The Powers That Be

“No.  No way.  I already know how that’s gonna end.  If I just stay here, nopony gets hurt.  I won’t have to deal with that again.”  Daring closed her eyes, trying to block out the memories.  “Somepony always gets hurt…”

The griffon watched her with sage eyes.  “If no one were ever to get hurt, there would be no dreams, no heros, nothing to look up to.  Without pain, we have nothing to strive for.”  He pulled her head back up with a gentle wing.  “Pain can drive us, or it can drive us into the ground.  The choice is yours.”

Daring Do and the Well of Souls

Celestia glanced around, trying to make sense of the ethereal space that surrounded her.  Slowly, she began to recognize it as the dreamscape she had seen in her sleep so many times before.  It was almost like being inside a cloud—or at the very least, it was exactly what she assumed being inside a cloud would be like.  The surroundings were warmly lit and indistinct, muddled by the sleepy haze of her mind, enveloping her with feelings of warmth and peace.  The silence around her was so perfect it almost echoed.  She fluttered her wings contentedly, drawing in a deep breath of the all-encompassing tranquility.

“Tia?”

Celestia jerked her head towards the sound of the voice to see Luna.  The darker alicorn was looking around, confusion plain on her face as she addressed her sister.  “Tia, what is this place?  I think I’m dreaming…” she said.

“Well, this is my… dream…”  Celestia’s response trailed off.  “Wait, you think you’re dreaming?”

Luna walked across the featureless plain towards her sibling.  “Am I not?  This certainly does seem like a dream.”

“Luna…  I think we’re both dreaming,” Celestia muttered.

Luna stared at her as if she had grown a second horn.

“In fact, you are both dreaming,” a voice said, somehow coming from both everywhere and nowhere.

Luna spun in place, wings flaring in alarm.  “Show yourself!” she demanded.

Celestia put a restraining hoof on her sister’s wing.  “Luna, wait.  It’s not a pony.”

“Then what magic is this?  Some sort of trick?”

“This is the same as my other dream,” Celestia said, looking earnestly at her sister.  Luna stared as understanding dawned on her face.  “Yes,” Celestia told her, “that dream.”

The younger sister goggled at her.  “Then this—all of this—this is the realm of Harmony?”

“Not in fact, but it is close enough for our purposes,” the voice tolled out, both intimately quiet and unbearably loud.  It rang with a majesty that threatened to drive Luna to her knees, but she fought the urge, trying to mirror her sister’s actions.

“Tia, what do we do?”

Celestia hesitated.  “I’m not entirely sure myself.”

The voice rang out again.  It was neither male nor female; it felt gentle, peaceful, and full of strength and power.  “Before today, this dream appeared only to your sister.  She was hesitant to heed the call without you, Luna, but now you are both a part of this world’s destiny.  You have learned of an aspect of Harmony, and there are more to be found before you may wield the power of Harmony against those who oppose it.  Your journey has only begun, Celestia and Luna.  Be true to your cause, and Harmony will not abandon you.”

Both alicorns jerked upright simultaneously in their borrowed bedrolls, wide-eyed and awake.  They stared at each other in disbelief.

“Were you—” Luna began.

“I...  Y-you too?” Celestia stammered.

Luna closed her eyes, taking deep, calming breaths and focusing on the sounds of the forest at night.  “Tia, I—I’m sorry.  I didn’t believe you until now.  Not really.”

The older alicorn chuckled, her laugh shaky with nervous energy.  “I know, Lu.  Even I have a hard time believing it.  But it’s real.  We can’t quit.”

Luna opened her eyes and stared into Celestia’s.  “We can’t really be expected to fight to free Equestria.  We’re going to die out here, aren’t we?”

Celestia leaned across the packed-earth floor to pull Luna into a hug.  “I hope not, Sister.  There’s always a chance.  We just need to move on and see what we can learn.”

“So, you two are determined to leave?” Bright Spark asked sadly.

Celestia nodded in response, sitting on the ground beside her sister.  They were surrounded by the campsite’s youth as the enjoyed a mouthful of the home-grown oats that served as their dinner.  “We need to move on.  There are things we must do elsewhere, and we can’t waste time.”

“But we quite enjoyed it here.  You’ve all been so kind,” Luna interjected.  Her oat bag suddenly floated over her head, held in the magical grasp of the unicorn colt sitting on her back.  “Oh, you scamp!” she scolded playfully.  The foal grinned around a mouthful of oats as Luna lightly cuffed the back of his head with her magic.

Celestia smiled and hid a laugh with a hoof, passing her own bag around to the assorted colts and fillies who had joined them for the evening meal.  Bright Spark chuckled.

“Where do you think you’ll go?” he asked.

The sisters glanced at each other.  “Well,” Celestia said, “we were rather hoping you might have some ideas.”

The refugee leader put a hoof to his chin thoughtfully, magically passing the oats on to the younger ponies without taking any.  “We suspect that Discord tends to keep to the White Tail Woods for the most part.  He might even have a castle or fortress or something, but we don’t really know.”

Luna shuddered slightly.  “I don’t like the idea of going closer to him, but we may not have a choice.”

Celestia nodded hesitantly.  “I know what you mean, Lu.  But you are right.  We need to move towards our eventual goal.”

“Well, if you’re of a mind to do that, you’ll want to head due west out of these woods,” Bright Spark said.  “You’ll come to a river.  If you see a bridge, you’ll know you’re on the right track.”

The alicorn sisters stood slowly, shedding various fillies and colts as they did, and embraced the unicorn stallion fondly.

“You know you’d be welcome here,” he said sadly as they separated.  “There would always be room for you with us.”

“I know,” Celestia replied, equally melancholy, “but we’ve been called to move on.  And if we have even a small chance to help everypony else, then it would be awfully selfish for us to stay where we’re comfortable.”

Bright Spark nodded respectfully to the sisters.  “Well, we’ll let you prepare.  Come on, foals, let the good ponies have their space.”  The young ones called out various farewells as they drifted back into the camp, leaving Celestia and Luna to wipe away their tears without witnesses around.

The soft light of the moon filtered through the trees as Celestia and Luna shuffled about in their loaned tent, settling their saddlebags onto their backs and tugging the straps to cinch them down.  Bright Spark and Lemon Drop walked in to join them.

“I know you may not feel like you’ve done much, but I can’t thank you—we can’t thank you—enough,” Bright Spark said, wrapping a fond hoof around the shoulders of the younger pony.  “We’ve all seen so much death, it feels so good for you to have brought us some life for a change.  I wish there was something more we could do for you both.”

Celestia smiled.  “It was an honor for us.”

Luna spat out the strap of her saddlebag and turned back to the refugees.  “With any luck, we’ll see you all again.”

“Are you sure you gotta go now?” the colt begged, giving Luna the saddest eyes he could muster.  “Couldn’t you at least wait until morning?”

She touched a hoof to his cheek.  “I am sorry, Lemon Drop, but we’re less likely to be found under the cover of dark.”

“Hey,” the unicorn said, turning to the colt.  “Go and find Burnt Umber.  Ask him to come see me; I’d like him to escort the sisters safely to the river.”  The young earth pony gave a nod and trotted eagerly out of the tent.

“He is a delightful young pony,” Celestia remarked.

“He’s a good colt, all right,” Bright Spark sighed, his eyes going a bit distant.  “He’s already been through far too much in his life.  We both lost our families on the same day.  We may have latched onto each other out of grief, but he’s been as good as a son since.”  Bright Spark’s warm smiled faded back as he returned to the moment.  “At any rate, we’ll keep a watch out for—”

Every pony in the tent turned in unison as a tortured scream from outside reached their ears.

The three ponies scrambled out of the tent, stopping frozen in the deep shadows of the forest as they saw the scene before them.

In the center of the camp was an earth pony mare, lying still in an expanding pool of crimson.  Her stomach and sides had been brutally maimed, an expression of fear and surprise fixed indelibly on her face.

Above the corpse stood a massive jet-black pegasus, almost invisible against the dark of night.  Light from the camp’s scattered fires flickered over his form, shining in his eyes and glinting off of the sharpened metal plates covering the leading edges of his wings.  Everypony in the camp went deathly silent as they saw the pegasus.  The only sounds in the camp were the popping of logs in the cooking fires and the steady drip of blood off of his wings into the pool around his hooves.

The pegasus shook himself slightly, scattering droplets off into the darkness.  He looked up at the ponies around him, smiling wickedly.  “Good evening,” he purred, his voice low and menacing.  “I don’t think I have to introduce myself.”

Celestia could feel herself getting ill as she looked out over the tableau, and the low growl from behind her ear told her that Luna was seeing the same scene she was.  “I-is that…”

“Steel Wing,” Bright Spark whispered.  “He finally found us.”

The hulking pegasus stepped forward, trailing bloody hoofprints as he went.  “I’m on a mission for Lord Discord, so I’ll be quick.  All you have to do is answer a question for me, and I’ll be on my way, and you can all go back to your pitiful, cowering lives.”

“You two should go, quickly,” Bright Spark whispered back over his shoulder to the sisters.

“I think you’re right…” Celestia trailed off, looking behind her for a route to sneak away.

Luna’s face stared back at her disapprovingly.  “Are you serious, Tia?  How can we leave and not do something to help?”

“What can we do to help?” the older alicorn retorted.

“The only thing that would happen would be your deaths,” Bright Spark urged.  “You don’t understand; you can’t hurt him!”

“Luna, please,” Celestia begged her sister.  “We can’t fight.  There’s nothing we can do right now.”

The dark alicorn fumed, stamping her hooves in frustration as Steel Wing came face to face with a line of fearful refugees.

“I’m looking,” he said slowly, “for alicorns.”

Ponies looked at each other but maintained their silence as Celestia and Luna stared at each other in shock.

“I can see you’re familiar with the term,” Steel Wing continued, taking careful note of the expressions around him.  “So I’ll ask you once: What do you know?”

“Go,” Bright Spark insisted.  “Head straight out of the forest behind us.  You’ll come to the river soon enough; just look for the bridge.  You need to go.”

The ponies of the camp stared back at the pegasus, their eyes hard.

Steel Wing glanced about, an amused smile tugging at his mouth.  “Oh, aren’t you all just so strong.  Don’t tell me, you’ve all seen so many bad things that I can’t do anything else to you, right?”  With no more warning than a twitch of his tail, he burst into the crowd around him with terrifying speed, ponies scattering every which way in attempts to avoid his razor-sharp wings.

As the refugees scrambled apart, Steel Wing emerged, grinning madly and holding a small, yellow-furred colt in the air by his mane.

Bright Spark froze, shock and fear spreading across his face.  “No…” he whispered.

“Luna…” Celestia begged, backing slowly away towards the darkness of the trees.

The terrified whimpers of the colt echoed out over the campsite as he thrashed uselessly in the iron grip of Steel Wing.  “Again, I ask just one time.  After that the foal dies.”  His eyes flashed dangerously.  “The alicorns.  Do.  You.  Know.  Where.  They.  Are.”

Silence reigned.

Steel Wing let out a mild grunt of irritation as his wing flashed across the colt’s body with a sickening noise.  The pegasus threw the young pony to the ground with his neck rent and spilling across his yellow coat.

“NOOO!!”  Bright Spark burst out of the background and charged the pegasus, manic with rage at the sight of Lemon Drop lying on the ground with panicked eyes, pawing uselessly at his throat.  The unicorn threw a blast of magic powerful enough to make himself stumble, but the bolt merely evaporated as it reached Steel Wing.  Undeterred, Bright Spark continued his charge, baring his teeth as he prepared to attack.

“Luna!” Celestia yelled over the sudden commotion, tugging her sister backwards in her magical grasp.

“Ow, Celestia, st—ow,” Luna exclaimed, stumbling over her hooves as she was pulled bodily away from the camp, losing her view of the scene as Steel Wing turned to accept his attacker, wings flaring dangerously.

“Run!”

Luna subconsciously obeyed, galloping for the edge of the forest alongside her sister.  “Tia, we should have—”

“No, just go!”

The pounding hoofsteps were drowned out by the cries of fear and pain from behind them as the alicorns ran with tears of anguish and impotent fury streaming down their faces.

“Noble, if useless,” Steel Wing commented to the fallen unicorn.

Bright Spark couldn’t feel much of anything anymore.  “Oh,” he gasped, reaching out his hoof to take hold of Lemon Drop’s, hoping to bring the dying colt some sense of ease.  “I’m not sure about useless.”

“How then, useful?” asked the pegasus, amused.

“I’d say they’re… well away from here… by now,” Bright Spark said weakly, feeling himself fading.

“They?  What does—”  Steel Wing froze, his eyes narrowing.  “You knew.  You know where they were.”  He looked up, scanning the campsite beyond the cowering and panicking ponies around him, his body beginning to shake as he growled.  “They were here the whole time!”  His wings burst into full spread as he stamped a hoof into the dirt.

The two fallen ponies’ eyes met and glassed over as Steel Wing cried out in rage and took off running away from the encampment.

Luna could feel a bit of froth working up around her mouth as she and her sister ran harder than they had in their entire lives.  Panic lent speed to their hooves, but even through the adrenaline Luna was beginning to gasp for breath as they broke out of the trees and took off over the low grassland.

A sound from behind made Luna turn her head to glance behind to the treeline, where she could see a vague silhouette of a massive pony hot in pursuit between the trees.  He didn’t even seem to be dodging around smaller trees, simply trampling them over as he ran.  The scream of rage came again, clearer and closer.

“Tia, he’s chasing us!”

Celestia glanced back herself.  “Wh—but how?” she panted as they ran.  “We were further ahead than that.”

Luna risked another glance backwards.  “He’s too fast.  But he’s not flying!”

The sisters ran, spurred on by the knowledge that they were being chased.  True to Bright Spark’s words, it wasn’t long before the river came into view, the inky blackness of the surface tossing in the moonlight.  “There!” Celestia called, “get to the river!  If he’s running after us, maybe he can’t fly.  We might be able to lose him across the river!”

The river drew closer, and Luna grew more uncertain.  The water was torrential, racing downstream at dangerous velocities, but worse yet was the width of the massive river.

“Tia…” Luna called, worry coloring her words.  “We can’t get across that river in one flight.”

“I know, I know,” Celestia said, looking desperately for an escape as she gasped for breath.  “There, in the river!”

In the middle of the stream was a large rock outcropping, large enough for them to touch down and take off again.

“I see it!” Luna said, lowering her head and charging into the lead ahead of Celestia, her wings spreading to catch the air.  She pulled away from her sister and gave a series of massive, straining flaps as she reached the bank.  The rock was well within reach.  Luna let out a small whoop of joy, caught up in the adrenaline of the moment and the prospect of safety.

Her hooves touched down on the spray-slicked rock surface, and promptly slid out from under her as her weight came down on them.  Luna’s triumphant yell turned into a gasp of surprise as she pitched backwards, hooves and wings splaying uselessly in all directions.

Celestia took off from the bank, gaining a small measure of altitude just in time to see Luna lose her balance and fall backwards, cracking her head forcefully against the rock.  Luna slumped, going limp as her unconscious form slid into the torrent, her dark coat almost invisible against the waters.  Without an instant’s hesitation, Celestia gave another flap to clear the rock, and dove into the river.

Behind them, on the bank, Steel Wing was just close enough to be fully seen.  The river began to carry Celestia quickly downstream, their pursuer disappearing into the night.

Celestia looked around frantically, trying to keep herself above the surface as she searched for her sister.  She swept past a small outcropping and felt a hoof brush her own.  Latching on quickly, she pulled herself close to her sister, her magic, hooves, and flailing wings all struggling to keep both of them upright and breathing.  The effort was exhausting.  The sweeping waters pushed them every which way, trying to pull them apart with every wavelet.  The constant pounding was punishing Celestia’s already-tired and taxed body.  Every other breath was blocked by water rushing into her mouth and nose.

She cried out as her back glanced off a fallen tree trunk.  She knew that she had been mere inches from being knocked out herself, but it seemed a hollow token when she was already fighting the urge to slip into unconsciousness herself from the battle with the river.  Harmony, please—protect Luna, she prayed as she hugged her sister close, propping Luna’s muzzle over her shoulder to keep it out of the river.

She kept kicking for the bank right up to the point where she blacked out.