//------------------------------// // Dead Letters // Story: Back and Forth // by adcoon //------------------------------// The house was small and rectangular, a hut made from large stones stacked on top of each other to form crude walls. It had a single wooden door and a small window. It was the simplest home Cadance had ever seen made by hooves, no decoration and nothing but bare, rocky ground where a garden might have been. Even the wild tufts of grass growing on the flat roof were gray and hung limply off the edges. “Hello?” Cadance looked up at the grass as she knocked on the door. While waiting for a response, she plucked a few tufts with her magic and levitated it down for closer scrutiny. It wasn’t even withered, it was just gray, as if the color had been washed out of the leaves. She lifted the grass up to her nose and sniffed; it didn’t even have the scent of grass. Cadance glanced around. All the houses looked the same; plain rectangular buildings of stone, some with tufts of wild grass growing on their roofs, others bare. A few had smoke drifting from chimneys and light in their windows, but not a single pony was in sight. She turned and knocked again. “Anypony here?” she called and leaned over to peek through the small window. The inside of the house was nearly bare except for a plain wooden table, a fireplace, and a pile of hay for a bed. “Who lives here?” she wondered aloud. Even the smoldering remains of the fire in the fireplace seemed gray. Cadance stared in silence at the poor interior and cold, colorless embers. She must have been silent for a while; as she was taking another glance around the room and listening for any sounds from the village, a frightened face looked out from hiding, apparently to see if the visitor had gone. As the old crystal mare came face to face with Cadance in the window, she let out a terrified whinny and dropped back down behind the door to hide away. Cadance blinked and moved to try and see the mare, but only the tip of her tail stuck out in view. “I mean you no harm, good pony,” Cadance said as gently as she could to calm the pony. “Why are you hiding from me?” She glanced around the empty village. “I take it everypony here is doing the same. Can you please tell me what is the reason?” “I ain’t talkin’ to it. I ain’t talkin’ to it,” the mare kept repeating under her breath. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand. I am looking for two little fillies who I believe live here in this village. Their names are Silica Heart and Silene Bond. Have you—” “I AIN’T TALKIN’ TO IT!” the mare yelled and went immediately back to her repeated mutterings behind the door. “Ain’t talkin’ to it. No names. No names. Ain’t talkin’.” Cadance took a step back as the mare yelled. She stared at the small window, then slowly turned around. “I shall leave you be, then. Sorry to disturb you,” she said quietly and walked slowly down the path, leaving the frightened pony alone. As she walked in silence through the village, she caught several ponies sneaking a peek out of their windows to see if she was gone. The moment they saw her still there, they vanished back behind their walls. She turned down another path between houses. The village proved larger than she had at first assumed. In some places, the houses were placed very close together, as if to waste no room. Cadance paused on the road and looked around. After about five minutes of standing around, a pair of faces peeked out of a window. Like the others, they quickly disappeared again when they saw her. Cadance turned and silently snuck up to the house, crouching down below the window. Several more minutes passed in silence as she patiently waited. Finally a shadow moved in the window above her, and a young mare’s voice whispered from within. “Is it gone?” “I think so,” another voice said, belonging to a stallion. “I’m scared.” “It ain’t nothing more than a ghost, girl. Can’t hurt you none. Just stay low and don’t talk to it whatever you do. It’ll go away soon enough.” “B-but what if it doesn’t?” “It’ll attract attention the way it’s strutting about, looking like that,” the stallion said with conviction in his voice. “It’ll go away soon, one way or the other.” Cadance snuck away and turned down another path, feeling her heart sink as she thought about what she had heard and seen so far. “They think I’m a ghost? Why would they think that?” she muttered at the ground as she walked. She nearly stumbled when a loud crash came from nearby. She spun around and listened, then took off in the direction of the sound. There was a second crash as she rounded a corner and spotted a house with its door torn off the hinges. Noises came from within the house. Cadance walked closer and looked through the window into the modest home, not much different than every other home she had seen so far. Inside, a wolf nearly the size of a grown stallion was tearing up the place, throwing everything in a great pile on the floor. The beastly wolf’s coat was scruffy and scarred, and half its ear was missing. Wolves were common sights in the North, but most of those Cadance had seen were rather scrawny and shied away from her or her guards. Most ponies had little to fear from wolves unless they were caught alone in the wild. This one looked anything but shy or scrawny, however, and it was unlikely to be the only one of its kind nearby. Even prepared and armed with magic and surprise, Cadance had to take a moment to steel herself. She took a long breath and stepped through the door, fixing the wolf with a hard stare. “What are you doing here, wolf?” she demanded. The wolf spun around. Its snarl caught in its throat as it saw her. For a moment surprise and confusion painted its scarred and furry face, then it grinned. “About to make it big,” it answered in a raspy voice and licked its chops, circling her slowly. Its fierce yellow eyes were fixed upon her. “Real big, I wager.” “What do you mean?” Cadance said, keeping her voice level and her eyes steely. The wolf growled low in its throat. “Looking like you do, you gotta be worth quite the fortune for the one who brings you in. Betcha they’ll give me a lordly title for you. Then I’ll be chewing with the big boys upstairs.” Cadance turned slowly to keep her eyes on the wolf, narrowing her gaze. “Looking like what exactly? Bring me where?” Cadance stepped back as the wolf took a step closer. “Explain yourself, wolf.” The beast guffawed and stepped in front of the open doorway, blocking the way out. “Ponies shouldn’t be talking, you know. Maybe I’ll bite out your tongue. You won’t be needing it where you’re going.” It sniffed the air and grinned. “You reek of fear.” “Come closer then,” Cadance said to the wolf, “if you want a taste of fear.” The wolf laughed, then bared its teeth and leapt at her. Cadance had expected it to make a move and was ready. She reared up on her hind legs and unfolded her wings as her horn flared. The wolf collided at full speed with a sudden wall of solid light. Cadance didn’t even let it hit the ground before swiftly wrapping the magical barrier around it like a tight bubble, letting it hang upside-down in the air. “A little trick somepony taught me,” she said as she lowered her head to look in the wolf’s eyes. “Maybe you’d like a demonstration of my own talents. Ever heard of ‘Tough Love’?” The wolf howled and struggled as the tight space grew tighter around it, forcing it into a ball and squeezing it in a steel hug. “Not gonna say a word, pony bitch!” it snarled in defiance. Cadance leaned closer until her eyes were level with the wolf’s. “Wolves never hunt alone,” she said. “How far away are your friends? How long do you think until they come looking for you? I can’t help but notice,” she continued. “All this gray and talk of me ‘looking like that’. I bet you’ve got a thing or two against pretty colors. I bet your friends do too.” The glow from her horn shimmered slightly as she refocused her spell for a better grip. “I learn from all my friends. One of them taught me a spell for dyeing fabrics: more colors than you can squeeze from a rainbow. It works on hair just as well.” She smiled as the wolf’s eyes gave away a hint of worry. “Another of my friends can do things with streamers and confetti you wouldn’t even believe.” The wolf gulped. Cadance grinned. “I suggest you start flapping your tongue, or I swear I will make you light up like a tree on Hearth’s Warming Eve and hang you from your tail with a big bow in the center of town. What do you think your friends will say when they find you like that?” She raised her head back up and regarded the wolf cooly. “You can start by telling me why you’re tearing this house apart. And no lies, or I might just make you glow from the inside out.” “You wait, pony,” the wolf growled pitifully. “When Lord Fenris hears of you, he’ll skin you alive and use your bones to pick his teeth, he will!” Cadance’s horn flared threateningly. “That’s not what I asked about.” The wolf cringed away from the colorful light. “The ponies living here were caught in acts of treason and subverting the law,” he said grudgingly. “Everything must be burned to keep rebellion from spreading to the rest of the herd.” “What exactly did they do?” Cadance kept her eyes fixed on the wolf, but her ears were listening for any sounds of other wolves sneaking up on them from outside. She didn’t want any surprise interruptions. “Drawing and writing, bearing names, discussing forbidden topics and spreading propaganda,” the wolf rattled off, like an official list of charges. Cadance glared at the ball of fur squeezed tightly inside her magic. “Names?” “Members of the herd aren’t allowed to bear names,” the wolf recited. “Gives them the sense of individuality. Makes them bold.” “And drawing pictures? Writing?” The wolf growled and struggled against the magic, to no avail. “Not allowed.” Cadance tightened the magic even further. “Let me guess, colors are forbidden too?” The wolf nodded hurriedly, then squeaked as Cadance squeezed it to the point where it could only just move its head. “Colors displease Lord Fenris and incite a rebellious spirit in the herd.” “I see,” she said. “And where are the inhabitants of this house now? What were their names?” “I don’t know any names. Names are not allowed.” The wolf fought to make itself as small as possible. “They were taken from here less than an hour ago. Two small ones and their mother.” “Where to?” Cadance raised her voice. “North! To work in the mines!” the wolf howled. “Traitors get to work day and night until they can’t work no more, as an example to the rest of the herd.” Cadance looked up at the door, then back down at the wolf. The glow from her horn intensified as she wove her spell in intricate loops. “This is a trick inspired by two little fillies who wrote to me just recently,” she said as the magic wove into inter-locked loops, forming a chain. The wolf fell to the floor and clawed at the chain around its neck. “What are you doing?” “I’m taking you with me,” Cadance said as she yanked the chain, pulling the wolf back on his paws and dragging him towards the door. “I’m not going to let you run off with your tail between your legs and warn all your friends about me. Come along.” * * * Somehow the fog had cleared up considerably since her arrival, leaving only a thin grey mist shrouding the gorge. However, more important things were ahoof for Cadance to worry about. There was clearly some kind of dark magic at work here, and she had found herself right in the middle of it. “What’s your name, wolf?” she asked as she dragged him through town and down a path leading north into the gorge. The wolf growled something unintelligible. “Growly McGrowl, did I hear that right? Very fitting,” she said. The wolf only growled something equally incomprehensible in response. “I am Princess Cadance, of the Crystal Empire. Now we know each other, Growly.” ‘Growly’ let out a snort which sounded suspiciously like a mocking laugh. Cadance raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s so funny?” “You really think you’re her, don’t you?” Growly rolled his eyes. “Damn, but you’re messed up.” Cadance turned her head back around. “I don’t care for your ignorance, wolf. I don’t know what you and your friends think you are doing in this gorge, but I’m going to put an end to it.” The wolf burst out laughing. Cadance sighed and wrapped a bit of the chain around his muzzle, shutting it tight. “Laugh if you like, but do it quietly. I’d like to not alert your friends to my approach.” The wolf snickered. Cadance resolved herself to ignore it. “You won’t get a rise out of me, if that’s what you think you’re doing,” she said as she pulled the chain and picked up her pace. Cadance had seen a lot of snow-blasted landscapes and barren mountains since taking over the Crystal Empire, but the bleak gray of this gorge took the prize for desolation. No wonder the ponies here were so depressed, she thought as she paused to consider the path forward. Her eyes caught something a little way up the crags. With a flap of her wings she moved closer and looked down at a tiny heart hastily scratched on the stone with chalk. An arrow pointed off down a narrow path a bit away. “Good thinking, girls,” she thought. She turned to Growly plodding along behind her and said, “Unless you want to be dragged along the ground, you better start running.” Unfolding her wings she took to the air and picked up her pace as she followed the direction of the sign. The wolf growled its displeasure as it started to run to keep up with her. Heavy gray clouds hung over the gorge as she crested a hill and looked down into a small hidden valley scattered with large boulders. A group of heavily armored wolves were dragging along three crystal ponies in rusty chains—two fillies still without their cutie marks and a mare, who could well be their mother, with a white blossom cutie mark. All three ponies were dull gray and white, somehow drained of color like everything else Cadance had seen in this gorge. Cadance landed and crouched low behind a rock as she observed them from afar. The wolves pulled relentlessly at the chains, paying no mind to the stumbling of the ponies. She turned her attention to the mare. Even from this distance Cadance could see that she wasn’t too well. A dark scowl crossed her face as she stood back up and took wing again, pulling at the chain of the wolf behind her. “Keep up, Growly!” “What do you intend?” he growled vaguely through his chained muzzle. Cadance ignored it. Her horn glowed as she neared the group. She allowed a bit of the magic to fill her voice and give it strength as she swooped down towards them. “FETCH!” The wolves startled and spun around to face the voice. A ball of colorful light formed in the air in front of Cadance, who spun around and bucked it into the middle of the wolves. The beasts yelped and jumped back from the chromatic sphere. “You play like toothless old ninnies!” Cadance taunted as she bucked another pair of balls right at what she took to be the lead wolf. The wolf jumped back predictably, just as the balls curved in midair and smacked the faces of the two surprised wolves next to him. “Even my grandma could duck better than that!” The wolves jumped and growled, trying to snap at her, but she kept well out of reach. “Come on! Are you gonna play, or are you gonna bray?” Cadance lopped another three balls at the wolves, who were quickly turning tail and running from the flying menace. “Deal with it, doggies!” Cadance bucked another pair of balls, sending them racing after the fleeing wolves. A satisfying duo of smacks echoed through the gorge as they found their targets. “Help!” Cadance looked down to see one wolf who had stayed behind to grab the two fillies. “Let the wolf you’ve chained go and come down here, nice and slow,” the wolf threatened as it held the struggling fillies in a vice grip. “Or the little ones end up a head or two smaller.” Cadance narrowed her eyes as she turned to face the wolf. “That was a mistake,” she said. “Red card, wolf. You’re out.” The wolf bared its teeth. “I’m not playing gam—” It didn’t finish its sentence. The six balls scattered on the ground exploded in splashes of red, green, blue, yellow, purple, and screaming pink paint. The wolf howled as it was sprayed with liquid color. It tried to claw at the paint, as if it was burning it, only managing to smear it in even worse as it rolled around on the ground. Cadance landed next to the mare who had collapsed on the ground, and spread her wings to protect the two fillies as they scrambled towards her. “Leave this place, wolf, and take your friend with you.” She dropped the magical chain, letting it dissolve in a spray of colorful motes. “If you value your hides, you will run far away and never come back.” “Are you all okay?” she asked as the two wolves scampered off with their tails between their legs, one of them leaving a long rainbow trail of paint behind. She looked the two painted fillies over. “I’m sorry about the paint.” The fillies stared up at her with wide eyes and open mouths, then scrambled to bow on the ground before her. The one Cadance took to be the oldest regained her voice first. “Y-you’re really her, aren’t you? You’re r-really Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. You’ve got so many pretty colors!” she said in total wonder. Cadance smiled and gently nudged them back on their hooves. It occurred to her that they might have never seen any colors before, other than endless shades of gray and brown. “Call me Cadance. And you two must be Silica Heart and Silene Bond, am I right?” “H-how did you know?” Silica, the oldest, squeaked. “My heart tells me many things,” Cadance said and considered the two fillies and their mother. The mare had passed out and was breathing in long, raspy breaths. “Your mother is not well, she needs rest, and all the other wolves will soon hear of what happened here. We must find safety as soon as possible. Is there anywhere we will be safe?” They both looked down at their hooves, and Silica shook her head. “The other ponies will probably be too afraid to help us. Even talking with us will get them in trouble.” “That answers another question,” Cadance said quietly and lay down on the ground. “Help me get your mother up on my back. I promise I will keep you all safe.” “T-there’s a cave up in the crags near the village,” Silene said almost too quietly to be heard. “We go up there sometimes. It’s pretty deep and easy to hide in.” “Can you show me the way?” Cadance stood up, carrying their mother safely on her back between her wings. “Mhmm.” The two fillies nodded, their wide eyes still watching her with awe. “Y-you were really brave back there,” Silene dared to speak up. “Is it really true? Are you really the crystal princess? I didn’t really think you’d come.” Cadance turned around and headed back towards the village, smiling at the filly. “Is it so hard to believe? You wrote such a heartfelt letter. How could I not come?” Silene looked down at her hooves and scuffed at the ground. “E-everypony says … um, they all say you’re …” she trailed off, her little ears drooping. Silica bit her lip. “Everyone knows you’re s-supposed to be dead, princess,” she said. “The wolves gloat about it all the time to remind us that you’re all gone and won’t help us. Mom tells us not to believe it, but I don’t think she really believes that you’re still alive herself.” Cadance stared at the gray mountains around them. “Dead?” she said, her voice caught in her throat for a moment. “They s-say when the big wolf escaped his chains long ago, back when our granny was still alive, um, he ate you whole and imprisoned the royal family in ice.” Silica looked uncomfortable. “He’s enslaved everypony for years and removed all color and fun from the world. There’s nothing anypony could do.” Cadance stared at the path in front of them, thoughts churning in her head. “I think I need to hear this whole tale from the beginning, she said.” She looked around at the barren landscape around them. “But first we must find that cave and get to safety.”