Her city celebrated.
Pegasus ponies danced among fireworks in the sky while their earthbound cousins twirled around lights both magical and mundane below. Music and song flowed from every quarter, and while it clashed at times, a current of harmony made even the most different of styles work to a common beat on this night. Voices called out in joy and laughter, and everywhere, absolutely everywhere, the magic of friendship sparkled in the eyes of her people.
Princess Celestia, ruler of the nation of Equestria, Shepherd of the Sun, looked down from the balcony of her personal chambers and smiled. Her gaze specifically lingered on the gardens of her castle. There the party had gotten off to a late start but was all the more intense for it and showed no signs of slowing down. Her little ponies danced and laughed and shared together with such fervour, such untainted joy that she felt her heart swell with pride. It had been a trying time, and they had all been so strong in finding their way through it.
Her eyes sought out one particular pony. Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn whom she had taken on as a student so many years ago was just as involved in the festivities as any other. She had even sang earlier, in front of the crowd no less! It was something the ancient monarch could not imagine the young mare she sent to Ponyville two years ago doing. Watching her now - confident, outgoing, making and enjoying friendships - in her secret heart Celestia delighted more in that image than in the joy of all the rest of her little ponies combined.
Celestia watched her student strut out onto the dance floor with two of her friends, then winced and sucked in a long, hissing breath. It was an amazing thing that Twilight had grown enough to actually participate in a party like this, but someone still needed to teach that filly how to dance.
A shadow fell over her, and Celestia looked up in time to see her sister glide down to the balcony. Luna, Princess of the Night, fellow ruler of Equestria, looked more than a little tipsy. She was clearly enjoying the celebrations a lot more than Celestia allowed herself to. Her uphill battle to improve her image with the populace had, ironically, given her much more freedom to interact with the ponies she ruled than her universally-beloved sister. Celestia had an image to maintain; Luna had an image to destroy. It was enough to make Celestia jealous of her younger sibling, a reversal of situation that she was absolutely overjoyed to accept as the payment for her sister's healing and safe return.
Luna touched down lightly, her silver shoes making little chiming sounds as she sidled up to Celestia and sat down. "It hath dawned on us, sister, that when Pinkie Pie throws a party she does not, as we have been informed our subjects are wont to say, 'buck around'."
"Luna," Celestia said, a warm admonishment in her tone.
"What, sister?" Luna asked, drawing herself into a regal pose. "Dost thou not appreciate such a fine turn of phrase? Or is it mayhap the festivities themselves that have in some way gained thy ire? Seeing as thou has planted thyself here, gazing down upon all from a perch high above, instead of joining thy subjects in merriment, one could be forgiven in thinking that thou has seen fit to spurn the celebration entire to play host to a fell mood."
Celestia snorted back a laugh. "No, Luna. Your elocution is slipping."
"What slander! We have not seen fit to give any of our subjects a taste of lightning in many a day!"
Celestia just smiled and shook her head. "Seriously, Luna? Elocution as electrocution?"
Luna shrugged. "What matter that my quips are suffering? I have taken many a mighty draught of the Griffin mead this night, I find it encouraging that I can carry a conversation at all."
"At least you've dropped the royal 'we'."
"Yes," Luna said, turning pensive for a moment. "When we began that tradition we spoke in the plural because the word of one of us was the word of both. I had not thought that such a practice would have been so ... forgotten."
"It wasn't right," Celestia said. "When you were gone, it wasn't my place to continue speaking for you. And a thousand years and a lot of hardship makes us all forget things that were important once upon a time." She nuzzled the smaller princess. "If you'd like we can re-start the tradition at court. Explain the reasoning behind it and I'm sure my little ponies will adapt to it in no time at all."
Luna shook her head. "No. It is a tradition that died for a reason, and I must move beyond it so as to become the Princess Equestria needs today, instead of the Princess it once shunned an eon past."
Celestia favoured her sister with one of her best smiles, then returned her gaze to the party below. "To answer your question, Luna, I am not spurning the party. Nor am I in any sort of dark mood. I just wanted to come up here and see it all, all the happiness my little ponies are feeling. It's always after times of hardship that they come together most strongly. While the Changeling invasion lasted only a few hours, it scared so many of them so badly. To see them now, unafraid and unfettered, it is a wonder and a delight."
"To make no mention of the royal wedding that has just occurred!" Luna said. "A matter for grand celebration beyond the survival of another attack on our fair nation."
"Indeed you are right," Celestia said. "I'm so sorry you weren't there."
"As am I, dear sister. Though that business you did have me watch over was of great import to our nation, I am greatly saddened that I was not there to see the grand wedding of our dear... what is she to us again, sister?" Luna asked with a sly look.
"Niece," Celestia replied.
"Ah, yes. Our dear niece. Prithee, sister, tell us which of our beloved siblings begat young Cadance? I am ashamed to admit that perhaps the mead has gone more to my head than I realized, for I am quite unable to remember having any siblings besides thyself at all."
Celestia laughed this time. "Oh Luna, you couldn't have asked this when you first met her?"
"Perhaps I should have," Luna said. "But there is much about this world of which I am wholly ignorant after my banishment. I had always intended to ask, but the thought would slip from my mind whenever I had the chance to, crowded out by more pressing and immediate concerns. Now, please, what is the girl to us?"
"She is a direct descendant of the Unicorn King," Celestia replied, memories of a time far more than a millennium gone bringing a wistful smile to her lips.
"Ah, and so many questions are answered and new ones arise." Luna said, contemplating similar recollections. "Did they finally succeed, then? Is she like us? She seems so much more... complete than their first attempts."
"They did succeed, in a way. But no, she's not like us," Celestia said. "She is a unicorn of great power, but she lacks much of the Pegasus magic beyond cloudwalking and a little bit to help her fly, and she has no Earth Pony magic at all."
"And yet you refer to it as a success?" Luna asked, frowning. "That is no more than the wretched experiments were capable of a thousand years past."
"Please, Luna, they were wonderful ponies," Celestia held Luna's glare only for a few moments before relenting. "Okay, some of them were wonderful ponies. You liked Electrum Dream, at least." Luna finally broke her glare and snorted derisively. As her sister stared out over the city, Celestia couldn’t help but think she was remembering the unicorn princess she had once been friendly rivals with, long before the Nightmare found her. "Cadance is special,” Celestia continued. “There are a few others like her around, winged unicorn throwbacks to the experiments the unicorn royals did to insinuate themselves into our rule. The actual experimentation, the quest to become like us, ended not long after you... left."
Luna's eyes turned downcast. "It always comes back to that, doesn't it?"
"It was the end of an era," Celestia said. "So many things ended or were changed because of it. For the Unicorn Royals, I told them that their attempts would create another Nightmare before it could ever result in a success, and after the devastation of Nightmare Moon the only response they could have was to abandon what they were doing. In recompense for giving up their dream I integrated them officially into the court. All direct descendants of the Unicorn King are princes and princesses of Equestria now, officially as my nieces and nephews. And yours, now, as well. Every few generations one of the family lines produces a winged unicorn."
"Such as Mi Amore Cadenza."
"Yes," Celestia confirmed. "But as I said, Cadance is special. She may not have all the magic of the three tribes as we do, but what she does have is a piece of the Deep Power."
"Does she?" Luna asked, impressed enough to forget her momentary melancholy. "I have never felt it in her."
"It isn't nearly as much as you or I have, Luna, but the fact that it's there at all is incredible. She can only call upon it sometimes. Such as when she and Shining Armor repelled the Changeling invasion."
"I have heard it was quite the feat of magic," Luna said, an excited smile gracing her features. "A great wave of pink light that washed away all the vile changelings from our fair capitol. I have no doubt that stories will be told of this day for centuries! Although, I did hear some of the guards making light of Shining Armor's barrier, especially its grand hue. Sister, tell me in truth, is pink no longer a proper stallion's color?"
Celestia choked back another laugh. "No, Luna. It's been taken by the fillies I'm afraid."
"Oh. I must confess that I had been assuming much about the sexual preferences of our subjects simply by the fashions and colors they chose to employ. So many mares in pink. Now I perhaps understand better the reaction I got when inviting them all to a rousing game of hoofball."
Celestia couldn't hold it back this time, letting out a long and hearty laugh. "Oh, Luna, sister, thank you. I might have poked fun at it earlier, but your sense of humor is as strong as ever."
"A-ha-ha. Yes. Humor," Luna said, perfectly straight face marred only by the way her eyes darted from side to side. "In any case, Cadance has demonstrated a sliver of the Deep Power, you say. I would assume from the way in which recent events have played that it manifests only in response to a great need in her Talent."
"Yes, and Cadance's Talent has always been Love. Encouraging it in others and experiencing it in herself." It had been one of the reasons Celestia had encouraged her to foalsit. Her caring personality and Special Talent could only have positive effects on a certain young Unicorn who was going to need to know as much about caring and friendship as possible.
"A strong power to have," Luna mused. "As great, some might say, as the Elements of Harmony themselves."
Celestia looked back down at the party where the bearers of those items were watching as two of their number engaged in a hoof-wrestling match. "Yes, some might say that." And they would be wrong, she silently added.
"The Elements of Harmony," Luna said, following her sister's gaze. "And with true bearers to match. It is quite lucky that Cadance so wished them to be a part of her wedding that, despite having never met five of them before, she had made solid plans for their attendance long before Chrysalis took her place."
"They are quite famous in some circles," Celestia pointed out. "And famously led by my own personal student Twilight Sparkle, whom Cadance had met and formed quite a bond with. As a Princess of Equestria it was only right that such celebrated personages attend her nuptials."
"Of course,” Luna said, unamused with Celestia’s thinly-veiled bragging. “And so wonderful that they each had something important to contribute directly to the wedding itself, other than their presence."
"They are immensely talented ponies," Celestia said.
"That is a certainty. I'm told that they fought off nearly a hundred Changelings while making their way to the Tower of Harmony, before they were overwhelmed," Luna said, dramatically throwing up a hoof as if imagining a great battle.
"An exaggeration. There was likely no more than fifty Changelings. Probably closer to thirty," Celestia said.
"Ah, Rainbow Dash does appear to have something of the braggart to her," Luna mused, looking down at the pony in question, who had lost the wrestling match and was apparently badgering Applejack for another try.
"Only something?" Celestia asked, eyebrow raised.
"Am I mistaken again?" Luna asked, looking back to her sister. "I was under the impression that it was not arrogance to claim ability where one actually possesses it."
"Still true, Luna, but it's become less socially acceptable to rub everypony else's face in it."
"Was that a criticism?" Luna smiled mischievously. "By Celestia? Of one of her subjects? Why, I have barely heard such from you in the two years I have been free. I had begun to think that perhaps you had transcended such things in my long absence."
"No, Luna, I've simply learned to hide some of my less pleasant opinions more securely." Celestia sighed. She knew where this conversation was going, and as much as she was delaying the inevitable a part of her wished her sister would just hurry up and get there. It was hard enough to know what was coming, this slow drawing out truly grated on her nerves.
"Very well, but braggart or not, Rainbow Dash has regaled me with all the myriad goings-on that I missed due to my daily tasks outside of the city. She can be quite the storyteller when she is wont to be. The descriptions of their flight through the city to the Tower of Harmony and the battle with the thirty-or-hundred Changelings were quite exhilarating. I felt their despair as they were captured so close to their goal, and their triumph as Cadance and Shining Armor used their love to blast away Chrysalis and her brood."
"It is a wonderful tale," Celestia said, watching as the festivities had switched to some sort of karaoke event with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in a duet.
"Indeed it is. Though I found myself glad that the bearers failed to gain the Elements. Can you imagine it? The power of Harmony unleashed three times in two years?" Luna was closing in on her goal now. The smile vanished from her face and her stare bore down on Celestia, made heavier with the rising anger that tightened Luna's musical voice. "And this time, not for an otherwise unconquerable foe, but for a meagre beast such as Chrysalis? 'Twas a shame I was not there, else I would have made short work of the so-called queen and her retinue, and spared the bearers the burden that nearly fell to them."
"Yes," Celestia agreed in a dead voice. "You would have."
"Oh, but there is one curious part of the tale that I had to be told thrice before I could accept it," Luna said. The obviously forced joviality in her tone stung Celestia like a slap. "You fought her, that Changeling queen, in all your majesty, and were defeated by main strength. Then you told the bearers to seek the Elements, as they were their only hope. Quite curious."
"Well, Luna, it's been a while since I've had to fight anything, and I've been extremely out of practice," Celestia said, but her words lacked conviction. "Also, Changelings gain power from love, and she was feeding from both Shining Armor and Cadance, who, you'll recall, has Love as her Talent as well as access to the Deep Power. Is it so strange that I, a Princess of a long-peaceful nation, might fail in such a circumstance? And am I so removed from Ponydom that I would not have a moment of panic on that occasion and perhaps make a foolish request?"
Luna fell silent for a long moment, thinking deeply. "Yes," she finally allowed. "Under such circumstances, I suppose, as you say a Princess of a long-peaceful nation might falter, and panic. I would accept this but for one fact."
Here it comes, Celestia thought, closing her eyes and waiting for the inevitable blade to fall.
"You have been raising the sun and moon for the past thousand years, and she bested you in a contest of main strength!" Luna snarled as she rose to her hooves, her wings snapping open in her rage. Her volume reached close to Royal Canterlot Voice levels and Celestia winced, hoping the music in the garden would be loud enough to cover the shouting. "She did not use war magics or trickery or indirect means or some will-sapping power! You blasted raw magic at each other, and she won out! How can this be?"
"Luna," Celestia said, trying to be soothing and placate her furious sister.
"No, sister!" Luna snapped, stepping away from Celestia and pacing back and forth across the balcony as she talked. "I have drunk a barrel of mead to gain the courage to confront you on this! I will say my peace before you claim yours! You let her win! It would have been a trifle to overmatch her, even strong with Love as she was! We have known it since the early days of our reign, no being, pony or not, can match us in direct power. We can be defeated by cleverness, and deceit, and unknown magics, but only one force we have ever faced has been able to overwhelm our power completely! And equal to the Elements of Harmony Chrysalis is not."
"The Elements aren't the only thing stronger than us," Celestia said, remaining seated by the railing as she watched her sister stalk around her.
"Pfah! He does not count!" Luna stamped one hoof, the silver shoe ringing a clear tone against the marbled floor. "You let her win, and then you commanded the bearers seek out the Elements. Not in panic, but with purpose! As I recall the events of the past several weeks, I find that I was called to be away during the day just at the point Chrysalis would have made her switch. Then I could return only at night, to watch for the threatened attack, and could spend no time with our 'niece'. Yet you did spend time with her, and knowing her as well as you seem to, would have been aware of the change in attitude completely at odds with her normal character. Yet you were not suspicious, yet you ignored your own faithful student, who is perhaps the most intelligent mare I have ever met, when she was warning everypony about what she discovered! You knew!" Luna stopped her pacing and shoved an accusing hoof at Celestia's face. "You knew that Chrysalis had taken Cadance's place, and you set her up! You were planning to have the bearers wield the Elements against her all along!"
"Luna!" Celestia shouted, cutting off her sister's tirade. The two Princesses stared at each other in silence for a minute, gathering themselves. Then Celestia dropped her gaze, her wings fluttering restlessly in her guilt. "Yes. I knew. I recognized the disguised Changeling within minutes of being in her presence. I almost revealed her then, but then I considered alternative options. Yes, the bearers of the Elements were planned to be part of the celebrations, but that was Cadance's idea, not mine. Cadance was close with Twilight since before she was my student, and marrying her brother. Of course Twilight was going to be there, and with the rest of the bearers and their individual skills, it only seemed right to invite them all to do what they do best for Cadance's big day. That was all decided long before I ever knew of Chrysalis."
"I see," Luna said, voice cold. Her wings were once more furled at her sides, but Celestia did not mistake that for an end to her anger. "Continue."
"With our spies learning of the imminent attack and Chrysalis taking Cadance's place, I knew it was all connected, and I knew when it would all come to a head," Celestia said. The words were leaving Celestia in a rush, as if she were a balloon filled with secrets that Luna had poked a hole in. "I let Chrysalis think she had me fooled. She was never foolish enough to use mind-controlling magic on me, but she kept up the act far better around me than she ever did around everypony else. I played oblivious and let her go on, waiting for the moment when she revealed herself and I could make the bearers take up the Elements once more. You're completely right about that. I threw the fight. I made Twilight and the others think Chrysalis was a real threat, then sent them for the Elements. I hadn't quite realized how many Changelings Chrysalis had brought with her, otherwise I would have made the battle a little more spectacular in order to injure enough Changelings that they would have made it. After they were captured I was just about to step in before Cadance and Shining Armor saved the day. That's the truth."
Luna just looked at her sister, expression unreadable, before responding with one whispered question. "Why?"
"Because I didn't want to be the one to save the day again," Celestia said, sighing. "My little ponies are so precious to me, but they love the idea of me so much that they forget I'm not an omnipotent god. I am, at best, a pony of a god. Flawed, imperfect, sometimes careless, and unable to always be there to save them if they fall too far. The more my little ponies rely on themselves, the happier a world this will be. On the day when they no longer need me as their Princess, I think I will sing with more joy than I have since we first used the Elements of Harmony. It's been a painfully slow process, but I've been working on it for a couple centuries now, and I take every opportunity to move it along."
"No," Luna said. Her voice was quiet now, as cold and distant as the moon she commanded. "Thy personal fatigue with thy rule is not what I was asking for. To encourage our subjects to rely upon themselves and the relationships they build together is a noble thing, and while I would suggest that thou needst not tear thyself down to build them up, I find it utterly besides the point. That to which my question pertained was the matter of the bearers of the Elements, which thou didst knowingly send to use those weapons once again!"
"They aren't weapons!" Celestia protested, locking gazes once more with her sister.
"Have we ever used them otherwise?" Luna demanded. "Sister! Such power is too great to be used in any but the most dire of needs! Even for us the power of the Elements was overwhelming, for mortal ponies the damage can only be catastrophic!"
"The Elements don't injure them," Celestia said.
"Not in body, perhaps, but in spirit?"
"Not in spirit either. Do you think I would subject them to such danger?"
"I think thou dost not know what the Elements truly are," Luna accused. Celestia stayed silent, she had no response to that. "Did you ever find the truth about them?" Luna asked, making an effort to speak in modern Equestrian as she resumed her pacing. "Who made them? For what purpose? What we do not know about the Elements far outweighs what we know. And they do cause damage to the spirit, sister. I have had them turned against me twice now, and I know. Even to the wielder they do damage. I saw what they did to you when you turned them on me, and I cannot help but feel the Nightmare would not have found me had we been less free in our use of that power."
"We just found them, Luna," Celestia replied, trying not to slump against the balcony's railing. This was their first real argument since Luna's return, and it was draining her reserves of control faster than she would have thought possible. "We could use them because of what we are. The others who bore them for us were the same. These six? They were destined to bear them. I think the Elements themselves chose these ponies to wield them. Our severed connection with them is evidence enough. We were just temporary guardians, waiting to pass them along to their true owners."
"And does that make a difference?" Luna demanded. "They are still mortal ponies."
"Yes, I believe it does," Celestia said, conviction filling her and stilling her restless wings. "What I did today was wrong. I will admit that to you. But getting them to become more comfortable with using the Elements? That I think is necessary."
"Why? What have you foreseen that would require such facility with those weapons?"
"They aren't weapons, Luna," Celestia gently insisted. "That power, it's not meant to destroy. No matter how we used them in the past. You're right, when I turned them on you, it hurt. Not just because of how I was forced to hurt my own sister, but in a way that felt like something was being torn out of me in a very real, very literal sense."
"Your mane changed," Luna said. It was as much a question as a statement of fact.
"Yes," Celestia said, turning introspective as she remembered the long hours over the centuries spent trying to find the reason for that change. "I didn't understand what it was. I still don't. I was still connected to the Elements, I was until Twilight and the others took them up against Nightmare Moon. I searched my heart and my soul, and while it ached for your loss, it was otherwise whole. They do not hurt their bearers, Luna. They perhaps do something else, but they do not cause damage."
Celestia looked down again, at the six friends who took up so much of her thoughts in the last few years. They sat around a table now, laughing quietly so as not to disturb the young dragon who had fallen asleep and wrapped himself in the table-cloth. "I had hoped that the Elements had chosen bearers because you were due to return. When I realized Twilight was chosen by the Element of Magic I knew that I was not going to have to use them against you again myself. I knew that the Elements had chosen bearers to free you from the Nightmare, not just banish you for a millennium. I searched high and low for the other bearers, found them, and gathered them all in the place I had prepared to meet your return."
"Hah, I was sensing far too much contrivance in that," Luna snorted.
"Contrived or not, I think all I was doing was speeding up the process. Those six would have found each other one way or another, and taken up their Elements with or without my guidance," Celestia said, watching the friends in question talk, almost envious of their camaraderie. "Twilight was the worst in that regard. So very anti-social. You have no idea how many nights I stayed up fretting about how she was going to forge the bonds necessary to use the Elements. I couldn't be overt on that, of course. False friendship pretended to for necessity would never have worked. But every manipulation I made to get her to open up to others failed utterly. On the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration I was such a nervous wreck I couldn't even go out among my little ponies and join in the all-night party."
"I remember. I was much disappointed when you didn't fight or scream or beg. You just seemed relieved," Luna mused on that for a moment. "I suppose in a way that contributed greatly to my freedom. I was so disturbed by your lack of resistance I could not focus my all upon the ponies seeking the Elements. I am in the confusing position of thanking you for being more worried about your student's hermitic nature than my own imminent return. Is my pride pricked, or am I grateful?"
"Be grateful, Luna. You are free."
Luna nodded smartly. "Grateful then. Yet you were coming to a point about the Elements and their bearers, continue."
"The point is they came together, and they freed you. I was overjoyed, and I locked away the Elements, secure in the knowledge that their work was done. With my sister at my side there was nothing that we couldn't handle together. Twilight and her friends could live out their lives as the heroes they were, celebrated or unknown as was their choice. I resolved to spend more time among my little ponies and with a few minor Dragon and Parasprite related snags, everything was running smoothly," Celestia smiled, but that smile quickly fell away. "Then Discord returned."
In an instant the temperature plummeted to far below freezing. Frost grew like white moss out from the hooves of the Princess of the Night, crackling like fire in the sudden stillness. Her eyes glowed, burning white with anger far greater than that which she had directed towards Celestia earlier. "Do not say his name," she hissed. "He should not be given the honor of such recognition."
"His name is a concept, Luna. I can't very well ban it," Celestia chided, careful to keep her voice neutral.
The rage in Luna's eyes faded away, and the temperature began its slow climb back to normal. "Forgive me, sister. The thought of him, it does me ill."
"There is nothing to forgive, Luna. It disturbs me as well." Celestia favored her sister with as comforting a smile as she could manage before she continued. "More so in that only the Elements could defeat him. This has always been true. Yet with our connection to the Elements severed, only Twilight and her friends could defeat him, and I was unable to help them fight. I had to watch as they were twisted by his games, one by one. I was reduced to trying anything in a desperate attempt to bring them back to themselves. Fortunately, my student has never been able to resist the written word and tends to throw herself completely into what she's reading. All those wonderful friendship reports, one a week, every week, perfect for jogging memories of better times."
"And so they defeated him," Luna said, once more coming over to sit beside her fellow Princess. "A sound and great victory, made a great deal more quickly than our own victory over the monster. Sent him back to his granite prison for eternity."
"The very fact that they had to use the Elements again made me start thinking. Thinking that your return was not the reason the Elements chose bearers, or at least not the only one. They were chosen, Luna, for a purpose. Just like the Elements were made for a purpose, and in the same way we don't know what that purpose is. My assumption that it was for you was arrogant, and I see that know. However, because I do not know why they were chosen, and because I cannot simply make assumptions about it anymore, I must instead help them to be ready to face whatever challenge it was that they were chosen for."
"And you think that by having them use the Elements at every opportunity they will be so prepared?" Luna asked, incredulous.
"Well, there is a learning curve with them, you remember?" Celestia said, glancing at her sister before letting her gaze drift off into the night sky. "Those six have a natural affinity for their Elements, but they still need experience with them to be able to control the power, to direct it. The Elements aren't a weapon, to be primed and fired like a cannon. They require understanding, finesse, confidence. They need not only their bearers to be harmonious with each other, but also for each bearer to be harmonious with their Element. They need to experience them more, or they might not be ready for whatever comes next."
"And what does come next, sister?" Luna asked, her own eyes watching the Sun Princess, searching for answers.
"I don't know," Celestia shook her head, shivering. "And it terrifies me. The only foes that ever required the use of the Elements were Nightmare Moon and ... him. Every other enemy we used them against could likely have been defeated another way. It was just easier and more efficient to use the biggest power we had, and we can't have been using them properly when we did that."
"And is that different from sending them against Chrysalis?" Luna asked.
Celestia cringed. "Not at all. Of course. I am not perfect, and sometimes my own fear blinds me as much as it does anypony." The explanation felt hollow, but it was still the truth. Celestia returned her gaze to the gardens, her features tight with worry. "Yet still it remains. They are going to need to use the Elements again. I can feel it, in the part of me that is the Deep Power, in the moment before sunrise when everything is potential and nothing is made certain yet. Those ponies have yet to face their greatest challenge, and when it comes I will not be there to protect them."
Luna joined her in gazing down at the bearers, still talking and laughing but making their way back to the dance floor. "You must not manipulate them like that again. I will not stand for it. They are my friends, and my saviours. I cannot countenance such a violation of their trust."
"I promise, Luna," Celestia said without hesitation. "I cannot say I will curtail all my meddling, but I will not try to force them to take up the Elements again. On that you have my word."
"Good," Luna sagged against the railing, sighing miserably. "Yet now my thoughts are much like your own, and I find that your certainty has been shared. I, too, believe their use of the Elements, and the challenges that come with it, are not over for them. Huzzah, the angst has been doubled."
"No, Luna," Celestia said, raising her sister's chin with a gentle hoof. "This isn't a multiplication of worry, but the sharing of a burden. I know it will be lighter with you here to carry it with me. I should have remembered that, we are always stronger together than we are alone."
"Ah, the lesson of Harmony. How easily do we forget," Luna said, then smiled at her big sister, leaning over to nuzzle her softly. "There must be a better way to allow them to become more familiar with their Elements. One that doesn't involve lying to them or letting threats to the nation go through with their evil plan."
Celestia stared down at those girls. At Fluttershy swanning gracefully about the dance floor, her shyness forgotten in the warm glow of the cider she'd been drinking. At Applejack, bouncing back and forth in an energetic rodeo routine adapted for the steady beat coming out of DJ PON-3's magical speakers. At Pinkie Pie, who seemed to be in ten places at once, some of them physically impossible for her to get to. At Rarity, who was doing her best to match Fluttershy's grace without mussing up her dress too much. At Rainbow Dash, who was proving that breakdancing had never lost its awesomeness, it just needed the right pony to rediscover it.
Finally, she looked at Twilight Sparkle, the most powerful unicorn she'd ever seen in all her incredibly long life, her personal student and treasured friend. Twilight Sparkle, who at times felt almost like a daughter to the Princess. The bearer of the Element of Magic, the one who brought the others together, who faced Nightmare Moon, who defeated the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. Twilight Sparkle, who even now was...
"Sister, is your student having some sort of fit?" Luna asked.
Celestia sighed. "No, Luna, that's just the way she dances. Now, hush, I was following a train of thought."
Twilight Sparkle, who even now was dancing like... no, skip that thought. Twilight Sparkle, who was diligently researching the endless font of wonder that is the Magic of Friendship. Twilight Sparkle who would... research diligently and thoroughly absolutely anything the Princess told her to.
"Luna," Celestia said with building excitement. "I think I know how to do it."
"No tricks?" Luna asked, eyes narrowed warily. "No manipulations or lies?"
"No. I'll be as straightforward as possible," Celestia promised.
"Very well then, sister," Luna said, pulling away. "I shall take my leave."
Celestia frowned at that. "Oh? I was hoping you would stay with me a while. I do so love spending as much time with you as I can, and now that my greatest burden is off my back I would like to talk with you some more."
"Ah, yes. As would I, dear sister," Luna assured her. "However, as I have told you, my courage to face you in accusation and debate is somewhat lacking when I am in my clearest head. Hence I didst drink far more than my measure, and now do I pay the cost. My bladder is fit to burst and there are foreboding rumblings that stir within my stomach. Thus I depart to the water closet. I might be some time. Best continue without me," she stood, trotting back into the castle.
"Oh. Well. Uh. That's my bathroom you’re heading towards. Don't make too much of a mess, please."
"Fear not, I shall be as conscientious as befits a Princess of the Night," Luna gave her sister a smile. "But please, dear sister. Thy subjects wish to see thee amongst them, not simply watching from above. Thou art their rock and their guide, and I know thou feel they depend upon thee too greatly, but thou art yet their Princess. Be with them, be among them as you and they both wish. This is a night of celebration! As such it is my domain, and I give thee permission to cease for a time to be the one set above and become instead the one set beside."
Celestia grinned at that, it was just like Luna to get poetic as a parting shot. "I will, Luna. I promise."
"Excellent. Now, turn away so as my unprincessly gallop may go unwitnessed."
Celestia snorted with laughter, but turned her head back to the party. Her thoughts burned with an idea. It was elegant, simple, easy, and far, far too obvious. She was forced to wonder if she had become so used to thinking four layers deep that she was missing the golden insights that lay only on the surface. That thought bore some consideration, but for another time. Now she summoned up a scroll, quill and ink. She need not send this as a letter, Twilight was going to be in Canterlot for the next few days and would need to know about her new assignment, and have the tools to complete it, before she left. Yet the form of their communication had become so ingrained it didn't feel right to start this any other way. With a shrug she gave in to the impulse and began her letter.
Twilight put down the letter she had been hoof-delivered. They would be leaving for Ponyville in a couple of days, and she looked forward to spending the intervening time with her parents and the Princesses, but this threw her for a loop. Her, studying the Elements of Harmony? The most powerful magic known to Ponykind? A mystery even to the Princesses?
She jumped around her room shouting "Yes!" over and over again for a good ten minutes before she was calm enough to actually process what the Princess was asking her to do. This was a whole new area of research. New frontiers, new boundaries, new rules. The books on the Elements of Harmony talked about what they had been used to do, and even that was thousand-year-old knowledge that may or may not have been lost, misremembered or just plain lied about. Even the Elements of Harmony Reference Guide blatantly stated that no one knew how the Elements did whatever they did, worse yet it didn't even know about the Element of Magic. She would be the first pony in a thousand years to be able to study the Elements properly, and with so little information even from the Princesses she might be the first to study them properly ever!
How was she going to begin? Jump right into experimentation, or collect all the periphery data from those thousand-year-old books first? What sort of tests could she even devise for them? Oh, there were just too many ideas!
Twilight pulled a scroll from her traveling desk, grabbing the quill and poising it above the page. She would start with the first thing that she always started with. A checklist! But what should be the first item on the checklist, and what, really, was the checklist about? Should she make a checklist for what she needed to do in order to make this checklist?
No. She needed to back off. Think about this differently. This wasn't like her usual research efforts. This was serious business. She couldn't be goofing off with checklists about checklists. That was fun, but this was the big leagues. This was a personal request for actual, serious research from the Princess herself! She needed to take a whole new approach this time.
She spent a long time staring at the blank page, turning it all over in her thoughts. Finally, with a slow, even smoothness that her writing usually didn't possess, she inked her quill and began to write.
Twilight raised the quill, staring at the questions she had laid out. Well, it was no checklist, but it was a start. She would have to think about this a lot more before she could even begin to answer any of those questions. She had a feeling it was going to take a long, long time to work through this. The Princess might just have given her the project of a lifetime.
Twilight Sparkle smiled. She was very, very okay with that idea.
She started to put the quill down, but stopped, staring at the page with its burst of possibly-unanswerable questions. She wanted to share this enthusiasm with her friends. She was sure they'd be as interested as her to find out the truth about the Elements they had all been chosen to wield. It was going to be an exciting time. She just couldn’t tear herself away yet. The page felt unfinished, somehow. As if a stream-of-consciousness assortment of questions and ideas could ever be finished or unfinished. With a grin Twilight realized what was holding her there. The page was missing something, and she knew exactly what that was. With a laugh she scribbled a few words as a heading to the page before magically drying the ink and bounding towards the door.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, but had to blink a few times to be sure of it since she couldn't see anything either way. She definitely wasn't at home. It was never this dark at home, not with the stars at night and the sun in the day. Maybe, if there was a major storm, but it was too quiet for that. Besides, she'd never be sleeping at home if there were a major storm on the schedule.
She flapped her wings and stretched. It felt like she'd taken one killer nap, all her muscles were stiff and lethargic. She didn't feel tired, though, or groggy like when she usually woke up. Instead she just felt kind of stiff, like she'd been sitting still too long. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her physically, she just couldn't see anything. For a moment she thought she'd gone blind, and a burning panic tried to claw its way up her throat, but she shoved it back down.
She was Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, and Rainbow Dash did not panic.
So, since she wasn't panicking or anything, the thing to do was to figure out where she was and if there was a light or window or something else to let her see. She took a tentative step forward and felt something wet and soft under her hoof. She froze, and it was then that she noticed the smell. It smelled like dirt and dust and stale air, but it also had another smell, a slight coppery tang to the air. She knew that smell, she'd been injured enough times. Blood.
"Oh Celestia, please no," she whispered. The sound shockingly loud in the otherwise silent blackness. Her voice felt as raw and unused as the rest of her, and the dusty air made her cough violently even as she backpedaled from what she had stepped in. She backed right into an earthen wall, the impact jarring even more dust and dirt free and into her hacking lungs.
Once she had recovered, she crept back to where she had smelled the blood. She didn't want it to be what she thought it was, but she had to be sure. She felt wetness under her hooves and then butted up against a still form. She probed for a moment, gingerly running her hooves over the form, getting a mental picture of it while her heart sank and fear began crawling along her spine. It was a pony, a stallion from his size, and he was dead. Her hoof touched the gaping wound in his chest and she retched, bringing up stinging bile and nothing else.
Suddenly the darkness was too much, the stale air and silence oppressive. She couldn't be here, couldn't be in this place with a dead pony. She had to get out, and now. She ran back to the wall and began running around the outside of the room with one wing outstretched and touching the wall to find an opening, any opening, through which she could escape. There could be any number of dangers in the room that she could run blindly into, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was getting out.
Suddenly her wing was touching nothing but air. Dash didn't think, just lunged. She jostled through the narrow opening, bruising her side and pulling a few feathers from her wings as she stormed into the tunnel. It was still incredibly dark, but she had a path to follow, so she ran. Her headlong rush took her face-first into the wall more than once, but she didn’t care. She'd not only been the speed-queen of Junior Speedsters flight camp, but the crash-queen as well, and all the impacts did was tell her to change direction. The tunnel seemed to go on forever, twisting and turning at sharp angles. The uneven floor tripped her up and the walls stood barely far enough apart for her wings to compensate before she broke a leg. Still, she didn't slow down or let up. If there was a tunnel there had to be an exit.
She thudded into the wall again, and rounding the corner her eyes caught the first glimmer of light she had seen. It was coming from around yet another twist in the tunnel, showing her where to turn so that she hit the wall with her flank instead of her face. Then she saw it: light, air, freedom. The exit.
She burst out of the tunnel with a gasp, rolling to a halt in the dirt and sucking in great gulps of fresh air as she stared up at the open sky. The light was brilliant, stinging at her eyes, but she didn't mind. That minor pain was far better than the endless dark of the tunnel and the chamber at its end.
She spent a few minutes just breathing, calming herself down before she went about the important business of finding out why the hay she had been down there in the first place. Finally she pulled herself to her hooves, taking a long look at her surroundings. She was in some sort of depression dug into the ground, like someone had been making the foundations for a house. The dirt was packed with the prints of thousands of hoofsteps, and she could clearly make out that the pit had been full of tables and benches and other signs of ponies at work not too long ago.
She walked the pit from one end to the other, then hopped up to hover about a hundred feet up and get a better lay of the land. It felt obscenely good to get her wings moving, like she'd been grounded for a week and this was her first chance to fly. She resisted the urge to take off into the sky and get the wind in her mane, but only barely. With keen pegasus eyes she scanned her surroundings, and found that she was nowhere she recognized. There were mountains in the distance to the east and north, and a forest that stretched all around her for miles and miles. To the south she saw a river winding through the forest and she thought she could make out the vague shapes of buildings along the river's path, but far enough away to be near the horizon.
The clouds clung to the mountains, which usually meant that the local pegasi were being lazy, but this seemed different to her. The clouds were too high up, and far too thin. They barely looked substantial enough to walk on, let alone be used for shade or rain or all the other things the weather teams used them for. Looking around she saw what looked to be more substantial clouds in the distance to the west, but they were too high up as well, and too large. Either whoever was running the weather in this place was doing the poorest job she'd ever seen or there was something else going on, something she couldn't immediately see. The way the clouds looked sent a shiver down her spine. It almost looked like the way the weather got out over the Everfree Forest.
She shook the foreboding thought away and focused on the rest of her surroundings. She didn't get to travel much as chief weather-pony for Ponyville, but Cloudsdale was a roaming city and when she had lived there she'd gotten to see most of her nation's landscape, and this wasn't it. She was sure she had never seen this place before, not from the air or the ground, which meant she was outside of Equestria.
That thought made her frown. She didn't know a lot about the lands outside of Equestria other than the basics anypony learned in school and what she had heard from her friends. Definitely not enough to know any geography. She turned towards the south and the buildings in the far distance. She would have to go and see if anypony could help her figure out how she had gotten there, and what had happened to that stallion back in the chamber.
Her shoulders sagged at the thought of the dead pony. He hadn't died easy, or by accident, not with that gaping hole in his chest. With a quick shake of her head she threw off the morose thoughts, instead focusing herself on those buildings and the possibility of help.
It was then that she noticed the two dark shapes winging their way to her. With a cry of joy she recognized a pair of fellow pegasi as they flew from the south. She rushed towards them, leaving a trail of rainbow light in the air in her haste to meet the oncoming ponies and get some answers.
"Oh, gosh I am so glad to see you guys!" Rainbow Dash cheered as she zipped right up to the two pegasi. They were both stallions, one was a dark brown with a light caramel mane, the other a charcoal gray with a dark green mane. Both of them wore identical silver-trimmed blue outfits that covered their chests, forelegs and flanks, hiding their cutie marks. A silver crescent emblazoned the front of the outfit, the whole of which reminded her of the barding the royal guard wore, except this was obviously some sort of cloth or stiff fabric and not the metal of armor. Their eyes were covered by dark-tinted goggles that hid their expressions. They reared back in surprise as she approached. "Look, I don't know where I am," Rainbow Dash rambled, "I don't know how I got here, but I am this close to freaking out! Back there in that pit there's this really long tunnel and then there's a room and there's a dead pony there. I didn't do anything to him, I swear, but you gotta help me!"
The two pegasi shared a look made unreadable by their tinted goggles. Then one turned to Dash and said something slowly and clearly. Dash blinked in confusion, she had no idea what he had just said. The words sounded somewhat familiar, like she'd heard the individual sounds before, but the whole of it together just made no sense. "What?" she said. The pony repeated himself, and it made just as little sense the second time around.
"Oh, just great!" she shouted, throwing her hooves up to the sky. "I don't know where I am or how I got here, and you guys don't even speak Equestrian! I thought everypony spoke Equestrian!" One of the pegasi was saying something but she cut him off. "Listen, pal, I don't speak whatever crazy language you do, okay?" She began circling around them, the pegasus equivalent of pacing back and forth. "Okay, Dash, think! Think, think, think! What would Twilight Sparkle do? Teleport home. Okay, bad idea. What would Flutter - no, wait, worse idea. Don't I have any friends that would be helpful if they were me, or I were them... or something?" She spared a glance at the pegasi who were talking to each other while keeping an eye on her.
"Applejack!" The idea hit her suddenly and she stopped in midair, only losing a little altitude before she started flapping her wings again. "She'd be honest, and forthright and she'd talk real loud and real slow! That's it!" She turned to the black-clad pegasi. "I. Am. From. Equestria." The pegasi shared another look. "You know? E-ques-tri-a? Homeland of ponies? Home of Princess Celestia, who raises the sun?" This last got a reaction, the eyebrows of the ponies shooting up. "Yes! Celestia! You know her, right! I. Am. From. Celestia! Or, not her, specifically, but where she's from."
One of the pegasi fixed his covered gaze on her and said something, but Dash caught 'Celestia' as a recognizable word.
"Yeah! Celestia! Celestia! I'm from where she is, get it through your thick skull featherbrain! Take me to someone who speaks Equestrian! Thank you Princess for reminding me why its so awesome to have you in charge."
Then the pegasi pulled out batons that attached to their hooves and rushed at her.
She dodged the first swipe with a sudden lurch upwards that took her in a quick arc to the other side of the stallions. "What the hay, guys?" she shouted, staring at them incredulously. They didn't even pause to listen, the charcoal one powering at her while the other circled around to flank. Rainbow Dash ducked under a swing, sliding inside the other pegasus' reach and blocking him from swinging again. The weird goggles that he was wearing stopped her from seeing his expression, but the way he suddenly jerked back it was almost as if she’d bit him.
"What is going on?" she cried out as the brown stallion flew in and tackled her. Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly used to being attacked out of the blue like this, but she was a black belt and knew how to handle herself in a fight. Now, all the ponies who taught her would say never to fight someone bigger than you if you could help it, especially if they had a weapon and you didn't. That just wasn't the Rainbow Dash way of doing things, though. She'd bucked a dragon in the face! These two punks weren't going to intimidate her into running!
The tackle had disrupted both of their abilities to fly, so they were dropping like brittle stones to the ground that wasn't far enough below. She reared back and smashed her forehead against his nose. The goggles cracked as her bad aim caught them instead of directly on her intended target, and a stinging pain flashed through her head. That was okay, pain like that wouldn't even slow her down. Her opponent, though, reeled back, giving her enough room to regain flight control and swing out of the dive.
She rocketed into the sky, wiping blood away from her eyes with one hoof. Her tackler made his own rough save and started climbing after her while his partner moved to intercept. Rainbow Dash watched the pony trying to block her and rolled her eyes. He got in front, baton ready, but with a burst of speed that left a prismatic trail behind her she cut four hard ninety degree turns in quick succession and simply bypassed him and went back to her original heading. A look behind her showed him staring after her, mouth gaping in shock.
She laughed, unable to help herself. The wind was in her mane, her wings were only getting warmed up, and she was already impressing the locals. Now if they would stop trying to beat her up and speak some simple Equestrian her day might just start to turn positive.
The brown stallion caught up to the charcoal one, and they paused to say something to each other. The brown one took off his cracked goggles, which revealed bright blue eyes and clarified his expression. He was angry, furious. She wondered where all the anger she saw was coming from. She hadn't embarrassed these two enough for that kind of ire yet.
Rainbow Dash came to a halt, more than three hundred feet up from the two stallions. "You guys ready to talk yet?" she shouted down at them. "I mean, I don't mind kicking your flanks all over... uh, wherever we are, but I'm kinda having a crisis here, and I really don't wanna fight!"
The charcoal stallion started shouting something back, but it was all in their weird language that she didn't understand any of. She thought she caught the word 'Luna' though. Which might have been them confirming if she was from Equestria. Or could have been their word for salad, for all she knew.
"Look, guys," she replied, trying to communicate her situation in her eyes and body language. "I don't know what set you off, but I'm from Equestria, and I don't know why or how I'm here, and I just want to go home! Okay? Home, to Ponyville! Which is in Equestria! Which is ruled by Princess Celestia!"
The brown pegasus suddenly roared in anger and shot up at her. She was so surprised that she didn't even think to avoid him, but she did block the baton when he swung it at her, and let her training take over. Not knowing how the baton was attached to his hoof she wasn't sure she could just disarm him, but she couldn't let him keep swinging it around like that. Somepony might get hurt. So she grabbed the baton in her teeth and did a quick mid-air somersault. The stallion let out a high pitched scream as his forehoof was dislocated. She let go, the weight of the baton pulling on the hoof and making it hurt even more.
"Serves you right! What the hay is wrong with you?" The stallion cradled his injured hoof, staring daggers of rage at her while spitting a reply that she just did not understand. The sheer hatred in his tone communicated clearly enough, however, and it was almost like a physical blow. She had never heard a pony speak with that kind of anger before. She had been cursed at before, and badly, but never with anything approaching the utter vehemence she saw and heard in him. It was like she had lightning bolted his dog or something equally heinous.
She was so shocked by what she was seeing that she completely missed the other stallion swooping up at her. The baton slammed into her side with a sickening crack, knocking the air out of her and sending her tumbling down. She tried to right herself, but the blow had stunned her and they just didn't have the altitude for a long recovery. She crashed down, tumbling end over end and skidding in the grassy earth before coming to a rest on her back. She managed to suck in a deep breath, which she then let out in a pained wheeze as her bones protested the stress. "Oh yeah," she coughed, rolling to her hooves. "That cracked a few ribs."
She didn't have more time to recover as the two of them were dropping down towards her fast. She flared her wings and with one mighty downstroke she was shooting up to meet them. Her chest burned with pain as her flight muscles pulled at her cracked ribs, but it was a familiar pain, one that could block out without any effort. The charcoal stallion swung at her, but she was going too fast and had too much control. She ducked around the swing and bucked him in the side before ascending once more into the clear sky.
"Come on, guys," she said to herself. "Let's see if you wanna race."
The two pegasi turned and pursued her, their wings working feverishly as they tried to keep up with her constant acceleration. The landscape rushed by beneath them, but she was gaining altitude and with every passing second the ground became more and more distant. She looked back, watching as they slowly began to gain on her.
The charcoal one pulled something from his clothes, a weird tube with a box at the end, she couldn't tell what it was. Another baton, she guessed, but he gripped the box part in his mouth and pumped his wings harder closing the distance. She shook her head and focused on continuing her climb. She was already at safe altitudes, but she had no idea how delicate the local weather was and she didn't want to mess it up for a weatherpony if those bizarre, messy clouds were actually serving a purpose.
From this high up she could actually see all the way down the river towards the buildings in the south. There was a whole city that way, and it was huge! It looked like Manehattan, but spread out over five times the area. Skyscrapers clustered at what must have been the core of the city, surrounded by miles of streets and houses and buildings. She had never seen a city that big, never even heard of one. Wherever she was, it had to be one heck of a long way from Equestria.
Of course, with all the sightseeing she wasn't paying attention to her pursuers again. The brown one, with a growl of effort and a furious pumping of his wings, had caught up to her and took a kick at her wings. Dash saw him at the last moment, and with world-class reflexes she spun into an inverted barrel-rolling loop. The stallion couldn't keep up, dropping back. His partner tracked Dash's flight with his hidden eyes, carefully lining up the tube.
The shear forces at the speed they were going were intense, and she found herself relishing the cut of the wind through her feathers as she came out of her roll. Once again it struck her that it felt like the first time she'd been able to fly in weeks. More than that, it felt like the first time she had seriously raced, that day she had earned her cutie mark. The setup was almost the same, a couple of colts bashing her and thinking they could push anyone they wanted around. There was the thrill of it all over again, like racing was new and she didn't know for sure whether she could win. There was that same little voice in the back of her head urging her on, pushing her to go faster, fly harder, to burst the bonds of the possible and become a living legend. It was all that, turned up to maximum volume and pouring through her like molten sunlight in her veins.
"What's up with me?" she wondered aloud. This was too intense, and too soon after waking up in this strange land. She felt like she was losing herself to the joy of flight, to the urge to go faster. It was a terrible need that burned in her, a need to push past all the limits, to touch the spectrum and pass through it transformed. "Rainboom," she said, entranced by the word and the memories it conjured up.
She would have tried it. Would have climbed as high as she could then shot down fast enough and with enough magic to shatter light. She couldn't have stopped herself. The almost hypnotic reverie she was caught in shattered as something sharp and fast struck her flank, jerking her hips out to the side and sending her spinning in a dangerous tumbling mess into one of the thin clouds that clung to the high mountains. She bounced along the spongy surface of the cloud and skid to a stop, creating a shallow trench that slowly began to fill in with cloudstuff.
Rainbow Dash was almost more interested in the pathetic excuse for a cloud than whatever it was that had hit her, but a burning pain in her flank demanded immediate attention. She looked and found a metal dart sticking out of her side, just above her cutie mark. She reached over and tried to pull it out, but it was barbed, and a good inch deep in her. "What the hay?" she whispered, just before lunging to the side as another dart whizzed through the cloud where she had been standing.
She looked up to see the charcoal stallion circling above her, loading another dart into that tube device he had in his mouth. The brown one just hovered, eyes wide with shock, anger and disbelief. Her brow furrowed in anger. Randomly attack her with batons? Fine. Tackle, yell at and generally antagonize her? Okay, she could live with that. Not even try to listen to her or figure out what she was saying? It was pushing it, but she'd been treated worse. This? This was the last straw. They thought they could just dart her and get away with it? Well, they had another thing coming, and it was coming attached to her hoof! No more nice Rainbow Dash!
A burning sensation started tingling its way along her flank, a burning that was quickly followed by icy numbness. She shook her leg, finding that it was slow to respond and she could barely feel it when it did. The realization hit her, and all her anger drained away to be replaced by fear. The dart was poisoned.
"Oh horse apples," she said, and rearranged her priorities from 'kicking flank' to 'getting the buck outta here'. She leapt off of the cloud, heading over the mountains, accelerating as quickly as she could. The two stallions flew after her, puffing in their exertion as she put on yet another burst of intense speed. Rainbow wasn't racing this time, though, and she wasn't getting distracted by the scenery or by some weird feeling. This had just become about survival. She shifted herself into high gear, calling out her pegasus magic, and shot through the sound barrier.
Going supersonic always hurt, and it was always scary. It required letting the magic take over so much that a lot of pegasi who could do it still wouldn't. Once you had broken the barrier and let the magic do its work, though, everything got a lot smoother. She sped up to three times the speed of sound, a feat that all but the fastest pegasus would normally balk at. The mach cone spread out in front of her, barely visible with her keen eyes. It was a barrier composed of compressed air and magic, and she could feel the pressure on the other side of it waiting to shred her should that magic fail even for a moment. Rainbow Dash wasn't afraid of that pressure, she lived for the thrill of overcoming it. What she was afraid of was the way the numbness was spreading through her. It was at the base of her wings now, and her legs trailed limply behind her. What would happen when it reached her heart? Was it meant to kill her, or only slow her down? She couldn't out-fly poison.
After a couple minutes she risked a look back, but she couldn't see either stallion following her. They had looked like they were struggling just to keep up with her in the high subsonics, so she guessed they couldn't break the barrier on their own. That was a good thing. She was already past the mountain range and over a wide plain, with scattered forests she could see to the horizon, and one huge storm snarling and spitting in the distance. If those guys couldn't do supersonic she was way out of their range.
She let out a breath and began to decelerate. The burning was settling into her wings now, and she couldn't afford to lose feeling in them while flying. The turbulent shudder of dropping back to subsonic rattled her more than it should have. She wasn't compensating like she normally would. The magic receded as she slowed, and with its departure she was realizing how badly numb her wings had become. She couldn't even feel it when she flapped, and that loss of sensitivity was making her flight too erratic. Worst of all she was still going too fast.
Desperately she locked her wings outstretched. If she couldn't flap them properly, then she could at least glide until she was going slow enough to land. The ground was passing by too fast, and now that the poison had reached her heart it was spreading more quickly. Her tongue went numb first, strangely, and then her nose. It was a weird and terrifying sensation as her body just shut down around her. She focused all her will on maintaining course and not falling into the earth at several hundred miles an hour. She just had to slow down to the point where a crash wouldn't kill her. That's all. She'd crashed so much one more wasn't an issue, it just had to be slow enough. That's all she needed, just a little slower. It was a mantra she repeated over and over in her head. A little slower.
She was still thinking that when the tranquilizer knocked her unconscious and she fell from the sky.
Star Fall nibbled on the grass unenthusiastically. She didn't like foraging for food like this, but every time she was out in the field it turned out to be necessary at some point. For some reason she just couldn't plan her rations right. Her mentor, Twinkle Shine, would say it stemmed from a lack of self-discipline. Her guard, Astrid, would say it was because she used too much space to pack other things. Star Fall herself thought she just ate way too much on this side. She couldn't help it, she was always starving after crossing the Everstorm. Regardless of why, it meant she was eating grass now.
Most of the plants in the nightlands were different strains from the ones in the sunlands, regardless of how similar they looked, and having grown up on sunland plants she found the taste on this side to be unpleasant. It wasn't like it was bland, just wrong. She wondered how Astrid felt, if what she ate over here tasted wrong to her too. It was something to think about, at least. If so it might mean a tangible difference in the magic of the nightlands. That was an interesting thought, and she was sure Twinkle Shine would agree.
A sound like thunder cracked across the sky. It was loud enough that Star Fall actually felt the pressure change as it hit her. She looked up, surprised. There weren't any storm clouds here, and she was far enough from the Everstorm that she shouldn't be hearing the thunder from it. The tenor of the sound was wrong, too. It was something that poked at her recollection, a sound she had heard before, but not often and not in any context where it was instantly recognizable.
The idea struck her that it could be a weapon. She knew the Republicans had been experimenting with explosives, but there was no way they would be testing them so close to the Everstorm. She frowned, waiting to hear if the sound repeated, but all she got were a few faint echoes. She almost went back to her grazing when she spotted the shape falling out of the sky.
It hadn't registered at first because it was so far away, and so small, and she had just assumed it was a bird. Then it began to tumble irregularly through the air, losing altitude at a dangerous rate. Star Fall focused on that shape, and realized that it was a pony. A pegasus in an uncontrolled fall moving extremely rapidly.
Star Fall's wings flared out, her first instinct being to intercept and rescue the falling pony. She hesitated, though, the admonishing voice of her mentor reminding her that she was essentially a spy in enemy territory and any sort of daring rescue would be bringing too much attention to herself. She thought of Astrid, busy getting her own dinner and too far away to help if she got in over her head. The falling pony sped towards a messy reunion with the ground, but still Star Fall didn't move. She could see the pony more clearly now, a sky blue pegasus mare with a mane that had too many colors to call it any one shade.
Star Fall bit her lip, her wings shuddering in indecision. "Damn it!" she swore, finally giving in and leaping into the air. She focused, calling her magic to provide lift and thrust while her wings just caught the air currents and kept her stable. She shot towards the falling pegasus, furiously working out the proper heading to save the other pony without hurting herself. She quickly realized that her hesitation had cost her that chance. The best she could do was to ram the other pony in the side, hopefully bleeding off enough of her momentum in a direction change to prevent a fatal crash.
That would just leave them both broken, however, and while it might save the mare's life, it might also cost Star Fall hers. Even if such an impact didn't kill her it would definitely leave her and Astrid stranded in the nightlands until she was well enough to cross the Everstorm. If she ever was well enough. If they weren't captured during her convalescence.
She froze up as the worry bubbled up in her mind, her concentration faltering and her magic going with it. Star Fall nearly screamed at her own timidity, but refocused on the magic and kept going. She reached out willing every ounce of power into her speed as she approached the tumbling pegasus. But her calculations were off. The moment of worry had cost her the speed she needed to intercept, and now she was going to miss the falling mare. She stretched out a hoof, trying to do anything to slow the other pegasus down, but all she caught was the trailing edge of multicoloured hair.
Star Fall closed her eyes, letting herself slow down. She still heard the impact, though. The sound of a body striking unyielding earth at far too great a speed. She'd seen a crash like that before, while watching a race once as a filly. The thing they had pulled from the ground hadn't even looked like a pony anymore. They'd needed to use unicorns to clean up what had been left.
She shuddered, but banked around towards the crash site anyways. She had failed to save this mare, she might as well give her a proper burial. Even if her stomach heaved at the thought of what she might find. The falling mare had been going so fast and at a shallow enough angle that she had plowed a furrow through the dirt. That might have helped, but the dirt here was only a few inches deep before it hit rock. She could smell the blood already.
She landed a little ways out from the mound of dirt that was where the fallen mare would rest. She stared at that mound for what felt like forever, trying to will her hooves to carry her forward. Finally she took a step, then another, haltingly making her way to the edge of the crater. Tears stung her eyes, and she squeezed them shut. She didn't want to see the remains of the pegasus, she really didn't.
"Owwww," the sound that came from the crater made Star Fall's eyes shoot open. There, lying in a twisted, bloody heap, but not splattered or horribly deformed like she had imagined, was the blue pegasus mare. Two of her legs were obviously broken, as were both her wings, but other than a few gashes and scrapes the rest of her was intact. She was also staring right at Star Fall, bright eyes boring into her with incredible intensity. "Please tell me you speak Equestrian," the mare said, and Star Fall felt a shock go right through her.
That had been Old Equestrian. Not only that, but the pronunciation, the casual diction, all of it sounded like the voice of a native speaker. Which only the oldest Dragons could be. To find someone who spoke it so well, and under such circumstances, was shockingly bizarre. So bizarre that Star Fall couldn't stop herself from responding. "I do speak," she said. Her own command of the ancient language was clumsy, but her mentor had made her learn it as part of her studies.
"Cool," the mare said with a bloody grin. "I think I'm about to pass out, so if you could stick around till I wake up that... that would... be... awesome," As she was getting the last word out the mare's eyes rolled back and her head fell to the dirt. For a moment Star Fall was sure she was dead, but then her chest rose and fell with steady but wheezing breaths.
"Astrid!" Star Fall screamed out as she rushed into the crater. "Help me!" It was the quickest and easiest way to get her guard's attention this far away, and she was going to need the help to get this mare to somewhere safe. Somewhere she could heal, somewhere that Star Fall could find out why she knew a dead language so well.
She began to examine the other pony, finding her lightweight pegasus bones were miraculously intact after such a hard fall. Other than the wing and leg breaks, which were clean breaks and not splintered like they should be, her ribs seemed cracked, and she probably had a concussion. The gashes that oozed blood were all obviously from the crash, but there was one thing that couldn't be from the impact. Star Fall pulled the barbed dart from the hanging patch of flesh it had been stuck in. This was something used by the Republic police forces. Yet the nearest city was more than two hundred miles away, across the mountains.
"Dammit, Fall!" Astrid screeched as she dropped to the crater. Her golden eagle-eyes were hard, her beak stained with blood that she hadn't had time to clean off. She was the perfect picture of a predator interrupted in their meal. Astrid stalked up to Star Fall, then hesitated, her talons digging into the dirt as she saw what her charge was fussing over. "What the hell have you been doing?"
"Astrid, we've got to get her somewhere sheltered," Star Fall said, carefully checking the mare over for any other injuries. "You said there was a cabin near here, can we use that?"
"What? I don't know! Who is this chick, and what the hell is going on?"
"She fell, Astrid! She fell, and I need to know who she is!"
"Why?" Astrid asked, frowning. "We're already running late, the Professor is gonna be pissed enough as it is. I don't wanna know what she'll do if we just stop to care for every little thing that falls outta the sky."
"Astrid, please," Star Fall begged, looking away from the injured pony up at her guard.
Astrid held her gaze for a long moment before rolling her eyes and sighing. "Only for you, Fall."
"Thank you," Star Fall said, turning back to the downed pegasus. "See if we can use that cabin. I'm going to find something to set her legs and wings with before we move her. I'm not strong enough to carry another pony, so you're going to have to do it."
"Yeah, I figured." Astrid shook her head as she spread her wings. "I hope you know what you're doing."
Star Fall watched the Griffin go airborne, then returned her gaze to the impossible pegasus. "So do I."
Lieutenant Hard Boiled, celebrated detective in the Orion City Police Special Investigations Unit, could not believe what he was hearing. It was just too fantastical. If he didn't know that the two officers telling him this wild tale were upstanding members of the force he would have laughed them out of the room. As it was, he couldn't believe what he was hearing, but he couldn't deny that the stallions telling it to him were trustworthy, and the dissonance between the two was making his horn ache.
Hard Boiled, or HB as he tended to be called by his friends, was a very blue unicorn. His coat was blue, and his mane and tail were a darker shade of blue. All that blue made his eyes stand out even more. They were a shining, clear copper that stood out from his blue face like searchlights. His mane was cut into a short stubble, which left his long, sharp horn very prominently displayed on his forehead. He had to cut his mane short like that, his horn was very sensitive when he was using his magic, and the hairs brushing against it had been too annoying to keep. On his flanks were a series of characters in black, the runic script of ancient magic that made up his Talent Glyph, displaying his aptitude at his job for all to see.
The two stallions sat in front of him, looking bruised and exhausted. Their heads were enveloped in a soft cyan glow as the doctor they had called in worked her magic on their ruptured ears. The brown one, Lightning Flash, had to keep holding his wing down with a hoof or it would start twitching uncontrollably and aggravate the torn flight muscles. The other one, Ashland Forrest, arguably was the worst off, a bandage wrapped around his head covering up an eye that had been badly injured when his flight goggles had shattered. By all rights they should have been in the hospital, but they had insisted on reporting immediately. Too bad what they were reporting was nonsense.
"Let me get this straight," he said, staring at the two officers with hard copper eyes. "You were sent out to take a look at that illegal excavation we had reports of, but instead you were intercepted by some pegasus mare who declared her allegiance to the Solar Kingdom, then proceeded to out-fly, out-maneuver, out-fight and generally embarrass the both of you. Despite the fact that you are both Flight Talents who have been given the benefit of the Republic's finest training in hoof-to-hoof and aerial combat." The two stallions shared a look, then nodded in unison. "Not only that, but you insist that this filly not only out-flew two of the force's best Flight Talents, but also displayed Hummingbird level maneuverability, Cloudwalking and Supersonic speed? And this last after having taken a hit from a sleeper shot?" Hard Boiled sucked in a deep breath before bellowing, "What the hell are you trying to pull here?!"
The two stallions cringed, Flash even letting out a whimper as the shout hit his still mostly-unhealed ears. The doctor gave Hard Boiled a venomous look. "Lieutenant!" she snapped, her voice quiet but filled with as much anger as a roar. "I am not allowing this little meeting to take place just so you can aggravate the already serious injuries of my patients. You will keep your voice down, is that clear?"
HB nodded, chastened. "Fine. But please, guys, what you're saying is impossible."
"I know, Lieutenant," Forrest said. "But it's true. I have no idea who this mare is, but she's something else. I swear, after I hit her with the sleeper she stopped on a cloud like it was solid ground, then she just dodged another shot like it was nothing and took off. There was no way we could keep up with that kind of acceleration. I swear she went from zero to twelve hundred in ten seconds flat. And you, well, you see what the boom did to us."
"She was strong," Flash said. "Way too strong. And way too tough. I've got to be nearly twice her size, but she just shrugged it off when I hit her. She hit the ground too, after Forrest cracked her, but it was like the hit and the fall meant nothing to her. And she kept going faster, like she was playing with us the entire time. Mouthing off about her damned sun tyrant the whole time," Flash's face screwed up in rage, his pinned wing thrashing about until the pain overrode his anger and forced him to focus on stilling the injured limb. Lightning Flash's hatred of the Solar Kingdom was well known on the force, and he wasn't alone in it.
"What specifically was she saying?" HB asked.
"I don't know, Lieutenant," Flash said, Forrest shaking his head as well. "I don't speak Solar. All I know is that she kept spouting the nag's name the whole time. Throwing it in our faces."
"I don't know if she was trying to insult us," Forrest said. "But she did keep saying 'Celestia' a lot. She wouldn't respond to us, so we had to assume she was a spy or something."
"You had to, huh?"
Forrest nodded. "Yeah. But, sir, she was, well, she was like nothing I've ever seen before. It's like she had every pegasus Talent there is, and a bunch of earth pony Talents besides. What if she's some kind of Solar super-soldier?"
"Yeah, what if, Forrest? Maybe she was the Gray Mare in disguise," HB snarked, earning him reproachful looks from both officers. He sighed. "I don't think the Solar Kingdom would send some super-soldier out to the edges of Republic territory just so she could reveal herself for no reason other than to kick the crap out of a couple local cops."
"It really happened!" Flash shouted, then winced at the pain his own voice caused him. "It did."
"I believe you," HB said, holding a hoof to his horn. Nothing they had said was a lie, he was sure of that much. "But I don't have to take your word for it. Doc? What's your opinion on what beat them up?"
The doctor raised an eyebrow at the Lieutenant. "Officer Flash's right forehoof was injured by something exerting a very sudden, very strong rotational force on it, detaching it from his leg bone and very nearly twisting it right off. He also exhibits bruising consistent with high-speed impacts with another pony. Officer Forrest is suffering from several fractures of his ribs on his left side, with a layered bruise that is very clearly a pair of rear-leg hooves. Both of them have injuries that are the result of being quite close to a powerful pressure wave, the effects of which include, but are not limited to, severe internal bruising, internal bleeding, destroyed eardrums and damaged ears in general. This is not to mention all the muscular damage or officer Forrest's eye. So my opinion, Lieutenant, is that these two Stallions need to be in the hospital being treated for their potentially life-threatening injuries, not playing twenty questions with a detective."
"Pressure wave," HB said. "Like a sonic boom?"
"Exactly like one," the doctor replied. "If these two weren't Flight Talents, they could have died. If not from the boom itself, then from the fall afterwards."
"It really happened, sir. I swear," Forrest said.
"Of course it really happened," HB felt his horn pulse with magic, and he rubbed a hoof across his forehead to sooth the ache starting there. There was a mystery afoot, and his Talent was telling him it was a big one. Big and important. "Give me her description again. Details this time."
"Pegasus mare," Forrest began. "Slightly smaller than average. Sorry, can't give you height or weight, she wasn't on the ground long enough to get a decent measure. Lots of lean muscle, like an athlete, a racer. Sky blue coat, dark pink or light purplish eyes. Her mane was short, a kind of punky cut, but it was, uh," he trailed off.
"All of 'em, sir," Flash took up.
"All of what?"
"All the colors," Flash clarified. "Her mane and tail. They were every color. In order, front to back for the mane and bottom to top for the tail."
"That's one hell of a dye job," HB said. That elicited a small smile from both stallions, but they were too busy eyeing each other nervously to actually laugh at the joke. "What is it? What don't you want to tell me."
"Well, it might have been an optical illusion," Forrest said, slowly choosing his words. "But when she did something really, uh, really quick, she, well, she left this kind of afterimage."
"Afterimage?"
"She trailed rainbows," Flash said. "Every time she moved. Like solid sheets of color hanging in the air for a second."
HB stared at them for a long beat. His horn wasn't detecting any lies, but still he felt himself compelled to respond. "Bullshit," he said. "You're saying she was etherealizing?"
"Maybe, we don't know," Forrest was quick to say. "This is just what we saw, okay?"
"Okay, Fine. She wasn't wearing anything, right? So what's her Glyph?"
"It's an Abstract, sir," Flash said.
"Of course it is," HB sighed. "It would have been too easy if she had a Talent that was actually comprehensible." Abstract Talent Glyphs were always a problem for law-enforcement. You could never really tell what an Abstract meant. A feather on a pegasus might mean they were a Flight Talent, or a Cloudwalker or an Acrobat, or a Dancer, or anything that might in any way be represented by a feather. Direct Glyphs, like Hard Boiled's own, told you exactly what that pony's Talent was, no guesswork required. "Describe it."
"Cloud with a three-colored lightning bolt coming out of it," Forrest said.
HB levitated a pen and did a quick sketch on a pad of paper he'd been taking notes with. "Like this?"
"No, the colors are side-by-side, like it's three bolts. Blue-yellow-red, and stylized a bit more," HB redid the sketch. "Yeah, more like that."
"Yeah, this could mean abso-friggin-lutely anything," HB said. "I'll get the description out, but if she was heading over the mountains she's on her way to the Everstorm. If she could shrug off the sleeper like you say, she could be clear to the Sunlands by now."
"She'll be back," Flash growled.
"How do you figure?"
"It's the start. The war. She was just their first scout. I bet they have battalions of ponies like her, engineered super-soldiers. I bet they'll start invading soon."
HB shook his head. "I hope you're wrong. But even if you aren't, that crap is way above my paygrade. I think I've gotten all I need. You're both dismissed, and on injury leave until a qualified physician says you're ready to come back to work. Doc, make sure these guys get better, okay?"
"What do you think I've been trying to do while you've been yapping?" the doctor snorted. Her magic wrapped around the two stallions, soothing their wounds enough to let them stand and walk.
They made their way to the door while HB looked over his notes. At the last minute Forrest turned to him. "Sir, there's something else."
He looked up. "What is it?"
"That illegal excavation you sent us to investigate? Well, we didn't get a good look at it, but it was there, empty. But before she came after us, that mare flew out of it. I can't tell you for sure that she was part of it, but it's too coincidental. Like maybe she was trying to keep us away so we wouldn't see whatever it was they were doing there."
"I see," HB said, thoughts spinning. "Alright, thanks. Now get the hell out of here and get resting."
"Yes sir," Flash and Forrest said in unison, before limping after the scowling doctor.
Hard Boiled looked down at his notes again, scratching a few thoughts down as he considered what he had heard. This mare was impossible. So many Talents in one pony? No. Absurd. But possessing those Talents weren't actually necessary to pull off everything she had done. No, she just need the support of unicorns willing and able to cast and maintain the appropriate spells to make her a juggernaut. It would take a rare combination of several unicorn Talents, or one unicorn with a Magic Talent and a lot of power, but it was doable.
HB pulled out another file, this one was thick and full of place markers with scribbled labels. He opened the file to a picture of the stallion it was created for. Maximilion Oswald Cash. HB didn't spend to long looking at the unicorn's picture, it always made his horn ache, instead flipping to one of Cash's known associates. The pegasus who grinned back out of the photo did not match the description given to him at all.
"Just my luck," HB muttered. "Nothing's ever easy."
With a concentrated effort of telekinesis he shut and locked the door to his office and closed the blinds. A moment later he had a crystal orb out on his desk and was gently feeding it the energy it needed to contact its mate. He hated this cloak-and-dagger stuff. He would prefer to just meet someplace and talk face-to-face, but these were orders from way up the chain of command. Right up to the Senate itself. So he was forced to keep secrets no matter how badly he felt about it.
"Lieutenant," the orb pulsed as it spoke. The sound was barely a whisper, and accompanied by a weird high-pitched whine. It sounded almost like whalesong, and it supposedly kept the conversation from being overheard magically. "Your report is late."
"Bad circumstances," HB explained. "The officers I sent out to investigate got injured."
"Injured? By what?"
"More like by who. A pegasus mare stopped them from getting to the site, apparently shouted Sunland propaganda or religion or something at them until they attacked her like idiots, then she beat the tar out of them."
"Cash's companion?"
"Nope, someone new. Complete unknown, unless you've been holding back on me."
"I assure you, the information we gave you about Cash is as complete as national security could allow." The voice actually sounded sincere. He couldn't be sure though. One of the reasons HB assumed they insisted on this kind of communication was that his truth-detection magic wouldn't work through it.
"Yeah, well it's not complete enough," he gave a description of the mare. "She in your files?"
"With a Glyph that distinct? If she was anyone of interest I would hope so. To my knowledge, though, no."
"You might want to do whatever it is you do to find out about her. According to my officers she was pretty crazy powerful," he gave the full run-down on what they had seen her do. "I think it might be unicorns working to bolster her. Cash could do it, if what the file says about his magical skills is right."
"It is as accurate as we are capable of getting. The kind of energy it would take to accomplish all of that, and at a distance, though," the voice trailed off, thoughtful.
"Yeah. That's an assload of power. I don't think any unicorn has that kind of strength," HB said. "So we've got to be looking for a cabal."
"Not necessarily," the voice said, caution evident in its tone. "We do know of one or two individuals who could accomplish this, but to our knowledge they are not in any way aligned with Cash."
"Then we're still looking for a cabal," HB said. "Look, the pit was empty, but my officers were too hurt to take a good look on their way back. I'm going out there myself with backup to see what there is to see. This mystery mare shot off towards the Everstorm at supersonic speeds. She probably has passage through by now, so I don't think you can catch her."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," the voice said, tone amused. "We shall take that under advisement. However, this mare is not your problem. If she is associated with Cash, we will find out soon enough. If possible we will capture her and return her to you to stand trial for assaulting your officers."
"Thanks, they'll appreciate that," HB said, fairly certain that he was never going to see tail or feather of the blue pegasus.
"Please continue your investigation however you see fit, and keep us updated with your findings."
"Will do," He replied, and knowing the conversation was at an end he let the magic drop. The orb went dark as he put it away, and the large Max Cash file went with it.
He took a moment to compose himself. The worst thing about the cloak and dagger crap was that it left him a nervous wreck. He hadn't wanted to get involved in stuff like this. He just wanted to be a cop. Just wanted to solve crimes and catch bad guys.
He loved solving mysteries, uncovering truth and exposing lies. It was his Talent, emblazoned on his flanks for all to see. Finding Truth. His magic revolved around it, his life revolved around it. He was good at it. Good enough that when the Republic Intelligence Agency had a mystery on their hooves they turned to him to help them solve it.
Now instead of finding truth he was covering it up, at least his involvement in it. He needed a free hoof to do his investigation, so it couldn't be known that he was investigating. All of his official work on the project had to be done under cover of something else, something innocuous and legitimate. He'd been stonewalled a few times, and the Agency had actually created reasons for him to look where he needed. Upending entire lives just to get him in a position where he could ask the questions he needed to ask.
So here he was, a middle aged unicorn with a decent career and no real ambitions beyond being where he already was, lying for the sake of national security. All to find out what the hell one stallion was up to. He was terrible at lying. It made his horn ache.
Hard Boiled finally got himself together and got up, opening the blinds and the door as he moved around his desk. He took a deep breath and strode into the bustling main room of the Special Investigations Unit. "Barry!" he shouted at the detective he was most sure he could get away with lying to. "Get two uniforms and come with me, we're heading out."
"Is this about the two injured officers?" Barry asked, grabbing his hat and trotting up to him.
"No, it's about bird watching. Of course it's about the injured officers! Two of our boys got attacked out there, and I want to know why! So are you going to stand there asking stupid questions, or are you going to go get us our backup?"
"Right away!" Barry said, leaping off. Hard Boiled shook his head at the sight. He didn't know what they were going to find, but there was a feeling in his horn, a feeling he had learned long ago not to ignore. This was going to get worse, and he was the one who was going to have to deal with it.
***
Star Fall stared at the pegasus who had fallen from the sky. She was lying on the only bed in the one-room cabin that Astrid had found them, her broken legs and wings tightly bound with strips of cloth to supports crudely made out of branches hewn from the local trees. Star Fall's knowledge of medicine was limited, but good enough to know that any normal pony wouldn't heal right under these conditions, and wouldn't heal quickly at all.
That just meant she had to speed up the process, and she had been working through the night to do just that.
"We've only got, like ten sheets of paper left," Astrid said, surveying what was left of their belongings after they had been ransacked to help the injured mare. "We can't really lose any more."
"I know," Star Fall said from around the pen she held in her mouth. She was using that pen, and some of the precious paper, to draw out a magical sigil in exacting detail. Any mistake would ruin it, and waste the paper. It wasn't normal paper, of course, but specially designed to allow magic to be charged into it. Wasting it would be a loss she couldn't afford. "Stop interrupting me."
"Fine, but you will have to contact the Professor. I hope you can get us through with only nine," Astrid said, sliding the remaining paper back into the waterproof case they stored it in.
Star Fall sighed and refocused on finishing the design. Those sheets of paper, and the sigils she would draw on them, were what would get them safely through the Everstorm. The only other option to cross back into the sunlands would be to hire a guide, and they hadn't brought along the money to do that. She supposed she could sneak into a Republic city and buy or steal more paper. Assuming that she could find a place with a stockpile of it, if such a place even existed on the nightside.
"Done," she said, putting the pen down and examining her work. Every line, every curve of the twisting design had to be correct or it wouldn't work, or worse, go wrong. She pulled out her geometry set, using the tools there to make absolutely sure it was right.
"Why are you so worried?" Astrid asked, looking over her charge's shoulder. "I've seen you whip up spells way faster than this, no rulers required."
"Those are spells I've practiced a thousand times," Star Fall said, carefully measuring the angle where the two prime energy lines intersected. "Muscle memory goes a long way. I know the forms for healing spells, but I haven't had to use them like I have the Everstorm spells or the communication spell. I'm dealing with a living, breathing pony here. If I screw up she could start healing wrong. Professor Shine has told me stories about badly done healing spells causing cancers or redundant organs or extra limbs."
"Yeesh! Hey, Fall, if I get hurt, just slap a bandage on me and leave it, kay?"
Star Fall snorted back a laugh. "Alright, looks like this one's good. Stand back," Astrid squeezed up against the wall, giving the young pegasus her space. Star Fall closed her eyes, holding one hoof just above the complete drawing.
Star Fall was a special pony. Unique. Her Special Talent, the thing that dictated where she could best use her innate magic, was Magic itself. As far as she knew, she was the only pegasus in recorded history whose talent was Magic. She was no unicorn, she couldn't use their telekinesis or cast complex spells with her mind and the wave of a horn, but she could do this. The lines on the page were lines in her thoughts, channels for the energy her Talent allowed her to manipulate at will. She sent magic through those lines in her thoughts, creating a burning sigil of power that was a spell just aching to be set loose. Then, with an effort of will that taxed her both mentally and physically, she projected that energy onto the design of the page.
"As above, so below," Star Fall whispered. It was part of a mantra that her mentor had taught her many years ago, when she was first learning to use her power. "As within, so without." The energy left her in a rush, making her sway on her hooves and forcing Astrid to steady her with a claw so she didn't topple over. She opened her eyes and saw that her page was glowing a bright, clean red. With care she lifted the page and placed it on the wall next to the bed. It fit right were she needed it to between the other spell-pages she had already laid out, creating an array of magic around the sleeping pony that would encourage her bones to knit and her flesh to heal many times faster and safer than it would have normally.
Astrid leaned over and nailed the last spell page into place, even as the others lit up with the energy of the array. "There, magic healing stuff done. Now what?"
Star Fall slumped to the floor. "Now I take a break."
Astrid shrugged, she knew how much spellcasting took out of the pegasus. "Fair enough," she sat down, golden eyes going from Star Fall to the rainbow pegasus and back again. "Okay. Now that we're done the emergency stuff, what's the big deal? You've been working all night to get those spells in place, what's so important about this girl?"
"She spoke to me," Star Fall answered, staring again at the mare.
"Wow, Fall. No wonder you've dropped your whole life to help her. Did she want to be your friend?" the Griffin sneered.
Star Fall frowned. "Screw off, Astrid. No, she spoke to me in Old Equestrian."
"Oh, great. Nerd language. That changes everything."
"Come on, don't you realize what this means?"
Griffins couldn't snort with derision very well, beaks weren't designed for it, but Astrid made a passable attempt as she rolled her eyes. "Fall, all I'm getting out of this is that she's a member of the same egghead club as you, and you somehow think that's more important than getting home safely."
"Think about it! She crashes at a couple hundred miles an hour, survives against all odds, and the first thing she says is in an ancient, dead language. Ponies with head injuries can talk gibberish, but not fully formed ancient languages. She even asked me if I spoke 'Equestrian'. Look at her, she can't be much older than me. Where did she learn that language so well? Why? What was she doing running from the Republic? This could be important, Astrid. Really important. She could be a Republican scholar trying to defect to the Kingdom!"
"Or she could just be some random mare who happens to know an old language," Astrid said, then sighed. "I'll admit it's weird. And maybe we should be checking into it. You're the brains of this outfit, I just do the heavy lifting. You say she's important, I'll go with it, but I want you to be sure that we gotta do this before we stick our necks out for someone we don't even know."
Star Fall thought about it for a long time. She owed Astrid at least that much. "I can't ignore her," she said finally. "We have to do this, at least until I can find out more about her."
Astrid nodded. "We'll play it cool, then," she rose. "I'm gonna get us some food. There's some flowers half a mile west of here that should do you and sleeping beauty when she wakes up, but I never got to finish my rabbit, so I'm going to take care of that first."
Star Fall smiled up at her. "Thanks, Astrid."
Astrid waved her off as she went out the door. "Yeah, yeah. You just get some sleep, okay? When I get back you gotta call the Professor."
"I know," Star Fall said closing her eyes as Astrid left.
She woke with a start some time later, she couldn't be sure how long. Astrid was still gone, and she ached from sleeping on the floor of the cabin. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but when she did she found that what had wakened her was the blue pegasus, who was thrashing about and letting out a low keening sound. It wasn't the sound of a pony in pain, but it was one of fear.
Star Fall got to her hooves slowly, stretching out her cramped muscles, and walked over to the bed. What she saw made her gasp. The mare's injuries were healing, but far, far too quickly. The bruises were already gone, and when she pulled a bandage away from one of the worse gashes her keen pegasus eyes could even see the tissues healing right in front of her.
Panic hit her, and Star Fall desperately examined her healing array, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. This kind of healing was too much, too fast. It could only mean that something had gone horribly wrong. Yet she couldn't spot the error in her designs. She had been so careful in creating them, and as far as she could tell they were working perfectly.
She called magic into her eyes, focusing on the flow of energy around and through the injured mare. What she saw made her gasp again, as the lines of power became clear and she saw something amazing. The magic was flowing through the blue pegasus with incredible ease, almost as freely as it did through a Magic Talent like Star Fall or her mentor. Nothing in her was resisting the flow like it would with a normal pony, her natural magic wasn't interfering. Instead her natural magic was taking the healing energy and using it, the two working together to create such unbelievable results.
Star Fall closed her eyes and let the magic drain from them. She couldn't look at the pegasus' magic for too long, it hurt to see. It had appeared to her like an explosion of every color imaginable, rippling through the mare's body in shockwaves of power. She had never encountered anything like it, and it was stronger than any other pegasus aura she had ever seen. Yet it was still pegasus magic, that much Star Fall was certain of. Her own aura looked more like unicorn magic, she'd been told, so this mare wasn't another pegasus Magic Talent. Instead what she was, was strong. Incredibly strong.
"Hey,” the voice shocked Star Fall out of her thoughts. She looked up to see the mare's eyes open, though they weren't focusing well. "You stuck around, cool."
Star Fall's mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before she found her voice. "I want you be well," she said, hoping she was getting her pronunciation right. The mare was still using Old Equestrian. She didn't know if the mare had suffered some sort of brain damage, but it was probably a good idea to reply in the same language.
"Me too," the mare said, attempting a smile that didn't make it all the way. "I hate being cooped up in bed. Broken wings suck. Do you have any Daring Do novels I could read?"
Star Fall frowned. She wasn't sure she had caught all of that. "I not knowing Daring Do."
"Figures," the mare grumbled. "Ponyfeathers, it's hard to think. You think, maybe you could tell me where I am?"
"You are in world of night," Star Fall said.
"Well, that's nice," the mare sighed. Her eyes rolled back, and Star Fall thought she had passed out again before she refocused on the young pegasus. "Hey, what's your name?"
"Fallen Star," she replied.
"Thanks for sticking around, Star. That was totally awesome of you."
"What you name?" She asked, even as the blue mare looked to be fading out again.
The mare let out a laugh that was barely more than a sharp exhale. "You've probably ... heard of me. My name's... Rainbow... Dash," with that her eyes shut and she was sleeping again.
Star Fall blinked at the unconscious mare. It was strange, she had been right. Star Fall did recognize the name Rainbow Dash, and was one of the few who would. Only the few ponies who had the time, resources and interest to research pre-Schism history would know it. Or had a mentor who was insistent that she learn such things, even when they had nothing to do with developing her Magic Talent. So, while she had heard the name Rainbow Dash, she also knew that the legendary pegasus had been dead for well over a thousand years.
***
Hard Boiled examined another dirt wall that showed signs of impact. Hoof marks, hair, the same sort that he had been seeing all along this tunnel. This one, however, had something else on it. Blood.
"Lieutenant! Over here!" Barry called from further down the tunnel. HB turned and trotted to the other detective, his flashlight held in his telekinetic grip. "It's a chamber, I think this is where the tunnel ends," Barry said, excited.
HB looked down, and spotted bloody hoofprints at the place Barry was standing. "Don't move," he said.
"What?"
"You're standing in evidence," HB said, shining his light at the ground at Barry's hooves.
"Oh, Luna," Barry swore. "I didn't even notice. I swear I didn't even see it."
"Whatever, Barry, just don't move. Okay?" HB sighed, looking over Barry's back into the chamber. There was just enough room to squeeze by without contaminating the evidence any further. He called for one of the uniforms to bring the camera and start documenting, then pushed his way into the earthen chamber beyond.
It was taller than a pony on his hind legs could reach, and it looked like it had once been a proper room, before it got buried at some point. In the centre of the room was a pedestal, like the kind they put statues on in the government buildings. It was partially buried, only a few inches of it visible above the dirt, but it looked completely intact. Right next to the pedestal was a body. An earth pony stallion, a big one. He lay in a pool of blood, some of which was still wet. His chest had been torn open. Without moving too much HB examined the rest of the room. It was mostly bare, a few remnants of ancient walls remaining, but there were bloody hoofprints leading from the pedestal to the wall, then around the room to the exit.
HB's horn glowed with a coppery light as he cast a spell to determine what had happened. The result was strange. He couldn't tell how the stallion had died. It was like there was a wall between his magic and the event that he couldn't get around. Powerful magic. Very powerful.
He could tell what happened afterwards though. His magic brought details sparkling to his attention as he focused on them. Movement around the pedestal. Bloody hoofprint on the dead stallion, matching the rest of the hoofprints leading away and to the exit. No sign of a murder weapon, and a pony would have to be incredibly strong to do this kind of damage with hooves alone. He thought of the impossible mare the two officers had encountered.
As if on cue his magic focused in on something right next to him, caught in the rough edges of the tunnel. Blue feathers. Blue pegasus feathers. He motioned an officer over to document and bag the feathers. He would report this to his RIA contact, but the murder was still Orion City jurisdiction and official business. He couldn't cover this up, but it did give him valid reasons to investigate.
He looked back at the room, trying to figure out what happened without the help of his magic. He just had too little information to go on. Once the crime scene ponies did their job he would have more to work with, but he already recognized the dead stallion. James Bay, better known as Big Jim. Trusted confederate and childhood friend of Max Cash.
So the best friend of Max Cash winds up dead in a tunnel Cash was clandestinely digging for no known reason, likely killed by a pegasus who displayed powers far beyond what pegasi are capable of. There was another player in this, someone who wasn't the RIA or Cash. With what his officers had been saying, this could be sunlanders getting involved, and that was never a good thing. His horn was telling him he wasn't exactly right, but that he was on the right track, and it was a track he intended to follow to the end. No matter where it led.
In fact, the only being I can think of that might have the potential to create the Elements is also the one who would never, ever claim to have done so.
"Why aren't you home yet?" the stern voice of Professor Twinkle Shine demanded, the magical image of her frowning face staring holes into Star Fall. They were outside the cabin, the day half over, and the spellsheet Star Fall had prepared glowed dully under the image of her mentor. Astrid stood behind her charge, head high, eyes on the sky, and trying desperately not to be noticed by the irate unicorn. Star Fall herself cringed, failing to keep the guilty look from her face.
"Uh, well, we stayed a bit longer than we thought because there was more activity at the site than we'd expected. Then, uh, then something came up."
"Something?" Twinkle Shine asked, quirking an eyebrow. It was an expression the golden unicorn was fond of using, and it always meant trouble for her student. "What 'something' is this?"
"Uh, just something that dropped on my back. It's not trouble, but it'll, um, it'll delay us a bit."
"A bit," her mentor repeated. She lowered her head, letting her white mane fall over her eyes so that the purple stripe that ran through it hung over her left eye while her right stared through the part created by her horn. This was another expression Star Fall recognized, Twinkle Shine clamping down on her anger. "Star Fall, you are my precious student, and I care for you deeply. But if you are going to lie, do not make it such a transparent one. I will not take it lightly."
"I'm not..."
"Enough! You are running far behind schedule, and putting yourself in greater danger because of it. I don't care what you've run into out there, if you're dancing around it like that, it isn't important enough to keep you. You will be crossing the Everstorm in the next two days or I am coming to get you."
Star Fall stood with her mouth hanging open for a long moment. Coming to get her? That was something she'd never heard from her mentor. She knew Twinkle Shine didn't like the journeys Star Fall made for their government through the Everstorm to spy on the Republic, but she had never before actually threatened to come get her. That she could, there was no doubt. Twinkle Shine was the strongest Magical Talent in the Solar Kingdom.
She thought of the pegasus calling herself Rainbow Dash. She had been in a deep sleep since waking that morning, and there hadn't been any more thrashing or crying out. While her injuries were healing impossibly quickly, she was still several days, maybe more than a week away from being up for a journey. Star Fall wasn't going to leave her behind, not without knowing more.
"No," she said, forcing herself to lock gazes with her mentor. Her wings spread out, unconsciously signalling how ready she was to fight for this.
"No?" Twinkle Shine said, the force of her displeasure almost palpable.
Star Fall couldn't resist shrinking back, but she managed to hold her eyes steady. "No. I'm not going back, and you're not going to come here. I'm going to take the time I need, and head back when I can."
"Why? What could possibly be so important?"
"Look, I'll tell you later, alright? You won't believe me now, I'm going to have to show you in person."
Twinkle Shine held her student's gaze for a long beat before flicking her eyes to Astrid. "Sergeant Steelwing," she said. Astrid winced. Rank and clan name meant this was an order. "What has my student discovered?"
"Sorry, Fall," Astrid said. "A pony, maam. A pegasus mare. She fell out of the sky yesterday evening, banged herself up pretty bad. Star Fall's taking care of her, thinks she's important somehow."
"Why?"
"I'm not sure? She speaks Old Equestrian, apparently?"
Twinkle Shine paused at this, frown turning from anger to puzzlement. "How well?"
"Fluently," Star Fall said. "Native inflection."
"That's not possible," Twinkle Shine scoffed. "There's only a hooffull of Dragons that still speak Old Equestrian fluently. Nopony has in over eight hundred years!"
"She does," Star Fall said. "She's also, well, uh, she's got some strange magic in her. I've never seen anything like it before. Once she's healed I'm going to take her with us through the Everstorm."
"Could she be a trap? Someone sent specifically to get close to you?"
"I don't think so," Star Fall said. "She could have died really easily the way I met her. And if they wanted to capture me they could have done it at any time now. I don't think they know about me yet, this is something else."
Twinkle Shine glared at her student for along time, before huffing and shaking her head. "Fine. You think this pony is so important? Then I expect to be amazed when you bring her to my lab. But we can't wait too long. Not now. You have to be through the Everstorm in a week."
"A week! But she'll still be...!"
"A week," Twinkle Shine said. "That's all the time I can give you. If you're not sunside by then I'll have to find you myself. Are we clear?"
Star Fall sighed, but she nodded. "Crystal."
"Astrid, don't let her do anything more stupid."
The Griffin gave a quick nod. "Yes, maam."
"Good," Twinkle Shine's features softened. "Star Fall, don't lose sight of your own importance and safety. The longer you're in the nightlands, the more the chance that you'll be discovered. Who knows what the Republicans would do to you."
"I know, professor," Star Fall said. "I promise, I'll make it. Somehow."
"Take care, Star Fall. Remember what I've taught you."
"I will," Star Fall said, and the image vanished as her mentor cut the link. Her wings slumped. "Well, that didn't go too bad," she said.
"Yeah, that was downright civil," Astrid agreed. "The professor usually freaks out a lot more when we're off schedule."
"I don't know. I think she's worried about something. More than just me being late, I mean."
"Whatever it is, you got what you wanted instead of her. First time for everything, I guess."
Star Fall smiled. "Yeah, I guess there is."
"What's for lunch, mom?" he asked, sitting down at the table.
"For Luna's sake, Strongheart, you're more than old enough to make your own sandwiches!" the rose-coloured earth pony mare declared, exasperated. "I thought soldiers were supposed to be stallionly and independent. What do they teach you in the army anyway?"
"That nothing does, or ever can, beat your own mother's cooking," he laughed.
"Oh you little charmer!" Strongheart's mother said, breaking out into a grin as she tousled her son's mane. "That's so sweet. But I'm still not making you a sandwich."
"Awww," he got up from the table and started rummaging through the kitchen. He caught sight of her looked at him with love-filled eyes and he smiled back. Strongheart resembled his father more than his mother, tall and strong with a dark gray coat that contrasted with a bright blue and white mane. The purple eyes he had gotten from his mother, though. It was after his father left that he had gained his Glyph, a heart-shaped shield, protecting her even as she had protected and raised him. Once he had come of age joining the army had been a natural decision, and Strongheart had distinguished himself as a brave and selfless pony. He had loved his mother dearly, and he had been her world. Which had eventually led to here and now, with the two of them sharing this house while he waited for his next orders.
Evidently those orders were on her mind as well when she asked: "When do you think they'll send you your next deployment?"
He thought about it for a bit, putting the sandwich together. "I don't know. I think it'll be a little while, unless something comes up."
"It's just that I was talking to May Belle down the street and she said that her husband, who works over at city hall, you know, he said that there's been a lot of talk about the Kingdom building up forces in the southern sea. He also said that the Senate was talking about putting out a full call just in case. Then you'd have to go out. They'd put you on the front lines. A big boy like you. They'd put you out there and then...then."
He stepped up to her drew her into a hug. "Don't worry, mom. That's not going to happen. No way are the Sun-heads going to attack."
"Strongheart! Don't call them that!" she admonished, even as she returned his embrace. "They're ponies, just like you or I. How would you feel if they started calling you names?"
"They do, mom. They call us 'Loonies'," he pointed out.
"Loonies?"
"Yeah, like Lunatics. Luna-tics?"
"Oh! I see," she giggled. "That's a little clever, isn't it?"
He shook his head and laughed with her. "Sure it is, mom," he pulled back, giving her his best reassuring smile. "Don't listen to what May Belle says her husband said, alright? It'll just make you worry."
"I can't help it. I just think of you out there, fighting. I imagine it every time I close my eyes. I imagine you lying there, dead, and I can't stand it. I can't lose you... not..."
He held a hoof up to cover her mouth. "Shh. Mom. I'm right here. Okay? You're not going to lose me. I promise."
She sighed. "Okay. I'm just being a silly old mare again, aren't I?"
"You're not old, mom, and you're not silly. You just get carried away sometimes."
"I suppose I do," she shook her head. "But you were hungry! Why don't you eat your sandwich and tell me your plans for today."
He smiled and brought his sandwich to the table, munching on it as they talked. "I'm probably going to go out and catch a movie later."
"Oh? Would you perhaps be going with someone? Maybe a certain pink filly with bows in her tail?" she asked with a sly look. "I know she's been eyeing you for a while."
"Mom! I'm not dating her, we just hang out sometimes. And not really even that for the past while, since I came back from deployment."
"And why not?" she demanded. "I do want some grand-foals at some point!"
He gaped at her. "Mom, can we please not have this discussion?"
She giggled at his consternation. "Oh, my. You'd think with a coat that dark, no one could see you blush, but there it is!"
They continued chatting as he finished up his sandwich. The conversation meandered from what movie he might see to a dinner party she was attending later in the week, which he was invited to, to just reminiscing about good times. It was peaceful, and he soaked in that peace with a warm smile.
That peace was shattered by a sharp knock on the door. He stood up. "I'll get that, if it's a salespony I don't want you buying another vacuum you don't need."
"But he said it had so many features!" she protested, picking up the used plate and taking it over to the sink.
"Uh-huh. So many features, none of them good at cleaning dirt off of floors," he said, walking through the small house to the door. With a tug he opened it, and saw that there was a pale off-white unicorn standing on the doorstep. His mane was a drab blond that hung limply around his head, but his eyes were an intense blue that seemed to smoulder in their sockets. Beyond him there was a black car parked, a pair of dark-uniformed pegasi wearing sunglasses flanking an open rear door.
"Calumn," the pale pony said. "It's time."
"Director Straff," he said. A plate shattered. A choked cry came from the kitchen. He looked back, his face etched with pain, before turning to the unicorn again. "I'll be a minute," he said.
"Time is of the essence, Calumn," the pony replied, voice cold.
"She needs me. I can't just go without saying goodbye," he said, pleading.
The pale unicorn stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. "Fine, you have two minutes."
"Thank you," he said, closing the door and rushing back to the kitchen. Strongheart's mother was sitting amidst the shattered remnants of the plate she had been cleaning, faucet running a constant hiss in the background. She was crying, tears wetting her face and dripping down to the floor. "Mom," he began. "It's alright."
"No it isn't," she sobbed. "You're going to go. You're going to go and you're going to die."
"No, mom. I'm going to be fine. They're just sending me on a simple deployment, okay? I won't even be gone for too long. The Kingdom's not attacking, I won't see any action, I'll be real bored and tell you all about how much I missed you when I get back."
"You won't come back," she wailed, reaching out and clutching to him. "You won't come back. You're going to die!"
"No," he said, hugging her as tightly as he dared. "I'll be fine. I'll come back. I promise. I swear to you, on Luna and her night, that I won't die, and I'll come back."
She cried into his coat for a moment, then grew still. "Make me believe it," she whispered.
"What? Mom, no."
She pulled back, staring at him with bloodshot purple eyes. "Please," she begged. "I can't on my own. Please, make me believe."
"Don't ask me to do this," he said. "It'll hurt you, mom."
"Not as much as watching you walk out that door, and knowing you won't ever come back. Not as much as having to remember all the joy we had here, knowing it's gone forever. Please, Strongheart. Please, if you ever were my son, make me believe it."
He sighed, but nodded. She closed her eyes and he brought his forehead to hers, concentrating. A green light kindled in her eyes, infusing the whites with a pale tint as her body relaxed and her lips curled up in a smile. "Are you alright, mom?" he asked carefully as he pulled away.
She blinked at him a couple times, her gaze unfocused, then snapped back to herself. She took a look around and gasped. "Oh, my! I must have fallen. I hope I didn't cut myself."
"I don't think you did, mom," he said, helping her to her hooves. "I've got to go now, okay?"
"Oh? Oh! Yes, your new deployment. I certainly hope it'll be more exciting than you think it will be. My boy deserves some glory, not some boring old guard posting."
"I think I don't deserve such a great mom," he said with a sad smile. "I'll write when I get the chance, okay?"
"I'll be waiting," she said, then gave him a quick hug. "I love you."
"I love you too, mom," he said, then trotted out of the kitchen while she hummed happily to herself as she cleaned up the broken plate shards. He joined the pale unicorn outside without a word, and the two of them got into the back of the car, the guard pegasi getting into the front. Strongheart's mother waving to them from the window with a happy smile on her face and a vacant look in her eyes as they pulled away.
"How much did you lose?" the unicorn asked.
In a flash of green fire he shed the form of Strongheart and became Calumn once more. "Not too much," he replied, extending his diaphanous wings for the first time in months, the wings rubbing against his black carapace. "She didn't resist." He rolled his shoulders, his crooked horn scraping lightly against the roof of the car as he worked the kinks out of his natural joints. "I won't need a boost before going into the field." He settled back down, holding a hoof up to a vent and feeling the air flow through the holes. It felt good, cooling. "I'm ready for my mission, sir," he flashed his companion a fanged smile as he sat next to the pony, fully revealed as his true self, a Changeling.
The unicorn's horn glowed with a magnesium-white flare and lifted a file. "Max Cash," he said.
"Luna's black feathers!" Calumn swore, taking the file. "I thought we had him locked down!"
"We've got him on insider trading, and collusion with the Solar Kingdom," the pale pony said. "But the more we looked into that, the more it became apparent that we were only scratching the surface. We still don't know the full extent of his activities, and he's growing more bold all the time."
"I can't infiltrate," Calumn pointed out. "He's proven that he can spot a Changeling."
"We don't need you to try to get close to him," Straff said. "The situation has had an unexpected change. Read the file."
Calumn flipped through the file. Most of it he had seen before, basic intelligence on Max Cash and his close associates. Some of it was new, estimates of his holdings in the Sunlands, outlines of his criminal endeavours. He didn't need to read all of it in detail to know it was mostly just vague outlines and speculation. Cash ran a tight ship as far as his true goals and resources were concerned. There was an entirely new section, though, and he flipped to it as soon as he was sure that was where the meat of the file was. Indeed it was something interesting, if impossible. The date on the report meant that the incident it described had happened only a day ago. "Is this accurate?" he had to ask.
"Yes," Straff replied. "We've got independent confirmation on the sonic boom, and the officers' injuries were real enough. The lab is still analyzing the crime scene, and won't have any new information for at least a week. Even then it'll be our police contact who will be handling that angle of the investigation. What we need you to do is find that mare."
"This says she was heading to the Verge," Calumn said. "That means she's looking to cross the Everstorm. If she's two days ahead of me, and supersonic besides, I'm not going to be able to catch her before she does, no matter how hard I push."
"We know," Straff nodded. "Calumn, we need you to go full active. Infiltrate the Solar Kingdom territory and find this mare. We need to know how she's connected to Cash, and why."
Calumn closed his eyes, letting out a slow breath. Infiltrating the sunlands was one of the most dangerous things a Changeling could do. Pony spies could and did slip between the two kingdoms whenever an opportunity presented itself. If they were found out they were usually pursued by local forces and if caught they were questioned, tried, usually hung, sometimes just imprisoned. Not so for a Changeling. If word got out that a Changeling was in the sunlands, the Royals unleashed the Griffins. Unless he had been feeding deeply, Calumn was no match for those legendary berserkers. Changelings that got caught didn't get a trial, they got torn apart.
"I'll need a cover, and a good one," he said.
"You already have it," Straff said. "Strongheart's being redeployed into a major threat arena. That's made stronger ponies desert. You know his history, his friends, his personality. You can pass any authenticity test you might encounter."
Calumn winced. "That'll kill her," he said, thinking of the rose-colored pony he had just left behind.
"She's not your mother, Calumn. Her real son's been dead for two years."
Calumn nodded in acceptance. There was really nothing he could say to that. Straff didn't care that two years was enough for him to come to care for her, even if he'd only been pretending to be her son the whole time. "Cover it up," he said. "Make it seem like I took off with important information. Something connected to Cash. Give me something to get into whatever this mare is part of. When mom... when she asks you can stonewall her. It'll be easier on her, and easier to muddy the waters for anyone getting suspicious."
Straff snorted. "Fine. You already know everything we have on Cash, but you should take the reports on his excavations."
"Do we know what those are for?"
"Not yet, but I have a feeling that whatever it is, he's getting close. Otherwise James Bay wouldn't be lying dead thirty meters underground. That's where the mare was first seen, so its a good bet information on those projects will be your key in."
Calumn removed the proper sections of the file. "What am I authorized for?"
"Right now? Apprehension only. You have dispensation for as much mind magic as you need to obtain and control this mare, but only if necessary. If you need to you can thrall her, but only her, and only if nothing else is a viable option. If the situation escalates I'm personally authorizing you to use your best judgement. Follow the usual guidelines. The information is top priority, followed by your personal safety. Bringing the mare back can take a distant third."
"You think it'll escalate?"
"I don't know, but events have a habit of going out of our control when Max Cash is involved."
"Available resources?"
"None, sorry."
Calumn shot the pale unicorn a sharp look. It was extremely rare to hear the director apologize for anything. "None? Why?"
"I've already got the Senate breathing down my neck about the resources we've been devoting to Cash, I can't afford any more than what I've giving you already. You'll have to find your own way across the Everstorm. I've put the network on alert for you, but they've been told not to stick their necks out for you if they don't have to. Passive information only."
"Ouch, that's practically out in the cold," Calumn said. "Can I at least have some seed money?"
Straff levitated a pair of saddlebags over to him. "There's a hundred and fifty full moons in there, as well as a few minor tradeables. This is out of my personal pocket, so don't waste it."
Calumn focused his energies and resumed Strongheart's shape before putting the saddlebags on and slipping the file he had taken into them. "Thank you," he said. The car slowed to a stop, just outside of city limits. "Any other advice?"
"Keep sharp," Straff said. "We know next to nothing about this situation, about this mare and about whoever she's working for. Avoid Cash and his crew if you can, try to stay out of the spotlight if you can't. Be bold, we can't afford to wait around on this one. Don't get caught. Don't die."
Calumn nodded. "Will do," he said, and opened the door. The car was leaving soon after he had gotten out, and he looked to the path ahead of him. The forest and the mountains stood before him. Beyond that, the Everstorm and the Sunlands, and somewhere in there was his target. He took a moment to collect himself. He hoped that he could return to Strongheart's life when this was all over, and to the mare who loved him like a son, even when he wasn't hers. But that was for the future, and right now he had a hard journey ahead of him. So he set his jaw, focused his gaze on the horizon, and started walking.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. They were gummed up and it actually took an effort to pull the lids up. When she did get them open everything was a blur of color and light, she couldn't make out any details. A few blinks started sharpening up her surroundings, and she devoted a bit of thought to figuring out how the rest of her was doing. Her wings were in agony, of course, and two of her legs were reporting that they weren't going to be doing any walking soon. Surprisingly, the rest of her didn't feel so bad. Her head still hurt, but not as much as the last time she'd done a high-speed faceplant.
She pulled her head up and looked around. She was in a bed in a log cabin with weird glowing designs stuck to the walls and floor all around her. That was weird. She vaguely remembered seeing another pegasus in this same setting, but her memory was a little fuzzy. She turned her head and surveyed the rest of the cabin. It wasn't too large, but it had a hearth and a couple large windows that showed the colors of sunset through them.
As she was looking the door opened up and a pegasus came through. She was young, and she looked a little soft. Not a strong flyer or weatherpony, then. Any sort of weather-work tended to build up muscle. It wasn't quite apple-bucking but it required long hours of hard, tedious effort. Unless, of course, you were as good as Rainbow Dash, who could pull together a storm or clear the skies in no time at all. Even then, it took a whole lot of work to get that good.
Despite her softness, she was a pretty mare. Blue eyes, a white coat that was looking a little brown with the dirt and dust worked into it, and a yellow and red mane and tail that made it look like her hair was on fire. It reminded Dash of her idol, Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts, even if the colors were completely different. Her cutie mark caught Dash's attention next. It was a strangely angular seven pointed star inside a circle. Dash didn't think she'd ever seen a cutie mark like that one before. It was especially not something she'd expect to see on a pegasus.
"You awake again," the pegasus said, smiling at Dash. Her accent was atrocious and she sounded like she had learned the language from books or something else that couldn't talk back, but she was at least understandable.
"Yeah, thanks again," Dash said. Star, the mare's name was Star. "Hey, Star, can you tell me what all this is about?" she waved a hoof at the glowing paper all around her.
"Magic for healing," Star replied. She laid a hoof on Dash's head. "No fever. Good. You healing fast."
"Yeah, that's me. Fastest pony in Equestria," Dash said, grinning. "I don't do anything slow," the boast was already out before she realized that it could be taken in a very wrong way. "Uh, forget I said that last thing, okay?"
"Why? You say you very fast, yes?" Star asked, no indication in her expression that she'd caught the double entendre at all.
"Thank Celestia for small favors," Dash muttered. "Yeah, I am fast. Just not at everything. I can be slow when I want to! Just never at flying! Or, uh, healing, I guess."
Star laughed, shaking her head and smiling. "I sorry. I not understand." Dash couldn't help but snicker. "What? I funny?"
Dash just laughed harder, even as it hurt her broken wings. "Sorry. Just, 'I funny'? That's hilarious. I think you mean, 'I don't understand', or 'am I funny'."
"Oh," a look of intense concentration furrowed Star's brow. "I am forgetting to verb. Rules of language are hard. I do not always remember how to make sentence right."
"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad somepony speaks Equestrian. You have no idea how crazy it is to be stuck wherever I am, this 'world of night' or whatever, and have nopony speak Equestrian. I mean, I've never met anypony who didn't, how was I supposed to know?"
"You speak language very good. Where did you learn?"
"Uh, at home? In Equestria."
"Sorry, not clear. My fault," Star said, thinking. "Do you speak Solar?" The last word wasn't anything Dash recognized, but like many of the words the two stallions she had escaped from had spoken, it sounded vaguely familiar.
"No, I have no idea what that is."
"Do you speak Lunar," Star asked. Again that word was both unrecognizable and familiar.
"Nope. I don't know if you've gotten this yet, but I'm not from around these parts. Like, really not from around here." Star's eyes searched Dash's face, as if she was trying to catch her in a lie. "Look, I'm from Equestria. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's the place where the pony who raises the sun lives. You should at least know about her. Celestia?"
"Yes, I know Celestia," Star said. "God of day."
"Well, she's not really a god, I guess," Dash said. "I mean, we don't really pray to her much or anything. She's more of a Princess. A really big, really powerful Princess who makes the sun come up."
A deeper frown creased Star's brow for a moment before smoothing out. "I know Celestia, she brings day. I am from world of day. We are in world of night. You get better, I take you to world of day."
"Can I get back to Equestria from there?"
"Equestria is here," Star said.
"What? Okay, I think we've got another verb problem or something, 'cause I did not understand what you meant there."
Star stamped a hoof in frustration. "Did not think lessons in language were important. Hard to remember all of them. Used to reading, not speaking."
"Hey, I think you're doing fine. I've got this friend, she's great with the mail, but no depth perception, she sometimes has trouble with Equestrian and she was born there. How many other people do you know that speak Equestrian?"
Star shrugged. "Two. Three possible."
"Why'd you learn? Are you, like a diplomat or something?"
Star shook her head. "Master made me learn. Education."
"Master?"
"Um. Teacher?"
"Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So, maybe you should get your teacher and they can get this whole talking thing off the ground, huh?"
Star looked pleased with this. "Yes. See my teacher. In world of day."
"Which you'll take me to when I'm better, right?"
"Yes!"
"Great," Dash sighed. Well, she supposed she was stuck here until her wings healed up anyways. "So, what were you doing out here anyway?"
"Reading."
"Reading?"
Star's face scrunched up again as she searched for the right word. "Research?"
"Oh! I get it. Teacher, research, you're a student! Is that where you got this fancy magic paper? Are you a medical student, or some kind of animal doctor?"
"No, magic student," Star said. She turned her flank and gestured towards her cutie mark. "Special Magic."
Dash didn't need a clarification on that one. "Wow, your Special Talent is Magic? That's pretty amazing, especially for a pegasus. I mean, the only other pony I've ever met whose Special Talent was Magic is my friend Twilight. She's an egghead, but once you get to know her she's pretty cool."
Star giggled. "Egghead," she repeated. "Funny word."
Dash grinned back at her. "Yeah, it is. Don't tell her I said this, but Twilight's more than just pretty cool. She's awesome. Like, almost as awesome as me. She's got more power in her horn than entire townfuls of other unicorns. She's a student, too, but her teacher is Princess Celestia herself! How crazy is that?"
Star's face went slack, and Dash wondered what she had said wrong. "Twilight Sparkle?" Star asked.
"What, you know her?" Dash said, taken aback with surprise.
Star shook her head again, looking at the ground and muttering to herself in a language Dash didn't know. "Rainbow Dash, where are you from?"
"I told you, I'm from Equestria," Dash said, a little weirded out by the strange behaviour she'd been encountering every time she said the Princess's name. Star had seemed different, but here she was doing weird stuff again.
Star stamped her hoof again, pacing back and forth for a minute as she continued talking to herself. Dash watched, unsure if she should interrupt or just let it play out. Suddenly she turned to Dash. "You believe, don't you?"
"Believe what?"
"You are from Equestria. You are Rainbow Dash."
"Well, duh. That's what I've been saying. Why wouldn't I believe I'm Rainbow Dash? I totally am Rainbow Dash."
Star ran a hoof through her mane, her wings fluttering open slightly before resetting themselves at her side, restlessly moving as if they wanted to snap open and take off. That was worse than hoof-stamping as far as pegasus frustration levels went. "Okay," Star said. "That is good. I will take you to my teacher, she will know better."
"Sounds good to me."
Star sat down heavily next to the bed, staring at Dash with an odd look that the blue pegasus couldn't quite place. It was concern, but also annoyance and curiosity. "You will heal quickly," she said. "You are special. How are you special?"
"I told you I'm fast. The fastest pony in Equestria. I'm the only pony in forever who can do the Sonic Rainboom! Do you know what that is?"
Star shook her head, and so Dash regaled her with the tale of how she got her cutie mark. She kept the words simple and she couldn't be as visual as she usually liked when telling stories, but she made do. Star seemed fascinated, asking questions and listening intently. Dash had to backtrack a few times to explain things like what Cloudsdale was and a lot of other things she thought would have been self-explanatory to any pegasus. She was in a foreign land, though, and she guessed from the clouds she had seen during her brief chase through the sky that the pegasi just let the weather run feral here. That would mean they didn't have cloud cities, since you couldn't keep them stable if you didn't keep tight control of the weather around them. It would also mean ground-based weather factories, which were really inefficient, or unicorns magicing up clouds and rainbows. Which was a horrifying thought.
Thinking of that, Dash supposed it was no wonder that a pegasus would have a Special Talent in Magic. It was in pegasus nature to command the clouds, and a Talent in Magic might be the only way to do that if the unicorns were in charge. Not that Dash had anything against unicorns, but they did tend to think their magic could solve any problem, and just didn't consider how ponies who didn't have horns could still get things done.
Dash was just finishing her tale when the door opened, and a Griffin wearing heavy saddlebags walked into the cabin. Dash was reminded of Gilda, she had the same white feathers about her head and golden eyes. This Griffin was larger than Gilda had been, though, and instead of a few dyed feathers forming a fringe over her eyes, this one seemed like the tips of every feather on the top and down the back of her head as well as along the trailing edge of her wings had been dyed a deep green. Dash knew that those were clan markings, but she had never seen one cover so much of a Griffin before. What it could mean, she had no idea.
The Griffin said something to Star, who turned quickly to Dash, apprehension in her eyes. "Do not worry," Star said. "She is safe."
"Well, yeah. If she weren't she wouldn't have just walked in here like that," Dash replied. "Hey, I've hung out with Griffins before. Does she speak Equestrian?"
"No."
"Well then tell her I said hi, and that I'll respect her kills if she respects mine," Star gave her an incredulous look. "Just tell her, okay?"
Star turned to the Griffin and said something, hopefully not mangling the phrase too much. The Griffin's eyes widened and shot to Dash, focusing her raptor gaze until it nearly glowed in the dull red light of the spellsheets. She said something back to Star, and the two had a short conversation before the pegasus turned back to Dash. "She says you will hunt together then."
Dash smiled. "Cool. What's her name?"
"Astrid."
"Astrid," Dash repeated. She locked gazes with the Griffin, then pointed her hoof at herself. "Rainbow Dash," she said. The Griffin nodded, then set her bags down, opening them up and pulling out a bunch of pale yellow flowers. Dash's stomach growled loudly at the sight of the food.
"Here," Star said, taking the flowers from Astrid and holding them for Dash. "You need to eat."
She didn't need any convincing. Dash eagerly chomped into the blossoms, barely chewing before swallowing them down. It was like she hadn't eaten in forever. These were obviously wildflowers, and usually that wasn't her thing, but right now they tasted like cloud cake with the best frosting Pinkie Pie could come up with. "Oh yeah," she said through a mouthful of petals. "That's the stuff."
Astrid said something to Star, and the two of them shared a laugh. Dash watched that, feeling the camaraderie between the two of them, and suddenly her injuries didn't hurt so much. It was good to see other ponies laughing, and Star and Astrid reminded her of the way she and Gilda had been once.
Watching Astrid she spotted something else, a silver light filtering through the window. Moonrise. It was kind of late, seeing as how the sun had set about when Dash had begun her cutie mark story, but who was she to question when Luna chose to raise the moon? She watched the white orb rise into the sky, perfectly framed in the window. But the more she saw of it, the slower she chewed, until the flowers were spilling from her open mouth onto the floor. Her eyes were wide, unbelieving. "No," she said, shivering in sudden fear. "No, it's not possible."
"What is it?" Star asked. "What is wrong?"
"The moon," Dash said, pointing. "It can't be!"
Star looked, frowning with new worry. "Yes, it is moon. Normal moon. Nothing special."
"Don't you guys see it?" she asked. "Look at it! I mean, sure, once, but not now! That's not normal anymore!"
Star looked again. "All my life moon has been like that. Normal. Rises and falls for Luna, God of night."
"But it can't be," Dash whispered, a strange creeping fear stealing into her. "We freed her." The moon hung in the sky like a beacon, nearly full. Its bright surface marred by a series of blemishes that created the shape of a unicorn mare's head.
The Mare in the Moon.
...It was only with the return of Nightmare Moon that my friends and I rediscovered them, and were able to take up their power. What followed was another series of battles against enemies of great power who threatened our lives and our world itself, for which our only answer was to use the Elements against them.
While two examples do not make a proper data set to draw conclusions from, the timing of both of these periods of strife around the awakening of the Elements brings up an important question: Do the Elements awaken because there is danger they will be needed to fight? Or does the danger come because the Elements have awakened? If the former is correct, then the Elements are tools of good, saviors of a people in peril. If the later is true, then we are left in ignorance of the purpose and alignment of the Elements, and it is entirely possible we are using and venerating something far darker than we had imagined.
This second conclusion is almost certainly the correct one.
It took hours for Rainbow Dash to calm down. Astrid had to physically hold her down at one point while Star Fall tried her best with her grasp of Old Equestrian to soothe the panicked mare. It didn't help that Dash had started rambling fast and furious, sometimes shouting things about Luna, sometimes about Nightmare Moon. Star Fall recognized the second name as an evil spirit that had haunted pre-Schism Equestria. One of several mythical monsters that were said to have opposed Celestia in her reign. Eventually she exhausted herself, though it took far longer than it should have for a pony as injured as she was. Once Rainbow Dash had passed out again, Star Fall and Astrid were able to get their own sleep.
When morning came Star Fall woke to find Astrid already gone, out hunting for breakfast. There were a few bunches of flowers left over from her foraging the previous day, enough that Star Fall wouldn't have to leave her patient to graze. She also found Rainbow Dash awake.
"I'm sorry," Dash said as Star Fall came over to check on her. "I kind of freaked out last night, huh?"
"You did," Star Fall replied. She found all the talking was helping bring back her lessons in Old Equestrian. She was sure she was still missing parts of her sentences, since several words sounded different when Dash said them, but the words were flowing easier now. "I am wondering why. What was wrong with moon?"
"The Mare in the Moon," Dash sighed. "You said it's always been there, right?"
Star Fall nodded. "Luna, God of night."
Dash shook her head. "It doesn't make any sense! I never knew Luna even existed until she was free, even Twilight didn't have the full story there. Have I gone back in time? Did one of Twilight's wacky experiments send me back in time? You gotta tell me!"
"I do not know," Star Fall said. "I do not think going back in time is possible."
"It's possible. Twilight did it. It was kind of hilarious, actually. But not when it happens to me! Now it's just horrible!"
Star Fall thought for a moment, then laid a hoof gently on top of Dash's. "No way to know. Not until we meet teacher. She will know what is happened."
Dash took a few deep breaths. "Yeah. Yeah I can go with that. Your teacher, she's smart, right?"
"Smartest."
"Cool. I hope she can figure out what's going on, and how I can get home."
"What is last thing you remember? Before being here."
"Uh, I was going to bed. I'd just gotten word that Ponyville had been selected to provide water for Cloudsdale's weather factory. I was thinking about how if I could get every pegasus pony in the area to get their wingpower high enough we might be able to break the record! It was going to be so awesome, and Spitfire was going to be there! It was my chance to impress the Wonderbolts with my leadership skills. I was so amped I could barely get to sleep! I mean, there was so much to coordinate. Figuring out how to get everypony I could involved, making sure that they all got their wingpower up, it was gonna be crazy! Then there's all the logistics stuff like where Cloudsdale would have to be positioned, the height of the waterspout, the length of time it would take to drain the reservoir and whether we could do it all in one shot or if we needed to do it in stages... Uh, what's wrong?"
Star Fall shook her head to snap herself out of the reverie that had come over her. "Nothing is wrong. I was imagining it. You speak of weather-making so well, like you really did it."
"I did. You're looking at the chief weather-pony for Ponyville for four years running! I keep the system going and I still have time to practice my moves and hang out with my best buds!" Dash paused for a moment, weighing whether or not she should ask before just tossing caution to the wind and going for it. "Hey, Star. Who makes the weather here? Is it pegasus ponies, or are the unicorns horning in on it?"
Star laughed. "No. Unicorns can not make weather. No pony can. Weather makes itself."
"What? How can weather make itself? That doesn't make any sense!"
"Um, water in air, wind, sun, world turning," Star said, her tone taking on that lecturing vibe that Dash often heard from Twilight. "All part of making weather. Ponies change some things with buildings, cities. Not make clouds and rain and wind."
"So it... it just does it all itself?" Dash asked, wide eyed and horrified.
"Yes," Star said, smiling happily as her point was understood.
"What is this, the Everfree?"
"Yes!" Star nodded, smiling wider.
Dash went cold. "We're in the Everfree forest?" She choked out. That was impossible. She knew all the land around the Everfree forest, and this place absolutely wasn't it.
"Not forest. Edge. Um, side? Fringe? Ah! Verge. Everfree Verge. Forest further in, near Storm."
"But.. No. This place isn't Equestria! I know Equestria! This place looks nothing like it, and the clouds were doing their own thing way out on the other side of the mountains too! This is... this isn't possible!"
"Rainbow Dash. I tried to tell you. This is Equestria."
"No, you said this was the world of night! I remember that!"
Star Fall sighed. "World of night was wrong choice of words. Better may be land of night. Or, um, land that worships Luna. Other side of Storm is land of sun, land that worships Celestia. Both are Equestria."
"I don't... what?" Dash sputtered. "It's never been... I mean, how far back did I go?"
"You did not go back," Star Fall said. She tried to be as comforting as she could, but she had no idea how this mare was going to react. She honestly thought she was Rainbow Dash, after all. "Luna is moon, Celestia is sun. For many hundred years it is so. Land of sun on one side, land of night on other, Storm in middle."
"But... Ponyville, my friends..."
"No Ponyville," Star Fall hesitated, but steeled her resolve and plowed on. "Rainbow Dash. Hero of Equestria."
"I guess, yeah, but what does that...?"
"Rainbow Dash, hero, died," Star Fall said gently, holding Dash's gaze. "More than a thousand years past. You are not Rainbow Dash."
Dash stared at Star Fall, then shook her head. "Nope, I totally am," she said, then flopped back and threw a hoof up. "This just means I was sent forward in time instead of back! Ugh, not cool. Now I have to find a way to go backwards. Thanks a lot, whoever did this to me! I bet you're smirking right now, but when I find you I'm gonna buck that smile right off your snout!"
Star Fall watched with a little relief. She had been worried the mare would react violently to what she had been told. Denying it wasn't healthy, but it wouldn't aggravate her wounds. Still, she had to make sure. "You understand me, yes? I did not miss words?"
"Yeah, yeah, I get what you're saying," Dash said. "I'm way in the future, so I've been dead for, like, ever. You think I'm crazy 'cause I'm claiming to be a dead pony. This is like Daring Do and the Scarab of Chronus, except this future is way worse because nopony controls the weather and I have no idea what sent me here. Well, I'm not going to make all those mistakes she did. I'm not gonna panic just 'cause I'm not where I thought I was," Dash fixed her gaze back on Star Fall. "Star, I know you don't think I am who I say I am, but can we just, I don't know, pretend? Humor me for now or something? I really don't want to have to argue about whether I'm crazy or not."
Star Fall nodded. "Yes. I can do that."
"Awesome. Now, this time travel stuff is for brainiacs, and I'm no good at that, but if your teacher is anything like Twilight, then she'll at least know where to look. So I'm still totally wanting to meet her," she shifted restlessly in the bed. "What else do I need? Think, Dash. I remember reading the book and going 'oh, I'd never do that, that's crazy!' What was it that I'd do, 'cause now I gotta do it. Uh, Star, I know you think I'm crazy and all, but I'm going to need to know a lot more about the world so I don't, um, get into trouble or anything. I think I gotta start by learning the language. If there's only three ponies who can talk to me, I'm probably going to be in trouble. Could you, uh, teach me?"
"I can, yes. I will teach you Solar. Have you learned other language before?"
"No, but how hard can it be?"
Star Fall cringed. "I am 'egghead', yes? How is my speaking?"
Dash paused at that. "Oh, yeah. Okay. So, hard. I still wanna! So, can we start?"
Star Fall frowned. She hadn't ever been the teacher, only the student, so she really didn't know how to go about teaching a language to anyone. Eventually she figured she had to just go with it. She pointed a hoof at herself. "I am Star Fall," she said as clearly as she could, making sure each word was distinct and each sound fully formed. Then she pointed at Dash. "You are Rainbow Dash."
Dash listened, eyes glued to the white pegasus. She needed to learn, it was the best thing to do in this situation. Also, she was bedridden for the next few days, and without an adventure book to keep her mind occupied she was going to be chewing off her own limbs from boredom by the time afternoon hit. Learning was dull, and never one of her strong suits, but it was something she could focus her energies into while she got better.
Slowly Dash pointed her hoof at Star Fall. "You. Are. Star. Fall." She said. Star Fall smiled and nodded. Dash pointed to herself. "I. Am. Rainbow Dash."
"Hello Rainbow Dash," Star Fall said, miming a hoof shake for illustration.
"Hello. Star," Dash replied. And so the first lesson began.
Astrid returned when the sun was past its zenith. When she walked in Star Fall was in the middle of teaching Dash basic sentences for pointing things out or asking for something. The blue pegasus was catching on fast, remembering new words after only a few uses and picking up the sentence structure with ease.
"Hello Astrid," she said to the Griffin.
"I thought you didn't speak Solar?" Astrid said.
"I'm teaching her," Star Fall explained.
"Huh, well in that case. Hey Rainbow Dash. Mind if I just call you Dash?"
Star Fall translated that and the rainbow-maned pegasus nodded. "Yes. Dash. Good."
"Nice. Hey, Fall, we gotta talk. Can we do it in front of her?"
"She's just learning, Astrid. She can't follow complex sentences yet. Unless you want to give your report in baby-talk, I think we're secure."
"Right. I've been scouting around, and I spotted the caravan disappearing into the forest. They're making better time than we thought they would, but it'll still take them a couple days before a guide can get a group that large through the Everstorm."
"They're still headed for the sunlands, then," Star Fall mused.
"Yeah. Not bothering with security too much, either. I spotted only a couple pegasi out on watch. None of them were the asskicker, and I didn't see her or the boss anywhere with the caravan."
"Which means that they could have gone on ahead or taken an entirely different route. Damn, Agent Gamma isn't going to like that."
"She can stuff it up her..."
"Astrid, she's on our side."
The Griffin sighed. "Yeah, whatever. She treats you like her own personal bitch. She's worse than the Professor, at least Shine would stick her neck out for you."
"Isn't she also your superior officer?"
"I answer to the Royalty, Fall. Gamma can suck my tail hair."
Star Fall held up a hoof to forestall any more vitriol. "Did you see what they took?"
Astrid shook her head. "No. No extra baggage, no accommodation made for new material. If they took something, it was small. Still no clue what made them bug out in such a hurry. He's never abandoned a dig like that before."
"Well, we'll let the Service take over watching him sunside. If they figure it out, they'll give us a shout."
"Sure. In other news, it looks like no one's on the lookout for little miss meteor here. I'd expected at least a few pegasus flyovers, but nothing. Looks like the Republic police are staying out of the Verge."
Star Fall frowned at that. "They were obviously chasing her, they even darted her. Why give up? They might have expected her to die in the fall, but why not search for the body?"
"No clue. She given you any hints yet?"
Star Fall shook her head. She gave Astrid the short version of everything she had been talking about with Dash. "As far as she knows she's Rainbow Dash, ancient hero of the united Equestria. I think it's some kind of delusion or amnesia, or, hell, both. This isn't something I've ever studied in depth."
"Maybe she really is? You said there was something weird with her magic."
"Weird, yeah, but not pony-back-from-the-dead weird. I'll buy that she was sent forward in time before I'll accept a resurrection."
"So why don't you buy it? It's what she's peddling isn't it?"
"Because! It's too ridiculous. Sent forward in time? Why? How? Who could possibly gain from something like that?"
"What does she gain from lying about it?"
"Other people feeding into her delusion. Feeling like a hero, a persecuted hero at that."
"If she's crazy and that's all, why are you putting so much time and effort into her?"
"Because, arrgh!" Star Fall's wings shifted restlessly. Astrid picked up on that, of course. Body language wasn't all that different between pegasi and Griffins. "Okay, so, maybe I don't believe that she's Rainbow Dash, but that doesn't mean I don't think she's important! Why is it such a big deal to you anyways?"
Astrid shrugged. "It's not. She says she's Rainbow Dash, and until it gets proven otherwise that's good enough for me. You're the one who thinks it's so important that she be crazy instead."
"It's just, well, she talks about Twilight Sparkle as if she knew her. Like actually knew her!"
"Isn't that the patron saint of eggheads?"
"Well, yeah, she," Star Fall paused and gave Astrid a curious look. "Do you know, that's what she called me too?"
"What?"
"Dash. She called me 'egghead' too. Except she did it in Old Equestrian. I didn't make the connection until now. It's very disturbing being teased for being a scholar in a language only the most serious of scholars would know."
"Ha! My kind of mare," Astrid said, throwing an eagle's grin at the injured pony who was watching them with intense concentration. "She's kinda got me spooked too, ya know?"
"I thought you believed her?"
"Not about the whole 'from the past' thing. But that greeting she had you deliver for her. It's not something a normal pony should know."
"It sounded odd. Talking about killing and everything. What was it?"
"It's a greeting Griffins from different clans say when they meet each other for the first time, but know they'll have to travel together. It's basically 'I won't mess with you if you don't mess with me'. Nothing serious or secret, but we never use it with ponies. She even knew to exchange names afterwards. She's spent time with Griffins, and gotten to know them well enough to be treated as a member of the clan. I don't have to tell you that's not something that happens. Ever."
"Yeah, she's a veritable fountain of mysteries," Star Fall sighed. "I promised to humor her until we got to the Professor. So even if I don't believe, I'm not going to push it. Whatever, whoever she is, she's vital. I can feel it."
"Will she be able to cross the Everstorm by the deadline?"
Star Fall pawed at the floor, thinking. "I don't know. She's healing really fast, but those were serious injuries. Her bones will be solid by then, but I can't say whether she'll be strong enough to use them or not," she looked up at Astrid. "If she can't, I'm not leaving her. What are you going to do?"
Astrid looked at Dash, who was still watching them with a furrowed brow, her lips moving silently as she sounded out words. "I should make you go," she said. "The Professor's too important to risk her passing through the Everstorm to get you. My orders would be pretty clear there."
"Astrid."
"Fall, let me finish here, okay? I should do that. But I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to make sure we get through on time. All of us, even if I have to carry her."
Star Fall smiled at her friend. "I knew you'd stick with me."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever, just don't go all mushy on me, okay? Keep teaching blast from the past here how to talk like a real person, I'll be taking a nap."
Star Fall returned to Dash. "Sorry," she said. "We were talking about you. Not bad. Just what to do to bring you through Storm."
"I could almost understand what you were saying. I kept catching words here and there," Dash said. "I think I'm getting the hang of this. I bet I'll be talking Solar as well as you by the end of the week."
Star Fall laughed. "You can not learn a language in a week. If you are betting, I will take that bet, but you have nothing to stake."
Dash's eyes lit up. "Sure I do. You guys have forgotten how to make weather, right? I mean, it's just happening on its own, and that's really freaky. I know how, and I can teach you."
Star Fall looked like she was about to scoff at the idea, but paused, considering. "Okay. I win, you teach me weather. You win, what then?"
"When I win, you start believing I am who I say I am."
"I do not think it works that way."
"What? You afraid you're gonna lose?"
This time Star Fall did scoff at that. "No. You will not learn that fast."
Dash grinned. "Then do we have a bet?" She spat on her hoof and held it out.
Star Fall looked shocked at the proffered hoof, but then narrowed her eyes and nodded, spitting on her own hoof and touching them together. "Yes. We have a bet."
"Awesome," Dash said. "Oh, and just to let you know. My Special Talent? It's being fast. Being fast and winning."
"This is impossible," Star Fall groused. "No one can absorb a new language this quickly!"
"And yet," Astrid said, looking towards Dash, who was hobbling around the field outside of the cabin. Her legs were still splinted, but she could put weight on them now, and had insisted on getting out of bed and out under the sky. Her wings had healed first, and she kept them close to her sides, the bones still too weak to attempt flight. Star Fall thought she would be able to walk without splints by the next day, but still not fly or run. She had been learning Solar for four days now, and Star Fall barely had to translate anything anymore.
"Rrr! She's just so casual about it! She's all 'oh, I'm Rainbow Dash, I'm just that awesome'! No one's that awesome! No one!"
"I am!" Dash cheerfully called over, a triumphant grin splitting her features.
"And does she have to be so arrogant about it?" Star Fall huffed. "She couldn't have been faking not knowing Solar, I'm sure of that. She must be some kind of linguistics savant or something!"
"Are you angry because she's learning fast, or because you're losing your bet?"
"I made that bet because it didn't matter whether she won or not! She can't teach me weather-making because you can't make weather! I can't believe she's Rainbow Dash because it's impossible!"
"And yet," Astrid said again, snickering. "You just said her learning Solar this quick is impossible. Maybe you're using that word wrong, huh?"
Star Fall stomped her hooves and seethed. "I am not using it wrong! She's just... This learning curve is insane! I use a word twice and she's already got it in her vocabulary, show her how to create a sentence and she's finding new ways to use it. She's even picking up slang for Celestia's sake! And worst of all, her using Solar is starting to sound a lot like her using Old Equestrian! Like she's doing some twisted direct translation in her brain that conveys exactly parallel meanings between the two completely dissimilar linguistic milieus."
"Yeah, I have no idea what you just said there, but didn't Solar come from Old Equestrian? Aren't they basically the same language a thousand years apart?"
"No! That's not how languages work! Lunar and Solar both came from Old Equestrian, but that doesn't make them 'basically the same language' does it?"
Astrid shrugged. "Point taken. But she's still beating you. You're gonna have to believe her."
Star Fall kicked at the dirt. Her wings snapping open in anger, then drooping as she accepted the inevitable. "Fine. She's Rainbow Dash."
"Did you hear that?" Astrid called.
The blue pegasus turned towards them. "No, what was it?"
"Fall just admitted you're Rainbow Dash!"
"Hah! I win! I am the winner, I am the winner, you gotta believe me, in your face!" Dash did a toddling dance on her good legs while sing-songing out her victory.
"Great, I'm never going to hear the end of this," Star Fall sighed.
"Nope, and that's what friends are for," Astrid said as Dash waddled up to them.
"Hey, Star, don't take it too hard," Dash said. "I'll still teach you weather-making. Oh, and maybe how to talk better in Equestrian. You sound like a foreign stereotype."
"I'll teach you, you miserable," Star Fall grumbled under her breath, but then pushed her annoyance away. "How are your legs?"
"Itchy," Dash said. "They still hurt a bit when I put my full weight on them, but I think I can walk fine."
"Then we'll take the splints off tonight. If you keep healing this fast, you should be walking okay by morning. If you can, then we'll have to get moving. We can't wait much longer if we want to cross the Everstorm before the deadline."
"Yeah, you've talked about that before, but I've been so busy learning your language I never asked. What is this 'Everstorm'? I mean, I get that we're next to the Everfree forest, but this sounds like it's got a story behind it."
"It does," Star Fall said. "It's more mythology than history, it happened during the Schism, and most history from around and before that time has been lost."
"What's the Schism? You've said that before too."
"It's what ended your world and made ours," Astrid said. "It's what happened when ponies lost their Gods."
"Yeah, that sounds important to know," Dash said. "Can we go inside and sit down? I'm kinda tired."
"Sure," Star Fall said. Once they had relocated inside they pulled out some food that Astrid had gathered and ate dinner while Star Fall told the story.
"We're not sure how it began. Whether it was something the Goddesses did, or something the people did, or a prophecy, or direct knowledge of what was coming. We don't know, and not even the Dragons who lived through it could tell us for sure. What we do know is that the Goddesses sensed a grave danger to the world, one that they couldn't fight directly. So to protect the world from this danger they sacrificed their earthly forms to bind its power, make it too weak to conquer the world. Their spirits infused their respective heavenly bodies. Luna became one with the moon, and Celestia merged with the sun. From their places in the sky they still bring day and night to the world.
"When they left there was already a political division between those that supported Celestia's nobility, and the ones that saw a road to power in Luna's theories on self-governance and 'free markets'. The Goddesses had shared power between them, and the legends say that Equestria was a peaceful nation, with both the Royals in power and elected local governments. With their influence gone, the two sides became more and more fanatical and devoted to their ideals. Demagogues stirred up the populace and the nobles responded by using the military to quell unrest. This just spurred more unrest, which led to more harsh crackdowns.
"Eventually it erupted into all-out war. The rebels had the support of the populace, while the loyalists had the military infrastructure and most of the unicorns. It was a bloodbath, and it spilled over Equestria's borders into the rest of the world. We dragged the other races into our conflict, and made them choose sides. The Griffins chose to side with the loyalists, the Changelings with the rebels. Dragons picked whoever offered them the most treasure. The other races, well, some of them just wanted to be left alone, but we didn't give them the chance. Others joined up eagerly, but none of the others have survived in any numbers. Especially not after... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
"The rebels had popular support, so they had numbers, but until they were able to train their troops they were mostly just a mob. The loyalists had a proper army, but Equestria had been at peace for so long they weren't prepared for any sort of major campaign. The rebels made a lot of early gains, controlling most of the eastern and southern portions of Equestria, and the territories beyond. By the time the Griffins had shown the loyalist army how to fight properly, the Changelings had done the same for the rebels, and it just turned the war into a slow, hard grind.
"New weapons were devised. Legends speak of incredible magical powers unleashed, and entire cities were wiped off the map. What was left of the Crystal Kingdom was shattered, the Bison grazelands were razed, Labyrinthia was reduced to rubble. The loyalists raised war-Phoenixes while the rebels magically bred Windigos, alternately burning or freezing entire settlements.
"This went on for decades. Every peace was only a time to rearm and resupply. Every treaty signed was destined to end up trampled underhoof the moment one side sensed an advantage. It was forty years into the war, both sides preparing their most devastating weapons yet, when the Destroyer first appeared."
"Whoa, the Destroyer?" Dash interrupted. "That's sounds awesome! What was it?"
"Not what, who," Star Fall explained. "She's been called many things. In the Solar Kingdom we usually refer to her as the Shadowed Alicorn. Over here they're more likely to call her the Gray Mare. In the records we still have in Old Equestrian, she was called Nightmare Umbra."
"Nightmare? Like, as in Nightmare Moon?" Dash asked, wide-eyed.
"It's the same word. I don't think it's the same creature," Star Fall said. "We don't know a lot about where she came from, or what she wants. What we do know is that she is what the Goddesses left to protect us from.
"Nightmare Umbra was just a strange figure seen above the skies of certain battlefields at first. She frightened the soldiers, but not much more. Then she started acting. She'd appear, and then whole companies of soldiers would just vanish. The stories say she was terrifying, that no weapon could touch her, and that she could smite down even the mightiest of Dragons with a look from her burning eyes. Each side accused the other of employing her, but she struck both equally. Her presence made the leadership on both sides decide that they needed to wipe their opposition out decisively in order to turn their attention to stopping her.
"The armies gathered, all the forces on both sides. All their most terrible weapons and magics all brought to bear. And they clashed here, in the Everfree regions. No one knows who would have won the fight, because before they could fire the first spell, the Destroyer appeared between the two armies. She told them that their war gave her strength, and that if they fought here she would have the power to conquer the world. The generals on both sides didn't believe her, and ordered the attack anyways, but targeting her first.
"They had no idea what they were dealing with. Their most powerful weapons glanced off of her and their bravest warriors died under her hooves. All the while she was gaining power from their violence, from the destruction. She spread her wings and gathered her power, ready to crush both armies and conquer the world. Her magic struck the land first, molding it into new shapes with earthquakes and volcanoes. Then it struck the skies, blasting the world with storms that could never again be calmed by pegasus hooves. Finally she struck at all living creatures, and everything that lived felt its heart still in its chest.
"It was then that what the Goddesses had done made itself manifest. Their spirits moved across the earth, sun high overhead, then moon crossing in front of the sun, until they were both in the same place in the sky. Sunlight and moonlight twined together, pouring their power down on the Shadowed Alicorn. She was caught, her own powers were stretched out across the whole world, and so they were vulnerable. The Goddesses struck down Nightmare Umbra and took from her the bulk of her magic.
"Yet, she was still an Alicorn, a fellow Goddess, and her power could not be so easily contained. So the Goddesses reached into the world and drew from it all the magic they could, wrapping it around the Nightmare's power until it was imprisoned completely. Umbra raged, but her power was bound. Her chained magic spread out between the two armies, crossing the whole of the remaining continent in a line that became a storm of intense power. A magical storm that never ends. We call it the Everstorm, and it separates the Solar Kingdom from the United Lunar Republics.
"Binding the Destroyer's power had a terrible side effect, though. It had taken too much magic from the world. Unicorns couldn't even start to cast spells out of their Talent, earth ponies lost their sense of the world, pegasi couldn't control the weather or walk the clouds. Some, like the Dragons, died outright without the magic to sustain them. Only a few of those races are left, individuals who somehow managed to survive the loss of magic. While other races weren't wiped out, they were completely devastated. Crops failed, animals went wild, weather patterns took nearly twenty years to settle down into something predictable. There was so much destruction and so many died in the aftermath that civilization on both sides had to be rebuilt practically from the ground up.
"We call this event, the binding of Nightmare Umbra and the breaking of Old Equestria, the Schism. It happened over eight hundred years ago."
"Wow," Dash said as Star Fall finished. "Did all that really happen?"
Star Fall shrugged. "I don't know. As I said, it was eight hundred years ago, and almost all of the records from that time are lost. Most of that was just pieced together from the oral traditions passed down before the Kingdom and the Republics got back on their hooves. A lot of it is probably myth, metaphor or some other way to explain the big events that were going on in understandable terms. Nightmare Umbra is real, though, not allegory for the war itself, and the Everstorm is as real as it gets."
"But, the loss of magic? I guess that would explain why no one's fixed the weather, but you can still fly, right? I mean, pegasi still have their wings, right?"
"I can, and we do. Pegasus ponies can still fly, but unless it's our Talent, we're not very good at it. Because of my Talent I can focus my magic to mimic other pegasus Talents. So I can fly fairly fast, or be agile, or graceful. I can even walk on clouds if I concentrate hard enough. Most of us have to make do with one."
Dash turned to Astrid. "Can you cloudwalk? Griffins used to be able to do that as good as us pegasi."
Astrid shook her head. "Nope. We're still strong flyers, and the best warriors in air or on ground, but clouds are just mist to us. We don't get Talents like you ponies do, so we don't even have individuals who can do it. We've all kind of forgotten it was even possible, except in the golden age stories they tell hatchlings."
Dash looked down, all that she had been told sinking in. "Wow. That's horrible, guys. I can't believe ponies would go to war like that. And I can't imagine what it would be like to lose all your magic. I don't really think about it, but I wouldn't be as fast as I am, or as awesome, without my pegasus magic."
"We've managed pretty well," Star Fall said. "It's not like we're lame or anything just because we can't walk on clouds anymore."
Dash laughed. "Yeah, I guess not. You're not lame, you're just missing out on something you never knew you should have. I wish I could do something about it," Dash brightened as an idea came to her. "Hey! Maybe I can! When we find a way to send me back, I can stop this all from happening! Maybe that's why I'm here, 'cause this Nightmare Umbra sent me here so that me and my friends couldn't use the Elements of Harmony on her!"
"Elements of what?" Star Fall asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Elements of Harmony, they're these magical necklace thingies that shoot rainbows and defeat evil," Dash explained, giving Star Fall an incredulous look. "You know about me being a hero, but you don't know about the Elements?"
Star Fall shook her head. "The histories never mentioned any Elements of Harmony. They said you were a hero, one of a group of heroes that saved Equestria several times during a turbulent period. So these Elements are a weapon you used?"
"No," Dash said, drawing out the word as she thought over the two times she and her friends had been called upon to wield the Elements. "Not exactly. They're more like. Well, they're kind of... I guess I don't know what they are. They're not really weapons, but they stopped Nightmare Moon and Discord. Each of them needs a certain type of pony to use them, a pony who embodies one of six things. Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Honesty, Magic, and Loyalty. That's what I am, Loyalty."
"That's...weird."
"Hey! I'm totally loyal!" Dash protested. "I never leave my friends hangin'!"
"No, not that part. The six traits seem weird. Magic I understand, but what does Laughter or Honesty or any of them have to do with harmony?"
"I... don't know that either. But it totally does, somehow. And when you use them together it makes a big rainbow, and fixes everything. And I bet that's what Nightmare Umbra sent me here to stop!"
"Hold your hooves there, Dash," Astrid said. "We can't know anything about that yet. Don't get ahead of yourself."
"Right," Dash said, forcing herself to calm down. But she was sure that she was on to something here. This really was like Daring Do and the Scarab of Chronus! She had to make it back to the past to set right what once went wrong! "Keep it cool. Wait until we see this teacher of yours, Star. She's a Magic Talent, right? She'll be able to help."
"I'm sure of it," Star Fall confirmed.
"Cool. Then could you help me get these splints off? 'Cause there's this itch that I have been dying for the past twenty minutes to get at."
Star Fall smiled and moved to help the other pegasus. Something caught at the back of her mind though. Elements of Harmony. She hadn't heard that term associated with the sparse legends of Rainbow Dash, but she was sure she had heard it somewhere before. For some reason it also brought to mind the name Twilight Sparkle, the incredible unicorn to whose story Rainbow Dash was essentially a footnote. Somehow, somewhere, she had seen the two together, and now that Dash had brought them up she couldn't stop mulling it over. There was something there. Something she wasn't quite seeing yet.
She shrugged the thoughts off as best she could. She needed her sleep now. Tomorrow, Dash would probably be good to start walking, and then they had to make their way into the forest. And the Everstorm.
When my friends and I first found the Elements, they appeared as stone spheres more than a foot in diameter. Nightmare Moon shattered these forms. I was left in despair until I heard my friends coming to my aid. Their arrival provided the spark of understanding for me to see the Elements as more than simply enchanted objects. I began to realize the full extent of the Magic of Harmony, the many layers of magic and connection that composed the Elements. As I did so the Elements reconstituted themselves around my friends, responding to our friendship and my new-found understanding. They took new forms, the necklaces and crown that are well-known today. Each newly formed Element had a reference to the cutie mark of the pony who bore it in their central gems, something that I did not question at the time.
It was this malleability of form, and the ease with which they rebuilt themselves and customized their appearance, that made me decide that the first order of business in my studies of the Elements of Harmony was to investigate their physical properties. As we shall see in this section, what I discovered fundamentally altered my view of magic, the Elements, and, sadly, reality itself.
Calumn ducked his head against the wind and rain that lashed at him. The torrents of stinging raindrops made it impossible to see more than a meter or two ahead of him at any time, and even trying to look beyond his feet earned him a painful lashing of water in his eyes. It almost made him wish he was in his true form, his carapace wouldn't feel the bite of the weather like his sodden coat did. As it was, he was forced to endure.
He spotted a neon sign through the rain, proudly declaring that Stormrider's was open for business. He made for that, thankful that he didn't have to go too much farther to reach his destination. Crossing through the Verge on hoof was slow going, especially since he'd had to take routes around the mountains that would avoid the military patrols. It had taken the better part of five days just to get this far. Now he was inside the Everfree forest, with the Everstorm a scant few kilometers away, and if he wanted to go any further he needed to hire a guide. Every report he'd read about crossing into the sunlands said that the best place to do that was right here, at Stormrider's Bar.
The transition from intense storm outside to calm bar room inside was a shock to the system. The walls of Stormrider's were as solid as they could possibly be to survive the storms that often broke off from the Everstorm and ravaged the Everfree Verge. Because of that they dulled the sound of the rain and screaming wind to a hushed growl that could be felt over the music playing inside, but only barely.
The interior of the bar was lit by a few shaded bulbs that hung from the ceiling, and the flickering neon sign that hung in the only window. The walls were adorned with hundreds of wooden plaques that bore names etched into them. Some of the plaques appeared to be centuries old. Other than that there were signs for various brands of alcohol, a portrait of Stormrider, the bar's original owner, and a pinup calendar of the Republic's raciest mares decked out in socks and saddles.
Calumn's arrival was barely noted by the patrons, a motley assortment of ponies and other races gathered in little groups or on their own, each with their heads down over a drink. He didn't see any of the usual things he'd been expecting from his experience infiltrating tough places before. There was no gambling, no games at all that he could see. Conversations were kept hushed and close, and were so few that the music easily drowned them all out. No one seemed to be posturing, displaying wealth or weapons or scars. It was unnerving.
Calumn made his way over to the bar and took a seat. The bartender, a dark brown pegasus stallion with a dirty pink mane and a Talent Glyph that said his abilities were focused on cooking, gave Calumn a steady look. "Just a beer," Calumn said. "Whatever you've got on tap."
The pegasus moved with practiced ease to draw Calumn his drink. When he set it down in front of the disguised Changeling he held it close, not letting Calumn pick it up. "Two full moons," he said.
"Two?" Calumn choked out.
"Two," the bartender repeated, unfazed.
"Nobody charges two full moons for a beer," Calumn said. This was obviously a test of some kind, determining how much of a mark he was. Well, he could deal with that, he'd just show that he could play the game. "Look, I'll give you one. That's enough for this and two more after."
"Two for this one. Two for the next," the bartender said.
"Seriously? What's this stuff made out of? Ambrosia?"
"Barley," the bartender said.
This wasn't going Calumn's way. "That's fucking robbery!"
"Nope," said a new voice. Calumn turned to look at the earth pony stallion sitting a few places down from him. He'd had his head down on the bar, but Calumn saw that his eye was open and focused on the conversation with a delighted glint.
"You wanna say something?" Calumn asked, wondering if this was part of the test.
"Yup!" the stallion said, pulling his head up from the bar. There was a napkin stuck to the side of his face, but he didn't even seem to notice as he bounced from stool to stool to get closer, closing the distance between the two of them until he was sitting right next to Calumn. He was a green that was dark enough to be mistaken for black in the poor lighting of the bar, his mane and tail a brighter shade of green with a pair of yellow stripes running through them. His Glyph was an Abstract of a strange maze that curved in on itself, but seemed to only have one path. He grinned at Calumn, lemon yellow eyes glinting as he leaned in to give the Changeling a conspiratorial whisper. "It's not robbery," he said.
"Really," Calumn said, leaning back from the green pony. "That what is it?"
The green pony's eyes darted around the room quickly before he leaned further, practically lying on Calumn. "Extortion."
"Extortion?"
"Yup!" the green pony said as the bartender rolled his eyes.
"That's enough, Blaze," the bartender said.
"Okay," Blaze said, returning upright and dropping his head onto the bar.
Calumn slowly pulled himself up, looking at the strange pony. "Don't mind him," the bartender said. "He's more than a little drunk right now."
"Huh," Calumn said, then shook his head and looked at the bartender. "Two full moons. Are you extorting me?"
"Do you know how much it costs to import real beer this far into the Verge? Right next to the Everstorm? Two full moons a pint, minus a modest profit margin. Now, are you gonna pay for it, or do you want to look at my books first?"
Calumn snorted and fished two full moons from his sodden pack. The bartender scooped the coins away and slid the beer to Calumn. "I'm looking for passage through the Everstorm," he said.
"No shit," the bartender deadpanned. "Really?"
Well, if Calumn was going to be forced to play the naive newcomer, he might as well play it to the hilt. "Yeah," he said. "I know this is where the guides hang out on this side. Can you point me to a good one?"
"A good one, huh? You don't want the best?"
"At two full moons a beer I'm not sure I can afford the best," Calumn said.
The bartender snickered at that. "Fair enough. I could point you in the right direction, I guess, but I'm not entirely sure it's worth my time."
"More extortion?"
"Nothing's free in the Verge," the bartender said.
"No government, no cops, no armies, no laws. Some would consider that free."
"And you gotta pay for every single damn day of it," the bartender said. "Why do you want to go to the sunlands?"
"My business," Calumn warned.
"And who can get you there is mine," the bartender replied. "So make it worth my time, or enjoy your beer."
Calumn fished five more full moons out of his pack and carefully laid them in front of the pegasus. "Good enough?"
The bartender shrugged. "Eh? It'll do. You want to start over there, with the mutt in the hood. He'll get you through the Everstorm, safe and sound. If, that is, you can convince him to do it. He's kind of particular about his clients. Name's Silas."
Calumn nodded. "Thanks." He tapped the green pony on the shoulder, and was rewarded with a yellow eye shining up at him. "Hey," he said, sliding the beer over to him. "On me, okay buddy?"
Calumn didn't wait to see the reaction, instead sliding from the stool and trotting over to the guide the bartender had pointed out. He was a Diamond Dog, his paws wrapped around a steel mug made for a dog's claws. He was wearing the kind of hooded coat that was in fashion back in the Republics, and it was unadorned, which was odd for a Diamond Dog. He watched Calumn approach with bloodshot eyes, nose twitching as he took in Calumn's scent. This wouldn't be a problem for the Changeling, the disguise his kind created was a physical transformation, not an illusion. He'd spent so long in this form that his true scent would be undetectable even to a keen Dog nose.
Calumn sat down across the small table from Silas. "I'm looking for passage," he said.
The Dog snorted. "I know you are looking for passage, little pony," he rasped. His Lunar was good, but he had enough of a Solar accent to tell Calumn on what side of the Storm he was raised. "No one comes here unless they are looking for passage, or already know how to do it themselves. So I know you are looking for passage. I wonder, though, why you want to cross the Everstorm. It is a dangerous thing to do, there must be great motivation to try something like that."
"The pony at the bar said you could get me through safe and sound."
Silas barked out a laugh. "Safe? Yes. I can do safe. Sound? Sound of body, maybe. Sound of mind? I am less sure of that. The Storm is not all rain and lightning. It is magic. It is fury and power. To pass the Storm you must let the storm touch you, and sometimes it likes to cut at little ponies where no one will see the wound, and where it will never heal."
"I bet it cuts Dogs just as well as it cuts ponies," Calumn said.
Silas let out another laugh. "Yes. Silas has many scars! Scars that make Silas afraid of the Storm. Afraid and respectful, as you should be too. I can take you across it, but it will not be cheap, and you must be sure that crossing is what you want. No, not want, need to do. The Storm will scare you, little pony."
"I think I can handle it," Calumn said.
"You are big, yes. Big for a pony, but still much smaller than the Storm. It will try to kill you, little pony, and it is bigger than all the armies of the world. Maybe you have never known real fear before, but in the Storm fear will find you. Unless you have the will to push through, when that fear comes you will do as all ponies do and try to run from it. Then you will be out in the Storm, without Silas to guide you through, and you will die. I will not go after you. For no amount of money or promises will I follow a panicked pony into the fury of the Everstorm."
"Fine," Calumn said. He had faced fear before, and a greater and more unstoppable fear than this Dog had likely ever known. The Everstorm wasn't going to frighten him, not for all of its rage. "I'm not just buying one way, I want passage back through, for me and one other. How much."
Silas considered Calumn, his tongue licking once at his black nose as he thought. "Two hundred," he said finally.
"No," Calumn refused. "I'm buying passage, not an apartment. Seventy five."
"This is the Everstorm, pony," Silas grinned, showing off his sharp canine teeth. "Passage is life. Two ways? And for another as well? What is it? Are you going for a lover? Some girl-pony who has your heart or balls in her mouth and will bite if you don't come bring her to the glorious southern Republics?"
"Something like that," Calumn said evenly.
"Well, then, you pay for it. Yes. One seventy five."
Calumn stopped himself from wincing. This was going to cost him all of his seed money. "One hundred."
Silas 'tsked' at him. "No, pony. You bid too low. Even the most desperate guide doesn't agree to wait on a passenger for less than a hundred. For waiting and taking another back? One sixty."
"One forty."
"One fifty-five."
"One fifty. Half now, half when I'm returning."
Silas gave him a long look before grinning again. "Okay. Silas can agree to that."
Calumn was about to reach into his bag to pull out half the payment when the green pony from the bar flopped into another seat at the table. "Robbery," he said, giving the both of them a cheerful grin.
Silas growled. "Quiet, drunken pony. I was finishing a deal."
"Yeah, but it was gonna be robbery," Blaze said.
Calumn heaved a sigh. "I thought it was extortion?"
Blaze laughed. "Oh, yeah. Not this time. This time it's robbery."
Silas growled again, but his eyes were flickering between the two ponies, and he had begun to compulsively lick his nose. "Don't listen to the drunken pony. He is often putting his nose in things that do not concern him."
"That's true," Blaze mused. "But this guy bought me a drink! An extortion-priced drink! That's kindness you just gotta repay!"
Calumn frowned. "Why is it robbery this time?"
"It isn't," Silas rasped.
"'Cause he's going to rob you," Blaze said happily.
"Seriously?" Calumn asked.
"Shut up, pony," Silas whined, shrinking back on himself.
"Yeah, he was going to take you a little ways into the storm, then lead you into one of the traps, promise to let you out if you give him the rest of the payment first, then take the money and leave you to die. That's a kind of robbery."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
"How do you know that?" Calumn asked, ignoring the Diamond Dog for now.
"Well, first of all, one fifty? For taking you through, waiting, then taking you back with another passenger? Yeah, nobody here would agree to that."
"Really."
"Yup. If we're not moving passengers we're not making money. None of us would give up the chance to make money like that, not unless the payoff was super-duper-ultra amazingly good. And guaranteed. Can't forget that if you're a spy you could always get caught, and then we'd be waiting for Luna knows how long and you'd never come back. That would really mess us up. So no waiting."
"Well, crap," Calumn said. "I was hoping to have my return trip all ready to go."
Blaze shrugged. "What can you do? It's the economy."
"Yes, fine! No waiting. We can still have a deal, yes?" Silas asked.
Calumn ignored him. "So why do you think he was going to kill me."
"Oh, he wasn't going to kill you, he was just going to leave you to die," Blaze explained. "It's not exactly the same thing, since you still have a chance at surviving that way."
"Okay. But how do you know that's what he was going to do?"
"Well, he's done it before. I mean, I've rescued ponies he's stranded like that three times now. It's kind of embarrassing, really. I mean, you'd think if you're planning a trip to an enemy nation you'd at least research the prices beforehand, right? But, nope! They just go on thinking a hundred full moons is all it takes to get smuggled across the most dangerous border in Equestria."
Calumn turned to Silas. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm going to agree to this deal."
Silas snarled at Blaze. "You have cost Silas, drunkard pony. I will not forget," with that he got up from the table and stormed out into the rain.
"Who's been rubbing him the wrong way?" Blaze asked, seeming genuinely surprised at the Dog's actions.
"Who indeed," Calumn said. "I take it that you're a guide?"
"Yeah! How'd you know?"
"If you're rescuing people trapped in the Everstorm you've got to be able to navigate it."
"Hmm, I never thought of it that way, I guess I do!" Blaze grinned.
Calumn blinked at the pony. "How much would you charge?"
"For the whole deal?" Blaze asked, looking perplexed. "'Cause there's this thing about waiting that we just don't do. I might have mentioned it."
"No, just for taking me to the other side. I can negotiate my way back across when I need it."
"Well, one pony one way. That's two hundred right there."
"Seriously?"
Blaze put a hoof to his chin and made humming noises as he thought about it for nearly half a minute before nodding solidly. "Yes. Seriously."
"Tell me, please. Are you cheap?" Calumn asked.
"Well, I can get falling down drunk from about five beers, I shop at thrift stores, I prefer pizza and a walk in the park to dinner and a movie, and ever since I was kicked out of the trailer park my self-respect has never recovered. So, um, yeah, I guess I'm pretty cheap," Blaze paused for a moment before adding: "Should I feel bad for that?"
"As a guide," Calumn said, putting a hoof to his head. "Are your rates cheap for a guide!"
"Oh!" Blaze said, his eyes lighting up. "Yeah! In that case I am totally not cheap. Nope. Expensive as hell. But I can guarantee you one thing."
"What's that?"
"That when I charge you two hundred for a crossing it's not robbery," he grinned again, eyes shining. "It's extortion."
Calumn couldn't help but laugh at that, and stuck out his hoof. "Strongheart," he said. "And I think we have a deal. Half now, half on the other side."
The green stallion took the offered hoof. "Trail Blazer, but you can call me Blaze, and that's fine with me. When did you want to head out?"
"As soon as we can."
"Then get something to eat. You're going to need the energy, and as soon as you're done, we'll get going."
"Shouldn't we wait for daylight? Or a break in the storm at least?"
Blaze laughed. "Oh, nope. We're heading into the Everstorm, Strongheart. A few kilometers to the border and then day, night, clear skies or gray, none of that will matter."
"Is it really that bad?" Calumn asked.
Blaze's smile turned wan and sad. "My friend, you have no idea."
Rainbow Dash had never seen anything like it. The wall of cloud was strung like a curtain through the forest, stretching from the ground up into the sky. It swirled and eddied like a thousand tornadoes fighting to occupy the same space from different angles. Flashes of light illuminated parts of the immense storm, bolts of green, red, blue, gold, magenta and white flaring against each other in staccato bursts of lightning with no thunder. Star and Astrid had talked to her about the Everstorm, and their story about how it was made was pretty clear on how powerful this thing was. Neither of them had managed to convey how alive the storm felt. It was like it was looking at her, waiting with a fang-toothed grin for her to step right into its jaws.
"This thing is wrong," Dash said. "The wind's gotta be fifty miles an hour for the cloudbank to move like that, but we're ten feet away and all we're getting is a light breeze. This is... this is Discord wrong," Dash shivered.
Star Fall gave Dash a puzzled frown, but went back to her spell-sheet. Astrid stepped up next to the blue pegasus. "This is nothing. Once we get inside, that's when you'll see the real shit. Remember the rules?"
"Yeah, stick close to Star," Dash replied. They'd been constantly drilling that into her since the trio had left the cabin and made their way to the Everfree forest. Dash's wings were strong enough to carry her now, though she wasn't up to attempting any aerobatics yet. Her injured legs were holding up well, and though she was still tiring a lot faster than she liked her stamina had improved enough that she could walk for a few hours without taking any breaks. It had still been slow going to reach the Everstorm, but now that they were here she realized that she had needed all the healing she could get to tackle this monster.
"Don't get more than five feet away from her, no matter what you see or hear," Astrid warned. "The Everstorm likes to trick you, to separate groups and make ponies walk off of cliffs or into a vortex. It can make you see things that aren't there, hear people you know calling for you. You can't trust any of your senses. Distance, size, everything you take for granted in navigating the world are skewed. Fall's magic holds most of that at bay, but you can still hear things, and sometimes see things."
Dash swallowed hard. "I gotcha. No running off." She stared at the menacing wall of storm. "How many times have you gone through?"
"This'll be ten," Astrid replied.
"And ponies do this all the time, right?"
"Yeah. Some ponies do. And a lot of them never make it out the other side," Astrid looked down at Rainbow Dash. "You're shaking a bit there, Dash. Don't tell me that you, the 'awesomest' pony in Equestria is afraid?"
It was obviously a ploy to provoke her ego into steeling her resolve, and let it never be said that Rainbow Dash's ego wasn't up for a challenge. Dash stilled her shivers and narrowed her eyes. "Me? Frightened? Ha! It's just a big storm, and there's no storm in the world in any time that can get the better of Rainbow Dash!"
"That's the spirit," Astrid smiled. "How are we doin' Fall?"
"Done," Star Fall said, stepping up to the two of them. She had several rolled up spellsheets sticking out of her saddlebags, in easy reach. She looked worriedly at the storm. "We're going to have to make good time. I calculated how long we have with the spells available, and unless we pick up our usual pace by twenty percent we won't have enough to completely exit the Everstorm."
"We can't do this at a run, Fall," Astrid said. "That'll get us killed real quick."
"I know," Star Fall said. "What it means is that I've had to re-plan the route. We're going to have to skim close to the center."
"How close?"
"I want to cut through the eye," Star Fall said.
Astrid stared hard at the white pegasus. Dash looked between them, from the worried and sheepish look of Star Fall to the fearful and nigh-furious glare of Astrid. "What's so bad about that?" she asked.
"The Everstorm has an eye, like a hurricane," Star Fall explained. "It's not large, and it doesn't move, but it's a calm spot."
"Calm my furry tail!" Astrid snapped. "That's where it's the worst. Those who go through the eye come out mad!"
"Mad?" Dash asked.
"Not always!" Star Fall said. "And not necessarily. It's the concentration of magic in the Everstorm's eye that causes the problems. It's denser than anywhere else on the planet, a thousand times what it was even pre-Schism. I've got a dampening spell ready, it should protect us for long enough to cross."
"A dampening spell? Fighting super-concentrated magic with more magic? How likely is that to work?" Astrid screeched.
"It will work!" Star Fall insisted. "The dampening spell is designed to negate magic. I know it won't do that in there, but I've calibrated it to be strong enough that while we'll still get a lot of magic leakage, it won't be enough to make us sick. Look, this is the only way! If we don't cut through the eye we will run out of protection before we reach the other side."
Astrid just shook her head. "This is nuts, Fall. We can't do this."
"We have to," Star Fall reiterated.
"Hey, guys," Dash said, catching both of their attentions. "If Star says this is the only way, I'm kinda going to believe her. I mean, who's the egghead here, her or us?"
Astrid sighed. "You're right. Fine. But this plan freaks me out."
"What?" Dash said, nudging the Griffin. "Is big, bad Astrid afraid of a little storm?"
"This Storm? Yes." Astrid said. "Damn right I'm afraid."
"We can't waste any more time," Star Fall said, drawing out one of the spellsheets and laying it on the ground. She put her hoof just above the paper and the designs on it suddenly flared to crimson life. The active spellsheet lifted into the air, hovering in front of Star Fall, magical sigils crawling across its surface in a disturbing spider-walk of ink and light.
"Whoa, freaky," Dash said, watching with wide eyes.
"Stay close," Star Fall warned, then walked to the storm. Dash and Astrid didn't need to be told twice.
Calumn couldn't believe how hard the wind hit him the moment he crossed the cloud barrier. He lurched to the side, hooves scrabbling for traction on the ground. Only the rope that connected him to Blaze kept him from being thrown. Blaze kept up a steady pace, forcing Calumn to follow in a blind, stumbling rush. Lightning flashed through the clouds, but all it illuminated were more clouds, making it impossible to even see as far as the end of the rope that tied him to Blaze.
The wind shrieked in his ears, the sound almost forming words at the edge of his perception. He saw shapes in the clouds, enormous faces, gaping maws. A huge dragon's claw swung towards him, and he tried to recoil, only to be pulled along by Blaze's implacable step.
Suddenly the wind and the clouds receded and he was able to see Blaze ahead of him. Blaze stopped and looked back, giving Calumn a lopsided smile. "There we go," he said.
"What? Are we through?" Calumn gasped. He had no idea how long they'd been walking, but his legs shook as if he'd run a marathon.
"Through? Nope. Not even close. We've just convinced the Storm we won't be scared off by a little shoving and screaming," Blaze said. "Now comes the hard part."
"That was the easy part?"
"Well, yeah. If it was just a little bad weather, the Everstorm wouldn't be much of a barrier between the sunlands and the nightlands, now would it? We'd all just wear ponchos and cross whenever we liked."
"What... what happens now?" Calumn asked.
Blaze shrugged. "No idea! That's the fun of it, it's a new adventure every time you cross!"
"How do you know how to cross it, then?"
"The Storm has habits," Blaze explained. "You never know what's going to be where, but if you know the signs you can tell when you're coming up on it. Every now and then the Storm does something new, and then it's a bit of trial-and-error until someone gets it right and survives long enough to share the news."
"If it all moves around, then there are no landmarks, right? How do you even navigate in this?"
"Oh, that's my Special Talent. I find paths. I may take a twisty-turny route, but I'm always on the right path to where I want to go. Most of us guides have something to help us, and a big secret of the business is to find the eye and then use it to orient yourself."
"The eye? That's a bad place to be, right? I heard that somewhere."
"Bad place to be, but it's the only stable landmark in the entire Storm. Guides never go in, but you can see it from a ways away. Why do you think this is the only place in the whole wide Everstorm where you can get passage through? The eye makes it possible. We'll be heading towards it now, then we'll swing around it and head out the other side of the Storm."
"Sounds good," Calumn said, getting his breath back. "Nice of the Everstorm to give us a breather like this."
"Oh, it's not," Blaze said, grinning. "I've just been distracting you so you don't look around too much. By the way, whatever you do? Don't turn around."
Calumn wisely accepted that advice and began to follow Blaze into the depths of the Storm. They walked in silence for a while, then the quality of their hoofsteps changed, dirt giving way to a more solid crunching sound. Calumn looked down, and at first he thought he was stepping on fallen branches. Then he noticed the particular shapes and colors of what he had mistaken for twigs and branches. Bones. He was walking on a field of bones.
"Is this real?" he asked.
Blaze looked at him. "How important is it for you to know?"
Calumn considered that before shaking his head. "Not really."
"Then this is the fakeiest fake that has ever been faked."
"Good to know," Calumn said.
It was a while later, he had no idea how long, but they were still walking on bones, that he spotted the shapes moving in the swirling mists. He dismissed them at first, remembering the warnings about not trusting what he saw. When the became more distinct he found he was having a real hard time sticking to that advice. They were skulls. Pony, Griffin, Dog, he even thought he spotted a Changeling skull, empty eye sockets staring back at him.
"Get down!" Blaze shouted, and Calumn wasted no time in dropping to the bone-strewn ground. He looked up as Blaze bucked a floating unicorn skull that had to have been right behind Calumn's head. The skull shattered into a flurry of ashes that scattered in the wind.
"Okay, so those things are real," Calumn said, climbing to his hooves.
"Sorta," Blaze said, giving a wary eye to the many skulls that were floating around them, half hidden by the Storm's mist. "They're not all real. Some of them are, and they'll bite you pretty bad if you don't watch out for them. They're not usually a big problem. What you've really got to watch out for is..."
"Help!" The cry was faint, but close.
Blaze shuddered. "Yeah, that."
"Help me!" the plea came again.
Calumn felt a chill settle into his heart. He knew that voice. "Mom?"
"Please! Please help me!"
What was Strongheart's mother doing here? Had she heard about his 'desertion' and then run off to try to find him on the other side of the Everstorm? It would be just like her, unable to live without her son, not thinking through the consequences. She had come after him, and now she was trapped in the Storm. Calumn twisted about, trying to identify the source of the cries. "Mom!" he shouted. "Mom I'm here! Where are you!"
"No, come on Strongheart, remember where you are!" Blaze said, putting a hoof on Calumn's shoulder.
"My mom's out there!" he said, breathing hard and shrugging the hoof away. "We've got to go get her!"
"Calumn! Calumn I'm here, I need help!" His mother cried out. He knew where she was now. He could almost make her out, faint in the mists. He bounded towards her, brought up short by the rope tying him to Blaze. He turned on the earth pony, snarling, but his anger died when he saw the expression on the green pony's face. He was afraid, and desperately saying something over and over.
"Illusion! It's in your head, Strongheart! It's only in your head!" Blaze said, his words reaching Calumn in a rush.
"Strongheart," Calumn said, forcing himself to calm. The cries had called him Calumn. While Strongheart's mother knew, in a distant and locked away part of her mind, that he was a Changeling, she would never call him by his true name. "I believed it," he said. "I knew it had to be an illusion, but I still believed it."
Blaze let out a heavy breath. "Yeah. The Storm gets into your head. Makes you think all sorts of things."
"You... you heard something too."
Blaze nodded. "We all have things we care about. People we'd do anything to save. Some of the things you see in the Storm, you won't just believe them, you'll want to believe them. You did real well being able to shake it off that quickly your first time. There's a trick to that, makes it easier to shrug off. Not something for a pony who just wants to make the trip twice, though."
"It's alright," Calumn said. "I'm familiar with illusions, and with wanting to believe. I won't let it get me again."
"Don't make too many promises," Blaze said. "Come on, the sooner we get out of the bonefields, the quicker we get to the crazy stuff."
They walked for another interminable length of time, kicking a few of the disembodied skulls that got to close, ignoring any cries. The illusory sounds weren't always cries for help. Calumn heard the roar of a dragon, the screams of an infant, the buzzing of a Changeling in major distress, a great groaning noise that made it feel as if the earth were coming apart, and most disturbingly the sound of hoofsteps following them. He was beginning to think frightening sounds were all that they'd encounter when Blaze stopped so suddenly Calumn ran into the back of him.
"Oh, this ain't good," Blaze quipped, staring up. Calumn followed his gaze and quailed. An enormous beast stood before them, like some gargantuan prehistoric bear rearing over a hundred meters into the air. It sported two impossibly large teeth that hung from its upper jaw, each the height of a two story building, and while the rest of its teeth were nowhere near the same size, they were all wickedly sharp. Its claws were longer than a bus, and attached to that immense body they were probably strong enough to rip a mountain to shreds. It looked almost translucent, its deep purple fur sparkled and glinted as if it were a window to a cosmos of stars. This was a creature out of folklore and fairytale. An Ursa Major.
Someone had crucified it.
"Luna's dark majesty," Calumn breathed. "Tell me this is another illusion."
"Sorry," Blaze said. "Wish I could. I really, really do."
Calumn stared up at the ancient magical bear as it hung from impaled paws, nailed into an immense stone X so that its hind legs dangled ten meters from the ground. Its empty, sightless eyes stared down at them, mouth open in a roar that had long ago died in its throat.
"I take it this is a bad sign?" Calumn asked when he could pull his attention away from the murdered behemoth.
"Maybe," Blaze said. "I hope not. I've only encountered this thing twice before, though, and both times. Well, okay, it wasn't good. But, hey! Maybe this time we'll get lucky and it won't oh crap there it goes."
Vines had sprouted from the earth where the legs of the cross stood, winding their way with supernatural speed up the stone edifice.
"What is that?" Calumn asked quietly as he watched the vines begin to twine around the dead beast's body. He even saw shoots of the vine diving into the wounds where the beast was nailed to the cross and he could swear he saw it continuing to grow under the Ursa's skin.
"It's a warning sign," Blaze said. "Telling us that we're not alone in the Storm, and that someone is being a naughty little scamp and using magic to brute-force their way through, instead of sucking it up and dealing with it like a nice little mortal."
"What?"
"Come on, a strong enough unicorn with a Barrier or Magic Talent can probably waltz through most of what the Everstorm throws at them. It sucks, and is totally unfair to us hornless ones, but there you have it. So the Storm responds by bringing out the big guns. Hey, it evens it out a bit, but, you know, everyone else who's crossing the Storm at the same time gets hit with the anti-magic stick too. Which sometimes involves enormous zombie bears."
"Oh great, and we're standing around talking about it while it's coming to life."
"Well, I find exposition is really great in these situations, I mean it prevents us from having to use precious oxygen explaining things while the big zombie bear is on our asses, which is a good thing. Also, there's the bladder-related purposes."
"Bladder related purposes?"
"Yeah, have you ever tried to pee yourself while running at a full gallop? Mess-y, let me tell you. I always find it's best to let go before going on a fear-fuelled mad dash, and exposition provides a great distraction."
"Wait, you?"
"Yup! Done now, lets go!" Blaze took off, and Calumn had no choice but to follow. Behind them came the sound of stone shattering and something impossibly large hitting the ground, creating a minor earthquake that nearly made them lose their footing.
Calumn looked behind them, and only held on to his water by the severest effort of will. "Damn it! Give me a chance next time too, will you!"
Blaze laughed as they ran into the deep mists. "Will do buddy, will do!"
"This is really, really bizarre," Rainbow Dash said, looking up at the ground. They were walking on what felt like glass, turned upside down and at an angle to the world and high up in the air. "And this if for real? Not some crazy illusion?"
"Nope," Astrid said. "This part's legit."
"Huh," Dash said, then shrugged. She'd seen worse. When Discord had twisted the hedge maze it'd taken on weirder shapes than this.
"We're nearly at the eye," Star Fall said. "We should transition back to standard alignment before then, but watch out, it'll come up suddenly."
A few steps farther and they were indeed on solid ground once more, and Dash could make out a thinning in the clouds ahead. "I think I see it," she said.
Astrid squinted. "If you do, your eyes are better than mine. All I see are more clouds."
As they got closer, it became more apparant to Dash that the clouds were really thinning ahead, revealing a night sky, and something else. "Is that a city?"
Star Fall looked at Dash. "You really can see that well, can't you? Yes, the eye of the Everstorm is over a city. They say it's been perfectly preserved by the magic at the eye, that nothing has changed in over eight hundred years."
"It looks ruined," Dash said, squinting to catch more details as the clouds began to give way.
"It was between the two armies that fought here," Star Fall said, finally able to see through the clouds herself. "The city got hit hard, and then even harder when Nightmare Umbra's power was sealed. It's supposed to have been frozen in time after that, untouched by the elements, unaltered by the hooves of any pony. Some legends say that the Shadowed Alicorn makes her lair in that city, forever in the midst of her power, unable to retake it."
Eventually they stood on the edge of the eye, the clouds drifting around them, the city laid out in front of them. It took up most of the eye, tall buildings, meandering streets. It looked like Fillydelphia or Manehattan to Dash. A young metropolis, but cut down before it could become truly great.
Star Fall pulled out another spellsheet, charging it and bringing it up in front of them. Dash went cold as the spell took hold. It made her feel weak and heavy, every bone and joint reminding her that she'd done a major faceplant a week ago. Fatigue crashed down on her and all she wanted to do was crawl onto a cloud and get some sleep. Star Fall herself swayed drunkenly before Astrid steadied her. "I'm okay," she said. "Dampening spell's just making me feel it is all."
"Well, let's get this done," Astrid sighed, and they stepped fully into the eye.
Immediately Dash felt better. She felt better than better. She felt great! She felt like she could do a dozen Sonic Rainbooms in a row! Hay, why stop at a dozen? She felt so good she could do a hundred! Put on an airshow for the whole planet! Go down in the history books! Make the Wonderbolts for sure! Why, if she went fast enough around the planet she could maybe start spinning it backwards and reverse time that way! Yeah! That totally made sense!
"Guys," she said. "I'm feelin' kinda weird right now."
Astrid was clutching at her head. "Is that thing working, Fall?" she groaned.
Star Fall was shaking. "Yes. Yes it's working. We're not going insane from magic overload. We're just feeling like crap. That's good."
"This was a great plan, Fall," Astrid groused. "If I upchuck I'm aiming for you."
"Let's just get moving," Star Fall said, and began trotting forward, both of her companions sticking to her sides.
Dash wasn't feeling bad, and as long as she didn't give in to the impulse to try circumnavigating the globe in ten seconds flat she was fine. So while the other two stumbled along she took in the sights of this ruined city.
Buildings were smashed everywhere, scorch marks from spell blasts or explosives evident on every piece of broken masonry or charred wood. She could still make out some of the signs for shops or streets. They weren't quite Equestrian, but they were close enough that it definitely wasn't Solar. They went down one of the main avenues of the city, directed by Star's magic. The buildings looked more intact towards the center of the city, and Dash could make out a large structure with a clock tower that had to be city hall. They cut down another street before they could get closer.
"We're getting close to the center," Star Fall said, sweat dripping from her coat. "We're not going straight through, but cutting it kinda close. Don't stop for anything, okay?"
Astrid didn't reply, too focused about putting one foot in front of the other, and Dash just nodded. They plodded on, Dash looking as much as she dared for another glimpse of that town hall. She wanted to know what the name of this place was. They crossed another major avenue, and she looked towards the center of town. Then she stumbled and nearly fell. It wasn't the city hall, but she knew where this was now.
There, in an open circle that the street split around, was a clearing, like a small park. In the park was a pedestal with a statue, obviously a memorial of some kind. Behind the statue was a tree. Not an ordinary tree, but a tree that had been carved into a building, still alive. A tree she knew very well. The Books and Branches Library.
This was Ponyville.
"Star," she said, bringing the other pony up short. "We have to take a closer look at that," she pointed at the house tree.
"Dash, we can't spare any time to sightsee."
"No, Star, you don't understand. This is Ponyville! This city, it's my home! And that's where my friend Twilight Sparkle lived! Right there!"
Star Fall looked at the library, her eyes going wide. There was blood in her irises. "That's her memorial, that's her statue," she breathed.
Dash took a longer look at the statue, and he found it was true. The statue was a perfect replica of Twilight in stone. She was looking up, a pile of books under one hoof, smiling in that absentminded way she did when she was lost in her thoughts. The Element of Magic rested on her head, gleaming in the starlight.
"Fall! I don't care how bad your nerd-crush on this dead unicorn is, we can't stop!" Astrid said, tears actually falling from her eyes at the pain she was in.
Star Fall had to visibly force herself to look away from the statue. "No we can't. Dash, I'm sorry, we have to go, please!"
Dash nodded, reluctantly. "I can come back," she said. "We can figure out a way to come back."
"Maybe, sure," Star Fall said, and started walking again.
They walked in silence the rest of the way out of the eye. Dash couldn't help but glance back every few steps. Hoping to catch another glimpse of that tree, and of home.
"I think we lost him," Calumn gasped out as he and Blaze stood panting.
"Don't be so sure," Blaze said, grinning. "Those giant zombie bears are sneaky bastards. There could be one behind every shrub or bush we pass!"
Calumn snickered, holding a stitch in his side. "When that chasm opened up in front of us I thought we were screwed."
Blaze grinned. "Yeah, you were all like 'it's impossible, we're going to die!'"
"Then you shout 'gravity's for suckers' and just run across!" Calumn shook with wheezing laughter. "How did you know it was an illusion anyway?"
Blaze shrugged. "Didn't. But when you've got a rampaging magic-fuelled undead Ursa on one side and the opportunity to imitate a lawn dart on the other, well, I'd go for lawn darts every time."
Calumn spent the next minute catching his breath before looking around. "So, how lost are we now?"
"Not very," Blaze said. "You didn't notice, but we skimmed the eye during our run there. I think it's why the Ursa's not on our asses anymore. It won't get too close to that place."
"So we're on our way out?"
Blaze nodded. "Yup. Not too much farther now."
"Well, the sooner the better, right? And please don't tell me it gets worse from here."
"After that chase? I don't want to know what worse would be like."
Calumn nodded in agreement. The quality of the storm had changed. They had left the field of bones far behind, and were now walking through the skeletal remains of trees. The forest had died long ago, when the Everstorm had cut off the sunlight, but the magic of the Storm had kept the trees from falling and rotting. Now they stretched out bare branches that glowed with strange lights and dripped with a silvery liquid that evaporated before it could touch the ground. Calumn didn't need to be told not to let any of that liquid touch him.
They plodded through the trees, exhausted from their escape, but wary of the constant dangers of the Everstorm. Blaze kept taking turns, sometimes seeming to double back on himself. Calumn followed closely, and not just because they were tied together. The Everstorm had already proven that it could get into his head, make him see things that weren't there and think things he didn't want to. He knew when to let the experts have full control, and Blaze was definitely the expert here.
He was still hearing things, which wasn't good. He kept hearing the hoofsteps behind them, following, and the intermittent cries for help just out of sight. During the escape from the Ursa he'd even seen things. Strongheart's mother, Director Straff, even some of his hive-mates that he hadn't thought about in years. It was getting to the point where he couldn't trust anything he wasn't actually touching.
Which was why he ignored the voices when he first heard them. There were three of them, distinct and not from someone he had ever heard before. They were having some kind of an argument. Calumn shook his head. "Well, at least they aren't crying for help," he muttered.
Blaze stopped and looked at him, frowning. "Wait, you're hearing that too?"
Calumn nodded. "Yes. I'm hearing three people arguing about something."
"People you know?"
"No. No one I recognize."
Blaze turned towards the sound. "We should go check it out."
Calumn frowned at him. "I thought you said we should ignore this stuff."
"Yeah, but I'm hearing what you are, and it's no one I know either. That's not what the Storm usually does. These are probably other travellers, like us. They might not know that there's a unicorn pushing their way through. They could be in danger!"
Calumn paused, then nodded. The Storm was bad enough on its own. He wouldn't want to let others walk into the claws of that Ursa if he could have prevented it. "Let's go warn them."
They walked closer, careful of traps or tricks, and the voices became more distinct. They were speaking Solar, which Calumn was fully fluent in, and he listened carefully as they approached.
"...Can't just ignore that! It was Ponyville!" One voice said. This voice was female, but rough with an almost adolescent edge to it. He'd heard tones like that before, and mentally began constructing an image of the voice's owner as a tomboyish mare.
"I'm not ignoring it, Dash, I just don't think there's any way to go back soon. It nearly killed us to go through, and the magic was corroding the dampening spell faster than I had anticipated. We'd need to do a lot of study before we could even think of going back in there," said a second voice, and Calumn mentally assigned the name 'Dash' to the first voice. This one was also female, and refined, educated, but not accented like the Kingdom's nobility would be. A commoner who managed to get into a good school, then.
"Look, I get that you're worried, but we can just get stronger stuff, right? Bigger dampening spells, or whatever?" Dash said.
"I don't know if there are any stronger dampening spells," the second voice said. The talk of dampening spells made Calumn think that this might be the unicorn Blaze was talking about, which meant that she'd need a talking to about endangering others. "Professor Shine might know, but she doesn't like me crossing the Everstorm anyway, there's no way she'd allow an expedition into the eye."
Calumn recognized that name. Professor Twinkle Shine was the strongest Magic Talent in the Solar Kingdom, and the RIA had devoted a lot of time and effort to discovering as much about her as possible. She was the personal advisor to the Royalty, a lecturer at the capitol's university, head of a dozen research efforts and on the cutting edge of magical knowledge and practice. The fact that this mare talked so casually about her indicated a close relationship.
"I just, argh!" Dash snarled. "It was so close, Star! Just a few hundred feet away! You say all the records are missing, but I bet they still exist in there. We can find out the truth about what happened! We can figure out why I'm here! Don't you want to know what really happened eight hundred years ago?"
"Of course I do!" the second voice, Star, replied. "Of course I want to know, but that place is dangerous! We could have died there. We would have if we'd spent any longer than we did. We can't go back until we know how to make it safe. That will take time, and I can't even guess how long."
"She's right, Dash," a third voice said, and Calumn's steps faltered. That voice, strong, clear, with the pitch and piercing tone that only one species had, belonged to a Griffin. This was more serious than he'd imagined. If they were travelling with a Griffin and personally acquainted with Twinkle Shine, they were connected directly to the Crown.
They crested a small hill, and he got his first look at the owners of those voices. A pair of Pegasi and a Griffin. The lack of a unicorn confused him for a moment, even though there was an obviously magical sheet of paper floating in front of them, but that confusion was shoved aside when he focused on the blue pegasus. Rainbow mane, cloud and lightning bolt Glyph. This was his target.
The mares stopped arguing when they saw the two stallions. "Who are these guys?" Dash asked. The Griffin stepped protectively in front of the white pegasus, wings flaring slightly.
Blaze grinned and started trotting down the hill, brought up short as Calumn refused to move with him. "Hey, people!" Blaze said in very good Solar. "We're just passing through the Storm, just like you, and, well, there's a bit of a problem."
"Yeah, what kind?" the Griffin asked, eyeing the green pony imperiously.
"Some unicorn's trying to magic their way through the Storm, it's gotten the place all angry and violent," Blaze said.
"We'll keep an eye out," the Griffin said.
"Hey, guys, what's the problem?" Dash asked, confused by the Griffin's standoffishness.
"The problem is I don't like strange ponies coming up to me in the middle of the Everstorm," the Griffin growled.
"Okay, well, I'm Trail Blazer, but you can call me Blaze, and this is Strongheart. See, now we're not strangers, we're acquaintances!" Blaze said.
Calumn considered his options. He could try to infiltrate this group, to go with them, but his orders were for Dash specifically. If he managed to get her now, then his mission would be done and he could return to Strongheart's mother before she learned of his 'desertion'. On the other hoof, it was risky. He had a lot of stored energy, but he'd need to control everyone here, which would be draining, and if he wasn't careful it risked sending the Griffin into a rage.
"I'm Rainbow Dash," Dash said.
"Dash, don't give him our names," the Griffin warned. "We don't know anything about these ponies."
His orders were to secure the information first, his safety second and Dash third. That would point to infiltration over acquisition, but the Director had also said to be bold, that they didn't have a lot of time, and that meant acting now. He couldn't afford to be indecisive, the suspicion from the Griffin was shrinking his opportunities to infiltrate, and Blaze was probably only making her more aggressive.
"Not a problem," Blaze said cheerfully. "You can be just familiar faces then. Like people I see at the mall when I shop for cardboard boxes to build forts out of. That's a kind of acquaintance, except you don't know their name, you just nod to them in total silence as you pass by. Unless you're having a good day, then you smile and they smile back. Or punch you in the mouth."
Calumn made his decision and leapt on the confusion Blaze's inane comment caused, his eyes flaring green as he directed his magic into the minds of all the ponies and the Griffin. It sank in, hooking into their psyches and calming emotions, opening them to whatever suggestion he wished to implant. Except for the white pegasus, Star, who shook her head and shattered his mental link with an exertion of will that made his eyes go wide.
"What are you?" Star asked in confusion, staring at Calumn. "Changeling!" she cried.
The Griffin snapped out of his control, eyes narrowing and wings flaring wide as she shrieked a battle cry to the storm-swirled skies. Calumn dropped his mind-magic, focusing on the Griffin. He had to take her out before she reached him or he was dead. A ghost-image of his crooked horn appeared as he charged as much power as he dared into it, ready to unleash a burst of power that would burn a hole through her body.
Blaze turned, leaping at him. "No! Don't!" he cried out, but too late.
A bolt of magenta lightning dropped from the sky, grounding into Calumn's charged horn. His Strongheart disguise fell away as the power backwashed into him, burning through his limbs, setting his lungs on fire and disintegrating the rope that bound him to Blaze. He couldn't scream, but he wanted to. He dropped to the ground, staring out at what was happening but unable to move in the slightest. He wasn't dead, but every last ounce of power had been stripped from him, torn out by the magic of the Everstorm. He wouldn't last more than a day like this.
More blasts of lightning in every color started to fall around them. The Griffin screeched in anger, but backed off, joining the two Pegasi as they hurried off into the Storm, chased by lightning and thunder. He watched them go, hoping that they would make it out of the Everstorm.
A mouth clamped down on one of his legs and began to drag him. He couldn't turn his head to see, but he knew that Blaze was pulling him out of the lightning blasts. It was a foolish thing to do. He should have just gone and saved himself. Now he was putting himself in danger for someone who had lied to him, used him. He tried to tell Blaze to leave him and go, but all he got out was a strangled cough.
"Hey! You're still kicking," Blaze said, his voice muffled by the leg he had in his mouth. "You Changelings must be pretty tough."
More magical lightning fell around them, blasting the glowing trees and throwing up dirt. Blaze threw himself over Calumn, shielding him from the debris. The Changeling found himself hacking up a choked, coughing laughter at the sheer absurdity of it. He was even feeling a trickle of emotion from the green pony. Not enough to save him, and not love, but friendship and caring all the same. He'd only met this pony hours before, and already he felt strongly enough to risk himself to save Calumn.
"Is that a laugh?" Blaze asked. "Whew! I thought I was just stating the obvious, but if I'm making jokes I don't even know I'm making, then everything's gotta be lookin' up!"
A booted foot slammed into Blaze, throwing him off Calumn. The Changeling managed to turn his head to see what had happened, and saw Blaze lying on his side, with Silas stalking towards him. The Diamond Dog looked a little worse for wear, blood matted the fur on one side of his face and his coat was ripped, showing hastily bandaged slashes across his arms and torso. He wore heavy boots studded with metal that sounded like hooves on the ground as he walked.
"Drunkard pony thought he could steal from Silas and get away with it," the Dog snarled. "Drunkard pony sees that he is wrong, yes?"
"I know we call it poaching, but it's technically not theft to take another guide's client," Blaze said, trying to get up.
Silas kicked him in the side, knocking Blaze back to the ground. "I don't care about your stupid word games!" he snapped, kicking the downed pony again. "You cost Silas, and you will pay for that."
"Coin or credit?" Blaze asked, and Silas kicked him again, then pulled out a long, wickedly sharp knife. "Well, okay, but I gotta warn you all I carry is Republican Express," Blaze wheezed, coughing up a mouthful of blood. Lightning still flashed through the air, but it had moved off, punctuating their banter with bursts of thunder.
"Drunkard pony thinks he is funny," Silas rasped. He looked over at Calumn's still form. "Maybe drunkard pony did Silas a favor. The Changeling would have made Silas take him through the Storm and not paid at all."
"Hey, yeah! I bet it makes up for the whole 'stole your client' thing," Blaze offered, giving the Dog a bloody grin.
Silas shook his head, smiling back in a way that was absolutely not friendly. "Insults are insults, pony. I have my pride to consider. But instead of making it slow, I am going to just slit your throat. It will be quick. Yes."
"That's really nice of you," Blaze said. "But have you considered, maybe, not slitting my throat? How about just robbing us and leaving us for dead? That always works out!"
"You were already making a bad name for me, drunkard pony. I can't lose more clients because of the stories you tell. Now lie still, pony," Silas kicked Blaze several more times, until his attempts to get away grew weak. "It will feel cold and then it won't feel at all," he knelt on Blaze's struggling form, bringing the knife up.
Calumn threw himself at the Diamond Dog. He was weak, too weak to fight, and every motion was agony, but he just couldn't let Blaze die. It was with a shock that he realized he was feeling friendship too. Somehow, in only a few hours, Blaze had become his friend, a friend he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect. It filled him with the strength to push away the pain and the weakness, to stand up and do something. It was like magic.
He hit Silas and the two rolled onto the ground, entangled. Calumn didn't have the strength to do much more, but he knew at least one way to protect Blaze. He took the power that Blaze's friendship had given him and charged it into his horn, then touched that horn to Silas's snout. The Dog's eyes went wide and Calumn gave him a fanged grin.
The bolt of blue lightning slammed into both of them, throwing Calumn through the air to crash on his side in the dirt. He couldn't hear, couldn't see, couldn't think for a long time. Then his senses started coming back to him, and he wondered at the fact that he was still alive. And he was moving. He blinked and saw Blaze's grinning, bloody face as the pony held the end of a rope in his teeth, the rest of it wrapped around Calumn.
Blaze set down the rope. "Well, look whose back among us!" he said. "That was super-duper cool what you did back there. I mean, wow! I was going to make a comment about 'hot dogs', but, honestly? I'm really not that hungry."
Calumn jerked as a wheezing laugh forced its way out of him. "Save...self," he managed to choke out.
"What?" Blaze said, turning his head and perking up an ear. "I can't hear that over the sound of how cool you are!"
"Save... yourself," Calumn said. "Leave me...here."
"Huh, that sounds like self-sacrifice talk to me," Blaze said. "I thought Changelings didn't do self-sacrifice. Or last-minute heroics. Or laugh at dumb jokes. Or, well, a lot of things that I'm seeing from you right now."
Calumn managed to shake his head. "Doesn't... matter. I'm... tapped out. Completely. No love. Won't make it."
Blaze frowned at that. "That's not good. We're right at the Everstorm border now. Just half an hour and then we'll be through. Can you make it that far?"
Calumn shook his head. "No... point. Won't live... few hours... at most."
"Aw, come on, I love you, man!" Blaze said, nuzzling Calumn.
"Not... same," Calumn said, though it had felt good. "Friendship... not same. Not yet. Gives me... time. But not enough."
Blaze stared at him, determination shining in his eyes. "But if you had love, you could make it?" Calumn nodded. "Can you still do that transformation thing?"
"Yes," Calumn said. "But I need ... model. Time to... copy... personality. Can't just do it to anyone."
"Don't worry about that," Blaze said, awkwardly picking Calumn up and setting him across his back. He tied the rope around himself, securing the Changeling tightly. "Just stay with me until we're clear of the Storm, alright? Can you do that?" Calumn could only nod, and Blaze started running.
Calumn lost all sense of time and place after that, falling into a half-conscious state where he was barely aware of them hitting the cloud-wall of the Everstorm. The battering winds, the shrieking sounds, the illusory beasts, all of it passed him by in a blur. He could hear his heartbeat, and Blaze's. His was growing weaker, slowing down. It wouldn't be long before it stopped altogether.
He hit the ground, and was barely aware of it. A hoof slapped at his face, drawing his focus outward once more. Blaze was shouting at him, holding up a picture, a photo. He focused on the green pony.
"Come on, Strongheart! You've got to keep it together! Now look at this picture! Use it as a model! Come on, buddy, I know you can do this!" Blaze was frantic, shaking Calumn and shoving the picture in his face. The Changeling just wanted to close his eyes and let death take him. He was so weak, so tired. But Blaze was insistent, so he looked at the picture. A pretty purple earth pony filly smiled at the camera, showing off her flank and the Talent Glyph that proclaimed her ability at making others laugh. With a grunt of effort and a burst of green fire he internalized the model and shifted form.
Blaze looked at him, then closed his eyes for a long moment, breathing heavily. Finally, he opened his yellow eyes again, and there were tears glistening in them. He smiled down at Calumn, not a manic grin, but a tender, warm smile. "Holly," he said, and love flowed into Calumn, making him gasp. "Hey, now. Take it easy," Blaze said, and lay down next to Calumn, curling up around his now smaller form. "You've got to rest, okay?"
"Blaze..." Calumn began, but Blaze silenced the Changeling with a hoof.
"Shhh. No talking, alright? Just rest. Get better. I'll be here. As long as it takes. I'll be here," he hugged Calumn close, nuzzling softly. Calumn relaxed into him, feeling the love begin its work within him. He didn't feel right with this, but it was saving his life, and he figured he could talk it out with Blaze later. For now he just closed his eyes, basking in the warm love, and slept.
The results were decidedly mixed. I could smash the Element of Magic with a hammer and have it bend and break 1, yet I asked a blacksmith to see if it could be re-forged he found it utterly beyond him to alter it in any way. After a series of experiments I found that it wasn't the physical force that had an effect, but the will of the Element bearers that determined whether the Elements could be damaged or not. If a bearer wanted them damaged, they were, but if the bearer was not a direct cause of the damage they remained unbreakable by any force brought to bear.
Most interestingly, or perhaps disturbingly, the Elements have been 'broken' several times by powerful villainous forces. Each time they have regenerated, often in response to a re-affirmation of the friendship and principles of bearers who wield them, but the fact that they were broken at all suggests a relationship between the Elements and the enemies they are used against. Or perhaps that my conclusion was wrong, and it is not the bearers that decide when the Elements can be damaged, but the Elements themselves.
1 Please note that the regenerative capacity of the Elements is detailed later in this section, but was well established at the time I carried out this particular experiment.
Lieutenant Hard Boiled strained, sweat breaking out over his face as he stared at the weights set before him. They were set on a black table that looked stark against the pale beige walls of the clinic, and that alone was distracting enough to threaten his concentration, but he forced through it. The copper glow of his magic covered one of the weights, and it wobbled, rattling against the table. He pushed, pulling out all the energy he could, but felt his reserves drying up fast. Finally he gave up, letting the glow of magic fade from around his horn and taking a couple deep breaths. The air in the doctor's office was stifling in its sterility, it always felt like he had to struggle for breath. He figured it was from all the hospitals he had stayed in as a foal.
"You've been letting your exercises slide," Doctor Booth noted, his tone disapproving.
HB gave the other unicorn an apologetic look. "Sorry, Doc. I've been caught up in work is all."
Dr. Booth sighed. "You can't neglect your exercises, Mr. Boiled. Your horn may seem strong now, but we can't rule out the possibility of a relapse. A possibility which becomes more likely if you don't keep your telekinesis strong."
"I'm doing two and a half kilos," HB said. "That's pretty good. Most unicorn cops I work with can barely lift two."
"Most of the ponies you work with don't have your condition." The doctor wrote something onto his notepad. "You were capable of three point four kilograms seven years ago. You've lost nearly a full kilogram of telekinetic lift since then. Your neglect of your basic exercises and your overuse of your Talent-specific magic will cause you problems. You know that. Have the headaches been getting worse?"
HB wanted to lie, to say that he was fine. But it would go against everything he was, so he didn't. "Yeah," he admitted. "More frequent, too. Can't sleep with my horn touching the pillow. Working around that's been giving me back problems, and that's been making the headaches worse."
"How about when you're using magic? Are the headaches worse then?" HB nodded. "Is that why you've been putting this checkup off?"
"You're going to tell me to quit using my magic and focus on telekinesis," HB scoffed. "Of course I've been putting this off. I've got a job to do, and I need my magic to do it right."
"There are plenty of earth pony and pegasus detectives," the doctor pointed out.
"None of them are as good as me."
"Isn't that a little arrogant?"
"Look at the arrest records, Doc. I'm ahead by kilometers," HB said. "Look, I know I've been letting it slide, and it's hurting me. How long before it's critical?"
"I can't say," the doctor said.
"I know when you're lying, Doc," HB reminded him.
"Fine," the doctor relented. "Even at this rate of decay, there's no guarantee of a relapse. At most the chances are going to be forty percent. But if you kept up your telekinesis that forty percent would drop to nothing. With average daily use of your telekinetic powers, and assuming the amount of magic use you've reported is accurate, you've got a decade before it should get serious."
"A decade? Sounds like a good buffer."
The doctor shook his head and put down his notepad. "A decade before it gets serious, I said. By serious, I mean you'd have to be hospitalized. The headaches will become more frequent and more powerful. They'll be full-blown migraines in a couple years, if they aren't already. The sensitivity issue will become worse as well, eventually it will get to the point where any contact at all with your horn will be agony. That includes air. A light breeze is going to feel like sandpaper on your brain. Is that something you're looking forward to?"
HB winced. "No."
"Then you'd better start doing your exercises," the doctor said.
"Right. Any way I could do something that takes less time each day?"
Doctor Booth rolled his eyes. "You're not going to lower your use of magic, so no. But there are things you can do that will help. Use your telekinesis whenever possible. Open every door with it, pick up every book or glass or plate. When you write, write with telekinesis, not mouth-writing. Try to carry little things with you wherever you go. So long as you exercise your telekinesis throughout the day, you should find the exercises easier, and therefore quicker, to do."
"Sounds fine," HB said. "You got anything for the headaches?"
The doctor gave him a steady look, disapproval etched in the lines of his face. "You can't just take a pill and ignore this."
"I'm not looking to," HB said. "I'll start doing the exercises again. I promise, okay? I just need something to dull the headaches when they happen."
The doctor wasn't happy about it, but he relented. A promise from Lieutenant Hard Boiled was as good as gold, and he knew it. "The prescription I'm giving you is a strong one. Take them when you know you'll be using a lot of magic, it should reduce the pain to manageable levels. I'm also giving you another prescription for sleeping medication, take it and it should de-sensitize your horn enough for you to get a good night's sleep. Do not 'forget' to take it. A good night's rest is as essential as the exercises in keeping your health up."
HB sighed, but nodded, taking the two forms the doctor floated over to him. After that he left the clinic, heading for the pharmacy a little ways down the street. As he was walking he caught sight of Barry coming towards him, a full satchel thumping at his side. The earth pony Detective was working the tunnel-murder case with him, and HB had given him the unenviable task of digging up all the background on the area and the mysterious blue mare that he could find. The excited skip to his trot meant that he had found something.
"Lieutenant!" Barry said, coming up next to him. "I've got something."
"No, really?" HB grumbled, walking to the pharmacy.
"Yeah, really," Barry said without irony. "It was kinda deep in the records, but I think you're gonna want to see this."
"I'm sure I will," HB said. "I've got to grab some stuff here. Why don't you get us a seat at the coffee joint, we can talk about it over lunch."
"Sure thing!" Barry said, then cantered off to do just that.
HB shook his head at the other pony's enthusiasm, then went in and ordered his drugs. The pharmacist said it would take an hour to get it all ready, which suited HB just fine. An hour for lunch then he could start popping those anti-headache pills. He never understood why they couldn't just toss it all in a bottle right then and there, but his Talent was Finding Truth, not Bottling Pills, so he couldn't really complain.
When he got into the coffee shop Barry had already taken a little booth by a window, two steaming cups of overpriced caffeine sitting in front of him. It was a little cramped as HB slid himself in opposite his fellow detective, but the smell of the coffee overrode the discomfort of the seat.
"Damn, Barry, is this the good stuff?" HB asked, lifting the cup telekinetically and sipping. It wasn't done how he usually liked it. Which was black and burnt and hot enough to wake him up from a poor night's sleep, but even he could still tell it was expensive.
"Yes, sir," Barry said. "Got a taste for it while I was at walking the beat, never got used to the coffee at the office."
"How much of your paycheck do you go through a week for this stuff?"
"I got a discount card," Barry grinned.
"Tell me what you've found," HB said.
Barry reached into his satchel and pulled out a photo. "Take a look." It was a picture of another picture, a painting of a blue pegasus mare with a rainbow mane and a distinctive Glyph. It was a fanciful scene, with the pegasus zooming out of some sort of rainbow explosion with one of the mythical cloud cities in the background.
HB whistled as he pulled the picture towards him. "Nice job. So she's done some modeling. Not as curvy as they usually like, but she's definitely got the colors for it. Did you get the name of the artist? We should question him or her as soon as possible."
"I did, but, and you're not going to believe this, that's a Reinbrandt original," Barry said, clearly excited.
HB gave Barry a flat look. "I'm not big in the artist scene, Barry. I don't know that pony."
"You know his work," Barry insisted. "We've got a mural based on his 'Night Watch' back at HQ."
"That's been there for longer than I have," HB mused.
"The painting's been around for longer than you've been alive," Barry said. "So's this one. It's a four-hundred year old painting that's hanging in the Library of the Senate right now."
"Four hundred years?"
"Yeah, I got some history on it. Apparently it's based on old pre-Schism legends. I dug a little more and I found this," he pulled out a colorful book that had multicolored pegasus on its cover, which was titled 'The Loyalty of Rainbows'.
"This is a foal's book," HB pointed out.
"Yeah, but it's a retelling of the story that Reinbrandt used to make that painting. It's just a fairy tale to us, but there's a lot of serious scholarship on this one. I hit the college archives and found sketches and descriptions of this same mare. Colors, size, Glyph, all of it matched."
"And you think, what? That this story-book character has somehow come to life and murdered a pony?" HB asked, frowning at the items Barry had laid in front of him.
"No, not really," Barry said, leaning in and lowering his voice. "No one could do what she did, right? Had to be some sort of magic giving her a boost. Well, if they're going to do that they might as well also change her appearance, right? Make her impossible to identify."
HB nodded, similarly keeping his voice low. "That's a good point. Illusions don’t usually hold up under direct contact, though. She got hit enough that any illusion spell should have failed."
"What if it wasn't illusion?" Barry pointed out. "What if it was just an elaborate dye job? You can even cover up Glyphs if you're careful about it. I've seen crooks do that before."
"I have too," HB mused, his estimation of Barry's abilities going up a notch. "That just leaves us at square one, though."
"I don't think so," Barry said. "I had to dig to find out all of this. You wouldn't know this specific image from the story book, and unless you know what you're looking for the college archives are kind of a mess. I think that someone else was reading the same stories I was. I think they were doing something in that tunnel that got James Bay killed, then they panicked when those two officers showed up and since whoever she is was already blue, they just slapped on a mane-dye spell and a Glyph cover, then charged her up and sent her out."
"You're assuming she was already blue because of the feathers," HB said.
Barry nodded. "Forensics said they aren't dyed, I checked. Hoof prints in the blood match the bruises on Officer Forrest, too."
HB had already known that, and he nodded. "Did you pull a list of who's been looking at those archives? Maybe been in to see that Reinbrandt?"
"I did," Barry said. "No way to tell with the Reinbrandt, it's on public display, but the archives log everything. I pulled the names, and while I didn't find anybody researching our mystery mare, I did get one that struck a bell," he reached into the satchel again and pulled out a list of names and dates, and a building permit. "This is the names I got, everyone who's been researching pre-Schism legends in the past year. This other thing is a permit application to do construction on the grounds where we found the tunnel."
HB recognized the permit application, it had been one of the clues that had pointed him towards Cash's digging. "James Bay," he said, seeing where Barry had highlighted the names. "The victim."
"There's more," Barry said, nearly bouncing in his seat from excitement. "Take a look, this'll blow your socks off," he pulled out a map and laid it over the files and photos. It was a copy of something ancient, the kind of map you'd see in an adventure movie about searching for lost treasure or some hidden tomb. He recognized some of the geography as being the area around Orion City.
"What am I looking for?" he asked.
"Here," Barry said, poking a hoof at the map. There were a mess of squiggles and strange shapes that looked like clouds about the area. "This is a map from just after the Schism, maybe fifty years. James Bay had several copies made. This, right here, is where a cloud-city supposedly fell out of the sky."
"A cloud-city? More mythology?" HB asked, sipping from his overpriced coffee.
"Yeah, but listen, there's evidence that these things actually existed, pre-Schism. While I was looking into this I ran into some research that says some of the clouds they used for these cities weren't exactly normal. They were more solid, even for ponies like you or me. Solid enough to put stuff on them. When they fell they actually had an impact, and they stuck around for a long while afterwards."
"And this is where they were digging," HB said.
"That's right," Barry replied, though it hadn't been a question. "I talked with some of the pre-Schism historians over at the college and they said even the solid clouds would fall apart into water vapor eventually."
"But the stuff you put on them wouldn't," HB reasoned. "The pedestal at the end of the tunnel. They were after whatever was on it. You think it was from this cloud city."
"When I got this map from the college I asked them if anyone else had copies made. This isn't exactly a hot item, so I got a definite answer," Barry said, grinning as he laid out his findings.
"James Bay," HB said.
"Yes sir," Barry confirmed. "His dig permit was denied, but I guess he wanted whatever was in there too much, and went ahead anyways. You can't do something like that on your own so he had to have accomplices, and I'd bet whatever they found down there was important. Important enough to kill for."
"A pre-Schism relic," HB reasoned.
"Something that the classic pegasi honored," Barry added.
"Any idea on what that something is?" HB asked, then took a few more gulps of coffee, deciding that he didn't like the expensive stuff as much as he thought he would.
Barry shook his head, settling back in his seat. "No clue. I was hoping you'd have some ideas."
"Not yet," HB said. "But this gives us a good place to start. Now we have to start asking questions about anybody putting unknown pre-Schism antiquities up on the market. We've got to be discreet, though, and careful. If it was important enough to kill for once, they might do so again."
"I've got a few contacts that might be able to help," Barry said.
HB gave him a wry smile. "You wouldn't have made it to the SIU if you didn't. This is good work, Barry. I'm impressed. You got this done well, and faster than I could have."
"Thank you sir," Barry grinned. He shuffled all the papers back into his satchel. "Lieutenant, do you mind if I ask a personal question?"
HB shrugged. "You can ask, doesn't mean I'll answer."
Barry gave a placating nod of acceptance. "Okay, I'm just wondering about that clinic you were in. It's a horn-doctor, right? Is there something wrong?"
HB snorted. "Depends on who you ask," he said.
"It's okay, you don't have to talk about it," Barry said, looking a little disappointed nonetheless.
HB had known Barry for a couple years now, and while he had been competent enough, he had always been too eager for HB's tastes. Because of that he'd avoided working with the earth pony until now. But this wasn't a secret, and if they were going to work together on this case Barry deserved to know his partner a little better. "I have a condition," he said. Barry's ears perked up and he focused intently on the older detective. "It's something I was born with. About one in twenty unicorns are, but I had it worse than most. When I was born my horn was soft. Like wet clay soft. Magic made it worse. All unicorn foals get these magic surges, bursts of power. You can do a lot of crazy stuff as a foal that you just can't as an adult, once you find your Talent. It's all uncontrolled, and dangerous if your parents aren't careful. Well, for me those surges practically melted my horn."
"Luna's night," Barry swore. "How did you make it through that?"
"Good doctors, mostly," HB said, frowning as he remembered the long years of hard work it had taken to get healthy. "I had to wear this horn-brace. It was awful, like having a helmet on all the time. The condition made my horn very sensitive, too. Even moving my head too fast made it hurt, and the brace was always there, always irritating it even more." He shook his head and let out a sigh. "Fortunately the treatment for this condition is pretty easy. You just have to build up your telekinesis. The stronger your telekinesis, the better able it is to hold your horn together, without you even having to try. I learned early how to pick things up with my mind, and I practiced until I was able to do more than most of the adult unicorns around me. Still, it took years before I could get that brace off."
"And you were back there for a check-up?" Barry asked, leaning across the table in his eagerness to hear more.
"Yeah," HB said, shrugging. "The condition doesn't ever go away. My horn's as strong as any other unicorn's, but it'll start going soft again if I don't keep my telekinesis strong. There's more too it than that, of course. The magic that my Talent gives me still weakens my horn when I use it. I get these headaches, especially when I use magic, and my horn aches sometimes. If I overdo it, it gets sensitive again. It's just something I've lived with my whole life. I go to the doctor's to make sure I'm not getting closer to a relapse. That'd put me on medical leave for a year, maybe more."
"Wow. I hope you don't have to do that!"
HB chuckled. "Not likely to happen, if I'm careful enough about it." He drained his coffee. "How about you? Any tragic pasts or medical conditions I should know about?"
"Oh, yeah! There's lots about me you don't know!" Barry said, then tapped a hoof on his chin as he thought about it. "Umm. I, uh. Okay, so I don't think I've got any medical conditions or anything. And my past isn't really tragic."
HB shook his head. "Didn't think so. Alright, chat time is over. Take this stuff back to the office, get on your contacts. I want to know the market for a pre-schism pegasus artefact by tomorrow."
"What are you going to do?" Barry asked, getting up.
HB thought about the map Barry had shown him. His horn was aching at that, his magic pushing at him to look deeper. He needed to get his Max Cash files, he had a hunch about this one. "First, I'm going to get my pain pills. After that? I'm going to do a little archaeology."
Rainbow Dash crouched in the bushes, poking with the intense interest of the supremely bored at a slug that was making its slimy way across the ground. Star Fall was a little ways off, looking over a notebook and munching on some grass, as she had been since Astrid had taken off two hours earlier. Dash had wanted to keep going, or to at least stretch her wings, but both of her companions had been adamant that she stay grounded and hidden for now.
Their caution had something to do with the encounter in the Everstorm, the stallion who had turned into some kind of insect-pony thing. Star had called him a Changeling, a term Dash vaguely remembered from school. The Changeling had tried something, she knew that, but Astrid and Star Fall had been uncharacteristically silent on it or what it meant. Even when she'd asked, they'd told her that they would explain it later. That was frustrating already, and being kept on the ground when she knew her wings were well enough to let her fly was even worse. She couldn't even ask to read Star Fall's probably-boring books, since while she had learned to speak Solar pretty quickly she still hadn’t learned to read it.
When she spotted the wide shape of Astrid circling overhead she shot up, excited to finally have something to do. "You're back!" She called out as the Griffin settled in for a landing near where the two pegasi were hiding.
"Finally," Star Fall said, closing her notebook. "How long does it take to get some clothes and food?" The white pegasus had been ravenously hungry after crossing the Everstorm, devouring leaves and grass and flowers wherever they were edible like a pony-shaped vacuum cleaner. She'd slowed down in her eating, but she was still eyeing the bags the Griffin carried covetously.
"Have an apple, Fall," Astrid said in reply, tossing a large red fruit at the pegasus, who caught it and began messily devouring it. The Griffin turned her eyes to Dash. "You gonna snark at me too?"
Dash shook her head. "No, I just want to get going! I hate being stuck on the ground like this. I want to fly, Astrid. I need to fly."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Hold your hooves, okay? We need to get you disguised first," she pulled out a couple bottles of mane and coat dye and passed them to Rainbow Dash. "The pond back there should be good to put this in. If you need help, ask."
"What?" Dash frowned at the bottles. "Why would I dye my mane?"
"And coat," Astrid said. "That Changeling was staring right at you the whole time. He was looking for you."
"Why would he be doing that?" Dash asked. "And what was going on there? You guys haven't told me anything!"
"That's 'cause we don't know what we should be telling you, how much you need to know," Astrid said, throwing another apple to Star Fall before she could interject. "It's serious stuff, Dash. Changelings are the Republic's special forces. Spies, secret police, shock troops, and assassins. If the Republic sent a Changeling after you, right into the Everstorm, then you are in real danger from them."
"I think I need to know if there's an assassin after me," Dash protested.
"That's why I'm telling you," Astrid said. "Fall and I, we can keep a low profile over here, but you? You're kinda unique, Dash. We need to make it as hard as possible for that Changeling to find you again."
"You think he survived?"
Astrid shrugged. "No money in betting that he didn't. Now go dye yourself while I stuff the black hole over here until she's nice again."
Dash looked down at the bottles, then up at Astrid. "Do I really have to?"
"Yes," Astrid said, uncompromising. "Just do it. Once you're done we can fly for a bit to dry you off."
Dash almost balked. It was a crime to cover up her wonderful mane, but the thought of finally getting to fly after being bed and ground-bound for a week cracked her resolve. She grabbed the bottles of dye and stomped off to the pool Astrid had mentioned. Thirty minutes and one horribly discolored pool later and she stalked back into the clearing they had set up in.
"Nobody laugh," she said, glaring at the both of them. Astrid was re-packing her bags while Star Fall poured a canteen of water over her head. Yellow bled from her mane, leaving it bright crimson and ruining the fiery effect.
Astrid took one look at Dash and frowned. "It wasn't supposed to be that color," she said, then snickered. "You mixed them in the water, didn't you? How the hell did you get it that shade?"
"I think it looks good," Star Fall said. "It has a nice balance, and it's nowhere near as striking as your natural colors."
Dash kicked at the dirt, cringing at how pink her legs were. "Yeah, well. I don't like it," she pulled a lock of mane out to stare at it. The hair had become a solid blueish purple that almost completely hid the natural bands of color. "It's just… wrong, you know?"
"You look pretty," Star Fall said. "Stop agonizing over it. You can wash it out after we've seen the Professor. It's only temporary."
"Yeah, I know that, but… well, my mane. It really put the 'rainbow' in Rainbow Dash. Now I'm just 'Dash'."
"Not really," Astrid said. "We'll be using a cover name. Until we get the okay, you're now Firefly."
"Firefly? Seriously? I don't even get to keep 'Dash'?" Astrid shook her head, and Dash growled her frustration up to the sky. "Why Firefly?"
"It's the fourth most common name for a pegasus mare," Astrid said. "Easy to forget."
"So not only do I not get to keep my own colors or my own name, but I have to share a name with, like, a hundred other ponies? Rrrgh! I hate not standing out!"
"That's the point, Dash," Star Fall said, walking over to the newly-pink pegasus and laying a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "You can't stand out. Not with a Changeling after you. He won't stand out. You won't even know it's him until he's got you. So you've got to make it as hard as possible for him to find you."
"He won't give up," Astrid warned. "Changelings aren’t like ponies or Griffins. They don't think or act like we do. Compassion, friendship, love. They don't feel these things, they feed on them, use them to power magic that gets inside your head. They hook themselves in, make you trust them, even fall in love with them, but they don't feel anything for anyone. They're psychopaths. Real, dangerous psychopaths, and they're working for the enemy. All they care about is their mission, and since this one wants you he will not give up until he has you."
"So I've gotta hide forever?" Dash asked, nearly shouting in her anger at the very idea.
Astrid shook her head. "No, just 'till we can get the Professor to get a look at you. Fall's certain she'll want to keep you around, and that means protection. Changeling's are tough, but Griffins? We're tougher, and trained to resist their mind-magic. After that you can flap your multi-colored tail at them all you want."
Dash sighed. "Fine. You said we could do some flying now, right? I really need to work out some anger."
"In a moment, put this on first," Astrid pointed to a pair of dresses lying on the grass.
"What? No way!"
"Your Glyph's still a problem, Dash," Astrid insisted. "We need to hide it or the dye job will mean nothing."
"You take my mane, my name, and now you want my cutie mark? Buck you, bird-brain!" Dash said, lapsing into Old Equestrian in her frustration.
"What'd she say to me?" Astrid asked Star Fall.
"She said she's unhappy, but will accept the wisdom of your decision," Star Fall said. "Dash. Please. Only for short while."
Rainbow Dash's face screwed up in anger, but then she deflated. "Fine. Wreck everything awesome about being me. So long as I get to fly," she walked over to the dresses. "Why are there two?"
"One's for me," Star Fall said. "Most ponies in the Kingdom don't go completely naked unless they're dirt poor or Royalty, and it'll cover up my own Glyph."
"And Astrid?"
"I'm a Griffin," Astrid said, holding up her talons. "Clothes only get in the way."
"Oookay," Dash said, shaking that image off and turning back to the dress. "Hey, we might have a problem here."
"What is it now?" Astrid asked, rolling her eyes.
"Well, I'm kinda dripping with pink and blue dye. These dresses are white. Won't that, uh, you know, tip the bad-guys off to the disguise?"
Astrid smacked herself in the head. "Stupid! Of course that will fuck up the disguise! Celestia burn it all! Goddess fucking damn it!"
"I don't know some of those words," Dash said. "But I'll take that as a 'yes'."
"We'll have to wait for you to dry off," Astrid steamed, stalking back and forth as she muttered more profanity under her breath.
"No. No way. I gotta fly, guys. I am not waiting another hour!" Dash said, flaring her wings.
"No choice, pinkette," Astrid said. "We can't have you spotted."
"I'm not waiting," Dash said.
"You're going to, whether you like it or not," Astrid snarled.
"Wanna bet?" Dash growled back, crouching in preparation for a leap into the air.
"Don't make me stop you," Astrid said, her own wings opening as her feathers bristled.
"Like you could," Dash sneered.
"Both of you stop it!" Star Fall shouted, catching their attention. "Dash can't wear the dress, and we can't let her be seen, but we do have to get moving. There's a solution here. We'll just go high-altitude. Above the cloud-layer. That will get us through the Shield Wall mountains. After that it's only a day's flight to the capitol."
"High altitude?" Astrid said, reluctant to agree to that plan. "Are you sure you can do that, Fall?"
Star Fall nodded. "I've recovered enough, I think. If I can't, we'll just land for the night. How about you, Dash? Do you think you're up to going that high?"
Dash looked into the sky, at the clouds that were gently wafting by in their hideously un-managed way. She waved a hoof derisively. "That high? Hah! Easy-peasy one-two-threesy. I could do it in my sleep."
"You might have to do it while unconscious," Astrid muttered, but nodded. "Then that's what we'll do."
They gathered up the remaining items, Astrid stuffing Dash's dress back in her bag while Star Fall donned hers. Both Astrid and Star Fall donned clear goggles, but when they offered a pair to Dash she declined. There was no debris far away from the ground, and thus no need for them. Within five minutes the three of them were in the air, climbing up to the scudding clouds.
Rainbow Dash felt the wind in her wings like liquid pleasure streaming across her body. That first flight she'd had when she had woken up in the future had been amazing, and this one was no different. Except this time she knew that she'd been grounded for a week, had experienced every painful, not-awesome minute of it. Sure she had made friends and learned a new language, but it would have been so much better to do those things and still fly. She couldn't resist the urge to show off a bit, zooming ahead and doing loops around her two companions, who were watching her aerial agility with awe.
She still wasn't happy with having to hide herself, and wearing a dress was going to suck massively. She was just glad Rarity wasn't here, those plain white dresses would never have survived the fashionista's attentions. They were girly enough already. None of that really mattered, though, not so long as she had the freedom of the skies. She whooped in joy and practiced a few of her easier stunts. Her wings were healed, but it would take some work to get them back to full strength after a week on the ground.
Eventually Dash dropped back to fly with Astrid and Star Fall, keeping an easy pace with them as they broke the cloud layer and headed north. Most of the geography was still alien to Dash, even though she knew that the eye of the Everstorm was Ponyville and could use that to orient herself by. Still, she recognized the mountain where Canterlot had stood, or rather what was left of it. It looked like most of the impressively tall peak had fallen off in the intervening years, leaving a wider but shorter mountain. She could see the half-buried remnants of Canterlot, though. Just a few broken spires were all that remained of the thousand-year capitol of Equestria.
"Hey Dash!" Star Fall called over, breaking her out of her reverie.
"Yeah, Star, what's up?" Dash replied, gliding up next to the white pegasus.
"I want to see you Cloudwalk," Star Fall said, pointing at the cloud they had just begun passing over.
Dash snorted. "Sure, I guess," she said, then dove for the cloud. She landed on its puffy surface and folded her wings, showing them that she really was standing on it.
Star Fall and Astrid exchanged some words that Dash didn't catch, but then Star Fall descended. A look of intense concentration crossed her face and she alighted next to Dash, her hooves finding purchase on the cloudstuff. Astrid circled above them, watching carefully. "This is incredible," Star Fall said.
"What's incredible?" Dash asked.
"You."
"Well, yeah, but what specifically?"
"Those tricks you were doing earlier. This right now. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it."
"Uh, Star. You're standing on the cloud just fine too," Dash said, pawing at the cloud to emphasize the point. "I know I'm cool and all, but when I come from this is stuff any pegasus can do."
"Not anymore," Star Fall said, smiling. "I have to concentrate to stay on the cloud, and I can only do that much because of my Talent, you do it without even thinking about it. Are you even cold?"
Dash frowned at that. "Uh, no? Pegasi don't get cold unless it's like twenty below."
"Nowadays they do. Light bones, fast pulse rates, low body-fat. We lose heat quick, especially when airborne."
"And we're up at high altitudes," Dash said, understanding coming to her. "That's why Astrid was worried. It's cold up here, and you're using your magic to keep up with us, aren't you? So you can't focus on keeping yourself warm."
Star Fall nodded. "This isn't so bad. I wouldn't be able to do it in winter at all."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Dash asked. "I could cut a windstream, or I could pull together a cloud chariot and pull you along. You'd just have to focus on staying on the cloud then."
"A pegasus pulling around a cloud would kinda draw attention, Dash," Star Fall pointed out. "A windstream would be nice, though."
"You got it," Dash smirked. "Take it easy, though, alright? Fly at your pace, focus on staying warm. I know I've got a thing for speed, but I'm okay with slowing down." She paused for a moment, thinking about that statement before adding: "If, you know, it's for a friend."
Star Fall smiled. "Thanks, Dash. You're my friend too," and together they soared back into the sky.
Calumn woke up in a bed. It wasn't a terribly comfortable bed, but it was something he wasn't expecting. He pushed his way out from under the covers, feeling all his joints protesting. He was still in the form of an earth pony filly, and so had the bladder to match and seriously needed a restroom. Finding what he needed, he did his business before taking stock of his surroundings. This was a hotel room of some sort. Two beds, none too clean linens, a stained and burnt couch and a pair of chairs next to a scarred old table. Sunlight streamed in through the curtained window, and a clock on the wall said it was well past noon.
Calumn cast his mind back to the journey through the Everstorm. He'd nearly died, and Blaze had saved him. After he had passed out, the green pony must have brought him here. Calumn spotted his saddlebags at the foot of one of the beds, open and rummaged through. That meant Blaze knew Calumn never had the money he had promised. The way Blaze had talked about it in Stormrider's, getting paid was of supreme importance to guides, so he didn't know how Blaze would react to this discovery. The fact that he was alone in this hotel room could mean any number of things.
He closed his eyes and tried to gauge his condition. He felt hurt, but not badly. His reserves of power weren't even a quarter full, but he was well out of danger. The memory of Blaze forcing him to look at the picture, to take the form of someone he loved, brought Calumn up short. He owed Blaze more than just the money promised him. He owed him his life.
He was pondering that when the door opened and the pony in question walked in, grinning as he saw Calumn up. "Hey, buddy!" Blaze said. "Hungry?" he held up a greasy bag from a fast-food place Calumn vaguely recognized from his long-ago sunland infiltration training.
"I am," Calumn said, his voice coming out like you would expect a ten-year-old filly to sound.
"This stuff is really a treat," Blaze said, putting the bag on the scratched table and pulling out wrapped foods that smelled of cheese and hay. "It's adapted from Griffin cuisine, so it looks kinda gross and meaty, but it's actually this pressed plant stuff. They call it, get this, a 'veggie-burger'," Blaze set off into giggles at that, then he adopted a thoughtful expression. "Do Changelings eat veggie-burgers?"
"Changelings eat meat and plants," Calumn said, hopping up on one of the chairs. "I'm mostly vegetarian. I only need to eat meat once a month or so. Less if I have a steady source of emotion to draw on."
"Nifty," Blaze said, pushing over one of the paper-wrapped burgers. "Eat up!" He crunched into his own burger, greasy juices running down his chin. "Mmm! Can't beat sunland food for taste! Though, honestly, I'm gonna have to take over the bathroom in, like, two hours. Also, I think I can hear my arteries hardening. 'Blaze!' They scream. 'Why have you forsaken us?'. And to that I'm all like, 'well, do you taste this stuff? Seriously, it's awesome!' And they're all like 'okay you have a point'," Blaze said, his voice going high and distant when he was talking for his arteries.
Calumn laughed, and the sound was pure and melodious and certainly not him. He stopped cold as he felt a wash of love flow into him from Blaze. He stared at the pony before shaking his head. "No," he said. "This is wrong."
"But it tastes sooo good!" Blaze said, smiling around his burger.
Calumn shook his head. "Not that. This," he gestured at his body. "This is what's wrong. You know I'm not her."
"Well, yeah," Blaze said. "I mean, I watched you turn into her. That made it pretty clear."
"But you still," Calumn paused, searching for a way to explain it. "You love her. And you're sending that love for her to me."
"Well of course I love her, and why shouldn't you be able to share some of that?"
"Because I'm not her!" Calumn said, banging a hoof on the table.
"Does that have to matter?" Blaze asked.
"Yes," Calumn said. "Who is she to you?"
Blaze stilled, putting down the burger. He looked Calumn in the eyes, his face hard and serious for once. "Strongheart, being an Everstorm guide is a job that attracts a certain kind of person. Some of us have pasts that we don't like to talk about. Some of us have dead little sisters that we would do anything, anything to see again. Even once. Even if it was fake and we knew it."
Calumn's eyes fell. He had expected something like that, but had hoped it wasn't true. "I'm sorry," he said.
"Yeah, it sucks for them," Blaze said, perking up. "Not me though. My sister's alive and well and living in Orion city."
Calumn blinked at him. "What?"
"Holly? The pony whose little-filly body you're wearing?" Blaze said, pointing a hoof at Calumn to indicate his borrowed form. "She's my sister. She's a total laugh-riot, too. Does these comedy circuits through the Republics, brings the house down every time, let me tell you."
"And she's not dead?" Calumn asked.
"Nope," Blaze said, smiling.
"So you're not using me to spend some time with a long-lost family member?"
"What? No, why would you think that?" Blaze asked, taking another bite of his burger.
Calumn shook his head. "Okay, fine, then why are you directing your love at me?"
"Because I love my sister, doofus," Blaze said, giggling. "And since you look like her, the love gets spread around. Like jam. Or butter. Or cream cheese."
"How?" Calumn demanded. "You can't just ... pick who your love goes to when you know that person isn't the one you love! It just doesn't work that way!"
"Oh!" Blaze said, then mumbled something through his mouth full of burger before swallowing and starting again. "That's what you're talking about! Okay. Now I get it. Remember back in the Storm when we were hearing voices and I said there was a trick to ignoring them?" Calumn nodded. "Well, it's the same thing, only in reverse. The trick is learning not to care about anybody. To convince yourself that you don't love somebody that you really love. It's not that hard to reverse it and convince yourself that you love somebody you really don't. Not an easy thing to do, sure, but if you're going to be a guide, then it's a survival skill."
Calumn sat back, amazed. "You can really do that? Just decide to love someone."
"Well, it's not all that easy," Blaze said. "That's why I got you to look like Holly. I really do love her, and so long as you look like her I can switch it on and off. See? Love, no love, love, no love."
Calumn swayed as he was hit with a wave of love that suddenly cut off, then renewed, then cut off again. He nearly fell off the chair from the conflicting sensations. "Stop!" he cried out, holding himself steady on the table.
Blaze started giggling again. "Okay, you are just too cute."
"Alright. That is amazing," Calumn said. "But I still don't feel comfortable with it. I'm going back to Strongheart." He blazed green and expanded to the familiar dimensions of the pony he had worn for two years.
"Awww," Blaze pouted. "But I liked seeing my sister like she was ten again. She was a lot nicer to me back then."
"How old is she now?" Calumn asked, finally taking a bite of the burger and finding that he was starving. It really did taste amazing.
"Twenty two," Blaze said. "She doesn't like to hang out with me anymore. Didn't like that I became a guide. I still catch her show whenever I can, though. Hey, do people really do that?"
"What?"
"Use Changelings to spend time with dead family?"
Calumn nodded, swallowing another bite of burger before he responded. "It's the only way we're allowed to feed," he said. "Someone loses a family member, usually someone who was in the army, and a Changeling comes and pretends to be the dead person. The family gives the Changeling love, and they give them their son or daughter back, for a while. We don't do it with husbands or wives, though. Too many problems."
"Wow," Blaze said, thinking about it. "Do the families know?"
Calumn shrugged. "They do. We put them under a bit of magic. We don't make them forget, just push the knowledge down until it's time for us to go."
"You heard your mother," Blaze said. Calumn blinked at him, confused. "In the Everstorm. You heard your mother, you even called out to her. That's not your Changeling mom, is it?"
Calumn shook his head. "We don't really have mothers. Not anymore. We had queens, once. Up until the Schism, when the Gray Mare murdered the last one. Now we can create hives, hatch new Changelings like me, but it's hard, and it requires some of us to die for it. We don't really have parents, and hive-mates are the closest thing to family any of us have, until we're placed with some grieving couple. What I heard was the mother of the pony whose body I had taken. Strongheart. His mother is a wonderful mare. She's so kind, and loving and absolutely devoted to her son."
"How long have you been him?" Blaze asked, putting down what was left of his burger.
"Two years," Calumn said. "Long enough to grow attached. To start to forget she isn't mine."
"You love her back," Calumn nodded again. "Wow, buddy, that's awesome," Blaze grinned. "You hear all sorts of stories about Changelings, but wow! I never expected that!"
"It's not normal," Calumn admitted. "It's hard to form close relationships when your entire life is supposed to be lies and camouflage. Strongheart's mother, well, she got under my skin."
"I know how it is," Blaze said, nodding sagely even though Calumn knew the pony had no way of actually knowing. "Hey, do you want me to keep calling you Strongheart? If that's the pony you're disguised as that's cool, but what if you change shape again? Do I just use the name of whoever you're pretending to be?"
"In public," Calumn said. "But between us? My real name is Calumn."
"Calumn," Blaze repeated. "Nifty! My name's Trail Blazer, but you can call me Blaze. Nice to meet you, Calumn!"
"Nice to meet you, Blaze," Calumn said, then remembered the saddlebags. "Sorry about not having enough to pay you," he said, blushing a bit.
"No problem," Blaze said. "I've got an idea about that."
"Oh? I'm all ears."
"Really? I mean, I've seen you in black-bug-looking shape and you didn't look like you were all ears."
"I... I meant that as a figure of speech."
"How do you figure speech?" Blaze asked, blinking at the Changeling.
Calumn shook his head. He was almost certain that Blaze was just trying to be funny, but he played it so straight that Calumn couldn't help but take it seriously. "No, I meant that I'm listening to your idea."
"Oh! Right. Well, you owe me, right? And I don't just mean money, but in like a personal sense," Calumn reluctantly nodded. "Okay, so I want to come along."
Calumn took a moment to process that, then gave up. "You want to what?"
"Come along! On this spy-venture thing you have going on!"
"That's... really not a good idea," Calumn said. "This is a dangerous mission. You're not a Republic agent, but if you're caught with me there won't be any mercy for you. That and I'm a trained infiltrator, and you, well, you aren't."
"But I am a guide whose Talent is always being on the right path," Blaze said. "I figured out you're looking for one of those three we saw in the Storm, otherwise you wouldn't have revealed yourself, right?" Calumn was forced to nod again. "I can help you find them. Come on, buddy. I know the sunside, I spend half my time here by default! I've travelled the cities, I know the lingo, the places to be, the places not to be, the places that you shouldn't be but you're going to be anyways because they have the best burritos. I know how to keep you from sticking out like a horn at an earth pony convention. You need me."
Calumn shook his head. "Blaze, it's just too dangerous."
Blaze snickered. "Calumn, did you hear what you just said? I cross the Everstorm for a living. You really want to compare job-danger-levels?"
Calumn opened his mouth to reply, then shut it. "You have a good point," he admitted. "But facing the Everstorm isn't the same thing as sneaking and lying your way through the Solar Kingdom with a Changeling at your side."
"Come on, worst case scenario I can provide a distraction so you can escape!"
"You'd get tried for espionage, hung as a spy!" Calumn protested.
"Who'd get tried?" Blaze said, looking at him with wide-eyed mock innocence. "I'm a nutty Storm-guide who got mind-controlled by a Changeling, I had no idea that handsome devil was making me do stuff for him and feeding from me the entire time. The shock! The horror! Come on, they'd never be able to convict me of anything."
Calumn sighed. "You're not going to give up on this, are you?"
"Nope. And as a final nail in it, I can give you the love you're going to need. Free of guilt and free of having to insinuate yourself into someone else's life. Come on," Blaze grinned, spreading his forelegs wide. "What is not to like about this?"
Calumn hung his head in defeat. "Okay, Blaze. You can come with me."
"Yes!" Blaze said, punching the air with a hoof.
"On one condition." Blaze paused in his celebration, looking expectantly at Calumn. "You don't send me love like that again. Not unless it's absolutely necessary. It just... it feels wrong. Like I'm lying to you, using you. I don't want to use you, Blaze. I think you might be my first real friend. Ever."
Blaze's smile was softer this time. "You got it, buddy. I've had other friends, but you, me, here? Now? This one's going to be special. I can just tell."
Each individual Element has a particular and very important role to play in creating the Magic of Harmony. Any missing Element and the resonance will fall apart. They are like keys to a door, you need all of them to undo every lock. This is, perhaps, a subtle warning of their nature. What does anypony put behind a door with six locks? Either something very precious, or something that absolutely must never be allowed to escape.
Rainbow Dash pushed the cloud into place. It had taken all of half a minute to compress the puffy cumulus clouds into something more usable, a feat which had awed Star Fall all on its own despite being something any pegasus used to be able to do without effort. Positioning was important for this part, though, so she took more care in lining up the three more proper-sized clouds she had created. Once she was sure she had the angle right she set up the second cloud below the first, and then set the third one waiting behind that.
"So, this is the field method," Dash said. "It's not really efficient or anything, you need a weather factory to do it properly, but sometimes accidents happen and you've got to make do with what you got."
"Question," Astrid said, raising a claw. "How are you keeping those clouds from drifting away?" She and Star Fall were sitting on a small but relatively flat shelf on the edge of a mountain. Star Fall had called the range the Shield Wall mountains, and explained that they were so named because they were seen as a barrier against a possible Republic invasion, should the Everstorm ever fall. Dash recognized parts of the mountain range as having existed in her time, but it was all so different that she wouldn't have noticed it if she weren't specifically looking. She wasn't a geology expert or anything, but she knew it took a lot longer than a thousand years for a mountain range to change that drastically. She was left wondering exactly how much power Nightmare Umbra had possessed.
"I told them to stay put," Dash said.
"How does that even work?"
Dash shrugged. "It just does. I push a cloud into place, and if I want it to stay, it does. Unless there's a really strong wind or another pegasus who tells it to do something else, it'll stay. Clouds don't think or anything, they do what you tell them to."
"Fascinating," Star Fall said, wide-eyed and practically salivating to see more.
"I guess. Anyway, this is the important part. You've got to get the angles right or it won't work," Dash stomped on the second cloud until it formed itself into a bowl, then hovered up to the first cloud. She closed her eyes and put her hooves on the surface of the cloud. Most ponies would be surprised at how much training went into weather-work. Sure any pegasus could move a cloud or stomp some rain out of it, but to be a real weather-pony you had to know how to do stuff like this. With a grunt of effort she wrenched the cloud open, creating a hole through it that glistened with gossamer strands of cloud-stuff. Sunlight shone into the hole, catching itself in all those criss-crossing strands that had been angled just right to cause a specific effect.
Dash jumped out of the way as the rainbow juice poured from the hole in the first cloud and splashed into the bowl of the second. Astrid blinked in surprise, and Star Fall shot to her hooves, crying out in delight.
"It's liquid!" Star Fall squealed in surprise, eyes incredibly wide as she stared at the filling cloud bowl. "How is it liquid? Why? Is it rain? How do you get the color striations like that?"
"It's a rainbow, Star," Dash said. "I don't know what 'stri-ations' are, but it looks right so I figure I got them because it's a rainbow."
"Rainbows aren't liquid," Star Fall said. "They're refracted light! They don't splash and you can't just pull them out of a cloud like that!"
"Uh, just did that, Star," Dash said, smirking as she leaned casually against the cloud-prism, her flapping wings the only thing that spoiled her relaxed 'could-do-this-in-my-sleep' look. "Anyways, this stuff is just rainbow juice. It's portable and stable and you can use it for all sorts of stuff. Cloudsdale had whole fountains that ran on rainbow juice," the cloud that had been turned into a rainbow-catching prism was shrinking at an alarming rate, throwing off Dash's balance enough to make her right herself. "Wow, I'm not that out of practice," Dash said, scratching at her head. "Must be the lower magic level or something, 'cause I should have gotten way more out of this cloud."
Star Fall fixated her gaze on the first cloud as it shrivelled into a small tunnel around the prism-hole, then popped into drifting mist with a soft 'poof'. "You took the water that made up the cloud and infused it with the spectrum. You captured light in water! But the water's glowing with it, it's radiating energy, it shouldn't stay this bright for this long."
"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about," Dash said. "I think you're asking me how long it lasts."
Star Fall looked like she was going to argue that, but then thought about it for a moment and nodded. "Yes. That'll do. How long does it last?"
"Out in the open like this? A day or so," Dash said. "You can bottle it, and if you distil it properly in a factory it can keep for months. If you keep it circulating it lasts longer, too, but not as long as if you process it right."
"Astrid!" Star Fall called to her guard. "Do you have something to bottle this with?"
"Just the water bottles, Fall," Astrid said, pulling an empty plastic bottle from one of her bags. "That good enough?"
"Lemme see," Dash said, and Astrid threw the bottle to her. "I don't know. This stuff's kinda thin," she dipped the bottle in the rainbow juice, which promptly ate its way through the plastic. "Nope. Not gonna work."
"Damn!" Star Fall hissed. "You have to do this again when we get to the Professor. She needs to see this."
Dash shrugged. "Fine with me. You wanna see the rest?" Star Fall nodded eagerly. "Cool. Now watch carefully, I can't really do this slow."
Dash set herself above the center of the small pool of rainbow juice. She took a deep breath, then began to spin. She whirled like a top, going faster and faster until the air around her became a vortex of confined wind pulling upward. The rainbow juice sluiced around the cloud as it was sucked into the vortex, covering Rainbow Dash with a whirling spectrum of light, almost making her look like her undyed self again. Once the rainbow juice had been drawn completely into her mini-tornado, Dash dipped down to grab a piece of the cloud then shot into the air, describing an arc that took her to the last cloud she had made.
Before she could hit that cloud she dodged to the side, turning her spin into a roll that brought her under the cloud and around again to where the rainbow juice was touching down. With practiced speed she flew the length of the arc she had made again, this time circling around it, pushing and teasing until the cloudstuff she had pulled with her and the rainbow juice fused into a smooth arc between the two clouds. Once she was done she flared her wings to the air and pulled to a hovering halt next to Star Fall, who watched with gaping mouth at what Dash had done. The rainbow glowed brightly, a wonder of nature, made with hooves and wings, the way it should be done. Not her best work, but good enough to pass inspection.
"And that's how you make a rainbow," Dash said, grinning.
"Celestia," Star Fall breathed, unable to look away. "It's beautiful."
"I gotta say," Astrid said, gaze similarly fixed on the rainbow. "That's impressive."
This just made Dash's grin widen. "I know, isn't it awesome!"
"And you used to do this all the time?" Astrid asked.
"Nah, this is the field method, remember?" Dash said, shrugging dismissively. "It's quick and dirty. Proper rainbow work takes more time, and you need the right equipment for it."
"There are no Talents for this," Star Fall breathed.
"Yeah there are," Dash said. "You guys just don't know about them 'cause no one's done it in, like, forever."
"Can I do this?" Star Fall asked, sounding to Dash like a filly at her first Wonderbolt's show.
Dash shrugged. "I guess. This is kinda complicated, though. I think you should start with cloud-kicking and rain for now."
"We need to get rid of this," Astrid said.
"What? No!" Star Fall cried, turning to face the Griffin. "Why would we destroy this? It's... it's incredible!"
"It's noticeable," Astrid said. "It's impossible. It's going to point out our trail like a neon sign. We have to get rid of it."
Dash shrugged. "Meh, cool enough."
"Wait!" Star Fall cried, leaping in front of the shining clouds. "This is probably the first pegasus-made rainbow in eight hundred years! We can't just destroy it!"
"Star, I can make another one," Dash pointed out. "Whenever I want to."
"I know!" Star Fall said, her face scrunching up as she pleaded with them. "It's just... It's the first one. It's something pegasus ponies have been dreaming of. My mother used to tell me stories, fairy tales of the ancient pegasi before the Schism, who ruled the skies and commanded storms. Who made rainbows. You made a rainbow, Dash. It's like every childhood fantasy I had coming true. I don't want to destroy that."
"I get that, Star," Dash said. When she had won the Best Young Flier's competition she'd gotten to spend a day with her heroes, the Wonderbolts. It had been incredible. She'd embarrassed herself a dozen times over in her enthusiasm, but they hadn't given her a hard time for it, and she got to fly with them, to perform tricks with them. Then, it had been over, and she had to go away. That had hurt, and she could only figure that Star Fall was feeling something like that now. A dream come true, but a dream that still had to end.
"Still has to happen," Astrid stood firm. "I'm sorry, Fall, but it's too much a risk."
Star Fall hung her head, but nodded. "I know."
Dash tried to find something that would help Star Fall, but she wasn't good with emotional stuff. The only thing she could do, the one thing she was really good at in these situations, was sticking to her friends and being there when they needed her. She thought about it, and came to a decision. "Star," she said, hoping it was the right thing to do. "You do it."
"What?"
"It might be the first rainbow in eight hundred years, but it's still just clouds and light. I did this kinda thing all the time, so it's not special to me. I'm from the past, right? So what I do doesn't really count. If you break it down? You'll be the first pony in eight hundred years to be able to work the weather. Think about that, Star. This is your chance."
"I... I don't know," Star Fall said, eyes wide with fear. Dash recognized that too, her experiences with the Best Young Flier's competition was turning out to be very handy today.
"You can do it, Star," Dash said. "I know you can."
"I think you can, too," Astrid said. "You've got magic, Fall. I think anything she can do, you can do too."
"Come on, Star," Dash said, giving the white pegasus her most confidant smile. "Make the history books."
Star Fall gulped, then flew out to the clouds that the rainbow sat on. "How do I do it?" she asked.
"Focus on your cloudwalking magic," Dash said, figuring it would be the closest she could get to the weather-working powers until she figured it out better. "Put it all in your hooves. Then, when you've got it all focused, turn around and buck that cloud hard! When you do, release all of the magic you've put in your hooves into the cloud. Don't give it a direction, let it blast out everywhere. Alright?"
"Okay," Star Fall said, her hovering erratic as she shook from anticipation. She closed her eyes, drawing in her focus, then with a high-pitched shriek that was probably supposed to be a war-cry or shout of effort, she kicked the cloud.
What Dash hadn't counted on was the fact that Star Fall was a Magic Talent, and so when she let a burst of magic out of her hooves, it was a bit more spectacular than when Dash did it herself. Light exploded across the side of the mountain. Thunder cracked through the sky and an avalanche began to slide two peaks over. Dash and Astrid cringed back, but when the light had faded they found Star Fall gingerly peeking over her shoulder to see the cloud she had kicked broken apart and fading away. The rainbow started to break up a moment later, rainbow juice falling in a mist from it that was taken by the mountain wind before it could fall to the ground.
"I... I did it!" Star Fall said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Nice work," Dash said. "Next time, though, you might want to use a bit less magic." Star Fall ducked, her cheeks going red, but when Dash and Astrid started laughing she joined in. She had done it, taken the first steps into re-learning the lost power of the pegasi. It was going to be a great day.
They landed for lunch in a town on the other side of the mountains. Astrid took off to the nearby forest while Star Fall and Rainbow Dash made their way in to buy something. The Griffin hadn't been happy with it, but allowed that so long as they were careful they shouldn't be at risk. Dash was excited to be in a town in the future. She had been grilling Star Fall as they landed outside of the town and walked their way in. Star Fall just wanted a burger. She wanted it so very badly.
"What do you use for money?" Dash asked.
"Bits," Star Fall replied, eyeing the buildings as they came up on them.
"Wow, that's the same money we used back when I'm from!"
"Same term, different system," Star Fall said. "Can we not talk about money? I'm not really good with the stuff."
"Wait, you've got some, right? How are we going to pay for lunch?"
"I've got money," Star Fall assured her. "A royal line of credit, too. Accounting just was never interesting to me."
"Me too," Dash sighed. "I had to learn so I could manage the weather team in Ponyville, but it's so boring! Twilight liked it, though. She's totally into numbers."
"Math's fine," Star Fall said. "I love math. It's accounting I can't stand."
"What do people do for jobs?" Dash asked. "I mean, I guess there's still farming and stuff, but a lot of pegasi worked the weather patrol at least part time."
"Depends on your Talent, I guess," Star Fall shrugged. "You do whatever you're best suited for."
"That's a lot like when I come from," Dash said. "Man, I expected the future to be way different. Do you have flying cities?"
Star Fall gave her companion an incredulous look. "I thought you said you grew up in a flying city? How would that be futuristic for you?"
"I grew up in a cloud city," Dash said. "I'm talking like with rockets or anti-gravity stuff."
Star Fall shook her head. "No. No flying cities. Cloud or otherwise."
"Jet packs?"
"Jet packs?" Star Fall repeated.
"Yeah, so earth ponies and unicorns can fly too?"
"No, still need wings to fly."
Dash huffed in disappointment. "So what is different about the future? It looks like nothing's changed in a thousand years!"
"I don't know," Star Fall said. "We kinda had an apocalypse eight hundred years ago. Makes it real hard to do a side-by-side comparison."
Dash thought about that for a moment before nodding in acceptance. "Okay, yeah, I get it. You had to rebuild from that."
"Yes we did," Star Fall said as they stepped out into the main street of the town. She spotted the burger place and her mouth nearly dripped with saliva at the thought of a big, juicy patty between two overstarched hunks of bread, lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard. Pickles optional, but at this point she didn't really care. Her post-Everstorm hunger had ebbed to manageable levels, but she still felt like there was an empty hole in her middle that needed to be filled.
"Star, when you said 'Royal line of credit', what did you mean?"
"What did it sound like?" Star Fall said, speeding up to a trot in her eagerness to eat.
"When you say 'Royal' what..." Dash trailed off.
It took Star Fall a dozen steps before she realized that Rainbow Dash was no longer following her. She tore her gaze away from the familiar sign of the restaurant and looked back. Dash had stopped in the street, her mouth hanging open, eyes wide and shocked. She wasn't staring at one thing, though, she was looking at the ponies around her. Her gaze snapping from one to another with a near-panicked intensity.
Star Fall rushed back to Dash's side. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Dash shook her head, drawing in a shuddering breath. "Their cutie marks," she said, once more falling into Old Equestrian.
"Talent Glyphs, Dash," Star Fall said. "The Solar words are Talent Glyphs. What's wrong with them?"
Dash pointed a hoof at one passing pony. "Growing Grapes," she switched to another. "Lightning Spells," then another. "Strength. That one's Flight. Growing Carrots, Forging Steel, Making Pottery, Trading Goods."
Star Fall looked at each pony Dash had pointed out. "Yes, what about them?"
"I can read their cutie marks," Dash said, her voice sounding haunted.
"Of course you can," Star Fall replied, trying to figure out what the issue was.
"No, Star, I can read them!" Dash said, trying to whisper and failing as her breathing came in short, hurried gasps. "Those aren't right! They're just a bunch of symbols, and I can read what they mean!"
Star Fall put comforting hoof on Dash's shoulder, her eyes softening as she began to understand. "They weren't like that in your time, were they?" Dash shook her head. "Okay, come on. You're drawing attention like this, let's go sit down and we'll talk about it, okay?"
It only took a little more coaxing to get Dash into the restaurant. Star Fall left her sitting at a window-side table, still staring at the flanks of passing ponies, while she got them both food. Fast food joints didn't get the name by accident, and so she was setting a tray down on the table only two minutes later.
"In your time, what were Talent Glyphs like?" she asked, unwrapping one of the three burgers she had ordered for herself and taking a big, juicy bite.
"Like mine, like yours," Dash said. "They were personal. They meant something, but only you really know what that something was. They were important, you know? They meant that you had found yourself, that you knew that you were special. The ... the cutie marks weren't just about your Special Talent. They were about you. The real you, the core of who you were, who you wanted to be, who you could be. It's an image of your soul."
"That's beautiful," Star Fall said, entranced by the emotion she was hearing in the other pegasus' voice.
Dash shook her head. "I'm no good at talking about them. I never had to think about it before, they were just always there, and everyone knew what they meant and how important they were."
"I think you're talking about them just fine," Star Fall assured her, then spent a moment finishing off her first burger. "The Glyphs are one of those things that have changed. There's a lot less magic around now than when the Goddesses ruled, and the consequences are more than just pegasi losing control of the weather."
"But that?" Dash poked a hoof at another passing pony. "What happened? Why do they look like that? Why can I just read it?"
"You can read it because the Direct Glyphs are universal," Star Fall said. "Their meaning is clear, no matter what language you speak. It's not actually reading them it's... well, the mechanics of the Talent Glyphs are a kind of deep magic, stronger than any unicorn's power. They might even be fundamental to the universe itself. They're certainly intrinsic to ponykind. As to what happened? I don't know. I'd guess the Schism is what caused this, just like it caused all the other differences between my Equestria and yours."
"So why do you have a normal one?" Dash asked, then pointed out the window. "See that one over there? He's got a normal cutie mark. Why are they normal when a lot of other ponies have these... these words?"
"There are two types of Glyphs," Star Fall explained. "The, uh, the word ones are called Direct Glyphs. They are immediately apparent, that is easily read, and they identify the pony's Special Talent. Glyphs like yours or mine are called Abstract Glyphs, because their meaning is obscured."
"Ob-what?"
"Hidden. They are a picture, not words. Their meaning is up for interpretation. About a third of the population has Abstract Glyphs. No one knows why that is, it just happens. Sometimes Abstracts aren't that hard to figure out. Like mine," Star Fall gestured to her flank, to the mark hidden by her dress. "My Talent Glyph doesn't just tell you what my Talent is, but it's pretty clear. My Glyph is a magic circle, one of the prime circles. Seven points, seven lines, seven places, seven paths."
"That's a lot of sevens," Dash commented absently.
Star Fall took on a distant look. "Seven is an important number in magic. In life, too. They say there are seven stories of the origins of the Goddesses."
"I heard something like that back in my time," Dash mumbled, distracted by watching the ponies in the street. "Twilight and Rarity talked about it once. I never figured that out, I mean, I've heard like two stories on how the Princesses came to rule, not seven."
"It's an obscure reference," Star Fall said, shaking her head. "I guess it was obscure even a thousand years ago."
"Yeah, some things don't change, I guess," Dash said, slumping in her seat. "I just can't believe cutie marks of all things would change."
"Talent Glyphs, Dash," Star Fall reminded her. "And I don't think they've changed, not really. I just think they've pared down a bit, gotten to the basics. They're still everything else you said about them. They are still personal. They still mean something. They still remind you that you are special, and a lot of ponies will say that they're still a part of your soul that you show the world. It's just some of them are more explicit about it than others."
Dash spent a few long moments staring at the ponies before shuddering. "I gotta get some air," she said, standing up.
"Dash, you haven't even touched your food," Star Fall admonished.
"I'm not hungry," Dash replied. "Look, I get what you're saying. I just... I can't stay here."
"We're heading to a big city, Dash," Star Fall reminded her. "You're going to be seeing a lot more ponies with Direct Glyphs."
"I know that, all right! I know," Dash's wings jerked nervously as her eyes darted about the restaurant. "I just gotta clear my head to process it. I gotta fly."
Star Fall knew she wasn't going to be able to keep the other mare there. Future shock was hitting her hard. "Find Astrid," Star Fall said. "Fly with her a bit. Don't go too far without her. We're in the Kingdom, but you're still not safe, even with the disguise."
"I got it," Dash said. "I'll play it safe."
"Then go, I'll come find you two when it's time to head on." Dash barely nodded in reply before she was galloping out the door. She took off immediately, leaving a blue-pink streak hanging in the air for a second, causing a few ponies to stare in wonder. "Etherealizing." Star Fall shook her head, unwrapping her second burger. "In public. That's not going to come back to bite us, no sir."
She considered Rainbow Dash as she ate. With everything she'd seen the mare accomplish, it was very hard to remember that she was supposed to doubt her assumed identity. It had become so easy to talk to her like Dash really was from a thousand years ago, and with her multitude of abilities as well as her complete ignorance of modern times and history, it was all adding up to her telling the truth. Yet she couldn't let go of the last few of her doubts.
Rainbow Dash had been a hero, and had died. All her knowledge of the life and times of Twilight Sparkle agreed on that. But she hadn't mysteriously vanished or been annihilated by some enemy or anything that would explain her showing up in the future like this. No, by every account Rainbow Dash had died peacefully. In bed. Of old age.
But if this mare wasn't Rainbow Dash as she claimed, then who was she?
The sun had fallen below the horizon, stars spreading through the sky as the last fingers of twilight receded into the west. They had been flying most of the day, with only a few breaks to eat or rest. Astrid had said that she wanted to make the capitol before nightfall, but even assisted by her magic Star Fall wasn't strong enough of a flyer to keep up that pace, and now they were soaring through the growing darkness.
Rainbow Dash could go for longer. She wanted to go for longer, to fly and fly until she was back in her own time, with her own friends and surrounded by ponies who didn't have weird cutie marks that could be read like a text book. She wasn't one to brood, but she couldn't help but dwell on everything that had happened to her since she woke up in that hole. They were coming up on the capital fast, though, and her calming flight would soon be over. Then she might finally get an answer to the question of why she was here, and more importantly, how she could get back.
Star Fall glided closer to her. "Dash, are you okay?"
Dash nodded, shaking off the heavy thoughts. "I'm fine." She wanted to leave it at that, but the look of concern in Star Fall's blue eyes made go on. "Look, I'm sorry about ditching you like that earlier. I just got kinda overwhelmed, you know? I guess I'm not as cool with this future thing as I thought I was."
"It's okay," Star Fall assured her. "You didn't wander off or do anything stupid. I think you're dealing with it fine. I also think you need to talk about it."
Dash let out a frustrated huff. "I don't even know what to talk about. I mean, I though I had a handle on this stuff, you know? You told me about the Schism and Nightmare Umbra and everything, and I'm going to stop that, so I'm cool with it. And everything else was just like back home, except every town has stuff you'd only see in Manehattan or Canterlot. I thought I could take anything the future could throw at me. But cutie marks? I just... I can't wrap my head around that, Star."
"Talent Glyphs," Star Fall corrected. "I would think that knowing all your friends and family, your very country is long gone would be a harder shock to the system."
"Star, I'm going to get back home," Dash said, utter conviction in her eyes. "Just because they're all gone now doesn't mean that they'll be gone then, and that's what's important. But cutie marks aren't supposed to change like that. They're part of ponykind, as much as wings on pegasi or horns on unicorns. Just knowing that they can change, it's messing with me, Star. Cutie marks shouldn't do that."
"Talent Glyphs," Star Fall said, at the edge of exasperated. "No one but me will understand you if you keep saying it like that."
Dash looked away from the white pegasus, training her eyes on the glow coming from behind the tall hills ahead of them. "It doesn't feel right to call them that," she said. "Talent Glyph might be the right words, but it's the wrong meaning. When I'm talking about cutie marks, I mean cutie marks, not Talent Glyphs. They're not just your Special Talent. They're more than that. Calling them Talent Glyphs, well, it just doesn't work for me, okay?"
Star Fall examined Dash in silence for a long moment. "That's the second," she said.
"The second what?" Dash asked, looking back at Star Fall.
"The second time you've run into translation problems," Star Fall explained. "Every other word, phrase, idea and object you've been able to translate perfectly. Your speech patterns, your little personal turns of phrase, all of that comes through. Except for some reason you can't translate cutie mark as Talent Glyph."
"I can do it, I just don't think it's right," Dash protested.
Star Fall shook her head. "I'm not saying it's impossible for you, I'm just saying that unlike how easily you've taken to every other aspect of Solar, there's these two concepts which you still automatically convey in Old Equestrian. It's interesting, and it makes me wonder why those two are the ones that aren't translating properly for you."
"I don't think I follow you," Dash said. "And you said this is the second. What was the first?"
"Dash, what's Discord?"
Rainbow Dash was about to answer when Astrid let out a warning cry. "Heads up!" she called out to them. "We've got company!"
Dash looked to where the Griffin was gesturing and her keen eyes made out a wing of four pegasi swooping towards them. At Star Fall's direction Dash slowed down to a near hover as the patrol intercepted them. They wore uniforms that were a bright gold edged with red, covering them right down to the flank, concealing their Glyphs. Their eyes were covered by goggles that were similar to the ones Astrid and Star Fall wore, protecting their eyes from the wind that they didn't have the magic to fend off naturally.
"Hail Griffin!" One of the pegasi called out as the other three circled around them. "State your name and purpose!"
"Sergeant Astrid of the Steelwing Clan," Astrid replied, turning her head so that the pony could see her clan markings. "My mission is to escort these two into the city, Royal assignment."
The lead pegasus's eyebrows shot up at that. "Royal assignment? Who are these two?"
"Lady Fallen Star and her hoofmaid Firefly," Astrid said. Dash winced at the false name, but managed to smooth her features before the pegasi noticed her reaction.
Even through the obscuring goggles the disbelieving look the pegasus was giving Astrid was obvious. "I don't see a horn on her head to go with those wings. You expect me to believe she's nobility?"
"Adopted nobility," Star Fall interjected. "I am legally the daughter of Professor Twinkle Shine."
The pegasus focused his gaze on her. "So, you're the one," he said.
"I am," Star Fall confirmed, raising her chin and looking as regal as she could while her tired wings flapped hard to keep her hovering in the air.
The pegasus shook his head. "You've either got the grace of Celestia on you or the luck of Luna in you. Either way, I know ponies who'd chew their back left hoof off for a shot at what you've got."
"Is there a point to this?" Astrid growled.
The pegasus held up a placating hoof. "No offence meant. A pegasus getting adopted into the nobility has raised a lot of spirits, I just wanted to make sure she knew that."
"Thank you, sir," Star Fall said as graciously as she could. "I will try to live up to that sentiment."
The pegasus gave her a midair bow. "We'll escort you in."
"That's not necessary," Star Fall said. "Astrid is more than capable of protecting me and my maid."
"I don't doubt that, but..."
"But nothing," Astrid snapped. "You've done your duty, seen us, identified us. Now shove off."
The pony looked like he was about to respond to Astrid's insult, but thought better of it as Astrid's raptor stare bore into him. "Fine. Be on your way." He waved to the circling pegasi, and the whole group rose away.
"What was that all about?" Dash asked.
"Guard Patrol," Astrid said. "Supposed to stop any air traffic coming into the capital, make sure it's not spies or crooks. Celestia knows they're crap on the first part, but they're good for the second."
"No, I mean that nobility thing," Dash clarified, looking at the white pegasus with new appraisal in her eyes. "I remember you saying you had a Royal account or something, Star. Are you really a noble?"
Star Fall sighed. "Not really."
"Yes you are, Fall," Astrid said.
"No I'm not!" Star Fall insisted. "The Professor adopted me, but it's just so I could get a proper education in magic. It isn't the same thing."
"So this Professor is a noble?" Dash reasoned.
"Every Magic Talent is," Star Fall sighed. "It's how the Crown rewards talented ponies for serving the Kingdom."
"Well, you're a Magic Talent, wouldn't that make you nobility anyway?" Dash asked, only slightly confused and working through it quickly.
Star Fall sighed. "It would, if I were a unicorn."
"What does not being a unicorn have to do with it?"
"Dash, in your time were there any nobles who weren't unicorns?" Star Fall asked.
Dash thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. "Not really, but that didn't mean anything. I mean, being nobility didn't really mean anything except to them. Something about old families from the pre-Equestria times. I never paid any attention to it, to be honest, that was more Rarity's gig."
"Well it means a lot now," Star Fall said. "And all the noble families are unicorns."
"Okay, so what about when they have a foal who isn't a unicorn? Do they just kick her out of the house?" Astrid and Star Fall stared at her for long enough for it to be uncomfortable. "What? What did I say?"
"Dash, you can't have foals from outside your species," Star Fall said.
"Uhh, okay? But we're all ponies, so what's the problem?"
"Pony is the genus, Dash. Unicorn, Pegasus and Earth Pony are all species. We're not closely related enough to interbreed, except in rare instances, and the foals that result are always sickly hybrids that are more often than not sterile themselves."
"Huh?" Dash was completely thrown by this statement.
"Unicorns can't have not-unicorn kids," Astrid said.
"Yeah they can," Dash insisted.
"No they can't, Dash. This is scientifically proven fact," Star Fall said.
"They totally can, and that's seen-it-myself fact," Dash declared.
Star Fall opened her mouth to retort, but shut it as a sudden thought occurred to her. "You've seen unicorns have non-unicorn children."
"Yeah. Well, not, like, been in the room when it happened, but there's lots of foals that've had parents that were from different tribes. Hell, I know a pair of earth pony parents who had twins where one was a unicorn and the other was a pegasus."
"This is incredible!" Star Fall said, eyes wide and staring off into space. "If this is true, then it means that magic has an effect on pony genetics and breeding just like it does on all the other sapient species! This overturns centuries of thought! It would certainly take the wind out of the sails of the Pony Superiority movements. Astrid, do you realize what this means?"
"That eugenics projects aren't just for Griffins anymore?" she asked, unsure.
"Yes! I mean, no! Well, okay, maybe. We'd certainly have to do studies on whether the techniques developed for Griffin, Diamond Dog and Dragon propagation would have any relevance for ponies. I can't see having the same urgency for pony-based engineering projects as there were for the others, but we could certainly avoid all of the mistakes made with them."
"Hey, Star," Dash said. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Again. It sounds really interesting, I guess, but can we get back to the part where you're a noble?"
"Okay," Star Fall said, shaking off her thoughts on the magical inheritance of ponykind to answer her friend's question. "When I got my Talent I had to be trained in it, but a pegasus can't enroll in the University for magical studies. My family didn't even have the money to send me there in the first place. Professor Shine was there when I discovered my Talent, though, and she offered to be my mentor and pay my tuition. Then she offered to officially adopt me so that I could take the magic classes. My parents weren't thrilled with it, but they knew I needed to be taught."
"Whoa, wait," Dash said, holding up a hoof as she processed this. "So your parents aren't dead or anything, and they gave you up for adoption to get you into a school? That is messed up."
"They didn't 'give me up'," Star Fall said. "They're still my parents, just not my legal family. Nobles sometimes adopt young or adult ponies who would bring honor or resources to their house. It's just that usually it's another unicorn they adopt. I'm the first non-unicorn to be adopted into a noble family in over fifty years."
"That's not all," Astrid said, snickering. "Tell her about your inheritance."
"Inheritance?" Dash asked.
Star Fall sighed. "Since the Professor doesn't have any other family and isn't interested in foaling, I'm also heir to her entire estate, including her title."
"And that's why no matter how much she whines about it, she really is a noble," Astrid said.
"Screw you, Astrid," Star Fall snipped.
"Always happy to clarify, Fall," Astrid said, chuckling.
"Wow. You gotta be pretty famous, huh?" Dash asked.
Star Fall shrugged sheepishly. "Maybe a little, but not for the right reasons."
"What do you mean?" Dash said, laughing. "You're a badass Magic Talent pegasus who can walk through the Everstorm and was adopted by freaking royalty!"
"Nobility, not royalty," Star Fall corrected. "And almost everyone doesn't know about the Magic Talent. Also, you shouldn't talk about my Talent where others can overhear, it's not safe."
"Not safe? What?"
"We're kind of spies," Star Fall said.
"Way to keep cover, Fall," Astrid snarked.
"It's not like she wasn't going to figure it out," Star Fall said.
"Also, I think you already told me that," Dash said, frowning as she thought about it.
"See? Not new news," Star Fall said to Astrid, who rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, Fall," Astrid sighed. "Dash, her Talent's a secret. She can get through the Storm without a guide and walk right into a Republic city and no one will look twice at her because she's a pegasus, not a unicorn, and they won't figure what she can do with her magic. If word got back to the Republics about what she can do, that would be over, and she'd be a target."
"Oh," Dash said, understanding coming quickly. "They'd send one of those guys, the Changelings, after her. Right?"
"Maybe," Astrid said. "Whatever they did, it wouldn't be good. Got it?"
Dash nodded. "Yeah. Keep a lid on it. Don't worry, I know how to keep secrets," she thought for a moment before speaking again. "So, if you keep your Talent quiet, how did you go to those magic classes?"
Star Fall laughed. "Oh, that? Professor Shine is the strongest Magic Talent in the Kingdom, maybe even the world. She lectures at the University, and she had me audit the classes so I could 'understand the family business'. Everybody just thinks she's making me take them so I can be a researcher or assistant to her. They probably think my Talent is in being a librarian or scribe."
"Heh, wait'll they see what you can really do," Dash said, eyes gleaming.
"If I ever get the chance to go public, they will," Star Fall assured her. "Does that answer your questions?"
"Not all of them, but it's good for now," Dash replied, stifling a yawn. "Are we going to your place?" she asked.
"No, I don't want to wake the Professor if she's in," Star Fall said, frowning. "Astrid, can we get a hotel room for the night?"
The Griffin shrugged. "Fine with me. We should be well beyond any normal pursuit, and a hotel is as good a place as any to throw off any tails."
"Alright, then. We'll get a room tonight and then go and see the Professor tomorrow," Star Fall said. The other two nodded their agreement, then started towards the hills, and the glow of the city that stained the clouds drifting above it with a warm golden light.
"I'm betraying you"
The insistent knocking on the door was what woke Rainbow Dash from her dreams. Her eyes popped open to see sunlight streaming through the curtained window of the hotel room they had checked into late in the night. She was unpleasantly sweaty and the covers of the cot she was in were twisted around her legs, forcing her to kick them vigorously to free herself. By the time she had oriented herself enough to look around the room the other two occupants were already in ready positions. Star Fall was leaning up against the wall beside the door while Astrid stood in front of it, carefully looking through the peephole. Her wings were flared and her talons flexed in readiness. Neither of them looked as groggy as Dash felt.
"Who is it?" Star Fall called at a nod from Astrid.
"Service escort," came the reply through the door.
Star Fall and Astrid exchanged a look that spoke volumes, none of which Dash was privy to. "We didn't order any service," Star Fall said. "I think you have the wrong room."
There was a scraping sound as whoever was outside the room shoved something under the door. Dash crept up to take a closer look, but a quick gesture from Astrid made her shy back. They were taking whatever this was deadly serious. Star Fall put her hoof over whatever had been pushed under the door, mumbling too quietly to hear. When she took her hoof away there was a glow coming from the object.
"It's good," Star Fall said, and Astrid yanked the door open.
Standing outside were two ponies wearing well-tailored dark suits, a stallion and a mare. Both were unicorns, and they each wore a strange device in one ear. They looked around the room with the kind of quick precision that Dash had only seen in a few of the Royal Guards. Their gaze lingered on her, assessing, but they moved on before Dash could even think to challenge them.
"Agent Case, Agent Green," the stallion introduced himself and the mare. "Agent Fall, your presence is required by Agent Gamma immediately."
"I just got back into the city," Star Fall said. "I was going to go see the Professor first."
"Professor Shine is in a meeting with the Crown," Agent Green said. "Agent Gamma said to assure you that you will be able to see her this afternoon."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "And I bet Gamma had nothing to do with setting that meeting up, huh?"
The two agents regarded the Griffin with the studied wariness of ponies who knew they would lose a fight if they got into one, but were determined not to show fear anyways. "Agent Gamma's dealings with the Crown are irrelevant to the current situation," Agent Case said. "We've been sent to escort you, there's a car waiting out front."
"Rrrg! I haven't even had breakfast yet!" Star Fall steamed. "Fine. Let's go."
Star Fall stormed past the agents, Astrid shrugging and following after. When Dash tried to go, though, the agents blocked her path.
"What the hell, guys?" Dash said, narrowing her eyes. "Hey, Star! You're not gonna leave me here are you?"
"You are not part of our orders," Agent Green said. "Identify yourself."
"She's Firefly," Star Fall said from the hall. "She's with me, and she gets to come along."
The two agents looked at each other before Case turned to her. "She's on your authority, then," he said.
"Damn right," Star Fall grumbled. "Come on, Firefly," she said.
Dash took the opportunity to rush past the agents and catch up with Star Fall. "What the hay is going on?" She asked in Old Equestrian.
"Remember I said I was spy?" Star Fall said, Dash nodded. "Gamma is my boss. She wants to talk about world of night. About what I saw there. I was hoping to do it after speaking to teacher, but Gamma is tricky mare."
"So we just go talk to this Gamma pony, then we go see your teacher, right?" Dash asked, annoyed at the delay but also curious about Star Fall's secret-agent stuff.
"Hope so," Star Fall said, sighing. "But you will not talk to Gamma. I don't want you under her attention. Too many questions, no answers. Until we talk with teacher, you are secret."
"Cool," Dash said.
"Not cool. Serious. You can not let her know about you," Star Fall said, glaring at Dash. "Do not say anything. You are Firefly, hoofmaid to me. You be quiet and do as you are told."
"Jeeze, Star, I get it," Dash said, taken aback. "Don't worry, I can do this secret agent stuff."
"Just be careful."
"Hey, this is me," Dash said, posing for a moment. "Awesomest pony in Equestria, past or present. No way I'm going to let you down!"
Star Fall smiled and shook her head. "Okay. I believe you," she said. Yet she was worried, and it came through clearly in her less-than-perfect grasp of Old Equestrian. Dash had to wonder who this Gamma pony was, and why she inspired this intense a reaction in Star Fall. Whoever she was, Dash resolved to do exactly what Star Fall had asked, and stay out of it. No matter what.
-From the third section of Harmony Theory by Twilight Sparkle
Dash was busy staring out the window of the car as it rolled along the streets of the capital. Their quick flight in the night before had shown her a vista of lights that she had been too tired to really admire. In the day she could properly see the scope of the city. Like the one she had spotted at a distance when she first woke up in the future, this city was enormous and dotted with clusters of incredibly tall buildings. When they crested a hill it spread out before her all the way to the horizon. It was like it went on forever. She couldn't even guess the number of ponies that would be living here.
"How are you doing?" Star Fall asked in Old Equestrian. She was seated between Dash and Astrid; it was a tight fit but she bore it stoically.
"I'm cool," Dash said, glancing at the other pegasus before once more staring at the window. "You guys do cities big in the future."
"Pressures of economy and space," Star Fall said. "I did think the vehicle would be very 'future' for you, but you barely reacted."
Dash shrugged. "It's a small train with no tracks," she said. "I get that, Star. It's sorta cool. Could be cooler."
Star Fall gave a quiet laugh. "Okay, it is not that good. Later I can show you more impressive things."
"Lookin' forward to it," Dash said, flashing Star Fall a quick smile.
She watched the ponies go past. Even Star Fall could easily fly far faster than this car was rolling, but this once she was content to sit back and watch. There were thousands of ponies in the streets they passed, and other beings too. She spotted Zebras and Diamond Dogs in groups, and a rare solitary Griffin here and there. She also saw guards wearing the same sort of livery that the pegasus patrol the night before had been.
The car headed into the heart of the city, where the buildings towered a hundred stories or more into the air. Dash felt like they were going into a canyon of metal and glass as they were surrounded by those pony-made mountains. The number of ponies on the streets were even greater here, crowds lining either side in living rivers.
There were a lot of earth ponies she saw, and plenty of pegasi too. By far the least represented were unicorns, though they were by no means absent from the throngs of ponies. Almost everyone wore clothes. Some were simple, a vest or a dress like the ones she and Star Fall wore. Others were the kind of elaborate fare that Rarity had loved to create. The most elaborate of these getups were without question worn exclusively by the unicorns. Dash remembered Star Fall saying that unicorn nobility was a lot more important now, and she guessed this showed it.
"How did you sleep?" Star Fall asked, still in Old Equestian.
"What? Fine, I guess," Dash replied. She wondered at Star Fall's continued use of the old language. She supposed it was to keep others from listening to them, but with mundane topics like how she had slept Dash was pretty sure it was unnecessary.
"You were having night fears."
"You mean nightmares," Dash corrected her. Star Fall frowned but Dash waved her off. "Yeah, I know. Same word, don't know why. Anyway, I don't remember any nightmares. I just went to sleep and then woke up and you guys were at the door."
Star Fall nodded. "Astrid is a very good listener, even when asleep," she said. "Normally I put up magic wards, but no paper means no wards."
"You guys took that really seriously. Do you really get ambushed in hotel rooms all that often? 'Cause if you do, then this spy thing is totally even more cool than I thought."
Star Fall laughed again. "No. No ambushes. Still, we have to be careful. There is a Changeling looking for you, and I could be in danger also. Caution is good."
Dash didn't really have anything to say to that, so she kept quiet and looked back out at the city. The car hadn't caught much of her interest, but there were things she was seeing out there that were definitely making an impression. They passed a storefront showing boxes filled with moving pictures. Dash recognized them as something similar to the movies she knew from her own time, and the smooth crispness of the image and lack of a projector made her think that they were probably illusion magic captured in the box. She made a mental note to find out more about them so she could tell Twilight when she finally got back home. The studious unicorn would love hearing about future magic and the two of them could always use more excuses to hang out.
Another thing that caught her attention was all the bright, neon signs. She'd seen similar in Canterlot, but the sheer volume of them was overwhelming. The further they drove into the city the more there were, until it seemed like the walls of the buildings were painted in lights up to the third floor. Dash wished she had learned to read Solar as she had been learning to speak it. Not being able to put a context to all those flashing signs made them all the more overwhelming.
As if the world outside were a projection on a curtain that someone had suddenly pulled aside the tall buildings vanished from beside them, giving way to a wide, open space. The sudden sunlight made Dash pull back and squint even through the shading tint of the window. When her vision cleared enough to see she let out a low whistle and leaned up against the glass.
Before them, in what had to be the heart of the city, was a palace. It gleamed in the morning sun, its walls a pristine white that glowed against the darker background of the tall city buildings. Pointed domes of red and gold capped towers that soared majestically upward while stained-glass windows decorated every wall. It had nothing as tall or as imposing as the skyscrapers of the city, but surrounded by a few square miles of terraced garden it was far more grand.
"The Court of the Sun," Star Fall said, switching back to Solar. "The seat of Solar government, and the home of the Royal family."
"Are we heading there?" Dash asked, watching a flight of Griffins take off from one of the palace's towers.
"No. We're heading to there." Star Fall pointed a hoof towards the front of the car and one of the skyscrapers that lined the edge of the palace's gardens. "When we're done there we'll head to the University, which is on the other side of the Court.”
“That place looks awesome,” Dash said.
“Really?” Star Fall asked in Old Equestrian. “Skyscrapers and cars do not amaze you, but six hundred year old castle does?”
“Well, yeah. It’s a castle, Star. Castles are always cool,” Dash said, tearing her eyes away from the Court as they turned to head towards the building Star Fall had indicated. “Hey, what’s up with the language switching anyway? I get that you don’t want to have Agents Grim and Angry up there listening in to everything, but it’s not like it matters that they know I think the castle’s cool.”
“I do not want them thinking you don’t know about cars or other things not from your time. They are likely talking to Gamma right now. All we say will be heard by her. Until my teacher sees you...”
“I gotta stay on the down-low, right,” Dash said. “I don’t mind, I just feel kinda bad about leaving Astrid out of it, you know?”
“Hey, Astrid,” Star Fall said in Solar. “Do you feel left out of the conversation?”
“Yes, Fall,” Astrid deadpanned, not bothering to look away from the window. “I am absolutely hurt by not being included in your circle of dweebs. It makes me wish that I had spent my youth studying every nerdy language until my eyes melted instead of learning how to be an unstoppable badass. That’s how much I feel left out.”
“See, she is fine with it,” Star Fall said, grinning at Dash.
Rainbow couldn’t help but laugh. She was a hundred percent behind Astrid there, and under other circumstances would be the one delivering the sarcasm. The fact that she wasn’t was just the kind of thing that was making this trip to the future feel like an adventure, flipping situations on her and showing her things about herself and the world that she’d never dreamed possible. If only cutie marks hadn’t been a part of that.
The car drove into the underground parking lot of the building that housed the Royal Secret Service. Star Fall spent a few moments explaining to Dash what it was. Essentially it was a section of the Royal Guard that did all the sneaky spy-stuff that Dash had heard about, as well as basic undercover work and keeping watch for citizens who might make trouble for the Crown. It sounded absolutely cool to her, and she wondered at what kind of pony this Gamma was. Star Fall made it sound like she was high up in the service, maybe even in charge.
“Remember...” Star Fall warned as the car stopped and the agents opened the doors.
“Yeah, I got it, Star. Keep quiet, do as I’m told,” Dash said, sighing.
They got out of the car and the agents immediately escorted them deeper into the building. The halls were cramped and drab, with cheap laminate flooring that was heavily scuffed and tracks of lights that cast a harsh white light that made everything seem pale and stark. Doors were a uniform grey marked with letters and numbers in Solar that were almost, but not quite recognizable to her. It didn’t take more than a few turns and a couple staircases for Dash to realize that if she was left on her own in this building she would be hopelessly lost. There were ponies scattered throughout, some going from place to place with saddlebags full of files or other paraphernalia, others were obviously guards of some sort, carrying batons at their sides and watching every other pony with wary eyes. What was more, many doors required the agents to do something involving ID-tags and little gray boxes to open them.
Dash couldn’t help but be impressed. Even Canterlot Castle, with guards at every other door, hadn’t seemed as protected as this place. She figured it made sense, her Equestria hadn’t been in a real war for a long, long time, and with the Princesses in residence any sort of assault on the castle would have been foolhardy to the point of a farce. This place, though? It was expecting trouble from every quarter, and was designed to make life difficult for anyone not following their particular rules.
Finally they arrived at a small office foyer with a few hard-looking benches and a tired-looking unicorn mare sitting behind a desk and sifting though files. “Agent Fall and her escort here to see Agent Gamma,” said Agent Green said.
The secretary gave the group a long glance, and Dash didn’t see any of the bored disinterest she would have expected. Instead there was a hard professionalism to her gaze that reminded Dash of the guards she’d seen in the halls. “One moment,” the secretary said, her horn lighting up as she channeled a spell. Her lips moved and she cocked her head slightly as if listening to someone, but no sound escaped her. After a few moments of hurried and silent conversation the secretary’s horn went dark and she focused again on them. “Agent Gamma will be right out.”
It was barely a second later before the door to the inner office snapped open and a dark green unicorn mare with a black mane stepped out. The first thing that struck Dash was that she had the most intensely blue eyes she had ever seen on a pony. They weren’t bright, in fact they were a deep, dark blue, but they stood out so much it was like they were glowing. The second thing she noticed was that unlike almost every other pony she’d seen in the city, this one was mostly naked. Her sole scrap of clothing was a short black scarf with a red monogram around her neck, which wasn’t thick enough to keep Dash’s keen eyes from seeing that it was covering something up. Her lack of clothing left her Glyph on full display, the meaning practically assaulting Dash’s eyes as she looked at it. This had to be Gamma, her Talent was Intelligence.
“Agents Green and Case, well done,” Gamma said, her voice was resonant and strong, but there was a hint of a rasp to it. “You are released back to your usual duties. “ The two agents wasted no time and giving a curt nod and leaving. Gamma turned her gaze to Dash, and she could barely keep herself from stepping back under the intensity of that blue gaze. “Explain her, please.”
“She’s my hoofmaid, Firefly,” Star Fall said.
Gamma raised an eyebrow. “Is she? I was unaware that you had decided to embrace your position.”
“It’s a recent thing,” Star Fall said.
“Why did you bring her?”
“As my hoofmaid it’s her duty to accompany me wherever I go,” Star Fall said, meeting Gamma’s gaze and holding it. Dash could see her wings trembling. Star Fall wasn’t strong or confident enough to go up against that blue stare for long, but she was putting up a good fight.
“Yes,” Gamma said. It wasn’t a concession, it was a statement. “Shall I have Therese run a background check on her, or should we skip to the part where you stop bullshitting me?”
“Therese can run all the background checks she wants,” Star Fall said, rolling her eyes at the secretary who appeared to be taking no notice of the conversation at all. “Firefly’s off the grid, she won’t find anything.”
Gamma’s eyes narrowed. “Off the grid? You brought a pony with no verifiable history into the center of the Kingdom’s intelligence community? Why?”
“I trust her,” Star Fall said. “Completely.”
Without warning Gamma’s horn flashed a harsh blue and shot a bolt of energy at Dash. She didn’t even have time to react as it smacked into her, staggering her back a few steps. She flared her wings and dropped into a crouch as she glared at the unicorn. “What the hell was that for?”
Gamma watched Dash for a moment before looking back at Star Fall. “Not a Changeling, then,” she mused. “Fine. You will explain this, Agent Fall, but we have other things to discuss first. How much does she know?”
“Nothing important,” Star Fall said. “She’s got nothing to do with my mission, which is one of the reasons why I trust her so much. Astrid and I have been careful, she’s not a breach.”
“Nothing to do with it,” Gamma repeated dryly, intense eyes betraying nothing while seeming to speak volumes. “I suppose I will have to take your word for that. Fine, but since she knows nothing I will keep it that way. Both of you into my office. You,” she stared hard at Dash. “Take a seat.” Without another word she turned and strode into her office.
Dash unfolded from her crouch, pulling her wings in. She found herself actually wanting to like this Gamma pony. She had a real ‘hardcore spy’ vibe and that quick spellcasting had been awesome. If only those things hadn’t been directed at her she might have found herself admiring the green unicorn. As it was she was going to withhold judgement.
Star Fall stepped up to Dash and put a hoof on her shoulder. “We’ll be out soon,” she whispered in Old Equestrian. “Remember.”
“For the last freakin’ time, Star!” Dash sighed. “I get it! Just go talk to miss hair-trigger and we can get out of here and back to the important stuff, okay?”
Star Fall looked like she wanted to say more, but closed her mouth instead and nodded. Astrid gave Dash a wink as the two of them followed Gamma. The door shut in a burst of blue magic and Dash was left in the quiet company of Therese and her paperwork. She took a seat on the bench.
Dash looked around, but there was nothing else in the room. No pictures, no magazines, no potted plants to poke at. Only two doors, a bench, a desk and a pony reading over papers. There wasn’t even a window she could gaze out of while imagining that she was flying or doing something other than waiting in the most boring room she had ever been in. There wasn’t even a clock to let her know how much time was passing.
Dash sat quietly until it became uncomfortable. Then she twiddled her hooves for a bit, but that only ate up a small amount of time before it got tedious. She stretched out her wings and gave them an examination. The hard pink color the dye had made them actually didn’t look that bad, she decided. Not as good as her natural blue, of course, but not bad all the same. She briefly considered doing a bit of preening, but there wasn’t a garbage can to put any feathers she pulled out, and leaving them all over the room would probably be no good.
“So, uh, Therese?” Dash said. The secretary ignored her. “You work for Gamma, huh?” No response. “Do you have any, like, stuff I could read. Or, uh, stuff with pictures would be better, yeah. Do you have stuff with pictures I could look at?” Nothing. Dash waited for something, anything to change, but the subtle sounds of shuffling papers were all that broke the excruciating stillness of the room.
Dash could feel the sweat beginning to break out on her body. She shifted uncomfortably, pulling at her dress in a vain attempt to get herself to cool down. It was like the empty walls of the room were closing in on her. The air was stifling, and she had a sudden and unpleasant flashback to that dark and silent place where she had woken up in this future world.
She leapt to her hooves. “Bathroom!" she barked out. Therese finally looked up from her
papers, eyeing the pegasus warily. “Uh, I need to go to the bathroom. Where is it? The, uh, the bathroom, that is. Which I need to go to. Now.”
Therese pointed at the door to the hall. “To your right, then take your first left, then another left. Six doors down on your right,” she said.
“Cool, thanks. You just keep on, uh, keep doing what you’re doing,” Dash said, then practically leapt out the door.
The cramped hallway wasn’t much of improvement over the office, but it at least had a sense of direction. A hallway was a place where you went somewhere, that room was a place where you sat and did nothing until you died of boredom. Dash turned right and started walking, watching for the hallway she was supposed to go down to get to the washroom. She didn’t need to relieve herself, but it was as good a place as any to go and splashing some water on her face would do her a world of good.
Several turns later and Dash was lost. Part of the problem was the needlessly labyrinthine layout of the building. A larger part was that she couldn’t read Solar, and thus had no way of telling which of the doors were the washroom, or if any of the infrequent signs on the walls were pointing to it. They apparently didn’t use simple pictures for common things like restrooms in the future, which made it really difficult on any stray visitors from the past.
She was just about to break down and ask one of the wandering guards for directions when a burly brown pegasus stallion in a black and red jumpsuit came around the corner and started stomping towards her. “You!" he growled at her.
“Uh, me?” Dash said, pointing a hoof at herself.
“Yeah you! Are you Firefly?" he snapped loudly enough for Dash to flinch back.
“Uh, yeah?”
“That sounded uncertain! Do you not know who you are?" he barked, stopping uncomfortably close to her.
“ No, uh, I totally know who I am,” Dash said, wondering what the hell was going on. “I’m Firefly. Yup, that’s me.”
“Then what the hell are you doing wandering around the halls like a foal off her mommie’s apron strings for the first time?” Dash actually felt spittle land on her as he shouted from only a couple inches away.
“I got lost,” she said, squaring herself. She didn’t know why he was yelling at her, but no one could spit on her and get away without a fight.
“You got lost,” he repeated in a high-pitched insulting voice. “You couldn’t follow the signs? Can’t you read?”
“Uh...”
“I don’t care!" he snarled before she could come up with a sufficient reason for why she wasn’t reading the signs that didn’t make her sound like an idiot. “I’ve got you now, so you’re not going to have any excuse when you fail!”
“Fail?” Dash frowned.
“Get a move on! You’re keeping a whole lot of important people waiting, and let me tell you they do not like being kept waiting!” He stepped behind her and gave her a shove.
“Hey! What’s the big deal?” Dash snapped back at him, refusing to move.
“The big deal is you are wasting my time!" he roared. “Now, are you gonna come and take your test like a mare, or am I going to have to get security to drag your ass down to the Maul!”
Dash wanted to buck him in the face, but Star Fall’s insistent words came back to her. Be quiet and do as you are told, she had said, and Dash had promised not to let her down. Causing a scene here would be letting Star Fall down, and Rainbow Dash never left a friend hanging. “Yeah, fine,” she said. “Point the way and I’ll take whatever test you want.”
“You just keep up that attitude, pigeon,” the Stallion said with a wicked grin. “Let’s see if you’re cooing the same tune once they’re done with you.”
Dash held herself back from replying with something snappy. She had a feeling that things were about to go crazy, and from the books she’d read protesting too loudly in a situation like this only made it worse. So she’d follow along and see what was up before she started shouting back. With a few shoves and more than a few insults tossed her way the stallion led her deeper into the building. She tried to keep track of the turns, doors and staircases they used, but once again the building defeated her.
Finally they came out in a huge room, easily large enough to fit most of ponyville into it with a ceiling so high that there were even small, thin clouds drifting in the upper reaches. Dash stopped in her tracks and goggled. There was no way a room this big had been attached to the building she’d seen above ground. Had they gone that far under the earth? Pegasi were usually good at telling when elevation changed by feeling the air pressure with their wings, but she had felt none of that.
The room was set up as an obstacle course. It actually looked a lot like the Royal Guard or Wonderbolt training camps she’d seen pictures of. There were ground-based obstacles and hoops raised on long poles for aerial stunts. Some parts of the course had hazards that would drop on or swing into a careless pony. Several of the hazards gleamed with wicked sharpness and she was sure that more than one of them had rusty stains that looked a lot like blood.
There were dozens of balconies ringing the walls at various heights, all of which had at least one pony on them, usually more. Dash also spotted several Griffins crouched back in the higher balconies. On the ground there were even more ponies, some obviously working the machinery of the course, others seemed to have no purpose at all, but stood patiently waiting. To the side, on a raised stage, stood a dozen ponies in the red-gold uniforms Dash was quickly coming to associate with the local version of the Royal Guard. Almost all of them were looking right at her.
“What the hay?” she breathed.
“What was that?” the Stallion barked at her.
“Uh, where are we?” Dash asked.
“The Maul, pigeon,” he sneered. “And your last chance to prove you’re worth it to the Service.”
“Okay, yeah, I think there’s been a mistake here,” Dash said, deciding that now was probably the point where speaking up wouldn’t make anything worse.
“Damn right there has been,” he snorted. “I don’t know who approved this, but if they thought you had even one tenth of what it takes to finish this course they made one hell of a mistake.”
Dash’s mouth hung open for a moment as she processed that statement. Her initial intention to explain the obvious mistaken identity was immediately overridden. “Whoa, wait a minute, you think I can’t do this?”
“I know you can’t, pigeon,” he said. “A little pink girl like you? No way.”
“I totally can!” Dash said, puffing out her chest. “I’m Rai... Firefly! I can do this course with my eyes closed, and in half the time of the next-best guy!”
“Sure you can,” he said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Whatever. I’ve done my job and got you here. You wanna still take the course? Fine, your humiliation.”
“I’ll show you humiliation!” Dash growled, spreading her wings to take off even as a part of her that wasn’t focused on a new challenge warned her that this was just the sort of ‘everything going crazy’ stuff she’d been worried about a few minutes ago. She brushed that part aside. It was just an obstacle course. A scary-looking one, but nothing she hadn’t done a zillion times before. She’d get through this in a minute, tops, and then explain to the big brown idiot that he’d gotten the wrong mare to begin with and hopefully be back in the office before Star Fall and Astrid were done.
Actually, putting it that way made this sound a whole lot better than slowly killing herself with boredom. Her flying for the past few days had been simple for-travel stuff, nothing really fancy save for a few routines she could do without either of her companions getting nervous about being spotted. This was a chance to really flex her wings and show off to some jerk who didn’t think she could do it at the same time.
A lazy grin spread across Dash’s face. This was going to be fun.
“You really want to try?” he snorted, pointing with a hoof. “Fine, start line’s over there, tell them you’re ready and we can all watch you fail.”
“Oh, you’ll be watching all right,” Dash said, flapping her way down to the start line that he had indicated. “That is, if your eyes can keep up!” The ponies around her just watched, expressions professionally neutral as she took a ready position.
“Has the course been explained to you?” one of the unicorns asked.
“Sure, whatever,” Dash said, eager to start. The hazards were dangerous-looking, but the actual layout of the course was fairly simple. She could follow the route of it easily and it didn’t look like there were any weird twists or double-backs required.
“You understand that any resulting injury will not be...”
“I said I got it, okay?” Dash waved him off. “Let’s just get going!”
“Very well. Your time will begin at the flash,” he said, lighting up his horn so that it pulsed in increasing intensity. “Good luck, you’re going to need it.”
Dash chuckled and focused, feeling the burning anticipation of a race build in her. The pulses from the unicorn grew steadily brighter, then flashed with a sudden intensity that would have blinded her if she had been looking directly at it. She hadn’t been, and she took off. She skimmed the ground as she rushed towards the first obstacle, which was a series of poles she had to zig-zag through. Basic stuff, the kind of thing she did as a warm up when training. She started going through them, almost laughing at how hilariously easy this was going to be.
Then the ponies on the sidelines began shooting at her.
“Your mission was successful,” Gamma said the moment the door slammed shut. It hadn’t been a question.
“Mostly,” Star Fall said, taking a seat in front of Gamma’s desk. Gamma’s inner office was much like her outer one: blank. No pictures, no personal items, just what was needed for work. There was a tingle of magic that covered everything, though, and it led Star Fall to believe that the starkness of the office was for the benefit of visitors. Gamma wasn’t a Magic Talent, but she was still more skilled than most unicorns in a wide array of spells, including the illusions that would allow the office to appear considerably different when Gamma was alone. “We still don’t have any idea what he was digging for, but they definitely found something.”
“Why didn’t you get a look at what they unearthed?” Gamma asked, taking her seat behind her desk.
“There was no chance to. I got close, but then they started packing up and I had to leave. Astrid and I hopped the mountains into the Verge, but when they caravanned past there was nothing new on them. Whatever they took out of the ground has to be small enough to hide.”
“And important enough for Cash himself to oversee getting it,” Gamma mused. “Fine. What of the rest?”
“He’s definitely not working with the Republic’s open approval,” Star Fall answered. “He even went through the trouble of putting all his permits under James Bay’s name, but they were still rejected. I know he’s got a senator or two in his pocket, but they obviously don’t have the pull to let him act with impunity.”
“He’s beefed up security too,” Astrid spoke up. “The site had some real bruisers, Strength Talents and other heavy hitters. They were answering to the asskicker, too. If she had a hoof in recruiting them they’ll be top of the line, probably ex-military.”
“Did you engage them?”
Astrid snorted. “No way. I could handle three of them, maybe four, but there were a dozen of them around the site, and with their boss around I’d get my furry ass handed to me faster than you can light up your horn.”
“Then how did Agent Fall get close, as she said?” Gamma asked.
“I went in alone,” Star Fall said. Both she and Astrid cringed at the way Gamma quirked an eyebrow at that statement. “It was the only way.”
“You risked exposing yourself, and our entire investigation,” Gamma said, her voice as level and calm as possible, and all the more scary for it. “That is a grave risk to take. I do hope it was worth it.”
“Yeah, it kinda was,” Star Fall said. “I got into Cash’s personal tent. I found a lot in there that we are going to need to know.”
Gamma leaned forward, resting her forehooves on her desk and fixing Star Fall with an intense stare. “Tell me.”
“I need a pen, some paper, and a map of the Kingdom.” Gamma’s horn burst into a blue glow and compartments were opened in her desk and in the walls as the unicorn gathered the requested materials. “Okay, first thing, I’m going to write a list of names I found. These might be the names of ponies who may be working for Cash, and might also be working for our government.”
“That’s a lot of ‘may’s and ‘might’s in there, Fall,” Astrid said.
“No, that’s good,” Gamma interjected. “He’s laid traps like this before. Proceed.”
Star Fall wrote out the names, taking her time to be absolutely sure she was remembering them right. She wasn’t eidetic like Gamma, or Professor Shine, but she’d learned to compensate in order to use her magic and it meant that when she memorized something it would stick. She hadn’t had much time to commit all she had seen in Cash’s tent to perfect recall, though, so she had to take her time reconstructing it from the bits she had managed to capture. In the end she’d filled three sheets with names and various other notes that she’d gotten. Then she turned to the map.
“This is probably the most important thing I found,” she said, scribbling a few marks on the map. “I think whatever he found there was only the beginning. I think he’s come to the Kingdom because the next thing on his list is in one of these four places.” She poked a hoof at the marks she had made while she identified each one. “This one’s the Stalliongrad excavation. This is where we think the Crystal Kingdom had its capital, and we already know he’s got crews digging there. This one’s in the middle of nowhere, but I think he’s been doing secret digging there just like he was outside of Orion City. The last one I already know.” She pointed to the tilted square she had used to mark a place in the mountains to the west of the capital. “This is a Dragon’s lair. The Professor sent me to study with him about five years ago. It’s full of old stuff, pre-Schism relics and statues that he carved himself.”
“I know the one,” Gamma said. “I have one of his pieces at home. Exquisite work. He’s pre-Schism himself, too. Very powerful.”
“He taught me a lot of history, and how to speak Old Equestrian,” Star Fall said. Astrid gave her a look, but she ignored it, focusing on the map instead. “After I talk to the Professor, I’m going to arrange a trip to go out and see him. He might have some idea of what Cash is looking for if Cash thinks he has it. He might also be in danger, and he needs to know that.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Gamma said.
“Look, he’s a friend, and if I have to disobey orders...”
“Agent Fall, if I didn’t want you to help the Dragon you wouldn’t be able to,” Gamma said. There was no heat or anger in her voice, only cold certainty. “I do want you to help the Dragon, though, so we should not have a problem. However, instead of allowing you to go to him to warn of a possible danger, I think it will be far more expedient to have him, and his hoard, brought to us where we can protect both more effectively. Wouldn’t you agree?” Star Fall shut her mouth and nodded. “Good. Now, What else of Cash have you learned?”
“Just that he wasn’t with his crew when they crossed the Everstorm,” Star Fall answered. “Neither were his usual companions, which is odd. Usually he leaves Bay to oversee them at least.”
“I see,” Gamma said, leaning back into her chair and folding her hooves in front of her. “Then you don’t know that Bay is dead.”
“What?” Star Fall and Astrid asked in unison.
“James Bay was found dead in an empty room at the bottom of a long hole,” Gamma said. “The same hole you were watching him help dig.”
“He was alive when they started packing up,” Star Fall said, frowning as she thought over the implications of this revelation. “I saw him and Cash go into the excavation together before I left.”
“Apparantly he never came back out,” Gamma said. “The Orion police were tipped off about Cash’s illegal excavation. After an ... incident involving a pair of pegasus officers sent to investigate, one of their best detectives went out and made the discovery himself.”
“How did he die?” Astrid wondered aloud.
“I don’t know,” Gamma admitted, frowning as if it pained her. “My source wasn’t able to get the autopsy report to me. It was violent, however, and apparently quite gruesome.”
“Could they have found something that did that to him?” Star Fall asked. “A creature?”
“Perhaps, but that’s needless speculation,” Gamma pointed out. “The fact that Bay is dead, even the manner of his death, do not shed any light on what was in the chamber they found. It does, however, throw all our carefully constructed behaviour models into chaos. Did Cash kill Bay, his most loyal lieutenant and oldest friend? If so, why? Did what they find kill him, and if so why didn’t it kill any others? Was there a fourth party involved, not affiliated with us nor Cash nor the Republic’s intelligence forces? If so, who, and why have they waited until now to act?” Gamma shook her head. “I know it’s giving them headaches on the other side of the Storm, and I’ve got some of our best minds working scenarios right now so that we’ve at least done some preparation.”
“If we catch him at one of these sites, we’ll be able to ask him directly what went on,” Star Fall said.
“Yes," Gamma said, giving Star Fall a short nod. "Which is why I’m very glad you did find this information. While the risk you took was unacceptable, I am forced to concede that it was, perhaps, warranted." Her gaze turned sly. "I believe a reward is in order. Would you like your father to receive a promotion?”
“I...” Star Fall hesitated and swallowed hard. When she had first been adopted by Twinkle Shine she’d tried to use her new influence to improve her family’s lot in life. Her parents, however, had refused her every effort. They stubbornly insisted on making their way on their own with the hardheaded pride that only the chronically impoverished could afford. They weren’t serfs to be kept like pets by a noble, they had told her, they were free ponies who made their own way, even if that way left them with no savings and ever increasing bills as they aged. They were happy to see her succeed, of course, but saw all but the lightest assistance as impinging on their hard-fought-for independence. What Gamma was offering was a chance to help them out, and since it would be Gamma’s influence that did it there would never be any indication that such a promotion was anything but absolutely legitimate and won through skill and effort.
This was the one thing she really hated about working for Gamma.
“No,” she said. “If there’s any reward it should be some vacation time for Astrid. She’s been with me non-stop for over a year now.”
“Hey, Fall, come on,” Astrid protested. “I don’t need any vacation. It’s not like watching you draw spooky pictures is hard.”
“When’s the last time you spent time with your Clan?” Star Fall asked. “When’s the last time you tried to nest?”
Astrid shook her head in disgust. “Low blow, Fall.”
“While I would like to grant that request,” Gamma said before Star Fall could reply. “I’m not the one you would have to ask. Astrid was assigned to you by the King, Agent Fall, and while my opinion has some sway with him, he would be much more likely to grant such a request if it came from you personally.”
Star Fall cringed. “Right. Then how about you just tell me why you arranged for Professor Shine to be ‘unavailable’ this morning?”
“I didn’t,” Gamma said. She took in the disbelieving looks she was getting with a calm indifference before continuing. “I am not prevaricating. I sincerely did not have a hoof in the Professor’s being called to council with the Crown today. In fact, if I had not decided learning what you found out was more important, I would be there as well.”
Star Fall deflated a bit at that. “Oh. What happened?”
“A juvenile Dragon has gone missing. They think he went into his hoarding phase and slipped the watch to start collecting.”
Star Fall sucked in a hissing breath and winced at that. “Ouch, that’s one set of minders who are getting fired.”
“Indeed, they will be lucky if they are not charged with negligence and thrown in jail,” Gamma said. “This matter of course took priority over the Professor’s classes. I merely took advantage of it to speak with you sooner. Well that I did, otherwise I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to meet the young miss Firefly. Am I right?”
Star Fall winced again. “Yes,” she admitted, at this point there was no use in lying to someone who could pick out tells from far better actors than Star Fall would ever be. “I wasn’t even going to tell you about her.”
Gamma nodded. Not in the least surprised. “Good. Now that I know about her anyway. Let’s all have a nice chat and get to know each other.” She stood up from her desk and strode over to the door.
“What the hell, Fall?” Astrid hissed as quietly as she could while Gamma passed. “If I wanted to start another fucking nest I’d fucking tell you!”
“I know! I’m sorry,” Star Fall whispered back. “It’s just, I gave up a chance to help my family, the first thing that came to mind was giving you a chance to start one. All that talk about genetics last night got me thinking about it, and I just ... well, I’m sorry.”
“Think next time, Fall,” Astrid sighed. “You’re usually so damn good at it, why can’t you do it around Gamma?”
“She’s smarter than me!” Star Fall protested. “It makes me nervous.”
“Ahem!” Gamma said, catching their attention. “If you two are done, I’d like to ask your new companion some questions.” She opened the door, only to find the outer office empty save for her secretary. “Therese, where is the pink one?”
“Using the facilities,” Therese replied, looking up from her papers only for a moment. “She’s been a while though. I think she got lost.”
“Well, no alarm has gone up,” Gamma mused. “I suppose she hasn’t gone too far.” She stepped across the foyer and opened the outer door, only to be assaulted with noise as ponies rushed by in the hallway. The sound of rapidly trotting hooves echoed through the hall, accompanied by the babble of many ponies talking excitedly all at once. “Excuse me!” Gamma called out, one of them stopped. “What’s causing the excitement?”
“There’s a pony taking the Maul!” he said, bouncing on his hooves. “They say she’s winning!”
“Oh? Now that’s interesting,” Gamma looked back at Star Fall and Astrid as the stallion she had stopped took the opportunity to keep going. “I definitely want to see this,” she said with a small smile. “Don’t you?”
“Winning the Maul? Isn’t that impossible?” Astrid asked incredulously.
“Oh no,” Star Fall breathed, immediately knowing exactly what was going on.
Astrid’s eyes widened as her own train of thought quickly caught up with Star Fall’s. She shared a worried look with her pegasus friend. “Oh,” she said. “Yeah. That’ll be a problem.”
“Come along now,” Gamma said, turning back to the hallway. “I’ve got a theory I’m testing, and I’d like to hear your opinions on it.”
They joined the crowd making its way down to the massive subterranean chamber that was used for special training and tests, such as the Maul. When they got there the observation area was already packed full, and what they saw made Star Fall’s jaw drop.
Rainbow Dash dodged to the side, the enchanted bullets sending up little puffs of dirt as they impacted the ground behind her. She didn’t even have time to get out a protesting yell before she had to duck under another barrage of projectiles. The ponies lining this part of the course had hefted strange tube-devices to their sides, the shape of them reminding her of the dart-thrower that had been used against her just before she had met Star Fall. These weren’t shooting darts, though, and she had the feeling that getting hit with one would result in more than embarrassing unconsciousness.
An armored earth pony leapt out at her, forcing her to vault into the air to get over him. Immediately a pair of nets were thrown at her, trying to tangle in her wings. She dove, hitting the pony who had tried to tackle her and using him as a springboard to launch herself forward again. The air buzzed as more projectiles barely missed her.
Dash sucked in a heavy breath and picked up her pace, barely staying ahead of a blast of fire launched from a unicorn. This was insane! What kind of madmare would design an obstacle course where ponies were trying to kill you? She had to dart back and forth so quickly that the world took on a shuddering, seizure-like quality in her vision. She was forced to abandon normal flight procedure and move completely by gut instinct.
Which was fine, really. She did her best flying by gut instinct.
Her magic poured through her, enhancing her senses to deal with the incredible speed and precision with which she moved, lending strength to her muscles and decreasing her reaction time to almost nothing. This was the power of a pegasus, just as strength and resilience were an earth pony's, and the manipulation of matter and energy by thought alone was a unicorn's. The world slowed down, coming to a moment of calm as she made the choice between quitting the course and protecting herself, or continuing on and risking her life.
As time sped back up Dash's grin was as fierce as a hurricane. There was no way she was backing down.
She hit the ground running, ducking under a blast of small pellets that peppered the air above her. Her wings flared out, catching the air and pulling her to a sudden stop just in time to avoid a huge guillotine that cut across her path. The moment it was out of her way she was past it, dodging a trio of javelins thrown at her as she rushed towards the launching point that would take her into the first air-based leg of the course.
A sheet of fire erupted in front of the first ring she was supposed to fly through, covering it completely. She nearly flinched away, but something about the way the air felt on her wings made her decide to fly right through it. She plunged into the flames and felt their searing heat, but emerged from the other side unscathed, the phantom pain disappearing instantly. Just as she was congratulating herself on recognizing the illusory flame, a very real fireball burst in front of her, forcing her to swerve around it.
The fireball had only been cover for the approach of a trio of pegasi. Dash was forced onto the defensive as they assailed her. Their fighting style was something she'd never seen before, which made sense considering where and when she was. Still, while they were very good she was a dozen times faster than them, and the disparity in power showed. Even three on one she was untouchable, dodging blows and making insanely difficult maneuvers as she kept the pegasi between her and the charged unicorn horns below.
Eventually, once they realized that they couldn't hit her, the pegasi withdrew in unison, letting the unicorns have a clear shot. Dash abandoned the course for a minute, zipping all the way up to the high ceiling of the room. She eyed the thin indoor clouds with trepidation, but decided that they would do in a pinch. With speed that left a pink-blue trail behind as she moved, Dash zig-zagged across the ceiling, avoiding spells while also surreptitiously herding the small clouds into one area. She drew in the moisture from the air, adding it to the clouds until they gained volume and solidity. Once she decided there were enough gathered she looped around them, once, twice, three times until they congealed into a single, thicker mass.
Dash looped around to the top of her makeshift cloud and shoved. It hurtled down towards the group of unicorns that had been targeting her. Dash laughed as a few of them ducked or ran as if the cloud could actually hurt them. There was very little substance to the cloud, and while she could have maybe kicked one lighting bolt out of it, it would have been weak and no threat to anything bigger than a mouse. As it was, it did what it was supposed to do, which was break apart and spread out well before it reached the ground.
With an obscuring mist in the way Dash launched herself at the next part of the course, diving through a hoop and curling around to come at the next obstacle. Startlingly loud cracks rang out as the ponies with the tube-things continued firing, half aiming at Dash and half firing blindly. Dash ignored them unless they got too close to hitting her, intent on beating this next portion of the course and getting back in the air.
A field of razor-wire strung over a patch of loose dirt was her next challenge. She'd seen stuff like that before, she was supposed to crouch down and crawl through it. Flying over would be cheating, and might disqualify her. Dash used her wings for a lot, but unlike what a certain orange farmer might think she never used them for outright cheating. Still, if she tried to crawl she'd be set upon in moments by the burly Earth Ponies who were even now rushing to intercept her. So she resolved not to crawl.
Dash tucked into a somersault that took her to the razor-wire field just ahead of one of the charging ponies, then tucked her wings close, threw her hooves out to stretch herself into as straight of a line as she could, and rolled sideways into the dirt. The wire was still close enough to the ground that it caught at her mane, but none of it touched her as she rolled as fast as she could through the dirt. A hoof caught one of the poles holding the wire up, but she gritted her teeth through the pain and kept going. She burst from the other side of the field in a shower of dirt as she spread her wings and launched herself into the air, barely avoiding another blast of pellets that scarred the ground where she had been.
A wide net meant to be climbed was next up, with another launching point for the next aerial section at its top. She dropped back to the ground and snapped her wings closed, leaping onto the rope ladder and climbing for all she was worth. Climbing rope ladders, it turned out, was hard. What made it even harder was that the unicorns who had a clear view just would not stop chucking things at her. She was forced to twist and contort herself in a dozen very uncomfortable ways in order to dodge the projectiles thrown at her, some of which cut into the ropes and made it even harder to climb.
Finally reaching the top, she took to the air. She didn't know how much time had passed, but she was fairly certain it was more than a few minutes since she started. The fight with the pegasi and putting the obscuring cloud together had taken a while. She was breathing heavily and while she was sure she could go for a lot longer, the exertion was reminder her that her wings had been broken only a little over a week ago. As much as she hated to admit it, she wasn't back in top shape, and this was putting more of a strain on her than she liked.
She flew straight towards the next hoop, this one sticking straight out of the wall near the ceiling, barely paying attention as she mentally gauged how much more her body could handle. This lack of focus nearly killed her as a large shape dropped out of the sky, sharp raptor's talons flashing. Dash barely pulled back in time, but still received a trio of scrapes down her belly from a strike that could very easily have disemboweled her.
She wheeled to track the Griffin that had attacked her as it circled around, falcon eyes latching onto her as it was joined by three others. "Four against one?" Dash whined. "Aw, man, this is totally not cool." If they were anywhere near decent flyers the four of them could overwhelm her easily. From the way they were moving in the air, they were better than decent. While they couldn't match her speed, in a confined space like this room she was at a huge disadvantage.
A sudden thought brought a smile to her face. The cloud-mist was dissipating, but there was enough of it left that some of the ground forces still didn't have a good view, that included some of the pyrokinetic unicorns.
Dash flew straight into the formation of Griffins. They reacted like the war-trained soldiers they were, twisting to bring their talons to the fore and slowing while maintaining formation instead of scattering like pegasi would. Dash pushed out more speed, banking sharply in a pair of ninety-degree turns before tapping the lead Griffin sharply on the beak and diving towards the ground. The Griffin, surprised and angered, followed, his comrades dropping with him in pursuit.
Dash deliberately slowed her descent, letting the Griffins get within a feather of catching her. She aimed for a still-substantial patch of cloud just above a group of unicorns and turned so that her hooves were leading. With a feeling like she had just landed in hip-deep mud she hit the cloud. She tucked in one leg and rolled along its surface, getting out of the way as the unicorns below fired their combat magics up, and the Griffins hit the cloud and found it much less substantial than their quarry had.
The explosion of the fireball spells was still close enough to singe Dash's hair and send her tumbling off the edge of the cloud, but she caught herself with her wings and soared up. She knew she had to keep moving, but she couldn't stop herself from looking back at the damage she had just done. To her relief, all of the Griffins were alive. Three of them sprawled on the ground, nursing broken bones and burns, but none of them looked seriously injured and there were already unicorns carrying what looked like medical supplies rushing over to them. The last of the Griffins seemed to have escaped injury altogether, and was even now fixing on her position and flapping hard to catch up to her.
Dash grinned and threw that Griffin a quick salute before turning and rushing towards her goal. More pegasi were leaping from the balconies to harass her, and with the cloud cover almost completely gone the unicorns on the ground were firing off more and more spells that forced her to dodge in increasingly quick and complex ways. She relished it, tasting the adrenaline and demanding more. She could hear that voice in the back of her head, the one that pushed her on to greatness. It was giving her the pep-talk of a lifetime now, and she was eating up everything it had to say.
Rainbow Dash looked at all the forces that were arrayed against her, and smiled. "I'm Rainbow Dash," she whispered into the wind of her own wings, narrowing her eyes in a challenge to the world. "I'm the fastest pegasus in Equestria, past, present or future. You think you got what it takes to stop me? Bring it on!"
***
“Fascinating,” Gamma said, watching as Dash twisted through the air, avoiding projectiles and dodging attackers with a grace and speed that left trails of blue and pink hanging in the air. “Only one more test, I think.” She waved a hoof to one of the several ponies responsible for controlling the Maul, who trotted over. “Use the guided missiles, Sunlance class.”
“Ma’am?” the pony said. “Those are...”
“What I ordered you to use,” Gamma interrupted, fixing him with her gaze. “Is there a problem?” He gulped and shook his head before galloping off to relay her instructions.
“Sunlance?” Astrid said. “Those’re hunter-killers. Even with a training warhead they’ll kill a pony if they explode close enough.”
“Gamma!” Star Fall said, hopping in front of the spy. “What are you doing?”
“I told you, I’m testing a theory,” Gamma said, then looked back to the action as the ponies pursuing Dash dropped away and a trio of brilliant magic-infused missiles launched from the ground straight towards Dash.
“You’ll kill her!” Star Fall screamed.
“Will I?” Gamma asked, not taking her eyes off the pink-blue blur that was frantically trying to evade the missiles that were quickly closing in on her. “I don’t think I will. I think I won’t even come close. Keep your mouth open, Agent Fall, it will help.”
“Help with wha...” Star Fall didn’t get to finish as Dash broke the sound barrier. The shockwave pounded through the room, tossing flying pegasi aside and shattering lights and windows. More than a few ears bled from ruptured eardrums and the missiles were completely thrown off, exploding in small puffs of fire as their safety measures kicked in. Star Fall fell to the ground, clutching at the sides of her head. Most non-Earth Ponies did the same. Astrid stiffened and snarled at the pain, but refused to give in to it. Gamma didn’t even flinch as blood began to drip out of her left ear, a smile spreading across her face.
With the entire test crew in disarray Dash blasted through the remaining course in a few seconds, her etherealized trail showing rainbow colors through the pink and blue. With a final flourish and a looping victory circuit around the massive room she dropped into a hard landing right in front of the brown pegasus who had dragged her down there. “Who’s humiliated now, huh?” she crowed. “Oh yeah! I’m the best! Who’s up for a hoof-bump!” She raised her hoof, grinning widely, but was met only with disbelieving stares. “Uh, anyone? Anyone at all? Come on, don’t leave me hangin’ here!”
“I’ll take that offer,” Gamma said.
Dash turned to her as the crowd opened up, and her grin fell away. “Oh crap,” she said, noticing the very angry Star Fall glaring at her from Gamma’s side. “Uh. This totally wasn’t my fault.”
“Of course not,” Gamma said, then turned to the crowd. “Thank you all for attending!” she called out, her horn glowing as she enhanced her voice to carry across the whole room. “The demonstration today has been a wonderful success, and I hope to be employing the spells used to empower our test agent here in the field as soon as possible. Those of you who can hear, please relate this to everyone else, you are not to speak of what you saw today. You all know the secrecy drill. Please return to your desks or stations and try to contain your excitement. If anyone who wasn’t here asks, just tell them the Lunatics won’t know what hit them!”
A ragged cheer went up from the ponies who’s ears weren’t filled with a loud ringing. A chaos of shuffling ponies ensued as everyone tried to vacate the Maul chamber in one big rush. Gamma, Astrid and Star Fall made their way over to where Dash was standing and looking solidly at the ground.
“Why did you do this?” Star Fall asked in Old Equestrian.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think it’d be a big deal,” Dash said.
Star Fall frowned, then shook her head. “I need healing,” she said.
Gamma waved over one of the many medical unicorns who were circulating through the crowd, he quickly applied a healing spell to Star Fall, alleviating the pain in her ears and allowing her some of her hearing back. Astrid refused a similar spell, saying that she was okay. Gamma allowed herself to take a minor healing spell before sending the unicorn off to tend to more ponies.
“Now, time for that talk,” she said, her horn lighting up in a weak privacy spell that would keep them from being casually overheard.
“Look, I can explain about this whole test thing,” Dash said quickly.
“No need,” Gamma said. “I think Agent Fall already knows what happened.”
“You set this up,” Star Fall accused, glaring at Gamma. “How? Why?”
“Wait, set this up?” Dash asked.
Gamma ignored her, opting to answer Star Fall. “How is easy, I made a few calls. You know how much pull I have, putting this together in half an hour was difficult, but not beyond my means. As to why? I told you twice now, I was testing a theory.”
“What theory?” Star Fall asked, pushing her anger to the side.
“I will answer that by asking a question,” she turned to Dash. “Did you kill James Bay?”
Dash blinked, taken aback. “Who? What? I’ve never killed anyone!”
Gamma nodded. “I didn’t think so. For all her faults as an operative, Agent Fall is a very good judge of character, and she trusted you implicitly. Yet you were there close to when he died.”
“Close to...” Dash trailed off, another flashback to the darkness, the feel of a pony’s blood beneath her hooves. She swallowed hard. “The guy in the tunnel. That’s who you’re talking about, isn’t it?”
“Tunnel?” Star Fall said. “You were in the tunnel? You were there when Bay died?”
Dash shook her head. “Look, I don’t know this Bay guy, alright? But, Star, when I... when I woke up here I was in a dark room, like pitch black, and there was this dead pony there. I ran, got into some trouble right afterwards, then you found me. It kinda slipped my mind. Sorry, I should have told you earlier.”
Star Fall opened her mouth, but no sound came out as she tried to think about what all this meant. She turned to Gamma. “How did you know that?”
“Remember when I said there was an ‘incident’ when the Orion police sent officers to investigate the site?” Gamma asked, then gestured to Dash. “She is that incident. She attacked the officers, beat them handily, and then retreated over the mountains into the Verge. So you were wrong when you said she had nothing to do with your mission. In fact, she has everything to do with it.”
“Whoa, those guys were cops?” Dash said. “I mean, well, I guess I kinda figured, but I didn’t attack them, they attacked me! Just started swinging with their batons after I tried to talk to them. I mean, I didn’t speak the language or anything, but...”
“Dash,” Star Fall said, then winced hard as Gamma’s eyebrow went up. “Firefly, don’t talk. You can explain later, I just want to hear what Gamma’s figured out before we start telling her everything else.”
“A wise desire,” Gamma said. “And one I’m quite willing to fulfill. The police report I gained on the incident had several very fanciful powers attributed to the mare who so easily trounced two of Orion City’s finest. Incredible resilience, perfect aerial maneuverability, etherealization, cloudwalking, and, my favourite, supersonic speed. The report concluded that a cabal of unicorns was empowering this mare, and why not? A single pony capable of all those feats together was impossible. I put the report aside and focused on Bay’s death and the chaos it made of our plans until I got word that you were back in the Kingdom, nearly a week overdue. Then the pieces started coming together. First Astrid goes into town and buys supplies, as well as a pair of dresses. Strange, but not knowing the reason for your delay it could mean anything. Then I get a report of you and an unknown mare coming into town, with said mare departing suddenly and leaving a very visible etherealization. That’s when I started to take notice. When I found you were in the capital, I sent for you this morning because I wanted to know for certain whether my suspicions were true.”
She grinned at Dash, who stepped back from the intensity of the look. “And you did not disappoint! When Agent Case reported that you were confrontational, I decided to risk that you could be goaded into a challenge, so I set up the best challenge I could for someone with the skill set I was hoping you had. I put this and two other backup plans together just so I could confirm that you were, indeed, the mare that the OCPD encountered. Right now? The resemblance is startling. The dye job is good, very unlike the description I have of you. But if I tore off that dress, what kind of Glyph would I find? I think it would be a cloud with a tri-colored lightning bolt shooting out of it. Shall I check my hypothesis?”
“No,” Star Fall groaned. “You’ve made your point.”
“Have I?” Gamma asked, turning to Star Fall. “I don’t really think I have. You see, I’m not quite done being clever. You chose to hide something from me, Agent Fall, an act that could potentially have a disastrous effect on our national security. I am going to hammer home the point that you do not do that.” She spun back to Dash. “You were in that tunnel, but you didn’t know who Bay was and denied killing him. I believe you, you don’t seem to have the wherewithal to lie well. Agent Fall didn’t know you were in the tunnel, and she also lacks the capacity for true deception. So, from these premises and the information contained in all your statements to each other I can surmise a few things:
“First, you are ignorant of the world, somehow. Unfamiliar with both the Republics and the Kingdom. Perhaps amnesia, perhaps whatever test tube you crawled out of hadn’t gotten around to implanting memories yet. You could be a foreigner from across the sea, but very little of the evidence supports that assertion. In the end what matters is that you are essentially an outsider. You didn’t speak Lunar, but you speak perfect Solar, and, from what I know of it, at least passing Old Equestrian. That implies that you were from this side of the Storm and were highly educated, which is extremely unlikely because if you were then I would know about you, and I don’t. You convinced Agent Fall to help you. More importantly you convinced Sergeant Steelwing to let you accompany them, which implies a great deal of sincerity on your part and a very believable story. Yet Agent Fall wanted to hide you from me, which means that your story, while believable, was fantastical. Hence why she wanted to bring you to Professor Shine. I have the resources to aid any endeavor or inquiry, except one that deals with the depths of esoteric magic. Twinkle Shine, however, is the master of that domain. If anyone would know how to deal with an arcane problem it would be her, while my own lack of understanding could lead to unnecessary consequences. Therefore you either have or are an arcane problem.”
“I, um, yeah, I guess?” Dash said.
Gamma punched a hoof out that stopped just shy of Dash’s mouth. “Don’t interrupt. Let’s put this together. You have incredible physical abilities not seen in over eight hundred years. You are an outsider to both the Kingdom and the Republics. You have or are an arcane problem. You are therefore either a magically engineered being, a legitimate pony who has been caught in some kind of magical event, or an engineered being who believes they are a legitimate pony caught in some kind of magical event. I will leave determining which of those is true up to Professor Shine. My sole concern is the safety of this nation, and for that I have only two questions, the answers to which will determine whether or not you ever get to see the Professor, or indeed the outside world ever again.”
Dash gulped. Gamma hadn’t even blinked throughout her entire tirade. The way she was putting the facts together reminded her of Twilight Sparkle, but her forceful tone was more like an angry Princess Celestia. The combination was extremely off-putting: smart but scary. “Okay, what are the questions?”
“First, what do you know about Max Cash?”
“Nothing?” Dash answered tentatively. Gamma gave no sign as to whether this was the right answer or not, but it was the only one she could give. She’d never heard the name before.
“I see. Regardless of your knowledge of Cash, you are involved in his scheme. As you said you ‘woke up’ in the chamber with Bay’s corpse, I can surmise that your current set of contiguous memories begin there.” Dash opened her mouth to ask a question, but shut it at a warning glare from Gamma. “You met Agent Fall soon after your escape from the Orion police. Sergeant Steelwing would have forced her to abandon or avoid you under normal circumstances, so she must have found you in a compromised position and either took pity on you, unlikely, or you quickly instilled in her a desire to keep you close. Your mysterious arcane problem would suffice for that. So now you, a pony deeply, if ignorantly, involved in the machinations of Max Cash, are travelling with the Agent responsible for a great deal of spying on Cash. An Agent who is also the pony most capable of entering and leaving the Republics without being noticed. I do not believe in coincidence, and even if I did this would strain credulity. Do you understand why keeping this from me was a grave mistake, Agent Fall? No, don’t answer, you’re smart enough to have figured it out a while ago.”
Gamma sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. “This will only cause more problems. Since you forced my hoof in breaking your deception I am inclined to be harsh with you.” Her eyes snapped open in a glare that made Star Fall shrink back. “I have a wide array of discipline options at my disposal.”
“Hey! Don’t be so hard on Star! She didn’t know,” Dash protested.
Gamma’s stare flashed to her. “Who should I be hard on, then? Are you volunteering?”
“If it’ll get you to leave her alone, yeah!” Dash met Gamma’s eyes and held them, refusing to flinch.
“Firefly, no!” Star Fall pleaded, trying to get Dash to look at her. “It’s okay. She’s right, I deserve this.”
“The hell you do,” Astrid said, snapping her talons to get the attention of all three ponies. “Gamma, stop screwing around and get to your second question.”
Gamma regarded Astrid for a long moment, then shrugged. “Very well. Miss Firefly, my second question is simple: what is your name. Your real name, not the one Star Fall gave you.”
Dash looked at Star Fall, who heaved a sigh and nodded. “I’m Rainbow Dash,” she said, staring Gamma in the eye and daring her to challenge it.
“Rainbow Dash,” Gamma repeated, and a slow smile spread on her face. “Well, well, isn’t that fascinating?” She turned back to Star Fall. “Agent Fall, I hope you’ve learned your lesson?”
“Yes,” Star Fall said, dejected.
“Astrid?”
“I didn’t have to learn crap,” the Griffin snorted. “You’re not the boss of me.”
“Fair enough,” Gamma said, then turned away from them. “I think it would be best if we continue this conversation in my office.” Without waiting for them to reply she began trotting towards the now-clear exit. She stopped suddenly, looking back over her shoulder at them. “Oh, and miss Dash? Welcome to the future.”
Each Element gives its bearer access to certain magical powers above and beyond those available to most ponies. Most of these powers are associated with the trait the Element is said to represent, but there are exceptions. The powers granted can be themselves divided into Activated and Passive categories. Passive abilities are always present, while Activated abilities are only available when the Element is itself in an Active state.
Passive abilities are often subtle unless the bearer knows how to exploit them. It is entirely possible that there are many more Passive abilities that I have not discovered, simply because they are not prominent enough to be noticed. Activated abilities, on the other hoof, are spectacular, obvious, and shockingly powerful.
These powers are used by the bearers, often without them realizing it, but they can easily affect others. The consequences of these powers can be extremely far reaching, in fact the first one I encountered had such a great impact that I wasn't even aware of the full implications until more than a decade later...
Chapter Nine: Perceptions
The street was almost completely clear of ponies, but Calumn still watched it carefully. Blaze was talking as if he was worried someone would make it illegal soon and Calumn had half tuned him out as he led them towards his target, a pawnshop that just so happened to be a front for the RIA.
Their train ride up had been uneventful, except for a minor scare where he thought they had to evade and trick the pony looking for tickets. Blaze’s fast-talking and random non-sequiters had been excellent cover for Calumn’s more subtle manipulations and sleight-of-hoof tricks. In the end it had been easy to sneak into the heart of the Kingdom. Too easy.
There was no sign that the Kingdom was actively looking for him, which was both reassuring and distressing. The Griffin had survived the Everstorm, he had confirmed that early on. The question now was why she hadn't informed her government about him. It didn't make sense with what he knew, so something else had to be going on. It brought up possible implications involving the Solar Crown in the entire Max Cash affair, and he couldn’t even begin to think through the consequences of that idea. Still, this inattention gave him some room to maneuver in the sunlands, and he was going to take advantage of that while it lasted.
“So that’s how I made my first trip through the Storm,” Blaze finished, smiling in fond remembrance. “I still have that tutu.”
“Blaze,” Calumn said. “I’m probably going to be leaving you alone for a bit while I gather information. Will you be alright to stay out of trouble?”
“Cross my heart and I forget the rest, but you can count on me!” Blaze said, stopping to go through a series of complex motions as he spoke that as far as Calumn could discern involved either planting flowers or punching people. The Changeling just shrugged and accepted it.
The pawnshop had a bright, cheery marker and pencil crayon open sign in its window, advertising that they bought silver, gold and jewellery and giving generous hours. That sign was part of the signal to RIA operatives like Calumn, the order of the words, even the colors used were part of a code that could be read by those with the proper training. This particular sign said that the owner was waiting for him, and had information that might be relevant to him. There was nothing warning that this place might have been compromised, so he felt a little safer approaching it, but he was still cautious as he walked in the door.
The interior of the shop was full of little bits and pieces of other ponies' lives that they had chosen or been forced to part with. Musical instruments lined one wall, and a display case showed off small figurines, many of them renditions of Celestia from household shrines. By far the largest part of the shop was taken up by displays of jewellery and enchanted items. Calumn circulated through the displays, looking idly at things while he examined the shop for any irregularity that would mean it was compromised. He found nothing of the sort, so while Blaze was eyeing a beat-up accordion with interest he made his way over to the earth pony mare behind the counter.
“You got any good watches?” he asked.
The pony shrugged. “Sure. What kind are you looking for?”
“Something with a season dial, and maybe one for moon phases.”
“Moon phases? You have problems looking up at night?” the pony snorted.
“No, just looking ahead,” Calumn said. “Do you know what the phase is tonight?”
“Waning gibbous, I think,” the shopkeeper said, eyes scanning the room.
“Oh, I was hoping it was full,” Calumn said, sighing. “See why I need the watch?”
The shopkeeper shrugged. “I might have something for you, but it’s in the back, come on and we can pick something out.”
“Thanks,” Calumn said, smiling. He turned to Blaze. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and Blaze nodded with a grin while miming pulling a zipper across his lips. Calumn sighed and followed the shopkeeper as she went through a door into the back room.
The back room was exactly how one would expect a pawnshop's storage room to look like: filled with boxes and stuffed with trinkets and things that weren’t on display in the main store. There were two obvious safes and one concealed one that Calumn noticed. The door shut with a solid thunk, cutting out the sounds from outside completely. “Calumn, I presume?” the shopkeeper asked, turning towards him.
“You have information for me,” he said, not bothering with the pleasantries. The less time he had to spend here, the safer both of them would be.
“Some. There’s been no sighting of the pegasus we’ve been told to look out for, but yesterday around noon there was a pegasus who left a clear etherealization during a high-speed takeoff. I wasn’t there, so I can’t confirm that, but I was able to do this,” she rummaged through a box and pulled out a photo. “This was taken over the forest an hour after the etheralization incident.”
Calumn looked at the picture. It showed two winged figures flying over the treetops. It wasn’t a clear shot, and details were ruined by motion blur, but enough was visible for him to nod. “That’s her,” he said. The pink-blue blur could have been any pegasus, but the brown-white Griffin next to her made the connection clear. "Who took the shot?"
“I did," she said. "I was doing surveillance on another target and just happened to catch them. The direction they left in means they’re headed to the capital. If your target’s travelling with a Griffin it means she’s connected to the Royalty. You’re not going to get close to her.”
“I know,” Calumn said, pushing the photo back to the mare. “If you can get word back to Straff, tell him I’m still on the job.”
The shopkeeper shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do,” she said, then paused, frowning in thought. “I’ve got something else, but I’m not sure what to do with it.”
Calumn gave her a steady look. “Why aren’t you sure?”
“It’s kind of tertiary.”
“Tell me, I’ll decide whether it’s useful to me.”
She nodded. “Okay. I’ve been tracking operatives loyal to Max Cash in this town for the past three days.”
“What are they doing?” Calumn asked, his interest piqued.
“They’re shadowing this pony,” she said, pulling out another photo. This one was a much better shot, framing a smiling unicorn looking at an expensive watch. “This is Conrad Sherman. He came into town shortly before Cash’s agents. He’s a slimy sort, but supposedly a real smooth-talker. Managed to score himself a room in the Drake Hotel for less than half what it usually goes for, and he’s been boozing it up and trying to charm the skirt off of any mare he lays his eyes on since. Other than that I’ve got no solid information on him. No business, no purpose, nothing. I think he’s a gambler, but that’s just because his Glyph says his Talent is Games. If he is, there’s still no reason for him to be here. No casinos, not even a good underground gambling circuit.”
“Interesting,” Calumn said, studying the picture. “Is this your work as well?”
“It is,” she answered. “Used a hidden camera. Why?”
“He’s posing,” Calumn said, looking closer. “He didn’t spot your camera?”
“I’m sure of it,” she said. “He’s like that all the time, just prancing around town.”
“And Cash’s people?”
“They shadow him everywhere,” she said, pulling out another photo. This one wasn’t as good as the one of Conrad, but better than the blurred shot of Dash and the Griffin. Two ponies, both wearing clothes that were loose enough to cover up thick muscles and conceal weapons. Calumn didn’t recognize them, but he recognized the type. Bruisers, bodyguard types. Not the kind of ponies sent to keep an eye on someone and not be noticed. More the type to keep someone in line. “They’ve got a room at the Drake,” the shopkeeper continued, “but they’re also renting a place across the street. At least two of them are following him all the time. Whoever he is, they’re very interested in him.”
“How do you know they’re connected to Cash?” The shopkeeper pushed forward yet another photo, this one showing the two bruisers meeting a pegasus mare in an alleyway. Calumn recognized her immediately from the photos in Cash’s file. “Thanks,” Calumn said. “What rooms at the Drake?”
“Conrad’s in 502, his shadows have 503.”
“And he’s been tail-chasing?”
“Like he wants it to be his Talent, giving a different story for himself every time.”
“What about the local intelligence? Have they twigged to this?”
The shopkeeper shrugged. “Not that I’ve heard. They’ve been focused on other stuff right now. The usual informants don’t seem to be looking for Cash’s people.”
“Is she still in town?” He tapped the photo of the pegasus mare.
“I don’t know.”
Calumn accepted that with a nod. “I need funds, can you supply?”
“A little, instructions are for passive assistance only.”
“I know, but I need seed cash. I’ve got tradeables, this can be a legitimate exchange.”
“Good enough for me, let’s get back out there.”
They left the back room to the sounds of an accordion wheezing. Blaze was suspended in the air, somehow tangled in the strings of several instruments that were themselves hanging from the wall at odd angles. Blaze looked back at Calumn and the shopkeeper, a look of wide-eyed innocence plastered on his face. The shopkeeper’s mouth hung open in disbelief, while Calumn found himself shaking with barely suppressed laughter.
“Um, okay. I can explain,” Blaze said. “But I gotta warn you, it’s going to sound like a really weird and improbable sequence of events, and I want to assure you that it had absolutely nothing to do with a failed attempt to put together a one-pony-band suit using only wind and stringed instruments.”
It took ten minutes to get Blaze out of his predicament, ten more to sell the tradeable items Straff had provided Calumn with, and another ten to assure the shopkeeper that there was no lasting damage to her merchandise. Forty minutes later Blaze and Calumn were eating lunch and discussing what to do next.
“We’re going to stick around for a bit,” Calumn said.
“I thought you were in a rush to get to the capital?”
Calumn shook his head. “No. I was hoping to use the train to get ahead of them, but that didn’t happen. They’ve obviously gotten there ahead of us, and a small delay won’t stop me from picking up the trail there. I’ve got another opportunity to do some information-gathering here, though, and I don’t want to lose it.”
“So what are we doing?” Blaze asked, happily sucking on the thick milkshake he had insisted on getting.
“We aren’t doing anything,” Calumn said. “I’m going to see what information I can get out a pony named Conrad Sherman. He might know something relevant to my mission.”
“Ooh, cool,” Blaze said. “So what’re you going to do? Wait in an alley, then grab him when he walks past, then throw him in a chair, shine a light on him and sweat him until he pops?”
“Uh, no. Well, not entirely. He’s got thugs protecting him. Just jumping him is going to get me beaten up. I don’t know about you, but I’m a little low on the energy I’d need to handle a fight.”
Blaze smiled sheepishly. “Heh, well, I’m not exactly a fighter myself. I’m more of a ‘sit there and snark at them’ kind of stallion.”
“And I’d exhaust myself taking out one of them. Not a good option. Instead I’m going to use my Luna-given gifts of disguise to get close to him and ask him some questions surreptitiously.”
“Nice! Maple or butterscotch?”
Calumn blinked at his companion before he realized what he had been referring to. “Not syrup, Blaze, surreptitiously. It means secretly, as in I’ll ask him questions that he doesn’t realize are making him give up answers he doesn’t want to give up.”
“Ah, okay, that should work too,” Blaze said. “I guess I’m not good for helping with that, huh?”
“Not with that part, no, but there is something you can do for me. Two things, actually.”
Blaze leaned forward eagerly. “Tell me! I’ll do it!”
“Well, first I’m going to want you to play lookout for me. Remember those thugs? I’m going to need to know if they catch on to what I’m doing and start moving in. So when I make my move you’ll have to be positioned so you can watch for them and warn me.”
“Yeah! I can do that. I can even distract them so you can make your getaway. You might not know it from looking at me, but I can be one hell of a distraction when I want to be!”
“No doubts about that one,” Calumn said.
“What’s the second thing?”
“Well, that’s a little harder,” Calumn looked out at the street and the ponies walking by. “Blaze, I’m going to need your help in picking out the most good-looking mare we can find.”
“Really? Why?” Blaze asked. Calumn smiled at him, and let the true color of his eyes show through for a moment. Blaze’s own eyes widened as he understood. “Ohh! Oh yeah,” he chuckled and turned to watch the crowd like Calumn was. “Let’s find you a hottie!”
The whole story came out. When Dash realized that Star Fall wasn’t going to hold anything back she threw herself into telling her side of the tale with gusto. She had to backtrack a few times to explain references to her own time and her friends, but not nearly as much as she had when telling Star Fall her cutie mark story. The sparseness of Gamma’s office actually helped her focus on the details, and she was able to describe the scene she had woken up to fairly well. Gamma asked few questions, but when she did they were to clarify points that got a little muddled or to clear up the proper sequence of events.
Gamma only made them pause the tale once, when they revealed that a Changeling had been after Dash while they were crossing the Everstorm. She spent several minutes talking silently with her horn glowing before asking them to continue. Finally, when the tale was done, Gamma sat at her desk and was silent for a long moment.
“So, uh, yeah,” Dash said as the quiet became uncomfortable. “That’s pretty much the whole deal.”
“I see,” Gamma said, then took in a long, deep breath. “That is an interesting tale. For the moment, as I said, I will be suspending judgement on your origins and just take you at your word. In which case it brings up several questions about exactly what Cash could have found or done that would precipitate your existence in the here and now. I see no reason to think that his plans and your arrival are unconnected.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Dash said, frowning. “About this Cash guy you keep mentioning. Who is he?”
“Maximillion Oswald Cash,” Gamma said, eyes going flat. “Is a thorn in my side, and quite possibly an enemy of the crown. He’s a unicorn who is, much like yourself, something of a mystery. He was born in the Republics, which is where he made the initial bulk of his fortune, but has long since expanded into business dealings on both sides of the Storm. That business consists of both legitimate enterprise and a great deal of criminal activity. Despite the best efforts of ponies such as myself and my opposite numbers in the Republics, Cash has remained impossible to counter or arrest. The best we can do is inconvenience his agents and watch him. He is smart, charismatic, magically Talented and utterly ruthless. Worst of all, we have no clue what his ultimate goal is, save that it somehow requires him to maintain several expensive and sometimes illegal archaeological expeditions. Such as the one you awoke in.”
“Wow, ok,” Dash thought about what she’d been told. “So this guy’s bad news, right?”
“Terrible news,” Gamma confirmed.
“And you think I’m mixed up with him somehow?”
“Without a doubt.”
“Alright, that makes sense. I’d just kind of assumed I was here because of Nightmare Umbra.”
Gamma’s eyebrow rose quizzically at that. “What in the world would make you think your presence had anything to do with the Shadowed Alicorn?”
“Well, Star told me all about the Schism, and how Nightmare Umbra’s still alive somewhere, and could come back or something. Since if I was still back home I could have done something about her I figured she must have pulled something to make me be here so I couldn’t.”
“That’s... Miss Dash, I understand that you were able to accomplish great deeds in your own time, but the Shadowed Alicorn is a Goddess, one that single-hoofedly defeated two of the most powerful armies ever assembled, and took the combined might of two other Goddesses to contain. While your circle of friends is legendary enough to have stories of your deeds survive the Schism, you are still mortal ponies. I doubt very much that you could do more than slightly inconvenience her, assuming she deigned to notice your existence at all.”
Dash snorted. “Sure we could, we’ve done it before.”
“Before?” Gamma asked, her voice was deceptively calm, but her eyes showed rapt interest.
“Yeah, we beat Nightmare Moon, and she was, well, okay, so I’m still not going to call them ‘Goddesses’, but she was an Alicorn too. That was practically the first thing we did when we became friends. It’s why we became friends.”
“Wait, Nightmare Moon was an Alicorn?” Star Fall asked, staring at Dash with wide-eyed shock.
“Um, yeah? I thought you knew that.”
“No!” Star Fall practically shouted. “Nightmare Moon was supposed to be some sort of evil spirit! A bogeymare to scare kids with! You’re saying she was actually an evil Goddess?”
“Not a Goddess, exactly, and not completely evil,” Dash said, wiggling a hoof in front of her to hopefully show how she wasn’t sure how to explain it. “Just kind of really sad and really lonely. And a little crazy. Okay, really crazy. Wanted-to-create-eternal-night crazy.”
“Regardless of the exact extent of her insanity,” Gamma cut in. “You say she was an Alicorn, and that you managed to defeat her. How?”
“Well, not by myself. My friends and I used the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon,” Dash said.
Gamma turned her gaze to Star Fall, who shook her head. “I don’t know what those are either,” the white pegasus said.
“They’re these magical necklace... thingies. Okay I went through this with Star already, I don’t know how to explain them. They just shoot rainbows and win against crazy and evil stuff.”
“So it wasn’t something you did, or a power innate to you, but a set of artifacts you possessed?” Gamma asked.
Dash nodded. “I guess, yeah.”
“Hm. Too bad, we could have used power like that,” Gamma mused. “Oh, well, I can make do with what I’ve been given. Sergeant Steelwing, what’s your estimation of Dash’s fighting abilities?”
Astrid perked up after having practically fallen asleep through the preceding storytime. “Oh, okay. She’s good. Got some training, don’t recognize the style but it’s definitely a pegasus-based art. Lots of fast strikes, fancy wing-work, no grappling or throwing moves. It might have just been what she was doing, but it was a timid style. Lots of dodging, no kill-shots, very little aggression.”
“Well, yeah, it’s supposed to be for defense,” Dash said.
“Right, timid,” Astrid continued. “With her speed and strength she could have taken enemy combatants clean out of the fight in seconds. Even the Griffins might have had a problem with her if she had actually fought them instead of getting fancy. She didn’t, though, and I think that’s ‘cause she’s not trained in how to actually disable someone.“
“That’s her close-quarters style. How about the rest?” Gamma prompted.
Astrid shrugged. “She’s got everything you’ve already seen going for her. Strength, speed, toughness, agility. Some of what she pulled down there was clever, too. She thinks on her hooves and she’s goal-oriented. She didn’t stop to fight when she could advance through the course instead, so she’s got priorities and sticks to them. And she didn’t panic when she took a hit, so she’s got some pain resistance and determination. More than most ponies who aren’t military can say.”
“I see. And the cons?”
“She’s reckless, stubborn, and while she’s clever she doesn’t think deeply. When the Griffins appeared she didn’t back off and re-evaluate, she doubled down and went with a risky plan that got her intentionally flanked between magic and muscle. It worked, but it was dumb. Going supersonic indoors? Also dumb.”
“Hey!” Dash protested.
“What? You’re dumb. It happens,” Astrid said. “Fact is, Dash, the only reason any of the crap you pulled in the Maul worked is because you’re fast enough, tough enough and strong enough that you outclassed every single pony in the arena so much that they might as well have been paper targets to you. Winning a fight against a cripple isn’t exactly impressive, and having to pull stupid shit to do it does not make that shit any less stupid. All it shows is that you have a crapton of potential that you are really not living up to.”
Dash stared at the Griffin for a moment, mouth hanging open. “Damn, Astrid. That was harsh,” she finally said.
“But informative,” Gamma said with a smile. “I’m glad you agree with most of my assessment, Sergeant.” Astrid snorted dismissively at that. “However, I think you’re underestimating miss Dash here. She wasn’t ‘pulling stupid shit’ as you say in order to win. She was doing that in order to win without badly hurting anyone else. Am I right?”
Dash frowned. “Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“Martial arts focused on defense, a lot of effort expended on not hurting others who are directly attacking you with deadly force, and a casual acceptance of both of those facts,” Gamma shook her head. “You’re a pacifist.”
“What? No I’m not,” Dash said. “I’ll fight if I have to!”
“If you have to,” Gamma repeated. “You’ll defend yourself if you are attacked.”
“Duh.”
“Would you defend your home? Your friends.”
“I totally would, and I have. I kicked a Dragon in the face!”
“So you’d face great odds for what’s close to you, what about an ideal?”
“Like what?”
“Something that was important in your time. Celestia, say. Would you fight for your Goddess.”
“I’m always loyal to the Princess,” Dash said, her tone low and serious.
Gamma’s eyebrow twitched at the word ‘Princess’, but she continued without comment. “Admirable. But would you fight for her?”
“Yes.”
“Not just to defend her, but actively commit violence against her enemies.”
“Yeah, okay? If she needed me to, I would.”
“Would you kill?”
That question brought her up short. “What?”
“Would you kill? Would you take the life of a pony, or Griffin, or Zebra, or Dog, or any other thinking person?”
“I... I don’t know,” Dash admitted.
“Let’s make it easy for you. A pony is threatening you and your best friend. He is bigger, stronger, faster, and has no desire except to see you and your friend hurt terribly. Your friend is already injured and cannot run or defend herself. You are in a position to stop your attacker, but the only way to be sure is to go for a killing strike. You know you can make that blow, but it will certainly kill him. If you do not, he will likely beat you and your friend to death. Would you kill then?”
The answer was easy. Which, of course, meant it wasn’t easy at all. “I don’t know,” Dash said. “There has to be another way. There’s always another way. I’m not in that situation so I can’t see it right now, but there’s always another way. That doesn’t make me a pacifist.”
Gamma nodded. “You’re right. You’re not a pacifist. You’re a civilian. Sergeant Steelwing, what would your response be?”
Astrid laughed. “Come on, Gamma. He’d be dead way before it got to the ‘kill or be killed’ stage.”
“Yes,” Gamma acknowledged. “I already know what Agent Fall’s answer would be. Our Equestria is very different from yours, miss Dash, I know enough history to be sure of that. In our world if you are not prepared to answer ‘yes’ to that scenario, and many more where the outcomes are not nearly as clear-cut, you will not have the capacity to act on the world stage. There are many who lack that capacity, and there is no shame in it. Ponies like me exist to ensure that they do not have to face that choice. Ponies like you, however, have to come to terms with it. Your history and abilities will force you to the forefront of events whether you like it or not, and there will come a time when you must choose between lives. If you’re lucky it will only ever be your own that is in danger. Vanishingly few are that lucky, however.”
Dash stared at Gamma, then dropped her eyes and slowly shook her head. “Guys, I get it. Sometimes you think you gotta kill. I’ve been in that kind of situation before, but it’s never come down to it. I told myself I’d do whatever it takes, but I never had to actually make the choice, so I don’t know. What I do know is that every time I thought I’d have to choose, there was another option. Maybe I couldn’t see it by myself, but my friends did and they pointed me in the right direction. I guess that means I’ve been lucky or something, but it’s what I know. If I get into that situation again, I’ll look for that other option.”
“And if you can’t find it in time?” Gamma asked.
“Then I don’t know,” Dash said, holding Gamma’s gaze. “I guess I’ll find out if it happens.”
Gamma relaxed back into her chair. “Fair enough. Now I just have to figure out what to do with you.”
“Hey! I’m not someone you can just push around like this!” Dash snarled, coming to her hooves.
“Miss Dash, what gives you that idea?” Gamma asked. “If you’d take a moment to think it through, I think you’d find that you are exactly the sort of person I can ‘push around’.”
“Calm down, Dash,” Astrid said. “She’s not going to do anything to you. If she was, she would have done it already.”
Dash shot the Griffin a hard look, but then sat down in a huff. Star Fall laid a hoof on her shoulder. “Astrid’s right, Dash. Gamma’s being more abrasive than usual, but I think there’s a point to it.”
“Indeed there is,” Gamma said. “The point being to find out what kind of person you are, Rainbow Dash. I think I have all I need to know.”
“Like what?” Dash huffed, crossing her forelegs and trying to cool her temper.
“Like your strength of will,” Gamma replied. “Astrid said you were stubborn, but I think it’s more than that. I think you have something better than stubbornness: conviction. You refuse to admit you would kill, even when presented with a scenario where that’s the only viable response. You do this not because of some hard-headed obedience to the social mores of your time, but because you genuinely believe that there is another option. You believe it because of experience and thought, not just blind adherence to principle. I also notice that you didn’t judge Astrid for her answer, or even glance at Star Fall when I mentioned that I knew what hers was. That shows that you also don’t expect everyone else to keep to your principles. To stick to your own position while not judging others for theirs? That requires strength of will. I admire that, even if I disagree with your position.”
“So all that was just testing me?” Dash asked. “That’s kind of a sick way to find out if someone’s a good person.”
“It wasn’t to find out if you were a good person,” Gamma said. “It was to find out how I could use you.”
“Wow,” Dash said, caught off guard enough that her temper was momentarily subdued. “That was pretty direct.”
“I have neither the need nor the desire to be circumspect with you, miss Dash,” Gamma replied. “You’re a potential asset, one I am not going to waste. You on your own have the potential to reshape the political landscape. Honestly, you’ve already done so much damage to the status quo between the Solar Kingdom and Lunar Republics that we’re a step away from going to a war footing anyways.”
“Wait, what?”
“You didn’t think you could show off the abilities you have and get away with no one caring did you? Why do you think they sent a Changeling after you? I wouldn’t be surprised if my opposite numbers in the Republics are scrambling to find out if you’re one of mine, and then if they can at all field something that could challenge you. With what you did in the Maul their spies are going to be reporting that yes, you are one of ours.”
“Why did you set that up if you knew it would get back to them?”
“Because I wanted it to. The first thing you learn when you are being trained to be a spymaster is that you never make a move that has only one purpose if you can help it. I confirmed the worst fears of my competition. That it may turn out to be a bluff is irrelevant, as it will force them to divert resources into countering a phantom threat. Even if they do somehow work out a way to counter a pony with your abilities, my spies in their organization will find out those techniques and get them back to me. The end result is still an advantage for me in the short term which I can parley into an advantage in the long term.”
“That’s... pretty crazy twisted,” Dash said, leaning back as she thought through the implications.
“That’s why I’m the spymaster,” Gamma said. “I take potential disaster and I turn it into ways to protect the Kingdom. You are a potential disaster. I have decided the best way to turn you to the service of the Kingdom is to offer you a job.”
It took Dash a long moment to absorb that. “A what?”
“Work. Employment. A career. Money in return for services rendered. I’m fairly certain such things existed in the past.”
“Yeah, but I’m not really going to be sticking around, you know?” Dash said. “I’m going to talk to this Professor Shine and she’s going to find a way to get me back home.”
“Of course, and while you’re waiting for her to figure that out, you’re going to want to buy things and have a place to stay. I can provide the means to do both, and rather comfortably.”
“Okay. You’re offering me a job?”
“Yes,” Gamma said, leaning forward, her blue eyes boring into Dash. “I am. And you’re going to take it.”
“Why would I? You’re kind of pushy.”
Gamma’s lips twitched up in a smirk at that. “Because I’ve been testing you since you left your hotel room this morning, and I’m fairly certain I know what kind of mare you are. You’re the kind of mare who doesn’t like to be pushed into things, which means you want to say no, even if that will end up making your life miserable. However, you’re also the kind of mare who will stick by her friends and her principles. Agent Fall and Sergeant Steelwing are your friends, and they’re going to be going into danger soon. You’re going to want to go with them, and you’ll only be allowed to do that if you say yes.”
“What danger? Where?”
“Say yes and you’ll find out.”
Dash stared at Gamma for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t know whether you’re awesome or horrible,” she admitted with just a touch of awe in her voice.
“Go with horrible,” Gamma said. “It will make it easier to accept it when you catch me manipulating you.”
Dash choked back a laugh. “Fine. I’ll join your super-spy crew, so long as I get to help Star and Astrid. And so long as I can still go home when Professor Shine finds out how to get me there.”
“Trust me, if Professor Shine wants to figure out how to transport a person back in time I will not stand in her way. Deal. Agent Rainbow Dash, welcome to the Secret Service.”
Dash stuck out her hoof, and Gamma only hesitated for half a moment before taking it and shaking firmly. “Okay, so what the hell is this danger?”
“Well, Agent Dash, Agent Fall brought back some information about Max Cash’s illegal digging in the Kingdom, much like the excavation you woke up in. There’s three dig sites, but I only have so many agents that I can trust to scout them. I’m sending Agent Fall to one of them, and you’ll be accompanying her.”
“Which one?” Astrid asked.
“The hidden dig, the one we didn’t know about until Agent Fall brought it to my attention,” Gamma said. “It’s only a couple days away, taking it slowly."
“When do we leave?” Star Fall asked.
“Tomorrow morning, you still have an appointment with your mentor to keep,” Gamma answered, then stood. “Speaking of which, I believe it’s time for you to head to the university. You won’t be able to catch her before she starts a class, unfortunately, but you should have some time with her afterwards to make your introductions.”
Star Fall was on her hooves instantly. “Thank you, Gamma. I know you didn’t have to be this understanding.”
“I’m not being understanding,” Gamma said. “I’m just acting in the best interests of the Crown. Don’t confuse the two, Agent Fall.”
“I won’t,” Star Fall said, smiling. “Trust me, I won’t.”
The lecture hall was built like a theater, with tiered rows of seats leading down to a wide stage where the Professor stood and gave her lesson. Her golden coat nearly sparkled in the harsh stage-lights, while her mane was a stark white with a shocking purple streak running through it. Her mane and tail were given a simple style that wasn’t ostentatious, but presented an image of being expensively maintained nonetheless. She was not a large pony, but even to Dash her presence seemed to fill the room. She was the first pony Dash had seen in the city who went naked, not even a scarf or hat to accent her natural form, and Dash was beginning to think that nudity was something that only the most important ponies were allowed to indulge in.
The audience was filled with unicorns, the muted glows of their magic illuminating their faces as they levitated notepads and pens. There were a few ponies from the other tribes scattered through the audience, but they were so few that they might as well have not been represented at all, and all of them looked like they were there with a unicorn.
Star Fall directed them to sit in one of the sparsely populated back rows, and Dash took her seat, hoping that the lecture would be over soon and she could get to meeting this Professor. At the very least she had her feathers crossed to hope that this lecture wasn’t as boring as the ones she remembered from when she was in school.
“Global rotation,” Professor Shine was saying, “provides the initial cyclic impetus for any basic magic circle. Energies always flow in a certain direction, depending on what hemisphere you are in. You can reverse this flow with the right environment, but that requires so much effort that it’s only used for certain specific magics, none of which are available to the public sector, so those of you not looking to be research unicorns can probably sleep through any lecture on counter-flow circles and the only thing it’ll hurt is your GPA.”
There was a chorus of chuckles from the students, and Dash couldn’t help but feel she was missing something. She leaned down to Star Fall. “What’s she talking about?” she asked in a whisper.
“Magic circles, shh,” Star Fall answered and admonished.
“Rotation provides the push and direction, but it’s the axial tilt that determines the strength of the flow. This means certain orientations of circles are always more powerful in the winter, or conversely in the summer, especially close to the solstices.”
“Star, what’s ‘axial tilt’?” Dash asked.
“Dash!” Star Fall hissed back. “Just be quiet.”
“I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?” Professor Shine called out to them. Her horn flared and a light shone on them as every head in the theatre turned their way. Astrid snickered and smirked at the staring faces, but both Dash and Star Fall were caught wide-eyed.
Star Fall sighed and stood, giving a deep nod to the unicorn on stage. “My apologies, Professor. We did not mean to interrupt your lesson.”
Twinkle Shine smiled, and the genuine expression transformed her face, making her look twenty years younger and far less jaded than the stern teacher she had been a moment before. Dash frowned; there was something about this pony that had started bugging her right then, but she couldn’t put her hoof on what it was.
“Students, I believe most of you know my daughter, the Lady Fallen Star,” she said. There was a wave of bowed heads as the audience acknowledged her. Star Fall had to stop herself from cringing, but she managed it. “Who is your companion? Is it?”
Star Fall nodded. “My new hoofmaid, Firefly. She doesn’t know the proper protocol for sitting in on one of your lectures yet.”
Professor Shine’s smile seemed to fold in on itself, compressing until it wasn’t an open expression of happiness, but a mask that guarded the thoughts that flashed behind her eyes. “Firefly, is it?”
“Uh, yeah,” Dash said, standing. She didn’t know whether to nod or bow or what, so she didn’t do anything, just let her gaze dart nervously around the room.
“You had a question about my lesson? You may not be one of my students, but from the papers I’ve graded over the years I know that many of them don’t ask questions when they should. Perhaps others will benefit from the answer you seek.”
“Oh, uh. Right,” Dash took a deep breath. She normally loved the spotlight, but academics weren’t something she was good at, and she had learned too many times that this kind of spotlight was not where she would shine. “I was wondering what you were talking about. Rotation and axial tilt and all that.”
“I’m talking about magic, Firefly, and how the motion of the earth relative to the sun affects it.”
“You lost me again,” Dash said. “What motion?”
Professor Shine frowned, clearly caught on the wrong hoof with the question. “Well, the earth travels around the sun.” Dash blinked at that in confusion, but didn’t say anything so Professor Shine continued. “It also spins around its axis, creating day and night, and that axis itself twirls, which we call axial tilt.”
“Okay, that doesn’t make any sense,” Dash said.
Twinkle Shine was clearly perplexed by the resistance to what she was saying, and shot Star Fall a questioning look, which the white pegasus didn’t catch as she was frowning at Dash herself. “Could you please specify what part doesn’t make sense?”
“Well, the whole thing. The world doesn’t really spin, does it? I mean, Princess Celestia raises the sun to create the day, right?” Dash wracked her brain, trying to remember if she had ever learned about this when she was younger. She had a vague memory of diagrams of circles and constellations, but she was also fairly certain she slept through most of that stuff.
“Princess?” Twinkle Shine shook her head. “This is strange. Where did you receive your education?”
“Uh, school?” There were titters at this statement throughout the theatre.
Twinkle Shine snorted. “School? Very cute. Well, this isn’t a theology class, Miss Firefly, but your question does actually have some relevance. Alright, students, for the moment imagine that this lecture is not on circle theory, and is instead on fundamental forces. How many of you have attended Professor Blueband’s lecture series on divine interactions with the mundane world?” A few hooves went up, but not many. “Really? The next time he gives them I would suggest you attend. He’s spent his career learning about the numinous and the sublime, his insight into the power of the Goddesses is truly fascinating. You,” she pointed her horn at one of the unicorns that had raised their hoof. “What would Professor Blueband say to Miss Firefly’s question?”
The unicorn stammered, but eventually managed to get an answer out. “He would say that the Goddess is the sun, that her will created it and maintains it. So she does raise the sun, but not literally.”
“A nice answer,” Twinkle Shine said, “It was close, but wrong. I know we Professors can get long-winded, but please try to pay attention, you learn better that way.” The class chuckled at their fellow student’s misfortune, but Twinkle Shine was already moving on. She stepped to the blackboard and erased it with a flick of her horn. A dozen pieces of chalk floated up simultaneously and began to draw so that the complete picture was done in moments. There was a large circle in the middle, an open curve to one side and a small circle on the other side. Between the three she had drawn lines and squiggles with arrows coming from the small circle and the curve towards the large middle circle. All of this was labelled, which was unhelpful to Dash understanding what she was seeing.
“Here is the truth of it,” Professor Shine said. Several of the unicorns in the audience were leaning forward with hungry eyes, and Dash got the distinct impression that this was something important that she just didn’t have the background to understand. Even Star Fall looked like she was caught up in what was happening, and Astrid was watching with no small interest. It left the time-tossed pegasus feeling incredibly left out and more than a little alone. She shoved aside those feelings and studied the diagram on the board, trying to force her brain into figuring it out through sheer determination.
“The power of the Goddesses runs deeper than any magic known to ponies. Tales from before the Schism say that they could literally move the sun and moon in the sky, either to bring night and day, or stop them in their tracks. There are official scientific documents that survive that even reference these tales as fact. The ponies back then were not stupider than we are today, nor any less rigorous in their research. Even religion as we know it did not exist then, so they were not fanatics blinded by their beliefs into ignoring the evidence. No, they simply accepted as absolute fact the utterly religious notion that the Goddesses were solely responsible for bringing day and night. This is apparently still taught in some schools.” Twinkle Shine gave a mocking nod to Dash, who bristled, but held back from commenting.
“The thing is, they were right. In a very real, very literal sense, the Goddesses raised and lowered the sun and moon. That is true. What is also true is that the world rotates on its own wobbling axis once every day and also circles the sun once every year, with the moon in turn circling the world once every twenty-nine days. This was just as true back then as it is today. Who here can tell me why both of these things are true?” There was no response from the audience. “Anyone? You! You’ve gotten the short straw, give me your best answer.”
The unicorn she singled out swallowed hard and looked around as if for assistance, but none was coming. “I, uh, I think it has to do with... multi-modal reflection sorting?”
“You just made that up, didn’t you?” Twinkle Shine asked with a smile as snickers and laughs rumbled through the audience. “Very technical sounding, I’ll give you that. No, it has nothing to do with whatever it is you just came up with. Come on, someone has to have some idea! You’re all magic students, or at least you should be if you’re taking this class. The Magic Of Friendship is on practically every course reading list for a reason, you should all at least recognize what I’ve put on the board. No? Don’t tell me none of you have actually gone through it.” She was met with nervous stares and silence. “Okay, a little advanced for you, I guess. Miss Firefly, what’s your guess as to how this works?”
“Magic,” Dash answered immediately.
Laughter was the response from the unicorns in the audience, but this time Twinkle Shine’s smile was genuine. “Yes,” she said when the laughter had died down, which sent the room into silence as surely as if she had yelled for it. “Magic. In its most basic form magic is the alteration of observed reality through the use of will. The Goddesses use magic in the same way that unicorns do, but on a scale that no mortal can match. For unicorns like myself and most of you, we tap into the energy of the world, store it in ourselves and then release it with our wills to create the effect we want. A Goddess, on the other hoof, does not store energy, for the entire cosmos is hers to command. This means that reality is as we observe it to be because the Goddesses will it to be so. Celestia creates the day by willing there to be day. It is thus by her will that we have sunlight and all the things that come with it. If she didn’t will the day, there wouldn’t be one. Our world would still orbit the sun, still rotate on its wobbling axis, but to our eyes the sun would never crest the horizon, no matter where we were in the world. If Luna similarly forsook her duties then we would have eternal day, where the sun never quite sets. Should they both abandon us then all we would be left with is perpetual, endless twilight. Star Fall, what am I talking about here?”
“A rule of magic,” Star Fall answered. “What you experience may not be what is real, but it is still what you experience, and is therefore real.”
“Reality is a perception,” Twinkle Shine said to the crowd. “What you see, hear and feel is real, but it is not necessarily the full reality, and a being with perception beyond yours can interact with that fuller reality it in ways we cannot understand or match. The Goddesses are two such beings. The world turns, we know that is true, but we do not experience it. The sun rises and sets, we know that isn’t true, but it is what we experience. These are not contradictions, simply our limited way of describing the reality that we exist in. Whatever the Goddesses know and experience, it does not resemble our own limited understanding. Just as when I reach out and lift a piece of chalk, I do it by the mechanisms of telekinesis that every unicorn can perceive. But an earth pony who sees it doesn’t understand the action that allows it, all they see is the chalk rise. In the same way the Goddesses use their power to alter the world that they see to their will, and as a result we have day and night.
“So there’s your explanation, Miss Firefly. The sun rises because the part of the world we’re standing on turns to face it, but it only rises because the Goddess wills it so. In the space between these two truths lies all the potential of magic.”
She set down her chalk, and there was a stomping roar of applause from the audience that only quieted when Professor Shine gave them a stern look. “What are you cheering for? Most of you didn’t understand that, and those that do are probably second-guessing themselves. Think about it. If you can work through the implications of this then you are well on the path to becoming masters of magic regardless of what your Talent happens to be. Well, I think that’s more than enough for all of you to ponder on today, so I’m going to cut this class short. Go, do some research, or get some lunch, or go back to bed, but whatever you do, think about it. And for Celestia’s sake read The Magic Of Friendship, I guarantee you it will be on the test!”
The class stood and began to make their way out, chatting excitedly. A few stayed behind to talk to Professor Shine, but she made her excuses and sent them away. Star Fall was still staring at the chalkboard, her lips moving silently as she talked her way through what was written there.
“Nice work,” Astrid said to Dash. “You’re makin’ yourself real popular today. Powerhouse, spy, and now you get to be an egghead. It’s like you’re doing Fall’s life in reverse. If the Professor adopts you, I’m out of here.”
“I didn’t know she was going to put me on the spot like that,” Dash protested. “I still don’t know what the hell she was talking about.”
“Those are the Sparkle-Pie equations,” Star Fall said. “The basis of modern quantum theory. This was stuff created in your time, Dash. Do you seriously not know that the earth spins?”
“It wasn’t exactly a priority in flight school!” Dash snapped. “Astronomy’s a unicorn thing, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention in the two classes we ever had on the subject. I was too busy learning how to turn clouds into rainbows.”
Star Fall cringed. “Ouch, Dash we’re not making fun of you.”
“I am,” Astrid interjected.
“I’m not making fun of you, it’s just surprising that you didn’t know this stuff.”
Dash huffed, but reined herself in. “I’m sorry, Star. I just don’t like feeling like I’m being laughed at. I’m not stupid.”
“I never said you were,” Star Fall sighed.
“To be fair, neither did I,” Astrid added. “Come on, you’re hardcore enough not to have to care about this lame stuff.”
“It’s not lame,” Star Fall protested. “It’s a fundamental part of our reality.”
“Sure, Fall,” Astrid said. “I’m sure the entire legion of snotty eggheads will back you up on that, but people like Dash and I don’t get it, and we don’t need to get it. We’ve got our own stuff that brains like you just can’t match. Doesn’t mean we’re stupid, just focused on something other than apple pie numbers.”
“Sparkle-Pie equations,” Star Fall corrected automatically. “She’s right, Dash. You’re not stupid, just way out of your time.”
Dash gave them a smile that was only half-forced. “Thanks, guys. I’m kinda stepping in it all over today, huh?”
“Your first real exposure to a new civilization, and the people you have to deal with are Gamma and Professor Shine? Dash, you are doing wonderfully,” Star Fall assured her.
“Heads up, here comes the boss,” Astrid said.
Twinkle Shine was indeed making her way up the aisle to them. She was smiling, but her gaze lingered warily on Dash, evaluating her. “I’m glad I didn’t have to come and get you,” she said to Star Fall, laying a welcoming hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier, but the King needed my advice.”
“I heard,” Star Fall said. “Gamma took the opportunity to bring me in and get my report.”
Professor Shine snorted at that. “Of course she would. A Dragon goes missing and she decides to harass my student instead of help look for it. That mare is going to give me an aneurism trying to keep her in check.”
“Professor,” Star Fall chided gently. “She’s doing what she thinks is best for the Kingdom.”
“And I’m not?” Professor Shine asked, then waved off any attempt to answer. “No, it’s fine. I know she does her best, but her best involves far too much manipulation and underhooved dealings for my comfort. Ponies like her are as necessary to our nation’s safety as I am, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” She turned to Astrid. “I’m glad you were able to drag my apprentice through yet another foray into enemy territory.”
“Yeah, well, she’s getting better at taking care of herself,” Astrid said. “I don’t have to baby her all the time anymore.” She gave the pegasus in question a playful shove.
Twinkle Shine finally turned to Dash. “And this must be your mystery mare. Fallen Star says you can speak Old Equestrian,” she said, switching to the ancient language.
“Yeah, sure I can,” Dash replied in kind. “I hear you’re probably the smartest pony around. I’ve got this problem, and everypony says you’re the only one who can help me, so here I am, asking for help.”
Twinkle Shine started back in clear surprise, a deep frown furrowing her forehead and her ears twitching. “That’s... that’s incredible,” she took a deep breath and visibly calmed herself down. “Your speech patterns, inflection, accent, everything is just as Fallen Star said. You speak the language as a native would.”
“You’re not too shabby yourself, lady,” Dash replied.
“Who taught you the old tongue?”
“Uh, my mom and dad?” Dash said. “Look, that’s what I’ve gotta get your help with, I’m not from here. Not, like, the city or anything, but from this future.”
“This future?” Twinkle Shine asked, dropping back into Solar.
“Professor,” Star Fall said, “please listen to her. She’s from the past, before the Schism, during the time of legends. She’s been brought forward in time, and we don’t know how or why.”
“From the past?” Twinkle Shine asked, eyebrow quirking in a gesture that reminded Dash of Gamma. “Star Fall, you know how ridiculous that sounds, right?”
“I know, but she can do things. Incredible things that no one else has been able to do for over eight hundred years. She speaks Old Equestrian like a native and she is absolutely not from our time. I didn’t believe her at first, and I still have my doubts about some of the details, but I believe that she believes it, and there’s too much evidence supporting her to dismiss it out of hoof.”
“What evidence?”
“She can cloudwalk, etherealize.”
“She can break the sound barrier,” Astrid put in.
“She heals and learns incredibly fast, and she can work the weather. She made a rainbow for me, Professor. A real rainbow.”
“Impressive,” the Professor mused. “She’s a pegasus from the past, then.”
“Not just any pegasus,” Star Fall said. “Professor, this is Rainbow Dash.”
For a moment, almost too quickly to be seen by anyone other than a pegasus like Dash, Twinkle Shine’s eyes flashed not with surprise, but with rage. It had been brief, and quickly covered up with disbelief, but the force of what she had seen rocked Dash back a step. “Rainbow Dash?” Twinkle Shine laughed. “Right. Of course she is.”
“Hey, I am Rainbow Dash, and I can prove it!” Dash said, her blood heating from the dismissal.
“How?” Professor Shine asked, shaking her head. “Rainbow Dash has been dead for over a thousand years. How would you even begin to prove you’re her?”
Dash paused at that, she hadn’t really thought about it. She had convinced Star Fall by simply being herself, and she had figured that was enough, but when confronted with the question directly like this it made her doubt that it was going to work like that this time. She pulled at the hem of her dress and hiked it up to display her flank. "Check the cutie mark." This tactic failed to elicit a reaction beyond a questioning stare so she dropped the dress and thought of something else. “Uh, okay. Ask me any question about Rainbow Dash’s life and I’ll answer it.”
“Alright then, what’s Rainbow Dash’s favourite food?”
“Professor!” Star Fall whined. “Take this seriously, please!”
“Star Fall, she’s obviously not Rainbow Dash,” Twinkle Shine said to her student and adopted daughter. “A pony pulled out of her own time I could maybe buy, there are ways it could be done, but to claim that she’s Rainbow Dash? It’s ridiculous.”
“Peanut butter and Zap Apple jam sandwiches!” Dash shouted. Star Fall looked at her and Professor Shine sighed and did the same. “That's my favourite food. They're delicious." The Professor just quirked her eyebrow at Dash while Star Fall frowned as she tried to pin down where she had heard the term 'Zap Apple jam' before. Dash took a heavy breath before continuing. "Okay, there's another food that I really like, but it's kind of special for me so I don't normally count it as my favourite. Chocolate cake. I don’t eat a lot of sweets. I’ve gotta eat right to keep in shape, but my friend Pinkie Pie makes this awesome chocolate cake, and every time I perfect a new trick or do something I’m trying really hard for I treat myself. She makes it specially for me, and I don’t like to admit it, but it tastes even better than peanut butter and Zap Apple jam sandwiches. It tastes better because she put so much effort into it for me, and I know it and I can just picture her smiling with every bite. So that’s, uh, that’s my favourite food.” Dash’s head hung a bit at the end, and for once she was glad of her dyed coat as its color could hide any embarrassed blush she might have.
Twinkle Shine’s smile had faded. “Chocolate cake, huh? How about Twilight Sparkle? If you’re Rainbow Dash you’d know her. What was her favourite food?”
“Doughnuts,” Dash said without hesitation, “but she’d probably claim it was daisy sandwiches.”
“When a Dragon was threatening to cover Equestria in smoke, how did you defeat it?”
“Well, I kicked it in the face,” Dash said, smirking proudly at how much use she was getting out of that memory before continuing. “It was Fluttershy that got rid of it, really. She went all ‘stare master’ on it and glared it right off the mountain.”
“How did you resolve the Bison-Appleloosan conflict?”
“We... didn’t. Kinda made things worse, really, and then it all just sorted itself out. Pinkie was ranting about that one for weeks, you shoulda seen how ticked she was her little song-and-dance routine didn’t work.”
“Name the pets of all of Twilight Sparkle’s friends.”
“Pets?” Dash asked in surprise, even Star Fall blinked in confusion at that one. “Well, okay. Pinkie’s got Gummy. Rarity’s cat is Opal, or, uh Opal..escence? Yeah, Opalescence. Applejack’s dog is Winona. Fluttershy’s got every pet in the whole world at her house. You could say Angel bunny is her pet, but he’s more like a roommate or... something. Twilight has Owlowiscious, and I guess Spike could count if you’re a total jerk. And I have Tank the flying tortoise.”
Professor Shine shook her head in disbelief. “Only the most obscure texts even mention that they had pets. You’d have to comb through ten different sources to piece together all their names. You’ve certainly done your research.”
“It’s not research, this is my life,” Dash said. “Come on, you got more for me? I can take it.”
“How did the Goddesses defeat Chrysalis?”
“Uh. Okay, you lost me on that one. Who?”
“Chrysalis? The Changeling queen?” Dash shook her head. “What was the ultimate weapon of Tirek?”
“Still lost.”
“No? Who was the first to confront Celestia Nova, and why did they fail to reach her?”
Dash just shook her head. “Okay, Celestia what? Are you talking about the Princess?”
Twinkle Shine gawked in renewed disbelief. “You know some of the most obscure facts of their mundane lives, but you can’t even recognize their most famous and storied accomplishments? Rainbow Dash figures fairly prominently in these stories, surely if you were her you’d know. What was it like leading the charge against the Tartarus Dragons? How were the Parasprites removed? Who was the saviour of the Crystal Kingdom?”
“Uh, no clue, Pinkie did something with music, and no clue,” Dash replied. “Seriously, what is all that stuff? I’ve never done any of it. Tartarus Dragons? That sounds totally cool, I would have remembered that.”
The Professor drew back, looking at Dash with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. “You are just random.”
“I am not random. Do I look pink to you?” Professor Shine raised an eyebrow. Dash looked down at herself. “Okay, bad question, but I’m normally blue, and I’m still not random.”
“Your knowledge is.”
“I think her memories don’t extend as far as the Changeling invasion,” Star Fall put in. “Dash, didn’t you say your last memory was preparing for something?”
“Bringing water to Cloudsdale to make rainclouds, yeah,” Dash said. “I’ve heard of Changelings, sorta, but they never invaded.”
“Fascinating,” Twinkle Shine said. “You honestly believe what you’re saying, don’t you?”
“I don’t just believe it, I know it,” Dash said.
The Professor chuckled. “Well, okay. You’re no simple charlatan, but I am not just going to accept your word as it is.”
“That’s cool,” Dash said, smiling. “I’ll find a way to prove it to you. I promise.”
“Yes, well, we shall see,” the Professor said. She checked the clock on the wall. “But for now I suppose I could run a few tests. Since you’re going to be staying with Star Fall anyway, I officially invite you to stay at my estate until I’ve ascertained the veracity of your assumed identity.”
“She means you can crash at Fall’s place and she won’t kick you out,” Astrid helpfully translated.
“Thanks,” Dash said, relaxing a bit. She hadn’t won the Professor over, she knew that, but just like with Star Fall, it was a start. Still, that flash of rage she had seen worried her. Where had that come from? Why did the Professor react that way to hearing her name? Dash shoved the questions out of her head and extended a hoof to the golden unicorn. “I really want to get started. The future is nice and all, but I’m missing my friends and Ponyville pretty bad.”
“No promises, but I’ll see what I can do,” Twinkle Shine said, and for the second time that day Rainbow Dash found herself shaking hooves with another pony.
Calumn sashayed into the club with a smile and a wink to the heavy-set bouncer, who watched the Changeling's flank with hungry eyes as she went past. He was in the form of a gorgeous grey-blue unicorn mare, decked out in a little black dress and tastefully placed jewellry. Changelings had fairly flexible ideas about gender, being a species that could change it at will. In general it depended on whether they were 'in-character' or not. Out of character Calumn was male, but for the moment and in this character? She was as resolutely female as it got.
She made her way to the dance floor, joining in the twirling crowd with the finesse of a master socializer. The music was upbeat, some of the newer stuff coming out of the Solar capital that combined old folk dances with modern beats and instrumentation. She'd studied it as it was getting popular, and while she didn't know this particular song she knew the music and the dances that went with it well enough to do them in her sleep. She found a partner and proceeded to lead him in leading her in the dance. She didn't devote a lot of attention to it, though. She was too busy scanning the club for her target.
The club was surprisingly full for it being early afternoon. It wasn't as packed as it would likely get come sundown, but it was a fair sight more crowded than she had expected. It made finding her target harder than it had to be, and would make it more difficult to hold his attention with all the distractions. On the plus side it meant she would be able to slip out with him more easily. Getting lost in a crowd was practically child's play.
Blaze appeared from a backroom door. Calumn didn't know how he got in that way, but she didn't question it. This club was upscale, and you needed either a lot of money or a certain look to get through the door. Calumn had that look but Blaze did not, and he certainly didn't have the money to flash to bypass that. As it was he took up a position with a good view. His Everstorm experience allowed him to ignore the extraneous ponies with barely any effort and focus on finding the ones he needed to. Calumn just hoped he would be able to stay focused without causing a scene.
"Wow, you are one heck of a mare," her ignored dance partner said, practically drooling over her.
She gave him a whimsical smile and did a complicated little twirl that had him paired with a new partner while she took up with a different stallion. This one looked even more surprised to find who he was dancing with, but didn't salivate at her like a Diamond Dog looking at a prime steak.
Finally she spotted her quarry. He was sitting at the bar, chatting with the bartender. He talked with his hooves, she noticed, swinging them around and making big gestures. He also flashed smiles over his shoulder or held certain postures for a few moments longer than necessary. He really was posing all the time.
She gave her dance partner a quick air kiss and stepped off the dance floor. She caught Blaze's eye and he jerked his head at the two bruisers who were sitting at a table in a dark corner of the club and sipping at their drinks. They looked sullen and bored, which was good news for her. They didn't even blink in her direction as she stepped up to the bar and slid into the seat next to Conrad.
"What can I get you?" the bartender, a Dog in a very nice suit, asked her.
"I'll take a strawberry daiquiri," she said, making sure to give a sultry little smirk to the dog as he turned away to get her drink.
"Now that's not the best choice," Conrad said, leaning up next to her at the bar. "This season, this time of day? You want to go with something lighter, build up to the daiquiri and probably not strawberry."
"But I like strawberries," she said, licking their lips. "They're sweet."
"They're out of season," he replied, eying her up and down. "Takes all the taste out of them."
"And you're an expert on drinks?"
"Oh yeah, I've got my own winery in the west," he said, puffing out his chest proudly. "Make some of the best vintages south of the capital."
"Really," she said, leaning into him and staring into his eyes. "Do tell."
"Well, I don't like to brag," he said, chuckling. The bartender came back and put her drink down in front of her. She dutifully picked it up and took a sip.
"So, what were you saying about your mining business?" the bartender asked.
Conrad lurched half over the bar. "I'll tell you later, man, I've just got this filly on the hook, don't screw it up for me."
The Dog took a long look at Calumn, who batted her long eyelashes at him, and backed off. "Okay, mister. Good luck with you."
"You get a tip, sir," Conrad said to him before turning back to Calumn. "So, what were we talking about?"
"Your fine wines?" she supplied.
He laughed. "Nah, let's not talk about wines, that's boring stuff. Hey, why don't you tell me about yourself."
"Well, I'm not from around here," she began. "I'm just in town for business, and maybe a bit of pleasure," she winked at the appropriate place, making sure he got the implication
"Yeah, I'm in town for business too," he said, stretching out a hoof as if to encompass everywhere in the area. "Looking to do a lot of buying."
"Oh? You're not local?"
"Actually I was born here," he said. "Lived in a little house, just me and my dad. Got out of town as soon as I could, but I figured now that I've got money it's time to come home and re-invest."
"Wow, an entrepreneur. I love ponies who give back."
"Yeah, and I love giving," he laughed.
"And I love getting given to," she gave him her best sultry smile. "You wanna get out of here, maybe continue this conversation in your room?"
He looked at her, his eyes roaming to her shapely flank, then shrugged. "Nah. I'd rather stay here."
Calumn blinked. That wasn't what she was expecting. She shifted herself to display even more of her assets. "Come on. Tell me you like what you see."
"Meh," he said, waving a hoof in the air ambivalently. "Not really."
Calumn was shocked. She had been sure that he was hooked completely. He'd practically been licking her with his eyes, but now he was acting as if she was barely more than a pony he bumped into on the street. A plain pony.
She was just about to try again when another unicorn mare sat down on the opposite side of Conrad. "Hey, I heard you were new in town."
"Not really," he said, turning away from Calumn and towards the new mare. "I lived here when I was younger, did some work for the local Royal Liaison."
The two quickly got into a conversation, and every attempt Calumn made to get the attention back on her was rebuffed by Conrad. It just didn't make sense. He had been flirting with her pretty hard, and he was doing the same to the new girl. Lying through his teeth the entire way, but doing it fluidly and flirtatiously.
Calumn excused herself and headed to the washroom. She had to re-think her approach, and might have to re-think her appearance too. The new mare was far plainer than her current form. She ran some water and dabbed it at her face, looking in the mirror to see if there was anything she missed when donning her current disguise. It all checked out, there was something that she was missing that was causing the problems. It wasn't with her so it had to be with him.
Just then the door opened and that same unicorn mare stepped in. She sidled up to Calumn at the sink counter and gave her a sidelong glance. "You tried too hard," she said.
"Sorry?" Calumn asked, surprised that the mare would talk to her.
"Conrad? The stallion you were talking up? You were trying to hard, being too forward," she continued.
"He seemed pretty into it."
"Yeah, he will, then he'll shut you down the minute you suggest going somewhere. It's not that he doesn't want to, it's just he's got to be the one making the moves. Let him take the lead and you're golden."
Calumn blinked, she hadn't thought of that. It was a common seduction technique, but everything she'd seen about this stallion had said he would have jumped at a forward mare. "Thanks," she said. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Oh, sisterly solidarity and all that." The other mare grinned. "By the way, my name's Janice and I'm with the Kingdom Secret Service. Who do you work for?" Calumn froze, eyes wide. "Yeah, thought so," Janice said, then bucked Calumn in the side.
Calumn smashed into the wall, once again lamenting that carapaces didn't carry over to assumed forms. She hit the ground gasping for breath just in time for Janice to slam a forehoof into her stomach, doubling her over. The unicorn's horn lit with a pale green light and the lock clicked in the door.
"Why... what?" Calumn wheezed out.
"Don't play dumb, it won't get you anywhere," Janice said, grabbing Calumn and hauling her up to slam her back against the wall. "Who do you work for?" she snarled. She was surprisingly strong for a unicorn, but now that she was using that strength Calumn could see the corded muscle under her slinky dress. This was a full-on Kingdom spy, not a local operative like the pawnshop owner had been. She would have training equivalent to Calumn's own, and probably some backup in case things went bad. Calumn wouldn't be able to lie her way out of this one.
So he didn't.
With a flash of green fire Calumn assumed his true shape. The unicorn's eyes went wide and her grip loosened for just a moment, which was all he needed. He smashed his forehead into hers, his carapaced skull far more resilient than her own flesh and bone. She reeled back and he pressed his advantage, shooting off the wall with a buzz of diaphanous wings and hitting her several times. She dropped to the floor, shaking off the blows, but he slammed a hoof into the back of her head. She went limp.
Calumn flipped her over, examining her. She looked up at him with dazed eyes. "Changeling," she said, her breath fluttering as she fought to hold on to consciousness.
"Changeling," he agreed, his horn lighting up with a sickly green glow. "Sleep," he said, touching his crooked horn to her forehead. She let out a sigh and relaxed completely, her eyes closing as the spell took hold. "Forget," Calumn said, casting a second spell into her. It took a lot of energy to do, but not enough to put him in danger, and it would be necessary to keep him from being discovered so soon. She'd know she'd been beaten up and her memory messed with, but that could easily have been another unicorn. They might connect the dots and find it spelled 'Changeling' eventually, but by then he hoped to be long gone.
For now, though, he'd just been given a second chance. He swapped clothes with Janice and assumed her form, stuffing her into one of the stalls and locking it. The sleep spell would keep her under for hours, so he had to work quickly, but he kept her advice in mind.
Giving her mane a little comb through to hide the slightly dishevelled state, Calumn as Janice strode out of the washroom and back to the bar. She caught Blaze's eye and gave him the sign that meant she had switched forms. She didn't see him react so she hoped he remembered what that meant. She slid into her seat and gave her target an apologetic look. "Sorry about that. Okay, what were we talking about?" She smiled at Conrad, and Conrad smiled back. And just like that the plan was back on track.
***
Twinkle Shine had to force herself not to slam the door as she stepped into her office. As it was her legs were shaking and she barely was able to lock the door and turn on the stereo to prevent eavesdropping before she collapsed to her knees.
Star Fall, Astrid and Rainbow Dash had gone on to her home. The Professor had ostensibly stayed behind to clear up some paperwork before joining them, but the true reason was a voice in her head. A voice that was both her own and alien to her. A voice that had started talking during her confrontation with Dash and had only gotten louder since. That voice was screaming in her head now, and had it been a physical thing it would have been loud enough to shake the walls and shatter the windows.
How Dare They? The voice thundered in her head, making Twinkle Shine shudder. Rainbow Dash? They Would Use Rainbow Dash Against Me?
“Quiet, please!” the Professor pleaded as she crawled to her desk and struggled to open one of the drawers while the voice ranted in her mind. She pulled out a small rectangular mirror and set it carefully on the ground beneath her, then stared into the eyes of a reflection that was not her own. “I can barely hear myself think.”
“They Dare To Use Her Against Me?” the reflection snarled, her volume dropping down to mortal levels. “I Will Find Them And End Them.”
“I don’t even know if there’s a ‘them’ to find,” Professor Shine hissed. “She certainly believes she’s Rainbow Dash.”
“She Is Not,” the reflection insisted, her eyes flashing gold and white. “I Watched Rainbow Dash Die. I Watched Her Burn And Her Ashes Scattered To The Wind.”
“I know,” the Professor sighed. “She isn’t Rainbow Dash, but she could be something very close. She knows things. Impossible things. And she doesn’t even realize how impossible they are.”
“It Is Irrelevant,” the reflection said. “She Is A Threat.”
“Star Fall is in danger,” Twinkle Shine said in agreement. “This could be a ruse aimed at her.”
“The Student Has No Experience With Rainbow Dash. It Is More Likely To Be Aimed At Me,” the reflection pointed out.
“But why? And who would know enough to do that? Let alone the question of who could have the power to create a facsimile so close.”
“I Do Not Know,” the reflection stared at her, burning eyes narrowing. “The Forces Of War Gather. It Is Nearly Time For My Return.”
“I know,” Twinkle Shine sighed. “The timing is too much to be coincidence. And whoever she is and whatever purpose she has, she’s dragging Star Fall into it. I have to find a way to separate them without arousing suspicion.”
“The Student Can Be Persuaded.”
“How? How can I convince her?”
“Use Secrets. She Has Been Protected From The Truth For Too Long. It Is Time She Learned What Has Been Planned For Her.”
“I don’t want her exposed to that. She’s still so young, there's time yet.”
“She Is Old Enough To Spy For Gamma. She Is Old Enough To Know The Price Of Her Power.”
Twinkle Shine sighed. “She is, isn’t she? I can’t tell her everything, not yet, but I think I know what I can say to start her on the path to safety. It has to be done carefully, though. Slowly. I need to do it without making Gamma or Star Fall suspicious. They can't learn the truth yet.”
“Very Well. The Student Will Be Protected, And I Will Learn From This False Rainbow Dash Who Has Set Her Against Me. And Then I Shall Destroy Her.”
“So be it,” Twinkle Shine said as the voice faded and her reflection’s eyes ceased their glow. “Let the Nightmare fly once more.”
Second. the pony must be in a spiritual accord with the other five potential bearers. This accord is similar to, but not precisely the same as, the bonds of friendship. Indeed there is no requirement that the bearers actually like each other at all. The accord must simply be enough to both create and sustain the resonance that initiates the Magic of Harmony. Detecting such an accord pre-Harmony Event is difficult, but not impossible. After an Event it is glaringly obvious. This accord is, however, a delicate thing before its first Harmony Event, and can be upset by any number of factors, making actively seeking such an accord a dangerous and counter-productive task.
Third, the pony must be willing to accept the Element. Becoming a bearer cannot be forced on anypony, which is fortunate. The willingness does not need to be an informed consent, however. A pony can take up an Element without fully understanding what they're doing, but there still must be a measure of intent behind the act. Wielding an Element is a choice, not an accident.
Finally, a pony must be accepted by the Element itself. What this means is a mystery to me still. I do not know if the Elements have a will of their own, or merely some kind of automatic method for detecting a proper bearer. Or perhaps it is something else altogether that I am simply incapable of seeing. Whatever it is, a pony cannot be forced to wield an Element, and an Element cannot be wielded by force.
There is one other requirement, but it pertains solely to the Element of Magic. The bearer of the Element of Magic must undergo a phenomenon that has been referred to as 'the Spark'. This Spark is experienced differently by various bearers: I experienced it as a moment of epiphany, Trixie described it as a sudden feeling of utter stillness, Celestia told me it felt to her like the first time the world had ever made sense. Whatever the internal sensation, the Spark gets its name from its external manifestation: a visible momentary flash of light from within the bearer's eyes. A bearer can experience multiple instances of the Spark, and each one invariably precedes a Harmony Event. In this way it can be likened to an early-warning, like the sound of distant thunder you hear before a storm from the Everfree Forest, or the way the animals all hide before an earthquake.
The three of them were able to fly directly from the university to the penthouse, which gave Dash another chance to stretch her wings and also get a good aerial look at the city. The sheer size of the place still astounded her, but as much as the tall buildings and endless fields of houses impressed her, it was the castle to which her eyes were always drawn. It looked so out of place, and yet so perfectly right. It was like a piece of the world she knew dropped into the future. She was almost disappointed when Star Fall and Astrid descended to the small balcony of the Shine estate.
"Dash, hold still," Star Fall said as she stepped up to the heavy double doors that led inside. "It'll take a moment before the wards will accept you."
"Wards. Like magic wards?" Dash asked.
Star Fall nodded and set her hoof firmly down. There was a flash of light and a design Dash hadn't even known was there suddenly glowed from the balcony floor. She felt a tingle of magic wash through her. It was similar to being grabbed by telekinesis, but not the same. Astrid shivered, her feathers ruffling before she used a claw to forcibly smooth them back into place.
"There," Star Fall said. "You're registered. You should be able to come and go, so long as I'm nearby. If you stay long enough I'll have to renew it every week, though."
"What happens if you're not registered?" Dash asked.
"Well, the wards are designed to immobilize an intruder and alert the authorities," Star Fall said, putting a hoof to her chin as she contemplated it. "They also can get pretty vicious when someone is able to resist that part. Against you? I don't know, you don't react to magic the same as the rest of us, and you're too strong for most of the effects to work on you. You'd get a nasty shock and a squad of Griffins on your tail at the very least."
"Heh, just checking," Dash said. "Griffins are serious business, right? Do they usually show up for break-ins?"
"If the place being broken into is Professor Shine's? Yeah," Astrid said. "She's chief advisor to the Crown, Dash. She gets special treatment."
"Oh. Wow, okay," Dash said as Star Fall opened the doors. "Hey, Star, can I talk to you about what just went on? With Gamma and the Professor and everything?"
"Sure, Dash, just let me show you around first, okay?" Star Fall replied. "I don't get a chance to show off much."
"Sure," Dash agreed, and followed the other pegasus inside.
Twinkle Shine's luxurious penthouse apartments were actually a little disappointing for Rainbow Dash. Her own home in Ponyville was typical of pegasus design, with open spaces, tall columns and the asymmetric grandeur that could only be achieved with cloud-based structures. Unicorns liked to build things that reminded them of their horns, tall and pointy. Even though the Shine estate was set at the top two floors of one of the immense skyscrapers of the Solar capital, the design aesthetic was more earth pony practicality than anything else. No grand halls, no lavish foyers, just a series of simple and functional rooms that each served a clear purpose. Not that it didn't look expensive. Everything in the penthouse was clearly top of the line, but it was a functional top of the line.
"So you can watch movies on this thing?" Dash was asking, watching the television screen in the guest room that was going to be hers while Star Fall explained how it worked. She could see the individual images as they flashed by, and while the illusion of motion was there it was probably going to give her a headache if she watched it for too long.
"Sure, but there's more than just movies available," Star Fall said, clearly excited to show off the gadget. Astrid had gone to cook a meal in the large and immaculately clean kitchen when Star Fall had finally brought Dash around to the bedrooms, and so it was just the two of them. "There's a dozen channels with their own programming. It's a luxury, but it's kind of a pastime in the Kingdom to watch TV. They don't have it in the Republics, you need special crystals to make the image, and the main source of them is in the north so they don't have the stockpile there that we do here."
"Neat," Dash said, poking at the button Star Fall had used to turn the device on and finding that it could also be used to turn it off. "This is the kind of cool future stuff I was talking about, Star."
"Yet you don't seem all that impressed," Star Fall observed. "You didn't have this in your time, did you?"
"Not this," Dash said, stepping over to her bed and jumping on it to test the springiness. "We had movies, but you needed projectors and screens and reels of film. Stuff like this was all unicorn magic and enchanted items that did one or two things. The whole 'dozen channels' thing is cool. Also I saw a bunch of these TV's in a store while we were on the way to Gamma's this morning. I don't know how expensive they are, but if you're selling them in a store window they gotta be affordable, right? Regular ponies having this kind of stuff is what's really cool."
"They're kind of affordable," Star Fall said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "A model like this one isn't, but the ones you'd see in a store window? Yes, they would be within the reach of the pony on the street." She let out a sigh. "I'm glad at least something is getting your attention. I was beginning to fear that we hadn't made any progress at all in over a thousand years."
"Apocalypse, remember?" Dash said, grinning.
"Still, apocalypse or not I was starting to share your disappointment in the future."
"Star? Am I really that unbelievable?" Dash asked, flopping down on the bed next to the white pegasus.
Star Fall paused at the change in topics, thinking it over. "You're talking about Gamma and the Professor?" Dash nodded. "I don't know. I can tell you that I still have my doubts, but most of it makes too much sense if you are who you say you are. I don't think Gamma cares who you are, so long as you do what she wants. The Professor? Well, I think she'll be a lot harder to convince than I was. Once she does, though, she'll be behind you all the way."
"All that stuff she said, all those questions she asked. Is that stuff supposed to happen in my future? If I was there, why don't I remember it?"
Star Fall shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe you were pulled into the future from a point before any of that happened, maybe all that stuff did happen to you, but time travelling has messed up your memories. Maybe something else. I hope the Professor can find out, but speculating won't get us anywhere."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Dash sighed and gave the white pegasus a grin as she rolled off the bed. "Your place is awesome, Star."
Star Fall smiled back. "Thanks."
It wasn't long before Twinkle Shine arrived and the testing began. One of the rooms was used for magical experimentation, and that's where they went. It had a bare stone floor on which the Professor drew a magic circle that she made Dash stand in while Star Fall sat in a comfy-looking chair and watched with rapt attention. Mostly the testing involved Dash having to hold still while the Professor ran a beam of magic over her. At least one point involved her hovering in place for twenty straight minutes. All of this while the Professor mumbled to herself and made notes. There was a break when Astrid brought out food, which was surprisingly good, but then it was back to standing in place and being so bored she could barely keep from falling asleep on her hooves.
Finally Twinkle Shine's horn went dark. "Well, that was interesting," she said.
"What? Do you believe me now?" Dash asked, stretching out her limbs and looking eagerly to the golden unicorn.
"No," the Professor said, "but you do have incredibly high amounts of magic in your body. Even for a classic pegasus you're abnormal."
"Well, I am the fastest pegasus in Equestria, that's gotta mean something," Dash said.
"I have no doubt that you're the fastest thing in the air now, but Rainbow Dash was supposedly a phenom in her own time, capable of feats that make breaking the sound barrier seem like crawling."
"Sonic Rainboom, yeah, that's me. I did that," Dash said.
Twinkle Shine snorted. "In any case, you do fit most of the criteria for a strong pre-Schism pegasus. Your Glyph is real, and it matches the descriptions of Rainbow Dash's, and under that dye you are the correct natural coloration. However there are some things that don't add up with your story. For instance there is no evidence of temporal disturbance."
"Which means?"
"Which means that you didn't travel through time," Star Fall said from her seat. "Not more so than usual, anyway."
"No, I totally did," Dash protested, a sudden fear welling up in her faster than she could force it down. "I was going to sleep in Ponyville one minute, then I wake up in the future the next! That's totally time-travel!"
"Calm down, it could mean anything," Twinkle Shine admonished. "It's something that doesn't add up with what I was expecting from your story, so it needs to be looked into. I don't have the equipment here to do a proper analysis. I can book lab time at the university tomorrow and we can do a proper examination."
"Uh, about that," Star Fall said, shooting to her hooves. "There's this thing, you see. We, uh, we aren't going to be around tomorrow."
"What?" Twinkle Shine asked, voice flat and hard as she lowered her head to stare at her student through the part in her mane.
"Gamma wants us out in the field again. We're leaving in the morning," Star Fall said, smiling nervously.
Professor Shine closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You just got back from a mission to the Republics. It's too soon to send you out again. Doesn't that mare have any sense?"
"It's important, Professor," Star Fall pleaded. "It won't take too long. A week at most."
Twinkle Shine's face twisted in anger, but she quickly composed herself. "Dash, Astrid, could you leave me with my student, please?"
"Yes, ma'am," Astrid said, and started for the door.
Dash flashed a worried look at Star Fall, but the other pegasus just shook her head. "It's okay, Dash, I need to talk to her anyway."
Dash didn't have anything to say to that, so she followed Astrid out. The door slammed shut behind them and was surrounded with the golden glow of the Professor's magic, sealing the room against intrusion and eavesdropping.
"Wow," Dash said to Astrid. "Are they about to have a fight?"
"Probably," Astrid said, shrugging. "It happens. Let's hit the balcony, I want to watch the sun go down."
They wandered out to the balcony and sat at the edge of it, looking out over the vista of the city. The sun was falling behind the buildings, and as their shadows stretched across the city lights were coming on creating constellations on the ground to match the ones that would soon dot the sky. The castle was clearly visible from where they were, and Dash's keen eyes could make out dozens of forms flying in and out of its high towers, a changing of the guard.
"Astrid," Dash said. "You believe me, right?"
The Griffin snorted. "Dash, the first thing you said to me, through Fall, was a Griffin greeting. After that I'm not going to question who you say you are until I have reason to. Fall, the Professor, Gamma, they're good ponies, but they overthink everything all the time. They can't believe something until they've confirmed it ten different ways because they're all too clever for their own good. They think about how they could fake something, or lie to work an angle, and then they start thinking about how they would fake it so that someone like them would believe it. It goes 'round in circles in their heads until they're not sure of anything anymore. Someone like you comes around, with a story that's too crazy not to be true, and they'll tie themselves in knots trying to work out how it has to be fake before they ever admit that it's true."
"Star believes me."
"Well, Fall has a good influence in her life," Astrid said, beak opening in a raptor's grin. "A big, Griffin-shaped good influence."
Dash laughed at that. "How long have you been with her?"
"I was assigned to Fall when she was adopted ten years or so ago, we’ve been together off and on since then," Astrid said. "I'm older than her, but not by much so they figured we'd have plenty in common."
"Is that normal? Getting a Griffin protector like that?"
Astrid shook her head. "No. Griffins are beholden to the Crown. We work for the King and the Royal family, not the nobles. The Professor's important, and if she weren't the most powerful unicorn in the world she might get an escort, but an adopted pegasus daughter? No, it's not normal."
"Huh. I knew some Griffins in my time," Dash said. "My best friend at one point was a Griffin named Gilda. I thought she was pretty awesome at the time, but we kinda drifted apart later."
"She the one who taught you the greeting?"
Dash nodded. "And a lot of other stuff too. I stayed with her family one summer. I got to see their aerie and watch them hunt and everything. I learned all about the clan markings and what they meant. I actually thought they were like cutie marks at first, but that got knocked out of me pretty quick."
"Dash, you do realize I have no idea what those words you just used mean," Astrid said.
"Oh, right. Uh, Talent Glyphs. I thought they were like Talent Glyphs."
Astrid snorted. "If only. The world would be a lot better for Griffins if we just had some equivalent to Glyphs."
"Why?" Dash asked. "I mean, you guys seem to have a pretty sweet deal, working for the King and all. From what I've seen, you're all still, like scary-awesome warriors and everything. What's so bad about it?"
"Dash, we don't have it good at all," Astrid said, turning pensive and staring down towards the castle. "We don't work for the King because we want to, we do it because we have to, because we owe our lives to the Royals. Actually owe them, like a debt."
Dash frowned, the very idea of it repulsing her. "Why? How can that even work?"
"It's hard for a Griffin to be hatched," Astrid said. "Only one out of every ten eggs quicken, and even then the hatchling is sickly and more often than not dies before they learn to use their wings. You want better odds than that? It takes a lot of careful breeding and magic. Magic only the Royals can do. My species isn't extinct because a long time ago we swore to serve the Crown. All of us, forever. It's not a job, Dash, it's our entire culture."
"Whoa," Dash said, absorbing that. "Okay, yeah, that sucks. Why is it so hard to have children?"
"Same reason all the donkeys died out, and the buffalo, and why the Dragons have to be babied until they're a hundred years old. Magic, Dash. Too little fucking magic to go around. And yet ponies still have their Glyphs, proving they're just better than the rest of us all the time."
"How do Glyphs prove that?"
"Dash, it's a truth that all of us non-ponies have to come to terms with that no matter how tough, how strong, how fast, how skilled or how smart we are we will never, never be as good as a pony with a Talent. We can't compete. The only ones who can are Dragons, and they've got so many problems that it's just not worth it."
They sat in silence for a while, Dash thinking over what she had learned and Astrid tracking the sun as it fell below the horizon. The Griffin closed her eyes as the last rays of light vanished and muttered something. "What was that?" Dash asked.
"A prayer. 'Celestia, bearer of light, warm my dreams and bring me safely to your dawn'." Astrid said. "You knew Her, right? When She was a living, breathing person?"
"Yeah, a little," Dash said. "Twilight was really the one who knew her best."
"But you met Her, you talked to Her."
"Yeah."
"What was She like?"
"You really want to know?" Dash asked.
"Yeah. You knew a Goddess in the flesh. We may not look it, but we Griffins are pretty religious," Astrid replied. "The Royals are descended from the Goddesses, after all, and since we owe our lives to them, well..."
"They are? Cool," Dash said, then tapped her chin as she thought about it. "Okay, the first thing you need to know is that Princess Celestia is big. Like, more than twice my height big..."
The door slammed shut, locked with the glow of Twinkle Shine's magic. She turned to Star Fall, who stood with her wings fluttering slightly and her eyes downcast. "When were you going to tell me?"
"I was planning to do it right away, but with you meeting Dash it just slipped my mind," Star Fall said. "Professor, I swear, this is important."
"It always is," Twinkle Shine growled. "Always something that has to be done, and that no one else can do except you. That's the reason she sends you through the Everstorm, that's the reason she has you investigating Cash." Star Fall's eyes widened in surprise at that. "What? You thought I didn't know? I'm the closest advisor to the King, if I want to know where my student is and what she's doing, I will know it."
"He's dangerous," Star Fall began, but Twinkle Shine silenced her with a glare.
"Of course he's dangerous," the Professor scoffed. "Gamma wouldn't be so damned interested in him if he wasn't. I don't fault her for that, but I do find it reprehensible that she sends you into danger to investigate a pony for digging holes."
"He's searching for something," Star Fall said. "Something that might be the key to knowing why Dash is here."
Twinkle Shine paused, lowering her head to hide her eyes from her student. "How is he connected to Rainbow Dash?"
Star Fall told the whole story as she had heard it earlier that day. Twinkle Shine listened without comment, but her body was becoming more rigid and her horn sparked with flashes of emotion-charged magic as she learned of the connections between Dash's awakening and Cash's mysterious dig. The voice was back, whispering rage into her mind while she tried to force it down and work through the implications logically. When Star Fall finished her story the golden unicorn let out a breath and shook her head. "And now Gamma is sending both you and Rainbow Dash back to Cash to find out more. No. I can't allow this."
"Professor, this is my job," Star Fall said, trying not to stamp her hoof and shout. "I'm not a little filly anymore, I can handle danger."
"You're not... Star Fall, you don't know what I've done to protect you, what I'm still doing!" Twinkle Shine snapped out, shaking her head in frustration. She turned to the wall and took a few steadying breaths before looking back to her student. There was a look in her eye that the pegasus didn't recognize. "Please, let's sit down. It's time I told you something."
Star Fall obliged her mentor, taking a seat while Twinkle Shine did the same. "Star Fall, when I adopted you, what did I say my reasons were?"
Star Fall frowned at this question, but answered without hesitation. "You said that I needed a proper education for a Magic Talent, and that the only way to get that was to be able to take the unicorn classes that I would be barred from if I wasn't a noble. You didn't want my Talent to be wasted, and you didn't think another unicorn noble would be able to give me all the support I needed, so you were doing it yourself."
Twinkle Shine nodded. "That is all true, but it's not the whole truth. It's like the lecture I gave in class today, there were actions going on at levels you couldn't perceive for reasons you couldn't understand that were shaping your reality. You're old enough now to learn about them. One of the main reasons I adopted you myself wasn't because you needed an education, but to pre-empt the King from doing it."
Star Fall sat wide-eyed and rigid as those words hit her. "What? The King?"
Twinkle Shine nodded. "When he heard about you, a pegasus with a Magic Talent, he started the process of adopting you into the Royal family immediately. I was only barely able to get my claim in first, and then only with the help of Gamma. It's why I've allowed you to work for her for so long, I owed her for going against the will of the Crown for me."
Star Fall shook her head, barely able to comprehend what she was hearing. "But why? Why would the King want to adopt me?"
"Think about it, Star Fall," Twinkle Shine said, sighing. "The Royals are unicorns with pegasus magic. You're a pegasus with unicorn magic. Is it so strange, once you consider it from that angle?"
If Star Fall hadn't already been white she would have paled at that. "But my family... I'm not..."
"Not related to them, no," the Professor said. "You don't have a drop of the Divine blood in your veins, but that hardly matters. In fact, that's the point. The Royal line has never been strong."
"They want me to..."
"Yes," Twinkle Shine said, and Star Fall slumped in her chair, mouth moving, but no sound coming out. "I can't stop that from happening. The King has yet to decide which of his sons, cousins or nephews that he prefers, but once he does you will be betrothed, then married into the Royal family. If you had been adopted by him it would have happened already."
"But, he's always been so kind to me." Star Fall shook her head. "Of course he has. Astrid. Oh Celestia, I should have seen it."
"I worked hard to keep it from you," the Professor said, leaning over and laying a gentle hoof on her student's shoulder. "Please don't hate me for that."
"But why let me work for Gamma? Why let me go into danger so much if I'm that important?" Star Fall asked, pulling herself up and looking her mentor in the eyes. To Twinkle Shine's surprise there was no anger or animosity there. The news had stunned her, but she had caught herself and was even now thinking it through, just like the Professor had taught her. It brought a moment of pride to the golden unicorn to have her student take this revelation and keep going.
"Gamma convinced him it was necessary, and I didn't say anything to contradict her," Twinkle Shine answered. "I created the Everstorm spells for you so that when the time came you had a way to escape if you wanted it. I don't know how Gamma got wind of them, but that mare is never one to turn down an advantage, and she definitely saw an advantage in what I had given you. No unicorn can use those spells, and since you're the only non-unicorn spellcaster, well, she had enough leverage to be very persuasive."
"Magic levels," Star Fall said, shaking her head. "It's all about magic levels, isn't it?" Twinkle Shine quirked an eyebrow at her. "Dash said that in her time the pony species could interbreed safely. I didn't think it was possible now, but it is, isn't it? If both parents have enough magic, they can still produce viable offspring. I don't have as much magic in me as Dash does, but with my Talent I can focus it in ways she can't. If I focused that magic into bearing a foal... could I? Could I have a Royal child?"
Twinkle Shine nodded. "Yes. You could. But that's not what the King wants. He's convinced himself that you would not only be the mother of a Royal foal, but of a true Alicorn."
"That's not possible," Star Fall said, immediately and without a hint of doubt.
"Agreed," the Professor said. "He won't be dissuaded, though. He's sure that you are the way to a true Goddess re-entering the world. I've tried to convince him otherwise, multiple times. So has every other advisor he's spoken of this to, including Gamma. Even the Queen doesn't believe it's possible, but he does, and that's all he can see. That's what I've been protecting you from. The King's impossible dream, and his disappointment when you inevitably fail to live up to it."
"I... Thank you, professor. I never even imagined." Star Fall shook her head. "Why? Why is he so focused on something that is clearly never going to happen?"
"That is a secret I cannot share," Twinkle Shine said. "The King has fears, and they are grounded in reality, but he's allowed those fears to lead him into flights of fancy to find his hope. Star Fall, I've stalled him, made him consider who his most worthy option to marry you to is. I've been encouraging those stallions to jockey for position and outdo each other to muddy the waters further, but there will be a winner, and all signs point to that winner being made clear soon. There’s war on the horizon, Star Fall, and the King will want his dream secured before it comes." Twinkle Shine ran a hoof over Star Fall's mane the motion as much to comfort herself as her student. "You have your life, your duties, your work, but all of it is going to come crashing down. I didn't want to tell you so soon, to have you worry about it, but the arrival of this Rainbow Dash has thrown everything into uncertainty. Gamma will not keep her existence secret from the King, and he is going to latch onto the appearance of a possible hero from the past like a drowning pony to driftwood. You are going to have to decide, and very soon, what you want your future to be."
Star Fall leaned over and hugged her mentor. Twinkle Shine wrapped her forehooves around her student and fervently returned the embrace. "What am I going to do?" the pegasus asked, her voice as small as a frightened child’s.
"I don't know, but whatever you do I will support you. In any way I can," Twinkle Shine promised. "You may not be my true daughter, but I still love you like one. Just as your parents love you. No one, not even the King, is going to force you to do something like that against your will. Not if I have anything to say about it, and I do."
They held each other for a time. Finally, when they parted there were tears in their eyes, but smiles on their faces. "I'm sorry, professor," Star Fall said. "I still have to go on this mission tomorrow."
"I wish you wouldn't," Twinkle Shine said, rubbing the tears away from her face.
"I know, but I think this is important enough that I want to do it myself. It will also give me time to think about what you've told me. Time to decide what I'm going to do. Afterwards, I'm going to go see Spike."
Twinkle Shine's eyes lit up. "Oh, that would be wonderful. He's always so alone out there in his lair, and you can talk about this with him. There's a lot of wisdom under his goofy purple hide."
"Actually, Gamma wants to bring him here," Star Fall said. "Max Cash marked out his lair on a map, and we think he might go after something Spike has."
"That's terrible," Twinkle Shine said, frowning. "I don't think he'll be willing to leave, though."
"Well, as you said, Gamma is persuasive."
"And Dragons are stubborn. I wouldn't expect to have him convinced to leave his cave for at least a month."
Star Fall chuckled. "I guess you’re right. I also want him to take a look at Dash. If there's anyone who can really, truly tell if it's the real her, it will be him."
Twinkle Shine nodded slowly. "Yes, I might agree with that. He may not remember her at all, though. He was a baby for most of her life, and a juvenile still when she died. Even a Dragon's memories of their youth get lost after a thousand years."
"I know that, but he's the only living being around who might remember her. I think it'll be worth it."
"I understand," Twinkle Shine sighed. "Be careful, and don't stick your neck out where you don't need to."
"I won't," Star Fall said, standing. Twinkle Shine's magic left the door, allowing it to be opened again. Star Fall was about to trot over to it when she turned back to the Professor. "I just remembered. An Alicorn, like Nightmare Umbra?"
"Well, hopefully not like the Shadowed Alicorn, but a Goddess, yes, that is his delusion."
"Dash was saying something this morning, and it had gone completely out of my head until you mentioned Alicorns. Do you know what the Elements of Harmony are?"
Twinkle Shine's blood went cold. She knew her face had frozen in its expression, but she was helpless to do anything as her entire being shuddered with one word spoken with the voice of a god: IMPOSSIBLE.
"Professor?" Star Fall asked, stepping closer.
It was enough to return a measure of control to the golden unicorn. She shook her head. "Sorry, I think I've exhausted myself a bit today. What were you saying?"
"Dash said that Nightmare Moon, the evil spirit of the night, was actually an Alicorn Goddess, like Nightmare Umbra is," Star Fall said. Twinkle Shine felt the words like a blow, and had to still her shuddering. "She said they defeated her by using these items called the Elements of Harmony. I've never heard of them before. Do they mean anything to you?"
NO. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.
"I can't say that they do," the Professor struggled out. "Perhaps they were some sort of artefact from their time. Like the legendary Crystal Heart or the Tartarus Keys."
"I was thinking that, but for some reason they're not mentioned in any of the texts I remember reading. Still, I feel like I've seen the term before, connected with Twilight Sparkle. Can I borrow your copy of The Magic Of Friendship? It's a first edition, so if anything is going to mention the heroes using them, that's going to be it."
"Sure," Twinkle Shine said. "You can read it tonight, but don't take it with you, I don't want it getting more damaged than it already is."
"Okay, thanks," Star Fall frowned and peered closer at her mentor. "Are you sure you're alright? You look like you're in pain."
"I am, a bit," the Professor admitted. "My head's killing me. I must have been using more magic than I thought when I was scanning Rainbow Dash."
"It didn't seem like you were overcasting," Star Fall said, helping the golden unicorn to her hooves.
"Thank you. Well, I might be catching a bug then. I should see a doctor about it, but I expect I'll just be told to keep quiet and not get so emotional about things."
"Huh?"
"Avoid stress," the Professor said, hoping that the inner voice was listening. "If you could help me to my room, you can grab the book and I can get some rest."
Star Fall did help her into her room, and after she had left Twinkle Shine locked the door magically and sat herself in front of her dressing mirror. "Enough shouting," she hissed at her reflection as its eyes began to glow. "I don't want to have a popped blood vessel in front of my student."
"I Destroyed All Traces Of The Elements," her reflection raged, her anger tainted with the frantic edge of panic. "Those Who Know Of Their Existence Were Bound To Secrecy. This Is Impossible!"
"Obviously not!" Twinkle Shine snapped back. "Whoever made this Rainbow Dash facsimile knows about them, and about Nightmare Moon!"
"It Is Aimed At Me Then," the reflection snarled. "They Will Find They Chose The Wrong Opponent."
Twinkle Shine felt the wrench in her being that signified the beginning of the change that would make her reflection a reality. She clamped down on it, halting the transformation in its tracks. "No! Star Fall! I will not endanger her!"
"The Elements Must Not Be Returned To The Minds Of Ponies!" the reflection raged.
"And they won't be!" Twinkle Shine said, forcing herself to calm. "They won't be. I will keep that from happening. Nothing has changed."
"The False Rainbow Dash Must Be Eliminated Immediately."
"Nothing has changed! Think! Don't reveal everything now. Yes, Dash has to go, but not right this instant. Not in the middle of my home. There will be an opportunity soon. Very soon. "
"Yes,” the reflection said, the pressure of transformation easing away. “I Am Still Gathering My Power. To Appear Before The World Now At The Center Of The Kingdom Would Be Folly."
"Exactly. Exactly. To act without thought will only lead to disaster. This situation is too uncontrolled for anything less. I know what to do."
"The Student Will Be In Danger."
"Not so much. Not from this. I will protect her. Listen to me, I have a plan."
"And If This Plan Does Not Work?"
"Then I have a backup plan. And if that doesn't work I've got one more beyond it."
Her reflection stared at her with eyes that had white draconic pupils surrounded by burning golden irises against black sclera. The eyes of a Nightmare. "So Long As I Fulfill My Purpose, I Will Heed These Plans."
Twinkle Shine smiled at the mirror, which reflected only patient rage and endless power, and began to talk.
Calumn leaned seductively against Conrad as they walked down the street towards the Drake hotel. He grinned, making sure to rub against her a bit more than was necessary. She’d drunk quite a bit, but even in another’s body she could hold her liquor better than most hardened alcoholics. Conrad had actually kept his drinking light, focusing more on telling tall tales and buying her ever greater amounts of alcohol.
She had been plying him for information since she started, but he was frustratingly slippery. Every time she thought she had him pinned down, he would wriggle in a new direction and throw her off completely. So she had been forced to keep playing the game, all the way to his bedroom if necessary. She was not prepared to go all the way for information that might not even be useful, though, so that would be where she cut it off.
No one had found the real Janice in the washroom, and the sleep spell wasn’t going to expire for a while yet, but when he had finally suggested that they head back to his place she had been more than happy to oblige. She hadn’t been able to spare more than a few glances for Blaze as they were leaving, but the earth pony seemed to be doing his job with a certain level of professionalism that she hadn’t expected. He hadn't started chatting up the thugs he was meant to watch, at least, and that had been a real worry.
"Here we are, babe," Conrad said as they came up to the Drake. "Nice, huh? I practically own the place."
"Really?" She giggled, stumbling artfully so she could catch a glimpse behind them. "That's so cool!" The two thugs were keeping pace, but also keeping their distance. They regarded Conrad and her with the bored dispassion of violent ponies killing time between hoof-fights. Neither of them were going to be an issue if she handled this right. Blaze trailed further back, slinking along walls and darting from shadow to shadow, eyes darting exaggeratedly back and forth. It was a bizarre sight, one that should by all rights have drawn more attention than it did.
"Come on, babe, don't you want to see my private suite?" Conrad asked, waggling his eyebrows. She nodded vigorously and let him help her into the hotel.
The Drake was one of the best hotels in the town, and it showed. It boasted a large, well-lit foyer full of red carpeting and leather couches. The counter that a smiling attendant sat behind was so polished it might as well have been a mirror. Signs pointed the way to the pool, sauna and workout room, while another advertised their attached restaurant. Calumn noted them as potential escape routes, hiding places and ambush points in case this all went sour.
Conrad ignored everything in the lobby, leading her directly to the bank of elevators and hitting the call button. There was an elevator there already and Calumn stumbled in. She leaned up against the wall as seductively as only a fully-trained Changeling could be and watched as the two thugs rushed to get into the elevator before the door closed. They didn't make it.
The ride up was spent ferociously making out with Conrad. She was careful not to be too forceful, but there were many ways of subtle prodding that could get a stallion to make the first move. The physical intimacy opened an emotional connection between them, and while it was too shallow a bond to allow her to feed from him, it did let her get a read of his feelings. She used this to gauge how worried he was about his shadows. As it turned out he was incredibly nervous, but it wasn't the nervousness of a stallion spending time with a beautiful mare, or of a pony in danger who had lost his protection. Instead it was more like the fear of a colt who had done wrong and was certain he'd be caught at any moment.
Calumn didn’t know what to make of that, but she filed it away in case she found a way to use it later. They came to 502, Calumn noting that 503 had a good view of Conrad’s door. Depending on how alert they were, she figured it would take a few seconds for anyone in that room to respond to any call of alarm. Not enough time to get out of Conrad’s room and down the hallway, but enough time to set up a means of escape.
“Come on in,” Conrad said, opening the door to his room and letting her inside.
“What a great place,” she said, taking the room in. It was fairly nice, with a windowed wall showing the town. It had no balcony, though, which limited options of egress. The room boasted a large sitting room with a separate bedroom. It even had a small kitchen, though from the looks of things Conrad hadn’t been using it. The air smelled of the usual mixture of disinfectant, dust and mold that hotels inevitably gained, but there was also the faint hint of perfume, evidence of the previous mares he had brought up.
Conrad’s dark red magic glowed around his horn as he hastily swept about the room, hiding trash under the couch and flicking some of the lights off. He flipped on a stereo as she made her way to the couch and lay down, soft jazz floating through the hidden speakers. He pulled out a bottle of wine, and Calumn had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. He had already given her enough drinks to drown a Griffin, what did he hope to accomplish with more? Still, Calumn accepted the glass she was given, and decided that now would be a good time to get to the important questions.
“Hey, Conrad, you know you remind me of someone,” she began.
“Well, I’ve got one of those faces, I’m unforgettable,” he said with a grin. “You’ve probably seen pictures of me in the paper.”
“No, not that,” she said with a drunken wave of her hoof. “I mean all the stuff you’ve done... done in your life. It’s crazy! All the things you did. I hearda, heard of someone else like that once. What was his name? Mar... Murr... Max! Max Cash!”
Calumn watched carefully as Conrad went through a series of emotions. Recognition. Surprise. Confusion. Suspicion. Fear. “Never heard of him,” Conrad lied.
Calumn shrugged. “Meh, s’okay. I thought a stallion like you mighta crossed his path. ‘Cause you’re both big shots and all.” More fear from Conrad, though none of it showed on his face. “I heard he’s interested in this area.” Less fear. “No, wait, not here. Somewhere north. Out... out in the... country.” Bingo.
“Sorry,” Conrad laughed. “I’ve got no clue who this guy is. He can’t be that big, though, if I haven’t heard of him.”
“Didn’t you... Didn’t you tell the bartender you were into mining? You said mining, right? Well, you should probably look this guy up, I hear he’s into diggin’ holes. Might have some competition.” Nothing. New line of questioning. “Or, okay, I guess I don’t know, but he’s got his hooves in everything, right? So you gotta have met him.” Another hit. “But if you haven’t, I guess that’s a good thing. ‘Cause you don’t get to be a big shot like him without doing something criminal.” Huge hit, enough that it even showed in the widening of his eyes and the sudden hitch in his breathing. Conrad was in bed with Cash somehow, and definitely involved in his criminal businesses.
“As much as I love talking about ponies I’ve never met,” Conrad said, sliding closer. “Why don’t we focus on you and me?”
"Yeah, why don't we talk about you," Calumn said, laying one hoof suggestively on his flank and giving him a sultry smirk. She was just about to start leading him to answering more questions when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. A dark shape was coming towards the window, and fast.
She dove out of the way as the large window smashed inward, shards of glass raining down throughout the room. Conrad yelped in surprise and was bowled over as Blaze came hurtling into the room. He was wearing a harness that trailed ropes out the window and up the side of the building. He came to a rest sitting on top of Conrad's prone form, yellow eyes searching until he found Calumn, who had crouched beside the couch to protect herself from the flying glass.
"Buddy, we gotta leave," Blaze said.
"What the hell, Blaze?" Calumn gasped out, staring at her friend. "Why did you do that? What are you wearing?"
"No time for questions!" Blaze cried, hopping off Conrad. "Grab on! If we're lucky and the antenna I tied the ropes to holds, we can be on the ground and out of here in a minute. If we're not lucky then we can do it even faster, and man am I hoping lady luck still hates me for hitting on her sister."
"What?"
Blaze poked her with a hoof. "Nope! No questions! Wingman to Calumn, red alert! We are in trouble! Now grab on and we might get out of here before she shows up."
Calumn grabbed hold of Blaze. "Before who shows up?"
As if in answer the door to the room crashed open, the frame splintering as the lock was almost kicked completely off. The pair of bruisers stood outside, one of them with his back to the door and his legs coming down from the kick. Between them stood a tall, lithe pegasus mare who stepped past the shattered doorframe and into the room. Her coat was the light pink of cake frosting, her mane a swirl of purple, blue and red. Dark rose eyes surveyed the scene and she clucked her tongue in disapproval, even though her mouth was twisted into a cruel smile. A trio of crimson teardrops adorned her flank, an Abstract Glyph whose meaning was still very clear. Calumn knew exactly who she was, and exactly how badly screwed they were. This was Charisma, Max Cash's chief enforcer and closest companion now that James Bay was dead.
"Conrad, Conrad, Conrad," she said, sauntering into the room. Her voice was rich and vibrant, like a professional singer's might be, but that same vibrancy also conveyed her utter contempt for the unicorn with absolute clarity. "Do you remember what I said about taking spies to bed with you?"
"I knew she was a spy all along," Conrad said, pulling himself up from the ground. Little shards of glass were embedded in him, drawing blood from a dozen different wounds, but he ignored whatever pain he was feeling and focused entirely on the new mare. "I was just going to lull her into thinking she had me, then I was going to turn her over to you. I swear."
"Of course you were," she said. Calumn felt Blaze tense up in preparation to leap out the window, but Charisma shot a murderous glare at him, freezing him in place. "One more step to that window and I will break two of your legs before I let you pass out." Her glare vanished to be replaced by another vicious smile. "Besides, it's rude to leave before you can catch up with an old friend. You don't want to be rude, do you, Trail Blazer?"
Blaze swallowed and let out a nervous chuckle. "Of course not, Charisma. I was just, um, well, I was going to jump out the window to escape you. Just like old times, huh?"
"Just like old times," she repeated, grin widening and eyes going bright. With a jerk of her head the goons were on them. Calumn didn't struggle, and in moments the two of them were being bound securely. "I don't know what you're doing hanging out with the Secret Service, Blaze," Charisma said, stepping over to the green pony. "But if it brought you back to me I'm glad for it."
"What should we do with 'em?" one of the thugs asked.
Charisma contemplated this for a moment, then shrugged. "Take them with us. Max will want to talk to the girl, and I want some time with my dear, sweet, funny little Blaze. Just. Like. Old. Times." She punctuated each of these words with a slap to Blaze's face that got stronger with every hit until he was bleeding under one eye from where the edge of her hoof had caught him.
Calumn wanted to lash out at her, to do something to get them away, but he didn't have the energy for magic and Charisma could easily take both him and Blaze in a fight. He had hope, though. She thought he was Janice, and that would buy him time to think of a way to escape. So he kept quiet when they pulled a hood over his head, and when they picked him up and unceremoniously carried him down to a waiting car, dumping him and Blaze in the trunk.
Once they were moving he poked the earth pony. "Blaze."
"I'm here," Blaze responded, "and I am so sorry. If I'd known she was watching this guy I would never have let you go after him. If I had only spotted her sooner!"
"Don't worry about that. We'll talk about it later," Calumn said. "I'm going to think of a way out of this, okay? We'll make it, but I'm weak right now. I'm going to need to feed on your friendship directly, it's going to feel weird."
"Will that get you back up to full power?"
"Not even close, but it will give me a little more to work with."
"Well, it's a little cramped in here with the two of us being adult-sized," Blaze pointed out. "Why don't you go all kid-sister so you can eat well and we can ride in comfort?"
Calumn paused at that. It was a good idea, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth. "No," he decided. "It's wrong."
"Calumn, you said 'not unless absolutely necessary'. Now, I'm not known for my keen judgement of social situations, but I figure being tied up by a psycho ex and locked in the trunk of a car which is probably heading towards her evil boss counts as 'absolutely necessary'."
Calumn thought about that, and couldn't find any fault in the logic. "It still feels wrong."
"Yeah, buddy, I hear ya," Blaze sighed. "But, seriously? A powered-up Changeling is way better for us right now than a near-starving Changeling. Also? You are so completely cute when you're my little sister and you get all wobbly on love."
"Blaze. You can't even see me."
"Mind's eye, buddy. Who needs eyes when you have the power of imagination!"
Calumn laughed. "Alright, but just this once," and with a flash of green he once more became Holly, the love Blaze felt for his sister flowing in and filling the Changeling with new strength. The ropes that had bound him weren't holding anymore but he didn't pull free in case he had to revert to Janice suddenly.
Once Blaze found himself with extra room he stretched out and heaved a sigh. "Wow, you know I've never been thrown in a trunk with my little sister before? Big guys, usually, and there was that clown once, but no little sisters. I like it. It's different."
Calumn snorted back another laugh. "Just rest, okay? Conserve your strength. We don't know how long this ride is going to be, but at the end of it is Max Cash. I don't know how you know him, but if you do then you know it's going to take all we've got to get out of this alive."
"I know, buddy," Blaze whispered, his voice sad and serious. "Believe me. I know."
"I’m betraying you"
Dash woke with a start. She was gasping for breath and sweating like she had done the Running of the Leaves twice over with a saddlebag full of lead. She didn’t understand why, she couldn’t remember any bad dreams, but whatever had woken her she was pretty sure she wasn’t getting back to sleep any time soon. With an annoyed grunt she pulled herself from the tangled covers and slipped out of her room.
Astrid had gone to bed not long after Dash had finished describing Celestia to her. The Griffin had seemed uncharacteristically contemplative, and Dash wasn’t the kind of pony who would pry into another person’s thoughts. Star Fall had been busy reading through some old book and the Professor had apparently gone to bed with a headache. That left going to bed herself as the only real option. She’d tried to watch TV for a bit, but the flickering images had quickly strained her eyes, and she had shut it off and just lay quietly until sleep took her. For someone used to taking naps several times a day, simply falling asleep had been strangely difficult. Now she was up again, but despite the lack of sleep she felt like she was fully rested and ready for the day ahead.
Dash made her way to the dining room, and found Star Fall still awake, still studying the book. “Hey,” Dash called to her, making her look up with tired eyes. “What time is it?”
Star Fall checked the clock. “Four AM.”
“Have you been to bed at all?” Star Fall silently shook her head. “Star, we’re leaving in, like, five hours. You need to get some sleep.”
“I know, I just need to get as much of this book in my mind first,” Star Fall said, but sighed. “It would be easier if I wasn’t so tired I’ve been re-reading the same page for fifteen minutes.”
Dash snickered at that and stepped up to the other pegasus. “What’s so important about this book anyway?”
“It’s The Magic Of Friendship,” Star Fall said, turning the book so that Dash could see it.
“Hey! I can read this!” Dash said, surprised at the familiar Old Equestrian text.
“It’s a first edition. Over a thousand years old.”
“’By Twilight Sparkle’,” Dash read aloud, and a warm smile spread on her face. “Wow, something she wrote survived this long? This is what the Professor was talking about yesterday, right?”
“Yeah. The Magic Of Friendship is Twilight Sparkle’s most famous work. It’s practically the foundation of modern advanced magical theory.”
“And it’s about perceptions and stuff?”
“It has sections on perceptions and their influence on our reality. It also has important passages on practically every major magical field. If there’s a subject in magic, The Magic Of Friendship is the book that started all modern thought on it.”
“Whoa.”
Star Fall yawned again. “It’s also hard to get through. It’s written in a style that was common at the time, but really hard for us to work with now. Long, rambling personal anecdotes about her life and friends interspersed with some of the most advanced and intense magical theory ever put to paper. It’s actually one of the main sources of information we have on you and your friends, too.”
“So there’s stuff about me in there?”
Star Fall nodded. “And about Applejack and Fluttershy and Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Life in Ponyville must have been pretty exciting, all the things that happened to you six.”
Dash shrugged. “Sure, it could be. Mostly it was just life, you know? We had our jobs, our dreams, our hobbies. We just lived like normal and sometimes stuff would happen and we’d save the world.”
Star Fall shook her head with a laugh. “’Stuff would happen’. You were heroes, Dash, fighting against the greatest evils of your time, and you just say ‘stuff would happen’?”
“That’s how it went, Star. I am a hero, but not because I saved the world. I’m a hero because of all the stuff I did in Ponyville for the people who lived there. Because I followed my dream and dedicated myself to being the very best. So long as I don’t let it go to my head, I even act like a hero. The others? They do almost as much as I do and they don’t think of themselves as any different from any other pony. They way you guys talk about us, all you know are the times we had to fight something. That wasn’t us. That wasn’t our life. Saving the world isn’t what’s important, being the pony who would save the world is.”
“That’s... pretty deep, I guess,” Star Fall said, yawning loudly. “I thought you’d be a little less modest about it all.”
Dash laughed. “Star, I’m not being modest about anything. I’m awesome. I helped save the world a few times, but that’s not what makes me awesome. I could have had nothing to do with that stuff and I’d still be the fastest pegasus in Equestria, and the one and only Rainbow Dash. Once you’re that good, the world-saving stuff is just kind of expected.” Star Fall lapsed into giggles that were interrupted by another yawn. Dash grinned at her, but pulled the book away. “You gotta get sleep. I don’t know what you were looking for in here, but it can’t be worth exhausting yourself when you’re about to go out on a dangerous mission.”
“I’m looking for the Elements of Harmony,” Star Fall mumbled, head drooping.
“Find anything?”
She shook her head. “No. Not a mention. I’m sure I’ve seen those words before, though, and that it had something to do with Twilight Sparkle. I just can’t remember where.”
“You’re not going to find it drooling all over your really old book,” Dash pointed out. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
Star Fall wasn’t in any state to argue, and so Dash helped her to her room and under her covers. The white pegasus was asleep and muttering magical formulae in moments, and it was adorable enough that Dash allowed herself a moment bask in the cuteness of it before backing out of the room.
She returned to the dining room and looked at the book on the table. She flipped it closed, and found an ancient, faded picture on the cover below the title. The figures in the picture were unrecognizable as anything other than vaguely equine shapes, but Dash was able to pick them out anyways. She had seen the picture before, she had a copy of it in her bedroom in Ponyville. It was a photo taken during the celebration after Nightmare Moon’s defeat, six new friends gathered together and flush with their victory and the discovery of kindred souls. It was the first of what would be many pictures to come, and while to Dash it had been just another memento, to Twilight it had obviously held a deeper meaning.
Tempted as she was to read the book that lay behind that picture, Dash had a fairly solid feeling that anything Star Fall called ‘intense magical theory’ would be way beyond her. She set the book aside and stepped away from the table, making her way instead towards the balcony she had shared with Astrid earlier. Outside the air was crisp, but not cold, and the breeze gusting through the feathers of her wings was a pleasant tug without being intrusive. She breathed deeply and sat on the edge of the balcony. Her eyes stung, seeing that picture had left her feeling more homesick than she could ever remember being.
Dash watched the sky alone, her gaze fixed on the waning moon as it made its slow way across the night. The lights of the city obscured the stars, but not enough to keep her sharp eyes from picking them out. They were the same stars and moon she remembered from her childhood, Mare in the Moon and all.
“What happened to you?” she asked, directing the question at the moon, but meaning it more for herself.
She wasn’t as smart as Twilight. That was a fact so solid she could build an earth pony house on it. She wasn’t as widely-read as Rarity, and she didn’t have the down-to-earth common-sense of Applejack. Fluttershy, for all her timidity, had a motherly wisdom that Dash didn’t think she could understand if she tried. Pinkie was Pinkie and who knew what went on in her head. For all that she didn’t have the mental gifts of her friends, she wasn’t devoid of intelligence, common sense or wisdom herself. She knew that her situation wasn’t normal, and she was beginning to come to some unhappy conclusions about it.
Despite how she had been treating it so far, this wasn’t like Daring Do and the Scarab of Chronus. For one, there was no clear reason for Dash to be sent forward in time. For another, the way the Professor had questioned her made it obvious that there were things she was supposed to do after she had come to the future, and in the book the whole future was different because Daring Do wasn’t there to prevent it in the past. Dash was starting to think that when she made it back home she might not be able to change this future at all. She was worried that she might not even want to.
Sure Nightmare Umbra was bad, and the Princesses going away was bad, and Equestria being divided into two warring nations was extra bad. But if she changed the past so none of that happened, what would happen to the friends she had made? Would Star Fall or Astrid even have been born? She didn’t understand enough about time travel and fate and all that stuff to figure it out on her own. She wished she could just fly to Ponyville’s library and ask Twilight. She would know.
Instead she stared at the moon and the Princess it contained. "Why'd you have to leave?" she asked the night. "You could have stopped all of this if you'd stuck around. Sure, Nightmare Umbra had to be stopped, but you had to have other bearers for the Elements by then. You had to have some other way, something better than sticking yourselves in the sky and hoping for the best. If you'd stayed, then at least I'd have somepony who remembered me."
Dash felt tears burning at her eyes but she scrubbed them away before they could start to fall. "Hey, it's no problem," she continued. "I'm making friends, and I've got cranky future Twilight Sparkle working on getting me home. This will just be one crazy story I tell the girls, right? Right?" The night gave no reply. "Come on, Princess, give me something here. I don't know how it works for you guys, but I was listening to the Professor, you've got ways of seeing things that 'do not resemble our limited understanding', right? Well, use some of that and give me a bucking clue!"
She was on her hooves now, snarling at the distant shadowed image of a mare's head. "Come on! You owe me! You got them all thinking you're a god now, why don't you do something godly? Send me a vision! Give me a sign! Anything! Anything! Please... please just let me know that I'm going to make it home. You have to let me know because... because I'm starting to think I might not."
She hung her head. "You probably can't hear me. Maybe you can, I don't know. You guys were never gods to us, Princess. Not really. It's kinda funny that you only got to be gods after you had left, but I can see how it happened. Anyway, I don't know if you can hear me, and I don't know if this counts as praying if I don't believe you're a god, but I'll give it a go anyway. If it doesn't, you know, sound right, I'm sorry. I've never done this before."
She sat down, stretching her wings to the breeze and her head to the sky. "Luna, Princess of the Night, please listen. I don't know why I'm here. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm just kind of stumbling along and I don't know if it's getting me anywhere. I'm in the dark here, and I guess that's your thing. So please, Luna, help me. Help me figure this out and get back home. Help me see my friends again. I just... I just want to see them again. So, uh, yeah. That's my prayer to you. I'm not playing favourites or anything, I'm going to ask your sister the same thing next time I see her. But you seriously do owe me, so any help at all would totally be appreciated. Uh, thanks for listening, your Goddessness."
With that Dash lay down and folded her wings, watching the lights of the ever-wakeful city below as she waited for the coming of dawn.
HB leaned over the map, carefully lining up a ruler to connect the marks he had been making. His eyes blurred as he made one more line between two distant places and he sat back, sighing as he let his Telekinesis lapse. The basement of the college library was a dark place this early in the morning, the aisles were dim, shadowy paths between looming black stacks, with islands of light that picked out study tables few and hidden. HB sat at one of those tables, deliberately picked so that it would be in the least accessible part of the labyrinthine library. He didn’t want to be disturbed while he pored over the dozens of books and papers he had gathered from his long days of mind-numbing research.
He probably wouldn’t have been as far along in that research as he was if it wasn’t for the fact that he could barely sleep. The pain pills the doctor had prescribed him allowed him to fall asleep, but only for a couple hours. After that his horn began to ache and he couldn’t stay unconscious. He couldn’t take any more of the pills for fear of an overdose, so he spent his insomniac time on the line of research into Max Cash that Barry had twigged him to.
His horn ached now, a pulsing, stabbing pain that felt like someone taking a hammer and chisel to his skull. He reached up and gingerly touched his horn with a hoof. He cringed at the sharp increase in pain as his sensitive horn protested, but pushed through it and gently probed at the sharp appendage. He felt for that little bit of give, that spongy springiness that he still had nightmares about, but to his relief the horn was as solid as it should be. It just hurt like a bastard.
One of the problems that were keeping the pain up was that he was running his magic almost non-stop. He couldn’t afford to get side-tracked too much with books and reports that exaggerated or outright lied, so he was using his magic to pick up on the tells that would show where he was reading accurate information and where the author was just making stuff up. The latter happened surprisingly often. HB had combed the library, and the stack of materials next to his map was the result of all that effort, and it was about to pay off.
He had tracked all of Cash’s known dig sites since he had started archaeological expeditions fifteen years ago. The first few were in all the usual places: battle sites from the Schism, the Badlands, the Las Pegasus ruins. It wasn’t until five years ago that he’d started branching out into weird sites that made no sense. Strange excavations in the Aplusian region, expeditions into the southern jungles, and the dig site outside of Orion city were just a few of his endeavors. Cash had definitely been looking for something, but no one knew anything about what it could possibly be. Until now.
With Barry’s discovery of the fallen cloud city right where Cash had been digging, HB had caught the edge of a hidden truth. He had dove into the records, gone as obscure and old as he could, and he’d come up with paydirt. More than half of Cash’s strange expeditions were to supposed crash sites of cloud cities. The pattern wasn’t obvious because cloud cities left no ruins, thus nothing to dig for. If, however, they left behind items that weren’t so vaporous, that would be worth something. Maybe even worth all the effort he had made to find it.
HB's eyes unfocused as he slumped in his seat, exhausted but so close to finishing he begrudged every moment of rest his body demanded. It was because his eyes weren't focused that he was able to spot the thin wire as it slipped over his head.
He threw a hoof up and managed to catch the wire just as it pulled tight. It cut into the sides of his neck and part of his hoof, but he had stopped it from choking him. There was a snarl of frustration by his ear and he threw his head back, slamming into whoever was trying to kill him. His assailant swore and jerked the wire, trying to pull it free of HB's hoof. "Max Cash wants you to know you shouldn't go poking your horn into things that don't concern you," his assailant hissed, the voice feminine under the strain and anger.
The detective fell to the side, dropping off the chair and trying to drag his attacker with him. It didn't work, the assailant allowing him to sink to the floor while holding the wire taut. It did loosen some of the pressure as the new angle didn't favor the attacker as much, and HB took advantage of that, getting his hooves under him and kicking back.
He caught a piece of the other pony, whose breath was knocked from her by the force of the blow. HB heaved, curling forward and kicking out his rear legs to throw the attacker over his shoulder. The other pony, lighter than HB, went flying into the table, letting go of the wire. HB tore the garrotte from around his neck, heedless of the way it cut deeper gashes in his neck as he did so, and took a good look at his would-be murderer.
It was a pegasus mare with a light brown coat and a short-cut blonde mane. She wore glasses and a pair of fringed saddlebags that hid her Glyph. She looked like a student in her first year at the college, and her eyes burned with rage as she flipped upright and launched herself at him with the graceful speed that only a pegasus could have.
He moved to block the strike, but she was faster than he was, hitting him in the chest and knocking him back. He stumbled, managing to stay on his hooves, but it gave her the space to reach into her saddlebag and come out with a knife in her teeth. She lunged at him again, slashing and kicking.
He dodged to the side, but got a kick to the leg and a shallow slash across his side. He struck out at her, and she was too close to completely evade. She stumbled back, not really hurt, and quickly recovered. He tried to capitalize on that moment of advantage, but it was gone too soon. She slashed another cut in his flank and bucked him into a shelf as he tried to charge her.
He rolled to get out of the way of the falling books, but his exhausted body betrayed him. He cried out as several heavy volumes crashed down onto him, one hitting his horn and making his vision blur and double with pain. She leapt on him, bringing her knife down at his eye. He twisted and slammed a hoof under her chin, holding her knife off a few bare centimeters from his face. She slammed a hoof into his side, but the books covering him dulled the blow.
HB's horn lit with copper light, and he grabbed the knife with his telekinesis. Her eyes went wide and she clamped down on it. HB's telekinesis was stronger than most unicorns', but still not strong enough to just rip the knife out of her grip. Instead he twisted it, wiggling the blade so that it began to slide from her mouth in little hitching jerks. She tried to pull back, but he kicked her leg out. She caught herself with her wings, but lost her grip on the knife. It flew away from her, embedding itself in a book.
She hissed at the loss of the weapon, and HB used that moment to grab a book from the highest shelf with his magic and drop it on her. The heavy volume struck her in the leg at an awkward angle, snapping bone. She screamed out in pain and lashed out at him, catching his horn with her hoof.
HB's world went white with agony and he lost track of time. When he could see again, he was alone. The scream of the emergency exit alarm was sounding and there would be campus security all over the place in moments. He scrambled to his hooves, nearly heaving at the vertigo the movement caused. He was still in agony, but he pushed through it, stumbling over to his table and grabbing his map. He took a moment to look it over again, noting especially the circled place where several lines intersected. His neck and sides hurt, his stomach was roiling and his horn was a blazing spike of pain right into his brain, but he felt a triumphant grin spread across his face as he looked at that mark.
"Got you now, you bastard."
Proxies are, for most intents and purposes, true Bearers of the Elements. They must conform to the standard requirements and gain access to the Active and Passive abilities associated with their Element. The distinction between a Proxy and a true Bearer is fine enough that when my friends and I ‘passed on’ the Elements to our ‘successors’ what we were doing was assigning Proxies without realizing it. It was only during the Celestia Nova incident that we discovered the Proxy effect and what it meant, tragically too late to stop the consequences.
The primary difference between a true Bearer and a Proxy is found when creating the Magic of Harmony. A Harmony Event initiated with a group composed entirely of Proxies may actually seem more powerful than one initiated by true Bearers, but this is an illusion based in the fact that during a Proxy Event we can come close to grasping what it is we're seeing. In truth there is no comparison. A Proxy Event is spectacular and effective, but it comes no closer to being a true Harmony Event than an ant comes to being the sun. It is for this reason that I believe that if the Elements must be used, then it is necessary to use Proxies to bear the Elements of Harmony whenever possible.
"Do you have everything you'll need?" Twinkle Shine asked her student.
"Yeah, Astrid packed so I don't have any books to weigh me down," Star Fall said, not without a hint of disappointment. Star Fall had slept in, and thus had no say in the preparations, which was just how Astrid liked doing it. They were all standing on the balcony, looking out at the city and preparing to leave. Rainbow Dash and Astrid were already wearing their saddlebags and ready to go. Dash was already in the air, circling the building with restless energy. All that was left was for the white pegasus to say goodbye to her mentor. "We'll be fine, Professor. I mean it."
"I know, but..." the golden unicorn sighed. "You've got a lot on your mind."
"And I'll have time to think about it," Star Fall assured her. "You taught me how to prioritize my focus, I'm not going to let my worries get the better of me when it counts."
Twinkle Shine nodded, smiling sadly. "I'll still be worried, though," she said. "Here, I want you to wear this." She lifted a small golden necklace up to her student. "It's got some protective enchantments laid into it. Not much, but maybe enough to keep you from getting hurt accidentally if things go bad."
"They won't go bad, Professor," Star Fall assured her, but took the necklace anyway. "Thank you. It's pretty."
"And I hope that's all it has to be," Twinkle Shine said. "Please reconsider."
"Professor..."
"Please. I've got a meeting with the King today, but after that I can go talk to Gamma, have her send someone else..."
"No," Star Fall said, putting a hoof on her mentor's shoulder. "My job. My life. My choice."
"I know," Twinkle Shine sighed, then pulled Star Fall into a hug. "Be safe."
Star Fall hugged her back, squeezing tightly. "You too."
"Oh, what trouble could I get into?" Twinkle Shine asked with a laugh. "I've got meetings with Royalty and magical experiments to do today. I won't be in any danger like you will."
"You worry, I worry," Star Fall said. "It doesn't have to be rational when it comes to family."
"Oh!" Twinkle Shine blinked back the tears that filled her eyes.
"Hey, Fall, not to break up the special moment or anything, but we're already running late," Astrid said.
Star Fall pulled out of the embrace. "I'm coming!" she shouted over to her companions. "Professor, I've got to go."
"I know," Twinkle Shine said, pulling back and composing her features. "Send me a message when you're heading to Spike's."
"I will," Star Fall promised, then stepped over to Astrid. As one the two of them took flight to join Dash in the air, circling the penthouse once before heading into the west.
Twinkle Shine stood and watched until they were completely out of sight. “Stay safe, my little Fallen Star,” she breathed. “And beware of Nightmares.”
Two hours later, Twinkle Shine sighed as she looked at the larger-than-life painting of herself and the Royal family that hung in the Hall of Memory. It was only the latest in a series of such paintings that dated all the way back to the founding of the Kingdom. Each depicted the Royals and their chief advisors, guiding and protecting the remnants of Celestia’s Kingdom from the depredations of the Lunar Heresy. The Royals, of course, looked powerful and magnificent and happy in each, while the chief advisor always looked straight out of the portrait with a somber expression that had become ingrained tradition. She had wanted to smile for her turn on the canvas, but the King had overruled her. Every time she passed it now she thought of it as a missed opportunity.
“My dear Professor!”
Twinkle Shine turned and swept into a bow as the King strode into the hall, flanked by his Griffin guards. He walked with his wings and horn held high, his height allowing him to tower over common ponies. His white coat was freshly washed and brushed, and shone in the lights of the hall, as did his simply-styled blue and purple mane. He was naked to display the mark of his birthright, his Glyph a scepter topped by the symbol of Celestia. “Your Majesty,” Twinkle Shine said.
“Professor, please walk with me,” the King said. She rose and stepped up next to him as they made their sedate way down the hall. “I have heard that your daughter has returned from the Storm.”
“Just yesterday,” she confirmed. “I hope Gamma has told you of what she has found.”
“She did brief me,” the King confirmed, smiling down at her with an eager gleam in his blue eyes. “Is it true? Does a hero walk among us?”
She shrugged. “I cannot say for sure. She certainly has the power of an ancient pegasus, and the attitude and appearance do match up.”
“Come now,” he urged. “You can be more certain than that.”
“No, your Majesty, I cannot,” she said. “I haven’t had much time to examine her, and what I was able to do is inconclusive. I would say that she believes her claims, but you and I both know that the easiest way to sell a lie is to make the one telling it believe it is truth.”
He nodded, eyes turning to the portraits on the walls. “Gamma spent very little time on our visitor from the past. She was more concerned with Cash and his machinations. I find her focus on this criminal frustrating when the navies of our enemies gather in the seas and the heroes of the past may walk among us. Do you think she is obsessing?”
“I think Gamma obsesses over everything she does,” Twinkle Shine replied, but sighed and continued. “However, I would also say that she never does anything she does not believe is important and necessary. If she is so focused on Cash, then he might be worth the effort. My student is similarly convinced investigating him is essential. As to those navies, I must ask you again, your Majesty, to withdraw our forces from the Stile Islands. Our presence there is only aggravating the Republicans.”
“I wish them aggravated,” the King said, coming to a halt. “And we are not talking of our military now. I wish to speak more of Gamma and Rainbow Dash, and, of course, your daughter.”
“Of course,” Twinkle Shine said, moving to stand in front of him. “What more do you wish to discuss?”
“Gamma has assured me that Rainbow Dash has agreed to serve the Kingdom. Furthermore, that she has developed a friendship with your daughter. I am well pleased with this, but I need your counsel on how to proceed. Should I publicly recognize her, or should I wait? Rainbow Dash’s arrival can only bring joy to my people, and lift their spirits in the shadow of a possible attack on our shores.”
“I would hold off on that, your Majesty,” Twinkle Shine cautioned. “At least until I am more certain of her identity myself. False hope can be far more devastating than none.”
The King nodded. “Wise. When will you know?”
“It will be a few weeks at the least. Even if I do all the verification I can, I will not be able to be one hundred percent sure.”
“But you will be sure enough," the King mused, putting a hoof thoughtfully to his chin. "Very well, in two weeks I will take what you can give me and make an announcement. It should be a doubly joyful event.”
Twinkle Shine was careful to let none of what she was feeling show on her face. “You’ve decided then?”
“Yes," he confirmed with a happy grin. "As I was hoping, my son Regal Stature has shown himself to be the best choice.”
“He’s five years her junior,” Twinkle Shine pointed out.
“As if such a small thing as age has ever stopped the nobles,” the King laughed. “They’re both Magic Talents and Regal has proven himself worthy over and over.”
“He has? I thought Regal was fairly quiet. I hadn’t heard tell of his exploits like I have some of the other candidates. He hasn’t sought out military service or made himself beloved of the people or participated in the workings of the government.”
“And so he proves himself,” the Kings said. “While the others have been currying favor and jockeying for position, Regal has been learning magic and the art of ruling. He is intent on making himself a stallion of intelligence, refinement, power and wisdom. What better traits for the father of a Goddess?”
Twinkle Shine took a deep breath and slowly let it out, controlling her anger. “Your Majesty, I must once more caution you against such fantasies. While a Royal heir she could foal, a Goddess is not possible.”
He smiled kindly at her. “I have heard your arguments many times over the years, Professor. I know them almost as well as I know my own. But I remain firm. Remember that my line has in us a deeper power than simple magic, and it is from that place that I draw my certainty. There is a certain... spark to your daughter. A feeling of connection beyond herself.”
“It is the power of Friendship, your Majesty,” Twinkle Shine said. “Nothing more.”
He shook his head. “It is more. I know it. You will too, once she fulfills her destiny.”
She sighed. “As you say, your Majesty. Still, Regal Stature may not be the best choice. He has many good qualities, true, but this matter needs careful thought. The wrong choice would not only lead to disappointment for you, but misery for my student.”
“I have made my decision, Professor,” the King said, gentle but firm. “It will all be well. I have been told that both Rainbow Dash and your daughter are on an assignment, but they should return soon. When they do I will meet with them both. I want to see this hero for myself, and I wish to inform your daughter of the happy news. You are, of course, free to tell her first, but I would very much like to be the one. She is to be my daughter as well, and I desire a closer relationship with her than I currently enjoy.”
“Of course, your Majesty,” she said, long years of practice allowing her to say it without grinding her teeth. “I’ll see it done.”
“Very good. Now, to the matter of our missing Dragon...”
Riding in the trunk of a car is not comfortable. Riding in the trunk of a car that is going off-road is painful. Doing it for all of a night and most of a day is torturous. One of the downsides to being in the body of a ten-year-old filly was that Calumn felt that torture more acutely than he would have otherwise. Every large bump sent him smacking into the lid of the trunk, every rocking turn meant he slid all over the empty space.
Blaze, on the other hoof, seemed to be able to sleep through anything. He barely snorted in irritation every time his head was smacked. His reaction to Calumn bouncing into him was usually just to chuckle and mumble something including the words 'cute' and 'tiny'.
Eventually the car seemed to find a relatively smooth path and Calumn managed to get a little rest. It didn't last long, but physical sleep wasn't as important as the energy of love, which he was getting plenty of.
"Hey, buddy, you up?" Blaze asked.
"Yes. Nice to see you awake too," Calumn said. "I hope you got enough rest."
"Meh, I've had worse," Blaze said. "Pretty thirsty, though."
"Nothing I can do about it. They want us alive, but they don't care to check on us, which makes me think we aren't that far from our destination."
"I'm kinda hoping we get a little more downtime, you know?" Blaze said. "'Cause when we stop we're going to be in the middle of nowhere with Charisma and her boss. That's not a good place to be, buddy. Trust me on that one."
"I'll get us out of this," Calumn promised. "Now, I have to know, how do you know Cash?"
"Okay, well, Max kinda likes to cross the Storm. Like, a lot. Sometimes a couple times a month. A few years ago I was his guide, and he kinda really liked me. Offered me the whole full-time gig, good pay, lots of benefits, dental, you know, the whole deal."
"And you turned him down?"
"Um, no. I was all sorts of younger and stupider and it seemed like a great gig. Also, hey, there was this hot pegasus chick who kept eyeing my flank. I though, 'wow, Blaze', which is what I call myself in my head, 'cause sometimes I like to think of myself as two different people having a conversation. Which is fine, but sometimes they get in arguments and I have to step in to break it up. But then none of us knows who anybody is and there's punching and kicking and some really hurtful insults thrown. Then the police get called and I get tossed in the tank to think about what I've done, and I always call myself to come post bail, but you won't believe how high that gets after your two hundred and seventieth arrest. It'll work out, because there's a tax break after three hundred, assuming I don't show up as a hanging judge at my arraignment..."
"Blaze!" Calumn snapped. "Focus!"
"Oh, sorry. Anyways, I said 'Blaze, this is awesome. You could be set for life! And sex! You could be set for sex!' So I took the offer, and I hooked up with Charisma, and I found out real quick that it was a huge mistake."
"Because Charisma's a sadist," Calumn reasoned.
"Oh, not really," Blaze mumbled. "She likes hurting people, not seeing pain. It's a fine distinction, I guess, but it's definitely not sexual for her. What really got to me wasn't the beatings, it was the drama. Max and Charisma were always together, uh, not in a very-special-somepony sort of way, just always travelling together. So they were always together, but sometimes they had Big Jim with them, uh, he’s called that because he’s this really big guy, not for any ironic reasons, and he had his eyes on Charisma, and she wasn't shy about being affectionate. With me. While he was there. So he beat me up too. I think it was his way of trying to get closer to her, you know? Share interests?"
"Sounds like a wonderful relationship."
"Yeah," Blaze said warmly. "Those two were made for each other. Except for the whole thing about them being completely wrong for each other. Anyway, it was sweet and I was totally on board with it, if only to make the hurting stop, but things didn't really work out with happy endings. Ya see, he was all sweet on her, but she just didn't connect with him, if you know what I mean. You know? Right? Nudge? What I mean is she didn't like him."
"I would never have guessed."
"Yeah, but could he take a hint? Well, yes, but not from her. I tried to tell him, you know, between kicks to the face. I really did, but it just seemed to make him madder. It was then I figured I couldn't stay. There I was, caught in the middle of this Luna-ordained perfect relationship, and it was killing me. I mean that. That wasn't a joke or anything. That was a statement of literal truth. The psychologically-scarring kind."
"I get it, Blaze," Calumn said, forestalling future clarification. "So that's it? They hired you on, you didn't like the treatment you got, so you left?"
"Yeah. Sure. I'd explain it more, but that's the basics. Also, Max scares the piss out of me."
"How?" Calumn asked, eager to learn more about the unicorn.
"Well, he's a pretty energetic guy, and he laughed at all my jokes, and he hung out with Charisma and me a couple times, and I had nightmares about him ripping my heart out. Every now and then I'd just catch him looking at me, and there was nothing equine in his eyes. It wasn't even animal. Buddy, I cannot describe it to you, it was just wrong. Charisma likes making people bleed and Big Jim can't take a joke, but both of them are still ponies. I'm not sure what Max is, inside his head, but he's not a pony."
"I'm not a pony," Calumn pointed out.
"Not the same thing, buddy. Not the same thing at all." Blaze was silent for a long moment, which just hammered home the gravity of what he'd been saying. Finally he spoke up again. "So how do you know Max?"
"I've been investigating him for years," Calumn said. He figured with all Blaze knew already this extra bit of information wouldn't be an issue. "He's got a criminal empire on both sides of the Storm, big money, big problems for people like me. We've been trying to shut him down practically since he started up, but it's like fighting a shadow. Every time we hit him one place he's already sprung up in another, and we've never been able to pin him down personally. That's why I'm here. That rainbow-maned pegasus, Dash, she's connected to him somehow. We don't know why, so I was sent to find out."
"Wow. Small world," Blaze said. "Though, he does cross the Storm a lot, so there's good odds any Storm-guide you got would have dealt with him before."
"Hadn't thought of that," Calumn admitted. "He's had his own personal guide on the payroll for years. There's a pretty high turnover rate in your business, it just never occurred to me that you might have met him."
"No big. But if I had known, I would have gotten us out of that hotel room, like, way faster."
The car slowed to a stop not much later. They could hear voices outside, as well as the sounds of machinery and magic at work. Calumn shifted back to Janice in preparation, resetting the ropes just as the trunk was opened. Strong hooves grabbed them and pulled them out of the car to fall onto hard-packed earth.
"What do we do with them now?" a stallion's rough voice asked.
"Clear out a storage room," came Charisma's reply. "Make sure the door can be secured and toss them both in. I want guards on them at all times. Get them some food and water, but they do not leave the room for any reason. Any reason. They need to shit, someone will get them a bucket. Am I clear?"
There was a moment of silence before the stallion replied, his voice shaking. "Perfectly, ma'am."
"Good. Come on, Conrad, we'll get you settled in while we wait for Max."
Conrad's reply was lost in the sounds of machinery as Calumn was picked up and carried into a building. He went limp, waiting patiently. They would have their opportunity soon, but if he was careful he could learn a lot before he made his escape.
He just hoped he could be careful enough.
Twinkle Shine stood on her penthouse balcony, setting the wards to a new configuration, one that would muffle and distort the energies she was going to be unleashing within. She had already informed the building supervisor that she was doing some magical experimentation and that they might experience some strange sounds and lights, but that it was all safe and contained. She had also informed the University that she wouldn’t be back for several days, cancelling her classes and office hours.
Finally ready, she looked to the setting sun, staring wide-eyed into the light. “Am I doing the right thing?” she asked. The answer was the same as always.
Twinkle Shine sighed and walked back into the penthouse, shutting the doors securely behind her. Her magic wended through the penthouse, securing breakables, sealing doors and shuttering windows. Lights were turned off, and by the time she reached the secured practical magic room the entire estate was safe for a hurricane. She removed the furniture from the room, clearing it out completely before bringing in one thing: a mirror. She hung the mirror on the wall, securing it with a long-lasting enchantment that would prevent it from breaking.
Finally ready, she closed the door. The strong protective enchantments locked into place, ready to contain all energies unleashed to this one room. They wouldn't be enough to completely conceal it, but they would serve to muffle what was to come. Completing a final check to make sure all the spells were working properly, she took a deep breath and looked to the mirror. It was nearly pitch black in the room, but she could see her reflection by the light that radiated from her eyes. The reflection stared back at her, patient but eager.
“I Am Still Weak,” the reflection stated. “This Will Be Difficult.”
“I know, but there's more than enough power to deal with one pegasus.” Twinkle Shine sighed. “Just stick to the plan and it will all work out.”
“It Would Be Best If I Were At Full Strength.”
“With knowledge of the Elements somewhere out there?” Twinkle Shine snorted. “I won’t so easily throw away a thousand years of effort.”
The reflection stared at her with quiet anger for a long moment before speaking in a whisper that resonated through the room, rattling the door in the frame. “Begin.”
Twinkle Shine fell to her knees as her guts twisted and her organs began to fail. She let out a gurgling mewl that turned into a choking cough, blood flying from her mouth to paint the floor in splotches of dark red. Her horn glowed brightly, golden light illuminating the room well enough for the Professor to see the bits of herself she was spitting out. She tried to pull herself to her hooves but her legs shattered as she moved, dropping her to the floor. An agonized scream ripped its way from her throat, the sound overlaid with another voice, one that rumbled through the building and shook dust from the walls all the way to the ground floor.
Her broken legs stretched out, straining tendons and muscles as new bone grew between the breaks of the old. Stretched beyond their limit, her muscles began snapping like rubber bands, wrenching new screams from her even as her throat was choked off with her own blood. She scrambled for breath, vomiting out the blood and bile that was filling her lungs, frantic to get air. Her legs went blessedly numb as her spine broke apart, vertebrae growing and shifting as her body elongated. She desperately gasped for what air she could, trying to stave off what came next even as the rational part of her knew it was inevitable and necessary. Then her ribcage collapsed and put an end to her panting.
She shook, eyes rolling as her horn elongated and her entire skull deformed, teeth falling from her open mouth. Black flames began to lick up her horn, eating away at the golden light. Her pupils faded to a blind white, and with a final, gurgling exhalation she faded out of consciousness.
She heaved a deep breath, forcing air into lungs that were still too small. The pain seared through her, but she welcomed it with a fanged grin. She flexed her legs, finding that the muscles were beginning to re-establish their hold. With an agonized growl she got to her hooves, her newly re-fused spine protesting the movement with a series of pops and cracks. She ignored it, spitting out the last of the bloody refuse that tainted her mouth, and flexed her entire body. Her sides split open, spilling black blood that shimmered like oil and wriggled like worms as it sizzled and spat on the floor. Wings tore themselves from the binding flesh, spreading their dark feathers wide in the black room. With a flare of dark power her coat was set crawling with tendrils of shadow, changing the golden color into a harsh gray.
She shook her head, the white hair falling away as her true mane flowed into the world, shadows and ashes billowing in an ethereal wind. Her ribs snapped back into place as her heart surged to life. It beat strong and hot like a furnace of power pounding in her chest with an insistent rhythm, the drum-beat of war. Muscles filled out and wounds closed, and she reared back with a cry of triumph. Her Glyph, her mark, appeared on her flank with the burning hiss of a hot iron sinking into flesh, a white heart of thorns, pierced by a black sword.
Nightmare Umbra, the Destroyer, had returned.
She settled back to her hooves and looked into the mirror. Her reflection looked back at her with the pained eyes of a mortal pony. “That hurt a lot more than I remember,” Twinkle Shine said.
“Pain Is Irrelevant, Action And Result Are What Matters.”
“Sure,” the Professor sighed. “Test the link.”
The Nightmare’s horn flared with black fire, her magic finding the talisman given to Star Fall and locking on to it. “She Is To The South And West. I Will Not Reach Her Before Daybreak.”
“They’re making good time. Remember the plan.”
The Nightmare snorted derisively. “Worry Is Not Required. I Will Keep To The Plan.”
“Then I’m ready,” Twinkle Shine said, and closed her eyes. When the Nightmare opened them again her reflection was her own. She grinned in the darkness, her eyes illuminating everything with their harsh glow. With a stamp of her hoof the room was bathed in fire, burning away the remnants of her transformation. She threw the door open with an effort of will and stalked through the darkened penthouse to the balcony.
The sun had sunk away as she had changed, and the stars were just now creeping into sight. Twilight, her time. She took a deep breath and let it out as a cloud of ashen smoke that hovered before her, heedless of the wind. “Gather The Clouds,” the Nightmare commanded it. “Call Them In Strength. Call Them To Storm.” The smoke-wisp spun in acknowledgement and sped off into the dusk.
Nightmare Umbra swept her dispassionate gaze across the city, and nodded in satisfaction. Then with a flare of black fire from her horn she dissolved into ash and flew off towards the south... and Rainbow Dash.
The day’s travel had taken them far from the capitol. Dash had wanted to go faster, farther, but Star Fall just didn’t have the stamina for it. When they made camp for the night it was in a forest clearing a mile or so before the woods gave way to vast, rolling plains. Dash thought that the plains were probably what had become of the Equestrian prairies from her time, but she couldn’t be sure. Too much had changed.
Star Fall had been uncharacteristically silent throughout the trip, and any attempt Dash made at conversation had been met with little enthusiasm. Even her offers to show off more weather-working were rebuffed. This worried her, Star Fall usually had tons of enthusiasm to learn about weather magic. There was more than just lack of sleep making her withdrawn today.
She had asked Astrid about it, but the Griffin didn’t know either. She said she’d ask Star Fall when they had made camp, but asked Dash to not be there, guessing that the white pegasus might feel more comfortable talking about it with her oldest friend if there wasn’t an audience. So it was that Dash had made her excuses and stepped out into the forest for a bit.
She’d stayed away for as long as she could, but eventually curiosity and boredom had gotten the better of her and she headed back. Dash came back to the campsite and caught the sound of Star Fall and Astrid talking. She didn’t want to interrupt if they were still talking about whatever had been bugging the pegasus, so she crept up to listen.
“Did you know?” Star Fall asked. She sounded tired and hoarse, like she had been crying or was about to.
“I swear I had no idea,” Astrid replied. Her voice was high, and would have been a shriek had it been louder. Dash knew that tone from a Griffon, frustration and anger. “I knew that getting me as your guard was weird, but I thought it was just the Professor being worried about you. She’s got enough pull with the Crown to make it happen. I never imagined it was anything else, Fall. Believe me.”
Star Fall sighed. “I didn’t think you knew. Now, though? I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“You’ll figure it out,” Astrid assured her. “You’ve got the smarts to think your way through anything.”
“That’s the problem, Astrid. It’s not about thinking through it, it’s about making a choice. Do I go along with it, or do I try to run from it?”
“I don’t know, Fall. I’m sorry, but that’s gotta be on you.”
“I know, it’s just frustrating,” Star Fall audibly stamped her hoof. “What will you do?”
Astrid laughed. “Fall, it’s not my decision.”
“I’m asking what you’ll do if I decide to run.”
There was a long moment of silence before Astrid spoke. “Oh, that.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got my oaths to the Crown, Fall. My clan. What will happen to them?”
“I don’t know.”
Astrid let out a frustrated growl. “You’re a tough friend to have, Fall.”
“What’s going on?” Dash asked, deciding enough was enough and she had to know. She stepped out of the trees, stern and frowning in what she hoped was a determined look.
Star Fall immediately looked at the ground, refusing to meet Dash’s eyes, but Astrid wasn’t having any of that. “If she’s your friend she deserves to know,” the Griffin said.
Star Fall nodded. “Okay. Dash, there’s something I learned last night. It’s made things complicated.” She told Dash about what the Professor had revealed to her.
Dash sat down as she listened, confused and angry, but not interrupting until it was all over. “Okay, so how is that even possible? The King can’t tell you who to marry, can he?”
“He can, and does,” Star Fall sighed. “It’s not a power he invokes often, but if it’s in the interest of the Kingdom he’s allowed to do pretty much anything.”
“Star, that’s stupid. No one can force you to marry someone you don’t want to.”
“Sure they can,” Astrid piped up. “How do you think it works for Griffins? The best and brightest get paired up and told to make some eggs.” Dash stared at her, horrified. “What is that look for? It’s how we keep the species strong. Weak genes equals weak Griffins equals extinction. I told you about this, remember?”
“You said careful breeding. Not ‘forced to marry someone against your will’!”
“Well, we don’t actually get married, but it’s the same thing, Dash. The King just wants Fall to participate in his own little god-making experiment.”
“One that won’t work,” Star Fall put in. “But one I might have to go through with anyway.”
Dash stared at her, uncomprehending. “Why?”
“Because what happens to my family if I don’t? What happens to me and Astrid? What happens to... to my entire life? I’d have to run, Dash, and the only place that would take me, the only place where I wouldn’t be hunted down in days, is the Republics. I’d have to defect. I would have to, if I wanted to survive. That’s not much of a choice, Dash.”
“That’s not fair!” Dash shouted, flaring her wings and kicking at the ground. “He shouldn’t be allowed to force you into a choice like this! Princess Celestia would...”
“Celestia isn’t here!” Star Fall snapped. Dash stopped and stared at her, wide eyed, and Astrid winced and murmured a short prayer under her breath. “She isn’t. She left us in the lurch and let the world go to hell, and she isn’t coming back. So whatever she ‘would’ have done means nothing. We are the ones who are here, we are the ones who have to make the decisions.”
“Fall, that’s enough,” Astrid said, laying a claw on her shoulder.
Star Fall’s eyes fell. “We have to make the decisions,” she repeated, but the fire was leaving her voice. “I have to make a choice, and either way I lose my freedom. I’m sure the Goddess hates seeing me forced into a situation like this, I’m sure she would do something about it if she could. She can’t, and you can’t, and Astrid can’t, and the Professor can’t. Nobody can. Each of us, we’re on our own. There are no gods left in the world.”
Dash’s mouth hung open. She couldn’t think of something to say, even as every instinct she had screamed at her to do something. Star Fall let out a sob and darted off into the forest. Dash made to go after her, but Astrid blocked her way. “Let her go,” the Griffin said. “She needs to think about it. She’ll be fine, but we need to let her work it out.”
“She wasn’t sleeping last night,” Dash said, staring off into the forest. “She said she was reading a book, but this must have been eating at her.”
“Probably was,” Astrid said, pulling Dash gently back to the camp. “It’s a tough place to be, but she’s stronger than she looks. She’ll make it through.”
“I... okay,” Dash let herself be led back to the fire. As she walked she looked up through the canopy of leaves and found the moon. “See what I mean Princess? This stick-yourself-in-the-sky plan sucks,” she kept her voice low so that Astrid didn’t hear, but she made sure any watching Goddess wouldn’t mistake who her words were directed at. Soon she was sitting by the fire, contemplating dinner and the Griffon across from her. “You didn’t get to answer her question.”
“Which one?” Astrid asked.
“What would you do if she ran?”
Golden eyes stared at her, unreadable. “That’s not a question I’m going to answer.”
“Why not?” Dash demanded. “She’s you’re friend, Astrid.”
“You ever have conflicting loyalties, Dash?” Astrid’s golden eyes bored into Dash’s, unflinching. “It’s either my friend or my home. Fall or my family. Have you ever had to make a choice like that?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I have,” Dash said, hovering up and around the fire so she could look the Griffin in the eye. “I know exactly how hard that is.”
“Oh yeah? Then what did you do?”
“I picked my home over my friends” Dash said.
Astrid blinked at that, surprised. “How’d that work out?”
“The world nearly ended.”
“Ouch.”
Dash shook her head and backed off. “It wouldn’t have made a difference if I’d gone the other way. That situation was kinda unique, you know? But I did have to make that choice, and I did learn something from it.”
“What’s that?”
“I learned that some things are more important than others, and if you stay loyal to one thing it might end up betraying another, but sometimes you gotta do it anyway, because your highest loyalty has got to be to yourself.”
“That’s pretty selfish, Dash,” Astrid pointed out.
“No, not like that,” Dash said, growling in frustration as she searched for the words she needed. “I mean you’ve got to be loyal to who you want to be, to the person in your head who’s the best, most awesome you there is. So you gotta look at that and ask who you want to be? The Griffin who’d abandon her friend when she’s in a bad position like this? Or the Griffin who’ll stick by her when she’s got all this injustice coming down on her head.”
Astrid snorted. “I can tell what side you come down on.”
Dash laughed. “Yeah, well, I don’t have the same sort of attachment to this kingdom that you do. I’m all for being behind Star, no matter what she chooses.”
Astrid nodded. “Honestly? So am I, but it isn’t just a simple ‘friend or country’ decision, there’s a lot more behind it. I just don’t want to sugarcoat it. Not for Fall, and not for myself. So, would I go with her? Not going to answer that one until I need to. That’s the last I’m gonna say on it.”
They ate and waited in silence until Star Fall returned. Her face was wet with tears, but she gave them a smile. “Sorry,” she said. “I was getting a little worked up.”
“Not an issue, Fall,” Astrid said. “You deserve a tantrum or two.”
Star Fall shrugged. “I guess, but you two don’t deserve to have me tantrum at you. I’ve got some time to think about this, and I will. I figure I’ll go along with it, but I’ll still think it over to make sure that’s the best choice. It can’t be my priority though, this stuff with Cash, and you, Dash, it’s too important. More important than whether or not I have to marry.”
“Star... Don’t think like that,” Dash said, hovering up to Star Fall. “Your life is kinda important to me, okay? I don’t know about this Cash guy, but I’ve got the Professor working on my stuff, right? That means it’s not on you, and you can take whatever time you need to think about what you want. And when you’ve figured it out, well, you’re my friend, and I never leave a friend hanging. I’m behind you. One hundred and twenty percent,” Dash grinned at her. “Whatever you want.”
Astrid nodded. “Ditto. Except for the impossible percentage bit.”
Star Fall smiled and joined her friends by the fire. “I love you guys,” she said.
“Don’t get sappy on us, fall,” Astrid said, making a gagging gesture.
Dash just laughed, and the night passed without any further drama.
“I’m betraying you”
Dash snapped awake swinging her hooves wildly and gasping for breath.
“Whoa!” Astrid cried, stepping back. “You okay there?”
“Uh, what? Huh?” Dash looked around herself. The blankets she had been sleeping in had been tossed about and she was sweating a little. “What happened?”
“You were freaking out in your sleep is what happened,” Astrid said. “Again. You doing alright?”
Dash took stock of herself as her heartbeat slowed and the adrenaline soaked out of her veins. “Yeah, I’m fine. Weird.”
“Bad dreams again?” Star Fall asked as she put out the fire.
“No,” Dash said. “No bad dreams. At least none I can remember. What time is it?”
“Time to get going,” Astrid said. “There’s a bit of breakfast ready, but eat quick, we want to get out ahead of that,” she pointed a claw at the sky, and Dash stared.
The morning was gray and overcast. Worse than that, it felt wrong to her, both to her weather-pony training and her natural pegasus magic. There was something ominous about these clouds. She could feel it in the way they were coming in from the east, the horizon dark with them. She could see it in their speed, as they came on with the swiftness of a flying pegasus. Worst of all was the light breeze that was flowing towards the storm, as if the clouds were gathering all the air to themselves.
“Star,” Dash called out. “Is this normal weather?”
Star Fall looked up at the gathering storm. “It’s just a storm, Dash. Maybe coming down from the arctic. I don’t know enough about meteorology to be sure.”
“And I’m used to making the weather,” Dash said, shaking her head. “I don’t think we should fly very high today. I think this storm is going to break right on top of us, and unless you know how to handle it, flying in a lightning storm is pretty dangerous.”
“We know, Dash,” Astrid said. “I was hoping to make better time, but we’ll be ground-bound until the storm passes.”
“We don’t have to go that far,” Dash protested.
“You can fly through a storm like that, we can’t,” Star Fall pointed out. “Not just a lightning storm, but any decently powerful wind can knock us right from the air.”
“Right, keep forgetting that stuff,” Dash sighed. “Okay, fine. I can live with walking for a day.”
There was a rumble of thunder and Star Fall’s head came up, frowning at the storm. “Now that you mention it though,” she said. “There is something bugging me about it. It feels... wrong.”
“Yeah,” Dash agreed, staring into the clouds. She didn’t even notice that she and Star Fall were looking at the very same point.
Astrid did. “Is this some kind of magic thing?”
“I think it’s a pegasus thing,” Dash said. “We should get moving.”
“I think you’re right,” Star Fall said, getting to her hooves. Astrid quickly concealed evidence of their stay and they hefted their saddlebags up. More thunder rumbled from the clouds, but there was a particular tenor to it that set even the Griffin on edge.
They set out, keeping up a good pace that took them out of the woods and onto the rolling, rocky plains. The storm swept up behind them, growing heavier and darker with shocking swiftness, casting the land under it into utter blackness. They walked faster. Lightning flashed in the sky, thunder that sounded like rumbling, vicious laughter following in its wake. At some point Dash realized that they had broken into a gallop, Astrid loping along next to them, golden eyes wide.
“Star, this is definitely not a normal storm!" Dash called out. "What's going on?"
"I don't know!" Star Fall called back. The wind started gusting to the point where they had to keep their wings tightly to their sides or be thrown about, and the rush of it drowned out all but the loudest shout. "We need to find shelter!"
Dash looked about, wide fields of rocks and grass dotted with a few sparse copses of trees for miles around. "I don't think that's an option!" Astrid shouted, noticing the same thing.
Star Fall's lips pulled back in a grimace as she desperately thought of a way to protect them from the unnatural storm. "The Everstorm spells!" she cried. "I can modify them to protect us! I just need a minute!"
Dash looked back at the clouds. They boiled in the sky, moving in thickening waves that the rainbow pegasus had never seen before, not even above the Everfree Forest. Only the Everstorm had come close to it, and they were a thousand miles from that twisted place. A moment of fear shot through her, but was quashed by a burning determination. Unnatural or not they were still just clouds, and no cloud got the better of Rainbow Dash!
"Astrid, keep the wind off of Star!" Dash yelled, skidding to a halt.
"What are you going to do?" Astrid asked as she and Star Fall came to a stop themselves. The Griffin pulled Star Fall close to her and gripped the rocky earth with her talons before flaring out her wings, buffering the pegasus against the force of the wind. Star Fall wasted no time in pulling out one of her spell-sheets and setting to work scrawling out her spell.
"I'm going to kick some sense into those clouds!" Dash replied, then opened her own wings and took off into the sky.
The wind caught at her like a giant pillow smacking her whole body at once. She flapped her wings furiously, magic rising to her need and stilling the air around her. She shot up, quickly reaching the level of the clouds as they came on. From this height she could see the full extent of the storm, and it made her eyes widen. Clouds from one horizon to the other, all of them pulling towards the central massive cloudbank that towered like a mountain and flashed with arcs of lightning.
She hovered there, trying to think of how to break up a storm that large, that powerful. It would take her entire weather team back in Ponyville to do it, if they even could. There was no way a lone pony was going to make any difference, and if there was a supernatural cause behind it, she would be fighting against that as well.
Dash shrugged at the thought. When had something being impossible ever stopped her from trying it?
She shot at the storm, taking a deep breath as she went. When she was close enough she pulled to a halt and with a great heave she blew at the clouds. Her breath came out laced with pegasus magic, expanding into a wind that rivalled the one the storm was creating. It crashed into the oncoming clouds and they were pushed back. Dash took another huge breath and did it again, then again, turning her head so that her magic-fuelled breath could catch as much of the storm as it could. Clouds billowed and roiled, flattening as if they had come up against a wall, and for a moment the storm was halted in its advance.
Dash panted with exertion, feeling a little lightheaded from the heavy breaths. "Hey you!" she called to the storm. "That was just a taste of what you've got coming if you don't break it up and start acting normal right now! Don't make me come in there! I mean it!"
The clouds paused in their billowing, as if they were a movie and someone had stopped the reel. There was an enormous groaning noise, like the scream of a tortured mountain. "Well, that's weird," Dash said to herself. Then the storm shot lightning at her.
The bolt came without warning, and there was no way for Dash to avoid it. It lanced horizontally from the cloudbank, a booming mass of electricity that narrowly missed the pegasus. It was still close enough for it to singe her mane and feathers, and the blast of expanding air knocked her for a loop that took her a few precious seconds to recover from.
When she righted herself she stared with wide eyes at the storm, which was moving again and coming right at her. "Alright mister, you just messed with the wrong pony!" she snarled, and attacked.
She dove at the storm, flying in a corkscrew pattern that allowed her to avoid the lightning bolts that the storm hurled her way. She hit the clouds with all four hooves, grunting with effort as she gave it the most powerful cloud-busting kick she could. A section of cloud the size of Sugarcube Corner buckled and exploded into tendrils of thin mist that were quickly caught up by the wind. Dash banked away from the storm, then changed direction suddenly and rammed it again, bursting another piece of it.
Lightning burst from the clouds, two and three bolts at a time, each clearly aimed for her. As fast as she was, outrunning lightning still wasn't really an option. So she flew erratic patterns, zig-zagging across the face of the storm as she kicked it to pieces.
It didn't take her long to realize she was getting nowhere. Every cloud she broke was just sucked back into the main body of the storm, every lightning bolt she dodged was just followed by two more. She was managing to hold back the storm, but that was all, and it was already taking a toll on her energy reserves.
Finally she backed off, dropping away from the clouds and down to the ground. She spotted her friends and made for them. Astrid was still standing strong against the wind, sheltering the white pegasus who watched Dash with eyes full of awe and worry, her hoof poised above a completed spell-sheet.
Dash poured on the speed, having to fight against the wind that was flowing towards the storm. Blasts of lightning struck the earth in her wake, burning the grasses and sending dirt and stones flying. "Star! Do it now!" she screamed as she approached her friends.
Whether Star Fall heard the cry over the wind or not, she began to charge her spell. The paper flared with light, the spidery script beginning to crawl across the page like a living thing. With a thrust of her wings Dash was there, just as a dome of bright red light sprang up around them. Lightning splashed against the dome, redirected into the ground without striking them.
Rainbow Dash braked hard, shedding all of her momentum in a couple sweeps of her wings so that she didn't overshoot the bubble of safety. "Wicked awesome spell, Star," Dash congratulated her as she set down.
"What the hell is going on with this storm, Fall?" Astrid asked. The barrier kept out most of the wind and thunder as well as the lightning, so they didn't have to shout to be heard, but her voice was edging into a screech anyways, revealing her fear.
"I don't know!" Star Fall said, shaking her head as she stared out of the translucent dome towards the roiling clouds.
"It's like the Everstorm," Dash said. "I could feel it when I was up there, there's serious magic pushing this thing."
"But that's impossible," Star Fall breathed, eyes wide. "No one has that kind of power. No one except..."
Astrid and Dash stared at Star Fall, but she had gone still. "Fall," Astrid said, breaking the silence. "You can't just trail off like that. Who? Who could do this?"
"Astrid," Star Fall said, quivering with fear as she pointed with her hoof. "Look."
The storm was twisting, clouds flowing over each other into a funnel that stretched out from the storm towards them. Lightning crawled over the surface of the tornado like a thousand electrical spiders and an ominous red glow came from within.
"Can the spell hold against that?" Astrid asked. Star Fall just gave her a shocked, incredulous look as an answer. "Great. Dash?"
"Ready!" Dash said, crouching.
"Wait for it," Astrid said, grabbing on to the limp Star Fall and clutching her close. "Wait for it." The funnel was right above them, jabbing down like a massive, impossible spike pounded into the earth. "Now!" Astrid shrieked, and dove out of the barrier.
Dash did the same, leaping out in a different direction as the unnatural tornado touched the spell and tore it apart. The wind caught at her and threw her to the ground, but she bounced well out of the destructive reach of the twister. She rolled to her hooves immediately, turning to see which way the attack would go.
The funnel cloud didn't chase her or Astrid, instead spinning and sparking in place. Dash watched, and saw a shape take form in the center of the tornado: a large, winged equine shadow only illuminated by the flashes of lightning that danced across the clouds. The shape reared up, then brought its hooves down. They struck the earth with a sound like a hundred thunderclaps compressed into one, and the tornado exploded outwards in a burst of wind and lightning that hit Dash like a brick wall. She tumbled from the force of it, but managed to keep her head and skid to a stop on the rocky earth as the wind passed by and the world was thrown into an eerily silent stillness. When she looked back at where the storm had touched earth her jaw dropped open.
There stood a dark Alicorn. She was as tall and regal as Celestia had ever been, her wings extended and her head held high, horn pointing straight up. Her mane was a floating swirl of darkness and ashes that was transparent, but the world viewed through it was a barren place of shadows and death. Her coat blended with the storm clouds, gray and dark such that her true dimensions were only revealed in the flashes of lightning. Dash noted the heart-and-sword cutie mark almost as an afterthought, as all her attention was drawn to the pony's eyes. They glowed with incredible power, icy white within fiery gold within midnight black. They were eyes that held a thousand years of malice and rage, and they were staring right at her.
"Nightmare Umbra," Star Fall said, the whisper loud enough to hear in the almost reverent quiet that had descended with the appearance of the Destroyer. She lay on the ground, more than ten yards from Dash, but thankfully not on the other side of the Alicorn.
The Nightmare's burning gaze swung slowly to the prone white pegasus and the Griffin that stood protectively over her. She regarded them with an expressionless disregard that was more chilling than all the rage she had been directing at Dash. "I Am She," Nightmare Umbra confirmed, her voice rumbling through the air, more something felt and understood on an instinctual level than heard. Dash shuddered, even the Royal Canterlot Voice wasn't as bad as Umbra's speech. "I Have No Interest In You," she continued. "My Target Is This One," her head tilted slightly towards Rainbow Dash. "Leave, And Live."
The implications for not leaving were clear. "Star, get out of here!" Dash shouted, flaring her wings and thinking as fast as she could about how to get out of this.
"Dash, this is Nightmare Umbra! She's going to kill you!" Star Fall called back.
"She's going to try," Dash replied with a smirk. "I’ve fought a Nightmare before, remember? She doesn't look so tough. I can take her," she lied. The Nightmare's gaze travelled back to Rainbow Dash with all the inevitability of an advancing glacier. Dash met her eyes, forcing herself not to shake. “Astrid.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” the Griffin replied, scooping up Star Fall again.
“See you guys later!” Dash said, and leapt. Her takeoff came not a moment too soon as a bolt of crimson energy lashed out from the Nightmare’s horn, the spot where she had stood only a moment before blooming into fire. Dash’s wings caught the expanding air from the explosion and she used it to throw herself even higher. She flew up for a bit before stopping and turning back to her opponent. “Hey! Tall, dark and unimpressive! You want me? Gotta catch me first!”
“No,” the Nightmare replied, her voice reaching Dash as easily as if she had been standing right next to her. “I Do Not.”
Dash dodged a bolt of lightning that blasted down from the clouds. “Gonna have to do better than that!”
The Nightmare snarled, face twisting in anger as she spread her wings and took off towards the pegasus. Dash turned and flew, banking and looping as she gauged how good her pursuer was at flying. To her delight, Nightmare Umbra proved to be a mediocre flyer. She had strength and could pick up a good speed when flying straight, but she lacked maneuverability and acceleration. Dash could fly circles around her.
The chase took them up into the storm, Dash diving into the rushing clouds while dodging lightning and blasts of magic. She couldn’t risk looking back to see if Star Fall and Astrid were making good their escape, it took all of her concentration just to stay one step ahead of the enraged Nightmare. She came out the top of the storm with a shout, the Nightmare hot on her hooves. Lightning shot up at her, but she had gotten the measure of the storm now, and knew when and where it was going to be blasting. Exhilaration thundered in her veins, and the burning strain of her wings was a joyful song that formed the soundtrack to the fight.
Nightmare Umbra snarled, the sound making waves in the sea of clouds below them. She followed Dash’s dodging motions, firing dark magic at her, but all she hit was empty air. When she suddenly stopped shooting, Dash turned to find the Nightmare’s horn creating a pillar of black flame as she cast her spell.
Dash’s breath came in frosty bursts and she gasped as the temperature dropped so far and so fast that she could feel it even through the natural pegasus resistance to cold. She felt her wings stiffen as her feathers iced over, and snorted in frustration. “Clever, damn it,” she said to herself. Knowing that the Nightmare’s superior strength would let her fly more easily than Dash could with ice-coated wings, she did the only sensible thing and dropped back towards the ground.
Passing back through the storm was easier than going up, it had given up trying to hit her with lightning and was now just being a big, dark obstruction. Dash came through the bottom and dove towards the ground, pulling out of the dive only a yard above the rocky plains and skimming along as the Nightmare chased her. Bolts of explosive magic sent up blooms of light and heat as the Destroyer attacked, leading her target enough that Dash had to dodge each shot with wide, swerving turns that left blue and pink trails in her wake.
Nightmare Umbra thudded into the ground, setting herself quickly and firing off a volley of magic at Dash. The pegasus twisted through the air, juking and spinning as the magical missiles followed her every move. Dash grit her teeth and poured on the speed, breaking through the sound barrier and banking in a wide circle around where the Nightmare stood. She came to a stop when she realized the missiles had stopped tracking her. She looked back towards the shadowy Alicorn and grinned.
“You can’t keep up, can you?” Dash laughed. “Your aim sucks and you just can’t keep up with me. Of course, you should have expected that. I am the fastest pony in Equestria after all!”
“Yes,” the Nightmare replied. Dash was surprised that she had even heard her from this distance. “You Are.”
“So whatcha gonna do, slowpoke?”
“Adjust My Tactics,” Umbra replied, her horn erupting in black flame and her eyes narrowing. The Nightmare shuddered, and Dash frowned, trying to figure out what she was up to. I took her a moment to realize that it wasn't Umbra that was shaking, it was the ground. She widened her view and saw that a chunk of the plains a mile wide and centered on the Nightmare was being torn out of the ground whole.
"No way," Dash breathed. The Nightmare's fanged grin was all the warning she got before the floating island of rock and earth was flung at her, aiming to squash her like a bug under a particularly large flyswatter.
Dash turned and fled. She accelerated as quickly as she could, but a look back made her feel like she was falling instead. She burst through the sound barrier again, wincing at the pain of it. She risked another look back, sure that she was leaving the Nightmare in her dust, only to see that Umbra had pushed the entire mile-wide chunk of land into supersonic, and was still gaining on her. "Oh come on!" Dash shouted, barely able to hear her own voice as she pulled out even more acceleration. Something that large at this speed? Forget hitting it directly, just touching its mach cone would be fatal.
The adrenaline, the exertion, the danger, the speed, all of it was coming together in a sweet spot of magic and determination that Dash had spent years trying to attain in practice. The rest of the world fell away and everything was reduced down to the open air in front of her and the magic-propelled death behind. The voice in the back of her head was urging her on, glory and victory just one last push away. Touch the spectrum, it said, show her the true meaning of speed.
Dash pushed a hoof out ahead of her, streamlining her body as the magical barrier protecting her from her own speed narrowed to an acute angle. She flew harder, overtaking her own magic, and sparks of static lightning began to flash across her body. She could see the colors of the spectrum dance across her hoof, an explosion of light and sound building around her, waiting for her to make just one more push.
"No."
Nightmare Umbra's voice destroyed Dash's concentration. It had felt like her brain had been hit with the claw end of a hammer. She scrambled to reorient herself, but it was too late. The barrier of her magic snapped into solidity in front of her, an elastic stretched to its limit, but not beyond. Dash had a split second to contemplate the terrible consequences of being hurled back into the oncoming island of death. Then she twisted around, set herself, and aimed.
The barrier did what it always did when she failed to reach Rainboom speeds and flung her in the opposite direction from what she had been travelling in, firing her like a slingshot pellet. Unlike usual, however, she had managed to aim this slingshot, and so had some control over where she was going. She blasted to the side, tumbling in a curled ball of pink feathers and blue mane. She went wide of the island, missing the brunt of the shockwave. What she did catch was enough to make her bones rattle and her guts feel like Big Mac had mistaken her for a particularly obstinate apple tree.
She forced herself to straighten out, extending her wings and catching the air to slow her headlong rush towards the ground. She was subsonic again, and levelling out was impossible due to all the turbulence created by the enormous chunk of rock that had just passed through the area at mach four. She managed to control her descent, though, and touched down with a minimum of rolling and bouncing. When she came to a stop she turned to look at the swiftly retreating island. Not even the Nightmare was going to be able to stop something with that kind of momentum and turn it around quickly.
It was then that Nightmare Umbra stopped the island by the simple expedient of no longer holding it together. The entire chunk of rock disintegrated under the forces it was suddenly once again subject to. The shockwave collapsed with a deep crash that shook a landscape already torn up by the immense pressure wave that had hit it. Dash weathered the rumble with barely a wince, focused more on the center of the debris cloud. The Destroyer broke through the falling mass of rocks like an angry god, tendrils of shadow and fire dragging boulders the size of houses with her. She was a long way away, but Dash knew it would take mere moments to catch up.
The pegasus took off, dodging as the Nightmare used boulders as supersonic missiles, throwing them at her. They impacted the land like bombs, reducing an already torn countryside into a cratered warzone in moments. A cloud of dirt and smoke rose up into the stormy sky, adding itself to the swirling storm that was still above their heads.
Dash panted hard, she could keep this up for a while yet, but all the dodging was taking its toll. She didn’t know how much power the Nightmare had, but from everything she’d seen so far, and the way the attacks kept coming, she was sure Umbra would win any contest of stamina. All she had going for her was her speed, and Umbra had shown clearly that she could overcome that advantage if she tried. Running away wasn’t going to work, so she had no choice but to change her own tactics. It was time to attack.
She curved around and shot at the Nightmare. Umbra saw her coming, filling the sky in front of her with a minefield of floating rocks and explosive magic. Dash flew straight into the danger zone and began to rush across the explosive array, setting off every spell she could. The air filled with light and fire, obscuring the pegasus from the view of the Nightmare.
Dash took full advantage of this, rushing under the explosions and then up. Nightmare Umbra sensed her coming somehow and skewed to the side, but Dash was too fast and too agile to be dodged completely. Dash smashed her hoof into Umbra’s wing, tearing it as she passed. Umbra began to fall, spiralling to the ground.
Dash stopped her ascent, wary of tricks and counterattacks. A sharp pain in her leg made her look at it, and she screamed in horror. Black tendrils squirmed over her hoof, the blood of the Nightmare attacking the one that had spilled it. They jabbed into the sensitive skin above her hoof and Dash’s veins bulged as the animate blood invaded them. She shook her hoof, scraping at it with the other, tearing her skin in order to pull the tendrils free. The Nightmare’s blood hadn’t managed to get deep into her system, so it fell away in wriggling globs. Finally all that was left was a dark stain on her hoof, and her own blood dripping from her foreleg.
“That was so not cool,” she said, unable to completely still her shaking.
“You Cannot Defeat Me,” the Nightmare said. Dash looked down to find Umbra standing on the ground, staring up at her. “You Cannot Escape Me. Surrender, And Your Death Shall Be Swift And Merciful.”
“Yeah? I think if I can hurt you I can beat you,” Dash said, holding up her bloody hoof. “How’s the wing?”
“Repairing Itself," the Nightmare replied, lifting its wing to show Dash the gash she had caused. It was closing fast, tissues being knitted back together by worms of oily black blood. "You Are Incapable Of Bestowing Lasting Injury Upon Me.”
“Maybe I don’t have to,” Dash grinned. “Maybe I just have to knock you out. I figure a couple minutes of sleepy time and you get left in my dust.”
The Nightmare’s eyes narrowed. “You Cannot.”
“Why don’t we find out!” Dash shouted, and blazed an ethereal trail as she dove at the Nightmare. Umbra’s eyes opened wide in surprise, anger, and something that made Dash’s spirit surge: apprehension. If the Nightmare was worried, then this just might work.
Umbra dodged back, but Dash didn’t correct to hit her, instead banking hard and swirling around the dark Alicorn. Her etherealized trail began to show its true rainbow colors as Dash spun faster and faster around Umbra, who fired wildly into the tornado of light that surrounded her. Dash grit her teeth and with a wrenching twist of her wings and a burst of magic she reversed direction and travelled into her own ethereal trail. It was a move that only a few Pegasi could pull off, and none of them could do it with the flair of Rainbow Dash. It was more than just a sudden reversal, though, the interaction of the fading magical wake with the new one had a unique effect. An effect that Dash had discovered by accident, and had then worked it into one of her ace-in-the-hole signature moves: the Buccaneer Blaze.
Light burst all around Nightmare Umbra, the dark Alicorn crying out and flinching away from it. Dash was on her in an instant, hooves flying in a flurry of punches and kicks, striking with all the speed she was capable of in as many places as she could reach. She was careful not to use the edge of her hooves, she didn't want any more of that horrible blood on her, but she pounded away at sensitive joints until bone and muscle gave with sickeningly loud sounds.
Dash had never hurt another pony this badly before and the bile rose in her throat with every crack and dull thud that accompanied her blows. She didn't let up, though, and she wouldn't until the Nightmare went down. She could be disgusted with herself later, after she had survived. Umbra collapsed to the ground with a cry, but was still more than awake enough to cause problems. Dash shot up fifty feet and then rocketed down, aiming to smash into the Nightmare's head and hopefully do enough damage to put her down for the count.
Umbra's cruel, fanged smirk told her she had made a mistake, but the warning came too late to do anything about it.
Dash froze in midair, all her momentum halted completely. A black aura surrounded her, encasing her in Umbra's telekinetic grip. She struggled against the hold, feeling it give slightly, but not enough to escape yet.
Umbra rose to her hooves, broken bones snapping back into place and bruises melting away as Dash watched. The Nightmare regarded Rainbow Dash with a triumphant gleam in her luminous eyes. "Your Mobility Is A Nuisance," she said, then threw Dash into the ground.
Dash hit hard, Umbra was capable of accelerating her an incredible amount over a very short distance, but it still wasn't as hard as she was used to crashing, and the Nightmare had to let go of her in the instant before she hit the ground for the impact to have any effect. She bounced off the torn earth, twisting to escape, but the Nightmare caught her before she could more than half-turn. Then she slammed Dash into the ground again. And again. And again.
"Your Resilience Is Similarly Annoying," Umbra said as she hefted the dazed pegasus up. With a flare of her horn the earth burst around her. A dozen pillars of stone, each yards wide, erupted from the ground to rise a hundred feet high all around her. Dash stared at the newest display of the Nightmare's power, wondering what they would be used for. She didn't have to wait long.
Nightmare Umbra whipped the bound pegasus around in a circle, sending her smashing headfirst through each of the pillars she had created. Then she did it again, sending her into the falling sections of stone as they came crashing down. Then she did it again to the remnants of the pillars that were still in midair before finally throwing Dash hard into the ground where she lay on her back, eyelids fluttering as she shook from the trauma.
Dash couldn't focus as she was freed from the Nightmare's telekinesis. She knew that she should be trying to escape, but the thought was distant and consciousness fleeting. Her mind was brought back into focus as Umbra touched her horn to Dash's head and sent a jolt of agonizing magic through her. She looked up at the Alicorn, wings already scrambling. Umbra simply placed a forehoof on Dash's chest and it was like the weight of a mountain had come down on her, forcing the air out of her lungs and squashing her attempts to run.
As she stopped struggling the Nightmare eased up on the pressure, allowing Dash to draw a harsh breath. "Your Arrogance, However, Is Welcome," Umbra said, eyes flashing.
"What... is your... deal?" Dash asked between pained gasps.
The Nightmare simply regarded her, the rage and triumph draining from her features, replaced by a pensive frown that seemed wrong on her cruelly beautiful features. "Who Made You?"
Dash blinked at that. "What?"
"You Are Not Rainbow Dash."
"Are too."
Umbra snarled, the pressure of her hoof increasing until Dash's ribs creaked before easing again. "You Are Not Rainbow Dash. You Are Not A Modified Pony Of The Modern Age. Therefore You Are A Construct. Who Made You?"
"I was born, not made," Dash snapped, staring the Nightmare defiantly in the eyes. "I am Rainbow Dash. I just woke up in the future, I don't know why, but I figure stopping you has got something to do with it. And I can see why that's important, 'cause lady? You are nuts."
The Nightmare tilted her head slowly to the side, as if she was listening to something only she could hear. "I Watched Rainbow Dash Die," she said. "I Watched Her Burn In Death. Some Of Her Ashes Are A Part Of Me, As Are The Remains Of All Her Friends. You Are Not Her."
"That's... disturbing on a lot of levels," Dash said, then narrowed her eyes at the Alicorn. "I know who I am. I don't care what you saw."
"You Lie," Umbra hissed, leaning down until her nose was nearly touching Dash's. "Who Made You? Who Thinks To Challenge Me With This Pathetic Copy? Answer Me!"
"Or what? You're going to kill me anyway," Dash pointed out. "Buck you, nag. I hope when they bring you down they put your statue right next to Discord."
Nightmare Umbra jerked back as if she had been struck, eyes wide and filled for a moment with an emotion that went beyond simple fear. Something in what Dash had just said terrified her to the core of her being. Dash tried to use the moment of distraction to escape, but the Nightmare regained herself too quickly, slamming her hoof back into Dash's chest hard enough to crack ribs and make her heart stutter. "No! I Do Not Care What May Be Learned! For That She Will Die Now!"
Dash was too busy trying to breathe to spend time wondering who the Nightmare was talking to, and so missed the way Umbra's lips seemed to move in a whispered reply. The pressure on Dash's chest increased, and she scrabbled at the Alicorn's hoof with her own, trying to shift it but finding it utterly immovable. Her mouth worked, but she could make no sound as her vision began to fade into gray, the eyes of the Nightmare somehow the only color she could see in her dying world.
There was a flash of crimson light and suddenly the pressure was gone from Dash's chest. She sucked in a breath eagerly, greedily sucking at the air so that her cracked ribs roared with agony. She embraced that pain, revelling in it and the way it meant she was alive for another minute. She rolled off of her back, panting for breath as she tried to discover what had happened.
Nightmare Umbra was pulling herself to her hooves several yards away as another bolt of crimson energy slammed into her, throwing her back to the ground. Dash tracked the bolt back to its source, and found Star Fall standing atop one of the larger boulders left behind from the pillars Dash had smashed through. A trio of spell-sheets hovered in front of the white pegasus, the red glow of Star Fall's magic surrounding them.
"Star," Dash said, trying to rise and finding that she just didn't have the strength.
"Stay down, Dash!" Star Fall cried. There was fear in her voice, but also determination stronger than steel. "I'll handle her now!"
"Fool!" Umbra raged, rising in a burst of black fire. Star Fall fired another burst of magic at her, but the Nightmare deflected it with a casual flick of her horn. "Your Power Is No Match For Mine! Why Have You Returned?"
"Yeah, it was dumb of me," Star Fall said, then gave Dash a reassuring smile. "But Rainbow Dash is my friend, and you do not leave a friend hanging!"
"Fallen Star, I Warn You..." Umbra didn't get the rest of her threat out as a Griffin suddenly appeared on her back, a spent spell-sheet stuck to her feathers, and began mauling the Nightmare.
"Oh yeah, and Astrid agrees," Star Fall said, then hopped down and rushed over to Dash's side. "How badly are you hurt?"
"Pretty bad," Dash admitted, coughing. "Not as bad as when we first met, though. Give me a minute to get my breath back and I can fly."
"How about fight?" Star Fall asked. "I don't think we can outrun her."
Dash considered it for a moment. "She's tough, but she can be hurt. All of us working together? Yeah, we can do it, so long as we're careful."
"Then we'll be careful," Star Fall said, then snapped her gaze back to where Astrid and Umbra were tangled in a mass of raking talons and kicking hooves. "Clear!" she shouted, and her brow furrowed in concentration. The spell-sheets flashed a brilliant red as her magic flared, a triple blast of crimson lightning lancing out and smashing into the Shadowed Alicorn just as Astrid leapt away from the fray. The bolts grounded through the unprepared Nightmare, sending her sprawling even as her horn lit with dark power to counter the effects of Star Fall's attack.
Astrid rushed over to them, taking her place in front of the two ponies as Dash pulled herself upright. "Get the blood off of you," Dash said. "It's not normal."
Astrid quickly complied, spitting out wriggling worms of the oily blood and scraping it off her claws before it could start attacking in earnest. "Fuck, this bitch is hardcore," Astrid swore. "She wrenched one of my wings out of the socket. You'll have to kick it back in." Star Fall grabbed the limp limb, holding it in place before slamming a hoof down on the joint, resetting it. Astrid didn't even wince at the pain. "Thanks," she said, quickly folding the injured wing down. "The invisibility trick worked."
"For once," Star Fall snorted. "How badly did you hurt her?"
"She didn't," Dash said. "Nightmare Umbra heals too fast, you either make it count or don't count it at all."
"Shit," Astrid swore again, shaking her head. "This day just keeps getting better. What's the plan then?"
"Star, those blasts of yours seem to actually hurt her, when they hit," Dash said. "Astrid and me can distract her, you line up the shot. Then take it, we'll keep her down so you can get a few more in before she gets back up. We keep her on the ropes long enough, she might throw in the towel. Sound good?"
"Sounds like the only plan I can think of too," Star Fall said.
"Hey, all I've got are looks and muscle," Astrid quipped. "You brainiacs say this is the plan? I'm game."
"Awesome," Dash said, smiling at her friends. "Let's do this!"
"NO."
Nightmare Umbra's voice crashed over them like a steamroller, twisting in their guts. Dash fell to her knees and Star Fall followed her. Astrid managed to stay up, but the effort cost her and her injured wing started twitching violently against her side.
The Shadowed Alicorn rose from the ground, not standing or flying but simply floating up from where she had fallen. Her eyes blazed ever brighter as her shadow-and-ashes hair swirled in a tempest of darkness around her. "This Is An Unacceptable Outcome." Her ears flicked as if she was listening to someone shouting in them. "My Purpose Must Be Fulfilled."
Dash forced herself to her hooves, the effort a purely mental one. There wasn't any physical force holding her down, it was just that the Nightmare's will was so strong her body was responding to it rather than her own brain, and she had to remind her limbs who the pony in charge was. "Star, Astrid," she said. "Fight it. We can take her. Together."
Slowly Star Fall rose. "Together," she repeated, and her spell-sheets flared.
"Together," Astrid joined in, raising her head.
"Now!" Star Fall shouted, blasting Umbra. The beams of crimson light lanced at the Nightmare, who knocked them aside contemptuously. The magical attack had been a feint, though, allowing Dash and Astrid to get close to her while her vision had been obscured.
Astrid flashed past the Nightmare, talons tearing her throat out as she passed. As the Griffin fell to the side, scraping the blood from her talons, Dash rushed in from the other side and bucked Umbra's forelegs out from under her. The Nightmare fell, crashing into the ground and making choked, gurgling noises as her throat regenerated. Star Fall took the opportunity to lay into her with another burst of red magic that knocked her onto her back.
Astrid attacked again, ripping and tearing at sensitive muscles before leaping away again and making room for Dash, who pounded on joints and broke bones. Star Fall followed this up with more devastating magic. The Nightmare's horn flared, prompting Astrid and Dash to rush in together to disrupt whatever spell she was casting. They pounded on her head, talons tearing out the Nightmare's eyes while hooves stomped hard enough to crack her long black horn.
The Nightmare was clever, though, and she had used the threat of her magic as a distraction while her body healed. She slammed a hoof into Astrid's gut, sending the Griffin flying. Dash tried to back off and let Star Fall hit Umbra again, but the Nightmare twisted and slapped a wing down on top of her, crushing the pegasus to the ground. Star Fall took a shot anyway, but Umbra's cracked horn roared to life, sending a wave of black fire at her.
Umbra spun to her hooves, grabbing Dash in another telekinetic hold and lifting her to eye level. "Enough Of These Games," she snarled.
Dash struggled, surprised to find that she could move at all. The grip the Nightmare had on her paled to the near-absolute binding she had used earlier. She looked more closely at the Alicorn, and found that many of the wounds they had inflicted on her weren't healing very fast at all. Magic leaked from the cracks in her horn, sending ripples of shadow and heat into the air. This only intensified as Umbra cast a new spell, a tiny black sphere appearing at the tip of her horn. Dash could feel the sucking, clawing power of that spell, and knew that if it touched her she was dead. Still, she grinned. "Is that the best you can do? Hah! And I thought you were supposed to be scary."
"You Know Nothing," Nightmare Umbra said, her voice filled with so much hatred that Dash flinched back despite herself. The Alicorn lowered her horn until the death spell was only inches from Dash's face.
Then Astrid's claw wrapped around the horn, just above a large crack. "I know you shouldn't take your eyes off a Griffin in combat," she chided, then kicked the Nightmare in the face. She held on to the horn, and with a snap it broke in half. The Griffin wasted no time in reversing her grip on the sharp magical bone and stabbing it right into the Nightmare's chest, death spell and all.
Umbra reared up in surprise, agony twisting her features before the rage came flooding back and she turned on the Griffin. Whatever she was going to do or say, she never got the chance as three blasts of crimson light struck her, and went straight through. The Nightmare looked back at her body, finding three holes, as big around as grapefruits, punched neatly through her.
"And I know a few good combat spells," Star Fall said, walking towards them. "Dash, how are you doing?"
"Peachy," Dash replied. She could move easily now, the telekinetic grip fading away. "How are you two?"
"Burned, tired, but good," Star Fall replied.
"I got hurt worse than this in training," Astrid said. "I'll be fine."
"You Are All Doomed," Nightmare Umbra said.
"Are you still talking?" Astrid snarled. "Fall just turned you into a screen door! What will it take to convince you to stay down?"
Umbra ignored her, turning her attention back to Dash. As she spoke her body began to disintegrate, falling apart into ashes that were swept away by a sudden, cold wind that blew past. "Your Victory Is Fleeting. I Will Return, And I Shall Have My True Power Then. Tell Your Masters, Whoever They Are, That I Am Coming. I Will Hunt Them. I Will Find Them. I Will Kill Them. And I Will Kill You Too."
"And I will stop you," Dash promised, staring the Nightmare in the eyes as she fell apart. "Now and in my own time. I will stop you."
The Nightmare didn't reply, only stared at Dash with unadulterated hate and rage until what was left of her burst apart into a cloud of ashes that rushed away into the storm. There was a moment of quiet stillness as the Nightmare left, then the clouds opened up and it began to rain.
Dash looked up into the skies, feeling the malevolent will behind the storm vanish, letting move and act according to its nature once again. She could have broken it up now, but she just didn't have the energy. Instead she looked up, trying to estimate the position of the sun. "Hey, Princess Celestia," she said. "About the whole sticking-yourself-in-the-sky thing? If that was the only way to deal with her, then I change my mind. I am behind that plan one hundred and ten percent. I'd really appreciate it, though, if you could do the 'sealing her power' thing again. You know, before she kills me. Uh, thanks."
With that said Dash flopped onto her back and began the long, involved process of freaking out.
Star Fall was freaking out. The rain poured down in huge, cold drops that set her shivering, but she was barely capable of noticing. They had just fought Nightmare Umbra. The Nightmare Umbra. A being that had taken two Goddesses becoming one with the cosmos to defeat originally, and she had blasted at it with her inefficient spell-sheet based combat magic.
“I’m going to be sick,” she said, not intending it for anyone in particular. A moment later she made her pronouncement true, falling to her knees and retching up what breakfast she’d had. She kept gagging and dry heaving for a while, only stopping when Astrid’s warm wing fell over her in a comforting hug.
“We beat her, Fall,” the Griffon assured her. “You did good.”
“I don’t... Astrid,” the pegasus said, clutching at her friend. “Did you see what she did? Do you know how much power she was using? This storm? That... that...” She waved a hoof vaguely at the place where the massive chunk of the plains had been used as a supersonic weapon. “How did we win? How could we even... I don’t ... I can’t.”
“Sshh. It’s good, alright? We managed it, we’re still here and she’s not,” the Griffin kept her voice low and soothing, letting Star Fall cry into her feathers as she shook. “If you need to lose it, now’s good. You kept it together in combat, Fall. I’m proud of you.”
“I... I did, didn’t I,” Star Fall said, smiling up at Astrid.
“Yup, bravest little pegasus I know,” Astrid assured her. There was a choked sound from where Dash lay staring up at the storm. “You don’t count, superpony!” Astrid called over, then turned back to Star Fall. “We gotta get back to the capital, Fall, but if you need scream a bit you can do it now, I won’t judge.”
“She was so strong, Astrid,” Star Fall said, shivering again. “So strong, and she said that wasn’t her full power! She could do ... all of this, and she wasn’t at her best!”
“I’d probably take that as sour grapes,” Astrid assured her. “She was getting her butt kicked, and she was kinda arrogant about the whole thing. That kind of person doesn’t like it when they’re beat. It's like a bully getting stood up to at training camp. They start to boast that they’ll be back, but this time they’ll bring their big clanmates and you'll be sorry! Me, I know that if you aren’t going to be serious about a fight the first time, then you shouldn’t be fighting at all. Even if she does come back with more power, we’ll beat her again.”
“No,” Star Fall said, pulling away from Astrid. “No we won't. You’re thinking about her as if she’s another pony or Griffin. She’s an immortal. A Goddess. She didn’t take us seriously because why would she? What reason could she possibly have to see us as anything more than insects to be crushed or ignored?"
"We will win, Fall," Astrid said, golden eyes hard. "We've seen her now, what she can do. She caught us by complete surprise, and we still sent her packing. If she shows up again we'll be ready, and I promise you it'll go just like it did this time."
Star Fall hung her head and sighed. "She’s not dead, right?”
Astrid shrugged. “I doubt it.”
“So we pulled out the stops, tore her apart, put holes in her, everything we could think of, and all we did was make her step back for a bit. She surprised us, we surprised her back. We didn’t beat her, Astrid.”
“Fall, we sent her packing. That’s beat in my books.”
“No, it’s...” Star Fall shook her head, trying to think of a way to explain it to her friend. “She’s not a pony!”
“Yeah, got that message loud and clear,” Astrid said.
“No!" Star Fall stamped her hoof in frustration. "You're still thinking of her as if she were a pony. She’s not a pony, she’s an army.”
"An army?"
Star Fall nodded. “All the Magic Talents and Telekinetic Talents in the Kingdom working together couldn't have accomplished this as quickly as she did," she waved again towards the wide field of devastation all around them. "If this was only a part of her power I can't even imagine what she's capable of at full strength. She alone, right now, is as strong or stronger than a full regiment of our military. So she's not a pony, she's an army. She’s a foreign nation that has declared war on us. If you think of it that way, what was this?”
“A skirmish,” Astrid said, frowning as she thought about it. “A probing strike.”
“And we fought it off. What comes next?”
“Full-scale assault. Invasion. War.” Astrid’s grim tone said volumes on how she felt about that idea.
“This is... Astrid, this is big,” Star Fall said, shivering from far more than the cold rain. “Nightmare Umbra hasn’t been seen in twenty years, and last time she destroyed a battalion in the Republics before vanishing. This time she chose to attack Dash. Just Dash. And we surprised her and fought her back. This isn't like last time, or every other time she's appeared. This isn't random, wholesale slaughter or destruction, this was targeted."
"Why?"
"I don't know," Star Fall said, staring like a terrified foal up at Astrid. "But I think I have an idea."
"What is it?" Astrid asked, coming close and extending her good wing to keep the rain off of her friend. "I'd take your guess over anyone else's certainty any day of the week, so if you think you've got this figured out..."
"I don't," Star Fall said. "But I think I'm beginning to. She has this much power already, but she said she would return with her full strength. She wasn’t lying, I'm sure of it. But we already know that. We know that she isn't at her full power because her full power is sealed away in the Everstorm. A creature like her wouldn't bluff, there would be no point to it. She told us the truth, she’s going to regain her full power, and soon.”
Astrid's eyes went wide as the implications hit her. “We’ve got to get back to the Capital,” she said, breath coming faster. “If you're right, if she is going to return at full strength, we have to get the army ready. Fortify the cities, arm the population.”
“No,” Star Fall said. “We have to keep going.”
“What? Fall, you just said she was a fucking enemy nation that declared war! Screw Cash! Getting an army is clearly the priority here.”
“No! Astrid, don’t you see?" Star Fall pleaded. "That’s what she wants. Why did she stop us now? How does she know about Dash?" Star Fall's gaze turned inward as her mind raced across the possibilities. "Rainbow Dash is connected to Cash through these digs. We head towards one and the Shadowed Alicorn just happens to show up specifically to kill Dash? That's not a coincidence. She was trying to keep Dash away from that dig, trying to stop us from hindering Cash. This one's going to be something important. He’s going to be at this dig, and there’s going to be something happening there. Something that might be giving Umbra back her power. Something we have to stop.”
“That’s pretty thin reasoning, Fall,” Astrid said.
“Maybe," Star Fall allowed, wings drooping. "But think about it. Why else? What's the simplest solution here? What makes the most sense? That the Nightmare just randomly was in the area and decided to kill us, or that this is all connected, like it always has been. Dash, the digs, us, Cash, Umbra. All of these are part of a puzzle that’s coming together right in front of us. If we don’t go now, we could be missing something that will make it all clear. Worse, we could miss our chance to stop Umbra from regaining her full power. We have to keep going.”
“I agree with Star,” Dash said, flipping to her hooves with barely a wince of pain. “I don’t know about everything else she was saying, but you don’t turn tail and run just because the road gets a little rough.”
“A Goddess tried to kill you, Dash,” Astrid deadpanned. “That might be more than a little rough.”
Dash shrugged. “Nothing I haven't faced before.”
“And you don’t have magical rainbow-shooting necklaces or Twilight fucking Sparkle to back you up this time,” Astrid snapped. “If we hadn’t shown up you’d be paste. This has gone way beyond Gamma’s cloak-and-dagger shit. This is bring-on-the-army time. I say we turn around and don’t stop ‘till we’re in front of the King and surrounded by Steelwings.”
“Astrid,” Star Fall said, laying a gentle hoof on her friend. “We can’t take the chance. The stakes just got too high.”
Astrid let out an angry shriek to the sky, but her shoulders slumped. “Only for you, Fall," she sighed. "Dash! Are you up for running?"
Star Fall breathed a small sigh of relief. If Astrid had insisted on going back to the capital, she wouldn't have been able to force the issue.
"Uh, I'm pretty beat up," Dash said, looking back at her dirty and bruised body.
"Can you keep up with me and Fall?"
Dash snorted. "Yeah, sure. You two aren't exactly winning any races."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Good enough. We do this quick and dirty then. We get eyes on the site, see if Cash is there, message Gamma, then book it back home. We're way behind schedule, so we'll be there by nightfall at the earliest. I want to be heading back to the Capital by sunset, and I'm not going to budge on that one. Are we clear?"
"Yes ma'am," Dash said, laughing for a moment before trailing off into pained coughing.
"I'll need to get a close look," Star Fall said. "If what he's doing is empowering Umbra we have to know."
Astrid narrowed her eyes. "I can't walk in there with you, Fall."
"I managed it last time, outside of Orion City," Star Fall pointed out.
"That was then, this is now, and we've got an angry Goddess gunning for us."
"I'll take Dash with me," Star Fall said. "She's fast enough and strong enough to get me out of there, even injured like she is. You've seen what she can do, you can trust her with me."
"I can't trust anyone with you, Fall," Astrid whispered, barely loud enough to be heard over the rain. "Fine. Get as close as you need to, but get out fast. I don't want to have to come in there and save your butts."
"You won't have to," Star Fall assured her, grinning. "Come on, let's grab the supplies and get going. We've got a long run ahead of us."
"Got that right," Astrid snorted, and the three of them set out into the rain.
The room Calumn and Blaze had been tossed into was clearly meant for storing boxes instead of prisoners. Calumn could see about eight different ways to escape it before considering what could be accomplished by using mind-magic on the guards. He didn't try anything, though. There was no way to tell if there were additional defences beyond the walls of the room, so he would have to gather more information before he could guarantee that he and Blaze could make it out safely.
Their guards followed Charisma's instructions to the letter. Calumn and Blaze were given food and water, and allowed to relieve themselves, but were kept tied up and under watch the whole time.
Calumn spent much of the time huddling against Blaze, as if seeking protection in his larger form. The guards had snickered at this, and Calumn had caught a few lewd remarks, but nothing overt. Which was worrying. If these had been mere thugs, the kind of hired goon that you could pick up off the street of any major city, he would have expected them to be a lot more leering and grabby. With their demeanor and their calm attention he was sure they were trained soldiers. Anyone with serious discipline training was difficult to establish a mental hold on, though it was easier to maintain once that hold was in place.
The fact that they were guarded by professionals also meant that Cash was investing serious resources into wherever they were, and Calumn had to be extra-careful not to alert them to his true nature. That was the first reason for huddling against Blaze, it made him seem small, weak and insignificant. They were more likely to overlook him so long as he was playing the frightened mare.
Another reason for his keeping close to his friend, it allowed them to talk quietly without the guards being overly interested in what they were saying. So far their conversation had been limited to Calumn reassuring Blaze that they would get out of there, and Blaze reassuring Calumn that he believed that and wasn't worried. Calumn drew strength from his friend's trust, and while he was no longer receiving a steady flow of love, trust and friendship were enough to let him slowly gain strength as the hours passed.
The room had no windows save for the door, so it was hard to tell the time, but Calumn's internal clock said that they had been in the room through another night. No one had come to question them, the guards changed shifts every four hours, and the food was served by the same ponies watching them. If it weren't for the constant noise of work that came clearly through the thin metal walls the place might have seemed deserted.
Sometime around early morning something strange occurred. Calumn didn't know what it was, but his magical senses caught the edges of something massive and rage-filled. He couldn't help but look at the wall in the direction he felt the huge power coming from, wondering what it could possibly be. Minutes later the entire room had shook as a crack like close thunder rattled the walls, and the feeling of power and immense, furious anger faded away. Blaze and the guards hadn't reacted except to the room-shaking noise, so it was clearly a magical phenomenon, but Calumn had never felt anything like it. In truth he hoped that he'd never feel anything like it again, especially not any closer than he was now. Whatever it was, it made his blood chill.
The rain had started shortly after that, pitter-pattering against the metal walls and roof of the room in little bursts at first, but growing into a full-on deluge in short order. The shouts from outside indicated that the rain was wreaking havoc with whatever work was being done here, and there were calls for barriers and sandbags to keep the flooding down.
Around noon the door opened to a trio of those professional guards. One of them pointed at Calumn. "Get up, you're going to answer some questions," he said.
"Hey, why not me?" Blaze asked. "I'm really good at Q and A stuff. I can answer all sorts of questions! I've been told that I'm the very model of a modern information sponge. I..." One of the guards kicked him in the head.
"Blaze," Calumn said, whispering to him. "It's okay. I'll be okay."
"You sure?" he asked, rubbing at his bruised head.
"I am. Trust me."
"Okay, see you soon," Blaze said, letting him get up.
The guards escorted Calumn through the narrow metal hallways and out into the rain. Calumn kept his head down, but made sure to look at everything he could.
As he had expected they were in another of Max Cash's dig sites. this one was larger than the one near Orion City had been. The entire side of a large hill had been shorn away, and a townful of pre-fab metal buildings and large tents were arrayed in front of the artificial cliff face. A half-dozen boxy watchtowers rose above the other buildings, dark-clothed ponies looking out from their open sides. Bright spotlights illuminated the excavated hill through the murk of the storm, and Calumn could see what they had uncovered. It was a building, ancient and long-buried, only the face of it jutting from the surrounding dirt and rock. A large square door stood open and dark, leading deeper underground.
Teams of ponies pulled carts of rocks and soil out from that door, clearing out the debris from the excavations going on further in. The rain turned the torn-up ground to slick mud, and even more work crews were building sand-bag barricades or stringing up tarps in an effort to keep the excavation from being flooded.
Calumn caught sight of Conrad talking to a few of the workers, a bright grin on his face as they listened to whatever he was saying with dark expressions. Calumn still had a connection to Conrad, though it was faded and wouldn't last the day, and through it he could feel the fear in the unicorn. It was still that strange fear of a colt caught with his hoof in the cookie jar, though none of it showed in his expression or posture.
All too quickly Calumn was back inside, getting shoved into another room. This room wasn't empty, though. This room had two chairs in it, one more sinister than the other. The first was the standard sort of metal chair you'd find bundled with these pre-fab buildings. Simple, utilitarian, uncomfortable as hell. The other was bolted to the floor.
Calumn put up the expected amount of resistance as the guards forced him into the chair, binding his legs and even tying a rope around his neck that kept him uncomfortably upright and prevented him from leaning forward. He tested the restraints, finding them well done and perfectly inescapable for anyone without a horn or able to change size at will. Calumn contemplated escaping right then and there, but he didn't know if he could get to Blaze before they hurt him, so he decided to bide his time.
The guards left, and Calumn was shut in the room with only a single bare bulb for light, tied down and barely able to wiggle in the chair. He knew the interrogator's playbook inside and out, and he knew that isolation and anticipation could break most people far better than any actual torture could. Changelings were actually very vulnerable to isolation, but only when they didn't have a source of emotion to draw on, and only if left for prolonged periods of time. It was actually the only real way to question a Changeling.
Changelings were otherwise the worst sorts of creatures to subject to interrogation. All interrogations required the interrogator to form a relationship with the subject. Theoretically that relationship was always one-sided in the favour of the interrogator. However, to a Changeling such a relationship also created a channel for them to feed from the interrogator and know their emotions. Changelings could then use this channel to influence their interrogator, gaining more and more power over them until the whole dynamic reversed itself.
There had been tales of Changelings caught and subjected to intense questioning, only to have their supposed torturers assist in their escape, often defending them to the death. It was for this reason, among others, that the Kingdom didn't capture Changelings or allow them trials. They were too dangerous when given time, dangerous enough that the brutal response of unleashing the Griffins was entirely called for. Even Calumn had to admit it was the only smart thing to do.
So he sat and waited and hoped that whoever was sent in to torture him knew proper interrogation techniques. Amateurs never understood the importance of establishing a relationship in getting a pony to talk.
Finally, after what was probably two hours of waiting, the door opened again. Calumn's hopes sank when he saw who walked in.
"Hello, little spy," Charisma said with a bloodthirsty grin. "Let's talk."
"Please, I don't know why I'm here," Calumn pleaded, wide-eyed and tearful. "Please, I haven't done anything to you."
The blow came too fast for Calumn to see. It caught him just under the ribs, Charisma's hoof jabbing in and cruelly twisting. Calumn rocked in the chair, muscles spasmed as he tried to curl up on himself but was prevented. For a long moment he couldn't breathe, mouth working but lungs refusing to inflate. Finally the paralysis that had gripped his chest faded and he was able to suck in a breath. "Wha... why did you do that?"
"You were whining," Charisma said, stepping up to stare into Calumn's eyes from only inches away. "You whine again, you don't get to breathe." Calumn focused on playing the frightened mare. Charisma was not the kind of interrogator he could influence. As far as extracting information went she was as amateur as they came. She was, however, extremely good at causing pain. "You understand?"
"Yes," Calumn said, vigorously nodding in the little bobs the rope around his neck allowed. "Yes."
"Good." Charisma's smile could have been mistaken for beautiful if it weren't for the deadly gleam in her eyes. "Why were you questioning Conrad Sherman?"
"Questioning?" Calumn said, cringing. "No! I was just trying to get laid! I didn't know he was involved with you, whoever you are! I swear!"
Charisma set one hoof on Calumn's left shoulder joint. She pawed at it twice before settling into place. "Don't lie to me," she said, then pressed her hoof down. Calumn's eyes bulged and he thrashed, trying to pull away as an intense pain shot across his torso. It felt like an extreme muscle cramp centered on his shoulder, one that was getting worse as Charisma pushed harder. It grew to such strength that he was almost afraid that she was going to wrench his arm out of its socket, but she pulled back and he sagged. "Why were you questioning Conrad Sherman?"
"I wasn't! I swear I wasn't!" Calumn said, letting tears well up in his eyes and gasping for breath. Charisma laid her hoof back on his shoulder. "No! I swear I'm not lying!" The pain came again, just as intense and lasting longer than before. "Please! Please stop! I didn't do it! I didn't!" Calumn wailed. Charisma's hoof caught him in the torso again, robbing him of breath while the first hoof continued to cause intense pain in his shoulder.
"I thought we agreed you weren't going to whine anymore," Charisma said, leaning in close and lapping at the tears that fell from Calumn's eyes. "Though, by all means keep up the lying."
Finally she pulled away again, letting Calumn slump as much as the restraints allowed. "Okay, okay. I was questioning him. I was," Calumn said, shuddering and twitching. "I wanted to know... I wanted to know what his business was... so I could... so I could blackmail him?"
Charisma rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh. Right knee this time." She placed her hoof on the knee of Calumn's right rear leg and twisted. Again the pain was intense and there was nothing he could do to mitigate it. This was Charisma's art. Not her Talent, but certainly connected to it. Calumn screamed and mentally settled in for the long haul. She wasn't going to break him, not with mere pain, but he had the feeling this was just the warmup. Eventually she would get bored and leave, and then Calumn would have his chance. He just hoped he would be in the shape to take advantage of it when it came.
The ashes of the Nightmare flew across the Kingdom, carried on an artificial jet stream that skirted the bounds of what wind was capable of. They passed over towns and villages, unseen save for a vague shadow in the clouded sky that left a chill of dread in its wake. When the ashes reached the Capital they dropped from the wind, spiralling down like an apocalyptic snow towards the tall buildings of the city.
Finally, the ashes came to the balcony of Twinkle Shine’s penthouse. The ashes swirled about themselves, a small tornado of shadows and embers, wrenching the doors open with a flare of dark magic, then rushed into the estate. Black fire and golden light flashed from within the spinning mass of the ash cloud, and it began to take a definite form. By the time the cloud had reached the ritual magic room it had taken on the shape of a unicorn mare.
Once inside, the pony-shaped ashes gained more definition, becoming solid and heavy. In a flurry of motion the ashes peeled away from the body of Twinkle Shine, becoming a screaming cloud of darkness that poured itself into her open mouth. Within moments the darkness was gone and the Professor collapsed, coughing and retching on the floor.
“Get Up,” the Nightmare growled at her.
“Give me some time to recover at least,” Twinkle Shine wheezed out.
“There Is No Time For Weakness.”
“There’s always time,” the Professor replied, lying still as her coughing eased.
“The Plan Failed.”
“The plan might have worked better if it had been followed,” Twinkle Shine pointed out.
“Her Knowledge Cannot Be Allowed To Spread.”
“Agreed." Twinkle Shine lay still for a long moment before drawing breath to speak again. "She knows about Luna, she knows about the Elements, she knows about Discord.” Twinkle Shine shivered. “She nearly performed a Sonic Rainboom. That isn't something a mere construct can do. Evidence for her story is mounting fast.”
“It Is Impossible.”
“No, just very, very unlikely,” Twinkle Shine wearily pushed herself up and looked into the mirror. The Nightmare’s hard gaze met hers, showing none of the fatigue she was experiencing. “I need more information, which is what the plan was supposed to supply.”
“Time Grows Short.”
“I can afford to wait.”
“I Cannot.”
The Professor hung her head. “Just a little while. A few weeks, that’s all I’ll need. Star Fall is taking her to Spike, I can show up there, test the resonance. That should tell me everything I need to know.”
The Nightmare’s eyes narrowed. “Very Well. But Should The War Begin...”
“I will keep to the arrangement,” Twinkle Shine promised. That was enough for the Nightmare, and the glow faded from the Professor’s eyes. She lit her horn in order to see, the golden light thin and guttering in her exhaustion. She staggered from the room, stumbling through the penthouse to her waiting bed, and collapsed into a black sleep.
She was awoken by a pounding on the front door of her penthouse. She startled up, legs scrambling and horn lighting with defensive magic. It took her a long moment to realize that the pounding wasn’t the Nightmare’s heart beating its violent rhythm in her ears. Once she had calmed, she sighed and trotted on heavy hooves to the door.
She quickly worked the lock, but before she was able to open the door herself it was pushed open and an unwelcome friend shoved her way into the penthouse. “Where the hell have you been?” Gamma demanded, kicking the door shut behind her.
Twinkle Shine winced at the sound, a headache beginning to throb behind her eyes. “Here. Sleeping,” she said, her tone full of undisguised annoyance. “Which I would like to keep doing. Why...”
“We have no time for pleasantries. Grab whatever you need, you are leaving,” Gamma said, eyes darting around the penthouse hallway. Her demeanour was nervous and tense. She seemed scattered and distracted, which was something Gamma never was.
“What’s going on?” Twinkle Shine asked, alarm creeping into her tone.
“This morning there was a major magical event,” Gamma said. Twinkle Shine did her best to feign surprise, but she knew her exhaustion dulled the reaction. She should have expected that Gamma would be on her the moment she returned. “It buried the needle on every thaumograph from here to the coast. Every Magic Talent felt it, some have had to be hospitalized. I felt it, Twinkle. Where. Were. You?”
“I was in my ritual room,” Twinkle Shine said, frowning. “It’s warded heavily. If I wasn’t doing high-magic experimentation, I probably would have noticed it through the wards. As it is, I didn't feel a thing.”
“That would explain why the locator spells I’ve been having search for you have come up empty until an hour ago,” Gamma mused. Twinkle Shine nearly groaned. An hour of rest was nowhere near enough. “Fine. The King is calling for counsel. I need you with him.”
“Of course,” Twinkle Shine said, nodding. "Isn't a Griffin escort normal for an emergency summons? Why are you here yourself?"
“Because I've redirected the escort," Gamma replied. "They'll arrive in minutes. I need you to know what's happened now, before you panic in front of the Crown,” Gamma said.
Twinkle Shine frowned. "Why? What's happened?"
“The Shadowed Alicorn has returned.”
Twinkle Shine froze, eying Gamma carefully. “Are you sure?”
Gamma’s hoof came up to touch her scarf, and the scar beneath it. “Absolutely." She brushed past Twinkle Shine, rushing into the penthouse and up to the Professor's room. Twinkle Shine had no choice but to plod after her. When she got there she saw the room alight with the blue glow of Gamma's magic, grabbing various items and throwing them into a saddlebag. "It gets worse," Gamma said, not even looking at the Professor as she worked. "This is why I need you to hear this now. The epicenter of the magical event is about where I expected Star Fall to be today.”
“What?” Twinkle Shine put as much feeling into the exclamation as possible. Long years of practice allowed her to fool even Gamma’s acute observational skills, but it helped that the spymaster was distracted.
"Twinkle, she's alive," Gamma said, turning to the Professor and laying a hoof on her shoulder. “Locator spells are having a hard time locking on to her at this distance, but we have confirmed that she is alive, and still moving towards her goal,” Gamma stepped back, but kept eye contact. “Whatever Nightmare Umbra was doing, she was in the middle of it. She was there, Twinkle, and she's still keeping to her mission. That means that she thinks the mission is more important than getting news of the Shadowed Alicorn's return back to us. Your student is no fool, Twinkle, and if she thinks it's that important she must have a damned good reason."
This genuinely shocked Twinkle Shine. She'd expected Astrid at least to force them to return. What was Star Fall thinking? "What? You have to get in contact with her! Order her home!"
"I can't," Gamma said. "Too much magical interference, too much distance. That's why I’m taking three squads and a military transport and heading out there myself. I need you to stay with the King. He has to be protected in case something happens, and he needs to be kept in check. At least until I can find out what’s happened.”
“Why?”
“You know his obsession with Alicorns better than anyone," Gamma sighed, shaking her head as she hefted the full saddlebags onto Twinkle Shine's back. "News of Nightmare Umbra will only make it worse. We are poised on the edge of war already, this will only increase tensions. Worse, he might think he can use her,” Gamma took a deep breath, shuddering. “The Nightmare can’t be used.”
“Gamma, calm down. This isn’t like you.”
“You’ve never seen her, Twinkle!” Gamma snapped, rounding on the Professor. “You’ve never felt her power wrap around you and start to squeeze the life out of your body. You’ve never seen what she does to armies. I have. She’s back, and the King will be all too eager to do something stupid because of it. We, you and I, we are the ones who have to stop that from happening.”
“The Shadowed Alicorn isn’t all-powerful,” Twinkle Shine said, hoping that her inner voice was listening as well. “And the King isn't a fool. He will respect Umbra as the danger she is. You know that. Why are you so worried?"
Gamma hung her head. “I’m frightened,” she admitted. “There are invisible connections between these events. Things I'm not seeing. I’m sure of it. Rainbow Dash, Umbra, this damn inevitable war. All of them are connected, I’m just not sure how!”
“You’ll figure it out,” Twinkle Shine assured her. “You always do.”
“But will I do it in time to stop it?” Gamma asked. She grimaced, face tightening in anger. “Max Cash. It always comes back to Cash. He is the glue that holds this whole thing together. He was there twenty years ago, and I never found out why. Now Umbra has returned, and he’s involved again.”
“It’s just a coincidence,” Twinkle Shine sighed. “You have no evidence of connection, and you of all people know what jumping to conclusions will lead you to.”
“It isn’t coincidence,” Gamma insisted, head coming up. “There’s too many layers to this problem to be just coincidence.”
“Maybe so, but you’re not going to peel them back by panicking in my hallway.” Twinkle Shine sighed, leaning over and touching her horn to the other unicorn’s. “You know the Shadowed Alicorn better than anyone, and you know conspiracy when one is hiding from you. Would she be working with Cash?”
It took a long time for Gamma to answer. “No,” she said finally. “None of her behaviour, historically, has been consistent with her acting in any way but utterly alone. She has too much power and too much arrogance to work through proxies.”
“Okay. So if she’s not working with Cash, what other possibilities are there?”
“Rainbow Dash," Gamma said immediately. "She is another common element, and an explicitly unusual being. The Shadowed Alicorn could have been targeting her. Or been her.”
“I highly doubt Umbra was going around disguised as anyone, let alone someone as ridiculous as Rainbow Dash,” Twinkle Shine pointed out. “Why would Dash be a target?”
“A pegasus from the past? Any number of reasons. She could be a threat to Umbra, she’s claimed to have defeated Alicorns before.”
“A claim that, like everything about her, should be taken with a grain of salt,” Twinkle Shine advised.
“There is a third commonality,” Gamma said.
“What?”
“Star Fall.”
Twinkle Shine shook her head. “My student is special and precious, but hardly in the same league of notability as Rainbow Dash or Nightmare Umbra.”
“She is, to a certain subset of the population. A subset that happens to have both wings and a horn," Gamma said. "The King wants her to bear a Goddess. What if Umbra is attacking her to prevent that?”
"How would Umbra know about the King's delusion?"
"How would the Goddesses know about anything? I've heard the lectures, Twinkle, she could have found out any number of ways. My point is that if Umbra is trying to prevent it, it might not be so delusional."
"It is," Twinkle Shine said, tone brooking no argument.
Gamma snorted. "Fine. Too many possibilities, not enough evidence for any of them yet. Speculation is useless without more information." There was a loud screech from outside as the expected Griffin escort arrived on the balcony. Gamma stared hard at Twinkle Shine, her professional mask once more slipping into place. "I don't know what's going on anymore. Until I do, I can't properly advise the King. You will have to be the one to keep him constrained."
"I'll do what I can," Twinkle Shine promised.
"Good," Gamma said. "For my part I will protect Agent Fall to the best of my abilities. Your priority needs to be the King. It will do no one any good for you to be fretting over your student."
The Griffins knocked on the door. The wards were programmed to let them pass if they needed to break in, and since this was a summons from the King they would do so if they thought it would hurry her up. "Keep her safe, Gamma."
"Keep us all safe, Professor," Gamma said, then turned and cantered out of the penthouse.
Twinkle Shine watched her go, letting the Griffins get more insistent in their knocking. "What have I begun?" she asked, her voice absorbed by the darkness all around her. Then, gathering her weary body, she walked to the balcony and her summons from the King.
"What are they doing there?" Dash asked.
"Digging," Astrid replied. "Always digging."
They were lying just behind the crest of a hill about a mile out from Cash's dig site. Astrid and Star Fall were using binoculars to scan over the excavation. Dash had used them for a bit, but her unaided sight was good enough to catch most of the details without them.
The cold, drenching rain made Dash's wings heavy and her sore muscles ache, but it had to have been worse for Star Fall. The white pegasus was holding up surprisingly well, though. The run here had been a miserable one, but Star Fall hadn't even uttered one complaint, focusing on the path ahead with a determination that made Dash smile.
"Yeah, but what are they digging for?" Dash asked.
"We don't know," Star Fall said. "I'm hoping we can use this opportunity to find out."
"Security's good, but this rain's hurting them worse than us," Astrid said, pointing a talon down towards the sentry posts they could see. "They've got no visibility out here, especially with all the lights pointed at the ... whatever that's supposed to be."
"Looks kinda like a barn," Dash said.
"Or a municipal building of some kind," Star Fall mused. "A library or a town hall. A permanent structure that could take the strain of being buried like this one obviously was."
"Whatever it is they're more interested in keeping it lit than giving them a good view of their perimeter," Astrid said. "That's good for us. What's bad for us is the teams of guards they've got wandering around. These are the real deal. I'm seeing Glyphs for Strength and Toughness on the earth ponies, and a few for Speed among the pegasi. They've got body armor and visible weapons, and they're moving like they know how to use them."
"Nothin' we can't handle, right?" Dash asked, grinning.
"One on one? Yeah, we can take them. In groups? No," Astrid said. "We're not in the best shape already, and any fighting we do will bring the whole compound down on our heads. Worse, the asskicker might be around."
"Asskicker?" Dash asked.
"Charisma, Cash's chief enforcer," Star Fall clarified. "Ex Kingdom Special Forces. Her Talent is usually described as Combat. Fighting her is not an option."
"We just beat up an Alicorn this morning, Star." Dash pointed out.
"Different thing entirely," Astrid explained. "Umbra had power and was the toughest bitch I've ever fought, but she didn't really know how to fight. She just stood there and took all the hits, being too damn invulnerable to care. We brought her down because she barely defended herself at all. Charisma's different. She doesn't have fancy magic or super regeneration. She's all physical combat, and very, very good at it. Any one of us could outrun her. Dash, you and I can outmuscle her. None of us can outfight her. The only way to deal with her is to avoid fighting her, use our advantages to go around or trap her."
"Oh," Dash said, frowning. "I could take her."
"Don't try, Dash," Star Fall warned. "We don't need to take the chance."
"Hey, it's cool. I won't be looking for her or anything. I just think she can't be that tough," Dash said, raising her hooves defensively. "Anyway, how are we going to get down there if we've got to avoid attention and there are all those guards?"
They returned to looking over the compound. "See those?" Star Fall pointed a hoof at the sandbags set up around. "They're keeping the water out of the dig. Something like that takes manpower to set up, and is disastrous if it fails. I can put together a spell that will knock that sandbag wall over. If that happens they'll have to scramble everyone they can to fix it. That'll thin out the perimeter for us."
"Fall, that's a lot of weight to shift," Astrid said. "Can you do that?"
"Not directly," Star Fall said. "But I can work on the soil under it, undermine the wall and it'll collapse. It'll take a couple hours, though."
"How many?"
Star Fall cringed. "Five. Maybe."
"Not good enough, Fall. We gotta be gone by sunrise."
Dash took a long look at the compound while her companions discussed options. She could see what Astrid meant about avoiding the patrols, and she thought that Star Fall's plan sounded good. She also thought she had a much better way of doing it than waiting five hours for a wall to collapse. "Guys," she said, quieting the other two. "I've got this."
"Dash, you can't just smash into it. They aren't supposed to know we're here," Astrid warned.
"What? I wasn't going to smash into it!" Dash protested. "Why would you even think that?" Astrid just shrugged in reply. "Look, guys, we're in a giant storm."
They looked at her blankly. "Yeah, and?" Astrid asked.
"And I can control the weather," Dash said.
"Oh yeah!" Star Fall laughed. "I forgot about that."
"Woulda been nice if you'd remembered this on the way over," Astrid said. "Saved us from running hours in the rain."
"I can't stop the storm, it's too big," Dash explained. "But I can direct it. Or, parts of it. I got this."
"Work your magic, superpony," Astrid told her.
Dash leapt into the sky, flapping hard and rising up to the clouds. She didn't go too fast, wary of the bright ethereal trail that would give her away if she did. Her sides and neck burned as she flew, overstressed muscles complaining after a long day of running that had started off with a thorough beating. She worked through it, barely acknowledging the pain was there.
She hit the cloud layer and moved over the compound, hovering and feeling out the storm. There was a lot of power up here, the remnants of Umbra's magic still clinging to the sky. The storm was no longer unnatural, though, just a result of the forces that set it in motion. As such it responded to Dash's prodding eagerly, lightning gathering about her in invisible, crackling static. She pulled one section of cloud away from the main body of the storm, compressing it down to a usable size and forcing all the lightning she had gathered into it. The dark stormcloud was then pushed into position, and Dash took careful aim.
She could just smite the sandbags directly, but she figured that wouldn't cause quite the ruckus she wanted. Instead she aimed for the legs of one of the watchtowers. It was metal and well grounded, so under normal circumstances it wouldn't suffer from a lightning strike. A concentrated blast of lightning from a pegasus-guided cloud no longer counted as 'normal circumstances'.
Dash bucked the cloud and it spat forth a bolt of blue lightning. The bolt hit the tower just about where Dash had wanted it to, destroying one leg and wrecking some of the structure of the others. The tower wobbled, then fell. It crashed into the sandbag line around the dig, as well as the tarp strung up above. The tarp came down, the sandbag wall was toppled and water began pouring into the excavation.
Instantly the whole compound erupted in motion like a kicked anthill. Ponies rushed back and forth as they tried to mitigate the damage that had been done. Dash watched with satisfaction as many of the patrolling guards also rushed to the scene to start helping. Mission accomplished.
She flew back down to Astrid and Star Fall, dropping next to them. "How's that?"
"Magnificent," Star Fall said, glowing awe in her voice. "We've got our window."
"Alright," Astrid said. "Good work, Dash. That's pretty damn impressive, even for you. I'll be out here, waiting. Remember, you two: stay inconspicuous."
"We will, Astrid," Star Fall said, then rose to her hooves. "Come on."
"See you soon, don't get bored without me," Dash said, laughing as she rose and followed Star Fall down into the compound.
Calumn sagged in the chair. The rope around his neck had been removed, but that was all the mobility he had. Charisma's torture had been some of the worst he'd ever experienced, mostly for the fact that she seemed to care less about what answers he gave than that she was hurting him to get them. He'd played his part, screaming and crying and making up any answer that he thought might get her to stop.
Fortunately she hadn't done any long-term damage. Every technique she had used inflicted pain, but little else. It was better than being cut open or having bones broken. He could at least move once the muscle cramps and lingering agony subsided. So when she had finally stopped he just sat and recovered, waiting to see what they would do next and watching for his chance to escape. There had been some sort of crash and commotion outside not too long ago, and he'd nearly taken that opportunity, but he'd still hurt too much to make a good run for it, and so had held off.
There was a knock on the door, which was odd since no one would have any reason to do so. After a few moments the door opened a hoof-width.
“Can I come in?” The voice brought Calumn’s head up. He’d heard recordings of that voice, and it always seemed a very ordinary one for inspiring such strong reactions in ponies. Hearing it in person he began to understand. It sounded off. Very slightly, below the conscious level, not wrong, just strange. As a Changeling, Calumn was a being who focused on those little details, absorbing them in case he ever had to imitate a pony. This was something he didn’t think he could mimic.
Max Cash slid into the room, looking around as if he was expecting someone else to be in there as well. “Hey, there,” he said, closing the door behind him and stepping over to the empty chair. He flipped it around and sat on it such that his forelegs rested on the backrest and grinned at Calumn. “Sorry about the noise outside. Just a few technical difficulties. Oh, and sorry about Charisma. She’s got some ideas about talking to people that involves a lot more punching than the rest of us are comfortable with. I’d talk to her about it, but it’s so hard to find good help these days and I don’t want to screw with a good working relationship. How you doing?”
“I’m ... good,” Calumn said, his voice as weak and thready as he could get.
“Really? ‘Cause I would have said you looked pretty bad,” Cash said, leaning towards him. “You want a cookie?”
“What?”
“I always feel better when I’m eating cookies," Cash told him with the air of someone divulging a personal secret. "Chocolate chips are my favourite, but my personal chef has started feeding me these raisin ones. They’re good, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes a stallion wants chocolate, dammit! So I sneak them whenever I get the chance, and I’ve got a few on me. Want one?”
Calumn knew all about forming bonds, and this was a classic technique for an interrogator to get his subject to identify with them and thus feel more open about sharing information. The police in the Republics called it ‘good cop, bad cop’. Charisma had been the bad cop, beating the hell out of him and demanding answers angrily. Cash would play the good cop, offering to take care of him, with the threat of Charisma’s return as incentive to take the offer. It was a good system, but it was a well known technique. Even though Calumn wasn't going to risk trying to control Max Cash himself, when you knew what was going on you could use known techniques against the interrogator.
Calumn nodded, and Cash’s magic pulled out a small brown cookie. He floated it over to Calumn, who was about to bite into it before he noticed the horrible smell coming off of it. Like formaldehyde and vinegar. “Is this poisoned?”
Cash chuckled. “Yeah,” he said, then tossed the cookie into the wall, where it shattered. “So, no cookies then. I was just offering to be nice, you know. Blaze has rolled on you, by the way. Took ten seconds, tops, before he was spilling his guts. Not literally, mind, because Charisma still holds a torch for him. She’s probably immolating him with it as we speak.”
Calumn didn’t know how to respond. Cash had virtually destroyed any chance to create a subject-interrogator bond with the poison cookie. Now he had switched tactics entirely, going for an attempt to isolate the subject from allies and indicating that they were already given up. It implied that the only way to make things better for the subject was to capitulate as well. This was, again, a well-known and highly effective tactic, but it was best applied with some finesse, which was not what was happening here. “I don’t think he has,” Calumn said.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Cash agreed, smiling amiably. “She’s still probably burning him, or cutting him, or something that hurts, but he didn’t roll over on you. Or maybe he did, I really don’t know. I’ll go have a chat with Blaze later, but right now I want to talk to you.”
“Why?” This was getting weird. Cash had casually discarded his second interrogator’s gambit and moved into entirely unfamiliar territory. If it was meant to get information from Calumn it wasn’t going to work, but if it was supposed to unnerve him then it was completely effective.
“Well, you know, sometimes a guy just has to talk. You like guys who talk, right? I mean, you’re with Blaze, after all. All huddling close and whispering sweet nothings into each other's ear. That guy can’t keep to a single topic for more than two sentences.” Calumn blinked, but Cash cut him off before he could respond. “Or not. No. You’re not ‘with’ Blaze at all, are you? Too bad, I have a lot in common with him, and I was hoping you’d warm up to me.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Calumn said, playing defiant and hoping this would lead somewhere.
“Sure you won’t,” Cash said, nodding and smiling. “Tell you what, you don’t tell me anything, and I tell you a story. You like stories, don’t you? Of course you do, everyone likes stories. So sit tight, relax and listen."
Cash shifted his posture, laying his head on his folded hooves and adopting an expression of fond nostalgia. “My family lived in this little place in the country with the creatively brilliant name of Horseshoe Valley. The closest full Republic was Leo City, so we were legally in their jurisdiction, and realistically on our own. We didn’t get a lot of government interference, and not a lot of help either. Lots of farming in Horseshoe Valley, a bit of mining too, but mostly it was crops and livestock. There weren’t any theatres in town, so us colts and fillies had to make our own fun. Two thousand ponies, the whole of my world when I was young.
“My family was one of maybe three unicorn families in the Valley, and I was the only unicorn around my age in the whole place. Kids can be cruel to those who are different, and I counted. Honestly, I think it was good for me. If I hadn’t been so cut off from other ponies I might never have developed my magic and found my Talent. At the time, though, I was miserable.
“I had a couple good friends, though. One of them was Big Jim. Two years older than me and the size of a full-grown stallion by the time he was ten. When the bigger kids wanted someone to kick around he was the biggest kid in the yard, and he made sure they didn’t kick me. Me and Jim, we’ve been through thick and thin together. BGFF, Best Guy Friends Forever. Lots of hoof-bumps, no hugging." Cash laughed, grinning widely before continuing his story.
“Another friend was Swiftwind. He didn’t start out as a friend, but he was another loner, like me. He read so much, always hitting the books. He got kicked around a bit, and he blamed me for it. It was like it was my fault that the mean kids chose to pick on him, when they’d be just as happy to pick on me if they could. Swifty, well, he got this prank-war going with me. The usual kids stuff, but it was epic as far as I was concerned. Glue on the seat, buckets of water or erasers above doors, 'kick-me' signs, the whole deal. I gave as good as I got, and we spent so much time scheming against each other, trying to come up with the perfect prank. I’m pretty sure I won that game. Good memories, all around." He smiled wistfully while looking up into the air before continuing.
“One day, Swifty fell in the local river. This wasn’t a little creek, but a really fast-flowing and dangerous place. All us kids knew where the safe places to swim were, but Swiftwind had fallen into one of the dangerous parts. When they pulled him out of the water he looked so cold, so still. He got rushed to a hospital in Leo City, and for two weeks we didn’t hear anything about him. We thought he might have died. Big Jim and I tried to keep it together, but I could tell the big guy cried about it once or twice.
“Then, all of a sudden, Swiftwind was back. They said he had hypothermia and it had taken this long to recover, and everyone was happy. Even the big kids stopped kicking him around, and from then on Swifty was the darling of the town. Even though I was celebrating his return with everyone else, something about him seemed wrong to me. I tried to prank him, but he just took it. Didn’t try to prank back or anything. He said he just wanted to be friends. I nearly lost it. It didn’t seem like the same guy. But after I yelled about it one time I got talked to about traumatic experiences and how they can change someone.
“After that I got to know him better, without all the pranks and rivalry. Turns out that Swifty was a pretty cool guy. He really came out of his shell, started talking more, playing with other kids. He befriended everyone, big kids, small kids, nerdy kids, popular kids, and me. We were awesome together for a couple years there. Total gold. The experience every propaganda movie about togetherness and colthood camaraderie likes to portray. Even through all of that, though, I still felt like something was wrong. Like Swifty wasn’t who he seemed to be."
Cash focused his gaze on Calumn. “Well, one day I was proven right. We went down to the river to go swimming. I swear, it was like a total replay of two years before. Swifty fell in the dangerous part of the river, and he was thrashing and screaming. As I watched he just... stopped being Swifty. One moment he was the friend I’d known for years, the next he was this big, black thing. All fangs and sharp angles and legs like rotted cloth, full of holes. Crazy, huh?”
There was a long moment of silence as Cash stopped speaking. The quiet stretched out as Calumn began to realize that was the end of the story. “What was the point of that?” he finally asked.
“Basically, I spent two years being best friends with a bug. After all that, don’t you think I'd know one when I see one?” Cash asked with a grin. Then his horn pulsed with magenta light and a beam of magic blasted out, scouring over Calumn. The Changeling twisted and screeched as the magic burned into him, stripping his disguise away and leaving him in his true form. “There, isn’t that more comfortable?”
“Damn,” Calumn breathed, his entire body stinging from the spell.
“Oh, hey, there you are,” Cash said. “Let’s do introductions. Hi. I’m Maximillion Cash, but you can call me Max. What’s your name?”
“I’m not telling you anything,” Calumn said, readying his power. He’d have one chance to escape, and that was it. Cash wouldn’t be vulnerable to his power, any Magic Talent unicorn could fight a Changeling’s mind magic. He’d have to hit the guard, presuming Max didn’t just try to kill Calumn himself. He had enough energy from absorbing Blaze’s love all night and friendship most of the day that he could control two, maybe three ponies before it exhausted him, so he would have to make the first shot count.
“You’re not? Why, I’m shocked!” Cash said. “That’s really rude, a guest not giving his name to his host.”
“I don’t care about being rude to you. You’re going to kill me anyway.”
“I am?” Cash looked down at himself, feigning surprise. “You think I’m going to?” He started laughing, a wild, braying laugh that grated on Calumn’s nerves and cut off as quickly as it began. “Sure, maybe,” he said. “It’s definitely in the cards, but the fun of the game is that you never know what hand you’re going to draw.”
He hopped off the chair and began to stalk around Calumn. “Now, what’s a Changeling doing in the sunlands? Poking around my friends? Sure, but they can do that just as easily without the threat of Griffins back home. And impersonating a Secret Service agent? Tsk tsk, that’s going to get you in hot water.” Calumn said nothing, refusing to even turn his head to watch Cash circle him. “You know this was basically a suicide mission, right? Of course you do, your kind is trained to think of these things. Watch all the angles, see all the important decisions. You know the score: you get caught, you get dead. Well, you got caught, now you’re just waiting for part two of that equation.”
Cash stopped in front of Calumn, spearing him with his gaze. “What if I told you it doesn’t have to be like that? Would that interest you? What if I told you that I don’t have to kill you? That I could just let you go? I can, you know. I'm not a bloodthirsty Griffin, or some oath-bound government agent. I'm a private businesspony, I get to do what I want, and right now I’m in the mood to offer you a chance. All you have to do is break one little protocol. Give me one little secret.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Calumn repeated.
“Not even your name?” Cash asked, leaning in close. There was something to his eyes that held Calumn fast. He couldn't have looked away if his life depended on it. “Give no answers, that’s what they told you, but they also told you to go to your death. You don’t do one, you don’t have to do the other. It’s that simple. Come on, what’s the price of your life? Surely it’s worth one. Little. Betrayal.”
Calumn stiffened. He couldn’t see a lie in Cash’s eyes. He couldn’t help but think it over. Straff had sent him to the sunlands knowing the danger, and had sent him with so little support he was practically asking to get killed. And for what? For a pegasus mare who may or may not have anything to do with a mere criminal. Why should he risk his life for something so trivial? Was Straff really so callous with Changeling lives? Did he simply not care? Did anyone? If they didn’t care about him, why should he care about them? What was stopping him from just telling Cash everything and walking away? His oaths? His hive? His loyalty?
No. He had no loyalty to them.
“Calumn,” he breathed. “My name is Calumn.”
"Hello, Calumn," Cash said, grinning and stepping back. "Nice to meet you."
Calumn reeled as Cash's gaze stopped holding him. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. He’d given up his name. A small betrayal, but one that should never have happened. It was like for that moment all his loyalties, all his ties had disappeared. Worse yet, he hadn’t felt any magic at work. Cash hadn’t cast a spell on him, hadn’t used drugs or torture or any of the ways to break someone. He had just spoken, and Calumn had folded. He had done it casually, almost like it was a game.
“Was that so hard?” Cash asked. Suddenly there was a sound from outside, cutting through the din of the rain on the roof more easily than all the machine noises had been able to. It was a keening scream, high, feminine and agonized. It wailed on for longer than seemed possible before trailing off into silence. A moment later an alarm sounded. “Huh,” Cash said, frowning. “That’s odd.”
There was a knock on the door, which opened to admit a guard. “Sir, we have intruders.”
“Really? I thought it was just cat-torturing time,” Cash quipped. “Please tell me Charisma’s on this one.”
“She’s apprehending the intruders personally,” the guard said.
“Spiffy. Well!” He turned back to Calumn. “We’ll have to cut this conversation short. But, hey! You passed the test! I don’t have to kill you. Ta-ta for now!”
“Wait!” Calumn called out before Cash could make it to the door. Cash froze mid-step, eyes turning to look at the Changeling. “How?”
“How what?”
“How did you know he was a Changeling?”
“Swifty?” Cash laughed, relaxing. “Well, my first clue was that he was still alive. You don’t go through all that trouble to drown someone without making sure they’re dead. Having him just pop up right-as-rain two weeks later was a pretty good indicator. Fortunately,” Cash giggled, grin wide and monstrous. “The second time was the charm.”
Calumn stared after him as he left and the door was secured again. He couldn’t still his shivering, couldn’t believe what had happened. He slumped in the chair, wide-eyed with shock and disbelief. Blaze had been right, there was nothing equine about Max Cash.
Dash tried to look everywhere at once as she and Star Fall crept through the compound. There were ponies rushing all over it, but things were beginning to quiet down for the most part. The damage Dash had done to the sandbag wall had been fairly easy to fix, and once they got a new tarp strung up their dig would be safe once again. All Dash and Star Fall had to do was figure out a way into the site and they could get a look at what all the work was for.
"So, how are we getting in there?" Dash whispered to Star Fall.
"There," Star Fall pointed at the place where workers were dropping off cartfuls of soil. "We'll steal some work clothes and sneak in with a crew."
"Won't they see that we're new?"
"In the rain, in the dark, when there's a hundred ponies running around?" Star Fall said, shaking her head. "Not as long as we keep our heads down."
They slunk around the side of one of the buildings, keeping to the shadows and out of sight of the patrols that were still making the rounds. "You really think this Cash guy is giving Nightmare Umbra back her powers?"
Star Fall shrugged. "I can't be sure, but it makes sense. I'd lay odds that he has something to do with it, even if he's not doing it intentionally."
Star Fall took a quick look around the corner before darting to the next building. Dash followed her and they pressed themselves up against the corrugated metal wall, listening carefully for the sounds of anyone coming up to them. Only a few more buildings and they'd be able to grab hardhats and work-suits without being seen.
"But something he did brought me here, right?" Dash asked.
"That's a working hypothesis, yes," Star Fall replied, carefully timing their next move.
"So is my being here what's giving Umbra back her powers?" Dash asked, worried. "'Cause if it is, why was she needing to kill me? Maybe I'm the key to stopping her now."
"Maybe," Star Fall said. "Maybe not. I wish I could tell you, Dash. I really do, but I'm as much in the dark as you are. More. You're the one with previous experience fighting Nightmares. Was there anything like this before? With Nightmare Moon?"
"Uh, no, not really," Dash said. They rushed across to the next building, Dash tripping a couple times along the way. "Nightmare Moon wasn't like Umbra at all. I mean, they're both crazy, but Nightmare Moon wasn't that serious about killing us. Most of what she did was aimed at getting us to give up and go home. Or betray my friends. The worst she did out of everything was drop us off a cliff, and with two pegasi, well, that wasn't really an effective strategy."
"Sounds like you got off really lucky, if she really was an Alicorn Goddess," Star Fall said, only half-listening to Dash as she watched another patrol.
"Well, I don't know about the Goddess thing," Dash said, leaning up against the wall. Her breath came in short, fast gulps. "But Princess Luna's definitely a real Alicorn."
Star Fall snorted. "Of course she is. She creates ... the ... night," Star Fall turned to Dash, eyes wide. "Luna? Nightmare Moon was Luna?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. I thought I had mentioned that," Dash replied.
"But... why? How?"
Dash shrugged, pressing a shaking hoof to her head as her vision blurred. "I'm not really sure, that's more Twilight's thing than mine. Something about jealousy and ponies sleeping at night or something. Anyway there was this big fight, and then she got stuck in the moon for a thousand years, then came back and we made her all better. So it's all good," Dash grinned at Star Fall with chattering teeth.
The white pegasus pulled her mind away from the implications of what Dash had told her as she took in the condition of her friend. "Dash, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Dash said, dropping to sit on the muddy ground. Her eyes rolled in opposite directions. "I'm having trouble seeing you, though. It must be... must be raining harder than I thought."
"Dash! Stay with me!" Star Fall said, grabbing Dash's face. "Come on, focus!"
"I'm good, Star," Dash insisted, even as her wings drooped and her body shook. "What's the big deal?"
"Head injuries," Star Fall said, the words sounding like a curse. "Umbra slammed you through a ton of rock. Of course you'd get a concussion!"
"I don't have a concussion," Dash assured her. "I know what a concussion feels like, and I'm not feeling it now."
"What are you feeling?" Star Fall asked, frantic. "Come on, tell me what's wrong!"
"I'm feeling... scared," Dash said, surprised at her own answer. "Really scared. Star, something's wrong."
"Celestia's day," Star Fall breathed. "Dash, your eyes are glowing."
"Oh, well that can't be good," Dash said. Her body stilled its shaking and her eyes focused on Star Fall. "Hey, Star, looks like whatever it was is ov..."
"I'm betraying you"
The scream filled her ears, louder and more pervasive than any siren. She listened to the scream, picking apart the many layers of emotion that wound their way through it. There was fear, yes, so much fear. There was also pain, the pain of losing something dear. Underneath both of those was anger, the hot kind of rage that burned fast and furious and left nothing in its wake but white ashes. There was more to the scream, sounds that couldn't be placed with their emotions because those emotions were just never usually expressed this way. She admired it, in a way, expressing so much with such a simple sound.
Rainbow Dash knew the scream was hers, but she had no idea why.
Finally the scream faded from her throat and she fell over on her side. The mud covered her and her right wing was trapped uncomfortably under her body, but for the moment she didn't think she could move more than her eyes. She looked at Star Fall, her fellow pegasus staring at her, blood dripping from her nose.
"Move," Dash tried to say, but her mouth barely twitched. "Get away."
Star Fall blinked, her entire body twitching violently once as if she had been awakened from a deep sleep. She scrambled over to Dash. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Run," Dash managed to whisper out. "Star, run!"
Star Fall heard her, rearing back and spreading her wings to take off. It was too late.
A pink blur slammed Star Fall into the side of the building, denting the metal wall. The scholarly pegasus let out a sharp scream and fell to the ground, curling into a pained ball. Dash looked up at her assailant, seeing a light pink pegasus mare with a cruel smile on her face. "Well, well, well," Charisma said, leering down at her two captives. "Isn't this interesting," she turned to the other guards who had rushed up. "You, bind them. You, help him. And you, find Cash, he's going to want to see this one," she kicked at Star Fall.
"Why her?" the guard asked.
"Come on, don't you know nobility when you see it?" Charisma laughed. "I just caught the Lady Fallen Star."
"What do we do with them?" asked the guard binding the still-unmoving Rainbow Dash.
"Throw that one in with Blaze," Charisma said. "Give him someone to play with."
"And the, uh, noble?"
Charisma grinned wickedly at Star Fall. "I'm taking her straight to Cash's room. Give the poor dear a cell appropriate to her station." Her laughter followed Dash as she was hauled away, control over her muscles only returning enough to twitch feebly.
"I'll save you," she promised as she was carried into one of the buildings, the words only a whisper but the intent a promise. "Just hang in there, Star. I'll save you." She kept mouthing that promise right up until they came to the makeshift prison, and she was thrown into darkness.
Astrid stared through the binoculars at the rain-shrouded camp. Dash’s plan was working perfectly, with the perimeter guards pulled in to help with the repairs on the sandbag wall and clearing out the debris of the guard tower. Astrid’s training wasn’t in demolitions, but she knew a good piece of destruction when she saw one, and that lightning strike had been beautiful. For a near-pacifist pony out of her time, the rainbow-maned pegasus was really taking a shine to the violence of the present.
Like the fight with Umbra. Astrid had assumed Dash would balk at her brutal methods, but instead she had barely batted an eye. Afterwards, when Star Fall was losing her breakfast, Dash had seemed to take the whole thing in stride. Astrid guessed that it had a lot to do with fighting Goddesses before, but it was still something she was surprised to see.
She’d lost sight of the two pegasi as they had gone into Cash’s camp, the rain and the darkness obscuring them completely even when she knew about where they should be. She kept looking anyway, wary of the inevitable chaos that even the most well-laid plan fell to. She didn’t have to wait long.
The scream that rose from the camp was like nothing Astrid had ever heard before. It was Dash’s voice, of that she was sure, but it wasn’t a scream of pain or of anger. Or rather, not just of those things. It grabbed hold of some deep part of her that she hadn’t even known was there and squeezed until she couldn’t breathe anymore. She fell to the ground, clutching at her chest as if to cradle her seizing heart. Tears came to her eyes unbidden, falling with the rain down her face. Her mouth opened and she almost echoed Dash’s scream with a shriek of her own before remembering herself and closing her beak with a sharp click. The scream made her feel pain and rage and loss, too much to ever process, too much to ever forget. It felt like betrayal, squeezed down into a sound and poured into her in all its undiluted agony.
Even after the scream faded she found she couldn’t move. She lay on the ground and sobbed as thoughts came unbidden to her. Memories of her attempts to nest, of the failure of her own body to produce even one viable egg. Of the time she learned it was her closeness with Star Fall that was causing it, the knowledge that her friendship and her duty to her clan could not coexist. She remembered praying to Celestia, day after day as the sun rose and fell, and never receiving an answer.
“Get up,” she said between sobs, her voice broken and wavering. “Come on. Get up.” She grit her beak and took in a deep breath. “What are you? A mewling little kitten of a hatchling, or a Steelwing Griffin?” Her voice gained strength, her tears slowing as she drew her will together. “Come on, soldier, on your paws! Fall’s in trouble and it’s your job to get her out! Are you just going to lie here and feel sorry for yourself? Are you?” She slammed a closed claw into the dirt and dragged her head up, the rest of her body following. Soon she was standing tall, head held high and looking out over the camp. “Didn’t think so,” she growled.
She didn’t know how much time had passed as she was lying there feeling sorry for herself, but she figured it was at least five minutes, maybe ten. That was far too much time. Astrid didn’t know why Dash had been screaming like that, but it would have alerted the entire base and with the way the ponies down there were still moving about, it was doubtful it had affected them the way it had her. That meant that Star Fall and Dash were captured. It wasn’t likely they were just killed, Cash would want to question them, get as much information as possible before he disposed of them. That gave Astrid time, but not much.
She couldn’t just go storming into the base and fight her way through all of those guards. They looked like ex-military types. Strength and Toughness Talents for earth ponies, Speed and Flight for pegasi, and maybe some unicorns with the more dangerous magical Talents. All trained in tactics and combat, working together in teams. She would have to do this subtle, which meant more time watching, less time acting. That could take too long to do much good for Star Fall and Dash. So she had to be quick as well.
The answer: ghost tactics. Sow chaos and disarray among the guards, reduce their ability to coordinate and communicate. Slip through the resulting holes in security and try to locate and rescue her charge before they got their acts together.
She scanned the buildings, looking for certain telltale signs, and found one that had several short antennae on its roof. That would be the main communications array, keeping all the guards connected to coordinate their activities. It didn’t look like something the Kingdom would use, too many wires and not enough crystals, but Astrid was sure she could disable it anyway. She couldn’t tell where Dash or Star Fall would have been taken, but she figured that it would be easier to distinguish where a prisoner might be held once she was close enough to see details.
She stretched her wings, feeling the burning pain in the one Umbra had injured that morning. She wouldn’t be able to fly far or high with them, especially not in this downpour, but they would be good enough for what she was thinking about doing. She pulled a tight-fitting harness from her bag and strapped it on, quickly attaching the weapons and other objects she thought would come in handy so that they were secured and wouldn’t interfere with her movements or make any sounds. She pulled on thin gloves and boots that would muffle her steps, and finally a hooded cloak that would hide the white feathers of her head and neck as well as break up her silhouette and make it harder for others to spot her in the dark.
With one last look at the camp to fix a mental map of where the buildings and guards were, she stowed the rest of the gear under a blanket and leapt into the sky. “Hold tight, Fall,” she whispered as she soared into the cold, stinging rain. “Help is on the way.”
“Oof!” grunted the pony Dash had been thrown into. It was too dark in the room to see, all she caught of him was a vague shadow of a bound stallion. “Oh, right in the kidney! Good aim.”
The voice was familiar, but Dash couldn’t place it. She didn’t even try to think through where she’d heard that voice before, more concerned with regaining her mobility as she flopped off of him onto the floor. She still couldn’t do much more than that, and her body was frustrating her with how obstinate it insisted on being.
“Buddy, is that you?” the stallion called out into the dark.
“Sorry,” Dash said, weakly trying to lift her head. “I’m not your buddy.”
“Hey, get to know me a bit before you decide that,” he said. Dash could almost hear the goofy grin in his tone. “Let me start, I’m Trail Blazer, but you can call me Blaze.”
Dash flashed back to the Everstorm, to the pony who had been with the Changeling. “I know you,” she said.
“Oh, so you did get to know me before you decided,” Blaze said, his voice sad. “Darn.”
“What?” Dash managed to roll to her stomach, getting her hooves under her. “No, in the Everstorm.”
“I’ve taken you through the storm? Uh, sorry, but my memory’s usually better for clients. You do sound familiar, if it's any consolation.”
“You were with that pony that turned into a bug,” Dash said.
“And you were with the Griffin that didn’t turn into anything, but it would have been really cool if she did!” Blaze crowed with a laugh. “I knew I recognized your voice! Wow. This world just keeps getting smaller. Pretty soon I’ll be able to walk from Stratia to Leo City in an afternoon. But, okay, there might be a little overcrowding problem. Unless everyone starts shrinking.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dash said. “Why are you here?”
“Got caught. You?”
“I... got caught too?”
“Neat! Let’s form a club. I’ll let you be president if I get to pick our motto.”
Dash paused, wrapping her head around that thought and then throwing it out before it broke her. “Are you for real?”
“Last time I checked,” he assured her. “You know, I’m starting to think you’re not here to interrogate me.”
Dash blinked. “Why would you think that in the first place?”
“’Cause Cash is tricky like that,” Blaze replied. “So, what’s your name?”
“Ra... Firefly,” Dash answered, she couldn't remember if she'd told him her real name back in the Everstorm or not, but since he was asking it seemed right to play it safe now. “My name’s Firefly.”
“Pleased to meet you, Firefly,” Blaze said, and there was a shuffling sound as he shimmied himself closer and poked her hoof with his. “Sorry you have to be a prisoner with me, but if I make a daring escape I promise to take you with me.”
Dash snickered. “Not going to be an issue,” she said, flexing her wings against the binding ropes. Strength was returning to them with agonizing slowness, but it was returning. “Soon as I’m back on my hooves I’m busting out of here. I’ve got a friend to rescue.”
“Me too! Or, really, he’s supposed to rescue me, but I figure he won’t be too mad if I’m the rescuer instead of the rescue-ee.”
“Is this your Changeling friend?” Dash asked.
“Yeah! Wow, you’re good. Can you guess my favourite color too?”
“Green,” Dash said without thinking about it, more focused on lifting her body from the ground.
“Nope! It’s no wait you’re right, it is green.” Blaze poked Dash in the side. “Are you a mind-reader?”
“Are you ever quiet?”
“I think sometimes I sleep,” Blaze sagely noted. “Want me to help you escape?”
“I’d love it,” Dash said, grunting as she pushed herself up, only to collapse back on her belly. It wasn’t that she was exhausted or her muscles overstrained, everything was just responding weakly. The strength was there, just inaccessible. “But it won’t do any good unless I can get up and out of these ropes!”
“Oh, I can help with that,” Blaze said. He reached over and bit at the ropes binding Dash’s wings down. “You know,” he said, showing excellent skill in talking with his mouth full. “I should be more surprised to see you here, but life’s been getting really weirdly coincidental lately.”
“You too, huh,” Dash sighed. “Star thinks so too. She thinks it’s all connected somehow.”
“This Star sounds smart.”
Dash chuckled. “Yeah.”
Blaze wrenched his head to the side as he pulled on the ropes. Dash squished her wings down as much as she could to give him slack to work with. A moment later she felt the ropes loosen and her wings come free. “There, that’s one,” Blaze said. “Want me to get your legs too?”
“Give me a bit,” Dash said. She gave her wings a couple experimental flaps and found them still too weak to lift her. “A minute, maybe two, and we’re out of here.”
“Yay! Then we go for pizza!”
Dash paused again. “No. Then we rescue our friends.”
“Well, duh,” Blaze said. “Pizza’s no good when your friends are locked up. Unless it’s the kind where there’s files and lockpicks baked into the crust.”
Rainbow Dash threw her head back and laughed. “You are so random!” A wave of nostalgia and homesickness rolled through her, cutting off her mirth.
“Okay, that started as a happy-laugh and turned into a sad-laugh,” Blaze said. “Wanna talk about it?”
“Not really,” Dash said. “I have a friend back home, and you remind me of her, that’s all.”
“Where’s home for you?”
“A long way away,” Dash said, unable to keep her voice from turning morose.
“I’m from Orion City,” Blaze offered. “It’s a long way away too.”
“Bet mine’s farther.”
“That’s okay,” Blaze said. “That just means we can stop at my home on our way to yours, and you can meet my sister! You’d like her. She’s funny.”
“Why would you even be going to my home?”
“Because we’re friends,” Blaze said. “Friends hang out.”
“Friends already, huh?”
“Well, you know what they say: friends help you move, real friends break you out of prison. I figure this counts.”
Dash shook her head with a chuckle. “You really do remind me of her.”
“Then I should totally be friends with whoever-it-is too! Then, when all us friends are together, we party.”
A light snapped on, nearly blinding Dash for a moment as the door opened and a trio of earth pony guards stepped into the room. One of them was larger than the other two, which was no mean feat, and from the way they stood he was clearly the leader. He eyed the two of them with hard green eyes that were narrowed into angry slits.
Blaze rolled away from Dash and she got her first good look at him. He looked like a wreck. There were fresh burns and bruises all over his body, some still oozing. One eye swollen shut and weeping blood. His yellow-striped mane was matted with dried blood and dirt, Dash was surprised she hadn’t noticed the smell of it before. He smiled at her, though, and there was no pain in it.
The guards took in the two of them, and saw the ropes missing from around Dash’s wings, Blaze's teeth marks all over them. “Looks like he’s still got some fight in him,” the lead guard growled out. “Hold her,” he told the one on the left, indicating Dash. Then he advanced on Blaze.
The guard jumped on Dash. Twice her size and three times her weight he slammed her into the floor with his bulk. She struggled, her wings flapping and legs straining at the ropes that held her, but she was still too weak. The guard punched her in the side and practically sat on her as he held her down. “If you struggle any more,” he whispered, his breath hot in her ear, “we have orders to break your wings first.” Dash froze up, sure that in her current condition she could do nothing to prevent that. “Good girl. Just take it easy and it doesn’t have to be hard on you.”
“What about him?” she snarled back, watching the two guards slowly stalk over to Blaze’s prone form. “He’s not struggling, why hurt him?”
“The boss said make him hurt,” the guard replied. “I don’t know why, and I don’t care. You question her orders, you get her attention. You get her attention, you end up like him.”
“Hey, guys, don't be hasty, there are alternatives,” Blaze was saying to his assailants. “Have you ever tried beating me up with insults? I’m sure my self-esteem needs some bruising.”
"Shut up," the lead guard said, slamming his hoof into Blaze's stomach while the other gathered up the rope that had recently bound Dash's wings and began expertly tying one end into a heavy knot.
"How... about... philosophy?" Blaze wheezed out. "Kick a guy's face and he'll be bruised for days, but shatter his concept of truth and you've hurt him for life."
"Bruising's quicker," the guard said, taking the rope from his companion and giving it a couple test swings.
"Yeah, I was hoping you wouldn't notice that," Blaze said, then clenched up as the guard swung at him.
Dash flinched back as the knotted rope hit Blaze with a meaty smack. He didn't cry out, but couldn't stop a hiss of pained breath from escaping him. She felt her blood surge, pounding hot in her ears. She couldn't just lie here and do nothing, not when someone was getting brutalized a few steps away.
The weight of the guard was like a hundred thousand pounds on her back. The ache of her joints a reminder of how much she'd already been through this day. Ropes bound her legs, and fear threatened to bind her mind just as tightly. Without her strength back any attempt to help would be futile, and would only lead to her getting hurt as well.
Rainbow Dash smirked. As if any of that was going to stop her.
She whipped her head up and back, cracking her skull against the guard's jaw. He let out a pained yelp, but held on tighter instead of loosening his grip. Dash snarled in frustration and snapped her head back again. He pulled his face out of the way to avoid it, but misjudged how flexible Dash could be as she ended up slamming into his outstretched neck instead. This time he couldn't make more than a choking noise and his weight fell away as he reared up, pawing at his throat.
Dash bucked up with all her strength, which was pitifully low and only managed to make the guard stumble off of her. The other two guards had taken notice of her by now, leaving Blaze curled in a ball of pain on the floor, ignored for the moment. Dash quickly bit at the ropes holding her forelegs, tearing at them with her teeth. A pony's teeth were not meant for ripping and tearing, however, and all she managed to do was tighten them before the lead guard slammed into her.
He hit her in the chest, right below her collarbone. He was strong, so strong that he lifted her right up and bashed her against the corrugated metal wall hard enough to dent it. He held her there, one forehoof on her chest applying enough pressure to keep her suspended, rear hooves inches off the ground. He waved his free forehoof in her face. "Bad choice, little bird," he sneered. He looked with disdain on the guard Dash had injured. "Pick yourself up. Are you such a fucking disgrace that you can't hold down one little mare?" The downed guard stared daggers at him, before swallowing painfully and standing up. The lead guard dismissed him with a snort before turning back to Dash. "Now, what were you told? You don't struggle, we don't have to hurt you. Why did you go and ruin that perfectly good arrangement?"
"Got bored watching you prance," Dash said, smirking at him.
"You think you're tough, huh?" he asked with narrowed eyes.
"I know I'm tough," Dash replied. "I think you're a little bully of a colt who never grew up."
She saw the punch he threw coming from a mile away, but held like she was there was nothing she could do to avoid it. His hoof smashed into her cheek, tearing it both outside her mouth and in. "You are an idiot, girl," he growled, pushing harder. Dash was getting a little tired of being held down with one hoof today. She could accept it from Umbra, the Nightmare was stronger than mountains, but this guy? She stared him in the eye and carefully spat a wad of blood and saliva on his face. He sneered at her, slowly wiping the offending material away. "It's not going to stop what's coming to him," he said, shaking his head. "And now you're just going to get it too. What could possibly have made you be so stupid."
Dash looked past the guards to Blaze, who looked up at her with shining yellow eyes and a grin that was no less bright for how much blood stained his teeth. She thought of another pony, the one he reminded her of so much, and imagined her in his position. Fire burned in her stomach and rage kindled in her blood. "What can I say? He's a friend."
The ropes around her legs burst as she flexed, snapping with twin bullwhip cracks. She grabbed the hoof holding her between her own and pushed. The lead guard's eyes went wide as he found himself sliding inch by inch away from her. "And I!" she snarled, punching him in the face. He staggered back from the blow, dazed, and Dash leapt off the wall. She crashed into him and bore him to the floor. "Don't!" The uninjured guard rushed at her, swinging the knotted rope. She put a hoof in the path of that rope, letting it wrap around her foreleg and using it to drag the pony in for a vicious head butt that broke his nose and sent him sprawling, out cold. "Leave!" The guard who had tried to hold her scrambled in, turning to buck her in the side. She was so much faster than him there was practically no effort in her response. She bucked him in the ribs even as he was lifting his legs to kick her. Bone splintered and he fell, clutching at his sides and gasping for breath. "Friends!" She turned back to the lead guard, who was recovering from her opening punch. He struck out at her, landing a glancing blow on her side that probably bruised bone. She accepted the hit and grabbed him with her forehooves, lifting him completely into the air. "Hanging!" She leapt up and into a back flip, using her wings to propel her and her hapless earth pony passenger into a rapid spin that whirled in the air a half dozen times before she launched him headfirst into the floor with all the momentum he had built up. He slammed into the ground with the deep ringing of metal, his body propped up on his shoulders for a long moment before slumping down.
Dash hovered in the air above the guard, watching until she was sure he was breathing before she let herself relax. A sharp whistle caught her attention and she looked over at Blaze, who was wiggling strangely. "Yeah!" he said, making another twitching wiggle. "You go girl! Who rocks? Firefly rocks! I'd be clapping now, but unlike some ponies I could mention I can't seem to make ropes explode with the power of my mind."
Dash laughed, the feel of her wings and the strength in her limbs was exhilarating. Her weakness was gone, now she just had to rescue Star Fall and get out of there. First thing was first, though. She flew over to Blaze and quickly untied him. "Are you okay?"
He shrugged. "I've been worse. You?"
She grinned. "I'm awesome. You know your way around this place?"
"Nope," he said, flapping his legs as they were freed to get the blood flowing back in them. "But stick with me and we'll find our friends."
"How?"
"My Talent," he said. "I'm always on the right path, no matter how twisty or turny it gets, and I always get where I want to go."
"And you'll help me find Star?"
"I promise," he said. "I help you rescue your friend, you help me rescue mine. Then pizza."
Dash laughed. "Deal." She took his hoof and shook it. "Now come on, I don't think I can fight this whole base, so the quicker we're gone, the better."
"Truer words have never been spoken," Blaze said, slowly getting to his hooves. "Well, okay, maybe they have, but they'll do for a standard measure of truth for now. I propose we call this system the BlazeFly scale, and we merchandise the hell out of it."
Dash shook her head. "Blaze, you are so random."
Everything was happening with a confusing suddenness that Star Fall found she just could not keep up with. Her head was still ringing from the scream that had ripped its way from Dash's throat. There were spots in her vision from the blinding light that had come from Dash's eyes. She had felt something shift, something fundamental that she just could not yet grasp. But as much as she might want to ponder on the subject, her capture demanded as much of her attention as her dizzy thoughts could spare.
She tried to struggle, but the ropes holding her were securely tied and there wasn’t much she could do about that under Charisma’s watchful eye. She still did her best, squirming as she was hauled through the camp across the back of one of the guards. They took her into one of the larger pre-fab structures, guards on the doors snapping to attention as Charisma approached and not even sparing a questioning glance for her prisoner. Two narrow hallways later and she found herself in a small, spartan room. She was unceremoniously dumped on a small bed, barely big enough for an average stallion. The only other furniture in the room was a desk and a chair. The desk held stacks of papers and books, most of them with titles she recognized as being rare pre-Schism volumes. Two separate copies of The Magic of Friendship caught her eye, one clearly an early edition, though not quite as old as Twinkle Shine's prized volume.
“Now, isn’t this cozy?” Charisma said, jerking her head to make the guard leave the room. When he was gone she grinned down at the captive pegasus, folding into a drill-perfect bow. “Does my lady need anything?" she asked in a sickeningly obsequious tone. "Tea, perhaps? I’m sure I could find some dainties for my lady as well, should she find herself peckish at this time of night.”
“Don’t mock me,” Star Fall snapped, glaring at the pink pegasus.
“What ever does my lady mean?” Charisma asked, feigning shock. “I wouldn’t think to mock one of my betters.”
“So is that why you betrayed your Kingdom?” Star Fall asked, deciding to pay viciousness with viciousness. “You’re all sore you weren’t born with a horn on your head and pissed off they were letting me into the club and not you?”
Charisma shrugged, dropping the false servility like a soiled cloak. “Gotta say, it didn’t help.” She launched at Star Fall with no warning, grin wide and gleeful as her hoof snapped out, aiming for Star Fall’s eyes. She was stopped a bare inch from Star Fall’s face by a magenta glow of magic that surrounded her hoof. Charisma backed off immediately, turning to the pony who was standing in the door. “Spoilsport.”
“Blinded ponies are uncooperative ponies,” Max Cash admonished her, stepping into the room. He regarded Star Fall with a cool interest as he shut the door behind him. “Hey,” he said, sitting on the chair by the desk. “You would not believe the day I’ve been having." His tone was cordial, friendly in fact. He seemed as relaxed as if this were a conversation between old acquaintances. For some reason, this unnerved her. "I mean, first this storm, then that huge magical burst, then the rain, and lunch was late, and then my secret dig is crawling with spies. Now I’ve got to entertain? You should have written ahead.”
“Wanted to surprise you,” Star Fall said, trying to watch both Cash and Charisma at once.
“Well color me surprised,” Cash said, chuckling. “Ah, well, since we’ve never met, allow me to introduce myself. I am Maximillion Oswald Cash, businesspony and Republican citizen. You already know Charisma." His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper and he leaned in Star Fall's direction. "You'll have to excuse her, she's from your side of the Storm and I've been told etiquette is a bit different over here.” He winked at her before pulling back to a normal sitting posture, gesturing to her. When Star Fall didn’t reply he leaned back toward her and whispered: “This is the part where you say your name.”
“She’s the Lady Fallen Star,” Charisma said for her. “Adopted daughter of Twinkle Shine, chief adviser to the King.”
Cash let out a low whistle at this news. “Wow, that’s something,” he said. “A celebrity in my bed! I hope you don’t mind me bragging about that completely without context.” Star Fall just stared at him, ignoring the offer to engage him in conversation once more. He shrugged. “It’s a guy thing, like comparing horn sizes, if you know what I mean.” He gave her another wink. “Anyways, what brings you to my humble secret lair?”
“She’s spying on us,” Charisma said this the same way one would speak of a foal doing something cute, but foolish.
Cash blinked in surprise. “Really? Spying? You sure she’s not just an amateur archaeologist?”
“Pretty sure,” Charisma replied.
“Huh. Well how about that.” Cash shook his head. “Okay, Lady Star, I’m going to be direct, because right now I’ve got two spies too many in my camp, and I need to get a move on. Trust me, I’d love to draw this out, but I can’t. So, why are you here, what do you know, and who’s coming to save you.” Star Fall settled back into the bed and smirked at him. He quirked an eyebrow. “Charisma, is she being obstinate?”
“Oh yes,” Charisma said, drawing out the word with loving relish.
“You really don’t want to be obstinate,” Cash warned her. “You should probably talk to me now, or else...”
“Or else what?” Star Fall demanded. “You’re going to let your dog at me?” Charisma bristled. “You said it yourself, you’re in a hurry. She can beat me up, but I’m not going to talk before you’re out of time. You want to know why I’m here? Because I felt like it. You want to know what I know? Take a wild guess. You want to know who’s coming to rescue me? Everyone. Every damn one.”
Star Fall held his eyes, defiant and hoping he wouldn’t call her bluff. She knew she could take a little pain, but she also knew that Charisma had all the best interrogation training the Kingdom could provide. If she wanted to make Star Fall answer, it wouldn’t take that long for her to break.
Cash slumped, relaxing in his chair. “Oh, that is a relief. You have no idea.”
Star Fall blinked, surprised at his response. Charisma seemed similarly lost. “Max, let me question her, I can get it all before morning.”
“Why?” Max asked, frowning at his enforcer. “She’s already said everything.”
“What?” Star Fall shook her head in confusion.
“Well, come on. You went through it point-by-point, just like I asked. You’re here because you feel you have to be instead of just following orders, you know practically nothing of use, and everybody’s coming to save you. If you feel like elaborating, go right ahead, but it seems pretty clear to me.” He smiled happily at her. “Thanks. Want a cookie?”
“I didn’t ... no.” Star Fall shook her head. “You’re trying to confuse me.”
“Not even!" He laughed, a wild sound that made her flinch back. "I don’t need to confuse you when all that pretty little defiance is doing it just fine,” Cash was suddenly on his hooves, looming over her. She shrank back from him, but he followed, coming uncomfortably close without actually touching her. His dark eyes held her like a vice, she couldn’t look away. “You are so far out of your league it’s disappointing,” he said, his voice low and rough, almost a growl. “And you have no idea what you’ve walked into, not a single clue who you’re up against." His eyes held her there, trapped like an animal in a snare. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared all his menace was gone. He hopped back and sat down again, grinning widely. "I, however, know everything I need to about you. You sure you don’t want that cookie?”
Star Fall shook her head, unable to stop shaking as the unnatural grip of his gaze let her go.
Cash pulled back and shrugged. “Suit yourself,” he said, and levitated a cookie out of the slim saddlebag he wore, taking a bite and chewing slowly as he regarded her. “Charisma, the guard told me there were two ponies you found. Where’s the other one?”
“I threw her in with Blaze.”
“Nice. Make sure they’re entertained. Find me Conrad while you’re at it.”
“Max...”
“It’s a polite way of asking you to leave the room, Charisma,” Cash said. “Me and the lady need some alone time.” Charisma’s eyes went from Cash to Star Fall, gaze hard. “Don’t worry, I’ll be safe,” Cash assured her. Charisma snorted derisively before leaving the room. The moment the door clicked closed Cash turned back to Star Fall, his horn lighting up as he magically untied the ropes that bound her. “She’s such a mother hen sometimes,” he said. “You know the feeling, right?”
As soon as the ropes were gone Star Fall scrambled as far away from Cash as she could manage, squeezing herself up against the wall. “What are you doing?” she asked, looking around for some way to gain an advantage on the unicorn. As a pegasus her reactions were naturally faster than his, but he was a powerful Magic Talent, and all he needed was a thought to immobilize her.
“Engaging in dialogue,” he replied. His tone had softened again, becoming almost fatherly. “I know, I know, I said I'm in a rush, but I still wanted to talk a bit. You know, unicorn to unicorn."
"I'm not a unicorn," Star Fall said, frowning at him.
"Aren't you?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her. "Don't tell me you think being a unicorn is all in the horn. There are a million ponies out there with horns, but most of them aren't unicorns. Not really. Rip your wings off, are you any less a pegasus? Give my horn to Charisma, is she suddenly an Alicorn? No. Neither of these things are true, so why measure who we are by what we possess? After all, it's what's inside that counts."
"You're quoting Twilight Sparkle," Star Fall said. "But that wasn't what she was talking about. She was talking about appearances, and not judging someone by what they look like. Not ignoring your literal species!"
He shrugged. "So I paraphrased a bit. The point still stands. You're more of a unicorn than most unicorns."
"Why do you even think that?"
"Because I'm more of a unicorn than most unicorns too," he said. "And I know a Magic Talent when I sense one."
"I..." Star Fall had no idea what to say to that. She wasn't actively using her magic, she should have been effectively invisible to him.
"You'd like to deny it. I can see that," he said. "It's probably some big secret for you, something you hide from the world for whatever list of reasons you've come up with to keep your head down. I don't mind that. I understand it. I didn't hide my Talent when I was your age, but I've since learned that there's a lot to be gained by a bit of anonymity."
She shook her head. She had no idea what game he was playing, but she didn't like it. "What's your point?"
"My point?" He smiled. "Is that we have something in common. Isn't that wonderful?" She swallowed hard, something about that had felt ominous. He saw her apprehension and sighed. "Okay, so we'll have to get a few things out of the way first if this is going to be a productive conversation. First off, yes I have you in my power. Evil cackle, moustache twirl, the whole deal. But I'm not going to harm you. I'm not going to let Charisma or another one of my minions hurt you either. Not so long as we're actually having this conversation, at least."
Star Fall tried not to show how much that implied threat got to her. She wasn't sure she succeeded to any degree.
"Second, you're thinking about escaping. Don't. It's a waste of your time, and might be a waste of mine. You're getting rescued, remember? Everyone's coming to get you out of my nefarious clutches, right? Just sit pretty and you'll be breathing the free air in no time." He sounded like he believed that, which was enough to make her wonder what he knew that she didn't. "So, since I'm not going to hurt you and you're not going to escape me, why don't we make the best of it and play nice? Come on, let's be friends."
He extended a hoof to her, welcoming smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. She didn't trust it for a second. she knew there was a trap in there somewhere. There was no reason he’d be talking to her at all unless he thought he could get information out of her. There was, however, the possibility that she could get information from him at the same time, and if she was careful she could limit what he learned from her. Decision made, she relaxed to a sitting position on the bed and met his hoof with her own. “Alright, let's talk,” she said.
"Excellent!" he crowed, grinning like a colt who'd gotten a new toy. "I'm hoping to learn more about you, Lady Star."
"And I was hoping to find out more about you," she said.
"Why not do both?" he said. "A question for a question. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but that means I get to ask another question before you do. Vice versa applies, of course. You start."
Star Fall took a steadying breath. "Why?"
“Kind of a broad question, isn’t it?” Cash said. “Why what?”
“Why are you digging these holes?”
Cash’s eyebrows rose appreciatively. “Ah, a good question. Why am I digging these holes? Well, the simple answer is that I’m looking for something.”
“What’s the complex answer?”
“Complex,” Cash said. “In the extreme. Stick with the simple answer for now, we can discuss the complexities later. If we get the chance to, of course. Have you seen the new episodes of Palace Mares?”
Star Fall blinked at the reference to the popular television series. “No. I don’t watch it.”
“Huh, too bad. I was hoping you could give me some spoilers.”
“Who killed James Bay?”
“Who indeed,” Cash said. “How’s the Professor? Doing well, I hope.”
“You didn’t answer my question. That means I get to go again.”
“Getting the answer to that one isn’t as important as asking the question is,” Cash replied, flashing a toothy smile at her. "But rules are rules. Hit me with your best shot."
Star Fall narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you want?”
“That’s the question,” he said, eyes staring off into the distance. “What does any of us really want? That's your answer, by the way, but let me turn that one back around on you. What do you want?”
“I want you to answer my questions instead of dancing around them.”
“Sure, but that’s a little want. I mean what do you really, really want?”
“To get out of here.”
“Again, little want. You’re going to get out soon enough, hurrying that up will only satisfy a small itch. What you really want to scratch is something else.”
She shook her head, exasperated with his verbal circling around whatever he wanted to say. “Fine, if you know so much about me, what do I want?”
Cash’s gaze locked on hers. “Choice.”
“What?”
“You want choice, Lady Star. You want to be able to choose the path your life will take, the future you will meet. You want some measure of control over your destiny and you want it desperately enough that you are thinking of betraying everything you hold dear to get it.”
Star Fall felt like iron bands had been wrapped around her chest, keeping her from breathing. “How...?”
“How do I know all this? Magic, of course,” Cash chuckled. “In all seriousness, I could put it down to my amazing powers of observation, but really all I needed to know was two things. One, your identity as Twinkle Shine’s daughter. Second your presence here despite having had a close encounter with the Gray Mare herself this morning. The rest just falls naturally.”
"How did you know?"
"You keep asking that. In this case, the answer is ashes," he said, leaning over and touching a hoof to her mane. "Your hair is singed, and your coat smeared with ashes. The rain took care of most of them, but I can still see some in the places where your wings have kept them dry. I can still smell them, too. You've been touched by Ashfire. It has some very specific properties, things that I know to look for. It clings to a person, it feeds from their own innate magic, growing and consuming flesh and spirit alike. Water does not quench it. Sand does not smother it. It will burn even if starved for oxygen. All it needs is the magic of the one it is killing to fuel it. Only being a Magic Talent, having an exceptionally strong will or the timely intervention of someone who knows how to deal with it can save you from Ashfire, and even then it leaves traces. Traces that are clear on you."
Star Fall's mouth had gone dry, and her throat made a clicking noise as she tried to swallow. "I didn't know that," she admitted. The black fire Umbra had thrown at her had clung to her, yes, but she'd ignored it and focused her magic into attacking the Nightmare. If Cash was telling the truth, that had saved her life.
"Not many do," he said. "Only one being can use Ashfire, and the last time she was seen was twenty years ago. Or was it this morning?" He chuckled as he leaned back again. "I figure the latter is the safe bet today."
“I don’t understand," she said, shaking her head, trying to keep to a coherent line of thought. “What does any of that have to do with choice?”
“You want me to spell it out for you?”
“Yes.”
He shrugged. “Okay. You’re an adopted noble. That means a lot of pressure is on you to perform, to have earned that adoption. Your entire life is under one big magnifying glass held by all the right ponies at the upper levels of society. You’ve got to earn their respect a hundred times as hard as a born unicorn. Worse yet, you’re adopted by the greatest magical prodigy of her generation. A direct line to the King. That’s extra right there. How free are you to be who you want to be? To do what you want to do?
“I’m free...” Star Fall said, but it was a weak protest and she didn’t have the heart to carry it through.
“Sure you are. Free to do exactly what you’re told you have to do. I understand what that’s like. I was born in the country, a low-middle class unicorn in a no-class town. As a colt there was literally nothing expected of me, I could have been anything. Then I discovered my Talent, and worse yet, so did everyone else. Suddenly I was under all this pressure to make something of myself, to live up to the thing that made me special. We don’t treat Magic Talents in the Republics like you do here, but there is a saying in the nightlands: To whom much is given, much is asked. I was asked a lot. It’s stifling, trying to live up to everyone’s expectations, trying to please unpleasable taskmasters and reach for a victory whose goalposts are always receding. How much worse it must be for you, well, I don’t want to imagine.”
Star Fall couldn’t help how her feelings resonated with his words. It made sense. He would understand that part. Yet that was only a small part of her life, and one she’d come to terms with a long time ago. “You had a hard life? Boo hoo, poor you.”
Cash snickered at that. “Struck a nerve there, huh? So what changed?”
“What?”
“I told you, I know what it’s like to be under the pressures you are. I also know that you would be a very different pony if that was all that it took to make you desperate to assert yourself. Yet here we are, so what changed?”
“Nothing.”
“Lies,” Cash grinned. “Useful things, those. Keep practicing, though, yours need some work. It doesn’t matter anyway. Whatever changed, it changed big, and because of it you decided that coming here and peeking under my hat is more important than going home and reporting on your experience with the Nightmare Umbra this morning. That’s some serious dereliction of duty there.”
“What do you know of Umbra?”
“Lots. Why, did she send you?” Star Fall frowned at that, but he continued before she could think of a response. “No, of course not. She’d come herself if she wanted to stop me. Not a damn thing I could do if that were the case, so she must have been interested in you.” Star Fall kept her features perfectly neutral, but Cash quirked an eyebrow. “Not you, huh? Something you carry? Nope. Guess again. Your companion? Yeah, there it is. So the Destroyer came for your companion and she survived. Cool, that’s a story I’d like to hear.”
Star Fall stared at him, wondering how much he could really see. She knew Gamma could read reactions like he seemed to be doing, and Cash was supposed to be frighteningly insightful. Yet his own actions weren’t consistent with those of someone who could read his audience as perfectly as he seemed to.
“So here you are," he continued. "Carrying vital information, but choosing to pursue a lesser goal instead. Why?” Cash speared her with his gaze again. “Choice. Your defiance, your anger, your very presence here, all screaming to anyone who cares to listen that you just want a choice. That’s the answer to your question. That’s what you want. Fortunately for you, what I want may just line up with what you want. Then everyone goes home happy.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, unable once more to look away from him. She tried to blink, but her eyelids didn't respond.
“You want a choice, I’m in the mood to give you one. Not a great choice, mind you, but a way to have some control over your destiny.”
“What choice?” There was something unsettlingly alluring in the way he was presenting his offer, but she couldn't pin it down. Every time she thought she had put her hoof on it, it slipped away from her again.
“Well, on the one hoof you can sit here, stewing in your defiance and get rescued like a good little damsel in distress,” he said, shrugging to show what he thought of that option.
“And on the other?”
“On the other you can come with me,” he said.
“Join you? That’s your choice?” She almost laughed at that. It was like something out of a foal's storybook. Yet she couldn't help but consider it.
“Not join, come with,” he said. “You don’t have to sign on and you don’t have to switch allegiances. I’m not offering you a job, Lady Star. Just a choice. Come with me and I’ll show you exactly what I’m doing. I’ll tell you everything, and then you can make your own decision on what to do about it. Stay with me, go back to your Kingdom, head to the nightlands and make a new life, whatever you decide. The whole world will be open and ripe for you to take whatever you want from it. Or not take. Choice, Lady Star. All the choice you could ever want. All you have to do is forget those old loyalties for a moment and take your fate into your own hooves. All you need to do is say 'yes'.”
The more she thought about his offer the more attractive it seemed to her. She told herself it was too good to be true, far too good. Reminded herself again and again that there had to be an angle somewhere that she wasn’t seeing. That there must be some hidden reason why he would even begin to offer this to her. It didn’t make sense. Why would he being serious? Was he just playing her somehow? If only she could figure it out. But his eyes held her and his voice entranced her and she could not help but consider it.
It would be a choice. It would be her own decision, and it could very well be what she needed to escape from the madness of the King. He was right. She hated to admit it, but he was right. The King wanted her to marry, and her mentor was powerless to stop it. Worse than that, she wasn’t even going to try. Twinkle Shine was the most powerful unicorn in the Kingdom, surely she could do something? Yet she wasn't. She was abandoning her.
She did want a choice, wanted some control over her future, and this was the perfect out. What was keeping her from saying yes? Twinkle Shine? Gamma? Her family? Her loyalty to her kingdom?
No. She had no loyalty to them.
She opened her mouth to answer him, but the movement jarred the chain around her neck. Not much, just enough that it tinkled softly against the small golden amulet that dangled from it. The sound gave her pause. Twinkle Shine had given her that necklace to protect her. She had created the Everstorm spells to give her a way out of the Kingdom that couldn't be traced. She had been holding off the King for a decade. How could she have ever thought that her mentor had abandoned her?
Star Fall closed her mouth firmly. She could accept Cash’s offer, she might even be willing to betray her country under the right circumstances. But what would happen to Astrid? What would happen to Rainbow Dash? She might betray her country, but after what they had been through these past few weeks she would never betray them. She knew then that she did have loyalty. Loyalty to her friends. Loyalty to her mentor. Loyalty to her duties, and yes, loyalty to her Kingdom.
“No,” she said, strength filling her as she closed her eyes, breaking the hold Cash seemed to have on her. “I say no.”
Cash frowned as if taken aback, giving a questioning glance to his saddlebag. “Huh. Guess I need more practice. Well, okay. Now I have no idea what to talk about. You sure you don’t want that cookie? I’ve got extras.”
“No, thank you,” Star Fall said, and the two lapsed into uncomfortable silence.
Almost a minute later the door burst open and Charisma stormed in. “Oh thank Luna, that was awkward,” Cash breathed, turning to his enforcer. “Not perfect timing, but close enough that I might hug you.”
“We have a problem,” Charisma said.
“I’ll say, she doesn’t like cookies,” Cash said, pointing a hoof at Star Fall. “What is today’s youth coming to?”
Charisma rolled her eyes at Cash. “No, Blaze and the lady’s companion have escaped.”
“Wow, that was quick.”
“I’ve got the men searching for them, but someone’s knocked out the communications hub, we’re down to word-of-mouth and light flares for co-ordination.”
“Did you find Conrad?”
“He’s just outside,” Charisma said, nodding. Her eyes tracked to Star Fall. “I could use her as bait, set a trap.”
“Nice idea, not today,” Cash said. “Get the word out to evacuate.”
“It’s just two ponies,” Charisma said, but Cash held up a hoof to forestall her.
“Two for now. I’m expecting a lot more soon enough.”
“Why?”
“You were here for that bit, Charisma, try to remember. She said ‘everyone’ so I’m expecting ‘everyone’.”
“She was lying, Max,” Charisma said in an annoyed deadpan.
Cash threw Star Fall a grin that made her squish up against the wall again. “No she wasn’t,” he said. “Come on, I need you to run interference for a bit. This’ll take some set up and I don’t want anyone interrupting me before it’s done."
With that the two left, shutting the door behind them and leaving Star Fall to slump down on the bed.
Scarlet Top peered out into the wet darkness with tired eyes, listening to the white noise of rain pounding on the roof of guard tower four. His shift should have been over two hours ago, and he was feeling the strain of it, but Charisma said all hooves had to be on deck so here he was. She allowed no slackers in her crew, and since she enforced that rule with her usual brutal efficiency he was in no hurry to catch her eye.
Still, it had been an exceptionally long day, even by the demanding standards that came with working for Charisma. All because of the damned storm that had come out of nowhere in defiance of all weather predictions.
He sighed and leaned against the window of the watchtower. For all the hassle and boredom of this job, it still beat the Republics Army, that was for sure.
“Hey, Scarlet, you see the two the boss caught?” Quarry Haul, one of two fellow guards on duty in tower four, asked.
“A pair of pegasi, pretty as you please,” Scarlet confirmed. “Didn’t get a close look at them, but I heard the boss say one of them was a noble.”
“I thought only the horn-heads were allowed to be nobles up in the sunlands,” he said.
Scarlet shrugged. “I guess not. Or maybe just her, I don’t know. We could ask one of the sun-heads next time we see them.”
“Nah, they might take offense to that,” Quarry said, waving the idea off. “You know how the sunlanders get about their nobles. Don’t want to start something if it’s not important.”
“I hear that,” Scarlet agreed, looking back into the night.
“You both should be keeping your brains on the job,” said Mark Early, their nominal commander. “Assuming, that is, you’ve got any.”
“I’m watching, Early, don’t get your feathers ruffled,” Quarry groused. Early flared his wings at the fellow guard, but didn’t say anything.
Scarlet rolled his eyes and turned back to his window. Something seemed off to him. He squinted into the darkness, trying to figure out what it was that was nagging at the edge of his awareness. Finally he realized it wasn’t something he was seeing, it was something he wasn’t. “Hey, Early! Where’s tower three?”
Mark walked over to the window Scarlet was looking out of. “It’s right... uh. Okay, they’ve got their lights out. Just what we need, power outages. Give ‘em a call.”
Scarlet turned away, stepping over to the radio. He tuned it to the general channel and hit the call button. “Tower three, this is tower four. We noticed your lights are out. Do you need assistance? Respond.” He lifted his hoof off the call button and waited, listening to the hiss of static. After there was no response for a minute he hit the button again. “Tower three, this is tower four. What is your situation? Respond.” Nothing. He turned back to the window. “Early, they’re not saying anything you think...” He trailed off as he found the window empty of anything but darkness and rain. “Early!” he shouted.
“Top, what are you screaming about?” Quarry asked, turning away from his own window.
“Where’s Early?” Scarlet asked, looking around for any sign of the tower’s commander.
“Maybe he jumped out the window,” Quarry reasoned. “Went to check out tower three when you got no response.”
“Without telling us?” Scarlet shook his head. “No, something’s wrong.”
“On a day like today? What more could possibly be going wrong?” Quarry asked. There was a thump from outside. Quarry turned and stuck his head out the window. “What the hell was...” He never got to finish his thought.
A bird-like claw with sharp, gleaming talons reached down from the roof through the window. It grabbed Quarry by the face, talons sinking into flesh until they punctured bone. He barely got out a yelp before he was hauled out the window and up to the roof. There was a sickening sound, like celery breaking, and the rain that fell across the window turned red.
Scarlet felt his knees go weak. That had been a Griffin’s claw. He flashed back to the stories they told of Griffins in the Republics Army. Tales of berserker warriors, stories of vicious, implacable and carnivorous monsters who liked nothing more than the taste of pony meat.
There was one on the roof.
He turned back to the radio, slamming his hoof onto the call button. “Tower four to all points we have a code yellow! Repeat, a code yellow! Kingdom forces are attacking, I need assistance! Can anybody hear me?” Only the hiss of static was his reply. He stared at the radio, mouth hanging agape at its betrayal, and only then noticed that the antenna was missing, snapped off at its base.
A leonine growl sounded form behind him, making him go cold. He spun, reaching for his knife, but slashing talons put an end to his attempt to fight. Tower four went dark.
Calumn slumped in the chair he was bound to. He barely felt the ropes against his carapace, even though they were especially tight due to being tied for a smaller unicorn body. He was too caught up in his own self loathing.
He’d broken. Not only that, he’d broken without effort, without struggle, and within minutes. Charisma’s torture had been nothing, he could weather weeks of such treatment. A short conversation with Max Cash and he was almost willing to throw everything his life had been for out the window. Was his loyalty truly so shallow? Was he really that pathetic?
Changelings were supported by the Republics. Without their help his species would have died off a long time ago. They provided a safe place to build their hives, schools to train their young, and homes and families to give them the love they needed to survive. Most of all, they gave the Changelings purpose.
After the Schism they had been lost without their Queen, miserable and nihilistic. They took and they took from everyone they came across, and were all the more empty for it. But the Republics had remembered their allies and offered them the direction and oversight they lacked. The Changelings had taken that offer and made it their own, reorganizing their entire society so that they no longer served a Queen, but a Senate.
That purpose, that loyalty, was the core of every Changeling. Without it they were worthless, abominations and monsters that served no function other than to consume. Without it he was just another insect.
He almost missed the sounds of a scuffle outside, absorbed as he was in his own thoughts, but the sound of a body slamming into the metal wall brought him out of his reverie.
“Let’s try this one!” The muffled sound of Blaze’s voice cut into him like a knife, making him sob. If his loyalty to his country was so poor as to be shaken by a few well-placed words, how much more pathetic must be his friendship with the Storm-guide? He’d known the pony for a hoofful of days, how did that stack up next to a lifetime of training and devotion?
“You said that for every door in here!” another voice responded. This one also hit Calumn like a blow, but not in the same way that Blaze’s did. He remembered that voice. It had been etched into his mind and never far from his thoughts ever since that disastrous passage through the Everstorm.
“Rainbow Dash,” Calumn said, lifting his head. She was here. Somehow, by some impossible stroke of luck she was within his reach again.
“I’m extra special sure about this one!” Blaze said. He sounded the same as always, overflowing with chipper joviality. Calumn was glad that whatever might have happened to him at Charisma’s hooves, if anything, hadn’t dampened his spirit.
The door burst open and Blaze stepped in. He looked terrible, covered in welts and bruises, but his smile shone as much as ever. “Buddy!” he shouted, rushing over and giving Calumn a squeezing hug. “You’re okay!”
“Not entirely,” Calumn said, not willing to lie to his friend. “But I’ll be okay. How did you get out?”
“Firefly,” Blaze said, gesturing to the door where Dash stood. “She’s awesome. Like, a dozen guards kicked around like they were foals awesome.”
Calumn met the eyes of the pegasus, and saw the recognition in them. She remembered him just as well as he remembered her. There was also revulsion there, the recoiling horror that most ponies reacted with when they first saw the true form of a Changeling. She recovered from it quickly, her eyes flicking to Blaze as he set about removing the ropes before returning to him. She was wary of him, and worried about Blaze, but there was no fear in her.
“Are these your real colors?” Calumn asked her, gesturing with his crooked horn to indicate her coat and mane.
“Dye job,” Dash said. “This the real you?”
“As close as it ever gets,” Calumn confirmed. “What about the name?”
“Firefly works for now,” she said.
Calumn’s eyes narrowed. That was obviously an assumed name. From the way both she and her companions had reacted in the Everstorm he could likely be safe in thinking her name really was Rainbow Dash. “I’ll go with Strongheart then,” Calumn said, getting off the chair as the last of the bindings fell away. A burst of green fire surrounded him as he once more took the comfortable form of the dark gray stallion. His legs were weak from his captivity, but they held up well enough with the thicker muscles and bones to support them.
“Alright, that’s your friend, which way to Star?” Dash asked Blaze.
“Um, that way,” he pointed in an apparently random direction.
Calumn stared at the pegasus, caught in indecision. Her presence here confirmed that she had at least something to do with Cash. Helping Blaze could mean anything, but likely meant that she wasn’t working for the monstrous unicorn. He needed to know more. He needed to question her to get at the answers he’d come so far to find.
‘Why bother?’ a spiteful little voice in the back of his head whispered. ‘You’re already a traitor, why should you care about your mission?’
Was this all that was left of him, then? A miserable failure of a Changeling who couldn’t even complete his mission when it was right in front of him? He’d given up his name, that was all. Yes, it called into question everything he thought he was, everything he had been raised to be. Yet it wasn’t the end of him. He was still Calumn, still a Changeling of the Republics. While his loyalty may have cracked it was still there, and he could repair it. He could atone for his betrayal.
All he needed was to fulfill his mission.
“Yeah, we’ve already been that way,” Dash said. “Pick another one.”
“Okay, um that way?” Blaze said, pointing to exactly where he had before.
Dash sighed. “Fine. You good to walk Strongheart?”
As she turned to him he grabbed her with his forehooves, pulling her head in and pressing his forehead to hers. She was so shocked by the move that she didn’t even try to resist. He pressed his magic into her, overwhelming her mental defenses, such as they were, and tying her mind to his with ropes of green fire.
He staggered back as the spell completed. Something was wrong. The connection he forged was pouring her energy into him in a torrent. Not just her emotions, but the magic innate to her being. She was there, a presence in his mind, battering at him like an explosion that never ended. He’d never felt a power like it before. It ate at his control, demanded his focus every second he maintained the magic, and filled him with a sense of alien purpose and certainty that threatened to drown his will in bursts of multicolored light.
He’d made a terrible mistake, but it was too late to stop now. He forced the sensations down, breaking his attention in two. The bulk of it went to minding the spell on Dash, and the rest left to let him interact with the world. After a moment he steadied, finding the knife-edge balance that would allow him to function.
He looked around, seeing the world through the lens of Rainbow Dash’s power. Blaze stared at him, wide-eyed and concerned. Light shattered in his eyes as if they were prisms, sending ribbons of rainbow into the depths of his pupils. Calumn retched as he looked away, the sucking gravity of the world drawing only stinging bile from his mouth. He struggled back into control, taking slow and steady breaths.
“Buddy, are you alright?” Blaze asked, frowning in worry at his friend.
“No,” he admitted, shaking off the feeling that the world was trying to crush him and pull him apart at the same time. “But I’ll manage. Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.” He staggered to the door, Dash turning to follow him automatically. He couldn’t hold her for long, not if it was going to be like this. He hoped he would be able to hold her long enough. He hoped it would all be worth it.
Rainbow Dash was in love. That was the only way she could describe it. It had felt weird when Strongheart had pushed his head against hers, but now she couldn’t help but fondly remember the contact. She wanted to feel it again.
The entire world was dull and washed out, blurred at the edges and indistinct when she didn’t focus on it. Everything except him. He was crystal clear and painted in the most vibrant of colors. Even his gray coat glistened and shimmered with every motion. She could spend hours looking at it.
He left the room and she followed, knowing somehow that he wanted her to keep up. She had no problem keeping up. It wasn’t like that big earth pony body was going to be outpacing her. She remembered that his true form had wings, and wondered how good a flyer he was. Maybe if she asked him he would practice with her. That would be awesome, the two of them soaring through the air. She wouldn’t mind if he had to be in that insect-like shape to do it, either. She could live with it, so long as she could live with him.
Blaze was talking to him, rushing past her in the narrow metal corridor to walk next to him. She felt a stab of jealousy, but knew that they were friends, and didn’t want to get between him and friendship. Blaze’s voice was distant and hollow, almost like he was talking through a long tube. When Strongheart answered, though, his voice was loud and clear and delightful. She focused on that conversation, if only to hear his voice as he spoke.
“What did you do to her?” Blaze was asking. She frowned at the thought. Strongheart hadn’t actually done anything to her, had he? It was kind of strange that she was suddenly in love with him, but there were plenty of stories of love at first sight that sounded weirder, so she shrugged and let it go.
“She’s my mission, Blaze,” Strongheart replied. Dash smiled at that. She was his mission, that was so nice. “I have to find out what she knows, what she was doing at that dig outside of Orion City, and what she’s doing at this one now. I have to find out what her connection to Max Cash is.” Dash nodded along with him. She wanted to know the answer some of those as well, and she was sure that working together they could figure it out.
“But this?” Blaze shook his head. “Buddy, I know I’m not the best judge of these things, but this isn’t right. She was helping us, her own free will and everything.” Of course she was. She’d do anything for Strongheart.
“I know it’s not right!” Strongheart snapped. Dash flared her wings, ready to beat up whatever was causing him distress. “I know. But I can’t stop. I have to. I have to prove I’m not ...” he trailed off, head low. “Blaze,” he said, leaning against his friend. “I’m sorry, but I have to do this.”
Blaze frowned, but nodded. “Alright. If you’ve got to then you’ve got to, but we’ve also got to rescue Firefly’s friend Star.”
“No,” Strongheart shook his head. “I can’t afford that. We have to get away from Max Cash and this place as soon as we can.”
Dash frowned. That wasn’t right. “No,” she said, the words thick in her mouth like she was chewing on toffee. “We gotta rescue Star.”
Strongheart staggered, one hoof going to his head as his face twisted in pain. “We have to leave,” he reiterated.
Dash felt her head trying to nod, but she forced it to still. Of course she wanted to agree with him, Blaze had been hurt, and it looked like Strongheart was in a lot of pain too. They really did need to get out of there, and fast. Yet she couldn’t just abandon Star. “I... don’t... leave... friends...” she said, forcing each word out through uncooperative lips.
“She really doesn’t,” Blaze said. “Buddy, I promised, okay? She’s stuck here, with Charisma and Max, and we’re all that’s going to rescue her. I wouldn’t leave you with that, we can’t leave her either.”
Strongheart took several deep breaths before nodding. “You’re right,” he said. Dash nearly stomped her hooves in joy. “I can’t leave anyone with him, not if I can help it.” He looked at Blaze with wide, haunted eyes. “You tried to warn me. I didn’t listen.”
“Whoa, what did he do?” Blaze asked, clearly surprised by Strongheart’s reaction to meeting the criminal.
“I don’t even know,” Strongheart said, his voice breaking for a moment. He composed himself quickly, shaking his head. “He just talked, Blaze. Just talked.”
Dash frowned. While she was still going to beat up this Max Cash for making the love of her life nearly cry, talking seemed like a really lame reason to wail on a guy for. She shrugged at the thought. Ah, well, he probably deserved it anyway.
“All right, follow me!” Blaze said, but Strongheart put a hoof in his way.
“Do you know where they took your friend?” he asked her.
Dash grinned at the question. He was talking to her, and that was the best thing ever. “The pink one, she said they were taking her to Cash’s room.”
“Okay. You’re strong and fast, right?”
“The fastest,” Dash confirmed, preening at his interest.
“I need you to get us one of the ponies out there, preferably one of the guards. They need to be conscious, and you can’t be followed back here. Can you do that?”
“In ten seconds flat!” she boasted.
“Then go to it,” he said, pointing a hoof down the hallway at the door.
She was off in a pink-blue streak, bursting through the door and up in to the air. The camp was in an uproar. Teams of guards ran through the muddy paths between buildings while workers rushed towards trucks that were being filled with equipment and ponies as fast as they could be loaded. Gunshots rang out in staccato bursts, familiar to Dash ever since her run through the Maul. Several of the watchtowers were dark, another was on fire.
She ignored all that, instead searching for a straggler, some guard on their own or fallen behind. She saw a few likely candidates right away, chose one at random, and dove for him. She thought she heard someone call her name, but she didn’t take the time to make sure, too intent on getting the guard and returning to Strongheart with her prize.
The pony she had chosen was a blue pegasus. He was trotting around the side of one of the buildings, one wing outstretched and keeping the rain off of a tube-device that Dash had learned was the modern age’s version of a gun. He never knew what hit him.
She grabbed him on the run, whisking him off his hooves and into the air. He cried out, but she stuffed a hoof into his mouth to muffle his shouts. His flapping wings and flailing hooves were a nuisance, but one she could easily weather as she rushed back into the building where Strongheart and Blaze were waiting.
She dropped the captured guard at their hooves, stepping on him so he couldn’t get up and point the weapon. “How’s that?” she asked, grinning.
Strongheart blinked at her in shock. “Ten seconds. I didn’t expect you to be so literal.” Her grin only widened. Strongheart sank to his knees and touched his forehead to the guard’s. Dash was reminded of what he’d done with her not too long ago, but couldn’t figure out why.
For a moment the world regained its color, and Dash shook her head, trying to identify the source of a sudden sense that something was very wrong. Then everything went back to dullness and she relaxed. The guard relaxed too, staring up at Strongheart with a green tinted eyes. “Sir?” the guard said, frowning in confusion.
“Let him up,” Strongheart told Dash. She quickly got off the guard, who rose slowly to his hooves, never taking his eyes off of Strongheart. “Do you know where Max Cash’s personal room is?”
“Yes sir, I do,” the guard said, coming to attention.
“Give me directions from here,” Strongheart said. The guard proceeded to do just that, giving a clear indication of where they needed to go, when prompted he even told them where the guards were usually stationed in that building. “Thank you,” Strongheart said, massaging the side of his head with one hoof. “Now, go out there and get as far away from this camp as you can without endangering yourself, and don’t work for Max Cash anymore, do you understand?”
“Yes sir,” the guard replied, saluting. “Loud and clear.” With that he turned and galloped away.
Strongheart sighed, sagging against the wall. “Buddy,” Blaze said, coming close and nuzzling his friend. “You gotta let her go.”
Dash had no idea what Blaze was talking about, but she knew Strongheart was in distress. “If something’s hurting you, tell me about it,” she urged him. “I’ll take care of it.”
Strongheart let out a harsh laugh. “I can’t let her go,” he said.
“Why not? You just did it with that soldier, right?” Blaze asked.
“This is different,” he insisted. ”Because this is the only way.” His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “The only way to be who I’m supposed to be.”
Dash was filled with a sudden understanding. She might not get exactly what he was talking about, but the feeling behind it was as familiar to her as her own wings. “Is that who you want to be?” she asked, stepping up next to Blaze.
“What?” He looked up at her, his confusion and anguish clear to her now that she knew what she was looking for. She couldn’t let him keep hurting like that, but she knew that the only one who could do anything for him was himself. She could, however, show him the way.
“You’re doing something to be who you’re supposed to be,” she said. “I don’t know what that is, or what it means for you, but I know what it meant for me. It’s kind of silly, thinking about it, but it was so important. I thought I had to be one way, that I was supposed to be a certain person. But I wasn’t. I found out something about myself that just didn’t fit with who I thought I was. I got scared. I felt like I couldn’t be who I was supposed to be with this new part of me I’d discovered, but I couldn’t make it go away either. I couldn’t make the two fit together, so I did some pretty stupid stuff to try to keep them apart. It didn’t work and it’ll never work.”
“So I should just give up?” he asked, shaking. “I should just abandon everything?”
“No,” Dash said, laying her head on his shoulder and drawing him into a hug. “But you gotta figure out if who you’re supposed to be is who you want to be.”
“I don’t understand,” he said.
“Hey, it’s okay. Took me a while to figure it out myself,” Dash assured him, rubbing his neck soothingly. “It’s like this: we so get caught up in things like what we ought to do or who we’re supposed to be that we lose sight of who we actually are. And when that happens we start to forget that who we’re supposed to be isn’t always who we want to be. Maybe something happened that made you think you’re not who you ought to be, that who you actually are is different than what you thought.
“Now, you can be like me and do the dumb thing of trying to keep them apart, which’ll only hurt you in the end. Or, you can look for who you want to be. Really deep down, the best, most awesome you that you can be. Find that idea of yourself and ask if it’s the same as who you think you’re supposed to be. Ask what is important to that version of you, and how he would deal with what you found out about who you actually are. I can tell you one thing: he wouldn’t just give up.”
“Buddy, I know you,” Blaze said. He gestured to Dash. “This, right here? This isn’t you. Maybe, before we went through the Storm together, I would have let it slide. Not now, not when I know how you feel about using other people. A trick like with that soldier? That’s one thing. This, with her? Not you. This isn’t extortion, this is robbery. Remember the difference?”
Strongheart nodded. “I remember,” he said.
“So do you want to be Silas, or do you want to be Trail Blazer?”
“I want to be Strongheart,” he said, the words choking off in his throat. “But I have to be Calumn.” Green fire enveloped him, and when it cleared he was once more in his Changeling form. Dash frowned at the smoothness of his carapace and the gossamer feel of his mane under her hoof. It was at once strangely soothing and disturbingly alien.
“Calumn,” she said, testing the name. It felt good to her. Right.
He pulled back, laying his black, hole-filled hooves on her shoulders. “I have to fulfil my mission, but I don’t want to do this to you. How do I reconcile that?”
She had no idea what he meant by ‘do this to her’, but she figured she could help with the other. “What’s your mission?” She asked, meeting his strange green eyes.
“To find out everything about you. Why you were at that dig, what your connection to Cash is, whether you’re a threat or a possible ally or something else entirely. To bring you back if I can.”
Dash smiled, this she could do. “Okay. I can tell you some of that, but I don’t know all of it myself. We’re working real hard on finding out. Star’s mentor is kinda cranky, but she’s supposed to be the smartest pony around, so when she figures it out I’ll let you know.”
“Star’s mentor. Twinkle Shine?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“I heard you two talking in the Everstorm,” he said. “I’m good at putting things together like that.” He sighed. “She’s the white pegasus you were with, right?” Dash nodded. “She’s special, isn’t she?”
“Absolutely,” she said, happy that he thought one of her friends was special. “Her Special Talent is Magic, just like Twilight Sparkle!” That made his eyes widen in shock. She figured it was her mentioning Twilight again, the people in this era had a lot of respect for the purple bookworm. She probably shouldn’t be namedropping her friend as much as she did, but she also wanted his admiration and approval, and Rainbow Dash knew that one of the many things friends were good for was lifting yourself up, so long as you gave them a helping hoof in turn.
“No wonder she...” he trailed off and shook his head. “Blaze, I can’t help rescue Star.”
“Why not?” Blaze demanded.
“If she’s a Magic Talent she’s resistant to my powers. I can’t even do minor suggestions for sure. We’d have to kidnap her.”
“Hey! No kidnapping friends!” Dash admonished him.
“I’m with her on that one,” Blaze said.
He grimaced, his fangs reminding her of Nightmare Umbra. Only this time they were beautiful and not scary at all. “Who do I want to be?” he said, the question directed at himself, quiet enough that she only heard because of how close she was to him. “I have to fulfil my mission, but you have to rescue your friend. I can’t rescue your friend and fulfil my mission. So... so I can’t fulfil my mission.” His shoulders slumped as he spoke. “I can’t. I have to let you save her.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked, not liking the thought of being parted from him.
“Blaze and I will leave,” he said. “Get away from here. Find civilization.”
“Okay, let’s meet up in giant-new-Canterlot, or whatever it is they call the city with the castle,” she said,
Calumn paused, his green eyes looking at her strangely. “I’m an idiot. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Think of what?”
“Blaze, do you think you can find us a way to the capital?”
The green earth pony laughed. “Well, duh, it is my Special Talent after all.”
“Firefly,” Calumn said, his voice riveting her attention onto him.
“Rainbow Dash,” she corrected. “My name is Rainbow Dash.”
“Rainbow Dash,” he said, sending shivers down her spine. “Listen carefully...”
Rainbow Dash blinked, shaking off the strange sensation that she was forgetting something. ‘Watch out for yourself. Don’t let Cash talk.’ The thought came to her in a voice that wasn’t her own, but one that tugged at her recognition. She looked around, wondering where Blaze had gotten to. A vague memory of him finding his friend and then running off came to her, but she shrugged it away. It didn’t matter, she had to rescue Star Fall.
She rushed out of the building into the pouring rain. The fire had gone out, as had most of the lights not trained on the dig, though she couldn’t remember exactly why she knew there had been a fire in the first place. She turned and rushed across the compound, keeping low. It seemed that most of the ponies had cleared out, though she spotted several guards still rushing about the place. She ignored them, making a beeline for the one door she knew would lead her to her friend.
She burst into the building, zooming past a shocked guard and down a narrow hallway. She counted doors as she went, finally coming to the one she knew should be where Star Fall was being held. The door was locked with a heavy latch, but with an expertly placed kick she burst the flimsy door completely off its hinges.
Star Fall gave a high-pitched shriek as Dash made her entrance. She scrambled against a wall, sitting on a small bed, but quickly realized who had come for her. “Dash!” she gasped out. “Am I glad to see you!”
“Me too, Star,” Dash said, grinning at her friend. “Are you okay?”
“Physically, yes,” Star Fall said. “Mentally? I’m not sure yet. You?”
“I’m good,” Dash said. “A bit confused, though. This place is like a maze, everything looks the same.”
“What’s going on out there? I heard Cash order an evacuation.”
“Seems like they’ve evacuated,” Dash said. “Almost everyone’s gone. A few leftover guards, though.”
“Is Cash gone?”
Dash shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t see him.”
“Then there might still be time,” Star Fall mused. “Come on, we have to get into that dig.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” a new voice cut in, accompanied by a hoof shoving Dash into the room.
Dash sighed, turning to look at the guard she had blown past on her way in. He was standing in the doorway pointing the barrel of his gun at them. “Seriously?” she asked him. “I’ve beaten up a platoon of your buddies already tonight. Are we really going to do this now?”
“So you’re the one,” he snarled, eyes narrowing as he stepped into the room. Dash knew she could dodge any shot he took and knock him out, but that gun was dangerous, and the room was too small. If he started firing he could hit Star Fall. She needed to maneuver him into a position where he wouldn’t hit her. “I’ve lost a lot of good friends tonight. Some real asses too, but friends all the same. Nice to know I can lay all their deaths at your hooves.”
“Hey! That’s not my fault!” Dash protested. “I haven’t killed anyone! It’s you guys who have been shooting all over the place!”
“We know how to aim, bitch!” he screamed in her face, not noticing the shape that loomed behind him in the doorway. “We’re not shooting each other! I’m going to kill you just on principle for that remark. But I would like to hear your explanation, so if it’s not you killing them, then who?”
“Me.”
The guard’s eyes widened and he spun. Astrid’s talons met him mid-turn, stabbing into his chest. He gasped, then let out a chilling whine as she lifted him up with one claw, dangling his body from her embedded talons. She stared down at him, naked contempt in her golden eyes. He drew breath into punctured lungs to scream, but her beak flashed down and came away with his throat. He gurgled and kicked, but soon went still. Astrid let the body fall to the floor as she threw back her head and swallowed the gobbet of flesh she had taken.
“Astrid, thank Celestia,” Star Fall sighed.
Dash could say nothing. She could only stare at the dead guard.
“Sorry, Fall,” Astrid said, looking abashed. “I would have been here sooner, but I had to run interference for some pony who was flying all over the place and not listening when I tried to get her attention.” She gave a pointed look to Dash, who returned the look with a blank stare.
“Did you bring my spell-sheets?” Star Fall asked.
“Uh, yeah, why?” Astrid replied, reaching into her bags and pulling out several of the magical papers. Star Fall grabbed them from the Griffin and with a sweep of her leg cleared off the desk.
“I think Cash is still in the dig,” Star Fall explained, snatching up a pen and scrawling out the sigils that channelled her magic. “We need to get in there now, but I need to be prepared for him.”
“Don’t talk while magicing, Fall,” Astrid said. “Explain when it won’t screw up your spell.” Star Fall didn’t bother to reply, devoting all her attention to quickly and correctly setting down the spell-forms. Astrid turned to Dash. “You look poleaxed. You okay?”
“I coulda taken him,” Dash said, quiet and angry. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Astrid glanced down at the body. “Sure,” she agreed. “But Fall might have been hurt, and my way was more certain.”
“Would you kill?” Dash said, thinking of Gamma’s question from what felt like months ago.
“In a heartbeat,” Astrid said. “But only for the right reasons. How about you?”
Dash looked at the body, then shook her head. She remembered fighting Umbra that morning, remembered her hooves breaking bone and pulping flesh. “I don’t know,” she said. “But I’m thinking even if I say yes, my ‘right reasons’ are a lot different from yours.”
“No one’s asking you to be a Griffin, Dash,” Astrid pointed out.
“And I’m not asking you to be a pony,” Dash replied. “But next time, could you at least let me try?”
“Not if it puts Fall in danger,” Astrid said. “Other than that, go nuts.” Dash nodded, it was the best she was going to get.
“There! Done,” Star Fall said, pulling up two completed spell-sheets.
“Where to, Fall?” Astrid asked. Dash pulled her mind from the body on the floor and set herself for whatever action came next.
“The dig, and whatever’s inside,” Star Fall said, determination filling her eyes. “This has gone on too long, and he’s too dangerous to let him keep going. It’s time we ended this. We’re going to capture Max Cash.”
The empty hills stretched out before them, indistinct in the rain save as darker shadows against the black sky. Calumn followed Blaze as the earth pony kept up a brisk pace despite the darkness. Normally trotting or running in the dark was a bad idea over open land, as there was no way to see pitfalls or rocks that could break legs and worse. For Blaze, though, this was probably equivalent to a walk in the park. No floating skulls, no alluring voices, no targeted lightning, and no giant undead bears. Calumn figured that the dark and the rain might be a welcome vacation from the malicious chaos of the Everstorm.
A sudden intense burst of feeling made Calumn stop, turning to stare back at the compound. “Hey, what’s up?” Blaze asked, noticing his stare.
“Conrad,” Calumn said. “He just died.”
“Wow, you can tell that?”
Calumn nodded. “I didn’t think the connection was still open. I guess it was. I just felt it snap. It only does that when the pony I’m connected to dies.”
“I wonder what happened.”
“I don’t know, but he died scared,” Calumn said, frowning at the memory of the last emotion to come to him through the bond. It wasn’t the usual fear he’d gotten from Conrad, but it was close. Instead of a colt’s fear of getting caught being naughty, it was a colt’s terror at having been caught.
“Come on, buddy,” Blaze said, turning back to the dark hills. “We’ve got a long way to go yet.”
Lieutenant Hard Boiled scratched at the bandages that wound all the way around his torso. The wounds that the would-be assassin left him with itched. None of them had been life-threatening, but they’d taken him to a hospital anyway, where he'd been stitched up and was now healing slowly but cleanly. He’d wanted to get back to work immediately but his superiors had insisted he spend at least the night in the hospital. He’d obliged, if only because they gave him enough painkillers to dull the roaring ache of his horn to a sullen throb. A good night’s sleep later, though, and he was up and working again. Mandatory injury leave be damned, he’d finally gotten a break in his case.
Barry had been extremely helpful in HB’s end-run around the rules. He’d surreptitiously brought the case files to HB in the hospital and covered for him as he’d slipped out. He was seriously re-evaluating his opinion of the earth pony. Barry was nowhere near as clueless as he first appeared. He was still a little too eager to please, but that could be chalked up to youth and inexperience, and it kept him working the long hours Hard Boiled was demanding of him.
Not being officially on the clock had another bonus for him: it meant he didn't have to log what he was doing now in the records. That would be good for him, and even better for the pony he had come to meet.
HB sat on a plush bench in the spacious grand foyer of Senator Alan Birchfield's mansion. The ceiling was high and domed in glass, allowing the moon to shine down from the cloudless sky. The centre of the foyer had an artful arrangement of plants and statuary, the centrepiece being a life-sized statue of a playful mare with a frizzy mane, her head thrown back in laughter and a gem gleaming blue at her throat. It caught his attention and it wasn't until another pony came to collect him that he realized he'd been staring at it. He flicked his magic on for a moment, but nothing important jumped out at him so he dismissed the oddity as simple fatigue.
"The Senator will see you now," the unicorn butler said, gesturing for HB to follow him. The detective obliged. He followed the butler down the north wing of the mansion, trying not to stare at the ostentatious displays of wealth that adorned every wall. It wasn't often that a cop got to make a personal visit to the estates of the powerful. Senators weren't above the law, but they were usually rich enough to make them close to untouchable. No, when a Senator did wrong it wasn't a pony like HB that would bring them down. That wasn't a good thing for them, it just meant the ponies who did bring them down were much, much harsher about it than a law-bound detective could ever be.
He was led into a warm study, plush benches and chairs spaced around a thickly-carpeted room that was lit by a fireplace and a few old-looking lanterns set into the walls. Bookshelves full of leather-bound tomes were set between displays of antique art and trophies won in distant lands across the seas. Senator Birchfield had been a renowned adventurer, soldier and diplomat in his youth, and had seen much of the world outside the borders of the Republics. This was part of the reason HB had sought a meeting with him now.
The other part was displayed behind enchanted glass in the center of the room, taking up a place of honor amongst so many other trophies of times long past. It was a small statue of a pegasus mare taking flight, her wings wide and her eyes trained upwards. The work was exquisite, and so well kept that it looked almost new, despite being a millennium old.
"Beautiful, is it not?" Birchfield asked, standing next to the display as Hard Boiled entered the room. He was an aging pegasus, his sandy feathers running to gray and a well-trimmed silver beard giving his muzzle greater definition. His accent was refined, but still held the sharp edge of a stallion used to barking orders in the field. He turned, walking with a pronounced limp up to the detective. "It cost a fortune at auction. Three hundred thousand full moons. Which is nothing compared to all the tax I've had to pay to keep it since. So much spent on such a small piece of stone. Yet it is beautiful."
"It is," HB agreed, stepping closer to the other pony. "Though I noticed you have more like it in your foyer."
He chuckled. "More statues, yes, but none like this. Which is why you've asked after it, and not one of them."
HB ducked his head in acknowledgment, though something about what the Senator had said bothered him. He shoved to the back of his mind and focused on the conversation. "This is one of three pieces of art to survive the Schism with provenance intact."
"Indeed, and the only one not in a government museum," the Senator said. "I'm surprised that you have an interest in art history, Lieutenant Hard Boiled."
"I don't," HB admitted. "But my current case has forced me to become an expert in at least a small part of the field: Art found or saved from pegasus cities. Specifically the crash sites of old pegasus cloud cities."
The Senator quirked an eyebrow. "Cloud cities? I thought you earth-bound ponies believed them to be a myth."
"I did, until recently," HB said. "Circumstances have changed my opinion. I know that there were cloud cities, I know that they crashed during the Schism. I also know that there have been several artifacts recovered from those crash sites over the years, many of them illegally, and that you are holding forty percent of the ones I was able to find out about."
Both the Senator's eyebrows rose at this. "Is that so? Are you here to arrest me then, Lieutenant?"
HB shook his head. "I'm not here in my capacity as an officer of the Orion City Police. I'm just trying to get answers. Nothing you tell me here will lead to charges against you or will be put in any official report."
"Is that a promise?" HB nodded. Birchfield stretched his wings out as he contemplated that, resettling them as he smiled at the detective. "I've heard you're an honest stallion, Lieutenant. A good reputation to have for someone in your position."
"Only if you live up to it," he replied.
"Quite. For what it's worth, you seem to have done your homework, at least. What questions do you have for me, and what does this have to do with old pegasus art?"
HB took a deep breath, glad that the Senator believed him. If he hadn't, there wasn't much the detective could do to force the issue. "You collect more than just art. Any artifacts that are linked to pre-schism pegasi you like to snatch up at the first opportunity. White, gray or black market, you have buyers working for you in all three. You are especially interested in anything to do with the cloud cities."
"My people once ruled the sky, Lieutenant," Birchfield said. "We may have lost those heights, but once we touched the heavens and slept among Luna's stars." He turned back to the small statue, looking at it with undisguised longing and sadness. "I wish I knew what that was like. I dream of it sometimes. Do you ever dream of magic, Lieutenant? Do you ever imagine wielding power such as your ancestors once did, when all the forces of the cosmos were theirs to command?"
HB shook his head, though the old Senator wasn't looking his way. "No. I can't say that I do." His dreams had always been bizarre and disjointed, when he could remember them at all.
Birchfield accepted his answer with a shrug. "I dream so brightly. But then I wake, and all that is left of that dream is in these. Artworks and artifacts, our only link to a better, more glorious past. So I gather them and cling to them. And I let myself dream my foolish dreams in hope that one day I shall find something that can make them true."
"Have you?"
Birchfield looked at HB, blinking in confusion. "Have I what?"
"Found anything that can fulfill your dreams? Return the powers of a classic pegasus?"
Birchfield let out a disbelieving laugh. "Of course not! Something like that I would share with the world, not keep to myself! What made you think there would even be something like that?"
An impossible mare, HB thought, then nodded. "Right. What do you know of Max Cash?"
Birchfield snorted. "Too much. He's a businesspony and a crook. Too much money for one bank to handle and not enough morality to fill a teacup. He's funded several of my opponents during election season, and has successfully gotten some of his puppets elected to high office on more occasions than I'm comfortable with."
"He's also a rival in artifact collection," HB pointed out. "You've butted heads with him several times. You also served with him briefly."
"Very briefly," Birchfield stressed. "And he was a civilian contractor, never a true member of the Republics forces."
"Do you know why he collects artifacts?"
"I'm not sure that he does," Birchfield said. "He picks them up, but they're back on the market two months later."
"Why buy them at all then?"
"Perhaps he's looking for something," Birchfield sighed. "He's not in it for the same reasons I am, that I am sure of."
"What could he be looking for?"
The Senator frowned at him. "What makes you think I would have the faintest idea?"
"You're the closest thing to an expert on black market artifact collection I have access to," the detective pointed out. "You're also his rival, and that means you're aware of his purchasing history and patterns. You may not know for sure, but I'd lay odds you have a guess."
"That's a bet you'd lose," Birchfield told him. "There's barely a rhyme or reason to what he buys. Sometimes it's pegasus artifacts, sometimes it's unicorn, sometimes it's earth pony."
"Only pony artifacts? What about Dragon or Changeling stuff?"
"Sometimes them too," the Senator confirmed. "Sometimes an important piece will come up for sale and he won't make a twitch for it, and sometimes something innocuous is brought up and he falls all over himself to get his hooves on it. I really cannot say what it is he wants from them."
"Did he ever make a bid for that?" HB asked, nodding at the figurine.
"No," Birchfield said, looking pensive. "He was at the auction, bought several other pieces, but he never made a bid for it. He took a long look, though, when they had it on display. I was grateful at the time, since he could have outbid me, but I remember that it was odd."
"Why was it odd?"
"Because if there is one pattern he has, it's a favourite artist," Birchfield explained. "Some of the pieces he will definitely work to acquire are done by one artist, the same one who created this beauty."
"And he had no interest in it?"
"No interest in buying it, no."
HB nodded, feeling one of the puzzle pieces realigning in his head. "That is interesting. The subject of this sculpture, it was one of the ancient heroes, right? One of Twilight Sparkle's companions."
Birchfield smiled. "Quite right. This is a maquette, a kind of rough draft for a larger, more detailed piece that was said to have been displayed in the city of Cloudsdale, one of the greatest of the old cloud cities. That statue was lost with the Schism, but this was in the keeping of a unicorn family who safeguarded it through the chaos afterwards and ensured that its history was not lost, as so much else was."
"This mare, the one this, ah, maquette depicts, she's come up several times in my investigation," HB said. "Did the artist that created this make any more with her as the subject?"
Birchfield shook his head. "Not that I am aware of, no. He was supposed to have done a series on them, Twilight Sparkle and her friends. They were shown far and wide across the old Equestria before the Schism. All are now lost."
HB's horn gave an aching throb at that. Something about what Birchfield had just said didn't ring true. He couldn't fire up his magic and find out, though, that would end this interview faster than anything but pulling a weapon could. And likely his career would follow shortly after. He made a mental note to remember what was said and look into it later, though. "Do any of the other maquettes survive?"
"A few," Birchfield said. "But they don't have a clear provenance, so we cannot be absolutely sure if they are legitimate. Most of them are out of our reach in any case. Captives in the sunlands."
"How much would the actual statue be worth?" HB asked.
"Loyalty?" Birchfield asked, his eyes widening. From the context HB could gather that was the title of the statue. "Beyond price, Lieutenant," the Senator shook his head. "Legally, at least. The Senate would declare it a national treasure in seconds, and it would be in the Library of the Senate before the ink was cold on the declaration."
"How about illegally?"
Birchfield gave him a sidelong look. "Purely hypothetically?"
"Of course."
"Millions. Tens of millions."
Hard Boiled closed his eyes as the weight of that number sank in. "Enough to kill for," he breathed. "How about in the sunlands? Would it be worth as much up there?"
The Senator shrugged. "Probably. It's a lot harder to be a private collector in the Kingdom, though. The Royals keep all the best pieces for themselves. "
"But it would still be worth a lot," HB asked, and Birchfield nodded. "You said it was part of a series. Where were the other statues kept?"
The Senator frowned in thought. "I know that the most important of them, Twilight Sparkle's statue, was in Ponyville, and is completely lost. I believe there was another in Canterlot, and there was a rumor for a long time that one of them was in Las Pegasus before it fell. The others? No one can be sure exactly where they were, all the records were lost."
"Is it possible that there was another on one of those cloud cities?"
"Yes," Birchfield said, watching the detective warily. "Your questions have a point to them, don't they Lieutenant? Should I take this to mean one of them has been found, and by Max Cash no less?"
HB shook his head. "No, I have no evidence of that."
"But you have a suspicion." HB didn't make any reply to that, keeping his face carefully neutral. It wasn't enough to keep the old soldier from seeing the truth. "More than a suspicion," he said. "Tell me."
"I'm sorry, I can't do that," HB said, shaking his head. "The investigation is ongoing."
"You're not on duty, Lieutenant," Birchfield said with a sly smile.
"All the more reason why I can't divulge details of the case," HB said, knowing he'd given too much away already.
"I can help, Lieutenant," Birchfield said. "I've answered all your questions freely. Bring me in on this and I can help."
HB paused, considering it. He hadn't learned everything he wanted to. There were still many questions he had come to the Senator with that had yet to be touched on. But for all that he was willing to bend the rules and come out here on his own, he wasn't willing to compromise the investigation for what might turn out to be nothing. He shook his head and smiled as politely as he could. "Thank you for your time, Senator, but I should probably be going now."
The smile dropped from Birchfield's face. "I will find a way in on this, Lieutenant. Don't anger me by making me do it the hard way."
HB nodded. "I don't intend to anger you, but I can't talk freely about an active investigation. You said yourself I have a reputation as an honest stallion."
"And a reputation is only good so long as you live up to it," Birchfield nodded. "I understand."
"Thank you," HB said, turning to leave.
"Lieutenant," Birchfield called out, making the detective pause. "One more thing. If Cash has found Loyalty, then he might not be taking it into the sunlands to sell it."
"Why then?"
"He might be bringing it up there to authenticate it," Birchfield replied.
"They can do that? I thought without provenance no one could be sure."
"For us, and for most works, that is true." Birchfield chuckled. "But not for these. There is one who can verify them, the same one who created them."
"The artist?"
Birchfield nodded. "He lives in the sunlands. Reclusively, to be sure, but a known figure all the same."
"A thousand years," HB said, putting it together. "He's a Dragon. One of the eldest."
"If he verifies it, that hypothetical statue goes from priceless to absolutely priceless," Birchfield said. "And the black market price more than triples."
HB swallowed hard. "What about if there were a pair of them? Two from the series? Or more, what would the price be then?"
"A pair?" Birchfield shook his head slowly. "Lieutenant, wars have started over less."
HB absorbed that, then turned. "Thank you for your time, Senator."
"I'm always happy to help the police, Lieutenant," Birchfield replied. A pulse of pain from his horn only confirmed what HB already suspected: the Senator was lying.
The rain hadn't let up, but Dash could feel the clouds beginning to lose their strength. It was an odd sensation, she'd never realized how much she could actually sense the weather until she was in a world where she didn't control it. The storm had gone on for too long, but soon the remnants of the Nightmare's power would finally be spent. It wasn't going to go without one last blast of fury, though.
Despite the evacuation, the muddy streets between the metal buildings weren't quiet, far from it. They could hear the shouts of the remaining guards as they ran through the rain, looking for the intruders that had so disrupted their compound. Dash didn't know what Astrid had done to cause all the havoc, but she was sure it left a lot of dead bodies behind. She didn't know how to feel about that, but she decided that no matter what her personal feelings were, it wasn't going to change how she saw the Griffin warrior. Astrid did her job, and had never pretended to be anything other than what she was.
Star Fall had barely seemed to notice the death of the guard right in front of her, a fact that made Dash think she had already seen her fair share of such things. For all of the danger she'd faced in her life, Gamma had been right about Dash. She'd come from a time of peace and didn't quite understand the necessity of killing. She could accept it, but didn't understand it.
All of that contemplation kept her uncharacteristically silent as the three of them made their way between buildings towards the brightly lit dig site. The closer they got to it the more a feeling of wrongness grew in the pit of Dash's stomach. It was like the first time she'd leapt off a cloud to fly on her own, the anticipation of the fall before her and the thrill of danger in her untried wings.
"Dash," Star Fall said, staring at her. "Your eyes are glowing again. Are you alright?"
"They are?" Dash said, stopping for a moment. She didn't notice anything different. The anticipatory feeling was getting worse, but it wasn't anything like what had preceded the scream from earlier.
"What the hell?" Astrid said, the words coming out in a disbelieving whisper. "When did this happen before? What does this mean, Fall?"
"I don't know," Star Fall said, swallowing hard. "But she did this right before she screamed."
"Don't do that again, Dash," Astrid warned, her eyes wide and fearful as she grabbed Dash by her shoulders. "Do you hear me? Whatever it was, do not do it again!"
"I won't, I won't!" Dash protested. "Let me go, oaky?"
Astrid released her. "Sorry. I just... that was bad."
There was a surge of anxiety that leapt up through Dash, nearly choking her. She staggered and had to steady herself on a nearby building to keep from falling. Then, just as suddenly as it had come the feeling was gone and she felt normal again. "Am I still glowing?"
"No," Star Fall said, frowning. "Not any more. What's happening, Dash?"
"I don't know!" Dash said, kicking at the mud. "I wish I did, alright?"
Star Fall shook her head. "We don't have time to figure it out now. If you start feeling whatever it is start again, warn us. It could be important."
"Yeah, totally. I'll do that," Dash promised them, and they got moving again.
The sandbag walls that had been set up to protect the dig were still intact, a quick patch job shoring up the places where Dash's lightning strike had toppled a tower down onto them. The ground inside was still muddy, the covering tarp unable to keep out all of the blowing rain, but far less so than the dirty rivers that the streets in the compound had become. They cleared the sandbag wall with a few spare flaps of their wings, and were about to rush forward when Dash jumped ahead and put both front hooves out wide, halting her companions.
"What is it?" Star Fall asked.
"There's someone in the tunnel," Dash said, narrowing her eyes in the glare from the bright lights. The large entrance to the excavation yawned black and nearly impenetrable in front of them, but Dash could see a lighter patch of shadow waiting in the darkness.
"Good catch," the shadow said, stepping forward to reveal Charisma, smirking at the three of them with an eager gleam in her dark rose-colored eyes. She held her wings half-flared, ready to propel her in whatever direction she wanted to go, and a wicked knife was strapped to her side, in easy reach if she wanted to grab it. Dash could detect no trace of fear in her at facing three opponents, one of which was a Griffin. Only excitement. "Ah, my lady. I should have known you would have more than a single pony as your escort. But a Steelwing Griffin! I am left in awe of how your clear superiority to us common folk requires such a retainer."
"That's not going to get to me, Charisma," Star Fall said, carefully pulling out one of her completed spell-sheets.
"Yeah, leave her alone!" Dash called out.
Charisma's gaze switched to her. "Well, look at you. Feeling better?"
"Good enough to kick your ass!" Dash replied. Astrid winced next to her, shaking her head slightly. Dash ignored the gesture. "I saw what you did to Blaze. You got some real payback coming."
If anything the gleam in her eyes only grew brighter. "Blaze. You don't happen to have him with you, do you?"
"He got out," Dash said, readying herself to charge and flaring her wings wide. Anger flared in her remembering the treatment he'd been subjected to. "They were beating him. On your orders."
Her smile widened. "Did he scream?"
"No," Dash growled.
She shuddered in clear pleasure, eyes dilating. "That's my stallion," she said, tossing her mane back from her face.
Dash recoiled. "You are sick," she said.
"She's stalling," Astrid said, stepping forward. "Cash is in there. We've got to get past her."
"Good luck," Charisma said, laughing. She had a pretty laugh, as pretty as the rest of her and just as deceptive. "Well, come on! I haven't fought a Griffin in years. You obviously know who I am, but you don't look familiar to me. Did we ever spar at the palace?"
"Once," Astrid replied, lowering herself into a wary crouch.
"Then you know what to expect," Charisma said with a nod. She glanced at Dash and Star Fall. "What about you, my lady? Are you going to lower yourself to the level of base violence? Dirty your hooves a bit?"
"You know what, Charisma? I only have one thing to say to you," Star Fall said, glaring at the pink pegasus.
"Oh? And what's that?"
"As above, so below," Star Fall intoned. "As within, so without." The spell-sheet she'd readied flared to life. The burning crimson sigils of her power flashed bright and leapt off the page as the magic extended into long chains that reached for Charisma. The enforcer jumped away, trying to avoid the attack, but the chains lashed like whips and caught her. They wrapped around her wings, tying her two back legs together, and then doing the same to her front. A length of chain bound tightly about her neck and dragged her down to the ground, a leash still connected to Star Fall's spell-sheet.
"What the hell is this?" Charisma shrieked, eyes wide as she struggled in the magical bindings.
"How I got in the club," Star Fall said. "Astrid!"
"On it," the Griffin replied, pouncing at Charisma. She raised a claw, talons gleaming in the worklights, then brought it down.
"Astrid stop!" Dash cried out.
Astrid hesitated, eyes flashing to Dash. Charisma wasted no time and took full advantage of the pause. She writhed on the ground, twisting her body so that she bounced up and into Astrid's talons. They sank into flesh, but were caught between links of the magical chain, exactly as the enforcer wanted. Charisma kicked at the ground hard, sending her into a somersaulting spin. Astrid was too heavy to be pulled with the spin and too surprised to roll with it, and her claws paid the price. Scaled flesh tore as the bones and talons snapped under the twisting pressure.
Astrid shrieked in pain, drawing back her mangled claw. She left a pair of talons behind, buried in Charisma's flesh, but the pegasus barely seemed to notice. She twisted again, bringing her tied back legs to bear and kicking Astrid hard enough to send the off-balance Griffin staggering back into Star Fall. The scholarly pegasus tried to evade, but it was all happening too fast for her. All she managed to do was get her legs tangled with Astrid's, bringing them both to the ground.
With Star Fall's concentration gone the spell faltered. Charisma rolled free of the disintegrating chains with a grin on her face and blood dripping from the pair of talons sticking out of her side. She looked at Dash and winked. "Hey, hot stuff. Thanks for the assist," she quipped, then leapt at her prone opponents.
Dash couldn't believe how badly she had just screwed up. She couldn't even remember making the decision to stop Astrid, and now her friend was hurt. Because of her. With a scream Dash launched herself at Charisma. The enforcer had started her leap first, but Dash was faster by orders of magnitude. She hit the other pegasus in the side, and the two of them went barrelling out into the dark and the storm.
The rain lashed at them as they rocketed out above the compound. Charisma cursed and jabbed a hoof into Dash’s side. The pain from such a small attack was impressive, but nothing that Dash hadn’t felt before. She grit her teeth and continued, looking for something to smash the other pegasus into. She ignored Charisma’s next jab, which quickly turned out to be a mistake.
With a wrenching pop that Dash felt through her whole body, Charisma’s probing hoof managed to catch her in exactly the right place to dislocate her left wing. Dash called her magic up instinctively, thickening the air to cushion her as they began to spiral down. Charisma fought to disengage, but Dash held on, struggling to keep the enforcer from doing any more damage.
They crashed into the mud with a splash, rolling over and over as they bled momentum and tried to end the spin on top. Dash was stronger, but Charisma moved with a violent precision that didn’t allow Dash to put that strength to use. Eventually they slid to a stop, each on their side, legs straining against the other’s.
Charisma’s grin looked like a manic rictus as she applied her whole body to keeping Dash from overwhelming her. “Who are you?” she grunted. “I know all the best fighters in the Kingdom and Republics. You don’t fight like any of them.”
“You’ve never seen anything like me before!” Dash snarled, pushing harder. “I’ve got moves like you wouldn’t believe. So, are you going to give up nicely, or do I have to start showing off?”
Charisma laughed. “Oh, I like you. You’ve got the attitude, let’s see if you’ve got the skills.” With a rolling twist of her forehooves Charisma slapped Dash’s knees, locking them as she dove in and closed her teeth around Dash’s throat.
Dash threw herself back, feeling the tug on her neck hairs as she barely avoided Charisma’s bite. She rolled to her hooves, but the pink pegasus was already moving. Charisma slid along the mud, splashing it up into Dash’s eyes and making her rear back. Dash twisted, trying to fall away, but still got a glancing kick to the gut.
Knowing Charisma was going to keep attacking, Dash turned her fall into a series of quick backflips, heedless of what direction she was going in and counting on her superlative reflexes to keep her from falling or crashing into something. She used her good wing to wipe the mud from her eyes, and came back to her hooves looking for her opponent.
Charisma had taken to the skies, but even splattered with mud her light-colored coat stood out in the darkness. Dash saw her coming and leapt to the side as Charisma dropped on her. The enforcer hit the ground and immediately rolled towards Dash, lashing out with a wing that sprayed more mud towards her eyes. Dash was ready for it this time, using her own good wing to shield her face while she stomped down with her forehooves.
She missed Charisma’s body, but caught her mane, stalling her roll. Charisma changed tactics in an instant, using the caught mane as a pivot to slide her body around so her rear legs were in a position to kick up at Dash. She caught Dash full on this time, throwing her away.
Dash hit the ground wheezing for breath. It had been a hard hit, but nothing like what she’d done to herself on occasion. She blocked out the pain and jumped away, barely avoiding another strike by Charisma. The enforcer kept up the attack, but Dash kept moving, going purely defensive and keeping ahead of the other pony through sheer speed.
Suddenly Charisma stopped her attack, stepping back and regarding Dash with an air of amused calm. “I’m impressed,” she said. “Most would be down by now. You’re obviously a Speed Talent, but you took that kick like an earth pony.”
“Yeah, well you’re … crazy,” Dash said, cursing herself for not being able to think of something cooler.
“I am,” she said, shrugging. “What’s your excuse?”
“What?”
“Come on. You know who I am. You have to know what I do,” Charisma said. She began to walk sideways and Dash mimicked her, keeping her distance as they circled each other. “But you’re right here, fighting me anyway. Not that I don’t enjoy it, but that’s a kind of crazy all on its own.”
“You’re not so tough,” Dash said.
Charisma laughed again. “Oh, that’s beautiful. I was wrong, you really don’t know who I am. Okay, you win, you’re not crazy. Just stupid.”
“I’m not stupid,” Dash snarled. “And I don’t care who you are. You hurt my friend. I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else.”
“Do you actually hear yourself when you talk?” Charisma asked. “You’re very heroic, I’ll give you that, but you have to know all the words in the world won’t save you.”
“Seems to me like you’re the one doing all the talking,” Dash said, giving her own cocky grin. “Are we going to get to any actual fighting tonight, or are you just trying to bore me to death?”
Charisma shrugged. “Just thought you needed a time out.” She leapt at Dash without any warning, her hoof streaking right for Dash’s eye. Dash reacted in an instant, spinning to the side and kicking out. Charisma twisted, lashing out with a back hoof even as her initial attack missed. They hit each other at the same time, Dash knocking Charisma from the air but getting dropped to the ground herself in return.
Charisma scrambled at her, punching out and striking the already injured wing joint. Dash hissed and grabbed the enforcer, bringing her close to deliver a vicious headbutt. Dash had been through a lifetime of head-on collisions with various unyielding substances and was barely fazed while Charisma was momentarily stunned from the blow. Dash took full advantage, wrapping the enforcer in a bear hug and heaving up. Without the use of both wings she couldn’t gain momentum like she had when fighting the soldiers, but she still managed to pile-drive Charisma face-first into the muddy ground.
The enforcer slumped down. Dash backed off, getting to her hooves and watching her opponent for any signs of movement. There were none. In fact, after a moment it looked like Charisma wasn’t even breathing. Wary of a trap, Dash waited. Still Charisma didn’t breathe, face covered fully in mud.
Would you kill? The question weighed heavily on Dash. She didn’t know. Even if her answer was yes, was this the situation in which she would do it? When she’d already won the fight and her opponent was at her mercy? The answer was easy, which of course meant it wasn’t easy at all. She trusted her friends, and so believed them when they had said Charisma was terrible and dangerous. She had seen what Charisma had ordered done to Blaze. She had seen Charisma’s reaction to hearing about it. There was no doubt in her mind that Charisma was evil, and letting her die in the mud would be a boon to the world.
Yet she was Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash didn’t let ponies die, she saved them. Even when it was a bad idea. Even when it was probably a trap. She might kill under the right circumstances, she didn’t know. But she would never, ever just let someone die when she could have saved them.
Decision made, she stepped forward and rolled Charisma onto her back. The enforcer’s head lolled to the side, limp and unresponsive. “Damn it,” Dash swore, wiping the mud from Charisma’s face. She put her ear to the enforcer’s chest, hearing her heart beat strong and slow. Dash knew in that moment it was a trap.
Charisma’s hooves flashed out, a kick hitting Dash in the inner thigh and making her entire right flank go numb. Another hard-edged hoof caught her just under her ribs, digging in and seizing up her chest so she couldn’t draw breath. Dash dropped to the mud, good wing fluttering as she tried to inhale. Charisma sucked in a deep breath of her own, and wasted no time in kicking Dash aside.
“You almost had me there,” Charisma wheezed. “But I guess the hero talk wasn’t all for show.”
Dash finally got her lungs to respond, drawing in a breath as she tried to stand. Her rear right leg was unresponsive, though, and so she only managed to flop into a sitting position. “I knew it was a trap,” she growled.
“Good for you, you can see the blindingly obvious,” Charisma snapped back. Then she grinned again. “You know what? I’m not sure which of us is going to win. I’m better than you are, but you’re just so damn tough and I have no idea why. If I snapped your neck, would that stop you? Or would you just shrug it off and keep coming?”
“I’d like to see you try,” Dash replied, forcing herself up on three legs.
Charisma started towards her, but paused mid-motion and shook her head. “Oh, I’d love to. I really would. But I’ve got more important things to do right now. Stay strong, hot stuff, we’ll fight again.” Charisma whirled and took off, flying back towards the dig.
Dash yelled after her, trying to follow. Her injured wing and numb leg made the attempt futile. “Damn it!” Dash screamed, pounding at the muck. The feeling was slowly returning to her leg, but she was at a real disadvantage so long as her wing was dislocated. She remembered Star Fall relocating Astrid’s wing that morning, and decided she could do the same if she found something solid to use. She’d never had to fix her own wings before, there had always been hospitals or medic ponies about to take care of that part, but she’d had it done often enough that she figured it wouldn’t be too hard.
She lurched towards one of the watchtowers. The heavy steel leg beams would do. With care she held her wing out wide with her teeth, and slammed her side into the metal. Pain ripped through her, bad enough to make her momentarily black out. When she came back to her senses her wing was throbbing like it was on fire and still dislocated. Frustrated with her failure she slammed into the beam again, with similar results. “Dumb wing! Just go back in your socket!” Dash screamed, and tried again. This time the agony was accompanied by the satisfying pop of things moving back into place.
She stood there panting for a long moment, letting the pain fade to a dull ache that she could easily ignore. She gave a few tentative flaps of the injured limb, and while each motion sent new spikes of agony through her body it was strong enough to support her. Triumph and adrenaline surging through her, Dash took to the air and rushed towards the dig.
When she got close she looked down and saw a unicorn standing in front of Astrid, the Griffin crouched and trembling. She recognized him. A picture in a dossier she couldn't read. A flash of magenta light in the darkness. The smell of blood and the sound of a body hitting hard earth. She was afraid of him. Terribly afraid. This was Max Cash.
Her wings trembled and she lost a few feet of altitude, but she steadied herself. Don't let Cash talk. Well, he was talking now, and she had to do something about it. Astrid was hurt, and Star Fall might be too. Her fear was nothing. Her pain was nothing. Her friends needed her. Dash took a deep breath and grit her teeth, wrapping her fear in determination. Then with a cry she called out her best speed and dove.
"Damn it!" Astrid swore, rolling off of Star Fall. She cradled her injured foot to her chest, looking at the twisted wreckage with more annoyance than pain.
"Astrid!" Star Fall gasped. "Are you okay?"
"Oh yeah, perfect." Astrid rolled her eyes. "Dammit Dash! Did you have to be such a wimp?"
"Where did she go? I couldn't see."
Astrid jerked her head out towards the storm. "Out there, with the Asskicker."
"We have to go help her!"
"In a bit, help me bind this up first," Astrid said, reaching into a pouch on her harness and drawing out a roll of gauze and medical tape.
"We don't have time, Charisma will kill her!"
"Sure," Astrid said, "but not quickly. If I'm going to help her I need to get this fixed, so are you going to help me or not?"
Star Fall stared at her friend for a moment before sitting down and grabbing the gauze between her forehooves. "What do you need me to do?"
Astrid inspected her injury, turning it to see the extent of the damage. "I'm going to straighten these out, then you need to bind them together. I'll make a fist and then we'll tape it that way. It won't be pretty, but I should be able to walk on it."
"Won't that hurt?"
"Like fiery fuck, but I'll deal. Here, hold this." She tossed the tape to Star Fall, who caught it in her mouth. Then Astrid gripped one of her broken fingers and yanked it straight. The pain made her wince and clack her beak, but she refused to cry out. She repeated the process for the other finger that was grossly misaligned. She poked at the third, but decided it didn't need to be forced into place. "Gauze," she said, holding the injured claw out to Star Fall.
The pegasus quickly set to wrapping the injury, taking care around the digits so as not to aggravate the breaks any more. The gauze quickly became a mitten that tightly bound the broken fingers. Astrid clipped it with a sharp snap of her beak before tying it off. Then, with a single grunt of pain Astrid folded the fingers down and Star Fall set to work taping the claw in place. When it was done Astrid set her foot down and tested her weight on it.
"How is it?" Star Fall asked.
"Not good," Astrid replied. "It'll do, though." She quickly stowed the remains of the gauze and tape. "I can't hear them out there."
"Neither can I," Star Fall said, shivering.
"What's the play, Fall? We go for Cash, or we go help Dash?"
Star Fall's eyes narrowed. "We help Dash," she said.
"Help her with what?" a new voice asked. Max Cash stepped out of the tunnel, magically tucking a book into the saddlebags he wore.
"Shit, new priority," Astrid said, leaping between Star Fall and Cash, her head low and her wings outstretched protectively.
Cash regarded the Griffin with an amused smirk. "I don't think this qualifies as 'everyone' Lady Star. You probably should have waited for your real backup."
"What's he talking about, Fall?" Astrid asked.
"No idea," Star Fall whispered back. "Stall him."
Astrid gave a slight nod and lowered her wing to obscure Star Fall from the unicorn's view. "Maximillian Oswald Cash," she called out to him. "You have violated the laws of the Solar Kingdom. You are hereby taken into custody to stand trial before the light of the sun and have your guilt weighed."
Cash's eyebrows rose at this proclamation. "Wow. That's a fancy way of saying I'm under arrest. Are you going to read me my rights?"
"You're a Republican criminal on Kingdom soil," Astrid said, narrowing her eyes. "You have no rights."
"Well, then we're in the same boat, aren't we?" he said with a chuckle.
Astrid tensed. "What did you just say to me?"
"I've got no rights, you don't either," he replied, a friendly smile splaying lazily across his face. "The way I hear it, Griffins are more like fancy pets and guard dogs than actual citizens. In fact, don't Dogs actually have more freedom than your kind?"
"You shut the hell up," Astrid snarled.
"Am I wrong?" he continued, ignoring her threat. His eyes caught hers, and she found she could not look away. "Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me you have all the same liberties as the pony you stand there protecting. Tell me you chose this life. Come on, be honest."
It was like a terrible weight had fallen on her, his words striking like a hammer-blow. Her legs trembled, her wings drooped, her remaining talons dug into the mud as she fought the compulsion that welled up in her. It was a futile effort. "No!" she gasped out. "No I don't have the same freedom she does, I didn't choose this life. You're not wrong."
His smile widened to a vicious grin. "In that case, I've got an offer you might be interested in."
"Astrid no!" Star Fall called from behind her. There was an electric snap that sounded through the air and a smell like ozone. Suddenly the pain in her injured wing was too much to hold it up. Her injured claw throbbed to insistent life, forcing her to clutch it close as the pain nearly brought her to her knees.
Cash staggered, eyes wide and blinking drunkenly at the world as he steadied himself. "What was that?"
"Magic dampening spell," Star Fall said, coming around to stand beside her Griffin friend. "No more of your tricks."
Cash laughed. "That is damn effective! And you say you're not a unicorn."
"Astrid, are you alright?" Star Fall asked, laying a comforting wing on Astrid's back.
"I don't know," she replied. "I don't know what just happened.”
“Whatever it was, he can’t do it now,” Star Fall said, turning towards Cash. “You’re done, Cash.”
He laughed, throwing his head back and letting loose wild, braying laughter that grated against their ears. “Oh, nice,” he said. “You really got me. Reversed the last situation entirely. Now I’m in your power. That’s poetic, it really is.”
“It’s not poetic,” Star Fall snapped. “It’s just what needed to be done.”
He shrugged. “Sure. Why not? Well, I commend you for a gambit well played. I am at your mercy, please don’t hurt me in your wrath!”
Astrid stepped forward. “Fall, how long can you keep this spell going?”
“A while,” Star Fall said. “But not forever.”
“Do you think we can bring him back to the capital to stand trial?”
“No.” The dark look in Star Fall’s eyes told Astrid she knew exactly what this meant.
Astrid nodded. “Cash, you forgot something.”
“What’s that?”
“I may not have all the freedoms that others do, but I do have rights. Rights others don