in this kind of weather, maybe we should wait a few days?” Tool Belt suggested.

“No, the longer we wait the worse it's going to get. But I have some good news, I know where Santa is, I found hoof prints in the snow, if we leave now, they might still be out there.” Twinkle looked over at Minty who had seemed to relax and was more open to the idea of working with her.

Minty sighed and stood up, sliding off her chair and looking at Tool Belt for him to follow her lead. “I've got some coats and blankets we can use to not freeze out there. I’ll go grab them.” he got up and then stopped, turning back to the group. “Should we tell some pony where we are going, or… get a few extra hooves?”

“No time, hurry and grab the clothes, the faster we start the sooner this can all end.” Twilight said, her magic grabbing onto Mintys cup of tea and downing what was left of it for her.

Cake was leaving behind a trial of bloody hoof prints on the concrete floor as she made her way through the silo. “I am not mopping that up…” Yellow mumbled, her pistol still being held in her mouth as she hovered above her commander.

Cake stopped and raised a hoof, her ears perked as she heard the sound of running water ahead. “Flooding, they must have planned to fill this place with water!” She exclaimed, turning her once calculated approach into a bull rush as she charged down to the next level.
She galloped through the halls as fast as her short legs could carry her. Her chest felt tight as exhaustion was taking its toll on her, still she pushed on regardless.

Yellow was keeping her pace behind her, her pistol ready to fire at the first sign of life. Then they heard it, the sound of large metal hoof steps. Cake slid to a stop and brought up her magical shield as the sound of bullets echoed off the twisting hallway walls. She watched with a look of satisfaction as the little shards of shrapnel plinked against her magic and fell onto the floor. The buffalo in front of them emptied his magazine at them while Cake reached out to him with her magic, feeling over his equipment and armor before settling on a frag grenade in his pouch, pulling the pin she began to laugh maniacally as the buffalo, none the wiser, took cover to reload. With one large bang his metal helmet and parts of his skull and legs flew from over the stairs he had retreated back too. The roof above him quaked for a moment, then collapsed. Yellow stared at the mess of gore in front of her before shaking her head back into the moment. “What the FUCK Cake, what the hell are you thinking!?” Yellow rasped; Cake just laughed in response.

“Come on, that was fun! Remember when we used to do stuff like that in the old days?” Cake trotted over to survey the damage of the staircase while Tide Turner looked down out at the glass observation window that led down to the core of the silo.

“Girls, um, I'm looking at about ten feet of water down there!” He said, Yellow flew over to look.

The pegasus spat her pistol into her hooves. “Mother fucker!” Yellow began to scream in a rage. “We need to get down there and turn on the pumps and get that water out now, if that equipment is damaged, we won't have any way to replace any of it!”

Cake looked at the scene she had painted, the buffalo was in a few pieces under some concrete and rock. She could easily squeeze through it and keep going, but she knew her friends were not going to be able to. “Yellow, find a way to get those pumps on from the admin room on the level below us from up here, even if you have to find a way to break through that window. I’m guessing the leader is on the lowest level, they would want to loot what we have themselves. Watch out for more cows, or buffalo.” Cake didn't turn to face them as she began to squeeze herself through the blood and rock to the other side. She needed to focus, she knew she was slipping heavily, what she just did was dumb, very dumb. But it did make her feel good, a kind of freedom she hasn't felt in a while. She didn't even notice how her posture had changed to a happy, almost show pony gallop as she hummed a tune that soon became a whistle and finally just singing. “The yanks are coming; the yanks are coming! Their drum, drum, drumming around the bend!” She kept her head up high and her sticks ready.

Twinkle looked over at Tide Turner with a confused frown as they both heard the singing echoing down the hall. “Well… let's find something heavy to break this window with.” Yellow flew over to a janitor's closet and opened it up. It was larger than she expected with the inside having the usual mop and bucket, along with a large metal cart filled with cleaning supplies. “You grab one end; I'll get the other!” Yellow said as she landed down and dragged the cart out.

Tide shook his head at her. “I got it, stand back and watch for glass shards.” The large earth pony quickly positioned the cart in front of the glass and stood behind it while yellow took cover. With one powerful kick, the metal cart flew right through the window and down into the water below.

Yellow smiled and took flight. “Hey, why didn't you just kick the glass?”

“Why? So I could get a shard of glass through my hoof?” He asked, looking at her confused.

“Eh, good point.” Yellow stuffed her pistol back into her mouth before flying through the now shattered window into the interior of the silo, scanning for any signs of danger. After surveying through the other windows, she landed on the metal scaffolding to the lower level and waved to Tide Turner to follow her down. Tide jumped through the window and out onto the rusted metal platform, climbing down a ladder to join the pegasus who was waiting for him.

“Hey, I’ll do you one better, why didn't we just use the door?” Tide asked, pointing to the very visible door on the top level that would have led them onto the scaffolding.

Yellow shrugged and kept moving, she positioned herself beside the door to the admin room and signaled for Tide to prepare a breach. The earth pony nodded and got into position, with one swift kick the cheap metal door flew off its hinges and Yellow stormed inside. A single buffalo was hunched over a computer screen, he turned in surprise at the noise trying to grab his rifle that was propped up beside him. Yellow fired a burst of bullets into his back, leaving him hunched over the terminals and his blood dripping onto the floor. Yellow looked around the room for anymore and then threw him off the chair and onto the floor.

“What are these old rifles they have, are these muskets?” Tide said as he walked over and compared his looted rifle to the one against the table.

“Mmhm.” Yellow nodded, she looked over the terminals and began to punch inputs onto the keyboard. Tide tried to decipher some meaning from the long list of code and spill that was rapidly pouring out of the four screens.

“Can you actually read all that, Yellow?” He asked, looking at the pegasus.

The pegasus removed the gun from her mouth and laid it onto the desk. “You see, Royal Guards usually have groups of four assigned to areas they would need to be needed in. Cake was good at killing, Dafodilly was great at communication… espionage… I was always good with technology. I know you wouldn't guess it by looking at me, but it's the truth.” She sighed and withdrew her hooves from the computer and stared at the screens with a hoof to her mouth. “It's not entirely bad… but none of it looks good.”

“We have been walking for at least an hour now! Nothing is out here…” Minty protested, still trying to keep up with the two unicorns in front of her.

Twilight was leading the trio, using her magic to clear out a path in front of them while Tool Belt kept the lantern raised above his head.
“The place it's- Santa’s workshop is just up ahead! We have to keep moving!” Twilight shouted, trying to keep Minty from falling behind them into the howling winds.

“What's this place going to look like?” Asked Tool Belt as he struggled to keep his eyes forward

“Metal doors! Yellow light!” Twilight responded. “There, up ahead!” She began to trot quickly through the snow towards the light. The three huddled against the large doors as Twilight tapped on the keypad. “It’s locked! I don't know what to do!” Twinkle covered her face with her hooves as she looked up at the yellow lights attached to either side of the door. She debated on knocking, somepony had to be home.

Tool Belt walked over to the keypad and looked at it, tilting his head to get a few different angles. Then running his hoof over the little screen. “What kind of key does this thing take?” He asked.

“It takes a card, like a small bit of plastic!” Twilight responded as she watched Minty shaking next to the door, her teeth chattering as she looked over at Twinkle for some kind of help.

Tool Belt removed his hat and produced a small plastic card from under an inner fold, he slid it into the keypad and grinned as a little sun appeared on the keypads screen. The metal doors began to grind and whine as they opened, the trio hurried inside to escape the cold.

“I… I hate winter…” Minty whispered through chattering teeth as she laid on the concrete floor. Twinkle took off her scarf and placed it onto her.

“Stay here Minty, I’ll… I should go on ahead alone from here.” Twinkle looked over at Tool Belt who was in a trance as he looked around at the posters on the walls of rising suns and a burning alicorn princess.

“Is… is that Santa on those posters?” He asked, approaching one of them and staring at it.

Twilight knew there wasn't time to explain to them what those posters were, she had to keep moving. Twinkle didn't want to send them down that spiral, staring at old memories that needed to be forgotten.
“Uh… Yes, yes, it is, come with me now Tool Belt, I’ll need you to help me with Santa. Minty, you should stay here and warm up!”

Minty shook her head as she walked over and stood beside Twinkle. “I didn't come to stay behind halfway; I’m staying with you Twinkie!”

Twilight shook her head. “You shouldn't Minty, it's going to be dangerous. You could get hurt.”

“I know, and you could too. I’m with you.” Minty gave her a reassuring smile.

Tool Belt broke away from his trance and fixed his hat. “I’m coming too, there might be more doors that need to be opened.”

Twilight looked at both of her unlikely companions and sighed. “Stay behind me. And stay quiet, the element of surprise is our only advantage right now.”

Two for the sky.

Cake was happily trotting down the stairs, heading down to the level just below where Yellow and Tide would be clearing. Her hooves hit the water with a cold splash as it continued to rise slowly. It was freezing, but she pressed on. The lights at this level were flickering, and Cake was a bit worried of electrocution, but the thought of freezing to death sounded worse in her mind. She kept moving, sloshing and powering through the icy cold water when she heard a voice call out to her.
“Saddles, Saddles, is that you?” Cake walked over to the door where the sounds were coming from and pushed it open, inside on a desk was a buffalo female, shivering and covered in burns. “Tried… Tried to get it out. I didn't get very far.” She whimpered, facing away from the door.

“Saddles is probably dead, along with the other members of your scouting party. It's been a long time, Strongheart. Never thought you would have left Appaloosa.” Cake said as she climbed onto a nearby desk opposite of the buffalo and shook the cold water off her tail.

“No- no we… You killed them?” Strongheart said weakly as she raised her head to face the unicorn. “You… I know you. You’re the butcher. Red Wagon warned us about you.”

“Oh, I guess the last time we talked my mane wasn't exactly 3 different colors of clown puke. Don't recognize an old friend? It’s me, Cake.” Cake gave her a sarcastic smile. “Butcher… butcher… sounds better when the changelings said it in their snake tongue.”

“Cake? You’re the monster? Why have you done this, this is not the little unicorn I knew. I see Celestia got her claws deep into you.” Strongheart grimaced, taking in some deep breaths as she put her hoof over the burn marks on her chest.

“So, you came here to get our tech for your southern commune. I take it you killed Red Wagon. I know, we ponies were never very kind to you. Rockefeller had already put you in reservations before I arrived and took command of the southern states. There were bigger fires to put out, quite literally.” Cake debated on casting a healing spell for old times sake, but then she remembered how much of a pain it was going to be to go back into the icy water.

“I take it all my squad is dead, then you don't have plans to spare me.” Strongheart rolled over onto her back and looked up at the ceiling.

“Yes, so let's not play any games. I only have a few quick questions then I will make it quick. I’ll see that this place isn't your tomb, and I'll send you back home. With whatever is left of your little scouting party.” Cake’s fake smile turned to a dead pan as she fetched her spear tip from her saddle bags.

“Fuck you, butcher!” Strongheart gritted, not even giving Cake the courtesy of looking her in the eyes.

“So, games… Well, here is the game I could play. I could heal you up, make you stable, and then twist your legs out of their sockets. Drag you out of here and put you in a shallow grave outside. Alive of course, so you can be buried in the snow. When you fucking tech thieves sabotaged this place, you woke everyone up. And like the good little martyrs you are, you didn't have the foresight to see why that might be a bad idea. Now the windigos have returned, I don't know if you saw the snow on your way in but it's probably a solid 5 inches and counting by now and it's not going to stop until we are all dead.” Cake levitated the spear tip over to Strongheart's wounds on her legs, poking them with the tip.

“Was flooded when we got here! Tried to fix it…” The buffalo gritted her teeth at the pain. “It’s not the windigos… Your weather machine is broken.”

“Broken? Well… that's good and bad.” Cake withdrew the spear tip. “How did you get here before us?”

“You slept nights, we didn't. Hoped leaving that earth pony with the unicorns would slow you down, if you were even still alive.” Strongheart relaxed, seemingly accepting her fate.

“How did you get those burns?” Cake asked. The wounds did not match a particular pattern like she had been set on fire, or had been hit by a blast of heat.

“I… the crystal… I…” Strongheart clutched her chest, took one last gasp, and died.

“Little Strongheart. Guess the universe still loves its irony.” Cake shook her head and put the spear tip back into her bags.

“Cake, Cake are you down there!” Yellow Diamond shouted out.

Cake sighed, and slowly lowered herself back into the ice bath. “Yeah, I'm on my way, stay where you are!”

Cake made her way around the spiral hallway and back up the stairs. Her legs felt a bit numb and she was no doubt shivering with her legs stiff as steel as she made her way back up to Tide Turner and Yellow Diamond.

“Strongheart’s, well, the leader of the buffalo is dead. her heart gave out and she was covered in burns. Something about a crystal, the weather machine is malfunctioning, but she said she tried to fix it. What's the status of the pumps?”

“The news isn't good. The reactor on the bottom level has suffered a critical failure due to one of the-” Yellow stopped, her ears perked up and so did Cake’s, then finally Tide’s “Those are pony hoof steps. Did you invite some company commander?” Yellow asked, raising an annoyed smile at Cake. “No pony likes hypocrites.”

“No, I didn't invite them. But it wasn't like we were playing smart and making sure we were not leaving a trail behind us in the snow, Yellow.” Cake rolled her eyes.

Cake watched as the trio ahead of her came to a stop. Twinkle, Tool Belt, and Minty stared at them. Waiting for somepony to say something first.

“Hey Twilight.” Yellow said, waving to the lavender unicorn.

Twilight nodded awkwardly to her as her companions looked at her with a bit of confusion and betrayal. “Cake, please… This needs to end.” Twilight gave her a pleading look as she took a few hoof steps closer to her.

“Twilight, I have been waiting A very long time for each of you to say that. But do you really mean it? This isn't the first time you’ve told me.” Cake asked, rubbing her mane. She still held out hope that her old friend would crack through her shell, but she knew that not every pony could be as strong and jaded as she was.

“I- I don't know. I know that this isn't who- I am.” Twinkle was stumbling over her words, almost mumbling them out. “ I. I do not feel happy. I feel like I have done something horrible. Why did I choose this?”

Minty raised a hoof like a filly in class. “W- wait, I don't understand. Are all three of you Santa?”

Yellow put her hoof over her face and Tide stood there awkwardly. His eyes moved from Cake to Twilight, not seeming to pay Minty any attention. “Yes, all three of us are Santa, Minty. All three of you asked us to clear your memories so you could build new lives because we are all war criminals in some way or form and you all, yes, every one of you except the foals, have done something at some point in time you wanted to forget.” Cake explained casually as she rolled her eyes with a wave of her hoof. Tool Belt eyes diverted to the glass window where the six ponies were standing beside. He slowly moved over and began to stare out at the water in a trance.

“What? What do you mean war criminals… what happened?” Minty asked with a frown and look of deep remorse washing over her face.

Cake groaned. “Fine, I made you all a promise… Minty, you were a conscript in the great war. it - it was a war against some very, very bad creatures. They had plans to enslave us and… do very terrible things to us ponies. You were on look out one night, instead of looking out for patrols, you got drunk. You could have easily awoken your sleeping squad mates and hid but you were too drunk to. I don't know how you even remember it, since you were so blacked out they took you as a prisoner without so much as putting a scratch on you, but you did. Your squad was taken to a labor camp. Only you survived.”
Cake looked through her saddle bags and pulled out a photo. “Tool Belt, would you like to… remember?” Cake asked, not even looking at Minty. The little earth pony’s eyes dilated for a moment, and she stopped breathing, then after a long pause she took a deep breath and broke down into tears, falling over and laying on the ground sobbing.

Tool Belt blinked as he turned his attention away from the water and too Minty. “I have too. I have to know what I did.”

“Tool Belt. not your real name, Atom Smasher, although I think Tool Belt fits you better now and before. When Celestia decided to stop being a sane princess and set everypony who didn't agree with her, or, had wronged her in some way or form, on fire.” Cake took out the crown of Celestia as she talked, waving it around like a trinket.

“You were tasked with building a bomb that could show the world a glimpse of the power of the sun. And you did, almost. When I took Canterlot you were far too valuable to kill, in your own words. And you were absolutely fucking right. And that's where your side of the story comes in Twilight. You see, Twilight here was a grand inquisitor for the Empress. Burning alive thestrals, and whatnot. The two of you were once some of my greatest enemies but we shared a bond in hate. The bomb wasn't quite ready yet, I held off the Changelings and lost all but one of my fucking friends while you two sat in bunkers just like this making it. We deployed the first one via suitcase in Vesapolis, the Changeling capitol. We fried millions of them at the press of a button.” Cake sighed and looked at the ceiling and down at the floor. “It was supposed to be me who was to deliver it, but Daffodilly insisted she could. I know she wanted revenge. I thought I was giving it to her, a way for her to give back to the changelings the only bit of family they had taken from her when we fried their queen into a fucking shadow on her desk…”

Yellow put a hoof over Cake’s shoulder. “We would have all taken that bomb, Daffodilly knew what she had signed up for.”

Cake nodded and paused for a moment before continuing. “We had crippled them, humiliated them, but by then they already had Canterlot. They wanted to keep fighting for their beloved queen, and what little bit of ‘honor’ those shape shifters had left. So, we… you two, got creative. Dirty bombs, nerve gas, bioweapons. We would terror bomb schools and level cities. We had no morals left in us; labor camps were becoming extermination camps… by the time the last of the changelings finally surrendered it was too late. Winter had begun, there wasn't any love for them to take from us anymore, and no food for us to eat besides… them.” Cake laughed; it was a fine irony that she took pride in. Twilight looked at her in disgust, Minty vomited. Tool Belt shook his head.

“I- you know that is rather enlightening. I didn't forget because I felt guilty! I did it so no pony could get those old blueprints, in case the griffins came.” Atom shook his head. “This whole time, our biggest threat was those cows laying in their own blood.”

Twilight shook her head; she was contorting her face. “I wanted something… from this. I wanted to go back, back to what? What was I before… before Daybreaker? I know that wasn't me. I know this isn't me…”

“You were destined for good at one point. Something changed in you when Daybreaker… appeared? Manifested? You and I were practically nemeses, I would try to kill you, you would set little traps for me… then one day Daybreaker noticed one of your friends, um… yellow... Pink hair… Fluttershy! She noticed that she was going behind enemy lines into Nightmare Moon's half of Equestria and patching up enemy combatants, then suddenly you decided to be Twilight again. Um, what was that name you were going by?”

“Sunrise.” Twilight took in a deep breath and then began to shed small tears. “She made me call myself that.”

“Well, you insisted before we began all of this… two years ago that I hold onto this for you. I meant to give it to Yellow Diamond once we checked on Unicornia to hang onto, but it was always yours.” Cake handed her the photograph. It was of a group of six mares, all standing proudly next to one another, each one a different shade of pastel with Twilight in the center with a large smile on her face.

“My friends… they- they can't all be gone.” Twilight whimpered as she sat down onto the concrete, narrowly avoiding Mintys vomit. She ran her hoof over the old, faded photograph before hugging it as she closed her eyes and cried.

“I’ll spare you the details, but the only one I can't say for certain is… the white one. I saw Applejack die in front of me, we were cousins.” Cake rubbed her mane awkwardly.

“If that's all, we gotta get back onto the matter at hoof here Cake.” Yellow whispered.

“Just a moment, Yellow.” Cake brushed her off. “If any of you do want to remember, and we could really use your help in making sure we don't all freeze to death, please raise your hoof.”

Atom raised his with a frown as he took off his hat and tossed it onto the ground. levitating out the plastic card and stuffing it into his jacket. “Don't really want to have to clean grease out of my coat again, Yellow.” Atom Hissed. Yellow stuck her tongue out at him tauntingly.

Twilight weakly raised her head to look at Cake, she took one more look at the photo and then shook her head. Minty was still on the ground, crying and dry heaving. “Well then! Tell me the terrible news about this crystal situation, Yellow!” Cake exclaimed, turning her body to face the pegasus and trying to focus her disappointment onto something else other than Twilight’s response.

Yellow did the same and took a deep breath. “The reactor at the bottom of the silo has suffered some kind of failure, the backup crystals are still functional, but the one it's trying to draw power from is… exploded and rewarped. Basically, imagine a melted battery that's spewing out acid, sort of.” She waved the bad explanation away with her hoof. “Look, the reactor is pulling energy from it, but not enough, and it's spewing out raw magic. Once it's… fixed, we can turn the pumps back on and have the weather machine working in less than thirty minutes, if tool belt can remember how everything works.”

“I’m not all there, Miss Diamond, but I'm sure I can fix some pegasus machinery.” Atom scoffed.

“And… as for the bad news, somepony has to go down there into the water and get the crystal, or whatever shards are left in the chamber, out. And going off the readings in admin, they probably won't be coming back up. The water is boiling. It's a mystery it isn't a sauna down here.”

Cake sighed. “The water… The water was cold as ice when I was in it. The vapor must be going out through the vents while ice is being melted and poured in. That's why the water levels aren't rising at an extreme rate. Strongheart said she was trying to fix things; she was covered in burns…”

Yellow sighed, and then shook her head. “What are your orders, commander?”

Cake put a hoof on her shoulder. “Congratulations Yellow, I am promoting you to Commander of Octo Squad, by the powers invested in me by my former commander, Shining Armor. But before I do, I have one final set of orders for you. Take everypony and put them together under one site, you can use Unicornia, Ponyville, whatever. Just bring them all close.”

Yellow put her hoof up to Cakes lips. “Now is for the very, very bad news. The back up crystals do not have enough power to keep the device working, even with the elements of harmony it would still take a lot of energy to keep the suppression field on. It would just be…” Yellow signaled to the three ponies on the other side of the hallway vaguely. “...that, every week. In short, we are very likely fucked. Sorry, but it looks like none of you are forgetting.” Yellow said, shrugging at Twilight who was looking back at her and like she had just been shot. “But… when the windigo’s were here, it was much, much colder. By all accounts this winter isn't actually made by them, it's the malfunctioning weather machine. We may not need them to forget!”

Cake looked back over at Twilight who was now staring back at the photo again. Her face was contorting between the five stages of grief, as she began to shake. The longer she looked at them the worse she got. “I guess that's… something. My order still stands Yellow. You are in charge now, I need to go down there and get that crystal out, get ready to move those 3 back to town, come back here and clean up. And… I’m sorry for the grenade thing. I intended to clean that up myself.”

“F- first time I've ever been unhappy about a promotion…” Yellow looked away, trying to repress any emotions she had about it. Tide put his hoof down in front of Cake and stopped her as the mare was turning to walk away from them.

“Commander… let me do this. Let me do something good and honest. They’re going to need you a hell of a lot more than they’re going to need a washed-up smuggler.” Tide pleaded.

“Tide, I am insulted that you would dare try to steal my glory, my one chance to let me finally end this nightmare that I have been living in for the last decade of my life. If you so much as try to stop me from taking this opportunity to maybe not burn for eternity in hell, I will dislocate all four of your knees.” Cake pushed his hoof away with her magic. And trotted a few meters down the hallway then stopped. “Oh, um, not everypony gets to have a final peace or.. Leave some words behind.” She took off her saddle bags and turned around, tossing them onto the floor in front of Yellow Diamond. “I think you all already know that everything I did was for you. I did it for Equestria. Admittedly, I knew that the Equestria we were promised we would one day retire and go home to was a load of horse shit before they sent me on my first black op... But I don't believe it's a fable when I see all of you, what I've seen us accomplish. We fought and many of us lost friends fighting for that dream. A dream where maybe we can live in harmony. So… live on, for you. Not for them, not for me, but for you. You deserve to be happy, all of you do. Let go of the past and build the future you fought for.” Cake turned and trotted down into the hall. She could hear them murmuring, and mostly Minty sobbing along with... Yellow as well. She had to keep going. She pressed onwards back down into the ice-cold water, focusing on the thought of where she was going. It was going to be hot, very hot. Hell or the sands of Appleoosa, either or. That was fine with her, as long as it wasn't cold she could accept it. The next and final flight of stairs was completely flooded. She used her magic to give herself an air bubble around her head, but she was always a weak swimmer. The lights on this floor were completely out, she used her horn to light the way. Only halfway through and she could feel the water getting warmer, thankfully, as she took her extra breath and dropped the air bubble. Little objects left behind floated around in the water. canned goods, office chairs, and coffee mugs. Coffee, she was excited to try that again, hopefully. She didn't like it very much when it was around, maybe she didn't appreciate all those little things properly. She made a mental note to revisit things she didn't like as she kept doggy paddling through the water. Finally, she had made it just as she felt herself going lightheaded. The reactor room was huge, there were three cores aligned on the walls, she didn't know which one was the main one so she decided to go to the one that would be boiling her skin off the most, she swam off to it and began to squirm under the heat, she wanted to yelp but thought opening her mouth would be a terrible idea with how hot the water was, it it wasn't for her magic making a pair of force field goggles she probably have had her eyes burning out of her skull by now. Slowly she opened the door on the far left with her magic, hardly able to focus. The crystal inside was fine, of course... It would be the one on the far right. Cake achingly swam over to the other side of the room; she would have to get in closer now to focus through the pain of her coat being melted onto her flesh. Again, a perfectly fine crystal. ‘It's always the last one you check’ she thought to herself as her magic began to sputter, her magic failed just for a moment as the burning hot water scalded her eyes, she couldn't hold back now, she screamed out in pain, silently into the water and she tried to cover her eyes with her hooves. She knew it was pointless, but still tried one last effort to finish what she had come to do, paddling over to the last core she hadn't checked. She pawed around feeling for. Finally, her hoof hit the handle of the door and she reactively pulled away, using her last bit of magic to open it. she wanted to scream again but she had no air left in her lungs, instead she decided to just accept it. She came down here to die, to sacrifice herself like so many before her. Still, she had a small glimmer of pride left that she would just use her magic to remove the crystal, not taking into account her own terrible luck. With one final act of strength, she reached out and grabbed the crystal and pulled it from its slot. It had been done. she … had peace now. Not really, she was writhing at this point, squirming and trying to scream as she felt her hooves beginning to turn into goop from the brief exposure. Then, she felt nothing at all. The white unicorn, what was left of her, slowly floated down onto the floor and the last thing she heard was the pumps kicking to life.

Epilogue - Bounce back ability

Twilight looked over the wooden figure, she would have to restart now, she thought. The wings she had made for Rainbow Dash were once again whittled too small. She was starting to run out of little logs, and the spear tip she was using would probably need to be sharpened again. She stopped and placed down the little wooden figure and turned to face the polite rapping somepony was placing onto the library door. Minty stepped in and closed the door behind her, whipping a bead of sweat off her brow as she stepped into the air-conditioned library. “Hot out today, isn't it Twink- Twilight. Sorry.”

Twilight smiled at her and shook her head. “Minty, you can call me that name if you want to. I don't mind, tell me you have some good news for me at least.”

“Well, I have a lot of news. The good news mostly outweighs the bad.” Minty stopped closer, looking over the little whittled figures on the desk Twilight was sitting at. “You’ve gotten very good at that; I might have to ask you for one someday.”

Twilight blushed as she turned to face them, she saw a lot of little errors in the work, Applejack's hat was too big, and Fluttershy’s cutie mark was a single butterfly when she knew it should be three. “Come on Minty, don't stall. Tell me the news, good or bad.”

“Alright… Cotton's mother, Fruit Seed, is stable again. The doctors say there's no brain damage from… the lack of oxygen.” Minty looked away, guilty she was probably ruining Twilight’s good mood.

“Are the lacerations on her neck permanent?” Twilight asked as she avoided looking at Minty, pretending to look over some papers on the table of sketches for future figures.

“No, no… but there's a chance she could try again.” Minty put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, more for her own comfort than Twilight’s.

“Well, we’ll need to be vigilant. And remind her that we are looking out for her, that we don't blame her for anything she did.” Twilight turned and looked and gave the green earth pony a smile. “Now you promised me some good news?”

“Right, Yellow is leading the last caravan from Ponyville here. They should, if nothing goes wrong, arrive here early tomorrow morning. We already have the tents and a few little houses for the families to stay in.” Minty took her hoof away and walked over to a shelf, looking over all the comic books Twilight had stashed.

“Well, that is good. With the unicorns here we can have them all in houses in under a month.” Twilight levitated out one of her favorite comic books and placed it into Minty’s saddle bags.

“Thank you, Twinkie. Um, Toolbelt wants to talk to you, still.” Minty gave her a knowing frown.

“He wants that statue for one reason, Minty. I don't care what he says about the ‘benefits’ of idolatry. Cake told us to move on from the past, she would have hated it if we even made a plaque on a park bench for her.” Twilight groaned, looking at the spear tip in her magic before placing it back into the little shot glass she kept it in.

“I’ll tell him you’re saying no again. Still going to have time for tea with Inkwell later?” Minty said, making her way out the library.

“Of course, I wouldn't miss it.” Twilight said, giving her a smile that quickly left her as Minty made her way back outside. Twilight stood up and looked out the window. Ponies were going about the summer day as usual, some beating the heat having picnics and drinking lemonade or whatever fruit juices they could make under the shady trees, watching the foals play tag and hoofball in the town’s square. She wanted to go out and join them and find a nice spot to whittle her next statue. But the inside of the library had its own appeals, she did like the smell of old books that come with her much more filled bookshelves, and of course the occasional visitor who would come in looking for some old childhood book with a vague description that should would have to entertain before handing them a picture book on frogs, they had found a ton of those for some reason in one of the houses from their expedition into what remained of the suburbs and bombed cities where Tide Turner and Yellow Diamond taught them to scavenge from. Instead, she decided to do neither. She opened the desk and pulled out a small wooden box, then quickly made her way out of the library.

It was a fine spot, overlooking the growing town from a distance. The grave only bore her name on it, not any of the sacrifices she had done for them. Yellow and Twilight disagreed a lot on the next steps to make after they had fished the boiled corpse out of the reactor room, but this was something they had both agreed upon. She opened the box and placed the small statue next to the tombstone. She couldn't help herself, she would have probably liked it however. Cake wasn't a monk, anypony would have like a little wooden figure of themselves posing heroically. She pressed the little base into the dirt, putting tiny pebbles around it to work like a weight so it wouldn't get blown away in the summer winds. The valley was calm, no sounds of gun fire in the air or the sound of soldiers kicking down doors. The blue-sky overhead was almost empty with the exception of some white puffy clouds. Twilight felt, for the first time in a while, calm. Relaxed. It wasn't the short burst of happiness one would get from a joke or a song, it was real joy within. Of course, it was only a slight fulfillment. She looked down at the stone. She had lost her. One of Twilight’s last friends lost to time, she sighed and picked herself up and began the walk back to town, the future was uncertain, chaotic, but she knew that the past was set in stone, unforgeable. Another adventure was out there, another story waiting for her. It was time to let go of her pain and seek it out.

Author's Note

If you didn't know this, every chapter name is taken from a song from generation 3 and 3.5, even a few from the live action musical 'The world's biggest tea party' if you haven't watched gen 3, then I recommend listening to the music from it at the very least.

Special thanks to good friends of mine, Garchom and Yuki, for proofreading and helping me edit some parts where I lost my flow.