Unknown Sender

It was all Princess Twilight’s fault.

Especially the glitter dust!

Princess Cadance lifted another letter from the table beside her throne, delicately holding it aloft at a safe distance. “Sunshine sunshine,” she sang in a gently tired voice as she gave it a little shake. All you had to do was look at how the clouds of finely ground crystal dust sparkled in a million colors like magic to know that only one very particular pony princess could have inspired such a mad, irrational thing as this.

A quick sneeze scattered the dust far and wide across the room. August, her elderly advisor to the throne, wrinkled his nose and tried to keep up his normally majestic and professional appearance. “My deepest apologies, Your Majesty!” Specks of crystal dust sparkled in his large mustache as he spoke, a fact that was staunchly ignored by the old stallion but caused Cadance a great difficulty not to giggle like a little filly.

“Gesundheit, dear August.” Cadance smiled and summoned a small breeze to clear the air, watching the sparkling motes of dust drift out the window and into the open sky, there to join a billion or more of their kind. She looked back down and unfolded the letter, dutifully scanning the words even though the fine drawing of a beautiful alicorn princess—complete with several layers of extra glitter—was a dead giveaway.

“Another one, Your Majesty?” August took the letter with the utmost care and deposited it on the crystal plate along with the other opened letters.

Cadance rested her cheek on her hoof and looked at the remaining stack of letters waiting on the table next to her. “They produce them by the numbers now, did you know? Some enterprising young twins with a machine. Everything is automated. All you have to do is sign your name and apply the glitter,” she said and turned her gaze to the old stallion. “Another two bits and they will even do that for you, and send it as well.”

“A most depressing development, Your Majesty,” the old stallion said and bowed his head.

Cadance nodded absently, her gaze drifting across the throne room to the grand crystal doors at the other end, their surface carved with wonderful images of ponies celebrating. There had always been the occasional letter; some bright young filly—and a brave young colt, once or twice—whose most ardent wish it was to become a real pony princess just like her. But now, with the big coronation of Twilight Sparkle, it could finally be said that, in actual fact, every little filly wanted to be a pretty princess. With beautiful wings and a crown and magic that sparkled.

Or if not, then to have Cadance as a foalsitter just like Princess Twilight when she was their age. No doubt having a princess as your foalsitter meant you would grow up to become a princess too, according to some undeniable childhood logic. The colts just wanted toys or money, but even they had now realized that as a prince they could have all the toys they wanted. Never mind that the traditional way to become a prince was to marry a princess, cooties and all.

Cadance loved what she did. Every year she granted the wish of one young filly or colt. She read every letter they sent her, dutifully picking just one special letter. Cadance liked unique and creative wishes, things that came from deep inside the heart, things that these young fillies and colts would remember and carry with them for the rest of their lives.

She would certainly never forget the colt who had written to her once, asking for nothing more than a foalsitter. Not for himself, but for his little sister who needed a real friend so bad. Who could have guessed how such a simple wish could have touched so many lives and changed their fates forever. No amount of glitter or gold could ever compare.

Cadance sighed and rose heavily from her throne where she had been sitting for hours now, reading endless facsimiles of the same letter, every single one competing for the title of most glittered piece of paper in the Empire’s long and gloried history. “The rest will have to wait for tomorrow,” she declared and turned to her advisor and the guards at the door. “I think we can all use a little rest. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your assistance, and your patience.”

“It has been a pleasure for me to serve, as always. Do not worry yourself, I am certain one will turn up who stands out,” her advisor said, offering the princess a rare but reassuring smile under his glittering mustache. “Patience rewards itself in the end.”

Cadance returned the smile and placed a hoof gently on his shoulder. “I hope so,” she said and lowered her hoof again. “I will retire to my quarters for the night. Rest easy, old friend.” She turned and greeted the guards a good night as she left the throne room, looking forward to a night free from all things sparkly.

* * *

A ponderous mood had settled over the castle as Cadance made her way through the private crystal gardens towards her and Shining Armor’s personal quarters. She paused and tilted her head up to gaze at the sky. Only a couple of stars glimmered through the heavy gray clouds being rolled in over the empire. The first chill of the night ran through the columns and crystal trees around her, causing her a brief shiver.

Cadance looked down and furrowed her brow as she ascended the spiral stairs to her room, her hoofbeats chiming like bells through the stillness of the tower. Ahead of her the doors glowed with a pale light and opened soundlessly for her. Cadance stepped through the door and slipped out of her golden shoes, levitating her royal jewelry off to their spot beside the mirror.

She could hear the sound of running water in the private bathroom, but no singing yet. It would be a while before Shining Armor got tired of the hot water if he hadn’t even begun singing yet. That meant plenty of time for her to join him under the shower if she should get the urge.

For the moment, she poured herself a glass of wine and took a sip as she crossed the room to look out the window at her empire below, covered in the soothing blanket of night. Her gaze shifted to the faint reflection of the room in the glass, and her eyes caught a small gray envelope sitting on her nightstand. Cadance turned and stepped towards the bed, picking up the letter.

Putting her glass of wine down on the nightstand, she sat down on the bed and studied the envelope. It was made of unusually rough paper, like nothing she had ever seen. It had no decorations and—after a quick shake to confirm—absolutely no trace of glitter. The only writing was the address, written with a stick of coal in the big, uncertain letters of a young filly or colt trying to copy a parent. It read:

Her Imperial Majesty the Princess-Empress of the Crystal Empire Mi Amore Cadenza.

Cadance smiled at the overly formal address. Some of her loyal and loving subjects still insisted, and right now she found it rather endearing as she carefully opened the letter. The paper inside was as rough as the envelope and smudged with bits of dust from the charcoal. It was written in the same unpracticed script but evidently now without parental guidance.

Cadance lay down on her bed to read the letter.

Dear Princes Mi Amore Cadenza.

We hope you wont get mad that we write you but our mum tells us tails about you evry nite. My favrit is wher you and Princes Skylark save the empire from the bad wolf Fenris. My sister lieks the one about the Crystal Theif beter becaus the wolf scares her and it scares me too but we both think your daughter must be so brave and very smart too. Did she realy make the crystal chain that helt the wolf and did you realy drag it all the way back to its cave at the top of the world?

Mum says you somtimes grant a wish to young ponis if they are good little ponis and ask from the heart. Were not sure what that meens and we know your far away and maybe cant hear us but we hope so much you can and you let us have our wish.

All we wish is a slumber parti so you can tell us some of your storis yourself and show us how to be brave and strong just lik you and Princes Skylark. It would meen so much to us.

We drawed you a pictur of you and your daughter figting the big wolf on the back of the paper. We trid real hard to get all your pretty colors but its realy hard and we dont have so many. We hope you lik it anyway and please dont be mad at us we mean ~~no desras~~ nothing bad.

Your Loyal and Humbel Subjects
Silica Heart and Silene Bond
Glimmerville, Galloway Gorge

Cadance paused at the end of the letter. An actual, honest-to-goodness wish, written by mouth and entirely devoid of glitter and glamor. And yet … Cadance looked up at the window and the dark rain falling silently outside. She shook herself from it and looked back at the letter, turning it around and letting her eyes take in the drawing on the other side.

A gray and black sketch of a colossal wolf and two winged shapes with streaks of brown in their manes peered back at her in the soft light of her room. The drawing was the obvious work of a child, but much effort had been spent on its details. Something about it—the dreary colors, the oppressive terror expressed in those simple lines—stirred her heart and filled her with worry for these two young fillies. She wasn’t sure whether to hug the letter—for want of actual ponies to embrace—or to simply hold it dearly.

Cadance lifted the crystal bell from her table and struck it once as she pulled out a map from a nearby drawer and unfolded it on the bed. She placed a hoof on the capital of the Crystal Empire and drew it westward. Galloway Gorge, if she recalled her imperial geography, was somewhere north of Vanhoover. She circled her hoof around near the western coast until she spotted it among the mountains, yet no settlements were marked there or anywhere near it.

The door opened, and one of her royal hoofmaids stepped inside and took a bow. “Your Highness called?”

“Can you tell me where this letter came from?” Cadance held up the letter as she turned to the mare in the door.

The hoofmaid looked at the letter and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Ma’am. I don’t recognize it.”

Cadance’s brow furrowed as she looked back at the letter. “You didn’t put it on my nightstand? Has anypony else been in here since this morning?”

“Nopony except your husband, I am sure. Perhaps it was him?”

Cadance looked towards the bathroom from which the sound of singing had now joined the splashing of water. “I suppose I shall ask him,” she said before looking back at the hoofmaid. “Can you bring me what maps we have of Galloway Gorge? This one has no mentions of any settlements in that region.”

The hoofmaid bowed gracefully once more. “Of course, Your Highness. It shall be done.”

* * *

“Never seen it before.” Shining Armor wrapped his mane in the towel and rubbed it, looking himself in the mirror as Cadance read him the letter. “Never heard of anypony living around Galloway Gorge, either, and I thought I knew the empire. Nothing of interest in that area unless you really like rocks and snow.”

“The guards tell me nopony else delivered a letter to our room, and there’s nothing on any of these maps either,” Cadance said. “Look at the drawing on the back and tell me what you think.”

Shining Armor turned the paper and looked at the drawing. “When did you fight a crazy huge wolf without me?” He walked around the bed and nuzzled Cadance. “And when will I meet this daughter of yours? She sounds just as brave and intelligent as her beautiful mother.”

“You’re such a charmer.” Cadance smiled and nuzzled him back. “I think perhaps their mother has a bit of an overactive imagination. What else do you find odd about the picture?”

“It’s dreary, and a little disturbing. That wolf …” Shining Armor held back a shiver. “And there aren’t any colors.” He sat down on the bed with the letter, reading it again and frowning at the three rough figures. “Perhaps it arrived by magic, and all the color drained away in transfer.”

“I have never heard of magic stripping the color from letters.” Cadance leaned against him with her head on his shoulder, looking at the drawing as well. “Something feels wrong about this letter.” She was silent for a time, staring at the wolf. “But I think I have found a wish to fulfil. I don’t know why, but my heart tells me these two need me.”

* * *

“There are no records of any settlements along Galloway Gorge ever existing.” August, the royal advisor of Princess Cadance, licked his hoof and flipped through the pages of his report. “The guards have no reports of any activity in the area. In addition, there are no birth records of any Silene Bond in the empire, or indeed in Equestria and all its extended realms. There are any number of fillies named Silica and Silence, as well as Silent. We found several Silica Hearts and one Silent Bond, but none of the right age with a matching sister.”

He paused to look through the papers one more time. “We have yet to determine how the letter arrived at your bedside, as well. It is not stamped, none of the couriers remember it, the guards assure me that no one but your hoofmaids and husband had access to your suite that day, and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both confirm that nothing was sent through the magical channels we maintain with Equestria.”

The elderly stallion paused before adding with a doubtful look at Cadance, “And for whatever it may be worth, Discord swears that he had nothing to do with it either, on his honor. Mind you, I do not believe he ever had any. He was …” August peered at his papers “… tending the royal clover fields, in his own words, Your Majesty.”

Cadance nodded with a vacant stare at the grand doors of the throne room. “It is too dreary to fit Discord’s style,” she said absently. “What have you found about Fenris, the wolf in the letter?”

August looked through his papers again and shook his head. “Nothing, Your Majesty. The royal archivist reports no mention of such a beast in our records.”

“See if Princess Twilight can help us.” Cadance sat up straight in her throne. “Ask her to look through old pony tales and legends for any mention of a great wolf. Have her send any findings directly to me, via her assistant.”

August gave a single nod and made a note, then looked up with concern at the princess. “You still intend to go through with this?”

Cadance turned her head to regard her advisor and the report he was holding. “This letter has haunted my thoughts since it arrived. I cannot explain it, except to say that my heart tells me these fillies are real, and that they need my help.”

“I must warn you that this has all the hallmarks of trickery.” August took a step closer to Cadance. “We don’t know what remnants of King Sombra’s magic may be left in the castle even now. This letter could be some foul trick of his from beyond the grave.”

Cadance nodded and looked up at the window. “Then these fillies may need me all the more,” she said. “If there is any chance that inaction could leave innocent ponies under his cruel influence, then I will not stand idly by.”

“Princess—”

“I have made up my mind, August.” Cadance drew herself up to her full height. “I will travel to Galloway Gorge in the morning and see for myself whether anypony lives there. They wished for a slumber party; if there is any way for me to grant that wish, then grant it I shall!”

Lost in Transit

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Her mane and coat glittered and sparkled in the light of the sun, making her look like the secret lovechild of Celestia and a diamond quarry. Cadance huffed at the week-old specks of crystal still stuck in her hairs, proving themselves about as stubborn as a petrified mule. “If I end up having to shave myself bald to get all this glitter out, you better believe I’m suing the flanks off those twins and their Tartarean machine,” she swore through clenched teeth and pulled at the strap of her saddlebags. Had she always used the third hole on these bags? She pulled a little harder and sucked in her stomach, to no avail.

Had to be a new bag, she thought as she breathed out and turned her attention to Shining Armor. Her prince and captain of the guard was just finishing his orders to the pegasi in front of him. Cadance smiled brightly as she walked up beside him and looked at the five pegasi standing at attention in perfectly pressed uniforms and pristine, polished armor.

“Cadance, this is Wing Commander Jade Eye, whose wing of elite fliers is tasked with keeping you safe on this journey,” Shining Armor said as he turned to Cadance and gestured at the green-eyed mare at the head of the pegasi.

An entire wing? She had expected just the one flight standing before her. Cadance supposed she should be flattered by her husband’s concern, excessive as it was. She smiled at the commander and took a step forward. “I believe I am already familiar with the commander.”

“Your Majesty,” the mare said without barely moving.

Cadance looked at the younger mare beside the commander and drew a blank. It was always embarrassing when she couldn’t remember somepony’s name, but she was fairly certain she hadn’t met this mare before. Her eyes drifted to the markings on the mare’s uniform. “And this is the Flight Lieutenant, I see. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure yet.”

“This is Flight Lieutenant Skyline,” Shining Armor provided. “She came here recently as a transfer from the Royal Equestrian Air Force, with high recommendations. Her family has a long history in the air force. Her grandfather served with distinction in the Wonderbolts.”

“Your Majesty,” the bright-eyed mare chirped up.

“She and her flight will stay close to you at all times, as will the Wing Commander,” Shining explained. “The rest of the wing are out watching your perimeter and scouting select areas for signs of danger. They will come at your call if anything should occur, however.”

Cadance gave a nod and looked behind the commander and lieutenant to the rest of the flight. Recognition tugged at the corners of her lips. “Will you present me to the rest of your flight, Lieutenant?”

Lieutenant Skyline saluted. “At once, Ma’am. These are Flying Officers Greyhound—”

“Instrumental in bringing home that expedition trapped in the mountains last year. I remember,” Cadance said, and the mare saluted. The fact that their princess remembered their names and deeds always raised their spirits, and if Greyhound could have been standing any more tall, she probably would have.

“—, Rimelick—”

“Who enjoys singing,” Cadance provided with a wink at the officer.

“Guilty as charged, Ma’am,” Rimelick saluted with a restrained grin.

“—and Flash Sentry,” Skyline finished, pointing at the lone stallion of the group.

“Who won’t be bumping into any princesses on this trip, I am sure,” Cadance teased.

Flash Sentry blushed brightly. “No, Ma’am,” he said and saluted.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintances,” Cadance said with a smile at them all before turning back to her husband and Jade Eye. “Anything else I must know, commander?”

“No, Your Highness,” Jade Eye saluted. “We stand ready to serve you on this journey, Ma’am.”

“Then we shall not stall any longer than needed,” Cadance said and turned to Shining Armor, leaning in for a last hug and a kiss goodbye. “Don’t worry, dear. I will only be gone ‘till morning.”

“I wish I could go with you myself,” Shining said and returned the hug, squeezing her tightly to show he didn’t want her to fly off. “I worry what you will find out there.”

“Yes, I see that. You worry too much and too soon, my love. You know I can take care of myself.” Cadance lifted a hoof to his chin and looked him in the eyes. “And our subjects need you here while I am away.” She leaned forward and touched her horn to his as she kissed him farewell. “I’ll be back before you know it,” she said and stepped back, smiling at him.

Shining Armor nodded and watched her as she spread her wings and took off, blowing a kiss back at him mid-air before turning towards the sky. The five guards took up position around her in flight as they left the castle behind.

“I hope you’re right,” Shining Armor said and watched her for several minutes, until she was only a sparkling dot against the bright azure sky.

* * *

Huge flocks of birds sailed through the sky as the princess and her guards journeyed westward on a straight course for the gorge. Cadance looked down at the swarms of thousands moving like waves of black dots in the air below them, following the same westward direction. The sight lifted her spirits and brought her mind away from whatever lay ahead for her.

“We will be leaving the empire’s weather zone in half an hour at a steady pace,” Flash Sentry reported at the front of the group.

Cadance paid the guards’ conversation only a passing attention, as she watched the birds and hummed a quiet tune to herself. Often she would travel in the royal chariot, letting others do the flying for her. Perhaps this was why her saddlebag had become too tight of late. It felt good to make the journey on her own wings for once.

She was momentarily tempted to dive down and fly among the birds, but she knew they would likely see her as a predator and scatter. “Too bad,” she thought out loud in a quiet voice.

“The zone is scheduled for clear weather all day,” Skyline added as she turned her gaze from the message tower she had been watching in the distance. “The perimeter reports clear sky west of the zone as well.”

“Good,” their commander said next to Cadance. “We should be able to make it there in four hours with a few breaks along the way.”

“Or we could make it in one stretch. As long as you are up for that, Your Highness,” Greyhound turned her head to look back at them.

Cadance looked up from her dreams of flying with the birds. “Hmm? Oh, don’t worry about me keeping up,” she said with a keen smile. “I bet we could make it in two hours.” She would have to eat those words if it came to an actual race, she knew.

“As entertaining as a race to the finish would be,” Jade Eye cut in to stop any bright ideas from taking root, “let’s just keep a steady course and take whatever breaks we need. The princess is scheduled for a slumber party, so we have all the time we need to get there.”

“Aye aye, commander,” they all chimed together.

“Well, how about a song?” Cadance suggested with a sugary smile.

Rimelick perked up at the suggestion and turned to look at the commander and lieutenant. Jade Eye rolled her eyes and let slip a smile. “As long as you all keep your eyes on the job, you may sing as you please. But please stick with the ‘safe’ songs while on duty.”

“I don’t know what you’re implying, commander. All my songs are—” Rimelick stopped as everypony turned to look at her. “What? They surely never hurt anypony.”

“Lying does not befit a royal guard, officer.” Jade Eye turned back to look ahead with a stone-faced expression. “Now get with the singing. That’s an order.”

“It’s not my fault if some ponies can’t drink their cider without choking on it, or fall off their chairs and hit their heads on the floor at the strangest of times,” Rimelick said quietly. “You don’t see the bartender or the carpenter getting blamed for that.”

Skyline snorted as she held back a giggle. “Maybe you should write a song about it.”

“You know what?” Rimelick straightened up in flight. “I will write a song about it. Even better, I will sing a song about it. Why, I shall be doing so right now, in fact!”

Cadance chuckled as the mare launched into her improvised song about the unfairness of life as a minstrel, as compared to carpenters and bartenders. It wasn’t long before they were all joining in as best they could. Cadance mused that only in the air force was this sort of thing possible. Something about pegasi and birds sharing more than just the wings, she supposed.

* * *

“Please don’t call me crazy now, but there’s a massive fog bank up ahead!” Skyline called over the rushing of the wind.

Everypony squinted at where she was pointing. It had been four hours since they set out, and the gorge should not be far away. Jade Eye looked to Flash Sentry. “What’s our course?”

The stallion briefly consulted the compass and map strapped to his foreleg. “Off by no more than a degree, Ma’am,” he declared and looked up at the horizon in front of them, pointing a hoof slightly to the right, straight at the center of the fog. “The gorge is within the fog.”

“There were no reports from the towers of any fog this size in the area,” Skyline said. “I can’t tell where this fog even comes from, but it must have been sitting here for a while. The towers must have made some kind of mistake in their report. We are fortunate the temperature is not lower, or we could have been dealing with ice fog.”

Everypony was silent for a moment as they contemplated the news. “Whatever the reason or mistake, we’re just going to have to deal with it,” Jade Eye said finally. “Stay close together and proceed with caution. You know the drill, everypony.”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

“Your Highness should stick close to me,” Jade Eye continued. “Fog is not what we expected to find out here, and the last thing we want is to lose sight of you, Ma’am.”

Cadance gave a nod. “I defer to your expertise, commander. Will this fog be a problem?”

“Shouldn’t be, as long as we don’t get separated,” Jade Eye said with confidence. “It may get cold and wet in there, but Greyhound and Flash could find the way while blindfolded and drunk.”

“That we could, Ma’am,” Greyhound said. Flash waved his hoof with the compass.

“The rest of us will follow Skyline’s lead and clear as much of the fog as we can around us,” the commander continued. “That should make the whole thing only mildly inconvenient. If anypony should lose sight of the others, you know what to do; you’ve been practicing it for the past three hours at the top of your lungs, after all.”

Cadance smiled. “Very well, then.”

“Good. Get ready, everypony.” Jade Eye looked around at Cadance and the four other guards with her, then began the descent. “We’re going in.”

They all nodded and dove towards the bank of fog looming below, hiding the land from view. A cold, clingy feeling of wetness surrounded them as they soared through the first thin wisps of mist and into the denser fog. Skyline and Flash led the way, directing their course and the effort to clear a path through the fog.

Their wings whipped the air into torrents, breaking up the low-hanging cloud and dispersing it outwards from where they were flying. Cadance stayed close to the commander as the fog thinned around them, revealing the desolate mountains and rocky plains below. Drops of cold water condensed and gathered on her wings and back, making her shiver as she looked around at the landscape. It was hard to imagine anypony choosing to live in such an inhospitable place.

“Fog’s getting denser, and fast!” Skyline called after about a minute.

“Just keep course and flap harder!” Jade Eye commanded.

Despite their efforts, the passage they had cleared around them was growing narrower by the minute. Cadance looked around as the fog crept in tightly around them, too dense for them to keep away for long. The world they were flying through had turned to a near-solid gray.

A growing sense of unease made Cadance slow down and look around, her ears turning to listen for some fading sound she thought for just one moment she heard. The fog seemed to fade the world to a dull and empty tone. Cadance shivered, but not from the cold this time.

“Your Highness?” Jade Eye moved closer by her side and followed her gaze. “Is everything alright?”

“I just …” Cadance looked around at the featureless gray walls around them and shivered again. “I just have this strange feeling all of a sudden. Like there’s something we’re missing.”

“I get that feeling sometimes too, like you forgot something, right?” Rimelick said as she came up beside them. “It usually turns out my mind’s just making stuff up, and it’s really nothing.”

“Everypony here?” Jade Eye called and looked around at the three ponies joining her and Cadance in the fog. “Skyline, Rimelick, Flash?”

“Aye, sir!” they each called back.

“Good.” The commander paused to consider the situation.

“Is there anything I can do to help with this fog?” Cadance asked, feeling her unease grow as the grayness gathered closely around them.

“It won’t be much use, Your Highness,” Skyline said and held out a hoof to feel the cold wetness of the clouds around them. “Even if you did have weather training, we simply don’t have the combined wing power to break this cloud up. Not even close.”

“Should we call in assistance?” Rimelick suggested.

“We’re outside the weather zone,” Skyline said. “We’d need to bring most of the weather team here to break up a bank this size, which would leave the weather zone unsupervised. If anything happened back home, we’d be in big trouble for dragging the team away.”

“We could signal the rest of the wing, but that would leave our perimeter unwatched. Outside of an emergency, I want them to hold to their own positions,” Jade Eye said, contemplating. “Flash, how far are we from the gorge?” She turned to the stallion with the compass.

“Shouldn’t be far, Ma’am.” Flash Sentry consulted his map and did some quick mental calculation. “Five minutes at most, taking poor visibility into account.”

Jade Eye gave a nod and turned back around. “Alright, everypony, let’s find that gorge. Flash, show the way. Skyline, you stay on the princess’ right. Rimelick, you take up the rear. We’ll just have to fly this thing blind.”

They all got in formation, with Cadance safe in the center as they cut through the wall of gray ahead. Cadance kept her eyes on the ground, which she could only barely make out through the fog. The unease was staying with her as they scouted for the gorge. The feeling that something was missing just wouldn’t leave her, but she couldn’t think of anything they might have forgotten.

* * *

As visibility continued to worsen, they had to fly slow and just above the ground to avoid flying into anything. Cadance could only barely see a pony’s length in front of Flash, who flew in front of them. No amount of light from her horn seemed to help the matter, the glow merely scattered and faded in the fog.

“I have my doubts about anypony living in this area,” Rimelick said behind them. “If you don’t mind me saying so, Your Highness.”

Cadance looked back over her shoulder at the pegasus and the endless gray tunnel in their wake. “I don’t,” she said and restrained herself from sighing. “But there has to be,” she added quietly as she looked back at the grayness in front of them. “My heart tells me this is so.”

She gazed into the gray emptiness in front of her. Once again, her heart also told her something else: that they had forgotten something. Whether it was merely the fog soaking her coat, or something more, a cold sense of loneliness gripped her heart just then.

“Princess?”

Cadance looked at the concerned face of Skyline. “I’m okay,” she said and tried to smile, though she doubted it was a very convincing gesture. “It’s just that I keep having this feeling. I think this fog is getting to me.”

“I know how you feel,” Rimelick said behind her. “Never was a big fan of fog. Would a song perhaps cheer you up? It always does for me.”

“I’m more worried about where we are,” Jade Eye broke in before any more singing could start. “Anypony know if we’re even on the right course? I can barely see my own muzzle here.”

Cadance looked at the three guards, and they at each other.

“Uh, commander? Lieutenant?” Rimelick said uncertainly. “No disrespect to either of you, of course, but didn’t we bring a navigator? Seems like a big thing to forget out here.”

Jade Eye opened her mouth to respond but soon closed it again, frowning as uncertainty was painted across her face. There was a long silence before she looked to her right. “Lieutenant?”

“No compass here,” the lieutenant responded with a shake of her head. “I thought you had it, commander.”

“I …” Jade Eye stared at the fog in concentration. “I can’t believe we didn’t bring a navigator, and how did we not even realize it until now? That is a serious oversight on my part.” She turned to look at Cadance. “I am terribly sorry, Your Majesty. I will take full responsibility for this mistake, and I must insist that we pull up and—”

“I think I see something, commander!” Skyline spoke up and pointed.

They all strained to see through the gray. As they approached, the outline of steep cliffs descending into a gray abyss in the earth appeared out of the fog before them. Cadance slowed down and hovered at the edge of the gorge, staring into its depths.

“Looks like we found it,” Rimelick said.

Cadance looked at Jade Eye and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sure it was an honest mistake, commander. You got us here regardless, and it’s only fog. I say we continue,” she said and smiled. “We can always just head upwards until we’re out of the fog. It’s no worse than that.”

Jade Eye looked into the gorge and nodded. “As you will it, Your Highness. And you’re right, it’s just fog. Alright,” she said and looked around at the three ponies with her, confidence returned. “You know the deal. Let’s stay close together. The fog looks even worse down there.”

* * *

It was almost like flying through slush ice, Cadance decided, as the fog very nearly melted on her coat and ran in slow, cold streams down her flanks and legs. She was, at this point, thoroughly soaked to the skin. If not for the heat spell she had wrapped herself in, she would be freezing. The three guards with her seemed to fare well enough, thanks to their training.

Rimelick was singing softly behind them, while Skyline was humming along somewhere in the fog to Cadance’s right. If not for the soothing sound of their voices, Cadance imagined the dreary and endless gray would have gotten to her by now and made her turn around.

They were at the bottom of the gorge now, but still slowly descending through crags and cliffs rising out of the earth. Cadance wasn’t sure how long her eyes had been watching the barren rocks and jagged stones drifting by beneath them when Skyline stopped her singing and spoke up.

“Is it just me, or is the air getting warmer?” She looked at Cadance, who blinked in confusion. “Princess? Are you—”

“Sorry,” Cadance said and rubbed her eyes with a hoof. “I must have spaced out for a moment there.” She slowed down and looked around at the two ponies around her. “What were you … singing?” she said, a feeling of uncertainty in her voice. Had there been singing? Or had she been sleeping in flight and simply dreamt it?

“Singing?” Skyline furrowed her brow. “I was asking if the air was getting warmer.”

Jade Eye looked at Cadance with increasing concern. “Are you certain you are well, Your Highness? You have been unsteady since we reached this place.”

“I think so,” Cadance said. “Perhaps this heat spell was more of a strain than I thought. I am not used to flying this long as it is.” She looked around and dropped the spell. Skyline had been right, the drop in temperature wasn’t nearly as bad as she had expected. “Or perhaps I am simply overheating myself.”

Jade Eye nodded and led her down to the ground, landing with a soft clip-clop on the uneven rocks. “Let’s walk from here, Your Majesty. We are in no hurry.”

Skyline landed next to her and folded her wings against her sides. “I say we follow the heat to its source. It may well be the source of this fog too, and the most likely place for ponies to live.”

Cadance nodded and began walking. “I say that sounds like a good idea.”

* * *

They walked for several minutes through the gorge, carefully watching each step on the cold and wet rocks. The fog didn’t seem to get any denser than it already was, but it couldn’t have gotten much denser before becoming solid anyway. Perhaps they should have brought the whole weather team with them on this journey after all, Cadance mused with a sigh.

She looked down and stopped. “There’s water here,” she announced and looked up again. “I think it’s a lake,” she added as she looked at the two guards.

Jade Eye and Skyline stepped forward and looked across the misty water, clouds of steam rising from the crystal clear surface. “And I believe we’ve found the source of the fog,” Skyline said and dipped a hoof into the water. “It’s really warm. Must be a hot spring. How the hay did no pony notice this?”

“I think I see something out in the middle of the water,” Jade Eye said and narrowed her eyes. “Should we investigate or move on, princess?”

“Let’s see what it is,” Cadance said and spread her wings. Jade Eye followed the lead and took off across the surface of the small lake. Skyline followed close behind.

“It’s a stone,” Jade Eye announced. “Some kind of big rock sticking out of the lake.”

Cadance circled the pillar of stone rising out of the water. It looked extremely old and weathered, and the water had worn away at the base for so long that it was standing on the verge of tipping over if one was to give it a good push. She stopped and moved closer. “There are some glyphs or writing here,” she announced as the two guards came up beside her.

“What does it say, princess?” Skyline looked at her, eyes bright with curiosity and excitement.

“I’m not sure,” Cadance said and ran a hoof across the faded runes and symbols, trying to make out something that might hint at its origin or message. “It looks like early pre-classical writing. I can not make out much, but it appears …” She narrowed her eyes and followed the glyphs further down. “It appears to be an inscription by Clover the Clever.”

“Clover the Clever?” Jade Eye looked at the stone more closely and scratched her muzzle in puzzled thought.

“As in, the Clover the Clever? Student of Starswirl the Bearded?” Skyline added.

“Yes,” Cadance confirmed. “At least, it was signed with her personal runes,” she said and pointed to an intricate set of runes near the bottom. “I don’t think there are any records of Clover or Starswirl traveling in this region. This could be an important archaeological find.”

“We’ll make a mention of it when we get back. The archaeologists should have a field day with this.” Jade Eye looked around at the steam rising from the lake, surrounding them like a wall. “For now, perhaps we should explore around the lake. If anypony does live in this gorge, I think it would be here, where it’s at least warm.”

Cadance ran her hoof over the faded runes and rough stone. With a reluctant nod she turned around and settled next to Jade Eye as she looked around from where they were hanging over the water. “Which direction?”

They watched the fog for several minutes of silence. The silence unnerved Cadance even more than the clouds of steam surrounding them like a cage. She turned and circled around the stone, gazing into the distance in the hope that something would appear. She stopped suddenly and felt Jade Eye nearly collide with her. “I think I see …” Cadance narrowed her eyes and began moving forwards. “Houses. I think I see houses ahead.”

“I think I see them too,” Jade Eye said and came up on her left, flying along with her.

Cadance picked up her pace, crossing the lake towards the hazy shapes of houses in the distance. She turned to her right to say something but stopped when she found herself facing nothing but air. Cadance closed her mouth and looked to her left where the commander was following along. “That was odd …” she said to Jade Eye. “I could have sworn …” Cadance trailed off, uncertain what had given her pause.

“What was it?” The commander looked at her.

Cadance looked back at the mist behind them, already hiding the lake from view. “I don’t know. I have the strangest feelings today.” She shook her head and turned back to the distant houses. “Nevermind. Let’s move on. I’m anxious to be somewhere with other ponies again.”

* * *

“How did we lose sight of the houses?” Cadance said and looked around. “They were right here in front of our eyes.”

“I don’t know, Your Majesty,” Jade Eye admitted, constantly looking around at their surroundings. “It worries me, but it worries me even more that I was sent here alone with you. There should have been at least a full flight of guards at your side at all times, as per the protocols. I am concerned that we are not safe here, princess.”

Cadance stopped and gazed into the mist. “I think we’re simply lost, commander, and the fog is getting on our nerves.” She turned around and looked in another direction, though it made no difference. It was all gray and dreary. “We haven’t seen any signs of actual danger.”

After a minute of silently turning, she returned to the direction she had come from and began walking. “Maybe if I can get back to the lake, I can spot the village again,” she mused.

Her ear twitched at a faint sound in the distance behind her. Cadance stopped and held her breath. She turned around slowly and listened, but there was nothing but silence now. She shivered, no longer sure that she had heard anything in the first place.

She looked back the way she was going, hesitating at the emptiness ahead of her. She looked around her, the sense of loneliness and being lost growing to nearly overwhelm her. Slowly beginning to walk again, she kept glancing behind her.

“Why did I come here alone? Shining must have insisted on guards. He would never let me go alone, there are protocols and everything for this … too many protocols,” she whispered and felt a little more at ease hearing her own voice. “It makes no sense.” As she walked through the mist, she tried to sing quietly, the tones echoing strangely among the rocks and cliffs hidden behind the gray blanket.

Her hoof struck water. Cadance looked down at where the warm, clear water covered her golden shoe. “The lake,” she said with a flicker of relief as she looked up at the lake and the stone, rising out of it. She furrowed her brow. The stone hadn’t been this clearly visible from the shore earlier. She could even see houses on the far side now.

Cadance lifted her hoof out of the water and stepped back from the lake, looking around. “How did—” she stopped and stared at the houses all around her, revealing a small village with the lake in its center. Everything was gray and brown, like the color had drained from the world. Cadance looked up at the sky through the mist and clouds. Even the sun seemed faded and dull from here. It even looked much smaller, somehow.

She didn’t remember seeing the sun through the mist all day until now.

Shivering despite the heat from the lake, she lifted a hoof and looked at the gold and pink to assure herself that there still were some colors here. Convinced of that, and a little relieved, she looked around again.

“Hello?” she called to the village around her. Her voice echoed back at her, a hollow sound. “Anypony here?” she called again and turned around, trotting towards one of the homes. Smoke drifted upwards from the chimney, and a dull white light flickered in the window.

“Hello?”

Dead Letters

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The house was small and rectangular, a hut made from large stones stacked on top of each other to form crude walls. It had a single wooden door and a small window. It was the simplest home Cadance had ever seen made by hooves, no decoration and nothing but bare, rocky ground where a garden might have been. Even the wild tufts of grass growing on the flat roof were gray and hung limply off the edges.

“Hello?” Cadance looked up at the grass as she knocked on the door. While waiting for a response, she plucked a few tufts with her magic and levitated it down for closer scrutiny. It wasn’t even withered, it was just gray, as if the color had been washed out of the leaves. She lifted the grass up to her nose and sniffed; it didn’t even have the scent of grass.

Cadance glanced around. All the houses looked the same; plain rectangular buildings of stone, some with tufts of wild grass growing on their roofs, others bare. A few had smoke drifting from chimneys and light in their windows, but not a single pony was in sight.

She turned and knocked again. “Anypony here?” she called and leaned over to peek through the small window. The inside of the house was nearly bare except for a plain wooden table, a fireplace, and a pile of hay for a bed. “Who lives here?” she wondered aloud.

Even the smoldering remains of the fire in the fireplace seemed gray. Cadance stared in silence at the poor interior and cold, colorless embers. She must have been silent for a while; as she was taking another glance around the room and listening for any sounds from the village, a frightened face looked out from hiding, apparently to see if the visitor had gone.

As the old crystal mare came face to face with Cadance in the window, she let out a terrified whinny and dropped back down behind the door to hide away. Cadance blinked and moved to try and see the mare, but only the tip of her tail stuck out in view.

“I mean you no harm, good pony,” Cadance said as gently as she could to calm the pony. “Why are you hiding from me?” She glanced around the empty village. “I take it everypony here is doing the same. Can you please tell me what is the reason?”

“I ain’t talkin’ to it. I ain’t talkin’ to it,” the mare kept repeating under her breath.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. I am looking for two little fillies who I believe live here in this village. Their names are Silica Heart and Silene Bond. Have you—”

“I AIN’T TALKIN’ TO IT!” the mare yelled and went immediately back to her repeated mutterings behind the door. “Ain’t talkin’ to it. No names. No names. Ain’t talkin’.”

Cadance took a step back as the mare yelled. She stared at the small window, then slowly turned around. “I shall leave you be, then. Sorry to disturb you,” she said quietly and walked slowly down the path, leaving the frightened pony alone.

As she walked in silence through the village, she caught several ponies sneaking a peek out of their windows to see if she was gone. The moment they saw her still there, they vanished back behind their walls.

She turned down another path between houses. The village proved larger than she had at first assumed. In some places, the houses were placed very close together, as if to waste no room. Cadance paused on the road and looked around. After about five minutes of standing around, a pair of faces peeked out of a window. Like the others, they quickly disappeared again when they saw her.

Cadance turned and silently snuck up to the house, crouching down below the window. Several more minutes passed in silence as she patiently waited. Finally a shadow moved in the window above her, and a young mare’s voice whispered from within. “Is it gone?”

“I think so,” another voice said, belonging to a stallion.

“I’m scared.”

“It ain’t nothing more than a ghost, girl. Can’t hurt you none. Just stay low and don’t talk to it whatever you do. It’ll go away soon enough.”

“B-but what if it doesn’t?”

“It’ll attract attention the way it’s strutting about, looking like that,” the stallion said with conviction in his voice. “It’ll go away soon, one way or the other.”

Cadance snuck away and turned down another path, feeling her heart sink as she thought about what she had heard and seen so far. “They think I’m a ghost? Why would they think that?” she muttered at the ground as she walked. She nearly stumbled when a loud crash came from nearby. She spun around and listened, then took off in the direction of the sound.

There was a second crash as she rounded a corner and spotted a house with its door torn off the hinges. Noises came from within the house. Cadance walked closer and looked through the window into the modest home, not much different than every other home she had seen so far.

Inside, a wolf nearly the size of a grown stallion was tearing up the place, throwing everything in a great pile on the floor. The beastly wolf’s coat was scruffy and scarred, and half its ear was missing. Wolves were common sights in the North, but most of those Cadance had seen were rather scrawny and shied away from her or her guards. Most ponies had little to fear from wolves unless they were caught alone in the wild. This one looked anything but shy or scrawny, however, and it was unlikely to be the only one of its kind nearby.

Even prepared and armed with magic and surprise, Cadance had to take a moment to steel herself. She took a long breath and stepped through the door, fixing the wolf with a hard stare. “What are you doing here, wolf?” she demanded.

The wolf spun around. Its snarl caught in its throat as it saw her. For a moment surprise and confusion painted its scarred and furry face, then it grinned. “About to make it big,” it answered in a raspy voice and licked its chops, circling her slowly. Its fierce yellow eyes were fixed upon her. “Real big, I wager.”

“What do you mean?” Cadance said, keeping her voice level and her eyes steely.

The wolf growled low in its throat. “Looking like you do, you gotta be worth quite the fortune for the one who brings you in. Betcha they’ll give me a lordly title for you. Then I’ll be chewing with the big boys upstairs.”

Cadance turned slowly to keep her eyes on the wolf, narrowing her gaze. “Looking like what exactly? Bring me where?” Cadance stepped back as the wolf took a step closer. “Explain yourself, wolf.”

The beast guffawed and stepped in front of the open doorway, blocking the way out. “Ponies shouldn’t be talking, you know. Maybe I’ll bite out your tongue. You won’t be needing it where you’re going.” It sniffed the air and grinned. “You reek of fear.”

“Come closer then,” Cadance said to the wolf, “if you want a taste of fear.”

The wolf laughed, then bared its teeth and leapt at her. Cadance had expected it to make a move and was ready. She reared up on her hind legs and unfolded her wings as her horn flared. The wolf collided at full speed with a sudden wall of solid light. Cadance didn’t even let it hit the ground before swiftly wrapping the magical barrier around it like a tight bubble, letting it hang upside-down in the air.

“A little trick somepony taught me,” she said as she lowered her head to look in the wolf’s eyes. “Maybe you’d like a demonstration of my own talents. Ever heard of ‘Tough Love’?”

The wolf howled and struggled as the tight space grew tighter around it, forcing it into a ball and squeezing it in a steel hug. “Not gonna say a word, pony bitch!” it snarled in defiance.

Cadance leaned closer until her eyes were level with the wolf’s. “Wolves never hunt alone,” she said. “How far away are your friends? How long do you think until they come looking for you? I can’t help but notice,” she continued. “All this gray and talk of me ‘looking like that’. I bet you’ve got a thing or two against pretty colors. I bet your friends do too.”

The glow from her horn shimmered slightly as she refocused her spell for a better grip. “I learn from all my friends. One of them taught me a spell for dyeing fabrics: more colors than you can squeeze from a rainbow. It works on hair just as well.” She smiled as the wolf’s eyes gave away a hint of worry. “Another of my friends can do things with streamers and confetti you wouldn’t even believe.”

The wolf gulped.

Cadance grinned. “I suggest you start flapping your tongue, or I swear I will make you light up like a tree on Hearth’s Warming Eve and hang you from your tail with a big bow in the center of town. What do you think your friends will say when they find you like that?”

She raised her head back up and regarded the wolf cooly. “You can start by telling me why you’re tearing this house apart. And no lies, or I might just make you glow from the inside out.”

“You wait, pony,” the wolf growled pitifully. “When Lord Fenris hears of you, he’ll skin you alive and use your bones to pick his teeth, he will!”

Cadance’s horn flared threateningly. “That’s not what I asked about.”

The wolf cringed away from the colorful light. “The ponies living here were caught in acts of treason and subverting the law,” he said grudgingly. “Everything must be burned to keep rebellion from spreading to the rest of the herd.”

“What exactly did they do?” Cadance kept her eyes fixed on the wolf, but her ears were listening for any sounds of other wolves sneaking up on them from outside. She didn’t want any surprise interruptions.

“Drawing and writing, bearing names, discussing forbidden topics and spreading propaganda,” the wolf rattled off, like an official list of charges.

Cadance glared at the ball of fur squeezed tightly inside her magic. “Names?”

“Members of the herd aren’t allowed to bear names,” the wolf recited. “Gives them the sense of individuality. Makes them bold.”

“And drawing pictures? Writing?”

The wolf growled and struggled against the magic, to no avail. “Not allowed.”

Cadance tightened the magic even further. “Let me guess, colors are forbidden too?”

The wolf nodded hurriedly, then squeaked as Cadance squeezed it to the point where it could only just move its head. “Colors displease Lord Fenris and incite a rebellious spirit in the herd.”

“I see,” she said. “And where are the inhabitants of this house now? What were their names?”

“I don’t know any names. Names are not allowed.” The wolf fought to make itself as small as possible. “They were taken from here less than an hour ago. Two small ones and their mother.”

“Where to?” Cadance raised her voice.

“North! To work in the mines!” the wolf howled. “Traitors get to work day and night until they can’t work no more, as an example to the rest of the herd.”

Cadance looked up at the door, then back down at the wolf. The glow from her horn intensified as she wove her spell in intricate loops. “This is a trick inspired by two little fillies who wrote to me just recently,” she said as the magic wove into inter-locked loops, forming a chain.

The wolf fell to the floor and clawed at the chain around its neck. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you with me,” Cadance said as she yanked the chain, pulling the wolf back on his paws and dragging him towards the door. “I’m not going to let you run off with your tail between your legs and warn all your friends about me. Come along.”

* * *

Somehow the fog had cleared up considerably since her arrival, leaving only a thin grey mist shrouding the gorge. However, more important things were ahoof for Cadance to worry about. There was clearly some kind of dark magic at work here, and she had found herself right in the middle of it.

“What’s your name, wolf?” she asked as she dragged him through town and down a path leading north into the gorge. The wolf growled something unintelligible.

“Growly McGrowl, did I hear that right? Very fitting,” she said. The wolf only growled something equally incomprehensible in response. “I am Princess Cadance, of the Crystal Empire. Now we know each other, Growly.”

‘Growly’ let out a snort which sounded suspiciously like a mocking laugh.

Cadance raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s so funny?”

“You really think you’re her, don’t you?” Growly rolled his eyes. “Damn, but you’re messed up.”

Cadance turned her head back around. “I don’t care for your ignorance, wolf. I don’t know what you and your friends think you are doing in this gorge, but I’m going to put an end to it.”

The wolf burst out laughing.

Cadance sighed and wrapped a bit of the chain around his muzzle, shutting it tight. “Laugh if you like, but do it quietly. I’d like to not alert your friends to my approach.”

The wolf snickered. Cadance resolved herself to ignore it. “You won’t get a rise out of me, if that’s what you think you’re doing,” she said as she pulled the chain and picked up her pace.

Cadance had seen a lot of snow-blasted landscapes and barren mountains since taking over the Crystal Empire, but the bleak gray of this gorge took the prize for desolation. No wonder the ponies here were so depressed, she thought as she paused to consider the path forward. Her eyes caught something a little way up the crags. With a flap of her wings she moved closer and looked down at a tiny heart hastily scratched on the stone with chalk. An arrow pointed off down a narrow path a bit away. “Good thinking, girls,” she thought.

She turned to Growly plodding along behind her and said, “Unless you want to be dragged along the ground, you better start running.” Unfolding her wings she took to the air and picked up her pace as she followed the direction of the sign. The wolf growled its displeasure as it started to run to keep up with her.

Heavy gray clouds hung over the gorge as she crested a hill and looked down into a small hidden valley scattered with large boulders. A group of heavily armored wolves were dragging along three crystal ponies in rusty chains—two fillies still without their cutie marks and a mare, who could well be their mother, with a white blossom cutie mark. All three ponies were dull gray and white, somehow drained of color like everything else Cadance had seen in this gorge.

Cadance landed and crouched low behind a rock as she observed them from afar. The wolves pulled relentlessly at the chains, paying no mind to the stumbling of the ponies. She turned her attention to the mare. Even from this distance Cadance could see that she wasn’t too well.

A dark scowl crossed her face as she stood back up and took wing again, pulling at the chain of the wolf behind her. “Keep up, Growly!”

“What do you intend?” he growled vaguely through his chained muzzle.

Cadance ignored it. Her horn glowed as she neared the group. She allowed a bit of the magic to fill her voice and give it strength as she swooped down towards them. “FETCH!”

The wolves startled and spun around to face the voice. A ball of colorful light formed in the air in front of Cadance, who spun around and bucked it into the middle of the wolves. The beasts yelped and jumped back from the chromatic sphere.

“You play like toothless old ninnies!” Cadance taunted as she bucked another pair of balls right at what she took to be the lead wolf. The wolf jumped back predictably, just as the balls curved in midair and smacked the faces of the two surprised wolves next to him. “Even my grandma could duck better than that!”

The wolves jumped and growled, trying to snap at her, but she kept well out of reach. “Come on! Are you gonna play, or are you gonna bray?” Cadance lopped another three balls at the wolves, who were quickly turning tail and running from the flying menace. “Deal with it, doggies!” Cadance bucked another pair of balls, sending them racing after the fleeing wolves. A satisfying duo of smacks echoed through the gorge as they found their targets.

“Help!”

Cadance looked down to see one wolf who had stayed behind to grab the two fillies. “Let the wolf you’ve chained go and come down here, nice and slow,” the wolf threatened as it held the struggling fillies in a vice grip. “Or the little ones end up a head or two smaller.”

Cadance narrowed her eyes as she turned to face the wolf. “That was a mistake,” she said. “Red card, wolf. You’re out.”

The wolf bared its teeth. “I’m not playing gam—”

It didn’t finish its sentence. The six balls scattered on the ground exploded in splashes of red, green, blue, yellow, purple, and screaming pink paint. The wolf howled as it was sprayed with liquid color. It tried to claw at the paint, as if it was burning it, only managing to smear it in even worse as it rolled around on the ground.

Cadance landed next to the mare who had collapsed on the ground, and spread her wings to protect the two fillies as they scrambled towards her. “Leave this place, wolf, and take your friend with you.” She dropped the magical chain, letting it dissolve in a spray of colorful motes. “If you value your hides, you will run far away and never come back.”

“Are you all okay?” she asked as the two wolves scampered off with their tails between their legs, one of them leaving a long rainbow trail of paint behind. She looked the two painted fillies over. “I’m sorry about the paint.”

The fillies stared up at her with wide eyes and open mouths, then scrambled to bow on the ground before her. The one Cadance took to be the oldest regained her voice first. “Y-you’re really her, aren’t you? You’re r-really Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. You’ve got so many pretty colors!” she said in total wonder.

Cadance smiled and gently nudged them back on their hooves. It occurred to her that they might have never seen any colors before, other than endless shades of gray and brown. “Call me Cadance. And you two must be Silica Heart and Silene Bond, am I right?”

“H-how did you know?” Silica, the oldest, squeaked.

“My heart tells me many things,” Cadance said and considered the two fillies and their mother. The mare had passed out and was breathing in long, raspy breaths. “Your mother is not well, she needs rest, and all the other wolves will soon hear of what happened here. We must find safety as soon as possible. Is there anywhere we will be safe?”

They both looked down at their hooves, and Silica shook her head. “The other ponies will probably be too afraid to help us. Even talking with us will get them in trouble.”

“That answers another question,” Cadance said quietly and lay down on the ground. “Help me get your mother up on my back. I promise I will keep you all safe.”

“T-there’s a cave up in the crags near the village,” Silene said almost too quietly to be heard. “We go up there sometimes. It’s pretty deep and easy to hide in.”

“Can you show me the way?” Cadance stood up, carrying their mother safely on her back between her wings.

“Mhmm.” The two fillies nodded, their wide eyes still watching her with awe. “Y-you were really brave back there,” Silene dared to speak up. “Is it really true? Are you really the crystal princess? I didn’t really think you’d come.”

Cadance turned around and headed back towards the village, smiling at the filly. “Is it so hard to believe? You wrote such a heartfelt letter. How could I not come?”

Silene looked down at her hooves and scuffed at the ground. “E-everypony says … um, they all say you’re …” she trailed off, her little ears drooping.

Silica bit her lip. “Everyone knows you’re s-supposed to be dead, princess,” she said. “The wolves gloat about it all the time to remind us that you’re all gone and won’t help us. Mom tells us not to believe it, but I don’t think she really believes that you’re still alive herself.”

Cadance stared at the gray mountains around them. “Dead?” she said, her voice caught in her throat for a moment.

“They s-say when the big wolf escaped his chains long ago, back when our granny was still alive, um, he ate you whole and imprisoned the royal family in ice.” Silica looked uncomfortable. “He’s enslaved everypony for years and removed all color and fun from the world. There’s nothing anypony could do.”

Cadance stared at the path in front of them, thoughts churning in her head. “I think I need to hear this whole tale from the beginning, she said.” She looked around at the barren landscape around them. “But first we must find that cave and get to safety.”

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The entrance to the outside world was but a small circle of pale white light behind them. Cadance stopped and turned her head to look at the light and open air they were leaving behind. As they ventured in, she had to bend down low to not hit her head against the roof of the cave. The two fillies by her side had no trouble moving around, but Cadance had to make herself as small as possible, and their mother on her back didn’t make that easy.

“How far does this cave go?” she asked.

“We don’t know,” Silica said ahead of Cadance. “It gets really narrow. Me and Silene can squeeze through some of the way, but you and mom can’t get that far.”

“At least that means it’s too narrow for wolves too, if it’s too narrow for me and your mother,” Cadance said and studied the walls and floor around her. It was indeed a tight fit, and it looked like Silica was right, she wouldn’t be able to get much further in than this, especially with the mare on her back. “If the wolves find us, I want you to squeeze as far into the cave as you can and stay there, no matter what happens, okay?”

“W-what about you?” Silene’s voice was just above a whisper. The faint light from the entrance shone in her large brown eyes.

“Don’t think of me. If I haven’t called for you after an hour, you have to try to make your way south on your own. Do you know which way is south?” The two fillies nodded. Cadance lay down on the cold rocks. “Good. Here, help me get your mother off. Is there any wood nearby that we can use to make a fire?”

Silica shook her head as she and her sister helped their mom off Cadance’s back. “There’s a forest at the end of the gorge, near the mines, but the wolves watch it all the time. They make sure no pony gets more of anything than what the wolves say we need.”

Cadance scooched up close to the sick mare and held a wing over her, extending the other for the two fillies to crawl under. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you warm,” she said and glanced back at the entrance of the cave. Silica and her sister peeked up at her from under her wing. Cadance could feel them shivering against her body. She tugged them a little closer and summoned a bit of light from her horn, putting more warmth than light into the spell.

The two fillies gazed at the colorful light with the largest eyes Cadance had ever seen, their mouths open and speechless. She smiled and nuzzled their heads. “It’s going to be alright,” she said. “I’m not going to leave until you and your mom and everypony else are safe from these wolves.”

Silene rested her head against Cadance’s neck and gazed with half-lidded eyes at the dancing lights on the wall. “Is Princess Skylark going to come too?” the young filly asked as her eyes grew heavier still.

Cadance stroked her mane silently for a while, wondering what to respond. “I don’t know,” she said eventually. Silene let out a tiny yawn and closed her eyes. It didn’t take long before she was fully asleep and breathing softly. Cadance smiled sadly at the filly.

“I need to hear the whole story,” she said and turned her head to look at Silica. “Can you tell me about the wolves and this Fenris who leads them?”

Silica looked down at her hooves. “Mom usually tells all the stories,” she said.

Cadance smiled and reached down to nuzzle her mane. “Your mother needs to rest and become strong again. I am certain you will tell it just as well as she does. Maybe you should begin by telling me where and when this Fenris first showed up, if you know it.”

“Um,” Silica shuffled a little closer to her sister and Cadance. She looked uncertainly at Cadance. “Don’t you already know about that, princess?”

“What I know right now is a little strange and unbelievable,” Cadance said and smiled, touching Silica’s cheek with a hoof. “I would love to hear what you know instead.”

“Well, um, okay.” Silica furrowed her brow as she thought. “Mom says the big wolf first came from the really far north, when our great granny and her mom and dad moved here. That was when great granny was still young, and ponies had only lived here for a few years.”

“You mean here in the gorge?” Cadance asked as she listened to the filly.

“Mhmm,” Silica nodded. “Mom says Fenris was angry because of all the pretty lights in the sky that had started coming from the Empire after Sombra’s curse was broken. The lights were hurting his eyes in his cave far to the north. Fenris doesn’t like colors or bright lights, so he came south to swallow all of them up forever. Mom says he was so angry, he nearly swallowed everything else up too.

“But Princess Skylark came up with the idea of using the power of the Crystal Heart to forge a magical crystal chain of pure color to hold the wolf. You and her used it to bind the wolf and drag him back to his deep, dark cave in the north where he couldn’t swallow anypony.”

Cadance was idly brushing at some old glitter still stuck in the fur of her leg. The stubborn stuff refused to disappear. Every time she thought she had got it all out, some little speck would appear as if out of nowhere. “But the chain didn’t hold?”

“Um,” Silica watched her. “Mom says no one knows what happened. It was four years before she was born when he broke free, I think. He called all the other wolves of the north and tried to swallow the sun and the moon in the sky. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna moved them far away so he couldn’t reach them, but then there was so little light that there was no summer, even in the south. Celestia had to keep the sun up all day and all night just to keep everypony from freezing and the crops from dying, and even then it was kinda cold all year.”

“If Fenris is still around,” Cadance began and paused as the unpleasant thought took root. Her gaze turned to the pale light outside once more. “Is the sun still up all the time?”

“Most of the time, but sometimes it goes dark for a while. Mom says she thinks Discord controls the sun and moon now, but he’s not doing it like it used to be when Celestia and Luna did it. I think he’s playing cat and mouse with Fenris, who is still trying to swallow them. Mom says he’s just crazy.”

“Discord?” Cadance scowled at the name of the draconequus. “Tell me, please, what happened to the royal sisters? What happened to Equestria? What happened to me and my family?”

Silica looked a little frightened by Cadance’s voice, but a gentle tug of a wing made her relax and speak again. “Fenris and his wolves invaded the Empire. He …” She looked down, her ears drooping. “That is, everypony says he swallowed you whole when you tried to protect everypony so they could escape. They say you’re dead,” she said and looked up at Cadance with tears in her eyes, “but I always thought that maybe it wasn’t true.”

Cadance leaned down and pulled the filly closer, kissing the top of her head. “I’m here, and I’m not dead. That’s all that matters,” she said. “Tell me more.”

“I-I don’t really know.” Silica sniffed and wiped her nose with a hoof. “The wolves have ruled the Empire and all of Equestria since then. Some say that some of the princesses, or maybe Prince Shining Armor escaped and are hiding far to the south or somewhere. I thought maybe that’s what really happened to you, that one day you’d come back.”

“And what do others think?”

“Um, most say that Fenris froze all the princesses and your prince in ice, and that he still keeps them all in his throne room to gloat at. Others s-say he ate them too. Or m-maybe he did both, no one really knows, ‘cause the wolves never tell the same story. Maybe they don’t even know either. But everypony always says he swallowed you first, and that maybe that’s how some escaped.”

Cadance stared at her hoof for a long time. “At least that would be a comfort, to know that my sacrifice saved others,” she said.

“But that didn’t really happen, did it?” Silica said and reached out a hoof to touch Cadance’s cheek. “Because you’re here, so you couldn’t really have died.”

Cadance hadn’t realized that she had been crying. She looked down at the filly smiling up at her and returned the smile as she nuzzled her. “As long as we keep our hopes up, anything is possible yet. But right now, the past doesn’t matter. It’s the future we need to think of first.”

Silica smiled and nodded as she rested her head on her sister’s back.

“Hah!” Cadance grinned under her breath as she finally got the piece of glitter out of her fur, holding it up in front of her in triumph. The small speck of crystal gleamed at the tip of her hoof in the warm light of her horn. “Gotcha,” she said and opened her mouth to blow it away.

A small hoof was pressed against her lips before she could blow it away. “What is that?” Silica gaped as she beheld the fleck of glittering crystal on Cadance’s hoof.

“You’ve never seen glitter dust?” Cadance wasn’t sure whether to feel envious or sorry for the filly. She tipped her hoof carefully, letting the tiny mote fall into Silica’s waiting hooves. “It’s just a tiny piece of crystal. If you have lots and lots of them, you can use them to make everything sparkle. You can even paint or write with it if you mix it with ink.” It occurred to Cadance that the two probably didn’t have ink. “Or charcoal and water, perhaps,” she ventured without knowing how well that would work.

Silica stared at the speck of glitter with huge, sparkling eyes. “Wait here,” she said suddenly and slipped out from under Cadance’s wing.

“Wait,” Cadance called, but the filly was already bounding deeper into the darkness of the cave.

“What’s going on?” Silene murmured as she woke up and looked at Cadance blearily.

“I don’t know,” Cadance said and watched the narrow tunnel where Silica had disappeared. Her ears turned to pick up the sound of hooves in the dark. The clip-clop slowed down and stopped for a moment, then it was followed by a scraping noise of stone being pushed against stone.

“Oh,” Silene muttered as she waited with Cadance.

A moment later, Silica came out of the dark pushing a large box made of crudely hollowed stone with a lid of old wood. Cadance picked up the heavy object and levitated it over to have a look. “What’s this?” she asked as she set the box back down.

Silica sat down on her haunches and pushed the lid off the box. “It’s where we keep the stuff we’re not allowed to have,” she said and carefully rifled through the contents of the box. “We keep it where the wolves can’t find it or take it away.”

Cadance looked down at the collection of precious and rare treasures, most of them simple things that no filly back home would consider worthy of a thought. There was a small stack of paper, smudged and crude, along with charcoal to write or draw with. Some of them had drawings or things written on them. Every spot of the paper was used, as if not using even a single corner would be a waste.

“I help mom make the paper,” Silene said proudly as she sat up and picked up a drawing from the box. “Sometimes, when we have a bit of wood, mom takes a small piece to make into paper. I like making the paper. Mixing the stuff is fun.”

Cadance took the drawing and smiled as she watched the flowers and birds surrounded by attempts at writing. It wasn’t very good writing, even worse than the letter she had received, but it was written by somepony who clearly loved to write. She guessed that Silica had been the one to write the letter, and most of this was Silene’s work. “It’s very nice,” she said and tousled Silene’s mane. “You are both very creative.”

“Here,” Silica interrupted. She held up a small piece of crystal from the box. It was a dull rosy brown, the first hint of color Cadance had seen in this place which did not come from herself. Silica stopped and looked at the rock as if it was the most precious thing in the world. “The wolves take all the crystals to keep away from us, but we found a few pieces around here,” she said. “We kept them to look at, because they are so shiny and pretty.”

“What are you doing?” Silene asked and looked curiously at her sister.

Silica looked at the box in a moment of thought, then carefully emptied it of all its content. Dropping the single crystal into the empty box, she picked up a large stone from the ground and bit her lip. “I’m …” She stared at the precious crystal, then furrowed her brow in determination and brought the stone down upon it. The crystal shattered into pieces inside the box.

Silene gasped and grabbed her sister’s hooves, trying to pull them away from the crystal. “What are you doing? Stop it! You’re destroying it!”

Cadance wrapped her wing around Silene and nuzzled her, drawing her away from her sister. “It’s alright. I think your sister knows what she’s doing,” she whispered in the filly’s ears.

Silica was lost in the process of grinding the crystal to dust as Cadance and Silene watched. The dull crystal turned to glitter before their eyes, and a warm red light kindled within the motes as Silica continued her ardent work, the light reflecting in her wide eyes. Silene gasped and leaned forward even further to see.

A few minutes of intense grinding later, Silica dropped the stone and lifted a pair of glitter-covered hooves in the air. They glowed and sparkled like magic in the light of Cadance’s horn as Silica held them up for them all to see. Both she and Silene gazed at the sight in awe.

Cadance was the only one of the three who noticed the bright red crystal heart in a halo of glitter dust when it appeared on Silica’s flank.

Deliverance

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The mother of the two fillies had been looking at Cadance since she woke, but had so far been silent. Cadance was happy to see that she was already doing better than when she had found her, nonetheless. “What is your name?” she asked and looked at the mare.

“Your Highness,” she blurted out, but quickly composed herself. “My name is White Rose, whenever the wolves aren’t close enough to hear it.”

Cadance smiled and watched the two enthusiastic fillies drawing and writing with the precious glitter they had made, on crude paper which was every bit as precious to them. “To think, I was almost ready to ban all glitter from the empire, and now it just might help them save the empire. Feels like a strange irony.”

White Rose looked up at Cadance. “Why would you ban such a thing, Your Majesty?” Her voice had been robbed of its strength and never rose above a whisper.

“Too much of a good thing …” Cadance said and closed her eyes for a moment of rest. She hadn’t slept since leaving the castle, and she was beginning to feel the effects of it. She wouldn’t be able to afford much rest, however. “It feels like just the other day I was reading all those letters,” she muttered. “Each one glittering with more crystal dust than the one before it.”

“Must have been a wondrous place to live in,” the mare said and hung her head. "So much light and so many colors. I never knew any of that, but my grandmother told me stories."

Cadance opened her eyes and stared at the gray rocks. “I’m glad I could be here, no matter what will happen next.”

“I knew you would come,” the mare turned her weary eyes back on her daughters and their sparkling work. “I didn’t dare hope it would happen in my lifetime, but I knew you would come here one day.”

“Why?” Cadance looked into her brown eyes.

“Because of the message you wrote on the stone,” the mare said and looked up at Cadance. “The ponies living here settled in this place because of that message. Those who’ve lived here since Fenris broke free always hoped that you would return one day, but many have since lost that hope.”

“I—” Cadance stopped herself and thought back. “I see. I assume you speak of the stone in the middle of the lake, in your village?”

She nodded. “There’s an even older message there, but it’s all worn off by time. No one’s ever been able to read it. My grandmother told me once that it was written by Clover the Clever. She always thought it was something to do with time, like the time when you’d return or something. A prophecy or the like, but nopony ever knew.”

“We may never know what Clover wrote,” Cadance admitted, thinking how much of a shame that was. “But I’m starting to think your grandmother could have been on to something. Clover was the student of Starswirl himself, after all. And Starswirl worked out a lot of the theory and practice of time spells. Clover must have known something about this place and its history.”

“Princess, princess!” Silene bounded up to her with the glittery letter in her teeth.

Silica followed behind, hooves and face covered in glitter from the grinding and writing she had done. She was smiling more brightly than all the glitter combined. “We finished our letter, princess!”

Cadance smiled and picked up the letter.

“We used almost half of the glitter to get it just right, though,” Silica said and bit her glittery lips.

“And we only have two more sheets of paper left too,” Silene mumbled and scraped the ground with a hoof.

“Don’t worry about any of that,” Cadance said and gave them each a smile. “It’s a very, very fine drawing. You have done really well, both of you.”

“We used both sides!” Silene chirped and reached out to flip the paper over, eager to show the princess all their hard work.

Cadance turned the paper and read the letter. Their mother leaned over to join her, smiling proudly at her two fillies. “This is excellent,” Cadance said and looked back up at the two. “So who should we send it to? Who should get the very first letter?”

The two fillies looked at their mother before answering. “Our uncle, um, if that's okay,” Silica said and looked back at Cadance and the letter. “We wrote it for him.”

Cadance nodded. “What’s his name?”

“Names aren’t allowed,” Silica muttered.

“But we call him Grainy Grin,” Silene added with a blush to her cheeks, " 'Cause he once had a grain stuck between his front teeth for a whole day before he noticed."

Cadance chuckled. “I see,” she said and hummed in thought as she glanced back at the opening of the cave. “Can you describe where he lives?”

“He lives at the end of the same street as our house, last house on the other side,” White Rose explained. “Are you sure you can get this letter to him safely?”

“It’s a bit tricky when it’s somepony I don’t know and have no established contact with,” Cadance admitted. “But it should work the same.” She took the letter carefully and trotted towards the entrance of the cave. The two fillies and their mother followed, watching as she held the paper up carefully in her magic. The glow reflected and sparkled in all the glitter, creating stars in many colors on the walls of the cave.

“Here we go,” she said and lowered her horn, letting the magic consume the letter. In a flash of pink and purple flames, the letter vanished into smoke, drifting swiftly off towards the village and its hopeful target.

“Wow,” the two fillies gaped at the vanishing letter.

“Alright, kids,” their mother said and nudged them back into the cave. “It’s way past your bedtime now. You need your rest if you’re to write any more letters tomorrow.”

“Aww,” the two looked at Cadance with big, hopeful eyes. “But we’re not tired at all! Can't we stay up just a little longer?”

Cadance just smiled and nuzzled them both. “Your mother is right. Think of the dreams you will have. I am sure they will be something worth writing about tomorrow.”

As the two were ushered back into the cave, Cadance turned and looked out at the gray skies outside.

* * *

Cadance hurried through the dark valley as quickly and quietly as possible. She stopped and turned around, making sure nothing was following her trail. The gorge was a maze to navigate with its narrow crags and winding paths, and the darkness of night did nothing to help her. She hoped the two fillies and their mother would be safe in the cavern while she was out. She wished she could remain with them, but she knew she couldn’t sit around when there was work to do.

If their plan was going to work, they would need more paper and glitter dust. That meant wood and crystals, both of which the wolves had monopolized. Cadance took a moment to collect her breath before hurrying on, moving on light hooves through the dark. Throughout the gorge, the wolves filled the night with their cries. What had been a few lonely howls was now a near constant choir accompanying her flight through the gorge. Word of her appearance must have spread, and now every wolf out there would be looking for her.

The landscape began to rise, and bits of grey grass stuck out from the rocky ground in ragged tufts. Cadance spread her wings and lifted into the air, gliding close to the ground as she cut through the mist towards what looked like a patch of barren trees at the edge of the gorge.

A small rock rolled down the hill somewhere behind her, creating a noise. Cadance quickly dove behind a scraggly bush and held her breath, peeking out from hiding at the path behind her. For a few seconds the landscape was empty, and Cadance wondered if maybe it had been nothing after all. Then a wolf appeared from one of the many maze-like paths and lifted its head to scan its surroundings. It skulked along the path Cadance had followed, its cruel eyes searching the shadows.

Cadance made herself as small as possible in the shadow of the bush as she waited and held her breath. She felt confident that she could take on the wolf, especially with the advantage of surprise, but it might cause a stir and draw attention to where she was. Instead she kept her eyes on the shadow crawling up the hill, slowly making its way towards her. Her lungs ached for breath as it got closer, walking past the bush where she was hiding. It showed no signs of noticing her presence as it continued towards the trees. Cadance watched until it had disappeared from sight, then finally released her breath and slowly snuck back out of the shadows. She took a moment to look around, then made to follow.

She crested the hill and quickly dropped down behind a tree at the edge of the small forest. Further in, a large wooden palisade had been raised. Several wolves were guarding the gate and patrolling the woods around it. Cadance caught a glance through the gate where pieces of firewood were piled high in stacks. A few ponies were slaving away, chopping up the trees and carrying the heavy wood into the palisade under the watchful eyes of the wolves.

Cadance settled down to observe the wolves. There were more than she wanted to take on, and possibly even more that she couldn’t see. There was also still the risk of drawing unwanted attention to herself. Ideally, she would get in there, grab all the wood she could carry, and slip back out without any wolves being the wiser. Her eyes scanned the palisade and its defenses, trying to find some way to get the wolves out of the way.

All the wolves looked bored and on edge, as if they would rather be out hunting for her than sit around to watch a few ponies. Cadance watched as one of the wolves patrolling the wall sauntered up to the gate and leered at a female wolf stationed there.

“Hey there, sweet cheeks,” he said as he circled her.

“My my,” she said and winked at him. “It’s been a whole five minutes.”

“You know I can’t stay away from you, baby,” he grinned and leaned on her, nibbling her ear. “How about we leave this dump and have some fun, hmm? I know a few things we could do.”

She snapped her jaw playfully at him. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He gave her a guilty grin and licked his chops. “Get back to work, you lazy beast,” she barked and smirked as he scampered off, throwing her a wink over his shoulder.

Cadance watched him return to his patrol. Even though wolves were very different from ponies in their sense of romance, she recognized a pair of lovers teasing each other when she saw it. She turned her gaze to the second wolf keeping watch of the gate. A male, looking bored out of his mind and ready to do just about anything to relieve that boredom. Cadance glanced around at the other wolves. There was a good mix, she thought and smiled. What these wolves needed was a little dash of love to distract them from the doldrums of their work.

Cadance hid herself in the shadows of the tree and tried to cover the glow of her horn as she directed it at one wolf after another. Each wolf in turn blinked their eyes, and their gaze began to drift towards their fellows, just a glance, and another … Cadance kept herself from giggling behind the tree as new ideas and feelings began to bubble up in the hearts of the wolves.

The wolf at the gate glanced at the other wolf by his side and grinned, leaning over to say something in her ear. She looked at him and smiled. Cadance could almost see the lust in their eyes. Other wolves were sharing much the same looks.

It didn’t take long for a certain other he-wolf to notice his lady wolf drooling over the hunk of a wolf she was supposed to guard the gate with. It took even less time for the floodgates to burst and the fighting and confusion to break out. Cadance reminded herself that this was war, and everything was fair in love and war.

The ponies slaving away on the wood stopped their work and backed away from the quarreling wolves, eyes wide and fearful. Cadance moved swiftly from tree to tree as the wolves fought, getting close to the palisade and the ponies working there without being seen.

“Psst!” she hissed to get their attention.

One of the ponies jumped and spun around at the sound, only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw Cadance. Her eyes grew in size at the sight, and her mouth hung open. Other ponies quickly looked around and joined her in stunned silence.

Cadance didn’t have the time to waste with explanations or assurances, much less planning what she was going to do. She had to act before the wolves noticed. Hurrying up to a pile of wood, she began calling out orders in a hushed voice. “Grab any wood you can and follow me! Move move move! Before the wolves see us!” She grabbed several pieces of wood in her magic and distributed it among the stunned and confused ponies.

Some of them picked up on what was going on more quickly than others, and soon the ponies were grabbing wood and lining up around Cadance, loaded with as much as they could carry in a hurry and giving the rest to those who were less quick on the uptake.

Cadance glanced back at the wolves as she shushed the frightened ponies down the hill under the cover of the trees and rocks. There would not be much time before the wolves noticed something was amiss, and then they’d be right on their trail. She hurried after the last pony, urging them to go faster.

They made it as far as the edge of the forest before the cries of surprise and howls of anger began behind them. Cadance cursed herself as she heard the wolves and looked back to see their shadows moving among the trees. All this trouble to not draw attention, and then she went and did this. She should have snuck in, grabbed as much wood as she could, and snuck back out without alerting wolves or ponies to what was going on. But she just didn’t have the heart to leave the ponies behind with the wolves.

“Run!” she called, and looked with worry at the barren hills and plains full of rocks. There was no point hiding now. The group of ponies galloped as hard as they could down the hill, loaded down with wood.

Behind them, the wolves burst out of the forest and came after them in snarling pursuit.

“I’m such a fool!” she cursed herself under her breath. She had been a weak-hearted fool, and because of that she had put these ponies in worse danger than they had been in before. She swore out loud and spun around, putting herself directly in the line of the charging wolves. “Keep running! Hide!” She yelled at the ponies behind her, hoping they would listen and obey.

She had no time to make sure they did before the wolves were upon her, charging and leaping at her from all sides. Her horn flared to life, striking a wolf with a blast of magic and lifting another into the air. She spread her wings to take flight and struck another wolf down in mid-pounce. Her hooves lifted off the ground as she threw the wolf at another.

Her eyes darted around at the beasts all around her, trying to keep track of them all. In the confusion, she didn’t see the wolf on her right before it hit her. Cadance cried out in shock and pain as she hit the ground and twisted her wing against the sharp stones.

The wolf’s savage jaws closed tight around her neck, its sharp teeth sinking deep into her throat. Cadance choked out a last bleat as the rest of the pack closed in on all sides.

Blood Letters

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In her last moments, before death washed away her thoughts, Cadance felt relieved that she could no longer feel the wolves tearing at her limbs or hear the dying screams of ponies around her. It all seemed a world and a lifetime away as she stared blankly ahead, allowing herself to cry a little.

The world and all she ever knew slowly faded as her life ended.

“…”

“Come now, must I really? You simply have no sense of adventure. No?”

A lion’s paw made a snap in the dark, and a coin lit up the blackness with a warm golden-green light. The coin whispered with a crystal hum through the empty void, polished to a sheen and blinking like a strobe light as it sang. The coin tumbled end over end before landing inside a circle formed by a dragon’s tail. Eyes of red and yellow, ringed with weary black lines, peered up at the four-leafed clover displayed on the face of the coin.

“…”

“You’re just no fun at all. Oh alright, have it your way then, little clover!”

An eagle’s claw peeled the coin off the wall of the void like a piece of old gum. Rocks and dirt crackled beneath the steps of a goat and a dragon. The lion’s paw reached down and grabbed her muzzle, pulling her mouth open. The eagle’s claw shoved the coin in her mouth, and the paw closed it again, patting her muzzle.

“Eat your clover, Princess. Eat it, and let’s never speak of this again.” The dragon’s tail swished the rocks aside in a circle, throwing up a cloud of dust as it turned around. The eagle’s claw raised and made to snap.

It paused.

“Oh! Of course. I nearly forgot.”

The claw snapped and a large, glittering heart of solid crystal fell out of the darkness and hit her over the head with a hollow thunk.

“Do me a favor and dispose of this, will you? There’s a good princess.”

The claw snapped again, and all the lights went out.

* * *

Cadance realized that she had been staring, for how long she could not tell, nor at what she had been staring. She opened her mouth and drew a ragged breath. It took her several minutes before she found the strength to take another breath. With it, the world slowly came back into focus around her. The savaged body of a pony lay sprawled among the barren rocks mere feet from her eyes, its face twisted in a last bleat of agonized terror.

She gasped and struggled with her legs to stand, falling several times before she managed to stand up unsteadily. She turned her head to gaze at the world around her, her jaw slack with horror. Ponies lay scattered on the blood-slick ground around her, some missing limbs, one missing her head, all of them dead. Only one wolf had given its life with them, its body slung across the ground and twisted in a painful display.

Topiary wolves, made all of clovers, stood above the carnage, their faces frozen half-way between fury and stunned surprise at their sudden and nonsensical demise. Cadance couldn’t rationally process that part of the scene. All she could think about was the ponies she had tried to save. They had all died because she had been a fool to think she could march straight in there and free them all.

She closed her eyes, her body shaking with grief. “I’m sorry!” she cried, her voice breaking.

Her left wing hung limp and heavy from her side, bloodied and torn, broken feathers sticking out at odd angles. Cadance sniffled and looked down at herself. Her gaze froze, and her mind struggled to process the ghastly sight. Her left side had been torn open, revealing a glimpse of bone and organs. Her legs were torn and bloody, and her throat was one big gaping wound. Only one wing was relatively unscathed by the savage attack.

Only slowly did it dawn on her that she still couldn’t feel her body, or any of her wounds. The slow realization that she was still dead crept up her broken spine.

Cadance sunk to her knees, staring at the ground, her breath caught in her savaged throat. A dusty heart of crystal lay in the dirt before her, only now catching her attention. She reached out and dug it out from beneath the grime and dirt, tenderly cradling it in her hooves. “Discord …” she whispered in despair at the heart. “Why?”

There was no response.

* * *

The encampment of the wolves lay within the forest, both now silent but for the far-away howls haunting the night. Cadance stumbled forwards and sank to her knees, sudden pain escaping her body in a scream. Drool and blood flowed down her chin as she coughed and lay her head down on the ground, gasping for a moment with her eyes closed.

Slowly her thoughts returned as the pain faded for a moment, and she stumbled unsteadily back on her legs. Determination kept her going, dragging herself forward. She stepped unsteadily through the wooden gates of the camp and stopped to look at the stacks and piles and timber and firewood. Had they all died—had she died—for nothing more than a few pieces of wood? She felt the anger well up inside her, and coughed again.

“W-what’s happening to me?” she gasped through another stab of pain, but no one was there to give her answer. She closed her eyes and drew a long breath. She had promised she’d find them more wood and crystals, and if she didn’t this would all have been for nothing. Now that the wolves were gone, she could search the place properly. She opened her eyes again and stared at the camp. Ghostly flickers of the ponies she had killed walked around the place in her imagination, going about the work she had tried to save them from. Cadance shook them from her mind and turned around.

She found a shed behind the camp, its door locked with a heavy chain. Cadance leveled her horn at the lock and released a blast of energy. A crackling bolt of magic shattered the lock and much of the door. Cadance closed her eyes for a moment before resolving herself and walking into the dark shed.

Tools lined the walls, while legs of meat hung from the ceiling to dry. Cadance ignored the meat, trying to not imagine what—or who—it had come from. She walked through the shed and stopped at a stack of crates beneath a table. Her magic glowed as she pulled out each crate and ripped them open, swiftly searching through their contents. She was surprised to find them filled with golden bits, gems, jewels and pieces of crystal; payment and confiscated goods, she imagined as she went through them all. It could be the first stroke of luck this night, but it did nothing to cleanse the failure and ill fortune from her mind.

All of the gems and crystals were a dull grey or brown, with only the slightest hint of color deep within, like everything else in this world of drained and washed out colors. Cadance quickly emptied one of the boxes and began filling it with all the crystals and gems she could find. In the distance she could hear the howling of wolves growing closer, undoubtedly drawn this way by the scent of blood and death not far from the camp. Cadance picked up her pace, hoping the bodies she had left behind would distract the wolves long enough to let her slip away unnoticed this time. The thought of cynically leaving their bodies as distraction pained her heart, but she shook it off, forcing herself to stuff the last crystals in the box. She placed the crystal heart on top and closed the box tight.

Her back loaded with wood and her magic straining to lift the heavy box of crystals, Cadance hurried into the woods and away from the camp as fast as she could force herself to go. The howling had grown to a cacophony of wild and angry voices in the distance. They won’t like it when they find out, Cadance thought as she struggled down the hill, hiding herself behind rocks and shrubs.

She could only hope it would keep them away from where she was going, if only for a little while. She tried not to think what would happen when they picked up her trail. For now, there simply was no time.

* * *

Another shot of pain flashed through every nerve in her spine, worse than all the ones before it. Her body trembled, and she lost her grip on the box of gems, collapsing to the ground with a choked wail. The shots of pain were the only things she could still feel, and they came like stabs of searing fire up her spine and through her barrel.

Cadance trembled as she forced herself forwards, summoning all her strength to lift the crate again. She had long since given up worrying about the wolves she might run into, or the ones that were sure to follow. She simply didn’t have the strength to keep herself hidden or watch out for any dangers lying in wait. All her energy and attention went into dragging herself on, not even sure how much further it was, or if she would be walking right past the cave in her current state.

She stumbled but kept going, ignoring a new flash of pain. She walked her way through the pain, dragging herself over and down a craggy hill, around cliffs and rocks. She had no sense of how long she had walked when she collapsed again, her energy long since spent.

Cadance lifted her head and blinked at the darkness and the night. She thought she could see the cave, just ahead among the cliffs. She pushed herself up with a groan, forcing herself all the way to her hooves. Magic crackled and sparked along her aching horn as she lifted the box of gems and grit her teeth, taking first one small step, then another.

“H-help,” she hissed and winced in pain, knowing that she couldn’t make it many more steps. She took another step and tried to raise her voice. “Help!”

A mare’s head peeked out from the cave and stared into the darkness. A moment later she spotted Cadance. White Rose gasped and rushed out of the cave, reaching Cadance in a few long strides and propping her up. “Oh sweet heavens, Princess! What happened?”

Cadance was barely conscious as she leaned against the mare, struggling the last steps into the cave. With a final sigh her legs collapsed beneath her, the box clattering to the rocks as well. Pain surged through her body, and Cadance let out a cry of anguish, though she was only dimly aware of what was going on.

“O-oh dear,” White Rose stammered somewhere beside her. “W-what—how did this …” Lost for words she knelt down beside the anguished and bloodied alicorn, her eyes meeting Cadance’s.

Cadance gasped for breath, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Fire burned inside her body like a miniature dying sun. Distantly, as if through the veil of dreams, she heard White Rose call her two daughters for help.

“Silene! Silica! I need your help now!”

“M-mom, what’s happening?” Silene stammered, her voice tiny and scared. Close by, Silica was crying openly. “W-what’s happening to her?”

“She’s foaling,” their mother said. “Now help me, both of you. She’s very badly hurt.”

Cadance gasped and cried out again as her body was wracked by the shots of pain. A tiny hoof brushed her mane from her eyes, and Silica’s voice whispered to her, “I-it’s okay … it’s okay. Can you breathe, P-princess? Just try to breathe.”

“Push, princess,” White Rose said somewhere far, far away. Cadance let out another cry before the last awareness left her.

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Her broken wing was being dragged along the floor behind her, leaving a wide trail of blood and feathers. The world was filled with youthful sobs, fearful and lost, dancing with echoes around her. Cadance cracked her eyes open an inch, staring at the roof of stone slowly sliding out of view behind her, replaced by gray clouds. She blinked once and felt her lips crack apart. A low moan slipped from her lips, and her head hit the ground as the world stopped moving.

Cadance clenched her eyes shut for a moment, then opened them again. She closed her mouth and focused on moving one leg at a time, trying to work out her muscles. A scream interrupted her. She was about to turn her head to see who had screamed and why, when the blur of a pony trampled right over her, leaving a pair of horseshoe-shaped marks around her eyes.

It took her a moment to recover from the surprise. Slowly, she scrambled back on her legs, falling twice before she managed to get up. She looked around herself, taking in the place. She was at the cave mouth. The gorge was empty and silent all around her.

What had happened to the wolves? Cadance rubbed the base of her horn and looked back at the cave. A faint light flickered behind all the darkness, far in the back of the cave. She turned slowly and approached it, following the thick trail of her own blood.

A rock came out of the darkness and smacked her in the nose. She had barely taken a step backwards when another rock strafed by her neck and a third struck the ground at her front left hoof. “Whhh—” her voice cracked, coming out as a raspy hiss instead.

“Stay back!” A mare galloped out of the darkness at the back of the cave, waving a torch wildly in Cadance’s face. “Leave this poor mare’s body, evil spirit!” In the flames and waving light she could barely recognize White Rose, the mother of the two fillies. Another rock hit her leg and drove her back another step.

“Y-eah!” a filly’s voice said from within the darkness as another rock struck her squarely between the eyes. “Y-you can’t have our brains! They’re ours, and we’re using them!”

Cadance was frantically trying to hold back the barrage of rocks and get her voice under control. She opened her mouth again, only to find herself biting down on a burning torch. The rocks had merely startled her, she couldn’t even feel it as they struck her. The fire was different. Cadance stumbled back, waving her hooves as flames engulfed her face.

Her struggle with the fire emboldened her attackers, who rained down on her with rocks and hooves, stomping and kicking. Cadance cried—or would have cried if she could—and held up her one good wing to try and hold off the assault. Her feathers crackled in the flames, which was the only reason her attackers seemed to back off.

A glow gathered around her horn as she seized the brief reprieve. Cadance focused all her strength into the spell, raising a shimmering shield all around herself. She didn’t even have time to check if the spell would hold; frantically, she rolled herself on the floor of the cave, trying to extinguish the flames searing her face and wing.

She collapsed on the cold floor, acrid smoke from her smoldering wings slowly filling the magical bubble and obscuring her view. Her ears slowly picked up the low sobbing from the back of the cave, and the fearful breaths of her attackers watching her still. The torch had gone out, no more than a black stump of wood at her hooves.

“I—” she croaked, coughed and tried to stand. She gave up after the third attempt and just lay there under her glowing bubble. “I’m not … going to hurt you,” she finally managed to say. She repeated it over and over again, but the only response she got was tense silence and quiet sobs from the back.

She lay there for a time, then slowly pulled herself up on her knees. Further she couldn’t manage. She picked up the torch and carefully lit it, making sure to levitate it at a safe distance from herself. She looked around, then gently drifted the torch through her shield towards the shadow of White Rose.

The mare took a step back, watching the floating light with suspicion. When nothing bad seemed to happen, she carefully took it in her mouth and held it up as she approached the shield. Her wide eyes studied Cadance, watching for any sudden movements. Their eyes met. “Y-you’re dead!” the mother stammered around her hold on the torch. “I checked myself! You were dead as a doornail! Gone for good! You c-can’t be talking to us!”

Cadance lowered her head and closed her eyes. She couldn’t deny what the mare was saying. She knew the truth in her still heart. She was dead, or rightfully should be still. “I don’t … I don’t know what happened to me,” she said, ears drooping. “But I swear to you on all that I hold dear that I am still me.” She looked up at the mother. “And I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever hurt you or your girls.”

“That’s four evers,” a tiny voice whispered in the back.

White Rose glanced over her shoulder at her girls, her tail flicking nervously.

“What … did happen?” Cadance asked, trying to recall the events leading up to this moment and hoping the conversation might calm the three ponies. A low crying sounded from the back, a new voice she hadn’t heard before. Cadance’s ears perked up, her eyes wandering the darkness for the source. “What … who is that?”

Their mother shifted uneasily. “You … had a foal.”

* * *

Cadance lifted a hoof to her eyes and shook her head. Had she passed out? “What …” She opened her eyes and saw the dark cave around her. Her magical shield had collapsed when she passed out, but nopony had dared come near her it seemed. The two fillies had retreated near the back of the cave. Their mother was still staring at her.

Cadance stared at the darkness behind White Rose, beyond the reach of the torch. It couldn’t be true. Believing that her heart had indeed stopped beating hours ago, and that her body had gained more holes in a day than Queen Chrysalis had in a lifetime were somehow easier to accept. Slowly, as if in a dream, she forced herself to her hooves and took a step towards the back of the cave.

The torch was in her face before she could set her hoof down. “I-I can’t let you go near!” White Rose warned her sharply. “You won’t come near me or my girls, no matter what you are.”

The crying resumed. Cadance took a step back, shocked and hurt. “I …” She didn’t know what to say. “You’re saying …” She slumped down on her haunches. “My foal?”

“A filly. She was born much too early, when you ...” she trailed off, still keeping her guard. “W-we don’t know if she will survive. She may be too weak to … to make it.”

Cadance barely heard any of it. She was back on her hooves, heedlessly pushing past the other mare. White Rose’s protests proved fruitless as she was hoisted into the air, dangling a few inches off the floor in a soft pink glow. Cadance stopped and stared at the tiny unicorn foal cradled in Silene’s hooves.

The two fillies gaped at her, frozen to the spot in their corner of the darkness. Cadance reached out a trembling hoof towards the foal. The miniscule filly opened her eyes a crack and let out a few half-hearted cries. Her eyes caught sight of Cadance, and her little mouth hung open as she stopped crying and stared at her mother with dull eyes.

Cadance stared back, transfixed by the face of her daughter, until Silene held the foal up for her and broke the spell. Cadance blinked and looked between her daughter and Silene, then she gently took the foal in her hooves and sat down. The foal let out a little lost cry before closing her eyes again and settling into her mother’s chest fur.

White Rose nervously circled Cadance to reach her girls as she was set back down on her hooves. She reached the two fillies and wrapped her hooves around them as she watched Cadance nuzzle the foal. “She … knows her mother, at least,” she conceded.

Cadance said nothing, but merely held the foal to her dead heart, crying without tears. Her horn glowed, surrounding her daughter in a warm blanket of light.

“W-will she live?” Silene looked at her mother with large, fearful eyes.

White Rose looked at the tiny foal for a long time. “She … must feed if there’s to be any hope,” she said and glanced at Cadance. Cadance felt a tightness around her heart and looked up at White Rose with despairing eyes. The mare looked down at the cold ground. “I … I haven’t had milk to give since Silene stopped nursing years ago.”

Cadance looked down at herself. The tiny foal wasn’t even trying to suckle from her, she just lay against her chest, too weak to open her eyes. She knew, in a way she couldn’t explain, that it would have been fruitless to try. The thought of a corpse nurturing her daughter filled her with revolt besides—even if that corpse happened to be herself.

None of them spoke until the silence struck her. Cadance lifted her head and looked around the cave, her ears turning to catch some elusive sound. She had been too distraught and confused to notice, but it should have been the first thing on her mind. “The wolves,” she said and looked at the mother and her two girls. “They’re not howling.”

“They were howling all over the gorge when you were foaling,” White Rose said quietly as she held her daughters close to her. “Then they drifted off, and we haven’t heard them since.”

Cadance looked around the cave, watching the pools and trails of dried blood. The tracks of dark red led out of the cave and into the gorge, no doubt leading all the way back to where she had fought the wolves. “Even if they all had been struck blind, they could have easily followed that trail right to us.” Her dead heart sank at the thought of how stupid she had been. Not only had she gotten all of those ponies killed, she could have led the wolves directly to the two girls and their mother as well. It was a miracle that they hadn’t been taken or killed while Cadance was unconscious.

“Why?” she asked of the darkness in the cave around her, expecting—and getting—no answer. “Why haven’t they come for us?”

“They’re afraid of you,” White Rose said finally, as if Cadance was blind and possibly stupid for not seeing it. “You stink of death to them, and you look no better from here. Not even wolves will follow the trail of something that bled as much as you and still crawled all the way here. I bet they didn’t get paid to deal with something like that, so they’re falling back, leaving the area.”

“That just means they’re coming back with all their friends,” Cadance said. “They’ll kill everything, probably burn the whole place down just to be sure. And we have nowhere to go.” She looked down at her daughter and nuzzled her tiny cheek, trying to gather her thoughts.

She looked at the mother again, her eyes begging for some hope. “My daughter can’t survive even a day in this cave. She needs help. Is there anypony in town who can nurse her?”

The mother looked troubled. “They might not even listen to us. And if the wolves find out—”

“They’ll kill us all regardless at this point,” Cadance said. “The ponies in your village must know that. We’re going to have to fight back, and we don’t have much time. Please, I need my daughter to live! Take her to the village, tell them what’s happening. Find somepony who will nurse her and keep her warm. I beg you.”

“I … I will try,” White Rose said and looked down, biting her lip. “But what will we do? We can’t fight the wolves. There are just too many, and … and …” She looked around at her two daughters, tears in her eyes. “How can we hope to survive?”

Silica and her sister hugged their mother tightly. “We’ll find a way, mom,” Silica said.

“We need to give the ponies here some hope. We need to help them conquer this fear,” Cadance said. “You two need to keep making letters, give them some color and light to believe in. I brought all the gems and wood I could carry,” she said and looked around, hoping she really had made it all the way with all the gems and wood she had so stupidly stolen. “Make all the glitter and paper you can,” she said to the girls, then looked at their mother, “and if there is any more in the village, bring it back here as well.”

It wasn’t enough, she knew, but she could never have told the girls that. How many ponies were in the village? A hundred, maybe two hundred if they were lucky, and none of them were soldiers she guessed. No amount of hope would make that into an army, but surely it was better that they fight and die than whatever fate awaited them if they didn’t.

“I’m not leaving my girls here,” their mother said, her voice trembling.

With me, Cadance thought with a stab of sadness. The mare would never trust her, no matter what happened; many ponies never would if they knew or suspected what she had become. In truth, her greatest fear was to be left alone in this cave, and she doubted the villagers would welcome her when they hadn’t before. She debated whether to think of another reason to tell their mother, but she couldn’t think of a good one. She looked down and closed her eyes. “I … cannot go with you, I cannot let the village see me like this,” she said and looked at the three of them. “Please don’t leave me here all alone.”

Silica put a hoof on her mother’s shoulder and looked up at her. “It’s okay, mom.”

White Rose looked like she was fighting with herself, clearly wanting to argue but at the same time not finding the heart to do so. She looked at her daughters sadly. “Just … be safe,” she said and scooped them up in a tight hug. “I couldn’t bear to lose you.”

“Don’t worry, mom,” Silene cried as she hugged her mom. “Cadance will keep us safe.”

White Rose looked at Cadance, pleading her not to prove her daughter wrong. Cadance met the gaze. “I won’t let any harm come to your daughters, I swear on all that I hold dear,” she swore and looked down, then held up her daughter, feeling the urge to burst into tears.

Their mother took the foal and cradled her gently against her chest with one leg.

Cadance stared at the tiny unicorn. “It still doesn’t make sense,” she said with a dry throat. “What magic could have given me this foal?”

“Not magic,” their mother said. A tiny hint of a warm smile crept up her lips. “A stallion. I do hope you know who it was, Your Highness.”

Cadance almost laughed at the absurdity. “Of course I know who it—But—” she flailed around for some way to make sense of it all and found none.

The mother looked her up and down for a moment. “You didn’t know, did you? All these months, and you didn’t know you were pregnant?”

Cadance stared at her. “I guess …” she finally said. “No, I guess I didn’t. I … I couldn’t have been.” Her voice got a little defensive, and a weak laugh escaped her. “I think I would have noticed,” she said.

White Rose reached out a hoof, hesitated, then finally rested it on her shoulder. “You did look a little round around the barrel when we met,” she said. “I didn’t think it was my place to comment on Your Highness’ figure, of course.”

Cadance felt a little shock of indignation, and an urge to protest. She swallowed it quickly. Could it be that no one had noticed? Or had they all just been too polite to say that she looked … a little round around the barrel. There had been signs, now that she thought back, but she had never truly made anything of it. Had no one else? Why should they, if she didn’t?

White Rose patted her shoulder. “You wouldn’t be the first mare to not realize she was with a foal until the little one was half-way out. Some mares just don’t show it. I on the other hoof was puffed up like a balloon both times. I almost want to smack you for being spared that.” She withdrew her hoof and looked at Cadance and the blood all over the floor. “But I wouldn’t trade.”

Cadance stared at her foal for several moments longer before tearing her gaze away and taking a step back. “Go,” she said. “Before I try to stop you. Find somepony who will care for her and see what you can learn about what the wolves are doing.”

“I will try,” White Rose said and backed away, holding the foal close to her. She looked around at her two fillies, who gave her one last tight hug, then she turned and galloped out of the cave. Cadance watched her until she had disappeared and for a long time after.

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The pool of melted ice and snow was deep red when she rose from it. It was the third such pool she had made now, not far from the opening of the cave, in an attempt to wash all the blood and dirt from her mane and coat. It had helped her appearance immeasurably and given her a chance to look at her wounds more closely.

Cadance turned away from the bloody pool of water and lowered her horn at another pile of snow. It melted quickly and gathered in a large pool at her hooves. She took a step forward and looked down into the water at her reflection staring back.

Her face had been burnt by the torch but was otherwise unmarred by her recent experiences. Starting with her neck, things looked much worse. Her entire right side had been savaged by the wolves, including the wing. A rib was visible, and behind it … she thought she could see her heart. Cadance looked away, disturbed by the idea of looking at her own internal organs.

Without looking, she took her broken wing in her magic and lifted it off the ground where it had been trailing. Gritting her teeth, she gave it a hard tug, popping the bones back into place with a loud series of cracks. Despite the lack of feeling, the sound alone was anything but pleasant.

She gave the wing a few stiff flaps until it felt better, then folded it carefully along her side, covering most of her wounds with the half-burnt feathers. Looking herself in the water again, she could almost believe she didn’t look like a zombie. Maybe if she got it stitched … a bit of cosmetics to cover … Cadance stared at herself. If that wasn’t enough, perhaps she could look into illusion magic. Perhaps … no one would ever have to know.

She’d had time to think and gather her thoughts, as she washed the blood from her coat. She knew with a horrible certainty that her daughter would live and they would find a way home. How, she couldn’t imagine, nor what would happen to the ponies here. But since she was here, the past would have to be fixed; the past said that she and her daughter had fought and chained the wolf, and that could only happen if she found her way back to her own time.

Cadance tried to imagine what would have happened to the timeline if she had actually died here, or if she failed to find her way back. She and her daughter would never have returned, and never defeated and bound Fenris the first time. Who could say what future would have happened instead of this one. Was that why Discord had saved her, in his way? To avoid destroying this timeline … and himself, as he was now?

Was he perhaps having fun here, in this future? Playing fetch with Fenris with the sun and moon. White Rose and Silica had said he was possibly mad, but when hadn’t that ever been true of him? Cadance shook her head. Asking questions about the motivations and logic of that creature was like … No, nothing good could come of that.

She turned away from the slowly freezing pools of red water and made her way back into the cave where the two fillies were hard at work grinding rocks to glitter dust and wood to pulp. Looking at it, Cadance found it hard to picture the end product, much less how any of it would save them from Fenris and his wolves. She knew, logically, what the plan was with all of it, but logic didn’t give her the confidence she desperately wanted.

What was she doing? She sat down heavily and watched the fillies work. Maybe if she left, maybe if she threw herself at Fenris with all she’d got, he would be satisfied and leave the ponies here alone … Or she would fray the timeline with her death and cause unimaginable chaos to all of Existence.

Cadance closed her eyes and gave herself over to the calming sound of stone against stone as Silica applied her craft, creating heaps and heaps of colorful crystal dust. After a while, she got back up and walked over to help the fillies. A little magic assistance couldn’t hurt.

* * *

If she survived all this, Cadance was going to be picking glitter out of her mane for years after. She dared not even imagine how long the two fillies would be glittering; the rest of their lives, most likely. Silica was practically glowing like a tiny prismatic sun after grinding hundreds of gems into dust. Cadance watched her wipe her brow before moving on to the next pile of gems, an act which did nothing more than smear the thick layer of glitter around her face.

If their situation hadn’t been so hopeless, this would surely have been every little filly’s idea of heaven. As long as it was followed by a coronation, at least.

Cadance turned her head to watch Silene carefully smearing the still-wet paper with crystal dust and coal. Her little tongue stuck out the side of her muzzle as she painted her pictures of smiling suns and pretty, prancing ponies in glimmering dresses made of sunshine and rainbows.

Silene picked up her drawing, carefully holding it in her hooves as she edged closer to the little fire Cadance had lit to keep them warm. She leaned forward very carefully and held the moist paper near the flames to dry.

Cadance was about to pick the paper up in her magic, to spare the filly from holding it, when the paper began to crackle. Silene’s eyes opened wide, and her hooves fumbled with the paper. Cadance didn’t have time to react before a flash of bright yellow light and a cloud of smoke blinded her. She heard Silene cry out in surprise and fall on her tail. Cadance rushed forward and cast a spell to clear the smoke away.

Silene was sitting on her rump, her hooves still outstretched as if holding the paper. Her surprised face was painted with soot and glitter, and her mane was blown back, looking like a bedraggled porcupine. Cadance couldn’t help but laugh at the sight, once she saw that nothing worse had happened. She stepped over to the filly and helped her back on her hooves. Behind them, Silica was roaring with laughter.

“Whoa …” Silene said and looked down at her hooves, amazed. Then she looked at the paper, coal and crystal dust scattered all over the cave. “That. Was. Awesome!” she exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with wonder and excitement.

“Be careful now,” Cadance said, recognizing that dangerous look of inspiration in her bright young eyes. “Don’t want to get anypony hurt now.” She wasn’t sure if the filly heard her at all. She was already busy studying the different piles of powder her sister had created. Cadance gnawed on her lip and stepped around the fire, watching the girl.

Silene looked around until she found a relatively long stick among the small pile of remaining wood. Then she took a tiny bit of crystal dust and held it into the fire. When nothing happened but a slightly charred stick, she tried another pile of glimmer. Cadance watched her go through each pile this way, then she started mixing them, methodically going through each combination.

Silica’s work had slowed down as she too watched her sister experiment. “What is she doing?” she whispered to Cadance.

“Something that would make Twilight Sparkle proud, I am sure,” she replied and gave the little ball of condensed glitter an affectionate nuzzle.

“Princess Twilight?” Silica asked, looking up at Cadance with big eyes. “Why?”

“She loves—loved science and experiments,” Cadance said, her voice cracking with emotion as she wondered what had become of her sister-in-law and all her friends in this bleak future.

They both looked back at Silene as the filly held the stick carefully into the flames once more. The flames barely licked the tiny pile of dust at the end of the stick before it exploded in a flash of bright light and smoke, sending a small cloud of glitter into the air. The fillies coughed and Cadance cleared the air once more.

“That was so cool!” Silica cheered and ran up to hug her sister. She stopped and stared.

Silene grinned and looked at the exploded stick. “Heh. Do you know what this means?” she asked, looking at her sister’s gaping face. Silene tilted her head. “What?”

Silica broke into a grin and poked her sister’s flank.

“Hey, stop th—” Silene turned around to escape her sister’s poking but came to a halt when her eyes caught what she was poking at. She gave a squee and spun around herself like a dog chasing its tail. “My cutie mark!”

Cadance chuckled and got up, walking around to have a look. A flame and crystal beaker had appeared on the filly’s flank. She smiled and ruffled the girl’s soot- and glitter-smeared mane. “We have found ourselves the world’s next mad scientist, I think.”

Silene giggled, her eyes glimmering with mischief. “I’m gonna make all the pretty explosions!”

“Save some glitter for the letters,” Cadance reminded her, but again she wasn’t sure the filly had heard her. Shaking her head she walked out into the cold, misty air of the gorge to watch for their mother’s return.

* * *

“Mom! Look!” Silene burst out of the cave and into her mother’s surprised hooves. “Look!” she repeated and spun around, proudly showing off her cutie mark.

“Silene?” White Rose said in surprise before she saw the mark. She brightened up immediately. “You got your cutie mark, it … looks dangerous.” Her brief excitement on her daughter's behalf turned to mild apprehension at the implications.

Cadance chuckled. That cutie mark had to be every parent’s worst nightmare. She was about to open her mouth, but the excited filly had already grabbed her mother’s hoof and was dragging her along with her into the cave. “Come on! I gotta show you what I’ve made!” she said.

White Rose did her best to keep up, followed a moment later by Cadance. Cadance reflected that the cave looked like somepony had blown up one of the big jewelry stores in Canterlot. She stepped carefully around the piles of glitter, stacks of crude paper, and finished drawings. The two fillies had been amazingly productive.

Silene dragged her mother into the light of the small fire and let go, jumping excitedly over to her piles of powders and papers. “Look, mom!” she said and took a letter and folded it into a simple paper plane. Her mom watched her with a worried smile as she lit one corner of the paper plane and threw it into the air.

A bright flash followed, filling the air with glitter in all the colors of the rainbow. Their mother jumped back in shock and surprise, staring at the flaming glitter. Silene jumped up and down like a filly who had found the secret stash of sugar and gone absolutely wild. “See? Did you see?”

Her mother composed herself and smiled. “That was …” She looked around at all the piles of dust and paper, lost for words.

“We can make pretty drawings for everypony,” Silene continued, unstoppable in her enthusiasm. “And they can make paper planes, and when they light them on fire—” She made a gesture with her hooves “—BOOM! Glitter!” Her face twisted into a huge, expectant grin at her mother. “Glitter, mom!”

“That’s …” White Rose patted her wild mane, making a feeble attempt to smooth it back out as she sought for something appropriate to say. “That’s wonderful. But isn’t it a … little dangerous, do you think?”

“Pffft,” Silene scoffed and brushed back her mane with both hooves. “Danger Schmanger! Them wolves will be all like—” She made another gesture with her hooves “—BOOM!” She made a face like somepony who had just had a face full of explosive glitter. It was a very convincing face, authentic even.

Her mother stared at her, then laughed. “Yes, I’ll believe that.”

Cadance decided to break in, turning to their mother. “Did you find somepony who can take care of my daughter?” she asked anxiously while Silene and her sister went back to work.

Their mother nodded. “They’re all still frightened, but the letters have given them some hope. I found a young mare who had a little foal of her own. She was willing to take good care of your daughter. The poor thing is still weak, but I saw the mare nursing her before I left,” she said.

A wave of relief washed over Cadance as she walked towards the cave entrance, gazing out into the gray and white emptiness surrounding them. “And the wolves? Are there any news about them?”

The mother followed her. “They are gathering in large numbers at the edge of the gorge, waiting for something. There’s word they have the whole gorge surrounded, and that there are a huge number of wolves joining them from the lands around us.”

“They’re not going to take any chances,” Cadance mused. “They’re going to sweep through the gorge and kill everything in their path.”

“What are we going to do?” the mare said, her ears drooping.

Cadance glanced back towards the cave, where the two fillies were hard at work. “We give them the best welcome we can,” she said, hoping it didn’t sound as desperate as she felt.

* * *

Silica held out the stack of explosive, glittering letters they had made to their mother who took them, with some trepidation, and put them in her saddlebags. “I’ll make sure to give them to everypony in the village,” she said. “If … if it gives them hope and maybe … maybe some way to fight back, then it is the best we can hope to do.”

“We’ll make even more while you’re gone,” Silica said and hugged her mother. “The wolves will be so surprised, they won’t know their heads from their tails!”

Cadance smiled sadly as she watched the fillies hug their mother and say goodbye. The mare turned to Cadance and bowed her head slightly before turning, walking off into the mist with the letters for the village. Cadance and the two fillies watched her until she vanished in the gray and white mists hanging heavy over the gorge.

Cadance looked into the cave, where the piles of dust and paper had somewhat diminished. How many more letter bombs could they produce? How many would it take to drive back the wolves, and even if they had enough for that, what would they do afterwards?

The glitter sparkled in the dark. Cadance watched until the darkness and the glimmering dust had swallowed everything around her. If she had been alive still, her eyes would have watered and she might have turned away or blinked.

Her eyes slowly drifted to the back of the cave, where a blue flame glowed. She almost jumped out of her skin when she thought she felt a sudden beat in her chest, but it hadn’t been … Couldn’t have been. “The Crystal Heart!” she gasped under her breath.

A memory tickled her ear. “Do me a favor and dispose of this, will you? There’s a good princess.”

Cadance stared at the darkness, her mind suddenly one bright flame. Slowly she reached out with her magic, picking up the heavy heart of crystal, and turned to the two girls. “Silica,” she said and held the heart out to the filly. “Do you think you can grind this?”

Silica looked at the heart, then up at Cadance. “Princess—”

Cadance smiled at the filly. “Grind it,” she said. “Trust me.”

Silica took the heart in her hooves, struggling with the weight for a moment. She gazed down at the brilliant azure heart gem, as if she was holding something sacred, something she had just been told to destroy.

“Trust me,” Cadance repeated and nuzzled her cheek, then turned to her sister. “Silene … I want you to make as much explosive powder as you can from what we’ve got left. All of it.” She gave both girls a confident smile. “Then we’ll show those wolves what our hearts are made of.”

Glitter Bomb

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Galloping hooves clattered against the rocks, the sound muted by the thick white mist. Cadance perked her ears and turned her head, looking around just outside the cave entrance. She only heard one set of hooves; it had to be White Rose then. Cadance rose back up and took a few steps into the fog, still casting about for any sight of the mare.

She was certain the fog had grown thicker, though in truth it was hard to tell at this point. She didn’t see the mare until she came jumping out of the fog almost right beside Cadance. White Rose whinnied and dug her hooves into the ground, bringing herself to a stop before she collided with Cadance. Her breath was frantic as she tried to speak.

Cadance placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Calm down. What’s going on?”

The two fillies emerged from the cave behind them, looking around nervously as if expecting wolves to jump out of the mist any moment. Their mother took a few deep breaths to steel herself. “Fenris is coming! The Wolf is coming here!” she managed to say.

“Fenris?” Cadance tensed. “Are you sure?”

Their mother nodded as the two fillies galloped up to her, greeting her with a tight hug.

Cadance looked up at the dense gray roof of clouds and fog, then back at the fillies. “Silica, Silene, help me pack up everything,” she said and began gathering everything with her magic. “We have to make it to the village before the wolves.”

The girls followed her, grabbing everything they could and leaving anything they wouldn’t be needing. Cadance could see the fear on their faces, the realization that they were out of time and might not be here the next day.

* * *

Glimmerville loomed ahead in the uniform gray gloom, pale torchlight flickering in the fog. Shadows of ponies stood around, helplessly staring into the fog from where the howling of wolves filled the night. Some of them were clutching at letters, but even their cheerful glitter and uplifting colors seemed like nothing under the thick blanket of despair hanging over the gorge.

Cadance’s heart sat like a heavy lump of stone in her chest as she prepared herself to face them and give them all as much hope as she could against what was coming. She had done her best to cover her wounds, holding her wings tight to her body to hide the worst of them. The rest were hopefully too minor to raise concern. Or perhaps no pony would be able to see them in this fog anyway. She hoped that was so.

It didn’t occur to her that no pony would even pay attention to her, but as the four of them galloped down the rocky path into the village, all eyes turned to the two young ponies by her side. Covered from nose to the tip of their tails in half an inch of crystal dust at least, the two fillies were glittering and glowing like all of Canterlot on Hearth’s Warming Eve. Even through the dense fog, the pale light from the torches lit them up like radiant beacons of colors—more colors than these ponies had ever dreamed existed.

“Everypony!” Silica yelled at the top of her lungs, stealing the words right out from Cadance’s mouth. Cadance stopped, too surprised to do anything but listen as the filly took the lead. Everypony else did the same, looking expectantly at the glowing crystal filly.

Silica looked around, her eyes quickly recognizing each face before her, faces that all looked nearly the same to Cadance in the fog. Silica, however, pointed out ponies as she spoke. “We need to make a big catapult, right over …” she looked, then pointed “… there. Everypony else, take all the letters and go to the edge of town. Hold back the wolves as long as you can.”

Cadance watched everypony jump to action, a few hoof-fulls following the two fillies to begin work on an improvised catapult. Meanwhile, everypony else rushed to the edge of town and towards the growing cacophony of howls in the fog. Cadance looked around, then followed the rush to the edge as well.

With the two fillies out of sight behind them, everypony started taking note of Cadance, looking up at her as if expecting her to know what to do. The howls on the wind grew stronger as they all gathered at the outskirts of town. A few low trenches and feeble fortifications had been half-heartedly raised or dug in the short time they had been preparing.

Cadance stepped to the front of the gathering lines of ponies, trying to radiate as much courage and conviction as she could while staring into the wall of white and gray ahead. Torches flickered behind her, filling the fog ahead with eerie shadows. Cadance’s eyes flicked from side to side, constantly thinking she saw movement.

Dread was crawling up her legs to the sound of a thousand wolves howling, a cold creeping sensation making her hooves feel clammy and her whole body tremble with weakness and despair. She wanted to break down and cover her face with her hooves, hoping they would pass her by. She could hear low whimpers behind her and hooves slowly backing away in fear.

What hope to resist did these ponies have, if a princess standing here with them couldn’t muster her own courage? Cadance closed her eyes and forced herself to take a firm step forward instead of back. She raised her head up high. What did she have to fear? She was already dead. These ponies were alive. So damn her soul to pony hell, she would see it kept that way!

She dug her hooves into the stone, letting the strength and deep, roaring fires of the earth flow through her from below. She spread her wings and fanned out every charred and broken feather, filling her voice with the force of the hurricane as she opened her mouth. The voice she let out crashed against the wall of howling, like the unconquered armies of Ancient Equestria breaking through lines of enemies, shattering their ranks like so much hay in a storm.

“Wolves! Flea-ridden beasts of the North, you come before your destruction! Throw yourselves before our mercy, or face your doom! I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Empress of the Crystal Empire, First of the Equestrian Regency, Guardian of Love and Harmony, and I—” Her voice filled the gorge like a solid wall of sound. “—stand—” The sound reverberated through stone and rock, shaking the ground beneath the village. “—before you!”

She grabbed a torch in her magic and thrust it at a nearby pony. “What is your name!” she demanded, fixing the pony to the spot with her eyes.

The pony stammered. “W-we d-don’t—”

“In the Crystal Empire, everyone has a name of their own!” Cadance cut him off sharply. “What do you call yourself! What is your name!”

The pony blinked, but then spoke. “B-Blues Tone, Your Highness!”

“Then sing it, sing it like it’s never been sung!” Cadance said and immediately passed the torched to the next pony. “You!”

“Gar—” The pony swallowed, then said again more loudly, “Gargoyle, Your Highness!”

“Immovable stone, here you stand! So stand!” Cadance bellowed and passed the torch in a sweeping motion to the next pony.

The young mare had clearly picked up on the pattern and shouted as best she could the moment Cadance passed the torch. “Red Vein, Your Majesty!”

The next pony must have felt inspired by the moment and yelled out, “Gray-Sucks-Balls! You hear me, you louse-ridden gray suckers? I got ma balls right ‘ere for ya!”

“Amen!” Cadance turned and bellowed to the gorge. “You hear this, you lousy scumbags? This is the sound of ponies who’ve had enough!” The torch passed to another pony, then another, moving without pause. Soon the ponies weren’t even waiting for the torch to pass them by. “Throw it in their faces!” she said over her shoulder as she took another step forward. Behind her, names and curses were shouted out, all in one big fight to be heard over each other. “Shove it down their throats!”

She hoped the wolves were furious at this show of defiance. She wanted that little satisfaction no matter what was to happen next. “I hope you choke on it!” she yelled herself, joining the cacophony of defiance with all her pent-up sorrow and frustration at the situation and what she had been through since coming here.

All those ponies who had died because of her stupidity. Now she was leading these ponies, but to what end? Not their end. She wouldn’t let that happen. Not a second time.

She could hear the feral snarls and howling now, even above the shouting ponies behind her, and then she could see them, gray shadows flitting through the rolling fog towards them. Cadance dug her hooves in deeper and let out a low, vicious growl. Her horn flared to life. The memory of Shining Armor and his smile filled her inner vision. Her love and longing for him swelled and filled her.

Cadance cried, feeling cold tears run down her dead face, as her shield erupted around them and the entire town, a low wall of shimmering pink light. Wolves crashed against it the very same instant, moving too fast to slow down before hitting the barrier. Sickening cracks and confused howls filled the air. Cadance poured everything into the shield to strengthen it against the growing assault. “Throw your letters over the shield!” she yelled to the ponies behind her.

A few wolves managed to scale the shield but were greeted with facefulls of burning letter planes. A split second later, bright explosions and clouds of burning glitter filled the air around them, setting fire to wolves and covering everything else in bright, vivid hues. The wolves howled and rolled around in a panic, snapping at other wolves around them. The bright colors and wild panic seemed to cause them more harm than the fire alone.

After that, she lost count of everything. So many wolves pressed against the other side of her shield that it began to look more like an ocean of fur and flesh than individual wolves. Her legs were shaking and her hooves were slipping on the slick stone. Her horn strained against the wolves mashing their bodies against her field of magical force.

Worst of all, pauses were appearing between explosions now, telling her that the ponies around her were running low on ammunition. Some of them had begun fighting back with stones and hooves, grabbing anything nearby that could be used for weapons.

The ground was trembling beneath her. A bit of sand and stones danced past her hooves on invisible waves. Cadance strained her magic, forcing the shield to grow a little taller, and gazed up. Beyond the sea of wolf-flesh, the fog was in an uproar. Cadance felt her legs tremble as she gazed up at the towering beast of black blocking out the sky.

Fenris. Cadance hadn’t known what to expect. She had seen an Ursa Major once upon a time, from very far off; this wolf might well stand a few heads taller, though it was hard to tell from where she was. It was impossible to describe the sheer monstrous size; some mountains might feel inadequate in his shadow.

His head passed over the moon, blocking out the small white disc entirely; if the moon had been at its normal distance from Equestria, Cadance could almost imagine the wolf taking a leap and gobbling it right up. Thankfully, Discord had kept it at a safe distance all this time, and tonight was no different.

“Do not look up!” Cadance commanded, hoping no pony had done so already. She didn’t want them to see this. “Do not!” she repeated, to anypony whose first impulse at her words might have been to do exactly the opposite.

They were doomed. But at least they could all die not seeing.

A body slammed into her and threw her to the ground, teeth baring at her throat. Cadance let out a cry and barely managed to keep her shield from collapsing. A stone smacked the face of her attacker, but not before two more were upon her.

Around her, the ponies were screaming and fighting as wolves flooded over and through the growing holes in the shield. Above the carnage, the shadow of Fenris fell over the village, and with it all hope and spirit fled the field.

Ponies scattered in every direction, fleeing before the shadow in blind terror.

Cadance threw off the two wolves pinning her down and screamed as she charged her horn right through a third, feeling it slump over dead as she backed away, doing her best to draw attention away from the fleeing ponies. She spun around just in time to dodge the claws of another wolf and reared up, bringing her hooves down on its spine. She felt claws and teeth raking her back and kicked out, sending her attacker to the ground.

There were hundreds, thousands perhaps. Cadance was blind to anything but the wolves tearing at her from all sides. She jumped into the air, spreading her broken wings to sail over the masses, landing inside the village just in time to protect a panicked mare trying to flee.

Cadance sank to her knees, all strength draining out of her. She watched through a haze of blood and despair as wolves surrounded her, as if in slow motion. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, resigning herself to her imminent end. Perhaps this time it would be final.

A wolf pounced her and forced her into the ground. Another was on her in the same second, barking and snapping at the first, fighting over the kill. Maybe they would fight over her and forget some of the villagers. Cadance hoped her death would spare just some of them.

Two ponies, she prayed. Two ponies and their mother. That much the universe could surely give her.

She heard a sound like a deep thrumming note in the depths of her heart. For a moment the fighting seemed to slow around her, and all the wolves turned their gazes skyward. Cadance blinked the blood out of her eyes and gazed up at the stars.

One of them was moving, streaking across the sky like a pale blue phoenix straight for the eyes of the great wolf. It took Cadance a moment to realize that it was not a star, a moment in which Fenris opened his jaws as if to swallow the very black depths of space itself. His jaws snapped shut around the blue phoenix, and the whole world stood still in breathless silence.

A brilliant spark ignited deep within her heart long before she saw the light, and for the briefest of instants the great wolf’s eyes widened …

And in one beat of her heart the sky turned to brilliance, then to radiant waves of color. On the next beat, the spark within her exploded and in an instant she was everywhere at once, a wave of radiance and color sweeping across the world from east to west and north to south, driving all darkness and cold from every land and every heart.

Millions of eyes turned skyward, seeing colors and feeling warmth for the first time in their lives. The explosion of joy was immediate and total, with every soul crying out and hugging each other at once. Cadance closed her eyes in peace as she was carried away upon the waves of a whole world’s joy and liberation.

* * *

Glitter fell from the sky like heavy snowfall in every color of the rainbow. Cadance stood up and turned her head up as the glitter seemed to hang in the air, frozen in a moment of perfect serenity. Something caught in her throat, and she tried not to cry openly in that moment.

Something moved past her, like a tiny ghost or a gust of wind. Cadance turned around and watched Silica come to a halt, her little ears drooping as she looked down. Cadance followed her eyes. She was surprised to find that she felt nothing as her eyes fell upon her own body, lying motionless and broken in the glittering snow.

Silene caught up with her sister and skidded to a halt beside her. Her lips trembled and her eyes grew moist as she knelt down beside Cadance, wrapping her hooves around her neck and nuzzling her cheek. Cadance watched in silence as the two fillies cradled her dead body, crying into her glittering mane.

She couldn’t tell the time. It could have been a moment or an eternity.

Silene lifted her head and brushed Cadance’s mane with a hoof, tears dripping on closed eyelids. She looked up, wiping her nose as the sun rose behind the gorge, its warm light glittering in the crystal snow like a million disco balls. Cadance turned her head, watching the sun cover the land in its warm embrace, and in that moment she remembered being a filly, long ago: Princess Celestia kissing her forehead and smiling at her, that smile alone letting her know that everything was right with the world.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been staring at the rising sun, lost in the kiss of its light, when something walked past her. She turned, and all the warmth and light seeped from her soul like water down a drain.

Silica and Silene were crying and watching their mother as she sat down beside them. She was holding something in her hooves, bundled up in a rough old blanket. Her body was trembling with sobs as she leaned down and lay it beside Cadance, gently tucking it in beside her heart. Then she stepped back and hung her head.

Cadance took a step forward, looking down at the tiny foal lying at her heart with her eyes closed and her tiny mouth half open. No movement, no life stirred in the little body. The foal had never stood a chance. There had never been any hope that she might … just might make it after all.

How could all be right with the world when her daughter never had a chance? How could anything like this ever happen in a happy and just world?

Glitter fell and settled all over the gorge as the sun traveled across the sky, once more on its proper course. The two fillies and their mother got up after a time and hugged each other tight. Then they were gone and nothing stirred in the village around her. Cadance closed her eyes and hung her head.

She turned slowly and looked across the cool surface of the pond in the middle of the village, where the ancient stone rose out of the water. The sun played on its surface, making it gleam with thousands of tiny facets. Cadance got up slowly and drifted up close until she could see the old carvings in the stone.

What had once been faded was now as clear as the day it had been first written. Cadance read the most recent carvings, letting her eyes drift over the letters … written in her own hoof.

“Glimmerville, established in the year 7AH in honor of two young fillies who made the world glitter. One day we shall meet here, and you shall make your own marks upon the future. Till then …

“— Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Princess Skylark of the Crystal Empire.”

She let her eyes drift down to the second set of markings, written more than a thousand years prior in the hoof of Clover the Clever.

“We all should make our mark upon the future in our own time and leave the future to the future. Cadance, if you read this, know that all will work out as it always should. What little comfort that may be. Please forgive this foolish old mare her meddling, and remember to make your own mark where and when you ought to.

“And Discord, I didn’t think you could do it. You win.”

The last line faded as the stone drifted away in the white fog. Cadance lay her head down, and her eyes gazed into eternity.

Epilogue

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“Princess?

“Princess! Can you hear me? What is … By the sun and moon! Commander, I need you over here! Princess down! I repeat, princess down!

“Hold on, princess. We’ll get you to safety.”

“Lieutenant, what—in all Equestria! Princess!”

“Commander, we have to get them back to the Empire now!”

“I hear you.”

“I have the foal, sir.”

“Take the rear. Straight up till you see the sky.”

“I hear you, sir. Hold on tight, princess, we’re getting you out of here.”

* * *

“I don’t like this.”

“You worry too much, dear.” A thick soup of mist coiled around her hooves as she stepped closer to the edge of the water and looked up at the ancient stone. The sky was clear; the dense fog that had filled the gorge months earlier had dissipated as mysteriously as it had appeared, leaving nothing more than a carpet of white mist on the ground near the lake.

Shining Armor followed her closely, his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings. “I nearly lost you and our daughter to this cursed place,” he said, his heart hurting at the mention of it. “And you still haven’t told me what happened.”

“Nothing will happen,” she reassured him. “This is something I must do.”

“You tell me that, but you won’t tell me why,” Shining said, looking at her with sad eyes.

Cadance kept looking at the stone and the sky behind it. The ancient markings of Clover the Clever were still there, faded beyond recognition by the wear and tear of ages. The stone glittered in the sun, awaiting her own mark.

Was it even possible for her to leave the job unfinished? What would happen if she turned around and just left now? With her knowledge, could she change the future? She knew Fenris would appear one day soon, and she knew the chain her daughter would forge for it would not hold. What would happen if she acted on her knowledge? Could she defeat Fenris before he won and spare everypony that future?

But if she did make a new future, how could she know it would be a better one, not worse? Maybe Fenris would still win, and no savior would come. Perhaps Silica and Silene would never even be born, or end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

One day, the great wolf would swallow her. If anypony should end that way to save others, it was her; she was already dead, and she could face the end a second time knowing what she knew. For all the death and suffering she knew would come, for all the ponies she loved who would die, a brighter future still awaited in the end.

How could she ever destroy that?

Cadance turned and looked at Shining Armor, at the guards and ponies gathered behind him, waiting anxiously for her. None of them knew what she knew or that she had died in the future and come back—not as alive as she seemed to them, a strange fact that she had attributed to Discord’s meddling magic. None of them knew that the fate of the future balanced on them all this day.

And that was all as it should be. Just as she couldn’t change the future, no one could never know besides her and Discord.

She smiled sadly at Shining and leaned forward, kissing him softly. “What will be, will be,” she said and held a hoof up to his cheek, looking into his eyes. She was crying, but she couldn’t keep from smiling. “No matter what comes … it will all be fine.

“Ponies,” she said and turned to the gathered herd, looking at them all. “Today we establish a new village, here in this place, in honor of two brave young fillies. You will not know them or their names, but they never stopped believing in a brighter world, and they taught me that no odds are ever too great as long as there is friendship and courage in our hearts.

“And enough glitter to go around,” she added with a smile.

She turned around again and looked up at the stone. “Silica and Silene, may you one day find your home here, and in all our hearts.” She spread her wings and drifted up towards the top of the stone. Her horn lit up as she began to carve a message, the words still clear as flames in her memory, and with those words she sealed the future.

“Glimmerville, established in the year 7AH in honor of two young fillies who made the world glitter. One day we shall meet here, and you shall make your own marks upon the future. Till then …

“— Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Princess Skylark of the Crystal Empire.”

Back and Forth

by adcoon

Unknown Sender

Lost in Transit

Dead Letters

Newsletter

Deliverance

Blood Letters

Foal Free Press

Love Letters

Glitter Bomb

Epilogue