This is it. Today was the day Fluttershy had been preparing herself for the past few days. Soon she will face Heimdallr in battle. She wasn’t doing this alone, and that gave her some small comfort, knowing her friends would be beside her when the time came.
As she waited for her friends to get ready, she sat on her haunches and looked at the picture of her mother and father. She smiled at them as they smiled at her with proud, loving eyes. Their faces made her wonder whether they would still be proud of her, whether or not her mother would approve of her new life, and whether she would be angry at Firewing for deceiving her on something so major like being a member of an order of warriors.
She wondered that if her father was still alive, or could talk to her for only a moment, what advice – if any – he would give to her. But she had to make do with her own advice, the advice he’d given her in the short time she knew him, and her friends.
She brought the medallion up to her face and kissed the heads of her mother and father on the picture. “I won’t let you down. Both of you,” she whispered to the picture. She closed it again and put it around her neck upon hearing her friends quieting down.
She lifted her head up to see them looking at her with determined, yet scared eyes. Fluttershy looked back at them the same way. She was terrified of what was about to happen; every nerve, every instinct that she had lived with for the twenty years of her life were screaming louder than ever before to run. But she kept a hold on them, and willed herself to move forward. “That, my child, is true bravery,” she heard her father’s voice whisper in her mind “Are we ready?” she asked.
The five ponies shook their heads. “Fluttershy, I’ve just realised we have a small problem,” Twilight said, stepping forward.
“Actually, it’s a pretty big one,” Rainbow corrected her.
Fluttershy cocked her head to the side. “What is it?”
“Well which way do we go?” Twilight asked, throwing her forelegs wide as if she was about to give her a hug. “We know where to go but we don’t know how to get there.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened when she realised Twilight was right. She looked to the ground first, wondering how were they going to get there without Thowra’s guidance. She briefly considered calling for Vidarr, knowing he wouldn’t be far away. But he wasn’t a taxi service, and she didn’t want him to be waiting outside Heimdallr’s prison forever.
Her head shot up once again and towards the sounds of war where the Palominan army had camped out, and were re-commencing their attack on the fortress. She wished it hadn’t come to this, but now she had no other choice. And as much as she despised the expression, it would be killing two birds with one stone. ‘I’m so sorry, Freya,’ she thought. She turned back to face the others. “Stay here. I won’t be long.” She spun around and galloped off into the bushes towards the Palominan camp, all the while her friends calling her to come back.
Freya pulled the flap of her tent open, walked in, and with an exasperated sigh collapsed onto the large pile of straw in the far left corner of her tent. The tent was the colour of blood, with golden stripes running along the sides and the roof. A map of the area rested on a small, wooden table in the far right corner that was too small for the whole thing so most of it rested on the muddy ground. Freya, however, didn’t care; this was the last held fortification the Andulusians controlled, and when it falls, the war would finally be over.
The cost, however, was terrible. This battle alone it was reported the losses were over a thousand, maybe even two thousand lay dead out there or in mass graves behind the baggage trains. But the fortress will eventually fall; they all knew that. It was only a matter of time.
The offensive against the south had been going quite well for the most part. They received a massive boost in morale and numbers when one of the Andulusian generals came to Castilian with a peace banner, proclaiming his allegiance to her, and his army of thousands. An hour later before she would give the order to move out another general came with a thousand of his fyrd. Although wary of them, she accepted them as one of her own, but refused for them to be part of the final war council, incase they suddenly turned.
With the increase of troops, Freya and Luthor agreed to split the army into two: one under Freya would head west and take the cities of Breton, and Fresia, while Luthor would head east and for Andulusia, and Hackney.
For Freya, taking Breton was a walk in the park – they had just opened the gates and surrendered themselves to her forces. Fresia was harder and a few horsecarls were lost in the fighting, as well as many of the fyrd. But the city fell after two days of resistance, and after leaving a small garrison of troops, she moved on into the Ramshead Range.
She’d learned in Fresia from a high ranking captive that Baroness Velenta held herself up in Ironhoof fortress, and decided to move quickly to take her before she escaped to raise an army someplace else. She moved her forces deep into the Ramshead Range, destroying all bridges and dams they came by to make crossing harder for those attempting to escape them, or outflank them. After many battles and skirmishes that were short but brutal they soon surrounded Ironhoof fortress, and in Freya’s haste, began the attack in earnest, hoping for a quick victory.
She sighed sadly as she realised her rash actions got so many horses killed. The first day was a disaster; not a single horse made it to the walls, and all siege towers were destroyed and burned. On the second day they fared better; a hole in the wall was made and allowed her army to get inside, but was zealously defended by the Andulusians, who forced them to retreat. The third day they managed to get inside and hold the first section of the fortress, and by the time the sun fell they managed to hold the outer and middle sections.
Now, it was the forth day, and what Freya hoped to be the last. Her ears twitched at the sound of a voice outside, and turned her head around to see the newcomer. A young creamy stallion entered, sweat pouring from his face after having galloped hard, and a large bag hung on his right side. He bowed his head. “Milady, a message from Luthor.”
Freya’s heart beat a little faster at the mention of her second in command – she had not heard from him since they’d left Castilian many days ago. She got up and took the letter from his bag with her teeth. “Thank you, young sir. Go and rest in one of the tents. And please, help yourself to some food.”
The young horse bowed his head once more. “Milady,” he said, then spun around and cantered to where the food was being prepared. She set herself back onto her stomach and opened up the letter. As she scanned the letter her eyes widened in delight.
Luthor had taken Andulusia easily – there was noone there to fight him in the first place. Her eyes widened as he explained the horror of what he’d found there. After burying all of the dead, he’d moved on towards Hackney. He didn’t make it very far when his forces ran into a large number of Andulusians heading east in the hope to attack Freya’s forces from behind. The battle was large and savage and he lost a good number of his regiments, but he emerged victorious. After taking a moment to lick their wounds, they moved and seized Hackney after a brutal fight that ended with the destruction of Hackney – the city was burned to the ground under the Jarl’s orders so that it couldn’t fall into the wrong hooves.
Freya chuckled at that. A city was made of wood, and stone, and could easily be re-built. A horse, however, cannot. She looked back at the letter and saw where Luthor was planning to go next; he was coming to Ironhoof fortress to reinforce her, and would arrive within days. She sighed happily and rested her head on the ground. Despite the numerous casualties, the horrific battles that will plague her dreams for the rest of her life, it was coming to an end. The war was nearly over; Freya had won. “I wish Thowra was here to see it, though,” she said to herself.
She suddenly noticed a shadow of something just behind the tent. She quickly took her sword from her desk and pointed it towards the shadow. “Who are you?” she asked the shadow. “Show yourself?”
“Freya?” The high, angelic voice of an old friend made Freya’s heart skip a beat. She put the sword down and pulled the tent side up. She gasped for joy when she saw the yellow pegasus pony on the other side.
“Fluttershy, is that really you?”
With a wide, false grin Fluttershy nodded. The pegasus opened her mouth to speak but before she could she was gripped in a tight hug from Freya. The horse pulled Fluttershy back inside the tent and away from prying eyes. “I can’t believe it!” she cried in joy, spinning around. “Oh I missed you, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy gripped onto her tighter, even as she was dreading what was to come. “I missed you too, Freya.”
Freya’s joyful expression faded when she heard the tone of her friend’s voice. She let go of Fluttershy and looked her in the eye. “You don’t sound like it, though.” Fluttershy’s ears folded across her head and she looked to the ground. “What is it, what’s wrong?” Freya asked.
Fluttershy didn’t want to do this; she didn’t want to be the one to do this, but she had to. It would be cruel to keep Freya in the dark forever. She took a deep breath and looked back at her with sad eyes. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
“What is it?” Freya asked, her tone expressing her fear and concern.
Fluttershy took another deep breath and said, “It’s about Thowra.”
Freya thought her heart had just stopped. She didn’t to be told any more – she knew what Fluttershy was going to say the moment she said his name. Fluttershy saw this in her eyes and moved on with his messages. “He said he loved you, and… he told me to tell you that… he… he died well,” Fluttershy said softly. She put a hoof on Freya’s cheek. “I’m sorry, I am so sorry.”
Freya suddenly burst into tears. Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around her and held her tight, rubbing her back in circles as she comforted the old horse. Fluttershy felt her own eyes begin to moisten, but she refused to let them spill. After a long time, Freya’s tears stopped flowing and her breathing relaxed a little. She pulled away from Fluttershy and blinked several times to clean her eyes. “Where did he die?”
“In the Ramshead Mountain,” Fluttershy replied, her tone solemn. “We were attacked by a horde of draugen inside while trying to find this object. We all fought and managed to fight our way out and escape, but… Thowra’s wounds were too great, and he didn’t survive. I’m sorry, Freya. If I could’ve done something to save him I would have, but… I couldn’t.”
Freya sighed. “I’m never going to blame you. Did Thowra ever tell you that he wanted to die?” Fluttershy nodded. “Did he tell you why?” Again, Fluttershy nodded. “I know I shouldn’t cry for him. He was a slayer and when he took the mark he was dead to begin with.”
“Slayer or not, he was still your cousin, Freya,” Fluttershy said, placing a hoof on her cheek. “You have every reason to weep for him.”
Suddenly the tent entrance flapped open and a horse in chainmail armour strode in. “My lady, we’ve just taken five prisoners coming towards the camp. They appear to be Equestrians to my eyes.”
Freya looked at the horse oddly, then back to Fluttershy, whose eyes widened in alarm. “Do you know them?” Freya asked.
Fluttershy nodded meekly, then lifted her head to face the horse. “Did you hurt them?” she asked, trying to sound calm but it came out as a threatening growl.
The horse looked nervous upon meeting Fluttershy’s gaze. He quickly shook his head. “Uh, no, miss, we just bound them and left them out there.” He indicated with a hoof outside the tent. His eyes widened when he realised who he was talking to. “Hold on, you’re a Equestrian! How did you get inside this tent?!”
Fluttershy ignored the question. She quickly got up and raced passed the soldier and out into the open. In front of the tent were her five friends, their legs and Rainbow’s wings tied together with rope, and their weapons and saddlebags had been removed. “You better untie me now, or I swear I will-” Rainbow threatened them. She stopped when she saw Fluttershy emerge from the tent.
She looked at them with a mixture of relief and annoyance. “What are you all doing here? I told you all to stay at the clearing.”
The five ponies’ ears fell flat against their heads. “We’re sorry, Fluttershy, but we wanted to make sure you were safe,” Applejack said.
Freya emerged from the tent a second later, having taken a moment to wipe her eyes and compose herself. She looked at each of the five ponies, and then looked at Fluttershy. “Who are these ponies?”
Fluttershy began introducing them with a hoof pointing at each. “These are my friends from Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack.”
Freya looked at her with surprised eyes, then turned and smiled warmly at them, her eyes moving from pony to pony. “Soldier, release them of their bonds. I don’t think they are necessary, or polite.”
The soldier bowed his head, and then proceeded to cut the binds off their legs and wings. “Yeah, you do that,” Rainbow growled, glaring at him as he cut away the ropes around her wings.
“I have to say, from what I heard from Fluttershy I thought you would all be a bit older, with what you have done and all,” Freya said with a chuckle. “I am Freya Palomino, queen of Horsca, and it is a pleasure to meet you, and a surprise, I might add.”
The five ponies lowered their heads to bow, but Freya stopped them with a shake of her hoof. “That will not be necessary here, Equestrians. Friends of Fluttershy are friends of mine.” She turned to the other horse that was standing guard over them; she was a black horse with a white mark running across her face to her nostrils. “I would like a team of horses to head into and around the Ramshead Mountain to find and retrieve my cousin’s body,” she said, trying to keep a strong face but her lips were trembling all the while. Fluttershy flew into the air and patted her shoulder in comfort.
The horse bowed her head. “I will get on with it straight away, milady.”
She made her way to gallop into camp when Fluttershy stopped her. “There’s a large boulder in the way of the entrance,” she informed the mare, “on the northern side of the mountain. You can’t miss it.”
The horse nodded her thanks, then spun around and galloped into the camp, leaving the queen of Horsca with the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. “I apologise for any rough treatment you received when you were brought here, ponies,” Freya said. “As you can see, we’re in a bit of rough situation.”
“You’re telling me,” Rainbow muttered. She was about to go on but a glare from Fluttershy told her to keep quiet about going inside the fortress.
“But I can’t help but be curious as to why you are here,” Freya added. “Surely you must have heard the sounds of battle from miles away, and yet you came closer rather than further, like any sane equine would have done.”
“Um… actually,” Fluttershy spoke up. “The reason, well, two reasons actually, we came here was to find you.”
Freya looked flattered. “You came all this way to find me and tell me about Thowra?” Before Fluttershy could continue Freya gripped her in another tight hug. “You really didn’t have to do that.”
“It would have been wrong to keep you in the dark for so long. But I’m afraid that wasn’t the only reason we came to see you,” Fluttershy said, pulling away to look her in the eye. “Please know that I was against this from the start. I asked so much of you already and I didn’t want to ask anymore from you. But now, I have no other choice.” She looked towards the ground, unsure of how Freya would react.
Freya looked confused. “What do you need?”
Fluttershy looked back up, locking her eyes with Freya’s. “Me and my friends need to get to the Horscan Sea, but we don’t know where to go. So I was wondering if you could point us in the right direction.”
Freya looked at Fluttershy emotionlessly for a moment, and then smiled. “Follow me,” she said, gesturing with her head.
“Give us a moment. We just need to get out stuff together,” Twilight said, darting to where her sword and saddlebag was and began attaching them to her leg and back respectively. The others followed suite and set about putting on their swords, Rainbow putting around her waist her quiver of bolts, and placing their saddlebags on their backs.
Once they were ready, they followed Freya away from the fortress and down the dirt road they found yesterday beside the river they used to get into the fortress. They followed the road for around ten minutes, every few minutes or so passing a horse going towards the fortress with a large bag on his or her back filled with supplies.
Eventually they arrived at what looked like a harbour. The ten or so quays that lined the river were crudely built with trees that were cut down from the woods, and fastened together with large rope that made the place a tripping hazard. Tied up to seven of these quays was a row of ships: four of them were large longships with a single sail at the centre, a bow shaped like a ram’s head, and beautiful paintings of krakens, sirens, and other sea monsters that dwell in the deep adorned their hulls. Two were the larger supply ships, stronger in design but slower. Each had three sails: one at each end and one in the middle, and two levels for the vast number of supplies they had to carry. And the last one was a miniature version of a longship, albeit without the decorations on the hull. If they were sentient beings, then it would be the child of two of the longship harboured here. “That one is so cute,” Fluttershy said, pointing to it. The five ponies behind her rolled their eyes.
Freya looked at her oddly. “How can you think a ship of war as cute?”
“I think anything that’s small looks cute,” Fluttershy explained. “Anyway, why are we here?”
Freya ignored the question, or didn’t hear it, but instead turned her attention to an appaloosan coloured horse who had her back turned to her and was shouting in the foulest language any horse had ever heard. “Admiral Horsa?”
The horse immediately stopped his ranting and spun around on the spot, his head low and his ears flat. Behind him, the horses he was shouting at breathed a sigh of relief and quickly made their escape. “My lady, forgive me for my foul mouth,” he said. His voice was deep yet gruff.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve lived long enough to hear every foul word in the Horscan language, but these ponies haven’t.” She pointed to the six ponies behind her, who looked horrified and confused by what they had just heard.
“What did those words mean?” Twilight asked curiously.
“It’s best you don’t ask,” Freya replied.
“Apologies once more, my lady,” Horsa said. He raised his head once more. “If your visit’s about the slow arrival of the supplies, I can explain.”
“It isn’t about that, fortunately for you. I would like to know if that Karvi is being used at the moment?” Freya pointed to the little ship beside her.
“Oh, that little thing. That thing’s useless now for what you want, Lady Freya.”
“It’s not for me. It’s for them.” She turned around and looked at the six ponies behind her, who were taken aback by the gift.
“Well, if they want it, they can help themselves to it. Anything else, my lady?” Freya shook her head. Horsa bowed his head and turned around to give the horses he was shouting at a further scolding, but his face went red with anger when he saw they were gone. “When I find those five foals I’m gonna…” He trotted further down the quay, shouting out his threats.
“We can’t take this, Freya,” Fluttershy said, stepping forward. “All I ask for is the directions, nothing else.”
“You’ll need it to get into the Horscan Sea, Fluttershy,” Freya said. “To get there you will have to follow this river down current, past the fortress and keep going until you see a wall of mountains with a opening. Behind those mountains is the Horscan Sea. However, I’m afraid if you leave now it will take you till evening to get there.” Fluttershy’s ears flattened upon hearing that, but she had no other way of getting there quicker – other than Vidarr, of course. But she didn’t want to ask him anymore than she needed.
“Thank you, Freya,” Twilight said from behind her. “Come on, everypony, let’s get this boat ready for sail.”
“Um, Twilight,” Rainbow said, flying up to her side. “What about the fact we’ll be going against the current? Surely this ship won’t be able to do it, especially with the wind this strong.” Rainbow had a point; the wind wasn’t strong enough to be considered a gale, but was going in the opposite direction they needed to go, and it would make rowing a bit more difficult.
“It got up here all right, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “I’m sure it would be alright going a bit further.”
“True, but this ship had horses stronger than bulls coming here,” Applejack said. “We’re meek and little compared to them. I don’t think we could row this ship all the way the Horscan Sea and back.”
“We won’t have to,” Twilight assured her with a grin. “I’ve got it completely under control.” Twilight turned back around and jumped onto the little boat, followed by Applejack, the Pinkie, and finally Rarity.
Fluttershy watched her friends jump on board, and then looked back at Freya with concern. She didn’t like the idea of leaving the now grieving mare here alone, but she had to bring Heimdallr down first. “Will you be okay?”
Freya lowered her eyes and shook her head. “Do you have to go?” The tone of Freya’s voice made her sound like she was pleading for Fluttershy to stay.
Fluttershy jumped up and wrapped her forelegs around the mare’s neck. “I wish I could say I don’t. That we were going there for a weekend to relax and bathe in the sun. But I would be lying if I said that, and I hate lying. I have no other choice but to go.”
“But why?” Freya asked. “What’s so important there that you must get there?”
“I wish I could say, Freya,” Fluttershy replied. “But it’s complicated.”
“Then maybe you can tell me later,” Freya said, with a little smile. “When you return to Castilian.”
Fluttershy wished she could say that she was looking forward to it, but a part of her was saying this would be a one-way trip. She let go of Freya and took a few steps back. “Goodbye for now, Freya,” she said, her eyes sad.
Freya bowed her head. “Goodbye for now, Fluttershy.” With that, Fluttershy turned around and trotted onto the boat, her head held high and trying to keep a positive and strong demeanour in her trot, but every inch forward felt like someone had a rope around her neck and was pulling her forward, tightening her throat and making her unable to breathe.
She jumped onto the boat and Applejack untied the rope holding the ship to the quay. “So who’s going to row first?” Fluttershy asked.
“Noone needs to row,” Twilight replied with a grin. “I’ve got this one.” She spread her forelegs out and lowered her front half of her body towards the ground. She closed her eyes, and concentrating on the come to life spell that she had trained hard to control for so long, began to cast it from the magenta glow of her horn.
The ship suddenly had a magenta hue around its hull, sail and bridge. With a sudden lurch the ship began to move forward, sailing as if it was going with the wind and the current. “Be careful, all of you!” Freya called to them as they began to pick up speed.
“We will,” Fluttershy called back. “Thanks again!” The six ponies waved to the old mare, who waved back until they rounded the bend and out of sight.
Just as the ship disappeared from view, a white horse with a black mane and a black and grey tail galloped up to Freya and stopped just inches from her, his head low and his voice excited and quick. “Lady Freya, victory is yours!” he beamed. “The remaining Andulusian soldiers have surrendered and the fortress is completely in our possession!”
Freya’s eyes lit up in delight. It was truly the first good news she’d heard all day. “And what of the Baroness?” she asked. “Is she still alive?” The stallion’s ears flattened against his head. Freya didn’t need to be told anymore. “How?”
“At first we thought it was these wounds she had on her side and chest,” the stallion said. “But then we found a empty box of sleeping tablets. She must have taken a very heavy dose, my lady, for what happened to her.”
Freya nodded in understanding, until she realised what he had said at first. “Wounds?” she asked with a quizzical look.
The stallion nodded. “Yeah, a large slash across her left side and one right across her chest. When I had a look at them I realised any weapon a horse can carry couldn’t have caused them. The one across her chest looked like a shark’s been biting into her.”
“Have you asked the Andulusian soldiers whether or not one of them killed her just to be in our good books?”
“Yes,” the stallion answered with a nod. “Although, asked is a bit timid for the way we did it. But they all said they were all fighting out front and noone was with the Baroness throughout the afternoon and evening, except for General Crastus but we found him dead with the pigs. But I believe the wounds caused were not enough to be considered fatal.”
Freya nodded, confused about the wounds but otherwise unconcerned. ‘What’s done is done.’ She put on a big smile and said, “It matters not, and whatever was the cause of death, it does not change what has happened here. The war is finally over, young stallion.”
“Is there anything you need of me, Lady Freya?” he asked.
“First, find Admiral Horsa and tell him I need a ship to take me back to Castilian; I need to prepare for my cousin’s funeral. Secondly, send a messenger to General Luthor to inform him of the war’s end, and that I command his army to disband and return to their homes with extra pay. And finally, head back to the fortress and tell the captains I have ordered that the prisoners are to be escorted from the fortress and taken to Castilian where they would await trial to see if they can be loyal, and the army will be disbanded with extra pay for their actions.”
The stallion smiled and bowed his head once more. “It will be done as you instruct, Lady Freya.” He veered away from her and galloped into the harbour to look for the foul-mouthed admiral, while Freya made her way back to the camp.
Freya felt like she could skip back to the camp. The war was finally over! The war was finally over! Those words were running through her mind faster than a falcon going into a dive. She slowed down into a slow walk when she remembered Thowra and that she wished he had been here to see such a thing. Their family have been fighting to defend the north for many years, and now they were free from Andulusian tyranny, and it was all thanks to a ticked off dragon and a quickly put together plan.
She shook such thoughts out of head and broke into a canter back to the camp. She can focus on her cousin’s loss when she got back to Castilian. What mattered now was planning on rebuilding a re-united nation.
The ship made its way down the river and a calm, yet quick speed. It had been many long hours since they left Freya and the war of Horsca behind them, and had returned to the tranquillity of the Horscan countryside. Bushy breasted birds fluttered on their perches, disturbed by the sudden appearance of a ship and six small equines. A fox that was taking a drink scurried away into the trees on sight of the ship coming close to the riverbank. Just as it looked like it was going to plough into it, it swerved about and straightened its course once again.
“Sorry, sorry!” Twilight whispered after the tenth time that had happened since they left. Fluttershy didn’t really care; her mind was too occupied of what would happen at the end of this boat trip. Her final battle with Heimdallr was in the Horscan Sea and every inch towards it was more agonising than the wound she received from the soldier on her first day in Horsca.
She stood at the prow of the ship, leaning over the side to look at the multitudes of fish that swarmed around the hull, picking off bits that they considered food. She wondered if they worried about the world they lived in, if they knew about some events that happened in their country or other countries and worried about what it might mean to them. She knew they were probably oblivious to the threat they were facing at the moment, the one only her and her friends now knew, so it was probably for the best that they didn’t know.
“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. If you see a crocodile, don’t forget to scream,” Pinkie sang, before letting out a high-pitched scream. She was lying with her back against the mast, looking rather relaxed. Fluttershy looked back at her with a perplexed look; she couldn’t understand how she could be like that when this could be their last day on this world.
Applejack and Rarity were sleeping on a bench each, their legs tucked beneath their stomachs and looked peaceful. When Fluttershy had told them it would take all day and into some of the evening, Applejack and Rarity decided to get some shut-eye to preserve their strength. While Rainbow had flown ahead to scout for them and hadn’t returned since; in all honesty it was making Fluttershy worried about where she’d gone, and if she was all right.
“Hey, Fluttershy,” Twilight said quietly, moving next to her and leaning against the edge of the hull. “What are you looking at?”
“Oh, just some fish who was eating some chunks of this stuff off the hull of the ship. I’d hoped it would take my mind off what’s coming. As you can see.” She lifted a hoof and Twilight could see it was shaking violently with fear. “No luck so far.”
Twilight smiled comfortingly at her, and then placed her hoof on Fluttershy’s. The pegasus could feel Twilight’s rather warm hoof shake with her own, but she found it to be slightly comforting. “Thanks,” she said, a small blush appearing. “You’re doing good work with the ship, by the way.”
Twilight blushed and waved her free hoof modestly. “Oh, I’m not that great. I mean I nearly crashed the ship into the bank about a hundred times.”
“Well, I counted ten times. But the keyword here is ‘nearly’. You’re doing well so far, so keep it up and we should get there.”
“I bet you don’t want to get there, though. Do you?”
After a moment of silence, Fluttershy shook her head. “I wish I had nothing to do with him, Twilight. But I just can’t ignore the threat he is to everything I hold dear.”
Twilight nodded in understanding, then looked back at the ripples flowing from the ship as it made its way across the river. “Actually there is something I wanted to talk to you about. Well, two things actually,” Twilight said.
Fluttershy looked up from the river. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Well… you see, I was wondering if you were ever interested in writing a book?”
Fluttershy tilted her head slightly to the right. “Well, there has been sometimes where I thought about doing one, to see if I could do it. But I was always put off by the amount of attention authors received, and I didn’t think I could cope with that, so it was always thrown aside. Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking… if it’s okay with you, that when we get back to Ponyville, maybe you and I could start writing about the Dragonlord’s history. From what you’ve learnt and what you told me, I just couldn’t believe noone had ever heard of them, and I was hoping you and I could change that. These warriors had done so much that they deserve to be at least commemorated for their actions. Not to mention it would be utterly fascinating for ponies who’s in to that sort of thing,” Twilight explained.
Fluttershy looked at her with wide eyes and a parted mouth throughout her explanation. “I agree that they should be known for what they did,” she answered after a while, “and I don’t think there’s any rule saying that there shouldn’t be a book about them. I’ll think about it and see what happens. It sounds like a nice idea, though.”
The two fell silent for a moment as they watched the world go by them. Fluttershy’s eyes moved to a family of swallows nestling in one of the trees closest to the river. The one perched on the trunk had beautiful light blue-green feathers that seemed to glitter in the sunlight. “What was the other thing you were wondering about?” Fluttershy broke the silence.
Twilight pawed the deck of the ship with a hoof as she tried to come up with what she wanted to say. “You know you said that night you lost your father. When you said you killed that reman…” Twilight stopped when she saw Fluttershy wince.
“I… I never wanted to kill him,” Fluttershy said, the pain of that memory still fresh in her mind. She looked away. “It was an accident… I never…”
Twilight put her free hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m not judging you about it.”
Fluttershy looked her way again. “You’re not?”
Twilight shook her head. “Of course not. You did it to save your father I completely understand that. No, I wanted to ask you how it felt.”
Fluttershy looked confused. “Felt?”
Twilight nodded. “I’ve read so many books where the main character kills someone for the first time, and each character feels a different emotion,” she explained. “Some feel shock and sick at doing such a thing, some feel joy at doing it, and others feel saddened by it. But since they were fiction I didn’t really think they were correct. So I was wondering what you felt at doing such a thing?”
Fluttershy nodded as she began to understand what she was asking. She looked back at the river and began to think of the emotions that ran through her at the time. “I think it’s really a combination of all three,” she answered eventually. She looked once again at Twilight, who looked surprised at the answer. “I was shocked at first when I did it, realising I took a life when all I wanted was to help life, not destroy it. Then I felt sadness because of it, then finally joy as I realised in doing what I did I saved my father.” She looked away from the unicorn and back towards the water. “Even so, I feel… scarred by it. Tainted, as it were. Should I feel that?”
Twilight shifted herself closer to comfort the mare, her hoof never removing itself from Fluttershy’s. “I don’t think so. You did what was necessary and you knew your father for longer than you would have if you did nothing.”
Fluttershy looked at Twilight for a moment, and then sighed. “All the same, it was a feeling I never want to have again.”
“But you’re going to have to,” Twilight pointed out. “If we’re facing Heimdallr today.”
“Not if I find another way,” Fluttershy said, much to Twilight’s surprise.
“You… don’t want to kill him anymore?” Fluttershy nodded in reply. “But, you said that night you lost your father there was no other way. In fact, you didn’t want there to be any other way.”
“That was when I was stricken with grief, and rage,” Fluttershy said, moving a part of her mane out of her face and behind her ear. “I let my anger do the thinking, and according to the rules of the Dragonlords I was dooming myself to become like him.”
Twilight snorted. “You two have nothing in common, and never will. Even so, you’re a better pony than I am. I would stop at nothing until he’s dead if he killed any of my family, or my friends.”
Fluttershy stayed silent for a moment. “Do you know why Heimdallr began his war of genocide?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight shook her head. “Because he lost his son in the Great War. The war was dragging on and he had had enough. So he ordered his dragons to oppress the races involved to stop the war, but it failed, and in the process he lost his son to ponies. He was then sent in exile for breaking the dragon’s code, and turned away and shunned when he needed comfort. He was so overcome with grief and rage that he began to hate everything, and that was how Heimdallr was born.”
Twilight gaped at Fluttershy with a look of disbelief on her face. “I… I can’t believe that. How can anyone be that cruel and turn away from someone who needs help?”
“It was a dark, and cruel time, Twilight.” She let out a sigh and stared back at her reflection at the river. “So you see, we have more in common than you thought.”
Twilight leaned over and looked at her reflection, and then Fluttershy’s. “There is one thing that you seem to have forgotten.” Fluttershy looked back at her friend. “Heimdallr had noone to turn to after his son died, and noone to help him through a difficult time. But you have us.” She indicated with her free hoof to the three ponies lying on the deck before them.
Fluttershy looked at them with a small smile, then back at Twilight. “I haven’t forgotten about you. How could I forget about you? I’m grateful for all of you for wanting to come with me. And thank you, Twilight. You always know what to say to comfort me, and all of us.”
Twilight smiled and waved a hoof modestly. “You’re welcome.” The two friends fell silent once more and watched as another school of fish appeared beside the ship, then dashed forward and was gone faster than a lightning strike.
“Hey, lovebirds,” a voice came from behind them. The two ponies turned around to see Rainbow Dash sitting on the deck with a large grin on her face. “Ha ha, you answered to that,” she pointed at them. “So how long have you two been going out?”
Twilight and Fluttershy looked at each other, then back at her incredulously. “We aren’t in a romantic relationship, Rainbow,” Twilight said. Fluttershy beside her nodded in agreement, even as she tried to fight a blush of embarrassment.
Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. “Oh really? Then explain the holding hooves.”
“She was comforting me when she saw my hoof shaking,” Fluttershy explained. She held her hoof up and Rainbow saw it was shaking like a leaf on a tree during a gale.
“Relax, you two, I was only joking,” Rainbow said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. She moved up alongside them and leant up against the side. “I can pretty much understand why she was doing that. I imagine your nerves must be at breaking point or something by now.”
Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “They are, but I’m keeping them in check at the moment. Anyway, where did you go? I was beginning to wonder where you were.”
“I went ahead and had a look at the Horscan Sea,” Rainbow replied. “It truly is a breath-taking place. Calm as the sky on a summer’s day, like Thowra said it was. It’s hard to believe that a battle took place there once.”
“Yeah, and today another will take place there, this time under the sea,” Fluttershy said. She looked ahead to see the two mountains that were still many miles away, standing apart from each other like towers to a gatehouse. ‘They are a gatehouse,’ Fluttershy thought. ‘A gatehouse to Heimdallr’s prison.’ She felt a knot tie in her stomach as they inched closer, and wished they could make this ship go a little faster so they can get it over and done with. But it wouldn’t be fair on Twilight.
“So you were wondering where I was, huh?” Rainbow asked with a little grin. “Were you worrying about me?”
Fluttershy looked back at her with a concerning look. “I always worry about you, Rainbow Dash. I worry about all of my friends.”
Rainbow chuckled, and flung a hoof over Fluttershy’s shoulders. “And it’s vice versa for me.”
Fluttershy suddenly felt Rainbow’s leg across her shoulders shake. “Rainbow, you’re trembling.”
Rainbow grinned re-assuredly, and removed the leg from Fluttershy’s shoulders. “It’s alright, I’m just a bit cold, that’s all.” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Rainbow sighed. “Alright, I’m a little scared as well.”
“There’s no shame in being scared, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “I imagine we all are.”
Rainbow nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” The three ponies fell silent once more as they watched a family of otters sit by the riverbank, watching them pass and waiting for them to leave, so they could dive in and get their dinners.
“How much longer do you think it will take us to get there, Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow’s forehead furrowed in thought as she remembered how long it took her to get there, and then taking a moment to see how fast the ship was going. “Well, judging by the speed of this tortoise of a ship,” she answered. “And the fact that the sun has begun its descent, I would say the ship would get there between early to mid-evening.”
Fluttershy’s ears fell flat against her head and she sighed sadly. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but I don’t think I could get this ship to go any faster,” Twilight said.
Fluttershy looked at her and smiled comfortingly. “Don’t worry about it. It wouldn’t be fair on you if you could.” She looked back across the riverbank. “So what do we do while we wait?”
“How about,” Twilight answered instantly, “we plan out what we’re going to do when we get there. And when we have to face Heimdallr. With a plan at our side, what can possibly go wrong?”
Fluttershy fought down an unwanted urge to punch Twilight for saying those words. All she did instead was groan and plant a hoof on her face. Rainbow, on the other hoof, looked like she had lost the will to live. “Well, that’s it. There is absolutely no chance of us winning now. If anypony needs me, I’ll be in Paradise,” Rainbow said, bringing her bracelet up so the blade can across her throat. Fluttershy quickly brought her hoof up, and tried to pull the bracelet away. She stopped when Rainbow started laughing. “Relax, Fluttershy, I was only joking. I doubt the sword would even come out to kill its own master.” She moved her hoof out of the way of the slit for the blade to come out, and brought it up to her throat to see if it would work. Despite several attempts, the blade wouldn’t come out. “See, harmless to me.” She smiled assuredly at Fluttershy. “Thank you, though, for trying to stop me.”
“Yo-you’re… welcome,” Fluttershy responded, slightly confused at the thank you. “Now go and start waking the others for our war council.” Rainbow saluted, and trotted off to wake Pinkie, while Fluttershy turned to Twilight. “A war council sounds like an excellent idea, Twilight. But say those words again, and I will push you into the Horscan Sea myself when we get there.”
Twilight tilted her head to the side, completely oblivious to what she just said. “What words?”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “You know, the ones that say that nothing could go wrong, when now there is a huge chance that everything can go wrong!” she fumed.
“Oh.” Twilight’s ears flattened against her head and her eyes lowered towards the ground. “Sorry.”
Fluttershy relaxed and gave her a friendly smile. She couldn’t stay mad at her friends for long, no matter how hard she tried. “It’s okay, I forgive you.”
The two ponies turned around when they heard Rainbow shouting in Pinkie’s ears and shaking her like a sack by the shoulder’s. “Come on, Pinkie, we need to get ready for a war council!” When she had finished, Pinkie’s eyes were spinning and she felt like she was going to be sick. “That was for when you woke me up the morning we left Canterlot,” Rainbow said, with a sharp nod of her head.
Twilight and Fluttershy shook their heads displeasingly. “Kids these days,” Twilight complained. Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “You wake Rarity, I wake Applejack?” Fluttershy agreed, and went off to go to Rarity, with Twilight close behind her to wake Applejack.
About half an hour later the six mares were sitting in a circle, with some small pebbles Twilight found below some of the benches to represent them, and one large one to represent Heimdallr. “Okay,” Twilight began, “Rainbow said that we should be there in about a few more hours, so I thought we should make a war council so we could have some idea of what to do when we face him. This is going to be difficult without the Elements of Harmony with us, but I know we can do it if we do what we always do; work together.” The five ponies around her nodded as confidently as they could in the present situation.
“Out of curiosity, what do ya think the Elements would have done to Heimdallr if we had them with us?” Applejack asked, lifting her hoof up as if she was in class.
Twilight shrugged. “Don’t know. Freeze him in stone, probably.”
“That’s well and all,” Fluttershy came in. “But that will only last while we live, after that then the spell will start to break. It is probably best if we find a way to bring him down. Permanently.”
Twilight nodded in agreement. “So this is what I came up with.” With her magic, she moved two of the pebbles so that they were floating above the large pebble. “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, if there’s enough room for both of you to fly, you could take him from above, with Fluttershy delivering the fatal blows since her father’s sword is the only one that could easily finish him. If not, then fly low around him and then when he’s low, strike at his head.” She moved the remaining four pebbles in a line in front of the giant pebble. “Fluttershy, those keys Starswirl made. Do you think they would affect other magic casters as well, rather than just Heimdallr?”
Fluttershy looked behind her at the five keys that were arrayed in a line, each with the emblem of the Dragonlord order in front of it, and each beginning to give off a faint, fiery glow as the day was starting to dim. There was a lot of blood spilled to get these, and she hoped that they were worth it. “I’m not sure, Twilight,” she answered, looking back at her friend. “They could do, but my father said Starswirl built them to only affect Heimdallr’s magic abilities, so then again they might not. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”
“That’s okay. In any case I’ve planned for both possibilities. If me and Rarity will be able to cast magic, we will stand at the sides and fire beams of light at him, hopefully blinding him and distracting him from Rainbow and Fluttershy. If not, then we would attack from the sides and hit his wings, belly, tail, you get the idea.” She paused for breath, and then shifted the two representing Applejack and Pinkie forward a little. “While you two will attack from the front. Pinkie, with your faster than light reflexes, and Applejack, with your strength, you should keep Heimdallr busy while we take the sides. With him distracted from the front, the sides, the rear, and the top, we will surely take him down.”
Fluttershy’s jaw hung off her mouth as she realised how sound Twilight’s plan was. “That was… impressive,” she commented. “And you came up with that in half an hour?”
“Well, no,” Twilight replied, with a small blush growing. “I’ve been thinking about how we could take him down for a while. I just thought now would be a appropriate time to bring it up.”
“It’s certainly a impressive plan, nonetheless,” Applejack said with a confident grin. “With a plan like that, what could-” Before she could finish, the five ponies immediately jumped on top of her.
For the next five hours the ship made its slow, yet steady way up the river, with the six ponies on board practising with their swords and crossbows, and steeling themselves for the coming battle. The duels with the swords were a one-sided contest when Fluttershy took part, as she brought them all in a yielding position in less than a minute. The duels with her friends took her mind off the eventual battle with Heimdallr for a while, but only for a little while.
As well as duelling, Fluttershy watched the sun begin its agonisingly slow descent over the horizon, and the mountains that held the Horscan Sea together getting closer and closer, until the low light from the sun made them as black as shadows and barely visible. When they disappeared she looked down at the river, watching the ripples from the ship as it ploughed through the river.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight said next to her, shaking her left shoulder with a hoof. She couldn’t recall how long she had been looking at the water, but it must have been for a long time, for when she looked up the sun had completely gone and the stars had begun to appear. Fluttershy looked around to see her friend looking scared. “We’re here.”
Fluttershy looked up and around her to see she was right. Between the ship the two mountains stood, higher than the mountain that Canterlot rested upon, with their slopes steep and treacherous. The sight of the mountains made the knot in Fluttershy’s stomach tighten as they went beyond them and out into the Horscan Sea itself. She looked from the mountains to the sea itself and gasped.
It was as Rainbow had described it – breathtaking. The sea was as calm as the sky on a summer’s day, with a bright, clear reflection of the moon illuminating the water. Around them, mountains arranged together like a city wall penned the sea in, and were illuminated a dark grey by the extraordinary bright moonlight. ‘Luna must know we are here and what we’re up to,’ Fluttershy thought. ‘So now she’s helping us by lighting the way.’
“Say, Twilight,” Applejack said, “I just thought of a great idea as part of your plan.” Twilight turned around to listen to what she had to say, as did Fluttershy. “How about we bundle Heimdallr’s head and give him a nasty headache?!” She placed a hoof to her head and groaned.
Twilight rolled her eyes. It had been at least five hours when the five ponies bundled Applejack to stop her from saying the most accursed words known to ponydom. “I can’t believe you’re still sour about that.”
“You try having five rather heavy ponies on top of ya and see how ya feel like afterwards!”
Fluttershy lowered her ears and walked up to her earth pony friend, her eyes confessing her guilt. “I’m really sorry about that, Applejack. I didn’t want it to go as far as it did. I’m sorry about the headache as well.”
Applejack looked at her for a moment, then smiled comfortingly. “Relax, sugarcube. I am not mad, really. But you lot are a superstitious bunch, you know that.”
“Says the pony who adamantly believed Zecora placed a curse on us,” Twilight said with a smirk.
“Hey, so did you,” Applejack retorted.
“After a while,” Twilight reminded her. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re here, Applejack. I wanted to try something on your sword that I had been reading a while back. Would you mind?”
Applejack tentatively nodded, then lifted her right leg up and allowed her sword to come out of its scabbard. Twilight lowered her head so that the tip of her horn was touching it, and then enveloped it in a bright magenta glow at first. For a while nothing happened, but suddenly the sword began to glow white as if it was being forged, then resumed to its dark steel colour. Twilight backed away from it with a satisfied grin on her face, while both Fluttershy and Applejack looked confused.
“What did ya do?” Applejack demanded.
“I made the sword heat resistant and fireproof,” Twilight answered. “Heimdallr being a burning dragon and all I thought it might be best.”
“You can really do that?” Fluttershy asked.
“Of course. How else do you think my library survived the dragon attack? It won’t last, though. Till the sun rises again, probably, so we have to be quick. Now, Fluttershy, could I do the same to your other sword?” Fluttershy nodded, and her left leg up and presented Firewing. Twilight did the same thing to that, then moved away and proceeded to do the other swords as well, leaving Applejack with Fluttershy.
“Ya nervous, Fluttershy?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “Terrified. Yourself?”
“I don’t wanna leave this ship when we get there, to put it one way,” Applejack replied with a shaky smile.
“Well, you can if you’d like. I’ll go down there myself while you girls stay up here and relax.”
Applejack chuckled. “How could we relax while ya down there beating him? I said I don’t wanna leave this ship when we get there. That doesn’t mean I will stay here. I’m going down with ya, if ya like it or not.”
Fluttershy smiled, trying to look confident for her friends but found it waning. She feared that Heimdallr would be a match for them. The ancient dragon was only defeated by ponies that were genetically augmented with dragon blood before, so what use could the five of her friends be, other than cannon fodder?
That was when she realised with wide eyes that Twilight’s plan was just that; them being the bait while Fluttershy made the fatal blows. She knew it would be too late to change Twilight’s plan now, so she hoped and prayed that she could be quick for their sakes, and finish Heimdallr before he could hurt one of them.
“Sugarcube, ya alright?” Applejack asked. Fluttershy realised she had zoned out and shook her head to cleanse it. She looked back up at Applejack. “Ya looked like ya were somewhere else just then, and ya seem tense.”
Fluttershy nodded. “Sorry, I did zone out for a moment. And yeah I do feel tense.” Her shoulders felt clenched together and her legs felt heavy.
Applejack gave her a sympathetic smile, and then slowly walked behind her. “Hold, still, I’m gonna give ya a shoulder massage.” She reared up and pressed her hooves into Fluttershy’s shoulders.
“I-I don’t think that’s necessary, I…” She trailed off and let out a pleasurable sigh as she felt the tension in her shoulders disappear as her friend’s hooves made their way up and down her shoulders.
“Ya shouldn’t be tense, Fluttershy. I know this is gonna be hard on ya, but ya need to stay calm and have a blank mind,” Applejack advised. “A clear mind would help ya think straight when we do face Heimdallr. Don’t worry about us; just stick to Twilight’s plan and everything will come out fine. I promise.”
Fluttershy nodded, before letting out another pleasurable moan as Applejack hit a really tense point and destroyed it. “Are you okay with Twilight’s plan, though? Are you comfortable being basically… bait?”
Applejack stopped the massage, and didn’t move for a moment as Fluttershy thought she was considering Twilight’s plan. “So ya figured it out then?”
Fluttershy spun her head around to face her. “You knew?!” she whispered. “You knew and you still want to go through with it?!”
“We all knew, Fluttershy,” Applejack said. “Twilight rang it through us quick before we came after ya when ya ran to Freya’s tent.”
Fluttershy stared at her in disbelief. “How can you risk your lives like this?”
“Because we have the utmost faith in ya. We know that ya won’t let us down, and we know that ya won’t let any of us come to harm.”
“But what if I do mess up?!” Fluttershy demanded. “What if I lose the courage I have seemingly gained and cower in a corner while you girls die at his claws?”
Applejack didn’t reply for a moment, but simply stared at her with emotionless eyes. “We know that won’t happen. We know that ya won’t stand by and watch us die. We know it and you know it. We have faith in ya, Fluttershy Firewing, but do ya have faith in yourself?”
Fluttershy studied Applejack for a moment, and then looked at her other friends. Rarity was jumping for joy and hugging Twilight after the unicorn had somehow placed a spell on her that re-grew her tail, but unfortunately her mane was still as short as it was. Pinkie was at the front of the ship, her eyes peeled across the sea and looking for the island that was the entrance to Heimdallr’s prison, and Rainbow was at the back, curled up with a blanket atop of her as she slept soundlessly. When they all noticed her looking at them, they gave her small, brave smiles then looked away.
They all had faith in her, every single one of them, and it filled her with a confidence she thought she would never feel at this point. ‘If they have faith in me,’ she thought. ‘Then I will have faith in myself.’ She turned back to face Applejack. “I have faith in myself, Applejack. I won’t let you down.”
Applejack grinned, and patted the pegasus on the shoulder. “I know ya won’t.” She opened her mouth to speak but stopped when Pinkie let out a squeal.
“Look! We’re here, we’re here!” she cried out, pointing a hoof at whatever she’d seen. As one the other ponies raced to the front of the ship and leaned over the side to get a view, even Rainbow who had heard the commotion and shot out of her blanket. Fluttershy took to the air and floated above Pinkie, her eyes shot across the horizon to see what it was, hoping that Pinkie just saw a bird or a fish move above the water. She was surprised and horrified to see it wasn’t either.
It definitely was the island that was the entrance to Heimdallr’s prison. It was from the air, a large circle, with a rock shaped like a termites’ mound sitting at the centre of the island. The rock was huge; it was big as a two-storey house and as wide as her cottage back home, and had little spikes of rock coming out of it.
The ship suddenly lost its magenta colour and began to slowly crawl towards the island. “Right, girls,” Twilight said, with a hint of nervousness in her voice. “We best get ourselves ready to land.”
The six mares then set about getting ready for the landing. They placed their saddlebags in a pile at the back of the ship, while Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity each took possession of one of the keys so they could open the way into his prison. Afterwards, they all sat around with whatever food they had left, and had a meal. They all ate in silence, exchanging glances now and then as the island got closer and closer by the minute.
“Girls,” Rarity said suddenly, putting down her piece of lettuce. “If I don’t…”
Applejack slammed a hoof over her mouth. “Don’t you dare say what I think you’re gonna say, Rarity,” Applejack glared at her.
Rarity gently removed the hoof from her mouth. Applejack didn’t resist. “Please, let me continue,” Rarity said. Applejack kept glaring at her, but remained silent. “If I don’t come out again alive, I would like you all to sell the boutique, and keep the dresses for yourselves, or finish ones that I started, if you would like.”
Fluttershy looked at her friend with her mouth agape. “Well, if I don’t ma…”
“Oh, don’t you start!” Applejack shouted at her, her eyes glistening.
“It’s okay, Fluttershy, we know what you want us to do,” Twilight said sullenly. “You put it in your letter you left us in Detrots. And Applejack, I think it might be best if we do go with this, just incase.”
Applejack sniffed back her tears. “I know. I just don’t want us to think like that.”
“I know,” Twilight said with a comforting smile. “If I don’t come out again, I want one of you to look after Spike for me. Sell the library and tell my mum, dad, Shining and Cadence that I love them all.” She went against telling saying specifically who should do what, just incase more than one of them didn’t make it.
“Well, I would like my house to pass over to Scootaloo when she’s older,” Rainbow said. A small smile came across her face as she remembered her number one fan. “I’m sure her mum would like that. She’s always liked me for being an inspiration for her. I just wish I was a better one than I was.”
“If I don’t make it,” Applejack said next, her tears running freely. “Tell my family that I love them all dearly and be a comfort for them, yeah? And stick with Applebloom. She loves hanging around with me, so ya’ll be sure to fill my hole if I’m gone.”
“Noone could ever fill that hole, Applejack,” Fluttershy said. She turned to look at Pinkie, who looked a little solemn. “And what about you, Pinkie? Do you want us to do anything for you?”
Pinkie looked up and nodded. “Keep partying and keep laughing. That’s all I want you to do for me.”
The six mares looked at each other for a moment, and then wrapped their forelegs around each other into a tight group hug. “Even if one or some of us falls,” Twilight said, her eyes glistening with tears. “We will all come home together.” The six mares nodded in agreement, even as tears ran down their faces.
They suddenly felt the bow of the ship lift a bit, and come to a sudden stop as it hit something. The six mares didn’t need to look up to know what had happened; they had landed. ‘We have arrived,’ Fluttershy thought. ‘And now I have to finish what my father and the Dragonlords started.’ Fluttershy broke contact with her friends, wiped her eyes, spun around, and with a deep breath of air trotted to the side of the ship and jumped off.
Upon landing she screamed out as the water felt like a thousand cold needles piercing her legs. She ran ashore and began jogging on the spot to warm them up, fearing they would break off from the freezing temperatures. “Careful, girls!” she called to the others. “The water’s freezing!”
Rainbow appeared above the ship a second later and landed next her. “Seriously, you could have just used these for once.” She gestured with her head her wings, and wiggled her feathers.
“I thought the water wouldn’t be that cold,” Fluttershy said defensively.
Twilight teleported next to her a second later, and then moved to the water edge. She lowered her head and her horn started glowing. While she was doing this, Rarity appeared next to Rainbow after teleporting, followed by Pinkie, who swung from a rope from the ship, and finally Applejack, who jumped in the water and screamed out at its icy touch.
They waited for Twilight as she studied the strange temperature of the water. They had other matters to press on with, Twilight knew, but this was extraordinary. Her horn stopped glowing and she looked up with a look of surprise on her face. “The water’s cold,” Twilight stated.
“Tell us something we don’t know, Twilight,” Applejack chided, rubbing her legs together to warm them up.
“Okay, the water is impossibly cold. So cold that if you stay in it for long enough you will freeze to death in less than a minute,” Twilight went on. “The sea should be a thick block if ice, or a massive glacier, but instead it’s this.” She waved her hoof to the water that now surrounded them.
“But how is that possible?” Pinkie asked. “It’s been out in the sun all day and it couldn’t get this cold that quick. The night’s not even that cold.” She was right – there wasn’t a cold, night breeze that would make their coats stand on end.
Twilight looked at Pinkie, and then around her at the mountains that hemmed them in. “Magic,” she answered. “The entire Horscan Sea is built, no, grown by magic that’s completely off the scale. The Dragonlords must have been incredibly gifted in magic. I wish I was one now.”
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Well we could see by setting you in fire and see if you rise from the dead.”
Twilight looked at her in horror. “On second thoughts, I’ll pass.”
Fluttershy smiled. “That’s good. I wouldn’t want you to in the first place.”
“Well anyway, girls,” Applejack interrupted them. “Shouldn’t we be getting on with what we’re here for?”
Twilight and Fluttershy sighed simultaneously, and then both ponies nodded. Twilight moved away from the water and stood facing the giant rock. “Right, so what do we do now?” She turned her head to look at Fluttershy.
Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin in thought. “I imagine we find the places on the rock where the keys fit, then slot them in and let the keys do the rest.” She looked at the rock intensely, as did the others. “But where would they go?”
“Hmm, let me have a look,” Twilight offered. She lowered her head and let her horn glow once again. After a moment, four magenta clouds appeared around four neat circles in the rock where the keys would be placed, much to the confusion of the six ponies that were there.
“One, two, three, four,” Rarity counted. “There’re only four slots for the keys to go in.”
“Then where does the fifth go?” Pinkie asked, looking at the key Fluttershy had in her hooves.
Fluttershy looked confused. “I don’t know,” she replied. She put it back in her mane for safekeeping, while the other four ponies with a key began slotting them into place one by one. The keys fitted perfectly, with each one sitting with the emblem facing the rock. Twilight had the last one and with a gulp of dread of what would happen, fitted the last one in place.
Nothing happened. “So what do we do now?” Pinkie asked.
Everypony shrugged. “Play the waiting game, I guess,” Rainbow replied. Just as she finished speaking, a low rumble echoed from the ground below them, then the rock began to spin anti-clockwise, slowly at first then faster as it began to sink into the ground like it was in quicksand. The six mares backed away in fright as the rock began to disappear and in its place was a set of stairs that spiralled down into the darkness.
With the stairs revealed, Fluttershy was the first to take a step. She didn’t make it far, however, when a beam of bright, golden light shot out of the hole, sending Fluttershy onto her back and the others going low.
The light shot up into the sky, lightening the sky into something that looked the earliest hour of dawn. When it made it above the mountains, it stopped and a vast number of beams of light shot out of the main one, each heading towards a mountain. The beams struck the tops of the mountains, and created a huge golden shield that could be seen as far as Ironhoof fortress.
Fluttershy grinned. ‘This must be the spell that blocks out Heimdallr’s abilities.’ She got back on her hooves and turned towards Twilight. “Can you do any magic, Twilight?”
Twilight looked at the ground for a moment as she thought of a simple spell she could try. Eventually, she went with levitating Rainbow Dash. She closed her eyes and pointed her horn towards the pegasus, who began to nervously back away from her. Twilight’s horn began to glow magenta once again and Rainbow squealed as she was lifted into the air by Twilight’s magic.
Although Fluttershy would have laughed at Rainbow’s squeal, she didn’t feel like it. The spell, by the looks of things, didn’t work. “Don’t give up hope, darling,” Rarity comforted her upon seeing Fluttershy’s ears fall flat. “There’s still a chance that it just affected Heimdallr.”
“Yeah,” Fluttershy agreed, “but the only way we going to find out is to go down there.” She looked at the golden shield that now enveloped the Horscan Sea and saw it fizzing out suddenly, and then returning to normal. She realised that if Heimdallr weren’t able to use his magic abilities, it wouldn’t be long before he could, and then there wasn’t a chance they could stop him.
Fluttershy took a deep breath, and then took a step forward towards the entrance. She looked back to see her friends looking at her expectantly. Now they were here, it felt like she had to make the decisions, and if she was completely honest, it felt good to be in charge for a little while. “Let’s go,” she ordered. She turned away from her friends and trotted to the top of the stairs. The stairs spiralled away to the right, not giving her the comfort of knowing where the bottom is. She glanced back to see Twilight close behind her, and drew another sigh as the first step down was in front of her. She placed a hoof on the first step, then the second, then the third, until her legs were guiding her down the stairs, followed close behind by her friends.
Meanwhile, in the darkness, two eyes shot open. They were wreathed in flame, with no pupil to see what the creature was looking at. He could sense her, feel her; she was close now, herself and her friends. He sneered and raised his head towards the doors where they would come through to face him.
“Den siste av Drageherrene er her (The last of the Dragonlords is here)!” Heimdallr announced to the darkness. “Tiden har kommet (It is time)!”