Swift Strike was back in that same royal meeting room, the one where he had felt so much satisfaction at getting the princesses to back his operation. But this time, there would be no such satisfaction. Two princesses were with him now. He still had hope that there was one princess who trusted him. But she was not there.
“My sister apologizes for not being present,” Princess Luna said. “But under the circumstances, she decided to travel to San Franciscolt immediately. It seems that the advertised intelligence of an imminent threat was somewhat… questionable.”
“I just wanted to keep all Your Majesties safe!” Swift said.
“By continuing to pursue Starlight Glimmer and Radiant Hope even after we had reassigned you?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“It wasn’t like that. I saw them and I took a chance. I was doing my duty to you!”
“We had things all set up to apprehend them,” Twilight said. “We couldn’t get guards into San Franciscolt. But they were at every other station on that route and had orders to check all trains that came in thoroughly.”
“That is, until they received a distress spell and all rushed to San Franciscolt immediately!” Luna said. “As if our subjects there were not paranoid enough! I don’t even know what Sister will have to agree to in order to calm them down. Did we not specifically command you to avoid inserting yourself into the mission?”
Swift tried to look repentant. “I know, Your Majesties. And I would not have called in the other agents if I didn’t think my life was on the line. Those two and their doctor friend are very crafty! They lured me into a trap!”
“When the other agents arrived, they didn’t find you in any danger,” Twilight said, reading from a report.
“I am highly-trained,” Swift said. “I am quite capable of escaping such dangerous situations.”
“Yet you still called for reinforcements?” Luna asked, clearly unconvinced.
“That was before I got away from those hooligans,” Swift said.
This was bad. It was the first time he had openly lied to his sovereigns. He had stretched the truth with them on occasion and had omitted certain things which it is not fit for royals to know, but he had never directly lied. Of course, Swift had never been in any real danger from that pathetic excuse for a mob. They had been a distraction and, while it took him time, he did outmaneuver them and leave them scratching their heads.
But he would not have gotten to where he was (well, at least before recent events) without being able to turn crisis into opportunity. Knowing that the fugitives would be on the lookout for him and figuring that they’d never be able to get out of the train station if agents were descending upon it en masse, Swift decided to use the distress spell. True, he had broken maybe a few hundred different regulations by calling in every agent on the western seaboard, but had it succeeded, it would have been clearly justified.
But it had not succeeded and that made the justification all the harder. Add to that the fact that he was now lying to the only ponies he felt any loyalty to, and Swift Strike was in a type of difficulty he had never experienced before. He also felt something he had never experienced before.
Is this what guilt feels like? Or is it shame? Both?
This is why Swift had never liked emotions. They were too difficult to categorize.
“I’m sorry, Swift,” Twilight said, “but we just can’t trust your story. You’ve always been such a tried and true officer, but too many details just don’t add up here.”
“What Are you saying?” For the first time in perhaps his whole life, Swift Strike’s voice contained a trace of panic. Emotions were awful things.
“We thank you for your service,” Luna said, in something like a monotone. “But, given current circumstances, we cannot afford to entrust you with missions that are vital to Equestria’s national security.”
“Are you saying I’m fired?” Swift said. His ever-unchanging face was now marked by so many emotions that he did not even look like the same pony. Too many emotions. And they were all painful.
How do ponies live like this?
“It’s not as bad as that,” Twilight said, her tone apologetic.
“You’re suspended,” Luna said, her tone decidedly not. “Suspended until we have determined that you have overcome this unfortunate inability to perform your duties.”
“Suspended? How is that not as bad?” Swift snapped. He tried to stop his voice from rising into anger, but he could not. “This is my life! Serving you has been my life! I have nothing without this! What am I supposed to do?”
“We didn’t want to have to do this,” Twilight said. “We still want you in charge of the EIS. Just take a break and maybe relax a little. Then we’ll see.”
“Take a break? Relax a little?” It took all of Swift’s willpower not to add, You’re one to talk.
But then, he collected himself. Though still very angry, he appeared calm.
“I understand, Your Majesties,” Swift said with a bow. “I understand and accept. I shall work hard to win back your trust and confidence.”
“Thank you, Swift,” Twilight said with a smile.
“See that you do,” Luna added, with no smile.
Swift Strike gave another, lower bow and began to leave. He pretended not to hear Luna whispering to Twilight, “I’ve always found there to be something rather sinister about that one.”
His face lost its pretended serenity as soon as he was out of the room. And he soon felt the presence of something else he was not accustomed to; tears.
Swift managed to hold back sobs, but it did not make him feel any better. “How could they do this to me?” he said under his breath. “After everything I’ve done for them! For Equestria! They need me! Without me to help them run this country, without me to do the dirty work, their rule will collapse! It’ll be anarchy! They can’t do it alone!”
He quickly wiped the tears away with his hoof and looked around to make sure nopony had seen them. There was nopony to see, which was fortunate. Any pony who had been there could expect to have a terrible, inexplicable, and probably fatal accident in their near-future.
Swift collected himself. “They can’t do without me. I’m going to fix this. Then they’ll see.”
A chill wind whipped through Las Pegasus. There were few ponies on the streets of the desert city. It was much too cold. Nopony ever thought that Las Pegasus could get cold — barring another snow-dumping mix-up like those that were in the news recently — but it could. It could and it did. And it was just the luck of Radiant Hope and company to be arriving in the city just as the winter cold-front was also coming in.
“I thought you said this place was supposed to be warm!” Dr. Fie complained as they stepped out of the train station and into the streets.
“It always was when I was here before,” Stirring Words responded. “How was I supposed to know that a cold front could blow in this far south?”
“It is not my concern where you get your information,” Dr. Fie said, “as long as it is accurate. Which is not the case. As a reporter, you should be ashamed. I’m ashamed for you.”
“Come now, doctor,” Starlight Glimmer said. “We all know that you’re completely shameless.”
The only pony not contributing to this conversation was Radiant Hope, who was looking up into the sky, where brilliant colors of purple, red, and yellow played against the usual blue and the white clouds as Celestia’s orb descended below the mountains in the distance.
Then she cast her gaze down upon the city below, standing level on the plain below the mountains. There were many tall buildings scattered throughout, and a massive urban sprawl that seemed to reach right up to the mountains themselves. Bright lights were everywhere; everything seemed to shine, as though in protest at the quick onset of darkness. Even here, In the outskirts, Hope could hear the noise as the city continued to go about its business, with no thought of the hour. Day and night were artificial divisions here.
But beyond all that was the sea, grey and quickly blackening below the setting sun. Somewhere on the sea, boats were beginning to turn on their lights. And the brightest lights of all came from the large liner docked in the waters at the very edge of vision.
And out there, somewhere, were the Umbrum. Hope knew that. She had been trying to get to Las Pegasus, doing everything she had to do to get here. And now that she was here, trepidation seemed to fill every ounce of her body. It weighed down her steps.
Hope looked over to her companions. Was it for her life that she feared, or theirs?
A train-whistle sounded, its shrill cry carrying in the twilight air across the whole of the valley. The train was leaving. There was no going back now.
“So, what do we do now, ma’am?” Stirring asked.
“I recommend that we stop at one of the higher-end clothing stores,” Dr. Fie said. “My suit still has the tears in it from when those savages attacked us!”
“You’re calling the EIS savages, now?” Starlight asked. “I thought you were a patriot.”
“One can love one’s country without approving of what it does,” Dr. Fie responded. “Especially what it does to upstanding ponies’ expensive suits!”
Turning from the doctor to Stirring, Starlight said, “You were the one who was supposed to be making the arrangements. What did you have in mind?”
Stirring’s smile was as wide as a foal on Hearth’s Warming Day. “Well, ma’am, I did have something special planned for when we got in….”
“And that is yet another example, my friends, of how cutie marks have been the cause of so much misery in the history of Equestria,” Starlight Glimmer said. Polite applause came from the crowd as she stopped to sip from a glass of water that had been placed on the podium for her convenience.
Radiant Hope looked to Starlight and then to the crowd. Stirring had said that these were ponies who had been completely won over to the cause, converts ready to do and die at Starlight’s word. But as she looked at them now, they looked more curious than disaffected. Novelty-seekers, not freedom fighters.
There were a few younger ponies around, dressed in suits that could with kindness be described as ‘high-class on a budget.’ College ponies, probably. Well, they were always disaffected about something and looking for a way to solve it. But they were hardly converts. In a month or two, they’d lose interest and go on to some other cause.
The rest looked like high-society ponies. Some of them had to have money, as someone had to have paid for the private room at this upscale restaurant. And money must have bought protection, as well, since Hope, Starlight, and the doctor were able to walk into said restaurant hoodless with no pony batting an eye.
It was very strange for Starlight not to see the danger in this, Hope thought. Countless ponies of wealth and connections now knew they were here. But that had not stopped Starlight from getting up to the podium and delivering a long rant against cutie marks, the Equestrian authorities, and Princess Twilight Sparkle in particular.
Hope supposed that the part about Twilight Sparkle being deathly afraid of quesadillas was a rhetorical flourish on Starlight’s part.
“Are you not hungry, dear girl?”
Hope was awoken from her reverie. She looked over to Dr. Fie, sitting next to her at the table nearest the podium.
“You’ve barely touched anything since we’ve sat down,” he said. “I would have thought that, after the barely-edible slop we had to subsist on for so long, you’d be more than happy to dine on real food again.”
The doctor clearly was. He had already finished nearly the entirety of his plate and gulped down several glasses of wine.
“I’ve just got a lot on my mind,” she said.
“Like the Umbrum?”
“Yeah.”
“Hope, I know you think you have to stop the Umbrum. You think it’s your responsibility. But you don’t have to. I’m sure the princesses can handle it.”
“The princesses didn’t handle it that well last time.”
“Everypony has on off-day. But, be that as it may, it doesn’t make it your burden to carry. I’m sure there’s some other pony in Equestria who could do it.”
Hope shook her head. “But I’m the one that caused this. I have to be the one to fix it.”
Dr. Fie fell silent. His expression switched back and forth between one of sympathy and one of befuddlement. Several times in fact. But Hope did not want to discuss the Umbrum further.
“But you must be enjoying your dinner,” Hope said.
Dr. Fie gave a rather exaggerated shrug. “One makes do with what one has. But I will say, the vegetables here are slightly undercooked. The cheese, on the other hoof, has been overdone. It has been allowed to melt to an unforgiveable degree. My heart grows heavy at the thought that one iota more of attention could have saved this whole meal from becoming the fiasco which it clearly is. And the wine! Do not get me started, dear girl! Why, the vintage is distinctly post-Luna’s exile. From that vineyard down the street, no doubt. How dare they serve such unrefined stuff to me! It’s like drinking water! And not a Baltimare radish to be seen!”
“Nothing ever satisfies you, does it?” Hope said, with a hint of amusement.
“My life is constant suffering,” Dr. Fie responded. Lifting his hoof up, he said loudly. “Mr. maître d’, more wine!”
Loud enough that he spoke over whatever point about the injustices of the cutie mark machine Starlight Glimmer was currently making. Starlight closed her eyes in frustration for a moment before continuing, looking like she was trying to fight back the urge to strangle the doctor again.
“I thought you didn’t like the wine,” Hope said.
“It’s dreadful,” Dr. Fie said, “but after nearly being frozen and strangled and starved to death, I do not intend to perish by dehydration!” Once more, he waved to the waiter. “Come, come, dear boy, more wine, more wine!”
Hope looked down to her own plate again. Then she looked up at all the ponies around her. And then she closed her eyes. The faces were much fainter now, but she could still make out their features. She opened her eyes and looked at the faces that actually where before her.
The thought struck her, What if everypony here also dies, because of me?
The thought was too much for Hope to handle.
The waiter had finally come to the table. “Remind me to never rely on you in a pinch,” Dr. Fie scolded him. “I had very nearly passed out from unquenched thirst waiting for you!”
Hope stood up.
“Hope!” Dr. Fie said, his attention drawn away from the poor maître d’, who was happy to beat a hasty retreat. “Is something the matter, dear girl?”
“I just need some air,” Hope said as she sped out of the room.
Dr. Fie watched her go. Then he made shifty eyes at all the other ponies in the room. His horn began to glow. Hope’s plate lifted up and landed in front of him, while his own now-empty one took its place in front of her vacant chair.
Dr. Fie caught Stirring watching him.
“Oh, go point that disapproving eye elsewhere,” he said as he began to dig in. “She’s not going to eat it. She told me so herself!”
The air had only gotten colder as night had descended over the valley. For once, Hope considered all her trudging along the arctic wastes of the Frozen North to have been fortunate, since this chill hardly bothered her now.
She had gone outside and found herself somehow at the back of the restaurant, the unkempt, dirty place that you’re never supposed to see unless you happen to be a worker dropping off a bag of garbage. It smelled terribly, but Hope was used to that after a thousand years in the Umbrum’s prison.
But it was quiet and it was secluded and she was completely alone. One of the chefs had come out briefly to smoke a cigarette and had tried to engage Hope in conversation. Luckily, however, he had had to hurry back in before anypony noticed his absence. Hope had been kind and polite, but she was relieved when she was once more left to her own thoughts.
I can’t let anypony else suffer for what I’ve done, Hope thought. I have to stop the Umbrum and I have to do it alone.
Hope reached for the pouch hanging down from her neck. Her magic undid the little bow tied around it and then floated the horn out into her hoof.
“Oh, Sombra,” she said. “I know I couldn’t save you but I wish you were here. You were the only other one to have this connection to the Umbrum. You were the only one who could understand.”
Once more, Hope heard the deep voice in the whistling wind.
It sounded almost like, ”Hope, I am here....”
Hope shook if off and wiped a small tear out of her eye. “No, Sombra, you aren’t. Our lives were intertwined for so long. But they aren’t anymore.”
Then, Hope felt the fur on the back of her neck begin to stand up. It was the chill again. Not the chill that naturally had been haunting the air since they arrived. No, this was the other chill, the one Hope felt whenever she touched the horn or even thought about Sombra too much. And it chilled Hope to the bone.
“My Empress….” came a sickening, sinister voice.
Hope turned around, to see Invidia, making another parody of a bow. Misericordia and Luxuria were behind him, and both also bowed.
“So, you finally got here,” he said. “Took you long enough, even after we spelled it out for you. I didn’t think you could be any more dense then you did on those horrid picnics….”
If he thought it would hurt Hope again, he would be disappointed. The words barely registered.
“I used to be so angry at you,” Hope said. “For so long, I was mad at the Umbrum. For what you did to Sombra. For what you did to me.”
“What we did? We gave you Sombra in the first place. You would have been a mere princess, but we made you an Empress. All the rest was your choice.”
“I know,” Hope said.
Invidia swirled around Hope. “Then maybe you should be angry at yourself.”
“I am,” Hope said. “But maybe if I put a stop to you, once and for all, I’ll be able to let this anger go.”
“Is it always about you, Hope?” Invidia said, his cloven hoof rubbing Hope’s chin.
“You don’t have to do this,” Hope said.
“Do what?” Invidia said, his voice dripping with bile.
“I never want to do anything,” Luxuria said. “Especially when there are so many cute stallions around to torment.”
“Whatever it is you’re doing,” Hope said, “I know it’s bad. But you don’t have to do it. You don’t have to be like Sombra. You don’t have to be like me.”
“So you admit we are alike?” Invidia said in amusement. “I suppose even you have to finally recognize that Sombra was evil and that you are just like him.”
Hope looked down to Sombra’s horn. She carefully laid it on the ground. “I am just like Sombra. But not in being evil. I’m like him because we both made a choice. And we both made the wrong one. He died for his and I have to live with mine. But you too have a choice. You could choose to be different. You could choose to be better.”
“Wait, we have choices?” Misericordia asked. “Why did no one tell me about this?”
“Because you’re incapable of thinking for yourself, idiot,” Invidia snapped back.
“Oh,” said Misericordia, chastised.
“Don’t worry about it,” Luxuria told him. “Choices are too exhausting, anyway. Just enjoy all the evil we cause. It’s what I do.”
“But you don’t have to,” Hope said, pleading. “You don’t have to be evil. I always told Sombra it was a choice.”
“And look where it got you!” Luxuria shot back, causing both herself and Invidia to howl with laughter. Misericordia did not join in.
Hope looked down. “Look where it got me. Maybe I was wrong. All those years, I shouldn’t have trusted you.”
Then, she looked up, her eyes brimming with strength and resolve. “I won’t make that mistake again. If you insist on going through with whatever it is you’re planning, I will stop you. No matter what it takes, I will stop you.”
More laughter from Invidia and Luxuria.
“It’s a pity you’re so set on opposing us,” Invidia said. “Because we didn’t bring you here to fight. In fact, I think we could be mutually-beneficial to each other.”
Hope felt worried for the first time. “What do you mean?”
“You want something, don’t you, Hope? The same thing you’ve wanted since you first came to us a millennium ago? You want to set Sombra free.”
“You can't offer me that. He’s... he’s gone.”
“Ah!” Invidia and Luxuria said, or rather screeched, together. They swirled around Hope. Luxuria wrapping herself around Hope’s shoulders and resting her head beside hers. “See, it is what she wants. I knew it,” she hissed, “I told you. These ponies are slaves to their desires.”
Invidia once more rubbed Hope’s chin with his hoof and lifted her head up until her eyes locked with his.
“It’s not that, Luxuria. Our Empress is too noble for such base feelings. She wants to save the pony she loves,” he said. “Now, Hope, you think Sombra will never have a chance at freedom again. Maybe you’re right. But you also think the same about yourself. And you are right. All that pain that you must feel, all the guilt and the shame. Tell me, Hope, what was it like to look into the eyes of your fellow crystal ponies, knowing it was you who robbed them of their husbands and wives, their sons and their daughters?”
“You always said that sacrifices had to be made,” Hope said, trying to remain unmoved even as Luxuria’s hooves dug deep into her shoulders, drawing blood.
“Yes, but it takes a certain kind of pony to make them,” said Invidia. “We always sensed that you were that kind of pony. You seemed so sweet and innocent and good. But we saw the real darkness that was inside of you.”
“What do you want?” Hope asked. She was not about to give into Invidia’s taunting.
“No, this is about what you want,” Invidia responded.
“I want to stop you.”
“That’s not really what you want. What you want is for the pain to go away. You want the memories to go away, the memories of all the faces of innocent ponies, never again to be filled with life, the memories of the families, broken because of what you did. You want the sorrow of a thousand wasted years to disappear. And that mocking name, Radiant Hope, which reminds you every day of your crimes, you want gone. That is what you want. And we can make it all go away.”
“But you don’t want to hear me go on all night,” Starlight Glimmer said from the podium. “I think the reason you’ve come here is because you’ve heard the sad tale of a certain crystal princess. Or, she would be princess if not for the cruel jealousy of Celestia and Luna, who have stopped at nothing to keep her silenced for well over a thousand years. But they have failed, for the unjust must always fail in time. Let them be warned that all oppression must someday crumble. And so, our heroic princess is not silenced. She is here to speak to you tonight. Everypony, please give a big round of applause for Radiant Hope!”
Starlight smiled as the ponies applauded. Though it stung a bit that they applauded much more for Hope than they did for her, and with more real enthusiasm, Starlight reminded herself that this was what she wanted. Ponies loved sob-stories, princesses, and scandals a lot more than they loved ideologies and battling oppressive systems of injustice. And Starlight was the one who was giving them what they loved.
Then Starlight looked to the table from the podium. There was Stirring Words, there was the doctor who must be on his fifteenth glass of wine, but there was no Hope. Starlight trotted over.
“Where is she?” she whispered to Stirring and the doctor.
“She said she had to get some air,” Dr. Fie responded.
“Get some air? Where?”
“How should I know? I’m not the girl’s nanny, you know!”
Starlight let out a hiss of disgust. “I need to go find her. I need somepony to keep the crowd distracted while I’m gone.”
“I’ll do it,” Stirring said, beginning to rise.
“No,” Starlight responded. “They’ve already heard you. They’ll get bored.”
As Stirring’s face saddened, Starlight said, “I didn’t mean it like that. You know what ponies are like. They always need something new to keep their attention. Dr. Fie will have to do it.”
“Me?” Dr. Fie said. “I can’t speak in front of this monstrosity of crowd! What if I run out of things to say?”
“I doubt very much that that will happen,” Starlight said as a turquoise glow surrounded Dr. Fie and forced him out of his chair.
“Fine, fine! You don’t need to be rough about it!” Dr. Fie said.
Starlight let him go and hurried back to the podium. Dr. Fie brushed himself off, mumbled some things about ingratitude under his breath, and followed her.
“But first, my friends, you need to know what kind of pony Radiant Hope is,” Starlight said to the crowd. “And, here to explain how kind, good, and gentle she is, how deserving of princesshood, is the pony who knows her best out of anyone in Equestria; the esteemed Dr. Fiddly Fie, M.D.”
Dr. Fie was about to ask what he should talk about, but before he could, Starlight was gone. Looking out at the assembled crowd, Dr. Fie leaned against the podium, his hooves at his chest.
“Oh, dear me, what am I going to say?” he whimpered. But then he straightened up and put his hooves to the podium. “What am I saying? If anypony can come up with a speech off the cuff that will dazzle and excite the minds of this city’s finest, surely it is Fiddly Fie! This challenge would, admittedly, break a pony of lesser strength and character. But with my ever-stout heart and perpetual resolve, I welcome it!”
Dr. Fie extended his forelegs out toward the crowd and almost fell over. Quickly, he recovered his footing, looked out at the crowd, and began.
“Ah, yes, Radiant Hope,” he said. “I have come to know her incredibly well. She looks up to me as a mentor, a role model, and a friend. In fact, she would not have survived the many perils that we have recently faced had I not been there to courageously risk my life for hers. But why jump into the middle of the story like this? Any proper story begins at the beginning! So let me begin there. I shall take you through it, chapter by chapter, leaving out nothing except for those few, minor details I would like to keep for the upcoming release of my five-volume autobiography. Forgive me if I am somewhat laconic. One rarely has the opportunity to give speeches when one is constantly saving lives. Now, to begin! It was quite frosty the morning I was born, if I recall….”
“I can’t trust you,” Hope said, the darkness around her becoming stronger. She felt as though it would suffocate her. “You’re monsters. And monsters can’t change.”
“You should know,” Invidia responded. “But won’t you at least hear out my proposal?”
Hope had a bad feeling about it. But there was nothing she could do. Might as well hear what he had to say. Maybe she would learn something about the Umbrum’s plans.
“Yes,” she said.
Invidia smiled and pulled away from Hope. Standing in front of her, he said, “My siblings and I are weak. We have been gaining energy, but not enough to return us to our full power. But you can do that, Hope. You can return us to our full power.”
“I don’t know if I can,” Hope said.
“You did it for Sombra.”
“There was only one of him. And after what happened with the Crystal Heart, I don’t know if even one of my spells could repair you. How did you escape that, by the way?”
Invidia let out a hideous laugh. “Curious, aren’t we? How we escaped is none of your business. At least not yet. And your spells mean nothing to us. We know they are useless.”
The glare from his pale, death-like eyes filled Hope with dread, as did Luxuria’s hissing whisper in her ear, “But you, Radiant Hope…. Radiant Hope, a crystal pony. Radiant Hope, that could have been a princess. Radiant Hope, whose magic can heal any wound and cure any sickness. Radiant Hope, who bears the mark of the first mage on her rear. You have so much magic flowing through you. Imagine what all of it could do.”
Hope tried to pull out of Luxuria’s grip, but the shadow held her fast. “You… you want to drain my magic? Isn’t that what Tirek did?”
Invidia’s grin grew large and wide, showing off his dagger-like teeth. “We don’t want to do what Tirek did. He was just out for the manifest magic in ponies. But what about when a pony has so much magic that is latent, dormant, unmanifest? Your whole life-force is magic, Hope. And we want it all.”
Hope’s jaw dropped. She could not believe what she was hearing. “That’s impossible! You can’t take a pony’s whole life-force! There’s no magic powerful enough to do that!”
“Well, not without some cooperation….” Invidia said.
Hope closed her mouth. Her eyes grew cold and distant. “That’s the bargain….”
Invidia swirled around her again. “Yes, Hope. You give your life to restore ours. No more sorrow, no more guilt, no more pain. It will all be over."
Hope was unimpressed. "That's not much of a bargain. I give up my life and let you destroy Equestria. For what? So that I won’t hurt anymore? I could just throw myself in the bay if I just wanted to die."
“See, I told you it was a dumb offer,” Misericordia said. “I told you there’s no reason for her to agree.”
“Shut up!” Invidia snapped over his shoulder.
He turned back to Hope and gave her a dark, wicked look which made Hope’s blood thicken. Then, his empty eyes looked downward — or, at least, it seemed to Hope like they did, though it was so difficult to tell — and landed upon Sombra’s horn. Without a word, he reached down toward.
“No, Sombra!” Hope shouted. She tried to move, but Luxuria restrained her. “Leave him alone!”
“It’s just a dead piece of bone,” Invidia said, his voice cruel and mean. His hoof made contact with the horn. Suddenly, a dark, sludge-like aura emerged from the tip of the horn and ran down its entire length. “Or maybe not so dead after all.”
Hope gasped. Sombra’s horn had changed. No longer grey, thin, and gnarled, it had become full and red, just as it had been when Hope had first found it during the Siege, when she had first brought Sombra back.
A million thoughts raced through Hope’s mind. “Is he....”
“Yes, Empress,” Invidia said. “His power is still there. His essence. But the ponies and the Crystal Heart did much worse to him than they had the first time. You won’t be able to bring him out on your own. Neither will we. We can do it together. But it will require... sacrifice.”
Hope could not stop staring at the horn. “Sombra. He isn’t gone. He’s still... still alive? Close to alive, at least. And I could save him.”
“Yes, you could,” Luxuria whispered into her ear.
“I could bring him back. I could finally save him.”
Luxuria stroked Hope’s hair. “Yes, yes.”
“You could finally do what you’ve been trying to do for a thousand years,” Invidia said.
“None of it would have been in vain,” Luxuria added.
“It wasn’t in vain,” said Misericordia. Both Invidia and Luxuria flashed him what seemed like extremely sharp looks, even for Umbrum.
Hope picked the horn up in her hooves. She could feel the dark power inside of it. The power of the Umbrum. The power of Sombra. It was pulsing through her even as she stood here. She could now hear Sombra clearly now, speaking through the horn.
“Hope, save me. Save me, Hope.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the horn. Then there was a flash of light, a blue flash. Luxuria shrieked and clawed at her own eyes.
Hope reappeared a few feet away.
I didn’t think that would work, she thought.
Using her magic, she opened the pouch around her neck and returned Sombra’s horn to its new home. As the pouch rubbed against the side of her shoulder, she could still feel Sombra’s power flowing through her. It was like a small electric current. Annoying but, for now, bearable.
She barely had time to consider this, however, as she found herself lifted in the air. Invidia had grabbed her and was holding her up by the neck.
“Is there a ‘please choke me’ sign on my neck or something,” Hope croaked out.
“Do you think this is a game, you stupid pony?” Invidia screamed in her face.
Hope realized that he had left her throat just enough room for her to speak. “Sombra was my only friend. I wanted to save him more than anything. I still do. But I can’t. So many bad things happened the last time. I can’t risk it again.”
The fall hurt. Hope was certain she had sprained her back legs when she landed. Invidia had let her go and floated over to Luxuria. They huddled and spoke to each other in whispers.
Misericordia floated over. “Are you alright.”
“Yeah, I’ll live,” Hope said. Then she fully realized who she was talking too. “Why do you care?”
Before Misericordia could answer, Invidia flew back over.
"And what about your other friends?" he said with wicked glee.
“I don’t have friends anymore,” Hope responded. “You took that from me.”
Invidia chuckled. “Then who are those ponies that have been following you around since Seaddle? Don’t tell me you don’t care for them.”
Hope was silent.
Invidia nodded. “Personal attachment was always your greatest weakness, Hope. It makes you so blind. So easy to manipulate.”
“Everypony thinks so,” Hope answered.
Invidia fluttered his massive, fly-like wings a bit. “You know what? I wouldn’t do this for anyone else. But you are my Empress, after all, so I feel like I should be a little more respectful.” Another mocking bow of the head. “If you help us, we’ll spare your friends. Everypony you care about — that prissy doctor, the crazy mare with the bouffant mane, her little lap-pony — they can all be safe and happy. We'll give them a free pass and they can seek refuge in whatever forsaken corner of this world we spare from our wrath. Maybe Norneigh.”
Hope could not hide her confusion. “Why Norneigh?”
“There are places even the Umbrum won’t dare to tread.” Invidia, the fearsome shadow pony, seemed to shake a little. Luxuria and Misericordia both nodded in agreement.
This did nothing to soothe Hope. “But you’ll still destroy Equestria! I can’t let you do that!”
Invidia mockingly shook his head. “Oh, poor deluded Hope. You couldn’t stop us if you wanted to. You are a monster, too. And you yourself said that monsters can’t change. You can’t suddenly become the hero you’re not. Whether you help us or you don’t, you can’t save Equestria. You can’t save your friends. But we can spare them. They can live out the rest of their futile existence in peace."
“In Norneigh?”
“I hear it’s a lovely country, once you get used to the constant and crippling depression that emanates from the place.”
Hope shook her head fiercely. “No, I could never do that! I can’t sacrifice all of Equestria just for my friends. I can’t!”
“You sacrificed the Crystal Empire for us. Don’t tell me you’re suddenly a patriot! Equestria has changed from the country you knew. These ponies are strangers to you. Why should you care what happens to them? Why should you put them above your friends?”
“I’m not!” Hope practically shouted. Becoming quieter, she said, “I just want to make everything better.”
Invidia waved over Luxuria, who wrapped her forelegs around Hope and whispered in her ear, “It can be better. You just have to make the right choice.”
“The world wouldn’t be better off under Umbric rule,” Hope said, more to herself than to them.
Invidia smiled, his face a diabolical parody of affection and reassurance. “But it would be better off without you. You know that, don’t you?”
Hope was silent for what felt like ages. Finally, she spoke with a voice only slightly above a whisper.
“I know.”
“So then, Your Imperial Majesty, what do you choose?”
Then, a turquoise light. A beam, strong enough to send Luxuria flying over Hope’s head.
“Leave her alone!”
Invidia turned to Starlight Glimmer. “Oh, look, Empress. Here’s one of your little friends now. Wouldn’t want to know what we’d do to her, would you?”
“Starlight, get out of here!” Hope shouted.
A turquoise flash and Starlight was standing beside her. “Not without you, Hope,” she said.
Misericordia tried to help Luxuria up, but Luxuria swatted back his hooves. Even so, she wobbled as she rose up and seemed to have difficulty staying steady. Invidia looked at his compatriots and gnashes his teeth. Then he again turned his attention to Hope and Starlight, sizing them up. He let out a sigh.
“As I told Empress Hope, we didn’t come here to fight. We just came with an offer. Consider it carefully, Hope. I’m sure you’ll make the right decision this time.”
Invidia signaled his fellows to follow him and began to rise into the night sky.
“But where will I find you?” Hope called out.
“My siblings and I have found a place that is… conducive… to us. A place filled with dark energy.”
“What place? Where?”
Invidia shook his head. “Oh, Hope. I can’t tell you. Wouldn’t want you and your friends trying to come up with some wrong-headed plan of storming the place and stopping us. You couldn’t, anyway, but it would be so annoying if you tried.”
“But what if I want to accept your offer?” Hope ignored Starlight’s glare.
“You must have brains in your head somewhere,” Invidia said. “I’m sure it’ll be obvious to you once you’ve made your choice.”
And then he faded into the night. Hope watched the three Umbrum go and then looked to the moon above.
“How much did you hear?” she asked Starlight.
“Not all of it, but enough to get the gist.”
“You stayed back to listen.”
“And it was a good thing I did,” Starlight said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have known anything about that insane proposal of theirs. You’re not going to accept it.”
“Are you asking me or ordering me?” Hope responded, looking Starlight in the eye.
Starlight shook her head in disbelief. “You can’t tell me that you’re seriously considering going through with what he said!”
“I just want to fix everything,” Hope said. “I want to make right all the things I’ve done wrong.”
Starlight nearly facehoofed. “Hope, it is not all your fault! Okay, I get it. The Siege. Releasing the Umbrum. That’s all pretty bad. But it wasn’t just you. The Umbrum deceived you. They have to get some of the blame. And Sombra does too. He could have chosen differently.”
“Maybe. But I could have chosen differently too. I could have chosen not to let myself be deceived.”
“Well, how does helping the Umbrum out now make any of it better?”
Radiant Hope opened her pouch and lifted out Sombra’s horn with magic. It hovered between Hope and Starlight. Starlight jumped back in fear and disgust.
“Hope, what’s going on? I thought Sombra was....”
“I can save him. I can bring Sombra back. He could be free.”
Starlight grabbed Hope, being very careful to avoid contact with the horn, which was now crackling with black sparks.
“No,” she said. “Hope, you can’t save Sombra. And that’s not your fault. It’s his. If you brought him back, he’d be the same pony he was before. It’s because the power to save him was never in you. It was in him.”
“But he’s an Umbrum,” Hope said. “He always felt he was forced to become what he was.”
“He was wrong. He made a choice to be what he was. Don’t you see? He made a choice!”
“I know,” Hope said softly. “But maybe I’m wrong, I tried to get him to make a different one. Why didn’t it work?”
“I don’t know. But, listen to me, his choice is not your fault.”
“But if I could maybe give him a chance. Another chance to make another choice....”
Starlight’s grip tightened. “No, Hope, no! You can’t seriously be considering this!”
“There’s only three of them,” Hope said as she returned the horn to its pouch. “I think the Crystal Empire can withstand three Umbrum. Princess Cadance, Twilight and her friends, Celestia and Luna, they can do it. They can do it better than I could. I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to stop them on my own.”
“You don’t know that they can do it! Not with the Umbrum at full power,” Starlight said. “And as for Twilight and her friends, I have a feeling they might not be around for very long.”
“Why do you say that?”
Starlight chuckled. “Let’s just call it… a premonition….”
“I thought premonitions were the specialty of that other mad-pony.”
Starlight shrugged. “Well, when it comes to Twilight Sparkle and I, it may be more than just a premonition.”
Hope raised her brows. “Is that what this is about? Your whole plan is to get revenge on Twilight and her friends? Were you only willing to come to Las Pegasus because somehow it gets you closer to getting back at them?”
Starlight let go of Hope. She would no longer face her. The righteous act was gone.
“What about your cause, Starlight?” Hope asked. “You always say that everything is for your cause. That’s not true, is it?”
Starlight turned back, anger in her eyes. “Twilight and her friends took my cause from me! I’ve been trying to rebuild it, but you saw those ponies in there! It’s a passing interest, a curiosity to them! At this rate, we’ll never have the strength to take on Twilight. I need something else, something I can find here!”
“So it is more about hurting Twilight than about Equality,” Hope said.
“They are the same thing,” Starlight responded.
Hope nodded. Turning her head slightly, she looked downward at the hard gravel on the ground.
Starlight trotted in front of her. “Hope, you have to understand—”
“I do understand,” Hope responded.
“You know the kind of pony I am. You can’t seriously be disappointed in me now.”
“I’m not disappointed,” Hope said. “I was just thinking, this might be the first time we’re being really honest with each other.”
“Maybe it is,” Starlight said. “But Hope, be honest with me. Are you really willing to give up your life? For the Umbrum?”
“Not for the Umbrum,” Hope said. “Not even for Sombra, not really. But maybe the world would be better without me, the world could be so much better. You would be fine, Dr. Fie would be fine. Maybe even Sombra.”
Starlight shook her head slowly. "You don't know that, Hope."
"No, but there's a chance. And then Sombra could be free and happy, because the Umbrum would spare him. Just like they'd spare all of you."
“The Umbrum won’t keep their promises.”
“Maybe not. But I can’t stop them anyway. And if there’s a chance….”
Hope pushed past Starlight and began walking down the alley. Starlight considered using teleportation, but Hope could do that too if she wanted. Words would have to suffice for now.
“Hope, you’ll die!” Starlight called out.
Hope stopped. She turned around and walked back to Starlight. Soon, they were looking each other square in the face.
“You never got tired of telling me, Starlight,” Hope said, “how you and I are not so different, how we are the same.”
Starlight’s expression was one of confusion, but also pity. “I only said those things because I wanted you on my side.”
“You were right, though. We are so much alike,” Hope said. “Wouldn’t you too choose death, if it could make up for how you wasted your life?”
“How will it make up for anything?” Starlight asked. Hope was surprised by how worried Starlight seemed. “The Umbrum will just destroy Equestria.”
“And you wouldn’t risk Equestria’s destruction,” Hope said, “if it meant a chance at what your heart wants most?”
Starlight shook her head firmly. “Never.”
“And we were doing so well with not lying to each other.”
“Well, maybe I am lying,” Starlight said. “But Hope, you don’t understand. You don’t have to do this!”
“And you don’t have to do whatever it is you’re trying to do to Twilight Sparkle,” Hope responded.
“Now we’re both lying,” Starlight said.
Hope nodded, “Yes, we are.”
Then, there was a flash of blue. Hope had vanished. Then, another flash at the end of the alley. Hope was there.
“Where are you going?” Starlight said.
“I need to be by myself. I need to think,” Hope said. “Don’t follow me.”
Starlight knew, as she watched Hope disappear around the corner, that she should follow. But for some reason, some strange reason, she could not. Even though she could not make sense of it, Starlight felt she had to respect Hope’s wish to be alone. In fact, if not for the dinner going on inside, it is what she would want, too.
“And that doesn’t even get into how I single-hoofedly snatched glorious victory from the very jaws of defeat, saving our whole battalion, at Roan’s Drift. Ah, there was but a mere hundred of us that day, against what must have been a hundred-million zebras. All the boys in the regiment were terrified, certain that their superior numbers would overwhelm us. But not I, oh, no. I said to them, I said, ‘Let them bring as many zebras as they can. Let the whole of Zebra-land rise up against us! We few are ponies, and have the strength and character of ponies! No zebra could ever’…. What are you doing, dear lady?”
Starlight was pushing Dr. Fie out of the way. “I’m sorry, friends, but Radiant Hope will not be able to speak to you all tonight.”
“Why, what’s happened?” Stirring said, having come to Starlight’s side as soon as she returned to the room.
“Stirring, get rid of them,” Starlight commanded. She pulled Dr. Fie down from the podium.
As Stirring tried to salvage the situation by flattering the crowd and thanking them for coming out, Starlight marched to the table and sat down. She took a drink from one of the wine glasses, but found it was empty.
“Is there somepony around here that could get me another drink?” Starlight asked.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll want to wait for that,” Dr. Fie said. “I have not, in all my life, seen such detestable wine service. Besides, I overheard them saying something about locking up the wine after they finally brought me my last glassful. Apparently, some pony on the guest-list has been over-indulging. Seriously, what is Equestria coming to as a civilization if the rich can’t even set a proper example for the lower classes?”
Starlight wanted to make a witty retort about ‘class warfare’ but was feeling too shaken for verbal sparring.
“Okay, I think ponies will get the hint and start leaving now,” Stirring said as he rejoined them, “the ones who didn’t leave during Dr. Fie’s speech.”
“Oh, ho-hum! Your words have no effect on me, dear boy,” said Dr. Fie. “For I can already sense that it was superb triumph. I only wish dear Hope had been here to hear it. She will regret it later.”
“That’s not going to be the biggest thing she’ll regret,” Starlight said quietly.
“I thought the whole thing about saving Princess Celestia’s life nine times was taking it too far,” Stirring remarked.
“Nonsense!” Dr. Fie responded. “After all, I was our dear sovereign’s closest confidant for a while, ever since she realized that I have a much greater propensity for writing laws and governing ponies than she does.”
“That’s not true, either, is it?” Stirring asked.
Dr. Fie lifted his brows, a look of condescension on his face. “You’re the propagandist. You tell me.”
Dr. Fie felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see some finely-dressed pony in a large top-hat standing behind him.
“Yes, how may I help you, dear boy?” he said.
“I just wanted to shake the hoof of the pony who invented the barrel,” said the pony in the hat. “I ship cider and my business would be completely sunk without it!”
Starlight gave a glance which more-or-less said, “Really?” at Stirring. Stirring gave a sad nod.
“My only regret,” Dr. Fie said, “is that the time set for tonight’s speech was far too brief for me to go into the intricate detail my wide-ranging life so properly deserves! Why, in my upcoming autobiography, the whole length of tonight’s discussion would not have even reached the point where my mother and I were discharged from the hospital.”
“Well, I’ll be sure to read that book when it comes out. Maybe even buy it,” said the other pony.
“And how about our other speaker?” Stirring interjected, pointing to Starlight.
“Oh, yeah,” the other pony said. “That was the anti-government speech, right? I wasn’t paying that much attention to it, to tell the truth. Did it have to do with that fiasco in San Franciscolt?”
“I did mention it,” Starlight said, “but it wasn’t the main focus of my speech.”
“Too bad,” said the pony. “Somepony needs to call that what it is. I was so angry after reading about it in the Daily North Equestria today. To think, a generation ago they were a rat-infested frontier town, yet Princess Celestia capitulated to all their demands like nothing, A disgrace is what it is! An utter disgrace! It’s like we need a new pony in charge in Canterlot. I’da liked to have heard what that princess had to say.”
“She was called away on important business,” Starlight said.
“Shame,” said the pony. “But I think we’ve got the pony we need right here. If you ever decide to go into politics, doc, you give me a holler. I know a few ponies that could help you out.”
The pony once again shook Dr. Fie’s hoof, this time with enough force to make Dr. Fie’s whole body shake. Once he was gone, Dr. Fie then turned to the others, his eyes narrowing craftily and a smile appearing on his face.
“Just think of it, Dr. Fiddly Fie, champion of the public good, pony of the people,” he said.
“Doctor,” Starlight said, “the only thing that could make politicians worse is if they were you.”
“Well, that’s just great,” Stirring said. “We brought them here so that we could win the city’s support for a new princess. Instead, we won their support for Dr. Fie!”
“I’m sorry, Stirring,” Starlight said. “I know how much work you put into this.”
“Oh, you’re sorry?” Stirring snapped. “I’m sorry! I’m the one who’s been working non-stop for our cause, the cause you’re supposed to be leading! And then when we finally have some success, due to my hard work, you and that Radiant Hope go and ruin it! You told me to trust you. You told me Hope would be on board with us by the time you reached Las Pegasus. And I never questioned you. I never question you. But now, not only does she disappear at the very moment she knows she has to give a speech—”
“She didn’t know,” Starlight said.
“She didn’t know? You never mentioned it in the hour or so before the dinner you had to prepare?”
“I didn’t think she’d be going anywhere,” Starlight said. “And I figured it would be better if it was sudden. They’d see the tragic innocence we want to project.”
“Well, all they got to see was that Dr. Fie thinks he’s the greatest pony in Equestria!”
“I know so, dear boy,” Dr. Fie said. “Thinking has nothing to do with it.”
“We know that, doctor,” Starlight said as she stood up. “And Stirring, calm down.”
Stirring slammed his hooves on the table. “Calm down? Calm down? I’m sorry, ma’am, but I won’t calm down!”
Stirring stormed out of the room. Starlight watched him go. She sank back into the chair, eyes closed, with one hoof massaging the temples above them.
“Is this even my seat? I can’t remember. It’s been one Tartarus of a night,” she said.
“I’m sure it will turn around, dear lady,” Dr. Fie said. “Stirring will get over it. He’s just frustrated.”
“Did you say you fought at Roan’s Drift?” Starlight asked.
“Oh, yes, I did!” he said, pulling out the nearest chair and sitting down. “Let me tell you all about it. I expect you’ve never learnt of it before. Ponies these days are so ignorant of their nation’s famous moments. But the way I shall tell it, you shall think that you are there. You shall see the savanna, you shall hear the bloodcurdling cry of the zebra savage, you shall—”
“My father fought at Roan’s Drift,” Starlight said. “He never mentioned anything about you saving the regiment single-hoofedly.”
“A mere oversight, I’m sure,” Dr. Fie responded.
“He did say that there was this one medical officer who spent the whole day cowering in his bunk. They had to sedate him until the battle was over.”
Dr. Fie fidgeted a little and tried to suppress a grimace. “Hmm, I wonder who it was. I don’t seem to recall him. But, of course, when one is constantly throwing oneself into the front lines of the fray, one does not always notice these little details.”
“Of course,” Starlight said skeptically. “He later said that he had to help that same medical officer out of some trouble. Something about selling top-secret weaponry to the zebras.”
“What a cad that fellow must have been,” Dr. Fie said, affecting righteous indignation. “It wasn’t me. Though I’m sure he had a good reason for his actions. I’ve always said that the weapons charges were trumped up, anyhow.”
Starlight’s eyes narrowed.
Dr. Fie’s fidgeting grew worse. “I’m sure they were, I mean. And I would have always said that, had I been there. Which, of course, I wasn’t.”
“I was just thinking,” Starlight said. “It would explain why you let me into the psychiatric ward of your hospital, all the while knowing who I was. But then, you’re not that noble. I’m sure the money was incentive enough, even if it was paltry compared to what some of your other patients pay you.”
“So you say, dear lady,” Dr. Fie said. “But, of course, I didn’t even know your father. And where is dear Hope? How could she be called away on business?”
Starlight sighed. “You might want to see if you can find another glass of wine. Or another bottle. This is going to be hard for you to hear, doctor.”
Where did Radiant Hope go? And what would she choose?
Read on.