“Remind me why you think this will work,” I requested uncertainly, as I watched Twilight work. “I thought this spell required someone at the other end.”
“True, but there is a little loophole I discovered,” Twilight revealed, as she continued to mash up her ingredients. “Ordinarily you do, but really, the spell remains partially active for a few days after casting. So because we teleported from outside Pivot, we actually have a limited time in which we can freely go back and forth, so long as we have more key ingredients for each journey, until the link between the receptacles is broken and you have to set it up again at both locations.”
“Oh, so by key ingredients you mean…” I began, only to be cut off by a loud splashing noise coming from behind us.
Glancing around, I saw Pinkie Pie’s head bobbing up and down in the sea, her mask drawn as she paddled over to the shore.
“Thank you for that Pinkie,” Twilight said as she accepted the few drenched, black feathers from Pinkie’s outstretched hoof, recoiling slightly at the body clutched in her other. “I’m sure that wasn’t pleasant.”
“I’ve done more unpleasant things,” Pinkie replied with a shrug, as she pulled her mask back and held out Harbinger’s lifeless body. “It was just tricky since he shrank back down, and water messes up the detect death enchantment in this thing.”
I quickly dug a hole in the sand using magic, in the very spot where we had sat around the night before and discussed our plan. Then, after placing Harbinger inside and filling the grave in, we had a moment of silence for him.
“You should probably head on now Pinkie,” Twilight suggested after a couple of tense minutes. “We have everything we need now and you need to get to Arclight.”
“Yeah, I’ll go now,” she agreed. “I just wish you didn’t send Fluttershy off earlier, the trip’s gonna be so boring without company.”
The other three had all left as soon as the sun began to rise, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had the most ground to cover, but since Applejack was going in the same direction as Rainbow, for a while at least, the pair set off together. Of course Pinkie and Fluttershy could have done the same, since Arclight and Port Mule were relatively similar directions from the Cathedral, but we needed Pinkie’s help in gathering up all the ingredients again, which she could afford to do since Arclight was the closest city to where we were.
“Sorry about that,” I told her. “But you know how she would have reacted to us fishing Harbinger out of the sea so we could take his feathers.”
“Yeah, I know,” she admitted with a small sigh. “Anyway, good luck at Pivot. I’ll see you at Arclight when you’re done Rarity.”
She pulled me into a tight hug, not bone crushing, just comfortable.
“And I’ll see you at Cragsburg Twilight,” Pinkie finished after releasing me.
She stepped forward and gave Twilight a much more delicate hug, one which Twilight didn’t immediately reciprocate, which left them both looking very awkward as they tried not to make direct eye contact during the stiff, unnatural embrace. I wasn’t sure whether I should laugh or look away, embarrassed. I ended up settling on the latter as the first seemed incredibly offensive, and also because it felt like I had just walked in on something very inappropriate for some reason. It didn’t last long, and once it was over Pinkie Pie quickly made her exit, clearly impatient to get on the road to Arclight.
“So is it the same drill?” I asked Twilight, indicating the metal dish she had been working on.
“Huh?” Twilight uttered, as if snapping out of a trance. “Oh yeah, should be a little easier and less disorienting since there’s only two of us this time.”
I left her be for a short while, letting her put the finishing touches into the spell, while I surveyed the open sea and the ruins of the once mighty Covenant headquarters. The events of the day before felt like a lifetime ago, it was so bizarre to think that it had only just happened, more so to dwell on what lay ahead of us. Hearing my name, I returned to where Twilight had drawn the runic circle in the sand. She held the dish of ingredients to one side in her magic, while simultaneously waving the feather up and down as if it was a fan, in order to dry it out.
I tucked myself into the circle alongside Twilight, who proved my earlier theory that the dish didn’t need to be raised over our head, when she levitated it down low between us. Once again she set it alight, and once again her eyes paled as she began chanting and the white flames sprung to life. Luckily I was prepared for Twilight’s chanting this time, so I didn’t feel the urge to laugh, not that it would have mattered since it was only the two of us, and I doubted she could hear me while performing the spell.
I was also prepared for the ring of white fire to rise up around me, so I didn’t cow away from it, just as I was ready for when Twilight placed the feather in the dish and zapped it from white to black. Once again we were encased in a pitch black pillar of flame, but after a few seconds it was over, and we were left tripping over our hooves as we stepped out of the circle onto grass rather than sand. I looked about to check that we were in the right spot, as opposed to ending up near the Isle of Serenity, but we were in fact back outside Pivot, however something struck me as odd about it.
After the last couple of visits, in which we saw the streets bustling with activity and ponies hard at work, it was quite a jarring change to see things almost deserted. I glanced at Twilight, and she seemed to have picked up on this as well. With a tilt of the head, I indicated that we should move forward and she nodded in response. As we walked towards the main street, we saw several fully armoured Rebel soldiers standing guard or patrolling the main entrance to the city. While the number of normal ponies walking about was greatly reduced, I could still see the rare few scattered along the street.
My first thought was that it was just too early in the morning or that it was a slow work day, and that things would pick up as time went on, but something about the way those soldiers were looking at us rubbed me up the wrong way. They didn’t move to stop us as we approached, but they didn’t exactly appear to be welcoming either. Twilight took the lead, marching right up to the first guard and addressing him politely but firmly.
“Good morning,” she began. “Is something wrong here?”
“No Miss,” the guard replied curtly. “Everything’s fine. The city isn’t closed off or anything, you’re free to come inside.”
“It looks a bit…” I started, surveying the street behind the guards for the right word. “Empty.”
“I can’t really do anything about that,” the guard replied with a shrug. “I’m just paid to keep law and order; you’ll have to see the new mayor about whatever’s going on.”
“Sure, we can do that after we talk to Maverick,” I agreed, addressing Twilight.
“Uh, I don’t think you understand Miss,” one of the other guards jumped in. “Maverick is the new mayor.”
I blinked a few times before my jaw dropped open. Twilight too shook her head, as if she was sure she had misheard the guard.
“Excuse me?” Twilight questioned. “How is Maverick the mayor? And what happened to the last one?”
“Inkie was arrested for conspiring against the town,” the first guard explained. “Maverick took up the office until a vote could be called for.”
Twilight and I looked at each other; clearly she was just as at loss as I was. Thinking quickly, I decided who would be best to talk to on this matter.
“I think we should go see Sufferthorn,” I whispered to Twilight before addressing the guards again. “Where can we find Marshal Sufferthorn?”
The guard seemed to bristle slightly at that, before responding in a rather cool voice.
“The ex-Marshal has also been arrested,” they replied. “For attempted assassination of the new mayor.”
Now I was properly gawking at the guard, none of this made the slightest bit of sense, nothing we had heard lined up with what we knew about the ponies involved. Something strange was happening in this town, and we needed to get to the bottom of it. I gave a sideways glance at Twilight before turning back to the guards.
“Well that’s disappointing to hear,” I said in a nonchalant voice. “In that case we’ll just go and see Maverick, thank you for your help.”
The guards relaxed slightly, not completely, but enough that when they nodded in response, I was confident they wouldn't follow us once we entered the city. We started walking down the street, it was only once we were out of earshot of the guard that I spoke up again.
“Something’s going on,” I told Twilight.
“Clearly,” she retorted with a slight eye roll. “But what? Why on earth would Sufferthorn try to kill Maverick? And what did they even mean when they said the mayor had been ‘conspiring against the town’?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “But did you pick up on something else they said?”
Twilight just looked at me expectantly.
“They said they were being paid to uphold law and order,” I reminded her, Twilight giving a small ‘oh’ as realisation hit her. “How are they being paid now, when the last time we were here, they weren’t?”
“I think we need to go see the old mayor for ourselves,” Twilight whispered, watching a patrol of four soldiers out of the corner of her eye. “Find out what’s really going on.”
“Those ponies said they were arrested,” I recalled. “I guess that means they’re in jail, I don’t even know where that is.”
“I do,” Twilight told me. “It’s where we placed the captured members of the Solar Empire after Blueblood’s escape.”
“Something makes me think they won’t just let us walk in,” I commented. “But if we had written permission from Maverick…”
“What do you suggest?” Twilight asked, as we continued on our way up the main street towards the town hall.
“I’ve never forged a letter,” I admitted. “But… I think I could if I had something to work off of, just a random piece of paper from his office, so I could copy his writing style and signature.”
“I could keep him busy outside,” Twilight offered. “Whatever’s going on here, you should probably keep your head down around him, especially after that last encounter you had. Me on the other hand, he wouldn’t dare risk doing anything to me for fear of antagonising the Princess and jeopardising any future relationship with Equestria.”
“Sounds good,” I replied.
As we neared the town square, we began to make out a small crowd gathered at the foot of the town hall steps. The mob appeared to be made of a few dozen, very upset ponies who presumably lived and worked in Pivot. As we got closer, I could hear them shouting about work and wages. There was a line of soldiers standing at the top of the steps, clearly not letting anypony past, but glancing worriedly between one another. Twilight and I stopped just before we reached the back of the crowd.
“You go on up,” I told her. “They should let you in. I’ll ask about here for a bit, then sneak in through the back entrance.”
Twilight nodded and began making her way around the crowd, mounting the steps without any hesitation, and after explaining herself to the guards, passing through without any bother. The mob got even louder upon seeing this, and I took my opportunity to squeeze into the back row.
“What’s happening?” I asked a random mare wearing an apron.
“These clowns stormed into my café this morning,” she told me, looking like she was about to explode. “They just started pulling bits right out of my till, saying I hadn’t paid my taxes in full. It’s absolute nonsense!”
“I was working on repairing the housing estate down that street over there,” another pony chipped in, pointing down one of the roads that split off from the square. “But this morning we were told to pack it in, that we wouldn’t be getting any more materials, so the project was being cancelled.”
“We came here to talk to the mayor about it all,” a stallion added. “But these soldiers won’t let us in, they say the town hall is ‘closed until further notice’.”
I nodded thoughtfully, this all sounded like what Maverick had wanted to do before we left, taking the city’s money in order to fund his army. I was starting to understand what was going on, but I never predicted he would go this far. After slipping away from the crowd, I started making my way around the back of the building, to the door I had entered with Pinkie Pie when the Children of the Earth had attacked and we needed to get up into the clock tower.
Naturally there were a pair of guards posted at that door, they chatted amiably with one another and I imagined they might be a little more complacent than the ones at the front. I really didn’t want to kill these ponies, whatever was going on around Pivot, I didn’t believe the soldiers really knew what Maverick was up to, not like the Children of the Earth followers who I’d murdered in cold blood in this very place. No, if it could be avoided, I wasn’t going to use violence against them. That left persuasion, so as I started making my way up to them, I quickly removed my weapons from my belt and stashed them behind a public bin.
“Excuse me, sirs!” I called out in a breathless voice, picking up the pace. “We need your help around here!”
The guards both glanced up in surprise as I came rushing over to them, pretending to double over in exhaustion.
“Slow down Miss,” the first guard began. “What’s the problem?”
“It’s that awful mob around the front!” I exclaimed hysterically. “They’re storming the front doors; I don’t think the other guards can keep them under control.”
Both guards snapped into action, drawing their weapons as they rushed away from the door to go investigate the supposed riot. Wasting no time, I tested the door and was pleased to find it still unlocked, before letting myself in. I vaguely remembered my way around the cramped storage space, but rather than take the ladder up to the tower, I tested one of the other doors I hoped would lead me out into the main part of the town hall. The room I ended up in turned out to be rather familiar, small, cramped and dimly lit, with filing cabinets lining the walls.
I was back in the records room, I never even knew there had been another door the last time I had been in here. That might have had something to do with how dark it was, but more to do with the fact that the filing cabinets were arranged in front of the door as much as the rest of the walls. Using my magic, I shifted the metal cabinet a few inches until I could squeeze out past it. Once inside the deserted records room, I went over to the main exit and peeked out the door. I heard the voices before I even caught a glimpse of Twilight and Maverick pacing the hallway together, Twilight ever so nicely drawing Maverick away from his office and keeping his back turned for me.
“Well quite,” Twilight was agreeing. “I mean that sort of attitude just encourages insubordination.”
“I’m glad you agree,” Maverick replied in his old sweet tone, reminding me very much of when I deceived Arcana. “We’ll see to her in the coming days, it just means I need to find a new Marshal before I can start planning our assault on Cragsburg, but most of my soldiers don’t have the same level of experience. Speaking of which, where is Rarity at the moment? I figured she would have come back with you, she’s not still running around after magic birds, is she?”
“Oh no, she’s just visiting her other friends back at Sweet Apple Acres,” Twilight lied. “I expect she’ll be back here soon.”
I took the opportunity to sneak back down the hall towards the mayor’s office, opening the door slowly from a distance as I moved, so that by the time I was close enough, I could slip right on in. It didn’t take long to find a letter that would be suitable for my purposes; the whole desk was strewn with Maverick’s writings. The sheet I ended up taking was one of the many alliance proposals with Equestria he had been drafting, you’d think that step would come after negotiations, rather than long before any arrangements had been made.
As I pocketed it however, I quickly glanced at another message that had been lying below it. I was only able to skim over it before leaving the office again, but it appeared to be a report from one of his agents who discovered the location of the Solar Empire agent and ex-captain of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire. Apparently she had been tracked down to a forsaken bandit camp in the pass between Glean and Daybreak Landing, but she evaded capture and escaped north into the Wyvern Heights. I pondered this briefly, we had presumed she was the one who helped break Blueblood out, but we now knew that was Crane’s doing, and yet we had heard nothing of Spitfire.
That still left a glaring question mark regarding her, but that would have to wait for another time, as my priority at that moment was to get well clear of Maverick’s office and the town hall before I could be discovered. I exited the room in time to see Twilight bidding farewell to the man himself, and only just made it back inside the safety of the records room before he turned around and caught sight of me. Returning the way I came, I was brought to a stop when I overheard the sounds of two guards searching in the back rooms. No doubt the two I had tricked, who were now looking for me.
The way to the door I had come through was blocked, but I was able to make my way safely up the ladder into the clock tower. Once at the top, I forced myself not to think about what had occurred the last time I was there, as I moved to the edge and started scanning about for Twilight. I spotted her standing at the edge of the square, where the main street spilled into it, glancing about nervously for me. It was around midday, so the sun was in perfect place that I could bring out my spyglass and use it to reflect the sunlight down at Twilight, grabbing her attention as it bounced off her eyes.
Without the need to convey my intentions through sign language, she disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared next to me. I quickly told her where my weapons were, indicating that we should teleport down for them, but instead Twilight simply glanced out over the edge of the tower and levitated them up to us. I was surprised, although pleased at the efficiency of it, and once I had them reattached to my belt, I placed my hoof on her shoulder and we teleported away together. We went to the café near the south exit of the city, the one we had been cueing for when we first saw Harbinger. It was closed, but we were able to grab seats outside it while I forged a letter that would allow us to get into the prison and see Sufferthorn and Inkie.
Once I was satisfied with my work, Twilight incinerated the stolen letter before leading the way to the prison. It was in the northeast portion of the city, an area I had rarely visited in the past, although I found that as we travelled, we were quite close to Suri’s old shop and the chapel where I had last seen Lock Pick. We even passed right by it, and I saw that it was completely boarded up. The graffiti on the door remained, although it was now faded and peeling. As we made our way through the streets, I filled Twilight in on my own part of the mission, not that it had been particularly eventful, but I figured she would be interested in what I learnt regarding Spitfire.
“I wonder…” Twilight muttered thoughtfully when I finished. “It came as such a shock to me when I found out that she was involved in the Solar Empire… but then again, there were so few ponies involved that I could ever have predicted, Blueblood included. I guess if she wasn’t involved with freeing Blueblood, and she’s made no attempt to rescue the other Solar Empire agents, then she’s most likely just on the run to avoid facing charges. We can ignore her for now, although don’t forget that she is still a threat that needs dealt with at some point.”
“I’m sure,” I acknowledged. “What did Maverick have to say about all this anyway?”
“He claimed that Inkie was the one stealing money from the city’s funds,” Twilight replied. “And he’s still going with the story that Sufferthorn tried to assassinate him after an apparent mental breakdown. Personally I don’t believe any of it… well maybe the bit about Sufferthorn.”
“She’s not as bad as you think,” I told her, fully realising how strange that sounded coming from me of all ponies. “I know she’s seemed hot headed and cold blooded in the past, but… I think there’s more to her than that.”
“Well I’m willing to give her a second chance at a good first impression,” Twilight said, only half reluctantly. “But I haven’t forgotten the way she held a sword to your throat.”
“I haven’t forgotten either,” I responded, instinctively raising a hoof to my neck where the cut had been. “But I remember other times as well…”
I just drifted off after that, thinking back to the aftermath of Fort Mule getting blown up, but Twilight didn’t press me for details on what I had meant. We reached the prison, a large block like structure, it appeared fairly undamaged, but at the same time there was nothing to suggest it had undergone any recent repairs. There were a number of soldiers congregated around the outside; Twilight had mentioned that the prison was also being used as a temporary barracks for all the Rebel soldiers that had been focused in Pivot, following the Children of the Earth’s attack. It was after all fairly empty, since it’s only other occupants were the Solar Empire Agents, and since Maverick was naturally keen on keeping any more of them from escaping, it made sense to pile his troops in alongside them.
“Hold it there,” one of the soldiers standing at the door said as we got near. “Restricted zone, if you don’t have any…”
“Oh, hey, I know you!” another soldier exclaimed, looking right at me and cutting off his friend. “You’re an agent; I’ve seen you meeting with Maverick before.”
“Why yes I am,” I confirmed, smiling at him.
“Well that’s all well and good,” the first soldier said in a professional tone. “But I still need to see written orders or a pass if I’m to let you in here.”
“It’s alright,” I assured him, producing the forged documents. “We have our orders here; we’re here to see Sufferthorn for some questioning.”
“Good luck with that,” the other soldier said with a slight eye roll while the first looked over the paper. “She’s not speaking to anypony; in fact, most of us aren’t even allowed to be in the same block as her. Maverick’s assigned only the ‘best’ guys to keep an eye on her so she doesn’t…”
“Shut it,” the first pony cut across in a frustrated tone before looking back at us. “This is all good, head on through and go to cell block B.”
“Thank you,” I replied, taking back my ‘orders’ and offering a sympathetic smile to the other soldier before we headed on in.
Once inside, we found several more soldiers bustling about, it reminded me of the first time I had infiltrated the Fort, only the atmosphere among the Rebel soldiers was considerably more relaxed than the Liberators. Nopony tried to stop or question us; they must have all assumed we were allowed to be there, otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten past the front doors. As we followed a sign towards block B, we walked behind a pair of mares in steel armour, chatting happily together.
“I rushed home first thing to tell the kids,” one of them said to the other. “Oh you should have seen the smiles.”
“Yeah, my family were literally in tears when I told them how much I was now earning,” the second replied in an equally joyful tone, although as she continued, her voice took on a more serious quality. “But where did they even get the money? I was already job hunting because I was sure I wasn’t getting another bit doing this.”
“Me too,” the first concurred. “Maybe Maverick was finally able to strike a deal with the mayor.”
“I thought the mayor was arrested,” the second said in a confused voice. “I could swear I heard somepony saying that this morning.”
“Inkie? Arrested?!” the first exclaimed in a sceptical voice. “No way, you need to stop believing every little thing you hear.”
The pair split off down a diverging corridor, leaving us to close the distance to the door leading to block B, flanked by four ponies standing guard, two on each side, and all heavily armed and looking vigilant. I presented the forged document before any of them could question our presence, the guard who took it from me read over it… and read over it again, with each read his face grew increasingly more creased, I saw him eyeing me suspiciously over the top of the letter. The letter was passed between each of the ponies, as each one read it, they too narrowed their eyes at us.
I wasn’t sure what had went wrong, but I knew something was up… I knew they knew something was up. I mentally prepared myself for a possible fight kicking off, my eyes flickering down to where my knives were sheathed, ready to be pulled out at a seconds notice if they tried to pull anything. There was a little murmuring between the four guards that I wasn’t able to make out, and just when I was sure something bad was going to happen… they passed my letter back and opened the door for us. I looked to Twilight and saw that she looked just as confused as I did, but she very quickly composed herself and led the way in.
I followed her, remaining tense until the door slammed shut behind me. Deciding not to say anything while so close to the door, where we might be overheard, we started walking down the cell block in silence. It was only then for the first time, I realised just how many Solar Empire agents had been active in Panchea before we stopped them. There were dozens packed into the cells on both levels, all staring out at us with a mixture of curiosity and resentment.
“I did not like that one bit,” Twilight muttered once we were half way down the hall, looking from side to side for Sufferthorn or Inkie.
“Me neither,” I replied with a curt nod. “They knew we were up to something, but how?”
“Let’s just finish up and get out of here quickly,” Twilight proposed.
It wasn’t until we reached the very end of the block that we found the both of them locked up in a grimy cell of their own. Inkie was on her hooves, trying to see what all the other prisoners were making such a loud commotion about, while Sufferthorn sat hunched over on her bunk, looking sullen. Indeed, the Solar Empire agents started hurling quite a lot of insults and threats our way, but that was quickly dealt with when Twilight cast a sound barrier between them and us.
“Rarity?” Inkie uttered in surprise when we stepped into view. “Twilight Sparkle?”
“Hello Inkie,” Twilight greeted sadly upon seeing their squalor living conditions. “Are you all right? Have they been treating you okay?”
“I wish I could say yes,” Inkie replied forlornly before brightening up. “Are you here to help us?”
“Uh… yes,” Twilight said slowly. “But we need to know what’s going on first. We know Maverick is now the mayor, and that he just happened to get a hold of enough money to fund the Rebels, all a coincidence I’m sure.”
“Not to mention all the local businesses collapsed overnight,” I added bitterly. “I’m sorry about all your hard work.”
“It’s fine,” Inkie assured me. “It’s not you who has to be sorry, but yes, you’re completely right. Maverick had me arrested under some ridiculous charges so he could take my place and do what I refused to.”
“What about you Sufferthorn?” I asked loudly, aware that she hadn’t reacted to our presence at all. “I don’t suppose you really tried to assassinate him.”
“Is that what he’s saying?” Sufferthorn asked in a dull tone, still not looking up. “Maybe I should have… maybe I should have let Strangle do it… maybe I should have done a lot of things.”
I opened my mouth, but couldn’t find the words. I remembered how she had reacted to Maverick’s shouting after failing to deactivate the bombs beneath the Fort, I had been just as lost then in how to deal with her.
“Well we can’t leave you in here,” Twilight commented, looking up and down the cell block. “Whatever is wrong with Maverick, we need to put a stop to it… together.”
“Stop him?” Sufferthorn repeated, her head suddenly snapping up as she surveyed us with a bewildered expression. “Why on earth would you stop him?”
“Sufferthorn, he locked you up!” I pointed out, amazed that I even needed to explain this to her. “Unjustly I might add, how is any of this not a good reason to put a stop to him?”
“It wasn’t unjustly…” Sufferthorn murmured to herself before looking up again. “And he’s doing all this to stop the Children of the Earth, to bring peace to this country, isn’t that what we’ve been fighting for this whole time? Isn’t that what you’ve been fighting for since the day you joined us?”
“Of course it is,” I replied. “But all this… it’s corrupt, and will get worse the longer it goes unchallenged. Why are you so intent on defending him Sufferthorn? Why do you show him so much loyalty, when he doesn’t show you any respect?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sufferthorn muttered, clearly avoiding the question. “You’ll never get us out of here… you’ll never get out of here. Those ponies guarding the block, they helped Maverick throw us in here, he’s paying them each a small fortune.”
“That’s how they knew we were lying,” Twilight growled. “They know Sufferthorn and Inkie were wrongfully imprisoned, so they knew Maverick would never send anypony to question them.”
“Look, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said, brushing it aside for a moment. “But right now we need your help… both of you. We found Blueblood!”
That got Sufferthorn’s attention.
“You did?!” she exclaimed, her voice a mixture of excitement and panic. “Did you capture him?”
“No,” Twilight admitted. “And now things are much worse than any of us could have predicted.”
“What do you mean?” Sufferthorn asked slowly, standing up and making her way over to the bars alongside Inkie.
“Blueblood is… a lot more powerful,” I told her, deciding not to go into the unbelievable details. “He has an army and a… a… Sufferthorn, I’m not sure how to tell you this… but he has a Dreadnaught.”
There was a long silence as Sufferthorn absorbed this new information, her already pale green face turning even paler at the thought.
“Impossible,” she uttered simply. “How can he? You destroyed it.”
“The ponies who freed him,” I explained. “They built one of their own, and now Blueblood is in control of it. They’re gathering their strength in the Ash Lads, and he plans to launch an invasion on the entire world. That’s why it’s now more important than ever that we take back Cragsburg, that’s where he’ll go first, so that’s where we need to stop him.”
“Inkie,” Twilight began. “I know this is going to be difficult to hear, but we need the Rebellion to fight at any cost.”
“You want me to give into Maverick’s demands,” Inkie finished with a sigh.
“It’s different now,” I insisted. “With the Children of the Earth, we didn’t know when, if ever, they would attack us, so we wanted to make the first move. With Blueblood however… he is coming, and he will destroy everything in his path.”
Inkie screwed up her face, clearly unsure whether to trust the sincerity of our claims or not.
“Well… I definitely trust you both more than Maverick,” she admitted. “But I need some time to think about it, can you at least get us out for now?”
“We can,” Twilight replied, before looking to Sufferthorn.
“We need your help too,” I told her. “There’s a battle coming, and you have more experience in leading an army than most.”
“What about Maverick?” Sufferthorn asked suspiciously. “What’re your plans for him once we’re out of here?”
“We don’t want to make an enemy of Maverick,” I assured her. “We can all go to him together; we’ll explain the situation and make him see reason.”
Sufferthorn tapped the bars with her hooves for a moment, considering my words before finally she nodded.
“Alright, stand back,” Twilight instructed as she drew her sceptre.
The pair obeyed as Twilight pointed her rod in their direction and focused her magic, the orb glowing as it sent out an orange haze. The heat wave hit the metal bars, and within seconds they turned white hot and molten, melting and dripping onto the floor where they formed puddles. Twilight then gave her sceptre a wide sweep, sending out a chilling blast which cooled the liquid metal instantly so it solidified on the floor. Sufferthorn stepped out first, walking over the metal floor without any concern, even as Inkie tread over it with great trepidation.
“Okay, let’s get out of here,” Sufferthorn said in her old calm and controlled voice.
As we started walking, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, a pony in one of the cells waving frantically at me. I quickly recognised Feather Duster, he looked as if he had been badly beaten not so long ago, probably why he had been transferred into a cell on his own. He was definitely trying to get my attention, but Twilight’s sound proof barrier was still up, so I couldn’t hear a word he was trying to say.
“Twilight,” I began, indicating Feather Duster. “Could you…”
Twilight’s horn flashed and the spell was cancelled, the noise of the prisoners hitting us all at once.
“What is it Feather Duster?” I asked him, feeling impatient, but still sympathetic when I remembered how he helped us.
“I heard what you said about Blueblood,” he began, his voice croaky. “I want to help you.”
“Help us?” Twilight repeated, clearly surprised. “You want to help fight Blueblood?”
“Yes,” he stated with a determined edge to his voice. “I know I’ve made mistakes, I’ve seen that, but I want a chance to make up for them. If you’re going to battle against him, you’re going to need as many ponies willing to fight as you can get, right? Well I volunteer, you can give me a sword and put me on the front lines, and I’ll fight for you.”
“Feather Duster,” I began hesitantly. “This is not going to be an easy fight… in fact, there’s a good chance we won’t make it out alive.”
“I… I know that,” he replied, trying to sound assured, but his voice still slipping slightly. “I’m ready for that, but if we win… and if I live, you can lock me up again. You can take me back to Equestria and charge me, I won’t object, I just want a chance to redeem myself for what Blueblood did to you all… what I helped him do to you all.”
I glanced back at Twilight and Sufferthorn.
“Don’t look at me,” Sufferthorn said, looking to Twilight. “He’s your prisoner, although personally I wouldn’t give him a butter knife.”
“Rarity, what do you think?” Twilight asked.
“I…” I began, thinking about it long and hard before finishing my thoughts. “I think we should give him a chance, I think we can trust him.”
Twilight nodded and released Feather Duster, just as she had done with the other two. When the metal was cooled again, he simply flew over it and landed beside me, offering me a weak smile which I forced myself to return. Throughout the entire interaction, the heckling from the other inmates had only increased, and when Feather Duster was released, it reached a new crescendo as they called him a traitor and other nasty insults I won’t repeat.
“Keep in mind Feather Duster,” Twilight said in a stern voice. “That you will still be put on trial when this is all over… although if you stay true to your word, I might put in a good word with the Princess for you.”
“Thank you,” he said, sounding genuine. “Really, thank you, I couldn’t ask for any more.”
“Heads up,” Sufferthorn cut in, her voice suddenly urgent. “We have company.”
I glanced up in time to see the four guards march into the cell block, closing and locking the door behind them. I drew my sword, as well as a single knife in my magic for good measure. Twilight too, readied her sceptre while Sufferthorn crouched low to the ground, like a cat getting ready to pounce. The four ponies also drew their weapons, two lances and two longswords, the looks on their faces made it clear they weren’t playing around.
“I’m afraid your sentence has to be carried out a little early Sufferthorn,” one of the soldiers began. “Maverick’s orders, seems you’re not his favourite pet anymore.”
I saw Sufferthorn flinch, but she didn’t break her stance.
“Stand down,” Twilight ordered, pointing the orb of her sceptre at them as it began to glow in a threatening manner.
“We’ve been told to pass a message on to you two,” the pony went on, looking between Twilight and myself. “Maverick says you two are still in his good books, but that only remains the case if you stand down now.”
“No deal,” I replied bluntly. “We’re going to see Maverick to talk this out like grown-ups. You can step aside and we’ll never have to speak of this again, or you can fight us… but we won’t be held accountable for what might happen to you.”
Sufferthorn gave a low bark of laughter at that, flashing me a genuine, if slightly malicious grin. None of the four responded, they simply began moving in, weapons at the ready. Before I could react, Sufferthorn broke ranks and sprinted forwards, the soldiers seemed just as surprised as we were by her rash move. They lowered their weapons to meet her, but she simply dodged and ducked beneath them until she was standing directly between all four of them. I remembered back to after I had destroyed the original Dreadnaught, when we were escaping and I saw all the bodies Sufferthorn had left around our exit.
I rarely saw her in action myself, one of the few occasions being on the beach when we captured Blueblood, but then I had been more focused on watching Twilight. Now as I watched her fight with the ferocity of a wild animal and the precision and technique of an expert martial artist, I was reminded why so many soldiers under her command revered and feared her. Sufferthorn had no weapons or armour, where as her opponents were all heavily armoured and armed, and yet she still dominated them. All her attacks were so fluid, flowing seamlessly from punch to counter to kicks that made me cringe just watching them.
It was one of those rare moments where I could definitely tell she was the sister of Stranglethorn, their skills were both remarkable and yet subtly different. While Stranglethorn’s style was more along the lines of Pinkie Pie, where attacks were fast, with a lot of emphasis on movement of the body that made it more suited to stealth, Sufferthorn still had speed, but her attacks also had considerable more weight behind them, the kind of display that just screamed years of perfected training that made her closer to Rainbow Dash and gave her the advantage in a fight where her opponents were in an equally capable position.
Twilight and I didn’t even have to do anything; Sufferthorn had all four ponies unconscious before I could even think of lending her some assistance, even though I would just have been getting in her way.
“Nicely done,” I complimented with a low whistle.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Sufferthorn replied. “The others might not know what’s going on, but they’ll still get the wrong impression when they see…”
She didn’t get any further than that, as an ear-piercing scream cut through the walls of the prison. We all froze, wondering what had just happened, but as we listened closer, we began to make out more sounds coming from outside, none of them good. We sprinted for the exit, Twilight blowing the door off its hinges with a single blast from her sceptre, allowing us to continue running right out the building, everypony too busy running around in a confused panic to try and stop us. We joined the throng of soldiers fighting to get out the front doors, and once outside, we all stopped dead in the street, looking up in horror at the sky.
It was like a dark cloud had grown over the city of Pivot in the short time we had been inside the prison, a single black cloud that seemed to fill the entire sky, a large hole in the centre, revealing what appeared to be a dark purple vortex. From the vortex there were dark specks plummeting down, like a sheet of rain. As they fell, they really did just look like large, scaly raindrops, but as they smashed into the roofs and streets, they seemed to crack open like a pistachio nuts, six long, spider like legs unfolding and a single purple eye glowing ominously from within the shell. Just from where we stood, I could see hundreds of them, easily the size of a young pony, and quite ravenous in their behaviour as they swarmed after the ponies running in terror from them.
“What in Tartarus is this?!” Sufferthorn demanded, looking back at us with wide eyes.
“That army I said Blueblood had,” I told her. “It’s an army of monsters, this must be his doing.”
“Right,” she growled before trotting off to stand before the crowd of gaping soldiers. “Liven up soldiers!”
They all snapped to attention, almost automatically, before they sagged slightly upon seeing who it was, exchanging confused glances.
“Pivot is under attack!” she bellowed. “It is our job as the defenders of this country to step up and face this challenge, so instead of standing there looking like you’re about to piss yourselves, grab a weapon and start fighting!”
“Sir, yes sir!” most of them replied before rushing off to do just that.
We stood back while Sufferthorn began issuing direct orders to some of the other officers to relay to the rest of the troops.
“Bravo, draw the creatures away from Deltoid while he rounds up the civilians!” she commanded. “Safari, take your best marksmen onto the rooftops and try to shoot those things down before they reach the ground! Kingsfoil, help Jet buffer the prison for when the civilians arrive, not a single one of those creatures gets past those doors on your watch! Private!”
A young stallion jumped at being addressed, looking quite terrified.
“Get me armour and a sword,” she ordered. “On the double.”
“B… but sir,” he tried to say. “I thought you were relieved of duty, surely you can’t order us around anymore.”
Sufferthorn just gave him the most deadpan look.
“Son,” she began in an exasperated voice. “Just… don’t.”
The poor boy really did look like he wet himself at that point, quickly scurrying off to do as he was told while Sufferthorn turned to us four.
“Inkie, get inside with the other civilians,” she instructed. “And you two, get to the town hall and find Maverick, I’ll stay and delegate until I’m ready to join you. As for you worm, if you really are on our side, now’s the time to prove it.”
Feather Duster nodded frantically as Sufferthorn thrust a short sword into his hooves, which he tried to get a firm grip of despite his shaking. I grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and pulled him in our direction as we started running down the street, back the way we came, to the town square. Soldiers were spreading out everywhere, trying to give the civilians a safe route back to the safety of the prison, but the monsters were even more numerous. They travelled in packs, picking out individual ponies from the crowds and assaulting them on mass. I caught sight of one very unfortunate soldier go down, his armour only drew out his death as the creatures clambered over him and began picking him clean.
Luckily they appeared quite fragile; their creeping legs splitting off easily as I cut through them, and their shells could be shattered with a hard kick or jab to expose their soft insides. We got stopped in front of the old church again, the numbers becoming far too great for us to fight them while on the move. All three of us were backing up the steps as they flooded towards us, waves of incessant chittering and bright eyes, they could almost have been cute if they weren’t so bloodthirsty. Feather Duster and I were at the front, keeping them at bay with our blades while Twilight ranged them.
“They just keep coming!” I shouted back to her, feeling exhaustion taking root.
“They aren’t normal abominations!” Twilight shouted back, spinning around as more began crawling over the roof of the church and sneaking down the walls to ambush us. “That cloud is spawning them, so we need to find what’s keeping the cloud open!”
“We’re getting overrun!” Feather Duster cried out, our backs now pressed together.
“I have an idea!” Twilight called out.
I glanced back in time to see her split her sceptre into six copies, in the same way she had done when fighting Blueblood. Only this time, rather than have them all spin around her, she controlled each of them independently. One flew right past my face, driving itself spike first into the eye of one of the monsters as it leapt for me. The light of its eye was immediately extinguished and it was dead, but the sceptre just forced its way through and out the other side, seeking out monster after monster to impale before searching for the next target.
All six sceptres were doing this, flying around in a chaotic blitz, leaving ethereal trails behind them, which ended up tangling wildly around the entire street as they sought out and exterminated all the pests. When the final creature was finished off, all six sceptres flew back in front of Twilight where they collided to form one again. Once she was back in possession of her sceptre, Twilight took the lead down the street again, I followed quickly, but Feather Duster took a few more seconds while he pulled his jaw form the floor.
“Nicely done Twilight,” I complimented, throwing one of my knives ahead of us to pierce a purple eye before retracting it back. “I’d say solid nines across the board; it would have been ten… if you had opened with that attack and saved us time.”
“Believe it or not Rarity,” Twilight began, not sounding at all annoyed as she sent out a horizontal wave of fire to catch an oncoming line of monsters before they could reach their target of a soldier carrying a small colt on his back. “I can get drained and overspent just like any other pony, it might take longer… quite a bit longer actually, but I always try to save the most costly spells in case I need them later on.”
“I suppose,” I grunted, before picking up the pace, leaping and coming down hard on one of the creatures with my blade.
It wasn’t much longer before we turned a corner and arrived in the courtyard facing the town hall, things were much worse here. The centre of the dark cloud’s vortex was directly above the town square, and it wasn’t hard to see why, considering what had planted itself directly between the town hall steps and the end of the main street. It looked like a tree at first, narrow limbs stripped of any kind of foliage, but more bulbous in some areas. However as we looked at it more closely, we saw that the tree was moving, and the reason why was quite horrific… it was made from bodies!
There must have been dozens compressed, twisted and moulded together, all hair had been stripped from them to reveal hardened, calloused flesh. All the bodies were twitching ever so slightly, and I could see their individual torsos still expanding and shrinking with the effort of breathing, making the tree look like some kind of nightmarish, pulsating organ. As we started making our way closer, I could even make out individual faces, their mouths hung open in perpetual, silent screams while they stared blankly out of wide, brain dead eyes.
The trees roots were well embedded into the ground, the stonework cracking and shattering as they pushed through to cling to the earth beneath. A vile, purple ooze like sap was running down the trunk, as well as pumping up from where the roots were entrenched to pool around the square. The whole monstrosity was emanating a deep purple glow as a result, the same shade of purple as the vortex above. It was likely the town square had been where the assault began, there were more half eaten bodies here than anywhere else, most likely because they had been taken by surprise.
The number of creatures was also greatly reduced here, I figured because they were seeking out live ponies, and there was presumably none left here since they had all began evacuating towards the prison. I exchanged a concerned glance with Twilight, she appeared to be regarding the tree with a great deal of thought, most likely trying to figure out how to destroy it and close the vortex at the same time. A loud crashing noise came from the inside of the town hall, which snapped her out of her focus and drew all our attention to the front doors.
“We’ll come back to this,” I told her, before quickly taking off up the steps.
Twilight and Feather Duster followed, once at the top of the steps we found the front doors thrown off their hinges, a couple dozen of the creatures infesting the inside of the town hall, feeding on the corpses of the soldiers who had no doubt been left to protect Maverick. They seemed pretty focused on their meal, so I quickly relayed a plan to the other two as quietly as possible, once we were all on the same page, Twilight teleported away. She reappeared at the opposite end of the room, right beside the door to the mayor’s office.
She quickly got the creatures’ attention by zapping one with a stream of lightning and frying it up, the rest went into a frenzy, beginning to funnel down the hallway towards Twilight. Feather Duster and I darted in as quickly and quietly as possible, while Twilight picked them off one at a time from the front, we came up behind and began shanking the furthest one back before moving up the line. It was a sound strategy, and it wasn’t long before together we had the town hall cleared out. Wasting no more time, I gave a nod to Twilight, who turned and opened the door directly behind her with magic, her sceptre at the ready as we all stepped inside.
The source of the crashing noise was obvious as soon as we entered the room, considering half the wall and ceiling was missing. The office was completely trashed, papers scattered everywhere, and pretty much all furniture either thrown to the side or broken down, and then thrown to the side. The perpetrator stood half inside, half hanging outside the office, a great green beast that filled the entire half of the room it had broken into. It stood on a bed of writhing, tentacle like vines, each of the base ones as thick as large stallion, and deep, forest green in colour. The main body resembled a huge, fat bulb, tightly sealed by its petals, fading from green to purple. There were also a couple dozen longer, narrower vines between the thicker base ones and the bulb, most of which had driven themselves into the ceiling to help support the weight of the creature, the rest simply flickered about in an agitated fashion.
However, it wasn’t the bizarre plant monster that drew our attention, but the body that hung before it… it was Maverick, hanging limply as one of the narrow vines twisted up and impaled itself right through his right eye. I knew he was dead, even before the vine performed a whipping motion and tossed him back to the ground, where he lay motionless with blood seeping from his pulverised eyeball.
“You just couldn’t stay dead,” a chillingly familiar voice echoed from within the bulb, the two tones unmistakable.
There was an almost wet noise as the front petals cracked open and began spreading out, revealing the figure within. It was Blueblood, or at least, it was a representation of him. He still resembled his old unicorn self, but his body was like that of the plant, leafy in tone and texture, while his eyes glowed bright purple like the creatures infesting the city. It really was like a plant version of Blueblood growing within the bulb, sprouting out of the body of the creature so that he was only visible from the waist up.
“Somehow,” he continued, his voice still baring that demonic undertone. “I just knew you had survived, even when I shot down your pet, I knew you would crawl back out of your watery graves and continue to be a thorn in my sides.”
“Blueblood!” Twilight and I exclaimed together.
“How are you here?!” Twilight demanded.
“You thought that just because I needed time to… bloom,” Blueblood began, smirking at his own joke. “I was going to do nothing, while you attempted to build an army to thwart me? I knew you would survive, you’re like cockroaches, but similarly I knew you would be foolish enough to think that you had a chance at stopping me. I never forgot who you were aligned with when we first crossed paths and you ruined my plans, so I knew you would turn to the Rebellion first. While my real body is undergoing its metamorphosis, I have plenty of soldiers to spare for skirmishes, and this avatar allows me to oversee them. So, are you ready to lie down and accept your fate, or will you continue to act in futile defiance by gathering your feeble…”
Blueblood was suddenly cut off, as he let out an agonised scream, one of the slim vines jerking back and allowing us to see that it had been cleanly severed. My head snapped around and I saw Feather Duster breathing heavily, his sword gripped tightly while the end of the vine wriggled violently on the ground where he had cut it off. I hadn’t even realised, but while Blueblood was distracting us, one of his tentacle like appendages had been sneaking up around behind me. If Feather Duster hadn’t noticed and reacted accordingly, I might have ended up like Maverick.
The bulb closed itself around Blueblood, as the avatar pulled itself from the office and fled outside. Twilight shouted after him and charged off in pursuit, jumping out the gaping hole in the wall with her sceptre at the ready. Feather Duster stopped briefly to ask if I was okay, when I assured him I was, he flew after Twilight. That left me to go examine Maverick, his suit was torn slightly and stained with his own blood, but his face was the real mess. As I looked at his expression of twisted agony, I wondered if he had put up a good fight, or if he had been hopelessly outmatched. The sound of hurrying hoofsteps caused me to raise my head and see Sufferthorn cantering into the office, now wearing a set of Rebel armour without the helmet, two short swords sheathed at her side.
She looked about wildly for a second before her eyes landed on us; I saw her entire face drop when she saw Maverick’s body. There was nothing I could have said as she pushed past me, looking him over, as if trying to convince herself he could still be saved. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react, I knew crying wasn’t her thing, but when she fell back on her haunches, staring into space as if her whole world had just crumbled around her, I found that I wasn’t overly surprised.
“H… how?” she stammered simply, not meeting my gaze.
“Blueblood,” I told her. “Twilight and Feather Duster have gone after him.”
Sufferthorn sat in silence for a long time, I felt myself getting impatient, I wanted to be able to give her a moment to grieve, but I knew we couldn’t afford to waste time.
“Sufferthorn, we have to go,” I began, reaching down to tug on her shoulder.
“Then go,” she replied in a cold voice. “Go be a hero; you don’t need a failure like me slowing you down.”
“You aren’t a…” I tried to say.
“I am!” she bellowed, springing to her hooves and turning to face me with rage in her eyes. “I gave everything to Maverick and the Rebellion! I sacrificed everything, I… I hurt the only one who ever mattered to me, because I believed what we were doing was right… and now it’s all over, it was all for nothing… I failed.”
“You think the Rebellion is over?!” I exclaimed, suddenly angry for reasons I couldn’t quite understand. “You think just because one pony has died, the Rebellion has died with him? Maverick may have started this all alongside Arcana and Typhoon, but the Rebellion itself was made up of the thousands of ponies who rallied around their cause, ponies like you who believed Panchea had what it took to stand on its own four hooves and wanted to prove it to the rest of the world. Maverick may be dead, and so many have drifted away from those original goals… but you’re still here.”
“I don’t know what I can do though,” Sufferthorn muttered pathetically, her fury drained. “Maverick… I knew he was corrupt, just like the others, but I did nothing to stop him… I even helped him. I was blind to his faults, because admitting they were real meant admitting what I was doing was wrong… how can I continue leading anypony knowing I’m just as bad as the rest?”
“You’re admitting it now,” I pointed out, giving her a friendly smile. “Which is a whole lot more than Maverick, Typhoon, Arcana or Iron Sights ever did. We’ve all made mistakes, but only once we’ve owned up to them can we start repairing the damage… but somepony has to be willing to take the first step, somepony who’s strong enough to admit their faults and be an example to everypony else. The war never did end, but it will soon, this upcoming battle is going to bring it to a close one way or another… the war began with the Rebellion, it must end with it too. This country needs the Rebellion now more than ever… and the Rebellion needs a leader.”
Sufferthorn stared down at Maverick’s body for a moment, standing perfectly silent while outside the fighting raged on. When she finally looked back up at me, there was an odd look of contemplation in her eyes as she surveyed me.
“I really was wrong about you,” she murmured. “I guess that’s the first fault I’ll admit to, you’re no coward Rarity, you never were. Maybe I was just… jealous of you.”
“Jealous?” I repeated in disbelief. “Of me? Whatever for?”
“Oh… plenty of reasons,” she replied with a weary smirk. “Truth be told, you’ve done nothing but impress me since the day we met, when you stood up to me where few others would have. You weren’t afraid of telling me I was wrong, something I could never have done to Maverick, even when I knew it in my heart.”
“I… I don’t know what to say,” I responded honestly. “Other than thank you, I guess. Really, a part of me always respected you, despite your attitude.”
“I think I’m ready,” Sufferthorn stated in a determined voice. “Let’s go stop Blueblood.”
I returned her affirmative nod, and together we hurried out of the office and through the town hall until we were back at the top of the steps, overlooking the town square. There were a large number of soldiers spread out, but similarly the tree was calling down even more of the shell creatures to the area to protect it. I didn’t see Blueblood or Twilight until we were at the foot of the steps and I looked back and up to see them on the roof of the town hall, Twilight firing spells from both her horn and sceptre, while Feather Duster flew all around Blueblood to keep his vines distracted.
Sufferthorn charged ahead to rally her troops while I shouted up to Twilight, she glanced down at me before quickly teleporting and scooping me up, taking us both up onto the roof. Unfortunately for us, the avatar was just as capable of casting Blueblood’s spells as it was of mimicking his voice and appearance. While his vines whipped around him, trying to flick Feather Duster out of the air while also absorbing a great number of Twilight’s own spells, Blueblood was firing out streams of magic which Twilight was having to divert a great deal of focus to warding off.
“Push forward!” I instructed. “Send him over the edge.”
Twilight did as I commanded and started moving forward, one step at a time, her dome shield moving along with her. In preparation for when we got close enough for his vines to be within range, I started swinging my rapier in wide circles while keeping hold of it with my telekinetic tether. Just as we intended, Blueblood was forced to back up as he couldn’t strike out with his vines for fear of having even more of them cut off by my sword, and his spells weren’t effective so long as Twilight kept her shield up.
He finally backed up as far as the ledge where he wavered slightly, trying to maintain his balance and not be forced over the final few inches down onto the square below. However Feather Duster spotted an opening and dived in, kicking Blueblood right in the face while he was distracted, and sending him crashing down off the roof. Twilight and I hurried over to the spot where he had fallen and looked down in time to see the avatar struggling to right itself, while Sufferthorn and a group of soldiers rushed in to finish him off.
I saw Blueblood’s eyes clench shut, and at the same time the bulb closed over. Just as Sufferthorn neared it, the avatar managed to pull itself upright and turn to face her, the petals pulling back once more, but this time it wasn’t Blueblood inside. Sufferthorn and all her troops came skidding to a halt, staring up in horror at the plant like imitation of Maverick that looked back at them with a cold sneer.
“You pathetic fools!” Blueblood’s voice echoed from Maverick’s mouth. “Are you really so stupid as to believe you can stop me?! I have accumulated more power than you can dream of in only a day, and I will only continue to get stronger.”
“Oh, would you shut up?!” Sufferthorn shouted, sounding bored and angry as she charged forward.
Blueblood… or Maverick, seemed taken by surprise as she closed the distance between them, leaping up while avoiding his flailing vines, until she stood inside the bulb itself, her face mere inches from his own. I saw his horn glowing as he began charging up a spell, but he couldn’t fire it off quick enough, as Sufferthorn swiped both her swords in opposing directions as if they were scissors, separating the Maverick part of the avatar from the rest of the creature. He screeched in anguish as the half body was thrown to the stone floor amidst all the avatar’s bucking and flailing about.
Sufferthorn wobbled a bit but was able to throw herself to safety, rolling as she hit the ground, before calling on her troops to charge in and finish it off. Clearly encouraged by her display, they didn’t hesitate in rushing in to hack the vine limbs off and pierce the avatar’s body with spears and halberds. The dismembered body of Maverick was still alive and kicking, despite large quantities of viscous purple blood oozing from his rent midriff, trying to drag himself away from the scene while the avatar was butchered.
He didn’t make it far as Sufferthorn placed a hoof on his skull and held him firmly in place, resting the blade of her sword teasingly against his neck. With that threat dealt with, Twilight and I turned our attention to the tree that was still standing, the vortex overhead still raining down more of the scally creatures. Twilight directed her sceptre into the air, summoning a small sphere of fire directly overhead, which grew bigger and bigger as she swirled the orb, until finally it was larger than the tree itself and she swung her sceptre down in a tall arc, throwing the fireball right down onto the abominable plant and engulfing it in flames.
The tree hissed and tensed, but before long it was reduced to nothing but ashes and cinders that were cast to the wind… but the dark cloud did not go away, and the vortex did not close. A high pitched, pained laughter sounded from below us, we looked down to see the Maverick lookalike laughing with its last breaths.
“Did you really think destroying the tree would stop the seedlings?” he mocked. “It’s already served its purpose, the vortex is open and there is nothing you can do to close it… it’s impossible!”
“On the contrary,” Twilight replied in a clear and calm voice, loud enough for everypony gathered in the square to hear. “Nothing is impossible. Every problem has a solution, it might not always be clear at first…”
Twilight drifted off a moment as she closed her eyes and raised her sceptre once more, directing the orb towards the vortex which was still releasing seedlings, as Maverick… or Blueblood had called them.
“But with knowledge, anything can be solved,” Twilight finished, opening her eyes as they shone with an intense white light.
Just like the few occasions before, her horn flared and the orb on her sceptre separated and began to split along the black lines to reveal the incredible power contained within, but this time, something different happened…
The white light in Twilight’s eyes did not remain there; it spread out, washing over her entire body, even drowning out her own purple magic around her horn. Twilight’s entire body began to rise up, for a moment I was strongly reminded of when Blueblood began to undergo his transformation, but this felt different. Twilight hovered in the air above me, her sceptre still levitating vertically in front of her, with the orb open and the pink shards circling around Twilight’s form like an asteroid belt. While I was transfixed with what was happening to my friend, I could see from the corner of my eye that the square was quickly filling up, both with soldiers and civilians who had been drawn to the beacon like light Twilight was giving off.
Suddenly the light seemed to burst out, revealing her body once more, but hanging around her so it looked as if she was surrounding by a halo of divine light. She looked just the same as she had always done, even her eyes were pink once more, but one thing stood out, and it was the edition of a shimmering, silver crown on top of her head. It resembled a tiara, circling around her whole head, with six prongs evenly spread out around it, three on either side of her head. The front of the crown was formed around her horn, encasing it in silver, there was presumably some extra room inside as the silver horn appeared slightly longer than her own. At the back of the crown was a large pink crystal in the shape of a six pointed star, curved slightly so it formed over the shape of her skull.
Twilight didn’t seem at all perturbed by what was going on, on the contrary, she seemed to take it in her stride as she focused her magic through her sceptre and launched a beam of blinding white light straight upwards, piercing the vortex and the dark cloud. As soon as the cloud was struck by the light it began churning and swirling, caving in on itself and smothering the vortex as it was all drawn into the light to be annihilated by the overwhelming power. We all watched in awe as Twilight’s magic cleared the sky, but not only that, all the remaining seedlings were drawn back up into where the vortex had been. Their legs scrabbled madly as they tried to break the hold on them, before they were pulled into the beam and disintegrated, like unwilling moths to a flame.
Before long it was over, and the white glow around Twilight faded along with her divine beam. She slowly descended back onto the roof alongside me, while her orb reconstructed itself, the fragments still circling around Twilight until they returned one at a time to where they belonged. Twilight looked calmly at me as she took her sceptre and returned it to her belts, I simply gaped at her, unable to find the words, however the crowd pretty much summarised my thoughts when they exploded into cheers.
“That was… it was…” I tried to say once I remembered how to speak. “What was that?”
Twilight giggled slightly, although to her credit, she tried to hide it behind her hoof.
“It’s the Crown of Knowledge,” she explained. “One of the Elements of Unity.”
“Knowledge…” I breathed before smiling. “So that’s it? We have one of the Elements!”
“It would appear that way,” Twilight confirmed, looking out over the ponies below us. “That just leaves five to go.”
“Hey, come down here you two!” Sufferthorn called up to us from where she stood at the top of the steps.
Twilight placed her hoof on my shoulder, and we both teleported down beside her. As we did, Inkie hurried up the steps to meet us.
“Twilight Sparkle, Rarity…” she began, still looking shaken. “And Sufferthorn, if that is what you’re fighting to protect us from… then the Rebellion will have the full support of Pivot. Whatever you need, money, food… we’ll make sure you have it, and I’ll see to it that Glean and Timber also help as much as they can.”
“Thank you,” Sufferthorn said, sounding genuinely happy, which was a nice change of tone.
Feather Duster landed beside us, offering me a smile, but he and Inkie quickly stepped to the side so it was just Twilight, Sufferthorn and I on full display to the ponies.
“Everypony!” Twilight called out, the crowd falling silent quickly enough. “This has been a great victory, but it has not been without cost.”
I looked over the torn up stone of the town square where the tree had been, remembering those horrible packed in bodies, before looking to where the dead were been laid out on the ground.
“And unfortunately it’s not yet over,” Twilight finished, which earned a lot of concerned mutterings among the crowd.
“This attack was only the first!” I went on, silencing the crowd once more. “Right now, an army of monsters like the ones we fought here today are gathering in the Ash Lands. Before long they will start marching south, they will destroy anything that stands in their way and kill anypony who opposes them.”
“The war was declared over months ago,” Sufferthorn picked up. “But the truth is it never ended… not for us. The Rebellion began with the intention of helping this country, of helping it grow on its own outside of Equestria’s shadow… but good intentions weren’t enough to save us from ourselves. We’ve been crippled by the war, and every day we hurt ourselves more by fighting among ourselves for dominance. It pains me to say that as Marshal, I helped perpetuate this, but now Maverick, the one who started it all, all the good… and all the bad, is dead.”
“We won’t lie to you,” Twilight continued. “Things appear worse than ever.”
“But when things are at their very worst,” I jumped in, trying to sound positive. “The only way is up!”
“You can stay here in Pivot if you wish,” Sufferthorn offered. “Stay with your loved ones and cherish what could be your final weeks or even days together, nopony will judge you if you do… but we’re not staying, the Rebellion is not staying. We’re going to go north and we're going to meet this threat head on; we’re going to finish what we started and bring an end to this war once and for all. Whenever that day comes, I might be the only one on the frontline, the only one who still calls herself a Rebel. And if that’s the case, then I accept it, I’ll die knowing I did it for the same reason I first joined the Rebellion… because I care about this country and all of you who call it their home.
“So I might be the only one,” she said again before looking to me and Twilight. “But I’m willing to bet I’m not.”
There was a moment of silence following Sufferthorn’s speech, I wondered briefly if anypony would even stick with us, not that I could blame them for wanting to hide in their basements after all that had happened that day. However, the silence was broken when a single stallion in the crowd wearing steel armour took a step forward.
“I’m with you!” he called out in a slightly shaky voice, clearly nervous about singling himself out.
The effect was instantaneous, like a row of dominos, after the first voice another one piped up, and then another. Before long the entire crowd was either declaring their loyalty or cheering in support, I could even hear ponies chanting ‘for Panchea’; I couldn’t help but beam over at the others.
“This will be the end of the war!” Sufferthorn called out, looking pleased with the amount of support she was receiving. “The Rebellion will end as it began, and finish what it started!”
“But this…” Twilight carried on, gesturing around the crowd and the city of Pivot beyond. “This will go on… Panchea will survive!”