Succession

by Helrael

2 - Company

 
The folds of darkness that had enveloped her mind were slowly drawn away, and the painful light of reality set in. Twilight’s skin was still burning mercilessly, and her various wounds felt like they had been ripped wide open. The metallic tang of blood had returned to her mouth, much stronger than before and the odd point in the base of her neck was blazing with white-hot agony, but above all, the unicorn felt the incessant throbbing of her left hind leg. A new cast held the leg in a slightly different position, and the swollen flesh pulsed painfully against the unyielding plaster.
 
The sheer pain caused Twilight to throw up again, but as her mouth once again filled up with nothing but foamy bile, she realized just how empty her stomach was. A loud growling noise confirmed her thought and she groaned out loud.
 
She was lying in the hospital again, though she was unsure of whether she was in the same room. It seemed a little larger, and there was a vacant bed to her left. Her right foreleg was once again suspended in a sling, and her broken hind leg was also held in a somewhat elevated position.
 
“Oh, hi there, Twi!” Pinkie Pie’s upbeat voice greeted the unicorn.
 
Twilight jumped slightly and turned her gaze toward her friend. The pink pony had just gotten up from a chair near the dark window to Twilight’s right and was beaming at her. The unicorn tried speaking, but instead produced a hoarse grating sound that set her throat on fire.
 
“Careful with the voicy,” Pinkie chimed. “You hurt it pretty bad back at the palace!” The pony’s bright mane had returned to its frizzy and disorganized shape, and her smile was more genuine than the one she had been sporting the first time Twilight had woken up in the hospital. Pinkie stepped over to the bed and put her forehooves on the blanket, leaning in across Twilight so that the unicorn would not need to strain her neck to look at her friend. “Y’know, after Celestia died, I could hardly smile for a week. And it just hurt so much, it felt like I couldn’t talk about it with anypony at all! It was like I was back at the rock farm...”

Twilight first frowned at her friend’s changed behavior, but then lifted one of her burnt-off eyebrows as the pink pony trailed off. “But?”

“But then I had so much fun chasing you around the palace! I mean, wowee, for a girl with two broken legs, you can really run! All of a sudden, I couldn’t stop laughing! Then there was that thing with Celestia and the crater and the rainbows and we all went ‘aww’, but after a while, I didn’t feel so sad anymore. You know why?”

“We’ve... been over this before, Pinkie,” Twilight sighed in her barely audible voice. “I have no idea... what goes on inside your head... and I probably never will.”

“You!” Pinkie Pie said with a smile, booping the unicorn softly on her nose. Twilight, however, pulled away sharply as the pink pony’s hoof was pressed against her sensitive skin, wincing at the pain. As she pulled away, her neck once again sent lances of fire coursing through every nerve in her body and she screamed, only increasing her torment as her raw voice was strained to the limit.

“Ooh, sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, panicking as the unicorn convulsed in pain.

“It’s al-” the unicorn began, suppressing a groan as the pain in the base of her neck spiked. “It’s alright, Pinkie... Just don’t... touch... please...”

“They brought you a big ol’ box of ice,” the pink pony informed her bedridden friend, brightening up almost immediately as only Pinkie Pie could. “Think that would help?”

As if in reply, the cast around Twilight’s left leg seemed to suddenly tighten against her throbbing flesh, and the unicorn winced again. “I think... I think my hind leg could use some.”

“Sure thing,” the earth pony replied, diving off toward the foot of Twilight’s bed and beyond her field of vision. “Which one?” she asked rummaging around in the box of ice.

“Umm, the left one?” the unicorn replied, smiling slightly at the question. “The one that’s broken and I ran around the palace grounds on.”

“Okey dokey lokey!” the pink pony sang, folding away the blanket to expose the broken leg in question and dropped three plastic bags of ice onto it. “Better?”

“Much better...” Twilight purred as the throbbing was quickly banished by the cold ice.

“Anyway, like I was saying,” Pinkie Pie soon continued, returning to the unicorn’s side. “Even though Celestia was dead and we had just seen her disappear, looking at that whole crater and everything that happened to the royal palace made me realize that for a whole week, I had only been thinking of all the bad things that had happened. I should’ve thought of the few good things that happened!”

Twilight gingerly shook her head in bewilderment. “The good things? What in Equestria are you talking about? She’s... she’s dead.”
 
“Aw, don’t be such a mopey-dopey!” Pinkie complained with a frown. “We should celebrate you! You survived that blow-up-the-whole-palace-and-ruin-Canterlot explosion! And the doctors say you won’t have any lasting injuries! That’s a good thing, riiight?” The pink pony leaned close to Twilight’s face for an answer, but the unicorn could still not see the bright side of things. If there were any, they were hugely overshadowed by the tragedy of the regal sisters’ deaths and the extinguished sun. Equestria was most likely doomed, and Twilight was unsure of whether her own survival had been a good thing. She turned her head away from her friend, ignoring the jolts of pain that shot up her neck.
 
“Miss Pie,” the voice of a stranger called out. Twilight looked toward the door to see that a unicorn of a dark brown coat had entered the room. There were dark circles around his eyes, and he wore a severe frown, suggesting to Twilight that he was a doctor. The medical staff in Canterlot were most likely twice as stressed as they had ever been, Twilight thought.
 
“Howdy!” the pink pony greeted obliviously. “What’s wrong?”
 
“Please leave, Miss Pie,” the doctor ordered flatly. Pinkie Pie glanced at Twilight, who nodded, and then went past the doctor.
 
“We’ll be back and hold a party later, Twi!” the pink pony promised before leaving.
 
The doctor shook his head slightly and mumbled something under his breath. He trotted over to Twilight’s bed and gave her a stern glare. From his white uniform, he pulled out a small clipboard, hovering it between the two ponies so that Twilight could only see his eyes as he read her files.
 
“As you’ve no doubt noticed, Miss Sparkle, we are at the moment more than overburdened with ponies that need treatment,” the doctor began, eyeing the injured unicorn again. “None of the staff appreciate your little excursion yesterday. Now, I know that you and Celestia shared close bonds with each other, but you should have waited for one of our personnel to check up on you before you left.”
 
“Would you have let me leave?” Twilight whispered in her broken voice.
 
“Most likely not,” he admitted. “But then again, look at what it did to you.” The brown unicorn flipped his clipboard, allowing Twilight to see an x-ray image of her hind leg. The injured unicorn was not too well versed in the skeletal system of ponies, but she could clearly see the many black lines that laced her bones. Some places, the bone seemed to have skewed dramatically.
 
“With your exceptional and frankly baffling rate of healing, you would most likely have healed your bones over the course of only one and a half months,” the doctor explained. “But with these multiple fractures... you’ll be hospitalized for at least half a year, I’d wager. You’re lucky the bone will heal at all. For most ponies, your leg would be unsalvageable.”

“As I said, we’re very busy at the moment, and we want to send off as many patients as we can as quickly as possible. You prolonging your stay by five or more months isn’t helping us at all.” The doctor pulled a large black bottle out a pocket in his uniform with his magic and put it on the nightstand by Twilight’s bed. “These will help your bone growth; just take one pill with each meal. And this…” the unicorn pulled up a smaller bottle with a red etiquette. “…will help lessen your pain, should you need it. I trust your magic functions well enough for you to administer the medicine yourself; we’re simply far too understaffed to help you with that. If nothing else, I suppose you have your friends.” The doctor proceeded to explain the correct dosage of the painkiller before moving on. “We are preparing a treatment for your burns, but I’m afraid it’ll take a while. I would examine you, but there are hundreds of seriously wounded ponies that need my attention right now.” He gave an annoyed sigh as he turned toward the door. Whether his frustration was directed at his increasingly stressful job or at her, Twilight was unable to tell. “I’ll be back some time later.”
 
The doctor left the room, leaving Twilight to lay alone in her bed with no idea of what to do. After what felt like an hour, two ponies entered with a stretcher. The nurses were carrying a white unicorn stallion, and Twilight noticed that his sides, head and right hindleg were wrapped up in bandages. The injured stallion slept peacefully as the two ponies drew covers onto his bed.
 
“What happened to him?” Twilight croaked at one of the staff.
 
“Got attacked by some unicorn,” one of the nurses replied. “As far as I know, he was tossed against a colleagues’ horn, which stabbed him in the thigh. Besides that, he broke a few ribs, I think. Might’ve gotten a concussion too, I didn’t get the full diagnosis.”
 
Twilight frowned at the nurse's explanation. Citizens of Canterlot attacking each other? Why would a unicorn attack a fellow pony? Is the panic in Canterlot really that bad? Perhaps the death of Celestia has brought with it more than just the extinguishing of the sun.
 
The nurses covered the new patient up with a blanket. “Lunch will be here in about an hour,” one said before the two ponies left the room, closing the door behind them.
 
Seeing as how she had absolutely nothing else to do, Twilight began to study the new patient more closely. It was a stallion, that much was clear, and he looked to be the same age as herself, perhaps a year or so older. His coat was pure white, though it had become dirty on one side of his face where he had probably been lying on the ground before receiving medical assistance, and from what she could see beneath the blanket, he was of a very muscular build.
 
Although she knew absolutely nothing of her new companion, the bald unicorn found herself wishing the stallion were awake. She couldn’t say that she looked forward to half a year in bed with nothing to do but looking at the ceiling. She knew sleeping wouldn’t grant her any respite either. Doing so would only bring back the odd, fragmented nightmare of what had happened inside the palace. She could still not make any sense of the chain of events which to her seemed to have little connection. All she knew was that something horrible had appeared before herself and Celestia and taken the princess’ life. Somepony had killed the princess.
 
Memories of the alicorn she had held between her hooves came back to Twilight more abruptly than she could handle, and she began sobbing silently. She remembered how the princess had turned to dust as she watched, and tears began streaming down her face. Though she didn’t feel tired, she soon managed to cry herself to sleep.
 

...Fire and agony. Marble breaking apart. Deafening noise. Hurtling, flying, falling, crashing, bones snapping...
 
A shrill honking noise interrupted the injured unicorn’s terrible nightmare, and Twilight sat up with a sharp gasp, wincing as her broken foreleg bent awkwardly.
 
“Surpriiiise!” Pinkie Pie shouted, removing a party horn from her lips. Twilight’s friends laughed merrily as she looked around the room in astonishment. They had all apparently snuck into the room while she was asleep and decorated the whole place with colorful streamers and balloons. There was a large cake sitting on the nightstand next to Twilight’s medicine, and beside it was a bowl of salad and various vegetables, no doubt the lunch promised by the nurse. Twilight wondered what time of day it was, and if such even mattered when night was eternal.
 
“How're ya doin'?” Applejack asked, and the unicorn forced a smile.
 
“Better. Well, except for my legs... Doctor says it’ll take at least half a year before they’re fully healed...”
 
“Oh you poor dear,” Fluttershy sympathized, fluffing up Twilight’s pillow. “You really shouldn’t have been running around on a broken leg.”
 
“Yeah, lesson learned,” the unicorn replied with a hint of sarcasm. “But if it meant seeing the princess before she… before…”
 
“Hey!” Pinkie cried out. “No talking about you-know-who! We’re here to party! Remember, Twi: the good stuff! That’s what’s important right now!”
 
“Pinkie is right,” Rarity agreed. “However much we may have lost, we should be grateful for what we have. And we still have you, Twilight.” She smiled affectionately.
 
The party pony ducked down beneath the bed and reappeared on Twilight's left, next to the cake. “Whaddya want first? Boring ol' vegetables, ooooor my super tasty partylicious glad-you-didn’t-die cake? Huh-huh-huh?”
 
Twilight couldn’t help herself from giggling. “As delicious as your cake sounds, Pinkie, I think I need some proper food first.”
 
“Proper food!?” While Pinkie Pie started protesting and ranting about the deliciousness of her baked goods, the unicorn levitated a few leafs of lettuce into her mouth. Fluttershy helped her sit up straight without jolting her front leg so that Twilight could eat more comfortably. “I’ll have you know I eat nothing but cake! And candy... And cookies...” the pink pony grumbled as she started serving cake for the others. “Point is, I turned out just fine!”

Twilight couldn’t help herself from giggling as she magically unscrewed the cap to her bottle of pills and pulled one out. She popped the white pill into her mouth and washed it down with a glass of water. She quickly finished her bowl of salad, and the pink pony immediately gave her a generous slice of cake.
 
“So who’s your friend?” Rainbow asked through a mouthful of cake, motioning toward the immobile white unicorn in the bed next to Twilight’s.
 
“I’m not sure,” the unicorn admitted. “I didn’t get a name or anything; he’s been sleeping ever since he arrived. The nurses who brought him in said he’d been attacked by a unicorn. Weird, huh?”
 
“Most peculiar indeed,” Rarity mused, stepping closer to the stallion. “I simply can’t believe anypony from Canterlot would stoop to such lows.”

Snickering, Rainbow Dash whispered something involving ‘stuck up’ into Applejack’s ear, and the farmer chuckled.

Rarity shot the two an annoyed glare before continuing. “Judging from his physique, I do believe he is a member of the Canterlot Guard. Maybe even the Royal Guard.”
 
“A guard?” Twilight frowned. “So some unicorn attacked a guard? I wonder if the one responsible was also the one to…”
 
Pinkie Pie cleared her throat loudly, and the unicorns realized that they had begun to touch upon the subject of the princesses’ death.
 
“So, uh, how’s Scootaloo doin’?” Applejack asked the cyan pegasus to change the topic. “I hear she did pretty well at the Best Young Fliers Competition last week.”
 
“Second place.” Rainbow Dash shrugged but allowed herself a proud smile. “Pretty impressive for a late bloomer, right? But what’d you expect? I taught her everything she knows! She’s got some talent. And determination, lots of it. She kinda reminds me of myself at that age.” The pegasus smiled with self-satisfaction. “…though she’s not nearly as fast as I was!”
 
“You need more than speed to win that competition, as far as I know,” Rarity pointed out. “I came fairly close to winning that title…”
 
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash snickered. “Until you knocked out the Wonderbolts and took the express way outta Cloudsdale! But hey, you’re right. Speed’s not always the important thing in a competition. No matter what competition you’re talking about, the important thing is winning, am I right?”
 
Twilight snorted with laughter at the pegasus, and soon everypony else was laughing.
 
“What!?”
 

None of the ponies had kept track of how long the party lasted. All they knew was that while the festivities had still been going strong, the nurses brought dinner for Twilight and the other patient, suggesting that quite a few hours had gone by.
 
Eventually everypony but Pinkie Pie began yawning, and they soon bid their farewells, dragging the pink pony with them out of the hospital.
 
“See ya tomorrow! Or... well, y’know what Ah mean!” Applejack said, yawning as she closed the door.
 
Twilight sighed heavily as she lay back in bed again. The party had helped improve her mood a lot, but now that her friends were gone, her thoughts inevitably turned back to Celestia.
 
“Twilight Sparkle, what are the odds?” an oddly and vaguely familiar voice called out, providing a merciful, although surprising, distraction for the unicorn’s mind.
 
She whipped her head to her left to see that the white unicorn was looking at her. He had a pair of powerful blue eyes and had a smug smile on his face for reasons Twilight didn’t know.
 
“Umm, hi,” she replied nervously. “How long have you been awake?”
 
“Not sure…” the supposed guard frowned. “Ten minutes I’d guess. Nice of your friends to throw you a party. Don’t you all live in Ponyville?”
 
“Yeah, we do. But they all came here when they heard what happened. I was visiting the princess when… when…”
 
“I know,” the stallion interrupted her. He sighed heavily.
 
Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling of having heard the white unicorn’s voice before. “I’m sorry, but have we met before? Your voice sounds kinda familiar.”
 
“Hmm… We’ve met fleetingly a few times before. You might not recognize me without my armor...”
 
“So you are a Canterlot guard,” Twilight confirmed. “My friend thought as much.”
 
“I’m a royal guard, yes,” the patient corrected her. His brow furrowed and he looked at the ceiling as he thought back. “But I don’t think I’ve ever spoken in your presence, so I don't see how you could recognize my voice... Unless…” His eyes widened in horror and he looked back at the bald unicorn. “W-were you conscious? Your flesh… i-it was practically boiling! One of the emergency workers got scalded just by touching you!”
 
“By Celestia, this one’s breathing!”
 
“Get her outta here!”
 
“But how did she..?”
 
“Now!”
 
Pain! Screaming. Ribs on fire. Leg blazing. Skin covered in white-hot needles.
 
“Argh! She’s white-hot!”
 
“You’re hurting her! Let me!”
 
“You... you were there?” Twilight asked in disbelief, and the guard nodded solemnly.
 
“I was the one who carried you away,” he explained. “The earth pony who tried carrying you is still hospitalized with second degree burns.”
 
“Oh…” the unicorn muttered. “I’m sorry.”
 
The guard snorted. “Compared to you, he got off easy. How did you survive that!? I could hardly see any skin on you, and your flesh was... it was glowing with heat! You were blasted from the palace and all the way onto the cobblestone path in front of the palace gates. That fall alone would have killed anypony, not to mention your speed; you plowed through rock and earth for almost twenty feet before coming to a stop!” The white unicorn shook his head. “To be honest, I thought you were a goner and that I was just wasting my time on you. Of course, once I found out who you were, I realized that you might actually make it. You Elements sure are tough.”

“Kinda wish I hadn’t survived,” the burned unicorn replied sullenly. “A world without Celestia... I can’t bear to even think about it.”

“Don’t say that,” the guard complained, frowning slightly at the other unicorn. “The way I see it, there must be some reason you survived, right. If there is such a thing as fate, it has something big planned for you.”

“I’m already the Element of Magic,” Twilight replied with a smile. “How much greater can my destiny be?”
 
“I can’t say. But Equestria will definitely need you in the time to come.”
 
“Probably,” the unicorn replied with a frown. There was silence for a moment before Twilight spoke again. “I never got your name.”
 
“Amber Vane,” the guard replied. Another silence ensued in which Twilight waited for the guardspony to tell her more of himself. After a moment, Amber Vane spoke again. “Y’know, I’m pretty sure we once went to the same class.”

“Huh?”

“Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” the guard explained. “Basic Spellcasting or something like that. I remember you because you were one or two years younger than everypony else.”

“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed. “Yeah, I advanced to Basic Spellcasting a few months after I was enrolled because I, well, excelled at magic.” Twilight smiled a little, but then frowned again. “Wait, you attended Celestia’s school? I thought you were a guard.”

“Royal guard,” Amber Vane stressed. “But hey, just because I’m a royal guard doesn’t mean I can’t be smart!” The stallion only smiled mischievously as Twilight apologized and shook his head with a chuckle. “Joking! Joining the Guard wasn’t always my ambition. You ever heard of Diamond Spark?” he asked her.

Twilight thought hard for a moment. “I think my friend Rarity has mentioned him a few times. Some kind of tycoon in the gem and diamonds business, right?”
 
“Indeed,” the guard confirmed, giving a short nod. “My dad.”

“Your dad!?” Twilight exclaimed. She was unsure of whether she had ever met a pony as rich as Amber Vane must be. There was always Celestia, but that was not quite the same. “But... So you are the son of one of the richest ponies in Equestria and you attended Celestia’s school, but you became a g-...” she managed to catch herself this time. “...a royal guard? I thought guards went to some kind of academy.”
 
“The Canterlot Academy of the Royal Guard,” the white unicorn said. He then shrugged at the question that had come before. “When I was a colt, my father wanted me to follow in his hoofsteps. Still does, most likely. I got enrolled at Celestia’s school and got decent grades in most of my subjects, especially economics and mathematics. My family was proud, my teachers were amazed, but... well, math has a bad habit of boring me. My cutie mark seemed to be all about managing money and stuff like that, so I felt kinda... lost.” Twilight nodded her understanding. At least, she was pretty sure she understood. She had of course never experienced it herself, but she had read plenty of books about ponies with the same problem. The royal guard continued. “I wanted some more excitement in my life, something away from desks and papers, so I decided to join the Canterlot Guard. Did pretty well and before I knew it, I was accepted into the academy of the Royal Guard. The training was tough, but here I am. Or, well...” He glanced at his bandages and the hospital room in general and gave a small chuckle. “Yeah, here I am. To think,  I’ve been a royal guard for only a few months and something like this happens.”
 
“So Celestia’s school and The Canterlot Academy of the Royal Guard. You’ve really accomplished a lot for somepony your age.” Twilight whispered with amazement.
 
“You and your friends have saved Equestria several times, if I’m not mistaken,” the white unicorn pointed out.
 
“I was hoofpicked by Princess Celestia to be her student,” Twilight half-shrugged. “I had a pretty easy life compared to others.”
 
“And I had one of the richest ponies in Equestria as my father,” Amber Vane smiled. “I guess we’ve both had a fair amount of luck.”
 
“I guess in some ways we have, but then again… I’m the Element of Magic and the personal protégée of both the alicorn sisters. And the Heroine of Equestria to boot. Ponies will be expecting a great deal of me once I get out of this hospital. As you said, I’m destined for something big, and I’m afraid I don’t have much choice but to rise to that task. And what if I can’t?”
 
“The burden of power…” the royal guard mused. “Glory in exchange for responsibility. I think I know how you feel. My father’s business is huge. I can’t even begin to imagine having to run it.”
 
“I see,” Twilight said. She used her magic to summon another one of her pills and swallowed it together with a drink of water. She then proceeded to eating her dinner, while Amber Vane did the same.
 
They would have continued their conversation after their meal, but were interrupted by a nurse, telling them to go to sleep.
 

Twilight woke at the sound of a sharp gasp. She opened her eyes groggily, squinting against the lights that had been turned on again. She heard Amber Vane exhale sharply as if in pain. Her eyes focused on the bed next to her, and she saw that the guardspony was having the bandages on his thigh exchanged. He had a nasty-looking gash underneath his cutie mark; an image of a quill rimmed with gold. The gash was deep and still bloody, and Twilight wondered again at who could have committed such violence against a royal guard. Could it have been the one that killed Celestia?
 
After the nurses treated Amber Vane, they left,  promising that breakfast would be served in half an hour.
 
“How did that happen?” Twilight asked, gesturing at the royal guard’s various bandages.
 
Amber Vane gave her the same smile she had noticed when they first spoke. “It was a little more than six days after the explosion,” he told her. “I was standing guard at the palace gates, making sure only ponies involved with the investigation of Celestia’s death were allowed in. My three fellow guards and I were guarding the second perimeter, which was right by the gates themselves. We heard some shouting from the outer perimeter, which was at the far end of the drawbridge, and we went out onto the bridge to investigate.” The guard shook his head with amusement and the burned unicorn’s ears flattened in embarrassment as realization dawned on her. “Imagine our surprise when we saw some half crazed bald unicorn with two broken legs running straight at us.”
 
Twilight’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious! I-I’m the unicorn who did that to you?”
 
Amber Vane nodded, still smiling. “We tried stopping you, but you swatted us aside with no effort at all!” For reasons Twilight couldn’t fathom, the guard laughed.
 
“I’m so sorry,” Twilight cringed. “I thought I was only using enough force to stun you.”
 
“Nice to know you weren’t trying to kill us,” Amber Vane replied. “I was thrown against the gate, broke my ribs and, according to the doctors, suffered a minor concussion. Then one of my colleagues smashed his horn into my thigh.”
 
“How bad is it?” the bald unicorn asked nervously. “You’ll be able to walk again, right?”
 
“Definitely,” Amber Vane tried calming the distraught unicorn. “I’m the one who wanted more excitement in my life. Guess I got a little more than I bargained for. If you ask me, you should have been allowed to see the princess. You were one of her closest friends.”
 
“Thanks,” the bald unicorn smiled warmly.
 
“I just wish you hadn’t taken it out on me,” he muttered, and Twilight was unable to tell whether or not he was joking.
 
“I’ll need to make it up to you one day,” she promised. “You saved me from the palace explosion and six days later I smash you into a wall. I owe you.”
 
“Alright,” the unicorn guard chuckled. The two patients were quiet again for a while, lost in their own thoughts. Staffers brought them breakfast, and they ate in silence.
 
“So, I told you how I got here,” the white unicorn offered after finishing his meal. “But now I’m curious as to how you ended up here.” His expression suddenly turned very serious. “What happened inside the palace? And how did you survive? Are the six of you immortal or something?”
 
Twilight frowned as the jumbled and painful memories came back to her. “I can’t remember a thing,” she admitted. “Or, you know, I remember a little. I was called to Canterlot on very short notice and for a long while, I was with the princess in her study but after that, everything is like a dream… or a nightmare. I barely have any visual impressions, and I only heard small parts of a conversation, I think. Most of my memories are from things I felt.” She tried recalling her nightmare and shuddered. “Something else was there; it made me feel cold and afraid. Celestia was scared of it as well. I remember seeing her for a moment, but then the air was driven out of my lungs, and I think I broke my hind leg and my ribs. The thing said ‘step aside’, but I don’t know to whom it spoke. The next thing I remember is this unbelievable pain. It spread like both fire and ice throughout my body, and the pain grabbed at everything inside of me, even my mind. It was the scariest and most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. Not even the explosion was as bad as that.” Twilight drew a shaky breath. “I think I blacked out for a short while then. The next thing I heard was the intruder saying ‘farewell’. I guess that's when the palace exploded, and… the princess died.”
 
Amber Vane was silent for a long while, digesting the information. “And you have no idea who or what this murderer could have been?”
 
“No,” Twilight sighed. “I feel like I should know, though, as if the answer is on the tip of my tongue. Am I really the only survivor from the palace?”
 
“Yeah,” the guard admitted. “You’re the only one to have seen this enemy and lived.”
 
“Then I guess I have an even greater responsibility…” the burned unicorn murmured. She was silent for a few minutes, thinking. Suddenly, she began sobbing. “I was there! Why didn’t I do anything? How could I just let it kill her?”
 
“Step aside.”
 
The murderer must have been speaking to Twilight. Had she simply obeyed it? Had she willingly abandoned the princess, or had she been forced away? She did not remember using any magic. Had she even tried fighting the apparition?

There was also a slight probability of the murderer speaking to Celestia. Had it wanted to hurt Twilight? Had Celestia sacrificed herself so that she might live?
 
“Hey!” Amber Vane broke in. “There was nothing you could have done! Whatever broke into the palace, it murdered Princesses Celestia and Luna and blew up the whole palace in a matter of minutes! I doubt even you could have done anything to stop it. You should be grateful you're not on the list of casualties.”
 
“But why aren’t I? I was with Celestia, I… I must have tried defending her… And how did I survive that explosion?”
 
Amber Vane hesitated. “Nopony knows.”
 
Twilight sighed in frustration and turned her head toward the window. The pain in her neck was almost nonexistent by now. She lay there for an hour or so, thinking about the murderer. Suddenly, the answer she had been looking for came to her. “Do you think Nightmare Moon has returned?” the burned unicorn suggested, though she still did not face the guardspony.
 
“Nightmare Moon? Are you suggesting Princess Luna did all of this?”
 
“I don’t know… but it’s a possibility, isn’t it?”
 
“I guess…” Amber Vane replied uncertainly.
 
“Nightmare Moon is vastly different from Princess Luna,” the unicorn explained. “The princess would never hurt her sister… but the Mare in the Moon is a different story. Facing her was… scary.”
 
“I can imagine,” Amber Vane sympathized. “To face one of Celestia’s strength, and at such a young age…”
 
“I’ve thought about Nightmare Moon quite a lot after defeating her,” Twilight interrupted the royal guard. “Sometimes I get the feeling she was actually stronger than Celestia. I think that’s why my friends and I were sent out to recover the Elements of Harmony and Celestia didn't get involved.”
 
“Stronger than Celestia…” The royal guard shook his head in disbelief. “Such things are beyond my imagination.”
 
“But do you think it’s possible that Nightmare Moon has returned?” Twilight pressed. “I’ve been thinking about it, and it seems the only logical answer. Somepony has… killed Celestia, destroying the sun and thus ensuring eternal night.”
 
“Killing your sister isn’t easy,” Amber Vane reasoned. “No matter what evil spirit possessed Luna when she became Nightmare Moon, I don’t think she’d be capable of that.”
 
“I doubt we know anything about the nature of Nightmare Moon,” Twilight sighed. “I need to get out there and find out what happened.”
 
“But if Nightmare Moon really killed Celestia, why hasn’t she made any attempts at claiming Equestria?” Amber Vane asked the bald unicorn. “If she really has returned, wouldn’t she want to regain her lost throne or something?”
 
“I don’t know. None of this makes sense!” she groaned.
 
The guardspony opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by somepony knocking on the door. “Come in,” he said instead.
 
“Hiya, Twi!” Pinkie Pie greeted the unicorn as she opened the door wide and entered. Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack soon entered as well. “Ooh, your friend’s awake!” the pink pony chimed with interest as she noticed Amber Vane. “What’s his name? Where did he come from? What happened to him? What does he do?”
 
“Calm down, Pinkie!” Applejack told her friend, pulling the pony by her tail away from the royal guard.
 
“My name’s Amber Vane. I’m a royal guard,” the white unicorn answered, confirming Rarity’s initial verdict. “It’s an honor meeting the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”
 
“Likewise,” Rarity replied, nodding politely at the unicorn.

“Wowee! Didya hear that? A royal guard who actually talks, Dashie!”

“You don’t meet a lot of royal guards in Ponyville, do you?” the pegasus asked of the earth pony, giggling.
 
“Just ignore her,” the farmer pony advised the guard. “So what happen’d to ya? Twilight told us you were attacked by another pony?”
 
“A unicorn,” Amber Vane confirmed, but then hesitated. He looked at Twilight, who then sighed in resignation.
 
“I… ugh. I knocked him into the palace gates on my way to see Celestia. A little too hard, it seems.”
 
Rainbow snorted and laughed, but the others managed to remain respectful to the guardspony. “You took out four royal guards by accident?” the pegasus fell onto her back and laughed uncontrollably for a few more seconds before finally rising to her hooves, wiping a tear from her eye. “No offense there, Amber, but that is kinda funny.”
 
“I suppose it is…” the guard murmured with a slight frown, but he seemed to take the pegasus’ snickering with good humor.

“Ah guess ya oughta just ignore her too,” Applejack muttered, rolling her eyes at Rainbow Dash.

“Wait, what happened to the others?” Twilight asked Amber Vane, suddenly worried. “Are they as badly hurt as you?”
 
The guard shook his head. “One of them broke a rib, but other than that, they were just bruised pretty badly. I was just… unfortunate.”
 
Twilight half expected Fluttershy to start mothering the injured guard before she noticed the timid pegasus was absent. “Wait, where’s Fluttershy?”
 
“Oh, right…” Rainbow smiled sheepishly. “She told me to tell you that she had to head home right away. Somepony mentioned her pets back in Ponyville!” The cyan pegasus cast an accusing glare at Applejack and then shrugged at Twilight. “Y’know how she gets. She panicked and had to go home to her ‘babies’ right away. She said she was sorry.”
 
“It’s fine,” Twilight said dismissively. “As long as she isn’t hurt.”
 
“Oh no!” Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed, horror plain on her face. “I forgot your present, Twi! How could I forget?” She brought a hoof to her forehead with a smack, which only served to confuse the injured unicorn. She became even more confused when the pink pony began dragging Applejack and Rarity out of the room. “C’mon you guys, quick! Oh, and we should get a present for Amber too!” Before anypony could react, the three ponies had disappeared out the doorway, the sound of Rarity’s protests quickly fading away.
 
Rainbow Dash cautiously closed the door behind her three friends, hoping the pink pony would not return for her. “Well, at least we have the old Pinkie back…” she murmured with a faint smile.
 
“Her attitude has, well, changed from when I first saw her here…” Twilight noted. “…considerably.”
 
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Nothing cheers her up like seeing us smile, I guess.”
 
The friends were quiet for a while, lost in their own thoughts and not knowing what to talk about. After a few minutes, they realized that Amber Vane had fallen asleep.
 
“So, what’ll happen to the Wonderbolts?” Twilight asked the pegasus, breaking the silence. “I mean, with Celestia gone, will you keep performing, or..?”
 
“We’re talking it over right now actually,” Rainbow sighed.

“Does that mean you’ll be leaving for Cloudsdale?”

The pegasus shook her head and forced a small smile. “Man, you have no idea how cool the Wonderbolts are. When I told ‘em about what happened to you and how I couldn’t leave one of my best friends hangin’, they set up a temporary headquarters right above Canterlot!” Rainbow Dash’s smile soon evaporated. “But... there’s been talk… about disbanding the team…” Tears welled up in her eyes and she looked away from the unicorn. “Equestria will be going through some rough times real soon; I mean, we lost a ruler we’ve had for centuries and the sun’s gone. That’s bound to mess things up a whole lot, right? I guess we won’t be needing any stuntponies all that much…”
 
“Rainbow, come here,” Twilight told the pegasus, stretching out her left foreleg in an embracing gesture as she gave her a comforting smile. She scooted over so that the Wonderbolt could lie next to her, wincing at the pain in her raw back. Tears began running down her cheeks as the pegasus made her way to the unicorn’s side. She got into the bed next to Twilight and welcomed her embrace.
 
“It’s just... I worked so hard...” the pegasus whispered morosely. “I can’t remember a time I didn’t want to be a Wonderbolt... Joining them has been my biggest dream since forever!”

The unicorn stroked her friend’s mane soothingly. For as long she had known the cyan pegasus, joining the Wonderbolts had indeed been her greatest ambition. The Wonderbolts seemed to be an integral part of Rainbow Dash’s personality; a goal that had always helped drive the pegasus to be the best she could be.

“But now... I don’t know, Twi! I just feel like everything’s being taken away from me... I trained for so many years before even entering the tryouts...”

“I sure remember that,” Twilight grimaced. “You drove us all insane with your endless training routines! Especially when you tried your hoof at flying backwards and upside down at the same time; I’m not made of windows, you know!  I don’t know how many times I told you to just go try out for the team, but you insisted on being the best the Wonderbolts had ever seen.” The unicorn sighed. “So you trained and you trained...”

The pegasus smiled a little. “Year after year.” She sighed, some of her sadness melting away. “But I did it, didn’t I? I got accepted into the Wonderbolts on my first try. How many can say the same?”

“You sure were happy,” Twilight smiled. “We all were. I don’t think Pinkie has ever thrown a party quite like the Wonderbolt Dash Party.”

“Yeah... can’t believe it lasted a whole week...” Rainbow’s smile faded, and tears returned to her eyes. “And I can’t believe it lasted for only one and a half year...”

The rainbow-maned pegasus buried her head in Twilight’s shoulder, and she soon felt the wetness of her friend’s tears. The unicorn had never really thought about it, but Rainbow Dash was right. She had only been a Wonderbolt for less than two years. A whole life of vigorous training had resulted in only eighteen months of living the dream.

“It’s not fair!” the Wonderbolt sobbed into Twilight’s shoulder. She calmed a bit, sniffing loudly. “I-I’m sorry, Twi... The princesses are gone and there are hundreds of dead, and here I am, crying about the Wonderbolts being disbanded.” She pulled her head up from the unicorn’s shoulder. “I’m being selfish.”

Twilight wrapped her forehoof around the pegasus and pulled her down again, wincing as she accidentally stretched her back. “You’re not being selfish, Dash. Dreams are important, and yours might just have been crushed,” she pointed out. “That’s plenty of reason to cry. Just... let it out.”

Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment, resting her head against her friend. Soon, tears came to her eyes once again and she began sobbing.
 
Twilight let her friend cry for a minute. “You know, when you joined the Wonderbolts, the team was pretty much full; they’ve never had twelve members before. It takes a lot of skill to do something like that. Not only that, but you did while their standards were pretty much at their highest and in your first try! There’s a pretty good chance you’re the most talented flier to ever fly with the Wonderbolts, which probably means you’re the most talented flier Equestria has seen in generations.”

Twilight noticed that her friend was no longer crying. After letting the information sink in, she continued. “You may very well be the best flier in the history of Equestria. Maybe... maybe the Wonderbolts isn’t your destiny. When Amber Vane first woke up, we actually talked a bit about fate and what was expected of us. He seemed to think I’m meant to do great things. And I think the same goes for you.”
 
“What do you mean?” the pegasus sniffed.
 
“I mean... well, maybe you aren’t supposed to be a Wonderbolt. Maybe you’re meant for something… greater. You’re the Element of Loyalty, you’re the Heroine of Cloudsdale, you’re the awesome Rainbow Dash; those are things that will never change, and you are who you are, Wonderbolt or not. One day, ponies will look toward Rainbow Dash. You, not the most talented flier in the Wonderbolts.”
 
“But what am I then? If I'm not a Wonderbolt, who am I? I'm… I’m Rainbow Dash, yes... but Rainbow Dash is a Wonderbolt! I’ve always wanted to be a Wonderbolt!” the rainbow-maned pony said. “I never wanted to be anything else! It was my life! I’ve enjoyed every second of my time with the other fliers… I can’t go back to just being a weather mare!”
 
“Then don’t,” the unicorn encouraged her friend. “Be what you want to be.”
 
“But… I don’t know… I don’t know what I want to be…”
 
“I think I do,” Twilight smiled at the pegasus, and Rainbow Dash lifted her head from her friend’s shoulder so that she was looking into the eyes of the unicorn. “The princesses are dead,” Twilight said with a heavy heart. “The sun is gone and our land will never be the same. You’re the Element of Loyalty, Dash. You’ll be what Equestria needs. You’ll stand by the side of those who need you. You’ll be a hero.”
 
The pegasus couldn’t help but smile through her tears. “You really think so?”
 
“I know so.”
 
Rainbow Dash sighed. “Thanks, Twi.” The two friends lay there for a while, resting against each other. Eventually, Twilight fell asleep, and the pegasus followed suit.
 

A loud snore woke Twilight, and the unicorn slowly opened her eyes to a world of pink and a huge smile. “Good morning!” sang the party pony. “…or good evening… or night…” Pinkie Pie’s head retreated so that the unicorn could have a look around.
 
Rainbow Dash was still lying beside her, her head resting on the unicorn’s shoulder. She snored again, and Twilight smiled. All of her friends except Fluttershy were standing around her. Next to each of the ponies was a tall stack of books.
 
“Surprise!” the pink pony yelled gleefully. “We brought you books! That way you won’t be bored whenever we’re not here!”
 
“Wow, thanks, Pinkie!” Twilight exclaimed, smiling at the ponies gathered around her. “And Rarity and AJ.” She turned her head toward the sleeping pegasus. “And I guess Rainbow helped as well.”
 
“Fluttershy helped out too, ‘fore she left,” Applejack added. “We spent most of, uh, yesterday, I guess, findin’ these here books.”
 
Twilight looked out the window. The sky was still the same shade of black, and the moon seemed to be in the exact same position. “How long has it been?” she asked.
 
“A few ponies are keeping track of time for Equestria,” the white unicorn said. “According to them, ten days have passed since… The Great Tragedy. That’s what ponies have taken to calling it.”
 
The injured unicorn sighed. “Ten days…”
 
“Hey!” Pinkie called out. “Why do we keep talking about you-know-who, and... you-know-what..? And you-know-when?” She grabbed Applejack’s lips and pulled them up into an awkward smile. “Let’s be happy!”
 
“La’ ga a mah maith, ‘Inkie!” the farmer huffed and broke free of the party pony’s grip.
 
“Sorry, Pinkie, but now’s not the time for smiles,” Twilight told her friend. “I need to know what’s going on out there.”
 
"Not a time for smiles?" Pinkie Pie started muttering discontentedly and sat in the corner, frowning.
 
“Well, I guess the best news from out there is that we ain’t no longer got an anarchy on our hooves,” Applejack started. “Some sorta council’s been elected to rule instea’ o’ the princesses.”
 
“Nine ponies, as far as I have been informed,” Rarity added. “Three earth ponies, three pegasi and three unicorns, although most of the names I do not recognize.”
 
“I reckon they got their hooves full, though,” the farmer muttered. “Ponies are only now seein’ how serious this situation is, and a lot o’ them are startin’ ta panic.”
 
“When’s the… funeral?” Twilight asked.
 
“Three days,” Rainbow Dash answered, and the unicorn jumped with surprise. “The Wonderbolts will be performing.” The pegasus got up from the bed and Applejack shook her head with a smile.
 
“A shame,” the farmer teased. “Y’all looked real cute like that.”
 
The pegasus only murmured something indecipherable, too lazy to think of a proper rebuttal.
 
“Sweetie Belle will be coming too,” Rarity said proudly. “She’ll be singing at the funeral.”
 
“Wow,” Twilight exclaimed. “That must really be an honor.”

“Ah still can’t believe she was surprised at her talent!” Applejack laughed. “Ah can’t remember how many times Ah complimented that filly on her voice, but Ah guess she was a bit shy ‘bout it.”

“At least she was the first among the Crusaders to get her cutie mark,” the white unicorn defended her sister. She gave the farmer pony a teasing smile. “And I daresay Sweetie Belle has been met with more success than any of her friends.”

“Scootaloo almost won the Best Young Flier competition,” Rainbow pointed out, her voice taking on a hint of competitiveness. “Only reasons she didn’t win was because she was too young and because she was up against Fleetfoot’s kid! You can’t do much better than that as a young pegasus!”

“How about being one of the most popular singers in all of Equestria?” Rarity countered. “She sang with Sapphire Shores only a few weeks after finding her talent!”

“Because of your connections!” Rainbow Dash spluttered.

As the two mares began bickering with each other, Applejack sighed and retreated to Twilight’s side. “Ya’d think Rarity woulda calmed down after two years,” she muttered to the injured unicorn with a smile. “But she’s as proud as ever.”

“Well, you can hardly blame her, can you?” Twilight giggled as the pegasus and unicorn began arguing more loudly. “How many awards has Sweetie Belle won? I’m having a hard time keeping up.”

“Ah can’t say,” the farmer admitted. “But Ah bet Rarity’d be able to list ‘em all both alphabetically and chron’logically.”

“Yeah, they really have grown close, haven’t they?” the unicorn smiled. By the foot of the bed, the two arguing ponies were calming down. Apparently, they had come to some sort of agreement. “I remember a time where Rarity and Sweetie Belle could hardly stand being in the same room.”

“Ugh, please don’t remind me o’ that,” the orange pony grimaced, remembering the time the white filly had adopted her as her older sister.
 
“Oh, Twilight!” Rarity suddenly exclaimed from the other side of the room. “While we are on the subject of the funeral I should tell you that Civil Tenet would like to see you before the ceremony.”

“Civil Tenet?” Twilight raised a non-existent eyebrow. “Who’s that?”

“A close friend of Princess Celestia with impeccable taste in fashion,” Rarity explained. “But more importantly, a member of the new ruling council. Hers was one of the few names I recognized. As far as I’ve understood, she’ll be acting as some sort of cultural minister in the times to come. She is also the one arranging the funeral.”
 
“I see. But... what does she want with me?” the injured unicorn inquired.

“She failed to tell me exactly what she wanted,” Rarity admitted. “Something to do with arranging the funeral, I believe.”
 
The door opened and Twilight’s doctor entered the room, looking as tired as ever. “Everypony please leave the room,” he said drily, and the ponies did as they were told. After the four friends had gone, the doctor’s horn started glowing, and a wheelchair was pulled into the room by his magic. “I apologize for having kept you waiting, Miss Sparkle, but we are ready to begin treating your burns now. We have been very busy with patients since The Great Tragedy as I have told you before, and you have rarely been awake when medical staff have visited.”
 
“I understand. Where are we going?” the injured unicorn asked as the blanket was levitated off of her and she and the doctor’s magic lifted her from the bed and into the chair. The unicorn winced as her foreleg shifted and her skin came into contact with the wheelchair.
 
“One of the zebras working here has managed to prepare some sort of ointment that should do wonders for your skin,” the doctor explained as he moved Twilight out the room and down the hall. “We will need to coat you in it and wrap you up in bandages.”
 
“A zebra? I didn’t know there were any of those in Canterlot,” Twilight commented as the two rounded a corner and started going down a windowless white corridor.
 
“Well, only a few,” he admitted. “But most of them have exceptional skills as potion brewers.”
 
“I know a zebra in Ponyville,” Twilight said. “I’ve never met anypony with such an intimate knowledge of nature.”

“Quite amazing, yes.”
 
The two were silent for a while. The only sound they could hear was the steady grinding noise of wheels against marble. “We would have treated your burns sooner,” the doctor apologized again. “But when you first came here, you were… blazing. Nopony could even touch you without getting burnt, whenever we tried applying any kind of bandages to your wounds, they caught fire. It was days before we could put you anywhere but on the stone floor without starting a fire.” The doctor sighed. “You are an oddity, Miss Sparkle, if you don't mind me saying so.” He stopped the wheelchair. “Ah, here we are,” he said and opened a door to their right, leading into a small room with an adjustable surgical table in the middle. To her right was a counter holding a wide array of surgical tools, and a bright light shone in the ceiling.
 
“We’ll have to clean your wounds before treating your burns,” the doctor explained. “I’ll wager it'll hurt a lot, so I suggest anesthesia. Seeing as how you wounded four royal guards on accident with your magic recently, it would put the staffers at ease while operating,” he pointed out.
 
Twilight nodded her consent, and while she worked on transferring herself from the wheelchair to the table, the doctor used his magic to summon a mask with a tube attached to it from behind the surgical table. After Twilight had gotten into a comfortable position, the mask was fastened around her muzzle.

A sweet smelling odor filled her nostrils, and within moments Twilight felt herself starting to drift off.

I’ve been sleeping a lot recently…