Shadows Watching

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
Chapter 10

Chapter 1

Hello?

Is there anyone in there?

Somepony spoke to me, I could not see who. All around me was blackness, not void but a thick veil of darkness that dripped and squirmed as I moved.

I tried to respond but no words came out. I could feel the air leaving my mouth but the sound did not register to me. Suspended in nothing, hanging in nowhere.

I could feel something, but see nothing. The veil grated at me, dug into my skin. It had itched at first, then it began to hurt. The pressure increased slowly as I realized it was not smooth, but rough. Sandpaper? Something stronger, it started to tear off hair and skin.

What was it? I couldn't see it, I didn't know where I was. A stabbing pain hit me in the eyes like shards of glass had been stuck into them. The gentle trickle of a warm liquid spread over my face. The desire to writhe was countered by a sudden paralysis, I held still. Something was holding me from every side, pressing in closer, not grating but squeezing now. Whatever it was had completely immobilized me. I felt it start to grate and cut again as I lost the sensations of my body. I couldn't feel my legs, or my face. I couldn't feel anything.

Yet, something told me not to give up. It was a voice, from deep within, shouting something. As I struggled to focus on it, it grew quieter and more distant. I could only make out two of the words it said:
Wake up!

My eyes opened in an instant, the fear I had felt melting away as they did. My face was planted firmly on the desk in front of me as everypony was gathering up their books and stationary to go home. It was last period, I had fallen asleep. A single drop of drool had escaped my mouth and made its way down onto the desk. I couldn't decide whether to wipe it off or try to suck it back up into my mouth.

"Cadence! Wake up!" Minty hissed at me. She was standing in front of my desk so as to better block the teacher's view of me, and trying desperately to wake me up. Squeaky, her twin sister, was standing near the front of the room and presumably attempting to run interference for me.

"You were sleeping in class again," she whispered, as I scrambled to put away my completely unused textbook before anypony noticed.

"No kidding. Did anypony see?"

Minty took a quick look around. I sat at the back of the class, and Minty had deliberately taken the spot in front of me when we had chosen seats at the start of the year. Squeaky had taken the seat to one side, and Gabby had taken the seat to the other. We had a little t-shape going on - certainly not to visit with one another more efficiently: It was entirely for my benefit.

"Don't think - " she said, stopping mid-sentence as her eyes reached the front of the room. Squeaky had broken off and was walking towards the doorway. Our teacher, Ms. Bunsen, was looking in my direction. Straight at me. A glare which could cut through ice cleared the distance between bad and worse, and put my situation somewhere on the far side of hopeless.

"Crud," I muttered.

"Miss Cadenza, may I speak with you?" Ms. Bunsen asked.

Minty summoned up the most sympathetic look she could generate, which looked like a mixture of drowsy and constipated: a dangerous combination. Beyond the door waited Gabby and Squeaky, peering in to see the proceedings. Ms. Bunsen escorted Minty to the door and shut it behind her. I was alone, and certainly not getting reinforcements any time soon.

I walked to the front of the room as a prisoner condemned, my head hung in shame. I reasoned this was probably going to be the final straw. I had failed almost every assignment in Physics class this year, despite Minty and Squeaky's attempts to help me. Those two were easily the best at the sciences, and I had always asked for help on everything, but I couldn't seem to get my grades up. Ms. Bunsen was likely going to fail me and hold me back a year. Sleeping in class would just give her the chance to feel righteous while she did it.

"Miss Cadenza," she said. There was an edge, a harshness, in her tone she did not take with the other students.

"Yes."

"Are you aware you are failing my class?"

"Yes."

"And are you aware that, even should you score a perfect one-hundred on the final exam, you will still be failing?"

That last part I hadn't been aware of.

"No."

I couldn't bring myself to meet her stare, I kept my eyes fixed on the ground in front of me. A solitary dust bunny peered out from beneath the desk, likewise doing its best to hide its shame.

"Listen, Miamore. I do not want to have to fail a student, particularly one who puts as much effort into her work as you. I know you have been working with the twins, I can see you are trying, yet you continue to have such a poor performance."

I said nothing. It was all true, I was a failure. I wasn't really good at anything, in my personal opinion. My family was from a long line of nearly-purebred Unicorns and I was so terrible at magic I could barely write my own name with a quill. I still used pencils all the time, and I winced whenever I saw another Unicorn student writing with their magic. I had a poor showing in the other science classes, I couldn't write fiction or interperet art any better than a school filly, and I was certainly no athlete. The only thing I was any good at was -

"Listen, I would like to make you an offer," Ms. Bunsen said. My ears perked up.

"Really? An offer on what?"

"I understand your best subject is history, correct? I have been talking with Mr. Prescott and he suggested a, shall we say, rephrasing of the subject of Physics."

This was already sounding like a really weird offer, but I wisely kept my big mouth shut and let her continue.

"I would be willing to give you a series of essay assignments on the history of Physics, to be completed over the summer, using materials of my discretion. If you can demonstrate a sufficient understanding through those essays, I will bump up your grade to a 'pass'."

"Write essays to pass Physics?"

I was bewildered, like the words had some otherworldly meaning. I knew what every single one of them meant, yet taken together, the sentence made no sense at all. Were we even speaking the same language here?

"I'll do it!" I said, my words surprising even me. It seemed my mouth had the good sense to take a good deal when it heard one, or at least my tongue did. The uvula, however, rarely contributed anything to my conversations.

"Excellent!" she said, her face sharply shifting from dour glare to beaming happiness. She rummaged in her desk before pulling out a long contract on fancy parchment. She pushed a quill towards me, and waited expectantly.

The contract was incredibly long and dense, the text so narrow I could hardly read it. I didn't have time to anyway, so I skimmed it over. I noted a lack of anything like 'the signatory agrees to relinquish possession of his/her soul,' and that was enough for me. I signed it.

"Very good, I'll give George the good news myself. You're dismissed, Miamore," she said.

My friends were waiting for me in the hallway. Gabby, a big white Earth Pony with a deep red mane, towered over the twins. When she caught sight of me she charged towards me and stopped an inch before a collision.

"What was that all about? Did I see you signing something there?" she asked.

"Were you spying on me?"

"Yes!"

By this time, Minty and Squeaky had walked over to join us. They had a much more amused look about them, their faces nearly identical to anyone except for Gabby and myself. Even their own parents sometimes got them mixed up, they were the exact same shade of sky blue in coat and the exact same shade of darker blue in mane. The only difference, to the uninitiated, was that Squeaky did not wear her mane with a band in it, while Minty did. If they switched the band, you'd never know the difference.

"I think I know what happened," Squeaky said.

"It's not a big deal. She said she'd pass me if I wrote a bunch of essays for her this summer. Nothing to it."

Gabby was not convinced. "But - " she started to say, before catching herself.

A look passed between Squeaky and Minty, and Gabby noticed it. A look of understanding came over her face, she reared her head back and looked down at me.

"Oh, oh. I get it, you're just a pawn. Yeah, okay," she said.

"A pawn? How?" I've never been very good at checkers.

"Nevermind."

"Hey, do you want some help writing the essays? We'd love to tag along!" Minty said.

I chuckled. This was going to get them good.

"They're History essays, Minty. Still want to help?"

She shut her mouth and looked like somepony had just bucked her in the stomach. While the twins were pros at science, they were terrible at History. We had something of a symbiotic relationship going on here.

"Well, now that that's settled, anypony up for a shake?" I asked.

All three of them voiced their affirmation, of course, they'd never, ever, let the chance pass them by. In our little circle, whoever suggested it had to pay for it. I was getting a little low on funds as of late, but I really needed to take the edge off. I'd bite the bullet – for now.

The diner was a few blocks from the school, everything was getting so bright and cheery these days as summer was creeping up on us. It was still bright out even though we had gotten out of the school late today due to my failing grades, and while I could tell the twins wanted to fly, they didn't. They were Pegasi but also considerate, which is more than I could say for most ponies. Gabby and I liked to talk as we walked, so they stayed on the ground with us to share in the conversation.

The milkshakes were absolutely worth it, despite the hit to my wallet. I had made sure to get cinnamon sprinkled on the whipped cream, since if you're buying, you may as well go all out. We chatted about our plans for the coming summer as the glasses drained with each word spoken. Gabby was getting serious with her task as a producer for some bands made up of our classmates, and was likely going to spend the summer hanging up posters or dropping flyers on unwilling ponies. The twins had a plan to make some money by delivering pizzas, though they neglected to tell me who they were working for. Perhaps nopony.

Me? I had no plans at all. Truth be told, my highest goal in life was to simply be. I loved nothing more than lounging someplace warm, my eyes closed, watching the insides of my eyelids. Not actually being asleep, just being.

Soon enough, the milkshakes emptied and it was time to go home. I bid farewell to my friends and set off alone as the sun had begun the long process of setting in front of me. I was likely going to have to tell my parents about what had happened at some point, so I rehearsed what I was going to say in my head. Several scenarios presented themselves, most of them bad. In one case, they would find out and then ground me. In another, they would find out and then ground me, except somehow moreso. In the best case, they wouldn't ask any questions and just let me go. Though admittedly that wasn't exactly likely. No, wait, the best scenario was the one where a time-travelling pony appeared from nowhere and whisked me off on an adventure across eons. Yeah, now that's how you tell your parents you suck at Physics.

By the time I had made it home, dinner was already ready. I, of course, wasn't hungry, but that was entirely the point of the milkshakes. My parents always took turns cooking for us, and my Dad had been on a big raw-food diet thing as of late. That meant that he would prepare us stuff that hadn't been cooked, as that was somehow better for you, so those ridiculous tabloids said. That meant I was probably getting a sandwich or a salad today, not for lunch, but for dinner, and if it tasted like something better than stamp-paste, it was a lucky break. Growing ponies need food, Dad!

"Hello Cadence, how was your day?" Mom asked me the moment I stepped through the door. She was in the living room. I took off my saddlebags and laid them in the entryway before I answered. If that time-traveller was going to show up, that was his cue. He didn't show up.

"Same old, same old," I lied.

"Oh really? Are you sure you didn't sign any contracts for one of your teachers?"

How could she possibly have known that? Did Ms. Bunsen send her a letter or something? Maybe she had tracked Mom down at work and accosted her, demanding to know what she was doing to me at home to make me fail my studies. Was she helping me do the work? Nagging at me hard enough? Was she beating me? Maybe – was she not beating me hard enough?

"Yeah, about that - "

"It's fine honey, she told me everything," Mom said, emerging from the living room and planting a kiss on my cheek before I could squirm away. "Why don't you go to the twins for help? Their father says they are simply the best."

"I've tried that."

Mom gave me a searching look, probing for dishonesty. She was a government prosecutor, her job was to grill witnesses and make them fess up. She found nothing, as this time I really was telling the truth, though she could still have made me cry if she really tried. At least, that's what she always bragged about doing in court.

"All right sweetie, I'm sure you can do it. Your father has finished with dinner," she said, rolling her eyes. I took note she had left out the word 'cooking'.

That night it was carrots with dill dip. Not even a salad. I was going to starve to death if I didn't figure out how to prepare food by myself.

I ate quietly while Mom and Dad talked about their days. Mom was talking about yet another big case she was building against some scumbag in a museum robbery. Dad was talking about a big deal to build a railroad to Ponyville, a town I had never even heard of. His job was something involving rail lines, and I was never sure exactly what he did. Evidently he was good at it though, because he always 'got results'. At no point during the conversation did a pony appear in a time machine.

"Cadence?" Mom asked. Whenever my name came up, nothing good would follow it. "You were looking for a job for this summer, weren't you?"

"I was?"

I hadn't been, of course, but this was one of those times where what I thought didn't matter.

"Well, I ran into Gloria the other day – do you remember her? - and she told me that Patrick got a promotion!" she said.

"How does -

"That means there's an opening at the EDHFS, so I could put in a good word for you if you'd like," she said.

It was as though I was sitting in a raft, minding my own business, when some upstart swordfish showed up and punctured the bottom. The damn thing gave me a cruel wink before zooming off under the waves as my raft started taking on water. I grabbed a bucket and started bailing.

"I - "

"Oh terrific, I'll see if I can get you an interview this week."

"But - "

"I think it'd be a lovely experience for you. Oh, my little girl is growing up!" she said, blinking as if to knock away a tear.

"Help me out here," I pleaded to my Dad.

"So, what does the EDHFS do, dear?" he asked. The boat sprung another leak, you're not helping, Dad!

"Oh, you know, that's the agency that organizes foal-sitters for employees who travel on government business. Patrick got promoted to the head of the industrial division, and that means there's a foal-sitter opening just perfect for you, Cadence."

Industrial division? Were they going to send me to foal-sit for big vats of liquid steel? Was I going to have to read girders a bed-time story?

"I'll see if I can't track down Gloria tomorrow morning," Mom said, relaxing her stance and basking in the joy of yet another little part of my life she had taken control of.

With no fanfare whatsoever, my dreams become unsavable, sliding beneath the waves and leaving me treading water, watching them sink further into the cerulean depths. That damn swordfish was going to pay if I ever found a way to manifest my daydreams into reality.

We didn't finish all the carrots that evening, and I hadn't even bothered with the dip, which tasted like carrots anyway – perhaps that's why they called it carrot dip? With a weekend coming up, I retired early and woke up likewise the next morning.

The next day was Friday, and that meant it was time for History class. Mr. Prescott tried to get everypony to pay attention, but it wasn't working at all. This was officially the last day of school before final exams, and it was the day before the weekend. His attempts to elaborate on the final exam would have been commendable had they not been so futile, I was the only pony interested in what he had to say. I won't say who did it, but a paper airplane found its way onto the floor next to my desk. Mr. Prescott has the patience of a saint.

The twins didn't have time to hang out that day, as their parents needed their help fixing the roof. Gabs and I just hung out in the park. Finals started on Tuesday next week, which to my teenage mind keen on procrastinating, was adequately far in the future that I could forget about it.

I had mulled over the scenarios some more, in my head, as we hung out. I even pitched the time-traveller one to Gabby, and while she told me it'd make a great movie, it lacked punch. She proposed space aliens showing up and vaporizing everypony. I countered with plant monsters that wrap your house in vines until you starve within them. We eventually settled on lightning-fast glaciers that can outrun ponies and crush them underneath. That, we had decided, was the ideal way to not have to go to school.

On Sunday evening I was preparing to go to bed, after having tried and not succeeded to study for my math final. I turned off the lights and lie down, staring up at the ceiling and trying to think of nothing at all. Sleep decided not to visit me quite yet, and I lie awake for a time, hearing the gentle tick-tock of my alarm clock.

All at once, an incredibly loud snapping sound shook the inside of my head. Louder than any explosion, it made my bones vibrate with a tremendous force as I shot upwards instinctively. The air, however, had not ruffled. Nopony in the house stirred. It had not been a sound, at least, not a sound I could hear. It was a sound I had felt.

This had happened to me once before, and I remembered the feeling extremely well. I had been at a loss to explain it then, I had chalked it up to something I would understand when I grew up and put it out of my mind, and yet, here it was again. The same, but so different.

This was a few years back, when I was still in grade school. I had come home to find my Mom sitting at the table, staring at the wall. At first I had thought nothing of it, but when I saw the look on her face, I felt something inside me shift. Her face was that of a pony who has had their heart torn to shreds, a fallen grimace that only a pony thinking of suicide ever wears. She hadn't responded to me when I talked to her, her eyes did not follow my movements in the room. She hadn't even responded to my touch.

Something within me, however, had known what to do. I've never been very good at magic myself, but every Unicorn has some. They say it matches your special talent, and this was mine. I'm not sure how I did it or even what I did, all I did was concentrate for a moment and close my eyes.

When I opened them, everything was gone. The floor, the walls, the table, my Mom, all gone. In their place was an empty void, like looking at the night sky with no stars. In front of me was a great glowing orb of light, radiating like the sun in this vacuum.

The light had, upon closer inspection, small bands going off away from it. As I moved closer, I felt these bands, similarly made of the glowing light, shift and react to my presence. I could see them traveling off into the distance, so far away they disappeared amongst the background. One of the bands held itself up in front of me, pleading for my attention.

It had been frayed, torn at by something. I could not venture what, all I could tell was that it was damaged and it could not repair itself. I am not sure how I did any of this, I am not even sure of what this spell I was using was called, if it was even called anything. I simply reached out and took a small piece of the band of light, pulled it off as gently as I could, and wrapped it around the frayed extension. It was a bandage I had put on, the band would have to repair itself in time. I had done all I could do, and I left that other sight and opened my real eyes to find my mom still sitting at the table, now crying.

I tried to comfort her, but she was not interested. These were tears of joy, as she pulled herself together long enough to point at my flank. A mirror, carved from crystal and in the shape of a heart, had manifested there, and we hugged each other.

I later learned that she had had a fight with my father. It had very nearly come to blows between them, and he had stormed out of the house. She was not certain if he would return at all, much less when, and that had been the state I found her in. She told me she had felt herself falling into some infinite abyss before I brought her back, somehow.

My Dad came home the next day, similarly overjoyed. They made up and promised never to have a fight like that again, leaving out whatever it was I had done. It was not something that words could describe, and since then, the sight had never come to me. Until now.

I instinctively knew how to bring it up again. I closed my eyes and concentrated and brought about that sight, seeing the black emptiness stretching out to infinity. A short distance away were two globes of light, in where I estimated would be my parent's room in the real world. Nothing else, however, moved here. It was dark, silent. Empty. But something had been here, very recently, and very close.

Though I strained to stay awake, sleep would eventually overtake me. My body could not spare time for my mind's wondering, tomorrow was going to be a big day without being tired and sporting a headache. I had bigger things to worry about.

I would find out just how much bigger very soon.

Author's Note

Now in a muchly upgraded redux version!

About our heroine's name:
If you're concerned that it's not Cadance, please bear in mind the spelling of the name tends to flop about canonically, altering between Cadence and Cadance depending on which episode you look at.
If you're wondering why it's not Mi Amore Cadenza, it's simply because I'm assuming ponies mimic the western firstname-familyname structure. Miamore Cadenza is an acceptable mutation to fit that.

Chapter 2

Monday morning. There were no classes these last two weeks, just final exams scheduled every other day, so I had the day off. Sensing my weakness, my mother had arranged my interview for 10:30am. I hadn't gotten much sleep, but it was too bright to go back to bed, so I headed out, bleary-eyed, into the city streets.

The EDF-whatever building was squat and square, with no archways or trimming to speak of. Everything was a right angle. The corners all looked the same. The whole thing was painted a single monotone gray. There was no writing, not even any graffiti, on the building, save for a small plaque by the front door bearing the Sun symbol and a scrawling about dedicating some stone to some pony I had never heard of.

Inside wasn't any better, the air was stale and stunk of day-old coffee. The receptionist grunted at me and pointed to the waiting room. I wasn't early, they were late, backed up due to some sort of commotion at the palace. I went to wait until they could catch up on whatever it is they do here, when they're not busy strangling hope or burning happiness in an oven.

There were two other ponies in the waiting room, a chestnut colored stallion with big, thick glasses who was staring at the ceiling, and a white mare with a pink mane who was reading the newspaper. Very, very intently reading the newspaper, she had her face buried in it and I couldn't see what she looked like, but I assume it was a grimace. I could hear her teeth grinding.

I already knew what had happened, sort of, since my parents always discussed the headlines over breakfast. At least, they did whenever Mom was taking down a crook. This morning had been particularly bad.

"Look at this!" Mom said, slamming down the newspaper onto the table. My lightning-fast reactions kept my spoon from flinging cereal in every direction. Dad's toast was unflappable.

The headline read "Princess on a Warpath!" and there was a picture of soldiers fleeing in terror through a doorway. More importantly, the headline had nothing to do with Mom's big case. It wasn't even on the front page.

"Mmm hmmm," Dad tried his best to feign interest with a piece of toast stuck in his mouth.

"Ooh, every time that drama queen spills a tea cup the papers leap all over it. I'm doing real work out here, damn it!" Mom continued to vent.

"Mmm hmmm," I said, mimicking Dad's intonation perfectly. He put down his toast.

"Dear, it's just a tabloid headline. You know how the papers are. How's your case going?" Dad asked. Mom's face softened, then a wicked grin came over her.

"Oh I've got the bastard this time. I wish you could be there to see it, we got his hoofprints all over the missing museum artifacts we recovered. He's done, and I know he knows it," Mom said, matter-of-factly.

"Well, I can be there to see it, I took the day off. What time was the -" Dad tried to speak, but Mom cut him off. By throwing herself on him.

"Oh oh oh," she said, kissing him on the mouth. I turned away, fighting my gag reflex. I swear I'll never be able to eat again. "3 o' clock, room 117 in the D building, don't be late!" she gave him another kiss.

"It's a date," Dad said with a smile. Ugh.

I focused myself on reading the flyers all over the waiting room, mostly advertisements for other government services that I had no need of. All of my legs worked (Equestrian Disability Services), I could use magic like any other Unicorn (Canterlot Office of Medical and Magical Support), I wasn't addicted to anything (Government of Equestria Gambling and Addiction Counselors Association), and the ponies on the other side of the mirror didn't want to murder me (Canterlot Greater Mental Health Region), so I was pretty safe. I browsed the literature anyway, out of boredom and not much else. I could hear the clock on the wall ticking. It seemed to be ticking slower and slower. The more I noticed it, the slower it went. The mare with the newspaper turned a page, her teeth stopped grinding. Then they started again.

Finally, the receptionist called my name and sent me down the hall, third door on the left, for my interview.

The office was a square room, the walls were the same gray color that the entire rest of the building was. Sunshine filtered through thick blinds on the window behind the desk. There was nothing on the walls, not even bookshelves, just a simple desk and a gray mare sitting behind it. She stared at me as I entered, no emotion crossed her face. I sat down in front of her and tried my best to smile. Her expression was unchanged.

"Miss Cadence," she said. I think it was supposed to be a question, but her voice was a pure monotone. "You're here for the house-and-foal-sitter position," she continued.

"Yeah, I mean, yes, I'm here for that," I answered. An awkward silence hung in the air. She stared at me some more. I think she might be a robot.

She pointed a hoof to some scrolls on the desk. I pulled them over in front of me and looked them over, long paperwork forms with fields for name, date, age, gender, experience, criminal history, list of fears, blood type, average leg length, whether or not you look good in orange, most words recited in a tongue twister without messing up, and a host of other things that the government uses to screen its applicants. I picked up a quill and started filling them out as best I could. As I did, I glanced at the name plate on the desk. J. S. Lemma. Didn't seem like a robot name. Perhaps she's named after who built her.

I filled out the form, then filled it out again since the vellum was too thick for a carbon copy. Then I filled out another form about insurance and another about previous experience (none). I had no idea how long it took, there were no clocks in the room. Finally, I finished and put the quill down, having consumed half a jar of ink in the process. Lemma didn't even glance at the scrolls as she pushed them to the side of the desk.

"What makes you believe you are qualified to work for this agency," she asked in that awful monotone again. I couldn't hear any gears or springs, so whoever built her had soundproofed her as well.

"That I filled out all that paperwork?" I asked, chuckling. If robots could understand humor, she gave no indication. I bet she'd clean up at Poker.

"Please report in for orientation this Friday at either 11:00am or 1:00pm, whichever is more convenient for you," she stated. I guess that means I got the job.

"Do I need to, uh, bring anything?" I asked. Perhaps if I could make her contradict herself, I could get her to explode. I remembered seeing a movie poster for something like that once. Then I wouldn't get the job, though.

"No," she stated. That was it. I stuffed my copy of the form into my saddlebag and left. I glanced back over my shoulder on the way out, but there was no change. She could stare down a Cockatrice and then get him to fill out a form accepting liability with a glare like that.

On my way out, I glanced into the waiting room as I passed the reception desk. The mare was gone, but the chestnut colored guy was still there, and still staring at the ceiling. Perhaps he had mastered the art of sleeping with his eyes open. Either way, I wouldn't want to be in his place.

I left the building and the full force of fresh air hit my lungs. It was a wonderful feeling, and the acrid stench of coffee flowed out of my nostrils to be replaced by flower pollen and freedom, at least temporarily. When I got home, I was totally going to leave the window open as I studied. I left at a trot, the streets were quiet.

Too quiet. I looked up at the sun, gauging the time. It was around noon. Where was everypony? Shouldn't they be on lunch? Shouldn't there be at least one pony other than me on the streets?

I looked around, up and down the boulevard, and back to the stuffy office building I had come from. There was no talking, no pony in sight, I couldn't even hear the birds, there were none to sing. The wind had died down. It was deathly silent. I was completely alone.

I slowed down, looking around. Maybe there had been some sort of alarm? I hadn't heard anything earlier, somepony would have told me to stay off the street. I saw a news stand unguarded, and a fruit cart with nopony to push it. The fruit wasn't scattered, there had been no rush to evacuate. I slowed to a stop, looking around, listening intently.

I heard a bubbling sound from somewhere below my hooves, a gurgling like air released into thick mud. I looked down, but the concrete was unchanged. The bubbling continued. It took me a moment to realize it wasn't a sound I was hearing. It was happening again, but it wasn't a sudden thing, it was continuous, sustained. It was getting louder, closer to the surface, and it was going to bubble up somewhere very close to me. I turned to face where I thought it was going to burst out of the ground, trembling slightly. I swallowed hard.

The bubbling stopped, and silence replaced it. I was not alone, there was something immensely hostile a few meters in front of me, but I could not see it. I could only feel a seething, impenetrable hatred, pure malice radiated out of the air in front of me. I didn't panic, I concentrated, closed my eyes, and opened them again to see the unseen.

Standing before me was a shape that seemed impossible, a black and green bubbling beast. It seemed to be made of tar, or mud, slowly flowing in and around itself as it took shape, assembling three legs to stand on, like a tripod. Its body, if you could call it a body, was merely another leg extending up into the air, thicker than the other three. As it finished shaping itself, the black goo seemed to harden. Veins of a green, iridescent material I had never seen before froze on the outside, running in and around the edges of the creature. I could see no wisps of light in the other plane this time, just the green silhouette of this creature, the same green that ran across its body.

I couldn't begin to describe the terror that came over me. I was paralyzed, fearing that if I moved, this terrible thing would notice me and squish me. It stood four times my height, its legs were thicker than my body. I couldn't possibly try to fight it, I was struggling even to comprehend it. I stood stock still, my mind screaming at me to run but my legs refusing to listen. I took a single, tentative step back.

No sooner had my hoof touched down then the creature turned, if that's the right word, to face me. It stepped on one leg towards me, and as it did, its body fell down onto its leg, merging and extending itself back up into the air. It tumbled over itself, advancing towards me, slowly at first but picking up speed. It started to merge faster and faster. A sphere of light appeared behind the creature as it moved, but it wasn't like it was when I saw my parents in the other plane, it was -

"What are you doing? Go, run! Run!" it yelled. Finally my legs acceded. I turned. I ran.

I sprinted as fast as I could, opening my real eyes to navigate as I tore down the street. I had never run that fast in my life, but I could feel the presence of the thing behind me. It was as fast as I was, and getting faster. I could feel it gaining on me, but I dare not look behind me, were I even able to see it. No time, keep running.

I banked around a corner and kept going, I had no direction, just away, away from that thing. It followed implacably after. I didn't know what it wanted or what it would do if it caught me, there was no time to think about anything except running. My lungs started to protest first, then my legs, burning as I pushed every cell in my body to its limits. My mouth dried out, the wind caused my eyes to tear up, and still the thing was behind me, getting closer.

I took another turn onto Main Street, wheeling around the corner, sliding slightly. The tension was too much, my buckle broke and my saddlebag went flying off. I had no time to get it. The creature was too close. I pushed myself beyond every limit I ever thought there was, until I reached a clear and calm place where I could no longer feel my muscles screaming and my lungs burning. I just kept running. The thing behind me didn't even matter, just running was all there was. I felt it recede, slowly, as I cleared another two blocks in seconds. It stopped, stopped chasing me, stopped existing. I couldn't feel its presence anymore. It was gone.

I stopped, skidding to a halt on the smooth pavement where carts normally were pulled. I looked behind me, not gasping for breath. I could breathe when I was sure I was safe. I concentrated, bringing the other sight again, and looked around. It was black, empty, as usual, no creatures lived here.

I heard somepony talking again, then another and another. I was surrounded by the din of speech, and globes of light filled my sight beyond sight. I opened my eyes. Ponies surrounded me, going about their business, talking and laughing with one another. A young father and his little filly strolled by, his bags loaded down with groceries, his filly rolling a watermelon along the road. She had a pure and innocent little smile on her face. Some business ponies passed, talking about where they should have lunch. A soldier walked up to me.

"Miss," he said, addressing me. "You dropped your bag."

"Oh, uh," I started to say. Had they seen me? Did that just happen? "Thanks," I finished, as he put down my saddlebags in front of me. The soldier gave me a curt nod before going back to his duties. I quickly threaded the buckle back together and put my bags back on, checking to be sure my scrolls hadn't fallen out. I wasn't tired, I wasn't panting. It was like the last few minutes had never happened.

Maybe I really did need Mental Health Services.

Author's Note

Questions, comments, or corrections may also be mailed to: saltyjustice AHT derpymail DAHT com

Chapter 3

Though the journey home was short, only a few minutes of walking, it seemed a thousand times longer. I couldn't concentrate on anything except straining to hear anything, anything that came from beneath me. A snap, a bubbling, a gurgle that was not audible, anything that would signal another terrible encounter. It did not come. I was not relieved.

I went right to my room and closed the door and windows. I didn't know if that would help, but why take chances? My saddlebags had been jumbled, but everything was still there. I pulled out my math textbook and got to studying, trying anything to take my mind off the day. Maybe derivatives and cosines would be able to distract me.

The derivative of sin is cosine, and the integral of sin is negative cosine plus C. Just draw the little waveforms, they overlap, since the slope of one is the value of the other. Simple enough. I turned the page.

It slammed its leg down on my back, the black tar covering my body and immobilizing me completely. I couldn't run anymore, I was pinned to the ground by the incredible weight of the creature. It was heavier than steel and still somehow outran me, the pressure on my back was unbearable. I wanted to scream, but the thick black tar oozed over my head and engulfed me. It exerted pressure from every possible direction, I felt my spine snap and my ribs break, puncturing my lungs. Blood filled my throat, I started to drown as the creature crushed me entirely. Nopony would even find my body.

No Cadence, focus. It didn't happen. If you remember the integral of sin, you know the derivative of negative cosine since integrals and derivatives cancel out. I turned the page again.

Somepony was screaming. I had outpaced the creature, but another had been walking along the street and became the focus of its ire. He couldn't see what had hit him, but I could. It knocked him down, then picked him back up, melding its body over his legs and lifting him like a filly's doll. It slammed him down again. I looked away. I heard a popping sound, like a water balloon breaking, but it was filled with something thicker than water. We were nothing, nothing in the face of these things.

I closed the book, I couldn't concentrate. It was the afternoon but I felt tired, exhausted. The day's events sapped every bit of my energy, I didn't want to keep being awake if it meant thinking endlessly about my paranoid hallucinations, if they really were hallucinations. I slid into bed and was asleep before my head touched the pillow.

Images and words swirled around me, twisting infinitely in every direction. Memories I had, and some I didn't, whirled like a broken film reel before my eyes. They rewound, playing my life backwards, until they reached the end of the film and began to sputter. Another reel played, some other life ran backwards. Ponies I had never met, places I had never seen, memories I had never made, ran backwards until their starting point, and the reel sputtered again. Another one came to replace it, then another and another as the films ran back into the past. A thousand years, another, I could no longer track it. Finally the film settled, stopped playing backwards. The world in front of me became the real one, and I stepped into it.

We were arranged in a circle, about 150 ponies and myself. I stood at the center, they surrounded me, watching in every direction. We had been drilling for the past few days, doing everything we could to get ready. It wasn't enough, it never could be enough, but it was all we had.

These weren't soldiers, no, most of those were already gone. I could pick out a few veterans, their haunted eyes staring out at the fields around us. They were the lucky ones, or the unlucky ones, who had survived so far, along with me. There were only four of us with any experience, counting myself, everypony else had never even picked up a weapon except to transport it. Some had picked up pitchforks, one had what looked like a thick branch he had pruned the edges off of. Some had nothing to carry, for there was nothing to carry. They would fight with their bare hooves if they had to.

The soldiers wore dark blue armor with gold trim, and wielded the traditional pointed spear that every pony since the dawn of time had wielded. It was our weapon, we had invented it. I myself did not use one, I had taken up the art of sword-fighting that the Griffons had invented a few decades earlier. They wielded grand swords with both of their claws that had twice the reach of a spear in anypony's hands, but our anatomy made even holding one difficult. I had to stand on my rear legs, balancing as best I could with the weighted steel blade in my forehooves, but it was worth it, it allowed me to see over those around me and project an aura of confidence and awe in my followers. This was to be our last day, there was to be no rescue or escape. Confidence was a rare commodity, awe rarer still.

About 200 yards away was the edge of a scrub forest, it ran out of sight in both directions. Everywhere else was a grand flat plain with tall grass. This area had been farmland, but it had returned to the wilds when nopony was able to tend it. Nopony had been alive to tend it.

The Sun was waning, making way for the night as it slid slowly towards the horizon. As its corona cross the edge of the world and left our sight, the clouds above lit up in beautiful reds and golds. The bubbling came, it was not a whisper this time, it was an eruption.

The first one to spot it was a young mare whose name I did not know. She shouted something and pointed. We all turned. There, at the edge of the treeline, was a black ooze bubbling out of the ground. It spread over the earth like a pancake, until covering enough ground that it could form itself up. It formed four legs, then grew atop those legs a body until it stood the height of a pony. It reared up, transforming its legs into tentacle protrusions, spikes made of the same black tar as its body visibly protruding from the tentacles. There was no head, it didn't need one.

Other creatures begun to pool and form up around it, each one different and impossible, defying our ideas of life and making a cruel mockery of Nature's beautiful forms, twisting them and perverting them into disgusting beasts. The stone they were formed from continued to flow and bubble across their bodies, slowing as they finished assuming their shapes but never stopping. Green crystals could be seen within their forms, running in veins across their skin.

We advanced on them, slowly. I made my way to the head as we formed a line to meet them. They did not advance to us. There were only a dozen of them, we could take them 10 to 1, but I would not let confidence lead to recklessness. I raised a hoof, the other gripping my sword, and everypony saw it and stopped. Behind me, a unicorn lit her horn up and sent a flare flying a thousand meters into the sky.

Seeing the signal, the sun rose back up into the sky, turning dusk to day. The creatures hardened up, their skin stopped flowing. They were as weak as they'd ever get, this was our time to strike.

I leaped forward, swinging my blade at its full reach and slicing one of the appendages off the creature opposite me. The limb came off cleanly, falling to the ground and shattering like dried mud. The green material vanished as soon as I carved the piece off. We could injure these things, for what it mattered. The battle had begun.

We maintained our formation as the front line attacked, using our weapons to gash the nightmares. They advanced slowly, they felt no pain nor pressure. They would move up to us and swing whatever they had created to hurt us, sometimes clumsily, sometimes with lethal efficiency. A young stallion to my right caught a blow from what looked like a hoof. They looked slow, but their blows had incredible weight behind them. The stallion crumpled, and those behind him grabbed him and pulled him towards the center. Another took his place, this time a middle aged mare. She picked up the mace he had dropped, and brought it down on the thing's body, scattering the tar it was made of in every direction. She smiled, but her smile was not to last. Behind the first line, another line of the creatures was forming. They were pooling up all around us.

"Stay in formation!" somepony shouted. I kept watch on the ponies immediately next to me, keeping them from extending too far out. The circle was our rest area, the edge was a war zone. If a pony became tired or hurt, she would go to the center and have another come to take her place. Even as the battle raged around them, there would be a moment's respite, to catch their breath or make peace with themselves.

I needed no rest, I attacked again and again. The battle became louder, ponies were shouting now. Instructions went back and forth, calling for help, screaming, the sounds of metal clanging on stone. I blocked it out, focused on my immediate task. The mare to my right stepped too far out, I couldn't move in time to save her. A leg like a tree trunk came down on her head as she tried to step back. Her chin slammed into the ground, I heard a snap. Her eyes stopped focusing, her chest stopped rising and falling.

I stepped out and slashed the limb off, but it was far too late. I could see more and more of the creatures rising from the ground, we were surrounded and now, outnumbered. I couldn't begin to count how many their were, they surrounded us to a depth of five. They stood close together and walked or slithered towards us, implacable, unyielding. I backed up. No pony came to take the mare's place. I chanced a look behind me, but it was the same all around us. The outer lines were strained, nearly breaking. There was no shelter in the middle now.

"Regroup!" came a call from somewhere, part of our drilling. The ponies formed back into a circle, with me at the edge again. We now took up half as much space as before. The dead and dying left where they lie, before being overtaken by the advancing horde of black. We could do nothing for them, lest we meet the same fate.

One of the few remaining soldiers stood next to me, his spear covered in the black viscous goo. He took the respite to clean it off by rubbing it on the dirt, and no sooner did it contact the ground than it became brittle and broke off. He grunted, I said nothing. There was nothing left to say.

They came at us again, and again we tried to fend them off. I could see many, many more behind them, they formed a black wall that stretched all around, thousands, millions. Screaming, cries, crunching sounds. We regrouped, there were a dozen of us now. Again, they came, and again, we fell. It was just me and three others, then two, then one. He attacked, throwing himself into one and tearing it in half before being engulfed by the others. Incredible courage that would be forgotten like all the others here. Just me now, they circled around me.

The battle was over, they had won as they always did. I flared my wings and took to the sky, arcing over the beasts. They reached up to try to grab a hoof as I passed, but it was a useless gesture. I flew higher and higher. The creatures became small, blending together in a great mass that covered the earth. There was nowhere to land, I could not see the ground for all the things roiling over it, consuming it and everything that I had ever known.

I could not see the ground. There was no ground to see, only them.

Author's Note

What? Integrals are totally high-school level calculus. What did YOU study?

Questions, comments, or corrections may also be mailed to: saltyjustice AHT derpymail DAHT com

Chapter 4

There came a rapping at my door, three clean, crisp knocks. My mom peeked her head inside, I heard the hinge creak and it ripped me out of my slumber. The panic receded, I was in the real world. It was a dream, all of it, no matter how real it had seemed.

"Cadence, are you all right?", Mom asked. Real concern in her tone. I groaned, rolling over and looking at the wall clock. 6:30am.

"Yeah, yeah I'm okay," I lied. Absolutely not okay. My body ached, I was more tired than I had ever been. I felt like I hadn't gotten any sleep at all.

"If you say so," Mom said. She didn't sound convinced. "You were asleep when we got home, did something happen?"

"No, just, felt really tired is all," I said. I yawned. Math test today, time to go bomb it.

"All right then, breakfast is ready," Mom said as she left. The door closed with a crisp click. I looked around, my room was a disaster, just as I had left it. I could tidy it later, right now I had to eat and do some last-minute test studying. Yesterday receded into the dream, it hadn't happened, I didn't need to think about it.

The table was messy, and the living room was worse. My parents had been celebrating something I think, I noticed there was an uncorked wine bottle on the counter, half full. There was no question what had happened though, as the morning paper arrived and the banner headline proclaimed "Cadenza Collars Crook" in big, bold typeface. Guess that means she won.

That was an understatement. The article was loaded down with puns and alliterations. "Purr-fect Prosecution Puts Burgler Behind Bars", "Cat-burgler Caterwauls like Canary on witness stand", and "The defense seemed unprepared for his client's cracking under pressure". That last one wasn't very catchy.

Dad wasn't awake yet, but I didn't mind. I opened my math book as I munched on some buttered toast. Out of jam again. I needed to start buying it myself, I was the only one who ate it. Mom had some coffee and was reading the paper over and over again, sometimes mumbling out her favorite sentences.

"So, you got him did you?" I asked. Might as well get it out of her.

"How did you know?" she asked back, drily. A smile forced its way out, prying apart her lips and displaying for all the world the glow she had inside. "It felt good, really good. It's a rush. Wish you could have been there."

"You know, jobs and stuff," I muttered, taking another bite of my toast.

"Did you get it?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, take a look," I said, pulling out the scroll that was still in my bag. Mom perused it, then gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"That's wonderful news sweetie," she said, pulling back. "I'll let your father know whenever he wakes up."

We both chuckled. Dad doesn't hold his liquor too well. I could probably out-drink him, and then promptly get grounded for drinking. Pros and cons, pros and cons...

I decided to leave early and do my studying in the halls outside the classroom. I was in the 'A' class, with Minty and Squeaky. Gabby was in the 'B' class. We wrote at the same times, just in different rooms, since our class this year was too big for one teacher. Gabby was already there when I arrived, sitting across the hallway and looking at a bunch of old homework. She looked up as I approached.

"Wow, what happened to you?" she asked as I put my bags down. "Get into a fight with a Rhino?"

I had caught a glimpse of my reflection in the glass window on the doors as I had entered the school. Deep bags under my eyes, my mane messy. Forgot to comb it. I quickly ran my hoof through, trying to straighten it out. It didn't work.

"Oh just, up late last night," I lied again. I was doing that a lot lately.

"Tell me about it. Wanna team up?" She asked, perking her ears up. She was probably better at Math than I was, but it's always nice to have a foil.

We read over her old homework, quizzing each other as we went. Time flew by, other students arrived and waited in front of the room with us. The talking lifted to a dull roar as more and more students arrived. Minty and Squeaky arrived together a few minutes before we were due to write, and the teachers opened the doors to signal the start of the test.

I think I did well, but that's usually a bad indication, since I'm always, always wrong about my own abilities when it comes to tests. Except Physics, you could set your watch to my bombing of those tests. When I left, Minty, Squeaky, and Gabby were waiting for me, all having finished before me. Damn. Bad sign, everypony else was faster. It was just before noon, so we decided to go get lunch before studying for History on Thursday.

"How'd it go?" Squeaky asked, poking me in the ribs. "Did you get #21?"

"Uh, refresh my memory," I said.

"That was the one with the sphere and the pyramid, you know, volume?" she said.

I thought back. "I probably got it wrong..." I muttered.

"Me too," Gabby cut in. Probably trying to make me feel better. "I didn't remember that from the lessons." she gave me a little smirk. "Wish they wouldn't do that to us, it's not fair"

Squeaky and Minty nodded in agreement. Phew, maybe it's not just me.

"Hey, did you hear about the Princess yesterday?" Minty started. Oh no, not this again.

"No, what happened?" I asked, leading her on. I needed to let Minty vent about the latest royal gossip or she'd never shut up. That, or she'd hold it in and explode. That could totally happen.

"Celestia flipped out when some reporter wrote a story about her yelling at a dish-maid, so she went tearing out of the castle and didn't get back till it was time to lower the Sun!" Minty said, repeating almost word for word what I had seen in the first paragraph of the paper that morning. Right under my Mom's big article.

"Yes Minty, we can read the gossip column too," Gabby said. It didn't matter how much she voiced her dissatisfaction with this sort of topic, Minty never got the point. "I don't see why it's such a big deal."

Minty shot a look at me. I did my best to have no expression whatsoever. Minty then looked at Squeaky, who was doing the same. We both failed.

"Don't you guys know what this means!?" she said, frustrated.

"No," all three of us answered at once.

"Like, where did she go, right? What happened? Did she go beat up the reporter," she let out a gasp, "or what if she killed him?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Who cares?" Gabby said, increasing her pace. We all sped up to match. It took exactly enough effort that we wouldn't be able to maintain the conversation. Minty was not to be deterred, lifting into the air and flying alongside us.

"You know what that is, it's intimidation of the press! If she can just go around smiting anypony then we could be next, don't you guys get it?" she asked, her voice rising into panic. Time to defuse this bomb before she gave herself a heart attack.

"Minty, the Princess did not brazenly murder a reporter in broad daylight," I said, as calmly as possible. There was nothing to argue with in that statement, case clos-

"No, she must have found out where he lived, then came back at night to finish the deed. Or she had some of her soldiers mess his house up, you know, as a warning. They'd kill one of his pets and leave its body in his bed for him to find!" Minty seemed to be reliving a really old, black-and-white horror movie now.

Gabby stopped. I bumped into her, and Squeaky bumped into me. Minty sailed past us and looped around, landing in front of us. Gabby walked up to Minty, so close they were practically touching chests, and stared down at the shorter mare in front of her. The look on her face could cut glass.

"No, that's not what happened," Gabby stated, calmly. She let the words hang in the air for a moment. Minty didn't say anything.

Abruptly, Gabby stepped back and walked around Minty. The rest of us followed.

"Oh, maybe you're right," Minty said. It was like a switch had been flipped, she calmed down in a snap. Squeaky let out a relieved sigh.

We got lunch, buying some fruit off of a vendor and taking it to the park to munch on. My apple was a bit mushy, but otherwise it was a good meal. Stress melted away, Thursday seemed ages off, and I wasn't particularly worried about it to begin with. Gabby broke out her textbook first while Squeaky and Minty rifled through their old assignments. I just tried to relax.

Mr. Prescott had given everypony an outline of the exam, and there were a few of last year's exams posted anonymously on the announcements board in the cafeteria. I had copied down some of the more prominent questions, in case I needed to go over them again later. I closed my eyes and just existed, laying on the grass as my friends mumbled to one another and finished their lunches. I would have fallen asleep, but the sun was particularly warm on my eyelids, distracting me enough that I wouldn't go under. That, and Minty was being really loud for some reason.

"Hey," she said, extremely loudly, almost right in my ear. I opened my eyes, she was right in front of me. "Are you ignoring me?"

"Yes," I said. Too honest.

She poked me. "Come on, I helped you with Physics, you have to help me with History." A fair enough deal, I suppose.

"Fine," I said at last. "What should we go over?"

"This question on the Cloudsdale Riots," she said, showing me a copy of an older exam.

"Hey, did you pull this off the announcements board?" I asked. It was a full copy, she hadn't copied it off like I had.

"Yeah, was I not supposed to?" she asked back.

I put my hoof on my face and tried to forget that she just said that. If everypony took a copy, there'd be none left. Clearly, not an ounce of thought had gone into her preparations, as usual. "Nevermind," I muttered.

I looked at the question she pointed at with her hoof. Gabby and Squeaky looked at it too, straining to read it upside down, and casting a shadow over the scroll. I pushed them away and started reading it aloud, now that nopony was blocking my light.

"Using what you know about Cloudsdale's legal system, explain why the federal government could not simply override the racist Griffon's Rights laws that sparked the Cloudsdale riots. Why does Cloudsdale have this unique legal system? Justify your answers," I read off the scroll. My friends looked at me expectantly.

"Okay, who wants to take a crack at it first?" I said. I already knew the answer, but that's because I paid attention in class.

Silence. After a few moments, I decided I'd need to prompt them a bit. "Answer the second question first, maybe that will help," I offered.

Gabby spoke up first. "Cloudsdale used to be a city-state before joining up with Equestria," she said, correctly. I nodded in approval. Minty wrote something down.

Silence. Damn it. Was it going to be like this the whole day?

"Therefore, the feds couldn't force Cloudsdale to change its laws since they can threaten to secede, it has to be done internally. But they didn't until the Griffons started protesting and eventually kicked out the senators who were stopping the suffrage process," I explained.

Squeaky wrote something down, Minty was scribbling like crazy. Gabby took on a quizzical expression. "Hey, how did you know that last part?" she asked.

"What? What part?" I asked. I had no idea what she was talking about, this whole thing was in the text book.

Or maybe it wasn't. Gabby had opened her book to the Riots chapter and showed me the passage. It detailed most of what I had said, but didn't explain exactly how the riots changed the laws, it just said "due to this pressure, the Cloudsdale senate eventually adopted full citizenship rights for Griffons and non-Pegasus residents".

I knew for certain it was because the rioters had kicked out the corrupt senators. A few even got murdered, I knew that for dead certain, but it was nowhere in the book. I scanned over the passage, then checked some of the other pages. Nothing.

How did I know that?

I shook it off. "Oh, well I must have read that somewhere else," I offered, trying to explain it. "You don't have to mention that, see? The question just asks about the laws."

They were happy with that explanation. I wasn't. The textbook was the only time I had ever read about these events. The Cloudsdale Riots happened over 200 years ago, but were a huge, pivotal event in Equestrian history and were still relevant today in many ways. I would have remembered anything I read about them, but before this year, the subject hadn't come up in any class, or discussion, or article.

We split up after running over some more material and promised to meet up again after dinner. The Riots kept gnawing at me as I walked home, I needed to know where I had found out about the senators and those murders. It was very vivid knowledge to me, but before I had said it out loud, I may as well have not have known it. The more I thought about it, the more the details began to become clear.

The Cloudsdale senate had 35 senators, 7 from each of the city's 5 boroughs. The more metropolitan boroughs had voted in favor of the expanded citizenship laws, the more conservative, old-family areas, against. The vote had split down the middle, not enough for a majority to override and nullify the existing laws. Over the course of two weeks, six senators were murdered, always at night. Two by stabbing, four by poison. I had been outraged over the whole thing, nopony deserves death no matter what they believed, but it was up to the residents to learn that for themselves. That was not a lesson I could teach them, no matter how much I wanted to.

What was I saying? Outraged? That happened over two centuries ago. I wasn't even born yet. I laughed out loud as I walked, suddenly and from nowhere. Two ponies walking the other way turned and looked at me, bewildered by the outburst. I blushed and lowered my head, keeping my pace. Guess I overdid it. This was just stress, I've had a lot on my mind what with failing at school and getting a new job. I was obviously just making stuff up, confusing myself and then getting worked up over it.

We met up again after dinner, but we didn't get much studying done. We just lazed around and talked until it became too dark in the park to stay out. The lamplighters put fireflies in the lamps and we went for a walk, the four of us, carefree. Minty tried to bring up some more royal gossip, Gabby shut her down, Squeaky and I laughed about it.

I had not shut out these strange thoughts completely, I had merely moved them into the back of my mind where they kept running. Odd memories continued to emerge that I had not had, could not possibly have had. That night, I lay in bed waiting for sleep to come and wash all this away. Names and faces drifted by in my mind as I lay with my eyes closed, words spoken by them dredged up from the recesses of my subconscious. Events I had not been present for, great calamities that had occurred before I was even a wild idea in my father's head. I tossed and turned. They began to come on stronger. Dates and places flew by, I could see the sky and the stars whirling as the world itself changed below me.

I felt myself drifting away, the ideas forming a river, the river becoming rapids. It had started as a trickle earlier that day, but it became steadily stronger and stronger. It had been a river, now it was a tidal wave, a sea of memories collapsing on my mind. I was going to go under and lose myself entirely if I didn't do something.

Don't worry, you'll be fine. Just concentrate, focus on what really matters.

That wasn't my thoughts this time. That was somepony else whispering in my head, a voice I didn't recognize, and yet, different from the other ones I was now forcibly remembering. It was a lady's voice, gentle and understanding, while still authoritative. I did as it asked, concentrating, focusing on my family, my friends. My mind eased the flow of memories down to a trickle, the faces and names drying up and vanishing back into whatever corners they had come from. The memories were gone now, entirely, and I was myself again.

I went to sleep secure, confident. That voice was familiar, and it comforted me on a level I hadn't felt before. I didn't worry about hearing voices in my head or seeing impossible things on a routine basis, that seemed unimportant when that voice told me not to worry. I believed it, that was all that mattered.

My dreams that night, I'd rather not recount. They took no note of the voice I had heard.

Author's Note

Questions, comments, or corrections may also be mailed to: saltyjustice AHT derpymail DAHT com

Chapter 5

Wednesday came and went, my friends demanding two more study sessions before finally allowing me time to gather my thoughts. I hadn't been sleeping well lately, I felt tired all the time but dreaded falling asleep, lest these awful dreams overtake me. I couldn't remember any specifics, just endless desperation, fighting, pain, despair. These are not things teenagers are supposed to have to deal with.

Thursday, exam day. Gabby had a placid look on her face, a look of total one-ness and surety as we waited for the doors to open. Minty looked worse than I did, missing sleep for reasons which I need not explain. If she couldn't pass it now, after all we had done to help her, she'd never pass it. Mr. Prescott wasn't a bad guy, he'd find marks to give her, she'd be fine.

The exam wasn't too difficult, though I found myself writing a bit too much about a bit too little. I couldn't help being distracted, Gabby, sitting two rows ahead of me, had her pencil whirling like a hurricane. Something really clicked inside her head. I finished my exam seconds after she did, watching her stroll triumphantly to the front of the room and drop the scrolls on Mr. Prescott's desk. He gave me a wink as she walked out, head in the air, looking for all the world like the very portrait of confidence.

Minty finished her exam along with a few other ponies as the three hours allocated ran out. We waited in the hall the whole time, Squeaky having come out a half hour before her sister. No helping some ponies, at least now she knew how I felt.

We had the entire weekend to go so we decided not to have any study sessions until then, allowing me to enjoy what was effectively a day off. I got to bed early, and for once, I slept soundly. Clearly it was just stress that had been keeping me off balance, I reasoned, and with it gone all these crises would fade into the background.

Friday morning, I had to go to orientation for my new job. It wasn't going to be held in that dreadful squat building downtown, no, it was being held in a rec-center a few blocks from the park. I arrived a bit early to see a bunch of gruff, no-nonsense stallions milling around a table that had been set up at the entrance. The table had a scattering of identification cards with convenient straps to wear around one's neck. I searched to find mine.

My card had my name, a picture of me, and, in big black letters "Class Q". I studied it for a minute. How did they get my picture? It was a picture of me staring blankly at the camera, sure enough, but I didn't recall anypony actually flashing a camera in my face when I went for the interview. A file photo? It looked fairly recent, definitely not a class album photo. That robot lady, she must have had a camera in her eye! Devious, incredibly devious!

I went into the auditorium to see an assortment of about three dozen big, burly construction-worker types. A few had hard-hats on. All their name tags had "Class A" written on them, I was the only mare in the room. I was also the only teenager.

Somepony got up on the stage at the front of the room and cleared his throat. The room quieted down, but I couldn't see since everypony else was taller than I was. I made my way around the edge towards the front as the speaker began.

"Welcome to your orientation meeting everypony. Those of you with classes M through Z will need to meet us in room 108 just down the hall when we're done here, the rest of you, be sure to get your urine samples in before you leave," the speaker said. Some of the ponies grumbled.

As I got closer to the front, I noticed several pairs of eyes focusing on me. I tried to ignore them. I took a spot in the front row, dwarfed by the muscleheads as they towered over little old me. The speaker started into an explanation of safety procedures, fire safety, acid protection, hazardous materials handling, fire safety again, something about the proper use of magic. Fire safety came up two more times. What to do about housefires (water), greasefires (smothering), gas fires (turn off the gas), and self-fires (stop, drop, and roll). I had no way of knowing how much of it related to me, but it seemed to be pretty general safety information anyway.

My saddlebags were getting itchy. I wiggled a bit in place, trying to adjust them so they stopped irritating me. Somepony behind me coughed as I did so.

I took a look behind me to see four colts all glaring at me. Assholes. Don't react, don't give them the satisfaction. I cleared my throat, but they didn't stop staring.

I moved off to the side of the front row and sat down, making sure nopony was looking at me. It felt weird, made me feel dirty. The speaker was now talking about the proper procedure for handling explosives, which seemed to have nothing to do with foalsitting, but then again, those foals can pee themselves at any time. They're like grenades.

After some more lecturing which had nothing to do with anything, we broke up and I, being somewhere between class M and Z, moved over to room 108. The room was mostly empty, a few sitting pillows stacked up against a wall, the windows open and the wind flowing through the room. Nopony else was in here.

After a few minutes, the speaker from before came in and looked around. I looked back at him. An awkward silence filled the air.

"Are you the only one?" he asked.

"I guess so. Name's Cadence," I said, doing my damnedest to be friendly.

"Well Ms. Cadence, I'll be brief. I really was expecting there to be more of you today," he started.

"Like, foalsitters? What's with all the big guys?" I asked.

"Our department handles industrial explosives transport and containment, as well as social services," he said, sighing. "We didn't do that until a month ago, it's been quite a hassle"

"Oh, that makes sense," I said. No it doesn't.

"So, that necklace you're wearing is also your government issued ID. Just show it to the parents or the owners of the house you're sitting for and they'll know. You paid attention to the safety lecture, yes?" he asked. Please don't quiz me.

"Oh yeah, of course. Stop drop and roll, call for help if you need it, don't smoke near fuses," I said. Simple stuff.

"Very good. You'll be working on and off based on availability, we'll send you a letter when we have an assignment for you. Do you have any other questions?" he asked. I didn't, other than why a social services bureau also moved bombs to and from work sites, but that didn't seem like the proper question to be asking.

Now I was Cadence, Class Q House-sitter, government employee. I made my way back home after stuffing the neckband into my saddlebag. Mom and Dad had decided to take me out for dinner to celebrate Mom's big win at work, and my promising career making sure foals didn't choke on their own tongues. We went to Chez Pone, a fancy French place downtown that served bizarre food. I think I was eating celery stalks, but they had a fancy name and spices I couldn't pronounce, so I enjoyed it. Tangy, that's what they were - celery wasn't supposed to be tangy.

That night I slept soundly, dreaming about something involving donuts and ponies getting set on fire. They tried to turn the gas valves off, but that was the wrong kind of fire. Stop drop and roll, but don't get sprinkles on you or you'll never get them off. I didn't say it made any sense, dreams don't have to.

Saturday and Sunday were our days to study for Social Studies, which we wrote on Monday. There were no surprises on that test, all very bland civics lessons and discussions of other cultures. Wednesday was the phys-ed final, we had to answer multiple-choice questions about sports rules. It was a nice rest for my brain, because no matter how dumb it was to explain what the blue line in hoofball meant, every single one of us was going to get an A, guaranteed. The teacher had said as much, since he didn't care and neither did the principal. How could anypony care about off-sides, or how far away you could slide tackle from before it was a foul?

I didn't have to write the Physics final like everypony else, since it'd be a wasted gesture at this point. I just came in and got my assignment scroll, then left, but I waited outside for my friends because, damn it, that's what friends do. Summer was now officially on, and that meant I could now forget all the junk I had learned in school, only to do it all again next year.

Gabby had to go early since she had to go get some posters for her job, so I went to the park and watched the twins punt clouds at each other. I kept score, though neither of them ever asked who won, they just did it for the fun of whacking each other with clouds, the soft white moisture dissipating on impact. It was like a pillow fight except in three dimensions. A tuft of cloud missed Squeaky's head and sailed down close to me, and I tried to grab it with my magic, failing miserably. Pegasus ponies could do amazing things with clouds, they had a sixth sense for dealing with them that I didn't have. Every time I tried to get a grip, it was too strong and squeezed the cloud away. Oh well, they're just clouds. I poked at with my telekinesis again, it squeezed and then returned to its original shape. I tried again, and again.

Minty noticed my clumsy attempts at cloud-control and swooped towards me, grabbing the cloud and bringing it down in front of me.

"Here, want one to practice on?" she asked. A shadow loomed behind her, she spun around but was too late. Squeaky brought a cloud down on her head as hard as she could, scattering the water in every direction. Minty glared at her, rivulets running down her face. "Knock it off Squeaks, I'm trying to do something!"

"You leave yourself open, you get squished. Live by the cloud, die by the cloud," Squeaky stated proudly, hovering above Minty.

Minty ignored her. She pushed the cloud with her hoof. "Try it like this," she said.

I poked the cloud with my hoof as she held it in front of me. My hoof went right through, it was cold and slimy.

"No no, not like that. You gotta be, like, gentle," she said, pushing the cloud towards me and letting it float in the air.

I pushed it again, gentler, but my hoof went clean through no matter how softly I tapped it.

"Give it up, you know only Pegasus ponies can do that," Squeaky said, rolling her eyes. "That or magic, I heard there's a spell for it." Thanks for saying that to the world's worst magician.

I shrugged. Minty looked a little dejected, then took off upwards. Squeaky apologized with her eyes to me, then took off after Minty, grabbing a cloud as she passed and tossing it in Minty's direction. My cloud hovered next to me, taunting me. I looked at it closely, it was solid and yet not solid, partially transparent when you looked closely. Sometimes I could see little water droplets.

The cloud did something inside my head, one of the memories I had been holding back shook itself loose and fell down into my consciousness. It was only one memory this time, it took up my full attention as I re-experienced it. I didn't wonder where it had come from, that seemed silly, it was clearly in my head just like everything else I had ever experienced.

I was standing up on top of a stratus, looking down at the landscape below me, trees, grass, a river ran over a drop and became a waterfall down below me. The cloud was soft, softer than anything else, even my bed. Who needed beds when you could just laze around on a cloud? Earth ponies didn't know what they were missing. I laid down, letting my body deform the plush cloud and resting my head on one of the thicker parts. The sun was warm, I didn't need covers. I almost drifted off to sleep, but I was supposed to be watching something. I opened my eyes again, and saw the cloud's particles in front of me, dangling in the air. I saw water droplets connected at a microscopic level as clearly and obviously as one can see puzzle pieces when putting one together. It clicked, it all made sense, the cloud wasn't an object, it was a matrix of objects, interconnected. You didn't touch the cloud so much as deform it, and let it reform around you.

I snapped out of my daydreaming. The cloud was still hovering patiently in front of me, Minty and Squeaky still flying around trying to catch one another. I came up with a plan.

I whacked the cloud on one side, vertically, and this time the smart hit didn't travel clean through it, no, it struck and started the cloud spinning. Of course, that made sense, once you learn how to manipulate clouds, you never forget, it becomes second nature. I gauged Squeaky's path, watching her bank and starting zooming towards a cloud she intended to use as ammo against Minty. I waited, aimed, and spun around, bucking the cloud gently and forcefully as only a Pegasus knows how. The spinning cloud shot towards my feathered friend, it's gyroscopic forces causing it to corkscrew through the air on a straight line towards its target.

Squeaky took the cloud in the side, the sudden, unexpected blast of cool water causing her to stop dead in midair, forcing Minty to break off. She turned to see the source of the attack, only to see me standing a hundred yards away, looking up at her. Her jaw dropped. The twins descended down to me.

Minty arrived first. "Nice shot!" she said, giving me a celebratory hoof-bump.

"Oh, I make it look easy," I said back, trying my best to stay modest.

"But, how did you do that? That's not supposed to be possible, did you use magic?" Squeaky asked, befuddled. It was true, physics class explained this quite clearly in terms of magical connection matrices and a bunch of other hoopla I could never explain. I understood it intuitively, it just made sense when I did it, even if I couldn't write it down to save my life.

"No, just a well placed kick. You have to do it gently," I said, grinning at Minty. She grinned back.

Squeaky made me repeat the feat with another cloud she brought down, and then again, and again until she was satisfied there was no trickery afoot. My horn was clearly not glowing, and I would probably have flubbed the spell and set myself on fire if I had tried (stop drop and roll), but this was nothing amazing. All Pegasus ponies knew how to...

No, I'm a Unicorn. I seemed to have confused myself again, but that was an odd thing to forget. Where did I get it in my head that I was anything but what I've always been? Just little old Cadence, D student.

Daydreams can be useful I suppose, they somehow taught me how to kick clouds at ponies. Fat lot of good that'd come to unless I decided to join the circus. See the Unicorn who can kick clouds! Marvel as she, - uh, - that was all I could do, really. I'd be a one-trick pony, literally.

We played cloud frisbee for a little while, Minty and Squeaky tossing them to one another and then periodically, to me. It was actually a lot of fun, even if I couldn't be up in the air I still had to run around to catch the wide shots. I wondered why I hadn't been doing this sooner, it seemed so obvious and natural that I scarcely considered just how unnatural it really was. Nopony else was in the park as the sun started to set, and we split up before long to go home. I considered taking a cloud with me to show my parents, but I suspect that'd just have confused them, and they'd make me leave it outside or I'd get the floor all wet. Somepony could slip you know.

I slept soundly, but I did not dream, I remembered. One by one, the memories I had locked away in the crevices of my mind were tearing themselves loose and reattaching themselves to me. I wasn't even aware of it, not consciously, but something was changing inside my head for reasons I was not yet ready to remember. That would come in time. I had lots of time.

Author's Note

Questions, comments, or corrections may also be mailed to: saltyjustice AHT derpymail DAHT com

Chapter 6

New job, day one. My assignment this week arrived in the mail on Monday morning. As a class Q sitter (I still did not know what the Q meant, if anything) I would be required to maintain vigilance over specific properties, making sure they did not degrade to the point of unusability and cleaning up vandalism as I saw fit. What the letter was trying to tell me was that my first assignment was a house-sitting assignment, not foalsitting, which was a bit of a disappointment. I was good with foals, honest!

Well, except for Carlisle. Last year, in September, my Dad was out of town on some business trip like he often was. Mom was working on some case involving money laundering at a restaurant downtown, and I was just starting up school. Then, our neighbor, Mrs. Nenbaum, had a medical emergency. They said she just started bleeding, all over, and the doctors had no idea why. Her husband had abandoned her just after she had become pregnant with her colt, Carlisle, who was a few months old. She never mentioned the delinquent father, to my recollection, but she seemed happy enough when I saw her watering her garden.

Her sister lived out in Stalliongrad and it would be two days before she could get to Canterlot to take care of Carlisle, so my mom volunteered to take care of him until then. She watched him and I tried to ignore him. Every time he saw me, he'd start crying and wouldn't stop until I left, so I shut myself up in my room and never ventured out. The first day had passed without incident, but on the second day there was a big break in her case, and Mom had to go yell at the detectives at the crime scene. Dad was out of town. I was the only one who could watch the foal. It has haunted me since.

Carlisle had wasted not a second before he started crying. For three hours he cried and cried, nothing I could do would stop him. He cried harder if I left the room, but otherwise paced himself when I was present so as not to run out of air, air he could use for more crying. I tried funny faces, I tried singing, I tried getting him some food, some milk. It didn't work, he kept crying. I put a paper bag over my head, in case it was my face that was causing it, but that didn't stop him, he just kept crying. The sound began to worm its way inside my head, overwriting my thoughts until all I could think of was the unstoppable crying monster left in my charge.

Mom found me huddled in a corner in the kitchen. Carlisle had cried himself to sleep near me. I had blacked out at some point. There was ketchup everywhere. I couldn't remember what happened.

So other than Carlisle I was a great foal-sitter.

I was sitting for five properties, spread around town. I had to walk between them each day to check them out, making sure they hadn't been broken into or covered in spray paint. Four were houses of ponies who were out of town for some reason, probably government payroll types – they weren't too specific in the letter. The fifth property was a warehouse in the industrial district, which was a full hour's walk away from my house. Considering the curious connection between hazardous materials handling and foalsitting services, my best guess was that this was a mix-up, but I didn't complain, since there was nopony to complain to. At least I didn't have a boss breathing down my neck all the time.

As the weeks passed, the list of properties rose and fell, as workers returned home and others left, but the warehouse I was watching remained on the list the whole time. It was a huge building, with a high, arched ceiling and big support struts in the middle of it. It was almost entirely empty, a grand space for storage of, well, whatever you wanted. There were some offices in one corner, with a number of desks and old dusty books stacked atop one another. When I was bored, I would sometimes dust the place off, but more dust always came back in. Nopony ever came to examine the stuff that was left there, it was as if it had fallen off the face of the earth, and I had found it purely by chance.

Next to the offices were some 2x4 wooden boards, all leaning up against a wall, and a huge collection of boxes labelled "core logs, pitchblende, do not open", which my instincts told me not to mess with. These took up the rest of the corner near the offices, around 80% of the building was empty space. If you shouted, the echo carried for a while, bouncing off the concrete and weaving around the pillars. It was a fine enough place to get some homework done, with no distractions.

My essays had been pretty easy, since Ms. Burner would always have the chapters and books I needed ready to go. I didn't really mind writing them, it gave me something to do when I was ware-house-sitting. The material was dry though, pre-classical physicists and philosophers blathering about the nature of matter, and the four basic elements of fire, earth, water, and wind, which must have seemed like great ideas at the time but were ridiculous now. Once magic-engines were invented, other magic power sources had become of interest and much of what we knew about physics was revolutionized, but I hadn't gotten that far yet. It was still ponies talking into the dark and hoping something answered.

One day in late May, I decided to read some other chapters that I hadn't been assigned in the new book I was supposed to work on. With any luck, I might find something I could use and get some extra credit. I read so much that I lost track of time, and was so focused I didn't hear anything that was going on as I sat in the dusty offices, poring over my book. I had felt a sense of security in the building, it was not to last.

I took a look up from my book after I thought I heard something, like a hoofstep. I was sitting away from the door of the office, since the only light in the room shone through a window on one side, coming from the Sun as it set. I looked over at the door, then out the interior windows which provided a view of the inside of the building from the office. I wanted to brush it off, but I thought better of it. I stood up to investigate, then I heard something fall outside, and a voice say something. It was deep and had an accent I couldn't quite place. It was coming from inside the building.

The locked building, and I had the only key.

I resisted the urge to panic and stayed low as I walked towards the interior windows across from me. There were two speakers, one was scolding the other for something.

" - ya rube, don't make no noise," one was saying. He sounded like a Manehattenite.

"I didn't mean to boss," the other apologized back. He sounded a little... slow. Horrible of me to say, but that's the impression I got from the way he spoke.

"Okay okay, there's gotta be sometin' in here if they locked it up. Check that office," the first one said. Urge to panic - rising.

I turned around and looked, but there wasn't much space to hide. Desks and old books were stacked up and left no spaces to crawl into. I could try to crawl out the window, except I wasn't sure if it could actually open all the way, and that'd waste precious time.

The door thumped. One of them was trying to open it. Crud. Time was already up.

I backed up against the window. I would try to hide out of immediate line-of-sight and make a break out the door if I could, my mind working overtime to calculate all the little possibilities. I'd have a split-second of surprise to make good my escape, that was it.

The door creaked open and a pony walked in. He was easily twice my size, but he didn't look around as he came in. He focused on the stack of desks opposite me as I silently padded towards the door. He had gone far enough in, I bolted for the door.

He turned just in time to see me streak by, I banked at the door and shot out – running right into his cohort. He backed up in surprise as I bumped into him, blocking my escape route. Panic hit, hard this time, as I recoiled off him and towards the stack of core samples.

"Well well well, whadda we got here?" he said. The bump didn't even rattle him. My heart was racing. The big one walked back out of the office as the smaller one moved to cut me off, trapping me in the corner as I couldn't vault over the stack of boxes. Started to wish I could fly right about now.

"I think it's a girl boss," the big one said.

"No kidding Rufus. Hey sweetheart, whatcha doin in a place like this?" he asked, trying his best to impersonate compassion. I wasn't going to fall for it.

"I'm, uh," I stammered. Couldn't think, too scared. "I just watch the place sometimes!"

"Maybe 'dis wasn't a total bust then," the smaller one said. His face took on a wicked grin. Oh. Oh NO. Disaster scenarios were one thing, but.. no. This wasn't happening.

The big one, Rufus, moved in closer. I backed up, bumping into the 2x4 boards and knocking one over. The crack of the board on the concrete rattled my brain once again, dislodging a memory and letting it swirl over my mind. I tried to fight it, I didn't have time for this, but I had no choice, the experience flooded my senses and overtook me.

The remains of a battle were all around me, corpses stunk everywhere, some stacked atop one another as the grim undertakers around me did their necessary, yet still revolting, work. Injured ponies, too wounded for any doctor to help, were moaning and groaning in agony, too hurt even to finish themselves off. That was my duty, though I had not asked for it, I did it because no other could.

I wandered, listening to the cries and going towards the softest ones I could hear, those were the ones in need of my services. Mangled stares, unblinking, unyielding, came from the earth as the fallen lay waiting to be carted off and buried. I found a poor mare, barely even old enough to lift a spear, who lay gasping. One of her legs was missing, she didn't have long as she bled out. I gave her a small mercy. I left a single tear staining her coat. My duties came with a cost.

A body nearby stirred, I had thought it was dead. A stallion, middle aged I think. He stood up, and seemed for all appearances to be healthy. He turned to look at me as I looked at him. His eyes crossed mine and I saw them unfocused, confused, but angry. He was one of the victims of scars not on his body, but mind.

This happened to those lucky enough to survive multiple encounters with our foes. Even the toughest, most grizzled veteran was not immune. The faceless beasts tore not only at our bodies, but at our minds, ripping away at our love and comradery until all that was left was fear and resentment, or worse, anger. It was anger I saw in his eyes, he could not understand what he was angry about, only that he was angry. I had seen this sort of thing before, and there was only one thing I could do.

He picked up his spear and brandished it at me. I stood up with my sword and made a mocking, open pose. He charged, but his confusion left him clumsy and he swung more like he was tripping over himself. It was not a fair fight, but our enemies had not given us one either.

I made it as quick as possible, gashing open his neck. He started to choke, no doubt in great pain, but I needed him to stop moving. I cut his neck again, vertically, and then cut the vein on his leg, causing him to bleed out within seconds. Tranquility took over his face, and he stayed on the ground this time, finally at peace. Nopony deserves death, but sometimes it's all I can provide.

The memory faded and the real world came back in front of me. The two colts were still advancing on me, but I no longer was afraid. I had seen much worse things than these two idiots, if anything, I felt sorry for them.

I kicked the board with my rear hoof, causing it to stand on its end, then stood up on my rear legs and gripped it as I had my sword so many times in the past. It was a clumsy weapon but it would do the job I needed it to do. My face was grim, I narrowed my eyes at the thugs bearing down on me. For them, this would be no easy conquest.

The big one stopped his advance, suddenly unsure, but the small one didn't care. His mistake. He got close enough for a lunge and took his opportunity, clumsy, like he was tripping over himself. I took a step back and let him pass, neatly dodging and leaving him off balance. I swung the board and caught him in the chin, causing his eyes to water and knocking him further off balance. I slammed the board into his side to complete the attack, and he fell over. I turned my attention to the big one, who was now incensed at what I had just done to his friend.

He was no fool, but he was no warrior either. I could tell he was used to being bigger than his targets. He tried to rear up and swing at me with his forelegs, like a boxer, but my board gave me a much longer reach. I gripped it with both hooves, stepped back, and stabbed the end at his snout. He moved his head but not far enough, taking the board in the teeth. Blood came out of his mouth and he yelled something unintelligible. I wasn't listening, I stabbed the board at his chest and connected with a bone. He dropped back onto all fours, giving me the chance to swing at full power from right to left, hitting him in the temple. He slumped over, unconscious.

The small one had struggled back up, regaining his balance. He yelled something at Rufus. Rufus didn't answer, blood was pouring from his mouth.

"You bitch, you killed him! You killed him!" he screamed at me. The echo came back from the walls around us, giving his words a hollow ring. He grabbed one of the boards that was leaning up against the wall and took the same pose I had. He had nowhere near as much practice as I, but he was angry and desperate, a dangerous combination.

He swung the board with all his strength, but I knew how to deal with this. I tilted mine at an angle and stepped to the side, deflecting the force away from my body. I switched my grip to hold one hoof at either end of the board, and let him make his next attack. He brought his board down vertically, so I held mine up to counter it, blocking it in the air above my head and leaving him vulnerable. I backed up and disengaged, causing him to lose his balance and pitch forward. I brought my board down on the back of his head this time, causing his face to collide with the floor. He could hardly see for all the tears in his eyes now, but stood back up and swung blindly at me from side to side.

Time to finish this, I thought to myself. His swings left him open, and I had time. He took a swing too wide, so I stepped in close to him and shoved him in the chest. He was heavy, too heavy to push in one go, I had overestimated my strength, but it was enough. He dropped his board as he tried to regain balance. I bashed my board into his chin, and he was going down for the count this time. His head his the concrete floor and he lay stunned before me. I brought my board up, ready for the killing blow, ready to finish the madness that had overtaken him. No longer would he live in terror, lashing out at the shadows around him who were once his friends. I couldn't save him, but I could -

"STOP RIGHT THERE," a shout came from the doorway. Two soldiers burst in, breaking the door's lock. Another Pegasus soldier flew in through the windows on the roof the burglars had broken to enter. I dropped my board in shock, it clattered on the floor and bounced away from me.

"Just what is going on here!?" the soldiers said, bearing down on me. I was standing in an otherwise empty warehouse with two beaten stallions, unconscious and bleeding, and I had been holding a 2x4 with blood all over it. This looked bad.

"Wait, wait! It was self defense! I work here!" I pleaded. I was still wearing my ID card around my neck. I held it up with my magic, and the Pegasus soldier inspected it. The other two went and inspected the two burglars.

"This seems to be in order miss," he gave me a suspicious look as he compared my face to the picture on the card. He didn't sound very convinced. "Why were you attacking these two? Why didn't you call for help?"

Oops. What was the first thing to do in a crisis? The panic had completely overtaken me, I had forgotten to call for help. The soldiers must have overheard the thwacking sounds the boards made as they collided.

"Uh, I panicked, honest. They were gonna..." I trailed off. I didn't want to think about that. Bastards got what they deserved.

"Hmm. I see," the soldier put his hoof on my soldier. "It's okay now miss, they can't hurt you." Was he trying to comfort me? He hadn't done anything!

"Yeah, yeah, it's okay. I'm okay," saying it to myself helped me to calm down.

"We need to get these guys a medic," one of the other soldiers said. The Pegasus trooper nodded and quickly flew off, zooming out the window and disappearing out of sight.

"What say we just wait here until our backup arrives, hmm?" the third soldier said. The message was clear, I wasn't going anywhere. I didn't want to, as the events that had just happened unfurled themselves in my head. It had been a blur, I didn't know what came over me, where I learned to fight like that. I hadn't learned to fight like that, it was impossible- what I just did was impossible, but the two thugs on the floor were proof it had happened. I wanted to curl into a ball and cry.

The Pegasus trooper came back after a few minutes, followed by an EMS technician. A few minutes later, a Unicorn doctor came through the door and some more soldiers came in. They started asking me questions as one made notes about the scene and another took pictures. The doctor was busy bandaging up the crooks and then had two of the soldiers drag the smaller one off to the hospital. I did my best to answer their questions, even though my Mom had always told me not to, that I should wait for a lawyer - that was her job, after all – but I was too dazed to put up much resistance, or be much help. The whole thing was a blur, winding together and unwinding as I tried to recollect it.

There was a commotion at the door as somepony was trying to get past the soldier guarding it. He relented when he saw a hoof present a prosecutor's badge, and my Mom came barreling in.

"Cadence Cadence Cadence," she blurted, kissing me on the cheek and giving me a hug all at once. "Are you all right dear? What happened?", she kept asking. I just enjoyed the hug, finally feeling at ease. Mom would take care of this.

"I'm all right, I'm just..", I stopped. I thought for a second, piecing it together. "These guys broke in here while I was studying in the office," I said, pointing to the office with its door still hanging ajar. "They were gonna - " I stopped again. The reality of it hadn't hit me until just then. I had been seconds away from the worst experience anypony can have. A miracle had saved me, that was all. Tears flowed down my face, my throat clenched, I couldn't speak anymore. Mom gave me another hug, and I buried my face beneath her coat.

Mom took me home after the soldiers made sure everything was in order. Having a famous prosecutor to protect you has its benefits, they didn't even need to book me or take me to the guard post. The papers had a headline the next day, but Mom had made perfectly clear that my name was not to be mentioned. "Burglars get Busted Up in Break-in". That was one way of putting it.

I wasn't going to be getting any more warehouse sitting assignments, not after that. The department gave me two weeks off with pay and started undergoing "internal reviews" after my mother lodged an official complaint. "Heads were rolling" as she told me. It didn't make me feel better. My friends would not be privy to the full extent of it, but I eventually told them about the break in and resulting scuffle. I left the implications out, but I think they intuited it. Gabby tried to console me, but I wouldn't have any of it, it was over, and I wanted to keep it over.

The Summer Sun festival was coming up in a few weeks, so I tried to keep us focused on that. I wanted us all to be together there, so we made plans and squirreled away funds to spend at the fair. Anything to forget.

Lost in the commotion was the memory that had saved me, buried now beneath the rest of my thoughts. Whatever it was, I was thankful. I no longer was afraid of being lost by these experiences that would periodically reveal themselves to me, as I slept or when I was bored. I felt a feeling of gratitude and reverence towards them, I let them come when they did. It was a feeling of becoming whole, like I had lost something and was just now finding it.

It was not just me who had lost something, this time, another had as well, and in me, they found it. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Author's Note

Questions, comments, death-threats, and corrections may also be sent to: saltyjustice AHT derpymail DAHT com

Chapter 7

When work resumed for the department, I noticed that my house-sitting list no longer included any warehouses downtown. Fancy that.

It also included two foals, finally allowing me to show off my skills. I was to be watching a colt named Clean Sweep on Mondays and Wednesdays, and a filly named Nina Twinkle on Tuesdays and Fridays. I'd like to say we got on well, but...

Clean greatly enjoyed, ironically enough, getting dirty. Somehow, every time we went outside, he would find a mud puddle and throw himself into it. No amount of effort was enough to keep him from finding one, if I turned away for even one second, the little Unicorn would break and run towards the nearest pile of muck. I had at first considered tying him up on a leash, but once he managed to filthy himself up, he became surprisingly amicable, ready to listen to anything I had to say. So, rather than fight the inevitable, I just let him roll and would give him a bath when we it was time to go home. If anything that meant he had more baths than any other colt his age. Maybe that's why they called him Clean, somehow.

Twinkle was a rich pony's daughter, cute as a button but quite shy. She liked being around other ponies, just not talking to them, so I'd take her out into the market or the park and we'd just exist where others were existing. It wasn't quite my own personal dream, but it was close enough. We didn't talk much, but she was happy, and my job was easier for it.

On Thursdays I made my rounds to the houses I was taking care of, cleaning their yards of any trash that had found its way on, and checking the plumbing to make sure everything was as expected. Time flew by, and June 20th approached quickly.

My parents had wanted to go to the festival with me, but I had already made plans with my friends. They understood, so they said, but Dad seemed a little dejected. Mom understood completely, she said something about independence as she kissed my cheek before I headed out. Ever since the... incident, she had been giving me a lot more hugs and kisses. Dad always had a worried look on his face, and telling him not to worry hadn't stopped him. I hoped they'd get over it someday, I felt bad for having put them through this. Who knew how much worse it'd have been if-

"Cadence, come on!" Gabby shouted from the entrance. She was early, the sun hadn't even set yet.

"Gabriella, please don't raise your voice in the house," my Mom said. Once again, using somepony's full name meant you were serious.

"Sorry Mrs. Cadenza", Gabby said, looking embarrassed, as I tucked my money into my saddle bags.

"Just hold on, I'm double checking here," I said, in a normal, indoor speaking voice. I set my bags down in front of Gabby and started rattling off the contents.

"Picnic blanket, spare cash, four water bottles, fair passes, frisbee, event map – did I miss anything?" I asked. Gabby thought for a moment.

"I think that's it, come on," she said. I put my bags on and we left. I had to carry everything since I had drawn the short straw when we were picking jobs. Gabby had to acquire the event maps and passes, while Minty and Squeaky were in charge of refilling the water bottles if we drank them. Pegasus ponies could always grab a drink from the clouds, you know.

I hadn't been to a Summer Sun festival since I was little, since I wasn't old enough to travel and it wasn't really my thing. They held it in a different city every year, not just Canterlot, and it had been 11 years since they had held it here. I had gotten too tired to actually see the sun rise last time, but not this time.

It was strange too, since it was originally supposed to be held in Trottingham this year, but the Princess abruptly changed the locale a while back. It was her decision, of course, and she usually picked the town whose economy could use the tourism boost, but it was still an unusual change of plans. The papers had been all over it, and like always, conspiracy theories abounded. The big one was that the mayor of Trottingham had done something big to upset the Princess, but it was all rumors to me. Minty would know more, though if she knew what actually happened, or merely what was the most sensational possibility, I cannot say.

All the stops had been pulled out, it was a huge bash, to say the least. Some towns had little parties and gatherings, but Canterlot always had a grand fair. Carneys flocked in from everywhere to get permits to set up booths. Games and performances from all over Equestria convened on the palace grounds to compete for our bits. My friends and I had planned on going to a few of the bigger events, but for the most part I just wanted to hang out, since I had been seeing them less and less as work picked up.

Gabby and I made our way towards the palace, the twins having planned on meeting up with us at the entrance. The palace was a ways away from my house, I had never really had occasion to visit except once, a few years ago, when we took a field trip to visit. Didn't see any royalty, but we got to check out some of the paintings and statues in the big museum there. In other words, it was boring, if beautiful.

"So, uh, you've been quiet," Gabby said. There weren't a lot of ponies on the streets yet, the sun was just setting and casting long shadows. We could talk in privacy, sort of.

"Hmm," I grunted.

"You been okay, lately?" Gabby was starting to pry.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I grunted back.

"Okay, okay. No need to get defensive, we're just worried about you," she said, "You can talk to us if something's bothering you."

"I'm fine, really," I said. Everypony else was taking this a lot harder than I was, or I was just refusing to feel the full extent of it. "I just want to block it out. I've had a lot going through my head, okay?"

"All right," Gabby said. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the park. The twins met us a block away from the big entrance where you got your leg stamped, if you had the passes we had acquired earlier. This way we wouldn't get nickeled and dimed for every bit in our bags, the water-soluble stamp indicated we got free admission to all the rides and shows. Cost us a lot to get them, but I had done the math and figured it'd be worth it. This sort of event doesn't come by often.

The rides and games stretched on for a mile, occupying every inch of the outer palace gardens, and the big shows were going to take place in the inner gardens beyond the walls. Soldiers were out and present patrolling through the area, but their job seemed to be to pick up litter. Nopony was anticipating trouble – at least I hoped not.

We wandered around for a while, since we had about an hour and a half before the Tumbling Trio Sisters did their big acrobatics show. The Haunted House was foal stuff, but the Teacups were fun. Minty had absolutely refused to ride on them, since she was afraid she'd get sick. Her face looked green just watching us zip around on them. I personally just liked the feel of the wind in my face, the turning and twisting was nothing compared to the speed.

The Dunk Tank gave us a bit of trouble. The colt inside was tossing out insults at everypony who went by, trying to get them to cough up the bits for a chance at dunking him. I knew it was his job, but -

"Hey you, leatherface!" he shouted as we passed. I looked over at him, mistakenly. If I hadn't reacted, then I wouldn't have implied I had leather for a face. Damn it, I thought to myself, never gonna live this one down.

"Yeah you! You think you can hit a bullseye from twenty paces? Didn't think so, you probably couldn't toss a salad with those toothpicks!" He jeered at me. I tried to ignore it, but Gabby was having none of it.

She pressed herself up against the glass that kept the water from splashing out of the tank. The colt inside reared back slightly when he saw her.

"You're lucky there's glass in the way," she snarled. I didn't say anything, I walked over to the mare handling the tickets and bought 3 balls for a bit. Minty, Squeaky and Gabby came over to stand behind me as I lined up my shot.

"What's that? Did I hit a nerve?" the colt kept taunting. I lifted up one of the balls and aimed carefully, throwing it a bit too slowly. The shot arced and caught the bottom of the target, the ball landing on the ground for one of the assistants to pick back up.

"Oh I'm sorry, maybe you should get your granny to come and show you how to throw!" the colt yelled. You're going down, I thought. I threw the second ball too hard, it sailed past the target and got caught in the net behind it.

"Gah!" I shouted, frustrated by my own incompetence. Down, but not out. I still had one ball left.

"Let me take care of this," Gabby offered. I stepped the side and let her try.

"Yeah that's right, get your friend to -" the colt started. Gabby picked up the ball in her mouth, looked at the target, then tossed the ball into the air. She spun around and bucked it with impressive strength, the ball shooting like a rocket straight into the bullseye. The colt dropped off his platform in mid sentence and landed in the slimy, filthy water below him.

"And that is how you do it ladies," Gabby said, lifting her head and accepting our praise. I gave her a hoof-bump and she gave me a big smile back.

"Nopony screws with my friends and gets away with it," she said, making sure it was just loud enough that the blubbering colt in the tank could hear it. We walked off before he could climb back out.

The Tumbling Trio were a group of earth pony sisters who did a big trapeze act. While juggling. Chainsaws. That were on fire. Worth every penny.

After that, the next show was Aurora Lullamoon's magic act, and I found it to be genuinely delightful. The larger-than-life mare was in the tabloids now and then, she was a big celebrity magician who traveled around Equestria doing public magic shows. It was rumored she'd never done a private performance since she would never allow another pony to deduce her magic tricks. She was a master of cloaked casting, a technique where a Unicorn could cast a spell without leaving any visible marks or letting off a glow from her horn. That was impressive enough, but she could use it to cut a pony in half and then put him back together again right in front of an audience of over a thousand.

The tabloids focused on her personal life instead of her professional life. Her husband had dumped her after she became pregnant, she was sick with a rare disease, she had gotten her magic powers by making a pact with space aliens, and chocolate ice cream was good for you, that sort of thing. As soon as I saw her act, all the rumors melted away, this was a pony who could stun you every time, and that was all that mattered.

Her finale was a heartwarming little shtick where she brought her daughter out on stage and got her to do a magic trick. She was too young to really use magic, but her mom did the trick behind her and made it look like she was rewinding a clock without touching it, telling her it was a time travel spell.

"Careful, if you wind it back too far, we'll have to start the show over," she said, stopping the clock. Her daughter was legitimately terrified, and frantically started winding the clock forward. The audience laughed and awww'd, and they both gave a big bow as the curtain closed.

We watched some more shows and went on some more rides. The need for sleep started creeping up on me, but I was determined not to pass out before seeing the sun rise. Nothing like a bit of adrenaline to wake you up.

"Let's go on the Ferris Wheel!" I said as we finished off some cotton candy. Gabby looked at me in shock, while Minty and Squeaky exchanged looks before hoof-bumping.

"Yes! I knew she'd come around," Minty said. Squeaky shot a look at Gabby.

"See, told you. Not such a feather-brain now, am I?" she said.

Gabby, I ought to mention, was mortally afraid of heights.

"There is no way I'm going on that death trap. No way, no how, it's not happening," she folded her forelegs and sat on the grass in front of us. "Absolutely not."

As the four of us boarded the Ferris Wheel, Gabby was muttering aloud, "How did I let them talk me into this?"

For the twins, the Ferris Wheel was no big thing, they'd been higher before on a routine basis. For us wingless ponies, height was a rarity. I wasn't particularly fond of it, but there was a certain thrill in seeing the landscape so far below you, the ponies on the ground become smaller than a hoof-print. We'd also be in perfect position to watch the dawn that was approaching, the scheduled raising of the sun was in twenty minutes. As we started to ascend, Gabby was busy holding onto her seat. Minty and Squeaky sat on either side of her, holding on, as per our agreement to "not let her fall". I sat on alone on the other seat, facing them. The wheel was aligned such that we could see the horizon to our side, glowing orange and projecting pink onto the clouds above. As the wheel did its circuit and we reached the top, I looked out onto the plains of Equestria, studying all the little details. Gabby kept her gaze pointed up, so as not to see the ground so far below. The twins were loving the whole situation, probably too much, and talked excitedly about trying to get us to try skydiving next. No thanks, I thought, and I knew Gabby was thinking it too.

I saw a white blob moving across the terrain, off in the distance. Should have brought some binoculars. It was a Pegasus pony, far off, close to the distant mesas that bordered with the badlands. It flitted about the horizon, stopping and landing very close to where the sun would soon pass. After a minute, it started traveling on a direct line towards us at high speed. As it got closer I could make out the features more closely. Minty figured it out first.

"Hey is that the Princess?" she said, pointing her hoof over and releasing her grip on Gabby. Squeaky, facing the other way, turned around and loosened hers as well as she tried to spot what Minty was pointing at. Gabby didn't take it well, and I thought quickly before grabbing her myself from across the aisle. I lost my view as I couldn't look to the side, while Minty and Squeaky tried to get a better look.

"We were going to see her when we got off, literally! The raising is five minutes away!" Gabby yelled at them as the wheel started to bring us down. The twins grudgingly regained their grip and I looked over the side of our pod. There were no other ponies lined up to get on the wheel, practically the entire fair looked deserted as everypony was drifting towards the raising podium.

"Come on, we're gonna miss it!" Minty ran ahead of us after we got off the wheel. Gabby very nearly kissed the ground before thinking better of it, though only I noticed her do it.

The crowd gathering around the podium was huge, though there was an unoccupied hill on the perimeter that we decided to make use of. We were about a hundred yards away, which would be decent, really, you don't exactly need to be in the front row to watch the Sun rise up. I set out the picnic blanket and we all sat down on it. Minty wanted to fly closer but Gabby grabbed her wing and held it. The message was quite clear.

The trumpets blared out and the crowd quieted, as Princess Celestia walked up onto the stage. Everypony's eyes were focused on her as she surveyed the crowd. It took a moment, but that moment seemed to drag. She was scanning the crowd, back and forth, looking for something. I don't know if she saw whoever it was she was looking for though, she focused herself and straightened up, perfectly parallel to the path of the sun. She flapped, rising slowly off the stage and aligning with an angle measure just behind her. Once she was in the perfect position in the air, she stopped flapping, and the sun lifted behind her, turning white and radiating with an intensity I'd never seen before.

The feeling was incredible, a rush that shot through me like a strong wind, threatening to bowl me over. Everywhere the invisible wind touched, goosebumps set off, and I shook internally. The moment passed and the stunning white sun returned to its usual yellow. A great cheer went up from the crowd as I thought I was going to pass out from the shock.

"Well that was a bust," I heard Minty say. What? How?

"Yeah, I thought something awesome was gonna happen," came Squeaky's voice.

"Hey, that was pretty cool. When did you last see a white Sun?" Gabby asked.

Had none of them felt it?

"Hey, Cadence, are you okay?" Gabby was looking down at me.

"Oh, yeah, just fine. Almost fell asleep I think," I said.

"I'm not saying it's overrated, I was just expecting more," Minty continued, totally oblivious to what had really happened. The Princess had a smile on her face as I sat up, and the crowd kept cheering.

"Do you think we were too far away?" Squeaky asked. Minty shrugged.

Princess Celestia stood on the stage, looking around again, but she was not searching this time, she was following something. Her eyes traced a path along the crowd, starting from where we had entered and zigzagging across the field where all the ponies stood, still cheering, but not as loud as before. She traced the path all the way up until she reached the base of the hill we were sitting on, and stopped.

She looked up.

She looked right at me. I felt a cold chill as I realized it. My friends stopped talking.

She left the stage after giving another wave to the audience, as the trumpets played her out. Minty was the first to break the silence.

"Whoa, did you see that? Did she look at us?" Minty asked.

"No, Minty, she was probably just sizing up the crowd," Gabby said dismissively. "All the acts do that before they take a bow, didn't you see Aurora?" Gabby was referring to the magic act earlier that night.

"I don't think it's fair to compare magic tricks to this," I said with reverence. Gabby turned to look at me.

"To what, a white sun? Big deal. Let's go get some tofu dogs," Gabby said.

I let them fold up the picnic blanket while I struggled to comprehend everything. My mind was racing, but in a good way, I felt all right. I didn't think it was anything important, she had just been scanning the crowd and probably saw us sitting on a blanket on a hill. Maybe she got a chuckle out of it, seeing four teenagers who had showed up late and sat in the back. What bothered me was that my friends hadn't felt anything that I had. Maybe it was a Unicorn thing, or maybe we really had sat too far away, and I had just been more sensitive to it, in any case, I was starving and it was time to get some greasy tofu dogs, slathered in mustard.

All in all I'd say it was a good night, we had a lot of fun. It was good to spend a full evening with my friends, just like when school was still on and we'd spend the weekends hanging out. Summer jobs had started to cut into that, especially since the twins were always busy delivering pizzas on the weekends and Gabby had to go to concerts to help with the promotion.

When I got back home that day, there was some mail waiting. Poor postal workers, I wonder if they got the night off I thought to myself as I took it into the kitchen. It was addressed to me, from the central office, but looked different than my usual assignments listing. It was too thin, for one thing. I tore it open and read the contents.

"Dear Miamore, please report to the head office for a reassignment meeting as soon as possible. Yes, that means today. -The Administrator". The signature, J. S. Lemma, was scrawled underneath it. Ah crap, I thought, that's that robot lady.

Author's Note

Questions, comments, offers of marriage, and corrections may also be sent to: Saltyjustice AHT Derpymail DAHT com.

Chapter 8

I approached the squat, square center for the EDF-something with dread. I had almost forgotten what had happened last time I was here, but seeing the entrance and plaque out front brought the memories rushing back. The plaza in front of the building bustled with ponies going about their days, which provided me with some comfort. Only if things got deathly silent need I fear anything.

The receptionist grunted at me as I entered, pointing to the waiting room again. There was nopony else inside, so I sat down and tried to remain awake as long as possible. My eyes were stinging and I kept my train of thought focused with great effort. Each time I closed my eyes, even to blink, I'd snap them back awake and look at the clock. Only two minutes passed before the receptionist told me to go to Ms. Lemma's room, but time was behaving strangely.

When you haven't had any sleep, nothing seems real. The hallway had gotten longer since last I was here, and the walls jutted out at irregular angles. As I trudged onwards, the hallway stretched out ahead of me, taunting me to go faster. I wouldn't let it win, and kept my pace until I crossed the distance and arrived at Ms. Lemma's office.

No amount of sleep deprivation could bring a smile to her face. She watched wordlessly as I entered, showing as much emotion as a bag of turnips. I stood in front of her at her desk. She said nothing. I said nothing. She said nothing again. I'm really tired.

"You wanted to see me?" I ventured out.

"Yes, your assignments have been changed. Here's the details," she said, pushing a scroll with a key tied to it. This wasn't the same scroll they usually mailed me, this one had some other letterhead on it. I unfurled it and quickly read it.

Dear Miamore

Due to a recent change of internal policies, you have been reassigned. You will no longer be watching properties, and are to be charged with surveillance of one Twilight Sparkle. You are considered to be an emergency caregiver and may be called on at any time, day or night, to provide assistance, should it be required.

The letter outlined some more trivial stuff, like standard times (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 8:30-5:00pm) as well as what to do in case of emergency (stop drop and roll), among other things.

What struck me was a footnote, written in somepony else's style. Somepony else had added this addendum afterwards, in a different ink.

You're the only one that can do this, I'm counting on you.

I didn't have any idea who had written it, it was completely out of place. My first thoughts had been that this was a result of the incidents a few weeks ago, even if that didn't make too much sense. Have I mentioned how tired I am?

I tucked the scroll and key into my saddlebags and looked up. The robot was still staring at me.

"Uh, anything else?" I asked. She stared back at me. I was overcome with the urge to leap onto the desk, grab her with my forehooves and scream "WHO BUILT YOU?", though I thought better of it. She probably moved with hydraulics, meaning she was incredibly strong and could crush me like a fly.

"Yes, your reassignment begins immediately," she said.

"What, like, today? Right now?" I tried to protest. I could hear a soft whispering in my ears. It was saying Cadence, come to bed, I miss you so. My covers where talking to me, demanding I go to sleep.

"Yes, right now. As in, right now."

Further argument was pointless. Robots, not needing to sleep, would never be able to comprehend why a flesh-bag like myself would spend hours and hours unconscious, and I might as well be explaining how to make a good sandwich, or what it means to love. Robots can never love.

Never.

I headed out from the building and double-checked the address on the scroll. It seemed to change every time I looked at it, and my eyes were having trouble focusing. Exercise would keep me sane.

I set off at a trot. The Sparkle residence was in a different neighborhood than my own, very posh, lots of lovely statues sat at intersections. Important looking ponies, always well dressed, littered the sidewalks, wallowing in their idle time, as I made my way towards the target. My bedsheets had softened their calls, growing more distant and the sun stung my eyes. Why was it so bright out? Whose idea was that?

After getting the numbers mixed up and walking past the place a few times, I finally laid eyes on the house I was to be sitting at. A magnificently appointed two-story house, clearly a custom work unlike the cookie-cutters in my neighborhood, it had a tidy garden and the walk had beautiful sandstone bricks lining the sides. The doorway was beneath a set of three arches made of marble, even the mailbox looked like a rich pony's mailbox, with gold trim and the picture of a sun adorning it, carved from bronze. Evidently I was moving up in the world, so to speak.

Nopony was outside, so I opened the door with my key and went in. The house was still. I poked around, checking the kitchen and then the living room. This house had its own dining room, unlike mine, and a note sat waiting for me on the table in it.

Dear Foalsitter

Sorry for the short notice. Twilight should be awake by the time you get this. Help yourself to anything in the fridge and be sure she gets some exercise. I will be home at 6.

-SS

Guess that was her mom, or maybe her dad, that left the note for me. I checked some of the other rooms in the house, locating the bathroom, basement, and what must have been the parent's room, but couldn't find the filly.

Finally I checked a little room at the end of the hall on the second floor. It was a study, with books all over the shelves and a balcony overlooking the backyard and the park that lay beyond it. In one corner, at a desk, was a purple filly poring over a book. She didn't look up as I entered.

I walked over and sat next to her. She didn't look up, focused instead on the book in front of her. May as well get this started.

"Hi, I'm Cadence," I said. She didn't look up.

"I'm your foalsitter." Nothing.

"What's your name?" Nada.

"Hello?" Zip.

She continued to read her book, stopping after a few seconds to turn a page. All the symbols on the pages were blurry, how was she reading this? Maybe it was just my eyes. My head seemed to be floating a few feet above my neck. There was no way I was going to last the rest of the day in this condition. She flipped another page.

I sat down my bags and pulled out the history book I had packed to read in the waiting room at the EDH-forget it. I hadn't had a chance to actually use it, but I may as well right now.

I tried to read it, but the words were all out of order. I needed to research a particular pirate by the name of Neckbeard the Courageous, gentlecolt thief and pony of adventure. He had come up with a scheme to measure the curvature of the earth using the flatness of the sea and the heights of several beacons, I think. I read and reread the paragraphs but they didn't make a lot of sense.

Neckbeard had measured the height his ship sat in the water up to the crow's nest, where he had one of his crew with a beacon. At night, when the sea was calm and flat, he sailed out of port to the horizon. An accomplice on the shore was to light his own beacon as soon as he lost sight of the ship's beacon, then a Pegasus flying over the ship would signal the ship to stop. From there, Neckbeard could use trigonometry to determine how far he was from port, and how far down he had traveled, and deduce the curve of the earth.

What didn't make sense was, why was he doing this? He's a pirate, isn't he supposed to be plundering towns and getting drunk? Suddenly I could only think of swashbuckling pirate talk. Arrr, walk the plank matey, or I'll -

I woke up a few seconds later. My head was on the book, staring at the wall. Twilight had yet to react to my presence at all.

Sitting still wasn't going to work, I had to keep myself active or I'd fall asleep.

"Hey how about some food?" I asked Twilight.

Of course she didn't respond. I was starting to sense a pattern.

I left my things next to her and went off to the kitchen to fix a snack for us. It took me a few minutes to locate some bread, mostly because I was staring into the cutlery rack while wondering why the bread was so hard – and made of metal – before I realized what I was doing.

Having found the most difficult part of any sandwich, I checked the fridge for something to put on it. Lettuce was obvious, tomato a good compliment, and there were some white petals of a flower I couldn't identify that seemed a good candidate. The only condiments available were mustard and relish, and I hated relish, so I smothered the bread with mustard. I then put the sandwich in the fridge and closed it before I realized I was supposed to put the mustard back, and extracted the sandwich again.

I cut the sandwich in half and put each half on a different plate. Now we had a real puzzle. How to get both sandwich plates to the study without hurting myself?

It took a minute for me to remember I had magic and could just levitate the snack. As long as I focused and took a little extra time for even simple tasks, I could make my sleep-deprived brain do its job.

Getting back to the study was a challenge in itself, since I had forgotten where it was. As I hovered the plate back towards the little filly, still reading her book, I wondered if she'd even eat mustard. Some ponies can be so fickle.

"Here you go!" I said cheerfully. I hovered the sandwich practically on top of the book before setting it off to one side.

For the first time, she took her eyes off the text and stared at the sandwich hovering in front of her, following it as I set it down. She then turned to me and stared, at me, or more accurately, at my horn.

"You're a Unicorn?" she asked.

"Very observant!" I said back sarcastically. She smiled, meaning she was probably too young to understand what sarcasm was, and I had dodged that bullet. My lack of sleeping was making me crabby.

"Do that again, do that again!" she said, hopping up and down.

I puzzled about what she could mean as I watched her hopping before I connected "Unicorn" and "That" and "Again" together and realized she was talking about magic. I picked up the sandwich and hovered it in front of me, taking a bite before setting it back down. It was a tad bit dry, not enough mustard.

Her eyes opened wider and wider as I did this, then she focused on the sandwich herself as it sat on the desk next to her book. She started struggling, like she was trying to push her lungs out her mouth, contorting and straining. Finally, a spark popped out of her horn, but the sandwich stayed put.

Either I was higher than a kite, or that was really impressive for a filly of her age, because I was wowed. I was leaning towards the second option. She was unhappy with it though.

"Same as last time," she sighed, then looked back to me. "Will you teach me some magic?"

"Well uh, what about your mom? Did she -" I started.

"Mom says I'm too young to do magic," she said with a big frown. I hate to see little fillies cry, but I don't think she realized what she was asking. It'd be easier to get flying lessons from a rock than magic lessons from me. I don't know if it was the unsettled feeling in my stomach, or the fact that my decision-making centers in my brain were asleep, but I was now determined to teach this filly magic.

I woke up a few seconds later. I had collapsed where I was standing and Twilight had been nudging me.

"Hey, are you okay? Wake up!" she said, as I groaned. Gotta stay active.

"I'm fine, just fine, everything's fine, we're all fine." I said. Fine is a funny word. Fine fine fine fine.

No Cadence, stay focused! I shook my head quickly, and my tongue wagged out, making a "blblblblb" sound. Twilight started laughing and tried to poke my tongue with her hoof. Reality came roaring back and I felt awake again, for a short time.

"Okay, okay. I'll show you some magic, and after that, let's go out and do something fun. Does that sound fair?" I said. Twilight nodded in agreement.

"Now, don't try so hard to give yourself a hernia, you just need to imagine the sandwich moving and it'll move," I said.

"What's a hernia?" she asked back.

"Not important, move the sandwich," I said. She looked at the sandwich for a few seconds before looking back to me.

"It's not working!" she protested.

"Imagine it floating straight up in the air, just above the plate. Just imagine it," I said. In truth, this was just what I did, it sort of became second nature after a while. I had no idea if this was an approved teaching technique, but I had to start small.

The sandwich did not move.

"Erm, maybe you should try something smaller," I said, pointing to a quill that was sitting on the desk. "Try moving that quill."

Twilight focused her glare on the quill. Her horn started to glow softly, and the quill nudged a centimeter or two, before the glow disappeared and the quill sat still again.

"Wow, didyouseethatohmygoshImoveditthatwassoawesomeyesyesyesyes!" Twilight started bouncing around. I swear I saw her turning 150 degrees in midair as she did so, but I chalked it up to sleep deprivation. I stopped her as she passed by grabbing her out of the air with my own magic and hovering her still in front of me.

"Okay, time for outside stuff. We do things," I could no longer form proper sentences.

"Mmhhmm," she nodded as I set her down.

We set off after locking the house up, and traveled down the street before the realization hit me that I didn't know where we were going. I hadn't planned that far ahead, if anything, my plans were just now catching up to a few minutes ago, so I was completely winging it. I was good at faking like I knew what I was doing, so I walked with purpose and Twilight followed along behind me.

She was quite well behaved, if a bit shy, so she didn't give me any trouble or go wandering off. All I needed now was something to do to keep me awake long enough for the day to end. Badminton? Tennis? Ping-Pong? Volleyball? Why was I thinking of variations on the same sport with a net in the middle? My head was spinning.

"Oh can we go to the pool?" Twilight said as we passed a sign. I stopped and went back to read the sign.

Salad Steve's All-U-Can-Eat Buffet, 11:00-2:00 every day!

That sign had nothing at all to do with swimming or pools. I felt like chiding Twilight for being silly, but I was suddenly caught by the most mesmerizing sign directly below the other one.

Glimmering Gardens public pool hours: 9:00am to 5:00pm daily.

Maybe the fact that we were standing in front of the pool's entrance is what made me want to go inside, or perhaps it was Twilight insisting, but something was telling me I needed to go into that pool.

The pool had free admission, so we headed right in. The public pools in Canterlot are a lot like the baths, except they're not heated and there's far fewer old ponies hanging around leering at you. Most of the other ponies here were young families, fillies and colts running around on the grass and swimming about in the kiddie pool. There were a few teenagers in the deep end, but not many. Moms and Dads lounged on the grass at the edge and kept an eyes on their kids.

I made sure we stayed in the shallow end of the pool. The cool water would refresh me and keep my sense sharp – every time I blacked out I'd wake up immediately. I could see absolutely nothing wrong with frequently falling unconscious around a body of water, and Twilight was too busy splashing to notice. Maybe she thought I was just enjoying myself. I was, sort of, insofar as I could remember what we were doing. The sun was really bright on my eyes, even when I had them closed. What time was it? I couldn't remember what day it was. Why don't they make vinegar flavored tofu? I like vinegar and I like tofu, they're the perfect match.

My brain kept on running in circles as the sun arced its way across the sky. Twilight was teaching herself to swim, badly, but she wasn't drowning so I was doing my job. I didn't know how to swim anyway, but my hooves could touch bottom in the shallow end of the pool so it was like sitting in a bath tub. With a lot of other ponies, some of whom were very young. It'd save everypony a lot of trouble if foals were just born at the age of majority, then we wouldn't have to look after them so much. Why hadn't anypony suggested that before? Somepony needed to take the initiative.

I snapped awake again as my head hit the water, gurgling a bit before bringing it back up and gasping for air. Twilight was a short distance away, laughing, before dunking her head in and bringing it back up. I was setting a terrible example. It was also getting late, judging by the fading light and the fact that the pool closed at 5:00 and the pool was about to close. My logic skills are impeccable.

"Twilight, time to go home," I said. She looked up at me.

"Awww, do we have to?" she said back. I took this as a good sign, she enjoyed getting some fresh air.

"Yes, we literally have to. They're closing, see?" I said, pointing to a big wall clock that read 4:50pm.

"How do you know?" she asked. Had nopony taught her how to read a clock?

I tried to explain the minutes hand and the hours hand, and I think I only botched it mildly. She was sharp as a tack though, and deduced the missing parts herself.

"Oh, well if that one is the... it's 4:55!" she said, quite proud of herself. Had it taken me five whole minutes to explain that?

We stood outside the pool's gate to let the sun dry us off. Each gust of wind brought a chill as the water whisked off. Twilight's mane dried out faster than mine for some reason, and we set off back to her house. I let her lead the way since I wasn't sure where we were or where her house was, and we got back safe enough. I didn't even pass out on the way back!

I woke up a few seconds later, Twilight was half a block ahead of me and hadn't noticed I had stopped, literally falling asleep standing up. I trotted to catch up before she turned around.

By the time we made it back to her house, her Mom was waiting for us by the door.

"Oh there you are Twilight, I was getting worried. Who is this?" she asked her filly.

"This is Cadence, my best friend! She took me to the pool and we swam and I could hold my breath for a whole minute!" Twilight said proudly.

I had no recollection of that happening at all. We went to the pool? That'd explain why my tail was wet.

"Ah the foalsitter!" her Mom came up to me and shook my hoof. I was unprepared entirely, my whole body shook as she shook my leg. "Thank you so much for coming on such short notice. I really appreciate it," she said with a big, sincere smile.

"Oh no trouble at all," I said weakly. Please don't tell me your life's story.

"Well we normally have her brother look after her, but -", she started. This time, it was my turn to cut her off.

"Oh it's all right, I really must be going though. See you soon Twilight!" I said, giving a little wave and dashing off before her Mom could force me to be awake a second longer than absolutely necessary.

I got lost on the way home and had to wander for a while before I realized I had been going in circles around my block. I skipped dinner and went straight to bed, the sheets softly whispering Welcome back, Cadence. We're so soft and warm, stay with us tonight.

"Of course I'll stay with you," I said back to my bedsheets. I tried to be discreet, since I didn't want my desk or homework to get jealous, but I had a special relationship with my sheets, letting them wrap around me, cuddling in their embrace.

Now that I sat here, waiting for sleep, it wouldn't come. Isn't that funny, I spent the whole day wanting to fall as-

Chapter 9

I woke up with a sudden urgency, my dreams washed into nothingness as reality returned and surrounded me. It was still dark out, pale, soft moonlight streaming through the window and illuminating the wall clock, which read 3:25 am.

I had not awoken with the usual urgency one gets in the early morning, particularly if one had been drinking a lot of water the day previous. I couldn't quite place what it was, but I knew it was important, very important. And I knew it involved Twilight Sparkle.

I hopped out of bed, leaving the covers in a tangle. No time to comb or get anything, just go, get moving. The house was quiet, still. My parents were sleeping in the room next to mine. I could hear Dad softly snoring as I made my way outside. I only carried my keys, no saddlebags this time, I needed to move quickly.

As I made my way towards the Sparkle household, my pace increased of its own accord. At first I had been walking, then trotting, now I was moving at a gallop, and no faster lest I tire myself out. There was no time for questions, no time for anything, I had to get to Twilight's house.

My memory of the house's location was clear and crisp, all others had faded into a blend of colors and shapes from yesterday. I made my way there in record time, stopping at the front yard, finally, to question just how insane this was going to look if anypony saw me. What was I doing here? What would I say? Oh, just came to check on your daughter, Mrs. Sparkle, at 3am! I do it for all the fillies I sit for, you know.

Forget all that. I opened the door quietly with my copy of their key and snuck inside. I couldn't hear anypony else in the house, it was quite still, except, there was a gentle breathing sound coming from the living room.

I leaned my head around the corner, moonlight cast long shadows in the room while leaving me cloaked in darkness. In the middle of the beam of light sat Twilight, looking up at the moon.

"Twilight?" I whispered, trying my best not to alarm her with a sudden noise.

"Cadence!" she said back, standing up and walking over to me.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do now, or even what I was doing here. Leave? Maybe.

"Come on, we have to go," I whispered to her. She nodded and we set off back out the door, quietly closing it behind us and leaving only a soft click as we did. A feeling of dread began to well up inside me, whatever it was, it was going to happen very soon.

We made it past the garden and out to the street before I realized what was going on. It was quiet, completely quiet. No sound, no humming, no crickets, absolutely, deathly still. My stomach twisted, I strained to hear anything I could. Twilight stood at attention next to me, perhaps sharing the same feeling I had. We stood in the street and waited.

The gurgling started, much faster than last time, and far closer. There was no time for anything else, it was coming fast, and would appear within seconds. I needed to make them count.

"Twilight, get on my back and hold on. Don't let go whatever you do." I whispered to her in my most authoritative tone. She hopped on without another word and gripped her forelegs around my neck. I could feel them trembling slightly as they held on.

The gurgling stopped as it reached the surface only a few meters away. I didn't look this time, I didn't want to look. I didn't even need to see it to know I wanted to be away from it. An aura of hatred was emanating from it, I could feel it all around, making the air thick and heavy. I turned away, and I could feel Twilight turn her head to look.

"What is that thing?" she asked, almost as a curiosity. No fear, no screaming, just idle disinterest. Maybe she had gone into shock.

I had no time to answer, I took off as fast as I could away from the thing. Twilight tucked her head in close to my neck instinctively, making us as aerodynamic as possible. She was heavy, far heavier than my saddlebags had been last time, and I could not run as fast as before. I would have to try to anyway.

We cleared the first two blocks as I barreled down the empty sidewalks at full tilt. I had started with a lead on it this time, if it was even the same beast as the last one, but it was to no use. The heavy filly weighing me down was too much, I pushed harder.

My legs started to burn, my chest ached, but my resolve would not wane. It was not merely my own life, but Twilight's this time, I wouldn't allow this filthy thing to even touch her, not as long as my heart kept beating.

The street ahead of us ended but there was a walkway between two of the houses leading to a park behind them. I turned slightly to angle into the narrow path, hoping the creature was too large to fit and would have to stop. It was to no avail, it concentrated itself into a smaller frame as the hate emanating behind me became more intense. They could change their shape at will, only speed would keep us ahead. It was gaining on us.

The park was uneven ground, and I could not slow down as I tore over it. I made it halfway to the other side, where another street ran ahead, before the inevitable happened. My leg cramped up, the slight catch caused me to miss my step, and I tumbled.

My chest slammed into the ground first, Twilight's grip around my neck loosened and broke as she flipped over my head, landing neatly on all fours in front of me. My hoof was crushed by my own weight, I thought I heard a snap in it. Pain shot all over. Twilight turned around to look down at me as the beast closed the distance and threatened to overtake me.

"Twilight," I hissed out. I had precious little breath to give. "Run."

She didn't answer, nor did she run. She looked up at something behind me, far up. It was tall, close. It was over top of me now, but I couldn't move. I could only sit and watch the horror on Twilight's face as she stared up at it. Her jaw dropped and stayed down. It would all be over soon.

CRACK

A bright flash shot everywhere, casting the entire world into a white glare with only Twilight's silhouette in front of me. A roar echoed all around us, louder than anything I had ever heard before, like a thousand tons of TNT detonating at once, bouncing and ricocheting off the grass and trees to cast weaker echoes in every direction. The sound was not a sound, it sent its waves though my head and not my ears.

It was gone. The flash, the roar. The creature. They were all gone. I had closed my eyes in preparation for the end, an end which did not come. I felt something nuzzling me gently. I opened them to see Twilight prodding me with her nose.

"Cadence, wake up please, wake up!" she cried. There was a tear in her eye. As she saw me look up at her, relief overtook grief. She hugged me.

The pain was gone, as was the exhaustion. I gently tested my leg to find there had been no breaking of bones. Only my chest had a few scrapes on it, my pink coat covered in green ground-up grass. For any observer, it was as though I had just had a mild trip. The previous two minutes had not happened.

Twilight and I wordlessly made our way back to her house. Questions ran themselves through my brain, but to ask them of her would do us no good. She was every bit as confused as I was, I knew nothing she did not. Except for one thing.

"What did it look like, Twilight?" I asked as we made our way past her house's garden, towards the door.

She didn't answer. She just shook her head. Best to let that one slide then.

I told her to go back to bed, that it was all just a bad dream and that I would see her Wednesday. She didn't want to go to bed, she wanted to stay with me, and it was only by promising to come by tomorrow and check on her that I got her to go. I made my way back to my bed and fell into the covers.

I wanted it to be just a bad dream, but this time the evidence was too much.

I wanted to be insane, that would have been easier than accepting that this was real.

I wanted to know what had happened, and at the same time, to forget it had happened.

Most of all, I wanted to know: Why me? What had I done to have such terrifying occurrences become commonplace?

The next morning, I wasn't scheduled to do any sitting, but I had a brilliant excuse ready if I needed it. Now that I was fully conscious, navigating conversations would be child's play. It's only when you've tried to explain yourself on negative twelve hours of sleep that you realize just how easy it is and how much we take for granted.

The house was just as I remembered it, which was good, as having hallucinated the entire day previous would really have taken the wind out of my sails. If I had been romping around in a dumpster with a bag of shredded lettuce I had thought was a filly, I'd be locked in an institution. At the very least I'd get fired.

I knocked on the door and it opened a few moments later. Standing in front of me was a white colt with a blue mane. He looked to be about my age. He looked at me passively, his jaw slightly agape.

"Oh hello, is Twilight here?" I asked innocently.

No response.

"Hello?" Nothing.

"Uhhh," Nada.

"I'm her foalsitter?" Zip.

Does this run in the family? At least he recognized I was there, his eyes followed my face as I nervously fidgeted in place.

"Oh oh oh! Cadence, hello there," the familiar sound of Twilight's mother's voice came from behind the colt as she emerged from the doorway. The colt stepped to the side but did not take his eyes off me.

"Good to see you Cadence," she continued. "Terribly sorry I don't have time to chat, just on my way out you know. Is something the matter?"

Time for my brilliant cover story.

"What? Oh, am I not supposed to sit for Twilight today?" I asked, as I saw a certain purple filly come out of her room and head towards the commotion. Her face lit up when she saw me and she trotted the rest of the way.

"Oh, no," her mother said, as Twilight pushed past her. "You don't sit on Tuesdays, remember?" she patted Twilight's mane, which was scruffy and unkempt. She must have just woken up.

I made a big show of whacking myself in the side of the head with my hoof. Perhaps too big of a show, the impact stung and left a brisk thwack in the air.

"Ohhh, I'm sorry," I said, winking at Twilight. She winked back. All is well here.

"I was so caught up I forgot what day it was! I'll see you tomorrow then Twilight," I finished. She nodded at me and then went back inside. The colt was still staring at me, his mouth now fully slacked open.

I didn't want to be rude, but I was worried he might be, well, special. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it was a shame: he was so cute. His mane curled around his ear and the light blue stripes complimented his eyes. Why do the cute ones always have to be so dumb?

Mrs. Sparkle practically had to drag him back inside after giving me a polite nod. I left the house with no fear for Twilight's safety, perhaps she had taken my advice and concluded it was just a bad dream.

I wished I could take my own advice for once, but it was not to be.

Author's Note

Mwehehehehehehehehe. That's one mwe and eight he's.

Chapter 11

The five of us lay in the grass, looking up at the sky. My friends had come by while I was sitting for Twilight, so we decided to go hang out in the park, as usual. Twilight sat reading that monster book of hers, halfway done now, a few yards away. The four of us lay on our backs, the grass felt cool as summer was in full swing.

"Hey Gabby," I started to ask. "How come you don't always come by on Wednesdays?"

"Didn't I tell you? I have to stay if my guys practice late." She answered.

"Aren't you like, a promoter? Why do you have to listen to them practice? I asked back.

"I make their album art, so I pick my favorite song as they make them, and then I draw something inspired by it," she said simply.

"Hey, you should come down to practice! I bet Twilight would dig their stuff," she said, leading me on.

"Oh, I don't know. She's not into death metal." I said.

"It's not death metal, it's power metal." she hissed.

I rolled my eyes. "She's not into metal, period. Right Twilight?"

The filly was busy with her head stuffed into her book, and did not respond. Smarty-Pants served as a paperweight when the wind kicked up.

The book had not proved easy to take out here, but Twilight had insisted. Minty, Squeaky and I worked together just to lift it onto Gabby's back, and she had shuddered under the pressure.

"Are you sure you got this?" I has asked, rubbing my legs.

"Oh yeah - oof - I got this, no problem," she had wheezed out. Always helps to have strong friends. "Say, maybe the filly can ride me on the way there too, yeah?"

I had had to stop Twilight from leaping on, since the last thing Gabby needed was a broken back.

"So like, what's the difference between power metal and death metal and regular metal," Squeaky asked idly.

"I think they're all the same, but this way you can tell yourself you're into the good stuff, and scoff at everypony else," Minty answered. Squeaky let out a giggle.

"You guys can't tell the difference?" Gabby shot back. The three of us shrugged simultaneously.

"Bah!" Gabby said in a huff.

"So how come you don't sit for Twilight on Tuesdays, huh?" Minty asked me.

I shrugged again. "I dunno, I never asked. I just take orders." I said back.

That was a good question though, why did I only sit four days a week? It's not like her parents didn't work full time.

"Hey Twilight," I said. This time her ears perked up. "What do you do on Tuesdays and Thursdays?"

She looked up at me and quickly pushed Smarty-Pants to act as a temporary bookmark.

"I play with my brother!" she said proudly. She stood up and puffed out her chest, making herself look as big as possible.

"He's gonna be a royal guard," she said. She then quickly snapped her hoof up in her best impression of a salute.

She deepened her voice as best as she could before continuing, holding the salute up. "What seems to be the trouble miss?"

"Oh no trouble here," I said back playfully. Minty was stifling a laugh.

"Very well, carry on then," Twilight said, dropping the salute. She stood stock still and stared past us. I rolled over and approached her, she seemed to be a statue, barely breathing.

I waved my hoof in front of her face after a few seconds, getting no response. Her eyes didn't follow me as I moved.

"Uh, Twilight, are you okay?" I asked.

"Sorry ma'am, us guards are trained not to respond to tourists," she said, not breaking her hardened expression. "If there are any issues, please take them up with Sgt. Smarty-Pants here."

"Oh well, don't let me interrupt your important duties," I said, levitating a quill out of my saddlebags as quietly as a I could.

My friends could tell what was coming next, standing up to get a better view. Twilight remained rigid. I hovered the quill in front of her face.

"Do you know what this is?" I asked. She didn't respond.

"This is what we use to test your resolve. Only the toughest guards have ever passed." I said, moving the quill back and forth. Twilight's face didn't move, but I could see her start to shake slightly. A single bead of sweat maneuvered down her face, passing between her eye.

I moved the quill closer. "I'll give you a chance, Pvt. Sparkle. Just give up now. No shame in that, you need to know your limits."

She held firm. Nothing would break her.

"Okay, you asked for it. Engarde, soldier!" I said, moving the feathered edge of the quill gently under her nose.

She held out for a good ten seconds before she broke and started laughing. Minty lost it first, then Squeaky and Gabby joined in. "Pvt. Sparkle I am very impressed! Your fortitude is admirable, and we reward our promising recruits," I said in my best, most authoritative tone. "Would you like your reward now?"

Twilight kept giggling and struggled to say, "What, what do I get?"

"More tickles!"

Her defenses were weakest on her tummy, the quill doing its work back and forth across her coat. She rolled over and I continued the assault, switching to her hooves and then back to her nose. She was practically begging me to stop, so I did. Nopony said being a soldier was easy.

We tried to play a bit of Hoofball afterwards, but the twins kept cheating by flying over Gabby and I. That's totally offsides, I think, or maybe it was legal since none of us had paid attention in Phys. Ed. Either way, I was a lousy forward and Twilight had to 'adjust' the score afterwards. It was a tie, solved by a shootout, with Gabby scoring a goal off the post as Minty dove to catch it. 11-10 is an unusual score for a Hoofball game, which is why our league will never go pro.

As the sun made its way down, we set back to relaxing and talking.

"Ugh, we have to go early today," Minty said, looking at the orange sun. Squeaky let out an mm-hmm.

"Why?" I asked, not like it was all that early. Barely half an hour.

"Dad wants to take us to Cloudsdale to watch the big tryouts," Squeaky said.

"Tryouts? For what?" Gabby asked. Neither of us really followed the news.

"Didn't you hear? Cloudcracker is retiring! I heard he broke his wing in -" Minty said. Squeaky poked her.

"Cloudcracker is retiring," she said simply.

"Am I supposed to know that name?" Gabby asked.

"He's like, the Captain of the Wonderbolts!", Minty gushed. Her eyes seemed far away, maybe this Cloudcracker was cute? I had thought the name sounded familiar, I don't really follow sports or athletics though. Not really my thing. Athletes were usually pretty well built though, comes with the job.

"More birdbrain stuff. They have tryouts? So you can what, fly really fast?" Gabby asked, mockingly. I think it went over Minty's head.

"Oh they fly around, they have style competitions, races, dances," Minty answered, trailing off.

"Minty thinks Cloudcracker is hot," Squeaky said.

"I do not!" Minty shouted, whacking Squeaky with her wing. Gabby and I laughed.

"You have a poster of him in your room! It's right over your bed," Squeaky said.

"He's way too old for you, anyway," I said playfully. Minty just fumed.

"Yeah, yep, I should get going too," Gabby said, stretching a bit. "I'll see you guys later, gotta go pick up the records for tomorrow's sale."

They left, the twins flying over Gabby as she walked away until all three disappeared behind a tree. It was just Twilight and I now, might as well head back.

Oh crap.

Oh no, the book!

Twilight had gone back to reading that huge thing, and now I had no way of carrying it. Last time we had used a wheeled cart to get it to her house, but I had left it there when Gabby carried the book to the park. I couldn't just leave the book here and go get it, could I? What if somepony stole it?

Okay, that was impossible, but what if something else happened, like it got defaced, by some pony with a spray paint can and an axe to grind? Twilight would never forgive me.

Just as I was about to panic, a certain blue maned colt came trotting up.

"Twiley!" he said, seeing his little sister. "I thought you might be here."

"Shiney!" she shouted, forgetting about her book entirely to go running to meet him. Smarty-Pants, ever the dutiful one, kept her page while she was away.

'Shiney' was wearing a gold royal soldier's chest plate, though it was obviously too big for him. He seemed too young to be a guard, but what would I know? Maybe they took recruits and just trained them until they were old enough before setting them loose.

Despite the two being related, I had only actually seen him once before now. He was also evidently capable of speech, which is always a plus.

"Did you get out of training early today?" Twilight asked up at him. As she did, his gaze shifted and panned across me. I was approaching him as delicately as possible, hoping to avoid startling him. Colts can be a timid bunch and will bolt at the first sign of trouble.

"Guhhh, huh," he said, his mouth hanging open again. Well there goes that. Perhaps he was socially awkward and couldn't talk in front of other ponies, it wouldn't surprise me given his sister. How is he going to be a guard with a social phobia? Would he guard the vaults or something? Did Canterlot even have vaults? I figured the royals did everything off of credit.

"Hey, uh, I'm Cadence," I said, smiling. I extended my hoof in the hopes he would shake it. He extended his timidly, and retreated before it could touch. His jaw remained slack and he stared at me the whole time.

"Well, ooookay." I said, still trying my best to make this as normal as possible.

"See, there's this big book over there, and we just can't lift it right, and -" I said.

Without another word, he charged over to the book and tried to lift it. Twilight bounced along behind him and tried to use her magic to lift the book up. It was cute, but about as likely as her raising the moon at this point.

'Shiney' strained and grunted, doing everything he could to lift the beast onto his back, but could only succeed in lifting it halfway off the ground. Admirable, but not enough.

"Okay, let me try lifting it onto your back instead." I said.

That didn't work either. I couldn't get under the book well enough to lift it, and wouldn't have been strong enough to lift it even if I could. I thought better of it, and turned around.

This time I tried lifting it with my stronger back legs, pushing it up and rotating it over until it sat sideways leaning on his side. Halfway there.

He stayed silent as I struggled to get the book onto his back, eventually getting it to sit unnaturally on him. I pulled the belt buckle off my saddlebag and used it to tie the book to his back so it wouldn't fall off and crack the pavement as we walked.

He said not a word as we made our way back to Twilight's house. I could hear him wheeze and grunt, clearly he could handle the weight, barely. Even Gabby hadn't done this well, he was indeed a strong pony. Strong, handsome, two out of three ain't bad.

As we approached the front step, the buckle gave out and the book slid off his side, slamming into the walk and creating a shockwave which nearly knocked Twilight over. Shiney (Shiney Sparkle? What were his parents thinking?) tried desperately to pick it back up.

"Hey it's okay, we can use the pushcart from here, I'll go get it," I said.

"Nonsense milady!" Shiney said, dashing off and returning with the push cart and the jack in under a second. "You need not strain yourself any more."

He took a bow before me, then jacked the book up and onto the cart, then pushed it inside the house. Twilight rode along atop the cart, with me trailing behind. Perhaps he had gotten over his fear? Or maybe his training had kicked in. Either way I was glad I didn't have to push that thing, my legs were tired just looking at it.

"Well I guess I'll be going Twilight," I said to her as her brother emerged from the study.

"Oh, uh, going so soon?" he asked, visibly nervous. I think he was shaking, his words stuttered as he tripped over his own tongue. "Don't you want to, uh, stay for uh, tea?"

Tea? Really?

"No, that's okay, gotta go, lots of, stuff, to do, back home," I said, backing up. "I should go, do it. The stuff, I mean. At home." This guy put me on edge for some reason. My stomach turned itself over a few times, before eventually stopping on its 'unpleasant' setting.

I actually did want to stay, I think. A feeling had come over me when he had asked me to, washing away the awkwardness earlier. I needed time to digest it, to figure out what it meant.

Twilight waved as I left and said, "See you later Cadence!". She was still waving as I turned and passed out of the garden, towards my home. The corner of my eye caught her brother looking at me over her head as she did so.

Dinner was ready when I got home, in a manner of speaking. Mom had been working late on another case this week, so Dad had volunteered to make dinner. Every day.

Today it was sliced tomatoes and fresh hay. Joy.

I decided to take my 'dinner' into my room, claiming I had to catch up on my last essay. Dad nodded and munched on his hay before pulling up the morning's paper and looking at the sports section. I didn't think I could talk to him about stuff like this, it's too complicated for him, he thought about sports and business, not love, right?

As I sat at my desk trying to choke down the raw tomatoes, which would have worked just fine in a soup or perhaps a stir-fry, the logic of it hit me. Of course my parents had thoughts about love, they must have done this before, I was its logical outcome. Ugh.

UGH!

Okay, forgetting that ugly scene for a moment, my thoughts returned to Shiney. He had been staring at me, yeah, but it wasn't creepy. I had thought he didn't like me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he must be going through what I was going through now. He was cute, strong, maybe smart too, but that wasn't enough. There were lots of colts like that at school - okay, no there weren't, they were a pretty dense bunch and seemed to have been struck down mightily with the ugly stick, but my standards could just have been too high.

On the other hoof, this was also something you're not supposed to do. I wasn't too familiar with the regulations governing employee relations towards clients, so I would need to double check this, but I didn't want to lose my job. Plus, how would Twilight take it, if she was even capable of comprehending it? She's a smart pony, yeah, but sometimes you just don't get it until you're a certain age. She didn't even have her cutie mark yet. Could I betray her like that? How would she feel if me, her best friend and foalsitter, liked her brother more than her?

He did have his upsides. I could tell he liked me, or at least thought I was pretty. That made me blush, just thinking about it. Colts had noticed me before but they were always such jerks about it. Shiney was prepared to haul a book that could crush a watermelon for me without me even finishing asking him to. Or he was trying to impress me.

But what if he's not always like that? Or worse, what if he's a shut-in and I'm the first mare he's seen who isn't related to him? What if his parents sent him to guardspony's training because he's not mentally fit for anything else? I hadn't seen him do complex arithmetic yet, he had barely managed to form a whole sentence so far.

I needed more information!

That night, as I lay in bed, my thoughts kept running over all the facts over and over again, yay and neigh, positive and negative, good and bad. I couldn't choose and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Chapter 12

I later learned his name was actually Shining Armor Sparkle, which made a lot more sense than Shiney did - that was just Twilight's nickname for him. Fortunately for me, Twilight was totally oblivious to the questions I asked about her brother. She answered every one pleasantly and accurately, probably thinking I thought as highly of him as she did. She had no idea.

Despite having all the information I needed, I still didn't see him again and was quite glad that was the case. I could always drop by on my days off, though avoiding him was the safer alternative. I wasn't quite ready, the longer I could put it off the better. Thinking about him made me nervous now, so I didn't think about him and just enjoyed spending time with Twilight.

A week had passed, and my last essay would be coming due soon. This time it was about magical engines versus coal engines, I had to catalogue the histories of their discoveries and compare the two as they went. Mr. Prescott had even given me a book I had never even heard of, containing all sorts of legends stretching back to antiquity, when magic engines were first invented.

It was this book that I was busy studying and taking notes on when a letter clanged in the mailbox of Twilight's house. We were in the study after having spent the day touring a museum of archaeology downtown, Twilight reading all the literature they had dumped on us as we passed the exhibits. Ancient pottery and primitive arrowheads, all behind glass cases. She was like a foal in a candy store, which was odd considering she could literally be a foal in a candy store any time she wanted to, but chose museums instead.

I went to check the mailbox by myself and came back with a scroll with her mother's writing on it.

Dear Cadence

Something came up today, going to be very late. Dad and Brother not able to come, please stay later than usual and put Twilight to bed. Very sorry for short notice.

-SS

Would it have killed her to use proper grammar?

"Well Twilight, looks like I'm staying late today," I said as I finished the very short letter.

Twilight almost exploded.

"Like, a slumber party? Oh can we have one? I got this book from - " she practically shouted.

"No no, your mom will just be back late. I'm a little too old for a slumber party," I explained.

"My book says you're never too old, see!" She picked up the book and used her magic to flip the pages in front of me. Her skills were developing very quickly, perhaps she had a real gift.

"Slumber 101: Chapter 1. Is a Slumber Party right for you?" I read aloud. The text was dense, the font was very small, single spaced, and justified to fit the entire page.

"Well that's great Twilight, but I still can't have a slumber party with you. Let's go make dinner, okay?" I asked.

She reluctantly agreed, putting the book away. She would try to convince me again later, I was sure of it.

Twilight and I found one of her Mom's - or maybe her Dad's, I don't know – recipe books and we checked through it to find something she might like. I ruled out stuffed pastas right away, those were just too hard to make. I also ruled out anything with any sugar in it, the last thing I needed was a hyperactive filly who refused to go to bed. Eventually we settled on a cheesy spinach casserole, which took most of the evening to make. It was an enjoyable experience, working together to cook something and then getting to eat your hard work. Twilight did all the organizing, reading the recipe and ingredients and making a checklist of things to do. She was a natural. I even managed to avoid setting the house on fire. Take that, safety instructors!

By the time we were done eating the casserole and had safely stowed the rest in the fridge (Smarty-Pants had decided to abstain from eating it on moral grounds), it was already time for Twilight to go to bed. She didn't argue, the food was enough to leave both of us tired and she kept yawning as we made her bed and put Smarty-Pants on the shelf to watch over her.

"Cadence, will you read me a bedtime story?" she asked as I was preparing to go. I had planned on sitting in the living room until I was sure she was asleep. This could work too.

"Well, okay, but only because I like you," I said. I looked around.

"You do realize you've read every book in here right?" I asked. It was true, most of the books were science and magic stuff, not suitable for bedtime stories.

Or maybe...? No, I don't think I could weave organic chemical reactions into a comprehensible narrative. There's no villain, for one, except possibly entropy. Probably the only book in the house that she hadn't read was...

My history book! Brilliant, Cadence, brilliant!

This history book was loaded with stories based off of legends, which were like bedtime stories except everypony took them deadly seriously.

I opened the book and rifled quickly through the pages, scanning words at random to find something to catch my eye. About halfway through the book, a title chapter leaped up and grabbed me by the eyes - metaphorically, of course.

I cleared my throat and read the title out loud, modifying it slightly to make it sound like a fantasy story instead of legend out of a history book.

"Princess Amoria and the Steel Emperor", I said.

"Ooh, I haven't heard of this one!" Twilight said, snuggling herself down into her sheets.

Neither had I, though it seemed familiar. Maybe I'd heard of this Amoria before? Princesses do tend to come up in the literature fairly often, though not this one.

"Once upon a time," I said, skimming paragraphs as I went to identify key actors and settings, "there was a great empire called the Setkuk empire."

"Where was it?" Twilight said. I hoped she wasn't going to do this all night.

I quickly zipped over the next few lines, but there was no specific location. The book mentioned Equestria a few lines down, so I worked backwards.

"Somewhere to the northwest of here, many thousands of years ago," I said. Twilight was happy with the answer.

"The empire was ruled by a great Griffon family called the Steelfeathers, known for their courage in battle and fairness in dealings with others. One of the emperors, Steelfeather the 5th, came down with a terrible disease shortly after his son was born, and the disease spread to affect many others, including his wife. Sadly, they would both perish of it, leaving young Steelfeather the 6th on the throne at age 15."

Twilight gasped. I had done a decent job of patching up the simple sentences into something like a fairy tale, the real version was far less interesting.

"The emperor, not well versed in the intrigues of court, was in great danger of being overthrown by some of the less-loyal nobles. They would complain often of his inexperience and his lack of battle-prowess, despite having proved himself a capable fencer. Uncertainty loomed in his future, for an attempt to overthrow him would certainly mean an assassination attempt."

"To quiet the dissident voices against him, he resolved to undertake a military campaign and conquer the country his father had had his eyes on, Muletina. He would prove his courage and skill on the battlefield and win the hearts of his people in the process, while simultaneously scaring the nobles into line."

"As he assembled his great army of thirty-thousand soldiers of all races and genders on the border of Muletina, unfortunate news came to him by way of courier. The Muletinans wanted to surrender without a fight, and negotiate a treaty!"

"How is that bad news?" Twilight asked. I could tell she was getting sleepy by her droopy eyes, it would not be long now, yet she was still alert and inquisitive as ever.

I continued the story, since the answer was coming up.

"The emperor was disheartened even as his troops celebrated, for he had been denied his chance to prove himself. He returned home to great cheers and parades to his glory, having defeated his enemies without bloodshed and bringing prosperity to both peoples through trade and political union. The voices on his court had not been hushed, and instead became louder."

"Steelfeather vowed to try again, this time moving to take another province called Ellenia, on the far western edge of Equestria. Again, he assembled his army, and again, the Ellenians sued for peace before battle, encouraged by the result of his previous campaign. The emperor dealt with them fairly, and returned home again to soaring popularity and prosperity. The dissidents now openly called him a coward, which hurt his pride even if he was in no danger of losing his position. So finally, he resolved to conquer the greatest and oldest country the world has ever seen, Equestria."

As I read the next paragraphs, trying to assemble them into a story before Twilight noticed the slowdown, something came over me. There was not much story left, so I began making things up, except they were not made up. I was reading over something I already knew by heart, despite having never read it before, the passages flowed together as if I were reading my own journal.

"As Steelfeather marched his army to the borders of Equestria, the Triumvirate which governed it did not seek out a compromise. Instead, they maneuvered their troops all across the country, always one step ahead of Steelfeather's troops. He could not chase them down to engage in combat, and he could not press ahead while their army remained a threat to his supply line. His troops outnumbered theirs by five to one, yet to be at a disadvantage could spell disaster no matter how many soldiers he had. So they chased one another for months, until winter threatened to end his campaign altogether."

"Finally, Steelfeather had managed to corner them by cleverly faking out his army's movements, sending a small force to give the Equestrian scouts the wrong idea. At last his moment of glory would come and he could settle all accounts as the greatest emperor the world had ever seen. All he had to do was win one battle decisively."

"And so, his army took to the fields in WhiteTail plains. Against them, stood only one pony, Princess Amoria."

As I said that name, a rush overtook me. An avalanche triggered in my head and a stream of images and thoughts poured over me, overriding my own mind. It was not instant this time, nor was it uncontrolled, I could hear myself still narrating the story to Twilight as I went, experiencing the words completely and utterly, the world I was describing became the real one to my mind.

Dark clouds hovered overhead, leaving the world gray and dreary around us, threatening rain at any moment. Normally, the Pegasus ponies would keep such things regulated, but none would dare to wander into a war-zone for something as trivial as weather maintenance. As we had traipsed about the countryside, the many farmers of WhiteTail had abandoned the land in favor of safer terrains, and the area had become overgrown and wild again in such a short time.

Ahead of me stood an uncountable number of creatures from every background. In the center, Steelfeather's personal guard and most dedicated troops, the legendary Heavy Brigade. Clad head to claw in thick steel armor, they were unable to fly due to the sheet weight. They did not need to, for it was nigh impossible to outfight them on the ground. Above them hovered lightly armored skirmisher Griffons, protecting their vertical flank. To my right, I could see several mixed divisions, mostly Griffons, some Mules. Probably irregulars due to the treaties he had managed to get them to sign a few years prior.

To my left was a collection of mercenaries, including some ponies. I didn't fault them for their choices, of course, money was money and not everypony could afford to choose sides. I had heard the Steelfeather paid and fed his troops very well, it was understandable to want to fight for him, even against your own kind. There was no betrayal here.

I had told my own troops to stay behind me, they were now a full day's march away. I had taken the field myself with no support, not because I had some ingenious scheme, but because I had wanted to see for myself the great leader that so many rumors had come to fixate on.

Celestia, as always, had remained back in the capital to direct and plan. She always did that, though she had explicitly told me to surrender rather than fight if it came to that. They outnumbered us heavily, it would be a slaughter that was completely unnecessary. What good was it spilling blood for glory? Had the lessons of the centuries prior been completely forgotten, that now our peoples would fight one another over land and privilege? Shameful, but I supposed it had been necessary for each generation to re-learn the lessons of those prior. I had no intent to let them learn it through death, though.

Luna had practically demanded to wipe them out herself, and it was only with our sage council she did not do so. It was easily within our power to simply tear them apart magically, leaving a disgusting reminder of the horrors of war embedded in the survivors. It seemed the full extent of our power escaped the mortals who now challenged us, not in a good way but in a pathetic way. I supposed it seemed like a legend to them now, there was no way anypony could be near invincible, especially not the otherwise meek and shy Luna. I knew the full extent of her strength, especially when it was unleashed on a creature she had no reason to hold back from. It was so long ago, only the severity of it made it anything but a legend to me. Whole landscapes scorched to stop the black, oozing invaders from coming, and yet more had come.

This was nothing like that, I shuddered as the thought of it came to me. I had volunteered to go in her place, I had a plan to prevent this silly violence and to definitively show it was unnecessary. I had not been prepared for what had come next.

I saw a commotion from amongst the Heavy Brigade soldiers as they broke rank, parting to allow a single Griffon to the front. His armor shone brightly despite the overcast sky, polished and flawless, bearing the symbol of his family on its chest. A griffon stopping a sword using, not a shield, but his wing feathers, cast in a stark grey. Emperor Steelfeather himself stood at their head and made his way towards me. As he approached, he took off his helmet to reveal his youngish, floppy feather-do. It was unkempt, he had done so on purpose, possibly because he liked the appearance of roughness it gave him. His eyes were wide, though anything but innocent, instead I sensed a mischievous tone to him as he sized me up.

"Princess Amoria, I presume," he bellowed, making himself as loud as possible to make sure his own troops, now a hundred yards behind him, could hear him.

"Indeed I am," I said, my horn glowing softly. It was a spell I had usually used when the occasion came for a speech, Celestia having shown me ages ago how it worked. Steelfeather saw my magic and realized what I was doing, the spell would allow us to converse normally while making sure everyone assembled could hear us.

"Well then, I hope you're not here to surrender. You see, my troops here have been getting a lot of exercise lately, and you know how you get after a good workout," he said.

"Oh of course not. In fact, I came alone, to make sure it was a fair fight!", I said back, jokingly.
The assembled troops laughed nervously, quieting as Steelfeather shot a look back at them.

"So then, if not to surrender, why have you come?" he asked, intrigued by my tone.

"I wanted to see just who I was up against. I see now you're a griffon of courage and honor, to come before me without even a bodyguard." I said. Steelfeather, to his credit, took the quip and used it to his advantage. I had been pointing out his naivete, appearing before me within striking range of the sword in its sheath on my back. He quickly turned it around.

"Indeed milady, and I see you're a pony of grace and humility, to honor me with your royal presence and trust in my wisdom," he said, taking a bow.

Steelfeather, despite his youth, was well practiced in this form of verbal sparring. We had paid compliments to one another with civility despite the background of hostility, he was no brash young thing. Time for part two of my plan.

I stood up on my hind legs, and unsheathed the sword I had with me. I did it slowly and calmly to avoid making him think it was to kill him, instead holding it in front of me and keeping my distance.

"I would therefore like to make an offer to you," I said. I placed the sword hilt-up into the ground, driving it down into the grass in the universally accepted tradition. A duel.

"Ah I see," he said, removing his own sword and placing it likewise in front of him, blade driven into the grass ahead of him. "Then I will let you name your term first."

Duels were considered a formal agreement between the two involved, and had a long tradition going back centuries. The formalities and peculiar phrasing were a relic of their history, back when we spoke in poems to one another to prove our rhetorical skills.

"If you are the duelist who is not victorious, then your campaigns must cease and you must make no more wars, against Equestria or any other, so long as you sit upon the throne of Setkuk," I said, sweeping my hoof over the hilt of my sword.

"Very well. If you are the duelist who is not victorious, then Equestria must formally bond with Setkuk and share its resources and wisdom with its people," he said, sweeping his claw over his blade.

"This duelist accepts your terms," I said.

"This duelist accepts your terms," he said back.

This griffon was no fool, I could tell, though his phrasing was not as elegant as mine, he had clearly followed all the formalities and made the agreement as presented. This was not his first duel, I reasoned, which was not surprising considering his reputation as a fencer.

His soldiers behind him, hearing us make these arrangements, broke rank and shifted around, forming into a semi-circle to better watch the proceedings. This was my masterstroke, this was my plan. Celestia's spies had informed me that Steelfeather sought to prove himself, and I would give him the perfect opportunity to do so without killing anypony. Even if he was victorious, and I had no intention of yielding, the results would be quite similar to those of the countries before us which had surrendered. If I defeated him, then his campaigns would end, lest he impugn the honor which it was his goal to obtain. There was no truly losing outcome, though I'm sure Celestia would have had a seizure if I had told her about this plan before I set out!

We raised our weapons to head height to signal the beginning of the battle. Steelfeather stood slightly above me, rather tall for a griffon of his age. His claws could lengthen his reach further than my hooves could as well, though my sword was longer than his. We would be roughly matched on that count. I could not gauge any of his other traits yet, his opening would tell me more.

He decided to take the first attack, shouting "Engarde!" and bringing his blade into a swipe at me. I blocked it easily. He took another step in, repeating the attack over and over at different angles. These were fast strikes, meant to test my reflexes, and I passed each test with ease. He was quick for someone so bulky, the ease which he rotated and twisted his blade was the good fortune of griffons everywhere, the weapon designed for their claws from the ground up. After a good dozen strikes, he eased his attack and stepped back to range, and reset his stance as I did the same.

This time he sought to test something else, bringing back his blade and swinging it from right to left in a powerful arc. He put his full strength behind the swipe, and I felt it as I moved to block the attack. Pain shot through my forelegs, my blade vibrated with the impact and cast the vibration down into my bones. His strength was incredible, far above mine, not just due to his bulk as a griffon but also due to excellent physical conditioning. As a pony, even the biggest and strongest among us would be the match of an average griffon. Our species was far more slender and lightly built for running, not fighting; the sting of steel on steel was a firm reminder of this reality.

Worse, Steelfeather could tell, as I grunted when I stopped the hit, that it had taken effort to do so. He sensed a weakness he could exploit, and tried again to see if the result would be the same. He stepped back, then performed the same swipe again. As I saw him do so, I leaped back nimbly, completely avoiding the strike. Unfortunately, while I had avoided the blow, I had also effectively told him he was stronger than I was, and he now knew where his advantage lay.

To my surprise, he did not seek to capitalize on it, instead resetting his pose again. I recovered and did the same, waiting for the next attack. It was not to come, Steelfeather cocked his head to the side and waited politely for me to make the next strike. A polite gesture, perhaps, or a mocking one, it was difficult to tell.

I needed to be sure he was capable of defending himself, lest I accidentally injure him. I had seen bouts where a fencer was all offense and could not parry, eventually leaving him in the hospital bed after a poorly placed swing. It was considered bad form to severely injure your opponent in a duel, though it happened now and then, accidents with blades having a predictable outcome.

My swings were jabs, light attacks designed to be blocked and, if not, would not cause much more than cuts. Steelfeather parried them easily, almost looking bored as he did so. I obliged his boredom by upping the pace, a flurry of quick strikes which he only barely caught at the last second before parrying. He grunted under the strain of rotating and stepping, but never caved, protecting himself with total surety.

I switched my attack to stabbing motions, using both hooves placed on the blade and thrusting towards him. This block required quite a bit more skill, though it left me open to a counter. Steelfeather parried the first two then went for a counterattack, bringing his blade above his head then back down quickly towards mine. His method was fine but his strategy was lacking, perhaps he had never had an opponent who really tested him. I would punish him soon enough for this.

I sidestepped to avoid his strike, his blade passing down my left side harmlessly. I stepped out and away from to the side, giving us both a chance to reset and prepare for the next attacks. Once again, he allowed me to begin, and I performed a leaping strike from full distance. It was a slow, easily blocked attack, which was exactly what I was hoping he would do. He parried it expertly and began a counterattack, bringing his blade down and then in from his side, swiping horizontally.

I had watched his previous attack and realized he left himself open on the downswing. By forcing him to do a horizontal strike, I could step in the gap as his claw passed. My sword was too slow to attack with, and I switched it to one hoof while bringing the other up into Steelfeather's face.

My shoe connected with his beak square on, the impact causing him to stagger backwards. The assembled crowd gasped. He did not lose his grip on his own sword, and recovered his balance quickly, but the damage was done. He stepped back a bit, lowering his sword to and holding his other claw to feel his beak, touching it gently to check if anything had been broken. I stepped back and waited, until...

"An excellent blow!" he shouted, raising his sword in salute. The crowd cheered and raised their weapons as well, bellowing forth a "Huzzah!"for their leader. He took this setback with striking grace, quite excited at the challenge of it. Point for me.

Technically, the duel would end when one of us yielded, as this was no formal sporting arrangement. In many circles, the duel would end at a yield, or the first to admit the other three points. In formal events, judges would award points for particularly good performances and base the winner off a host of statistics, though forcing the opponent to yield was still an instant victory.

We reset again, I could see him trying to smile through his now-swelling cheek. I grinned back, I admit, though I tried to keep my face as flat as possible, to avoid letting him know where his advantages were. I suspected he would not allow me to take such an easy hit again, having learned his lesson in such a stark manner.

This time he took the strike, swinging six times in quick succession and leaving no room for a counter. I blocked them while backing up, his aggressive stance called him to move forward as he struck. There was plenty of room to maneuver out in the field, backing up was instead a signal that he had the initiative. He could make me move whatever direction he wanted, and kept his pace up, causing me to zigzag around the field as he alternated his lefts and rights.

So far, he had been using simplistic, vanilla attacks. Simple was very effective, there was a good reason to master the basics, but simple was clearly not going to be enough to defeat me. Having caused me to move so much, I was less sure of my stance and a sudden switch would be offsetting. This switchback technique was something they taught in introductory courses, but there was a second, more complicated component. After having me in a movement rhythm, taking one step backwards for each he took forwards, Steelfeather quickly took three steps in quick succession before striking. The sudden rush had me off balance and I parried the hit with the blade at the wrong angle.

The blow caused me to lean to one side, and Steelfeather immediately swung his blade from the same side. I leaped back at full speed, the blade narrowly missing by the length of the fur on my coat. One fraction of a second slower and that would have been an impressive gash on my chest. Both of us recognized that it was luck that had saved me that time, and I stepped back and bowed before resetting myself. The crowd around us had started to grow noisy, various soldiers shouting back and forth in a fog of words that all melted together. I gave Steelfeather a cocked eyebrow as I noticed the din above us.

"Hmm, I think I heard one of them placing a bet on me," I said to him, leading him on. I couldn't hear anything like that, of course, I just wanted to see how he reacted.

"My dear, were I the type, I'd be betting on you too," he said, flashing a grin at me.

"Oh emperor, don't you worry what example you'd be setting? Your troops would never follow a gambler," I said back.

"Perhaps you are right," he said. He lowered his weapon and turned back to face the bulk of the crowd directly behind him. He raised his claw to his mouth and shouted at his army.

"All those of you who are placing bets on the Princess," he yelled, gesturing his sword at me. The crowd quieted down in an instant. "...Had best be prepared to lose them!"

The crowd cheered again, louder than before, and the din of their conversation resumed at full intensity. Steelfeather turned back to me. I rolled my eyes.

Once again, he had either demonstrated great courage or great naivete. From a duelist standpoint, had I struck while his back was turned, it would be a perfectly legal and honorable move. He surely knew that, but did it anyway. Did he... trust me? I could tell his bragging was a show to inspire his followers, yes, and a good show he put on in these circumstances. I wondered if he would mind losing at this point, if so, he did not show it.

The battle resumed, neither of us giving the other an opening, fighting to a standstill as our blades clashed and clanged. The strain was beginning to wear on me, my coat moistened with sweat, and it wore on Steelfeather as well, he panted and grunted with each swing. I could not count on outlasting him at this rate, though he tired, his strikes remained strong and I burned my own stamina to keep pace. Making this an endurance contest was too risky, I needed to finish the fight and do it soon.

I still had a few tricks up my sleeve, and maneuvered Steelfeather to better employ one. We needed to be perfectly level lest I trip myself, so I gently led the battle to the flatter ground just to my right. As we did, the crowd of soldiers moved along with us, getting closer and louder all the time, as though this was some sort of basement prize fight.

When the time was right and Steelfeather's positioning just perfect, I made my move. I needed to wait for him to try an overhead swing, the chance coming a scant minute later. As he brought his blade down, I did not move to parry it but ducked inside its reach, spinning and reaching my own blade up and stopping his in front of me. While it would appear as though I had effectively put his blade to my throat, the surprise left him unable to capitalize, and I quickly slammed my head backwards into his chest, pushing his sword upwards as I did. Once again, he kept his claw on the blade, showing remarkably good grip as he tumbled backward.

He recovered quickly and reset himself, more surprised than upset at this sudden move. In fact, he seemed to be awed by it. He held his blade up, still on alert, as he addressed me.

"I've seen that move somewhere before. That one is very distinct. I believe I saw it at a tournament a few years back," he spoke calmly, measuring himself between deep breaths.

"Hmm, not something that would amaze me. It requires perfect timing and positioning, not an easy find," I answered.

"No no, not like that," he said, pausing for thought, keeping his sword raised. "Ah yes, now I remember. That was a move that Master Zollo showed me once."

"Oh, you're familiar with him?" I asked. Zollo, or Swordmaster Zollo as they called him out east, had taken quite a few titles in his day. He was retired now, though still regarded as one of the best living fencers, more than capable of keeping up with the youngsters as his feathers greyed.

"More than you might think. And you are as well, I see. When did he teach you that?" Steelfeather asked me, not idly or to distract. His tone was legitimately curious.

"Teach me? My dear, I'm the one who taught him," I said back proudly.

Steelfeather's eyes opened wide as he realized the full extent of who he was talking to. Doubtless there were rumors of the Triumvirate Princesses, rumors we made no effort to quash. To see it for himself must have been a shock to his system.

His performance suffered for a few swings before he recovered his poise and precision. Now he threw himself even more into the duel, no longer concerned with victory but with testing himself against me. His second wind was taking a severe toll on me, I could only last another few minutes before I risked having a muscle cramp up at the wrong time. I would need to yield soon, or force him to, and he gave no indication of tiring.

Now was the time for my plan to come to fruition. I had moved Steelfeather slowly and surely into a small depression, not high, but enough to put me at just above his neck. It would have to be sufficient, there was no better opportunity than now.

To begin, I swung my sword a few times, weaker than I had before, then withdrew. A clearer signal that I was tiring could not be sent, and it was no great act of trickery at this point. Steelfeather realized his advantage and began his own finale, swinging his sword in a long arc at full strength and range. He realized it was his only out, and I did as well, knowing he would return to it if he hadn't another route to victory.

I felt almost guilty springing the trap like this. Had this been any other situation I'd have stepped back and told him he was the finest I'd ever encountered, and meant every word. There was more to this than victory, our silly bet seemed distant, only bringing itself back to the forefront as the end of the duel approached.

Steelfeather's first wide strike connected with my blade, as it had before, and sent a shock wave through me. This time I shuddered visibly and reset myself further back. He brought the swing again, slower but with every ounce of power behind it as before. I leaped back to indicate I would not attempt to block it again. Steelfeather chose his opportunity to finish this, at the same time as I did.

He began his third, final sweep, and stepped forward as he did so to prevent me from leaping backwards. Had it connected, I would surely have dropped my blade in shock, and he was too close to dodge. The perfect distance.

I leaped into the air, pulling my hind legs up and flapping my wings as hard as I could, exactly once. Steelfeather's sword sliced the air right under my hoof, any closer and I'd have had a hooficure most unwelcome. My blade came up and just cleared his claw, landing me inside his reach with him completely off balance. He was mine for the taking.

I brought myself up next to him, wrapping my sword up behind his back and pushing his chest into mine. At the same time, I used my free hoof to pull his sword up behind me, facing downwards. His hot breath rolled down my face. We were both drenched with sweat, that roguish grin only an inch away from my face. As I looked up at his face, I felt my grip weaken, and I felt him release his sword, falling to the earth behind me. Victory was mine. I wanted more.

I pressed myself up closer, harder than was necessary. He seemed to understand the implication, lowering his face to mine. I moved in for the finishing blow, our lips locked together in a sweet embrace of passion as our swords fell forgotten to the earth. His tongue was wild as it ran over mine, the beak bizarrely acceptable to me. I had never kissed a griffon before, not in all my many years. It was a pleasant experience, had I known it was like this I'd have ended the duel sooner. Time seemed to stand still as we explored one another's features before, inevitably, we had to end it and withdraw, however reluctantly.

The crowd around us fell completely silent, the onlookers completely forgetting their bets and rowdiness at the display before them. As we pulled back, our eyes remained locked on one another. Steelfeather read my hint. We both said, simultaneously and without hesitation, "I yield."

The gathered crowd's explosion of cheers fell on deaf ears as we kissed again. Who would have known I would find one who I could respect and trust completely, a griffon of true honor and courage ready to stake his empire, perhaps even his life, on his personal skills on the field. I had learned so much about him in our brief time together, and would learn much more over the years to come.

And with that, the world melted away and I was back in Twilight's room. She was sleeping a few feet from my face as I took stock of the room which now seemed so alien. What seemed like hours had passed, though it was really only about twenty-five minutes. I looked at the history book spread before me, trying to find the details I had no doubt narrated to the filly who slept soundly through it. Everything that had just happened had been one sentence long.

"Princess Amoria challenged Steelfeather to a duel which ended in a tie. As per their agreement, if Amoria did not win, Equestria would formally bond with Setkuk. If Steelfeather did not win, Setkuk would make no more war. Both terms applied, and Princess Amoria married Steelfeather in a grand ceremony some months later. The empire would eventually collapse long after the reign of the Steelfeather dynasty ended, and much of the politics of western Equestria are mirrored in the arrangements made then."

That was it, a scant paragraph about the love of my life, or one of my lives. He deserved better, I should have been angry, but it occurred to me that was not what he would have wanted. Though he bragged endlessly, he really had been the most humble of griffons, practically begging me to teach him both sword and statecraft as we spent the rest of our lives together.

The realization that these memories of mine were both true and impossible passed subconsciously. I had died, centuries ago. More than once, it seemed, I had memories of ancient times and courageous individuals I could not place. Steelfeather's was bright and strong, shining in my memory and being utterly unforgettable, bringing the contrast up, too strong to ignore.

My head was spinning, it began to hurt even though no memories came flooding out this time. The dissonance itself was what stung. Who was I? Wasn't I a high school senior who was foalsitting for a summer job? I knew the extent of a sword inside out, I knew I could wield one with frightening efficiency now, if I had to. I knew about things that had happened before my time. It hurt to think about it, and I could not stop. I ran from the room into the washroom, lighting the candle there and staring at myself in the mirror.

Same old me, I looked back at my own panicked expression. The view grounded me, for now, and the world made sense again. So long as I could see myself I knew who I was. I definitely needed to see a shrink, maybe get some pills. Ordinary, sane ponies do not deal with this, I wanted to find some way to drown these thoughts out and keep them away forever. It was a good thing this was my last essay this summer, I was no longer sure what would trigger the deluge again and bring these thoughts back.

I went back to Twilight's room and tucked her in fully, leaving Smarty-Pants next to her to keep watch as she always did. I spent the rest of the evening in the living room writing up the last of my essay, this time spanning three scrolls and requiring a jar of ink refill. Usually I used pencil, but all this magic practice with Twilight had made me much comfortable with a quill and ink. No doubt she would be better, maybe able to write with her eyes closed at the rate she was progressing.

Finally, her mom came home near midnight, clad in a purple raincoat, though she was not wet.

"Oh I'm so sorry about this," she blurted, albeit softly. "Is Twilight okay?"

"She went to sleep a while ago. Sleeps like a bunny," I said, packing my scrolls up into my bags. I could finish the last bit whenever I wanted, this essay was not due for some time.

"Thanks so much Cadence, it's great to know I can always rely on you," Mrs. Sparkle said, before sneaking into Twilight's room to have a look. I took the opportunity to head out myself, yawning as I passed the door.

The moon wasn't out tonight, hidden behind thick clouds up above. As I strode towards my home, spatters of rain hit the walk, stronger and stronger until one hit me right between the eyes. I looked up, finally connecting all the pieces together.

I had not really checked the papers to see if there was a storm tonight. Twilight's mom had been wearing a raincoat. I had my essays in my bags.

My very much not-waterproof bags.

And they were written in ink. All three pages, single spaced.

Chapter 13

I bolted towards my house at top speed, the rain growing in intensity as I did so. I knew it was a futile gesture, yes still I ran, believing that if I could go just a little bit faster I might not have to completely rewrite my essay and descend into madness in the process. After the rain had soaked my mane I gave up, accepting defeat, and waiting for the blackness to come and claim me.

Or, I went into a shop which was still open, its warm candle glow a beacon in the dark rain. The owner behind the desk was surprised as I entered, dripping all over his tile floor. He frowned at me.

"I'm sorry miss, but we're closed for the evening," he said.

Before I could protest, a bright white mare clad in a yellow raincoat came up to the counter with a paper bag hovering in front of her. Her voice was like a gentle song, sweet and bright. It was so familiar to me, I could not quite place it. Perhaps she was one of my mother's friends? Mom would sometimes have her friends over for tea, and they had all known me since I was a filly while I could never remember them.

"How much for these?" she asked, placing the bag on the counter.

The owner placed the bag on a little weigh scale and inspected it, scratching something on a pad of paper that sat on the desk.

"Seven bits," he said finally.

"Here's ten," the mare said, causing the owner's face to light up. He picked the bits up and stashed them behind the counter with a smile, as the mare moved towards the exit in which I stood, sopping wet.

She sized me up for a moment before speaking.

"Oh my, darling, did you forget your rain apparel?" she said, a look of shock and indignation sweeping over her face. She reared back as though she were about to faint.

"Well, I didn't think I'd be out this long," I said, scarcely hiding my disappointment.

"Do you live far? Can you make it home?" she asked.

"It's a ways," I said.

She held up a hoof to her chin, the gears in her head whirring as she sized up her options, before finally she said, "No, no. I absolutely cannot leave you to the elements like this. Aha!" she laughed out loud, so suddenly that the store owner bolted upright.

"Yes, I shall walk you home! Capital! Ha ha!" she was practically shouting at this point.

She levitate an umbrella out from under her coat and carried it past me outside, opening it and waiting for me to walk beneath it before passing it to me, magically of course.

I couldn't get too good a look at her, the raincoat covered her almost completely. The more she spoke, the more familiar she seemed. Every acquaintance of my parents cycled through my mind, crossing them off as too short, wrong color, wrong gender, not a Unicorn. Plus, I was certain none of them carried themselves with this air about them. She would laugh randomly and inappropriately when she spoke, a staccato shriek that hurt my ears.

"Now sweetie," she said as she walked next to me, taking me down the blocks to my house, "just what reason have you to be out so late without proper attire? It is hardly becoming of a lady, you know."

Suspicion, that was what my parents had taught me. When dealing with strangers, one is to answer questions scarcely and evasively, never allowing them to pin you down no matter how nice they seem. This mare did seem nice, I will admit I was a tad taken in, but mom's careful instructions all those years ago were deep rooted. Give only what you must.

"Long day at my job," I said. Good start, true while still useless.

"Oh really? What do you do exactly?" she asked.

"Oh, government stuff," I said. True, still useless. Doing great.

"Ah, that would make sense you know. All my acquaintances grumble when they get stuck working late, but not us, we hold ourselves to a higher standard. Ah, but what is one so young doing with serious work like government employ?" she asked. Her vocabulary was superb, possibly she was an aristocrat, given the neighborhood.

There was no way to answer honestly while still being evasive. Do I lie? She was very friendly, and in the process of doing a stranger a favor...

"Oh, I'm a foalsitter. Just a summer job 'til school starts again," I said. Not enough info to really track you down, don't give out your name and you'll be fine.

"A foalsitter! Oh, does Lemma still work for the agency?" she asked. That name was familiar.

The robot?

The robot had made a friend? So many impossible things had been happening lately I wasn't sure what was real anymore, and yet I still knew that was false, it had to be. I wondered if perhaps this mare had made friends with the robot and merely believed it had befriended her back. Alternately, it was a learning computer and had learned to make friends, somehow. Like, think about that, a machine that can love, make friends just as we did, learn to appreciate life instead of snuffing it out.

No, no, the robot could not have loved, then there would be no difference between pony and machine, we would eventually merge together and become indistinguishable, ponykind becoming cyborganic hybrids built in factories in a grim and dark future. Or there would be a war, the machines eventually deciding they were superior and destroying us mere flesh creatures to make the world more perfect.

Even more impossibly, Lemme could well have been a normal pony. That was by far the least likely scenario.

"Oh, yeah she's my boss," I said.

"Aha! Oh Lemma, good show, good show! I knew she'd go far, I've not spoken to her in so long, we really must catch up," she said. I decided to interpret this as a good sign, a mutual contact would help.

"Ah, but I've not introduced myself, have I?" she said, stopping abruptly. I stopped to match as she turned to face me, rain pouring down all around us, creating a little world all our own.

"I am Victoria Petalfeather, Curator and Historian Extraordinaire," she said, bowing and waving one hoof in front of her. She stood up and waited for my response. I made a snap decision.

"I'm Cadence, uh, Class Q foalsitter," I said, trying to mimic her bow. Mine was okay, I'll give it a seven out of ten. I had also just revealed my name, but my nickname only, very different from Miamore. I had still followed all of mom's advice.

Did she say, curator? Historian?

"Well Cadence, it is my great pleasure to make your acquantance. You must tell Jolly next time you see her to stop by the museum!" she said.

Jolly?

Jolly Something Lemma? Could a name be more unfitting?

My mind was so busy scrambling to jive the two visions of my boss that it nearly let the bit about the museum pass. As we resumed our pace, a thousand questions rose in my mind. Did you go to school with her? Does she smile? Does she drink motor oil, or do you just wind her up every day? The questions jockeyed one another for position, the strongest made its way to the front as the others battled one another for second place.

"Did you say you were a curator in a museum?" I asked. I had a feeling this was the right one.

"Oh yes my dear, and not just any museum. Why, you are looking at the curator of the Equestrian National Museum in Canterlot Palace's east wing!" she exclaimed, beaming with pride. "I recently came about the position as my predecessor retired, you know, it's very important and -"

"So, museum, historian, hey, have you ever heard of Princess Amoria?" I asked suddenly and cut her off as I did so. Rude, yes, but I had no patience for hearing just how awesome she was. Had I wanted that I could go sit in a tea party and listen to old ponies gab endlessly about their accomplishments.

She barely even noticed my interruption, diving into thought as soon as I had asked the question. I had thought she was a noble or something when I heard how she spoke, but it occurred to me now that it was an academic thing. She could be a professor for all I had known, the question was a challenge and her mind loved them.

After a minute of rain pounding my umbrella as we navigated the darkened streets, she finally responded, measured, with no laughter or hints of the upper-class manner she had displayed before.

"She was one of the triumvirate, as I recall. You know, before the fall? Very old stuff, not a lot of records left from that era, OH!", she burst out suddenly.

"That's right, yes, Princess Amoria. Good with a sword, that's the one?" she looked at me expectantly.

"Yeah, I read a book for history class about her," I said modestly, trying to play down my knowledge and let her open up. The less I appeared to know, the more she'd tell me: I knew how teachers worked.

"Ah yes, her. A student of history, I take it?" she asked me again. More questions.

"It's my best subject. Do you know much about her?" I said, trying to steer the conversation back.

"Not much you'd not find in your books I'm afraid, though..." she said, trailing off. A moment passed as we walked when she did not speak.

"There is something, very hush-hush, mind you," she said, looking around quickly. Nopony was on the street in the downpour, the curtain of water would serve to insulate us from any listeners.

"You see, nopony knows what she looks like," she said. She stopped speaking and poked her head up suddenly. "Well, except for Princess Celestia, of course. But she knows everything!" she said, laughing again in that high pitched staccato.

"Of course she's not talking, never does discuss the old days no matter how much I ask. But, you see, we recently found an artifact during an excavation," she said, leaning in closer to me. A drop of rain from her raincoat fell and landed on my head, adding to my still sopping mane. "It's a statue, most of the bottom half is missing, but we've restored it. Going to unveil it at the garden party on Friday," she was practically whispering now, but the pride was dripping from her every word.

"Is that a big deal?" I asked.

"A big deal? There are no surviving artifacts that show what she looks like! It's all artist renderings and you know how accurate those are. No, this is one-of-a-kind, world exclusive." she said, each word causing her voice to raise louder and louder. Excitement was now barely contained, she seemed to step higher and lighter as we walked.

"And I get the great honor of unveiling it! Can you believe this? I did all the finishing work myself, you know, I'm literally the only other in the world who knows what she looks like," she said.

I wanted to grab her and demand to see the statue or whatever parts of it had survived. Everything I was made of screamed to go find that statue and at last confirm or completely deny all these images and memories that had implanted themselves in my head from somewhere else. The urge was nigh irresistible, the only reason I did not was because that was ineffective, and cold logic won out.

I needed to see that statue if it meant breaking in to do it. I'd go to jail forever if that happened and I didn't care. I had had no goals in life before now. This was my goal. I had to see that statue.

I contained myself and decided to try the diplomatic approach. Violence does not earn one favors, even if it's faster. Having had your entire life boil down and simplify into one purpose gives a sense of clarity to everything you do, only things which advance you towards that goal matter, everything else does not.

"Wow, that's amazing. Do you think I could come see it sometime? Sometime soon?" I asked, doing my best to seem earnest and curious, like a student.

She slowed for exactly one step then resumed her pace, then resumed and returned to that old composure she had had when I met her. Her voice increased in pitch, she laughed in the middle of her sentences.

"Oh my dear no, I'm sorry. I'm very sorry. It's such an important unveiling, I could lose my job if I snubbed all those important ponies like that. Ha! Imagine that, all those nobles complaining to me that they weren't the first to set eyes on it! I'd be run out of town you know," she said. My heart sank. Violence it is -

"I could try to arrange a private viewing later on, if that's all right with you? Say, next week maybe?" she asked. Violence was no longer necessary, but would be kept near the top of my options. Burglary would be near the bottom since I could not pick a lock or climb anything via rope.

I agreed to meet her later at the museum as we got closer to my house. The instincts were hard-wired into me by my mother, I could not help dismissing Victoria a short distance from my house, so as to keep her from knowing where I lived. Old habits died hard.

"Well this is my block," I said, technically two blocks away from my house.

"Oh then this is goodbye for now, darling! Haha! Always a pleasure to meet a fellow student of history!"

I turned to leave, before it struck me I was still carrying her umbrella. Even to walk two blocks without it would lead to disaster, I needed a plan.

"Oh gee, my - " I started.

"Oh the umbrella? Not even a thing, my dear! Give it back to me when you see me next, I'll be counting on it! Haha! Perfect!" she said, in that laughing voice again. I wished I could get as excited about anything as she did about casual conversation.

That night I simmered inside, much like when I was younger and my parents would all give me presents on my birthday. The anticipation was killing me, I only had to wait a little longer and everything would be resolved. Heads, I'd wind up in the insane asylum, gibbering to myself claiming I was a hundred different ponies, all of which were very famous and important. Tails.

Tails.

I could not come to grips with tails. Here's hoping it was heads.

Chapter 14

My next day sitting with Twilight was Friday. My friends were too busy to drop by, so the two of us were preparing to go play in the park after our usual reading session. Twilight had been practicing magic again, I had been far too distracted to try to help her. This time she was able to turn a book's page, while levitating it, all by herself, albeit with great effort. Watching her strain and squeeze herself was darkly amusing, I would never dare admit I got a kick out of watching it, and yet, she would do it a little less each time. Her progress was amazing.

We were going out a little late that evening and, as I looked out the window in the study, I could see several very well attired ponies leaving their homes and heading in the direction of the palace. The garden party was a really big event, not quite Gala big but still big. Everypony who was anypony was going to be there, and anypony who was really anypony was going to the pre-party party. Presumably there was another party before that for anypony who was more pony than anypony else, and so on until there was a party held the day after the previous year's party attended by the most elite of the elite of the elite of the elite of the -

I checked my bag before we headed out, making sure there were some bits in it for ice cream later. The money tended to get lost in the shuffle, I couldn't find it but I could hear it jingle when the bag moved. The shaking was somewhere near the bottom so I tore through it looking to find the elusive cash, to no avail.

"Why don't we just tip the bag upside down?" Twilight said, watching me as I went through the bag.

"Because then everything else would fall out. I just want the bits," I said back.

"Well then let me help! I can filter it, really!" she said.

I sized her up briefly before assenting. This would be a big challenge for her, she would have to create a magic filter to block any heavy objects from falling out, just letting the bits come out. Obviously I was going to help her without making a fuss about it, a great way to build her confidence, so I picked the bag up in my forelegs and cleverly held it up in front of my horn to disguise my spell.

"Ready?" I said.

"Ready!" she shouted back, her horn glowing softly as she concentrated.

I could see a wisp of a filter hanging in front of the bag as I turned it over, so I concentrated myself on reinforcing the filter. The bag tipped over and nothing came out, the filter held. I shook the bag slightly and the jingling bits made their way out, landing on the floor in front of us.

As I was preparing to lift the bag back right-side up delicately, as to avoid spilling anything else, a little card fell out of my bag and landed next to the bits. I didn't put that in my bag.

Twilight took a look at the card before I got the chance to, eagerly reading anything with text on it. She cleared her throat and read it aloud.

"VIP Special Garden Party Pass. V. Petalfeather, Curator. Full access." she said, turning to me. "What's a VIP?"

"It means Very Important Pony." I said, wondering at the card. Petalfeather?

Wasn't that the name of the -

Oh gosh.

I looked at the card myself and realized what this was. Burglary, violence, diplomacy, all were totally unnecessary now. Blackmail and subterfuge could suffice, I could either try to bluff my way into the party to see the unveiling or try to find Petalfeather and force her to let me in.

Or, I could politely return it and ask her to give me a favor. Why was the least exciting option always the most reasonable, and always the last one to occur to me? I would still need to bring Twilight along, we'd have to leave now if we were going to make it to the palace in time since there was no way I could afford a taxi.

"Oh hey Twilight, feel like going to a party with me today?" I asked her coyly, looking at the card.

"What's a party?" she asked me.

"You don't know? It's where a bunch of ponies get together and talk about stuff, and then eat tiny little things called hor'duerves," I said, basically summing up every party my parents had ever hosted. My friends and I would host 'gatherings' which were way cooler than parties, if only by virtue of not including adults.

"Why would I want to go to that?" she asked, completely earnest.

"Because... it's being held in the palace museum?" I replied.

She was ready to go within eight seconds, I counted. Smarty-Pants was surprised at the purple and black whirlwind that shot around the room, even as it gathered her up and tossed her onto its back.

Twilight and I left to head off towards the palace, with her in the lead like a puppy pulling on its leash. I had to restrain her constantly, using my voice of course, as she was a very reasonable puppy, but a puppy nonetheless.

We followed the crowds of well dressed ponies as they gradually converged upon the palace grounds, becoming thicker and thicker as they went. I checked the card I was carrying, it mentioned using the side door which I was not familiar with, so we broke off from the crowd as we approached the main steps.

There were a few guard ponies standing around the side of the entrance, an opening in the hedge that served as the palace's outer fence. Two of them were standing in front of the hedge, and one of them came up and addressed us as we got close.

"Excuse me ma'am, this area is off limits," she said to us as politely as possible.

Time to bluff.

"Oh well this card -" I said, holding the ID card up and trying to look innocent. If I was going to pretend like I was a member of the staff, I'd need to be the picture of confidence, since it'd otherwise be extremely unlikely that the museum curator was a teenager with a filly in tow. If I could bluff enough to keep her from reading the card I was in.

She stopped me mid-sentence and looked at the card. Damn. Her eyes opened wide. Double damn, time to run.

"Oh, this is Victoria's ID card! Where'd you find it?" she asked us.

"She left it in my bags, I was going to give it back to her," I said. Twilight remained mum the whole time, staring in awe at the fully attired soldier pony in front of us.

"That's great, I'll go get her for you. Stay right here," the guard said and jogged off. Twilight's eyes followed the trooper as she left, I noticed her slack-jawed adoration resembled her brother's behavior for some reason. Must be a role-model thing going on there.

The guard returned to her post a few moments later and a familiar mare, white with a brilliant pink mane, trotted around the corner. Victoria rushed right up to me and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. I recoiled a bit at the sudden expression of affection, but it was genuine, I could tell. Victoria's face was shining brighter than the sun.

"I knew it! I knew it! I'm so glad it's you, thanks so much Cadence," she said.

"For what? I just brought back your ID card," I said back. Honestly, her sudden outburst was out of place, except for the fact that this pony didn't do anything in half measures.

"You did?" she asked, looking down at me as I pulled the card back out and held it in my mouth for her to examine. "You did! That's even better, haha! Perfect, couldn't have gone better if I had planned it!" she exclaimed.

This wasn't going anywhere even close to how I had planned. In truth, one of my fantasies involved Twilight and I beating up a group of about a dozen guards as they rushed us one at a time, battling our way to the statue to rescue it from the tyranny of the royals. We had some terrible one-liners rehearsed, like Twilight pulling a rug out from one of the soldiers and shouting "Have a nice trip, see you next fall!", or me throwing ninja stars and pinning a guard to the wall, and then saying "Stick around, I'm a sharp-shooter."

I think Twilight's storybooks are rubbing off on me.

"Oh, since you're here, would you like a quick tour? I'm sure I could slip you in to see that statue you wanted to see," she said. She leaned down in front of me and gave me the biggest, most obvious wink in the history of bad acting. This pony was a character, and didn't care who knew it.

"What do you think Twilight?" I asked. I looked over at her to see she was gone. "Twilight?"

She was already most of the way up the stairs to the side entrance, Victoria and I ran to catch up with her as the guards politely stepped to the side. Never get in front of a charging bull.

Fortunately, Victoria managed to restrain the filly by taking her to the various exhibits which had been put out for the party and explaining them all slowly and calmly. I patiently waited and listened alongside her, but I couldn't concentrate. I kept looking at the other statues and pots and kept wondering which one it was. There didn't seem to be any statues of a princess, except the big one of Princess Celestia that was always adorning the doorway.

Party guests had started to filter in, talking to one another and eating the snacks that some waiters were carrying around. Victoria began to develop a crowd around her as she discussed the exhibits, each of the ponies politely stamping their hooves after each explanation. I tried to remain inconspicuous, and my lack of a dress meant I may as well have been invisible to these snobbish types.

Finally, after most of the guests had entered and most of the exhibits had been explained, Victoria whispered in my ear. "All right, time for the big show. Want to help me bring it out?"

Ah, of course. It was such a big deal, she had left it somewhere else and would unveil it once everypony was here.

"Of course! Just lead the way!" I nearly shouted. "Twilight, let's go!" I said, turning to find, once again, she had dashed off on her own.

Fortunately, she wasn't too far away. The same guard from earlier had come in to the party hall and Twilight was attempting to talk to her.

"So you're a soldier right?" Twilight asked her, very bluntly and directly.

"That is correct ma'am," the darkly colored trooper answered back.

"My brother's gonna be a soldier too! Do you know him?" Twilight did not break eye contact with the trooper as she stared up at her.

The guard shot a quizzical look at Victoria. I saw Victoria nod out of the corner of my eye, and the guard turned back to address Twilight.

"I might. Want to go check the duty roster? He might be on duty today," she said, heading over towards a list on the wall with names scribbled on it. Twilight turned back to me.

"Cadence, I'm gonna be over here checking up on my brother. Will you be okay without me?" she shouted at me. I just waved at her, and she hopped after the guard towards the big list. I figured she'd be all right with the guards watching her, and it'd give me enough time to get a look at that statue in private. I wasn't quite sure why I didn't want Twilight to see it all of the sudden, it seemed silly since it was a statue and she'd never understand it herself.

I tried to ignore all that as the excitement built up from my stomach, anticipation better than a million incoming presents all at once. I also had to pee.

Victoria led me away from all the pretty party ponies towards a glass doorway in a darkened corner of the party hall. A sign on the door read "Exhibit Storage: Staff Only", no light came through the doorway. She opened the door and stood aside, playfully stating, "After you."

I walked in the room and she came in just behind me, the darkness around me preventing me from seeing the statue. A voice, not Victoria's but very similar, came from behind me.

"Well, this is it. Are you ready?"

I suddenly wasn't sure. I wanted to see it badly, just, asking the question seemed so strange. To her, wasn't this just a very rare piece?

"I'm ready"

A light came from above as a skylight slid to the side, magic opening it and allowing the fading sun to illuminate the room in a shaft of light. In the center, perfectly lit, was a stone statue.

Except, the statue wasn't restored. I could see some hooves, standing in a reared-up pose, and what appeared to be the base of a sword attached to the podium. There was some plaster infilling that made up most of the body, with more stone making up a foreleg. The head was missing. The statue was almost totally incomplete.

"What? I don't understand, you said I could see the statue!" I said, preparing to protest. I did not turn around, I could not look away from the statue.

"You can see it. Only you know how. Go on, do it," came the voice from behind me. So familiar, why couldn't I turn around to see it?

No time, I knew what she meant, somehow. I closed my eyes and concentrated again, bringing about the sight beyond sight.

As I looked at the statue in my other vision, a million specks of light brought out its true form. The base of the statue was quite accurate, outlined by stars against a black background of space. The statue stood in the pose of a warrior, and that of a poet, with one hoof gripping her sword in a down position, and the other hoof extended outwards in the universal sign of forgiveness.

I was no art critic, but I understood the meaning just the same. The statue had been commissioned to remind all those who saw it that the only good warrior is the reluctant one. The Princess held her hoof up first, the sword was the tool of last resort. She would always try to give life, and only give death if there was no other way. I studied the body of the statue in detail as I moved my gaze upwards towards the face.

The details of the sparkles which composed the piece in this realm were amazingly accurate. Finer than any painting, I could see the wrinkles and curves of her face. Her expression was one of mourning. Her face was mine.

The statue's likeness was a mirror image of my own.

And the void swallowed me up, and I was lost.

Chapter 15

Rainclouds sat above the horizon as I looked out my first floor window onto the hamlet below. No matter how many times I sew them, they still made me depressed. Of course we needed water to grow the crops, everypony knew that, and yet, I couldn't help it. Rain depressed me. I heard the door behind me open as 'Tia walked in, quietly as not to disturb me despite us both knowing she was about as quiet as a choking buzzard.

"Yes, what is it?" I asked, without taking my gaze from the window. Perhaps I enjoyed being depressed, since I preferred to look at the clouds than to look at Celestia.

"Luna still has yet to return," Tia said simply.

I thought a moment. I didn't instinctively count things like Tia did, she did it obsessively. Always had a head for details, always was quietly analyzing and counting the little things we did every day. "How long does that make it?"

"Just short of a month. Almost a full cycle and no word," she said.

Ever since the end of the war, life had taken on a different meaning to us. There was no unbeatable foe to vanquish, no omnipresent fear of annihilation. No challenge, no excitement. The world was scarred, the old one never to return. Over a century of warfare against an enemy that obliterated whatever it touched had left the population devastated. Now the truly difficult task of rebuilding had begun.

Tia had leaped right into the job. In truth, she was more of a leader than I was, despite my being technically slightly older. Something about her poise made ponies want to follow her. Hell, I'd follow her even if I knew she was wrong, she's that charismatic. She's also wise enough to know not to let me follow her, which makes it even worse.

Luna, however, had not been so interested in civilian life. Yes, she still loved us dearly, and we loved her. Our shared struggle and shared mission had left an indelible impact, one I knew would transcend time and place itself, and yet, she did not extend this love to those who had chosen to follow us. She became distant and reserved. Some nights, when the air was particularly still, I could hear her sharpening her spear still, or sometimes practicing in the courtyards. There were no enemies left to fight. Perhaps she felt useless.

I admit I felt something similar. There is a certain exhilaration that comes with risking your life, no matter how awful the surroundings. I'd never go back, I'd never do it again, not unless I had to, and yet, I still longed for it. Adventure, I was an adventurer at heart, and the world had no need of us.

And so, one day, Luna had simply left. She left no note, she sent no letter, she spoke to nopony. One day, she had left, and that was all there was. Tia could sense where she was when she raised the moon, or at least give us a vague idea of the direction and distance, it was a part of their shared responsibility. I couldn't quite feel it myself, mine was an altogether different mission that did not involve astral objects and the endless calculations that accompanied them. I could certainly feel something, perhaps more than most, but that's all it was, an echo.

Tia had told me each day how far she thought Luna was from us. Each day, it was farther. She'd be halfway across the continent by now, if Tia's predictions were correct, and they always were.

I should not have been worried about Luna, I knew she could handle herself in any situation. Accidents do happen, but killing a being such as her is no easy task, I was not even sure if it was possible. I dreaded having to find out. In truth, I was far more worried about Celestia. She made a big show of being distant, cold, calculating and logical, but I knew it was just a show. She remained distant because she feared that if she felt something, anything, then it would compromise her objectivity, and then she'd make the wrong decision. Bad decisions hurt innocent ponies.

Celestia also feared making difficult decisions, though she had never told me this outright. I had inferred it, instead. It was not that she could not calculate the difference between two bad decisions and pick the least harmful, no, it was that she would anticipate one some time in advance, and scheme and plot to make it not come to pass. She played the desperate puppet master, trying to manipulate her way to utopia.

As I ruminated on this, an idea formed in my head. I wondered if I would get it past Celestia unmolested.

"I'm going after her," I said.

Celestia paused, clearly I had taken her by surprise.

"Amoria, no, please. I can't lose another sister," she said. She was keeping her voice monotone, yet I could tell her heart was breaking.

"I'm not going away forever," I said, finally turning around to look at her. She had taken off all her 'royal' garb that the village blacksmith had made us in gratitude. Gone was her golden crown and chest guard with all those gems, gone were the fancy shoes. She was naked, vulnerable, plain old Tia.

"I promise I will come back when I find her. And if I don't, I'll come back in, I don't know, a year? I'll write to you as I go. You'll not lose me," my attempts to assuage her fears would never work, for I knew she was busy running the percentages. The look on her face told me she did not like the odds.

"Do you really promise? What if something goes wrong? What if you get hurt?" she asked. This was the side of her she feared others to see. This was the real Celestia, hidden by all her table manners and her fine speaking voice. In the end, she really was a scared filly who loved too much and could not stand to lose her family, strange as it was.

"I'll be fine. You'll be fine. You're a great leader, the ponies will follow you and you're smart enough to lead them," I said. It was not I she was worried about now, it was her. I was her fallback. If she was afraid, she would come to me, and I would often simply arbitrarily choose which way to go forward, which decision was the best one. Uncertainty was her bane.

That evening, I had packed lightly. Some bread, light and nutritious to make best use of my carrying space, and some fruits and vegetables in a mash that I kept in a jar for snacking. I kept my sword in its sheath across my back. I had hoped I would not need it, of course. I was reminded of something an earth pony once said to me. "Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it," and who said we had nothing to learn from them? No finer piece of wisdom had I ever heard.

Celestia did the lowering of the sun one last time, on the podium behind the dilapidated stone fort which we called home. It was the oldest standing structure in the world at this point, the final holdout in the last, dark days of the war. Most of our followers had left to go live in new buildings and houses, leaving us in the structure along with a small group of planners and organizers.

As she finished and the moon made its way up into the sky, Celestia closed her eyes and pointed a hoof off into the distance to the west.

"How far?" I asked.

"Far," she said. "I'd estimate one-sixteenth of the planet's circumference."

"Do you think she's reached the western mountains then?" I asked again, quickly estimating the distances and comparing them to my knowledge of the continent's geography.

"Perhaps, or she has passed them. Good luck," she said to me, keeping her face stony and resolute. At this point, it was herself she was convincing, not me. I gave her a shake of the hoof and departed, flaring my wings and taking off in the direction she had pointed, just a few degrees from the moon's arc. I would need to find more evidence of her trail as I got closer, meaning I would need to quiz the residents as I passed. Luna would have made quite an impression.

I flew for the rest of the night and some of the day, stopping to rest in a village of only about six houses. The ponies there kindly let me sleep in one of their unused rooms and gave me some jugs of water for my trip. I had insisted on repaying them, they had insisted I had done quite enough. I ended up digging them a well anyway, it was experience I had craved. I wanted to see the world through the eyes of its inhabitants, not be stuffed up in a rotting fort on a hill somewhere. Even the simple task of digging a hole was rewarding. My mission called me, of course, and I had to depart, traveling to the next village and the next.

I found stray pets. I argued with bears to leave the ponies be. Playful spirits would sometimes make a mess of an innocent villager's home, and I would drive them off. Everypony had problems and I delighted in solving them, just for the fun of it. At the same time, I always made sure to tell the villagers how I had done it, in the hopes that they would not need me to next time.

Planned obsolescence, is what Celestia had called it once. I hoped someday to retire and let ponies handle their own affairs, when they were ready. Already they were experimenting with art, science, magic, and government. Their minds were hungry and the world waiting for them to care for it.

And yet, there were other tasks which the ponies, nor any of the other races, would never be ready for. I had hypothesized that some new breed of creature would be necessary, one like myself and my sisters and yet, not. The war had left scars on the land, but those would heal. The war had left scars on the bodies of our people, but those would heal. No, the ponies were scarcely aware of the scars it had left on their hearts and their minds.

I saw it every now and then, as I traveled. My special gift was another sight, one like normal sight except able to see the world as it truly is. Celestia had hypothesized that what I was able to see was magic itself, raw and unfocused by the mind of a magician. She could see it too, for only a brief moment once a year, during the solstice and the height of her power. Luna as well, during the opposite solstice, though she never spoke of it. I alone bore the burden of seeking out the corruption that plagued the beings of this world.

Sometimes it latched itself on to a foal at birth. It warped their mind, made it slow, incapable, violent. This happened on its own as well, something to do with biology I didn't understand too well. I had not had time to learn what secrets the many scientists of this world had learned before me, as the war had consumed nearly everything, including those brilliant minds. We had to start over from what we could remember.

In some cases, it would take itself on those who were most vulnerable, the sick, the injured, the scared and lonely. Worst of all, it would take itself on those who were in love. It sought to ruin everything good and kind about a pony's heart until they were a bitter shell of resentment. Even sleeping beneath its seal a thousand miles beneath the planet's surface, that source of hate was a real thing, every day it sought to destroy lives.

For the young and the sick, there was little hope. I would see the wounds, see the black sickness that coated them, and offer my grim services to their loved ones. Some would reject, some would accept, all understood the finality of it. Those who were strong would not escape the encounter unharmed, I hoped the effects would not be permanent even if they were painful, as I cut the parts off that I could not save and bandaged the rest. Those who survived reported a wave of emotions, pain and grief being the most prominent. So many patients, only one doctor.

As the weeks stretched into months, I traveled farther west than ever before. I began to see settlements less and less as the land became scrub forest and open plains. The Buffalo had claimed this area as their own a long time ago, and returned here after the war. They would recognize me and assist me to the best of their ability, but their nomadic ways made finding them fairly difficult. Only rarely would they set a fire that I could see from a distance, so I spent much of my time on my own, sometimes reduced to munching on foul-tasting prairie grasses in lieu of proper food.

The bodies of myself and my sisters were altogether different from any other. We had no need of food, water, or sleep, but we felt the desire for them. I loathed hunger, Luna had told me once that she didn't mind it. Both of us delighted in the taste of good food. New food. Different food.

And so it was one day, as I had not seen another soul for almost a week, that I foraged in the shadows of the great mountains rising to the west. I suspected Luna was still somewhere on the other side, but no other had seen her in some time. The trail was cold. She did not want to be found.

There were some berries growing in a bush surrounded by a thicket. I decided to gather them to get something tastier than dried grass in my stomach, stepping into the thicket delicately. I sampled one berry, sweet, definitely not poisonous. I was going to pick them with my hooves, but started instinctively to use magic as my legs had started itching all of the sudden.

It did not take me long before I couldn't continue harvesting, the itching became too powerful. I looked down to see my legs beginning to swell and turn dark red through my coat, as it struck me. The plant I was standing in was some sort of poisonous vine, giving me a reaction. Already my legs were on fire and the itching was moving up onto my chest.

I abandoned the berries in a panic and took off straight up. I wanted to scratch myself raw but thought better of it, I looked around for some sign of someone who could help me. There was no one for as far as I could see, I would need to take care of this myself, somehow.

I saw a stream nearby and dove towards it at full speed. The itching had spread up over my body, it threatened to get to my throat soon. I hit the stream and tried to wash myself off, yet the itching continued, the water clearly having no effect. Panic set in, I had no idea what to do now.

I heard a gasp from behind me and turned to see someone standing there. My vision had begun to blur, I couldn't speak as my throat burned and swelled. My legs had begun to sting outright.

I blacked out.

I don't know how much time passed. It was warm, wherever I was. I was covered in something. Sometimes I would open my eyes then shut them again as the swelling made it painful to look around. I drifted in and out of sleep, someone would periodically force something hot down my throat. It made the pain go away for a while, then it would come back and I would go back to sleep to avoid it.

The pain became a little weaker each time I awoke, until I could finally open my eyes and keep them open. I checked my throat, but it was too clenched to really speak in anything but a hoarse grunt. I looked around to see just where I was.

The floors and walls were earthen, I was inside some sort of dugout. The ceiling was sticks and waterproofed with mud, a fireplace nearby kept the building warm for me. A crude reed blanket had been wrapped around me, and a cooking pot full of some thick white soup sat near the fire. I recognized the soup by its smell, trying some and enjoying it, both for its taste and the clearing effect it had on my throat. I was still hoarse but now able to at least form a sentence.

Whoever had been taking care of me wasn't here right now, maybe having left to get something. There were a number of peculiar looking masks on the wall, possibly Zebra in origin, though I was not capable of telling which nation.

I made myself more comfortable in my blanket and returned to sleep for a while. I was awakened later by the sound of the reeds that acted as a doorway being pushed aside as someone entered.

"Oh, you're awake," a lady's voice said, deep in the curious way Zebras were. "I was worried about you, be a real shame to lose you to a poison crawler."

"Poison crawler?" I asked, my voice still a croak.

"Here, have some more soup," she said, ladelling some into a wooden bowl and carrying it to me. I gulped it down hungrily, the effect on my throat most welcome.

"Thank you," I said, much more clearly this time.

"Just repaying a favor," she said to me, undoing her bags and opening them.

I watched her as she rifled through them, pulling out seeds and leaves. She set a few aside, then ground them up and dumped the powder into the soup.

"What's a poison crawler?" I asked again.

"It's a plant that makes very sure that insects don't touch it. They like to spread themselves long and low across the ground, like a caterpillar, so I call them poison crawlers," she said.

"I take it you decided to stand in some?" she asked me as she kept her eyes on the soup. She uncorked a water jug and poured some in, looking at me as she tilted her head to let the water out.

"I didn't know, I just wanted some berries to eat," I said.

"Ah, no way to know except experience. I found out about them from the Buffalo, steered clear myself," she said.

"I'm sorry, do I know you from somewhere? You said something about a favor," I asked. I tried to be polite. I had met many thousands in my time, and seen so many more, I had lost track of faces and names.

"Yes, or perhaps, I know you. I am Zephyra of the Nohota nation," she said as she stirred the soup.

"I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with them," I said, eying the soup she was mixing. It tasted great, I'd have gobbled it up even if it had no medicinal purposes.

"I'm the last of them, sad to say. I'm sure that's the case for a lot of Zebras," she said. There was no regret in her voice, it was purely matter-of-fact.

"You don't sound too upset about that," I said.

"What comes, comes. What goes, goes. No sense in dwelling on it, we all have to go sometime," she said. She put up a tough front. I could hear her voice crack slightly as she spoke. I decided to change the subject.

"So, what are you doing so far out here?" I asked.

"Oh, you didn't know? Your sister sent me out here to research medicines," she said, pointing at the bag she had been carrying. "Good thing too. I don't know how you Princesses work, but for anyone else that would have been fatal."

I wasn't really sure if I could die, and had no intention of finding out either, especially not from choking to death on my own swollen tongue.

"Celestia sent you?" I asked.

"I volunteered, more like. Had to get away somewhere. Not a lot going on out here, very quiet. Except when the Buffalo throw a party, they always insist that I come," she chuckled as she said the last part. I knew a double-entendre when I heard one - glad to see some things about the Buffalo never changed.

"Hm." I merely agreed.

"I was about to pack up and head back when who should fall into my lap but Princess Amoria herself. Perhaps this is a sign?" she mused.

"A sign? Sign of what?" I asked.

"That my timing was right. If ever a Princess drops out of the sky and practically lands on you, move!" she laughed, a deep, powerful laugh from her belly. I couldn't see the humor in almost dying. Maybe the grim experiences before this had given her a morbid sense of comedy, one needs to laugh if the alternative is to cry.

I was tired again, my recovery was still not complete. I laid down and went back to sleep again, waking up when it was dark out and feeling much better. The stars were out on a cloudless night, I peered outside through the reeds covering the door. I wondered how long I had been here, I had no sense of the time. I would need to ask Zephyra later.

She slept fairly close to the fire, her back to it to keep warm. She slept on the floor, having let me sleep on the makeshift haybed, made of dried prairie grass. I really needed to ask her for the recipe of that soup.

Now that my strength had returned, I could detect something peculiar in the air. Zephyra slept softly as I crept around the room, trying to find some hint as to what it was. I examined the masks on the walls, two of them at an angle to one another, hanging off the same extended twig. I thought it meant something in Zebra culture but couldn't remember what.

Her herbs table was quite well organized, and she had been keeping a notebook of their properties. Evidently she had consulted with the Buffalo quite often, the notes referred to patient interviews and could well have been written by a doctor, they were so detailed and thorough.

As I checked the room, I kept coming back to the masks. Two masks, both made of wood and in roughly the same shape, except one was painted blue and the other green. The masks would not fit over a head, they weren't meant to be worn.

I finally remembered what they meant. The masks represented a Zebra in a family, and hanging from the same twig meant the two were siblings. The colors represented gender, so I guessed Zephyra must have had a brother. Have had. She was the last of her nation.

I sighed as this realization hit me. She had been one of the many who had lost everything in the war. I had a vague idea of how she had known me, no doubt one of the many I had commanded. She said she owed me a favor, perhaps referring to something on the battlefield. There were so many faces I could not keep them straight. I would forget her brother, even though there was no doubt now that he had fought and died for me.

I was angry at myself, I considered it a failure. Someone gives their life for you and you can't even remember it, the ultimate sacrifice going unthanked. I alternately wanted to bellow in rage and curl up and cry, doing neither as it would wake my sleeping hostess. I could not turn to another for guidance, nopony would console me. Tears streamed from my eyes as I closed them.

Almost as if it were instinct, my other sight came to me as I tried to fight back the tears. A momentary lapse in discipline, or a chance encounter, who could say?

Before me lay Zephyra, appearing as a great ball of light, streaming like a sun all its own. Predictably, I could see the connections that she held around her, frayed and broken. It was so typical, they had not healed on their own, could not heal as their other half was dead, literally dead. This was an injustice, someone as good and kind as Zephyra did not deserve to have her heart rended into parts by the inane, random cruelties of existence.

I walked over to the most prominent of the strands and brought it close in to me, examining it closely from inches away. It was a sharp cut that had made this, very few of the strands extended out. Whoever this went to, they were taken suddenly and unexpectedly. As I set myself up to repair the damage, I felt a tug on the strand. It pulled itself away from me, back toward the star it shone from.

Please don't. It's all I have left.

It was Zephyra's voice, it rang through my head. She was asleep, not even aware she had thought it. It stunned me, I stood there without breathing for a moment as I processed it.

Don't you want to be whole again?

No.

Why? Why didn't she want me to help her?

Why not?

Because then I would lose him.

The next day, Zephyra made some tea and we discussed her plans. She had intended to leave a week ago, but my interruption had forced her to stay longer. The Buffalo were planning on throwing her one last party before she left, she had made many friends with them and would not be back for some time, if ever.

I wanted to broach the topic of her brother as gently as possible. I knew it would hurt. I had to know. Surprisingly, she brought it up herself.

"I didn't tell you how we met, did I?" she asked. I shook my head.

"Ahh, my brother and I," she said. She paused a bit before continuing. "We came to you after our fields had been burnt, by your sister, as I recall."

"I assure you, it had to be done," I said. I was not interested in making excuses.

"I am well aware. It gave us nothing to do, except wait. So one day, Ortega, he says to me, 'We cannot sit here and wait for death. Let us go out and meet it'. So we joined up with some of the warriors and fought under you," she said.

She took another sip of her tea.

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you," I said. My tea was cooling.

We said nothing for a while after that. Zephyra would stare off into the distance and take sips of her tea. I wasn't interested in mine. Finally she spoke.

"Have you ever lost someone dear to you?" she asked me, her gaze still off in the distance.

I shook my head. "No. I have only my sisters."

"Have you never grown close to another?" she asked me.

I shook my head again. "It is unwise."

She turned to face me, and said, "Can you really lead if you have no experience?"

I began to wonder just what she was getting at. There was more to this Zebra than met the eye, that was for sure. She had been kind and generous to me, saving my life, or as close as could have been. All the same, there was something off about her demeanor. It seemed like anger, but was not quite the same, something more complex than that.

"It is best for all if we do not become involved too deeply. We make decisions that affect the whole world, they cannot be made without a clear, logical outlook," I said.

Zephyra looked back into the distance. "Tch, I thought as much," she said.

I helped her pack up her belongings. We would leave many of them here, for anyone to use if they happened upon it. We took only what was really needed, mostly her research log and the herb samples. I noticed she had no intention of taking the masks with her, the next morning I saw they were still hanging from the wall as we prepared to set off.

"Aren't you going to take these along?" I asked, motioning towards the masks.

"Too big to carry. It's either those or the logs, not both." she said.

I looked at the masks, judging their size. A thought occurred to me.

"I could take them, I can just tie them to me instead of my sword, see?" I said. I detached the sword from its strap and improvised a knot to attach the masks. They clacked against one another as I looped them over myself with my magic. A calm look overtook Zephyra. Had I done something out of turn to offend?

"That - you mean that? Really? But what about your sword?" she asked.

"I don't need it that badly. This is much more important," I said. In truth, I had only used my sword to execute those who could not be helped, those who the darkness had overtaken too badly for a chance of recovery. After all, I could always just snap their necks, or-

Zephyra walked up to me, standing very close. She stood there for a long time, looking at me from inches away. I returned her look quizzically. What was she playing at?

"You're not like your sisters," she said.

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"You know very well that the masks don't mean anything. The simplest calculation can tell you that, your sword is much more important," she said to me, keeping her eyes locked.

"I still don't see what you mean," I said again.

"Nothing, nevermind," she said. We left my sword in the dugout in a corner, behind the makeshift bed where I had slept. It was out of place among all the earthen furniture, the simple wooden and reed heirlooms. It was the only metal object we were leaving here.

The Buffalo had set their tents up about half a day's walk away, their campfires sending a plume into the sky for us to follow. When we arrived, Zephyra introduced me to the tribe, a leaderless collection of individuals who followed the group around more for enjoyment than any necessity. I later learned that not all Buffalo tribes worked like that, some had elaborate hierarchies and social orders that had to be followed. This anarchistic group was, shall we say, one of the more fun-loving tribes.

That evening, we built a great bonfire and the Buffalo danced around it, as graceful as a ballerina if a lot more bulky. There was much sharing of food and drink, including what Zephyra told me was called 'firewater'. It burned as I drank it, meaning it was quite literally named. They made it from partially rotted berries, foul stuff by any stretch, yet Zephyra loved it. As she drank more of it, as did I, I noticed her leaning on me as she lost her sense of balance. The liquid was having almost no effect on me, perhaps my strong constitution or some magical counter-effect kept me sane as everyone around me began to slur their speech and stumble over one another.

"Princess," Zephyra said, her eyes closed as she leaned into my coat.

"Yes?" I answered, looking down at her. She was like a foal, leaning on its mother as it drifted off to sleep.

"It's cold out here," she said.

I prepared to move her closer to the fire, to help warm her up.

"No," she said as I shifted in place. I settled back down. She rubbed herself closer to me, sharing my body heat. I felt uneasy inside, my stomach suddenly upsetting itself as she practically cuddled with me in front of the Buffalo. Despite all the eyes around us, she did not seem to care.

We lay like that as the evening wore on, her warm body pressing against mine as I stared into the slowly dying fire. Eventually I pulled her into one of the tents the Buffalo had laid out for us, a blue and white construction made out of sticks stuck into the ground and a cloth wrapped around them. I put Zephyra down on some reeds that must have been what the Buffalo slept on, and turned around to exit the tent, the Zebra behind me almost asleep.

As I reached the entrance, I heard a rustling behind me. I turned around to see her looking up at me.

"Wait," she said. It was dark, too dark to see, yet I could tell from her voice there were tears in her eyes. "Please don't go, I'm so lonely."

"Lonely? But you've made friends here, and with me. You have so many to be with," I said.

"You still don't understand," she said. She stood up, and slowly wobbled her way over to me.

"Understand what?" I asked as she approached.

She did not speak, instead putting her hoof to my mouth to quiet me. She leaned in close and pressed her lips against mine, gently and softly, before withdrawing and stepping back.

All at once, I realized what she meant. It is difficult to be vulnerable, so she had taken her chance to run away and be alone. She didn't want to get over her pain, believing it was -

"Stop that, stop thinking!" she said, raising her voice at me. "You're not like that!"

For once, I decided to act instead of think. I kissed her, than brought her back over to the bed and lay down. My magic would seal the tent off to prevent any unwanted interruptions.

Celestia had always told me to stay remote, to stay detached. Ponies, Zebras, Griffons, Buffalo, Mules, whatever, they would all die some day. They, like everything else, were mortal, temporary, and unlike us. Ours was a purpose that spanned millennia, longer if necessary, and to bear the pain on our hearts of losing those we loved would not last a lifetime, but all the lifetimes. She had told me that it was better to be unloved and unloving, to spare myself that pain.

I had listened to her, grudgingly, always trying to convince myself to forget and not to feel. I knew she was right. Luna had tried to console me, telling me it was not important, that I had to have the strength to rise above myself and do what was right. I don't think either of them fully understood, or if they did, they studiously hid it to protect themselves. All three of us wanted so desperately to be unfeeling.

No longer. I made love to Zephyra that night, and she back to me. She needed someone precisely for their impermanence, and she found that in me. I could have healed her wounds but I realized now why she did not want me to. Love gains meaning only through transience. Love is when we have a finite amount of time and we choose to spend it with someone special, knowing that, once lost, it can never be recovered. I would love Zephyra even if it meant bearing that wound for the rest of eternity when fate came to take her from me, because she was willing to make a sacrifice far more profound in order to love me. I could no longer imagine it being otherwise.

Chapter 16

Before me, as before, stood the statue of Princess Amoria, shimmering in the other sight, made of a million sparks of light. I finally felt at peace with myself, finally understood everything and finally had laid to rest all my doubts and indecisions.

I opened my real eyes, to see the sad remains of the statue, molded with plaster and stone. The histories missed so much, it was funny to see all the truly important details in the recordings we make laid bare for what they are. History talks of kings and emperors and princesses, it forgets the ponies who live each day as best as they can, theirs being the only important thing. So profound, yet so mundane.

I turned around to see Tia, standing behind me in all her glory. Her face was like the sun, shining over mine as she smiled broadly at me.

"Tia? Is that you?" I asked her, looking up. She was much taller than me, she always had been a tall pony but living as a teenager put me at a severe disadvantage.

"Welcome back Amoria," she said, leaning down to place her neck over mine. The embrace felt good, it was good to be back, sort of. I pushed her away after a moment.

"Please, call me Cadence," I said.

"Hah, that's right, isn't it? I better get used to calling you that," she said, her laugh a faint reminder of 'Victoria', one of her many alter-egos.

No doubt most of the guards had been in on her little scheme. Sometimes I thought she manipulated others simply for the fun of it, then again, perhaps that's what she did to pass the time. Pranks never get old, and the more difficult, the more exciting.

Many of my memories remained dark. They would come back to me in time, or when I needed them, yet so many were hidden from me. I felt I needed to give Celestia a whack, so I did. I smacked her with my hoof lightly on the chest.

"Why did you bring me back so early? Can't a girl enjoy some innocence? Gah!" my head started to hurt suddenly, I winced in the pain. Celestia stepped back and looked out through the door at the party still going on outside.

"I'm sorry, and I know it hurts. Please understand that I can't keep going without you," she said, turning back to me. "I'm desperate."

"Ooh, I forgot. The mighty Princess Celestia has a soft side. Consoling you isn't worth the headaches," I said, my skull still reporting the pain from within.

"It's not that, I'd never put you through this for something so trivial," she said. Tia had a way of considering everything before acting, always doing her best to make sure everypony was accounted for. Surely she had a good reason.

"You were there, the seals are weakening. They're going to come back soon," she said. They. The faceless, black invaders made of terror and doubt. They needed no further explanation.

"Was that the thing I saw, that big thing I ran from?" I asked. My mind was still dark, it'd take time to remember everything, Tia's explanations would do for now.

She nodded. "They're not at full strength yet, they don't even have real bodies, but they're getting stronger. It's all going to come to a head, and very soon, I think," she said.

"How soon is soon? Don't you have a plan?" I asked. I was trying to navigate this conversation with only half of my head working.

"Amori - Cadence, haven't you noticed? The plan is just out there," she said, pointing out the door. I walked to the door and followed her lead, she was pointing at a little purple filly who was chatting with her brother. She had his oversized helmet on her head, struggling to hold it up and pose in a salute.

It took me a few seconds to process what it meant.

"You think Twilight is the one?" I asked her in shock.

"I know this is a lot to take in, so please bear with me for a little longer, okay?" she asked of me. I was answering questions without fully understanding them now, making observations I couldn't quite grasp. Usually it was after I had come of age that I would remember who I was, when I was ready to resume my duties. Sometimes, something would trigger it early, and I would suffer under the burdens until I was ready. This time, Celestia had found me and deliberately set the process off. I should have been furious with her, yet she had a good reason. That reason was Twilight.

Such an unassuming little filly. She was so thoroughly in touch with magic she was not even aware of it, practically a bomb waiting to go off. Long ago, in a different time and in a different place, we three, Celestia, Luna, and I, had given almost everything and lost almost everyone to defeat an evil which should never have been.

Yet, we refused to give everything and everyone. We faltered, we blamed ourselves, and we left our task incomplete. Instead of being destroyed, we left the evil bound, so far below the earth in a forgotten place, bound with only shadows watching until the end of time. So we had thought. And now that evil was returning, and our only plan was to wait and hope that a hero would come who would not falter where we had and finish what we had started ten thousand years ago.

That hero, in our approximation, was Twilight. A being made of almost pure magic, given physical form. She stood with one hoof in the magical realm at all times, a feat which even I could only perform with great concentration. Yet, for all her might, she was vulnerable if she did not know how to use it. It would require study and discipline just to contain her powers, much less unleash them. We had to protect her until she was ready.

"And so, I'm going to leave you as her foalsitter for a little longer, okay?' Celestia had been talking this whole time. I already knew where this was going.

"Then, this fall, you'll just happen to suggest to her mom that she should enroll in my magic school. I'll be able to keep watch over her from there," she said.

"And what of me? What will I do then?" I asked.

"You'll have to shadow her whenever she goes out, don't let her know you're there. It's best if she lives a normal life until it's time. It will be a lot, I know, but you're the only one I can count on," she said.

"And what of me? I have parents, friends, I have a life!" I protested. This was worse than arguing with mom and dad about privileges.

"Tch, I bet you said the same thing about that foalsitting job. It worked out for the best, right?"

Foalsitting job?

"Tia, just how much spying on me have you been doing?" I asked, taking a firm tone.

"I just did some research, that's all!" she said, trying to look innocent. That's a dead giveaway she was anything but.

"Oh, so you're the one who switched my assignment. Are you also the one who just happened to get Twilight's mom to work late and just so happened to be shopping for chocolates that night?" I demanded, piecing it together as I went.

"Okay, that one, yes. But I really do go there for chocolates, they're to die for, see?" she said, pointing at the snacks table. The same chocolates I had seen her buying a few nights previous were in a pyramid on the table, with a number of ponies standing around it all agreeing with one another about something.

Why can't anypony just be straight with me?

Celestia sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about all this. I had to be sure it was Twilight, and what better way than to put you in as her foalsitter? That couldn't have turned out better if I had planned it," she said.

Celestia was no doubt referring to the summer sun festival, after which my life had started to take on some curious turns. In retrospect, that had her hoofprints all over it. Only Celestia could make subtlety require manipulation of entire government agencies.

"All right, enough stalling, it's time for the big reveal," Celestia said, as she prepared to open the doors.

"Wait, I thought we were going to be moving the statue out," I said. It looked fairly incomplete, I wondered if it would impress anypony.

"Don't be silly. I told everypony that I'd be revealing Princess Amoria, and that's just what I intend to do," she said with a wry smile.

"All right all right," I said. Celestia had probably made some clever invitation which implied a statue or artifact would be revealed, but a careful reading of the language would indicate nothing of the sort. Then she would go to sleep laughing at her own cleverness. Some things never change.

"I have one condition first," I said, preparing to be gawked at by hundreds of aristocrats.

"Name it," she said, her hoof on the door.

"When you introduce me," I said, holding my hoof up, "call me Princess Cadence".

Epilogue

I have lived thousands of years through hundreds of lives. After the first, I decided I could not continue forever and that it would be cruel to Zephyra if I did. I aged, I grew sick, and I died. Yet, I was compelled, some time later, to return. So I did, becoming a new filly to parents who loved me and raised me until such a time as my duties called me again.

And so it has been, through my time here, I have aided countless beings with their struggles against the darkness that I failed to contain. It is my penance, in a way, yet it is also a blessing. I have seen so many things and had such wonderful experiences that it almost counteracts the terrible dangers I will soon face.

Given all that, before the day Celestia had shown me to a crowd of assembled aristocrats I had never seen a monocle fly off of a pony's face in shock. I would need to keep a list of things I needed to see at least once.

Twilight had taken it remarkably well, bouncing around me and cheering before bragging to everypony in the room that she was best friends with a Cadence the Princess. I did my best to act humble, but it was exhilarating to finally be the center of attention in a room full of ponies without having to break something.

To save us the confusion, Celestia had conveniently labelled me her niece. That was a polite way of saying that our relationship was none of anypony else's business. I'm sure it would just have confused them anyway, ever since the fall, Celestia must have been thought of as an only child. In a manner of speaking.

I had made it halfway back to Twilight's house before my friends ambushed me. Minty had heard a rumour and rounded up a posse in record time, the three of them bearing down on Twilight and I as we travelled the streets.

I had had to assuage Gabby, who became worried that suddenly all her friends could fly except her. Though I now had wings, I had no intention of using them. Unicorns were meant to be on the ground and that's what I was, somehow. Minty had remained curiously silent until her chance came to explode.

"OhmygoshyoureaprincessIknewtherewassomethingweirdaboutyoubutIwaslikecoulditbethatnowayohthatmeansyouknowtheprincesswellnotyouImeanCelestiabecause -"

She ran out of breath and had to be held back, lest she try to write out what she could not say, possibly on the sidewalk, possibly in blood if she had no ink.

I assured them all that nothing was going to change, they were still my friends and I wasn't going to abandon them. I would wear a coat out in public if it would draw attention away from me, hiding my wings and making me appear as I always had, though that never did become necessary. Despite them wanting to probe me some more, I still had one last meeting to make.

I dropped Twilight off at home, her mother and father having mysteriously taken the rest of the afternoon off. How coincidental.

I knew my mom and dad would be waiting for me at home when I got there, no doubt Tia would see to that. What I was not prepared for was seeing Victoria standing in the same place where she had given me her umbrella before.

"Tia, what are you doing here?" I hissed, trying to avoid arousing any suspicion. The streets were crowded today as ponies went about their business, oblivious to me as they had been before.

"I figured I'd say hello to your parents. I was thinking, cousin? Or is that too close? Can I be your aunt still?" she said, practically laughing but restraining herself to a big smile.

All things considered, it went fairly well. Dad had struggled to bow fast enough once Tia showed them who she really was, while mom was about ready to tear her a new one. After all, it's impolite to disguise yourself like that when you're somepony's guest.

My parents did not seem at all shocked in the end. Perhaps they always knew, deep down, that their daughter was different. Maybe they knew it when they had seen my cutie mark, or maybe it was magic at work in its mysterious ways, I didn't know. They still loved me, and now I had a bigger family to love.

Celestia had asked me if I wanted a place to stay at the castle, and I had declined. I preferred my home, such as it was, and I would move out when I was ready. She had kept many of my things in a locked room in the west wing, right next to hers. She had locked the door and kept the only key, dusting it herself instead of letting the staff do it. The room was full of the things I had made and collected over the years, portraits only I could recognize, songs written by those who had been close to me. Two wooden masks, a green and a blue one, restored and polished to keep them new. My sword, recovered from its resting place ages ago, restored, reforged, dulled and reforged again. I left it where it was, I was not ready to take it up quite yet, and I knew it would be there when it was time.

My name is Princess Amoria, though you know me better as Cadence. I have made many mistakes in my time, and I will make many more. I have learned so many lessons that I have forgotten them and relearned them anew. My sisters and I have been charged with protecting this world, and through it, all of creation, until such a time as its inhabitants are ready and will take on the duties we have been performing. I look forward to that time as the time I will finally be able to cast aside the blade which I have carried for so long and greet the end, gaining peace which I have been denied.

There will be challenges ahead. I see, in Twilight and those like her, what I hope will be the beginning of the end, the first in a new breed of creature capable of maintaining the balance of the world. She, and those who follow her, will confront that darkness which has lurked at the edges of our vision and gnawed at our hearts since as long as can be remembered, and in so doing, defeat it. I will do what I can to aid her, yet her victory will not be mine. It will not be hers. It will be all of ours.

I will leave you now with a prophecy that was made almost ten thousand years ago. I do this not because it is profound, and not because this prophecy has any meaning. They were the words of an old fool, stars in her eyes, dreaming of the future in which all had been made one.

"And, on the longest day of the ten-thousandth year, the stars will aid in its escape, and it will bring about night-time eternal. Where the three faded, the six will burn strong, on the edge of madness and forbidden deeper, tolerance will not conquer hate, but forgive it."

Continued in Part 2: The Edge of Madness

Chapter 10

The summer days passed as lazily as they could, given my circumstances. Paranoia is a subtle ingredient, it flavors everything you eat after your first taste, it cannot be washed down or drowned out.

I watched Twilight four days a week, but it was a full time job. I was always on alert for that distinctly uncertain feeling, the overwhelming stillness and silence that overcame the world when an attack was about to occur. We always spent our time in place with clear retreat routes, I would always map out the longest, straightest, and clearest path as soon as we entered any new area. I did this all subconsciously, but it flavored my thoughts and decisions. Always ready for something that never comes, and I didn't even know what it was. I was still in the dark as to what these creatures were or where they were coming from, why they attacked us, what they wanted. No answers were forthcoming, the memories had grudgingly stayed in their corner of my mind and I could not summon them up now, even had I wanted to.

I had heard of this from my Mom when she was dealing with suspects and witnesses who were mentally ill. They would have bizarre ideas and think the strangest things were perfectly normal, but they weren't stupid. We always think of ponies who are crazy as being the kind who sit in straight jackets all day and mutter to themselves, but the truth is they're just like everypony else. They can't tell reality from the fictions in their heads, they make decisions based on what they think is real just like I did.

The only difference between them and I was that they never once questioned it. Mom would tell us stories over dinner about suspects who were dead certain that the voices telling them to kill their foals were real, and who became offended when she'd tell them they weren't. It was plain as day to them, the psychologists told her, you might as well be denying the sun was warm.

Twilight and I had made sort of an arrangement. She would get to spend a certain amount of time reading each day, and after that time was up, we would go outside to get some fresh air. We played in Canterlot's many finely appointed public parks and playgrounds, I tried to teach her how to play Tennis and Hoofball, I even tried to teach her a little more magic despite my obvious handicap.

My friends would sometimes stop by, after I had told them about Twilight. Gabby, as it turned out, had clients who lived a few blocks away, and would sometimes hang out with us after their recording sessions were over. She got along with Twilight fairly well, in that they ignored one another unless it was absolutely necessary. I don't think Gabby was good with fillies.

Minty and Squeaky fared a little better, in exchange for terrifying me beyond belief. Twilight absolutely loved soaring through the air, and the twins would take her on short flights over my head while I tried desperately to keep my heart from exploding. Unicorns were not meant to fly, even if I knew it was completely safe, the creeping fear of a fall lingered in my mind. She'd splat like a pancake. I wondered if fillies ever fell during flight school. The thought made me shudder.

My homework essays had been receiving good marks back, it looked like I'd really be able to pull this off and not bring shame to my family. They weren't my very best work, but I could do lots of extra research when Twilight was busy reading up on magic. A few times, I had even taken the opportunity to teach her about what I was reading about. She gobbled up the knowledge hungrily, not just being fascinated with magic but science in general, always tossing out questions after each lesson I had not even thought of. I'm not ashamed to say my grades were getting better because of her influence, slowly working their way up from the B I had gotten on my first essay to an A- on the most recent one.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but we have to go," I said, packing up a scroll into my saddlebags.

"Aww, but I want to finish this chapter," she protested, holding up a few hundred pages of a giant tome she had started. A Concise History of Renaissance Magical Engineering, clocking in at only 5000 pages. The book was heavier than she was, I had to use a jack just to get it off the desk and we stored it on the ground since it'd collapse the bookshelves. I wondered how the librarian believed she could read, much less lift, the gargantuan thing. Maybe they were glad to be rid of it.

"Sorry Twilight, but I have to go turn in this essay, and it's due today before sun down. You can finish it when we get back," I said. I found that it was much easier to explain myself to her than simply order her, she was too smart to try to boss around.

"Where do we have to go? To your school?" she asked. I gave a nod back.

"Wow, grown-up school! Can Smarty-Pants come? Please, she's always wanted to go to a grown-up school, pleeeease?" This was the first pony I had met who was enthusiastic to go to school, even during the summer. She even had a toy doll who she'd pretend to form study groups with and do imaginary homework.

What was I saying about crazy ponies before?

We set off with her Smarty-Pants doll in a little green saddlebag strapped to her. Its head was sticking out the unbuckled top, "so she can take in the sights". I had also given her the great honor of carrying the three scrolls my essay was written on, homework being a nigh-holy artifact in her mind. It needed to be given on time, tardiness was tantamount to sedition, treachery, sin.

While I had usually been able to simply mail my essays to Ms. Burner's home address, I had left it too late this time. In that case, my instructions were to go to her office and turn it in myself, no harm done, as long as I got it there before the school closed at 5:00. Teachers kept regular-ish business hours just like any other pony, though it had never occurred to me before this summer. I had always figured, I dunno, they slept in tombs and attacked archaeologists. Gotta fill your time with something.

When we got to the school, we headed upstairs to the second floor, where all the teachers had their offices in long rows. It was one big, dreary hallway, darkened by the setting sun. The windows were all on the east side of this hallway, presumably to make it easier to get work done in the mornings, and only dim, reflected orange light lit the doors as we passed looking for Ms. Burner's office.

There was a note written on the door when we found it, saying "meet me in 107". Seemed kind of odd for her to leave a note just for me, I considered slipping the scroll under the locked door before thinking better of it. Maybe she had something important to tell me.

We made our way back downstairs to my old physics classroom, where the door had been left open. Inside were Ms. Bunsen and Mr. Prescott, they looked up, startled, as I entered.

"Oh, uh, Cadence!", Ms. Bunsen blushed fire-red as I walked towards them, Twilight in tow.

"I got your note," I said, and Twilight dutifully took out the scrolls and presented them as best she could. She was too short to drop them on the nearby desk with her mouth, so I had to levitate her up high enough to do so. She bowed afterwards. Smarty-Pants remained respectfully silent.

"Oh, the note. Yes the note," Ms. Bunsen said, stumbling over her words.

"Just wanted to say," Mr. Prescott started, "you're doing a great job. Keep it up Cadence. Just one more to go."

"Really, just one more?" I asked. These assignments had just flew by.

"Unless you want more to do..." he started to say.

"No! I mean, no, that's okay, really. Heh, hah!" I tried to laugh, but he understood my meaning. Ms. Bunsen wasn't too happy about it.

"Are you sure, we can always give you another dozen essays..." she said, trailing off as she turned to Mr. Prescott. Her eyes seemed to glaze over.

Oh my.

Now I realized just what was going on here.

Now I felt offended by what was going on here.

Now I felt sad for what was going on here. Ms. Bunsen liked Mr. Prescott, and she didn't know how to tell him. What's more, I could tell he liked her back, but he wouldn't come out and say that. Call it my intuition, call it a wild guess, call it an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, but that wasn't right.

Not in the sense that teachers aren't allowed to love each other, I recalled my Mom talking about a movie called "Bride of Frankenstein" once that must be based on this sort of thing. No, it was wrong because they couldn't tell each other. Literally couldn't. There was a block in the way, preventing them from saying it.

"It's okay, really. I just want to pass and I can get on with my life," I said, backing up and boxing Twilight towards the door. If I was going to do this, I had to have some privacy.

We stood in the hallway after I had softly closed the door. Twilight looked at me with a quizzical expression on her face, I wouldn't be able to hide it from her. I had never told anypony about my special skill, they always let it slide or were polite enough not to ask. I had never shown another what I had done, I didn't even know if I could do it again. No time for arguing or a complex explanation. This was my mission, it was what I was put here to do.

"Twilight, please don't be alarmed," I heard myself explaining, my thoughts were distant. "You can't tell anypony about this, okay?" She nodded.

I concentrated, summoning up once again the realm beyond sight. I closed my eyes and opened them to see the black, empty void. There were no wisps of light here this time, the mood was hushed, quiet. I looked through the wall near the doorway, it did not block me in this other realm, to see the two glowing spheres of light that represented my two teachers.

Right away I could see something very wrong, very different about these two. The strands of light were there, running between them just as they had between my parents. The connection was strong, not frayed or damaged like before. Instead, I could see dark rivulets of some liquid running over the strands.

I needed to get closer, but would not risk entering the room to do so. Instead, I focused on bringing one of the strands over to me. After a little coaxing, the strand agreed to stretch itself, expanding and lengthening towards me. Thank you, I thought to it. It tensed as it presented itself in front of me, I could see the dark liquid much more clearly. They were flowing over and over, reshaping and reforming themselves. I wondered just what the substance could be, reaching out my hoof to touch it -

It snapped back suddenly, the strand letting out a cry that echoed in my head, like a high-pitched squeak from a mouse. It was not me who had hurt it, my body could scarcely interact with it, no, it was the fluid. It tensed and squeezed the strand. As it did, I saw a distinctly green flash run in veins through the fluid, like crystals embedded into it.

This was no bandaging maneuver, this was a full-scale operation. The strand was infected with this awful tar, I would need to cut it open and pull it out, no other way to do it. I knew that if I could clean out this strand it would be strong enough to clean out the others and purify the connection, but it could not do so without my help getting started.

I focused on the strand, bringing it closer and binding it in place. The fluid began to fight back, trying to squeeze the strand into retreating, but I held it firm. It began to cry in my mind, and I could hear sobbing in the other room, there would be no going back now.

First I had to disconnect the strand temporarily, slicing it clean through on one side. It was a temporary cut, simply reattaching it later would fix it, but it also prevented the fluid from escaping. The liquid tried to head me off and ran itself towards the cut line, which was exactly my plan. The liquid had spread itself as wide as it could, and thus was disconnected from itself. Halving the strand thus halved the fluid's power.

I began to carve off the skin of the strand where the liquid sat over it, much like peeling a potato. As the strand became split off, the liquid would lose cohesion and slide off, vanishing into nothingness, and allowing me to reattach the sliced strand to the body. It reattached quickly and cleanly, and I was methodical, starting from one end and purging the dark tar while preventing it from re-affecting the areas I had already cleaned. I almost lost my concentration and made a bad cut a few times, the fluid trying its best to fake me out as I surely worked it over. In the end, I managed to clean the infection off the strand, and left it suspended in space while I went to clean the other side.

It took nearly twenty minutes to get both sides cleared off. Now would come the reattachment. I shaved off a little of the strand again to act as a bandage, then reattached the dangling ends and pasted the shaved parts over the wound. As I did so, the pasted parts assimilated into the light and I felt a surge as it reactivated itself.

The surge wracked my brain, a dull roar that traveled along the strands back towards its owners. Everywhere the surge went, the dark fluid that remained shuddered and evaporated as the strand reasserted itself, now firmly in control, healthy and happy. My job was done, the damage repaired, and I prepared to leave the other realm. I could hear something coming from far away, miles, someplace distant, but where, I could not be sure. It rumbled closer and closer, until the wave passed over and through me. My whole body tingled, the wave was made of pure happiness and excitement, like getting your cutie mark or finding out your special somepony liked you back. There was a voice carried on the wave.

WELL DONE.

The feeling subsided and cold, sterile reality returned. I could see the two lights in the other room were making up for lost time, the bonds moving and shifting. None of my business, actually, it seemed vulgar to watch even if they were just light. I turned my head to the side to look away, and saw Twilight standing next to me, looking up at me.

It was not a being made of light like all the others had been. I could not see myself, so I didn't know what I looked like, though I could guess all ponies and other creatures would be represented as such. Except Twilight. She stood for all the world looking like a normal pony, her purple frame against the black, empty background of the other world. Awe was painted on her face, her eyes widened all the way open to take in every detail.

The appearance of Twilight finally broke my waning concentration, and the world went dark again. I was looking at my own eyelids, and opened them to see Twilight in the same position with the same expression as before. I quickly raised a hoof to shush her and checked the crack in the door to make sure we had not been detected by those inside.

The scene was heartwarming, the two embraced, locked in a kiss. Yes, it was my teachers for pony's sake, yes, I should be retching at such a display. My heart didn't care, it gave me a warm feeling of accomplishment to see them like that. I motioned to Twilight that we should get going and we made it almost to the outside before she lost control and started gushing.

"Oh wow that was so cool! How did you do that with your eyes, can you teach me? I want to do that! Please? Pleasepleaseplease show me!" she rambled, hopping up and down in front of me.

"Do what with my eyes?" I asked her. Obviously I couldn't look in a mirror, I had thought I just had my eyes closed. That's how it felt to me.

"You had like, all white! The, uh, the middle things were missing. Pupils!" she labored to find the words, too excited to think.

"Wow, calm down." I said. I didn't think I could teach Twilight how to do that, I didn't even know how to myself.

"Maybe I'll show you when you're older, it's my special gift you know. Not just anypony can do it." I said, pointing at my flank. She understood, but was no less awestruck by the experience.

We made our way back to Twilight's house, where her Mom awaited, as usual, to see me off. I had wondered if she was going to talk about this to her parents, or maybe her brother, even though it'd made her sound crazy. Then again, she had all kinds of crazy ideas, they'd just blame it on all the stories she'd read. True stories, about magicians and scientists and engineers, but stories nonetheless. The truth is never quite captured in the histories.