Chapter 25
Dew Doe knocked on the door before opening it and peeking in. Private lay on the bed and seemed to be deep in thought. He didn’t even glance towards her and that told the mare he had probably not even noticed the knock.
They were all at Twilight’s castle, were a great reunion had been held. Pinkie threw both a ‘Welcome back from that horrible King Sombra’ party and a ‘Sorry how the birthday party went’ party. Dinky could hardly let go of Derpy the entire time and the gray pegasus hadn’t been much better. Foxy was the same with Coal and Cara was practically glued to Barricade.
Twilight then offered the family to stay the night at her castle before they headed home in the morning. Everybody was worn out after the last few days, especially the unicorn brothers. The princess had looked slightly relieved that they had accepted, like she had worried they would refuse because of what happened last time in it.
Now it was the morning the next day and Dew Doe had a real urge to check on Private and see how he was.
“Hi?” she fully entered the guest room, right now Private was unusually unreadable to her. Normally the mare could at the very least get some hints of his mood from the stallion’s body language.
“Hey,” Private responded. He looked up at her.
“How are you?” Dew came closer to the bed and sat down. She hadn’t really had a chance really to speak to him since he and Barricade had been rescued, so much had been going on yesterday.
“Eh,” the stallion grunted and shrugged.
Dew Doe arched her brow, this sounded like Private. But more like him after arriving home from work, not after having spent time captured by King Sombra.
“If you wish to talk,” Dew offered.
“How are you?” Private looked at Dew Doe. “I mean… after what he did…”
“Oh please, he just goes on a long list of leery stallions who have tried that with me,” Dew Doe shook her head with a smile. Then shuddered a little when remembering the licking of her cheek. “Although, he is by far the creepiest.”
“I hated seeing him handle you like that,” the unicorn sighed sadly. “I told him to leave you alone.”
“Private, I seriously doubt you could order him to do anything,” the mare told him reassuringly and reached to gently pat him on one hoof.
“I love you,” Private said out of the blue, still watching the mare who hadn’t quite caught on.
“Yes and I… what?” Dew blinked, oh she was always aware that Private cared about her, just like any other friend. However, it was the way the stallion had said it.
“I love you, Dew Doe. More than anything, more than history, more than pancakes…” the stallion sighed and looked down. “I’ve… just always been too afraid…”
“Mee…meee…. meeee…” Dew Doe was utterly unable to say anything, only squeaking escaped her lips. This had just been too sudden for her brain to fully take in right now.
“And seeing him handle you like that… it made me realize… just how much…I...” Private looked up, his brow rose at seeing that Dew Doe still couldn’t form a coherent word. Suddenly she fell back to the floor with a thud and lay there on her back, all legs and wings twitching.
The door to the room swung open and Foxy Stripes stood there along with Coal, the mare looked down at her incoherent sister. The maroon pony looked at Private who was staring at Dew unsure.
“What happened?” Foxy asked confused. Coal went over to her aunt and poked her with a hoof.
“I said I loved her.” Private shrugged, still not sure if he should be worried or amused. It wasn’t too unusual for Dew to react a little oddly to things that excited her.
“You what?” the maroon pegasus blinked then eyed her sister once more. “I think you broke her.”
Suddenly Dew Doe sprang up with a squee and tackled the stallion off the bed and they crashed to the floor on the other side of it and out of sight.
“Uh, what just happened?” Coal asked confused and looked at her mother. “We came here to say that breakfast was ready…”
“Ookay, nothing here for young fillies, out, out, out.” Foxy quickly grabbed her daughter and ushered the confused filly out of the room.
On the other side of the bed, nothing serious was really happening. But Dew was hugging Private tightly. The unicorn returned it, liking this embrace much better.
“Okay sorry… I lost myself there a little,” Dew giggled and let go of the stallion. “I kind of had accepted this might never happen.”
“Well it has.” Private shrugged and they both sat up. Dew was blushing a little and nervously banged her front hooves together.
“Also, I really should have been evaluating your, uh, mental health after all what happened, not squeaking like a silly filly. So seriously, how are you?” the mare asked.
Private frowned and considered what he should say. Right now, he was glad to be finally away from King Sombra, especially with the knowledge that the king was locked up in Tartarus. Yet he couldn’t help but feel a little regret, but it was brushed aside. Private was painfully aware that the king would never be again the prince he used to be.
“I’m conflicted,” Private said and looked at Dew Doe. “But how about I tell you about it during a more official therapy session?”
“That’s fine. You say it at your own pace.” The pegasus patted him gently on the back, trying to keep all the internal screaming of joy safely buried inside for now.
“There is just one one thing though, say ‘Coda Umbra.’” The stallion eyed her after having a moment of thought.
“Coda Umbra? Why…” Dew’s eyes bulged out when suddenly her mind was flooded with memories. For a moment she just sat there dead still staring forward before she slowly looked at Private. “Okay... I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill Doctor Whooves!”
“You’re telling me those super important to-be-locked-away-memories are of us meeting King Sombra back in the Dark Pony Empire!?!” the pegasus then cried in frustration.
“Don’t blame Whooves. The Time Pony Council forced him to do it. He broke protocol to contact me to help unlock them,” Private told her gently. Her knew Dew wasn’t being serious about the killing, but did know that despite a usually forgiving nature, Dew Doe really could hold a grudge.
“Those pompous featherbrains! This could have been really helpful for your therapy!” Dew Doe growled and started banging her head on the mattress of the bed. “I swear I’m going to kill them all!!”
“Save some for me,” Private joked and chuckled when Dew covered her face in the mattress to scream in more frustration.
“Ugh, I’m glad we were done with all that time pony nonsense years ago,” the pegasus grunted after she raised her head.
“You and me both,” Private rolled his eyes and nodded in agreement.
Barricade lay on the bed just trying not to think of anything. He was finally calm, no magic torture, no having to be in the presence of King Sombra. Nothing, just him and the bed underneath him. Next to him Barbell still slept, snoring softly.
Ugh, I swear, I can’t get back to the normality of Manehattan soon enough, he thought and rubbed his face with one hoof.
Man, it was crazy to see Private get this angry. He’s never been this livid, not even against me, Barricade closed his eyes and grunted when he did start thinking about the past several days. He really does love Dew Doe. Like the rest of us have always known. Good for him. She’s a good mare, good head on her shoulders. Should keep him out of trouble.
“Oh come on, brain, I don’t want to think.” Barricade tapped a hoof on his temple, accidentally bumping his leg into Barbell.
“Huh, wha?” The mare looked up.
Barricade hoofed his face feeling mildly embarrassed, then he turned to face her.
“Sorry, babe. Didn’t mean to wake you up,” he said and leaned over to kiss her. “It’s morning. Cara went to get breakfast. I wanted to wait for you.”
“Oh, it’s morning? Barbell murmured and returned the kiss. “Wow, so it’s finally over, huh?”
“Looks like it. Look, I’m sorry I never told you what happened… I just…” Barricade fell silent and sighed deeply; he was given a light slap on the head.
“You were being a stubborn idiot, as usual,” Barbell chuckled and gave him another kiss. “But you are getting some help now.”
“Oh joy, throwing me to the head doctor huh? What unlucky SOB is going to get to dig into my brain?” the stallion chortled. Considering some of the issues he’s had, he could just picture any shrink running away, screaming in terror.
“Dew Doe and Foxy have already agreed to help you,” she told him.
This caused Barricade to rise in the bed a little as he stared at her unsure. Never in a million years had he expected to hear that the pegasi sisters were going to help him!
“Wait? They are going to help me? Why would they give me the time of the day?” he asked, astonished.
“Because they are sorry. Sorry that they ignored you and only focused on your brother,” Barbell explained to him with a smirk.
“Private needed far more help than me. I can’t blame them for not helping me. I was horrible to Foxy and I was horrible to them all,” he claimed and had a half a mind to protest this idea. Barbell sat up in the bed properly and Barricade did the same.
“And now they are giving you another chance. Let them help you since they are now willing,” the mare said sternly. Her lover sighed and looked away for a moment.
“Okay fine,” he relented and turned back to her. “Since you asked so nicely.”
Barbell chuckled and the couple kissed again. When they parted, Barricade took a glance around the guest room they had been given. It didn’t look too shabby, but then again, they were in a castle.
“So, breakfast?” he asked and started to climb out of the bed.
“Yeah, I could use some grub,” Barbell nodded and slipped down to the floor herself.
The couple started to walk towards the bedroom door, side-by-side. Before Barricade opened it with his magic, he took another look at Barbell.
“Wanna get married?” he asked. The mare looked at him skeptically.
“You wanna get married?” she asked, unsure.
“I asked first,” Barricade chuckled and ducked a hoof aimed at his face for the lame joke.
“Yeah let’s get married. Need to get a chain around you somehow to keep you out of trouble,” Barbell grunted though a smile did cross her lips.
“That chain has been around my neck since we first shared a bed,” Barricade joshed and ran out to flee another hoof aimed at him. “Always with the tough love, babe!”
“Oh come back here, you prick!” Barbell snapped and chased after him.
Starlight Glimmer sat in the map room and was face to face with all four princesses. The unicorn was a little nervous. This debriefing had been put on hold until the next morning to allow the returning ponies to reunite and just get a chance to finally relax after their harrowing experience.
“You did very well, Starlight, even if that bump on your head did cause you some problems,” Twilight Sparkle smiled at her student.
“Yeah well, I at least still had some magic to use this time around,” Starlight chuckled. She reached to rub the bump on her head that was now almost gone. “Though honestly, I’d rather wait a while longer before having to face another old enemy of yours.”
“Let’s hope that comes true,” Celestia agreed with a nod. “King Sombra is locked away for now in Tartarus and his magic sealed within his horn.”
“So uh, how did you get rid of the curse? I didn’t even get a chance to do anything about that myself,” Starlight wondered. In fact, the curse had never come up in the first place. She had been so busy just focusing on distracting Sombra.
“The curse stopped spreading after a while, so Cadance and I could actually begin removing it using our own magic, Celestia and Twilight then did the same from within the castle. It was long and tiring work,” Luna explained and looked at Cadence, who nodded.
“We busted out just in time to receive a message from the Crystal Empire about your situation. Discord thankfully was this time much more agreeable to offer a little more direct help. He had not enjoyed being confined like that and seeing the risk it put Fluttershy and the rest of us in,” Twilight then picked up from where Luna left.
“He teleported us directly to where King Sombra was and then kept tabs on him in case he escaped us again, which is why we could immediately catch up with him as he had gone all the way to the old Dark Pony Empire which is north of Saddle Arabia,” the friendship princess finished.
“Yikes. It would have taken weeks to get there otherwise,” Starlight cringed at the thought.
“Indeed,” Celestia and frowned heavily. “Much could have been averted if we could have located Sombra sooner.”
“Yes, tis true,” Luna scowled hard. Starlight looked at the Celestial Princesses confused and looked at Twilight hoping for some explanation.
“I will let Twilight tell you about it a little later, Starlight. Right now we four need to attend to a matter. You may go,” Celestia looked at the unicorn, who arched her brow but then shrugged. This had been a shorter debriefing than she imagined, but she couldn’t complain. Starlight dropped out of the chair and trotted out of the map room.
“Seal the door Luna,” Celestia told her sister who nodded and used her magic to put a magical seal on the map room door.
Celestia frowned hard as she used her own magic to fire a small beam of it on the map table. It seemed to dissipate on it at first, but then swirling energy began to emerge and rose up to form a portal, through it, distorted silhouettes of ponies sitting at a table could be seen. All four princesses now had very serious expressions.
“These are the Princesses of Equestria, addressing the Time Pony Council,” Celestia addressed them.
“Greetings princesses, how may we serve,” a distorted voice greeted them.
“Apparently, you haven’t.” Celestia’s frown changed into a scowl. “I understand that you forbade my agent to locate King Sombra when he was finally making some process.”
“We had to…” the voices started but fell silent when the Sun Princess raised a hoof.
“I do not want to hear it. I have respected your desire for secrecy for a long time and I understand your concern to not want to expose others to your time magic. However, what you did has now directly threatened the security of Saddle Arabia and by proxy Equestria since we are now allied with them,” she said. There was hint of fury in her voice again.
“Had you allowed the agent to locate King Sombra, we could have dealt with him sooner. But because of your actions he could strike and strike hard and the end results were unleashing an old enemy of Saddle Arabia. An old and very dangerous enemy,” Luna snapped, allowing her anger to be heard far clearer than her sister.
“Queen Rabia is back,” Celestia said gravely. “Let that sink in. The most powerful queen of the Dark Pony Empire has been allowed to return. The mare who raised and molded King Sombra. The Queen of Rage and Wrath.
“I also understand that you had two of my subjects forcibly undergo a memory lock - memories that could have very well helped them deal with King Sombra. I didn’t think I had to say it, but I will say it now. I forbid this procedure to be done on my subjects!” Celestia actually snapped now, and there was fire in her eyes. Still no word came from the silhouettes.
“I take it by your silence that you understand how grave and serious this matter is,” Cadance spoke up. “We can only hope now that nothing bad will come of this. But I would advise that you carefully reconsider some of your policies.”
“Do you have anything to say for yourselves,” Twilight now spoke up. She was still new at this and had only been recently initiated into having to deal with these ponies, but she was downright furious and the only one who really and truly showed it. She took this whole thing rather personally after what had happened.
“We… apologize. We misjudged the severity of the matter,” finally the distorted voice spoke.
“We accept your apology and hope we can continue to work together in a more cooperative spirit,” Celestia nodded and used her magic to close the connection.
The Sun Princess didn’t even flinch when hearing Twilight’s hoof slam on the table. She wasn’t feeling much different, however. Celestia knew that of the four of them, the last few days had badly affected her former student the most, so she chose to continue to remain calm and allow Twilight to vent.
“I can’t believe those arrogant jerks!” she hissed, her wings raised in agitation. The princess was breathing heavily. “King Sombra attacked my friends in our own town. Abducted an entire family from my own castle that I had promised to keep safe. None of it would have happened if they had just allowed us to find him sooner!”
“Welcome to the headache of dealing with the time ponies, Twilight,” Cadance offered her a sympathetic smile. She was rather grateful to never had to deal too much with these mysterious keepers of time.
“Ugh.” Twilight slammed her face on top of the table, wishing there was a manual to properly understand how all of this worked. Her sister-in-law left her chair and walked over; she then gave the frustrated young princess a much-needed hug.
“Luna and I must depart for Canterlot. We need to warn the Saddle Arabians about Rabia. You tend to your guests, Twilight, and see that they get safely back to their homes,” Celestia said and rose from her chair, as did her sister.
“What about King Sombra? Do you think he will be of any help regarding her?” Twilight wondered as she parted from Cadance’s embrace.
“I don’t know. Maybe. At least he’s contained,” Celestia sighed. The Celestial sisters then said goodbye, Luna dispelled the magic lock on the door and they departed via teleportation.
“Come on, let’s go see the family before they have to leave,” Cadance said and ushered Twilight towards the door. “Oh by the way, I heard Private finally confessed his love to Dew Doe.”
“Really?” Twilight blinked and then smiled. Since the family’s security had been a rather top priority with King Sombra on the loose after Private’s possession ordeal, she had become a little acquainted with the strange reluctance the two ponies had to confess their love. “About time.”
“I know,” her sister-in-law agreed as they walked through the open doorway. Cadance herself had been rather interested in this whole matter ever since the possession incident, but she knew better than to push it since there was no doubt they loved each other, so the Love Princess had just observed them without interfering.
“Oh and Barricade? He proposed to this marefriend.” Cadance then added, causing Twilight to grin, feeling much better that her castle was the grounds for this much-needed positivity for the family she had promised to keep safe.
The ruins of the ancient capital of the Dark Pony Empire were still relentlessly heated by the desert sun. Warm winds continued to erode what had once been tall buildings and blow-in sand from the desert, which would in time rebury them if this site was not visited occasionally by descendants of the Dark Ponies who always cleaned up the worst.
Walking through the ancient streets was a lone unicorn mare wearing regal silver armor and on her back a flowing cape. Currently she was the only living soul venturing through what had once been a bustling city. Her expression was stern and her mouth a thin line on her muzzle.
The unicorn kept walking, unaffected by the heat and the sand blowing all around her. She walked a deliberate path further and further into the ruins until she reached a wide, open area. It had once been the town square. At the center was a large square base that had clearly once carried a statue. Old, faded engravings on it simply said, “Our Queen. Rabia. The 20th queen of the Dark Pony Empire.”
The mare walked closer and touched the engravings with her armored hoof. Then she saw other faded engravings in a different script, more hastily done, an attempt to vandalize the base. Slowly a sinister smile crossed her lips as she read it.
Beware the Queen of Rage and Wrath.
It was the beginning of a poem, a short poem sung nervously by her enemies during her reign. Rabia turned away from the base and started to walk away.
For deadly are her many ploys.
The dark unicorn departed the old town square, making her way to the ruins of her old palace. The poem still going through her mind.
And little pity is in her heart.
As she continued on, her eyes began glowing green and red, purple mist rose from the corners. The shadows began congregating all around her.
As her rage consumes and wrath destroys.
A soft sinister laughter escaped her lips as she disintegrated into her shadow form, rising higher and higher until it enveloped the entire city and continued towards the palace. Then as she descended upon her former abode, a terrifying, rage-filled roar came from the mare. It travelled far over the desert and echoes of it could be heard all the way down south in Saddle Arabia.
End chapter 25