The trip from the Great Northwest back to the Heartland was a long and boring stretch for Rainbow Dash. All the big cities of Unicornia were coastal, so it was just lots of lots of small farming villages on the interior. It was weeks of walking along or sitting in the carriage, and the only time she could go flying was late at night or above the clouds on rainy days. She dutifully tried to organize her reports for Princess Twilight, but, well, writing the things had been a lot of work in the first place. Trying to make them all neat and scientific like the Princess’ own studies was beyond her. So she went through Scooter Pilgrim again. Just because Dash knew how the unicorn filly broke the seven evil hexes on the colt she liked didn’t mean it wasn’t still a good read.
She chatted with Due Respect too. He seemed pretty satisfied to be heading home. The Blueblood Guard was moving to reinforce the Crystal Empire and make sure the griffons didn’t get any bright ideas, whatever he’d done in the Mongrel Lands had worked out, he’d made a new trade agreement with Filthy Rich, the Crystal Empire was saved, and of course he’d be able to bring Princess Twilight’s prized experiment back safe and sound. He showed her the reports that he was writing, but those were more like letters, full of details about negotiating and court politics, not the sort of detached facts and initial observations that Princess Twilight liked.
“You have a remarkable memory for minutia,” he commented to her at one point, reading through one of her reports. “A very good ability to estimate distances and speeds, as well.”
“Yeah, it’s a pegasus thing,” Dash agreed. “If I’m gonna be flying a couple of thousand feet up, it makes sense I have to have good eyes and ears, right? And know how fast you’re going and all that other stuff. Gilda was good at it too. If you aren’t paying attention in the air, then you might not notice something coming for you.”
“You might consider court politics something of an analogy for flight, then,” he suggested. “Always keep an eye out for hidden obstacles and invisible threats.”
“Yeah, Nice Guy told me a lot of that stuff. I watched a lot of Blueblood’s court. Kinda amazing I didn’t see a lot of it before.”
Due Respect gave her one of his small smiles. “You have always been a particularly brash and direct young mare, Countess. It inspires those who dislike what you represent. You have thus tended to confront brash and direct challenges at court as well. But now you will have to take on a new role, one I hope to have prepared you for.”
She leaned over to give him a hug. “Couldn’t ask for a better coach.”
He leaned gently in to nuzzle her cheek. “Nor I a better student. Princess Twilight thinks very highly of you, and there are more of us at court who understand why than you might know.”
***
Coming home was oddly like arriving at any of the other four courts. In some ways, anyhow. The caravan reached the Queen’s City and had to report back in. Unlike the others, they didn’t have to go marching into court and wait for Due Respect to formally present them all.
No, only Rainbow Dash had to do that. Nopony else had gained or changed a title on the road. Other than inheritance, gaining a title was a pretty rare thing. So she couldn’t just go have a private family reunion with Mom and then give the Princess her report and stuff. She had to walk into court and publicly say, basically, “Hey, look, new noblepony in town.”
Well, actually, it was kind of cool to put on her outfit’s skirt and have Due Respect go in and announce her to Princess Twilight. That made up for not being able to go right in to Mom after all this time.
“Your Highness, it is my distinct pleasure to introduce to you the Lady Rainbow Dash, Countess of the Imperial Sky, Lady of the Wonder Bolt.” He kept it simple, formal, and yet so awesome. Rainbow Dash just had to strut in. Strutting in was very important. Walking humbly would have meant looking embarrassed over her titles. Flying would have probably got one of the nobles to try to yank her down to make her look foolish. She’d always thought it made ponies look snooty. Now that she knew the reason for it, she figured it probably made her look snooty too, but for a good reason. And she could make snooty look awesome. It had to look awesome. It was her.
Hoity Toity looked pleased for her, but he always looked happy for everypony who came to court. Dash honestly couldn’t tell if he was just a generally genial unicorn or if he had a really good fake smile, but he’d never given her any trouble. Jet Set and his wife, Upper Crust, were sneering at her, same as ever. They’d always been firmly in the ‘end the experiment’ camp and not shy about it. Lady Underbite was probably giving her the stink eye, but it was always hard to tell whether she was glaring or not because of all the wrinkles. And Duchess Lulamoon, always so frustrated at the impossibility of rising any higher, and the leader of the anti-Dash faction at court, was gritting her teeth.
“Countess Rainbow Dash, be welcome in my court,” declared Princess Twilight, a broad smile across her face. “Word of your selfless and heroic efforts on behalf of Unicornia have long since reached me, and I am proud to know that my niece has demonstrated such valor and strength.”
Dash blinked in surprise. Sure, Princess Cadence had said ‘niece’ too, and since Shining Armor was her father, that did mean Princess Twilight really was her aunt, but she’d never said so out loud before. But, there was only one thing to say to that.
“Yeah, I am awesome like that.”
And Princess Twilight laughed and came down to welcome her home with a hug. Mom came in to join a few steps behind.
***
After court was concluded for the day, Rainbow Dash came down to Twilight’s laboratory to deliver her report. The place was its usual self - papers everywhere, various experiments set up, writing all over the chalkboard. But all the experimental apparatus was sitting around unused, and there were a ton of books, folios, and even old lyric sheets across the tables. Dash’s sharp eyes could pick out the titles from across the room. Histories, and old ones, mostly.
What was more worrying than that was Princess Twilight sitting on a stool looking serious, instead of clapping her hooves in glee at all the data Rainbow Dash was bringing her.
“Um… Princess? Is something wrong?” She didn’t need to be all tactful and stuff when it was just the two of them, and Twilight knew she was a pony of action, so going right in was usually okay.
The princess nodded. “Yes, Rainbow Dash. Something is very wrong. Thank you for doing such a good job taking your notes, but I’m afraid it’s going to be quite some time before I can give your data all the attention it deserves. There has been a… development while you were gone.”
Dash groaned. “Don’t tell me the griffons are getting ready to attack anyway! We got like the whole country ready for ‘em, and they’re gonna get their tails kicked in.”
Princess Twilight smiled at her, but shook her head. “No, Rainbow Dash. The griffons seem to have pulled back for the moment. Their new warlord has figured out that Unicornia is more than he can handle. The last I’ve heard is that they’re massing their troops for an assault on the island nation of Minosia instead, home to a small but pugnacious population of rare bipedal cows. No, there’s something from Unicornia’s past coming back.”
“I… take it you don’t mean pegasi,” Dash said, then swallowed. “Or did something come back that would’ve stayed… wait, you mean I brought the windigos back?” Her eyes widened as her heart raced. If the windigos came back… well, the only way to get rid of them once had been to eliminate the other tribes…
Twilight climbed off of her school and squeezed Dash. Hard. “No. It is not anything you did,” she said firmly. “This was something that happened after the War of Survival. Pegasi were already gone. A different threat attacked Unicornia. A malevolent force that nearly destroyed us. Its name was Discord. And it’s coming back.”
“Good thing the armies are all ready, then, right?” Dash asked. “I mean, if something’s gonna attack, having the soldiers already lined up is the smart thing to do.”
Twilight let her go. “It’s not that easy. We had armies back when he attacked. Lots of them. It wasn’t that long after the War of Survival. They had more fighting experience in any given company than the entire Unicornian army has today, on average, based on the surviving records. Discord was a force beyond anything they could confront.”
Dash whistled. “That’s pretty tough. How’d they do it?”
Twilight took a deep breath. “That’s what I’m trying to find out. But this is bad, Rainbow Dash. Very bad. I’ve called a Royal Conclave. The others should be here by next month. I’m hoping to know how to save Unicornia by the time they arrive.”
***
A Royal Conclave was a Big Freakin’ Deal. As far as Dash knew, and she had a pretty good background on stuff like that thanks to Princess Twilight, there were only two reasons to call one. Either one of the royals wanted to try to choose a queen, or something was threatening all of Unicornia. The griffons threatening to invade the Crystal Empire hadn’t been big enough to call for a Royal Conclave. But this was.
Cadence and Shining Armor were the first to arrive. They had the shortest journey and the least reserve about coming when called by Twilight. It only took three days for the messenger to get there, a couple of days for them to arrange a regent, and three days for them to get to the Heartland. Twilight spent the entire time researching furiously, dragooning her guards in to help the librarians search through her extensive collections for anything relating to ancient history and the creature known as Discord.
The statue wasn’t hard to find. It sat in the middle of Princess Twilight’s gardens, an ugly, mismatched collection of parts with a permanent laugh on its face. The name inscribed into the base was pretty clear, too. And Twilight’s magical measurements had picked up a strange kind of energy coming off of it. At steadily-increasing levels. After some of her early investigations, she ordered that section of the gardens closed off except to specially-selected pairs of guards under strict orders to remain friendly, polite, and agreeable at all times when within two hundred hooves of the statue.
Having the incoming Royal Conclave meant that the court was completely preoccupied with the influx of royals. Even Lady Underbite and Duchess Lulamoon were too busy trying to arrange sudden galas and parties in honor of the arrivals to spend much time sniping at Rainbow Dash. Twilight being busy in the lab on the Discord project meant not having any time to do time trials and agility tests, so Dash got one of the guards to handle the stopwatch instead. She didn’t have any other ideas on how she could spend her time, so she figured at least she could see how all those tips from Gilda and Gilda’s friends had affected her performance.
Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor joined her after they arrived. It was a mark of just how seriously Twilight was taking the situation that she couldn’t even find time to spend with the brother she’d never expected to see in person ever again. They had an immediately full schedule of social events across the Queen’s City and Brook Lawn, sometimes even out in Stallion Island or the Broncs, once in that sleepy little island suburb Manehattan. But they came out in the mornings to watch Rainbow Dash fly.
Princess Zecora somehow managed to be the second to arrive, three weeks after the call. It wasn’t nearly enough time for the messenger to have reached the Mongrel Lands and her to have responded. Princess Twilight had to grind her teeth and take out a notebook, write ‘TO DO’ on the front, and write neatly on the first page, “Investigate zebra magics.” The zony princess and her (mostly non-unicorn, but no griffons) retinue took over a local estate for the duration, at the eager insistence of the owners. Notably fewer social invitations went her way. Some, though. Rumors and scandals almost instantly started to fly across the city about secret debauchery and strange events at that estate, but the lack of detail was breathtaking. Still, almost any noblemare in the city could be heard in one claim or another to have taken a Diamond Dog or zebra lover. Lady Rarity found some of the stories rather endearingly romantic, she confided to Dash, even as she found them hilarious at the same time.
Princess Diamond Tiara and the Donager arrived a few days after that, in a caravan train so long it resembled a circus more than a diplomatic procession. They’d brought their entire court along, it seemed, and Dash figured out why. Filthy Rich’s control over all of them was financial, not because he or Tiara could really stand up to a challenge. If he left them alone without him, they might find a way to get out of his control while he couldn’t respond. So he had to bring them all along. It took six estates to house them all. Rose Quartz wasn’t with them. She wasn’t powerful enough to worry about.
It took almost a full month for Prince Blueblood to show up. His caravan wasn’t as long as Filthy Rich’s, but it was far more opulent. He clearly believed in travelling in style, with an entire carriage devoted to a portable hot tub, magically heated by a pair of Scandaneighvian assistants. He was extremely put out at not having the castle itself offered to him - an indication, Dash picked up, that he was declaring himself unwilling to support any candidate for King or Queen except himself, since only a King or Queen could kick a Princess out of her own palace like that. The Duchess Lulamoon hosted him.
But, finally, they were all there. Princess Twilight’s magical monitors were showing a steady increase in the energy coming off of the statue of Discord, but it had slowed with her precautions. Somewhere between when Tiara arrived and Blueblood’s appearance, her frazzled look had settled, so Dash guessed she’d found something. And fortunately, Twilight called for the Conclave’s opening to be public, or at least before her court. Dash’s new rank qualified her to attend, and she didn’t have to worry about getting a seat, since she could bring in a chunk of cloud and sit comfortably in midair while all the unicorns had to squeeze in next to each other. Even the Donager, Filthy Rich, had to sit away from the table.
The throne of the Queen’s City sat empty. While the Conclave was going on, none of the royals would sit in it unless they elected a new Queen. Other than that, they sat around a large circular table that Dash had seen before sitting in an unused side room. Now that the dust cover was off, she could see that Queen Platinum’s appearance had been inlaid into the table’s surface, in platinum.
“Thank you, my royal peers, for accepting my call,” Twilight said in a loud, clear voice. “I now call this Royal Conclave of Unicornia to order. The subject of this meeting is the entity known to history as Discord, and the threat posed to Unicornia by its return.”
“What? We came all this way just because you think we’ve not being nice enough to each other?” sneered Princess Tiara.
“No, Diamond Tiara. Not the concept of discord. The creature named Discord, who has been imprisoned in stone for the last thousand years. It has sat in the gardens of the Queen’s City all this time, but my research has shown signs that the spell binding it has begun to weaken,” Twilight said patiently.
“So fix the spell!” Tiara demanded impatiently. “What do you want, a medal? I’m not making you Queen just for some stupid statue!”
Twilight rubbed her forehead with a hoof. Prince Blueblood looked amused already. Princess Zecora remained inscrutable. Only Cadence looked sympathetic. “I don’t have the power to do the kind of spell that’s needed. All five of us together don’t have that much power. All of Unicornia together might not have that kind of power,” Twilight explained.
“So you just wanted to let us know we’re all doomed because you can’t control a statue? Gee, thanks,” spat out Tiara.
“Would you like to hear my actual proposal, or are you having too much fun interrupting?” asked Twilight. A hair frizzed its way out of her mane. Dash took note of where the windows were. Just in case. Though she guessed being the only royal not turned into a bush would mean Twilight could unanimously vote herself Queen, but that probably wouldn’t go over too well in the other regions.
“Fine,” grumped Tiara, slouching back in her seat.
“THANK you,” Twilight said, and took a deep breath. “Some time after the War of Survival, after the departure of the windigos, the creature known as Discord came to Unicornia. Where he came from, the history books are unable to guess. His power was unstoppable; he brought chaos to our fledgling country, and the Princesses were as much his playthings as any of their subjects were. The exact nature of his actions were not well recorded, but houses flying off into the air, unicorns being attacked by their own crops, and entire mountain ranges being turned into statues of Discord were among the details that did get noted down.
“It was only when Princess Firefly discovered a magical superweapon of unmatched potency that he was finally defeated. It was called the Elements of Harmony. However, she was unable to activate it at first. Only when the other Princesses elected her Queen did the Elements respond. After she used it on Discord, she apparently decided the Elements of Harmony were too powerful to keep, because any pony with them would be unstoppable. It would have meant an invincible royal line, and of course that would have been a terrible idea then just as it is now. That the royal lines must prove themselves constantly is how Unicornia remains strong
“As best my research can show, the Elements of Harmony lie somewhere within the Everfree Tangle. It is my intention to enter the Everfree and retrieve them. Hopefully, there will be time after recovering them to experiment with activating them without being Queen, because I do not delude myself into thinking that we five could agree on a single ruler.”
Princess Zecora leaned forward. “I dissent from your intent,” she said firmly. “If a magical superweapon is hidden in the Everfree Tangle, then I cannot abide leaving it in your sole possession.”
“She rather has a point,” drawled Blueblood. “Why don’t we simply send the guards in to get it?”
“Duh, because then the guards would get it and then one of THEM would be the new Queen,” Tiara sniped. “Who’s gonna let that happen?”
Cadence leaned forward. “Are you seriously suggesting that the entire royal peerage enter the Everfree Tangle just because you don’t trust Twilight?”
Zecora leaned in as well. “Yes. Unless we are ready to elect a Queen here and now, none of us can allow the rest to gain sole possession of a magical artifact with powers such as Twilight Sparkle describes. Even if we think it only works for a true Queen.”
“What would we do if we were to encounter some difficulty?” Blueblood pointed out. “The Everfree Tangle is full of those terrible thorny vines and all sorts of awful creatures.”
“We bring along somepony who can escape and bring the guards to our rescue,” suggested Cadence.
“What good would that do?” Tiara complained. “If we get caught by something, anypony we bring with us will get caught too.”
Zecora looked away from the table, up to the cloud under the rafters. A lot of other heads turned to follow. Dash didn’t know what else to do, so she waved.
“My griffons none of you would ever trust, but there is one pony whose loyalty is beyond reproach,” Zecora said. “Should danger strike, Rainbow Dash would not leave her mentor nor her aunts in peril, and she could fly for aid. And should she obtain the Elements herself, she could clearly never rule.”
“Mmmm, I suppose that does make sense,” agreed Blueblood, leaning back and looking up at the cloud. “And a bit of fun along the way wouldn’t hurt.”
Cadence’s hoof slammed down on the table. “Countess Rainbow Dash is not some servant for you to tumble, Blueblood,” she all but snarled.
He held up his hooves. “Oh, of course, of course, Cadie. Of course I’d ask first! But really, who could ever say no to this?” He gave her a broad wink and tucked a rose into his mouth.
Rainbow Dash thought she might be sick, but she held it in for the sake of the ponies below who didn’t have umbrellas inside. Diamond Tiara was less restrained about making gagging noises. Dash felt conflicted about agreeing with the little brat.
“Then it’s settled,” Twilight said. “We set out for the Everfree Tangle tomorrow. Our separate guards will escort us to the edge, but once we reach the plundervines, it’s just the royals and Rainbow Dash.”
***
“Ugh, this is so gross,” whined Tiara from atop her father’s back. “Hurry up and find the stupid things so we can get out of here! I bet stupid Twilight made it all up just to…”
“That will be quite enough of that, young lady,” Filthy Rich said firmly, his horn glowing as he clamped Diamond Tiara’s mouth shut mid-sentence. “No matter how hot and humid it might be, or how uncomfortable the confines, that is no excuse for saying things you know aren’t true.”
“And there is certainly no shortage of hot, humid, and uncomfortable in here,” drawled Blueblood. “I say, did anypony bring a fan? This air is simply doing awful things to my mane.”
He had a point, Dash had to admit. Not about his mane. His mane was probably coated in so many layers of various hair goops that he could crack a rock with it. But the atmosphere was oppressive. Hot, yes, and stinky. It smelled like the plants had been slowly strangled in there by the vines for the last thousand years, and green things rotting were underhoof with every step. She wouldn’t have wanted to try eating anything in there for all the bits in Filthy Rich’s Royal Treasury.
Twilight was in front, using her magic to slice her way through the thick black vines without having to touch those dangerous-looking spikes. She had a magic meter hovering next to her, but the high levels of ambient magic made the device next to useless; it was almost constantly pegged. She kept it out anyway. Every now and then it could pick up a blip of something strong that she hoped were the Elements.
Filthy Rich let Diamond Tiara’s mouth free, and the filly scowled at the world in general. Dash just couldn’t muster up any sympathy at all. At least she wasn’t trying to rip out any more feathers. The spikes kept trying to do that, and the close quarters made her feel like she was back in the tunnel in the Platinum Hills all over again.
“Be careful,” warned Zecora, glancing cautiously around. “This place is filled with malice, and ancient evil. There is something very wrong with these vines.”
“Well, duh,” said Diamond Tiara, and poked one. “They’re all ugly and spiky. Why hasn’t anypony come in here and cleaned all of this out? Look, that right there, that’s an apple tree under all the vines!”
“Who would want to live here?” shrugged Zecora. “In a place so dark and filled with doom, a pony would need great cause to stay.”
“It’s not even near anything,” agreed Cadence skittishly. Shining Armor was busy glaring all around at the vines, as though daring them to just try poking his wife and seeing what they got. She was staying as close to the middle of the pathway as she could go.
“There was a rather nice view of the Canterlot Mountains on the way in, but the Tangle spoiled it quite badly,” Blueblood sniffed.
“If it weren’t for the Elements, I doubt there’d be anything in here worth having,” agreed Filthy Rich. He had to scoot forward to hop over a slithering vine, then duck to avoid one bending overhead.
Then he let out a yell. “DIAMOND!”
Dash spun around. One of the vines had snagged Diamond Tiara around the waist, and was pulling her off of her father’s back! The filly was squealing and flailing, smacking at the vine with her hooves.
“Ow! Ow! Ow ow ow! Dad! Help! It’s sharp!” she wailed out. Filthy Rich leaped at the vine, slashing at it with his horn, magic glowing around the edges. He had much less success than Twilight’s spells; he was almost headbutting the dark mass, but barely digging into it.
“Hang on, sweetie! Daddy’s coming!” Filthy Rich yelled. Shining Armor stepped forward, his horn lighting, but another vine swept in, and he had to form a shield instead. Twilight had no chance to help; vines were suddenly coming after her, and it was all she could do to blast them apart before they could reach her.
Rainbow Dash didn’t have a horn to fight them with, but she had her reflexes. Every time a vine slashed in her direction, she dodged out of the way. She tried hitting them, but they ignored her hooves. She thought if she could get going fast enough, she could probably cut through, but there was no room to build up any speed, just to duck and twist and turn. If she could just get UP! She had her hooves full, but only a few vines were actually coming after her; most of them were slashing at the unicorns.
And then there it was! An opening! She shot upward - and the vines followed her, twisting and turning in the air as they tried to grab her trailing tail. She turned to dodge them, and the vines followed right along. She barely had to think about what came next. A swift turn to the right, a drop in altitude, curl right back along the bulk of the vines, back upward… and voila. A perfect mass of knotted vines, thrashing against their own length, twisting and wrenching itself right out of the canopy below. The vines all reached up for her, strained… and then toppled over, leaving a gap back down to the path below. She’d barely had to think; she just knew how to deal with being chased in the air like that. It reminded her of that time the griffon ambassador chased her through the halls in Twilight’s palace. But that reminded her that Twilight was still in trouble, so she dove back down through the dense overgrowth.
Rainbow Dash landed. The vines had quieted again, but Filthy Rich was unconscious on the ground, and Diamond Tiara was still wrapped up in one. Twilight Sparkle’s lavender glow was holding that vine and keeping it from hauling the crying filly away, but she couldn’t hold it and pry it open at the same time.
Zecora stepped forward. Somehow, in all the fuss, she hadn’t been so much as scratched. “You must relax, Diamond Tiara,” she said calmly. “The vines will bind you as they can, but if you move like they, their grip will wane.”
“Just make it let go!” cried Tiara, struggling and hitting the vine with her hooves.
“Very well,” said Zecora, and stepped forward. She lifted a hoof, then blew something gold and glittery into Diamond Tiara’s face. The filly sneezed, then went limp. Her eyes widened. She was still able to speak, though, as she squeaked out, “Poison!”
Zecora shook her head. “A muscle relaxant, little one. Look!” And sure enough, now that she wasn’t struggling and stiff with fear, the vines were losing their grip on her, letting her slip down to fall onto the damp earth of the Tangle’s floor. The vines seemed to sag.
“Help! Dad!” she gasped out anyway, but Zecora patted her on the side with a hoof. “Your father will awake in time, but our respite here will not be long. We must move on.”
“I’ll get him,” volunteered Shining Armor, glancing around at the Princesses. “I can carry that much.”
Twilight’s horn glowed, and then Filthy Rich vanished. “No need,” she said with a broad smile to Shining Armor. “We’re not out of my teleportation range yet. He’s back with the guards.”
“Show off,” muttered Shining Armor, but he smiled when he said it.
Zecora settled Diamond Tiara on her striped back to ride until the relaxant wore off, and they continued on. Despite her young age, she was still a princess. If they found the Elements, they would need her vote.
***
The vines stayed back, but the royals kept a wary guard. Diamond Tiara’s legs were still too rubbery to walk, so she stayed on Zecora’s back. The remains of an ancient path were underhoof - or possibly just wreckage of some long-forgotten city that the vines had obliterated. It was impossible to tell. Either way, something kept the vines away just enough to be able to make progress.
“Queen Firefly explicitly refused to leave any information about the nature of the Elements of Harmony in her records,” Twilight said as they moved. “There are six of them, strongly magical, and the right pony will understand them. So when we find them, presumably one of us will be able to immediately identify them. The rest of us need to accept the possibility that one of us will be the new Queen.”
“Such a vote need not be taken on the spot,” Zecora observed. “Your ancient evil remains safely bound, for now.”
“For now,” Shining Armor agreed. “But we can’t all be split up and take a month to have another Conclave when it does break free. If we find the Elements, then we can’t end the Conclave without electing a Queen.”
“Or King,” Blueblood drawled. “I hardly think the Elements would decline a proper stallion for the role. Princess Platinum’s line would be a perfect receptacle for their power. Presuming they exist.”
“If they don’t exist, I am telling Daddy to declare war on Twilight right away,” groused Diamond Tiara. “Making me go through all this!”
“If the Elements don’t exist, we’re all in deep trouble,” Twilight said firmly. “There’s no record of anything else capable of withstanding Discord’s power.”
“... What about withstanding a door?” asked Rainbow Dash, looking up ahead.
“Withstanding a door?” echoed Twilight. “Rainbow Dash, what are you… Oh.”
The pathway widened, with vines all around an open space. A large, ornate door barred the way forward on the other side of the clearing. Vines curled over the top and all around; Rainbow Dash couldn’t see even a glimpse of sky beyond. The door itself looked to have been hammered together from the parts of a dozen different doors, all ornate but in wildly clashing styles. It had a single oversized handle on one side, made to look like a sort of goaty-serpenty thing. Actually, it looked a lot like that statue.
Mom would faint at the sight of that thing, Dash thought.
Then the knob spoke.
“Guests! How delightful!” it declared, beaming at the royal procession. “And so much mistrust and antagonism already! Oh, this is going to be such fun!”
“I’ll get it,” Shining Armor said. His horn glowed. Nothing happened.
The doorknob chortled. “You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you? Oh, yes, for a minute there, you kinda did, no need for you to say it. You’re trying to reach the Tree, aren’t you? Well, if you’re that desperate for Harmony, then it should be quite impossible for any of you to get through me - and if you can’t get through me, the vines will be coming in very shortly.”
“And how are we supposed to get through you, then?” snapped Shining Armor. He turned to buck the door, but his hooves just thudded against it.
“Not like that, no,” the doorknob smugly said. “It’s very simple. I can tap the Elements for power - otherwise, this spell would have faded long ago. But that means I have to be linked to one of them. And I am! To Honesty, in fact. So if you want to get through, one of you has to tell me three truths… that none of you want to hear.”
Rainbow Dash wracked her brains. Three truths none of the royals would want to hear? Twilight might not like her telling the others about how she bounced around going ‘yes yes yes’ when she figured something out sometimes, but at least Diamond Tiara would probably enjoy hearing that. And she couldn’t come up with anything else. Twilight was looking around, and for some reason blushing. Zecora had retreated into that blank expressionless face, and Dash figured she wasn’t going to share any zebra secrets. Tiara was just glaring at the door.
Shining sighed. “We’re doomed.”
The doorknob snickered. “Opinion, not truth. Yet! Doesn’t count.”
Blueblood cleared his throat, stepped forward, and then leaned against the door. Boredom permeated his every syllable. “My ponies do a far better job ruling themselves than I ever could,” he said first. Rainbow Dash didn’t miss the glances between the others. The knob didn’t say anything.
Blueblood continued. “I’m quite thoroughly terrified of the idea of being the one to lose the throne for my line. As unimaginable as that might be.” He looked down, made a face at the state of his hoof, and rubbed it against the door. The knob continued to stay silent. The royals weren’t looking at each other, suddenly.
“I’ve never paid a mare a compliment I didn’t mean,” he finished. Rainbow Dash’s eyes went wide, and she felt heat rushing to her face. She didn’t know if it made it any better to know that he really was, well, interested. From the looks on Zecora, Twilight, and Cadence’s faces, they had had a few communiques with him… and Shining looked distinctly annoyed with him, while Diamond Tiara was making gag-me-with-a-hoof gestures.
“... Jerk,” muttered the doorknob, as the door swung open. “First visitors in a thousand years and you won’t even stick around to be torn to shreds while I watch.”
“Note to self,” Dash heard Twilight murmur. “One of the Elements is associated with Honesty.”
***
The way narrowed again on the other side of the door, forcing them to shift to a single-file line. Tiara moved to Cadence’s back as Zecora moved to the rear. Dash was forced to walk; there wasn’t room to flap her wings. Twilight took the lead, her horn glowing as the vines grew denser and denser, cutting off the light. Shining Armor kept his shield up - around Cadence, warding the vines away from her, even as nicks and scratches left thin red lines on his white coat. Dash could see the lines, anyway, but none of the others seemed to notice.
Zecora cleared her throat, walking pointedly behind Blueblood. She kept her voice low, but Dash could hear every word. “So, Blueblood, my stripes you find so quite exotic, truly inspire thoughts… erotic?”
Blueblood laughed in a similar low voice. “Oh, Zecora, you minx, I do love it when you let your zebra side through.”
She was quiet for a while, then said back to him, “When we leave this gloomy tangle, perhaps more discussion we might wrangle.”
He gave a low amused noise. “More discussion? Princess Zecora, we are royalty. If we wish to form a royal union, what more is there to discuss?”
She took her time replying again. “Bringing zebra blood to Platinum’s line… which by purity has been defined. My subjects would surely celebrate, but yours might not find it great.”
Dash heard Blueblood’s tail swish. “Princess, you are simply teasing me now. Unless you have a cozy spot to slip away somewhere in the middle of the Everfree, we’ll have to pick a date later.”
“I can see it makes you shiver,” Zecora agreed. “Still, something to consider.”
“HEY!” came a shout from Twilight, up ahead - and then darkness rolled over the rest of them. Dash could hear grunts of effort coming from the princess. “I can’t get a light going!”
“Hang on… No, me neither,” said Shining Armor.
“Sheesh, a light’s the easiest… eas… easiest… dangit, work, stupid horn!” said Diamond Tiara.
“Mmmm, seems to be catching,” agreed Blueblood.
“I must confess, I’ve no success,” Zecora chimed in.
Something off in the mass of vines moved, the susurrus of scales against the ground announcing its presence. From the other side, something hissed.
“... I don’t like the sound of that,” Twilight said from up front. There was a pronounced quaver in her voice.
“Keep moving, Twiley,” said Shining Armor. Twilight let out a yelp.
“Shiny! Are you a foal? You do not poke a pony with your horn!” she exclaimed.
“Then you’d better keep moving forward. Take it slow, feel your way forward, carefully, and we’ll get past this section,” he said. He sounded like he did when he was giving his troops orders while they were lining up for the parade, Dash thought.
“What makes you think that’s going to do any good?” Twilight said, her voice getting sharper. “My magic isn’t working! What if something is surrounding us? Then we can’t just walk out of it! What if the vines attack again? What if this thing sticks to us? What if none of us can ever use magic again and so we can’t use the Elements and Discord gets out and all of Unicornia is destroyed because OW!”
“I’m keeping my head down, Twiley,” Shining Armor said, with a chuckle in his voice. “You remember when you were a little filly?”
“Of course I remember when I was a little filly! Even then you knew better than to poke me with your horn!”
“Do you remember when you were afraid of the dark?” he asked.
“No, I was never afraid of the dark!” Twilight protested.
“Exactly! So why start now?”
There was the sound of a hoof hitting a face. “Shiny, I am going to throw something at you as soon as I can find something to throw,” she promised. “This is not like being at home in the bedroom being afraid of the dark! This is the Everfree Tangle, we can’t see, and there is something moving out there!”
“And us standing still won’t make it go away, will it?” he asked.
Dash blinked and started forward. She thought she could see just a little glimmer of light. But it wasn’t far forward, and it was curved. It was right around where Shining Armor was.
“That’s not the point! The point is, it is perfectly reasonable to be a little bit nervous right now!” Twilight argued back.
Dash watched the light growing a little more. A shallow curve of light, going up at the ends. Not much, not enough to illuminate anything but itself, but seeing a spot of light at all made her feel better herself. And listening to Princess Twilight squabbling with her brother like, well, like normal ponies… that made her smile.
Dash’s eyes widened. She could see, just a little bit. Not enough for color, but she could make out the curve of Cadence’s tail in front of her.
“Do you want to turn around and get Smarty Pants? She always helped you when you were little,” Shining Armor suggested, his voice glowing with innocence. The light got brighter. Dash could see another source of light forming, illuminating his tail… and the one up front was getting big enough to let Rainbow Dash make out details. It had teeth in it. Flat, friendly teeth, in a broad smile…
Diamond Tiara let out a nasty snicker from Cadence’s back, and another light flared up.
“Darn it, Shiney, it is no fair bringing up Smarty Pants when we’re in a life-and-death situation!” called out Twilight.
“No, no, he’s right!” added Cadence. “You should get her a little throne of her own next to yours. It would be so cute!”
Shining Armor let out a snort of laughter. “We could get her a little crown, and make her Princess of Dolls for you! I’m sure we’d all agree to that!”
“Oh, rather,” Blueblood chimed in, from behind. Zecora let out a laugh as well.
“Now you’re all ganging up on me! If the Elements pick me, I’m going to make all of you take a doll for a co-regent!” Twilight declared, but the nerves were gone from her voice. Another bright smile shone through the darkness from her position at the front.
Shining Armor began to laugh, and the air shattered. And just like that, the light was shining all around.
“Laughter,” murmured Twilight, quietly enough only Dash could hear her.
***
They successfully navigated across a slowly meandering river; vines upstream and down kept even fish from living in it, but the water could get by. And under the water’s surface, green fronds swayed in the gentle current. The expanse meant there was room for Dash to get back into the air, playing lifeguard while the others carefully stepped from rock to rock. The remains of stone posts on either bank provided further reassurance that the way had once been a known and maintained path.
Cadence insisted on pausing to tend to Shining Armor’s scratches - and everypony else’s, of course. Blueblood was quick to agree, pronouncing the merits of a pristine forest river in regard to proper care of one’s tail. Diamond Tiara tried her legs and found the effects of Zecora’s muscle relaxant had worn off, and she went to take a drink.
Twilight slaked her thirst as well, then went to look at the ruins of the bridgeposts. Rainbow Dash joined her. Twilight pointed to a carving. “You see this, Rainbow?” she asked. “It’s the Old Ponese glyph for ‘pegasus.’ The ponies who built this bridge were familiar with pegasi, and… No, I can’t translate the rest. It’s too worn. But they definitely used that symbol. Probably it was a reference to not using the bridge if a pegasus army was in the area, for fear of flash floods.”
Dash tried to picture that. A whole host of rainbow-tailed flying ponies, stomping on clouds together, pouring out whole rivers of rain from the air. But in her mind’s eye, she kept seeing the unicorns below lighting up their horns and grabbing all the pegasi, yanking them down, and then the image of Commander Pansy’s wings on Diamond Tiara’s wall hit her, and she blanched. “That’d be a really bad idea,” she said.
“If they made it rain far enough upstream, the unicorns wouldn’t have been able to reach them,” Princess Twilight pointed out. Dash didn’t bother asking how Twilight had known what she was thinking; nopony could follow another pony’s train of thought like the smartest pony in Unicornia. “It was a favored tactic, using indirect means to attack. They tried holding back the rain at one point early on, before the fighting had actually started, and might have succeeded if Queen Platinum - still Princess Platinum then - hadn’t contracted with a dragon to break their cloudwall.”
Dash huhed. “That must’ve been expensive. Dragons aren’t exactly friendly.”
Twilight nodded. “It was right before the windigos attacked. After that… well, the pegasi stopped keeping the clouds clear, the earth ponies started hoarding their remaining supplies, and the unicorns had no choice but to drive off the windigos the only way they could.”
“I guess when you’re out of food, gold and gems aren’t all that important.”
Twilight nodded again. “Exactly. Gold and gems are worth only what they can buy. If you need food and you can’t buy food with gold and gems, then they’re worthless. So you might as well give them to a dragon.”
Twilight looked back over at the others. Blueblood was out of the water, Tiara was stretching out her legs, and Shining Armor and Cadence were whispering to each other. Dash went red in the face as she overheard a bit of it.
Twilight noticed. A grin crossed her face. “Let’s get moving before you turn permanently red. Getting back on the road ought to keep Shiny busy.”
***
Getting back on the road lasted all of a quarter-mile, mostly uphill. Then the road gave way to a deep chasm. The river went by down below, but the hill was rocky, with sharp stones visibly poking through the water’s surface. Another set of stone bridgeposts marked the path, and an ancient bridge of rope and wood dangled from their side, swaying. One of the side supports snapped while they watched.
“I’m glad we don’t need to give that a try,” Twilight said, watching a board tumbling down. “So, who needs help teleporting?”
Diamond Tiara raised a hoof. Zecora did too. Then Blueblood sighed and lifted a hoof. Then Cadence sheepishly did as well.
Twilight facehoofed. “Six of the most powerful ponies in Unicornia, and only my brother and I know how to teleport? How did that happen?”
Cadence rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ve always been better at illusions.”
Blueblood rolled his eyes. “I am quite competent at teleportation, but I specialize in teleporting rapidly over very short distances. As a duelling technique.”
Zecora shrugged. “I’ve no cause for indignation. I have not mastered teleportation.”
Diamond Tiara just hmphed.
Twilight groaned. “All right, so… that’s going to be unpleasant. We’re going to be here for a while. Teleporting two at once is tiring.”
Shining Armor snorted. “Tiring, she says. I’ll be worn out trying to take myself and Cadie together.”
They looked down at the fallen bridge. It swayed ominously.
“I guess I could cast a reinforcing spell on that, if we can pull it up,” Twilight said dubiously. Her horn glowed, and she groaned. “And it’s soaked in vine-juices. I can’t get a grip. Shiny, help me out here.”
Shining Armor lit up his horn, but a moment later shook his head. “No use, Twiley. I’m getting nothing at all from it. We’ll have to find another way.”
Dash raised a hoof. Twilight beamed. “Right! Flying it over it is. Here, hang on, let’s do this properly.” She opened her saddlebags and withdrew a coiled rope. “Proper exploration tools are very important. You never know when you’ll need to climb something. Or, in this case, pull. Just tie this down to the end, they fly across. If you can get the rope around the posts, we can pull the rope and draw the bridge up that way.”
Dash saluted. “Right! On it!” And she took the rope, then went down to get started. Tying it to the loose end of the bridge was a piece of cake, and then she just had to let the rope play out while she flew across. There was a little updraft, but that was easy to deal with. And then she was on the other side.
“Funny, isn’t it?” the doorknob’s voice said to her. Dash whirled, but there was nopony there.
“All that power,” it said, “but they’re trapped on the other side of that gorge. And if they can’t get across, they can’t find the Elements of Harmony. And if they can’t find the Elements of Harmony, then Discord will be free.”
“Well, duh,” Dash said, rolling her eyes. “That’s why I’m fixing the bridge.”
“Oh, of course, of course. But what about… not fixing the bridge?”
“You just said why that would be a bad idea,” she pointed out.
“Who says that Discord being free is a bad idea?” the voice purred in her ear. “Discord can’t happen if everyone agrees, you know. And you know what the biggest disagreement ever was.”
“Me and Mom over my second-grade portrait dress,” Dash immediately said.
The voice paused. “Well, the second-biggest disagreement ever was the unicorns and the pegasi. But it’s hard to have a disagreement when one side is gone, isn’t it?”
A form began to coalesce out of thin air. At first it was hazy and wavering, but then it just snapped into being. Dash felt her knees go weak.
He had a strong chin and a confident, roguish smile. His wings were broad and powerful, a deep rich blue at the feather-tips and smoothly fading to pure white at his shoulders, matching the blue of his coat and the white of his belly. A scar across his chest gave him a dangerous air. His legs and barrel were whipcord muscle. But his eyes were yellow with red pupils, clashing with the rest of him.
“There are a lot of us who’d love to come back for you,” he said, his voice gone husky. “You could be our Commander. An army of pegasi, all for you. We could rebuild Roam for you. A cloud city, filled with pegasi, every one of us knowing our Commander, our Queen, our savior, brought us back.”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t find the breath to speak. It wouldn’t have mattered if she could; the only words she could put together in her mind were Freakin’ gorgeous.
He leaned toward her, not quite touching her. “Please, Commander. Just… drop the rope. Leave them there. Your legions will cement the name of Rainbow Dash across the world for centuries.”
She swallowed. Hard. Twice. “Turn around,” she said.
He smiled at her, a dark and promising smile, and slowly trotted about in front of her, letting her see that pinnacle of pegasus perfection from all sides. “You won’t regret this,” he said. “Your loyalty to your kind will ring down through the ages.”
“Yeah, that’d be nice,” she said. “Being a loyal Unicornian is tough for a pegasus sometimes, y’know? But thanks for the show!”
And she pulled the rope around the bridgepost. “Okay, Princess, it’s all set!” she called out.
And the stallion let out a roar of frustration as he faded.
***
“We’re getting close,” Twilight Sparkle announced, checking her magic meter. “There’s a magical signature strong enough to overwhelm the vines coming through now. I think the Elements may have been protecting our path, or else the vines would have choked off the entire area.”
“It’s about time!” said Diamond Tiara. She was already scowling all around again, after the other royal ponies declined to let her continue to ride. She hadn’t bothered to ask Dash; she apparently had some concept of self-preservation, at least. “So where are the stupid things? What do they look like?”
“According to the old stories, the right pony will know them when she sees them,” Twilight said. “They might look like anything at all, physically.”
Diamond Tiara snorted. “Oh, real helpful. Fine. I’ll just go get them first and then I get to be Queen!” And she started to run ahead.
“Get back here!” demanded Twilight, but got only a raspberry in response. She groaned. “She was probably saving her legs this entire time just for that,” she said to nopony in particular. “Rainbow Dash, can you catch up to her?”
“On it!” said Dash, and zipped forward.
Something was odd about the vines, though. So far, they’d all been black and spiky. Now they were yellowy and spiky, or silvery and spiky. They didn’t seem to like her flying, either; she could see them moving as she flew, closing in up above, until she was forced to her hooves. The way was narrow, too, back to single-file - or would have been, if the others had been with her.
“Princess! Princess Diamond Tiara! Come back!” she called out. “They won’t do you any good without the rest of the Princesses anyway!”
There was no response. The vines pulled in more; Dash had to slow down and move carefully to avoid jabbing herself on the thorns. She could see little hoofprints in the soil below; Tiara could run safely, her smaller size letting her dodge the thorns. Finally, she couldn’t move forward at all; the vines were too low and too narrow for any adult pony to get by. Only Diamond Tiara could have made it through there.
Not that Rainbow Dash would let that stop her. She started yanking at the vines overhead, tugging and twisting at them until she pulled open a gap, and crawled herself in through. Right into another batch of vines. Only this set was even tighter, and she found herself stuck; she couldn’t even back up now without the thorns jabbing painfully into her. But she could see through a gap between the vines.
There was another clearing up ahead, surrounded by swirls of gold and silver vines. A dragon with those same yellow-and-red eyes was lounging on a vast pile of gold and gems there, a smirk across his face.
“So!” he said. “You want the Elements of Harmony, do you? I don’t think I can give those to you. But who needs them, really? Princess Purple Plot and her birdy buddy? Stripe-butt? They just want to keep everything boring. Unicornia would be much more interesting with you in charge.”
Diamond Tiara snorted. “I know, right? But they’re just going to side with Daddy and I won’t get to do anything until I’m old like them!”
The dragon leaned forward. “Oh? Oh, really? You won’t get to? No matter what?”
She took a half-step back. “Um… yes? They won’t let me?”
The dragon beamed a sharp-toothed smile at her. “But they need you in order to stop Discord from getting loose. And still they won’t make any perfectly reasonable concessions. How… selfish of them. If they had just agreed to let you be Queen, you could have the Elements and be done by now.”
“Yeah!” agreed Diamond Tiara, nodding her head once, then lifting her nose. “If they weren’t so selfish, I’d be Queen!”
The dragon patted her on the head. “You know, Discord doesn’t care for things like ‘rules.’ You would be just the sort of ruler he’d love to work with. You wouldn’t want to give up your chance at a thing like that, would you? Why, if you sided with him, I could give you a taste of power right now.”
The dragon held up a claw. In its palm, a sphere of inky blackness twitched and writhed, as though something inside was fighting to break free. “I found this quite a while ago, and I’ve been holding onto it,” he theatrically whispered. “By itself it would be very boring, but I think you would be just the right little pony to put it to its… full potential.”
“Gimme!” demanded Diamond Tiara. And the dragon laughed and pressed the dark sphere down atop her head.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes went huge as she watched. Pure blackness swirled around the little unicorn filly, who began to laugh in horrific delight. The darkness swelled, and she rose up higher on extending legs, her body blooming to sleek, sharp-angled ebon-hued adulthood in seconds. Her horn extended into a spear, and the tiara fell from her head. She stepped on it deliberately.
“Tiaras are for useless little princesses,” the black-coated creature declared smugly, looking down at the wreckage. “From now on, they can call me… Queen Diamond.”
The dragon laughed, triumphantly, and then it faded away.
Queen Diamond turned and gestured. The vines pulled away, making room for her to get by. Dash gritted her teeth as the shift caused one thorn to jab her in the thigh, but she kept quiet. She could feel a trickle of blood running down her leg. Getting caught now wouldn’t help Princess Twilight, though. She had to figure out a way to get Queen Diamond chasing her, and give Twilight and the other Princesses time to find the Elements. And right now she couldn’t move. But at least the transformed unicorn hadn’t spotted her.
Once Queen Diamond set off back through the vines, Dash started trying to twist her way free. Now that they’d moved, she could pry her way forward, as long as she didn’t mind getting scratched up. She could handle it.
She set off after Diamond, the pathway now clear and wide again. But she heard the sound of horns firing before she could see anything. Briefly. Her hooves skidded on the soil underhoof when she came out into the clearing where Diamond met the others.
Twilight Sparkle, Zecora, and Blueblood were upside-down, hooves wrapped together, with plundervines coiled about their horns. Cadence and Shining Armor were struggling to hold a shield up, but as Dash watched, the vines squeezed on the magical shield and shattered it like glass. And then those two were trussed up next to the others.
“I’m not some puny little princess anymore,” Diamond said smugly, the vines moving to line up the others in front of her. “I am Queen Diamond, whether any of you like it or not. Now… where’s your little birdy friend? I want her wings.”
Twilight’s eyes flicked for just a moment, but it was enough. Queen Diamond turned, then laughed. “Ah, just in time! Come here, little birdy!”
Rainbow Dash didn’t wait for that. She turned and took off. A rainbow trail laced behind her as she accelerated, and she felt something slimy and cold brush against her wings, but fail to catch hold. She didn’t have time to be grateful to Twilight for letting her know about speed being her defense. She was too busy racing for her life.
She sped through the clearing where the dragon had been, but it had vanished. It left the piles of gold and gems, though. Dash ignored the vast wealth. Money had never been much of an issue for her anyway. She wished she had Twilight’s magic meter, but she couldn’t have operated it anyway, since it needed magic to run, and the vines were still only allowing so many directions for her to go. Backward or forward, mostly. She could hear the vines moving behind her, and figured that Diamond was making the vines carry her and her prisoners.
Well. Dash hoped she was keeping them prisoner. If she thought she was already a Queen, she might…
Dash cut that train of thought off and cut around a corner. As long as she didn’t give Diamond a clear line of sight and as long as she didn’t slow down, she could still find the Elements. Maybe even escape with them. There had to be somepony who could find a way to use them if she got out.
First she had to stay free. Then she had to find them. Then she had to get out. That seemed like a lot. A horn-blast hit somewhere in the vines behind her. She pushed her wings to propel her faster.
The vines abruptly gave way to open air; the sky overhead was turning to evening, and Dash could see strange clouds with jaggy lightning somehow embedded inside them, partly sticking out. Her mind promptly whirled with thoughts of raining lightning down on Queen Diamond like the pegasus armies of old used rain, but that would mean slowing down - and Twilight said they preferred indirect attacks. So that probably wasn’t a good idea.
There was a wide crevasse in front of her, with rough-cut stone steps down. A rocky mesa was on the other side, surrounded by deep cuts in the earth all around. Vines, green normal vines, not plundervines, coiled around a small copse of trees in the middle. They were clustered near each other, so near their canopies were intersecting; Dash couldn’t make out where one tree ended and the next…
Her vision suddenly recategorized what she was seeing. Those weren’t trees. Those were pillars, overgrown with vines. And between them was a statue. A unicorn mare, head proudly lifted, with five arcs rising from her horn. Even without a horn of her own, Dash couldn’t miss the feeling of the magic coming off of the five rocky orbs, one at the end of each arc. They were even stronger than the Crystal Heart. Dash turned to race for the statue. There were five of them, at least. She’d figure out where the sixth one was later. At least she’d stop Queen Diamond from getting them. There was no way anypony in Unicornia could get to the Elements faster than she could, and Diamond was behind her.
Unfortunately, Diamond didn’t need to get to the Elements. She could sense them too - and before Dash was near the stone spheres, dark indigo magic surrounded them all and whipped them away. Dash tried to grab at the red one, but Diamond pulled it aside. Dash still couldn’t afford to slow down to try for another, and she had to pull up as she neared the edge of the clearing before she could turn.
A dark shield wall had risen around the mesa by the time Dash got herself turned around in the air, still racing to keep from letting Diamond’s magic catch her. She started to circle it, looking through the translucent mass. Diamond sneered back out at her, the five stone orbs circling her head.
“Mine!” she cried out from inside the shield, and then cackled. Vines swung forward, and the other royals spun through the air, landed hard on the stony ground, and then the plundervines wrapped around all of them in a thick, crude cage. “Now you’ve got to admit I’m the Queen,” she declared to Twilight and the others, a sharp-toothed smirk on her face. “Say it!”
Blueblood got to his hooves first inside the cage, then buffed his hoof against his chest. “I rather think not,” he said boredly.
Queen Diamond’s eyes bulged in rage. “SAY IT!” she screamed at him.
Twilight Sparkle was next to stand. “If you’re the Queen, then you can use the Elements,” she said, if breathlessly. “So?”
The dark unicorn’s eyes slitted. When they widened again, her pupils had turned catlike. “Fine. I’ll figure them out. Nopony can get in here, and none of you can interfere. And if I don’t figure it out before you starve, then no one will be left to object to my crown anyway.” She waved a taunting hoof up toward the sky. “Go bring the soldiers, birdy!” she called out. “I’ll have them for my new guard!”
Rainbow Dash kept circling, but gritted her teeth. That was what she had been thinking… but if the most powerful unicorns in the entire kingdom were held captive that easily, and Diamond could control the plundervines, the entire Unicornian army together probably wasn’t going to be able to get in there and be in any shape to fight. But she couldn’t just watch. She had to do something!
Okay. Plundervines. That was a thought. Diamond could control those vines, but if Dash could get just one of the Elements away from her and away from the reach of the vines, the army could contain her inside the Everfree Tangle. Then… she’d still have Twilight and Shining Armor and the others, but Unicornia would be safe from the threat of the Elements, at least. As long as Diamond didn’t have any other new powers. And as long as she couldn’t do something with them even without the full set. And as long as Dash didn’t mind leaving Twilight and her dad and Cadence and Princess Zecora and Prince Blueblood all in there with her.
Rainbow Dash swallowed. That was a lot to not mind. And some pretty long odds. She couldn’t calculate chances like Twilight could, but she got the idea of them. And none of it mattered unless she could find a way through that shield. She didn’t have a horn, so she couldn’t even try to blast her way through. She couldn’t smash through it, either; even she couldn’t lift a boulder big enough to break a shield that strong. But…
… She could break unicorn magic if she was going fast enough. So to break powered-up unicorn magic, she just needed to be going faster. Really, really fast. And if she wasn’t going fast enough, she’d just splat herself into that wall and then nopony would even know they needed to stop Diamond. But knowing wouldn’t do them any good anyway, so…
Her wings churned at the air. Altitude. She needed to start high. Diving down would help her go faster. Faster. That was it. Everypony was counting on her, even if they didn’t know it. Dad was counting on her. Mom was counting on her. Twilight was counting on her. The air got thinner, cooler in her lungs. She pushed higher. There weren’t any more clouds up this high, and the Everfree was a dark blot below her with a single indigo point in the middle. She furled her wings, let herself turn in the air, her momentum carrying her the last few hooves higher, an instant’s rest before starting the most dangerous experiment of her life.
Down. Gravity pulled at her. She welcomed it. She aided it, her wings buzzing like they’d never moved before. She felt her magic flowing inside her, felt it along the leading edges of her wing, gathering around her. She screamed downward as she raced, a pegasus cry of defiance from before ponies invented words.
The air thickened as she lanced down. It pressed into her face, forcing her lips back, her teeth clenched in the face of the gale. She fought it, pressed harder. It grew stronger. It felt elastic against her, trying to reject her, to refuse her, to throw her back. But she wasn’t going fast enough. If she was going to break that rapidly-growing shield below her, she had to be going as fast as ponily possible. She demanded more.
The air tore. She burst through, felt her magic come screaming through her, exploding all around her as it ripped the very air apart for her, gave her the speed she insisted on. It was like being a rubber band, one second straining, the next blazing at impossible speeds, ten times faster than she’d been going an instant before.
Her hooves met the dark magic shield, and it shattered like glass beneath her. At her velocity, she couldn’t stop, didn’t know how to brake or change direction at that kind of speed. She didn’t need to. She felt the magic blaze like iron around her hooves as she hit the ground upright, and felt the earth itself giving way.
A circle of rainbow light was spinning outward overhead. She was in a crater, four times her bodylength across and half her height deep. Diamond was staring at her from next to the Elements’ shelter. Dash could feel the Elements, circling Diamond’s head, like warm embers around an icicle. She didn’t bother saying anything. Words weren’t her forte anyway, for all Twilight’s efforts. And speaking would give Diamond a moment to recover. She launched herself forward, wings snapping at the air, rainbow trail dancing behind her as she aimed for the Elements.
A bolt of cold magic dug into her chest and flung her backward. She gasped in pain as she hit the ground near the plundervine cage. The indigo field reformed overhead - and a second one formed inside, around Queen Diamond. Dash could barely move, sprawled on her side, chest screaming at her.
“Stupid!” Diamond’s voice came out. “You were supposed to fetch me my guards! Now I’m going to have to get them myself, once I figure these out!” And she turned away.
Dash forced herself to her hooves. Her chest felt like it was on fire, but she could move. Obviously, she hadn’t been going fast enough to deflect a direct hit… but enough to keep it from killing her. Not that it helped too much. She was trapped now, too, and hurt, and didn’t have room to get going that fast again. But… she had to do something. She stumbled closer to the vine cage.
Twilight Sparkle reached out through the bars. A thorn scratched along her leg, but she ignored it, straining to press her hoof against Dash’s side. “Rainbow Dash… that was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”
Dash tried to say something back, but she coughed instead. Twilight winced and rubbed her hoof against Dash’s side. Dash tried again. “Not… gonna let a friend down,” she rasped.
Twilight froze. Dash was looking right at her. She could see the Star of Magic form in Twilight’s eyes. Exactly what that meant, she had no idea. Twilight had never done anything freaky with her eyes when casting before.
“I call this Royal Conclave to order,” Twilight said, eyes flashing. “I nominate Countess Rainbow Dash as Queen, by right of necessity.” Rainbow Dash stared at her, paralyzed in absolute confusion.
What?!?
“What are you doing, Twiley?” asked Shining Armor, taking a half-step back at the sight of a magic surge.
“None of us can escape this cage. Only Rainbow Dash has a chance to use the Elements now,” Twilight said, her voice taking on an echoing, ethereal tone. “If we are to save Unicornia, only Rainbow Dash can do it. And she can only use them if she is Queen. So I say again, I nominate Countess Rainbow Dash as Queen, by right of necessity.”
“I second,” said Blueblood immediately. Dash looked to him in surprise, but he didn’t say anything else.
“Aye,” said Shining Armor and Cadence together.
“Aye,” said Zecora.
“The throne of the Rich Lands lies vacant, by forfeiture heard and witnessed,” declared Twilight. “By unanimous vote, all hail Queen Rainbow Dash! Now, Rainbow, the Elements!”
Dash blinked at her. Then gasped, “I can’t get them! They’re in there!”
Twilight pressed herself against the bars again, ignoring the thorns that dug into her. “The Elements are in you, my Queen. You gave of yourself to save the Crystal Empire, proving your Generosity and Loyalty.” A golden peytral with a red lightning bolt formed across Rainbow Dash’s chest. The scorch mark from Diamond’s bolt ceased to hurt. A matching golden solleret encased her right front hoof, with a purple lightning bolt.
“Your Kindness to a poor miner in the Rich Lands rescued many from lives of misery, and brought Laughter into a life that had none.” Two more golden hoofshoes settled into place, with bolts of pink and blue.
“Your Honesty in the Mongrel Lands won you Friendship from those you had thought your enemies,” she intoned. A fourth shoe with an orange bolt formed, and a golden helm settled itself on her head, but with an empty space atop it. Dash felt her mane slide through the back, a breeze from nowhere making the multicolored hairs twist and flutter behind her.
“And we have witnessed the power of your Magic, breaking the shield of Queen Diamond, a strength that all of us together could not command!” Twilight finished, and an indigo lightning bolt took its place atop the crown.
The power beat through Rainbow Dash like electricity. The inner shield fell, and Diamond burst out. “YOU!” she screamed. “GIVE THOSE BACK! MINE!”
“No,” said Queen Rainbow Dash. “Harmony comes from everyone.”
She spread her wings, and the rainbow burst forth. A ring of every color, sweeping out from her. She felt everything it touched. She felt the coldness of the thing inside Diamond as the power of Harmony blasted it away. She felt the vines dissolving into triumphant but malice-free laughter. She felt the land under her hooves in a way she’d never felt it before, real and warm and eager for her touch. She felt lives.
She heard, very distantly, an unfamiliar voice say, “I’m sorry. I should have…”
***
“Your Majesty?” asked Twilight Sparkle.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. She didn’t know when she’d closed them. It had felt so wonderful. Such… connection. All the unity that Unicornia had been missing, all coming out through her. The skies… she could still feel the skies. Every cloud above was listening to her. She looked at Twilight.
She looked down at Twilight.
That was going to take a bit of getting used to.
“You’re beautiful,” said Twilight Sparkle, tears in her eyes.
Dash was staggered sideways by a male body rushing into her side. “My little filly’s so beautiful!” cried out Shining Armor.
Rainbow Dash almost reflexively blurted out a question, but found she didn’t need to. She could feel it. She could feel everything. She knew. She knelt down to hug Twilight and Shining against her with her wings, and touched her new horn to theirs. She felt the magic dancing through her, dancing through everything, and wondered that she had ever been so blind to it before. She could feel it everywhere now, in the ground, in the air, in the sun and moon. It played through her mane, leaving a rainbow dancing behind her with every movement now, not just when she sped.
She let go a moment before the scream, and the filly on the ground had a wing rest across her back before she could scream a second time.
“My HORN!” sobbed the filly. It was gone. Her forehead was bare. Her pristine coat was soaked in the soil of the Everfree as well, a muddy yellow-green, and her mane had gone a bloody red. “P… please! Give it back!” she begged. “I don’t wanna be a cripple!”
Rainbow Dash brushed her wing along the filly’s back. “You’re not crippled,” she said, and smiled a little despite herself at how her voice sounded. There was a sort of a tone to it, like far-off windchimes playing in a cooling summer breeze.
“I’ve lost my horn!” was the immediate frantic reply. “Please! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Give it back! Give it back!”
Blueblood and Zecora were just staring. Cadence came up to join Shining Armor, watching.
“You’re not crippled,” repeated Rainbow Dash patiently. “You’re first, that’s all.”
“First? First what?” the filly asked, staring up at her over tear-streaked cheeks.
“The first of the Earth Ponies,” Rainbow Dash said. She could feel the magic in the land, flowing up through her hooves, flowing up through the filly, if only she could recognize it.
“NO!” screamed the filly. “I AM NOT A MUD PONY! I’M NOT!” And she stomped her hoof.
Rainbow Dash had only to guide the magic a little as it came out. The strength of life flowed into a tree that had been strangled by the vines, and the plant rose up straight and tall, leaves bursting out on the branches, and thick, bright red apples erupting into being almost instantly. The filly stared at them, then at her hoof.
Rainbow Dash brushed the filly’s flank with a hoof. “No, you’re not,” she said warmly. “You’re the first of the Earth Ponies. The caretakers of the land. They’re coming back now. They need someone to learn how to be an Earth Pony for them. That’s going to be you. You gave up being Diamond Tiara in the Everfree. That’s what the Everfree is, at its heart. A place where a pony can decide who she is.”
“... Who am I?” asked the filly.
Queen Rainbow Dash smiled and kissed her on the forehead. “By your mark and by your deeds, I name you… Apple Bloom.”
***
“The Duchess Lulamoon has petitioned for an audience again, Your Majesty,” said Chancellor Nice Guy. “I believe she wishes to complain about the rain allotment you have afforded to her domain. Again.”
Queen Rainbow Dash laughed. “Eleven months I’ve been Queen, and twenty times she’s filed that petition. Once not two minutes after I had sealed Discord back away. She should have been born a pegasus. Then she could do it herself. Oh, well. Her foals will manage.”
“Mmmm,” said Nice Guy noncommittally. “I had hoped to surprise you with that news. Queen’s City General Hospital has reported a foal born with wings to unicorn parents. Ambassador Due Respect, specifically. The filly was named, I am told in a gesture you will understand, ‘Dinky Danger Respect.’”
Queen Rainbow Dash laughed, then smiled at him. “I’ve known for months that this was coming, my little pony. Harmony needs many voices, just as discord does. In one generation, this will not be Unicornia any longer. I think I like the name… Equestria.”