//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: To Shine Alone // by emrlddrgn //------------------------------// “Move faster, pony!” The shove caused Applejack to stumble, nearly dislodging Pinkie Pie from her perch on the farmer’s back. The pink pony now seemed more asleep than comatose, her breathing slow and even and her rest peaceful, but she still showed no response to the sounds or movements around her. Applejack had had a lot of time to think as she had been led down into the heart of the mountain. She and Pinkie had been split off from Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash shortly after they had been captured, and for once in her life the pink pony wasn’t providing much in the way of conversation. Any attempt to speak with her captors was met with a shove, or occasionally the butt of a spear. Walking certainly didn’t demand much attention, so really, all she had been able to do was think. She thought about how she and her friends had been captured. She thought about Twilight and Luna outside, who likely believed them dead. She thought for a moment about why she was on this quest in the first place, before quickly retreating into thoughts about how she should feel about her current predicament. Mostly, she felt embarrassed. She and her friends had bested countless evils. She, personally, had played a substantial role in the defeats of Discord, Nightmare Moon, the Changelings, the oh-so-pretentious Black Witch of the Deeper Darkness, six dragons, four hydras, three parasprite infestations and one very evil souffle. She was supposed to be good at this adventuring thing. So how did she end up captured by the Diamond Dogs, of all creatures? To be fair, these Dogs seemed to be much smarter than the ones that made their dens in the hills around Ponyville. Splitting their captives up, only leaving Pinkie Pie with Applejack because the alternative was carrying the unconscious baker themselves, made any struggle for freedom useless. Without any way of locating her friends, there was no way the farmer could escape even if she could break free from her captors and find her way through the bewildering maze of tunnels. They were much tougher, too. Trying to use Rarity’s whining trick had netted Applejack nothing more than a few laughs and what she suspected would be some rather spectacular bruises, courtesy of the Dogs’ spear butts. Thwack! A sharp blow from those very weapons brought Applejack out of her reverie. Sighing, the earth pony resolutely marched ever downward into the heart of the Diamond Dogs’ lair. It could be worse, after all. She could be at home. --- “Pony will move faster!” “O-oh, uh... Okay, just.. d-don’t leave me here... alone... please...” --- “Pony! Move! Now!” “- stupid, worthless, useless idiot! What pathetic excuse for a pony can’t even protect her friends? Miserable, wretched, waste -” “Uh... Pony move... please?” --- “Please, Twilight Sparkle, you must listen to me!” “No.” The purple pony marched down the dark tunnel, brows lowered, her mouth pressed into a firm, grim line. Beside Twilight, the Princess of the Night trotted, a soft glow emanating from her body providing their only illumination, seemingly without her being aware of it. Her eyes were wide and her face was anxious as she continued to plead with the Archmage. “Please! I understand what you are feeling only too well, but this is not the way!” “And what is it that I’m feeling?” “You fear for your friends. You worry they may have been hurt.” “Of course I do.” “You are angry. You seek revenge on those who’ve taken them.” Silence. “You... you’re going to kill them, aren’t you?” A pause. Then, “... If that’s what it takes.” “To rescue our friends?” “To teach them, whoever they are, never to threaten anypony ever again.” “Twilight Sparkle, I know you are angry, but this is not the way. You do not want to be the kind of pony that would do as you have threatened. If ever there was a pony with the true knowledge of these words, it is I. I beg of you, stop. Simply stop and regain your composure, and we may discuss how best to aid our friends.” Twilight continued her grim march, never faltering. “No.” “But thou must! I mean, you musn’t! I mean... Ugh!” Luna stomped her front feet, silver flashes bursting from her horseshoes. “Damn!” Twilight paid her no attention. She had seen something in those brief flashes... A purple spark leapt from her horn, focusing into a beam which swept over the ground, searching until it illuminated a dainty hoofprint. The print took on a purple glow, which spread forward along the tunnel to illuminate another, and then another. Soon a series of glowing hoofprints led away down the dark tunnel. “I have a trail now. It won’t be long. Then... we’ll see.” The Princess and the Archmage hurried onward into the heart of the mountain. --- Applejack stumbled as the ground on which she walked transitioned from a rough, sloped tunnel floor to a much smoother and more level surface. It was still too dark to see, but from the sudden echoes her hoofsteps made she had the impression of a large cavern. Her guards apparently had no trouble in the total darkness, as they led her forward a few dozen steps before forcing her to her knees. “Woah there!” she barked. “Ya could have just asked, ya low-down dirty rotten -” “A-applejack?” came a familiar voice, weak and hoarse, from her right. “Who’s there? Fluttershy?” The farmer set the still-sleeping Pinkie Pie down on her left, then reached out a hoof, feeling blindly for the source of the voice. She touched something soft and was immediately gripped by two pairs of limbs, legs and wings, all shaking like branches in a high wind. “Oh thank Celestia, I wasn’t – I couldn’t -” “Wait.. Rainbow Dash?!” Amazed, Applejack tried to push her away to get a better look – a futile gesture in the blackness. As she prepared to ask any of a number of questions, her thoughts were scattered by a disturbance from back where she entered the room. “HOPELESS! WEAK! GOOD-FOR-NOTHING!” Fluttershy’s voice was clearly audible, but almost unrecognizable. She stormed forward, still screaming insults at herself, right up until she tripped over Applejack and the still-attached Rainbow Dash, knocking them all over into a confused heap atop Pinkie Pie, who continued to snooze. There was silence for a moment, then Fluttershy spoke. “Oh.. um... hi, girls...” A dozen torches flared to light around the room. All three ponies threw up a hoof to shield their eyes, unaccustomed to the sudden brightness. When they lowered them again they saw that they were in a vaulted cavern, surrounded by a ring of Diamond Dogs. In front of them was a shining throne of blue carbuncle, gleaming in the torchlight like a frozen flame, an enormous Dog slouched in it. He wore chain mail and a steel helm, unlike his leather-clad brethren. His belly was fat and swollen, his fur was greying, but his legs, arms, and neck were still as thick as small tree trunks. Rings glittered on his fingers – ruby, emerald, sapphire, opal, topaz, amethyst, peridot and aquamarine. A necklace featuring moonstone and bloodstone flanking a truly gigantic tiger’s eye rested low on his chest. He leaned forward, studying the prisoners through narrowed eyes. “I am Rex, Lowest of Diamond Dogs. You ponies trespass in Diamond Dog mountains. Why? Does pony princess send you with more insults for Rex? Threats? Doesn’t matter if pony princess knows now where to find Diamond Dog home. Dogs more than a match for puny ponies!” Rex’s last statement was met with a howl of approval from the watching ring of Dogs. They yelled and barked, and those who carried spears pounded the butts on the floor of the cavern. The noise startled Fluttershy, who latched onto Applejack just as she succeeded in extracting herself from Rainbow Dash. The usually brash pony curled up in a quivering ball on the ground near her pink friend. Applejack ignored all three of her friends and met Rex glare for glare. “Ah’m Applejack, from Ponyville. We was just passin’ through these here mountains, and we’d just as soon keep on passin’. We weren’t sent here by nopony, but Ah’ll thank you to show a bit more respect to Princess Celestia – not ‘pony princess’”. “Uh... Applejack?” asked Fluttershy. Applejack ignored her. Rex laughed, a mean, nasty thing that echoed unpleasantly in the confined space. “This pony has guts! But it is bad liar. Is nothing for pony beyond mountains. Now. Pony very funny, but it tells now why it is here, or it works in mines for rest of its life.” Here Rex grinned, showing a very large number of very sharp teeth. “Rest of its short life.” “She is right here, and she’d appreciate it if you talked to her, ‘stead of over her head like that!” growled Applejack. “Now, Ah told ya’ll what brought us here, and you can believe it or not – don’t make a bit of difference to me – but you better let me and my friends go right now, or there’ll be trouble!” “Applejack, I really think you should see this...” muttered Fluttershy. “Not now, sugarcube, can’t you see I’m busy?” replied the farmer, not taking her eyes off the Diamond Dog in the throne. Rex’s face no longer held even a trace of laughter. “Enough. You not insult Rex more. You travel with dark princess, sister of pony princess. Pony princess send you. We send you back in pieces, as message.” He gave a sharp bark, and the cluster of Dogs to either side of him raised their spears. As they started to advance on the group of ponies, Applejack braced herself. “All right, if that’s how ya want it, bring it – OW!” The farmer’s words were cut short by Fluttershy tugging at her mane, hard. “Fluttershy, what the hay?” “Applejack! Look!” Startled, Applejack looked around and gasped. Where before the ponies had been surrounded by a solid wall of Diamond Dogs, now there were only a few left, all looking at each other in obvious fear. Even as Applejack watched, another Dog vanished into thin air with a loud whack! sound. Rex shot up from his throne, growling. “What is this! Diamond Dogs, come!” The remaining Dogs from around the room tried to run to their leader’s side and join with his personal bodyguards, but as they ran they began to collapse one by one into senseless heaps on the cavern floor. Only two made it as far as the cluster of Dogs around Rex, whining with fear and cowering behind their cohorts. Some of these, too, began to crumple, while others were shoved aside by some invisible force. Applejack saw her chance, and took it. She darted towards those Dogs that had been isolated from the mass by unseen shoves, wound up and began delivering solid bucks to any Dog she could reach. Between the angry Earth pony and the inexplicable collapses still spreading through the gathered Dogs, soon Rex was the only one left standing. A colossal paw shot out, pinning Applejack to the floor. With a growl, he raised his other forepaw, intent on smashing the pony who had defeated so many of his men. Applejack struggled, but could not break free of his crushing weight. She looked up helplessly at the descending blow. Suddenly, a blue glow sprang up around the large tiger’s eye on Rex’s necklace. It shot up into the air behind the Dog, drawing him into the air by the heavy steel chain. His eyes bulged as his air was cut off, and he clutched desperately at the necklace, trying unsuccessfully to remove it. His frantic pawings slowed as he continued to choke. Finally, his eyes rolled back into his head as he slumped, unconscious. Only then did the seemingly possessed gem release him to fall with a thud! to the floor. Applejack and Fluttershy stared around in amazement at the room full of unconscious Diamond Dogs. Then a loud popping sound drew their attention to the massive diamond throne. “Hello, girls!” came Rarity’s musical voice from where she lounged in the seat. “Miss me?” --- Behind her affected nonchalance, Rarity grinned to herself. She was in her element, the center of attention and loving it. Gleefully, she watched her friends for signs of what she knew was coming. Slowly, Applejack and Fluttershy began to blink, shake their heads, and work their jaws. Three... Two... One... “Rarity?!” Perfect! “But.. but... how?” asked Applejack lamely. “Now now girls, plenty of time for all that later! We must tend to our injured comrades!” Rarity hopped down from the throne, tottering as she landed and almost falling. I guess all that camouflage and levitation drained me a tad more than I’d thought. Pushing aside her momentary weakness, Rarity trotted quickly to Rainbow Dash, still curled up in a whimpering, shaking ball on the cold stone floor. The fashionista’s horn glowed a cool blue as she bent down, whispering in her friend’s ear. Slowly, Rainbow stopped shaking, then straightened up, looking around sheepishly. “Uh... hey there, everypony.” “Wow, Rarity,” said Applejack, sounding deeply impressed, “How’d you do that? She couldn’t move worth a darn just a moment ago.” “Well, isn’t it obvious?” smirked the unicorn, her nose in the air. “She was still suffering the aftereffects of that terrible spell the Dogs cast on her and Pinkie. I simply freed her from the magic’s lingering grip!” “Well, that’s right clever of ya, Rarity. Think ya can do the same thing for Pinkie Pie?” Pinkie sneezed. “Um... Pinkie?” asked Fluttershy gently, “Are you... awake?” The pink pony giggled, yawned, and stretched. Then she bounced to her feet, once again the cheerful Pinkie Pie they knew. “Howdy, ladies! What’s goin’ - ghk!” Her words were cut off, along with her air supply, as she was beset on all sides by friendly hugs. “Pinkie! We were so worried, darling! Are you all right?” asked Rarity, loosening her hold a bit to allow Pinkie to answer. “Hehe! Sure I am! That little nap perked me right up!” the beaming baker replied. Then her smile shrank down to something small and fearful. “But... can we not do that again? Like... ever? Like... ever ever ever ever?” “Of course, my dear. We will make sure that such a thing never happens to you again. But are you quite sure you’re all right? Even if you are refreshed after your... ‘little nap’, that must have been a terrifying experience for you. Would you like to talk about it?” “She said she’s fine, Rares, geez, lighten up!” said Rainbow Dash, breaking away from the group hug. “You know how Pinkie is – nothing phases her for long!” The fear on Pinkie Pie’s face, which had started to fade away with Rarity’s promise, was quickly replaced with something that looked almost like anger. She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the loud sound of hooves echoing from one of the entrances to the cavern. “That must be Twilight and the Princess!” said Rarity seriously. “We’d best be ready for their arrival – you know how Twilight gets.” Her friends all nodded. They did, indeed, know. --- “Twilight Sparkle. I will ask you once more to reconsider.” For once in her life, Twilight paid a Princess no heed. The tracks she had been following led out of the dark tunnel towards a brightly-lit space just ahead. Dimly, she was aware that the preternatural glow around the Moon Princess had faded as the tunnel had grown brighter. That didn’t matter, though. What did matter was that the beasts, the monsters, whatever they were, who had taken her friends were finally within her reach. Snorting, she scraped one hoof against the stone of the passage, a wordless challenge to nothing that was there to see. Then, the light shining from her horn nearly blinding, she charged forward into the room. Immediately something fell over her, feeling cold and wet to her magical senses, smothering the light from her horn. An anti-magic field! she thought, enraged that anyone would dare to try such a simple trick on her. Snorting again, she began to gather the energies necessary to shatter the meager attempt to contain her and continue on her quest for vengeance. She paused, the power she had drawn up fading away, as the scene before her really registered for the first time. The room around her was strewn with the unconscious bodies of Diamond Dogs, most clad in leather jerkins and clutching spears, one very large and wearing chain mail. Her five friends were looking at her, Rarity slightly ahead of the others, her horn glowing blue as she struggled to project the anti-magic field over the much stronger unicorn. “Twilight? Darling? Are you all right? I’m terribly sorry about this, but I wanted to make sure you weren’t going to do anything... rash.” Rarity’s horn went out, and she sagged visibly with relief as the field vanished from around Twilight. “Rarity? … You beat all of them? All by yourself? Without any help?” Rarity gave her a tired smile. “Why, yes, dear I suppose I did. All in a day’s work, you know...” “That was unbelievably stupid!” raged Twilight, glaring at her white friend. Rarity took a step back in alarm. “You could have been killed! You could have gotten everypony else killed! You should have waited for me, dammit!” She paced back and forth rapidly, still glaring at her friends, then let out a short, frustrated scream, turned, and stalked past Luna and back out of the cavern. --- “Twilight Sparkle!” the Princess of the Night called after the retreating back of the purple unicorn. “That is no way to treat your friends! I -” “Let her go, please, Princess,” came Rarity’s tired voice. “She’ll be fine. It’s best to leave her alone for a bit now, until she pulls herself together. This isn’t the first time, you see,” she added in response to the alicorn’s confused look. With that, Rarity flopped over, completely spent. Lying on her side, she looked up at the other five with tired pride. “Ya done wore yourself out, huh, sugarcube? Well, I reckon’ you’ve earned a rest, at that. Just one thing I don’t get. Where’d you learn to do all of that stuff? Turnin’ invisible, knockin’ out Diamond Dogs... shuttin’ down Twilight? Since when can you do all that?” “Applejack,” sighed the exhausted unicorn, “in all our adventures together, how many times have I been captured by some manner of horrible creature?” “Well, when I’ve been around... maybe ten or fifteen times? And I heard about a few more from Dash here, too...” “And how many of those times did I manage to free myself, rather than be rescued? Usually by Twilight or Rainbow Dash?” “Uh... not counting the whining thing?” Rarity’s glare was not amused. “... Once? Maybe? Ain’t you kinda makin’ my point for me?” “Never, Applejack. Not once. When it became clear that my fashion career was no longer quite as fulfilling as I had hoped, I did quite a bit of thinking about my life so far. I realized that, despite my considerable contributions to our various achievements, I had quite clearly been cast in the role of the ‘damsel in distress’. And seeing as how it was never a rich, handsome prince who came to rescue me... I resolved to do something about it.” She struggled to get her next words out around a huge, unladylike yawn. “Now, if you please, I really... must... rest...” She trailed off into a dainty, ladylike snore. --- By the time Rarity awoke, Twilight had returned, though with a glare on her face and her shoulders hunched she was doing her best to shout ‘leave me alone!’ without actually saying anything. The others had been discussing the Diamond Dogs in low voices, but broke off when the white unicorn began to stir. She smiled at their courtesy, but waved a hoof dismissively. “I assure you, I am quite all right now. Merely worn out from my exertions. What were you saying, Princess?” “We were discussing the Diamond Dogs,” replied the Princess of the Night. “Specifically, if we could escape their warren without one of them to guide us, or if we would need to wait for one to wake and... persuade it to help.” “I should think we could find an exit – simply walk upwards, no? Still, I have done quite enough walking for today, thank you very much. If one of these... creatures.... could shorten our path, I would certainly take advantage of the fact. Ah, and speaking of whom...” Rex had begun to stir. Someone had removed his rings, necklace, and helm. Though he looked less lordly without them, his intimidating size was undiminished. Fluttershy shrank away, hiding behind Rainbow Dash, who looked slightly unsure herself. Luna, on the other hand, walked right up to him, suddenly seeming taller even than her usual alicorn stature. “You dare to attack my friends and subjects?” she asked, her voice a frozen wind, her starry mane spread behind her like a cloak of darkness. “You would seize the ponies I have placed under my protection? Have you any idea what wrath I can bring upon you? From the void above to the pits below, all places of darkness are my domain.” She stomped a hoof and the torchlight began to dim. A low rumble arose on all sides, passed through the cavern, and died away. Then a hurricane seemed to sweep the room, gusts entering and leaving through every tunnel mouth in a tangled snarl. This, too, died away quickly, but the Night Princess’ mane continued to whirl crazily overhead. “I have just collapsed every exit from this tunnel complex. Many more of my subjects may soon be travelling this route. If another pony reports a Diamond Dog attack, if a pony goes missing in the mountains, if I so much as see one of you on the surface for any reason other than peaceful international dialogue, I will return. I am being merciful. Do not give me reason to be otherwise.” “Now. Explain yourself. Quickly.” Rex howled with rage. “Another pony princess, come to take what is Diamond Dogs’ by right! Well, you not get it! Not while I am Lowest!” Luna’s righteous anger faltered. “You... know of my sister? She has... taken from you? What do you mean?” “Yes! Sunny princess! She steals from Dogs!” “Your Highness, I really don’t think we need listen to this ruffian,” Rarity broke in. She had walked around behind Rex, and was levitating a Diamond Dog spear high over her head – it floated backwards, but was still quite menacing. “Let me just put him down for another nap -” “No!” the Princess snapped. “l will hear what he has to say! If my sister has wronged these creatures, then I will do my best to deliver them justice!” She glared around the room, as though daring anyone to disagree. Turning back to Rex, she said, “Tell me. What has my sister taken from you?” “Treasure...” replied Rex, nearly salivating at the thought. “Piles and piles of jewels and gems! Riches much greater than my hoard! Beyond the dreams of Dogs!” “Pardon me, Princess, but what would Princess Celestia want with a bunch of Diamond Dog jewels? Ain’t she already got just about everything a pony could want?” asked Applejack. “My sister,” hissed Luna unpleasantly, “is not the saint you make her out to be, friend Applejack. Where?” she asked the Diamond Dog. “Where is this treasure she has stolen from you? What piles of gems?” Rex paused, looking confused. “Which?” “Yes! Which treasure?” asked Luna urgently. “... All treasure. All treasure belongs to Diamond Dogs.” “... I don’t understand. You’re saying that all the treasure in Equestria belongs to you?” “Yes! Yes! All treasure everywhere Diamond Dogs’ by right! It is known! Dark princess help Diamond Dogs get treasure from sunny princess? Yes?” Rex panted eagerly at the thought of this powerful new ally. “... So Celestia didn’t actually take anything from you? Did you ever possess any of this treasure before? You had it with you, right, and the pony princess took it away?” Luna looked almost desperate now, begging the Diamond Dog to tell her tales of Celestia’s thievery. She was doomed to disappointment. “No. But that not matter! All treasure Diamond Dogs’!” Luna sighed. “Rarity?” she asked. The clunk! of the spear butt sending Rex back into unconsciousness echoed dully around the chamber. The Lunar Princess turned and walked to the opposite side of the cave from Twilight, both far away from their other friends. “Wake up one of the others and see about finding us a way out of here, please. Preferably as far east as possible. I wish to wash my hooves of this place.” --- By the time their ever-so-cooperative guide left them at the mouth of a tunnel leading down out of the weather conduit, Luna seemed more cheerful - blasting the exit open again had done wonders for her mood. Down where the clouds were much thinner, she was able to clear the worst of them with ease, leaving only a light drizzle for the ponies to walk through. They marched on for several miles. Rarity, who had recovered from her earlier exhaustion, practically pranced, too pleased with her success even to worry about slogging through the mud. She basked in the attention of a fascinated Pinkie Pie - who, having been asleep through all the excitement, was enthralled to hear her unicorn friend’s description of “the Dastardly Diamond Dog Deliverance!” - as the rain fell around her, deflected by a shimmering half-dome of magic she had woven above her head. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked side by side, looking alternately at the sky and the ground, neither speaking much. Behind them, Luna asked quiet questions of Applejack, who responded in a low voice. Occasionally one or the other would glance backwards, towards the seventh member of their party. Twilight was still sulking. She hung to the rear of the group, letting the rain run over her body despite being perfectly capable of shielding herself as Rarity had done. Several of her friends had tried to approach her, only to be met with harsh monosyllables or curt dismissals. Eventually deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, they left her alone with her grey funk. When the ponies reached the edge of the mist, Luna called a halt. The sun was hanging low in the sky, red and swollen. Its dim rays played over the tall stalks of golden grass covering the plain below the mountains, visible now for the first time with the withdrawal of the fog. The dappled sunlight served to give the place a feeling of peace and restfulness, as though nothing bad had ever happened there or ever would. For the weary ponies, the sight was almost divine. “I must go and tend to the moon,” Luna told them as they sat or lay down among the soft grasses. “I suggest that you get a fire going to dry out your coats, then find a comfortable spot to rest. We may be beyond the... unforeseen difficulties of the high passes, but we do not know what these lands hold in store for us and tomorrow may prove equally trying. Sleep well, my friends, and we shall speak again at dawn.” --- When Luna returned, a gibbous moon at her back, the campsite was marked only by a lingering column of smoke from the now-extinguished fire and a few suspicious dents in the fabric of the grasslands. Without hesitation, the Princess of the Night strode towards the most isolated divot, furthest from the fire. “Twilight Sparkle,” she called quietly, “I would speak with you.” No response. “Twilight Sparkle!” she repeated, a touch louder this time. Still no response. Luna sighed. “Twilight Sparkle, are you really pretending to be asleep? To the Mistress of Dreams herself?” A purple head poked itself up above the grass. “I was hoping you’d respect my obvious desire to be left alone,” Twilight said pointedly. “Sadly, I cannot,” replied Luna cheerfully as she lay down next to the smaller pony. “Oh, don’t be like that,” she continued in response to a glare. “Everything worked out fine! Your friends are safe, no one was seriously hurt, and you didn’t even have to do anything!” When she was met by silence, the mirth faded from her voice and her face took on a more serious mien. “Would you like to talk about it?” “No. Please, Princess... I want to be left alone. Please.” “I cannot do that, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna repeated, gently this time. “Clearly, there are weighty matters troubling you. We all need you hale and hearty to make this expedition a success. And as your friend, it pains me to see you so distressed. If you will not tell me what troubles you, I shall have to guess.” She cleared her throat and began. “First, I suspect that learning of Celestia’s... editing of your education was quite the shock. You have been her student for the better part of your life, and to find that she had deliberately kept knowledge from you, a pony who prizes knowledge above almost all else, must have been deeply unsettling.” As Twilight did not respond, Luna continued. “Second, believing – however briefly – that your friends had been slain by some unknown evil was a terrible emotional strain. While this belief was quickly corrected, it no doubt left some wounds which will be slow to heal.” At this memory, Twilight turned away, hiding her face from the alicorn. “Finally, and most importantly...” Luna began again after a moment, “You were prepared to kill in there. It cannot have been easy for a naturally peaceful pony such as yourself to bring forth that level of rage. I, more than most, know of the difficulty in withdrawing such anger without being given a chance to unleash it. Rarity tells me this has been a problem for you on other occasions, and considering the life you lead, I am hardly surprised. However, I hope with the benefit of my experience that I can help you to recover from this trauma, if you will only allow me.” A choked sound began to rise from the huddled form of the sorceress. It took the Night Princess some time to realize what it was. Twilight Sparkle was laughing. Laughing, bitterly, as the tears ran down her face. “You... you’re so right, Princess!” she chortled, a ragged, sour sound. “You’re right about everything, and oh, so wrong! Really, it takes talent to get every detail right and miss the point so completely! I’m very impressed!” She continued to chuckle, her laughs becoming more and more like sobs, until Luna reached out and turned Twilight’s head to face her. “If I am so wrong,” she whispered, “then what is the truth? Tell me, what could reduce a mare such as you to a state such as this?” “A mare such as me. That’s very funny, Princess.” Drained of its horrible laughter, Twilight’s face looked very bleak. “You were right. It was - is - hard to pull back from that kind of... bloodlust. But you were wrong, very wrong, that it was difficult for a ‘naturally peaceful pony’ like me to bring it out. It was easy, Princess. So, so easy. And I’m afraid it’s only going to keep getting easier.” Luna stared at her small, innocent friend with wide eyes holding deep reflections of the stars. For several minutes neither of them spoke. When the silence was finally broken it was Luna who sounded bleak. “Applejack and Rarity told me of three other occasions on which you seemed irrationally angry after discovering that your friends had rescued themselves. Those weren’t the only times you’d felt this way, were they?” Twilight shook her head. “They were only the times in which your friends were there, and you failed to find an outlet for your anger.” A nod. “How... how many times? How long?” Twilight took a deep breath before answering. “At least the last three years. Those few times with the girls, towards the end of our adventuring together, those were the first. When Princess Celestia called me back to Canterlot to serve as Arch-mage, I brought this up with her. I was confused and scared and I didn’t want her to have a madpony as her most powerful servant. She told me it was just because I loved my friends so much, and that it would get better with time. But it hasn’t. It’s gotten worse. Now it takes less to set me off, and more to calm me down.” She fell silent. Luna could sense that the purple unicorn still had one more thing she needed to get off her chest, so she waited as the chill night breezes wafted past. A few timeless moments later, Twilight opened her mouth again. “That’s really what bothered me when I learned Princess Celestia had been keeping things - knowledge, magic - from me. It meant she knew what I was becoming, and chose not to let me become any more powerful than I already am... to make it easier to put me down, if it came to that.” Luna made as though to interrupt, but Twilight raised a hoof, stopping her. “I’ve been thinking about it since we left the tunnels, and I know why she was able to see it, now. She saw it because this is exactly how it happened to her. Sometime in the thousand years since you left, or maybe even before that, all those little uncomfortable necessities, all the violence and lies done ‘for the greater good’, became too much for her. That’s how she became the way she is now – distant, calculating, unable to see her subjects as real ponies with real lives. You said it yourself, Princess - ‘my little ponies’. We’re dolls to her, toys for foals, and sooner or later – I think probably sooner – everypony will be that way for me as well. The only real question now is... did she do this to me on purpose?” Luna moved closer to Twilight, lying right alongside her, their heads turned to face each other. The Lunar Sovereign’s face was inscrutable as she studied the former Arch-mage. Twilight stared back, her face empty of hope, ready for whatever condemnation the Princess saw fit to cover her with. Instead, she suddenly found herself covered in a soft, feathery wing, as Luna hugged Twilight close to herself. “You do yourself a disservice, Twilight Sparkle. And my sister too, I think. Your path is not fixed, and the very fact that you find your present circumstances troubling means that you are not so far gone as you fear. As for my sister, I wronged her today by painting her the antagonist with the Diamond Dogs. This is much the same. Though it may seem like it on occasion, Celestia is not all powerful. Nor is she a malevolent supervillainess of the type found in those comic books Spike used to love so much. Among other things, I doubt she could pull off the outfits.” This brought a small chuckle from Twilight. “In many ways,” Luna sighed, “it would be easier if she were. Far easier to see a tyrant I must struggle against than to see a complex pony with feelings and desires which are occasionally at odds with my own. But as for your final worries... no, Twilight Sparkle. I do not think that my sister’s heart is as deadened by the years as you claim. I would think that anypony present at our reunion, as you were, would be able to see that much. And she certainly would not set you up to become some sort of avenging demon. If I can say one thing about my sister with some certainty, it is that she cares for you deeply. I have even, in my lower moments, been jealous of how deeply. You may rest easy on that count. As for yourself... you have our friends, and you have me. We will not let you become the thing you fear. I swear it to you by the dancing stars, the moving moon, and all the names of the heavens. And in return, you must promise me that you will try not to let your fear rule you. Have we an accord, Arch-mage Sparkle?” Twilight stood and bowed very formally, hooves extended, horn up. “We have an accord, oh my Princess.” Then suddenly she grinned, straightened, and began a series of familiar hoof motions. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Luna smiled in return, heartened by this small return to normalcy. “I am pleased to hear it, Twilight Sparkle. Now, rest. You will need your strength on the morrow. As always, I shall guard the night.” “Goodnight, Princess,” replied Twilight through a yawn – she was suddenly very drained. “And... thank you.” The Princess of the Night merely smiled. She remained next to her dear friend for a long time, sheltering her in the folds of her wings, until Twilight’s heavy breathing indicated that she had at last fallen asleep. Then Luna rose, tapped her horn against Twilight’s once, and murmered, “Sweet dreams, Twilight Sparkle.” Trotting a short distance away so as not to disturb the sleeping unicorn, she spread her wings and leapt into the night sky. --- Rainbow Dash couldn’t sleep. This was a new problem for her. After all, there were pretty much two things she was known to be the best at – flying and sleeping. She hoped this weird new difficulty wasn’t going to affect her flying. She certainly had no idea what was causing it, after all – just one of those things that happened to awesome ponies from time to time. A rustling in the grass behind her caused her to leap to her hooves and flare her wings at exactly the appropriate speed – definitely not way too fast – only to come face to face with Rarity, who seemed to be startled by her perfectly reasonably paced movement, for some reason. The white unicorn recovered quickly and approached Rainbow, sitting down near where the pegasus had been lying moments before. After a few moments of staring expectantly at her friend, Rarity spoke. “Aren’t you going to sit back down?” Glaring, Rainbow tucked her wings back by her sides and flopped down on her belly, intentionally raising a small cloud of dust which drifted over Rarity. She coughed and shot her companion a less than amused look, but let it pass. “Are you having trouble sleeping, Rainbow dear?” she aked gently. “No!” snapped Rainbow Dash. “I’m just... not tired, that’s all.” “Really?” replied Rarity, no trace of amusement on her face despite the transparent lie. “I rather thought you might be upset, considering your total collapse down in the tunnels.” Dash’s head whipped around at once, a brief flash of fear on her face quickly being swallowed by anger. “And just what’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded. “I am talking about you, curled into a ball, shaking, while your friends fought for their lives around you,” said Rarity calmly. “Hardly something to pass unnoticed by your friends, especially coming from the Element of Loyalty.” Rarity’s tone was smooth, carrying no hint of either pity or judgement, but her words were enough by themselves to cause Rainbow to jump up again, this time spreading her wings and looming over the seated unicorn with deliberate menace. Rarity, for her part, simply watched, neither drawing back nor standing herself. “That was a spell.” Dash’s words came out in a low growl, every syllable vibrating with threat. “That was a Diamond Dog spell. You said so yourself. Everypony saw it.” Rarity sighed slightly, looking at her friend with sad eyes. Then she raised one hoof and placed it on Rainbow’s shoulder. “What I saw in the cave was no spell, and I should know. I’m the one who supposedly ‘broke’ it, after all. We both know the truth of that, don’t we?” Rainbow pulled her wings back and tried to look away, but Rarity’s gaze and the hoof on her shoulder held her. “I put on a pretty light show to help you keep your pride, but what broke the ‘spell’ was nothing but words.” She said them again now, enunciating each one carefully as if to lend them extra weight. “It’s okay, Rainbow Dash. Your friends are here. You’re safe. You’re not alone.” The pegasus pulled free of Rarity’s hoof, turning away and flopping onto the ground again. There was silence for a long time, which Rarity thoughtfully did not break. When Dash finally spoke again, she sounded exhausted, as though all her lost sleep was catching up with her at once. “You can’t tell anypony.” Then, “... Please.” Rainbow’s eyes were closed, but she could hear the sound of her friend standing, walking slowly over to her, and kneeling down near her head. “I can’t tell everypony what, exactly?” “You know what,” the prostrate pegasus groaned. “But I want you to tell me, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity insisted, her calm, understanding voice somehow making her words all the more cruel. “What caused you to lock up, when you knew your friends needed you? I know it wasn’t any spell, but if I’m going to keep your secret for you I should at least know what secret I’m keeping, hmm?” Silence reigned for a long time, as Rainbow Dash tried to come up with a way out of her predicament. She could try to run, but Rarity was a unicorn, and would probably pluck her out of the sky before she could get far enough away. Besides, she wasn’t feeling all that awesome at the moment, while Rarity had just kicked the haunches of something like thirty-five Diamond Dogs. She could try to pretend to be asleep, but she had a feeling Rarity wouldn’t fall for that – the white unicorn had an annoying tendency to pick up on little details, as their present situation made painfully clear. She could feel Rarity’s gaze on the back of her head, boring into her skull, demanding the truth. “I was afraid,” she said finally. Rarity said nothing, waiting for her to continue. “I was afraid of being so deep underground. Pegasi aren’t supposed to be trapped like that – solid rock on all sides, darkness pressing in, not even a hint of a breeze, the air all gone flat, dead, not a taste of rain or lightning, no sky, no sky, no sky...” She shuddered, pulling herself back from memories of the experience. “I couldn’t just run around, kicking flank and taking names, dethroning Diamond Dog kings without any worries at all, like you apparently could, all right?” “This wasn’t the first time you’d been underground, though,” said Rarity neutrally. “We’ve been on any number of underground adventures. You even came along to help save me from the Diamond Dogs the first time.” “That was... different. I wasn’t alone. I had you girls around me, and I had a job to do. And it wasn’t dark – we always had torches or one of you unicorns with a light spell. This, though, it was...” “It’s all right, Rainbow. I understand.” Rarity paused, for just a moment, then said, “Of course, you realize I knew all this already.” “What?!” demanded Rainbow as she sprang to her hooves for the third time in fifteen minutes. “Then why did you make me say all that stuff?” “I thought it might help you to feel a bit better,” Rarity replied. “To know that someone knows you were afraid, and doesn’t care. You’re still Rainbow Dash to me, darling – Best Young Flier in Equestria, captain of the Wonderbolts, my savior more times over than I care to count. One moment of weakness doesn’t take away years of strength, Rainbow. I hope you can remember that.” Rarity rose, turned, and walked away, leaving a stunned Rainbow Dash in her wake to watch her go. Just as she reached the point where the grass would soon obscure her from view, she turned back. “Oh, and Rainbow darling? I was terrified.” --- Applejack and Pinkie Pie ran into each other, quite literally, in the field of tall grass. “Ouch! Pinkie! What are you doing here?” asked the farmer, rubbing her nose where it had collided with Pinkie’s flank. “I was on my way to see Fluttershy,” whispered the pink pony, uncharacteristically quiet. “She was being all grouchy-pants on the way to the campsite, so I thought I’d stop by and try to cheer her up.” Pinkie’s eyes narrowed into a mock-glare. “What are you doing here, Apples? Tryin’ to steal my thunder, eh?” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Not sure what you mean by that, but if you mean I’m tryin’ to help Fluttershy too, you’re right on the money. I guess you were asleep, but she was... a little scary there, for a bit. Seemed right angry with herself for something or other, though heck if I know what. Thought she might like to talk about it, is all.” Pinkie squealed (quietly), then pulled the apple farmer into a tight hug. “Oh, this’ll be so great! We’ll go talk to her and fix whatever’s wrong and then we’ll all learn a lesson about the magic of friendship and write a letter to the Princess! It’ll be just like old times! Except we don’t have Spike to send it... Oo, do you think Luna would send it for us?” “Y’know, she’s a princess too, sugarcube,” Applejack drawled. “Well, no sense puttin’ the cart before the horse. Let’s go see what’s up with Fluttershy.” The two friends continued onward, to see what help they could bring to the troubled yellow pegasus. But when they found the place she had chosen to lie down, she seemed to be asleep, and no amount of gentle calling would rouse her. Unwilling to take more drastic steps after the exhausting day, they left Fluttershy and went back to their own chosen places to sleep. --- Miles and miles away, on a frozen peak in another mountain range, a large, scaled head was raised above a feathered body. A sniff brought a smell, carried on the wind, and with it a memory, carried on the mists of time, from long and long and long ago... A wide grin showed an impressive collection of razor-sharp teeth, one conspicuously missing at the front of the mouth. “Interesting....” --- Cliff Hanger pulled himself up and over the edge of the ledge, collapsing into a panting heap. As he allowed himself a few minutes to recover, he gazed at the spectacular view of eastern Equestria spread out before him. He was more than halfway up the cliff by now, able to see all the way to Ponyville from his vantage point. He knew that as he continued to climb, the eastern edge of the Everfree Forest would come into view, followed at the very crest of the mountain by the fringe of the Shimmering Woods. Suddenly the distant cluster of buildings that marked the town was eclipsed by the envelope of a huge, hot-pink zeppelin, a picture of the crescent moon emblazoned on the fabric. Cliff gawked at the hideous sight as it continued to rise, noticing several fully-griffined crossbows placed around the craft. When the gondola came into view, it housed a pink Earth pony with a lavender mane wearing a white Captain’s hat and a blue filly in a white lab coat wearing glasses. Cliff’s eyes narrowed at the sight of a familiar foe. “Baroness Balloon! I should have known! A rigid airship is something of a departure for you, isn’t it?” he called across to the pink villainess. “Indeed, my dear Cliff!” she replied. “But my new partner in crime has convinced me of the advantages!” “Yes, I thought I recognized her. Science! How could you betray me so?” The blue filly lowered her eyewear and cackled maniacally. “I am no longer Science, that doormat! I have finally decided to take what is rightfully mine, and with it my new name - Mad Science!” Lightning flashed briefly out of a clear sky. Cliff sighed. “Do you really expect me to do battle with a fully armed and operational battle dirigible from a tiny ledge on the side of a cliff?” The Baroness chortled, signaling her griffins to begin the attack. “No, Mister Hanger! I expect you to die!” END CHAPTER THREE