"They say she spent her time crying at night. They say she didn’t eat, she spent her time drinking. They swear the sky itself shivered when hearing her cries. So much she suffered for her, even in death she was calling her."

She flew over the town in which she used to live. The Hall, the bakery, the candy shop. The library, the boutique, the apple farm. The pegasus could not stare to each one of those places, she had barely the strength; those places held precious memories for her and her friends. Former friends. She felt even the smallest remembrance would make her cry. But she couldn’t cry. She wasn’t allowed to cry. Why would she? She was the toughest of all the ponies in Ponyville! She was Rainbow Dash! A member of the totally awesome Wonderbolts! A warrior of Celestia’s Air Force!

But she was just a pony. That day —Ceremony day— she was just a pony, like everyone else. The Ceremony had finished an hour ago and every citizen had already slowly walked back home. And there it was. A two floor house with a candy sign on its wall. She landed right in front of the door, her heart beating nervously. She sighed, knocking twice on the wooden door. Silence.

“It’s closed for today, please come back tomorrow” A voice answered from inside.

“Ah, you” She said. She didn’t even open the door. She grumbled when she recognized the words from the cyan rainbow-mane pegasus. “Why are you here? You know we…” She paused for a second “…I don’t open today”

“I know, it’s just… I’m here to… I’m here to say I’m sorry, ok?” Rainbow Dash almost shouted to the door. If the wooden piece weren’t in its place, she could have encountered Lyra Heartstrings’ angry stare.

“Well, you doing this every year is not nice” She stopped. Lyra thought Rainbow Dash would say something —maybe an insult— during the silence she made, but she didn’t “It’s stupid”

“Don’t ask me that. Please, don’t make me answer you that.” the aquamarine unicorn thought, closing her eyes, wishing the cyan pegasus to vanish away.

“No” She finally said “I don’t hate you. That would be stupid too.” Without noticing, both mares looked down. “After all… ponies weren’t meant to hate.”

“But” Lyra continued, despite Rainbow’s try to talk “the things you’ve done are still done. You still… killed her”

“But I didn’t mean to!” Rainbow said, putting a hoof on the door “I didn’t…”

“What? I beg your bucking pardon?” She opened the door so fast it hit Rainbow, but before she could protest, Lyra looked daggers at her, shutting her muzzle. “You didn’t mean to?! So what the HAY did you go to war, then?! To hug the enemy until they surrender?!”

“No, YOU don’t understand, Rainbow Dash” the unicorn, resisting her tears, pushed back the pegasus with a hoof. In other circumstances, Rainbow would have pushed back even harder. But not this time “You thought everything was a joke. You thought when all had finished we would play and laugh again as we always did. But it’s not like that!” She was screaming. Other ponies stuck their heads out of their windows to see what was going on. At the distance, a purple unicorn sighed. “It’s not like that at all, you know?! I… I lost somepony I loved.”

“I know! That’s why I’m here…” Rainbow couldn’t even look at Lyra’s eyes. She just stared down. “To apologize…”

“If that’s so, then why don’t you go and apologize to Cheerilee as well. Or Cup Cake. Or Applejack or…”

“Well that doesn’t fix anything!” Lyra suddenly felt everypony was looking at the two screaming mares, though she knew few ponies were out on the street at the time. She took a deep breath. “No, I don’t hate you, Rainbow Dash. But I have not forgiven you. I don’t know if I ever will.” She stepped back and slammed the door.

Rainbow Dash stood still as she could hear the unicorn crying. The pegasus herself began shading tears. She whispered “Darn it!” and she flew up, trying to wipe away her tears midair so her Wonderbolts companions didn’t notice her sobbing. Then again, Lyra didn’t hold her crying. She went to her room, slowly entered the chamber and kept walking, until she was face to face with her: a beige mare with blue and pink mane. She was frozen forever in a picture, where she was hugging an aquamarine pony, laughing. The image was crooked because it was the first time Derpy used her camera. Lyra tried to smile. Where was Derpy at that time? She could barely see her around. She approached the picture.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, nor to me. And I know it’s something cruel, but…” She closed her eyes and turned around. She jumped to the bed. “I wish… I could exchange you. I wish Rainbow had died and you were still alive.”

——————————

It took all of us by surprise. One minute I was standing next to Miss Sparkle; the next one a talking black ball had appeared. And the next one, a giant robot was fighting the Empress, Luna and their Air Forces. I ran away, trying to cover from the attacking machine. I heard a crashing sound, but I didn’t dare to turn around, not even my head. Another sound, a metallic one: the robot had hit somepony.

“Let me go! I’m gonna fight too!” an orange Pegasus screamed, but a white unicorn was holding her with her magic.

“You can’t, Scootaloo! Let it all to Celestia and the Wonderbolts! Candlespark!” Miss Sweetie Belle noticed me. She was trying to drag Mis… ehm… Scootaloo away from the battle scene. I finally turned around. The pegasi were attacking the machine, but it seemed a lot stronger than them.

“I need to fight!” Scootaloo was fighting her friend’s magic, fluttering her wings and trotting in the air “Rainbow Dash needs me!”

“Whatcha doin’ here?! Ya’ need to get away from ‘em!” Miss Applebloom reached us, almost without stopping her run. I perceived fear in her eyes, as well as in Miss Sweetie Belle’s. I was hyperventilating.

The crowd that was standing in front of the Empress and Luna was now trying to escape, though some ponies were still facing the danger, trying to battle the robot. I saw Miss Sparkle and Miss Applejack between them. I thought the brave Mister Macintosh would be there as well, but he was getting Mrs. Cheerilee to a safe place.

“NO! We stand and we fight!” Scootaloo was getting tired of holding her friend back.

“Calm the buck down, Scootaloo! Ya’ ain’t nothing to a huge thing like dat!” Miss Applebloom hit her softly with a hoof. The pegasus doubted for an instant.

“F-fine!” She stopped fighting against Miss Sweetie Belle, who put her on the ground. We all stared at the robot. I sighed as I watched Miss Sparkle almost getting crushed by a giant arm, saved by Miss Applejack. Even if the rest of the ponies were running, we just stood there. After all, if the robot wins...

“No, I must not think of that…” I whispered to myself. Miss Sweetie Belle looked at me, worried. The Wonderbolts had improved as an offensive force long ago, I was sure they were a match for that metallic enemy.

“They took it down!” Scootaloo shouted and quickly flew to the place. None of the others could stop her, so we trotted behind her. Everypony else approached, still worried, to the battle scene.

“Did you… did you all hear that? What that sphere said?” An aquamarine unicorn said to nopony. “Are we… again… are we…?” A lot of ponies whispered the same sort of things.

“NO. Please no…” I thought. No, it can’t be. The ponies were not meant for war. We can’t fight again. We can’t…

Celestia’s voice shut everypony’s muzzle, it even seemed to freeze everypony’s body.

“No… Miss Sparkle?” I stepped forward, looking for my mentor. “Are you… are you ok, Miss Sparkle? What… what are we…?” A doctor stallion came from the crowd, hurrying to reach Celestia and treat her wound. She repeated she was fine, but her wing (Oh my, her wing!) looked totally ripped and was abundantly bleeding. “What’s going on?”

“You heard Our Empress” The unicorn said to everyone in the growing crowd, looking at me with noting more than anguish in her eyes “We… we all have to get ready.”

“No! This cannot be! We were once at… at…” Even the mere word was hated “at war! We cannot take the liberty to… to go through that once more!”

“I… I understand your feelings” The white alicorn said softly. “I know all you have suffered but this… this is different. If only I could do something to prevent you from getting hurt this time. But it’s out of my reach.”

“Sister… This… pony.” Luna said. She had minor injuries but still had a couple nurses working on her. The wounded pegasi were already taken to Ponyville Hospital. “Maqyas. How strong is he?”

“He has almost as much power as I have. Even more. If he could build something like that” she pointed the robot with her head “he may had already built a lot more”

“Ho… Hold on a sec’.” Miss Applejack looked hurt, by the way she walked “Ya’ mean we’ll fight against an army of those?!” The crowd agitated even more.

“We have started already, Twilight Sparkle. We’ve just discovered how to deactivate one of these.”

What? How did they…? I was about to ask, but Miss Sparkle realized Celestia was right. She whispered something I couldn’t hear and approached the dead robot.
“We’re going to think about this a lot, sister.”

“I know. Twilight Sparkle” She turned her head; she was, apparently, disassembling the machinery “I know what you’re thinking. Transport this to wherever you’re able to work while I organize everything else.”

“Oh, and another thing.” She took a step and got closer to Miss Sparkle. What she said was only heard by the Mayor, Spike, me and Sweetie Belle, who was close enough, like me. “I think we need you. All of you.” There was something in Miss Sparkle’s face I couldn’t figure out, something between concern, sadness and a bit of joy.

“Of… of course, Empress. Candlespark, come here, please” I approached while Celestia turned to speak to the rest of the ponies. Miss Sparkle sighed and, the next moment, we were at the Library. My mentor had magically transported both of us, as well as the broken machine.

“Woah… Miss… Miss Sparkle, you could tell me you were about to do that…” My head spun a few moments. Teleportation always makes me kind of dizzy. The huge metal pieces filled the main room. My Mentor didn’t answer anything to me, so I spoke again “You really are skillful at… this sort of things, Miss Sparkle.” She had disassembled almost half of the robot with ease, whispering things to herself and arranging the pieces in her own order.

“Thank you. I think it’s… practice.” A piece of scroll, a quill and a pot of ink flew through the room to her side, where they stood floating. The quill, surrounded by Miss Sparkle’s magic, wrote several notes. She looked really focused on her work.

“During… war, I was Celestia’s top Magical Engineer. I was in charge of a couple of units.” She continued her work, taking notes and drawing plans of the mechanism. She took three more pieces of paper from a table across the room “It was my duty to build effective gear for… the army.” I noticed it. There were certain words which were especially hard to say. Words that didn’t seem to fit in any conversation, but it was necessary to pronounce them. “It was also my job to reverse engineer… enemy’s technology.”

She floated a small object near me. It looked like a dull and broken crystal or gemstone.

“This is the core.” Miss Sparkle explained. Her voice seemed a bit exhausted to me, though she was working really hard and fast “The robot stopped moving when I pulled this out.”

“I can only suppose” She carefully placed everything but the small stone on the ground, walking around the fallen robot without taking her sight out of the object “But I think this is where the machine took energy from. But I can’t figure out how…” She reached a large table, where she normally writes Mayor stuff, and put the core on it. She moved a lamp so she could take a better look at the object “Gemstones have some potential for conserving functional energy for later use. Crystals have that trait too. But this… This is too small for containing such amount of magic to allow the robot to move the way it did…”

Miss Sparkle spun the stone, inspecting it. She closed her eyes and the shine of the magic surrounding the object increased slightly. She almost fell to ground.

“Miss Sparkle!” I tried to catch her with my own magic, but she stood up again in a blink.

“I’m… I’m fine. Don’t worry. I thought I could examine it more… deeply with a spell, but it seems the Empress was right. This is magic resistant. But how could I hold its arm without feeling my energy drained?” She put the stone on the table again. Her eyes were very tired and her breathing was getting heavier.

“Maybe the Empress held its whole body” I guessed “Maybe She held its insides too.”

“Yes, maybe that was it. Nonetheless, we need to appropriately analyze this ‘core’. We need a gemstone specialist” She gave me a look that, somehow, sent shivers down my spine. “And that’s why I brought you with me.”

Miss Sparkle went back to where she had left her notes about the robot and read them several times, like she was trying to memorize everything.

Here we go again. I rolled my eyes. Yes, she had told me about that a lot of times in the past years. She and other four or five of her friends were bearers of some especially magical jewelry. But after war everything went down…

“We were six ponies with special features that made us so… unique.” Yes, I thought I said I’ve already heard about that “There was almost nothing that could beat us when we were together. But now… We need all of us. We need the Elements of Harmony back, as Celestia said” No, she didn’t say that. Or at least I didn’t hear that.

“I’m truly sorry, Miss Sparkle, but I think I’m not grasping what’s going on…”

“It’s ok, it’s easy: we need to get back together again. But some of us are far from here” I started to understand what my mentor had in mind. She wanted me to go and find those ponies again, due to my special skill. But that will not work, I know it. Even if I manage to bring them back, nothing guarantees they will get along again and ‘save the world’ as she said they used to. It has to be a joke, I don’t even know what those ‘Elements’ are. Are they the ponies or the jewelry they wore? I’m not that interested to ask.

“But… wouldn’t be faster if you sent somepony like… a Wonderbolt or someone like that? Or at least a pegasus? Even if I can find them, I can’t go fast enough…”

“Don’t worry.” She placed the notes aside and walked towards me, looking me in the eyes “Go tell Scootaloo I have an important mission for you two. She’s one of the fastest pegasus in Ponyville, she’ll help.” The Library door opened suddenly. A purple dragon came in.

“Oh, right… I’ll be there as soon as possible, but I need to do something before.”

“You better hurry ‘cause I think she was going back to Canterlot…” He scratched the back of his head.

“Candlespark!” She almost scared me when she spoke to me again. She rushed into gathering the notes and the plans into her saddle bags, as well as in putting them over her “You need to go to Manehattan —or wherever you find her— and bring her back to Ponyville!”

“I need to record something for her first, so you go ahead, find Scootaloo or another pegasus friend of yours and meet me at Town Hall, I’ll give you the rest of the instructions there!”.

“Miss Sparkle! Who am I looking for?!” That was an annoying way of giving orders. Miss Sparkle turned her head back at me.

The nurses and doctors took care of the harmed pegasi, but Celestia hurried the rest of them to go back to Canterlot. She had sent Spike to the Library —she knew Twilight Sparkle had teleported there— with a message for the Mayor. She needed to gather ponies who would lead the army. It was mentally painful to think that word. “Army”. Ponies weren’t meant to make armies.

“Are you sure we are not rushing, sister?” Luna was healing the white alicorn’s wing. It didn’t bleed anymore, but there was still some damage to repair.

“I’m quite sure. I know you don’t remember him, but Maqyas…” Celestia looked into Luna’s eye, then turned her head to the orange pony that had approached.

“Ya’ need me, yer Highness?” Applejack said to both of the Leaders. During war, she had taken Luna as the true ruler, but she had always been respectful with Celestia.

“Yes. You need to come with us, Applejack.” Luna answered “You were one of the best Captains long ago. We may need your services again.” Applejack sighed. She didn’t want to. Nopony wanted to take part in the coming events.

“Ah… Ah’ll go, of course” The hat pony said, feeling she would regret soon.

I appeared next to Carousel Boutique. Maybe Miss Sparkle knew that was going to be the first place where I’d look for Scootaloo. Though the three friends used to spend lots of time playing outside, they spent a surprisingly high amount of time helping Miss Sweetie Belle with Mrs. Rarity’s clothe store. It was until I reached the door I realized they weren’t there. Of course they weren’t, I had seen them at the Ceremony.

I turned around to walk back to Ponyville Town Hall, but I suddenly found myself face to face with Miss Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and a Wonderbolt Pegasus with cyan coat and long rainbow mane.

“Candlespark!” Miss Belle said to me “I thought you had gone to Twlight’s”

“Hey! I’ve told you to not call me that way!” The orange pegasus scolded me. The Wonderbolt mare laughed.

“Hah! Why not? It sounds fancy! Don’t you want to be a fancy pegasus, Scoots?” She hit her softly with an elbow.

“D-don’t say that, Dash!!” Scootaloo almost shouted at her. She was actually getting mad. “You know I like adventure and… action and… tough stuff!! Candlespark! I want YOU to call me Scoots from now on, ok?!”

“Yes… Yes… Scoots.” I held my muzzle from saying ‘Yes, Miss Scoots’. I spoke to the Wonderbolt. I thought I had seen her before, but I couldn’t recall quite well “I believe I haven’t met you before, Miss… Dash?”

“What? Of course you have! Every year I got to Twilight’s… Big party!” Oh, that party. That special party Miss Sparkle has with the other mares she mentions as the ‘Elements of Harmony’. That’s where I remembered her from! But I didn’t actually know her name. “I’m Rainbow Dash! How could you forget a name as awesome as mine?”

“I… I’m not sure” It’s not that awesome. Or at least not to me. “Anyways, Miss Sparkle wanted me to give M… Scoots a… quest.”

“Whoa, you said you’d go with me, Scoots” Miss Dash told her. “I’ve already convinced Spitfire to test you.”

“Forget what Twilight said! You’re coming with me, don’t cha’?” She put a leg around her. “I’m sorry, Candlespark —Was that your name?— you’ll have to find another pony, heh.”

Another pegasus came, this time she was a Shadowbolt, one of Luna’s aerial minions. She had blonde mane and an attitude very much like Rainbow Dash. Miss Rainbow Dash, I meant.

“Rainbow! What are you doing over here?!” She said, frowning “Your captain send me to look for you, we’re all leaving now.”

(Miss) Rainbow Dash let Scootaloo go and pushed the Shadowbolt with a hoof. I don’t know if I wanted to stay there and watch some sort of fight, but Miss Sweetie Belle took me away from it. Thankfully, I guess.

“Thanks, Miss Belle, but Miss Sparkle told me only a pegasus could join me. She suggested Scootaloo because she’s one of the fastest pegasus in Ponyville. So…”

“Who? Alula?” I honestly haven’t thought of her for a mission like that. She’s kind of… weird. But I like her, so I decided to gave her a try “Yeah… I guess she’ll do.”

“There you go! I don’t know what Twilight’s plan is, but take care, ok?” There was hones concern in her eyes. I sighed and smiled trying to comfort her.

I didn’t say who I was supposed to look for on Manehattan on purpose. I thought Miss Belle would freak out and would insist on joining our trip. I trotted all the way back to Town Hall, vaguely looking for Alula. I knew I wouldn’t find her at home, she’s never there. I always meet her when I least…

“Cool! Watcha’ need?” Her eyes were always happy or excited, I don’t know how she can look like that all the time. “Did you know? There was an attack on Ponyville! Some giant robot tried to…!”

“Yes, I know, I was there…” I said, sighing, to the vanilla-coated pony “Listen, Miss Sparkle wants me to go to Manehattan in the search of a certain pony but I need a pegasus to carry me there. Please would you…?”

“OF COURSE!” She shouted, flying around me “Oh my gosh! A quest! That sounds like fun!”

“It… It’s not that… Forget it. Come on! We need to hurry!” I ran, followed by Alula. Every other pony in the streets had concern tattooed on their face. Most of them were already at home. Nevertheless, when I returned to Ponyville Town Hall, I found almost nopony. Celestia and Miss Sparkle had already gone to Canterlot. “Damn it!”

“Hey, you are Candlespark, don’t you?” a pink mare approached to me. She was wearing a leather pilot cap and goggles. “The Mayor left a little while ago, she told me to give you some instructions. Please, come with me.”

Miss Cherry Berry took Alula and me with her, a couple blocks away from the Hall. My pegasus friend was trotting happily, like she didn’t care about the upcoming war. I just sighed. Miss Berry was the original owner of that hot-air balloon Miss Sparkle liked so much, before my mentor decided to buy it of course. She had a couple more aircrafts, I believed. We walked a couple minutes to Miss Berry’s hangar. There was an elegant wooden chariot in front of the structure. It had green ornaments on its external surface and blue velvet floor on the inside. The two strips of the yoke had small pieces of green gemstone incrusted.

“That’s right, Alula” Miss Cherry Berry confirmed the obvious “It’s the Tendershift. The Mayor told me this is what you’ll be taking to do your assignment. There’s a note on the inside and a small box with… uhm… stuff. She ordered you to leave as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, Miss Berry” She smiled to us, not so happily though, and left. I leaned over the back of the chariot, with Alula right behind me. There was, in fact, a cardboard box inside, with a note perfectly folded on top. I took the paper and infolded it, willing to read it out loud so my pegasus partner could understand our mission “Ehem… ‘Dear Candlespark, I had almost no time to prepare everything I had in mind for you to carry on this mission, so I will give you only the basic: There are two items in the box, one is the robot core and the other is a recording I made for Rarity. The box is sealed, DON’T OPEN IT. Scotaloo…’ I mean…” Alula made a surprisingly fast sad face. I remembered Miss Sparkle had told me to take Scoots with me, but… well… “ ‘Alula will pull the Tendershift while you ride it. Don’t worry, I casted a spell so Scoo… Alula won’t feel your weight. Hurry up, find Rarity, give the box to her and return to Ponyvile. Don’t wait for her, she will make her way. If I need anything else from you, I’ll let you know. Thank you. Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well, she had enough time for writing such a letter…” Alula said. She had moved already to the front of the chariot, adjusting the strips on her body. I admired her adventurer spirit.

I stepped on the chariot while Alula was waiting for my orders. I sighed and closed my eyes. Rarity. Rarity. Rarity. Her face appeared amongst the darkness and I suddenly knew where she was. That was it. My special ability and why my Cutie Mark is a candle…

Fierce

by InkSparrow

Si vis pacem para bellum (Quest)