//------------------------------// // Second Day, Evening—Catastrophic Revelation // Story: Cutie Mark Crusaders Fantasian City-State Historians, YAY!!!!!! // by Dragonborne Fox //------------------------------// That night, with their bounties on the table and the note-taking well underway, the Crusaders seemed to have their work cut out for them. Their slime ranching went well enough with an actual adult who had the means to wrangle them to keep them from too much trouble, but the three were disappointed when slime ranching cutie marks didn't manifest. Still, the fun and thrills from another crusading gig had them in relatively high spirits, and there was always the next big thing that could finally net them their big break from being blank flanks. Tonight, Katie wasn't in the room with them, but that gave the trio the excuse to just write to their heart's content since she wasn't there to leer over their withers. While it was a shame they couldn't obtain their slime rancher cutie marks, they did consider that there were other avenues available here. Oh well, one door shut, several windows open, as some of the wise ponies of history had once said at some point. Maybe some of the other soldiers would be lenient, too. And besides, they were working on a school report anyway. It was better to hold on to the information, at least for now, and then try again for their cutie marks some other time. They were fillies; they had all the time in the sister worlds. Although… Cutie Mark Crusaders Historians did have a nice zing to it. If nothing else, maybe they could start small… help dig up whatever remnants of Fantasia's checkered past remained, with some help from the grown-ups of course… But that could wait, like other possibly-undiscovered cutie marks. Right now, they had homework to deal with, and it wasn't going to do itself, as much as they'd have liked for it to just manifest legs and start penning its own words. The only way that would happen would be if they summoned Discord to do that for them, but they didn't because it probably would have been cheating, not to mention anything regarding whatever embellishments that struck Discord's fancy were in relation to the whole possibly-sordid subject. So far, they had gotten the basics down, compiled into a neat and tidy list for reference's sake. The list was itself a separate entity, kept to the side to avoid damages and the like, although with a nice small stack of papers beneath it should they need to expand on it for whatever reason. Apple Bloom looked it over again, just to make sure that everything so far was correct and in a format that could be easily read by Cheerilee when all was said and done. No. 1: Irongrey Aerie is a military-run city-state located in Fantasia, sitting on a mountain with forests at its foot. A ring of steel surrounds the mountain by its middle, for the airships the army uses. The airships are used to transport goods and soldiers to wherever they're needed, although right now, they don't have a lot of trading opportunities yet. They also have tanks for ground-based travel, for mostly the same purpose plus fighting if the need ever arises. No. 2: The Aerie is run by General Lance Boltwing, though he's on a tight leash. The Lieutenant-Generals, Anna Windwood, Matt Bladerune, and Natalie Starcovert, are tasked with keeping the leash where it is, and helping him manage the First Unified Army that lives in the Aerie. No. 3: The Aerie is home to a large batch of changelings and gryphons, who came to work together after the Trials of Attrition drove them to fight each other. Very few, if any, ponies live at the Aerie, save the General and the Lieutenant-Generals. This might change, however. No. 4: There are few Fantasian alicorns remaining, and none of them that we know of are currently allied with the Aerie. This might change, however, if new info turns up. No. 5: The Aerie controls the regions of Greenwood, the changeling hives, and the gryphon provinces of Fantasia. Officially, they're presently allied with Whitefall Town, Goldenbrick Resort, and a nameless town on the southeastern continent. Also officially, they seem to be opposed by most of the rest of Fantasia for some reason. No. 6: The Aerie is heavily reliant on magitek, charged with as much energy as it takes to raise the sun. From showering to fighting, magitek is the bridge between the average Aerie citizen and most tasks. However, the charging methods are a secret, but they reportedly use up pony magic. Supposedly, the General and Lieutenant-Generals themselves are the ones who do the charging. No. 7: The Aerie is under ten years of age. Its construction happened in recent years, once the Trials of Attrition came to an end. The next sheet detailed the whole sordid affair that was the Trials of Attrition, though it largely consisted of what little Armin had told them, and some minor footnotes of their own regarding the whole thing. Mercifully, it left out the part that Lance himself was the one who more or less kicked off the proceedings for the affair, as the trio weren't sure if he would approve of that mention otherwise. And taking into account what Armin had said about it gave them cause to play it safe for now. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were perusing the pictures again, shuffling through them when the door opened. Katie strode in, ears somewhat droopy. The trio turned to look at her, noticing that Anna lingered in the doorway behind her with a solemn expression. "Okay…" She turned to Apple Bloom again. "I know you're probably not going to like what I have to tell you…" She sighed. "But you won't have to worry about Sunnytown anymore." Apple Bloom frowned at the news. "Whaddya mean?" she asked. Katie's eyes narrowed a bit. Her orbs dimmed. "Well… I told the higher-ups about it. Me and Bushels here are gonna see to it that something is done about that place." She lifted a hoof before Apple Bloom could protest and added, "Zombies, right? Did you ever get told about how a zombie is put down?" Apple Bloom shook her head, and Katie turned her raised hoof onto her own head and made a kerpash noise as the hoof jerked away. "It'll be messy, it'll be hectic… but we'll come out of it alright. I can't vouch for the rest of the town, however." "But they drain you if you touch them! They almost did that to me!" Apple Bloom protested, eyes widening at the mere idea that Katie was suggesting. Katie gestured to her horn. "Well I have some nasty surprises for if they try that," she retorted. "One more thing… what kind of community is it, besides undead-infested?" Apple Bloom wilted, seeing the conviction flashing in those orbs. Even tonight, she wasn't thrilled about the idea of one zombie getting into a scuffle with several more, no matter what the reasoning behind it was. "Earth ponies, mostly…" she said dejectedly. "But I think they're immortal…" Katie shook her head. "When I get to them, they won't be," she promised darkly. "It might be on Mythonian soil. Its actions have not been excused by us, and whatever shadowy force has kept them going for however long they've been plodding on your planet will not protect them." She trotted over and put her hooves on Apple Bloom's withers. "Look at it this way: no more foals will go missing because of those blowhards. No more will join the undead ranks. That. Stops. Here." "But how are you going to get there?" Sweetie questioned. Katie just turned to look evenly at Sweetie Belle. "If we don't use our airships… and I'm not particularly thrilled about that ride… we'll figure something else out. I'm not sure what Celestia has to say about the town, but I'll bet you her opinions on it are not the prettiest out there," she answered. "You probably have to run that by Celestia first… and I'm pretty sure she's still stuck running Equestria and all that," Scootaloo pointed out with a frown. Katie winced as she recalled that particular part of diplomatics, and how much of a pain in the posterior it was to even deal with those nobles during her brief stint in Canterlot. "Paperwork, boring adult stuff… it'll take weeks for the forms to go through, and that's if the stuffy nobles don't do something to make sure it never reaches Celestia." Anna piped up, "So… how do you know this?" Scootaloo wilted a bit, wings drooping. "Well… I was a flower filly for Cadence's wedding, and I heard some nobles talking bad about Fantasia before the barrier even broke," she said. "Then again, they were also talking bad about Cadence and her marrying somepony she really loved, before Chrysalis and her changelings nearly ruined it." She looked at Katie quite squarely and asked, "And let me guess: you showed them what you really looked like, and they decided they didn't like you?" Katie sighed, and bitterly nodded. "Decided to send us to a hotel whose staff were already on thin ice by the guard at the time. I still don't know who pulled those strings and if they got punished for it," she muttered. The trio winced, recalling that a newspaper detailing that fiasco had circulated back home. That day, they had to ask their sisters and aunts and idols some more… uncomfortable questions, including why the culprits wound up in the Canterlot Infirmary before being tried. It did not escape their notice that Anna had winced, too, eyes widening the tiniest margin.  "And Applejack had been talking about how the nobles acted during the Grand Galloping Gala last year," Apple Bloom said, frowning as Anna trotted to them. "All they yakked about was social status or some gussy frou-frou like that, or how they blew their bits on really expensive and stupid things. 'Look at me, I got a fancy boat!' 'Look at me, I own three houses!' It was more of the same during Twilight's birthday bash, too! What do they need three houses for, to compensate for something?" Anna sighed. Katie smothered a snort with her hoof. "Knowing the nobility when I first met them, yeah, they're probably compensating alright. Most I've seen was just trying to one-up the other, when they weren't talking down to me for…" Anna's eyes gravitated upwards as she once more found herself searching for words, "well… inappropriate behavior that I was stupid enough to display before them all." "Feather-fondler," Katie muttered under her breath. Anna turned to the wraithling, who wore her smugness on her bony sleeves. "Shut up, scarface," she hissed in reply. She groaned when Katie giggled, and turned back to the Crusaders. "That's rich, coming from you," Katie snarked. Anna turned to glare at her, and she instantly shut her split claptrap up. Anna grumbled under her breath, and turned to the foals.  "Anyway, you three were saying?" Anna prodded. "Well… Rarity's also been talking about how she wanted to be among the nobles, when she was still… in love with some noble before she knew him better," Sweetie said, shuddering uncomfortably. "Let's just say bad first date at the Grand Galloping Gala and leave it there." Anna frowned. "So… most of the nobles of Equestria are, at best, pompous twits," she said, looking at Sweetie, who nodded. "Any forms we might send to Celestia are gonna get sidelined, even if they do bother to read about the 'clearing out the zombies' part." Another nod answered her. She knelt until she was eye level with the three and asked, "And they're probably worse than your so-called foalsitter, on a scale even I'd have trouble comprehending." Another nod came and went. "And they like to blow their bits on everything they can, without doing anything for the common ponies." Nod number four followed in short order. Anna sat down, raised her front claws, and waved them dramatically as she asked, "How are they still allowed to help Celestia run their damn country?!" Somepony clearing their throat grabbed their attention. They turned to find one Prince Blueblood in the doorway, frowning bitterly. "I can help answer that…" He waved a hoof, and Anna and Katie sighed and moved to follow him into the hall. He nodded to the Crusaders and added, "Adult discussion, I'm afraid. I do hope you understand." With that, the door closed behind the Fantasians and Blueblood, leaving the trio alone. Sweetie Belle shrugged and went back to the pictures she was holding. "Eh, seen weirder," she said blaisely. "Do you girls think that Irongrey Aerie has its own standards of normal?" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom traded looks, then turned back to Sweetie with dual shrugs. "Probably… they're run by ponies who are loco in the coco," Scootaloo muttered. "It's likely on the same scale of normal as Ponyville is." "And not to mention the magitek—it can do almost anything. Something's bound to happen sooner or later that'll require someone like Blue Crow to fix it," Sweetie Belle added. The trio shared glances again. "And most magitek, they're probably not gonna let us operate," Scootaloo said, frowning. "So we most likely can't try to get magitek pilot cutie marks." Apple Bloom wilted at that. "And if we did, we don't know how the adults here would react…" That was not a happy thought at all, even taking into account how the Fantasian escorts first reacted when pressed even the tiniest increment about their cutie marks when they initially came to Equestria. She started to consider that, just maybe, there weren't any particularly happy stories behind those cutie marks at all.  Did Fantasians really treat such a natural, immutable phenomenon with that much scorn and loathing, or did she win the lottery on the mother of all cutie mark stories without even knowing it? It wouldn't have mattered if she won the lottery on the second one, since she virtually had no details to work with, not so much info even regarding what the Lieutenant-Generals could have been good at despite having shown her their marks plain as day. Matt said something about being good at magic and swords, and Natalie said something similar on the magical front… but both neglected to mention what kind of magic they favored most. Silence held the room for an uncomfortably long moment. Apple Bloom shared another look with her bestest buddies, and they seemed to consider the unhappy musings that she did, because their faces had twisted into forlorn disappointment. "I noticed something else weird about Anna," Scootaloo said, wings drooping further. That caused Sweetie Belle to put the pictures on the table. "Do either of you remember a flute on her flank?" Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom feverishly nodded. "Tangled in the ivy with the arrow, why?" Apple Bloom asked. "Well… the flute's been missing since we came here," Scootaloo said, frowning. "Do you think… her cutie mark might have been altered?" The other two shook their heads; that was an absurd thought to even entertain. Cutie marks couldn't be changed by no force in Equestria, after all, and as far as they knew the same held true of Fantasia. Although, then again, the barrier had been broken for a while now, so it would naturally take some time for any worthwhile info to get back to them on that front. Still, the unhappy question danced in their heads. The door opened, and they turned to find Anna looking at them with the most lemon-sucking sour frown on her face imaginable. "So, you've noticed…" she muttered. At the nods, she sighed and eased the look; no use looking like a drill sergeant for something one didn't exactly take the time and effort to hide. She strode over and sat down, then shifted to lay in order to gather the three in her forelegs. "Unfortunately… yes, my cutie mark had been altered. There are… certain spells used in conjunction with other spells, all forbidden here of course, that had been cast on me before I even got my mark," Anna said somberly, looking at the three evenly as pain flashed in her eyes. "It's also how I wound up with…" The vines and wood rustled on her legs for a moment before settling down. "Why would anypony cast those spells on you?" Apple Bloom asked, ears turning back. She felt a pit being carved into her stomach, and braced herself for a sordid tale the likes of which would probably give her nightmares for the rest of the week. "To ensure I would never have the incentive to get my cutie mark. The spells would act up every time I tried, and… well, bad things happened when I did manage to obtain my mark anyway. The source of that magic has been dealt with, but…" She started to look uneasy, and somewhat guilty over something the trio couldn't pin a name to. "Well, I'm stuck dealing with the fallout." "How much do ponies hate cutie marks here?" Scootaloo asked. Anna's face immediately contorted into a grimace. "Enough to hold competitions that killed everypony who got dragged there. Every single one there had their marks recorded and their lives taken before Matt, Natalie, and Lazarus put an end to it almost a decade or so ago," Anna said darkly. The Crusaders gasped, eyes widening and ears pinned back. "Do you know why they were… were…" Sweetie Belle started to shudder, unable to finish the gruesome question. Anna nodded. "From what they were told, it was to make sure nopony could rise up and challenge the status quo. What that was… I don't know. Nopony's ever managed to find the actual reason for that insanity yet, so we're currently stuck with guessing for now." Scootaloo shuddered, and something she hadn't asked about the war before flew out of her mouth on automatic reflex: "So those swords used to… stop that flock of gryphons, where did they come from?" Anna sighed. "I think it's best to let the actual caster answer that…" she muttered, her horn flashing for the briefest of moments. Silence held, her grip unyielding, and took several moments away with it before the door creaked open again. More hoofsteps filled into the room. The trio glanced over Anna's shoulders to find Matt and Natalie approaching, the strange crystal stallion from before trailing behind them. All had grim expressions. "Because those ponies… they wanted to make sure nopony to stop the disasters that would come to Fantasia," Matt said, horn glowing in soft gold. "There were ponies who wanted us all damned to the pits of Hell, who wanted us to stagnate for eternity. Or at least, that's the reason I'll stick to them until I can find another one of those bastards to squeeze the actual answers out of." He laid down, and looked at the three evenly. "But they took me and these two—" He used a hoof to indicate Natalie and the crystal stallion, "—to the place where everything changed." "Did you get your cutie marks before you met those ponies?" Scootaloo asked. Matt shook his head, and his expression darkened. "No, after. It was as if they could tell we'd have gotten them soon at the time," he said. "You three… you might want to brace yourselves. This isn't something I can exactly show to younger children." When he was sure they had braced themselves, he prepared himself for a terrible trip down memory lane and willed his magic to take a square-like shape that was awash in sepia tones.  A projection lit up before him, staticy and warbling and blanking in whole spots like an old-timey reel, showing off a stadium full of cheering ponies. Cages littered the scene, most with a pony lying down with their backs turned to the center of the arena. A bloodied sword, one with golden wings on its hilt, stood before the projection, with some of the red stains still glistening. It hovered before a frightened and sobbing colt, who had his legs folded beneath him and his head bowed low. "Just make it quick," the sobbing colt pleaded. The image transitioned with a jittery hiccup, revealing the same colt in a cage not too far away, his back turned and unmoving as the crowd cheered wildly. Another cage opened, and adults threw a hapless filly clutching a ripped dollie out. The filly couldn't have been older than thirteen. She tried to run away, but careless adults just threw her back into the ring, stomping on her plush and making her wail for good measure. "Why did you kill my plush buddy?!" the scared filly wailed. The crowd jeered, and the adults only wore horrible grins. They threw her a knife… The image transitioned again with another jittering hiccup, to that same filly lying flat on the ground, curled up in a way that obscured the knife. Once more, the crowd howled in demented glee. The adults shook their heads and tossed her still body into a cage, along with the remains of her plush friend. A third foal had been tossed into the ring, shaking and wielding a bow. He loaded an arrow into the drawstring, uncertainty in his eyes, and fired. The blade moved imperceptibly fast, and cut the arrow in twain. The image flashed again, this time blanking entirely for roughly two seconds, and the colt was face-first in the dirt, as still as the other two. It didn't take the Crusaders long to connect the dots, as the colt was thrown back in his cage to the tune of the crowd's howling and chanting. Tears threatened to prick the trio's eyes as they continued to behold the unfolding travesty in most of its gruesome glory. The song and dance repeated for an uncomfortably long time, the image shifting just before crying ponies were felled, until finally only two children remained. The last two were removed from their cages simultaneously, and hurled into the ring with prejudice. Here, the projection cleared up considerably, and everything came into sharp focus. At the side of the blade stood a wide-eyed, smaller and lankier Natalie, carrying a simple crystal-tipped staff. On the other side, a smaller version of the crystal stallion wobbled, magically clutching a spear with a sun-like formation before the actual blades, the tell-tale sheen of crystal ponies practically nonexistent on him. Both had reddened faces and red splatters on hooves and cheeks, ears pinned back and puffy eyes threatening to leak tears. They hesitated, sniffling and glancing between each other with uncertainty. A voice rang out in the projection. "Whoever wins this final fight shall have whatever they desire granted to them… so long as it's in our power, of course." The trio could hear the sneer in the unfamiliar voice, elderly and malicious in equal measure. "We don't want to entertain the fancy flights of three scared little foals, do we?" The crowd's cheer rose to a deafening din. "We will not tolerate those who crusade for their cutie marks!" some of the ponies shouted. "We will stamp out cutie marks from Fantasia forevermore!" others howled. "No marks! No talent! No hubris and pride to call our own!" a third of the throng yelled. Scootaloo looked at Matt, wings halting in place as the puzzle clicked itself complete in her head. There was no way that was possible, and yet what she heard from the projection forced her denial into its cage before it could take root. "You were—" Matt nodded, using a hoof to indicate to himself, Natalie, and the crystal stallion again. "Just like you," he said bitterly. "That was what got us dragged there." Scootaloo turned back to the projection, horror gripping her heart. The unfamiliar, malicious voice went on, chuckling ominously, "But only one of these pitiful foals can stand… and the other two will have to leave without the winner. Pick wisely, little ones; we don't want anything untoward to happen, do we?" The eyes of the younger crystal stallion widened, and he almost dropped his spear. Filly Natalie's legs shook as she looked about ready to cry all over again. The bloodied sword raised a bit, before it clattered to the ground. "What's wrong, little kiddies, gonna whine? Gonna cry? Look at them; they've been like this since the main event started!" "Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!" the crowd cheered, once more a deafening din that threatened to destroy as many eardrums as it could. "We will tolerate no cutie marks on Fantasia!"  Staff and spear clattered to the ground, and filly Natalie and the crystal colt started bawling and moved to hug each other tightly. The projection shifted closer to the pair, and white fuzzy hooves moved to hug them in turn as well. "I wanna go home!" three sobbing voices cried out in unison, heads huddled together as the younger versions of Matt and his friends couldn't take it anymore. "... so they've thrown down their weapons…" the owner of the malicious voice hissed. "Very well… it seems we'll have to do the deed ourselves!" At this, the crowd booed, and started pelting the poor children with rotten fruits and vegetables. They didn't notice nor care, for they were too locked in their own grief to be concerned with the fickle whims of such a bloodthirsty mass. Ponies moved in, actual adults with mutilated and burned flanks, each sneering as they carried sharpened knives to prepare the three children for the bitter end. "Start with the filly… cut her up in front of the other two," the owner of the voice ordered. Before long the three were surrounded on all sides, and the faces of the bloodthirsty adults darkened and darkened until they were like living shadows as the terrified foals looked up to meet their eyes. "Any last words, little filly?" one of the adults asked, using magic to forcibly pry the younger Natalie away from her friends by her mane. She squealed in protest, and kicked as a knife moved to hover before her throat. At once, three little horns glowed in the projection, and the adults were knocked back into the walls by a wave of powerful, white-hot fire that broadened their scorch marks and left cracks in the stadium's inside. The knife that would have sliced a vulnerable neck clattered uselessly to the ground, glowing red-hot and angrily. "Leave us alone!" the filly Natalie wailed, her whole body awash in white light as her eyes screwed shut and her ears shuddered. "W-we didn't deserve this! W-we just wanted our cutie marks!" The adults rose again, and promptly reclaimed their knives. One tried throwing his knife at the younger three, but another blast of white-hot fire melted it before it could reach them, its liquidized form puddling only inches away from the younger versions of the Fantasian trio. The crystal colt glowed, nowhere near drowning in light as the filly Natalie was, but he reclaimed his spear as light built on his flanks. Shadows raced out, encircling the stadium and the skies above it. A portal ripped itself open between the spokes of a pentagram before filling in the crimson star, etched with unfamiliar runes and casting a blood red light onto the scene. The crowd stopped jeering and looked up as fire swirled around it like angry clouds, coalescing into several burning spheres large enough to rival manor-type houses before they then morphed into five-pointed stars that shed feather-like embers. Impossibly huge weapons descended from the portal and hovered in the sky, silhouetted in shadows and crimson auras. Lightning struck the blades, but it did not harm them at all. Ponies promptly screamed and scrambled for the nearest doors of the stadium, forgetting even their own bloodlust in their ironic fervor to live. The adults in the ring galloped towards the three, intending to end it all for them, and the crystal colt howled and knocked them back with the spear, rage and hurt and sorrow and fear all flashing in his eyes as they turned scarlet. He screamed, the sound less equine and more anguish, batting away knives with smooth fluidity, and ending lives just the same way in one lingering breath. Fire burned those that came too close to the filly Natalie, some collapsing where they stood and others skidding into each other as the blast threw them off-balance. The younger Natalie's eyes had also twisted red when they opened again, the same emotions flashing across them with another one joining the fray: vengeance. She howled for vengeance for those who came before them, for those who lost their lives in the senseless madness, for those last shreds of her innocence that had been thoroughly broken and stomped upon without mercy. She was directing it all at the careless adults who had done all of that hurt and possibly more with as much raw power as a skilled adult sorcerer, and the sheer uncontrolled pain that now raged out of control and influenced her spellcasting. Shadows held the remainder in place, shaped like claws and drawing the tiniest bits of blood from their ironclad grip. For a moment, the blade flashed imperceptibly, and then hovered as a clawed shadow took a moment to carefully wipe the blood away. Within was housed a reflection of the younger Matt, his mane now the same as the darkness holding the rest of the careless adults, eyes red and sclera black and pooling yet more shadows that were purple at first, his face twisted into something monstrously merciless and hurt. His horn was red going on black and then white, curved and longer and pooling more of the same.  He saw his own reflection, screamed, and charged. In one swift burst of speed, the adults whizzed by him, or he whizzed by them; the Crusaders weren't sure who had moved. He turned around in time to see the shadowbound ponies falling like a collection of dominoes, the blade hovering before him and once more drenched in scarlet. No longer were these scared and innocent children: the events of the insanity and the crowd's own bloodlust had created truly monstrous beings in their place, only concerned with repaying the hurt that was inflicted onto them a thousandfold. And there was only one way that hurt would go: to the rest of the stadium, and possibly the area surrounding it. Given the giant swords in the sky, it was highly likely that nopony would survive the coming storm. "What are you buffoons doing?!" the owner of the unseen voice cried, unconcerned that the foals' would-be assassins were presently preoccupied with being mowed down with impunity. They also seemed to be unconcerned with the fact that, while their ponies were being slaughtered, death and despair hovered in the blackened skies above. "Kill them! Kill them all!!" The first large sword dropped and cut into the stadium with extreme prejudice. The structure collapsed on that side as the blade impaled itself into the earth, tumbling and crumbling and taking screaming ponies with it. Dust kicked up, obscuring most of the travesty from sight. Fire rained down, scorching everything it touched, further obscuring the scene with blackened, smouldering smoke. Time and time again, the adults tasked with murdering the children were stonewalled, or felled where they stood. The projection halted before anything more could happen, then changed to another animated image: one of smouldering rubble, stationed in a wasteland of scarred and scorched earth at least miles wide. Only faint traces of architecture remained to show that the stadium had ever existed, and even those were pitted and scored mercilessly. Only the billowing winds broke the silence, swirling ceaselessly around the area, filtering the smoke into the skies. A paper flitted about in them, tattered and worn and illegible, and then all was still, save for the blustering gales. Nopony rose from the rubble—not a peep of tumbling stone was heard. The crowd's cheering was but a distant memory now, with no lingering echoes in the few scant breezes present to even commemorate it. Their screams suffered the same fate: drowned out in silence, remembered only by those who had been there in the flesh. Three sets of hoofprints, one bigger than the other two, lead away from the scene, being filled in by windswept dust as though they never existed.  "We… had a magic surge, all at once," Matt said, face darkening somewhat. "We had no idea what we had done until the next day, and when it dawned on us… we hid in a cavern and cried ourselves to sleep. We barely got out and away from those maniacs. It was…" The projection shut off, and Matt closed his eyes as he moved to give the trio his own tight hug. For a moment, they saw his eyes turn red and his horn lengthen, before it settled back into place. "Let's just say it was not sunshine and rainbows after that. We… we couldn't bear to look at our own cutie marks for a long time, when we noticed we had them at all." "What happened after that?" Apple Bloom asked in a small voice, moving to return the hugs. "They gave us a group name, and started to hunt us down like we were wanted criminals, using  our cutie marks as instant identification. They called us… the Children of Catastrophe," Natalie answered quietly. "It was weeks… then months… then a year and a half before we stopped being found by them. Each time… we had to end them to get them to leave us alone, and it never lasted… some nights we thought would go on forever because they kept coming, and coming, and coming..." "And when we weren't defending ourselves… we had to steal supplies to survive. Food, clothes, blankets… not a single place seemed to welcome us, because we didn't know our reputation managed to precede us back then. We ended up having to get really creative in order to continue living," the crystal stallion muttered, shifting to wedge himself between Matt and Natalie to look the trio in the eye. His expression was haunted, and pain lingered in his eyes as he spoke, "Then we got separated, and I was on my own for the longest time. I had to hide my whole body in cloth just to get into towns and get things." He lifted a hoof to indicate the room, or perhaps everything beyond it. "That only changed just very recently." The other two Crusaders moved in to give Matt a hug of their own. "Do Fantasians… really hate cutie marks here?" Sweetie Belle asked, taking a moment to hug the crystal stallion too. He hugged back with a forlorn sigh. Natalie grimly nodded. "Many still do," she said. "And… we might have found evidence that those maniacs who threw us in that stadium could come back." Her gaze turned distant. "If they found out about you three… they'd give you the same treatment they gave us." Apple Bloom made a noise of discomfort that was echoed by her closest friends. The idea that she might have to fight Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo for her own life was one she didn't want to contemplate. How could such ponies make children do something so horrible, just so one of them might live? How could such adults continue to live with themselves, or sleep at night, or do anything without any indicator that things were wrong? It was no small wonder that Matt and Natalie were initially hesitant to share their talents and the story behind them when they were pressed the first time; that was not a happy tale at all. "But you'll protect us… won't you?" "We will," Natalie said in a tone brokering no argument. "We won't know when those maniacs will resurface… but we'll finish them off when they do." "We'll have to eradicate them completely… I'm not sure that even we could do that," the crystal stallion said in a hushed voice. "But… would that make us as bad as them?" He turned to Anna. "And what if they found out about you, or Sarah, or Lance?" Anna shuddered as she considered the question. "Can… can we still get our marks here?" Sweetie asked quietly. "You can… but if you do, we'll have to watch you three closely to make sure you're safe, in case those maniacs somehow figure out you're here," Natalie replied. "We're not going to stop you from obtaining your marks, just from whatever dangerous activities you could do." She moved in to give them another tight hug. "We won't let them do to you what they did to us." She leaned in to nuzzle the three, and slowly, they relaxed a little. "And if you do crusade for your marks again while you're here, just… run it by us first, alright?" Matt asked, his voice quiet. The trio looked at him and nodded, unwilling to get themselves in danger if cutie-mark-hating maniacs would find out and drag them to an arena just to die. An uncomfortable question still had Apple Bloom shuddering as she asked, "Do y'all… remember what the ponies in the arena looked like?" Matt shook his head. "They threw sacks over our heads and knocked us out. We don't know what the one leading the crazies looked like, or if he was there that night," he answered. "We don't know how big it was… or if the rest of Fantasia knew about it before we destroyed the stadium…" He gave the trio another tight hug. "But if we find another stadium like that… used for that purpose… we're definitely razing it to the ground." "And when they do, I'll help them erase the evidence of its existence," Anna said quietly. "We'll mark the site with another hellscape to commemorate its stint as a place where dreams go to die." Apple Bloom wilted. "Does Applejack know about this?" she asked. Matt nodded. "Informed her not too long ago, after she asked…" His frown deepened, but not in scorn. "She told us… well, demanded… that we tell you the truth about our cutie marks…" His head bowed a little. "She wanted you to know… just how bad Fantasia is to some extent, because if she told you, she'd have probably swore up and down to break spines doing it." "And we doubt you'd have believed us if we merely told you," the crystal stallion added, shaking his head bitterly. "Words… words could not do the Royale Catastrophe any justice… nor could they have healed the hurt that we got afflicted with…" Matt hugged the three tighter. "I'm sorry I subjected you to watching that…" he muttered sincerely, taking a moment to rub the trio's withers with his large and fuzzy hooves. "It's okay…" the Crusaders said in unison, shuddering as they tried their best to shelve the horrible mental images. It was one thing to peek into the past that way, but at least they had been spared from experiencing it for themselves, in the flesh. A part of them was already forgiving, but tiny fragments burned in anger, demanding more justice for those innocent foals who had lost their lives due to an immutable phenomenon and pompous blowhards who only wanted them dead because of it. Having Ragnarok and hellfire drop on the blighted area wasn't nearly enough consolation as they would have liked, for they considered the fact that said pompous blowhards were probably licking their wounds and rebuilding another den of death and misery elsewhere. "Did anypony come back to that… that… bad place?" Apple Bloom asked weakly. She felt Matt shaking his head. "Not that we know of. Last we heard, it was haunted by something," Matt said. "But we're keeping a close eye on its surrounding parameters, so we'll be the first to know if any funny business is going on there." For a while, everypony sat in silence. Then, Apple Bloom spoke. "Can… can we crusade for magitek cutie marks?" she asked. Matt jolted a little, but didn't immediately protest. He shared glances with the other three, who looked at him with varying levels of bewilderment and shrugged. "I… suppose," he said after a moment. "Just… make sure you have one of us with you so we can keep you from getting hurt, okay?" "We can do that," Apple Bloom muttered, easing at last. She had to concede that Irongrey was probably the safest place on Fantasia at the moment, and for crusading she couldn't have asked for anything less. Although she made a mental note to give Applejack the fiercest of tongue-lashings later for this. Maybe tomorrow would be optimal for that, if someone else didn't tear into her over it first. If someone beat Apple Bloom to that punch, well, she could just kick back and relax with free food and drink on hoof for that fiasco. Matt seemed to sense what was on Apple Bloom's mind, and piped up with an exasperated smile growing on his face, "Don't worry, already verbally tore your sister a new one over it. She'll apologize tomorrow." Apple Bloom snorted. Applejack better have, because otherwise nothing was going to stop the tongue-lashing save for maybe going blue in the face. And then she was gonna tell Big Mac on her once she got back home if the apology didn't come through. The mental images finally got punted in their mental cage, and at last she and her bestest friends could look forward to their magitek cutie marks. They heard something being conjured from the ether, and pulled away from Matt to see the biggest bowl of ice cream yet, easily the size of Big Mac's barrel, yoke, and shoulders. It was a blazing fire engine red, topped with bananas and whipped cream and drizzled chocolate and a dozen other different toppings. Natalie scooted the bowl over to them, and to their delight, they found spoons stabbed into its surface. "I made extra Burning Frost Specials," Natalie chirped with a weak smile. At once, everypony tucked into the ice cream, which had a nice burn to contrast its fruity sweetness, eased by the whipped cream and toppings. Nothing quite made the bad images go away like the perfect excuse for a late-night snack, at least for the Crusaders. It helped that they hadn't seen the worst the Royale Catastrophe had to offer, only the aftermath which spoke volumes about itself. And should worst come to worst, well, the perpetrators of that fiasco would have to get through an entire angry army and its magitek first, and the ponies who could rearrange Fantasia's surface on top of that.