Hope lay on the little cot, alternately resting her eyes and wondering whether the cracked boards above them would come crashing down while they were still in the room. She had only managed to sleep a little. There was too much on her mind to allow her to get much more, but she didn’t want to awaken her companions, so she just lay there as though she was asleep.
Occasionally, she closed her eyes. She saw the faces again, and the hooves clawing at her. Then she would open her eyes and look up at the ceiling. Then she would close her eyes again.
“Why do you keep doing that?”
Hope looked over to the cot nearest hers and saw Starlight Glimmer looking back at her.
“Can’t sleep, either?” she asked.
Starlight sat up. “Not more then two hours or so. There is just so much of a risk with us being here that I can’t let myself get more than that. I should never have agreed to Dr. Fie’s suggestion. It was clumsy of me, and I didn’t survive this long being clumsy.”
“At least he’s getting some sleep,” Hope said, nudging her nose in the direction of Dr. Fie’s cot, where she could see the covers pulled up tightly.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard him this quiet,” Starlight said. “He even talks in his sleep! If I have to listen to that dream where Celestia awards him the Hero of Equestria medal one more time, I swear I’ll….”
“He was probably so glad to be in halfway comfortable surroundings again that he went right into a deep sleep,” Hope said as Starlight made a strangling gesture with her hooves.
Starlight looked over her shoulder and then looked back. “I should have knocked him into a ravine.”
“You couldn’t do that to him for no reason,” Hope said.
Starlight sighed. “We’re not having this discussion again, are we? I thought we agreed we were both far beyond ‘I would never do something like that’ territory.”
“You’re ruthless, Starlight,” Hope said, “but you’re not that ruthless. I think you really believe that you’re a good mare.”
“I am a good mare, but I do what the circumstances require, or at least I should. My father taught me that a good pony does whatever the circumstances require. I can hear him now, ‘Glimmer, why didn’t you drop that namby-pamby professor in a ditch when you had the chance? Nice and clean, Glimmer. That’s how I taught you.’”
“You care about your father a lot, don’t you?” Hope asked.
Starlight smiled. “It was only the two of us after mom died. I was still just a foal. Then the way the family and all the high-society ponies turned on us because they said he murdered her…. He didn’t murder her!”
“I never said he did,” Hope said.
Starlight shook her head. “Anyway, it wasn’t easy for him. He had been a colonel, fought in the Zebra Wars, brought back a lot of gold, so we never struggled financially. I think the only reason the family agreed to the match was because he had all that treasure and they needed it more than anything.”
“None of them ever thought to look for the hidden family fortune like you did?”
“I got my brains from my father, as well. But we always knew what everypony thought of us. To them, he was a murderer and I was the daughter of a murderer. We had to rely on each other. And then when it took me so long to get my cutie mark, the other ponies really got nasty. They said it must have been how I was raised, or who raised me, that kept me from getting it.”
“I didn’t get my cutie mark until I was nearly full-grown,” Hope said. “At the orphanage, they all used to tease me for it. They could be so mean.”
“You never told me that,” Starlight said.
“It never came up.”
“You should know better than anyone the pain cutie marks can cause.”
Hope just stared at Starlight. There was no way they were having this conversation again, not at half-past midnight.
Luckily, Starlight was not in the mood for another ideological debate. “My only friend back then was a colt named Sunburst. He was the only one who would give me a chance when nopony else would. He was the only one who was friendly with me. I think it was because he took a while to get his cutie mark, too.”
“Sounds familiar,” Hope said with a half-smile.
Starlight nodded. “We were inseparable and we had so much fun. Those were good days, some of the best days of my life. But then, they ended. He got his cutie mark and suddenly, he wasn’t an outsider anymore. He wasn’t shunned by everypony like I still was, like I would always be. I lost him. I lost him to them. I never really made another friend after that. Even after I got my cutie mark, it didn’t matter. It just all seemed so unfair.”
Hope was deep in thought. “That must be how Sombra felt after I got my cutie mark,” she said quietly. “I should have realized back then what it was doing to him….”
“You probably should have,” Starlight said, a little pain in her voice. “But I suppose you can’t do anything about that now. My dad wouldn’t let me moan like this. He said we had to do whatever it took to survive and not look weak. He said he did a lot of things in zebra country that most ponies would look down on. He said they just couldn’t understand what it was like out there. He said that if they wouldn’t accept me, their feelings and opinions didn’t matter. What mattered was what I did with my abilities and power. He got me through a lot of tough times.”
“I can see why he’s so important to you. I’ve never known a pony like that. I’d like to meet him someday.”
Starlight’s eyes clouded with moisture. “He passed away just after I entered the Rational University. I wasn’t going to even go on with my magical studies, not after being rejected by the Royal Academy, but he made me go. And then, my first term there, he passed. I think the alcohol got to him eventually. He always did like to drink…. I remember feeling like it was all their fault. First, they had taken Sunburst, and then they had driven him to drink. I felt like it was all of Equestria’s fault what happened….”
“And how’d you get over it?” Hope asked.
Starlight smiled through her tears, but it was a cold, ironic smile. “You know ponies like us, Hope. We don’t get over things like that.”
“I’m sorry,” Hope said. “It was so hard, wasn’t it? It was unfair that all that happened to you.”
“Thanks,” Starlight said. “When ponies used to say that to me, I would want to buck them in the teeth. What did they know about it? Easy enough for them, with their easy lives. But you, you’ve had to go through these kinds of things too. What happened to your parents?”
Hope rolled around to face the other way.
“Hope, that’s not fair,” Starlight said. “You know how this works. I say something about me, and you tell me something about you. Nopony really knows about my father or about Sunburst. At least, not anypony I’ve met since I founded the village. Stirring doesn’t even know that much about my past. But I told you. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
Hope did not turn around. “At least you still had a father. You had somepony to take care of you and look out for you. Some of us never had that.”
“Hope, I just wanted—”
Hope sat up in her cot. She looked off into the distance. “I can’t remember my parents anymore. I used to be able to. But then a thousand years passed and now I can’t remember them at all. I just have some vague impressions, like when they took me to the Crystal Faire. But I can’t even picture their faces!”
“Okay, okay,” Starlight said, “maybe I pushed a little too hard. I know you feel like everypony you ever knew betrayed you or let you down. I get that it’s still a sore spot for you. I mean, I went through the same things and am willing to open up about them, but whatever.”
“No, not the same,” Hope said, her voice growing harsher. “So Sunburst left you. But you still had your father. Who did I ever have like that? Who did I ever have that didn’t abandon me, one way or another?"
Starlight was silent. She seemed to be thinking.
“My father wasn’t perfect either, Hope,” she said at last. “Maybe he didn’t take over the Crystal Empire like Sombra and the Umbrum did, but he fought in the Zebra Wars, and there weren’t any knights in shining armor there. I’m well aware that he probably would have disappointed your moral expectations if you ever met him. The ponies that care about us often disappoint us. Accept it. I have.”
Hope’s finally turned to Starlight. She raised her eyebrows. “Sure, you have.”
Starlight was a little piqued. “What? Of course, I have!”
“Aren’t you afraid of disappointing them?” Hope asked. “Isn’t that why you want them see you as their beloved, faultless leader?”
Starlight seemed fazed. But then, the fire returned; Starlight was ready for battle. “It was never about me, Hope. Believe what you want, but it was not about me. I did what I had to do to keep our utopia together. Yes, I admit that. But I didn’t make them worship me. I gave them an ideal to worship, because an ideal can’t disappoint you like a pony can.”
“Now who’s the naïve one?” Hope said as she settled once more into the cot and turned back toward the wall.
“And what gives you the right, Radiant Hope, to even—”
Starlight was interrupted by the sound of the door creaking open. She immediately rolled out of her cot and crouched on the other side of it, her horn ready to blast any intruder that came through the door. Hope also braced for possible danger.
Dr. Fie appeared. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he said casually.
Starlight jumped onto her cot and prepared to pounce upon the doctor. “You, I thought you were asleep!”
Dr. Fie pulled back the covers of his own cot to reveal a pillow propping them up. “Sleep? How can anypony sleep with the noise you two are making, madam? I should not be surprised to learn that the whole inn’s been woken up by now.”
Starlight was undeterred. “What… where… you… doing… out… of …bed?”
“Is a pony to be persecuted for getting out of his own cot when he chooses?” the doctor said nonchalantly. “Is this one of the rules of your Equalist regime? All ponies must stay in their cots from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Monday to Friday, and 9 to 7 on Saturday and—”
Starlight leapt to the floor in front of Dr. Fie and stamped her hoof. Hope watched several pieces of wood fall from the ceiling.
“Explain!” Starlight demanded.
Dr. Fie rolled his eyes. “If you must know, I needed a glass of warm milk. I simply cannot sleep without it some nights.” He gestured to the glass levitating beside him.
“Starlight, calm down,” Hope said.
“You’re one to talk,” Starlight said. “You were perfectly happy to stir up an argument just now.”
Hope got out of her cot and put herself between Starlight and the doctor. “Dr. Fie is not our enemy. If he was, he would have tried something by now.”
“Hope, my dear, I really should complement you on your incredible good sense more often,” Dr. Fie said.
Starlight looked from Hope to Dr. Fie and back again. With a sneer, she said, “On your head be it, Hope.” She then went back to her cot.
Dr. Fie took a sip of his milk and then began to stretch. “The accusations I have to endure! I won’t be surprised if I don’t sleep a wink tonight after those cruel slanders! Excuse me, ladies, while I do my pre-bed exercises.”
Hope was about to say something to the effect that it would probably be best for all concerned if Dr. Fie skipped the exercises tonight — he had, after all, already subjected the two mares to his noisy routine at 8:00 — but she never got the chance. They were soon disturbed by something much louder than Dr. Fie’s calisthenics.
“Starlight Glimmer, Radiant Hope, Dr. Fiddly Fie, give yourselves up! We have you entirely surrounded!”
Starlight jumped from her cot and huddled beneath the window. Hope and Dr. Fie quickly joined her there. All three lifted their heads up just enough to see out. A large number of fearsome looking unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies — some in armor, some in suits — were assembled on the street outside, along with a growing crowd of curious civilians and, soon enough, all the other ponies from the inn. In front of them was a small purple unicorn casting a vocal spell on himself.
“They’ve found us!” Hope said.
“Thank you for that, Hope,” Starlight said. “I really needed help interpreting all those big words.”
“She was just stating the facts, madam,” Dr. Fie said.
Starlight turned to Dr. Fie. “You did this! You brought them here! This is where you were!”
“Madam, I really have no idea what you are—”
“Starlight Glimmer, Radiant Hope, Dr. Fiddly Fie,” the purple stallion outside repeated. “You must all give yourselves up and face the justice you have been fleeing from!"
“Me?” Dr. Fie said. “What’s he playing at? Why aren’t they waiting at the bridge like I said?”
Starlight threw Dr. Fie to the ground and began choking him. “You betrayed us! I knew I should have done this when I first had the chance!”
Hope grabbed hold of Starlight and tried to pull her off. “No, Starlight! Starlight, no! We can’t do that now. We have to get out of here!”
Starlight flung Hope off of her with surprising force. Hope hit the side of her cot and collapsed to the floor. Starlight now began approaching her, with the same deadly look in her eyes.
“If you do not surrender yourselves, we will send ponies in after you!” announced the purple unicorn.
“You trusted him!” Starlight said to Hope. “I knew he did something, but you trusted him!”
“No, Starlight, I didn’t,” Hope said.
“Yes, you did! You either trusted him or you were in it with him!”
“No, Starlight, you have to—”
Starlight threw her hooves onto Hope’s neck and began pressing down.
“I told you that it would be on your head if he did something like this!”
“This… happens… to me… way too often….” Hope managed to gasp out.
“Well, it’ll be the last time!” Starlight said.
Dr. Fie, meanwhile, got to his hooves and, seeing that Hope and Starlight were distracted, began sneaking toward the door.
Outside, Swift looked to the building and then to his ponies. An assault team had assembled itself behind him. He nodded to them and they filed past him toward the inn.
Then Swift noticed something he had not anticipated, despite his many calculations. Two winged figures were descending out of the night sky. Swift dropped to his haunches as Princesses Luna and Twilight Sparkle made touch-down.
“Princesses, what are you doing here?” he said, causing them both to cover their ears.
“Quiet down, subject,” Luna said as she cast a spell to remove Swift’s. “Only I am allowed to speak at such a pitch.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Swift said as he rose. “But what are you two doing here?”
“Sister did task us with personally overseeing this operation,” Luna said. “Besides, my colleague was certain that Starlight Glimmer would somehow slip through your capable hooves.”
Twilight smiled a bashful smile. “I didn’t say that! But I know how smart Starlight Glimmer is. I wasn’t going to be able to relax until I saw for myself that you had arrested her.”
“The rug in sister’s study is quite worn out from the pacing,” Luna said.
“I assure you that we have everything under control here,” Swift Strike said.
“Of course, you do!” Twilight responded. “We’re just here to observe and only take command on the off-chance that three ponies are too much for Equestria’s finest to take down.”
Swift smiled. He knew that if he asked, Twilight would give him her exact calculation of what that chance was. But he wasn’t going to ask. He knew he had this. The raid would be over before it had even begun.
Hope’s horn began to glow. Starlight was in too much of a frenzy to notice. She was caught unprepared by the blast and was sent flying onto the floor. She sank down into it a bit. Had Hope put just a little more magic into the blast, Starlight probably would have gone straight through.
“I didn’t want to have to do that,” Hope said as she got up, rubbing her neck. “I know you’re angry, but we need to focus on escaping right now.”
Starlight got up from the floor, paying no mind as that particular section fell through after her. From the look in her eyes, Hope was almost certain she would try to choke her again. But she didn’t.
“Fine,” Starlight said. “But when we get out of here, both you and the doctor are going to pay for this.”
“Fair enough,” Hope said. “Where is Dr. Fie?”
Both mares looked to the open doorway. Outside, they could clearly hear Dr. Fie’s distinctive baritone voice. “Oh, thank Celestia you’ve arrived! Those two maniacs were about to…. Wait? What are you doing? No, I’m on your side! I’m the one who brought you here!”
A deafening scream shook the inn as the two mares watched spears fly in the hallway outside.
Luna and Twilight watched from behind the barriers, each sipping a coffee.
They heard a scream and saw the whole building shake.
“Why does everypony insist on speaking so loudly? Why do they all imitate what was mine originally?” Luna asked.
“Welcome to modern Equestria,” Twilight responded.
Dr. Fie ran back into the room. His suitcoat had been cut in several places, and blood was visible. But otherwise, he did not seem badly injured.
“Time to go,” he said.
Immediately after him, a large number of stallions in armor charged into the room. Dr. Fie and Starlight surrounded Hope.
“Hope, get us as far from here as you can,” Starlight said.
“I won’t have a chance to concentrate!” Hope said. “We could end up anywhere!”
“Good heavens, dear girl,” Dr. Fie said, “we’re not trying to book a flight to Griffinstone! Just get us out of here!”
The stallions pulled back their forelegs, the spear-points glistening in the moonlight.
Hope closed her eyes. A blue light surrounded the three. In a flash, they gone, and the spears met the wall.
The structure began to shake and, before the stallions could do anything but exchange worried glances, collapsed in on itself.
There was a bright blue flash as Radiant Hope and the others appeared on the sidewalk outside. Hope looked back at the inn.
“I hope nopony was hurt!” she said as she cast a quick healing spell over the rubble.
“I think you should worry more about the ponies in front of us,” Starlight said.
Hope looked in front of her to see that they were directly in front of the barricades.
Her horn began to glow. There was a flash, and the three were gone.
Immediately, a long file of unicorns used magic to project a bubble all around the ruins of the inn. Hope, Starlight, and the doctor reappeared, exactly where they had disappeared.
“That bubble, it blocks teleportation spells!” Hope said.
“We’re doomed!” Dr. Fie shouted. “We’re all doomed!”
“No, we’re not!” Starlight said. Her horn began to glow turquoise. The light also surrounded the line of unicorns and, all in unison, their cutie marks tore off their rears and floated into the sky. The bubble immediately disappeared.
“Starlight, we can’t hurt anypony,” Hope said. “That includes stealing their cutie marks.”
“Who’s stealing? I’m borrowing. They’ll get them back when we’re gone,” Starlight said. “Now, Hope, get us out of here!”
Hope closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. There was a flash. She was gone. Dr. Fie was gone. But the moment before the teleport, a violet beam had knocked Starlight out of Hope’s immediate vicinity.
Hope did not realize it until only two of them appeared at the next street-corner.
“What are you all waiting for?” Swift Strike said to his task force. “Go find them!”
“Do what he says, all of you!” Twilight said. “I’ll take care of Starlight Glimmer.”
“I’ll find Radiant Hope,” Luna said. “You and your ponies find the doctor.”
Luna took to the air. The force of ponies began galloping and flying. Swift looked to Twilight. “Nice shot, by the way, your highness,” he said. Then he too went after Hope and Dr. Fie.
Twilight fluttered up into the air and landed in front of Starlight. Starlight rose, a look of savage determination on her face. She knew that she could teleport a little ways away herself and avoid the confrontation. But, with Twilight standing there, she did not want to.
“Starlight Glimmer….” Twilight said.
“Twilight Sparkle….” Starlight responded.
“Okay, Starlight, we know how this is going down. You know you can’t beat me in a fair fight.”
“Good thing I’m smarter than you are, then,” Starlight said. She sent what she thought was a surprise broadside blast Twilight’s way.
Twilight managed to fly over it easily and sent one back at Starlight. Starlight got out of the way, but just barely. The two powerful ponies looked to each other, pure hatred in their eyes. Their horns both began to glow.
Hope and Dr. Fie were running down the streets. She was going as fast as she could and, surprisingly, the doctor was keeping up with her. Fear for his life must have gotten him into some semblance of physical shape.
“Let’s hide here!” Hope said as they passed one of the stalls from the farmers’ market. Both ponies dived in just as a troop of guards passed by.
They sat there, hidden from view, recovering their breath.
“Oh, the indignity of it all!” Dr. Fie said. “Here I am, a law-abiding pony, in the middle of being hunted down by the very government I pay taxes to support!”
“I doubt very much that you pay taxes,” Hope said between gasps.
“Well, maybe not in a literal sense. But I think about it from time to time and manage to almost convince myself that I should.”
“Doctor, why did you tell them?” Hope said.
“Hope, I am a pony of duty and patriotism! You know that!” Dr. Fie said. “I never wanted to be a part of this travesty of—”
“I know why you’d want to,” Hope said. “I saw that they were offering a reward. But didn’t you realize that they’d want to take you in too?”
“It is hard to think straight when one has been under the constant strain that I have, dear girl,” Dr. Fie said. “But I thought I could trust them. If one cannot trust one’s government, than who can one trust?”
“I don’t know.”
Dr. Fie took a few more deep gasps and put his hoof to his chest, feeling his heartbeat. “Oh, such physical exertion! Ponies weren’t meant for it! It shall be the end of me if I have to do anymore!”
“I feel fine,” Hope said. And other than being a little winded, she did.
“Nopony likes a braggart, dear child,” Dr. Fie said. “We are not all cousin to the cheetah and the gazelle, you know! Can’t you just poof us out of here?”
Hope peered over the stall just long enough to see that guards were at both ends of the street and that pegasi were flying overhead.
“It’s not going to be that easy,” she said as she came back down. “Besides, we have to save Starlight.”
“Save Starlight? Have you gone completely daft, girl? She is a criminal, a felon! She’s the one that forced the two of us into this crazy scheme in the first place! Save her? Hardly! Now is our chance to escape and return to normal society. We two are the innocent parties here. Let her get what’s coming to her, I say!”
“And did you tell that to the princesses?” Hope said.
“What?”
“Did you tell that to the princesses, when you were negotiating to turn us over?”
Dr. Fie shook his head. “I didn’t actually get to speak to the princesses. Didn’t even think they’d leave the comforts of Canterlot Castle for this. This wasn’t even my plan. I had worked out a much better one and their pony agreed to it, but I guess ponies’ words don’t mean what they used to! Ho-hum on him!”
Hope was not swayed by the swish of Dr. Fie’s foreleg. “You know what I mean. When you were negotiating to turn us over to the princesses, did you say that both you and I were innocent? Or did you just try to save yourself?”
“Hope, how could you even ask that of me?” Dr. Fie said. “Of course, I told them you were innocent. I said to them, ‘Starlight’s a scoundrel, through and through, but I know that Hope and she’s an upstanding girl!’”
Hope did not believe it for a moment. She shot Dr. Fie a cold look.
He squirmed a little. “Well, I… I had to make it believable, and they were intent on believing that you had gone back to your old ways.”
“When would you have mentioned that I hadn’t? After Starlight and I had ended up in cozy cages next to each other in Tartarus?”
“Oh, it wouldn’t have come to that, dear girl. I would have had you ruled criminally insane and transferred to Seaddle Specialist long before you ever saw the inside of that horrid pit of despair.”
“It might be preferable to the pit of despair we’re in now,” Hope said.
Dr. Fie flicked his wrist. “But none of that matters anymore. The past is as a wisp of smoke. The present is what counts. And presently, we need to get out of here before they find us!”
“No, doctor, I can’t do that,” Hope said. “Not without Starlight.”
She looked back up to see that the guards were now searching stall-by-stall. And what was more, they were coming very close to the stall where Hope and Dr. Fie were concealed.
“We have to get out of here, now,” Hope said. Her horn began to glow. But then she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. Dr. Fie let out a squeak. Hope saw a guard holding a spear, its blade stained with crystalline blood. The tip of the blade was in her.
“Found ’em, boys!” he called out. Hope heard the clanking of armor as the others came galloping.
“I say, that’s very bad form, spearing a lady!” Dr. Fie frantically protested.
“From what I hear, she ain’t no lady!” the guard said as his cohorts arrived around him. “Let’s take ’em in.”
He had just begun to lift Hope out on the point of his spear when a light came on from the building up above them. The windows opened and out came the portly mare Hope and Starlight had met earlier.
“What’s all that racket?” she called out. Then she saw the guards. “What are you doing to my stall? That’s my property you’re wrecking!”
“We’re sorry, ma’am,” called out the guard. “But we’re in the middle of apprehending two dangerous fugitives!”
“Dangerous fugitives? In this town!” she called back down. “That would be far too exciting for this place! You know what you are, you’re just a bunch of guards on leave, aren’t you? You think that because you’re from Canterlot, you can get away with anything! So, you come up here, get drunk, and start destroying honest ponies’ property.”
“No, ma’am, that’s not it at all!”
While the guard was distracted, Dr. Fie removed the spear tip from Hope’s shoulder. It hurt incredibly, but Hope knew she had to bear up.
“Now, get us out of here!” Dr. Fie said.
“Oh, yes, it is!” said the mare. “I’ve seen it before, plenty of times! But you never think it’s going to happen to you!”
Hope’s horn began to glow.
“Please, ma’am, just calm down and let us do our job!” said the guard.
“If you’re still messing with my stall when I get down there,” said the mare, “those spears won’t do you any good! I’ve been known to put quite a few stall-wreckers in the hospital in my time.”
“Maybe we should get out of here,” one of the guards said to his chief.
“Let’s just secure these two first,” said the main guard as he looked down into the stall.
He gasped as he saw his spear jabbing into nothing. “They’re gone!”
Hope and Dr. Fie reappeared a few streets away. Hope cringed as she felt the blood pouring out of her wound.
“Come on, dear girl, use a healing spell on yourself!” Dr. Fie said.
“I normally don’t let myself….” Hope said as she grit her teeth.
“Poppycock! This is an emergency! You do it or I’ll do it myself. You’re not the only one who knows healing spells! I do have a very well-regarded paper to my name on the subject, after all.”
“I wrote that paper for you,” Hope responded.
“This isn’t the time for quibbles!” the excited doctor said. “Just do it so we can get out of here!”
“I know, doctor,” Hope said. Her horn glowed and the wound disappeared. Hope would have to wait to wash off the blood which had already dripped out, but it that was a minor inconvenience.
“Now, what do we do?” the doctor said, sounding as though he was on the verge of hyperventilating.
Hope looked around her. She had not had much of a chance to explore the town, but from what she had seen, she felt she could make some reasonable conclusions about it. The streets they were on had all been main streets, but Hope had noticed plenty of alleys and crooked roads during their entrance into town. She saw one now.
She grabbed the doctor with her hooves. “Listen to me, doctor. There’s plenty of alleyways around. They’ll have places to conceal ourselves. If we just stick to them and be careful, we’ll eventually make it out of this town. Let’s start with that one.”
“Excellent idea!” the doctor said.
Hope and Dr. Fie dashed for the alley, but just as they were about to reach it, a large pegasus landed in their path.
“I’ve got them!” she called out to the heavens above.
Immediately, several more pegasi came from the night sky and began to swirl around the two. Some landed on the ground, while others kept making circles over their heads.
A handful of unicorns came up behind them and created another bubble.
“Spread the word that we’ve got them,” the lead pegasus said.
Hope and the doctor looked to each other in alarm. “Any other bright ideas, dear girl?” Dr. Fie asked.
But before Hope could respond, pegasi began flying left and right. The unicorns too were thrown far away, causing the bubble to disappear. It took Hope a moment to realize what had happened. It was as though the darkness itself had come down and knocked them all away.
Which could mean only one thing.
“Let’s get out of here, child!” Dr. Fie pleaded as he grasped at Hope’s shoulder.
But Hope did not pay attention. She was looking up at the Umbrum as they swooped down at the other ponies, who ineffectually tried to hold them off.
“No, don’t hurt them!” Hope called out. “You’ve hurt enough ponies already!”
“Hope, please, let them destroy each other,” Dr. Fie said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. “Please, let’s just get out of here!”
One of the Umbrum ceased it’s attacks to float over to Hope. It was Invidia.
“Such compassion for the ponies hunting you down. Since when do you care so much for your enemies, Radiant Hope?”
“They aren’t my enemies,” Hope said. “You are.”
“Yet we are the ones helping you. And you are our Empress.”
“I am not your Empress and I do not want your help! I’d rather be locked up in Tartarus than let any more ponies die because of you!”
“Such noble sentiments,” Invidia said. “But we can’t have you missing our meeting in Las Pegasus just because they got in the way!”
Princess Luna soared through the sky. She had seen all the pegasi dive and knew that they must have found something. She arrived just in time to see the circle around Radiant Hope and Dr. Fiddly Fie broken, shattered by the darkness of the night itself.
“Radiant Hope is still in league with the Umbrum!” Luna said, her eyes growing wide. “She never reformed at all. It was a ruse all along!”
The lead pegasus got to her hooves. The third of the Umbrum, a portly grey-blue one, dived down toward her. She could have tried to fly away, but she could see that, at the speed which the monstrous thing was approaching her, she’d never escape from it. Instead, she braced herself for the impact and for whatever the thing would do afterward.
But it did nothing to her. For a blue light hit it from the side as it was coming down. Not enough to injure it, but enough to get its attention.
“I did not come here to endure cheap shots!” complained the Umbrum in a voice that sounded distorted and terrible, but also strangely feminine.
“Walk it off, Luxuria,” Invidia said.
“Fly it off, actually,” Misericordia added. Invidia promptly whacked him with a grizzled hoof.
A blue blast shot between them, causing them to scatter.
“Leave her alone,” Radiant Hope shouted. “Leave them all alone.”
Invidia regained himself and swooped down to Hope. “Do you think you can stop us? You are what you have always been, our pawn. Do you think you can change that?”
Hope looked up with determination in her eyes. “I don’t know. I may still be your pawn, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let you hurt any other ponies without a fight.”
“Very well,” Invidia said as he reared back. Hope prepared for the impact. She pushed Dr. Fie out of the way and steadied herself. She put everything she had into the beam of light she was directing against the dark figure. She thought she was having an effect, but she knew she would still have to take the brunt of the shadow’s hooves.
It was going to be a good day to have advanced healing powers….
But then, Invidia paused. He just floated over Hope. Hope looked up, unsure what to make of it. He should have brought his hooves down by now.
He let out another hideous laugh. “You would like that, wouldn’t you? A martyr’s death to make up for a traitor’s life? But it shall not come so easily. We still need you.”
Hope’s lips curved into a little sneer. “Why? Why do you need me? What are you trying to do?”
“Oh, don’t be like that. Let’s not fight. Not yet. We came to help you out of here, after all. Speaking of which, we brought you a goodwill gift.”
Invidia waved down Misericordia. As Hope looked on, perplexed, Misericordia flew down and offered her his hooves. Or rather, what was in his hooves. Sombra’s horn.
Sombra’s horn! Hope realized that she must have left it in the inn when they escaped. How had she forgotten it? How had she not even thought of retrieving it before teleporting?
“Careless, careless Empress,” Invidia said. “To just leave the remains of our beloved Emperor lying around like that. Maybe you just never cared about him at all.”
Hope did not respond to the taunt. She swiftly grabbed the horn from Misericordia and pressed it tightly against her chest.
“You will need to do better than that, careless girl,” Invidia began to say. “You will never make up for your mistakes like—”
He was launched back into the night by a blast of blue from Hope’s horn. It was not enough to stun him for long, but it clearly took him by surprise.
“Ah, help me!” he snapped to his subordinates.
“Here we go again,” Luxuria said as she sluggishly moved forward. “I don’t know if that one’s going to heal easily, Invidia. It’s a shame, too. You had such a pretty face.”
Pretty? One of the Umbrum? It was probably meant sarcastically, but still, Hope shuttered at the thought.
The three Umbrum began circling around, like vultures. Hope looked from one to another and steadied herself. Invidia may not want her to die. Yet. But he seemed to want revenge. Another fight was in the offing.
That is, until another, different beam of blue light shot through the middle of the Umbric circle and caused the creatures to scatter.
“Enough!”
Invidia looked. Hope looked. Dr. Fie looked.
There stood Princess Luna, the moon reflecting in her eyes.
The other Umbrum stopped what they were doing as well. All looked to Princess Luna.
Her horn, already smoking, began to glow. “Begone, foul creatures!” she said. “Begone now, or I shall vanquish you!”
“One princess cannot vanquish all of us!” Invidia replied haughtily.
Luna was unfazed. “Would you like to test whether your estimate is correct?”
The Umbrum exchanged glances and fell silent. And then, all together, they began to float away.
“We will not waste our energy anymore,” Invidia said. “We will see you in Las Pegasus, Empress.”
Misericordia waved at Hope as he left. Hope, taken aback, offered a little half-hearted wave in response. Then she looked to Luna, who was fast approaching her.
“You saved us!” Hope said.
“I saved my subjects,” Luna responded. “A bond which you forsook long ago.”
Hope shook her head. “Princess, this isn’t what it looks like. I never meant for any of this to happen.”
Luna laughed a mirthless laugh. “A likely story! I suppose you and those vile creatures were both out for a midnight stroll — which I would recommend because I must say that I outdid myself on making this night — and bumped into each other.”
“Princess….”
“Do you deny that you knew the Umbrum were here?”
“Not here, exactly, but I knew—”
“Aha! I knew it! And what is that in your hooves?”
Hope remembered that she was still holding Sombra’s horn, just out in the open. She quickly put it behind her back and tried on a sheepish smile. “Oh, that? It’s nothing....”
“I may be a thousand years, but I assure you that my eyesight is not failing,” Luna said. “And from what I see, that looks like the horn of King Sombra! Or at least what was left of it after his death. You claim you have nothing to do with the Umbrum, and yet you carry their ruler’s horn like a trophy.”
Hope clutched it close to her. “He wasn’t just an Umbrum! He was my friend, too!”
It was then that she heard Sombra’s voice again, carried on the wind. Hope.
Hope shuddered again. She felt a newer, deeper chill with each recurrence.
Luna gave a disgruntled little nod of the head. “Unbelievable. Even after everything that happened to the Crystal Empire, you have learned nothing. You still think fondly of those monsters. You are still in league with them.”
Hope grew anxious. “What? No! I’m not in league with the Umbrum! Just ask Dr. Fie. He’ll tell you!”
Hope looked beside her to see that she was now alone. Turning around, she saw Dr. Fie disappear into the shadows of the alleyway.
“So, your confederate isn’t even willing to stand by you,” Luna said as her horn began to glow. “If that isn’t an admission of guilt, I don’t know what is! Sister will be so disappointed to learn that you were irredeemable after all.”
“Princess Luna, you have to listen!” Hope exclaimed.
“The time for talk is ended,” Luna said. “But I am not without fairness and mercy. Prepare yourself and ‘take your best shot’ — as I think they say these days — at me.”
“I won’t fight you, princess!” Hope said. “You have to believe me! Everything that’s happening, with Starlight Glimmer, with the Umbrum, I know how bad it must look to you. But I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!”
“No, you meant to unleash the Umbrum on all Equestria back during the Siege, when you helped Sombra put my sister and I in stone.”
Tears welled up in Hope’s eyes. “No! I never wanted that! Please, Princess Luna, you have to believe that I never wanted any of that!”
“It is much too late for crocodile tears,” Luna said. “Fight or surrender. It does not matter which.”
“But Princess,” Hope said, “what about what you did as Nightmare Moon? You still want ponies to trust you, even after you tried to throw Equestria into eternal night. You’ve tried to make up for that and you’re trying to be a better pony. Why won’t you believe that I’m trying to do the same?”
Luna had looked on Hope, through all this, with a look of disgust, but not one of anger. Until now. Now, the look in her eyes was pure rage.
“How dare you!” she bellowed, loud enough to shake the windows in all the buildings. “You have no right to play that card with me!”
Luna’s horn glowed even brighter. Hope recognized it. She was about to unleash a powerful blast. Hope did nothing. Hope did not prepare a spell herself, nor did she get out of the way. She just kept her eyes locked with Luna’s own.
“Maybe I don’t,” Hope said. “I’m sorry.”
And then, the light of Luna’s horn went out. Luna took a step back. She seemed uncertain. The look in her eyes changed from one of rage to one of... recognition?
“Hope….” Luna said, her voice a whisper.
“I’m sorry,” Hope said again, her voice also a whisper. And then, her horn began to glow. There was a blue flash.
“Hope, wait!” Luna called out. But it was too late. Radiant Hope was gone.
Luna turned her gaze to the lead pegasus breathing heavily in the snow. The pegasus met it and stared back at her, each silently asking a question, to which neither had the answer.
Luna had, without meaning to, given Hope just enough time to concentrate, so that her teleportation would not be random. Hope carried herself a few blocks, back to the ruins of the inn, back to where Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle were still dueling.
The two magic users were standing across from each other and breathing hard. Starlight managed to summon up a little blast that Twilight deflected easily. Twilight then did the same, only for Starlight to deflect it.
“What now, Starlight?” Twilight said. “You should see by now that you can’t beat me.”
“You’re not doing so great yourself,” Starlight countered with a sneer.
“But I’m going to win eventually,” Twilight said. “I always do. Do you know why, Starlight?”
“If you start another friendship lecture on me, I swear I will make your death twice as painful!”
Starlight readied her horn for another blast. Twilight, having indeed been on the verge of another friendship lecture, did the same. But then, a blue flash appeared in between them.
“We should really be going,” Hope said.
Starlight tried to pull away, but she saw that Hope was already revving up for another jump and that there was no getting out it.
“This isn’t over!” she snapped at Twilight as she and Hope disappeared.
Twilight’s beam just missed them. Tearing into the snow with her hoof, Twilight let out a frustrated yell.
“Twilight Sparkle, what is the matter?” Luna said as she landed beside her co-princess.
“What was Radiant Hope doing here?” Twilight said as she turned on Luna. “I thought you were supposed to handle her.”
“I was,” Luna said, “but—”
“But? But what?” Twilight snapped. “If you had taken care of Hope like you were supposed to, Starlight would never have gotten away! Now we need to get everypony together and form search parties to fan through the town! We have to catch them before they escape!”
“Twilight,” Luna said.
“Didn’t you hear me? We need to move immediately before Starlight gets past the town limits. Once she’s gone, we might never get another chance to stop her!”
“Twilight, please listen….”
“There’s no time for that! Every moment we waste, Starlight Glimmer gets further and further away!”
“Twilight Sparkle!” Luna boomed.
Twilight fell silent, stunned both by Luna’s powerful voice and the sharp look in her eyes. But Luna’s features softened as she saw Twilight become receptive.
“Things aren’t all as they seem here,” Luna said. “I share your frustration. But you do not understand what is happening. Neither do I. I confronted Radiant Hope tonight. I had thought she was evil. I had thought she was irredeemable. But that’s not what I saw when I looked into her eyes. They were the eyes of a broken pony, of a pony who has made mistakes but who wants to set them right.”
“Then why would she take up with Starlight Glimmer? That isn’t exactly righting her mistakes.”
“I have no answer for that. None of us can know what she is thinking. Maybe this is the only way she thinks she can make up for her mistakes.”
“By helping Starlight Glimmer? Are you listening to yourself right now? Twilight had meant to make an outburst like that, but her temper was getting the better of her.
Luna lifted a hoof to signal her young co-princess to calm down. “I know how it sounds, and I don’t know Hope’s reasons. But I know what I saw and I know what she said. I saw some of the Umbrum tonight, circling around Hope.”
“The Umbrum!” Twilight said in alarm. “Well, that just proves that Hope has turned completely against us!”
“No! Twilight, please let me finish. Or at least listen to our subject here.”
The lead pegasus, still somewhat sore but capable of movement, trudged up behind the princesses.
“Tell her what you told me,” Luna said.
The pegasus bowed and said, “We cornered Radiant Hope like your highnesses commanded, but then these black shadow things swarmed us from the sky.”
“Umbrum!” Twilight said.
The pegasus nodded. “Yeah, Umbrum. That’s what she called them. They started attacking us. But then she started fighting back, trying to protect us from them. And then I could’ve sworn they were about to attack her too when Princess Luna came and scared them off.”
Twilight shook her head. “But if Hope and the umbrum are together, why would they be fighting?”
“Radiant Hope told me that she was trying to stop the Umbrum and that I should trust her,” Luna said.
Twilight looked to Luna. “Trust her? You think we should trust her now?”
“Not exactly,” Luna said. “But I think we must take a step back and look at things in perspective. There is so much we do not know yet and charging in blindly, like we did tonight, is only likely to make things more difficult.”
“We don’t have time to take a step back!” Twilight said, spreading her wings to take off. “Starlight is getting away!”
“Twilight, stop!” Luna commanded.
Twilight, again stunned, folded her wings. Luna walked up beside her and put a wing on her shoulder.
“My sister told me that I needed to remember that I was once considered irredeemable too,” Luna said.
“I remember,” Twilight said, chastened. “I remember how hard it was for you back then.”
Luna’s face became pained. “So do I. Always.”
Then, however, the pain disappeared. “But I think it was the remembering which made me so angry, so angry and so driven to capture Radiant Hope. It’s why I could never let myself consider what reasons she might have for her actions. I was afraid. I was afraid that if she could have fooled us all about being redeemed, then maybe I was just fooling myself about my own attempts at repentance. That’s why I felt I needed to bring her to justice, to prove that I was not like her. But I realized tonight, when I saw the pain and the regret in her eyes, that we are not that different.”
Twilight was confused. “Princess Luna, what are you saying?”
Luna smiled reassuringly. “I am saying that I let my anger and my fear get the better of me. I only saw what that anger and that fear let me see. I never let myself consider that things might be different than I thought they were. And because of that, I feel like I almost became again what I have always feared myself to be. And now I worry that the same thing is happening to you as far as Starlight Glimmer is concerned.”
Twilight did not bother trying to hide how much of an insult she considered this. “I am not afraid of becoming like Starlight Glimmer.”
Luna nodded. “I know you are not. I didn’t mean that. But you are angry at Starlight Glimmer for what she did to your friends and you are afraid of what she will do in future. And you should be. But you cannot allow it to affect your judgment. It will just lead you to make mistakes that you will come to regret.”
Twilight began to calm down. “I suppose you’re right. I didn’t even care about Radiant Hope, to be honest, until I saw her pop in and take Starlight. I’ve been so focused on stopping whatever Starlight is planning that I didn’t think about how and why Hope is with her. There is so much we still don’t know.”
Luna nodded. “Yes, Twilight, there is still much we do not know. Perhaps, if we both proceed with a little less aggression, we shall find the answers we are looking for.”
“It’s worth a try,” Twilight said.
Twilight turned around to once more cast her eyes upon the demolished inn. She jumped back in shock and nearly toppled over. There was Swift Strike, standing right beside her. She had never heard him approach.
“We’ve yet to apprehend the fugitives,” Swift said. “But, with your permission, I’d like to begin combing the town. I’m certain they won’t escape.”
“Just like you were so certain that this plan of yours would succeed?” Luna said.
“It should have worked. I did everything perfectly,” Swift said.
“Apparently not,” Twilight said. “Didn’t I send a message to you earlier saying that I was worried about trying to capture them in the center of town?”
“Yes, ma’am, but I felt that time was of the essence.”
“And what about now?” Twilight said. “Now that we’ve followed your approach and they’ve escaped, was it worth it?”
Swift stood up a little straighter. “I assure you, ma’am, that by morning, all three fugitives will be in our custody.”
“See to it that they are,” Luna said skeptically, “or I’ll have you reassigned to Fillydelphia until this crisis is over. And we both know what it is like to work in Fillydelphia.”
Swift Strike visibly shuddered. Twilight thought she heard him say, “Never again,” under his breath.
But Swift Strike quickly composed himself. Though visibly upset, he just nodded and said, “As Your Highness commands. Radiant Hope and Starlight Glimmer are as good as ours. I promise you, there is no escaping us this time.”
Would our heroines escape?
Read on.