“Did you clear that sector?”
“Affirmative. That makes just under three dozen, all counted.”
“The Storm King will be very pleased.”
“Indeed.”
“Ohhhh noooo! The Stooooorm Guaaaaard!”
The two hunched-over figures of the Storm Guard straightened up, heads twisting to locate the sound. They were surrounded by several dozen bent-over ponies, chained and muzzled, and the only sounds they were making was a quiet sort of weeping. The other Storm Guards similarly twisted in place as they rapidly scanned the town square which they had turned into their base of operations. Pony towns had been easy enough to enslave; once Canterlot fell and the Princesses were captured, there was very little they could do to resist.
Except for these two, apparently, who were posing dramatically in a small alleyway.
“You two!” barked the leader, a Storm Guard Lieutenant. “What are you doing?”
“Oh, please don’t hurt us!” the blue one sobbed, leaning against the alleyway wall in a dramatic pose. “We don’t want to be enslaved!”
“No! Slavery is so very bad, and terrible! We cannot bear to be confined!” the lavender one wailed, drawing her foreleg over her eyes, careful not to dislodge the fashionably small chapeau she wore.
“Get them.” the lieutenant commanded with an eye roll, pointing one brutish finger down the alleyway. As his troops tromped off to fulfil his wishes, he climbed aboard the wagon, now pulled by chained ponies instead of his own troops. “If we go quickly, we can make it to the capital by nightfall. Providing that these stupid little ponies can -”
But what they could do, the world would never know; because suddenly, the air was filled with the sounds of rope pulling taut, and the panicked screams of his men. As he whipped his head around to look toward the alleyway, the lieutenant caught sight of the two ponies galloping into the town square, ripping off their fashionably-tiny hats to reveal unicorn horns.
“Ha! Your hubris will prove to be your undoing, foul Storm Guard Leader!” laughed the blue one, as she twirled in place and produced a spangled hat and cape. “For you were not prepared for the Astounding Teamwork of the Great And Powerful Trrrrrrrrrrixie, and her Magnificent Best Friend, Starlight Glimmer!”
“You’ll never conquer Equestria, because the power of friendship will defeat evil, every time!” Starlight Glimmer crowed, and with a wave of her horn, the chains that had trapped the townsfolk fell away, clattering to the ground. As their weeping turned to cries of surprise and joy, the townsfolk began to scatter.
“Grubleg!” the Storm Lieutenant barked, twisting to find his second in command. The sub lieutenant had much the same thought, and was already pulling out the magic-proof chains from their box; but before he could toss them to the lieutenant, a flying barrel crashed into him, scattering its contents all over the town square.
“If the power of friendship will not defeat you, perhaps the Power of Incredible Violence will!” cackled the blue one, and lifted another barrel over her head with her glowing magic. “Care to pick up those chains, lieutenant?”
The lieutenant considered her for a moment, then lifted his arms above his head with a girlish scream, and took off running. He didn’t quit running until he was scooped up in the barrel and tossed into the river, where he began floating downstream, still screaming.
Trixie and Starlight Glimmer whooped and hollered in excitement, bouncing in circles around one another.
“We did it! Did you see his face?” Starlight Glimmer laughed.
“I bet he’s still screaming! ‘Ohhhh noooo, heeeeelp meeee!’” Trixie agreed, kicking up her heels. “You were amazing! You pulled that net tight at just the right moment!”
“You were pretty great yourself!” Starlight Glimmer laughed, her cheeks a little pinker as she came to a halt. “Oh! Uh - hello!”
She hadn’t noticed, but as they frolicked, the frightened villagers had slowly trickled in around them, watching them prance. “Don’t be afraid! We’re here to rescue you!”
“Corrrrrrect!” Trixie announced as she came to a halt, already sliding expertly into her favorite theatrical pose. “We are The Great and Powerful Trixie, and her Magnificent Best Friend Starlight Glimmer!” A beat. “In case you missed our introduction before.”
“But, uh, just Trixie and Starlight is fine!” Starlight Glimmer added quickly, offering them a comforting smile. “We’re from Ponyville, and we’re here to get you to safety. Is everyone able to walk?”
***
“Did you have to ask if they’re able to - urrghhh - walk?” Trixie groaned, pulling her wagon up the sharp hill to the south of the town.
“Sorry, Trixie. I didn’t realize how many little foals they had.” Starlight Glimmer groaned in agreement, flexing her hind legs as she worked to pull the wagon alongside her friend. “Or big foals.” she added in an undertone, making Trixie snort.
“Well, I guess there are some less glamorous tasks, when it comes to being the kind of hero that ponies will soon write folklore about. Epic poems don’t come without a little sweat, you know!” Trixie lifted her head proudly, until Starlight chuckled. “What? I think we’re heroes! Don’t you?”
“The folklore seems like a little bit of a stretch.” Starlight Glimmer grinned, and took a quick glance over her shoulder, glancing at the line of ponies that followed behind the wagon, weary and frightened. “I guess we are living in unprecedented times, though. I never thought I would live to see Canterlot fall.”
“I wonder what happened to Princess Celestia, that she hasn’t set this right yet? Or Twilight Sparkle? They’re probably just locked up somewhere … right? With those magic chains?” Trixie’s voice had lost its boastful timbre, and shifted to the smaller, less certain tone that only Starlight Glimmer got to hear. “They’ll come and fix this, won’t they?”
“Well, until they do, we need to keep getting ponies to safety.” Starlight Glimmer reassured her gently, and when Trixie dropped her eyes away, she gave her a little shoulder-bump. “Hey. It’ll be okay, Trix. So long as we’re together, we’ll figure it out.”
That cheered up Trixie, and she returned Starlight Glimmer’s shoulder bump, enthusiastic enough that it made her lavender companion stumble a little. “You always know just the right thing to make me feel Great and Powerful again, Starlight.”
Starlight Glimmer colored, and she turned her face away, so Trixie couldn’t see. “W-Well, what are friends for?”
“Best friends!” Trixie agreed brightly, and picked up her pace again, trotting happily up the hill, leaving Starlight Glimmer to scramble to keep up.
***
“Thank you again for all of your help, Chief Thunderhooves. We are eternally grateful.”
“Of course, Starlight Glimmer. Many of our kind have been taken by these brutal Storm Guards as well; it was only thanks to our ancestral caves that some of our tribe were able to avoid detection. We are honored to be able to shelter some of your kind here as well.” The massive buffalo chief lowered his head to Starlight Glimmer in kind, mirroring her bow. “I only hope that we will be able to discover a way to defeat these cruel invaders.”
“If we can find enough ponies who haven’t been captured yet, we might be able to form our own army, trap the Storm Guard in Canterlot, and wear them down through a siege. It’ll be long and brutal, but Canterlot requires supplies from many different places in Equestria; it’ll be easy to cut off their supply line and starve them out.”
Trixie and Chief Thunderhooves eyed Starlight Glimmer.
“I, uh, do a lot of historical reading.” Starlight Glimmer muttered, turning red.
“Fear not, brave Chief Thunderhooves! Starlight Glimmer is the sharpest mind I know. I am honored to serve at her side in these noble rescue efforts.” Trixie interjected proudly, which was the only way she knew how to interject, and Starlight Glimmer felt her face warming again.
“We are lucky to have both of you working to save Equestria.” Chief Thunderhooves nodded to the pair, and turned away to return to his herd, now bolstered with an entire town full of ponies. “You may hide your wagon in the leeward side of the mountain, if you wish; there is much brush there to obscure it. We have beds for you here.”
“That’s very gracious of you Chief, but the Great and Powerful Trixie sleeps with her wagon.” Trixie bowed dramatically to the buffalo leader, then turned, swirling her cape theatrically as she exited the cave.
“Yeah, I’ll - I’ll sleep with the - the Great and - her wagon too.” Starlight Glimmer stumbled over herself a little, and rapidly trotted after Trixie, her face burning. Luckily, the night air was cold out in the desert, and she cooled back down by the time they got the wagon settled in the brush. There was a small clearing, just large enough for two ponies to roll out their bedrolls, and Starlight Glimmer could have almost believed that they were merely on another tour around Equestria, instead of on the run.
They sat in the dark for some time, staring up at the stars, lost in their own thoughts. Starlight Glimmer kept coming back to certain uncomfortable memories, several of them from that very day, and ran her hooves over her blanket to try and distract herself.
“Glimmy?”
“Huh?” Starlight Glimmer responded, too quickly, and gave an uncomfortable little cough. “Y-Yeah?”
“Do you think we’ll be able to do this without Twilight Sparkle?”
Starlight Glimmer released a relieved sigh, but kept her eyes locked solidly on the night sky when Trixie looked over at her in confusion. “I think so. We have to proceed as if she isn’t coming back, and hopefully when she comes to save the day, it will be made easier if we’ve been doing our best to fix things on our own. If we can distract the troops with the raids, then they won’t be able to focus the fight on her when she gets back. Right?”
Trixie sighed deeply, and Starlight could hear her rolling over in her blankets. “You’re right, Glimmy. You’ve got this all figured out.”
Starlight Glimmer snorted softly to herself. “I wish.” She was quiet for a moment, a question building inside of her, until she couldn’t stand it anymore. “Trixie?”
“Mm-hmm?” Trixie hummed sleepily, but rolled over to face her, eyelids drooping.
“I - do you -” Starlight Glimmer began, face heating up rapidly as she met the sleepy Trixie’s gaze, so trusting and gentle when she got dozy like this. “Do you ever - I mean, when we - Do you have any more of that flapjack mix left for breakfast tomorrow?”
Trixie blinked at Starlight, and had to take a moment to process the rapid fire question before she laughed. “Sure, Glimmy. I think we got some left. I’ll check tomorrow. Is that it?”
“Yeah,” replied the defeated Starlight Glimmer as she plopped her head back onto the pillow, “that’s it.”
“Okay. G’night, Glimmy.”
“Good night, Trixie.” Starlight Glimmer sighed.