//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: Last of the Dragonlords: A Good Mare Goes To War Part 1: The Passing of Harmony 
// by Fluttershy20 
//------------------------------//

When Fluttershy awoke the next morning, the sight of a thin veil of mist clouding the small clearing greeted her silently. She lifted her head up, feeling the wet droplets of mist trickle down her head and neck, and looked around her. 

The landscape was but a thick aura of mist that slithered around the trunks and branches of trees that surrounded the small hill her companions and herself were camped on, and it stretched to every corner of the horizon, covering Whitetail Woods in its cold, wet embrace.

It was almost as though a great beast had come during the night and had devoured parts of the entire forest. “Hmm,” Fluttershy chuckled at the ridiculous thought as she rolled onto her stomach. She lifted herself onto her legs, feeling the trickling remnants of the mist run down the sides of her body and drench her feathers. She shot her wings out and flicked them about, spraying water out of her exposed feathers and off her wing blades. Afterwards, she shook the rest of her body dry, and then looked around at her fellow travellers.

Cadence was lying on her back, snoring loudly with a large puddle of water surrounding her head. Spike was snoring just as loudly as he rolled about, muttering and moaning about something. Beside her, Trixie slept soundlessly on her stomach, her sides rising and falling at a steady pace. Luna, however, was nowhere to be seen. ‘She’ll appear when everyone else gets up,’ she thought.

Fluttershy looked up at the sky, and sighed when she saw the sun, though obscured by the clouds, shining its golden light onto her and her little band. She hoped she was right when she said to Vidarr that as long as the sun continues to rise, there is still hope, for the hope and faith she felt in herself and the others around was beginning to dwindle. Although slow, it had begun the moment she had struck Princess Luna in anger, and from there, she knew hope would continue to fade away. 

Fluttershy shook the thoughts from her head. ‘Hope will never leave me,’ she thought determinedly. She let out a contented sigh, and tapped her hooves and rubbed them together when she realised just how hungry she was. ‘Now, time for a spot of breakfast.’

She walked up to one of the bushes that were nestled at the edge of the trees behind them, and began nibbling cautiously on one of the leaves. To her surprise, they tasted quite nice. ‘They’re not daffodil and daisy sandwiches, but they’ll do,’ she thought as she began to tear the leaves off their branches and eat quietly so not to wake anyone with her rude eating habits.

Soon, though, she felt as stuffed as an apple pie, so decided to turn away and walk back to the centre of the camp. ‘With breakfast over, now what do I do?’ She looked to each of her companions, and sighed out of boredom. ‘There’s nothing to do until they wake and Luna appears, and then after that I have to endure an awful silence where no one talks because we don’t know what to say to one another.’

That’s when a thought struck her. For better or worse, they were going to be stuck with each other until they reached Horsca and finally Castilian. After that, it was any-one's guess what they would do. Fluttershy realised that they needed to put an effort into working together, getting to know each other better and actually becoming friends, if they were going to even get to that point. ‘We need to be kinder to one another,’ she thought. She turned her head around, and smiled faintly when her eyes rested upon the bag Silverstar gave to her many days ago. “And what better way to get to know one another better than sitting by a fire and having breakfast together,” she whispered decidedly to herself.

She got hold of the bag containing all the food they had, and took out a small box of four eggs, a bag-sized pan and a tripod with bendable legs. ‘Perfect,’ she thought, smiling widely. She despised eating eggs, but the others might not. She knew for sure Spike would like some, even though he would have preferred gems.

After getting the fire going once more, which took a while since a lot of the sticks she found were wet from the fading mist, she broke one of the eggs open using the edge of the pan that rested on the tripod, then started to fry it. ‘Now there’s nothing to do but wait until the eggs are boiled,’ she thought, as she settled onto her stomach with a small frown.

As she waited, she decided to think back to yesterday, to what she had heard from the refugees and the rumours that had begun to spread from across the fractured Equestria. She knew some of the things they said, like Cadence rampaging across northern Equestria with an army behind her, were ridiculous. However, some, if not most of the stuff she had heard made her heart beat a little bit faster in worry. What if they were true? 

‘Could Appleloosa and Dodge Junction really be all gone?’ she wondered. She shook her head of such thoughts. ‘Of course they can’t be. Celestia sent envoys there, and to every other town and city that had split away. There’s no way she would change her mind now.’ Yet as she assured herself of that, the doubt still lingered at the back of her mind. 

The Celestia she had met when she was in Canterlot was a pony of action, who preferred getting something troublesome out of the way before it could ignite the fires of rebellion and war. What if Celestia lost all patience suddenly and only now has ordered a rapid assault on the separated towns and cities before they could organise a defence? With the messages sent out, Celestia could catch them woefully unprepared and off guard.

Then there was the problem with the separated towns and cities themselves. Just because Celestia has requested peace in two weeks with a ceasefire during that duration does not mean the towns and cities that had separated would abide by that order as well. For all she knew, Trottingham and Hoofington could really have joined forces, and even now are marching across a divided Equestria, destroying towns, villages and maybe cities that are not even loyal to Celestia anymore. 

If this war was or ever will happen, Fluttershy predicted, it would not be a war of six or seven states versus one. It would be an open war – a total war, where each state would fight for dominance over the entire continent by any means necessary. And that would make any chance of uniting the country even more difficult, if fighting was already taking place, that is. ‘This just got even more complicated,’ Fluttershy groaned, rubbing her forehead. 

She looked up when she heard the first pony begin to stir. She smiled as best she could when she saw Cadence get up tiredly, her eyes looking heavy and her whole body shaking with fatigue. “Good morning, Cadence,” Fluttershy greeted her. 

Cadence looked her way upon hearing her voice, and smiled amiably. “Oh. Morning, Fluttershy.” She loudly sniffed the air, and then looked at the frying pan in front of the pegasus with narrow eyes. “Are you cooking eggs?”

Fluttershy’s ears fell at the sound of Cadence’s tone, and she cast her eyes away to look guiltily at the ground. “I-I just thought you could all have something nice this morning; something nice for a change. I’m sorry I wasted an egg.”

When there was not a reply from the alicorn, Fluttershy looked up to see Cadence staring dreamily at the crackling egg, her tongue licking her lips constantly at the sight and a small plate she had just fished out of the bag grasped in her magic. “This is the best idea I have heard all week,” Cadence said, much to Fluttershy’s delight. “Could I take that one now, please?”

Fluttershy nodded, her eyes revealing her surprise at how willing Cadence was to have egg. “Sure, it should be ready now.” She dived her hoof into the pan, picked up the egg and neatly set it on Cadence’s plate. “Sorry if I seem surprised, I just didn’t expect you to like egg.” 

“Well, there are a lot of things ponies don’t know about me,” Cadence pointed out, before devouring the egg in three quick bites. “Like that.”

Fluttershy looked stunned. “Wow, how did you do that without burning your tongue?” she asked as she broke open another and set its insides in the pan.

“It’s all to do with the speed you eat it,” Cadence explained with a flick of a hoof. “The only problem with doing that is you get some rather bad stomach pains…” Her voice faded away as her eyes widened and she put a hoof to her stomach. “Like now.”

Fluttershy planted a hoof in her mouth in shock. “Oh dear. Um, would you like me to do anything to help?”

Cadence shook her head, her face looking pained. “It’s okay,” she replied in a winded tone, “I’ll be all right in about five minutes. Don’t worry about me, just concentrate on feeding Trixie, and Spike when he wakes up.” She pointed behind Fluttershy, where Trixie was getting up from where she had settled last night.

Fluttershy smiled as the unicorn tiredly staggered up next to her. “Morning, Trixie,” she greeted her kindly. “Would you like some egg?” she asked, pointing to the pan.

“Oh, yes please!” Trixie answered cheerfully, suddenly awake once more. She quickly sat on her rump by the fire, and grinned expectantly as she took Cadence’s plate with her magic while simultaneously taking the egg from the pan. 

Fluttershy smiled as Trixie dug in, and then cracked open another and set it in the pan, the yolk sizzling noisily thanks to the heat from the fire. With another egg ready to be eaten, she turned to look back at Trixie, only to raise an eyebrow as she watched the unicorn eat.

Unlike Cadence, Trixie ate with the grace and dignity of a pony of Canterlot, taking small nibbles from the egg slowly while keeping her head held high. “This egg is simply the best egg I have ever tasted,” she remarked halfway through it. She glanced at Fluttershy curiously. “What did you do to it?” 

“I-I did nothing, honest,” Fluttershy said bashfully, her cheeks burning pink at the praise. “I just put it in the pan and fried it, that’s all. I guess I have the magic touch.” She briefly remembered her father saying the same thing to her about her cooking the morning of the day he was killed by Heimdallr, and violently shuddered at its memory.

“You okay, Fluttershy?” Cadence asked, looking at her with worry.

Fluttershy looked back at her and nodded. “Yes, I’m fine, just a memory passing through my head. Nothing that can hurt me now.” 

Cadence nodded uncertainly, then looked over her shoulder to see Spike getting up and dusting himself off. “Morning, everypony,” he greeted them all as he stretched out his arms and legs. He froze all of a sudden, and sniffed the air once the aroma coming from the pan reached his nostrils. “Is that egg I smell?”

Fluttershy nodded, a small smile on her face at the sight of a good friend. “Morning, Spike, and yes it is egg you smell. Would you like one? Don’t worry if you don’t, though, I’m sure somepony else would have another one.”

Spike’s belly growled, giving her his answer. “How can I turn down free egg?” he enquired as he walked over to the campfire. He sat down next to Cadence, and took the egg with his claws. “Mmm,” he moaned as he devoured it messily, spraying yolk everywhere, “this is so good. Simply the best egg ever. How did you do it?”

Fluttershy blushed once more, a small smile on her face. ‘I should take up a job as a chef once this is over,’ she thought. “I did nothing, really. I just put them on the pan and left them to fry,” she explained as she broke the last egg open and poured it into the pan. The others looked at her as though they didn’t believe her. “It’s the truth, honestly.” 

Cadence chuckled. “Well in any case, I think it’s safe to say that Fluttershy should be our chef in our time together.” Trixie and Spike grunted in agreement, making Fluttershy blush once more. The group fell silent for a small period, exchanging a bit of small talk between bites. Fluttershy watched and smiled sincerely, silently pleased her plan to know her companions better could actually work.

Fluttershy flicked her head around suddenly when she heard bushes being rustled behind her, and quickly looked back at the pan as Luna walked into the clearing. “Good morning, auntie,” Cadence greeted her with a wide smile. “You have got to try some of Fluttershy’s egg. It is delicious!”

Fluttershy could feel the Night Princess’s eyes bore into her back, making her feel chilly all of a sudden. That chilling feeling quickly died away when Luna walked around the campfire to sit on the other side of Cadence, smiling thinly. “Don’t mind if I have some,” Luna said warmly.

Trixie passed the plate over to her, while Luna took it and the last egg off the pan with her magic. She quickly began to eat it with the grace of true royalty, taking small bites out of the sides. Her eyes lit up with delight as the taste took hold in her mouth. “Mmm,” she grunted as she finished it. “Doesn’t taste bad.” She swallowed the last of it, and then said to the group, “Let’s keep moving. I would feel safer if we didn’t linger here any longer.”

The others nodded in agreement, and began to make themselves ready for another long day of trekking through the woods. All except for Fluttershy, who sat where she was, her ears flat on her head and a slow but heavy sigh leaving her parted lips.

“I wouldn’t let it get to you, Fluttershy,” Cadence said softly. “Luna saying ‘it doesn’t taste bad’ is the highest praise in Equestria when it comes to her.”

“It’s not that,” Fluttershy said, shaking her head. “I just hoped that, well, we could have spent an hour or so… talking to each other. You know, getting to know one another better; we are going to be stuck with each other for a long time, after all.”

Cadence smiled comfortingly. “I’m sure there will be plenty of time for that to happen. Now come on, move your bum and let’s get going.”

Fluttershy nodded reluctantly, then stood up straight, quickly put the fire out with her hooves, and packed the tripod and the pan back into the bag. A minute later, once everyone was ready, the five companions made their way down the hill and onto the small path Fluttershy and Trixie saw the deer take the previous evening.





They made good progress through Whitetail Woods, with the three winged ponies taking turns to fly up past the trees to see where they were heading and navigate through the woods and the fading mist. They soon came across a spot where the path forked into two directions: one heading northwest, and the other heading directly north, towards the Unicorn Range. They swiftly followed the path heading north, leaving any trace of the Whitetail Deer behind.

After three hours of walking, they soon came into a large clearing that looked like a large peanut from the air – at least it did to Fluttershy before she made her way back down after her flight turn – with large stumps scattered across where trees used to stand. Some of them had large pieces of wood sticking up like a termite mound from where the tree had fallen suddenly. The sight of so many tree stumps made Fluttershy feel angry and sad at once. ‘Trees shouldn’t be destroyed by ponies. They should be allowed to die first before being used,’ she thought. That was when another thought came to her. Ponies are forbidden by Equestrian law to cut down trees in Whitetail Woods, so who or what did?

“Hey, Fluttershy,” Cadence suddenly greeted her. Fluttershy shot her head from the stumps to look at the Crystal Princess suddenly walking beside her. Cadence’s ears were flat across her head, and her eyes expressed a heavy amount of guilt. “Are you all right?”

“I’m okay, I think. Just a little bit sad for all these trees,” she said waving a hoof in the direction of the stumps. “What about you? Is your stomach better now?”

“Oh yes, much better now, thank you. I really need to stop eating food so quickly. It’s a bad habit I picked up when I was being raised by earth ponies.” The two fell into a comfortable silence for a moment. “Fluttershy,” Cadence sighed, “I want to apologise to you for what I said to you back at the castle.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened; out of all the things she expected Cadence to say, that was not one of them. “You don’t have to apologise for anything, Cadence.”

“Oh, I think I do need to,” Cadence persisted. “Especially for what I said. I have seen the way you look at me, too, a look of disgust every time you lay eyes on me. I can only imagine what you must think of me.”

Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion. “I don’t think horribly of you at all.”

“Don’t. Lie,” Cadence said through gritted teeth and narrow eyes. Fluttershy felt herself shrink under her gaze. “There is one thing I can’t stand, and that are liars. I can see what you think about me every time you look at me. Don’t deny that you hate me for what I said.” 

Fluttershy wanted to assure her that she was wrong, and that she held no hard feelings for what was said back at the castle. But she knew before she even said them that they were lies. She was disgusted with Cadence for saying what she had said, she did dislike her terribly for what she wanted to do, and the pegasus hated herself immensely for it. “I am so sorry for thinking about you like that,” Fluttershy said softly, bowing her head in shame. “But I was raised so differently than you. I just cannot begin to understand how you could think like that.”

She felt Cadence brush up against her gently, like a mother would with a foal to keep her warm. “I know why I said those things, but it hurts me to no end to know the reasons,” Cadence said painfully, much to the young Dragonlord’s confusion. “I was trained and raised by Celestia to become everything a Princess of Equestria should believe in and follow. I was taught to love and spread love to all by her, for that was my talent. What I said back at the castle went against my training, my talent, everything I was told to believe in. And I know why. I… I was afraid, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy looked at her in shock. “Afraid?” 

Cadence nodded, her gaze directed away from Fluttershy’s. “I was afraid of what would happen to us, and what would become of us when you had let him escape. I was afraid that I would be dragged back to Canterlot in chains, like the first time, and put into stone. I don’t want to be frozen in stone, Fluttershy; I don’t want to hear the world go by while I scream myself into insanity. That’s why I said I would kill him if I had been given the choice. I thought coldly for my own gains – my own survival.”

Fluttershy could no longer feel disgusted by looking at Cadence. She could only feel sympathy for her. She quickly nuzzled Cadence’s neck in assurance and comfort. “It’s okay, Cadence. I forgive you. I understand fear can cloud a pony’s judgement and make them do things that they would not usually do. I should know; I lived in constant fear for twenty years of my life. But know that you do not have to think so coldly just to survive. Sometimes, though not all the time, being kind and loving can make you go one step further than being cold and heartless.”

Cadence nodded, a sincere smile on her lips. “I know that, and thank you, Fluttershy, for being so understanding and loving. I know what I said yesterday was out of fear, but what I said about being a leader is the truth. It is always hard, and you will be called upon to do some dark, hateful things that would benefit the many, while only punishing the few.”

Fluttershy nodded grimly. “Like killing King Sombra?” she said.

Cadence’s eyes wavered in their fixed position with Fluttershy’s. “Yes, like killing him,” Cadence replied, nodding.

The two fell into silence once more as they wandered out of the clearing and back into the clustered spaces of Whitetail Woods. Luna spread her wings wide, and then took off and flew through the canopy and into the open, clear sky. “Are you going to try and talk to my aunt again?” Cadence enquired upon seeing her go, raising an eyebrow at the pegasus.

Fluttershy’s ears fell flat once more and she looked away. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I want to, really, but every time I look at her, I can only see her trying to kill Robyn again. She probably wouldn’t want to talk to me anyway.”

Cadence shook her head. “Oh, I don’t know. Although Luna can keep a foul mood for a long, long time, she doesn’t ever hold a grudge against anypony. Not even against a pony who slapped her across the face.” She looked at the smaller pegasus with a wry smile. “I still can’t believe you did that.”

Fluttershy showed off her most sheepish grin. “Well, to be fair, neither do I. I was just so furious I had to hit something, and Luna was the only legitimate target at the time. Afterwards, though, I felt like I should go on my belly and beg for forgiveness for doing that, but my anger stopped me from grovelling at her hooves.”

Cadence giggled. “Well, I can’t condemn it, nor can I praise it. As for why Luna’s not talking to you anymore, I don’t think it’s because she hates you. Ask her tonight, if you want to, and you’ll find out why.” With that, Cadence cantered further ahead to keep an eye on her aunt, leaving Fluttershy to her thoughts. 

A few minutes later, her thoughts were acutely interrupted by a scream of alarm from Cadence echoing across the woods. Fluttershy brought her head up in horror, and spread her wings out as she mentally prepared herself to face whatever caused Cadence to shriek. “Spike, Trixie, stay here!” she called, turning back to face them. “Don’t move unless one of us calls you to, and cry out if you get into trouble!” Before she could give the two a chance to respond, she galloped ahead in long strides, hoping to get to Cadence before whatever it was up ahead injured her.

She soon made it to Cadence’s side, and was about to ask what was wrong when she soon caught sight of why the alicorn screamed. “Oh no,” she whispered, feeling herself paling incredibly as she stared in horror at the scene before her. 

A large open cart filled to the brim with logs sat amidst the dense space of oak trees. And around the cart, a dozen bodies of earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns lay sprawled out on the ground or against the trees in pools of blood, their bodies displaying hideous wounds and bruises from what clearly must have been a one-sided fight.

As much as she wanted to, Fluttershy could not bring herself to look away. Cadence did, only if it was to bring back up her breakfast. Fluttershy broke out her stare upon hearing Cadence throw up, then quickly took to the air and gently rubbed Cadence’s back. “Shh, it’s all right,” she cooed, trying to ease the fear she could feel crawling up the alicorn’s spine.

“All right?” Cadence repeated, shooting her pale head back around to look at her with a glare. “How can this be all right? Look a little closer, Fluttershy, and you can see that they are all dead!” Cadence stared at the Dragonlord oddly. “How can you look so normal in front of a scene like this? How can you be like that, in the face of such atrocity?”

“Because, Cadence, I have walked across a battlefield littered with dead horses,” Fluttershy answered solemnly. “I have seen death over a hundred times, and it rarely ever does anything to me anymore. This, on the other hoof,” she said, looking back at the carnage, “is one of those moments when it does.”

“And it makes Equestria’s situation all the more dire,” Luna said as she emerged from behind the cart, her eyes looking over each of the bodies.

“How so, aunt?” Cadence asked curiously, keeping her gaze fixed on Luna and not on what was around her.

Luna looked at one body in particular, a light brown earth pony with his side and chest torn open by little wounds. “This pony in particular sustained multiple fatal injuries with weapon points of the exact same size,” Luna explained. “If it were arrows that caused these, there would be at least one broken piece left here. No sword a pony could possess can create such wounds this small, not even daggers.”

Fluttershy understood what Luna was getting at before the Princess had even finished her sentence. “Only the Whitetail Deer could cause such wounds,” she said. Luna didn’t reply, but her eyes confirmed her claim. 

“Why would the Whitetail Deer attack a group of ponies like this?” Cadence asked. “Why go this far?”

“Because, dear niece, they were well within their rights to do so,” Luna replied flatly.

Cadence stared at Luna in shock and disgust. “How can you say that the deer’s actions are justified? These ponies were innocent!”

“I’m afraid the deer would not say the same thing,” Luna explained sadly. She gestured with a hoof at the trees surrounding them. “To them, every tree in Whitetail Woods is sacred and a place of rest for their parted ones. They believe that the souls of the dead set themselves into the trees, so they could watch over their ancestors for a thousand years before departing this world forever, then another would take his or her place.”

Luna bowed her head sullenly. “To cut down a tree to them is to bring about the greatest and most terrible grief known to Terra, for a great ancestor would have faded away before their time. After that, no fortified city in Equestria could stop the deer’s wrath.”

“That’s why they requested that no trees would be cut down as part of the treaty they set up two thousand years ago,” Fluttershy said, her eyes wide as the realisation of what had transpired dawned on her. “And if these ponies cut those trees down under Equestria’s orders, then that means…”

Luna nodded slowly. “That the treaty has now been broken by Equestria,” she said.

“And war is almost inevitable between us and the deer once more,” Cadence finished hoarsely, her eyes wide in horror.

Fluttershy looked at each of the Princesses in dismay, feeling that her life could not get any worse. ‘So, we have to deal with not only being hunted for treason, but also have to avoid a civil war with ourselves and a war with the Whitetail Deer.’ She sat on her haunches and rubbed her forehead. ‘Could this get any worse?’ She immediately regretted thinking that.

“Fluttershy,” Cadence said. Fluttershy looked up, only to see she was looking behind her with wide eyes. Fluttershy looked back, and her jaw dropped and her eyes bulged when she saw Spike standing, frozen in terror, in full view of the horrific scene.

Fluttershy raced over to him in an instant and hugged him tight, burying his head in her chest to keep him from looking at what he should not have seen. “I told you to stay back until we came to get you,” she whispered sternly, stroking his back to ease his trembling body.

“I’m sorry,” he whimpered, trying desperately hard to hold back tears. “You were all taking ages and I started to worry so I came this way and I saw… that.” He sniffed loudly. 

“It’s all right, Spike,” Fluttershy said softly. “The dead cannot hurt you.” She glanced back at the alicorns with narrow eyes. “We need to get out of here. It would do no good staying here if we’re now enemies of Whitetail.”

Luna and Cadence nodded agreeably, so gently turning Spike around and keeping his eyes away from the terrible scene, Fluttershy led the way back to Trixie, who sat idly for them to return with a questioning look; none of them said a word to the unicorn about what they had seen, despite her obvious questioning looks. With the group back together again, they gave the area a wide berth and continued heading north, shaken from what they had seen, and uneasy and anxious now that they were officially in enemy territory. 





After many more miles of walking, flying, and even swimming across a thin, deep river after not being able to find a bridge, it was decided with some reluctance that it was time to stop for the night. The four ponies and one dragon agreed to camp out in a small clearing surrounded by thick oak trees, with many of their branches stretching out and acting as cover from the natural elements. 

While Cadence set up a large fire with a large amount of sticks, found by courtesy of Trixie’s search, Fluttershy sat staring dumbly into the distance, her mind thinking back to what she had seen a few hours ago. ‘Could the deer have really killed all those ponies like that?’ she asked herself. 

Though she wanted it to be a lie, she had read about the treaty in a few books she had owned, and had even seen the scroll on which the treaty was created and signed. The deer were well and truly within their side of the treaty to kill any ponies that had cut down one of Whitetail’s trees. As well as that, they were now well within their rights to carry out reprisals against Equestria. ‘Maybe they won’t do anything, though. Maybe that is all they’re going to do,’ she assured herself, though it seemed meek and untrustworthy to her. The fact that such an act was carried out puzzled her further, however. ‘Who would have given the order to cut down those trees in the first place? Surely not Celestia; she knows better than that.’ 

She looked back at Spike, who sat apart from her and anypony else, staring at the fire with haunted, twitching eyes. She inched herself closer to the poor little dragon, and draped a wing over his back. Spike jolted in his place from the sudden contact. “Shh, it’s all right, sweetie,” Fluttershy cooed gently, stroking his back with her feathers. “It’s just me.”

“Sorry,” Spike said ashamedly, his ears drooping. He turned away from the fire to stare at Fluttershy. “Was that what it was like in Horsca? Did you see much like… that, when you were there last time?”

Fluttershy nodded slowly. “Yes,” she answered grimly. “And I saw it frequently from the day I arrived in the country to the day I defeated Heimdallr.”

Spike looked uncertainly at the Dragonlord. “Are you sure it’s a good idea that we’re going there, then?”

Fluttershy smiled assuredly. “Oh yes. The civil war is over now and Heimdallr is dead. Horsca is a definite improvement to this country. The only creatures you have to worry about are the remans, but they tend to stay in the mountain caves, and I don’t plan on going into any more strange mountain caves for as long as I live.”

Spike looked sceptical, but he nodded nonetheless. “Okay, Fluttershy. I trust you on this. And thank you, for this,” he said, gesturing with a claw to the comforting wing on his back. “I think I needed it after that.”

Fluttershy’s smile grew a little wider. “You are welcome, Spike. And don’t forget, if you ever need to talk, I will listen, okay?” Spike nodded. He looked as though he was about to say more, but before he could spit it out Luna began to speak.

“We made good progress today,” Luna addressed them as she circled the group, her eyes on a map levitating in front of her. “Another day without certain difficulties and we should be free of Whitetail Woods and be in the Unicorn Range.”

The group breathed a collective sigh of relief. “That would be nice,” Spike said. “I’m starting to get bored of seeing trees.”

“You’ll probably get bored of seeing mountains by the time we get through the Unicorn Range, little Spike,” Trixie said, smiling cheerfully. “The Range is full of them.”

Spike narrowed his eyes at her. “I know that, Trixie, and I’m not that little,” he said smarmily.

“You’re still littler than all of us,” Trixie pointed out.

Before Spike could scream out in rage, Fluttershy shut his mouth up with a hoof. “You’re right that he is still smaller than us, but he was a lot smaller when I first met him. He’ll soon grow up to tower over all of us. Won’t you, Spike?” She took her hoof away from Spike’s mouth, and looked down at the little dragon, glaring at him to keep his next words nice and polite.

Spike wiped his mouth to rid himself of the pony hair that was caught on his lips and tongue, and then said politely, “Yes, I will grow up soon and be bigger than every pony that ever lived or will live.”

Trixie nodded, though her eyes spoke of how obvious his statement was. “Might I ask, Spike: how did you end up with Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie asked, abruptly changing the subject.

“She hatched me from an egg when she was enrolled into Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” Spike answered. “I was part of her entrance exam. Been with her ever since – at least, until she kicked me out, that is.”

Trixie looked confused, as was evident by her nose wrinkling. “Strange, for when I enrolled into the school, my entrance exam was just a bit of paper and a few questions I had to answer. All the other ponies that enrolled were pretty much the same.”

Fluttershy and Spike looked at each other perplexedly. ‘What made Twilight so different that she had a different entrance exam?’ Fluttershy thought. From the look on Spike’s face, he was thinking exactly the same.

“Princess Celestia must have been lucky that Twilight came along when she did,” Trixie said, sighing. “I would do anything to have been the Princess’s personal student.”

Fluttershy smiled warmly at her. “Well, maybe one day you might be. I doubt the Princess puts an age limit to her students.” ‘If we ever find out what’s wrong with her and Equestria first.’ 

Trixie smiled kindly at her. “Thanks, Fluttershy, but I think that offer has been and gone. I graduated out of that school many years ago, and I don’t think they would take kindly to the fact that I had returned.”

Fluttershy tilted her head curiously. “Why? Did you do something wrong while you were there?”

Trixie nodded, a small grimace on her face. “Well,” she said while pawing at the ground, “I may have tried to use a very advanced teleportation spell, and I might have tested it on the teacher’s favourite cat.”

Spike and Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “And what happened to the cat?” Cadence asked.

Trixie’s grimace grew a bit larger. “Not entirely sure, but we did find her tail outside Canterlot’s walls.”

Spike shifted himself closer to Fluttershy for protection, not noticing that Fluttershy had shifted herself even closer to him. “Don’t ever use magic near me, please?” Spike asked fearfully. “I would very much like to stay on this earth, and here with you all.”

Trixie giggled. “Don’t worry, I only know a few powerful spells, like the cloud-walking one so I can get to Cloudsdale or the higher levels of Las Pegasus. That type of magic is below me.”

“So what other spells can you do?” Cadence asked, shifting about from her position to get comfortable again.

“Not many I suppose,” Spike muttered under his breath. Fluttershy heard him and shot him a silencing glare.

“Oh, quite a bit, actually. The usual levitation spells, but they’re nothing special; everypony can do those. I can cast a fake duplication spell I learned recently that creates a mirror version of a creature. Very fragile, though, and can break from the simplest touch, but effective if you want to get away,” Trixie replied smugly. “Oh, a fog spell that can cover anywhere, and finally, one of my favourites, a spell that magically creates fireworks. Though I’m good at all of those, I like that one the most. I think it is of my love for loud explosions.”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes, smiling a little. ‘At least we’re talking to each other,’ she thought. She suddenly noticed that Luna wasn’t with them anymore. “Hey, did anypony see where Luna went?”

“Yeah,” Cadence answered, pointing to the left of her, through a group of trees, “she went that way. I think she just wanted to watch the moon rise.” Fluttershy dipped her head to Cadence in thanks, then got up and trotted through the woods and to find Luna. “Good luck, Fluttershy,” Cadence whispered delicately to her as she left them behind.

As Fluttershy wandered through the darkening wood, her ears kept high to listen out for anything troublesome, a thousand thoughts and questions ran through her mind. Out of all of them, however, only one stood out. ‘What am I going to say to her?’ Should she first apologise for slapping her, and hope Luna will do so as well for insulting her? Alternatively, should she start with a bit of small talk, and then go into the apology? She was unsure how Luna would react, but from what Cadence had said to her earlier, she might be able to listen. ‘Vidarr knows we need to stick together, or none of us will get to Horsca.’

She soon found Luna on the other side of the woods, sitting at the mouth of a large lake that stretched out towards the moon, which looked like it was rising from the large body of water. Fluttershy’s mouth fell open as she stared in wonder of the scene before her. 

The moonlight shimmered across the surface of the water, making it look like mercury. A steady breeze swept across the land, making Fluttershy’s mane flow through the air like Luna’s. The Princess herself sat as still as stone, her eyes closed and her breaths steady and relaxed, as though she had found a place of peace.

Fluttershy swallowed back her nervousness, and then walked cautiously forward, her gaze fixed on Luna. ‘Okay, Fluttershy, you can do this. Just be nice, talk politely, and for goodness sake at least sound like you’re sorry, which, don’t forget, you are,’ she told herself sternly. 

She quickly found herself beside Luna, and sat down on her haunches while gazing out at the shining lake. Luna peeped an eye open to see Fluttershy sitting next to her, and quickly closed it again. “Um… hi,” Fluttershy said, grinning what she called her squee smile.

Luna opened her eyes with a sigh, and looked down at Fluttershy neutrally. “Hi,” she said. The two fell silent once more, with only the croaks of frogs to fill the otherwise dead night.

Fluttershy rubbed the back of her neck. “So, um… how are you?”

Luna grunted. “My cheek doesn’t feel as sore as it did, thanks for asking,” she replied, rubbing the cheek in question with a hoof.

Fluttershy grimaced at the harshness of Luna’s tone, but managed to bite back a just as harsh reply. The two fell silent again, and watched as the moon began to rise in its full glory into the sky. “The moon looks beautiful tonight,” Fluttershy remarked, her eyes moving across the sky. “The whole night looks incredible, as it has done for the past two nights.”

Luna’s hard look softened at the praise to her night. “Thank you, Fluttershy,” she said. Again, the two lapsed into silence.

Fluttershy suddenly giggled at something. “The moon looks pretty big tonight, as well. I hope you’re not ‘mooning’ me.” She giggled, hoping it would break the mood between them, yet all it did was make Luna look at her oddly. Fluttershy’s cheeks lit up pink and she hastily covered her face with her mane, giggling in embarrassment. “Sorry. I’m not that good with comedy.” ‘I should learn to leave the jokes to somepony like Pinkie Pie.’

Luna stared at the night sky for a long time, before giggling like a little filly. Fluttershy peeped out of her mane just to see why she was laughing and saw, to her delight, she was laughing at her joke. “That wasn’t bad. I’ve heard worse jokes, but at least that one made me laugh,” Luna commented. She stopped giggling, and looked at the moon once more. “You are right, though. It is pretty big tonight. Maybe I should push it back a bit.” She closed her eyes once more, and gently blew out some air from her mouth. As though it were a command, the moon began to grow smaller as it was pushed back.

Fluttershy’s jaw dropped. “How are you doing that?” she enquired. “You’re not even using magic!”

“My sister and I raise the sun and the moon telepathically, Fluttershy. So long as I am alive, the moon will rise, move across the sky, and then descend back under the horizon, giving way to the sun,” Luna explained. She gazed at Fluttershy questionably. “Did you really think that pompous display Celestia puts on for the Summer Sun Festival is real? Do you expect me to go out every night, rise into the sky, spread my legs out and use my magic to make the moon rise?” Fluttershy shook her head quickly. “I hoped so. That would be tiring for even us old ponies to do.”

Fluttershy nodded, though she only had a faint idea on what Luna was going on about. The two, once more, fell into a more companionable silence as they watched the moon – now smaller in size – continue to rise, and the water shimmer with its light.

“I am sorry about what happ–” the two said at once. The two ponies stopped talking, and laughed awkwardly at the situation they were both in. “Sorry about that. You go first, Fluttershy,” Luna offered.

Fluttershy nodded in thanks, then said sincerely, “I am so sorry for slapping you back at the castle. That was wrong of me, I know. I just have not felt that angry in a long time, not since my father died. But feeling angry about something is not a plausible excuse for my actions, and for that I am sorry. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.” She bowed her head and awaited judgement.

She felt a gentle hoof touch her chin, and it lifted her head up to look back at Luna, who wore a humble smile. “You are forgiven for your actions, if only you can forgive me for mine. I said some horrible things to you; I even called you a whore.”

Fluttershy flicked up an eyebrow. “You never called me a whore.”

“I said that you spread your legs for him, that is calling you a whore back in my old time,” Luna said. She sighed heavily as she ran a hoof through her sparkling mane. “That was wrong of me, and I am dreadfully sorry for it. But know this. What I said was only said because I was angry that you let him go, I never truly meant anything by it.”

Fluttershy placed a hoof on her shoulder, smiling at her. “You are forgiven, Luna,” she said. She withdrew her hoof from Luna’s shoulder, only to place it on the cheek that a few days ago she had struck. “I also understand now why you were going to kill Robyn. It’s okay to be scared, Luna. I, too, am terrified at what is happening, as are the others. No need to bottle up your fears around us, especially me, okay?”

Luna nodded. “I will remember that. Thank you, Fluttershy.” The two briefly went silent, pleased that they had such a horrible weight taken off their shoulders. “I want to know something, though: why did you allow the pony to live?”

“Because if he had died at our hooves then that would make all of us murderers and traitors. We may have been accused as traitors, yes, but we are not traitors. Killing him would have made us all guilty of treason,” Fluttershy explained. “Something I intend to never happen.”

Luna nodded in understanding. “I see. And maybe you are right, Fluttershy. Maybe it wouldn’t have been wise to kill Robyn.” They went silent once more as they saw a shooting star race across the sky, before vanishing in a split second. 

“We’re doing quite well, aren’t we?” Fluttershy said suddenly, looking at the sky. “We’ve come this far, and we haven’t been caught yet.”

“Not yet, but it will get harder now, thanks to you sparing that guard,” Luna said.

Fluttershy glanced up at her and raised an eyebrow confusedly. “I thought you said I was right and that he should have been spared.”

“I did, but I was also thinking of the consequences of such an action,” Luna said. “Any action a pony takes has a consequence, and leaders have to think of multiple consequences before deciding which one to take. While sparing that soldier’s life keeps us clean from committing treason, it also makes getting to Horsca harder, now that they know where we are heading.”

“But what if Robyn was telling the truth?” Fluttershy insisted. “What if he told them we were heading south instead of north?”

Luna looked down at her with a mild look. “And what if you were wrong? Hmm? What if we just lost them within the woods, or that they were too scared to even come in now that the Whitetail Deer would kill any armed pony on sight?” She shook her head. “You need to think about these things before you make such a crucial decision…” She lowered her voice and stared at the bank of the lake. “That is something I do not think you are capable of.”

Fluttershy tilted her head confusedly, frowning. “What do you mean?”

Luna sighed heavily. “Fluttershy, you are a sweet, kind mare,” she began, “and I like you for that. However, I believe you are too kind and loving, something that a leader cannot be. A leader must be able to see that sometimes the most direct action, like taking a life, is crucial to their survival, and that of those they lead. You must be able to act cold and ruthless sometimes, for some ponies might not be as kind as you, or maybe like Robyn. You must know when to be merciful, and when to be merciless. And you have to balance both, or else ponies will either see you as a weakling, or as a tyrant.” 

Luna stood up straight and moved to turn back into the woods and camp. “Those are qualities that I don’t think you are capable of possessing, dear Fluttershy. So forget this task Vidarr gave to you and leave the decisions to me and Cadence.” She began to walk slowly into the woods, ready to leave the pegasus in a state of shock.

‘She doubts I can do it,’ Fluttershy thought to herself as she stared wide-eyed at the lake. ‘She doesn’t believe in me, like a good friend would.’ That knowledge infuriated the pegasus more than she thought it should. 

Something clicked inside her at that moment, making her determined above all else to be what Vidarr wanted her to be. All her life she had been doubted in her abilities to do anything by everypony: her teachers, her fellow classmates, and even her own friends sometimes. They had all doubted her at some point for some reason or another, and it always made her feel like a lesser pony. A weakling that couldn’t do anything. 

Not anymore. 

“No,” she growled, her hooves digging into the dirt beneath her. 

Luna stopped, and looked back with a perplexed look. “Excuse me?”

Fluttershy spun around to face her, her eyes narrow and burning with determination. “I said no. I will prove you wrong, Luna. I will show you that you don’t have to be cold to lead ponies. I will show you that a leader can be loving, wise, just and benevolent without resorting to the goal of pointless deaths!” Fluttershy declared. “I will be that leader, Luna, and I will show you that it can be done!”

Although her body showed no change, Luna’s eyes lit up in admiration. “I hope you do prove me wrong, Fluttershy. I really do.” With that said, Luna walked slowly into the woods, leaving the pegasus alone with the moon shining down on her back.





Fluttershy was still seething with rage the next day. 

After a while of brooding angrily over what Luna had said to her, she had stormed back to the camp and had lain out on her side, facing away from the group and without saying a word to them. She quickly fell asleep after that, her dreams haunted by her Ponyville friends once more, as they always have been since this trouble began.

When the morning came, a small breakfast was made and eaten in silence, with everyone, except Fluttershy, who stared at the fire in front of them, looking at each other with uncertainty of what to say. After a moment to feel fully awake again, they packed up everything they had and wandered back into the woods, heading north all the while. 

After an hour or so, they crested the top of a small hill with no trees blinding their view, and caught sight of the Unicorn Range for the first time. It was a thick wall of mountains and hills that seemed to stretch across the horizon. ‘It’s so close,’ Fluttershy thought when she looked up in awe, ‘yet still so far away.’ Luna had said that they needed to pass through a valley first that separated Whitetail Woods and the Range with a wide plain and a crossroad in the middle leading to the cities, towns and villages that resided across Equestria.

They soon lost sight of the Range again, and found themselves back in the shadows of the great oak trees. They had wandered for another hour since, with Fluttershy staring at the ground, contemplating on how she was going to lead them when the situation arose for her to do it. 

At the moment, she did not feel like a leader at all – in fact, she believed nopony thought themselves as the leader. They all made suggestions, and either agreed or disagreed with them. No pony or dragon had said that they should be the leader, at least not yet. Which prompted Fluttershy to ask herself, ‘Do they know what Vidarr tasked me with back in the desert?’ And if not, what, and how, would she tell them?

“I take it the talk with Luna yesterday went swimmingly, judging by your actions last night and this morning,” Spike said as he walked alongside her. 

Fluttershy glanced in his direction, sighing grumpily. “It went okay, I guess. Luna and I are friends again, at least,” Fluttershy replied.

Spike looked lost. “So why did you look and act so moody last night?”

Fluttershy sighed once more, and had a quick look around to see if anypony else was about. Trixie was at the back, looking at the different trees and the various birds that nestled up in them. Luna was up front, her eyes fixed forward. Cadence was nowhere to be seen, for she was up above them scouting ahead to see if they were going the right way and that the path was clear. 

Nodding to herself, Fluttershy looked back at Spike, and said, “Did Luna tell you about what Vidarr spoke to me about that day on the rock before he left?”

Spike looked at his forehead for a moment, before shaking his head. “No, I don’t think she did.”

“Well, Vidarr told me that as I am the last of the Dragonlords, the title of Primarch gets passed down to me. I need to prove to him, and to Vidarr the First above us, that I have earned that title by guiding you all to Horsca.”

Spike still looked confused. “So, what does the title of Primarch mean?”

Fluttershy mentally cursed herself for forgetting that Spike did not know what a Primarch was. “A Primarch is the high leader of the Dragonlord order, Spike. He or she is the leader that is elected by the predecessor, or done at an election or something like that. He or she has total command of all the Dragonlords, and decides what they do and what they don’t do.”

“Oh,” Spike oozed, nodding and looking like he understood. “So basically, you’re a leader of a group of ponies that isn’t around anymore.”

“Precisely!” Fluttershy beamed. Her beaming grin vanished when she realised what Spike had just said. “Ah.”

Spike raised his claws. “You see! So why did he ask you to lead us when we are not Dragonlords?”

“Oh, he… he did say why,” Fluttershy quickly replied as she remembered. “He said that Primarchs tended to give council to other nations to help them out, or lead armies of other races to victory if the situation arose. Well, he didn’t actually say that, but that was the idea of it, I think.”

“Oh, I see – I think,” Spike muttered under his breath. “So, how does that explain the reason as to why you were in a strop last night?”

“I wasn’t in a strop!” Fluttershy shouted defensively. She quickly shied back and blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry.” She sighed sadly and let her ears flop. “I guess I was in a bit of a strop last night, wasn’t I?”

“Can’t argue with you there,” Spike said, rolling his eyes. “So yeah, anyway, why were you acting like that?”

“Because she doesn’t believe in me,” she answered, glaring at Luna and pointing an accusing hoof at the former Princess of Equestria. “She doesn’t think that I can lead you all there without any deaths, and I’m going to prove her wrong by actually leading us there, and without any pony dying, too.”

Spike grinned. “That’s the spirit, girl!” he said, giving Fluttershy a heavy pat on the shoulder.

“Ouch,” Fluttershy said, gazing at Spike with a hurt look.

Spike grimaced and cursed under his breath for his heavy handiness. “Sorry, I forget you have a sensitive body sometimes.”

“It’s okay, my body isn’t as sensitive as it used to be; most of my scars or bruises tend to disappear in less than an hour now that I’m a Dragonlord.” Her ears suddenly twitched as she heard the sound of wings flapping against the wind. “Everypony, stop!” she ordered sharply, bending her knees and hoping it was Cadence coming back.

Sure enough, her heart relaxed when she saw Cadence shoot down like a rock back to the ground. She trotted quickly over to where the Princess had landed. “Did you find anything on you–?” she asked, but trailed off when she noticed how pale Cadence looked. “What did you see?” she asked, dreading the answer.

Cadence gestured with her head to whatever was behind her. “You all might want to take a look at this,” she said. With that, she turned around and led the group forward, with the others just behind her guessing what it was that Cadence had seen.

Five minutes later, they emerged from the woods to find themselves at the edge of a hill that sloped down into a large valley that was about the width of Ponyville. At the far end, the valley sloped up and evened out once more, and a few miles behind a small woodland area, the hills and mountains of the Unicorn Range were in sight. The valley itself appeared to have once been a river, or a great glacier, but now it was covered in delicious green grass, with thin, dirt roads that crossed at its centre, and a large assortment of tents rested around where the two roads conjoined. 

“Well, that’s just perfect,” Trixie mumbled, while the others looked down in horror. 

The tents were as white as salt, with thin golden lines around the open flaps and roofs. Each tent bore a flagpole, and on the pole, a large flag with the cutie mark of Celestia on it tried to fly with the wind. The others couldn’t see, but Fluttershy could make out white and grey dots of ponies of the Royal Guard walk about the camp, while she could hear the sound of steel clashing against steel, and the roar of forges working fiercely as they prepared themselves for war.

“Can anypony make out their colours?” Luna asked.

“I can,” Trixie answered. “I can see blue, a lot of white, a bit of gold, and oh, purple over there, and–” She was cut off by Luna slamming a hoof into her open mouth.

“I meant it as who do those ponies down there follow,” Luna elaborated. Trixie’s eyes widened in realisation, before giving off a nimble nod in understanding. 

“I can see banners with the cutie mark of Celestia on them, Luna,” Fluttershy answered, putting a leg across her forehead to block out the sun above them so she could make them out clearer. 

Luna pulled her hoof out from Trixie’s mouth, wiped any saliva off it, and nodded gratefully at Fluttershy. “Thank you, Fluttershy,” she said, smiling at her. That smile faded to be replaced with a large frown as she looked back at the campsite.

“Why are they down there?” Spike enquired, looking to each of the ponies for an answer.

“Down there is supposedly the centre of Equestria, Spike,” Cadence answered, directing with a hoof as she spoke. “The northern to southern road leading into the Unicorn Range and down to here goes towards the northern cities and, barring the trains, is the easiest route to the south. Anypony that wishes to lead an army down this way would have to take this path to get to the south, and have direct access to Canterlot, Las Pegasus, or even the eastern cities.” She paused for breath. “This is strategically the most important crossroad in Equestria.”

“And if Celestia’s memory is unchanged in her hasty descent to insanity, she will know this,” Luna added. “She’s seen the many holes around her country and her capital, and right now she’s filling them all in with soldiers, giving her armies access to all routes that lead anywhere outside central Equestria.”

Fluttershy and Cadence nodded in agreement, while Trixie and Spike looked down in horror of the growing unrest. “Well, Fluttershy, this is your moment of truth,” Luna said, turning her head to look at Fluttershy, who shrank back at her expecting gaze. “How do you propose for us to get around this?”

Fluttershy gulped as she realised that this was the moment to see if she could prove her claim and lead them all into the Unicorn Range without anypony dying. “Why are you putting this weight on Fluttershy?” Cadence asked, her eyes narrow on her aunt. “Surely yourself would be the better pony to lead us around this. No offence, Fluttershy.”

“None taken,” Fluttershy replied with a squeak.

“I’m asking her this because she is the leader of our little group,” Luna answered. “According to Vidarr, anyway.” 

Cadence’s eyes widened in shock, and then turned to Fluttershy for confirmation. “Is this true, Fluttershy?”

After a moment of Cadence’s eyes boring into her own, Fluttershy sighed. “Yes, it is true. Vidarr told me that since I am the Primarch of the Dragonlord order, I must prove that I can keep that title by leading you all to Horsca safely. I thought you knew. You did give me all those pointers about how being a leader is a tough job.”

“Yes, well, I must have been giving you advice without knowing it then,” Cadence replied. She added with a chuckle, “How thoughtful of me.”

Fluttershy chuckled, too, and then dipped her head and sighed ashamedly once more. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you all. I guess I didn’t want to sound so bossy when I came back to the camp and declare that I’m the leader now.”

She looked up when she felt a hoof rest on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Fluttershy,” Cadence said warmly. “I imagine that would have been quite hard on you to be given such a heavy task. But if you had said something earlier, I would have gladly helped you and given you advice.”

Fluttershy’s ears pinned back up, and she smiled widely at the alicorn. “Really?”

Cadence nodded. “I was like you once before. I was not a leader in any shape or form. Just a lost, scared little pegasus wandering the woods looking for mummy and daddy. But over time, I learnt how to become that leader, and I know that you will too. I believe in you, Fluttershy. We all do.”

Fluttershy looked from Cadence to Trixie, then to Spike, and finally to Luna. All of them except Luna looked at her either admirably, or vividly expressed their belief in her that she could do it. It lit a fire inside her belly that made her feel determined to get them across, and do it by following the ways of a leader and by her own beliefs as well.

She looked back at Cadence, and nodded with a thin smile. “I will do my best,” she said determinedly. 

“I know you will, sweetie. Just take your time with it; there’s no rush so long as we aren’t seen,” Cadence said smoothly. “And don’t think with your head.” She placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s chest. “Think with your heart. Your head makes you think logically and coldly. Thinking with you heart makes you think on what’s right, and I know you will come up with the right thing.” She gave the pegasus a little pat on the shoulder, and then looked around to address the others. “Let’s give Fluttershy some space so she can think about this without us breathing down her neck.”

The others nodded in agreement, whispering, “Good luck,” and, “I hope you get us over there okay,” to Fluttershy as they sneaked back into the woods and out of sight, leaving the Dragonlord alone to a building panic at the massive pressure she was given.

Her chest started to rise and fall in an increasingly rapid rate, and her eyes bulged as she began to panic. ‘Oh, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do?’ she asked herself, jogging on the spot. She stopped when she quickly remembered seeing Cadence and Twilight practice a little calming technique the last time they were in the Crystal Empire, and decided to give it a go. “Okay, put a hoof to your chest and take a deep breath in, and then stretch your leg out in front of you and breathe out,” she reminded herself. She pressed a hoof against her chest, taking a deep breath in as she did so, and then breathed out again as she stretched her leg forward.

She set her leg back down, and felt a sudden calmness take her, like the stars had done the night she had seen the deer. ‘Wow, it really does work,’ she thought pleasingly, smiling to herself.

“She has learnt how to keep calm,” she heard Cadence whisper cheerfully to Luna. “She could make a great leader now.” Luna responded with a dubious snort.

Fluttershy glanced back and giggled. ‘When will ponies ever learn that talking about me behind my back is not a good idea?’ she wondered. “Thanks, Cadence!” she called. She looked back at the scene before her, sat on her haunches, and began looking for a way past.

She firstly considered going around the camp in either direction, to give the soldiers a wide berth, and then walk across the valley and finally make their way back to the path and head into the Unicorn Range. After a moment to think about it, she shook it off as a rubbish idea. Following the valley right would take them too close to Canterlot, while heading left would put them in the middle of a potential war zone, with a tension between them as thin and as fragile as a lake of ice.

She then thought about going under the valley. The moles of Whitetail Woods knew her well, and would gladly dig holes big enough to allow her and her friends to safely walk under the campsite and out to the other side. She turned back to tell the others to start looking for mole hills, but stopped when she thought more about it. ‘That wouldn’t work, either.’ Moles were only small creatures, and they would take days, maybe weeks, to build a tunnel big enough for them to walk through; time that they did not have.

‘We can’t go left nor right, and neither can we go under,’ she narrowed her options down by looking at her hooves. ‘All that is left for us is to go… up.’ Her eyes widened and she merely glanced up at the sky as it came to her. “If we could use some clouds as cover,” she whispered to herself, with a hoof beneath her chin as she pondered, “we could simply drift over the camp, and then get off and fly into the Range without anypony being none the wiser.” She clapped her hooves together and giggled excitedly. “That’s a brilliant idea! Fluttershy, you are a genius!”

Her excitement quickly died away when she finally noticed that there was not a cloud above them. She kicked at the ground and let out a moan of frustration. “Oh, come on, give me a break!” she cried out. She slumped where she sat and sighed heavily. If they couldn’t go up or down, left or right, then they would have to go through, possibly killing so many ponies in the process. ‘Maybe Luna was right. Maybe sometimes bloodshed is the only way forward,’ she thought reluctantly. She looked up, took a deep breath to prepare herself to say to Luna that she might have been right, when her eyes caught something to the right of her.

She looked, and gasped delightfully at the sight of dark storm clouds clustering to the east of them and advancing slowly towards the camp. She put herself into a posture of prayer and whispered in Dragonian, “Takk, Vidarr den første (Thank you, Vidarr the First).” She turned around to face the tree line. “I have a plan!” she announced to the others, grinning at herself. 

The three ponies and one dragon quickly emerged from the tree line, their expressions stating their interest of Fluttershy’s plan. “Well then, don’t leave us ‘hanging’, as you modern ponies say,” Luna said. “What have you got planned for us?”

Fluttershy looked at Luna with a little grin, and then turned to Trixie. “You said that you know how to cast a cloud-walking spell, didn’t you?”

Trixie nodded. “Why, yes, I did.”

“Good, because I would like you to cast it on yourself and Spike,” Fluttershy instructed pleasantly. Trixie nodded, although her face revealed a hint of uncertainty. She looked over to Spike, who looked really scared of being where he was now, closed her eyes and cast the spell. 

A greyish magenta aura wrapped and swirled around Trixie’s hooves and Spike’s feet for a long moment, before fading away into nothingness. Trixie peeped an eye open, and sighed with relief at apparently not blowing up Spike. “Did it work?” Spike asked, his eyes shut tight and his body tense as a statue.

Fluttershy smiled, and rested a hoof on his shoulder to calm him down. “I think it did, Spike. But the only way to find out is to walk the clouds themselves,” she said, much to the confusion of others.

“What clouds are we walking on, pray tell?” Luna enquired, raising an eyebrow.

Fluttershy grinned at her, and then pointed to the storm clouds to the east. “I’m talking about those clouds, Luna,” she said. The others looked at where Fluttershy was pointing and gasped in horror; though their eyes revealed their slight surprise.

Fluttershy grinned again and then spread out her wings. “Right, Luna, you take Trixie on your back, and Spike, you go on Cadence’s back,” she ordered nicely. “Is that okay with you two?”

“That’s… fine,” Cadence said nervously. Luna nodded uncertainly when Cadence looked to her as if she was asking permission to continue. “But I have to ask something. Are those storm clouds safe to walk on?”

Fluttershy looked back to Cadence with a gormless look, then back to the clouds. As she looked, her time in flight camp came back to the front of her mind, and not the time she was picked on constantly, but from the lessons she learnt. 

She knew those clouds were nimbostratus clouds, storm clouds filled with rain and vicious lightning. Not only did she know that metal and lightning were a bad combination, she also knew only pegasi were able to endure such bolts tearing through their body for a long time before it finally killed them. That was why only the oldest or the most experienced pegasus ponies like Derpy Hooves and Rainbow Dash respectively were allowed near and to deal with such clouds. ‘Yet I’m neither,’ Fluttershy thought. She could feel her body start to shake with fright at the certainty of being electrocuted. 

‘No!’ she yelled at herself. She had to do this, not for herself but to get those that were counting on her across safely. And the only way to do that was to go first and take the shots like a mare. ‘Rainbow Dash would have done the same.’

“They should be okay,” Fluttershy replied, sounding calmer than she felt. “Just as long as we keep all metallic objects covered, then we should get through there fine. However, I will walk ahead and be a lightning conductor, while you all stay in a single line and follow me from afar.”

Cadence looked at her in horror. “Are you insane?” she exclaimed. “You’re gonna get yourself killed!”

“Pegasi have a high endurance to lightning bolts,” Fluttershy said, staring defiantly at Cadence. “So long as I’m not hailed by bolts then I should be okay.”

“But even then after a certain amount your body won’t be able to take it and it will go into shock!” Cadence protested. “Fluttershy, you mustn’t risk yourself like this, it’s not worth it!” She turned to Luna. “Luna, tell her, tell her to stop!”

Luna looked between them, her mind obviously weighing the options, before sighing and bowing her head. “I don’t think I could change Fluttershy’s mind, dear niece, no matter how hard I’ll try,” she said in defeat. “If this is Fluttershy’s choice then so be it.”

Fluttershy nodded, ignoring the horrified look on Cadence’s face. “It is my choice, and none of you will change my mind,” she said. With a sigh, Fluttershy turned around and spread her wings once more, while the others hesitantly followed Fluttershy’s instructions and prepared themselves for cloud walking.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Luna said as she got onto her stomach and let Trixie clamber onto her back.

Fluttershy looked back at her, and nodded. “Me too.” She looked back at Spike, who rested comfortably on Cadence’s back with his arms wrapped around her neck, while Luna lifted herself back onto her legs with Trixie’s leg around her neck and her barrel, and then covered up her sword with the food bag. “Right, are we all ready?” Four uncertain nods answered her question. “Okay, let’s go.” 

With that, and a final swallow of her nerves, she thrust her wings to the ground, as did the others behind her, and took to the air. 

She could hear her wing blades sing as she flapped her wings and sent herself towards the clouds slowly advancing over the valley and the camp below. As they slowly gained altitude, she looked down to see the soldiers in the camp racing back to their tents to shelter from the incoming storm, and sighed with relief. ‘At least they won’t see us flying into the storm,’ she thought. She looked back to see the others were doing pretty well. Spike was clutching to Cadence’s neck for dear life, while she could hear Trixie praying that her spell worked. ‘I hope it will too, for Cadence and Luna’s sakes.’ Even with their endurance, they were still ponies, and carrying such weight could be costly to them.

The clouds seemed to be higher than they looked, for Fluttershy’s wings, especially her left wing, were beginning to ache from overuse. She could feel sweat trickle down her face and the back of her neck, making her feel like folding her wings back up and falling. She shook such thoughts out of her head, and gritted her teeth together as she put her all into it. She dared not to look back to see how the others were doing, in case she lost it and fell. “We’re nearly there!” she goaded them on. “Just a bit further!”

She shook her head rapidly to get rid of any sweat she felt on her face, and blinked to clear any tears of exhaustion she could feel in her eyelids. When she opened them again, she felt the soft, cool feeling of a cloud rub against her body as she passed through it. ‘We made it,’ she thought. She folded her wings back to her sides, covering the blades once more, and quickly grabbed hold of the top of the cloud with her forelegs. She groaned as she hoisted herself onto the top of the cloud, and once she felt her whole body resting on it, sighed and relaxed. “I… I did it,” she rasped, a small grin on her face.

She heard the sound of wings flapping against the wind, and looked up to see Cadence and Luna arriving on the top of the clouds. Their bodies were drenched with sweat, and once both ponies landed they collapsed onto their stomachs, letting Spike and Trixie roll off their backs and onto the cloud. All of them gasped for what air was up there with them, and rested for a moment, feeling safe as they felt the clouds below them move gently with the wind over the Guard camp below.

“Everypony okay?” she called as she set herself back onto her hooves.

Cadence raised a hoof in assurance as she lay flat on her back. “I’m still alive,” she announced breathlessly.

“Me too,” Spike called, his voice muffled by being face down in the cloud.

“Me three,” Trixie said, panting for air.

“We are all here, luckily, and have yet to be seen by the guards below,” Luna said, peering over the edge. She looked back at Fluttershy. “Shall we continue?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Not yet. Let them all catch their breaths first,” she responded, gesturing with a hoof at the exhausted ponies and dragon that had clung on for dear life, or flew all the way up here.

Luna nodded in respectful agreement. “Of course,” she said as she turned away from the edge. She sat down, and patiently waited for the others to get up and be ready to continue.

As she waited, Fluttershy stood and walked forward, checking out the path ahead with her keen eyes. She could see that the cloud was piled together from smaller clouds until it formed a long stretch of road that ran from the edge of Whitetail Woods to the Unicorn Range, and was as wide as Ponyville. A few holes in the clouds were scattered here and there, with nothing below them to stop a pony or a dragon from plummeting to their deaths, but they can’t be helped. Besides, they were all mature creatures who had ample control of their feet and hooves. ‘This will be a piece of cake,’ Fluttershy thought, grinning thinly to herself. ‘Provided I don’t die from electrocution first.’

“Ready to move on?” Fluttershy asked as she turned back. By now, Cadence, Spike and Trixie were on their hooves and feet, and were ready to continue.

“We’re ready, Fluttershy,” Luna confirmed with a gentle head bob. She lifted a leg up and pointed to the path laid out to them. “Lead on.”

Fluttershy nodded, and then turned her head around to look ahead, swallowing the ever-present lump in her throat. “Right, everyone, stay in a straight line and stay behind me a few feet,” Fluttershy ordered kindly. “Do not stray from the path under any circumstances. Okay?” She didn’t need to look back to see if they understood; she knew them long enough to know they did. “Right then, let’s walk.”

She put one hoof forward. Nothing happened. Then another hoof went forward. Again, nothing happened. Slightly less hesitant, she began to walk steadily across the cloud, taking care not to touch any sensitive areas that might trigger a lightning strike. 

She glanced back to see her companions were following her lead from about twenty feet or so away, copying every step she had made, and staying in the line they had created: Luna was up front, followed by Spike, then Trixie and finally Cadence, who looked at Fluttershy nervously.

‘She’s afraid,’ Fluttershy realised. ‘She has every right to be.’

She looked forward again, and set her hoof down once more. 

She was suddenly engulfed in a flash of bright light that was so intense Fluttershy thought she was going to be blinded, and a noise so deafening it drowned out anything else. She closed her eyes, flattened her ears instantly, and waited a few seconds to open them again. “Fluttershy!” Cadence screamed once the noise faded away. 

‘At least I can still hear.’ She heard a few gasps of shock from behind her. She opened her eyes to find that she could still see, which was a relief.

The Dragonlord looked behind her again to see Luna, Cadence, Trixie and Spike staring at her in surprise. “Um… why are you all staring at me like that?” she asked, hiding behind her mane.

Luna took a step forward. “Are you all right?” she asked concernedly.

“Um, yes, I’m fine, thank you for asking.” Fluttershy turned her head a bit to the side. “Shouldn’t I be?” 

“Well you just got struck by lightning, so you should be anything but fine!” Cadence shrieked in response.

Fluttershy stared at Cadence for a long time, her body going pale as what the alicorn told her began to sink in. She looked at her hoof and expected it to be charred or at least swollen, but there was nothing there to indicate she had just been struck with fifty thousand volts worth of natural electricity. “I’m… I’m fine,” she replied, taking deep breaths to calm herself. “Really. I’m okay.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Spike asked worriedly.

Fluttershy took a minute to consider what Spike asked, but she looked at him, smiled and nodded. “Yes, Spike. I’m fine. Now let’s keep walking and get off this cloud before something bad happens.” With that, she circled the spot where lightning had come out, and continued walking. The others briskly did the same.

“Okay, Fluttershy, just keep calm and controlled,” she whispered to herself. “You survived one strike, so you can surely survive another without much fuss.” Although she knew she shouldn’t, she was baffled by the fact at how painless it was. 

Her mind took her back a few years or so ago, before she became a Dragonlord. She remembered Rainbow Dash telling her that she was going to be helping with a heavy storm that evening. Fluttershy had asked her if it was dangerous, and Rainbow had replied, “Don’t tell anyone else this, because I will deny it, but one time I got struck by lightning after stepping on a sensitive spot, and I screamed like a filly getting her first flu jab. It was like being tickled, but with a thousand hooves hard and it became so painful that it became too much. But don’t worry, I can take such a hit now cause I’m awesome like that,” she had added upon seeing Fluttershy’s look of horror.

Rainbow had said it hurt, if not a bit, so why didn’t she feel a thing? She broke out of her brooding when another lightning bolt hurled itself through her from the cloud and lashed out at the surrounding area like pointed fingers scratching at a surface. The pegasus tensed up, closed her eyes and gritted her teeth to bear the pain, but again there was nothing; even her hearing survived intact after the deafening explosion of thunder.

When she opened her eyes again, she looked at her body and saw it was completely unscathed from the strike. She shrugged it off and continued onward, the others following warily far behind her. 

The next ten minutes went by quickly for her: she walked a few extra paces, got zapped by lightning, and then continued walking as if nothing had happened. As she travelled further, she began to realise what it was that was keeping her from death. Her Dragonlord blood was the only thing keeping her from being boiled and having her organs and coat fried. She was impervious to most hot temperatures – once upon a time, when she first became a Dragonlord, she once burnt her tongue on a bowl of soup, now she could eat as if it was cold – so it appeared to her as if she was immune to the heat and fierce shock of electricity, too. She giggled excitedly to herself. ‘Thought it would be a piece of cake.’

As time began to pass by, however, Fluttershy began to feel weaker after every strike. Picking up her legs felt more of a chore than they should, and her breathing began to grow hoarser. ‘What is happening to me?’ she thought fearfully as her pace began to slacken, her entire body aching with fatigue. She was so concerned about her own well being, that she failed to watch her step.

Another lightning strike pummelled into her from directly below. Fluttershy gritted her teeth and put her strength into standing upright, but once the bolt had gone and the thunder continued to rumble, her legs gave out and she fell onto her stomach, panting for air in the hope it would help regain her strength.

“Fluttershy, are you all right?” Cadence cried, concern for her staining her tone. 

Fluttershy groaned lightly as she heaved herself off the cloud and onto her hooves once more. “I’m fine,” she rasped in response, looking back with an assuring smile. “Just feeling a bit tired.” She shook her head and continued to walk flaggingly. “We’re nearly there!” she yelled.

She was right. Ahead, no more than a few yards away, were the edges where the clouds ended and the never-ending sky met. Below the clouds and sky were the vast hills and mountains that dominated the Unicorn Range, spreading into a bold line that disappeared westward. The other way was Cloudsdale, and Fluttershy could just make out through her hazed vision the great mountain Canterlot perched upon. 

‘Come on, Fluttershy, we’re nearly there, just a bit further,’ she coaxed herself. With her encouragement, she put every remaining ounce of strength into her legs and stepped forward once more. Once she put her whole weight on top of just her foreleg, she felt it tricky just to keep upright.

“Fluttershy, you have to stop for a minute!” Spike called concernedly. “You’re going to fall if you’re not careful!”

“No!” Fluttershy yelled stubbornly, taking another step forward. “I need to get to the end. I need to do this for you all.” She lowered her tone slightly, becoming inaudible to most of the group. “Besides, who’s going to miss me if I do fall? Nopony likes me, so nopony will be really upset if I do go.”

“That’s not true, Fluttershy! I will!” Spike yelled. “We would all miss you! Please, Fluttershy, you’re not proving anything by risking your life like this!”

“I’m not doing this to prove anything!” Fluttershy retorted weakly, glaring back at Spike. “I’m doing this to keep you all safe! To give you all a chance to live and get to Horsca! And if I have to die to make sure you all get there then so be it!” 

Ignoring the meek protests from her fellow travellers, Fluttershy turned away and stepped forward once more. ‘Come on, Fluttershy, you can do this. Once you reach that edge they will have a clear path to the Unicorn Range,’ she goaded herself. She took another step, then another, and another, the edge closing in with every step.

Five steps to go.

Four more. Fluttershy quickened her steps.

Three steps. She felt her hind legs slip out from under her, but before she could collapse, she regained control, stood upright and soldiered on.

Two steps. She could feel her legs beginning to buckle, getting ready to collapse at any minute.

One.

Fluttershy pressed her hoof down harder than she should have done, and felt a final blast of lightning pass through her and lash out at the surrounding cloud. Once it had stopped, with only the rumble of thunder blasting through her ears, she smiled to herself as she looked down weakly at the ground a mile or so below them, even as she collapsed onto her knees, gasping for air.

“I… I did it,” she said proudly, before she fell forward and passed out.





After seeing her father in Paradise, and seeing for herself what the great realm looked like, Fluttershy thought she would be waking up in that realm painless and feeling ten years or so younger. So why is it that her whole body ached with fatigue and she felt seventy years older?

“Fluttershy!” a voice rattled through her ears, making her groan and grimace. She felt herself turned over onto her back, and then felt gentle yet firm slaps to her face with a hoof. “Can you hear me?”

“Ouch,” she rasped weakly, struggling to open her eyes. Once she did, however, her vision was bombarded by light, so she had to narrow them and look away until her sight adjusted. Soon, though, her eyes felt better, and she opened them fully to find Cadence sitting above her, a hoof ready to slap her again if need be.

Cadence smiled in relief when she saw the pegasus awake, setting her hoof back down. “Oh, thank goodness you’re awake. For a moment we all thought you were…” She shook her head and stopped herself from finishing her sentence, her smile cracking slightly. “That doesn’t matter. How are you feeling?” 

Fluttershy shook her head to clear her vision and rubbed her face with a hoof. “I’m fine, I think,” she replied dazedly. She looked around, and saw to her surprise that she was lying on the flat top of a large hill looking towards the Equestrian Royal Guard Campsite. She looked behind her, and saw to her surprise the road that led into and over the rolling hills of the Unicorn Range.

‘But how can I be on the ground?’ The last thing she remembered was tumbling over the edge and falling to her death. “What happened?” she asked.

Cadence smiled warmly. “We made it to the edge of the cloud just as you fell over; we rushed over when we realised what was about to happen. If it weren’t for Luna flying down and catching you on her back, you would be dead,” she explained.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened in surprise, before looking around for the former Princess of the Night. She quickly found her sitting stoically beside Spike and Trixie, who sat together in silence, staring at her with admiring eyes and a warm smile. “Nice to see you once more among us, dear Fluttershy,” Luna greeted her charmingly.

Spike looked up upon hearing Fluttershy’s name being said, and gasped in delight upon seeing his best friend awake once more. “Fluttershy!” he called. He jumped up, raced over and tackled the pegasus in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right!”

Fluttershy smiled, and calmly ran a hoof down Spike’s scaled back. “I’m glad you are all okay, too,” she said, looking at them all with a smile. She turned to Luna last. “And thank you, Luna. Thank you for saving my life.”

Luna bowed her head respectfully. “You are most welcome,” she said with a smile. That smile was quickly replaced with a frown. “But why did you risk yourself like that? The lightning was sapping away your strength, you could have died trying to prove something.” 

Fluttershy, with the help of Spike, lifted herself up so that she was halfway between sitting and crouching. “But I wasn’t trying to prove anything, Luna. I was trying to get you all across safely without risking any of your lives. Just mine.”

“But why?” Luna demanded confusedly.

Fluttershy stared at her with a flat face for a long moment, before forming a warm smile. “Because that’s what good friends do, Luna,” she replied. “They look out for one another.”

Luna stared at the Dragonlord in silence for a long time, with no hint on what she was thinking. Eventually, she broke out a smile. “Now I know why my sister chose you to reform Discord,” she said quietly. She got up and stretched her back and hind legs. “I have to say, I was highly doubtful of your plan and that it would get us across safely. Twas… a nice change to see my fears were unfounded.”

Fluttershy grinned at her, and then again, with Spike’s aid, she lifted herself onto her haunches. “I’m glad it worked too, to be honest,” she said proudly. 

Cadence leaned forward and hugged Fluttershy gently from the other side. “I knew you would think of something,” she said.

Fluttershy blushed at the praise and calmly shook her head, surprised at finding herself in the middle of a hug sandwich. “It was a team effort, Cadence,” she said modestly.

Cadence tilted her head. “Even though Trixie had that cloud-walking spell on her to cast on Spike and herself, we did nothing else.”

“Yes you did,” Fluttershy insisted. She set a hoof on Cadence’s shoulder. “You all did more than I did. You all believed in me. You all knew I could get us past them, and if it wasn’t for your faith in me, I wouldn’t have thought of something.” She leaned her hoof forward so her foreleg was around Cadence’s shoulders, and briefly nuzzled her. “Thank you,” she looked to everyone else, “all of you, for believing me and sticking to my idea.”

A chorus of, “you’re welcome,” and, “it was nothing,” followed. “Right then, is everyone ready to continue?” Luna asked, looking to each of them for an answer. Everypony and Spike nodded. “Then let us get into the Unicorn Range whilst we remain undetected.” 

With that, the five travellers sauntered casually down the path and into the Unicorn Range. Fluttershy looked back at the campsite, which was now faded by the heavy downpour of rain that bombarded them, and grinned. ‘We did it. We passed them by without any of them noticing.’ It felt too good to be true, but it was. They had managed to get past an army of ponies and were now clear to enter the Unicorn Range. Fluttershy felt herself prance in joy as they walked steadily uphill. ‘Well done, Fluttershy,’ she thought to herself; in her mind she could hear a thousand hooves clapping together.

She stopped congratulating herself when she felt the breath of a pony breeze through her ear. “That was a nice plan, Fluttershy,” Luna remarked, a sincere smile on her face. “Though some of it was thanks to plain luck, behind all of that there was a very cunning plan amongst all of that. Keep coming up with stuff like that, and maybe you will have what it takes to be a leader.”

Fluttershy couldn’t help herself but grin widely at the praise from the former Princess of the Night. “Thank you, Luna,” she said. Luna dipped her head at her, and then trotted ahead with her head held high and a nice, friendly grin stretched across her lips. 

Fluttershy let out a contented sigh. ‘Maybe things will get better from now on,’ she thought happily.