Ashes and Dust

"Guys!"

Our hooves kicked up dirt as Lucky and I caught up to Twilight and Lyra. The small dirt path out of the cave ended abruptly and gave way to the cold tundra of Northern Equestria. A few sparse trees could be seen around the cave mouth, but beyond us was nothing but empty wastes; as barren of substance as a clear sky, and just as white as clouds. Mountain peaks that threatened to tear the sky asunder loomed to the northwest.

Lucky and I skidded when we caught up to the two in the snow, almost falling over. Twilight looked at me with some remnants of distaste, so I gave her a playful smile in hopes of defusing her attitude.

"Hey Twi, ya know I'm really sorry right?"

She rolled her eyes and muttered in a tone that I probably wasn't supposed to hear but did anyways.

"Not the worst thing you've done."

She coughed and stood straight on her three legs. Lyra tossed Lucky her pack, which he took unhappily. Not having any supplies himself, Lyra seemed all too pleased to give him something to carry.

"So I figured since Rainbow Dash is generally uninformed on the current regime, I'd inform her." Lyra pointedly looked at Twilight.

Twilight started to scowl but stopped herself. "Just do it out of my sight. I don't want to hear your opinions on the logical system that was well implemented for the good of Equestria, despite what others might think."

Lyra rolled her eyes and started to nudge me off the path to the left.

"Oi! Don't leave me here with... hehehe, hey."

The conversation between Lucky and Twilight was drowned out as Lyra and I got further away in the wastes. Getting out of sight proved difficult given the general lack of terrain, but we trudged over a small hill and found that we couldn't see them from the other side. The hill proved to be a ridge running parallel between us and our companions. We kept trotting along, not wanting to get left behind.

"So... the current regime, eh?"

Lyra snorted. "The tyranny you mean? And I was trying to be nice."

Frowning, I thought about the Goddess that I heard for a moment before she threw me in prison. Did nice exist anymore? I stopped myself before I thought any more about Kindness and what that would lead me to.

"Stalliongrad, New Appleoosa, and a few refugee camps are all that remain as far as permanent settlements. The fucking Princess of the Dawn and Dusk insists that all unicorns go to new Appleoosa, as well as any talented pegasi, or earth ponies with practice in combat. Then they get shipped out from there to somewhere even further away."

I kicked a loose rock with a forehoof as we continued on the cracked earth. "Is she building an army?"

"Certainly seems like it. But she must be close to New Appleoosa, because of the aura kept on it at all times."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Isn’t that what made Twilight act so weird?"

"Yeah. She forgot..."

"Huh?"

Lyra blinked and shook her head a bit. "Nothing. The aura keeps everyone happy and carefree. Happy workers equals productive workers. The factories output more product, the fields are more fertile, and because they’re always in a state of ignorant bliss, the citizens are happy to pay taxes. The Princess doesn't do it because she loves her subjects, she’s just trying to further her own goals."

"What goals?"

Lyra frowned. "I wish I knew. The idea is that she’s building a resistance, and it needs armor and weapons. I just can't shake this feeling. Why would an army need so many electrical supplies? Or anti-magic horn locks? Sure, maybe a bit, but not in vast supplies."

I turned to her in curiosity.

"Oh. Well maybe I left the emissaries with a bit more than her bits. Got some documents, just nothing on the Princess. It seems like her emissary has been making the factories produce electrical equipment as its main focus, or it least that’s what the manifests lead me to believe. What in Equestria is she making with it all?”

My first thoughts were of the radio. “Maybe it has something to do with the radio Twilight has?”

Lyra frowned and shook her head. “That wouldn’t make any sense. Why would the Princess of the Dawn and Dusk give Twilight a radio? She couldn’t possibly know…” Lyra trailed off as she went deeper into thought.

I could not have been quieter in the moment where I hoped Lyra would give up information about the radio; but as the moment dragged into minutes, I realized there was nothing to be gained from Lyra. She wasn’t going to tell me anything either.

“What about the anti-magic horn locks?”

Lyra shook her head, presumably of idle thoughts. “That’s what seemed most suspicious to me. Is she imprisoning unicorns somewhere? What else would you use those for?”

“Is it possible she’s using them on changelings?”

Lyra nodded. “Maybe. All the subterfuge, blatant lying to Equestrian citizens, invasion, hidden identities… It's going to drive me mad!" She stomped her hooves to prove the point before continuing onwards.

My mind drifted back to what had happened while I was imprisoned. “How did you two find me anyways?”

“I didn’t. Twilight did all the work, so you should probably ask her for the full story. I mainly just tagged along. How did you get imprisoned anyways?”

I started to tell the story of why I had abandoned the two of them - omitting the memory bit, I still wasn’t quite ready to share my only bit of information that I knew nopony else had - when Lyra cut me off after hearing that I had encountered the Princess of the Dawn and Dusk.
In an instant Lyra had me pinned and shook my shoulders. "WHAT DID..." She noticed the situation we were in and coughed nervously before getting up and regaining her composure. I barely was able to contain my laughter.

"I mean, what did she sound like?"

"Well, it was gruff, and deep. Definitely feminine. She sounded like she was tired and upset." Not all that surprising, considering the general opinion of me in the world.

"Recognize it at all?"

I sighed. "Unfortunately no. She did say something interesting though. She said 'I swore to never see her again' when she was talking about me."

"Really? So at the very least it is someone you knew before... the thing."

"Yeah. But since I've met Luna and Celestia and Cadence before, it doesn't really change much."

Lyra turned to face me and stopped trotting. "What if they weren't the only options? What if someone else was able to fill the position? Like… a very powerful unicorn. Twilight turned into an alicorn before all this, what if she wasn't the only one?"

I was about to ridicule her comment, but then the seriousness of her tone made me really think. I knew nothing about how Twilight got turned into an alicorn, but was it possible somepony else was able to make that change?

"That's what I think might be our answer." Lyra trotted forward again.

As I followed her, I thought of some answers I wanted. "What is Stalliongrad like then? If it doesn't have that aura?"

A loud snort. "Terrible. You will never find a more unregulated den of corruption and violence. Everypony out there thinks the end of the world means that crime is legal, that consequences are gone, and Equestria is going to die regardless of what they do. Not that it was that great before, but still. Crime is now organized, the city's mayor is more of a figurehead than a pony with real power. The biggest reason that they comply to anything that the Princess wants is because if they don't, then the Princess might come over and fuck with their 'perfect system'. They can't even be bothered to organize against the damn evil things in the world right now, they just ship ore to Appleoosa."

"Does anypony fight?"

"Only defensively. As I've said, Princess ‘Leave the Fugitives That Can't Work or Fight to Fend for Themselves’ is taking all the fighters to an undisclosed location. Meanwhile ponies are being butchered as the darkness moves closer, tearing refugee camps apart on its way. It's sick."

"There must be another reas..."

"No!" She turned to me with tears just starting to appear in her eyes. "No Rainbow Dash, don't you dare justify her. The ends never justify the means. Never. I refuse to believe that." She turned from me and started walking back up the ridge towards Twilight and Lucky. I had obviously touched a sore spot for her, and I made a promise to myself to make it up to her.

Stumbling I caught up with a flurry of my wings - had almost forgotten about those things given the number of times I've been too injured to use them recently. "Wait Lyra!" I landed in front of her and made eye contact.

"I promise that I won't forget that." Then I choked out, "I Pinkie promise."

Lyra made half of a smirk, but that was close enough to a smile for me. "C'mon Loyalty." She dragged out my nickname. "Let's catch up to those two, they aren't far ahead."

"I just have one more thing, how did this all happen so fast?"

Lyra shrugged. "The ‘Princess’ appears to be very well organized." This was the only answer I received, and it told me possibly less than nothing.

It took us less than two minutes, and we caught up with two completely silent ponies. Lucky turned to me and whispered. "I don't think she likes me. She won't say a damn thing. She just stares."

Twilight chuckled lightly, amused. “The list of ponies I like has grown short as of late, you’re fortunate I let you come along at all.” Her wing fluttered lightly by her side.

I trotted up to Twilight and…

Kill her

...asked her a question with my teeth grinding. “Hey Twilight, how did you find me?”

Twilight stopped and pondered my question. After casting a quick spell, she nodded mutely and starting getting some things out of her pack. I was just about to ask what she was doing when she spoke.

“The story might take a bit and it’s nearly nightfall, we should set up camp.” As the uncontested leader of the group had spoken, we all took out the supplies and began making camp. I had to fly off and search for branches to keep the fire going, but after gathering a sizable pile, I went back to the ground to rest with them. Around a campfire the four of us laid, the bright flames staving off the cold air of Northern Equestria.

Lucky seemed improved since his condition in the Ice Cellar, and he seemed a little less skittish around Lyra and Twilight after having some time around them, brief as it was. My vouching for Lucky to Twilight and Lyra probably factored into his ease of mind. His gaze appeared to linger on the fire as he briefly frowned, but the image was gone so quickly I wasn’t sure I had seen it at all. Gathering things for the camp he had been mostly unhelpful, but he claimed it was the strain of the prison escape and that he should avoid too much manual labor.
Lyra had a weak smile on her face as she would glance at me every few seconds, looking away before I could make eye contact. I needed to figure out how to get information out of her, somehow she seemed to have a pretty good grasp of our situation whereas the rest of us knew almost nothing.

Twilight laid directly across from me. She looked better as far as her wounds went, but the emotional stress of this quest and the situation of the world seemed to be taking its toll on her. I gave her a look, waiting for her to begin her story.

“It started when Lyra and I were arguing…”

Lyra was slowly raising her voice at me as she talked, obviously upset.

“It's tyranny. This alicorn has completely abandoned these ponies. I saw one of the camps outside Ponyville, the place had absolutely no defenses and was less than a mile from where the Endless Dark’s influence was. They were living in fear and sickness!"

I glared at her in a fervor. "It's a logical approach! Accommodating for them would be difficult and yes, drain resources. There is no way that everyone could be helped! It's for the good of Equestria that some survive to fight back instead of everyone barely surviving until the Endless Dark takes us all!"

"It doesn't matter! We can be better than that!"

Lyra doesn’t understand how government works; how ruling works. After being under Celestia’s tutelage for five years I have learned much about the inner workings of her government and the aspects that are implemented at the cost of some ponies comfortability in order to ensure more fair treatment for all. There are many things I cannot expect Lyra, or most of Equestria for that matter, to comprehend, but they should have the mind to be loyal to the infrastructure whose sole purpose is the survival and betterment of ponykind.

I have done the research. We have maybe weeks until the encroaching forces our foe has let loose utterly overwhelm any defenses we have left. We are hopelessly out of our realm of expertise and unless we do something to gain an edge we are doomed to extinction. Maybe having the weak pay the price isn’t noble, but if it ensures our future then I think they would have been honored to be martyrs for the cause. I know Lyra and many others do not share this sentiment.

I’ll move on before Lyra pops a vein.

Lyra proceeded to say some very heartless things about me and my family line in the time I assume it took you, Rainbow, to steal my things and make off with them. I would like a full explanation of your actions as well at some point Dash if we are going to make a real attempt to rebuild our friendship.

Continuing, I noticed that you had gone sometime after Lyra attempted to hit me only to be suspended midair by my magic. She probably continued with her tirade on how my opinions and thoughts were wrong but my mind was elsewhere. It was truly obvious once I saw my things missing that you had flown off with them. I set Lyra down.

“What do you think you are doing…”

I shut her up with my magic and gave her a quick glance before motioning to the spot you were at not five minutes ago. Lyra’s eyes got wide as she looked for my radio and discovered it stolen. I’ll admit, at this point I may have gotten slightly perturbed.

And by perturbed you mean, and I quote.“Where in the living fuck did Dash go?”

Lyra, Rainbow asked for my tale of how we came to save her, and your input is not required. Regardless, I decided to cast a spell to search for your location, but the moment before I cast it…

She showed up.

Lyra could only sense that there was a magical force keeping the chariot aloft due to her not being as in tune with magical essence as I, but I knew that it had to be the Princess of the Dawn and the Dusk due to the strength of the aura. Connections quickly leapt in my mind and without a doubt I knew that she was going to find you momentarily and send you to the Ice Cellar. Although I’ve never seen it while under Celestia’s tutelage, I’d heard tales and reports on the isolation and protection it offered.

How did you know where she would be sent so quickly?

I have a very strong intuition, Lucky. Live long enough to know me better and you’ll figure that out. After clearing camp and packing Lyra’s things, we quickly set off in the same direction as the chariot. I was hoping to recover my things before you were captured. Luckily enough, it appears that you ditched my very important and very fragile radio and other assets while flying at max speed over a forest, which was very kind of you.

Is that sarcasm? I’m detecting some sarcasm here.

Well sorry if I’m a bit upset at the mare who managed to steal all of what’s left of my possessions and then immediately throw them into the wind at the mercy of gravity. Honestly, why bother stealing them in the first place?

Upon finding my baggage on the forest floor I glanced upwards into the sky, scanning for the chariot; but it had managed to elude us and as I had gathered, capture you. Despite not being able to see the Princess herself it was undeniable that she would pursue you personally.

Yeah, why is she so mad at me?

I… I would assume she blames you for the current state of Equestria. She is right to some extent, but now that I think about it maybe she has made some rash decisions.

It doesn’t really matter. Too late to change anything vital.

It was at this point Lyra turned to me and asked about the situation.

“What’s going on? Where is Rainbow Dash?”

I tried to remain civil but the fact that I came to these conclusions within seconds and in the five minutes we followed the chariot she couldn’t realize the severity of what was happening.

“Lyra, would you please shut your muzzle while I do the work here? Goddesses, I wish I didn't have to take you with me.”

Lyra I’m sure wanted to say some less than savory things in retort, but your capture had thrown a painful snag in the plan that is already beyond difficult. I trekked across the forests into the beginnings of the Northern Wastes with Lyra trailing behind. We had to camp twice in the snow before we managed to locate the prison.

It really was a marvel of construction – a large steel behemoth built mostly underground. The sharp spires of the parapets were scattered around the iron-wrought walls that encased the compound. It was singularly suited for the detainment of high profile criminals of the highest flight risk.

There weren’t that many Pegasi there…

Flight risk means that they… You’re making a joke aren’t you Dash?

Maybe…

Ugh… I searched around for a point of entrance and found that the entire facility was still highly guarded. There were at least four patrols of trained royal guard and each corner of the place had a small squad of pegasi. I was under the assumption that this place would be more run down given the circumstances, but the soldiers here were loyal to a fault. I waited until the guard was swapping at precisely…

How did you see all this?

What do you mean?

All I saw was you look at the place for about a minute before you told me we were about to teleport inside.

I made some quick calculations based upon the time of day, the devotion and skill of the guard in their adherence to schedule. Then I recalled the normal scheduling of the guard for high security prisons around Stalliongrad and any protocol put in place by local governing bodies and…

We get the picture. Damn, why is she so long winded?

She used to be a librarian.

Ah, makes sense. Never liked librarians myself. Too stuck up…

And too good for you as well it seems. If you really want to get along, Lucky, then maybe you should start with some common courtesy. Regardless, I proceeded to teleport Lyra and myself within a chamber underneath the compound, directly above the prison cell block devoted to the worst in the place.

And then we found you two after Twilight blew the fuck out of the floor with some crazy rage-induced alicorn power.

I was going to say I cast a controlled deton…

Controlled!? Everypony but Lucky and I got sliced due to the avalanche you threw down at us!

Maybe I was a little upset. The spell reacted with the wards placed by my… The Princess of the Dawn and Dusk in a way…

What was that?

Nothing Dash, just a slip of the tongue.

You know who the Princess is.

…

Why haven’t you told us? Is that why the radio didn’t tell me…

“Lyra, I can’t say. I’m sorry, but I cannot tell you about anything that I know unless you come to the facts on your own. It’s for your protection.”
The tone around the fire had changed drastically. Lyra and I glared at Twilight with anger for her intentionally withholding information from us and Lucky looked upset that he was sitting between Twilight and I. I couldn’t believe she actually knew who the Princess was! There were assumptions, of course, but I assumed anything important to the mission we were on would’ve been shared already.

“Twilight,” Lyra began with a sharp voice. “What exactly are you protecting us from by keeping us in the dark? I thought you had the same information I had, nothing more.”

Twilight bit her lip and looked into the flames. She took a few long moments as the winds of the tundra blew, whistling softly into the darkness.

“I have been gifted and burdened with knowledge. If I am to use this knowledge to any efficiency, I must stay the course as it is.”
That seemed like a familiar quote.

“You’re quoting Daring Doo? Now of all times?” I couldn’t believe Twilight. She was the serious one of the group after all, if it was me it would make sense. She didn’t respond as my mind racked what character spoke that line. Then I finally remembered.

“Daring Doo said that after she read a book about her future. She didn’t divert from what the book said because the book gave her the secrets to saving the lives of those around her from an untimely demise. However, the book ended in her death. Only the sacrifice of her companion Safe Winds saved her.”

Twilight gave a sad smile. “Possibly the most dynamic and interesting read of the entire series, if a bit cliche.”

Lyra frowned. “What exactly is going on with you Twilight?”

Twilight stood with her wing out and stepped a few hooves away from the fire. Glancing at the dull grey sky as best she could through the dim light of night she spoke. “A Princess should always look out for her subjects first, Equestria second, and herself last. Who said that one Dash?”

“Celestia?” I assumed.

Twilight shook her head. “Luna did - right before she began her campaign as Nightmare Moon.” Twilight said very little for the next few minutes as Lucky took the silence as a chance to leave and fled to inside his tent while Lyra and I mouthed silently to each other across the fire, inquiring about what she meant by it.

Twilight broke the silence. “After rescuing you and the prisoner that claimed to be your friend from the cell, Lyra carried you both with her magic as I carved a way out.”

The walls were thick stone imbued with wards meant to prevent even the strongest unicorns from piercing its shell. Now recovered and at my full strength, they were naught but ice before my flame. I tore apart wall after hall after room after building in my anger.

Then the guards arrived. The few guards with their spears and crossbows.

I impaled them upon their own weapons and drove the pegasi to the earth in my rage. What was the point in being non lethal when they would only pursue us further to Stalliongrad. Their wings broke like glass and bled like rivers.

It would’ve been horribly tragic if it wasn’t so insignificant.

I am not putting the citizens of Equestria before Equestria itself. What is the point of everyone living just so we can die in the Northern Wastes or be consumed by hunger and thirst in the deserts as all of Equestria is consumed by the locusts that are known as changelings? Equestria must survive.

Judging by Lyra’s fierce look she doesn’t agree with me. The sacrifice of a few for the good of the many is a lesson that you shouldn’t have to learn or live with, but I am Princess. I do not get to adhere to the luxuries of civility anymore, not in times like this.

I killed droves of ponies as we fled from the prison complex. I will most likely be forced to kill more ponies, more creatures of the Everfree, and more beings I have never even encountered before. I’m sorry if this comes as a shock to you Rainbow Dash, but you wanted to know what I withheld from you.

Lyra’s policy of the ends not justifying the means is so naive. Before you judge me so harshly and listen to her reassuring lies, answer this.
If you had to kill in order to save Lyra, would you?

Goodnight.

Lyra and I sat quietly as the fire dimmed. I was dumbstruck under this bombardment of information. Was I supposed to be sad? Angry? Maybe I wasn’t supposed to feel anything.

She’s right.

Maybe she is.

“She can’t be right.”

Twilight is smarter than me, why wouldn’t she be?

“I refuse to believe her.”

Denial isn’t a brilliant thing to do Lyra.

“You don’t believe her, do you?”

I looked over at Lyra. She stared back with her teary eyes, pleading for the answer that I knew I could easily give her.

I said nothing and frowned towards the flames. Lyra started crying gently and I scooted next to her so I could hold her.

It was the only thing I could really do.