CRISIS: Equestria
Chapter Thirty-six: Identity
Starlight Shadow could not feel much of anything—a blessing, as the last thing she remembered feeling was unfathomable pain. Her senses were dulled and muddy, and her body was all but numb. Her mind was still very much alive, and raced with worry and mounting questions. She saw nothing but pure and gentle light in all directions; it pulsed with an energy that flowed into her mind and reignited her senses. Her body felt pleasantly warm as the light ebbed and flowed around and into her. She could hear tiny whispers in her mind, as though it were trying to communicate with her, and though she couldn’t understand exactly what it wanted to tell her, it’s presence put her at ease.
She reached out with her thoughts, attempting to respond, hoping it would be no more difficult than attempting to commune telepathically with her sisters via magic. “What fate has befallen me? Where am I?”
A voice spoke directly into Starlight’s head. “Thou art safe, my little pony. Safe in body, safe in mind; safe, in all senses of the word.”
“Where is ‘safe’, strictly speaking? If my physical form is occupying such a location, then surely it has some latitude and longitude by which I may navigate to it. I require this information so that I may apprise my sisters of it, either so they may locate me or vice-versa, or so that I may determine if they, too, occupy a similar location. Are they ‘safe’ as well?”
The voice laughed, in a manner of speaking; it wasn’t so much a laugh as it was a ripple in the warmth that brought incredible joy to Starlight’s heart. “Thou hast a manner of speech that brings to my mind many a happy memory of years long past, of ponies I held very close to my heart. But, to answer thy question, ‘safe’ hath no physical location of which to speaketh, at least not in common words, or uncommon words, as thou mayest be more comfortable with.”
“Then where, precisely, am I?” Starlight prodded. “I assure you that I can comprehend any explanation you give me, no matter how outlandish or fantastical.”
“To put it simplest, thou art within my sanctuary, a realm where my light and warmth reigneth supreme, where pain and suffering hath no hold over the hearts and minds of mortals. A realm of dreams, sayeth some.”
“Some higher plane of existence, then?”
“If that is how thou choosest to see it. I can say nothing more on the subject, my little pony, for mine influence upon thee and thy sisters must not be too great. T’would sully my purpose to inflict such blatant interference upon mortal affairs.” The voice grew sad as the brightness dimmed, and Starlight’s own heart grew heavy. “I have wrought too much of mine influence already, as of late, and I pray I am not required to impose myself further.”
“I have no understanding of the context of which you speak. Please, enlighten me.”
“I cannot do so, my little pony, for reasons I have made clear to thee.” The voice’s warmth returned, its confidence renewed, and with it, Starlight’s comfort. “Fearest not, for I wish no harm upon thee, Starlight Shadow.”
Starlight’s heart leapt into her throat. “You... possess knowledge of my name?”
“I possess knowledge of a great many things, young one, of thee, and thine ‘Originals’, as thou callest them.”
“And yet I possess no knowledge of you, be it your identity or your intentions, but your association with Twilight Sparkle troubles me. With that consideration, you may deduce why I might be predisposed to concern myself with security, both my own and that of my sisters. How can I allocate any credence to you if I am not acquainted with this required information?”
“I do not blame thee for thy mistrust, nor can I say anything that would truly convince thee of my good intentions. For that, I beg thy forgiveness. But, thy time here draws to an end; t’was only meant to be a momentary excursion into my realm, to... ‘cleanse’ thee and thy sisters. I leave thee with four simple words: chooseth thine own fate.” The voice’s warmth receded, leaving Starlight feeling empty and alone. “Farewell... my little pony...”
“W-wait!”
In an instant, darkness replaced the light, and Starlight was alone.
***
Twilight Sparkle paced impatiently across the cobblestone floor of the gateway into Zeb’ra’den. Every so often, she’d shoot a glance towards the royal palace, specifically at the large green runes on the southern wall. She’d learned from Sir Zircon that they were used for timekeeping, and had learned enough about reading Zebra-accented runes in the past few hours that she could almost read the runes as well as she could read a clock. Almost. According to the runes, she’d been here somewhere between an hour and three years. Give or take.
“They’re late,” she said, not addressing anypony in particular. It was just something she felt the need to say, even if nopony responded.
Lockwood stepped alongside her and patted her shoulder. “Perhaps they ran into some, uh… ‘trouble’, same as we did? We do have to consider that possibility.”
Twilight turned and shook her head. “I don’t even want to think about what they would have been put through if that’s the case. If Starlight and Insipid were out for blood… well, that means the others were too.” She frowned and shut her eyes. “I just want to believe they’re okay. I want them to be here soon...”
“I have no doubt that they’re okay, and on their way right now. They have to be. If you and Rarity were able to stand up to your opposites, then everypony else can, too.” Lockwood gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t let your worries spoil everything you’ve worked for. Look forward to the evening. Be happy. You’re going home, Twilight. By this time tomorrow, you’ll be asleep in your own bed.”
Twilight sighed. “I certainly hope so. But… I can’t help it, Lockwood. This entire journey has been one miserable turn of events after another. Things were finally looking up when Applejack came back to us,” she said with a small smile, which turned quickly into a frown, “but then Starlight and her sisters showed up again. I can’t help but think that… had I said something different, or moved in just the wrong way… I’d be dead right now. So might Rarity. So might all of my friends…”
Lockwood frowned. “But you’re not. You came through against the greatest adversity yet. I have the confidence that everypony else will make it through. You should, too.”
“I suppose so...”
Twilight shook her head, and her smile returned. She was glad Lockwood was here to keep her company and provide moral support; the zebra soldiers encircling the gateway chamber certainly weren’t much for conversation. Neither was Rarity, for that matter. Twilight glanced in the other unicorn’s direction at the edge of the chamber, where she sat on a bench next to Sir Zircon. The two had been completely inseparable for the past few hours, barely saying a word to anypony—or anyzebra—but one another. They always seemed to be whispering and laughing, and couldn’t keep their hooves off each other. It was distracting.
Lockwood noticed Twilight’s shift in attention. “It’s not polite to stare, y’know,” he whispered.
Twilight flustered. “I… wasn’t staring. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on with those two. I mean, Zircon challenged you to a duel, right? What ever happened to that?” She paused, then shook her head. “N-not that I want to see Zircon beat you senseless. And n-not that he would! I just mean, you know… he made such a big deal about it at the first meeting, and then sort of… dropped it.”
“Well, while I appreciate your… vote of confidence, yes, I am aware I was challenged to a duel. And thanks to Miss Rarity over there, I’m still conscious with all of my limbs attached and wits about me.” Lockwood chuckled. “Pardon me if I don’t complain that Sir Zircon has become quite distracted. Especially since that charming distraction has been contributing a great deal to our negotiations’ success. Greater than I anticipated, at any rate.”
“Yes, well, at this rate I’m beginning to wonder why either of us even needed to come along,” Twilight grumbled. “I barely said a word during the entire contract agreement. Rarity could’ve handled the entire thing by herself. Those zebras were ready to sign the whole kingdom over to her if she wanted.”
Lockwood smirked and slid his hoof around Twilight’s shoulder to pull her into a half-embrace. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous, Twilight. That doesn’t seem like you.”
“Hmph… jealous? No. Just confused.” Twilight shook her head. “What exactly is Rarity doing that’s so endearing to the zebras, Sir Zircon in particular? I just can’t figure it out. Aside from the whole ‘looks like Harmonia’ thing; I understand that… sort of. But that can’t be the sole reason.”
Lockwood smiled, putting his other hoof over his heart. “My dear Blackburn has shown me how far one pony is willing to go to follow their heart. The zebras surely can’t be so different as to not to have the same passions.”
“I’m afraid I don’t follow.”
He hung his head in defeat. “You’ll learn someday, Twilight. Maybe you just need the right somepony to show you how powerful the heart’s passion truly is.”
“Well, whatever that means, I just want everypony to get here already so we can move finally go home. Not to sound like I want to just leave our new friends, but… I’m really looking forward to it.” She turned her gaze skyward. “Like you said, if all goes according to plan, I’ll be sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night under my own sky.”
Lockwood clapped her on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit!”
A distinct hum in the air drew Twilight’s attention: the familiar sensation of teleportation magic. She quickly drew Lockwood with her away from the center of the chamber, where the magic was coalescing. There was a flash and a pop, and a trio of ponies warped into the room: one unicorn stallion with a golden coat and silver mane, and two earth pony mares. She was intrigued by the unicorn’s expertise with teleportation magic. Deepgrove was hundreds of miles away; she wasn’t confident she could travel the same distance with two passengers. Before she could greet the unicorn responsible, however, he teleported away.
The missed opportunity was soon forgotten, though, as Twilight refocused her attention on her friends. “Applejack! Pinkie!” She rushed forward to embrace her friends, who’d only just recovered. Lockwood approached next, followed by Rarity and Sir Zircon. “Thank goodness you’re finally here! Are you two okay?”
“We’ve been through worse,” Applejack said with a smile. “T’ain’t nothin’ we couldn’t handle. Ain’t that right, Pinkie?”
Pinkie bounced excitedly in place. “Piece of cake!” Twilight noticed that Pinkie had strangely redressed herself in the outfit she’d chosen from way, way back in New Pandemonium City. The weird mish-mash of clothing had looked out of place before, but here in Zeb’ra’den, she looked even more bizarre.
“You’re late,” Rarity said, stepping forward to embrace the two as well.
Applejack and Pinkie gave each other a short glance. Applejack spoke first: “Well, we sorta ran inta some trouble, an’-”
Twilight raised a hoof. “Say no more. I know exactly who and what ‘trouble’ was, and since you two are here, and all in one piece it looks like, I think I know what happened: our ‘clones’ showed up, tried to kill you, you talked them down, then weird stuff happened and you’re not really sure what was going on. Is that about the gist of it?”
Pinkie nodded; Applejack shrugged.
Twilight raised an eyebrow in Applejack’s direction. “No? Something else?”
“Well, that is about the gist of what y’all ‘n’ Pinkie an’ probably everypony else went through, I reckon. Accordin’ ta Curaçao, that’s exactly what her plan was all along. She even cherry-picked how it all worked out the second she found out what we were doin’ an’ where we were goin’.”
“Wait, Curaçao? How could she have known anything we were planning? I mean, sure, she can turn invisible, but how would she have been able to find us?”
“Yes, that does seem rather difficult to believe,” Rarity added. “I know she’s intelligent, but-”
“It’s because she was hidin’ out as Fireburst the whole time,” Applejack huffed. “Turnin’ all see-through ain’t her only trick. She’s also some kinda shapeshifter. Packs a mean right hook, too.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “A shapeshifter, you say?” She lit up her horn, and without another word, blasted both Applejack and Pinkie with a spell.
Nothing happened.
“What the hay was that, Twi?!” Applejack blurted.
Twilight smirked and shook her head. “Just a little spell that would alert me to any illusion magic you might be using. I researched it after my brother’s wedding, just in case I’d ever need it. I kinda wish I’d known earlier that I did need it. Seeing as nothing happened, that means you two are the real deal. So, please, continue.”
Applejack blinked, and shrugged. “Well, anyway, Curaçao planned out the whole thing, claimin’ that she wanted ta save her sisters from some dark, terrible fate if they kept doin’ what they were doin’. She used us talkin’ ‘em down ta do it.”
“That… doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “What dark fate? What does that mean?”
“It means Mister Gilderoy was right,” Pinkie chimed in. “See, AJ may have found out all that weird spy stuff about Curaçao, but I found out why we’ve been dealing with those six in the first place: Nihila was in charge of our clones all along. I mean, we already had our suspicions, but-”
Sir Zircon grunted and grit his teeth.
“That foul demon hath returned? How?
I must warn my king of this, now.
Our defenses, we must prepare,
lest she bring unending despair!”
“Don’t fret, darling,” Rarity cooed, putting her hoof to his cheek. “I don’t think this situation has anything to do with Zeb’ra’den at all. Nihila and her servants are after us.”
Zircon frowned, and put his hoof over his heart.
“Thy words bringeth me only fear,
for I hold thy safety as dear.”
Pinkie shrugged, and cleared her throat. “Well, anyway, something… weird happened while I was fighting Red. Nihila kinda, I dunno, possessed her or something, then started going on about taking over Starlight’s body instead because it was the only thing powerful enough to get revenge on somepony for betraying her or something. I didn’t follow it too well, but she was pretty angry about it.”
“So… something happened to Nihila that caused her to need to take over somepony else’s body for a revenge plot, and Curaçao is trying to… what, exactly? Turn her sisters good?” Twilight paused, and let out a harsh breath. “Wow. That’s… a lot to take in.”
“But forget all that right now, Twilight! We were given a mission, and we completed it!” Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out a small pink crystal, the same one Twilight recognized from a book Warden Mémoire had shown her. “One Eternal Eye, courtesy of the Pinkie Pie and Applejack Delivery Service! ‘Come rain, sleet, snow, or evil clones, we always deliver,’ that’s our motto! Though I guess you could say technically Curaçao delivered it to us, first.”
Twilight shook her head. “What? Why?”
“Long story short, it was her attempt ta get me ta trust her. Still don’t, but anyway, we should focus on gettin’ these pieces all put together so we can mosey on home,” Applejack said. “I’ve got a feelin’ our ‘clones’, or whatever they are, have quite a lot ta talk about amongst themselves. The faster we get everythin’ taken care of, the faster we can get away from ‘em.”
“Yes, that would be for the best,” Twilight agreed.
“So where’re the others? They’re late too?”
“Certainly seems that way.”
“Well, if Pinkie ‘n’ me could handle what we did, I’m sure the others’ll do just fine.”
“I want to make sure I have this clear,” Lockwood interjected. “You’re telling me that Curaçao was Fireburst this whole time, yes?”
Applejack nodded. “That’s the skinny, yeah.”
Lockwood sighed. “That worries me. She’s a lot smarter than we thought, then, if she could trick Blackburn into trusting her.”
“But enough chit chat about mopey stuff in the past,” Pinkie said, throwing her hooves in the air. “Time to focus on positive things in the present, like meeting new friends.” She waved at Zircon. “Hi there, Mister Zebra!” She leaned over to Twilight and whispered, “Who’s the zebra?”
Rarity cleared her throat, and presented Zircon with a flair of her hoof. “This handsome fellow is Sir Zircon, our escort and guide. He’s been ever so helpful in getting things worked out on our end. I don’t think we could have gotten as far with our negotiations as we did if we didn’t have him.”
Zircon bowed low in respect.
“Ladies Jack and Pie, welcome, then,
To our fair city, Zeb’ra’den.”
Applejack and Pinkie stared at Zircon for a long moment, until Pinkie blurted, “Okay, seriously, what is this, Shakespony in the Park?” She cleared her throat. “Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?”
Twilight and Rarity each put a hoof to their face; Lockwood barely stifled a laugh.
Zircon made to speak, but Rarity put her hoof to his. “Don’t worry, darling, that’s just Pinkie being her usual self. It’s best to just smile and move on.”
Applejack coughed. “Well, uh… yeah. Howdy there, Mister-”
“Sir Zircon, Applejack,” Rarity corrected, nose in the air. “If we are to maintain good relations with the zebras, please be sure to address them properly.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Sorry. Howdy there, Sir Zircon.” She turned to Twilight. “And here I thought Zecora’s rhymin’ was just her own thing. Do all the zebras here do this kinda stuff, or just him?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes, every zebra. And, every zebra seems to have a different poetic meter, too, based on their status within zebra society; nobles speak differently from the common soldier, who speak differently from their priests, and so on. I still haven’t figured out exactly what meter corresponds to what status, though I did notice that the peasantry didn’t speak in meter or rhyme. It’s... complicated. Very complic-”
She shook her head when the familiar hum of teleportation magic filled the air again. She turned to her friends. “But nevermind all that everypony, the other team is coming in. Clear the circle,” she said, ushering them away.
Almost immediately after they’d moved, a small flash and pop preceded the arrival of a unicorn stallion accompanying a quartet of mares: three pegasi, one unicorn. Twilight recognized the stallion as the same who’d arrived with Applejack and Pinkie, but he warped away before Twilight could grab his attention. She was impressed that he had enough energy to teleport so far so many times in such quick succession.
“Is everypony okay?” Twilight asked, shooting Rainbow and Fluttershy worried looks. She made to step forward, but Blackburn held up a hoof to stop her, and stepped forward into the group herself.
Lockwood was at her side immediately, wrapping her in a tight embrace. “Oh, BB, am I glad to see you. You’re late.”
Blackburn grunted. “Ran into opposition. Resolved problem inefficiently.” She gave Lockwood a quick once-over, and narrowed her eyes. “You were injured.”
Lockwood gave her a nervous smile. “Sheesh, can’t even hide zebra healing from you, can I? Don’t worry, hon, it’s nothing. I was injured. Now, I’m not.”
“Unacceptable. Injury inflicted by… melee weaponry. Zebra-made. Damage done by blunt of weapon, not blade, but… impact was sloppy, unintentional. Weapon was zebra-made, not wielded by zebra at time of injury.” She glanced at Zircon briefly, her eyes brightening at the sight of his massive runesword, then shook her head. “Will investigate more later. Now, expecting additional cargo. Will arrive shortly; gave small delivery itinerary, desired to explain situation briefly.”
“So your team found the Obidium, I take it?” Twilight asked.
“Sure did, Twi,” Rainbow said, stepping alongside Blackburn. “We would’ve had it here sooner, all shaped up and ready to go, but you can blame a couple of certain someponies for us being late.” She glanced about the group; Twilight could see she was worried. “Where’s Pinkie?”
“Dashie!” Pinkie dropped from above the group to tackle Rainbow in a vigorous hug, lifting her into the air in the process. “Oh thank goodness you’re okay! I was so worried! Who did you fight? Did you win? What am I asking, of course you won. Sheesh. Did you kick her butt, whoever it was? I bet it was Grayscale. Was it Grayscale? Did she hurt you? What did she say to you? Oh gosh I was so worried about you!”
Rainbow chuckled and patted Pinkie on the back. “Whoa, Pinks, take it easy. I’m alright, okay?” She pulled out of the hug to look Pinkie over. “How about you? I’ll bet fifty bits that Red Velvet went after you again. That psycho didn’t do anything to you, did she?”
Pinkie put her hoof over her heart, and sighed. “Nothing a little giggle couldn’t solve.” She turned to look at the unicorn mare that had joined the group, a bespeckled pony with bright blue eyes, a hot pink coat, and fiery red mane, all dressed up in drab grey business attire: skirt, suit, and tie. “Who’s your new friend?”
Blackburn gestured to the mare with a sweep of her hoof. “Ambassador-in-training at Newhaven. Brought her along, should learn political and diplomatic procedures first-hoof.”
“Oh, I see. So… what’s her name?”
“Shroud,” said the mare with a dip of her head. “A pleasure to meet you… Pinkie Pie, correct?”
“Yup! That’s me!” Pinkie greeted, giving the mare an energetic hoofshake. “I love meeting new friends. Two new friends in one day calls for a party! I’m gonna throw something together super quick, before we all have to go home. What’s your favorite soda flavor? Is it grape? You look like a fan of grape soda. Or root beer. Do you like root beer?”
Shroud, bewildered and awestruck by Pinkie’s energy, turned to Twilight and cleared her throat. “Moving on… you are Twilight Sparkle, if I am not mistaken.” She next turned to Rarity and Applejack, acknowledged their presences, then turned to Lockwood and bowed low to the floor. “Future-Prince Lockwood! It is a pleasure to meet you as well, your soon-to-be-Highness.”
Lockwood snickered and nudged Blackburn lightly in the side. “I think I enjoy all the convoluted almost-royal titles more than the real ones.”
Shroud paused when she looked at Zircon, but extended a hoof after a moment. “And a resident of Zeb’ra’den, clearly of some importance if he’s here to greet our entourage. A pleasure to meet you, Sir…?”
Zircon took her hoof in his and gave it a dainty shake.
“I am Zircon, Knight of Black Flame,
and yes, my lineage hath fame.
I serve our city’s consulate.
Not my best use, I must admit,
but mine uncle is our great king;
for him, I’d do most anything.”
“Ah, fascinating. The king’s nephew and a member of the Utopian consulate.” Shroud took a small pad out of her suit pocket and tapped it numerous times with her hoof. “I hope that we may remain in contact once Her Majesty’s errands here are complete. If you are close to both the Zeb’ra’den ambassador and its ruler, it may be mutually beneficial for us to maintain close ties.”
Blackburn laughed. “Already looking to forge new relations. Admirable.”
Zircon turned to Blackburn.
“Now, as for thee, strange-spoken dame
I’m afraid I know not your name.”
“Blackburn, Queen of Hope’s Point. First time in Zeb’ra’den, myself,” she replied with a nod.
“A visit, here, from royalty?
To Zeb’ra’den, I welcome thee.
I hope we do not disappoint,”
Zircon said with a bow. He hummed in thought.
“‘Tis familiar, this ‘Hope’s Point’.
We once had a visitor here,
though long has passed many a year.”
“My grandfather, King Flashfire. Would like to hear more about his visits here. Have always admired his spirit for diplomacy.” Blackburn turned to Fluttershy, who until now had remained completely silent and stayed hidden behind the others, and gestured for her to approach. “But for now, other matters. More important.”
“Oh, r-right,” Fluttershy said. She gulped, stepped forward, and cleared her throat. “Um… everypony… if it’s okay with you, I’d… like to apologize for how I’ve been acting lately…”
The group fell silent for a moment as everypony gave Fluttershy odd, inquiring looks.
“Oh… Fluttershy, darling,” Rarity said, breaking the silence, her eyes wet with tears. “You needn’t apologize-”
“I do, Rarity,” Fluttershy asserted; her tone was firm, but sad, not angry. She looked about the group, making eye contact with everypony present. “I... need to say that I’m sorry for what I’ve said and done to all of you over the past few days. I’ve been… a… well, I mean… I’ve been acting like… like a...”
“A jerk?” Rainbow completed with a huff.
“Rainbow Dash, really, have some tact,” Rarity sputtered.
“No, Rainbow’s right, Rarity,” Fluttershy sighed. “I’ve been a real… jerk. I know that the ponies I was mad at didn’t deserve my anger”—she glanced to her side at Blackburn and Lockwood—“and that it wasn’t right to blame somepony else,” she added, turning back to Rarity. “I know you were just trying to be a friend, Rarity. You couldn’t have known then what we know now. Can you forgive me?”
“Fluttershy, dear, of course I can forgive you. But I can’t just let you apologize for all this and take all the blame,” Rarity said, stepping forward and wrapping her friend in a hug. “I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard to do something like that, and it got way out of hoof. It’s not my place to play matchmaker for you; you’re a grown mare, you can do just fine on your own. I… I thought I was being generous, but all I was doing was what I wanted, what I thought was best for you. Can you forgive me?”
Fluttershy returned the hug with earnest. “Oh, Rarity…”
Rarity looked about for a moment, then turned back to Fluttershy. “Where’s Ophanim? I usually see him floating about you-” She stopped when Fluttershy hung her head. “Fluttershy? Darling, what is it?”
“Ophanim… died,” Fluttershy murmured.
“What?!”
Fluttershy shook her head, and she showed the Bonding Bracelet to everypony. The central gem was thoroughly cracked well beyond repair. It was a wonder it hadn’t shattered. “He sacrificed himself… to protect me.”
“How?” Twilight asked. “I thought he was indestructible.”
“I don’t know, but that’s what happened. He died because I urged him to fight against Havocwing.”
“Why that no-good punk!” Applejack snarled. “I don’t care what Curaçao says, her sisters ain’t got anythin’ left in ‘em to redeem!”
“Oh, Applejack, that’s not true,” Fluttershy said. “Havocwing… I could tell she was sorry about what she’d done, after everything that happened. And… she’s not really to blame-”
“I still say she was just saying that because she was almost bleeding to death and you were busy saving her life,” Rainbow grunted. “She’d have said anything to get you to keep going.”
“No, Rainbow, she was being genuine. Don’t ask me how I know, I just… I just do, okay? Let’s just drop it.” Fluttershy sighed. “After everything that’s happened, I see now what anger can do to myself and others. So, I’m sorry, everypony.”
Blackburn cleared her throat. “Water under bridge. Other important matters to discuss; second teleport scheduled to arrive soon. Needed to transport Obidium construct separately, due to size. You two”—she turned to Applejack and Lockwood—“come.” She gestured for them to follow her to a spot closer to the central circle. “Surprise arriving with second teleport.”
“Beg pardon?” Applejack tilted her head, confused, but followed Blackburn’s lead anyway.
“A surprise? Oh, BB, you shouldn’t have,” Lockwood chuckled.
Twilight raised an eyebrow; she, too, was confused by the whole situation. What did Applejack and Lockwood have to do with anything in particular? She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when she felt the hum of teleportation magic in the air. One flash and a pop later, and a large metal cargo container materialized in the center of the chamber, accompanied for only a brief moment by the familiar unicorn from before.
Twilight gawked at the size of the container, which stood nearly three times her height and twice as wide. The Harmony Guard unicorns had certainly efficiently constructed the foundation pieces for Tick Tock’s portal; she only wished she could see inside at what all the pieces looked like. “Impressive work,” she said, stroking her chin. “Tick Tock’ll be-”
She froze in shock when a figure came up and over from the other side of the container to take a seat on the top. “Is… is that…?”
“World savers! Beware! I live!” shouted Briarthorn, flourishing his wings and leaning back on his hooves.
He held the pose for a long moment, and to Twilight, it seemed as though nopony could decide on how to react.
Then, there was a flurry of movement as Pinkie cheered and cartwheeled around him. “He’s alive! Aliiive!”
Rarity clapped her hooves. “Goodness, this is a wonderful turn of events, knowing that somepony else survived that terrible ordeal.” She turned to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “It must have been hard, keeping a lid on that little secret long enough to surprise everypony.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Rainbow huffed, glancing around the other side of the container.
Pinkie cartwheeled over to Rainbow and stopped, ending up upside-down. “C’mon, Dashie! Turn that frown upside-down! This is a happy occasion! A reason to celebrate! This calls for a party!”
“You’re the one who’s upside-down, Pinks.”
“Oh. Right.” Pinkie shrugged, and continued cartwheeling.
Twilight stood quietly, taking a good, long look at Briarthorn, or rather, the myriad scars and bruises that marred his body. He hadn’t survived his experience in the Thunder’s engine room without paying a terrible toll, that much was for certain. Each cut definitely bore the telltale signs of being magically healed, which meant some wounds had to have been inches deep, and he’d clearly broken several bones and both his wings. His piloting uniform and his outfit underneath had been replaced by a simple green shirt, nothing more.
Briarthorn dropped off the container and landed in the middle of Pinkie’s cartwheel circle, and took a bow.
“Whoa!” Twilight gasped as Pinkie pulled her and Lockwood along with her in one final twirl.
They collided with Briarthorn in a big ball of revelry, and without missing a beat, Briarthorn wrapped the trio up in a big group hug with both hooves and wings, as if the whole thing had been planned out beforehoof.
“We sure missed you, goldenrod!” Pinkie exclaimed. She had somehow found her way out of the pile and was hugging Briarthorn’s head. “Now I have another thing to add to the party list: a ‘Welcome Back’ party! Those are always really fun, way better than ‘Going Away’ parties. Those always seemed contradictory to me. Who wants to celebrate leaving their friends?”
“I can see why some ponies would celebrate others leaving,” Rainbow grunted.
“Don’t mind her, she’s just grumpy because you saw her naked in a flashback spell,” Pinkie whispered.
Lockwood laughed and patted Briarthorn on the back. “Briarthorn, you old rascal, you have no idea how happy it makes me to see that you’re alive.”
Briarthorn smiled and tightened his wing around Lockwood. “You too, old buddy.”
He turned to Twilight next, and smiled for a brief moment before turned his gaze outside of the circle, becoming strangely quiet; Applejack had sidled up to the group hug from behind Twilight. He snatched her into the hug with a sudden movement of his other wing—Applejack gave a loud protest—and his familiar bravado petered out.
“Well hey there, Applebottom,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “I didn’t think you’d be so quick to welcome me back, too. Does this mean you like me? Maybe we could go have us a little rematch later, see what happens, if you catch my drift.”
Applejack rolled her eyes and patted Briarthorn’s shoulder. “Yeah, uh, that ain’t gonna happen, pardner.” She turned to Blackburn and scowled. “Not ta sound ungrateful, Yer Highness, or that I don’t think it’s pretty dang fantastic that somepony else survived that whole disaster, but-”
“Not seeing how Briarthorn pertains to you. Not directly,” Blackburn completed. “Understandable. Apparently positioning prior to teleport was inaccurate. Surprise is on your left. Relevant to Lockwood as well.”
Applejack and Lockwood each turned to look to their left. Their jaws dropped. “Uh… are y’all seein’ what I’m seein’?” she asked.
Lockwood nodded. “Yeah… I am. This is real, right? This isn’t a dream?”
“Nnnope,” replied Flathoof.
Twilight was sure she was hearing things, but sure enough, there Flathoof was, alive and well. He, like Briarthorn, had not come out of the engine room ordeal unscathed; while most of his face and body was also covered in the same cuts and bruises as Briarthorn, there was also something critically different. Namely, his right foreleg was gone, replaced with a shiny metallic leg covered in small electronics. She was reminded of Mister Gilderoy’s bionic limb replacements; as he’d predicted, ponies had developed more advanced versions over the years. He, too, was wearing a simple shirt and nothing else, though his was blue.
Lockwood was the first to break out of Briarthorn’s hug to rush forward to meet Flathoof. “Flathoof!” he exclaimed, clapping his forehooves on the bigger stallion’s shoulders. “Oh stars, it is you, isn’t it? You’re alive!” He pulled Flathoof in for a hug. “You’re alive! Thank the stars!”
Flathoof chuckled. “Good to see you’re alive too, Lockwood. I was worried sick about you, you know?”
Applejack stomped over to the pair and slapped Flathoof across the face. “Hmph, he’s real alright.”
“Applejack!” Lockwood blurted. “What in Equestria was that for?”
“Don’t worry, Lockwood, I’m pretty sure I know what that was all about,” Flathoof said, rubbing his cheek, though his smile didn’t falter.
“I bet ya do, ya dumb galoot!” Applejack snapped. “Y’all got some nerve, doin’ what ya did back there.”
“What did he do?” Lockwood asked.
“I pushed her into the escape pod in the engine room when it looked like we were in trouble,” Flathoof explained. “She was a little upset that I did. Guess she still is.”
“Ya dang right I am! Last thing I saw was you ‘n’ Briarthorn fightin’ that nutjob assassin, knowin’ dang well what he was capable of doin’ and more than willin’ ta do.” Applejack snorted and stomped her hoof. “I was tryin’ ta help!”
“And you did help, AJ, by staying safe so that I wouldn’t have to worry about you. You were in no condition to fight, not without your earth magic. He could’ve killed you. He almost did.”
“That ain’t no reason-”
Flathoof took her hoof in his. “Look, Applejack… I was not about to let you become another… another Snapshot. I’ve had a lot of time to think about what we talked about in that engine room… a lot of time to think about what it all meant for us. If… if there even is an ‘us’...”
Applejack turned red and grit her teeth. “Dangit… ya just had ta bring that up, didn’t ya? This ain’t the time or place ta discuss it, sugar.”
Flathoof frowned, and his hold on her hoof loosened. “Oh… oh I see…”
Applejack shook her head, took Flathoof’s hoof in hers, and looked Flathoof straight in the eyes. “I mean, we’ll talk about it later, after everypony gets all situated and we figure out what we’re doin’. We’ve got all night. Okay?”
Flathoof’s smile returned. “I would like that very much, Applejack.”
Twilight watched the scene unfold, growing more and more confused by the minute. She shook her head. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m glad you survived that horrible tragedy. It’s good to see both of you alive and well. Er, mostly well.”
Briarthorn brightened and slid up alongside Twilight. “It’s good to see everypony else survived too, Twily. Seeing all your smiling faces makes me glad to be alive. Certainly makes up for what happened out there. Not that anything could really make it all better.” He hung his head. “We lost a lot that day. Good ponies, all of them.” His smile returned. “But! We can’t let that get us down! You all have something to look forward to tomorrow, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes,” Twilight said with a smile. “Now that we’ve gathered all the materials, Tick Tock just needs to piece the portal together and we’ll be on our way home. It feels like it’s been forever.”
“I can’t wait to get off this planet already,” Rainbow grunted. “No offense to anypony present, but I really need to get a good night’s sleep in my own bed.”
“If there is anything I can do to help personally escort you to your assuredly-luxurious bedchambers, Dash, please, don’t hesitate to ask,” Briarthorn said with a bow.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Ugh. I’d sooner give up flying.” She held up her nose at the smuggler, but the look on her face surprised Twilight; Rainbow looked more tolerant than disgusted.
Briarthorn put his hoof over his heart in exaggerated pain. “Ooh, you wound me, Dash. And after all that’s happened lately, believe you me, I know quite a lot about wounds.” He paused, and brought his hoof to his head. “Speaking of which… if I start to seem more distant than usual, it’s because I’ve got this wicked migraine, and it is definitely rearing its ugly head again. Ow. Ow ow ow.”
“Are you alright? Do you need anything?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, more of those sweet, sweet painkillers the doctors have been giving me the past few days,” he muttered. He shot a quick glare over at Blackburn. “Funny how they’ve been giving medicine to keep a bunch of my organs from shutting down too, huh Queenie? Shame nopony could do anything about that earlier. Very strange. Right? Right?”
Blackburn avoided his eyes, all of her focus on what must have been the most enchanting tapestry in all the world.
Briarthorn shrugged slowly, stiffly. Twilight winced to see him freeze in place for a moment, his eyes shutting. “Well, unless somepony here has a big bag of heavy-duty aspirin in their pocket, I’m outta luck until we can get some of that zebra booze in me.”
“Briarthorn, darling, should you really think about drinking when you’re still recovering from a serious hospital stay?” Rarity asked, worried. “Alcohol could very well worsen your condition.”
He held his head. “Oh, my lady Rarity, at this point all I’ve got left to look forward to is a solid drinking session. The doctors tell me no, but those piddly little painkillers last for like five minutes. It’s all I can think of to get my mind off my mind, you follow me?” He gave Rarity a sly glance. “Though, of course, the company of a beautiful mare wouldn’t be awful. Can I get reimbursed on some of that reward earlier? It would be a medical emergency.”
He swept forward and made to reach for her hoof, but Zircon deftly intercepted the motion, blocking Briarthorn’s body with his own. Briarthorn seemed surprised. “Oh. Rephrase that: company of whoever. Hey there… Sir Studly. What’s up?”
“Taint not my Lady’s presence, knave;
thou knowest not how to behave,” Zircon snorted.
Briarthorn grinned madly, but said nothing as Rarity put her hoof on Zircon’s shoulder. “There’s no need to be so defensive, my dear. Captain Briarthorn means me no harm. He’s just… eccentric.”
Briarthorn blinked, and he looked between Rarity and Zircon before tilting his head so he could look straight at Rarity. “He seems genuinely nice, milady. Though... I don’t suppose it’s true what they say about zebras, is it?”
Rarity gave Briarthorn an apprehensive look, and hesitated for a long moment. ”Wh-what do they say?”
Briarthorn rubbed his head and closed his eyes in thought. Then, he threw a hoof into the air, and with a great, booming oration, said,
“My dear madame, please forgive me, for I must inquire;
is what’s said of zebras true, regarding desire?
That the dawn just beyond the night just before
left all, unsuspecting, tender or sore?”
Rarity flushed and cleared her throat. “Yes, certainly eccentric,” she deadpanned.
“I’ll take that as a ‘don’t know yet’ then.” Briarthorn bowed in apology, then winced, holding his head again. “Ugh! Serves me right, right? Stupid migraine. I’m only trying to have some fun here. Trying to make my... golden years,” he hissed, making Blackburn flinch slightly, “tolerable, but this thing has been popping up constantly since I woke up. And of course, the doctors here keep insisting on never having any booze again. Kinda sucks, don’t it?”
Twilight brightened as an idea struck her. “Hang on, I know just the spell for healing a migraine. I started studying it after my brother’s wedding.” She lit up her horn, and a bright green light encompassed Briarthorn’s head.
In frantic futility, Briarthorn rolled his eyes around trying to look at the light filling his face. “Excuse me, what the f-wuh-hah-hoo... hoo?” His eyes glowed for a brief moment, and he stumbled back a step before landing on his rear. When Twilight’s horn ceased glowing, so too did his eyes. He shook his head and sat there in a stupor for a long moment, holding a hoof to his temple.
“Ah? You...? Oh, it’s like... it’s like...” He stared at Twilight, his eyes wide and bright with emotion. He sprung forward and wrapped her in a big hug. “Oh. Thank you, Twily. It’s like you pulled a splinter the size of... New Pandemonium out of my skull! You’re an angel. No. Goddess. I proclaim thee the divine Twilight Sparkle, Goddess of Analgesics. I’ll get to work on a temple immediately. Thank you. Thank you… so much.”
Twilight returned Briarthorn’s hug slowly, unsure what to make of his abundantly gracious reaction to her spell. “You’re very welcome, Briarthorn. It was nothing special, really, just a simple migraine reduction spell. It won’t last long, unfortunately, but it’s a lot stronger than any pill you might have been taking.”
“Oh, it is. It is, it is, it is. My head is clear! It’s actually clear. It doesn’t just not hurt... it’s... it’s... I can think.” Briarthorn swelled with elation, lifting himself and Twilight slightly with a beat of his wings. “You’re a miracle worker! Truly. If anypony ever doubts you, you send them my way, got it? I’ll set ‘em straight. I’ll fill the tabernacle choir. I’ll get some pyramids built,” he gushed, whirling her around in the air.
Twilight flushed red at the praise and tried not to meet anypony’s eyes. “W-well, I’m glad it made you feel better.”
“Hate to disrupt touching display,” Blackburn interrupted. “Movement imperative. Proposed itinerary suggests final arrival will occur shortly.”
Twilight paused; she felt a familiar hum in the air. “Oh! I forgot what time it was.” She broke from Briarthorn’s hug, dropping the short distance to the floor before ushering the others away from the chamber center. “Come on, everypony, we’ve got company.”
Seconds later, two more unicorns warped in. The first, the same stallion responsible for all the efficient transportation, departed again before anypony could even speak to him; Twilight knew he was likely reporting to Harmonia’s Warden to inform him of the successful handling of the assignments tasked to everypony. The other unicorn stepped out of the chamber center and brushed off her sweater vest and adjusted her bow tie.
“I have to say, long-range teleportation is the only way to travel,” Tick Tock said. “From Point A to Point B in seconds, with nothing more than a little dizziness and some dust. Beats walking any day. Far less dangerous, might I add?” She shook her head clear of the teleportation haze, and took a cursory glance around her. Her eyes first focused on the cargo container just to her right. “Ah, and this must be our portal structure. Jolly good show, everypony.”
She turned towards the rest of the group, and froze. Her eyes focused on Briarthorn and Flathoof, and she stood in silence for a while. “Twilight,” she said, “is one of the side effects of teleportation sickness ‘extreme hallucinations’?”
Twilight chuckled and shook her head. “Nothing’s been proven in the past thousand years teleportation magic has been in practice back home. Everything you’re seeing is real. Briarthorn and Flathoof are alive.”
Briarthorn waved excitedly. “Hi, Tickity! Glad to see me?”
Tick Tock’s eyebrow twitched. “I think I need a cup of tea…”
“Well, now that we have a moment to talk, how did you two survive, anyway?” Lockwood asked. “From Applejack’s description of events leading up to the engine room exploding, we all sort of jumped to the logical, albeit painful, conclusion.”
Flathoof and Briarthorn looked at one another and simply shrugged. “We’re as confused as the rest of you,” Flathoof said. “I pushed Applejack into an escape pod, then the engine core started shouting about going critical. There was an explosion, and after that, nothing but black.”
“We woke up just outside Newhaven,” Briarthorn continued. He sighed and slumped to the floor. “My baby was nowhere in sight. Not even a hint of wreckage or debris. Poor Thunder… I’d just finished paying off the paint job...”
Flathoof shook his head. “We didn’t know what to think, as far as if anypony was alive or not. The only pony I knew was alive… was you,” he said, squeezing Applejack’s hoof.
“What happened to that nutjob who attacked us?” Applejack asked.
“Who knows?” Flathoof snorted. “We couldn’t see hide nor hair of that rotten bastard. Didn’t have much time to look, neither, ‘cause we were found by some ponies from the town. When they found out who Briarthorn was, they brought us to the embassy to recover. A search started for you guys immediately, especially since they found out Queen Blackburn was on board.”
“Just missed us,” Blackburn huffed. “Storm cover over wreckage site prevented adequate search efforts for days. Odd weather pattern for Utopian continent.”
“Odd indeed,” Tick Tock mused. She shook her head. “But enough dwelling on all that. It’s good to see you two blokes alive and all, but time is of the essence if I am to get the portal constructed and prepared for activation. Harmonia’s Warden is scheduled to arrive early tomorrow morning, and I don’t wish to keep him waiting.”
Zircon snorted.
“The Warden can wait, my good mare,
if thou valuest his welfare.”
Tick Tock smirked, and held out her hoof for Zircon to shake. “I was told the zebras wouldn’t be particularly welcoming of him. Considering you’re here with my friends, you must be the guide assigned to assist with the entry negotiations. A pleasure, even if you’re not too fond of the Warden. I assure you, our relationship is strictly business.”
Zircon took her hoof and gave it a small shake.
“‘Tis a fine pleasure, all the same.
I am Zircon, Knight of Black Flame.
Judging from the reactions here,
thy story I would like to hear;
thou must be of some great import,
if beside him thou must consort.”
“Tick Tock, Chronomancer, at your service.”
Zircon’s eyes widened, and he bowed low.
“A Chronomancer? My, oh my!
“‘Tis a thrill, I cannot deny.
Thy kind’s feats be celebrated,
though the tales are all quite dated.”
“I love how zebras can just... do this kind of talk, all snappy-like. Can I keep him, Rarity? Maybe we could work out a schedule. Every other day, maybe?” Briarthorn beamed.
Both Zircon and Tick Tock ignored him. “It has been a while since a Chronomancer even came to the southern continent, hasn’t it.” She paused for a second, clearly doing the math in her head. “Seven-hundred and forty-nine years, six months, eighteen days, six hours, to be precise… give or take some minutes and seconds. Seeing as you know who and what I am, what do you say we get this show on the road, hmm? I have a portal to construct.”
Zircon eyed the cargo container warily and stroked his chin. After a moment’s thought, he stomped his hoof.
“Right away, ma’am, it shall be done.
although it surely weighs a ton.
Fearest not, Chronomancer Tock;
we shall prove we are not all talk.”
He signaled for the surrounding zebra soldiers to approach, then turned back to Tick Tock and offered his hoof.
“Now then, if thou followest me,
I’ll escort thee personally,
to our Beacon’s superb courtyard,
which is under substantial guard.
But, if this action I condone,
knowest that thou must come alone.”
“Right. Warden Mémoire explained to me how your zebra customs work. I guess I should be glad I’m even bloody well allowed in for such a long period of time.” Tick Tock turned to Twilight and smiled. “I’ve got this part covered for now, Twilight. As for all of you, you can get some well-deserved rest. I’m certain you’ve earned it.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Pinkie said with an exaggerated wipe of her forehead.
“You heard her, everypony,” Twilight said, turning to the others. “Sir Zircon and his uncle have provided us with some first-class living arrangements to use for the night, and I don’t know about you, but I could use a good night’s sleep. And remember: tomorrow, we’re going home.” She looked skyward, and took a deep breath. “We’re finally… going home…”
***
Curaçao opened her eyes and looked out onto the green fields of the south. Her head was as clear as the endless orange sky above; the sun was just setting over the horizon. She could smell the sweet, crisp scent of the healthy grass; she could feel how soft the grass was beneath her hooves, and the cool, refreshing breeze in the air. She found that her strength had returned in full, so she stood tall and took a look about. Around her were her sisters, and they too had awoken and were rising to their hooves.
“Is everypony alright?” she asked.
Havocwing turned sharply to face her, stomped over, and got in her face. She bared her teeth and blew smoke from her nostrils. “What’s it to you?! Huh?! After what you pulled, you have a lot of guts asking us how we are!”
Curaçao took a step back, and winced. “You must understand, ‘avoc-”
Starlight stepped over and prodded Curaçao in the chest. “What particular matter of contention is Havoc experiencing difficulty in understanding? Direct your concerns to me if her fathoming your intentions is so heinously misplaced. After all that has transpired, you are under obligation to deliver justification for your actions. You... you have had this all devised from the outset; some underhoofed scheme intended to manipulate us and our Originals into interacting for some purpose that is still unclear, despite your brief explanation earlier.”
“It’s plenty clear why she did what she did,” Havocwing snarled. She snorted smoke in Curaçao’s face. “All this time I thought we were working together, but here Curaçao is doing what she feels like doing, and going behind our backs to do things her way! She’s so smart, she knows what’s best for everypony, right?”
“Zat was not-” Curaçao started.
“We trusted you, Curaçao! You were supposed to be helping us do what would get us back in dad’s good graces, and now look! Look at what you did! Dad’ll never give us the light of day now!”
“Father would express much disappointment in our failure, sister,” Starlight huffed. “Not to mention that said failure nearly resulted in our demise.”
“I assure you, you do not understand,” Curaçao said stiffly. From all sides, her sisters approached. Havoc and Starlight were seething; Velvet was doing her best impression of Grayscale; Grayscale, however, seemed curiously concerned. Insipid’s expression was blank. “I... I only did what needed to be done! You do not know what was ‘appening to us!” She took a deep breath, and faced Insipid in particular. “And... z-zat is my fault. I did not explain it to you. To any of you. I should ‘ave told you all when I found out… but I did not zink zat you would believe me!”
“So you didn’t trust us, is that it?!” Havocwing sneered and turned her back on Curaçao. “You thought that if you told us what was going on, we wouldn’t trust you? Well, great job! Look what happened! Look at your little plan’s outcomes. All of us… all of us got hurt, some of us way more than others! Star’s right: some of us almost got killed! And, when we asked you for your help, you just stood there! You stood there and and cried because things didn’t go how you wanted them to!”
Starlight pointed at Velvet. “I discovered our sister expending such volumes of blood that it threatened to rob her of life! My cranium felt as though it were about to split open! Havocwing suffered catastrophic bone and wing fractures!”
“Yeah. I almost died, Curaçao,” Velvet interjected, though her voice was low. It barely carried across the otherwise quiet meadow. “For a while there, I thought I was going to. I… I was afraid.”
Starlight’s voice grew louder as she went on. “Your manipulative nature led to a near-fatal calamity that we had no methods of recovering from. The fault of all that has transpired lays solely at your hooves!” She shook her head. “I know not how we managed this miraculous recovery, but that does not excuse your actions, sister. This situation demands some manner of comeuppance.”
“‘Comeuppance’?!” Havoc flared, her voice dripping with murderous rage. “She already saw what we went through to make her ‘plan’ work. I think she needs to feel what she made us go through! Maybe then she’ll understand what pain really feels like!”
Curaçao dropped to her knees, and only just kept herself from collapsing under sheer weight of words. She couldn’t stop the trickle of tears sliding down her face. Her heartbeat slowed to a crawl, and her vision blurred. She fought to breathe, and she could feel her chest heaving from the effort.
Everyzing zey say… c’est vrai...
“You are right,” she said. “When I did what I did… I did not zink of what any of you would deal wiz in zee process. I believed zat we would be better off dead zan continuing along wiz what we were doing…”
“You what?!” Havocwing snapped. “Excuse me, but I think I need to make sure I’m not going crazy and hearing things. Did you just say, ‘we’d be better off dead’?” Curaçao nodded. “Buck you! Who the buck do you think you are, huh, to decide that kind of bullshit?! If that’s what you really think”—she ignited a hoof—“then maybe I oughta-”
Then, Curaçao heard a gasp, and felt hooves wrap around her; she saw Havocwing back off in a hurry.
“Enough!” shouted Insipid, tears in her eyes, her otherwise perfectly-applied eyeliner running down her cheeks. “Leave Curie alone! Leave her alone, right now!”
Curaçao gawked at Insipid, unable to think of anything to say due to the sheer unexpectedness of the situation. “Insipid? Wh-what are you-”
Starlight took a deep breath, lit up her horn, and latched onto Insipid with her magic. “No. No, Insipid. Cease this myopic effort to espouse-” At Insipid’s blank stare, she snorted. “I... I will use... small words for you to understand. Curie,” she hissed, “planned out her family’s foreseeable… expected pain. From the... beginning, Insipid. The beginning. It was all her doing that has sent us into this agonizing... made us hurt. Do not begin to use platitudes- stupid little saying to try and... make up for what she has done!”
She pulled her horn back, dragging Insipid along and away from Curaçao; Curaçao did nothing to keep Insipid close.
“Shut up! Let me go!” Insipid snapped. She fought against the magical aura, plodding one step towards Curaçao for every two that Starlight pulled her back.
Starlight grunted and turned to Havocwing. “Some assistance would be appreciated at present.”
“Right,” Havocwing murmured. She fluttered over to Insipid and grabbed hold of her, yanking her into the air. “Listen to Star, sis. Curaçao did something bad, and she deserves-”
Insipid flailed about. “No! No no no! Let go, jerkface!” She smacked Havocwing in the nose.
“Ow!” Havocwing lost her grip and fell to the ground. “Watch it, moron! I already lost enough teeth today, thanks.”
“I’m not the moron: you are!” Insipid snapped. “You don’t even know why Curie did what she did!” She turned to Curaçao. “I do, though…”
“Yeah? You know?” Havocwing said, snorting smoke. “You get every little part of it, huh? Sorry if I don’t believe you right away.”
“Yes, I do! She did what she did because she, like, wanted us not to hurt anymore!”
“What a crock of shit.”
Starlight grit her teeth and tugged Insipid away with more urgency. “You little ignor- pea-brain, she sent us off knowing we would be injured! She likely knew we may die as a result of Nihila resisting our Originals’ attempts at coerc- sweet talk, and has even admitted that she considered that the superior option. You do know what dying is, do you not? I do not believe it is a fun thing to do, certainly not superior to any alternative!”
“Oh, is that what this is about? Blaming Curaçao for almost getting everypony killed?” Grayscale interjected. She looked incensed, not at Curaçao, but at Havoc and Starlight.
“It kinda is, a little bit, yeah, Gray. Glad you could buckin’ join us!” Havocwing spat.
Grayscale glared at her with palpable disgust. “Yeah? Well, I didn’t say anything because Curaçao’s not the worst pony here, not by a long shot. Here’s a newsflash for you: when I was fighting Rainbow Dash, I felt like I’d lost everything I had.”
“No shit! We all did!”
“No, you bucking idiot, think about what that meant for me. For me. Out of all of us, I had no other reason to live. So when I knew I was losing, do you know what I tried to do? Do you?”
There was a heavy pause.
“Tell us, sis,” Velvet prodded, her voice still quiet.
“I tried to kill everyone and everything on the planet, yourselves included. With the right mass at the right velocity and angle, I’d break straight through the planet like a bullet and crack it apart. There would be no survivors.”
Somewhere in the distance, a bird chirped peacefully. A dead silence hung in the air for a few tense moments. Everypony stared at Grayscale, their faces contorted in fear and dismay.
“That’s what I was going to do,” Grayscale said, staring up at the sky, her voice more despondent than usual. “I’d sunk so far into my self-loathing that I was willing to destroy everything.”
Starlight sharply clicked her tongue. “Your unprovoked nihilism always categorically bore the dangers of a contemporary and extemporaneous apocalypse, Grayscale. I possess no measure of astonishment for your deeds. However, they do not lessen the weight of our eldest sister’s actions in the slightest. The fault still lies with her!”
“How can you say that? She didn’t try to kill anypony; I did,” Grayscale said, more surprised than angry. “I’m worse than she is by a long shot. You should all be ganging up on me, not her.”
Velvet scratched her chin. “But Grayscale, think about it: if Curaçao hadn’t manipulated us into the position of those duels, you would have never made the choice to try and kill everyone. Starlight is angry because Curaçao brought us to those places. Anything we did once there is Curaçao’s responsibility. The foot bone’s connected to the leg bone.”
Curaçao sunk to the ground. She had no idea that Grayscale had hit bottom hard enough to try and do what she almost did. And Velvet was right: she put Grayscale in that position in the first place. Her tears flowed stronger than ever now, just short of all-out bawling.
Insipid dropped her head sideways to look up at Curaçao from below. “Like, it’ll be alright, Curie. Please stop crying!”
“Non, ma chérie, non...” Curaçao muttered. “Zey are right. Of course zey are right. I ‘ave always seen what... what ‘must’ be done, but it was always my choice. Always. So ‘ow can be it alright?”
Through her tears, she looked up at Havoc, and sure enough, she could see that Havoc wasn’t just angry. She was hurt. Turning to Starlight, the answer was the same.
“Applejack said zat I ‘ad done nozing but ‘urt you all. She said zat I did not deserve to call you ma familie. She was right. She was right about everyzing…” Curaçao’s voice was barely above her tortured breaths at first, but her voice picked up as she went on. “‘ow can it be alright? La trahison est ma nature...” she finished, sobbing loudly.
Havocwing snorted again as more smoke poured from her nostrils.. “You stop that right now. You did that before, you know that?! I’ve had it with your crocodile tears.” She stomped her hooves, igniting the grass around her. “I actually felt sorry for you! You all remember when Insipid got that stupid hat from Dad’s assassin? Curaçao pulled me aside after that and cried! She cried about how Insipid being mean to her and how awful she was! I said to myself”—she crossed her eyes—“‘Gee, Havoc, there’s no way she could be faking that! After all, she didn’t even cry when Insipid spat in her face’!”
Insipid tugged her hat over her head, and she looked positively horrified. “Nooo! I didn’t... I didn’t mean it!” She reached for Curaçao’s hoof. “Curie, I was just, like, being dumb! I didn’t mean-”
“You’re still dumb! You’re a moron for believing that she deserves sympathy. She faked it then, and she’s faking it now! You’re a moron, and we were morons for ever believing she cared about us!”
“Non, non, non!” Curaçao cried, shaking her head. “Je vous aime... vraiment, je fais...”
Velvet pursed her lips, and hummed. “Now, hold on on a second. Curaçao does care about us, Havoc. Otherwise, why not let the sniper kill us all? Why help us take him down? He didn’t even know she was there until she stepped in to distract him… after I got shot.”
Havocwing shot her a nasty look, but said nothing.
Starlight grimaced. “And this is to be the rationale that bestows some pardon upon our dear sister? Love does not guarantee respect, and- ow! Insipid?!”
Insipid had batted Starlight’s horn, breaking her sister’s magical hold over her. She also intensified her horn’s glow until sparks sputtered from the tip, preparing to resist any further attempt to contain her. She had stopped crying, and was wiping her eyes; her mouth had curled in a furious scowl. “No! No, you all are, like, gonna listen to me!”
“Insipid...” Starlight said, lighting her own horn to match Insipid’s.
“No!” Insipid shouted, an otherworldly echo edging into her voice, cracking like thunder. The birds stopped chirping, and the meadow was silent again. The group stared at her nervously.
Curaçao put her face in her hooves, wishing it would end. First, her sisters wanted to punish her, and now they were fighting amongst themselves because of her. She’d made things worse by her actions, not better.
“What do you mean... ‘no’?” Starlight said, her voice shaking just a little. If anypony was aware of what Insipid was capable of, it was Starlight.
“Insipid… sis, take a chill pill for a sec, okay?” Havocwing said, backing away just a little. “There’s no need for anypony to get all bent out of shape. Right, Star?”
Starlight nodded. “Indeed. Calm yourself, sister, and I will listen.”
Insipid looked between her sisters, and when she saw how they looked back, she paused and hung her head; her horn’s glow petered out instantly. “I... I’m sorry, but, like, it’s just... you guys never, like, let me talk? But... I’m going to talk now!” She stomped her hooves and looked up again, her eyes alight with passion. “I totally get it. I do! Like, you all think that I’m just dumb and nothing else, but I see things too!”
“Oh yeah? Like what?” Havocwing asked.
“Like that the only reason Curie did what she did was because of us! Like... like me! You all thought I was, like, super scary just now, right? That’s because I wanted something, and I wasn’t getting it.” She paused to take a breath. “But this time, it felt... like I wanted it for the right reason: I just want Curie to stop crying! That’s not wrong!” She reached a hoof up to adjust her hat. “But... when I wanted this hat... I was scary. I’m... like, I’m tired of that. I’m tired of all of it! I’m tired of just... wanting. Like you, Havoc!” she shouted, aiming her hoof in her elder sister.
Havocwing took a step back. “Er...”
“You’re angry right now, right? But you said you didn’t want to be angry before, when Starlight brought you here after you got hurt. Well, you’re angry now! You’re still a really mean, super-angry pony.”
“Thanks a shit-ton, sis, “ Havocwing muttered, eyes half-lidded.
“But you don’t want to hurt anypony anymore, right? Not Curie, not Jitterbug-”
“Fluttershy.”
“Whatever. You don’t want to hurt them, right?”
Havocwing blinked, and scratched her head. “Well... no, not really, but what does that-”
“If Curie hadn’t done what she’d done, we’d all just want things, just like me. You can call it different things, but like, it was wanting bad stuff really bad! Wanting it so bad you would…” She frowned, lost in thought. “You would-”
“Blow up the world?” Grayscale suggested, a guilty frown on her face.
Insipid brightened. “Yeah! Blow up the world! So how could she talk about it with us, huh? You all just got scared of me because I just, like, wanted a hat. Gray wanted to blow up the world. Velvet wanted to eat Slinky Spy.”
Velvet gagged, and held her hooves in front of her face. “Let’s... uh, focus on, uh, Star next, Insipid. Yeah. Do me later, please.”
Insipid tilted her head in confusion, then smiled. “Yeah, okay! Star!” She turned to her youngest sister, all smiles. “You were all ‘Litebrite’-”
“Twilight,” Starlight corrected.
“-‘isn’t cool at all! She’s a total’… what did you call her?”
“As I recall, I declared her to be a great many things, all of them exemplifying her inferiority to myself. A particular favorite was ‘fatuous sycophant’.”
“Right, fatass cyclone-pants. Good one.”
Starlight barely stifled a laugh.
“See, and now, you don’t, like, have to beat that fatty up to feel good about yourself anymore, right?”
Starlight urge to laugh vanished, and she appeared to ponder Insipid’s words—a first—for a moment. “No... no, your observation is legitimate. I surmise that disposing of Twilight Sparkle is an endeavor I no longer have any desire to pursue...”
“And that’s because Curie, like, saw whatever was inside us making us want all those awful things, and she didn’t like what it was doing to us. She wanted something better for us.”
“Non,” Curaçao muttered.
Insipid balked. “Wait, what? What did I say wrong? I was, like, sure of it this time.”
Curaçao didn’t dare look Insipid in the eye. “Non, ma bête chérie... it wasn’t because I wanted anyzing to be better.”
Insipid made to speak, but decided against it. She held her head and groaned, pulling her hat over her eyes. “No... no, you did. You were doing a good thing! You were looking out for us.”
“Zat is what I told myself, chérie, but I knew it was not true... I knew it wasn’t.”
Insipid looked as though she would start crying again. “I was wrong, Curie. When I was... like, you really aren’t... perfect, I was just being dumb and mean. You don’t have to lie-”
“I am not perfect!” Curaçao snapped, rising back to her hooves. “I wanted to lie! I wanted to manipulate you all! I wanted it, because it is my nature! Our nature! Our nature... is to want destruction!” She turned to Havocwing first, and molded her face and voice to mimic hers. “Kindness seared to ash by fury-”
Havocwing looked down at the burnt grass beneath her hooves, though her scowl did not falter.
“Screams killing and devouring laughter-”
Velvet closed her eyes and shook her head violently.
“Indifference crushing loyalty-”
Grayscale looked off into the distance, avoiding the others’ gazes.
“Greed consuming generosity-”
Insipid groaned and tugged her hat further over her face.
“The magic of the void overwhelming the magic of the world-”
Starlight steeled her gaze at Curaçao, gritting her teeth.
Curaçao returned her form to normal, and spat on the ground. “Et moi: deception distorting honnêteté. I deceived you all, and myself. I told myself it was for good, but la vérité is, I could not fight my nature. I could not fight zee impulse to conceal, mislead, and influence zee facts, to subvert and manipulate even you, mes sœurs. True, zee goal was to free you, but only via my ‘orrible love of lies. You were right, Starlight. Je suis un serpent, et ma langue, c'est bifurqué.”
She sighed and sat down on the cool grass. “I was suspicious of our origins when Papa and zat alicorn spoke to one anozer. And so, I asked ‘im, and zen I knew la vérité. But even zough a part of me knew zat it was wrong, zee first zing to come to my mind was, ‘‘ow can I use zis to mon avantage’. I knew I could use it against anyone, même vous. Même vous...” she whispered.
Starlight paced back and forth in a rapid line, an intense scowl upon her face, clearly in deep thought. This only lasted but a moment, before she stopped and turned to Curaçao again. “Wait… I believe I am beginning to comprehend your intent. Permit me to brainstorm.” She turned to the others. “I cannot have been the only individual amongst us that underwent an experience involving a pleasant light and a soothing voice. You all sustained a similar encounter, did you not?”
Curaçao and the others exchanged curious glances with one another.
“Well, now that you bring it up… yeah, I remember it,” Havocwing said, scratching her chin. “It’s weird though, because until you said something, I didn’t even think about it… but now, I remember it clear as day.”
“It was like a little warm memory in the back of my brain,” Grayscale added. She shook her head, confused more than ever. “It felt… nice.”
Curaçao stood back up and nodded. “Oui, it felt ‘nice’, and it felt safe, zis warm light.”
“Something seems off, though,” Grayscale said. She tapped her temple in thought. “It felt really familiar, but… not familiar at the same time. Like, I recognized the feeling, but it felt like the complete opposite from what I was used to.”
“I know what you mean, Gray,” Velvet interjected. “I know exactly what it felt like. You all do, too, but I don’t think any of you know what that old feeling really was, do you? Or why this new one completely replaced it?” She turned to Curaçao and frowned. “I remember what you said before we all blacked out. I may have been in shock, but I could still hear you. Do you remember what you said?”
Curaçao eyed Velvet with uncertainty. Did she really know? “Dites-moi. What did I say?”
“You mentioned something about mom- er, Nihila. About her resisting when our Originals tried to talk us out of our goals.” Velvet hung her head. “I experienced first-hoof what sort of ‘resistance’ she was willing to give to us having any second-thoughts about what we wanted to do: it was her that nearly killed me by detonating my blood. And after hearing what happened to the rest of you, I’m certain that you all know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Insipid perked up. “You mean, like when I started puking my guts out and junk?”
“And when all my body heat just… disappeared?” Havocwing added.
Starlight put a hoof to her temple. “Or when my cranium experienced such intense agony that I was certain it would split in twain?”
“Yeah, exactly,” Velvet said. “All those things happened to you, just like losing almost all my blood happened to me. Nihila did it to me; she did it to all of you, too. Remember what you were thinking and talking about with your Originals when it happened? I was talking with Pinkie about how genuine, happy laughing felt… kinda good. It felt weird, yes, and I was kinda scared at first, but… it felt good. Nihila didn’t like that. Hence, blood go boom.”
“I was thinking about what Fluttershy was saying, about me not being just a total rage monster,” Havocwing muttered. She shook her head. “She was telling me how no matter how filled with rage I was, I didn’t hate everything. I don’t hate any of you”—she turned to Curaçao and frowned—”no matter how mad I might get. Then I felt… cold.”
“Rarity was telling me how, like, only caring about getting what I want can hurt the things I already totally have.” Insipid hugged Curaçao tight. “And, how I need to give in order to, like, feel really happy. So I thought about apologizing to Curie for what I said and did… and that’s when I started getting all pukey and junk.”
“You see? So the thing that made us all really hurt wasn’t Curaçao, but Nihila,” Velvet concluded. She turned to Curaçao and scowled. “And you knew that was going to happen, didn’t you?”
Curaçao nodded. “Oui, c’est vrai. I knew what Nihila wanted us to do, and I knew it was wrong. But, I knew zat she would fight me zee ‘ole way, and zat she would attempt to stop all of you from realizing what was ‘appening.”
Havocwing snarled. “So you steered us into these little match-ups to try and weed out Nihila’s influence on us, is that it? Knowing full well that it could kill us?” She spit fire on the ground. “Why? What was so wrong with letting us kill our Originals and being done with it, huh? If you care that much about us-”
“I did it because I care, ‘avoc. I knew zat what made moi heureuse was all of you. Togezer, wiz me. No killing, no chasing after our Originals. Just us, togezer, as une familie.” Curaçao sighed and shook her head. “I knew zat Nihila would resist. I knew zat she would not let us control our own lives; she wanted control, because we are nozing more zan tools to ‘er. She is zee one zat made us zink zat zee best zing to do was to kill our Originals. She wanted zem dead more zan we did; you wanting to kill zem was ‘er influence, and ‘as been from zee moment we were born. And when we were done wiz zem, zen we would move on to killing more ponies, until zee ‘ole world would submit to our—’er—power.”
“So you did all this bucking crap… because you wanted us to all just be happy together?”
“Curaçao, if that was the intention of your scheme from the outset, why did you not elucidate?” Starlight asked. “Your claim that we would not believe your words seems ill-founded; you are our eldest sister, and we all consider the weight of your words to hold great value.”
“J’ai dit: il est dans ma nature. The nature given to us by Nihila. My nature is to subvert zee vérité and twist it to mon avantage. When I discovered zat we were under ‘er control, I subverted it like I would do wiz any ozer menace I encountered. And while it caused me pain to do so, I did it anyway.”
Havocwing held up a hoof. “Hold on now, this whole idea doesn’t make any sense. If Nihila wanted us to destroy the Elements of Harmony from the very beginning, then why did we spend all that time being useless and making friends with them, trying to corrupt them to her service, and then trying to capture then when that didn’t work out? Why not just let us kill them right from the get-go?”
Starlight frowned. “Yes, that does pose an interesting conundrum. The only ponies that would hold any knowledge of the answer are Nihila herself… or father. I know not where father has journeyed to so that we may inquire as to the nature of this situation, nor do I have any shadow of doubt that Nihila would not deign to indulge our curiosity.”
“Speaking of which,” Velvet interjected, “if Nihila went all ‘resistance is futile’ on us and tried to kill us… then why isn’t she doing that… now?”
The group looked about themselves nervously for a moment.
“The benevolent aura that visited us in a dream… mayhap that is the source of our lack of pain at present?” Starlight suggested. “But if so… what was it? How can it counteract Nihila’s overwhelming might?” She turned to Curaçao. “Is that why you ushered us here, to Utopia, before we confronted our Originals? Were you aware of this ‘light’ and its ability to negate whatever resistance Nihila offered to your scheme?”
“Non,” Curaçao muttered, shaking her head. “I did not plan on any of zis. Une coïncidence chanceuse.”.
“I’m so confused,” Velvet grunted, head in her hooves. “So, let me get this all straight: you brought us all here to fight our Originals in hopes of ridding us of Nihila’s influence, knowing full well that it might kill us to try. Nihila was the one who really wanted the Elements of Harmony dead. She implanted those thoughts in our minds and was intending to use us to conquer the world. So, she would resist any attempt to get out from under her. You had no idea that there was some sort of force down here that could help us against Nihila at all, but there was and it did. And, you did all of this because you wanted us to be a happy little family that lived life together without any need for killing or destroying anypony or anything. Did I get all that right?”
Curaçao took a deep breath. “Oui,” she said. She turned to Insipid, and her mouth curled in just a little smile. “I did it because I love you all… and I wanted us to be happy togezer. Nihila’s influence on moi made me do what I did in zee most manipulative way possible… but my intentions were good…”
“How can we believe you?” Havocwing huffed. “You lied to us all this time, so why should we think you’re telling the truth now, huh?” She turned to the others. “What do you guys think? What should we do about this?”
“You should, like, believe her because she’s your sister and she loves you!” Insipid said, hugging Curaçao tight. “She did what she did because she didn’t want us to do bad things anymore. And we don’t, right? Well, like, abandoning her and mistrusting her and trying to blame her for everything is totally. Major. Unfresh.”
“If anypony wants to do anything to Curaçao for what she did, then you’re going to have to do the same to me,” Grayscale said with a great beat of her wings. “I tried to blow everything up because of what was going on inside me. I believe her when she says she was trying to stop that from happening.”
Velvet grumbled and shook her head. “I saw firsthoof what mom… Nihila was willing to do to me to get what she wanted out of us. She didn’t care about us one bit; she just wanted to use us to get revenge on daddy and then take over the world. I’m with Grayscale: Curaçao was trying to stop that from happening. I know she went about it in her typical underhoofed way, but… at least she did it because she didn’t want anything bad to happen to us.”
Havocwing groaned and rolled her eyes, then turned to Starlight. “You hearing this, Star?”
“Barring auditory injury, I usually do hear things, yes.”
“Okay, so, are you buying this crap? I don’t care what reason she had for doing it; the fact of the matter is, she lied to us!”
Starlight tilted her head, and her eyes turned upward in thought.. “I... I would certainly agree that this act on Curaçao’s part is deplorable in most senses of the word: she betrayed our trust, schemed without making us aware, and the results of these actions inflicted heavy injuries upon many of our number. Some manner of disciplinary action should be taken, and would be were we on assignment.” She paused a moment, then shook her head. “But we are not. Father ordered us to cease and desist with our assignment, and advised us to do as we pleased. It brings me no pleasure to punish Curaçao for what she did. The knowledge of how close we came to being destroyed is punishment enough, I believe.”
“No. No, it bucking isn’t, Star.” Havocwing’s eyes glowered, and she turned her back on her sisters. “No… it isn’t…”
“‘avoc, please, forgive me,” Curaçao pleaded. She took a step forward and reached out a hoof.
“Stay away from me!” Havocwing snapped, swatting the hoof away, her voice cracking. “You... you traitor!”
Starlight balked. “Are you... are you actually crying, Havocwing? You?”
“N-no! Shut up! Go away!”
Grayscale turned her head from Havoc, and met the others’ eyes in turn, her face deathly serious. Starlight was confused, and Insipid merely hugged Curaçao tighter and shook her head, but Velvet gave her a wry grin. Together, they walked over to Havocwing, approaching her from both sides. By now, Havocwing was awkwardly fighting back sniffles. She saw their hooves next to her, snuffled back her tears, and looked to each of them with a scowl.
“What the buck do you want?” she growled. “Leave me alone- oof!”
Together, they grabbed Havocwing in their hooves and lifted her off the ground.
“What the hell?! Dammit, let me go, assholes!” Havocwing fumed as Grayscale and Velvet carried her back to the others.
Velvet squeezed Havocwing’s cheek. “Come on now, dummy,” she cooed, “you listen to your big sister’s apology!”
“What the buck is wrong with you? How can you forgive her? Why am I the bad guy here?” Havocwing shouted, flailing about.
Grayscale grimaced as Havocwing’s flailing limbs kicked her in the side. “You’re not. You’re not the bad guy, sis. She did—stop squirming!—she did do something wrong, but… you trying to stay hurt all by yourself isn’t going to fix it! Now... Insipid, you bring, uh, Curie over here, and she’s going to say it... right to Havoc’s face.”
Insipid beamed. “Like, totally.”
Curaçao felt her body stiffen up with sudden anxiety, and she turned to Starlight, nervous and confused.
Starlight shook her head. “I cannot proclaim to understand most of these proceedings.”
Curaçao felt Insipid gently push her forward to stand before Havocwing, who still squirmed and struggled within Grayscale and Velvet’s grasp. Havocwing’s eyes were red, not from anger, but from tears. She bared her fangs and snorted smoke at Curaçao, but Velvet quickly fanned it away, and bopped Havoc lightly on the nose.
“None of that. You play nice,” Velvet tutted.
Curaçao swallowed. “Oh, ‘avoc. Je suis désolé, truly... I cannot return what I ‘ave taken from you. But... mes pleurs, zey are real. I do regret zat zings ‘ad to come to zis. If zere was anyzing I could ‘ave done to rid us of Nihila’s influence wizout ‘er resistance, I would ‘ave done it. I am so sorry.”
Havocwing grit her teeth. “How could I possibly bucking believe you, huh?!”
“Because we believe her?” Insipid said immediately. “Like, all of us?” She looked to the others, desperate for validation. Starlight calmly walked over and took a seat before them, offering nothing more than a half-hearted shrug. Grayscale and Velvet each nodded.
Grayscale eased her grip slightly, shifting her hold into a hug. “We have to, moron,” she said, ruffling Havocwing’s mane. “We’re family. Family sticks together.”
Velvet smiled and joined in the hug. “We can choose to trust her now, Havoc. Whatever things she did in the past, she did for the same reasons we did things we know now were wrong. It’s not fair to put all the blame on her.”
“Great,” Havocwing huffed. “So you’re all on board with not punishing Curaçao, then?” She snarled at Curaçao, then shrugged. “Fine. Whatever. But”—she pointed her hoof at Curaçao—“I’m still seriously pissed at you. The rest of these chucklebucks might be willing to give you a break, but I’m sure as hell not going to just up and forgive you.”
“I do not ‘forgive’ her, per se, Havoc,” Starlight interjected, giving Curaçao a long, hard look. “I still hold an exorbitant amount of disappointment in our sister for her performance. Whatever wounds Nihila’s resistance inflicted upon us are no longer of our concern; however, the wounds of Curaçao’s actions will take a longer time for some of us than others.”
“I suppose… I can live wiz zat,” Curaçao said with a nod. She wiped a tear from her eye, and gave her sisters a light smile. “I deserve less, for what I did… and… I zank you for giving me a chance.”
Starlight nodded back, then turned to Velvet. “I have one inquiry, though, one that requires further explanation from you, sister.”
“Me?” Velvet asked. “What do I have to explain?”
“Prior to this, you mentioned that Nihila was attempted to utilize our talents to not only conquer the world, but was seeking revenge against our father, is that correct?”
Velvet nodded. “Yeah… I remember something like that coming up. I was kinda out of it at the time, what with her possessing my body and all, but I could hear her talking to Pinkie Pie. She was using me out of necessity, and hid out inside me as Clottles to sneak under daddy’s radar, I guess. Who she really wanted was you, Star. I guess she thinks you’re strong enough to take him on.”
“The question I have is, then, where is our father?”
Velvet paused. “I… I don’t know. She didn’t say where he was, if she even knew.”
Starlight grunted. “Most displeasing.”
“Why do you want to find dad, Star?” Havocwing asked.
“Because, Havoc, he possesses more knowledge of this situation than we do. What Curaçao and Velvet were able to surmise is only a piece of the puzzle; there is something else at work here, and I do not dare believe that Nihila has truly been completely eradicated from the world. And then, there was that aura in the dream. Father is wise beyond reckoning; perhaps he can offer explanation as to what it was, and what exactly it did.”
“Or, our Originals might know,” Grayscale suggested. “The voice said it knew them.”
Starlight brightened. “You are correct, Grayscale. The voice did make mention of our Originals. Perhaps they possess knowledge that may prove of value to us.”
Havocwing held up her hooves. “So wait, we just got finished fighting against these mares and trying to kill them, and now you want us to find them again so we can… what, talk?” She burst into the air, billowing smoke. “Are you nuts?! What makes you guys think they’re going to want to help us after what we tried to do? The second we show up, they’re gonna be ready for a fight again, because that’s all we ever do.”
“If they’re as ‘good’ as they say they are, then I don’t see why they wouldn’t forgive us if we explain the situation to them,” Velvet said.
“What makes you think they’ll believe us? They’ll just think we’re trying to trick them again like we did the first time.”
Curaçao smirked. “Now zis, zis is where I ‘ave been of ‘elp.”
“Eh?”
“I told Applejack about everyzing. She knows ze whole plan.”
“Wait, you told Applejack but not us?!” Havocwing snarled. “What the buck-”
Curaçao held up a hoof. “I told ‘er because I needed to manipulate myself, ‘avoc. If I told Applejack zee ‘ole plan, zen she would try to convince moi to be honnête wiz you all… which I did. Somezing about zem and zeir words… it resonated wiz us. Grayscale et Starlight are correct: I zink zere is some connection wiz zem and zis ‘aura’.”
“So you think that since AJ knows the whole deal, she’ll trust us, or at least give us a chance?” Velvet grunted. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“We ‘ave no choice but to try,” Curaçao insisted. “If zey do not trust us, zen we leave and we try to find zee answers ourselves.”
Starlight nodded. “I am in agreement with this plan. And, as luck would have it, we are in possession of knowledge as to their location at present.” She lit up her horn. “The nearest proximity I can transport us to is a paltry stroll away from the city wherein they are located. We shall be within the Zeb’ra’den city limits by morning.”
“I sure hope you all know what you’re doing,” Havocwing grumbled.
The mares gathered around Starlight, and with a flash and a pop, they disappeared.
***
Tick Tock finished snapping the final portal piece into place, then took a few steps back to admire her craftsmanship. “Mmm hmm… jolly good show!” she said, wiping her forehead clean of sweat. “Finished in under the predicted time, too.”
The portal structure stood four ponies tall and three ponies wide, perfectly large enough for Twilight and her friends to travel through, while small enough to prevent the portal itself from going out of control. Each ring of the structure was composed of pure obidium, which would contain the portal within its confines for the short while before the portal collapsed in on itself. The focusing iris, a single Eternal Eye, would serve to keep the portal open long enough for the small group to pass through.
Tick Tock didn’t want to brag—no, scratch that, she absolutely wanted to brag. It was her pride and joy, why wouldn’t she want to show it off? This portal was an impressive sight worthy of praise and astonishment, the finest thing she’d ever built; it was a great accomplishment that nopony else could have done, not without intricate knowledge of portal manufacture. It wasn’t optimum—she needed her Timekeeper for that—but it would suffice. She knew she had to thank many other ponies for getting the pieces together, but she was the only one that knew how to jerry-rig all the parts together so they’d work properly. It was hard not to feel incredibly proud of herself for the first time in ages; it certainly beat teleporting half an inch forward or not getting killed by a psycho assassin.
Still, it would have been nice to have somepony—hell, even somezebra—here to show off the portal to. Twilight and the others were likely still asleep, resting up before making the journey between worlds at long last, and were not scheduled to depart for at least another three hours. Harmonia’s Warden wouldn’t be arriving for another thirty-five minutes and fifteen seconds, if his promised arrival time was exact, and she did hold Mémoire to his word. The only thing she had for company was the absolutely massive tower that made up the southern Beacon, and that certainly wasn’t about to start talking and praising her work.
Without anypony to talk to until Harmonia’s Warden arrived, Tick Tock decided to get a good look around the Beacon courtyard. It wasn’t every day that somepony was able to get this close to a Beacon foundation, and there was no better time to study it than the present. The southern Beacon was as tall as its northern counterpart, and Tick Tock assumed it was just as wide around, which really wasn’t very wide at all, maybe ten yards on each side. Clearly, Pandora Tower was merely built around the northern Beacon, rather than serving as the majority of its structure as was the common theory.
The rest of the court was bare, save for the surrounding wall, a few decorative columns, and a single statue of a unicorn stallion—curious, as the zebras were a xenophobic lot—centered in the court just beside the Beacon structure. Tick Tock approached the statue and gave it a thorough examination. The stallion’s proportions were somewhat larger than most unicorn stallions she’d known; his horn and limbs were slightly elongated and his stature was more broad. He had a long, flowing mane and tail, wore a monocle over one eye, and wore a military dress uniform that, even as marble, looked silky smooth to the touch. He was poised in such a fashion that he carried an air of regality and power, not unlike a king or general. Strapped to his side was a long sword in a decorative sheath; while the sheath was made of marble, the sword itself was almost certainly real metal, though she couldn’t tell what kind without drawing it.
Tick Tock glanced down at the plaque adorning the statue’s base. “‘Sir Silvertongue, Bringer of Dawn’,” she read. She shook her head. “Hmph, even the bloody zebras liked this guy, and they don’t seem to like the Wardens very much. I’m starting to wonder if Twilight’s gryphon friend was telling the truth about what happened back then, or maybe if he was mistaken. Could somepony so revered for his goodness fall that hard?”
A chill in the air sent a shiver down her spine. “Bloody weather,” she murmured as she scrunched up her nose. The air in this part of the world was too crisp and cold; her nose had been stuffy since the moment she’d set hoof here. “I’d better not catch a cold from all this. That’d be just my luck, wouldn’t it? Trapese all across this rotten globe, survive more near-death experiences than I can count, then catch a stupid cold at the end.”
She turned towards the portal structure, where she’d set down her equipment and supplies, hoping to grab her thermoses of piping hot tea and soup.
Her jaw clenched in terror when she saw who was behind her.
“Hello again… Chronomancer,” growled the assassin.
“No… n-no, you can’t be here…” Tick Tock whispered, backpedaling into the portal structure. “You can’t be here! H-how can you survive being around this much pure Light magic? The barrier around the Beacon should have vaporized you the instant you crossed it.”
“I’m still in one piece. Well, mostly,” the assassin snickered. “Oh, it wasn’t easy, believe me. My employer went to great lengths to get me here. I won’t bore you with the details; you’ll be dead soon, anyway. I know I say that a lot, but this time, things are different.” He spread his bladed wings; they glinted in the light of the Beacon. “This time, there’s nopony to help you, and no place for you to run. You’re alone, and at my mercy, and I’m going to savor every. Single. Second.”
He lunged. Tick Tock rolled to her left under his bladed wing; to her relief, the assassin did not hit the portal structure, and even seemed to pull his attack back to avoid striking it. She backed away as quickly as she could, firing a few short bursts from her horn, and backed into a pillar. The assassin swept his wing in a wide arc, deflecting the bolts off in random directions.
He lunged again; this time, Tick Tock raised a shield to defend herself. As had happened last time she’d tried, the assassin did not bounce back; his wing impacted the barrier and remained locked firmly in place, pressing against the edge of the bubble.
“Why do you keep trying to bloody kill me, you corpse-stinking freak?” she demanded, keeping as much focus as she could on maintaining her shield. The assassin’s wing was still somehow able to resist the shield’s pushback effect and started to pierce through the layers of magic.
“Always with the ‘why’, aren’t you? ‘Oh please, tell me why you want to kill me’.” The assassin laughed, showing off his long rows of sharpened, rotten teeth. “If I were you, I’d be more concerned with the ‘how’, as in, ‘how many different ways can I kill you’. I’ve given each and every one a great deal of thought, but I finally settled on my favorite.” His eyes flashed. “Wanna know what it is?”
She snorted and pushed more magic into her barrier. “That’s quite alright, but I’ll pass.”
“Oh, no, I insist. You see, slitting your throat would be too quick,” he said, flexing the feathers of his other wing. “No… I want you to die slowly. Painfully. I want you to pay for all the pain I’ve endured because of you.” He pressed his face up against the edge of her shield so she could see just how completely disfigured his face was. “I want to take you apart. Piece. By. Piece. I want to explore every inch of your body… and cut it apart.” He crushed his other wing against the opposite end of the bubble, squeezing it like a grape between scissors. “I will dissect you; you will be nothing more than a science experiment when I am done.”
She grit her teeth; the assassin’s wings were tearing through her shield faster than she could replenish it.
She released her shield in a burst of energy, knocking the assassin back; she flared her horn, too, blinding him with a flash of light so that she could get away.
She backed up into a pillar beside the statue of Silvertongue; there wasn’t anywhere to hide in this wide open space, and the assassin was effectively guarding the only exit. Her eyes fell upon the statue’s sword. Seeing an opportunity, she latched her magic around the handle and yanked it out of the sheath just in time to see the assassin barreling towards her. Without thinking, she raised her newfound weapon up to defend against his strike.
His wing clashed against the blade with a loud clang.
“What?” they said in unison, dumbfounded.
The sword isn’t just real, it’s made of Obidium?
“Impossible,” he growled.
She smirked. “My thoughts exactly. Looks like my luck’s back on the rise.”
“No matter.” The assassin drew his wing back and slammed it against her sword again, crushing it against the statue’s base and trapping it between his feathers.
He swung his other wing at her. Tick Tock feinted to the right, but rolled under his wing to the left. The assassin, however, didn’t fall for it; he slammed his hoof into her stomach as she moved under him, knocking the wind out of her. She came to a stop, clutching her gut in pain. He was upon her immediately, pinning her on her back on the floor.
“Now, this is familiar,” he breathed, bringing his face close to hers and breathing his foul stench straight into her nostrils. He pressed his hooves against her throat; their sharpened tips drew blood.
Tick Tock struggled as hard as she could, but the assassin had thoroughly encompassed her whole body beneath his own; she couldn’t roll out from under him, and his hooves were pushing her head up such that she couldn’t aim her horn towards him to attack. She was trapped. There was no way out.
“You’re not getting away this time, Chronomancer,” he chuckled. “Time’s up.”
He raised one spiked hoof above her heart, and drew it back, intending to plunge it through her chest.
Tick Tock drew a deep breath, and with all her effort, she concentrated on one thought and one thought only: being just a few yards to her left. She lit her horn and funneled all her energy through it.
She vanished with a flash and a pop, and reappeared just a few yards to her left.
“What?!” the assassin blurted.
Tick Tock reacted as quickly as she was able, managing to dislodge her sword from the assassin’s feathers.In one swift swing, she swung the blade upwards. It slid right through through his neck; she felt the blade melt through flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter, offering almost no resistance, only just enough to let her know it was happening.
Tick Tock took a long moment of pause, then slumped to the floor, her breathing coming in hot bursts.
It was done.
“I… I did it..” she breathed. “I killed him. He’s dead...”
She turned to look at the assassin’s body. It was like something out of a surreal art piece. The assassin’s half-rotten, half-eaten, headless body stood just a yard or so away, frozen in its last position: half-crouched over somepony that wasn’t there. The wings remained stiff and spread to the sides to prevent escape. Every inch of the motionless body was focused on keeping its captive prey pinned beneath it.
She rolled over onto her back, and hit something small and solid. When she glanced at what it was, she saw the assassin’s head, staring back at her with its blank, dead eyes. She jerked away and scrambled to her hooves.
“You… you son of a bitch!” she snapped at the motionless head. She stomped over to the head and spat on it. “Even when you’re bloody dead, you still scare the shit out of me! I’m going to have nightmares for years because of you! I hope you rot in Hell, you miserable bastard!”
With all the strength she could muster, she punted his head away; it crashed into a nearby column.
“Hey, watch it!” the assassin’s head snarled as it fell back to the floor. “Just because I don’t feel pain doesn’t mean I enjoy being kicked around.”
Tick Tock froze, pale as the snow outside. “Y-you… no...”
The assassin’s head rolled upright, his eyes returning to focus. “Hmph. Well, this is quite a pickle you’ve put me in, Chronomancer,” he chuckled. “Good on you, though. After all the times we’ve met, I got the impression you didn’t know how to teleport. I completely discounted that idea, and you caught me off guard. So yes, good on you.”
“How… how are you still talking?!” she shouted.
“Hello? Undead? I make a… well, I would say, ‘living’, but that wouldn’t be exactly accurate, would it? Let’s just say that being very hard to kill is something of a speciality of mine.” He laughed. “I suppose you and I are a lot alike in that regard, aren’t we? Even when I’m cursing you for living, I admire your burning desire to live. It’s kind of a turn-on, actually. Makes me regret having to kill you.”
Tick Tock sneered and readied her sword. “I guess I didn’t cut you through the right spot, then.”
“Mmm hmm hmm, I love it when you get angry,” he chortled. “You can taunt and poise all you want, Chronomancer, but face it, both you and I know that teleport trick was the ace up your sleeve. Now that I know about it, what can you do to stop me from having my way with your corpse?”
Tick Tock froze, and attempted to put on her best poker face.
At his mirthful laughter, she knew she’d failed. “Anyway, enough flirting, let’s see here…”
A sound behind Tick Tock made her turn her head. Her jaw dropped, and she rapidly backpedaled away. The assassin’s body had stood back up, tall and proud, its wings cupping naturally at its sides. She readied her sword, and waited for the body to make its move. But, ten seconds later, it still hadn’t budged an inch; she dared not lower her guard, but she found it hard to focus when nothing was happening.
“Hmm… this should get it to work,” the assassin muttered. “This is my first time trying this, so forgive me if I’m a little sloppy. I’ll have round two ready to go in just a minute.” His body shifted its weight, and turned towards Tick Tock. “Ah, there we go.”
Tick Tock watched, confused, as the assassin’s body abruptly turned around and started walking towards the statue instead. “Er… yeah, there it goes?”
“What? H-hey! Wait a second, not that way!” the assassin snapped. “The target’s the other way. Stop! Turn back! Grrr… what’s wrong with this thing?!”
The body stepped up alongside the statue, between it and the pillar opposite Tick Tock, and lingered there a long while, ignoring the shouted commands of its severed head. A moment later, it struck one wing into a portion of the Beacon exterior, embedding it deep into the structure without resistance. To Tick Tock’s surprise, the wall of the Beacon opened up to reveal a large, glowing energy sphere suspended within a small containment field; the sphere gave off powerful magic unlike anything Tick Tock had sensed before. The assassin’s body then proceeded to rapidly slice its wings through the sphere, tearing it into tiny shreds that evaporated into the air.
The humming of the Beacon subsided, and within seconds, the Beacon’s brilliant white light drained completely into nothing. The air grew quiet and still, and the courtyard grew dark, lit only by the light of the moon high above.
“Uh, what just happened? What did your body just do?” Tick Tock muttered.
“I’m… not quite sure,” the assassin muttered.
Then, a bright flash of brilliant white light erupted out of the center of the courtyard; Tick Tock shielded her eyes, lest she be blinded by the blast. When the light had cleared, she opened her eyes.
A silver-coated pony had joined them in the courtyard. A stallion, to be precise, with slightly elongated limbs, and a broad, authoritative stature. He wore a lavishly-decorated military uniform, all white with rich golden trims and covered with medals and ribbons. His left eye was abnormal, colored completely gold and pulsing with light and a dangerous, familiar energy. His silky, sparkly, golden blond mane and tail flowed behind, waving about as though caught in an unfelt breeze. He had large, powerful wings, bigger than any pegasus she knew, and a long, thin horn that would be the envy of unicorns everywhere; Tick Tock had never seen a pony with both before, but knew what such a pony was called: an alicorn, the peak of pony perfection and unity. But alicorns weren’t supposed to have a physical form in her world, and the only two alicorns around were most definitely identified as female, so what was she seeing here?
The mysterious stallion cracked his neck and let out a heavy breath. In total silence, he glanced about the courtyard, taking in its features as one would take in a mug of hot cocoa: slowly, carefully, enjoying every second. He glanced towards the statue—which Tick Tock noted looked suspiciously similar—and to the assassin’s body beside it, then to the damage done to the side of the Beacon. He then turned to face Tick Tock, and his gaze lingered upon her for more than a little while. She felt her heart leap into her throat as the corner of his mouth curled into a grin.
Last, he turned his gaze to the sky, took a deep breath, and smiled. “After all these years… it is good to be home.”