//------------------------------//
// Byzantium 
// Story: A Song Of Silk And Steel 
// by SilverNotes 
//------------------------------//

"It's beautiful..."

Fluttershy's words of awe had been expected, but they still made Rarity smile as she watched the pegasus slowly walk further into the cavern.

It had taken a much shorter time to find this place again, but the sunlight was still well gone before they arrived. The Everfree had many sudden, sharp drops in elevation that Rarity suspected were the work of subterranean creatures who made the woods home, and so she was always second-guessing herself on which cliff was the right one that led to the mouth of the cave. It had been obvious once they'd gotten down, however--Fluttershy had an easier time thanks to her wings, while Rarity had cautiously hopped from thin platform to thin platform jutting out of the cliff face, praying that her hooves wouldn't slip--that they were in the right place, as the shine of crystals danced before them.

It didn't help her navigation skills that Rarity rarely had need to come back, as even though she'd survived the encounter, she had the impression that the tree didn't like her very much. And as she kept back, at the entrance, the metal around her neck that much heavier as the air hummed with magic, feeling like it may suddenly rip itself away at a moment's notice, that sentiment was firmly mutual.

Still, Fluttershy was right. The tree was beautiful. Crystalline roots zig-zagged across the cavern, forming pleasing patterns, and from particularly thick ones, unusual shapes sprouted, mimicries of plants, animals, and objects sitting there like a garden of sculptures. Most appeared crude, half-formed, as if a sculptor had grown bored after rendering the basics of the subject's shape, but she noted that one of the boxy shapes near the back seemed to have formed a distinct key hole since she'd been here last.

All those roots let to the trunk, and it almost looked deliberately engraved, intricately-rendered symbols stretching across it, the most distinct of all being the stylized sun and moon near the base. Five branches extended from the trunk, and each one was weighed down by a crystalline fruit, save for one where the branch laid bare.

It would be two bare branches soon, so Rarity hoped.

Fluttershy had asked for no guidance on what to do, nor had she questioned why Rarity had brought her here. She just approached, awestruck, like a mare possessed, and the glow of the tree grew brighter, one of the fruits taking on a pink sheen. The gem on Rarity's neck briefly took on a swirl of rainbow colour, and from behind, she couldn't see her friend's eyes briefly shine with the same hues, yet she knew it they must be.

She watched Fluttershy rear up, and reach a hoof out. Then Rarity closed her eyes, turning her head away, as her friend cried out in pain.

I'm sorry.





"You saw it from way out here?"

Two mares laid together, only a threadbare blanket between them and the rocky soil. To call it soil would even be generous, as it was more like a fine gravel, but the one of the two who lived here her entire life had called it soil--the best possible soil for farming rocks, in fact--and so the other, who had barely ever seen the ground up close for most of her life, had accepted it as the proper term.

The mare who called the rock farm home nodded her head at the question, pink curls bouncing with the motion. Said curls were natural, voluminous, and looked like they ate brushes for breakfast. "It was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. The whole sky lighting up with rainbows. I couldn't help--" The words were cut off as giggles bubbled up, filling the air briefly with the sound of raw joy. "--but laugh, I felt so happy."

The blue mare let out a raspy chuckle of her own, and shifted her weight. Going from clouds to stony soil hadn't been an easy adjustment, and legs and wings twitched with a constant desire to go up. "Usually I'm looking for stomping and cheering, not laughs, but... I'm glad it made you happy." She stared up at the moon, even partially obscured by the looming stone; she'd gotten a Tartarus of a glare when she'd tried to perch on it, but the glower-happy mare within the house hadn't said anything about resting in the shadow of Holder's Bolder instead.

"I really needed the laugh," the pink mare went on. "We all did." Her head drooped with sudden sombreness, and the curls seemed to lose a bit of their volume. "We're so far out here, we didn't know what was happening for days. Then Dad tried to go out to town like he always does once a moon, and... saw it...with everypony gone..."

The blue mare shifted uneasily, then cautiously reached out a wing. "Hey..." The pink mare didn't hesitate in tucking herself beneath it. "At least he got back okay, and you're all safe out here."

"For now... We've been growing the rocks... well..." The pink mare tapped the soil with a hoof. "Mostly Dad, Limestone, and Maud. They were always better with stone magic than me. But they're making defenses." Her eyes glided down, to a set of balloons on her flank. "But there's a lot of changelings out there, and I don't think a party is gonna make us all best friends."

The blue mare sighed. "Yeah, probably not."

"Could you do it again?"

"Do what?

"The big rainbow..." She waved a front leg at the sky. "Boom, across the sky. If they come, could you do it again and send them all flying?"

There was silence for a few moments, until the pained words came. "I... don't know." Blue wings stretched, then settled again. "I think I overdid it the first time, and I don't know how I did it. It just... happened."

The pink mare sat with that. Then she nodded and smiled. "Then it'll happen again. When we need it."

"How are you so sure?"

There was a giggle. "Because, silly Dashie, the super secret weapon that the hero can't control so well always works when she really, really needs it."

She took that in, and despite herself, the blue mare laughed and shook her head. "Never change, Pinke."





Rarity cautiously stepped into the cavern, and to over the pegasus laying curled up on the stone floor. Fluttershy's legs were tucked close to her barrel, her wings tight at her sides, and that long tail wrapped around her body as if to shield it from the world. The fruit on the branch was gone, and so she knew her instincts had been right, but it didn't stop the regret weighting heavy on her heart. 

Fluttershy had been kind to her. Incredibly so. She had outstretched her hoof of friendship, had confided in her, and had placed enough trust in her to come. She was perfect to trot next to her on this path, but even so, a pony who had suffered so much already didn't deserve to be thrown to such a harrowing destiny.

But somepony had to bear the burden, and the tree refused to trust her alone with the duty. No one creature could wield such power without help.

Rarity lowered herself to the stone, listening to Fluttershy cry, and she gently laid her head across her withers. There was a gasp--she had no doubt her friend had forgotten she was even there, but eventually the sobs slowed, turning to sniffles, and finally a strained voice let out a soft, "Rarity..."

"Yes?" she responded, barely above a whisper, and with a waver to her voice as if she may cry as well.

"I saw..." A swallow, and Fluttershy continued. "I saw... my family... and what happens if we fail..."

Rarity sighed softly. "I know."

"Is..." Limbs started to untense, and a wing sought out more comforting contact. "Is that what it showed you, too?"

"Yes." It was a lie, and one that Rarity spoke as easily as breathing. They were free of the salve for now, and so there was clearly no way that Zecora, if she could detect falsehood, would know. It wasn't even fully a lie. Fluttershy had seen the consequences for failure, and one could say that Rarity had too.

But to say the whole truth, would be to say that the tree had showed her something far more, and far worse.





In the low light of the cave, crystals reflected purple hues.

During the invasion, the crystal caverns had been where the changelings had placed anypony who jeopardized their plans. However, when it'd become time to feast, the tunnels had been abandoned. The shelters the ponies had been herded into were above ground, because that made it much easier to overwhelm their food with numbers. Cave systems were good for keeping things out of sight, but once stealth was no longer required, they became inconvenient, because once a pony was underground, it was difficult to catch them and bring them up again.

All the better for the mare now trotting her way along old minecart tracks, who intended to make herself as inconvenient as possible. There were so many unicorns in Canterlot that the rank-and-file drones rarely noticed one slipping away for a while to elsewhere, so long as she was back by the time that the higher-ranked bugs started a head count.

In fact, they didn't seem to notice two slipping away, either. Or three. Or four...

She'd scrounged a pair of saddlebags, and right now, one was weighed down by books. She'd been smuggling surviving tomes from the archives down, a few at a time, and had been finding, to her delight, that the preservation enchantments on most of them had been enough to withstand the flames. She'd tried to prioritize the spellbooks first, but sometimes she just needed to grab what was closest and bolt, hoping that it would be useful.

The other saddlebag, however, was weighed down by something much more precious. Something else that had survived the flames, recovered from a pile of rubble without a scratch.

The small unicorn mare hopped into an empty minecart, and her horn blazed with light, urging the ancient wheels into motions and sending it squealing down the tracks. It had taken some trial and error to learn how to steer it, but now she knew the motions by heart, able to practically leave it to magical memory. The only downside was the noise, but this deep, it would never reach the occupying force on the surface, and so only her own hearing suffered.

When the cart came to a stop, she climbed out again, and she sighed in relief as she saw the three other mares sitting amongst the piles of books. It was always a risk meeting like this, always a chance that their tiny force would be whittled down if anypony tried to slip away at exactly the wrong time.

The sight of her immediately had one of the mares leaping to her hooves, glasses nearly falling from her face and into the book she had open. "Twilight!"

"Moondancer..." She reared up, and the two embraced. And for just a while, the fear of the swarm above faded. They were here, they were safe, and everything would be fine, or at least that's what it felt like as they lingered in each other's warmth.

At least until an, "Ugh," escaped the blue unicorn currently flipping through a thick snakeskin-bound tome with parchment yellowed, so old that even the enchantments hadn't been able to keep it from showing it. "Can you two do that later, preferably when Trixie is back topside pretending to be a helpless prisoner?"

The last mare nearby shook her head, mane of fiery curls shining in the crystal light, and leaned over to bump shoulders, orange fur meeting blue. "Hey, lay off them, Trix. I think it's sweet."

"Oh yes, it's sweet all right. They're downright candy to all the drones up there." She snorted, and the old book slammed shut with a flash of horn glow. "Forgive me, Sunset, if I'm not in the mood for all this sappiness given the circumstances."

There was another shoulder bump. "Oh come on, what's wrong with hugs?"

"The fate of Equestria does not rest on hugs."

Ignoring the running commentary, as it was the same thing every time they all met down here, the two continued to hug, and when they finally parted, Twilight shook her head slightly. "Okay, I've kept you all waiting long enough..." Her saddlebag opened, and steadily the stack next to Trixie grew several volumes taller. "I brought a few more, from the restricted section. And you'll be happy to find out that I have more than books this time."

Sunset's eyes glinted with excitement, leaving the grumbling Trixie alone to get to her hooves. "You found it?"

Twilight nodded, and the second saddlebag opened. "It was at the school, like you said. Still in perfect condition, too."

All three watched as the single, round object emerged, floating with great care to eventually rest on the cave floor. It normally would have been hard to see, but in the gloom of the gave, it was clear that it was glowing from within, a small, pulsing light shining through the outer shell. It was also small, smaller than any of them had expected it to be for something with such potential power.

But every creature started small once, and so the little purple and green egg being so tiny possibly shouldn't have been so surprising at all.

"A dragon egg..." Moondancer breathed in awe, her glasses nearly sliding off her snout as she stared.

Sunset nodded, a proud smile on her muzzle. "It was orphaned years ago. Celestia had been studying how to hatch one using pony magic."

Trixie peered at the egg curiously. "It's still possible to hatch it, after so many years?"

Twilight nodded, with her own eager smile. "Dragon eggs can go dormant for decades, even centuries. Mother dragons will lay a clutch and then wait until just the right moment to hatch them, when there's plenty of food and low danger. Waking them up again is just about introducing the right magical spark."

"And that's where we come in." Sunset's horn lit, surrounding the egg with a warm glow. "Celestia showed me the spell she was going to use, and with all of us, we should have enough power." Slowly, the egg lifted into the air. "Each of you, come in one at a time, at my signal, and then I'll complete the spell."

Blending magic together for the same spell was a delicate art, as it was easy for unicorns of different strength to overwhelm each other, or casters with conflicting emotions to have their power clash. It took careful control and shared purpose to truly harmonize, along with somepony steering the spell who could handle directing it all down the proper paths.

The first was Moondancer. Her magic was tentative, touching at the spell as if afraid that the contact would send it all flying out of control, and when nothing catastrophic happened, the flow took on a more confident surge. Even then, the strength behind the magic wasn't too forceful, and it didn't take too much to herd.

Next was Trixie. Her magic came rushing in with far more gusto, and it took an initial bit of careful direction to keep excess from spilling out of the carefully-maintained channels. If Moondancer could be compared to a watering can, starting slow and picking up slightly, Trixie was more of a garden hose, starting strong and keeping steady.

Then came Twilight, and there was the most of the struggle. She was holding back, like Moondancer, but even then she threatened to overflow even more than Trixie had. Sunset had to work quickly, and channel what she could, and the air sparked and crackled with power as she let some of it bleed off just to keep the other two from being pushed out entirely.

And yet, it was working.

The light built, brighter and brighter. Horns blazed and eyes went white as they poured all they could, the spell matrix struggling to hold it all together and the air growing more and more alive with the energy. Sunset's legs wobbled, but she lifted her head higher and gritted her teeth, refusing to let it all unravel when she could feel they were close.

"Now!"

The cavern filled with a blinding flash. 

All four mares sank to the stone floor, panting for breath as they blinked furiously, trying to recover their sight. Sweat soaked their coats, even Twilight, and the air still zapped with power. As the spots in their vision faded, they saw the shards of eggshell littering the floor, wisps of white smoke still rising from them as they glowed with heat.

And in the centre of the shells was a tiny ball of purple and green scales, the size of a newborn foal, the dragon hatchling curled up and grasping at his own tail, sound asleep.

Trixie crept closer. "It's so small..."

"For now," Sunset said simply, and she and Twilight grinned at each other with exhausted triumph.

Moondancer smiled softly. "What should we call the little guy?"

Sunset blinked, then looked to Twilight. "Well, Twi, you're the one who found the egg and brought it down here. What do you want to call our new dragon?"

Twilight blinked as well, and looked down at the tiny dragon, watching the infant snort out a puff of grey smoke and clutch at his tail that bit tighter. "I think..." She smiled. "I think I want to call him Spike."





"They're back!"

The two mares stepped through the veil of foliage, and at the excited call from the scout-doe, ponies and deer peered out of their homes to look at them, blinking sleep from their eyes. It may have been the dead of night, but a community who'd needed to be able to react quickly to anything that may happen had learned to sleep lightly, and so the longer they stood there, the more and more eyes appeared from windows and doors.

No one raced up to greet them, but that was to be expected. They'd been gone for some time, and so, from the refuge's perspective, there was no guarantee that they were who they appeared to be. Despite wobbling on their hooves from exhaustion, they obligingly stood at the edge, waiting for Zecora to come and confirm their identities, before they rejoined the herd.

Even as they stood there, however, they could hear the whispering starting. Because even at a distance, they were starting to notice what was different.

Around Rarity's neck was the purple diamond, where it had been since she'd first set hoof here. And around Fluttershy's neck was was a similar golden band, holding a pink butterfly.