//------------------------------//
// The King That Is And The King Who Is To Be 
// Story: My Life as a Bipedal Quadruped 
// by Snakeskin Ducttape 
//------------------------------//

A lot of human fiction make the claim that Love, with a capital L, is the greatest power in the world. I've sometimes wanted to speak with a writer and teller of stories that say that and ask them if they can explain the reasoning behind it. As a medical professional I know the importance of comfort, reassurance, belonging, emotional support, and other things that can fall under the category of “love”, and have been curious if this is what they refer to.

When it comes to Equestria however, there certainly is a group of people who would agree that Love is the greatest power in the world, even more than the ponies, and that is the changelings, who quite literally gain sustenance and power from it.

Naturally, if changelings can gain power from love, then a clever enough tinkerer can as well. Perhaps like a tool, for instance, a weapon that shoots stun spells, and can collect love much like a changeling does, to fuel it.

"There they are!" a voice shouted from the other side of the corridor that Armor and I turned towards and ran into.

"Get them!" another of Sombra's troopers yelled.

We ducked behind a conveniently placed crate as bolts of magic zoomed over us. I adjusted my new hat and my eyepatch, Poly squawking on my shoulder. Armor looked at the weapon in his forehooves, and nodded at me.

"Ready," he said.

I glanced down at my prosthetic foreleg, and felt the healthy glow of the power core in it.

“Braawk,” the tiny, parrot-shaped changeling on my shoulder said. “Come a little bit closer.”

"Ready," I echoed, before we rose up and started hosing the corridor down with glowing bolts of magic, Sombra's soldiers fell in scores, and when they were all down, we ducked behind the crate again, the glow from our weapons dimming in the aftermath.

"Reload!" I said, and hooked my flesh and blood foreleg around Armor's neck.

We kissed deeply, and the weapons roared to life again, the crystals in their cores shining brightly.

“Braawk! You’re my kind of man! Brawk!”

"There! Fire!" someone shouted from behind us, making us glance back as the corridor was filling up with troopers coming in from the rear, and we had to dodge and weave as more magic bolts were zooming past us.

"The window!" Armor shouted, pointing his gun at a stained glass window at the end of the corridor we were headed towards, letting loose bolts of magic that shattered it into countless pieces.

I jumped up on Armor's back as we soared through the window and out into the courtyard beyond.

We sailed down onto the ground, touching down roughly, and suddenly were surrounded by guards clad in dark armor; unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies forming a circle around us.

Armor reared up, and I hung onto his neck as we spun around and emptied our weapons into the crowd as they rushed forward, knocking them unconscious by the dozens, maybe hundreds.

“Brawk! So big and so strong.”

When it was just the two of us left standing, the doors to the building we were headed towards exploded outwards and a giant, metallic claw emerged, shaking the ground as it dug into it, pulling forward a shining steel monstrosity.

"WHAAAHAHAHAHAH!" Sombra cackled as he rode his enormous robot scorpion out onto the battlefield. Manically pulling levers and turning knobs behind the head as his purple cloak flowed behind him.

Its pincers spewed gouts of flame up into the air and the end of the tail had a revolving cannon that shot giant beams of magic up into the sky, lighting up the landscape for miles around.

“Brawk! I knew I should run!”

Armor and I looked at it in stunned silence for just a moment, before he glanced back at me with a smarmy smirk.

I answered with one in kind, and leaned into a heated dip kiss, causing the crystals in our weapons to emit a low whine from the overcharge, before we broke it and leapt into battle.

I woke up with a start in our dark hotel room in Seaddle, making Armor grunt behind me and tighten the hug he was giving me with his foreleg.

"Mmm... you okay?" he asked with genuine care despite the sleepiness in his voice.

"Yeah," I said, snuggling back into his chest. "Just had an idea for some inventions."

"You always do," Armor said, clearly smiling from his voice.

I closed my eyes and whispered to myself, “And the night is so long.”


—


Armor, Trixie, Poly, and Evening had all arrived the same night as White Tulip and I had made it back to Seaddle. All of us were confident that simply keeping a low profile would be enough to avoid having pirates, cowboys, or spies of a dark king catch on to us, at least for a double digit amount of hours, so we rested up at a hotel for the night, before slipping out of the city the next day.

Tulip woke, confused, as Poly was out buying some breakfast for us to eat on the move. We slipped into the half awake crowds of ponies and the occasional changeling moving from their homes towards their jobs (and the half asleep stray moving from their jobs towards their homes) as we gave Tulip a short reminder of what had happened. I thought she took it pretty well.

"So this is goodbye then?" I said to Tulip, as the rest of our posse stood behind me just outside the suburbs, where the dust from the recent wheat harvest had just settled.

"Seems so," Tulip said, smiling a bit apologetically. "I never thought I'd be breaking out of prison and fighting pirates, and you'll forgive me if I haven't developed a taste for the things you do."

"I understand," I said, nodding thoughtfully. "I'd say you need at least two more successful rescue operations and some fifteen ponies defeated at your feet–hooves, before it gets good."

"Pass," Tulip said, laughing slightly. "Although I'm glad you are so gung-ho about it."

"Well," I said, stopping myself from shifting nervously. "Rescuing people is one thing, rescuing two worlds is a tall order."

"I can see that," Tulip said. "The Dazzlings know though, and if, like you said, they say you're gonna get home by going to stop the dark king, they're probably right."

"I'd just like to know exactly how though," I said.

"With friendship, anything is possible," Tulip said.

She was right, of course. In Equestria, friendship did solve everything or so it seemed.
I leaned up and hugged her around her neck, and she put a comforting hoof around me.
"Good luck," she said.

"You too, wherever you go," I said, and broke away.

Armor stepped forward, and clopped his right hoof against Tulip's nodding appreciatively at her. "Thanks again."

"Seconded," Trixie said, and did the same.

"What they said," Polyus said.

"What he said," Polyusa said.

"Uh, I don't really know you, but good job anyway," Evening was the last to say.

Then we parted ways. Tulip turned around and headed back towards Seaddle, while we headed the other way. Sombra's stronghold was to the northeast, and so we headed northwest. Sombra and his people would soon enough learn where we had been a short while ago, and while we suspected that they wouldn’t assume that we would walk in a straight line towards them, we didn’t want to risk it.

There was still plenty of Equestria proper left to walk through before we reached Sombra’s domain, but like when we headed to the Dazzlings, we moved at a steady pace and low to the ground. Not so fast that we didn't have a chance to be careful, and not so slow we would never get there.

The lands around Canterlot, which is what I was mostly familiar with, were made up of scattered forests and gently rolling hills and grasslands, and like how further south the grass and hills gradually made way for sand and mesas, the north was slowly giving way to dense pine forests.

With the smell of the salty coast to the west and heavy scent of needled trees all around me, I was transported back to my childhood in ways I hadn't in years, which clashed interestingly with how I was a unicorn filly with half of my limbs being hollow metal constructions.

"It's getting colder," Polyusa noted.

The rest of us murmured in confirmation, it was indeed getting colder.

"Your main settlement is in the desert," I noted. "How well do you guys do in the cold, Poly?"

'Shiny black chitin and coming from the desert. Is it offensive to liken them to scarabs?'

"Heat and sun is no problem, but we handle cold about as well as anypony else," Polyusa said. "If it's too cold it eventually becomes dangerous without shelter."

"So you guys have to be ready to give us a snuggle if we're cold, or hungry," Polyus added, with a hint of hopefulness.

"Don’t want to do too much without the missus here to say it’s okay, but I'm sure somepony will be up for something," Evening said, and I couldn’t help but notice how he glanced at me and Armor a bit sheepishly, before looking away. "Speaking of the cold, how cold is it gonna get before we get there?"

"At this rate we're gonna reach snow before the day is over," Armor said.

'Pegasi and their knack for weather.'

"In our Equestria, the Crystal Empire was shielded from the worst of the temperatures magically. I don't know if it is here as well."

"The Silver Phantoms made the old Empire habitable for all ponies, so it probably works in a similar way here," Trixie said.

The rest of the day passed much like that. We moved at a steady pace through pine woods and across the occasional plain, staying clear of the few settlements and farmsteads between us and our destination.

During their evolution, humans had sacrificed a lot of their natural defences in favor of other features, and, while I would never consider it fair to compare someone with magic to someone without, Equestrian ponies had a lot of advantages when it came to wilderness survival.

By the time it was shifting from afternoon to evening, snow had started to fall, and while the soil was still too warm to allow it to stick, slowly turning earth into mud, it wasn't that miserable of an experience. Poly didn’t seem to mind. The only one who did was Evening, who glanced at Armor and Trixie when he got some snow in his face, but otherwise said nothing.

It wasn't exactly great either, having cold mud caking on your hooves and pine needles in your mane, but in the same conditions as a human, I would have been soaking my foot in cold water, limping along on my suction-attached prosthetic leg, and I wouldn't have my coat to protect my sensitive skin rather than tough hide.

"Hmm, I think we should stop here," Trixie said. "The ground isn't too wet, and we have plenty of trees for cover."

"It's gonna be a dark night," I said, looking up at the cloudy sky. "Good thing if we're gonna be using wet wood."

"Good point, although we’re a long way away from Sombra’s territory," Evening said. "I'm gonna start gathering some."

“I’ll come with,” I said.

Evening hesitated for just a moment before nodding, but stayed still as I threw two sacks with a hatchet in one of them over his withers as the others started setting up a canvas to shield against wind and rain.

“So, uh,” Evening said. “Anything you wanted to talk about?”

I looked at him in slight surprise, and shook my head. “No, just thought I’d learn about what to look for when looking for firewood.”

“Oh, well, it was snowing earlier but it’s not that wet,” Evening said. “Not like when it’s been snowing for days. We want tinder, so dry sticks that haven’t rotted and can be bundled up tightly. It’s easier to find those on trees since they don’t stay dry for long after falling off. Dry bark is also good, birch is a safe bet, and then of course a naturally fallen limb that hasn’t rotted yet that we can chop up.”

Trixie had plenty of lantern oil in her house, but we didn’t want to use all that up, and we weren’t in such a hurry this time, so we took time to preserve our stores.

“Dry sticks like that?” I asked, pointing at a spruce with dark, dead branches.

“Exactly,” Evening said, and lit up his horn. “Well spotted.”

“I got it,” I said, and broke off the branch with my magic and floated it down towards us.

“Well, so you do,” Evening said. “Let me just break that into pieces and–”

I started breaking it myself, putting the bundles into the bags hanging on his sides. “Like you, I don’t need to use my hooves,” I said. “Which is good, we only have so much water in Trixie’s house, might as well not dirty ourselves more than we have to.”

The Poly twins were fine with drying themselves off with a wet and warm sponge, but the rest of us liked running water, and to our slight dismay relied more on brushings and dry lathering before using limited water.

Evening’s ears fell. “You don’t have to do that, ma’am.”

I took a breath and considered my next words for a moment while breaking up the branch.

“You have been really apologetic recently,” I noted.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, I–” he started, and stopped when I raised my eyebrow at him.

I broke the branch into its last pieces and put them into the bag while I pondered this. “Look, uh,” I said. “I haven’t… am I scaring you?”

Evening stopped, and stood there with his mouth slightly open for a moment, before looking down at his prosthesis, wiggling it a little. “Uhm, Madam Desrochers–”

“Gabe is fine, Evening,” I said, and stopped myself from pressing him further.

“Gabe. Back when you were captured by that zebra you told us about, I was on watch.”

I shifted my eyes as I considered this. He sounded like a ridiculously devoted, kowtowing squire or young samurai or something. “And you feel guilty because… what, she snuck up on you?”

Evening squirmed a little before visibly struggling to stop himself. “Well, not exactly, it’s, well… Golden Star was with her.”

“The pegasus with the serious face?” I asked.

“Yeah, and… I hesitated.”

“Why?” I asked, not accusatory, just confused.

“Because I served under him.”

I nodded slowly, understanding slowly settling. ‘I guess that sounds like a bit of a mess up, but… no...’

“If you’re worried that I’m angry, I’m not,” I said, and shrugged. “Someone you trust shows up when you’re in a bad spot. I’d be relieved too.”

“But I shouldn’t have trusted him!” Evening insisted. “I knew he was against us. Ser Lulamoon said so!”

I smiled gently at him. “We were tired, and it was an instinctual thing I’m guessing.”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I was sitting there, listening, when suddenly my old officer is standing there in the distance, giving me this approving look, and after just staring at him for a moment I look down at my flank feeling funny and see a red dart. I hesitated for just one moment, and then I was too out of it to call out to you guys.”

“That would be all Zecora needs,” I said, before sighing and looking up at him with a somber expression. “Friends turning against friends.”

Evening nodded slowly. “If only ponies wouldn’t follow the king we wouldn’t have this problem but… well, it’s Sombra. How can ponies not follow him?”

“Golden and Rosen seem very devoted to him,” I noted.

“I would’ve been with them if I had my leg when he fled to the Empire,” Evening said. “If I could have joined them, I wouldn’t have stuck around Canterlot and actually see things work out. I’m not surprised Princess Luna came back to us, but if somepony had told me a few years ago that Celestia of all ponies could take the throne and then simply not, I would’ve… been offended.”

“Was she really that bad?” I said, thinking of the calm, soothing smile of my Celestia.

“We called her The Mistress of Broken Dreams and The Queen of Fallen Stars,” Evening said. “You said you knew your Celestia, right? Enough to know whether she was a good pony or not?”

I thought back to when she had helped me with my phantom pain, and helped Arnfried and the gryphons despite their reluctance, and the fondness that all ponies felt for her. “I’d say so, yes,” I said.

“Imagine the complete opposite of that,” Evening said.

I stood still for a moment, before shuddering slightly. “If she ended up even close to my Celestia when The Nightmare was sucked out of her, then no, she wouldn’t have wanted anyone to look to her after that.”

We stood in silence for a moment, before Evening sighed, hanging his head. “Whenever I tell myself that Celestia has had the evil sucked out of her, I think that she should be given a chance. When I think that Luna came back from the same thing, I think she should be given a chance. But when I think of all the rest, allying herself with Starswirl the Mad, trying to conquer Equestria, or banishing Tirek, it’s harder.”

“The Celestia I know was very patient,” I said. “If ponies need time to accept her, she’ll give it to them.”

“It’s more that I think I shouldn’t hate her, if she couldn’t help what she did.”

“She’ll understand,” I said, gave him a smile and grabbed the hatchet out of his bag. “Now let’s go find something to work our frustrations out on.”

A minute later, we found a nice looking limb. Evening showed me how to drag it to a tree and prop it up so that it wouldn’t give when you chopped at it with the hatchet.

“So how’s your leg feeling?” I asked, not for the first time. “Or rather, how are you feeling? Like I said, it takes a while for you magic pool to get used to a prosthesis.”

“I noticed, but honestly, I’m feeling great,” he said. “Finally able to work up some stamina. It was tough the first few days, but it’s getting better.”

“Good,” I said, and started hacking at the limb with the axe held in my prosthesis. “I’m still cutting down on the energy spent compared to the output to control my prostheses, I think it’s more efficient than my natural ones by now. Especially since I’ve stopped them from draining so much body heat.”

“That’s good to hear,” Evening said. “Both for my sake and your’s. And you’ve left those wands that can make prosthesis for everyone back in Canterlot?”

“Sure have,” I said. “Know anyone else who needs any?”

“No, but that’s good thinking since you’re leaving, you know,” Evening said.

I stopped chopping at the log, and looked down at it contemplatively, before setting the hatchet down.

“Yeah,” I said. “I have to get home but…”

“But what?”

“But… you know,” I said. “Friends. It’s hard to say goodbye sometimes.”

“Hey,” Evening said, and put his hoof around my neck. “Get your friends back in your Equestria to help you if you ever feel like you shouldn’t have left.”

After a moment’s contemplation, I nodded. “Yeah, I know. Closeness and belonging and all that is very important for a human’s mental health, and it’s clearly important for ponies as well.”

“That, yeah,” Evening said, and took the hatchet in his prosthesis to start chopping experimentally with, looking and feeling it work, just like I had done when I first got mine. He looked at me with a smirk “How’s Armor working out for you?”

“Heh, pretty great,” I said. “He’s looking a little more rugged lately, and I like that. And the wings are great too.”

“That they are,” Evening agreed, as he broke through the limb. “Whew. Yeah, I see what you mean about the energy you spend and the results. If my winged missus didn’t complain about how cold the metal is, I’d almost want more. I bet ponies were lining up back where you came from.”

“Not exactly,” I said. “I mean, the ones that got them were happy but they were becoming a thing just as I got here, so they didn’t have time to become popular. And there was this one stallion missing his horn and with a deformed leg in… what was it? Watering Hole? No, Oasis I think, who sent me this really weird response when I offered him to be part of the trial run for them, saying that he’s not an inventor and there’s no need to visit at all and I’d be really bored out there. Then I got a letter from the mayor there, who thanked me and said that if they managed to talk him into it, he’ll get back to me.”

“... Okay?” Evening said, his chopping slowing down as he clearly struggled to process this. “Maybe he’s worried you would use his soul as fuel or something.”

“Could be,” I said, nodding concedingly, remembering some human fiction featuring that, which never made any sense to me. “He might be more interested now that I can make replacement horns. I want someone to try it out for real.”

“And you’re gonna leave us wands that can make horns as well right?”

“I’m planning on it,” I said, nodding.

“Oh good. So that should mean that every debilitating injury a pony can have, your inventions can fix.”

“Except ears, or rather, cochlear. Strange I haven’t gotten around to that yet, since I almost know how a technological cochlear implant works,” I said, putting my hoof on my chin. “I guess injuries that disrupts the brain’s ability to interpret sight would also be a good idea.”

“Potion based medications cover a lot of that though,” Evening pointed out.

“Oh. Great. Yeah, I guess ears is next then.”

After we felt we had enough firewood, we walked back towards the campsite. The baskets Evening carried were full and we were dragging a few bigger logs in our magic behind us. Armor and Trixie were cutting vegetables behind a newly set up windscreen, and Poly was setting up a cooking station.

“It still doesn’t make any sense,” Polyus said, as the conversation became intelligible. “If you’re hungry for love, why attack ponies?”

“Well, you know, imagine the opposite of your Queen Chrysalis,” Armor said. “So have ponies and changelings always been so tight around here?”

“History is a little muddled that far back,” Polyusa said. “But I don’t remember anything about changelings and ponies not being friendly.”

“Long ago, the changelings would set up little outposts, and just like today, have rangers patrolling the wilds,” Trixie said. “They’d help ponies out, and be on the lookout for anypony who might have gotten themselves into trouble.”

“Helping with an injury here, getting a foal out of danger there,” Polyusa said. “And you’d have a grateful pony, probably a grateful family, and then om-nom-nom-nom-nom.”

Armor chuckled, as Poly made a show of liking their lips with that long changeling tongue of theirs. “Sounds like you’d eat them.”

“Sure,” Polyus said. “But not like a predator would.”

I sat down next to Armor, letting go of the log beside the fire pit. “So, can both of you talk at the same time?” I asked.

“Yes,” they both answered, simultaneously.

“Ooh, can you say, ‘Do you join the unity, or do you die here?’”

They could, and it made me shiver, in a good way.

“Alright, we’re just gonna start working on dinner,” Polyus said.

“And I do enjoy camping with you all,” Trixie said, and pulled out a roll of paper. “But we should also start planning out in a little more detail what we can expect when we get to the Crystal Empire.”

“How long before we reach enemy territory?” Armor asked.

Trixie, Poly, and Evening stopped what they were doing for a moment, before slowly continuing, not looking up.

“Did I say something bad?” Armor asked.

Trixie shook her head. “No, it’s just… enemy territory,” she said. “I’ve just… I don’t think any of us wants to see any of them like that.”

Armor’s ears drooped, and I put a hoof on his foreleg comfortingly. “... Sorry,” he said.

“It’s okay,” Trixie said. “We just… don’t want to hurt them.”

“I can help with that,” I blurted out, a little too eager to raise everyone’s spirits, and patted at my scabbard and prosthesis. “I mean, we have arcano-stunners both here and as ranged weapons, and I’m working on a more efficient power source.”

Slowly, the melancholy that had so suddenly settled over the team faded, and we got to work with planning our approach, and deciding on what Trixie and I should try and enchant in preparation.


—


I don’t know exactly how cabin fever works. I might have gotten it ten years ago if it hadn’t been overshadowed by other issues. Anyway, my point is that I didn’t get cabin fever on the journey to the Empire. None of us did.

It was a little repetitive, walking and occasionally flying when circumstances allowed it in a long detour, moving steadily towards a more icy climate, for days.

The border between the territories that Luna and Sombra held was very unclear, but was assumed to go somewhere along the traditional border between Equestria and the old Empire. Nothing was certain though, as Luna had restricted troop movement close to the border, and limited actions in the area to the most cautious of probing.

Likewise, the scouts and changeling rangers found very little of interest in the small areas they dared spy on, and all contacts resulted in quick and silent withdrawals rather than clashes, so it was assumed that Sombra was just as uneager to engage his old subjects as they were him.

Luna had found this both heartening and worrying. It meant there was no conflict, but it hinted that he was up to something else.

We moved in a long detour towards the north, so we had plenty of time left before we had to worry about Sombra’s patrols.

Even so, there was a growing tension from moving slowly closer to our goal, where the real challenge would be. Supposedly, stopping Sombra would get us home, or so The Dazzlings said, but this wasn’t my area of expertise. This was Twilight and the Element Bearers’ gig. They were the ones that could be confident in a situation like this. Rainbow Dash might even have liked it.

Still, we kept our spirits up. I found that magical ponies were good at that, and it helped that we weren’t idle when resting and camping.

“So,” Trixie said, holding out the roll of paper, this time in a lot more snowy environment than when she had first pulled it out. “How are the communicators coming along?”

“They’re done,” I said, hoofing them out to everyone around the fire. “Should work despite every kind of magical disturbance I can think of, and physical too for that matter, though I haven’t tried them yet.”

“And nopony can listen in on them?” Evening asked as he took his and clipped it onto his mane behind his ear.

“That’s what I don’t know, and don’t know how to find out,” I said. “It’s not impossible, since Sombra taught me a lot of what I know, and it’s hard to figure out what he taught me and what I figured out myself.”

“So they’re risky to use?” Polyusa asked.

“Could be,” I said. “But, I know something that might help: codenames!”

The others nodded evenly. “Alright,” Trixie said. “What do you have in mind?”

“Oh, so many things,” I said. “Which is good because we’re gonna need a lot of them. So, Luna is ‘the sorceress’, Canterlot is ‘Greyskull’, the Crystal Empire is ‘Snake Mountain’, Sombra is ‘Skeletor’, which I guess means Celestia is ‘Hordak’, or perhaps The Nightmare should be tha—”

“Are you coming up with these now?” Polyus asked.

“Nope.”

“Oh. Alright, continue.”

“Well actually,” Evening said, holding up his hoof. “Why these names?”

“Because no one in this world will be able to make sense out of them,” I pointed out.

“Oh, right. Yeah, good catch. Gonna be hard to memorize though.”

“Oh don’t relax yet,” I said. “I have plenty of codenames, I figure we need redundancies.”

“Right, right,” Evening said, holding back a sigh.

Trixie coughed politely to get everyone's attention, then rolled up the large and well-thumbed paper, which by now had a large and impressive map made from her memory of Sombra’s fortress, and held it in her hoof. “But first, somepony tell me what happens if you walk out of medical in the eastern wing and take a right.”

Everyone stopped and thought as fast as they could. Polyus and Polyusa tended to win these rounds. “... You pass by a lavatory on each side, then the medical team’s offices, then you walk out the back door of the building,” Polyus said.

“And two doors to the left of that is…?” Trixie asked.

“The eastern stronghold’s quartermaster office,” Polyusa said.

“The floor of which is…?”

“... Uhm…”

“Large, dirt-yellow square tiles perpendicular to the entrance,” I quickly interjected.

“Good,” Trixie said. “We’re making progress.”

After establishing and practicing some codenames, we took a break from that, and moved on to study the map again, as well as training other things.

“Alright, it’s your turn, Gabe,” Polysa said.

“Ugh. Okay,” I said, and propped up against Armor in the snow, and he held out a wing to steady me if I lost my balance.

“Try and think of something else, so you can know what it’s like when it creeps up on you,” Polyus said, as they sat down in front of me and lit up their horn.

“That’s kinda tricky to do on command,” I noted.

“How’s your eye in this climate?” Armor asked. “Do you need to put a heating enchantment on it?”

I rolled that idea around in my head for a few moments. I was about to nod sluggishly when I realized I didn’t know if that was a good idea. I tried thinking of what the point that would be, or if that had any consequences.

After that, I had trouble remembering what Armor had just suggested.

“What?” I asked, in a voice I didn’t realize at the time how helpless it sounded.

“You should put a heating enchantment on your eye, so it doesn’t get cold in this weather,” Armor said, rubbing my shoulder with a wing and heating me up.

I just relaxed into his coat. “Mmm,” I mumbled at the excellent idea, even though I preferred to just sit like that.

“Are you sleepy, Gabe?” Polyus asked.

“Mmm, don’t know,” I mumbled.

“You’re sleepy,” Polyus said.

“No you’re not,” Armor’s steady voice.

“That’s right, listen to Armor,” Polyus said, as I vaguely made out the chiming of magic in the background. “You’re sleepy.”

“No you’re not, Gabe,” Armor said, and carefully shook me.

“Shhh-sh-sh. Gentle,” Polyusa softly chided beside me. “What is Armor telling you?”

“That I’m not sleepy,” I mumbled, not knowing which I liked best, snuggling into Armor, or listening to him.

“He knows best, doesn’t he?” Polyusa said. “You’re sleepy.”

I didn’t say anything, unable to make up my mind.

“Why are you sleepy?” Polyusa asked. “What’s making you sleepy?”

“Why should you be sleepy?” Armor noted.

“Are you going to let me tell you what to do?” Polyus gently challenged. “Who should you listen to? Armor, or my voice?”

“Mmm,” I mumbled, irritated.

“My voice is telling you you’re sleepy. Are you?”

“Mmm, no,” I noted, and shook the cobwebs from my mind, opening my eyes and registering where I was and what I was doing.

It was another training session of Polyus and Polyusa. Who better than changelings to train someone to withstand magics that influences the mind?

I was propped up against Armor, held in his comfortable wing, with Poly, Evening, and Trixie all looking at me.

I shook my head again. “How was that?” I asked, barely managing to keep my irritation out of my voice.

“Very good,” Polyus said, and nodded with an acknowledging smile at me.

“Yeah, that was really good,” Evening noted from the other side of the campfire.

“Didn’t feel like it,” I noted.

“That’s because you don’t know what we did,” Polyusa said, and touched me gently in the neck, which stung ever so slightly.

“What?” I asked, and brought my hoof up to my neck, feeling the two small pricks of a changeling bite.

“Almost a full dose,” Polyusa said. “Poison on top of magic, and you’re developing a pretty good mnemonic device to help you snap out of it. If you’re magically influenced to do something, just remember Armor asking ‘Why?’”

I took a breath, and steadied myself. “Mmm,” was all I could say, pride at my performance mixing with the irritating feeling of unwelcome awakening.

“Alright, relax and have something to drink,” Polyus said, and poured me a mug of tea. “Let me borrow your guitar or your harmonica, and I’ll try and have you feeling better.”

We chuckled. Polyus and Polyusa’s musical skills needed a lot of practice. It mostly consisted of them strumming the strings and trying to get through a whole verse without bickering about the lyrics.

“Or we could try your harmonica,” Polyusa added.

That wouldn’t have allowed us to listen to their lovely arguing. “No, the guitar,” I said.

“Are we getting close enough to worry about patrols?” Evening said.

“Not quite,” Trixie said, scooting closer to Poly and draping a wing over them. “If you’re worried about somepony hearing us, the snow will drown it out until they’re close enough to smell us.”

“I… just don’t want anypony sneaking up on us again,” Evening admitted.

“We’re in the forest and there are no ships around this time,” Trixie pointed out. “You’re right though, soon we should start keeping an even lower profile, so let’s enjoy ourselves while we can.”

“Alright,” Evening said, and finally stopped casting worried glances around him.

“Hey,” Polyus said to Trixie, whose wing was draped over them. “Want me to look like somepony in particular?”

“I’m fine like this,” she said.

“Can ponies learn changeling magic?” I asked, just as the thought struck me.

“Some,” Polyusa said. “Like polymorph magic.”

“Really?” I asked, eyes wide. “Well, why don’t people, ponies, learn it?”

“Ah, ponies can’t learn to change their own shapes,” Trixie said, lit her horn, and pointed it at Poly. “Changeling polymorph magic is for changing changelings’ shapes.”

With a poof of green flames (green flames!), Poly was replaced by a big and very fluffy sheep.

“Hey, ba-a-a-a-a-ck off!” Polyusa said, indignantly, before changing back.

“... Can you teach me?” I asked.


—


Eventually, the climate was cold enough that we figured we were getting too close to the Empire for comfort, and decided not to spend the evenings outside by the campfire before settling in Trixie’s mobile house for the night, the bag hidden under a yew.

In fact, we spent most of our time in the house, with only one person carrying the rest of us inside the bag, moving mainly under dark or during foggy mornings, and the rest working in shifts holding our head out of the bag and helping keeping watch, just in case. From the outside, it must have looked pretty comical.

“Alright,” Trixie said one day, the maps, notes, and plans splayed out onto a table and hanging from a felt wall. “How are you all feeling about this?”

After a moment of tense silence, Evening said, “Uhm… stoic,” making the rest of us laugh.

“How do you feel about the covers?” Polyusa asked.

“It looks good I think,” Evening said, holding up his prosthetic foreleg as I held up mine, covered in very natural-looking coats. “Looks right the way they bend around the fetlocks too now.”

“Oh, good. I haven’t done any weaving since we were a nymph,” Polyusa said. “Glad to see it works. We could try and paint something on your eye as well, Gabe.”

“Yeah, we might as well,” I said. “I don’t plan on being seen, but just in case.”

“We’ll put something on one side, and then you can turn it around so you can see properly out of it when you need to,” Polyus said.

“Hey, good idea,” I said, nodding in agreement.

Turns out that changeling silk makes for pretty good disguises, for those that can make it. The downside being that it dries up and becomes inert after a while, faster outside of the optimal atmosphere, revealing its true form. It also took quite a bit of energy of the changeling who makes it, though I suspect that the Poly duo was fishing for snuggles.


—


The last few days were nervous affairs. After Armor had spotted a patrol when he was out with Trixie, the rest of us had taken up firing positions behind couches and the kitchen counter with the stun weapons I had outfitted everyone with.

It turned out fine. Just three pegasi flying in a lazy formation overhead, and who hadn’t spotted us.

“Probably bored and tired after a long patrol,” Armor said, as we peered out of the opening in the canvas through the frosted, coniferous canopy, seeing the trio of winged ponies slowly move further away. “See how they’re turning? If they’re flying in a circular perimeter around the stronghold, then we’re getting close.”

“Good eyes,” Trixie said, and studied the trio with the others.

I couldn’t spot it, so Poly and I just kept watch around us as the others studied their trajectory.

“Alright, then it should be that way,” Trixie said, pointing in a direction roughly perpendicular to the guards’ flight path. “We just missed a patrol, so we might as well take this opportunity to move fast. Everypony inside except Poly. I want you to carry us as fast and discreet as possible. I’ll try and help keep watch without being in the way”

The rest of us nodded, and took up positions inside Trixie’s house again.

“Why them?” I asked.

“It’s not snowing,” Evening said, then noticed my puzzled expression. “Meaning tracks will stick around longer. They have a more lithe frame and smaller wingspan. Pegasi tends to be faster flyers, but changelings are more agile. They won’t leave tracks or blow the snow off the branches.”

“Oh,” I said. I didn’t think I had become a master of the spy trade from these experiences, but this nonetheless helped me to not overestimate myself.

There followed a tense couple of hours as Poly flew low to the ground, evading low hanging foliage and keeping their legs above the snow. The rest of us tried looking over the maps and notes, but to no avail.

Eventually, the whooshing of winds ceased, and our eyes turned to the entrance.

Trixie peered in at us.

“We’ve stopped,” Evening pointed out before she could speak.

“It’s okay,” she said. “Come on out.”

We rose from our seats, and walked towards the exit, climbing out of the bag.

We stood at a rocky outcropping at just inside the edge of the forest. Before us was a vast , snowy, flat plain, illuminated by the afternoon sun with only the occasional rock sticking out here and there.

At the center of the plain, so far away that only the outline could be spotted, stood an enormous castle. It was the dark counterpart of the castle I had spent a few nights in during the Equestria Games, which was one of the places I had talked with Sombra in my dreams.

That castle was, of course, inhabited by the princess of love and her brave and noble husband. This castle looked a bit like an evil version of that. Almost as if it wasn’t really trying, or had abandoned its dark motif halfway through construction. It was hard to say.

Surrounding the castle was a town, also similar in size to the one in my and Armor’s Equestria. There didn’t seem to be a lot of activity there though. The streets looked empty and the only traffic around the castle seemed to be airborne.

“Now we just need to get over there without being spotted,” Evening pointed out.

“Back home, heavy snow was pretty much the norm around here. A fog or a blizzard doesn’t seem unlikely,” Armor said, then spread his wings, fluttering the tips of his primaries. “Doesn’t seem unlikely at all.”

“Alright, everypony, back inside please,” Trixie said, and proceeded to hide the bag under a tree and cover it with some snow.

“We’re close now,” she continued when she joined us inside. “With a little luck, we should be able to approach soon. We could go over what we know one last time, but we already have done so many times. I suggest we take this time to rest.”

We murmured in approval. Polyus and Polyusa, in particular, seemed pleased with that idea. “Agreed,” Polyusa said. “That was exhausting, and we’re going to need more silk soon, so…” she held out her forelegs. “Come on; don’t be shy.”

Armor and I were about to walk over, when Trixie floated all the beds and cushions close to each other in one pile. “Agreed, good work,” she said, and magically, gently, tossed us all up on the giant makeshift bedding. “How many spoons do you want?”

After a few moments of stunned silence, everyone laughed, and Poly got all the cuddles they wanted.

Later, when the others were slumbering quietly, I was still awake.

This was it. We were about to infiltrate the dark castle of an immortal ghost unicorn with magical capabilities difficult to even begin to wrap one’s head around.

Armor’s breathing slowly shifted, and he probingly nuzzled my neck, and let out a deep breath.

“It’s okay to be scared,” he said, quietly.

I burrowed deeper into his coat, and he wrapped his wing around me. Between getting up and doing what we came here to do, and staying like this forever, I’d choose the latter.

I searched my mind for something, anything, to say that would even come close to describing what I felt.

A miasma of wishes and fears clouded my mind. Things I could and should have done, pleadings for things to be different, wishes for all of this to just stop, for the story of my life to have a dramatically unsatisfying conclusion and have a higher being descend onto the stage and fix everything with the flick of a wand.

It was like the stages of grief that I had become familiar with long ago, then I recognized the bargaining, and realized something.

If I could choose to stay back on Earth in order for none of this to happen, I would decline. I wouldn’t have met Celestia, Redheart, The Crusaders, Twilight and the bearers. I wouldn’t have met Armor.

It was worth it. I was so tired, so worried, so scared, and now I had so much to lose, but it was worth it.

The pain and worry started to ease in my chest, and my thoughts slowed down.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, in a quiet voice, making it sound so wonderfully deep.

“That… this is it, right?” I said, also in a low voice.

“Yeah,” he said. “I feel like, like… tomorrow we’re finally going to try and get home, do what we came here to do. It’s either that, or sneak around in the wilds and plan to do so forever. I don’t know which I’d prefer, because I know I’ll have you with me if we never go tomorrow.”

I nodded, both happy and sad that he felt the same way as I did.

“Having someone also means risking to lose someone,” I said. “You helped teach me that it’s worth the risk.”

I turned my head to face Armor, and looked him in the eyes.

“I love you, Armor,” I whispered, then kissed him.

“I love you,” he whispered back, after we broke the kiss, and we smiled at each other for a moment, before I rested my head again.

“And I love your new stubble,” I said. “It looks good on you.”

He wrapped himself around me and chuckled, and I snuggled into him, and as the pains and worries slowly faded, sleep finally came to me.

I barely registered Poly gently belching in their sleep.


—


We sat in the sections of Trixie’s house that served as an entryway, finishing our energy rich breakfast while Evening occasionally glanced out through the gap in the canvas.

“It’s picking up,” he said, referring to the snow falling outside, as he massaged Polyus and Polyusa’s withers with his perfectly disguised prosthetic leg on.

“It’ll be a mild storm soon,” Armor noted.

Trixie was braiding my mane and tail as I was sipping my tea between double checking my equipment.

“Dimension travelling fighter filly you may be,” Trixie said, using both forehooves and all her magic. “But right now I think this mane is the most notable thing about you.”

“It’s the power of rock ’n’ roll,” I said, vaguely feeling that something was rummaging around in there. “It can’t be held down so easily.”

“So like Luna’s mane is the way it is because of the magic of dreams and the nights, yours is because of music?”

“You doubt the power? We might see it before this is all over, unbeliever,” I said, smilingly, as I reattached my hind leg, perfectly disguised by Poly’s silk.

“Are we ready?” Armor asked.

“Just about,” Trixie said.

I’d seen and read about plenty of infiltrations of enemy strongholds, but this didn’t feel like in the stories. For one thing, if the person the camera focuses on is going somewhere or trying to get something, unless it’s a specific type of story we all know that he or she is on the right track, because that’s how the stories work.

Now though? A trio of ethereal sirens had sung to me about stopping the dark king  and how doing so would allow me to return home, nothing else. For me, there had been no scene breaks cutting to my opponent consulting with his closest men about what’s to be done that told me what was the right thing to do. There was nothing except our knowledge of the situation at large, mingled with my misgivings. The Dazzlings had told me that stopping Sombra, whatever “stopping” might mean in this context, would get Armor and me home, and we knew that he had at least some means of dimensional travel, but that was it. We had to play this by ear... and hope we had brought the right instruments... to the right concert hall.

I shook my head at the unrealism of it all, making Trixie protest slightly.

An hour later, it was still early morning, and we were laying low behind a drift of snow outside the city, trying to spy any sentries through the thick snowfall.

We didn’t see any, though that didn’t mean that none were there.

“I don’t suppose this means that the coast is clear?” I asked, loudly enough to be heard over the howling wind and snow. My magic senses didn’t reach further than my eyes, so I couldn’t make much use of that either.

“Unlikely,” Trixie said. “And I’d rather sneak past guards I know of than guards I don’t know of.”

Along the roads leading south, a few outlying buildings were scattered, but from where we were, the city had a clear threshold. The snowy plains very abruptly made way to a dark crystal path that made up the outer perimeter of the crystal houses.

“I wish they’d show themselves,” Evening noted, as we stuck closely together. “It’s getting cold.”

“Are there even people here?” I asked. “The place looks abandoned.”

“It was abandoned after the Silver Phantoms defeated The Empire,” Polyus said. “It was remanned with a garrison centuries later, but the actual city was never properly resettled. It was too far away to support civilian societies.”

“I can see why,” Evening noted, clenching his jaw to stop it from shivering.

“Look there,” Polyusa said, and pointed at shadows moving between the houses. It looked ghostly

“Now we know where one patrol is,” Trixie said. “But I still can’t see any other.”

“I say we make a break for one of the houses before anypony sees us from above,” Armor said.

Trixie looked back at the rest of us nodding in agreement. “Weapons ready?”

We all nodded and murmured in confirmation, before Trixie pointed at a building with closed windows facing us. “We’re flying there, high enough to not leave tracks, but no higher.”

She grabbed Evening, and I climbed up on Armor, before we darted towards the window on Trixie’s command.

We reached it seemingly unnoticed, and hovered in place for a moment as Trixie unlatched the window with her magic, then we slipped inside as Trixie shut the window behind us.

We settled down silently and stayed absolutely still, our ears straining to pick up any indication of alarm over the sound of the wind outside.

I looked around the dark room, which was very much intact even after over a thousand years of neglect. Crystal constructions had a long shelf life evidently, as might be expected. A bed and wardrobes and couches were covered by large cloths, which had fared a lot worse than the things they covered.

A fairly thin layer of dust covered everything, indicating that no one had cleaned here for a long time, but no one had lived here and let in more dust either.

Eventually, we all relaxed and slumped our postures, walking and looking around more intrusively.

“Where did they all go?” I asked. “The crystal ponies I mean.”

Trixie shook her head. “It’s… unclear,” she said. “Most ponies agree that they vanished about the same time as the Silver Phantoms did, and nopony knows where they went either. Perhaps they went to the same place.”

“Did anyone ask Sombra where he came from?” Armor asked.

“He said he didn’t know. He heard the same legends of the Silver Phantoms as the rest of us. The old records say that they found him outside of this place, the Crystal Empire,” Trixie said, gesturing around the long abandoned room. “A mysterious colt who hardly remembered anything about himself, but with incredible powers, and an indomitable drive to make the world a better place, and the wisdom to realize it.”

“And he is not just a unicorn using magic that no one else has discovered?” I asked.

Trixie nodded concedingly. “I’m not even sure Princess Luna and Celestia are old enough to know, but I’ve seen some of what he can do, and if he could do those things as a foal… well, he wasn’t a normal foal, that I’m sure of.”

“What can he do?” Armor asked.

“He can… turn into a swirling mass of shadows for one thing,” Trixie said. “What that means he can do in turn… I don’t know. What happens if he’s destroyed by an explosion? Does he turn into that and reform? I don’t know that either, but considering how long he’s been protecting Equestria, we know he’s not easy to beat.”

“We’re here to ‘stop’ him,” I noted. “We don’t know how to do that, but obviously we don’t want to face him.”

Trixie, Poly, and Evening all shook their heads.

“I feel like I’m getting cold feet,” I said after a moment. “And it’s not just the weather.”

Trixie smiled and put her hoof on my wither. “We’re all nervous, but let’s go through this again, what do we know of him and what he wants?”

“He wants to get to our Equestria,” I said.

“And he seems to need you and Armor for that, in this place,” Trixie continued.

“And now we’re here,” Armor noted, holding back a sigh.

“But we don’t know how he plans on accomplishing this,” Trixie said. “And the Dazzlings said that if we try and stop him, you two will find a way home. So, we figure out how he’s going to try and get to your Equestria, and when we know that, we’ll know how to stop him.”

All of us nodded. We had been through this before, but it felt like there was so much crazy involved in what we were trying to accomplish, we had to stop and consider the situation on occasion, just to not lose sight of the goal.

“So we infiltrate the castle, make our way to the most secure parts where he’d keep his magical projects, and smash everything we see,” Polyusa said.

“Uuh, smash it after we’ve found out what we need to smash,” Evening said. “I get the feeling we won’t have all the time in the world once we start, and we don’t want to try and figure out our exact objective when we don’t know if it’s in pieces or not.”

“So first step would be to identify the target,” Polyus said. “This will double as an espionage and sabotage mission.”

“But if Sombra’s plan is to open a portal to our Equestria…” I said. “I don’t know if I want to destroy it.”

“We know,” Trixie said, in a gentle voice. “We’ll have to be ready to alter the plan, to retrieve something and get out of here for example.”

“Alright, good,” I said, feeling some of my trepidation wash away.

“And nopony seems to have reacted to us being here,” Armor said. “Where do we go from here?”

“Sewers,” I said. “Entrances and exits everywhere, including the castle.”

“That’s… a good idea,” Polyus said, considering the empty room. “This is a ghost town, except for the castle, which means that it’ll be easy to find once we get down there. If we find activity, we’ve found the castle.”

“So where would the entrance be?” Evening asked.

I looked at Armor. “You were stationed in the Empire,” I said. “What do you think?”

“Hmm, we were there to help modernise their military, and I was with the troopers who were focusing on tactical maneuvers, not the engineers, but I’d say we check the yard.”

“Alright, follow me,” Trixie said, and quietly walked towards the door.

We moved down into the hallway, weak light shining in from the grimy windows telling us that no one would be able to spot any activity from outside and the howl of the wind masking the sound of our hooves.

I blinked over my prosthetic eye, activating my ability to see magic through the walls.

“Alright, the street is empty,” I said. “And we only need to take a couple of steps to be out of sight from anyone who marches past.”

Trixie nodded, and opened the door, glancing out to confirm what I said, before turning back at us. “Alright, flyers, carry Gabe and Evening to where the tracks won’t be seen, and gently, and then I’ll follow.”

She very slowly opened the door to not disturb the snow that was accumulating in the crevices, as I nodded to her that the coast remained clear.

Poly grabbed Evening and flew very gently over the snow, while Armor took a running jump and glided over to take up positions behind a wall.

Trixie did the same, then very gently shut the door with her magic.

I looked around with my magic again, and noticed the manhole under a bench. “There,” I said, pointing at the snow. “That’s the opening.”

We filed over and gently started shuffling the snow away with our hooves as Poly held watch, revealing the crystal cover almost seamlessly blending into the crystal ground around it.

“Good work,” Trixie said, and lit up her horn, frowning as she concentrated. “Hmm, it’s stuck. It might be locked.”

I bent down to inspect it more closely, noticing a sturdy rod protruding from the side of the opening, holding the cover in place. The latch bolt was connected to an intricate mechanism, not unlike a normal lock, preventing the lid from simply being opened with magic.

“It has a magic tampering proof lock,” I said. “They took security seriously around here.”

“They would have,” Evening said. “Do you see how to get past it?”

“We could brute force it, but that’s not very subtle,” Trixie said.

“Hold on,” I said, and reared up to put my hooves on Trixie’s side. “I have an idea.”

I poked my head into her enchanted bag, magicking out a pair of non-enchanted gems from near the planning table, and brought them out with me.

“Scrap, Armor’s uncle, lent me a magic cutting torch once,” I said. “I think I can make something like that.”

“Yeah, some heat would be nice now,” Evening said, shivering slightly.

“Hold on, I got it,” I said, enchanting the gem.

I put the high powered heating enchantment in the core of the gem, coupled with some safety features in the back, a few amplification routines and some for redirecting the heat into a small point at the sharp end of the gem. The process took a few minutes and would not be able to be used unless you were a unicorn who knew how to send magic into it in the right way, but it worked.

I lit up the torch, and the air around the top warped from the heat. “Alright, done. Crude, but it should hold together long enough,” I said.

“How are we looking?” Armor asked Poly.

“It seems okay,” Polyusa said. “Nopony’s walked past since before we came out here. I don’t know if that’s a good sign or a bad one.”

“I can’t keep watch while I do this,” I said, and held up the torch to the cover. “And it might make some noise. Hopefully the snow should help.”

“Are you sure you should do this?” Evening asked.

“Yeah, because…” I said, closing my natural eye and holding the gem up towards where the bolt was, immediately making the spot light up like a small flare, and vaporising the snow around it. “My new eye isn’t bothered by this.”

The others had had to shield their eyes from the bright light, and nodded, taking up position, ready for both warnings and action.

I went to work, looking at the bright light with my enchanted replacement.

For some reason It sounded much like a normal cutting torch would, and I gently worked my way through the crystal bolt, slowly melting it under the onslaught of the heat.

Suddenly, Armor tapped me on my wither, and I immediately stopped to look at him.

He was looking at Trixie, who was signalling for us to stop, before turning to the opening in the yard, staying completely still.

I glanced at the hot, wavering air as it floated higher into the air, hoping it wasn’t visible when it went over the edge of the house.

I turned my head towards the entrance to the yard, where a pair of ponies in armor were walking past on the opposite side of the street.

The melted spot was slowly hardening again, but I was also grateful to step away from the uncomfortable heat for a little while.

After a few tense moments, it was clear that they did not intend to investigate the yard we were in, and simply walked down the street. Trixie signalled for me to continue.

I kept going, and before long, the tip of the bolt had melted enough that I could lift the cover from the hole, revealing the ladder leading down into the darkness.

The others quickly noticed, and gently walked over to look down into the hole.

“We’ll go first,” Polyusa said, being comfortable in dark and cramped spaces, and climbed down head first without the use of the ladder.

The rest of us waited for a few moments, before Poly popped back up.

“It’s fine,” Polyus said. “Come on down.”

We followed, Armor first, then myself, then Evening, and lastly Trixie, who placed the cover back over the hole and shrouded us in darkness.

I watched around with my prosthetic eye, unhindered by the darkness, to see Armor, Evening, and Trixie struggling in the dark.

“Ow,” I said, as Evening put his rear hoof on my keratin forehoof.

“Sorry,” he said. “Can I get us some light?”

“Go ahead,” Polyus said. “It should be fine.”

Evening lit up his horn, revealing that he was just one step away from the bottom, lighting up the wide tunnel we found ourselves in, the walkway we were standing on, and the railing that prevented anyone from falling into wide canal, empty except for a thin layer of dry, flaky grime.

“Hmm,” I said, a little disappointed. “Gandalf lit up a much more impressive underground realm.”

“Who?” Evening said.

“Don’t worry, it’s from a story,” I said, and paused to double check where the castle had been in relation to the manhole. I pointed at an angle at the crystal wall on the far side of the canal. “So the castle is that way, right?”

“That way,” Polyusa said, and pointed slightly to the side, then turning their hoof down the tunnel. “I guess that means we’re heading this way to start with.”

“And keep an eye out for activity,” Trixie said. “If we find any tunnel that’s heated up, that should lead to the castle.”

“Yeah,” Evening said. “It’s not as bad without the wind, but it’s still pretty chilly down here.”

“Poly, do you mind scouting ahead?” Trixie said.

“Roger that,” Polyus said, and poked at the clip behind their ear-fin that I had enchanted. “Stay in contact.”

“Strict codename usage from now on,” I said.

With an almost silent flitter, Polyus and Polyusa vanished into the dark.

The rest of us stood there, in silence, making doubly sure that nothing indicated our discovery, before we all nodded at each other, and marched after our changeling friends with quiet steps.

It was a long and tense march through the darkness. Despite the smoothness of the surface of the tunnels, the light that Evening emitted flickered across the walls in the distance, and I was sure that if I didn’t have as much company as I did, I would have been scaring myself half to death with my own imagination. A sword fight was one kind of scary, but it was a scary you knew how to defend against; you stepped aside or put something hard between you and the threat.

The darkness and the unknown however, was something else entirely, and the stillness made it worse. It was safe, but it was still scary.

I activated the magic sighting functions in my eye, which saw through the darkness, but still not very far. It did negate the effect of the shadows on the wall. Still, I sidled up closer to Armor, and he wordlessly put a wing over me.

There was a frustration that had been growing ever since we had left Canterlot, which had gotten worse since we left Seaddle, and that was getting worse and worse the closer we got to the Empire, and that was that I didn’t know if we were on the right track. The Dazzlings had been clear enough, but still, I couldn’t know that this was going to help.

And it just got worse after we entered the city. The heroes in the movies are always moving towards the final showdown, and games let you know whether or not you’re making progress, because entertainment tries not to waste your time. We were just walking through a sewer in the darkness, hoping that this was not a fool’s errand.

On the other hand, the further things went without someone raising the alarm, the more thoroughly any tracks we left were covered in snow. It was like the blind duelling the blind, or rather, a blind person duelling someone they thought and hoped were blind as well.

I jumped slightly from fright when the glowing form of Poly entered my magical view, making everyone shoot a glance at me.

“It’s okay, it’s just Poly,” I said, making everyone relax.

The soft buzzing of our insectoid friends announced their arrival to the rest, and they touched down in front of us.

“Hoooo,” Polyusa said, shivering slightly. “We’ve found a perimeter of grates in the passages ahead. We didn’t deviate too far though, didn’t want to lose you guys.”

“What kind of grate?” Trixie said. “Also, do you need a pick-us-up?”

“Yes please,” Polyus said, making us huddle around them, sharing body heat and giving them a meal. “We think it’s for defence, but we also think it’s been here since the beginning. It meshes into the rest of the structure.”

“A barrier is to stop somepony from going somewhere, like to someplace where you can infiltrate a castle from below, so I’ll say we’re on the right track. Let’s go take a look,” Trixie said, then paused when she saw Evening and Poly, one clenching his jaws to keep from shivering and the other huddling closer to the rest. “In a minute.”

After a while, we were standing in front of the barrier. It wasn’t a grate of iron rods, that would have been easy to get though, and probably rusted through eventually. These looked more like crystal boards with their thin side facing us.

“There are no weak spots right?” Armor asked, as Trixie and Poly hovered in front of them where they blocked the canal, taking care not to step in the grime even though it probably hadn’t been biologically active in many years.

“None that we can see,” Polyusa said. “Should we try and break through?”

“We could try another tunnel,” Polyus added. “Or try and get up to the surface again.”

“Hmm, we don’t know how close we are to the castle,” Trixie noted. “I figure that the city perimeter would be guarded, and the castle would be guarded, but security would be light in the districts between.”

“If Gabe teaches the rest of us to use her invention, we can work our way through this,” Evening said. “It might take a while, but it would be possible.”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah,” I said, having been trying to study the grate. “Yeah, I’m trying to see if I can find a pattern in the microstructure, but it’s tricky. And that doesn’t matter if we torch our way through it.”

“Let’s get to it then,” Polyusa said.

With all of us switching up and some clever magic shield work from Trixie, we started cutting our way through the barrier.

After I was done with one section, Evening borrowed some enchanted sunglasses from Trixie’s house, and got some instructions from me before taking over.

I was propped up against Armor as we kept watch behind us, chewing on a granola bar to get back some energy from the slightly taxing activity of using my magic to power the torch.

“I wish I could play something,” I said.

“So do I,” Armor said. “We’ll have all the time in the world when we get back.”

I took a stiff breath, feeling is if he’d jinx us, when I noticed a minute, rhythmic spasm in the fuzz of my ears over the dull sound of the torch being worked.

I narrowed my eyes into the darkness ahead of us, and recognised the pattern.

“Stop!” I hissed back, immediately silencing the work except for a faint clicking sound of the cooling crystal, and shrouding us in utter darkness again.

Everything was still for a moment, as we let out eyes try and adapt to the lack of light, before we noticed a faint light spilling out from a tunnel in a crossing we had passed earlier, and the distant sounds of hoofsteps coming closer.

I could hear Poly scamper down onto the wall of the canal beside us.

“Here!” one of them hissed, and we scrambled towards the edge as quickly and quietly as we could.

“I can see fine,” I said, quietly, referring to my prosthetic eye. “Evening, no wait, Trixie, hang from the edge, then you and Poly support Evening, while Armor and I are on the other side of Trixie.”

Us ponies all scampered down to hang off the edge, gripping with our hooves, except Trixie and Armor used their primaries to support their weight, and Poly was simply pressed against the wall.

We glanced up, and saw the light coming closer to the intersection, and the faint sound of hooves growing stronger.

“Trixie… Trixie!” Polyus hissed.

“What?” Trixie asked, turning to the changelings.

“Gabe’s mane,” he said, and held out a rough string of silk, which Trixie quickly used her magic to tie my mane down with.

“We have to be ready to make a move,” Trixie whispered.

“What’s the signal?” Evening asked.

“Just… follow my lead,” Trixie said.

“Get down,” Armor said, before the source of the light rounded the corner.

Armor and Trixie let go with their hooves, and pressed themselves as close as possible against the wall, hanging from their primaries.

Evening and I gently put our hooves on their withers, and lowered ourselves down alongside them.

A indiscernible number of hooves slowly and quietly made their way across the walkway, towards the spot where we had been working on getting through the grate, and I could almost sense Armor and Trixie’s unreleased grunts from supporting that much weight with the edge of their wings.

They entered my field of magical vision, there were three unicorns and one earth pony, two of the unicorns had their horns lit and all of them were looking around attentively. Two unicorns and the earth pony had spears, while the other had a sword on her side

I held my head out and caught Polyus and Polyusa’s attention, slowly mouthing, “Four of them,” at the changelings, who nodded, and focused on the sound of the steps.

“Look at this, sergeant,” a mare said, and poked at the abandoned gem lying by the half cut barrier sections.

“Intruders,” another mare said, looking holding her hoof by the cuts in the barrier. “Still warm. Stay sharp, they might be close.”

She slowly drew her sword as the others readied their spears and looked around warily.

They still didn’t seem to have spotted the small edges of feather that Armor and Trixie were hanging on by, although by now, the light from the unicorns were close enough that we could see each other without magical means.

One of the unicorns were walking up towards us, and I turned to Trixie. “They’re about to spot us,” I mouthed at her, and she nodded at me, then turned to Armor and nodded to the side of the squad.

Armor nodded, and heaved himself up across the edge, drawing his stun baton, and engaging the farthest pony before any of them could react. She managed to block his swing, but was immediately locked in a wrestle against him.

Before the others could assist their squadmate, and while their attention was focused on Armor, the rest of us poked out heads up to engage them.

Evening, Trixie, and I, all shot one magical bolt each as we climbed the railing. The one Armor was struggling with collapsed, unconscious, before noticing what was happening, as did one of the stallions.

The remaining stallion managed to dodge the bolts, and the sergeant took a grazing hit in her armor.

Even so, there wasn’t much resistance the two could offer against five, especially not with an alicorn among us. A side-step here, a nibble from Poly there, and it was all over.

At least for now. As I looked at the ponies as they were being tied up, my heart began to sink.

“Patrols have to report back, don’t they?” I asked.

“Yes, so we’d better not take all day,” Trixie said, as she pushed the last member of the patrol into her house. “We don’t know when they’re expected back, and the rest probably don’t know when and where they went missing.”

“Can we make it?” I asked, not really wanting to know.

Trixie stopped, and looked up into the ceiling for a moment before smiling at me. “We can certainly try.”

I nodded, and once again sat down by Armor.

He didn’t put his wing around me and comforted me, instead, he put his hooves on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes for a good, long moment.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I paused, and noticed that my worry was being joined by determination. This wasn’t optimal, but we were still here, free and under the radar for the moment.

I nodded at him. “Yeah. I’m fine.”


—


After a while, we were through the barrier, and moving much more rapidly through the tunnels.

The creeping and scary part from before was gone. The jack was out of the box and the blades were already drawn. We hurried along the walkway, the uncertainty of having plenty of time was gone,  and we had to act.

“You feel that?” Armor asked.

“Feel what?” Evening said.

“Movement in the air,” Armor said, and spread his wings, followed by Trixie. “There’s a breeze.”

“We’re getting closer,” Trixie nodded.

“And I hear running water,” I pointed out.

We moved up through the tunnels, getting closer and closer to the sound, reaching another intersection, where water was flowing perpendicular to out approach, smoothly and calmly along the well-constructed canal.

“Is this raw sewage?” I asked, and sniffed the air. “I thought it would smell worse than this.”

“Aaah, countless sweaty soldiers taking warm showers,” Evening said, looking pleased at the heat coming from the water, and turning his head to the ceiling. “Thanks, everypony. What were you expecting though?”

“Something else. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get the smell out of my coat for weeks.”

“Okay? Ew?”

“Gabe? Can you see anything?” Trixie asked.

I looked around with my prosthetic eye, seeing a maze of smaller pipes going through the ground above us.

“Hmm. There’s a ladder there,” I said. “I could take a look.”

“Right, be careful.”

I climbed the ladder, Poly scampering up the wall beside me, and looked through the hatch at the top.

Above it and a bit to the side, two ponies stood guard outside the entrance to a building. I couldn’t make out their expressions, but I imagined they didn’t look to pleased to be standing still in the snow.

The building didn’t seem to have a lot of activity in it. A reception area, a desk, and part of a small archive was all I could see from here, and no other ponies except the guards..

“Hmm, wait…” I said, taking in the layout, before climbing down to the others again. “I think we’re next to the quartermaster’s office.”

“Can you cut through the hatch from this side?” Trixie asked.

“Ehm,” I started, skeptical. “I guess, but it’s gonna take time, and the snow on the hatch is going to melt, possibly boil, and two guards are standing outside the entrance.”

“So we keep looking?” Armor asked.

“There’s an incline over there,” Polyus said, pointing to the side.

“Alright, let’s check it out. Eyes peeled,” Trixie said, as we moved up the gentle slope.

When the platform levelled again, we stood next to drainage pipes with water pouring out of them. At the top was a ladder leading up to what was presumably a service hatch. I took a look at the structure with my magic, and saw that the pipes led to a chamber with other pipes leading into it from the top, some with water pouring out of them, others without.

“There’s a sort of junction up there,” I said. “I think… from there they lead directly to different, well, sources of wastewater. Kitchens, showers, and such.”

“Can we fit through those?” Trixie asked.

“Hmm, I think I can through some of them,” I said.

“We can as well in that case,” Polyusa said, confidently.

“How about…” Evening said, putting his hoof on his chin and looking at the floor. “Gabe, Polyus, and Polyusa get up there undetected and let us up from that side?”

“No! I…” Armor started, before the rest of his objection turned into a sigh, and he deflated slightly.

In a way glad to see that I wasn’t the only nervous one, and not really knowing if it was a good plan, I even so put my hoof on his neck. “It’s okay. We’ll be careful.”

Armor looked me in the eyes for a moment, before nodding.

“Radio check,” Trixie said, and flapped her left ear against the small brooch hidden in the base of her mane. “Testing,” she said, echoing in our ears. “Splinter reporting.”

“Kit and Kat here,” Polyus and Poluysa said.

“Blue Thunder testing.”

After everything was in order, Polyus, Polyusa, and I climbed up the ladder, making short work of the flimsy lock in place on the door, and stepping into the chamber.

“Alright, commencing Operation Dinner Out,” I said, and stepped out of sight of the others.

A small, slime covered walkway without railings was all that one could stand on without stepping into the canal with wastewater, coming out from the large pipes all around the wall.

“Eesh,” I said, waking slowly to not slip on the slimy surface, and looking through the walls to see where the pipes led. “Alright, uhm… that one is that wide the entire way and leads to a big room. It’s uuh, a little hard to make out from here, but I think it’s a shower.”

“There’s water coming from it,” Polyus pointed out. “Is it in use?”

“Maybe,” I said. “Uuh, yeah. One pony it looks like.”

“What about the others?”

“A lot of them fork of into smaller pipes, and some of them keep going beyond where I can see, so it’s hard to say.”

“Let’s take our chances with this one,” Polyusa said, and flew me over to the pipe I had first pointed at.

They put me into the pipe, that I just managed to fit into if I crouched, leaving me standing in dark slime and flowing, warm water.

I grimaced at the sensation, before Poly squeezed themselves into the pipe behind me. “Here, we’ll go first,” Polyusa said. “Gangway.”

“Gangway?” I asked, before they immediately stepped up to the side and pressed themselves almost flat against the surface, not dragging their exoskeleton along it but also not leaving an inch between it and them.

They scampered past me through the cramped space, making me grimace against as my side was pressed against the side of the pipe.

Up ahead was a ninety degree turn upward, and two or three of my body lengths up that was a grate with light shining through it, and warm water showering us.

“Here, grab our tail,” Polyus said, and started climbing up the side of the pipe.

I grabbed it with my mouth, and felt my mane, tail, and side drag along the accumulated slime in the pipe.

“Ugh, euugh-uuuuh!” I complained, closing my natural eye and grimacing with my entire face.

“Shh!” one of them hushed, as we reached the grate, then turned to me and whispered, “You’re right, there’s just one. We’ll get into position, and then you’ll get their attention.”

I nodded, and pressed with my legs to the sides of the pipes, and with the help of Poly climbed up to just below the grate.

I pressed hard against the pipe, not wanting to slide down it and having to do this again, which made it tricky since the prostheses on my right side were so much stronger than my left legs.

Poly gently lifted the grate, and put it to the side of the opening, before scuttering up and taking up position next to the shower stall that the warm water was flowing from, covered by a shower curtain.

They nodded at me, and I, still grimacing, started climbing up slowly, finally free to voice my discontent.

“Augh! Eeew. This is so disgusting,” I said, loudly, making the pony in the shower perk their head up. “Is that you behind that curtain, Polonius?”

“Who’s there?” the pony, a stallion, answered, and pulled away the curtain, making me mentally cross spying on a hunky stallion with beautiful hair in the shower off my bucket list.

“Come hither, gentlemen, thou art a fishmonger.” I said, pulling myself up and putting my front hooves on the side of the big drain.

“What the…?” the stallion said, recoiling slightly, before gathering his wits and marching forward with I’m sure was as much pondus as he could muster in this situation. “Who are you? What–”

“Prepare to receive the bad medicine,” I interrupted him, making him look at me with an utterly confused expression, before he collapsed, asleep, Poly’s mouth around his neck, with their sleep-inducing poisonous fangs buried in him.

I pulled myself out of the pipe, and despite standing in a steamy room and having been showered by warm water, I let out the biggest shiver of my entire life.

“Uuuuhuhuhuhu! Never again,” I said, shivering where I stood, before shakily smacking my radio with my ear. “This is, guuh, health inspector Blue Thunder reporting in. S… sous chef is interviewed and everything is kosher.”

“Excellent, Blue,” Trixie’s voice said. “Proceed to scout the booths and reserve a table.”

“N-negative,” I said. “Capabilities are... compromised until… sanitation procedures are undertaken.”

“... Copy that,” Trixie said. “Just make it quick.”

“Do we have time?” Polyus asked.

I scanned around with my eye, and didn’t see anyone else in the building except for a pony by a desk on the side side of the building, two floors up.

“I think so,” I said. “Hide the stallion for now.”

We dragged the poor guy back into the stall he had exited from, and stood under the warm water. Poly’s chitin was cleaned within seconds and a few scrubs with a loofah on a stick. My own coat, and especially my mane and tail, required a little more care, which Poly quickly took care of while I surveyed the building with my eye.

The pony two floors up looked like they were falling asleep at their desk, and while I could now see the two guards outside the door, the same ones that would have spotted us trying to break through the manhole cover, there was no other activity in the building as far as I could tell.

“Alright, done,” Polyus said, and snatched the stallion’s towel and threw it over me.

“Thanks,” I said, and cautiously walked towards the door, keeping my eye peeled all around me. “Still no activity. We should be fine.”

“How’s it looking outside?”

“They’re still there,” I said, as we walked through a small lounge, into an office connected to a desk by the entrance to the building. “Yep, this is the quartermaster’s office. How do you wanna play this?” I asked, as I cautiously looked out the window, seeing the necks of the two guards and the heavy snowfall covering the grounds outside and the windows to the other buildings.

“Hold on,” Polyusa said, and walked back towards the shower, transforming into the stallion we had knocked out mid-stride.

“An officer,” the stallion said in Polyusa’s voice, now dressed in his uniform. “Good thing we heard his voice earlier. I’ll go out and distract them, you climb out the window and knock out one, and I’ll knock out the other.”

“Hmm, okay,” I said, and gently unlatched the window, but not opening it, and drawing my stun rod.

Poly walked out through the door, and the guards immediately stood at attention, saluting them as they walked down the stairs.

“It occurs to me...” they said in the stallion’s voice, walking to the side and drawing the guards’ attention, exposing the neck of the one closest to me. “It occurs to me that I should have perhaps thought of something dramatic to say.”

Before the guards could start suppressing the want to glance at each other, I leapt out through the window at the guard closest to me and placed the business end of my stun rod in the neck between his helmet and his breastplate, making him collapse with a small, startled cry.

Just as the other guard’s attention was moving from the apparent officer to the movement behind him, Poly stepped up and pulled the stun rod from their holster, pressing it gently against their throat, making them collapse as well.

“Alright, no lollygagging,” Polyus immediately said, and scooped the guard up on their withers, while I did the same with mine, opened the door with my magic, then used it to grab their spears, before we walked in again.

“Put them down gently,” I said when we were in. “Might as well not wake up the clerk upstairs.”

“Don’t worry,” Polyusa said, as we walked towards the shower. “Also, let me take care of that guy, you’re dragging his hooves along the floor.”

“Alright,” I said, and magicked the towel over me again, since I was still cold from stepping outside with a wet coat. “Can you turn into a shrub?”

“We can. Why?” Polyusa asked, as they dumped the knocked out guards next to their officer.

“To give us some cover while working on the hatch.”

“Sure,” Polyus said, and stepped out of the uniform. “It’s gonna be cold though, so please don’t take too long.”

We scouted the grounds from the window for a while before we walked out and positioned ourselves over the manhole. I brought up my torch and tried it out quickly.

“This is health inspector Blue Thunder. Waiters report that tables are available and are bringing out the silverware, stand by.”

“Copy, health inspector,” Trixie’s voice sounded by my ear. “The stagecoaches are on the premises and the guests are standing by.”

I scuffed the snow from the cover so as to not have an as conspicuous cloud of water vapour coming from the flowerbed where we were.

It was pretty stressful, focusing solely on a small spot right in front of me while in a hostile stronghold, doing a slow and time-consuming job. I could look up and find myself surrounded by Sombra’s troopers, smiling at me, but I had to trust Polyus and Polyusa.

Eventually though, the hatch opened, revealing the face of Evening. We looked at each other and let out relieved sighs.

No one seemed to have noticed, and I grabbed a hoof of snow and jammed it against the hot surface, cooling it down with a hissing sound, as Armor and Trixie quickly followed Evening.

We crouched behind Poly, and peered up beyond them, again, seeing no real activity on the grounds, which I was starting to suspect was because it was a quiet corner with mostly auxiliary buildings and storage.

Still, it wouldn’t do to not be cautions.

“Alright, inside,” Trixie hissed, and we ran back into the building, Armor pausing to close the cover and kick some snow onto it, before tapping Poly-shrub on the way.

Poly followed Armor in and shut the door behind them.

“That guy has woken up and is looking through paperwork,” I said, looking up at the pony behind the desk on the third floor.

“Let’s pause for a minute,” Trixie said, and spied out of a window. “Where did you put the guards?”

“In the shower we came up out of,” Polyusa said. “How are the ones we found below?”

“They’re still out,” Trixie said. “I’m thinking we could dump them here, if we take care of the pony that Gabe sees up above.”

“Do it. Evening, go with them, use your rod if you can.”

“Yes please, we’ve already used one dose recently,” Polyus said, running their tongue contemplatively over their fangs, as they and Evening snuck up the stairs.

Not long after, one clerk, one officer, and six troopers, their uniforms and gear now in our possession, were tied up against each other in a small, dark room filled with filing cabinets, covered by a duvet from a couch in the lounge connected to the shower to help them keep their warmth in the cold room and not encourage them to not wake up.

“I feel we should give them another zap each,” I said.

“Oh they’re gonna be out of it for a while,” Polyusa said. “Don’t worry about them.”

“Where do we go from here?” Armor asked.

“I’m guessing the inner keep is where we’d find what we need to do to stop Sombra,” Trixie said. “I say we take the uniforms, split up into two groups, and scout it out as quietly as possible.”

“What about Gabe?” Evening asked. “I’m imagining a filly would draw a little too much attention.”

Poly walked up to me and picked me up. “What?” I asked.

“Yeah, what are you planning, Polyusa?” Polyus asked.

“What about if we do this?” Polyusa said, and covered themselves in green flames (green flames!).

The flames enveloped me, and it felt like someone shoved me in smooth overall that was still warm from a round in a tumble dryer.

When the flames faded, I was standing taller than before; Just short of eye level with Armor, Trixie, and Evening, who were looking at me with a surprised expression.

I looked down at my hooves to see what I was standing on, only to see longer versions of my legs, both of them looking natural.

“O-whoao!” I said, stumbling back and righting my larger body, before lifting my right foreleg and noting that it lacked feeling like it always did, then bending it halfway between the knee and the elbow. “... Guys, did you just turn yourselves into a grown mare-suit?”

“Yes,” Polyusa answered, moving my mouth in the process. “One of us has to concentrate though, keep your legs stiff and use your hooves as if they were the knee, we’ll take care of the hooves.”

“What’s this we stuff?” Polyus asked, also using my mouth. “You didn’t ask me, or Gabe for that matter, whether this was a good idea.”

“No this could work though,” Trixie said, and looked out the window. “Think about it, we’d like to keep a low profile, like using service tunnels, but we have to get into the main keep before we can do that. If we snoop around for them outside, in the snow, we’re going to leave tracks.”

“Alright, fine,” Polyus said. “What do you think, Gabe?”

“Oh, can I use my own mouth now?” I asked, a little irritated by how unceremoniously they started using it as well, and patted my mane, or rather Polyus and Polyusa’s mane, which they had made red and a lot less voluminous, as I thought. “Well, in my own, admittedly limited, experience with skullduggery, it’s better to hide in plain sight than plain hiding. So sure, let’s do this.”

“Uniforms on then?” Evening asked. “Who gets which?”

Before long, Polyus, Polyusa, and I, were dressed in the sergeant’s uniform, Armor in the uniform of the captain in the showers, Evening as a trooper, and Trixie in with clerk’s uniform over her wings, trying to look spaced out, her mane made up in a bun and her saddlebags disguised with scrolls sticking out of it and a clipboard in her hoof.

I looked at us and the three figures trying to look comfortable in their clothes. “We look more motley with the uniforms than without them,” I said, making Polyus and Polyusa laugh.

“No that’s good,” Polyusa said. “It would look more strange if they looked too proper. That’s eye-catching.”

“Yeah, by the way, how does mine look now?” I asked, looking at my reflection in the window, and seeing that both my eyes matched in appearance. “Oh cool.”

“Uhm, I’m not sure how to put this, Trixie,” Evening said. “But could you try and look a little less eye catching?”

“Eye catching how?” she asked.

“Cute,” I and both the Poly twins said at the same time.

“Yeah, you got a lot of that ‘pretty without even trying’ thing going on,” Polyusa added.

“I do?” Trixie said, and looked at herself in the reflection in the window.

“This is kinda familiar,” Armor said.

“Familiar how?” I asked, making Evening and Armor just smile at each other.

“How about this?” Trixie asked, peering up above a pair of glasses she found on a desk.

“Nope,” we all said immediately, and shook out heads.

“Okay,” Trixie said, in an uncertain voice, and put the glasses back. “What do I do then?”

“Try and seem a little shy, like you’re nervous about being near Captain…” Evening said, waving his hoof in Armor’s direction as he searched for words. “... Captain Thunder, I guess.”

“That’s my codename,” I objected.

“Captain… Kicker?”

“Hmm… Captain… Donatello,” I said before shaking my head. “No, I’d be Donatello. Ah, whatever, Captain Kicker, or Don to the rest of us, and you’re Michelangelo, or Mikey.”

“So, like this?” Trixie said, and retreated into herself and looked up shyly at Armor.

“Uh, try and seem shy without seeming to try seeming shy,” he said.

Trixie stared blankly at him, while the rest of us tried and failed to come up with a better suggestion.

“Ugh, let’s just go,” she said, and walked up to the door, before turning back at us. “Private, should you open the door for Captain Kicker?”


—


“Now, remember,” Trixie said, as we walked through the snow. “Stay away from relaxation areas. Kitchens are good though. Not the kitchens themselves, but they have service tunnels connected to them.”

The rest of us nodded, trying to look both determined and bored, to both fit in and to not be disturbed.

We marched through the elbow deep snow, around the building housing the office we just came out of, and approached the main keep. It was easy enough with Polyus and Polyusa helping me keep my balance despite being taller up than I was used to.

I knew from Trixie’s map that it had a different layout than the keep from my Equestria, thought I spotted a large square, empty, though looking as if it should contain something. Perhaps it was nothing, or perhaps it was the counterpart of the Crystal Heart.

The gate to the main keep came into view, the large wooden doors being closed, with one pony on each side standing guard.

“Can we get in?” I asked, without moving my head. “The doors are closed.”

“Yes,” Trixie said.

“Who opens the door?”

“Uuh… Evening, you do it if they look like they’re not going to.”

“Got it,” he said.

“Showtime, everypony,” Trixie said, before we entered the guards’ hearing range. “Remember, Gabe, persuasion is on you, not on the captain.”

The two guards had righted up by the time we approached, and were looking at us stoically.

“Sir,” they said, and saluted when they saw Armor, and stood there for a moment, before I tilted my head and bore my eye into the one closest to the handle for the door, which seemed to make him a little too nervous.

Just as Evening was about to step up and open the door, the guard finally moved, jerkingly pulling open the door himself.

Armor pretended to bite back a sigh, and nodded at the guards, before stepping through, followed by myself, then Armor and Trixie.

Probably assuming that no one would notice, they looked appreciatively at Trixie’s tail, which was what we didn’t want, lest they spot the inclination of wings under her clothes.

Armor noticed it, and raised his eyebrow at the guards. “Problem?” he asked.

“No, sir,” the guard said, before letting his eyes linger on Armor. “Although pardon me, sir, but I don’t recognize you. Might I ask your name?”

Armor bought time by raising his eyebrow again. This was looking bad already, and I decided to keep their eyes from inspecting any of us for too long comfortably.

I gave them a confused and highly disapproving look, which I let linger for a moment, before I straightened my posture and said, “I’ll handle this, sir,” remembering not to salute indoors.

Armor nodded at me, then kept walking with the others. I let them move a few steps before I turned to the guards, especially the one observant one, with my mouth twisted by the pretend-vitriol I was about to spew. Luckily, they were not familiar with human media.

“What was that?” I barked, before gathering up some more bile to lace my words with. “What. The buck. Was that!?”

The guard had taken a step back and was looking at me with wide eyes. “S-sir, uh, ma’am–”

“When you, as a private, stand in the presence of officers, you do not insinuate suspicions like a gossiping noble! You ask for identification loudly, clearly, and according to protocol, am I understood!?”

“Y-yes, sir!” he stammered.

“I am not a sir!” I barked at him, indicating the sergeant markings on the uniform I was wearing. “I work for a living, maggot! You will stop wasting the time of your superiors, or you will spend so much time cleaning latrines you will not be able to tell the difference between your own orifices! Do I make myself clear!?”

“Yes si– ma’am– sergeant!”

“Good, now go back to your post, soldier, and close the door,” I said, and righted my uniform as I glared after them.

I turned around and walked down the corridor after the others.

“That was some persuasion, Gabe,” Polyusa said, and I could feel them trying to stifle their giggles.

“Shh!” Polyus hissed, when a black maned unicorn mare came into view, another officer.

“Sergeant,” she said, before I had time to even try and remind myself what the proper response was.

“Ma’am,” I said, noticing the major’s insignia on her, and standing at attention.

“Is there any trouble?” she asked.

“No, ma’am,” I said, immediately.

‘That’s right, I’m the kind of sergeant who takes care of the troops. Don’t let those stuffy officers get involved. They might get ideas.’

“Just a reminder about procedure.”

“Mmm… procedure,” the major repeated, nodding slowly. “Follow me, sergeant.”

“Ma’am,” I said, and followed without hesitation. No hesitation in body language I mean. As the major turned around, she just missed a very nervous looking Armor ducking his head back around a corner.

We marched past the corridor they had ducked behind, which was empty of ponies except for my friendly trio, Armor pretending to be reading a clipboard that Trixie was showing him, while Evening patiently waited to the side. They glanced up as we walked past, and I gave them a reassuring nod, which they returned, before we were out of sight.

The major led me along a corridor of offices, and into one that said “Maj. Morning Mist”. I flicked my ear against my comm-unit, hoping Polyus or Polyusa would pick up on this and letting the others listen to what was happening.

“Close the door,” she said, which I did, as she plopped down behind the desk, and let out a sigh. “What’s your name, sergeant?” she asked.

“Blue Thunder, ma’am,” I said.

“Blue Thunder,” she repeated. “Well, sergeant Thunder, I have a situation. Four troopers are missing.”

“Ma’am?” I said, not exactly feeling as if she was playing with me.

“Ga– uh… Blue Thunder,” Armor’s stressed voice sounded in my ear. “We have eyes on Rocksteady, he seems to be heading your way. No sign of Bebop.”

“You’ve not heard of this?” The major asked, while I was still processing that latest tidbit.

“No, ma’am, I have not,” I said, readily but without passion.

“What’s your take on the situation?”

“I…” was all I managed to say before there was a knock on the door, which immediately opened, and the voice made my eyes turn to pinpricks and my mane and tail try even harder to stand up straight underneath Poly’s form.

“Major, I have still not received any reports from Tempest Valley,” a bored sounding Golden Star said, as I desperately struggled to get my composure under control.

Luckily, the major’s attention was focused on the lieutenant commander in front of her.

“Oh,” he said, and I stiffly turned and faced the wall perpendicular to Major Mist and Lieutenant Commander Golden Star. “Am I interrupting something?”

“I was talking with sergeant Thunder here about four missing troopers, and asking what her take on it might be,” Mist said.

“Missing troopers?” he said, turning to face me just as I was getting my expression under control. “Indeed? Please proceed.”

I blinked, thinking rapidly about what might be the best response, which was obviously what the sort of pony I was pretending to be would say. I also thanked my lucky star that Polyus and Polyusa had thought ahead to change my voice slightly. “Well, ma’am, sir… if they failed to report for call, I’d search the barracks for ponies hung over or otherwise self-incapacitated, followed by recreation, followed by the sick bay in case of botched paperwork,” I said, being careful not to mention any types of entertainment and other things that might keep troopers from their duty that this distant place didn’t offer. “If they failed to report back from an assignment… I’d start with getting word to the perimeter patrols that we might have deserters.”

“And in the case of intruders?” Golden Star asked.

“I’d… check what unit they’re missing from, and use my own judgement to determine whether they can be trustworthy before ordering them to make a full search of the base, starting here and fanning outward.”

“Why would they not be trustworthy?” Golden asked, one eyebrow raised.

“If a patrol is missing, it might not have been with a struggle,” I said. “They might be compromised.”

“Mm,” Golden said, and turned to Morning Mist. “Major, I think the sergeant is onto something. Call in another company and assign them to sweep the base. Sergeant, you’re coming with me.”

“Yes, sir,” I let Morning Mist say, while I simply nodded and wordlessly followed Golden Star out into the corridor.”

“Don, the patrons are more likely to approve of your attire,” Trixie’s voice sounded in my ear, clearly talking to Armor. “Mine and Tristar’s equipage is too low-class for the private booths. Blue Thunder, we heard all of that. Don is going to order what you ordered, while Tristar and I will and try and check the state of the pantry.”

“We’re going to need your bag here!” Polyus hissed through the radio, non-audibly for Golden Star.

“You… good point,” Trixie said. “You take this, and we’ll make way towards the mess, find that corridor along the larder we talked about. Thunder, Don will be right behind you.”

I kept quiet, simply following closely behind Golden Star. Armor was going to try and follow me and Poly, while Evening and Trixie were going to try and infiltrate deeper into the castle.

I was concentrating on walking straight ahead, letting the possibilities play out in my head. The moment that Golden Star asked me anything about the make-believe pony I was acting as, the jig would be up. So many other things could mess it up. The best thing I felt I could hope for was if he took me into his office or some other location with at least a degree of privacy, where with skill and a little luck, we could neutralize him quietly.

Golden Star turned and opened the door to his office. A solid wall one, rather than with partial glass walls like the major’s office. Immediately I felt once we filed in and I closed the door behind us. I took a calming breath, knowing that I technically had two friends with me on the room.

“Thunder, I’m going to try and find a good place to loiter,” Armor whispered through the comms.

“So, sergeant,” Golden said, and sat down behind his desk. “What did the major tell you?”

“That four troopers were missing, sir,” I said, standing straight. “She asked for my take on the situation, and that’s when you stepped into the room, sir.”

“That early?” he asked, a bit disappointed. “Poor timing on my part. It would have been best if she could tell you more about it.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know if I follow,” I said.

“She’s under suspicion,” Golden said. “By me, not officially, but with everypony here coming from the –” he bobbed his head a little in annoyance “– the ‘military’, under Luna, there is of course the risk that some here are spies.”

I nodded, deciding that the best way was to pretend that no one had outright said this to me, but as a sergeant I knew what was going on. “Yes sir. I’m afraid I have no insight other than what I told you. I didn’t even get the company.”

“Pity,” he said. “But this could be good. She’s already suspicious of me, and if I seem to blatantly disregard an opportunity by dragging you away like that, perhaps that’ll throw away some suspicions.”

“Yes sir. Should I be hearing this, sir?” I asked, looking straight ahead.

“Why? What are you suggesting?” he asked, smirking a little at me.

“No offence, sir, but it’s starting to sound like I’m being tested,” I said, looking him in the eye.

He raised an eyebrow at me with an amused smile. “What a mess this could turn into, eh? Nopony trusting anypony else,” he said, and opened a tin with mints, spilling out two onto the desk and taking one in his mouth.

“As you say, sir. Should I act on this in any way, sir, or should I proceed like the major asked me to?”

“No suspicion against myself?” he asked.

“Should I tell you if that’s the case, sir?”

His smirk deepened. “Very good.”

“Besides, sir, you’re trusted with searching for the ponies that his majesty wants. I’ll let him be the judge,” I said.

Golden considered me in still silence for just a moment, making me afraid that I had made a mistake, before he nodded.

“A simple assumption, but understandable,” he said, twirling the mint on his desk. “Now, there is just one more thing before I let you go to do as the good major asked.”

“Yes sir?”

He didn’t say anything, instead flicking the mint into my right eye.

It looked disguised, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to recoil with the lack of sensation.

For half a second, the world seemed to stand still as Golden’s smirk became predatory, and he lunged at us over the desk, breathing the word, “Clever,” as he did.

Not many can relate to the sensation of having the tight and warm suit you were in suddenly vanish from around you, but that’s what happened when Polyus and Polyusa transformed away from me into one body on my side, out of the uniform, and I fell to the floor on my legs with the clothes falling loosely around me. 

‘Drat. I was just starting to get comfortable too.’

Golden’s eye widened, and he swung at them with his hooves.

They blocked the first blow, but they only partially managed to roll with the second one, aimed at their muzzle, making them both yelp at the same time.

I leapt up, rearing up and preparing to block with my prosthesis, still covered in Poly’s silk, but he hesitated when saw me clearly, which in turn made me hesitate as well.

Poly stepped up and closed in tightly against him, and he blocked their fangs with the keratin of his hoof. I stepped up and grabbed his other foreleg, and magicked my stun rod out of my holster, immediately putting it against his neck and discharging.

Golden grunted, and collapsed against his desk, somehow still conscious, if barely, breathing slowly and looking up at us. “... Very clever,” he said, as the door quietly opened, and Armor peered in.

When he saw the scene, he quickly stepped in and closed the door behind him.

“I got it,” he said, throwing the pack off his shoulder, and pulling it open.

Poly held Golden’s forearms against the desk, and I moved out of his line of sight with the rod at the ready while Armor worked in quick silence. Golden’s head was rolling gently back and forth as he breathed heavily, clearly not in a state to put up a fight, but he and Rosen had done their best not to underestimate me, and I thought I’d extend the same courtesy.

His eyes widened for a moment when Armor slipped into the bag on his desk and held out his forelegs to carry Golden. He and Poly carried him into the bag, and when they were all the way in, I slipped it under Golden’s desk, away from view, before quickly scanning the corridor to make sure there were no signs of us having been made, before jumping in after them.

“Officer school didn’t make him soft,” Polyus said, now in the safety of the bag where we wouldn’t be overheard, rubbing their jaw slightly. “That punch could’ve hurt.”

Golden chuckled weakly in an apologetic tone.

“Restraints,” Armor said.

“Restraints,” Polyus said, handing over the elaborate arrangement for truly immobilizing a pegasus.

Capable as Golden was, he still didn’t have much of a chance when faced with three armed ponies. Still, Armor and Poly worked quickly, as Golden was noticeably regaining some energy.

I unbuttoned the uniform and stepped out of it as I walked up to them.

“When did you see through us?” I asked in a conversational tone, trying to not make him put his guard up, as Poly and Armor carried him towards a cushion and put him down on it.

“Comfy?” Polyus asked, keeping his voice neutral.

“Mm,” Golden nodded in a conceding manner, as he tried and eventually managed to focus on me. “Intuition.”

I chewed my cheek casually as I considered him. “Oh, your assignment was secret wasn’t it? No one else around here knew that you were on a mission to find us.”

“Mmm… very good,” he nodded. “I’m actually suspecting you can pull this off, whatever you’re trying.”

“You don’t seem concerned,” Armor pointed out.

“But I might be,” Golden said. “Anyway, bringing you here was what we were trying to do all along, which begs the question of why you are here. You’re not going to kill him are you?”

“Sombra?” I asked, and shook my head. “Probably not. We just want to take a look at what he’s doing.”

“Mm, you’ve come to the right place then. What are you going to do next?”

“We’re playing this by ear,” Armor said.

“Really now?” Golden asked, looking impressed. “Well you have a prisoner. I hope you’re not going to get information out of me too uncomfortably.”

“That would feel wrong, considering how acceptable my imprisonment conditions were,” I said.

“Mine weren’t,” Armor pointed out.

“Yes,” Golden said, in a slow tone. “Well, if you’d seen fit to crash somewhere else the whole thing might have ended up being faster. Anyway, any questions?”

“Sorry, but we probably wouldn’t trust your answers,” I said, shrugging at him with an apologetic smile.

“Fair enough.”

“Alright, make sure he’s secured,” I said. “I’m going to take a look around outside.”

Halfway towards the opening of the bag, I stopped, as it felt like something heavy settled in my guts.

‘What? Have a look around at what? What are you doing? Why are you here? Stop Sombra. Stop Sombra how? He wants to capture you and he’s here, where you are! He might be two rooms away!’

My hind legs gave way gave out and I sat down hard on the floor.

‘You’re not a super spy. A super spy knows what to do. You’re just some dummy who walked right into where an evil wizard wants you to be. An evil wizard who can conquer nations by himself wants you and you’ve walked right into his house. Why me? Why… I want to go home. I want it all to stop. I want to go home...’

Strong, soft forelegs wrapped themselves around me, and Armor held me close.

My breathing, which I hadn’t noticed how fast and heavy it was before now, was slowly calming down, as I pressed myself against his warm form.

Wordlessly, he let me calm down as he rested his head on top of mine.

“This isn’t how it’s supposed to work,” he said, quietly. “My most important job is to keep you safe and I should be getting you out of here and as far away as I can, but we both have to be here, and it’s all wrong.

“I’m sorry, Gabe” he said, making that heavy feeling in my chest start aching as well. “I’m so sorry.”

I put my foreleg around him as comfortingly as I could, and nodded into his chest. “Me too,” I said.

I felt his heartbeat gently slow down together with mine, and we sat like that for a while, not caring about the others in the room.

After a while, he whispered to me. “I’m scared.”

“So am I,” I whispered back.

There were no assurances like there were before. They wouldn’t have felt right. At least there were none in words. We just pressed ourselves against each other and felt each other's heartbeats slow down.

After several minutes, we took one deep breath together, and looked each other in the eye.

“Ready?” he asked.

I nodded, not being ready but being as ready as I could be, before we walked over to the exit to the house.

I looked back at Golden, who considered me with a slightly mournful expression, before nodding at me in recognition.

After taking the first step after that towards our goal felt slightly invigorating. A feeling which grew gradually after that. I poked my head out of the bag and looked around with my magical sight.

The room was empty and the corridor showed a stallion walk past the office, holding back a sneeze.

“This is Blue Thunder,” I hissed, low enough so that Golden wouldn’t overhear. “How’s the decor, Bravo Team?”

“This is, uh, Splinter,” Trixie said. “We’ve found a service passage to the executive’s office and we’re going for a post-dinner stroll. Recommend convening at… the… uhm… look, if you’re where I think you are, go east through the offices. That’ll lead you to a side door of the large vestibule going to the long gallery, walk straight ahead to the opposite door, and we’ll meet you there.”

I glanced down at Poly and Armor, and we all looked at each other.

“Copy that, Splinter,” I said. “Stand by.”

We hopped out of the bag, and I made sure that the corridor was clear, before Poly and I joined again, and we slung the saddlebags over ourselves.

So long as there wasn’t too much interference, I could see through walls, which, after Armor’s presence, was the most efficient balm for my nerves at the moment. We quietly hurried past one set of restrooms, and slowed down in time for one pony walking out to not get a look at our faces. I’m not sure if seeing someone’s face makes you more likely to try and scrutinize you for an intruder, but it certainly felt better to already be moving away from people by the time they saw us.

Before long, we were walking across the wide hallway next to the beginning of the long gallery, and I only caught glimpses of the cloth-covered crystal shapes chronicling forgotten history and ancient points in time.

There weren’t many guards though. We were deep inside the hive now, past the sentries and lookouts. I magically spotted some standing by the side of the double doors leading into the hallway we moved through, but little else.

When we stepped into the corridor that Trixie had mentioned, we almost jumped when two ponies walked out into our field of view, moving as if with a clear purpose, before we realized that it was Trixie and Evening.

Armor and I nodded at them, before Trixie held up her hoof soothingly.

“We’re alone,” she said, making all of us breathe out a sigh of relief at having the party back together.

“We got Golden S– uuh, Rocksteady,” I said, and slipped out of Trixie’s bag, hoofing it over to her. “He’s in here.”

“Poor guy. Hopefully I’ll be able to buy him a drink in the future for this, if all of this works out,” Trixie said, and slipped the saddlebags onto her again. “We’ve scouted a service corridor. It’s unguarded and it’ll take us almost all the way to Skeletor’s chambers. We don’t know how many guards are after that, but there has to be somepony.”

“You didn’t run into any other problems?” Polyusa asked.

“No,” Evening said, shaking his head slightly. “I was afraid we would when we were loitering outside the kitchen. It’s happened before.”

Armor smiled and nodded in recognition.

“Well… what say we get going?” Trixie suggested, gesturing at the door, leading onward.

We all took a breath, and opened it, revealing a long, narrow, empty passage, without doors to the side or windows, only dust and weak illumination hanging from the ceiling.

I looked around with my right eye, not seeing any immediate threats, and walked softly between the rest.

“What is this place?” I asked. “It wasn’t on the map.”

“No, I’ve never seen it before. Probably an old service route for the old crystal empress,” Trixie said. “It does go straight from the kitchen after all.”

“Are we going to run into someone delivering food here?” I asked.

“Probably not, considering the hoof prints in the dust have more dust in them,” Poly pointed out.

“Good point.”

At the far end of the corridor was another door. We softly walked up to it and waited.

“If my sense of direction is correct from what I remember of the palace,” Trixie said, slowly. “We should be very close to the old empress’ personal quarters, which, like I said back when we were planning, had full compliments with sitting rooms and sleeping quarters and, of course, a magical laboratory.”

I looked through the door and the walls, and saw a pair of guards in the distance to the side.

“Two guards standing by a door to our right,” I said. “I don’t see anyone else magically though, but I can only see so far.”

“Keep your eye on them, see if they react when I do this,” Trixie said, and started pushing slightly on the wall, slowly opening the hidden door leading out into the corridor.

It was gentle enough to not creak, but while it was hard to make out details, one of the guards did move his head towards us.

“Ooh-oh, they noticed,” I hissed, as the guard started moving towards us, gaining the attention of his comrade.

“Where is he?” Trixie asked, not being able to see properly out through the small opening.

“She. There,” I said, pointing at and tracking the guard with my right forehoof, as the rest crouched down, ready to pounce.

“Alright,” Trixie said. “On my mark, we jump out. Evening, Gabe, you start with the closer one and I focus on the other.”

“Got it,” Evening said.

“Go!”

Trixie shot out of the door and flew up to the ceiling, giving her a clear shot at the far guard.

The two guards took a moment to try and figure out what they were seeing, while Evening and I burst out through the door as well.

Trixie and I, who had our horns and stun guns trained on the guards, let loose bolts of magic at the same time, knocking them out immediately, making them fall uncomfortably loudly to the floor.

Trixie immediately set down, and we looked down the length of the corridor for a few tense seconds, before slowly relaxing enough to move properly when we saw it was empty.

“Alright, let’s move,” Trixie said, and briskly up to the unconscious guard, floating her up and starting to shove her down her saddle bag. “There’s already suspicions about that patrol and as soon as anypony notices that these guards are missing, we’re in trouble.”

Evening and Armor walked up and dumped the other guard in the other one, while I checked the bordering rooms with my eye.

“This is probably what we’re looking for,” I said, pointing at the door. “Enchantments and magic everywhere, but no one in there.”

“Good. Let’s get this over with before we meet somepony we won’t be able to beat,” Polyusa said.

We walked in through the door, and stopped to take in the sight, before Poly had the presence of mind to close the door behind us.

It was a large room full of large doodads standing on the floor, small ones on tables, and disassembled ones spread out everywhere, some of them covered in cloth, others not.

Perhaps it was what was available in the empire, or perhaps Sombra just favored gems and crystals like me, but it was mainly that.

Taking up the center of the room was a mirror. I had never gotten a clear image of how large I was compared to when I was a human, but it looked like it was a full-body mirror for a very large human, and was absolutely enormous to me.

“Is… is this it?” Armor asked, softly walking up to the mirror. “Celestia came here through a mirror didn’t she? Does this mirror lead back to our Equestria?”

“It’s… no, it can’t,” I said, walking up next to him and inspecting it. “It shouldn’t, he needs us for some reason.”

I had only worked on portals to other worlds once before, or rather, my body had worked on portals once, and it was while I was trying to focus on stopping my body from doing so, and been distracted in so many other ways.

I desperately sifted through my memory of what I had done, and what it had felt like I had been doing, but I just couldn’t remember.

If I had weeks, or even months, to study this mirror, I might be able to figure out exactly what it did and how it did it, but I didn’t. I didn’t even know if I had a minute.

“Then why… why does he need us?” Armor asked.

“I… don’t know,” I said.

“You might know something you don’t know is important,” Trixie said. “Or it’s because you’re a Stranger, but if destroying this is what is going to stop Sombra, then–”

That’s as far as she got before an alarm sounded in the distance. A loud, drawn out, rallying cry, much like a warning siren.

We all jumped, and looked at each other, eyes like pinpricks.

Poly separated into two changelings, and took up position behind a desk with Evening, pointing their stun guns at the door we had come in through.

I stood, frozen, staring at the mirror with wide eyes, when Trixie stepped up next to us, lighting up her horn and pointing it at the mirror.

I was almost about to slap her away when she powered down and turned to us, with a mournful expression on her.

“You need to be the ones to do it,” she said.

“Gabe. Can we go through?” Armor said.

“No,” I said, and poked at it with my hoof, making it clack like a normal mirror. “It’s not complete.”

“Who is he?” Armor whispered to himself.

“What if I’m supposed to finish it? If I do, and we go through, I could destroy it from the other side. I… I don’t know how… if–”

That’s when Armor grabbed me and held me tight in one foreleg, while taking out his stun rod with the other and smashing the mirror with it.

It broke just like any other mirror would. In an instant, the cracks had spread out from the impact, and large shards were falling noisily to the floor, shattering further.

Something was leaving me as I saw it being destroyed. I couldn’t exactly tell what it was, if it was or concern or something else, but I could detect relief when among it. It was done, and now we had other things to worry about.

Armor turned me around and looked me in the eye. After a moment, I closed my mouth and nodded at him.

“Poly, whoever of you is in the temporary body, be ready to get out of here,” Trixie said.

“Aye aye,” they both said at the same time.

Armor, Trixie, and I also took cover, just as we heard the sound of galloping ponies out in the corridor.

“Lose those spears!” we heard Rosen Wreath yell from the other side of the door. “Now! Stun weapons only.”

“So uh… what do we do?” Evening said.

I would’ve liked to know more about what the sirens had seen and how things were supposed to happen. I didn’t know if Sombra was stopped, but what was calming about this situation was that there was only one thing to do.

I smiled sheepishly at Evening, then turning my prosthetic hoof around a full turn, making sure my stun gun was ready, before grinning at him. “Dodge like a butterfly, shoot like a Schwarzenegger.”

Armor chuckled as he and Poly readied their weapons, and then the door was kicked in, slamming into the wall with a loud noise.

A horde of ponies quickly advanced in, behind a shield wall.

We let out a volley at the approaching troopers, and only one struck true, but the gap that created was quickly sealed by another pony rushing up and picking up the shield.

I launched my grappling hook at a shield in the middle, and snatching it out of the grip of the confused mare, before she quickly fell to a bolt of magic.

Now Armor and I had a shield of our own, but when I tried that trick a second time, the pony held onto the shield, launching both it and him towards me.

I ended up on my back with the shield and the stallion on top of it pressing down on me.

“Ow! You stool sample!” I yelled, and threw him off from me, making him land behind our lines.

Polyusa turned around and felled him with a bolt of magic, but was hit herself with a bolt from a unicorn behind the partial shieldwall, which was getting closer all the time. She collapsed on her belly, groaning softly.

“Get in there!” Rosen grunted, and rushed in at the head of another wave of ponies.

He jumped over the first wave, stun rod drawn, towards Trixie, who was at the far left of us, placing Trixie between us and him.

Trixie drew her own weapon, and was immediately locked in a duel with him.

I trained my prosthesis on him, trying to get a clear shot, when a new series of magic bolts started firing in the room.

Before I knew what was going on, something was pressing my legs down against the floor, and I lay on my back, struggling to move them even an inch.

I heard Trixie let out a yelp, and saw her being flung across the room, and disappear into or behind a black, cloudy substance, which then flowed towards the rest of us with alarming speed.

Evening and Armor futilely raised their weapons, but it was too late. It was upon us, and after only a few seconds, receded, and gathered in on itself in the middle of the room, making our opponents put their weapons to the side and stand at attention.

When I saw what happened next, I felt a little less sheepish about the sudden defeat.

Sombra stood in the middle, cloaked and regal, looking at the shattered mirror with an unreadable face, his horn glowing with a soft purple light.

I looked at Armor, who was lying next to me, similarly held down with Sombra’s purple magic. He looked apologetic, but I was mostly glad that he was okay. Maybe because it was all I could be glad about.

Rosen Wreath, who was breathing heavily, walked up towards him stiffly. “Majesty.”

“Commander,” Sombra said. “Report.”

“Sorry, sir, but we just got here ourselves.”

Sombra nodded, and glanced at Trixie.

“Check the possessions of Bellatrix Lulamoon,” he calmly said, making half the soldiers in the room briskly walk up towards her.

Sombra stepped over to Armor and me, and looked at us with a soft expression. “Thank you for coming,” he said, in a tone that was strangely lacking in mockery.

“Ah, there you are,” I heard Rosen say, muffled by the fact that he was in Trixie’s bag.

“Yeah they got me. Again,” Golden said, before the guards we had knocked out before was floated out of the bag, followed by Golden and Rosen climbing out as well. “Majesty,” he said, when he saw Sombra.

“Lieutenant-Commander,” Sombra acknowledged him. “You and Rosen, move our guests to the most secure cell there is, and make sure they don’t go anywhere.”

“You heard him,” Rosen said. “Get restraints on them. You, go get a medic, and you, go make sure the cells are ready.”

It was with clockwork efficiency that things moved after that, except when some ponies approached me and Armor, whereupon Sombra lifted us up in front of him.

“I’ll take care of these ones myself,” he said, and started to walk out behind the rest of the ponies.

Evening was quietly walking between a pair of guards, a ring on his horn and restraints that prevented him from pulling it off. Trixie was being carried on the back of Rosen, and Polyus or Polyusa was carried by Golden.

I looked around, before I pretended to be disappointed and hang my head.

I only saw one of the Poly twins, and I didn’t remember seeing what had happened to the other.

Before long, we reached the stairs leading down to the cells, Armor and I being unable to look Sombra, or anyone else, in the eye.

We were carried into a large cell, the room of one being steel bars where the gaolers could keep an eye on us, and where a medic stood by.

Our gear and equipment was quickly removed, Trixie being held up by earth ponies as a unicorn took her out of the uniform.

“Secure them properly,” Rosen ordered, as the ponies set Trixie and the rest down on cots and chaining them to the wall. “Especially the filly. She’s a sly one.”

“Before that...” Sombra said, setting me down on a cot, my limbs still held tight against me.

My foreleg moved on its own, presenting itself to Sombra, who inspected it for a moment before he tore off the silk that Poly had covered it with.

I let out a small gasp as he unlocked the seal that held the enchantment active, allowing it to fall off me.

He immediately removed it, and my hind leg, before angling my head up and plucking out my prosthetic eye.

It didn’t hurt, of course, at least physically, but it hammered home just how defeated I was.

Sombra put a hoof to my cheek and turned my face to look at him.

He sighed, with a melancholic expression. “Rest,” he said. “It’s not over yet.”

Then he turned to Armor, who only gave him a hurt and angry expression. “Take care of her,” Sombra told him, before chaining us to the wall in a way that allowed us to lean against each other.

He turned around and walked up to Trixie, gently holding her face in a hoof, with an expression I couldn’t see from where I was, before he walked out of the cell, grabbing Evening’s prosthesis as if an afterthought.

“Wait,” I said, making him turn around and look at me.

“The changeling. Put her between them,” I said, nodding at Trixie and Evening.

Sombra nodded at the others, who quickly put Poly where I asked.

Sombra walked out of the dungeon, the handful of guards staying behind dropping some of their stoicness when he was out of sight and looking at their captives with open perplexity.

Once Poly was secured, Golden let out a sigh and visibly sagged.

“You okay?” Rosen asked.

Golden nodded, and took a deep breath before straightening up. “Finally,” he said.

“Indeed,” Rosen said, and gestured at the medic, standing in the corner. “If you will, doc.”

He walked up with his bag towards Trixie, put on a stethoscope, and checked her heart rate, opened her eyes, and did everything else for a quick rundown with her.

“Ser Lulamoon looks healthy,” he said, half to himself, as he righted her wings so that they didn’t slump.

“He wouldn’t hurt his old student,” Rosen said. “She’s going to be fine.”

I sneered bitterly at that. It wouldn’t matter once he got his way. ‘Who knows who she’ll be once he joins the two worlds together?’

The doctor covered the end of his stethoscope in some sort of rubber extension, and put it on Poly. “Never been very familiar with changelings,” he said. “Exoskeleton looks fine except for a chip beneath the wing.”

Evening’s eyes widened ever so slightly when the doctor mentioned that.

“Should grow back soon considering how lustrous the rest is despite how close to molting she is. Well fed. What knocked her out?” the doctor asked, looking up at Evening.

“He,” I said, before anyone else could say anything. “Magic bolt. Ask your own side.”

The doctor looked at the guards on the other side of the bar, eyebrows raised.

“Uhm, standard bolt,” one unicorn mare said, scuffing the floor slightly.

“I see. Now then.”

He turned to Evening, who had avoided being hit during the fight, and did a quick rundown with the stethoscope before he gently took Evening’s foreleg in his own, which was the limb that wasn’t chained to the wall.

“This didn’t happen recently,” the doctor noted.

“Brisk Wind Pass out of Tempest Valley, four years ago, I believe,” Golden said.

“Aah, so this is the one,” Rosen said. “One of our old monster wranglers?”

“That’s right,” Golden said. “Lost his leg under our command. How have you been, private?”

Evening sat still for a moment, while the doctor continued to inspect him, before answering. “Fine, thank you, sir.”

“Oh really?” Golden said, getting a lot more of a casual composure then I had seen before. “Lost your leg, and your job because of it, and you’ve still been fine? I have to admire that.”

“Other ponies have lost more,” Evening said. “And I got better.”

Golden raised his eyebrows in amusement, and glanced, together with all the other guards and the medic, at Rosen, who chuckled at the words.

“Perhaps,” Rosen said, as the doctor walked up to me. “Not that anypony could be blamed for quitting after that.”

The medic gently touched my right shoulder and the remaining part of my lower leg.

“How old are you?” he asked, softly.

“Twenty six, I believe” Rosen said.

The guards on the other side of the bars murmured and looked at each other, while the doctor nodded his head, and started examining me as well.

“She really is just a filly,” I heard someone say.

“Although… I guess in present company one might feel that part of a lost limb is insufficient to resign,” Golden added, still glancing at Rosen.

“I’ll say nothing,” he said.

“What are they talking about?” I asked Evening.

Armor was nodding in understanding at Rosen. “You’re not an earth pony.”

Rosen gave Armor a nod of recognition, and my eye narrowed as I looked at his back, where when I looked for it, I could see the small bumps where his wings had been severed.

“So where did you get those legs that his majesty took from you?” the doctor asked me conversationally.

“She made them,” Rosen said, renewing the murmur from the guards outside.

“Well can she make some for you?”

“Most likely,” Rosen said, and turned towards me. “You could, couldn’t you?”

I considered the, as I just now learned, pegasus stallion, as I thought about what to say.

I could make him wings. No problem. Get two wing shaped objects and hollow them out, I’ll sling some enchantments and away we flap.

And I would have, if he asked me. I was captured and about to be used for something, I didn’t even know what, to open a portal to another world so that they’d blend together, and he was one of my captors, but I would still do it.

“A different question,” Rosen said, as the doctor opened my empty eye socket, making the guards cringe away. “What did the Dazzlings say to you? Did you come here because of what they said?”

I remained silent. I was mentally exhausted and confused. I knew what had happened, but I was still emotionally coming to terms with it, and silent glaring felt like the best way to not break down and cry into Armor’s chest, who couldn’t hold me because he was chained against the wall next to me.

“Why would they come here, Commander?” one guard asked.

“Not for giggles, we can be sure of that,” Rosen said. “They had a purpose, and Gabrielle here is the greatest threat.”

“Is she really that dangerous?” another guard asked.

“Not because of her fighting skills,” Rosen noted. “Although don’t underestimate that either, any of you.”

“No loose lips, but she still sinks ships,” Golden added, in a wry tone.

The doctor had moved on and was finishing up his inspection of Armor, packing up everything in his bag. “They’re all fine,” he said. “Missing parts or not, and the changeling and ser Lulamoon will recover.”

“Good,” Rosen said, and turned to the guards. “Alright, boys and girls, I want this section fully manned at all times. They’ve been known to break out of highly guarded placed before.”

Some of the guards took up position outside the cells, while the doctor, Rosen, and Golden, marched out of the cell and closed the door behind them, leading the rest of the guards outside.

“Is that a gryphon name by the way?” I heard someone ask.

Because I wasn’t chained on my right side, I had a little more freedom than the other. Not enough to jump off the cot, but enough to lean against Armor’s chest. With his wings and legs tied, the only thing he could do was rest his head on top of mine.

“What do we do?” he whispered.

“We wait,” I whispered back. “For our changeling to wake up.”

There were arrangements against changeling magic in the cells no doubt, which wouldn’t have made that very suspicious for any guards that overheard, but we knew something they didn’t.

Evening leaned against Polyusa’s unconscious form, just being able to nuzzle her foreleg, but hopefully giving a boost of energy to the reason she was staying unconscious.


—


The snow crunched together from the impact of the landing, as the chitinous form crashed into it.

It would have been folly, flying south in a straight line, but desperation made Polyus not even look back to see if he was being pursued.

He was beyond exhaustion, but even so he put one foreleg in front of him and tried dragging himself forward. No doubt a patrol would spot the signs of his mad dash south before long, but worrying about that would be a useless waste of energy, and energy was in precious short supply.

He righted himself up, and shakily marched on.

“Too far,” he gasped, and collapsed on the ground, where the snow was giving way to green grass and shrubs.

He tried dragging himself further, but didn’t even have the energy for that. “I can’t…” he breathed desperately. “Have to… have to…”

He barely noticed the hoof lifting his chin, before the soft voice asked him, full of concern, “Have to what, my little changeling?”


—


“Mmm-hah!” Trixie gasped, as she woke up with a start, jangling her chains and looking around wide eyed for a moment, before slumping like the rest of us.

“Welcome back,” Armor said, dispassionately.

Trixie looked around more calmly and took a moment to properly register where she was.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Sombra showed up,” Armor said, having lifted my head from Armor. “Beat us like it was nothing.”

“What did he say about the mirror?”

“Nothing, he just said that it’s not over yet.”

Trixie looked at the crystal floor in silence, deep in thought, before turning to Poly. “How are th– how is he doing?”

“Not sure,” Evening said, glancing at Poly’s unconscious face from the other side. “He’s been like this since before we got here.”

“I… hope he’s having nice dreams,” Trixie ventured.

“Hopefully, yeah,” Evening said. “Help me give him a nuzzle, in case he’s hungry.”

I almost didn’t want them to. I almost wanted to Polyus and Polyusa to wake up and say that they failed at whatever one of them went to do. I didn’t want to keep doing this anymore.

I just hung my head, Armor looking at me worriedly.

“Gabe?” Trixie said. “How are you doing?”

I couldn’t really answer, because I didn’t really know. I just kept thinking back to Ponyville, of the sight up from the hill where the Crusaders’ clubhouse were. That hauntingly beautiful sight, from where countless adventures called at you, beckoning you to explore the little rivers and meadows with your friends, meet new and kind people, and learn new things.

Twilight’s library. All of it. My room, my bed, the basement where all manner of interesting things could be hidden, the balconies which gave you an excellent view of Ponyville while the canopy turned it into a cozy hiding place.

It was both a soothing and painful dream to have, yet the spots in themselves were little more than vistas. It was the people, the ponies who lived there, that made it what it was. Would they still be there tomorrow? Would they remember their past lives? Or would I be the only one that knew how things should be?

“Gabe?” Armor asked, reaching out to try and nuzzle me, but not reaching the way I sat. “Gabe, listen to me. You can’t give up. You’ve never given up and you won’t do it now.”

“I…” I started, tears welling up in my eye. “I don’t want to… I can’t do it again.

“I didn’t have anything left. I don’t want to be alone again.”

“Gabe. Please, come here,” Armor said, pulling hard against the chains. “Please.”

I leaned against Armor, and he put his head on mine, unable to do anything else, and even if he could remove the ring blocking my magic it would be a useless gesture when Sombra was near.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said. “We’re going to fix everything, and you’re not alone. I’ll never leave you.”

I wanted to protest. To say that if Sombra had his way, he would. He wouldn’t be the same person.

But it was too painful to say it out loud, so I just sat there as a small stream of tears flowed down my face and down Armor’s coat.

Eventually, I opened my eye, to see Rosen Wreath standing on the other side of the bars, a regretful look on his face, observing us. The guards too, glanced back at us with sympathy in their eyes.

After a while, he spoke up. “What did the sirens say to you?”

We stared at him in silence for a moment, before he sighed.

“Did they tell you to not tell anypony else what they said?”

“... No,” I admitted.

“So then, please, tell me what they told you.”

I looked at the others, and I could tell that they left this up to me, and wouldn’t judge me either way.

“They told us to stop the dark king, and we’d get home,” I said after a while, in a heavy voice.

There was no sniggering or rolling eyes from the guard. No reaction of all, except possibly for a minute twitch in Rosen’s mouth, and a little softening of his expression.

“What else?”

“That the things that determines ponies’ lives doesn’t affect mine.”

This time, Rosen actually smiled. “Correct,” he said. “And that’s what his majesty is planning on using.”

“He isn’t planning anything, Rosen,” Trixie said in a determined voice from the side.

Rosen turned to Trixie, and bowed his head respectfully towards her. “Good to see you awake, Bellatrix. And you may be surprised with what he’s planned.”

“I mean that The Nightmare is controlling him.”

“I stand by my words,” Rosen said. “And now it’s almost time, but first I have a question.” He unlocked the door, walked up and sat down in front of me.

I met his gaze with a neutral expression. For just a moment, he looked very, very tired, before he steeled himself, and gained an unfazed look of casual confidence.

“Would you make new wings for me?”

I had never met anyone I hated who needed my help, and I realized when I looked at him that I still hadn’t. All I knew about him was that he had given up much of himself, both figuratively and literally, to protect the ponies of this Equestria, and that he was brave and even a bit courteous, even to his “enemies”.

I couldn’t blame him for believing that Sombra would be right no matter what. Someone in his position would. Who could stand giving up so much along with your immortal guardian king, only to find out that he was not worth your loyalty?

“Yes,” I said. “But you won’t be the same after Sombra succeeds. No one will.”

“Except you. No destiny and all,” he pointed out, before standing up. “And now it’s almost time. Guards, carry them to the throne room. And don’t untie them.”

The guards filed in and double checked that our manacles were secure before unlatching them from the wall, and throwing us up over their backs, except for me who couldn’t do much without my prosthetics and my magic blocked.

Rosen took me on his back, and I brushed with my hind leg over the small lump where one of his wings would be.

“What do you know about this, Rosen?” Trixie asked, as we were carried out of the dungeons and into the hallways of the crystal castle.

“About what?”

“About Gabe and her not having a destiny.”

“Not much,” he admitted, in a conversational tone. “No more than I’ve heard from his majesty. Gabrielle Desrochers is an aberration, in some ways, in Equestria. Some force keeps us mirrored to the Equestria that she and Armor here comes from. Is that destiny, or is there some other power that compels us to do what we do and be who we are? I don’t know, but it’s clear that nothing like that makes Gabrielle here who she is.”

“And that helps you how?” I asked.

“Think about it,” he said, turning his head to look back at me. “If major events are mirrored in each others’ Equestria, if somepony makes you a central player in them, they can influence how much or how little they actually end up mirroring each other. With your help, a wise enough pony can control the flow of history. We can’t let you run loose or the two realms might end up incompatible.”

Perhaps it was because I didn’t want to think about what was happening, but I was fascinated by this. Perhaps because I’ve never seen myself as anyone special. Special as in I’m special to the people who are special to me, but not special as in Twilight and friends and how they save the world.

“Or make it easier for them to blend together,” I noted, as we moved into a large corridor.

“If I understand it correctly, yes,” Rosen said.

From the large corridor, we reached the large doors leading into the throne room, which closed behind us after we moved in. There, up on the throne room, stood Sombra, flanked by Golden Star and a cadre of guards in armor marking them as the king’s personal guard.

Next to him was a table, were my prostheses and the pieces of the mirror we had destroyed earlier. The guards walked up and gently deposited us on the floor next to the throne. The others were still bound, and I was in no position to put up a fight, stuck sitting with half my limbs missing and my horn disabled.

Sombra was inspecting the things on the table, his back towards us, when he spoke up.

“Imagine knowing that you will outlive everypony close to you,” he said. “Imagine knowing that you can care for someone with all your will and wisdom, learning seemingly all there is to know in the world, and yet some day, the time will come when they leave the world, and you, behind, and you will not be able to stop it.”

He turned around, managing to make his cape flow dramatically as he did, while making it look effortless, and looked at us as if we were having a casual conversation, despite the fact that his eyes exuded tendrils of dark power.

“You could join them of course,” he said, looking lightly contemplative, which seemed a little strange with those eyes. “So many ways to leave this world behind and see what other adventures and journeys await in the great beyond, but there are things for you to do here. Ponies to protect, realms to guard, futures to secure.

“That was my task. I was the king and protector of Equestria. My people vanished when I was too young to remember them, and I was taken in and raised by both wise sages and power-hungry fools. I learned though, and when I was old enough to lead, I did so, and guarded every being in Equestria from conquerors, madponies, and each other.

“The cities were flourishing, the countryside was serene, and I enjoyed the fruits of the peace with the ponies who helped me achieve it, even as they faded away from the world around me. I remember the faces of brave warriors and scholarly wizards who have protected and helped form Equestria with me to this day, and they are many.”

Rosen, Golden, and the rest of the guards stood stoically at attention, though I noticed that their expressions seemed a little heavier.

“Then she appeared, next to an eccentric and scrawny old stallion in a funny hat, making a fool of herself during dinner, and stumbling as she searched for words before I asked her for a dance.”

He smiled serenely, staring off into the distance. “Wonderful dancer though,” he said, before his face hardened. “The mirror of my ancient enemy. The despoiling tyrant who, through some cosmic joke, gained control of the sun. I could not fathom how whatever power forms our world could give such abilities to somepony so cruel…” his face softened again,“... until I saw her as she could have been… as she should have been.”

Sombra shook his head, and focused on me.

“It’s time to end this foolish game. Should every measure of happiness cause equal misery somewhere else? No. No being with an ounce of conscience can be happy knowing that.”

“Do you care though?” Trixie asked, pointedly.

Sombra turned to her, and smiled. “Oh, Bellatrix, my friend. I would think that you would understand. After this, we will be free. We might find happiness, we might find sorrow, but what we find will be ours, not mandated by some strange joke of creation.”

“What happiness could we find if you remain the same afterwards?” Trixie spat back. “Not King Sombra, you, the thing that infests him.”

Sombra shook his head serenely. “You think that I have some trick ready? That I will be able to withstand the change? No, I, King Sombra, know that this is what must be done.”

“Get out of my king,” Trixie growled.

“Enough,” Sombra calmly said, making Trixie’s mouth magically clamp shut with a dismissive wave of his hoof.

“How will you do it, though?” Armor challenged. “What was it we destroyed before?”

“My mirror that I’ve been working on for a long time, it’s true,” Sombra said. “I need something to locate the counterpart of our world in the vastness in and between all the cosmos, but I have something better now.”

From the table behind him, he retrieved my hind leg prosthesis, and held it up in front of him.

At first, we all wondered how that could possibly help him.

... Until he pulled out my harmonica.

I let out a gasp when I realized what was going on. Armor was a moment behind me, while the others just looked at it, confused.

There was no connection between me or Armor, nor anything we brought with us, and the Equestria we came from. Except for that.

A casual little enchantment I had made, literally without even thinking about it, when I had practiced playing my guitar during the time since I had arrived in Equestria. My parents’ old guitar, the remaining one at least, and their harmonica, were magically linked to each other. If I played one, the other would join in on its own accord. They were magically connected, and with their help, opening a portal would be easy for a magician of Sombra’s caliber, as soon as the magic in it was activated.

Sombra walked up to me, and gently held out the harmonica in his hoof.

“What do you say, my friend?” Sombra said. “Imagine what you have the power to do right now.”

I was taking deep and scared breaths as I looked up at his eyes.

He magically lifted the instrument back to the table, and put his hoof on my shoulder.

“Remember what I told you once?” he asked. “I told you that friendships lost should be fought for and reclaimed. You will be alone in being unchanged when the worlds are joined together, but as I will rejoin with Celestia, so will you rejoin with all who you care for. They will be there for you to join them.”

“They won’t be the same!” I protested.

“But they will be there.”

“I don’t care! I won’t help you!” I shouted, and lowered my voice. “What are you going to do? Force me?”

Every eye in the room was on me. Apparently, many were curious about that issue.

Sombra though, just closed his eyes and shook his head calmly. “No. I won’t have to,” he said, and lit up his horn.

From behind him, my legs floated up towards me and attached themselves to me. I looked at them, confused about why he would give them back and giving them a few experimental movements, before looking back up at him.

He put his hoof on my chin and lifted my head, moved his hoof to the side of my face and gently pried my eyelid open, magically inserting my eye back into my socket.

Sombra stepped back and raised his gaze up, staring unseeingly at the ceiling, when his voice suddenly came very softly.


“For love and joy and anger, and floods of tears cried.”


Then his cadre joined in forming a chorus to back him up.


 “All our fears, they would not be undone, how hard we yet tried.”



“The wheels of fate were turning, insanity reigned. Villains, heroes, to our destinies chained.”


I looked around, worried, as I felt the tug of magic around us. Trixie and Evening’s eyes were focused on Sombra, while Armor was looking worriedly at me.

Trixie, whose mouth had been released, answered.


“Save us your speeches, dark fiend! Let go of my king! When you’ve won you will nothing but darkness bring.”


My breathing was speeding up as the magic of the singing pulled me along, and Sombra’s guards raised their voices.


“Join us and we know for sure! The fate that once chained us will fade forevermore.”


Sombra lifted up my harmonica in his hoof, and with my magical eye, I saw the forces being wielded by the song resonating with the instrument, and magics the likes of which I had only seen once before started stirring in it, as I felt my voice come to life.


“With heavy steps we’ve come all this way–”


Here I had backing vocals by Armor.


“Fearful for whatever come may.”


And we cast an accusing glare on Sombra.


“But praisings and cheers for you your people would call,”



“Stories and legends of heroes! And the King of them all!



“And no true ruler… would see his realm fall.”


Sombra’s face betrayed no emotion while we sang, and after we finished our verse, he had a look of resignation and melancholy.


“Yet the promise was made– to the fairest, the price be paid.”


All of us protested with our own verse, with backing from Sombra’s soldiers.


“Greater of an evil, we will sing.”



(“No matter rule, no matter king.”)



“Nightmares holds your senses, ruin it brings.”



(“Brought here on alicorn wings.”)


Sombra averted his eyes, and visibly gathered his resolve, before his face hardened, and a swirling, oval portal opened in front of us, like it had when Armor and I had left our world.

We looked at the calm vortex of lights, hope fading, as Sombra channeled the magics to locate our Equestria, and he began to sing about what he’d find there.


“She is the sunrise, outshines her sister’s night.



“Her beauty like blue skies, to her we will now take flight,”


He gave us another apologetic look. “It’s time,” he said, and much like the last time he said that, I felt powerless to stop him.

We fell into silence, our faces showing sadness and a hint of anger, while Sombra’s soldiers seemed to try and hide their apprehension. Even the portal didn’t make any sound, all was still…

… Until hooffalls could be heard on the far side of the throne room, from the door.

Everyone’s eyes turned to look at the source.

It was White Tulip, walking calmly towards us, with the same sad but determined expression that Sombra had.

None of us seemed to completely comprehend what we were seeing… until Sombra’s expression turned angry.

“You!” he growled.

Tulip took a few more steps before stopping, bowing her head slightly.

“Yes,” she said, looking up at Sombra, her own face suddenly showing a fearless determination. “Me.”

Then she spread her wings, and she was engulfed in flames, like when a changeling changes shape, only with orange flames, and much, much more bombastic.

The flames that had covered White Tulip vanished as suddenly as they had appeared, and the pegasus was gone with them…

... and in her place stood Princess Celestia.

Everyone in the room was frozen in place, except for Sombra and Celestia. Celestia slowly approached the stairs, and Sombra slowly walked down them, their eyes locked.

When suddenly they both charged, almost faster than I could see, and locked their horns in a reared up position for a moment, before they broke away, and formed a flurry of blows, dodges, and magic that shook the entire hall.

“Hold positions,” Golden quickly ordered, holding out a foreleg and giving his ranks a meaningful look. “Don’t interfere, we’d just get in the way. Wait, where’s–”

He stopped himself when the restraints of the others were broken as if made of styrofoam, and my prostheses suddenly shot over towards me and pushed themselves against me.

I saw Poly peeling the magic blocker from Evening’s horn, which explained what had happened. Polyus and Polyusa had woken up, and found themselves ignored during the drama. Trixie was the one floating my legs over to me, while she also peeled Armor’s restraints off from him.

I activated my legs and plopped my eye back, and jumped over to Armor, who had taken a defensive position between me and Sombra’s soldiers.

Golden held up his leg again. “Steady, men. We might need them.”

“No, we need you, Golden,” Trixie said, as the duel raged behind us. “That’s not Sombra! You know it isn’t! We can beat that thing, right now.”

Golden expression was absolutely still, which spoke volumes.

I looked behind, and saw that Sombra was pushing Celestia back, they broke from another lock, and quickly tumbled to the ground, Sombra in the superior position over Celestia.

Celestia looked up at him defiantly, when he bent his head down and whispered in her ear.

“You’re right,” she said. “I can’t beat him without you, but I don’t need to.”

Celestia turned her head towards the entrance to the throne room on the far side, where Princess Luna and Chrysalis stood, and Sombra followed her.

He scoffed. “You won’t fight me, Luna. Neither will you, Chrysalis.”

“You’re right. We won’t,” Chrysalis admitted.

“But we won’t have to,” Luna said, and reached behind her with a wing, pulling out and tossing a large amphora in a high arc towards the middle of the room.

Every eye followed its journey across the room in perplexion, and just before it crashed into the floor I noticed that a strange humming was coming from it.

It shattered, showering in the floor in impossibly sparkly water, and the humming turning into a melodic chant, and as the water settled into a puddle, it became clear what the sound was.

The Dazzlings shot out of the puddle, singing as they did, before focusing on Sombra.

“A trio of singing seers,” Sombra scoffed, and glanced at Celestia. “Do they have a fan chant for you?”

The sirens circled Sombra, keeping their eyes locked on him.


“You have one last chance this day, turn away from your evil way.”


“Evil way? We’ve already had a song about what we’re accomplishing,” Sombra said, dismissively. “You missed the show.”


“The power of freedom, defiance, and power.


“Gabe, lend it to us and from the land this creature we’ll scour.”


I took a step back, as everyone looked at me. “What!?”


“The music from your home, wild, beautiful, and free.


“To victory this day, it is the key.”


Out of Trixie’s bag, which lay among our belongings, my guitar floated up towards me, pushing me up to stand on my hind legs with it in my hooves.

I felt numb with confusion for the fraction of a second I held it, before a red beam shot from the still open portal.

I recognized the color as the same deep cherry red my Gretsch had, and hit the guitar I held in my hooves, which broke away like it was an eggshell.

In its place was an ethereal version of my parents’ old guitar.

Celestia smirked at Sombra. “You thought you’d won. You’ve let your defences down.”

And Sombra smirked back. “So it did,” he said, before his face turned into a shocked grimace.

And just like that, I knew what to do.

Wild, beautiful, and free indeed.

I took a breath, and leapt with my hind legs, swinging my hoof across the strings in a power chord.

That was all it took. Rock’n’Roll was in the world, and it did not suffer tyrants.

The sirens let out a wail like an air raid siren that had been taught to sing.

“Aurgh!” Sombra grunted, and recoiled off from Celestia, taking a step back. He lit up his horn and pulled off my foreleg prosthesis, and throwing it into the open portal in an attempt to keep me from playing.

But it was too late, something shimmered in the air behind him.

“We’re in business, boys and girls!” Golden shouted. “Everypony focus fire on that thing!”

Everyone who could lit up their horn or other instrument, and under that combined power, the dark, shadowy shape was starting to get pulled out of a screaming Sombra.

I angled my hind leg with my spare stunner in it, charging up an extra powerful shot.

‘Hey, ugly! Can you spell hadouken?’

It was drawn out of him, and he collapsed on the floor, grunting.

“Sombra!” Luna shouted at the same time as Golden shouted, “Majesty!”

“Uuugh,” he moaned, suddenly free from the swirling shape around his eyes, and looked up at the swirling shadow. “Don’t let it go! Hold it!”

Still barraged by magic, the shape writhed and squirmed, when it suddenly opened some sort of eyes. Just one pair, but still looking at all of us at the same time.

And then it spoke to us. It wasn’t with sound, and it wasn’t with words, it was straight meaning and intent directly into our minds.

You think you are defeating me? You think you can hold me forever? I am the twisting terror that corrupts you from within. I use your contempt, your weaknesses, your desires and your needs, and you can’t help but welcome me.

“There are ways to defeat you, Nightmare,” Sombra said. “There always are.”

The shape shot towards Sombra, focusing his attention on him.

And I return. Always.

“Then come for me again! I hear a thousand years on another world is a good way to be rid of you.”

I think not, but speaking of other worlds.

It roared, and sent all of us flying back as if by a shockwave, before it flew up towards me with frightening speed.

Not the mightiest creature at the moment, but that can be changed. So much potential, though, so much… inventiveness.

And then all went dark.


—


I slowly opened my eyes, and almost jumped out of whatever I was slouched in.

I was in the lounge room of my childhood home, sitting in an old armchair, one of the pieces of furniture that had been the constant in the room since before I was born, worn and weathered. It even had that soda stain on the arm rest.

Looking around, everything was as I remembered it. The bench with the television on it, and the shelves where the media players were, with glass panels that my parents hadn’t realized blocked remote control signals when they bought it.

There was the L-formed couch, where I had many times made a blanket burrito out of myself when I was home from school with a cold and watched old movies, and the large coffee table that weathered all the wear like a champion, and the old paintings with the tree and the river, all the rest of it. It was all there.

‘Was it… a dream?’ I thought, looking around, noticing the distinct lack of a muzzle in front of my eyes.

I looked down on myself, my human body, and saw my metallic right arm. I held it out and moved the fingers experimentally.

‘No,’ I thought to myself. ‘No, it was real.’

I stood up and looked around again, walking over to the mirror on the wall. It wasn’t quite me as I remembered myself from before I came to Equestria. Besides the metallic arm and leg, I had the poofy orange and blue hairdo I had as a pony, as well as a matching tail sticking out of my jeans, pony-like ears, and one purple eye along with the empty socket.

I closed my eye, and to my astonishment, I was still seeing myself, being able to see with the empty space where my eye should have been.

‘This isn’t...’ I started, struggling to get my thoughts under control. ‘Not… not unreal but… this isn’t… the real world. It can’t be.”

I took my tail and ran my fingers through it experimentally, when I noticed one strange thing about the room.

One of the windows had bright light coming in from it, while the other did not.

I walked over to the one where light was shining through and looked out.

Outside wasn’t what I remembered seeing when looking out that window, it was something very different.

At first I thought it was smoky glass, with strange shapes in it, but after a while I realized that it was the throne room of the mirror version of The Crystal Empire, where I had just been.

‘No, not where I had just been,’ I realized, ‘it’s where I still am.’

Ponies, changelings, and sirens, were frozen in time, or so it seemed at first, staring at me and each other, running around and shouting at each other. I saw Princess Luna flying in the distance, and the tip of her primary was moving so slowly that I could hardly tell.

I tore my attention away from the scene, and instead walked over to the other window, which had the curtain drawn. I pulled it away to see much the same scene, but where a clear bubble separated me from what I was seeing, instead of the smoky haze.

Eventually, I walked out towards the kitchen, or where the kitchen would have been. Instead, it led to my room in Golden Oaks, and a quick peek around the corner, where the door to the utility room would have been, were instead my apartment in Canterlot Castle. I smiled at the sight of the places, feeling at ease there, just as I had in my old lounge room.

I turned instead towards the stairs, the one leading up to the second floor, and the door to the basement next to it.

Something stopped me in my tracks, and I stared at the door leading to the basement like how a deer stares at a headlight.

A cold sensation washed over me, and I felt my pulse in my ears, my breath coming out ragged and stressed, when a sound from upstairs snapped me out of it.

I gave the door another curious glance, before walking up the stairs.

Halfway up the stairs, I saw something that would have scared me half to death if I was in a more real place.

My doppelganger stormed past the stairs, but her arms and face were dark and twisted, and her hair hung low and matted.

I walked up the rest of the way, and glanced where she had come from, my old childhood room, towards the old study. Curiously fearless, I walked after it.

It was pulling out things from a bookshelf, glancing at what it pulled out before throwing it behind herself.

Crouching down, I picked up some of the things that lay scattered on the floor. The presents I had gotten during my welcome to Ponyville party, Redheart’s nurse cap, Princess Celestia’s peytral, pictures of all my friends I had made in Equestria and… a plushie of Studded Armor.

The figure let out a frustrated grunt, and moved on to the next shelf, and I silently watched as more debris littered the floor. A copy of Henry Gray’s Anatomy, a diagram of the periodic table, a book on the history and evolution of the sciences, a book on pediatrics I remembered from medical school, a copy of a journal on advances in medicine, and on in that vein.

The shelf under that one, which the figure hadn’t started on yet, was full of things from my family, back on Earth. Musical writings, a book on building and repairing guitars, the photo album Twilight had helped me retrieve, and so on.

I watched calmly as the thing made a mess of my things, feeling both calm and strangely violated as it did so.

“You’re not welcome here,” I said, eventually, surprising myself with how casually I spoke.

It stopped, and slowly turned to face me. It was me, but at the same time not. Its face was twisted into an angry snarl, the eyes were like black marbles, and the hands were black and sickly looking, with the end of the fingers twisting into long talons.

It walked up to me, and studied my face close, leaning in close enough that I could I study it in turn. Its eyes were like the dark depth of a forest, or a movement in an otherwise still alley.

“What are you?” it hissed at me.

I didn’t answer immediately. Instead, I looked at it some more, it was dressed and looked like me, but I got the feeling that this wasn’t a person.

“What are you?” I asked.

“Terror, and madness. Doubt, and creeping dread.”

“You’re The Nightmare,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You’re the thing that Twilight and the others dragged out of this world’s Celestia and Luna.”

“And which the good king took into himself,” it hissed in a pleased tone.

I scoffed at it. “You don’t seem to have been doing a very good job of spreading terror,” I noted. “Everyone here still loves their king, and want him to come back.”

The thing stepped back, and glanced around the room between looking at me. “Sorrow, to beget desperation, and betrayal. He was strong. He resisted me, tried tricking me. He wanted to travel to your Equestria to see his beloved, and I want to rule it. He kept stalling, pretending that his goals and mine had blended together in his mind, but it was all for nothing. Now he’s delivered you to me, the one he thought could save him, only for me to have you instead.”

“And what do you want with me?” I asked, skeptically, crossing my arms. “I haven’t got nearly the power that he has, or any alicorn, or even plenty of unicorns.”

“Unicorn magic? Perhaps not,” it countered. “But you have potential. You’re not anchored to the world like ponies are. There’s something about you, a wild freedom that nothing else in Equestria has, and that can be more powerful than any amount of unicorn magic.”

I remembered what Discord had said about me, through Fluttershy, and what the sirens sang, about my lack of a destiny, and how Sombra had planned on using that to manipulate the forces that kept the worlds mirrored to each other, but whether that was actually Sombra or this thing, I couldn’t say at the time.

“And how will you make me do what it is you want?”

It turned back to the shelf, rifling through the last pieces on the current shelf. “All that’s needed is to find what can twist you.”

“Twist me?” I asked. “What do you usually twist people with?”

“Their gods,” it said, paging through another book before throwing it over their shoulder in frustration. “Their values, their love. Guilt, pain, desires. But this is worthless. You are a strange creature.”

“I have all of those things though,” I noted.

“Fluid, unanchored. Ungraspable concepts.”

“To you, maybe,” I noted. “So how do I get rid of you? Fighting you?”

“Hah, fighting is meaningless here unless you give it meaning,” it said, and walked up to me.

It placed a hand on my chest, and pushed, sending me flying into the wall behind me and breaking the plaster.

I slid down onto the floor, surprised by the lack of pain or shock, or injury for that matter.

“Now be quiet, I’m working,” it said.

“Having trouble?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Frustrating creature,” it hissed, looking back at me. “Where is what you value the most? You are barely alive! Just thoughts and observations. For all this care and love, you have a darkness and a coldness greater than mine.”

I rose up and scoffed at it. “Perhaps you’re just not able to twist someone with the fortitude and dignity that one gains from knowing that they live in an uncaring world, in an uncaring cosmos, and that almost all that is good is something we made for ourselves, and it is good because we want it to be.”

The creature scowled at me. “Then you are darker and more foul than anything on this world.”

I walked up to the bookcase, and picked it up with my prosthesis. “If I so choose,” I said, and slammed the creature out into the hallway by the stairs.

“Hah! It’s no use,” it said, as it lay on the floor. “We have infinite time here, and I have infinite patience.”

I walked out of the room, dragging the bookcase behind me, and hammered the thing down into the floorboard, and scattering the contents of the shelves all over the floor, before lifting the furniture and seeing the unscathed face buried into the floor, almost poking down into the lower floor.

The thing kept chuckling, and it seemed it had been telling the truth. Plain violence did nothing here. It probably didn’t count as violence, as this seemed to be a place of thoughts alone.

Then the chuckling stopped, and it sniffed the air around it like a dog that had caught a scent. “Aaah, your confidence might not be as warranted as you think,” it said, before it kicked me and sending me flying back into the room we were just in, me dropping the bookcase.

I picked myself up, and walked out to see that the creature was gone, looking like it had slipped through the recently created hole in the floor.

I set after it, quickly walking down the stairs, before I stopped in front of the door to the basement.

The feeling from before had come back. Beyond that door was a place I didn’t want to go.

My heart started aching in my chest, and I leaned against the doorway to the room in Golden Oaks, steadying myself.

There was a distant laugh from the creature echoing through the place. “What do we have here?”

I steadied myself as best as I could, and stepped forward, pushing the door open, and slowly walking down the stairs.

I knew the place I was in. It was my old apartment, the first one since I got out of the hospital.

There, right in the center, was the couch with the tv in front of it, where I sat away months of my life, staring unseeingly at whatever was on the tv in a vain attempt to have whatever voices sounded from it distract me from my thoughts.

There was the blanket and the pillow on the armrest, stained with so many tears it never got really clean.

I remembered the pain that the listlessness would eventually turn into a dull ache, only for it to come back seemingly even stronger when the phantom pain flared up and reminded me of everything once again.

My neck almost creaked when I turned my head towards the plain desk behind it, where I had eventually gathered up the strength to grab my crutch and limp over to the ringing phone, and hear my psychologist tell me that if I didn’t get over to his office, he was sending someone to collect me.

He had said that I knew what I had to do. And I knew what I had to do. I had to keep going.

Behind the door to the closet was something worse. I almost wanted my crutch back to remind me of when I had managed to gather up the energy to keep going the first time.

With steady steps, but a shaking hand, I walked over to the door and opened it.

It was the hospital room I woke up after the accident, and the creature was there, standing over the bed, still messy from a former occupant, the drip feed bag still hanging on its stand.

The difference was the hole in the ceiling where one of us had entered.

“Such a terrible thing to happen to anyone,” the thing said. “A sudden surprise, and everything you loved was gone forever.”

I said nothing as I glared at the creature with a moist eye.

“Do you want to feel that again?” it prodded.

“... No,” I admitted, and the powers knew I spoke the truth.

“Then what are you doing with all of those ‘friends’?” it asked, looking at me pointedly. “They will abandon you. You know this. Perhaps not willingly, but in the end, you will be alone, because everyone will be alone.”

“Stop,” I said, shaking my head.

“I speak the truth though. Ask your dear Celestia, or Sombra. Slowly or suddenly, by choice or not, you will be alone in the end. Give them up, before it’s too late.”

I backed into a wall and slid down on the floor, hugging my legs close to me. It was too much, in this place, I didn’t have the strength to argue.

“Still not convinced?” it asked, and walked over to the door that had led to the bathroom, but I knew that here, it didn’t. It lead to the one place worse than this. “I’ll show you why you need me.”

“No,” I mumbled into my knees.

“Yes. You need me. I’ll make it all go away before it’s too late.”

I punched the floor, shaking the entire room, and into my lap fell something soft.

I looked up, and saw the plushie of Armor. I picked him up and looked at me, and he smiled back at me with the same comforting smile he always had around me.

“This will make you listen,” it said, and opened the door.

I rose up, and walked through the door, out into the open street hanging in the void, illuminated in the middle of which was the twisted wreck of a car.

I stared at it, frozen in place except for my heaving breaths.

“Such ‘dignity’,” it mocked. “You’re right, cold and uncaring, it–”

Its speech was interrupted by my fist slamming into its face and sending it flying back into the room, where it made a dent into the wall as well.

I walked up towards it with grim purpose, when it swiped my legs out from underneath me, and jumped me as I landed on the floor.

“Foolish child.” It pressed my face against the floor, and hissed into my ear. “All you have to do is let go, and you will never have to worry again.”

It picked me up, and tossed me back onto the asphalt by the car. Before I could do anything else it was already upon me again, grabbing my head and aiming it towards the twisted car.

“Look,” it ordered, and forcing me to stare at the twisted shape.

Tears flowed down my face as I did. There were no coherent thoughts, just despair and desperation. I wanted it to stop, to go away, and I never wanted to feel this again, that it would be worth not feeling anything ever again in order not to feel this.

It was too much. I felt beaten, ready to give in.

“Stop loving your friends. You would have been better off if you never loved them,” it said, nodding towards the wreck.

That sparked something in me. It was anger, and more importantly, it was something other than what the Nightmare wanted me to feel.

“Still fighting?” it asked, sounding both amused and frustrated. “I can keep–”

The hateful being was pulled off me and thrown back towards the room, and I quickly turned around to see had caused it.

“No!” the Nightmare shouted, staring at a point somewhere above me with a look of fear and anger. “Go away!”

There were two of them. Invisible and silent shapes, standing vigil over me, and filling me with a sense of love and care.

The pain of seeing my past both vanished and became more intense at the same time from the presences. The longing was gone for the moment, but the sense of loss was even more profound.

“Mom?” I whispered, as if afraid that I’d wake myself up from a dream. “Dad?”

The invisible shapes gently took me by my upper arms and raised me onto my feet, holding me steady and in a protective embrace.

The Nightmare stood up, looking less and less like me, and more and more like its own, nondescript thing.

It sneered at us, its eyes twisted with hate.

“You can shield her forever, but it won’t help her,” it spat. “Come on, Gabrielle Desrochers, are you going to cower behind them for all eternity?”

I didn’t want to fight, I wanted to stay where I was, but it would mean failing what Armor and I set out to do. I now had things to fight for, so fight I would.

I gently walked out of the embrace, and walked towards the shape.

We both started running forward, slamming into each other, and started trading a flurry of blows, throwing each other into walls had enough to break them, and twisting each other in impossible ways.

It no doubt looked dramatic, but it wasn’t the actual fighting, with its blows and strikes, that was important. It was a contest of wills, and very slowly, I felt myself losing.

The by now only vaguely human, genderless shape of the Nightmare landed on top of me, putting its hand against my throat and pinning me down.

“So this is the tenacity of a human? Not bad for a pup, but I have laid low gods!” it snarled. “They tried defying me, but it never worked.”

Looking up into the broken ceiling, into one of the other rooms, I saw a guitar case lying perilously close to the edge, and while I didn’t see it, I felt my parents’ presence next to it, giving it a push.

It fell down next to us, its lid flying open and revealing my guitar, gleaming red and angry, inside it.

The Nightmare didn’t care, or even notice. It had eyes only for me.

“One… thing you should know… about humans,” I grunted, reaching for the instrument. “We’re masters of defiance!”

I grabbed the Gretsch by the neck, and swung it against my foe.

It impacted with the soothing, distorted sound of its namesake, as if it was plugged in.

The Nightmare flew off me, and into a wall, and I stood up, leapt into the air, and came down with a power cord.

The walls buckled outward from the power, and the Nightmare was launched through one of them, into the previous room, causing all of the things in the hospital room, or at least this place’s version of it, to be thrown clear, lodging themselves into the wall.

There were no more fears, no more doubts. The places from my past held no sway over me anymore.

In this place, at this time, I was indomitable, fearless, and in control. I was a god, and it felt good.

The Nightmare scrambled to its feet and fled up the stairs. I could have floated after it, my eye glowing white, but I liked the uneven sound of my feet hitting the floor, as I slowly walked after it, my guitar held like a battle axe.

“Oh you’ve done it in the blue cupboard now,” I said.

When I reached the room I had started in, it had its back against an armchair, a desperate look on its face.

“How!?” it asked.

I just smirked, and raised my axe.

“Rock’n’Roll,” I said.

The swing sent it flying out through the boarded up window. Its yell was cut short, drowned out by a thick, white fog beyond. The curtain above it shook and unfurled, falling down and covering the view.

I let out a satisfied chuckle, before closing my eye and concentrating, willing the entire place whole.

I breathed out a satisfied sigh, and put my guitar down on the armchair.

The presence of my parents were there with me, still unseen and silent, but I felt their presence clearly as they walked up behind me, giving me a warm embrace.

I leaned into it, taking several long breaths, basking in the sensation, before a sense of melancholy came to me.

“I love you,” I said.

I sensed their love for me back, unspoken, but not needing to be said.

I wanted to stay there, and I wanted to see my friends again. The only way that would happen would be if they came with me, and that was not possible.

“I miss you,” I said, a tear building in my eye.

They nodded, and I knew they missed me as well. They would never stop loving me, and wished for me to live a long and happy life, and all the things that parents want for their children.

They reached out and grabbed something, and they held up the little plushie of Armor, gently placing it against my chest.

I chuckled and let out a small sob at the same time.

“I know. I’m glad you like him though,” I said.

They said something funny. Something with a dry wit. Something that would show their approval between the lines.

They gently aimed me to towards the door without pushing me away. No matter what I chose, whether I left or stayed, they’d understand.

“I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to say goodbye.”

They said it wouldn’t be a final goodbye. It would be a goodbye for a long time, they hoped, but not a final one.

“Goodbye then,” I said. “I love you.”

I pecked the plushie, before setting him down on the back rest of the armchair, and walking out of the door.


—


I had the bizarre experience of suddenly coming to and realizing what I was doing in the middle of a struggle for the destiny of the entire world.

Rearing up, I let out a roar, surprised by how genuine it was, and tore out my prosthetic eye, which was very reluctant to leave, sending it flying across the room as it stared at me with a sinister purple glow as I collapsed on the floor.

And then all was darkness and silence, but it was that strange kind where you’re conscious enough to be vaguely aware of it, but not lucid enough to realize that being aware of it means that it’s just darkness and silence, rather than oblivion.

Slowly, it dawned on me. I was alive, and in all likelihood, I was also well.

“.... ight? Please say something,” Armor was saying, his voice growing more and more urgent.

Even though I felt I should be used to this by now, slowly coming to in strange places and in strange situations, it was as confusing as ever as parts of my mind realized what was happening while other parts struggled to keep up.

One thing was clear though, Armor was worried about me, and I didn’t like him being worried.

“Uuh,” I groaned, trying to placate him, weakly waving a hoof I had forgotten wasn’t there anymore.

“She’s going to be fine, just give her a moment,” I heard Sombra say.

Luckily, hearing Sombra’s voice didn’t hurry me awake. I hadn’t spent so much time around him as his enemy that I associated him as a threat.

“Uh,” I said, feeling some strength return, and opening my eye. “Armor?”

“I’m here,” he immediately said, holding me in his forelegs.

“Did we…?” I started, trying to get the energy to both breathe and talk. “Did we win?”

Armor looked at Sombra for confirmation, and I saw that the entire room was staring at me being held in Armor’s embrace, hoping that whatever I did just before looked appropriately heroic to warrant it. The portal was still there, open, but stable and gently waiting, and not as noisy and volatile like last time.

Sombra held up my pearly white replacement eye, now surrounded by a purple and green aura, and nodded at me.

“You won,” he said. “You all succeeded in drawing the creature out of me, and then you, Gabrielle Eleanor Desrochers, did what I could not. You fought against it and won.”

It was a strange thing to consider. At first it felt as if it should have been a moment worthy of reverence. A threat against the world, the fight against and victory over by the alicorn champions of ponykind marked eras of Equestria, defeated, and I was one of the victors.

Then that feeling just made way for some sort of grumpy tiredness. ‘Yeah, it had better be defeated.’

“I had help,” I mumbled, resting my cheek against Armor.

“The Nightmare is sealed away, possibly forever this time, and you are the mare of the hour,” Luna said, stepping up beside Sombra.

Sombra gently put his fetlock on my forehead, and turned to the crowd, Trixie, Golden and Rosen, Celestia, Chrysalis, Poly and Evening, and seemingly his entire cadre of guards.

“Victory. A victory worthy of celebration,” he said, calmly, and looked back at me where I rested. “But I ask that we don’t cheer right now, instead…”

He turned to face me, and bowed, his head all the way to the ground, and everyone followed his example, except for Armor, who was busy holding me.

It was as embarrassing as one would expect, but it was the moment where everyone reflected on the triumph. The source of so much misery was finally defeated, and it was expected to show reverence and…

‘... You know what? No.’

“Alright, enough,” I said. “It was a team effort and all that jazz. Also, just please stop, this is really awkward.”

Sombra chuckled, and rose, with everyone following his example.

“I am in your debt though,” Sombra said, and at the rest of the room. “And you are right. You all have my gratitude, and there is one pony I’m especially pleased to be grateful towards.”

Sombra let the sentence hang in the air, and turned to Celestia.

Everyone, except Luna, Sombra, and the Dazzlings, eyed her with a mix of wariness of apprehension.

Sombra calmly stepped up to her to talk as an equal, and bowed his head slightly. Celestia looked at him with a mix of hopefulness and apprehension.

“I understand now,” he said, holding up my eye and looking at it. “I don’t know if you care about this, but I know how thoroughly you were controlled by this thing. As far as I’m concerned, all is forgiven.”

Celestia let out a sigh, and nodded at Sombra with a relieved smile.

Sombra offered his hoof, and Celestia gratefully shook it.

“I… don’t know what to say,” she said. “For so long, I hated and I hurt so deeply and so many. So… mixed with that thing that I didn’t know what was me and what was it.”

“And since getting rid of it, you have been travelling Equestria in disguise, helping ponies wherever you found that they needed help?” Sombra asked in a conversational tone.

“Yes,” Celestia nodded. “I don’t know if I can ever repay the things I’ve done, but I have to try.”

Sombra smiled. “What a wonderful idea,” he said. “And it sounds like an example I would follow.”

Sombra walked up to me, and I was still too tired to stand up, especially with one leg short.

‘Gonna have to have a new one made,’ I thought.

Armor seemed to want to shield me from him for a moment, before relaxing on his own and letting Sombra put his hoof on my cheek.

“I’m so sorry, Gabrielle,” he said. “I put you through so much.”

I was still too numb and tired to either forgive or accuse anyone for anything. I realized, when I was fighting The Nightmare, that Sombra, the actual Sombra, had tried orchestrating as much as he could despite The Nightmare being in control. It was a trying experience to say the least, but in the end, it seemed everyone was alive and well, so I figure it was all worth it.

“What happens now?” I asked.

“This is to be locked away,” Sombra said, indicating the eye, before turning to face Celestia, Luna, and Chrysalis. “And then… I have done too many wrongs to too many ponies to have a say in what happens.”

The crowd protested, many of Sombra’s guard taking a step forward, almost in indignation, at their king’s statement.

Luna, Chrysalis, and Trixie, all walked up to Sombra.

“I won’t hear anything like that,” Trixie said, with conviction.

“I don’t need to be able to sense emotions to know where you want to be,” Chrysalis added.

Luna put the tip of her wing across Sombra’s neck, and the two of them rested their foreheads against each other, like the very old friends that they were.

“For so long, you have been the guardian of ponykind. Against mad magicians, conquering armies, eldritch monsters… and me,” she said. “For so many years, I have been both your friend and enemy. I know how hard you’ve fought, perhaps better than yourself. I don’t know if Equestria will ever truly be safe, but we relieve you from the burden of protecting it. If anypony is ever to deserve anything, we have to let you go.

“Let you go to her,” Luna said, tears forming in her eyes.

Sombra let out a sigh, both of relief and resignation. “I’ll miss you, my friends.”

“And we you,” Chrysalis said, joining in the nuzzling.

After a moment, they separated, and took one last glance, before Rosen and Golden stepped up, with several of the guards taking some tentative steps forward as well.

They were clearly grasping for words, and Golden glanced at Rosen for some help.

“It… was an honor, your majesty,” Rosen said, and bowed, but before anyone else could follow his example, Sombra lifted Rosen’s head up.

“Speak freely, everypony,” Sombra said.

“We… if anypony, in the history of Equestria, ever deserved to leave and do what makes them happy, it would be you. Her highness is right,” Rosen said, and dipped his head. “But… we also don’t want you to go.”

The gathered soldiers’ expressions all agreed with Rosen’s words.

“Where do we turn?” Golden asked.

Sombra’s smile lost a lot of its melancholy. “I know of one Equestria that has done quite well with a sun-controlling alicorn as its guardian.”

Everyone slowly turned towards Celestia, who looked somewhat taken aback and uncertain at this attention, and tried masking their fear and suspicion.

“I know there might not be any love or trust between you and her yet, but it will grow. I don’t know if there will be a respite from threats as powerful as The Nightmare, but if there isn’t, she will be there to protect you, and if you give her a chance, I think you’ll prove worthy of each others’ friendships.”

They looked at Celestia, before smiling at their king, and stood at attention in front of him, in their mind, one last time, and saluted in perfect unison.

Sombra answered the salute, and I refrained from voicing the breach of form with some of the soldiers not wearing appropriate headgear.

Then he turned to Armor and me. “I am ready to leave,” he stated.

It was perhaps a little sudden, but the goodbye would not feel better by being drawn out. Besides, the portal was open, the way home was right in front of us and we had been away for too long. To not leave now, after all we had gone through to get here, didn’t feel right.

We turned around to see Trixie climbing out of her bag with another bag.

“These are uh, the uh, the things I wanted to keep,” she said, and gestured to her house. “Otherwise, you… you guys can have this.”

“Really?” Armor asked.

“Sure, sure. I wasn’t, uh…” Trixie said, and I realized she was struggling to keep her voice steady, “you know, not sure if it was fitting at first, but when I think about it, you guys gave us new enchanting knowledge, and Gabe was interested in this thing, so you guys’ll get some as well. Don’t worry, I can get another one.”

Trixie and Evening were suddenly pushed towards Armor and me, almost landing on top of us, by Poly.

“You might be the alicorn of it…” Polyus said, and scooped all of us up in a hug, and Polyusa continued, “but you can give it a rest right now.”

Trixie’s and Evening’s eyes started watering as we held each other close.

“G-good luck, you guys,” Trixie said, holding back a sob.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Thank you,” Evening countered.

“We’ll miss you guys,” Polyus said.

“We’ll miss you too,” Armor said.

 I did a little sleight of hoof as I pulled my remaining one out from the grip, and made sure it rested above the bag Trixie had pulled out of her house.

Sombra lit up his horn, and did some last detail to the portal, so that we would end up in the right time and place.

“One last taste,” Chrysalis said, and scooped our hug-pile up in an even bigger one.

“Indeed,” Luna said, and joined in. “You saved me from having to do what I feared the most.”

We eventually let go, and I held back a slightly embarrassing sob as we smiled at each other.

Then it was Celestia’s turn. She stepped up to me, and we shook hooves once more.

“Thank you,” I said. nodding at her.

“And you,” she answered.

The sirens were hovering in the background, and were watching Trixie’s bag with interest, before smiling at me. I blinked at them, not being able to wink at the moment.

“We’ve kept the portal open long enough,” Sombra said. “It’s time.”

Armor rose up and placed me on his back, and we walked to the portal, waved goodbye with Sombra, and then stepped through.


—


There was only darkness, and I felt myself landing with a muted thump.

After a few seconds of confusion, Armor dug us out of a bag of rosettes and flowers in the middle of the Crystal Palace throne room, a very surprised Shining Armor and Princess Cadenza staring at us, as Sombra extracted his hooves from it.

They had apparently been experimenting with the interior designs of the palace, adding some softness among the sharp angles.

That’s when it was decided in my mind that we were home. The excitement of adventure was over, and I was back in the realm of minor absurdism, like finding myself covered in decorations, looking like I had run at full speed through one of the Crusaders’ hobby projects.

Armor and I looked at each other as we stepped out of the bag as well.

“Uncanny,” I noted.

“King Sombra?” Cadence asked, before registering us. “Armor? Gabe?”

I don’t know if it was because I was too dazed or tired, or maybe I had trouble registering it, but I just leaned against Armor’s neck and let out a relieved sigh.

Armor angled his head to nuzzle mine, and held a wing to my cheek.

“We’re home, Gabe,” he said in a soft voice, and I just nodded, taking long, slow breaths.

Shining Armor and Cadence gently stepped up to us, staring at us while Sombra seemed to leave it to them to take the initiative.

Armor took a breath, and slowly started raising his other wing in a salute. “Your majest–”

“As you were, private,” Shining interrupted, making Armor let out a sigh and allowing his wing to slump down. “Would somepony tell us what’s going on?”

“I will,” Sombra said, with a steady voice. “You’re Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor are you not?”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, broadening his stance just a smidge, and inching over to start covering his wife. “Yes, but you knew that already.”

“Yes. Celestia has told me about you,” Sombra continued, calmly. “When she visited me on my world.”

Shining and Cadence nodded, now understanding. “Ah, yes, our Sombra wouldn’t be…” Cadence trailed off, before gasping. “Oh my gosh!” she said, holding her cheeks in her hooves, her eyes sparkling with realization. “Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh! You’re Sombra! I mean, of course you’re Sombra, but you’re that Sombra! Oh! Oh I have to tell auntie, ooOOOooooOOOH!”

Cadence shifted between flying and running a few laps around the room a few times, her face both panicked and ecstatic, before running out of the room, gleeing loudly all the while.

Shining was looking where she had left with a serene happiness. “Well, this is an unexpected development,” he said, and turned to us as a somewhat sheepish smile grew on his face. “A pleasant surprise though. Welcome back by the way.”

“Thank you, majesty,” Armor calmly answered.

Shining chuckled silently, before giving us a closer look. “Are you all alright?”

“Mmm, a few parts are missing,” I said, wiggling what should have been a foreleg. “But other than that, we’re fine.”

“How about you?” Shining asked, turning to the larger stallion.

“Never better, despite sad goodbyes,” he said. “Triumphs and defeat of great evils, and my goal achieved. By the way, Private Armor. I owe you an apology and thank you as well.”

“It’s alright,” he mumbled, too tired and relieved to be home, just like me.

Shining was nodding to himself as he thought in silence. “Sounds like this will be quite the debriefing, private, but by the looks of things, we might as well have that at another date.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The doors suddenly burst open, revealing Celestia, with Luna and Cadence several paces behind her.

She and Sombra stared at one another. Celestia frozen, as if not knowing whether to believe her own eyes, breathing deeply and slowly. Sombra smiled serenely at her, though with a hint of apology in it.

Celestia hesitated for just a moment more, before she beat her wings and flew towards Sombra, whose lower part had turned into that dark fog as he flew towards her as well.

They caught each other in an embrace mid-air, Celestia’s lower half blending into Sombra’s magical shape and giving it a tint of color, as they spun around from catching each other and gradually slowed down, eyes closed and locked in a kiss.

Luna and Shining were shifting between being confused and overjoyed, while Cadence had sat down on her haunches and wiping tears of joy from her eyes, before hugging her husband and leaning against him.

Celestia and Sombra eventually broke the kiss, and reformed on the floor. Somewhat unwillingly, they broke away, and faced Armor and me.

Sombra bowed. “You have done what I was afraid would be impossible,” he said. “I’m not sure I will ever be able to repay my debt to you, but say the word, and I will try.”

We didn’t get a chance to respond, before Celestia pulled us into a big hug.

“My little ponies,” she said. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“Urgh! Ha-happy to help, majesty,” Armor managed.

Celestia lessened the pressure she was putting into the hug.

“I was afraid I’d lost you forever,” she said, and held us close. “I… I don’t know what to say.”

While it would certainly have been nice to have Celestia to cuddle with as I fell asleep, I preferred the idea of her spending time with Sombra, the thing that would make her the happiest. I didn’t quite know what that meant, but I assume it meant that I was content, whole, at peace, or however else you want to put it.

Luna put a hoof on Celestia’s wither. “Sister,” she said, gently. “We will make sure they understand your gratitude.

“And…” Luna added, hesitating, and taking a deep breath, already regretting her decision before it came to voice. “We will take care of your duties... for a time.”

Celestia let out a sigh, and pulled her into the hug as well. “Thank you, Lulu.”

“Thank you again, my friends,” Sombra said, before holding out his hoof towards Celestia, who took it in her own.

Together, they formed into the dark mist like they did before, and started floating up towards the ceiling, locked in a kiss.

All of us looked on as they floated out through a window and into the sky. They formed entirely into the dark mist, with the lights of Celestia’s colors giving it a glow much like her mane, like a refreshing cloud of rain with silvery and rainbow colored lights playing off it.

We all smiled at the beautiful phenomenon, as the two elements of the shape seemed to both writhe and caress each other as it floated off towards the horizon.

Except Luna, whose jaw was approaching the floor.

“S-sister!” she shouted. “Th– that is not appropriate public behavior!”


—


“Now then,” Luna said, eyes locked in front of her. “What would you wish to be your reward?”

Armor and I were sitting on Luna’s back as we zoomed towards Canterlot above the clouds at an incredible speed. I got the feeling that the only reason we weren’t there moments after saying goodbye to Shining and Cadence was that Luna was being gentle with us.

“Reward?” I asked, holding back a groan and just wanting to get some rest.

“Indeed. We suppose we should consult with our sister, and further analyze the extent of your contributions,” Luna said, and put her hoof to her chin. “But a reward of significance is required. Land and titles at the very least. A barony, perhaps.”

“A barony!?” Armor and I echoed.

“Or perhaps a duchy… or two.”

“I just want things to go back to normal,” I said, gently.

Luna let out a sigh. “You are too modest, Gabrielle Desrochers, and take it as a compliment if you wish, but it is getting frustrating to reward you properly. What say you, Studded Armor? Do you wish a title with your name? A knighthood like Gabrielle is practically a requirement at this point. We will be hard pressed to take no for an answer.”

“Uhm, well, your majesty,” Armor said. “I’m with Gabe. Some peace and quiet would be nice.”

“A leave of absence? For mental convalescence. Consider it done. We’ll all talk more later about the rest.”

I felt Armor in my mane, nodding. “Yes, your majesty.”

The lights of Canterlot were below us, still lit this early in the night, and Luna was taking us down quickly and smoothly.

The first time I had travelled to another world, I had ended up in this city as well, exhausted, but doted on. Then I had gone to Ponyville, living my life among good friends in the serene, small town. I was certainly looking forward to doing so again.

Luna set down on a balcony, where Kibitz was waiting with a dignified posture.

“Your majesty, you return…” he started, the questioning tone petering off as he saw Armor and me. “... not alone. Madam Desrochers, Private Armor, you’re back I see. Uh, your majesty, are things as they seem?”

“Indeed they are, Kibitz,” Luna stated. “Our sister does not return for now, but there is no cause for alarm.”

“I see,” Kibitz said, and looked at us again. “Good evening to you.”

“Mister Kibitz,” Armor said, nodding.

“Heya,” I said, giving him a wave.

“May I ask… well, may I ask for a summary?”

“Our lost ponies have journeyed to the other Equestria our sister frequented, and brought the now purged Sombra with them, but now these heroes are tired, and would appreciate some rest.”

“At once, your majesty,” Kibitz said, before leaning in. “And our dear princess of the sun and the good king?”

I softly hummed the tune for Can You Feel The Love Tonight to myself, and smiling slightly.

“Enjoying themselves, no doubt. I shall tend to my sister’s duties for the time being.”

“Ah,” Kibitz said, before his moustache betrayed a smile growing beneath it. “What… unexpectedly pleasant news.”

“Indeed, and now…”

“Uh, Gabe,” Armor said, fishing my prosthesis-locating hairpin out of his mane and holding it in his hoof. “This thing just came alive.”

We all looked at it, as it pointed down and further towards the core of the castle. “Huh,” was all I could say.

Luna gently took the pin and gave it to Kibitz. “Please follow this to where it points, and use your own judgement when you get there.”

“Yes, your majesty,” Kibitz said, and walked off in a brisk pace.

“No more adventures for now,” Luna said.

“Mmm,” I hummed, leaning against Armor as Luna carried us through the corridors.

“Your quarters have remained untouched, except for fresh sheets, since you last saw them, Gabrielle,” Luna said. “I assume that sir Armor is welcome there?”

“Mmm,” I hummed again, as Armor did his best to look dignified despite the blush.

We entered my first actual place of residence in Equestria, and Luna briskly walked up to my bed, with Armor lifting me up onto the mattress, settling down behind me.

“Some comforting crackling from the fireplace perhaps?” Luna suggested.

“Please,” I said.

A few moments later, the fire from the fireplace bathed the room in a soft glow, just as Kibitz stepped back into the room.

I raised my eyebrow, as he carried my prosthetic leg in his magic, along with a scroll tube.

“Message for you, madam,” he said. “Would you like me to read it?”

I nodded, and gave my leg a quick look. It might have been covered in a very stubborn-looking layer of dust, but it was mine, no doubt about it.

Kibitz opened the scroll case, unfurled the paper, and cleared his throat. “Esteemed crafter of the arcane arts,” he read aloud. “Skill and art be apparent in this creation, your grace I must ask, and patience for this explanation of my cause and my character, and that you do not be quick to anger for this–”

I groaned when the words caught up with me. “Does it go on like that for long?” I asked.

“Uh, yes,” Kibitz said, unfurling the message to estimate its length.

“Can you skip to the end?”

“It… hmm… it talks about how the author tried to recreate the enchantment, but was never able to recreate key features, apparently they stopped working after some time. Hmm, oh… signed by Starswirl The Bearded.”

Kibitz turned to Luna. “Has this been in the palace for long?”

“Probably ended up in the past when it went through the portal before it was stabilized,” I said, yawning.

Luna gently took the paper and rolled it up again, putting it back into the case.

“I always thought he was too secretive a stallion,” Luna said, and turned to me and Armor “Rest, you two, we’ll solve this mystery tomorrow.”

“I feel like sleeping tomorrow away,” Armor said, yawning.

“That might be wise,” Luna said, nodding in approval. “We shall keep a firm vigilance over your dreams, even though we suspect it will not be necessary. Come, Kibitz.”

“G’night,” I said.

“Princess?” Kibitz said in a low voice, as they walked out of the room. “The magic that madam Gabrielle created was what the enchanters of old used, but she researched the magic that they used, correct? How can–”

“Ah, Kibitz, I believe the best pony to ask about that is…”

Their voices died off in the distance, and I felt Armor’s calm breath behind me.

“Are you awake?” I asked, softly.

“I’m not falling asleep until you do,” Armor said, in an equally soft voice.

“Armor.”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Armor’s embrace tightened just a little. “Thank you.”

I finally, slowly relaxed, when I noticed my guitar sitting in the corner of the room, facing me. I smiled a little at it, before glancing back at Armor, before lighting my horn up and floating a spare bed sheet over it.


—


Trixie sat on her seat on the train, staring out at the moonlit fields flying by.

Beside her lay Evening and Poly, now permanent friends and expected long term companions in her journeys across Equestria.

They had returned to more densely populated lands and were on their way back to Canterlot, where Evening was looking forward to reuniting with his wife.

Trixie cast her resting companions a warm look, then continued contemplating the gains and losses of the quest that had just wrapped up.

It was almost paradoxical, setting out with a goal of sending away two ponies one would grow to become friends with.

In the end, it was probably all for the best. It was too risky for the portals to be open, the way the worlds influenced each other, perhaps to catastrophic results.

The strange filly was of course an anomaly, ignoring all the pulls and pushes of whatever cosmic force had arranged this, and seemingly smashing its designs with her presence alone, but how would one channel an ability like that? No, it was better this way.

… Still, there was a bitterness to this victory that Trixie had trouble shaking.

Her thoughts were interrupted by something hard poking her in her side through her saddlebag as she shifted in her seat.

She opened the bag of mementos she had kept when giving away her mobile home, and pulled out a harmonica she recognized, but didn’t associate with her magic home.

Then her eyes widened when she realized just what she was holding, and gently put the instrument back into her bag.

It would have to be locked away somewhere safe, and kept hidden. It was an unassuming thing, but it could determine the fate of the entire world… two worlds.

After her initial shock, Trixie still felt a smile grow on her muzzle.

Gaiden