In one of the less savory districts of Canterlot, Arch Freight peeks past the worn curtains of a dusty window, looking at the street below. Thin mist enrobes the city like a cloak, limiting the stallion’s view to only a few blocks. Above the blanket of haze, he can see the sun glinting on the eastern horizon, ready to rise and greet the new day as it always does. In its sovereign glory, it acts just as nothing had changed during the past month.
Nothing but everything, thinks the stallion sleepily as he sneers at the sight. How is that possible? How dare the Sun and the Moon go on so indifferently? What is going on in the Castle? His eyes dart down as a shadow moves there. He stifles the instinct to draw the curtains completely; instead, he moves slightly away from the window while following the shadow that grows against the opposite house's wall. It’s only after a stray cat emerges from the rubble that he breathes out again.
He closes the curtains and covers them with planks once more. Behind him, sleepy grunts draw his attention. In one of the small living room’s corners, an array of blankets piled on top of each other stirs as his wife moves there. Arch Freight walks over to her quietly and plants a kiss on her idly swaying forehead. Despite the old sweat and dust that stain her coat, the touch warms his heart against the chill of the early morning.
“Archie…” mumbles the mare sleepily, her eyes opening gradually. “Is it morning?”
He kisses her again, on the left ear this time. “Almost. Never mind that. You two can sleep while I stay on guard.”
“But it is so dark… Why it has to be so dark…?”
“Just some morning mist, dear,” answers the stallion soothingly, his muzzle gently brushing her head. “And the windows are covered with planks, remember?”
“How can it be misty this time of the year?” asks the mare quietly while closing her eyes. She falls slowly back to the old mattress and pulls the sleeping colt closer to her. “It’s unnatural…”
He watches the two huddling together tightly, the steam of their breathes mixing in with his. He flinches as his head droops, and for a second he considers giving in to the temptation to settle with his family in the land outside time. No… I must stay awake. I must guard them, must keep them safe. I must… stay awake. The cold in the room allies with his heavy eyelids, urging him again to take his place on the other side of Berryfer. He shakes his head to fend off the thoughts of comfort. Peace is luxury now. Those who forget it lose everything. He turns away from his family and leaves the room.
The first hours of the day wear out rapidly as he searches the other flats for food, supplies, and anything of use in general. Despite the size of the tenement, there is not much to find in the abandoned, empty apartments, some of which appear to have been empty for years. These homes were poor even before the catastrophe: now they are below that, too. I hadn’t anticipated that the situation would be this bad… His searching comes to a sudden halt as he hears loud noises carrying from outside. It’s as if an army was parading right past the building. When his curiosity wins over his anxiety and he peeks through a window, he finds the truth to be not much different.
From the third floor, he sees a line of carriages packed with rubble going by, each drawn by two earth ponies. The cool mist has evaporated by now, and even from afar Arch Freight can see how the young sun’s warmth drenches the ponies in sweat. Still they go on as in a trance, their faces blank and expressionless. All in all, Arch Freight counts a dozen carriages go by and head downtown. They are cursed, all cursed. And were it not for a lucky chance, we’d be there too, working until our backs broke under the weight of our ruined homes. He pulls back from the window, eager to continue his scavenging.
He flinches as he sees Berryfer standing right behind him, staring. “What’s the matter?” asks Arch Freight instinctively.
The colt shuns his eyes as if in shame. “Nothing, Pa. I’m just… hungry.” His aimlessly shuffling legs paint random patterns on the dirty plank floor. “Did you find any food?” he whispers shyly.
Arch Freight feels a bitter lump forming in his throat and despite his growling stomach, swallowing it stirs nothing but disgust in him. “I will soon, Berryfer,” he says, walking to him. “Do you want to help me?”
“Yes, Pa…” He follows his father as he heads to the staircase.
"Mind your step," says the father, pointing at a loose plank at the top of the staircase. "The building is filled with traps like that." They start their descent into the second floor. "Does your mother know you came to me?” he asks.
“Yeah. She told me I should.” The colt glances timidly at his father’s back. “Pa… Why did we leave the others behind yesterday?”
The question stings Arch Freight like a needle. “The situation was very chaotic at the time. We got separated in the panic, nothing more.”
The colt hesitates a moment. “But you said... You told them to go to the stables while we escaped through the Southern Gate. You said that, I remember.”
They get to the bottom floor, where Arch Freight gives the foal a long look. Berryfer seems very disturbed by his father’s eyes, avoiding them as best as he can. Is this why you sent him to me, Silk? To ask questions that nopony wants to know answers for? “Why do you think I did that?” he asks quietly.
As if afraid, Berryfer raises his bright blue eyes slowly from the carpet. “Because… you didn’t like them?”
“Listen to me carefully, Berryfer. What I did yesterday, I did for nopony else than for you and for your mother: for us. That is why I do everything I do, because I love you.” Arch Freight puts his hoof firmly on the colt’s thin shoulder. “When you get older, you'll understand me better.” I didn’t believe I’d ever see the day when I had to resort to that argument. The graveyard must be ringing from my father's laughing.
The pools of blue ripple and for a second, Arch Freight sees his own reflection in their surface. Berryfer nods faintly, and the stallion gives him a warm smile.
“Where do you think they are now?” asks the colt when the stallion has already turned his back to him.
He doesn’t answer immediately. “Wherever they are, we can’t help each other now. Come, let’s try to find something to eat.”
Quiet steps echo around the empty corridor as the two ponies walk along its length, peeking into apartments that line up on either side. The brown paint on the bare plank walls is cracked and faded at several places, perhaps even more so than in the three stories above. The familiar smell of mold, mixed in with dust and putrefying process, lingers heavily in the air. Most of the old-fashioned, dark-green doors are wide open, save a few that have been broken into. The colt hides behind his father, eyeing warily the shadows that spread from the lifeless apartments.
“It smells like something died here,” he whispers. A sizable rat skitters past the carpet, making him flinch.
More like the whole building is dying. “Dead things aren’t the worst we can expect to find here. Stay close, don’t wander away.” The stallion takes a step towards the nearest half-opened door and pushes it gently with a hoof. A creaking noise cuts the air. The colt leans away from the opening, hiding better behind the stallion. He meeps when the father moves to the doorstep.
“Hello?” says Arch Freight, keeping his voice steady enough to carry all over to the apartment and not a room further. “If there is somepony here, know that I’m not one of the Changed. My name is Arch Freight. I’m coming in now.” He takes a step into the room, then another one. Soon he is wholly inside, studying yet another deserted home. In the living room that he finds beyond the hall, furniture lies scattered and broken. The kitchen beyond that tells the same tale. There was a fight here, and a fierce one at that. No blood, though. He sees Berryfer studying a broken glass cupboard.
“Stay away from that,” he says. “You might cut yourself.”
The colt takes a step back, looking anxiously at the stallion. “You think the smoke monsters did this?”
“If they did, they are long gone by now. They never come out at daylight.”
“What are they, anyway?” continues Berryfer, looking at his ankle with frowny eyes. “They have to be magical, right? Like elementals?”
“That is a good observation. What makes you think so?” asks Arch Freight, scouring the cupboards. Better keep him talking: it seems to calm him down. And helps to take his mind away from his stomach.
“Well…” starts Berryfer with a pride of a ten-year old. “They melted through the floorboards, so they must be able to turn themselves at least partly ethra-etrh-”
“Ethereal,” corrects the stallion. “Go on.”
“And their touch was freezing cold, so they can’t have blood in them. Also, you fought them back with magic, and they didn’t bleed or anything. They just vanished.” The colt smiles proudly. “Living things always bleed.”
“Trees don't,” says the stallion, opening yet another cupboard only to find it full of plates and mugs. “And they certainly are alive, don’t you think?”
The colt rolls his eyes. “Duh… They didn’t look like plants to me. So they must be magical.” He wanders under the kitchen table, following a trail of breadcrumbs. “That means they must have a master, right?”
“That is very likely, yes,” answers Arch Freight, closing the cupboard filled with plates a tad more violently than needed, sending the china rattling inside. There is nothing here, not a stump of a carrot to eat. I wage my mane that the same goes for the other apartments, and for the other houses… for the whole damn city. Canterlot is wholly dependent on imported food, and with the siege having lasted for over three weeks… I doubt it if even the Castle has any edible food left inside. “Come with me, Berryfer,” says Arch Freight, his voice as steady as ever. “Let’s move on to the next door. Mark this one's door so that we know what apartments we have searched already. A rational and disciplined mind is our most important asset, never forget that.”
He almost gets out of the kitchen before noticing that the colt hasn’t moved a muscle under the kitchen table. “Berryfer? Leave the crumbs for the rats.”
“Pa…” whimpers the colt. “There is somepony under the floorboards.”
It takes Arch Freight four seconds to understand what he just heard, but only one to step hurriedly over to his son who is staring at the floor. “Move over,” commands the father, pushing the heavy table quickly away with his horn. “Where?”
The colt points at a small crack between the planks. It’s pitch black there, and despite his best efforts, Arch Freight can’t see properly into the hole. Very carefully, he lights up his horn.
In the grey-white light, he sees a pupil shrinking as it stares right back at him from the darkness below.
***
Outside the city, in a round tent that stands over twelve feet tall, Shining Armor eyes with care the other stallions present. They are all dressed in armor and military uniforms. He can feel their stares burning him from every side. Were it not for the brilliant coat that most of them bear as their birthright, he wouldn’t have problems facing them without a flinch. Alas, despite the sun-filtering fabric around them, the ponies of Crystal Kingdom are hard to look directly at for long. Armor closes his eyes and sees sawtooth patterns dancing behind his eyelids.
He forces them open again before speaking. “Most of you already know the topic of this meeting. I have come to a decision. We shall attack.”
The four other stallions erupt speaking fervently at once. Armor gives them a few minutes before beating the heavy table couple of times with a hoof. “I’m glad that you all agree,” he says when the noise quiets down. “Now, to talk about the strategy, I would start by–”
“What?!” blurts one of the stallions, a unicorn with a black beard that almost reaches to the ground. “We are all against you in this!”
Armor rises his eyes from the map spread on the table, nailing an indifferent look at him. “Are you, now? Why, I couldn’t tell. Maybe if you all hadn't talked over one another I might have. I simply presumed that you would follow the Supreme Commander’s orders.” I need to act as if disobeying wasn’t an option, thinks Armor as his eyes start watering again. That's the only way this is going to work.
All the other commanders blush faintly. The effect turns the lighting in the tent almost pink. “My apologies, Commander Armor,” continues the bearded unicorn who is again the first to recoup. “But as you surely know, the combined voice of all the other commanders will outweigh the Supreme Commander’s decision.” He glances at the other commanders, all of whom look sternly at Armor. “And as you said, we knew of the day’s topic already. Accordingly, we have come to a decision of our own.”
One could almost hear a needle drop in the silence that ensues. “Gentlecolts…” begins Armor after a while, his eyes cast on the map. “It has been twenty-four days. We cannot prolong this any longer.”
“We can if we must,” says a short and sturdy unicorn beside the bearded one. “A frontal assault on Canterlot Castle? It cannot be done.”
“It has been done!” cries Armor. “The Changelings–”
“–Were a different animal altogether,” interrupts the stout unicorn. The glimmer of his coat reflects from his round glasses, hiding his eyes. “You know that better than most, Commander.”
“That is exactly what I mean,” continues Armor through clenched teeth. “I was the key to Queen Chrysalis's plan of invasion and so I shall be in ours. I know the city’s defenses better than anypony alive. Canterlot is not impregnable, far from it. It's only made to look like it.”
“Nonetheless, a straight attack would cost hundreds of lives,” says the bearded unicorn. “And for what? They have no food in there, while our storages are refilled daily. Wait another week and–”
“–And Canterlot becomes the largest cemetery in Equestria just by itself,” finishes Armor darkly as he raises his gaze from the table. “The lack of food is the problem, not the solution, Proud Freight.”
“A regrettable problem, but from the military perspective–”
Armor slams his front hooves on the table so hard that even the guards standing by the tent entrance jump. “I will not stand and watch from side as the capital of Equestria starves to death!”
An uneasy silence descends to the tent again, and this time it’s the other commanders who can't bear to look at Armor. Finally, Proud Freight seizes the initiative once more, his face the very embodiment of military discipline. “You are not the only one here who has his heart at stake in this, Supreme Commander.” He pauses to draw breath. “Or do I have to remind you that my son, along with his family, is trapped there along with the rest.”
Armor blinks. “Waiting is not an option anymore, not even if we forget the unforgettable. You all know why.” He turns his eyes from Proud Freight and lets them sweep over the other commanders.
“You talk of the Device?” asks a pegasus stallion with the same Equestrian coat as Armor. “Do we know its purpose now?”
“We do and we do not,” answers a crystal pegasus, the youngest pony in the room. “Nothing much has changed since your absence, Cloud Shield. They are still building it and all we know about it is that it’s like nothing we have seen before. And that it seems to come together faster every day.”
“Thus it cannot be anything we would like to see completed,” continues Armor. “Listen to Bright Wing here: they are hurrying the building of the contraption inside. Why would they waste energy on something was not of essential importance to them?”
“Are you suggesting it indeed is some kind of a weapon?” asks Proud Freight, raising an eyebrow. “How could it be? The thing is so massive it would be impossible to move around.”
“It might be a bomb of some sort,” says Bright Wing. “Since yesterday, the air patrols have registered strange bursts of magical energy around and inside the main construction yard. I’m not talking about the usual glow that surrounds it. All the reports tell the same tale: something big is up.”
“Can’t you get a better look at it?” asks the sturdy unicorn with glasses.
Bright Wing shakes his head. “The ‘Changed’ pegasi, so to speak, have begun acting more aggressively. Some blows have already been exchanged in air and we didn’t think it wise to push it farther than that without the War Council’s authorization.” The pegasus’s glimmering coat darkens just slightly. “I’m not saying this to paint black clouds, but the Changed pegasi fight back as if their lives depended on it. We cannot get any closer without upping the ante ourselves.”
Some meaningful looks are changed, but from all the anxiety in the room, Armor’s attention is drawn to the other pegasus whose frame just turned a tad more stiff. Are you still harboring those dark thoughts? Or did your absence fulfil its purpose? “I rest my case,” Armor states, drawing all the eyes to himself again. “Whatever they are preparing for us there, we won’t like it. That could even be the reason why Canterlot was attacked in the first place: to create the Device.”
“What are you exactly proposing, then?” asks Proud Freight. “A frontal assault?”
“In the end, it will come to that. But there is more: we wouldn't be scaling the walls, but charging through the opened gate.”
A few eyebrows are raised and Armor might swear he heard a stifled chuckle from somepony. However, nopony asks the question that they are all thinking.
“Here is the plan,” continues Armor. “We will send a hoofful of our best soldiers, pegasi and unicorns only, to the caverns below the castle, the same ones Queen Chrysalis used to imprison Princess Cadance. From there they will make it to the Castle and into the city. Some will stay by the cavern entrance to cause a diversion and under its protection the rest will open the city gates.” They didn’t reject it immediately, thinks Armor as he studies the faces of the other stallions. Now I only need to turn Proud Freight’s mind and the others will follow.
“What guarantees that this strike force wouldn’t face the same fate as the first one?” asks Bright Wing.
To Armor’s surprise, it’s Proud Freight who answers. “Because this time they wouldn’t be trying to take out the one who caused all this. Also, they wouldn’t be approaching the Castle from the air, but from below.” He turns his eyes to Armor again. “Still, the risk would be immense. We have no idea how many guards there are inside the Castle, and the route through the city is a long one.”
“We would be sending our best,” answers Armor calmly. “We also have our concealment spells, and the element of surprise.”
“Are we certain of the latter one?” asks the sturdy stallion, aiming his words at the tent in general. “What if the enemy knows about the caverns?”
“I took the liberty to send two scouts there today,” says Armor. “Nothing suggested that they would know anything about them. That is to be expected, considering that they are one of the most guarded secrets of the Castle. Even Chrysalis had to get right into the heart of the court to find out about them.”
Another pause filled with anticipation follows. They have accepted the plan. All they now need is a little nudge. “There are risks involved, let none tell you otherwise. Whatever we decide here today, we are gambling on something. This plan has the benefit that, when it succeeds, it will end this tragedy tomorrow.”
From the other side of the table, Bright Wing sighs heavily. “Look… I know this is something we all know, but… we will be fighting against our own people there.” His eyes circle the table and stop at Armor. “And like I said, they will certainly fight back.”
“They will be starved and weak,” says Armor. “We will use the least force necessary, bind them, knock them out, anything to immobilize them without truly harming them. Once inside the city, we will send enough troops to the Castle to finally subdue the creature that has enslaved our people to their will.”
“Do we still have any clue on what we are dealing with here?” asks Cloud Shield, his jaw clenched. “What kind of a demon could hold enough power to hypnotize an entire city?”
“It most likely isn’t simple hypnosis, that much can be said for certain,” says Proud Freight, his tone almost academic. “If it were, we could have snapped the prisoners we have acquired out of it long ago. Whatever enthralls them is way beyond anything that might even remotely be called hypnotism.”
“Changeling magic?” suggests the sturdy pegasus. “I still argue that it’s Queen Chrysalis again. Her control magic is potent, as we well know.” He gives a quick glance at Armor.
“Nopony denies that to be the case, but it only worked when she kept me close enough to her and renewed the spell at steady intervals,” answers Armor without blinking. “Besides, had Chrysalis been capable of seducing all of Canterlot, she would’ve done that long ago.”
“Maybe she has learned?” asks Bright Wing.
“Everything is possible,” concludes Proud Freight. “But speculation takes us nowhere. Whatever name the horror that lurks inside the Canterlot Castle carries, we know that it was powerful enough to deal with both Princess Celestia and Luna, and with our elite strike force, not to mention enslaving the whole city, all the while without even showing its face.”
Nopony has anything clever to say about that.
Then Armor clears his throat and breaks the spell. “I may be asking the color of the sky here… but did your patrol find any trace of my sis–I mean, of Princess Twilight?”
Cloud shield shuns Armor's eyes. “We roamed the wastes for over two weeks, Commander, yet found no sign of her. Needless to say, we keep on searching until the last feather deserts our wings.”
A faint smile decorates Armor’s lips. “I’m certain it will not come to that.” Twily….what ever happened to you? Where did you go, and why? Will I ever know? “Until that… I suspect that we have a decision to make here. Unless somepony wishes to say something before the final vote?”
The silence lasts for four heartbeats.
“With your leave, Supreme Commander… I would forfeit my vote,” says Cloud Shield while staring straight at Armor. “It’s not that I beg for any special treatment or pity: the choice is as hard for all of us. It’s only that I don’t feel authorized to make the decision on behalf of the Royal Guard – officially speaking, I’m still only the Second Lieutenant, not the Capt–”
“–You became the de facto Captain of the Canterlot’s Royal Guard on the instant that your predecessor was deprived of his free will, Cloud Shield. Your voice will carry the same weight as anypony else’s around this table.” Armor ends his sentence with a grin. “Yours truly excluded, of course.”
The pegasus nods shortly at Armor. “Then I shall vote.”
Armor draws one last breath and says with a booming voice: “Everypony in favour of the plan discussed, raise you right hoof now.”
Four hooves rise in unison. Four ponies look at Proud Freight, who sighs heavily. “It felt appropriate that there ought to be one nay among the votes. The question's gravity demanded that, I felt.” He smiles like a ghost. “If it needs to be done, then it needs to be done. May the heavens help us all.”
Because we seriously need them to, concludes Armor in his mind.
***
Hundreds of miles away, in the wilderness filled with pines and rivers, Twilight watches the midday sun the way she has never before: with scorn. The rays burn her eyes and make tears run on her cheeks, but she glares at the celestial orb for three more seconds before averting her gaze. She doesn’t wipe the salty water of her eyes immediately, but lets the moistness linger as she blinks them. It’s just the sun, just the sun, she assures herself. It’s the same as on the day I was born, it will be the same on the day I die… A short, dry laugh flees her when she remembers the wings on her back, the wings that still feel as if she got them yesterday. That is, if I ever die…
A flash of rainbow on the corner of her vision draws her attention. She wipes her eyes and looks at Rainbow Dash who soars next to her, stopping in the air a few feet off the ground. “Okay, it’s done. What happened to you?” she asks.
“Nothing… You were sure to cover our tracks, too?”
Dash rolls her eyes. “Yeah, of course I did. Trust me: it would take Sherlock Hooves to figure out there was a camp there.”
“Good. Now, gather the others here so we can talk.”
Dash raises an eyebrow. “Should we really leave him without a guard?”
“I think we have made it clear enough what will happen if he tries to escape.” And if he still hasn’t gotten the idea, I’ll have no choice but to elaborate. Twilight smiles reassuringly.
Dash frowns, yet says nothing. She is about to fly to the cottage when a thought crosses her mind. “Uh… Twilight. This comes kind of late, but… I’m sorry that I wrestled you down yesterday.” Suddenly very awkward, the pegasus avoids Twilight's eyes as best as she can, apparently eager to fly away as quickly as possible.
Twilight doesn't hurry her answer. “You really think you were the one who wrestled me down?” she finally says with a smirk. “As I remember it, you were the one who was sent spinning through the air.”
The arrogant snort that Dash gives her has a hint of relief mixed in it, too. “Yeah right. You just thank your horn for that. How about next time you leave out the magic tricks and play it fair and square?” She ends her sentence with a challenging smile and flies away without waiting for a response.
Next time… thinks Twilight as she watches her go. Next time I’ll try to kill him, you mean? It doesn’t take long for the others to come outside and gather into a semicircle in the yard. She looks each one of them in the eyes before speaking. “Let’s cut to the chase then. I called you here because we need to change our plan. I’m sure we all agree that the one we've been following has proved its futility.”
“Maybe it’s not the plan, but the execution?” says Dash immediately. “Let’s take the gloves off with this guy. He’s not going to crack unless we rough him up a bit.”
“A bit,” says Rarity. “Are you saying he was pushed through a wall just a bit?”
“It got him talking, didn’t it?” answers Dash.
“No, it got him denying everything,” says Twilight. “I don’t care to know how he only played a minor part in the Project Pantheia. I don’t care to know how he only followed orders. That’s all he has been talking about since, though.”
“So?” continues Dash. “We just ask more pointedly.”
“How can you not see the problem?” asks Rarity. “He is scared to death! He thinks that we will kill him for what he did in the Project. Of course he doesn’t want to talk about it!”
Dash crosses his hooves while afloat. “Okay… That means we only need to make him believe that we’re going to kill him if he doesn’t tell us about the Project. Logical, right?”
Twilight speaks before Rarity can answer to that. “In that case, he would still be inclined to hide the things that we need to know. Fear has its uses in any interrogation, but I think we have come to the point where we need to change our approach.”
Rainbow Dash narrows her eyes. “What you suppose we do, then?”
Twilight turns her head towards Fluttershy. “We let Fluttershy talk to him.”
Rarity and Rainbow Dash blink simultaneously, their eyes nailing at Fluttershy who tenses immediately. “W-what?” she blurts. “M-me? Why?”
“Because you saved his life,” says Rarity, her face lit up by understanding. “You are the only pony here he has a reason to trust, even if just a bit.”
“That’s true…” says Dash carefully. “Are you up to it, though?”
Fluttershy shrinks under their stares. “I-I don’t know… I haven’t interrogated anypony before…”
“Just ask the questions we need to get answers to,” says Twilight. “We can compile a list for you, if you’d like that.”
The yellow pegasus almost falls to her knees under the expectant eyes of the three other ponies. Her mouth opens and closes erratically, and her whole frame trembles as if she was freezing. “Uhm… I… I suppose I can do it…” she finally manages. “If that’s what you all want…”
“That is what we need,” says Twilight, stepping closer to the shaking pony and offering her a hoof. “You’ll have nothing to worry about: we'll be right outside the room.”
“Come again?” asks Rarity.
“You’re joking!” blurts Dash. “We can’t leave Fluttershy alone with him!”
Twilight doesn’t turn her eyes from Fluttershy. “He’ll be more inclined to trust her if we’re not present. And like I said, we'll be just a shout away. Also, I have a back-up plan.”
“But this is a serious villain we’re talking about!” continues Dash, gesturing with her front hooves. “He is behind the attack on Canterlot!”
“Dash does make a fair point,” says Rarity. “I do not like the way we have treated him so far… but pity towards one’s enemy should not lead to their underestimation.”
“It’s Fluttershy you’re both underestimating here!” snaps Twilight suddenly, turning towards Rarity and Dash. “She has tamed a dragon: surely she can stand a few minutes with one old pony.” She glances at Fluttershy again. “Can’t you?”
She swallows and nods weakly.
“See?” continues Twilight, looking at the two other ponies. “We all just need a bit of encouragement every now and then.”
Rarity and Dash exchange a quick look. “Eh… I guess we can give it a try?” says Dash with her eyes on the sky.
“You really think he will trust Fluttershy?” asks Rarity from Twilight. “He must suspect something, even if she did save his life.”
“Most likely he will, there’s no doubt about that. The question is, what do we have to lose?”
The silence that follows Twilight’s question speaks more than any of them could in one sentence express. Twilight seeks Fluttershy’s eyes again, but finds them securely nailed at her own legs. She lifts the pegasus's chin gently with a hoof. “Are you ready for this?” she asks.
Fluttershy’s lip quivers before her answer. “Y-yes,” she whispers.
You never were much of a liar. “I’m glad to hear that,” says Twilight with a smile. “Let’s begin, then.”
After a moment, inside the house, the stallion flinches as the front door opens. His eyes follow warily Fluttershy, who trots in and sits on her stomach opposite to him. He glances at the front door that shuts quietly. What’s this, now? Why did they leave me with her? Questions burn his tongue, but the sharp memory on his cheek makes him keep them in check. She looks like she wants to get out of here even worse than I do… and what’s written on that paper that she keeps on staring? Unable to contain himself, the stallion clears his throat meaningfully.
Fluttershy’s eyes dart at him immediately. “Uhm, would you like some water?” she asks.
The stallion gives him a long look. “...No?”
“Oh, okay…” She considers something for a moment. “I… I have some questions for you, if you wouldn’t mind?”
“Will you call in the others if I decline to answer?”
She flinches at that. “Well, they wouldn’t be too happy about that. And I would have to tell them of course.” Her hooves scrape aimlessly at the paper before her. “I'd very much appreciate it if we could talk a bit, though.”
The stallion licks his dry lips. “It’s about the Project again, isn’t it? I told you already: I was hardly a part of it, merely a research assistant.” A frantic tinge slips into his voice. “You know that, right? You knew my name, you have to know what my position was?”
She pulls her head slightly back as if in disgust. “Yes, we know that. It read in the papers that we found.” A shudder travels through her. “Why did you do that to all those ponies? Why?”
It’s coming to this again. Dear River, Earth, and Mountain, does my torment ever end? “Please,” he says, his voice breaking. “It was only one mistake, just one, a freak anomaly… We didn’t know, couldn’t know… Please, can’t we all forget it already?”
“The cages, the chains… Why?” A tear glimmers on her cheek. “What for?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about!” he cries, hitting the floor with a hoof. Fluttershy almost jumps on all fours. “What cages!? What chains!?” he continues with wide eyes, drool gleaming on the corner of his mouth. “There were none such! They were all volunteers, each one of them knew what they were in for!”
“We saw them all,” says the pegasus quickly, her heart in her throat. “We saw them ourselves. You don’t have to deny it, we know all about it. We just want to–”
“There weren’t any cages!” shouts the stallion, standing up abruptly. “I swear it on my life! I have no idea what you are talking about!” He backs away to the wall behind, almost falling through the hole that he made yesterday. “Why can't you believe me…?”
“W-why don’t you sit down and take a deep breath?” suggest Fluttershy with a quivering smile on her lips.
“Why?! So you can ask me the same questions you have a hundred times already?! If I knew anything about this 'Bitch Queen' or whatever I would’ve told everything about her long ago!” He starts walking back and forth, his eyes bouncing in their sockets. “I came here to forget everything, to renounce Celestia and magic altogether, to live a life devoid of those vanities, of those abnormalities… Why won’t they leave me alone, too?”
“I-is that that why you made Her attack Canterlot? B-because you hate Princess Celestia?”
“No no no no no,” repeats the stallion, shouting the last two noes with a hoarse voice. “I haven’t attacked anywhere! Does this look like a lair of evil of some sort to you?!” He picks up a worn oil lamp from a table, flailing it at the terrified pegasus. “Does this look like a lamp of doom?! Why do you insist that I am behind any of the crimes you talk about?!”
“Because you were in the project that created Her!” screams Fluttershy with a shrill voice, bouncing up. “You admitted it yourself! You were there, you knew, you planned, you created Her!”
This is not working. They will never believe me. Whatever they have found has convinced them that I am the the greatest evil walking on this earth. As if in a dream, the stallion’s horn begins to glow with a light blue light. “I am sorry, young one,” he says with a faraway voice. “It’s nothing personal.”
Fluttershy’s eyes shine with confusion, terror, and with something that is too cold to be called hate but too attractive to be named disdain. With a hollow expression she watches as a blue halo envelopes her torso, legs, and neck, even her mane, and with a sudden motion, jerks her off her feet. Her scream is cut short as her mouth is trapped shut by the magic of the unicorn. Nonetheless, during its short existence, it manages to alarm the three other mares waiting outside. They burst in through the door, Twilight’s and Rarity’s horns glowing bright. A shared gasp flees them as they see what has happened.
“Stand back!” he shouts, shielding himself with the thrashing Fluttershy. “Stand back, or I'll break her neck!” His eyes bounce from Rainbow Dash to Rarity, but mostly they follow Twilight. She can’t do anything as long as I hold her friend, she can’t, she won’t dare.
“Fluttershy!” shrieks Rarity in panic, taking a step closer to the stallion.
“Not an inch!” he screams. Fluttershy’s neck twists quickly to the left, and pain masks her face. Rarity’s raised foreleg freezes in the middle of the motion.
“You…” says Dash, rage boiling in the air around her. “Let. Her. Go. Now.” The pegasus’s wings beat the air with slow, powerful strokes, sending dust dancing beneath her.
“No,” answers the stallion, a bit calmer now. “I will leave and let her go when I judge it safe. If I sense even a shadow of a wing following me, I repeat, a mere shadow, she will die.” He takes a wavering a step back. Before him, Fluttershy’s eyes remain tightly shut. “I didn’t want this, but you pushed me, you pushed me too far. I’m not going to die here, not by your hoof.” He almost stumbles during the next step, making the three mares flinch simultaneously.
“Draught Tear…” says Twilight with a voice drowning in tranquility. “Calm down. Just… calm down.”
His eyes dart to her. “Too late for that, freak. Now, you have four seconds to–”
“Draught Tear,” snaps the alicorn. “Pay attention. Let her go.”
If I obey her, I die. If I obey her, I die. “No,” he says like in a trance. “No. No.”
A shadow travels past Twilight's eyes. “Fluttershy. Keep your eyes closed.”
“What are you doing?” he asks, drawing Fluttershy closer. “I’m not bluffing. I’m not bluffing. By my life, I’m not bluffing!” The blue aura grows almost black around the pegasus. “You can’t do anything! I have her life literally on the edge of my horn! You can’t–”
A sliver of light bursts through his chest from behind, burning a hole the size of an apple right to the spot where his heart should be. The stallion’s body falls to the floor, limp and lifeless. No spray of blood pools around him. Only a faint pillar of smoke trails from his terrible wound; a wound so clean it looks like it belongs there, on his chest. From the bedroom, Twilight emerges, and the illusion between Rarity and Rainbow Dash, both of whom stare at the stallion in silent terror, disappears.
“W-w-what’s happening?” asks Fluttershy from the floor where she dropped, her eyes wide shut.
“That… wasn’t the back-up plan…” whispers Rainbow Dash, still staring at the corpse. “You were supposed to… knock him out…”
“Must have slipped my mind,” says the alicorn as she makes special care not to touch the stallion as she steps over him. “Besides, he was too close to Fluttershy. I couldn’t risk her life.”
“Is he dead?” asks Rarity with a detached voice. She looks at Twilight, deep confusion staining her face. “Is he really dead?”
Twilight glances indifferently at the stallion. She can almost make out her own reflection in his wide, dead eyes. “That would be my educated guess.” She falls to her knees, vomiting.
And the world turns black in her eyes.