//------------------------------// // Intermission 2: A Little Heart-To-Heart // Story: Silent Ponyville: Duet Of Sorrow // by KillerSteel //------------------------------// Twilight adjusts her lying position a bit, looking up at the two monitors hanging in the air. The static seems to have shifted a bit, revealing a slightly clearer picture, but the images shift so quickly it’s difficult to discern a chronological sequence to it all, let alone derive meaning from it. She feels the small dragon adjust herself against her leg, thinking of where to start with her story. “Well…how did we meet…it was such a long time ago, I can hardly remember.” Loki giggles lightly, drawing a path back further and further in time. “It was…a really long time ago, probably about four years.” “I was a little dragon back then, having just been born. I was being cared for by a family out in the desert, a small tribe of Hemorans living disconnected from the main body. Nice guys, took care of me like their own children…” Loki smiles weakly, thinking back. “I dreaded the desert, but they made the heat of day and the cold of night feel like home.” “Was Sehn one of these hedgehogs?” Twilight asks, turning away from the monitors to look at Loki. “No, he wasn’t. About a year after I was born, when I was learning to speak, a small squadron of Hemoran soldiers came by the tribe camp. They were led by a rather…mean Lieutenant named Sorale. He was a really mean man with a chip on his shoulder and a bone to pick with everyone. When he found us, Dad went out to greet them, and he had a massive smile on his face when they first came by…like the soldiers that found us were some glorious heroes.” Loki’s smile fades, and she turns around so she can lay her back on Twilight’s leg. “That quickly went down the drain when Sorale started messing with my family and everyone at the camp. There were only twenty or so of us, so Sorale’s threats of bringing more soldiers quickly sank in.” Twilight frowns, looking back at the monitors. “Sounds like you’ve had a rough life.” “It was for a while, yeah. That Lieutenant would come by and extort ‘tributes’ out of us, saying it was for the betterment of the Guard. Money, food, even the clothes off the tribe’s backs, anything he could take, he would try and take it. Typical sob story, isn’t it?” Loki giggles slightly, looking over at the monitors. “I won’t say I haven’t heard of it before…but that doesn’t make it any less an experience.” “Hmm…well, one day, about four or so months after he first came, Dad stood up. Everyone had suspicions about him, but no one was brave enough to stand and say something…” “It takes a lot of courage to stand up against something you respect. Your dad sounds like a good man.” Twilight smiles, looking over at Loki. “One of the best, yeah. When he stood up against Sorale, I was standing near our home, a small house. He was asking Sorale about his real intentions with taking all these things from us, when we weren’t affiliated with the city or army. Sorale replied by saying ‘All who reside within our border must contribute. If you don’t like it, by all means, get out of our country.’, and one of his soldiers, a rather jumpy Corporal, came up and socked Dad in the jaw. Called him a heretic for even thinking the Lieutenant had ulterior motives. It made me angry, really angry.” Loki hisses the last part out, looking at her hand as five black flames grow at the ends of her claws. She shakes her hand and puts the flames out, calming herself down. “Everyone took notice that this man wasn’t good for the tribe, so they started talking to each other. Saying we should capture the Lieutenant, punish him for what he’s been doing, while others said we should take it to the army. Others still said that it was too risky, that we should just lie down and hope he goes away…” “All understandable standings…so what was done?” Twilight asks, looking at the monitors. “Nothing was done.” Loki replies, looking down. “What?” “That’s just it. Nothing was done…no one wanted to take our issues to the army since we were afraid they’d turn on us. If they were like Sorale and his group, then we didn’t have much of a chance…I thought the same for a while, until I got up enough courage and strength to cross the desert on my own. Mom stayed behind, tried to work things out with the tribe and Dad, saying they were going to move to another spot. We were self-sufficient, so we didn’t need to worry about resources…and moving closer to the city would give us a good trade. No one liked moving, but that’s the life of a nomad, isn’t it?” “Having to move your entire home just because of one man…it’s unthinkable for Equestria.” Twilight looks down, sharing in Loki’s sorrow. “I’d left before all the plans were made, and I was given enough food and water for three days. My destination was clear…you can see it from anywhere in the Mira Desert, a giant, green tower. I started my trip at night, using the cold to try and keep my sweating and energy use to a minimum, and I’d walked until sunrise before I ran into some soldiers.” “Sorale and his gang?” “Luckily no, it was a passing patrol. Two Sergeants from what I could tell. They asked me where a kid like me could possibly be going, and I said I was going to talk to the army. They kind of looked at each other and smiled, looking back, saying I was too young to register. I didn’t bother explaining my situation, just saying I wanted to try, and they offered to show me the way since they were heading back home.” “Sounds rather opposite to what Sorale was doing.” Twilight says, still looking at the monitors. She adjusts herself slightly, getting blood back into her legs, as Loki continues. “Yeah, surprised me too. Took us about a day’s walking to get there, half of it was me riding on one of the soldier’s heads. I helped keep his head cool, and he helped me since I was so short, so he was alright with the extra weight on him. Once we got to the tower, we headed to the front door, where two soldiers were standing guard. Still don’t know why they have guards there, the door is too big for any kind of weapon to even dent…” Loki raises her eyebrow while folding her arms, thinking about it. “Must’ve been an impressive gate. How big was it?” Twilight asks with a smirk, thinking about Canterlot’s own main gates. “A hundred feet tall and about three hundred tons of steel.” “WHA?!” Twilight drops her jaw, staring at Loki in disbelief. “That’s absurd!” “Huh?” Loki looks over, raising her eyebrow. “What about it is so ‘absurd’?” “J-just the sheer WEIGHT of the door! It’d take a hundred unicorns to lift something half that heavy!” “Don’t ask me how they did it, the tower was already there.” Loki leans forward, leaning on her knees in a cross-legged position. “Anyway…one of the guards there walked over to the two Sergeants, asking about me. They said I was some drifter crossing the desert, and that I wanted to sign up for the Hemoran National Guard. He just laughed, looking up at me, that silver hair shining in the sun, those deep brown eyes looking at me like I was some idiot signing up for the Wonderbolts…” Loki giggles, remembering his face. “I guess that was Sehn?” Twilight asks, still watching the monitors before turning her head to Loki. “Yep, that was when we first met. He seemed like a really nice guy, though I was nervous around him. I talked to him, he talked to me, asked me why I was drifting through the desert…he was a Captain, so I thought he could help. I told him about my family and home, about Sorale and his gang, about everything he was doing. Sehn just nodded, saying ‘Wait a day or so and we’ll head to your place. I’ll have someone in tow.’ I stayed in his barracks for the time being, didn’t really eat like a king, but it was nice having a good roof over your head.” Loki smirks. “You were living on a military base, doubt rations would be any good.” Twilight chuckles. She feels a shudder from Loki, and looks over to see her staring at the left monitor, deadlocked. She stands up and quickly runs over to it, jumping up to get a good look at it. “Come over here, quick! I need your back!” Loki shouts to Twilight, gesturing for her to come quickly. Twilight runs over, Loki quickly jumping onto her head, and they both stare at the monitor. “What is it? What do you see?” Twilight quickly asks, feeling a discovery about the spell is just within her reach. “I…I don’t know. It just feels…really really bad. Bad, yet…” Loki stops, furrowing her brow, staring into the static and snow of the screen. Something appears on the screen for just a split second that causes them both to jump in complete terror. “Woah!” Loki screams, falling off Twilight’s head and onto the ground, while Twilight runs back a few feet, dumbstruck by what appeared. “W-w-wha-wh-who was that?!” Twilight stutters, unable to comprehend the image. “Th-th-that was Rainbow! What in the name of all that’s good happened to her?!” Loki shouts, the image still processing through her mind. Though it only showed for a split second, the picture remained bolted to the fronts of their minds, the sounds all too real, never ending… Dash was standing in the middle of a ruined city, crying blood, as hundreds of dead bodies and burning buildings surrounded her. It came with a message, scrawled into the ground in front of her, dirt on her hoof. She was laughing hysterically, screams of pain and sadness breaking through the laughs. The message was one word, but everything needed for what’s been done. “GUILTY”