The dining car was a welcome sanctuary from the tension in their compartment. Settled in a corner booth where her ghostly traveler would draw the least attention, Twilight had been more than happy to introduce Sunsparkle to the concept of modern fast food.
At least until, halfway through her milkshake, she noticed Sunsparkle had gone oddly quiet. “Hey, are you…”
Twilight trailed off when she followed Sunsparkle’s line of sight. At the other end of the dining car, a couple was oblivious to everything except each other, practically sharing the same chair as they cuddled over their desserts. The lady’s wing was draped over the back of her unicorn… boyfriend? Husband? The distinction wasn’t as big a deal as the realization of why Sunsparkle was probably so interested.
“Is… there a problem?” Twilight asked cautiously, trying not to let too much suspicion leak into her tone.
“Are they safe?”
Twilight squinted in concentration, unsure for a moment that Sunsparkle had even spoken at all, the words almost lost in the exhale of air to make them. “What do you mean, ‘safe’?” she asked when she’d put the question together.
“They’re so… brazen. They don’t have to worry about someone picking a fight? Or worse?”
Oh.
Twilight swallowed, then gently put a hoof on one of Sunsparkle’s. “They’ll be fine. Did… Were you and Silver-?”
Sunsparkle finally shook herself and tore her gaze away from the happy couple. “Not like that, we had support from-.” She closed her eyes for a moment, clearly gathering her emotions back into order. “I never told you which branch of the Council I represented, did I?”
“I- well-” Twilight awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck.
“It is alright. Given my time period, there is nothing wrong with your assumption,” Sunsparkle said before turning her gaze to the floor. “My mother was Diamond Glow.”
Twilight sucked in a sharp breath, her stomach dropping hard. “Diamond Glow? Princess Platinum’s daughter Diamond Glow?”
“I understand why that would be difficult to believe, but here is my evidence, if it still exists. When Grandmother left Old Unicornia, she brought a special locket with her for luck. It has the phoenix constellation stamped into it and each star has a gem with a different illusion spell bound to it. I gifted it to the girls when they were placed on the thrones of Equestria.”
Twilight did know that locket. It was in a glass case in Princess Celestia’s room, between…
two…
history books.
She let her head fall back against the booth’s cushion with a groan. “I believe you,” she muttered, then pushed herself away from the table. Leaving some bits for the waiter, she slid out of the booth and Sunsparkle followed, both ignoring the stares their passing earned.
“So… Diamond Glow,” Twilight said as they crossed the gap between cars. “The only thing I’ve ever found on her was…”
“Was?”
“Um…” Twilight closed the door behind them and tapped her back hoof awkwardly, trying to think of a way to be tactful. “That her… passing was rather sudden.”
Sunsparkle made a faint hum that Twilight couldn’t pinpoint an emotion for. “Yes, that is true,” the ghost mare said as she passed Twilight. “I imagine a magical trap in her study would qualify as ‘sudden’.”
“Trap?” Twilight asked, eyes wide. “For wha-”
“Are they going to be safe?”
“-oh. Oh, no, no, no,” she whispered, freezing in mid-step as Sunsparkle’s earlier question came back to her. “They didn’t.”
Sunsparkle was still walking. “They did. Their leader was revealed as a stallion Mother knew and once rejected the advances of, which could be chalked up to spite, but… well. He did manage to gain followers to aid him in the plot.”
Her lunch was a lot less pleasant churning uncomfortably in her stomach, but Twilight forcibly pulled herself together and followed, so very glad that the compartment was empty of anyone to hear their conversation. “Your dad?”
“Fell into a mourning depression and drank himself to death by the time the Third Council convened. Probably for the better, since he would have been put through Tartarus by those who opposed my inheriting Mother’s position.”
Twilight had a hundred more questions she wanted to ask about that, but an itch between her wings suggested they might be better left for another time. “The stallion your mom knew,” she said instead. “Do you remember who he was?”
“Fine Shine. One of the many pompous sons of the Fifteen Families from Old Unicornia.”
Twilight felt her lip curl almost entirely on its own. “That checks out.”
Sunsparkle stopped short and turned. “You know of him?” she asked, and it was hard to tell if it was anger or surprise coloring her voice. No supernatural wind had kicked up around them, so probably surprise. Mostly. Twilight wouldn’t have blamed her at all for being angry that the killer had been better recorded in the history books than his victim.
“I know his descendants,” Twilight replied, unable to keep the disdain out of her own. “They show up once a year to try and demand that the Crown lower their taxes and raise those of their non-unicorn neighbors.”
“Tch. He would be so proud to hear that.”
Rarity and Fluttershy had their heads bowed over one of the maps of the Unicorn Range when she and Sunsparkle re-entered their compartment. At the sound of the door closing behind them, Rarity looked up. “How was lunch?”
“Informative,” Twilight said as she climbed into her berth, and she heard faint snorts at her dry tone. “They do have that blackberry and orange salad you love so much, though.”
“Wonderful!” A sharp growl made Twilight hide her grin in her pillow as Rarity turned bright red. “Actually, I do believe I’ll go get some of that now. Do you want anything, Fluttershy?”
“I think I’d like to check the menu first, so I’ll go with you.” Fluttershy carefully folded the map back up and stepped out of the berth, stretching some kinks out of her wings. “You’re welcome to come back with us, if you like,” she offered to Sunsparkle.
The ghost mare considered that, tail swishing as she thought. “I believe I will,” she said finally. “The more observations I can add to Silver’s list, the better.”
Once the door clicked, Twilight was left alone in the cabin with Starswirl. The elderly unicorn didn't appear to have been paying attention to their conversation, his nose buried in a tome he had summoned from she had no idea where, but the uncomfortable pall still remained.
Twilight briefly considered pulling the maps back out to see if the girls had added any more observations for their journey, but decided against it.
Instead, she fluffed her wings, did her quick breathing exercise, and plucked up her nerve.
"We've never really talked much about, y'know, what Equestria used to be like."
Starswirl made a noncommittal grunt without looking up. Well, that didn't amount to telling her off... exactly... so...
"I mean, I know the legend version about how Stygian brought you and the others together, but I'm curious about-"
"If the mentally deficient simpletons on the council had bothered to actually do the job of their station, it wouldn't have been necessary."
Twilight blinked in surprise at the venom in her old hero's voice. "I- what?"
The tome clapped shut. "Even a foal knows that the primary cause of monster attacks is the lure of strife. Sirens, wendigoes, kelpies, phase-spiders, the list goes on. Had the council focused their efforts on dealing with the knots of tribal separatists, as they should have, there would have been no need for traveling heroes to begin with, let alone the Pillars."
That... that didn't sound right. "But if they had pooled all the resources on a crackdown, what about caring for the rest of the populace?"
"If the populace was safe, they wouldn’t have needed the council to coddle them!" Starswirl snapped. "Instead, ponies were too busy picking fights with each other to defend themselves from the monsters their fights summoned!"
The icky sour feeling Twilight had felt in her stomach was coming back. Something... something felt wrong about what he was saying, but she had nothing to back it up. Maybe she should-
The door opened again and two takeout boxes floated in, held aloft in Rarity's magic. "I hope you don't mind us eating here instead, but the dining car was positively pa-" Rarity paused, looking back and forth between the two of them as Fluttershy and Sunsparkle entered behind her. "Did... something happen?"
Twilight swallowed hard to force down the bile that had begun to rise in her throat. "Just a small magical theory argument. That's all."
"Well... okay," Rarity said uncertainly, laying the food on the shelf that formed the headboard of her berth. She and Fluttershy both glanced at her in concern, but when Twilight shook her head, they turned their attention back to their food.
A cold hoof settled on her back, and Twilight did well not to flinch before turning her head to find Sunsparkle regarding her with the same look the girls had given her. "Do you need anything?" the ghost mare asked, gaze briefly flicking in Starswirl's direction.
"No... no, I'm fine. I promise." Her smile was weak, but it was enough. Sunsparkle gave her a gentle pat of reassurance and turned to climb into her berth.
Whatever Starswirl said as she did was too quiet for Twilight to hear. Sunsparkle, on the other hoof, momentarily stiffened before her eyes narrowed and she hissed something back that was undoubtedly an insult in kind.
Twilight bit her lip and buried her head as deep into her pillow as she could.
She was pretty sure that she had just made things worse.
---
“Pretty Sure” had very quickly evolved into “Dead Certain.”
The metaphorical gauntlet had been thrown, and awkward avoidance had been replaced with outright hostility.
Rarity and Fluttershy had both begun carefully giving the combatants space, practically tip-hoofing about the cabin. “Do we want to know?” Fluttershy asked exactly once concerning the invectives being traded in Old Equestrian, and Twilight had shaken her head, wide-eyed and ears plastered to her skull at the… creativity of the words chosen.
Disembarking from the train brought a much welcome respite from the verbal sniping. Whether it was because of freedom from being trapped in the close proximity of the train car or refusal to continue in public, Twilight neither knew nor cared, just savoring the blessed quiet as the group checked their bags into the station’s lockers.
“Okay, so, basically all we need to focus on for this leg is food and water.”
Fluttershy raised a hoof. “Should we look into some tools? Since we are going up to aid in demolition?”
Twilight tapped her mouth in thought. “It couldn’t hurt. There’s probably no place here we could get anything like explosives, but I know there’s at least one shop for caving supplies.”
“Since you know where that is, why don’t we split up to do our shopping and meet back here?” Rarity asked. “Fluttershy and I can take Sunsparkle to go get sustenance.”
‘Bless you, Rarity,’ Twilight thought, and her relief must have shown on her face, because Rarity gave her a winning smile. “That sounds good,” Twilight said out loud. “The quicker we can get geared up and set out, the better.”
Starswirl apparently had no desire to chat as the two of them headed off in the direction of the store they needed, and that suited Twilight just fine, since she was pretty sure she would never adjust to the surprisingly extensive dictionary of blistering Old Equestrian curses she’d learned from him over the past several hours.
She really just wanted to get the next couple of days over with and move on to the Crystal Empire.
---
The tenuous ceasefire held as they reconvened, ate lunch, and began their trek up into the mountains, but Twilight could sense the tension beginning to ratchet up again, much to her dread.
And it was clear she wasn’t the only one. When she glanced behind her at the rest of her travel companions, the girls were carefully keeping Sunsparkle occupied with discussion of their surroundings, and away from Starswirl.
“Wait, I thought these only ever come in blue,” Fluttershy was saying as she held a small star-shaped flower that Twilight only vaguely recognized. “What did they used to be?”
“They used to run the whole gamut between pure white and such a deep purple that it almost reached black,” Sunsparkle replied. “Though their territory also used to be much larger than you describe. If my memory is correct, they grew as far south as Whitetail Woods.”
“That makes sense. A smaller flowering ground would cause them to eventually homogenize.” Fluttershy giggled a little. “I’ll have to let Flower Wishes know. She’d enjoy researching it.”
“If the prospect of traveling so far from home doesn’t render her catatonic,” Rarity added dryly.
Twilight bit down on a snort of laughter, not wanting them to know she’d been listening in. “We should be at the cave we chose in just under an hour,” she called back over her shoulder instead.
“Excellent! The sooner we can set up the fire and get the canteens refilled, the sooner we can rest up for tomorrow.”
That was a sentiment Twilight thoroughly agreed with. Considering they hadn’t gotten much actual rest during the train trip, she was looking forward to just crashing for a little bit.
And by the time they did reach the cave, it had become a litany. Fire, food, water, sleep, her brain chanted tiredly as she dumped her saddlebags onto the ground. “I’ll go get the water.”
“Alright. We can handle the fire and start dinner,” Fluttershy said as she laid hers down as well. “Right, Starswirl?”
Apparently surprised out of his brooding, the old wizard blinked at her as she passed, then followed with only the faintest grumble.
Okay.
Okay!
Maybe they’d get through the night without too much trouble, Twilight thought as she floated the canteen straps to rest around her neck. Fluttershy was keeping Starswirl busy, Rarity was showing Sunsparkle her intended dinner recipe, and no one was biting each other’s heads off. This was okay!
Her heart considerably lighter, Twilight trotted off towards the river.
The evening sunlight peeking through the trees also helped lift her mood, and by the time she’d reached the rushing waters and began shedding the canteens, she was humming aimlessly to herself. Remembering the warnings Fluttershy and Applejack had given her ages ago, she carefully used her magic to separate out some water and test for contaminants. Only once she'd gathered enough that she felt was satisfactorily safe did she start funneling it into the canteens.
She had just finished the third when a sudden icy rush of fear out of nowhere made her wings stand on end and her fur prickle all the way from the tips of her ears to the base of her tail.
Muttering a few Old Equestrian curses of her own, she snatched them all up and flew back towards the campsite.
She had nearly reached the mouth of the cave when the chill of the wind forced her to land and keep running.
The sight that met her inside made her stop short, her hopes of a peaceful night dashed by the outright warfare that had broken out.
"Pompus little gloryhound!" Sunsparkle snarled in Old Equestrian as Rarity struggled to hold her back in her magic, visibly shivering from the wind the ghost mare's anger had kicked up. "If you had ever once in your life given a damn about the needs of those around you instead of using them for the sole purpose of raising yourself up-"
"You're a fine one to talk!" Starswirl snapped in kind, Fluttershy futilely trying to pull him back by his tail. "All of you sat on your rumps in your fancy chairs ignoring the root of the country's problem! If you had actually made an honest effort to unite the tribes, there would have been no reason to give them another common enemy!"