“Somewhere north or northwest of Seaddle would be my guess,” Starlight said. “It’s not cold enough to be the Frozen North, so we’re still south of Vanhoover.”
Hope lifted Dr. Fie out of the snow and helped him stand up. But as soon as he did, he galloped away from her. He began to spin himself around rapidly.
“Where? Where is that accursed lunatic?” he said. “He could be anywhere. He could be hiding in the snow, waiting to jump out and strangle us all! Oh, he could be the snow itself!”
Starlight walked up beside Hope. “Does he always make this little sense?”
“Most of the time,” Hope responded.
“Well,” Starlight said, loud enough for the doctor to hear her, “I don’t think he’s going to be jumping out at us. There’s some hoofprints over there and they look like they lead far away.”
“He must have scampered off as soon as we landed,” Hope said.
“No! No!” Dr. Fie said. “It’s a trick! A dirty trick! He’s trying to throw us off our guard so that he can pick us off one by one!”
Hope approached Dr. Fie, offering her hoof. “Doctor, you know how you start to get a little delirious when you’re upset?”
Dr. Fie whacked her hoof away. “Stay away from me, you murderer!”
“Doctor….?” Hope said as both she and Starlight tried to approach Dr. Fie.
“You’re both murderers! Stay away from me!” Dr. Fie said as he began pacing backward. “I know what both of you have done! Remember that! I know what both of you are capable of!”
“And what about you, doctor,” Starlight said, “what are you capable of?”
Dr. Fie put his hooves to his chest. “What, me? I’m no murderer! I’m not like either of you.”
“Doctor, please….” Hope pleaded.
Dr. Fie tried to put more distance between himself and them. “I see it all now. You both had this all worked out. You were in league this whole time, a coalition, a conspiracy! I should have known! It’s always the kindly ponies like me that fall prey to the vicious sharks of this world! You two leaked that story together, then you lured me down there so you could escape and set free that vicious barbarian to tear me apart in the snow!”
“Doctor… how could we have knocked out the power?” Hope said. “The electrical system is proofed against pony magic.”
Dr. Fie eyed her suspiciously. “So, you have no idea what happened?”
Hope did not meet his gaze, instead looking upward for any airborne shadows. “No, doctor, I don’t,” she said. It had been a while since she had had to lie like that. And yet, Hope was surprised at how easy it came.
“Oh, fess up, girl!” responded the doctor. “You can’t lie to me! I know you too well! Dr. Fiddly Fie is an excellent judge of character! I have judged both of your characters and found them wanting! Spies! That’s how you did it! You had your spies in place everywhere. They arranged everything. And after I had gone through so much trouble assassin-proofing the hospital!”
“Is he serious about that last one?” Starlight asked.
Hope nodded.
“You had your spies knock out the power, then you lured me down to the incurables’ ward, where you two were just waiting for… for… for….” Suddenly, Dr. Fie began to wobble around, his eyes rolling upward and his expression becoming blank. He plopped down face-first into the snow.
“Is he… going to be okay?” Starlight asked. Not out of concern, but because that was the only response she could muster.
Hope’s horn glowed blue. “There’s nothing really wrong with him,” she said. “It’s just a fainting spell.”
“Does he do that often?”
“No, that’s a new one. I’m a thousand and sixteen years old and I’ve never seen anypony actually faint like that before.”
“Hmm.” Starlight began to survey her surroundings. “He did have a point, though. The crazy pony may be gone, but we don’t know if he’s coming back and he could attack us from anywhere if we stay here.”
“That pony isn’t crazy,” Hope said quietly. “If he was, my healing spell would have fixed him by now.”
“Fix? Like what, a lobotomy?”
Hope shook her head. “No, I would never use my magic for something like that!”
Starlight nodded and smiled at Hope. “If we’re going to be working together, I’m glad to know where you draw the line.”
“We are not working together,” Hope responded, looking to Dr. Fie.
She went over to give Dr. Fie another look-over. She then recalled her other important priority; Sombra’s horn. Hope hurried back to where she had landed and began digging frantically through the snow. No matter how snow she threw around, she could fine nothing but more snow.
“Looking for something?” came Starlight’s voice behind her.
Hope wheeled around. Starlight was holding the horn up in her hoof. “And what’s this, hmm?”
“Starlight, put that down!” Hope yelled.
Starlight chuckled and began bouncing the horn up and down in her hoof. “Not until you tell me what this is. It seems awfully important to you. Could it be the key to another little scheme you’re cooking up? Please say that it is.”
Hope shook her head in frustration. “No, it’s not that. Nothing like that. It’s... personal. Just let it go. Please.”
Starlight shrugged. She levitated Sombra’s horn above her head and turned toward the vast snowy hills beyond. “Fine. I’ll put it down. Somewhere. I’m sure it won’t be easy to find among all this snow, though.”
Hope’s horn began to glow. “Starlight, don’t.”
Starlight smiled over her shoulder. “Nice to see you’ve got your bite back. But you know you can’t hit me before I lob this as far as a unicorn of my power can. And I’m a very powerful unicorn.”
The light around Hope’s horn disappeared. She sighed. “Fine. You win.”
“I always do.”
“Not when Princess Twilight is involved.”
Starlight snarled. “I can still make this thing go bye-bye, you know.”
“Okay, okay,” Hope said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. But I can’t lose that horn. It’s the only thing I have left of... of Sombra.”
“Wait, it’s Sombra’s horn? Like, his actual, physical horn?”
Hope nodded sadly.
Sombra’s horn landed like a missile between Hope’s hooves. Starlight began to quickly try to rub her hooves off against each other and the snow, and then tried to clean off her horn for good measure.
“You freak!” she snapped. “That’s like a corpse! It is a corpse! And you’re just carrying it around with you!”
Hope picked up the horn. “It’s all I have left of Sombra.”
“I don’t care. That’s just weird. And wrong. Maybe I was mistaken about you. I would never do something like that.”
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Hope said. “And maybe it’s because you never had real friends to begin with.”
And then Starlight lunged at her. The horn fell to the ground once more. Before she knew it, Hope had been slammed against the nearest tree. Starlight held her up, one foreleg against Hope’s throat.
“Strangely enough, this is the second time this has happened to me today,” Hope managed to say.
“You’re one to talk about friendship,” Starlight said, her eyes and tone both fierce, “you’re no expert at it. You’ve always picked wrong and you picked wrong again when you refused my friendship. But listen up, Radiant Hope. We may not be friends, and that little scene back at the hospital may have played havoc with my schedule, but I still have plans for you and they are still moving forward. You’re going to help me whether It’s your particular cup of tea or not. Because there are a lot of angry ponies in the Crystal Empire who’d love to get their hooves on the architect of the Siege. Just imagine what they’ll do to you when I turn you over.”
“Do you think I care anymore?” Hope asked.
“You’ve been in hiding, so I know you do,” Starlight responded. “But if that’s not incentive enough, I’ll also end that dear doctor of yours myself and then I’ll rip that cutie mark straight off your flank so that you can’t do anything to save him.”
Starlight smiled. With her free hoof, she began to twirl strands of Hope’s mane. “Do we have an understanding?”
Hope did not answer immediately. Instead, she looked up to the sky. And she saw them. Briefly, but she saw the shadows flying fast, trying to spend as little time as they could in the open day air. There were three of them. They seemed to be heading south.
But why would they have come northwest from the hospital just to head south? And why would the Umbrum, so skilled at hiding in even the tiniest of shadows, fly so openly through the sky?
Hope’s eyes grew wider, but not because Starlight had just applied more pressure to her throat. They’re trying to lure me somewhere. They said there was something we had to do together.
Hope’s eyes met Starlight’s and she could tell the other mare was growing impatient. Of course, Starlight’s plans for her could be nothing good. But then again, Starlight might be useful in the short term.
“Okay,” Hope said.
Starlight pulled back and let her drop. “I’m glad we’re friends now. Let’s find a cave to make shelter in until we can figure our way out of this.”
Radiant Hope picked herself up. She was sore but not enough for her to mind. She retrieved Sombra’s horn and then went over to Dr. Fie. Hope began to lift him up onto her back. He was heavier than she expected, now that she had to support his full weight.
“A little help here?” she asked.
Starlight had already begun to trot away. “He’s your doctor,” she called back breezily. “You’re the one who cares whether he freezes to death or not, not me!”
“Dr. Fie. Dr. Fie.”
The doctor felt a hoof gently patting his cheek. For a brief moment, he hoped that earlier events had been a bad dream and that he would wake up in his large, comfortable bed. But what he was laying on was hard, rocky even. And there was still a chill in the air. Not as much as earlier, but far more than he would ever have allowed in his nicely-heated rooms.
His eyes fluttered open. He saw above him light reflected in lavender crystal. And then, two very blue crystal eyes. Hope was looking down at him.
“Oh, dear me, dear me,” he said. “Tell me, dear girl, is it serious?”
Hope smiled a reassuring smile. “You just fainted, doctor. There’s nothing at all wrong with you.”
Dr. Fie pushed his front half up and put his forelegs on the ground to support his back. “Oh, but it must be more than that. I feel dreadful, just dreadful. There’s a ringing in my ears, spots over my eyes, and my poor back is aching!”
Hope shook her head and her smile widened. “There’s nothing wrong with you. I did a healing spell and you’re fine.”
“In that case….” Dr. Fie jumped to his hooves, nearly knocking Hope over in the process. “I feel fit as the fiddle I'm named for! Clearly, a mere ounce of sleep was all I needed.”
“Is that what you call it when you fall unconscious in a bed of snow?” said Starlight Glimmer, who was standing by the entrance.
“You!” Dr. Fie said. “I had hoped you were nothing but a bad dream!”
“So does Twilight Sparkle most days,” Starlight responded.
“Come along, Hope,” Dr. Fie said. “We must get back to the hospital and make sure the inmates haven’t burned the place to the ground yet.”
Starlight turned toward Dr. Fie. Her horn began to glow. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Dr. Fie jumped back.
Hope stood up and stepped between them. “Starlight, we have an agreement.”
Dr. Fie felt his mind swimming. “An agreement? What sort of agreement? Hope, dear girl, you can’t make an agreement with this maniac!”
“Dear girl?” Starlight said. “You were calling her a murderer only about an hour ago.”
“I would thank you to keep out of our private conversations, madam,” Dr. Fie shot back.
“Well, for your information, she can’t go back,” Starlight said. “Word is going to get around about what happened. Twilight Sparkle still has ponies looking for me. Now they’ll know where I was. I’m a fugitive again. And when word gets around that Radiant Hope, infamous mastermind behind the vicious assault that took the lives of over a thousand crystal ponies and nearly drove all Equestria into darkness, helped me to escape, she’s going to be just as much a fugitive as I am.”
“That was rather poorly played on your part, dear girl,” Dr. Fie said to Hope.
“I was trying to save your life!” Hope responded.
“Oh, well then, that does shine a better light on things,” said the doctor.
“And word will get around,” Starlight said. “If she or you try to leave, I’ll make sure it does. Even if I don’t, somepony’s going to make the connection sooner or later. So she is really better off here with me than going back.”
“That might be so, madam,” said Dr. Fie, “but there is nothing stopping me. Fiddly Fie has an impeachable reputation for rectitude.”
“How impeachable will that reputation be once it gets out that you employed the infamous Radiant Hope—”
“Can we please drop the ‘infamous’ part?” Hope interjected.
Starlight was undeterred. “When it gets out that you employed the infamous Radiant Hope, who orchestrated the hostile takeover of the Crystal Empire, and that you allowed Princess Twilight Sparkle’s personal enemy — yours truly — safe shelter under your roof, how long will it be until you get sent to prison? And I mean a real prison. You can’t do a psych evaluation on yourself, after all.”
“Prison? I can’t go to prison!” the doctor protested, holding his neck as though he were choking on something. Trying to appear calm, he added, “Perhaps, for the time being, we should avoid returning to Seaddle Specialist.”
“I knew you’d see reason eventually,” Starlight said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have to try and think up a way to get us out of this wasteland without being detected. Oh, and the crazy pony is still out there somewhere, so I’ve got to keep a lookout for him.”
Ignoring Dr. Fie’s squeak of fear at the mention of the lunatic, Starlight looked out of the cave, studying the snow for any signs of irregularity. Behind her, Dr. Fie crept toward Hope. Before Hope could say anything, he was behind her, his hooves digging into her shoulders, hoping she would shield him from any glimpses Starlight may throw back their way.
He spoke to Hope, his voice barely above a whisper. “Now’s your chance, dear girl.”
“My chance for what?” Hope asked, lowering her voice to match his.
“Her back is turned and she’s distracted. A quick blast from your horn should be enough to get rid of her.”
Hope’s eyes widened. She turned her head; she wanted to look the doctor directly in the eye.
“If I did that, she’d probably die.”
Doctor Fie looked exasperated. “That’s the intention, dear girl.”
“Doctor, you said you weren’t a murderer.”
“I’m not. But you, on the other hoof….”
“Doctor!”
Doctor Fie shrugged. “I’m just saying, with your record, is one more really going to make that much of a difference? Who cares if it’s 1,036 or 1,037? You can already round it up to 1,040 anyway.”
Hope gritted her teeth as her eyes pleaded with the doctor. “It doesn’t matter who does it, it would still be on your conscience.”
Dr. Fie closed his eyes and shook his head. “Dear girl, you know I am a pony of science. And in science, we have an axion; ‘No action at a distance.’ What that means is, if you got rid of her, I would not be the one who actually did it, so I would have nothing to feel guilty about.”
“I don’t think that’s what that means.”
“Don’t be simple, child! Of course, it does. I’m a doctor so I know about these things. This axiom has been the guiding principle of my whole life.”
“That explains so much, doctor.”
“So, get going! She won’t shoot herself in the back of the head. Eh, bouffant mane-dos, I never understood them.”
Hope shook her head a little. “No, doctor. I won’t do that. I’m responsible for too much death as it is. I never wanted any of it to happen and I can’t add a single pony more to that total. I don’t want to be like the Umbrum. I don’t want to be a monster.”
“But you are a monster, dear girl. Accept it and move on.”
“I can’t do it,” Hope said. “My magic saves lives, it doesn’t take them. Not anymore.”
“What is all that annoying chatter about?” Starlight said, glaring at them.
Hope stepped forward to meet her, despite Dr. Fie trying to hold her back. “What have you figured out?”
“None of your business, Hope.”
“I thought we were partners. If you want to be my partner, let me help.”
Starlight thought for a moment and then smiled. “Partners isn’t the word I would have used. But fine. I was just trying to figure out a way to get a message to an associate of mine in Seaddle.”
“The same associate who publishes the Liberation News?”
Starlight nodded. “But I just can’t figure out how to get anything out of this place. Unless you can teleport us….”
“Such a big jump exhausted me,” Hope responded. “I won’t be able to try again for hours. Maybe a day or more.”
“Hmm. Like I said, I’m still working on my range. I couldn’t jump all the way back to Seaddle yet. So, what are we to do?”
An idea sprang into Hope’s head. She cast a sideways glance at Dr. Fie. “You did say you only need to send a message, right?”
“Right….” Starlight clearly did not see where Hope was going with this.
“Do you think you can find something to write with? And write on?”
“I didn’t survive wandering through Equestria being completely clueless.”
“Then I think I have the solution,” Hope said with a smile. “Go write your message.”
Starlight managed, in under an hour, to find a piece of loose tree-bark large enough to write on. Then, using a magic spell, she was able to carve a message on it in no time. When that was done, she brought it to Hope, who in turn brought it to Dr. Fie, who was currently huddled in a corner at the far end of the cave.
“What do you want me to do with that?” he said contemptuously when he discovered the message hovering over his head.
“You said you couldn’t master self-teleportation,” Hope said.
“Is that how far you’ve fallen, child? First, working with her and now gloating over what you wrongfully perceive as my deficiencies?”
“Is there anything you don’t perceive as an insult to your massive ego?” Starlight said.
“Yes, compliments to my massive ego,” Dr. Fie retorted.
Hope shook her head. “Let’s not bicker now. We have to survive. Doctor, you said whenever you tried to teleport, you always teleported something else instead.”
“What of it?”
“We want you to teleport this.”
“Send it to Stirring Words at the offices of the Seaddle Daily Stablegraph,” Starlight said.
“Why should I?”
“Doctor, it could be the difference between life and death,” Hope said.
“Oh, alright,” said Dr. Fie as his horn began to glow. “But I can’t promise anything. It’s not like I meant to do this before. We’ll be lucky if it even ends up in the same city.”
“This is your brilliant idea?” Starlight said to Hope.
“It’s not brilliant, but it’s not like we have any others,” Hope responded.
The blue glow around the message was replaced by a purple one. And then the message poofed away.
It was another busy day at the offices of the Seaddle Daily Stablegraph. Fast Facts, Editor-in-Chief, was sitting in his office, finishing a tomato-and-daffodil sandwich while deciding which intern to fire over the relative sparseness of daffodils in comparison to tomatoes between the two slices of bread.
It had been Greg who had brought the sandwich, but Fast Facts had a soft spot for Greg. He nearly always cried whenever you yelled at him. Eddy, on the other hand, was getting a little too big for his horseshoes. Maybe he should be the one to pack his bags after this culinary fiasco.
This weighty and important matter so preoccupied Fast Facts’ mind that he did not see the giant piece of tree bark materialize in his office until it had landed on his head and knocked him from his chair. The bark was sturdy though, having not ruptured despite forceful contact with Fast Facts’ hard head. This allowed him, as he struggled to lift himself from the floor, to see who the unexpected delivery was addressed to.
His scream of “Stirring Words!” could be heard as far as the next building.
Stirring rushed from his desk into the office, where he saw his boss trying to steady himself while gripping the bark tightly under one of his small wings.
“I think this is yours,” said Fast Facts as he tossed — no, threw — the bark into Stirring’s chest. It was all Stirring could do to both grab the thing and stay upright.
Stirring read through the message immediately. One of the skills journalism had given him was the ability to digest a lot of words in almost no time.
“Mind explaining this?” his boss said, his voice that particular sort of calm that precedes a hurricane of rage.
Stirring tried his best to put on a smile. “I need to take some personal time.”
“Take all you like. You’re fired!”
“Thank you, sir,” Stirring said as he rushed out of the office.
The great hall of Canterlot Castle was a magnificent sight to behold. The great vaulted ceilings were put to good use as tapestries of gold and green, featuring pastoral scenes and famous episodes from Equestria’s history, flowed down almost to the ground. The windows and floors gleamed from their most recent polishing. Long tables, some the span of at least a dozen ponies, were set up everywhere. And on each table were plates and plates and more plates, with giant piles of food atop them, each competing to be the tallest.
Swift Strike had to admit, even with all his jaded cynicism, this was impressive. Never mind that it was all wasted on the rich buffoons that were busy striding self-importantly around the various parts of the hall. None of them could let themselves be seen filling their bellies — not in high society — so they all just ate hors-d’oeuvres and sipped champagne. A few of them tried to comment on the tapestries, but invariably showed their lack of knowledge, culture, and even taste.
And, of course, there were three princesses in attendance, all there to stand around and let these rich people make themselves feel even more important just so they would hand over cash for some no-doubt worthy cause.
Swift Strike never donated to worthy causes. Nor did he like seeing royalty treated like nothing more than a photo-op. Luckily, he would soon have a chance to put an end to it. Never had a serious threat to the state filled him with such satisfaction as at this moment.
A unicorn, he was small for a stallion. In fact, he was slightly smaller than your average mare. Nor was he particularly well-built, instead being quite on the thin side. His coat was a sort of unremarkable purple and his mane was black. His cutie mark, an upraised sword appearing out of a cloud, was the only thing about his looks that had any flair. His dull appearance was an asset; it meant that he could sneak through the crowd quite easily without anypony paying much attention. Not that these snobs could ever be bothered to pay much attention to anypony but themselves anyway.
Finally, he reached Princess Twilight. She was wrapped up in conversation with some glitzy billionaire, a large and strapping blond stallion with white snout and fetlocks. Twilight was clearly quite taken with him. Swift internally sighed. She had a lot to learn about being a princess….
Swift Strike tapped the princess on the shoulder and cleared his throat.
Twilight did not notice. Too enthralled in the conversation. Or the physique of the stallion. “And, if I may ask, what are your favorite books?”
“I’ve never been much of a book pony,” responded the stallion. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up at this, no doubt thinking of all the many and varied books she could introduce this dashing fellow to. Just as she seemed about ready to rattle them off, the stallion said, “I think somepony else needs to talk with you.”
“Ma’am, it’s a matter of national security,” Swift said.
With an embarrassed grin, Twilight made a quick apology to her conversation partner and led Swift toward followed a secluded corner of the hall. The billionaire stallion let out a sigh of relief and made sure to get lost in the crowd.
“National security? What is it?” Twilight was maintaining her composure, but there was worry in her voice.
Swift did not beat around the bush. “Ma’am, its Starlight Glimmer. We’ve finally found a trace of her.”
“What?” Twilight yelled, loud enough for several rich donors nearby to start giving her strange looks. She smiled bashfully at them before turning back to Swift and saying, “Where is she? Did you catch her?”
“No, ma’am, I’m sorry to say,” Swift said. “She was in Seaddle. Apparently, she checked herself into a psychiatric ward up there under an assumed name. Probably trying to wait out all the heat we were putting on her. We only got word that she was there after she escaped.”
“Escaped? Why would she escape if she was there to hide from us? Why would she risk alerting us to the fact that she was in Seaddle at all?”
Swift shrugged. “You’ve said it yourself, ma’am. She’s unhinged. Maybe somepony figured out who she was and she had to make a getaway. But three other ponies disappeared from the hospital at the same time. One of them was a lunatic patient who probably just got loose. But the other two both worked there. We think they must be accomplices of Starlight.”
Twilight nodded. “This is bad. Any idea who they were?”
“You’re not going to like it,” Swift said.
“Do I ever?” Twilight responded. “Whenever I see you around, chances are I’m not going to like it.”
“Aw, Princess, that hurts,” Swift said sarcastically.
“You know what I mean. Who are the other two?”
“One is the head physician of Seaddle Specialist Hospital himself. He’s the one who approves all the admissions. We figure he had to have known who she was when he admitted her.”
“But why would he risk losing a high-paying and prestigious job like that to help somepony like Starlight Glimmer?”
Swift shook his head. “He does have something of a record. Nothing definite, but he was in the armed forces a while back and there were accusations of espionage on behalf of foreign powers. Seems he covered his tracks pretty well, so nothing came of it. Then there may have been some shady dealings involving some of his insanity diagnoses, which is what got us to look into the hospital. And from the employees we’ve already talked to, he’s widely considered to be off his rocker himself.”
“I see. And who is the other pony?”
Swift sighed. “That’s where things get a bit more complicated. Given the description, we’re around 85% certain that she’s none other than Radiant Hope.”
“What?” Twilight said, even louder, and once more catching the attention of some nearby nouveau rich. “She's supposed to be dead! Part of the Crystal Palace collapsed on her!"
"You never found the body," Swift pointed out.
"I know, but with the power that was flowing through her, some ponies were saying her body could have burned itself up."
Swift knew exactly how to play this. This was Twilight Sparkle he was speaking to, after all. "But as a pony who values rational explanations, you never quite accepted that, did you?"
Twilight gave a small shake of the head. "Well, no. But Cadance said something that stayed with me. She spent more time with Hope than I ever did and got to know her, at least a little bit. She told me after it was all over that it was probably for the best, that as Princess of Love, she knew ponies’ hearts. And a heart like Hope’s, a heart that lived only for Sombra, that had given up everything for him... to see what he truly was would have broken it completely. Had she survived, it would have been a continual, living death. So I just... hoped, I guess, that fate had been easy on her."
"That’s one way of putting it,” Swift said, vaguely amused by Twilight’s attempt at a bright spin on death. “But, best hopes aside, we always knew she must be alive somewhere, yes?"
"Yes, it's obvious now that she survived," Twilight said somberly. "Cadance also told me that she was quite proficient with teleportation spells. But what is she doing with Starlight Glimmer? Hope was misguided, but she never really wanted to cause harm, not like Starlight."
“Maybe she played us all,” Swift said. Of course, by ‘us all’ he meant ‘you,’ — Swift Strike was too suspicious to ever think a pony was just “misguided” — but one did not remind royalty of when one had been right and they had been wrong.
Twilight shook her head. “This is bad, this is bad! We have to tell the other princesses immediately.”
“I’ll inform Celestia and Luna presently,” Swift Strike said. “I’ve already taken the liberty of sending a message to Princess Cadance in the Crystal Empire.”
The party would have to go on without its princesses, and Swift Strike could not be happier about that.
Later, behind closed doors, he listened to the princesses debating what to do.
“I still cannot believe that, after everything Hope has been through, she would willingly turn to this,” Celestia said.
“Believe it, sister,” Luna responded. “Radiant Hope brought down the Crystal Empire. And then, once the Siege was over, she was quite content to let us all think she was dead. Now she's in league with this 'Starlight Glimmer' vagabond. It is obvious that we were wrong about her."
“I don’t know if Hope is involved or why she’s doing what she’s doing,” Twilight said. “But our big problem is Starlight Glimmer. She has to be stopped. Who knows what she could be planning to do now?”
“You’re right, Twilight,” Celestia said. “From what you've told me of her, Starlight Glimmer sounds like a mare of vision, and mystery, and vanity. Those are all dangerous traits, especially when combined in one pony. We should focus our efforts on finding her before she can put them to good use. Then we’ll worry about the other two.”
Luna stamped her hoof. “And so we are just going to give Radiant Hope a free pass because she is a former student of ours? I too once felt sorry for her. I suppose I saw some of myself in her. But now we see how different she is from us, and we must face facts here.”
“We don’t know the facts, Luna,” Celestia said.
“We know enough,” Luna said.
“If I may interject,” Swift Strike said, “we have the resources to both pursue Starlight Glimmer and Radiant Hope.”
“If they did escape together, it’s likely they’re still together,” Twilight said. “We should work from that assumption. There’s no need to overcomplicate matters yet.”
“My thinking exactly, Your Highness,” Swift said. “I just need approval from all three of you.”
“You have it!” Luna said. “Isn’t that right, sister?”
Celestia looked out the window at the clear sky beyond.
“Sister?”
“You were thought irredeemable once too, sister,” Celestia said quietly, without looking back. "Even after you came back to our side, ponies still expected you to become Nightmare Moon again at any moment."
“What are you saying?”
“I just want you to remember that. That’s all.” After another moment of hesitation, Celestia added. “Very well, I approve. But Luna, Twilight, it will be up to the both of you to monitor Swift Strike’s progress and I expect that you shall bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.”
Swift Strike smiled. “Thank you, majesties. I promise, none of you will have to lift a hoof. Starlight Glimmer and Radiant Hope will be bunkmates in Tartarus before you know it.”
Swift waited to be excused. But he was not. Instead, Celestia turned to him. She had not looked directly at him at all until now.
"Don’t jump to conclusions where Radiant Hope is concerned," she said. “She’s surprised all of us before. I’ve never met a mare more likely to challenge your expectations of her.”
Swift Strike had to keep himself from rolling his eyes.
"As you say, ma’am," he said tersely. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
"See that you do. You may go."
Swift bowed his head. "Yes, Your Majesty."
As he left his princesses' presence, Swift decided that it was one of those occasions when it is better to follow the spirit of their commands than the letter.
Don’t jump to conclusions, indeed, Swift thought. Radiant Hope and Starlight Glimmer need to be brought in immediately. I know just how to do it and I don’t need anypony slowing me down. Princesses, you'll thank me for this later.
Stirring Words rushed to clean out his desk. Well, not his whole desk. He cared little about most of the junk on it. That was just scene-setting, after all. The only thing Stirring really cared about preserving was in that secret compartment. After making a quick sweep of the surrounding area with his eyes, Stirring dropped down to his haunches and began to open it.
"What's up, Stirring?"
Stirring jumped up with a start, smacking his head against the desk.
"Oh, sorry about that, buddy," Joe said as Stirring rose, hoof rubbing his head in pain.
"Joe, I don't really have time to chat," Stirring said. "I've just been fired."
Joe was aghast. "Fired? I know the boss can be a hard-flank, but why would he fire an ace reporter like you? Unless... you did get that story in, didn't you? I remember you were having some trouble with it."
"I got that in," Stirring said, being honest for once. "But something else came up. The boss is throwing me out on my ear."
Joe shrugged his wings. "Well, I'm sure he'll change his mind. Just stick around until he cools off. You'll see."
Joe looked up at one of the fans on the ceiling as he said this. It gave Stirring rushed to retrieve the remaining letters from the compartment under his desk. He thought he got them all, but he did not have time to check. He was just able to get back up just as Joe looked back down.
"I wish I could, but I really can't. There's someplace I have to be."
Joe began to say something. But Stirring did not wait before galloping toward the nearest elevator. Joe just stood there, mouth open, watching him go.
Meanwhile, Fast Facts came stomping out of his office. "Stirring Words!" he called out.
“He’s gone,” Joe said, still in shock. “He said you fired him.”
Fast Facts looked over to see that Stirring's desk was cleaned off and unoccupied. “Boy should have known I didn’t mean it. I just need to let off steam sometimes. I wanted to catch him tell him I didn’t mean it.”
“He said he already had another gig lined up,” Joe said. “The Daily North Equestria, if you want my guess.”
Fast Facts pounded Stirring’s old desk with his hoof. “Horse-apples! The Colonel’s always poaching my best reporters. Well, I ain’t going to allow it this time, Joe. This means war.”
Joe just shook his head. “They’re the biggest outfit on the west coast,” he said under his breath. “We barely have reach beyond the city. Now I know that piece of bark hit you too hard.”
“What?” Fast Facts bellowed.
“I didn’t say anything,” Joe said. “Anything not true, at any rate.”
“I heard what you said! Don’t you forget, I have excellent hearing!”
“Just like my wife,” Joe said with a sigh. “If I wanted the noise, I would have gone home to her already.”
“Then you do that, then!” shouted Fast Facts. “And don’t come back! You’re fired too!”
“Fine,” Joe said, walking over to his desk and taking the few things he had on it. “Nobody wants to work here anymore anyway.”
Once Joe was gone, Fast Facts looked around at the now-empty newsroom. He counted the number of desks that had been vacated over the last few months. There were many more of them than the ones which remained occupied. He shook his head.
“Horse-apples!” he repeated, once more slamming his hoof on Stirring’s desk. A small compartment popped out. Fast Facts was surprised. He would never have known that was there. He didn’t know how anyone would. But somepony did, because there was something inside. Fast Facts picked it up. It was a letter.
No, wait, two letters. One was of uninspiring personal drivel. Yet it was all marked up, and the markings seemed to correspond to the other in some fashion. Even a pony as unimaginative and concrete in his thinking as Fast Facts could recognize the rudiments of a code. And this second letter, it was more interesting. It said something about a princess... no, a lost princess.
Fast Facts looked it up and down and scratched his head. “Who the Tartarus is Radiant Hope?”
What challenges were on the horizon for Radiant Hope and Starlight Glimmer?
Read on.