Nightmare Equestria

Chapters

Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 11

Chapter 3

“Twilight Sparkle, my dearest and most faithful student…”

I screamed and threw the crown across the room. Hastily I looked around the hallway where I was standing, yet nopony was there. My horn flared to life as I fumbled with the candles in the hallway. Finally they lit up and cast back the shadows that eternally shrouded this house. There was still nopony around. Slowly my breathing calmed.

Across the room where the crown landed, its jewel glistened in the wavering light of the candles. Slowly I made my way towards it. I had heard a voice, but what if it wasn’t from in the room? Some kind of magic spell infused in the crown? I looked down at it as the crown lay at my feet.

I can’t allow myself to trust this thing. There were too many stories in the news of the enemy’s desperate attacks on the kingdom. There were also stories of traps the Dark Queen had set for potential traitors. While those stories were rarely spoken of in anything but a whisper and never around anypony who might be a spy, everypony knew the horrifying deaths that awaited those who fell for those traps. Even with all of these cautious warnings inside me, I was still curious.

“I have a hard time seeing the Queen putting such an interest in me,” I said to myself. And in my head I thought, also, if somepony really wants to hurt me, I don’t think that I would stop them.

Even while I assured myself that it was worth the risk, my cautious nature continued to scream warnings. To quite this inner voice I grabbed the chest the crown came in and dragged it into the hall closet, I also threw some of my parent’s old coats on top of it. I wished that I had enough control of my magic to perform transformation spells so I could hide it better, but those were difficult for any but the most skilled unicorns. And were well beyond my own limited control.

Next I grabbed the crown and I made my way up the stairs to my parent’s study. Then once behind the securely locked door I lit more candles so that the room was well illuminated. Finally as assured that I would be undisturbed as I could be, I set the crown on my father’s old work desk. I sat in front of the crown and began to stare intently at it. My horn glowed as I tried to probe the depths of the magic within the crown. But with my limited skill with my magic I succeed only rocking the crown lightly. Giving up on that I decided that the only way I was going to find out what secrets the strange gift held is by putting it back on. I lifted the crown with my magic and took a breath to steady myself, then put it on again.

Again the feeling of familiarity rushed through me, but this time accompanying it was a feeling of correctness, as if there had been something off before. Like a noise in an empty room, that I never noticed was there, until now it was gone and I was relieved by its absence. Slowly growing with this feeling of rightness was a growing magical presence, one I felt I should know but couldn’t quite place. The voice grew in my head and suddenly I was in a different place.

I appeared to be in an extremely fancy room. There was a large fire burning in the fireplace and many open scrolls lay open around the room. Several more lay waiting to be read in a neat pile to the side. In the middle of the floor there was a large purple rug with a golden cushion. On the wall beyond the rug is a tapestry with an image of a shooting star on it.
Suddenly before me was a white pony who seems to shine in the darkness of the room. The light is so bright that I couldn’t make out any of the details of this pony.

“Twilight Sparkle, my dearest and most faithful student. Some disaster has befallen Equestria. I don’t know if you know me but I am Princess Celestia, your teacher, mentor, and friend…”

With a gasp I removed the crown from my head. Immediately the voice was gone and I was back in my parent’s study, sitting at my father’s desk. Why would the banished sun princess be sending me something like this? And why did she speak to me like we were close? Quickly I looked around fearing that while I was listening to the message of the crown that some of the Dark Queen’s soldiers had come to carry me off. But the room was still empty. I took another breath to steady myself again, then put the crown on.

Again I was back in the room, which I distantly remembered to be Princess Celestia’s room, and indeed there is the princess herself before me. Now I could see past the glare to see the Alicorn. She stood nearly twice my height, her coat all a shimmering white, with her great wings arching up over her back. Her flowing mane always seemed to move as if there was a constant breeze in the room. She continued speaking as if I hadn’t removed the crown.

“…your teacher, mentor, and friend. With the growing number of threats and attacks against Equestria I have decided to create a series of magical fail safes. I have made this one in case you ever find yourself without my guidance or without the help of your friends.”

“Friends?” I thought. “What friends?”

“I don’t know what manner of disaster might strike Equestria that I will have to activate this. And I pray that I never do. But it is better for me to be prepared so that you and your friends will be able to repair whatever damage has been done. What you are wearing is one of the Elements of Harmony. The Element of Magic! The Elements are some of the strongest magical devices in the known world. Individually they have massive power, but together they are unstoppable. You and five of your friends are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. The other five elements are Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Kindness. Included in the case this Element came in are several things that you will find helpful on your quest.
Again I pray that I never have the need to activate this but too many things have been waking up, too many old enemies coming back, for me to believe that everything will be as it should be forever. That is all I must say for now, so I will bid you farewell, and hope that you never see this.”

The image of the alicorn princess faded, as did the surrounding room. I was left in darkness. For a moment I wondered if I was back in the study and the candles had gone out. But suddenly the room burst to color again. The background was indistinct, fading in and out of focus constantly. Colored blobs moved around in the background. Distantly as if through a tunnel there was the sound of screams and talking.

Again in front of me was the Princess, Celestia. This time she was not her calm and composed self that she had showed before. Her sides were damp with sweat and her breath came in gasps as if she had just run a great distance at speed. The white alicorn constantly glanced aside at two of the colored blobs, one was dark blue almost black and the other was smaller and brown in color. She speaks quickly, panic written into every facet of her being.

“Twilight! I don’t know how much time I have left. Someone has gone back in time and changed history! Your history, the history of your friends. The change they have made is rewriting everything that has happened since then. I don’t know how things will be different but it can’t be good. In the Elements of Harmony I have hidden a last gift for you and you friends. Where ever they are you must find your friends and reunite them with their Elements. Only then will things be able to go back to the way they should be.”

Another scream echoed from behind the princess. She stopped and turned to look at it. The dark blue blob behind her was growing darker with each passing moment. The distant sobbing changed slowly to maniacal laughter. Celestia turned back to me, there were tears flowing down her eyes.

“Find your friends! Find the elements! Put history to rights!”

She then faced the blob behind her, which was now a deep black color, and addressed it, “I am so sorry. My sister I am so sorry…”

Everything rapidly faded to black. There was nothing, no princess, no out of focus blobs, no explanation.

“How can this be true?” I said to myself. Still in the dark of the magic, there was nopony and nothing else to talk to. “How can history be changed? And if it was, how could I be expected to change it back? I am terrible at magic, there must have been some kind of mistake!”

At this point I was rambling, trying desperately to break the power of the spell over me. Anything to return to my terrible, dark, nightmarish world, while it still made sense to me. I could feel the panic rising in me once again, just as it did in the factory. I could tell that I was going to have another break down.

“Not here! Not in my parent’s house!” It had been my greatest fear for years that one day I would have a break down in my own home and destroy the last place where my family had been alive together. Suddenly I saw a small purple spark floating in the darkness. Quickly I calmed down as it approached me. Here there was no latent fear, no cautious voice. I distantly knew this spark, and want to know it more closely.

Through my horn I could feel that it was some kind of magical container. Using a bit of my magic I reached out and opened the spark.

And it all came back.

All the memories of a previous life. A life now destroyed.

As the memories flooded my mind I collapsed onto the desk in my parent’s study. The spell was gone, but the memories wouldn’t stop flowing. Time seemed to flow backward. I remembered helping my brother and his new wife save the crystal empire. I remembered helping them before that to banish the changeling army. I remembered defeating the monster Discord with the help of my closest friends and the Elements of Harmony. I remember the night at the gala, and defeating Nightmare Moon, the day I first met my friends and learned about the Magic of Frienship.

As I remembered further and further back, I was comparing the new memories with the memories that I now knew were lies. By doing this I found the exact point when the two timelines diverged. The day of my magical entrance exam, the day I first met princess Celestia and became her prize pupil. In my false memories I don’t become the Princess’s pupil, or even gain admittance into the school, instead I go home crushed and disappointed. Shortly thereafter I gave up my dreams of being a powerful unicorn mage, and went to work in the factory. That day was the day when in our real history my good friend, Rainbow Dash, did the first Sonic Rainboom, something that happens when a Pegasus goes fast enough to break the sound barrier, creating a rainbow and a sonic boom at the same time. It was the explosion from this that helped me to pass my entrance exam and drew the attention of Princess Celestia.

Suddenly the realization of everything that I had lost crashed down around me. My brother and parents, are dead in this world but were alive in the true world. My best friends in the whole world, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, all lost somewhere in this nightmare. Spike, my dragon personal assistant and practically my younger brother probably never made it out of his shell, because opening it was what allowed me to pass my exam. And worst of all, Celestia, my teacher and almost a second mother was dead or banished, all because one thing in history changed.

With the realization of my loss cascading over me, and my earlier exhaustion, forgotten till now, combining their weight, I collapsed against the desk, then rolled to the floor, as I passed out.

* * *

Chapter 4

Slowly I came awake. My eyes were red rimmed and gritty as if I had cried myself to sleep. But that was nothing new. Or was it? The sudden confusion brought me fully awake. How could I not know something as simple as whether or not I often fell asleep crying? I sat up and shook my head trying to clear it. Quickly I looked around when I realized that I wasn’t in my bed at home. For some reason I was in my father’s study, back in Canterlot. Why wasn’t I in my bed in the library in Ponyville? Maybe I had decided to visit my family and see how Shining Armor and Cadence were doing with their marriage. But why hadn’t I gone to sleep in my room? My father hated it when I fell asleep in his study and there is no way he would have let me stay in here. Again I looked around and this time spied the tiara. With that discovery the memories fell into their correct places.

The reason I was in Canterlot is because I was never sent to Ponyville by Celestia. The reason my parents hadn’t moved me into my bed when I fell asleep is because they had died years ago. The reason I had fallen asleep in my father’s study is because I had been sent a message across time from my teacher, a message that revealed the terrible truth, none of this is how it should be. Princess Celestia had given me a mission, a mission to set the world right, to return to the world controlled not by Nightmare Moon the Tyrant but by Celestia and her sister Luna.

Again the weight of everything I had lost crashed down around me and I began to cry. I knew that I should be getting up and trying to find a solution to these problems, but the grief was too much for me. My family, my friends, my teacher, my world, all destroyed in an instant. Now there was nothing left but darkness and …

*Knock Knock Knock*

The sudden sound shook me from my reverie. Quickly I looked around the room. Perhaps the Dark Queen or one of her guards had felt the magic unleashed by the crown and were now coming to take me away. I lifted the crown up with my magic and threw it into one of the drawers of my father’s old desk. Without thinking I put a quick sealing spell on it, so that nopony else could open it. Then I ran downstairs as whoever it was knocked again at my door. As I approached the door, I felt the wave of magic that was still emanating from the chest in closet and wished I had more time to hide that better but stalling now would be a great way to have whoever it was blow my door down.

I opened the door with a jerk, and was almost hit in the face as the pony outside tried to knock again. I realized as I looked at the stallion standing outside my door that I looked extremely suspicious. My eyes were still read from crying and my mane was a mess from not getting a chance to brush it out this morning. Plus I was breathing a little heavy and sweating both from my anxiety and from my mad dash down the stairs.

My thoughts about myself stopped when I got my first good look at the pony standing on my doorstep. He was a tall unicorn stallion with white fur and a sliver mane. He also had silver fetlocks. He looked to be no older than I was. I realized suddenly that he was waiting for me to greet him.

“Oh, Hello”

“Uh, hi. Are you Miss Sparkle?” He asked.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I gulped.

“Good, I was able to look up your record with the factory, and it said you lived here.”

I took a step back, this wasn’t about the crown, in this was about me losing control yesterday. Of course in this world of nightmares I find out the truth about the world right after betraying myself. The look on my face must have betrayed my fear, for his questioning look suddenly turned to one of concern. Then he smiled.

“You don’t recognize me do you?” he asked.

“No I don’t. Should I?”

“Well probably not. I can barely recognize myself, but perhaps we could discuss this indoors?”

Grudgingly I stepped aside to let him in; it would seem suspicious if I refused. I still couldn’t tell whether or not he was a spy, though I did vaguely recognize him, though couldn’t quite say from what. As he walked past I saw that his cutie mark was a silver hammer smashing a blue magic starburst.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“Actually you already have.” He replied. Then seeing my confusion and no doubt sensing my lingering fear and suspicion he changed his posture. “I work with you at the factory. You helped me yesterday.”

“What do you mean? I didn’t help you. I have never even seen you before! The only pony I helped was that old…”

“The old guard? That’s me.”

“What! But how? You were hurt so bad!”

“Yes, yes I was. But your magic healed me and took years off my body. It even repaired my horn. I think that when you…lost control the surge of magic that you let off super powered up every spell you were working on. That is why there were suddenly so many extra tables and chairs around. And since the spell you were using on me was a non-descript one for just assistance… it gave me assistance in a way I needed it, namely healing me.”

As I thought about it I realized the explanation he gave made a lot of sense. That was certainly what had happened on the previous times I had lost control. Usually whatever I was trying to work on became extremely over powered. I reflected to another time when I had lost control, when in a different world I freed a baby dragon from his shell prison. Thinking about Spike again made me sad, but I was distracted as the unicorn walked further into my parent’s house. He walked past sniffing the air as if there was something in the oven, and he couldn’t quite tell what was cooking. Suddenly his whole body went stiff and whipped around to face me.

“Is there anyone else here?” He demanded.

“What? No! I have lived alone for years!” I replied, shocked at his sudden change of tone.

“I can sense magic power! I can feel a powerful spell is here; don’t deny it! I am also an excellent gauge of skill. In the factory you could barely manage simple levitation spells, yet this spell feels incredibly complex!”

He ran towards the closet where I had hidden the chest. With a flash of his horn the door was almost wrenched off its hinges. There now in plain view was the chest that the crown upstairs had come in. He turned and shot me a glare before redirecting his attention to the chest. With a flick of his horn the chest cracked open and out came a deafening roar. The white unicorn was thrown across the room by a blast of magic that left the rest of the room mostly unaffected. He tried to stand as wave after wave of golden colored magic pushed him to the wall. His horn was shining brightly, but whatever magic he was trying to summon was being dwarfed by the power emanating from the chest. Suddenly his eyes opened wide and he cried out, “Wait, Princess-”

He never finished whatever he was going to say because at that moment a massive shock of power flew from the chest lifting him into the air and blasting him through the wall into the adjoining room. At that moment I was able to get to chest and slam the lid closed. Immediately the waves of magic stopped. I quickly stood behind the chest and put my hooves on the lid. If he was going to cause problems I was going to make sure that he regretted it. Slowly he picked himself up from the rubble of the wall and made his way shakily to the hole he had created. When I saw him raise his head, I got ready to open the chest again, but stopped when he put a hoof up.

“Whoa, whoa! Don’t open that thing again! I am not going to hurt you.”

I don’t think that I am the one in danger of being hurt right now, but now is probably not the best time to argue the point.

“I have felt that magic before!” He continued. “That is the magic of the true ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia!”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Obviously it was the power of the sun princess. Not even Luna the moon princess could embed ordinary objects with enough power to blast another pony through a solid wall. Certainly not across time like Celestia had, though he didn’t know that part. I was still struggling with that part myself.

“How is that you have an object of such power from the princess? Why has she chosen now to send it? Who were you to the princess that she should send something like this to you?”

“You have a lot of questions. I don’t have a lot of answers. The last one I am sure that I can answer. In this world, I am nothing to the princess, just another citizen, not gifted with any special magical talent, just a lot of it. I failed the test to get into her academy when I was a foal. Here there is no special connection between me and… anypony.”

Even that statement, though true, still hurt to say. Could it really be true? Is there really nopony in this world that I can call family, or even friend?

“Well if that’s true then why… Wait, why did you say this world?”

“The world is not as it should be. Nightmare Moon ruling Canterlot. Equestria at war with Discord, the Lord of Chaos. This is not the world I remember, the world that Celestia has reminded me of.”

“Of course the world is not how it should be! The psychotic moon tyrant had over thrown Equestria’s rightful Princess. And Discord was always evil if the legends are true.”

“You don’t understand! Where I come from Nightmare Moon was defeated to leave Celestia’s sister Luna. And Discord was defeated once and then reformed using the magic of friendship. Somehow Celestia sent me this chest from the correct world and it reminded me of what how the world should be.”

“If that is true then how did she send it to you? And why would she send it to someone with no magical talent, to someone she had never met?”

“In this world, we have never met, and I have little magical talent, as you saw in the factory. But in the world I came from I am her most trusted student, and I earned that role by learning everything I could of Unicorn Magic. And she has reminded me of all of that, all that knowledge.”

To demonstrate I used my horn to lift him free of the rubble that used to be my wall, then with a little concentration set the wall to repairing itself. Soon the wall looked as if it had never been damaged. Then I created a purple bubble force field then set him on the ground in the bubble. I wasn’t going to let him just wander around my house. I don’t know why I was telling him as much as I was, but I felt like I could trust him for some reason. My time in Ponyville, in my past life, taught me to trust these instincts. The unicorn touches the shield he was in with hoof. There was a sad look on his face.

“You may be lying now. Or you may have been lying at the factory about your lack of power. But this spell I know. I know it is not a spell that is easily cast. In fact I know of only one other pony that could cast a shield like this. Also I know that you could not have cast this if what you say were not true. So I will trust you. So the princess was able to communicate with you with that chest?”

“The spells are slightly more complicated than that,” I said, thinking of the crown still locked in my father’s study. “However, I would love to discuss it some more but I think one of us should introduce themself. You already know my name.”

“Ah, yes my apologies. Twilight Sparkle, my name is Silver Hammer. I was a member of the guard before the Sun fell. And my special talent is…”

With a flash of his horn a silver hammer suddenly floats in the air above him, turning idly. A mage hammer! The weapon was pure magic. No wonder he decided to join the guard. Mage weapons are extremely effective against creatures of magic and those who rely heavily upon it. Many wild creatures such as Ursa Minors, Timberwolves, and Dragons were vulnerable to mage weapons. So were Unicorns, even an Alicorn could be hurt with a mage weapon; though it would take a lot more than that to kill one. Plus they were some of the most difficult of magics, at the top of my power and skill I might be able to summon a mage dagger, but I had never studied destructive magics like that.

As I thought these things to myself, Silver Hammer swung his name sake at the walls of his magic prison. The walls immediately shattered, collapsing in shards to the ground before disintegrating into nothing. The resulting magical backlash took me off my hooves. I quickly sprang back up and grabbed the chest just in case he decided to try something. But the unicorn just stood there, his hammer idly spinning above his head again.

“You see I joined the guard because I was an expert magic breaker. It is my special talent to be able to smell out and destroy magics. I used to think that I was powerful enough to even challenge an Alicorn! But history has proven the folly of the action.”

He cringed in memory of past pain, though all the scars on his body had been erased by my magical healing yesterday.

“And it seems that I can’t even stand against an object blessed by the power of an alicorn.”

A smile threatened to creep across my face, but I thought it would be rude to make fun of his earlier plight. Instead I stepped around the chest and started to lift the lid.

“Don’t open that thing! Do you want to send me flying through the wall again?”

“Oh please. I am pretty sure it only did that because it thought I was in danger. Do you really think that Celestia would make a magic chest that only blasted whoever opened it? It is more likely that she thought that I might find myself in danger shortly after receiving her gift, I have no doubt it has other interesting powers waiting. Besides, she said that there were other things that would be useful to me in the chest. And I already opened it once.”

“Well when you put it like that I guess you can open it.”

Like I need his permission. Despite my brave words when I opened the box I braced myself for another wave of power. But there was none. Instead when I opened the chest the first thing to greet me was a piece of parchment. I could see that it had been sitting underneath the crown, but last night I had been more focused on my Element then on what else was in the box. On the parchment I recognized the princess’s elegant writing. Quietly I read it aloud. Silver Hammer had to strain to hear me read.

My dearest Twilight.

Whatever magical calamity you are facing know that I am with you. And know that with your friends by your side you can overcome any adversity. I have given you several items that will assist you in whatever quest you must perform. First off the chest everything came in. It has powerful protective magic in it. Anything you place in it can only be removed by yourself and those whom you give permission to. Also if you are ever threatened then the chest can unleash a powerful offensive spell to give you time to escape. Be careful using this power as it is very draining. If you ever need to recharge the stored energy, simply let the chest sit in the light, preferably direct sunlight.

“See I told you, it was just protecting me.”

“Yeah great, good luck charging it though.”

Also in the chest is a copy of Elements of Harmony, A Reference Guide. I have included this in case you need to refresh yourself on the Elements and their properties.

Without looking at it I levitate the book out of the chest. I have read this book a dozen times, many right before, during, or after some other crisis. I had most of it memorized. But the refresher would be nice. Plus I loved books. Behind me I could feel Silver Hammer’s magic trying to take a hold of the book. Without thinking I passed it from my power to his.

Lastly is the Omnicanicron. This magical device will hopefully help you on your quest. It has many powers and abilities that can assist you in various situations. Only use it when a situation is most dire. Trust instead in your own abilities and in the Magic of Friendship. Some things to know though: it will flash when somepony who can’t be trusted is near. Also it is closely linked to the chest. But while the chest is a battering ram the omnicanicron is lock pick. Both open a door, but the difference is all in how the door is opened.

I lifted this strange device from the chest and held it up to Silver Hammer. It appeared to be made like any other hoof bracelet. The only difference was the thick flat gemstone set in the center of the gold band. The device gave no sign to indicate anything, so I used my magic to place it on my left forehoof. Once on the color changed to simple gray and the gem turned the same purple color as my coat. To blend in I guess.

“So I guess I can be trusted? What was that thing called again?”

“It is called the Omnicanicron. Omni meaning multi, many or all, cani likely coming from arcane, meaning magic, and cron, which many powerful magical devices have attached to their name. So simply put it is a device capable of multiple powerful magics.”

“That was simply put? And that name is such a mouthful. Why don’t we call it the OC or something? Or why not just call it a magical multi-tool? If you don’t know what tool to bring, why not bring the whole tool box.”

“Yes I think that is kind of the point of it isn’t it? As to what to call it, you may call it whatever you want. My teacher called it the Omnicanicron and so will I.”

“Alright. Though I admit it is strange hearing you call Princess Celestia your teacher. But she apparently trusts you, and you trust me, and I don’t not trust you, so we are practically a functioning family. And she has given you the mission to complete, so where do we start?”

“I think it would be best start in Ponyville. Celestia said that I should find my friends and I met them in Ponyville when she sent me there in Equestria Proper, which is what I will refer to the correct world as. Since you seem to like acronyms you may say EP, if you desire.”

“Oh I desire alright. But Ponyville? That little town just to the south?”

“Yes my friends will be there. And just as importantly Nightmare Moon will not. Also I have other reasons why I want to go to home to Ponyville, though I am not currently inclined to share all of them with you. Not yet at least.”

“Well Ponyville it is then.”

* * *

Author's Note

Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. I was dealing with end of the semester stuff. The next chapter should be a week from today.

Chapter 5

The train to Ponyville rattled as it traveled through one of the many tunnels along the route. I sat looking out the window as the train rumbled out of the tunnel into the open air. Even outside the tunnel there was nothing to look at. Once Nightmare Moon had taken over she had immediately implemented her threat of creating a night that would last forever. Or at least it would last for a year, until the Chaos Lord, Discord escaped his thousand year imprisonment and made his own claim on the throne of Equestria. His magical power centered on controlling chaos, or maybe setting chaos loose would be the better way to say it. His attacks against Canterlot were rarely cruel at first, though quite frequent. Hardly a week went by when Discord wasn’t pulling some joke on the elite of the capital. He would turn the clouds above the city into giant pepper shakers, to have ponies sneezing in the streets or have the roads turn into celery soup and the wagon wheels into wheels of cheese.

Most ponies didn’t really mind these little games. For whatever their inconvenience there was always one large benefit. Whenever Discord came, he would bring with him the sun. He did this I am sure as a mark of defiance against Nightmare Moon. The ponies of Equestria wouldn’t mind trees getting up and walking around, as long as they could enjoy the sun for a few days, hours, or minutes. Nobody would dare say that around the Dark Queen, for her fury at being scorned like this was unmatched.

For some reason about half a year into the war Discord’s attacks became vicious. Now rather than innocent, if annoying pranks the coming of day brought with it pain and suffering. Now Discord would bring to life the furniture in a room and use it to attack the furniture’s owners. Also he would unleash his creatures into the city and the towns surrounding it. Creatures such as Manticores and Cockatrices let loose on a city was devastating, especially in the outlying ones which didn’t have very many of the new royal guards.

This situation was made even worse by the fact that many of the most powerful and most skilled ponies were still loyal to Celestia, like Silver Hammer dozing on the bench next to me. He could easily have handled a single manticore, even without that mage hammer of his. With it, he could take care of several Manticores, and even something as large as a hydra. But when you break a unicorn’s horn he is not likely to forgive you and loyally serve you. Anymore then would a now wingless Pegasus. So the cruelty of the Dark Queen added to her own problems.

Also the problem of crippled guards wasn’t helped any by Discord’s new attacks. Soldiers coming back from a patrol, or returning from a battle would return to the city maimed, sometimes almost beyond recognition. Though I know that Discord was well capable of simply removing the wings or horns of a foe with his magic he doesn’t do that. I know from my personal experience in Equestria Proper that when he magically removes ones horn it doesn’t hurt at all. It just felt vaguely like I was missing something that I couldn’t quite put my hoof on. But this simple and painless solution would never suit for this new lord of Chaos. The guards who came back would return with extra limbs, or limbs switched with other creatures, or simply switched places on where they should be.

I couldn’t understand where this clearly more evil Discord had come from. In Equestria Proper he had been cruel but never to this degree. And eventually Fluttershy was able to show him the magic of friendship and teach him to be good. I think I am going to hold that in reserve. I don’t know how I am supposed to bring him around without Fluttershy especially since I don’t even trust him in the real world.

Silver Hammer snorted then sat up on the bench next to me. “Are we there yet?” he drowsily asked.

I shake my head then he dozes off again. It boggles my mind how he can sleep right now. For one thing this train is the most uncomfortable thing in this world. It rattles and shakes and has to stop every couple of minutes to clear some piece of rubble off the tracks. No pony travels much anymore, preferring the comparative safety of the capital to the greater risk of the surrounding country side, so the tracks fell into ill repair.

Also there was too much to think about to sleep. I was trying to remember everything I could think of about the Elements of Harmony and what my friends were doing before I met them in Ponyville. Pinkie Pie had been working at the sweet shop Sugar Cube Corner, Rarity at her own store Carousel Boutique, Fluttershy lived in her cottage, Apple Jack on the farm, and Rainbow Dash lived above Ponyville in a house made of clouds. I wanted to see my friends again so badly. Celestia was right, once I get all my friends together again, then everything will be all right. Of course I would have to find the Elements of Harmony again, but with my friends around me, we found them once and we would find them again. I don’t know what will happen when we have rescued all the Elements, but with all of us together nothing could stand against us.

Silver Hammer jerked awake as the train rattled out of one more tunnel. He looked around then is about to fall asleep when I nudge him and point out the window. Distantly the glow of lights from Ponyville could be seen. Even with the eternal night, it still made me happy to see my old home. Wordlessly Silver grabs the magic chest Celestia sent me as well as our small bags. Last night before we left I had run up stairs and grabbed the Element of Magic, which was now safely hidden in the chest. Since no pony could remove it without my permission, it would be much safer there then back at my parent’s house. I still hadn’t told Silver about it. Instead I had snuck it in while he was grabbing food from my kitchen. That had just been to distract him, but so far it turned out to be a really good idea. There was no food served on the train and food would likely be expensive in the smaller towns.

When the train pulled up to the Ponyville station I quickly disembarked, excited to find my friends and see the end of this miserable nightmare. Once off the train I stopped so fast Silver Hammer almost ran into me. Ponyville was not how I remembered it. The light I had seen from the train was not the yellow light of the mage lights that lit and warmed Canterlot. Instead it was the dirty red light of fires. Hundreds of fires. There were fires scattered all over the town. On every street corner there were fire pits and torches. Even some of the buildings were on fire. I couldn’t understand, what had attacked that would burn so much of the town?

“Brrrr. It’s freezing here!” behind me Silver Hammer shivered. It was a little chilly here but certainly not to the degree that he was making it out to be. Then I noticed that the Omnicanicron was flashing dimly. I reached out with my magic and removed it from my hoof. Suddenly the cold hit me. It was freezing here. Within seconds I could see my breath. The cold wasn’t the only thing to hit me; I was also hit by a sudden realization. The fires weren’t the sign of some attack against Ponyville; it was the mark of desperation. It was the middle of winter and the citizens must not be able to afford the magic lights that keep Canterlot warm. So the ponies here were burning anything that would stay lit to keep warm, and to be able to see.

I replaced the Omnicanicron on my hoof, then thinking quickly cast a “repel cold” spell on Silver Hammer. He immediately stopped shivering and began to look around at the town. A “stay warm” spell would have been easier to cast, and require less energy to maintain, but that would mean we would be melting our way through the snow. The last thing we wanted to do is attract attention when I didn’t know what was happening.

“Thanks for the spell, but I still think it would be better to head indoors to plan our next step.”

“Yes, of course. We should head to the Ponyville library. That is where I stayed in Equestria Proper. It should be able to shelter us.”

He nodded and without another word we set off. Canterlot is kept free of snow by the powerful magics that reside there, but there was no such luck for Ponyville. No doubt the weather ponies had long abandoned their jobs. So the snow was piled up all around. Sometimes it was as high as the windows. As quickly as we could we made our way through the snow drifts. I was just glad it wasn’t actively snowing.

Before too long we arrived at our destination. The Ponyville library was abandoned just like I thought it would be. The library was maintained by volunteers before I had arrived in Equestria Proper, no doubt the volunteers would leave to take care of their families once Celestia was dethroned. When we forced our way through a snow drift to get inside I saw something that I did not predict. All of the books were gone. Every single one had been stolen. They were burning anything that would stay lit; I didn’t think that applied to the books too. My books were as close to me as my friends. Before I had found the magic of friendship all I cared about was books. Now they were gone.

“Some library. Even the bookshelves are gone,” Silver Hammer said as he wandered into the room.

It was true even the shelves had been stolen to make fire wood. Almost everything that wasn’t nailed to the floor, and several things that were, had been stolen to feed the fires. The old tree that the library was built in was protected by spells from librarians decades past against both fire and axe. It is a shame that no one thought to protect the books.

Silver Hammer came back to me from his walk around the room then says, “I don’t sense any lingering magics, only those built into the tree itself. All those are much older the Nightmare Moon’s return. We should probably put some protective spells of our own up though.”

I nod quietly then set to work. The bubble force fields that my family is famous for would be the strongest shield I could summon. Like the purple shield I put around Silver earlier they could prevent anything from passing them without my permission. Though the one I created for him wasn’t that powerful, I could probably create one that even he couldn’t break with his mage hammer, but I wasn’t willing to try unless I had to. The more magic you put into a spell, the more magic it takes out of you if it falls. Those shields would be the best defensively, but were the least subtle. Especially since mine adjusted the conditions inside to better suit me, effectively turning us into a reverse snow globe. With snow piled up outside, the weather inside would be early spring at worst.

Instead of using the more powerful shields I set about weaving more subtle spells into the walls of the tree itself. I created protection spells, early detection spells, and spells to go unnoticed. I had never spent too much energy learning war spells, the casting of fire balls, or the creation of walls that burned any enemy the touched them. But it is impossible to have studied as much about magic as I have without picking up a trick or two.

Silver Hammer however clearly had studied war time spells. I finished my spells then stood and watched him work for a moment. The spells he was creating would do quite a bit more than merely protect the tree, let us know when enemies approached or make them ignore us. Currently he was working a spell that would physically absorb any attacker into the tree. I memorized that one; it might come in handy later.

Shortly we were both done. Now the tree that the library was in was protected, warm, well lit, and almost invisible to outsiders. Silver Hammer was sweating a little from the effort of doing that much magic.

“It’s been a while since I have had to sustain that much magical energy. Or have even had the ability to.” He smiled at me as he said that. I know I healed him with my magic, but I wish he would realize that it was because I had lost control. “So what is our plan now?”

“Well I honestly wasn’t expecting this, but there is nothing we can do about the weather. I think the best thing to do is still to find where my friends are. Once together we can face any challenge.”

Silver looked worried, “And what is our plan B?”

The bemused look on my face needed no explanation.

“Plan B. You say you remember where your friends are, because you remember it from Equestria Proper as you call it. But what if here in Nightmare Equestria they aren’t there? What is our plan if they are lost, or dead? I know you don’t want to think about it, but I have suffered too much to just let you go galloping off without thinking through a backup plan. I have attempted coups against the Dark Queen and I will not suffer another defeat because of poor planning.”

“Well…” I hadn’t wanted to bring up the Elements of Harmony, at least not until I was sure that I could trust him. But there didn’t seem to be any point. And if I failed there needed to be somepony else who knew about them. “If we can’t find my friends we need to find the Elements of Harmony.”

He arched an eyebrow at me, so I continued. “The Elements of Harmony are some of the most powerful magical devices in the world. Together they form a magic that can’t be stopped. My friends and I each represent one of the elements. Six elements, six ponies.” I was pacing now. I needed to walk as I thought. “I tried to do some reading from the book Celestia left in chest, Elements of Harmony, A Reference Guide, on the train but the lighting was too bad. Also I was hoping to be able to do some more research here, but that option is out. Fortunately I have most of the lore regarding the Elements memorized.

If we can’t find my friends then there is only one thing to do, find the Elements. They can be wielded by less than six ponies. Celestia and Luna together used all six Elements when they entombed Discord in stone. In fact they can be used by only one pony if necessary, Celestia used them by herself when she banished Nightmare Moon.”

“Yeah well a lot of good that did. They are both free now. The Elements didn’t do a very good job killing them.” Silver Hammer replied sarcastically.

“Of course not. The Elements are not a destructive force. They imprison, entomb, or strip the evil from somepony. And we don’t need to kill anypony. We just need to get Celestia back so she can help us, but first we need to see if we can find my friends. We will start with Pinkie Pie. Sugar Cube Corner is the closest.”

“How about instead of doing that we split up? I have some contacts here in Ponyville that may be of some use if we need to find somepony. You look around for where they lived in EP, and I will meet you back here.”

“Are you sure that is the best idea?”

“Yeah, I can take care of myself, and you have demonstrated that you can take care of yourself. Besides my contacts aren’t really the type to enjoy having new faces around and it will already be hard enough to explain why I look like I was never in a war. If anything happens meet back here.”

What he said made sense, so I nodded. He opened the door of the library, and after looking around to make sure that nopony was out there began to make his way up the street. I quickly headed in the other direction. The wind had picked up since we went indoors, blowing the fresh snow into my face. After only a couple of minutes I was happy that I still had the omnicanicron. Even with its magic the wind still cut through me. Soon I found my way to where Pinkie Pie lived in Equestria Proper. The building had been named Sugar Cube Corner. It was a pastry shop that sold the best cakes and sweets. It was owned by an older couple, the Cakes. They rent out the upper floor to Pinkie Pie the town’s resident party expert.

Here though it had clearly been a while since a party was hosted here. The building no longer tries to look like a ginger bread house. Its roof is a standard thatched roof, with the thatching in desperate need of some repairs. On top of the upper floor there’s still a room that looks vaguely like a cupcake, but without the rest of house, it looks more like a grotesque mockery. In this world the former sweets shop was a soup kitchen. The ponies were lined up in front of it waiting to get food. Many looked like this would be their first meal in days. In front of the building a large covered area had been set up so ponies could eat out of the weather. I walked around the line trying to get to the front. If anypony needed cheering up with a good party it was these ponies. Surely even here in this world Pinkie was here to help make people be little less miserable. Suddenly as I tried to make my way to the front, somepony grabbed me from behind.

“Hey no cutting! If you want food get in the line with the rest of us!” A large stallion grabbed me around the waist and began dragging me to the back. I quickly used my magic to break his grip and drop back to the ground.

“Oh yer a unicorn? Doesn’t matter; get to the back of the line.”

“No you don’t understand I don’t want food! I just…”

“You don’t want food? Yeah and I don’t want the sun to come back!”

“What’s going on out here?”

The shout quieted both of us. I spun around and there in front of me was Carrot Cake. If it weren’t for his yellow fur and cutie mark in the shape of his namesake, I wouldn’t have recognized him at all. His formerly short orange mane had grown long and was almost completely gray. Also his typical good mood had apparently left as well. He was glaring at me and the stallion I had been arguing with.

“If you two are going to fight in the line then neither of you are getting anything. Go home!” he yelled at us.

The other stallion looked crest fallen and began to walk away without an argument, though he did pause to give me a dirty look as he passed. Mr. Cake turned and began to walk back to the front.

“Mr. Cake! I need to talk to you!”

“Yeah you and every other poor pony in this town! Well I told you, you lost the privilege to do that today. Come back tomorrow.”

“Wait I just need to talk to Pinkie Pie!” I cried when he had almost reached the door.

“I don’t know anypony by that name. And you had better clear out unless you want me to close down for the day!”

When he said that several ponies grabbed me and forcibly evicted me from the square. I could only watch from outside. Clearly Pinkie wasn’t here. So I turned and walked to the next place I had to check. As I walked I talked quietly to myself.

“It’s ok. I couldn’t expect fixing the problems of Equestria to be easy. It never was before. Plus Pinkie Pie is only the first pony I’ve looked for; I am sure that with the help of the others I will be able to find where she went.”

Sometime in the middle of ramblings I arrived at my next location. In Equestria Proper Carousel Boutique had been Rarity’s pride and joy. It as a store where the rich and famous from as far away as Canterlot and Manehattan came to purchase the finest dresses. Rarity always had a knack for fashion and dress making, and that only got better when she discovered her special talent for finding gems. With the additional funding brought from that secondary cash flow she could focus all of her time and attention to making the most beautiful outfits for pony kind. But this wasn’t Equestria Proper, this was Nightmare Equestria. Here I could only gape at what was in front of me.

Carousel Boutique simply wasn’t. There was no sign of it having been burned down, or destroyed; it looked like it had never existed. Even the land where it should have been had never been changed to allow for a building. I had asked Rarity one time how she had gotten the building, and she had said that she had bought it with some of her gems. So the building should have been there even if Rarity wasn’t. Yet clearly something had happened in the past, when our fates changed that made it never be built. I couldn’t begin to fathom what that was, and there were still several other ponies I needed to find.

Now I am panicking. I had never heard where Rarity’s family was from. She and Pinkie Pie were always very tight lipped about their pasts, though it seemed to me to for different reasons. I thought that Rarity was embarrassed by her family and with Pinkie; well it is never easy to say with that pony. Sometimes she reads like a book for fillies and other times I’ve gotten more information talking to a rock. So if these two weren’t here then I had no idea where to start looking. But there was one other pony who I knew where she would be, Applejack.

AJ had grown up on the family farm, Sweet Apple Acres, and still worked there with her older brother Big Macintosh, little sister Applebloom, and her grandmother Granny Smith. If there was anypony who would be easy to find it would be Applejack. I raced down the street to the Apple farm. On either side of the road, signs of destruction stretched out before me. The once proud family orchards are now gone. Cut down for fire wood, some with even the roots torn up. As I ran I even saw the burnt out remains of the school. That only drove my fear. Soon I was galloping full out down the street.

Then there in front of me was what I was looking for. Sweet Apple Acres stretched out before me. Even though the orchard itself is much reduced there are still a couple of sickly apple trees. Now instead of thousands of apple trees there were a lot smaller crops. The apple trees probably didn’t fare as well without sun. Some smaller plants could last much longer without sun, and mushrooms didn’t need light at all.

As I approached the gate I was surprised to see it closed and barred. The gate for the farm was never closed. I can’t remember a single time when it had been locked. I used my magic to undo the lock and open the gate. I wondered if the Apples were having problems with bandits. That question was answered quickly by a resounding click from behind me.

I whirled around to see Big Macintosh standing behind me with a loaded cross bow. Cross bows were one of the few types of bows that earth ponies could use with any skill. Pegasi could use their wings to draw smaller light bows and unicorns can use their magic to draw the more powerful compound bows, but neither of those could match the crossbow for power and accuracy. Plus they could be easily be rewound and reloaded without the need of magic and wings. Big Mac’s crossbow was strapped to his hoof. He could fire it just by moving his hoof forward. And it was trained on me.

“Whatever you’re thinking of stealing you had better rethink your plan.” Big Mac had always seemed like a mountain to me. Solid, steady, always there for you, and above everything else, calm. Now I could see another side of Mac. One that was all anger and sadness. The big stallion was glaring down at me.

“Big Mac! I am so glad to see you. Though I wish it were under different circumstances. Before you kick me out where is the rest of the family?”

Mac reared and I ducked afraid that the crossbow would go off. His rage and anguish was written all over his face. “The rest of the family? There is no rest of the family! I am the only one here. I am the only one who has to take care of the family farm.”

This news hit me hard, how could Mac be the only one? There had always been a family of Apples here when I had visited. “What about Applebloom and Granny Smith?”

“Granny Smith died a week after the last sunset. Her heart couldn’t take the stress of a world shrouded in eternal night. And Applebloom, little Applebloom, she vanished shortly after. I haven’t seen her in almost two years.” The anger in his voice had disappeared, there was only a deep soul wrenching sadness. “I am the last Apple here.”

Granny Smith, dead? And Applebloom gone? Those two had been as close as family to me when I arrived in Ponyville. If Applebloom had disappeared in this world of shadow then it was unlikely that she was still alive. Too many monsters roamed where they shouldn’t, to many dangers, and too many desperate ponies, for her to be safe. But there was still one more Apple I hadn’t heard about, the first pony in Ponyville to introduce herself to me, one of my closest and most stalwart friends.

“But what about Appleja…” My words were cut short as the crossbow went off. The bolt from the crossbow cut across my cheek leaving a hair line graze.

“Don’t you dare mention that name around me!” Big Mac roared at me. “She abandoned the farm. I gave her every chance to come back, but now she is dead to me. The only sister I have was stolen from me two years ago. Now you better clear off my farm, or I swear that I will bury you here.”

I backed away from him, tears streaming down my face. With Big mac bearing down on me I tried to will myself to turn and run but I couldn’t do it.

“Macintosh!” The voice behind me stopped me in my tracks. It also stopped Mac; he looked up surprised, anger still written on his face. A flash of light came from behind me and the look of anger disappeared almost immediately, replaced with one that was as readable as a stone wall. I turn to see Silver Hammer standing behind me. There was some glowing sigil in the air above his head, drawn with his magic, but it disappeared before I could even focus on it.

“Go wait by the gate, I will talk to him. Go on”

I went slowly to the gate. This news hit me the hardest of all. I had been hoping that my friends would be here. Even when I saw that Pinkie Pie and Rarity weren’t I was still hoping that Applejack would be. She was always so dependable, and the farm was everything to her. We had fought hard on several times to help her keep the farm, or help her work it. I couldn’t understand why she would leave the farm. And if Applejack wasn’t here, then it wouldn’t make sense for either Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy to be in Ponyville, they would likely still be in Cloudsdale the Pegasus city. Celestia had said that I could do anything if I had my friends with me, but was I supposed to do if I didn’t even have them?

Silver Hammer had finished up his conversation with Big Mac and the both of them were walking slowly towards me. Big Mac was the first to speak.

“The pony you are looking for is Manehattan. If you find her tell her that if she ever shows her face here I’ll put a bolt through her eye.” He turned to go, then paused and said, “You should get that taken care of.”

Mac turned and walked away. I felt the cut on my cheek, but it had already almost stopped bleeding. The bolt had only barely touched my face. Maybe somewhere in that exterior of anger and sadness the Big Mac I knew is still in there, he had only fired a warning shot, something that almost missed. Silver Hammer lead me quickly back down the road. Walking back this way was a little easier because both of us had trampled the snow down a little, so there was a path through the piled snow.

“Just to let you know, for all future engagements make sure to wear the OC.”

“Why do you say that?” I glance at the omnicanicron on my hoof; it didn’t seem to be behaving in any noteworthy manner. It was still flashing dully as it kept the cold off, but it wasn’t doing anything else special.

“Because Macintosh didn’t miss. You were supposed to eat that bolt. He said that when he fired the bolt moved away from your face.”

“He tried to kill me?” My voice was suddenly high with fear.

“Tried, and would have succeeded if it weren’t for that thing, oh and me of course. I somewhat doubt you were the first pony to taste that cross bow since the sun fell.”

Another hammer fall. Ever since I had discovered the truth about this world it just kept beating me down. My family was dead, my friends were scattered or lost, and one of the ponies I thought I could depend on the most had just tried to kill me. I almost wished the chest had never come to me. It was so much easier living in ignorance. Silver Hammer noticed my silence and didn’t break it for several moments.

“What do we do next? Try and find a way to pay for a trip to Manehattan? I know you spent the last of your savings getting us here, but there could be a way to get to the city.”

“No, there is something we have to do before we leave.” Even to me my voice sounded dead and tired.

“And what is that?”

“We have to find the Elements of Harmony.”

* * *

“When you first mentioned finding the Elements of Harmony, I thought it would be some great quest. Where we would have to fight our way through some ancient dungeon at the edge of the world and defeat some terrible monster to acquire them.” We had been walking through the woods of the Everfree forest for almost an hour. Silver had been complaining for the past several minutes. “When you said that they were here in Ponyville I thought it would just be a matter of going back to the library and getting a shovel to dig them up out of one of the local fields. Now you are telling me that we have to wander around in the dark in this stupid forest forever? Where are the Elements exactly? And when will we get to them?”

“We are almost there now please be quiet.” The Everfree forest, which practically surrounds Ponyville, is never the easiest place to navigate even in the best of times. Unlike most of the rest of Equestria where plants are grown, animals are cared for, and the weather is controlled all by ponies, the Everfree forest is just the opposite. So what could be a pleasant stroll through the woods anywhere else is cruel maze here. The trees grow completely randomly and the path such as it was meanders all over, under, and through many different obstacles. Now with the night and winter obscuring everything it made the path even more difficult.

Another reason I didn’t want him to be talking is because the Everfree forest is home to many fearsome monsters. I didn’t want to attract anything that might be out there. In fact I am still surprised that so far nothing has jumped out at us, or attacked us. The last time I had come by this way, when I had all of my friends around me, we had been attacked and plagued by problems almost every step of the way. Though that was with the concentrated effort of Nightmare Moon trying to stop us. With each step that we took and didn’t encounter some terrible creature made the expectation that it was going to happen with the next step even higher. This continuously mounting anxiety was starting to wear on my nerves.

But I wasn’t lying to Silver Hammer when I said that we were almost there. We had just crossed the river where Rarity’s friend the sea serpent Steven Magnet, lived. We didn’t see him, and our crossing of the river was aided by a thick sheet of ice over the top of it. I don’t know if I really want to see him or not. Every other pony here is behaving differently than what I remember, and I didn’t want to try to mess with a fashion conscious sea serpent without Rarity to placate him.

There just ahead of us was the gorge we had to cross to get to where we were going. The castle of the royal pony sisters. It was the ancient home of Celestia and Luna before Nightmare Moon took over the moon princess. It was here in Equestria Proper that we found the Elements of Harmony. I was hoping against hope that I would be able to find them here. I needed something to go right for me.

Silver Hammer had stopped in front of me. He was looking down into the gorge at the remains of a bridge that had previously spanned the gap. In my world Rainbow Dash had flown down into the gap, grabbed the remains of the bridge and was able to repair it. Without a Pegasus I didn’t know how I was supposed to repair it. Silver was apparently struggling with the same problem. We were wasting time. We need to get the Elements so that we can get to Manehattan.

I decided I had enough thinking. I summoned my magic and began weaving it into the fog that constantly filled this gorge. Slowly the fog came together to form a path from cliff to cliff.

“Quickly get across! I don’t know how much longer I can hold it.”

Silver Hammer stepped delicately on the fog bridge, then when it supported his weight, he ran across. I walked across more calmly. Solidifying an entire bridge of fog took a lot of strength, but just holding together the patch I was standing on and the one immediately ahead of me was much easier. Still I was starting to sweat from the exertion by the time I made it to the other side.

“Impressive, I haven’t seen a display of magic like that in some time.” Behind the surprise on his face, I could see a bit of sadness. I am pretty sure that he last saw any kind of magic display it was with ponies who were now dead, or lost. Now is not the time to open that can of worms though, and I am still hurting from my experience at the farm. So I just nodded to acknowledge his remark.

The castle loomed in front of us as we made our way towards it. Inside I hoped to find the Elements on their pedestals. So much of our hopes and dreams were hinging on this. As I got closer I could almost taste the Elements. Once we have them everything would begin sorting itself out.

I rushed into the room where the podiums stood, and immediately stopped. They were gone. Every single stand was empty. Not only that but it looked like there had been some kind of fight over the Elements. Some of the plinths were knocked over and others bore claw or scorch marks. I wandered around lost as Silver Hammer came in behind me and began investigating. The scorch marks I recognized as lightning strikes. There was only one pony I knew who could summon lightning at will, and that was Nightmare Moon. She had used the lightning bolts repeatedly during the time when my friends and I defeated her. The claw marks at first confused me, until I noticed how lopsided they were, some were the claws of an eagle, others of a dragon. Again there is only one creature in the world that can do that. Discord. His body was made up of parts from all kinds of creatures. There was a couple of other marks around that I couldn’t begin to decipher. But the one thing that was sure was the Elements were gone.

This last hammer blow brought me to my knees. How can this be? How is it that nothing is going right? Tears started to fill my eyes. There was nothing I could do, Celestia had given me this mission and I was failing it. Silver Hammer kept looking around the room. He didn’t seem to understand how hopeless this whole situation was. He was sniffing the air, trying to track whatever he was smelling back to its source. Suddenly he ran into a dark corner of the room. I turned, afraid that something was attacking us, that one more thing was about to go wrong.

“What is this?” he asked, rolling a large round ball out from the corner. The ball came up to his knees and was made entirely of stone. I jumped to my feet when I saw it.

“You found one! You found one!” As I was saying this I was jumping up and down in a circle around Silver Hammer.

“I found one what? What is it?”

“It’s one of the Elements!”

“Really? Seems kind of inconvenient.”

“Yeah. Hmmmm. Let me look at it closer.”

I crouched down so I can look at it closer. We would never be able to travel with something this size. When I moved closer to examine it I accidently bumped the omnicanicron against it. As soon as the two touched the Element immediately shattered.

“What? It’s broken!”

“No it’s not. I was hoping this would happen. Watch!”

He turned his attention back to the Element. The shattered pieces began to float into the air, hovering around my hoof where the omnicanicron was. The pieces began to spin, moving faster and faster. Also a light started to come out, which grew to be so bright that I could hardly bare to look at it. Finally with one last burst, all the light faded away to nothing. There resting on my hoof was a necklace. It was a gold necklace with an orange apple in the center; the apple had two small leaves.

“Yes! It is the Element of… Honesty!”

* * *

Chapter 6

The orange mare sat behind her desk glaring at the door opposite her. Idly she pulled at the collar of the business dress she was wearing. She hated the dress. It was ugly and impractical. Her blonde mane was curled into little ringlets as it fell down her back. The small intercom on her massive desk squawked to life.

“E-excuse me, Ms. Apple. The head of the Pony Resources department is here.” The secretary outside always sounded nervous whenever she paged in. The tremor in her voice annoyed the mare at the desk. Soon she would probably fire her. Though it did feel good to hear that there were ponies who were scared of her. Without looking at the intercom she pressed the call button. She didn’t say anything, only held it down for a second then released it. That was all the signal that she would give them that they could come in.

The door to the office opened slowly as two ponies walked in. One was a brown earth pony with a scroll as a cutie mark and the other was his unicorn assistant who had several quills on his flank. The brown pony, who had been working for the orange mare for many years now had a very businesslike air about him. The unicorn was taken aback by the glare that greeted him as he entered the room. He still managed to keep several quills floating the air with his magic, as he was ready to take notes.

“What did we need to discuss Applejack?” The brown pony ignores her glare and gets right to business. His assistant floats a quill to a piece of parchment.

“Parts of my company are still struggling despite everything we try. Why is this?”

“Ponies just don’t have the money for certain goods anymore. Many luxury departments are barely staying afloat. Too many ponies are selling everything they own just keep the lights on.” He answered matter of factly.

“Then cut them. I am not going to waste any more money paying ponies to build things that no one will buy.”

“Of course.” The brown pony nodded and turned to leave, however before he made it out the door his assistant spoke up. “But what about the ponies who worked in these departments?”

“If they have useable skills they will be reassigned. If not… then it is the street for them.” The brown pony answered for Applejack.

“But that’s not fair!” The unicorn whined. “Without this job they may not be able to pay for their own lights and heating!”

“That is not my problem,” this time it was Applejack who answered, her voice cold with anger. “If they can’t be used then they have no place in this company. If they can’t pay for their bills then that is their own fault for being useless. Now get out of my office before you join them.”

The two stallions rushed out of her office. She returned to glaring at the door once it was closed. Dimly through the door she heard the young unicorn being reprimanded. A smile slipped up her lips, though it never reached her eyes. As one of the single largest employers outside of the royal guards her company could wield a considerable amount of power. Of course it could, she had worked her entire life to build it up to where it was today.

Several minutes after the two had left Applejack slid one of the drawers open on her desk and placed a hoof inside. She didn’t need to look at what she was touching. She had seen it so many times, she knew every detail. It as an old, worn-out, wooden picture frame. It was so old that the once pointed corners were now almost completely round. She idly traced the edges of the picture frame with a hoof while she waited for her next appointment. The whole time she waited she never took her eyes off the door to the room, and she never let her glare slip.

After she had run away from home as a child she had found herself at the door of her Aunt and Uncle’s apartment. At first they had welcomed her into their home, helped her to blend in with the elite of Manehattan, and helped her to discover her cutie mark. The bits on her flank showed proof of her skill as a savvy business pony. But she was still a little county girl in the big city. Eventually her relatives grew tired of having to excuse her behavior to their metropolitan friends. They kicked her out. Told her to go home.

She didn’t want to go home though. She was enjoying business, and Manehattan was the center of Equestria for business. So she lived on the streets for several years. There she helped the neighborhood colts with various little scams and cons. In timer her skills brought her to the attention of a local smuggling ring. With the help of the smuggling ring she was able to open a legitimate trade business, which was a front for her own growing smuggling empire.

There were all manner of products that she could ship to and from Equestria. Wines and other fermented drinks were forbidden by Equestrian law yet there was a large market for them. The griffin nations had many fine wineries and distilleries. What the griffins didn’t have was mages. Griffins were never very powerful magically, even the most powerful could barely manage to lift a pebble, something every unicorn could do. And after the last pony- griffin war the import of magical objects from Equestria was outlawed.

Shipping the various illegal commodities between the different nations as well as across Equestria turned into an extremely lucrative business. So it was at the height Applejack’s power and wealth that Nightmare Moon returned, bringing her eternal night to the world. She had thought briefly about backing one of the various resistance movements, but decided that the potential benefits of royal favor didn’t outweigh the guaranteed benefits of using her trade network to make money selling the things people needed.

The number one thing she transported was the Mage lights. Not being magically inclined she hadn’t designed them, but once she saw what they could do she made sure to corner the market. Apple factories sprung up all over Equestria. She quickly muscled out any competition. Apple industries could sell the lights for a portion of what other manufacturers could, mostly because she was the only one with trade connections with the griffin nation, where she could charge whatever she wanted and they would have to pay.

After her cousin Braeburn came to her looking for work she quickly moved into food production and distribution as well. The town he had lived in, Appaloosa, had been burned to the ground by a local buffalo tribe shortly after the sun fell. Applejack sent him to the griffin kingdom to set up massive plantations that could produce a lot of food very cheaply. Griffins were hard workers and with the magic lamps that mimicked daylight they could produce enough food to ship here to Manehattan. The griffins didn’t see very much of the food but she wasn’t too worried about them.

“Ms. Ap-Apple? Your next appointment is here.” The intercom beeped to life, startling Applejack out of her reverie. Yes she should definitely look into finding a new secretary. The sound of fear in a pony’s voice made her feel powerful, but she needed a secretary who could get a full sentence out without stuttering. As she paged in her visitor she closed the drawer she had, had her hoof in.

“Ah AJ! What can we do for you?” Her master of shipping was one of the few ponies who was really friendly with her. He had been the captain of one of first ships she sent out. While he still often sailed, now he much preferred to stay in Equestria and manage the shipping fleet. As well as managing the fleet of ships that carried all the legitimate cargo he also oversaw the smuggler ships that transported the illegal materials. Though now there was much less need for smuggling. Nightmare Moon hardly cared if ponies drank themselves to death, but there was still a large market for the goods. Sometimes ponies just needed something to take their minds off their troubles and to make them feel warm.

“We need to increase the number of shipments. Fillydelphia and Baltimare are asking for more. Try and see if you can take some of the useless workers from the factories with you. They could serve much more use on the plantations in the griffin lands.”

“Of course Applejack. Also I’ll try and get some ponies from the slums of Fillydelphia and Baltimare to sail with us as well. Many are desperate for any kind of work, so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince them.” He smiled a wicked smile then left the room.

Most meetings with those who had been with her since before Nightfall were just as brief. There was actually very little need for her to give the orders directly. But it was important to make sure that ponies knew who exactly was in charge of things here.

After her master of shipping had left she opened the drawer again. This time she removed the picture. She had taken it from the farm the last time she had been there. If her brother Big Mac had known it was in her bag when she left he probably would have broken one of her legs. It was the only remaining picture of the whole family together. Her parents and Granny Smith in the back ground. Big Macintosh carrying the new born Apple Bloom in front. Applejack smiling next to him. This was taken right before she had ran away. Big Mac had sent her letter after letter when she had left, but she never replied, it just didn’t seem too important. The last letter she still had. It was in a vault in her penthouse suite. She had been striking a deal in the griffin kingdom when it had arrived so she didn’t see it till several weeks later. In that last letter Mac said that their parents had been injured and were dying. He begged her to come and visit them one last time before they passed.

Applejack was able to arrive just in time for the funeral. Applebloom was still too young to understand what was happening, but Mac was furious that she hadn’t come back to see them. When she couldn’t make him see reason she left. She had taken the picture on the way out the door. There was a burn mark where Mac’s face had been. AJ had done that shortly after getting back to Manehattan, she had been so mad at him.

Poorly carved into the wooden frame of the picture was her father’s favorite saying. “Family is everything.” He always used to say that. She had carved that herself. Just to show how much of lie everything was. The only family members that she ever had contact with were those who worked for her. And she made sure to send them as far away from Manehattan as she could. Vanhoover, Canterlot, the griffin kingdoms. She kept the picture now as a constant reminder of what she had done to create this position of power. She had sacrificed and ignored her family. She had lied, cheated, and broken the law. Now she was one of the wealthiest mares in Equestria. And all she wanted to do was cry.

* * *

The train to Manehattan was no less uncomfortable then the one from Canterlot to Ponyville. It had taken a bit of thought to find a way to pay for this trip. The trip to Manehattan would not be as expensive since many ponies traveled to the big cities, but the trip to Ponyville had taken the last of my savings. Silver Hammer didn’t have any money set aside. As a rebel to the crown his accounts had been seized and the work in the factory barely paid enough to live on. After giving some thought to the problem I came up with the idea to create a mage light. Before I had put on the Element of Magic I would never have had the skill to manage something like that, but with my memories returned it was simple to be able to perform the spell. I decided to sell it to the Cakes. I went to them and apologized to Mr. Cake for the trouble I caused. After they had grudgingly accepted my apology I asked if they would be willing to buy a mage light off of me.

They were very suspicious at first, they seemed to think that I would try to sell them something that would burn out after only a few days. I couldn’t figure this out until they showed me the collection of crystals that were glowing dimly, barely putting out enough heat to act as a hoof warmer. I was able to enchant several of the crystals again without any real problem. Each glowed like a small sun and put out enough heat to melt snow. I made one larger one that was hot enough to cook on. This would help make the open area around the soup kitchen a little more livable. Hopefully some of the ponies of Ponyville would be able to benefit from that as well. Even if I wasn’t able to make the world right again, at least I could make it hurt a little less for some of the ponies who had to live there.

Leaving Ponyville had been both harder and in a way easier to leave then Canterlot. It was a little harder because I had wanted to leave Canterlot so badly, and was looking forward to finding Ponyville and my friends. Now that I had seen what my home was really like, and seeing what the ponies I had known had become, I was afraid of what I would find when I saw my friends again. In Equestria Proper I would be less worried about these things. My dedication to my teacher always over powered my fear and I could always rely on my friends to stand by me and help me. Here I would never be able to tell how my friends would react, or even if they were still alive until I found them.

Ponyville was a little easier to leave then Canterlot because the capital didn’t hurt me to be there. Seeing the town burned, the ponies fighting in the streets over a piece of bread, all these things tore at my very being. This was not how things should be. Leaving the library gave me the motivation I needed though. Yes the path would be hard and long, but it would be worth every ounce of suffering if we could only correct the world.

Besides me on the train Silver Hammer was again asleep. Maybe that was something soldiers learned to do, take their sleep whenever they could get it, because they didn’t know when they would get another quiet moment. We had decided to leave the chest with the Element of Magic in the Library tree. It would be much safer there then constantly dragging it around Equestria. The Element of Honesty was hidden in Silver’s saddle bags however. We both decided that it would be better to bring it, so we could return Applejack’s memories immediately, rather than having to drag her, maybe forcibly back to Ponyville.

There was a brief tense moment as we passed Canterlot on the way to Manehattan. As we passed the mountain that Canterlot sat on the night suddenly switched to day, the sun springing into the center of the sky. Most train drivers have a habit of stopping the train when this happens, lest Discord target it or the rails. If we were trapped this close to the capital in the middle of a battle with one of the most powerful magical objects in the world poorly hidden in an old saddle bag, the risk of discovery would have been much greater. However our engineer opted to race past Canterlot to try and get away from the fighting.

Silver Hammer had come awake while we were passing Canterlot and had almost summoned his mage hammer when the sun leapt into the sky. I was able to talk him down before he gave us away. Though it took everything I had not to summon my own shield, and maybe teleport away. Once we were safely past however we could both relax. Night fell again shortly thereafter. Silver was asleep again with minutes of nightfall. After my eyes adjusted to the dark again I realized that I could see the distant glow of Manehattan. I thought we were almost there, but when I asked one of the other ponies on the train, they said that you could always see the city from here.

It turned out that pony was right. We were still another couple of hours before we reached the island itself. Long before we reached Manehattan there were many small towns that clustered close to the city. Each one was shining with light. Here, unlike in Ponyville, nothing was on fire. Every town had massive clusters of mage lights. We passed a train leaving the island, on it were several cars of more lights. Each car had a guard on the roof. No doubt the one remaining source of light and heat that didn’t require the burning of library books was something that was well worth stealing. On the side of each of the cars was three bits. Now that I thought about it, the sign for the factory back in Canterlot also had three bits on it.

Eventually we actually made it onto the island itself. I stood and gawked for a second at the massive towers all around me. Canterlot was a tall city with many tall towers, in fact most were several stories taller than even the tallest here. But because it was built on a mountain it wasn’t exactly the largest city. It certainly wasn’t as full of ponies as Manehattan was.

If Silver Hammer hadn’t dragged me to the side of the platform I might have been knocked down and trampled. I wasn’t used to being around this many ponies. In Equestria Proper I had sequestered myself from others, with just my books for companionship till Celestia sent me to Ponyville. And that was a really small town, where you rarely saw someone you didn’t know at the very least on sight. Pinkie Pie could name every pony in Ponyville as well as their birthday and probably their favorite cake topping. Here in Nightmare Equestria I had lived completely by myself, only leaving my house to work and go shopping.

Silver grabbed me with his magic and began to push his way through the crowd, dragging me behind him as he used his wide shoulders to clear a path through the ponies. After a second I broke his magical hold on me and could walk by myself. I followed close behind him so that I wasn’t getting shoved in every direction.

As we made our way through the crowd a small unicorn snuck up besides Silver and tried to magically open his saddle bags. Without even glancing to see who it was Silver lifted her up with his magic and casually tossed her across the street. The rest of the street urchins and thieves knew to leave us alone after that. I was a little worried about the young unicorn, but I was much more worried about what would have happened if she stole the Element of Honesty.

Eventually we made it to Central Park. The wide open park was the perfect place to stop and have a private conversation. Manehattan was so much better lit then the other towns we had seen. Even Central Park was well lit during the day hours.

“Was it really necessary to throw that filly? She was probably poor.” I asked Silver once we got into the park.

“Of course it was. Send a clear message from the offset and ponies will know exactly what your intentions are. My message and intentions are that I will not be messed with. And I think I found who we’re looking for.”

“Well that doesn’t … wait what? How?” My surprise at this statement completely shut down the argument I had for him.

He simply nodded to something over my shoulder then walked past me. I turned and staring down at me from a billboard just outside of the park was a pony who could only be this world’s Applejack. She had the same orange fur and blonde mane. This world’s AJ had her hair curled into fancy ringlets that fell down her back. She also had makeup covering her freckles. Her body was also a little smaller. She was clearly still muscular, but rather than the body of a weight lifter that came from farm work, she had a more lean body, like that of a sprinter. The most telling thing however was her green eyes. There was no mistaking those eyes.

It was a little surprising to see that Applejack wearing a dress and with mane styled in anything but a ponytail. But if I remembered her story of how she got her cutie mark correctly she had wanted to be a suave and sophisticated pony, so I guess she got that wish. She certainly looked successful, but there was something subtly different about her. Something that was off, other than the obvious physical differences. Silver Hammer was glaring up at the billboard.

“If she is your friend you had better get a lot more money before she’ll help us.” He said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“When Nightmare Moon first took over, some of the Loyalists and I, tried to enlist her help in bringing Celestia back. With her influence and money we could’ve stood a chance. She said that working for the Night Queen was much more profitable then assisting a bunch of rebel misfits. So we were cut down like wheat.” He grimaced and looked at his hoof, where one of the worst scars had been.

I gasped. It couldn’t true. That wasn’t the Applejack I knew. Then again the me I knew never cried herself to sleep. Maybe the change in the world had changed how she was as a pony. As much as I didn’t want to accept it, I knew I had to. I just hoped that when she was reunited with the Element of Honesty that she would remember who she was supposed to be.

When I voiced this to Silver he just grunted. “I can get us into the building.” He said. “Her appointment list is made weeks in advanced, so we won’t be able to get close to her by legal means. Last time when we tried to talk to her we were able to sneak into her office. She was impressed by our audacity so let us talk. Perhaps she will still be give us another audience if we do it again.”

I nodded. Together we set off towards one of the largest buildings in the city. On the side was printed the same bits as on the train cars. In fact they were all over the city. I saw them on food bins, mage lights, even on cars and quite a few on the ships in the harbor.

“Why is everything covered in those bits?” I asked Silver.

“That is her cutie mark.” He said, giving me a look.

“What? In Equestria Proper she had three apples as a cutie mark.”

He shrugged then we continued to the skyscraper. Once we got close I started to make my way to the entrance, but Silver Hammer quickly tugged me into a nearby alley.

“There is too much security on the main entrance. We have to go in another way.”

Then he pointed at the grate of an air vent, several feet up the wall of the building. Using his magic he unlatched the grate. Then he started looking around.

“This was a lot easier last time we had a strong Pegasus with us and she was able to fly up the shaft and lower a rope down.”

I tried my best not to roll my eyes at him as he continued to look around for some way to climb up into the vent. Instead I picked him up with my magic and levitated the two of us up into the vent. Once we both inside, I resealed the vent behind us. Just in time too, for several of the pony guards had walked around the corner at that instant. We could see them looking around the alleyway for several minutes before shrugging and returning to their posts. When they turned the corner Silver waited another couple of seconds for them to get further away before turning his attention to the vent we were in.

“So which way do we have to go?” I asked, looking down the various paths that branched off the one were currently sitting in. The metal vents were so tight we could barely fit. I was crouched down with my knees almost up to my chin. Silver was crammed into a really terrible position with his back hooves almost on a level with his face.

“Up,” he said, then nodded in that direction. I looked up the vent and blanched. We would have to climb quite a ways. Of course if Applejack owned the company then she would probably have an office on the top floor. Silver Hammer was trying to cram himself into the shaft that went to the up.

“Maybe if we can create enough friction with the sides we could climb.” This time I did roll my eyes. Concentrating I channeled my magic into both of our bodies. A sense of wrongness made the world seem to spin, then suddenly we both fell against the walls of the vent. Silver landed in a tangled heap, while I landed neatly on my hooves.

“For someone who is as magically powerful as you are, you sure do love doing things the hard way. I would have thought that now that you could do magic easily again you would be taking every chance to whip out some new spell.”

“Ooof, what is this? Some kind of stick to walls spell?”

“No. It is simply a more focused gravity reversal spell. The simpler version would just have us falling up rather than down, which seeing how far we have to go wouldn’t really be helpful. So I just adjusted the spell so now we fall towards the wall. Now we just have to crawl along the vent.”

Silver Hammer gave me a weird look over his shoulder as he struggled to right himself, then began to crawl forward. “Oh is it as simple as all that. Well excuse me for not thinking to tamper with one of the fundamental forces of the universe. You could have at least given me some warning.”

I ignored him and continued crawling. Despite being a much better method of getting to the top of the tower then climbing and hoping not to slide all the way down the vent, the going still wasn’t easy. Because of the wall I had chosen to focus my magic on it made the vent very short. The tip of my horn kept catching on various parts of the vent, and it was even worse for Silver. There was only so short he could make himself. While moving my head to avoid catching my horn was annoying, the experience was much more painful for Silver. Even when he didn’t catch his horn, he would also scrape his back on what was now the ceiling.

After a while of climbing we came to an off shoot that lead away from the vent we were currently in. With the gravity switched the new branch was above our heads.

“This is the one we need. See we put a little scratch here just in case. Let me get settled in there before you change the gravity back.”

“Alright. Once you are ready hold on to me with your magic. Then when the gravity drops lift me into the vent.”

He nodded then after a minute of shuffling around he ended up several feet above my head braced inside the new vent. After he was ready I felt his magic wrap around my body. I double checked that he had me, then concentrated on undoing the magic I had cast earlier. If I had cast a stick to walls spell like Silver Hammer thought I had then the magic would have drained from me constantly, but to undo it all I had to was cut the flow of power. Changing our personal gravity was a different type of spell entirely. I completely changed the way we felt gravity, so to undo it I had to cast the spell again and change gravity back to its proper direction. It was for this reason that I hadn’t changed direction again once I realized how short the vent was. Every time I recast the spell it would drain more of my energy, and I don’t know how much magic I will have to use here.

With gravity suddenly returning to its proper direction I felt a moment of vertigo before I could tell which way I wanted to be going. It was clear that Silver felt the same thing I had, because I momentarily slipped from the grasp of his magic. However he grabbed me again before I had moved more than an inch. Quickly we resettled inside the new vent. Silver Hammer was still in the lead, but now could actually crawl through the vent without scraping all the fur off his back.

As we continued through the vent we passed one of the grates that allows air to flow into the building. Silver passed the grate without more than glance, but I had to stop to look into the office below me. Down there was a young unicorn stallion with quills as his cutie mark. He was restlessly pacing, all the while talking quietly to himself.

“I can’t believe she would fire all those ponies! All Applejack cares about is money! If ponies don’t have jobs then they can’t pay for their heating bills, or their rent. It is the middle of winter! They could freeze to death out there. With Nightmare Moon on the throne and war being waged on the borders, now is not the time to be solely focused on making a profit. But I can’t speak up about it. If I do I will get fired too, and I need to take of my younger brother and sister.”

Somewhere in another room somepony called for the unicorn and he quickly ran from the room. Silver Hammer had stopped when he realized that I wasn’t following him. I looked up at him with a stricken look on my face. It was so hard to hear such hard things about one of my best friends. Silver just looked at me for a second then continued on. There wasn’t really anything that could be said at that point. Either what they were saying was lies and Applejack was like I remember her, or she wasn’t but hopefully the Element would bring her back. I didn’t even want to think of any other possibilities.

Ahead of me Silver Hammer had come to a stop. He was looking down another grate. When I leaned past him I could see a secretary pony working diligently at her desk. He leaned back as best he could and whispered into my ear.

“We have to wait till she leaves, then move fast. The big door is the main office. If anyone sees us they might call security. If we get caught they will hand us over to the Royal Guards.”

I nodded, then he returned to watching the secretary. After several minutes of waiting, just when I thought my legs were going to start to cramp she got up and walked down the hall. Silver waited for another second before opening the grate and jumping down to the floor. I levitated myself out of the vent right after him. Looking around we quickly made our way into Applejack’s office.

She looked up with a scowl as we burst into her office. The scowl only deepened when she saw Silver’s face. Quickly she moved an old picture frame off her desk into a drawer. I couldn’t have been happier to see her, no matter how angry she looked.

“Last time you broke into my office I awarded your audacity with an audience. Audacity is rarely rewarded twice. What is stopping me from calling for my personal security this second?”

I was surprised by the cold tone in her voice. Silver Hammer had to nudge me forward before I remembered what I was here for.

“Applejack do you remember me?”

She walked around her desk till she was standing only feet away. Her cold eyes traveled up and down my body, as she took in every detail. Suddenly I was aware of how dirty and sweaty I was from our adventure with the ventilation shaft. Also my eyes were red rimmed and my mane was a mess from the lack of sleep and ability to maintain my basic hygiene. I was also acutely aware of how well Applejack was dressed. She was wearing an impeccable business dress and not a hair was out of place in her perfectly curled mane.

Looking at her this close made me realize what was different about her earlier. She wasn’t smiling. In Equestria Proper she was always such a happy pony with such a warming smile. She even had small smile lines around her eyes, despite her age. Here she looked like she hadn’t smiled in years. Seeing her like this broke my heart. Slowly she stepped away from me.

“No I don’t recognize you. I do however recognize your friend here. Both from the last time he was here to beg for my help and from the videos of his public punishment for rebellion.” Silver Hammer stiffened, but Applejack continued. “It must have been a powerful bit of magic to be able to regrow your horn after that. I am sure the Nightmare Queen would be fascinated to find how that happened. I think I will call for security after all.”

“But AJ, I-”

“Don’t speak to me like you know me! Nopony calls me AJ without my permission!”

“Please…you have to listen to me.”

The sudden desperation in my voice stopped her in her tracks. She had been moving around her desk to call for security, but now she stopped and looked at me.

“Why? Why do I have to listen to you?”

“Because…” suddenly a plan jumped into place in my mind. Since she was not the Applejack that I knew then I would have to convince the Applejack that was here, in the only means she understood. “Because we would like to make a business deal with you.”

Silver Hammer gave me a look as AJ slowly returned to her seat. She didn’t call security, now she was all business. “What could you possibly have to offer me?”

“We understand now that you can’t risk backing us directly in case we were to fail again, but perhaps you could provide financial backing indirectly, through the purchase of certain products.”

Silver Hammer gave me another questioning look before wiping all emotion from his face. He would have to pick up what I was doing on the fly. Applejack just raised an eyebrow at me. I took that as a sign to continue. Working quickly I pull the Element of Honesty out of Silver’s saddle bags.

“I believe that you have somewhat cornered the market on the mage lights that warm and light our cities, so allow me to offer you another market for you to corner.” I quickly brandish the Element. “This simple necklace when worn by a pony makes them feel as if they were out on a warm summer day. Not only that but it also has a built in light to bring back that feeling of the days of Princess Celestia!” I felt bad for lying to get Applejack on my side, but there was no other choice. I felt even worse because I was practically chocking on the irony of lying to get the bearer of the Element of Honesty to accept her Element. What’s next beating up Fluttershy to make her take the Element of Kindness?

“I have a hard time believe such an item exists. Or that you rebels were capable of creating it. If you had that kind of magical talent at your disposal then you would have used it against Nightmare Moon.”

“Not every ponies special talent involves casting fireballs,” Silver chimed in. I was relieved that he had caught on to what I was trying to do, I just hoped that he wouldn’t spoil it. “Some of our strongest mages had abilities completely unrelated to fighting, so we left them out of the first wave of attacks. But they still wanted to be able to help the effort so they set about designing these!”

“Interesting.” I could tell Applejack was more than interested. She was very interested. An item such as this would be worth its weight in diamonds in this world. There was a rabid hunger in her eyes as she imagined the possibilities. “I don’t quite like the design to much though.”

“Well the apples are only to make country ponies feel better, the crystal can be made with any design.” On a sudden inspiration I hold up my hoof with the Omnicanicron on it. “See I have one designed to blend in with my coat when I want it to.”

At this point Applejack was up on her hooves again. She quickly walked around the table to stand next to me. She grabbed a hold of the Omnicanicron and turned it this way and that.

“Why isn’t it lit up?”

“Well of course it wouldn’t be very good to have it constantly lit up, even when inside! I shut the light off once we got indoors.”

“Let me see it light up, and we will talk.”

I glanced for a second at Silver Hammer. I hadn’t gotten a chance to finish reading the guide that came with the Omnicanicron. We had left it in Ponyville and the train there had been too difficult to read on. In Ponyville itself we had done too much running around, then had left as soon as we had the Element. But it had to light up. Celestia had packed so much magic into it. Everything we had was riding on this lighting up.

Gingerly, as if it might explode at any minute I lifted my hoof again and focused on the OC. I didn’t know if there was anything specific I had to do to make it do what I wanted. While I focused on it I couldn’t help but think of Celestia. How caring she was, and how much she had taught me during my life. Thinking about her made me think of her beautiful days, with the warm sun and cool breeze.

Suddenly, as much to my surprise as anyone else the OC came to life and narrow beam of light shone out of it. I was completely shocked and it was clear the Silver Hammer was as well. Applejack didn’t notice however, because she was more focused on the light itself. She delicately placed a hoof into the beam of light. I could tell even from where I was standing that it was actually as warm the sunny day I had claimed it was.

With relief I lowered my hoof and the light faded away. Applejack spent another couple of minutes looking at her hoof. Silver was the first to break the silence.

“Would you like to try on one of your own?” He said offering her the Element. Delicately she took the Element in her hooves and the placed it around her neck. Immediately she collapsed and the lights in the room flickered and dimmed.

While the Element pulsed with a bright light I could see that Applejack’s eyes were flicking back and forth as if she was watching a film play at high speed. Her whole body was surrounded by an orange glow. Suddenly her cutie mark changed in a brilliant flash of light. Where it had been several bits before now it was once again three apples. Slowly the glow of the Element faded as did the aura that had surrounded her. Cautiously I walked up to her. Despite the change in her cutie mark I still wasn’t sure that it had actually worked.

“Uh, Applejack?”

She turned slowly, “Twilight what happened? What…”

I quickly hugged her. If she was going through anything like what I had gone through then she needed a hug. As she returned my hug I could feel her tears rolling down as she quietly sobbed into my shoulder.

“It will be alright Applejack. We are together again. It will be alright.”

Author's Note

I had hoped to be able to post a new chapter every two weeks. Clearly that has not been the case. That kind of tight schedule is just not possible with school and everything else I have to deal with. I will try my best to post as often as possible, but I will make no promises.

Chapter 7

A cold wind blew across the land surrounding the farm. Even if it wasn’t winter, without the sun to warm the land every day was freezing. The seasons were now an almost completely arbitrary way to mark the passage of time. Away from the cities there was very little difference between summer and winter just as there was no difference between day and night. For many farmers and other ponies who worked the land this created the massive problem of having to grow food at night, without the aid of the seasons. So, many ponies fled the countryside to find work in cities and factories. Those without useable talents would often be forced to join the Midnight Guard, Nightmare Moon’s personal army. More and more recruits were needed to fight the war versus Discord’s monsters and creations.

Fortunately a rock farm isn’t dependent on the weather. Rocks can be harvested during any season, day or night. The cold and piled snow made things more difficult, but not impossible. Plus rocks were things ponies constantly needed, to build houses, bridges, and just about anything else. This rock farm in particular was doing rather well as far as rock farms go. The white unicorn who helped run the rock farm had come up with the brilliant idea to use common rocks for the mage lights of the cities rather than gems or crystals. Gems and crystals were expensive to buy and difficult to find, but minerals such as onyx, quarts and obsidian worked almost as well when enchanted and could be found anywhere. Now the family received a payment every month for this discovery as well as a shipment of these new cheaper lights.

These lights weren’t as bright as the ones made from gems and weren’t as warm either, but with enough of them they could serve the same purpose. Another problem with these lights is that they would eventually lose their power and then the light and heat would fade. The white unicorn couldn’t figure out why this was, the gems and stones had very similar structures, but she didn’t have a great understanding of the more complicated magics necessary to create the lights.

That unicorn in question stood in front of the door to the small farm house. She looked out at the fields of rocks that surrounded the house. Her purple mane was a little messy, but she always tried to keep it neat. The girls were already asleep, and she would be going to bed shortly herself, but first she wanted to spend a moment in contemplation. Ever since she had wandered onto this farm all those years ago it had become a central part of who she was.

“Rarity? Are you coming in?” The motherly voice called from inside.

Rarity quickly opened the door and went inside. A moment of quiet thought always does the body good, but staying outside when the mage lights would be shutting off shortly was just foolish. Inside was the owner of the motherly voice, whose appearance matched her voice almost perfectly. She was a light grey earth pony with three rocks as her cutie mark, not all that different from Rarity’s own cutie mark, of just one larger rock. Her mane is a darker grey which she always wore in a tight bun. Her pale blue eyes shone from behind a small pair glasses which she wore on the very tip of her nose. She also had on her black and white collar. The only thing that clashed with this image of motherliness was the long and jagged scar across her cheek.

“I’m going to go check on Inkie and Blinkie,” Rarity said. The older mare nodded and without another word stood up and followed Rarity out of the room. Years of living on the frontier had left the two with some strange habits. The two sisters slept in the same room, just as they had done as fillies. Inkie’s coat was a shade darker than her mother’s but they shared a mane color. Blinkie was bluish grey and her mane was a dark grey. They were sleeping in the same bed, there wasn’t much room for extra beds in the small house. Both of the mare’s had the same sad look on their faces as they looked at the sisters. Each were thinking of another young filly who had once shared this room. Though neither of them were thinking of the same pony.

Rarity was thinking of her younger sister, Sweetie Belle. After their parents died Rarity took care of her sister. So when she went off into the world to find a place where she could put her talent with rocks to work she had dragged Sweetie Belle along with her. So Sweetie had grown up on the rock farm. Until one day she was gone. Rarity had been beside herself with grief. She had searched all over without finding anything. It had also been devastating to Inkie and Blinkie. Their mother had been more scared than anything else. She had refused to leave the house for days, instead watching the others work through a crack in the drawn blinds. Eventually she got better and life tried to continue on like it had before. However Rarity could never forgive herself for taking Sweetie Belle out here when she was so young.

The two mares walked back down stairs, both deep in thought. Rarity kept thinking about her life on the farm. Farm was life was always hard. Long hours of work and sometimes not enough food. When the sun fell things became even grimmer here. Until Rarity discovered how to use simple stones to create mage lights everyone on the farm was hungry. Even once she made her discovery things were still hard. Rarity didn’t have any contacts and couldn’t leave the farm to find any. Everyone on the farm was surprised when a pony from Manehattan, a representative of some rich company there, showed up asking about the stone lights. He offered to pay a sum of money every month, as well as a delivery of the lights for the idea. Rarity accepted the offer immediately. For the first time in a long time things were going well on the small rock farm.

In fact things were going much better on this rock farm then on any neighboring farms. Other farmers had the usual problems, plus problems caused by the war between Nightmare Moon and Discord. Some times their farms would be attacked by terrifying creatures or even Midnight Guards. However none of those problems ever seemed to trouble the farm, for which Rarity was endlessly grateful.

As she got down stairs she saw that there were some dirty dishes in the sink. Without a second thought she moved and started washing them with her magic. It was always important for her for things to be in their proper place. When that was done she returned to the living room to say her goodnights.

“I am heading to bed, we have a lot of work tomorrow,” She said as she entered the room. “Goodnight Mrs. Pie!”

“Goodnight Rarity,” Mrs. Pie replied without turning from the window. Every night for years she would maintain a silent vigil by window, watching the night pass by. Now with the Eternal Night, she hardly ever left that spot, always watching. Watching for something, or somepony who would probably never return.

* * *

Applejack’s penthouse apartment was very plush, I observed as I walked quietly around her living room. Applejack was in her bedroom asleep. It had taken several minutes of crying for AJ to be able to gather herself enough to tell her receptionist to cancel her appointments and say that she was going home to rest. She had been mostly silent on the carriage ride to her apartment. I think she was on the edge of breaking down the entire time. Only the knowledge that she had an image to maintain stopped her from collapsing in the carriage or on the elevator up.

Once we were to her suite however she broke down immediately. She barely made it two steps into the room before she collapsed to the floor. Silver Hammer and I helped her to one of her couches. Then Silver went into the kitchen to get her a glass of water while I held her while she cried into my shoulder. When my memories of how the world was supposed to be had returned to me I had been forced to mourn my losses by myself. When I had realized what my mission was going to entail I swore that none of my friends would be forced to face their memories by themselves. I would be there to hold them and to help them.

Of all of my friends I think that I knew Applejack the best. She had practically adopted me into her family when I had first come to Ponyville. And ever since then I have always known that I could depend on her, just as she knew that she could depend on me. It had taken a long time but in Equestria Proper she had told me about the loss of her parents when she was a filly and how hard that had been on her. So of all my friends I knew how she would need to mourn.

Once she had cried herself out in my arms she got up and went to her room. She was asleep within seconds. I had gone into check on her several times since but each time she was either asleep, or hiding her sobs long enough to pretend to be asleep. I could tell when she was faking it, but I didn’t disturb her. She needed to get the tears out.

While she slept Silver Hammer and I discussed what our next move would be. Neither of us had any way of knowing where the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony would be, much less where the actual Elements were. I wanted to return to Ponyville to regroup since that was where most of the ponies had grown up. Surely somepony there would know where they had traveled to. Silver Hammer however wanted to make tracks for Canterlot. I could tell that he was thinking of the possibilities of raising another rebellion with my magical power and the reformed Applejack’s monetary backing. Our arguments over the issue went around in circles for several hours. I kept saying that we couldn’t fight Nightmare Moon without the Elements and he kept saying that we couldn’t find the Elements as long as Nightmare Moon was in power. I was willing to admit that without having to fight the Queen of the Night it would be easier to find the Elements, but there would be no way to defeat her without them.

Our argument was cut short when the door to Applejack’s room opened. I immediately teleported to her side. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying and her previously perfectly curled mane was a little tangled but she didn’t seem to care. She still looked exhausted but the smile had returned to her eyes. Though she wasn’t happy this minute, it would be possible for her to be happy later. With the smile’s return to her eyes so to had returned her fire that I knew so well. It was this fire that drove her to try to buck the entire Sweet Apple Acres by herself, or to vow not to return home till she had raised the money to fix something she hadn’t even broken.

“I think I have a solution to our problem.” The mix of her southern twang with her Manehattan accent was a little jarring but it just showed that the Applejack I knew was coming back.

“Uh, Our problem?” Silver Hammer asked with a raised eyebrow. We hadn’t really shared the details of our mission with her yet. She had needed time to mourn for the things she lost.

“Yes, I could hear the two of you arguing.” Silver Hammer and I exchanged guilty looks, but we let her continue. “We can’t go to Canterlot yet. Twilight is right. Without the Elements we won’t be able to defeat Nightmare.” Before I could smile smugly at Silver, AJ continued, “There is also no reason to go to Ponyville.”

This surprised me. I thought the first thing she would want to do is to go home and try to set things to right with her brother. My thoughts must have shone clearly on my face because she continued talking.

“Things with Big Macintosh are too far gone right now. And I am still to closely related to the pony who owned a large company in Manehattan and too far away from the pony who lived her entire life on her family farm. I can still feel myself thinking like that mare. If I go back now I will only make things worse. Maybe unfixably worse.” I knew that feeling of confusion that she was suffering from. I had still been thinking like the Twilight who had never had friends for a while after I got my memories back. Turning to Silver she continued, “Besides if you set your contacts in search of the rest of us then that will take time. We can’t risk just waiting for the information to fall into place. At least not in Ponyville, where our position will always be untenable.” Her Manehattan side showed clearly now. Applejack in Equestria Proper was more of an act first then plan pony, though not quite to the same degree as Rainbow Dash. “Instead I think I should use the resources at my disposal here to track down any pony else I can.”

Silver Hammer was nodding, more to himself then to us, but at least he agreed. I certainly thought AJ’s plan was better than anything we were able to come up with. Plus I think a bit of down time would be good for all of us. Silver Hammer seemed to be able to sleep no matter what the situation, but I hadn’t been able to sleep since I found the Element of Magic, and I hadn’t slept all that well before I had found it. It also looked a lot like Applejack hadn’t been getting enough sleep either.

“Ok, AJ. I agree with you. Now what do you want us to do?” I noticed that she still flinched a little when I called her AJ, but she didn’t get mad at me again.

“Stay hidden. When you went missing from the factory the Midnight Guard put out warrants for your arrest.”

“Wait, both of us?” Silver asked.

“No just you. You are a known rebel who disappeared shortly after a factory that constructs an important war time material, namely the Mage Lights, was attacked from within by a powerful unicorn mage.”

I looked sheepishly at Silver. It was my fault that Nightmare Moon once again thought he was a threat. In Equestria Proper I hadn’t lost control in years. But in the early years of my tutelage with Celestia it had happened several times. Each time somepony had gotten hurt. Celestia had always pushed me to have greater control over my magic. So I was always embarrassed whenever I lost control. It felt to me like I had ignored all those years of lessons I had received from the Sun Princess. Of course he was once again a threat, but I was sure that he would have much preferred to remain forgotten.

“Unfortunately Twilight isn’t safe either. The reports from the attack at the factory were garbled. Some reports said that it was only damaged by Discord, some said it was attacked by a white unicorn and his purple accomplice, others say it was just the purple unicorn. This means that if you two are seen together by any Midnight Guard you will be arrested.”

“They can feel free to try!” Silver channeled his magic and his hammer burst into existence. Applejack glanced at it as it spun idly in the air over his head.

“Yes and that wouldn’t completely confirm their suspicions and fears at all. As long as you don’t want to have the entire force of guards in Manehattan against you, you will keep your heads down. I’ll head back to my office and see what I can stir up. There is food in the kitchen.”

Without another word she walked out the front door and was gone. Silver Hammer looked at the door for a couple seconds before he turned back to me.

“Are you sure it is a good idea for her to be back in the world in her state?” he asked me.

“Yes. She needs to work her emotions away. Whenever she has been upset in the past she has to be free to work until she feels better. One time when she accidently messed up her family reunion she spent several hours getting the family to build a new barn. She needs something to do with her hooves.”

He nodded then wandered into the kitchen. “Makes sense to me. I feel the same sometimes. I’m starving, I wonder what she has to eat.”

I shook my head at how fast Silver Hammer could change tracks. When I thought about it for a moment I realized that I was hungry as well. I had only had a little bit of food in my house back in Canterlot and we had finished most of it earlier. So I walked into the kitchen to join Silver.

* * *

I thought it would take several weeks for Applejack to be able find anything of use. Then I thought it would be only rumors that we would have to spend another couple of weeks deciphering and tracking down. Then as days went by both me and Silver Hammer would be slowly driving each other insane. Silver Hammer seems to the type who would rapidly go stir crazy when cooped up for an extended period. Then I would go crazy trying to get him to follow the plan and stay indoors. Then it would push him further off as he became annoyed with me for restraining him. Instead it took AJ barely two days to find useable information.

The pony we found was Rarity. According to Applejack Rarity was actually under the indirect employ of Apple industries. She had come up with a way to make the mage lights much cheaper, where any unicorn with the power could create the lights. Apparently she had been brought to Applejack’s attention by this discovery. So AJ sent a representative to the farm where she was living. The next part of the story she told with an unreadable poker face, and the entire time she refused to make eye contact with either of us. Her representative paid Rarity off so that she thought that other people were making use of the cheaper and easier method of keeping houses warm and lit. Instead of sharing this secret with Equestria AJ used the cheaper lights to send to the griffin kingdoms where they didn’t have the magic to replicate it, and instead continued to sell the more expensive lights that she had a monopoly on. Neither of us commented on this, we could tell that she was already tearing herself up about it.

It had taken a couple of days to track down where she was and plan the fastest route to get there as well as take care of some other extemporaneous details. Applejack told us that some of the details she was taking care of was who would watch over her company while she was off searching. She had chosen from her lieutenants one whom she had previously had several arguments with so he was very surprised that he had been chosen. But the arguments had been about how to treat ponies. It was clear that she was trying to make amends for some of the things she had done in the past by leaving her company under the command of somepony who would make sure that the ponies under her employ would be taken care of.

For our route she had chosen to take us to sea. By sailing down the coast from Manehattan to Baltimare we would be able to avoid much of the conflict in the center of Equestria. From Baltimare we would get a ride on one of AJ’s airships. Airships were largely for those with too much money and too little sense. With the advent of the cross country rails deliveries and travel were safer and faster to go by ground. However the war between Nightmare Moon and Discord changed all that. Discord rarely bothered attacking a solo blimp and the airships didn’t have set routes that could be destroyed like the rails. The airships also had other benefits unique to Applejack’s smuggling business. While trains were often searched for contraband and could be ambushed and have shipments stolen nopony bothered to search airships and ambushes were impractical bordering impossible. The airships were practically invisible at night and were hard to target even during the middle of the day.

All of these benefits had been considered when AJ made the decision to take us from Baltimare by air. Plus the fact that the farm Rarity was living at was far out off the beaten path. It would take much longer to reach her by rail or coach.

While we were discussing this plan I wanted to divert to Ponyville so we could drop of the Element of Honesty and do a little more searching for the Element of Generosity, Rarity’s Element. It was Silver Hammer who shot this idea down though.

“We still have no idea where the Element is and no real way of narrowing it down any. We could be searching for years and it might not be anywhere near Ponyville anymore. It would be far better to gather the Element Bearers together then search all together. And maybe by then either my contacts or Applejack’s will have turned up some new information.” He said with a nod to AJ. Then he continued, “And if you are worried about something happening to the Element of Honesty then think about this: to get it any would be thief would have to go through all three of us. So then if they were able to get it, nothing would matter anymore, as the only three ponies who know anything about it or our mission are dead.”

I blanched at that but he didn’t seem too worried about it. Seeing my fear on my face he quickly elaborated, “It is very unlikely that they would get through all three of us. They would have to fight Applejack who spent several years on the streets by all accounts and even longer in the griffin kingdoms, places where you either fight for what you want or go without. Plus her personal guards who have a vested interest in keeping her alive. Then there is you. Bearer of the Element of Magic, with extremely strong magical power and able to summon almost unbreakable magical shields. And of course me.” He half turned to show his flank and the magical hammer on his side.

What he said was true. I was still a little worried and panicked, my mind creating the worst possible scenario that could come against us. But I had to trust my friends. If I didn’t there would be no point in doing any of this.

Applejack had planned for everything on this trip. On the day we were to leave Manehattan she had a large crate delivered to her door step. Silver had at first refused to hide in the box till we got to the port, but he understood that it was too risky to just walk down. We also couldn’t take one AJ’s carriages because she was pretending to be on sick leave. Until we were on one of her ships none of us could risk being seen. So shortly after the crate arrived we found ourselves huddled inside it. I closed the lid of the crate and used my magic to hammer the nails home.

Silver Hammer was tense and refused to even look at either of us. Applejack however seemed to be completely relaxed. When she saw me looking at her she said, “This isn’t the first time I have had to travel this way.” Then she put a hoof to her mouth. Her ears were perked up. After listening for a second I could hear the sound of the lift coming up the building. Dimly we heard the lift door open and several ponies exit. Suddenly the crate was lifted into the air. Silver looked like he wanted to break his way free at that moment, but he stayed still and silent.

I could somewhat tell where we were by the sounds that came through the walls of the crate and by the sway and movement of it. The elevator going down wasn’t too bad, though it did seem to take a lot longer than I remember but that was probably just because I couldn’t watch the numbers fall. In the foyer Applejack sat up and pressed her ear to the wall of the crate. I couldn’t tell what she was listening for but whatever it was she seemed to find it because she shortly sat back with a satisfied look on her face.

The rest of the trip down to the docks past in excruciating silence. Silver looked like he was going to be sick with every sway of the box. Applejack still looked relaxed, and if anything in her element. I didn’t know Manehattan well enough to be able to determine where we were while we moved. It would have been less uncomfortable for me if I could tell how much longer I would have to endure the tight, airless, swaying box. However I couldn’t ask AJ because there was always the sound of other ponies talking and working around us. After what seemed like forever the box was finally set down and the noises of the other ponies moved away. Silver almost collapsed he relaxed so completely.

“Applejack, I-,” I stopped talking when she held up a hoof. She seemed to be listening for something again. Suddenly the crate was lifted into the air where it started swinging wildly around. I glanced at Silver Hammer then thinking quickly summoned a modified version of my classic bubble shield around his face. Which he immediately vomited into. Rather than just holding the vomit in the shield I had modified it so that it would teleport everything, including the sounds, away. No doubt somepony outside the crate was wondering why a poorly digested upper class breakfast was suddenly falling from the sky. But that was better than having to sit in this closed, tight box with the puke, or the sound giving us away. I kept the bubble on him as the box continued to swing and sway. It made him look a little like he had gotten his head caught in an upside-down, purple fish bowl. The picture would have been almost funny if the shield didn’t have to teleport away another round of vomit almost immediately.

With a crash the crate landed on another solid surface. I turned to Applejack but she was glaring at a corner of the crate with a disgusted look on her face. Saddened I turned away from her. I thought I had done a pretty good job preventing a mess, I don’t know why she was suddenly so mad.

Outside the crate the noise of the working ponies again receded. I thought we had been left alone again when somepony outside tapped a distinct pattern on the side of the crate. For the first time since we found her I saw Applejack really smile. Her face lit up as she tapped out a different distinctive pattern. Immediately the top of the crate was ripped off, and I barely got a chance to glimpse a full beard before somepony hauled AJ out of the crate with a roar.

I jumped out channeling my magic, I was prepared to fight with everything I had. There was no way somepony was going to take Applejack away from me again. However it wasn’t some member of the Midnight Guard doing a surprise inspection or even a wild animal like I first thought. Instead I was greeted by the largest stallion I had ever seen, who was in the midst of hugging AJ. Silver Hammer briefly raised his head to make sure that I didn’t need help before returning to the crate.

“What are you doing traveling by crate again little Appleseed?” The big pony roared at her. “I thought those days were long past for you! And is this your friend that we are going out of our way to help? Well any friend of Appleseed is a friend of mine.” He grabbed me in a back breaking hug. I don’t know how Applejack survived her hug. “I thought you said that you were bringing two friends. Where is the second? Does he like the crate so much that he never wants to leave it? No! He is sea sick! And look he has a bowl on his head. That is no way to get your sea legs. If you think that was rough I can’t wait to see you on the open seas. Waves as tall as the top mast and each one makes you think that it is time to be taken down below to the seaponies. You land folk might not believe in the seaponies but I have seen them with my own two eyes! You can trust old Sebastian! I have lived my whole life on the seas! In fact I was born in a terrible storm where the wind was blowing fit to lift the entire ship up and have us sailing in the sky.”

The gigantic earth pony continued to talk, never letting either Applejack or me get a word in edgewise. Silver slowly crawled his way out of the crate muttering something about never even wanting to see a box again. AJ let Sebastian jabber on for several minutes talking about everything from fighting the kraken as a colt to the political situation in the griffin kingdoms. After she had let him talk for several minutes she reached out and grabbed his ears with her hooves then slammed her head into his. I was worried for a second that she had given herself permanent brain damage against his hard head. However she barely noticed and he immediately shook it off.

“Sebastian!” she yelled at him while he was still recovering. “Let me introduce my two friends. This is Twilight Sparkle who has been my longtime friend even though neither of us knew that until recently. And Mr. Motion Sick is Silver Hammer, former member of Celestia’s royal guard and current traveling companion to Miss Sparkle. Together we are hoping to be able to set some of the worst things about this world to rights. Now if you please, we would like to leave as soon as possible.”

Sebastian greeted each of us enthusiastically, giving us another spine crushing hug and a thump on the back that knocked the wind out of me. Everything to the giant seafarer seemed to be a joke. When I dissipated the shield around Silver’s head so he could go and puke over the rail he laughed uproariously. He seemed to be a very good natured pony but I was afraid that the constant noise he was making would attract attention.

Applejack seemed to notice my discomfort because she was quick to assuage me, as her large companion walked away. “You don’t have to worry about Sebastian. He is always loud. It would draw more attention if he was quiet. Especially from his crew. But he is utterly trustworthy, and has for years acted as my moral compass.” She looked sadly out at the surrounding port before continuing. “He never had any problem with the smuggling. Smuggling didn’t really hurt ponies. But he did have some problems with the some of the other things. He won’t mention it, but he knows I am different now. Hopefully I will get a chance to prove how different.”

I put a hoof on her shoulders as she stared down at her own hooves. “You will. And you have already started. Things will get better. You only have to give them time.”

She nodded, then whispered as Sebastian approached, “I would have left him in charge of Apple Industries while we were gone if I didn’t know he would hate every second of it.”

“Every things all ready to set sail. Once we knew you would be voyaging with us we made sure to have everything else ready.” He called jovially as he walked up to us. “If we want to catch the tide we need to leave now.”

“Then make it so, Sebastian.”

He smiled then began calling to the ponies around the ship. Slowly the ship began to make its way out of the port. Silver Hammer who had recovered somewhat from his ordeal in the crate joined me and Applejack on the forward rail.

“If you are going to stay sea sick you should probably stay in aft of the ship. The worst of the rocking is up here,” AJ said to him.

“I wasn’t sea sick. I don’t like being put in a box. I refuse do that again!” He seemed to be really upset about it, so we didn’t push the issue. Instead I turned to Applejack.

“I am sorry I couldn’t come with a better solution to Silver getting sick. It was the best I could come up with in that short of time.”

She looked down at the water below us. Already the ship was moving pretty fast, and we were barely out of the Manehattan harbor. Above us the sails were filling with air under the masterful captainship of Sebastian. Or at least I assumed it was masterful. I didn’t exactly have a lot of experience with boats in general or seafaring ships in particular, for all I knew we could be sinking slowly. After a moment Applejack turned back to me.

“I wasn’t upset about what you did. I was upset about what I thought about what you did. As soon as you summoned that shield I thought of the different ways I could make money off of you if I wanted to. And I did want to. It’s like every time I get close to being myself again, there is some new part of that old Applejack that over powers me and I have to deal with. Even just normal conversations are a challenge for me. Sometimes I almost think things would be better if I could just go back to the way things were.”

I was silent for a moment. I knew enough about Applejack, both the one from here and the one from Equestria Proper to know that she wasn’t a defeatist, so if she didn’t want to deal with the change, it must be really hard for her. At first I couldn’t understand why she was having such a hard time of it. After a moment of thought I realized why our reactions to our new memories were so different. For one thing they actually weren’t. I still lapsed into the depression of Nightmare Equestria Twilight on occasions, and every morning when I woke up I went through a moment of confusion over who I was. That Twilight wasn’t actually all that different from the real me. Apart from the depression we would have shared many similarities before I discovered the Magic of Friendship. That was the crux of the matter. I was very close to other Twilight. That however wasn’t the case with Applejack, the way her southern accent came and went was proof enough of that.

I asked AJ if we could go somewhere below to talk privately. She hesitated for a moment then nodded and went to ask Sebastian about a private location. He generously donated his own cabin for the purpose. Once we were inside Applejack wouldn’t look at me. Instead she stared at a corner of the cabin, like it was personally responsible for all her problems.

“Small cabin huh? I wonder how somepony as big as Sebastian fits in here.”

“Oh just get on with it Twilight.”

“WH-what? Get on with what?”

“You brought me down here so you can lecture me on what I should have done through all these years.”

“I am not going to lecture you! I don’t want to judge you.”

“But I want you too!” She cried at me, tears flowing down from her emerald eyes. “You don’t know what I did! We can pretend that it wasn’t me that I wouldn’t do those things, but I know what the truth is. You can always lie to others Twilight. But you can’t lie to yourself. I dealt with same emotions, the same desires before. In Equestria Proper I chose differently, and that’s the only reason why the pony you know exists. I hurt ponies Twilight. I hurt ponies bad. You have no idea the things I did.”

She sat sobbing for a couple seconds. The first time I tried to put a comforting hoof around her shoulders she shrugged me off. When I tried a second time she let me stay.

“You’re right Applejack. I don’t know what you’ve done. I don’t know who you were. But I know who you are. You are caring and honest, and you don’t deserve to have to deal with all these problems by yourself. So let me in. Tell me what happened. Tell me everything. Then let me tell you how in Equestria Proper you made different choices. AJ, we’re not alone anymore.”

I held her for several seconds while she continued to cry, then she dried her eyes and started to talk. The voyage wasn’t a long one by any means, but the weather stayed fair with a favorable wind, so we were able to stay in that cabin for the entire trip. Together Applejack and I were able to talk for several hours. Many tears were shed and hugs were shared during that time.
Applejack slowly opened up to me about how life had been for her in Nightmare Equestria. First she told me about running away from home as a filly and moving in with her aunt and uncle. More tears flowed when she told me about getting kicked out by them and forced to live on the streets. She had tried to pretend to herself that she stayed in Manehattan because she wanted to, the truth was that she stayed because she was ashamed to go home. When she left the farm she had said that she would become a fancy pony, but had failed at that. We both decided that her uncle kicking her out happened only short while after the Sonic Rainboom should have happened. Next she told me about fighting her way to the top of a small criminal empire, then growing it to the massive continent spanning entity it was now.

AJ had started out helping the other street urchins with conning the richer ponies out of their money. Then after she had enough money, buying her first passage on a ship, captained by none other than Sebastian. When she had traveled some she realized exactly how much money she would be able to make by smuggling products between Equestria and the Griffin Kingdoms. One she realized that she quickly proposed a deal with Sebastian. They would split the profits of smuggling various illicit products.
Eventually after making a lot of money with just one captain and one ship, she started adding more and more captains and ships. Including her master of shipping. Her empire grew far quicker than any could have predicted. The laws against alcoholic beverages were extremely tight in Equestria, but that didn’t reduce the demand for them any. She also created separate branches to magically manufacture products to ship to the griffins. Even the mundane things, like couches and tables, that didn’t have to be snuck past customs could be created for much cheaper than the griffins could make it themselves. And the magical items sold like the griffin’s lives depended on them. Which in some cases was true. The transfer and smuggling of products was helped by the fact that every griffin wanted the products and none of them could get them legally. Every customs official or border guard could be bribed by some shiny magical bauble. Even if all it did was light up or play music and would run out of power after only a couple of days it was still worth it.

This is one of the things that I could tell Applejack felt the worst about. In EP she was such an honest pony, hence her being the Element of Honesty, for her to lie and deceive ponies, not just when she has to but on an almost daily basis just so she can make a few more bits. There was nothing I could say to assuage her guilt. There was nothing that anypony could say. So when she needed me to I just held her and let her cry onto my shoulder.

After several hours of talking and crying by turn Applejack was just about cried and talked out. The only thing she hadn’t talked about at all was her family. I didn’t want to push her, since if what Big Mac said was even half true then there would be a lot to talk about when she was ready. AJ however was never a pony to wallow in her sadness for long. Once she was done talking with me she was out on deck working alongside the crew. When she again had something to do with her hooves her mood improved immensely.

I too went out on deck to enjoy the sea air. In Equestria Proper my family had occasionally taken trips to the sea and the smell of the sea always made me feel better. Contrary to what I thought Silver Hammer was actually out enjoying the fresh air as well. I was under the impression that he would spend the entire trip curled up in one of the cabins or hanging off of one of the rails after what happened in the crate. Maybe it actually was being in a box that bothered him. I didn’t get a chance to ask him though.

Before too long we saw the distant port of Baltimare. Sebastian told us that if we wanted to get off here we would have to go back in the box. Silver flat refused to do it. He said that he would rather stay on the ship, or swim to shore from here then experience another trip by box. After arguing pointlessly with him for several minutes I eventually decided to cast an “unnoticed” spell.

The more technical points of spell work even most unicorns couldn’t grasp fully. I could without too much difficulty make him invisible, or even he could do it himself, though either way it would not last too long. But if there were any magical detectors then he would be found very quickly. Instead with the unnoticed spell, even if he did set off alarms, nobody would be aware of it till after. It worked on the basic grounds as the “want it need it” spell, except in the opposite way. With the want it need it spell when you see it you have to have it. With this spell you don’t want to be aware of it, so you have to be unaware of it. It works by tricking the mind, only under extreme duress would a pony admit that something had been there.

With the amount of power it would take to cast the spell and with the necessarily short spell length there would be no way to cast it on Applejack and myself. Silver Hammer would have to sprint through the dock if he wanted to get out before the spell wore off. So it was another crate trip for us. After I casted the spell we got inside the crate and waited to be off loaded.

Fortunately it didn’t take too long. I imagine our short wait was mostly due Sebastian making sure that our crate was the first thing off the ship and away from the shipping yard. Silver met us in an abandoned corner of the lot to help us out of the crate. Once we were out we quickly resecured the box lid so that no snooping guards would raise any alarms. Then we set off as quickly as we could.

Once we away from the shipping yard we made our way more casually to the city center. Baltimare was not as big as Manehattan was, but it sprawled out considerably more. Probably due to not being on an island. When we turned up the main street we could see the distant sky port. In Manehattan it was illegal to bring the airships into the city. The buildings were too tall and the streets were too narrow to allow for flyers to enter the city. With all the Pegasi in the city, there would have been crashes and accidents every day.

Baltimare however only had a few really tall buildings. The tallest of which was the sky port. From this legendary building airships of all sizes flew all across Equestria and even beyond. The airships didn’t handle overseas travel very well, but some explorers had taken them as far as the dragon lands far to the south. That did not usually go overly well for said explorers. Airships were the only real way to ship large quantities of products to any of the Pegasus cities, such as Cloudsdale or Los Pegasus. Applejack said that was the primary reason she had a fleet of airships, even Pegasi liked to drink.

Suddenly I gasped. One of the airships was the grandest I had ever seen. Even the yachts in Canterlot could barely compare to this ship. On the side I could clearly see the bits icon of the Apple Company.

“She’s a beauty isn’t she?” Applejack asked me. “I had her built specially for me. The Helios is the flagship of my aviation fleet. Capable of maintaining life in the air for months without resupply and has a maximum occupation of over a hundred earth ponies. And can make the cross country trip from here to Los Pegasus in only a couple of days. She holds the record for fastest transcontinental flight.”

“We are going to fly in that?”

“Ha Ha, no. That would be far too obvious. I am supposed to home sick. There is no way I would loan the Helios to just anypony. The only way my baby leaves Baltimare is if I am on it. So we will be taking that.”

My disappointment at not being able to fly in the beautiful airship was almost immediately replaced with horror when I saw what we would be flying in. Applejack was pointing at a small blimp under the Helios that I had at first mistaken for its shadow. This one was miniscule compared to the flagship, and it looked in bad need of some repairs, or probably retirement. The gasbag had almost more patches on it than original material and the carriage looked like the pilot had flown through the entirety Everfree forest, on ground level. Seeing my disappointment only made Applejack laugh all the harder.

“Not quite as impressive is she? Especially when compared to the Helios. Which is exactly the point of the Sparrow.”

By now we had reached the base of the sky port. We went around a back entrance where Applejack was shown in by an orange Pegasus who barely even glanced at us. Once inside we made our way to the elevator that would take us to the launch platform. When we were inside and sure that we were alone Silver Hammer leaned over to AJ and whispered to her.

“I guess going unnoticed is a good thing for a smuggling ship.”

She smiled a cold smile. “Yes it is. It is actually the fastest of my fleet. The only reason it doesn’t hold the record is because it has never had a chance to go to Los Pegasus on official business. It can make the flight in a single day. It also helps to have a flagship that is so showy, if I ever have to bring in, or send out, a shipment that absolutely can’t be checked then I send the Helios out half way to escort the Sparrow in. Nopony even notices the Sparrow when you have a ship like the Helios around.”

The lift opened up giving us a better view of the Sparrow. My assessment from the ground had been even more accurate then I realized. The Sparrow looked like a hunk of junk. But with the knowledge Applejack just gave me I could see it with new eyes. It still looked like it could hardly get off the ground but now I could see how designed that was. Many of the parts on similar airships had been broken off, yet overall it would reduce the drag of the airship. There were also several other things that looked they could possibly have been designed for other uses.

Literally as soon as we set foot on the airship it took off and began moving away from the sky port. In fact it was in the air before the gang plank was even drawn all the way up. When I looked at Applejack she explained.

“They were waiting for us. I found it works better when I am smuggling to get permission to fly, then if possible load everything on after. A small ship like this can take hours to get off the dock, with all the larger ships around. And if I want to delay its launch all I have to do is have the Helios move an inch before it is supposed to. Something that size moves an inch, ponies are going to panic.”

I nodded then made my way into the interior of the ship. There wasn’t really much to see. Just like the outside, the inside was completely purpose driven. There wasn’t a single piece in this ship that didn’t need to be there. AJ waved us up to the cabin where we could actually see the city as went slowly by underneath us.

“Once we are free of the city and the Pegasus patrols we will turn up the speed. It should only take us a matter of hours to find Rarity.”

Again I nodded. I was so excited to see Rarity, though I was worried about how her life would be treating her. It has been difficult to see Applejack hurting the way she has been. But at least, however much it might hurt them, when all of us were together we could undo all this madness and take away all the pain. Once we found Rarity, we could find the rest of the ponies, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, then their Elements. Eventually we would be able to be friends again.

Author's Note

Here's the latest chapter! If you are artistically inclined I would love to see any fan art or anything similar.

Chapter 8

The world below us raced past. Applejack had been right. Once we were out of the city and turned up the speed the Sparrow was fast. I had only been on a few airships before and none in Nightmare Equestria, so it was hard to compare, but the Sparrow was moving at least as fast as the average Pegasus flies. Rainbow Dash or some of the Wonderbolts could have beaten it in a race, but I doubted they could stay ahead for very long. It was moving only a little slower than a train, but because we could fly straight to our destination rather than moving with the terrain, we were making much better time.

Normally I wouldn’t even be able to see the ground we were flying over but only an hour outside of Baltimare the sun had leapt into the center of the sky and remained there since. The pilots of the Sparrow were a little nervous, but AJ was able to talk them down. We were well away from population centers so it was unlikely that Discord or the Nightmare Guard would try to bother us. Despite her confidant tone to the pilots she still ordered two lightly armored pegasi out the door of the Sparrow for a scouting mission. As they flew off she turned to me.

“I don’t suppose we can get a little help from your magic here?”

“Sorry Applejack, most of my spells wouldn’t work on something this large. And the few that would might end up drawing more attention to us. Especially if Discord or Nightmare Moon are out there. Unless Silver has something?”

He shook his head. Silver Hammer had been watching out one of the small side ports since the beginning of the flight. He seemed to love being this high. “My specialty is in spell breaking, not spell making. I know a few things but nothing that could work on an airship.” Then he turned and began watching out the window again. I think he was watching just in case something did attack us.

However despite his fears and Applejack’s precautions nothing disturbed our flight. It was nice to feel the sunlight again. It would have been nice to feel it the way it had been before. The only way that was going to happen was if we found the others. Finding Rarity would be a big step forward, but it wouldn’t be the only step necessary. The next thing we had to do was to start finding the Elements. They were still extremely powerful magical objects. If they fell into the hands of one of Celestia’s enemies then it would cause all kinds of problems. Before I had too much time to contemplate this one of the scouts returned to the ship.

“The farm has been sighted, ma’am. It’s under attack by some kind of creatures. Quick Breeze is staying over the site to keep an eye on it.”

“We need to get there now!” Applejack barked. “Full speed ahead! Drop altitude! Prepare for landing.”

I thought we had been going full speed before but suddenly I was thrown to the back of the ship by the sudden acceleration as AJ continued to give orders to her ponies. The Sparrow dropped down till it was almost skimming the surface of the ground. Silver Hammer opened the back hatch of the ship and watched the land race by.

Over the next rise I saw burst of green light. Suddenly I was afraid, Spike’s flames were always green like that. If a dragon was trying to attack Rarity, we would be in trouble. Suddenly a flash of emerald fire flashed past and exploded right in front of the Sparrow. That was magic I recognized. After it was used on me I would never be able to forget it. I instantly summoned my bubble shield around the Sparrow protecting us against another jade firework.

“Silver! They’re changelings!”

He glanced back at me, then as we flew over the last hill he could see exactly what we were facing. The changeling swarm covered the fields around a small cottage. Looking for all the world like insect ponies the changelings were trying to get inside the cottage, where I could only assume Rarity was hidden.

As we sailed over the battle field Silver jumped out of the back, summoning his mage hammer as he fell. From the distant flashes of light I could tell that he was doing what he was best at. Applejack was right behind him, wearing some kind of armor that I hadn’t noticed her put on. Her Pegasus guard immediately caught her and carried her to ground level. I was almost knocked off my hooves as another explosion glanced off my shield. I raced to the control cabin.

“Get this thing out of here! Get out of range, then come back and get us when we clear this lot out!” I yelled at the two control ponies. Then I was out the back and falling through the air. The shield spell I had cast should last them long enough to make it out of range of the changeling magic.

I began channeling my magic as soon as I was out the back door. I could levitate myself to safety once I was near the ground but I would risk leaving myself exposed. Instead I decided to see how the changelings liked a taste of their own tactics. When the changeling army had attacked Canterlot one of the most devastating parts of their attack was their comet-like entrance. It caused massive damage to many structures in the capital.

I used my magic to form a cone around my head as I dived down towards the squirming swarm below me. The cone was shaped similar to the Mach cone that Rainbow makes when she approaches sonic speeds for her Rainboom. I saw a flash of light emanate from cottage. The thought of these creatures hurting Rarity when I was so close filled me with rage. Immediately I rage shifted. My mane and tail ignited into an inferno, and my body turned pure white. As flames poured from my eyes the cone around me suddenly doubled in size. And just in time for me to hit the ground.

When I hit, my magic sent up a shock wave that threw every changeling in the area back. It also carved out a deep crater. I shakily crawled my way out of the hole I was in and looked around. The battle was still raging but it didn’t look as hopeless from down here as it did from the air. I shook my head to clear it, my rage shift had already faded, then planned my next move. I could guess that the area where changelings were being tossed skyward every couple of seconds was where Silver Hammer was. I began making my way to him through the fray.

Changelings weren’t hard to beat in a fight individually, but in swarms like this it could be impossible. Especially with the changelings bursting into flame and changing shape every couple of seconds. At the battle of Canterlot we were facing almost the entire changeling army, here however there was much fewer. With heavy use of my stunning spell I was able to make my way towards Silver. As I approached another large batch of changelings were tossed aside like leaves to the wind, clearing a gap so I could get close to him.

Seeing me he roared and swung his hammer around. Acting on instinct I summoned the strongest shield I could. Even that almost wasn’t enough. The hammer’s impact sent me flying backwards like a crochet ball. Still inside my shield I bowled over several dozen changelings before I came to a stop. I was barely able to stand when I dropped the shield. Fortunately I had been knocked to the exterior of the conflict so I didn’t have to worry about any immediate attack.

“Ma’am, this way!” A voice over my head called to me. Hovering there was one of Applejack’s Pegasus guard, whose name I believe was Thunderlane. I blasted him with my anti-changeling spell but he just shrugged it off. If he had been a changeling it would have dropped him like a ten ton weight. Since it didn’t I knew I could trust him. So I followed him through the mess of changelings, clearing my way through with ample use of my stunner spell again. Eventually I was able to meet up with AJ and her guard again. I didn’t have time to check if they were changelings, but since they were fighting the creatures I could only assume.

Applejack and her guards fought as a cohesive unit. Turning as one to attack a new side of the enemy, and defending any ally who stumbled or fell. AJ seemed to be everywhere, kicking at changelings with both her front and rear legs. I couldn’t see her face because of the helmet on her armor, but I could still hear her.

“We can’t get any closer to the cottage because your stallion-friend is knocking down everything that is standing near him. But at least none of these critters can eith…”

A sudden emerald blast hit her full in the face, cutting off her words and dropping her where she stood. My exhaustion, rage, and fear all disappeared in an instant. My eyes shone white with power as I channeled every ounce of my magic.

“THIS ENDS NOW!” I roared, drawing in magic from around me. Then when I had almost reached the peak of magic that I could channel I unleashed it. There was no fancy spells or tricks here, only a raw wave of pure magic that swept out from my body. The magical wave picked up and threw every changeling in the field.

After the noise of battle the sudden silence in the wake of my spell deafened me.

“Nice job” Quick Breeze said.

“I know right?” Then the world quickly faded to black as I collapsed against the ground.

* * *

My head was pounding as I slowly opened my eyes. In front of me was pony with a white coat.

“Celestia? Is that you?”

“No dear. It’s not.” A refined voice answered me. If not Celestia, then who? I tried to make eyes focus. Eventually the unicorn in front of me became clear. Her blue eyes shone at me from under her purple mane.

“Rarity! Is it really you?”

“Well of course dear. I don’t know how so many ponies suddenly know my name, but I am not really going to complain.”

“The others recognized you? Where are they? Are they ok?”

“A few injuries, but otherwise alive and awake. Do you really think I would be standing here talking to you if they weren’t? They are outside, you were one of the worst hurt so we decided it was safe to bring you inside to care for you. And yes some of them recognized me. I dare say I recognized Miss Applejack, it’s her company that has been paying me these past long months, though she wouldn’t make eye contact with me or even talk to me much. The soldier also recognized me, though just like a soldier refused to do anything without orders. So we have pretty much been just waiting for you to wake up.”

“How long have I been unconscious? How could you tell Silver Hammer was a soldier?”

“Oh his name is Silver Hammer? He wouldn’t introduce himself.” She said as she started to lead the way down stairs and out of the small cottage. “Darling, only soldiers would jump out of an airship to start fighting the way he did. Besides he is strong, tall, and stands completely still when not otherwise occupied. Soldier. You have only been out for a couple of minutes. ”

“Oh” Was all I could say. I might need to talk to Silver about that. We couldn’t have him standing out in this way. On the other hoof Rarity always was more observant of ponies than others. We emerged from the cottage to the small group of ponies gathered in front of the door. Applejack was in the middle of getting a report from Thunderlane. I was very excited to see that she was unharmed. When she was hit I thought she might have died.

“All present and accounted for ma’am. No deaths. Three bad injuries, myself included. Flitter has a broken wing, she might not fly again. Cloud Chaser dove to catch her and broke her hoof for it. For myself I have only a sprained wing. The Sparrow was undamaged during the fight thanks to the shield provided by Miss Sparkle. We can be ready to fly again within the hour.”

Applejack nodded curtly, then noticed me standing on the porch of the cottage. “Twilight! I am glad you are ok, that was a fair bit of magic you just performed.”

Silver Hammer who had been watching Thunderlane report spun when AJ first spoke and was beside me before she had finished.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes Silver I am fine. Just a little tired. I think we need to see to our other injured before we continue though.”

He nodded and I set to work. I checked him first, since I would need his help with the others. Silver Hammer seemed to be fine. He had a few small cuts from when a lucky changeling got a little close. He saw me looking at them.

“Those are from when I realized the little buggers can transform. One disguised itself as you. Believe me, he got the worst of the exchange though.”

I smiled and nodded, but didn’t say anything. I was using the excuse of looking at his cut to examine Rarity. She still stood on the porch of the cottage watching us. Her hair was in disarray but she seemed otherwise unharmed. Applejack limped up beside me, the faceplate on her helmet raised, there was a small gash in the armor there, but it was otherwise unmarked. Under the guise of helping me with Silver’s cut she spoke to me.

“Rarity’s certainly picked up a trick or two in this world. None of the changelings could get close to the cottage. She was blasting them away with her magic, not quite as strong as you, but was like nothing I have seen before.”
I nodded. I was happy that Rarity could take care of herself here. She was very capable in Equestria Proper, but it could have not been the case here. Assured that she would be alright until we had a chance for a close talk I changed the subject to Applejack’s curious armor.

“Speaking of new tricks where did this armor come from? I have never seen anything like it.” The armor was much more impressive than the armor of Celestia’s Royal guard, or even the Crystal Empire jousting armor. Clearly there was nothing ceremonial about this armor. It covered AJ from head to hoof. The entire armor set was a series of metal plates that didn’t leave a single inch exposed. A metal mane formed a steel wave that ran down her neck. Around each hoof was a series of small spikes. With Applejack’s already impressive kick this armor could make her deadly. Even her tail was weaponized, with a large metal spike hanging off the end.

“I should hope you haven’t seen anything like it. It was designed specifically for me!” she said as I moved to tend to some of the other less hurt members of our party. “I had my scientists and unicorn mages work on this as soon as I had the money to fund the research. With my constant trips to the Griffin Kingdoms and beyond I needed a reliable way to defend myself and my crews. Now with Nightmare Moon and Discord on the loose, and apparently changelings as well I wasn’t about to take any risks on this mission. This armor is my pride and joy. It is a top of the line combination of technology and magic.”

I patched a small scratch on Quick Breeze, AJ’s scout before I spoke, “In Equestria Proper I have been trying to convince Celestia to encourage further research into combining modern technologies with ancient magics. Who knows what benefits could be discovered? But she always thought that magic alone was good enough.”

There was a moment of silence as I stared down at the ground, tears starting to well in my eyes. Then Applejack put her hoof around my shoulders.

“Don’t worry sugar cube. We’ll get ‘er back.” Hearing her sharp southern twang again brought a smile to my face. “But we need to finish patching ponies up first.”

Silver Hammer approached as I worked on Cloud Chaser’s hoof. I subtly used my magic to examine her bones and make sure they were in the proper place to heal properly. I wasn’t strong enough in healing magics to be able to force it to heal, especially since it looked like it would heal fine on its own. The same was true of Thunderlane’s sprain. Flitter was another story.

The pink bow in the blue mare’s mane was off center and rumpled. Her face was wet with sweat as she tried not to show how much pain she was in. Without immediate help she would never fly again. A fate for a Pegasus that might as well be a death sentence. Few Pegasi lasted much longer after the loss of their wings, they lost the will to live.

“Rarity! I am going to need your help with this.” The white unicorn seemed surprised that I had called her.

“Well dear I don’t know how much help I will be. I am just a simple country pony with a special talent for understanding rocks.”

“You can help by guiding my magic. Nobody else has the attention for detail that you do. Even if you don’t know what to do, you know that something is wrong, and how to make it right. You have an eye for patterns and when they are broken. I can’t heal this wing without your help.”

She gave me a bemused look but didn’t argue. Instead she walked down from the porch and stood behind the quietly panting Flitter. Cloud Chaser jumped up beside me, despite her broken leg.

“Please let me help in some way! She is my sister, you have to let me help her fly!”

“If you are her sister then you are exactly what I need. Now Rarity will be able to see the pattern she is trying replicate. Also you can lend your strength to Flitter for the healing. Silver you are going to have do the same for me.”

He nodded without a word and came to stand next to me as Chaser went and hugged her sister. With all the players in place I channeled my magic. I was so tired from my earlier channeling that I could hardly open myself to the magic, but with Silver Hammer standing beside me pouring his magic into me I found the strength. With a sudden burst of magic I made the joining. The experience was different for each pony, but I knew that I was in command. It felt just like when my friends and I used the Elements of Harmony. All of our energy and power, our thoughts and focus were all going towards the same goal.

In fact as I thought about the Elements and my friends I could feel a strong bond between myself, Rarity, and Applejack. It was as if there was a chain with iron links binding us together. This was the first time that I had attempted forming a joining like this without all of my friends present. Along with the two unbreakable bonds between the three Element Bearers present I could also feel two more bonds. They were distant and rather than feeling like new forged iron they felted rusted and degraded, but they still felt like they were once the same bond and perhaps could again be the same. Through one of these long range bonds I could feel anger and through the other a sorrow so deep I could almost drown in it. Through the joining I could also feel the minds of those around me.

It was through this bond that I felt Silver’s magic weakening. He was strong and still had a lot of power to give, but he had just fought for a long time and the joining had taken even more of his strength. Also I could feel Cloud Chaser struggle to maintain the connection. She wasn’t used to using magic in this way. If I didn’t focus on what I was supposed to be doing I could cause some permanent damage.

Rarity had already used the connection to determine exactly what was wrong in Flitter’s wing. Using her guidance and Chaser’s wing as a blue print I worked to set the wing to rights. Some of the muscles had been strained or damaged when the delicate wing bones broke. Also a vein had ripped open, if not repaired then the blood could fill the tissues surrounding it causing even more damage. As my energy level dipped I borrowed more from Silver so that I could make what repairs were needed. Quickly as I dared I set the bones and helped start the healing process there.

Just as I was at the end of both mine and Silver’s strength I felt a rush of warmth run up my leg, like the heat of a summer day and suddenly I felt full of energy and refreshed. From Rarity and Applejack I felt a rush of recognition and even from the two distant connections I felt the distant memory over power all other emotions. I felt something else too. With this rush of power I felt two new entities join the connection. They were very far away, very powerful, and very dark. Their recognition was tainted with jealousy and rage so pure I had never before felt anything like it. I quickly broke the connection between us and fell gasping to the ground. It took me a minute to determine where I was and what had happened.

After a while I realized what had changed. The sun was down. For the entire fight with changelings, the healing and for most of the flight here the sun hadn’t moved an inch. Now it had set and the moon had rocketed into the center of the sky. I felt a chill run down my spine that had nothing and everything to do with the sudden night. Around me I could hear other ponies laughing and talking.

I ignited a light on the tip of my horn so that I could see clearly. It was surprising to feel that I felt completely refreshed. More so than I have since waking up to this nightmare. Flitter and Cloud Chaser were hugging, both excited about the healing. Rarity sat on the ground staring at her hooves. I glanced at Applejack and noticed that she had a very similar look on her face.

“I think we should retire indoors.” I said. I was still trying to wrap my head around what had happened.

“Yes of course darling,” Rarity said. She immediately led the way to the cottage. “Make sure to wipe your hooves before you enter, we can’t have you tracking mud all through the house!”

We quickly made our way to the cottage. Applejack posted two of her uninjured guards outside the door then sent the rest back aboard the Sparrow. At night the smuggling ship was almost completely invisible once aloft, but very exposed on the ground. They would patrol the area from the air to make sure we didn’t have any unpleasant surprises. As we filed into the house Rarity used her magic to lift up a trap door in the kitchen.

“I’ll be right back. I just want to bring up the others.”

“What others?” Silver asked, suddenly on guard. Apparently whatever had filled me with energy had also energized him as well.

“The rest of the family. I wanted to keep them down here until I was sure it was safe. I don’t think you will hurt them. Actually I know you won’t. I can’t tell how I know, I just know.”

She paused at the top of the stairs going down with a thoughtful expression, then descended. After a moment she returned with several other ponies in tow. The first ones up the steps after Rarity were two young mares. They were younger than all of us, but they weren’t fillies by any means. Each was a different shade of gray with a different rock related cutie mark. Both of them seemed strangely familiar to me, and this feeling only grew when I saw their mother. She timidly looked up from the hole in the floor and looked ready to bolt back below at the first sign of danger. Her glasses were balanced on the tip of her nose and her bun was slightly in disarray. Rarity noticed this too and helped her to fix it. One thing that threw me off was the long scar on the mare’s face. I wondered if I knew her from Equestria Proper, where she might not have had a scar.

“We barely had a moment’s notice to get the girls into the cellar before they were upon us. Even when they were hidden those monsters still seemed to know where they were. Celestia only knows what those horrid creatures wanted with them.”

“They wanted their love.” I said to her. Their mother gasped and held them close. “Changelings feed on the love of others. Usually they move slowly, removing someone from a family, transforming into them, the feeding on the love others might have for that pony. They must be starving to attack in a swarm like they did.”

“Well thank goodness we arrived when we did.” Applejack interrupted. “As Rarity guessed my name is Applejack of Apple Industries. My company is paying you for the invention of your new cheaper mage lights. When we heard that there was changeling swarm heading your way we made sure to ride out to make sure you and your family was ok.”

Even though she said it with the steady smile of sure business pony I could tell that she hated the taste of the lie. Her smile never reached her eyes and she couldn’t help but glance sideways at me. Rarity noticed the lie as well but didn’t say anything. Instead she put on a false smile and addressed the family.

“Let’s make some introductions shall we? This Silver Hammer, and Twilight Sparkle who are working with Ms. Applejack. And these are Inkie, Blinkie and Sue Pie.” She said indicating each of the ponies in order. When she mentioned the last name the realization crashed down on me. These ponies looked just like…

“Wait, Pie as in-” I stopped what I was going to say after Rarity gave a small shake of her head, her eyes wide. I didn’t want to cause problems so I shut my mouth with a snap. Silver quickly jumped into the conversation to cover for me.

“So Ms. Pie, have you worked on the farm your whole life?” he asked.

“It’s Mrs. Pie. And yes I have. My husband Clyde and I have been working and living on rock farms since before we could walk.” I saw Inkie roll her eyes at her sister when Sue corrected Silver. There was something strange about this family and there was only one way to get answers. Besides I was willing to bet Rarity needed some answers as well. While Mrs. Pie was talking I signaled to AJ with my eyes.

“I am sorry to interrupt, but we have some business to discuss with Rarity. If you’ll excuse us.”

“Oh of course how silly of me. Please go ahead. I think that I will put the girls to bed.”

The two young mares moaned as their mother escorted them up the stairs. Rarity nodded towards the porch, then again we followed her through the door. Once outside Applejack nodded to her two guards who standing on the porch.

“Take a walk,” she said curtly. The two pegasi immediately left the porch to do a walking patrol.

“Will you tell me about what you are really doing here?” Rarity asked as soon as they were out of ear shot. Since she refused to beat around the bush I wouldn’t either.

“You tell us about what you know about a pony named Pinkie Pie first.”

“Pinkamena Pie vanished several years ago. Right after Mr. Pie died. Sue tries to pretend that everything is ok, like Clyde will be back someday. But he died in the same incident that gave her the scar on her face. Neither of the girls remember it so they must have been pretty young. Sue doesn’t like to talk about it, I think it is still too traumatic for her. Pinkamena hasn’t been seen since before I arrived here. For all I know she is dead. Now I have told you what you wanted to know now it is time for you to answer some of my questions. How do you know so much about me? And how do you know about Pinkamena? What is the real reason you are here?”

Applejack looked pained from Rarity’s news. I kept my face still as a stone. I knew what I had felt during the joining, but I wasn’t about to raise any hopes, at least not yet. Silver looked to me. Rarity was right he was very obviously a soldier. I took a moment to gather my thoughts before I answered.

“Rarity we are your friends. Before you say anything think about the healing we just performed. You felt the link between you, me and Applejack. There is a connection between us because in another world we are friends. Somehow our past was changed and that destroyed the world we had helped to create. In that world Princess Celestia was my teacher, and using the magic of friendship and the Elements of Harmony we were able to defeat the monster Nightmare Moon.” I had lied to get Applejack on my side, and I hated it. If I had any choice I wasn’t going to do that again. From here AJ picked up the narrative.

“The real reason we are here is because you are a bearer of the one of the Elements. The Element of Generosity. Just like I am the bearer of the Element of Honesty and Twilight is the bearer of the Element of Magic. If we can get all of our friends together then we might be able to set things to rights. Or at least bring Celestia back so that she can help us.”

“You the Element of Honesty? You lied just a second ago. And if your behavior earlier was any indication then that is not the first lie that has come my way from you.”

I could see that Rarity’s remark cut Applejack deeply. She knew she had lied and regretted that more than just about anything. Now to have it thrown in her face by one of her closest friends. I quickly took up the story again.

“This world has changed us Rarity. It has changed you, me, and I am sure it has changed the others we haven’t found yet. But what is important is not the pony we were in this world but the pony that we want to change to be. We are your friends Rarity. And together we can make that change happen.”

Rarity was silent, deep in thought. Then, “Why do you two remember? Why can’t I remember anything?”

“You can’t remember because in this world, this nightmare’s shadow of how the world should be, the memories we had together never happened. Celestia blessed the Elements with powerful magic that has allowed us to get those memories back. I don’t understand the spell myself but I know its effects first hand. Once we find your Element you will have your memories back.”

She looked aside into the window of the house, where Sue Pie was sitting in a chair. “What about these memories? What will become of these?”

“They will stay exactly where they are.” AJ replied. Her voice sounded bitter. Then she reached back to a pouch on her armor and pulled out the Element of Honesty. She had taken to carrying it around with her everywhere. I think she was afraid of losing the memories again if she lost the Element. “This is my Element. Yours will look something like it.”

As the Element caught the light from the house we heard a gasp from above our heads. Applejack flicked the necklace around her neck then dropped the faceplate on her armor. Silver Hammer reared and summoned his mage hammer. Rarity put her flank against the door to the cottage her horn glowing. Despite their concerns, I had a pretty good idea of what was up there. Using my magic I summoned a pair of my shields around two small eavesdroppers and lifted them down to ground level. In the two spheres, just as I expected were the two young mares. Inkie pouted in one while Blinkie looked on the verge of bursting into tears.

“It’s her fault!” Blinkie wailed. “I told her not to come out here and listen.”

“They never would have known about us if you hadn’t given us away!” Inkie replied.

“Careful they might be changelings in disguise.” Silver whispered. He still hadn’t dispersed his hammer.

“Regardless whether they are changelings or not, I bet they have information we will find valuable.” Rarity watched silently as I lifted Applejack’s Element from her neck. It floated in my magic a few feet away from the bubbles the two ponies were trapped in. “You have seen something like this before. Haven’t you?”

The two girls looked at each other, then Inkie nodded. “We have. We know where you can find it too.”

Then Blinkie said, “But you aren’t going to be happy when you find out.”

* * *

The Sparrow floated silent and invisible in the night air. Silver Hammer, Rarity and I had spent most of the last couple of days working together to weave as many spells as we could into the airship. None of the spells we knew would have worked the previous day because they took so much time and energy to prepare. But the ship was practically humming with magic. It was now completely undetectable even with advanced spells. And now it was even faster than it had been before. If Applejack decided to take up smuggling again we had certainly done her a favor.

Right now a smuggler’s skills were exactly what we needed. After we had gotten the two Pies indoors, a scolding from their mother, and assuring Silver that they weren’t changelings we were able to find out exactly what Blinkie said we wouldn’t be happy about. She was right. We weren’t happy.

The location of the next Element was none other than the nest of the changelings we just defeated. According to Rarity the swarm we fought wasn’t the first swarm they had seen, though they didn’t often try anything against the farm itself.

“When they first arrived they would have blotted out the sun,” Inkie said. “But as it was they came at night. Rarity fought them off, but they didn’t seem too interested in us anyways. One of them however was able to break into the house while Rarity was distracted. It looked like she had been hurt pretty badly. She had a necklace like that on.” She pointed at the Element of Honesty. “She was bigger than the others by far. She even had a small crown on. I felt weak and sick for days after she was gone.”

I grew cold when I heard this story. When Inkie described the changeling I looked at Applejack, whose eyes were wide. “That could only be Chrysalis the queen of the changelings. When she was at the height of her power even Celestia couldn’t defeat her. She must have broken in to feed.”

“But how was she injured? And how did she get a hold of one of the Elements?” AJ asked me.

After a moment of thought I answered. “When Silver and I explored the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters, all the Elements were gone. Not only that but it looked like there had a vicious battle there. The only marks I could recognize were from Nightmare Moon and Discord. It’s possible that the changelings entered the fray as well. Though I have never known Discord or Chrysalis to go hoof to claw except as a last resort. The most likely answer is that with as much magic flying around as there would be there that Chrysalis was injured but was able to smuggle an Element out. And if she has one then we need to get it from her!”

This started another large argument. Silver didn’t want to risk going into the nest. I could tell he was still thinking about trying to start another revolution against the Dark Queen. But I knew we couldn’t come this close to one of the Elements without at least trying to get it. There was no way of knowing what would happen to it if we didn’t. Applejack was in favor too so eventually we were able to talk Silver around.

Even once we decided that we were going to try there was another argument over how we were going to try. Silver wanted to try a full frontal assault. He felt that with our combined power we would be able to blast our way through the clearly starving changelings. AJ wanted to return to Manehattan to gather more of her ponies for a fight. Silver almost agreed with this plan, but he wanted to go Canterlot to pick up more former guards who fought beside him in previous coup attempts, instead of what he called “a bunch of smugglers and pirates.” Rarity, who had stayed silent during the previous argument, spoke up in favor of sneaking in. Sue Pie stated that she thought the best thing to do was to just live and let live, and go on with life as it is. While my friends argued the various pros and cons of the different possibilities I simply sat and watched. All I needed was time to think and I would be able to come to a solution.

“I’ve got it!” I shouted. I knew it. All I needed was time, now I had a way to solve our problem that would work the best. “First off we can’t leave without the Element. The changelings are starving. If they can’t find enough love to support the hive then they will move on. If they move while we are away we might never find them. Or they might move to somewhere where we have no way of reaching them. Second, none of your plans will work by themselves. But it is possible that they could work together.”

On the last word I slammed my hoof onto the table we sitting around. Several ponies jumped at the sudden sound. I was a little surprised by the determination in my voice. It reminded me a little of Celestia.

“For this to work we are going need everyponies help. Are you in?”

I put my hoof in the center of the circle. Silver put his on top almost immediately. Applejack was right after him. Rarity thought for a moment then put hers on as well.

“Very well. This is what we are going to need…”

It was after this lengthy conversation, plus about a week’s worth of prep, that we found ourselves floating over the changeling nest. Quick Breeze had been able to find the location of the nest without giving himself away. From here we could see the dull green glow of the nest. Occasionally a brighter burst of green would betray the presence of a changeling on the surface, but otherwise they were undetectable from this height.

“Is everypony ready?” I asked. I was nervous about this mission. Usually I had more direction from Celestia, or at least a book to read to find out more about what I was supposed to do. This would be one of the first times where I was leading and planning something this big almost completely alone. The other ponies on board the Sparrow nodded. I wouldn’t let them know how afraid I was. Instead I nodded to Thunderlane. His wing still in a sling so he wouldn’t be taking too much of an active role in the coming operation, but he had still insisted on coming.

I was not about to leave any pony behind but he didn’t need to know that. It was too much of a risk to leave any of the Pegasi at the rock farm, just in case we needed to leave the region quickly.

When he received my nod he opened the back hatch of the Sparrow. Applejack immediately jumped out the back. The rest of her uninjured Pegasi guards were out the door right after her. Most of the Pegasi flew off into the distance. The key to this plan was multisided attack. Each team would have a certain objective if we were going to get out of here alive. I jumped out of the airship shortly after.

AJ had equipped her battle armor with glider wings. They were similar to those on flying squirrels. They would allow her to reach the ground quickly and silently without dying from the fall. It was her job to clear the landing site for me.

Once I was near the ground I summoned my magic and levitated myself. While I was levitating I couldn’t do any other magic so I was very exposed. But Applejack had done her job. There were no changelings around, except for several unconscious ones piled nearby. Once I had landed and looked around for any other changelings I looked up into the sky. I couldn’t see the Sparrow and even with my magic I couldn’t sense it, so there was no way of knowing how things were going for the others. I would just have to trust that the others were doing what they were supposed to.

Quickly I adjusted the changeling costume I was wearing then began to move out. Rarity had made the costume I was wearing, as well as Quick Breeze’s and the one Applejack was wearing over her armor. I had forgotten that Rarity wasn’t a seamstress in this world, the costumes looked hideous and would never stand up to scrutiny. But as long as no pony looked too closely they wouldn’t be able to tell.

Quick Breeze took to the air as soon as I started moving. He didn’t fly like a changeling, but he was a grey Pegasus in a black costume on a dark, cloudy night so he was hard to see even when we knew he was there. Actually the weather was almost perfect for what we had planned. If it were heavy rain, then it would have ruined the costumes as well as several other parts of the plan and fog would have made it impossible to see where we were supposed to land. Lightening would have made it too dangerous to fly and the Sparrow would stand out against the stars of a cloudless sky. I just hoped that our good luck would continue.

Applejack was right behind me as we made our way through the changeling nest. I had specifically asked her to join me here. I could have made it through the nest easier by myself using my magic, but it was comforting to me to have her beside me.

The nest was extremely difficult to navigate. It was built similar to an ant hill, with tunnels leading underground and meandering all over. We knew it was risky heading underground but there was no help for it. The Element would be with Chrysalis and she would be underground.

Quick Breeze scouted ahead while AJ covered the rear. I used my magic to quickly remove any changelings that were a threat, but that was very few. Most that we passed were weak and starving. I tried not to think it about it too much, but I quickly realized why this was. The changelings fed off of love. In Nightmare Equestria, there was a lot less of that flowing around.

Suddenly we were found ourselves in the Queen’s Chamber. We could only tell what it was because it was much larger than any of the other chambers. Sweat broke out along my back at first then I realized that Chrysalis wasn’t in the chamber. The only changelings in the room were workers and guards. This only scared me more.

“Are we too late?” I whispered to AJ. I was terrified that Chrysalis had left and abandoned her hive. However the mare beside me shook her head and pointed towards the raised throne. There on one side was the small crown that Chrysalis always wore. On the other… was the Element! All three of us moved into the room. Breeze moved to a wall and began digging, just like the other changelings. Following his lead Applejack and I began digging as well. From the wall I looked around the room and tried to gage the situation. There were several guards around the throne and some were already looking at us.

“We need a distraction.” I whispered to AJ. She nodded then pressed a small button on the chest of her armor. She paused for a moment then whispered back. “We are too far underground. Can you give it a boost?”

I nodded back to her then after looking around channeled my magic into the small communicator. It flashed then was still. I looked around and saw that one of the changeling guards had seen me perform the magic and was starting to approach.

“Come on Silver…” I didn’t get a chance to finish before a distant explosion shook dirt from the ceiling. Immediately most of the guards in the room and many of the workers ran up the nearest tunnels. I whispered a quiet thank you, to Silver for acting so fast. The throne room was almost abandoned. I was about to move towards the Element when a guard stepped up to me. In the dim green light of the tunnels I couldn’t tell if he knew what I was or not. One thing for sure, he knew I wasn’t supposed to be here. I struggled for something to say to put him off until an armored hoof kicked him across the room.

The room immediately dissolved into chaos. The remaining workers and guards converged on us as AJ kicked off her costume revealing her full armor and Quick Breeze took to the air. With a quick blast I knocked most of the changelings off their hooves to buy Applejack and Breeze some time. Once she was free of her disguise she went to work while I went for the Element. When I was close enough I grabbed it with my magic and shoved in under my costume into my saddle bag.

“I’ve got it!” I yelled to the other two. As soon as Quick Breeze heard that he kicked the changeling nearest him then darted to a tunnel mouth. AJ and I were right behind him. As we ran through the tunnels we encountered more and more changelings. Most of them were just heading to the surface and happened to find us. We were able to deal with them pretty quickly but there were more and more every minute. Finally we came to a tunnel that was completely blocked with changelings. The path we had raced up quickly filled with more of the insect like creatures.

“We’re trapped!” Breeze said. I could tell by the set of his wings that we were close to the surface. Pegasi are always closely linked to the skies, especially when they have flying or weather related cutie marks. He wanted to be free of the tunnels so he could soar. I looked around. Even trying to blast our way through wouldn’t serve much. We would either attract more changelings to our position or collapse the tunnels on top of us. Unless. If the surface really was as close as Quick Breeze felt…

“Quick Breeze! Grab Applejack!” I yelled. He quickly grabbed her and lifted her into the air. I channeled my magic, drawing from some hidden sun-filled reserve, then unleashed it. The spell was similar to the weather cyclone that Rainbow Dash used to clear the snow during my first Winter Wrap Up. I had invented this spell in case the citizens of Ponyville ever let me use magic to help them. Focused and concentrated in this tight corridor it became a powerful drill.

Using this drill I punched through the rock and dirt above my head. I was carried upward by my magic and behind me I could hear Quick Breeze and AJ. With a fountain of dirt and rubble I burst forth on the surface. The other two were right behind. I used a flick of my horn to send the dirt I had dug up back into the hole I had created. Distantly I could see a massive firework show. Silver and blue magic flared against an emerald wave. It seemed Rarity’s and Silver Hammer’s distraction was in full swing. Quickly as we could we began making our way in the opposite direction. AJ used her communicator to signal that we were above ground and making our way to the pickup point.

With a roar the light show behind us suddenly doubled in size. The emerald flashes going against it dropped back as the changelings fled the sudden display of power. To my right I saw a green burst then a flurry of movement as the changeling fell to the ground. I had to hand Nightmare Applejack one thing. She knew how to train ponies under her command. The Pegasi were doing a great job of keeping the skies clear so we could escape. As soon as we set hoof at the pickup location the Sparrow dropped out of the sky with rear hatch open. AJ, Quick Breeze and I were on the airship before it had finished landing.

Before I finished turning all the way around Rarity and Silver came running out of the dark. Silver’s fur was smoking, but Rarity seemed unscathed. They both ran on board and the Sparrow immediately took off. I cast a quick glance at the distant magic display.

“How long will the illusion last?” As soon as I asked the distant lights vanished.

“That long. I told you had never done anything like that before!” Rarity shouted as the airship began to swing around.

“Never mind, it did its job. Now let’s get out of here!” Applejack shouted. She hit the button on her chest and the Sparrow was immediately joined by several armored Pegasi, all covered in black. Applejack counted them while I quickly scanned them with my magic. She gave me a nod, and when she received mine in return she shouted to the control cabin. “We’re good! Let’s Go!”

And we were gone.

* * *

Rarity sat crying softly on the floor. Inkie and Blinkie sat with her and Applejack was hugging her. Once we were away from the nest we saw that the Element we had rescued was the Element of Generosity, Rarity’s Element. We had waited till we were safe back at the cabin before letting her touch it, even though the anxiety was nearly killing her. Once we were inside me and AJ explained things to her.

“Rarity this is your Element. You represent Generosity. It was that generosity that made you risk your life for ponies you barely knew. If you put this on you will remember all the times we had together, and the world that used to be. It can be more of a curse then a blessing as the both of us can attest, but if you want to do it, here it is.”

After a moment of hesitation she took it from us and put it on. Before the light had faded, she clearly recognized us and AJ and I were hugging her. Shortly I let her go. Applejack could comfort the white unicorn, I had to focus on something else. When she had put on the Element I had felt the iron chains in my mind strengthen, becoming an unbreakable bond between the three of us. More than that I felt the two other bonds strengthen. Suddenly the chains that stretched into the distance seemed stronger and nearer. Through these bonds I could feel happiness and more recognition even if the ponies in question didn’t understand why they were happy or what they recognized. I knew that one day those two could join the two here crying on the floor and we could be friends together.

I smiled at the thought. But my smile was stiff and forced. For there was the fifth connection. The last bond. I have five friends. Five ponies I met on the Summer Sun Celebration three years ago. Five ponies who I have shared many adventures, trials, hardships, laughs, and tears. There are four strong, iron clad bonds in my mind. The fifth… the fifth was like a line of spider’s silk, lying on my mind only because it had yet to be brushed away. I had felt this last bond during the healing but had refused to mention it. It didn’t respond when the others had, I felt no emotion from it. No recognition, no happiness, no sadness, no rage. Nothing.

My emotional side tried to hope, but in the core of my being, in basest most logic based part of me, I wept.

Chapter 9

On the edge of Ponyville was a small cottage. It had never been in good shape even at the best of times, it had been almost completely overgrown even before the sun fell. Now with long reign of the moon, it was difficult to tell there even was a cottage there. Which was exactly how the occupants liked it. Hidden behind a massive dead vine was a single small door, which led to nowhere. The roof had long since collapsed, sealing the cottage closed. In the days of the sun the citizens of Ponyville were always threatening to have it demolished, but never quite got around to it. After the fateful moon rise they just couldn’t be bothered anymore. It was too far out of the way and far too close to the Everfree forest for ponies to risk trying to steal anything from it, most never even approached. That was another fact that the ponies who lived there appreciated.

While the outside seemed abandoned the cottage actually teemed with life, one just had to know where to look. Ignoring the front door and instead circling around the cottage would reveal an equally unimpressive back. However one bush would be out of place. This bush has many branches broken, as if it were roughly brushed past many a time. If a pony were to repeat that action and if they looked carefully they might find a small door leading down.

Down a short flight of stairs almost a dozen fillies and colts played rowdily around the room. Originally it had been a cellar for the cottage above it, but it had been haphazardly expanded so much that it was now larger then cottage itself. Around the walls were poorly constructed bunk beds for the children to sleep on.

Three young fillies played in one corner of the room. They were a white unicorn, an orange Pegasus and a yellow earth pony. While most of the other fillies and colts in the room had cutie marks, none of these three did, and that was one of the things that brought them together. Currently they were playing a spirited game of tag. The Pegasus jumped from bed to bed across the top bunks, her small wings struggling to keep her aloft in between, while the yellow filly jumped across the bottom bunks chasing her. Their unicorn friend followed behind, her magic sputtering as she tried to steady the bunks as her friends dashed across them.

“You’ll never catch me Applebloom!” The Pegasus yelled as she balanced precariously on one of the bunks. Her natural acrobatic abilities were more than a match for Applebloom’s speed.

“I will too Scootaloo! Just wait!” Applebloom yelled her southern accent showing. Then to her unicorn friend. “Come on Sweetie Belle! We’ve almost got her.”

“Applebloom wait! You’ll tip the…” Sweetie Belle wasn’t able to finish what she was going to say as the bed that Applebloom had landed on fell. As it fell it hit the bunk that Scootaloo was on and knocked it over as well. With a resounding crash the two bunk beds collapsed into a pile of sticks and mattresses. The noise brought all other activity in the room to a complete stand still. All the rest of the fillies and colts stood and stared as the three fillies pulled themselves out of the wreckage.

“Applebloom! I told you, you would tip it over!” Sweetie Belle whined, her voice squeaking.

“Well you should have told her sooner!” Scootaloo said, as she flittered her wings, throwing off the dust from the crash.

“It isn’t her fault!” Applebloom yelled at Scootaloo. Quickly all three were arguing and fighting. The other young ponies ignored the ruckus, returning to whatever they had been doing. Their wrestling ground to a halt as a door slammed at the top of the stairs. Immediately they, and the rest of the fillies and colts in the room stopped what they were doing and moved to the base of the stairs. Slowly the sound of heavy steps descended the stairs. Eventually a fully grown Pegasus appeared around the corner of the stair well. She had a pink mane and tail, with a yellow coat. One of her wings was horrifically mangled, almost beyond recognition as a wing. Across her shoulders was a loaded saddle bag. This she tossed to one of the oldest colts. He opened one of the pockets, it was stuffed with food. He carried it over to the corner of the room where there was a small stock of food.

“Fluttershy, there isn’t very much here.”

“I know,” the yellow Pegasus replied. “Mr. Cake raised the prices again. The costs of bread are rising. He has to ship it from Canterlot, and with the war raging there food production has been… inconsistent.”

She scowled as she spoke and the scowl stretched the scar that ran across the right side of her face. The scar ran from just to the right of her eye all the way to her chin. When it stretched it distorted the rest of her face giving her a fearsome visage.

“Even with our special deal with the Cakes for lower prices they are still barely able to afford to give us this much. We are going to have to gather even more product next time we are in the city.”

Fluttershy liked to imagine and pretend that she and her cohort of young ponies had some legitimate business that had product that needed to be gathered. However most of the “product” consisted of pocket watches and handkerchiefs, with a smattering of purses and wallets stolen from the rich business ponies of the big cities around Equestria. When she was a young filly, scared and alone, she had tried to find someone who would take care of her, but the brutal slash across her face and the damage to her left wing scared many ponies too much. Wounds such as that were extremely uncommon in the day lit Equestria.

So cold and starving, she turned to the one thing she could do to make money, stealing on the streets. Her wings could never be used for flying, but they could still be useful. With her good wing she could casually brush past a pony on the street and snag some expensive item from their pockets or saddle bags.

Eventually her caring nature led her to adopt some of the foundlings of Ponyville under her wing. That was start of her criminal gang. And soon it grew massive. She had fillies and colts in quite a few major cities, even Manehattan and Canterlot. And they all fed the wealth they relinquished to her. Before the sun fell it was hard to find fences that would buy the stolen goods so she mostly traded to make sure that young ponies she took care of had clothes and enough to eat. But once Nightmare Moon took over the Cakes suddenly became the perfect fences. They couldn’t afford to let most of Ponyville eat for free every single day, so they had to look for alternative forms of income wherever they could. One of those incomes was from selling Fluttershy’s stolen goods. It wasn’t at all uncommon for a pony to sell or mortgage almost everything they owned so they could eat and keep their family warm in the cold sunless cities. So when a local baker comes to sell dozens of watches, and other small items, nobody gives him a second glance. By partnering with Fluttershy and her pickpockets the Cakes could continue to feed the rest of Ponyville. That was all that mattered to them, and as long as the fillies and colts under her watch were fed Fluttershy was happy too.

She quickly strode into the room making for the roaring fire place. It was freezing outside and she had walked all the way from the center of Ponyville to here at the edge of the Everfree forest. However she hadn’t made it half way to the fire when she saw the wreckage of the two bunk beds. She looked at it for a moment.

“Who did this?” Her voice was whisper quiet. The room was so silent the spiders in the corners sounded loud. Slowly Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle crept forward their heads down.

“We did,” they chorused.

“Well you appear to have broken three beds. You will not sleep until they are fixed.”

The three fillies looked at each other in confusion. Then Applebloom spoke up, “But Fluttershy, we only broke two beds.”

“Oh really?” She whispered in reply. Then without another word she turned and kicked another of the bunk beds. It immediately collapsed into a pile next to the two others. “There, now you appear to have broken three beds. You will not sleep until they are fixed.”

“Yes Fluttershy.” The three girls mumbled together. There was no point in arguing with her, so they quickly set to work. They knew that if they didn’t get the beds made quickly then not only would they not get to sleep but also three other ponies wouldn’t either.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo didn’t have the skill with building that Applebloom did, but they knew when to listen to her instructions. It didn’t take long for the rough shape of a bed to start to take place. While they worked Fluttershy sat in an old chair by the fire. The older colts were doling out dinner to the rest of the ponies. Normally Fluttershy would be eating right along with them but tonight she was waiting for something. She kept her eyes narrowed as she stared into the fire.

The door above slamming shut for a second time heralded the pony she had been waiting for. She immediately jumped to her feet and walked to the base of the stair well. Down walked a unicorn. She was younger than Fluttershy but could hardly be called a filly anymore. She had been one of the first ponies that Fluttershy had rescued and because of that she was extremely loyal to her.

“Amethyst Star! What news from Canterlot?” she asked as she embraced the unicorn with her good wing.

“Ponies are talking. It’s just whispers in the shadows right now but it’s still there.”

“Whispers? About what?”

“A weapon. Something that could be used against the Nightmare Queen. Something that could bring back the sun. Not only that but they are looking for certain ponies. Ponies who can use this weapon.”

“Do those poor fools really want to try to face Nightmare Moon again? Our troops were more than decimated last time we fought against her.”

“Well maybe if they have this weapon and can find whoever these ponies are, that are being whispered about we could fight and win. Will you back them?”

Fluttershy sighed, “Of course I will back them. I have stood behind those who support the one true ruler Equestria for every other ill-fated attempt and I will stand behind them for this one.” She looked down at her hooves for a second, her face pensive. “But we need more information before we commit.”

“What information do you need? Perhaps I know something.” Then Amethyst shivered. The howling wind could be heard even as deep underground as the cavern was. The yellow Pegasus frowned, stretching her scar. “

“This can wait till you are warmed, come sit with me by the fire.” Despite her talk of waiting, she began to question Amethyst as soon as they had sat down by the roaring fire. “Who is leading this venture? Most of the old generals are dead or captured.”

“We don’t know. Even my informants don’t know who is taking charge. And before you ask they also don’t know what the weapon is exactly. Only a few seem to know even close to what exactly is going on, and they are keeping mum about it. I have some better descriptions of the ponies but I don’t know how much that will help us.”

“Hmmm, that is interesting, but you are sure it is being talked about?” she waited for her nod then continued. “If ponies are keeping the secret this close to their chests then something is definitely happening. Something big.”

She paused for a moment as she looked around the room. Most of the fillies and colts were starting to get settled for bed. They were too young to understand talk of revolution or what it might cost them should they be discovered. Fluttershy was in a unique position when it came to these things wherein she could act as supplier, “finding” everything from weapons and armor to food and medical supplies. All without risking the movement being discovered too early. However she also shouldered most of the early responsibility and danger.

Fluttershy could send her young ponies out into the streets of the big cities to steal supplies or things to sell for supplies. And she could send the older ponies, like Amethyst, on more dangerous tasks, like into the armories of the Midnight Guard. If any pony was caught they would be punished without any risk to the greater cause. And that was why Fluttershy hesitated. She felt it was her duty to protect the young ponies, not send them out like lambs to wolves.

“We need more information if we are to act with impunity. Send out your whisperers, find out what this weapon is they are searching for. Also I need to know who these special ponies are and their descriptions, every pony walks by one of the street urchins eventually. If any pony can find them it will be us. If we can help the resistance find these ponies we must try, but more importantly if the resistance is looking for a weapon then surely others are looking for it too, and we need to find out who these other players are. And we need to find who is stirring this nest, once we find who it is we can begin speeding things along and perhaps recruiting.”

“Yes of course. I will head to Manehattan tomorrow to get the ball rolling there. Then I will return to Canterlot to find out what I can.”

“Good. Tomorrow take some of the young ones with you, we need more ears in the capital, but don’t risk too much till we know more. But for now grab a bunk and get some sleep.”

She watched him find a free bunk then turned to face the fire. Behind her Applebloom and her friends were almost finished repairing the last bunk and the rest of the fillies and colts were settling down for sleep. Fluttershy smiled at the soft murmurs as one by one they dropped off to sleep. Her smile shifted to a scowl as her thoughts turned to the news she had heard.

She hated the endless night and wanted nothing more than for the sun to return. Not for herself but the young ponies under her protection. Fluttershy knew she would never be anything but a criminal. That was all she knew, stealing and fending for herself on the streets of a big city. But the fillies and colts didn’t deserve that fate. If the sun was back then they could go to school and learn to be better ponies. Already some of the older ones had thieving cutie marks. Some had small purses or pocket watches, which at least could blend in a little but her best cat burglar had a black mask as her cutie mark. Amethyst had two black masks underneath one gold lined one, to show her skill at leading other thieves. Cutie marks that would never blend into those of the rest pony society.

The ponies who ran the resistance never realized the cost of their attacks against the queen. In their last attack she had lost many young fillies and colts either on the streets or in the front lines. She was not about to lose any more. Fluttershy wasn’t afraid for herself, she had been afraid that she might die once and only once. She had survived that with the mangled remain of her right wing and the gruesome scar across her eye. After that she had never feared for life the same way. Now all she feared was for the lives of those who looked to her for protection. And she would protect them no matter what.

* * *

The night sky flew silently by. The Sparrow wasn’t moving anywhere near as fast as it had been the previous day. There was no need for speed, because there was no place the company had to be. With Rarity and her Element collected the company was headed back to Ponyville.

The decision to return to Ponyville had been almost unanimous. Applejack didn’t want to return because she didn’t want to run into Big Mac by accident. But Silver Hammer, Rarity and I convinced her. Silver wanted to check and see if any of his contacts had been able to turn anything up. Rarity wanted to see Ponyville again. She had been raised there, and in Equestria proper had spent her entire life there. She was still having problems adjusting from the Rarity of Nightmare Equestria, and wanted to be somewhere that was familiar. I didn’t want to tell her how much her home was different, though I did tell her that her Boutique was gone.

I wanted to return to Ponyville to make sure that my Element was safe and to secure Applejack’s and Rarity’s. Once they were in the chest Celestia sent me no one else could use them against my friends and I. Besides that, I will be much more comfortable when I am back in Ponyville. Manehattan was impressive and the farm was very homey, but nothing could compare to the town I loved. Now with two of my best friends back, plus Silver Hammer, I felt safer than I had since first waking up to this nightmare.

Silver sat near one of the small portholes of the Sparrow. He seemed disappointed that he couldn’t see the ground, but it was obvious he still loved flying. Applejack’s crew moved quietly around the ship or rested in their quarters. I sat near the front of the main cabin. From here if I craned my neck just right I could watch the stars as we flew. The clop of hooves behind me announced some pony approaching.

“I always forget how much you love the stars, Sugar cube.” Applejack’s southern drawl was showing through her Manehattan accent more and more as the days progressed. If her crew noticed they hadn’t mentioned it.

“I loved the stars because there was always something new to learn. No matter how many books on astronomy I had in the library there was always a new one with something I hadn’t read. Yet for all that they were always steady. Ponies have been using the stars for navigation for centuries, maybe even before Luna and Celestia wrestled control of Equestria from Discord. Now I am looking at the stars trying to find where they are pointing us. There is just so much riding on us right now.”

“We have been in sticky situations before.”

“Not like this. Ponies have died, Applejack. I don’t know if we will ever be able to fix everything that was broken. So many ponies have been hurt. Just look at Rarity.”

Rarity had been spending her time alone in AJ’s cabin. It had been hard for her to leave the farm. Sue Pie had been really upset at the idea of her leaving. But we were able to comfort her. Applejack left two of her guards to stay behind and protect the farm. Once we were in Ponyville AJ could talk to her contacts and arrange for more guards to be moved to the rock farm. Rarity said she would prefer if we moved the Pies away from the farm, to some place that was safer. Sue refused to leave the farm, but Rarity said that she would come back and convince her that it wasn’t safe, for her or for the girls.

Now she was spending some time becoming reacquainted with her memories. Just like Applejack had needed time alone to come to grips with everything she had done and everything she had lost. Rarity hadn’t lost as much Applejack or I had, nor had she done things that went against her nature like AJ had. But she had still lost things. Her parents and Sweetie Belle were two of the worst things. Immediately below the ponies she loved was the loss of her influence.

In Equestria Proper she was a famous fashionista. People came to small town Ponyville all the time to buy her dresses. Even from Canterlot and the fashion center of the Equestria, Manehattan. She had worked closely with the fashion elite of Equestria, Sapphire Shores, and Hoity Toity, being two of the most famous people she had worked with and impressed. If she changed a style on one of her dresses, it would be all the rage in Manehattan within a week.

Now she was no pony. She had spent her life working on the Pie’s farm. Her one large accomplishment, creating the cheaper, easier mage lights had been stolen by Applejack, while she had not only not gotten any credit but also hadn’t even been able to help any pony. That was tearing AJ up pretty badly too.

“We might not be able to fix everything that was broken in the past, but we will be able to fix everything that breaks in the future. As long as we have each other there is nothing that can stop us. Once we find Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy there is nothing that can stand against us. Even without our Elements our friendship will see us through.”

I smiled at her, tears welling up in my eyes. “Thanks Applejack. You are such a good friend. If you’ll excuse me, I need to try to plan out our next move.”

“Of course Hon, look to your stars. If you need anything just let us know.” As she walked away to check on her crew, I wiped the tears from my eyes. I let her think that the tears were just from her sweet words to me. Rarity and I did have one thing that we were both upset about. The white Unicorn had confessed to me how worried she was about Pinkie Pie. She had disappeared from the family farm years ago, and Rarity hadn’t even tried to find out what had happened to her. Now it was too late and she was long gone, or dead.

I was upset over almost the exact same thing. I had felt two others of my friends when we had healed Flitter. But I couldn’t feel anything from whoever was the last of my friends. To me that could only mean one thing, and that was a possibility that was almost too awful to ponder. But I had to. The others were depending on me. This entire world was depending on me. There were other ponies who could use the Elements, or my friends and I could defeat our enemies without them. But without one of my friends, I didn’t know what I would do. Not knowing tore at me even more. The worst was that eventually I would have to explain to Rarity and Applejack that one of our friends… wasn’t … anymore.

A flashing light on the console snapped me from my reverie.

“What’s wrong? Have the changelings caught up with us?”

Behind me Silver Hammer jumped up and walked to the back of the ship where the hatch was. Applejack ran to the console before her pilot could respond. After a second of looking at the instruments she sighed.

“No Twilight. That shows that we just entered Ponyville air space. Look there!”

I followed her hoof to where she was pointing, and I could see it. I couldn’t quite make out buildings yet but I could see the ruddy red glow of the fires that kept the town alive. I smiled at seeing my home again, and at least this time I would be prepared for the damage that has been done to the town.

“Twilight, where should we set down? I don’t remember Ponyville having a skyport, and the Sparrow is going to need to be refueled and resupplied.”

“We will land at the library.”

Silver Hammer, who had joined us at the bridge and Applejack both looked surprised. Silver was the one to voice his concerns, “Land at the library? That’s right in the middle of town! Don’t you think people would notice if an airship lands in the street, regardless of the size?”

“We won’t land in front of it. We will land on top of it. AJ do you remember the balcony where I kept my telescope? Do you think the Sparrow could land there?”

Applejack thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah I reckon it could.”

“Then here is the plan. We are pretty safe in Ponyville at least. So we shouldn’t need the Sparrow to be there constantly in case we need to escape. So we off load what supplies and crew members we need from the balcony, then the Sparrow can take off and fly for Canterlot. It’s close enough that you could make it there and back without too big of a difficulty, and the skyport in Canterlot is the largest in Equestria outside of Baltimare, so there shouldn’t be too many questions asked about the Sparrow. It can refuel and resupply and perhaps even pick up some more employees of Apple Industries, if we need them. Then return and stay practically invisible in the night sky while we work here.

While we are here there are certain things we need to do. One: Silver, you need to contact your friends here and see what they have turned up. We need to find the Elements and especially any news of their bearers as soon as possible.” My throat tightened at this, but I recovered before the others could pick up on it. “Two: Rarity and AJ need to see what their home has become, it will be hard because Ponyville has changed a lot since we were last here. Three, rest. I have only been able to sleep a few hours each night, since I have found my Element again. AJ your crew is tired, and they may be able to keep going, but since we have a moment of time while we are looking for information, we need to utilize that.”

“Sounds like a brilliant plan Darling.” I turned at the sound of Rarity’s refined voice. “I just want some trace of normality right now.”

I frowned. “Be careful Rarity, this isn’t the city you grew up in. If you are looking for normality you might not find it here.”

“I know dear, I wasn’t thinking about the city itself. But I will have to see how things stand before I say more.”

I nodded, then turned to the main window. We were only a couple hundred feet above Ponyville. Even if the Sparrow wasn’t already practically invisible at night, the smoke from the fires would have hidden us from any pony on the ground. Slowly I guided the pilots to the library. Some of the land marks had changed and I didn’t want to risk getting lost. If we were forced to loop around, it could be very dangerous. Eventually the tree loomed out of the shadows.

“There!” I pointed at the balcony where I wanted them to land.

“Where? I don’t see anything.” At first the pilot’s confusion perturbed me, if we were any closer to the tree we would be scraping the branches. Then I remembered the spells Silver Hammer and I put on the tree. Quickly I cast a revealing spell on the windshield. Rarity gasped as the tree faded into view, but the pilot calmly maneuvered so the rear hatch was balanced above the balcony.

“I don’t want to risk landing, don’t know how much weight that thing can take. But with the number of unicorns we have on board we shouldn’t have a problem offloading supplies.”

“Speaking of supplies, how much should we bring?” Applejack asked.

I thought back to the starving ponies in the food line. “A lot. We shouldn’t expect to get any supplies here.”

Applejack nodded then began giving orders to her ponies. As soon as the back hatch of the Sparrow opened Silver Hammer jumped out onto the balcony. I quickly followed him down. I wanted to make sure that the spells we had placed on the tree didn’t hurt any pony. By the time the tree was safe Rarity had started to use her magic to levitate some boxes of supplies out of the Sparrow. She passed them to Silver’s magic. I took the boxes from his magic and carried them downstairs. As quickly as I was able I sorted and organized the boxes so the various food and supplies would be able to be accessed quickly and easily.

Eventually the flow of boxes from above slowed, then ceased. Shortly I was joined on the bottom floor of the library by Silver, Rarity and Applejack.

“I sent the Sparrow to Canterlot. It will restock and resupply there then wait for us over head.”

“Alright, now let’s go about our tasks. I don’t want any of you to be captured so no fighting or causing problems.” Silver was clearly in his military mindset. Giving us orders like we were fresh recruits. If only he knew exactly how many times my friends and I had saved Equestria together. Before I could correct him Rarity spoke up.

“Fighting? Why do you think we would get into fights? We are ladies not ruffians.”

“Yeah ladies who just fought a changeling swarm to a standstill.”

“Well if we did that then I am sure we will be able to take care of ourselves in the event we do need to get into a fight. So don’t worry we won’t be needing you to protect us, darling.”

Silver stood there with his mouth hanging open for several seconds. Then he shook himself, “uh… right. Well, I’ll be going. I will be back, uh, later.”

Once he was gone Applejack and Rarity laughed. I smiled too. “Don’t give him too hard of a time, he is only trying to help us.”

“Oh I know dear. I just think he needs to relax a little. Yes things are bad out there, but with our friends back together there is nothing that will be able to stop us.”

“Yeah… well let’s see the town. Just you know it is really different from what you might remember.”

“We know sugar cube. We are ready to see it.”

So we bundled up in warm coats from AJ’s supplies, something I couldn’t help but notice that Silver forgot to do, then I lead my friends out into the cold. As we walked through the streets of the city we loved all of us were silent, caught up in our own thoughts. Rarity looked all around taking in every detail of the devastated town. Applejack mostly stared at her hooves. Occasionally she would look up when she thought she recognized something, then her head would drop again when saw the condition it was in. For me at least, I just looked straight ahead. I didn’t want to ignore the town like AJ did, but I had already seen the city once, I didn’t need to take it all in again.

One by one we walked by the well-known land marks of Ponyville. The long abandoned city hall, where the mayor had worked caught Rarity’s eye. She had us walk all the way around it and she even pressed her face against the windows to try and see inside. I didn’t want to risk attracting attention, so we didn’t linger. When we passed Sugar Cube Corner Applejack kept her head down and hurried past. I was glad about that because I saw Big Macintosh in the line for the soup kitchen. Rarity saw him too, and was about to mention it when I shook my head. She nodded and kept walking. Again I was glad. I wanted AJ and Big Mac to reconcile and be happy again, but there would be tears and anger before there were smiles and here in public was not the place for that discussion. Nor was seeing her brother in line for a handout the way that she needed to see him for the first time. That conversation could wait, at least a little longer.

Finally we came to the last stop on our tour; the empty lot where Carousal Boutique had been in Equestria Proper. Rarity starred at it open mouthed for several minutes before sitting down with a thump in the snow. Applejack had picked her head up when we had entered the lot and as soon as Rarity sat down AJ was right beside her.

“I know you said it wasn’t there. I knew you said this world would be different. But I still wasn’t prepared for this. I had spent my entire life there. So many dresses had come out of those doors. The hours I had spent working with Spike,” her throat tightened, “the time I spent working when I should have been being a better sister for Sweetie Belle. Now my store is gone, and so is Spike… and so is my sister.”

Applejack quickly sat down beside her and wrapped her hoof around Rarity’s shaking shoulders. I was about to move to comfort her as well, when I felt a sharp burning in my hoof. Glancing down I saw that the Omnicanicron was glowing brightly.

“On your hooves!” I yelled summoning a shield around the three us. Applejack jumped to her hooves, while Rarity looked at where her home had been before getting to her feet. “Someone was trying to track us magically! We are invisible in this shield.”

“But who was tracking us?” Applejack answered.

“Probably him.” Rarity said pointing behind us. She sounded tired. Like she had aged several years in the past several minutes. Applejack and I spun and there wandering across the open lot was Silver Hammer. I quickly dropped the shield. He jumped as we appeared out of thin air in front of him. He barely had a moment to recover before AJ was on him.

“Now what exactly do you think you were doing mister? You nearly scared us all to death. Next time you need to find us just search instead of using your special magic to find us.”

Silver looked completely confused, “What are you even talking about?”

“I’ll explain later.” I said, cutting off Applejack. “Now what were you looking for us for?”

He still looked confused but he quickly explained that a member of the resistance had information that we might be able to use, but they wanted to meet with Twilight. Or rather Silver wanted them to meet with Twilight, since he didn’t actually know if the information would be useful. Applejack followed him quickly, then slowed to let Rarity catch up. Then AJ walked beside Rarity, trying to comfort her with her presence. I trailed behind those three.

Why would the Omnicanicron warn me of Silver Hammer? And further more why would he pretend not to know what happened? None of the answers I could come up with made any sense. My thoughts were interrupted by Silver announcing that we had arrived at our destination. I smiled, maybe we will be able to find some information that would lead to us finding the others. A gasp from Rarity then Applejack’s whispered “oh Nellie.” Brought me back to the present. I jumped through the door my horn blazing. Only for that fire to immediately disappear. In the room was none other than…

“Fluttershy!” Applejack and Rarity said at once. Rarity ran forward to try and hug Fluttershy but was thrown back by one of Fluttershy’s wings. Then a unicorn who had been standing behind Fluttershy fired a magic bolt at Rarity knocking her against the wall. Applejack turned and bucked the table that was in between us pinning the unicorn. Reacting as quickly as I could I filled the room with one of my bubble shields. The shield pressed everyone back into the corners of the room. I walked into the center of the bubble.

“Now everyone be calm!” I ordered.

“Be calm? You invite us here because we have information for you! We have found one of the ponies you were looking for and you attack us!”

“Yes be calm!” The unicorn was struggling against my shield with everything she had. Whatever her special talent was, it certainly wasn’t a match for my powerful shield. “We made a mistake.” I glared at Applejack, then Rarity, then shot a different type of glare at Silver. I would be having words with him before the end of this. “Our situation is … complicated. We will try our best to explain it after we have heard your information. Now I am going to lower my shield and we are going to sit at this table and talk like civilized ponies. Can we all do that?”

I waited for each pony’s nod before I lowered my shield. Whoever the unicorn was, she clearly respected Fluttershy, and she wouldn’t give her nod till Fluttershy had given hers. Once everyone was in agreement I slowly lowered my shield, then I used my magic to reorder the room, making sure everything was neat and tidy. Once everything was the way it should be I checked with Rarity. She wasn’t hurt, I was right the unicorn clearly had no skill or experience with combat magic, still there were tears in her eyes. Would every encounter with my friends be like this? Full of tears and pain before we even get the elements on them?

For the first time I was able to get a good look at Fluttershy as we were all sitting down. My heart sank as I looked at her. There was a massive scar across her face and another that ran across one of her wings. In fact her wing was so badly scarred it couldn’t even open all the way. What could have happened to her? Life hadn’t treated any of us very well, but it looked like she had gotten the worst of it. Even without any special connection I could feel anger radiating off of her.

None of us who knew her in Equestria Proper could speak, so it was left to Silver Hammer to ask the questions. Fluttershy introduced herself, though we knew her better than she did, and her unicorn friend, who went by the name of Amethyst Star.

“You made contact and said you had information for us. What do you know?”

“We’ve heard through the rumor vine that the resistance was looking for certain things and certain ponies. From the description we were able dig up, we think we know where one of the ponies are.”

“Well… what was the description you found? And where is this pony?” Silver was floundering. He had no skills when it came to this sort of thing, but Applejack and Rarity were still dumbfounded, and even I couldn’t gather a coherent thought.

“It took a lot of work but my friends on the streets were able to find what you were looking for.” Fluttershy’s unicorn friend quickly told us about his network of street urchins. “From what they were able to gather we found one description we recognized immediately. Pink pony, pink mane, always laughing, grew up in Ponyville. We know where she is.”

This information shook me from my thoughts. But it was Rarity who spoke first. “Pinkie! You found Pinkie? Thank Celestia. Where is she? Can you take us to her right now?”

“Of course, I had assumed you’d want to see her immediately. I already arranged a way to get to her.”

“Then we need to go at once!” Rarity declared. We of course stood up and begun to file out of the room. I knew Rarity was divided right now. She and Fluttershy were very close in Equestria Proper, they went to the spa together every week. But here in Nightmare Equestria she felt personally responsible for Pinkie’s safety. I agreed mentally that we needed to find Pinkie. We needed to make sure it was actually her, before we moved on. Now that we knew where Fluttershy was we could always find her again once we found her element, then we could return her memories.

I grabbed Applejack as she went out the door. “On the way would you try and explain things to Fluttershy? She needs to know, even if she doesn’t have her memories back yet. I have to have a little talk with Silver Hammer.”

“What should I say to her?” I could tell by her strained expression the real meaning behind her question. Should she lie to her friend, create a story she would believe and put her on our side? Or should she tell the truth. A lie would be so much easier. I knew AJ would be able to come up with something that Fluttershy would buy, but every lie she told dragged her back to that office in Manehattan, where she casually fired ponies, simply to increase her profit margin. Really there was only one option.

“The truth. She deserves it. And so do you.” She nodded, her relief showing on her face. It took a moment to compose her face, then she was out the door, all business.

“Excuse me Ms. Fluttershy. There is something that I have to discuss with you.”

I followed her out the door a second later. I put a hoof on Silver’s shoulder, slowing him down as we trailed behind the others. Rarity and the other unicorn were in the lead, setting a fast pace, then came Fluttershy and Applejack, talking quietly and earnestly, finally Silver and I.

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?!” I was struggling to keep my voice low. I didn’t want to disturb the others, but I was so angry I could hardly focus. “I gave you a description of every single one of my friends, and yet I find that one of them is one of your rebellion contacts? Do you see why I might be a little upset about that? She is the Element of Kindness! Even without her actual Element, she has been a key help on so many of our adventures in Equestria Proper! And you didn’t think to mention she was a member of the resistance? Or even give us a warning that we were about to come face to face with one of our friends, after they had been brutally attacked?”

Silver leaned close to me, his face angry and hurt. “One she is not in the resistance. She is a supplier, providing food, equipment, and information for those on the front lines. Two she is not my contact. I have never met her before in my life, I have only heard of her from other members of the resistance. Remember how I had never been to Ponyville before? Three: this is the exact description you gave of her, ‘yellow Pegasus, hates to fly but will to save her friends, extremely shy and allows others to steamroll over her. Hermit lifestyle, lives alone with only animals.’ Do any of those things look like the pony in front of us?”

I had to admit, my description really fell short. This Fluttershy was striding confidently down the street, and with her damaged wing and facial scar my physical description fell even further short. But I was still angry at Silver for not warning me that one of my closest friends was so badly scarred. I was about to continue my tirade against him, when his thoughtful expression stopped it.

“You said she was the Element of Kindness right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“And Applejack is the Element of Honesty, and Rarity is Generosity right?”

“Yeah. What are you getting at?”

“Well Rarity was very generous when we were at the Pie’s farm earlier. And Applejack made her living by lying, yet when she got her memories back she suddenly can’t stand the taste of a lie. So would it be fair to say that the ponies would either exemplify their element, or live in direct opposition to it?”

“That’s a pretty small sample size for your data, but your logic makes sense. I still don’t see what you are getting at.”

“If you had told me to look for someone who was extremely kind, like kind of enough to represent the entire Element of Kindness that Pegasus would have been the first pony I thought of. Even though I hadn’t met her I have heard of how she brings in all these young ponies off the streets and cares for them. Perhaps when we get a moment we can talk about your friends in these terms and see what pans out?”

It was a really good idea. In fact it was such a good idea I was ashamed that I hadn’t thought about it. I should have realized that every pony in this world would have been changed. Even their physical appearance may have changed. But they were still the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Just like when Discord attacked the first time, they would either live their Elements or go in the opposite direction. We didn’t have time to discuss this more, because we were approaching a building that appeared to be our destination.

“What is this place?” I asked. The old building was clearly older than any pony here, so it would have been built before the time change, but I couldn’t remember the building from the correct Ponyville.

“It’s the mental hospital. Only a few inmates left. Most of the guards have long since abandoned this place. And the doctors left even earlier.”

Now I recognized it. The hospital hadn’t weathered the years well without more ponies to take care of it. We quickly made our way into the building. I couldn’t imagine what Pinkie was doing here. Then I decided I didn’t want to try and imagine. Every time I try and imagine my friends it just ends up hurting me.

Our party walked through the hallways as quickly and quietly as possible. If ghosts were real, this would be a place that would be haunted. I glanced into one of the rooms we passed. A brown stallion sat against the corner muttering to himself. He couldn’t move because of the straight jacket he was wearing, but I could hear him.

“They changed everything. They changed everything. They broke everything. They changed everything. They broke everything.” I walked on his sad voice following me down the hall. “They broke everything. All of time. They broke all of time.”

“Here we are.”

I hurried forward. Fluttershy and her unicorn friend were stopped in front of one of the cells. I mentally fortified my mind. This was going to be another heart breaker, I could already tell. As I approached I noticed that Fluttershy had her head down, clearly deep in thought. I guess Applejack was able to tell her the truth.

In the cell was a solitary pony. I couldn’t tell anything about it, because its whole body was covered in the strait jacket, it even had a hood of some kind over its head. I immediately moved to undo the lock. But found my path to door blocked by the unicorn.

“I wouldn’t go in there if I was you. This one is completely mad. Her rap sheet could go all the way down this hallway. You have no idea how many life sentences she has.”

“Rap sheet? What were her crimes?” Rarity asked.

“Well I am surprised you don’t know. The one that got her caught was in all the news for weeks. Apparently she broke into the castle in Canterlot and murdered the captain of the royal guard.”

“SHE WHAT?” I screamed, my voice cracking at the sudden strain.

“What’s wrong Sugar cube?”

“She killed the captain of the royal guard! Shining Armor, my brother!”

* * *

Elsewhere

The changeling nest was in complete havoc. Black Scale the changeling could only cower at the rage of his queen. Queen Chrysalis had been away with a portion of the horde, trying to find a new source of love, for the horde to feed on. The local small farms had either been drained dry or proved too tough a nut to crack for the hunger of the weakened swarm. She had left her crown and the Element she had stolen, because she had to transform to blend in with the ponies around her. Then when she had returned to find that strangers had infiltrated the hive and taken the element her rage was beyond comprehension. She had used her magic to tear massive holes in the hive complex and had sent many of her children scattering. Those who hadn’t seen what she had done moved towards the throne room, those who had ran from it. One of the Queen’s advisors had been in front of Black Scale. Now all that was left was a burnt outline on the far wall.

“My queen! This ssssoldier ssssayssss he hassss information you neeeed to know.” Black Scale flinched as the other Changeling spoke. One of the queen’s elites, they accompanied her whenever she left the nest, they were some of the best fighters in the changeling horde. However Black Scale was beginning to rethink addressing the Queen and was hoping to make it back to the tunnels and lose himself among the confusion, but it was too late for that now. His Queen turned her emerald eyes on him. They were blazing with power, and her horn crackled and buzzed. While the changelings fed on love, they could power their magic with their rage just like unicorns could.

“I swear by the holes in my mane if you don’t have useful information for me I will tear you apart where you stand! Now speak!” She shouted down at him. Currently she was hovering several feet above her throne, her agitation not allowing her to sit. Black Scale knew he had mere moments to speak his piece to save his life.

“I know who attacked our nessssst.” He said quickly. Then immediately bowed down before her. He couldn’t say how he knew but he knew. Changelings don’t have long life spans, but Black Scale knew from the first moment he could form his own coherent thoughts that there had been another world. He could remember draining the love from an old couple in Canterlot. Those two ponies had cared so much for each other that he could have even faced down a powerful unicorn mage. He remembered supplying this power to black unicorn, traveling back in time, and changing it. There had never been any reason to mention it before now. He was only one more changeling in a horde that at its height had contained thousands of his brothers and sisters. Most knew each other only by the scent of their pheromones and the other changelings wouldn’t even have bothered calling him crazy, he would have just been left behind, when the swarm moved on.

Now he could keep his silence no more. He had seen the bearer of the Element of Magic, and he knew exactly how much of a threat she could be to his beloved queen.

“Speak, worm.” His queen rasped out.

“You might think that thissss one isssss mad, but pleasssse lissssten to it.” Then as quickly as he could he explained the memories he had. Slowly the queen settled onto her throne as he talked, her eyes squinting, almost shut. When he had finished explaining everything he knew, he stood silent before her, praying that she believed him.

“My queen thisss creature is a liar! Let usss take it to the sssurfasssse, and feenish it”

“No. I can see the truth in his eyes.” Chrysalis starred down at him for a moment longer. “Commander, prepare the swarm. We are leaving this place.”

“To where do we fly my Queen?”

“To a place where we can destroy this threat once and for all. And a place where we will be able to feed on all the love we could ever want.” With her eyes shining green an emerald fire raced across her body. Her grey black coat changing to a midnight black. Her limp mane took on a life of its own as turn blue and became filled with stars. Soon standing before the terrified changelings was a form that even they had learned to fear. Nightmare Moon! The changeling queen laughed in Nightmare’s voice. The changelings cowered as the laugh echoed off the walls, magnifying and sounding like it was coming from every direction. Thunder crackled as Chrysalis’s eyes flared their brilliant green one last time.

Chapter 10

Pinkamena pulled against the bonds that held her. Normally the guards would have come around by now. She couldn’t figure out what was keeping them. On the other hoof they had been coming less and less frequently these past few weeks. Maybe they had finally given up on her and left her to starve. It wouldn’t surprise her at all. They had been threatening to do that ever since she had been captured. She pulled again against the straight jacket. It actually didn’t bother her too much, but she was starting to get hungry. Hunger also wasn’t anything new. When she had lived on the family farm hunger was her constant companion. Then after she left, food was easier to find, but there were still days where she didn’t get enough. If they didn’t come to feed her soon she would have to try and escape, she was not going to starve to death. She had survived too much to go out that way.

A sudden pain in her knee brought her head up. Painful knees meant someone was coming. Sure enough a second later she could hear the sounds of hooves coming down the hallway. Pinkamena never quite understood her ability to sense things before they happened, but she had long learned to trust these feelings. The level of pain she felt in her kneecap indicative of the number of number of ponies who were approaching, and sure enough she could hear several ponies.

Upset stomach. That means someone was afraid. That was nothing new the ponies who came to see her were always afraid of her. She almost didn’t notice the upset stomach any more. Now they were right outside her cell. With the hood over her face she couldn’t see who was there and she could only hear distant murmurs, but they didn’t sound like the guards of the asylum. Itchy back. It was her lucky day. She guessed that whoever was outside her cell at least they weren’t going to hurt her. Maybe they were bringing her food. Warm heart. Warm heart? She hadn’t felt that in years. Not sense she had left the farm. Not sense that rainy night all those years ago. Maybe her sixth sense was finally starting to break down.

When she felt a warm feeling in her heart it meant that someone loved her, not in love with, but loved in a none romantic way, unquestionably. The only other ponies she had felt that from was her sisters. Pinkamena hadn’t expected to ever feel that again.

“SHE WHAT?” the sudden scream shattered her thoughts. The warm feeling in her heart immediately vanished and was replaced with a pinchy feeling in her knee. She mentally braced herself, that feeling meant something scary was about to happen. A rumbling shake filled the room then the hood on her head was ripped off. In front of her face was a pure white unicorn with red eyes, whose mane was billowing flames. Behind her the entire wall of her cell had been ripped away.

“YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!” she screamed. Pinkamena leaned back her eyes wide. Before she could answer a silver hammer appeared in the air above her head then it crashed down on the white fiery unicorn. She immediately reverted to a purple unicorn and collapsed on the ground.

***

Everyone stood in stunned silence. Groggily I got back to my feet. I shook my head to clear the ringing in my ears. Silver Hammer was immediately in front of me.

“Twilight! Are you alright? I didn’t want to do it but I had to!”

“Do what…” I didn’t finish what I was going to say because I saw Pinkie over his shoulder. Her mane hanging limp from her head and her pupils seemed really small. The memory was back. And so was the anger but before I could move Silver was again in front of me.

“She didn’t kill your brother.” He continued quickly before I could say anything. “Your brother died fighting Nightmare Moon. I was there when he fell.”

“What?” I had never been told how Shining Armor had died. Sometime after Nightmare’s return two of her Midnight Guard had come to the house where my family lived and informed us that he had died. That was the time before Discord’s escape from his stone prison, so all we had was night and darkness and confusion. Ponies were disappearing every day as Nightmare cemented her rule, so there was no way of knowing what had happened. We weren’t even allowed to have a funeral. The strain from losing his son and having to pretend that son never existed was too much for my dad. He attacked one of the guards in a rage in the middle of the street one day. That was the second death in the family we weren’t allowed to publicly mourn. I was finally allowed to cry in public when my mom killed herself shortly before Discord returned.

“It happened right after Princess Celestia vanished. Shining Armor rallied Canterlot with his filly friend, Princess Cadence. We didn’t know what had happened, only that our princess was gone and the sun hadn’t risen when it should have. Those two were trying to keep the country from falling apart, but somebody betrayed us, slipped something into Cadence’s drink. She couldn’t use her magic at all.”

“What could do that to an Alicorn like that?” Applejack asked.

“Poison Joke.” I answered. The blue plant made a joke of what some pony loved most. For Rarity it made her mane a mess, Pinkie lost the use of her tongue. For a powerful unicorn mage or an Alicorn it would damage their ability to use magic effectively. This story was starting to make me sick. I could see how it was going to end.

“Yes, exactly. Shining was distracted, trying to take care of Cadence. That’s when she struck. We didn’t have a chance. The Dark Queen would never allow another Alicorn to challenge her rule. Princess Cadence died almost instantly. Without her magic she was a sitting duck. Shining was almost driven mad with rage and sorrow.” Silver glanced at me. “He did the same rage shift that you just did. His magic, powered by his emotions had enough power to stop Nightmare in her tracks. The battle almost tore the throne room apart. But he could see that he didn’t have chance. She was filled with even more rage then he was. He used the bubble shields that your family is famous for to get the rest of us out. I think that if he had focused on fighting Nightmare he probably could have driven her off, at least for a while. Instead he saved the rest of the guard’s lives. Including mine.”

“And with that the resistance was born.” Fluttershy’s Amethyst piped up.

Silver nodded then continued, “Now today has been a day of several misunderstandings. Let’s all take a breath and calm down before we bring the Midnight Guard down on our heads. Do we want to try this again?”

I nodded then went to offer Pinkie my hoof. Remembering that she was still bound I started to lower my hoof, when she started to shake it. I was confused until I saw her quickly pulling herself out of the straight jacket, then my confusion only increased. Before I could say anything she piped up.

“Oh that silly jacket couldn’t hold me! I could leave whenever I wanted to. I only stayed in it to keep the guards feeling safe. Then they would give me food and not hit me as often.”

“Well if it’s food you want then we can help you.” Applejack said. “And I promise we won’t hit you none.”

“Both of those sound better than my current arrangement so I think we will work well together.”

“In the interest of avoiding entangling with any royal guards we should save any introductions and explanations for when we are somewhere safe. One of us did just tear a hole in the wall,” Rarity said looking at the damage I had done.

“Oh of course!” Pinkie’s voice seemed as happy as usual. I couldn’t help wondering if her supposed ‘rap sheet’ was really a farce. She continued over my thoughts, “But first I have to collect my things.”

Then she bounced down the hall. She even moved in her typical fashion that I remembered from Equestria Proper. She stopped briefly at the cell down the hall, where she pressed her face against the glass of the door.

“Goodbye Timey! I got out early! But don’t worry I’ll be back to visit I Pinkie Promise!” And she bounced on. I glanced in to the cell as we passed, but the brown pony was still mumbling to himself. We caught up with Pinkie outside the administrator’s office pulling desperately on the door handle.

“It’s locked,” she wined. “Would you mind ripping the door off its hinges?”

“Hardly necessary, darling.” Rarity replied. Then she used her magic to undo the latch and open the door. Pinkie smiled and immediately dashed in.

“That’s a useful skill there Miss Rarity.” She said as she passed. Inside she immediately went to a large filing cabinet and opened one of the drawers, out of which she pulled an old leather roll up case. “This is all I need. We can go now.”

As everyone else filed out of the room I glanced into the open filing cabinet. Inside were two files. The first was clearly labeled ‘Pinkamena Diane Pie.’ Quickly I grabbed the files and shoved them into my saddle bags. Pinkie was a riddle to me, a riddle I planned on solving. But I couldn’t do that until I had more information. Once I had the files I quickly hurried after the others.

After we were all back safe in the library it was time for some hard talks. The walk back had been in a terse silence the whole time. On the way back Fluttershy had said good bye to her Amethyst. She was bound for Canterlot and needed to leave if she was to catch the train. Pinkie had bounced on ahead for all the world just like she did in Equestria Proper. But there were subtle differences, for one thing I had never seen her mane flat like this, normally it was in wild curls that bounced when she walked. It wasn’t until we were half way back that I realized what it was. In EP she always walked like she didn’t have a care in the world, relying on her unexplainable sixth sense, what she called her Pinkie Sense that allowed her to sense things before they happen, to keep her out of trouble.

Here she moved almost like wild animal, she was always looking around, taking in every part of her surroundings. Her choice of path at first appeared random, then I realized how specific she was being. Pinkie always seemed to pick a path that would leave her exposed in an open area for the least amount of time. She always navigated us around any area that would have large groups of ponies, so we hardly saw anyone else the entire way back. What I couldn’t figure out though was if Pinkie was a wild animal, was she prey or predator?

Now there were many discussions that needed to be had. I needed to talk with Silver and try to describe Rainbow better. Since we had found Fluttershy and Pinkie she was the last element of harmony left. I decided that conversation can happen slightly later. Pinkie needed to have the situation explained to her. We also needed to talk out plans with her and Fluttershy. And I needed some time to myself so I could read the file on Pinkie.

We all settled in on the floor of the library. The remaining members of Applejack’s crew who had stayed when the Sparrow left stayed on the edge of the room while the rest of us occupied the center. Before I could start our discussion out, Rarity spoke up.

“Pinkie, when we were in the hospital you knew my name. Do you remember me?”

“Of course I remember you silly! Do you really think I would let anyone live at the family farm if I didn’t know everything about them?”

Rarity was a little shocked by that reply. She just sat there with her mouth open. Finally she was able to focus her thoughts to a single question, “So you knew I was at the farm?”

“Yep! As soon as you moved in.”

“H-how? You left…”

“Just because I left the farm doesn’t mean I abandoned it! I was always nearby making sure my sisters were taken care of. And if you had harmed them in any way I would have skinned you.” Pinkie’s smile stretched all the way across her face. A stunning silence met this proclamation. “I always made sure they had enough food even during hard years. When monsters and creatures came from the wilderness I would send them off so they knew not to bother my farm again. When you showed up willing to help I was suspicious, but eventually I knew that you were a decent pony. In fact I know each of you.” Her smile widened as she swept her hoof around the room.

“When Rarity discovered how to enchant regular stones to become magic lights I knew that would help out my sisters a lot, so I had to find some way for them to make money on the lights. So I found a representative of Apple Industries.” She paused, gesturing at AJ. “I knew you Applejack would want to control something like that. So you paid her for the stones and my sisters had food, so I was happy.”

Pinkie spun on her heel so she was facing Silver Hammer and I, “I had heard about you two only recently. The guards were just talking about how a purple unicorn from Canterlot had been reported missing and was presumed pony napped by a member of the Anti-Nightmare resistance. There is a tidy reward for information about you two.”

“Wait, how is there already a missing pony report for me?” I asked. There was no one who I spoke to regularly back when I lived in Canterlot. The only ones who knew me were the ponies at the factory. And I didn’t have the best track record there with showing up every day. The report only should have been filed a few days ago. It certainly wouldn’t have traveled all the way to the little town of Ponyville.

“I don’t know silly!” She booped my nose lightly. “They weren’t exactly doing a question and answer session with me now were they?”

“Oh I guess not.” I paused as I tried to digest all the information Pinkie had delivered. It was strange how even when none of us knew each other we still ended up being closely connected. It was also strange that ponies were looking for me so quickly, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. We needed to start moving forward. “Anyways, now that everyone knows each other we need to start talking about our plans. I think the first thing we need to do is find the remaining Elements of Harmony.”

There was an immediate uproar after I said that. With every pony talking at once I couldn’t quite tell what each were upset about. I think AJ wanted to look for Rainbow Dash first. Rarity wanted to try and help the ponies of Ponyville first. Silver wanted to make tracks for Canterlot to start stirring things up there. I couldn’t hear what Fluttershy was saying but she was shaking her head vehemently. Pinkie was the only one who remained silent.

I used a touch of magic to magnify my voice, “QUITE!” I glared around the room for a second to make sure everyone was silent. “We need to find the rest of the Elements because we currently have two of the Bearers, Kindness.” I said, pointing at Fluttershy. “And Laughter,” Pointing at Pinkie. “Even without their Elements they can do great good. But with them our bonds of friendship will be strengthened and all of our individual magics will be strengthened as well.”

Pinkie laughed, “Oh I am the Element of Laughter? Oh that is just so awesome!” Her voice rose to almost inaudible ranges on the last word and she leapt into the air. Rather than falling back to the floor immediately she drifted back down like a leaf.

I turned to Silver first, he would be the easiest to convince. “Silver, I’m sorry. We can’t go to Canterlot right now. There is just no way we would stand a chance against Nightmare Moon. Even with all of our power and strength combined it wouldn’t be enough. She can move the moon on a will and she is almost pure magic and rage at this point. If she found out that some of the bearers of the elements of harmony, the one weapon that can defeat her, were coming against her… she wouldn’t hesitate to eviscerate us. Anything to stop all of us from coming together against her. But I promise that once we have the Elements we will travel to Canterlot and stand against her, and over throw her.”

I held his gaze for a second, making sure that he understood that I meant what I was saying. Eventually he nodded and looked down. “If you say, Twilight. But we can’t put this off too much longer. The wheels are turning, it is only a matter of time before something sparks.”

Before I could say anything more Applejack jumped into the conversation. “That’s all well and good, but what about Rainbow Dash?”

This was something I had wanted to put off till last. Applejack had always been close to RD. No one could ever tell how close, but they were clearly more than ordinary friends. “AJ… we can’t go looking for Rainbow yet.”

“I don’t see why not!”

“Uh… well…” I struggled for something to say. “We don’t know where she might be. For all we know she might never have left Cloudsdale. Even with the Sparrow and your Pegasi it could take forever to find her. But you knew her, wherever the trouble was thickest, that’s where she was.” My voice caught in my throat a little. “She was always so loyal.”

No pony else in the room noticed that I had started to choke up, or the specific words I had used when describing Dash, except for Silver. He sat up a little and looked troubled. Fortunately he didn’t say anything and Rarity piped up immediately after.

“I don’t see how I can be of a help on this adventure. I think my talents would be much better served helping the ponies here. This is our home and look at the state of the town and the ponies here. None of them have very much food and the whole town is so drab and dark, maybe I could do something to brighten up their lives a little. Make life a little more livable! It would be fabulous!”

The others were nodding. Her plan made sense to them. But a bolt of fear ran through me. “No Rarity! As much as I want to help out here, the most important thing is that we stick together.”

“Well you can do whatever you want.” Fluttershy’s voice startled me. Under normal circumstances she rarely spoke up in crisis meetings like this. This was hardly normal circumstances though. “My duty is to the young ponies under my care. And I will not leave them to go off on some wild adventure. So I will stay here.”

“Well if Fluttershy is staying here, then I might as well stay too.” Rarity said. “Really we would both be doing so much more good it we stayed here.”

My fear had a strong grip of me. This can’t be happening. I couldn’t let my friends split up. Not after everything I went through to get them together. All the tears we had shed and shared. Especially when one of them didn’t even remember that we were friends. The worst thing was that both of what they said made sense. I really wanted to help make my home a better happier place. Life under Nightmare Moon was miserable, but in the cities it was much more passable. Perhaps with a little bit of work we could do the same for Ponyville. Also there was no way I could just leave helpless fillies and colts alone in this dark world. There had already been enough sadness and death, anyone who could be spared more hardship should be.

And of course there was always the thought I had, had while convincing Applejack to wear her Element. I lied to the Element of Honesty. I was not going to tie up the Element of Kindness just to bring her with us. I was desperately floundering for some way that we wouldn’t have to break apart, leaving us alone in night again. Then an idea came to me.

“Wait, I’ve got it! Rarity, why don’t you and Fluttershy work together? Your goals are pretty similar and I am sure that two smart mares can solve a lot of the problems this town is facing. I could show you, Rarity, how to enchant the magic lights, then you can give those to the ponies in the town. Then maybe Applejack, some of your ponies could stay and help with the work?”

Applejack picked up on what I was hinting at quickly. “Ah, of course. I have a few ponies who were a little injured after that last fight, a little shore leave would do them well. They could of course assist you two in fixin’ things up and carin’ for the little ones.”

“Oh that sounds wonderful!” Rarity was practically hopping with excitement. Fluttershy stayed seated, and merely nodded. Fortunately her angry frown had vanished, her frown pulled the scar on her face and made for a grim picture. With those two together I felt a little better and AJ’s trained guards would be around in case of trouble. Splitting into two groups was much better than splitting into individuals again.

“How about you Pinkie? Which party would you like to work with?”

“Why you of course!” she said, rolling her eyes. “I have already been in this city for way longer then I wanted to. Let’s go on an adventure!”

“Ok great! Now why don’t you all starting planning what you think you need to do. Silver and I need to have a small talk.”

I guided Silver Hammer up stairs to where my bedroom used to be. Once we were in there I cast a spell of silence around us so the others couldn’t hear what we were saying. Silver watched what I did and waited till the spell was complete before speaking.

“This is about Rainbow Dash isn’t it?”

I nodded and slumped onto the floor.

“You don’t think she is alive do you?” I shook my head. Silver sat down on the floor next to me. “Why do you think that?”

Quickly as I could I explained to him about the feelings I had during the healing we had done at the rock farm. “I could feel Rarity and Applejack there with me. And when Rarity received her Element I could feel the bond between the three of us strengthen. Not only that but I could feel two other ponies. I could feel them Silver! I can’t feel the bond right now, but I know it’s there. If we used the Elements of Harmony I know that I would be able to feel all four of the girls downstairs. But…”

“You can’t feel Rainbow?”

“That’s just the thing! I can feel something but it’s like…” as adjectives failed me I picked up a small thread off the ground and laid it across Silver’s shoulders. “It’s so barely there, it’s like it doesn’t exist.”

“Do you think she is just distant? Maybe she is in the Griffin Lands or somewhere beyond.”

“I don’t think it’s that. If she were far away I should still be able to feel her emotions, or at the very least the recognition of the bond like I felt for the rest of them. But I don’t feel anything.”

“Well I don’t want to raise your hopes, but why don’t you tell me what she was like, and I will see if I know someone like that.”

So we spent several minutes talking about Rainbow Dash. The first time I had described mostly her physical traits. I had said she was a cyan Pegasus, with magenta eyes. She was cocky and brash and always sure of herself. Now rather than describing her I told Silver stories. All the stories I could remember about her from Equestria Proper. How she would always sacrifice her own dreams and hopes to help her friends, again and again I kept coming back to her undying loyalty. Silver’s face grew still as I was talking. Eventually I ran out of words to say about my friend. Eventually Silver spoke up.

“I didn’t want to raise your hopes, and I still don’t. But I knew someone like that.”

“Knew? Not know?”

He nodded. “Actually she served with me.” He cut off my surprised shout with a wave of his hoof. “Before you start she doesn’t sound anything like your initial description. This mare had gray hair. She said it had turned gray after something that happened to her in her childhood, but she never went into more detail. She was called Storm Dash.” I nodded. With the number of Pegasi who had the special talent for racing and flying, Dash wasn’t an uncommon surname. “And she was shy and constantly scared that she might hurt someone. But she was loyal. She joined us shortly after the Sun fell. In fact the very night your brother saved the rest of us. Storm helped us get into Applejack’s office. Then when we were denied, she volunteered to train and lead our Pegasi troops. Then about a year after the last sun rise and after Discord had returned, we heard word that Nightmare Moon was moving over Ponyville alone, and we moved against her. I wasn’t there, I had to stay in Canterlot with a second line of troops to secure the capital if Nightmare fell.

We never heard for sure what had happened. But from what we’ve seen I think I can piece it together. Nightmare was moving to secure the Elements of Harmony. Discord, Chrysalis and who knows what else moved the same night. Maybe they could sense the power, but I don’t know. Either way our troops must have showed up in the middle of a show down between the three strongest creatures that existed in the world. And paid for it. Only a few of our ponies returned from the fight. And those that did, well they didn’t last long. The fight had been too much for them. We couldn’t even get a coherent report from them. We had heard that Nightmare had been injured so in desperation we had hit her with all of our remaining forces. And again paid for it. Even injured badly she was still more than a match for us. Her pain fueled her anger, which in turn over powered her magic. That was the battle I lost.” He winced at the memory of his punishment. “And we haven’t heard from Storm Dash since the battle.”

Tears were flowing slowly down my face. I had always suspected that Rainbow had died here in this terrible nightmare world. But to have it confirmed, was still painful. Silver let me cry for a few minutes, then he awkwardly hugged me. I cried against his shoulder for a few more minutes. Long before my tears had dried up he pushed me back.

“So what is our plan now?”

I quickly dashed the tears from my eyes. Without Rainbow I would have to be strong for my friends. If we could bring Celestia back she would know how to fix all of this. I had to hold on to that hope.

“Our plan now, is that we have to find Discord.”

“What?! Are you insane? Discord is as bad as Nightmare!”

“No he isn’t. Fluttershy was able to befriend him once, and I am sure I can do it again. While I wish Fluttershy would come with us to help, I won’t force her to.”

“But why? Do you think he will help you fight the Midnight Queen? We thought that too, but that thing is completely crazy.”

“I don’t care whether he helps us against her or not. If he was after the Elements then most likely he has at least one. And it is high time that we take it from him.”

Silver looked at me with wide eyes for a probably a solid minute before he nodded. “We’ll have to tell the others.”

“I’ll take care of that. In the mean time you have things you need to take care of. I want Canterlot stirred up as much as possible before we get back. Once we have the Element that Discord has we will have to strike against Nightmare. If Discord doesn’t have an Element or if he only has one, then she for sure has the other. And I am worried that she might be catching on to what we are doing.”

He nodded again, then quickly jogged down the stairs leaving me alone in what was in a different time my room. I looked slowly around the sad little room. It looked much smaller without all of my things. I needed to tell my friends what was happening, and somehow break the news of Rainbow’s death to Applejack and Rarity. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy wouldn’t remember who she was, but it would be hard on the other two.

Before I could go down stairs I needed some time to gather my thoughts and get myself organized. I wished I had something to read. Reading always helped calm me down. Then I remembered the file I had stolen from the hospital. Perhaps this could shed some light on the situation.

About an hour later I had finished reading the file. I felt slightly ill from what I read. Pinkie’s file had clearly not been the best thing to read on any day, but especially when I was already emotionally raw. I slowly made my way down stairs. I needed to talk to the others about everything I had thought about for the past several hours. And now I needed to talk to Pinkie about what was in her file. I paused on the landing so I could watch my friends. Rarity was talking to Pinkie Pie.

“So darling in all your time watching over the farm, you wouldn’t happen to have seen my sister Sweetie Belle would you?” Rarity was trying her best to keep her composure, but I could tell by the strain in her voice that she was only barely containing her anxiety.

“Well of course I did.” Pinkie said.

“You-you did? Do you know what happened to her?” Now Rarity wasn’t controlling herself at all. It was a sign of how worried of Sweetie Belle that she was this frantic.

“Yep!” Pinkie smiled, “I pony napped her!”

“You what? You monster! You took away from me, her sister, her only family! Now she could be dead. You took my sister away from me!”

Rarity was trying desperately to attack Pinkie while Fluttershy and Applejack held her back. Pinkie however didn’t appear to need any help as she nimbly avoided all of the white unicorn’s attacks, even her magic. Finally she grabbed Rarity by the face and shouted at her.

“Don’t you understand I did it to protect her!” Here there was none of the Equestria Proper Pinkie. This was the sadness I had felt through our connection. She was so wretched that she could hardly contain herself. “That house isn’t a safe place for young fillies! My sisters were older, they would be alright. I had protected them while I was still living there. But I wouldn’t allow history to repeat itself. I wouldn’t allow anyone else to be hurt!”

Rarity collapsed gasping against Applejack, “Then where is she?”

“She is safe don’t you…”

“WHERE IS SWEETIE BELLE?” Rarity’s bellow cut off Pinkie completely.

“I have her.” All heads whipped around to focus on Fluttershy. Rarity’s mind couldn’t change gears fast enough to form any words, she just hung on Applejack with her mouth open. Fluttershy continued quickly, “I found her on my doorstep years ago. She didn’t know where she was, how she had come there, or even where she had come from. So I took her in and cared for her.”

“So… she’s…safe?” Rarity panted. When Fluttershy nodded she collapsed all the way to the floor, dragging AJ down with her. “Then can I see her?”

“Unfortunately no. Amethyst left with her hours ago.”

“W-what?” her sob broke my heart.

“Those three are shaping up to be some of my best thieves. I sent them to Canterlot by train. They will help with preparing for the fight there. Stealing for the resistance and gathering information.”

“Wait, ‘three?’” Applejack asked. “You wouldn’t happen to be talking about…”

“Scootaloo…” Fluttershy said.

“Sweetie Belle and…” Rarity whispered. All three of us knew what was coming next.

“Applebloom!” AJ gasped.

Fluttershy nodded slowly. I looked wildly around the room. My friend’s sisters were on their way to Canterlot, out of our reach and into danger, and I was about to ask them not go after them. And on top of that I had the other dark news. My breath came short as I my eyes rocked back and forth in their sockets. What can I do?

***

The unicorn mage, Corvus, trembled in the shadow of the pony next to him. He tried to tell himself that it was just the drafty house they were standing in and not fear. The house had once belonged to two other unicorns. Corvus had known them from their days in the Starswirl the Bearded Academy. They were both highly skilled, adept unicorns. There had been high hopes for their children when they had announced their engagement. Their son had immediately justified these hopes by rising quickly through the ranks in the royal guard, all the way to captain. It was too bad he was such a loyalist, he would have been a great asset to the new regime. Their daughter had been a great disappointment, failing her entrance exam to Celestia’s school and only barely able to maintain her employment at a local factory. Corvus however knew differently. He had memories of a different time and he had created this time with his mastery of magic. And he couldn’t be happier.

Or so he told himself. The real Nightmare Moon, the one who towered over him right now, was not like the one his brothers in the legion of Night had told him. Their legends held that Celestia had been a cruel tyrant and Nightmare had tried to free the country from her clutches. But it was clear from the first day that perhaps their legends had lost a bit of the truth in the past thousand years. Now even though he was her closest advisor he still lived in fear of her.

It had taken a long time to rise to this inner circle. At first his Dark Queen didn’t trust him because he had served the false princess Celestia. Eventually he was able to speak to her privately and explain the memories he had of his other life. She refused to believe that she had been defeated in any time. Eventually he was able to convince her. By that time Discord had returned and was starting to fight her.

Nightmare Moon stood in the house of the one who, in another life had orchestrated her downfall sniffing the cold air. The pony who had lived here hadn’t left the mage lights on when she left so the house was freezing. Nightmare inhaled again. Even though Corvus wasn’t as magically sensitive as she was he could still feel the traces of magic and could barely tell that they were the same as Celestia’s magic. To Nightmare the whole house must have stank of her sister’s magic. She glared around the room.

“So. Somehow my accursed sister has managed to contact one of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. I can smell the Element. But the traces are long gone. If what my spies are telling me is accurate then they will move against me soon.”

“What will you do my Queen?”

“Do? I will not do anything. They will have to come to me eventually, one way or another, then I will destroy them and their precious Elements.”

“You majesty they will be much more difficult if they have found their elements. I did mention that we should eliminate the Element of Magic while we had the chance.”

“BE SILENT” she roared, lightening flaring from her mane. “You presume too much if you will tell me what to do.”

She angrily paced the house for a minute. “I have something they desperately need. Without it they won’t stand a chance against me. And when they come…”

She stopped speaking as she channeled her magic, then unleashed it. Corvus was blasted out of the house by the magic wave. Slowly the whole house crumbled and fell as waves of lightening blasted it to pieces. In the center of the chaos was Nightmare Moon, laughing as she destroyed every trace of the house.

Author's Note

Uhhh. It's been a while. My bad.

Chapter 1

Through the dark alleyways of Canterlot a lone pony crept. It was of the utmost importance that nopony discover it. Hooded and cloaked it darted from shadow to shadow. If it was discovered everything would be undone, all the hard work and planning that had gone into this night. Quickly the figure made its way across the city to the rendezvous, where hopefully the others would be waiting.

In another part of the city, another lone figure moved. This one had no need for hoods, cloaks, or shadows. Currently it was a white Pegasus with the standard royal Canterlot armor on. Peeping around a corner it spied other guards moving towards its position. With a flash of emerald fire suddenly the white Pegasus was gone and a brown mare, an earth pony, was in its place. This mare walked quickly past the Canterlot guards without raising any alarms. Once past, the mare disappeared in a flash of green and the original Pegasus guard was there. It was easier to get through the city as a guard. The only ponies who would dare question a Royal guard were other guards.

At the rendezvous the hooded pony had arrived. A grand estate on the edge of the royal gardens, it towered over the nearby houses, yet was still dwarfed by the castle behind it. After a quick look around for guards the hooded pony ran to the door of the estate and knocked. Briefly a peephole opened then shut. A moment later the door opened to reveal a midnight black unicorn stallion. He ushered the pony into the house, then after looking outside to make sure there was no one else, shut the door.

Once the door was closed the unicorn turned to the hooded pony, “I don’t believe I have ever seen you this subdued.”

“My father taught me many things,” said the other pony. Then she removed her hood with a quick flick of her head, revealing a light purple pony with a darker purple mane striped with white. The most distinctive thing about this pony however was her eyes. They focused in different directions and seemed to swirl when one stared too long. “One of the things he taught me was that there is a time for everything including subtlety.”

“That is not how I remember his last arrival,” replied the unicorn. “Cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate milk, is anything but subtle.”

“He wasn’t trying to be subtle. He was just trying to have fun,” she said, a little sadly. “Anyways you should have asked for the password when I knocked, too much is riding on this for us to let security become lax.”

“Trust me there is no possible way it could have been anypony but you. “

A knock at the door interrupted what would likely have led to a heated argument. The purple pony threw her hood on and retreated to the shadows. When she was hidden in the darkness, the dark furred unicorn went and checked the peephole of the door. This time there was a ritual exchange of passwords before the door opened to reveal a white Pegasus, wearing the armor of a Canterlot guard. In the corner the hooded pony tensed then relaxed as the guard disappeared in a wave of green fire.

In its place was a changeling. Vaguely pony shaped the changeling was black with skin that was almost scales. Its entire body seems to be that of somepony who had come out the worse in a terrible fight. Tattered ears, ripped wings, gaping holes in its legs. But the changeling didn't even notice what would be grievous wounds on any other creature.

“Isss the purple one here?” asked the changeling as it entered. It spoke with a sibilant hiss, drawing out its words.

“The purple one is here,” answered the hooded pony as she emerged from the shadows. “I am glad that you could make it, Black Scale. Were you able to acquire what we need?”

“I have acquired it, Sssscrewball,” replied Black Scale. Then turning to the unicorn, “and were you Corvussss, able to fulfill your portion?”

“Of course I was able to! Do you really think that I would be here if I didn't have it? Why don’t you just worry about what’s coming next. Will you be able to pull off everything you said you would be able to?”

“For a creature of my talentsss it will be easssy,” replied Black Scale.

“Yes and that is exactly why I needed you for this mission,” Screwball interrupted. Her patience was wearing thin with the constant arguing, but there was no other way to accomplish her mission.

“Are sssurre thisss will work?” hissed Black Scale.

“Yes I am sure. Everyone knows that these six ponies defeated both my father and Corvus’s Dark Queen. They were also instrumental in the defeat and banishment of the changeling army”

“Yes,” said Corvus, “And I, as the sun tyrant’s personal scribe have been able to discover the exact instance when we will have the ability to effect these pony’s lives the most. When our work tonight is done all three enemies of the Celestia the Tyrant will be free to do as they wish.”

“Yes. But for now we still have to complete the work. Everypony know their part? Good. Let’s head to the castle. “

* * *

In a castle tower, the princess of the Sun, Celestia, sat in her study. There was a cozy fire burning in the fireplace and a steaming cup of tea had just been delivered by one of the servants. The large pillow and rug that served the princess as her bed was covered in open books as well as several letters from her trusted pupil Twilight Sparkle. The princess had been in the middle of reading, as was often her habit, a habit she could never tell if she had passed on to or inherited from her pupil. The letters detailed books that Twilight had finished reading. As a private game between the two of them, they would try to see who finished the most books in a season. Twilight almost always won, simply because with royal duties the princess didn't have time to sit down a read several novels a week. So it was a special occasion when on nights like this when everything else was taken care of, that she could really enjoy a good book.

So it was a small annoyance when she heard a knock on her chamber door. With a small sigh the white alicorn got up and crossed to the door. It was probably just one of the guards or servants. Hopefully it wasn’t one of her personal advisers. Late night calls from them never involved good news. As she reached the door Celestia quickly composed her face, putting on her usual regal mask, so whomever was at the door wouldn’t know they were disturbing her.

But instead of an adviser with news of a brewing crisis the pony at the door was none other than Luna, the moon princess. The dark blue alicorn, with her night sky hair streaming out behind her, constantly moving and shifting as if with a strong wind, smiled at Celestia as the door opened. Her face immediately shifted to one of worry.

“I am not disturbing you, Tia, am I?” she asked.

“No not at all! Or maybe a little. How could you tell?”

“You always have that look on your face when you want to pretend that you aren’t being disturbed. That was one of the things that I missed the most about you during my… absence.”

“Oh Luna! Please come in. Maybe we can talk a little.”

“Thank you Tia,” replied Luna as she entered her sister’s chambers. “Did I disturb a good read?”

“My student Twilight Sparkle and I have a competition of who can read the most in a season. She always wins, but I was hoping that maybe this season I could be a little less behind.”

“Oh Tia,” chuckled Luna. “I really …”

She stopped speaking as both alicorns whipped their heads up focusing on a distant point somewhere beyond the room. Somewhere in the castle an extremely powerful spell was taking place. Few unicorns would have the magical sensitivity to even know something was taking place yet alone locate it, but the alicorn sisters were very powerful and had spent years training their magical sensitivity.

“What is happening?” cried Luna.”

“To the library!” called Celestia as she galloped out the room. Luna was fast on her tail.

* * *

The two sisters race through the halls of the castle, making for the royal archives where scrolls containing the most secret of knowledge and the most dangerous of spells are stored. Galloping full speed they would sometimes use their magic shunt to the side any pony who happened to be wandering the halls that late and was foolish enough to not get out of the way. In any corridor that was large enough for the two mares to fly Celestia would take wing with Luna right behind her. Following the two mares was a growing crowd of soldiers who feared that princesses were racing towards some danger they hadn’t been alerted to. Joining the soldiers was also those few unicorns who were sensitive enough to be able sense that something was going on though they could not tell what.

Upon reaching the doors to the archives Celestia slowed. She opened the door with care. She wasn’t worried about being hurt, few things can really hurt an alicorn unless they are caught unawares. Plus with Luna and half the guards and all the most powerful mages in Canterlot there was nothing in Equestria that could stand against her. The sun princess was more worried about what spell had been performed and what it would do. As she approached the Starswirl the Bearded room she felt the powerful magical whiplash as whatever spell finished. Celestia reared and kicked the door as hard as she could.

The door flew off its hinges and crashed into the bookshelves beyond. Inside was the strangest group Celestia had ever seen. A changeling lay collapsed on the floor. Next to it is the unicorn Corvus. His eyes are crossed and he looks like he can barely stand. A third pony, hovers in the air above the other two. She alone seems to be unaffected by the magic they had done. A small hat with a propeller sits on her purple and white striped mane. This last pony, whose purple eyes seem to swirl around, stared defiantly at the alicorn sisters.

“You are too late!” she cried. “With what we have done the Great Three will rise again, and there is nothing you or your precious Elements of Harmony can do about it!”

Then as Celestia and Luna moved towards them all three disappeared in a flash.

Celestia quickly looks around the room, then seeing what scroll had been used she turns and shouts to the waiting guards, “Summon the Time Marshal at once!”

“There is no need,” said a brown stallion who had just entered the room. He had a dark brown mane that was swept back from his face. His cutie mark was an hour glass. “I felt the time disturbance the moment it started.”

“I need to know what they did.” Said Celestia.

“Of course your majesty,” he replies.

Then he quickly began to pace the room muttering softly to himself. The princess knew the somewhat eccentric Time Marshal needed to work at his own pace. He had yet to fail her in a crisis.

“Your majesty, I have something,” he called. “They used a time spell to travel back in time and change something”

“How far back did they go?” “What did they change?” Celestia and Luna spoke at the same time.

“It is hard to tell how far back they went but it was many years into the past.”

“How is that possible?” asked Luna. “To go that far back they would need an insane amount of magical power!”

“Yes sister, which is no doubt why the changeling was here. I am sure that somepony here in Canterlot who has a lot of love for somepony else is missing that pony right now. He could channel the energy into Silver Horn. But what is more important than how is what”

“What indeed?” murmured the Time Marshal. “As far as I can tell of the ripples in time is that they stopped a certain Pegasus mare from winning a race years ago. And it is causing a massive amount of damage to space-time.”

“A certain mare… Marshal, can you tell if the mare would have created a sonic rainboom had she won?”

Luna looked quizzically at her sister. But she surely had a reason for asking a question that specific. The Time Marshal furrowed his brow as he tried to concentrate.

“Yes there would have been a rainboom. And because it didn’t happen all of history since then is rewriting itself. And the rewrite is happening faster and faster.”

Outside the door a Pegasus suddenly screamed as her wings snapped into a different and certainly not natural position. Next to her a unicorn gasped and disappeared without a trace.

“I don’t understand, what does this mean?” cried Luna, as another pony screamed and two more vanished.

“The first Sonic Rainboom was the reason that Twilight Sparkle and the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony got their cutie marks. It’s part of the reason they have such a close connection. Now everything they did in their life is coming undone.”

“Including…” Luna stopped when she realizes what this will mean for her. “No! I can’t go back to being that evil mare! I can’t go back to being Nightmare Moon!”

Celestia turned away from her sister. She could see it in the eyes of the Time Marshal. It was already happening. There was nothing they could do. There was nothing SHE can do to prevent the tragedy of her past from repeating itself. Instead she began to channel her magic. She must activate one of the fail-safes she had prepared. Behind her, her sister sobbed. Then suddenly the sobs quieted and hysterical laughter took its place. Celestia turned to see her beloved sister no longer standing next her. Instead there stood her most feared foe, Nightmare Moon!

Tears rolled down from Celestia’s eyes as she continued to channel her magic, her horn glowing, as she hurried to finish what she had started. The world started to swirl around her as mares and stallions screamed or disappeared as their lives were rewritten in an instant. The last thing she saw as the world started to go dark was Nightmare Moon advancing on her.

“I am so sorry. My sister I am so sorry. . .”

Then there was nothing.

* * *

Author's Note

I will make every attempt to make this story canon up to the Season 3 finale. I however will make no attempt to try and canonize it with Alicorn Twilight or with any content that occurs in the coming season 4. I will try my best to post a new chapter every two weeks. If you want more of the story then just comment and I will feel guilty and work harder.

Chapter 2

BBBRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG

The alarm kept ringing shaking me from a strange dream. There had been other ponies in it. A white unicorn, two earth ponies and two pegasi were in the dream. In the dream they had been my friends. We had shared many adventures in the strange way that time in dreams moves differently. But already the details had faded to almost nothing. The only remaining detail was the white Alicorn. But I know that she was gone. And she will never return.

As I got out of my bed I glanced out the window. I don’t know why I do this. It was just a habit that I had gotten into. The only time looking out the window ever told me anything, the sirens would have told me it first. I closed the curtains, tired of the endless dark that covered the sky. Even the magical lights did little to dispel the gloom.

I moved to the mirror, lifting my brush with my magic so I could brush out my mane before work that morning. In the mirror I saw a purple unicorn, with a darker purple mane. The single lighter stripe in my mane was a gift from my mother. So was my typical mane cut; bangs cut straight across my forehead. Thinking about my mother made me sad, so I focused back on the mirror again. The sad eyes of the pony in the mirror stared back at me.

“Are you happy?” I asked her. She didn't answer. She never did. Even if she did I know what the answer would always be. She hasn't been happy for a long time.

BBBRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG

A second alarm cut through my thoughts. I had to buy that second alarm because I had found that too often I would get caught up in my thinking then I would be late for work. Quickly I finished getting ready and move to the door.

As I leave my parent’s house I can’t help a sad thought. Even though they have been gone for several years now, I still thought of the house I lived in as my parent’s. But these thoughts wouldn't get me to work on time. I quickly walked down the streets. Above me the stars were barely visible with the all lights of Canterlot shining. The stars were my favorite thing about the world before, and it’s strange that I was missing them now. I hurried down the street. I remembered that it wasn’t safe to stay over long in the streets these days, also I didn’t want to miss the train that will take me to work.

I made the train. Barely. I made a mental note to readjust the clocks in my room so that I would wake up a little earlier. Same as I did every morning when I barely made the train, or barely missed it. But I wouldn’t. Making that mental note had become a part of my morning routine, just like asking the mare in the mirror if she was happy. I wouldn’t change it because it makes things seem normal. At least one small part of my life could be normal.
After I got off the train at my stop I walk to the factory where I worked. I tried to tell myself that I needed to hurry, if I wanted to impress my boss. But I knew I didn’t care. This job paid the bills, and allowed me to keep my parent’s house, despite the creditors closing in, but I would never enjoy it.

When I got to the factory my supervisor tells me that I have been reassigned. Again. The past week I had been working on the magic lights that help keep the cities warm, and help the crops grow. At least then I could pretend that I was helping. I didn’t bother to ask why I was moved. The reason was always the same. Too much power, too little finesse. My supervisor, a gray unicorn knew that I had the power to supply even the strongest of spells, but could barely manage levitation, when comes to skill. I usually acted as a battery for more skilled unicorns. Supplying my raw power to them so they could perform the more complex magic.

I was also not terribly surprised that I was being reassigned. Last week I had lost control and caused a magical power surge. It had taken out three units of the lights. Seeing how expensive and time consuming they were to manufacture I was surprised my boss just stopped at reassigning me instead of firing me. I think it was because of my supervisor. I think she was an old friend of my parents, who was trying to help me out of pity. I wish I could work up the courage to ask, or to thank her.

Instead of supplying power for a Master Unicorn, today I would be working by myself. I would be working in the oldest part of the factory. There other less skilled unicorns worked to build furniture. That part of the factory will likely be either abandoned or repurposed shortly. Very few ponies cared about buying new furniture when they had to pay so much money for the magical lamps that were the only viable source of illumination. Here the tasks only required basic levitation skill, which any unicorn could do no matter what their special talent was.

There was quite a diverse group of ponies there. Some unicorns like myself, who lacked the skill to work in any of the other parts of the factory, plus a few old guards, too injured to be of any threat. Sometimes missing limbs, these last remnants of the world before lived on only through sheer force of will.

* * *

I got to work, lifting each part into the air with my magic, I pieced the furniture together. To my left was one of the old unicorn guards from the days of the Sun. I had no doubt that he tried to participate in every single attempted coup against our new queen. And paid dearly for each attempt. Scars ran all over the poor creature’s white fur, and he could barely walk with legs that had clearly been broken repeatedly. He also had silver fetlocks that had been shorn recently. Where his cutie mark would have been there was only a mass of scars, some recent. It was impossible to tell what his cutie mark would have been, but it was easy to guess. The guards always had similar cutie marks. The Queen only kept him alive to serve as a message to others who would try to rebel.

He was trying to lift the parts for his piece of furniture. But his horn was broken, one of the cruelest things that the Dark Queen did to those who defied her, that permanent crippling. The remains could barely maintain a glow and often pieces of furniture would clatter to the floor when the spell’s power faded.

Seeing him like this tore at my heart. Looking around quickly to make sure that no one was watching me, my horn blazed to life and I felt a sudden dip in power as I lent him some of my power. I had become extremely adept at this. After all, my special talent was feeding my raw power into other ponies so they could use it more skillfully. My cutie mark was a lone purple starburst with one arm much longer than all the rest. I figured the long arm of the magic, was for me loaning it to others.

The unicorn I helped looked around trying to see who had helped him. Likely he would have tried to refuse my help, which would only draw attention to both his lack of power and to my helping him. Instead of making eye contact with him and risking both of us being discovered I focused on my work. Eventually he stopped looking around and continued his work, his horn no longer glowed dimly instead it glowed a bright yellow with a hint of purple.

I didn’t know why I was helping him. It was risky. While not necessarily forbidden in the factory it was highly frowned upon. If one of the Queen’s Midnight Guard were to see this, many ponies would get in trouble. Everypony up the chain of command in the factory would hear about it, and probably be punished for it. The damaged guards were supposed to serve as a constant reminder about the cost of defying the Dark Queen. Maybe it was because seeing him like that reminded me of my brother. Regardless I felt the need to help him.

After several minutes of feeding him power and working on the furniture in front me I hardly even noticed the added strain. But closer to lunch the stress was starting to tell. I was moving slower, and there was beads of sweat on my forehead surrounding my horn. I could still go on like this for hours, the magical well, deep inside me was still flowing with power, but still I couldn’t wait for the lunch bell to ring. Only another hour to go. Maybe after lunch I wouldn’t feel so bad for the guard and would let him struggle on his own. Not likely.

Suddenly the night outside switched to day. The sudden brightness pouring through the windows of factory blinded many ponies who had stations nearer to the windows. Shortly after the sun sprang to the center of the sky the sirens placed throughout the city wailed their sad cry, a cry mimicked by many of the ponies throughout the room. I leapt back from the table I had just finished. Even just one year of the war had taught me that much.

Just as I feared the table jumped to life and started to gallop around the room. Screams echoed around the factory as various objects exploded or started walking around. Suddenly the fear broke my concentration. I could feel the waves of power building inside me. I ran to a corner, trying to shut out the screams and crashes. My horn flared to life as I pressed my face against the wall.

“I am in control. I am in control,” I chanted as the magical power built inside me. With another crash a full sized carriage burst onto the factory floor, and with this last distraction all semblance of control disappeared. A blast from my horn hit the pile of furniture parts that I had been working on, immediately assembling a dozen tables. Another surge of power hit the guard I had been helping. Then the wave of power completely overwhelms me. I knew from previous experiences that my eyes had turned pure white with the power that was flowing through me. A shock wave of power flew away from me as I began floating in the air. Crackling lines of magic shot out from my body targeting everything around me. Ponies screamed even louder as bursts of magic snatched them off their hooves. Some were simply levitated around the room, while others transformed into trees, plants, and a few woodland animals. Even the dancing pieces of furniture were affected. Most returned to their previous dormant state as my magic overpowered the attacking magic, others exploded when the contest of wills became too much for the furniture to channel.

Over the screams of the other ponies and the crashes happening in the rest of the factory I could hear another voice screaming. With the pain that channeling that much magical power was causing it took me a second that it was me screaming. Suddenly a magic bolt hit me and shatters the hold the magic had on me. With a serious of loud bangs and crashes those ponies who were transformed morphed back into their previous forms. Anypony who had been floating fell to the ground. Outside the night had fallen and the siren had been switched off. The attack was finally over.

The inside the factory was completely silent. The only sound was the whimpering of anypony who was injured in a fall or when a chair had exploded. I looked around and I saw that everypony was staring at me. They were frightened. Of me. They were even more frightened of me than they were of the attack. The only face I see that was not terrified was that of a white unicorn whose horn still shone with a yellow light. His silver fetlocks were blowing in the wind from holes in the windows and factory walls. I couldn’t tell if the holes are from my magic or the previous attack.

I knew I was fired. I turned and ran. I was terrified that one of the Dark Queen’s Midnight Guard had seen what I had done and would attack me. I ran out of the building and down the street.

It took me some time to get over my anxious fear and once I did I realized that I was far from where I needed to be to take the train.

“It is probably safer to walk home anyways,” I said to myself. Every time I lost control like that ponies get hurt. That time I could easily have killed somepony. I wasn’t going to risk being around others right now. There might not be anypony around to help me break the spell next time. It usually took a very powerful unicorn to be able to snap me out of the magical trance. I vaguely wondered who the unicorn was who had helped me, I couldn’t remember him being in the factory before the attack.

* * *

Several hours later I arrived at home. Sometime during my long walk home it had started raining. With the rain pouring down in buckets I stumbled up to my parent’s house. I lived so far away from the factory that by now I was so tired that I could barely stand. After most spells my power felt drained and eventually could make me so tired that I could collapse, but my “accidents” usually left me brimming with energy. However even that energy had started to ebb a while ago. Now it was completely gone. I could barely levitate the key to the door I was so tired.

Inside, the house was dark. I could barely afford to keep the magical lights on when I was home, much less during work. In the dark I walked into the entrance way and immediately crashed into something large. I used some of my magic to light a candle. By its light I explored the object that was in front of me.

It was a large wooden chest, bound with heavy metal straps, and closed with a complex lock. Also I could sense extremely powerful protective spells in and around the chest. Whatever was in there, the owner certainly didn’t want it coming out. And yet the name engraved on the chest clearly read “Twilight Sparkle.” I wondered how it had gotten here. The post service, inconsistent even in the days of light was now terrible at delivering packages. Plus they wouldn’t have just invited themselves in to deliver it.

As I moved closer to investigate a spark jumped from my horn to the chest. Instantly everything unlocked. Even the magical protective spells dissipated immediately. Inside the chest I felt something even more powerful. It was the most magic I have felt in one place in years. Not since that Summer Sun celebration so many years ago had I felt anything close to it. When I opened the chest lid the magical energy almost exploded from inside. The force of the magical energy was so much that it knocked my back a step. Yet nothing else in the room was effected. Nor had the energy felt wrong or dangerous, in fact it felt strangely familiar.

I looked inside the chest and saw a golden crown. On its crest the crown had a gem shaped like a magic starburst the same color as my cutie mark. The biggest difference was that all six points of the gem were the same size.

With a sudden air of familiarity I lifted the crown in my magic, my exhaustion forgotten. Delicately I placed it on my head. Suddenly in my head I heard a voice. A voice both known and forgotten, a voice with the regal quality of a ruler, yet the caring quality of a mother and friend.

“Twilight Sparkle, my dearest and most faithful student…”

* * *

Chapter 11

The train slowly rattled away from the station in Canterlot. Amethyst stood in the shadows and watched it go. It was always her habit when she traveled to stay near the train station till the train actually left. There was a lot that could be learned at a train station. And if things got harry and she needed to leg it she could always get back on the train. Best of all though was that with the sheer number of ponies in stations it was usually possible to steal quite a bit right at the start of the journey.

That’s what her three fillies were doing now. She had told Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Applebloom to go make some money, then meet back at the platform once the train had left. Amethyst had decided the risk was worth the benefit simply because those three were together some of the best thieves she had seen. They worked together like a charm when they set their mind to it. In a few years there wouldn’t be a single treasure anywhere in Equestria that would be safe from their team. Amethyst privately hated Fluttershy for that. These three were innocents. They shouldn’t have to steal for their food.

She couldn’t wait for them to discover their cutie marks, but desperately hoped that they wouldn’t involve stealing. Each of their special talents seemed so clear to her, but they were focused so much on trying to find how it related to thievery that they couldn’t see what was right in front of their faces.

Of course it wasn’t Fluttershy’s fault that they had to steal. There were so many other factors, but Fluttershy was the one pony Amethyst could blame directly. And in private that was exactly what she did. Amethyst was completely loyal to her mentor, who had saved her life, but that didn’t stop her from confronting Fluttershy on what she was forcing these young ponies to grow up into. It didn’t help anything. Fluttershy hated herself just as much as Amethyst did for what she was doing. Then again Fluttershy hated almost everything. She hated that she had been maimed as a child. She hated that the skies and her home in Cloudsdale had been robbed from her. She hated the Cakes for always shorting her on bread for her fillies. The only ponies she didn’t hate were the ones she took care of. Though sometimes her anger at the rest of world leaked over to the fillies and colts under her wing.

Through the fading crowd Amethyst saw her three little fillies. Each had a small bag on their backs that jangled slightly. A good haul then. Amethyst smiled then flared her horn for a second. Scootaloo noticed the flash of light and nudged the other two. Together they quickly walked to the corner where she was standing.

“Find out anything interesting Amy?” Applebloom asked. Her country accent was still strong despite her time living with the other children under the cottage.

“I did, but let’s move away from the station before we talk about it.” Amethyst was always amazed by Canterlot every time she saw it. Everything rang of powerful unicorn magic. The massive, soaring towers of the capital could only have been constructed with magic. Even the eternal night didn’t affect the capital too much. There were hundreds of unicorns here and all of them rich. So the mage lights were plentiful and powerful. Here was a place where a unicorn belonged. But now was not the time to be sitting and enjoying the view. Even as they moved out of train station a huge patrol of the Midnight Guard marched past.

Once they were farther away from the station and off the main streets Applebloom asked the question that was on all three of the fillies minds, “So what did you find out Amy?”

“The city’s on the edge of turmoil. The Midnight Guard has been on alert for several days now. They know something is coming, but they don’t know what and they don’t know when. Their fear makes them restless. Even while I watched two unicorns were arrested and beaten for small crimes. We will have to be extremely careful, with everyone this tense all it would take is a spark to ignite this powder keg.” She paused as they emerged from an alley way onto a larger street. “We need to get word back to Fluttershy and the resistance as soon as possible. If things are this stirred up already, they need to be ready to move now.”

Amethyst looked up and down the street. Unlike Manehattan where a pony could fire an arrow down one of the streets and not hit a building for miles, the streets of Canterlot weaved and wandered with the shape of the mountain the city sat on. So even though she was trying to escort the fillies down back ways and alleys they still routinely crossed main roads. She didn’t want to linger long at the mouth of an alley because that would raise suspicions. However she wasn’t about to cross a street without knowing exactly what was coming in both directions.

Once she saw what was coming she was glad she had waited. Coming down from one direction was a large patrol of the Midnight guard. There was at least a score of the ponies in their crisp black uniforms. The rumor was that their armor was made from enchanted onyx to be extra strong and invisible in the dark. Pushing in front of them like a wave before a ship was a crowd of ponies desperately trying to get out of the way and pretend they weren’t trying to get out of the way. So there was perhaps one hundred ponies all walking faster, diverging into shops, or down alleyways being driven in front of the troops.

In the other direction was a small squad. They were clearly protecting a VIP in the center of their circle. The very important pony was a black unicorn that Amethyst recognized from resistance hate posters. He had been some sort of advisor to Celestia and he now fulfilled a similar role with Nightmare Moon. Normally he would be a pretty high mark, but it wouldn’t be worth the risk to attempt anything now.

Making a snap decision she quickly led the three fillies diagonally across the road towards this smaller squad. She was on the leading edge of the ponies trying to get away from the patrol, so her speed and direction wouldn’t be suspicious, and the guards ahead would be more focused on keeping other ponies away from the VIP to worry about a single unicorn and three fillies. Besides, the unicorn they were protecting seemed to have more on his mind than harassing the little folk.

Their small group was almost across the road into another alley when Amy glanced at Nightmare’s advisor. At the same time he glanced up and their eyes met. Her insides froze but his eyes slid from her without even really seeing her. Then his gaze fell on the three fillies walking quickly at her feet. Amethyst’s heart went from almost still to what seemed like a hundred beats a minute, as the pony’s face changed. His face went from frustrated and distracted to focused, at first confused then filled with recognition. Amy had no idea why he would recognize the three fillies but she wasn’t going to stand around to find out.

“Girls…” Their little hooves were moving faster before she had even finished the command. The girls had worked with Amy enough times before to know when to move without question. “Run!”

“Wait! You there! Stop them!” His cry brought the attention of not only his personal guards but also the patrol that was heading towards them. Before he had finished speaking Amethyst and the girls were already at a dead sprint towards the alley. Amy used her magic to shunt the confused ponies out of her way while the three fillies nimbly dodged between their legs. When they reached the relative safety of the alley’s entrance Amethyst used a touch of her magic to ignite several barrels that flanked the entrance, hoping to slow down her pursers.

However before they were even a couple of body lengths down the alley a rumbling shake came from behind them. The power of the magic was unlike anything Amy had ever felt before, it left the walls sparking and made her horn itch. She dared to glance back for a second. Following close behind was both the smaller squad and the full patrol. They were a mixed bag of unicorns and earth ponies. In the sky there were already several Pegasi patrols following from above.

Amy knew she had only seconds to act and her years of working with Fluttershy let her know exactly what course of action she needed. Just as Fluttershy had gone without food when there wasn’t enough money to provide, so to would Amethyst Star do what was necessary to protect her fillies.

She used a massive wave of magic to extinguish all the nearby mage lights, throwing the area into total darkness. As soon as the lights went out she tackled the fillies into the doorway of a shop. They could never hide here for long but they were out of the way so they wouldn’t get run over. She used the last remaining bit of her magic to find a small drain in the street and push the girls inside. It was far too small to fit in herself, but they would be safe there. Almost before she was done the mage lights came back on.

Now that every pony could see her she ran and jumped up a series of boxes so she could get on the roof. She was almost immediately lost to the sight of the three small fillies sitting inside the storm drain. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle huddled together while Scootaloo watched the different hooves go past. All three of them were trying to still their breathing so it wouldn’t give them away.

Suddenly they heard a distant scream of pain. All three froze, then Sweetie Belle started to cry silently onto Applebloom’s shoulder. Quickly the flurry of action that was in front of them died away till they couldn’t see any hooves through the grate at all.

After several minutes Scootaloo broke the silence by turning around to face Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. “What…what are we going to do?”

The three fillies looked at each other with wide eyes. Applebloom was the first to speak. “Amy wanted to tell the resistance about what was happening, right?”

Sweetie spoke next, her voice breaking and squeaking as she tried to hide her emotions, “Maybe if we can get on the train back to Ponyville, we can tell Fluttershy what happened.”

Applebloom was about to speak when Scootaloo put a hoof to her mouth. All three froze as the sound of a solitary pair of hooves echoed down the alley way. They huddled closely together as a powerful wave of magic swept over them. The sound of the hooves got closer as another wave of magic hit them. This time they physically couldn’t move, no matter how hard they tried.

A pair of black hooves stopped right in front of the drain. Then the unicorn’s face pressed right against the drain.

“Look what I have found! Won’t my Queen be happy to see you! Though not as happy as your sisters will be when they see you! Ha ha!”

***

I stared wildly around the room. All around me my friends had fallen to arguing again. Rarity wanted to set off to find her sister immediately. She still felt ashamed that she had dragged Sweetie Belle to the edge of nowhere and she had been lost there. And she was furious with both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy for what they had done to her sister. Applejack was sitting in quiet shock. She wasn’t ready to face Applebloom yet. AJ hadn’t seen her sister since they were children. There was no way of knowing if Applebloom even remembered her older sister. Fluttershy and Pinkie were adamantly defending the choices they made with the various fillies. Pinkie’s seemed to be largely unintelligible nonsense that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Fluttershy was saying that she had needed thieves to help support the other children under her wing. I was at a loss of what to say. There was so much going on I couldn’t even follow and I was still shaken up from what I read earlier.

Just when I thought that the situation might boil over the door to the library crashed opened. All of us spun to face the door then froze. There standing in the doorway his mage hammer whirling like a weather vane in a hurricane was Silver Hammer.

“What’s happened? I could hear the shouting from down the street!”

It took us some time to calm him down again. He only dispersed his hammer after he had checked each and every one of us to ensure we weren’t changelings. Calming down Silver helped to calm the rest of us as well, but I could tell that if I didn’t take control of the conversation it would go crazy again.

“Every pony! I need you sit down and be quite! We need to plan out our next move and we can’t act rashly or everything we are fighting for will fall to ruin, and I would prefer if you not interrupt me!” All the other ponies slowly settled. Rarity was glaring around the room, AJ was staring at the floor, Fluttershy was glaring right back at Rarity, and Pinkie, well, Pinkie Pie appeared to be tracing patterns on the wood floor of the library. While I had a moment of silence I quickly tried to organize my thoughts.

“Rarity, Applejack, we can’t go after your sisters-”

“That’s easy for you to say! You don’t have any family here!” A stunning silence met Rarity’s words. She looked around a little abashedly then hardened her face.

“That’s not true.” My voice was barely above a whisper. The others leaned in to hear what I had to say. “It is true that my brother died fighting Nightmare Moon. And it is true that not being able mourn him indirectly killed my parents. But I DO have sisters here. You are all my sisters.”

I looked slowly around the room, holding each of my friend’s gaze in turn. “And just as you want to do the best for your sisters, so too do I want to the best for mine. Fluttershy, Pinkie, you two don’t remember the history we have together, but you will before too long. And even earlier then that you will learn why we were friends as we work together to bring this world to rights. Applejack, Rarity, you two know that together we have faced down so many challenges and problems. We can always trust each other in a bad situation.” I paused for a second to get their nods.

“And now we have to trust each other again. Rarity. You are going to have to trust that Amethyst Star is going to be able to keep Sweetie Belle safe. Fluttershy has protected those fillies for years, Sweetie will be safe for a little while longer.” She started to protest but I spoke over her. “The reason you have to trust her is because I can’t risk us splitting up. I can’t risk my sisters splitting up. Especially not in the most dangerous city in Equestria right now.”

“I agree.” Heads spun around as Fluttershy spoke. “Rarity, I’m sorry that I let your sister go. Just as I’m sorry that I ever let them steal for me. But there was no choice then and there is no choice now. Ponies are hurting now. And word is stirring from the capital. If anyone goes to Canterlot and something happens they will most likely be dead before the rest of us can assist them. But those three fillies are extremely capable together. Just as you say we were when worked together. As long as they stay together the will be safe. And Amethyst would die before she let anything happen to those fillies.”

Rarity stared at the floor with Applejack. After a few minutes they looked at each other, then Rarity nodded. “Alright. I don’t like it. There is nothing you can do to make me happy about this. But I’ll do what you need me to do. But Twilight…” I had started to smile, but that smile ran away from my face at her change in tone. “Twilight I want you to promise me. Promise me that once you are done with whatever you have to do, the next thing we do is try to find Sweetie Belle. Promise me Twilight!”

I looked her in the eye. “I Pinkie promise, I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, that we will go after Sweetie Belle as soon as we are back.”

Pinkie sat up when I started the promise. “Now you had better not break that, I strictly enforce the Pinkie Promise.” From what I had read in her file I believed her, I also didn’t believe the enforcing would pleasant.

“So what do you want us to do if it isn’t savin’ our sisters?” Applejack asked. I couldn’t tell if she was upset or relieved that we wouldn’t be going after the fillies.

“We will be hunting down Discord!”

I braced myself as the immediate uproar washed over me. I didn’t even listen to the various arguments. Instead I used my magic to magnify my own voice.

“ENOUGH!!” The deafening sound brought complete silence. “Silver Hammer and I have already discussed this fully. We think it is the best option. It is most likely that Discord fought with Nightmare Moon and Queen Chrysalis over the Elements. So that means that he most likely has at least one. Either way we can’t let him be free without swearing to us that he will help us.”

“But how will you do that without Fluttershy’s kindness?” Rarity asked.

Fluttershy herself merely raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. I knew she wasn’t willing to leave Ponyville and I didn’t know if without her element if she could befriend the Lord of Chaos. “I have to try. Celestia knows I don’t trust Discord myself but at the very least I can talk to him. Then, after we have his answer, and whatever Elements he might have we can move on Canterlot.”

“What about Rainbow?” I only barely heard Applejack’s quiet question. I swallowed then looked over her head at Silver Hammer. He nodded to me. She needed to know. They all needed to know, even if they didn’t remember who she was.

“Applejack. Girls. When I told Silver more about Rainbow Dash, he said he knew a pony like that.” Before the hopeful look could fully blossom on her face I corrected myself. “Had known. Rainbow served with the resistance under the name Storm Dash. She fought at the battle that happened in the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. She hasn’t been heard from since. She’s dead AJ.”

“NNNOOOOOOO!!” AJ’s anguished scream tore my heart out. “It can’t be! That doesn’t mean she’s dead! She can’t be dead!”

“Applejack! When we used the Elements I could feel the connection between all of us. I can’t feel that with her.” I paused as the weight of my words seemed to physically crush her. “I’m sorry AJ, I would bring her back in a moment if I could. She died fighting for a cause she believed in, and one we are fighting for now.”

The poor earth pony collapsed to the ground. Her grief went far beyond tears or any physical sign. She just lay on the ground her eyes glazed over. Eventually she stood up and walked out the door without saying a word. Rarity immediately got up to follow her.

“Keep your distance. She is going to need space to mourn.” I said to her as Rarity left. She nodded silently then left the library.

The bookless library practically echoed with the silence after the front door closed. Pinkie seemed surprised by Applejack’s reaction but otherwise seemed unfazed by the news. That was probably the hardest thing. I had known that AJ wouldn’t take it well. But to see another close friend of Rainbow’s completely unaffected hurt me to the core. Fluttershy was staring the ground deep in thought.

For the need of something to do I instructed one of AJ’s ponies to signal to the Sparrow that we would need to be picked up posthaste. I wanted us away from Ponyville as soon as Applejack was ready. Staying here wouldn’t help her any. It would be much better once we were away from all the places she had shared memories with RD.

The Sparrow arrived back at the library before Applejack. It really was a testament to its speed that it could get to Canterlot, refuel and get back to Ponyville in that space of time. I had already started the process of loading the Sparrow with what supplies we needed. I wasn’t sure what to do with the Elements at first. If things went south and Discord got his claws on them it could be the end, but maybe it would be the best for the bearers to carry their own elements. I held Applejack’s and my own and left Rarity’s behind.

I brought the chest Celestia had given me with us just in case. Maybe I could use it to blast some sense into Discord if he won’t listen to me.

When AJ arrived I went to greet and comfort her, but she brushed past me without looking at me. It looked like the news had aged her a decade. It was almost as if every line of her body had changed to that of a much older mare. She got onto Sparrow without a word then when everything was loaded gave her nod to the pilot. Silver Hammer went to the front to give the directions to the pilot.

I watched out the windows as my small town flew by underneath then faded into the distance. I prayed that there would be some ray of hope at the end of this flight.

* * *

Rarity stared at the empty sky. The Sparrow was invisible almost as soon as it took off from the balcony of the library, yet still she watched the stars. Her emotions roiled inside her. It was her first instinct to head straight for Canterlot to come to her sister’s rescue regardless of what Twilight said. She knew of course that Fluttershy had sworn that Sweetie Belle would be safe. She also knew that if Sweetie Belle was in trouble then there was nothing she could do by herself. After a few more minutes of watching the night she turned around and walked back down stairs. Down below Fluttershy waited impatiently.

The white unicorn didn’t quite trust the Pegasus who had sent her sister to Canterlot, into the manticores den. However the ruined state of Ponyville her home in another world made her put her trust issues aside.

“You know Ponyville’s problems best, so tell me, what do the ponies need most?” she asked.

“They need food and they need light and heat and they need hope.” Fluttershy’s cold tone continued to surprise Rarity. “You wouldn’t happen to have any of that on hoof?”

“N-no.” she struggled to regain her train of thought. She mentally reordered her thoughts. It would do no good to try to talk to Fluttershy like she was her old friend from Equestria Proper. There they could hold this conversation during day at the spa. Here Rarity would have to put on her business armor, just like when she was debating over the selling price of one her finest dresses. “Well actually yes, if you looked around you. You would see that”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at her sudden change of tone but otherwise didn’t react outwardly. Yet Rarity could tell that she was paying more attention.

“Applejack left some supplies from the Sparrow. So we have food enough for ourselves for a couple of days. So we won’t be a burden at least till we figure out some more permanent solutions. Now I have some ideas about those problems, but first I need to know something. Do you have a fence?”

“A fence?”

“Yes. You said you were a thief so who sells your goods once you steal them? Or do you keep them for yourself?”

“Of course I don’t keep it all for myself! The Cakes are my fences.”

“The Cakes? Really? Fine. Would they mind if we brought in a sudden rush of sellable items? Would their buyers find it suspicious?”

“Mr. Cake’s cut pays for that soup kitchen of his that helps feed the ponies. So he wouldn’t care at all. I never had contact with his buyers but he is smart enough to let the goods go in such a way that won’t raise suspicion. Why? Do you have some hidden collection of pocket watches that I don’t know about?”

“No. Much better. I know that outside of Ponyville there is a huge field that is filled with many fabulous gems. In Equestria Proper I have been going searching for gems there ever since I discovered the spell that reveals the gems. Plus in this Equestria I have discovered a much less complex version of the Mage light spell, so any unicorn can perform it. So then we can sell the unenhanced gems to Mr. Cake and the mage lights to the neighboring towns so we can alleviate some of the pain there too.”

Fluttershy leaned forward. “How many gems do you think you could find?”

“By myself I was never able to get more than a saddle bag full in an afternoon. But if I had some young backs to help with the digging and carrying I could probably do much more. Do you think you could arrange it?”

Fluttershy nodded. “I get some of my fillies and colts as well as a few others who can help. Also I’ll tell Mr. Cake to give his contacts a call.”

She immediately jogged out into the night. Rarity glanced at the Pegasi guard that AJ had left. Two broke off from the group and followed her out. The white unicorn addressed Thunder Lane one of the remaining guards.

“I think it would also be good if we had some more… battle ready help there as well. In Equestria Proper there was some unsavory characters in those fields, I would rather not enjoy their company again if I can avoid it.”

* * *

With Silver Hammer’s directions the Sparrow was making good time. Applejack had barely been seen during the flight. I was worried about her. I had never realize how special Rainbow Dash was to her. I desperately hoped that she would be able to recover though I knew it was harsh of me to expect her to recover this quickly.

“We should be approaching where the resistance thinks Discord has made his center of operations.” Silver said from the front. “We will be there soon.”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth then the sun leapt into the sky. The control ponies cried out as the light poured through the front window of the Sparrow. They swerved desperately trying to avoid a tree that was floating right in front of the air ship. With a screech we brushed against the tree. Applejack tumbled out of one of the cabins as the Sparrow shuttered and began losing altitude.

“What happened?” she shouted.

“Tree floating in the middle of the sky! Must have punctured the gas bag!” The pilot shouted as he wrestled with the controls.

“Find us a place to land! Twilight I am going to need your help slowing us down once we get close!”

That was problem with the air ships, once the gas bag was gone there was nothing to keep them in the air and they had no gliding ability. My magic would be the only thing that would keep us from crashing. As quickly as I could I began weaving my magic. First I expanded the rapidly deflating gas bag to try and create some drag to slow us down. Then I began my levitation spell. Trying to stop the Sparrow’s descent out right would probably kill me, but I could at least slow us down enough that we might survive the crash.

“Brace yourselves!” AJ shouted.

With a rumbling crash our rapid descent came to an abrupt halt.

* * *

Rarity and Fluttershy walked together to the gem field. Behind them trailed half a dozen of Fluttershy’s young ponies. With all of the help Rarity was sure they could gather up more than enough gems to help Ponyville. As they walked they kept a stern silence. The fillies and colts laughed and frolicked around. It was clear that they didn’t get out much, yet they all looked healthy and well care for. There was nary a sniffle or cough to be heard. Privately she wondered how many hungry nights Fluttershy had had to pay for the food and medicine for these kids.

As they were walking Fluttershy’s face suddenly lit up. Her scar was hardly noticeable as her smile spread across her face. Rarity stopped dead. There in front of them was Big Macintosh. Rarity’s breath caught in her chest. She had seen him in the line at the soup kitchen but hadn’t expected to see him again this soon, much less this close. Fluttershy walked ahead and embraced Mac with her good wing. After they had exchanged some pleasantries Rarity walked forward.

“Macintosh.” She said.

He turned to her, his confusion written on his face. “Do you know me?”

“Not here. But trust me Macintosh. We’ve met. But that conversation can wait. I assume you are here to help Fluttershy and I?”

“I’m here to help. I don’t know what I am helping though. And I certainly don’t know how you can help us.”

“Well Mac, I’ll show you.” She desperately tried to keep the tightness out of her voice. Talking to Applejack’s brother when he didn’t even know who she was tough but it was worse because she knew that there was no way she could explain it. Not without dragging AJ into the conversation. Instead she used her magic. She had been silently practicing the spell ever since her memories had been returned to her. In Equestria Proper she could do the spell almost without thought. Now even with the added strain from disuse half a dozen spots on the ground were immediately illuminated by the spell.

“Well kids, get digging!” She said as she turned to Fluttershy’s charges, her horn blazing with sapphire light. The fillies and colts quickly began to dig up the dirt under the patches of light. “Though do be careful! You might ruin the gems!”

Her desire to create a flawless performance for Mac was far overweighed by her artistic desire for undamaged materials. As the gems began to appear Macintosh’s jaw dropped further and further. Slowly a small pile of gems grew at Rarity’s feet. She raised an elegant eyebrow at the astonished stallion.

“Macintosh? If you wouldn’t mind.” He quickly began to gather up the gems into a small wagon he had brought with him.

“I have never seen magic like that before! Where did you learn to do that?” It was clear the stallion had never seen this kind of wealth gathered in one place before.

“I came up with the spell myself. Many years ago in a different place. A brighter place. Mac, I wish I could explain everything to you, but I only understand half of it myself but when my friends return I am sure they can make things clear for all of us.”

He nodded and continued his work. He was a simple pony. He didn’t need the mysteries of the universe explained to him. And he wasn’t burdened with the knowledge of another world where unicorn beside him had once been close to his heart.

Slowly they made a circuit of the field. Even as slowly as they moved they still only dug up a quarter of the gems they could be getting. Rarity smiled nonetheless. Even the small fraction they were digging up could completely change the lives of the ponies in Ponyville. She would set any unicorns she could find in Ponyville to enchanting them as soon as she returned to town.

“So you really knew Big Mac in your other world? Were you two… close? ” Rarity was a little surprised by Fluttershy’s question. The yellow Pegasus had been mostly silent the time.

“Yes I knew him. We tried off and on for a few years, but his dreams lie to far flung from mine. But we stayed friends.”

She was silent for a moment as she thought about the other world that existed only in the memories of her friends now.

“Excuse me for asking… it is never polite…in fact I wouldn’t ask at all if we hadn’t been friends in the other Equestria… but… uh.”

“You want to know about my scars.” Fluttershy’s statement interrupted Rarity’s attempts at a question. The white unicorn nodded silently. “I don’t have them in your world?” An equally silent shake of her head. “What a world that would be to live in.” she said bitterly.

“Earlier in the library you talked about a Pegasus named Rainbow Dash. Do you remember?”

Rarity was surprised by the change of topic. Instead of saying anything that might throw off Fluttershy’s story she nodded again.

“I knew her. We met at the summer flight camp in Cloudsdale. She was such a brave pony. I am not surprised at all that she joined the resistance. It was willingness to fight for whatever she believed in that inspired me to try raising Amethyst Star. If I could help prevent even one other filly from starving on the streets then I could be proud. And when I look at all these little ones who are safe because of me I am proud. Even if I hate myself for making them into criminals.”

“The summer flight camp was the last time I saw Rainbow Dash. Or my home. Or any of my friends.” Rarity struggled to follow the story as it meandered off and back on topic. “I never found out if any of them missed me or even looked for me. But once the sky was closed to me I could never go back. Once I was on the ground I had to make my way any way I could. I only ever stole out of necessity do you understand?”

Fluttershy didn’t wait for her answer. At this point Rarity might as well be a potted plant. Fluttershy was talking more with herself than with any pony else. “I fell out of clouds at the race. I’m not mad at Rainbow for what happened. It wasn’t her fault. But when I fell I thought I was going to die. Suddenly just before I hit the ground a huge swarm of butterflies came out of the forest and caught me. I’ve never felt as happy as I had in that moment.”

Rarity choked back tears at the happy look on her friend’s face. “It was the strangest thing. All the animals were around me. Animals I had only seen in school before. It was almost like I could understand what they were saying. It was almost like they could they could understand me. But then the skies were stolen from me. With my wing I will never fly again.” Now Rarity was crying. She had come so close. Out of all of her friends Fluttershy had come the closest to getting her Cutie Mark. Her correct Cutie Mark. In Equestria Proper it was only a moment before the Sonic Rainboom would frighten the animals. A Sonic Rainboom that never happened. Fluttershy had fallen silent as Rarity tried to get her tears back under control.

Finally Rarity asked the question. A question she had been increasingly dreading finding out the answer to. “So what happened?”

“Then they appeared.”

Fluttershy stared off into the distant night for a time. “There appeared to be a small storm out of nowhere. Then suddenly with a lightning bolt three ponies appeared. One was a small purple filly who flew up into the air. I don’t know what happened to her. One was some kind of giant bug. He had holes in his legs. Or maybe I just imagined that. Either way he could barely stand. The last one.” Fluttershy paused and swallowed. “The last one was a black unicorn. He looked like he could hardly see and his fur was singed. Yet still he recognized me. I had never seen him before but he recognized me.”

“And… and he attacked me. He couldn’t see very well and my fear gave me the speed to get away. But not unmarked. The blood blinded me as I ran. I didn’t stop running, even when I heard the lightning bolt that took them all away again. I ran and ran. In fact I ran till the last sunset. When the sun didn’t rise again the next morning I realized what he had said when he attacked me had meant. ‘With your death the sun will fall and the night will last forever!’ Well Nightmare Moon came to power even without my death, so maybe my life could help bring Celestia back. So I stopped running.”

* * *

Gradually I came awake. My mouth was full of dust and the air had a metallic taste to it. I lit my horn, and moaned. I was completely surrounded by bent and twisted metal. The memory of the Sparrow falling out of the sky came crashing back to me. The metal around me groaned suddenly.

“Twilight! Are you awake?” Silver’s voice echoed through the wreckage.

“Yes. Are you alright?” I called back. The Sparrow wasn’t a large ship, we couldn’t be too far apart.

“Yeah. We’re all fine. You summoned a shield around us right before we hit. AJ’s here, unconscious but alive. So is her crew and Pinkamena. All accounted for. Your shield just dissipated, so I hoped you might be awake now.”

The spell caster waking up after casting a spell like that was certainly one way a spell could dissipate like that. The unicorn’s subconscious continues powering the spell in their sleep. Ponies have died when they were knocked out with too powerful of a spell draining them while unconscious. He continued speaking, his worry clear on his tone.

“I didn’t see you put a shield around yourself. I guess you got one up before we hit.”

“I didn’t. I couldn’t manage the spell while slowing us down and protecting you.” I glanced around the hole I was in. Something had protected me though. Eventually my eyes were drawn to my hoof. There the Omnicanicron flashed dully. Whatever magic it had used had almost completely drained it.

“Thank you Celestia. Hopefully I can repay this.” I whispered to myself. Then, louder “The OC protected me. But it looks like its power is almost gone. So is mine. We need to get out of here before anything collapses more.”

A sudden shift in the metal brought a broken shaft of metal within inches of my fur. “Silver stop!” I shouted. “We are going to have to think this out if we are going to get out without bringing this whole thing down on our heads!”

The pieces stopped moving. Even so they wouldn’t stay where they were for long. I desperately tried to come up with a solution that would get us out of here. Again I looked at the Omnicanicron on my hoof. Celestia’s words came back to me. While the chest is a battering ram the Omnicanicron is a lock pick. Well we had tried a lock pick and that had worked great but maybe what we needed is a battering ram right now.

“Silver!” I called out. Distantly I could hear him moving. “You are the only unicorn with functioning magic right now. You will need to help the rest of get out. Pinkie! I know you can get out of anything, make sure you take Applejack with you.”

They both called that they were ready. I searched the wreckage of the Sparrow with my magic till I found the chest Celestia had given me. I also found the other gap where my friends were sheltered. Their hole wouldn’t last much longer. With my magic I turned the chest as best I could so that it was almost in line with us.

“Get ready” I shouted. Then I willed all my fear into a single concentrated spell. Hopefully the chest would know what I needed. With a deafening roar a massive column of light ripped its way through the ship. Above me I could see the Pegasi immediately taking flight as the opening appeared. Then Pinkie jumped into the pillar of light and was exploding out of the chest with AJ on her back. They were lifted up out of the wreckage and thrown clear. Finally Silver jumped down to where I was crouched. He grabbed me in his magic then summoned his mage hammer. Spinning it rapidly he punched his way through the scrap metal dragging me along behind him. With a sudden explosion of metal we were free of the ruined ship.

Behind us the column of sunlight still blasted through the Sparrow illuminating everything around. Besides me AJ sat staring at what had been her pride and joy. Her expression of shock, even as she was recovering from being unconscious tore at me. It seems like all I could do for the poor mare was take things from her. Abruptly the light sputtered then vanished. The chest had run out of power, just like the Omnicanicron.

We all sat in the silence that followed until it was interrupted by the screaming of metal as the Sparrow collapsed completely. Applejack stood at that sound.

“There is no good standing around here. We need to get away from all of that, I am sure that display will attract attention.” Her voice sounded broken. Like she had been singing or shouting for days, and now it was completely spent.

“Should we try and find Discord?” Pinkie ask.

“No. We are all spent. I say we make camp and sleep, when we wake tomorrow we can try and find him.”

“Ah, that’s too bad. He sounds like such a fun guy.” She said then skipped away. The way she never took a situation seriously was annoying even at the best of times, now it simply grated on me.

As we slowly walked away from the smoldering remains of the Sparrow, it seemed to me that the ship represented more than just our transportation. The ships were burnt. There was no turning back now. Whether we liked it or not, our path was set and now we had to walk it.

* * *

Corvus stood in the center of the massive throne room in Canterlot. In front of him, in a small cage were three young fillies. He recognized them from another world where they were the CMC, Cutie Mark Crusaders. The three huddled together in their cage trembling. In front of them was the cause of their terror Nightmare Moon. The Dark Queen stood triumphant over them. Corvus had explained carefully who these three were, and what they represented.

“When your precious sisters come to rescue you, they will find me waiting. And when they come either they will hand over their silly little elements or else. Then when they are powerless against me I will destroy them!” Her cackle echoed off the walls as lightning flared from her mane.

“Oh is that so?” The quiet voice brought complete silence to the throne room.

“Who dares question me? I am the queen of all of Equestria!”

“Another queen perhaps?” One of the guards on the wall walked forward as he spoke. Nightmare Moon turned to him in a rage, even more lightning jumping off her. Corvus strode forward to reprimand the errant guard. Before he could get close the guard burst into a column of green flame. The column reached all the way to the ceiling and completely engulfed the guard. Corvus ran backwards behind his queen, but Nightmare stood her ground.

As suddenly as it started the fire was gone and its place was Chrysalis the Queen of the Changelings.

“You!” Nightmare roared. The magic blast from her horn could have leveled a building had Chrysalis not fired a blast to match. Corvus was thrown backwards from the force of the two blasts colliding.

“Perhaps…” Chrysalis’s sibilant voice sent chills running down the spines of the three fillies. “Perhaps we can talk.”

“What could we possibly have to discuss with the likes of you?” Corvus demanded. “Guards seize her!”

“Oh yes. Guards. Seize me.” Chrysalis laughed, then she addressed the guards stationed around the room, none of whom had moved after Corvus’s command. “Guards?”

All around the room emerald fires ignited as every guard in the room revealed themselves as Changelings.

“If you want to talk, then talk. But do so quickly. You couldn’t match me at my full power before and you had the full swarm at you back. I can sense you aren’t anywhere near your full power now and this isn’t the whole swarm.”

“If you think you will be able to defeat the ponies that are coming for you by yourself you are wrong. They have beaten you and I before in another place, another time. They are wily and the power of their friendship is strong. But together we are much stronger than they are. They cannot stand against two Queens and two armies! Then once they are defeated my Changelings will infiltrate into the population. You have your kingdom, and my Changelings have all the love they could desire.”

Nightmare Moon looked ready to angrily refuse then her face softened. “If only my fool sister had been so willing to negotiate a thousand years ago, then perhaps we would not have needed to over throw her. We have a deal!”

The two queens stood together eyeing each other, as at their feet the three fillies trembled and shook in fear.

***

Author's Note

I've been gone for a really long time. I still don't know if I'll finish this story. I don't even know if anyone is still active on here. I was honestly surprised I still had the login for this account. I've had this chapter written for literally years and just had never gotten around to posting it. I think at my best guess I have three chapters left for this story. If you want to see it leave a comment, or else this one will stay unfinsihed.