Equine, All Too Equine

by stanku

Chapter VII

The Parliament was in chaos – had been for a while now. A hundred years, at least according to the nastier commentators. The current chaos, however, wasn’t made of paper and ink, of intrigue and conspiracy: it was the more traditional kind of stampeding hooves, incoherent yelling and mindless rushing. Like the most destructive of avalanches, it had started with a fairly harmless snowball, set in motion by a fairly simple rumour.

The Captain of the Guard has gone missing in the Cliffs.

When Ember Trail had first heard it, his reaction of mild worry had been the dominant stance around. That had been several hours ago, and the Captain of the Guard was still missing. In the Cliffs. When Feinsake had summoned him into her office, the corridors had been bubbling with talk of arranging an emergency general meeting. By the time his head had cleared of the strange urge to leave Feinsake alone, the meeting was well under way of turning into a master’s league shouting competition. When the news had arrived that the Citizen Guard was going to visit the Cliff’s en masse, people were already fleeing for the hills.

Like rats, thought Trail as he pushed against the current of ponies on a particularly narrow corridor. Or worse than that. Rats at least have the decency to wait until the ship is actually sinking – not to take it down while escaping.

A young mare, most likely a junior secretary, bumped against him in the frantic crowd. Dressed in his full plate armour, Trail barely noticed her even though the impact tackled the mare to the ground. In the brief moment when their eyes met, he fancied to see the pure condensation of the Parliament’s hundred years history.

Naked fear.

It was not an exception but the very paradigm of Equestrian politics. The fear of a foal abandoned at birth. The fear of a loss that had lasted for a hundred years.

Trail sneered at the mare and carried on to push through the crowd, leading a small squadron of unicorn soldiers behind him. Just like the whole city, he had been expecting this day. Unlike the others, he had readied himself to embrace it.

“Make way!” he shouted, shouldering ponies left and right. “Make way for the Guard!”

The few who could hear him over the din were also the ones most ill-disposed to perform any kind of evasive maneuvers, being pushed by those coming behind, which made all progress painfully slow. But Trail was not about to let a pack of rats deny him his premier place in the apocalypse.

His horn flared once, and a blinding light filled the corridor. In its dying wake, a series of groans rose to replace the previous tumult. A few disbelieved glances were directed at Trail, but otherwise those who hadn't been stunned by the blast got shakily up and carried on their way. Many more stayed down at the edges of the aisle where they had been hurled. Trail and the soldiers behind him hurried on without a glance dedicated to them.

The rest of this part of the Parliament was already empty, which meant they arrived at their destination without any more incidents. Trail kicked the double doors open, stepped in and said, “Fear not my love, for your saviour has arrived!”

It was a few drawn-out seconds later that he realized that Feinsake’s office was all but devoid of its inhabitant.

“Maybe she left already?” said one of the soldiers by the doorstep.

Ember Trail blinked, his mouth still frozen in what he thought was a daring grin. Something was wrong. This wasn’t what they had agreed on. When the time would come, she had said, they’d run away together. And he had really, really worked on that line…

“Sir? What do we do now?”

The corner of Trail’s mouth twitched. He turned around, slowly. An idea was trying to pull together in his mind, but in a mismatched order. No part was right, yet the whole was undeniable in its finality.

She left without me.

The soldiers exchanged nervous glances, none of them willing to face the glazed eyes of their Captain. When they heard running steps approaching around a corner, they were actually relieved to find something else to turn their attention to.

“Hey, you!” one of them started. “This area is being evacuated. Please proceed to the nearest–”

“Is she there?” said a male voice oozing of authority. In Trail’s clouded mind, a memory stung.

“Uhm,” began the first soldier, who now paid attention to the uniform and insignia of the newcomer.

“No, Chancellor Feinsake is not present at the moment. Sir.”

“Then where the hay is she?!”

“Don’t know, sir.”

Trail blinked again. He recognized the voice. With a renewed sense of clarity, he stepped out of the office.

“You,” he said, staring at Heart. “What are you doing here?”

Heart looked surprised, but only for a moment. “I need to meet Feinsake. Do you know where to find her?”

Trail ignored the question with one of his own. “What is your business with her?”

Heart shook his head in irritation. “There’s no time to go into the details, but believe me when I say that it’s a matter of life and death. Come on, think: do you have any idea where she could–”

“I’m the one asking the questions here!” snapped Trail. He took a step closer to Heart. “I ask you again: what business do you have with Chancellor Feinsake? And do not even think of lying to me.”

A mere glimpse of Heart’s face assured the three guards that the temperature in the immediate vicinity had just dropped to polar figures. With discretion, each one of them leaned just a bit farther from both him and Trail.

“I don’t know what illness has struck you,” began Heart, his voice the very heart of midwinter, “But I can’t afford to catch it. It seems very fatal.” He turned on his heels.

“Arrest that pony!” cried Trail, pointing at Heart’s back. “Arrest him and take him to the dungeons for interrogation!”

The soldiers flinched collectively. No one moved in the corridor.

“Well?” yelled Trail. “Am I not the Captain around here? Do it!”

“Uh,” said one of the soldiers. “Sir. He is the Captain the Gu–”

“Under article forty six, clause eight, in the case of national emergency the Unity Guard Captain’s authority extends over that of the Citizen Guard’s!” cited Trail, his mad eyes drilling into the back of Heart. “And I am pretty bucking sure that an imminent attack of griffons against the capital counts as an emergency! Arrest him! Now!”

Heart turned around. His expression was calm to the point of tranquility. He gave each one of the guards a good look. None of them returned it.

“Look,” he started, now looking at Trail. “This is idiotic. The griffons are not going to attack the city. I just came from the Cliffs – they are not the real threat. The caves are filled with hungry, desperate, frightened people.”

Trail’s face, which mirrored Heart’s in an almost perfect symmetric opposition, spread into a grin. “Oh, is that so? How intriguing! The griffons are not the real threat!” He chuckled like a cat with a mouse pinned under its claws. “The thing is, Captain, that even if the griffons aren’t planning an attack against the city – which everypony knows is not the case – they will do just that once they find the whole of Citizen Guard knocking on their door.”

Heart frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Since your disappearing, things have gone a little bit downhill around here, as you may have noticed. Your very own substitute Captain, whatever his name was, decided to respond by sending a whole army to the Cliffs. I reckon they should arrive there right about now.” He leaned forward, a smile like a crevice on his lips. “And guess what they're going to do when they can’t get their dear little Captain back from the wicked griffons?”

Heart grimaced. “Cowl,” he muttered under his breath. “I must go there at once.”

“Sure you do,” said Trail sweetly. “Right after you’ve told me what business you have with Chancellor Feinsake.”

“She has played us all for fools!” shouted Heart. “She and whoever else moves the strings in this theatre! The griffons don’t have a government, not a ruin of one! They’re just hungry and desperate!”

Trail nodded knowingly. “Clearly you have lost your mind. Nonetheless, I want my answer: what specifically do you want from Feinsake?”

Heart’s voice was just a turn of breath from a growl now. “Don’t you get it? She has known all along. She must have. The question is why she has made everypony believe the griffons are organized, that we are really negotiating with them? Why the griffons have been forced to live in the Cliffs, in a place that goes against everything in their culture? Why? That’s what I need to know.” He took a deep breath, apparently forcing himself to calm down. The effect was like watching icy water poured over red hot steel. “But first I must go to the Cliffs before a war which no one wants or needs begins.”

For the second time, he turned around to leave.

This time, Ember Trail stopped him not with his voice but with his horn. Or at least he tried to. As he focused magic on Heart’s horn to throw it off balance, a countercurrent like he had never felt before surged into the opposite direction. A trail of sharp pain flowed into his mind and body like an electrical shock. He staggered back, hissing through his teeth.

After that, events unfolded like a string of dominoes.

One of the guards, perhaps the only one who still had a vague sense that Trail was his superior, reacted to Heart’s counterlash by trying to intervene. When a magical bolt sent him flying across the corridor, the two other guards had little choice but to join the fight. The first one of them got a hold of Heart’s horn with telekinesis and proceed to flood it with foreign magic, which would incapacitate it for a short period. That was a by-the-book manoeuvre, basically a nonviolent way to stop a unicorn in their tracks. To the guard’s misfortune, Heart had not only read but also written a big part of the standard regulations concerning unicorn combat.

The second remaining guard joined in to wrest Heart’s horn from his control. The air hummed like the wings of ten thousand mosquitoes, and the walls glowed in neon colors of the rainbow. The three unicorns stood at a standstill, all their concentration channeled to contain the arcane forces surging through their minds and bodies. Thick veins pulsed on Heart’s throat, and sweat pearled on each unicorn’s brow.

As the strain between the three horns approached a climax, Ember Trail stood shakily up. The surge of energy had left his brain scrambled, but the blurred vision of Heart was enough to feed one last remaining mental furnace within him – revenge. With his horn out of commission, he charged head-on against the other stallion.

Their collision tipped off-balance the delicate, concentrated energies of the three unicorns, which resulted in a high voltage magical short-circuit, in other words, an explosion.

When he came around again, a sharp pain bloomed at the back of Trail’s head. To his great dismay, it peaked unexpectedly as something yanked his mane back.

“Wake up!” shouted Heart before again denting the marble floor with Trail’s skull.

“Whah,” mumbled Trail. He tried to get up, or at the very least figure out where he was, but Heart’s extremely frank body language spoke against the attempt. “Stop, stop,” he wailed.

“Where’s she!” shouted Heart, his spit flying on Trail’s face. “Where’s Feinsake!”

Trail’s vision focused on Heart, or at least on his eyes, which were the most he could see of him. An animalistic rage filled them like water fills an ocean. The impression left little room for tactical eloquence.

“I don’t know! She was supposed to be here, I swear! Don’t kill me!”

“Was supposed to? What do you mean?”

“We, we were destined to escape together,” stuttered Trail. “When the time would come, we’d run away. She promised me. She swore to me…” Tears of agony and grief trailed on his cheeks.

Panting replaced Heart’s shouting for a moment. “Escape…? What? Why would Feinsake escape?”

“Because we’re in love, oaf!” screamed Trail. “That’s our destiny! To become the foundation for the New Equestria, together!” With renewed fierceness, he started struggling against Heart’s grip. “Get your hooves off me! I am the Heir of the Element Bearer Rarity the Generous! Don’t you dare lay a hoof on–”

Heart slammed Trail’s head against the floor with such force it broke the tile underneath. A rugged silence filled the corridor where three unicorns lay stunned. Heart breathed heavily and grimaced as another muscle spasm erupted in his hind leg, from there moving to his neck. The two guards had not been idle with their horn practices, that much was clear. It was pure luck that they had caught the butt of each other’s unleashed magical energies when Trail had crashed into him.

“Freeze!”

Heart looked wearily around. It was the third guard, the one he had sent flying. Talk about perfect timing, he thought grimly.

“Kid, put down your horn,” he said. “That’s an order.”

The soldier, who had joined the Unity Guard last month, tensed visibly. His glowing horn pointed right at Heart’s heart.

“The Unity Guard regulations say I’m not supposed to take orders from you,” he said. “And you attacked my Captain.”

Heart leafed through his options, which were scarce. His horn was all but spent, which foretold a sad result for a possible fight between him and the youth, no matter how skilled he happened to be. A horn versus none was a not a fight.

“If you stop me now, there is a good chance none of us will be alive tomorrow,” said Heart slowly. “You know what caused all this commotion? My absence. What, do you think, is the only way to resolve it?”

The soldier’s nervous eyes turned to Trail’s unmoving body. “Is he dead?”

“Against my better judgement, no. But he will be, along with all of us, if you don’t let me go.” Heart took a wavering step backwards. “You can tell them you only came around when I was already gone.”

The youth radiated hesitation, but Heart had the distinct advantage over Trail that he was conscious. With little more encouragement, he might have been able to turn the situation into his benefit.

The approaching steps drew the attention of both unicorns. Heart anticipated seeing more guards, which would have been bad for him, considering he was the last pony standing in what from the outside appeared as a common brawl. What eventually turned up around the corner was much worse than that, though.

There was no reading Feinsake’s face as she stopped to regard the sight before her. She looked first at Heart, then at the unconscious Trail, and finally at the lone soldier.

“I should think that the general question ‘What?’ would be in order here,” she said eventually. She looked at Heart and smiled. “However, that is ultimately of little relevance at this point.”

“Chancellor Feinsake!” blurted the soldier, for whom she offered the answer to the deeply missed question of highest authority. “Captain Heart attacked us!”

Heart stared at Feinsake, not even hearing the accusation. “I paid a visit to the Cliffs today,” he said in a casual tone. “How long have you known?”

“Known what?”

“I’m not in the mood for playing.”

“Yes, I see you’ve had your fair share already,” she mused, eyeing his battered form. “The thing is, I too am through with games.”

Heart took a step forward. “I doubt that. The two of us are going to have a long talk. But not now. I have a world to save.”

“That would make two of us, then.” She stepped towards him, blocking his way. “It might pay to unite our efforts, don’t you think?”

Heart tried to circle her while avoiding her eyes. In spite of her pregnant belly, she moved swiftly to cross his path. On the third time this happened, the two ended up face to face. From this distance, Heart could simply walk over her and there would be not a thing anypony in the world could do about it. Every moment wasted might mean a hundred more casualties, he knew, yet he remained still like a statue.

“Move aside,” he said. Being a few inches taller, he could stare right ahead and miss her gaze, which he still felt at the back of his skull, inscribing invisible words into the bone.

“So very bitter,” she said, studying his irises. “Full of regret. And over what?” Her lips approached him like a stalking cat. “Over a mare who was not yours to save? Over a father you never knew?”

“Move.”

She closed her eyes, their mouths now separated by a mere breath. “Or over a foal you’re afraid to love?”

Heart’s shadow moved a fraction of a second before he did. And that was all the time Feinsake needed.

She kissed him.

It went on for an eternity. And beyond.

He was only faintly aware that, at some point, her horn had began glowing, its soft light seeping past his fur. It didn’t seem to matter anymore, not as her presence filled his senses from scent to feeling, from balance to sight. It was like the time in the morgue, but infinitely stronger.

He saw Lily, too. She walked around the corner, idly licking an ice cream. A hollow look dwelled on her face, but otherwise she seemed to be fine. That was all that mattered. All that had ever mattered.

All that had ever mat–

***

About thirty meters above the rooftops, the twins flew in silence. The sun was well on its way to the horizon, although there was still plenty of light left in the world. Down below, movement was turning scarce. Ponies were turning in even earlier than usual, it seemed to the mare. She could not tell why, but an air of foreboding hung over the city. It was like watching a distant star twinkle and wondering whether it saw you too, and if it did, what it was thinking of you.

She looked up. No star would show itself for hours, yet she fancied spotting a glimpse of one among the shades of dying blue and rising purple. Peering into the infinity, she could not help but feel that the whole world was holding its breath.

“You’re thinking of something,” said Flitter next to her. It was a statement the full meaning of which only siblings, or very long time friends, could share.

”I often am,” she said.

Another silence fell in between them, filled with anticipation so strong one might think it was there from the start.

He sighed. ”Sometimes, you don't make any sense to me. Not one bit.”

”I'm sure it happens to everypony.”

He shot an irritated glance at her. ”What's that supposed to mean?”

She turned her eyes from the sky to the ground. A few carriages, packed to the brink of exploding, ran down the street. ”You really believe we're doing the right thing?”

”We're doing the only thing that makes any kind of sense.”

”You don't think this might be the day our mother always preached us about?”

More silence. Had there been a way of weighting nothingness, this one would have made the scale creak.

”Well?” she said.

”She preached about all kinds of stuff, especially near the end,” said Flitter quietly.

Neither talked any more until they reached the shop. Whatever signs left of the earlier riot were mostly covered by the lengthening shadows. Without looking each other in the eyes, they opened the door and stepped into the dim building.

”About time you showed up,” said a familiar voice beyond the light that flooded in. ”Still sore about the fight, is he?”

”You've got to be kidding me,” growled Flitter. He strode to the window and ripped the curtain aside, illuminating the rest of the room and awakening all the animals that had been sleeping. In the orchestra of hissing, growling and peeping that followed, he marched to Gambit who was casually leaning on the counter. ”You got two seconds to get the hay out of here before I call the guards!” he shouted at his face.

Gambit chuckled. ”Good luck with that. The last tin hat I saw was in the station: the city is practically empty of the buggers.”

Flitter's eyes narrowed dangerously. ”Then I suppose a civil arrest is in o–”

”Why did you come here?” interrupted the mare, quickly walking between the two stallions.

The smirk vanished from Gambit's lips as he looked at her. ”Because of what I just said: there is not a single guard in the whole city, not one pair. Save the few we saw in the station, they've all gone to the Cliffs.”

”And you know this because...?”

”While you guys took ages to get here, I asked around a bit. The word's all over the streets: the Guard has marched to the Cliffs, every single bugger they got left to spare. It happened while we were locked up.”

The mare frowned deeply, then looked at Flitter. ”He may be right. Can you recall seeing any guards on our way back? I can't. And usually the patrols set out right before dark.”

”I didn't pay attention,” said Flitter, the irritation a sting in his voice. ”What does any of that got to do with you breaking into our home?”

Gambit rolled his eyes. ”I didn't break in: the top window was open. And the reason why I came should be pretty obvious even for you, yeah?”

”Please,” the mare said to Gambit, silencing Flitter with a hoof. ”If you have urgent business, don't waste time in bickering.”

A shade of red bloomed on the youth's cheeks as he averted her stern gaze. ”Uhm. Yeah, sorry. Maybe it's not that obvious.” He coughed into his hoof, drew a deep breath and said, ”The city is starting to panic. Many high hats are leaving in a hurry, others barricade inside their homes, but most can’t decide what to do. It's happening everywhere, and it's only getting uglier by the hour. The air's so thick of rumours you'd think flying was impossible, but they all agree on one thing: the griffons have started a war.”

The animals kept on racketing. But in between the three ponies, a silence followed Gambit's words that would have shattered any scale and continued its way right through the floor.

”That can't be true,” said Flitter. ”That can't be true. A war? How? Why?”

”Wouldn’t we know?” said the mare.

”They say the Cliffs are the only hot spot for now,” said Gambit. ”It’s a big place. Anything could be going on under all that rock and we wouldn't even hear the screams.”

”You checked all the rumours but not if they're true?”

”Hey, even I can't make it everywhere at once! Besides, I trust my sources.”

”Oh yeah?” asked Flitter pointedly. ”Who are they, exactly?”

”Ponies you'd pay care to not see on the street. And that's exactly why I trust their word. Invisible ponies see more than most. Hear too.”

”You still haven't explained why you came here,” she asked carefully. ”Have you?”

He looked her in the eyes. ”You've got to come back. The city needs us. All of us.”

”This is insane,” said Flitter. ”You're insane. If the war has really started then the last thing we should be doing is getting together with a bunch of lunatics thinking they have some super magical power extending over generations! We should be fleeing the city like everypony else!”

Gambit turned a cold look at him. ”Except they aren't. The city's too big to run away like that. Even if they tried, many would get trampled to death.”

”And there's not a thing we can do about that!” cried Flitter. ”Not a thing! The Element Bearers are dead! We are not them!”

”Speak for yourself,” said Gambit, despise tribbing between the syllables. He rustled his wings and shouldered his way past him. ”Shoudda figured coming here would be a waste of time.”

”Where are you going?” she asked.

At the door, Gambit looked around. ”Where do you think? To the Cliffs. Why? Because that's what Rainbow Dash would have done, even if she was the only pony in the world going. And that's why we call her Loyalty – not because she was a god or a superpony or anything like that.”

The door was not slammed. In fact, it could not have been closed any more tenderly.

”You know he's waiting outside,” she said eventually. ”Hiding behind a chimney, probably.”

”How in the hay could I know that?” asked Flitter, but not with the conviction that the words themselves suggested.

”Because he believes he made an impression,” she continued. ”No: because he hopes, prays that he made an impression. Because he knows, without knowing how or why, that getting us to come along is the only way to save the world.” She looked at him in the way only a twin can look at her equal. ”You tell me you can argue with that?”

He shook his head slowly. ”Mom was right. You only know how to say yes. You bend although you know you shouldn't.”

She smoothed his mane. ”That’s why I have you, and you have me. True kindness demands both a yes and a no… as well as the knowledge of when to use them.”

***

Somepony was singing. They weren’t very good at it. The intonation was all over the place, and the pace was ways off. Still it was enough to tell Heart what song was being butchered – an age-old lullaby, mostly forgotten nowadays.

“Hush now, quiet now… It’s time… to go to bed…”

Heart opened his eyes, and immediately knew he was dreaming. A meadow blazing in all the colors of summer spread before him, miles and miles in all directions. Carpets of flowers spotted the sea of green like islands, each one oozing beauty and peace. The sky was a painting. No such sight had existed in Equestria for a hundred years.

There was another pony. A mare. With eyes like lakes of honey.

He knew it was a mirage; a cheap illusion; a product of his own unconscious turned against him.

When he had reached her he collapsed on the grass, all but out of breath after the fastest sprint of his life.

“Please,” he gasped. “Just a moment. One moment. Please.”

She sat with her back towards him, calmly plucking petals of some flower with her horn. The wind rose suddenly, messing her gorgeous, golden mane and tearing a few loose hairs off. They disintegrated as the magic sustaining them stayed behind.

“Please,” sobbed Heart, inching his way closer. “I don’t care who you are, what you are, what you’ve done or why. Please. A moment. With her. It’s all I ask.”

The last petal, like all the rest, danced away with the wind. She regarded the naked stalk for a while, then ate it, chewing it slowly away.

She turned her eyes on him.

“It’s a lie they tell about counterfeiting eyes,” said Feinsake. “It’s really the voice that always foils the forge. Eyes are easy: painted mirrors, a trick of light. That’s all. The soul is in the voice.”

He stared at her, voiceless.

“You will wake up in a moment,” she said. “You won’t like it one bit. So I thought to offer you a slice of paradise before the Tartarus. Cruelty is not my forte, you see.”

Heart sprang up, reached for her and–

–hit his head painfully against the low roof.

“Told you, didn’t I?”

His eyes snapped open. Few grizzly bears, perhaps only the most crazed ones, could have faced his gaze unblinking. Feinsake drank it like it was fine wine.

“Well?” she asked when he simply kept on staring at her. “Aren’t you going to curse me? Shout? Swear to kill me?”

His jaws grinded together. The chain holding his hind leg tingled quietly, joining in with the sound of his blood rushing under his skin.

“It does save some precious time, I have to admit. It’s such a cliché, too, but surely one threat is in order? One silly word?”

He stared at her until his eyes started to water. And then he spat.

“Now that,” she began, wiping the saliva off her muzzle, “Was completely uncalled for. Eww.”

She’s in a talkative mood, said the part of Heart’s brain that wasn’t boiling with rage. And she’s trying way too hard to taunt me to not make it obvious that it’s not just for sport. She wants something from me: something I might give her by accident. Until I know exactly what that is, all she’ll get from me is all the fluids my body can muster.

Feinsake, after tenuous cleaning and a few steps backwards, smiled at Heart again. “Perhaps we started off on the wrong hoof. That seems to be the theme of our encounters.” She waited for an answer, but when none came she continued, “Now let’s see – what is the single most important question you should be asking. Where are you? Of course not, that’s a novice mistake. A professional such as you contends himself with the knowledge that we are somewhere underground. The same goes for ‘when’ and ‘how’ – they matter none.”

The torchlight wasn’t very generous with what passed for illumination, but it was enough to tell Heart she wasn’t lying. The walls were solid rock, along with the floor. In some other city that might have been a key clue, but Canterlot was built on mountainside: the caves ran both under and above city, endless as the darkness that inhabited them. For all he knew, they might be under his own house.

“I suppose ‘why’ stands without contestants,” she said. “It often does, I find. Go on, then. Pick your cue like the good pony you are.”

“Why?” asked Heart after eons of silence.

“For life,” answered Feinsake before he had finished the syllable. Her smile had vanished, melted in the flickering light. “For the world. For the future. For all those things parents sacrifice each and every day of their lives for.”

Heart smiled like a shark. “Changing diapers is a must on that list.”

She stepped forward, her face as serious as it would get. “Joke all you want. At the end of this, you will see that I was right. I will save this city, this world, even if it means dragging it screaming out of the pit it has dug itself into.”

Insane or not, she believes every word of that, pondered Heart, studying her face. The only question is, what does she think I have to do with any of it?

Gradually, the smile returned to her face as if it had never left. “I don’t wish to strain you any longer for now. There is still much to do, for you and me both.”

Heart watched her leave through the door at the end of the room. He wondered whether there was any possible way he could hate her more than he already did. It seemed unlikely. Centuries might pass without ponies like Feinsake making an appearance, with any luck.

He gave his chain a few obligatory yanks, but it was no good – the thing was cast iron and bolted to the wall. His leg would come off before it would. To his disgust, he found a similar treatment had been offered for his horn. The onyx ring around it had been glued in place, it seemed, and all he achieved in trying to remove it was make his recovering headwound ache again.

He was trapped. Absolutely trapped.

And soon, there would be a war. It might have started already – ended even. There was no way to tell how much time had passed since he had passed out. An hour? A day? A week?

No, not than long. The wound at the back of his head would have healed better. Not to mention he would have probably died of dehydration.

What am I thinking? he suddenly thought. She might have gone nuts, but even crazy people can make sense. The how, when and where don’t matter. The why does. So why am I here? What’s she planning? Saving the world? But she knows the world doesn't need to be saved, that the griffons aren’t a real threat. Not if we start treating them like people, like we used to.

She wants to save the world… from what?

***

Time, thought Feinsake.There’s never enough. I need… more… time…

More time!
She kept on walking back and forth, her hoofsteps echoing on the moldy, wet walls. The open sewer that ran across the room stenched like a barrelful of dead rats, yet she’d have gladly drank it empty if it would buy her ten more minutes.

For all she knew, it was too late already. Everything had happened according to the Plan, more or less, but faster than she had expected. Way too fast. Ever since Hilt had died, the Plan had gained a life of its own. That only made sense, in retrospect. The Plan was New Life, after all.

An agonized groan from a corner drew her out of her thoughts. For ten seconds she waited for more noises. None came, so she relaxed again. Things would only get more awkward if Ember Trail decided to come around now. Finding himself tied and dehorned would please him even less than it did Heart, if she was any judge.

It hadn’t been easy, dragging two unconscious, full grown stallions into the underground hideout. Without the convenient guard Heart had left to his senses, the task might have been impossible. But the convenience was dwarfed by the risk that came with it. Although she had made him swear a solemn oath to keep quiet about the matter, everypony knew that nopony gossipped like soldiers.

I should’ve silenced him by other means, she thought darkly. The idea festered for a moment, and then she burned it from her mind. It was not a thought fitting for a Princess.

She touched her belly. It was still. So very, very still.

The idea of using telepathy to contact Stick forced itself into her consideration, for the umpeenth time. That would get him moving. That might also fry his frontal lobe, not to mentions hers. Mind magic was perhaps the most tricky arcane field there was: even her favourite, hypnosis, had its downsides, and they were steeper than she wanted to recall. Look too deep into another’s soul and you’d forget which parts belonged to you, and which to the other. She had already caught herself a couple of times muttering random, incoherent lines of rhymes.

On the other hoof, she needed to do something…

A tiny cough carried over the sound of the streaming sewer. Feinsake looked around, and flinched as she saw Lily staring at her, right behind her back.

“Oh, you woke up,” she said, pulling herself together. “Uh. Would you like another ice cream, dear?”

“You hurt Violet,” said the filly. “Why?”

Feinsake tried to smile, but found it extremely difficult in the face of the relentless, bright-eyed stare. “Uh. Oh, you mean that silly fight we had? Well, yes, things got a bit out of hoof there. No need to worry about her, though: we settled things over with her after you had passed out. Don’t you remember?”

The filly looked doubtful. “I passed out?”

“Yes! Oh, what a cute thing you were! Slept so peacefully we just could not bear to wake you up.”

Lily appeared to consider this, then looked around the room. Feinsake tacitly thanked the stars that Ember Trail’s fur practically made him invisible in the gloom.

“It stinks here,” said Lily. The lilac eyes turned to Feinsake again. “Can I see daddy now?”

“Yes,” said Feinsake after a long, heavy silence. “Yes. I believe that can arranged.”

A careful smile lit the filly’s face: the very embodiment of innocence. The nausea it inspired in Feinsake was beyond compare.

“Follow me,” she said, her mouth dry. She walked towards the door behind which Heart lay chained.

Well, she had already crossed lines she had once thought were unbreachable. Originally, this should have been Stick’s job, but he wasn’t around now. Anyway, if it needed to be done, perhaps it was only appropriate that she’d do it herself.

Here we go, Deck Heart. Now we shall see how afraid to love your daughter you really are.

Tar, star, char, jar…

***

“Stick! Yo! Stick! Where are you?!”

“Save your breath,” said Flitter. “Clearly he’s not around.”

Gambit landed in the alley where the twins were waiting. “Weird,” he said, rubbing his temple. “This is where I left him. I’m sure I did. Why’d he leave without us?”

“Perhaps he didn’t think we’d be coming back?” suggested the mare. “We may have given the impression, after all.”

“I didn’t think he’d be that sensitive,” said Gambit. “Didn’t seem like the type to lose faith like that.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now,” said Flitter. “What do we do next? Did he leave any instructions in case you got separated? Some place to meet or something?”

Gambit gave this a thought. “Well… he did. Kinda. There was this place he called the hideout where all the Element Bearers should gather. But he was clear that I shouldn’t wander there on my own. Not unless it was an emergency.”

“Why?”

Gambit shrugged. “Didn’t say. It’s a super secret location, I guess. He told me where it is, though – an old warehouse near the southeast corner of the Parliament.”

“You think this counts as an emergency?”

They all looked at the Cliffs that loomed in the distance. The highest peaks still caught the last rays of sunlight, but otherwise deep shadows covered the massive mountainside. It was hard to avoid the impression that the whole mountain was slowly falling over the city.

“Yeah,” said Gambit. “I think this does.”

***

The door to his cell opened, and Heart was up in an instant, ready for anything. He followed intently as Feinsake closed the door behind her, glanced at him, drew a deep breath and then said, “I need you to get angry.”

Heart had been ready for anything: literally anything. But this was something else entirely.

“What?” he managed.

“I mean really angry,” she said, walking closer. “Angry enough to kill. Angry enough to rip a pony apart with your bare hooves. I need you to be furious.”

He stared at her “What?”

“Frankly, any negative emotion might do: sorrow, fear, panic, you name it. But it must be intense. Authentic. In the circumstances, rage is quite a fitting choice, wouldn’t you say?”

The third “what” tempted Heart’s tongue, but he made himself swallow it. Whatever mental state she was currently occupying, it did not support well-founded explanations. She was shaking like a leaf, although she tried to hide it by moving about constantly. Sweat pearled on her forehead. Suddenly, their gazes met, and she seemed to get an idea of her own appearance from the look on his face.

“Well?” she snapped. “I kidnapped you, tortured you with images of your dead wife, mocked you! Without any reason whatsoever! Drives you nuts, doesn’t it? Lit, hit, wit,” she added quietly under her breath.

The chain clattered as Heart took a step back.

“Oh, that won’t do at all!” she exclaimed. “We demand spirit! Genuity! We demand,” she continued, slamming the door open with her horn, “Passion.”

Every cell in Heart’s body froze at the sight of Lily standing at the doorway. Every neuron on his brain aligned to process that one thought, one perception that his eyes were feeding for him, one second after another.

“Dad?” the filly asked, looking at him. “What happened to you?”

“Lily,” he gasped. “Run.”

“Run!” he shouted, but too late. Feinsake grabbed her by the mane, dragged her inside and shut the door. Heart jerked forward, but stumbled on the chain and fell over. He was up immediately, wrenching his shackle frantically. Stone and steel creaked and complained, but held him tightly in place nonetheless.

“That’s more like it!” cackled Feinsake while Lily struggled in her grip. “I knew you had some fight in you still! It’s the blood that compels you, no doubt. No matter the odds, no matter the cost, a descendant of Twilight would not–”

She shrieked when Lily sank her teeth into her leg. She tore free and rushed for her father, who reached for her with a front leg; the two were inches from each other, nearing still; it was that close…

A pinkish halo appeared around Heart’s chain and yanked it back violently. He hit the wall back first, hitting his head in the process. The old wound opened, and fresh blood surged out, dripping over his forehead and eyes. Though flickering red mist, he saw Feinsake drag the crying Lily farther away.

“The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, I see,” she said.

“Let me go!” cried Lily, fighting against the magic gripping her limbs. “Lemme go, lemme go! Dad, help me, help, dad!”

“Feinsake,” said Heart weakly, trying his best to keep conscious. “Feinsake. Please. What do you want? What do yo want? I will get it to you, no matter what it is, I will get it to you… Just stop… Please… For Tartarus’ sake, stop hurting my daughter!”

She looked him in the eyes. “I can’t. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry, but I can’t. I’m sorry.”

The glow of her horn intensified at the same moment Heart felt a familiar, tingling sensation on his front leg. Her magic enveloped the limb, from there spread to his shoulder, neck and body. His skin prickled like rows of tiny needles had ran over him, not hard enough to hurt but still clearly there. And suddenly, he saw himself rise from the ground.

“Lily,” said Feinsake over the crying of the filly. “Listen to me. Listen to me. You have to save your father. Can’t you see he can’t help you? It’s you who must help him. And you can only do it with magic.”

What’s she thinking? thought Heart in dismay. Magic? But she doesn’t even have a cutie mark! This is insane! He tried to make a sound, but mere muscles were no match for arcane powers. He attempted to use his own horn, but the onyx ring offered an even more immobile barrier. The mineral was to magic what flames were to paper.

“Lily!” snapped Feinsake suddenly, shaking her roughly. “Listen! Just channel your thoughts into your horn, cast a spell, any spell, and your father survives. You can do it! You must!”

Lily looked at her with wide, watering eyes. “Why… Why you’re doing this? Why you hurt people? Why?”

“Don’t think that now! Focus on your father! And on your horn! Focus!”

“But, but… I dunno any magic yet…”

Feinsake sighed. “And that's why the gods invented learning, didn’t they…?”

Heart crashed against the wall like a ragdoll. Again. And again. And again.

Lily watched. And watched. And watched. And watched.

“You can because you must,” said Feinsake, tears trailing down her cheeks. “You can… because… you must…”

She let go off Heart. He slumped on the ground, unmoving.

“Dad!” wailed Lily, rushing for him. Feinsake made no attempt to stop her. The indistinct rhymes falling from her lips consumed her full attention.

Lily threw herself around Heart’s neck. Blood was flowing from his headwound, sticky and hot. She started wiping it away, but his hoof stopped him. The weakness of his touch turned her crying to overflowing.

“It’s okay,” whispered Heart. “It’s always worse than it looks, remember? Don’t look. Just don’t look.”

She pushed her face into his mane. “I tried, dad. I tried to do magic, but… but… I…”

“Don’t worry about it… And don’t look… Never, ever look…”

He flinched. Though the blood tribbing over his eyebrows, he saw Feinsake gradually pull herself together. Funny, he thought. It’s as if she hates this even more than I do.

Then he saw her horn light up again.

“No,” he gasped. “Please, Feinsake. Not anymore. Please. You can’t. You can’t.”

“I can,” she said. “Because I must. Forgive me. My gods, forgive me…” Eyes wide shut, she started to focus…

“Hello?”

She opened her eyes. The voice had been weak, barely a shadow of an echo, but she had heard it nonetheless. They all had.

“Hello? Stick? Anypony?”

“Help!” shouted Lily before Heart could stop her. “Help us! He–”

After Feinsake had silenced her, there came a deep silence. And then, barely at the edge of hearing, faraway steps, descending from the darkness.

“Can you keep her quiet?” asked Feinsake.

Heart looked at her, then at her daughter struggling against the halo squeezing shut her muzzle, and nodded stiffly. Feinsake let her horn grow dim, and Lily pressed her face against his mane, shaking uncontrollably. Feinsake gave them one more glimpse, said something under her breath and locked the door as she left the room.

***

The three pegasi stood in the middle of a large, abandoned warehouse. At first they had thought there had been a mistake: the place looked like a good shaking would bring down the walls that hadn’t fallen already. Most of the roof was where the floor used to be. Such a fate as had faced the warehouse was common among the public buildings of Canterlot. Harsh winters, combined with general lack of care and resources, would get the better of any building in the span of a hundred years. But it was the only building near the Parliament that fit the description Gambit had given, which, combined with his insistence that he was right, had led them to enter.

Then they had found the stairs. If you could call them that.

Flitter kicked a loose rock into the black depths. It hit the first wooden step, went through and disappeared. After several seconds a faint echo signaled that it had hit water.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” he said. “Call that a cliché, but I got no better word for it. A bad feeling.”

Gambit glanced at him. “What, you expected a sign reading ‘super secret headquarters’ out front? This is the perfect hideout: nopony sane would wander in here on their own.”

“My point exactly.”

“Shouldn’t there be guards?” asked the mare. “And where are the rest of the Element Bearers?”

“Must all be inside,” said Gambit. He drew a deep breath and shouted, “Hello?!”

Only a distant echo answered him. After a moment he tried again, with the same results.

“Must be a pretty big place,” he said under his breath, avoiding Flitter’s gaze.

The twins exchanged a look, then another. After the third one, Flitter sighed.

“Yeah, probably,” he said. “Anyway, we can’t go in there blind. Come on, let’s make a few torches or something.”

Gambit beamed and zapped away, immediately starting to search through the odd crates and barrels that littered the place. She was about to follow him, but Flitter pulled her closer.

“I wasn’t kidding about the feeling. Let’s not lose sight of each other, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, smiling faintly. “Uhm. I think we share that feeling.”

“Do you trust me?”

She frowned. “What kind of a question is that?”

He made sure Gambit was far enough, then leaned a bit closer to her.

“This whole business stinks like a week-old litter box. For one, nopony should know Fluttershy was our grand-grand-mother. Second, if this Stick-fellow is the secret agent he says he is, I’m a parrot. Third, everything that’s happened to us during the last five hours might have been ripped from a half-bit pulp fiction novel.”

Her frown deepened. “You think I haven’t noticed? I know this whole thing is absurd, but… but there is also something else to it. Something compelling. And I know you’ve felt that too – you wouldn’t have come this far otherwise.”

Flitter made a face like she had scoffed at him. “Maybe I have felt that. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

“What are you guys waiting for?” shouted Gambit from the other end of the hall. “Come on! We don’t wanna be the last Bearers to show up to the party!”

“It’s something about him, isn’t it?” she said, looking at the direction where various objects deemed unfit for torch making were being hurled in the air. “He is so in it, so sincere, so…”

“Callow?” suggested Flitter.

“Candid,” she corrected. “I couldn’t say he was deceiving us, not in my dreams. And it’s true that not all’s right with the city. If nothing else, we should find out what that is, exactly. This might be the way to it.”

“Or not,” he said, and peered into the bottomless depths under their hooves.

They ended up finding two lanterns that had somehow survived history mostly intact. After kindling the candles within, they started their descent into the underground cavities. The spiralling stairs, off which all of them steered clear, went on for five or six stories. At the bottom they found deep puddles of water, and rails.

“I didn’t know the city had mining activity,” said Flitter.

“It used to, back when it was founded,” said Gambit. “The mountain is rich with all kinds of crystals. The tunnels criss cross under the city, hundreds and hundreds of miles. Most got abandoned when the city became the capital – fancy hats didn’t much like to live in a mining town. Too much noise and smoke.” He saw their expressions and added, “I live in an abandoned school. The knowledge just seeps from the walls.”

He landed on the ground, water splashing under his hooves. “Looks like the tunnel continues straight ahead. It must end somewhere.”

“Maybe we should think this through one more time,” said Flitter. He kept on stealing glances at the faint light above. “It’ll get dark soon. And nothing suggests anypony has visited this places for years.”

“It’s always dark here,” said Gambit, rolling his eyes. “And just because there’s nopony around here doesn't mean the whole mine’s empty. This looks like a backdoor exit to me – the real headquarters is probably ahead.”

Flitter remained in the air, fidgeting. The mare looked at him worriedly, and the two exchanged a few words in private. A few mental clicks later and a figurative light bulb flickered above Gambit’s head.

“You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?”

“Not the dark,” muttered Flitter, looking away. “Cramped spaces.”

Gambit’s lips drew into a smirk, but it melted when he noticed her expression. “Yeah, well, I’m not fond of those myself either,” he said. “Doesn’t come easy to pegasi nature, I guess. But we still got to go on. The others must be waiting for us.”

“Just give me a moment, will you?”

Gambit sneered, but left it at that. He took a few steps into the tunnel, which was wide enough to fit three ponies walking side by side, yet low enough to foreclose all thoughts of safe flying. They’d have to continue on foot, which meant an increased risk of falling into a pit or some other hollow. He leaned closer to the ground, studying it in the light of the lantern.

It was then that he noticed the blood on the rails.

“Yo,” he said. “You might want to check this out.”

“Is it from a pony?” she asked after they had inspected the stain.

“Can’t say. Could be some animal got eaten here.”

“There’s more over there,” said Flitter, showing the light. “Small drops. Something has bled all over the tunnel. And not that long ago.” He gave his sister a meaningful look. “I don’t like this one bit.”

“Tell us something we don’t know for a change, will ya?” said Gambit. “Maybe some agent got into a fight with a griffon and came here to get help. We’re in a war. People tend to get hurt in those.”

Flitter’s eyes narrowed in the sparse light. “You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

“Well somepony needs to call the shots!”

“You honestly think that’s you?”

“Guys,” said the mare calmly. “Shut the buck up. Please.”

The two stallions gave her a deadpan look, the sight of which tickled pleasantly within her. “Flitter is right about that. There’s something fishy going on around this place, and not just the whole ‘secret government operation’ thing. Gambit’s right that somepony should do something about it. And I’m right, again, about bickering being the first thing we could be doing right now.”

“So what do you suggest we do?” asked Flitter. “Backwards or forwards?”

“How about we split up,” said Gambit. “You stay put while I scout ahead.”

“Sticking together is safer,” she said. “More efficient, too. If you are right and the world needs its Element Bearers again, it probably needs them sooner rather than later.”

Gambit gave her a wary look. “What do you mean, ‘if I’m right’?”

She sighed. “Look, I’m not saying I don’t trust you. But you got to admit that, under the circumstances, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to doubt… all this.”

Gambit stared at her quietly, then turned his eyes away. “Yeah, whatever. We’ve got this far, right, so might as well see the bottom of it.”

With that, he headed deeper into the tunnel.

Watching his light gradually disappear further, she could feel Flitter’s gaze on her neck. She turned to him, and the question they shared fused into an answer in a single nod.

Only the sound of dripping water combined with the endless echoes of their own hooves accompanied them for several minutes. The tunnel went straight ahead, seemingly without an end. Few others had once joined it, as their collapsed remains proved. They passed them with not so much as a second glance, although she noted how nervously Flitter’s wings ruffled afterwards.

Then, after the seemingly endless darkness, there came a light. Without a word, Flitter and Gambit tuned down the lanterns until they could barely guide their way. The glow ahead grew stronger with every step, along with the sound of flowing water. When they saw the first candles, they snuffed their own. At some point the air had turned heavier and acquired a distinct smell of a gutter.

They entered a larger space: a room with brick walls and a stone floor. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of candles filled every level surface that could support them. Near the most abundant clusters, the heat became overwhelming. Despite the abundance of quivering fires, impregnable darkness lingered in the far corners, stalking the three pegasi treading deeper in.

Nopony spoke, but the looks they saw on each other’s faces were telltale enough. Something was not right. The wrongness drifted in the humid, stenching air: it was a veil hanging above them, descending with every flicker of the numberless shadows.

At the end of the long room, at the edge of the thick glow, there was a table. A workbench really, with an open gutter running under it, reeking of rotten flesh. Deep crimson stains were everywhere, their nature beyond all doubt. The three ponies stared at the sight, then at each other, faces pale as milk. As one, they turned around to leave.

In one swoop of wind that had nothing to do with nature, all the countless candles died before their eyes. The veil dropped, and abyss was all there was.

“It’s better you don’t have to see it,” said the voice of a mare. “It’s better nopony has to see it. I’m sorry. But I must. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Worry, gory, hoary, glory…”

Comments

[Iron Comet]

Ouch, and now everyone who us still alive is together. And those not ate in jars.

[Snapplejack]

I had a really great responds to this chapter but I could not post it when FIMFiction was down and so forgot a lot of what I wanted to say last night but this is the gist of what I can remember and still and articulate without them bleeding in to each other.

I really liked the way you introduced the generosity heir , I like how you are winding down for a last chapter with all the cast coming together, I don't usually like when stories have an arbitrary chapter number unless they are related the an event on the story itself but I think you did it quite nicely.

I also usually do not like feeling the world winding down with the story but I do not mind it to much here as I feel this is the logical conclusion to the events and the character but I don't think Flitter and other kindness horse had enough time to shine and let the audience get to know them. And yes, now I am forgetting their names to, I think this is a symptom the aforementioned problem that is doing real harm to the story in my eyes.

And of course the big question of "where is Stick?". I have never spelled sick with a capital before.XD

[stanku]

5874248 Well thanks! I'm not quite sure what you mean with "winding down of the world," but I'll try and fixt it in the last chapter.

[Snapplejack]

5874274 I mean the claustrophobic feeling of the story and the world coming to their inevitable end unless it gets sequels/prequels/spinoffs/ect the end of continuity in text for the whole world.

[Slip Kid]

Ah, so Feinsake's completely batshit insane, I would've at the least thought that her plan had some grounding in reality, but alas 'tis all for nought.

[stanku]

5885548 Pratchett knew it best: don't mess with mind magic, lest it mess with you.

[Celefin]

Don't know why it's taken me so long to continue reading this story but: ARGH!
The last two chapters are a showcase piece of how to build tension and suspense; very, very nice. Oh and that cliffhanger.
To my satisfaction I guessed Feinsake's goal correctly early in the story - but that doesn't detract from the enjoyment in any way. Bigotry, misinformation and ignorance plunging the city into the abyss, Feinsake being consumed by mind magic insanity, the good guys a mixture of gut-wrenchingly clueless or in the know and in full despair... and Stick with a shard of broken glass.
I really liked this story from the beginning, but now it's making its way into my favourites folder. Looking very much forward to the concluding part. Great job so far!

[stanku]

5936100 Much obliged!

The finale is indeed on its way, closing in by the paragraph. It might take a week or two for me to finish it. In truth ends should be written first - that's the best way of making sure all plot threads come to a closure.