The skiff sped along the darkness of the river, its way lit by the lantern placed at its prow, glowing gently into the night. The air was damp and chilled, and the only sound to be heard was the rushing of the river. They were in the Everfree proper, and everypony knew not to pursue ponies protected by Twilight Sparkle into the woods. Not a one would come back from that chase. The ponies on the boat had shed their armor, and were tending to their wounds. The Changelings buzzed among themselves gently, discussing their next course of action. If they could get further down the river, they could combine their pitches, creating a distress call that might be able to reach the castle. Medics could be dispatched, healers fetched. It was nowhere near too late for the Pegasus in the bottom of the boat, and the Changelings wished to see him live.
Of course, they were not the only ones. Each pony in that boat owed something to Night Light, even Golden Radiance and Silent Shield. Neither of them could do much to help him, however. Both were masters of combat magic, and they lacked the skills and spellcraft to repair such a wound. So it fell to time, that inexorable judge of all, to keep him on the mortal plane or let him die. And none of them, not even the white unicorn kneeling in the keel of the boat, could do anything except push the boat as fast as it could go.
Sweetie Belle stared at Night Light, watching as his breathing slowed and deepened, and his body relaxed further and further. He looked dead already, a product of the Changeling medicine. She shuddered, feeling hot and cold all over in bands and waves. Her head spun, and she felt a bit nauseous. She really was a rebel. She had attacked Celestia’s soldiers and resisted arrest. She could have fooled herself into thinking that it wasn’t really her fault, that she had been unconscious for some of it, or forced into doing things she didn’t want to do, but the truth was looking her in the face. She had been attacked, and she had made the choice that her life was worth more than the one of the pony who had attacked her. She had wanted to live, and was willing to ensure somepony else died instead of her. Her flank twinged, and she looked down.
She almost laughed. She had been so caught up in escaping that she had completely forgotten about the burning pain in her flank, and now she could see the source. Not one, not two, but four small holes had been gouged out of her by shrapnel from those explosions. In three of them, she could see the gleam of metal, bits of it still lodged inside of her. She attempted to get up and walk over to where other ponies were being treated for their wounds, but a hoof from behind her forced her back down. She turned to see Scootaloo standing over her, holding the medical kit. Her own shoulder was bandaged, and the smell of iodine permeated the air around her despite the stiff breeze formed by their movement downstream.
“We’ve got four hours to the castle at this rate as opposed to our normal six. The Changelings can start humming in a while, but that might not amount to anything. He has a chance, Sweetie Belle, but we can’t make promises. You can’t help him now, and I won’t have you worrying. And to top it all off, you’re hurt.”
“What’s your point?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“You’re doing no good here. So, you and I are going to leave Night Light to rest, and I’m going to patch you up before your risk of infection gets any higher than it already is.” Scootaloo said.
Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to protest before noticing the hard glint in Scootaloo’s eyes. It wasn’t an offer. It was an order. Sullenly, she left Night Light’s side, and followed Scootaloo to the back of the boat. The pair of them settled down, and at Scootaloo’s instruction, Sweetie Belle rolled to one side, exposing the shrapnel-ridden area for her to work on. The orange Pegasus set to her work with a will, unpacking the bottle of iodine, gauze, a small tray, and a set of tweezers. A magelight was next out, Scootaloo setting it to one side in order to give herself light to work by. She examined the wounds critically.
“You’re lucky. I’ve seen these things in action before. They leave much bigger holes going out than going in. And they didn’t hit anything too important, but…this is still going to hurt, and I don’t have any painkillers.”
Sweetie Belle grunted. “Just pull them out. Distract me, somehow.”
Scootaloo wet the gauze with some of the iodine before beginning. “So, what happened to you after college?”
Sweetie Belle eyed her curiously. “You want to get into that now?”
“Well, you and I never had the chance to catch up. And I am curious about why you chose to go into reporting, what motivated you to look into the Ever Free.”
The unicorn took a moment to collect her thoughts. “Well, I suppose what brought about the change in interest was the changes in Canterlot. You’ve been there with me before, first for the Royal Wedding and later on for different events. And each time, it seemed beautiful, right?”
Scootaloo was silent for a moment. “Yes, it was. I remember, back then it was.”
Sweetie Belle continued. “And then Twilight Sparkle turned away from all of that. A perfect society, a perfect life, a perfect Princess. Do you remember how confused we were when we found out what had happened? Hay, we had a betting pool going on when Morning Star was going to pop the question. And then she renounced Harmony, killed Morning Star, and struck down Celestia. And she set the library on fire. Her library, Scoots. That place was her life.”
Scootaloo grabbed the tweezers, and selected her first target, a small ball sling bullet close to the surface. “I remember. But she had a good reason.”
“We know that now, but what about then? She had leveled half the town and killed Morning Star in front of everypony. We all thought that she really had been using dark magic. It sure looked dark. And then she ran away with Spike, and for the next few weeks, all we heard was how my sister and the remaining Elements had gone to stop her, how there was a massacre in Fillydelphia, and how she had been caught trying to break into Canterlot itself. And she had been freed from dark magic by the Power of Harmony, and she was going to reclaim her Element.”
Scootaloo set aside the first bullet. Sweetie Belle hadn’t noticed a thing.
“I was there for that ceremony, Scootaloo. Even I could tell, from way up in the stands near Rarity, that something was wrong. When I asked her about it, she said that she would explain everything to me after the ceremony. But the ceremony didn’t go as planned.”
Sweetie Belle was lost in her memory now, seeing the dais, the Princesses, the unicorn. She watched as Celestia gave magic to Twilight, and then Luna’s gift to her. And then…
“The Princesses collapsed after Twilight took Luna’s magic. Her Element was glowing, this strange sort of dark purple aura that was almost black. And then, the purest white replaced it. I felt Rarity gasp, and Rainbow Dash shot off of the bench to grab her. But before she could, Twilight’s Element flashed, and I heard a voice in my head.”
“The Elements.” Scootaloo said.
Sweetie Belle nodded. “Everypony across Equestria heard them. Obedience, happiness, harmony, all thoughts that we were supposed to think. I was stunned. So was everypony else. And Twilight told us all the truth. At least, her version of the truth. I remember thinking after the ceremony, after finding out that she had escaped, that there was no way she had gotten it right. I didn’t want the truth. I wanted to live that comfortable lie that I had been living. And then I was sent home. Rarity went to Manehatten. Celestia gave her speech, and as days went by, the message in my head became less and less clear.”
Scootaloo deftly grabbed the second shard of metal, a jagged and twisting thing, and began to gently work it free of the wound. “I remember that. After a week, you began to wonder if you had imagined the whole thing after all, except everypony had heard the same thing. It didn’t seem to matter much, by that point.”
“That was the last time I saw the old Canterlot.” Sweetie Belle said. “When I went to study at the Academy that fall, I noticed that there were checkpoints everywhere. We were issued student passes, and told that we must fill out paperwork if we wished to go into the city. A few months later, in the spring, a group of students were arrested for spreading information about Twilight’s rebellion. It didn’t have a name then, but at the end of the year, I heard it called by its name for the first time. Ever Free. And because nopony would talk to me about them, I was determined to find out more on my own. I got into Journalism as well as Magical Studies and Biology. Later I dropped Biology for Journalism, and two short years later, I had graduated with full honors a year early, holding two degrees.”
“So how did you end up with your job?” Scootaloo asked.
“Rarity.” Sweetie Belle said simply. “She was already climbing the social ladder. Her dresses were featured in every major fashion publication, she was personal friends with half the influential ponies in Canterlot, and she enjoyed personal prelature with Princess Celestia herself. When she spoke, ponies listened. I mentioned in a conversation that I had applied for reporter positions at a few companies, and not a week later I was called in for an interview by CBC. I had kind of figured that Rarity had something to do with it, and I wasn’t too happy with her. So, I set out to earn my spot.”
“Sounds like trouble waiting to happen.” The Pegasus said, dropping the second shard into the tray.
“Not three months later, I uncovered an affair between the head of CBC, and a diplomat from the Buffalo Tribes. This was not something I had intended to dig up, and so I never went public with the information. But I left a notebook on the trolley, and wouldn’t you know it, it was picked up by a rival broadcasting station’s reporter. And they made sure to credit me with my excellent reporting.”
Scootaloo winced sympathetically before reaching for the third and final shard of metal. “So, you were fired?”
Sweetie Belle laughed. “No, I was not. It was too big for me to get fired over. Had they let me go, CBC would have looked like they were getting back at me, and their reputation had already taken a blow. So, I was publically commended, and then I was ‘promoted’ to a job in broadcasting. Better pay, shorter hours, increased publicity, and absolutely zero time paid to do any reporting of my own.”
“They hobbled you.”
“And a masterful job they did of it, too. But I didn’t want to read the news. I wanted to find the truth. That’s why I got into journalism. So, I began sifting for stories. And whatever I had, it needed to be big, so big that nopony could touch me if I went and published it on my own. And I wanted news on the Ever Free. Things went from there.”
“You went all the way to Trottingham for a story?”
The unicorn flinched as she felt the last piece of metal being pulled from her. “No. After I received my first bit of information, I realized that I could never publish it. Not without being arrested for treason.”
Scootaloo set the final piece of metal in the tray. “So why did you go to Trottingham?”
“Because I was never in journalism for fame, or money. I wanted an answer to why Twilight left, why Celestia decided to turn Canterlot into a fortress, and why my sister, even after three years, still refused to tell me what had really happened to Twilight Sparkle.”
Scootaloo looked at her strangely. “She never told you? Her sister?”
Sweetie Belle shook her head as Scootaloo began bandaging her. “No. Not once. And as time went by, I realized that she never would. So, I stopped asking. And I started looking.”
The two ponies were silent for a moment, one that seemed to last for far longer than it did. Scootaloo surveyed her handiwork. “That should hold you off until we get to the castle. I’d get some sleep if I were you. Twilight will want to speak with you personally.”
Sweetie Belle lifted her head, checking the bandages over. “What about you?” she asked, as the Pegasus turned to walk towards the front of the boat, taking the magelight with her. “Why did you join?”
Scootaloo glanced at her over her shoulder. Her expression was unreadable. “That’s a story for another time.” she said, her voice low and guarded. “I’ll tell you soon, but now isn’t the time. Get some sleep. You’ll need it once we arrive.”
And with that, she dimmed the magelight, leaving the exhausted unicorn to slip into a troubled and uneasy slumber, as the boat sped through the darkness, towards an ancient castle and the pony who had started a rebellion, one that would forever alter the face of Equestria. Twilight Sparkle was waiting.
The Apple family farm was touched by the first shadowy tendrils of night, that unusual time where the sky is dark, and yet light still remains, as if the ground itself has stored the rays of the sun, and only once it is gone do they let it go. The fields were silent, the work for the day was done, and a mother was playing with her daughter out in the yard in front of an elderly house.
The two were practicing rope tricks, the orange mare tossing a rope gently around a barrel set up on the lawn and pulling it tight with her tail. The daughter, a beautiful young filly with a coat the red of dawn’s first rays, was attempting to emulate her mother, with slightly less impressive results.
The dun-colored unicorn, whose flank was emblazoned with a single rose, watched with a small smile on her face as the filly’s rope shot over the barrel for the fifth time. Clearly lack of commitment would not be something the young one would struggle with. Instead, it was probable that she would have to learn control over all else. But for now she was young, and having fun. It pained her to interrupt, as well as deliver the message in the way she had been instructed to deliver it, but do it she would.
Applejack looked up from the barrel to see a pony trotting down the path in the gathering black, a bag slung over one shoulder. Her face was drawn and impassive, and her hooves moved with purpose. She felt her filly turn as well, observing the visitor as she came closer to the duo. She moved in front of Honey Crisp protectively as the unicorn cantered to a stop.
“Momma? Who’s that?” Honey Crisp asked curiously.
“Never you mind, darlin’. Get your rope and head for the house. This mare and I have business to discuss.” Applejack said, as the unicorn watched her carefully.
“Is she staying for dinner?” the filly enquired.
“Unfortunately not, dear filly.” the unicorn said. “I must be leaving soon, and I have a long way to travel. I’m simply here to deliver a message to your mother.”
“That’s right. Now, go on inside.” Applejack said, her voice strained with suppressed worry and fear.
Honey Crisp obediently picked up her things and cantered back towards the house, throwing curious looks over her shoulder before going inside.
“My apologies on intruding without your permission, Bearer.” the unicorn said, bowing respectfully. “I bear a message from my Lady, Twilight Sparkle. I had thought you would not wish for your husband to hear it as well, and so I regret to inform you that you are last in the loop regarding the plan.”
“You got a lot of nerve, showing up in front of my daughter like that.” Applejack replied furiously. “And how did you know Barley Scotch was out of town?”
The mare remained calm. “We know a great deal about all of the Elements. Their locations, probable abilities, psychological dossiers…” there was a flash of warning in the mare’s eyes, gone as quickly as it had arrived. “And the location of their loved ones, at all times.”
Applejack glanced towards the filly in the house, eyes wide. “You mean to say y’all are…”
The mare nodded. “You’re on speaking terms with at least three of our agents, ponies you’ve known for years. It isn’t at all hard for us to get close to you. But we are benevolent watchers. We merely monitor you. For now.”
The orange Earth pony felt her temper rise. “What in the name of Tartarus is that supposed to mean?”
“You know full well. We are loyal to Twilight Sparkle, every one of us. We would die for her without question, and at her command, we would ensure the deaths of others as well. But you she will not cross, out of some hidden well of compassion. Count your lucky stars, Bearer. Because there is not a place you could go, save to the Princess herself, that we could not follow. Even then, it would only be a matter of time and patience. We could take everything from you, Bearer Applejack. And were my Lady to command it, I would make sure you begged for the black before I was finished with you.”
Applejack snorted in anger. “Now, listen here…”
“No. You listen. In four days’ time, we will be scheduling a meeting in a location you know well, inside the Everfree forest. The hut that once belonged to the zebra Zecora will be ready to receive you. A representative, one you know, will be waiting for you there. I have been instructed to give you this, and swear to you formally on the Power my Lady wields that you will return safely home after the meeting is concluded.” she said, producing a small pendant with a chip of crystal dangling from it from her bag. “In return, you must agree to bring no other ponies, and to bring your Element to the meeting.”
“And if I don’t?” Applejack asked.
The mare smiled. “Then I am afraid my Lady would have no further interest in the truce you profess to want so badly. Additionally, she would no longer be able to ensure her protection, from Celestia’s retaliation or anything else. Your fellow Bearers have accepted these conditions. Do you?”
“You little…” Applejack collected herself. Losing her temper would do her no favors here. “By my family’s honor, I will abide by these rules of yours. But you bear a message back to Twilight from me.”
A smile, a bow. “Of course. What would the message be?”
Applejack’s hoof hit the ground hard, hard enough that small pebbles and bits of clay rose into the air. “You tell her that if anything happens to my daughter or the ponies I love, I’ll make it my personal mission to beat her near death and drag her in front of the Princess, war or no war. She’s decided to threaten my family. Me, I can handle myself. But they are my life, and if she touches them, there won’t be mercy from me or mine.”
“I shall relay the message exactly.” the mare said. Her voice shifted, growing more robust, developing a pleasant twang and gaining depth and warmth. “You tell her that if anything happens to my daughter or the ponies I love, I’ll make it my personal mission to beat her near death and drag her in front of the Princess, war or no war. She’s decided to threaten my family. Me, I can handle myself. But they are my life, and if she touches them, there won’t be mercy from me or mine.” she concluded, as her coat shifted briefly to orange before turning brown once more. “Is that correct?”
Applejack stared in awe. “So, Twi’s using Changelings? How’d she get you to knuckle under?”
The mare began to walk away. “Knowledge is power, Bearer!” she called as she trotted off into the dark. “And you know next to nothing. What does that say about your ability to protect yourself? Or the ones you love?”
Twilight bent over the scrying pool. “And she’s received the message as I wanted it relayed?”
The Changeling nodded. “I did as you asked, my Lady.”
“Was she upset?’
“Absolutely furious, Lady Twilight.”
Twilight allowed herself a smile. Fluttershy was scared enough to have had second thoughts about the whole thing, but Twilight gave her a four in five chance of showing up anyway. Intimidation was a brutal art, but it was necessary in this case. Pinkie Pie had been approached much the same way as Applejack, but instead of threats, she had been promised answers, playing on her natural curiosity. The dossier on Twilight’s desk outlined Pinkie’s psychological profile fairly well. Twilight knew that Pinkie wouldn’t pass up the opportunity. And Applejack…well, she hated threatening her family, but if there was one thing that would anger her, then it would be the thought of something happening to Honey Crisp.
“Good. Thank you, Gossamer.”
The Changeling bowed as her image faded out. “I serve, my Lady.”
Twilight blew out the candle on her desk, trotting out of her newly restored study and into her quarters.
Tarantella was waiting there. “Did everything go as planned?”
Twilight nodded. “The last pieces are falling into place. The boat arrives in a few hours, so I’m going to get some sleep before it arrives.”
Tarantella drew her into a gentle embrace. “Good night, Altro Ala Mia.”
The purple unicorn responded in kind. “Good night, Mie Stelle e Anima.” As she drifted off to sleep, she found her plans spiraling around in her head, repeating themselves infinitely as she checked for flaws and faults. Satisfied, she let her normally ordered mind wind down and drift apart, relaxing herself using the meditation techniques she had learned while mastering Breaking magic. She fell asleep with a smile on her face. Her gambit was in place. With the movement of a few pieces, the endgame would draw near. But before the game was over, a good many pieces would fall.