Upheaval: Breaking Point
Chapter 3: Heaven, Moon, and Earth
The sun slowly rising above the horizon did little to lift Twilight's spirits as she trudged on across the rocky plain behind the others. They had returned to their camp, and slept. At least, she had tried to. She had been exhausted when they came back, but, try as she might, she couldn't fall asleep. The smell of blood and burned flesh lingered in her nostrils. She was sweaty, and covered in soot. The sight of Cold Hoof stabbing himself while looking at her in contempt wouldn't go away. She ended up simply lying on the ground for a few hours.
And a few hours was all she'd been given. The squad was up and moving before dawn. Nopony said a word. Vanguard had ordered Scarlet Rabbit to scout ahead, removing the slightest chance of anypony trying to strike up a conversation. Twilight walked between Pyre Valor, who was behind Vanguard, and Blademane, who brought up the rear. She didn't dare say anything. Pyre Valor still looked ready to pounce on anything she might say. She flinched when somepony nudged her rear.
"Move, chosen," Blademane said. "We should be at the fort by noon unless you delay us."
"I'm sorry," Twilight replied. "But we've been walking for some time, and we didn't even have breakfast." She turned away in embarrassment when her stomach rumbled.
"What's the matter, chosen?" Pyre Valor asked. "Are you scheduled for a cake sampling party by this hour? Do you miss the smell of milk tea in the morning?"
"I don't do those things!" Twilight snapped.
"Pyre, take the lead," Vanguard said before Pyre Valor could reply. With one last backwards glance, she switched places with Vanguard, who slowed his pace to match Twilight's. Despite being completely covered in barding, he didn't even seem to be exerting himself. "Here," he said. He pulled out a small pouch from his harness.
Twilight opened the pouch and found a yellowish, grain-like substance inside. "What's this?" she asked.
"Concentrated feed," Vanguard replied. "You get grouchy when you starve. Next thing I know, you and Pyre Valor will be throwing spells around. That should help."
Twilight poured a small amount into her mouth and started chewing. She grimaced; the feed was coarse and dry. It felt like she was chewing a mouthful of sand. "It tastes like cardboard!" she gagged.
"Kitchen Division's getting better then," Vanguard replied. "It used to taste like burned cardboard."
Twilight forced herself to swallow without any more complaints. She had probably taken Vanguard's only meal. Despite the small amount that she had taken, her belly stopped rumbling. Vanguard's dry humor was also better for her mood than Pyre Valor's scathing remarks.
The fortress they had been talking about stood by the horizon. It was a massive, walled structure atop a steep hill. The sight of a destination, indeed any landmark, in this barren place let her focus on something besides being lost in some strange land.
"So…could you tell me about this "chosen" thing?" she asked Vanguard quietly. She didn't want the others to hear. Pyre had walked far ahead, perhaps just to avoid her. "Maybe I'd be less provoked if I know why she hates me so much."
Vanguard matched her tone. "Not you. I don't think it's hate either. Pyre needs somepony to blame. You're just a convenient target."
"But what do you mean by 'chosen'?" Twilight insisted. "Chosen by who? And why?"
"We call ponies who live within the limits of the Heartland 'chosen'," Vanguard answered. "Princess Celestia chose you. To be exact, she chose your ancestors. They were to be the pony inhabitants of her realm. That symbol on your flank marks you as a chosen."
"My cutie mark? That's not what it means. It symbolizes my special talent, the skill that makes me unique!"
"Really? Then, what is your special skill which makes you so unique, Twilight Sparkle?"
"Well, my special talent is magic," Twilight said. She wanted to add that she was Princess Celestia's protégé, and she also represented the Element of Magic among the Elements of Harmony, but she didn't want to annoy Vanguard with boasting. Besides, all those titles amounted to nothing out here, it seemed.
"So, among millions of ponies, and throughout all the generations for hundreds of years, you can honestly say that you are the only pony ever with the talent for magic?"
"W-well…" Twilight was silent for a while. To say yes was simply too proud to be right.
"Your 'cutie mark' is a symbol of your place," Vanguard said. "It may symbolize where you specialize, but that's so you know where you stand in Princess Celestia's realm. I'm guessing that it makes for good bookkeeping on her part to have all you chosen ponies labeled."
Twilight's nostrils flared. "You're wrong," she retorted. "And that doesn't explain why you hate us!"
"I don't for one thing," Vanguard answered. "Suffice it to say for now that you chosen are a privileged lot, and those privileges that you take as 'normal' do not apply for the ponies that must live out here."
"Why won't you just give me a straight answer?" Twilight asked. "Every time you explain something, you just throw in more questions!"
"It's not my place," Vanguard replied. "Once you meet His Highness, you can throw all your questions at him."
"He's not going to hate me too, is he?" Twilight asked.
"Our prince has no time for sharing in the petty hatreds of his ponies," Vanguard replied. "He'll do what needs to be done, and that's it."
For some time, the only sounds came from their hoofsteps, the bits of loose stones rolling beneath their hooves, and the slight wind whistling through their ears. As they approached the fort, the landscape slowly changed. The plain was grassier, the trees more plentiful.
After what seemed like hours, Vanguard spoke once again. "You fought well last night."
"No, I didn't," Twilight said. "I heard Pyre Valor telling you about it. I was a useless burden. I couldn't lift one of them without tiring myself out."
Vanguard shook his head. "I didn't mean against the wolven. You stood up to four armed ponies. I can respect that."
Twilight’s ears folded. "You would have killed him anyway,” she said softly. “I didn't do anything in the end."
"Whether you succeeded or not isn't what I respect. It's the trying," Vanguard replied. "Don't put yourself down. Pyre said what she said because she expected you to fight as she did. She made an incorrect expectation, and was naturally disappointed."
"I still don't understand why I got tired so quickly," Twilight said. She was glad to move on to something else. "I can lift heavier things without that much effort."
Vanguard mulled it over. "You're out of your element," he said. "You're a chosen, and you've spent your entire life using your magic in Princess Celestia's realm. I'm guessing that your magic is weakened out here."
Before Twilight could reply, Vanguard looked skyward. A distant, flying figure was closing in on them when she looked as well.
Only seconds later, Scarlet Rabbit was hovering in front of Vanguard. "All's clear up ahead, Captain," he said.
"You took your time, Scarlet," Vanguard replied.
"I flew into one of the aerial patrols, so I chatted them up. I just found out something interesting!"
"What is it?"
"The prince is already on his way to the fort! Everypony thinks it's a surprise inspection or something!"
"Well, isn't that an interesting coincidence," Vanguard said. "We find something that needs his attention, he's already there."
"Do you think he knows about me?" Twilight asked.
"Maybe. How important are you in the Heartland? Are you the ruler of some province?"
"W-well…" Twilight hesitated a few seconds more. "I am Princess Celestia's protégé."
Scarlet Rabbit let out a whistle. "Wow," he said. "The princess' most trusted student has betrayed her! What a shocking turn of events!"
"I did no such thing," Twilight snapped. "I would never, ever betray Princess Celestia in any way!" She looked at both Vanguard Clash and Scarlet Rabbit, daring them to say otherwise.
Scarlet merely shrugged. "Well some betraying obviously happened. I mean, you're standing here, right?"
"Regardless, that would explain how his highness knows," Vanguard said. "'Protégé' would be important enough for the princess to search for you. She probably told her brother, and he tracked you down."
Twilight sighed with relief. Princess Celestia was already looking for her. It would only be a matter of time before she was back in Ponyville with her friends. She was especially worried about Spike. He did see her vanish into thin air.
Hours later, Twilight was passing through the enormous gates of the fort. There were three sets of them, each looked as if entire oak trees were felled to make a single beam, each reinforced with metal bands to make them stronger and more imposing. Three tiers of walls encircled the fort, the first one rising well over thirty feet. They were constructed with gray stone and looked as smooth as the surface of an egg. Heavily-barded guards lined each gate. They stood so still that it looked at first that they were metal statues. They presented a sharp contrast to the bustle of activity all around them. Ponies were rushing about the place, some dragging carts behind them, while others carried loads on their backs.
"Welcome to Fangbreaker Fortress," Vanguard said.
Twilight looked around, trying to follow some of the frantic pacing. "Why is everypony in such a hurry? Is this normal?"
Vanguard nodded. "Prince Terrato is arriving on short notice. That might mean a lot of things."
"Like Fenrir showing up for an all-out wolven attack!" Scarlet Rabbit piped in. "Wouldn't that be exciting?"
"Fenrir?" Twilight asked.
Vanguard looked sternly at Scarlet Rabbit before answering. "That's unlikely. This is either an inspection or about you, Twilight Sparkle."
"Who's Fenrir?" Twilight asked again.
"The King of Wolvengard," Vanguard said. "One of Equestria's prime enemies."
"Captain." Pyre Valor approached them as they walked past the third gate. "I'll take the plans and report our success." Vanguard nodded and Pyre Valor went on her way, Blademane wordlessly following her.
"I'm off to get a drink,” Scarlet said. “See you at Storm Brew's later, Captain?"
"Not today, Scarlet," Vanguard replied. "I'm taking Twilight Sparkle to a guest room so she can rest until his highness arrives. Then, I'm off to my quarters." When Scarlet flew off, he turned his attention to Twilight. "Follow me."
Twilight edged a little closer towards Vanguard as they walked through the halls of the fortress. It was nothing like the Royal Palace. Despite the high ceilings, it felt like a tomb. Everything was gray stone and wood. Decorations were scarce, limited to weapons hung on the walls or the flag of Equestria.
The flags themselves were odd. There were the usual figures of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but, rather than form the two halves of a circle, they formed only two-thirds. A third alicorn, a gray one, completed the pattern.
None of the ponies Twilight encountered had any cutie marks. To complete the strangeness, they looked at her cutie mark as if she was the bizarre one. Shuddering, she tapped Vanguard's shoulders with a foreleg to catch his attention.
"What is it?"
"I want to thank you."
"For what?"
"For not agreeing to kill me, for starters. For trying to be helpful, and for trying to cheer me up this morning."
Twilight nearly stumbled into Vanguard when he stopped and turned towards her. She couldn't quite see his eyes under the barding, but she could feel that he was staring at her more intensely than usual. "Do you mean that?" he asked.
"W-Why yes I do," Twilight answered. She steeled herself, matching his gaze with her own. "I mean every word."
Vanguard pulled something out of his harness and offered it to Twilight. "If you're truly grateful, then take this," he said.
It was a silver coin. Embossed on one face was a hoof descending from a cloud. A wolf, a bear, and a snake were crushed beneath it. Even in defeat, the wolf and the snake had bitten the fetlock of the victorious pony. A swipe from the bear had cracked the hoof. On the other side, "Nopony else needs to suffer" was engraved.
Twilight looked back up to Vanguard. "It's beautiful, if a little morbid. What does it mean?"
"It doesn't matter," Vanguard said. "Keep it. Don't show or even mention it to anypony."
He looked so serious that Twilight just nodded. She placed the coin in her bag, between the pages of the book she had brought along.
"Thank you," Vanguard said softly. He opened one of the doors in the hall. Inside was a small room with a single bed, a dresser, a chair, and a desk. "You can stay here and rest up. His highness will summon you once he's ready."
Twilight nodded again before entering. She collapsed on the bed. Her legs ached, and she still had hours to wait before the prince arrived. That reminded her: she was filthy, and she was about to meet a prince. Vanguard had already left, and she didn't risk going out there alone. If even a few ponies in the fort were as willing to kill her as Pyre Valor and Scarlet Rabbit were, going out alone wouldn't be safe. She settled in, cleaned up as best she could with a rag she found in the dresser, and waited for Vanguard to come back.
An hour passed before there was a knock on the door. She opened it, expecting Vanguard, and was mildly disappointed when a pair of guards stood there instead.
"Miss Twilight Sparkle, His Highness, Prince Terrato of Equestria, has requested for your presence," the guard to her left said, his voice muffled and metallic. They walked ahead of her, one at each side. They didn't speak again, leaving only the jingle of metal plates and their heavy hoofsteps to fill the hallway.
The guards brought Twilight to a pair of enormous double doors, each one more than five times her height. The doors opened into a massive chamber, which looked similar to Princess Celestia's throne room, only devoid of any decoration. Guards lined the sides of the room, and a red carpet extended from the doors to the throne. The carpet drew her gaze up to the pony standing atop the stairs.
He was a gray alicorn, much larger than Princess Celestia herself. It wasn't only height that set him apart from her. He was heavily muscled, with powerful wings placed behind his strong neck. His mane was a stream of deep red fire that blazed across the back of his neck. His tail was of a similar color and form. While the princesses wore bejeweled torcs around their necks, he wore a thick chest plate of unadorned, dark gray metal. His neck and legs were similarly covered. He wore no facial covering or any sort of crown.
Twilight knelt on instinct. Any doubt of Prince Terrato being actually related to Princess Celestia was gone.
"I am Terrato, the ruler of this realm you're in, chosen," Terrato said. He looked at her with eyes of a dark, almost black shade of gray, and he spoke with a deep and powerful voice that resounded across the chamber like a distant earthquake. "Tell me your name."
"T-Twilight Sparkle, Your Highness," Twilight replied.
"Something interesting happened to me this morning, T-Twilight Sparkle. Would you care to hear about it?"
Twilight nodded. "As you wish, Your Highness."
Prince Terrato descended the stairs, his features becoming more apparent as he closed the distance between him and Twilight. The tip of his horn appeared to have broken off. When he stretched his wings, a closer look showed that his left wing was a couple of inches shorter than his right. The tip of the wing ended in a rough edge.
"Celestia decided to contact me this morning," Terrato said. "A noteworthy event indeed. My eldest and dearest sister has hardly ever contacted me in the last few centuries. Why, for all her avoidance, I'd say that it's almost as if she doesn't give a crap about this place."
One of the nearby guards stifled a snort. Twilight swallowed a protest and kept on her knees. Prince Terrato didn't sound angry. Indeed, he sounded amused.
"A hysterical little dragon came to her screaming about how somepony called "Twilight Sparkle" disappeared in a flash of magic. Coincidentally, somepony had just broken through her barrier. A bit of logic later, she decided to task me with finding her missing protégé, who had accidentally teleported herself a few thousand miles off target, and ended up in my realm." Terrato stopped in front of Twilight, and gestured for her to rise. "You're fortunate that you happen to be particularly important to Celestia. Otherwise, I would be obligated to execute you, or keep you here forever. Since she insisted, I'm going to send you home."
"Thank you very much, Your Highness," Twilight murmured. Kill her? For just stumbling into this place? All the questions she had been asking silently since she came to this place started rushing back.
"You look like you have a bunch of questions to ask, Twilight Sparkle," Terrato remarked. "Or is that constipation? I haven't interacted with you chosen for a long time. If it's questions, go ahead and ask. Otherwise, the fort's medics might have something for you."
"Your Highness, I would like to know why you must keep this place a secret. Why are there "chosen" ponies who must not know anything about you or what you do?"
Terrato chuckled. "That's quite a thirst for knowledge you've got. No wonder you take to Celestia's teaching with ease!" He was silent for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was level again. "To explain, I'll have to start at the beginning. When the three of us came to rule Equestria, it was in hopes of creating an ideal kingdom of peace and harmony for all ponies. However, we soon realized that such an ideal would remain just that. Equestria is surrounded by other realms: Fenrir's Wolvengard to the north, Arugek's Ursinium to the west, and Sesyth's Ophidus to the south. Each of them wants a piece of our realm, and is more than happy to send armies to invade."
Terrato's voice darkened as he continued.
"When the invasions began, Equestria became an embattled realm. While Celestia and Luna governed, I led the ponies who rose to defend their homes against these invaders. We succeeded in protecting Equestria thanks to everypony's courage. That, and our neighbors were just as happy attacking each other. Time and again, we repulsed waves of invaders. Celestia, however, wasn't happy with mere victory in battle. The presence of war ruined Equestria for her. Fear and hatred of our enemies was understandably commonplace, as was the desire to learn more about fighting and killing. This was not the Equestria she hoped to rule. She brought this up with me and Luna, and we agreed on her plan."
Terrato paced the hall as he talked. It was hard to tell if the memory angered or saddened him, but he looked quite grim as he spoke.
"Celestia took the ponies least influenced by war, and gathered them to the center of Equestria. There, she raised a barrier, separating them from the rest of the world. The vast place enclosed became known as the Heartland. While Luna ruled by her side, Celestia entrusted me with the task of defending the surrounding lands. The Equestrian Legion, led by me, was to keep Wolvengard, Ursinium, and Ophidus from breaking through. I willingly accepted. Here we are now, centuries later, and our duty continues. Do you understand now, Twilight Sparkle?"
Twilight's eyebrows furrowed. "Princess Celestia kept all this a secret to keep the influence of war away from the realm she wanted to rule..." She understood. She understood everything, and she shuddered at it all. "I...I can't believe this! All this time we've been living happy and peaceful lives while others did the fighting! And they do so without being recognized!"
"That's the gist of it," Terrato said.
"This…this is wrong!" Twilight shook her head, as if she was trapped in some bad dream she had to shake off. "This can't continue!"
Terrato raised an eyebrow. "Well, that was a reaction I didn't expect. Now, I have a question too: how did you get here?"
Twilight told her story. At the mention of the skeleton and the gem she found, Terrato's eyes narrowed. "Do you still have that gem?" he asked.
"Yes, Your Highness." Twilight pulled out the stone from her bag. She stared hard at the sphere. It's soft turquoise was now dull gray, the warmth within gone.
"Looks like a mana battery," Terrato said. "A big one too. No wonder you botched your teleportation. A unicorn could use something that big to blow up a quarter of this fortress."
"I've never heard of such a thing before," Twilight said.
"It's a tool for war," Prince Terrato said. "Much too dangerous for everyday use. You could have blown yourself up if it wasn't for your high level of magical expertise. I'm going to have to talk to Celestia about this. As for you, it's time to go home."
Twilight fidgeted before asking the next question. "Your Highness, why would you to share all that information with me?"
"Well, you don't look like a blabbermouth." Terrato waved a wing dismissively. "But that's not important. It's fine since you're going to subject yourself to a memory lock spell." Terrato tapped Twilight's head lightly with a hoof. "You won't remember a thing by the time you get back to the Heartland."
Twilight tilted her muzzle to the side. "But...but what was the point of telling me if I'm just going to forget?"
"It feels good to tell a chosen pony my story. Therapeutic, you might say. However, it's either that, I kill you, or you stay here forever. Celestia will not allow any information about the Barrier Lands to leak into her realm. It's only because you're her precious protégé that she's risking this at all."
"Well, what if I--?" Twilight stopped a gasp halfway through.
Terrato leaned forward, eyes stern and curious at once. "What if you?"
She sighed. "Very well, Your Highness."
Smiling, Prince Terrato lowered his head and touched Twilight his horn. The world disappeared with a blinding flash.
Blinking groggily, Twilight found herself sitting in the middle of her living room, surrounded by scattered books and papers.
"T-Twilight?"
That meek, disbelieving voice, stilted by half-sobs, came from one corner of the room. Twilight followed the sound, and found the small huddled figure of a young dragon.
"Twilight! It's really you!" Spike rushed forward, tackling Twilight with a fierce hug. Tears ran down his cheeks as he sobbed. "I was so worried, I thought you were gone for good! I…It's so great to have you back! What happened? Where were you?"
Twilight hugged Spike in return. "I…I don't remember," she said. She remembered casting a spell by a cave and…nothing.
"You've been gone since yesterday noon." Spike wiped away his tears. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? What happened to your eye?"
"I'm not hurt." Twilight put a hoof to her eye. It was swollen and painful, but she was otherwise fine. The stars twinkled outside her window. She had been gone for a day; a day she had no memory of. She took off her bag, and shook out its contents for clues. A few books tumbled out, but it was the metallic ping of something striking the floor, that drew her attention. She picked the object up and inspected it.
It was a small, silver coin.