"...or else!" cried the filly, flailing fruitlessly against the legs of the tall, robed stallion.
The memory visited May Flowers frequently as she slept. She had attempted to ward it off, through magic and other means, but it inevitably returned. At last, the mare, rather than fighting the specter of her past, embraced it—embraced it and all the hatred that came bundled with it.
"May," breathed her brother, shaking his head slowly. "I've avoided it for long enough. I guess I have to do it."
"No, you don't!" May Flowers wailed, flopping to the ground as another charge at the tall military recruiter met with failure. "I want you to stay here!"
"It's no use fighting it, May Flowers," said her mother, April Showers, standing within the arched doorway of their Hornford manor. "In hindsight, I suppose your father and I could have prepared you for this time better. But the Celestial Guard requires your brother's service, and—"
"Yeah, right!" spat the filly. "They don't require it! The king is old, and strong, and everypony loves him! Why do they need a colt to defend him?"
Her mother and brother only looked at her, sadly. "If I may," spoke the recruiter, cool blue eyes scouring May Flowers's face from beneath an ashen mane.
"Of course, Adept Trueheart," April Showers replied.
Trueheart, May Flowers knew, had been elevated to the rank of Master of the Celestial Guard, now, and currently led Queen Platinum's personal defenders. May Flowers had never forgiven him for what he had done to her, and his high stature only gave her cause to despise him still more.
"You're right, my little pony, regarding the king," Trueheart explained tactfully. "But the king is not the only member of the royal family, and is not the only pony whom the Celestial Guard is sworn to defend. His daughter, for one, is—"
"Daughter?" May Flowers interjected.
"Yes," Trueheart said with a nod. "King Platinum has a daughter—a young filly just about your age, as a matter of fact. In time, she will become our queen, and she will need strong, capable mages such as your brother to defend her."
"Who cares?" May Flowers hollered, jabbing at the recruiter with an accusatory hoof. "Maybe I need my brother to defend me! What if I'm bullied at school? Or need help with homework? I won't let you take him away!"
"May," her brother said, very quietly, "you have to. Let it be."
"No!" she cried.
"May Flowers, that's enough!" her mother snapped. Suddenly, the filly found herself involuntarily returning to her home, dragged along by her mother's magical pull. "You've gone on long enough. Your brother will be fine—there's great honor in joining the Celestial Guard, after all. Say goodbye."
"No! I won't!" May Flowers screamed. Her hooves dragged uselessly along the verdant lawn.
May Flowers woke up in a lather. She had believed herself to have embraced the memory—to have conquered it. But still, she found herself out of breath, twitching nervously—and brimming with a fury that had been cultivated for several long years.
"You can't let them take him!"
She opened up a small box at her bedside, containing remembrances of her brother. A lock of his mane, the letters he had written from the academy, a medallion he had earned upon his elevation to the rank of Adept. She had loved him very, very much. His leaving home had changed her profoundly.
His death, even more so.
They had said that his was an honorable profession—that joining the Celestial Guard was what any great mage aspired to do. But May Flowers saw no honor in dying at the order of some privileged princess on a quest to discover a new land.
The ice sheet had been far too thin to walk upon—when it inevitably collapsed, a dozen unicorns died in the frigid waters. Their sacrifice had not mattered to Princess Platinum, and had not even mattered to her assistant, Clover the Clever—they simply found a different path, and continued on their journey.
Her brother's death had served no purpose. The newly-discovered land to the west—Equestria, they called it—was poor in resources and held little value to Unicornia. And the Equestrian League that had emerged as an alliance between the three pony tribes?
Blasphemy. Heresy. An affront to unicorn history and all of the tribe's traditions. May Flowers refused to allow its permanence. Her brother did not die so that the unicorn culture could wither and rot.
All that was wrong with May Flowers's life centered around one pony—Platinum, former princess and now queen of Unicornia. As much for herself as for the fate of Unicornia, May Flowers had to duel the mare, and emerge victorious.
She had already lost so much.