When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Chapter 52: Tonight we Run Til Dawn

A plain of infinite light stretched in every direction around Shining Armor. He sat up a bit, trying to find a feature or point on the horizon that broke from the endless monotony of the landscape.

“Oh, this place again.” He mumbled. “It’s not as bright at last time.”

The sun shown down on him from the vast sky. It’s light, so bright as to be solid, fell like rain.
Shining waited until a shimmer split the air, and a ghostly shape stepped into the world. A mirage in a vaguely pony form, it stood at about Celestia’s height relative to Shining, but with a twisting, ever-changing silhouette.

“So, here you are. Do you taunt me, entering this dream again?” The shape asked, its voice deep and masculine. That was a surprising change of pace. All the previous times, it had spoken with a female voice.

Shining shrugged. “I’m not doing it intentionally.”

“Yes you are.” The voice accused flatly. “You keep reading that book. For a pony who has reached for the truth and had his comfortable life shattered for it, you are remarkably persistent.”

Shining said nothing to that. Though his faith in many things had been rattled apart, going out of his way to insult god was still something he was unwilling to do.
“Should I leave?”

“That would be for the best.” The mirage said. “Yet, we both know you will be returning.”

“If you say so.” Shining grunted. He stood up. “So, until then-”

He opened his eyes. A single ray of light had found its way through the forest canopy above him to shining directly on his face to welcome him back to the waking world.
“Until the next tonight, my lady.” He whispered. He rolled to his side, eyes briefly settling on his saddlebag, and a book poking out of the flap.
But he didn't linger. The rest of the camp was starting to wake up. Another day, more work to do. Such were his responsibilities as captain.

---

Through the thick forests hugging the Crystal River a thunder could be heard. They sky was clear and blue, a reflection of the cool river under it, but the makings of a storm was rolling to its Southeast.

Captain Shining Armor and his retinue looked more like a heathen warband than the most prestigious and trained fighting force in Equestria. They were haggard with untrimmed whiskers and fetlocks. Their manes were long, matted, and tied up various ways. They’re eyes were universally sullen, darting around to scan every detail of the forest as they galloped past. Their pristine plate armor had been lightened down to just a gambeson, and their hefty longswords were left behind for bows and shortswords.

Who were they now, Shining Armor wondered. Still the Imperial Household Guard? They were not imperial, nor attached to any household, nor guards besides from guards of their own person. They had ditched the associations of Canterlot, the gleaming visage, the pomp and prestige. What had they become? Just knights. Just ponies with swords.

The band, roughly two dozen, continued at their breakneck pace with no lagging for hours, until the trees thinned out and they saw a collection of hovels. The village hugged the Crystal River, with farms and vegetable gardens radiating out in a semicircle. Slightly separated from the village was a larger two-story building.

“That’s the local lord’s manor.” Shining Armor pointed to the larger house.

The young stallion was dressed slightly differently from his knights. He wore much thinner fabric armor and a sleek saddlebag, containing a few books, folded parchment: More a scholar’s pack than a knight’s. His mane and tail were still trimmed to regulation, but he wore no weapon.
He gestured to everypony to gather round, and the formation pulled in. The two pegasus of their group, who had been circling discretely, landed in a tree above them.

“We’re getting closer to Four Fords, and there is going to be a continuous line of settlement from hereon. Good news since I was getting tired of trees. Bad news since we won’t have to forest to cover us anymore.” Shining Armor grinned. “Let’s visit the lord here and see if we can arrange a deal for supplies. If not…” He cleared his throat. “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to unpleasantries again.”

The knights murmured in agreement.

“Half of you stay here behind the treeline. No need for concealment but be coy about your numbers.” Shining waved toward the village. “The rest come with me.”

The knights obeyed, splitting up wordlessly and moving to their position. Shining Armor and the dozen with him moved quick and cautiously into the village. The villagers in the fields and in the dirt streets took one look at the rag-tag group and ran shrieking for their homes.

“Think we have a reputation or they’re just paranoid?” One of the knights asked.

“Paranoid.” Another mused.

“They don’t have to be either.” A third said. “They either think we’re bandits, or we’re soldiers here to stop bandits. Both come down hard on villages like these. Penny hasn’t dropped yet on which we resemble more.” There was a grave silence for a moment. “It’s a difficult call.”

“Cut the fashion chatter.” Shining ordered.

They arrived on the threshold of the lord’s manor, a two-story stone structure very much in keeping with the Riverpony style: It was built of grey stone bricks of various sizes with canal tile style roof.
However it was immediately evident that things were not as pastorally peaceful as it had seemed from a distance. The door of the manor was broken in half on the ground, and the interior was stained like it had been exposed to the elements for a week at least.

“Somepony’s been through here roughshod.” A knight stated the obvious.

“Not bandits obviously, unless they were class-conscious bandits. The village looked completely intact.” Shining Armor noted. He stood in the doorway and looked around. Whoever had attacked the manor was eager to destroy rather than steal, for broken silver lanterns, shattered sculptures, and shredded paintings littered the entryway and foyer rooms. “I don’t think it was villagers either. If I had to guess, a rival knightly house did this.”
He turned back to his knights. “You two, scrounge around in here for anything useful. Everypony else go through the village. Get the details of the attack, and if you see anything that they might have taken from the manor, see if you can persuade them to surrender it.” He waited for the chorus of affirmation before continuing. “We’re are apparently going to be running into some rough and ready knights. Having more silver on hoof to buy passage might be useful.”

“Any punishments?”

“No. The villagers may have looted the manor afterwards, but they weren't responsible.” Shining said. “This village is lucky to have its fields and houses intact. They won’t be too upset to hand over some fancy furnishings.”

The knights dispersed as ordered, two into the manor and the rest into the village. One of the pegasi from the knights he’d left in the forest descended to the ground in front of Shining. It happened to be Flash Sentry, the awkward novice who’d nearly gotten himself killed in Canterlot. He was genuine fellow, if clueless a good deal of the time. “Hey captain! Squad in the trees has requested to know if it’s safe.”

“Safe enough yes. They can join in searching the village.” Shining nodded. “It’s looking like we’re close enough to civilization that the violence has gone civilized too. Some knights ransacked the manor but left the village alone.”

“Better than the heaps of ash we’ve been slogging through so far.” Flash agreed. “But I’ve gotta ask captain, can we face knights? We left the plate mail with the caravan.”

“The thought crossed my mind. This place is a lot more densely populated than the Denish lands. This won’t be some stuck up sod in a rusty suit of armor. We’re going to be looking at at least a dozen hussars, if I had to guess.” Shining nodded his head towards the manor. “But Celestia willing they’ll be open to a bargain or something.”

“Should I tell the squad all of that or…”

“Tell them to get in here and help clear the village.” Shining smiled thinly. “Now get on it!”

Flash saluted and galloped into the air.

Shining Armor let out a long breath. He was alone. He took off his saddlebag sat against the wall. He had a couple minutes before anypony reported back.

It had been hard going the last few weeks. The Imperial Household Guard had left Canterlot as quickly as possible with no real clue about their final destination, until Manered and Fancy Pants suggested they make for the Foal Mountains, where Foaly Flux’s subjects would be willing and able to shelter his great nephew. The fall of the Eternal Night had made their mountainous first leg of the journey fraught with anxiety. The thin mountain road, winding south then east from Canterlot into the Riverpony Lands, was on the very edge of the Everfree Forest, and its denizens had made frequent showing of themselves, howling and shrieking their horrible litanies up to the brilliant moon above. Thankfully nopony in the caravan had suffered anything more severe than a little scare.

However arriving in the forested Western edges of the Riverpony Lands, kown as Denish, The IHG party had discovered that the struggle ahead would not be against nature, but other ponies. Every village they had passed by had closed their doors to the caravan, and some of the knights had even tried to stop them to demand a tribute. That behavior was unheard of in Equestria, for free passage was one of the most strictly enforced laws of the empire. Shining Armor had not been amused: More than one manor had been looted for much needed supplies, leaving the presumptuous robber barons well humiliated.

Once they reached the Crystal River though, the scope of the problem revealed itself to be much greater than Shining Armor thought. The caravan passed through village after village along the river and found them sacked and burned. Banditry and raiding had run rampant over the Eternal Night, and the knights over the area were either retreating into the larger holdfasts or participating.

It wasn’t long before the caravan encountered one of the bandit bands, as the villains attempted to raid their camp a few days after the sun returned. Of course the untrained peasants-cum-brigands could not have chosen a worse target, and the knights easily scattered the attack. To Shining Armor’s disgust, the bandits were from a bandit-ravaged village they had just passed through.
He hadn’t know what to think: Yes, the villagers were desperate, but their village’s misfortune hadn’t been Shining’s fault. They should have been focussing on rebuilding. Apparently they had taken a lesson and discovered it easier to steal and cause hardship than to create.
Shining left the bandit’s fate to Fancy Pants, and the former vizier let them go. Shining tried not to think about it.

Shining had been trying not to think about many, many things. Being in charge of nearly two-hundred knights, their families, and a dozen wagons full of belongings was a strain he was not prepared for. Back in Canterlot the Imperial Household Guard had a support staff in the hundreds. There were no amenities in the mountains and forests between Canterlot and the Crystal River. There was no reprieve from the elements, the sky above, and the fear.

The fears were everywhere. Leading too the equivalent of a village’s worth of civilians, the husbands, wives, and foals of the knights, Shining had heard waves of rumors and whispers pass through the caravan. They ranged from dismal to apocalyptic. Nopony know what was happening in Canterlot, except that they needed to be as far away as possible. The rest of Equestria, however, had been less than accepting.
Shining feared. He feared a great deal. Was he doing the right thing, trying to lead the knights to the Foal Mountains? Or was there nothing but peril and misery in store for them? He wasn’t as crassly iron as Hauseway had been, nor as charismatic, disciplinary, or as physically strong as his position needed. He felt like he was running on the fumes of the respect the Household Guard felt for him. How long before he ticked somepony off, and dissent began to spread? There was only a thin hair between the ruggedness and informality the knights had begun to adopt, and total indiscipline.

“Speaking of fear, let’s have a look at you again.”
He pulled the book out of his saddlebag. It had a plain cover, but was quite well made. Nopony would think much of it, if they didn’t know Shining had pilfered it from his mother’s library during the IHG’s brief occupation of Chateau la Guarde.

Shining flipped it to the page of his bookmark. The left page was brightly illustrated with cosmological symbols, arranged in nonsensical patterns. The right page was mostly text, through a carefully etched eye, with lace eyelashes and a strange pupil, occupied the middle.

“I wish I had the bravery to try poppy or hemp-seed. The boys in the Canterlot coffee houses were always saying how good it made them feel.” Shining mumbled to himself, his eyes wandering the page with the same intensity that the patterns stated back out at him.
“There are many ways to search for god. I think I would have been more comfortable if my search hadn’t succeeded.”

Going through this book, one of dozens he had stolen from his mother’s collection, was a trying mystery. It was not in equestrian or any other language he knew, yet whenever he stared at the symbols a strange sort of silent overtook his thoughts. It was peaceful. No, maybe not peaceful; It was sedate.
It had terrified him the first time, as he had done it very much on accident, but the book alleviated the fear and anxiety so completely he could not well keep away. What had been a much, much worse shock had been the dream afterward: The plain of white, the sky, the sun, and the mirage. That other world… Ponykind was never meant to even know of its existence. But somepony HAD discovered it, and put it into writing.
That’s what the book was. Another world, put in writing.

He found it worked best when it was night and the moon was directly overhead, but for the past few days he had opened the book at every free moment, sickly eager to be once again engrossed by the numbing illuminations of the ancient text. It was a waking dream, and like a dream it didn’t always make sense.

As he looked upon the left page, of painstakingly drawn stars, planets, comets, constellations, and pointless lines between them all, he felt lightheaded overtake him. He felt like the wall behind him disappear, and the ground beneath him twist and shrink until it was like he was sitting on a bubble in an endless void. It felt good. He wasn’t afraid anymore. He dare not take his eyes of the page to verify if he had actually been cast into the stellar depths, for sparks of light shot off the paper, becoming fuzzy balls of light hanging in space with him. That was new. Magical lines flowed between the balls them, connecting the starscape through a continuously branching, rotting, then regrowing network of thin magical beams.

The unreadable words read themselves to him.

“I sat alone on the last shred of the land I had walked, overlooking a hundred planets hurtle through the cosmos around me. The heavenly bodies burned with lights of yellow, green, blue, red, and color without reason. The heavenly bodies sent off golden rays which intersected around swirls of black and white. Behind the planets I saw the emptiness of space broken up by a billion stars, and a spiraling void of fuzzy violet.
A red pegasus flew through the void, and came to a stop above me and my island. It had no face, but its skull was also red. In one hoof it held two arrows, and in the other it held one. Trills, booms, and rings filled space around me, and a smooth voice instructed me with three melodic notes, repeated over and over.
I stood up, and upon my head there fell a golden helmet. My face was covered down to my nose, yet I discovered I could see more than ever before. I reached up too feel the dozens of thin eye slits cut into the metal and found that I could not pull it off.
The pegasus gave me the one arrow but kept the two for itself. I reached into the void and pulled out my bow, a construct of gold and violet, strung with golden filament. I notched the arrow, but the pegasus had disappeared. Instead I saw the golden rays coursing off the planets begin to bend and form shapes. The convex curves met at sharp points, creating a massive spiked ovoid shape from the outline. I did not understand, until a seam ran down the shape in space, and split apart, to reveal the interior. The ovoid and the seams pulled open farther, until the great eye was fully opened.”

Shining slammed the book shut and closed his eyes. That had been the most intense experience yet by far. His skin tingled.
“Buck me.” He said, shaking. “This is going to kill me.” That excited him.

He lay his head against the wall and let his breathing return to normal. The words he had felt reverberated through his head, until they faded with his shivers.

“Nopony has any business with this thing. I have no business intruding on god’s dream.” Shining hugged the book tightened against his chest. “I wish I had Twilight here. She could tell me what these things mean- no, I shouldn’t wish that. Twilie would hate me.”
He could only suspect, but some of the other pages hinter that it had been an ancestor of house Twilight that had made the book. Had they ever used it? Had god talked to them as it had him, or, with Celestia still alive, had it destroyed them for their heresy?

The books were works of blasphemers and evil heretics. Twilight was too pure for that tainted legacy. A month ago, Shining would have thought himself above such vile wretchedness too, but he could not stop himself. It made him feel good.
It made sense, if he was right about his assumption and an ancient member of the Twilight dynasty had made the book. It was fined tuned to the family’s magic. It was plainly bound poppy, made just for him.
“Only from the fulfillment of one’s destiny can true peace be found.” Shining recited the old Celstianist verse. “And only from the light of the sun and her daughter does destiny flow.”

Maybe that was all still true. Shining definitely wasn’t feeling peaceful.

“By the end of this I’ll be able to go back to Prosser and give him a pointless riddle to fuss over. Turnabout’s fair.” Shining laughed quietly to himself. Oh, he could not imagine the kinds of things Prosser would say in the presence of god.

The story on that page wasn’t complete. There was more to that world of planets, space, and color that the book had to tell him. He glanced at the next page with the script and the delicate eye, but it did not pull him in like the one he’d just read. That was fine. Some pages needed more concentration that others.
Withstanding the urge to keep reading, Shining shut the book. Fuzzy and pleasant though he may have felt, he drained by the experience. He had more hours of galloping ahead if his knightly band was going to make it to Four Fords in a timely manner.
Besides, he had to save future pages for his future self, lest he exaust it. He did not want to give up his path to god quite yet.

Shining wasn’t entirely certain how long had passed since he opened the book, as it had stolen whole hours into seconds before. Thankfully it seemed to only have been a few minutes this time. He put the book back in his saddlebag and rolled to his hooves.

He trotted towards the village to check if any useful information had been gathered, but he stopped mid stride when an unexpected sound made his ears flick.

“Tico tico tic, tico tico tac, tico tico tico tico ta…” A gentle voice carried down from above him, accompanied by a warm melody. “Tico Tico tac, tem que se alimentar…”
Shining Armor shaded his eyes and scanned around to see where the strange music was coming from.

A grey unicorn mare sat on the edge of the manor house’s roof, a guitar cradled in her hooves. She hummed as she strummed, occasionally adding lyrics where she remembered them. “O tico tico tac, ta outra veh aqui…”

“Hey!” Shining shouted through cupped hooves. “Hey, you on the roof!”

“Hmm, hmm hmm…” The mare continued to hum to herself as she lay the guitar aside, then looked down at shining. “Hello sir. A fellow unicorn I see. Are you passing through the Riverpony Land on your way east or west?” She had the tinges of a Foal Mountains accent.

“I am eastbound.” Shining confirmed. “What are you doing up there? Could you come down so we could speak face to face?”

“Um… Yes. I could. Do I have to? It is much nicer up here than down on the ground.” The mare crossed her hooves.

“I ask that you do please. This distance between us is too great. It’ll be only a few questions.” Shining insisted.

“Fine, sir.” The mare tucked her guitar under a hoof and stood up. She seemed to lose her balance, almost careening off the manor roof, but at the last second the jumped. She still fell over a dozen hooves hit the ground harder than one could expect a pony to do safely, but she stood up and brushed herself off, her body and guitar perfectly fine. “Hello. I’m Sparrow Showdowner.”

Wasn’t Sparrow a pegasus name? That made her desire for some elevation clearer. Closer up, Shining could see her mark, which showed her eponymous bird in flight. “You’re not from this village clearly.”

“No sir, I’m from Craggobend.”

Shining knew Craggobend was a domain of his late uncle Foaly Flux, duke of Foal. How wonderful since that was the IHG caravan’s ultimate destination. “Mis Showdowner, may I ask why you are in the Riverpony Lands?”

“I was traveling to Canterlot, but I have lost my inertia. The air down here among the earth ponies is positively strangling. That is why I was up on that roof.”

“Uh huh.” Shining was pretty sure that the atmospheric pressure difference between the ground and a second-story roof was basically nothing. “Are you still heading to Canterlot? I warn you it is a… dangerous place to be right now.”

“I don’t know. I was thinking about going back to Foal, but there was some drama brewing at Four Fords. I’m just sitting around, sampling the villages and rooftops around here.” Sparrow Showdowner shrugged. “I had a travel partner but we got separated, so I’m kinda looking for her as well.”

“Hold up. Did you say there is drama at Four Fords?” Shining scowled. The last thing he needed was some local problem to block his progress. “Can you elaborate?”

“Oh it’s real bad.” Sparrow shook her head. “A faction tried to push the duchess off the throne and install her daughter, but a deadly scuffle broke out and there was a fire in the castle. The duchess is missing and her daughter is dead. Some distant cousin is ruling right now. It’s a huge mess, and it’s probably gotten worse since I passed through.”

“When was that?” Shining asked, his investigative skills perked.

“A week ago.”

Unlike the journey so far, which had had a fair amount of travel along lonely forest roads to avoid harassment (which hadn’t worked), Shining and his followers had no choice but to pass through Four Fords. There was no other crossing for hundreds of kilometers. Crossing by barge would force the families to leave most of their belongings and Shining refused to put them through that hardship.
But if there was one lesson from Canterlot, it was that there was opportunity in division.
“You don’t say.”

“Captain!” Two of the knights galloped up from the direction of the village. “We found a stallion who was in the manor when it was attacked. He says it was a force from Four Fords with a mare at their lead.”

“It happened six days ago.” The other knight contributed.

“A mare led them?” Shining turned to Sparrow. “Who is the duchess’s cousin? Or should I call her the new duchess?”

“Heck if I know. The commoners I mingled with just called them all the duchess, her ladyship, or the bitch.” Sparrow shrugged.

“Insightful.” Shining grimaced. “Whatever the case, It’s looking like we’re in for some drama of our own.” He turned back to his knights. “Let’s gather up. We can only leave a couple for the caravan to catch up, because we need to reach Four Fords ASAP.”

“Why’s that?” Flash asked.

“If we arrive while the quarrel is still hot, we can make hotter still.” Shining grinned, visions of colliding and exploding planets running through his mind. “What better strike does a hammer like us make, than on the hottest of all irons.”

Flash squinted. “Not sure I get you, captain.”

One of the other knights chuckled. “We’re going to set Four Fords on fire.”

“Metaphorically.” Shining agreed with a laugh.
But literally as well.

---

It was the white dream again. Or god’s dream? Celestia’s dream. The nature of the world around him was unclear.

After a polite amount of time, the mirage reappeared again.
“As I thought.” it grunted. It’s voice was masculine again, and even deeper. Shining wondered if it was trying to sound authoritative, and had chosen a voice that fit. “You’ve read the book again.”

“Hello again.” Shining nodded to it. “Are you bothered by me?”

“I am not able to be bothered.”

“Are you able to ignore me?”

“Eminently.” The thing said. “I do not enjoy you being in this dream. I come to ask you to leave.”

“Not responding to my presence at all would have been a better bet. Ponies don’t return to dry wells.”

“Then why do they breed?” The mirage asked. “Mortals exist in a state of perpetual futility. Your condition has been known to you for millennia. It is well established that from the moment of your birth, your kind are doomed to die. Yet, you persist.”

“Can’t speak for mortalkind, but you’re missing the point of us.” Shining retorted. “We may die as individuals, but the species go on. Our ideas, our thoughts, our words and mannerisms, continue forward through time.”

“That will end too, sooner or later.” The mirage said. “Does that depress you?”

“Lots of things depress me.”

“But you counter that with emotional responses, neurochemical in nature, that make your existence tolerable.”

“If you’re going to talk science, you should write it down so I can have my sister explain it to me.”

The mirage paused, and Shining humored the idea it was off put by him mentioning his sister. Did the god-thing have a sister of its own? Did it understand familial ties in the same way mortals did?
“I speak of joy.”

“Oh, no wonder I didn’t catch on. Not a lot of that happening in my life right now.” Shining slouched. “I’d like to leave now.”

“But you have a question for me.”

Damn thing was reading his mind. “I do.”

“...”

“Where were you?”

“You will have to be more specific.”

“You know what I mean.” Shining said in irritation. “During that Eternal Night!”

The mirage shifted, like it was turning away from him. “In a dream. It was a vast vast dream, not like any that has existed before. As you can understand, it is difficult to contain us.”

“A dream… down on earth?” Shining didn’t believe that for a second. “A mortal dream?!”

“In some ways yes, in some ways no.”

“Some god you are, letting yourself get trapped in a dream.” Shining shook his head. He knew the entity could read his disbelief.

“We do strange things to keep from hurting the ones we love.”

“Funny, that sounded like something a mortal would say.”

“Such is the nature of this dream.”

“Yeah whatever.” Shining rolled his eyes. “I’m waking up now. Not sure if I’ll return.”

“You will.”The mirage asserted.

Shining shrugged. He wasn’t the omniscient one. “You’re more likely to know that I.”

---

The further south Shining and his band went, the more populous the land became and the closer together the villages were. In every village, the manor houses were gutted but the commoners were left alone. The stories Shining heard were the same: A band of knights had ridden into town, looted the manor house, and ridden off. Of the nobles there was no sign. They had either fled and not returned or been carted off by the knights.

That was until Shining’s band found a smoldering village at the base of a tall stone tower, with no signs of anypony around. It was a bleak evening, overcast with light rain. The shower made the Crystal River sing as raindrop met the clear waters. It was getting dark, for both the building clouds and setting sun.

“This is strange.” Flash Sentry shielded against the rain with a wing as he cast his eyes to the pointed top of the tower. It was a very well constructed little fortification, likely belonging to a baron or earl. “Captain, could this have been a different group than the one we’ve been chasing?”

“No.” Shining Armor grunted. The rest of the knights were picking over the soggy piles of ash that were once houses, searching for survivors. The ash sizzled and spit as the rain soothed the burning wood. “Look there. The raiders tried to burn down the tower after failing to hack down the door. Then they burned down the village in frustration.”
Indeed, the base of the tower was still blackened where debris from the village had been piled and burned. The single door, made of solid metal, was scored with hundred of scratches and gouges, but remained sternly in place.

“Wow. If I ever buy a door, I know what brand I’m getting.” Flash nodded. “So, why did they want to get in the tower?”

“Same reason they trashed all the manor houses to this point. They were after the nobles inside.” Shining said. “Sentry, search for an unlocked window. Try to get in there and find somepony. Be careful.”

Flash flew up to the level of the windows and circled a few times, trying to find a way in. Not finding one unlocked, the pegasus smashed a window open with a quick whack from the pommel of his sword.

“That’s one way to do it.” Shining remarked, as Flash squirmed through the small opening. He waited next to the tower’s solid metal door until he heard a scapeing sound from within.
The latch pulled back and the door swung open. It was just Flash. “What, nopony?”

“Nope. Nopony.” Flash shrugged. “Smells a bit though.”

Shining Armor nibbled his bottom lip. “This door is impossible to lock from the inside. There has to be someone.”

“I can take a second look I guess.”

“No, don’t worry about it.” Shining grunted. He waved the other knights over. “But now we have a place to shelter overnight.”

The tower was very smartly furnished, and clearly purposed for a lord and his family to live in. It’s state of general disarray indicated that its residents had left in a hurry.

“Make your bedroll wherever you want but try not to disturb anything. The owner might come back and we don’t want them getting too upset at us.”

The knights spread out between the first two floors. Shining borrowed a few candles and passed them out, before settling on the second floor. He always stayed with the knights to keep the sense of comradery strong, but also to keep tabs on them.

Shining didn’t participate in the conversations as the knights wound down from the strenuous galloping. He undressed quietly, his eyes lingering on his book as he folded his clothes over the saddle bag.

“I grew up in Foal. Every couple years my family would visit Canterlot and pass through this area. The imperial ferries were just too unreliable so we always went through Four Fords.” One was saying.

“Well that’s thing I won’t ever miss. Damn ferries would demand a bribe before letting you on, and another before letting you off!”

Shining’s family had always taken an airship to visit his uncle Foaly’s castles in Foal. Thinking about it, he began to wish he’d stolen an airship on his way out of Canterlot. Sure it couldn’t hold everypony, but it would have allowed the caravan to cross the Crystal River hundreds of kilometers north.

The candles burned out after a while and the conversation died down. With the patter of rain getting stronger and louder, everypony began to fall asleep.

Except for Shining Armor. Hours after everyone was snoring, he rose from his bedding and fetched his book from his saddlebag. He climbed the central spiral staircase straight to the top floor, a lordly study.
But there was already somepony there.

“Oh hey.” Sparrow Showdowner looked over her shoulder at the stallion. She was fiddling with the strings of her guitar by the light of a firefly lantern. “Nice night huh?”

“What are you doing here?” Shining demanded. “Have you been following us?”

“Yes to the second question, resting to the first.” Sparrow said. “This tower is the tallest thing around you see, though it does smell a bit like rotten meat.”

“Mis, you’d have to by at least a thousand hooves above the ground to notice a difference in the air.” Shining grunted. “But that’s not important. Why are you following us? How are you following us, or even get into this tower, without us noticing?”

“I walk very quietly, to the second question. Because I want to, to the first question.” Sparrow shrugged. “And has anypony ever told you asking a bunch of questions all at once is annoying?”

“Well I…” Shining flared his nostrils. “We’re knights on a mission! You can’t follow us.” It struck him as a rather silly and insubstantial threat. What could he do to prevent her, besides causing some unforgivable harm. It wasn’t like he could arrest her.

Sparrow clearly realized that as well, for a goofy smile broke out over her features. “Okay, sir, if you say so.”

“No I’m serious. You’re suspicious.” Shining sneered. He circled around to her front and sat down. “Why did you sneak up here instead of informing me of your presence? Pull this again and I’ll tie you up for the next band of adventurers to find.”

“Okay okay! Geeze.” Sparrow rolled her eyes. “It’s obvious honest musicians like me can’t go looking for inspiration without getting harassed. Sign of the times.”

“Whatever. Just keep this moment to yourself and I’ll call it even.” Shining pulled the lantern closer as he flipped open his book. “That means keep your eyes to yourself too.”

Sparrow rolled her eyes but returned to toying with her guitar’s tuning pegs.

Shining opened back to the page with the circles on it. He immediately chided himself for thinking of it so simply. It was more than circles. It was circularity, oneness, deeper messages about the nature of existence. It was a story about creation, a dream of a thing more vast than the world. It made all his problems seem so trivial.

His eyes traced the circled over and over until he felt dizzy, but the pattern refused to reveal anything to him. That sometimes happened. He had had to skip over pages before. It upset him though. It made him feel empty and off balance, like sitting on a chair with uneven legs. Was it his fault he couldn’t coax meaning from the book? Was he not worthy for the end of the story?

“What are you reading? “ Sparrow’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Astronomy, broadly speaking. Don’t bother me.” Shining growled at her.

“Astronomy. Wow. Like a solar monk huh? Gives me all sorts of interesting thoughts. A little tune like this...” Sparrow hummed a chaotic melody to herself. Trying to replicate it, she plucked the strings of her guitar with her magic and adjusted their tension at the same time, creating strange convergences of sounds, like five wailing foals. “Ahh, if I just had a bit more precision with my magic.” She knitted her brow as she teased expanding and contracting chords that evoked thoughts of strange and alien things in Shining’s mind.

But Shining Armor was not paying attention to the tune, as much as to the reaction of the book. The circles seemed to pulse and rotate to the beat, their interactions sparking the beginnings of that immersion he craved. Light seemed to lift off the page, but only slightly.

It was not enough. The tune was not right.

“At this risk of looking foolish, I have to ask you for a favor.” Shining levitated the book to Sparrow. “Can the right page be transcribed into some kind of musical notation.”

Sparrow’s brow shot up as soon as she looked at the page. “Sir, I think your book about ‘astronomy broadly’ fit more into broadly. Is this supposed to be modern art?”

“Is that a no?”

“Heck if I know. I’m not guild trained.” Sparrow smiled apologetically. “I mean, I’m an eager amature, but I just play by ear, or how I feel.”

“Thanks anyway.” Shining sighed in disappointment. Still, he felt he was on the right track. He needed more than just his eyes to understand the end of the story.

“But I know who could, I mean if it could be transcribed. Raven Ruddy, the pony I was traveling with until we got separated, is a trained singer. In fact she worked for one of the nephews of the duke of Foal, before they died.”

“Wait, who died?” Shining perked up.

“Duke Flux, my liege, had a bunch of brothers way back when. One of the brother had two sons that survived when most of the family died ‘bout twenty years ago.” Sparrow explained. “Duke Flux gave them some holdings to look after while he cavorted in Canterlot. The brothers died in a poop explosion a month ago. It’s kinda one of the reasons I’m heading this direction, since me and Raven Ruddy didn’t have a reason to stick around Foal anymore.”

Shining’s eyes glossed over, his frustrations with the book temporarily forgotten. His great uncle Foaly Flux had never made any excuses about naming his brother’s sons as his heirs, with polite apologies to Twilight Velvet and Night Light. With the brothers dead, there was nopony of House Bright to inherit besides Night Light and his children.
“Mother bucker. I bet I know who’s responsible.” He growled.

“Responsable for what?”

“My mother killed the Bright brothers.”

Sparrow blinked. “Okay…”

“That makes it more important than ever that I get to the Foal Mountains.” Shining said to himself. There was a tantalizing possibility, however remote, that there was something for him to inherit among the late Foaly Flux’s holdings. That could mean security, and a place for his knights.
In a twisted way, he felt like thanking his mother for her insidious and murderous ways. Setting a child up to inherit lan through assassination was probably the only kind of parental love she knew how to express anymore, warped as she was by her Dark magic.

Shining looked down at the book in his hooves. Maybe it was for the best that he didn’t understand it. The end of one story begged the beginning of another, then another. He didn’t need god if he had comfort on earth.
But still… He wanted to read a little bit. The top of the next page? No, he’d hold off. He wondered if Velvet’s fall had such innocent beginnings as just wanting to finish a story.

Shining stood up and trotted to the staircase. “Mis Sparrow, do you think you’ll be stalking us to Four Fords?”

“Uh… I may be. I’m still trying to understand your whole ‘my mother killed some ponies and now I’m galloping to their holdfast’ logic.” Sparrow leaned back, using her guitar as a pillow. “You hoping to find something there?”

“Yes. A crown.” Shining smiled thinly. “Have a nice night. Hopefully this rain will clear up by the morning.” His smile flattened. “Whew, it is really starting to smell in here. Somepony must have left some food out when they left. Ah well.”

“Yeah… Good night sir.” Sparrow nodded. She sat in silence for a minute, thinking about Shining and his odd book, before she slid the shutter over her lantern and settled herself down.

---

The morning was cold and drizzly, but at least the worst of the storm had passed in the night. Shining felt tired, which was expected since he’d stayed up longer than he’d meant with Sparrow, but he pushed that back.

He leaned over the knights eating a light breakfast. “Everypony up and ready?”

Some laughs and nays came back at him.

“You’re not going to eat anything captain?” Flash Sentry asked.

“Not hungry. I’ll have something at noon.” Shining replied. “Don’t take too long with your food boys. I want us at the gates of Four Fords by tomorrow.”

Since everything with his knights seemed fine, Shining climbed up the stairs to check on Sparrow. The smell foul smell was stronger than the day before, an almost unbearable stench that made his eyes water by the time he reached the top floor.
“Holy Celestia, how could you sleep in this?” He hacked. But is seemed Sparrow had already left. “What? How does she keep getting by us?”
Shining was torn between wanting to escape the horrible stench as quickly as he could and wanting to investigate it’s cause.

Something dripped from above, nearly hitting his head.

“Huh?” He looked up. There was a wet patch in the ceiling. “A hole in the roof? Or…”

Shining inspected the ceiling, a jointed wood form that looked very sturdy. “Hmm…” He looked around the room. He spotted a halberd in a display mount on the wall. Perfect.
Pulled the halberd to himself with his magic, Shining began to prod the ceiling with the polearm’s shaft. After a few minutes he found a joint that bent more than it was supposed to.

“Bingo. Let’s meet the lord in residence.” Shining grinned. He poked the joint again, trying to move it enough that the hidden hatch or whatever would deploy, but instead a stream of liquid ran out from the joint and began to drip down on him. “Ahh! Gross gross!” He jumped back. “What the hell!” He wiped the viscous liquid off his fur and smelt it. His eyes widened in shock, for it was the smell of blood.

Spinning the halberd around, Shining hacked away the joint, making that part of the roof collapse. Among the splintering an clatter wood there was a wet splat. One after another, pony bodies rolled out of the ceiling space and fell down into the study.

Shining Armor was struck dumb. He identified a well dressed mare who was probably the countess, sone ponies were were likely her children, and a dozen more commonly dressed villagers. He glanced up into the ceiling space and saw more villagers.

“Ah… I see.”

There were some daggers in the hooves of the adults, and all of the wounds were stabs to the heart. By the angle, many had been self-inflicted.

Shining let the halberd fall from his grasp. He slowly backed out of the study, down the stairs, to a lower level bedroom where his knights were almost done packing up.

“Well boys and girls…” He cleared his throat several times but his voice was still shaky. “We have a few minutes before we’re leaving.”

“Oh?” The knights looked up.

“Yes, I…” Shining Armor went silent. He looked between his follower’s expectant faces.
The Imperial Household Guard had been a well trained, well equipped ceremonial knightly brotherhood, but it was still ceremonial. The real policing in Canterlot had always been left to the city guard. For many of them, the night Fancy Pants was murder was the first time any of them had ever seen a dead pony.
Shining Armor, by virtue of being second in command under Hauseway, had been the go-to choice for whenever the guard was invited into an investigation. It was a point of pride that he had experience charging into crime dens or breaking into illegal brothels alongside city guards.
That was to say he wasn’t a stranger to depravity and horror.
But the grisly scene upstairs was too much.

“Captain?”

Shining blinked. “Yes, ahem, we’re leaving. Gather flammable material in the lower floor.” He paused. The room was deathly silent for a minute, save for the soft patter of rain on the windows. “When we leave… we burn down this tower.”

---

When Shining became aware of himself, the dream, and the vast white plain, the mirage was already there. “Hello.” It had a mare’s voice now, awfully like Celestia’s but less melodic. “You were able to hold off for a day.”

“Uh huh.”

“But when you needed comfort, you began to read again. Do you not think that your comfort should be found in your fellow pony, not in me?”

“My fellow is capable of terrible things. I don’t want to think about them. I want to think about you.”

“One would begin to think you are becoming obsessed.”

“It’s not an obsession, it’s a responsibility.” Shining said, looking up at where the thing’s face would have been on a pony. “Your interface without our world is gone. With nopony to interpret my fate for me, I come straight to the source.”

“Now isn’t that presumptive of you.” The mirage said. “The texts say I have a plan you each of you. But it does not say I care, love, or protect you. Those were my daughter Celestia’s tasks, and she has died.”

“I don’t know why you humor me, but you do.” Shining grunted. “And I, you.”

“The divine is burdensome, you think?”

Shining said nothing.

Not that it mattered much, since it could read his thoughts. “Your experiences with the Stars and the nightmare have tainted your view in a regrettable way. Consider your perspective, the son of a noble, having wanted for nothing your whole life. You have never been in desperate need. You have never called up to heaven for repreve.”

“But you never answer.” Shining said, some anger seeping into his voice.

“My light shines on your world, warming it, feeding it energy. The entire ecology of your planet and the structure of society is based around the daytime I provide.” The divine thing said. “I do not do that because I hate you mortals.”

“No, you don’t hate us.” Shining agreed. “You’re not capable of it. Emotion is, like you said, a neurochemical thing. No part of a ball of fire and light supports emotions.”

“That is true of many other divine entities, but not for me. I am a thing born out of the Giver’s attempt to uplift the Have-Not. It is understandable that I would be keen on the disparity between us.” The divine thing said. “Take this dream, for example. It is part of the, how did you put it, ‘interface’. Being exposed to us can destroy even the most stalwart mind. By degrees, we made a way to have what we know revealed to you.”

“Hmm.” Shining grunted. “You’ve lived since eternity talking to yourself, and you’re pretty damn sure that yours is the only truth.”

The mirage shimmered like it was nodding its head. “Correct.”

“Why does a thing like you give a damn about us? Why do you lower yourself to our level?”

“I think you care less about that, than you wonder how how I view you. Why do I enter this dream, converse with you as I do? Questions of faith and heresy bounce about your head, and you begin to doubt if it matters at all.” The divine thing again proved its ability to read his mind. “But on the other hoof, when so much is wrong with the world, you wonder if being a devout pony matters anymore.”

“If you don’t know, I’d have to flag down a theology professor.” Shining said.

“And here we reach the real reason for you return. You want… vindication. You want some assurance that you are still a good pony despite your sins. How amusing. Usually when ponies ask this question of their god, it is in a less literal sense.” The divine thing began to jiggle, like it was laughing.
“Yes, it disappoints me that you forsook your oath to serve Celestia and her laws. Her ideas, her soul, her light… Are they not worthy despite her death?”

“It’s not her death that bothered me.” Shining said, the god’s words weighing on his heart. “It’s her actions before she died. Anypony would have felt the same.”

“I could not stop my errant daughter from doing what she did. It was all I could do to make polite suggestions.” The divine mirage countered. “I am not at fault that she stayed on your world for long past her… expiration date.”

“I won’t criticize. I don’t know much about designing alicorns.”

The divine thing was silent for a long while.
“You cared about her.”

“Does that surprise you?” Shining laughed bitterly.

“No. It was her purpose to be cared for.” The divine thing said. “It is difficult to attach emotion to conceptual entities, such as I. My daughters, however, were regal and beautiful things. It was easy for ponies to be drawn to them.
“Alicorns were a reviled, ‘ugly’ race before my twin and I sent our daughters down to you ponies. Wintertide, Astral Nacre, and the other ancient alicorns were all they knew of us. Thus ponies were unwilling to cooperate with we divine creatures, and our designs for you were shunned. But we have changed that, and now the idea of the ‘alicorn’ is inexorably linked with Celestia. They are wise, powerful, just beings, who deserve mortal followers.”

“Only, it’s not true.” Shining said acidly.

The divine thing looked down at him. It did not possess a face, but Shining could feel the weight of its observation like a blast of heat across his skin. It did not feel good.
“The project has not been without its flaws.”

The streams of lights around them twisted, showing shifting images as the divine thing spoke.

“Luna’s rebellion was a significant coup. Not only did it introduce the possibility of the alicorn as an evil entity to ponykind’s consciousness, but it signaled to us that alicorns too will begin to self-actualize if left alone.
“When the first Celestia began to diverge from me, it was not too surprising. She had been badly traumatized by her sister’s rebellion. It took a few generations, but she returned to me and accepted that a new Celestia was needed to maintain a harmonious relationship between mortalkind and their destiny.
“But when the second Celestia began to diverge IMMEDIATELY upon her descent onto the world, it became clearer that there was a problem. I could not stop the Celestias from gaining a will distinct from mine, but I could prevent them from causing too much damage. The yearly succession made certain that more than Celestia herself, the IDEA of Celestia would rule the empire.
“But Celestia you knew, the ninety-ninth to to descend from me, and the hundred-seventy-ninth in the annals of your empire, decided that she liked being alive. That was new. Fear of death is such a mortal thing, as silly as it is to say considering you are defined by your ability to die.”

“So…” Shining shifted uncomfortably. “Celestia was becoming more mortal.”

“It becomes clearer with every time that mortal and divine were never meant to be mixed, ever. Every iteration of that ends poorly. Luna, Celestia, the Stars, etcetera. It remains to be seen if you mortals will even survive this latest round of elder siblings.” The divine thing had a strange tone, like it was holding something back. “It will be hard for you to survive.”

“I can believe that. Why bother lying to me, right?” Shining said. “It earnestly surprises me. You are something capable of talking to me, emoting, making a nuanced point that answers my questions.”

The mirage was silent.

“Then again, this is just the interface. The real you is that thing I see when I look into the sky. I couldn’t get within a million kilometers before getting incinerated.”

“That, and you can not traverse the cosmos. That is a trait yet reserved to us.”

“Yup.” Shining rose to his hooves. “Well… You’ve contextualized a lot of things for me. Not sure what to think.”

“Most do not.”

“I don’t hate you. You’re misguided.” Shining sighed. “There are worse things out there.”

“For mortalkind, yes. My cousins that reside the voids of space, beyond light, beyond where thoughts and even dreams can take you. You are extraordinarily lucky to have a benevolent god.”

“I’m sure there were plenty of worlds out there that weren’t so lucky. They’re probably not worth talking about now.”

“Except to take heed of.”

“I can’t help feeling I threat from that.” Shining grimaced. “You have your ‘laws’ that you wish to be followed, but you make no explicit mention of punishment for them not being followed. You won’t… get tired of mortals, will you?”

The mirage was ominously silent.

When Shining awoke, he was consumed with a singular thought: Whatever had trapped the Sun in a dream had been doing mortalkind a favor.

---

Two Days Later

Four Fords was the largest city in the Riverpony Lands, home to some fifty-thousand earth ponies on the clear banks of the Crystal River. It say on flat land on the eastern bank, surrounded by farmland. The city had proud stone walls and dozens of temple spires rising up towards the sky.
Go any deeper than the spires and you entered an unpleasant world of deprivation and squalor. What had once been a prosperous trading city had fallen into poverty and disrepair. Nopony ended up in Four Fords of their own volition. Those not lucky enough to be serfs tied to the land drifted in and out of the city between seasonal work. It made for a volatile atmosphere, a trait shared by the dynastic house of the city, house Highlight.

The fords after which city was named were a series of slightly submerged stone banks on an run where the river widened and slowed. The fords were a natural bridge that had served as a focal point for trade for over a millennium. They were slightly downriver of the city of Four Fords, meaning one could steer clear of the city if they wanted to. Evading knights from the city was another matter, and the broad, flat farmland of the east bank made hiding impossible.

The western bank had once been farmlands too, but a plague had depopulated the area a few decades past and so it had reverted to shrubland and forests.
Shining Armor and the few knights with him lingered at the edge of the trees, watching the city of Four Fords across the Crystal River. Sparrow Showdowner had come along too for some reason.

“It’s no Canterlot.” Flash remarked.

“I swear there was less smoke last week I was here.” Sparrow said.
Indeed several of the outlying settlements were burning, Throwing billowing pillars of smoke up to dirty the pristine blue sky.

“The duchess-in-exile is letting herself be heard.” Shining Armor wished he had a spyglass or something to pick out ponies on the opposite shore.

“By burning her own lands, killing her own ponies?” One of the knights asked, confused.

“As though any of us has never done something regrettable is misplaced anger.” Shining said, his frown tightening. “But that doesn’t mean it’s okay. That’s between her and god.”

“So what’s our plan?” Flash asked.

“We go in and see who’s more open to solicitation. We go from there.” He turned to Sparrow. “Ma’am, it’s been fun galloping with you, but we are knights, and it is the job of the knight to draw his sword and kill. You’ll have to make the rest of the way to Foal without us.”

“Really? I’d much rather stay.” Sparrow pouted. “A nice unicorn like you really clears my head of this earthy pony air.”

“Filly, we’re going to go and fight some ponies. How do you plan to help?” Flash scoffed. He did not hide his dislike for the openly prejudicial Sparrow.

“Gosh, I guess I’d play my guitar.” Sparrow said. “Wouldn’t you love an inspirational tune during the heat of battle? It’d really help you out huh?”

“Yes, that would be nice, but what would keep our foes from hearing it and being similarly inspired?” Shining armor asked.

Sparrow blinked.

“Oh whatever. Do what you want.” Shining sighed. “Alright, everypony listen up. As soon as we cross the ford we are going to be charging to find whoever is setting fire to those fields. If they are willing to bargain, we bargan. If not... We may have to slay them. Putting an end to this conflict is our best bet for securing safe passage for the caravan.”

Everypony was silent. It was a grim task they were undertaking, but nothing was too far when it secure the safety of their friends and family. They did not cross hundreds of miles of forest, facing bandits and depravity, to be denied here.
Shining Armor felt a stab of reluctance. Nothing was too far? Was that really true? He hoped he didn’t have to find out. Today it was some knights engaged in a dynastic squabble, but what if there was somepony more innocent between them and their destination.
Shining Armor heard the crash of planets against each other ring in his ears. He heard the divine mirage speak ‘One would begin to think you are becoming obsessed.’

“Hike up your pants everypony. It’s going to be wet for this first bit.” Shining said, trotting out of the treeline towards the ford.

---

Duchess Aura Highlight was not a wroth pony. No, she was regarded as relatively temperate among the Highlights. She did not feud with any of the neighboring fiefs, or engage in any bloody sport, or even attend the executions that were so popular in Four Fords.

But sometimes, ponies change their mind. When Aura saw her daughter’s body laying at the hooves of her cousin Misty, she had a change of mind.
She had been feeling rather wroth since fleeing Four Fords.

“Traitors. All these traitors.” She said to herself. She counted the bodies laid out before her. Two parents, a couple of servants, but no sign of the children. Did this family have children? She couldn’t remember. Their faces, now twisted into agony, had graced her parties and dinners so often, but she’d never paid them any mind. She’d only begun to care when they’d smiled from over Misty’s shoulder.
Aura turned to face the knights of her retinue, her armor clanking. “Burn it.” She glanced back at the dead parents. “I’m done dealing with rival claimants.”

Soon enough smoke began to curl around the house. The blaze spread quickly, and as Aura watched her knights tossed the corpses onto this hateful pyre. Another black pillar joined its siblings in the sky.

Aura turned away from the heat and light she’d created. Another down. Traitors. She looked to Four Fords. What was Misty doing? Was she enjoying a hearty lunch in the ducal palace, or perhaps touring the streets making excuses about the mayhem outside. Was she on the walls, staring right back at her?
“We’re so close now, and still no response. What are you waiting for, Misty?”

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice one of her knights galloping up until he physically shook her. His silver mane and tail spilled out of his pristinely shining plate armor.
“My lady, my lady! There’s ponies approaching from the direction of the fords! They’re fast and in formation.”

“The fords? Who could be coming from the fords.” Aura licked her lips. Somepony was coming to intervene in her feud. “What number do they have?”

“About a dozen.”

“A dozen? Why that’s nothing. Get a few lances back here. No need to pull anypony else from their jobs.” She picked her metal helm off the ground and slipped it over her head. “Oh and one more thing.”

“Yes my lady.”

“Smile for me.”

The knight hesitated, before sliding up the visor of his hemet. He smiled awkwardly.

Aura scrutinized him with her empty gaze. “Very nice smile, sir. Get on then.”

“T- Thank you my lady.” The knight let the vizor drop back over his face. He galloped off to gather the retinue to face the newcomers.

Aura stayed in front of the burning house, waiting. She kicked at the dirt, fudging the imprint the corpses of the parents had made when they’d fallen. Maybe they weren’t parents. She hadn’t heard any screams in the house once it had started burning.

“I was a good duchess, wasn’t I? Nopony has any reason to dislike me.” With her hoof Aura drew two little pinpoint eyes in the dirt, and underneath them she slowly made the arc of a smile. Now the dirt imprints were happy. “Traitors.”

---

Shining Armor had to admit, seeing the fifty ponies gathering outside the burning house was a little bit intimidating. He had no weapon, and the dozen knights behind him had small sword and very light armor. Sparrow only had a guitar for Celestia’s sake!
But he had the book in the saddlebag, and that made him feel better.

As they drew closer, Shining could pick out the pony who appeared to be in charge, pushing the group into a formation. It was hard to determine sex since the pony was in full plate, but he/she had very shiny armor and a silver mane.

Shining and the IHG knights slowed to a trot two-hundred meters out.
“They’re not attacking right away. Good sign.” Shining said. “Okay, um, I’ll go talk to them. Since I’m unarmed I’ll look the least threatening.”

“Is less threatening what we need right now, captain?” One of the knights asked.

Shining didn’t have an answer for that. “Be on alert. You might have to charge in.” Taking a steadying breath, he broke away from the group and approached the clump of soldiers.

The crackling of the burning house grew louder and louder as he got closer. How could so many ponies agree to killing the ponies they were sworn to protect? Why was he even considering making a deal with these ponies? They were evil.

The silver-maned knight he’d picked out a distance called to him once he was thirty hooves away. “Halt!” it was a male’s voice, so not the duchess.

Shining halted as asked. There was no reason the negotiations couldn’t be pleasant, even if he was dealing with immoral ponies. “Hello sir. I’m here to talk. I don’t want any unnecessary trouble.”

“That will be for us to decide.” The silver knight strode out to meet him. “We don’t get many unicorns through here? What lord do you serve?”

“Empress Celestia, sir.” Shining said simply.

“Ah, Celestia takes interest in us earth pony suddenly? So very funny. Are you mercenaries? You have a very rough look about you.” The knight scowled disdainfully. “Come to sell your services have you? Yes, you vultures smell blood so you circle in to tear at our carcasses and take our wealth.”

“No. We are simply looking for safe passage. Naturally we sought out the rightful lord of these lands to secure that safe passage.” Shining said, with a not-so-subtle nod towards Four Fords. “We will pay, of course. We have some recovered fine goods, but we are also fine fighters. I’d like to make an offer to the duchess.”

“So you are mercenaries.” The silver knight spat.

“No, we are knights.” Shining said. More knight than you, he was tempted to say. Being an imperial knight stood for something great and virtuous. Apparently being a knight in the Riverpony Lands meant looting and killing.

“Knights?! Impotent scut. I’ve seen beggars who made more convincing knights.”

“We have had to make some sacrifices, thus our need to cross this land. Now take me to the duchess please.”

“You won’t be getting within a mile of our rightful duchess.”

Shining was getting impatient. The knight was being very rude. Shining didn’t want to spill everything to an underling either, nor tell a story he would later have to repeat to the duchess. “I don’t think that’s for you to decide. She’s here, yes?” He sidestepped the knight. “My lady, I have an offer to make!” He yelled to the crowd of soldiers.

“Knave!” The knight grabbed at Shining’s saddlebag to pull him back.

“Hey! Get your hooves off me.” Shining snapped at the knight.

The other soldiers reached towards their weapons but the silver knight waved them down. “No, I have this villain.”

“Oh is this a machismo thing? Listen we just want safe passage. We didn’t even have to come to you.” Shining was feeling very irritated now. “There’s another duchess who may or may not be open to offers.”
Shining knew he’d said the wrong thing as soon as it came out of his mouth, as the silver knight took a swing at him with his iron-shod hoof. Shining ducked away.
“Let’s be practical here then! What if I were a mercenary? Do you think you’re winning the city by burning farms? You want the crown back, right?!”

“I should kill you.” The silver knight hissed. He glanced up towards the crowd of soldiers. Shining tried to see where he was looking, but didn’t catch the shrug from one of the armored ponies near the front. “But we are merciful here. Strip, and that nice bag will be recompense for wasting our time. May plenty of fun be had by your band selling your service to the usurper.”

Shining Armor wasn’t going to leave. The rejection wasn’t even coming from the duchess, but an arrogant provincial knight. This pony, who dirtied his hooves with innocent blood thought himself better than Shining. “I didn’t come to hear and make threats. We came here to give you a chance first. More than you deserve.”

“And how do we know you haven’t been in touch with the usurper already? You are awfully persistent for a mercenary.”

“Because Imperial Knights don’t like usurpers.” Shining growled. “Give me a sword and I’ll prove it t-.”
Shining felt something jostling his bag, but when he turned to look he saw nothing. The other soldiers were maintaining their distance. “What?”

The clasps of his bag came undone and his book was pulled into the air. Shining gasped and grabbed for the book, but it jumped out of his reach into into the hooves of the unicorn in the crowd.
Shining Armor hadn’t been expecting a unicorn among the earth ponies. He wasn’t expecting somepony to take HIS BOOK. He was getting very, very upset.
He faced back to the silver knight, a wide-eyed glare and snarl consuming his features. “You have a last chance to earn my forgiveness, sir. Order them to give that back.”

“I’ll be having that saddle bag.” The silver knight chuckled.

“Evil pony.” Shining widened his stance. He had no sword, but as the other unicorn had proven, that was no issue. He could have as many swords as he liked as long as they weren’t being too tightly held. “You are going to make me act very unchivalrous.”

---

Flash Sentry and the other IHG knights watched with rapt attention from afar as the ‘negotiation’ between their captain and the silver knight devolved into shouting and threats. With his sharp pegasus eyes, Flash saw the unicorn steal the book and told the others. Everypony was getting nervous. It looked like there would be a fight after all.

And all of a sudden, there was. Shining Armor telekinetically yanked all the swords and spears of the ponies around him of himself in a mass, then one by one plunged them through the gaps in the silver knight’s visor. The silver knight was pinned into the soil like a butterfly display gone horrifically wrong.

For the first few moments everypony was too shocked to do anything.

“You fools call yourself knights? Rule ONE of fighting a unicorn is to secure your weapon.” Shining Armor lambasted the soldiers. He cantered to where the silver knight pincushion had fallen and yanked a shortsword out of the pincushion.
He'd killed that pony. It made him feel strange. He'd killed a pony before: Some punk in Canterlot's Inner City, who had ambushed the group of city guards Shining was with, to score reputation with his gang. That had been quick, almost accidental. One blow and the colt had collapsed. That had been hard to deal with, but Shining hadn't let himself break down over it. It had been done in the service of his duties to the princess and her ponies. Over the years, he got in similar situations several more times, but only been involved in fatal encounters twice after that.
Then the slog through the forests between Canterlot and the Crystal river... Shining didn't want to think about the depravity they'd encountered there. Ragged and starving bandits, for whom death had almost been a mercy, did not weigh on him much either. As sickening as it was to say, the world was a better place without those ponies.
But to murder a knight, that was different, wasn't it? Their task was ignoble but they were well born and deserved a fairer end than what Shining had just provided. Shining wasn't sure. Maybe knights and nobles answered to their crimes the same as commoners.
“And what kind of goddamn ceremony is this? You greet everypony this way? I feel like I’m on a stage, or like some pagan champion sent to fight the enemy warrior. You earth ponies are devolving into savages!”

Killing one and taking a bunch of weapons didn’t change the math of one against fifty, and Shining knew the revere would soon be broken. Time for the hard sell.

“Lady Duchess, the Imperial Household Guard is willing to support your claim to the throne of Four Fords, in exchange for supplies and help on our way East. Unfortunately, turning us down will force us to look elsewhere, and that will make you our enemy.” He gestured to the corpse. “You should not make an enemy of an institution with ‘imperial’ in the name.”

The clinks and clanks of the armored soldiers shifting uneasily in their armor was the only sound. Finally one of the knights stepped forward and removed her helmet.

Aura Highlight was a stout earth pony with lushious white fur a shade more grey than Shining's, and a light green mane like newly sprouted leaves. Most striking of all were her eyes, an oaky red, which never blinked or narrowed from a look of total fascination. She mad a mad air about her. “Imperial Household Guardsponies never leave Canterlot without their empress.”

“Our empress is everywhere now, in every heart and book.” Shining said. “Our guard is now more or less limited to our own person.”

“And you seem to guard that well enough.” If Aura was upset that her silver knight now had less face than a yak, she did not show it. Her unflinching stare was unnerving. If Shining were less heated he might have shied away, but he matched her in a tense staring contest. “What do you want?”

“I’d like my book back.”

“Pardon?”

“The book your unicorn took. I’d like it back very much, and very soon.” Shining said. “Now, in fact. I’m not leaving without.”

Aura nodded slowly. “Oh… Yes it would make sense that you would want that back.” She didn’t move her body much either, Shining noticed. When she wasn’t talking, the duchess was like a statue whose artificial mane whipped in the light wind. “I’d like to talk.”

“What?”

“Your deal. Bring your friends closer please, and we can have a talk about your safe passage through my land.”

Shining scowled. “But your soldiers are still drawn up. You won’t spring upon us? You won’t avenge your knight there?”

Aura’s lip twitched. “Well… He did throw a gauntlet at you, signaling the willingness to duel. His hoof was still attached, yes, but I think it stands.”

Shining was unsettled. It was dawning on him that this band of soldiers had no regard for pony life. “Very well. Let’s talk, after you give me back my book.”

Aura’s lips curled up in a half-hearted attempt at a smile. “You should get it back. It’s yours. Nopony’s but yours. Let nopony separate you from what rightfully belongs to you.”
She turned away and strode back to her soldiers. After some words between the her and her captains, the group began to disperse to resume their plunder of the surrounding countryside. A few knights stayed behind to discuss something with their dutchess.

The little unicorn who had taken his book was now looking very nervous. She slowly approaching Shining. “I- I- I’m very sorry.”

Shining stared at her impassively.

“H- Here you are.” The unicorn held the book out with her magic, turning her eyes away in embarrassment. “I can’t help myself sometimes. Sorry Sorry! When something looks interesting, I- I just can’t keep myself from taking it. And your book just looked so interesting.”

Shining arched a brow at the little kleptomaniac. “Um, it has no cover.”

The unicorn averted her eyes. “The, erm, magical look.”

“Whatever.” Shining sighed, putting the book back in his saddlebag. He made a mental note that he’d need a better clasp to keep something similar from happening again.

“I… I should go.” The unicorn backed away.

Shining’s knights rejoined him, all auspiciously silent. They were trying hardest not to look at the silver knight’s corpse.

“You guys alright?” Shining asked.

“Yeah captain but…” One of the knights. “The way you wasted that pony was brutal.”

“Hmm.” Shining turned away. “They call it a… show of force.” His mind flashed to Hauseway. “It’s a technique that is as strong as any swordplay, yet it is one I hope we never have to use again.”

They all looked at the burning house.

Done discussing with her captains, Aura Highlight returned to talk. “What are your names.” She addressed the group

“I’m Shining Armor. You will be going through me.” Shining interrupted her. He didn’t want his knights interacting with the amoral ponies. “That will be true the entire time we’re supporting you, and when the rest of our band is passing through.”

“Very well. I can understand that. You’re in charge for a reason.” Aura nodded. “You’ll do me the same courtesy, yes?”

“Absolutely.” Shining nodded. “Ahem, now to talk business. How best getting you back in Four Fords. Firstly, how did you come to be out of the ducal seat?”

“A conspiracy of knights and local nobles decided they’d had enough of my kindness and tried to imprison me so they could puppet my daughter and do as they wished. The plot went wrong. I got away, and my daughter died. My cousin Misty stepped in and styles herself duchess now.” Aura explained. It was all consistent with what Sparrow had said. “My loyal retainers and I have been working to punish her supporters.”

Shining glanced at the burning house. “That was the house of one of the traitors?”

Aura shivered at the word ‘traitor’. “I think so.”

Shining sighed. “That’s… some consolation, I guess. So, how many do you have at your back as opposed to your cousin in Four Fords?”

“I do not know how many she has, but they will not be knights. Her knights have been taken care of.” Her expression took on a look of satisfaction. “And so I have every confidence that once we are in the city, my cousin's supporters will break like glass.”

“Then the clearest use for us is in infiltrating the city and opening a path for your forces.” Shining said. ”Some unicorns would be under much less suspicion of being on one side or the other of this conflict. Hmm, it will take some planning, but overall it would not be too difficult.”

“Big talk. How lucky that you have a chance to follow through.” Aura scoffed, taunting him with her eyes. “Just one more thing sir. Could you smile for me?”

Shining wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. "Come again?"

"Smile for me. A big, happy smile." Aura urged. "Show off those pearly whites."

Shining blinked. He really did not feel like smiling. "After this is over, maybe."

"I see..." Aura frowned. "Let's hope it's a grand one, Sir Armor." She turned her back and trotted away.

“I’m having a hard time telling if that went well or not.” Flash Sentry pursed his lips.

“So am I.” Shining grunted. “Where’d Sparrow go?”

One of the knights pointed out into the fields. “She started talking to that unicorn who took your book. They wandered off.”

“Guess we won’t worry about them right now.” Shining slouched. “We need to start thinking about how we might get the gates of Four Fords open.”

---

The little camp the knights had set up felt cold. Yes, it had a fire, the usual tents and bedrolls, but there was something missing that Shining couldn’t explain.

He stood at the edge of the cap, staring over the fields of wheat at the walls of Four Fords. By the meager light of the crescent moon, the fields seemed like a dark sea, waving in the weak breeze.

“Good thing it stopped raining.” Flash Sentry trotted up to him.

“Yup.” Shining said.

Flash kicked at the dirt. “I… I don’t have family with the caravan, like a lot of the guys do. It makes me feel strange, knowing they’re fighting for somepony while I’m not.” He sighed. “I joined the IHG out of genuine faith, you know. With Celestia gone, life feels off kilter. It doesn’t seem possible, but she really is gone. I can’t look up at the sun and think of it as her sun.”

Shining looked at the slightly taller pegasus. “Nopony’s stopping you from thinking of it as whatever you want, Sentry. Just because our princess is dead doesn’t mean what she represented isn’t worth fighting for.”

Flash averted his eyes. “Is that what we’re doing?”

Shining’s gut sank. “We do what we have to.” He mumbled.

Flash smiled awkwardly. “I trust in you, captain. We all do. You’re… the best of us, you know? We believe you can lead us right. We were just spoiled nobles and brats before the IHG, and to Captain Hauseway, we still were. You believed in us captain. You believed in us as ponies, and as knights. And-” Flash was choking up. “And when Canterlot was falling apart, you took charge and led us out. We owe you our lives.”

Shining couldn’t help but smile at the heartfelt words, but it weighed on him all the same. Other ponies’ lives were in his hooves. “Thanks… Flash.”

“Night, captain.” Flash bowed and returned to the camp.

Shining brought his hoof up to his heart, and felt it beat though his thin robe. He was alive.
“Is it wrong to feel envious of those ponies who went and died with Celestia?” Shining looked up at the moon. “They saw a princess returning to life. Fire, ambition, a dream, making a pony worth having faith it! Oh, Celestia… I miss you.”

On his way back to his tent, Shining nearly tripped over Sparrow and the other unicorn laying in the dirt at the edge of the campfire’s light.
“This again?” Shining scowled at her. “Sparrow, get up.”

“Hmm?” Sparrow, curled up around her guitar, open an eye. “Armor?”

“Get up I said.” Shining ordered. He nudged the other pony. “You too.”

“Emm?” The other pony, the klepto from earlier, drowsily got to her hooves.

“Oh, Sir Armor, I didn’t introduce you to the travel partner I lost.” Sparrow hugged the other unicorn. “Shining Armor, meet, Raven Ruddy. Ruddy, this is that knight I mentioned, Armor.”

Raven Ruddy muttered out a tired greeting.

“You ponies.” Shining rubbed his forehead. “You can’t sleep out here on the dirt.”

“More like we shouldn’t.” Sparrow said.

“Yeah, whatever.” Shining grunted. “You two… spend the night in my tent.”

“Oh my.” Sparrow Blushed. “That’s quite the proposal.”

Shining sighed. He led them back to his tent.
Trying to ignore them as they settled down, he took off his robe and settled into his bed role.

He’d almost drifted off to sleep when he heard a voice in his ear.
“I had a look in your book. At the page with the bookmark.” Raven Ruddy whispered. “When Sparrow told me you talked about translating it to sound, it piqued my interest. So I…” She hesitated. “May I have a look at it?”

Shining wordlessly motioned to his saddlebag. Sparrow had not failed to notice and was now watching intently.

Raven Ruddy crawled over to it and took out the book. She glanced over a couple times. “Oh boy… This is going to sound… interesting.” She flipped the book around, and by the faint glow of her horn Shining watched the page as she began to strum on Sparrow’s guitar.

The words read themselves into Shining’s mind. But instead of the universe of light and color like the other page had held, only darkness seeped out of that page, so contrary to its illustrations.

“The ovil and the seams pulled open farther, until the great eye was fully opened.
With a horrible whine it all came apart. All the golden rays which formed the outline of the eye and also its lashes pulled taunt. The planets connected to them were pulled off their courses and drawn into the eye. Planets smashed into each other with incalculable force, making explosions of heat and rock that rivaled the light of a sun. The horrendous cacophony of a million dying worlds overwhelmed me and I fell to my knees. I looked on in despair as they eye consumed more and more of the universe around it.
I notched the arrow into the bow and drew it back. With great effort of my magic I turned round it while maintaining force on the string, and loosed the arrow into my throat. It hurt but I was happy. The world around me had become too much for my eyes, and one by one the slits on the golden mask began to close, what I saw became dark, until I saw nothing at all.”

Shining opened his mouth, trying to understand. The illusion faded, leaving the three of the sitting there. “That’s it?” Shining stammered. “It can’t all end like that! There was… So much light!” He collapsed into his bedroll. “There was so much light…”

---

“The Mortal capacity to learn and to grow is astonishing.”

“Not in the mood.” Shining sneered at the divine thing.
The world of the dream was beginning to wear on him. He did not like how bright it was, how flat and perfect it was. It was too pure. Nothing like it should exist on earth, which technically it didn’t.

“When you read that book, in essence you agreed to a pact that would take you here, to be subject to my presence.” The divine thing said. “Or do you really think you can peer at the nature of the cosmos without stumbling upon god?”

“I don’t make assumptions about that kind of thing.” Shining shrugged.

“If only all mortals has as much sense as you.” Was that a joke? The interface was evolving, Shining mused. “Yet if you had even more sense, you would not make assumptions at all. Your mortal perspectives are so, so miniscule. You comprehend nothing.”

“Is that why you’re more fit to decide our fates? Because you understand more?” Shining asked.

“Among other things.” The divine thing said. “You do the same, don’t you? With your following of knights, your fedayeen, you have things you wish them not to know. Now out of maliciousness, but just the opposite! You wish to protect them, have them live the best lives they possibly can. Only you know that it could come at the expense of others. You can make peace with that. You can’t protect the whole world. You couldn’t even protect Celestia from herself. But you can protect your fedayeen.”

Those words hurt, a lot. “What do you know?!” Shining spit at the mirage. “You don’t know what it’s like, to suffer, to feel pain! You’re a goddamn ball of gas!”

The mirage twisted. “Correct.”

“You and I, we’re from different worlds, and you have NO RIGHT to guide us. How can anything that doesn’t know what it’s like to fear death be our arbiter?!” Shining buried his head in his hooves. “Don’t think I haven’t enjoyed our time together. You’re fascinating, in a horrible kind of way. But I won’t be coming back. You make me angry.”

“Don’t lie.”

Shining bared his teeth. ‘I WILL read my book again, but you don’t have to answer.”

“But this is my dream.”

“This is your INTERFACE. The divine don’t have dreams. Give this dream back to us mortals. It belongs to us. God damn it, it belongs to us!” Shining screamed. Why?

“...” The divine thing move around him. “You are not going to take it well went one of your fedayeen reject you.”

“Why do you keep calling them that?!” Shining barked. He felt so fragile, like a light tough might shatter him. His heart felt sore. Why did he have to exist like he did? Couldn’t he have been a god, and never worry about pain or sadness? “What does that mean? W- What does it all mean?!”

“Fedayeen? It means faithful martyrs.” The mirage shimmered, and Shining swore he saw a smile. “Martyrdom, to die for what you believe in… Strive, fight, and do the other things mortals do, Shining Armor. One day, you may find something, or somepony worth dying for.”

Shining covered his eyes. But he could not stop the tears. “We strive…” He said, rocked by little sniffles. “To understand.”

The mirage kneeled beside him, blanketing him with it transparent body. “That, my son, is why I love mortalkind.”

Author's Note:

The wail of a violin, the boom of a drum, a beautiful tune... Some tell me that we think of all these things in the way we do because of our ancient ancestry as prey animals. Every sound we understand means what it means because it sounds like to something we evolved to respond to in a certain way.

That is a heartless thought. It was no beauty.
I like to imagine that of all the things the divine has given us, music is one of them. I hope to know one day how the cosmos sounds, and where among its multitude of chaotic cords, did the first melodies arise.

Comments

[TyroidMary]

“Lots of things depress me.”

me_irl

Also, Is Shining Armor stupid? The 'god' thing he's confessing to is literally a faceless void, inside a book he knows is evil, and said book is heavily implying it's going to destroy them all. Calling it, he's going to falter at a critical moment because of it and get everyone killed.

[SpiritDutch]

8105538
The question is not so much if he's stupid, but if he's sane. A guy with his worldview smashed, his life upheaved, and feeling like his family and his ruler has betrayed him- Now that's a villain recipe. Luckily for him, instead of meeting an overtly evil nightmare, like Twilight Sparkle did when she was going through the same thing in Ponyville, Shining Armor met an at least courteous entity. It's not asking him for the blood of the innocents. And sure, even though consorting with the divine bit everyone else in the ass, it doesn't have to be the case this time.

8107524
He got it from Twilight Velvet's library when the IHG knights were ransacking the place. At first curiosity, then enrapturement, drew him to it.

Imagine a clear melody, that makes you feel calmed and evokes a lush landscape. Then, feel the heat of the sunlight on a brisk fall morning. Add to it a beautiful voice, laughing, giggling with you, making you feel happy. Top it off with a chemical high that has you drooling on the floor in ecstasy.
Sometimes people's ability to reason is stolen by compulsions. Some people are made of stern stuff and never break. Some shatter spectacularly. Others bend. Shining Armor is hovering around the 'bend' phase.