• Published 1st Feb 2014
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Ein Sof Zealotry - ZhaoZoharEX



Twilight Sparkle has never felt so lonely. After what happened at her brother’s wedding rehearsal she can’t but question her friends’ worth, and once she starts doubting one part of her life, second thoughts about the rest soon foll

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Chapter 27

Original Title: The Hexarete Front
This chapter is part of the older version of "Ein Sof Zealotry" and is to be considered non-canon in lieu of the pending rewrite. This along with the rest of the old story remain for the purpose of comparison.


The streets of Crystal Empire were once again overcrowded, but Canopy was slowly getting used to it by now. She learnt how to weave through the neverending sea of ponies, although today’s festivity wasn’t willing to give up on hindering her so easily. Not to mention she was dragging Arc behind her with one hoof.

“Could you speed up a little, you slowpoke?” she reprimanded as she spotted another gap in the crowd through which they could advance much more comfortably. It was no use though as Arc continued trudging behind in his monotonous tempo of a sleepwalker. “I swear you are doing it on purpose!”

“Excuse me, Ms. Agile, but you are not the one balancing two cups of sweet sticky lemonade on your back!” he shot back and cautiously glanced over his shoulder on those malicious beverages, precariously trembling between his wings. “If they spill on me, I will rip all your feathers out! Besides, it’s not that big deal. So we just won’t catch the beginning of the parade.”

Canopy stopped abruptly and turned to him, almost giving him a reason to act on his threat. Her expression spelled boundless disbelieve and angry shock. “Just won’t catch the beginning?!” she yelped and stepped closer to him. “That would mean not seeing the queen and her advisors! What if they hold a preaching? Or they could notice us! That can’t happen!”

She was glaring at him from few inches away with her hoof raised for emphasis. He cocked his head, raised his own hoof and booped her nose. She shook her head and blinked a few times. “What just happened?”

“You just went into another fan frenzy, that’s all.” He passed her and flicked her nose with his tail. “You say the queen and her advisors, but in the end it’s all about that Wonderbolt drop out, isn’t it?”

“First of all, she is not a drop out. She left voluntarily instead of joining the team,” she said indignantly and followed him. “And what if it is? Wonderbolts are cool. And she can talk really well, I can learn a lot from her.”

“Sure, sure… You keep talking about those preaching all the time.” Seeing the hurt expression on her face though, he risked a movement of his back muscles to take her under his wing. “I like what they are saying too, Canopy, but it’s enough during the preachings.” She smiled a little, so he decided to use the big guns. “And I think that Wonderbolt already noticed you there. She waved in your direction last time.”

He overdid it. He knew it and he hated himself for it, for Canopy charged forward with an eager grin. He had to try hard to keep up with her and spent an equal time balancing the beverages as apologizing to the ponies Canopy pushed to the ground on her dash toward the front lines of crowd. Sometimes he question if she really was a pegasus, or the wings were glued to an earth pony undercover.

Soon enough she arrived or rather minted to the railing that ensured the parade would have some space to move. He joined her seconds later, panting and sweating from the exercise. She reached on his back and grabbed one of the cups.

“You are welcome,” he grumbled, being flashed a smile in response. Canopy would never change. If Arc’s memory served, that Wonderbolt was usually preaching about evaluating one’s actions and toning them down. Although she kept herself attentive and was soaking in every word, her approach to the meaning was similar to the one of a drunkard listening with scientific interest to a lecture on the advantages of sobriety.

Arc desperately wished that wasn’t the case with the majority of the listeners. Otherwise all the striving of the preachers would be in vain and their confidence would have fake grounds which could be deadly after today. The world outside the Empire wouldn’t tolerate it.

The main street of the Crystal Empire, leading from the palace in the very middle of the city through the whole centre was diligently decorated with real roses, adding their intense scent to the effect their paper counterparts provided a week ago during the fair. They were accompanied by streamers in six colors having something to do with the advisors, Arc guessed. The sky was without a cloud and promising to stay that way for the rest of the day. Arc couldn’t recall any important occasion in the Empire ruined by the weather. Actually, he realised, not even any day ordinary day either. There was that downpour the evening before, but everypony was briefed on that two weeks prior and it served only to help clean the street for today. Other than that, the rain was limited to the gardens and fields. Not that Arc complained about his wings staying dry.

To his surprise even the railings keeping the crowd back was glinting in the sun and he could only wonder how the organisers managed to cover the uppermost tube with living ivy or how those ice statues depicting those supernatural beings Ein Sof standing ever thirty feet from one another weren’t melting. There was a lot of magical licence in play he concluded.

Clopping of many hooves resounded from the free corridor, though quite peculiarly from the opposite direction than everypony expected. That couldn’t stop Canopy from jumping happy from one hoof to another and excitedly shouting about the parade beginning. To be honest, Arc was getting a little bit more than little tired of the eternal giddiness of his sister, especially when it got to the matters of the new philosophy spreading around. Seriously, just because somepony was talking about general truths, it was no reason for his life to revolve around them.

He would have soared a bit up to get a better idea what was going on, but the density of pony bodies around prevented him from almost any movement. He didn’t have to wait for long though, the unexpected ponies getting into his field of sight along with an amused smile to his face. Small merchants decided to get some use of the enormous gathering, and as the ponies couldn’t get to their regular stands, they decided to turn themselves into mobile ones.

“Peanuts in chocolate! Fresh lemonade, cold and refreshing! Honey cookies! Buy my honey cookies! With real wild bee honey and propolis, great for your teeth! Balloons! Get your foal a colorful balloon!”

The cacophony of voices went on and on and with every passing merchant the assortment of offered food and drinks was getting more exotical, soon including even cicadas in carrot glaze, and Arc decided that if he were to get some snack, he would rather do so now. The moment he pulled his wallet from the saddlebag, an extraordinarily complaisant and warmly smiling merchant stepped to him as if he spilled over from his original place to the new instead of walking there.

“Wanna something stronger, dear sir? Ya know, the faith gets more enticing with some moonshine.” He pulled a bottle from the wild collection of brick-and-brack on his saddle-regals and let Arc sniff it. The smell hit him like an earth pony sprinting for the last train which served as a best argument for Arc. Maybe he would have an easier time alongside his sister.

The merchant counted the coins contentedly and and hid them in a pouch deep unter his back-scaffolding. “I also have some hair of queen Cadance, if dear sir is on that sort of things. Authenticity guaranteed! I would give him a bit of grinded dragon horn as a bonus! It’s great for… you know what. No? Alright, your bad. Enjoy yourself!”

Arc only shook his head in disbelieve. How could that loon expect anypony to buy such stuff? The moment he thought that he saw the merchant about twenty feet away, successfully selling what looked like a burl of pink and yellow thread. Maybe he should start selling random splinters and claiming they were originally a part of the throne room door.

After securing himself a small baguette and a cucumber to bite to his moonshine, he turned his attention back to Canopy. On the second though he could have expected so much, but finding her with a big blue balloon and pink cotton candy gave him a pause at first.

“It’th goow! Wanth thome?” she mumbled through her slips glowed toghether by the sweet. He declined and happily turned back to the corridor. Long live the cotton candy. The merchants were being chased away by the guards trying to return the corridor to its previous empty state and purpose. The merchants having wings at their disposal didn’t seem too put off by that, adjusting their wares and opting to sell from the air, now for the doubled prices. And they say avarice sends you directly to Tartarus. At least the damned will have something to drink.

The sun climbed suitably high on the sky, still refusing to melt the statues, but otherwise pleasantly warming the air. A bit too much for Arc’s taste as the ponies pressing on him on every side served as heating sufficient for the weather outside the protective dome. The crowd had only one advantage - nopony could sneak to him and steal his wallet, unless snakes learnt how to pick pockets.

He caught the first tones of a celebrational marching music from the direction of the palace, soon followed by the rhythmic steps of the guards. They were wearing their ceremonial uniforms, crystals retracting the sunlight in every direction and illuminating the white walls around in the same spectrum of colors the feathers on their helmets possessed naturally. Or maybe unnaturally. He had at least never seen such a big aquamarine blue bird.

“They are wonderful! So majestic! Do you think that armor would look good on me?” Canopy chirped next to him excitedly. Cotton candy apparently had a shorter lifespan than he wished it. He had to admit though that the idea of wearing something of this beauty could be a nice experience. On the other hoof…

“You would have to join the army to wear that, Canopy. And not just that. These are the elite guards. They surely did something heroic to be admitted to those ranks,” he explained patiently.

“So what? Wouldn’t it be great to serve to the queen, her advisors and all ponies of the Crystal Empire? Just imagine it! It would be so romantic! They would maybe sing a song about us…” Her eyes got misted up briefly as she continued her daydreaming. “Then we would be introduced to the queen and to Lightning Dust and we would dine with them…”

“Yeah, but first we would have to do that heroic deed, you know. That’s not so easily done and ponies usually get hurt during that.”

“We would manage,” she said with confidence, pranced on her hindlegs and glanced over the heads of the marching guards.

“I would rather stay a builder and serve the queen, her advisors and the ponies of-” he grumbled with disdain at his sister’s careless attitude, but she cut him off before he could finish his paraphrase.

“Hush! They are here! The queen is coming!”

Indeed, a pink and golden chariot, resembling more a bathroom apparatus than a means of transportation with its decoration - and did he mention the colors? - was slowly moving behind the guards At the front the queen with her family positioned themselves so that everypony would have a perfect view. Prince consort Shining Armor in his best red and golden uniform of the captain of the guard was smiling widely at everypony, though there was something strained in his expression. The smile didn’t reach his eyes. The young prince Regal Luster on the other hoof was openly enjoying all the commotion and carnival-like atmosphere. The queen herself seemed to have stayed somewhere on the way to Luster’s joy. She was surveying her subjects with calm content and warm smile.

In the rear of the chariot stood the royal advisors. Arc noted with amusement that by the expression of that fiery unicorn at least somepony shared his opinion on the chariot and the parade in general.

The chariot was passing by uneventfully, Canopy jumping in place and cheering with all her might, when suddenly the pegasus his sister was constantly talking about turned her head, smiled, more on Canopy than him, and waved.

“SHE SAW ME!” Canopy shouted ecstatically and leaned against him, her face equal parts blissful and stupid. Alright, only NOW was he doomed. He unconsciously caught the balloon attempting to flee his sister’s grip. It was the same color as Lightning Dust’s fur.

The parade continued with the ponies everypony gathered here for in the first place, at least officially. The newly assigned preachers were walking in pairs, their light beige robes embroidered with the symbols of elements. The rims of the robes were reinforced to withstand long journeys with hems of six colors corresponding to the advisor they swore their allegiance to.

To Arc they looked very calm and collected, aura of confidence emanating from each one. Maybe those virtues they followed really gave their mind peace?

They passed and another group of guards followed. The music must have been magically amplified, because not a single musician walked behind them. That was probably the end. The preachers would be officially sent to the world with a speech of the queen most likely and then somepony would maybe give a preaching. Neither Arc nor Canopy would be around for that as the place chosen for that lay half a mile away, half a mile filled with ponies. They couldn’t even leave immediately. Arc sighed. This would be a long day.

He was slowly slipping into a standing slumber, when he noticed a sudden change in his sister’s monologue. Somehow it started reacting to outside world.

“Oh hi! I didn’t see you coming. Nice armor!” she chirped and Arc felt an unfightable urge to see to whom. By Canopy’s side stood a crystal guard, adorned in that massive ceremonial armor which Canopy admired so much, and had a nonchalant feeling about him as if he stood there from the beginning of time. So it was possible to move in this crowd after all. Arc immediately checked his wallet, thankfully still present in his saddlebag.

“Good morning, young lady. I’ve been sent to you by Ms. Lightning Dust. She noticed you in the crowd and your devotion impressed her.”

Canopy sat down, grabbed her head with both her forehooves, squeed and fell byck to where Arc already positioned himself. The guard cocked an eyebrow on him. “Is she alright?”

“Sadly, yes,” Arc said with exasperation. “This is how she normally reacts. To one too many things.”

“Oh hush,” Canopy hissed and waved a hoof at him to let her go. “Oh, I… I noticed her too! On that chariot! With the queen. Yeah…” She trailed off, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. “She is really cool!” she added after a few seconds to save the situation.

“One could say that.” The guard smiled and then regained his nonchalant facade again. “She said that a pony of such faith in the cause of the Hexarete Front should consider adding to the efforts herself.”

“That she said? That’s very nice of her, but-” Arc tried to divert the slowly materializing danger, but once again Canopy ignored him.

“Of course!” she exclaimed. “I would love to be of service to her!”

“Sure, she would…” Arc mumbled to himself bitterly.

“You see, the preachers are being sent to their mission and the new ones won’t start their formation for several weeks.” Arc signaled with all his nonverbal skills for the guard to stop there, promising him kingdoms, wealth and eternal youth, just to not ask that question. To no avail. “But how would you like it in the Regiment of Temperance?”

“He really asked that. Why would he even bother asking? Why did he have to ask?” Arc was close to utter despair, but one doesn’t know the true depths until he sees them from even deeper pit.

“Yes! Sign us in, officer!”

“That’s the spirit!” He pulled out a roll of paper and a quill. “So I will need the name and the address.”

“Canopy Heights and Looming Arc, Breezeville 5” Pegasi never suffered from the lack of homes and building space. All they needed were some clouds. For some reason, the first house in the town had always the number nine.

Arc now assumed he couldn’t feel any worse. His sister signed for the military training. That meant most likely death. Something was bothering him even more though. He replayed her answer in his head once more and… “WAIT WHAT?!”

“That’s our street number, right?” Canopy asked innocently, adding the signatures of them both to the paper. She knew his hoofwriting too well.

“I don’t give a damn about that! You signed in both of us?!”

“Well… you wouldn’t let me go alone now, would you?”

“Brilliant! We will send you the instructions within the next two days. I’m looking forward to serving with you. Have a good day!” The guard bowed a little and departed from them in a fluent manner as if there were no ponies in his way.

“Waít!” shouted Arc behind him, but his voice was drown in Canopy’s cheerful bye. He sat down and hid his face in his hooves.

“This is wonderful! I am sure a great adventure is waiting for us!” Canopy exclaimed and continued her neverending monologue. Arc stopped listening. He let her drag him into yet another trouble. Even moving up to the Empire was her momentary idea and he was the one to take care of their survival.

“You will be my death,” he sighed. Now a perfect time had come to finish his bottle of moonshine.


A soft knocking on the door rose Brittle Steps from his sleep. He squirmed under his blankets, hoping to burrow deep enough to not get noticed by the world for a few more minutes. Or hours. All those last minute preparations left him absolutely exhausted last night, not to mention the visit of his friends exactly as he was climbing to his bed. Sadly, for his hope to fulfill, his blanked would have to rise akin to mountain ranges.

The knocking returned and in the sleepy haze of his mind he realised that whoever was behind the door rapped the rhythm of Crystal Empire anthem on the wood. Alright, they gained some plus points. He stuck his legs out into the comparatively cold air of his bedroom.

It was situated to the east so that it wouldn’t overheat in the summer. Brittle Steps noted with disdain that the sun was not welcoming in the waking world with the glint on his limbs as usual. Just a yellow strip of the sky just over the horizon signaled morning was approaching. Slowly though as he was living in the third floor. He didn’t mind getting up, but there were normal hours and outrageous hours.

“Coming,” he called quietly as to not wake the luckier inhabitants of the apartment building. They deserved a lot of rest with how much everypony in the Empire worked recently. As he opened the door of his two-room flat, he found nopony at all. He could only hear the muffled click of the entrance door downstairs. Could it be somepony took so much effort as to prank him?

Definitely not. As he looked down he spotted a small package with his name written on a small piece of paper affixed to it with purple ribbon. Now he was getting much wiser as to the identity of his visitor. He took the package in and closed the door as quietly as he could.

Inside the package he found beige robes decorated with white symbols and the hem shared the coloration. He moaned lightly as from his own will he would never choose beige as his color. At least it didn’t clash too badly with his own light green coloration. As he lifted the item of clothing to inspect it closer, an enclosed note fell to the ground.

“Dear Brittle Steps. Hopefully we got the measurements right and the robes will fit you. You will have time to assess them during the parade, we can always do some adjustments. Please join us in the palace for breakfast and last briefing at 7 o’clock. Twilight. PS: Sorry for the color, everypony gets the same.” He put it to the side, slipped in the robes and gazed on himself in the mirror. It wasn’t too bad and the soft material accommodated itself to his body swiftly. Still, he couldn’t lose a face. “At least you admit the color is wrong, Twilight,” he mumbled to himself.

“So a breakfast. That sure comes in handy. There’s nothing left in here, apart from about one ration of a strong coffee.” He checked the cabinets to make sure. He wouldn’t like to prepare some ugly surprise for his friends who agreed to take care of his flat during his absence. Once he would return, everything would be prepared to host him again.

Another knock on the door made him pause the last control of his home. “Strange. In the last twenty-four hours of my stay in the Empire I get more visits than normally in a month.”

“Good morning, sir,” a young unicorn stallion in a bellhop livery greeted as Brittle Steps opened the door. “Ms. Twilight sent me for your luggage. It will be stored at the railway station during the ceremony.”

“That’s very thoughtful of her. Please come in, I need to finish the checking.” They returned to the living room and Steps ushered the bellhop to the couch. “Would you like some coffee? It must be horrible to be up so early. It sure is for me.”

“That would be very kind of you, sir.”

Soon the bellhop was smiling at him over the rim of the steaming mug. Steps was going through the contents of his two small suitcases and hoping they served coffee in the palace. “Alright, it seems everything is in place.”

“Ms. Twilight tasked me to tell you that you don’t need to fret about forgetting something. You will be provided a sufficient allowance.” Nopony ever called her other than ‘Ms. Twilight,’ her second name was never used. Almost everypony who came in contact with her of course had a serious suspicion as to her identity, but nopony would talk about it. A public secret of sorts.

The bellhop got up and put aside the empty mug. He seemed much more awake and attentive which he proved by pointing at a small flower pot covered with protective construction made of wire. “Is that your luggage, too , sir?”

Brittle Steps tapped the wire to make sure it held firmly. He did that so many times in the past few days that he was starting to worry the construction would break solely because of his tapping, but so far it resisted. “Of course,” he said as if it was the most pointless question ever asked. “That’s Narcis, my pet ficus. Everypony needs a companion.”

The bellhop shrugged and levitated all three pieces of luggage toward the door. At the doorstep Steps slipped him a ten bit coin. Which the bellhop accepted with a smile. Steps remained alone and the finality of his leave, at least a temporal one, settled down on him. He would be gone from his home for who knows how long, he realised.

“I’m not sure I want to leave, Drassil,” he said to a big ficus in the corner. Once he learnt he would be sent abroad, he planted a stick cut from the old plant to secure himself a more portable companion. Some of his friends found his conversations with the plant weird, but in his opinion Drassil was much better listener.

“I convinced few friends to water you regularly and to fertilize the soil as well. I explained them in detail what’s necessary and what to beware. You don’t need to worry, Drassil.” The plant stood quietly in the corner, its leaves hanging as if mourning. “Don’t give me that look, Drassil,” Steps said conciliatory and arranged few misplaced leaves. “I have to do it. I can be of more help out there than here and I will return as well.”

The atmosphere of the flat was pressing on him more with every second. All the memories and dreams came back to him along with the downtrodden look of Drassil. He couldn’t take it any longer. “I promise to be careful, alright? I will miss you. Goodbye!” He left the flat hurriedly and locked the door behind. Soon he was outside and he could breathe freely again. He made the first step.

The chilly air of the early morning wrapped around him and took some of his stress away. The robes slapped around his ankles in the light breeze and he set on his way, not turning back from fear that he would run back. To his surprise the streets were not at all abandoned. Many ponies were running from one place to another, finishing cleaning of the streets, magically drying the pavements after the downpour last night and hanging roses on every element of architecture that could serve as a hook.

Some of them recognised him and called a hello, even bigger number of them greeted him without any idea who he was. The Empire worked that way, ponies would wish you a good day because they knew it didn’t cost them anything. He was answering in kind, pondering if the town where he would be sent would be as friendly.

His walk to the palace didn’t take him particularly long. In the past months he found several shortcuts. All the guards knew him already as well and waved at him from afar. They stayed unmoving solely when tourists were around. A running joke among the regiment.

“How is it going?” he called at them in response to the wave. They waited till he got closer, a guard on his watch can’t show too openly that he is not inattentive all the time.

“It could be better. They didn’t choose us into the parade. Something about our armor not glittering enough or other horseapples,” one of them shared with him confidently, trying to sound easygoing, although his face betrayed his disappointment.

“Be glad. If I didn’t have to, I wouldn’t participate at all. All those ponies staring at me, bleh, not my cup of tea.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have become a preacher,” the other guard quipped, but then tapped Steps’ shoulder encouragingly. “You will do fine. Both here and outside. I know it.” They exchanged warm smiles and.Steps was usher through the gate that would otherwise remain closed till eight o’clock, that is during audience days. Otherwise till nine.

Brittle Steps knew the way to the correct dining hall by heart. The apprentices would meet there every day before they would be split into groups for education. Furthermore, this wouldn’t be the first meal he ever had in the palace. It came with the position. He friends were actually surprised that he wouldn’t go live into the palace along with the other apprentices, to soak in the highly spiritual atmosphere. How could he teach the ponies about life though if he didn’t know how they lived in the first place? Separation didn’t come in question.

The dining hall prepared a pleasant surprise. The normally so plain room, although what can be called plain when it’s built of crystal, changed into a flood of roses, just like the streets, and a sweet scent was filling the air. Three small glowing white orbs were floating under the ceiling, bathing everything in a soft light. Even a high hair red carpet was added on the stone floor. Somepony was trying to make their last meal before leave as pleasant as possible.

He was by far not the first in and he caught sight of few of the Elements as well, but not of Ms. Twilight. They were mingling among the apprentices, chatting with them and probably going over the instructions again. Those who weren’t caught in the conversation were already minding the food set on several tables around the hall. He decided to do the same and helped himself to a bun with strawberry jam. They even had a coffee.

He was at his second bun and third peach when he sensed a presence next to himself. When he turned his head, his eyes met with those of Ms. Twilight. She was smiling at him, not a glimpse of worry in her entire being that day. He smiled back with his lips firmly closed as he was preoccupied with chewing at the moment. He pointed at the coffee cattle and raised his eyebrows in silent question.

“No, thank you. I already had some before. But if Canvas asks, we ran out. Understood?

Steps looked over his shoulder and found the mare in question on the other side of the room. While everypony present already managed to wake up fully, she still stuck out with how chipper she acted. “Fully, Ms. Twilight. Thanks for the robes, by the way. They seem to fit just right.”

“There’s nothing to thank for, Brittle Steps. I’m glad you are content. Three more robes will be added in a package to your luggage.”

“In that case I hope bellhops are cheap wherever I am being sent,” Steps deadpanned and drew a giggle from Twilight.

“Not exactly, but you won’t have to worry about that. There is an account in Beak’n’Claw Bank you will have access to. The number and password are among the other documents, along with the passport. Here.” She handed him a thick envelope which he slipped into an inner pocket he found during getting dressed.

“Thank you. I will try not to spend too much. The money could serve many other ponies.” He gazed intently at his hooves. How could he address his uncertainty? She seemed so confident, would she even understand? His dilemma got solved when she lifted his chin to look him in the eyes again.

“You will do fine, Brittle Steps. You learnt our teachings well and you have a kind heart. Every task can be managed if we want to.”

“But what if they won’t listen?” he asked with doubt.

“Then you mustn’t force them to. They will choose their own path in life and not joining us doesn’t equal damnation. In any case, don’t blame yourself for their behavior.”

“I won’t, Ms. Twilight.”

She smiled in response and left him to his breakfast, heading to another of her apprentices. If Steps could judge, they were all present already and all adorned in similar beige robes too. Now it was a matter of time. He would eat some more and talk to few of the apprentices he knew by name. They all seemed just as tensed.

At quarter to ten they were lead to the space around the Crystal Heart where the parade would start. They formed a row of twenty-five pairs behind a pink and golden chariot for the queen, her family and the Elements. In his opinion, whoever created it had some serious mental dysfunction.

With the tenth strike of the clock on one of the palace towers the parade moved forward, the guards in heavy ceremonial armor marching at the front. This was it. Now he would have to withstand all those eyes focused on him. He, who prefered solitude his whole life. He, who chose a ficus as his companion in life.

His legs started moving on their own and he realised with horror that the narrow corridor was getting closer. Soon they would be everywhere around him. He was panicking, weighing his chances for escape. Then he entered the corridor and the feeling slammed into him like a train.

They were all cheering, their voices intertwining with the music in the air. Not a single pony was judging him for anything. They saw him and those around him as heroes and sincerely wished them everything good. It didn’t even stop by the wish. They were pouring their happiness to them just like they did a week ago when the Crystal Tree was planted near Crosstown.

He waved at them, as did several other apprentices, and took a closer look. Mares and stallions, colts and fillies, all smiling, waving and calling at them encouragingly. Some were waving small flags of the Empire, some were holding balloons - mostly foals, but there were exception - and others yet toasting to them. They started enjoying the energy surrounding them, the pure joy of the crowd. Now he knew he would be alright. He would defeat any obstacle knowing how much support lay behind him.

Like in a haze he arrived to one of the squares of the city, a two-level podium raised at one end. Everypony from the chariot got on the higher part, the apprentices the lower. Ms. Twilight stepped forward, the other Elements two steps behind her, all wearing robes similar to those of the apprentices, just more luxuriously decorated. The crowd went silent

“It is an honor to watch you all here in front of me, ready to spread our word further in the Empire and mainly the outside world,” she addressed the apprentices, her voice filling the square with no difficulty, drowning any noises in the background. She didn’t even need any spell for that. “Yet at the same time it is a great responsibility we all take on ourselves. In the days to come, you will represent not only the beliefs we share, but the whole Crystal Empire and everypony living here. Will you represent us, bringing glory to our land?”

“We will!” thundered the choir of voices. She nodded contently and beckoned the other Elements to join her.

“You studied hard and came to understand much. You are as ready as can be and we have faith in your pure hearts and devoted minds. Yet maybe a decision was born in you to follow another path. There is no shame in that, yet you must state it now.” She paused and just like the other Elements closed her eyes firmly. When she opened them again, they were glowing white and Steps thought he saw shimmering above their heads.

“Thus I ask,” Ms. Twilight reiterated, her voice now becoming almost tangible, although distant as if coming from another world, “will you serve the cause of Hexarete Front and spread the word of virtue?”

“We will!” thundered the apprentices again.

“Then be the blessing of Elysium with you,” said all the Elements together and Brittle Steps felt another surge of energy course through him. He gazed at a string of his mane hanging over his shoulder. It turned into swirling white strands glowing with the same white as the halo above Ms. Twilight’s head. The Elements possessed an aura of majesty around them, solemn, but beautiful, and just like over Twilight’s, halos formed from the shimmering over their heads. Even the apprentices changed, the mane of each identifying him with his chosen Element. Now they were true followers of Ein Sof, ready to preach.

“Go, you are sent forth,” Twilight closed the ceremony and the crowd returned into its fervent celebrating of the occasion. They formed an aisle for the preachers to get to the railway station, trying to pat them on their back and passing them small gifts.

It was quiet within the station. The Elements wouldn’t join them again, they had their duties in the festivities. Not all the preachers were present. About ten of them would stay in the Empire as the Elements needed some help as well and those ponies wouldn’t want to leave their families. Still, it would take some time before the rest would leave. They couldn’t go with a single train - such a group would definitely be suspicious. They also changed into common travelling clothes, pretending to be tourists.

Steps’ train left at two in the afternoon. He would most likely get to the next train in Equestria before dark, if the control at the border wouldn’t take too much time. He thought back to the ceremony and gazed at his glowing mane. Strangely enough, nopony in the carriage seemed to notice anything strange.

Neither did the clerk at the border. He let Steps know with his behavior just how disdained he was from seeing a crystal pony. He wasn’t obstructing though, letting Steps pass after just a brief questioning and a short search through his luggage. A question regarding Narcis couldn’t miss on the fun.

The building where he was being controlled was new, apparently built only after the Frozen North was annexed to the Empire. It was a combination of customs control, checkpoint and a railway station, and even after such a short time it looked rundown. Maybe it never looked any different though. As Steps left the office, he noticed a stronger than usual presence of guards. Equestria tolerated it in the end, but Tartarus would freeze if they were happy about it.

He sighed and pulled another train ticket from the envelope. It would be a train to Manehattan and from there a night ride to Las Pegasus. He acknowledged with happiness that they reserved him a bed in the train as well as dinner and breakfast. He wondered what a real summer looked like.


The bakery swarmed with activity. The clatter of pans, baking trays, bowls and an avalanche of cooking utensils filled the steaming room to the top. Bakers were shouting commands to the helpers, suppliers were bringing bags of flour, dozens of eggs and gallons of milk and over the overall commotion one could hear hollow thuds of wood being chopped in the next room to vanish in the eternal howl of the ovens.

Nopony seemed to pay any attention to young earth pony colt entering through the back door and briskly sneaking among the ponies at work to the row of pegs with aprons and mane nets. He chose some that would fit him and replaced them with his light coat. Among the items hung a notebook and a pen where the employees would mark their arrival and departure, though Crisp Field knew better than to touch it. Instead he ran to the adjacent office where the owner of the bakery was signing facturations.

“Good morning, Mr. Crumb!”

“Mowning, Cwithp. Go find Freth Woaf, he’w give you wowk,” said the dark brown earth pony behind the desk. He was holding a pen in his mouth and was stretching to sign another paper, That task required a gargantuan strain as well as enthusiastic optimism as his stomach wouldn’t allow him to push the chair closer to the desk.

“Will do, sir.”

Mr. Crumb finally succeeded at his endeavor and spat out the pen. “Oh and Crisp?” he called after the retrieving colt who turned in place, “Nopony saw you, right?”

“Of course not, sir,” Crisp reassured and left. Soon he was in full swing of work as the other ponies around him, carrying ingredients and trayes of finished good. For his young age he was surprisingly strong, but that could have been expected from an earth pony. Still, the cooks kept his peculiarities in mind and would carefully judge what he could or couldn’t do.

He tried hard. It wasn’t easy to find a job, especially when you were under the legal age for working. He would do anything to keep it, it was no wonder when he lost any track of time and jumped up as Mr. Crumb patted his shoulder, his belly swaying under the apron.

“Hey boy, it’s seven fifteen. Shouldn't you be going?”

Crisp’s mouth opened in shock. He would have to hurry to get home and to school in time. He darted for the pegs again and put his borrowed attire back to its place. Mr. Crumb was right behind him, handing him a small pouch of bits.

“I watched you today. You did very well, I wonder when you will get your cutie mark for this.”

“Thank you, Mr Crumb! See you tomorrow!” Crisp said with glee as he hid the pouch in his coat. By the weight he could tell he was paid more than he worked again. Mr Crumb and his wife often slipped him more, just from the goodness of their heart.

The sun rose few minutes ago, the shortening days manifested even for this unsleeping city, so he hurried from the alley the back entrance of the bakery led to. He could never be sure who would be waiting behind the dumpsters and the young not too well nourished colt would be an easy prey for any thug around. The moment he got to a wider street he breathed out in relief. You could get pickpocketed quickly in the crowd, but that was something Crisp Field could at least protect himself from a bit.

Las Pegasus should have been divided into two cities for sake of limiting the distortion of statistics. The first one would encompass the locations inhabited by the rich and famous as well as all the hotels, casinos and other businesses that made it the centrepoint of entertainment. The living standard in those parts enormously exceeded the expectations created from average income data for the city.

Then there was the hidden part of the city, the one where all the supporting facilities would find their employees. There was no glamour and extravagance in the architecture, no luxurious goods in the shops and mainly no establishments offering hazard games. Ponies in here simply didn’t have much left to spend frivolously and tourists wouldn’t visit these parts.

Crisp naturally lived in the poorer quarters, his mother a laundress, his father a waiter in one of the casinos. They used to get along quite well, although feeding five foals in this city always brought some problem. Then his mother got pregnant again though and the complications around the birth didn’t allow her to.

He quietly opened the door of their flat on the fifth floor of a tenement house and slipped in, going straight for the kitchen. His mother lay on the couch by the wall nursing his youngest sister. They were apparently the only ponies around, the others have already left for school, work, or in case of his father hadn’t returned from work yet.

“Good morning, mum.” He walked to her and kissed her lightly. “Are you feeling better today?”

“Much, darling,” she said and smiled at him, but the exhaustion could be seen in her expression. She probably didn’t get much sleep that night once again. The young foal kept waking up all the time.

He placed the pouch on the table and grabbed an apple and the small bag with his snack for school. “They slipped me more again, mum. It should help a bit.”

“Thank you, darling, but you shouldn’t do this. You are too young to work. We will manage even if you don’t harm yourself like this.”

“Everypony must help, mum. I want to support the family too.” He ran to the room he shared with two of his brothers and returned to the kitchen with his school saddlebags. “Besides, I don’t need to sleep that much. You should nap though. See you later!”

Soon he was galloping down the street again, now in real hurry for he had quite a long journey ahead of him. By a stroke of luck his father managed to get him signed into one of the school in the richer quarter. Thankfully the schools were still paid by the state, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to afford that. This way Crisp was getting much better education than most of his peers.

As he ran, the scenery around him was changing in more than just the coordinates. The facades were getting brighter, the green around the street lusher and the clothing of ponies more common occurrence than around his home. There was no clearly determined border between the world of rich and poor, employers and employees, but you couldn’t miss the difference when you crossed it.

At a small square close after crossing the non-existent border, he had to slow down and could put his skill in sneaking among ponies to use. There was a small crowd gathered and Crisp could spot and mostly hear a green crystal pony, or at least he thought it was a crystal pony as he hadn’t seen any other member of that race before. He was wearing a strange beige robe and was talking about taking the wellbeing of others into consideration.

Crisp didn’t have any time to stop and listen, and it crossed his mind that impeding him on his way wasn’t the best example of being considerate, but then he broke free from the crowd and resumed his gallop. The school bell was tolling as he entered the school ground through a huge decorative iron gate.

In the years he attended this school, he learnt that most of the other pupils didn’t want anything to do with him. They generally belonged to wealthier families and weren’t raised to keep the others in high regard. They were flaunting their money and expensive accessories around, forming a hierarchy based strictly on that. Of course, there were few like Crisp who got lucky and also a small group of decent foals. They formed a tragic minority though.

It took Crisp two years to find a friend at all around here. Until then he would spend the recesses alone in the school garden, sufficiently far from the playground to slip the attention of bullies and rich pricks. It wasn’t bad, definitely better than the encounters he went through before he settled for this. He liked trees and the garden was very well kept. He would enjoy that time, although solitude didn’t sit well with him, a result of growing with so many ponies.

Then he met her and his school life changed. Ivory Grace stemmed from one of the richest families around. She also surpassed most others in looks, her namesake coat and light grey, almost silver mane along with softly golden eyes catching eye in the crowd. To secure her position the fate made her to born as unicorn. And this pony, generally nicknamed Princess, once stepped in when a bully wanted to beat Crisp up. She didn’t bother threatening with her father’s influence. She simply bucked the offender in the face. They got to talk in the detention that day and had been friends ever since.

He found her already sitting in the classroom. They had been sharing a table ever since that day, from which they both profited as they specialized in different subjects. She smiled at him and then jabbed him in the ribs lightly.

“You are almost late,” she reprimanded and he thought he caught a small tint of rosy on her cheeks when she looked him in the eyes. “I was getting worried.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled and massaged his hurt chest. “I lost track of time.”

“Have you been working again?” Apart from his family and the ponies in the bakery, Ivory Grace was the only pony who knew about his job. She wouldn’t tell anypony though, she wouldn’t do anything to harm him.

“Yeah, and then there was a crowd in my path again. That stallion is always choosing the worst places.”

“My father forbode me from listening to him and the likes. What was he talking about today?” She scooted closer to Crisp, rather unnecessarily in Crisp’s opinion as nopony was listening to their conversation in the chattering classroom.

“Something about thinking about the feelings of other ponies, I think. I didn’t have time. Do you want me to listen to him for you sometime?”

“That would be nice of you. That topic is very important,” she said thoughtfully and gave him a look Crisp couldn’t quite decode. He didn’t have much time to ponder about it as the teacher entered the room and the classes started. Ivory Grace remained close, he didn’t mind though.


Training for new recruit was sometimes difficult. Aside from the physical conditioning, camp was a maturing process, sometimes a scarring one. Lightning Dust knew this well with her military background and her knowledge of it most likely was only matched by Shining Armor. The military could change a pony and it was not for everypony. There were already a few dropouts this season, a fact that she was not happy about but could not fault them for.

Wearing a new military tunic crafted for her by crystal pony artisans, she flew from her palace home towards the palace stadium just north. Though it was primarily intended for sporting event, it became an ideal place for training soldiers in other hours, certainly useful with how many volunteers signed up recently. She landed at the entrance and walked inside, flashing her military ID for the security stationed there.

Her walk through the corridors and into the lockers was fairly routine, as it typically is when coming into work. She counted the locker numbers until she found the one assigned to her and after inputting the combination, opened it to place her bag inside. The billboard did not display much for her, simply a reminder of the training schedule and a notice of the training subjects. Today, it was hoof-to-hoof combat.

Once she felt ready to go, Lightning Dust headed for the main field but bumped into another pony as she turned the corner out the room.

“Oh, sorry,” she said moving aside to let the pony by.

“General Lightning Dust! Sorry about that,” responded the pegasus mare dressed in light leather armor.

“My mistake. Carry on Canopy, I’ll see you out on the field.”

Canopy tried her best to not burst into excitement from talking to her. Yes, working alongside one of her Wonderbolt heroes always made her tingle, even if Lightning Dust was never made an official member. Her devotion actually somewhat reminded Lightning Dust of her old friend from the academy. There was a part of her that wondered how her life would turn out if she had accepted Spitfire’s offer.

Now was not the time to think about it though. She was already a bit late. Lighting Dust hurried out into the field where many of the recruits already began their sparring and Canopy soon returned to her brother who was waiting for her. Pacing back and forth among the recruits was Sunset Shimmer, wearing a set of armor (sans a helmet) also crafted by crystal pony artisans; in place of a helmet was a campaign cap indicating her as the current drill instructor.

“Rice, lower your center of gravity! Don’t give your opponent an opportunity to knock you off your feet. Beryl, use your opponent’s momentum to compensate your size! Pillar, take this training seriously or I will make you run laps around the track! That is assuming I don’t throw your ass out of here all together!”

Lightning Dust stood on the sidelines, staying out of the way of the recruits as Sunset continued her drill sergeant shtick. The unicorn shortly noticed her and gave a brief but firm nod in her direction to acknowledge her presence and continued without any delay. Lightning made observations of her own as the minutes passed by. There were definitely many recruits with potential, many naturals. However, devotion alone does not always translate into skill, especially among the younger recruits that were not even Canvas’ age.

Then there were those who needed improvement.

One pegasus stallion struggled to keep up with the rest of his class in the physical segments. Academically he was decent, but he was marginally worse on the field, being tripped up quite often by his opponent and at this particular instance he lost his footing for the third time. He was subpar and did not seem motivated, but apparently not enough for Sunset to give more than a sigh and a head shake before passing by.

On the flip side, his sister and current sparring partner was one of the stars of class. She held herself very well and took pride in her ability, something Lightning Dust and even Sunset respected, as did quite a few of her classmates. Watching her and seeing the stark contrast between her and her brother, Lightning Dust couldn’t help but see something familiar in them.

At some point, Sunset stood near Lightning Dust’s position and gestured her to walk with her. “So what’s your opinion on this group so far?” Sunset asked with her eyes still focused on the trainees for the short walk.

“Well… Aside from a few, I can’t really say this is the best I’ve seen. Their not the worst either though, we certainly have our stars. Looming Arc is a bit of an issue, however.”

“I’ve seen Arc lift almost twice his own weight, so I know he’s strong. He’s got the potential, just little motivation. Given enough time, one of two things will happen. Either I’ll be able to whip him into shape and mold him into a proper soldier, or he’ll cave in under the pressure and leave.”

“Then there is his sister Canopy Heights, best in the class as far as the field goes. I like her and I think she’s got some worth. However, and I’m going to sound strange for saying this, I fear that her confidence is too high. She knows her abilities and I worry she’ll develop a hubris which will possibly lead her astray.”

With a distance of about ten feet from the brother-sister duo, Sunset observed as Canopy successfully performed a headlock reversal and accidentally threw off her brother’s balance, though he was able to recover before he fell thanks to small flaps of his wings, to which Canopy called him out on cheating.

“If I can mold her, that shouldn’t happen. Kind of hard to believe those two are related though, huh?” Sunset said as she readied a fighting stand, Lightning Dust doing the same and began a sparring session.

“Not to me, no. My two cousins were the same way when our fathers were teaching us martial arts. I remember Plasma hated the training and took every opportunity he could to get out of it. Static always one upped him because he just never showed up for practice. He was always better in academics anyway. When I was growing up though, Static was my favorite cousin because he was always playing sports. He never liked it when he lost in anything, especially to a girl. I think that’s what strived him to get better at everything he did. Kinda wonder if he ever got that mare he was after.”

The mares were interrupted when a loud shouting sounded in the middle of the trainees and their heads turned to the source. Two trainees from two different pairs got into an altercation after a failed throw attempt knocked one of them down.

“What the hay, man! You’re supposed to keep to your own square!” the wine colored unicorn said.

“You were too close to us, you should’ve moved back a little bit!” the orange crystal pony responded.

“Dude, it’s not my fault you suck at this. If you can’t take it, maybe you should consider quitting.”

“Maybe you should learn to be considerate of other ponies. If it keeps up like this, we’ll never succeed!”

With the scene causing a distraction for the other recruits, Sunset felt the need to step in and end the argument in its infant stage. “You two! I don’t want any of that. You are supposed to cooperate, not beat the crap out of each other. Now I want you ladies to give me five laps around the track and start over.”

The stallions reluctantly ran to the track and did as they were told, though it almost turned into a race to finish first which Sunset had to moderate to make sure it didn’t get ugly again. Lightning Dust then came up to the partners of those stallions who seemed equally frustrated from the interruption. “You two, I want you to finish sparring with each other. Please be patient with each other, don’t blow up like they did.”

Lightning Dust walked back towards Sunset’s position, passing by Canopy and Arc. Even when distracted by her idol, Canopy was still countering the moves made by her brother. As Lightning looked back at the entire group to check for any other subtle signs of trouble, Canopy took the opportunity to try and impress her with a perfectly executed throw at Arc’s expense. This did manage to get a grin out of Lightning Dust, albeit with a momentary cringe towards Arc’s pain. She gave Canopy a gesture to calm down on the force before Sunset walked her way.

“By now, I think you’ve noticed it too,” Sunset simply stated. “Everypony is really tense lately. That mixed with this is a recipe for disaster.”

“Can you really blame them?” Lightning responded after seeing one of the runners trip and land face first into the track before getting back up. “Stress of the training, exhaustion at the end of the day, change of their daily regime, it will throw you off track. Remember when we first started our teachings in Elysium?”

“Yeah, plus there is that news from the outside. Some of our preaching members seem to have been arrested, even with speaking permits where required, and a lot of them are being moved to Canterlot from what I hear. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect it, but…”

Lightning shook her disappointed head. “Equestria has been quite corrupt the past few years. Why do you think so many flocked to the Empire in the first place? Those that lead don’t want their ‘livestock’ getting ideas. This does complicate things, but with some planning and patience I’m sure we can turn things around.”

“Passion is high, but patience isn’t exactly in abundance right now, Dusty…”

The second Sunset finished her sentence, Canopy came to a halt just behind them with her strong wings carrying her brother. “Uh, excuse me? Arc kinda needs medical attention, he took a pretty hard fall,” she said with a sheepish look.

“Really need to tone it down next time, recruit. This is only training,” Sunset said rolling her eyes.

“I’ll take him to the infirmary, I’ll be back,” Lightning Dust said picking up the poor stallion off of Canopy’s back.

“Yeah, fine. In the meantime Canopy, why don’t you take five. Dust’ll probably be your replacement partner for the next part when she comes back.”

Canopy had to restrain herself from fangasming at the idea of training with Dust, though a quick glare from Sunset stopped any chance of her losing control. She slinked away to the water fountains in the corridors and took a large sip from the stream. After wiping away the sweat from her forehead with her hoof, she sat down on the bench simply stared down at the floor as she tried to comprehend what she heard.

“I gotta hand it to you, you really put your muscle into it everything. I kinda wish the other recruits were as dedicated.”

“Oh, thank you General Shimmer. I try my best…. Hey, can I ask you something? If that’s alright with you that is,” Canopy said lifting her head to make eye contact. “You did say those preacher guys were moved to Canterlot, right?”

Sunset’s eyes widened slightly, thrown a tad off guard by the question. “Ah, you heard a little bit of that, didja? Unfortunate but true, our guys don’t seem to be doing so well out there. More unlawful than I expected.”

“What do we do about it, General?”

“Not really much we can do right now,” Sunset shook her head. “But something has to be done about it. They’re just trying to spread their good faith, is that really a grounds for arrest? Empire can’t take official action though. They won’t listen with that whole Frozen North business, you know?”


When Canopy learnt that her brother was finally being released from the infirmary, she felt a two-fold satisfaction. Firstly, he managed to get away from training for whole five days. Something like bruised ribs, the nurse told her. He must have feigned it perfectly, they were even keeping him away from the full work-out for another week because of impaired movement. Nothing of that sort could have been the case in Canopy’s opinion. He didn’t fall that hard. She wouldn’t allow such harm to him. Secondly, she could have her plan started now.

She slipped around the corner, carefully checking if the patrol was out of sight. Then she rapped on the back door of the kitchen three times quickly and then twice slowly, the signal she established the day of Arc’s injury. The door creaked quietly and opened just enough to let her in.

The room stank. She couldn’t comprehend how their food, overall rich and tasty, could have been prepared in these premises. Seriously, not even rats survived in such environment. She mused about that being possibly part of the origin of the stench, forming a cycle of death for the ugly rodents, but she would leave investigation in that direction to somepony else, probably with non-existent gagging reflex. Like Rice Soup.

“How can you work in here?” she asked the unicorn and put a dish-cloth in front of her muzzle. Wrong choice.

“You get used to it. Besides, usually it’s much more tolerable. Tomorrow we will be serving broccoli and cabbage though, a special request by general Shimmer. Hmm.” He stirred one of the kettles and lifted some of the green stuff on the stirring spoon. “If I ever saw a schadenfreude, it was on her face.”

Canopy gazed at the goo dripping back down into the dark depths of the kettle. There were exceptions to everything, the quality of Hexarete Front catering included. “Good thing we won’t be served to tomorrow.”

Rice put the spoon to the side and his demeanor became much more serious. “So it will be today.”

“Yes, Arc is back, so we can start,” Canopy said waving her wing in front of her face to chase away the broccoli fumes. “Make sure the supplies are ready and wait for us at three. I’ll go tell the others.”

She hastily left the kitchen and spent the next hour running around the barracks and surrounding facilities. When she returned to her room, she found Arc lying on his bed, the other two inhabitants absent. Luck was on her side.

“There you are,” she said cheerfully, swallowing the anger she felt for him slacking off. Soon it wouldn’t matter. “Pack your things.”

While her return didn’t prompt any reaction from him, the command perked him up immensely and he shot out of the bed. “So you finally came to your senses? Awesome!” He pulled his suitcase from underneath the bed and in one jump he stood in front of the wardrobe, throwing his possessions on his bed. “How did you convince them to let us leave the army? I thought we would have to serve at least five years.”

“We are not leaving the army, dummy:” HIs excitement melted away like an ice cube in a hot shower. “We are going on a mission!” Now the water remaining of the ice cube decided left the world, probably to start a new life forming a star somewhere very far away from here. He returned to the bed and turned toward the wall.

“We haven’t even finished our training. Why are they sending us to a mission?” He whined. “Did you volunteer us again?”

Canopy felt a bit offended at the accusation in his tone. She signed them in the army, sure, but they would profit from that soon. She would make sure of that. And from this as well. “Kind of,” she said reluctantly and a bit sternly.

“Why can’t you decide only about your own life for once?!” he shouted at her and faced her at last. “You made us leave home, then you got us into this mess and now you signed us for a mission without even asking me first! That goes for all three, actually.” He kicked the suitcase back where he got it and retrieved a pair of reinforced travelling bag.”

“I think we are doing just fine,” she defended, albeit weakly since the outburst surprised her. “I am only trying to improve our life!”

“By this?” He gestured around with his hoof with such contempt that Canopy half-expected him to spit on the ground. “You don’t seem to get this on your own, so I will tell you, Canopy Heights. I bucking hate it here! I want my old life back. I want to repair houses, get up when I want and definitely not fight!”

“I swear we will be set for life after this mission, Arc.” This wasn’t the pony she knew so well. Arc wouldn’t shout at her, would he? He always supported her, because she was making the right calls, right? She was certain that she was right. Then why was she pleading with him? “We will be heroes of the Empire and won’t have to work ever again!”

“And just what task would they give us to make us heroes, huh?” He sat down in front of her, his forelegs folded on his chest.

“Well… The thing is… They didn’t technically give us the task,” she started carefully.

“They didn’t?”

“Depends how you look at it. Have you heard that many preachers were arrested?” She didn’t an answer other than an impatient look. “They transported them to Canterlot. I know it from general Shimmer. And when I talked with her about it, she said that Empire can’t help them officially, but that something must be done.”

“So you decided you would rescue them, on your own, freeing them from a prison in Canterlot, right?” He was smiling. Actually, his smile was getting slowly wider as she was explaining.

“I talked with few other recruits and they will go as well. We have everything planned and prepared. They switched the patrols so we won’t get caught and Rice got us enough food for the journey.”

“A few other recruits you say?” That smile was getting unnerving and awkwardly contagious at the same time.

“Ten, actually. I didn’t want to spread the word too much in case somepony tried to rat us out and there can’t be too many of us. We have to sneak in. Besides, you will be with me, so everything will be alright. Come on, this means really lot to me!” She chuckled a little and mimicked his smile. “I won’t be dealing with this alone, right?”

“Right. You won’t.” The smile reached it peak and then suddenly disappeared. “But after this is over, you will deal with everything else alone. I will get a new life in which you won’t be included.” He was absolutely calm, not a hint of anger or malice in his voice. He was not threatening, just stating a fact.

She wanted to say something, opening her mouth and reaching forward, but he turned away from her and continued packing. She couldn’t do anything else but pack as well. Hopefully he would change his mind. She prayed he would.


Moron, moron, moron! Arc scolded himself on the way to the train station. Why would you tell her something like that? Just how heartbroken she looked! They were moving in pair through different streets so to minimize the suspicion. A group of twelve armed ponies would definitely draw attention.

Because you meant it. This is the last drop, said another part of him, the one that was usually keeping his frustration at bay and that apparently quitted his job on short notice. Why didn’t I simply go to the officer and tell them everything?

Because this means the world to her! He could tell not only because she said so, but also by how precisely she organized everything. Recruits were being prepared for military life as a whole, so they had to participate on patrolling, changing every two hours. Every patrolling pony on their path as well as the one at the gate was member of Canopy’s little conspiracy, having their travelling bags hidden somewhere around.

As promised Rice Soup had food ready for them as well as his own bag, joining on their ‘mission.’ What Arc couldn’t imagine was getting the battle gear, but Canopy had a plan for that too. Somepony conveniently forgot to lock the door of one of the storages. Whoever did that was either in their group or in big trouble, which was in Arc opinion one and the same. They couldn’t take the newly forged armor with emblems of the Empire and the Front. General Shimmer made it clear that taking an official action was out of the question, including the presence of Empire’s soldiers. Thankfully, although that was the last word Arc would use, the Empire kept the old pieces from back when it reappeared. These were crafted in Equestria, keeping neutral looks. They would avoid suspicion for about long enough to stick the spear into the overly observant pony. Yes, weapons were stored in the same building.

Arc patted his spear with his right wing. Most pegasi opted for long weapons. They could afford it, not having to use their forelegs to move around the battlefield. He just hoped he wouldn’t get to using it. Maybe those guards in front of the train station would get suspicious and put an end to this madness. It was looking promising.

One of them stepped forward and pointed his own spear on them. This one was unicorn though, the spear glowed in an orange aura, serving as a weapon and a torch at the same time. “Stop right there,” he barked and scrutinized them with a trained glare. He must have practiced it in front of the mirror. “Report yourselves!”

While the ponies of Crystal Empire were allowed to move freely, a group of twelve armored and armed ponies did, as was already pointed out, raise some questions even in a such environment.

Arc was starting to celebrate being saved in the last minute when Canopy stepped forward confidently. She had looked fairly downtrodden ever since their exchange in the dorm, but now it all seemed to vanish, a mask of infinite confidence and dignity taking its place.

“Commander Canopy Heights, Hexarete Front,” she said in the same tone as the guard used before. “My unite and I have been given orders by general Shimmer. We are to transport to the proximity of the border immediately. The rest is classified.”

“Commander.” The guard pointed the spear up and saluted, as did the one standing still by the door. “You arrived just in time. The train is about to leave.”

They all saluted to the guards and continued to the platform. The transportation of personnel and material of the army was prepaid by the crown, so they were soon comfortably seated in one of the carriages. They would ride as close to the border as possible without getting too suspicious on their final station. Arc had enough time to catch up on sleep he hadn’t gotten that night and worrying he needed to frontload. One never knew when it would come in handy.

Their journey began for real much sooner than he would like. They disembarked in a small village few stops before the train would reach the border. Nopony else was in sight, the combination of a place in the middle of nowhere and the early hour providing them with that luxury. The only luxury they would get.

The sun hadn’t risen yet, but the sky already turned to a metallic blue hue, letting them see enough to navigate. They could also see their breath condensing in front of their muzzles. Thankfully, the snow hadn’t been falling yet, otherwise their enterprise would surely fail, ending in their death by cold.

As they got out of sight of the last house in the village, they unpacked their camouflage cloaks. They were splattered with dark green, but mainly gray and different shades of brown. As the sun climbed higher on the sky, which they could tell only by the clouds coloring heavy gray, Arc admitted that the creator of the cloaks knew the tundra perfectly. From what he remembered from his first journey to the Empire, the land looked much more scenic, maybe even romantic. The inhabitants probably took the effort to cultivate the areas around the tracks.

Heather, stone, dead grass, low bushes. Lather, rinse, repeat. They were trudging with their heavy equipment across the expanse of the north. They chose a path through the foothills to the east of the tracks, hoping that the forest would hide them sooner and that they would avoid most of the settlements. That made their journey even more difficult, as the rocks were getting bigger still and they had to beware ravines.

Nopony talked. They were all deep in their thoughts, reflecting on their decision to venture after such elusive goal. Arc was fighting with the urge to scold Canopy again, seeking distraction wherever he could. He had to admit that as they walked, the scenery regained something of its qualities. The hills and higher mountains on the horizon lended the view a feeling of an expensive painting. Those birds in a V formation were a nice touch as well.

Wait a minute! Arc stopped in place and shaded his eyes. Why are birds migrating in November? And why to the west, not south? They were getting closer with much higher speed than migratory birds ever would. Soon he recognized they didn’t even share color.

“Everypony, down!” he ordered with just enough intensity to be heard, but not to cause echo. “There’s a patrol!”

While the fighting skills were important for a soldier, staying alive ranked even higher on the list. The training in the Empire reflected that, the recruits having absolved a thorough drill about survival; part of it was that when somepony shouted ‘take cover,’ everypony would take cover immediately instead of gawking around like a suricate trying to spot what are they to take cover for.

The cloaks blended with the ground effectively, more so since they chose hiding spots under bushes and in a small trench. Arc found himself next to Canopy, who was gazing through the thorny branches upwards. She was breathing hard, adrenaline coursing in her veins. He reached out to her and patted her hoof reassuringly, first semblance of communication between them since the previous evening.

The pegasi got so close that their uniforms became apparent even in the bed lightning. Blue and yellow weren’t exactly Imperial colors.

“Look, Canopy. Your idols,” Arc whispered the obvious into her ear. He should have kept that taunt for himself though as Canopy tried to jump out of their hideout. “Stay here! What do you think you are doing?!”

“We haven’t crossed the border yet. This is still Imperial territory and their aerial forces dare to fly here! Oakstick has a bow, he will show them!”

He had to expend a lot of strength, but managed to keep her down. “Great idea, commander!” He spat the rank out with such contempt that Canopy flinched. “I can imagine that conversation. ‘Hey, we got these Wonderbolts in Imperial territory by the border.’ ‘Nice, what were you doing by the border?’ ‘Ehm, trying to do the same to Equestria as they did?’ That would go brilliantly!”

Canopy bit her lip and calmed down, caressing his hoof like he did to her before. He shook his head tiredly. He could never hold a grudge against her for a long time, at least not with maximal intensity. He would do everything in his power to prevent harm from her, but she went too far this time.

They stayed in the hideout for five more minutes just to be sure, then resumed their journey. By the evening they crossed the border and as grooves became more of a common sight, picked one to encamp. They didn’t dare to light a fire, so they huddled together and shared the blankets. Cold food didn’t lift their spirit either.

Thankfully the threat of snowing remained unfulfilled for the whole night and the next day as well. They walked as quickly as they could in the difficult terrain, intentionally avoiding roads and villages. Their presence needed to stay hidden for as long as possible. That wouldn’t be too long though. On the third day of their march, their supplies very running desperately low. They wouldn’t last another day.

Arc was looking down the hill they camped on. There was a small town, although it deserved that label just barely. They would have to go there and resupply.

“We will leave the equipment here and venture down like normal travelers,” said Canopy, appearing next to him and following his gaze. “Rice, you and I. More would be suspicious.”

“If you think that three ponies in the wilderness in November aren’t suspicious, there is something deeply wrong with your sense of trustworthiness.”

Still, they had no other choice. Canopy held a speech to the others, instructing them to continue with the task without them if they didn’t return by the next morning. Arc couldn’t but groan at her pathos.

The town had seen better days. Many of the houses were abandoned, rusty plows and other tools scattered in the backyards and weed suffocating the gardens. The shop was open, but nopony was shopping. As they soon discovered, the reason lay in the prices. The shopkeeper apparently wanted to get a hefty compensation for living in such a hole. For the first time a flaw in Canopy’s plan was revealed: not even the most optimistic person would call their supply of gold sufficient.

They left the shop without a coin and with just enough food to last a day if they limited the ratios. On the other hoof, the shopkeeper didn’t show any sign of suspicion. Or interest. Or personality, really.

“I beg you, Canopy, take this as a sign. We have just enough food to make it back to the Empire,” Arc pointed out, feeling an odd satisfaction at their situation.

“That’s out of question. We will continue on.”

“How? We will starve,” Rice joined in, supporting Arc for the first time. When it came to his motivation and building up opinions, food played an outstanding role.

“We won’t, we will just get food in a different way.”

“If you mean stealing, don’t count on me,” Arc whispered and checked if nopony could hear them. There were actually many ponies who could; without them noticing, the trio got to the town square and joined the back rows of a crowd gathered there. They stopped subconsciously and gazed over the heads of the ponies to a small impromptu stage - just two planks laid over barrels.

“Of course not.” Canopy watched the pony stood on the stage, an earth pony clad in a beige robe with red symbols embroidered on it. “Crime is not the way of a hero. Nor of Hexarete Front. Watch and learn.”

She vanished into the crowd, leaving Arc and Rice where they stood along with the newly purchased supplies. The preacher was slowly getting to the end of his speech. Arc the scheme of this one. He would appeal to the inner strenght of the ponies, to their bravery in hardships of the life so far. They needed to be strong and face the world, taking good and bad, never letting anything to break them. Who stayed idle would perish and bring suffering not only to himself. Only through action could the world change.

The preacher knew his craft well. He was cleverly using the realia of the town, its struggle in the past years, the troublesome trading and leaving of the citizens. He didn’t forget to mention how rotten the rulers and nobility were in their hoarding of possession and ignoring normal honest ponies like those in Hayfield. They didn’t even know where Hayfield lay! The townsfolk heard to it. Those who decided to stay in the town had felt pride deep down in their hearts for continuing the tradition and way of life their fathers pursued. Now somepony talked about their decision as a virtue.

A huge applause followed his speech, several ponies even heading to him to talk further. Before the rest of the crowd could disperse, Canopy jumped up the stage and slammed with her hoof into one of the barrels few times, drawing attention of everypony back.

“Honorable citizens of Hayfield!” she shouted, mimicking the preacher’s tone. She had a huge talent when it came to imitating ponies, something she showed with the guard at the station already. “I would love to thank our brother for his excellent speech today. I share his believes and still I felt inspired by his wise words. Surely many of you value the same virtues we do and intend to live by them to improve this world!”

“Damn right!” somepony shouted from the crowd. “He knows what he’s talking about!”

“And not just talking,” a mare’s voice flew above the agreeable murmur. “He helped me fix my roof! You know how it flew off during the last storm. He’s a good fella and lives what he says!” The square filled with applause once again, the cheering making the preacher blush. Canopy smiled and patiently waited for silence.

“He is a great pony and a paragon… a good example for us all,” she continued, gaining more confidence. “Just like the others travelling all over Equestria and teaching. Everypony should get a chance to hear what you heard, don’t you think?” She was of course met with agreement, a quite loud at that. “Yet not everypony shares that opinion. Many of our brothers have suffered for what they teach!”

She didn’t have to wait in the dramatic pause too long before somepony shouted: “Why? What’s wrong on what they do?”

“Who would hurt them? They help us!” somepony else shouted.

“Those who have power don’t like to see ponies relying on themselves. They feel threatened and are scared that we could live without them!”

“What did those bastards do to them?” That question resounded in variations all over the town square.

“They put them in chains and dragged them into dungeons in Canterlot!” Canopy shouted with vigour and righteous anger. “They will try to break them, just like they tried to break you! They took everything from you and now they want to steal hope! That must be stopped!” She pointed toward the hill they camped on, risking everything, although the crowd seemed to be completely on her side. Angry shouts calling for retaliation were heard and nopony opposed them. “My friends and I are going to rescue them for the evil clutches of nobles, but we need your help!”

Suddenly a young earth pony stallion jumped up next to her. Given his muscular build it was a surprise the planks didn’t break on impact. Canopy, startled by the change of situation, stepped a bit to the side instinctively.

“We will help you, missy!” the stallion shouted, putting her previous attempts to deep shame. “We will put an end to their tyranny. We will set the preachers free and take back what belongs to us, right folks?”

Rather unsurprisingly, a call for open action wasn’t met with such a glorious reception as mere appeal to morality. Even so, a sizeable group of ponies cheered and clopped. That group consisted mostly of younger ponies, often of similar build as the speaker. They were filled to the brim with energy and the town didn’t offer any chance to spend it. Canopy watched it with disbelief and jolted a little when the stallion turned back to her.

“See, missy? You are not alone in this. We are going with you!”

“But I only wanted-” she tried to explain, rising a hoof to stop him, but he wouldn’t let her finish.

“We will get everything ready. Meet us in two hours on the road just outside the town.” He jumped off the stage and joined the group already lively discussing the preparations. “Here we come, Canterlot!” he shouted as they were leaving the square.

As the commotion slowly died down in the streets, the mood on the square shifted. Instead of heated support, the remaining present ponies were giving out the air of worry and scepticism. More of their young would leave the town. Arc could imagine how they were feeling. Somepony decided their fate for worse without even asking them just when it was looking up. Yes, he could relate alright.

Canopy joined her friends again, trying to avoid the eyes of the townsfolk. There was a silent accusation in them. ‘You are taking them away. How gave you the right?’ they were saying.

“I just wanted to ask them for supplies!” she cried out when they left the town. Arc and Rice exchanged bitter glances, quickly getting tired of good intentions.

“For sake of your heroic epos we will keep that to ourselves. We promise,” Arc said and sped up a bit so he would at least put the bag of supplies down sooner. “After all, marching with an army is more heroic than sneaking and both equally leads to death.”


How could everything go so awry so quickly? One moment she was on a heroic mission to rescue unjustly imprisoned ponies, the next she found herself amidst a group of angry noisy ruffians. She could live with that. They would simply serve for protection and the final part of the plan would be performed by her little group. She was still in charge too.

But as they continued toward Canterlot, quite openly as a group of sixty can hardly sneak unnoticed, ponies were joining along. At first she felt joy at their enthusiasm for the right thing, but then the shouts calling for freeing of the preachers slowly died out, replaced with those demanding death of the nobles.

Even worse, they no longer asked the villagers for supplies. Either they would be given them automatically, the villagers too scared to oppose them, or they would take them with force, burning the house of the unlucky settler to the ground for ‘supporting the regime.’

Canopy was constantly trying to stop them, explaining that they shouldn’t harm common ponies and why theft and arson were serious crimes. They would alway acknowledge her words, still officially considering her the leader of this punitive expedition, but with one breath they would add that their cause is just and that after the short period of discomfort, they would secure much happier life for everypony. That was the intended meaning at least, their exact words sounding approximately ‘they’ll be fine, they can take what’s nobles’ once they conk out.’

It reached its peak when they met a merchant on the road. It took much of her effort to convince her comrades to not kill the merchant, opting for a simple robbery. The pictures from few years back were playing in her mind the whole time. Arc and she were travelling to their relatives in a safer part of Equestria and their caravan was attacked by one of the bandit groups. Arc managed to pull her into some bushes by the road which saved them lives, but he couldn’t prevent her from seeing the bloodshed. She had had nightmares of that day ever since and her decision to leave Equestria was born that day. She couldn’t let the same happen under her command.

In the end though the calls were made by everypony but her. Even some of her original group joined on the bloodthirsty mood of the newcomers. They were further encouraged as they didn’t encounter any resistance of regular army along the path. They took it as a sign of weakness, further fueling their rage. At least they would fight valiantly, she thought. This could be still met with a success.

Now they were camping in the proximity of Canterlot, not really in sight of the city though. All settlements in a wide ring around the capital were abandoned, the ponies having fled behind the walls. The punitive expedition didn’t touch the houses though. They had enough food and burning the homes would achieve nothing. In their understanding the common ponies had nothing to fear. They were fighting for them, even if they didn’t realize it.

“Here we are, commander,” Arc said as he entered her tent. They got those as a generous donation in one of the merchants they met along the way. While most donated under the threat, this one seemed genuine in his actions, especially after Canopy talked to him about the teachings. He even told Canopy he would probably head toward the Empire.

“Could you stop calling me that?”

“Why? You took that rank voluntarily and now you even have an army.” Arc kept addressing her that way during the whole march, constantly reminding her of how little word she had in the group. “They are demanding your presence for a final planning. You have probably the last chance to stop this.”

When she left the tent, she could hear the thuds of axes in a nearby forest. While she insisted on a sneak attack, entering Canterlot through sewers, hidden caves, anything but the front gate, the ponies wouldn’t hear reason. The moment they encamped, a group of them left to build a battering ram. A big one if the time they spent in the forest was any sign.

The final briefing went about as she expected it to. Nopony heeded her warning and very little of actual tactics was discussed. Instead they kept shouting encouraging phrases about their victory and about how they would change the history of Equestria forever. A rather idealistic opinion given their ‘army’ counted about five hundred ponies. Still, the certainty in their voices, the energy emanating from them and the air of determination started to rub on her during the evening.

Almost everypony was celebrating in the camp, dancing, singing and drinking like no tomorrow. When she was returning to the tent late at night, she spotted Arc sitting forlornly by one of the fires. From the look he gave her she could tell that he was certain about existence of tomorrow. The days to come after not so much.

With the first rays of sun they all gathered on one of the fields and formed somewhat regular units, the battering ram standing behind them. She wondered where they got the chains connecting it to the supporting construction, but in all honesty she didn’t want to know. She stepped forward, leaving the unit to Arc’s command, and faced ‘her’ army.

“Today we are finally reaching our destination! Behind this strip of forest lies Canterlot, the evil fortress where tyrants imprisoned our brethren!” She insisted on the true task of the army being freeing of the preachers, although very few of the ponies present cared about that at all at that point. “We will meet our enemy in a few short minutes and reach a victory!” The shouts of ‘viva’ shook the field and the trees around, showing that her comrades believed her words much more than she did.

“Many of us will die in the fight, but I promise you that our deeds will never be forgotten and that death will not be in vain!”

“For freedom and glory!” somepony shouted from the gathering and many others joined him. Canopy returned to her unit and started the final march. Arc was walking by her side, his face unmoving and serious.

“There is freedom in death, I suppose. Very little glory though,” he said to her.

“Could you stop being so pessimistic? We will be fine.” They emerged from the forest and gazed upon the city, walls glistening in the sun. Pegasi apparently wanted to provide best possible conditions for the battle. To Canopy’s surprise the gate of the city was open, no defenders anywhere in sight. “See? They will let us in freely!”

Her whole army was now on the open plain by the lower Canterlot gate, few hundred yards from the gate itself. They were walking proudly, shouting about victory and enjoying their triumph. Just a short walk remained.

Then all of the sudden a loud rattle filled the air and seconds later they were sprayed by soil launched into the air on impact of something strong. When Canopy looked up, she saw a six feet long pole sticking askew from the ground about five feet away, high amount of splinters around. It was a projectile fired from a ballista.

“Charge!” Canopy shouted and started sprinting. “To the gate, everypony!”

The rattling returned and more massive arrows plowed the earth in front of them, but this time even among them, prompting pained cries. These arrows were splintering in the air!

They were running as fast as they could, zigzaging to make it difficult to aim. The safety of the gate was near, but the air wailed with high velocity projectiles. Then Canopy spotted the gate filling with guards, polearms pointing outward. She stopped in desperation. They wouldn’t make it, she realized. There was no escape. She watched with horror as an arrow left the ballista on the ramparts and as if in slow motion was flying directly on her. She opened her mouth and a whimper escaped her. So this was how her heroism would end? She closed her eyes, wishing the massive arrow away. She didn’t want to die! She didn’t intend to bring death to so many ponies either! This wasn’t what she wanted. She just wished to impress her idol! She just wanted to help!

Something warm and heavy hit her from the side, tackling her to the ground out of the way of the arrow. she could feel few splinters puncturing her skin, but not a shattering blow she expected. Then something warm trickled on her from above and she opened her eyes.

“Arc?” her brother was lying on her, shielding her from the impact. He saved her life! He wasn’t moving though. “Arc? Arc, move! We have to get out of here! Arc!”


“This is really happening, isn’t it?” said a light blue pegasus guard to himself, in more of a statement than a question. He ran through the castle corridors, rushing to his post soon after the warning was called. “I always knew this would happen. Geez, what has Equestria become?”

“Sergeant Static!”

The guard stopped in his tracks as he heard the familiar voice. He turned and saluted at the indigo pegasus that was his superior. “Lieutenant Strom, sir!”

Strom saluted back, but sighed as he moved closer and put his hoof on his son. “If we can drop the pretenses for a moment, I’ve got some news.”

“Of course, father.”

“We’ve been preparing for a siege like this for a long time now, haven’t we? I’m afraid this is the real deal. The prince has given the order to neutralize the riot and deadly force is authorized. As always though, the Dominions are only thinking of themselves. They want their homes protected at all costs, by any means necessary.”

Static’s eyes widened in horror. “What about the rest of the citizens?! What are they going to do?” he shouted in a mixture of anger and concern.

“We’re working to evacuate those that we can while the ballistas are keeping the attackers at bay. I don’t agree with the reasoning, but this riot will go far out of control if we just let it boil. Don’t worry about Golden Cage, she’s safe within the castle walls.” Static breathed a large sigh of relief, though still unnerved by the situation. “I want you to come with me, we are on the front lines. We need the best of the best out there to minimize damages as much as possible.”

“Okay… Okay, alright. Is Cage here right now? I want to see her before I go, just in case.”

“I’m afraid there isn’t the time. Your duties as a soldier come first, Static. She will understand.”

“Yes sir…”

Static begrudgingly followed his father as they galloped off to armory and prepared for what was without a doubt going to be an absolute bloodbath. All of the soldiers participating in the front lines, a majority of them pegasi and unicorns, opted for heavier armor than what is regular for standard patrols. In addition to providing better protection to their vital areas, the chain mail covering other parts, helmets had a visor that hid their faces, protecting both their face and their identity from the opposing party. Though spears were still used, some opted for longer ranged weapons like crossbows, or heavier weapons like longswords or battle axes.

It took maybe three minutes for each soldier to fully suit up, having been well trained for this very kind of situation. All guards had a stern look of anger and readiness to them that could kill in themselves, even if they were going to be hidden behind face platting. In the midst of everything, Static understood their feelings; even if he didn’t agree with the political leaders, he would be damned if he was going to let a bunch of ruffians come into his home and cause chaos in the name of some thinly justified righteousness.

He stood with his brethren at a distance from the open gate of the city, ready to strike down any who penetrated the wall. Those carrying polearms placed themselves in sight of the attackers while those with heavy weapons and crossbows at the sides to ambush those that got through, the former on the ground and the latter on the roofs. It was the longest five minutes he had ever experienced, with the tension so thick it could be cut with a knife. It took all of his self-restraint to keep his mind from racing and focus his attention to the gate’s direction, let alone from charging onward.

Finally, it was time. With nearly a third of their numbers incapacitated, the rabble rousers broke through when the artillery failed to fire any longer. Once a sizable number of them were inside the walls, a storm of arrows rained down on them from above, injuring several and instantly killing about three. From that moment, all hell broke loose and the heavy armed soldiers charged along with the main unit. Blindsided, the remaining enemies did their best to adjust to the sheer force of the coordinated attack, but with their numbers effectively cut down to one fifth their starting position, they were grossly outnumbered.

Static ran full force into the nearest pony, a light gray earth stallion with little more than a lumber axe and a bloodlust expression. The stallion swung his axe in an attempt to knock him down, but Static parried, jumped and pointed his spear downward, skewing the pony in the chest on the descent. The stallion let out a painful scream and foolishly tried to attack again, but the mortal injury drained any kind of chance of a damaging strike from him to the point that Static easily parried the swing and finished him.

Despite the low numbers, a lot of the remaining attacking party made an enormous if futile effort to push through with determination and anger fueling their threats. It did not do much to protect them from sharpened steel though as passion was not a substitute for armor. One by one, their comrades fell with almost no damage to the royal army aside from one. A guard was double teamed by two larger stallions and was having serious trouble, both stallions taunting and boasting all the time.

With other soldiers occupied with adversaries of their own, Static made a split second decision to throw his spear at one stallion, piercing him through the neck. The stallion suddenly got serious and quickly stole the guard’s polearm and used it to trip him. He would have impaled him as well if not for Strom tackling him, giving the guard time to regain his balance. The stallion swung furiously at the lieutenant, the latter performing swift parries with his own sabre and patiently waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.

Finally, the stallion grew exhausted and Strom delivered a hard swing to his hind legs causing him to fall in agony. The guard from earlier took back his weapon and pressed the point to the stallion’s chest, causing him to surrender. With the situation handled, Strom joined with Static to fend off the remaining numbers. As the opponents thinned out, it became increasingly clear to them that there was no winning this fight. Though a few decided to surrender as well, the rest wasn’t willing to let everything go to waste and continued to fight.

It was these individuals that perished.

Almost twenty minutes after it started, the whole siege concluded with the mass majority either dead or otherwise incapacitated. Those that were still alive within the wall were arrested and prepared to be led to jail later. Even if the cells were reaching full capacity, there was still plenty of room. As for the dead, the cadavers were gathered up and placed into a pile which would later become a bonfire to incinerate them for easy disposal.

Static, along with many others, surveyed the scarlet aftermath of the short but fierce battle, making sure there were no stragglers. The whole thing made him sick, he had never seen so much blood before in his life. Before today, he had never killed anypony and it was only now that this was starting to sink in. Now that he was looking at the mangled corpses, dismembered by arrows of ballistas and other weapons, his queasy stomach got the better of him. So after another senior comrade offered to take his place, he gladly accepted.

“Oh Celestia, I think I’m gonna hurl…” he gagged sitting against the gate wall.

“I think we’re in the clear, son,” Strom said patting his son gently. “You did well. I know it wasn’t easy for you, but you held your own.”

“I’m not…” Static choked back vomit. “I’m not sure I really care about that right now.”

“It’s alright. Just calm down and take a rest. You’ve earned it.”

Static took several minutes to compose himself. He came very close to losing his lunch, but at some point he felt he was calm enough to make the trek back to the castle for debriefing. As he attempted to get back up, he saw a few more of the survivors being escorted into the gates, those that were incapacitated before making it into the wall. Among them was a pegasus mare with an limp stallion on her back.

She was crying and trembling with a look of absolute horror on her face as she seemed to mumble something continuously. As Static moved closer along with other soldiers, he could barely make out her words.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen…. Not like this, it didn’t have to happen like this…. Why did they do this?”

He could not help but ponder the meaning of those words. Given the armor she and the stallion on her back were wearing, he could only come to two conclusions: either they were coerced into doing this… or they had something different in mind. Static could not shake off the feeling of folly this day resulted in.

It didn’t need to happen. It shouldn’t have happened. Yet it did, ending in the deaths of many ponies, many of them not even legal adults yet. For what possible reason would they recklessly throw their lives away in such a poorly thought out coup?

When they came to the inner parts of the city, his thoughts turned to the Dominions. With his visor hiding his face, he grimaced in disgust. Perhaps he couldn’t entirely fault the ‘revolutionaries’ for their actions today, not while the truest of scum claimed control. After all, those bastards were perfectly willing to let lower tier residents fall victim so long as their own homes didn’t have any splatters of blood. Even though the royal guard triumphed and succeeded in minimizing damage, there was still some required repairs to be done later. And who was going to pay for the repairs? Certainly not the noble worms.

“Static,” Strom said startling him out of thought. “You look like you’re going to be sick. Tell you what, I think we can handle it from here, why don’t you go clock out. Golden Cage will want to see you too. I will debrief with Captain Dart Chaser and the pigs- I mean Dominions.”

“Y-yeah… Thank you.”

Static entered the castle and went to the lockers to wash up. After punching out on the time clock, he removed his helmet in front of the sink and ran the water, splashing his face with the ice cold water. His reflection in the mirror looked as disgusted at him as he felt at the whole situation. He lingered for far longer than he planned to, starring in deep thought at his reflection before he looked away. He left his war armor in his locker where he would return to the armor during his next shift, then he left the room to head home.

Outside, he bumped into a petite unicorn mare. The silky spring green fur around her eyes was stained with tears, as though she had been crying for awhile now. She looked up at him and her jaw hung open and quivered as it seemed like she was about to start again.

“S...Static…”

“Hey Cage. Don’t worry, I’m just fine.”

The mare wrapped her hooves around his neck, squeezing tightly as she sobbed softly. “Dummy… You worried the heck out of me!”

“Shshsh, I know. I’m sorry,” Static cooed as he stroked her light brown mane. “It was rough out there, but I’m back in one piece. Are you okay?”

“I hate it here, Stat! I hate working at that racist spa! I hate living with the thought of possibly never seeing you again! I don’t want to live in Canterlot anymore! One of them was hitting on me when you were out! I kept telling them I was married and was worried about you, but he didn’t care! He called you a worthless pegasus unfit to be my husband and that he was a better specimen for my race, that it would be a good thing if you died out there! I wanted to throw him out for those guys to rip him apart!”

“Shhh, it’s okay liebchen. Those pigs will get what’s coming to them one day. You’ll see.” Static escorted his wife through the castle corridors and started to head home. “It’s at times like these I wish I would’ve followed my brother’s advice and went to Fillydelphia with him…”

“Why didn’t you?” Golden Cage said as her sobs subsided. “You wouldn’t have to deal with all of this if you did.”

“True, but I also wouldn’t be with you,” Static said smiling. This got a small smile out of her as well, plus a kiss on the cheek. “Still, it’s for reasons like these that those Dominions need to get their heads out of their asses and see the damage. Thinking back on it now, maybe those prisoners from earlier have a point about the lack of virtue in today’s world…”