//------------------------------//
// A Heavy Burden to Bear 
// Story: A Disparate Bond 
// by the7Saviors 
//------------------------------//

There had been surprisingly little conversation between Twilight, Starlight and Night Runner on the way back to the entrance of Starlight Cave. Most of the trip was spent by the two fillies taking in the bizarre scenery that was the subterranean city of Nightshade.

They'd been allowed to have their blindfolds and anti-magic horn rings removed, much to the relief of them both. Now free to gawk at the sights around them, the girls made note of what they could. Any worries of the city being similar to the Changeling Queen's hive were quickly put to rest once they made it out of the council building and into Nightshade proper.

Nightshade itself was much smaller and darker all around than the hive had been for one thing. Another factor that differentiated Nightshade from the hive were the varied structures. Each and every building, from residences to shops and other establishments, were made of some dark, complex and intricately carved stone, but no two structures were built exactly the same size or shape. Just as Firebrand had described during their initial trip through Starlight Cave, the entire town was lit by massive glowing fungi and some naturally glowing crystals growing out of the ground or embedded in walls.

The light given was only just enough for the fillies to see by, but what grabbed their attention the most was the striking variety of colors on display. Not every source of light gave off the same glow, and as a result, a veritable kaleidoscope of soft blues, bright greens, pale yellows and even some orange here and there dotted the city around them. A nudge to Twilight's side grabbed her attention and she turned to see Starlight staring up at something, her eyes wide with awe. Following her gaze, Twilight's own jaw dropped open at the sight of countless stars scattered above.

It took a moment, but the lavender filly realized that, rather than the actual night sky, they were looking at yet more of the tiny glowing crystals that littered Starlight Cave. The sight gave off yet again the illusion of a night sky, and the result was no less breathtaking than it had been in the cave. If anything it was far more impressive and did much to make the fillies feel less like they were in a cavern and more like they'd stepped outside and into the night's embrace.

Somewhere nearby, Twilight could hear the sound of a gently flowing underground river that she hadn't heard upon their first arrival into the city. A quick look around revealed a wide split in the cobbled stone path further ahead and off to her left where there was indeed a river snaking its way through the city. More of the miniature glowing crystals could be seen below the river's surface, giving yet another illusion of a river of stars. She pointed out as much to Starlight and together they stopped atop a small stone bridge to admire the sight, though they were quickly ushered forward by Night Runner towards their destination.

All in all, for as small as it was, both Twilight and Starlight could agree that despite the pale pink filly's distaste for the city, Nightshade was a far more beautiful place than they gave it credit for. They passed several thestrals on their way, some who stared with open curiosity, some who whispered amongst each other and gestured towards them, and yet others who ignored them outright as they went about their own business. The number of predatory eyes on them had begun to make Starlight somewhat nervous, but Twilight was far too busy mentally cataloging each and every detail of the alien city to notice the stares.

Thankfully the pale pink filly didn't have to deal with it for much longer, as the group eventually made their way back to the lift and another half hour or so found them all back at the entrance of Starlight Cave and waiting for Iron Hide and Firebrand to arrive. As they had nothing but time for the moment, Twilight spent hers pacing the entrance, her face scrunched up in worry and contemplation. Occasionally she would glance out the cave opening towards the massive winding stairway in the distance beyond where she, Starlight, and Firebrand had originally come down to get here.

Starlight sat on her haunches near the guard, watching Twilight with a small frown. The pale pink filly had some thinking of her own to do about the recent events that had transpired and especially about this Nightmare Moon character. Certainly she'd acted the part of a fed up and bratty filly, and sure, she knew she was lucky she hadn't gotten into more trouble for it than she did, but really what else was she supposed to do? Be like Twilight? Fret and worry and fuss over every little detail?

No, somepony had to have their head on straight in this situation, and seeing as they only had each other to rely on for now, Starlight supposed she'd have to be level-headed enough for the both of them. Aeon certainly wasn't going to be any help in the matter and, in Starlight's opinion, the less said about Firebrand, the better. That thought led her mind to wander to the colt and why everything about him seemed to rub her the wrong way. Was it because he was a thestral? Was it his personality? Was it a little of both? Or was it something else entirely that she hadn't figured out yet?

Maybe just a hunch? A bad feeling?

Starlight didn't know for sure, but whatever it was, it certainly didn't endear the colt to her at all. The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she got, so she tried to put it out of her mind, only for her ears to perk up as her and Twilight's chaperone suddenly spoke up next to her.

"Bit for your thoughts, kid?"

Starlight turned and looked up to see the thestral mare had removed her helmet at some point and was looking down at her with a rather bored looking expression. She—Night Runner if Starlight remembered correctly—had fallen to her own haunches and leaned back against the wall of the cave. Without her helmet to hold it in place, her violet mane had fallen over one grey eye. She brushed it back as she address Starlight again, the filly not having responded right away out of sheer confusion.

"What?" the mare asked with a raise of her brow, "just because I'm the big bad guard who brought you in I can't make small talk?" she shrugged as Starlight frowned in response, "hey, we got nothing else to do until Iron Hide shows up with the other brat, so... what's eatin' ya?"

"What do you care?" Starlight asked warily, "and does it matter? We're never gonna see each other again, so why ask at all?"

"Because I'm bored?" Night Runner replied, "because I'm curious? Because, like I said, we got nothing better to do than talk. I may be a guard, but I'm not big on just standing around and quietly twiddling my hooves. I do enough of that during my normal duties."

Starlight regarded Night Runner silently for another moment, unsure what to make of this new attitude. She couldn't say she disliked it, it reminded her of how she herself normally acted, but still...

"You were there, weren't you? You and that other guard?" Starlight finally replied, "didn't you see what happened?"

"Iron and I were there for most of it, yeah," Night Runner replied, turning to watch Twilight as she continued to pace and mutter to herself, "but from where I'm standing, it seems like everything worked out in the end," she turned back to Starlight with an impressed smirk, "I mean, the two of you even managed to catch our Night Mother's attention. I'd say that's something to be proud of, not scowl about."

"Excuse me for not jumping for joy," Starlight grumbled, looking away from the bemused mare, "but there's... a lot going on in our lives right now. There's a lot of stuff me and Twilight are trying to deal with, and this whole situation didn't help."

"Oh?" the mare replied, leaning down towards the filly, her eyes shining with renewed curiosity, "care to fill me in?"

"No."

Night Runner leaned back, snorting in disappointment.

"Aw, c'mon, kid," the thestral mare mock pleaded, "I've lived my whole life down here and the average thestral hardly ever hears anything about what happens on the surface," she frowned and her gaze idly wandered towards the depths of the cave, "usually its only what the Council deems necessary to reveal, and even then they don't reveal much."

"You're not really missing out, trust me," Starlight replied, suppressing a shudder as the memory of the demon attack flashed across her mind, "honestly, I don't care what that weird old stallion says, you all are probably better off down here."

Night Runner's frown deepened slightly at that, but before she could reply the sound of distant hoofsteps punctuated by a nervous, foalish voice from deeper within the cave drew all of their attention. From out of the gloom emerged a fully armored thestral stallion, quickly followed by a much smaller, fiery maned thestral colt. The voice in question no doubt belonged to the colt, and that was reveal when the two newcomers stepped out into the light beyond the cave.

"...glad for them, really, but to send me up there?" Firebrand was whining to a thoroughly disgruntled looking Iron Hide, "I never wanted to go up to the surface to begin with! I'm not ready! I know that, grandpa knows that, and so does the rest of the Coun—"

"Look, boy," the armored stallion interjected roughly, rounding on the startled colt, "I've listened to you piss and moan about this decision since we left the Council's chambers, and I'm sick of it," he leaned down, narrowing his cold magenta eyes, "this was the Council's decision, and your grandpa gave his blessing. There's nothing you can do about it, so I suggest you zip your lip and get over it, get me?"

Firebrand only whimpered unhappily in response, his ears lowering as he looked away. That seemed to be enough for the armored stallion, who snorted and turned to trot the rest of the way to where the others were. After a moment, Firebrand silently followed behind, his head hanging low and a soft, despondent sigh on his lips.

"I take it the discussion went well?" Night Runner asked with a smirk, "kid seems pretty excited at least."

"Can it, Night Runner," Iron Hide groused in response, "let's just get this over with."

Night Runner watched Iron Hide pass by her with a slight chuckle before following after. Twilight, having watched the exchange between Iron Hide and Firebrand worriedly, was quick to make her way over to the thestral colt. Starlight sighed discontentedly, but went after her nevertheless, and together they all followed the two guards as they made their way towards the spiraling staircase.

"Hey... you okay, Firebrand?" Twilight asked quietly, to which Firebrand only gave her a brief side glance before hanging his head once more and staring at his hooves. Twilight frowned and tried again, "I know this isn't exactly what you wanted, but at least you won't have to do that trial, right?"

"Yeah," Starlight added with mock cheer in her tone, "now you only have vicious demons, horrifying desert beasts and shady ponies and griffons and minotaurs and the like to worry about, just like us!"

Starlight's words were met with a terrified look from Firebrand and scathing glare from Twilight, but the filly only shrugged in response.

"What? Sugarcoating the truth isn't gonna help anypony," she replied airily. When the looks didn't abate she rolled her eyes, "oh c'mon, Twilight and I have survived this long, so you'll probably be fine, and besides, I heard from you're grandpa that you were a good fighter."

"But I hate fighting!" Firebrand cried, turning to fully face the two fillies, "combat practice is the worst, and I only fight when I have to, and even then only when the instructor gets really mad."

Twilight and Starlight looked at each other uncertainly before turning back to Firebrand. Unbeknownst to all three foals, both Night Runner and Iron Hide had stopped and were listening in as the distraught colt continued his rant.

"I know you're trying to cheer me up, but you don't get it—neither of you do," Firebrand paused and took a deep breath before continuing on in a calmer, but no less upset tone, "if I'd gone through with the trial, I could've just avoided Tenebris altogether until the trial was over.

"I wouldn't have had to fight her at all, and I could've just gone back to Nightshade. Yeah I still would've had to do combat training every now and then, but I wouldn't have been sent out to do any dangerous missions—at least not for a long, long time. Now I'm gonna have to train and fight all the time, so no, it's not better that I'm gonna be living on the surface."

"Firebrand," Twilight began softly, "I... I didn't know you were that against all of this, and I'm sorry you have to go through it, but..." she moved closer, putting a hoof on Firebrand's shoulder and giving the colt a reassuring smile, "...you don't have to go through it alone, y'know? Starlight and I will be there to help you... if you need it I mean."

Firebrand stared back at Twilight for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak, only to shut it another moment later. With a bitter sigh he gently pushed the lavender fillly's hoof away and continued forward towards the guards. Night Runner turned to Iron Hide, her eyebrow raised in a silent question, but Iron Hide only shook his head and they both moved ahead once more.

Before any of them could get too far, Firebrand suddenly found himself wrapped in a turqoise aura and roughly yanked backward. One startled yelp later and he was face-to-face and practically nose to nose with a very irate Starlight. He tried to move, but Starlight's magic held him fast, not letting up even as she spoke.

"Oh, I'm so sorry you were ripped away from your comfy little life in your tiny little hole in the ground," the pink filly sneered, "but sometimes life doesn't work the way you want. Sometimes life bucks you in the teeth and there's nothing you can do about it. Sometimes—a lot of the time, life... just... sucks, and like the big guy over there said, you need to stallion up and get over it."

"Starlight," Twilight began, both completely nonplussed and upset at the other filly's outburst, "think about how he feels for a moment," she moved closer to the two, her eyes pleading with Starlight to understand, "the one thing he didn't want was to be cast out, and now that's more or less what happened here. Of course he's gonna be upset about it."

"Yeah," Starlight shot back, her furious eyes never wavering from Firebrand's, "and you and I both know there are way worse things that can happened than just being cast out of your home."

"Well... yeah, but," Twilight argued, suddenly uncertain at Starlight's response. She paused, then spoke again, her tone more sure, "but he doesn't know about any of that, not yet. I don't think it's fair to hold him to that kind of standard and expect him to just 'get over' his life completely changing like that."

"And you think it's fair that we had to get over what happened to us just like that?!" Starlight snapped, finally rounding on Twilight, "we have no homes to return to! We have no family waiting to take care of us anymore! That's all gone now!" she shook the colt in her magic, causing him to yelp again, "At least he still has his grandpa!"

"I'm not saying that's fair either! None of it is, and I know there's nothing we can do about that," Twilight argued back, "but it's not like we were okay right away either! I still don't think we are! Daddy—"

Twilight's voice hitched, but she fought through the unexpected stab of grief and pushed on, determined to get her point across.

"...my grandpa died when I was really small—smaller than I am now, and my mom was really upset for a long time. My... my brother and I tried to cheer her up, but nothing worked. When I asked my dad about it, he told me my mom was grieving, and that it takes time for ponies to recover from loss."

"But this isn't loss!" Starlight growled, "he didn't lose anything! Not like we did! Maybe something will change at some point and maybe he'll get to go home to his friends and family. He'll always have that possibility, we won't."

"Actually..."

At Iron Hide's gruff voice, the two bickering fillies turned to see he and Night Runner had stopped a little ways ahead and were once again watching the exchange. When he had their attention, Iron Hide spoke again, the ghost of an amused and slightly vindictive smile on his face.

"Little Firebrand here hasn't been cast out at all," Iron Hide continued, "far from it in fact."

Starlight blinked and slowly turned from Iron Hide to the colt she was still holding captive in her magic. She took special note of the colt's shamefaced expression and his refusal to look her in the eye. She stared at him blankly for another second before turning back to Iron Hide.

"Run that by me again?"

"Gladly," Iron Hide replied with a bit too much cheer in his voice, "while the Council has decreed that Firebrand is to live on the surface, he's actually required to return to Nightshade once every two months for three days to report his progress on his studies, the goings-on of life above, and to continue training only thestrals are privy to—albeit it at a much slower pace."

There was tense and uncomfortable beat of silence between the group for a long moment. Night Runner glared at Iron Hide, not amused in the slightest at him stirring the pot, but the stallion only smirked and—having said what he wanted to say—continued trotting up the stairs.

"Just wanted to set the record straight is all," he finished with a small chuckle, "wouldn't do to have such a glaring miscommunication between new friends, eh?"

Night Runner went to say something to the foals, but seemed to think better of it and sighed before following after Iron Hide. That left Firebrand to confront the two fillies alone, and at that moment he would've rather fought against Tenebris than deal with the situation he was in now.

"Starlight... Twilight... look, I didn't—"

His words were cut off by his own surprised grunt as Starlight magically shoved him away from her. He stumbled, trying to regaining his footing, only to be sent sprawling on the floor as the pale pink filly pushed past him and silently stormed her way up the stairs. Both Twilight and Firebrand watched her go, but Starlight didn't look back or say anything more. 

A few seconds passed by before Twilight held out a hoof towards Firebrand. The colt looked at her, surprised, but Twilight smiled a small, sad and—Firebrand couldn't help but notice—somewhat oddly strained smile. Reluctantly, he took the offered hoof and the remaining filly helped him up the rest of the way.

He muttered a thank you and Twilight shook her head before making her way towards and up the staircase after the others. She stopped a few steps up and turned to cast Firebrand a side glance.

"Try to cheer up, okay?" she said quietly, "if things get bad, just remember that you have a place to return to and ponies... thestrals who care about you."

There was something in Twilight's voice that made Firebrand wince and a pang of guilt stabbed at his stomach. He wanted to say something—anything; he felt he needed to, but it was already too late. Twilight had already begun heading upstairs, and just like Starlight, she didn't bother looking back to see whether he was following or not.