//------------------------------//
// Awakenings 
// Story: The Order of Koaxia 
// by HellRyden 
//------------------------------//

This is the continuation of the story of six mares who have yet to realize their own destinies.

It was during a routine gem hunt with Spike that Rarity met her own counterpart. Calling himself 'Lucius Balthazar, South Gale of Koaxia', it seemed as though he had come for a fight, and Rarity sent Spike away to Ponyville in a call for help while she delayed Balthazar.

However, Balthazar opened the encounter with surprising hospitality, explaining to Rarity his purpose there, and what he and his Order had come to do. Rarity learned they were there to perform a succession, and she and her friends had been chosen as the ones they would pass the torch on to.

Applejack had rushed to Rarity’s aid upon hearing from Spike of her encounter with the second of the strange members of the ‘Order of Koaxia’. Upon finding the unicorn mare, they discovered her trapped within a winding ice labyrinth, one conjured by Balthazar as part of his test of Rarity’s worthiness to inherit his powers.

Fighting gracefully and valiantly, Rarity eventually still fell before her opponent, entrapped within a tomb of ice that left her helpless before Balthazar. As Applejack watched on, Balthazar summoned a spectral being that seemed to merge with him, and shot an arrow straight through Rarity’s chest - there was a scream, and her entire world vanished in an explosion of white.

Miles away in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash regains consciousness as something inside her surges and awakens in response... but she is not the only one reacting to these events, for Princess Celestia had sensed it too, and having had enough of watching for signs from the sidelines, she decides to take a more direct hoof in matters...






“The Order of Koaxia”


Chapter 6


Awakenings


The blackness around her suddenly parted painfully as a searing spike of agony surged in her chest, a red-hot lightning rod that drove itself right through the very centre of her being.

Light bloomed all around her as the darkness gave way to a blinding flash, and Rainbow Dash awoke with a pained gasp as she felt something inside of her surge in response to something.

The cyan pegasus bolted upright in her bed, her eyes wide and her mouth open in a silent scream. Something surged and writhed inside her chest, the strangest feeling of restless, twitchy energy flowing through her entire body, and she knew, just knew, right down to her very bones, that someone out there connected to her had just died.

There was the emptiest, most horrific sense of loss - she felt a gaping, ragged hole tear itself open in her chest as something inside her was abruptly snuffed out... A cool, calming presence that had simply vanished, its absence noticeable only due to the suddenness of its disappearance. Yet in its place, she felt something else bloom into existence - a tiny, newborn presence that seemed to be an infant version of the sensation that had preceded it, observable, but coming nowhere close to filling up the gaping hole its predecessor had left behind.

All of this, the pegasus registered within her first few seconds of consciousness - shaking her head to dispel the odd sensation and trying to quell the stifling pain in her chest, Rainbow Dash looked around her to see where she was now.

With a cursory glance around herself, she recognized the familiar drab walls of a Ponyville Hospital ward, and the feeling of the downy sheets against her fur was a familiar, calming sensation. Beside her bed, a strange machine beeped at irregular intervals, wires trailing from multiple outlets and ending up connected to some strange plugs that were attached to her head and temples.

Wincing as her chest twinged again suddenly, Rainbow Dash looked down, only to get the shock of her life as she realized that there wasn't a hole in her sternum.

Her head spun as she tried to dredge up her most recent memories from the sleep-addled haze of her mind. The last thing she could remember was fighting with Melchior in the Everfree forest, him driving his arm all the way up to his elbow into her chest... And then blinding pain assaulting her from all directions before she had blacked out.

By all rights, she should have been dead - the cyan-feathered pegasus realized that. No pony could have possibly survived getting an entire arm rammed right through their midsection; yet here she was, in Ponyville Hospital, hale and healthy, albeit with a still-smarting sternum.

A soft stirring at the foot of her bed brought the mare back to reality. Looking down, she realized that a small, tiny head of light pink hair was lifting itself up from its position near her hind leg, where (Judging by the shallow, already fading indentation) it had been resting for quite some time. A familiar visage peeked out from behind the pink bangs, and Fluttershy blinked her eyes sleepily.

The yellow pegasus glanced blearily around for a couple of seconds before finally locking onto the awake Rainbow Dash, and almost immediately her expression lit up in joy.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash, you're awake!" Fluttershy cried out in relief as she darted forward and enveloped her fillyhood friend in an embrace that wouldn’t have crushed a butterfly. "I was so worried - I never thought you'd wake up so quickly!"

“Whoa, hey, easy there, Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash patted her friend awkwardly on the back despite her smarting chest, but she couldn’t help but smile nonetheless. After suddenly waking up from a fight that she was certain had killed her, it really helped that the first face she saw was a familiar, friendly one. It certainly went a long way in comforting her. “I’m still in one piece - I’m just fine!”

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy asked concernedly as she pulled away from Rainbow Dash and began looking her over. “You look like something’s hurting - you’re wincing.”

“Don’t worry about it - it’s just my chest smarting a little. It’s nothing.” The cyan pegasus waved it off with a nonchalant grin, quite frankly not caring about the pain that was already receding into the back of her mind - what took precedence was the fact that she was still alive.

“I just... Wow.” She let out a shaky breath as she shook her head, still trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. “For a second I thought I was gonna die there... But, how’d I get back here, ‘Shy? Last thing I remember, I was fighting that human thingy that started attacking me, and then... He must’ve knocked me for a loop, cos all I remember next is waking up here.”

Fluttershy’s cheeks darkened slightly, and the pegasus looked away shyly, murmuring something under her breath. Rainbow Dash had to lean closer and ask her to repeat herself before she could register what she was saying.

“Uhm... well... I kind of went into the Everfree forest after you, and I brought you back here when I found you unconscious...”

“You went into the Everfree!?” The cyan pegasus’ jaw dropped open. “For me?”

Fluttershy gave an abashed nod, and Rainbow Dash no longer cared at that point - she immediately went straight forward and brought Fluttershy into a crushing bear hug filled with gratitude.

The butter-yellow pegasus squeaked out softly in surprise, but quickly recovered. Gently returning the hug, Fluttershy could feel all the tension and anxiety in Rainbow Dash's shoulders and stance slowly bleed out as her fillyhood friend relaxed in the embrace.

"Thanks, Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash murmured out a few moments later, her voice a low, soft exhale of relief. "I don't know if I'd have made it out on my own... But thanks for getting me out of there."

"Oh, it was nothing, really," Fluttershy replied. "I couldn't possibly have left you down there alone now, could I?"

"Eh, I could've taken care of myself." Rainbow Dash gave a noncommittal shrug as she pulled away from the hug. "Still, thanks for getting me out of there."

"It was no problem. Are you sure you're all right?"

"As good as I'm gonna be." The cyan pegasus leaned her neck to the right, stretching out a stiff kink in her muscles that had grown from just how long she'd been lying there without moving. "Just a little- Ow!”

Her chest twinged painfully again, and Rainbow Dash’s hoof shot up to her breast, wincing slightly. Immediately, Fluttershy’s eyes widened in concern, and she darted slightly closer.

“Oh, my! You really don’t seem all right, Rainbow Dash...”

“It’s nothing,” the cyan speedster hissed through gritted teeth as she tried to wave it off nonchalantly. “It’s just a little... twinge...”

But as she blinked her eyes, took in a breath, and flexed muscles that felt as sore and stiff as though they had lain unused for over a week, Rainbow Dash began to realize that this was anything but a simple twinge in her chest.

Something felt very wrong here.

Her entire body tingled. It felt as though some strange dynamo or generator thrummed deep within her heart, sending tiny pulses racing across her nerves, and her entire body shuddered inwardly with power that strained for release.

Oh... Celestia, what is happening here!? Rainbow Dash thought to herself in a panic as she broke out into a sweat, her breathing growing heavy as she blinked and shook her head in an attempt to clear it.

The lights around her were just so painfully bright. The acrid scent of ozone filled her nostrils, and every breath she took reverberated throughout her skull, seemingly heavy and laden with static. The very air around her felt... charged. There was just no other describing the otherworldly sensation that permeated every fibre of her being. Her hearing felt muted as her heart thundered in her chest, so much so that she barely even heard somepony murmuring something softly off to her side.

Glancing up, her breathing shallow, the bed-bound mare saw Fluttershy looking at her strangely. Her butter-yellow hoof seemed to be moving in slow motion, creeping towards Rainbow Dash’s sweat-drenched forehead at a snail’s pace. 

“Ra... ow... … ash! Can... hear me? A... u a... right?” Fluttershy’s voice sounded distant and muffled, and Rainbow Dash shook her head violently as she tried to fight off the building pressure that was escalating between her ears.

“I... I can’t...” the cyan pegasus gasped out, reaching a hoof towards her fillyhood friend... and quite literally received a shock. Almost immediately, sparks flew through the air as a tiny jolt of electricity arced between her outstretched hoof and Fluttershy’s chest.

Fluttershy cried out in shock as she jolted in place, a hoof flying up to her breast as she started backwards, but her reaction was nothing compared to Rainbow Dash’s.

A searing spike of pain drove itself down through the speedster’s hoof as white-hot fire lanced from her wrist all the way down to her chest, and something inside her snapped. Screaming out in agony, Rainbow Dash curled in on herself, her eyes scrunched shut and her expression contorted in pain.

And all of a sudden, lightning surged up from all around her.

Electricity danced about her hooves and her entire body as her mane flew upwards wildly in an invisible burst of wind. Abruptly, the monitoring machine standing next to her bed simply exploded in a shower of sparks, going completely up in smoke as its innards were completely overloaded.

Fluttershy let out a scream as some of the arcs of lightning came dangerously close to touching her. Frightened, the pegasus quickly scooted away, backing up against the wall as far from the convulsing Rainbow Dash as she could.

“W-What’s going on!?” Rainbow Dash cried out, her panic and agitation rising as the electrical storm around her seemed to grow, its magnitude swelling uncontrollably. Blood thundered in her ears as the pressure building in her head continued to mount until. Within seconds, it felt as though a vice had been clamped around her skull, and the pegasus screamed out in agony again, the ringing in her ears building up to a shrill, piercing note that drowned out everything else.

The pain was unbearable - red hot spikes of agony drove themselves through her body with every beat of her heart, and with each passing second, the maelstrom around her grew, threatening to swallow up the room and everything that stood in it... including Fluttershy.

That single thought pierced through the haze of agony that Rainbow Dash was trapped in, and, just for an instant, her thoughts cleared.

Out. She had to get out.

Fluttershy didn’t even see her move. One moment, she had been convulsing on the bed - the next, there was a sudden burst of lightning, and a miniature thunderclap slammed over her ears.

The timid little pegasus let out a squeak of fright as she clapped her hooves over her ears, scrunching her eyes shut... and when she opened them a second later, there was nothing but a blackened scorch mark where the bed used to be, and the broken remnants of the ward’s window hanging limply from its pane.

Swallowing nervously as she picked herself up, Fluttershy crept nervously over to the shattered remains of the window, the glass shards having been blown outwards into the exterior of the hospital. Looking outside, her mouth dropped in awe as she beheld the trail of grey clouds that was spreading across the sky... and the miniature electrical storm that they trailed behind as it steadily grew smaller and smaller.





She had been immersed deep within the Weave when she felt it.

A massive spike of cold suddenly came from the south-eastern part of Equestria, and Celestia’s eyes immediately snapped open as she let out a sudden hiss of pain.

A disturbance in the Weave - whatever that had been just now, it had definitely been a huge surge of magic.

Immediately closing her eyes again, the solar princess homed her senses in on the signature of chilling magic that had suddenly assaulted her, pursuing its trail like a bloodhound. As her mental mindscape changed to reflect the progress of her scrying spell, the verdant, grassy fields of the Equestrian countryside soon gave way to the rocky, dirt-packed lands that were known to be the territory of diamond dogs.

Celestia's brow furrowed in concern as the fact registered with her mind - the diamond dog badlands were far from safe when wandered alone. Even with a travelling companion, one had to take special precaution not to draw attention from the resident mongrels, lest they end up being targeted as prey. Twilight's friend Rarity could certainly attest to that. If the surge of magic had indeed come from the badlands... It could mean only one thing.

The monarch's eyes narrowed, and the landscape around her mind's eye blurred even further as she redoubled her pace.

Soon after, she came upon the source of the disturbance - a huge snowdrift lying smack dab in the middle of the badlands, looking extremely out of place. Celestia's eyebrow raised skeptically as she eyed the oddity, then delved her mind's eye closer to take a better look.

Her scrying spell afforded her the utilities of her mundane senses while immersed in it, but a far more important aspect of her spell allowed her to take a deeper look at things that were not always what they seemed. The Princess took one look at the innocuous-looking snowdrift, blinked once, and activated her spectral sight.

Almost instantly, the plain-looking bank of snow bloomed into a wild, shitfting myriad of ethereal silvery layers of mist. The layers wafted in and out of the depths of the snow bank as she beheld the magic with which it was composed of... and realized to her consternation that she recognized the magic.

It was another one of those strange signatures she had sensed lurking about Equestria, always flickering just at the edges of her senses, but never long enough to perceive them on anything more than a cursory level. The mere fact that these presences were beyond her ability to detect and identify was maddeningly frustrating - her student was out there with her friends, under threat from these unknown attackers, and there was virtually nothing she could do to stop it from happening.

The facts chafed at her viciously like a set of manacles, yet the Princess simply gritted her teeth and pressed on. If she could not do anything to stop these attacks before they took place, at least she could take steps to mitigate their aftermath.

As she peered at the astralized image of the snowbank's inherent magic, she felt a massive aura of cold emanating from it - yet it did not feel any more alive than the ambient magic of the Weave around it. 

Well, this was a little confusing. Celestia's frown only grew as she contemplated what this meant. Spells that had been cast could usually be traced back to their casters given enough time - there was always a trail that could be followed from the spell back to the one that had propagated it, even if steps could be taken to disguise this trail. 

Such a trail however could be followed only if the caster was still alive - a dead spellcaster's link to the residual energies of the spells he cast would be severed along with his life force upon his death. The fact that she sensed a dead end on the trail of the magic that permeated the snowbank told her one thing - whoever had created it had already shed his or her mortal coil. The energies felt ambient, settled - not alive and shifting, as it would have felt for a spell whose caster was still alive.

This snowbank was a grave marker; a place to mark where one had made his grand exit from the world.

As the solar princess examines the pseudo-headstone closer, she noticed three tiny spots of warmth within the coldness of the snow bank: one that was only marginally less cold than the snow around it, and another tiny one that flickered and shook madly at its edges, but still maintained a steady heat at its core.

However, what caught her attention was the final, third one - one that burned brilliantly with all the intensity of a furnace, easily turning aside the cold that assailed it from all directions. Celestia deactivated her spectral sight as she saw the spots of warmth begin to stir, and as her vision returned to normal she saw the snowbank begin to shift.

Seconds later, a small, orange head suddenly broke free of the blank sheet of white covering the ground, gasping for air. Applejack shook her mane wildly as she clambered out of the snowdrift, dragging something along with her - the limp body of an unconscious, but still breathing and very much alive, Rarity.

Spike soon came up after her, helping to push the unicorn’s limp body along as Applejack dragged her out. The trio didn’t get any further than a few steps before they collapsed into a tangled heap, rolling haphazardly down the banks of the snowdrift until they tumbled to a halt on the rocky ground beneath them.

Celestia's mind working on rapid fire at this point as she watched the three survivors pick themselves apart, still very much alive despite having just been attacked again - what could this possibly mean?

Both times one of the Bearers of Harmony had been attacked, there had been a huge burst of wild, released magical energy at the conclusion of the encounter. Following that, not only was the Bearer still alive, one of the strange presences lurking about Equestria would leave a large, very noticeable mark... right before dropping off the radar completely, leaving only a tiny residue of its power inside the Bearer that it had supposedly attacked.

Before she could think on it any further however, another spike of pain drove itself through her senses. However, this one was different - though it was certainly another wild surge of uncontrolled magic, this one felt as though somepony had just prodded her with a tiny jolt of electricity. The princess twitched in place, her focus immediately snapping in the direction from which she had felt the surge.

An out-of-control storm of lightning was streaking across the sky, flying in the direction of the Everfree. It didn’t take long for Celestia to recognize the inherent magic within the storm; they were identical to be the energies that had been transferred into Rainbow Dash's body. 

The sheer amount of power she felt rolling off the storm in waves was palpable - though its strength was fluctuating wildly, with its lowest point barely even comparable to the average unicorn's, its highest was nearly at a level on par with hers and Luna's. The fact that such a level of power had been achieved by somepony who was neither her sister nor herself truly shook Celestia, but she forced herself to set aside the implications of such a revelation, at least for now. There were more immediate concerns to focus on.

Though she didn’t like it, the alicorn was forced to acknowledge that she couldn’t help the pegasus, at least not yet. If it was truly Rainbow Dash at the epicenter of that storm, it would certainly be a hazardous, if not downright impossible undertaking to try to calm her down while she was in such a volatile state. Besides, the Bearer of Loyalty would certainly be able to take care of herself, and there was no way she could cause any undue collateral damage while in the Everfree. No, right now the ones who needed her attention were Applejack and Rarity.

Though she had much to ponder, the princess immediately ended the scrying spell as she turned back to watch Applejack hoist the unconscious Rarity over onto her back. When she next blinked, she found herself in her chambers once again, the lines of the scrying circle she had drawn around her now darkened and lifeless.

Immediately rising to her hooves, Celestia didn't waste a second as she quickly strode over to her chamber's doors. Wrenching them open telekinetically, she stepped outside to address the guards who stood watch outside.

"Corporal Claymore, go fetch Captain Shining Armor, and inform him to report to my chambers immediately. I have an assignment for him."





“So... Balthazar has completed his part then, yes?”

“Aye... It was a regrettable loss. He shall be missed.”

“Not like any of us are gonna be around to miss him for much longer, for that matter. It was the same for Melchior, and it’ll also be the same for the rest of us. Who’s up next?”

“You should already know - look around you, and see who’s missing.”

“Ah... right. Him. Boy, I’d really hate to be that mare right about now...”

“C’mon, Cas’. He’s not all that bad.”

“Bad?” A snort. “He’s got a more interesting set of morals than me, and I’m the one you guys call crazy!”

“That’s because you charge a horde of fifty-foot tall monsters by yourself without even a plan of attack. That’s not courage Cas’, that’s suicide.”

“Still!” A grunt and a sigh. “Well... I just hope he’ll go easy on the poor girl. Little thing looks like she could break in half with just a stiff wind.”

“He will do what he has to. After all, he’s the one who comes up with the best plans after all. Remember whose intellect and insight it was that led us here in the first place?”

“It wasn’t yours, dear leader - that’s for sure.”

A harsh bark of laughter. “Careful, Cas’. One more like that and I’ll make you the next one to go out.”

“... Gaius, I already am the next one to go out.”

“Exactly my point.”

“... You’re an asshole, you know that?”






[ambient]


His breathing was hard but steady as his eyes narrowed in focus, darting left and right as he eyed his opponents on both his sides. When there was a sudden blur in the edges of his vision, he reacted almost instantaneously.

The circular steel shield clutched in his telekinetic grip swerved to his left in a blur as he twisted around, dodging to his right simultaneously.

The katana blade that would have bitten into his breastplate instead skidded harmlessly off the surface of his shield. Without hesitation, he spun around on his front foreleg, lashing out in a powerful buck that connected solidly with his opponent's sternum. Blades attached to the soles of his boots punched outwards to add to the force of his blow, and his attacker staggered backwards, grunting in pain.

At the same time, his horn flared again, and the broadsword that he held in his mental grip as well whirled around to protect his front, smoothly parrying aside the tip of the dagger that would've pierced his heart.

Another dagger tip whizzed straight for the eyeslit of his helmet, almost too fast to spot. Almost. His head suddenly blurred as he jerked to the side, slipping past the thrust with barely a centimeter to spare.

Turning his shield aside and launching himself into the air, he slammed a powerful overhand chop right into the chestplate of his second assailant, eliciting a pained 'Oof!' from her as she was knocked flat onto the floor from the onslaught.

Simultaneously, his shield sailed around again smoothly as though it were an extension of his body, effortlessly parrying aside another slashing blow from his first opponent’s sword and leaving the attacker wide open.

Snapping right back into a ready stance and tucking his shield close in to his body, he hurled himself bodily forward, throwing his armored frame into his first attacker while using his shield as a buffer. His entire body slammed right into his opponent, and a strangled hurk! was forced out of him as he was literally bull rushed into the floor.

There was a strangled cry from behind him, but he didn’t even flinch as he immediately whirled around, his shield swinging in a wide arc... yet it didn’t stop there.

His armament spun bodily in midair as it was hurled flying, and the metal disc slammed right into the midsection of the airborne second assailant who was in the midst of a midair pounce. The blow knocked the wind right out of her, and she was sent crashing back onto the floor as the shield ricocheted off her armor, being caught telekinetically but a moment later as it returned to its bearer.

Both of his opponents finally knocked prone, the armored knight relaxed his stance and let out a small exhalation, pulling off his helmet with an exhausted sigh. A two-toned sky-blue mane, soaked with sweat, was pulled free as the white unicorn shook his head, wiping off the beading perspiration on his forehead. A moment later, Captain Shining Armor looked down at the two armored soldiers who were lying prone on the training mats below him with a good-natured grin on his face.

“That’s two-on-one, Reversal.” The captain of the royal guard smirked despite his heavy breathing. “I believe you and Bee owe me twenty bits each.”

“Aw, nuts, Shining,” the winded unicorn stallion with the katana wheezed as he gingerly picked himself up. His armor clattered slightly as he stood, revealing the words Royal Reversal that had been stencilled onto its chestplate. The metal plates only covered his neck and barrel, leaving his legs, flank, and mirror cutie mark unprotected. “If I’d known you were even half as good with that sword and shield of yours, I’d have never made that bet...”

"Let's just pay up, Reversal-san.” The armored Neighponese pegasus lying down next to him rolled over onto her stomach, slowly getting up on her hooves as well with a grin on her face. The words Killer Bee were embossed onto her breastplate, and her cutie mark was that of a barbed stinger. “A bet’s a bet, and hay, I haven’t had anypony slip past my hits like that in months.”

“But it was two-on-one!” Royal Reversal complained loudly. “C’mon Bee, don’t you think we should’ve at least gotten Armor to push himself a little?”

“You actually did, Captain Reversal,” Shining Armor chipped in with a bemused smile as he came up to them, his helmet tucked underneath his shoulder. “I actually found myself hard-pressed to keep up a couple of times; you and Bee did give me quite a challenge, and you didn’t even have to use your First Releases.”

“You’re just saying that, Armor,” Reversal replied sourly, his expression unconvinced as he slid his wooden practice broadsword back into its sheath on his side. “You didn’t even use yours either, and you totally wiped the floor with us just now.”

Shining Armor smirked, but chose to say little else. “Heh, believe what you will, Royal. You give too little credit to Captain Bee and yourself.”

“Speak for yourself, Armor-san,” Killer Bee piped up as she jerked her forehooves inwards one by one, retracting the two wooden practice punching daggers that extended from the vambraces on the pegasus’ wrists. “You act as if you aren’t one of the best darned swordsponies in the entirety of the Gotei Juusantai, bar none. There is such a thing called being too modest, you know.”

“I don’t like it getting to my head,” the blue-maned captain remarked wryly as he walked with Royal Reversal and Killer Bee back to the side benches at the edge of the dojo. “It makes me complacent, and I’ve gotta keep my skills sharp... after that last fiasco with the Changeling Queen...”

Shining Armor’s expression grew dark, and Reversal gave Bee a worried glance, to which she replied with an understanding nod before stepping up in front of her fellow captain.

“Armor-taichou,” the yellow-coated pegasus mare began firmly. “Chrysalis fooled all of us, myself included. Hay, if even Rising Sun-soutaichou couldn’t see through her illusions, what makes you think you could’ve done any better? You have nothing to feel guilty about - you already did the best you could, given the circumstances.”

“But it was my wife she had been impersonating!” Shining Armor rebutted hotly. “I should’ve been able to see the signs, should’ve recognized that something was off-”

“But you couldn’t, and you know why? Because you were subjected to a direct mind-control spell from her, it wasn’t even something passive like the shape-changing illusion that she displayed to all of us. Armor, this isn’t your failure. How many times do I and the other captains have to impress that fact on you?”

The white unicorn stallion stared impassively at his fellow captain, who returned the look with an equally firm expression. After several seconds, Shining Armor finally looked away, glaring down at the floor beneath him as he muttered darkly under his breath. “I was standing as commanding captain of the First Division on the day of her attack, Bee. That was my command test that she decided to attack on.”

The blue-maned captain’s voice grew more wounded as he continued to speak, betraying just how pained and tortured he felt about what had happened. “That was the period that would’ve decided whether or not I would stay a Captain of the Thirteen Royal Court Guard Squads - you’re a captain as well, you should understand! Captain-Commander Rising Sun trusted me to keep things under control, with his division no less, and look at what I let happen!”

“And you still managed to keep your post and get granted command of your own division even after Chrysalis’ attack,” Killer Bee emphasized, her expression beginning to grow weary. “Stars above, Armor-san! You’re a great soldier and a capable commander, but sometimes you can be so dense! Use your head for a bit! You think the Captain-Commander would’ve let you take permanent command of the Thirteenth Division if he didn’t think you handled the crisis well enough?”

“Bee’s right, Armor,” Reversal spoke as he stepped up next to his colleague. “Chrysalis might have managed to worm her way through our defenses, but at the end of the day it was your power, along with your wife's, that managed to expel her and her changelings out of Canterlot. You saved the city, Armor - not us, and definitely not the Captain-Commander.”

Shining Armor glared darkly at the floor for several more seconds, not meeting Killer Bee’s steady gaze, and soon enough he strode over to the benches, dropping his steel practice shield onto the bench. Pulling off his armor, he then slipped on his newly-awarded official captain’s haori, the white silk jacket settling down on his shoulders and proudly displaying the romane numerals ‘XIII’ within the diamond emblazoned on its back.

Turning around to face the door that led out of the dojo, Shining Armor paused just long enough to give one last reply, meeting neither of his colleague's eyes.

"I still don't think it was good enough. I should've been stronger... Strong enough to protect Canterlot... and my wife and sister."

The blue-maned captain's voice grew pensive as it trailed off at the end of his sentence, and he stepped out of the dojo in silence, leaving his two fellow captains alone in the room staring after him.






[ambient]


The corridors of the royal castle were immaculate, ashine with all the resplendent perfection befitting the seat of power of the entire pony race. Shining Armor strode through those corridors with purpose filling every step, headed straight for his office.

His mind still dwelt darkly on the events that had transpired during his wedding and had almost ruined it completely. Only his sister’s insight and tenacity had allowed the true Cadance - his Cadance - to return to him to his senses in time to stop Chrysalis’ hostile takeover of Canterlot.

It was those events that now drove him day and night to hone his skills and better himself, so that he would not be caught off guard by such a crisis again - he was now a Captain of the Royal Guard, and he would not disappoint the expectations that had been placed upon him when he had taken up this post.

Shining Armor had been intending to spend the rest of the day in his office completing the unending mountain of paperwork that threatened to overflow his desk every day. However, to his surprise, when he reached the door to his office, he found somepony waiting for him.

“Captain Armor!” The armored corporal standing outside the door to his office saluted him as he approached. “Princess Celestia requests your presence in her chambers immediately! She says that she has an assignment for you.”

“An assignment?” Shining Armor’s eyebrow arched as he returned the salute. “Did she say anything about what it was?”

“No, sir!” the corporal answered crisply, his foreleg dropping down only after Shining Armor had lowered his own. “She only asked for you to report to her immediately - judging from her tone, I would say it was pretty urgent.”

“All right then, guess there’s no helping it.” The captain gave his office door a longing glance, and then sighed, shrugging his shoulders and peering at the soldier’s name tag. “Thanks for the message, Corporal...”

“Claymore, sir!” The slightest hints of a grin tugged at the corners of the guard’s mouth, and Shining Armor had a sinking feeling he knew what was coming next... “And sir, if I may, I’d just like to say what an honor it is to finally meet the Captain who defeated the queen of the changelings and sent her packing from Canterlot!”

The white-coated stallion bit back an exasperated sigh, and he resisted the urge to run a hoof tiredly through his mane. “I just did what I had to do, Corporal - I was simply in the right place at the right time. If Captain-Commander Rising Sun had been there, he’d have simply torched Chrysalis right there and then and put an end to it much more quickly than I did.”

“No disrespect intended to the Captain-Commander, sir,” Claymore replied, his suppressed grin still threatening to break out across his face. “But I think that even he wouldn’t have been able to beat Chrysalis when she was able to throw down against the Princess herself. The fact that you managed to throw her and all her changelings out of Canterlot at the same time...”

The corporal leaned in slightly closer, his voice dropping to a low murmur. “The guards are talking, sir. You’re a hero to us.”

Shining Armor was desperately trying not to scowl at this point - all the undue attention upon his heroics was seriously rankling his nerves. He was simply out to carry out his duty and his special talent: protecting others, particularly his loved ones. He had never entertained any delusions of grandeur or fantasies of heroism - all he had ever wanted was simply to be able to protect what was important to him.

“Well, all well and good, Corporal,” the blue-maned captain spoke in as carefully measured and controlled a tone he could manage, trying not to let his irritation seep through. “But I think the Princess would be waiting for me right now, so I’d better get a move on.”

“Absolutely, sir! I shan’t keep you any longer then!” This time, a shit-eating grin did break out across Claymore’s face as he saluted Shining Armor again, stepping aside to let the captain pass.

The unicorn stallion resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he quickly trotted past the young and enthusiastic guard. Honestly, his reputation after tangling with Chrysalis had ballooned to such an exaggerated proportion that he was starting to get extremely annoyed with it - he didn’t need this sort of attention dogging him everywhere he went, especially when he was the newest captain on the block amongst the other twelve captains of the Thirteen Royal Court Guard Squads.

As if I didn’t need any more of this. The troops might see you as a hero, but you know what some of the other captains think, don’t you? The young captain thought sourly to himself.

Realizing that the clock was ticking and that Celestia was probably waiting on him, Shining Armor quickly left his brooding thoughts behind as his trot soon broke out into a quick canter, and the corridors of the castle blurred past him. Soldiers and guards that he passed by stopped in their tracks to salute him as he went by, many of their eyes wide in wonder and awe.

Shining Armor quickly returned their salutes if only to stop their stares and quickly get the hay out of the spotlight. Yet, even as their forelegs dropped back to the ground, the stares did not stop, and the whispers certainly did not either.

“That’s Captain Shining Armor, isn’t that?”

“It is! It’s the hero of Canterlot!”

“I heard he threw down against the changeling queen herself after she imprisoned the Princess, and still managed to win hooves down! It took four Lieutenants and a dozen other seated officers to put down even just one of the bigger Changelings, I can’t imagine how strong the captain must’ve been to fight their queen herself! I would’ve loved to see that battle!”

“No, you wouldn’t have.”

“Well, not up close, at least.”

Gritting his teeth, Shining Armor kept his expression stoic, and doubled the pace of his canter, quickly leaving behind the guards who were staring after him in awe.

Several minutes later, his canter brought him to the doors of Celestia’s chambers - doors that he had stood before, but had never stepped through. Today would mark the first time he had actually been instructed to report directly to the Princess’ chambers to receive orders from the monarch herself, rather than through his General, Captain-Commander Rising Sun. The guards that normally stood watch outside her doors were noticeably absent - certainly an odd occurrence, but who was to question the Princess’ orders?

Taking in a deep breath, Shining Armor steadied himself, and knocked on the doors twice, clearing his throat loudly.

“Princess Celestia! Captain Shining Armor, reporting as ordered!”

“Please, Captain, do come in.” He heard his beloved monarch’s voice issue from behind the door, slightly muffled - her tone was level and unreadable, an undisturbed lagoon of calm. Deciding that he’d find out just what he’d been summoned for only after entering, Shining Armor strode on through, his horn sparking to push the doors open.

As he stepped into Celestia’s chambers, the first thing that he saw was that a scrying circle had been drawn into the floor - however, its lines were darkened and inert, bereft of any magic flowing through it. Celestia stood outside the circle, at the edge of her chambers and facing the windows, gazing pensively outside. Stepping forward but taking care not to step inside the scrying circle or disrupt any of its lines, Shining Armor bowed his head down in deference to his Princess.

“You summoned me, your Majesty?”

“Rise, Shining Armor.” his monarch spoke, and the captain rose to his hooves, standing upright and rigidly at attention, his posture eliciting a bemused smile from Celestia as she turned her head to face him. “Please, Captain, there is no need to stand on such formality with me. After all, you are married to my niece now - that makes you my nephew-in-law, which does technically make you family.”

“Nevertheless, you are still the reigning Princess of Equestria, and my direct superior, milady. It’s only fair that I give the respect that is due to your station.” Shining Armor replied without even missing a beat, and he could’ve sworn that Celestia’s expression grew even more bemused, with only the tiniest hint of weariness.

“And this is why you don’t mix working relationships with family,” he barely heard her mutter underneath her breath before she bodily turned around to face him, her genial smile unreadable. “Well, let us cut to the chase, then. Captain Armor, I called you here today because I have an assignment for you and you alone, regarding a matter that is to be considered top secret. None of the other captains or anypony else from the other divisions except your own are to know about this - am I clear on this?”

Shining Armor’s ears twitched as the statement registered with his brain - top secret? That level of classification was only reserved for the kind of state secrets that could potentially upset the balance of power within the kingdom - something that Captain-Commander Rising Sun was far more likely to encounter than himself.

This kind of information was just way above his pay grade!

“I... understand, Your Majesty,” the young captain began cautiously. “But pardon me for asking this; what warrants me to have this kind of clearance for such a matter? I’m just a captain, and a newly-promoted one at that! What makes me so special that you’d entrust this assignment to me and nopony else?”

He certainly wasn’t expecting the answer he got.

“It directly concerns my student, and your sister, Twilight Sparkle, Captain. I believe you would have a vested interest in this particular assignment.”

Shining Armor couldn’t help his own reaction - upon hearing his sister’s name, his eyes widened in surprise and his breath hitched in his throat from shock for just a second.

“Twily?” he blurted out by pure reflex, flushing a second later when he realized what an embarrassing slip of the tongue he’d made. Coughing embarrassedly, he tried to muster his composure again. “Princess, is my sister in trouble?”

Celestia’s smile grew amused at Shining Armor’s reflexive use of his little sister’s pet name, and shook her head slightly. “She is not in any immediate danger if that is what you fear, but she is caught in rather... unusual circumstances. Therefore, I am assigning you the task of protecting her and the other Bearers of Harmony for the duration of this... ‘situation’, until the matter has been resolved.”

The captain’s eyes narrowed slightly, his mind working to deduce just what Celestia had meant. “And... what exactly might this situation be, Your Majesty?”

The monarch’s eyes closed as her expression grew tired, and Shining Armor felt a slightly sinking feeling develop in his chest - something told him that he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear.

“It all began but a week ago, when I discovered six new, strange presences lurking about the Weave...”

And she laid the entire story out for him, from the very beginning right up until the latest happenings, briefing him fully on the extent of the events that had transpired. As the recount went on, Shining Armor’s expression grew from stoic and neutral to slightly skeptical, before turning into a very troubled look as Celestia informed him of the attacks that had taken place so far.

“Thus far, none of them have been grievously injured enough for it to be permanent,” the solar monarch told him. “Though, only Rainbow Dash and Rarity have encountered these beings so far. I am still investigating as to what their true nature is, but while I do so, I am dispatching you and your division to the province-state of Ponyville, to help watch over Twilight and her friends, and to render aid wherever possible.”

Shining Armor could only stare blankly at Princess Celestia, his brain still trying to comprehend what he had just heard, and when the gears finally clicked in place, his eyes widened.

“Wait - you’re assigning me and my entire division to protect my sister and her friends, Your Majesty?”

“I believe I did not misspeak, Captain Armor.” Celestia confirmed with a bemused smile, and Shining had to literally fight to contain his joy and excitement - his first task as the Thirteenth Division’s commander, and he already had the chance to go see his sister again after having been apart from her for so long! True, it was under rather dire circumstances, but circumstances be damned; he was going to get to see his sister again!

His joyous mood however soon took a turn for the grim as he mulled over the details of the situation his sister had been caught in the midst of. At first he had thought that Celestia assigning his entire division to the defense of the province-state of Ponyville had been severe overkill, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that her decision made sense.

She had dedicated his division to watch over the entire province, not just the town itself - that was a lot of additional ground to cover, when you counted the wilderness of the Everfree and the vast, rolling plains of wild grassland surrounding the countryside town. Whatever it was that was lurking around that area, Celestia obviously wanted him to have eyes and ears within every inch of the province-state, so that he would never miss anything that might happen.

Plus, if there truly were some mysterious assailants skulking about Ponyville with the intent to hurt his sister and his friends, nothing in Equestria would stop him from giving everything he had into protecting Twilight and the others... including stepping in directly with the might of his entire division behind him.

The young captain immediately saluted, his hoof banging solidly on his armored chest with an anticipatory smile on his face, and he nodded his affirmation to the Princess. “I understand completely, Your Majesty. I shall immediately mobilize my division, and we will be on station within the Ponyville province within the next day.”

When Celestia nodded at him and turned back to face the window, Shining Armor took his cue and bowed again, taking his leave as he backed out through the doors to her chambers and sparked his horn to close them.

“Before you go, Captain Armor, one last thing.”

The stallion paused mid-stride, releasing his telekinetic grip on the doors. Carefully, he turned about to face his sovereign again, unable to keep a curious undertone from staining his voice. “Yes, Princess?”

“I take it you know that some of the older captains were opposed to your appointment, yes?” The alicorn’s cavalier tone belied the seriousness of her words. It was the type of intonation that one might use to talk about the weather, not the intricacies of military politics.

“I...” Shining Armor gave a puzzled frown, unable to comprehend why the Princess was suddenly posing such a question out of the blue. Whatever her reason was, he only thanked his lucky stars that she was still facing towards the window; she wouldn’t be able to see his uneasy expression as he took a moment to find the right words.

The short answer was yes. He was well aware that his meteoric rise through the ranks had rubbed many of the seated captains the wrong way. Thankfully, most were content to grumble their complaints silently to each other, but there were a few who had been... more than just vocal in their disapproval. But how to properly phrase that?

The Princess’ light chuckle shook Shining from his brief reverie. “Should I take your silence as a yes, Captain?”

“Er, no, Your Majesty,” the stallion sheepishly replied. “I was just-”

“There’s no need to sound so worried, Shining.” There was a mischievous twinkle to the Princess’ voice, as though she knew the mental calculations he was desperately trying to make. “A simple yes or no will suffice.”

“...Yes.”

“Good.” 

The sudden dearth of merriment in Celestia’s voice startled the stallion far more than her words possibly could have. “Do you know why they were so against your appointment, by any chance?”

“I... No, I don’t.”

“Interestingly enough, it was for the same reason that I have chosen to entrust you with this particular assignment. Your sister.”

Shining Armor stood stock still as the Princess turned her gaze towards him, her emotions shrouded beneath the weight of countless years. He was not given a chance to respond; Celestia apparently still had more to say. “Twilight was, as they put it, an anomaly. She was already one of the most powerful unicorns in history before she even had her cutie mark, and she only grew stronger and stronger. Your comrades didn’t know what to make of her; some were downright terrified of her. If I hadn’t taken her as my personal student...”

The alicorn didn’t finish the thought, nor did she have to. It was only his iron discipline that kept Shining from growling in fury; he knew all too well what somepony like Stainless Scalpel, the current captain of the twelfth division, would have done if he had gotten his hooves on Twilight...

“But, in the end, Twilight made sense, didn’t she?” the Princess continued, giving Shining Armor a good excuse to leave his dark thoughts behind. “The Bearer of the Element of Magic, one of the most, if not the most, powerful forces in all of Equestria. When she and the other Bearers worked together to free my sister, the captains finally laid their worries aside. Even if it wasn’t something that any of them expected, they got their explanation in the end. And that was enough to satisfy them.

“And then you appeared.”

The captain felt his stomach clench. Despite the neutral tone that Celestia addressed him with, it suddenly felt like he was being put on trial, for a crime he didn’t even know he had committed.

“A new cadet for captaincy, overflowing with enough raw power to defend all of Canterlot on your own and bearing the sheer gall to do so without caring about the consequences. Suddenly, soldiers who had built up their careers over decades found their positions threatened, and you can bet that they weren’t happy about it.”

A brief pause followed the statement, the kind that Shining knew he wasn’t supposed to fill. So he stood there, waiting for Celestia to continue, his mind desperately trying to understand why she was telling him all of this.

“...When it came time for your examination, some of your comrades sought to dissuade me. They said that somepony as young as yourself, with power so great and so untested, was unsuited for such a role. But it wasn’t your power itself that frightened them, now was it? It was where it came from.”

Where it came from? The captain’s mind whirled as he took in and attempted to make sense of his monarch’s words.

The implications of Celestia’s words were staggering. Shining Armor had always known that he was widely considered amongst the Royal Guard captains to be prodigiously, ridiculously powerful for his age. And this fact was even more impressive when one considered that he had no tie to an outside force, such as the Element of Magic, to explain his astonishing growth. He had never put too much thought into it; the burst in strength that had come when he had become a cadet for captaincy may have been unexpected, but it was certainly welcome. But, if he was reading into the Princess’ words correctly, then... was she implying that it wasn’t just his natural strength?

Did Celestia know something that she wasn’t telling him?

“Your Majesty, is... there something that I should be aware of?” the guard captain probed cautiously, testing the waters. Every instinct he had was telling me to be careful here; a single misstep could potentially spell disaster.

“Only that you should exercise the utmost caution while out in the field, my nephew.” Celestia’s expression and tone were unreadable; no matter how hard Shining Armor scrutinized it, he was unable to find any hints as to the true meaning behind her cryptic words. “There are forces at work here that even I cannot fully understand, much less predict. The issue of where your power comes from is a highly controversial topic, especially amongst your fellow captains. They see you as a wildcard, Shining Armor... and I fear that these unknown forces might seek to subvert your own power against us.”

“They would have to kill me first, Your Majesty.” Shining Armor replied without an ounce of hesitation, fierce pride and loyalty welling up inside him before he had even considered his response. “I would die before I ever betrayed the Crown.”

“I have no doubt that you would make that choice without hesitation if it ever came to it, Captain, as much as I hope that it never does.” The immortal alicorn gave him a small smile. “But the forces that you face may have other designs. Be wary, Shining Armor... my niece would be most displeased with me if I were to allow you to come to any harm in the course of your duties."

"I think 'displeased' would be a bit of an understatement, Your Majesty." Shining Armor suppressed a wry grin before continuing. "Cadence would go as far as to drag my soul out of Tartarus just so that she could kill me again for daring to die on her."

The stallion didn't mention the part where he also believed Cadence would then also resurrect him a second time so that she could express her love in a... different, more consummately fashion, but that was hardly something somepony said outright to their aunt-in-law. Especially when their aunt-in-law was an immortal goddess, the ruler of his country, and the one who signed his paychecks. His beloved wife, bless her soul, possessed a heart that blazed with passion and strength beneath her sweet, gentle appearance; she could become a real spitfire whenever something dear to her was threatened, Shining Armor himself included.

Celestia let out a soft, unexpected laugh, and gave him a knowing smile, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking. "Yes, that is quite true, Captain."

When the alicorn neglected to speak any further, Shining Armor realized that the conversation was finished. Resisting the urge to ask any more questions, he bowed one last time to his Princess, backing out the doors to her chamber. "Then, by your leave, Princess."

"Dismissed, Shining Armor." Celestia turned her gaze back to the window. Sparking his horn to take hold of the doors, Shining Armor began closing them to depart.

“Oh, and you might want to move yourself down to Ponyville today ahead of time though, Captain.” The captain heard Celestia suddenly add just before the doors were tugged shut, closing her off from his view. “I already sense a stirring in the Weave, and your early presence there might make all the difference in the days to come...”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, staring at the shut doors to the Princess’ chambers as he struggled to make sense of what his ruler had just plopped down onto his metaphorical lap.

A sudden assignment out of nowhere to Ponyville, involving guarding his sister and the other Bearers of Harmony, a cryptic warning about the source of his power and to be on his guard, and here he was being advised to arrive there ahead of his entire division, when the standard procedure for such a deployment was for a captain to be present with his soldiers in order to organize and facilitate the entire mobilization effort.

Her advice - hay, her entire briefing - had been odd, to say the least, but the Princess had the experience and wisdom of millenia behind her. If she saw fit to dispense cryptic advice that made little sense at the moment and then to recommend something to be carried out in lieu of the standard procedures, who was he to question it? Besides, it wasn’t as if his Lieutenant wasn’t capable of handling the mobilization on her own without his presence...

Well, there was hardly any point in ruminating over something he knew hardly anything about. His beloved monarch had the mind of a labyrinth, and trying to puzzle out the meaning of her cryptic words would avail him nothing but a migraine. Shrugging, Shining Armor began the long trot to his office, already focusing on his immediate assignment as he telekinetically tugged a runestone carved with a long-range whispering rune out of his uniform’s pocket, beginning to speak into it.

“Vice-Captain Snow Dancer, report to my office ASAP. We’ve got a new assignment on our hooves...”





The door to the library was still shut, and the sign read ‘Closed’, but Fluttershy still galloped up to it anyway. Rearing up, the panicked pegasus pulled a hoof back and began banging furiously on the door.

“Twilight! Twilight, you’ve got to come quick! It’s Rainbow Dash - something terrible has happened to her!”

When nopony came to answer the door after several seconds, the distraught mare’s heartbeat sped up even further, and her knocks against the library’s door became even more frantic.

“Twilight! Twilight, are you there!?”

Fluttershy’s desperate cries, despite their urgency, continued to go unheeded. If Twilight was indeed inside, then it seemed that the meek pegasus would have to do something else to grab her attention.
 
Moaning in desperation, the worried little pegasus looked around frantically for something that she could use to get the librarian’s attention. She had to get word to Twilight - she had to, for Rainbow’s sake!

Spotting a nearby rock, her eyes immediately flickered to the library’s windows, and her stomach churned in disgust and trepidation at the idea that popped into her head.
 
Rainbow Dash’s earsplitting shriek of pain, that unholy noise that lanced through her ears like a thousand nails scraping across a blackboard...

Gritting her teeth, Fluttershy allowed her eyes to fall shut for a split-second. When they reopened, the usually gentle green orbs blazed with an unfamiliar strength. There was no time to hesitate, not now. Hooves that had been quaking mere moments earlier grasped the stone with an unyielding might; Twilight could always get a new window, and Dash needed help now.
 
Though she may have never been much of an athlete, even Ponyville’s resident pushover knew how to chuck a rock. Taking a few steps back, Fluttershy locked her gaze on the glass aperture to the right of the library’s entrance. As she lifted the stone, time seemed to slow down for the pegasus, her heartbeat echoing in her ears, her breath sticking in her throat. There was nothing for it, however. Aiming at the target that even she couldn’t miss, the mare cocked her leg back, locked on, and-
 
“HEEEEY, Fluttershy! What’re you doing!?”
 
The high-pitched, hyperactive voice that she knew oh so well suddenly shrilled out of nowhere. With a frightened gasp, the startled pegasus allowed her makeshift missile to drop to the ground, frenziedly pumping wings sending her into the air as she reflexively distanced herself from the pink pile of pep and perkiness.

“Ooooh, you jumped up pretty high there, ‘Shy! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you jump up so high all in one go! Oh, do it again! Do it again!”
 
As her heart rate slowly descended, Fluttershy lowered herself to the ground, surprised shock giving way to relief. “Pinkie! Oh, thank goodness you’re here, I need your help! You see, I was at the hospital, and…”
 
“Hey, what’s that rock for? Are you playing catch?! Ooh, ooh, can I play?! I love playing catch; it’s all like, ‘hey, here’s this thing, let’s toss it back and forth!’ It’s soooo much fun, and it’s so easy to play too! You know, catch may be one of the easiest games to play. I mean, all you need is a ball, right? Or, a rock, I guess. Hey, why are you playing catch with a rock? Isn’t that dangerous? I mean…”
 
As Pinkie entered into a full on rant about the merits and difficulties of playing catch with anything but a regulation-sized ball, Fluttershy’s mutable emotions shifted yet again. Relief rapidly descended towards despair as the meek mare found herself unable to interject into the party pony’s cheerful verboseness. While at any other time Fluttershy would have loved to hear about the time Pinkie’s sister had to get four stitches after an unfortunate game of catch back on the rock farm, there was something else that she had to focus on now.
 
“P-Pinkie…”
 
“And that was when I decided to stash balls all across Equestria! You know, to make sure that I’d always be able to play catch without having to go the hospital! Because hospitals are actually kind of scary; there was this one time when…”
 
“B-But, you see…”
 
“…And then I accidentally ate some rotten berries! I know it sounds bad, but once you get past the first few chews they’re actually not too hard to get down! I think it has something to do with…”
 
Rainbow Dash’s face as it contorted in agony, her mouth split into a continuous howl of gut-wrenching suffering.
 
“PINKIE PIE!”

Almost immediately, the pink pony stopped right in her tracks, glancing at Fluttershy with a shit-eating grin.

“Yes, Fluttershy?”

A muscle twitched in the pegasus’ forehead, but Fluttershy immediately clamped down on it, forcing herself to remain in a lagoon of relative coherence. Her mind whirled about in place for a second or two as she tried to remember what she had come here to do, and she blinked a couple of times before she actually managed to regain her train of thought.

“Pinkie, you have to help me get Twilight’s attention! Something terrible’s happened to Rainbow Dash; she’s broken out of the hospital! We have to go help her!”

Pinkie Pie’s mane almost immediately deflated, and the pink pony stopped bouncing right in her tracks, her eyes wide.

“R-Rainbow Dash broke out?” Her voice was incredibly small, and when Fluttershy nodded, the pink partygoer let out a sigh. “Drat. I was hoping that storm cloud I’d seen flying to the Everfree was something else.”

“All the more reason we have to go help her now!” Fluttershy pleaded urgently, grabbing Pinkie by the shoulders and shaking her lightly. “Pinkie, I need Twilight to come out here with us, and I need her no-”

“Is there something that I can help you girls with?” a familiar voice suddenly spoke up from behind Fluttershy, and the timid pegasus let out a tiny eep! as she jumped slightly into the air again. 

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Pinkie thought to herself wryly as she spied Twilight standing in the now-open doorway to the library, her head cocked quizzically at them as she eyed them with a curious expression. Convenient timing to be sure, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Hey Twilight!” the pink partygoer piped up as cheerfully as she could given the situation, but her smile still remained slightly strained as she tried to keep up appearances. Still, there was no missing the slight edge in her voice, nor the steely glint of seriousness in her eyes. “Fluttershy here says that she’s got something she needs your help urgently with! Seems like something happened to Rainbow Dash, but all I’ve got was seeing this giant storm cloud flying across the sky to the Everfree.”

“She... Wait, Rainbow Dash? Giant flying storm cloud?” Twilight’s expression only grew even more confused, trying to piece together the information that was being unceremoniously shoved on her. “What’s going on here?”

“Rainbow Dash woke up and broke out of the hospital, Twilight!” Fluttershy interjected hurriedly, her voice urgent. “I think... I don’t know what’s happening to her, but it looked like something was going out of control inside her! She broke out before she could hurt anypony else. I think it was that power you mentioned, but... Twilight, it looked like it was killing her from the inside! She was in so much pain - we have to go help her!”

“Wait, what?” Twilight seemed positively gobsmacked by now at the sudden news she was receiving. Joy at Rainbow Dash waking up warred with worry and concern that the magic inside the pegasus might now be fatally raging out of control... along with annoyance that the cyan speedster had disappeared on them!

Unable to process so many things at once, she settled for the simplest, most obvious observation she could manage to hold on to. “Rainbow Dash is awake!? It’s barely been a day since she’s been hospitalized!”

“Well, something must’ve woken her up!” Pinkie Pie remarked pointedly. “I mean, was I the only one who felt that weird chill in my chest just a few minutes ago?”

Twilight opened her mouth reflexively to tell Pinkie that she had felt no such thing, when she abruptly realized that she had. 

Not more than a few minutes ago she had suddenly felt a large spike of cold magic come from the general direction of the Everfree. The surge of energy was not lost on her arcane senses, and she had immediately dropped the books she had been sorting at the moment, immediately diving into a divination spell to determine where it had come from. She had only gotten along as far as determining its source had been the diamond dog badlands when the combined voices of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had finally reached her ears from outside the library, breaking her concentration.

“Well... I did, actually,” the lavender mare began hesitantly. “That was... Could it have been what the magic in Rainbow Dash was reacting to? But I felt it coming from the diamond dog badlands, and last I know, Spike and Rarity were...”

Twilight’s eyes widened in horrified realization as the ball suddenly dropped.

“Oh, Celestia. Pinkie, where did you say that electrical storm was heading?”

“The Everfree! Why?”

“Because the borders of the Everfree come dangerously close to the diamond dog badlands, and if the magic inside Rainbow Dash is reacting to the surge of energy I felt coming from there... there’s only one place she can be heading.”

“The diamond dog badlands... Oh. Oh, no.” Fluttershy breathed out in horror. “That’s where Rarity said she was headed to with Spike earlier today!”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out where this would lead. If a raging, out-of-control Rainbow Dash was headed right for the badlands where Spike and Rarity were, Twilight didn’t even want to begin to imagine what would happen to them.

“We have to get there, girls. Now.” The urgency in Twilight’s tone was not lost on her two friends, and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie nodded resolutely, following Twilight as she dashed past them, her hooves barely even touching the ground. The three mares galloped off at once, intent on stopping disaster from striking.

So caught up in the rush of their anxiety, all of them failed to notice Fluttershy’s shadow. Sharply defined in the afternoon sun, it was out of sync with her movements, having begun to follow her only a second after the yellow pegasus had begun to gallop.





Applejack gasped out tiredly for breath as she took another hoofstep, the heavy burden over her back weighing her down significantly. Rarity’s body was cold and lifeless over her back, feeling for all the world like a chilly sack of cement. Yet when Spike had examined her, he had found the unicorn to be breathing steadily, and her pulse couldn’t have been stronger.

There was just no explaining the strange coldness that permeated the unicorn’s body, especially considering the time that had passed since Applejack had dragged her out of the snowbank. Spike had been shivering madly at first when he had clambered out with them, but walking out in the sun had certainly warmed him up. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, the apple farmer had barely even felt the cold at all - she had the strange heat that kept burning in her gut and warming her entire body to thank for that.

At least an hour had to have passed by now, but Rarity’s body still grew no warmer, even though her breathing and her pulse still remained strong and steady.

It must have somethin’ ta do with that ice guy she was just fightin’, Applejack thought pensively to herself as she dragged herself forward another step. She was fightin’ with an ice sword of her own, so it’s possible it’s got somethin’ ta do with her own powers... Powers that ah mahself might be developin’ soon...

But if hers had tah do wit’ ice, and ah keep feelin’ this heat in mah gut, then that means...

Meanwhile, Spike was giving Applejack a concerned look from behind her as the orange mare continued to push herself onwards. Since they had dragged Rarity out of the snowbank, the apple farmer had not said a single word, silently shouldering Rarity over her back and carrying the limp mare back in the direction of Ponyville.

The young dragon had helped her get the unconscious fashionista up onto her back, but aside from a terse word of thanks, he had gotten nothing else out of Applejack - the headstrong mare seemed to be lost deep in thought about something.

Glancing worriedly to their side, Spike noted the dark, foreboding woods that stretched out to the left of the barren path that they walked. This was unquestionably the most hazardous part of the journey to the diamond dog badlands - the section of the path where it passed by dangerously close to the Everfree.

Applejack was weighed down by Rarity, limiting her ability to run, and, truth be told, Spike didn’t feel all that hot about his own capabilities to protect the two mares with him. Hay, Applejack’s strength had managed to kick in an ice labyrinth wall that he probably wouldn’t have even begun to melt under the hottest flame he could muster.

All he could do right now was pray that nothing decided to attack them while they passed by this area, and that the trip back to Ponyville would be peaceful and uninterrupted.

Naturally, fate was not feeling particularly generous that day.

It first manifested as a chill running down the back of his neck as his hackles rose, and Spike felt his instincts screaming at him - something was watching them.

Nervously, the dragonling took a brief glance over his shoulder at the forest to his left. For the first few seconds he did not notice anything amiss, but as he peered closer, he could’ve sworn that he saw a pair of yellow cat-like pupils blinking at them, watching from the darkness of the forest’s shrubbery...

… Wait.

Something clicked inside the young dragon’s mind as he recognized those eyes, and his body immediately dashed forward of its own accord. Hurling himself forward, Spike careened straight into Applejack as he slammed himself bodily into the apple farmer, knocking her aside.

“Manticore!!!”

His cry was drowned out by a deafening, overwhelming roar as something suddenly charged out of the forest in a huge orange, crimson blur. Applejack let out a startled oof! as Spike’s tiny mass suddenly cannonballed right into her stomach, and she was knocked off her feet, Rarity’s limp body toppling unceremoniously to the ground next to them.

It was all that saved them - the orange and crimson blur that had shot forth from the forest sailed right over them, and a heavy impact from somewhere to his right told Spike all he needed to know.

Glancing up, the dragonling’s worst fears were confirmed. The yellow, cat-like pupils of the manticore in front of him glared at him and Applejack critically, assessing the prey that it had chosen to hunt.

Spike nearly froze in place from sheer terror - diamond dogs he didn’t have much compunction against fighting, but to throw down against a manticore!? One of the deadliest predators to ever roam the Everfree? The dragonling gulped nervously, one of his fists already bunching up in frustration at the sheer unfairness of the situation. Darn it, and we were so close to home too! I can’t take this thing on! If only Fluttershy were here...

There was a rustle of movement to his left, and he heard a muted gasp. Applejack had gotten up from where she had fallen and had just sighted the manticore, her pupils having shrunken in fear the moment she caught sight of the massive predator.

“Spike...” he heard Applejack whisper, her voice thready with fear but still steady and uncracked. “Ya think ya can take Rarity’s weight all on yer own?”

Spike gave the apple farmer an incredulous look, unable to believe what he was hearing. “Seriously, Applejack? You’re asking me, the baby dragon, if he can carry a pony who’s at least three times his size?”

“Well, it was worth a shot.” A wry grin cracked the orange mare’s face. “Because ah sure as hay ain’t gonna ask you to hold this manticore down while ah carry Rarity outta here.”

Spike didn’t like the unspoken conclusion in that sentence - Applejack was the only one capable of carrying Rarity, but she certainly couldn’t get the unicorn out of here with a manticore on her tail. And if she was also the only one capable of even slowing the manticore down... “So, translation: we’re pretty much boned, aren’t we?”

“Not if ah have anythin’ ta say about it!” He heard Applejack’s voice suddenly grow heated, and... wait, were those embers stirring up at the base of her hooves?

There was a resolute look of determined anger on her face, and Applejack pawed at the ground in front of her, facing the manticore head on. Snorting in response, the massive predator let out a hungering bellow, one that nearly sent the Stetson flying off the cowfilly’s head. Applejack winced, but her resolve didn’t waver as she faced off against the manticore, refusing to turn tail and run. There was no guarantee that she’d be able to beat it in a straight-up fight, but given the recent and sudden changes she seemed to be going through...

It was certainly a gamble... but it wasn’t as though they had any other options, did they?

This manticore wanted her and her friends? Well then, it’d have to get through her first.

The simmering, resentful anger that she felt against the manticore for having picked her and her friends as its prey erupted into a blazing inferno. Rage filling her throat, Applejack let out an answering shout as she and the manticore charged forward simultaneously, the fury that blazed through her entire being demanding blood.

The manticore’s first swipe was slow, and clumsy - Applejack easily avoided it as she ducked under the giant paw. Spinning about on her front hooves, she immediately lashed out in a powerful buck with all the strength she had.

The kick slammed right into the manticore’s ribcage, and there was a heavy thud! as the blow struck home. The manticore let out a sudden breath as the wind was knocked right out of it, and it was actually sent flying back, even if it was only for about ten feet. Landing roughly on its side, the manticore struggled briefly before finding its legs again, getting onto its feet and snarling roughly at Applejack.

“Oh, so ya wanna play rough, huh, big boy?” Applejack snorted as she ducked herself low, coiling her body and readying it to spring into action as the furnace inside her began to blaze even hotter. “Well then, come on!”

Roaring in fury, the manticore lunged forward again in an almost imperceptible blur, and this time Applejack barely reacted in time. Apparently having decided to step up its game, seeing that its prey was anything but the typical pony, the enraged manticore had thrown all of its speed and strength behind the next slash of its claws. The blow nearly disemboweled Applejack, as its claws raked dangerously close to her abdomen despite her narrow dodge backwards, leaving a trio of long, bloody scratches in its wake.

Cursing, Applejack darted forward again as she prepared to deliver another buck right into the creature’s sternum... Right up until a second paw suddenly came at her, batting her away as though she were nothing more than a leaf in the wind.

The blow slammed into her like an oncoming carriage, and the apple farmer found herself being hurled bodily into the air, dazed and winded. Seconds later she felt herself land painfully against the ground, tumbling roughly several times, and she heard a panicked, concerned voice calling out her name.

“Applejack!” Tiny, scaled claws were soon shaking her as she heard Spike’s voice more clearly by her side. “Are you all right?”

“Ugh...” The orange mare groaned as she tried to get to her feet, but somehow, her thoughts were muddled, and her limbs only sluggishly obeyed her commands. Her entire body throbbed with pain, and everything around her seemed to go by as though she was watching through a haze. “Okay, ah... ah think ah might’ve bitten off more than ah could chew there...”

“Darn it, Applejack, you’ve gotta get up!” she heard Spike’s voice shake in terror as he continued to try to rouse her. “The manticore... oh, crap, the manticore!”

A deep, bass growl reverberated through her inner ear, and, groaning in pain, Applejack forced herself to turn over. Looking up, the orange mare fixed a defiant glare upon the manticore that was stalking towards them, its teeth bared in a furious snarl.

The predator bore a wicked bruise on its chest that was visible even through its orange coat of fur and its breathing was shallow and strained, but there was no mistaking the fury upon its countenance. She had not only wounded the beast’s body, but its pride as well, and now she was going to pay for it.

Gritting her teeth, Applejack tried to summon more of the defiant rage that had allowed her to even think of facing off the manticore in the first place, but whatever had been fueling the flame that burned within her had apparently exhausted itself. She had nothing left with which to push herself.

Well, it looks like this is it, then... The mare of Sweet Apple Acres closed her eyes, and waited for the finishing blow to land. If there’s somethin’ that Granny was always been goin’ on about, it was ta face death with dignity.

Just like how Mom and Dad did...

She felt a shadow pass over her and heard a terrified squeak from behind as Spike raised his arms above his head in a futile effort to shield himself from the manticore...

And just what was that unearthly racket in the distance?

It seemed to be getting closer with every passing second, and, unable to ignore her curiosity, the orange mare cracked open her eyes... just in time to hear a strangled cry of agony and to witness a bolt of lightning slam right into the manticore that had been about to disembowel her.

Whatever it had been, it had been travelling fast - there was a sizable furrow dug into the ground where it had landed, and its edges were blackened and charred, crackling with arcs of electricity. Following the trail of the furrow, Applejack saw the manticore lying on its side, thrashing wildly despite the massive, blackened and cauterized wound that marred its side.

And behind it... behind it...

By Celestia, what is that thing!? Applejack’s eyes widened in horrified confusion, unable to comprehend what she was faced with.

It appeared just as Fluttershy had described it - it looked as though it was a very strangely proportioned hairless ape, with two arms, two legs, and a total lack of a tail. A pair of wings extended from its back and its head was the only place on its body that was visibly covered in hair, but she could see no more through the massive storm of electricity that was raging around the unknown being.

The strange bipedal creature was thrashing about on the ground just like the manticore, obviously in as much pain as the massive predator was. However, something about the sounds coming from it unnerved Applejack... something that threw her for a loop as she realized just what they were.

They were screams of pain - feminine screams of agony.

And she recognized that voice.

No... No way.

The screams of pain took on an enraged undertone to them, and the strange biped suddenly stopped rolling around. Springing to its feet in a blur, the newcomer turned and faced the manticore, which had also gotten up and was staring at its new opponent, letting out an enraged roar at the sudden interruption.

The interloper’s screams grew in intensity, and the lightning storm that raged around the being magnified in response. Applejack felt the fur on her body suddenly stand on end as the air around her suddenly felt charged. Before she could even blink, the strange biped had suddenly shot forward, a fist cocked back and balled with an immense amount of electricity crackling within its grip.

Bellowing in fury, the manticore leapt forward as well, meeting the strange creature’s charge. As Applejack watched, awestruck, the distinctive sound of a thousand birds all chirping at once reached her ears, and the electrified blur blasted forward as though it had been shot forth from a cannon.

BANG!!!

The two clashing forces suddenly met in a crash, and she barely even saw the figure thrust the ball of electricity clutched in its fist forward, directly into the manticore’s chest. A massive shockwave blew outwards as the orange mare literally saw the lines of force ripple behind the manticore’s broad back, and the sudden gust of wind nearly blew her Stetson off.

When the dust finally cleared and Applejack dared to lower her foreleg from where it had been holding down her hat, she beheld a sight she thought she’d never see in her life.

Lightning no longer surrounded the strange new arrival in an obscuring aura; now only the occasional fork of electricity danced over its bizarre frame. The manticore stood motionless over the strange being, frozen in place with only the arm that was still buried in its chest keeping it upright.

As the unknown creature ripped its arm out of the manticore’s chest in a shower of crimson, the hulking predator’s body fell limp to the ground below, landing with dull, heavy thud... and through whatever few lightning bolts were still arcing around it, she got her first clear look at the strange being.

A pair of cyan feathered wings extended from its back, and its body was mostly covered by the red-and-blue trenchcoat that it wore. Navy-blue fatigues and a pair of combat boots covered its legs, but, as Applejack’s gaze went upwards, her brain suddenly stopped for a moment, absolutely refusing to process and accept just what she was seeing.

There was no mistaking the long mane of rainbow-colored hair that descended from its head.

No... No, that couldn’t be...

Eyes that had gone completely white with power suddenly locked onto the farmer’s, and Applejack froze, unable to even move - stars above, there was just so much pain and fury in that gaze!

The strange being that looked so much like her abruptly began stalking towards them, its backed hunched and its expression contorted in maddened rage, when abruptly it stopped. Cringing in trepidation, Applejack watched it carefully, wary for whatever might come next.

A groan suddenly issued from the strange being, and it clutched at its head with both its hands. The creature fell to its knees, and, abruptly, lightning surged up all around it again as it once more began to scream again in that damnably familiar voice, a voice that Applejack refused to recognize.

Before she even knew what was happening, the strange being let out a bloodcurdling yell that sent Applejack’s skin crawling, and there was a tremendous BOOM! A blinding burst of lightning flashed before her eyes, and the orange mare cried out as stars danced about her vision in the wake of the flash.

Blinking away the stars in her eyes, the apple farmer glanced at where the creature had stood but a moment before... and saw nothing but a blackened crater, still crackling with residual electricity. Looking up, she saw a miniature electrical storm hurtle away into the sky, towards the depths of the Everfree.

The sound of galloping hooves behind her caught her attention, and Applejack turned around to see the three ponies she had desperately been hoping to see ever since Spike had dragged her all the way out here.

“Applejack!” Twilight called out in concern as she came to a stop in front of her friend, checking her over for injuries. “Are you and Rarity all right? What just happened? Did you get hurt?”

“Ah... Ah’m all right, Twi’.” Applejack replied shakily as she extended a shaking hoof and let Twilight help her to an upright position. “But... what in tarnation was that thing just now? Was... was it...?”

“I... honestly don’t know, Applejack.” Twilight gave the apple farmer a worried look as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie began hoisting the unconscious Rarity over the pink earth pony’s back behind them. Spike hopped onto Twilight’s back as the lavender unicorn briefly nuzzled her young assistant, glad that her young assistant was safe. Turning back to Applejack, her expression betrayed an answer that the orange mare had been dearly hoping not to hear.

“I’m not entirely sure at this point, but... I think... that might’ve been Rainbow Dash.”






[ambient]


The trip home to Ponyville had been relatively uneventful from there. Rarity had been sent to Ponyville hospital very much how Rainbow Dash had been not more than just a day ago, and the mood was sombre as the four gathered mares stepped out of the building, their expressions downcast and pensive.

Twilight was busy pondering the magic she had felt emanating from the unconscious Rarity’s body while on the trip here. While Rainbow Dash’s had had a slightly electric undercurrent to it, feeling as though it was constantly charged and ready to go, Rarity’s had been... cold, to put it simply.

At times the sensation was cool, pleasant - as though a calm, gentle breeze of winter air brushed against her cheeks. Other times, it felt as though she was standing in the midst of a blizzard itself, numbing cold pressing in on her from all directions.

Not only that, but the energies were constantly shifting and always in flux, as though they couldn’t quite make up their mind where they went. Yet despite its chaotic nature, there was something... peaceful... nay, serene, about it. As though a sense of zen permeated the energies that now inhabited Rarity’s body...

Applejack’s thoughts however, were far more perturbed.

She had seen that strange creature, seen its shape and its body, and witnessed the terrifying power that it had wielded against the manticore. It had thundered down from the sky itself like an avenging angel, and had dispatched the manticore ruthlessly with nothing more than a single, merciless strike.

Most of all, she remembered the fury in that being’s gaze. Eyes that had been ablaze with power, maddened rage driving its every action... and yet it had been screaming in agony the entire time, as though something had been torturing it from the inside out.

Could... could it really have been Rainbow Dash?

Was that the form she had taken on after encountering that strange thing out there that had attacked her? Was it permanent? Was Rainbow Dash going to be stuck like that for good?

Was... was the same thing going to happen to her when her own powers awakened?

Applejack looked down at her own forehooves - the same forehooves that had been burning with embers and tiny flames not more than just a few hours ago. For the first time in her life, she found herself afraid of herself, with no idea of what she should do.

Stars above, what was she becoming?

Fluttershy was extremely worried - after seeing Rainbow Dash suddenly burst out of the hospital like that, she had endlessly fretted over the pegasus’ well-being, unable to imagine what she’d do if her fillyhood friend had ended up becoming seriously injured in her throes of... of whatever it was she was experiencing right now. Stars, it rankled at her just simply being unable to understand what her friend was going through right now!

Pinkie Pie was just exhausted. After lugging Rarity’s unconscious body all the way from the badlands to the Ponyville hospital, all she wanted to do was simply go back to Sugarcube corner, collapse in her bed, and snooze all the way until the next morning.

The four mares departed from the hospital that evening, bidding each other weary goodbyes as they trotted off tiredly to their respective homes, their thoughts troubled and their steps heavy.

Again, none of them noticed that as Fluttershy walked, her shadow lagged behind slightly, moving as though attempting to replicate movements that were not its own.