The Hero is Reborn
600 AD
Frog’s Residence
“Just a moment, dears!” Frog called from the back room of the small burrow. “I’ll be out with you in just one moment. Please, do make yourselves comfortable.”
Rainbow Dash and her friends looked to one another in confusion, each struggling to put to words what they were thinking at that very moment.
Twilight was the first to succeed. “…I didn’t actually realize Frog’s place had a back room,” she murmured to the others.
“Right?” agreed Pinkie. “I didn’t wanna say anything, since we’re guests and all, but I just always sorta assumed this was just a little hideaway nestled back in a glen. I didn’t realize that she’d go for the whole two bedrooms, one bath set-up.” Grinning sheepishly, she added, “But then again, that’s totally classic Frog.”
Rainbow noted that the neck of Frog’s dress form—which some might claim had been vandalized, but which history would remember as having been the hiding place of a magical relic and therefore a necessary casualty—had been repaired, by some measure. The head was held more-or-less in place by some quick stitching, but with the crack still readily visible, the dress form was naturally unstable. The gown which Frog had been displaying on the dress form yesterday was nowhere to be seen.
“Here we are,” said Frog, announcing herself as she entered the main living area. She turned quickly to her full length mirror, adjusted her fluffy white bathrobe with a few brushes of her padded foot, and gave its stain-resistant spell another surge of magic for good measure, before turning to the others with a warm smile. “Do forgive me for keeping you waiting. I’m not used to receiving callers at this hour, so I’m afraid I had already turned in for the night.”
Fluttershy and Twilight flinched back, nearly in perfect unison. Twilight’s flinch was more expressive, with her head pulled away and her tail tucked low, but in fairness, Fluttershy’s smaller reaction was simply a hardware limitation.
Fluttershy spoke first. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t stop to think that we’d already had dinner.”
“If it’s too late, we can always come back tomorrow,” Twilight said, walking up a few steps in front of Fluttershy. “We don’t want to impose…”
“No, no, don’t be absurd,” Frog said, swatting away the idea like a pesky mosquito. “The company of good friends is welcome at any hour. I was merely caught unawares, so I regret to say that the tea shall be somewhat delayed.” She nudged her head in the direction of the stove, where the tea kettle was already in place and faintly hissing. Motioning them toward her table and cushions, she added, “So then! How goes your quest? Have you any new leads on how to assault Nightmare Moon’s castle?”
Ignoring the invitation to sit, Rainbow Dash approached Frog directly, her expression set in an uncharacteristically stoic expression. Frog looked back, her naturally wide eyes growing further as she noticed not one, but two swords resting across Rainbow’s back, crossed at the middle with a hilt aside either shoulder.
Turning her head to bite down on the grip, Rainbow pulled, slow and deliberate. The whole cavern sang with a metallic ring as the blade was pulled free of its scabbard. Frog felt her breath catch in her throat as lamplight bounced from the blade to her eyes. The rainbow refraction was enough to make her feel lightheaded—or perhaps, that was simply because she had forgotten to breathe.
Rainbow held her forelegs level in front of her, then gently laid the broadsword atop the makeshift stand. The components were so familiar to Frog, yet simultaneously awe-inspiring. The rubber grip had been replaced, nearly possessing a sheen in its rich blackness. The gold guard and the pommel sapphire had always been ornate showpieces, but never before had she seen them shimmer in this way. Light danced playfully along every facet of the gold, and in the sapphire, Frog could see a dozen copies of herself staring back. The blade itself was difficult to look at for long, as though all of her senses were overwhelmed at once. But she forced herself to look, and in doing so, she felt her heart catch in her throat.
“It’s…” she managed to whisper, before clearing her throat and trying again. “It’s the Lyrabon.”
“Yeah it is!” Rainbow’s grin stretched her face muscles to their limits.
“I… but…” Frog frowned at the legendary weapon, her eyes dancing up and down its presented form, before at last searching Rainbow’s face. “How?”
“Eh, y’know,” said Rainbow, looking away with a noncommittal shrug so that she wouldn’t have to look Frog in the eye. Nevertheless, her lips twitched, threatening to give away her giddy excitement. “We’ve got connections. A zebra here, a cowpony there. You know how it is.”
Staring transfixed at the Lyrabon, Frog approached with slow and weighty steps. Once within reach, she lifted a foot toward its middle, with the same eagerness that one might touch a hot stove. After a moment, she steeled herself and rested her foot on the blade, drawing in a shaky inhale. “This… this is not possible.”
“Nah,” said Pinkie Pie with a playful wink. “Hang around with us long enough, and nothing’s impossible.”
“This…” Licking her lips with a demure flick of the tongue, Frog tried to gather her thoughts. “I have seen many a repaired sword, particularly since the war began. Even the best of blacksmiths will leave behind a cut, a sign that the steel was once rended, a structural weakness that cannot be healed, but…” Frog looked to Rainbow and wordlessly shook her head, before staring once more at the sword. She ran her foot gently up and down the surface, simply feeling. “It never looked so… magical. Not even before…”
“We’re glad you like it,” Fluttershy said softly, with the faintest trace of pride. “We really worked hard to make everything just right.”
“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Rainbow Dash quickly added. “We’ve got way bigger fish to fry than some legendary sword.”
Fluttershy’s eye panels shrunk. “F-fry?”
“It’s an idiom.” Twilight Sparkle shot a reproachful look in Rainbow’s directions. “Needlessly gruesome for a serious occasion like this, but she’s just talking about saving the world. No actual fish will be harmed in this adventure.”
“Oh. Well, that’s a relief.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and chuckled. “All I meant was, now that we’ve got this bad boy, we can finally get this show back on the road, and kick Nightmare Moon’s sorry flank.” She paused. “Right, Frog?”
The heat of the stove returned at once; Frog jerked back, clutching the limb against her chest. “No,” she said at length. “No, Rainbow Dash. We discussed this quite adamantly, when last you were here.”
Rainbow’s expression nosedived from restrained cheer into a darkened stare. “Are you serious?” she growled.
“Indeed I am,” Frog said, meeting her gaze head-on. Her poised stance, with chest pushed out and head raised, commanded an aura of respect that even Rainbow Dash found difficult to ignore. “The legends clearly state that the Lyrabon may only be wielded by a true hero. As you appear to be in possession of both the Hero’s Medal, and the Lyrabon itself—”
“Which I am giving to you,” groaned Rainbow. “Seriously! I, Rainbow Dash, do hereby be-quill this sword—”
“Bequeath,” hissed Twilight.
“Be-quiche this sword and this medal to you,” Rainbow said, jerking her head back at her saddlebags. “There, happy?”
“They belong in the hooves of a capable hero, Rainbow Dash, and you have demonstrated your abilities here far moreso than I. Perhaps I could…” Trailing off, Frog stared a moment at the back wall. From a single peg mounted into the wall of topsoil hung Frog’s green traveler’s cloak. The tip of her old broadsword peeked out beneath the bottom of the cloak. “I would be able to supply you, should you be in need of anything. My personal reserve of healing potions, for instance.”
“Screw that noise,” snapped Rainbow Dash. “If I wanted a healing potion, I’d go to a merchant.” She motioned as though she were going to poke Frog in the chest, but with the Lyrabon currently cradled in her hooves, all she could manage was a rough gesture in Frog’s direction. “I came here because I wanted the only pony better with a sword than me. I wanted a hero.”
“The only ones you will find here are yourselves.” Frog’s words were clipped, her expression frigid yet stately.
“Rainbow,” said Twilight Sparkle, a strong tone of warning in her voice.
“Twilight,” Rainbow parroted back.
“Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie shouted, throwing her forehooves in the air. As all eyes in the room turned toward her, she tittered, gently sat herself back down, and remained very quiet.
“Frog is being very explicit here,” Twilight said, choosing her words with care. “She doesn’t want to take the Lyrabon from you. It was a very thoughtful offer, but she declined it, and we should respect her wishes.”
“That’s great and all?” Rainbow Dash shot Twilight a dour look. “But we’re jumping into the big leagues now. Nightmare Moon doesn’t sound like the type who’s gonna mess around, so we need all the help we can get. Frog can’t just hide away and pretend like none of this matters to her.”
Frog took a full two steps back, her eyes bulging. “Excuse me?” she whispered.
Twilight opened her mouth, but before she could reply, Fluttershy stepped in. “Um, Twilight? Actually, I agree with Rainbow Dash.”
“What?” Twilight asked, mouth agape at her robotic companion.
“Frog is really quite talented. Um, well, I don’t know her as well as you three do, but I did see her practice match with Rainbow.” Rainbow Dash nodded in quick agreement as Fluttershy continued. “So, if she joined us, she could really make a big difference. She’d be able to help with something that’s… well, right now it’s nearly the most important thing in the world.” Fluttershy tilted her head at Twilight. “If that’s the case, shouldn’t she want to help? To save everypony?”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait wait wait.” Pinkie Pie held up her hooves in a placating manner, looking around the circle of ponies. “Nopony’s trying to say that saving the world isn’t super-duper important. I’m like the most pro-saving-the-world leaning pony you’ll ever meet. Nopony’s trying to say that she has to go fight monsters with us, or else she’s anti-saving-the-world. It’s still her choice whether she comes with us or not.”
“But Nightmare Moon is so very powerful. And don’t forget about Lavos,” Fluttershy said back, as Pinkie Pie worried at her lip. “That terrible monster is strong enough to hurt everypony. Everypony.” She paused a moment, letting the words sink in as she looked around. “If… If we lose… No, we can’t lose. There’s too much at stake.”
“And you will not.” All eyes fixed upon Frog as her voice called out. Strong. Deliberate. “Ladies, I understand your concerns. Truly, I do. Nightmare Moon’s reputation for villainy precedes her.” An easy smile returned to her. “However, your one mistake is in selling yourselves short. In such a short period of time, you all have grown so much, rising to every challenge set before you. Why,” she said, motioning toward the Lyrabon, “you’ve already accomplished feats that are, by all accounts, impossible. Together, the four of you will prove to be more than a match for any fiends, no matter how monstrous they may be.
“Now. I acknowledge Rainbow Dash’s frustrations,” Frog continued, resting a webbed foot on Rainbow’s shoulder. “She admires my talent with a sword, and really, I am humbled by such praise. But it takes more than flashy sword tricks to be a real keeper of the peace,” she said, a hint of laughter creeping into her tone. “No, it requires devotion, and bravery, and believing in something bigger than yourself, and all manner of traits for which I simply do not measure up. I apologize, but I cannot become the hero you seek. I would simply hold you back.”
“Bullshit.”
The hint of mirth in Frog’s eyes evaporated in a flash of steam, replaced with a venomous glare at Rainbow Dash.
Twilight punched her hoof into Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, eliciting a grunt from the pegasus. “Really?” she hissed. “Now, of all times, you decide to run your mouth?”
Rolling her sore shoulder in a wide circle, while careful to keep ahold of the Lyrabon, Rainbow Dash resumed her staredown with Frog. “Fine. Tell me why, then. Why do you keep saying you can’t be a hero?”
“I explained myself yesterday,” Frog said with a tightness in her voice. “Sir Spike is the hero that you seek, but he has not been seen for some time. In lieu of him, you are the next most qualified to carry the mantle. When measured against Sir Spike, I fall short.”
“But why?” Rainbow stomped a hoof, nearly losing her balance in the process. “Why won’t you admit how awesome you are? What makes this ‘Sir Spike’ character so much better than you?”
Frog drew in a sharp inhale from her nose, letting her eyes fall closed. She turned in place, facing the back room of her abode, and stood. “It is quite late. You should be on your way.”
For a moment, nopony moved. Rainbow Dash stood behind her, drilling her eyes into the back of Frog’s head. Then, she snorted out a hot blast of air. “Fine,” she said. “Fine. We’re going.”
Silence. “Rainbow,” Twilight murmured in reply.
“No.” The cavern sang once more with the sound of sword against scabbard, though this reprise was somber and quiet. “She wants us to go, we’re going. We’re going.”
Silence again, and then, the sound of hooves on the wooden planks of the staircase. Frog held her ground, listening as her guests climbed the stairs leading up to ground level. The sounds faded. Even alone, Frog dared not exhale, feeling a slow burn grow in her chest. Feeling the memories race through her heart.
On the nearby stove, the percolating tea kettle hissed, then whistled, then screamed. Frog listened to the noise shattering the calm, simply letting it run its course. Exhaling, then drawing in a fresh breath, she lit up her horn in a pale blue magic, and the kettle resonated in turn, lifting up from the heat.
With a shriek, she hurled the kettle with all her might. A loud crystalline crash rang out through the room as the full length mirror shattered into a hundred shards. Heaving out a sob, Frog hung her head and surrendered once more to her emotions. She held a webbed foot across her face, hiding away the bitter tears that welled forth.
“Frog…”
Nearly leaping out of her skin, Frog whirled about and faced Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was in the center of the room; while her friends had departed, Rainbow had remained rooted in place. Rainbow Dash fixed Frog with a firm stare and an unwavering stance. From above appeared Pinkie, Twilight, and Fluttershy, leaning their heads down into the hole but not daring to cross the threshold.
“Get out.” Frog’s voice was in an unrecognizable range, lost between growl and sob.
Rainbow Dash smacked open her mouth once as she looked to the side, at the shattered remnants of Frog’s mirror, then back at Frog. “No. I’m not leaving you like this.”
“Get out!” she screamed, voice tearing at the back of her throat. When no response came save for Rainbow’s even-keeled stare, Frog’s horn lit with magic once more. The mirror fragments came to life, lifting off the ground and then buzzing beside her head like a swarm of razor-sharp hornets. “I am warning you!”
Rainbow Dash considered her, and then took a step forward. And another.
Frog let the shards fly.
They raced toward Rainbow Dash at breakneck speed, before colliding with some unseen wall. The swarm hung in the air, inches away from Rainbow’s face, though Rainbow did not so much as blink. The shards pushed and strained and whirled about, but to no avail. The glass could come no closer. Frog wouldn’t allow it.
The shards fell to the ground, and shortly thereafter, Frog too fell to her knees. Covering her face with both forelegs, she wailed from her very core.
Rainbow Dash made her way to Frog’s side, carefully stepping around the pile of glass. She lowered herself to the ground, before placing a gentle hoof around her withers.
“Don’t,” Frog sobbed, weakly trying to pull away. “Don’t look at me.”
Rainbow Dash stayed. On the other end of the room, three sets of hoofsteps descended the staircase.
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Twilight poured tea for five, seated as they were around the table. The tea set itself was white china with ornate roses decorating the perimeter: tasteful, fairly expensive, and well cared for. Herbal tea flowed for each guest, one by one, an attractive green-yellow that swirled and settled in the bottom of each wide, white cup. Steam danced up from the surface, flicking warmth across their cheeks and tingling their noses with the scents of foreign flowers.
Pinkie graciously accepted her teacup and drank, followed by Twilight as soon as everypony was served. Fluttershy did not drink, of course, but the symbolic gesture was always appreciated.
In her white bathrobe, Frog resembled a drowned cat. Gone was the life from her eyes as she stared down at her teacup. The bathrobe hung heavy on her frame, dragging her down and making her seem so small. Frog had not said a word since being comforted by Rainbow. She offered no response as the tea party was set, no response as Pinkie and Twilight offered reassuring hugs, no response as the herd looked to her with anticipation.
On her right sat Rainbow Dash, or perhaps a statue. Every muscle was tense, every joint locked, every tendon strained. She afforded herself to glance at her tea, then the briefest of glances in Frog’s direction before immediately locking her gaze front and center.
The tea grew colder.
Twilight gently cleared her throat, drawing Rainbow’s attention. Rainbow Dash winced at her, looking every bit the part of a filly whose wildly-thrown hoofball had broken her neighbor’s window. To this, Twilight smiled and gave an encouraging tilt of her head toward Frog. Frowning, Rainbow Dash looked down at her tea and chewed on her lip.
Without looking up from the tea, Rainbow Dash spoke. “I’m sorry, Frog.”
The tea grew colder.
“You said no. You said it should’ve been me. You said get out. And I had reasons for ignoring you. Really good reasons. But…” She chanced a glance in Frog’s direction; Frog made no outward change in expression. “But I crossed the line. A lot. And, well, you deserve more respect than that. So, I’m sorry.” With that, Rainbow Dash resumed her rigid vigilance over her teacup.
Fluttershy nodded, and the sound of her servos cut through the stillness of the room. She froze, looked around the room without so much as moving a joint, and then stared at her tea, motionless.
Frog blinked, otherwise unmoved from her cup. “Would you like to hear a fairy tale?”
Everypony turned to Frog, roused from their thoughts and hesitations. They each opened their mouths to offer a reply, but Rainbow was the quickest. “A fairy tale?”
“A fairy tale.” Frog nodded slowly at first but increasing in tempo, before she finally made eye contact with Rainbow Dash. “A tale about knights, and princesses, and true love.” She faltered, biting her lip and looking to the floor.
“Sure!” Pinkie Pie leaned over the table, physically interjecting herself into the conversation. “I love a good bedtime story.”
Rainbow Dash shot a glance in Pinkie Pie’s direction, and she quickly picked up the cue. “Y-yeah! Totally! I mean, if you wanna tell it, then we’d love to hear it. Right, girls?”
Fluttershy sat upright, tilting her head to one side. “I’ve never actually heard a fairy tale before. I mean, I know some from accessing central data records, but I’ve… never actually had somepony tell me one.” She scuffed her hoof in small circles on the floor.
Twilight kept her expression level as she stirred a few drops of honey into her tea, then lifted it to her lips. “So, where does the story begin?”
Frog let her eyelids fall closed as she pulled the story to the forefront of her mind. She inhaled deeply through her nose, paused but for a moment, and spoke.
♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢
Once upon a time, there was a princess. Though just a wee unicorn filly, she was kind and compassionate and beautiful. Her coat was the purest white of snow, while her mane was a gorgeous cascade of vivid violet down her shoulder. Everywhere that she went, she radiated an aura of beauty. It made the princess truly happy to share her gifts with others—to brighten their day in the light of her own presence.
There came the day when the princess was graced with a cutie mark of her own, and what an auspicious occasion it was! For on that day, the princess had sewn for herself a radiant dress of baby blue, which shimmered in the daylight like a diamond. The princess was overjoyed in her creation and in her cutie mark, but she was not content to remain locked away in her gilded tower, hidden from the world. “Beauty is meant to be shared!” cried the princess. “I shall walk amongst all the ponies of the land, and give them joy.”
The princess was an arrogant foal, of course, with bloated ego. But she was only a filly then, young and naive. She had her excuses.
Frog paused to sip from her cool tea. Scrunching her nose, she levitated the teapot over and topped off her teacup, warming it back up.
Pinkie shared a head-tilted look with Rainbow Dash. Twilight’s brow furrowed but she said nothing, simply taking the teapot next after Frog was done with it.
And so the princess left for town, resplendent in her hoofmade dress of blue. So full of pride was she, so happy and eager to share this happiness with others, that she was caught unawares by a quartet of ruffians. The brutish colts circled around her, sneering and japing in a manner most foul.
“Oi, you lot. Take a load o’this one, eh?” laughed the first.
“Ooo! Accents!” Pinkie Pie interrupted.
Twilight shushed her with a stern look. Frog gave them each an appreciative smile, cleared her throat, and continued.
“Fancies ‘erself a princess, does she? With the dress and jewels?” sneered the second.
The third spat on the ground in front of her. “Thinks she’s better than us! Just a’cuz she looks all done up ‘n such.”
The four colts circled around the princess, like some vortex of ire and loathing. “Who said your kind’s even welcome round these parts, eh?” chimed the fourth. “Why don’t cha just take your fancy get-up and ‘ead right on back ‘ome?”
The princess cowered back, drawing in upon herself as the colts circled closer and closer. Had she acted thoughtlessly? Had her zealotous drive for beauty blinded her, and caused her to act in an uncaring and selfish manner? Perhaps the colts were right, the princess thought. Perhaps she should return to her home and hide away her silly dress, after all.
Frog leaned forward, one leg bracing against the table in front of her, the other thrusting toward some imaginary figure in the distance.
But lo! Who should appear by the princess’s side, but a gallant knight! He, short of stature but standing proudly, clad in gleaming purple scales, wielding a blade of finest ash and tightly-bound twine—
“He was a runt with a toy sword,” translated Rainbow Dash. She looked around the table at the series of dirty glares aimed in her direction. “What?”
“Hey!” shouted the valiant knight. “What’s wrong with you jerks? Leave her alone!”
Pale and wide-eyed, the colts sized up their opponent and found themselves wanting. For not only was he a knight, noble and true, but also a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon! Knowing themselves outmatched, they fled at top speed, revealing their true cowardice. The princess and the knight found themselves alone.
“Sheesh, what a bunch of bullies,” said the brave knight. He turned and beheld the princess, and at once, he found his vigor sapped, his roaring voice softened. “Are, uh… are you okay?”
“I am,” was the princess’s soft reply. The filly rose to her hooves, looking the knight eye to eye. “Thank you for rescuing me.”
The knight said nothing in reply. He simply bowed his head, staring down at his claws.
Frog looked down at her tea. “The princess was naive. She thought him quiet, or humble. She did not see the truth for what it was. But she knew little about boys, let alone dragons.” Frog closed her eyes. “She had her excuses.”
With a frown, Twilight Sparkle scooted around the edge of the table and leaned close to Rainbow. “The princess in this story is Frog herself, as a filly,” she whispered. “Since the knight’s a dragon, I assume that’s Sir Spike as a hatchling too.”
For a brief moment, Rainbow’s eyes went wide with recognition. Then she scowled. “I-I knew that!” she hissed.
Some years passed, but through it all, the princess and the knight remained close friends. The princess grew into a budding teenage beauty, gaining even more refinement and grace. The baby blue dress from her cutie mark day had been just the beginning; she wished not only to grace herself with such beauty, but to bestow gifts upon everypony. The knight grew as well, lean and agile, now a head taller than the princess. His life had also been set in motion on that fateful day, for he now trained to become a true knight of his queen, to serve and protect her and all the land.
The day fast approached when the knight might apply for this new post. The princess and he met upon the Zebran Bridge, for it was a favorite spot of theirs. They looked out over the ocean waters, watching the radiant sun as it sank below the horizon and set the sky ablaze.
The princess smiled upon him. “Stay brave, my knight, for your performance tomorrow will be grand. Soon, you shall be the queen’s newest knight.”
The knight scuffed his feet upon the bridge, bashful and uncertain. “I dunno,” said he. “What if I screw up? What if I’m not good enough? I haven’t trained enough for something like this.” He inhaled and met the princess’s eyes. “But I just gotta get in! I won’t be able to protect everypony unless I pass.”
“You have nothing to fear, sir knight.” From her bag, the princess unveiled her gift to him: a dazzling vest adorned with diamonds, glistening blue. The same blue as her first dress. The same blue as her cutie mark.
The knight looked to his navel, regarding his appearance as she placed the vest on him. Of course, it fit him to a T, and made him look so dashing. The princess commented as such.
The knight looked back at her. “Why don’t you come with me?”
“But of course,” said the princess. “I wouldn’t think of missing your trials.”
But the knight shook his head. “No. I mean, you should try out with me. You could be a knight too.”
“Moi?” The princess’s laugh was airy and melodic. “No no no, surely you jest. I couldn’t possibly… take up a sword. Fight against evil. Defend the realm.” She placed a hoof upon the knight’s chest, smoothed out the fabric of his proud vest, and graced him with another smile. “You are you, and I am I. You shall play your part, and I shall play mine.”
Certainly, the princess was correct in part, for it would be folly for her to take up a weapon, to pretend to be a hero. The tenacious knight knew his way around a sword, and true to his destiny, he was accepted into the queen’s personal guard. But it was the princess’s folly, to hold herself to the same measure as her knight. He sought to protect ponies; she made him a vest. But the princess thought that everypony had their own destiny to fulfill, and she thought them to each be equally deserving of pursuit. That was simply how the princess had been raised. She had her excuses.
“Frog.” Twilight met eyes with her above the tea, as she frowned in thought. “That’s not… It wasn’t a worthless gesture.”
“I’m sure he really appreciated it,” said Fluttershy.
Frog blinked and looked between them before giving a demure laugh. “Oh no no, dears. This is just a fairy tale. You mustn’t read too much into it.” Thus said, she took a small sip from her tea.
“Oh.” Fluttershy looked to her side at the wall. “My mistake. I’m sorry.”
The knight was now in the service of the queen, but it was not enough for him simply to serve. He sought to give to the best of his ability, to be the queen’s number-one knight, to be the Captain of her Guard. Thus it was that he left on a journey to save the land from a villain that had tormented the countryside for years—the Warty Warlock—a foul, dire toad that led the local wildlife in an uprising against the peaceful ponyfolk of the kingdom.
And so the knight traveled deep within the murky moors, finding the lair of the Warty Warlock. A finely-honed blade rested in the knight’s claw, and strong iron armor covered his muscled form. But on top of these symbols of war, he was decorated in beauty, as he deserved. Atop his breastplate was the first of his gifts, the diamond vest. Wrapped around his frame, blocking out the biting cold, was a matching cloak made of thick wool. Standing by his side was the princess, now two heads below his height. She braved the depths to stay by his side; he stayed by her side to keep her safe.
As the pair entered the inner sanctum of the swampy lair, they were met with a waiting trap. The Warty Warlock grinned at them, surrounded in a miasmic aura, flanked by a hundred evil critters: buzzards and manticores, hetake and timberwolves, gargoyles and yeti, all set to collapse upon the knight and his princess, to bring their quest to an abrupt halt.
“Grribt! Are you ready to surrender yet?” croaked the Warty Warlock. He gave a baleful look to the princess, before smirking at the knight. “Or are you foolish enough to take on a hundred foes by yourself?”
“You bet I am!” boasted the knight, raising his proud sword to the ready. “I’m not gonna just turn tail when the going gets tough. I’m going to prove that I can be the Captain of the Guard, protector of the kingdom—a hero!”
“Rbbbt! A hero, says he!” The slimy villain let out a bubbly laugh, rubbing at the medallion around his neck. “If it is a heroic defeat that you desire, I can grant you that much!” The Warty Warlock raised a webbed foot to the sky and gathered to him the darkest of magics. All around the two ponies, a cacophony of cries went out amongst the beasts as they prepared their charge.
Thus provoked—for a true knight never strikes without first declaring his intent—the knight raced forward. His blade was held low, nearly dragged against the swampy ground, cutting the odd twig and leaf in its path. At the end of his rush, face to face with the evil foe, he brought his blade upward in an arc, cutting forth with a mighty Sun-bound Slice.
The Warty Warlock stopped laughing. He clutched his chest. Lightning split the sky in a brilliant flash. The villain faded from existence, and was no more.
Pale and wide-eyed, like the colts who had first challenged him a decade before, the critters fled for their lives, swearing that they would never again do harm to the ponies of the realm.
The knight beamed at his princess, raising his weapon on high. “We did it! We stopped the Warlock.”
“Ah,” said the princess with a smile, “but that is not all we did.”
Where their foe had once stood, now rested a small pile of spoils, amongst which was the medallion that had hung around his neck. The princess levitated the medallion from the pile, and brought it to the knight. “Does this not look familiar?”
The knight’s eyes went wide with recognition. “No way. No way! Isn’t this—”
“The Hero’s Medal.” Smiling, the princess placed it around her knight’s neck. “The symbol of a true champion, one who is brave and valiant. I can think of no one who deserves it more than you.”
“Aww, c’mon,” said the knight, blushing and looking to the floor. “I couldn’t have done it without you believing in me.”
They were both creatures of fate. Such could be said of all ponies, but this moment marked the point of no return. By hoofing him the symbol of a hero’s might, she had sealed his fate. But he had needed her to believe in him, and in a way, she had needed to believe in him for her own sake as well. She had her excuses.
“Me again! Now Morgenstable had, as you have no doubt noticed, used these repeating lines both to drive home her point as well as to set up some super spooky foreshadowing. Of course, what’s here is only an abridgment, whereas the full version went on for several—”
“Pinkie, who the hay are you talking to?” asked Rainbow. “And who’s ‘Morgenstable’?”
“Oops, wrong story!” Pinkie clapped her hooves together and smiled sheepishly. “Go on ahead, Frog!”
Err… yes. Anyway, as you are no doubt aware, the Hero’s Medal is a serious token of championship. No mere amateur is fit to wear it about their neck. But the knight was worthy to bear it, and the queen of the land recognized this as well. It was not long at all before she appointed him to be her Captain of the Guard. The princess continued to stand with him, offering him support and encouragement, and bestowing him with garments fitting for a captain.
It came to pass that the knight was summoned to appear before his queen, for a new mission of utmost urgency. As always, the princess was welcomed to appear alongside him, for as the knight believed in the princess, so the queen believed in her as well. The queen gave her a smile of acknowledgement, which the princess accepted with a gracious bow. In that moment, recognized by the queen in this way, she almost felt like a real princess.
“O valiant Captain,” the queen proclaimed, “the darkest of times now befalls our kingdom. For a new opponent has arisen, the Mare of the Night, who threatens to shroud the land in eternal darkness. Surely, if nothing is done to stop her, our kingdom is forfeit.”
“Is that all?” asked the knight. He arose from his kneeling pose and stood before his queen. Now twice as tall as his princess, his chest swelled with the pride of a true champion. He was decorated with his diamond vest, his warm blue cape, a proud circlet of gemstones, and not least of all, the Hero’s Medal about his neck. He tapped at the medal with a claw. “In that case, I’ll just need a sword awesome enough to stop a fiend like that.”
“What are you saying?” gasped the queen. “You cannot mean to seek the legendary blade of the hero?”
Try as she might, Frog could not help but glance toward the center of the table, following the gazes of everypony else. On the table, lying gently beside the tea set, the Lyrabon rested unassumingly in its scabbard.
“Sure do,” boasted the knight. “With a powerful sword like that, beating this Mare of the Night will be a snap. And then everypony will truly be safe, once and for all.”
Still, the queen had one last question. “But can you accomplish such a task on your own?”
The knight looked to his princess, and the two shared a smile. “I won’t be alone.”
The queen nodded to the both of them. “You are truly brave, sir knight, and I could not ask for more in a Captain of the Guard. May the Sun ever keep you safe on your quest.”
“But of course, Your Highness,” said the princess, beaming with her usual radiance. “For I shall ensure that your Captain returns to you, safe and sound.”
Frog stared at her room-temperature tea. “Of course, the princess could have refrained from feeding his ego for all those years, praising him as a hero. She could have tempered his ambitions, and told him that what they had was enough. She could have taken up the way of the sword, as he had prompted her all those years back, instead of the way of silly, frilly things.” At length, she set the tea aside. “Or perhaps, she simply could have realized what he had been trying to say to her, for all those years. But by this time, it was too late.” Frog stared out through the entranceway, up at the star-filled sky. “She had run out of excuses.”
Fluttershy tilted her head.
The knight and the hero journeyed across the countryside in search of this mighty blade. True to form, the trials and tribulations could do little to stand in their way. It was not long at all before the pair made their way to the top of an awe-inspiring mountain, at the mighty peak of which was a blessed shrine. Housed within was the legendary blade, awaiting a hero fit to wield it. After conquering the trials within, the knight proved himself to be that selfsame hero.
No sooner had they left the shrine, than lightning tore its way across the sky. Clouds rolled in from nowhere, coalescing together and blotting out the sun. The princess took shelter behind the guard of her knight, as he drew forth his new, mighty blade. The two of them were alone, and then they were not, as a mare black as pitch coalesced before them. She started at them with glowing eyes, baring fangs sharp and foreign.
“Ah, so this is the mighty hero who thinks he can stop me.” The Mare of the Night regarded him, feigning disinterest. “How tragic.”
The knight leaned down to his princess, whispering an aside. “Quick, get out of here while you have a chance. I’ll distract her.” He faced the Mare of the Night, brandishing his blade of legends on high, and called out. “That’s right! Your days of evil are at an end. I’m here to stop you once and for all.” His challenge declared, he rushed headlong at her.
“No,” was her pithy reply. “You will not.” A great darkness sprang from her horn, shielding herself from the oncoming strike. The blade met blackness like a twig against a castle wall. With a piercing crystalline ring, the blade split in twain and flew free of its hilt.
Pale and wide-eyed, the knight stared at the broken hilt, scarcely believing the sight before him. “How?” he asked aloud with hollow voice. “In just one hit…”
“Because,” explained the demon queen, “you are a worm.” And she shot him in the chest.
The knight staggered back, clutching at where the magic had struck him. With the speed of a brushfire, icy crystals now traveled down his legs, turning his scales blue before freezing into solid ice. He looked down at his form in panic, then took a few steps in the princess’s direction, until he could walk no further.
“Run,” he implored her, as the ice rose up to his chest. “Get out of her while you can. You need to save…” Ice crystals climbed up his neck, which he stretched as far as he could, buying a few precious seconds. “I never got the chance to tell you, but I… I always loved—”
And then he spoke no more.
The princess reached up a hoof to his face, feeling nothing but cold. She rested her head against his chest, feeling a chill trickle from her horn to her forehead to her muzzle. Soft tears trickled down her nose, joining with him one final time.
“What a waste. The legendary sword, broken.” The Mare of the Night stepped forward and lifted the broken hilt in her magic. With a disinterested stare, she tossed the offending item off the mountainside, to the waiting chasm below. “The mighty hero, felled.” With a flick of her head, the block of ice was lifted and hurled, meeting the same fate.
The princess leaned off the edge of the cliff, hoof outstretched as her hero vanished from sight. She tried to call out to him but her voice failed her. Only her tears gave chase.
“And his final sacrifice, wasted.”
The princess whirled about, rising to her hooves. There was no cover, no means to protect herself as the Mare of the Night drew closer with every step.
“You were told to run far away,” said she, “as well you should have, for you are nothing compared to me. Does life hold no meaning to you?”
The princess could do nothing to act. Her voice still failed her. Her hooves were made of lead. Her mind slowed to a crawl. On instinct, she channeled magic into her horn, but she had no spell to cast. A dress could not save her here.
“Hmph,” snorted the demon queen. “So you would receive a beautiful gift and then throw it away. Miserable pissant.” Pools of shadow magic, foul and profane, gathered in slender spirals along her horn. “Begone.”
The blast knocked the princess off the cliffside. By some tragic twist of fate, she alone survived, but the dark magics had transformed her body, her very being. No longer had she her coat of white, her mane of violet. No longer had she beauty to share with the world. No longer had she her knight. No longer had she true love. No longer was she fit to call herself princess. After so much frivolous waste, karma had come due. She was left with nothing, and her knight had paid the ultimate price in her stead.
♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢♢
Frog’s face fell. She stared quietly at her feet, letting the silence in the room lapse for a moment, before delivering the last line. “She had no excuse.”
She jolted a moment later upon being embraced. Frog looked over to see Rainbow Dash, wrapping a gentle wing around her, wearing an uneasy expression. “I’m sorry, Frog. Really, really sorry.”
“No, it’s…” Frog shook her head and shrugged, a half-hearted attempt to free herself from the winghug. “Just a fairy tale,” she muttered.
By this point, the rest of the herd was already on their hooves. Pressing in, they all collapsed into a group hug, surrounding Frog with warmth and condolences. Once her resistance ran dry, Frog rested her head on Rainbow’s shoulder, squeezed her eyes shut.
After a time, the group hug ran its course. Rainbow Dash fidgeted a stiff shoulder from the bottom of the pile, and in unison everypony took this as the signal to extract themselves.
“Frog? Can I ask you a question?”
Fluttershy’s question brought everypony to a halt. Freed enough from the pile, Frog turned to look at her, and with a small frown, she opened her mouth.
“About the fairy tale, I mean.”
Frog’s expression lightened. “Of course, dear,” was her quiet reply. “What would you like to know?”
Fluttershy tapped at her muzzle before replying. “I’m sorry, since I haven’t heard a fairy tale in person before, but one of the parts that you kept saying was about, um, the knight’s passion. For protecting everypony, and the kingdom.”
Frog’s nodding was slow. Though her eyes were open, they were dim and unfocused, as though they were watching something else entirely. “Yes. Yes, he did. The princess was awestruck by his passion. It was something into which he invested himself fully.”
“Well… There was the other part that you said. Toward the end of the story.” Fluttershy straightened her posture suddenly, and her eye panels glowed and flickered with a soft rhythm. “Of course, the princess could have refrained from feeding his ego for all those years, praising him as a hero. She could have tempered his ambitions, and told him that what they had was enough.”
Frog looked away, biting her lip gently. Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle arched an eyebrow in Fluttershy’s direction.
Fluttershy ran her hoof back and forth across the tassels of the pillow beneath her. “That part made it sound like this was something that he shouldn’t have done. But it was something that was important, right?”
Smiling peacefully, Frog reached up with a leg, gently brushing the side of Fluttershy’s muzzle. “I’m afraid, dear Fluttershy, that life is filled with complex and difficult choices such as these. Had the knight simply walked away, it’s true that this story could have had a much different ending.” She held eye contact with Fluttershy a moment longer, then sighed. “But, no. I do not think him the sort to abandon his course, no matter what the reason. He was a knight who believed in his convictions. He believed that his cause was something worth fighting for.”
“What about you?” Rainbow Dash met her gaze evenly, a calm demeanor overtaking her. “Did you think the knight’s cause was worth fighting for?”
Frog frowned. There was no heat, no reaction to the pointed question. She simply frowned.
When no reply came, Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Dunno. Just seems like something worth thinking about, y’know?”
Blinking, Frog looked up toward the night sky once more. “Heavens. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten. I got quite caught up with the storytelling…”
“Oopsie.” Pinkie Pie scratched at the back of her head. “We were already saying it was too late, and now it’s like three late. We can head back to the inn if you’re ready to get some zzz’s.”
“Actually.” Frog’s smile was small but genuine, as she looked to a blank portion of the wall. “My accommodations are meager, but I’d be quite happy if you spent the night. It… it is good to have company, on a night like this.”
Pinkie Pie’s small smile met hers. “Sure. Sure, that sounds fun.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it.” Rainbow Dash swatted her away. “We’ve made do with way worse. We’ll manage out here.”
As advertised, Frog’s home was fairly limited for housing four guests. All the same, the ponies were thankful for all that Frog had to offer. They situated themselves in the main room, laying out on mats and pillows. Frog retired herself to the back room once the others had made themselves comfortable.
The air felt thick and stifling in the main room, with Frog’s fairy tale hanging heavy in the air behind her. Yet, they all reached a silent agreement. While much could be said in the wake of this story, there was little that needed to be said. And thus, they settled down for the night, staring up at the hole to the night sky above, each resigning herself to her own thoughts.
Less than an hour later, the stillness of the night was interrupted by a single squeaky hinge.
Fluttershy was seated in the corner, her legs curled up underneath her. She looked up at the sound, tilting her head. “Frog?”
Frog jolted, looking around the darkened forechamber. “Oh,” she stage whispered, “sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“What’s up?” asked Pinkie Pie. Around the room, everypony else stirred and showed signs of life.
“I could not manage to sleep tonight,” Frog said. “Not after… well. I take it that nopony else was sleeping, either?”
They nodded, all voicing something to the affirmative. “What’s on your mind?” Twilight asked.
“Well, ah…” Frog rubbed one leg behind the other. “I had been thinking, a lot, about the fairy tale. And about what the prin… what the mare should do next.” Inhaling deep from her chest, she looked around the ponies in the room. “I think I would… I would like to at least look at Nightmare Moon’s keep. At least to see it and perhaps, well…”
Rainbow Dash’s neck cracked, resonating around the room. “I ain’t sleepy. Dunno about you girls.”
“Ain’t no time to party like the present!” Pinkie Pie rose to her hooves and hopped in place, grinning widely to Frog.
With a nod from Fluttershy, Twilight looked to Frog and licked her lips. “It’s your choice. But all of us are behind you. And we’re ready.”
“Right.” Nodding in turn, Frog walked over to her wall hook, grasped her thick traveler’s cloak, and draped it about her. Beneath the cloak, her broadsword hung against the wall. Frog stared at the weapon, her leg outstretched as she quietly mulled away.
Twilight stepped closer and raised a tepid hoof. “If you’d like,” she said, “I could keep that with my things. In case you decide you want it later, I mean.”
Slow at first, Frog nodded. “Yes… Yes. I don’t suspect that I should need it, but there’s no harm in being prepared, I suppose…” She looked to the others. “Anyways. Shall we?”
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
600 AD
Pommel Mountain Range
It seemed difficult to imagine a skyline darker than night, yet as the ponies’ midnight stroll led them toward the eastern coastline, darkness was precisely what they found. Thick stormclouds swirled in the sky just off the edge of the horizon, blotting out the stars above. Pinkie Pie squinted her eyes, focusing onto the faint outline rising up from the horizon.
“An ocean apart.” Frog walked up behind her, nodding toward the far shoreline. “A reasonable distance for the pegasi knights, perhaps, but it would be folly to storm her castle with only a third of Sugardia’s forces and nary a unicorn. And so she remains, protected from us.” She led Pinkie’s attention toward the nearby mountain, at the foot of which they now stood. Its sheer granite cliffs loomed high above them, a dull steely grey in the blackness of the night. “And yet, through whatever mysterious magic, Sugardia finds herself on the defensive, as waves of ground-bound forces find their way to our shores. As the rumors would tell it, on darkened nights such as this, a particular mountain opens wide its cavern mouth, and unleashes hordes of heinous Mystics onto our shores.”
Twilight Sparkle rubbed her chin as she walked back and forth in front of the cliffside. “And you think this is that mountain.”
“So if they can go out, we can go in!” Rainbow Dash slapped her hooves against one another. “And then we can take the fight to them!”
“It’s a good plan in principle.” Twilight tapped the granite with her horn, frowned, and traveled down a few dozen meters before repeating. “And your hunch might be right. Something sure does seem fishy about this wall. I’m feeling some sort of energy, pulsing from deep within.” She frowned and looked back over her shoulder. “But it’s not enough that I can figure out the magic words to open it up for us. I mean, maybe with enough time to study it…”
“Still!” Pinkie Pie followed behind Twilight, tapping her forehead against the wall as well. “It’s a lead, y’know? It gives us something to do, and no step’s more important than the first one.”
Fluttershy tilted her head. “Is everything alright, Frog? Are you too cold?”
Frog stood motionless, her chest raised, as she stared up at the cloudy sky. A small gap appeared in the cloud cover, and her eyes fixated on one twinkling star in particular. “What am I, Spike?” she whispered to the sky. “Would you even recognize me? I’ve changed so much.” She contemplated her star in silence, then gave a small chuckle. “And yet, perhaps not in the way that matters most.”
Frog lowered her gaze to the dry, dusty plain in front of the rockside. “Rainbow Dash,” she said with a sudden projection of voice.
“Uh?” Rainbow jerked upright, looking left and right as though making sure Frog meant that Rainbow Dash. “Y-Yeah. What’s up?”
Frog nosed toward the patch of dirt. “The Lyrabon, if you please.”
Rainbow froze for just a moment longer, before recognition dawned in her eyes. With a crisp nod, she stepped up to the indicated spot. The Lyrabon sang once more as it was freed of its scabbard, held aloft in Rainbow’s mouth. With a determined flip and lunge, Rainbow Dash drove the blade down into the ground, burying a few inches of the tip into the soil. She slowly backpedalled, leaving the Lyrabon poised in its makeshift pedestal.
Twilight Sparke hissed loudly, grumbling something about delicate tempered edges and the dulling effects of coarse sand.
Frog nodded to the sword and studied it for a moment, taking in its radiance, its restored glory. “Thank you. And also…” Her voice died in her throat. Frog licked her lips with a drying tongue, and tried to force any bit of moistness into her mouth. “Could you… Could I have…”
As she struggled to speak, Rainbow Dash approached her side with a bright red ribbon in her mouth. She leaned above Frog’s neck, and with a practiced grace, affixed the Hero’s Medal around her. Rainbow gave Frog a soft bop on the shoulder, along with one of her signature cocky grins. “It’s yours. Take it already, yeah?”
Frog looked down at her chest, running a soft touch across the embossed medallion. “The Medal,” she managed to say at last. “The Hero’s… Medal.”
Her thoughts were distracted by laughter: light, playful, like foals at a playground. When Frog looked up, the Lyrabon was missing from its makeshift stand. On either side of the wound in the earth stood a pony, one a mint-green unicorn, the other a cream-toned earth pony. They smirked at Frog beneath darkened brows—a pair of predators on the verge of a kill.
“Well.” Bon Bon exchanged a look with her partner before approaching her prey. “Of all the ponies to stand before us, I would never have expected to see this one.”
While Bon Bon circled around Frog clockwise, Lyra approached counter-clockwise. The two of them swirled around her like a vortex of judgement. “Me neither,” replied Lyra. “But here she is. Sir Spike’s understudy, in the flesh.”
Twilight took a step forward, opening her mouth to shout out a rebuttal, but she collided with Rainbow Dash’s outstretched hoof. Rainbow shook her head and fixed Twilight with a firm stare.
Frog, for her part, kept her gaze straight and her composure firm as she was brought on trial. “I am not Spike, and I shall never be him. I am myself.”
“Indeed you are.” Bon Bon coolly stared Frog down as she crossed in front of her partner. “And we are the embodiment of a legend, a blade sought after by countless foals. What makes you think you deserve to stand here, in our presence?”
Frog smiled back to Bon Bon, unperturbed. She levitated the medallion around her neck, lifting it up for inspection. “Because the only pony worthy of wielding you, is she who possesses the Hero’s Medal.”
“Uh huh,” snapped Lyra. “You got your grubby hoof-like things on a hunk of metal, so we have no choice but to slavishly obey.”
Frog shook her head. “The Hero’s Medal holds no magic. It is a symbol. It is an ideal, a resilient spirit that is more than any one pony. I stand before you now, wearing this, because I hold this spirit close to my heart.” She stared down Lyra until the mare walked behind her, out of view. “Do you find me unfit to wear it?”
“Hmph. That remains to be seen,” Bon Bon muttered. “But since you seem so eager to presume yourself as our master, continue to do so for one minute longer. With us in hoof, how would you wield us?” She crossed into view from the same side Lyra had vanished from. “Mmm? What is it that you seek?”
Frog took pause. She considered the empty cut in the earth, until with a nod of her head she reached a satisfactory answer. “Justice.”
Lyra snorted, nearly losing her hoofing. “Revenge! A child’s true love was struck down, and she wishes the murderer to suffer the same fate. An eye for an eye!” She spat on the ground.
As Lyra met Frog’s eyes, she now found them to be distant, much like her voice. “No. Spike is…” Frog took a breath then continued. “Spike is dead. There is nothing that I can do to change that, least of all through further violence.” She shook her head, slow and methodical. “No. Revenge would be pointless. I am here because Spike believed in something grand, and I would not see those hopes and dreams die with him.”
Bon Bon’s stare pierced her, dragging Frog’s gaze to the right as she crossed in front. “Revenge would be ‘pointless’, you say. So I am to assume that you will derive no pleasure from the task before you.” Bon Bon waited for a reply. None came. “Mmm. So, in spite of your claims to be more than a simple understudy, here you are, acting as a proxy for him and his beliefs.”
“No,” snapped Frog, replanting a leg. “They were not just his. They are ours. We believed in protecting everypony, in a safe Sugardia, in a world where a pony need not live in fear because of who she was… or who she was not. We believed in a world where everything was just and good, where everypony lived together in harmony. And this fiend, this Nightmare Moon seeks to torment and kill all of ponykind, by creating an unspeakable agent of death and destruction. I must set this straight.”
Lyra gave a gentle tug upon the Hero’s Medal with her magic. “Because you’re a ‘hero.’”
“I am not,” said Frog, earning her raised eyebrows from both of the circling sword spirits. She touched her foot to the Hero’s Medal. “That is a title earned by action and deed. Nothing I have accomplished is worthy of the title. But as I declared earlier, I have the bravery and drive of a hero in my heart. I wear this not because of past deeds, but because of future promise. And,” she said, smiling off to the side where the other ponies stood, “because I have friends who believe in me.”
“Friends who, until recently, were led by Rainbow Dash,” said Bon Bon. “But now as the Hero of Legend, you’ll usurp control for yourself.”
“Oh, now you’re just being silly,” said Frog, waving off the remark. “Rainbow Dash has done a marvelous job leading this small outfit, and no decorative award—no matter how prestigious—will change that fact.” She turned to Bon Bon and coolly replied, “No, madam. My friends will not serve me. They shall give me strength.”
Over Frog’s shoulder, Lyra and Bon Bon’s gazes met, and the pair huffed in unison. As they spoke, their pace quickened in circles around Frog, drawing to a dizzying whirl.
“You speak of justice,” said Lyra behind her. “Yet you couldn’t be stirred to action until your true love’s murderer was going to be judged. Do not deny it, for all in attendance saw this with their own eyes.”
“You speak of being a hero in the future,” said Bon Bon from her right. “Yet in the past you were naught but a dressmaker. Do not deny it, for I heard the ‘fairy tale’ from your own lips.”
“You speak of heroic devotion,” said Lyra from her left. “Yet you were resigned to wallow in guilt in your home since the day that your inattentiveness caused the Queen to fall in battle. Do not deny it, for I watched you wallow, night after night.”
“You speak of heroic drive,” said Bon Bon in front of her. “Yet it was Rainbow Dash who undertook the quest to see Lyra and I restored to our original power. Do not deny it, for I bore witness to the entire journey.”
“You speak of earning the right to wear that medal around your neck,” said Lyra from behind her. “Yet thrice Rainbow Dash offered you the honor and thrice you renounced it. Do not deny it, for I was present for every fight between you two.”
“You speak of being your own self, independent and strong,” said Bon Bon from her left. “Yet you could not stand here before us were it not for Spike and everything he gave for you. Do not deny it, for you wear your heart on your sleeve.”
“You speak of bringing Nightmare Moon to justice,” said Lyra from her right. “Yet she is a sorceress beyond measure, one of the strongest foes you will ever do battle against. Do not deny it, for to do so would be to brand yourself a blind foal.”
The two mares resumed their original posts, one on each side of where their blade once stood. Facing Frog, they lifted their noses in the air and looked down upon her.
“So answer us,” said Bon Bon.
“The question that rests on everypony’s tongue,” said Lyra.
In unison, they asked, “Why don’t you just go home?”
Frog bowed her head. She stood in silence, the accusations bearing heavily upon her shoulders.
Around her, Rainbow Dash and her friends fidgeted and waited. While the silence weighed down on them all, Rainbow kept her gaze focused and determined upon Frog, never wavering. Lyra and Bon Bon, for their parts, also remained motionless, awaiting their answer with a stoic peace.
Frog’s eyes slid open. Nodding twice to herself, she looked up at Lyra. “Because the world is beautiful.” She turned to Bon Bon. “And because beauty is worth protecting.”
Lyra looked at Bon Bon; Bon Bon looked at Lyra. They smiled.
The two mares dropped down upon a knee and bowed deeply, each resting her chin upon the ground. With a bright flash, both ponies were replaced with glistening stars of light, hovering just above the surface of the ground. They whirled about each other in furious double orbit, then in a violent crescendo, they collided and everything turned to white.
As the light died down, all that remained behind was the blade of legends itself, the Lyrabon.
Frog took three steps forward, staring down at the hilt of the sword. “I am sorry, Spike,” she said aloud to the sword. “I am several years too late. But I am here. I apologize for keeping you waiting.” And then, with a glow from her horn and a thrust of her head, she tore the Lyrabon free from the earth.
Pooling from her horn, pale blue magic gathered along the upturned blade, gathering in strength and intensity. Unable to be contained within a single focal point, the magic poured forth into the sky above, piercing through the murky clouds and up into the stratosphere. The clouds melted around the column of blue light, tearing away to unveil the night sky in all its beauty, glistening with millions of diamonds. The eyes of Rainbow Dash and her friends were drawn upwards, taking in the spectacle for all that it was.
Frog’s eyes were elsewhere. She dropped her gaze to the granite wall in front of her, that which stood between her and Nightmare Moon.
In a masterful arc, she brought down the Lyrabon.
A blade of light, pure magic coursing in a column above her, suddenly collided with a face of a mountain, and the weaker force yielded. In a flurry of explosions, the stone cliff ripped in half, falling to either side of her force of will. As debris fell from the cavern ceiling and dust settled all around them, the mouth of a tunnel could be seen deep within, showing them the way forward.
Frog held the Lyrabon at her side. While the blade no longer screamed into the sky, it still hummed with a magic unique to her alone. She walked forward, at the ready for anything she might encounter.
“Excuse me,” Fluttershy managed to whisper, “did you just cut a mountain in half?”
“Jeez,” was Rainbow Dash’s whisper. Gravity tugged her ears, her tail, her jaw. The only part of her given free reign was her ever-widening eyes. “Frog, that was… incredible. I’ve never seen a move like that.”
“Rarity.”
Rainbow blinked. “W-wha?”
Frog turned to face them, her cloak billowing in the rustling dust of the explosion. The determination in her eyes matched the same brilliance of the Lyrabon’s glow. Though she lacked a mane in this amphibian form, she flicked her leg through her ‘mane’ all the same, and in that moment, nopony doubted her beauty.
“My name is Rarity.”
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Frog's gonna Frog.
What?! Your Frog is Evolving!
CONGRATULATIONS! Your Frog has evolved into Rarity!
I do hope that you enjoyed this latest chapter. I've been waiting to write this moment for years.
Pinkie's line about 'classic Frog' made me laugh...because it actually sounds like what 'classic Rarity' - Rarity from the show - would do.
And Sir Spike was...frozen? And he was a drake (adolescent dragon) at the time, given what was said about him being a head taller than her? Hmm...is anyone else thinking pony/dragon level magic might just make a tweak in the story somewhere down the line? Maybe there will be more than one optional character, if the team is persistent.
*SQUEE*
That sums it up. Really. Just... *squee*
REALLY nice take on the revelation of Frog's true name. I always found it kinda odd that Masa and Mune never tried judging Frog in this manner.
Also, when's Pinkie going to ask that they make a pit stop at the End of Time so Trixie can give Rarity water magic?
A very well-done take on one of the more sentimental and touching moments in (the first half of) the game. SO looking forward to the next chapter!
An update, yay!
WOOOOOOOO!!! I've been waiting for this to happen for AGES! YES! THANK you SO much for doing this scene justice!
Incidentally, first time I played through this game, I named my Frog 'Ulien'. On a whim. I never even heard that name before and it just sounded right. Dunno why I felt like mentioning it. Maybe nostalgia. BUT DAMN it was awesome when he got the True Masamune!
Go Rarity!
Holy fuck that was awesome.
Okay, this was all around very satisfying.
I like how you framed Frog's backstory, treating it like a tale of old rather than a flashback. It gives weight as all the characters come to their own conclusions rather than just being told how it is.
Heh, I imagined Spike starting out as a little whelp, then growing up into his "super heroic look" from A Dog and Pony Show. He grew as a hero, little by little.
Not sure I follow all the philosophy being thrown around here, but it sounded epic, so I'll let it be.
Yeah, probably the most badass part of the game right there. I've been looking forward to this moment as well.
So is Frog's identity going to shift to Rarity now? If so, kewl.
Time for a castle crasher!
5350228 I STILL need to finish that April Foal's chapter. XD
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Yeah, it sure came off that way. The rest of the story has been awesome and all, but this chapter in particular felt like it's been cooking since before you started chapter one. For as much of a doof as Rarity is in canon, god damn can she pull off a Dramatic Sidekick when set up right.
Also, never found Spike's body + time travelling plane = possible bonus party member?!
5350228
Mmm! Between that episode, and stuff like Equestria-Prevails's take on him, those really influenced my whole mindset for his role in this fic.
It did always bug me a bit, in the original game, that we get this big deal about Frog unveiling his backstory, embracing his destiny, revealing his true name... and then you still call him Frog for the rest of the game.
Okay, you can make arguments that it's his "mark of sin" that he's carrying, or an SNES limitation of taking your custom-named character and forcing a fixed name onto him, but... eh. Once you got to the part of the game where you could rename characters, I always took the opportunity to rename him Glenn 
Also, c'mon, I've been calling her Frog this entire time. It's bad enough she looks the part.
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This was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous!
Freaking awesome chapter! Now I await the moment where the party faces off against Nightmare Moon!
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Two things:
First, a tip to cut back on the number of double-post comments: click on the ">>" link for each comment you want to lead to before posting a comment and they'll all show up in the same post.
Second, after my first play through I too name "Frog" Glenn from the word "Go" back in the cathedral. I also re-name "Magus" back to Janus when the option to recruit him shows up, so I'm hoping NMM returns to being Luna when her own time comes.
Now this... this is a Sparity I can ship. It makes a huge difference when they've grown up together.
Far better than in the canon game.
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BLASPHEMY
So I turned on my pony file in CT after reading the chapter, and nearly got my shit wrecked by Slash because I forgot his attacks actually ramp up to respectable damage by the end, I didn't have a healer in the party, and my damage was crap because Crono got TP drained by that one midboss and I only gave him a couple ethers because I remembered this game was easy. Yay potions!
Okay, I've had this one on my Read Later list for, like, two years.
Let's do this.
Nice work, but who's "Morgenstable"?
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This is the part where I wait patiently for a week, and if no one chimes in with a "Ha! Nice ████████████ reference!" by then, it's proof positive that it was a Reference of Unusual Scarcity.
5357229
W-Wait. CiG-sempai is reading... my crossover fic... that I started writing in 2011.
Brb author meltdown.
Nice story you got here. I have enjoyed reading this so far.
Some of the things that I really liked.
I like how you added a bit of romance later in the story but not so much to effect the story as a whole.
Also great job with characterization. Really liked how each character has evolved throughout the story.
I also have a few questions.
I would like to know where humans fit into the grand scheme of things. Will this be explored in later chapters? Or do you plan on ending this story after the Nightmare Moon and giant monster battle. Also the way you wrote Eva gives me the impression that there's so much more going on in the background than what our heroes know of.
Or I could be completely wrong and nothing is really going on.
Anyway! Great story! Looking forward to the next update!
( P.S I have never heard of chrono trigger so please don't be mad if any of these questions seem ignorant.)
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Thank you kindly! It's so flattering when I get fans who aren't even familiar with the original game... proves that I'm doing something right here!
Hmm... well if you don't know the plot of the original yet, then I'm a little limited in what spoilers I can give. I will say that we haven't seen the last of Queen Eva. Similar to how we had a bit of Frog way back in Ch5 but didn't get to fully realize her until this last chapter, I'm looking forward to what Eva will bring to the table when she makes her reprisal.
5361409 haha I'm tempted to look up the game now. Is it any good? Because I might give it a playthrough.
5361583 One of the best...a timeless classic.
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Like Hurricane says, it's one of the true classics. Maybe pick up the DS version for the extras, but if you can't swing that, by all means seek out the ROM for the SNES version and play that.
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Personally, I like the PSX version. It lacks one of the DS version endings, but still...
I've been looking forward to this scene since I started reading this. Well done!
Been reading your story for the last week. I'm still like 10 chapters back. But I wanted ro jump to the most recent chapter to comment.
I love this story. You've taken something I loved since I was a kid and forged it with something I love now. It is AMAZING. Even without having read all of the current content, you have done both series some major justice.
Even though its a story I know so well. You have kept me entertained throughout.
I'm going to keep reading at the same pace. I don't want it to stop anytime soon.
Because while in Equestria friendship is magic, in the land of Equus, friendship is... timeless.
So, it's hard to say this without it sounding like bragging. And I'm not trying to. But I was looking at statistics today on a whim and, uhm...how is this story rated lower than one I wrote in literally under an hour?
Liked the new chapter. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the humans in a few chapters.
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>crossover
This always drives me a little nuts. It's "pegasus knights". You only need one plural. You wouldn't say "unicorns mages", after all...
5349945 Well, the diamond magic thing might just BE Rarity's unicorn magic realized to its fullest potential when it reinforces a magic sword of heroic heroness. What's that? Elementalism? Ancient Zeal magic? Pff. That stuff's for babies. Rarity can cut mountains, son.
However, it WOULD be a funny scene to cut to the end of time where we see Trixie banging her head against the wall going "Morons! Morons! Morons! This is what you're supposed to do! She's a candidate!"
In the game though, its a very easy thing to forget to do to go to Spekio and unlock Frog's magic.
5397342 true.
5350699 Sigh. Sadly no. This is based off of Chrono Trigger, and it (mostly) follows its rules. The party can only travel to a few pre-set time periods. This is why Twi-Lucca can't go back in time and save her mom from the accident without a Gate that goes there.
However, you can do things that change causality if you set them up in an early era (Marle Pie getting erased from history, for example), or Stopping the Apocalypse, which is their goal. But, unless you can think of a way in which they can set something up waaaaaaaaaay back in Applejack's Prehistoric Flintstones era which will matter enough and be triggered at exactly the right time to save Spike......he's probably going to stay dead.
*removes hat, bows head*
Applejack: "Yabba Dabba Do!"
GODDAMMIT APPLEJACK! WE'RE TRYING TO HAVE A MOMENT OF SILENCE, HERE!
Edit: However, I did miss the part where Spike's body was never found, so maybe its possible he doesn't go the way of Cyrus...?
I'm playing through the game right now, and stopping at each point where each chapter ends until the next chapter comes out
You know, if they never found a body and we can presume that dark magic ice might never melt, who knows if we might find a dragon shaped glacier at some point in the 'bad' or 'good' future.
I love this story!! You have masterfully melded Fim with my favorite RPG of all time. Keep up the good work I cannot wait till the next chapter.
How are you gonna address the issue of multiple endings and the side quests at the end?
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That was definitely my intent, so it's always reassuring to hear that that aspect came through clearly.
Thank you kindly!
Regarding multiple endings, we'll only be doing one: more-or-less whichever path makes the most sense for the story (so, none of the New Game+ stuff). We will be seeing all the side-quests though, since they're so crucial to the story.
-grins- She's back!
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who read this, then wished that Masa and Mune had delivered a similar verbal beatdown to Frog.
So glad I stumbled across this story. I had to pause near the end to put Frog's theme on while I read it. The way you've built up Rarity and Spike here, standing in for Glenn and Cyrus, is just perfect.
Of all the characters in Chrono Trigger I found Frog's backstory and arc the most compelling. Bravo. :)
The black wind blows...
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If I catch the reference right, it's to Princess Bride, and the "original author" that Goldman was abridging.
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You are correct, gentle reader.
Classy work Rares! But now I'm all caught up to the story and waiting like everyone else :< looking forward to the next chapters :3
This needs to continue. At least until the end of the Nightmare/Magus arc. We deserve as much.