A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. You’ve seen and seeing is believing. Your ears and your eyes will be bleeding; please check to see if you’re still breathing. Hold tight ‘cause the show is not over; if you will, please, move in closer. You’re about to be bowled over, by the wonders you are about to behold here! -Feral(quoting “Ladies and Gentlemen” by Saliva)

And I thought I had a flair for the dramatic - Aeterna

Haven’t you heard of a little thing called showmanship? Gotta hit ‘em with the old razzle dazzle every now and then! Anyway, welcome to the second chapter, as told by my character: Ricochet. Don’t get your hopes up too high, kiddos; things from here on get bumpy. -Feral

Chapter 2: Where, oh Where Should I Begin?

So, I’ve been asked by the princess herself to write out all of the details of our little trip, as seen through my eyes. But, to be completely honest, I’ve never been too adept at putting my thoughts down on paper, so I figured I’d save myself the trouble and tell you about it, word for word, straight from the horse's mouth; so to speak. I just hope these “Speak and Write Scrolls” that Brew gave me work like they should...

What should I tell you that you don’t already know? Hmmm. Well, I might as well get on with a proper introduction. Couldn’t hurt, right?

My name is Ricochet, and as the name implies, I always bounce back. You name the situation, the time, and the place, and no matter what you need done, I’ll get it done. That’s right, I know anypony who is anypony in Equestria, and then some. I can get you simple things like a roofer, or someone to paint your house for free. Or, if you’re willing to pay a little... extra, I can make all of those nasty warrants and bill collectors just disappear; Poof!

How? Well, this silver tongue of mine isn’t just for telling stories, you know. Yep, I can talk my way through practically anything; a skill I picked up when I was a kid. You learn to keep yourself alive living on the streets like I did.

Oh, yeah. I may not look like it, but I was a no-good street rat from the get-go. Grew up on the more... unsavory parts of lower Manehattan; crime central, let me tell you. Everywhere you looked, stallions, mares, fillies, colts, and everything in between, all busy just trying to make it to tomorrow.

I remember this one colt -can’t for the life of me remember his name- but he was maybe a few years older than I was at the time. He was mugged right in broad daylight: beaten senseless, robbed for all he was worth, and left to rot in some gutter between Hill street and Main. I was maybe, oh, five at the time. So that placed this poor colt at around eight. Yeah! Can you believe it?! Eight! Just some poor kid out to, I dunno, get a hay shake or something, and BAM!, left bleeding off to the side of some litter filled walkway.

So, I guess you can draw some conclusions about where I’m from, right? Well, if you were thinking, ‘Filly stuck in an abusive home, with parents that just didn’t give a flying feather.’, then yeah, you’re spot on my friend.

Wasn’t pretty in that old shack of a house, let me tell you. I don’t think I ever got a decent night’s sleep living in that hellhole. Roof leaked water all the time thanks to a broken water pipe, which, by the way, was conveniently placed right above my bed. Hah, I say ‘bed’ when I really mean ‘rucksack filled with old matted straw’. But that’s not the point here.

Whole place leaned way too far to the left when you looked at it from the street; only thing keeping the place up were the buildings next to it. Ugh, that dump constantly smelled of cheap “cider” and moth balls. The carpet was all sorts of done for. Makes me sick just thinking about it.

So, what’s a girl to do, hm? Authorities said I had to just deal with it, learn to live with the hand dealt to me. Buck that! After what my no good father did to me... oh, this is a good story, here.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Get this: I’m on my way home from school, right? Don’t get the wrong idea, schools in Manehattan are free to attend; and going was my idea. Anyways, I step up onto our little stoop, right, and lo and behold I hear screaming from the other side of the front door. Now, this is just the normal case of the Mondays working their magic, but when I stepped through that door, I wasn’t expecting what I had walked right into.

There was my deadbeat mother laying on the floor, all four legs splayed out in different directions, blood pouring out of the fresh cuts and bruises the broken bottle of cider had made, leaving her whimpering like a dog in its final moments. Dad, standing above her, this wild look in his eyes, freshly painted with mom’s splattered self all over his work shirt. They had fought before, but never, and I mean never, before had this sort of thing happened.

I froze, what else could I do? It was just me, standing in the doorway, my makeshift saddlebags hanging loosely at my sides, mouth hanging open like some kind of idiot. But the fun doesn’t stop there, oh no. See, dad was really pissed. Like, really, really pissed. So, guess who gets the bottle this time? Mmhmm, you guessed it: little defenseless me.

I still, to this day, can’t remember anything after the first two hits he gave me. One across my right shoulder, then another that split my head open while I was down. Cheap bastard; not enough to beat a filly, let alone your own daughter, but to hit her while she’s down? I... I just... I have no words. Still got that scar, too, right here, behind my ear.

I woke up in a drying puddle of my own red fluids; head pounding like a jackhammer, unable to feel my right leg down from my shoulder. The house was dark, cold, and lifeless. Nothing unusual, but it was more profound than it used to be. I hobbled my way to our dirty-as-all-hell bathroom to take a good look at myself.

There I was, or there I should have been. My light grey coat was stained a dark brown, the gash in my head still letting out a small, but constant, stream of trickling blood. My right ear was torn to pieces; shards of glass stuck out of the thin pieces of flaps I had remaining. My right eye was swollen, my cheek was torn up... haha, I was a complete mess.

I grabbed a piece of the long-shattered mirror and held it carefully in my left hoof. I used it to check on my banged up shoulder, and I really wish I hadn’t. Man, let me tell you one thing: when my dad lets loose, boy does he let loose. That gash in my leg had to have gone to the bone, even after however many hours I was out, it was still bleeding. I could see something still lodged in there, if only just.

There was no way I could get at whatever it was still stuck in my leg; I would need help. But, I knew better; at six years old, I knew better than to hope that somepony, anypony, would stop and help a near dead lump like me. So, I did the only thing I could do: I had to fish the thing out myself. Crazy, right? But, adrenaline and death knocking on your door can make you do some crazy things.

I grabbed the tweezers from the top of the sink. I would have cleaned them first, but I would need both my front legs to do so; so that was out. I tried my best to get the stupid things to cooperate, but I was far too woozy to do something that precise. And, I’m not sure if it was the loss of blood or the overwhelming fear of an untimely demise that got me to even consider this, but that piece of glass was looking mighty handy right about then.

I grabbed the cleanest piece of cloth I could find near me, dragged my sorry hide to the tub, gripped the piece of glass, and got to carving myself like some sort of carpentry project. I remember pain unlike any other, screaming as loud as my little lungs could muster, and the slow draw of tension the glass made against my swollen and bruised skin.

I’m not sure how long I sat there, hot tears running down my face, causing long streaks to form in the dried blood that had matted into my coat. But my efforts paid off as I felt glass scrape against glass. Cutting a little below the lodged piece, I was able to shimmy my makeshift scalpel onto the other side, and after a few attempts, I finally removed the piece of the bottle my dad had so graciously given to me.

You know, here’s a tip for you: If you have something stuck in you, that also happens to be the only thing keeping all of your blood from spilling out, don’t be so hasty to remove it. I... didn’t learn that from hearsay. When I pulled out that jagged piece of bottle, I sprayed blood all over the wall next to me.

Yeah, I was freaked out! Even with the adrenaline and the way blood loss plays with your head, watching yourself lose that much of, well, yourself, was always a sobering event. I panicked, I freaked out, and the one thing that can get your heart pumping faster: just that.

I didn’t know what to do; I was six for crying out loud! So, I did what I do best: improvised. I recalled this one time I saw somepony get cut doing... something or another, and the best advice he had received was to keep pressure on the wound. So, grabbing the now dark crimson towel, I placed it between the wall and my right shoulder, and pushed myself into it as hard as I could.

From there it was a battle against my urge to lose consciousness. I was young, but I wasn’t an idiot. If I had blacked out then, I was done for. But, as luck would have it, even when I did blink out of consciousness, I woke up the next morning; in pain, but alive.

I walked -or hobbled, rather- out into the rest of the house. Whole place had stayed just as I had left it, a heap of trash. An empty heap of trash.

‘Where did they go?’ I asked myself. And wouldn’t you know it? I found the answer myself.

Some three days after my little... accident, I got a knock on the front door. Yeah, I know, three days. But anyhow, standing on the stoop was two police stallions and some stuffy looking mare in a business get-up. There weren’t many words shared between them and I, only shocked expressions and hushed whispers, ending in a very informal: “You’re coming with us, dear. You’re safe now.”

I agreed, not that I had much choice. They stepped inside the ramshackle hovel I called home, dancing around garbage and trying their best not to breathe.

In just a few moments I was off, loaded into the back of a clinical wagon that was called on my behalf.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Long story short, I was put into a group home for wayward foals; in other words: an orphanage. They told me that I could stay here until they found my parents and I was almost happy to oblige. This was the kind of place a little filly like me hoped to wind up in. It provided an escape, a haven, a bastion against the outside world. Three square meals a day, a fairly comfortable bed, working bathrooms, and a roof that didn’t leak; I was in heaven. Or, so I thought.

Now, I’m not one to reinforce the oldest clichés, but this place was one of those: ‘Pretty on the outside, but just to keep appearances.’ kind of place. You know, the kind of place you read about in old fairy tales. Whole thing smelled fishy from the get-go, I tell you what; and this nose never lies.

During my very brief stay at Hopeful Sunrise Orphanage, I was picked on, made an example of, verbally abused by the faculty and my peers alike, and generally ignored. But, living in an adoption center taught me one thing, a lesson I still utilize to this day: how to act.

When some unfortunate souls came by the orphanage looking for a replacement colt or filly for one that they had recently lost, or were never able to conceive, the whole building put on a production unlike any other. Smiles were plastered on every face, some of the children took to trying to beautify themselves by some means. And lo and behold, every time, the one who was the best actor was chosen.

From there I picked up on the finer points of subtlety; like when it was appropriate to smile or when you could or couldn’t say something within a certain context. I dissected the flow of speech and took my time rooting about in its mysteries. I learned so much in the little time I had spent there, and even with all of the animosity thrown in my direction, I had found a place to feed me, house me, and even get me back to walking without a limp. But, after only a month, things started to get lively once again.

Having your parents turn you away is one of those life-defining moments that you just never forget, no matter how hard you try. It’s also one of those moments that puts everything into perspective; lets you see the big picture.

I was minding my own business -reading a book, I think- when Caress, the brood-mother, told me to come to the front lobby. Not wanting to receive yet another flogging, I complied. Standing in the lobby were two ponies I thought I would never see again.

Dad looked as he always did: half drunk, messy, and generally unhappy. Mom, well, she was using her “everything is fine, my life is wonderful” face again. They were flanked by two soldiers in golden armor who seemed like they were just having the time of their lives, what with those stern and rather unamused faces of theirs.

Despite my sadness, my anger, my absolute hatred for the both of them, I still felt like a thousand bits right then.

‘They care for me! They must really love me!’ I thought. But, wouldn’t you know it? I was wrong, as usual.

“Is this your daughter?” One of the soldiers said. Mom almost spurted something out, but dad shot her a glance telling her to keep her trap shut, or he’d wire it shut. Dad looked me up and down, a perplexed look on his face.

“Nope,” He grumbled. “Never seen this kid before in my life. I would know a train wreck if I was the one who made it.”

I was crushed. No, crushed isn’t a strong enough word. Devastated, ruined, dismayed, destroyed, horrified; those are a little closer. I thought that I couldn’t cry anymore; I didn’t even cry when I saw my ruined self in the mirror a month ago. I figured that I had done enough crying for one life; enough crying to last a thousand lives, and I was only six. But I wasn’t the brightest kid back then, and I learned then that tears don’t have a limit.

“Are you certain, sir?” Caress tried. “This filly matches the description your wife gave, and-”

I flinched backwards, fresh tears running down my face. Caress turned to me, a genuine look of worry on her face. Even in this fresh hell, she was my favorite. What can I say? She who beats less, gets loved more. “Honey, do you recognize these ponies? Are these your parents?”

I didn’t know what to say. I was scared and lonely, and I just wanted to go home. Back to that piss-stinking, rat infested, condemnable, dumpster fire of a home. But then it hit me: ‘Why the hay should I have to go back? What did they do for me, that I couldn’t do for myself?!’

So, I looked my father right in the eyes -right in his big, stupid, ugly face- with all of the defiance and fury I never knew I had. “No,” I said, “Never.”

Then, right there, that was the flipping point. When I had finally figured out that my life was what I made it out to be. Screw the rules, I write the rules! To hell with the way things work, what’s the point of falling in line if you just get stepped on over and over again? Well no, sir! I wasn’t having it anymore! And as I stared into my father’s shocked eyes, a triumphant smirk on my face, there was a flash of light.

I bounced back. Hahah, I wish you could have seen the look on my dad’s face! Priceless, in every sense of the word! I even took my tool of a mother by complete surprise! Oh, man, let me tell you, that was one amazing moment.

Caress knew I had this tell, my right ear, the one that got messed up, would twitch whenever I would lie. It was only the smallest of movements, but it was there nonetheless. I knew she caught it, and I knew that she knew that I knew what I was doing; that this was what I truly wanted for myself. She gave me a grin and a nod, then asked the soldiers to “Kindly escort these two from the premises.”

****************************************************************************************************************************

I know what you must be thinking right about now: “Where does your tie-in with Princess Luna come in? Why were you asked to write this scroll?” Well, I’m getting to that, there’s just a lot of stuff to work through first...

How about I give you the short version? Yeah, that would help to speed things on a bit, right?

Okay, so after I was done with my parents, I faced a life in the orphanage, waiting day-in and day-out for somepony to come on by and decide that I was worth their time. Now, after having my little epiphany I knew that I had options; ones that didn’t involve me suffering beneath someone else’s hooves. So what did I do? I left. Simple as that.

I went back to the streets, age six, not a bit to my name, and brimming with newfound confidence. But I wasn’t entirely helpless, mind you. No, I had something better: a dynamite personality. I could con anypony out of a few bits; that’s how I made a living back then. I once blackmailed a local deli owner with proof that he was having an affair with some mare two towns over. Got myself a nice chunk of change from that endeavor.

After playing the game for a while, I took residence in an abandoned warehouse on the lower east side. I couldn’t get my hooves on real property, being now the age of seven, but I could buy furniture and the like; and with all of my connections, heh, I was practically stealing goods with how cheap I could get them. Yeah, I was living a fairly comfortable life, I even started growing bold enough to con some of the big-wigs that Manehattan is notorious for having. The more pompous they were, the easier the mark.

Yet, not everything goes as planned; mice and stallions, and all that. I was slumming it with some of the upper crust Manehattan had to offer, mostly sizing up possible marks and better refining my ‘Daughter to a Duchess’ act. This was going to be an amazing job, one that could have set me up with a steady income for life. Rumor was that one of the princesses was to be in attendance, so how could I pass that up? Wouldn’t you know, some two hours into this shindig, I had found my target.

He was ripe for the picking: throwing money around like nopony’s business, mares hanging off him, completely hammered off his plot. He was a recipe for disaster, and I was going to be the one to catch him in the act.

I stuck next to this guy for a while, waiting to catch something good enough to work with, but I was being held up by some drunk mare with an endless supply of questions. I can multi-task, don’t get me wrong, but this mare had more questions than I had answers. She would keep digging into my history, which lead into my family’s history, which started posing questions on what my family did for a living.

Well -curveball!- sure enough some guard was listening in on the entire conversation, and he wasn’t nearly as drunk as my little reporter friend here. Well, long story short, he didn’t buy into any of my “carefully thought out act” and he, as expected, apprehended me.

I thought I was done for, finished, about to be shipped back to the orphanage I had more than readily left behind. A number of soldiers in over-the-top dress armor came to take me away, and I, losing all sense of cool, began screaming my little lungs ragged trying to get away from them.

But, as we neared the paddy wagon, the relentless iron grip of the soldiers restraining me, I heard a soft and gentle: “Hold.”

Now, this is the part where I tell you that Princess Luna showed up and saved me from a fate that I couldn’t stomach. The part where I tell you that she took me in and raised me alongside her off in a castle like some fairy tale cliché. Well, good news, it wasn’t Luna, but Celestia who was my savior. I know, right? Where am I going with this? Well, hold on and I’ll tell you.

I watched in awe as the Solar Goddess stepped down from the entrance to the hotel, her gilded hooves clinking daintily on the concrete steps. When I first saw her, my jaw hit the dirt. She was perfect; beautiful. And even though she spoke with a gentle demeanor, one that could barely be heard, the soldiers restraining me stopped dead in their tracks, standing at attention.

She approached me, her magenta eyes locked on mine. She had this sort of majestic flow to her movements, each one exuded power and grace unmatched by anything I had ever witnessed. “What is your name, my dear?”

“Ricochet...” I blurted out. I couldn’t even try to lie to her, I just... couldn’t. “My name is Ricochet.”

Well, glossing once again over the uninteresting parts, she told the soldiers to free me and asked me to come inside where I would then tell her everything about myself and my life thus far. When I was finished, she debated with herself for a while, eventually coming to the conclusion that I would come to live in Castle Canterlot, where I would be taught how to use my talents for the greater good, rather than self gratification.

And so it was. I left behind my life of being a conning prodigy and into a new life learning the tricks of the diplomatic trade. Celestia took me under her wing, so to speak, and made me her private pupil; teaching me a wide variety of languages and politics.

Technically speaking, I couldn’t be adopted by royalty because of my heritage. But, a little loop hole made it so I could be adopted by one of her hoofmaidens, my surrogate mother, Bless. She taught me how to act like a lady should, how to behave with the proper decorum that was expected of the pupil of the princess; not that any of it took, mind you. But that was all mostly for show, Bless was more of a friend than a mother.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Now, the part I’m sure you’ve been waiting for: how I met Luna. It was during my studies in the Castle, not more than a week or two after getting settled in. I hadn’t seen her around much because of her schedule. Ponies, being primarily diurnal, have issues staying awake in the night; only those who received the special augments from joining the Lunar Vanguard had the ability to really push through the long, dark hours.

Yet, one night I found that sleep just wouldn’t come. I tried everything: counting sheep, tapping a hoof on one of my bed posts to get some white noise, I even thought of trying to find that elusive beast known as the “Sand Pony” and bludgeoning him to death with a knobbed stick if it meant getting some rest. But my mind refused to sit still, and there I lay, staring at my ceiling.

Everything was so quiet there, in the castle. I was used to the murmur of the sleepless city and the sounds of carts rumbling along the crude streets. Here, nothing but the cry of the nightingale and the whisper of the wind through the trees outside my window. It was all peaceful, and in no way did I ever think that it wasn’t beautiful, but it was just so... quiet, boring, bland.

I got up out of bed and walked over to the dark window. The moon hadn’t risen yet; I wondered why. In the distance I could see things soaring through the air: owls, bats, and the like. Above the trees of the Everfree, the stars stretched out into an endless oblivion, their ethereal light faintly illuminating the forest canopy. It was all beautiful... but where was the moon?

I figured I wouldn’t worry about it and go to bed; then figured that going to bed was a near impossibility. So, what else could I do? I took a walk. Just a harmless walk around the castle at night, that’s all.

I toured the corridors looking at nothing in particular. There was a hallway lined with a bunch of paintings, an atrium filled with statues, and I even passed by a room that had a ceiling that would reflect the night sky above; a sort of planetarium.

After a while I had walked my way to a lesser known portion of the castle. The carpets here had ceased to be the searing red that had made itself known across the entire building, and instead featured a dark and regal purple.

I followed the carpeting to a rather interesting door. It was made of a thick, black oak, and had ornate gothic designs carved into it. In the darkness I could discern the moon and its cycles, a star filled sky, and the royal crest.

Having no sense of subtlety this early in the night, I pushed my way through the entrance and was greeted by a spiral staircase leading upwards, and because I was just that curious, I started my way up. My hooves clopped loudly on the dark staircase; it was so dark, I had to walk with my right side brushing against the wall to be sure of where I was going.

I knew the top of the long spiral when I had gotten to it, as the stone flattened out once again, but I couldn’t tell how far I was to the door. Well, until I smacked my blind self right into it, that is. The wooden door opened with a hollow creaking noise, one that seemed to echo on forever along the corridor behind me.

I was about to turn around and bolt back down the steps, when I heard a soft voice coming from beyond the threshold. It almost sounded like somepony was arguing with somepony else, and like a good little snoop, I just had to listen in.

“No!” Said a voice; female. “Celestia is right! I am just as loved as she is!”

“And you honestly believe that, don’t you?” Said another female voice, this one decidedly more firm. “She is playing with you, like a cat with yarn; leading you by the nose like some kind of cattle. She’s simply playing with you until she’s bored, then she’ll throw you away, like the trash she believes you to be!” There was a bout of quiet laughter. “Hahahah, they may give you smiles, or perhaps a friendly greeting, as is their wont, but beyond that they care nothing for you! They hide behind their masks of falsehoods only for political gain! You are nothing more to them than a figurehead, a lowly shadow in Celestia’s rule!”

There was a shocked silence, accentuated by a loud gasp from voice number one. “Silence, you vile thing! I will not have this anymore! Be gone!”

There was a crash, followed by the twinkling melody of glass hitting stone. I listened with bated breath, I had thought someone just got thrown out a window, or something. That was until I heard the crying. Not of someone in shock at what they had just done, or horror of witnessing an event that took a turn for the worse, but the gentle whimper of defeat; a sound I was all too familiar with.

Drawing the courage I needed, I gently opened the door just enough to allow my small form passage. The round room I found myself in was practically barren, save a wooden desk in the middle. Bookshelves, holding a practically endless library of various volumes, lined each and every wall, only breaking at the large bay window to the right. The ceilings above me were like that of the planetarium from before and showed the entirety of the cosmos overhead.

I took in the awe of what I would later find out was known as the Forgotten Tower. Yet, as I stood there, I noticed that I wasn’t alone. Standing at the far end of the room, opposite the door, was a tall mare, the color of the deepest midnight, her mane, the darkest of shadows, twinkling with starlight, flowing freely about her form. She was looking towards the floor in front of her; the shattered mirror surrounding her at every turn. Between the hushed sobs, I could hear her tears splashing on the floor; the space where they landed glowing for a brief moment.

She started for a moment, my entrance completely slipping by her awareness. “Who-? How-? When-?” She stopped for a moment to regain her composure, wiping the tears from her face. “What are you doing in here? Who permitted you to enter my tower?”

I didn’t even bother with those questions. “Why were you crying just now?”

She looked flustered, standing there with her questions ignored. But she knew who I was, I assumed everypony in the castle did by now. “Ah, yes. You must be the young Ricochet. My sister’s newest pupil.” She was awfully curt. “I’ve heard some interesting stories about you, little one.”

“I am not little!” Yes. I was. “And what kind of stories?! Did Celestia say anything about me that I should know?!”

The Midnight Mare laughed; a heavenly sound that echoed well in the mostly empty chamber. “Calm yourself, I was merely poking fun.” She walked over to the desk in the middle of the room, her silvered hooves crunching on the broken glass.

“Now then,” She looked at me with a kind stare. “How did you manage to find my tower?”

Still wasn’t answering my questions, but I played along. “Well, I couldn’t get to sleep earlier, so I decided to take a walk is all.”

Beat the hell out of me. “Well, I think it’s because the moon wasn’t out. I can’t get to sleep some nights without a window with a view of the moon.”

The mystery mare looked taken aback for a moment, like she was honestly surprised at what I had just said; a look that was replaced by a sly grin.

“Oh, then, my apologies. It seems that my duties have completely slipped my mind. Excuse me for just a moment...” She got up from the desk and shuffled over to the bay window, which promptly opened at the behest of her magic.

She stood up on the windowsill, her horn glowing a deep blue, wings outstretched as far as they would go. As she lifted her head slowly, I could only spectate in wonder as the full moon began to rise behind her, casting her in a silvery silhouette.

As she turned to me, her mane flowing like mad, infused with the raw power the moonlight had given to her, I really didn’t need to know who I was talking to anymore. In that instant I knew that I was trespassing on what had to be sacred ground. I was flustered, to say the least; tripping over myself trying to make an apologetic escape from the tower. But she cut me off with a smile and a nod, telling me that staying behind would be fine.

“Calm yourself, child.” Luna interrupted, “If you would like to stay here and talk, I would be more than happy to. Anypony who is worthy of my sister’s time, is most certainly a welcome guest to me.”

From there everything was grand. Luna and I would have our little meetings whenever we could afford the opportunity; always meeting up in her tower for some reading or just playful banter. She would teach me everything that Celestia didn’t; mostly Equestrian history instead of foreign politics. She even took to fixing my beat up ear for me; the doctors had told me that there was nothing they could do with it, so it was still in pieces before Luna fixed it.

She once asked me if I wanted to get rid of the scar on my right shoulder. I told her no, it was a reminder of where I had come from; a reminder of what I had to do to be sure I didn’t wind up like that ever again.

****************************************************************************************************************************

When we burst into that antechamber, and when I saw Celestia standing over Luna’s limp and broken body, my heart leapt into my throat. After the fire began to rage through the forests outside, and the fighting, and then this?! I was beside myself.

What could I do? I mean, up until this point I had been completely useless! I’m no fighter, and how the hell were we supposed to take on the Solar Princess herself?! There was just... there was just no way. So, I did what I do best: I bounced back. If I couldn’t fight, then I damn well had to do something.

So, I swallowed my fear, pushed all doubt from my mind, and put this tongue of mine to work. I was able to talk down Celestia, and even convinced her to banish her younger sister; my greatest friend. Honeuma wasn’t all too happy with me, but everypony else seemed to understand. Ha, I nearly lost my game face there in the middle.

We played on Celestia’s honor to receive leniency on our impending execution, trading up for a couple of cold cells instead. Several soldiers in tarnished golden armor, battered and bruised, hauled us off to the seldom seen dungeons, where they separated us into two groups, and threw us away.

Midnight Blaze, Star Brew, and Silver Light were tossed into a cell on the other end of the corridor; Arian, Honeuma, and I were placed in our own. I could hear talking coming from the cell down the hall, but ours, well...

Honeuma was still upset with me, even if he had reluctantly agreed with me. If ever there were two complete opposites, save Brew and Silver, it was Honeuma and I. Where he followed Luna in blind faith, I followed in tested honor. He was a firm believer in that his actions would speak louder than words, whereas I knew my tongue was my greatest asset in a conflict. I knew him mostly by reputation, a reputation that nearly preceded him. He was a fine soldier, one of the best in the Rebellion. Otherwise, I had seen him at formal gatherings or diplomatic meetings; my being the impartial negotiator and he the guardstallion to Princess Luna. Er, Nightmare Moon, that is.

Arian was sitting in the far corner, staring glumly at his talons. I knew him since before all of this, you know. Yeah, being a business consultant and diplomat meant that I was all over the place. Arian here, well, he was a peculiar case. He was a griffin; a griffin raised by ponies. I had worked with his foster family on several occasions, helping them to sort out business deals and the like. I found him to be quiet, shy, and altogether pleasant. He was a family griffin; devoted husband and proud father to a little girl. Now, he was in a musty prison cell, looking at a fate that could very well be far worse than death. I would be lying if I said my heart didn’t break a little for him.

Star Brew, well, he and I are much the same, to be honest. While we disagree on some key matters, he has absolutely no tact when it comes to handling other ponies. Where his smarts come from books and careful study, mine came from personal experiences and learning from my mistakes. He’s fairly agreeable when he wants to be; always looking at things from a logical standpoint. Though, he does have a tendency to see the world like he sees the text in books: in black and white.

We met while I was on an errand a long time ago; back when I was still a stupid teenager. Brew had decided to look for jobs in a higher position, and I was more than happy to suggest his amazing concoctions to Princess Luna. Before long, Brew was the go-to stallion for anything that needed enchanting or brewing for nearly all of the kingdom; his recipes and methods sought after by nearly every scholar the world over.

Silver Light, my sister-in-arms. You’d think that her and I would be just too different to get along: she grew up in a nice home, born into a prestigious family, with everything going for her. And me, well... you know. But, you want to know the reason I like her so much? Because she hated that life; not that I could blame her in the least.

Ugh, I don’t even know where to begin with Silver’s family. So, I won’t. Bottom line: they were the atypical rich snobs that I loved to take advantage of in my early years. Upturned noses, silver spoons stuck where the sun don’t shine, and just bottom-line rude. The kind of family that tears itself apart because of a financial or political dispute.

I couldn’t help but feel at least a little sorry for the poor girl. I mean, her family signed her over to Miss Prissy Princess herself: Princess Ruby Slippers. Let me tell you, that is one job that I would never wish on anypony. Not even my worst enemy.

And, of course, there was the innocent of our group: Midnight Blaze. Grew up in the Everfree, the way I understand it. Living off the land and fending for himself. I’ve been told that he never knew his family, and that the closest thing he had to a home was burned to nothing but ashes. Of all of us, he had to have fallen the farthest. Going from practically nothing, to a position of esteem, to less than nothing, had to be one hell of a trip.

I remember the first time I met Blaze. It was only a month after I settled myself into my new life at the castle, when Princess Luna asked me if I would, “Like to accompany her on an errand.”

Not one to sit around and gather dust all day, I agreed, not really expecting a walk through the Everfree. She led me through paths I never even knew existed; winding between trees that stretched higher than the tallest of Castle Canterlot’s towers. It was like I was in another dimension; some sort of fantasy.

Princess Luna stopped in front of what looked to be a hovel made out of a tree hollow. It was crude, but sturdy, and it looked like it could keep out the elements. Better constructed than the hole I lived in, at least. She called out to the little shelter, and wouldn’t you know it? Out popped a colt around my age. He was nothing but a ball of charcoal grey fluff back then; I couldn’t help but giggle at the sight.

Princess Luna produced a small satchel, apparating out of thin air at the call of her magic. She willed it over to the young colt and laid it open, revealing the foodstuffs inside. The colt was beside himself with joy as he began to work on the meal. Again, I couldn’t help but snicker.

We didn’t bother sticking around long, Princess Luna said something about some sort of work that she needed to busy herself with, or something. On the way back, I asked her why she left him behind.

I got wind that she had started to send a care package to the colt every day via delivery by a few of her most trusted soldiers. Every day, I would wait by the front gates, waiting for one of those soldiers to come back empty handed. And every day he would tell me the same thing: “He’s doing just fine.”

****************************************************************************************************************************

So, there I sat on one of the beds, next to that glum griffin, and thought about what may come. Celestia had just told us that we were to be banished the next morning; something that we weren’t all too excited about. The words, “Good luck,” rang out in my head, played back by Celestia’s voice again and again.

‘Out of the pan and into the fire, right? Moonlight save us, what have I roped us into...?’ I thought, apprehension starting to seize my thoughts with near panic.

I looked up from the floor, at first to Arian, whose focus was pointed towards the iron bars of our small cell. Then shifting my gaze to Honeuma, who was glaring at me. I knew he didn’t exactly favor me much right now; not after the moves I had made for everypony.

“Does it matter if I believe it? All I know is that we’re alive, and so is Luna.”

“And you would do well to remember who made that possible,” Arian said glumly.

Still glaring, Honeuma spat back. “What makes you think I want to be alive if it’s without her? She was the one thing that gave my life meaning, and she’s gone now.”

“Gone, but not forgotten. At least she is still alive, and so are we. If we somehow get out of this alive, we just might be able to bring her back. Or have you not thought of that?” Arian stated.

I kept my eyes locked on Honeuma’s. “Easy, Jet. This situation is a little more delicate than that. And you,” I began addressing my glaring counterpart. “Throwing your life away doesn’t mean anything in the end. No matter what the purpose, death is death. Nothing more.”

Now visibly upset, Honeuma got to all fours, “Yes, death is death, take a look at me and tell me what I look like!” He stepped into the faint light given off by the torch outside our cell, showing the skeleton-like marks of his coat. “I look like it, so I may as well be it. Without Luna, nopony is going to accept somepony like me, so who cares if I throw my life away, it’s mine isn’t it?!” As he yelled, a single tear fell from his eye.

“I care, and I’m sure Ricochet cares too,” Arian said very father-like as he put his talon on Honeuma’s shoulder. “Trust me, It will be hard, but if you let your true character show through, the other ponies will look past appearances and will be sure to accept you.”

Before that moment, I had thought Honeuma was just some ground-pounding, battle-loving, meathead. But now, I realized, he was just somepony who had lost everything; just like the rest of us.

“And I’m sure that our Lady, our Mare in the Moon, cares as well.” I gave a slight smile and a nod of my head in Honeuma’s direction. He seemed to get where I was coming from, at least for the moment, anyway.

He slunk back to his corner of the cell, trying to hide his tearing eyes behind his leathery wings. With a wavering voice, “That’s just it, she was the only one to ever care, and now that she’s gone, it’s just like before...”

“Then don’t let her actions be in vain. Stand tall as her most trusted soldier; as the Sword of the Lunar Rebellion. If you give in now, what will it prove to everypony that stood against her? That she only took in the meek and helpless as some sort of sick joke? No, she saw something in you, in all of us. Don’t just sit there and mope, hold your head high! Honor our Lady in everything that you do, and know that no matter where we end up, you will never be alone.” I took a deep breath. Everything I had just said flowed out of nowhere, like I was channeling somepony else’s thoughts. Kind of freaked me out.

Honeuma gave a wicked little smirk through his tears, “You forget, I’m from another land with different ways of doing things. To honor her would be to take my life, as I failed in my one goal of protecting her, bringing dishonor to myself.”

“Yes, that was there, but now you live in Equestria. And I swear, if you kill yourself, I will go to the very depths of Tartarus to resurrect you, just so I can kill you myself!” Arian said as he puffed up his feathers and spread his wings to make himself as imposing as possible. It wasn’t working all too well.

“You can’t resurrect a dead person in Tartarus, Arian. You have to bring them outside of the Gates before you can do that,” corrected Star Brew from down the hall.

I gave a sigh. This was getting us nowhere, fast. Maybe Honeuma would see things from a less traditional standpoint one day, maybe not. I would have to work on that. I stopped trying to cheer him up after that; I figured a dark smirk was as good as I was going to get at this point.

Then what Star Brew had shouted to us sank in. “Oh, gee! Thanks for the vote of confidence, brainiac! I swear, no tact.”

“I apologize,” the unicorn said, the sarcasm in his voice clearly evident. “Ol’ Silver here isn’t very good company. All she ever tries is to-” Star Brew’s voice cut off as we heard a loud crash, then yelling. “SILVER LIGHT! DON’T YOU PUSH ME OFF MY COT!” A chuckle from what must have been Silver Light, followed by a mumbled groan from what sounded like Midnight Blaze.

Great, now on top of everything else, I was laughing in spite of myself. Though, I wasn’t complaining; and neither were my cell mates.

“Keep it down in there,” a guard called out from the other side of the hall.

Honeuma actually chuckled, “You know, it’s not like I even have any way of doing that anymore.”

“Well it’s going to be one heck of a day tomorrow, we might as well get some rest,” Arian said with a yawn.

With a round of agreement, everyone set themselves up for the night, trying to get as comfortable as they possibly could with what limited space we had.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Sleep didn’t come easy that night. No, it came with a club and a big “Buck you!” stapled to its head. I felt like I did all those years ago, back when I had met Princess Luna for the first time. Everything just felt... wrong, like the air I was breathing wasn’t actually there, like this was all some dream.

I tossed and turned, and the lack of a window in this cell was driving me crazy. Call it a pegasus’ prerogative to need to be able to see the sky at all times. It’s just, I don’t know... comforting. But what with the lack of sky, and the lack of moonlight, sleep was just a wish to me.

I had finally given up trying to rest myself for the night, instead pacing in small steps, trying to figure out a game plan. It was fruitless, of course; even through all of the rumors and advice I had received over the years, there was absolutely no mention of the Blasted Lands, or what we could expect there. I was just taking one big stab in the dark on this gamble; ante up, all in! Chips on the table! Momma needs a new toaster, come on!

I had nearly run myself ragged with what I was sure to be eventualities; namely a rather unpleasant demise, probably caused by dehydration or malnutrition. Until I heard the door to the hallway open with its trademark SCREECH!

I trotted over to the bars to see who was moving our way, but the bars gave my vision little purchase. It wasn’t until the old-as-dirt unicorn stepped right in front of me that I was sure of who it was.

I couldn’t help but feel a little melancholy. He was an old friend, but not necessarily my ally. “Star Swirl. How you been holding up, you old fart? Heard you’ve been tampering with timelines again.”

He was used to my sarcasm by now, so he dodged the remark. “I was just informed that you and your... friends are to be banished tomorrow. The Blasted Lands, or so I hear.”

I looked to the floor and nodded glumly. “Yeah. It was the best I could do. I mean, I did what I had to! You know that, right?” He just looked into my eyes, his bushy eyebrows obscuring my view of his. “Please, just, please, tell me what I did was the right thing to do. Please...” I slumped down to the floor, bracing my sobbing body against the cold bars.

Star Swirl’s knees cracked as he sat down behind me, his back pressed against the opposite side of the bars between us.

“Ricochet, you know that I cannot reveal to you the answers to your questions. To do so would be a vast misuse of my power.” I could feel the rickety heave of his breathing against my back. It was a calming feeling, like a father. “But, my friend, the only thing I can tell you is that no matter the consequences, you six must remain united. Each of you has a gift, something that young Luna saw in all of you. Something that Lady Celestia has seen this day. I can only tell you that the time will come when you all must face your true demons, in order to defeat the ones that await you in the Blasphemed Realm.”

He was cryptic, as usual. I swear, no matter how many ponies tell you otherwise, Star Swirl the Bearded’s special talent was being vague. But, it proved calming nonetheless, and my sobbing stopped for the moment. Star Swirl continued.

“You six knew young Luna as she truly was. You six knew not the ruler of a kingdom, but the kind hearted and unfairly judged mare she wanted to be known as.” He let out a sigh and stood back up, giving out a grunt that made even him sound old. “But, you knew not just young Luna, Ricochet. But you also know Lady Celestia, knowledge your comrades fail to keep with them. Remember well your greatest lesson, my friend: In war...”

“...there is no such thing as good and evil. Each side has their heroes and their tyrants. And know that nopony is ever in the wrong; only those who have become misguided or lost, fight a war and fail to see a compromise,” I finished. Celestia had taught me that; my winning lesson, the one that took me to the very top of the political chain.

I still hate that old codger for being able to make me complacent when I just want to break down and lose it. You know, those times where you want to feel guilty, or sad, or angry, just to validate your stupid, unwarranted self effacing? But, I guess that just means I have some respect for him after all; and that I owe him one. Ugh...

I stood up again and looked at Star Swirl’s stupid smile, not able to keep myself from smiling in the process. He reached a scraggly hoof through the bars and wiped the tears from my cheek.

“And always remember to do what you do best, Ricochet. Whatever comes your way, whatever trials your comrades, these five wayward souls, encounter, never run away. You have a rare gift, my friend; one that will play a large role in how this journey plays out.” He rested his hoof on my right shoulder, his horn glowing for just a moment. I felt my right leg tingle, and when he pulled his hoof away, my old reminder, that scar I had carried with me all these years, had vanished.

I looked at him with fresh tears. He just nodded, his smile widening. “This is a new time, one that will be forged by the hooves of everypony in the land. Past happenstance has no hold here, you understand?”

I responded with a simple nod, because if I had opened my mouth to say something, anything, I would have started bawling loud enough to wake everypony else up. The last thing I wanted right now was to have everypony see me talking with a well known Solar Sympathizer in the middle of the night.

“Ahem. Now, get some rest. You will have a long day ahead of you, and an even longer journey shortly thereafter.” And with a turn of the head, and a swish of his ratty tail, he was gone; off to sort something or another out for the better of the kingdom, I’m sure.

I dragged myself back to the cot, picking up my hooves only to be sure not to kick Arian square in the beak. I layed back down, and caught myself staring at the ceiling... again. But, this time was different; and I’m still not sure why. Maybe it was the smile on my face, or the hopeful flame I had burning in the farthest recesses of my heart, but I felt like I did back in that orphanage; back when I turned my parents away.

I felt like everything was right; like I could take the world and all it was worth. I was ready.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Or, so I thought. Funny how you can be so sure of something one second and go to kicking yourself in the teeth the next.

Once I jumped out of that prisoner transport, and hit the sandy, cracked earth beneath me, I knew I couldn’t stomach this place for long. I mean, I was built for urban survival! Not literal survival! I was in way over my head, a fact that drove itself home when I got a good view of the nothing that was the start of the Blasted Lands.

As far as the eye could see: nothing. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Can I possibly say that enough? The entire stretch of land before us was covered in naught but sand and dust. Over to the right! You see that?! Oh, wait, never mind. Just more nothing to be had! Just miles and miles of... well, you get the picture.

I shifted my little bag off my back and checked the contents, making a mental checklist as I went. I had everything I would need, for the time being: rations of dry hay, a canteen, a small box of tinder twigs, a small length of rope, and so on. You know, the basic camping equipment. I had a hard time coming to terms with how little we were given, before Star Brew noticed the enchantment placed upon our bags and canteens: a replenishment spell. It wasn’t anything fancy, and we would still need to ration food and water during the day, but at midnight, everything would be back the way we had started.

I picked my bag back up and looked to our two “experts”. Star Brew had read a number of books on this area of the map; Arian, on the other hand, had first-talon experience.

Star Brew looked to Arian, a compass floating in his magical aura in front of him. “You’d be right about that.”

“But be careful not to lose each other,” Arian cut in, “You would be surprised how easy it is to get turned around in the wastelands. Just stick close, and we’ll all be fine.” He handed us each a strip of cloth. “Those might be thin, but they’ll keep the sand out of your eyes. I would suggest wearing these at all times, unless it’s absolutely necessary you take them off.”

We all complied, Arian sparing not a single cloth for himself; he has two pairs of eyelids after all. After we had geared up, we all took one last glance to the green speck of land to the east of us; the place we had once called home: Equestria.

I could feel the same wave of depression wash over all of us. It was like we were given one last slap to the face. “Take that, you foul swine! Never return!” We spared enough time to only allow a few memories to pass by; unchecked and unhindered.

Without a word, we all turned our backs to our old home, and walked forwards into a future that was sure to kill us. We stayed quiet for a long while, longer than what I had felt necessary. The ground beneath our hooves crumbled and cracked with volume that equalled the loudest thunder; it drove me nuts!

So, what could I do? What could I possibly say that would pick everypony up and perhaps even get them to smile? I almost hate to admit it: I sang.

“~The fire of friendship lives in our hearts~.” I started, soft and slow, seeing if anyone else would catch on. Nothing. “~As long as it burns we cannot drift apart~.”

“~Though quarrels arise...~” Arian started, also soft and slow, at first. I adopted a spring in my step.

“~Laughter and singing will see us through~.” Silver Light even chimed in. Now it was a party! I grabbed a hold of Silver Light and Blaze.

“~We are a circle of pony friends!~” I sang out, all sense of modesty out the window. I looked to Blaze to see if he knew the end to the song, even in his depressed-as-all-hell state, no one could resist a good song, right? Right!

He was reluctant, but wound up being a complete idiot like the rest of us. “~A circle of friends we'll be to the very end?~ That’s how it goes... right?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Hahah! That’s right! Now, for the second verse! ~We will---~”

“Can you ponies be quiet? I’m trying to read this map,” Star Brew said sourly from the front of our group.

Honeuma hung his head and sighed, “Really? You consider this to be an appropriate moment to sing?” He and Star Brew both looked disapprovingly at the rest of us.

“Of course we do, just because you guys don’t know how to have fun...” came Silver Light’s rebuttal.

I dropped back on all fours again. “That’s fine, not everypony likes to sing.” I nudged Silver in the side and whispered, “Not a stick for miles, and still they walk that way...”

So, my little scheme didn’t work for everypony, but it hit where it really mattered. I was able to get Blaze to smile, even if it was for the briefest of moments. From there, well, we walked; still not talking much aside from the occasional question regarding where we were headed or when it would be appropriate to rest.

I never had a real appreciation for how freakin’ hot the sun could get before then. The heat was absolutely brutal. I could only imagine what my dark-coated companions were thinking. But, before long, nightfall came; the new visage of the moon cresting the farthest dunes right when it was supposed to. And, you know, nights in the desert leave you wanting the sweltering heat of the midday sunlight! I couldn’t even feel my wings, it was so cold.

We had decided that the later hours of the day would be a bad time to move, and even with the blinding light of the full moon, we would freeze to death in no time. We had set up camp in a small culvert in a series of dunes; helped to block the wind, according to Arian. Before long, we had a fire, and everyone was treating themselves to a quiet dinner.

I wish I could tell you more, but that was everything that happened that day. No, really! Honest! After we ate, we just went to sleep...

Oh! I know what will catch the wind in your sails! How about I tell you about how the nightmares started? Oh yeah, nightmares after the Rebellion were much, much, more terrifying than before. I remember somepony talking about the latent power of Nightmare Moon and how she used the moonlight to exact her revenge, or something.

Yeah! I think that’ll work just fine! And, hey, I might as well leave a space for everyone else as well. Get the whole story that way; the big picture.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Ricochet beckoned me over, telling me something or other that I was supposed to write down what happened that first night, the night we all had nightmares, the first of many. I trotted over to where I was summoned, away from the others as I recollected my thoughts, my hooves scraping gently across the grass. I really wished that these scrolls of Brew’s didn’t require you to speak, for thoughts usually held some sort of privacy and comfort to me. Alas, it wasn’t called a “Speak and Write Scroll” for nothing. You know, nightmares have a weird way of starting off like memories, only they end up twisting them in a horrid way.

The night was as cool as the shifting sands sunk underneath us, while the blackened sky above us whirled around circuitively. The twinkling stars above shown through the dark curtain, revealing themselves as they clung to the dark fabric, spinning in harmony. The night sky above us clashed with the darkened sands beneath our hooves, creating a greater division between us and our former home.

I think sleep came easier for me than it did others that night. Living in the forest means you never got the luxury of a bed or haystack, but it also held its advantages. You learned to fall asleep quickly, and make sure you stay in a light sleep in case of an emergency. Seeing the night sky above reassured me that at least I could always fly away if I needed to. My eyelids closed slowly, shutting out the light from exposing my aching heart. I could’ve sworn I heard a lullaby faintly in the distance.

Day 54, year 5. I wasn’t actually five, but I started counting the days I’d been truly alive, and I only really felt alive ever since I met princess Luna and my friends. It was a beautiful evening, one to which I simply couldn’t ignore. I promised to meet the gang in a clearing of the forest, and I wasn’t about to go back on a promise anytime soon. After all, I didn’t want to lose the friends I had so recently made. I would give almost anything to prevent losing them.

I flew above the green of the trees below, spreading my wings wide as I felt the rush of Spring’s breeze push up against my feathers. I flew over to where my friends were waiting for me, in the clearing, just like we agreed. I swept downward toward a landing spot, where I greeted my friends, embracing them with warm smiles and intentions. Everything was... perfect.

We all gathered around in a circle; everyone was laughing, smiling, and was so nice that I easily lost track of time. We weren’t here just because of some random reason, we were all there because tonight was a full moon, one that princess Luna said would be particularly special. I couldn’t stay for long, but what little I did see was definitely worth the trip. The princess was right; everything about that night was perfectly planned- the glittering stars, the radiating moon, all of it. Before I knew it, my time to leave had come.

“Sorry guys, but I need to leave, I need to settle down before the nocturnals are active, otherwise they might spot me.”

Everyone froze. The laughter and joy they had so recently been partaking in grinded to a halt, their faces as solid as stone. Slowly, everyone turned toward me, their expressions deepening. “You’re not going anywhere,” Star Brew told me. It was only then that I realized Arian was missing, and that I soon fell into unconsciousness.

Confusion. As I slowly opened my eyes, I took note of my surroundings. I was in a depression in the forest, surrounded by the timber of the nearby trees. My friends flew above and circled around me, leaving little room to escape. It was then that I noticed that the wood wasn’t just encircling me, I was trapped underneath it as well.

“Why are you doing this? Why am I trapped under here?” I begged for an answer. It was again Star Brew who responded.

I took another look around me, if only to check his statement. The forest I had so clearly seen a moment ago was now naught but ash and ruin. I tried to defend myself. “The forest’s burning wasn’t my fault! There’s nothing I could’ve done about it! I don’t even know who started it!”

It was Ricochet’s turn to weaken me next. “Exactly. You were so weak you couldn’t even save your only home, you just sat there and watched it burn.” Tears brimmed in my eyes. Despite me wanting to reject all they had said, some part of me knew it to be true, and I hated it. I had simply sat there, dumbfounded when everything went up in smoke, despite my mixed feelings.

“You could’ve tried to save an animal, but you didn’t even try that, now did you?”

“Arian, not you too....” I couldn’t help the flow of tears now. “I.... I just don’t know what else I could’ve done... I’m just one pony!”

“You’re weak!” spat Honeuma, my friend through military training, now another critic.

“Now, as your punishment, you’re going to finally know the depth of your folly,” Silver Light finished. She came around to each of the others, bringing torches with her, passing them out to the other four. They each glared daggers at me as they held their torches, preparing for what would happen next.

I suddenly realized what was going to happen. The torches, the kindling, it was all for me. “No!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. If there was any breath left in me from my sobbing, I used it there. “Please, you have to believe me! It’s not my fault! Please!” came my final plea of desperation.

One by one, they each threw their torches on the timber. Slowly, the fire encompassed me, creating a ring of destruction that was to be my judgement. “Please listen to me! I really just didn’t know what to do!” They gave me blank stares, declaring justice over my fall. “I’m sorry! Please, just let me go!” The fires grew closer now, and I could feel the flames heating up the wood in front of me, preparing to combust.

My eyes widened as I realized my fate. I wasn’t going to escape. This was my punishment for failure, for letting such an atrocity go on unchecked. As my friends trotted away, I begged one last plea at them with the last reserves of breath I had in my lungs, reaching a hoof out to them in desperation as the tears poured from my eyes, “I’m sorry!”

The flames consumed me, eating up my sorrow, my life, and my pain.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Sleeping at night was something new to me, I had been accustomed to resting during the day since foalhood, but the events of the last few days had sapped me of my energy. I found a spot a little ways away from my companions to lie down on the cool sand. Pressing my head against my side, I covered it with my wings to try to keep some kind of warmth. I’m not sure when, but I eventually drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to a sight that brought horrible memories flooding back; I was in the cobbled courtyard of the orphanage of my foalhood in my homeland. As the moonlight illuminated the courtyard, I looked around; everything was just as I remembered it. At each corner of the courtyard, a large pillar held the roof of the building up, with wooden walkways lined with smaller wooden pillars for additional support. The archways in the North, East, and West led to the different wings of the building. To the East were the colts’ rooms, to the West, the fillies. To the North was the dining hall, and the rooms where the monks who took care of them stayed. Everywhere, there were carvings, paintings, and banners of the sun along the walls of the building. It was appropriate, as the orphanage was run by the Temple of the sun. Dead center in the courtyard however, was the statue of the one I never knew would bring such pain to my life. I looked up and met the gaze of The Solar Princess, Celestia.

I scowled. I never wanted to see this place ever again; it was a place where unwanted foals and those who lost their parents were brought. I could hear the monks singing their hymns. I knew all of them, and they angered me so. Songs of joy and praise to the sun and of its goddess. I could hear the foals join in their singing, clacking their hooves along to the melody. I wasn’t wanted here as a foal, my appearance made sure of that made sure of that, nopony wanted a foal who looked like death. I didn’t belong there then, and I surely didn’t belong now.

I looked to the sky, gazing past the Temple of the Sun above the orphanage upon the stars and the moon with visage of my lost Lunar Princess. Longing to join them, I sprang into the air and unfurled my leathery wings, rising silently into the night. I could see everything, the mountains, the treetops of the forest, the fields, the village’s triangular roofs, and off in the distance, the Temple of the Moon in its clearing. It was my home, and I longed to see it again.

I flapped my wings as fast as I could, joy bringing a smile to my face as raced through the night air towards the Temple of the Moon. I desperately wished to see my master, the priests, and the priestesses again. I wanted to tell them of my time in Equestria and of the Lunar Princess of who we praise. Though as I sped through the clouds, something caught my eye in the village, the glint of steel. I banked right and began my descent to get a better look. As I approached the rooftops I noticed that it wasn’t just steel, no, what I had seen had been armaments. The halberds of warriors lined the outside walls of the town bar with crowds of interested ponies admiring the impressive weapons. Despite the hostility I had come to know from them because of my appearance, they were peaceful ponies. Most of them were earth ponies skilled in farming the land, and they certainly weren’t fighters. As I looked around searching for an answer, I noticed banners and lanterns adorning the building of the town.

Taking a closer look, I noticed the banners were adorned with a symbol. One I recognized instantly, Taiyou, the sun. Within each symbol was the character for victory. I didn’t know what to make of this, until I saw the tents in the fields the village farmed. They were the tents of soldiers, Soldiers of the Solar Empire. Suddenly, I knew what was happening; the songs in the orphanage were songs of victory to come. They were a prayer the followers of the sun sent to their soldiers before battle.

As horror struck me, I rose in the air and sped off towards the Temple of the Moon. It was located on an island in the center of a crescent shaped lake. I began to slow down and descend to come to the edge of the water. As I approached, the water of the lake acted as a mirror reflecting the temple in the glow of the moonlight. I gasped in horror at what I saw in the reflection. Above the water, the temple was as beautiful as the Lunar Princess herself. The temple itself was surrounded by a grand wall with eight spires in total rising towards the sky, one at each point of the compass to form a circle centered around a grand spire in the atop the center building. The tiles of the roof were of a brilliant turquoise crystal that glowed in the moonlight, the buildings themselves a dark blue hue flecked with turquoise to resemble the stars in the sky. Atop each of the ridges of the roofs’ peaks and corners sat crescent moons. From the main island, bridges branched out to smaller circular islands with more buildings in which the ponies lived. It was a breathtaking sight against the night sky. Below however, the spires were twisted and cracked with black metal, crackling with a dark energy, bent around the towers in a spiral fashion to the peaks. The temple in the reflection gave off an aura of evil; of darkness.

As I gazed into the water, something caught my attention; a faint orange glow came from the archway of the gate in the water. I glanced up to see the same glow at the entrance of the real temple. Curiously, I moved towards the bridge that would take me to gate and began to cross. I reached the gate to find it wide open, as was normal for this time of night. The ponies that dwelled within the temple walls were primarily nocturnal, preferring the gentle glow of the moon to the harsh light of the sun. I broke into a gallop as I thought of seeing my old friends again, and burst through the common area towards the main building of the temple. I hardly took notice when the guard ponies made no attempt to stop me as I flew past them, all I could think of was getting to see my master again. He was a kind old unicorn who had lived in the temple his whole life. As I galloped through the grand hall, I came to a trot when I reached the courtyard to find a peculiar sight. Everypony was there, the monks, the priestesses, and at the center of the crowd, my master. They were gathered around our statue of Princess Luna, or rather where it should have been. In its place, standing over everypony, now stood the figure of Nightmare Moon. Everypony seemed to be staring at the statue. I ran to my master through a break in the crowd. I knew that he would be able to explain what was going on.

As I approached him from behind, I bowed myself low in respect. “Master, I’ve returned,” I said excitedly.
There was no response. “Master? Master, can you hear me,” I asked hopefully. There was still no response from him. “Master?”, I asked one last time hopefully putting my hoof upon his shoulder. I was worried.

I turned to the crowd to see them all fixated on the statue as my master was. I found one of the monks and shook him trying to get an answer as to what was going on. There was still no response and I began to panic. I went from pony to pony, but still no luck. Making my way to the front of the crowd, I yelled “Can’t anypony hear me?!” desperately hoping for an answer.

“I can hear you just fine,” came the voice of a mare behind me. I turned around to find the statue was gone, and in its place stood the real Nightmare Moon.

In the sheer awe of the moment, I nearly forgot to bow. “Your majesty, what’s going on? Why can’t anypony hear me?”, I asked.

“Because you are dead to them. You failed in your mission, and brought dishonor to yourself and to this temple. Because of what you failed to do, they are without their goddess,” she said as she began to move about the crowd.

Moving through the crowd, she turned her head to look at each pony’s face.“Your mission was to guard me with your life, to give me your total devotion, and to do everything I asked without question, was it not? To do anything for your princess?” she asked as she turned her gaze upon me.

Shaking, “Of course Princess, my purpose in coming to Equestria was to protect and serve you in any way that I could.”

“Why is it then that you weren’t there when I was fighting my sister? You, The Sword of the Lunar Rebellion, my personal guard, let me fight alone, and now I’m gone, trapped within the moon. Your people have lost their goddess, as Equestria has lost one of its princesses, and your friends have all been banished. Would you like to know why? Because you failed in your mission. I needed you in the battle against Celestia, and you were nowhere to be found!”, she roared angrily as she advanced towards me.

Tears began to well up in my eyes, as I struggled to find the words to answer her. Through the tears, I noticed that the temple began to change around me, becoming the twisted vision I had seen in the reflection.

“Do you remember those soldiers you saw on your way here? The Solar Empire has received word that I’m gone, and have begun to purge my followers from towns and cities throughout the country. They’ve been labeled as dangerous heretics that need to be brought to justice before they can do harm. They are going to die now that I am gone, because you weren’t there to defend me. Thousands of innocent ponies will be dead by your incapable hooves, including your friends here at the temple. Come dawn, the soldiers will attack, and have been ordered to show mercy to nopony. How you can stand to live with yourself knowing that you failed at the one thing that you had to do?” she asked.

“If you had any respect for your traditions that you bored me with, you would have ended yourself the moment of my defeat. Yet here you are, living a dishonorable life that has no right to be. You know what you have to do, don’t you?”, as she asked, she slid a dagger across the ground to my hooves.

She was right, I had failed, and thus had no more reason to continue to live. I looked around at the twisted temple and at everypony there, imagining the bloodshed that would come with the rise of the sun. Knowing that they were going to die because of me, I reached for the dagger. I couldn’t bear the thoughts of what had happened because I had failed. As I looked at the gleaming dagger in my hooves, tears began to fall freely from my eyes. It was all my fault, and I knew what I had to do.

As I began to lift the dagger shakily, Nightmare Moon and all the ponies in the courtyard disappeared into a cloud of starry black smoke that rose towards the sky. I thought of my friends and of what I had caused to happen to them. With one last deep breath I prepared myself.

Standing there alone with tears in my eyes, I whispered, “ I’m sorry everypony.” I brought the dagger down hard and fast into my stomach, and everything went black.

****************************************************************************************************************************

The nightmares, the horrible nightmares. Ricochet asked me to write them down, even though I would much rather forget them. I am only doing it because she asked me, and I owe her a lot of favors.

The nightmares started during the first night we spent in the blasted lands. Once we had set up camp I began to finish the project I was working on during our time in the wagon, humming hush now, quiet now to help everyone else get to sleep. It was an old nursery rhyme that I found continually useful for putting my daughter to bed. Once everypony fell asleep I decided it was time for me to hit the hay as well, or sand as it may be. I soon fell into a deep, horrible sleep, one I that still haunts me to this day. My darkest fear became my worst nightmare.

I woke up outside my house, looking over myself, discovering that I saw I was covered in cuts and blood.

‘For me to be this badly injured we must’ve lost one heck of a fight,’ I thought. ‘But where is everypony?’

I walked over to the entrance of my house, discovering signs that a fight had broken out, the broken window and blood all over the lawn being a big one. To my regret, I rushed inside to see something that still haunts my memories. I saw my wife and child, torn to pieces.

I threw up right there on the floor. They were torn to literal shreds, the only part intact being their heads. They were set up on the table staring to the doorway, a smile on their faces, some kind of sick joke. “Who would do this!” I screamed. I looked around to see if I could find a clue, a note, anything of use. As I searched the room, I heard a bump that sounded like it came from upstairs. I bolted straight up and threw open the door in a fury. Inside I found the killer, something I never saw coming.

I opened the door to find myself staring face to face with myself, or a mirror to be more exact. It wasn’t some horrific killer who had taken my family, no, it was me. The blood I clearly attested to earlier now held a much more horrifying explanation than the one I had crafted. No, there had to be another explanation! I wouldn’t do this; least of all to my family. I continually tried to come up with an excuse for my appearance, that is, until the memories came flooding back in.

I had just gotten back from a fighting in the war. I was flying back to my house, but I didn’t notice that I was followed. It was a scout, just a lowly scout! He burst in through the window and fired a crossbow at me. It went wide, sweeping past me as it burrowed into my daughter, and I went balistic.

I pounced on him and tore him to shreds, but and then something happened. I went feral; I turned. Any resemblance I had of my former self was gone, desecrated, replaced by a creature only capable of hate and fury. My wife tried to over to try to calm me down, but instead of doing so, I turned on her, losing control of my mind and body. All I could do is watch as I did all of those terrible things to her. Eventually I blacked out and it’s all a blur after that.

****************************************************************************************************************************

I dreamed I was home. For some that might seem like a pleasant dream. For me it was anything but. I found myself sitting at a table, as if sitting down for dinner. The finest china was out and I could tell the wine was from my father’s favorite store. What were we celebrating? As I looked up I could make out shadowy figures along the impossibly long wooden table. Although it had to be as long as the Everfree forest I could still see to the end with no trouble.

The room seemed to shift, going out of focus and distorting. I became aware of a pair of red eyes at the end of the room. They were staring directly at me.

A deep chuckle resounded throughout the room. As it echoed off the walls it grew louder, roaring until it filled my head and ravaged my ears. I clapped my hooves over my ears in an effort to block it out. My hooves did naught to stop the noise. It just kept getting louder. I struggled to remember where I knew that laugh from. It was so familiar. Yet part of me didn’t want to remember. Part of me wished for those memories to stay buried.

With a jerk I awoke in my bed. It was all a dream, I thought. We weren’t banished. It was all just a bad dream. I pulled myself out of bed and trotted to the door. A nice walk around the palace would calm my nerves.

Something was off, though. The moment I stepped into the hall I should have known something was wrong. I began walking down the passageway, along my usual route. The hallway seemed to stretch, no matter how far I walked I wasn’t moving anywhere. I chalked the whole thing up to my imagination and continued to move along the corridor.

I caught sight of a shadowy figure out of the corner of my eye. “Princess?” I questioned. “Princess Luna? Is that you?”

Something brushed against me on my other side. I jumped back and looked wildly around for the source. The corridor was empty. “Who’s there?” I was shaking.

That chuckle, the one from my dream, began again. Was I still dreaming? I began sprinting down the passage. A creature with red eyes appeared in front of me.

I swerved to avoid it. Pleaseohpleaseohplease, I repeated over and over in my head. I could no longer form coherent thoughts. I threw open a random door and leaped in, slamming it shut behind me. Whatever flimsy protection it provided was better than nothing.

I took a few tentative steps forward before they begin appearing. The red eyes. They are everywhere, they are watching.

A stallion’s reflection appears in the mirrors, their glass distorting his face. “Hello, Silver,” he says with a smirk. “I’ve been waiting for you. Ever since you left me I’ve been waiting. Now it’s your turn to know how it feels to be alone. It’s your turn to be abandoned. You will be left alone with no one to love you. You will be invisible.” His reflection disappears from the mirror, leaving me alone in the dark. His voice resonates throughout the hall, “Not even your friends can help you. Not now, Silver. Slowly, even they will forget you, because you will not matter. Just as I didn’t matter to you.”

“Star’s Wish, I’m sorry!” I look wildly around for him. “I didn’t mean to!”

My brother’s laugh resounds around the room. I am truly alone.
****************************************************************************************************************************

I knew I was dreaming. I knew that this was a nightmare. Knowing is half of the battle right? Knowledge is power? For all of my life, knowledge had comforted me, giving me an edge over other ponies. My knowledge had always allowed me to learn and advance faster than anyone I had ever met.

I was standing in my tent on the edge of the Everfree Forest. The wind battered against the open flap of my tent, repeatedly breaking my focus on the voices outside. I could hear the shouting of soldiers as they approached my camp. I knew they would violate my work, pervert it to their own twisted means to use against the Lunar Princess, something I would never allow to happen.

I seized my research and hurriedly shoved it into one of my saddle bags, barely even bothering to seal it; time not being on my side. Quickly placing the bags on my back, I ran out of my tent, only to be met with a sight that I would remember vividly for many months, no matter how intense my desire to forget it.

Piles of dead ponies were laid aside tents; the common area of the camp in total disarray. Soldiers of Celestia murdering my people with their impossibly sharp spears, spears that I had helped forge. Crossbow bolts were buried in one poor mare, bulging from the body that I couldn’t bare to look at any longer.

And the worst part of all of this? I knew it was a dream. And even with that knowledge, I couldn’t wake myself.

So I ran. I ran into the dark depths of the Everfree Forest; the forest I had played in as a young colt. I could escape from the nightmare! I knew every path; there was no way those snobs of the Solar Army could follow me through that forested maze.

Until I ran into a cliff that shouldn’t exist. And atop that cliff was her. An impossibly bright white alicorn stood at the summit, radiating a brilliant glow that demanded attention. I blinked, and suddenly, she was right in front of me, watching me with those unblinking, piercing magenta eyes. I turned to run, but her guards were there, blocking my escape.

Every unicorn learns some basic spells in addition to the ones directly involving their talent; among these are those for levitation, light, and fire. It is surprising how many talents relate to fire; for me, I used the spell to light my cauldron everyday.

So, to spite these proud defenders of the realm, I flung my saddle bags into the woods, lighting them ablaze as they sailed through the air. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of simply handing over my research.

Then, something unexpected happened. Instead of the research simply setting on fire, it also began to burn everything around it. The forest caught fire. The oaken trees burned, the bushes screamed. I heard animals call and chirp out to each other in panic before perishing in the flames that I had unintentionally started.

****************************************************************************************************************************

I was the last to fall asleep that night, right after Arian had finished his supremely creepy lullaby. It hit me like a sack of bricks, and before long, the entirety of our first day sank in and seized away my ability to remain conscious.

I “woke up” in a room; my room, the one I had known since I was seven years old. It was all so real to me, too real: the way the silk sheets whispered with every movement I made, the way the curtains billowed outward from the open window, even down to the smell; a warm scent of cinnamon and lilacs.

It was one of those dreams, where when you were in it, you thought that your actual reality was the dream instead. It was warm, it felt right, and by all means, I was happy; curled up beneath my warm bedding on that cloud-stuffed mattress.

‘No way... this had to be a dream?’ I thought, now fully “awake”. And, haha, it was.

The yelling was coming from somewhere far off, out in the blackness that was the Everfree at midnight. It was loud, constant, and familiar. I had heard that screaming before... but I was sure it couldn’t have been what I thought it was.

I ran out of the room, frantically looking for a guard or random soldier to assist me in investigating the wailing. But, as nightmares often prove, I was alone.

The screaming was getting louder, so loud, in fact, that I could have sworn that whomever was in the act was right next to me. I pushed my way towards the main gates: past the Atrium, through the Grand Hall, cutting through the Throne room, and finally winding up at the front gates. The open front gates.

You know, I don’t know quite what I was thinking at the time, maybe I was railroaded into it, I don’t know, but for some reason, I pushed my way past the threshold and into the bitterly cold night. I had gotten maybe halfway to the edge of the Everfree, when I found out where all of the guards and soldiers left to. And this is where things get weird.

Just outside the castle gates was a path leading to a very wide, and very deep, chasm, only crossable by a rope bridge. But, standing on either side of the path was the two opposing forces that contributed to the Lunar Rebellion: the Celestial Vanguard, and the Lunar Militia. Both had taken opposite sides of the path before me, the left hoof side of my vision was a stream of gold, the right, a stretch of dark blues and purples.

“What in the...?” I started, but was quickly cut off by a loud crack of thunder and more of that impossibly loud screaming. I tried to scream in fright, in pain, in panic... all of the above, but I couldn’t even hear myself over the maelstrom of wails.

I looked away for only a brief moment, closing my eyes now in terror and pain, holding my hooves over my ears to try and prevent that wretched sound from driving me mad. And when I had looked back up, both sides of this little not-so-active conflict lay dead in piles of bones and discarded armor. Standing on the rope bridge was a saving grace, a hope, a midnight blue beacon of light: Princess Luna.

“Princess!” I ran to her, the yelling that filled the air starting to invade my mind, gaining ground with each passing second. Her back was to me, and she turned to face me as I stepped onto the bridge; she was smiling, smiling the way she always did when somepony would come to her with some pressing matter.

“Ricochet,” she said, her voice cancelling out the screaming for the moment, possibly so I could clearly hear what this nightmare had to say to me. “This-” she said, placing so much emphasis on the word that it sounded like a curse. “-is your fault.”

There was a loud CRACK! and Luna fell lifeless onto the wooden planks before me. Standing tall and proud behind where my Lady had stood, was the one pony I loathed the most: Nightmare Moon.

She snickered at me; the look on my face must have been priceless to that harpy. “Oh, hohohoho. Now, that was something, wasn’t it? I never thought it would have been this easy to end everything she held dear.” She kicked aside Luna’s limp body, sending the fresh corpse plummeting into the shadowed depths of the chasm below. “Hahaha, pathetic!”

“You... how could you just...” I was beside myself with both rage and a sorrow I had never felt before. Nightmare Moon started to walk closer to me, soon beginning to walk in circles around me as she started spouting lies into my ear.

“She meant it, you know. Luna? Yes, this, all of this, is your fault. You couldn’t save her from me; no matter how hard you tried, I still proved to be the victor! And now look, lonely little Luna is dead and gone, never to return to this world.”

She stomped one of her hooves down onto the bridge, the flimsy structure quaked violently. “There are no excuses for your failure, Ricochet! You knew about me, about my goals, even my power! But you honestly believed that you, you, a lowly servant could keep me at bay?!” I felt my body lose all sense of control as she willed me off the ground with her magic.

“You pride yourself on that silver tongue of yours, worm. And while I can commend you on your use of persuasion to prolong my coming, it still proved to be useless in the end.” She willed me high above her head, stretching all of my limbs as far as they could go. The pain was unbearable; it felt like I was being torn apart at the seams.

Nightmare Moon laughed maniacally at my screams of pain and terror, but she grew bored easily, and tossed me through the air, back to the edge of the chasm nearest the castle.

“Look around you, you simple, worthless, waste of breath! These are the souls that you willed away; the lives of the innocent soldiers that you used to satisfy your own narrow minded greed!” She continued, my will being torn to pieces with every word.

“To, what?! Save your precious Princess; the one you foalishly thought of as family?! Tell me, Ricochet: how many lives did you end for that foalish endeavor?! How many soldiers did you send to their graves, all for that weak excuse for a Princess?! You turned your back to the land you swore to serve; instead pursuing your own selfish desires! You chose the needs of an individual, when you should have chosen the needs of the collective!”

I couldn’t move a muscle; my aching limbs and my racking sobs wouldn’t let me. Then, the Nightmare spoke her last.

“Know this, Ricochet, you simple foal! I will always haunt your dreams! What was once Luna’s curse, shall now be set upon all of the world! And keep in mind,” The skeletal remains of the dead soldiers began to move on their own; without the help of her magic. “THIS IS YOUR FAULT!”

Before I could even think of what would have come next, the army of dead soldiers began to grab at me. They smelled of damp soil and rot; their combined breath washed over my body in a nauseating cloud. They began speaking to me, all of their voices combining to make that same wretched sound from before.

“Ricochet, why?” “SINNER!” “defiled...” “...Dead.” “Loved... her...”

I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t keep myself from listening their cries. “No! NO! IT WASN’T--”

****************************************************************************************************************************

“--MY FAULT!” I awoke, screaming in a cold sweat.

“You should try to keep it quiet; it’s still pretty dark after all,” Star Brew said softly from his place standing next to me.

After I got my bearings, I realized that everything that had just happened was nothing more than a nightmare. But let me tell you something, I was never scared of anything more in my life. The voices of the skeletal soldiers still rang out in my head, the noise only receding by the smallest of increments as time crawled by.

“You were moving around a lot and talking in your sleep,” the potion master said. “I’m assuming nightmares?”

I tried to get myself to stop shaking. “Bingo,” I responded. “You too, huh?”

“.... Something like that. Come closer to the fire. I’m fixing up something that should stop them.” With that, Star Brew turned away from me and gently walked over to the small fire in the midst of our group. A small brown pot was atop it.

“Smells... familiar.” I commented as I approached my to-be seat. “Is that... cinnamon?”

“Hmm? Oh, no. I wish. They didn’t pack any cinnamon. I suppose exiles don’t deserve most spices. I barely even managed to grab anything out of my saddle bags,” Star Brew said, mourning the loss of his possessions. “If we had that, well, we would be dining like royalty every night.”

Well, regardless of what that stuff was made of, it smelled like the same scent my room took in the late summertime. Guess that gave me a trigger, of sorts.

“Don’t rub it in,” I joked. “Now, you gonna stand there, or is that stuff ready yet?”

The unicorn rolled his eyes. “It’s almost done, you impudent mare,” he said, the humor evident in his voice. “It’ll be done when it’s done.”

He was a sarcastic mule sometimes, but I guess it sort of added to his charm, if you could call it that. He could play ball and I admired that.

Not wasting time, I decided to break the ice with a stupid question: “What was yours like? Your nightmare, that is.”

He stiffened, then quickly shook himself. “I didn’t have a nightmare...”

I wasn’t buying it. “Come on, I’m not an idiot, Brew. What’s on your mind?”

He sighed, then stared intently at the bubbling pot before him. “Before I talk, I need two small favors. Well, one more small than the other.”

“Shoot.”

“First, the small one. Can I... borrow one of your feathers?”

It took me by surprise, to say the least. “Uhh... sure, I guess.”

“It’s not for me. I need a pegasus feather to stir the mix,” Star Brew said, gesturing to the small pot. “Pegasus feathers have trace amounts of magic in them; it’ll strengthen the brew.”

It didn’t make much sense to me, but he was the best potion master around. I looked back at my wings, the feathers had become ruffled and disheveled as I had tossed about in my sleep; removing one wasn’t much of an issue.

“There,” I said. “Now, the second thing?”

He accepted the feather and began stirring the potion with it. Small sparks popped out of the pot, making a peculiar crackling noise as they landed on the sand. He looked back at me, the feather continuing its swirling of the mixture while surrounded by the pale green glow of his magic.

“The second,” he said, carefully enunciating his words. “You must not tell anyone. Not Arian, not Silver Light, not Honeuma. And especially not Midnight Blaze.”

“I can keep a secret, Brew. The things I could tell you would reshape your entire view on the world we once knew.”

“I doubt that, but I digress,” Star Brew said, snorting at my statement. “I didn’t have a nightmare, per say. It was more of... a memory.”

This was bigger than what he had let on; now things were a little more difficult to handle. “Okay, then. I’m listening.”

“I was in my tent, studying my potions. I’m always studying my potions, you know that. Anyways, I heard the Knights rampaging through my camp,” he said sadly; from what I could tell from the light of the fire, his eyes were welling up.

“There was only two things of value to them in my camp: me and my research. If they had either, then they could torture me or just take it and use everything I learned against Princess Luna. I couldn’t let them do that.”

“I could escape into the depths of the forest, but I couldn’t take my research. It was too bulky, too much. So I did the only thing I could think of to stop them: I lit my notes and tent on fire.”

“I figured that they would see the burning tent and give up, but they didn’t. They really wanted everything in there. Paper and parchment doesn’t burn very fast; they might have gotten something.”

At this, Star Brew made sure to catch my eye. His gaze was intense. “Do you know how unicorn magic works?”

I ruffled my wings. “Can’t say that I do.”

“Our magic is based heavily in will and emotion. For you pegasi, your magic is innate. You don’t have to worry about losing your mind; the magic that allows you to walk and rest on clouds, to manipulate the weather; as long as you are alive, you will not lose control of it.”

“For a unicorn, to perform magic, they must have a driving will to complete their spells. If their will falters, then the spell is weakened or even fails. If they don’t have their emotions in check, drastic things can happen. Spells may miscast, be underpowered; the spell may even be something completely different than what’s intended.”

“That night, I lost control. My anger at them for ruining my camp, killing my people; I just lost it. I had intended to just throw a small fire spell at the remains of my lab, but that didn’t happen.”

I started to draw the conclusions already; I just hoped I was wrong. “Brew... did you--”

“Anger has a funny way of manipulating spells. It can unlock power in you beyond belief, if you let it. That night, I cast the most powerful spell I had ever seen. And... I liked it. The power. But... it scared me too. Ricochet, until that night, I had never lost control of a spell. Sure, I had the same trouble at casting spells as any unicorn, but I had NEVER lost control like that.”

“Brew--”

“That night, I unleashed a spell of fire so powerful, that I wouldn’t be surprised to see the ground of my camp be glass right now.”

“Brew, hold on--”

“But the spell didn’t stop there. It went on. I could feel it, tied to me. The flames, stoked by my anger, went towards the only being that I could direct my rage at. The being I felt and still feel is responsible for everything.”

“I get it, really, but--”

“The Everfree Forest burned that night because of me! How many ponies did I kill that night? How many acres of forest are gone?”

And there it was, out in the open. But, I still had the feeling there was more.

“And that’s not the worst of it. I know you pegasi are all proud of your complete control of the weather and all, but it’s not that way in the forest. That much forest gone, the weather patterns in the forest will change. I might have just destroyed the entire ecosystem of the Everfree Forest, just because I GOT ANGRY!”

Everything went quiet, well, even quieter than it was before. My jaw hit the dirt; my eyes had to have been wider than a basilisk’s mouth at feeding time. I was relatively speechless for the moment; I hated drawing conclusions, especially when they turned out to be right.

“Brew...” I breathed. My eyes shot over to Blaze, who was busy tossing in his sleep; too preoccupied with whatever his nightmare happened to be. “Does he... does Blaze...?”

“No. And he can’t learn about it. I’ve heard him in his sleep, heck, all of you talk quite a bit when you sleep. Midnight Blaze wants vengeance on whoever started the fire. To know that it was me would break him,” Star Brew said. “If only I had been able to control myself, we might not even have been in this situation. If the forest wasn’t burning, maybe we could’ve made it to the castle in time. We could’ve saved Princess Luna, stopped all of this madness--”

“Brew!” I interjected. “Calm down for a second, will you? We can’t change the past anymore than we can know our future.”

“Well, actually, now that you mention that...”

I could only hope he hadn’t read up on any of Star Swirl the Long-Winded’s study material. “No, Brew.”

“That might have been the subject of some of my studies,” the grey unicorn said. “I think it was the reason they attacked...”

He was on one hell of a rant. “Listen for a second!” I shouted, still trying to keep my voice as quiet as possible so as to not wake my other companions. “Stop trying to shoulder the blame, will you? There’s six of us that were banished, after all!”

“Then who’s fault is it, Ricochet? My father, who taught me the spell? Celestia, who provided me the anger? Or was it the princess? She gave me purpose, a will. After my parents died, she ensured that I had something to do! A unicorn needs willpower to do magic, remember?!” His eyes were burning with an almost feverish glint.

“Nopony is EVER at fault!” I hissed, my nightmare playing fresh in my head again. “No matter what happened then, no matter whose fault it is, all we can do is own up to our mistakes and move forward. When you hit a wall, when you hit rock bottom from an all-out freefall, all you can do is bounce back! Stop seeing things in black and white for a change, pony up!”

“Not all of us are you, Ricochet. I wasn’t abused as a foal like you, I didn’t pick up all my learning on the street; oh, don’t give me that look. I studied all of you, you all have your mannerisms. I’ve read them. You bounce back from everything; I... I just weather them out. I endure, but I don’t change like you. The trials that I face shape me like a river does to its banks. I figure that I’ll eventually get over this. But it won’t be until I see what I did either fixed or atoned for.” He seemed to have calmed down significantly now, slowly taking in deep breaths.

“Then how about you use some of that almighty unicorn willpower and atone for it?” I settled myself a little, I had to remember who I was dealing with. “I’m aware that not everypony can have this same tenacity; it’s what makes me, well, me. But, what I can do is at least help you out here. Don’t try to shoulder a burden that can drive you this insane! I mean, what happens if you need to cast a spell with this hanging over your head?”

He winced. He actually winced. “... you’re right. I shouldn’t sound so surprised, should I? How long have we known each other? It’s been what, five, six years? In all that time, you’ve always been right. How the heck is that even possible? I know I’ve taught you a thing or two in all that time.” A sudden pop came from the fire. “Brew’s done.”

I smiled at him; he was really an okay guy, he just took a little extra elbow grease to cut through that stubborn personality of his.

“Finally,” I said, eyeing the concoction with the slightest hint of greed. “I’m still shaking from that dream.”

I looked in the small pot, but all I saw was a bright yellow powder.

“Wait...”

“Yes?”

“This potion doesn’t seem to be very... potion-y...”

He chuckled. With the faintest glow, he levitated some of the bright dust out of the pot to in front of his face. “Where do you think the myths of the Sand Pony came from?” He pursed his lips and exhaled. The yellow powder surrounded him, then spread out, resting on each of our friends eyes. Instantly, their restless sleep ceased as expressions of peace crossed their faces.

“Huh... Wasn’t expecting that, to be honest.”

“Just because my name says brew, doesn’t mean I only do liquids. Now go to get some sleep.”

I gave a small shrug as I grabbed the small pot and fished what little powder remained in the bottom. “Fine, but one last thing, Brew. You have to tell Blaze about what happened. If you don’t, then I will. I’ll give you all the time you need, but if this becomes a problem, well...”

“Ricochet...”

“No buts. We have to take these trials as they come; that way we can grow and become all the stronger for it. Run that by some of that logic of yours and you’ll know I’m right.” I gave him a wink and placed the powder in the corner of my eyes. It tingled a little.

He sighed. “It takes a unicorn to activate it, silly.” I saw a brief glow in front of my eyes, followed by a sudden drowsiness. “As for Midnight Blaze... I will tell him. Hopefully after all of this mess is sorted out.”

“That’s...” I yawned heavily. “...good to know. I’ll catch you at first light.”

Before I could even hear a response, Brew’s powder caught hold of me in full force and I was out like a light, off to Slumberland on the Peaceful Express.

****************************************************************************************************************************

First light came way too soon. I hate to give credit to that egghead, but that powder worked wonders. I never had a problem waking up this early in the morning; it had been a part of my job to be ready and alert by the time Celestia had finished raising the sun.

I was the first to wake, as per usual. Brew was curled up near the fire pit, right where he had been the night before; the others in their spots as well. I stretched my wings wide, feeling a pleasant popping as the joints reset themselves into place.

I decided I’d walk to the top of the easternmost dune to catch the sunrise. And as I stepped up onto that crest, I was given the sun unlike anytime before. Here it wasn’t just a bright orb that floated along in the sky, it was power; raw, uninhibited power. As I watched the light cascade along the terrain, I took notice of how the dunes had shifted in the night. Arian’s warning about easily getting lost replayed itself in my head, really driving the point home.

I thought of the nightmare from the previous night, and what it had meant to me, as well as what it meant for the world. It felt like a message, or a challenge, and I never turn down a challenge. I smiled at the sun, and did what I always did in the mornings: I prayed. It was an old practice, something that hadn’t been even mentioned in recent history, but talking with the sun made my whole life seem safe; like it was a direct line of contact with Celestia. I just hoped that nopony would find my little... habit; Celestia wasn’t exactly a favored figure amongst my companions, if you hadn’t already guessed.

But, I still loved her; Celestia, that is. Because I knew, that if I were in her horseshoes, I would have done the same thing. I would always owe her one, no matter how much hell she put me through. She saved me, and that was more than what I could have asked for.

“Celestia,” I started, keeping my eyes closed and my head high. “After all these years of doing this, I’m still not sure if you can hear me; guess it’s my fault I’ve never bothered asking you before, huh? Well, I’m talking to you for some advice. Or, maybe I just need some validation; some proof that I’m right.”

“I was visited by her last night: Nightmare Moon. She told me... she told me that I was a tyrant; that everything I had done for Luna was worthy of a death sentence. I didn’t want to believe her, really, but... if only you could have seen it. I knew them. I knew all of them: Brawn, Flicker, Paradigm, Crumble, just to name a few. And they were blaming me for... for...” I had to stop for a moment to gather myself.

“How do I live with that? How do I live with the knowledge that I was the one who negotiated the deaths of nearly half of the population of Equestria, all to keep Luna safe? I didn’t want Nightmare Moon to come to power, but at the same time I had to keep Luna safe, right? And, what else could I do?! I only did what I had to, right?! There weren’t any other paths to choose from... right?”

I knew that I was talking to thin air. I knew that there wouldn’t be a reply, an answer to my questions. I hung my head downward, a few tears escaping my eyes and soaking the sand below.

After the sun had risen above the terrain, and the inescapable heat began to settle over everything, I turned back to the campsite; my gaze falling on my five companions. My friends. My family. And that was when it hit me: ‘Enough of the moping, Ricochet! Sure, you have some things to work out, and perhaps they aren’t something you should put off. But right now, in this moment and the moments to come, those ponies down there need you. So grab the reigns and suck it up buttercup! You’ll figure it out on your own time, but you can at least help everypony work out their own issues!’

I couldn’t help but smile again. Haha, I was right, as always. If I couldn’t find the answers to my questions, then I could at the very least help my family find theirs.

“HEY!” I shouted. “WAKE UP ALREADY, YOU MANGY MULES!” I jumped from the top of the dune and soared downwards at the campsite. “Start of a brand new day, everypony! Gotta move while the sun shines!” I ran around and shook everypony with what I guess would count as a little too much enthusiasm.

One by one everypony grudgingly woke up. Brew, Honeuma, Silver, Arian; in order of appearance. But, Blaze seemed to be slacking a bit. That wouldn’t do.

“Blaze. Blaze!” I shook him a little more. “Hey, wake up already!

Something gave and Blaze’s eyes shot open, waking with a bit of a start.

“Whoa, there!” I backed up a bit to give him some room. He settled down after he was able to get a grasp on where he was. “You okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, just a bad dream...”

I didn’t like where this was going. “A bad dream? Or a nightmare?”

He didn’t respond; instead giving me this quizzical look.

“Yoohoo! This is Ricochet, anypony home?”

“Yeah, I’m here Ricochet, I just... need some time to think.” He said, intently staring at the ground.

“Come on, Blaze. What do you have going on that you can’t talk with me about?”

A silence clung to the air.

“Do you... mind if I ask you a question? It’s rather specific, actually.”

“Yes, this is my natural mane color.” I tried a joke, but it didn’t work. He was being serious, continually staring downward intently the entire time. “Uh... sorry about that. What’s up?”

“That day we were in the forest, fighting the others...” He was obviously being vague, perhaps to put the question as delicately as possible.

“Do you.... blame me for what happened?” He looked up at me, his eyes reddened from crying during the night.

My stupid thoughts travelled back to the nightmare I had the previous night: ‘SINNER!’ ‘TRAITOR!’ ‘YOUR FAULT!’. But I shook them from my mind, I couldn’t break down; not now.

“Blaze...” I placed a hoof gently on his shoulders. “There is no fault in what happened during that time, for anypony.”

“I meant about the forest, about how I stood there like an idiot while everything was burning around me. How I didn’t even think to help the others trapped in there. How I failed.” Tears began to well up in his eyes.

I knew how much the forest meant to him; it was just as Princess Luna had said all those years ago: it was his only real home. I looked up, catching sight of Brew fussing around with the map and compass. I didn’t really know how to approach this, but I had to try.

“Blaze, what happened to you, your home, wasn’t your fault. How could I possibly blame you for doing something that I know you didn’t do?”

“Just... please. Tell me you forgive me for my inaction. Tell me I’m not a bad pony. Tell me that that forest didn’t burn down for nothing!” Tears now flowed freely from his eyes, darkening the sand beneath our hooves.

I smiled at him, the warmest one I could muster. “I forgive you, Blaze. You won’t find me saying anything otherwise, and that’s a promise.”

He gave a sniffle. “Okay Ricochet. I believe you. One day, when we’re done with this, I’ll find out what really happened.”

“Then...?”

Another pause. “I just don’t know Ricochet. I just.... don’t know.” He resumed looking back down at the ground where he was originally.

All of this gloom in the morning and we haven’t even gotten to the good parts yet? Ugh, it drove me nuts!

“Alright, then. Now, what say we get some food in us before the uptight duo over there start marching us ragged, huh?”

A sigh. “Yeah, I could go for some food I suppose, although it’s still too early for my tastes.” He began to unfurl and wing his way over back toward the camp.

“Oh, and Ricochet?” He hovered above his spot, looking back.

“Yes?”

“How can you be so sure it wasn’t my fault? You seemed pretty confident.”

‘Oops.’ Was the only thought that ran through my head. I had to think of something, and fast!

“Confident? Of course I’m confident! Somepony around here has to be, right? Just follow your gut, and you can’t be wrong!” ...Ugh. I can improvise my way out of a death sentence, but this performance was just... just terrible. But Blaze was the innocent one, so I guess it must have worked.

There was a brief moment of silence before the response came. “Well, okay. If you say so.”

I watched him fly his way towards his impending meal. I looked over to Brew, who was giving a decent berth between himself and Blaze. I gave a little sigh, because I knew what I was getting myself into. A secret is bad enough to keep, but when it’s somepony else’s? Things could go downhill, and fast. I would have to keep an eye on those two, that was for sure.

But, for the time being I did what I do best: act. I may be caught in the middle, but that didn’t mean everypony had to know about it; not yet, anyway.

After we had filled our bellies and made sure our replenishment enchantment had worked properly on our canteens, we geared up, and set off towards the west, not nearly prepared enough for what awaited us on the distant horizon.

****************************************************************************************************************************

A/N: Well, that was fun, huh? Ricochet is one hell of a lady, right? Okay, enough of my gloating at actually finishing a chapter. I had a ton of fun writing this out; moreso than usual. Don’t have much to tell you other than that if you leave a review, or comment, or whatever, you will receive one potato! Now, how can you possibly pass that up, people? I mean, seriously! Just look at that tater! - Feral

Oh, Star Brew, watching your anger is such a chore, no? Maybe you should chuck some potatoes at Silver Light, that’ll be sure to cheer you up. - Aeterna

Oh Blaze, you’re so clueless! XD But that’s ok, he’s just having a hard time right now. Perhaps some of that food will cheer him up! I wonder if they packed potatoes in that bag.... - Black

I wanna thank you all for reading the story, and don’t worry, Arian’s part will be coming up soon - Ivory

Silver Light is currently building an anti-potato fort among the sand dunes. She’ll get back to you later. Oh, Star Brew? She has better aim than you. - Anubis

Thank you everypony for taking the time to read our story, if only you knew what it meant to us. - Noize

Followers of the Banished

by Band_of_Bronies

II - Where, oh Where Should I Begin?