//------------------------------//
// The Equinox Shelves 
// Story: Diprosopus 
// by WritingSpirit 
//------------------------------//

	All the world's shadows danced before her.

All the darkness of Equestrian history emerged from the night.

Twilight Sparkle and Inkie Pie had opened a door that had not been opened for centuries, perhaps with good reason. The former pony was the first to step in, raising a lantern through thin, speckled curtains of dust. Her eyes scrolled through titles she had never heard before, and with good reason, from how they sounded like. Dread was already settling in her before she even made her first step, a ball of regret forming in her throat. She gulped it down unwillingly, feeling the tight shelves walling her in while she traced her hoof across the spines of  depraved totems and seditious archives.
"Here we are," she quivered.
"The Equinox shelves."

It was a step into a different world. The very first friends that Twilight had ever made in this room, that she found solace in were now the object of nightmares. Legends have it that the terrors spoken by the lines of ink were said to have cursed those who read these scriptures. Some even said that the pages and covers of some of these books were made from the skins of young mares. Twilight had always found them ridiculous — books were just what they were: books! — yet as she crept deeper and deeper, she found herself wanting to take back that perception.

"Where do we begin?" Inkie asked.

Twilight just stared blankly into the darkness.
"I don't know," she mumbled like a lost filly in the woods.

So lost was she in her quivers that she didn't notice Inkie stepping past her and taking the lead.

Twilight Sparkle had faced horrors and fought adversaries that many ponies would otherwise be witlessly terrified of, and even she dared not to step any further down the aisle, yet here was Inkie Pie, trudging onward down the dark path without a care for anything else. Then again, Inkie had seen much darker things than she had; no amount of fighting King Sombra and Tirek could ever hold the dark candle to finding her deceased parents in their razed home.
"I'll look through this section," she suggested.
"We'll just gather, say, five books we think it's interesting and then we look through them. If none of them mentions Janus, we'll pick another five and try again. Does that sound good?"

"I guess it's worth a try."

"Twilight, if it helps you, I don't know what I'll do if we get caught either."

"I was hoping you had a plan if we did," Twilight sighed.
"I can't believe I'm doing this. What if there wasn't anything here? What do we do then?"

"There must be something here," Inkie said with a firmness in her voice.
"I'm sure of it."

"And if there really wasn't?"

"Princess Celestia had a point about you asking too many questions."

"Wha-huh?!" Twilight gasped, only to receive a loud, demanding hiss of silence from Inkie.
"Sorry... she really said that?"

"Yes, during one of our private meetings, but please don't mention anything about that. The princess wants me to keep everything that we talked about under lock and key."

Twilight could only nod with wilted brows. All these secrets, all these talk behind doors... Princess Celestia wasn't known to keep secrets like she was now. All her life, Twilight had been by her teacher's side, listening to all the stories she freely told and being taught the lessons that had stayed with her until now. Never had she viewed her as secretive, never!
Looking through one of the shelves, her logical mind began questioning her faithfulness to the princess. There hasn't been such a big threat in over a thousand years, not since Discord's reign of chaos. The Princess Celestia she knew must've anticipated it and prepared some countermeasures should it happen again, though unless her plan was to wait it out and lose countless of lives in the process, it didn't seem that she had any.

Still, she wouldn't give up.

Not until she knew who they were up against.

"Janus... Janus..." Twilight muttered, eyes scrolling across the words from a book she picked.
"Nothing here so far. How are things on your end?"

"Looking grim, I would say."

A pair of sighs.

"Jinx," Inkie announced with what little humour she had left, leaving both mares giggling.
"Thought we could do away with the tension."

"Tension?" Twilight inquired, the two of them trotting back out to the reading section of the library.

"Between you and me, of course. Why else would you not find me approachable?"

Twilight mustered nothing more of a reply than a sigh, switching her gaze back to the books before her even as Inkie's discomforting stare pressed on. She settled into one of the chairs and, using her magic, flipped through the pages of her first choice, pressuring her concentration onto the words in the papers even as the swirling shivers in her gut remained.
Inkie Pie was, like her sister, a persistent mare. That fact was made evident to Twilight in five grueling minutes and just under three pages. When her concentration snapped like a twig, Twilight struck back with a stare on her own, hoping to quell the growing storm of questions that would rupture their purpose here.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.

"I want to know."

"About what?"

"How you find me intimidating."

Those words grappled Twilight into a chokehold.
"What do you mean?" she retaliated.
"Inkie, we're friends. There's no reason for me to think you're intimidating."

"Then why do you look so... afraid of me?" Inkie questioned, unconvinced.
"Twilight, if we're friends, then you can tell me. You know that, don't you?"

Twilight made no effort to reply and slunk her head back to the side, resuming her end of the midnight scavenge. Still, Inkie looked on, though only for a moment before she too resumed her search. All that snuck through the cracks of the brick wall of silence were the crinkling of turning parchments, book by book crossed off the list. Two to three, three to five, and Inkie emerged as the first to finish her collection. She hopped off her chair for her second round, though not before stopping at the door.

"There are many good reasons why I can be seen as intimidating, you know."

A twitch of the ear, before Twilight gave a glance up from her books to see Inkie staring insistently back at her, standing at the doorway between the forbidden archives and the rest of the library. For a while, neither sides exchanged words. Neither side spoke, with one of them already wishing for all this to be swept under the rug.

Then again, Inkie Pie was a persistent mare.

"I would find myself intimidating too," she croaked out a laugh.
"I've seen my parents murdered, my sisters had all disappeared, I spend day after day having a private and confidential talk with Her Royal Majesty Princess Celestia herself without anyone else knowing what we're talking about... makes it seem like I was the one behind all that, huh?"

"Inkie, it's just..."
The bleak outlook that Inkie had served on the silver platter always bothered Twilight, much like how Pinkie's overly-optimistic senses once did. She even wondered how Blinkie would fit in that sense. Sure, Pinkie was let off the hook over her views, but that was because it didn't do more than bring a smile. In dark times like these, a smile was what they all needed and not another cold reminder.
"It's just that you keep saying about how—" she paused, warily choosing her words.
"How... dreadful everything was going to be. Like how we lost when we never even began."

"Pinkie would probably do the same."

"Pinkie did say things like that back when we had to deal with the stuff at Pendant Lakes," Twilight affirmed.
"But she also made up for it, Inkie. She tried to make us smile, to make us feel like we can get through that like how we always did. She sees the light in everything even when there seemed to be none. She's... just being Pinkie Pie."

"I'm not like her, you have to understand that," Inkie answered.
"What I see, what Pinkie sees, what Blinkie sees... we're all different. We all see different things. I'm not trying to defend myself, if you must know. Just that I don't want anyone else think I'm intimidating anymore. I've had enough of what I faced in Cirrus Deep, of everything... Janus, he... he did all this. He made all this happen, all this confusion... he drove my sisters and I apart and now, he's trying to do the same to us. All of us. You have to remember that, Twilight. What's worse?"

Twilight never could've prepared herself for what came next.

"We are not ready."

Four words. Four strong, powerful yet utterly simple words. It managed to make Twilight's pounding heart stop for a breather, as well as remind her why they were here in the first place. Perhaps she found Inkie intimidating but she knew better. She knew that out there, somewhere in the world, there lies a larger threat closing in. She knew that right now, she was going out of her way to stop that threat from ever arriving. That was why they were here: to learn something about the coming storm; to be ready.

It was with that in mind that she trotted over to Inkie's side and, accompanied with a hoof on the other mare's shoulder, uttered three great words of her own.

"We can be."

Perhaps those words didn't come out the way she wanted to. Perhaps those words weren't enough to convince Inkie Pie that she was sympathizing with her. Perhaps she said those words only because the situation demanded it. Whatever the reason was, Inkie only gave a halfhearted chuckle and slunk back into the forbidden archives.
"What do you expect, Inkie?" her cold voice trembled through the shelves.
"That everything would be back the way it was? Wake up already..."

More at a loss than ever, Twilight hesitantly shuffled back to her books, lending half of a deaf ear to Inkie Pie's grim musings. Grimmer still was their progress, which became apparent after a few laps back and forth, book after book crossed off the list. As the night drew onward and her heavy eyes began to whimper, she gave a glance up, smiling when she saw Inkie sleeping with an open book as a makeshift pillow. It was the calmest that she had ever seen from Inkie Pie; a beautiful moment of silence in the noise of the modern world.
"We are not ready..." she mumbled those four simple words, her doubts began to echo that sentiment.
"You're right, Inkie. We're not ready."

"What for, Twilight Sparkle?"

Every nerve of her being blew up in a cataclysmic fireworks show when the new voice pierced the silence. It was a voice of patience and serenity. It was a voice of authority, of order and prosperity. It was a voice that came with history and power. It was a voice that, in the very heat of the moment, pronounced doom with a decorative capital D.
Twilight whirled around, her face wrested free of the boundaries of color when the owner of said voice emerged from the shadows, her stature looming over much more than the bookshelves around her ever did. Her eyes fearfully glossed over the forbidden books lying inconspicuously on the table, before darting to the open door that lead to the Equinox Shelves— the same door she was entrusted not to ever open, under any circumstances. Her mind reeled for an explanation, her heart thrashing out propellers of cold sweat from their pores. The shadows that she had released were closing in around her, the incarnation of it all now standing before her in its most regal form with irises that glint with attention.

Still, even in a state of panic, Twilight Sparkle never forgets her formalities.

"Y-Your Highness!"




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"Finally awake, big brute?"

Brutus the minotaur like to think himself as one with a simple mind. Not that he was inadequately unintelligent as his brethren were always portrayed. To put it into context, he has simple preferences, simple endeavors, simple answers to the most convoluted of questions, simple opinions, simple principles he followed by, even a simple thought process. The latter was especially true, which contrasted his turbulent thoughts that ran through his past self in his juvenile days or, for a more modern comparison, the amalgamation of a Highland snowstorm that is the mind of Pinkamena Diane Pie.

For example, when he heard the first voice that greeted him when he sauntered out of the caravan and into the wilderness, his vision burning white from the sun before clearing to see the sole pony seated in the circle of logs around a charred mound of sticks, only two words lit up in his mind.

Velvet Willows.

To the unicorn's greeting, he gave a grunt of acknowledgement.

"We were a little worried that you might not be getting up soon," Velvet said, polishing one of his hidden blades.
"We just left Byafisogsne hours ago. Lots of things happened there when you were out. Shame that you missed it."

"The rest?" Brutus asked, carefully settling down onto one of the logs.

"Probably around here somewhere, gathering some food."

Time ran slow in the vast wilderness, especially when there is a lack of anything to do. For most of the caravan, it persuaded them to find a task, whether it be scouting ahead, gathering berries or hunting wildlife, just to hasten things up and be on their merry way. Velvet, for example, passed his time by polishing his blades now and then. It was slower for him, definitely, but he still hastens time like all the others do.
Brutus sees himself as the exception to them. He appreciates simplicity much more than the others do and, with that in mind, he basks in the simplicity that is the solace of passing time in the wilderness. He enjoys it, to an extent. Like right now, standing in the middle of a half-barren forest, fur bristling in the icy tundra air with ample patches of snow in every mile in any direction, the fuzzy sun stingy with its warmth... he enjoyed these nuances of nature that he had missed in his younger years. He enjoyed knowing that these nuances were there.

So much that when Velvet broke him out of his spiritual trance with a tap on the shoulder, he gave a brusque nicker.

"Something's bothering you, isn't it?" Velvet inquired, the minotaur only giving a snort.
"I can tell, you know? You're practically the calmest of us all. If something stirred in you, even a pony as dubious as Ganger would notice it."

A disapproving grunt.

"At this point, it's not really a big secret anymore, so why won't you tell us why?"

"Nothing worth talking about," was the minotaur's simple answer.

"Nothing worth—!" Velvet let out a laugh.
"Seriously, do I have to remind you again? Tenet number seven. Remember that?"

"A voice of one is worthy of the ear of thousands."
Brutus hated that tenet. To him, it was undeniably pointless, simple as that, but however pointless it was to him, there were others that needed it. Others that perhaps would be uncomfortable speaking their mind had it not been implemented.
"You are misusing it, Velvet," he bluntly put forth his thoughts.
"That tenet is to allow freedom of speech for everyone in the caravan, not as a reason for interrogation."

"Interrogation? Inconceivable, Brutus! Is your secret that bad?"

Brutus relinquished a harsh rumble.

"Be a good sport, Brutus! Just teasing you, you know that!" Velvet laughed, sheathing his blades back before standing up.
"I'm heading off to look for Phoenix. Celestia knows what kind of game he's hunting down this time..."

The minotaur remained silent, instead fixating his gaze into the fading embers of the campfire before him. Beyond the solitude of his mind, he could hear the crunch of fallen leaves underneath a glazing of snow as Velvet began trotting away, leaving him alone with his thoughts. His gaze fell to his bandaged chest where, just a week ago, a claw of a humongous bear made its mark, all because he made a fateful jump to protect one of them. There was something simmering underneath all those layers of fabric and flesh, though with it came doubt. With it came a few words that had been engraved in his head ever since that fateful encounter in a hospital ward.

"You don't want to be with me, Brutus..."

"Oh, by the way, Brutus," he hear his fellow member call out to him one last time.
"Waterfall, a league or so southwest. Good luck. You're gonna need it."

That made Brutus whirl around, taken aback for the first time in a while as he watched the smirking Velvet march into the dense undergrowth, vanishing into the depths of the forest. For a long time, he stared into the darkness that the unicorn had entered, lost in those words. Did he really... it couldn't be! He couldn't have known, could he? Then again, he was Velvetine Willows, the brains of the caravan with an uncanny eye for secrets and hidden thoughts. Perhaps there was no surprise there.
A smile crept onto Brutus's lips, before fading away again. Velvet might have gave him the directions and wished him luck, but that didn't make him any less apprehensive on what he was planning to do. With nothing but a teaspoon of hope, he stood up and began a small hike through the forest, following the directions that Velvet had gave him.

It was a quiet trek into the woods. That part was important: that it was quiet. What was also important was that it was the right kind of quiet. It was not the silence that looms over you while you anticipate the coming storm, which was a silence that the caravan had frequently encountered. No, it was the tranquility of hearing only the sounds of nature dimming down, leaving you to listen to your own thoughts as you traipse freely between the trees. With what he was about to do, Brutus needed it more than ever.
The minutes of silent, wishful thinking drifted away when his ears picked up the faint grumble of rushing water that matured into a loud roar as he got closer. Trudging towards the sound, he came upon a lake, barely obstructed by tufts of bushes and the snaky, low-hanging branches of trees. Wave after rippling wave washed into the soaked land, all of it rushing from a monumental waterfall as large and wide as an Ursa Minor. The brilliant stream of water was swift, crashing into jutting granite and forming a thick curtain that shielded all behind it from view.

Stepping out of the clearing, his hooves sinking into the damp soil, his demanding gaze caught sight of movement between the cascading blinds; a flurry of green, resembling more of the distant oceans he could see from his old home than the trees around him. Slowly creeping closer, Brutus firmly latched onto the tail of his whisking breath when he realized what he was looking at.

He was looking at majesty in the making.

There was a majesty to Dapple Deuce, whether she was brandishing a gun and firing to her heart's content, having an intense squabble with her brother over the most trivial matters or, like right now, having a quiet bath in the flowing embrace of a waterfall. There she was, smiling contently, the steady stream of water rushing down her athletic body. Her tail swept across the surface of the water, adding a ripple of her own to the endless streams around. All of it was made even more majestic when she suddenly tossed her mane to the side, sending an arc of droplets across the lake through the strips of sunlight and rushing water. With all of that happening, Brutus admired it from afar, just like how he admired the sunset over snow-capped fjords back in the Highlands. He believed that such a majestic view should only be admired, for taking it for himself would complicate his simple life. With what he's looking at now, however... maybe it wouldn't hurt to be a bit more liberal once in a while.

"Good luck," Velvet's parting words reminded him in a distant echo as he stepped into the cold water and waded towards the bathing mare.
"You're gonna need it."

"Dapple."

The roar of the waterfall was brazenly loud, so much so that when Dapple heard her name from an all-too familiar, lesser heard voice over that, she immediately whirled around and stumbled back at the sight of the burly minotaur slowly wading up to her. With a yelp, she fell backwards into the lake with a splash, taking a moment with a few small pants in tow before reeling her confidence up with a strangled smile.
"B-Brutus! What a coincidence!" she blurted out.
"I mean, uh, I thought... you know, since you'd been out for a while, that you might still be sleeping. I mean, hah! Don't get me wrong, it's n-not like I'm saying you're that weak or... I just, maybe I thought—"

A raised eye, accompanied by a growing smile.

Dapple gave a flustered cough, picking herself and her spilled can of vocabulary up as she stepped out from the streams of water rushing down her back.
"S-So, what brings you here?" she asked.
"You gathering everyone back together or something? Velvet should be doing that instead of you... b-because, you know, you've just woken up and all... but that's not it, isn't it?"

"I'm here to talk."

A flustered silence sank into the damp air, both pony and minotaur staring at each other, waist deep in water while patiently waiting for the other to begin speaking. Brutus had the patience of a mountain, that being common knowledge to both of them. It was with that in mind that Dapple decided to break away from their wordless exchange of furtive glances and swim back into the safety of the rushing veil of water. It was also with that in mind that Brutus followed her lead soon after.
"We can talk," Dapple settled on muttering that out, closing the eyes as rivulets from above ran down her cheeks.
"Sure. Why not? Let's talk."

Another moment of silence.

"When did it start?" Dapple finally asked, turning to the minotaur.

"Watercress Valley."

Watercress... that was almost two months before meeting Pinkie Pie for the first time. Dapple could only vaguely recall what they did there; some memories of her shooting down a few gryphon marauders while galloping across a plateau came into mind. What Brutus saw in her then, she had no idea, but it turned from admiration into something much more.
"Why me?" she asked.

"You're beautiful."

Fire blazed through her cheeks when those words hit her.
"Wa— I, um, uh," she blundered.
"S-Sorry, I didn't think you'd— I mean, I knew that, well, but— you didn't have to, um—"

Immediately, Dapple broke out into a giggle, laughing out at how stupid she was making herself sound. Even Brutus had to spare a grin at what his statement had done to her, perhaps feeling a little proud of it as well. It was the rare sight of his smile that caught her attention when she managed to quell her laughter, to which she spared a smile of her own.
If any of the remaining members were to see it, they would've screamed eureka up to high heaven. Two of the most stone-faced, most serious members of the group, smiling at the same time? Heck, Pinkie Pie would've thrown a party there and then! Fortunately, with all the noises of the world drowned out in a cascading roar in a distant corner of the forest, it was the safest haven Dapple could find to, initially, do a little bit of silent thinking. Of course, life always had other ideas.

Dapple's smile began to wane when she saw the still-bandaged chest of the minotaur, reminding of the night she cursed aloud at the stars, the snow and the darkness looming above; of the night her hooves were bloodied in Highland red while she was surrounded by a dome of arrows; of the night where everything she had known up and every principle she lived her life by till then was torn apart by the claws of a Whitewind Bear.
Brutus's eyes lit up when he felt the familiar tingle of magic on the bandages, his gaze drawing down at the sparkling clouds of lime green tugging at the fabric. Within somber silence, he let the mare do her work, peeling layer after blotted layer away. It was at the last layer, the sticky one that threatened to tear away at caked skin and clotted blood, that made him wince with a hiss.

"Brutus!" Dapple cried, letting her magic go immediately.
"Celestia, I'm so sorry I— are you okay? Did I hurt you or anything?"

Hastily, Brutus shook his head, his smile giving the mare much needed relief. With only a single strip of bandage clinging for dear life onto his chest, the minotaur took over, slowly but surely tearing it off, grimacing from the pain, drawn out and stubborn. Dapple could almost hear the threads latched into the flesh ripping it away, so much that when the bandage finally let go with a final screech, she felt her hairs stand to attention despite the onslaught of water coming from above.
Her face fell when she laid her eyes onto the center of Brutus's chest: a large gash that streaked across his body like a sordid star, stinging from the constant assault of droplets overhead and shining a discolored maroon with traces of yellow and tiny patches of red. Her jaw followed suit, utterly horrified by the revelation of the damage the bear's claw had done. The damage she had done.

"I'm sorry..." Dapple could only croak.
"I'm so s-sorry..."

The mare shivered, her tears quickly flooded away as she stepped backwards into the maw of the waterfall. Her knees were wobbling, color seeping off her cheeks, the gruesome sight of the wound taunting her, frightening her more than any abomination had ever did before. No amount of wishful, silent thinking in a waterfall could prepare her for this. That said, no amount of wishful, silent thinking in a trek through the woods could prepare Brutus for what was coming next either.
Dapple Deuce finally collapsed, splashing into the water as her knees crumpled from underneath her. The minotaur was dumbstruck, to say the least, seeing her in her most vulnerable state for the first time, her whimpers bouncing off the cavern rocks. He quickly snapped himself out of it, surprising her when he knelt down to her level and firmly planted both of his hands onto her shoulders. It was at that moment that Dapple saw it, that she finally realized what he was here for.

Along the lines of the minotaur's smile, Dapple Deuce had seen sincerity.

It was a sight that she had not seen in a long time.

With that, she welcomed it with a loud sob that soared past the clouds.

The cavern, the lake, the forest around them, all shuddering in the wake of a withheld cry. From the maw of the waterfall, Dapple Deuce wailed inconsolably, drenched in a torrential downpour in her spiral of misery. It burst forth like a phoenix from the clutches of death, screaming up to the rising sun. It was a cry neglected, a cry she had ignored, one she thought would fare well from what little sniffles she may let out at night. It was a cry that was wronged by her and her alone, to which she shall embrace the suffering that came with it.
Her majesty crumbled like the rocks around her, but perhaps that was meant to be, Brutus thought to himself. Perhaps, behind all that majesty, all that beauty and perfection that he had always appreciated from afar, the real Dapple Deuce would reveal herself with another kind of majesty, one that his eyes and only his eyes would bear witness to.

Perhaps, for that to happen, he would have to lend a hoof.

When her sobs were soft enough and her battered conscience began to return, Brutus gave her the last push she needed: he swiftly drew her in, her eyes bursting open when their lips met for the second time.

Dapple tried to wriggle away, the belt connecting the gears in her head burning from the friction. She didn't know what was happening, she didn't know what was supposed to do, what she can do. In that turmoil, however, Princess Crystallia's words cut through those wandering thoughts like a snowstorm, giving her head with much needed space to think.
She knelt there like one in prayer, her lips puckered against the ones of the minotaur that had sought for her affections. Right before this, she was praying for forgiveness when she unwrapped the bandages off his chest. The last piece of the puzzle lit up in her head: her confessional, down in the hospital wards of the temple, when Brutus laid in bed and she sat at his side; where she confessed her insecurities and he lent an ear. The last thing she did was what she was doing now: giving the minotaur a kiss on the lips. It was short and sickly bittersweet, like she thought it might be, for one reason.

It was supposed to be a kiss goodbye.

That was when her eyelids began simmering to a close, her breathing began to slow and her lips were coaxed by the sensations of the other pair. Dapple Deuce began pushing back, venturing deeper and deeper into where the minotaur would allow her. Her mouth began to waver, her world tossing and turning when Brutus started wrestling with her tongue, reaching into a cave where no one had ventured before. It was when they finally broke away, when both their dreamy eyes met each other, renewed with a different vigor, that she finally realized what just happened.

That was definitely a kiss hello.

"That..." she managed to gasp.
"That was..."

Brutus just grinned, his left hoof drawing up to caress her damp cheek.
"That was me," he began.
"Showing how much I want to be with you."

Immediately, Dapple Deuce froze up in a seething red, the echoes of her quickening heartbeat bombarding her mind. In her loss, she managed to find a smile, one that came with tears. This time, the tears weren't salty; it was sweet, pathetically so. When they ran down to her chin, she could only wrap her hooves around him, crying in a realm of silence even as her lips curled into a grin.
"I haven't cried like this in a long time..." she muttered dazedly, feeling refreshed in a way she had never felt before.
"In a very, very long time..."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Maybe, maybe not," she chuckled.
"It doesn't matter, doesn't it? It never does."

"Maybe I've asked the wrong question," he said, correcting himself. 
"Is that a good thing?"

Dapple Deuce couldn't smile any bigger than that.
"With you here, definitely."

It was an answer that reverberated with confidence, one she had not heard the likes of in a long time. Sure, she may not know why she had these feelings for the minotaur; for all she might know, he might not even know why he felt that way about her either. Still, even though both of them had no idea why they loved each other, she knew for certain that they do love each other. In the boundaries of her instincts that a certain princess had told her to trust, it was enough of a reason for her.
From a village of ice and snow into forests graced by sunshine, where a grandiose waterfall sat at a quiet corner beyond huddling trees, came change. With that change came love, a quiet kind of love made of confessions both good and bad, one that both minotaur and mare could not explain. Right now, they do not know why they love each other, but Dapple and Brutus would agree on one thing: that knowing why would be quite the tumultuous adventure, one with many ups and downs that does not guarantee that either of them would emerge unscathed. It will be there in the coming horizon, ready to give it everything it has.

Being proud members of the caravan however, both of them could hardly wait for it to begin.




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There was a time when the mention of beauty sleep resonated well with her ears.

Like how Twilight would turn to scientific research for her studies on magic, Rarity would turn to her tabloids for the Canterlotian guide to being a prim and proper prancing fashionista up on Trendy Avenue. Both sides agreed that having a good night's rest will definitely make the day feel brighter and your looks feel fresher, a keepsake for one's well-being.
Now, as she trotted down hallway after hallway with only the glimmer of blue to lead the way, she wondered when that idea was thrown out the window. Perhaps it was when the tabloids moved away from health advice to the grandeur of sporadic attacks on Equestria by a name never needing an honorable mention. Perhaps, with that move, Rarity followed suit.

Canterlot Palace has its perks, though Rarity had hoped she would have a room much closer to the royal kitchen, which would save all the energy she burned out in her exhausting journey just to have a drink and a moment of thought. It was a habit she had picked up ever since Pendant Lakes, to wake up and have a little something to sip on; nothing the tabloids had ever prescribed to anyone should such horrors ever happen around them. Despite not being something she should do to guarantee a stay in Trendy Avenue, however, she was relieved to know that she wasn't the only one to do so.
Twilight was the most occasional culprit, always scouring through the library in a race against time, though Rarity did notice that her sightings became rarer after her and Inkie's encounter with the rogue guards. Speaking of which, Inkie was next in line, usually found in some isolated corner somewhere lamenting over the circumstances or musing over the thoughts of her sisters again. Coming in third was Spike, who'd sometimes rarely wake up and follow her to the kitchen while on the lookout for another possible attack. The dragon was paranoid, for lack of a better word, but rightly so, she believed, if their past encounters with Janus were of any concern.

There were some nights, however, where the others come into play.

"Oh, I couldn't... I promised Rainbow Dash I wouldn't tell anyone else..."

The creak of the kitchen door that always welcomed her in was accompanied this time by two familiar voices. Slowly, Rarity crept in, her eyes drawn towards a single candlelight illuminating two familiar pegasi sitting on bar stools at the counter. She had almost never seen them having a conversation together, let alone being in the same room with the other. With their foalhood friends being husband and wife, however, she figured this day would come eventually.
"Sounds like something Soarin' would say," Spitfire mumbled, smiling.
"You know, that reminds me of the time when Soarin' and I went to Summer Flight Camp together back when we were children—"

"Rarity?" the other pony, Fluttershy, cut in, noticing her friend's entrance.

Spitfire quickly turned around, her smiling lighting up at the prospect of more company.
"Hey there! What brings you here, Rarity?"

"Oh, just stopping in to get a drink," Rarity chimed, trotting towards them.
"I must say, I'm surprised to see both of you here as well."

"Well, Fluttershy got here after Amber Rose woke her up with her crying," the Wonderbolt said, speaking for the other pegasus.
"As for me, well, I guess I just woke up and thought it'd be nice to have a little walk around the palace. Found Fluttershy on her way to the kitchen, came here for a little chat and then you came in."

"Sorry to intrude, if I may."
Rarity trotted over to the counter, her magic instinctively grabbing a mug from the cupboards while she poured a satchel of freshly roasted beans into the coffee grinder. Her horn shimmered a light cyan as she worked the crank, hearing the grating crinkle as the beans were finally ground into powder.
"So, what's this about Rainbow Dash and Soarin' I hear?" she cooed, intrigued.

"Oh, just talking about how they used to be back then," Spitfire answered.
"I never really had the chance to talk about Soarin' aside from my best mare speech."

Ah, the wedding of Rainbow Dash and Soarin' Glorytail. Rarity remembered it as one of the more interesting weddings she had been to. There was that strange cloud procession that kicked the ceremony off, as well as the part where both of them exchanged their humeral feathers as a traditional sign of love. That was true as well when, instead of a best stallion, Soarin' had Spitfire: a best mare who, alongside Fluttershy and a few others, doubled as one of the bridesmaids.
"It's funny," the Wonderbolt chuckled.
"Just a moment ago, Soarin' and I were butting heads at Summer Flight Camp. Now, I'm a godmother to a pair of twins! Who would've thought we would come this far?"

"I can't believe it either," Fluttershy spoke up, smiling warmly.
"Rainbow Dash, becoming a mother... it's funny how time flies, really."

"Let's not forget you as well, Fluttershy!" Rarity chimed in, stirring her cup with a spoon.
"You and Macintosh getting married and having Amber Rose together. Why, I can't believe all of that happened while I was away as well! I was so certain you needed a little encouragement, but you managed by yourself just fine!"

"Oh, it was nothing really..."

Both her and Spitfire could only laugh when Fluttershy started blushing heavily, though Rarity couldn't help but envy her friend. Fluttershy had crossed a hurdle that few had crossed and got herself married to a most gentle stallion, which was something she hoped would be the same for herself. Pegasus and Earth pony, no big deal, but when it comes between a pony and a dragon, eyebrows will be raised.
Perhaps it was because she held a position among royalty that many of Canterlot's residents did not give her the usual stare of intense scrutiny, but Rarity could already hear their unruly gossiping behind her back. It was, unfortunately, a sentiment most of Equestria shared, the nation having had bad affairs with the dragons all the time, but Canterlot and its residents had went through the subjugation of the rogue turned chancellor Kane, whose presence around the princess was already being questioned in hushed whispers. To say the least, Applejack was less than pleased.

"It's something in my book," Spitfire declared, giving Fluttershy a wink.
"Marriage isn't the easiest thing to handle, Fluttershy. You're lucky you have someone as patient as Big Mac to be with, you know?"

"Um, you don't have to answer this, Spitfire, but, um... do you have a special somepony?"

"Had," the Wonderbolt corrected, offering a less generous, if not cracking, smile.
"Yeah, I had a special somepony. Not so special anymore, however."

"Ooh~!" Rarity chimed with a grin.
"Who was it?"

"Just somepony— look, I really don't want to talk about him," she snapped with a glower.
"We just thought we could hit it out of the ball park but we didn't, that's it, end of story."

The other two just looked at her, speechless. Rainbow Dash once told them about not getting onto Spitfire's bad side, to which both Rarity and Fluttershy could easily see why. Judging from how defensive she was, Rarity could tell it did not end too well for her. Still, this was the first time she had heard about Spitfire having somepony special in her life. Apart from suggesting Soarin' was with her, there was nothing in the tabloids that mentioned that she ever had a special somepony, which makes it all the more strange.
"S-Sorry about that," Spitfire apologized quickly.
"It's just... it's really, really personal, hard-hitting stuff and... I can't, I just— I can't just—"

"You don't have to say it," Rarity stepped in to help out despite that nagging feeling in her head.
"If it's something really personal, you decide whether you want to tell it or not. We wouldn't want to pry and hurt your feelings, Spitfire."

Spitfire muttered something akin to a 'thank you'.

"So, how is Amber Rose?" the unicorn asked Fluttershy before the awkwardness could settle in.

"Oh, she's doing fine!" Fluttershy chirped happily with a smile.
"Mac and Applejack had been taking really good care of her! I really think Amber Rose missed me as much as her mommy missed her! She looked so happy when I finally cradled her yesterday in my hooves and sang her that lullaby..."

Rarity smiled along with Spitfire, listening as the usually timid pegasus graced the opportune moment with a lot of swooning and fawning and cooing over her daughter. She had never heard her friend so happy in her entire life! If anything, she'd guess that Fluttershy's daughter brings out the best in her as much as it does the opposite, if Twilight's experience of getting caught in a chokehold would assume. That side of her was undoubtedly worrying, but she knew she didn't need to, not with her husband around.
"I'll never let it happen again," the pegasus finished with a hum of delight.
"For her sake."

Likewise, Rarity thought.

"Thought Ah heard ya voice from over here."

The low rumble from the doors made all of them turn at once, though Fluttershy was the first to grin.
"Did I wake you up?" the pegasus asked warmly, trotting over to the stallion standing at the open doorway.
"Or is Amber calling for me again?"

"Nope," Big Mac mumbled blearily with a good-natured smile.
"Just worried about you."

A pair of 'aw~'s flew from the mouths of the other mares as Fluttershy stood there, face flushed with a deep hue burning bright enough to rival her husband's coat. Meekly, she quickened her pace, hurrying to his side and, clinging onto his hoof, leaned in to whisper something into Big Mac's ear. What she said, the other mares did not quite catch, but Big Mac immediately chuckled after that.
"Why not?" he asked, feigning obliviousness.
"Last Ah checked, it ain't wrong to tell m'ah beautiful wife how much Ah love her."

"M-Macintosh!" Fluttershy snapped, flustered in red and almost ready to give her fearful Stare while Rarity and Spitfire tried their best to restrain their giggles. Big Macintosh chuckled as he petted her head and nuzzled her snout playfully, mumbling a soft apology to his pouting wife.

"Well then, Ah'll be tuckin' the missus in," the stallion said, breaking out into a yawn.
"Thanks for takin' care of Flutters for me."

"Oh, no problem at all," Rarity said with a wink while Spitfire withheld her giggles.

"I hate you..." Fluttershy mumbled, clinging tighter onto his hoof.

"No ya don't," Big Mac teased, the couple trotting out of the kitchen door.
"Come on now. Sounds like Amber's calling for us again..."

Rarity and Spitfire looked on with heartwarming smiles as the couple trotted away, leaving them alone with each other for company. It was an odd match to be had, one known for her aesthetics in fashion design and the other for her athletic prowess and air showmanship. The awkwardness took that first chance to settle in, lingering about for a few minutes, before Spitfire quickly resolved that.
"So, getting it on with Spike," she began.
"How's that working out?"

"Oh, we're doing fine, thank you for asking," Rarity answered.
"It must be strange, I imagine. A dragon and a unicorn being together."

"Hey, I might be a pegasus, but I'm not as air-headed as many of these elite Canterlot conservative socialites actually are," the Wonderbolt claimed, chuckling at her slight pun.
"Love is love, that's it. Nothing complicated, no science, politics or philosophy whatsoever. Still, I gotta admit, I was surprised when Rainbow told me you and Spike were together."

"Really?"

"Yeah! Heard of ponies with gryphons, minotaurs and all sorts of creatures, but with a dragon? That was something I only heard in stories and fairytales!"

Rarity chuckled slightly at Spitfire's cheerful demeanor, knowing full well what that story might be. She never pegged the stoic and brash commander of the Wonderbolts to fawn over stories of love and drama. Then again, she never pegged Rainbow Dash to be a Daring Do fanatic either. 
"We're still trying to sort it out," she replied.
"Spike and I are content with everything right now, to say the least. A petty argument or two sometimes, but that's about it. Other than that, I'm not quite sure where do we go from here."

"Why not marriage?" Spitfire suggested.
"You two looked pretty close enough for that."

"I don't think I'm ready."
Funny, Rarity thought to herself. She remembered a similar conversation she had with Octavia back in Pendant Lakes that led to this same conclusion. At least Octavia was rather honest about her confession. She, on the other hoof, not so much. Rather, she's stuck in the middle, her confidence wavering between the two ends.

"You could've fooled me," Spitfire stated with narrowed brows.
"If you think there'll be problems, look at Applejack! Her dragon's literally the dude who raided and forced Canterlot into a lockdown! Plus, don't mention this to her, but his size isn't what I'd call pony-friendly."

"You have a point."
Applejack and Kane were a couple that Rarity would call mystifying. If anything, their relationship paralleled that of the love stories and fairytales she had read, notably the late Persimmon's Dragonheart that she had read back in Palgiot Palace which, funnily enough, featured Jovern, Kane's brother, as the draconic love interest. Still, as much controversy as it would stir, Kane had a position among global leaders, standing in as ambassador in place of his brother. Those who pick on him would never know if they might be picking up their bones next, which only makes Spike a more tempting target.
"I just..." Rarity tried to put her muddled thoughts into words.
"With everything happening now, I wish that he would be safe. Janus had came after us so many times now and I... I wanted to make sure that everything will turn out alright. I mean, it's all so complicated now and... I guess I'm just waiting for the right time."

"Marriage itself is complicated, Rarity," Spitfire responded.
"There isn't any right time for it either. It's all about how committed you are to it and whether you want to bet your life and all you've earned onto it with another pony, or in your case, dragon. Look at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy! They're already having foals together!"

"That was before all of this started."

"Point is, it doesn't matter, Rarity," she continued.
"It might sound cheesy, but no bomb underneath the bed should stop the two of you from getting together."

"Or a knife on my neck. Or glass shards piercing into Spike's back. Or an assassination attempt that involved shooting our previous room apart—"

"Okay, okay, what do I know about what you've been through, yada yada— I get it," the pegasus huffed, wings bristled.
"Just thought you needed the advice. No hard feelings."

"No hard feelings," Rarity replied dryly.

"I think I'll be hitting the hay then. See you tomorrow."
With those words, Spitfire stood up and flew out of the kitchen, leaving Rarity alone with her cup of coffee and her meandering thoughts. That could've gone better, the little voice in her head muttered; or could it, another voice retaliated. Her tired head didn't bother to know, her hooves tracing the curves of her cup as she leaned forward, up until her cheeks rested on the cold, smooth marble of the countertop.

"Marriage is complicated..." she murmured the only thing she could agree on.
"I don't know what to do, Spike. I really don't..."

She laid there, pondering over and over about those thoughts, up until the warmth of the coffee receded and her eyes were drooping listlessly, her mind searching for a paradise, an undiscovered Eden. No amount of caffeine could whirl her out of the fantasy for her to drag herself back to her room, but just once was fine, Rarity told herself.

Just one night the kitchen.

One night alone.




O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O




"Y-Your Highness!"

Your Highness, Your Majesty, Your Excellency, Your Eminence.

All those titles and more, from your nearest vocabulary store.

Celestia always admired the creativity of ponykind. Sculptures, musical compositions, the zany inventions of every kind, even something like the many ways of greeting royalty. She could go on and on about how senseless yet unbelievably colorful they can go to express themselves. She would find it intriguing, every single time, like every new cup of tea and every new slice of cake. She enjoyed these small little things, what she had called nuances, hidden beneath the spectacular furors of everyday life.

Luna, of course, begged to differ.

Being banished to the moon did not affect her glum outlook on life; that was already permeating from within long before the feelings of envy warped her into Nightmare Moon. Unlike her sister, Luna prefers a straightforward route of thought: clear and concise with no chance of fraudulence and discrepancy. She hated beating around the bush, for the idea of it sickens her to the very core. For that, some touted her as a more level-headed princess; for others, more unforgiving.

Twilight Sparkle, in this very moment, fell into the latter.

Princess Luna followed the unicorn's fearful eyes darting from the various assortment of books on the table to a door left wide open and swinging in the midnight wind. She was well aware of where that door lead into, having been informed by her sister soon after her return from the moon. She had wondered, as Nightmare Moon in the ruins of their old castle, where most of the magic totems had gone; one of them had involved sealing Celestia into the sun, which she had bookmarked with a folded corner centuries ago. Her sister was gracious enough to let her know of their new home, though not so much as to allow her to pay a visit.

She could only wonder what Celestia would make of the offender standing in front of her now.

Of her most faithful student.

"Your Highness, this isn't what it looks like!" Twilight blabbered.
"This is— we were just, uh, we were—"

Most faithful.

Most resourceful, most resolute, most dependable, most trustworthy, most loyal.

All these and more, she chuckled.

If anything, Luna would add that she is the most blind. Sure, Twilight's not the royal hoofkisser or anything as debasing as that, but Luna had witnessed how naive she could be. Twilight Sparkle was undoubtedly a smart mare, but her logic could not mesh well with her faithfulness to Celestia, the mentor that taught her everything. Twilight was what modern ponies called a teacher's pet. A most obedient one, at that, if the alicorn were to judge.
Perhaps that naivety saved her this time, for she knew Twilight wouldn't even think of heading into the forbidden sections unless somepony else interfered, which Luna guessed was the suggestion of the other mare sleeping soundly on the table, Inkie Pie. It would seem that, like with Celestia, the ever faithful Twilight Sparkle was easily swayed by the words and suggestions of her friends, albeit to a lesser degree.

Luna's eternal frown found it's way back: that hit a little bit closer to home than she thought.

"Princess Luna, please, I'll do anything!" her attention tuned back to Twilight's desperate pleading.
"Please, please don't tell Princess Celestia about this!"

"That depends."

"D-Depends?" Twilight squeaked, paling.
"O-On what?"

"What you are doing this for," Luna answered.
"I trust in you, in that you are a smart mare who would think before you act. It is with that in mind that I believe you went through the forbidden archives with sound reason, and I suppose it must be a good one as well. Otherwise... well, it would be most regrettable, wouldn't you agree?"

Twilight gulped, uncertain of what to say to appease the calm and collected Princess Luna, that demeanor of which terrified her more than Nightmare Moon ever did. Still, with all the stars in the sky watching her, she clenched her hooves a little tighter, swallowing one last lump of hesitation before saying what she could only say.

"I'm trying to find out who Janus is."

For a moment that felt longer than she had hoped, Twilight stood there, in utter silence as she awaits for the royal decree. Luna's gaze narrowed down at her as even her breathing halted for a response, before what she would call a smirk came forth from the alicorn.
"I won't tell her," she promised, almost laughing at the grand sigh of relief the other mare gave.
"It's something you had done with the intent of saving Equestria. It is most commendable, even if you weren't the original conspirator of that idea."

"Y-You knew?"

"The Twilight Sparkle I know would not heed against my sister's words," Luna said before turning towards the table.
"As for Miss Pie here, I'm sure she would have no qualms about putting her life on the line."

Twilight followed her gaze, lips thin and crooked.
"Don't worry, she will be spared as well," the princess assured, the unicorn sighing once more in response.
"She shared your sentiments of exposing our enemy, of finding his origins in order to orchestrate his defeat. Although, to be frank, Twilight Sparkle, I bear ill news: I'm afraid all of tonight's efforts are in vain."

"W-What?" she gasped.
"What do you mean, Your Highness?"

"There is nothing here worth noting to aid you in your quest," Luna explained.
"The oldest of manuscripts from the Equinox Shelves were conceived in the early eras of our rule, decades before my banishment to the moon. My sister had made it known to me what sort of texts were being stored in those very shelves. Those that predate my transformation into Nightmare Moon mostly revolved around conspiracies from previous rulers of Equestria. You know, the reign of monarchs before Discord established his global dominion. When I was banished, many of the texts surrounding the circumstances between us were also hidden from public view, turning Nightmare Moon into a story of myth. Those were now, of course, relocated to the history section. Over the years that went by, my sister dealt with the largest conspiracies and controversies, the most major of which was the dissensions between the Celestian Ministry and the Ministry of Academic Sciences back in the day. All those documents: logs of experiments seized in raids, plots that were thwarted, all of them, were stored in those very shelves."

"I don't get it, Your Highness," Twilight questioned, trying to wrap her head around it.
"Wouldn't Janus still exist somewhere in the records? What are you trying to say?"

"Janus, as all of us now know him as, had been here long before we ever stepped onto the throne."

Everything shattered apart. Everything she had ever thought she had known about their enemy had just been flushed out into oblivion. Twilight stood there, gaping, speechless at the revelation Princess Luna had shed light onto; a revelation that would've changed the direction she was taking all those months of research with.  Disbelief clawed around her shivering lips, her mind racing faster than ever before.
"W-What do you mean?" her voice almost grew into a yell.
"You mean this whole time... this whole time... all those nights of reading and reading and... and gathering information and... and history books and reading and... this whole time, it was all for nothing?! That this whole time, Princess Celestia—"

Twilight's lips quavered along with her hooves, voice lurching before managing to mutter the appalling truth.

"S-She... lied to me?"

The aftermath of blind faith.

To that, Luna could only provide a grim nod.

Twilight Sparkle fell to the ground, all manner of helplessness lunging back into her. Her wide eyes, lost in shock and distraught, could only stare up at the princess of the night, her gut painfully wringing itself inside out from the dagger of betrayal that skewered it. Betrayal... she had never felt so hurt in her entire life, mostly because she was fortunate enough to have never felt it. For it to gut her up like this, by her mentor no less...
"W-Why?" she cried, staring at the floor.
"Why... why did you... how could you..."

"I understand how you feel, Twilight," Princess Luna's words settled in.
"I've been there before, feeling betrayed and denied by my sister... but you have to understand this and only this: she's doing this for your own good."

"For my own good?"
A treacherous venom, one rarely used in the face of royalty, slipped into the unicorn's voice. With the darkest grimace Twilight Sparkle could ever muster, the unicorn jerked her head up, glaring daggers in a brilliant show of defiance into the sorrowful eyes of Princess Luna.
"For my own good?!" she snarked.
"How is this for my own good?!"

"Twilight, as unbelievable as it may sound, it's true," Luna spoke, still retaining her tranquility.
"My sister wanted to make sure you wouldn't get hurt. If you had involved yourself any further—"

"If I had involved any further, what?! That he would attack me?!" she yelled, raising up her bandaged shoulder.
"Can't you see? He's already attacked me! Once, in that camp where we left everypony to die and again, when he stopped by and stabbed me in the shoulder! He already did all of that and we've lost all those lives... all those... we could've saved them! They weren't supposed to die!!"

"Twilight—"

"They... lost their lives believing in me..." her composure faltered, eyes shimmering in moonlight.
"They believed that I could save them, you know that?! That all this time... I thought I could... I could... I could save more lives before he would take them away! I thought that if I did this, I could stop him before more lives were lost! This... th-this is all just..."

"I'm sorry, Twilight," Luna softly mumbled, glancing to the side.
"I really am sorry."

"Th-This is all for nothing..."

Quiet sobs filled Equestria's midnight. Princess Luna could hear it clearly: not one, but the collective sobs of Equestria's citizens, who had entrusted their lives in protecting their country. Celestia warned that this day, the day where Twilight must face the truth, would come, though neither had predicted that it would come this fast. It was nonsensical, tasking your ever loyal student to do work that would never amount to anything, but Luna knew Janus. Luna knew what he was capable of as much as she knew that they don't have a choice.

Maybe they don't, a part of herself said, but she once lived a life believing that those below her would never amount to anything.

She once believed that ponykind existed only to serve.

She once believed that a young unicorn named Twilight Sparkle would never find in herself the power she needed to wield the Elements of Harmony.

Maybe — just maybe — instead of all that, she should believe that they can still make it out alive.

"Listen to me, Twilight Sparkle," she muttered, kneeling down to the mare's side.
"My sister... Celestia... I will admit, she made a grave mistake in allowing this to happen, but you have to know, she's as lost as all of you are. She has no idea what to do other than to just wait it out or call forth the forces of old..."

"F-Forces of old?"

"That may never happen at all, if you'd ask me," she reluctantly admitted.
"Still, she's at her most vulnerable right now. You may not notice it, but she's breaking apart inside. That's Princess Celestia, always putting up a strong face even when she knows she will lose. Sooner or later, however, she will tear herself apart and when that happens... when that happens, none of us will make it out alive. So I ask of you... no, I beg of you, Twilight Sparkle, for the sake of us and for the sake of Equestria, please..."

Luna bit her lip as she placed the daunting request onto the table.

"Save us all."

Twilight Sparkle just stared, dumbstruck at those three words, before she felt a growing determination well up in her chest. Perhaps all those months, all those lives... perhaps they could never be regained. So much time has been lost and all manner of hope is dwindling fast. Still, there are lives to be saved. There is still an Equestria, home to all of ponykind, to be rescued. They had been hit hard, with the lights of Fillydelphia and Manehatten snuffed out, but the spirit of ponykind still remains. Victory may be far, but the perseverance of ponies still remains.

Equestria still stands, as fractured as it may be.

For that Equestria, Twilight Sparkle posed a question to Princess Luna, this time with a new firmness that came at the last moment to hold up her cracking voice.

"How can I help?"