Dominant Species

by DarkPhoenix

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Original Character, Adventure
Length: 25604

Something has come to Equestria. What does it bring with it?

Something has come to Equestria. It has traveled the stars, finally arriving. What it is, is unknown. What it wants, is unknown. All that is known is what it brings: a new beginning.

Published 2013-03-24 19:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-04-01 09:24:47 UTC

The Light

Chapter 1: The Light

        It was Luna who spotted it first.  She was flying through the skies late one night, keeping a close eye on the land, feeling for the ripples in the back of her mind that signified a nightmare.  It was rare for her to interfere in her subjects’ dreams..  Even rarer still that she manipulated the skeins of dreams to allow two or more ponies to share a dream.  She had recently taken an interest in a young filly named Scootaloo,and had briefly allowed both her and her idol, Rainbow Dash, to share dreams.

        Yet such times were rare; she preferred to allow her subjects their autonomy.  After all, dreams, even nightmares, were a natural part of a pony’s life.  Nightmares allowed one to face one’s fears in the safety of one’s mind.

        As she flew, she noticed something different in the night sky.  Contrary to popular belief, she lacked the ability to create true stars in the night sky.  True, she could add illusions to the sky, but the creation of those heavenly bodies was far beyond her.  Each star was an entity unto itself, much like the sun that her sister, Celestia, moved each day.  Perhaps if she was close enough to a star she could move it, but such a trip was unnecessary when all she had to do was add the illusion of stars to the sky.

        Yet that night was different.  She felt a ripple run through her mind, one that she had not felt before.  Her teal eyes scanned the sky, searching for something out of the ordinary.  It took her a moment, but she finally spotted it; a light in the sky that had not been there before.  It was faint, but distinguishable to her heightened vision.

        It wasn't unheard of for new stars to appear, and some had even vanished in a brilliant flare of light. It was the nature of the universe, a constant cycle of life, death, and creation. Luna had never felt a sense of dread accompany the birth of a new star. This was something different. It had suddenly appeared in the black depths of space, far from the clusters of stars, or the nurseries of the nebulae.

        Luna narrowed her eyes, staring at the tiny dot, trying to discern the mystery behind it.  She knew her sky, knew what to expect from it.  In all her long years of keeping watch over the night, even when she was trapped on the moon.  Something like this had never happened before.

        After several minutes of trying to figure out what it was, she shook her head.  “Perhaps Tia saying I work too hard was not simply a jest,” she mused quietly.  “Most likely this thing is but an anomaly.  If it is still there tomorrow, I shall ask her advice.”

        She flew off into the night, her magical senses once again alert for signs of a nightmare.

* * *

        The next night, she was once again on patrol.  She had pushed the new addition to her sky to the back of her mind.  The stress of half-running an entire country instead took the forefront of her thoughts.  Since her return from exile, so hadn’t had a day off.  In fact, she had covered for Tia more than once.  Smiling, she remembered one time that she had locked Tia inside her room, changing her form to resemble her and presiding over the Day Court.  Her sister had been angry at first, but Luna had forced her to admit that she had enjoyed her day off.

        By instinct, she cast her magic out across the sky, checking that everything was as it should be.  She once again found the disturbing anomaly that had appeared the night before.  She tightened her magic upon it, finding its exact location and homing in.  Her eyes followed the strand of magic, seeing once more that which she thought was an illusion.

        Unlike the previous night, though, this time it was brighter in the sky.  Where once it had been dim, barely able to be seen next to the brighter stars around it, now it stood out on its own.

        Her eyes narrowed while her brain tried to make sense of this.  Nothing like this had ever happened before. Stars did not just move closer to Equus.  A star only grew brighter when it was nearing the end of it’s lifecycle.  Even then, the process took thousands of years.  It was impossible for it to happen overnight.

        “Perhaps I should let Tia know about this...”  She watched the light for an hour, staring at it through slitted eyelids.  Yet she could not tell whether it was getting brighter or not.  “If it’s brighter tomorrow, I shall inform her.”

        A tingle broke her attention from the anomaly.  “Hmm, it would seem that the one called Lyra is having another nightmare.  I should investigate but...” She sighed.  “That one has very odd... dreams.”  Luna hesitated, unwilling to enter the mare’s dreams.  “If this involves ‘hands’ again, then she is on her own.”

        She filed away the information about the new star and set off towards Ponyville, steeling herself for whatever new horrors Lyra could drag up this time.  Her last dream about those creatures called “humans” had given the moon princess daymares for a week.

* * *

        Just as she had every night before, Luna was once more scanning the skies.  And this time, she was frightened.  The light which appeared two nights ago was now growing so bright it was actually overpowering the stars around it; half of the constellation of Manticoro was blotted out.

        “This... is worrisome,” she muttered.  “Tia needs to know about this.”

        With powerful beats of her wings, she sped towards Canterlot Castle, leaving a starry trail in her wake.  She alighted atop the highest balcony of the second tallest tower.  Her hoofsteps unsure, she strode over to the closed door.  Luna peered in past the open curtains to the room within.

        She knocked on the glass, a light tapping ringing out across the balcony.  With her enhanced night vision, she could see a figure stirring amongst the blankets on the bed.  When nopony arose, she knocked once more, louder this time.

        The blankets moved again, this time a white head framed by a quad-colored mane appeared, the purple eyes blinking at the source of the disturbance.  Luna waved at the pony inside, beckoning her to come over.

        The pony’s horn lit up and the blankets folded themselves into a neat pile at the foot of the bed.  She stood up, her mane impeccable as always.  Luna was secretly jealous of her sister.  No matter what, Tia always looked her best, even when she had just rolled out of bed.

        Tia plodded across the room and opened the door to the balcony with another burst of magic.  “Lulu, what is it?” she asked.

        “Tia, I’m afraid there is something I must bring to your attention.”

        “What?  Can’t this wait until morning?”  Celestia asked with a yawn.  Despite what she portrayed in front of her subjects, Celestia had moods and emotions just like anypony else.  And right now, she looked annoyed and tired.

        “I’m afraid not.”

        Celestia seemed to pick up on Luna’s worry, because her visible eye narrowed.  “What is it?”

        Luna backed up a few steps, beckoning her sister outside.  Celestia followed, her shoe-less hooves making far less noise than her smaller sister.

        Pointing with a silver-clad hoof, Luna asked, “Do you see that light?”

        Celestia nodded.  “Yes.”

        “Three nights ago, it wasn’t there.  Two nights ago, it was faint.  Last night, it was brighter, but still not quite there.  Now, as you can see, it is blocking half of the nearby constellations.”

        Luna turned her gaze from the sky to her sister.  Celestia was staring at her.  “Lulu, I’m too tired for this..”

        Luna shook her head.  “This isn’t my doing.  I don’t know what this is, only that it appeared and is now getting brighter.”  She felt as her sister’s magic scanned across the sky.  The two of them had grown up together and knew each other’s magical signatures intimately.  She knew that Tia was simply seeing whether the light had her signature on it, signifying it as an illusion.

        “Hmm,” Tia hummed thoughtfully.

        “See?  It is no creation of mine.  Tell me Tia, did anything like this happen while I was... indisposed?”

        Celestia shook her head, her mane rippling.  “No.  I admit to not having the fine control that you do over the night sky, but nothing of this sort happened.”

        The sisters stood staring at the light for several moments.  Finally Celestia spoke up.  “Keep an eye on this sister.  Should it keep growing, alert me.”

        “What should I do for now?  Surely if I have noticed it, and it is that bright, then there are astronomers who have seen it as well.”

        “They will likely come to me during Court to ask about it.  Shall I tell them that you are simply in a mood and playing a trick?” Celestia asked.

        “I...” Luna hesitated and glanced away.  “I don’t know Tia.”

        Celestia sighed.  “I will think of something.  For now, I’m going back to bed.  Let me know if it gets worse.”  With that, she turned around and went back inside, closing the door behind her.

        Luna stood on the balcony for a while longer, staring once more at the light in the sky.  “I wish she would take me seriously sometimes.”  She flapped her wings and took off, soaring towards the highest balcony on the tallest tower.

        Alighting upon the stones, her horn lit up and opened the door.  She stepped inside the room, her room, closing the door and drawing the curtains behind her.  The room became nearly pitch black, just the way she liked it.  Only a faint glowing from the walls and ceiling, hundreds of individual pinpricks of light, a perfect replica of the sky outside, lit the room.

        She made her way over to her desk, stacked high with papers and books.  A quick burst of telekinesis moved them all aside.  She pulled out a single, thick journal, opening to a blank page.  Grabbing a quill and ink in her magic, she wrote down just what she saw in the sky and its location.

        No sooner was her task done did she move over to her favorite reclining pillow, settling herself into its soft depths.  There she simply cast out her magic, doing her nightly duty of monitoring the dreamscape.  True, it was easier to do so outside and flying amongst the land, but she could handle it from here too.

        Handling things from her room allowed her to direct part of her thoughts towards the new addition to her sky.  Perhaps it was simply a star which was too faint to see before now going supernova.  If that were true, then it would burn bright for several days, a week at most, before vanishing.  Tonight was the third night.  If it was still there after a week, then she could truly worry.

        Still, she could not shake the feeling that there was something different about this light.  Every time she thought about it, a shudder ran down her spine.  “Please let this be nothing,” she said.

* * *

        Luna was now truly worried.  Once more she was standing on her sister’s balcony.  The regal figure of her sister stood next to her.  They were both looking up at the sky, frowns matching the mood perfectly.

        “It has been two days and still it grows brighter,” Luna said.  “Manticoro is gone.”

        Celestia nodded.  “Yes.  And it’s getting bigger as well.”

        Indeed, the light was bigger and brighter.  The whole of Manticoro was dwarfed by the light.  Luna could sense that the stars in the constellation still existed, they just couldn’t be seen.  Already the light was bigger than any other star in the sky.

        Both sisters had tried scanning the light with magic, but neither could tell what it was, only that it existed.  It was as if something was blocking their attempts.  But they couldn’t figure out what.

        “Tia, you know that ponies will be in Court tomorrow, asking about this.”  Luna knew they had been lucky so far and nopony had noticed.  But now, even a casual observer could see.

        She nodded.  “I know.”

        “What are you going to tell them?”

        Celestia sighed.  Luna could tell that she was at a loss for what to say, a rare thing for the regal Alicorn.  “I don’t know.  The last thing I want to do is incite a panic, but I don’t know what to say about this.”

        Celestia always had something to say, some calm reassurance about the situation.  To find her at a loss for words was something that nopony currently living, except her sister, had ever experienced.

        “You will think of something, sister,” Luna reassured her.

        Celestia tore her gaze from the light and looked at Luna.  “Will I?  When neither of us can explain this to ourselves, how will I explain it to my ponies?”

        Luna draped a wing over her sister.  “You will, I’m sure of it.  You always have before.”

        Celestia leaned into her.  “Thank you Lulu, but this time may be different.  Something feels... off about this.”

        “You feel it too, Tia?”

        “Yes.  There is something about this that feels like nothing I have ever experienced before.”

        They both shivered.  Silence reigned over them both, neither knowing what to say.  It was Luna who broke it.

        “You should go back to sleep.  Tomorrow will be a big day, for both of us.”

        “You’re right Lulu.  Though I don’t know how I will be able to sleep tonight.”  Celestia frowned, the expression seeming out of place on her face.  Always Tia had a smile, even during the most boring of meetings.  She only ever let her real emotions show around Luna.

        “Try.”  Luna forced a smile on her face.

        Instead of responding, Celestia went back inside her room, the door closing behind her with a resounding click.

        Luna returned her gaze to the sky, unable to shake the ever-growing feeling of dread.  She had lived for a long time, experienced a lot of things.  But she had never encountered anything like this.

        Eventually, she left her sister’s balcony in favor of her own.  Her nightly duty of watching over her subjects’ dreams was forgotten in favor of trying to figure out the mystery behind the light.  But no matter how hard she thought about it, no matter how deep into her memories she went, nothing surfaced.  No solutions, no insights, nothing.

        She felt powerless, something she was not used to.  She knew that Celestia was feeling the same thing.  They could do nothing but wait and see what transpired.  And hope that they were both wrong about what they felt.

* * *

        A week passed.  The light did not get any brighter, but it did grow larger, as if it was moving closer.  Luna had been right, Court was full of ponies asking about the new light in the sky.  First among them was Twilight Sparkle, her sister’s student.

        Celestia had tried to calm them down, to offer them her assurances that nothing was wrong.  She had offered the explanation that this was but an anomaly, telling the ponies about previous times when a light had appeared in the night sky only to die out within a week.

        That had calmed them, for a while.  Now though, with the light still there, looming over them all, they were panicking once more.  Just that morning, Equestria Daily had run a front page article about the phenomenon.

        For now the panic was more curiosity based, rather than fear.  But Luna felt as if that wouldn’t last.  Celestia could only keep them under control for so long.  Soon they would find out that she knew just as much as they did, which was to say nothing.  Then they would truly panic.

        Only three other ponies, besides Luna and Celestia, knew the truth: Twilight, her brother Shining Armor who was Captain of the Royal Guard, and Midnight Blade, Captain of Luna’s own Lunar Guard.

        Luna’s own experiences with Twilight were minimal, but based upon what she knew of the mare, she would have told her friends, the other Elements of Harmony.  While she owed the Elements her life, Luna was not sure what good they would be in the current situation.

        But Celestia, despite the front she portrayed for the ponies, was a master strategist.  Even against a foe as unpredictable as Discord she had ensured victory.  Every foe who had tried to take over Equestria had been defeated by some plan set in motion by her.

        The light was larger than any star in the sky, but still smaller than the moon.  Once more, Luna tried to scan it with magic, hoping for something to have changed, for the outcome to be different this time.  But still she could discern nothing about it. To her frustration. it resisted all efforts to read it.

        Even though it was late at night, she could feel the tension that pervaded Canterlot, indeed all of Equestria.  It was as if the land waited with bated breath, watching to see what would happen next.  One small spark could ignite a conflagration.  As a Princess, it was her duty to keep the population calm, even if she herself wanted to join them in panic.

        Fear was an emotion that, while unfamiliar, was not unknown to her.  But as she stood on her balcony, she felt its cold embrace grip her heart.  The closer the light got, the more the feeling of dread grew.  That sense of something being wrong, of imminent change coming, she couldn’t shake it.

        Try as she might, there was nothing she could do about the light, or whatever it was.  All she could do was hope to contain the fallout as much as possible.  She ruffled her wings, a chill gripping her despite it being a warm summer night.

* * *

Luna once more found herself in the company of her sister late at night.  Only this time, they weren’t outside, nor were they alone.  A meeting between the Royal Sisters and their respective Captains had been called.  Sitting around a small table were Luna, Tia, the Captain of Tia’s guard, Shining Armor, and Midnight Blade, Luna’s Captain.

“Princess, why have you called us here?” Shining asked.

“I assume it has to do with that light,” Midnight said, her bat-like wings folded at her side.

Celestia nodded.  “It does.  You already know as much as my sister and I do on the matter.”

“Which isn’t much,” Midnight muttered.

Luna glared at her Captain.  Midnight may be a good guardspony, but she lacked discipline at times.

Celestia ignored the comment.  “I’m sure that this is nothing, but I think the general population could use some reassurance.”  She gave both Captains a long look.  “Therefore, I want both of you to organize more patrols.  Run some parade drills in town.  Show everypony that you are there.”

“Midnight,” Luna said.  “I want you to organize nightly patrols of Canterlot.  The Night Guard is still small, and you aren’t quite accepted by the general population, but now is your chance to show them that you are just as good as the Royal Guard.”

“But we aren’t just as good as the Royal Guard,” Midnight said.

Luna stared at her Captain.  “What do you mean?”

“We’re better,” she said, nudging Shining so hard he nearly fell over.  Shining just groaned.  Midnight liked to maintain that she had a friendly rivalry with him.

“Whatever,” he said, trying not to roll his eyes.

She rubbed up against him almost flirtingly.  “Just admit it,” she whispered into his ear.

He stepped away.  “I’ll admit it when the Night Guard manages to beat the Royal Guard in a monthly inspection.”

She pouted.  “Oh but Shiney, how can we win when against such a big, strong stallion like you?”

        “Enough Midnight,” Luna commanded.

        The dark coated guardspony shot one last grin at Shining Armor before turning her attention back to matters at hand.

        Celestia cleared her throat.  “Shining.”

        “Yes ma’am?”

        “Send word to the outposts in all the cities, tell them to increase their presence in whatever way they can.  Drill, train, patrol, make sure the ponies see the Royal Guard out and about.”

        Shining saluted.  “Yes ma’am, will do.”

        Celestia dismissed the two Captains.  They filed out of the room, Midnight still trying to rile up Shining.

        When they were gone and the door was closed, Luna regarded her sister.  “Tia, what was that all about?”

        “Nothing other than what it seems.  You’ve heard about the ponies coming into Day Court to ask about the light.  This is just to reassure them that everything is fine.”

        “And there’s nothing behind this?”

        Celestia finally turned to look at Luna.  “I hope not,” she said cryptically.

        Celestia tried to get up and leave.  Luna ignited her horn, sealing the door shut and preventing her sister from leaving.

“Tia, I’m your sister.  You can trust me.”  She gave Celestia a pleading look.  “I know you’re still trying to shelter me, but it’s time to stop.  So I ask again, what are you really planning?”

Celestia sighed.  “Luna, I just want to reassure the ponies that everything is under control.”

Luna stared at Celestia, not buying her explanation for a second.  With a sigh of her own, she relinquished her hold on the door, allowing her sister to leave.  She would have more luck trying to convince Twilight Sparkle to burn a book than she would getting a secret out of her sister.

She knew that Tia was planning something, and knowing her, it was a “worst-case scenario” plan.  Whatever she was planning, Luna hoped that it would never come to fruition.

The Beginning of the End

Chapter 2: The Beginning of the End

        Twilight Sparkle stood on a hill between Ponyville and Canterlot.  Next to her were her friends, each wearing their respective Element necklace.  She blinked as the wind blew her mane into her face.  She knew without looking that behind her were the two princesses, Luna and Celestia.

        None of that was of any particular consequence, or really even worth mentioning.  What made this gathering special was the fact that in front of her stood the combined ranks of the Equestrian Royal Guard and the Lunar Guard.  Hundreds of ponies, resplendent in their armor, formed ranks in a show of military force that had not been seen in the peaceful country in over a thousand years.

        It was night, but the entire scene was lit by an eerie glow, like that from a fire.  But there was no fire to be seen.  The countryside was fine, neither of the cities had flames leaping up from them, even the Everfree forest was calm for once.  It was as if the world held a collective breath.

        The cause behind the military presence, the glow across the land and her presence, hung in the sky.  One month ago, Princess Luna had spotted a light in the sky.  Over the course of that time, the light had grown closer to Equus with each passing day  Now that light was hovering just overhead. and the sole reason for Equestria’s near panic.

        At first glance, it looked like a large ball of fire, almost like the sun.  But unlike the sun, this could be directly stared at, something that Twilight had done a lot of.  At first with a telescope, then with her naked eye as it grew closer.  Details could be made out, things like how it wasn’t quite solid.  It was a series of interlocking pieces, similar to a puzzle.  The glow was coming from gaps between those pieces.  What was hidden inside this giant ball, nopony knew.  But it was the size of Canterlot itself.  Occasionally a tongue of flame would pierce the gaps.

        The surface was studded with towers.  They reminded her of the swords that some of the guard carried.  They stuck out from the ball with no discernable pattern.  Yet unlike the rest of the ball, they glowed with an inner blue light.

        The “thing,” Twilight could honestly not come up with a better word, in any language, to describe it, had been hovering in the same spot for a day now.  And for a day, the Guard had camped out beneath it, ready for anything.  For a day, she and her friends had stood, prepared to unleash the Elements themselves, should the need arise.

        All of Equestria was watching.  Indeed, eyes from all over Equus itself were watching, waiting to see what would happen.  As the thing had hung there, small pieces, not large enough to be the puzzle pieces, but a piece of a piece, would fall off.  Leaving a flaming trail behind it, it would fall to the ground.  So far the damage had been minimal, with Guard unicorns deployed all around to erect shields when a piece should fall.

        “Is it going to do anything?” came the exasperated voice of Rainbow Dash.  It was the forty-sixth time she had asked that, each one coming in quicker succession than the last.  The pegasus had never been one to sit still for long, so spending an entire day standing on a hill was getting to her.

        “Indeed.  All this dust is clinging to my coat.  And I haven’t washed my mane or tail in...” Rarity thought for a moment before gasping.  “Why it’s been over a day.  Twilight, darling, you simply must let me remedy that.”

        “Maybe the thing only wants cupcakes?  Or cake?  Ooh, I should throw it a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party!  I wonder what it eats?  Does it even eat?  What if it opens up and yummy things fall out.”  Pinkie drew in a breath.  “Is it a pinata?  Or a giant oven with all the fire inside?”  She was hopping up and down in place as she spoke.

        “Pinkie, calm down.  You can’t just offer it something to eat before we’ve even met it,”  Applejack, ever the voice of reason, said.  Her thick country accent doing well to hide any fear.  But Twilight could tell that even she was afraid.  They all were.

        “Oh dear, I do hope that the animals are okay.  I worry that Angel won’t be able to handle them all by himself.  Maybe... maybe I should go and check on them?”  Fluttershy pawed the ground with a hoof, her face hiding behind her mane.

        They all started talking at once, each of them trying to come up with some reason as to why they should leave.  Twilight ground her teeth together in frustration.  She didn’t want to be here any more than they did, but the Princesses had called them together.

        She turned her head, looking behind her at the two tall, regal figures standing just shy of the lone tree at the top of the hill.  Both of them wore matching frowns, staring up at the intruder into their sky.  To see her mentor and friend without her usual serene smile was more unnerving to Twilight than anything else.  No matter what, Celestia had always had a smile.

        “Girls,” she said, loud enough that her friends stopped arguing and turning a few heads of the closest soldiers..  “The Princesses called us out here for a reason.  I know that you don’t want to be here, but we have to trust in them.”  Her gaze returned to the object in the sky.  “I’m sure that something will happen soon which will answer our questions.”

        They quieted down at that, each of them removing themselves to their own thoughts.  But it wouldn’t last long.  Twilight knew that soon, each of them would be asking to leave again.

        Just as the mental timer in her head reached zero, meaning that Rainbow would ask her question for the forty-seventh time, something happened.  The pieces of the ball, which had been falling randomly, or at least at a rate which she could not predict, broke off.  Suddenly, it went from one piece, to dozens.  The scattered clouds in the sky were lit orange as they flew away from the thing.  Twilight watched them as they screamed through the air, leaving trails of smoke in their wake.

        The rest of the assembled ponies watched as well, heads turning to follow the pieces as they scattered.  Twilight could hear the officers trying to get their charges to focus, but she was absorbed in watching the spectacle.

        As the pieces neared the ground, she saw brief flashes of light as they impacted shields.  Most of the pieces were caught by unicorns, though some of them fell on places that did not have protection.  Several explosions, mushroom clouds of flame and smoke leaping into the air, came from the Everfree Forest.  A few more from the open spaces between cities.  Once this was over, Cloudsdale would be busy putting out fires.

        A gasp from somepony drew Twilight’s eye back to the ball.  One of the spikes, the one on the bottommost point of the ball, was glowing an even fiercer blue, drowning out the orange of the flames around it.  It looked almost like a unicorn’s horn as it gathered magic for a spell.

        The glow got brighter and brighter until the spike shot out from the ball, far faster than any of the pieces that had fallen so far.  It descended, slicing through the clouds and air without any effort.  A coruscating blue trail was left in its wake.

        Twilight tracked it, her mind quickly calculating.  She gasped when she realized that not even the combined might of all the unicorns arrayed in front of her would be able to stop the thing.  And it was going to impact in the field just beyond the Guard.

        The object hit the ground, a plume of dirt spreading around it.  The ground shook and the blast of displaced air knocked everyone off of their hooves, flinging soldiers, elements, and princesses about like leaves in a storm.  The sound was louder than any thunderbolt, rolling across the hills and valleys, leaving ponies ears’ ringing as far away as Appaloosa and Las Pegasus.  To Twilight, it sounded like some giant had clapped its hands over her ears, leaving her temporarily deaf.

        She let out a groan that she was unable to hear, her eyes closed from when she had been picked up and thrown.  She slitted her eyes, seeing the she was lying in the grass, no longer at the top of the hill but just behind it, part way down.  A splash of color next to her let her know that Dash was there.

        She looked around, seeing her friends scattered around her, the Princesses had somehow managed to stay at the top of the hill.  She got to her hooves, her legs shaking.

        “Is everypony all right?” she asked, but she could barely hear herself over the ringing in her ears, so there was no chance that her friends heard her.  Instead, she got their attention, each of them slowly getting up.  She nodded her head, holding a hoof facing up, the universal sign for agreement.

        Getting hooves up in return from everypony, they made their way back up the hill, cresting the rise to see what lay beyond.  What met their eyes was a shock.

        Sticking up out of the ground was indeed what looked like a large sword, glowing blue.  It had dug itself into the earth, sticking straight up.  Little bolts of energy or magic ghosted across it, like miniature lightning bolts.

        The Guard had suffered worse than the elements as they had been closer to the impact site.  Twilight could see the ones who were on their hooves milling about in confusion.  She could see some of them shouting, but it was unlikely that anyone could hear them.  She spotted her brother, Shining Armor, picking himself out of a bush that he had been tossed into.  The branches had cut him and he was bleeding from a dozen minor wounds, the red contrasting with his pristine white coat.

        She stopped next to Princess Celestia, watching the scene in front of her.  The ringing was fading, bringing with it the absent sounds of the world.  The cries of ponies who had been wounded in the blast, the barking orders of leaders.

        Feeling something gently caress her side, she looked over to see an alabaster wing draped over her.  Following the curve of the appendage, she beheld her mentor glancing down at her.  “Ready yourself, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said in a calm voice.

        Twilight nodded.  “For what?”

        “For what will happen next,” she replied cryptically, not taking her eyes off the glowing object.

        Twilight swallowed, her mentor’s words echoing in her mind, before she tore her eyes away from the Alicorn and back to the sky.  Where the sword-spike had once been, now there was a hole in the ball, a hole that was leaking fire.  The flames dripped through, more like molten steel than fire.

        A great cracking sound, audible even over everything else, rang out.  Rents formed between the pieces of the ball, separating and moving them.  They shifted and ground together, moving about as two distinct lines began to form.

        From inside the ball, all that could be seen was fire, burning bright and hot. Roiling and rolling around, a living inferno.  The pieces on the outside had been muting the light, but now it was spilling out, illuminating the tableau in front of her.

        The grating, cracking noise continued as the ball changed.  From the two lines, shapes emerged.  At first it was hard to tell what they were, but as they forced their way from beneath the flames, they became more distinct.  Twilight felt her mouth drop open as she beheld the single largest pair of wings she had ever seen.

        The wings came out of the ball, expanding fully open for but a brief moment.  They looked nothing like the wings of a pegasus or griffon for there were no feathers.  Instead it was closer to those of a dragon’s, with leathery skin stretched over a frame of bones.  But they were impossible; they were much too large.  A quick calculation and she realized that the wings themselves, from tip to tip, were larger than the entire city of Canterlot.  There had never been a dragon that big.

        The wings extended up and over the ball.  The flames visible inside burned brighter, as if whatever was attached to those wings was gathering energy.  Twilight stared intently at the object, holding her breath.  The whole world was silent, even the cries of the wounded had ceased.

        As the ball grew brighter and brighter, a thought struck Twilight.  This thing, it’s like an... egg.  Or a cage...

        No sooner had the implications of such a thing taken root did the ball explode.  Huge pieces of it hurtled outward in all directions.  They trailed smoke and fire, screaming towards the ground.

        The first one to impact struck the mountain above Canterlot.  The ground trembled and in a flash of light the entire mountain grew shorter.  Boulders and pieces of the mountain rained down on the city as several more bits of the ball hit both the mountain and the city.  Explosions lit up the once pristine city as whole buildings vanished in the flames.  One piece struck a tower of the castle, plowing through it and continuing on to strike the gardens.  The tower wobbled for a moment before gravity took hold and it careened down to crash into the main building, punching a hole in the roof of the throne room.

        More pieces of the ball struck the ground all around them.  Some drove deep into the earth, dust and smoke and fire pluming out, choking the air.  Others hit and then skipped, leaving a flaming trail for upwards of a mile.  Buildings, trees, nothing could stand in the way of the destruction.  The pieces broke through them all and kept going until finally stopping somewhere.

        The world around them was burning from a multitude of fires.  Great craters and trenches marred the ground.  Canterlot and Ponyville were on fire.  Twilight was too far away to see clearly, but she was sure that already ponies would be trying to put out the flames, help the wounded, and, a distant part of her mind told her, clear the dead.  She hoped that Spike was all right.

        The dead.  That thought stopped her.  Given the destruction that had just happened, it was inevitable that ponies had just died.  She even knew some of them since she knew most everypony in Ponyville.  No matter what happened from here on out, already her life had been changed.  The revelation struck her like a buck to the face.

        Her home was in flames, ponies she knew were injured or dead.  Her mind worked to comprehend what had just happened.  She had seen death before, it was a natural part of the pony lifecycle, but it had always been peaceful, never so abhorrently violent like this.  She just couldn’t comprehend what had happened, or why.

        She tore her eyes from her burning home back to the sky.  Where the ball had once been, now there was twinkling, fluttering remnants of the once contained flames.  It reminded her of a firework, how the little pieces struggled to stay lit as their fuel was consumed.  If it wasn’t so hellish looking, it would be pretty.

        Inside the twinkles was the thing attached to the wings.  Her initial guess of a dragon was indeed correct.  A huge dragon hovered there.  It even looked similar to some of the dragon breeds on Equus: a long neck with a sharp angular head, short arms ending in clawed digits, a large body, two longer, thicker back legs, and a lengthy tail ending in spikes.  But the difference between this dragon and the ones she had seen pictures of in her books was the size.  This dragon alone was the size of Canterlot.

        The dragon looked down at them, its eyes glowing orange, seeming like they contained fire instead of actual eyes.  It opened its mouth and roared at the assembled ponies.  It was a wordless roar, a primal scream of fury.  The noise it made was near deafening and caused more than one soldier to drop to the ground, hooves pressed tightly to their ears.  Twilight folded her ears to her head, but she could not tear her eyes from the spectacle in the sky.

        No sooner had the roar ended did the dragon move.  With a single, swift wing beat that propelled it forward, it flew over their heads, Twilight straining her neck to follow it.  It circled the field once.

        When it made it back to its original position, it did a quick barrel roll.  Hundreds of little balls of fire burst into existence around it, following it as it headed straight for Canterlot.  It moved far too fast for anypony to do anything but watch.  It flew across the city, crossing the entirety of Canterlot in a few seconds.  What happened next, Twilight knew she would see it every time she closed her eyes.

        When the balls of fire crossed over the city, they peeled off, weaving through the air to impact the city itself.  Where each one struck, another explosion sprung forth.  The whole city vanished behind a wall of flames and smoke.

        Twilight could only watch as the city she was born in, the place where she grew up, where her parents still lived, was consumed by fire.  The entire city burned, whole districts had been leveled in the span of a few seconds.  Her mind tried to calculate how many ponies were affected, how many she had just watched die, but she squelched that quickly.

        Canterlot, the seat of power for Equestria, and arguably, for all of Equus, was a feat of combined engineering and magic.  Great foundation stones, carved by pony masons in a past age and placed by Celestia herself, held up the various platforms the city rested on, allowing for it to be constructed on the side of a mountain.  Those stones had lasted for over a thousand years.  Now, one of them cracked and gave out, sending what looked like the market district tumbling down the mountain, chunks of buildings breaking off from each other.

        Twilight’s mane was blown across her face as the great dragon once more flew overhead.  She forced herself to look at it, tearing her eyes from the spectacle that was Canterlot falling.  It now made great circles of the field.

        “Twilight!” Celestia’s voice rang out over the sound of enormous wings slicing through the night air.  “Use the Elements Twilight!”

        A blue blur streaked past her.  “I shall keep the creature busy,” Luna said.  Twilight saw that she was carrying twin blades made of what seemed like pure moonlight.

        Hearing Princess Celestia’s voice snapped Twilight out of her reverie.  She shook her head.  They could deal with what had just happened once the threat was gone.  Now was the time to unleash everything they could to stop this dragon before it could harm anypony else.

        “Girls,” she shouted.  “Form up!”  She looked around, seeing that they were all in shock.  Fluttershy was crying while everypony else had their mouths hanging open, staring at the flaming wreckage that used to be Canterlot.

        “Girls, we have to stop this thing before it can hurt anypony else.”  She used her magic to give each of her friends a short shove.  She would apologize later, but for now she needed them focused.  “Come on, we need to use the elements against it.”

        They each snapped back, transferring their gaze to her.  They all nodded, taking up their positions around her.  This was a time for action, mourning could come later.

        The great dragon summoned more fireballs, this time unleashing them upon the soldiers below.  Twilight watched in horror as each fireball weaved around, seeming to track its target.

        Ponies scattered, running in all directions.  The fireballs curved through the air, following them.  Where each one hit, a pony vanished into an explosion.  Some unicorns stood their ground, putting up shields.  But even a single fireball was too powerful, breaking through the shields and exploding on the shocked unicorns huddling inside.  Detonations rocked the field as the Royal Guard was decimated.

        Twilight saw her brother turn and put up a shield.  Shield spells were his special talent, nopony other than perhaps the Princesses could match him.  He alone had held off the entire Changeling army for over an hour before they broke through.

        But it seemed that even he was no match to the power of this dragon.  First one fireball exploded on his shield, then another.  He held out for a moment, but the third one proved too much and his purple shield shattered.  His horn lit up as a fourth fireball flew straight at him, but before he could unleash whatever it was he was planning, Twilight’s view of him was hidden as the fireball detonated.

        Twilight gasped at seeing that.  She hoped, prayed that he had teleported away somewhere.  He had to be okay, he was her BBBFF.  Her mind refused to accept even the possibility of his death.  She felt her eyes burn as tears flowed forth.  Shining Armor could not be dead, he just couldn’t.  As the explosions faded, not a single body could be seen, as if the ponies had been vaporized.

        The dragon roared once more just as Princess Luna reached it.  Twilight snapped her gaze back to it, an unfamiliar feeling welling up inside her: rage.  She had been annoyed before, she had even been angry, but never before had she felt the all-consuming passion of rage.  How dare this creature, this thing, arrive on her world and attack them without warning.  She wanted nothing more than to charge the thing and tear it apart with her bare hooves.

        As she gathered magic in her horn, preparing to teleport to the creature’s back, she felt a nudge on her side.  She looked over to see Fluttershy, her eyes swimming in tears, tear streaks smudging her coat.  Her shy, demure friend simply shook her head.

        That snapped Twilight back to reality.  Engaging the dragon like that would only end in her death.  And without her, the Elements wouldn’t work.  Right now, she had one thing that she needed to do.  She had to believe in Shining Armor, that he wouldn’t simply let himself die like that, that he had gotten away somewhere.  For now, she needed to concentrate on the Elements.  In the back of her mind, she made a mental note to find the biggest hammer she could and take it to the dragon when all was said and done.

        Several fireballs streaked towards them, but a blue shield sprung up, blocking them.  Twilight turned around to see Princess Celestia, her horn alight with power.  “Hurry Twilight,” she said through gritted teeth.  Already a dozen fireballs had expended their power against the shield.  Cracks started forming in the shield and a section of it gave way.  Princess Celestia’s horn glowed brighter and the shield sealed itself once more, protecting everypony inside.

        Twilight closed her eyes, concentrating on the power of Magic that resided in her.  She could feel it flowing through her, granting her strength.  She could do this.  She had to do this.  She grasped that power and tried to draw it forth.  At first it resisted, but one by one she could feel the strength of her friends helping her.  She could tell who each power belonged to based on how it felt.  Loyalty felt cool, like jumping in Ponyville Lake on a warm summer day.  Laughter came next, a feeling of boundless energy coursing through her, leaving a slight taste of sugar in her mouth.  Generosity and Kindness came almost at the same time, Generosity was refined in nature while Kindness counteracted Loyalty, warming her up.  Last to arrive was Honesty, which was always the hardest as it felt like she got bucked in the side.

        With the combined power of her friends, she was able to grasp Magic, pulling it to the surface.  Magic felt like pure energy, it made her coat stand on end, her mane blow about in a breeze that only she could feel.

        She opened her eyes, the world suddenly being thrown into clarity.  She could see Princess Luna as she darted about the creature, hurling bolts of magic at it and striking with her swords, always flitting away before it could retaliate.  With the clarity provided by Magic, Twilight could sense that Luna was only annoying the creature, that there was no way she alone could  hope to kill it, much less damage it.

        Twilight felt her hooves leave the ground as the elements continued to course through her.  The sensations and experiences provided by each one conflicted and contrasted.  She always felt odd for a while afterwards every time she used them.

        With the power provided her by Magic, she gathered up the other elements, corralling them and focusing their power into one single, solid force.  She directed the energy, getting it ready.  Her eyes glowed white with barely contained power.

        As soon as she felt that they were ready, she made to unleash the power of the elements.  Her crown glowed, briefly outshining even the fires burning around them.  Her eyes focused in on the dragon.  The fireball storm had abated just as the shield surrounding them faded, Princess Celestia having used almost all of her power.

        Just as she released all the power of the Elements, a cry rang out over the field.  Princess Luna had been caught in a forepaw of the dragon and she was struggling to free herself.  But each of its claws was the size of a building, there must’ve been an enormous amount of strength behind each one.  The dragon raised its other paw, a single digit extended.  The digit glowed and a long line of solid flame formed at the end.  Before the Princess could react, the dragon speared her with the flame.

        Unfortunately, due to the power of Magic, Twilight could see everything.  The flame pierced Princess Luna’s chest, extruding out her back.  She looked surprised, like she hadn’t been expecting that.  The flame spike was just marginally thinner than the Alicorn.  With a puff the flame was extinguished.

        A brief moment passed where nothing happened.  Then, with a gush, blood poured out of the wound.  Bits of silver tinged the fluid.  The dragon dropped her.  Princess Luna fell from the sky, not moving, her lifeblood flowing with her.

        Twilight was horrified, but it was too late to do anything.  Already the familiar rainbow of power streaked towards the dragon.  It turned its head, regarding the bolt of magic and energy.

        The Elements struck true, impacting the chest of the dragon.  It roared in fury as the power surrounded it.  It tried to brush it off, but there was nothing it could do.

        Twilight expected the dragon to be transformed into stone, the same as Discord had been.  Instead, something different happened.  As the dragon roared once more, rainbow colored pieces began to form, to appear.  Soon a ball was forming, just like the one that had held the thing but minutes before.

        The dragon folded its wings around itself as the ball closed in on itself, each piece a different color of the rainbow.  No sooner had the ball closed did rainbow glyphs appear in the air; six glyphs, each one a color of one of the elements.  What the glyphs meant or stood for, Twilight didn’t know.  She had never seen them before and in all her research into the Elements, nothing like this had even been mentioned.

        The glyphs started being parallel to the ground, then together rose up.  Yet as they were nearly standing straight up, an orange light started leaking out of the ball.  Just before the glyphs were ready, the ball exploded.  The dragon hovered in the air, wings standing straight up, forepaws raised, mouth open.

        Twilight was dropped back to the ground.  The Elements had failed.  The dragon was too powerful, it had broken free of the strongest attack they had, the strongest attack in all of Equus.  Even now it was gathering more energy, a flaming ball gathering above it, like a miniature sun.

        The dragon gathered more and more energy, the sphere quickly growing in size.  In a matter of moments it would reach them, and there was nothing they could do.  They had failed, and now they were going to die.  Just like Canterlot, just like the Royal Guard, just like Princess Luna.  And just like her brother.

        As the hellfire expanded, Twilight felt the familiar tingle of magic surround her.  She looked around, seeing each of her friends trapped inside a white column of magic.  The looks on their faces were ones of shock.  First Fluttershy, then Pinkie, then the rest vanished.

        Twilight recognized the spell as a teleport spell, and that color of magic could only belong to one pony.  She turned around, seeing Princess Celestia’s horn alight once more, the same white glow surrounding it.  She also noticed that the ceremonial neckpiece that she always wore was lying smashed on the ground.  Held in one outstretched hoof was the large purple gem that was inset into the jewelry.

        Princess Celestia tossed the jewel towards Twilight, whose horn lit up as she caught it, bringing it close to her.  Before she could open her mouth to ask what was going on, the tingle increased and Twilight vanished as well.  The last thing she saw was her mentor, staring at the approaching flames, a small smile playing across her lips.

What Now?

Chapter 3: What Now?

        Teleporting was always a curious sensation to experience.  Even to a pony like Twilight, who was used to making small little jumps, it still felt odd to her.  The best she could describe it to her non-unicorn friends was to imagine being able to feel every sensation at once, yet to not feel anything at all.  Imagine being blinded by both light and darkness, to feel like you’re being stretched impossibly thin, and compacted into a single point.  The journey would seem to take forever, yet be over in an instant.

        She could remember the first time she successfully teleported; she came out the other end feeling sick to her stomach and had to lie down until the world stopped spinning.  The longer the distance traveled, the more intense the feelings were.  But, the more a unicorn utilized teleportation, the more inured they became to it.  She could make short jumps without feeling any ill side effects at all.

        Wherever Princess Celestia had decided to teleport her, she knew that it had to be far.  Never before has she felt such an intensity in the sensations.  To be stretched and compressed, the light and the darkness, the intermingled feelings all across her body, each was significantly worse than ever before.

        When finally the world replaced itself, the first thing she did was collapse.  Her legs refused to support her and she fell over.  Rather than meet solid ground, however, something cold and wet cushioned her.  Her stomach rebelled, nearly emptying her dinner across... wherever she was.

        She tried to open her eyes to see her surroundings, but they were sealed shut.  She panicked, her hoof frantically swiping at her face, trying to figure out what the problem was.  She could feel the same cold substance being smeared across her face.

        As she panicked, slowly, her senses returned to her.  She felt cold, mind-numbing, bone-chilling cold.  Something soft and wet was being forced against her body at high velocity, carried on the piercing wind, the howl of forcing her ears to pin themselves against her head.  She could feel her mane and tail being whipped about violently.

Snow, she thought.  Wherever I am, it’s snowing.  Once more she tried to open her eyes, once more she couldn’t.  As her mind calmed down, she brought up a hoof once more, this time touching cautiously at her eye.  She could feel ice crystals freezing her eyelids together.  Her tears must have frozen as soon as she landed.

        Tears... As rational thought continued to take back control, her mind brought forth everything that had just happened.  The dragon, the Royal Guard being wiped out, Canterlot’s destruction, her brother, the Princesses.  Everything had happened so fast.

        The images in her head brought the tears back, the liquid leaked out her eyelids and crystallized in the cold air.  She could feel them turn into ice crystals and either be blown off and away, or stick to her coat.  She laid in the snow, not sure where she was, crying.

        All her life, she had prided herself on being smart; and while it was true that some of her intelligence was innate, she had also studied and researched.  She liked to learn new things, that sense of discovery when some new fact or figure took up residence in her brain.  Learning had come easy to her all her life; knowledge took up residence in her mind quickly.

        But despite everything she knew, everything she had learned, she had no idea what had just happened.  Everything she had seen was both a blur, and ingrained in her mind with alarming clarity.  Images spewed forth and ceased with no logical order to them.  It seemed that her brain simply could not, or would not make sense of what had just transpired.

        How long she lay there, shivering and blind, she didn’t know.  It was only a sound, heard even over the wind, that brought her back to reality.  Somewhere nearby, somepony was coughing and retching.

        She needed to see, but trying to force her eyes open felt like she was going to tear her eyelids off.  The pony coughed again, too faint to tell who it was.  Wiping at her eyes was ineffective at clearing the crystals.

        She had almost made the decision to stumble around blindly when she remembered something.  She was a unicorn, she had magic at her disposal.  Her horn lit up as she summoned a small heating spell, feeling the air around her warming up.

        The ice freezing her eyes shut melted, several more tears rolling their way down her muzzle.  Her shivering, which had started moments after she appeared, calmed down in the increased warmth.  Finally she was able to open her eyes.  The first thing she was was a white blur, nothing had shape or definition to it.  Blinking her eyes, the world came into focus.

        Everything was still a white blur.  Snow was everywhere around her, falling from the clouded sky overhead, blowing across the ground, piled up into drifts.  All she could see was snow, lit only by what few traces of moonlight made it through the clouds overhead.

        The sounds of retching invaded her ears once more.  They swiveled around, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from.  A particularly loud hack blasted out, and she turned her head towards it.  In the absence of her spell, she started shivering again.

        She was about to move when her hoof collided with something hard amidst the soft snow.  She looked down to see a large purple gem, half-buried in the white powder.  It was the same gem that Princess Celestia had tossed at her right before...

        Twilight shook her head in an attempt to banish the images conjured up.  She peered closer at the jewel.  It had to be important.  The princess had smashed her neckpiece to get it out.

        The more she stared, the more it seemed like an ordinary gem, the kind of thing she’d give to Spike as a treat.  Try as she might, she simply couldn’t fathom why Princess Celestia would give her that thing.  But she knew that she had to take it with her.  Enveloping the gem in magic, she lifted it out of the snow, carrying it alongside her as she moved.

        She couldn’t see anything through the snowfall.  Her head held down, her eyes slitted against the wind and snow, she trudged forward.  Her one, singular focus was finding that pony she had heard, to the extent that she refused to acknowledge anything else.

        Her element tiara was still resting atop her head.  The metal had long grown cold to the touch, and it was freezing her head and ears even more.  But she didn’t take it off.  It was simply easier to wear it, rather than worry about carrying it through the snowy wastes.

        She crested a snowbank and on the other side, she could just make out the shape of a pony.  The rise offering slight protection from the snow, she could open her eyes a bit more.  She still couldn’t see precisely who it was, but she could make out wings, which narrowed the choices down to two.

        “Hello!” she called out.  The wind picked up her voice and carried it away.  The figure didn’t even turn its head.

        Twilight carried on, eyes focused on the pony.  As she got closer, she could pick out more details, including the cutie mark: a rainbow lightning bolt.

        “Rainbow!” she called out once more.  This time Rainbow’s head turned, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.  “Over here.”

        Twilight trotted over to her friend.  Pegasi had a natural resistance to colder temperatures, but even Rainbow Dash was shivering uncontrollably at the cold.  Trotting around her, Twilight could see a hole in the snow, a frozen pile of sick inset into it.

        “Twilight,” Rainbow said, having to nearly yell to be heard over the wind, before devolving into a coughing fit.  Twilight put a hoof on her friends back, moving close to share as much body heat as she could.  When she stopped coughing, Rainbow continued.  “Where are we?”  She was still wearing her element necklace, though the gem had lost much of its luster.

        “I’m not sure.  Maybe to the North?”  She honestly had no way to tell, everything around was simply snow.  Maybe when the storm cleared and she could see further than ten feet in front of her, she could figure out where they had ended up.

        “Have you seen the others?”

        She shook her head.  “No.  But they have to be close.  They have to be...” her voice trailed off.  Once more what she had just seen, and been through, tried to force its way into her mind.  With a violent mental shove, she forced it all back.  Dealing with that could come when she wasn’t in danger of freezing to death.  Already she could feel her hooves going numb from the cold.  Ice matted down her coat, mane, and tail.

        One look at her friend’s eyes and she could see that she was going through the same thing.  It was as if Rainbow’s eyes were a mirror and she could see what was in her own head.  Neither of them spoke for a moment.

        A strong gust of wind snapped them both out of their memories.  “We need to find the others and get to shelter,” Twilight yelled over the storm.

        Rainbow nodded.  “How? We can’t see anything.”

        Twilight thought about that.  The only reason she had found Rainbow was because she was being sick when the wind was going in just the right direction.  Perhaps if they shouted then anypony who was downwind would hear it, but anypony upwind wouldn’t hear a thing.  They also couldn’t just wander around.  The odds of them finding one of their friends were low.  They needed some way to draw ponies towards them.

        An idea occurred to her, though she wasn’t entirely sure if it would work.  “Rainbow, hold this,” she said, passing the gem over to her friend.

        The pegasus took the gem in her wing, cradling it close to her body.  “What is this?” she asked.

        “I’ll explain later.”  Her horn lit up again as she channeled magic into it.  After a few seconds, a trail of multi-colored sparks flew out and into the air.  Twilight watched it arc up before exploding with a loud bang in a shower of sparks, casting light across the area.  Something like that should be visible even over the storm, at least for a short ways.

        “Is that...?”

        Twilight nodded, the action sending the next firework on a lower trajectory.  “Trixie taught it to me the last time she was in Ponyville.  Hopefully the others will see this and come find us.”

        Twilight continued to send magic into her horn, shooting off a string of fireworks.  She kept it up for several minutes, her hope fading as still nopony showed up.  But still she continued, shivering and huddled up with Rainbow Dash.

        “Twilight look!”

        She turned her head, making sure to keep her horn pointing upwards.  Coming out of the snow was another pony figure.  It was hobbling on three hooves, the fourth being used to keep a rather large hat on its head.

        “Applejack!” Twilight called out.

        Applejack came up to them.  “Neat trick there, Twi.  I thought I was in trouble until you started making all them flashes.”

        Nopony said anything else.  There was nothing to say right then.  Applejack joined in the huddle, adding her body heat into the equation as Twilight continued to fire off fireworks, her hope rekindled.

        The wait for another pony to show wasn’t nearly as long this time.  Less than a minute after AJ, a new figure made itself known, this one instantly recognizable.  An outline came nearly hopping towards them, though she was having difficulty with the snow.

        Pinkie Pie struggled over, her normally poofy hair being weighed down by the sheer amount of ice and snow trapped in it.  The wind nearly pushed her down the last snow drift.  She tried to smile at all her friends, but the smile never quite seemed to reach her eyes.  Even the unflappable Pinkie was feeling the weight of what had just happened, though she at least pretended to carry on.

        As soon as she was near enough to be heard, she launched into a speech, complete with exaggerated gestures.  “Hi girls.  Wow, Twilight!  That sure is awesome!  I was able to see you like super-duper amazingly easy.  I thought I’d be wandering around for a long time trying to find you but instead it was all like ‘pshooow’ and ‘kabam’ and I was totally like ‘that has to be Twilight’ and so I went to investigate.”

        “That’s nice, Pinkie,” Rainbow said.

        “I know, isn’t it?”  She wrapped a forelimb around Twilight’s neck, pulling her into an embrace and nearly causing the next firework to singe Applejack.  “It’s ‘cause Twilight is so smart and superiffic!”

        With some assistance from AJ, Twilight wormed her way out of Pinkie’s grasp, re-aiming her horn at the sky.  Pinkie kept talking, but Twilight tried to tune her out, instead concentrating on finding their last two friends.

        Nearly ten minutes passed.  The four of them were huddled as close together as they could.  Even Pinkie had stopped bouncing around in favor of keeping warm and conserving her energy.  Twilight could feel herself getting a headache from the magic use.  She knew that she would have to stop soon.  They needed to find shelter before they froze to death outside in this blizzard.  Though what shelter there could be around here, she had no idea.  She had read in a book once about how to survive in situations like this, though she had never had to put that knowledge into practice.

        Just as she was about to call it quits, a voice, carried on the wind, reached them.  “Over here!”

        Rarity emerged from the snow, her normally pristine mane falling around her head.  If there was snow and ice on her coat, it was lost amongst the white.  She looked like she would rather be anywhere than where she was, a grimace on her face.

        “Rarity!” Pinkie called out, leaving the huddle to give her an embrace.

        Rarity chuckled half-heartedly, returning the embrace without any conviction.  “Girls, follow me,” she said without any preamble.

        “We still need to find Fluttershy,” Twilight said, her horn firing off another firework despite the layer of pain it added to her headache.

        “No need, I know where she is.  I’m taking you to her.”

        For the first time in over twenty minutes, Twilight powered down her horn.  “You do?  Is she hurt?  Is she okay?”

        Rarity held out a hoof.  “Calm yourself.  She’s fine.  We ended up...” she paused a moment.  “Landing close to each other.  When she spotted the fireworks I offered to go investigate.  The poor dear was too frightened.”

        Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.  The addition of Rarity and Fluttershy meant that all of her friends were safe.  Well, as safe as they could be when they’d be frozen within an hour.

        “Wait, so you left Fluttershy alone to freeze out here,” Rainbow asked.

        Rarity shook her head.  “No.  We found a cave.  It’s not much, but it’s better than out here.”

        Twilight’s ears perked up at that.  A cave was a blessing.  It meant shelter from the elements, potentially warmer inside.  If they had a cave, they might just survive the storm.  “Lead on Rarity,” she said.

        With a nod, she turned around and headed back the way she came.  The rest followed, with Twilight bringing up the rear right behind AJ.  They trudged through the snow, trying to keep an eye on the pony in front of them.

        Twilight had no idea how Rarity knew where she was going, as by the time Twilight walked over the same spot that she did, her hoofprints in the snow were already gone.  The howling wind just erased them from existence.  It was becoming very difficult to walk, her extremities had lost almost all feeling.  She knew that if she didn’t find shelter and warmth very soon, she would fall and not be able to get up.

        Twilight looked up, seeing the shapes of her friends in front of her.  It may’ve not been the best idea for her to be in the rear, but none of them were thinking straight by this point.  If she was as cold as she was, then her friends couldn’t be doing much better.  She just had to keep up, and make sure that everypony stays up.  If even one pony were to fall, she wasn’t sure the rest of them would have the strength to carry them.

        Hours seemed to pass.  It was as though amongst the blinding white surrounding them, time had no meaning.  The only thought in her mind was putting one hoof in front of the other and continuing on, making sure to keep AJ’s blond tail in sight at all times and trusting that the farm pony wouldn’t lead her astray.

        So absorbed was she in concentrating that she actually bumped into AJ when the mare came to a halt.  So bad was her numbness that she only recognized the hit because she could see it.  She brought her eyes up, looking around AJ.

        Rarity had stopped and was looking down, pointing with a hoof.  She was saying something but her voice was lost to the wind.  Pinkie was right behind her.  Twilight gasped when Pinkie took a step forward and vanished from view.  Rainbow moved forward and disappeared as well.

        Twilight panicked, thinking that something had gone wrong, or that the cold had gotten to her mind and she was imagining things.  She had a sudden vision of her, lying in the snow and unable to continue, but because she had been in the rear nopony noticed her absence.  This all had to be some sort of hallucination.

        Applejack moved forward and also vanished.  Twilight blinked.  Only she and Rarity were left now.  Rarity was beckoning her forward with a hoof.  If this was a vision, then Rarity could be either friend or foe.  But her only other option was to turn tail and run.  If she ran, then her death was practically assured.  It was only theorized by following this vision of Rarity.

        Realizing that she had no choice, she moved forward.  Rarity was pointing down in between two snow drifts.  Twilight squinted, trying to figure out where the others had gone.

        “Watch the first step,” Rarity yelled into her ear.

        Twilight looked at her, receiving a nod.  With a sigh, she took a step forward, her hoof meeting only air where she thought there would be snow.  The sudden shift of balance sent her tumbling forward and down a small slope.

        She landed on her back with an exhalation of air.  As soon as the world stopped spinning, she saw that she was looking up at a hole in the ground.  Because of the falling snow and the wind, the hole was mostly covered.  It would be nearly impossible to see.

        Strong limbs helped her up as Rarity descended the slope with more grace than Twilight had.  No sooner was she on her feet, and thanking AJ for the help, did Rarity beckon them on once more.

        “Fluttershy is just around here,” she said.  There was an outcropping of rock that she lead them around.  Barely any light managed to penetrate the hole, just enough to illuminate the way.

        Twilight was barely ten feet inside the cave and already it was ten degrees warmer.  That, combined with the pain she had felt upon landing told her that this, at the very least, wasn’t a vision.  She followed her friend, AJ taking the rear this time.

        Moving around the rock, she saw that the space opened up.  A shaft of moonlight pierced the middle of a small cave, no bigger than the first floor of her library back in Ponyville.  A few particles of snow drifted down, but that was it.  The wind was blowing the snow right across the hole through which the light was filtering.

        The light showed that it was a typical cave: a sloped stone floor, rock walls and ceiling.  A small depression at one side held a pool of water, somehow unfrozen.  She breathed out, and while she could still see her breath, it was far warmer in here than it was outside.  And quieter.  The wind had been reduced to a small whistling noise.

        Her eyes were drawn to something yellow which stuck out.  Fluttershy was looking over at them, her mouth hanging open.

        Before Twilight could say anything, she was being drawn into an embrace by her usually shy friend.  “Oh thank goodness you’re okay.  I was so worried.”

        By the time Twilight was able to react, Fluttershy had already moved on to Rainbow.  She embraced each pony in turn, receiving an overly-enthusiastic hug in return from Pinkie.

        Twilight stumbled over to the wall, collapsing against it.  The increased warmth was already having an effect, but she was still shivering uncontrollably and couldn’t feel her limbs or face.  Her thoughts were muddled and it was hard to focus on any one thing unless she threw her entire mind behind it.  Now that she was out of the storm and with her friends, all of her energy seemed to dissipate.

She lay on the cold floor, too exhausted to move.  Her eyes closed and stayed that way for the first time since she had opened them after being dropped in this snowy place.  She could hear her friends still, but the sound was muted, like being underwater.  At this point she wanted nothing more than to fall asleep.

Something nudged her.  When she didn’t react, it nudged her again.  She mumbled something that sounded incoherent even to her.  The thing left her alone then.  She slipped blissfully further into the darkness.

Her descent was abruptly halted when she felt herself being rolled over onto her back.  The change in position was disconcerting at first.  Somepony lifted her head up before placing it on something soft and warm, almost like a heated pillow of some sort.  Her tiara was removed and set aside somewhere.

She settled into the warmth, letting it lull her back down.  The darkness drew her in with promises of warmth and comfort, of escaping from being cold.  Distantly she could hear something screaming at her to stop, but she ignored it.  She was so tired, all she wanted to do was sleep.

Her eyes flew open when a hoof connected with her jaw none too gently.  She managed to feel that even through the slowly receding numbness.  Sluggishly she raised a hoof to her face, rubbing where the blow had struck.

As the world once more came into focus, the yellow blur above her transformed into Fluttershy.  “Wha...?” she managed, her voice sounding slurred.  It was like she had one too many drinks at one of Pinkie’s adults-only parties

“I’m so sorry for hitting you Twilight,” Fluttershy said.  “But you musn’t sleep.”

“Why not?  I’m so tired...”  She could feel her eyelids starting to droop closed again.

Fluttershy shook her, the jarring jolting her back once more.

“I’m sorry Twilight, but I can’t let you sleep.  It’s too dangerous.  Your body is shutting down from the cold.  Until I can warm you back up, you have to stay awake.”

“Oh,” was her response.  She summoned the energy to look around.  She was laying with her head on Fluttershy’s belly.  Her friend was sitting up awkwardly against the cave wall.  There was no way it could be comfortable.  Around her were the rest of her friends, all huddled together.  While they all looked cold, shivering as the ice and snow from outside melted off their coats, none of them were as bad as she was.

“Why just me?” she said.

“Pegasi are more resilient to cold weather and Earth ponies are just naturally more resilient.  You suffered worse than they did.  If Rarity hadn’t found this cave, she would be just like you are right now.”

“Oh,” was all she was able to muster.  They all sat or lay in silence for an indeterminate amount of time.  Twilight’s thoughts were still muddled and sluggish.  Without outside influence, she couldn’t focus on any one thing.

“Twilight?” came Fluttershy’s voice once more.

“Mmm?” she said.

“Talk to me Twilight.  Stay with me.”

The noise gave her something to focus on.  “About what?”

“Whatever you want.”  She could hear the concern behind her friend’s voice.

“Tell me how you found this cave?”  She tried to wave a hoof around to emphasize her point, but all she managed to do was flail for a moment, nearly hitting Fluttershy.

“I found it actually,” Rarity spoke up.  Twilight turned her head to focus on her.  “You remember me saying that Fluttershy and I... landed next to each other?”

Twilight nodded.  Glad to have something to focus in on besides the beckoning darkness.

“Well, we were huddled together when I thought I heard something.  I went to look and quite literally stumbled across this cave.”  She presented her left foreleg which had a bruise beginning to form underneath the white coat.

“Hmm.  So it was blind luck?”

Rarity nodded.  “Or the will of...” she trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence.  A pain entered her eyes and she bowed her head.

It took Twilight a moment to connect the dots, but when she did, a great pit opened in her chest where her heart was.  “The will of Celestia,” she whispered.

“Twilight...” Rarity said.

All of a sudden it was like her thoughts unjumbled themselves and everything that had been pushed back by her impending frozen death came screaming to the forefront.  All the images rushed forwards, eager to replay themselves one by one.  She saw it all: from the dragon’s reveal to her last sight of Princess Celestia.

“Celestia,” she said.  “Shining Armor.  Luna.  Mom.  Dad.”  She was almost afraid to say the names for fear that their ghosts would be summoned.  Instead all that came forth was fresh tears.

She cried in front of her friends.  Somehow she summoned the strength to cover her eyes with her forehooves.  With heaving sobs she wept at what had come to pass.  She wept for the ponies that had died, all of them, not just the ones that she knew.  She wept for her friends, being stuck in this cave with her.  She wept for the ponies whose fate was unknown, including her assistant, friend, and honorary little brother, Spike.

Time passed, how much she didn’t know.  All she knew was that ponies she loved, ponies she looked up to, were gone.  Each time it seemed like she could summon control over herself, her mind brought up another image, fresh, raw pain coming with it.

Distantly she was aware of her friends around her, but she paid them no mind.  She could feel something warm and wet landing on her head, almost like rain on a summer’s day.  Her pillow shook occasionally, but she didn’t care.  She was alone at that very moment, just her and the pain.

Her mind replayed the final moments before she had been forcibly teleported.  Her mentor, her friend, even a mother figure, somepony she had looked up to for many years, standing at the top of that hill, her horn glowing with power.  Everything about her had been shown in brilliant glory, lit by the encroaching wall of flames.  Twilight had always assumed that Celestia would be there for her, throughout her entire life.  It was one of the benefits to being a goddess.

The reality now was that Celestia was gone.  Twilight had outlived the one thing that was guaranteed to outlive her.  And with the destruction of Canterlot Castle, so too had vanished all of the material things that she could use to remember her with.  It was like all traces of the Princess had vanished.

Twilight dropped her hooves and opened her eyes, tears still forming.  She was sure that a large puddle should have formed underneath her by now.  But her back was only wet with melting snow and ice.

Above her she could see the source of the warm rain, Fluttershy was crying as well, her tears dripping off her muzzle and onto Twilight.  The pegasus was using her wingtips to brush away the tears while her forehooves cradled Twilight’s head.  Even when she was sad, Fluttershy still thought about others.

The rest of her friends all had their heads bowed, looking at nopony in particular.  They were each lost in their own worlds.

Twilight tried to speak, but all that came out was a croak.  Her throat was raw from crying so much.  She swallowed and tried again, this time managing to produce a raspy sound that somehow became a word.  “Rainbow...”

Rainbow looked up.  She stared at Twilight for a moment.  “Yeah,” she said, her voice lacking in its usual brashness.

“The jewel,” Twilight motioned with her hoof.

The pegasus lifted her wing, showing the jewel tucked underneath, safe and sound.

Her horn lighting up briefly, Twilight summoned the gem to her.  Once it was within reach, she grasped it with her hoof, drawing it to her chest and clutching it close.  It was the one thing of Celestia’s that still existed and wasn’t buried somewhere underneath Canterlot.  She held onto it tightly for fear it would somehow vanish if she didn’t.

She had expected the gem to bring her some measure of comfort, but what comfort it did bring was hollow, useless.  It served only to remind her that everything had changed.  But still she clung to it, desperate for something, anything.

“Twilight.  What is that?”  Rarity’s voice broke through her mental struggles.

“It’s a gem.  The Princess tossed it to me right before she...  Before she...”  She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.  Saying Celestia’s name out loud was one thing, but to actually admit to the air that she was gone was something entirely different.

“May I look at it?”

Twilight paused, unsure of what to do.  She knew that Rarity was far more knowledgeable about gems than she was, and if anyone could decipher the hidden meaning behind it, it would be the seamstress.  But she feared letting go of it.  The two sides warred within her, until Rarity spoke once more.

“I promise to treat it with the utmost care.”

With more than a little trepidation, Twilight held out the gem.  Her desire to understand just why the Princess had given her this won out.  The jewel was enveloped in the blue glow of Rarity’s magic.

Rarity lifted it up, bringing it to eye level and spinning it slowly, inspecting it from all sides.  “This is from her neckpiece, yes?”

Twilight nodded.

The unicorn inspected it a bit more before handing it back to Twilight.  So eager was she to get it back that she practically snatched it out of the air.  Once the gem was safely back in her grasp, she spoke.  “What did you find?”

“It’s a flawless gem, no imperfections at all.  At first I thought it was a simple amethyst, not the first choice for royal gear, but I suppose the Princess perhaps had a fondness for them.  But take a look at it, closely.”

Twilight brought it up to her eyes, squinting to see through the few remaining tears.  With a shake of her head, the tears were flung away.  She examined the gem up close, something she had failed to do before now.  She could see small scratches on it, not unusual since a jeweler’s tools would leave little marks like that.

“Do you see it?” Rarity asked.

“See what?”

“Look closely at the marks.”

She did just that, looking at the marks.  They seemed innocuous enough.  She let her eyes trace over one mark, following it as it curved up and around the jewel, overlapping with other marks.

As she traced, her mind plotted out the route of it and all the other lines.  She gasped as she realized the truth.  What at first glance was a series of random tool marks and scratches accrued over however long the gem had been in service inside the neckpiece, was in fact much more.  The scratches formed an intricate pattern.  It had to have been deliberate.  The weave was too perfect to have been created at random.  The entire gem was covered in the pattern.  Lines looping around and curving across the facets of the jewel.  Each line was tiny, but there were so many of them.

“What does it mean?” Twilight asked.

Rarity shook her head.  “I was hoping you could tell me.  I’ve never seen that before on any gem.”

Twilight turned the gem around and around, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.  That it was a pattern was obvious.  What she didn’t know was what the pattern meant, or even why it existed in the first place.  She had already thought that the gem was important somehow, but now the mystery only deepened.

With a sigh she lowered the jewel, knowing that she was unlikely to get anything out of it for now.  Returning the jewel to her chest, she looked around.  Her friends were still all huddled together, .  But as the cave grew warmer they all slowly separated slightly, each drawing into themselves and re-living the immediate past which was already becoming surreal.

The silence covered the cave like a thick, suffocating blanket.  It threatened to smother them all, yet none of them knew what to do about it.  Never before had anything like this happened to any of them.  Never before had they witnessed such destruction, not to mention the deaths of their seemingly immortal goddesses, all within the span of a few minutes.

Even the normally jubilant Pinkie was feeling the weight of the present.  Her poofy hair was still hanging down around her head, despite the missing weight of the ice and snow.  Twilight couldn’t be sure, but she thought that even the mare’s coat had lost some of its color.

It was Applejack who broke the silence.  “I just don’t get it,” she said, her southern drawl drawing out each word.  “What happened?  And why?”

Rainbow answered her.  “What happened?  Some... thing just wiped out Canterlot, the Royal Guard, and the Princesses.  That’s what happened.”  The pegasus had a fire in her eyes.

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy said.

“You were there AJ, you saw the same thing we did.  Whatever that thing is, it just destroyed Equestria.  In minutes.  Not the Royal Guard, not the elements, not even the Princesses were able to beat it.  It just snuffed them all out like it was nothing.”

Every word was like a knife, plunging over and over into Twilight’s heart.  The truth behind Rainbow’s words was undeniable: they had all been there and seen it, just like she said.  And despite their best efforts, they had failed.  The Elements hadn’t been enough to stop the dragon.  They had failed and everypony else had paid the price.  The tears which had stopped now returned once more.

Rainbow, please,” Fluttershy tried again.

Rainbow continued, her wings flaring out.  “And now, to top it all off, we’re out here in this forsaken wasteland.  Why?  We don’t know.  Only that instead of burning to death, we get to freeze.  Or starve.”

“Rainbow, stop!”  Fluttershy shouted, loud enough for her voice to echo off the cave walls.

Rainbow ceased her ranting, looking over at her oldest friend.  Twilight couldn’t see what Fluttershy was doing, her vision blurred once more.  But Rainbow fell silent, her head bowed once more as her wings settled back into their normal position against her side.

“I... I’m sorry Twilight.”  The pegasus’ words did nothing to cushion the blow.  Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that Rainbow had every right to be mad.  But still her words tore Twilight apart.

Her friends were quiet, letting her get herself under control again.  The tears stopped fairly quickly.  She had cried so much in the last couple of hours that she wasn’t sure she could cry anymore.

Umm, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight looked up, realizing that her head was still lying in her friend’s lap and that she must be quite uncomfortable.  She sat up, sitting on her haunches.  She wiped away the last vestiges of tears from her eyes.  “I’m sorry Fluttershy, you must’ve been uncomfortable.”

Fluttershy shook her head.  “Oh no, Twilight, I’m fine.”  Despite her words, the pegasus’ smile turned into a grimace when she stretched her hind legs out.  “But I wanted to-” her voice trailed off and became inaudible.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“I wanted to-” Again she trailed off.

“Fluttershy...”

“She wants to ask you something,” Pinkie spoke up.

“Oh.  Um, what do you want to know?” Twilight asked.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did the Princess save us?  Why did she send us here?”  Fluttershy turned her head away.  “I’m... I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

Twilight set a hoof on her friend’s shoulder.  “It’s okay Fluttershy.”  And in truth, it was something she had wondered herself.  Though the first step would most likely be figuring out where “here” was.

She took in a deep breath, buying time to steady herself.  Despite her harsh words, Rainbow was correct.  They may have gotten lucky in finding this shelter, but they weren’t out of danger by a long shot.  Surrounding them was nothing but ice and snow.  They needed to figure out where they were and leave, or else they would die here.

“To answer your question,” Twilight said, her voice trembling and still a bit croaky.  “I don’t know where we are.”  She shot a glance up at the ceiling.  “Maybe when this storm dies down, we can figure out where we are.”

She drew in another breath.  “As for why she saved us and not herself, I don’t know that either.  I think that if she just wanted to save us, she wouldn’t need to teleport us all the way to... wherever we are.”

She looked around.  Each of her friends were looking at her, hope in their eyes.  She knew they were hoping that she had the answers, that she would be able to explain things.  But that wasn’t the case.  Sure, she had grown up with Celestia and knew her the best out of everypony here, but the Celestial diarch had lived much, much longer than her.  Twilight may be the smartest unicorn of her generation, but that was nothing compared to the knowledge Celestia must be privy to.

“I can only think that perhaps we are supposed to do something here.  That Celestia has some plan for us.  But what it is, I don’t know.  Or how we’re supposed to do anything when we don’t know what to do.”

Pinkie spoke up for the first time since they had reached the cave.  “That gem, could it be some sort of super-special thingy?”

Twilight looked over at the mare.  Her hair was starting to poof back up and her coat was returning to its usual luster.  “I don’t know.”  She was getting tired of saying that phrase.  It was something she almost never had to say, and whenever she did say it, she promptly fixed that, learning whatever it was she didn’t know.  But now, she has no way of knowing.  No library, no tomes, texts, or scrolls to look at.  She felt insignificant.

But her entire world had been turned upside down in the space of a single night.  They had discovered proof that they weren’t alone in the universe, only for it to attack them.  They had gathered an army, only for it to be destroyed.  Their leaders were dead and they themselves had been flung to who-knows-where.  At this point, she was willing to concede that there wasn’t much she did know.

She glanced down at the gem, still being cradled in a forehoof.  Celestia must’ve had a purpose behind giving her this, but she simply had no idea what it could be.  Except for the pattern inscribed on it, it was a simple, unremarkable jewel, one of several that made up the Princess’ ceremonial regalia.

The more she thought about it, the more her thoughts ran in circles.  This was one puzzle that was impossible to solve, as she didn’t have all the pieces.

A noise to her left brought her back to reality.  She looked over to see Applejack trying to stifle a yawn.

“I’m sorry,” the farmer apologized.

“It’s okay AJ,” Twilight said.  “We should try and get some sleep tonight.”

“Twilight, darling, about that...” Rarity spoke up.  “Without the Princesses, what will happen to the moon and sun?  Will they just stop where they are?”

Twilight thought about that.  She tried to remember if she ever read something concerning the sisters’ being absent.  “I think so.  The sisters control their movements, so without them around, they’ll just cease to move.”

“Then what does that mean for Equus?” Fluttershy asked.

“It means that half the planet will be a desert, the other half a frozen wasteland.” Twilight said grimly.  “Only a small band in the middle will be livable.  It means that our world is already gone, unless we can find a way to bring at least one Princess back.”

Her words echoed about the cave, seeming to add to their weight.  The shoulders of everypony in there dropped as what she said took hold.

“But that won’t happen for a long time, right?  We still have time to fix this?” Pinkie asked.

Twilight nodded.  “Yes.  It’ll take time for that to happen.”

Pinkie jumped up and bounced around.  “Woohoo!  Okay girls, we need to get out of this cave and figure out where we are.  Then Twilight, you need to cast some scary powerful magic and bring back the princesses.”  She mimed this by holding a hoof on her forehead in a crude approximation of a unicorn horn and making whooshing noises.  “Then we need to go and kick this meanie dragon back off our world!”  She jumped up and bucked the air a few times.  “Whaddya say girls?”

Pinkie’s antics caused Twilight to smile for what felt like the first time in forever.  Somehow the party pony had headed off the lowering of the mood once more before it could take hold.  “That sounds like a plan Pinkie.”

In truth, that was a crude but effective summation of what Twilight had been thinking.  Surely Celestia had some sort of plan for if something like this were to happen.  There was no way that the diarch would let her world die without a plan for how to save it.  The only question was what that plan was, and how did she and her friends fit into it?

“I don’t know about y’all, but right now, I need to sleep,” Applejack said, yawning again.  The farmer had laid down on the rock, curling herself up into a ball.

Twilight nodded.  “Agreed.”  She didn’t want to sleep, afraid of what she would see in her dreams.  But her body was winning the war against her mind.  It would only be a matter of time before she fell asleep regardless of what she wanted.

        The six mares huddled together for warmth as they slept.  Twilight found herself laying down on the cold rock floor between Fluttershy and Rarity. But each time she closed her eyes she was assaulted by the horrific scene that had happen just hours before. Images of death and destruction flashed across her eyelids. Above all was the Princess, standing there looking away from Twilight with a ghost of a smile that haunted her.

        She resorted to laying with her eyes open.  The rock walls of the cave may be boring and featureless, but at least they didn’t bring forth anything, no flaming fields nor dying ponies.  The wind still whistled outside, though it had long ago been reduced to background noise.  Mixing in with the wind was the soft sounds of her friends sleeping.

        Fluttershy shivered a little in her sleep, a whimper escaping her lips.  Twilight figured that she was dreaming about what had come to pass.  She was sure that none of them would have pleasant dreams that night.  Twilight summoned her remaining strength, reaching out a hoof over Fluttershy and drawing her close.  The pegasus let out a comforted sigh, nuzzling up against Twilight’s body.

        Twilight maintained her vigil of the cave walls. However, she was eventually forced to give in as each eyelid acquired bricks of exhaustion.  Her eyes closed and quickly she slipped into sleep.

* * *

        Twilight found herself standing atop the same hill where everything had changed earlier.  Standing next to her were her friends.  She looked behind her and saw the Princesses, alive and well.

        It was night and they all stared up at the moon.  The white orb hung in the sky, casting its pale rays across the shadowy ground.  Camped out in the field was row after row of Royal Guard.  Their armor reflected the moonlight.  It looked like a sea of golden figures.

        Twilight searched the sky, looking for the dragon.  In the distance, Canterlot could be seen, whole and resplendent in the night.  But the dragon was nowhere to be found.

        “I don’t get it?” she asked.

        “What don’t you get, my faithful student?” Celestia responded.

        “Why are we here?”

        “We are waiting for something,” Luna spoke up.

        “But what?”

        “You’ll see soon enough,” the sisters answered in unison.

        Twilight tilted her head, not sure what to make of the answer.  “I don’t understand,” she said.

        But before she could ponder on it further, a cry arose from the Royal Guard.  Twilight snapped her head around.  Before her very eyes, members of the guard were simply vanishing.  Seemingly at random, a guard would shimmer, as if a reflection cast upon a pond.  Then the guard would simply vanish.

        Other than the initial cry, nopony reacted to anything.  “What’s going on?” Twilight cried out.

        “We’re waiting for something,” called everypony present, their voices mingling and crossing, forming a cacophony of sound.  Even as they spoke, more guards vanished, their voices subtracted from the equation.

        More and more guards vanished.  Soon only a few remained, including Shining Armor.  Twilight galloped towards her brother, determined to stop what was happening.  “Shining!” she called out.

        He didn’t even turn his head to regard her.  His eyes remained fixed upon an empty portion of the night sky.

        Just as she reached him, he started to shimmer.  “No!” she cried.  She tried to throw her hooves around him.  Instead she passed right through him, ending up on her face in the dirt.

        “Shining,” she called him once more, reaching up a hoof towards him.

        But her words passed through him just like she had.  He continued to stare, even as he vanished without so much as a pop.

        Twilight continued to hold her hoof out to empty air.  “What’s going on?”

        Her glance moved over to Canterlot.  The entire city shimmered.  Not a sound was heard beyond her own breathing as the city itself vanished.  The mountain beneath it was unblemished, like Canterlot had never been built.

        She got back to her hooves.  Something was going on here.  She felt like she should know what it was, but her mind failed her.

She turned her gaze back towards her friends.  They too were staring at the sky.  Cautiously, she made her way back over to them.  The Royal Guard had completely disappeared.  Only her friends and the Princesses were left.  She almost felt as if approaching anypony would cause them to shimmer and vanish.

She made it to her friends without anything happening.  “Oh thank Celestia.  Girls, something weird is going on.”

“We’re waiting for something,” they said.

Twilight blinked.  “What are you waiting on?”

“We’re waiting for something.”

Twilight turned her head to regard the Princesses.  What she saw made her gasp.  Luna had a gruesome looking hole in her chest.  Twilight was sure she could see all the way through the alicorn, catching a glimpse of the night sky in the wound.

“Princess?”

Luna’s form started to shimmer.  “Princess, what’s going on?” Twilight asked again.

Before the Princess could answer, she vanished, just like the others.

“I don’t understand.  What is this ‘something?’”

Celestia’s features grew brighter.  It was like somepony was shining a light source on her.  All shadows were gone from her.  The more Twilight stared, the more that the light source grew brighter.

She turned her head to see the light source, but with a gasp she realized that all her friends were gone as well.  She hadn’t even noticed them shimmering, so focused was she on figuring out what was going on.

Behind her was an empty field, lit only by the moonlight.  There was no source of illumination.  But still, when she regarded Celestia once more, the white alicorn could almost not been seen with how bright something was shining on her.

Twilight could still make out Celestia’s face.  She was smiling.  Then she started to shimmer.

“Princess, what are you waiting on?”

“Why Twilight, the answer is simple: we’re waiting on you.”

The regal alicorn vanished, but not before saying one final thing.  “Twilight...”  The name started off low, but with each echo it gained in volume.  The world around her started shaking as her name was being shouted to the heavens.

* * *

“Twilight!”

Twilight awoke with a start.  “Huh?” she said.

She looked up to see Applejack standing over her.  The farmer must’ve been calling her name and shaking her.  She had a serious look on her face.

“What is it?”  Twilight asked.  She grew worried.  Something had to have happened.

She looked around, seeing all of her friends were there.  So no one had vanished while they slept.  So then what had Applejack so worried?

“Twi,” Applejack said.  She pointed with a hoof towards the hole in the ceiling.

A shaft of light pierced it, just like before.  Only this time, the light was brighter.  And the wind couldn’t be heard.

Twilight got up, confused at why Applejack was pointing this out.  She stopped below the hole and looked up.  No longer was snow blowing across the entrance.  Clouds still covered the sky.  A light snow was still falling, but it looked like the storm had passed.

“I don’t...” she started, but then something hit her.  Even with the heavy snow no longer blocking the light, it was far too bright to be night.

She gasped.  This amount of light could only mean one thing.  She needed to confirm this, she needed to go outside.

She galloped out of the chamber.  “Wait Twi,” called Applejack.  She could hear her friend coming after her.

Twilight reached the entrance to the cave.  The snow had mostly covered it.  With a grunt, she pushed against the frozen powder.  It refused to budge.

She threw her hooves forward, scooping out the snow, trying to create a hole.  Tossing the snow behind her without a care, she continued to dig.

“Twi, what’s going on?”

“No time AJ, help me.”  She didn’t even stop digging or look at her friend.

She felt her friend slide into place beside her.  Together they worked to clear away what had been deposited by the storm last night.

As she shoveled snow, Twilight could only hope that what she was imaging was correct.  If it was, then this changed everything, again.

Soon they had enough cleared that Twilight could force her head out.  She scrabbled at the slick rock underhoof, trying to find enough purchase to push her way outside.  She nearly jumped when a strong pair of hooves grabbed her flank.

“Hang on Twilight,” she could hear her friends voice.

With Applejack shoving, Twilight exploded out of the hole, snow billowing up and flying everywhere.  She landed with a whoomp, the air in her lungs being forcibly evacuated.

As soon as she could draw in a breath, she rolled over, laying on her back and looking up at the sky.  The clouds still covered most of the sky, but there were gaps.  And in those gaps, she could see something wonderous.

Hints of a blue sky peeked through.  The stars were nowhere to be seen.  She scanned the sky, looking for something more.

Finally she saw it.  A single glimpse through the clouds, seen and then gone before the clouds moved to cover it.  But she saw it, shining bright in the sky, casting its rays across the land.

“AJ!  It’s the sun!” she exclaimed.

Applejack nodded.  “I wasn’t sure, so I thought you needed to see this.  What does it mean Twi?”

Twilight felt a full smile grace her face.  She turned her head to look at her friend, who was standing in the snow next to her.  “AJ... Celestia must be alive!  She got out.”

Shelter

Chapter 4: Shelter

Twilight lay in the snow under the sun with Applejack standing next to her, the gently falling snowflakes resting in her lavender coat.  The sun, she loved how that word sounded in her mind right now.  Just seeing the sun brought back hope to her.

Princess Celestia had somehow escaped the dragon.  Where the solar Princess was, Twilight had no idea, but the sun being up meant that she had to be around, somewhere.

The sun being up also had another benefit.  Twilight knew that there was no way they could stick around that cave for much longer.  It may have provided shelter from the storm, but as a long term place it wasn’t viable.  They could get all the water they wanted simply by melting the snow, but they had no way of getting food, and no vegetation would grow out here.

Traveling solely at night in a place like this, they wouldn’t get very far before having to stop and take shelter from the cold.  There was a chance that, depending on where they were, they might not make it to civilization before succumbing to the effects of starvation.  The sun being up meant it would be warmer, they could go further without stopping.

They needed to leave while they still had the strength to do so.  Today would be the best option.  Their bodies were still okay, not suffering any effects of starvation, though she could already feel her stomach grumbling without its breakfast.

She rolled over and stood up, seeing Applejack still standing there.  “Come on, we have to tell the others.”  Without waiting for a reply, she took off, back down the ramp and into the cave.  She nearly slipped going down the snow covered rocks, but managed to hold her balance.

She could hear the clop of hooves coming after her as she rounded the corner.  Everypony else was still sleeping.

“Girls, girls, wake up!” Twilight shouted, her voice bouncing off the rocks and amplifying.

“Twi,” Applejack said, putting a hoof to her face.

Fluttershy was the first to react, sitting bolt upright and looking around, wide-eyed.  “Angel,” she said in a soft voice?  She blinked a few times before she seemed to remember where she was.  “What’s wrong Twilight?” she asked.

Twilight was too busy waiting for the others to wake up to answer.  Instead she called again, feeling Applejack shove her as she shouted again.  She felt her annoyance rise at the farmer, but quickly shrugged it off in favor of telling the others the good news.  After waking them up, of course.

Pinkie was the next to wake up, with Rainbow right behind her.  Both of them just sat up and rubbed their eyes, looking at the source of their disturbance.

The only one still asleep, somehow, was Rarity.  Twilight was about to shout once more, before a hoof inserted itself in her mouth.

“No, sugarcube,” said Applejack emphatically.  “No more shouting.”

Twilight glared at Applejack around the hoof in her mouth.  The others had to know what was going on, what she had discovered.  And here’s her friend, stopping her.  She tried to speak around the hoof, to tell Applejack to knock it off, but all that came out was mumbled gibberish.

Just as she was about to use her magic, risking a headache in the process, to forcibly remove the hoof, Applejack slipped her hoof from Twilight’s mouth.  Twilight sucked in a breath to tell her friend off, until the farmer shot her a glare of her own.

“Twilight, no.  Stop shouting before I go deaf.  If you’re so set on waking her up, let’s do it in a way that’s quieter.”  Applejack went over to the sleeping fashionista.  She looked around for a moment before turning and giving the wall a swift buck.

A pile of snow fell into the room through the hole in the ceiling.  Applejack walked over to the snow and picked some of it up in a forehoof.  She then unceremoniously dumped the snow over Rarity.

The reaction was immediate.  Rarity scrambled backwards until her flank hit the cave wall, her mane dripping snow.  “What’s going on?  What happened?” she shrieked, her voice echoing around the cave and making everypony clamp their hooves to their ears.

“Quieter, huh?” Twilight asked, the sarcasm evident in her voice.  Applejack just shrugged and returned a sheepish grin.

Rarity’s brain woke up then and she looked around at the faces of her friends staring at her.  “Darlings, would somepony mind telling me who just dumped snow all over me?”

Twilight skipped right over Rarity’s question, deeming it extraneous, and launched straight into her explanation.  “Girls, I have some good news.”

Seeing Twilight smiling and excited about something got everypony’s attention.  “What is it?” asked Rainbow.

Twilight pointed to the hole in the ceiling with a hoof.  Everypony except Applejack took a look outside.

“I don’t get it, it’s just the sun coming...”  Rarity’s voice trailed off as the weight of what she had said registered with her.

“The sun,” Fluttershy whispered.  If it weren’t for the acoustics of the cave amplifying everything, nopony would have heard her.

Twilight nodded.  “Yes, the sun.  It rose this morning.”

Pinkie looked at Twilight.  “So then this means that...”

“Yes.  This means that Celestia has to be alive somewhere.”

The news brightened the faces of everypony in the room.  For the first time since they had been standing on that hill outside Canterlot, each of them were smiling.  The sun rising was a literal beacon of hope.

Twilight was about to continue, when the cave exploded into noise as everypony started chatting about what this new development could mean.  One thing it meant was that what Twilight said last night about the world ending because the sun and moon stayed where they were wouldn’t come to pass.  That brought relief to everypony.  That was one less thing they’d have to worry about.

The conversations died off as they all realized that despite the sun coming up, they were still stuck in the middle of nowhere after watching their capital burn and their friends die.  Reality forced its way in and settled down in their minds.

Silence descended, broken only by the occasional rumble of somepony’s stomach.  Each of them was beginning to feel hungry, though skipping one meal wouldn’t have much of an effect on them.  Twilight figured that they had until tomorrow before hunger really started to take hold.  Then the headaches would start, followed by lethargy.  Then would come an inability to think at higher levels, a loss of basic reasoning skills.  Their bodies would start to eat themselves, starting with their muscles.  Somepony like Applejack who had more muscle than the rest of them would last longer than Twilight or Rarity who had very little muscle mass.

They would become delirious, unable to reason or think, unable to move.  Eventually they would be forced to lie down and simply wait, wait to die or be rescued.

Twilight shook her head, banishing those thoughts.  She had enough to worry about in the immediate future without adding to it with something that may or may not come to pass.  Her musings were interrupted by the voice of Rainbow Dash.

“So Twilight, did you see where we were while you were outside?”

Twilight opened her mouth to respond before she realized that she had been so caught up in the sun appearing that she had completely forgotten to even check.  With an exasperated sigh, she ignited her horn and tried to teleport outside.  Now that she knew the layout and had seen it in the light, she felt confident enough knowing where to go.

Instead, though, all that happened was her horn fizzled out, the magic sparking around her.  She must still be worn out from last night.  Turning around, she galloped for the exit, her friends following behind her.

She pushed her way out of the cave and into the sunlight once more.  The mouth of the cave was inset into the bottom of a hill.  Climbing the hill would afford her the best vantage point, so as her friends emerged one by one, she galloped up the hill as best she could with the deep snow slowing her down.

She reached the top of the hill and looked around.  All around her, as far as the eye could see, was snow.  She glanced at the sun quickly, mentally determining what time it was and where the sun should be in the sky.  With the sun still off to the east, the rest of the directions could be gathered.

To the north were some mountains, breaking up the mostly flat tundra.  South of her was a wide expanse of snowy flatlands.  Somewhere down the line, it looked like the snow was replaced with something else, but it was so far off she couldn’t see what is was exactly.  To the east, towards the sun, was more fields of ice, only if she squinted, she could just make out a break in it.  She wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but her best guess was the ocean.

Finally, to the west was, of course, more tundra, but this time something definitely stood out.  Far off was what looked like a tower, breaching the surface of the endless plain.  It was too far off to make out clearly, but something about it looked familiar.  She squinted , trying to bring as much as possible into focus.

Her mind worked feverishly, bringing up any and all maps that she had seen of Equestria.  When nothing matched the surroundings, she went outside Equestria.  The Dragonlands, The Gryphon Empire, the badlands to the south, all were checked and rejected.  Grasping at straws, she brought up one last map in her mind.

Suddenly, everything seemed to click into place.  Quickly she did a full turnaround, overlaying each thing she saw, each landmark, with the map in her head.  Her face brightened as she realized where they were.

“Girls,” she said, turning to face her friends who had gathered partway up the hill.  “I know where we are!”

They looked up at her.  “Well, where are we?” Rarity asked.

“We’re in the Crystal Empire, and just that way,” she pointed a hoof off towards the tower off to the west, “is the heart of the Empire.”

The others perked up at that news.  They knew where they had been dropped off, and now they knew where to go to get out of this frozen wasteland.  Twilight looked back towards the city.  From this view it seemed like it was still in one piece, so nothing had happened here, yet.  Which made sense, the Crystal Empire was well over a day away by train from Canterlot.

“How far away are we?” Applejack asked.

Twilight shook her head.  “I can’t tell exactly from this distance, but it looks like...” she trailed off as she brought up the map in her head again.  Once more she used what landmarks she could to approximate where they were.  “It looks like we can reach it in three days if we start now.  And we don’t get slowed down by anything.”

While they still looked excited at the prospect of getting somewhere civilized, three days was a long time to go without food.  With luck they would be able to find something to eat along the way, though Twilight didn’t keep her hopes up for that.  Her friends were quiet as the distance set in.

With a resigned sigh, she turned back to her friends.  “Come on girls, we might as well head out now.”

“Right,” said Applejack.  “No use in delaying the inevitable.”  Twilight smiled, the farmer was ever the pragmatist, always ready to get started on something.

“Oooooh,” Pinkie said.  “I wonder if when we get there they’ll have a fancy feast all setup for us?  Or maybe we can throw them a ‘Yay we’ve arrived’ party?  We can have cake and ice cream and candies and some of those yummy crystal berries they grow around here.  I wonder if those berries are actually made of crystals, because that would be totally awesome if they were.  Oooooh, and then it would totally be something that we could share with-”

Pinkie was cut off as her mouth was held shut with magic.  Rarity, her horn alight, walked over next to her friend.  “Pinkie, darling, I’m sure that there will be plenty to eat once we get there.  But until then, no more talking about food, yes?”

The baker nodded her head, pantomiming something that Twilight didn’t understand.  Rarity seemed to get it as her horn ceased glowing and she allowed Pinkie to speak again.

“Okay, so are we ready to head out?” Twilight asked.

“Umm,” came the voice of Fluttershy.  “What about the elements?”

Twilight’s hoof met her face with a slap.  In her haste to leave this place behind, she had forgotten about the elements.  “Right, so we get the elements, then we leave.  Any objections?”

Everypony shook their heads.  Together they trotted back into the cave, where the elements were all still piled up on the floor.  Each mare retrieved their own element, and lacking for anything else to do, put it on.  Rainbow complained about the necklace creating drag when she flew, but otherwise it was a quiet affair.

Twilight stuck her crown on her head, before picking up Celestia’s jewel in her hoof.  It would be too tiring to carry it with magic all the time, and she lacked a saddlebag.  Her only option was to tuck it behind the crown.

She struggled with the gem, trying to get it where it would stay on her head without falling off.  “Here, let me get that darling,” Rarity said.

Twilight felt the gem leave her hoof, safe in Rarity’s magic.  With expert skill and precision, the gem was woven into her mane.  When Rarity was done, Twilight shook her head a few times to test it out.  She could feel the jewel still there.

“Thanks, Rarity,” she said.

“Think nothing of it darling,” the unicorn said before she walked away to join the others waiting for them at the mouth of the cave.

Twilight reached up and felt the weave, always fascinated at Rarity’s skill with her magic.  She may have more power than her fashion-minded friend, but Rarity displayed a raw control over her magic that Twilight couldn’t hope to achieve without serious amounts of study and dedication.  However, she could get done everything she needed to get done without sacrificing valuable time spent studying other things, so she had never bothered to learn precision control.

With the elements secure, the girls bid their temporary shelter farewell and headed out west, across the tundra.  Twilight was in the lead, with the others following behind and Rainbow lazily flying above them.  Twilight shook her head at her pegasus friend.  Flying like that was just going to waste her energy faster.  Even the speedster would run out of energy eventually, and flying would only make her hungrier, faster.

Not that walking through the snow was easy.  In some places it was only up to their hooves and made no difference in their pace.  In others, they were trudging through snow up to their knees, or their stomachs.  This slowed them down considerably.  Unfortunately, there was no way to tell just by looking what was deep snow and what wasn’t, so they just had to keep carrying on.

Every time they reached the top of another rise, Twilight re-aligned herself with the city off in the distance.  Thanks to how the sun and moon worked, always rising in the direct east and setting in the direct west, and always moving across the equator of the planet, it wasn’t very hard to keep going even when she couldn’t see the city.

For the first part of the journey, they chatted with each other, just trying to keep their spirits high.  But it seemed like every topic only reminded them of what forced them to be here in the first place.  Topics regarding Ponyville or Canterlot, friends from town, or even family brought back painfully fresh memories.

Soon the talking faded out, and the only noise was their own as the moved through the snow.  Nopony could find a topic which didn’t bring up something painful.  Even Pinkie was having trouble, her normal non-stop talking slowing down to a crawl.

As the day wore on, they stopped occasionally for breaks, simply sitting down in the snow.  Yet stopping meant that they would get cold, as the movement was keeping their blood flowing and them warm.  So for the most part they simply moved.

The sun was at its highest when Twilight called for another break.  Her stomach, which that morning had been at least somewhat quiet about its displeasure at being empty, was now being very vocal.  She had skipped three meals now, dinner the night before, breakfast, and now lunch.  Based on the sounds around her, her friends weren’t faring any better.

They sat on the top of a hill, soaking up as much warmth from the sun as they could.  The breeze was starting to pick up and the clouds overhead were shifting.  Twilight knew that the tundra around the Crystal Empire was much like the Everfree forest in that nopony controlled the weather.  Not enough ponies lived out here to make it worth their time.  That, and the crystal berries needed colder temperatures and snow to survive, so out here they just let it snow whenever it wanted.  She had hoped that the storm last night was the end, but it seemed like it was going to start up once more.

The last thing they needed was to be stuck outside at night in a storm, again.  So she resolved to go ahead and start looking for shelter as they moved.

She glanced over at the city.  It still stood off in the distance, though after an entire morning of walking it still looked no closer.  Distance was very hard to judge in a place like this.  They could walk for a day and it would grow no closer, then it would appear right next to them, as if they had teleported.  She knew they had made progress, even if there was no visual evidence to match.

With flagging spirits, they set out again, the break being short since they had nothing to eat.  Rainbow joined them in walking, not even uttering a comment about how it was ‘uncool’ or something.

Twilight kept one eye on their course, making sure they were going to right direction.  From this point on they would be heading into the sun.  Her other eye was looking around, trying to find shelter.

As the day wore on, the wind picked up more and more, and flakes of snow began to fall, mingling with the ones kicked up by the wind.  It would seem that they were in store for another storm like the night before.

“Girls,” Twilight said, looking over her shoulder.  “We need to find somewhere to rest for the night.”  She received nodded heads in response.  With the addition of five pairs of eyes, they were sure to find something soon.

They marched on, heads held low against the wind.  The weight of where they were and why they were there seeming to hold them down.  Footsteps became shuffles, which turned into trudging.  Twilight could feel a building pain in her head, a sign that her hunger was growing.  Soon she would be suffering from a massive headache, one that wouldn’t go away until she ate.  That headache would make it difficult to think, and would only get worse the longer she went without food.  Already she could feel her brain slowing down.

The wind picked up even more, combined with a heavier snow falling.  They needed to find some sort of shelter, soon.  The temperature was dropping quickly and even when they were moving they were shivering.  The cold, the hunger, and the general downtrodden spirits combined to make every step seem like a monumental effort.  Still they kept moving, having no other choice.

Twilight looked behind her once more, seeing everypony struggling to keep going.  As a result, she wasn’t watching where she was walking and stepped on a rock hidden under the snow.  Her ankle twisted and she fell into the snow.

She struggled to right herself, fighting against swiftly growing panic, her limbs flailing about.  One of her forelimbs collided with something.  She only calmed down when a reassuring pressure was placed on her midsection.

“I got ya Twi,” Applejack said.  Twilight felt herself gripped and pulled out of the snow.

Thanks, Applejack,” she managed to stammer out.  Now she was absolutely soaked in snow and was even colder than she had been.  Looking at her coat, she could swear she saw ice crystals forming as it froze.  She sat there, shivering, as she reanalyzed her situation.

Now, more than ever, they needed to find some kind of shelter.  Her being so wet meant she was at a much greater risk of freezing and hypothermia.  She wasn’t sure how long it took her brain to conjure up that information, which was frightening.  Her energy was almost gone, she felt so weak, but they had to continue.

“We should move on,” she said around her clattering teeth.  She could see her friends looking at her with worried eyes.  Summoning reserves of strength she wasn’t aware she had, she set off again.

As the wind and snow picked up, the light grew darker and darker, despite the sun still being up.  Not even the sun was able to pierce through the storm and light their way anymore.  Twilight was fairly confident she could keep them on course, at least until they found some sort of shelter.  No matter how much she looked, she couldn’t see anything.

The odds of them finding another cave were infinitesimally small.  It had only been through sheer luck that they had found the first one.  It would seem like their only hope would be to dig a shelter of some kind.

Fortune was against them, though, as no sooner had she decided to simply dig something out on the side of a hill, than the deep snow ran out.  Every hill was only covered in a light coating of snow, not even up to their ankles.  The drifts in between the hills were being blown about by the wind, not piling up.  Even as she thought about constructing something, she dismissed it.  It would take too long to build something big enough to fit all of them, and whatever they built would be taken down by the blowing wind.  They could use magic to help, but Twilight wasn’t sure if she would be able to concentrate through her headache.

Her mane was being whipped back and forth and she feared for the crown and jewel on her head.  Their weight on her head was a small comfort.  It let her know that her two precious objects were still there.  Looking back at her friends, she bemoaned that her element was a tiara and not a necklace.  At least a necklace wouldn’t blow off her head.

Finally, as the sun itself set and the world was cast into darkness, Twilight stumbled and fell.  Her friends rushed to help her, only for them to find out why she fell.  It would seem they had found a natural depression in the ground, one filled with snow.  Twilight had stumbled when her hoof found nothing to support itself.

She was stuck facedown in a deep pile of snow, her flank sticking up in the air.  She struggled to free herself, having no luck until somepony grabbed her tail and pulled.  Flying up and out of the hole, which was shaped like her, she landed on the snow.

As she shook her head, she realized that this was just what they needed.  They needed somewhere they could dig a hole in the snow.  It was hard to communicate over the wind, but she waved her hooves in the air, calling her friends over.

“Girls, we have to dig a hole.”

“What? Why?” yelled Rarity over the wind.

“Because I don’t want to freeze to death!,” Twilight yelled back.  “Just do it.”

Together they set out, gathering hooffuls of snow and tossing it up, letting the wind carry it away.  The going was slow as the wind deposited almost as much snow as they removed.  Yet they made progress, until they had a decent sized hole which would fit the six of them rather uncomfortably.  They were all shivering and exhausted.

Twilight gestured to her friends, telling them to get into the hole.  With questioning looks, they obeyed, leaping down.  Twilight stood outside for a moment more, looking down at them.  She knew what she needed to do, the hard part would be actually doing it.

Her horn lit up as she concentrated through her headache, through the cold, and through her exhaustion.  She poured every ounce of willpower she had into this one task.  Using her magic she picked up a pile of snow and squeezed it, compacting it until it was more solid, like a snowball only this piece was flat.

Sweat running down her face despite the cold, she could feel the throbbing in her head increase tenfold.  She maneuvered the piece of snow until it was almost covering the hole.  Finally she leapt down into the hole with her friends, before moving the piece to cover the entrance, leaving a gap.

As soon as the piece was in place, she released it and ceased channeling her magic.  She lay in the snow, panting.

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, checking on her friend.

The shy pegasus’ words barely managed to pierce the raging headache the unicorn was feeling.  “Yeah, I’m okay.  Just... just give me a minute.”

Inside the hole, they were all pressed up close against each other.  They hadn’t had the time to make anything fancy, or even comfortable.  It was simply a mass of limbs and coats.

Twilight could feel the headache recede a bit now that she was no longer using magic.  It still throbbed quite painfully, but she could at least sit up and look at her friends.

“So you mind telling us why you had us dig a hole,” Rainbow said.

“It’s a snow cave.  Just like the cave we stayed in last night kept us warm and out of the wind, so too will this one.”  Twilight was surprised when Fluttershy spoke up.  She knew the mare had survival knowledge, but not to that degree.

Looks of confusion and comprehension were scattered amongst her friends. “I don’t get it,” Pinkie said.  “Snow is all cold and wet and mushy, how can it keep us warm?”

“The snow acts as an insulator.  Our body heat will warm up the area and the snow will keep it in far better than if we were outside.”  Twilight was able to speak up that time.

“Well then why leave a gap,” Applejack pointed out.

“Because we need air.  If I seal it off, we’ll suffocate.”

All the confusion was gone, now replaced solely with comprehension.  Everypony got it now.

“Wow, you really are a egghead,” Rainbow joked.

Twilight rolled her eyes.  “Well this egghead is keeping us all alive through the night.”  A particularly strong gust of wind blew outside, punctuating her sentence.

“Well then, allow me to say thank you, Twilight,” Rarity said.  The others murmured their thanks as well.

“You’re welcome girls, now come on, let’s get some sleep.”

They each settled in, the shared body heat and the cave doing their parts to keep them warm.  Space was lacking, so heads were laying on backs while limbs were tangled around each other.  It was far from being comfortable, but they were so tired they wouldn’t care.

Twilight continued to sit up for a moment longer, watching over her friends.  They were resting quietly, still shivering as the cave had yet to get warmer.  The important part was that they were out of the wind and snow.  So long as they stayed in shelter, they could survive the night.  Though how many more days like today they could survive, she didn’t know.  The cold, the hunger, the exhaustion, they needed to fix at least one of those soon.

Despite her exhaustion, Twilight found sleep difficult to find, her throbbing headache, the hunger in her stomach, the cold around her and the soft sounds of her friends as they, too, tried to sleep all contributed to her restlessness.  Thoughts flitted back and forth through her mind, mostly over what they might find when they reached the city in the next few days.  She hoped it would be sooner, as all around her the sounds of stomachs’ growling could be heard.  A clinical part of her mind knew that a pony could go for several weeks without food, but she didn’t want to personally test that.

Slowly she could hear her friends descend into sleep, their breathing becoming slow and steady.  Still she lay there awake.  Rainbow’s head was on her back and she could feel her breaths stirring the coat there.  The feeling was pleasant, knowing that her friend was right there.

The wind howled outside, as occasionally some snow would fall into their shelter.  Since she was the closest to the entrance, the snow fell onto her.  Not that she minded, much, as it was only one more annoyance that kept her from falling asleep.

Finally she could take it no more.  Carefully she sat up, moving Rainbow’s head until it sat on the floor, making sure to not wake the pegasus up.  There was just enough room in the cave for her to sit up.  She took a glance outside, seeing the snow blowing about.

She was just about to lay back down, tired of watching the snow come down, when something caught her eye.  Unsure of what it was, she watched for a bit longer.  When the wind calmed down momentarily, she could see it.  Something out there was glowing.

Twilight knew she should just ignore it and lay back down, but something inside her found the glow mesmerizing.  The wind picked up and the light as lost amongst the swirling snow, but she knew that she’d seen it.  And where there was light, there had to be somepony.

Her desire, her hope of food and warmth bade her to continue staring.  The desire was so strong she couldn’t ignore it any longer.  She had to know what the glow was.

She ignited her horn, sliding the cover back enough for her to clamber out.  Her headache seemed to fade into the background, not increasing with the usage of her magic.  As soon as she was outside, she replaced the cover and looked down the depression, the ditch, they were in.

After a moment, she was able to pick out the glow once more.  It didn’t look too far off, but she was shivering rapidly.  Leaving the snow cave had been foolish and stupid, she knew that.  Wandering around in a storm like this would only get her lost and killed.  Yet she needed to know what was out there.  Even as she debated, she tried to run the numbers in her head on whether she could make it.  It took her two tries before she got an answer.  She needed to hurry.

She set off towards the light, making sure to walk in a straight line so she could find her way back.  The closer she got, the more insistent the pull was, almost as if she was being led.  After only a minute she could see the glow consistently, even when the wind was up.  Another minute and the source of the glow became apparent.

A small house stood out there, the glow was coming through the window.  Cautiously Twilight approached, peeking in the window.  Inside she could see a fireplace, a fire going full blast.  The place looked deserted, until somepony shifted on the couch in front of the fireplace.

Twilight had stumbled across a home, and somepony lived there.  That meant there was shelter, warmth, and food.  She wanted nothing more than to charge the door and bang on it until the pony inside opened it, but she wouldn’t abandon her friends.

She needed to get back to their hole and get them.  Hopefully the pony inside would take them in for the night.  Tearing herself away from the window, Twilight forced her legs to take her back the way she came.  Soon, she was galloping, the promise of warmth and a fire lending her strength.

She ran back through the ditch, trying to remember where the cave was.   Everything around her was dark and she couldn’t find the entrance.  Panic set in almost instantly.  She hadn’t marked the entrance before leaving, a stupid mistake.  Her hoofprints in the snow were gone as soon as she took a step, so following her own trail was useless.  Her only hope was to stumble upon the hole, somehow.

Wandering around in the dark, the cold was working to quickly sap her strength.  She needed to find the cave, fast.  Her hoof came down once more, only this time the ground beneath her gave way and she tumbled briefly before landing on something squishy, but not cold like the snow.

“What the hay!?” came a voice she recognized as Applejack.

“What’s going on?  Did the cave collapse?” asked Rarity.

Twilight’s entrance had woken up everypony.  They all tried to figure out what had happened as snow fell into the cave.  The slab over the hole had given way at Twilight’s weight.

Twilight extricated herself from the pony pile.  “Girls, I found a better shelter and you have to come with me.”

“You what?” Rainbow asked.

“Did you go out there by yourself?”  Fluttershy seemed angry that Twilight would do something so foolish.

“You can berate me later, Fluttershy.  Right now, just follow me.”  Without waiting on them, she jumped back out of the hole.

Slowly her friends emerged.  With the slab gone, their cave was quickly filling with snow and wasn’t a viable place to remain in the cold and snow.  They had no choice but to follow her.

Twilight led them through the depression, following the glow.  As soon as it became clear, she pointed it out.  “See,” she shouted.  “I found a home.”

She continued to lead them, the thought of being so close to a warm home overriding anything else in her mind.  The icy wind bit at her, the falling snow nearly blinded her, but she hardly felt it anymore.  Everything had been pushed aside.  Finally they gazed upon the house.

Without preamble, Twilight marched right up to the door and started banging on it.  She waited a few moments before banging again.

“Are you sure anypony’s home?” Pinkie shouted.

Twilight nodded, banging again.  “I saw them through the window.”  She banged on the door one more time before it opened.

Framed in the door was a pegasus mare, wiping at her eyes like she had just been woken up.  When she saw the six of them outside on her doorstep, her eyes widened.  “Oh my,” she said.

Her eyes traveled over each of them, seeing them shivering out in the storm.  Without another word, she stepped aside and beckoned them inside.

Twilight entered the home, seeing a couch and a chair in front of the fireplace, with the fire still blazing away.  Off to the left was a small kitchen, a table with three chairs set up by another window.  Three doors led off of this room down a short hallway.

As soon as Fluttershy, who had been in the rear, came inside, the mare closed the door, sealing off the storm.  Without the snow falling and the wind howling, it was suddenly very quiet.  The mare regarded them all.  They just sat on the floor, staring at her, waiting.

Now that Twilight could see her clearly, she could see that she had a cream colored coat with a soft blue mane.  Her cutie mark was of a flower in bloom, a lily.

After a moment she gestured towards the fireplace.  “Go on, get warm.  Celestia knows what you were doing out there in that storm, but that can wait until after you’ve warmed up.”

“Thank you so much,” Twilight said before she went and sat in front of the fireplace.  She got as close as she dared to the flames, feeling their heat across her body.  The warmth gave her comfort beyond what the sun could that day.  For the first time in a day, she truly felt like she was warm.

Her friends gathered around her, each of them sitting on the floor.  She could hear the mare in the kitchen, but Twilight paid her little attention, instead focused on the fire in front of her.  Melting snow dripped off her coat, puddling on the floor.

The flames danced as the burned, casting their flickering light over herself and her friends.  Shadows moved across the room in time with the fire, keeping the beat of the dance.  Her eyes were entranced with the burning logs, as if she had never seen a fire before.

The mare came back, carrying a tray on her back with six steaming mugs on it.  Wordlessly, Twilight lifted one of the mugs, finding it full of a dark brown liquid.  A hesitant taste proved it to be hot chocolate, one of her favorites.  This one had a hint of mint to it, which she found favorable.

Sipping at the drink, she watched the mare deliver one to each of her friends before she took a seat in the chair, gazing at them.  “So, I have to ask.  Who are you and why were you out there during that storm?”

Twilight set down her cup, turning to fully face the mare.  “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends.”  She introduced her friends, pointing them each out as she said their names.

“As for why we were out there, well...”  She trailed off, unsure of where to start.  It had only been a day since what had happened to Canterlot, and the odds were that the news hadn’t made it this far out yet.

She drew in a breath.  “Have you heard about what happened at Canterlot yesterday?”

The mare shook her head.  “No, I’m afraid I haven’t.”

“Ma’am,” Twilight started, but was interrupted when the mare held up a hoof.

“You’ve told me your names, only fair I tell you mine.  I’m Swift Bloom, and this is my farm.”

“Farm?” Applejack asked.  “What do you grow?”

“Crystal berries,” she answered.  Her gaze returned to Twilight after flickering over to Applejack for a moment.  “Now, I believe you were going to tell me something about Canterlot.”

“This is going to be hard to believe, but Canterlot was attacked last night.”

Swift Bloom’s raised an eyebrow.  “You’re right, that is hard to believe.  Who would be foolish enough to attack the Princesses?”

“I’ll tell you,” Twilight said.  “But it will be a lot easier if you let me speak without interruption.  I promise, you can ask all the questions you want when I’m done.”

Swift Bloom nodded.  “Very well.”

Twilight launched into her tale.  She started from when she first noticed the light in the sky, to her meeting with the Princesses about the light.  She told the mare about how nopony knew what it was, how all they could do was wait and see what would happen.

She took a moment to steel herself before getting to the previous night.  She spared the mare many of the gory details, but she told her how they had gathered, and how the dragon had wiped them out.  She spoke of Celestia sending them out here, and of how they’d spent the last day trekking through the wasteland, until they came across her home.

It wasn’t the best telling, and she had left out a lot of details, but she wanted to spare the mare as much horror as she could.  Already she could see Swift Bloom struggling with something.  And for Twilight, it was the first time she had actually admitted some of these things out loud.  She had been avoiding it up until now, as if talking about it would make it real.  Now, though, she had to speak, to acknowledge what had happened so that someone else could perhaps understand.

As soon as she finished, the room lapsed into silence except for the crackling of the fire.  Fluttershy had kept herself busy stoking it during the retelling, occasionally adding another log from a stack in the corner.

Swift Bloom remained quiet for a moment, seeming to mull things over in her mind.  Finally she spoke.  “I know who you six are, everypony knows of the Elements of Harmony.  I just never knew what you looked like before now.” She paused, her gaze traveling over the mares in front of her.  “But coming from six freezing, well known mares who’re all the way out here, I don’t see this as being anything but true.”  Her stare shifted to the floor.  “So this means that...”

Twilight nodded.  “Canterlot is destroyed, Princess Luna is gone,” Twilight felt her voice giving way.  She was forced to stop and take a deep breath to steady herself.  “And we were sent here by Princess Celestia for some reason.  Oh and Equestria has been invaded by an interstellar dragon.”  She forced a smile at the mare.

Swift Bloom sat back in her chair, her limbs going slack.  “Wow,” was all she could say.

Twilight stayed quiet, letting the mare come to grips with everything.  It was a lot to take in all at once, and she had just dumped pretty much everything on her at once.  She wasn’t surprised that Swift Bloom needed some time.

Swift Bloom looked about to say something, when they were interrupted by one of the doors opening.  A little filly with a darker cream coat and a navy mane came out and stopped, looking at her home full of strangers.  Her eyes went wide, until she spotted Swift Bloom sitting in the chair.

“Mommy, who are these ponies?” she asked, her voice quiet and fearful.

Swift Bloom smiled.  “They’re travelers who got lost, sweetie.  Now why are you out of bed?”

“I hafta go to the bathroom,” she said.  Then without preamble the little filly opened another door and went inside, closing it behind her rather quickly, as if she wanted a door between her and the strange ponies.

Swift Bloom turned back to Twilight.  “My daughter, Berry Fields,” she said.  “I’m sorry, she’s not the most sociable.”

“It’s okay,” Twilight said.

“Miss Twilight, please, don’t let my daughter know about...”

Twilight held up a hoof.  “I won’t.”

Swift Bloom thanked her with her eyes as the sound of flushing came from the bathroom, quickly followed by running water.  The door opened and a little head peeked out.  “Mommy,” came that soft voice.

“Coming, sweetie,” she replied.  She got out of her chair and went over to the filly.  “It’s okay dear, they just got lost in the storm and needed someplace to stay tonight.  They’re nice, I promise.”  She guided the filly back to her room, the both of them disappearing through the door.

Twilight waited for Swift Bloom to reappear.  She could hear her friends shuffling about as they tried to stay awake.  Rainbow wasn’t even trying, having laid down during Twilight’s story and was now sleeping on the floor.  Rarity, once she was properly dry, had moved to sit on the couch alongside Pinkie, whose mane, despite being dryer, was still hanging nearly straight.  Fluttershy still tended to the fire while Applejack simply sat with Twilight.

After a few minutes, the door opened again and Swift Bloom came out.  She gently closed the door behind her before getting back into the chair.  “Sorry about that,” she said.

“It’s no bother,” Twilight responded.  “We’re the ones intruding.”

Swift Bloom waved a hoof in the air.  “After hearing your tale, putting you up for a night is the least I can do.  I’m afraid I can’t offer you more than this room though.”

“Thank you,” she said.  “I promise, we won’t disturb you or your family.”

“Oh it’s just me and Berry.”  She looked down for a moment, regarding the floor.  “My husband passed on last year.”

Fluttershy looked over.  “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry to hear that,” she said.

“Thank you,” Swift Bloom replied with a grateful smile.  Suddenly she let out a yawn.  “My apologies, but it’s quite late.”  She gestured around with her hoof.  “Feel free to make yourselves comfortable anywhere you like.  I’ll see about finding a few extra blankets or pillows.”

She got off the chair and headed into the one door which hadn’t been opened yet.  Twilight watched as her friends got settled.  Rarity and Pinkie simply laid down on the couch, while Applejack curled up on the floor by the fireplace.  Fluttershy stretched out on the rug between the couch and the fireplace.

Swift Bloom came back out, carrying a large pile of blankets and pillows on her back.  “I’m afraid I could only find a few of each, but the fire should keep you warm, and you can use the pillows from the couch as well.”  She set the pile down on the floor before regarding Twilight.

“Miss Twilight, we were going to go into town in the next few days for supplies, but I think we can bump that up to tomorrow.  You’re more than welcome to join us.”

“Oh no, we can’t disrupt you like that.”

“It’s not a disruption.  I know how to get there safely and quickly.  If you simply wander around out there, you’re likely to get hurt.  I can’t have that.”  She smiled down at her for a moment, her smile then fading.  “And if what you say is true, then this might be a good time to go visit my parents in the city.”

Twilight thought about that.  Would going to the city be such a good idea?  If this dragon really was here to conquer or destroy everything, a gleaming city would be at the top of its list.  She almost thought that way out here in the middle of nowhere would be the safest place to be.  Sure the city had the shield, powered by the Crystal Heart, but given what she had seen, not even that could stand up to the power of the dragon for long.

She considered bringing this up with Swift Bloom, but something the mare had said stopped her.  Swift Bloom had mentioned going into the city for supplies.  If that was true, and she had no reason to believe she was being lied to, then asking them to stay out here was unfair.  The best solution would be to accompany them into the city and see what was going on.  Surely by the time they got there, then news would have arrived and they could figure out the current situation.  If things seemed dangerous, Twilight resolved to track down the mare herself and tell her to leave the city.  She didn’t want to risk the lives of a family on conjecture alone, she needed to make an informed decision.

Twilight nodded.  “Of course.”  She cleared her throat.  “We’d be honored to accompany you, Swift Bloom.”

Swift Bloom smiled once more.  “Very good.  We’ll leave tomorrow morning.  Good night,” she said before heading back to her room.

Twilight looked over to the pile of blankets and pillows, seeing one of each left.  Pinkie and Rarity were sharing a blanket and using pillows from the couch, as was Fluttershy with her own blanket.  Applejack had refused both, and Rainbow was already asleep, leaving what was left for Twilight.

Grateful, she took a pillow and set it under her head, covering herself with a blanket.  The warmth and sound of the flames quickly lulled her into sleep, a sleep riddled with dreams of unseen forces chasing after her.

Bittersweet Reunions

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Together Again

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Conversations with a God

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Allies and Enemies

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The Speech

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Lighting the Forge

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What Makes a Mare

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Only the Beginning

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Step One

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The First of Many

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What Could Have Happened

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