Planet of the Ponies

by LightStriker

Don't Have Time For This!

Mark didn't finish his sentence before the crude device exploded. He didn't have time to dodge, duck or even move. He was only quick enough to blink before the blast would reach him.

He was expecting bits of metal shredding his body, the heat of the explosion burning him or the blast making his ears ring but nothing of that happened. By the time he understood his brain already went over all that and that was far more time than it should have taken for the blast to reach him, he opened his eyes and saw some purple glow.

He had no idea how Twilight reacted that fast, but she casted some kind of force field between the ponies and the metallic sphere. On one side the grass was burning, on the other the ponies and one gryphon were happy to be alive.

"Nice one, sugarcube!" Applejack cheered.

"Don't lose focus! They will drop more!" Freewind screamed.

Twilight didn't waste time, she rose her head and cast flow of magic upward which after a few meters felt around them, enclosing them in a purple dome.

"Who will?" Mark asked.

"It's a gryphon bomb," Freewind explained. Just as he finished, a metallic bang was heard from the dome as another sphere bounced off it and exploded before reaching the ground.

"Will this shield hold?" Rarity asked.

"Easily," Twilight replied while not losing focus. "It's a family's specialty after all," she said with pride and a large smile.

"That's pretty neat. You will have to teach me that spell," Mark said.

The Doctor poked him. "With your luck, you're gonna set the air on fire." Mark pouted at the comment.

"Freewind, I thought you said the gryphon's patrols had orders to leave us alone," Rainbow Dash asked.

The gryphon was staring at the ground, obviously unhappy. "Yes. The only way they can attack like that is if someone gave them the order. It means... it means my father is dead. But there is no way a new king was elected already..."

"I don't understand, he looked in great shape when we left," Mark countered.

"Without an heir, one of my father's opponents probably felt his position was weak enough to challenge him." It was obvious the gryphon was putting forth tremendous effort to keep his tears from flowing. "How could I mess things up like that?"

The gryphons hidden high in the clouds obviously noticed their sneak attack failed and decided to go with the brute force, dozens of metallic spheres started raining down. The shield started to show cracks and weakness.

"I thought you said it would hold?" Applejack shouted at Twilight.

"I... I thought it would!" she shouted back. She casted a second layer of magic just as the first one shattered. "I guess I'm still a bit tired from last week," she tried to apologize.

"Enough!" Rainbow Dash screamed. "Twilight, I need to be outside the shield."

"What?" asked the seven ponies.

"That's suicide. Gryphons always attack in packs of twelve, and from the number of bombs, there are two full packs up there," Freewind explained.

"Trust me," Rainbow replied with a corner smile.

With a flash of purple, Rainbow Dash was teleported above the shield. She quickly dodged a ball of metal.

"She's gonna get killed!" Freewind screamed, ready to take flight.

Applejack put herself on his path. "Woo there, big one." Freewind was surprised how the small mare actually managed to hold him in place. She was much stronger than she appeared. "She knows what she's doing." Just as she said that, Rainbow dashed upward, quickly accelerating toward the high clouds.

Freewind knew that pegasi were in general slightly faster than a gryphon, but he didn't remember seeing any going that fast. He turned his head toward Twilight. "There are at least twenty fully armed gryphons in the clouds. What does she think she can do?"

Twilight looked uneasy. "I'm sorry Freewind, but some of them might not survive."

"What?"

Rainbow Dash stopped accelerating and kept her speed, she needed to know where her targets were first. Just as she entered a cloud, she noticed one gryphon had seen her coming and was holding a long spear toward her. She dodged it at the last moment and continued her ascent.

Looking around, she found out most of the gryphons were packed in a tight circle above the ponies on the ground. It looked like the gryphons simply ignored her, they looked at her but they didn't try to give chase. No doubt a single lone mare was no threat to so many trained soldiers. Besides, she was fleeing away at speed none of them could match with their heavy armors. One high ranked soldier looked at her and gave an order she couldn't hear as she was speeding away. But the gryphons only grabbed more bombs from their saddlebags and lit them up. It was obvious their primary focus was still on the ground, they could track the blue pegasus later.

Rainbow Dash grinned at the mistake the gryphons did of not trying to catch her. She stopped at what she felt was the right altitude and aimed at the packs. She jumped down and speeded up. In the last year, after her second sonic rainboom, she had trained harder than ever to be able to perform them on command. It had been the hardest training she ever did, but it paid.

She speeded up as much as she could, only holding off as she felt the sonic threshold. Her goal was to break the barrier just as she was passing the gryphons. One of them noticed her and pointed a claw toward her. Their leader looked up, but it was too late to give any order or to try to break off their formation. Rainbow Dash pushed forward and broke that wall that would keep other pegasi at slower speed. The rainboom prismatic hue spread outward, clearing the clouds and blasting the soldiers away. She had done it perfectly and the blast happened exactly in the middle of their formations.

She couldn't see any of it as she was busy slowing down, but many of the gryphon's devices didn't react to well at the sonic boom and secondary explosion could be seen across the sky. As she came close to the others on the ground, most of the clouds were gone.

For Mark, it was the second time he saw her perform it. He had to admit that it was far more effective against gryphons than against some kind alien space cloud monster.

Twilight teleported Rainbow Dash inside the dome as gryphons, weapons of all kind and other equipments felt all around them, some of them bouncing off the shield. "I think you overdid it Rainbow," she said with a weak smile.

A very frighten gryphon stared at Rainbow Dash. "What was that?"

"A sonic rainboom for you, aww yeah!" she replied with pride. "You go very fast and when you break the speed of sound, everything goes boom!" she explain with a quick motion of her hooves. "And Twilight, I know gryphons. They are quite strong, I'm sure they will survive it."

"They might survive the rainboom, but not the fall from that height with their armors or the explosion of their bombs," Twilight explained while looking around in hope of seeing a gryphon alive. She removed the shield to have a better view.

Rainbow Dash's face went pale. "I... I didn't... I only want to knock them out."

"I see one alive!" Fluttershy shouted as loud as she could, which was still not very loud. At a fair distance from them, one gryphon was trying to stand up. They all raced toward him.

As they got closer, Rainbow noticed it was the leader of the group. Having no bombs and lighter armors allowed him to survive the fall. However it was obvious he was having a hard time getting up and his ears were bleeding. Reaching him, they could see his left claw was twisted at a weird angle.

The gryphon also noticed the racing ponies and tried to show himself as menacing as possible. "Freewind the weak, still alive. I failed my mission," he hissed.

"The weak? That's what I'm called now?" Freewind asked obviously unhappy.

The gryphon laughed. "You brought dishonor to your kind. It is only fitting that the new king would order your death."

"There's no way the council of the elder elected a new king already!" Freewind shouted. Looking at the face of the other gryphon, he finally understood. "You attacked without valid orders!"

"Thunderrage will no doubt become king! He wanted to get rid of the dishonor you brought by losing against a child!"

"I was defeated by stronger than myself." He pointed at the soldier. "Thunderrage is giving orders to the army while he is not king yet, what honor there is in ignoring the councils or ordering sneak attacks?" Seeing that the gryphon didn't want to answer, he made a motion toward the ponies. "None of them are what they appeared to be. They are exsercy, Thunderrage would be wise to remember that." The ponies looked at each other but it was obvious none of them understand the weird term.

Surprise painted the other gryphon's face for a second. "There's no such thing!"

"I saw them. And you, you will have to explain the death of your soldiers, killed by a single mare. I wonder what kind of honor you're bringing back to the kingdom."

Seeing the heated discussion was coming to an end, Twilight moved forward in order to cast some healing spell on the wounded gryphon. "Stay away from me, pony!" the gryphon screamed while trying to back off.

"You need healing!"

Freewind put a claw on her shoulder. "No, he won't have any. He is too proud for that."

The soldier turned around and took flight with pain. "You're weak Freewind!" he shouted without looking back.

As the gryphon flew away, Freewind turned around and faced Mark. "I think I begin to understand what you meant. But I feel it might be very hard for the other gryphons to understand that."

"What's truly worth it is never easy," Mark replied with a smile. "By the way, what was that word you used? Exsercy?"

To everypony's surprise, Freewind blushed, which in his case some red was showing up behind his feathers. "It's an old gryphon dialect. Very old... and it dates of the time gryphons had not a full language on their own and had problem speaking complex words."

"And... what does it mean?" Applejack asked.

"Creatures of legends. Or if you prefer in a more literal way, creatures that only exist in stories."

"That's... That's how you see us?" Twilight asked incredulously.

Freewind stared at the ground. "You have to admit you're not everyday ponies."

"Eep!" Fluttershy let out before collapsing in front of one gryphon's corpse.

Rainbow Dash became even paler as she saw first hoof the result of her rainboom. "Oh my gosh!" she kept repeating. As the others came close to her, she turned around and stared at Freewind. "I didn't mean to! I swear!"

"Hey!" a voice screamed from afar. Everypony turn in its direction and saw a large group of armored ponies of all kind and color galloping and flying toward them. As they came close two of them ran toward Freewind and draw their spears to his throat. "We saw the explosion and came as fast as we could."

"Woo there!" Mark shouted. "He's with us."

"What do you mean?" asked the same voice, which the ponies could see was coming from a bright steel blue unicorn in golden armor.

"He's my slave," the Doctor said as he stepped forward. All the ponies frowned and stared at him while Freewind shoot him an angry look.

The large unicorn came close to the stallion and locked sight on him. The Doctor returned his stare with ease. "And who might you be?"

The Doctor produced a small wallet and flipped it in front of the soldier. "I'm her Goddess' scribe. I record all events of importance for the generation to come."

The unicorn stared at the wallet in surprise. "I... I didn't know of your visit. I apologize for my rudeness," he said while quickly bowing down. "I'm Dawn Sparkle, sergeant of the tenth battalion." Without turning their heads, everypony's eyes went toward Twilight. She was quite uneasy with the captain's name, but she managed to keep a smile on her face.

"Is he your?" Applejack whispered to Twilight.

"I don't know! Sparkle is quite a common name for unicorn, like Apple for earth ponies," she whispered back.

He pointed at Freewind. "Sir, your slave has lost his collar, I would advise you to find new one or some soldiers could see him as a threat." Noticing the change in behavior of their leader, the two soldiers lowered their spears. "And... Who are they and who did all this?" the unicorn asked pointing a hoof at the other ponies and the destruction around them.

"They are my mares," the Doctor said with pride not looking directly at the soldier. Rarity put a hoof on Applejack's mouth before she could say anything. "And my son," he said while pointing at Mark, who rolled his eyes. "As you can see, we were attacked and we dealt with it," he said as if it was nothing. The other soldiers looked at each other, skeptical of the crazy claims.

"You... you did?" one of the pegasus soldier asked.

"Oh no, no, no. Not me, I'm a man of scrolls and quills," the Doctor claimed with a noble tone with a hoof on his heart. "One of my mares did it." He came close to Dawn and lowered his voice just enough that it sounded like a secret but high enough that most would hear him. "They are chosen personally by the goddesses for their... special abilities."

"Huh... one... one did?"

The soldiers that were close to the mares took a few steps back and suddenly showed a lot of respect for them. Applejack, Rarity and Twilight who silently decided to play the game raised their heads trying to look as proud as possible. Pinkie Pie did was she does best, she showed her largest smile. Rainbow Dash was still too much in shock to react. One of them pointed at Fluttershy that was lying on her back. "Is she alright?"

The Doctor nodded. "That poor one isn't used to the battlefield yet," he explained. "But she wasn't chosen for her fighting skills." He looked at the unicorn suggestively. "If you see what I mean."

"I... see," was all he managed to reply feeling more uneasy by the minutes. He blinked a few time as he if just remembered something important. "You missed the goddess by a few hours. She is going back to Canterlot."

The Doctor hummed with a hoof on his jaw. "Well, I guess we must move on earlier than I thought. We will be on our way then." He moved his hoof around in a sign for the ponies to gather up. Freewind picked the unconscious Fluttershy and dropped her on his back. Just as they started moving, the sergeant sprinted ahead of them.

"Wait!" Dawn said. "I will escort you to Canterlot."

"There is no need for..."

"It's alright, my troops are going back to the barracks for their patrol rotation and I'm to report to Canterlot for my next assignment," the unicorn explained. "It would avoid any confusion if you were to meet other soldiers."

The Doctor didn't expect it and was a bit confused by the sudden display generosity, it was obvious the soldier was hiding something and it was clear the sergeant wouldn't take no for an answer. "Well, such a kind offer, we would be stupid to not accept it. Thanks a lot."

---

The platoon of soldiers left them and they walked in direction they hoped would be Canterlot with their new escort. Fluttershy had woken up soon after they started walking and she said she was feeling better. It wasn't the first time she saw a corpse as she had to deal with animal feeding off others, but the reality of the battlefield took her by surprise. Twilight felt she wasn't telling everything and hoped she would talk about it later.

Rainbow Dash was a mystery, she was staying at the back of the group talking to herself. Twilight was concerned for her, but it would have to wait for them to stop for the night. She knew Rainbow, while rude, wasn't a violent pony. The death of so many gryphons happening so suddenly must had taken its toll on her mind. She actually didn't know what to say to her about that specific problem. By the past, they always managed to overcome their challenges without resorting to killing.

Twilight was blaming herself for what happened. How could her shield fail so easily? She was obviously tired from her week of enslavement and quite annoyed that she couldn't cast a protection spell properly. Had it not for that week of forced labor, her force field could have withstood all the bombs those gryphons had and far more. While not as talented as her brother, he could cast one around a whole city. She couldn't forgive herself that such a small dome shattered only after a few weak and primitive bombs. She had no doubt that if she casted it correctly, they could have walked up to Canterlot with the gryphons over them without giving them any thought.

On the other hoof, those soldiers came very quickly. No doubt they heard or saw the explosions. A fight between them and the gryphons would have no doubt happened. She couldn't shake off the idea that she was walking with her ancestor, even if she had no proof of that. Would he have been killed if he fought the gryphons?

Rarity and Applejack were walking beside each other. They didn't appear to be moved too much by the sad scene they left behind them. They were whispering to each other and Twilight hoped they were trying to cheer up the other.

As for Pinkie Pie, she was Pinkie Pie, smiling as if nothing happened. Twilight had no idea how the killing affected her. She had the feeling Pinkie was trapping her emotions deep inside and that at some point in the future she would have to help her overcome them. Hopefully it would happen before they would overcome the pink pony.

But what concerned more Twilight was how Dawn and Freewind were looking at each other. Dawn took the lead of the group, obviously knowing the direction toward Canterlot more than them while Freewind walked behind. Every time they would get anywhere near, Twilight could swear she could hear them growling at each other. She only hoped they wouldn't do something stupid.

They walked for almost two hours before Dawn suddenly stopped in his track. He drew his sword with his magic, spun around and placed it on the throat of a surprised Doctor.

"Now, no lies. Who are you and what are you doing out here?" He asked angry.

"Well, I..." the Doctor started to answer.

"I've been a guard of the goddesses for five years. There is no scribe or ponies chosen by them for some special abilities," he explained while pressing his sword harder.

"We don't have time for this," Twilight said while she continued walking. She didn't stop and the others followed her.

The Doctor pouted. "How about some help?"

"What for? I don't even know what he his pointing his sword at. For all I know, he is threatening your leg. Beside 'dad', aren't you immortal or something?" Mark asked with a large smile while walking passed them.

"I'm not immortal! I can die... Well, I would regenerate, but that's not the point!" the Doctor explain while rolling his eyes.

"As your slave, I will go seek some help. It might be back in a week of two," Freewind commented with a weird smile while following Mark.

"As your mare, I will cry on your grave my dear," Rarity added, trying very hard not to laugh.

Dawn was utterly confused by their reaction. He was expecting them to try to rescue the stallion, to flee or even to try to kill him, but they simply flat out ignored him, as if he wasn't a threat or important enough for their attention. Even his target didn't appear to care that much for the floating sword. "Alright, you had your fun," the Doctor said. "May I pass now?"

The sergeant learned a long time ago to never trust what he wouldn't understand, and right now the whole group of ponies and gryphon was a variable he couldn't explain. He charged up a spell and with a blue flash disappeared from in front of the Doctor.

He reappeared in front of Twilight who was will still in the lead of the group and aimed his sword at her. "I need answers!" he shouted with as much conviction as he could.

The mare didn't stop walking and her horn briefly flared up. The moment the sword would have touched her, it turned to ashes and was blown by the wind. Dawn was only surprised for a second and just as he was about to charge an offensive spell, he found himself stuck inside a purple bubble of magic. Shields were his family's specialty but the one holding him was far stronger than he thought possible to cast.

"I said we don't have time for this," Twilight snapped while walking. Her impatience was showing up, since they came to this time they were threaten by every living being around. The trapped soldier was following her stuck in his sphere, floating a meter above ground. "If you want answers, you will ask your questions when we stop for the night, understood?" Dawn nodded, quite impressed with the purple unicorn's abilities. If she wanted him dead, she wouldn't have to try very hard.

The sphere disappeared with a pop and the sergeant felt hard to the ground. "I'm terribly sorry, she's a bit cranky right now. But you know, having gryphons drop bombs on you can do that," Rarity apologized while passing by him.

"I'm so sorry!" Fluttershy apologized as she stopped beside the soldier. As he looked at her, she let out a small "Eep!" and sprinted to catch up Twilight.

"Seriously Doc, what's up with creatures in this time? You know, when I came here I thought everything was a bit too colorful and peaceful, but this is getting ridiculous," Mark commented to the Doctor while walking beside him. He just shrugged in a way that said he already saw far worst.

---

When they stopped for the night, they actually had made some good progress. Twilight thought they were only a day away from the tree line of the Everfree forest. However, she wasn't sure which Canterlot they were trying to reach. As far as she knew, 'old' Canterlot was in the middle of the forest, where they found the Elements of Harmony almost two years ago while 'new' Canterlot was beyond the forest. The fact that she never heard of a war between Equestria and the Gryphons made her believe far enough in time to aim for the old city.

She lay beside the fire and started reading a book she brought with her. It was a very general overview of Equestria's history and while she had read it a few times already without luck, she was still hoping to find any kind of clues as of their whereabouts. She was expecting Dawn to ask lot of questions, but the stallion looked uneasy and was standing clear of the others. Again, she hoped that whatever questions he would like to ask, he would have the decency to ask them before they would fall asleep.

From the corner of her eyes, she noticed Rainbow Dash going toward Freewind. She obviously wanted to speak with him. Twilight guessed it was about what happened today and with a bit of luck it would help Rainbow to feel better. She wanted to talk to Rainbow first but she didn't know what word to use. The gryphon was a far better choice, he lived in a decade long war and probably saw first claw some gruesome death.

"Hey, Freewind... I would like to talk a bit," Rainbow Dash said while walking toward him.

Twilight noticed how Dawn's sight snapped on the gryphon at the mention of his name. Checking her memories of the day, she remembered that noponies ever said his name in front of the pony soldier. It was a good bet that ponies new the names of the gryphon's royalty. She hoped that he wouldn't do something stupid, but just as she thought that, she noticed he was strolling toward the gryphon in the most natural way possible.

"Sure Rainbow," Freewind replied, unaware of the pony that was walking toward him from behind.

Dawn stopped when he felt close enough and drew a small dagger off his armor. He leaped forward screaming. "For the goddesses!"

Before it could connect, his dagger disappeared in a flash, only to reappear in between pages of Twilight's book. "Thanks, I needed something to keep my page," she simply said while she continued reading her book.

Dawn bumped harmlessly on Freewind's flank. The gryphon spun around and grabbed the soldier's head with his right claw and slammed it on the ground. On his back, the pony bucked hard the exposed stomach of the gryphon, which was forced to back up in pain. The gryphon and the pony quickly stood in front of each other, trying to find an opening in the other's defense. None of the ponies stood up and were simply watching them.

"Five bits on the gryphon!" Applejack shouted while lying on her side.

"Taken!" Rarity replied.

"You're not gonna stop him?" Freewind asked.

"Why would we? You were looking to kick each other's faces the whole day long. We will sit back, enjoy the show and make you feel as awkward as possible," Mark explained with a smile while laying his head on a dry trunk.

"Popcorn?" Pinkie Pie offered as she produced a large bowl of it. Nopony tried to explain where it came from or even how she managed to cook it without anypony noticing.

"Pinkie, you're a miracle worker," the Doctor cheered while taking some.

"He fooled you all!" Dawn scream. "No doubt you didn't know, but he is the prince of the gryphon kingdom! In the name of the goddesses, he must die!" He was sure his speech had work as the ponies looked at each other in surprise. All his hope went crashing down when they all started to laugh.

"Of course we know he is the prince, duh!" Pinkie Pie replied.

Dawn desperately wanted to attack the gryphon but the eyes' of the ponies looking and judging him made him feel quite uneasy. They all acted as if he was a kid doing something stupid but didn't want to stop him so he could make a fool of himself. He knew also he wouldn't stand much chance against a gryphon of this size without any weapon. He wanted to do a sneak attack and end it in one strike, but once again the purple mare got rid of his blade with ease. He could use magic, but he had the feeling the purple one wouldn't let him do much with it.

"He's chickening out," Applejack said.

Rarity raised her hooves. "Oh, come on! Throw some punch!"

"Why do you all make me feel like I'm doing something stupid?" Dawn asked.

Twilight raised her eyes from her book. "Maybe because you are doing something stupid." She closed her book. "Now, both of you, hurt each other as much as you want right now. But after that, I want you both to promise to not touch the other one after tonight."

Freewind stepped back. "I promise. It's not like I wanted to hurt him, I was just being cautious, like when somepony try to stab you. But if he truly want a beating right now, I won't mind."

"Pinkie promise!" Pinkie Pie shouted.

"What?" Dawn asked confused.

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Pinkie rehearsed.

"That's silly! You're not serious, that's for kid..." Dawn tried to say.

Rarity laughed. "Darling, nopony break a Pinkie promise."

"Nopony!" Pinkie shouted with a deep voice while standing in front of Dawn, her nose touching his. Dawn backed up in fear, he didn't see the pink pony move and yet she was standing in front of him, a dozen meters away from where he thought she was. He could have sworn her eyes were yellow and red, but a shadow passed and they were back to bright blue. He was a trained soldier who survive countless battle, how could anypony manage to get up close without him noticing, an earth pony no less?

"I promise too," he finally managed to say once he managed to silence his fear.

Twilight opened her book once more. "Good boy. Now come enjoy some popcorn."

"Popcorn?" the soldier asked confused as he came close to the fire.

"Hey Dawn, I got a question," Mark said. "If you knew we were not what the Doctor pretended, why didn't you attack us with your troops instead of being alone?"

The soldier sat down. "My first duty is to protect my ponies. Somepony or something killed lot of gryphons back there. I would not put my troops in danger to face something completly unknown... I had to investigate on my own," he explained.

"Logic," Twilight agreed.

"Doctor! What's that wallet you showed Dawn?" Rarity asked.

The Doctor swallowed a mouthful of popcorn. "Psychic paper," he finally managed to say. "You see on them whatever I want you to see." He took his wallet out and showed it to Rarity. On it she could see the blazon of Canterlot's royalty.

"Impressive," she said.

"Oh! Oh! I want to see!" Pinkie Pie cheered while bouncing close to the Doctor. He showed her his wallet. "That's just white paper, silly! Aren't there supposed to be something on it?"

The Doctor stared at the pink pony in surprise and his smile faded away. "It... it must be broken." he said while putting it away.

Dawn finally got enough courage to step forward. "So... Who are you?"

All the ponies looked at each other. "Here we go again," Mark said.

---

Freewind and Rainbow Dash retreated away in the shadows. "I wanted to talk to you. About what happened today," Rainbow started. "But... but I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything and listen," Freewind replied. Rainbow looked at him in surprise and nodded. "You all make me feel very weak, and I must say it never happened before. When you flew off, I wanted to stop you. I thought you were insane but Applejack held me down as if it was nothing."

"Yeah, AJ is pretty strong. You should pray to never be on the receiving end of one of her bucking." Rainbow said with a small laugh.

"I thought you were gonna die in vain up there. Gryphons are not known to give up easily. Once they start to hunt a target, the only real way to stop them is to kill them. Had you only knocked them out, they would have come after us later." Freewind lowered his head. "You saved my life today. All our lives. Thanks."

"But I'm a murderer now! I've killed..."

"No!" Freewind almost shouted. "You're a hero, and a hero makes the hard call that no one else would. The fact that you feel bad for what happened prove that you did right... A hero would never brag... about... it..." he finished deep in his thought. He looked down at his claws.

"What?"

"Nothing. The more I think about it, the more I understand how Mark is right about honor. There's far more about it that I ever thought possible," Freewind explained.

"I'm sorry, but I never understood that honor stuff."

The gryphon laughed. "I guess you don't need to, you follow your heart and that's enough."

"Well... I..."

He grabbed the flying mare by the shoulders. "You did good Rainbow. What happened was terrible, but you did what you had to. Never believe otherwise," Freewind said sincerely.

"I... Thanks."

---

Even the servants stopped coming to see her. Watching herself in the mirror she could understand why, the changes that started a few months ago were speeding up. She didn't recognize the pony the mirror was reflecting. Her mane was now bigger than her and was flowing around almost on its own. Her coat and eyes also changed and now she could see clearly in the darkest places. But she was partially responsible for others not coming, she had barricaded herself in her quarters, only to come out at night where the Sun couldn't hurt her.

She had lost track of time a while ago, she wasn't able to sleep correctly. For that, day or night didn't matter, there were wordless whispers in her head and pain in her heart. There was no doubt, her sister had abandoned her. As for the other ponies, they fled from her at the only moments she could come out, the night. Ponies were never known for being night creatures, but right now it felt painfully obvious.

She always been a lone pony, why would it hurt her now and not before? She always has been in the shadows of her sister and she preferred it that way, until now. Where were those transformations coming from? She wished she could always get a partial answer but her mind was clouded by something she couldn't describe, she only knew it was old and powerful. That loneliness was a bottomless pit and there was no breaking her fall in it.

She needed a solution, a way to relieve the pain, to calm the whispers... Any way.

---

"Hey, Twilight," Applejack asked while lying on her back. Most of the ponies were asleep but Twilight was still reading her book.

"Anything wrong Applejack?"

"I just noticed... There's no Mare in the Moon," the orange pony explained while pointing a hoof up at the sky.

Twilight's head looked up and there was the Moon slowly moving, high in the sky. Applejack was right; the Moon's surface was clean. How could she not notice that before? "I guess it means we are over a thousand years in the past."

Comments

[LightStriker]

This chapter was harder to write.
The idea of facing death and killing isn't something we see in MLP.

So, how the ponies would react to it is a fairly unknown territory. We all have our ideas about that, but then it must feel... correct?
Had to re-read it a lot of time to be sure I was doing it in a way that wasn't out of place.

Love vacation. Give me time to write.

[UnintentionalMishap]

Fluttershy had waked up soon after they started walking and she said she was feeling better.

I believe the word is woken

[LightStriker]

826641 True! Thanks.

[The Grey Pegasus]

This chapter was great. Absolutely loved it. As for how you approached the concept of death, it fits with the context of the story.

Also, the word is not 'assignation'. It's just 'assignment'.

[LightStriker]

826730 Thanks plenty! Fixed.

[Menoshe]

Congratulations, Mark. You screwed up time.

...At least, that's what I'm getting from the whole "Freewind is supposed to be king" bit.

[Northwest Brony]

I am glad I read this chapter.

Also, I get the feeling that Twilight was uber-nonchalant when she said, "I guess it means we're over a thousand years in the past."

aka "yeah we're over 1000 years in the past but nothing really matters."

[crazynrandom]

As always a great chapter, thanks for the update
Just some things I found and seemed strange to me:
he threatening your leg. - he is threatening your leg ?
in front of Twilight who will still in the lead of the group - who was still in the lead of the group ?
If you want answer - If you want answers ?
Element of Harmony - Elements
"You save my life today. All our lives. Thanks." - saved ?
Never believe otherwise, - "." instead of a "," :-D
the changed that started a few months ago - changes ?
She didn't recognize the pony the mirror was reflecting her. - the pony in the mirror - or - She didn't recognize the pony the mirror was reflecting. ?

Just saying, some of them might be intentional, I'm no master of english
Aaaaanyway...Keep it up, love the story(as always).

[LightStriker]

829593 Thanks! All vary valid except for the ","... Which is a dialogue convention I learned a little while ago.

"Bleh," Crazy said. <= Part of the dialogue.
"I don't think so." Then he went on his business. <= Not part of the dialogue.

It's crazy and I had to check many novel to find out it was true.

I do feel on an English side it was one of my weakest.

[Blaze rod]

I have to say this is getting interesting. Whats affecting Luna?

[LightStriker]

831626 Never said it was Luna...

No?