By the time the six rejoined the remaining members of the platoon, they had finished building Corporal Bandor a little funeral pyre, positioning it so that it would be as safe as possible from the weather. Arin had already lit the fire, and the five were standing nearby, watching it burn.
Five. The cold reality of those she had lost hit her again like a slap in the face. An hour before, she'd had a platoon numbering in the twenties. Now, not counting her friends or Derpy, she had five.
With a head start, the death knight had already strode past and was making her way over the bridges into the Dragonblight. Would she really leave us behind? Twilight didn't want to put that to the test.
Vernor was the first to notice their approach. "Oh, here she comes." Something in his tone immediately sat ill with Twilight, and she was quick to realise why. "And all her friends made it out, too. What a surprise."
He and Tyrae wore expressions more like the ones Twilight had gotten used to seeing on the faces of First squad more than on any of the healers from Third. Arin and Father Stonewrought did not share in their anger, but did look nervous about what was to come.
Donovan, admittedly never her harshest critic among First, did not join the priests in lambasting her. He kept his attention firmly on his dead leader's body.
"We trusted you," Tyrae muttered miserably. She looked just about ready to explode.
"Tyrae, I-" Twilight began, but faltered in the face of the night elf's rage.
"We trusted you! Don't even dare. I lost my sister today... because of you!"
"Lass, lad..." Stonewrought tried to cut in, but they pushed past him, striding right up to Twilight and getting in her face.
"She's dead! It's all your fault!" Tyrae wailed, jabbing her finger accusingly.
"You took us right into that ambush." Vernor snarled. "You failed us. You failed her!"
It's all your fault. You failed us. You failed me.
The second time she'd heard those sentiments in an hour.
They cut no less painfully the second time.
Twilight had never seen the calm, composed night elf priest display so much emotion. In the two months that she had known them, she had never seen Tyrae nor Vernor display such anger.
Were they waiting for her to reply? For an explanation? Were they just venting their wrath, their loss? Her mouth opened, but she found she couldn't speak.
"Aight, aight, that's enough!" Applejack was suddenly between them - her sword sheathed but her shield raised - and then Rarity had limped to Twilight's side, and Rainbow had her hand on her shoulder.
She was grateful for what their intentions and their loyalty. But she didn't want their help right now - she didn't deserve their help.
She wanted to say sorry. Wanted to say that everything, somehow, would be fine. Wanted to do something for them. Say or do anything to assuage their feelings of loss. Anything at all.
"I- I-"
The words didn't come. There was nothing else she could say. Nothing else she could do.
A few moments of silence passed. Then Applejack pushed the two priests back, just hard enough to make her point.
"Get on," she growled, pointing towards the bridge to the Dragonblight. "Follow that death knight."
Slowly, reluctantly, they obeyed. They kept their glares up until they had passed Twilight and the others, and then crumpled together into a hug - not caring to restrain the tears falling from their eyes, nor the howling of their cries from revealing the extent of their grief.
Arin and Stonewright exchanged glances and followed, walking quickly to catch up with the two to console them. Donovan took one last, long look at the ashes of the pyre as they began to scatter and mix with the snow, and then did the same.
"You okay, Twilight?" Pinkie
"Of course she's not okay, Pinkie!"
"T-thank you g-girls," Twilight managed to say. With shaking hands, she brought her hood up over her face and gripped her staff tightly. "B-but I'll b-be f-fine. I just n-need a m-moment. I j-just n-need to b-b-breathe."
With that, she started in the direction, her staff plodding into the ground with every hesitant, difficult step she took. Her friends gave her a respectful head start before following in her wake.
The importance of what she had discovered, the weight of what they had all lost... and the simple, physical and mental burden of three weeks of intensive, worrisome travel all came together to hit her all at once, and she felt almost crushed by them all.
More than at any other point in her time in Azeroth, more than in the Deadmines, more than after killing VanCleef, she... just wanted to go home. But as mad as the feeling was, and with hope so far away, she equally felt like she could... she felt like she had to fall, right where she stood. Accept the embrace of sleep out in the cold that she might not, would not wake up from again.
But though the thought was there... she didn't. One step at a time, tears streaming down her face, Twilight Sparkle kept walking - over the bridge and into the forest beyond.
One step at a time. Not the big picture. Not getting home. Nothing she couldn't see a path to. Not now.
One step at a time. For now, until they were somewhere safer... that had to be enough.
Derpy continued to storm ahead at the front of the group, and it was all that the remnants of the platoon could do to keep close to her. The last thing she said to them, as if it had slipped her mind before, was "My name here is 'Lady Memoria'. Call me 'Derpy' here, especially in front of anyone else, and I will kill you."
No ambiguity there.
Only Fluttershy, who went forward once again to scout their way, managed to outpace the death knight. There was no longer enough of the platoon left to allow them to split up any significant amount of distance across the ground, but, they kept something of a formation, with the healers and less-heavily equipped of the group together in the centre. Applejack and Rainbow Dash watched from the left and the right respectively, and Donovan stayed at the rear in case of an ambush from behind.
And it was there that he found himself approached by Rarity.
"Private Donovan; a word, if you please?" she asked as she approached.
"What is it, agent?"
"Oh, nothing too serious," Rarity offered him a smile like that of a crocodile as they fell in step together.
"Except... I know what the plan was, today," she said, the sweetness of her tone presenting a stark contrast to the anger in her eyes. "I know what you, Kellas, and the others had intended."
He opened his mouth, perhaps to protest, perhaps to angrily deny such a bold accusation, but then thought better than it. She knew.
"Fortunately, I believe my dear friend Twilight has enough on her plate to worry about without adding your little mutiny to the list. I do not plan to say anything about this incident to her."
If Donovan had been tempted to breathe a sigh of relief, her next words forestalled this. "But a word of warning..."
She looked him square in the eyes, piercing him with her gaze. "Never betray her again. Not ever. Or how Lieutenant Twilight Sparkle reacts will be the least of your concerns."
"I-"
"Is that clear?"
He gulped, and nodded slowly, feeling as if she had just drawn her daggers and placed them against his neck.
"Marvellous!" She patted him gently on the back, making him flinch. "Now, if you will excuse me, I must go and rejoin Twilight."
She strolled confidently over to her friend, leaving the Private alone to recover his nerve at the back of the pack.
It took them three days, in the end, to travel from the western border of the Dragonblight to Star's Rest. There was a proper path, apparently carved out and maintained by the local kalu'ak, that they were able to follow. They stuck close to it, staying clear of the forest and the uncertainties that it held - until night came, or the weather took another turn, and they made refuge by the edge of the nearest bank of trees until it was safe for them to
Derpy had made her increasing frustration known with each stop. She didn't seem to need to sleep, and if anything appeared to enjoy the cold. She would stalk off into the forests, alone, whenever they stopped for rest and shelter, but she did at least have the courtesy to return before they set off again.
Tyrae and Vernor remained distant. Angry. They took meals, moved their sleeping bags at night, even stood as far away as was still safe from the rest of the platoon at every opportunity, and nothing that anyone said or did could temper their grief.
Fluttershy continued to scout ahead until the morning of the third day when she returned bearing a nasty arcane burn on her arm. She'd earned it after straying too close to the ruins of an ancient night elf temple to the south, and the restless spirits that still guarded it in death. Wincing from the pain as Pinkie had worked on healing her, she had promised a frantic Twilight that she would no longer leave the safety of the group until they arrived at their destination.
Her discovery aside, the days passed mostly without incident - and then, in the middle of the afternoon on the third day, they met a rider on the road.
They were perhaps half an hour, at most, from the location of Star's Rest on Twilight's map when Derpy brought them to a halt, raising her right fist in the air.
"Hold on," she said, then explained, "Someone approaches on the path ahead."
Though they had to strain to hear it at first, the sound of hooves on the ground below soon grew clearer. Derpy was right - someone was coming straight towards them.
"Can you tell if they are friend, or foe?" Rarity was first to ask, drifting a little closer to Twilight but keeping her gaze firmly in the direction of the potential threat.
"They're..." Derpy began, and then groaned, "...oh, no."
The rider appeared, half a second later, from around a bend in the path. They spotted the group immediately and motioned for their mount to gallop towards them.
"Friend of yours?" Rainbow Dash asked as they drew closer. It was a reasonable question. The resemblance between the two in the grim cobalt armour that they wore was obvious enough, but they were further reassured by the fact that Derpy hadn't immediately slipped into an aggressive stance in response to the other knight's presence.
Derpy rolled her eyes and sighed, "No."
"Lady Memoria," the newcomer said as their mount came to a halt. "You have been a challenge to find."
"Valdrana," Derpy replied, "It took you long enough."
She walked closer to the rider, but spared a glance over her shoulder, and said, "Stay out of this," to the waiting platoon, in a tone that invited no argument.
The other death knight did not indicate that she was annoyed or offended by Derpy's lack of courtesy. She dismounted from her steed and waved her hand - it disappeared, wreathed in shadows - then walked over to stand a little way from Derpy.
Twilight's first impression was that there was something inhuman about the way that she moved, more than that she was a death knight - that she was somehow more lithe and graceful in the way that she walked. The cause of this feeling became quickly apparent as Valdrana reached up to remove her helm.
A hawkish, pale face crowned by long auburn hair looked over at them as the piece of armour came off, and two long ears flicked upwards now that they were free from their metal cage. Her eyes were a sickly green colour, wreathed in the same kind of frost that consumed Derpy's.
She was smiling, but there was no warmth in the expression.
"Clearly, your trip through the northern landscape has done little to improve your mood. I'd expected you to have been in the Dragonblight a week ago, and so commenced my search here, but no-one had seen a death knight matching your description." She cocked her head to the side. "I can't help but wonder how it could have taken you so long to get to this place if you enjoyed it so little."
Okay, maybe she's a little annoyed.
Derpy had her back to the platoon, so Twilight only had her tone and her body language as an indication of how she was feeling about the conversation. Shoulders squared, fists almost clenched...
"The weakness of mortals," Derpy spat on the ground. "My company was wiped out, and I had to slog through the wastes alone until I found and rescued this platoon."
To hear someone who she had considered a - well, perhaps not a friend, but at the very least a well-liked acquaintance - speak as Derpy was speaking now, shocked Twilight deeply. In life, Derpy had been kind, well-mannered and considerate to a fault. Now...
"I had wondered if perhaps you'd suffered your second death in the Tundra," Valdrana continued. Her voice had an oddly sharp edge to it, buried beneath the distortion she shared with Derpy, as if every word she spoke was meant to be sarcastic. It was a noticeable contrast to the musical flourish in the night elves' accent, or the honest gruffness of the dwarves.
Perhaps this is how all blood elves talk, Twilight mused, filing the thought away for later consideration, when she had a greater sample size. ...or perhaps it's intentional.
"The Lich King will fall beneath my blades before I die again."
"A goal that all of us share, though many have already fallen at the first hurdle. We lost two of our brothers just last week pushing into Zul'Drak to the north, and have been unable to contact at least ten others."
"They were weaklings if they died this early in the campaign," Derpy replied. She spat onto the ground, staining the snow below. "What did they fall to? Skeletons, ghouls? The Ebon Blade is better off without them."
The very idea that Derpy had been killed, and had been brought back from death twisted into this brooding, ill-tempered, uncaring shadow of her former self... it was more horrifying than anything she had encountered in this world before.
The blood elf's smile thinned, ever so slightly. "One met his end to an unusually large devilsaur inside Drak'tharon Keep; the other was caught in between his scourge target and a marauding warband of ice trolls.
"But come now, my friend. Whatever they were, however they died, they were our brothers in death. Do you not feel at all for their passing?"
Derpy shook her head. "Not in the slightest. If anything, it sickens me to see you display compassion for such weakness."
"You see compassion," Valdrana rejoined, frowning, "where I feel only sorrow."
"You've always been the softest of us, Valdrana."
"Soft?" she quizzed, and gestured at Twilight and the platoon. "If sparing a thought for our deceased brothers makes me soft, then what does your graciously accompanying these Alliance soldiers to their destination say about you?"
"I'm not accompanying them. I saved them, and they are following me as I travel on to Star's Rest."
"Oh, is that the case?" A grin returned to Valdrana's face. To Twilight, it was the kind of smile that would have brightened up the look of any other - but on the death knight, it instead came off as uncanny... even creepy. "If you truly don't care, why not just leave them behind? You could have been at Star's Rest by now had you ridden there, but you've remained on foot. I can't help but wonder why."
Derpy reply to that was to free her swords from their scabbards with the piercing clash of metal.
How is this escalating so quickly? Twilight was clueless, both as to why the two knights were about to come to blows, and about what she could say even to try to talk them down. They've barely said anything to each other, and now they're about to fight?
"Quite right," Valdrana nodded, unslinging a hefty greataxe from behind her back. Where Derpy's blades bore an icy aura and left a frozen trail wherever they struck, this weapon appeared to be dripping with something red - and from a distance, Twilight couldn't make out whether it was magic, or something worse. "It's been far too long since we last sparred."
"Treat it as sparring, if you like," Derpy hissed. "I won't."
Twin swords held low to the ground, she rushed at her fellow knight.
Valdrana had plenty of time to drop into a combat stance as Derpy approached, and caught the first attack - a heavy chop towards her breastplate using both blades - with relative ease.
"D'ya... think we oughta stop em?" Applejack watched, her eyes glued to the whirl of single combat on display.
Rainbow glanced at her incredulously. "Do you really want to get in between them right now?"
"Keep your distance!" Twilight called out hurriedly, though fortunately none of those remaining in her platoon had thought it a good idea to get closer. Among her friends, Pinkie seemed as if she wanted to run in and keep the peace, maybe sing a song, tell a joke to diffuse things... but the risk was too great. She refused to expose those she had left to unnecessary harm. "Let them work this out!" ...whatever it is they're fighting about.
No words passed between the two knights that might have interrupted the flow of their battle. No more cutting remarks or biting rejoinders. They allowed their blades do the talking, creating a symphony of blade through air, blade on blade, blade on armour.
They had seen Derpy's skills briefly before, though not against only a single foe. She performed an unnaturally quick dance of brutal weapon strikes woven together with blasts of icy magic, and punctuated her swings with war cries full of wrath.
Valdrana's style was a different kind of beguiling. She was more agile, more graceful in her movements than Derpy, and what she lacked in offence she more than made up for in defence. The attacks that did make it past her guard hardly seemed to trouble her at all, and even when hit, she didn't make a sound.
They broke apart a short distance, having each regained the measure of the other.
"Your endurance is impressive," Derpy admitted, "But on even ground, against someone like me who can't be easily drained... we both know that I have the advantage. I will wear you down."
"Perhaps you do, and perhaps you can," Valdrana half-agreed, at last. "But I still quite like my chances."
"Do you really think you can beat me?" Derpy snapped, and charged at her once more.
This time, Valdrana made no move to defend herself.
What could she be—
"Given up?" Derpy howled, and raised her swords to strike—
Shifting slightly to her right, Valdrana dropped her weapon—
"Wha—"
—and punched Derpy in the face.
Her swing was a little too wide, a little too hard. She caught Derpy below her right cheek but overextended in the process. Derpy dropped her own swords but managed to grab hold of the blood elf's wrist as she fell.
Overbalanced, they both tumbled to the ground, and their duel devolved into a fistfight. The platoon kept watching, dumbfounded, from a safe distance, as the two death knights brawled.
"Should we get involved now?"
Twilight turned away, weighing their options, thinking fast. Weaponless, the two knights were still formidable, but probably within the platoon's capability to subdue. Fluttershy's traps, my magic, Rainbow's light - which seemed particularly effective against the death knights - perhaps by working together, we can—
"Actually, I don't think we need to worry," Rainbow said. "Look!"
Twilight looked back at the fight. Derpy had managed to pin Valdrana with one arm and the rest of her body weight, and had the fist of her other raised high to punch the blood elf again.
"Had enough?" she asked.
"I'm satisfied," Valdrana replied. Both spoke without the slightest hint in their voices of the exertion they had just undertaken. "And yourself? Feeling better?"
Derpy made a non-committal sound and let go, then pulled herself to her feet. The other knight did the same, dusting the snow from her armour as she rose.
Relieved that it was finally over, Twilight directed the platoon to approach the pair.
"You came all this way just to lose a fight with me?" Derpy was saying.
"No. I came to give you your new orders for the Northrend campaign."
Derpy crossed her arms. "You don't give me orders."
"No, I don't," Valdrana rolled her eyes as if what she had to say next was obvious. "But these orders come from the Highlord."
Twilight could've sworn that Derpy stiffened slightly as Valdrana finished with the word 'Highlord'.
"What does he command?" Was that anticipation in the death knight's voice? Excitement?
Valdrana produced a scroll from a small pouch at the rear of her armour. Unfurling it, she read aloud, "That if, at any point during this campaign, you find yourself alone, you are to attach yourself to the nearest Alliance, Kirin Tor or Argent Crusade command structure at the earliest opportunity, and work with them on their objectives until otherwise ordered."
She paused, and looked up at Derpy, and then at the platoon behind her. "Which I see you have already started to do."
These were definitely not the orders that Derpy had been expecting, or hoping, for.
"The Highlord is specifically ordering me to follow her?" She jerked her thumb in Twilight's direction, and the mage felt stung by the implication - whether it was that she and the others were not worth Derpy's time protecting, or something more personal.
"These are general orders that apply to all of us, Lady Memoria, to reinforce the importance of cooperating with our allies in both the Alliance and Horde. I will be returning to Venomspite myself once we are done here."
It looked for a moment like Derpy might object again - but then the knight gave in. "Fine. As he commands," she said.
Satisfied, Valdrana turned to Twilight. "I trust you have no objection to this arrangement, Lieutenant?"
Glad to be included - even if the knight was only asking a rhetorical question - Twilight replied, "None at all. We're very grateful for her aid."
If anything, she was grateful for any excuse that would keep Derpy around.
"Excellent. Star's Rest is only a short distance from here. I'll accompany you there, and then proceed on my way."
"Wonderful," sighed Derpy.
The platoon regrouped and fell back into formation for the final stretch; the only differences being that Fluttershy had now joined Pinkie, the other healers and Arin in the middle of the pack, to receive further treatment for her burn; and Valdrana had joined Twilight in the centre. Rarity had moved back a bit to give them some space, but was still close enough to listen, and act if circumstances required her to do so.
Up front again, Applejack glanced back at Twilight and the newcomer, finding them deep in conversation. "What d'ya think they're talkin' about?"
"Beats me." Rainbow shrugged.
"She kinda gives me the heebie-jeebies. Well, not just her." The warrior indicated the figure some distance in front of them, barely within sight on the path ahead. "Her too."
"The way they were fighting earlier - it was unreal." Rainbow palmed her hammer from hand to hand awkwardly. "Do you - do you think the two of us could take either of them on, if we had to?"
"Take 'em on and win? I dunno. Don't really wanna think about it, but I reckon we'd be coming off pretty bad off a fight like that. Maybe with all six of us it'd be different."
"I flew with her a few times over the years. I can't believe she's changed so much, but when you think about what she's been through..."
"No doubt about it. Think we oughta say something to her? Try'n'make her feel welcome with us?"
"What do we say? 'Hey, Derps! Sorry you died and you think it's our fault - wanna be friends again?'"
Applejack tried - and failed - to suppress a chortle. It was the first thing she'd found genuinely funny in a while. "Probably somethin' a little more tactful than that," she managed to say, and then frowned as another thought came to her. "Oh, an' remember, she wanted to be called 'Memoria' here."
"Right... that's going to take a lot of getting used to."
"Sure is, sugarcube. Sure is."
"It must have been quite the surprise when she came out of the storm," Valdrana said, as Twilight finished her account of Derpy's rescue of the platoon in the Tundra.
"It was, but a good one," Twilight replied. "I believe that we'd be dead right now if it hadn't been for her.
"To be honest, the biggest surprise was just how much she's changed from when we knew her before—" she stopped rambling just before the end of the sentence, realising that she had already said too much, but by then the damage was done.
"Before?" Valdrana asked, one eyebrow raised in surprise, or perhaps scepticism. "You knew Lady Memoria before her death, Lieutenant Sparkle?"
"Uh... yes, well... you see, we suffered from amnesia too...."
She wove the familiar lie, the one they had all agreed in Stormwind together. It was one that she could tell with confidence and surety. One that she could adapt, as needed.
"...and none of us can remember her name, or much about what happened. All we know is that we knew each other, before..."
Was it believable? Did Valdrana, did anyone she lied to, really buy it? She supposed that, in a world of magic, monsters, and the living dead, selective amnesia couldn't be the strangest thing conceivable.
"I see," Valdrana replied, and to Twilight's immense relief, did not pursue the matter any further. "I suppose that's for the best. We spent a while coming up with that nickname for her. It'd be a shame for her to stop using it now, and I'm not even sure she hates it as much as she used to."
"Oh... okay then."
Another question, a curiosity, burned within her, but she was reluctant to voice it; unsure how best to broach the topic.
"Uh, before..." she began, eventually. "When you were both, uh, fighting."
"Hm? Ah, of course. Our encounter there must have seemed a bit strange, from an outsider's perspective."
A bit strange? Twilight thought, but let her continue without comment.
"The Lich King 'blessed' our kind with several... gifts. As I'm sure you have noticed, Lady Memoria and I are faster, stronger, and more resilient than the average human or blood elf, and we can call upon power held within runes of blood, frost and unholy to lay waste to our foes."
"Yes," Twilight swallowed uncomfortably. "I'd noticed."
"But that is not all he gave to us when we were raised. Death knights are not devoid of emotion - we certainly aren't automatons - but the positive emotions that we feel are dulled, diminished. In some, to the point where they do not exist.
"On the other hand, we feel negative emotions - hate, rage, sorrow. If anything, these are accentuated as a result of our death and rebirth. It comes differently for each knight. But pain... pain is a constant companion for all of us."
"That surprises me," Twilight said. "When you two were fighting, you shrugged some of her off attacks that looked like they should have broken your bones, armour or not."
Valdrana chuckled, a sound so warped by the distortion in her voice that it made Twilight uncomfortable more than it put her at ease. "Well, those attacks did hurt... but that was rather the point. Our duel was meant to sate another of the Lich King's 'blessings' - what we poetically call the eternal hunger."
Valdrana looked over at Twilight, making sure that she had the mage's undivided attention before continuing. She needn't have bothered - Twilight was hanging off her every word.
"A graceful name for an ugly curse. The hunger means that we must inflict pain - any pain - regularly, or we ourselves suffer a kind of agony that you couldn't possibly imagine. It is inescapable, and it is never staved off for long.
"I tell you this so that you are properly informed about our mutual friend, and why she sometimes might behave in a way that may cause... difficulty, for you."
"I... see." Just when she had thought that Derpy's fate couldn't be any more horrifying... but at least this knowledge put some of her attitude - her belligerence, her callousness - into perspective. The more she knew about Derpy's condition in this world - about the way she acted, what exactly had been done to her - the better she could understand her.
They walked on in silence for a little while until they reached a small fork in the path. Valdrana stopped, slightly off towards where the main path continued, and the others - Derpy aside - halted around them.
"This is where I take my leave of your party - you will find Star's Rest just south of here. I didn't receive the warmest of welcomes when I last passed through this camp - it will be better for your arrival if I am not there with you."
"Why not - because you're a death knight?"
Valdrana looked at her a little strangely. "I don't suppose that helped, but being a blood elf was my greatest crime in their eyes. Star's Rest is first and foremost a night elf encampment, built atop night elf ruins from ages past, and while I owe my allegiance to the Ebon Blade... they look at me, and they see a member of the Horde. A not unfair assumption, as I once did serve the Horde."
"It's not right that they do that. Whether you're a blood elf, a death knight... or even if you were a member of the Horde. It isn't right that they treat you badly."
The death knight chuckled again, that same throaty, gargling noise as before, as if she didn't quite believe Twilight to be serious. "You are an odd one, Lieutenant. I wish you well."
She snapped her fingers, and a blob of darkness galloped out of the shadow of a nearby tree, quickly taking the shape of the undead horse the knight had arrived upon.
"You're so different, compared to her," Twilight blurted out. "It's hard for me to accept what's happened to her, and I thought perhaps if I could quantify her change as being part of what the Lich King did to her... as part of what makes every death knight a death knight... but I was wrong."
Valdrana took a while to respond. It seemed for a moment that she wouldn't at all, but the words came in the end. "You weren't entirely, but as I said before, we aren't automatons. The power of the Lich King shaped us all differently, sometimes on our race, sometimes on our personalities in life, and sometimes the circumstances of our death. Some handle their fate with rage. Others, like me... with sorrow."
"You said before that you're always sad," Twilight observed quietly. "And yet, you're always smiling."
"What else can I do in the face of this curse? It's better than being a dour bastard like most of my brethren, anyway." She took a firm grip of the reins and urged her mount forwards, off the path and into the woods to the north. "Farewell, Lieutenant Sparkle," she called out, in parting.
"Goodbye, Lady Valdrana," Twilight said, unheard. She watched the knight disappear into the trees and then turned to lead her platoon towards the camp.
Star's Rest. They had, at last, arrived.
There were two guards on sentry duty, a short distance from the camp itself. They were easy to spot; their matching purple leather chaps and gloves, and Alliance-blue, lion-marked tabards, stood out as much as Twilight and her friends did against the snowy background. They were attentive to their duty and challenged the group the moment they saw them.
A brief talk, an explanation from Twilight of who she was and how they had come to be there, and they were then led all the way through to a tent set aside for Star's Rest's commander. The rest of the platoon waited outside, drawing curious stares from the camp's regular inhabitants, while Twilight went to meet Commander Saia Azuresteel.
Taking a deep breath, feeling the eyes of her friends at her back, she pulled the entrance flap out of the way and stepped inside the tent.
The tent was sparsely decorated - just a bed, a flimsy, makeshift wooden desk, a chair and a few piles of kit and supplies - but it was also small enough that it didn't quite feel that way.
A single night elf with dark green hair sat at the desk, dressed in the same battle gear as the guards outside. She was hunched over a piece of parchment, scribbling notes on it with a quill as she read from a scroll by candlelight.
Twilight cleared her throat. "Commander Azuresteel, ma'am," she said, snapping to attention. "Lieutenant Twilight Sparkle, reporting for duty, ma'am. Eight platoon, First—"
"At ease, lieutenant." The commander said but did not look up from her writing. "We weren't expecting any reinforcements from Wintergarde for another—"
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we didn't come in from the east," Twilight interjected. "We travelled here from Valiance Keep, through the Borean Tundra."
Now Azuresteel looked up. She took in Twilight's unkempt appearance, from the state of her robes to the shadows under her eyes.
"Your unit?" she asked curiously, moving the letter she had been writing to one side and pulling another set of scrolls towards her.
"Eight platoon, First Company, the Darkshire Regiment," Twilight finished.
Azuresteel flipped through the papers. "...remarkable," she said at last. "To be honest, mage, we were under the impression that your entire platoon had been lost, along with everyone else who had recently been instructed to travel through the tundra. In fact, I have the "unit presumed deceased" order here in front of me, ready for me to countersign."
She gave a wry smile, and tore it in half. "I suppose we won't be needing it anymore."
A familiar feeling of failure rushed through Twilight, and suddenly it was as if she was back before Celestia, worrying over the outcome of a friendship problem. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise that we were so late," she said hurriedly. "I—"
Azuresteel held her hand up. "No, no. If anything, you are early. But just this morning, we received word from Valiance Keep informing us that a Scourge infiltrator had managed to manipulate his way into General Arlos's inner circle, disguised as a man called 'Talbot'."
Counselor Talbot! she realised, shocked. He'd seemed so reasonable when they had met in the keep, but...
She remembered Harbinger Vurenn's words, back in the keep.
There is something foul afoot in this keep, but alas, I have made no progress towards uncovering it.
"The advice and direction he gave sent hundreds of our soldiers - including two entire companies - to their deaths. But you were able to survive?"
"Yes, ma'am," Twilight replied, and told her what had occurred in the tundra. That they had encountered so little trouble initially, all the way up to the open plain before the bridge into Dragonblight... and then how it had all gone so wrong. And how they had only pulled through it with the aid of another.
"My platoon... I lost so many. I failed, I'm-"
"Lieutenant," the commander halted Twilight mid-sentence, raising a hand. "You were sent on what was effectively a suicide mission by an enemy agent who had infiltrated and subverted the command structure at Valiance Keep. All the other units sent the same way were destroyed in their entirety. The members of your platoon - depleted thought they might be - are the first reinforcements we have had from the west in almost a month.
"I will not criticise you for being sent into this situation. Indeed, I will praise you. The fact that any of you came out alive, even with this outside help you have mentioned, is a testament to you as an officer. Well done."
"...I don't feel like I deserve that."
Azuresteel looked up at her with a sad, sympathetic smile. "Losing men for the first time is not easy for any leader. Take solace in those that you were able to save, and remember those that you could not. I am sure that there was nothing more that you could have done."
But, she thought grimly, remembering the efficacy of fire magic against the Scourge, maybe there was.
Azuresteel took a moment to call for an aide, and instructed them to organise space for Twilight's platoon to set their kit down, allow them to take what they needed from the camp's supplies, and permit them to rest for the night.
"I'll not keep you from the rest that you need for too much longer, or from your platoon," the commander continued, returning to Twilight once all was set in motion. "But before you go, can you provide details on the soldiers under your command? Names, ranks, skills?" She'd pulled out a fresh piece of parchment, and had raised her quill expectantly.
"And this death knight... I know she is not part of your platoon, and that she is not likely to follow any orders that you give, but can you provide me with her name? Just so that we have a record of her being here."
Twilight thought for a moment. The answer to the question was more complicated than the commander could possibly have anticipated.
She thought again of the pony she had known back home.
She thought again of the shadowy echo of that pony here in Azeroth.
...the confusion and difficulty it would cause if she disobeyed the wishes of that echo... of who that pony had become.
She made up her mind.
"Her name... is Lady Memoria," she replied.
When Azuresteel had all the information she required, Twilight was dismissed and instructed to return to her platoon. The commander had said that she would write to the Alliance command at Wintergarde of their survival; of the losses that they had sustained and the need for further orders. Until those orders arrived, the platoon would remain at Star's Rest as planned and assist with any operations where Azuresteel deemed their aid useful.
Glad for somewhere - relatively - safe to rest; pleased that they had reached the point that they had initially set out for, Twilight agreed without question.
For now, the platoon would be permitted a day to get some rest, including an exemption from sentry duty for that night only, to ensure that they could be ready for whatever came next.
She made her way out of Azuresteel's command tent, past the shimmering moonwell that provided illumination for the camp even in the darkness of the night, and over to the area marked out for resting; set apart by row upon row of canvas half-tents and sleeping bags. As much as she wanted to jump inside her sleeping and join the other soldiers in surrendering to the sweet embrace of sleep, there was one more thing she had to do before she could.
She found Applejack still up, packing away the last of her spare kit into her bag, her sleeping bag ready and waiting.
"Heya, Twi."
"Hi Applejack. Is everyone unpacked and settled?"
"All squared away."
"Great. Has Pinkie gone to bed yet?"
Applejack shook her head. "She jus' heard that someone'd got themselves a nasty lil' cut. Figured she'd go help out before gettin' her head down."
Twilight nodded. "And everyone else?"
"Out like a light. Derps disappeared, but y'know that already. Flutters is in the one at the end, Rarity's in that one over there, and Rainbow..." She lightly tapped the sleeping bag by her feet. Rainbow Dash muttered something from within; briefly disturbed by the contact, but not enough to wake her from her dreams. "Everyone else is over the other side, with Rarity.
"Listen..." she continued, quieter than before. "I tried goin' over and havin' a chat with Tyrae and Vernor. Thought if I brought Pinkie along I could maybe clear the air, a lil'."
Twilight grimaced. "I'm guessing you weren't very successful."
Applejack shook her head. "Sorry."
"No, thank you for trying," Twilight sighed. "I think it's me, more than anyone, that they're angry at. I can't blame them for it, either."
"Nah, me neither. Can't say I'd act any different, if I lost Apple Bloom like Tyrae just lost Erina."
Or if I lost Shining Armour like that.
"...tomorrow's a new day," Twilight said, trying to banish such horrible thoughts. "Maybe after we've all had some rest, they'll be more willing to listen."
"Hope so."
"I need to go speak to Pinkie, but try to get some sleep as soon as possible, okay?"
"You betcha, hon. Make sure you do too."
Another shared smile, and Twilight went on her way, back towards the centre of the camp. She kept her footsteps light and careful, to avoid waking any of the resting soldiers.
She found Fluttershy in the last occupied sleeping bag at the end of the row, and stopped briefly to observe her friend. The woman was curled up to escape the cold, pink hair spilling out of the sleeping bag, snoring softly.
She looked so peaceful, so... unburdened. So unlike her waking self.
"...I'll be okay."
But not without help, understanding and friendship. And that giving that support was something Twilight knew she had to make a priority, from the next morning onwards.
She found Pinkie where Applejack had said she would be, talking with some of the night elf sentries on the edge of the ancient ruins that made up the outer boundary of the camp.
The conversation finished with the sentries thanking Pinkie as Twilight approached. They took their leave to return to their posts, saluting Twilight upon seeing her rank as they passed by.
"Hi, Twilight!" Pinkie beamed as the mage walked over.
"Hi, Pinkie Pie. Everything okay with you?" Twilight plopped herself down on the stone next to her friend. It wasn't the comfiest of seats she'd ever sat on, but anywhere to sit was better than nowhere to sit after three hard weeks of travelling.
By Pinkie's usual standards, she didn't look okay. As with them all, her clothes were stained and torn, and her skin was caked in grime and dirt from the journey. There were deep dark circles under her eyes, and she looked just about ready to drop.
But looking beyond that impression, beyond her outer appearance... Pinkie's inner self still shone brightly in her eyes, her expression, her demeanour, her smile.
That she had gone to help the injured sentry, to heal them - or as she no doubt saw it, to cheer him up - in spite of her exhaustion, confirmed it in the mage's eyes. For all her concerns about Rainbow and Applejack, Rarity, even her own trauma, and certainly Fluttershy... Twilight could rely on the fact that Pinkie hadn't changed.
So when she gave a toothy smile back, and said, "Never better!", Twilight believed her without question.
"Good... that's good."
"Why do you ask?" Pinkie smiled inquisitively.
"Well..." she began, "I need to ask you a favour. I think you might be the only person who could pull this off..."