//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: Long ago, in the broken remains of Equestria 
// by thegenieworld 
//------------------------------//

Starlight jolted awake. She’d helped out around the castle long past midnight and had fallen asleep, face first in her report. The ink had smeared a bit across the page, making the last words unreadable. With a sigh, Starlight dropped the scroll into the garbage. It seemed like it was long past breakfast time, but nonetheless, she stood up and made her way from her tower to the cafeteria. Surely Pinkie would have some leftovers, at least.
The cafeteria was unusually empty, being a regular hangout spot for the ponies in the castle. There weren’t a lot of other places to go, after all. Only Rarity was sitting there, drinking what looked like tea. When she saw Starlight, she quickly waved her over.
“You must’ve slept well!” Rarity said when Starlight sat down in front of her. “Why, there’s even a little ink on your cheek.” The unicorn quickly grabbed a nearby napkin and rubbed it on Starlight’s cheek.
“Must have been from when I fell asleep on my report.” Starlight felt slightly embarrassed, but smiled anyway. “I wanted to give it to Twilight so she would know her duties went well.”
“That’s sweet, Starlight, but I’m sure it’s all right.” Rarity took another sip of tea before she added “I actually talked with Twilight earlier today. I was informed that he wanted to go by he/him pronouns now.”
“Oh!” Starlight was quiet for a bit. “Well, that makes the whole ‘don’t call me princess’ thing a lot clearer.” She chuckled.
It wasn’t long before Applebloom appeared to make plans for lunch, and she was nice enough to find something for Starlight to have for breakfast first. Starlight wandered the halls a bit after that, listening to the sound of the empty castle. The weather was nice and the training rooms were completely quiet, so it seemed like most of the soldiers were outside. They were probably training under the sun, knowing Applejack and Golden Flare. They both seemed to thrive in the sunlight.
Starlight knocked on the door to the meeting room, before quickly letting herself in. It was a bit unusual, the guards had been responsible for opening doors at the castle, but they were now soldiers and either had more important things to do or they were resting. Twilight was sitting there, like Starlight had expected.
“Good morning, Starlight.” The unicorn took a moment to look at her mentor. His mane was cut short, though his bangs were the same. Discord’s work, Starlight assumed. Twilight’s tail was also noticeably shorter, especially considering how long both his mane and tail had been previously. It didn’t seem like he’d given himself the time to cut it before now, all his attention being on protecting Equestria. It didn’t look great now either, but it was nice enough and Twilight himself seemed pleased with it.
“Good morning.” She trotted over to the table and saw that Twilight was looking at a map that resembled a smaller version of the map in the castle of friendship. Canterlot was on one side, and Twilight’s cutie mark was hovering above where the castle should be. A little further away, Commander Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark could be made out hovering above the Everfree Forest. It didn’t look like she was too far away, and if you watched for a little while, it could be seen moving slowly towards the castle.
“Isn’t it cool?” Twilight pointed to the map, though there wasn’t much else he could have been referring to, unless he was showing off his cup of coffee. “It’s a combination of two spells. I used the same spell we used to fix the friendship map back in Ponyville, while using a spell to connect me and Rainbow through our cutie marks.” Starlight was fascinated. The map was just a simple scroll, clearly, but it looked just as magical as the one in Ponyville.
After about half an hour of casual chatter, in which they were eventually joined by Rarity and Pinkie Pie, Rainbow’s cutie mark was so close it almost touched Twilight’s. The ponies decided to make their way to the door to see if the party would need help when they finally got back home.
Starlight occasionally stole a glance at Twilight. He seemed calmer than he’d been in moons. Hell, it seemed like he’d gained a whole new level of confidence overnight. Clearly, it wasn’t as simple as that, but he had found a solution to his worry so fast after having a small break. Seeing him like this made Starlight feel warm. Maybe there was hope for Equestria after all?
After about 15 minutes of standing by the door, the Commander arrived, the Sergeant right behind her. The rest of the party were there too, and they all looked relatively unscathed.
“Twilight, you’ll need to gather the rest of the Guardians for this.” Rainbow Dash’s expression didn’t reveal a thing, and as the rest of the soldiers started gathering up dirty clothes, armor and food that they hadn’t eaten, she made her way to the meeting room. Twilight shrugged, and went to find Applejack, sending the other three back to the meeting room. Sergeant Firesky followed them as well. Eventually, the Guardians and a few extra ponies were all gathered around the table. Extra chairs had been found for the others there. Starlight was sitting between Rarity and Golden Flare.
“Twilight, we found her.” Silence followed. It stretched for a long time, and it was clear that everyone was stuck between a big sense of relief and hope, and confusion. After all, why wouldn’t Fluttershy have come back too?
“Fluttershy is alive.” Twilight said, seemingly more to himself than to the others.
“She didn’t want to come back with us though.” Rainbow cleared her throat. “She said she had to stay in camp to protect the others.”
“The others? What others?” Twilight’s full attention was on Rainbow. It almost looked intimidating, and Starlight had to turn away a couple of times.
“There was a whole camp of ponies refusing to fight,” Rainbow explained. “They must have lived out there for years, ever since the war started. There’s a whole society of ponies out there.”
“So all this time, Fluttershy has led us to believe she’s dead just to run off and join some rebellion?” Applejack spat, though she looked a bit guilty afterwards. “I’m not trying to be harsh, but we needed her here, and she left without saying anything.”
“I don’t think we can understand how it was for her,” Rarity quickly chimed in. “After all, we haven’t heard her side of the story. We don’t know enough to judge her decision like this.” She sent a stern look Applejack’s way, and then turned to Rainbow.
“We couldn’t stay long enough to hear her out.” The pegasus’s ears drooped down. “The shadow creatures had been on our tail for some time, so we left to protect them. Fluttershy refused to come with us.”
The meeting room was quiet for a minute. Then, Twilight’s horn started glowing and his eyes paled. A lilac orb appeared in the middle of the table. Not long after, the orb split in two and four ponies were looking back at them. Celestia, Luna, Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armour. They all looked a bit alarmed, having been caught off guard with the sudden meeting.
“We have news.” Twilight looked serious. He wasn’t taking the time to greet his family. “We’re going to stop the Nightmare.”