The Powers That Be

by OtterMatt

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Adventure
Length: 22505

Celestia and Luna journey from home and fight to free Equestria from Discord.

These days, alicorns are a symbol of royalty, power, and freedom. When an alicorn is born, the parents rejoice. But it was not always so.
Once, alicorns were pitied. Once, the ponies of Equestria had no freedom. Once, Discord ruled over the land with an iron paw.
And yet, fate always finds its champions, sometimes in the most unlikely of places.

–
Featured on Equestria Daily (27 Dec 2012)
Story takes place approximately 2500 years before the show.
Rated Teen for some dark imagery and adult themes of death.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-22 16:36:07 UTC

Chapter 1

“The Powers That Be”

The alicorn is a pitied thing,

With powers of hoof and horn and wing;

Too great for a single life to possess—

The source of the alicorn’s distress.

No mark is seen upon their hide,

No destiny to walk beside.

The alicorn’s life is spent adrift,

Without the time to find their gift.

The Alicorn’s Lament - Master Misaki, 125 B.C.E.

(translated from ancient Neighponese)

“It’s another filly, sir!”

“Oh my stars…”

“Twins…  Alicorn twins…”

Both the unicorn healer and his assistant automatically kissed their hoof and touched their horn and heart in sequence.

“What does it mean?  Is something wrong?” the mother pled quietly.

“Nothing’s wrong, they’re both perfectly healthy.  It’s just—” the healer stalled as he turned to his assistant.  “Has this ever happened before?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

A mare lay on the makeshift bed, exhausted, confused, and distressed—until the village healer appeared in her vision and banished all other thoughts aside from her new foals.  He smiled warmly and placed a tiny bundle of cloth and fur in each of her hooves.  One was as white as snow with a pale pink tuft of a mane; the other was a deep midnight blue, her mane a pastel blue to match.  Both seemed to snuggle against their mother instinctively, making no noise as they sought familiarity and warmth.

“Congratulations, ma’am, sir,” he said to the parents in turn.

The father wiped tears of joy from his tired eyes, and stared at the tiny, soft horns on both of their foreheads.  “A-are they both alicorns?”

“Yes.  The first pair of alicorn twins born in Equestria, as far as I know.”

The father stood by, silent and pensive, watching his children and wife almost anxiously.  “It’s almost like a sign.  Do you think it means something?  Twins, I mean?”

The healer bit his lip, trying to be diplomatic to the new parents.  “Well,” came his hesitant reply, “they were born practically holding on to each other.  I think that if it does mean something, they’ll find out about it together.”  He looked down at them almost sympathetically.  “May Harmony be with them.”

Celestia gasped as she awoke, panting as if she had just run a mile.  She twisted until she was right side up, waiting for the world to swim into focus.  As expected, the soft brown walls of her bedroom came into view, and she clutched at her head, the remnants of a dream spinning inside.

There was a noise of movement.  Celestia felt a soft hoof on her back and a quiet voice asking her, “Sister, are you all right?”

She turned to look at her sibling.  “Of course, Luna.  It was just a dream.”

The dark alicorn’s frown was felt more than seen in the dim room.  “You have been troubled by dreams quite often of late,” Luna reminded her.  “In fact, almost every night this week.”

Celestia let out a deep breath and glanced outside at the still-darkened sky.  “And the same sort of dream each time, as much as I can recall.”  She shook her head to loosen the fog of sleep and climbed out of her bed.  “I can’t sleep anymore, Luna.  Would you walk with me?”  Luna nodded, and the twins crept carefully out of the house.

Outside, the two stopped to take a deep breath of the cool summer night air.  The moon was intensely bright in the box canyon, to the point of casting shadows.  Side by side, the sisters walked up the well-worn orchard paths, content in each other’s company as they made their way to the uphill end of the village.

The sisters came to the end of the path and stopped, turning back to look over the canyon that had housed them for twenty years.  The valley was roughly cut into the mountainside, like a great gash in the stone surface.  Along one side, the refugee ponies had planted orchards and fields in an effort to make the humble settlement self-sustaining.  Rainwater was channeled by the slope of the hill into a pond.  It was small enough that between rainy seasons, it barely held enough water for irrigation and living purposes.  Water rationing was often necessary, depending on how many clouds the pegasi had been able to sneak in that season.  Down the far side were homes—and meager ones at best.  The only wood that could be spared as construction material was when a tree died or fell, which wasn’t often.  Many of the homes were built from carved stone, pulled from the same rock walls that protected the village and sheltered it from sight.

Luna sighed sadly and turned, putting a hoof to the bare stone wall beside her.  “What do you think is really out there?” she asked, her gaze raising to the canyon’s rim, so far above.  “Do you think the stories are true?”  Celestia kept silent.  Luna continued, her voice low and longing.  “Do you think we’ll ever see it for ourselves?”

Celestia put a wing on her sister’s back.  “Maybe.”

Of course she knew what was out there.  Everypony knew what lay outside the valley.  The rare straggling refugee to come across the canyon told tale after tale, and the children in the village were brought up on the stories, trained to fear the world beyond the walls.

Outside was a land of death and misery.  Outside was a land of slavery and fear.  Outside the valley was the kingdom of Discord.

Luna grunted and strained against the harness, sweat rolling down her face as she doggedly pulled the plow through the dirt.  The furrow grew steadily behind her, mirroring the dozens alongside it.  Behind and beside her, various ponies dispensed seeds, packed the earth over, or organized the crop lines.  Luna sagged for a moment, letting the lines slack as she tried to get her breath back.

“Hey, alicorn, come on!” shouted an irritated voice.  Luna glanced up to see one of the village’s elder unicorns scowling at her.  “The pegasi are taking a big risk bringing back some clouds to water these crops tonight.  It would be really nice if they had a full field to water, you know.”

“That sounds really important,” she growled back.  “I don’t suppose you’d like to help in that case, would you?”

He sneered at her.  “Just do your job, alicorn,” he said as he wandered off.

Luna sighed with a mix of frustration, anger, and sadness.  She looked across the field to see Celestia also struggling under the weight of her own plow.  The white alicorn was determined, but she didn’t possess the same stubborn strength that Luna did, and the strain of the job was beginning to take a serious toll on her.  Celestia turned and caught her sister’s gaze, and the two looked at each other wistfully.

With a shrug of their wings that spoke volumes, they both set back to the plows.  There wasn’t much else they could do.  In the fall, they could buck the fruit trees, but their slower telekinetic abilities meant it was faster for everypony else to pick up the fruit and cart it away.  In the spring all they could do was plow; they didn't possess the dexterity to distribute seeds or the flight endurance to help with clouds and concealment.  The hooffull of earth ponies that were in the village were mostly in charge of the planting and tending to the crops, and even though the earth ponies could pull a plow as well, they preferred to force that task on the sisters instead.

It was the way life was, the way it had been, and the way it would be.

But Luna could still dream…

“But don’t you ever wonder?” Luna insisted to her father.  The grey-coated pegasus across the table sighed wearily.  Celestia concentrated on levitating her fork and pushing her food around her plate, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

“Luna, you know full well why we can’t leave the valley,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Do I?” she challenged, unwilling to let the issue rest.  “I’ve never seen outside.  I don’t think you have, either!”

“Do the stories the refugees bring with them not convince you anymore?” he retorted.

Luna snorted quietly.  “And how long has it been since the last ones joined us?  Eight years?  Nine?  For all we know, Discord is gone and the land is safe again.”

“Luna…” her father warned.

“The occupation could be over for years and we would never know it!”

“Luna,” he said again, his voice beginning to harden.

She completely ignored him, wings starting to unfurl in agitation as she spoke.  “Even if it’s not, there’s got to be someplace out there where he can’t reach.  Someplace where we aren’t constantly living in fear of him.”

“Luna!” he scolded, cutting off her further protests.  “What do you not understand?  We are the only place like that.  If you leave the valley and get discovered, how long do you think it would be before Discord comes here?  This isn’t about what you want.  There’s a few hundred lives here that matter, Luna.”

Luna dropped her head, cowed, but Celestia could still see a spark of resistance flickering in her eye.  Luna lifted a potato and took a bite, chewing disdainfully before spitting it back out and dropping the vegetable in disgust.  Celestia sidled away from her, knowing the argument was far from over.

“Is this really living without fear?” Luna muttered.  “We haven’t had a hot meal in over a year!  We can only cook, or forge, or do anything with fire when the clouds completely cover the mountain for fear of the smoke giving away our position.  Does that sound like a village with nothing to worry about?”

“Luna, please…” her mother reasoned, putting a gently restraining hoof on her shoulder as her husband grew steadily redder in the face.

The younger sister pulled away from her parent.  “What’s going to change if everything keeps on happening the same way?  Somepony has to stand up before Equestria fades away entir—”

Her father stood up, his wings at full spread.  “LUNA!  ENOUGH!  We are NOT having this discussion right now!”  The sisters fell into a matched, fearful silence.  He sighed, trying desperately to control himself, speaking through clenched teeth.  “You will go to your room, and you will think about everypony in this valley who depends on our way of life.  Now.”

Luna slunk away from the table in cowed silence, walking towards the bedroom with her ears flat against her bowed head.  Celestia silently moved to follow her with a nearly identical posture.

“Celestia, you don’t have to—” her father called as she disappeared through the doorway.  He sighed sadly and turned to his wife.

“As if you didn’t know they’d go together,” she chastened him gently.

“I guess I should just be glad the rebellious stage took so long to get here,” he muttered.  “I guess the healer was right.”

“Healer, dear?”

“When they were born.  They really are inseparable.”

“You know, little sister, Father does have a point…”

Luna let out a groan and threw herself onto her bed, bouncing on her back on the mattress.  “Thirty.  Seconds.  You’re only thirty seconds older than me, Tia.  And don’t tell me you’re going to start in, too.”

Celestia quietly climbed up onto her own bed and looked apologetically at her sister.  “I’m sorry, but he does.  Everypony in this valley depends on everypony else.  Even us.”

“Yeah, sure they do.  We’re just a convenient source of labor.  Not enough earth ponies to go around here,” she said derisively.

Celestia sighed, and closed her eyes, concentrating on the first magical spell the sisters had ever discovered.  Her horn began to take on a yellow sheen, and Luna’s horn lit in a dark blue glow in sympathy.  Luna closed her eyes and sighed, feeling the stress drain away as the sensation of a tender hug enveloped her.  “I love you, too, Tia.”

“Please don’t be so angry at Father,” Celestia pled as she let the spell fade away.

Luna rolled over to a sitting position.  “I’m not, really.  He’s stubborn, but I suppose I am also.”

“You suppose?”

Luna shot an irritated look at her sister, who merely giggled.  “Okay, I am,” Luna admitted testily, “but I’m right, too.  What’s going to change if nopony ever stands up to Discord?”

“Are you volunteering to sacrifice yourself needlessly, Luna?  Our magic isn’t all that strong, we don’t have much skill at flying with these huge wings—all we’ve got is above-average strength for an earth pony.”

The younger sibling shook her head, frustrated.  “I know, I know.  It’s just... I can’t stop thinking that maybe it would be worth it.  I mean, what good are we anyway?  We’re alicorns, Tia.  Everypony else thinks we’re worthless, and we practically are,” she spat, indicating their conspicuously blank flanks with the sweep of a wing.

Celestia wished she could find encouraging words, but none came to her.  Everypony knew it was the truth.

“I’m just so sick of everypony looking at us and talking about us like we’ve got some sort of terminal disease,” Luna snarled.  “‘Oh, look at the alicorns!  They’ll never get their cutie marks, they must be useless, right?  Can’t fly, and my ten-year-old could win a magic duel with them!’  As though we asked for this!  Every other pony gets a purpose but us.  You know what?  Maybe we are useless.”

Luna huffed, her frustration fading to dejected sadness as she spoke.  “I just don’t want to think about going through the rest of my life without meaning.  If I had the bravery to challenge Discord, everypony just might remember me differently.  Maybe... maybe it’s the only way I’ll ever be more than what I am right now,” Luna admitted, dropping her head into her hooves sadly.

Celestia went stock still as the line triggered a memory, pulling her back into the dream she had woken from so many nights so far.  More than what you are.  The sensation of dreaming broke, and she suddenly came back to the present to find Luna standing directly in front of her, the younger sister’s hoof knocking against her forehead.

“Celestia?  You in there?”

“I—ow, stoppit—I—what?  What’s wrong?”

Luna looked at her oddly.  “You went blank for a while there.  Something on your mind?”

“That line—what you said.  I remember it from my dream.”  She shied away from the expectant look on Luna’s face.  “I-I don’t remember much from the dream.  Mostly bright light and warmth, but you made me remember that part: ‘You will become more than what you are.’  I don’t know what it means, but it sounds nice.”

“Have you talked to anypony about the dream?”

“No, but—“

“What if it’s true?” Luna interrupted, jumping back onto her own bed and striking a dramatic pose.  “Have not the greatest ponies always been led by dreams?  Have not they?  Or... whatever.”  She flopped back down onto her belly.  “Silliness aside, you’ve had this dream over and over again.  Maybe it could be important?  It could be worth talking to somepony else about.”

“Maybe…” Celestia agreed weakly as Luna lay back on her bed and stared at the ceiling.  Celestia watched her sister fondly as the full memory of her dreams played through her head as vividly as if she were dreaming them for the first time.

Harmony is with you, Celestia.  You were born into weakness, but you will be raised up as Harmony’s Guardian, and you will become Equestria’s freedom.  You will become more than what you are, for the good of all.  Go where Harmony leads, and you shall become a symbol to generations—even a hundred generations shall be led by your hoof.

Celestia shook her head slightly, chasing the memory.  Oh, Luna, I feel awful hiding the truth from you, she thought as she watched her sister.  No matter what the cost, I could never leave you.

Celestia tried her best to block out the sounds of shouting coming from the living room.  For the fifth time in the last week, the voices of Luna and their father pitched back and forth, only barely muffled by the wood of the door.

“NO MORE!”

Celestia yelped, jumping as the bedroom door slammed against the wall, thrown aside by Luna’s furious magic.  “Luna, what—?”

Luna dropped to the floor and began to root under her bed.  “Father and I had a, uh, disagreement,” she muttered darkly.

Celestia went a bit red, remembering how easy it had been to overhear.  “Yes, I gathered that much.  What in Equestria is going on?”

Luna gave a satisfied grunt as she finally dug out her saddlebags, throwing them on the bed and rummaging through the storage chest at the foot of her bed, picking objects out with her magic and stuffing them into her bags.  “He refuses to understand so much.  He can’t seem to grasp that being stuck in this canyon is killing me…”  She trailed off, suddenly sad.  “And he doesn’t seem to realize that he can’t keep me here.”

Celestia got off the bed and rushed to her sister’s side.  “He what?  Wait, Lu.  Luna, stop!  Please tell me what you’re doing,” she begged, fear shining in her eyes.

Luna avoided her eyes.  “I’m leaving, Tia,” she whispered.

“What do you mean, ‘leaving’?”

“Just that.”  Luna looked up at her sister.  “Tia, I have to get out of here.  If I don’t, my whole life will be wasted.  I’m sick of just being a pack animal for ponies who are constantly afraid of the outside world.  I—” she faltered.  “I need to be something.”

A cold ball of fear was settling into Celestia’s gut.  “Luna, please don’t go.  Just—just wait until morning at least!  It’s the middle of the night,” she pled.

Luna had to force herself to stop looking at Celestia before she could respond.  “I have to, Tia.  I have to go now before I change my mind.”

Celestia took a step back, her lower lip trembling as Luna unlatched the window and pushed it open.  “Luna…”  She fought to think of something quickly.  “Could you at least promise that you won’t leave the valley until tomorrow?  Give me time to talk to our parents first.  For me?”

“For you, Tia.  I’ll wait for you.”  Luna slung her saddlebags over her back and was out the window with a small flap of her wings.

Celestia entered the main room, where she could just see her father’s back as he sat in his chair, his head bowed in thought.  She walked slowly across the room to his side.

“Father…” she said quietly, trying to find words to fit the situation.

He didn’t even look up at her.  “I’m sorry, Celestia.”

“I—you are?” she spluttered.

“I know you heard us arguing.  It probably seems to be just about all we do lately.”  Her father let out a long, sad sigh.  “I don’t know how to get her to see things from my point of view.”

“Can you see things from her point of view?”

He lifted his head and met her gaze, dejected.  “I can,” he admitted.  “I know there isn’t much of a future here for either of you.  But my point is that there is a future to be had.  Outside…”

Celestia closed the distance between them and rested a hoof on his as she looked into his face.  “Father, you’re going to lose Luna.”

“Yes, of course.  A little bit each day, it seems,” he said with a small, wry smile.

Celestia shook her head emphatically.  “No, Father.  You are losing her now.  She’s already gone.”

His face froze, and his expression began to slowly fade into stunned fearfulness.  “What?”

“Luna has left, Father.”

He pulled himself forward, almost out of the chair as he grabbed Celestia in both hooves.  “Where is she?  Where has she gone?” he begged.

His daughter flinched, surprised by the desperation in his voice.  “I-I won’t—I can’t tell you that!”

Her father dropped his hooves back under his body.  “But you know, don’t you.”

“In a way, I guess,” Celestia said, her voice starting to betray her nervousness and fear.  “She’s waiting for me.”

Her father simply dropped his head again, closing his eyes.  His face was lined with hurt.  “You’re going with her,” he said, unsurprised.

She nodded, more to convince herself than him.  “I am.”  She sat in front of him to get her head low enough to where she could see his face.  “There’s something else you should know, Father.”  He looked up to meet her eyes.  Celestia took a deep breath.

“For a few weeks now, I’ve been having dreams.  Or, more accurately, the same dream.”  She took a breath as she stalled, steeling herself for her admission.  “I’ve been visited by Harmony.”  Her father stared at her in amazement and disbelief.  “At least, I think I have been,” she amended, and the story began to rush out of her.

“I see bright light, and a voice of peace and power tells me that I have to leave.  It says my destiny is outside this canyon.  I’ve never even been able to think about doing it, though, because I couldn’t leave Luna, but now I think I have to go.”  Celestia put a hoof back on her father’s, pleading with him to understand.  “Whatever is out there, I think we’re meant to find out together.”

He was quiet for a long time, to the point that Celestia was beginning to worry.

“I know,” he said.  He stared into his daughter’s eyes, his gaze filled with sadness.  “Somehow, I think I’ve always known.  You two were meant for something more than this tiny hole in a mountain.  I’ve just been so scared of losing you, scared of what might be out there that—”  He stopped, choked up.  “I couldn’t bear the thought of letting you go, and now it turns out that everything I’ve tried to do to keep you close has driven Luna away, and you with her.”

“Father, please, at least say goodbye to Luna.”

“How?  And would she accept it after all the times we’ve fought?”

“She’s waiting for me.  We will meet in the morning.  Come with me.”

He hesitated.

“It could be the difference between Luna leaving and Luna running away, Father.”

His response died on his lips as he considered her words.  He nodded once, emphatically.  “You’re right, of course.”  He shook his mane with a laugh.  “You must have gotten your wisdom from your mother.”  He leaned down and gave Celestia a kiss on her forehead.

“Tomorrow, then?” Celestia asked.

“Tomorrow.”

Luna dropped from the early morning sky, fluttering slightly as she landed in front of her sister and father.  Her expression was locked in a scowl, and her stance was aggressive.  “I am not coming home, father.  You can’t just convince me to—”

“Luuuuna…”  Celestia grinned and patted the bulging saddlebags on her own back.

Luna stared at them both, confused.  “W-what does this mean...?”

Her father stepped forward.  “Luna, I know we haven’t seen eye to eye in a long time.  For my part, it was stubbornness, but born out of love.  I wanted to keep you close where I could be sure you would be safe, but I wasn’t willing to face the truth that your place isn’t here.”

Luna’s jaw hung slightly open.  “Father, I—”

He held up a hoof, barely managing to keep it from shaking.  “I’m not really happy about you going, but I know that your destiny is out there somewhere, so you’re going to go find it no matter what.  I couldn’t live with myself if I let you go on bad terms, much less without the chance to tell you how much I love you.”

He pulled both of his daughters into his hooves, tears threatening to run from all three ponies as they embraced.  “Be strong,” he whispered to them both, “be kind, and be brave.  I’m so proud of the mares you’ve both grown up to be.  Find your destiny, and at least come back to see us when you do.”

He released them and took a step back.  “I love you both.  May Harmony be with you.”

Chapter 2

Freedom is the most tenuous of ideas.  The might of a thousand foes cannot break it, yet a single word can shatter it like crystal.  It exists in the mind.  It cannot be taken by breaking the body, but only by breaking the mind.  But once it is lost, there may be no recovering it.

Excerpt from A Treatise on Freedom and Oppression - Demequus of Pegasoniki, 365 B.C.E.

Celestia held her breath for what seemed like the millionth time that day as Luna focused her gaze on the ledge and leapt.  The ascent up the cliff face had been long and tense.  The pair had made their way between outcroppings and ledges, flapping where they could and climbing where they couldn’t.  Not for the first time, Celestia swore silently at their lack of flight prowess.

Luna launched into a series of powerful flaps, lifting herself awkwardly up to the safe landing above, and Celestia finally let out her breath in a rush as Luna touched down safely beside her.  She hesitated, looking back along the span of her own wings, pondering the strange heritage that gave them both so much trouble.

While their large wingspans were impressive, the oversized wings were awkward and tended to require a lot of strength to keep steady when maneuvering.  The bodies that gave them the great strength of an earth pony also meant that they were larger than a normal pegasus, even a stallion, and they outweighed any pegasus by more than half.  All of this combined made flying very difficult.  The twins had managed to learn how to glide fairly early on with their father’s help, but sustained flight was still quite a ways beyond them.

Celestia said a silent prayer of thanks for their abundant stamina before pushing off for what would be the last ascent.  Her whole body seemed to move with the motion of her wings, maximizing the lift.  Just twenty hooves, she realized, trying desperately to keep her flaps regular as she climbed, knowing that any panicking would disrupt her rhythm and possibly send her back down to the ground to try again tomorrow.  Ten.  Another fierce flap set her back muscles burning, but she had to ignore it just a little longer.  Five.  She stretched her hooves out, gritting her teeth as her wings pummeled the air.

“Ha!” she cried in triumph as her hooves caught the rim, and she levered herself up.  She allowed herself a few deep breaths before turning back and extending a hoof back down to assist Luna.  In a matter of moments, they grabbed onto each other, and Luna made it up to stand next to her sister yet again.

Celestia and Luna stared out at the landscape.  For the first time in their lives, they could see beyond the walled confines of their canyon home.  While the valley consisted of mere acres of land, the world suddenly went on forever.

Behind them, the mountain towered majestically, an intimidating spire standing alone on the landscape.  The slight crevice on the side that hid their foalhood home vanished alongside the massive bulk of the peak, hiding in plain sight on the land’s most prominent feature.  In front of them, the ground sloped away towards the foothills and stretched beyond sight, past the curvature of the world.  The slowly dropping sun painted the world in hues of gold and scarlet, coloring forests, plains, and hills across the visible landscape.

The sisters’ breath caught in their throats, and they couldn’t help but feel very, very small.

“Luna,” Celestia breathed in the stillness, “it’s—I mean, wow…  Can you even imagine what’s out there?”

Luna took a deep breath.  “Everything,” she said dreamily.

Celestia jumped as Luna suddenly let out an echoing whoop of joy and took off, her wings flapping hard to keep her aloft.  “Race you down!” she yelled.  Celestia couldn’t help but grin, her younger sister’s infectious enthusiasm pushing her into a gallop before she leapt into the air.

The alicorns twisted around each other, jockeying for position as they dodged over and between scrub brush and rock outcroppings.  The steep slope of the ground allowed them to glide easily as they raced, exulting in their newfound freedom as their laughter resonated across the rocky terrain.

“Come on, Sister,” Luna taunted between gasping breaths, her tail whipping in the wind right at the end of Celestia’s nose.  “Having trouble keeping up?”

Celestia clamped her teeth down into Luna’s tail and tugged her back, rolling to the side for a clear line of flight.  “Sorry, Lu, turns out I’m a little tired after pulling you up a cliff all day,” she teased, sticking her tongue out.

“Oh, dear sister,” Luna gasped, “that was a mistake!”  Touching down on an outcropping for the barest of moments, Luna pounced off the rock face and flapped hard, throwing herself into a streamlined dive down the mountain, passing her sister just as the two made it to the forest line.  They both touched down amongst the trees, Luna prancing proudly as she gloated between gasping breaths.  “Haha!  I—gotcha.  Ha.  Phew.  You’re too slow, Tia.”

Unable to respond, Celestia simply collapsed next to a small brook and drank deeply.  Luna joined her, and the two slaked their thirst in the stream and regained their breath after the day’s exertion.  The sisters sat in the shade of the forest canopy, in awe of the sights around them.

“This is so beautiful,” Luna observed quietly.

“And so peaceful,” Celestia agreed.  “Everything is so muffled here, so quiet.  Back home it seemed like your hooffalls would echo off the walls no matter what, but I can hardly hear anything in all these trees.”

Luna wriggled happily on the ground.  “Mmmmm,” she purred, “the grass here is so much softer than it was back home.”

Celestia settled herself, resting her head on her hooves.  “Not a bad first day, huh, little sister?”

“Not a bad day at all, big sister,” Luna responded, stifling a large yawn.

The peacefulness of the glade was all-encompassing, and it wasn’t long before the two alicorns drifted off into a happy, restful sleep.

“Oh, Celestia, please tell me you brought some food…”

Celestia raised her head groggily, blinking against the morning light filtering through the treetops.  “Lu…?”

Luna dropped her saddlebags and walked over to paw through Celestia’s.  “Hey!” Celestia exclaimed, finally waking up as she reached over to slap at Luna’s hooves.

The younger alicorn sat back on her haunches and scowled.  “Tia.  Food.  Did you bring any?”

With a huge yawn, Celestia shook out her mane and pulled her saddlebags over.  She dug out a sack of oats and tossed them across to her sister.

“Oh, thank Harmony!”  Luna dove into the breakfast, chewing happily.

“Well, you were in such a hurry to leave you didn’t even think to pack any food, so mother wouldn’t let me leave without as much as I could carry.”  Celestia dug out a small sack of her own oats and began to eat.

“Well, the worst that would happen would just be having to forage.  It’s not like we haven’t eaten grass before.”

“True, but that gets old fast.”

Luna nodded, muttering incomprehensibly around her mouthful of breakfast.

The oats were perfectly prepared, rolled at home and dosed with cinnamon and a touch of sugar, with dried fruit mixed in.  It was the perfect thing to give a touch of home in unfamiliar circumstances.

Halfway to another mouthful, Luna stopped, tearing up slightly.

“Mmm, I hope we can remember how to make these when—”  Celestia paused, noticing her sister’s face.  “Lu, you okay?”

The younger sister sniffed, staring at the sack of oats.  “This is all really happening, isn’t it?  I mean, we’re gone now.  No more home.  We’ve really left it all behind.”

Celestia leaned over and gave Luna a gentle nuzzle.  “Not at all.  We take home with us, Sister.”

Luna smiled and went back to finishing the last of her breakfast.  “And would be that everything from here out could taste as good as this,” she muttered.

“Well,” Celestia said after they had eaten, “do you think we should get going?  There’s a lot of world left to see.”

Luna smiled.  “Let’s go.”

The sisters walked through the woods for hours, stopping every so often to look at odd plants or to try to spot unfamiliar birds.  The entire journey was an exercise in fascination, whether over the way the light played off the new types of trees or simply over how different the air felt.

“I feel like I could just drink the air down here, it’s so—”

“Stop,” Luna interrupted with a raised hoof, bringing them both to a halt.  “Do you smell that?”  They both sniffed at the air curiously.  “It smells like smoke,” Luna observed.

Celestia frowned a bit.  “It smells… bad.  Not like a cooking fire.”

Luna tested the wind with a wingtip.  “I think it’s coming from that direction,” she said, pointing to the south.  “Let’s see what’s over there.”

They walked for several minutes, becoming increasingly worried as the smell grew stronger and more actinic.  It was definitely smoke, but there was something mixed in it, something cloying and bitter but unidentifiable until they came to the edge of the forest and saw the first of the houses.

It was a small village, and it was completely destroyed.

Some buildings were still smoldering, letting off acrid smoke as the thatching and wood flared into dust.  A few of the former homes lay scattered across the ground, blown apart into stones and splinters.  Any structures still standing had doors kicked in or were simply sliced in half.  Luna stared intently at a small home that appeared to have had a hole blown completely through the wall before it had caught fire.  Without looking back, she called to her sister.  “Tia, what do you think did this?”

Celestia’s voice came back, bewildered.  “I was just about to ask you the same thing…”

Luna turned to see an entire home standing upside down, casually balancing on the point of its roof as though nothing were wrong with the obvious violation of physics.  The sisters stared at the sight, baffled.  Luna began to walk around the upended house.  “It’s... impossible.  There’s nothing holding it up,” she said, awed.  “A whole team of unicorns couldn’t balance an entire building like this.”

Suddenly Luna’s voice rang out to her sister.  “Celestia!  Come here!”

Celestia raced over towards her sister, stopping suddenly as she felt the sickening smell hit her nose full force.  Luna looked back at her, an odd sadness in her eyes.  Celestia walked slowly over, looking into the wall of the destroyed home next door to the architectural oddity.  The smell was overpowering.

Celestia finally identified the scent.  It was the scent of death.

Inside the home lay four bodies, each one mangled and still.  A middle-aged earth pony mare lay almost protectively in front of a trio of younger ponies barely out of foalhood.  The bodies of the youths were sprawled in the corner as if they had been backed into it before being murdered.

“Do you see it?” Luna asked, her voice low and mournful.

Celestia fought to keep her breakfast from coming up, covering her nose with a hoof.  “I see them, Lu.”

Her sister shook her head emphatically.  “Not that.  Do you see what it shows?  These ponies weren’t killed with magic.”  Celestia’s eyes widened, and she looked again, closer this time.  The bodies all carried dreadful wounds, and blood pooled all around them, soaked into the wooden slats of the floor.  Luna’s face hardened and her voice grew sharper.  “These were killed with a blade of some kind, I’m sure of it.  They were killed violently and cruelly, backed into a corner, scared for their lives.”

Celestia finally had to turn away.  She galloped away from the building before falling to her knees, panting for air and trying to keep hysterical tears from flowing.  “Why—how…  Who could do such a thing?  Who could do all of this?”

Luna walked to her side, her gaze as cold and hard as ice.  “I don’t know.”

“We do.”

Luna spun to the sound of the voice, wings flared as she stood defensively in front of Celestia.  They found a short brown earth pony watching them from the edge of the trees.  He made no move, but there was something about his demeanor, his expression.  It wasn’t aggressive or fearful, but there was a visible hardness in his eyes that they had not seen before.  “So it’s true…” he muttered.

Luna snorted.  “And who are you?”

“A fair question to return, don’t you think?”  His expression began to soften into something more relaxed.  “After all, we were here first.  We know you aren’t from here, alicorns.  We saw you enter the woods.  We’ve been keeping track of you.”

The sisters’ eyes widened.  “You were watching?” Luna gasped as Celestia climbed back to her hooves beside her.

“These woods are ours.  We’re the few who managed to escape from things like this,” he said, waving a hoof idly at the destruction around them.

Luna growled as Celestia paled.  “Things…” Celestia muttered, her eyes fixing intently on the stallion’s.  “You mean to tell me that this has happened before?  As in, more than once?”

He cocked his head to the side slightly, giving them an odd look.  “Many times, in fact.  How could you not know that?” he asked, confusion coloring his features.  “I think you need to follow me,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.  “There is much you should know.”

Luna and Celestia followed the stallion through the woods, saying nothing.  From time to time, they caught glimpses of other ponies watching from between trees and bushes.  Luna instinctively pressed closer to her sister, shivering from the air of nervous energy all around them.

Just as Celestia was convinced the forest would go on forever, they came to a clearing.  Immediately facing the alicorns was a rough semicircle of ponies with expressions ranging from curiosity to caution.

One unicorn stepped forward, his expression carefully neutral.  “I take it your task didn’t go well, Burnt Umber.”

The earth pony stallion shook his head.  “There were no survivors.  Steel Wing was as ruthless as ever.  The only ponies nearby were these two, who apparently seem to know nothing of the world.”

The unicorn bowed his head slightly, letting out a soft sigh.  “Another tragic loss.”  He looked back up, meeting the sisters’ gazes.  “So, it appears our scouts aren’t crazy after all.  Alicorns.”  He stepped forward.  “My name is Bright Spark, and I suppose I would be the de facto leader of this group.  Please, come with me.”  He beckoned them with a hoof.

The sisters began to follow Bright Spark through the encampment.  Signs of habitation were everywhere, with cooking areas and tents scattered about the perimeter, beneath the cover of the trees.  “Burnt Umber mentioned that you didn’t seem to know much about the world.  Where are you from?”

“We’re from up th—” Celestia began, before receiving an elbow in the side from her sibling.

“Remember, Sister, caution.”  Luna turned back to the unicorn.  “We’ve been fairly isolated,” she said flatly.

Bright Spark nodded.  “Fair enough.  Well, the long and short of it is that Discord is still around and causing no end of misery for Equestria.  Everypony lives in fear of him.  He wields chaos like a sword, and the only thing more tempestuous than his powers is his moods.  Any sighting of him may bring a merely irritating diversion just as easily as it may bring death and destruction on a truly terrifying scale.  I’ve even heard it said that he once appeared to a pony just to debate him in some concept or another.”

Their guide stopped and looked out over the camp.  “No matter how precocious he may seem, though, Discord is nothing short of a tyrant and a murderer.  What you see here is a mere remnant, a hooffull of survivors among the scores of the dead in his wake.”

“But… why?” Celestia asked.

Bright Spark shrugged.  “Nopony knows.  It may be that Discord is playing a larger game, but it may very well be that the inside of him is just as unfathomable as the outside image.  Discord himself is a draconequus, after all.”

Luna’s face scrunched in confusion.  “And what is that?”

The unicorn shuddered slightly.  “He’s an amalgam of creatures.  Goat, pony, dragon, lizard—all combined into a creature that shouldn’t exist, but does regardless.  He draws his power from chaos, and his reign seems determined to ensure that he never runs out.  And as if he ever would, he has a lieutenant.”

“Two draconequuses?” Celestia gasped.

“No.  It’s a pony.”

The sisters stood, stunned.  “What kind of pony would side with—with what we saw back at that village?”

“Oh, I have no doubt that Steel Wing was the one who caused what you saw—or at least part of it.”

Luna shook her head emphatically.  “No.  No, I can’t believe that.”

Bright Spark shook his head sadly.  “I’m afraid it’s true.  Steel Wing’s nature is born out of cruelty.  He has no conscience.  He sided with Discord in order to cause as much suffering as he possibly could.  He is responsible for those who died from mortal wounds.  Few have survived his attacks, but all who have bear the marks forever,” the unicorn said softly, nodding meaningfully at one passing pegasus.

The red pelt of the pegasus was dreadfully marred.  Half of his right wing was missing, and huge scars traced down the length of his side, nearly bisecting his cutie mark.  The alicorns could feel their stomachs turn thinking about what the pegasus had been through.

“He is far from the only one like that here, but some would say his physical scars are easier to bear than the emotional ones we all bear.  Every pony in this camp has lost loved ones, family, friends.”

Luna wiped a small tear away from her eye.  “So, why are you all here?  Certainly he can find you, can’t he?”

Bright Spark smiled, putting a hoof on a nearby tree.  “Even in these dark times, it seems Harmony is with us.”  He nodded his head, beckoning the sisters to follow him.  “It’s hard to describe, but this forest has sheltered us.  Discord’s magic seems to have no effect here, but for what reason we do not know.  We keep our exact location secret and move often so that Steel Wing can’t find us, and we survive as best we can.”

He turned to them and gestured towards a small tent.  “I know you have questions, and we will try to give you answers, but before that, there’s somepony who would like to meet you.  In fact, she’s wanted to meet you for some time now.”

The twins gave each other an uncertain look and entered the tent.

“You summoned me, Lord Discord?”

Lounging casually on a throne made of glassy onyx, the draconequus smiled.  “Ah, Steel, my main man.  Pegasus.  Whatever.  Nice work on that village, by the way—I love your style,” he said with a dark chuckle.  “Anyway, it seems there’s been a bit of a development, or perhaps more of an occurrence.”  He pondered for a moment before shaking his head in irritation.  “Bah, either way, I find that there’s something out there I simply must know about.”

Before the throne, a massive pegasus remained bowed.  His black pelt rippled with muscle, and his wings were gilded in metal that shone in the room’s firelight.  “What has chaos shown you, my master?”

“It seems we could have a little bit of trouble in our future.  Alicorn-shaped trouble, in fact.”

The pegasus lifted an eyebrow skeptically.  “Alicorn, my lord?”

Discord sat up, inspecting a clawtip before wriggling it between his teeth.  “Quite so.  I have seen many possible futures, Steel, and in every one of them I see two alicorns.  They are real, they are alive, they are important, and I want to know why.”

He leaned forward, eyes glittering malevolently.  His voice dropped to a threatening purr.  “Bring them to me.”

Chapter 3

Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies and oppression, let them at least have heard of brave beings and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their world not brighter but darker.

Weeds and Flowers Grow Alongside - Turned Phrase, 115 C.E.

The sisters had no idea what to expect inside the tent, but neither had predicted the simple furnishings that it contained.  The interior was lit only by the sparse glow of a pair of candles on a low table.  The dim light was cast across a meager living space, containing little but a small storage chest and a bedroll.  Seated on a cushion beside the table was a wizened unicorn, her head bowed under a pale mane thinned with seasons and her once-vibrant green pelt shot through with silver.  Despite these conspicuous signs of age, she looked up to meet the alicorns’ gazes with eyes that shone with life.

Her mouth curled into a wry grin.  “Not quite what you expected?” she said in a lilting accent.

Celestia blushed as Luna responded cautiously, “Not… really.  When Bright Spark said you had been expecting us for a long time, I just thought of something more… mystical, I guess.”

The unicorn gave a raspy laugh.  “Well, we’re a bit understocked on crystal balls at the moment.  It’s part of living on the run, you see.”  Luna flushed to match her sister, but the elderly pony simply chuckled again.  “Come, sit with me.”

As they were bidden, the sisters seated themselves on the other side of the square table as the unicorn eyed them carefully, her gaze seeming to pierce through their very souls.  The alicorns began to shuffle uncomfortably before the elder nodded, satisfied at whatever she had apparently discovered.

“Yes,” she said, “I have been waiting for you.  My name is Foresight, and I have seen your arrival long before today.”

Luna and Celestia looked at each other, eyes wide, before looking back to their host.  “Are—are you a seer?” Celestia asked.

“Well—” Foresight began, raising a hoof just as she was cut off.

“What am I thinking right now?” Luna challenged, leaning forward across the table.

Both ponies gave her a reproachful look.  Luna shrank back and grinned ruefully.

Foresight shook her head, chuckling.  “I might know, if I were a mind-reader instead of an oracle.”  She looked sagely at the alicorns.  “My name is not totally accurate, I suppose, because I can’t see everything in the future.  I have a very deep connection to Harmony.  It gives me insight, allowing me to see things that I might not otherwise see.  I know the past, and through my gift, I am able to see the things that must come to pass.”

“And we are one of those things?” Celestia asked.

The unicorn nodded.  “Indeed you are.  The marks of Harmony’s touch are obvious to me.”  She resettled herself on the cushion.  “For too long now I have watched the passing of seasons and listened to Equestria cry for help.”

Luna nodded hesitantly.  “I’m sure a lot of ponies want Discord gone.”

Foresight looked at her, her eyes sparkling.  “Not ponies, my dear ones; Equestria itself.”  The sisters looked back at her, confused.  Foresight leaned on the table slightly and asked in a more measured voice, “Tell me, what do you know of Harmony?”

Luna and Celestia shared another glance with each other.  “Well,” Celestia began, “not that much, I suppose.”

“I shall explain, then,” Foresight said with a nod.  “Harmony is not just a faith of ponykind, and it’s not just a superstition.  Harmony is Equestria, and Equestria is Harmony.  Without one, the other will perish.  Where Harmony is fostered, the land will flourish and the ponies will thrive, but where strife, pain, and fear are found, Equestria itself will suffer alongside its inhabitants.”

“You mean that the land is alive?” Luna asked, trying to keep up with the discussion.

“In a manner, yes.  Many hundreds of years ago, just after the founding of Equestria, there was a great war.  It was a war against the griffon lands far to the east.  The losses were astounding.  There was so much death, destruction, and pain that Equestria itself began to weaken.  The war halted as both sides realized that the sun had frozen in the sky, causing an issue much more severe than the war itself.”

Celestia held up a hoof to forestall the story.  “Wait, wait.  Are you telling us that the sun and moon used to rise and set by themselves?”

“Indeed.  It was the natural cycle of the land since before the time of ponies.  Many of the old tales of dragonkind tell of it.  Because of the war, however, the cycle was broken, and Equestria was almost scorched under an eternal sun.  The unicorns banded together in a final effort to try to save the world, and they learned how to move the sun and the moon.  Ever since then, it has taken a large group of unicorns with specialized talents to keep the sun coming up every day.”

Foresight’s face seemed to darken in the candle’s flickering light.  “But the reason it happened at all was because Harmony was broken to such a degree.  For the last ten years now, Discord has ruled over Equestria, and nothing comes from his reign but suffering and cruelty.  Equestria is crying out for somepony to save it just as loudly as its inhabitants are.”

Celestia tried to speak but couldn’t bring herself to state the obvious conclusion.

Foresight nodded gravely, her gaze meeting the alicorns’ with frightening intensity.  “That’s right, my alicorns.  If Discord is not defeated, Equestria will die.”

The sisters sat, dumbstruck.  The ramifications were astounding, to say the least.

Luna suddenly frowned.  “Wait, what does it all have to do with us?  You seem to imply that we’re meant to do something about it.”

“I do not imply.  I mean it to be true.  Harmony has chosen you.”

Celestia suddenly found herself unable to look at either of the two ponies with her, but Luna was too busy protesting to notice.  “That can’t be!” Luna scoffed.  “Look at us—we’re just alicorns.”

“It does seem that Harmony is not completely without a sense of irony,” the elder chuckled.

“Irony, my hoof,” Luna snorted.  “If you are right, then Harmony is just cruel.  Why would we have been chosen without even a warning or something?”

Foresight turned to look pointedly at Celestia.  “I suspect one of you knows more than you’re letting on.”

Luna could feel unease growing in the pit of her stomach.  “Tia, what does she mean?”

“I’m sorry, Lu,” Celestia whispered.  “She’s right.  I’ve always been able to remember my dream, but I was just so afraid of what it meant.  Harmony called to me.  I was supposed to leave home—supposed to become something else, something important—but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“And why could you not tell me this?” Luna demanded, pulling away from her sister in shock.

“Because you would have told me to follow the dream,” the older sister said, her voice growing even softer.  “I couldn’t leave you, Lu, I just couldn’t do it.  It wasn’t until the day you decided to go yourself that I saw how it was all supposed to work out, and I knew I had to stay with you, no matter what.”

Foresight nodded.  “And when you made that choice, your destiny became shared with your sister.  You are both heir to the promise—and the pain.”

“Wait, what pain?” Luna asked, still reeling from her sister’s revelation.

“Your path ahead will not be easy.  You will experience many things, and few will be pleasant—I hardly need a gift to know that much.  However, Harmony will always be with you, and you will have each other.  You will not endure your quest alone.”

“So, what is it we’re meant to do?” Celestia asked.  “How are we meant to defeat Discord?  Isn’t he omnipotent?”

“Far from it,” Foresight assured them.  “Discord is an avatar of Chaos, but he does not wield unlimited power.  There are many things he cannot do.  For instance, he cannot raise the sun, so he must let the unicorns carry out their work every day and night.  What magic accomplishes he can undo, so he delights in playing havoc with their work and making everypony think him immortal and unstoppable—however, he is anything but.  He is a trickster and a fiend who revels in the misery he causes.”

Luna spoke up, her face hard-set as she processed the information.  “So, we need a spell, then.  Something that embodies Harmony, right?”

Foresight nodded.  “Yes.  The power of Harmony will always be greater than the power of Chaos, but you must learn how to wield it.”

Celestia and Luna stared hopelessly at each other as the enormity of their task began to sink in.

The alicorn twins walked back outside into the sunlight that filtered through the leafy canopy.  The campsite looked the same, but now the two were acutely aware of the undertone of quiet despair.  All around them, Celestia and Luna could see the hard edges on eyes and the firm set of jaws that attested to the refugees’ determination to continue living despite the hopelessness.

“Bright Spark said that everypony here had lost friends and family to Discord, didn’t he?” Luna recalled somberly.

“He did.”  Celestia sighed, trying to make sense out of the quest they had just been given.  There was so much uncertainty, so much to accomplish, and so little guidance.  “Luna, can we really do this?”  Luna didn’t respond.  “Can we really help all of Equestria?”  Luna remained silent.  Celestia frowned and turned to chide her sister for ignoring her, but then she caught sight of the look on Luna’s face.  “Luna?  Are you all right?”

Luna stared vacantly into the air, her ears swiveling back and forth as though desperately searching for something.  “Something’s missing,” she muttered.  “The camp doesn’t feel quite... right.”

Celestia tried to listen closely, trying to compare the sounds around her to her memories of home.  She could hear the odd clatter of cooking utensils, the occasional snippet of quiet conversation, soft hoofsteps against the ground, and the whimpering cries of a young foal.  Nothing seemed to explain the lifeless feeling around them.  “What’s missing?” she asked, unable to put her hoof on the absent element.

Luna didn’t answer right away, because a yellow-furred earth pony colt had walked up to her and was staring up curiously at her face.  She looked back at him.  “Can I help you?” she asked.

“You got wings, right?” he asked, seemingly ignoring her query.

“Yes, I do.”

“And you gotta horn, too, right?”

“Yes…”

“So what are you?  Are you a unicorn or a pegasus?” he asked, his head canted off to one side.

Luna smiled at him as Celestia looked on.  “We’re called alicorns,” Luna said as she knelt down to the colt’s eye level.  “I’m Luna, and this is my sister, Celestia.”

Celestia caught sight of a few other foals scattered about the clearing, staying well away for the moment but seemingly drawn towards the newcomers.

“I’m Lemon Drop.  Why do you have wings and a horn?”

Luna glanced back at her sister and grinned.  “Because,” she told the foal, “it makes me harder to catch.”

“Huh?” he said, confused, as Luna stood up and reached out a hoof.

She tapped her hoof to the end of his nose.  “You’re it,” she said, turning to walk slowly into the clearing.

Lemon Drop stared blankly for a few seconds before a smile spread across his muzzle.  His tail began to swish back and forth as he crouched slightly, getting ready to run.

Luna stopped, looked back over her shoulder at the colt, and stuck out her tongue.

Lemon Drop burst into a gallop.

Celestia sat down and watched her sister race around the glade, chased by a steadily growing number of foals.  As Luna took to the air to escape the pack, a young pegasus filly flew up and tapped her on the back, turning the whole shrieking and laughing crowd against her.  The raucous chase began to take over the clearing, with ponies coming out of their tents to see what all the noise was about.  Celestia watched them and saw their expressions gradually change as they watched the foals play.  What had begun as confusion or curiosity gave way to joy, delight, peace of mind—everything the camp had been missing before.

She closed her eyes and listened again.  Now it sounded right.  It was the sound of laughter that had been missing.

Chapter 4

“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.

Chapter 5

Truth is almost always the harder way.  It is far easier to hedge, never to speak the difficult things that need to be said—but a strong blade is forged in the raging fire, not the cool air.

On Ethics – Anonymous, 833 BCE

(translated from ancient Ponic writings)

Celestia regained consciousness slowly.  Sound filtered through to her dazed mind long before her sight returned, so she wasn’t totally surprised to see a pony’s light blue face beside her when she forced her eyes back open.

“Hey, you’re awake,” he said quietly, checking her over.

What did surprise her was the mass of white that posed as the ceiling.  Her head spun when she tried to look around the room, but she was still able to see more and more of the fluffy substance.  She gingerly poked the surface she was lying on and felt it give slightly under her hoof, yet remain firm under her body.  Her eyes went wide.

The pegasus at her side noticed her expression and chuckled.  “Yes, you are up in the clouds.  Quite an improvement from a river, if you ask me.”

Celestia tried to respond, but nothing came out of her throat aside from a raspy, scratching noise.  As she pressed a hoof to her neck and winced, the pegasus held up a glass of water.  He lifted the alicorn as she sat up and helped her sip from it, not letting her take a longer drink before lowering her slowly back to the bed.

“Wha—what happ-ened?” she croaked.

He gave her a soft smile.  “Take it easy for now.  My name is Red Badge; I’m a healer here at Camp Cirrus.  I’ll try to fill you in on what I can.  A few pegasi were out fishing in the river and caught you two instead of dinner.  You were both an absolute mess, but they made sure you were breathing and brought you back here.  Both of you have been resting for two days now.  You were in a pretty bad state when we found you, so you’re bound to be feeling pretty weak for the time being.

“As far as where you are, Camp Cirrus is a bit of a home for pegasi who prefer to avoid the ground as much as possible, given what’s been going on down there.  We just live above the clouds, staying hidden where we can.  Both of you are welcome to stay with us as long as you need or want to.  Just rest for now, and we’ll talk more when you’re feeling a bit better.”

Celestia nodded as much as her spinning head would allow and let her eyes drift back shut.

Over the course of the next day, Celestia made her recovery.  The head and body aches finally eased enough that she could get up and walk around.  Luna, however, refused to wake up.  She occasionally moved slightly or made a low moan, but showed no signs of awareness.  Celestia still sat by Luna’s bedside almost every moment she wasn’t eating or sleeping, though, just in case.

Luna began to kick slightly, tossing in her sleep.  Celestia ran a hoof through her sister’s mane, trying to be comforting as she touched her horn to Luna’s.  Their two horns lit in magical sympathy as Celestia sent every warm emotion she had to Luna’s troubled mind.  It seemed to calm her, and Celestia sniffed as she took Luna’s hoof in her own.

Red Badge came in the doorway behind her.  “Any change?” he asked hopefully.

Celestia shook her head.  “I’m afraid not.  She’s moved around a bit, but she hasn’t woken up.”

He walked over to the bedside and checked the dressing on Luna’s head.  “Don’t worry,” he assured her.  “She took a nasty crack to the head besides the journey down the river.  It’s not surprising it’s taking her longer to recover.”

“But she will recover, right?  Please tell me she’ll recover.”

Red hesitated.  “I can’t say that with one hundred percent certainty,” he said, turning to Celestia, “but I don’t see any reason why she won’t.  Head injuries are… they’re tricky.”

Celestia began to shake as the thought of Luna not waking began to sink in.  “I c-can’t—I can’t l-lose her…” she gasped, feeling the emotions she’d been setting aside for the last few days finally breaking through.

The pegasi medic pulled her into a hug.  “Hey, don’t worry.  We’re doing everything we can for her.  What she needs is for you to believe she’s going to recover.”

It took a few moments, but Celestia was finally able to stem her tears and get her breathing back under control.  “You’re right,” she said, her bottom lip still trembling a bit.  “I need to be strong.  For her.”

“You know what else would be good for you to do?  Eating.”

Celestia stared at him, preparing to tell him that she was perfectly capable of caring for herself, when her stomach suddenly rumbled loudly enough to be clearly audible to Red.  She blushed furiously.

He laughed as he released her and took a step back.  “I’m pretty sure this cloud isn’t about to become a storm cloud, so I’m assuming I’ve won this point?”

She ducked her head as a chuckle escaped her.  “Okay, you win.”

“Great.”  Red helped her back to her hooves and led her out into the heart of Camp Cirrus.

Celestia stared all around her in awe.  It was her first time anywhere near a cloud, and the things she was seeing defied her comprehension.  Red chuckled at her amazement, and she followed him slowly across the surface of the cloud, taking in the sights as she went.  Celestia alternated between gawking at the many buildings that had been constructed—low, flat living quarters and storehouses, built short to be less visible from the ground—and simply marveling at the surface of the cloud itself.  She prodded the cloud with her hoof repeatedly, enthralled by the seeming firmness of the surrogate ground, even though she knew how insubstantial it really was.

Thankfully, the sight of the dining hall reminded her that she had a more pressing matter than curiosity, and Red guided her into the meal line.  Celestia was sufficiently focused on keeping her bowl steady in her magical grasp that she didn’t take notice of the many, many staring pegasi in the building.

“Um…” the alicorn began, staring at her bowl and poking hesitantly at the lumps that swam in the reddish broth, “what is this?”

“It’s just fish.”  Red stopped halfway through a spoonful of the soup and looked at her quizzically.  “You’ve never had fish before?  Really?”

She returned his look.  “Where would I have had fish?  My sister and I grew up on a mountain.”

“Mountains have rivers, don’t they?  Anyway, you’re a pegasus—or at least, part of you is.  Try it!”

Celestia drew a few looks as she levitated the spoon up from the bowl.  Red watched her curiously, waiting to see her reaction.  She closed her eyes and stuck the spoon into her mouth, swallowing the broth and trying to determine if the taste agreed with her.

The soup was unexpectedly good—warm and tantalizingly spicy, but with a savory flavor that she had never tasted before.  Her eyes opened in surprise, and she looked down at the bowl with a smile.  “Wow.”

Red was grinning from ear to ear.  “Pretty good, isn’t it?  Even up here, we manage to do all right.”

Instantly, the aura of cautious distance around Celestia seemed to evaporate, and she tucked into the soup with a will, downing three bowls in a short span.  As she ate, she began to tell her story to Red—and, indirectly, to every pegasus who had suddenly crammed in around them to listen to the first magic-using pony ever to be in their home.  They sat, stood, or hovered around, listening intently to the tale of Celestia and Luna’s foalhood home and their unlikely journey so far—though she avoided the mention of the deaths in their previous stop.

The spoon clattered against the empty bowl as Celestia sat back on the bench, finally sated.  She looked up to notice the rather large crowd gathered around her, and blushed as the pegasi backed off a bit to give her some space.

Red watched her with an oddly conflicted expression on his face.  “So, you two are on a mission to save the world?”

“Well, yeah…” Celestia responded, trailing off under the gaze of so many ponies.  “It sounds crazy, I know, but I swear it’s all true.  If we had—”

She cut off as a pegasus swooped in the doorway, calling out.  “Red!  The alicorn’s awake; she’s calling for somepony named ‘Celestia.’”

The alicorn and the medic leaped up from the table and raced out the door, the latter taking flight to cut across the settlement.  Celestia ran as fast as she could on the clouds, sliding and skidding across the surface from the low traction.  She finally made it back to the small hut where she and Luna had been housed, and she slid to a halt inside the door to see Red Badge looking carefully into Luna’s eyes and checking her pulse.

“Where were you?  Why didn’t you fly?” he asked Celestia, glancing back as she entered.

Completely ignoring Red’s questions, Celestia dropped to her haunches by the bedside and hugged her sister tightly as Luna called out to her.

“Tia!  Oh, thank Harmony,” she gasped.

“I’m here, Lu.  It’s okay.  We’re safe here.”

Her younger sibling clung to her with fierce desperation.  “I saw them,” she whispered.  “I couldn’t stop seeing them.  I just kept seeing them die over and over, and I couldn’t wake up.”

Celestia shushed her sister and embraced her, letting Luna release all of her bottled-up emotion as she wept.

Luna regained her strength fairly quickly over the next few days, but her countenance had changed.  Celestia took note of her sister’s sullen appearance, how she laughed far more rarely and smiled less than she had before.  Celestia tried to talk to her about it, but Luna would always avoid the topic.  “Seeing what I saw changed me, Tia” was all she would ever say about it.

Celestia was thankful that Luna was willing to open up around other ponies, at least.  The same instant that Luna mentioned that neither sister could fly, a dozen young pegasi leapt up to volunteer to give lessons—including Red, and his blush while doing so had been particularly endearing.  The attention was unsettling at first, but the sisters soon adapted, especially once they realized that they weren’t receiving any ill will from the camp’s residents over their sudden popularity.

The next few weeks were a blur for the alicorns.  Almost every hour that wasn’t spent sleeping or eating was spent in the sky, learning to fly from their eager tutors.  Both of the sisters made rapid progress, and flying became almost second-nature to them both.  With the help of their instructors, they put more time into flying in those weeks than they had in their entire lives up to that point.  The feel of flying was incredible.  Celestia found she couldn’t get enough of it.  The sensation of soaring through the sky gave her a thrill—one that was only matched by the thrill she got when Red gave her a proud smile at her progression.

The sisters had friends now; Camp Cirrus was actually starting to feel like a home.  It was almost perfect.  Almost.

That night before bed, Celestia found Luna sitting on the edge of the cloudbank, alone under the stars and staring out over the surface of Equestria, as she had found her every night since Luna had awoken.  The pain and sadness on Luna’s face broke Celestia’s heart, but she couldn’t find a way to talk to her sister.  Every time she approached the topic Luna would give her the same flat rebuttal, and Celestia finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“Seeing what I saw changed me,” Luna intoned, turning away from her.

“What’s wrong with me, then?” Celestia yelled at Luna, her frustration at her younger sister’s stubbornness boiling over.  “Why will you talk to other ponies and not me?”

Luna opened her mouth to respond when Celestia cut her off, clamping her magic around Luna’s mouth.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she growled.  “Don’t you give me that same line again.  Don’t you dare.  What did you see?  What did you see that means you can’t talk to your own sister anymore?  I was there, too!”

Luna shook off her sister’s magic, her eyes glinting angrily.  “We didn’t see the same thing.”

“Oh?  Because I saw a tragedy, but I still acknowledge you.”

Luna recoiled, gritting her teeth.  “I saw my sister run and leave ponies behind to die.”

Celestia pulled back as if she had been slapped.  “I—how could you, Luna!  We did what we had to do!”

“Bright Spark, and Lemon Drop, and Harmony only knows how many others are dead because we did nothing!  We could have done something, led him away.  Anything…”  Luna folded her wings tightly around herself, hugging herself as her head dropped, unable to meet her sister’s eyes.

The white alicorn fumed, trying to hold her tongue.  “You ran, too,” she whispered, trying her hardest not to sound accusatory.

Luna didn’t even look up.  “I know,” she said, her voice almost completely lifeless.  “And I hate myself for it.”

“Do you hate me as well, Luna?”

“I don’t know.  I only know that I should have done something.”

Celestia took a deep breath.  “Luna, I know you don’t want to hear it, but I can’t let you keep ignoring the truth!  It had to happen that way.”  Luna grimaced and turned her back on Celestia as the elder sister continued.  “I’m sorry, Luna, I truly am, but it couldn’t be avoided.  We were given a mission!  We could have saved the colt, but only at the cost of damning the entire world.  Was he worth so much?”

Luna’s wings flared as she spun back around, getting right in Celestia’s face.  “You’re bucking right, he was.”

Celestia pulled back, shocked.  “You would give so much for one life?”

Luna fumed.  “Anything,” she said.

“Would you sacrifice yourself?”

“Anything,” Luna repeated.

The elder sister bit her lip anxiously.  “W-would you sacrifice me?”

The rage finally faded from Luna’s eyes.  She lowered her head, pausing as she searched for words, and knowing how much they would hurt.  “Anything,” she whispered.

Celestia’s eyes began to water.  She spun around and took to the air, the joy in the flight completely gone.  She landed back at their hut, ran inside, and collapsed at the side of her bed, her tears flowing like rain as she held her hooves around her chest.  Red landed outside with a saddlebag on his back and a nervous smile on his face, but his expression faded quickly when he walked in.

“I—” his voice caught in his throat.  “Celestia?” he called quietly.  She looked up and grabbed onto him without saying a word, crying vehemently into his cream-colored mane.  Red shut his mouth and sank to his haunches helplessly, holding the alicorn as she wept.

When Celestia awoke she very nearly panicked, thinking she had lost her sight, until she remembered it was deep in the night.  She shook the strands of her pink mane out of her face and looked around, trying to remember what had happened.  She could hear breathing coming from Luna’s bed, but instead of her sister she saw Red’s form curled up and slumbering, his saddlebag dropped on the floor beside the bed.  Something inside her leapt just a little bit at seeing him, knowing he stayed until she had fallen asleep and had been unwilling to leave her—though it fell again as she realized that meant that Luna was still elsewhere, and after their argument…

Her disquiet intensified as she saw a note on the nearby table, neatly folded.  She picked up the letter and moved to the window to make use of the dim moonlight as she read Luna’s flowing hoofwriting.

Celestia,

I know this doesn’t seem fair, but I’ve come to realize that we’re just two very different ponies, more so than I had thought before.  I can’t thank you enough for saving my life, and for always being there for me, but I can no longer stand back and think only of my mission and my life while others are hurting.  I have to do this, or else I may never be able to look at myself again.  I’m leaving.

Don’t worry about your quest, Tia.  Harmony chose you.  It always wanted you, but you thought for some reason that I could help.  Go, and follow whatever Harmony has laid out for you.  I think I might be doing the same, actually.  I just feel Harmony pulling me in another direction.

I’m sorry for the things I said earlier, too.  I don’t really blame you, certainly no more than I blame myself.  You are the better pony of us, and you’re the one worthy of being Harmony’s champion, not me.

I pray I’ll see you again soon.

Your sister, Luna

Chapter 6

Sacrifice is not simply passing on an opportunity, or lending a hoof to another.  Sacrifice is voluntarily giving up something that you are entitled to, be it your life, your own gain, or even your own happiness.  This land was founded on sacrifice, and it was saved by it.  If you learn of nothing else in your time in service, learn this:  Fighting and law are all well and good, but if you aren’t willing to sacrifice yourself, you’ve wasted your training.

Traditional Inauguration Speech to New Cadets – Cmdr. Shining Armor, Canterlot Royal Guard

Much to her surprise, Celestia couldn’t even cry as she set the letter back down on the table.  The sense of loss was just too great.  Luna was gone, and with her a good portion of Celestia, it seemed.

In her daze, Celestia sat down on the edge of her sister’s former bed, unable to trust her legs to hold her upright anymore.  Beside her, Red muttered in his sleep as he rolled over, pulling a few strands of his pale mane into his mouth.  Under different circumstances, Celestia would have smiled at the adorably awkward sight, but now she simply brushed the strands aside, her expression unchanged.

She looked out the window at the moon—her sister’s namesake—clearly visible from above the blanket of clouds.  Though they would probably never actually get their cutie marks, Celestia had always envisioned that Luna’s would be an image of the moon.  She could almost picture it.

As she turned back, her hoof bumped against Red’s saddlebag.  He didn’t wear them as a matter of course, so why had he bothered to bring one along when he came over last night?  Celestia bit her lower lip as she looked back at his sleeping form.  Unable to stop herself, she levitated the bag closer and opened the clasp, looking inside.

With a quiet gasp, she drew out a small bouquet of moon flowers.  The tiny blossoms were rarely seen in most parts of Equestria.  Their round shape and pale color gave them their name, and they were incredibly hardy plants.  They even seemed to give off a certain cool sensation to the touch, as if one was touching their hooves to the surface of the moon itself.  She knew that Red had to have gone to quite a bit of effort to find them and bring them back.

The saddlebag drifted back down to the fluffy white floor as Celestia stood and walked out of the dwelling, the flowers still in her magic’s grasp.  She walked until she reached Luna’s usual spot, and she sat down to look out over the view.

The land was almost otherworldly in the pre-dawn darkness, with only one or two scattered spots of light visible from villages to spoil the perfect moonlight.  The river ran under Camp Cirrus, reflecting the lights of the sky chaotically.  Celestia followed the light up, to gaze at the sky.  The moon was full and bright, seemingly close enough to touch.  She caught herself putting out a hoof towards it.  For some reason, she felt like she could practically see Luna’s face in it.

Luna…

Never had she felt so conflicted before.  Every fiber of her being told her to leap off the cloud and go find her sister before something awful happened to her, but what would that do?  What would it say to Luna?  Did she not trust her sister to make her own choices?  No matter how much she thought about it, Celestia couldn’t be angry at Luna for what she was doing.  Luna had always thought with her heart before her head, and her intentions were good and right.  For all she knew, Luna was doing what she was better suited to doing, but then the problem was whether or not Celestia could complete the larger, more dangerous task on her own.

She was on a mission, after all—one of the utmost importance.  If she failed or faltered, who knew how many ponies could die because of it?  Ponies were being killed by Discord and Steel Wing every day it seemed, but so many more were suffering because of Discord’s chaos.  His antics affected the growing seasons and the weather, making food scarce for all.  She had been told that starvation was rampant in most areas of Equestria, and the death toll from that alone was greater than the murders by tenfold.

And now, she had yet another problem.  She slowly lifted the flowers in front of her face, turning them around with her magic.  The petals caught the pale yellow glow of her aura, shimmering in the light.  It seemed that Red was attracted to her, to a degree that prompted him to go to outlandish efforts for a mere token.  As she thought about it, she realized that it wasn’t a one-sided thing, either.  Red was gentle and intelligent.  He was a healer and a leader—and not a bad teacher, either.  Celestia tried to talk herself out of it, but she couldn’t convince herself that settling down was such a bad idea.  She could almost see herself staying in Camp Cirrus for good.  She could be happy.  She could have a life that she had never even dared to dream of as a mere alicorn living in a canyon.

What was it all worth now, though?

Could she actually be happy knowing what she had given up on?  Was her life worth more than anypony else’s?  Even following her sister could jeopardize her quest…

With the clouds muffling the pegasus’ hoofsteps, she didn’t realize Red was walking up until he was right next to her.  She looked up at him, unsure of what to say.  His eyes seemed almost as sad as hers.

“You read the note,” she stated flatly.  He nodded in response.  “You know that wasn’t meant for you,” she said, unable to make her face or voice reflect the humor she had hoped to display.

He seemed to understand, though.  “To be fair, you did take my flowers.”

Celestia looked back to the moon-bleached blossoms.  “They’re incredible…”

He ran his pale blue hoof through his mane awkwardly, the moonlight making it shine like silver.  “I was all set to give you those, but I saw the time just wasn’t right.  Truth be told, it still isn’t, and I wish you hadn’t seen them.”

She frowned.  “Why not?  It’s an amazing gesture.  I can’t imagine the trouble you went to.”

“They weren’t easy to find,” he said with a nod, “but now that you know why I came last night, do you feel like your decision of what you need to do now is easier?”  She shook her head sadly.  “Then that’s why,” he said, sitting down next to her and staring out into the dark sky.

“I just don’t know what to do,” she grumbled.  “No matter what, I lose something.”

“Well, you can’t stay here,” he said firmly.

She turned to face him, shocked.  His jaw was set, but tears were building up in his eyes and he didn’t turn to look at her.

“After reading that letter, I realized that I was incredibly selfish to think that I could keep you here with me.  You can’t stay, Celestia; there’s too many ponies depending on you.  You don’t know what it does to us, knowing that Discord and Steel Wing are still out there.”

His shoulders slumped.  “Since well before the founding of Equestria, the pegasi have always been the fighters, the warriors.  We fought against insurmountable odds, and we always won.  We were the frontline fighters in the war against the griffons.  The need to defend those around us—to protect those we care for—is deeply ingrained in us, and now we’re faced with a foe that we can’t fight and can’t hurt.  We’re completely helpless, and that sense of failure weighs on us every day.”

He finally turned to look her in the eyes, a few stray tears streaking the fur on his cheeks.  “When you told us of your quest, it was such a conflicting moment.  I knew that I couldn’t do anything myself to help, but there was finally somepony who could!  It was simultaneously the most humbling moment of my life and the happiest.  A-and now—” he stopped, choking up.  “And now I f-find myself caring very deeply for you, and I know that I c-can’t protect you.  I want n-nothing more than to make you happy and to be happy, but I-I’d be a traitor to Equestria and my own conscience if I do anything b—anything but tell you to go right into danger.”

Celestia reached out a wing and put it around Red, knowing that words weren’t sufficient for the moment.  He took several deep breaths to steady himself as a few tears fell over the edge of the cloud to drop to the ground below.  The two were silent for a long time, unmoving, simply sitting together as the wind ruffled their feathers and manes.

“What do I do?” she finally asked.

“You know I can’t really tell you that,” he said.  “I suppose all I can say is you should do what you feel is right.”

“Part of me knows that I have to keep to the mission, but I’m not sure if I can do it without Luna.”  She shook her head in frustration.  “We’ve never been apart.  I couldn’t even leave home without her—but how long will it take to find her?  What will happen to us if I try?  What if—”

Red Badge reached over and put a hoof to her mouth to silence her, and moved it down to touch her chest, right over her heart.  Celestia nodded solemnly.

The two ponies stood and embraced in silence.  It was a long time before they separated.

“I will come back,” she promised.  He nodded and stepped back, tearing up again as he gave her a salute with his hoof.

She swallowed hard and leapt off the cloud.

Luna cruised low over the darkened landscape, her eyes keenly picking out obstacles as she flew.  Unfamiliar with the terrain from above, she had already taken several wrong turns in her search, so now she simply followed the twists and turns of the river as it ran behind her, tracing its path upstream.  She wanted nothing more than to get back to the refugee’s camp, to cry with them and do anything to help them rebuild.

What if they’ve moved on?  What if I can’t find them?  Doubt spurred her on to greater speed.

She swerved off of her path, heading off over the trees as she caught sight of the bridge she and Celestia had failed to find the first time they came this way.  She ducked down and landed in a familiar clearing, only to find that her fears had been confirmed.

The campsite was completely abandoned.  Luna felt a mild panic attack coming on until she realized that all of the tents and possessions had been taken as well—meaning the rest of the refugees were still alive.  Still, it left her at an impasse.  She tried to think of where she might go to find them again, when a voice from behind her made her blood run cold.

“Well, well, well.  I had a hunch you might come here again.  I’m glad I decided to check back.”

Luna spun around to find Steel Wing strolling out of the trees and into the clearing.  “Hello, alicorn,” he said casually.  “It’s taken you long enough.  It feels like I’ve been over half of Equestria looking for you since you ran.  Did your conscience finally get the better of you?”  Luna bared her teeth and flared her wings as she crouched, fight-or-flight responses taking over.

“You know,” the black pegasus went on, ignoring her stance, “I never did get a good look at you two last time.  It made searching for you a chore, I can tell you that much.  Other villages weren’t really much help, either, no matter how… persuasive I was.  None of them knew anything about you, meaning you hadn’t been to any villages.  It begs the question: where have you been hiding?”

“We did not hide,” Luna growled, rising anger starting to drown out the panicked cry of her mind to escape.

“Were you in the sky?  Perhaps underground?  Did the voices of the dead call out to you?”  Luna’s rage grew as he taunted her.  “Did they tell you how you left them to die?”

With an incoherent scream of rage, Luna charged, seeking Steel Wing’s neck.

In a blur of black and a flash of pain, Luna found herself held firmly up on her rear hooves.  Her forehooves were wrenched painfully behind her, her wings pinned against Steel Wing’s body and his bladed wing at her throat.  His grasp on her was ferocious, stronger than any pegasus had a right to be.  Luna let out a cry of pain as her captor pulled harder on her limbs.

“You’re far too soft, alicorn, far too easy to manipulate.  And now you’ve made a horrible mistake.  There’s someone who has been very eager to meet you.”

Luna only had time to let out a shudder of fear before a vicious blow to her head left her dropping into an expanse of black.

Chapter 7

It is my considered and scientific opinion that Harmony and Equestria are one.  As Harmony bequeaths its gifts upon ponykind in the form of magic, and flight, and cutie marks, ponies also give back by using their powers to foster and strengthen Harmony between each other.  In all the centuries, Equestria has never healed: the weather hasn’t gone back to controlling itself and the plants haven’t taken over without the guidance of Earth Ponies—and I suspect it’s so that ponykind could have the chance to take part, to contribute to the well-being of the entire world.  It’s a rare and marvelous gift.

Excerpt from The Nature of Harmony: Experimental Theory and Mechanics – Professor Twilight Sparkle, C.E. 2530

Luna awoke, and instantly wished she hadn’t.

Aside from the intense headache from Steel Wing knocking her unconscious, every new sensation and sight brought more and more worry.  The room around her was dark.  She faced a bare and bleak stone ceiling in an equally dismal room, lit only by the few torches scattered around.  Along with the lack of windows or ambient light, the damp air and cloying sense of claustrophobia left her with little doubt that she was somewhere underground.

She was lying in a distinctly uncomfortable position, on her back with her forelegs over her head.  Luna tried to shift her position, only to find her limbs restrained.  She struggled, her eyes going wide as the feeling of cold metal bit into all four of her wrists and the dull clink of steel echoed around the otherwise silent room.  She couldn’t even lever herself up because of the manacle locked around her neck.  A sense of panic rose in the alicorn.  She was trapped underground, chained on a stone slab, captive when nopony would even know she was missing, much less where to begin looking.  She could be anywhere, maybe even outside Equestria entirely, and she would never know.  Luna tried to look around, only to stop as a sharp pain lanced from her head.  Her eyes swiveled up, and she caught a tiny glimpse of the steel band encircling her horn.

Luna groaned in fear, her eyes closing, trying to shut out the oppressively dark stone facing her.  I did this, her mind raged.  I did this to myself, and to Tia.  I’m going to die...  The cobalt-coated pony wanted nothing more than to curl up and bawl like a foal, but even that small mercy was denied her.  She simply lay on the slab, uncomfortably bound, feeling the rush of pain from limbs held at awkward angles for far too long.  Tears began to leak out of the corners of her eyes as a small sob tore from her throat.

Before she could truly descend into an inconsolable wreck, a door opened and closed, the quiet rasp of the hinges almost unbearably loud in the nearly silent room.  Instantly, Luna’s sobs caught in her throat along with her breath, and every muscle in her body tensed in panic.  Unable to look, she was forced to wait, anxiety mounting, as the sharp, offbeat clop of a single hoof came steadily closer, followed by the soft patter of a normal pony’s hooves.

“Hello, my dear.”

Luna shrieked in fright at the face that suddenly appeared above her.  Like a monster out of legend, the draconequus stared down at her, his bright yellow eyes shining malevolently.  His mismatched horns, single curved fang, and amalgamated body all matched the description that Bright Spark had given so long ago, but with a horror that she could never have imagined.

“D-D-D-Discord…” she gasped, trying desperately to hide her fear—and failing utterly.

The face above her brightened, an insane smile spreading from ear to ear.  “Well, I see my fame has preceded me!  That does shorten things.  I do so hate introductions.”  The chaotic creature straightened up, staring melodramatically into nowhere.  “Yes, hello, I’m Discord, omnipotent Lord of Chaos, yada yada yada.  Yes, I wreak chaos for a living.  Yes, I rather enjoy my job, what do you do for a living?”  He sighed and stared down at her again.  “That’s where ponies usually walk away.  Parties are miserable for me.”

Luna’s amusement and fear fought an intense war for her expression, eventually settling for something approximating bewilderment.

“Aaaaanyway, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve called you here, yes?”  Luna felt herself nodding unconsciously, at least as much as her restraints would allow.  “Here’s the deal.  I’ve been seeing… well, I guess you could call them visions.  Maybe it was the tacos before bed, maybe it’s just the nigh-omnipotent powers of Chaos allowing me to see beyond the veil of sight to what is yet to come, but I’ve seen many possible futures, and in all of them, I see you.  You and your sister.”

Luna choked down a gasp of surprise.  “I—what sister?”

The draconequus chuckled.  “You’re adorable, you really are.  I know you and your sister are the only pair of alicorn twins ever to be born in Equestria.  And I know that you’re out to make my life very miserable and short,” he growled, his eyes suddenly flaming with a reddish glow.  Luna flinched away from his face, shaking.  “Do you know how hard it was to get Equestria to begin with?”  He stopped halfway into his tirade and put a clawed paw to his chin thoughtfully.  “Okay, actually, it was quite easy.  All I had to do was show up, really.  But do you know how hard it’s been to keep it?”

He huffed, pacing back and forth at the foot of the slab.  “You think it’s simple being a tyrant, I bet.  Thing is, even when you’re a limitless demigod, things never seem to go your way.  Just to keep daily life going, I’ve had to kill countless ponies.  For whatever reason, they never seemed to appreciate my own… special brand of chaos.”  He whirled around to face the alicorn.  “Did you know that killing ponies would break the world?  I sure didn’t.  Now things just aren’t much fun anymore…”

Luna’s mind spun as she tried to follow the dizzying path of Discord’s discourse.  “Wait, break the world?”

“Oh, yes, as it turns out.  Something about Equestria and Harmony being linked, so on and so forth.  If I kill too many ponies, the world starts to break down.  I just got the thing!  I can’t let Equestria break—it’s where I keep all my stuff!”  Discord’s face fell, his expression dejected as he kicked at the floor like a petulant foal.  “Now it’s just pointless.  I can’t do anything I want to.  So, I just sit around and rule things.  It’s horribly boring.  Come to think of it, you and your sister are just about the only fun I’ve had to look forward to in years!”

He let out an evil chuckle that made chills run up Luna’s spine.  “Oh yes, there’s so many things I could do to you.  Have you ever been a carrot?  I could turn you into one!  Or, I could just make you explode!  Or teleport you into space!  But noooooo, no fun for Discord, not anymore.

“That’s why I’ve got my friend Steel here.  He has the fun I can’t have.  Turns out he loves this cruelty thing.”  Discord leaned in conspiratorially.  “Actually, I’m slightly worried about him, but he refuses to attend my therapy sessions.  We always end up with cookies and coffee left over,” he said, spinning an extended claw in a circle next to his head.

Luna could feel her breath getting shaky again as he continued nonchalantly.  “Here’s the deal:  I need to know where your sister is.  You two are trouble for me, even if you don’t succeed.  I’ve got you, and once I have her, I’m afraid you’re both going to have to die.  It’s nothing personal, you see.  Strictly business.”

Discord straightened and raised his paws, a notepad and pencil appearing in turn with soft pops.  “So then, my scared little alicorn.  First chance to make this simple:  Where is your sister?”  Luna stared at him in silence.  “What is her name?”  She remained quiet.  “What is her favorite color?”  Despite raising an eyebrow in confusion, Luna remained as impassive as she could.  Discord sighed unhappily.  “Well, that’s how it’s going to be then, is it?  Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance later on…” he muttered.  “I’m sure you know something useful, and I’d like to know it as well.  Towards that end, I’m going to let my friend Steel here do horribly uncomfortable things to you.  I won’t be participating; this blood-and-guts thing was always his forte rather than mine, but I’m sure that you’ll be awfully hard to shut up by the second day or so.”

Luna shook hard enough that the chains started to rattle against the cold stone as Discord stretched and walked casually away towards the doorway.  “Anyway, you kids have fun!”  The door slammed shut, the boom echoing around the underground structure as Luna bit her lip to keep herself from crying at finding herself alone with a psychopath.

“So, if I remember correctly from your friends at the forest campsite, your name’s Luna, isn’t it?” Steel Wing said softly, his voice deceptively gentle.  The massive black pegasus appeared in the edge of her vision, staring intently at her face as he spoke.  “Ohh, you don’t like it when I mention them, do you?  Shall I tell you a story about them?”

He began to pace around her bound form, tapping his wing feathers along her body as he spoke, a dark smile on his face.  “I’m sure you remember that little one, the colt, I believe it was.”  He tapped the flat of his bladed wings against her bound hoof as he paused.  He turned to stand and leaned on the slab, his forehooves on either side of Luna’s head as he stared down at her.  “It really was a shame that nopony seemed to care about him, but that was that.  I had to slit his throat.  Just.  Across.  Here…” he said softly, the razor edge of his wing tracing across her throat with just enough pressure to break the skin, leaving a thin, slowly beading line of blood across her neck.

Luna gasped, unprepared for such a subtle gesture, wincing at the disproportionate sting of the slight wound.

Steel Wing chuckled at her discomfort.  “All you have to do to stop me is tell me what those insensitive ponies wouldn’t.  But then, of course, you’d miss the rest of the story, and we have so much time left to spend together…”

Celestia was in a panic as she flew, the encroaching night forcing her to fly lower and lower to scan the ground.  She had flown back to the only place she could think Luna would go, the site of the refugee camp, desperate for any sign of her sister.  The campsite had been abandoned, and the ground was still stained with blood and hoofprints.  The majority of the running prints had led off deeper into the woods, but a lone fresh set led off to the west.  The hoofprints were huge—larger than that of any pony she had ever seen.  Trusting to fate, Celestia had taken off west, hoping beyond hope that some new sign would find her eyes.

The entire day had been spent in vain, it seemed.  The tracks had died off soon after they crossed the river, and the ground was far too hard to support new tracks, which had prompted the alicorn to start flying circles.  Her pattern had widened with each one as more and more of her precious daylight slipped away.  With a last burst of optimism, she had taken off due west once again, trying frantically to remember where Bright Spark had said to find the White Tail Woods.

The size of the woods sent her heart sinking into her stomach.  The forest was massive, and searching it could take weeks, if not months—when she knew Luna could be dead in a matter of hours.  With her light fading as quickly as her hopes, Celestia looked up to the violet-streaked sky.

“Harmony, please, please give me a way to find my sister.  Give me some sign…”  Hoping for a miracle, she looked back down to see the same endless swath of green leaves as before.

The sun fell behind the horizon, and Celestia landed awkwardly, her brimming tears blurring the details around her as effectively as the growing darkness.  She fell to the ground, unable to bring herself to think about the consequences of her failure.  As she wiped her hooves across her eyes, she looked up to see a single blue feather, sticking lightly into the ground, turning lazily in the soft breeze.  Celestia’s eyes widened as she gasped.  There was no mistaking where that feather had come from.

“Luna…”

The feather twitched in the slight wind and fell, pointing directly into the forest.  Celestia bowed her head, said a quick prayer of thanks, and jumped up, galloping into the woods as fast as she could manage.  The brush tore at her wings while roots and undergrowth threatened to trip her with almost every step, but she refused to stumble.  Luna was waiting, and there was no way Celestia was going to let her down.  As her chest began to burn with exertion and her breathing became a series of strained gasps, she found herself on the edge of a clearing.

In the center of the clearing sat a small building, constructed roughly out of stone and mud, so small and pitiful it could only practically be referred to as a hut.  Even the rough homesteads she and her sister had grown up in back in the shelter of the valley were orders of magnitude better than this dilapidated structure, and it hadn’t even been built with wood, despite the abundance growing around!  Celestia looked everywhere, almost certain that the building was some sort of trap or ruse, but she was completely alone.  The rounded little dwelling looked so incongruous in the middle of the forest that she hesitated for several minutes before she was able to convince herself to investigate.

After looking around carefully once again, Celestia flapped carefully to glide across the open space, landing silently and pressing herself against the wall.  She froze, sure that the pounding of her heart would be loud enough to alert everypony within a mile, but no sounds came from the building.

Already skittish due to her mission, Celestia stayed well away from the door, peeking her head up to glance in one of the low, asymmetrical windows instead.  Inside, a corridor stretched into the distance, well beyond the bounds of the wall that should have contained it.  The alicorn fell back to her haunches, holding her head with a hoof.  Impossible… she thought, trying to find any sign of the interior architecture along the wall.  Taking a deep breath, she jumped and wedged herself in through the window, falling to her hooves as quietly as possible in the dark stone hallway.

Discord wields Chaos, she remembered.  Anything in this place could be an illusion or a trick.  Putting out of her mind the fact that she was very clearly in an impossible building, Celestia began to sneak down the hallway, exploring her surroundings.  The hallway was a massive square, easily ten or twenty times as large as the external façade.  Every door along the way seemed to open into more hallways, which stretched on in ways that clearly should have brought them together, yet they never did.

Celestia expected to be discovered at any second as she crept along.  I’m never going to get anywhere at this rate, she thought with a frown.  Every last one of these doors could be nothing more than a distraction to get me lost.  The alicorn looked up plaintively at the ceiling.  “Anything?” she whispered into the silence.  Harmony didn’t answer.  Celestia took a deep breath, slightly shaky with adrenaline, and tried to think.

The further forward Celestia wandered, the further the endless building stretched on.  Despite having turned right several times, she hadn’t even come back to the original window she had entered through, which meant she was well and truly lost.  No matter how many steps forward she took, there was no end, no change.  Maybe forward isn’t the way…

Celestia took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and took a few hesitant steps backwards.  Before her fourth step, her rump contacted a surface.  The alicorn spun around, fight-or-flight instincts blazing, to face down a plain wooden door, unlike anything she had come across yet.  The rough portal looked completely out of place in the darkness, and if for no other reason than that, it could only be the way she had to go.  Celestia glanced up and down the hall, gulped nervously, and entered.  It led to a stairway down into a basement, which was dismally lit, even compared to the nighttime hallways she had just come from.  She crept slowly down the stone stairs, carefully placing each hoofstep.  As she came to the bottom, she began to hear the faint sound of a voice.

She glanced down at herself, frowning as she realized that even in the darkness her white coat would be rather easy to pick out.  She considered snuffing out the few torches along the hallway, but that would betray her presence.  Celestia worked her way down the hall, testing doors as she went.  Most opened to empty rooms or didn’t open at all, but inside one there was evidence of a prison.  Chains lay on the floor, and the darkened stains left over on the floor and walls from previous occupation indicated that whichever pony stayed here last hadn’t enjoyed it.

One door opened to reveal a small storage room.  Inside she uncovered what could have charitably been called a blanket, stained with all manner of dirt and filth—and what she sincerely hoped was blood—over Harmony-knew-how-long a time.  Wincing slightly, she threw it over her shoulders and held up her covered hoof against the wall.  Against the darkness of the stone, the mottled shade of the cloth was almost invisible.  Hoping it would be enough, she crept back into the hallway and headed for the last door, coming up short as she heard a voice come from inside.

“Anyway, you kids have fun!” came a disgustingly cheerful voice, followed by the sound of steps approaching the door.  Celestia frantically searched for any hiding spot she could find, choosing to wedge herself into a small recessed alcove in the wall, away from the stairs.  Around the edge of her camouflage, she could see an otherworldly creature exit, shut the door, and head for the stairs, whistling jauntily as he went.

That has to be Discord, she thought, recalling Bright Spark’s description of the hodgepodge creature.  She knew this room had to contain her sister, but Discord hadn’t just been talking to one pony.  So who else was in there?  Before she could creep to the door to investigate, she heard a voice coming from the inside.  One that she couldn’t forget, no matter how much she wanted to.  A voice as menacing as it was smooth and deep.

“So, if I remember correctly from your friends at the forest campsite, your name’s Luna, isn’t it?”

Celestia’s eyes went wide in fear as she realized what was about to take place on the other side of the wall she hid against.  She began to pray, begging that there would be some way to save Luna from what was going to happen, but no answer came.  Her whole body shook as Luna’s first gasp reached her ears.  And the second.  And the third…

She slumped to the ground, pulling the dingy blanket around herself as she fought to remain silent in the face of her sister’s distress.  She knew that charging into the room would doom them both— and maybe the whole of Equestria—and so she sat on the floor and wept, biting the back of her hoof to stay silent as she listened to her little sister suffer.

Luna whimpered, trying to remain brave as she felt her shoulders screaming in protest, bent and strained in ways nature never meant for them to go.  Steel Wing locked the tightened chains in place, pulling her forehooves apart over her head.  “Pff, teleporting you into space?  I’ll give him points for creativity, but such a quick death does lack something visceral,” Steel Wing taunted.  “So, anything to say to me yet?”  With an insane smile, the huge pegasus laid his considerable weight against Luna’s foreleg, forcing her shoulder back beyond the breaking point.

The alicorn screamed in pain as she felt her joint separate with a sickening pop.  All at once, the tension in her shoulder vanished, only to be replaced tenfold by the pain of her dislocated shoulder tearing apart the tendons inside.

“I didn’t quite catch that,” he said, “do speak up.”

Luna began to cry, whimpering as pain and fear overrode her brain.  Her rage, her impotence, and her terror fought inside her, flooding her with emotion.

“You do seem to have remarkable control,” he mused, his back turned to his sobbing captive.  “Either that, or you’re just scrambled from the pain.  Since I can’t seem to tell the difference, I guess we’ll just have to go on until I get something from you.”

He spun around, catching Luna completely off guard.  His hoof connected solidly with her face, splitting her cheek open.  The alicorn let out a grunt and let her head loll, dizzy from the force of the impact.  Blood began to leak from her muzzle, and she could feel a line it running down her cheek to dye her mane.

“Tell me,” he demanded, yanking fiercely back on the chain the bound her horn.  Luna screamed as her head was viciously pulled back by its most sensitive point, forcing her damaged throat against the metal collar that held it down.  Her cries turned into gasping, choking sounds as she fought for breath.

“Tell me!” he yelled, kicking a hoof forcefully against her side.  Luna couldn’t even find the breath to gasp in pain as she felt several of her ribs give way, growing somewhat numb to the all-encompassing pain.  She coughed weakly, feeling something wet splash up from her chest and into her mouth.

“TELL ME!” the crazed pegasus screamed, his bladed wing scything through the air and halting a mere fraction of an inch from Luna’s muzzle.  She stared at the gleaming metal, dazed from her ordeal, confused at the way it just hung above her head.

“… Why?” she asked, barely audible over the subtle pop of the torches.

He stared at her, his eyes narrow.  “What?”

“Why—” she coughed, trying not to choke on the blood in her mouth, “why do y-you d-do this?”

“Because,” he said slowly, his voice barely above a low growl.  “Because you have something I don’t.”  He swiped his wing across Luna’s leg, and she groaned in pain as the blade made a series of small cuts down the length of her thigh.  “Because you have something I should have.  Something I deserve.”  He paused, picking up a blade and carefully considering the knife’s edge.

“… what?”

“Purpose,” he said simply.

“I—I d-d-don’t un—derstand,” she panted weakly.

“Do you see this?” he asked, turning until she could see his flank.  Where there should have been a cutie mark there was instead a mass of scars, faded remnants of horrific wounds.  “This is my purpose now.  This is all there is left to me.”

Luna shuddered, her eyes rolling back into her head.  “What h-happened?”

The pegasus regarded her curiously.  “Why in Equestria would you care?”

She struggled to meet his gaze.  “G-g-gonna d-die anyway…”

His eyes hooded in the dim light.  “I killed a pony.  I tried to save somepony I cared about, and instead, I lost my flight.  I lost my purpose.  Harmony abandoned me!” he screamed, starting to choke the alicorn as his eyes lost focus, staring into the nothingness between the past and the present.  “Do you have any idea what it’s like?  What it’s like to lose yourself?  To have nothing to live for?  It drove me mad.”

Luna fought to breathe with her remaining ability, desperate to stay awake, knowing that if she blacked out she might never wake up again.  As the world began to fade and stars danced at the edges of her sight, Steel Wing released her.  Luna began to cough and gag as her captor screamed in rage, throwing a table against the wall to shatter into pieces.  Her labored breaths became uncomfortably loud in the room as Steel Wing went silent.

“I took my cutie mark off,” he said softly.  “I had nothing… absolutely nothing until Lord Discord arrived.  He gave me a purpose.  After I—”  He stopped, taking a deep breath.  “After I killed my own father for opposing my master, I gave up.  I don’t want a purpose anymore.  I only want to make everypony else feel how bad I felt.  How bad I feel.  How much I don’t want to feel.”

Luna stared blankly at Steel Wing’s back, unable to comprehend what she had just heard.  He turned to face her, his scowl still firmly in place.  “Trust me, alicorn, today was just a taste.  Tomorrow, you’ll be telling me all sorts of things—things you didn’t know you knew, things you’d forgotten while you were still in the womb.”  He put his cold, impassive face right up to hers.  “I promise,” he said, spinning around and stalking out of the room, slamming the door behind him as he left.

For the next few hours, Luna’s body grew more and more numb, whether from blood loss or shock she didn’t know, but she finally gave in and succumbed to the soft emptiness of sleep.  Inside its embrace, she felt herself floating, detached from her pain-wracked body.

Her dismal situation grew distant as she cast her mind out towards home.  Assuming her sense of time was correct, everypony would be asleep, but by now her parents had surely learned to go on without their daughters, without knowing of their fate.  And now they would never know.  Maybe they would be able to hold on to that small thought, the hope that somewhere their fillies would have found a place to be happy, to live out their lives in peace.

She awoke some time later, feeling every last ache in her body coming back, welcoming her from her rest.  She stared at the ceiling, the light from the torches all but gone as they burned down to mere stumps.  Luna’s eyes closed, and for the first time in her life, she began to pray in earnest.  “Harmony, hear me.  I’m going to die—I know that.  Watch over my sister and my family, and if there’s anything you can do, please let my sister hear me, to know what’s in my heart.

“Celestia, I’m sorry…”  Her eyes were oddly dry as she spoke into the darkness, unable to conjure any more tears for her own sake.  “I know I was stupid and foalish and impulsive.  I didn’t trust you—didn’t trust that you had my best interests in mind.  I rushed off without thinking, and now I’m going to pay for it.  Tia, please, just run, get away from all this.  Go somewhere I won’t know about, where he can’t find you.  I won’t be able to last long against Steel Wing tomorrow, and I’d gladly kill myself to keep him from getting to you, if I could.”  Luna’s eyes closed as she put every ounce of her heart into her words.  “I love you so much, Tia.  I hope you can forgive me.”

Luna gasped, her eyes shooting open as her horn lit with the golden aura of her sister’s magical connection.  Emotions flooded her mind in the mental equivalent of a warm and fond embrace, and she began to weep for joy at the sensations of love, peace, and comfort.  The spell they had shared since foalhood—the first spell they had ever learned—was her proof that she had been heard.

In front of her, a dim light came slowly into view, growing brighter to paint the room in the azure gleam of her magical aura, the glows melding and lighting the dismal surroundings warmly.

“I do forgive you, Lu,” she heard a soft, wavering voice say, “and I love you so very much as well.”

Above her, a white coated head came into view, one that was intimately familiar to her.  Luna gaped at the sight, unsure of what to believe until she felt the manacles fall away from her neck and horn.  The younger sibling began to cry in fear and relief as she lay on the table, unable even to curl into a ball for her pain and injuries.  Celestia climbed onto the stone slab to sit at Luna’s side.  She took a deep breath, closed her teary eyes to focus, and lit her horn as she concentrated on her magic.  Luna felt her body enveloped by a field of magic, probing at her injuries as if to judge their severity.  A tingling sensation crawled over her body as Celestia stretched the limits of her healing skills, able to close a few smaller gashes and reduce Luna’s crippling agony to a bearable level of pain.

Luna groaned in relief and curled around her sister as much as she was able, allowing Celestia to enfold her in a gentle embrace.  The two sisters wept together, fear and anger and pain and joy all mingling together as emotions took the place of words.  Luna clung to Celestia’s body for all she was worth, scared to let her go.  “Sh-sh-shouldn’t have come,” she gasped out as sobs wracked her body.

“I had to, Lu,” the older sister said quietly, rubbing Luna’s back with her wing.

“W-w-why?” Luna asked after she had calmed down.  “Why did you come for me?”

“Luna, why wouldn’t I?  You’re my sister; I would never leave you.”

“We n-need to get out of h-h-here.  Steel W-Wing could come back anytime.”

“Him…”  Celestia growled, sudden rage burning in her heart.  “I’m sorry I scolded you for wanting to fight before, Luna, because I understand now.  I promise, I’m going to rip that pegasus apart for what he’s done to you.”

Luna opened her mouth to agree, but stopped.  Something inside her just didn’t make sense.  “He—he’s mad.  He’s hurt…”

“He’s going to—what?”

“I—I don’t know, Tia, I want him to die, but it’s hard to just hate him.  There are things in his past that have made him what he is.  I—I can’t expl—”

Luna cut off as the door opened behind them.  Luna shrieked in fear, cowering low against the slab.  Celestia leapt to her hooves, spreading her wings and taking a defensive stance in front of her sister, baring her teeth in anger.  Her horn glowed ominously, the normally golden hue ominously darkened by her rage.  Between her and Steel Wing, the torches in the room flared brightly, fanned into vibrant light by the force of the magic gathering around her.

The pegasus glanced about, surprised by the effects, but undeterred.  With a scream, Celestia unleashed her power and a single beam of magic lanced out.  The honey-gold light was twisted with darkness, racing towards Steel Wing, who merely braced his hooves and took the blast right in the center of his broad chest.

The light spilled over him, pushing him back a step but simply rolling off his coat like water from a duck’s feathers.  The coruscating magic continued on to hit the far wall with an intense rumble more felt than heard, melting the stone like butter and blowing the door off its hinges with an ear-splitting crash.

Steel Wing straightened up and looked behind himself, nodding appreciatively.  “I admit, alicorn, that was impressive.”

Celestia slumped in shock, her wings falling to lie against the ground.  “I—how…”

He chuckled darkly.  “One of the only perks I’ve found.  Having been abandoned by Harmony, Lord Discord was able to make it so that magic no longer has any effect on me, courtesy of the powers of Chaos.  It’s one of the few things that make living tolerable.”

Luna stared at him, straining to understand her emotions.  “You—you live in constant pain, don’t you?”

“I do,” he said slowly, his eyes narrowed.  “We all do; I just help others realize it.”

Deep inside herself, Luna could feel something rising—a sense of power and calm and tranquility she couldn’t describe.  Her pain fell away from her as she stood on three legs, feeling lighter, as though she were about to float away.  A stirring realization began to form in her mind.  “I…  I don’t hate you…” she muttered.

“What?” both Steel Wing and Celestia said in unison.

“I don’t know why, but I can’t do it.  I can’t hate you.  I’m sorry all that happened to you, Steel Wing.  I really am…”  With her admission, Luna felt the sensation inside her swell to a bursting point.  Her back arched as she gasped and stood to her back hooves, feeling power rushing into her frame like never before.

Celestia gasped and stepped back from her sister, who was beginning to glow with a pure light.  Her eyes began to cloud to total whiteness as her body rose slowly from the floor without the aid of her wings.  Her light blue mane and tail hung straight from her body even as her spread feathers rustled in an unseen and unfelt wind.  Luna made no sign that she felt any pain—even as her wounds dripped blood to the floor underneath her hooves and her foreleg hung uselessly against her side.

Steel Wing broke his transfixed stare and flared his wings, taking a first step to charge the sisters.  Luna’s sightless eyes fixed on him, and he fell to the ground as though bound to it, surrounded by a cold, colorless aura.  His eyes were wide with shock.  “What’s happening?  How are you doing this?  You’re just an alicorn!”

Luna floated just above the ground, her eyes shining brightly in the tomblike room.  “Chaos is nothing before Harmony,” she intoned, her voice carrying despite its low volume.  “I can, and do, forgive what you’ve done against me, Steel Wing.”  She walked over to stand before the bewildered pegasus.  “I can forgive what you’ve done to my sister, and perhaps even what you would have done to us.  But you will still answer for your crimes against others.”

The murderer stared up at her with awe, his eyes almost misty.  “Y-you—  You can free me…”  Luna nodded solemnly.  “Lord Discord refused to let me die…”

“I will free you, Steel Wing,” Luna said, “and know that I will feel the pain you felt.”

Steel Wing straightened as much as he was able, lifting his head to bare his neck to his enemy.  “I’m ready,” he said without a trace of fear in his voice.

Luna nodded, closing her eyes as her horn began to glow a brilliant white.  Steel Wing’s eyes closed as well as the glow mirrored against his forehead.  The points linked as a single shaft of light stretched from Luna’s horn to sink into the pegasus’ head.  Without a sound, the light blinked out and Steel Wing slumped to the side, dead.