Loyalty of Sand

Chapter 2

_____“Agh! Twi? I think your friend here is a little, um, angry for no reason! Help!” Spike was running for his life.“That’s a lie! You welcomed this creature into your home? He is a dragon; they are no good! He will grow, and he will eat you. I’m trying to protect you.”“I don’t know what’s she’s talking about! All I eat is gems, honest!” Said Spike. The dragon was cornered and Amber was trying to stab him with her horn, forgetting that it was broken and gone.Twilight’s eyes widened in horror and tried to levitate Amber back by her tail. “What do you think you’re doing? I know Spike; he’s not like other dragons!”“Heya Twilight! Ooh! Are we playing a game?” A familiar voice chimed. Twilight hadn’t heard her come in, but that didn’t matter.“Pinkie Pie! Help me pull her off Spike!” Twilight continued tugging to no avail. The combined force of the two mares finally won over and Spike was free. His first course of action was to run up to his room and slam the door shut behind him.“Let go of me! He’s getting away!” Amber ran in place, still held down. Surely her tail wouldn’t hold up under this much strain.“Stop. Now.” Twilight said. Her voice had a dangerous edge to it that even the former Princess of War could recognize and respect. She stopped trying to escape, or at least didn’t try nearly as hard. “Sit down. We need to talk this out.”“Who is the pink one?” Amber panted. “Why is she here?”“Silly! It’s Twilight’s one year and seven month anniversary!”Twilight gave her a confused look. “What are we celebrating?”The pink earth pony giggled. “Don’t you remember? You came to Ponyville a year and seven months ago, and that’s when we unlocked the Elements of Harmony,” She giggled again, “Wasn’t that great?”Amber was still exhausted from fighting to get at Spike. “You fight well, Pinkie Pie,” Amber gasped. “But on the wrong side. Dragons are evil.”“And now we’re back to square one.” Twilight continued holding Amber down, though it wasn’t entirely necessary. “Which is where we’re supposed to be anyway. Pinkie, would you mind sticking around? I think you need to get to know Amber.”“Ooh! I love making new friends! Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie, and I know everybody here in Ponyville, except for you! You must be new! What’s your name?”“Amber, tell Pinkie Pie who you are.” Twilight commanded.“Who I am, or who I was?” Amber fixated her eyes on the ground.Twilight was not in the mood to give a long answer. “Both.”“I was Princess Amber Sands. I used to be the Princess of War.” Amber didn’t look up. “Now I’m just Amber. I’ve done terrible things and that’s really all you need to know.”“And why did you attack Spike?” Twilight demanded.Amber’s eyes lit up a little. “Because he’s a dragon, and all dragons are-”“Evil, yeah, you made that point earlier. But besides that?”“I was trying to protect you.” Amber’s ears began to droop a little. In Twilight’s mind she was starting to act like a filly that had been scolded. “I thought you would hate me after knowing my past, so I also wanted you to like me for caring about you.”Twilight softened. Amber was from the edges of Equestria. She probably hadn’t met a single good creature besides the occasional colt or filly that had gone wandering too far. “Amber, Equestria is different when you get deeper into the borders. You can’t judge if anybody is good or bad by what they are. You have to get to know them before you judge them. I hatched Spike, and he isn’t a regular dragon. I kind of think he was created by a spell. He doesn’t even have any wings. Spike is sort of my assistant. He helps me around the house. I already know he’s not evil.” Her cutie mark should have been a podium; it seemed that her special talent might be lecturing. Her face lit up. “I can put that in my next letter to Celestia! Would you mind?”Amber shook her head. Now her sister had a pen pal? “So… do you hate me?”Twilight laughed. “No, Discord could do that to anybody. You’ve spent too much time on the borders.”Pinkie Pie shook her head in confusion. “Whoa, hold up a second. So now I know your name, and who you used to be, but I’m kind of missing the middle part! It’s probably pretty important. Like, what happened? Why isn’t she Princess anymore? How come she doesn’t have a special talent if she’s a princess? And why-”Twilight stuffed her uneaten sandwich in the earth pony’s mouth. “Questions later. She just got here, Pinkie, couldn’t you be a little bit more polite?”“Thowwy.” She mumbled around the food. “I’m juth curiouth. Tho, why are you here?”“Can I tell you later? I’ve had a really long day.” Amber interposed. She liked the mare, but she really was tired.“Ith onwy noon.” Pinkie swallowed the sandwich.“Well…” Amber gave Twilight a pleading look.“She’ll tell you along with everyone else. Later.” The purple mare came to her aid.“Okie dokie lokie!” She chirped and bounced out the door. If the pair had been listening they would have heard the delighted gasp signifying that Pinkie had a plan for a party.Amber watched her go and threw her cloak on her back again. She had not appreciated Pinkie’s question about her cutie mark. “I guess I like her. She’s nice enough, I mean.” She commented. “So, what are your other friends like?”Twilight smiled. Amber was becoming more social by the hour. “Well, you just saw Pinkie Pie; she’s the best pony you could trust to find a reason to throw a party. Did Luna explain the Elements of Harmony to you?”“Well, she mentioned the stones anyway. I already know what they are, but perhaps something has changed since I’ve been here.”Twilight smiled. At least somepony around here appreciated history. She explained how they had been used in the past millennium, and how Luna and Celestia were now severed from their powers. In her zone, she went on to explain how she and her friends had come by the treasures, and how they had been used, and why they were not stones anymore but jewels. Amber listened raptly to every word.When Twilight finished, Amber cocked her eyebrow. “You mentioned six elements. Everybody knows there are only five. Magic isn’t an element, it never has been. Don’t lie to me, I hate lies.”“Well, I’ve yet to meet a pony who liked bein’ tricked,” An orange pony drawled.Twilight turned around, surprised. “Applejack? What are you doing here?”“Surprise! It’s later!” A chirpy voice announced.“Pinkie!” Twilight exclaimed. How long could it have possible been? She glanced out her window. The sun was nearly finished setting. She had really rambled when she began lecturing. “You haven’t even had time to plan the party,” A thought struck her. “Have you?”Pinkie Pie giggled and bounced in through the door, followed by her four closest friends. “Did you really forget about my party cannon?” She fired it at a coffee table, turning it into a table with decorations and a board game. “Silly, all I had to do was announce it to all of Ponyville! Everypony wanted to come! Well of course they did! It’s a party, who wouldn’t want to come? And now Amber has lots and lots of friends!”A swarm of ponies followed through the door, to Twilight’s horror. It wasn’t that she minded all the ponies coming to her library, she was afraid that Amber would be intimidated by all the new faces. She had spent so much time at the borders she probably hadn’t seen many friendly faces. Her natural instinct would probably to label them as enemies. She turned to Amber. “Listen, whatever you do, don’t attack them. They’re not enemies, or changelings, so don’t worry.”Amber’s sides were heaving, her eyes wide. The pink pony had returned, startling her. Not that she minded the pink one’s presence, but she had brought a mob of ponies with her. The library was growing crowded, every inch of space was being used. She could have sworn that she had seen two of the same pony, but perhaps it was her imagination. Twilight said something to her, but she couldn’t hear what she had said.Amber backed towards the stairs, panting even harder. Two steps up. There was more air up here, she could breathe now. Two ponies, one cream and the other sea-foam green, noticed her moving and walked up the stairs.“Hi, I’m Lyra, and this is my best friend Bonbon. Are you Amber?” The green one asked.Amber backed farther up the stairs, stumbling over the ones she couldn’t see. “Oh, uh, yes, that’s me. Uh,” She glanced behind her back. Twilight had left her window open to let air in and out. “Yeah, it’s nice to meet you, Lyra, but uh,” Her eyes widened as another wave of ponies came in through the door. “I really need to go now.”“How come? I thought this was a meet-and-greet so you could-”“Thanks, but I really need to go right now!” Amber whipped around and bolted the next few stairs when a grey pegasus offered her a home-made muffin. When Amber jumped and began flying out of the crowd the pegasus pursued her, insisting that they were excellent if she would just try one. As Amber dashed away the pegasus muttered something about, “Just don’t know what went wrong.”Finally she was free of the remaining stairs. There were just so many ponies in one confined place. And they just wouldn’t leave her alone! Yet another approached her, but this time Amber didn’t even take the time to notice what he looked like. Her breaths came in short, ragged gasps now, and her pupils had dilated smaller than a pin. Sweat beaded on her forehead. She had to get out, now.The window was open, but only halfway. Amber only noticed too late. She spread her wings and soared through the window, breaking the glass and cracking her skull. She forced herself not to scream in pain and flew onward.Amber felt the wind flowing over her wings, stinging the cuts from the glass, but it was nearly drowned out by the throbbing pain in her head. It had only been a small crack, not much more than a particularly bad headache, but it dominated her entire will. She could only fly for so much longer before she crashed.She squinted her eyes, trying to find a decent landing spot, but a drop of blood trickled into her eyes, blinding her. She flew around recklessly hoping that when she collapsed she would land on something soft.No such luck. Her left wing struck against a cliff, sending her tumbling away from the precipice with a sickening crack. She began tumbling down the side of the cliff, worsening the lacerations on her body.