With a beat of the wings, the air started to press against her face, washing all the noise and all the feelings away. Cold drops ran down her face and fell into the water beneath. Each drop made a ripple, but to her it was so small and unimportant. There was only the rush, only the flight. Nothing else mattered.
I need to go home, Raindrops thought, eradicating all other thoughts.
If she reached back home then everything would end up fine. Up above, everything was okay. Up above, nothing bad had happened and all of this would turn out to be just a bad dream. Everypony was fine, everypony needed to be fine. There was just no other way. There had to be happy ending here.
There was no way she heard Derpy's screams, her beloved sister's screams.
She felt a wetness on her hooves, from when she stomped through the water.
It feels like mud, she thought. Actually, it all felt rather similar, only this time it was her wings that were carrying her away. There was no other filly here, as everypony surely was above ground. Magia wasn't there, Twilight Sparkle had made it back to the hospital and everything was fine.
One orb shifted from its original position, fixing itself on the pony that flew away. If Magia had any thoughts at all remains unknown; but from the cascading dark, from the abyssal shadows of its existence, a mouth formed, frothing and raging, fretting and screaming. It was not a mouth for words, filled with a thousand teeth, like daggers and swords, both rotten and too sharp for any creature to bear.
Raindrops didn't hear it, however, and she certainly didn't see it. Because she needed to fly away, she needed to go home.
Her eyes fixated themselves on the highest hole, the one that was the farthest away from her and she thought of happier times. A smile formed on her face, for she knew she would make it back. Because she only needed to reach that hole, that place. Then everything would be okay.
Then the pain came, a sting that went through her limbs and wings and pierced itself through her lungs. For a moment, she felt herself stopping, wondering what was going on. Her breaths stopped coming and instead blood rose up from her lungs, running out of her mouth with a cough. She looked as the drops fell down and saw the black lances, then. They had reached her.
The girl wanted to turn her head, just as the horrible lances lost their consistence and the goo fell down into the water. Raindrops felt her own weight dragging her down, even if she wanted to rise up. She was turning as she fell, tried to move her muscles, but not a part of her body would respond.
She was falling and her surroundings weren't clear anymore. Her friends were gone and then, with the splash of water, she went down and down and deeper down, still.
Raindrops blinked and there were stars around her. Crystals in the walls, she knew, but to her they looked like stars. The filly closed her eyes, then, wondering if she'd get to see everypony ever again. Here, in an ocean of a gazillion stars.
The filly finally remembered how it looked. It was so clear, now that she opened her eyes. The land was green beneath the stars. From the southern horizon to the Windswept Mountains it was like that. She remembered it, because there had been lots of grass and it was always wet with dew in the morning. Its taste was so rich and fresh that her mother would sometimes weep as they ate it.
Tears had come easy for her mother, who had worn her emotions like a piece of jewelry. Her smiles came just as easy and whether she laughed or cried, she was always just true to herself.
The filly remembered now. Her mother, on the grass and the grass had been everywhere and she had seen it from the hill with the tree.
In the distance, however, to the north, there were mountains, grey with white tops. They rose from the earth and hid away the end of the world. They were the Windswept Mountains and the griffon lords held court at the very spires of them, while their peasantry lived and worked in the valleys beneath.
From the hill, she'd seen them and there had been waters in the far east and waters in the far west.
“There is an ocean,” She had told her, “and if you follow it to the farthest west, you will reach another land, green and brown, with cities, rich and poor and there is a land there, where all the other ponies live.”
Equestria was the name of this distant land, the filly now remembered. Raindrops remembered, because that was her name and she knew this land, because She had been there with her.
She had told her of this land of grass, this land with the lush green hills and the long rains during the spring and summer seasons. Yet she remembered how it felt on her coat and she remembered how, for the shortest of times, the land wasn't green anymore.
Blue and red and yellow and orange, violet and pink and turquoise and white, colors that could not be described in their richness and difference to one another would show themselves and the fields became more colorful than a rainbow. She remembered that, and she remembered her father taking flight and showing her the lay of the land.
She remembered the flowers lining up perfectly, to a point where it seemed almost unnatural. But the filly had loved it nonetheless. It was sad that so few remained that cared about these plains. She'd known even back then, that the flowers would stop to bloom, for the griffons were coming south. And with them came agriculture and cities and an end to her home. They were the last who cared.
That wasn't always the case, though. A long, long time ago, the pegasi had called this place their home, back when the magic was still wild, the dragons ruled the sky, the earthen gods still roamed the lands and the Equestrian Unification was still centuries away.
The green lands with the ocean of flowers had been part of their kingdom, but the pegasi had lived somewhere else. That's how it was, back then. The pegasi still manipulated the clouds and built from them their homes. Storms did not ravage their homes back then, for they controlled the storms and the lightning and the thunder.
Back in those days, the numbers of pegasi had been uncounted and they had not known of earth ponies and unicorns. In fact, they knew only very little of the creatures who dwelt on the earthen ground and couldn't have cared less about them. They were warriors, with a pride and fierceness none could match.
None but the grim folk that had made their home in the Windswept Mountains. Even back then, the griffons had been divided into great houses. They were names, old and powerful, with many retainers at their disposal. Yet, they respected the pegasi and the pegasi respected them. For their values were very similar.
Both believed in the honesty of war, and both believed more in the weight of the spoken word than scriptures and written laws.
Old, powerful, and rich with tradition, those were the words the father used to describe the northerners, and they had hardly changed by the time Raindrops had emerged from the waters. Magic had fallen by then. There were no more cloud cities and most pegasi had abandoned their home country for the milder climate and richer industry of Equestria.
The ones who'd remained became subservient to their old enemies, or, as a griffon might say, their only worthy opponents.
Alongside the unicorns and earth ponies, that got there as prisoners of war, the majority of pegasi on the continent lived out their days as slaves and servants to the griffon lords. If they didn't, they were freedom fighters who waged a guerrilla war against the oppressors. A futile one at that.
Well, all but one herd. They had always remained in the fields, even after magic went away from the world, even after the clouds dispersed and even after the pegasi became bound to rock and dirt. Even then, they decided to remain in the fields of grass. This one group roamed the green lands for centuries now, hoping that one day, their old country would be restored and the sky would again be filled with the laughter of their children. They dreamt of mock battles with griffons to honor the wars of the past and feared the slave hunts that drove the arrogant lordlings south.
It was a lone tribe, one that shrouded its path in myth and legend.
She told her daughter all of this, there beneath a carpet of stars, lying on a field of grass. The filly remembered that and once more she stared wide-eyed at her mother, just like back then. Even now she couldn't grasp it all, couldn't understand all the words and didn't see how grand of a history it was.
“Are we this herd?” Another filly had asked and Raindrops also looked at the mother.
“Yes,” that one answered. Her mane had been black, but her coat was deep brown. “We've always been that group and one day, so I hope, our roaming ends and we will sleep in beds of clouds again.”
She blinked and loved to think that this idea would become true. It made her as happy as the thought that her mother would always stand by her side and nopony would ever think of hurting her.
Now that she thought about it, she had been happy back then, and she had laughed a lot. Unlike Old Stone Heart, who would always look at her with an angry expression, but she had looked like that at anyone who was content with their lot in life. It was a sign of good luck in the herd if Stone Heart's frown followed you.
Forest Mist told that to me and not another filly, right?
She'd played with Forest Mist a lot, back then. The grumpy guard must've been friends with her father before she'd been born. He had always been somepony who'd have a new, fun idea for a game up his sleeve.
“Looks like somepony has grown a little more,” he would always say on her birthdays. “Now you're a filly big enough for this one game I know. ...”
It was his smile that stuck with her, because when he smiled, she would be happy too. Because she had grown a little more and would play games meant for a big filly, somepony who was almost recognized as an adult.
She remembered somepony else.
Passion, another pegasus. She wasn't a pony who'd been happy with her lot in life. She'd always been sad and everypony called her “Slimy Git”, because to them, she was a thief and a liar. She always swore and insulted everypony, even though saying hurting things hurt her more than those she directed the vile words at.
The filly knew that, because Passion was always kind to her and never hurt her. She had decided from early on that she liked Passion well enough.
She had liked everypony in this group, this herd. It had been her first family, after all, and back then, the only family she'd thought to ever have. So she always smiled, until one sad night, when the stars had been clear in the sky, her father turned to her and told her; “We will sell you to a griffon slaver. With the money, we're going to Equestria and make a new, better life for us.”
And they had called her ugly and a disease for the group, but the filly didn't understand why they suddenly hated her. Suddenly they were throwing stones and all she could do was cry as they wounded her and made her bleed.
It was instinct that made her run and it was instinct that made her hide beneath that rock. Blood mixed with tears and she cowered there in the darkness, until she heard someone step closer. As she looked up, she saw her father. His coat had been black, just as his mane, and his violet eyes had been full of hate and sadness.
“Don't come out. No matter what happens, not ever. We'll sell you for profit and I despise you. I do.”
He spat at her, but she saw the tears on his face as he burned. Somewhere in her memory, he'd sat there with her, beneath the tree, together with the mother. She remembered the songs he had sung so often. They even rung through her head right now, as the mad griffon lord's underlings set her home ablaze and burnt her family on a stake. She remembered how one of them cackled as he put her mother to the torch. Erdenbrand they had called the boy and he had been some griffon youth, like all the rest of them.
She felt the fire and saw the faces and heard the screams, but she remained under her rock and quietly sang a song to herself, so that she would beat away the sound of burning ponies.
On wings of light
With wings to the night
We beat against the sky
And our songs will never die
As Pegasi we reach out
To scatter all the fears
To bring out all the joy
As we sing through our tears
Of the skies we conquered
On wings of light
With wings to the night
We beat against the sky
Heaven will hear us cry
As our wings swing about
We scatter around the clouds
To cry out loud
For we are the ones to fly
To every conquered sky
On wings
Of light
With wings
To night
And then she remembered that there were tears in her eyes and the flames flickered all around her. She was sobbing loudly and couldn't stand it anymore. It was then that a claw grabbed her and she looked right into the griffon girl's face.
It was a crow's head, all white with sad eyes but her claws and beak were as black as the filly was.
She remembered her breathing and looking around nervously. Then, the griffon gulped and took the dive.
“I'll get ya outta here,” she said, but the filly didn't remember, because she didn't know why she was there to begin with.
Some other filly's parents had burned to a horrible, horrible death and that filly had been there with them. But she was alive, she was with this griffon girl. White feathers, brown fur and a black beak, that had been her colors and she had held the filly in her arms.
They were flying through the sky and moon was still whole above her.
“What're ye called?” the griffon girl then asked and the pony looked to the sky.
It was nighttime, still, but the stars had vanished not longer after her father had declared her hatred for her. No, before then even, that night hadn't been with stars at all, had it? She couldn't even see the moon.
A smile escaped the filly as she realized that and then she closed her eyes. Her whole world became filled with a feeling, a small warmth against all the icy cold around her, one she felt as she leaned on the griffon who carried her to an unknown destination, wings beating against the coldest wind.
“Raindrops,” the filly finally answered and let them wash over her face.
She remembered, it was then that she'd decided that another filly had died beneath the rock that day. She was lying horribly burned, there beside her parents, but she was together with them, still. As Raindrops drifted to sleep then and there, she heard their songs beat the silence of death with the happiness of their great lives lived to the fullest.
And then she woke up and everything felt like it was spinning. “Uargh,” she exclaimed loudly.
She closed her eyes and waited for a moment or two, and opened them again only once she was sure the world wasn't going in a wild roundabout around her. What she found, however, wasn't the world, but just the golden eyes of a white filly.
“Lyra?” She asked, as groggy as she was careful.
“Get up sleepyhead,” the filly with the bright smile answered. “We're going to the museum!”
Octavia plucked the strings of her cello in some unmelodious way that nopony really got, not even she herself and Lyra was standing there with a huge smile. Raindrops rolled her eyes, sighed and pushed her away, only to look at the mobile above her head. The stars and the breezies were still turning around the moon, carried by a breeze only they felt. Lyra found herself looking at it, too.
“You know those are for babies,” she said. “Why do you keep one anyway?”
It reminds me of another filly's home. I've seen it once and it was beautiful.
She thought that, but decided to say something else, something more defiant. “Having your sandwiches cut is something for babies.”
“It's also something nobleponies do,” Lyra said, throwing up her arms defensively.
“Then nobleponies are babies,” was the flat response to that.
Lyra's reaction was comically grim and she bulged her eyes out way too much to be taken seriously. Octavia still only plucked that cello of hers.
“You know,” she heard a voice behind Lyra, who quickly turned around, only to be picked up by the larger pony. “From my perspective, you ponies will always be my little babies.”
Hugh said that with a grin on his own as he put Lyra to the ground and blew a raspberry on her stomach. She was laughing and crying at the same time. If Raindrops would've described how the other pony looked, the only word that came to mind would have been, alive.
Then, Hugh raised his head and looked into Raindrops' eyes. “Come on now. The museum awaits!”
She looked at the mobile one last time, wondering about what she had dreamed. The filly shrugged, jumped out of her bed and into the museum.
Or rather, the café close to the museum, and Octavia sat opposite to her. Raindrops didn't look at her, however, but at Lyra, who smiled gleefully as Hugh cut her sandwich in pieces of a size appropriate for her tiny mouth. It made her wonder how much of a big filly Lyra was, or any of them for that matter.
She then decided to look around, twisting herself on her chair.
The museum was huge and there were many exhibition pieces from the the different ages of Equestria and Ponykind in general. There were things from the Discordian Antique, some artifacts from the Imperial Age and the “oldest” piece was a reconstruction of earliest documented pegasi armor.
Back in the first days, the armory of the skydwellers had still been forged from dreams and stars, it was said, but that was a myth to the Equestrian Ponies. Raindrops remembered a mother telling a child about them, though. Of course, the knowledge of how to make armor like this was lost, but the reconstruction was painted to at least invoke the look of the old starmetal barding.
“That's your history, right there. Is it not?” Octavia asked as they found themselves standing in front of it.
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean, indeed?” Octavia said with a sad sigh. “Let me rephrase my question: Why do you think that running away will solve anything?”
The eyes of the filly were on the barding, but she shook her head. “I still need a nightlight to sleep,” she told herself more than anypony else.
“Really? Is it the fear that draws you to the light? Or is it because you don't want to let the light die. You always had a million stars to guide you through the night, so you could never let it go, no matter how much smog was in the sky. You are probably the only one remaining who still sees the intent of the stars as it was once truth.”
“No!” Raindrops shouted and looked at the barding, denying it with her very being. “I'm just scared of the dark. I'm a little filly. I can be scared and I don't need to have any responsibilities. I don't need to understand what you are talking about.”
The other one might've smiled, or she might've wept. Raindrops didn't know.
“Your mind has so little left of the filly that lived with Hugh Jelly and Madame Hooves. You deny it, but that filly was born through circumstance, because you didn't want to acknowledge what had happened to you. You made the falling rain that filly's first memory. You ran.”
Raindrops shook her head again. “Tavi wet the bed when she started to live with us and everypony said it was fine. It happens to ponies her age. That's what I mean. We're children, we're allowed to be weak because we're not strong. The winds may carry adult pegasi, but the little ones are carried by the adults.”
“You are so much wiser than that.”
Raindrops blinked, then took a breath before she finally turned her head. She looked at Octavia, the one who was not, and she looked directly into her eyes. Those cyan eyes which seemed to belong to a person as old as the world itself, filled with the emotions of a thousand years and the longing of a person who was still waiting, yearning even for something she long stopped believing in.
“Tell me child, if you are so weak, if you need to be carried, then why? Why are you trying so hard to hear my voice?”
Cyan eyes were fixed on her, so she turned her gaze away.
Open your eyes, the whisper said.
But Raindrops didn't.
You will make a decision down the line, whether it will be right or wrong only time will tell. Right now, however, you need to open your eyes.
It was a kind whisper and so Raindrops did open her eyes. The filly found herself nowhere and only the stallion was with her. She felt the breath stopping in her lungs, felt herself grow distance from her body, as her eyes widened in disbelief. Her mouth was open, too, but no words came out, no sound was left to be made.
It was a lie, it couldn't be. She recognized this pony, this stallion, who sat there with the old smile, the remnants of a song stuck to his lips. She recognized his shape, she recognized the color of his coat, of his mane, of his eyes. It was impossible, however, and so she shook her head.
He only smiled, and it was a smile that she knew well. Then, he spoke, and it was with a voice that had once beaten against the silence all around them, for every night of her short, happy life.
“Hey, kiddo.”
Tears welled up from inside, it was as if she'd reached the end. Had she died against Magia? Was she finally able to return to them? Her herd?
“Dad,” she wanted to say, but no sound wanted to come out.
He understood, nonetheless.
“How're you doing?” he asked.
She looked at him, his broad shoulders, his face soft and kind. She understood that it was him and yet she didn't. No, it was him. She was there with him. Water was rolling down her cheeks and it felt real. This was real.
“I,” what could she say though? “I found another family.”
He looked at her curiously.
“Derpy's a glutton, but she called me sister the day I moved in. Tavi's play of the cello is untrained, but soothing. Lyra's jokes are terrible, but I never told her. Trixie's going to be a stage magician and I think she'll be famous one day. And then there's Twilight, she's a friend, but I kinda like her.”
“That's good, isn't it?” he asked and she noticed that the tears didn't stop.
She wasn't happy. She wasn't happy at all, even though she finally saw him again.
“I'm losing them, dad,” she admitted, more to herself than to him or anybody else.
As she broke down in sobs, she didn't know what she wanted anymore. Where was her home? A burning field or a house with falling walls? Was she the only one who'd have to stay behind in the darkness? Was she truly unable to run away now?
She felt his wings around her, pulling her into a hug, and she felt his soft breath against her head. His hooves stood all on the ground, he looked almost regal to the filly's eyes. It was only a moment and then the rain fell on her face.
“You're still asleep, kiddo. Nopony's losing anypony.”
“You're a liar,” she said between sobs, burying herself in his chest. The dark was all around them and right now, she could only see him, only his light. “You burned and you're gone.”
“When you were told of the Lunarium, what did you think it would do?”
He felt warm, but his heart did not beat.
“It's going to bring you back. It'll make everything okay, everypony will be okay. It was going to be awesome and we'd be beneath the stars again. I could be her again.”
He smiled, for sure. “Let me tell you something important, kiddo,” he put his hoof to her chin and raised her head, so that she saw his eyes. They were violet, like hers.
“Magic isn't meant to bring back the dead. Not this one, anyway. All it can do is bring the dead the rest they yearn for. It's not just me and your mother, Stone or Passion. It's everyone. We're all still in this world, lingering in the pain of our deaths. We're all ghosts of the chaos that is destroying the world. Do you understand that? You can't bring back the past and the Lunarium will not help you get us back.”
She felt his hoof, the cold of a nonexistent ground against her chin. His feathers touched her back, they were warm and fluffy. She knew, however, that everything he said was true. He didn't look like he was lying, for there were no tears and his smile was honest.
“But if we reach the Lunarium, you'll leave forever? I don't want this moment to end. I don't wanna find the Lunarium. I just don't want you to go again.”
He snickered. “If I were you, I'd probably say the same thing, but kid? This moment will end, no matter what we want, and all dreams die once you wake up. This isn't even where you want to be, not truly. Your sister's alive, your friend is alive and the moments you shared shouldn't end anytime soon, right?”
She closed her eyes then, wanted to unsee him, make him stop saying those things. But she only opened them once he spoke up again.
“Remember your heritage, kiddo. Remember who we are and that we are pegasi!” He almost shouted the last word and she remembered, because her mother had taught her all the stories and he had sung the songs.
They were beneath the tree in the middle of a green field, small lights were buzzing in the air.
“We gave you your name because of that, I told you that. You will be a light in the darkness, you will be the one to protect everything you have. We gave you our strength for that and if you can keep those of around you alive, then, my daughter, you will find the truth.”
“You lied because you wanted me to hate you, why?”
“Because harmony died and we knew that, we knew that you needed to survive and you needed to be strong. That's all we wanted. One of us needed to live, the youngest, the strongest, our best. I'm sorry, my daughter. You are everything we dreamed of and so much more.”
How much time passed? Maybe an eternity, maybe not even a second. The warmth was there and she'd keep it like that. This long, sad story, she would keep it. Now, Raindrops smiled. She could let go of her dream. She could stop running.
I will see you again.
And so, the other filly vanished and the only one who remained opened her eyes. She looked at the mare who was as dark as the night and had a mane, like a carpet of stars.
The princess smiled. Are you ready?
Twilight lifted herself up. There was little strength left in her legs. Well, it was none, actually, but that couldn't stop her! It wasn't like she was cared about her own lack of strength and her own illness anymore. Derpy was screaming and needed help. I'm not going to lose another friend, she thought and clenched her teeth so hard that they jaw started to hurt.
Never again would she lose a friend.
She looked at it, at the dark abyss of its horrible form, at the blackness and swirling madness of the orbs it tried to pass as eyes. She felt no fear this time, no, it was the purest hatred. It was an anger that seethed through her entire being and that rage became her strength. She would kill this thing, no matter what it cost her. Yes, she would even use it's own cursed gifts against it.
She tasted the blood and the bile still in her mouth, felt how her own vision became blurry and the world shifted so slighty. Almost, Twilight stumbled and the question came as suddenly as the answer. What's going on? She was at the end of her rope. This was it.
This can't be, she thought and tried to hold herself on her legs, at least. Derpy was still crying, but Twilight could barely stand. What of Raindrops? What of the filly who'd ran? Could she survive at least? Barely holding on, Twilight Sparkle turned. There was nothing there, no sign of Raindrops. Was she gone?
No, Twilight thought. It couldn't be. She tried to look around, but felt herself stumbling. No, no....
But Raindrops was gone.
She looked to the water. It seemed so calm, like the world didn't care that it was dying, or maybe like the world itself had already given up. Everything had accepted their lost, just not she. What a tiny, sickly fool she was. The darkness pulsated, and the orbs, pearls of pure madness swirled in the air, staring at her. She almost let herself fall, blinked. This was it.
Yet, as she opened her eyes she saw something a new. The black lake, and a piece of light within. She blinked once more and then it appeared to have grown bigger. Was she seeing things now? Twilight blinked again, thinking that her vision was really failing her, but as she looked again the blot was only bigger then before. And it was growing quick.
“What the–“ she started.
With a bang! the water erupted in an explosion and a blaze of light and fire rose from it. Magia turned around, its eyes gazing at the brightness and the blaze, but Twilight shielded her eyes with a hoof. There was a warmth coming from the light, soft and kind and unyielding to the killing presence of the horror she came so close to yield to.
She still tried to get a good look at what was going on and as the water rained down on the little island on the edge of the cave, she saw the center of the light. The silhouette of a pegasus, wings beating against the air with the elegant proficiency of a veteran flier.
Purple eyes looked at the monster and for a moment, nothing was there but the sound of rain hitting the ground and water as the fire and the light receded. Then, in the blink of an eye, the pegasus shot down and landed a kick right between Magia's eyes.
Its rotten teeth shattered, its black body splattered into all directions as the kick connected, but before it could even try to reform, the pony landed on the ground, and forth came another flash of light and flame, one that Twilight could only stare at as it washed over her. She screamed something, maybe a line from a song. It sounded nice and it made Twilight feel something again. She felt hope.
The pegasus smiled as the black goo around them burned. “Thanks, dad,” she said. “I meant it. I will see you again when I, too, reach that place.”
She sounded sad, but also not.
The orbs flew back and the rest of the darkness that had followed them now shot towards the pegasus like an arrow, but as it did so, it also twisted itself into a wild cascade of horror and screams, of blades and teeth. The laughter of a thousand children could be heard, both condescending and terrifying. But as it did, she didn't appear scared, instead positioned herself between Twilight, Derpy and the shot.
“I'll make sure,” she said, and Twilight felt the very heat of her soul, “you will never hurt my friends ...”
Her wings spread as the black spear closed in her heart. She reared up and the amulet around her neck glowed with a blaze.
“Again!” she screamed against all her fears and then the last light erupted and the flames burned away the dark.
The laughter of the beast turned into a cry that could only come from the pain it felt as its very form dissolved. The crystals around them turned the darkness of the cave into a light that was as bright as the sun itself. Twilight covered her eyes again.
After a few seconds, she put her hooves back on the ground, only to notice that she felt much stronger than before and like there was no pain anymore. Twilight looked down and spotted that her hooves were purple and she could stand on them without a problem.
“What?” she asked flatly and looked around.
The entire cave was filled with the light of a warm, harmonious magic so powerful, she could scarcely believe it. This wasn't even Magia's power, or at least it didn't even feel remotely like it. This light, this warmth, it belonged to the pegasus, the one who so quietly had come along with them and run away at the last second. This very pegasus seemed as tall as a giant to her now, even though there wasn't that much of a height difference from before.
The pegasus was of a rose color and her mane was blue.
“R-Raindrops?” Twilight asked, unsure.
The pegasus smiled at her with a cocksure smile. “Yeah, about that. I lied about that, actually. It's a long story, so I'll make it short: I'm from a distant land, my family got killed. I wanted to think it didn't happen to me, but it did. I am me and my past never changed. But we can change the future, right?”
“What?” Twilight asked.
The pegasus laughed. "Firefly. That's my name and it should've been that from the start."
She didn't know what to say. All Twilight could do was look at this stranger with wonder. Raindrops, no, Firefly, merely smiled at her before she turned towards Derpy. “You okay?”
The other filly lay on the ground and the wounds were gone from her body. She smiled at Firefly. “It doesn't hurt anymore and I can see clearly now that the rain is gone,” she answered feverishly.
Firefly laughed. “Yeah, I know, and there isn't going to be anymore rain. I promise.” She reached out her hoof. “And I apparently saved you lot. So some thank yous would be nice.”
“This is all impossible,” Twilight said.
Firefly shrugged.
The impossibilities have finally ended. An Element of Harmony has been unleashed near the Lunarium and I can finally see you outside of the sleep. You need to move quickly now, follow the path to the other end of the caves, the trail of stars and then the river. Follow the sound of my voice, for you are close.
“Okay, the whatness just increased ten-fold,” Firefly said and turned her head, looking around. "That's the pony from my dreams!"
“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked, dumbfound.
Don't dawdle, if Magia wasn't aware of what was happening before, it now is. The monsters, this piece of it? They were an afterthought. There will be no more apparitions, no more beasts and no more corpses to be abused. It will deal with you personally. All its terror will soon be unleashed upon us, so hurry. No sacrifice will be forgotten and the whole world needs its heroes to finally stand up. Run, my little ponies. Run!