Heavenly Crusaders

The following day after mass concludes, Twilight sends Spike with Rarity and sees everyone leave when she sees a shimmering orb float down from above, saying curiously, "Hmm, what's this?"

As she watches the curious mare attempt to touch her, the ghost suddenly darts forward and whispers into her ear, "Boo!"

Startled, she cries out, "WAHH!"scrambles back and lands on her flank with wide eyes as she then hears the sound of a mare laughing. Looking around the room, she then sees the twinkling orb move closer and asks, "Are you the ghost that will be guiding us into the ruins?"

Bouncing up and down, she says, "Yep, are you ready to brave the dark forest and journey into the foreboding dungeons where-"

Cutting her off, True approaches her with his collar around his neck, saying, "Stop scaring her, I might need her help to hold up parts of the area we are heading into."

Dropping in height with a sigh, she says, "Awe... Alright."

Smiling at Twilight, he then says, "Apologies for her actions, ghosts have a morbid sense of humor. I still need to get the rest of my harness on, so let's go outside to the shed."

Nodding and following him outside, she says, "It's alright, I guess it is only natural for a ghost to not fear death anymore."

Making conversation as he gets into his harness, he sets his saddlebags onto the side of the wagon along with Twilight's and hooks up to his wagon then walks forward, saying, "Ruined castle dungeons, here we come."

A few hours pass as they make their way through the forest using a safer path, arriving at the bridge to the ruined castle as True compares the wagon's width to the bridge's. Unsure if it is wide enough, he turns to Twilight and asks, "Do you know if it is wide enough for the bridge to handle?"

Grabbing a measuring tape from her bags, she moves it to the far wheel and looks at the number before measuring the bridge's width. Lifting her head and rolling the tape back up, she nods, saying, "It's small enough to fit, and with the ropes having been replaced recently, it is strong enough to handle its weight easily."

Taking her word for it, he nods and has her guide him onto the bridge, proving to be a bit tight as Twilight has to use her magic to adjust the wagon's position. Reaching the other side, he parks the wagon beside the entrance to it and sets blocks in front of the wheels, then unhooks himself from it to take off his harness and collar. Once out of his harness and collar, they follow the spirit into the castle and head down a dark corridor which is partially blocked by a portion of collapsed ceiling.

Using their magic to move the rubble against the wall, they proceed further into the depths. Taking a few turns, they finally arrive at the barred entrance to the dungeon, True Heart uses a spell to unlock the sealed gate.

Upon entering the dungeon, Twilight smells a foulness in the air and wrinkles her nose, saying, "This smell is very unsettling, is this what death smells like?"

Spotting the collapsed section, he nods and says, "Yes, what you are smelling are the lingering vapors left behind from the decaying bodies that have been stuck here for a thousand years. I can see the collapsed portion ahead, and it is quite large. I will definitely be needing your help to move all this."

Just then another voice calls out from behind them, "Don't worry, pardner, we're here to help!"

Turning to look behind them, Twilight looks at two of her friends curiously, asking, "Applejack, Rainbow, what are you two doing here?"

Smirking, Rainbow lands beside Applejack, saying, "I overheard you two talking about going into this castle's dungeon on some sort of a rescue mission, so I told Applejack about it and we decided to come help. So who are we rescuing?"

Sighing, True turns around and says, "This isn't exactly a mission to save a life, you two, we are here to recover the remains of a pony who's body is still trapped under the rubble ahead of us."

Hanging their heads, Applejack says, "Shoot, that is sad to hear, but ah would still like to help rescue them so that they won't be stuck in this awful place anymore. What do we need to do?"

Smiling as Rainbow offers to help as well, he sees the empty cells and says, "We need to carefully move the rubble so that we can get to the cell where her body is, hopefully we are careful enough that we don't bring more down upon our heads and find ourselves trapped here until we perish."

Setting to work seeing which stones can be moved first, Twilight and True carefully move them to the ground so Applejack or Rainbow can move them into the empty cells.

Taking them a few hours to make enough room, they find the cell where the mummified remains of a unicorn mare with a once-brilliant auburn mane and tail. As Applejack and Rainbow look at the body, Applejack is the first to speak, saying, "Gee, ah always knew that death was a part of life, but ah had no idea that the process could be so...cruel."

Knowing that all-too-well, True nods and looks at the crushed skull of the unicorn corpse, saying, "There is no way to tell how she died, but for her sake, I sure hope that she didn't suffer much. I'll gather them and we can be on our way."

Just then, another voice calls out, "Hey, don't just leave me here to turn to dust, take mine with you, too!"

The ghostly mare then looks to the far side of the room and huffs, saying, "Absolutely not, criminal! You were found guilty for raping twenty mares and abandoning their foals! You don't deserve peace!"

True looks towards the pile as the other spirit huffs and talks back, proving to him that the deceased stallion is unrepentent. Unable to leave his remains behind, he sighs and says, "I am hesitant to give you a burial due to you not showing remorse, though my soul demands that you receive one despite what you've done."

The stallion's spirit then sighs thankfully, saying, "Thank you!"

Before he can continue, True keeps speaking, saying, "However, you will receive a solitary, unmarked grave."

Groaning, the stallion says, "I don't care if you drop my remains in a latrine, I just want out of here!"

Pulling a sack out for the mare's remains, he collects them and ties it shut, then slips it into his saddlebags and heads for the far pile, saying, "Very well then, we shall extract you from under that heap."

In spite of their protests, they all work even more carefully as several of the stones in this pile are holding up the rest of the ceiling, managing to move enough to reach the deceased stallion. Seeing that the bars over top of the cage are bowed down, sandwiching the sides and pinning the corpse, True sighs and says, "Twilight, can you bend them enough so that we can get him out?"

Nodding her head as Rainbow gags at the raunchy smell, Twilight says, "I sure can." Using her magic, she manages to force most of the bars back into their original position, saying, "There, now stuff them into a sack so we can get out of this dark hole."

Recovering the somewhat more intact corpse, True then feels a breeze ruffle his mane as he puts the body into another sack, asking, "Can anyone else feel a breeze?"

Nodding her head, Rainbow says, "Yep, I have felt it since we moved the last few of those rocks, it helps to keep the nasty smell away."

Looking up to her, he asks, think you can show me where it is coming from?"

Following the breeze, she finds the source and says, "It's coming from behind this huge pile here."

True looks at where she's pointing and groans, saying, "It just had to be dangerously close to a crumbling, load-bearing support pillar..." Turning to Twilight, he says, "Twilight, you and me are going to have to work together and build a new column of of intact blocks in order to keep this ceiling from crushing us, thankfully, the cross members doing most of the holding have minimal damage despite their age. Let's start a large, square base," turning to Applejack, he asks, "Would you mind helping bring the better stones over so we can place them in a specific pattern?"

Applejack nods her head, saying, "Not at all, pardner." Looking at Rainbow, she says, "Rainbow, ya should probably help move blocks over too."

When the first stones begin coming over, he carefully guides Twilight on the pattern to use. It takes them a few hours to get enough blocks to get half way to the ceiling when the first signs of trouble are heard, feeling a gentle vibration in the floor as they all work a little faster.

Once they reach the ceiling, True then looks at Twilight, saying, "I'm going to have to try to push up on the part just above the sturdy column, you continue helping Rainbow move them into the right pattern. I sure hope we can get the last three layers in before anything else happens..."

Helping the others as he starts pushing the beam up, Twilight watches dust fall through a crack in the ceiling near the column and lifts the block higher with a grunt, asking, "You get it into place yet, Rainbow?"

Adjusting it a bit more, she says, "Yep, go ahead and set it down."

A half-hour passes as Applejack sees that there is yet one more layer to finish, saying, "We're almost there yall, keep it up."

Huffing in effort, True grunts from the strain of holding up possibly several thousand tons of stone, saying, "Good, I'm anxious to get out of this death-trap."

It takes them a half hour to finish squeezing the last block into place as Rainbow calls out, "All good, Twilight, set it down and release your magic."

Lowering it down to rest on the other stones, Twilight releases her magic and turns to True, saying, "Alright, you can set it down now and catch your breath True."

Relieved at hearing that, he sets it down as cautiously as possible, hearing the ceiling groan above them as it adjusts to the change. When the weight fully leaves him, he drops his magic and looks at the last obstacle, saying, "Alright, now let's start with this nightmare of an obstacle..."

As they carefully sort out which stones to move first, a loud crash comes from far behind them and dust starts to billow into the room while Rainbow says, "I have to ask. Why didn't we just go back the way we came while that path was still stable?"

Trotting over to check it out, Twilight heads back and says, "Because in structures with compromised integrity, it is always safest to push forward as the path back may become blocked at any time. I'm also pretty sure that True has a good reason for spending all that time building a column before making a path through this rubble."

Nodding his head, True says, "I do. I have a sneaking idea that something interesting lies behind this pile, but if not, we can always try to clear the path back."

Continuing on, they catch the first glimpse of an open archway ahead of them as the scent of death and decay become heavier, when Rainbow gags, saying, "Woah, that really stinks!"

Once they finish moving the stone out of the way, he sees three, mummified ponies in a group with saddlebags and a book that must of slid out, saying, "Hmm, since they were heading here in a hurry, it is possible that they were trying to rescue the prisoners from a grim fate as it is quite clear they died from fatal head and neck injuries probably caused by falling rocks."

As Applejack watches him head towards one of them and start searching through their belongings, she calls out, "Hey, that's a little rude, don't ya think?"

Cocking his head slightly, True responds, "Perhaps a bit, but it isn't like they have need of what's inside since they've passed on. Besides, perhaps what's inside might provide information about who they were."

Not able to object due to it making sense, Twilight approaches one of them to help out, saying, "As much as I really don't want to search through a dead pony's things, I have to agree with him so that we can put names upon their graves."

Finding nothing but spoiled food and water with a few images of ponies in one side, he searches through the other and pulls out a folded up chunk of white fabric. Curious, he unfolds it and holds it up, saying, "A little light, if you please, Twi?"

Nodding her head, Twilight says, "Sure." she lights up her horn and turns her head to see him holding up a full-body white tunic having a red cross with flared ends on the left side. Not recognizing the clothing, she asks, "What is that you're holding True?"

Letting out a sad sigh, he says, "It's a tunic from a special member of the Heavenly Crusaders, and only special members are permitted to own one by Templar law. Since he has one, he must be buried with the others." Realizing he said way too much, he goes quiet for a few seconds before saying, "All of these ponies here must have been members too, check their bags to see if any of them have one."

Feeling curious, Applejack asks, "What's so special about these Heavenly Crusaders yer talking about, pardner?"

Finishing her search through one of their saddlebags while hearing True tell them a bit about the order, she finds no tunic or book of any kind when she spots True take a few of them from the deceased pony's saddlebags and add them to his own swiftly. Turning to search the next pony, she notices the book by the last pony's saddlebags, saying curiously, "Hello, what do we have here?"

Turning his head, True sees Twilight about to open the book, he sees a shimmer move across the book in the light and rips it away from her grasp, saying, "NO!"

Not pleased about him taking it from her, she huffs and looks at him with an upset look on her face, saying, "HEY! I was about to find out what was in that!"

Letting out a relieved breath, he says, "I know you were, but the thing about this book...is that it has a trap enchantment placed upon it. Set to be cast upon the curious pony that tries to read it without disarming it first, putting a permanent polymorph hex upon them that can only be undone by a member of the order that is permitted to know it."

Blushing nervously at hearing that, Twilight blinks twice before asking, "Oh...well, thank you for stopping me in time. But, how do you know so much about this secret order of Heavenly Crusaders? I've never come across a single hint as to their existence in all the books I've read. I've known you since I was 4, but I feel like you're not sharing your full story with us. Can you please just come out with whatever it is?"

Curious as well, Rainbow then says, "What else are you keeping from us? I thought we were friends, dude!"

Applejack then walks closer and says, "C'mon pardner, ah may not have known you as long as Twilight, but ah do kinda feel that yer keeping a lot to yerself."

With a sigh of relief at his friends being observant, True says, "Well, where should I begin?"

Replying immediately, Rainbow then says, "From the beginning, duh."

As Applejack gives Rainbow a brief scolding for her remark, Twilight smiles and says, "I think that it would be best to start from where this group first started."

Nodding his head, he then says, "Very well, let us finish here first and then get outside to where it is safe, then I shall begin telling you everything I am able."

When they finish searching for tunics or books of any kind, they find 6 others with some books and tunics. Watching her friend collect their bodies and belongings, Twilight asks, "Are we ready to continue on True?"

Thinking they most likely moved on, True shakes his head to tell her no, saying, "Not just yet, I must check for any other lost souls here." Taking a breath, he calls out into the area around him, "If there are any other lost spirits roaming these ruins, come forth now so you may be put to rest!"

Several seconds pass without any replies, allowing him to look at Twilight and nod, saying, "Alright, let's get out of here. I sure hope we don't find any more down here."

Nodding her head and following close behind True, carrying a few of the bodies herself, Twilight says, "I hope we don't either or we will have to make trips back here to collect them."

It takes them a half hour of walking before they see light up ahead as Rainbow dashes ahead, saying, "Alright, open skies here we come!" Forced to stop in her tracks when she sees that the exit is gated, she tries various ways to open it and calls out, "Applejack, think ya can kick this door open? It's either locked or rusted solid."

As Applejack trots ahead, True hears her kicking the door and says, "If you can't get it, there might be a spell over it to keep unauthorized ponies out." However, when he hears the metallic clang of breaking metal, he chuckles and says, "Seems like there either was no spell on it or the rescuers either dispelled it or disabled it."

When Twilight passes the gated entrance, she scans it for any magic and says, "I can't sense any magic residue on them, can you, True?"

Scanning the gate and the door, he looks at her and shakes his head, saying, "The locking spell must have been removed or destroyed when they went through, because I can't sense anything either."

Once the others join them, Rainbow then says, "There's a path back up over here, but watch your steps in some places."

Finally reaching the top, he heads over to his wagon and sets the crusaders' bodies by the wagon, saying, "Don't worry, brothers, I will get you back home so you can finally rest with the others."

Making their way around the castle, the girls look at him curiously, hoping he starts sharing soon. When they follow the orb around to the back of the castle, they see a field with 5 other graves.

Heading to a separate area, the stallion uses his magic to dig a hole nearly 5 foot deep and drops the bag with the other stallion's remains into it unceremoniously, then channels a spell of unrest around the grave, saying, "To whoever's corpse is buried here, I pray that you enjoyed your actions in life, for now, you shall reap what you have sown for being so heartless. Because you have forced yourself upon unwilling mares and abandoned their foals, I sentence your soul to wander endlessly. Meaning that you will be unable to linger anywhere longer than half a minute, unable to be seen, heard, and even unable to interact with anything around you. You shall be hounded by those who you've harmed until they decide you've earned forgiveness."

Floating closer at hearing his words, the stallion pleads, saying, "Oh come on, bro, cut another stallion some slack!"

Watching the display, Rainbow says, "Woah, talk about harsh punishment..."

Not letting himself be swayed, True rears up onto his back hooves, saying, "My judgement is final, may your pennance begin...sinner!" Returning to the ground hard, he finishes the spell and watches as several other orbs appear around the stallion's ghostly form, questioning why they are here, and answers, "You all are here as retribution for this criminal's choices in life, I hope you all shall see to it that he receives no respite from your displeasure with how he treated and abandoned you all."

The stallion looks at all the floating ponies around him with scowls on their faces at hearing what the other stallion said, saying with wide eyes, "No...no...please have mercy!"

Huffing and swishing his tail, he moves the dirt into the hole, saying, "I don't have mercy on vile cretins like you, so begin your penance until they decide to forgive you."

Applejack watches with a stunned look on her face as the other stallion starts to cover his ears and beg for them to stop shouting, then sees him vanish into thin air and asks out of reflex, "What in the hay did ya just do to him, pardner? Where'd he go?"

Making his way over to help say a few words for the mare, he answers, "I just used a spell of the supernatural variety to make a criminal roam between worlds and pay for the unforgivable wrongs they have done. He will wander Equestria aimlessly, never stopping in one place for very long before continuing on his way, never able to be seen by another living soul again."

When Twilight gently puts dirt back into the hole, she looks at him and says, "I think that is a well-deserved punishment, but could you start telling us where the Heavenly Crusaders began?"

Nodding, he says, "Let us pray."

Closing their eyes, they then hear him say a prayer for the unfortunate mare, taking only a couple minutes to reach the end as they all say, "Let it become true."

After making a headstone for her grave, True leads them back towards the wagon, saying, "Since this will be a long story to tell you all, why don't you accompany me on my journey to bring my fellow brothers home?"

Loading them up into the wagon carefully, he gets back into his harness and collar as Twilight asks if she can write this all down to share with Celestia. Seeing no harm as she already knows much of it, he nods and then backs up in between the single tree to hook up, saying, "Well, for starters, our order was originally a military order called the Knights Templar a very long time ago, created..."

Making their way across the bridge, they listen to him tell them all about the order of humans. With Living Quill still working, Twilight pulls out another paper and lets the quill continue on writing as he takes a short break to let it catch up. When he continues, she is shocked to hear of the intense battles that had been fought in the name of some all-powerful being with no name.

Hours pass as they exit the forest, with the others resting in the wagon while True takes a drink to satisfy his dry throat. Once his throat is no longer dry, True says, "After the loss in the middle east, our influence over the people caused the rulers to become fearful of us trying to overthrow us. Unfortunately, the order was made out to be the villains and were subsequently arrested and then executed on false charges." Looking back over his shoulder, he then says, "As far as I could find, that was the end for our order on Earth in a different world. Now I shall begin with how we came to be in this world, though I will omit some details as I am not permitted to share details about the power that brought us here."

Blinking at how much she has written down, she then sets it inside the wagon as the whole stack won't fit in her saddlebags, saying, "It's really sad to hear what went on in the other world, though I can't believe that the order was around for two centuries and then simply tossed aside like garbage."

Nodding his head, he trots on down the road through Ponyville as the mare's spirit heads over to her new residence, saying, "It is unfortunately the way things work there. Do any of you need to do anything while we're back in Ponyville?"

Shaking their heads, Twilight says, "Only thing we might need is some food, but other than that, we are good to continue."

After eating at a restaurant in town, they then continue heading north out of town. When they get far enough out of town, True says, "This may shock you when you hear this, so please don't ask questions until I finish telling you the story."

Nodding their heads, they then listen and wait for him to continue as Twilight readies more paper she retrieved from home, casting her spell on the quill once again to write down whatever is said.

Continuing with the second part of his story, he says, "After dying at Acre, I found myself in a dark place with many others in bluish white, spectral horse forms. Looking around, we asked each other what happened, where we were, who we were, and what was going on. We then saw a mysterious being which I will provide no information about or even hints, who then said they would clear up some of our confusion. They then told us we all had perished performing our duties admirably, though our order lost control of the East."

While hearing more of the story, Twilight's eyes are wide at hearing of the duties their entire order was given when the first thousand were granted living bodies. As his story continues, her burning desire to get answers for her numerous questions gets stronger.

Not going into specifics, he says, "We do have a way to identify the reincarnated members of our order, though I won't share what that is as it will fall out of use since there are no more after me." He then begins to tell them how they passed the time they spent in the dark place.

Hours pass as they listen to him tell what he knows of the time around his birth and the following years after that until he awakened to his knowledge of the past. As they hear about how his training was, Rainbow smirks and says, "Wow, seems like you had no time to get into trouble."

Looking at Rainbow harshly, she shushes her and waits to use a quill to scratch out what was said after True's reply. As he resumes the story, she hears of what he had done up until he came to Ponyville. Making sure to keep his life separate from the information that she craves, she puts a ribbon around the fat roll of papers and puts it into her saddlebags. When he continues telling them about the early years of their order, the Celestial Crusaders, her eyes bug out of her head at hearing how they helped guide them forward by teaching them how to speak among various things.

Applejack watches Twilight pull out a full inkwell and a second paper as her face remains frozen in shock, chuckling softly and saying, "Heh, ah think yer mind has gone on vacation."

As Twilight doesn't respond, Rainbow nudges Applejack and says, "At least somepony is finding this incredibly boring information exhilarating, I'm bout ready to fall asleep here." She then splutters in shock at hearing that the crusaders learned magic and how to fly from the newly-formed tribes of ponies, however, it was the crusaders that discovered how to manipulate clouds first and taught them how to do it, saying, "SERIOUSLY?! Pegasi lived on the ground!?"

Continuing on without responding to her shock, True says, "I remember when we were called to form a line no more than a hundred long due to a time of struggle approaching. From what I learned of the struggle, all I will share with you is that it was against a sapient creature that discovered a way to steal magic with an enchanted magical relic. After enslaving many others of his kind and creating numerous monsters, a great war began between them and some brave ponies along with most of our order, costing hundreds of thousands of lives before he was defeated and his relic hidden away four decades later. With his race going extinct, the time of struggle was not yet over as ponies began going missing in the night..."

Half way to their destination, he tells them of how they spent a century and a half fighting, managing to drive all but one group of the mysterious insect ponies into extinction, which managed to escape their hunt.

Once they get to the mountain, Twilight struggles to keep her head up from the massive amount of information she's trying to process. Setting down another inkwell and a large stack of paper, she casts a self-sorting spell and links it to the Living Quill spell that is still going strong, saying to Applejack, "Don't let the paper or the ink run out, I need to...process a few things."

Nodding her head, Applejack says, "Ya got it, Twi."

No sooner than hearing that, she sighs with a weary smile and groans, saying, "Uhhuuhh....too...much...shock..." and promptly passes out.

As they near their destination, True takes another drink, then resumes the story, saying, "When we were called to form lines again, I watched as our numbers began to dwindle down to only about five or ten thousand until we could resume our practicing until we are called."

Twilight finally wakes a couple hours later when they stop somewhere beside the mountain, hearing True finish his story, she waits for the quill to finish writing before dismissing the spell and puts it away as the paper floats over and flips onto the newest stack. Ending that spell as well, she corks the inkwell and puts it and the remaining few sheets into her saddlebags before looking around to see a few teetering stacks of paper, asking, "How much of the rest of that did I miss?"

Using her wings to keep the stacks from falling over while lying on top of them, Rainbow says, "Eh aside from winning a war at the cost of over a thousand casualties and utterly decimating their order, choosing to disappear from the world to become a group working in the background of Equestria's history out of shame and guilt? You didn't miss much."

Pulling up to a slow stop, True says, "We are here, before I head towards the doors, I would like you all to Pinkie Promise not to tell anyone else aside from our close friends about what you are about to witness or about this location. I will inform Princess Celestia or Luna about it whenever the situation calls for it." Looking at Twilight, he then sighs and says, "Sadly, that includes Spike, Twilight, until he learns not to blurt things out which should remain secret."

Despite grumbling about it, they go through with making an official Pinkie Promise as Rainbow then says, "There, we made a Pinkie Promise, can we continue on now?"

Nodding, he moves towards a flat spot in the wall between two alicorn statues and stops in front of the large flat spot between them and mutters softly to the door, "Pro gloria luminis, pugnamus ut pacem servemus."

Moments later, the girls all watch in shock as a pair of doors open up between the two statues, when they see him trot through the doors and then pull on one of the enchanted, burning torches. Travelling up the wide, winding path, they see torches come to life and show a clear path before them.

Reaching the next bunch of doors, he stops and then prepares to pull the sconce to open the double doors, saying, "I do not know if anyone outside of the order is allowed into our stronghold, so I'm not sure what may happen."

Eager to see what lies beyond the door, Applejack says, "We'll just hafta play it by ear then."

Pulling the sconce, the door then rumbles and swings open as the lights begin to come on in the wagon bay where dozens of wagons of various sizes are lined up in rows around the room. Making his way through aisles on the far right side of the room, he parks in front of the doors heading further into the interior rooms. Unhooking himself from the wagon, he says, "I will be right back, I need to find out if there is anyone else here. Try not to wander off too far in search for new rooms to explore until I return."

Twilight nods and watches him pull another sconce, then head inside and close the door behind himself. Lowering the back gate, she then steps out as softly as she can and makes her way to some of the wagons lined up as Applejack joins her, saying in astonishment at the size of the room, "Applejack, can you imagine how long it must have taken to build a room this size, with secret entrances!?"

Heading into the room ahead, True calls out, "Hello, are any fellow brothers or sisters here?"

A few minutes later, an older mare walks in accompanied by two younger mares wearing maid hats, saying, "Greetings brother True Heart, what do you need aid with this fine evening?"

Looking at her, he smiles and asks, "Greetings Wise Owl, I pray that you are in good health and doing well these days." Feeling a bit nervous, he then asks, "How strict are the rules for bringing close friends to the Stronghold?"

The question and the nervous look on the young stallion's face set the older pegasus to cackling happily, saying, "Oh dear me, hahahah! We aren't nearly as strict now like we used to be. While we normally don't bring others here, we won't throw them out or punish anyone for it if they do. However, if they would like access to the library or other rooms in this place, they will have to join and become a normal member of our order."

Nodding his head, he says with a smile, "That is good to hear, as I have brought three close friends of mine and had them Pinkie Promise not to tell anyone about this place. I also opened up to them about our order's history."

The pegasi mare smiles and lays a hoof to his shoulder, saying, "It is good that you found someone to trust enough to open up to, that is going to go a long way in having society remember us when we original members pass on." Returning her hoof to the ground, she then clears her voice and says, "Now let's go say hello to your guests."

Leading her to the wagon bay, he opens the door to find the three girls looking at the chariots, saying, "Girls, would you come over here? I have somepony here who would like to welcome you to our Stronghold." Once they head over, he then gestures to the older mare, saying, "This is Wise Owl, a fellow sister of our order, she was the pony that taught me about using fibers to make fabric and thread from them, as well as how to use them to make various things." Turning to her, he then introduces them to her, saying, "Wise Owl, these are three of my friends from Ponyville. From left to right, they are, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle."

Smiling at recognizing them, the mare says, "Oh I've heard tales of how you all defeated Nightmare Moon, good on you to help set Luna free."

After she introduces her two maids, True waits for an opportunity to speak to her. When it comes, he sighs and says, "Pardon me for not saying anything about this earlier, sister, but I have recovered seven of our lost brethren."

Gasping briefly, she then smiles and says, "Happy news it is that you managed to recover a few of the members that have fallen, though it saddens me to think that there are still so many we cannot bring home due to the aftermath of that horrid battle." Knowing what needs to be done, she stands tall and says, "I shall ring the tolling bell to summon the others, but let us first go prepare the memorial chamber to receive their remains."