A Glimmer of Hope

by Gordon Pasha

Shadows of the Past

“Oh, that the esteemed Dr. Fiddly Fie should meet his end like this. Freezing to death in a cave side by side with a psychotic criminal. Oh, dear me, dear me. Oh, cruel fate! Ye gods, you do love to bring a great pony low!”

“Be quiet,” Starlight snapped at the doctor. “You’ve only been out here for half a day.”

Dr. Fie, still sitting at the far end of the cave, huddled down even more than he previously had. “Has it been that long? No wonder I was beginning to feel light-headed. I think the frostbite is already taking its toll. I can’t feel my hooves, my tail, my tongue! Oh, my tongue! Without it, I can’t even talk anymore. I shall be rendered mute for life! However short that may be…. Oh, dear me, dear me!”

“Trust me, doctor,” Starlight said. “Your tongue is working just fine.”

“I suppose, madam, that a little sympathy is too much to ask for?” responded the doctor. “We don’t all have your freakish resistance to the cold, you know? What are you, a pony or a polar bear?”

Starlight dug a hoof into the snow on the cave’s threshold and muttered, “I swear, if I didn’t need him to hold over Hope….”

She spotted something in the distance. Something brown moving over the white snow. She leaned her head out of the cave and squinted her eyes. Dr. Fie watched her. He watched her become totally engrossed in what she was looking at.

Then he looked down and saw what appeared to be a tree-branch about equidistant between him and Starlight. It was a rather large branch, no doubt snapped off and thrown in here by a particularly violent gust of wind. And, more to Dr. Fie’s interest, the part which had been severed from the tree looked to be exceedingly sharp and jagged.

Starlight did not take her gaze off whatever was so fascinating in the valley below. Dr. Fie moved as quietly as he could toward her. As he passed it, the branch glowed purple and rose up until it was level with his head. The sharp end was directed toward Starlight. Dr. Fie made his way toward her, being very careful not to make a noise. Not a single noise. Now, he was right behind her. He made sure the branch was aimed for the back of her neck. He pulled it back, building up momentum. And then….

“Got everything you need, ma’am,” Stirring Words said as he appeared from next to the cave.

Dr. Fie let out a squeak of fright and grabbed his chest. The branch dropped to the ground.

“Stirring! Nice to see you finally found us!” Starlight responded.

“I’ve hiked this area a few times, but it still wasn’t easy,” Stirring said. “Add to that all the weight I had to carry.”

“You poor dear,” Starlight said as she levitated three sets of saddlebags off of Stirring’s back. “I hope I didn’t put you through too much trouble.”

“Anything for you, ma’am,” Stirring responded. “What’s with him?”

Starlight turned around to see Dr. Fie, still sitting there with his hooves on his chest. Then she saw the tree branch lying next to him.

“Just trying to get a bit of fresh air, madam,” Dr. Fie said. “This cave is unbearably muggy.”

“Mm-hmm,” Starlight said as she kicked the branch into the snow outside.

Dr. Fie was already focused on the new arrival. Or rather, the newly-arrived saddlebags. He began to dig through one.

“I do hope you’ve brought something in the way of nourishment, dear boy,” he said. “I haven’t had anything to eat in hours. A mere few minutes more, and I fear I would have perished from starvation! My corpse would have been food for the wolves. Food for the timberwolves, even!”

Dr. Fie stopped searching to look up anxiously at the other two. “You don’t suppose there are any timberwolves around this part of the woods, do you?”

“Yes, doctor,” Starlight deadpanned. “There are timberwolves all around. And they’re all famished.”

“Oh, dear me,” said the doctor as he resumed his search of the saddlebags. “I thought I heard their infernal howling earlier. We should hurry up and eat whatever this boy here packed so as not to attract their attention.”

“Don’t eat too much,” Stirring said as Dr. Fie pulled out a sandwich and began aggressively devouring it. “It supposed to last the three of you quite a while.”

Leaning over to Starlight, he whispered. “There aren’t any timberwolves around this area. At least not this time of year.”

“Don’t tell him that,” Starlight whispered back.

“Where is you-know-who, by the way?” Stirring asked.

“We sent her out to collect some wood for a fire,” Starlight said. “We didn’t know how long it would take you.”

“Is that wise?” Stirring asked. “From what you wrote, I thought she’d bolt at the soonest opportunity.”

“We have an understanding,” Starlight said. “Besides, she seems strangely attached to the good doctor here. She won’t leave us as long as I have him.”

“She always did like bad boys, from what I hear,” Stirring said. “Maybe he reminds her of Sombra or something.”

The wind picked up, making a whistling sound. Dr. Fie’s eyes darted about. “Timberwolves!” he said. Taking the last bit of bread from his sandwich, he levitated it out in front of him. “You can have it, you dear, friendly creatures! I was finished with it anyway. Honestly, I was.”

“Nope, not Sombra,” Starlight remarked.

“Ma’am, can I speak to you in private?” Stirring asked. “As long as you think… we can leave him….”

Dr. Fie began digging in the second saddlebag and found another sandwich. “This one must be for dear Hope,” he said. “Oh, but given the extremely high probability that she’s been devoured by timberwolves by now, I suppose I shall have to eat it. I must keep my strength up, after all, and it’s what she would want.”

“Help yourself, doctor,” Starlight said. To Stirring, she added, “He’ll be fine.”

They walked a few meters from the cave and stood out in the open snow.

“Ma’am, if you don’t mind my asking,” Stirring said, “what is your plan now?”

“I’ve been trying to figure that out,” Starlight responded. “I was expecting to be in that hospital for a few months more. At least until the Equestrian Intelligence Service finally gave up on looking for me in Seaddle and we started getting a real following with our little newspaper. How is that coming, by the way?”

“I can’t say with any sort of certainty, but I think we’ve got quite a few new readers. The papers I leave around town are disappearing at a much faster rate than normal. Several times, I’ve had to do second and third printings.”

Starlight nodded. “At least that’s some pleasant news. But I don’t know what our next step shall be.”

“Don’t come back to Seaddle,” Stirring said. “The news about what happened at the hospital is all over the city. The EIS has already started distributing ‘wanted’ posters with your picture on them. You’d be recognized immediately. Ponies everywhere are wondering just who you and Radiant Hope are to be of so much importance. Well, when they’re not talking about all the stories the doctor’s employees are telling about what a very bad boss he is to all of them.”

“Hmm, interesting. How close do you think anypony is to finding out Hope’s real story?”

“Rumor is that the government’s close to releasing it. I think they’re trying to counter the one we’ve been telling. So many more ponies are talking about it now that your faces are plastered all over town.”

Starlight smiled. “This could work to our advantage. We have a chance to spin this our way. If we could just explain the escape in a way favorable to us and if we can preempt the government, we’ll be the big winners here. I’ll leave the exact details to you. You’re so much better at coming up with these things than I am, Stirring.”

“What did happen, ma’am?”

Starlight shook her head. “I don’t know. Hope might, but she won’t say anything yet. All I know is that she and Dr. Fie had come down to chew me out about the story in the newspaper. Then the power went out and everypony else in that ward got loose and started to attack us. Hope teleported us out of there and we landed here.”

Stirring scratched his head. “That will be a tough one to spin, ma’am.”

“I’m sure you can do it, Stirring,” Starlight said. “I have absolute faith in you.”

Stirring’s eyes lit up. “Assassins!” he exclaimed. “We say that the Royal Sisters sent assassins to stop Hope from speaking out about how they stole her rightful title from her. You and the doctor, her loyal supporters, managed to get her out of there before they could and you’re now in hiding so as to avoid the sisters’ unholy wrath.”

Starlight considered it. “A bit melodramatic, but it will do. It should also win us a bigger audience. For how much ponies in Equestria seem to love the royalty, they love scandals about them more.”

“I’ll get on that, then,” Stirring said. “My boss fired me when I got your message today, but I’m sure I’ll be able to get my job back. Just means taking on more stories. I can do it. If not, I still have a key to the office.”

He looked suddenly downcast.

“What’s the matter?” Starlight asked.

“Well, ma’am, I was kind-of hoping, since you were out… that I could finally get rid of this blasted cutie mark for good.” Stirring pointed to the quill and papers on his rear.

Starlight patted his head with her hoof. “Not now, I’m afraid. We’ll all have to keep our cutie marks for the time being. But soon, Stirring, soon. I promise you, when all ponies throughout Equestria have been freed from their cutie marks, you’ll be rewarded for all the sacrifices you’re making for the cause.”

“Thank you, ma’am. But what do you have in mind for the doctor and Radiant Hope? What I mean is, what purpose do you see them fulfilling for the cause?”

“Well, the doctor… he’s useful for the moment. We’ll figure out how to dispose of him once he isn’t. But Radiant Hope…. Any great movement needs a leader.”

Stirring’s face filled with alarm. “But you’re our leader!”

Starlight’s eyes narrowed and her smile broadened. “It does me good to hear you say that. But the truth is, my words are not going to hold much weight with most ponies. I’ll soon be known by everypony as a personal enemy of the beloved Twilight Sparkle. But if they came from a princess…. Back in the village, I wanted to bring Twilight to our cause because, as a princess, she could do more to spread it than I could.”

“And we know how that turned out,” Stirring said sadly.

“Hope is better than Twilight, anyway. I still get my princess, but without all of that annoying moralizing. After the Siege, Radiant Hope can’t even get close to being so high-and-mighty. I’ll call all the shots, of course, but she can be the one in all the pictures. I bet she’s photogenic — if she even knows what a camera is.”

“But she’s not even a princess! She was just supposed to be one once and never made it.”

“Even better. Ponies love to root for somepony who has had everything stolen from them. We’ll get the glamor of a princess and the pathos of a pony who’s suffered injustice. What could be better for our cause? Besides, unlike Twilight, Hope is going to join us willingly.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

Starlight’s smile turned devious. “She’s like me. To get what I want from her, I just have to give her what she wants. A little quid pro quo, if you will.”

“But what does she want?” Stirring said. “Her precious Sombra’s gone forever. You can’t bring him back.” He began to look concerned. “You can’t do that, right?”

Starlight laughed. “It would be a nice bargaining chip. But no. Sombra’s deader than dead. I have proof."

"Proof?"

"Don’t ask. You don’t want to know. Trust me."

“Of course, I do!” Stirring was quick to say, as though it had been a question and not a statement. “But are you sure she’s not trying to bring him back. Maybe he’s not even dead. Maybe they’re working together and they have something planned, and all they need is an opportune moment—"

"No, Stirring, they're not," Starlight responded. "Hope's pain at losing Sombra is genuine. I can tell that much. But I wouldn't help her get that monster back even if I could. I want to save Equestria and her ponies, not destroy them.”

Stirring relaxed. “But then, what can you give her that she wants?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. I’m still working on her, but I have the feeling I’m about to make a break-through. Just trust me for now.”

“Always do, ma’am.”

“That’s a good boy. Any word on the other matter I wanted you to look into?”

“I’ve been digging and digging since I started working at the Stablegraph. I’ve sent inquiries throughout Equestria. But nopony has any information. Are you sure that the spell even exists?”

Starlight became indignant. “Of course, it exists! I’d bet my cutie mark on it!”

Stirring frowned. Starlight tried to recover herself. “Not that cutie marks have value worth betting on. It’s a saying, Stirring. But I do need that spell. And knowing the Princesses, they’re keeping it locked up in the Royal Library….”

“But I’m sure you remember how it turned out the last time we tried to break into there,” Stirring remarked. “I know how much we've lost and how much we've been set back. Maybe we don’t need the spell. We are making progress, slowly but surely.”

Starlight walked alongside Stirring and leaned in close, rubbing her body against his. “Maybe we don’t. But it never hurts to have a backup plan. Just keep trying to find things out. See if there’s any chance of finding out if it is at Canterlot Castle or if it’s somewhere else.”

Stirring looked down at his hooves. “Yes, ma’am.”

“You always do come through for me, don’t you?” Starlight began to look around her. “But Hope should have been back by now. Do you mind staying awhile and keeping an eye on that doctor while I go find her?”

“For you, ma’am, it would be my pleasure,” Stirring responded.

---

Radiant Hope lifted up a small branch and added it to the bundle floating next to her. It had taken her longer to collect than she had expected it to. Trees were sparse in this area of the woods and those that were around did not seem all that strong or stable. It may simply have been because their leaves had all disappeared for the winter, but Hope doubted that any of the trees would be that impressive even in full bloom.

There was a noise, the snapping of a branch or twig somewhere. Hope wanted to tell herself that it was just the wind, but she knew better.

She dropped the bundle and began to turn her head and body in every direction. She didn’t see anypony or anything until she looked directly across the glade.

There stood the old blue pony with the long white beard, the beard that was now being pulled in every direction by the wind.

“You,” Hope said.

The pony just stared at her, motionless. So motionless, in fact, that had Hope not known better, she would have assumed he was a statue. But she had had too much experience with statues….

She began to approach him slowly. “Why are you so obsessed with me?”

He continued to stare at her, saying nothing. Until she had walked half the distance between them, that is.

Then his shout of “Princess Hope!” shook just about every tree in the glade. Hope held her ears against her head and tried to avoid showing how much pain they were in.

A pettier pony may have questioned why he had to wait until she was near him to say something loud enough to hear from across the valley. But whatever else a thousand years with the Umbrum and then the Siege had made her, Hope hoped that they had not made her petty.

When she was sufficiently recovered, Hope said, “I’m not a princess. I never was.”

“You could have been,” was his reply, as quick and as cutting as the wind blowing around them.

“That was a long time ago.”

“Yes, a long time, a very long time. But time is short now.”

“What do you mean?”

“What does it matter what I mean? You think I am mad. Perhaps I mean nothing.”

Hope shook her head. “I don’t think you’re mad. If you were, my healing spell would have worked on you.”

“If you think that, then maybe you are the one who’s mad.”

He was apparently quite amused with his remark, for he burst out laughing immediately after it.

“I’m not mad,” Hope said. “Just broken.”

“Broken crystal is very dangerous. Broken crystal is sharp. A broken crystal can cause pain.”

Hope looked down at her hooves. Or, more accurately, at the snow which had by now covered them completely. “I know,” she said quietly.

“But broken crystal doesn’t carry around the husk of evil like a relic. Only a mad-pony does that.”

Husk of evil? Hope felt a chill, a cold that came from within her rather than without. She looked to the bundle of sticks, in the middle of which she had hidden Sombra’s horn. But he couldn’t know about that, could he?

The blue pony raised an eyebrow. “Get the point, Hope?”

For a moment, Hope thought she heard another voice, saying her name along with the lunatic. Sombra’s voice.

”Hope.”

Hope’s whole body shook. The bundle dropped to the ground beside her.

“Ah, nerves, nerves, nerves,” said the blue unicorn. “You are unwell. You are mad.”

“I’m not mad.” Hope could not prevent a hint of pique from finding its way into her voice.

“Only a mad-pony turns down the chance to be a princess.”

“That was my choice to make. I did it to help Sombra.”

More laughter. “Help Sombra? Help Sombra? Help Sombra take over the Crystal Empire? Help him destroy Equestria? Were you just trading your princess crown for an imperial one? That’s a thousand years of foresight! I too have foresight!”

“I thought you were crazy.”

“Crazy ponies see better than sane ponies. Only if you see the world upside down do you truly understand it.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Luck. Lady Luck. That lady gives her favors away freely. But not to ponies like us.”

Hope nodded. “That’s true. But how do you know so much about me? You seem to know... too much. Nopony knows this much about me. About us."

Hope glanced down at the bundle of sticks. The mad-pony followed her eyes. He grinned a chimp-like, rather frightening grin.

“Because I am Starswirl the Bearded!”

“No, you’re not.” Hope said as gently as she could, but her patience was being put to the test.

“Maybe I’m not. Maybe I am. Maybe I am just raving mad. How would you know, when you are not a princess?”

Why does he keep bringing that up? Hope thought.

Before she could respond, he spoke for her. “Or are you? Are you a princess or an empress? Or are you something else? Something more?”

“Ponies tell me I’m a monster,” Hope said. “Sombra was the only friend I ever had, but even the ponies who think they’re my friends call me that.”

“And are you?”

“When I went to live with the Umbrum, they told me that other ponies would not accept what I was trying to do by freeing them. They said I had to be prepared to do things that I might not like. They said I had to be prepared to do anything that was necessary. They said ponies might have to get hurt. I didn’t believe them at first. I knew I could never do any of those things. But I came to love Sombra’s people so much — I loved Sombra so much — that somewhere, somehow, I became a pony who could do those things. And I did do those things.”

The other pony began to open his mouth, but Hope spoke up before him. “If you’re here to remind me of how it turned out, you don’t need to. I know now what the Umbrum are, what they were planning. I know what I helped them do. I know what Sombra did under their influence. And I know what I did all on my own. And I know it was all for nothing, because I lost him again.”

“That’s not why I’m here,” he said.

Hope did not hear him. Or rather, she did not register at this moment what he had said. She continued speaking, “Whatever kind of pony you think I'm supposed to be, I’m not. I’m just not that type of pony."

"You were once, when you were young. Before a thousand years had passed."

"The girl I was... she’s gone now. I look back and I don’t even know who that girl was. She died the day Sombra embraced his darkness. Maybe I am a monster, because that girl hasn’t been here in centuries.”

Whatever Hope had expected from this declaration, she did not expect the laughter that resulted. A petty pony may have been tempted to say “Excuse me?” but Hope was still holding on to not being petty. She had nothing else left to hold onto.

“You still think it’s all about you, don’t you?” he said.

“Isn’t that why…. No, it doesn’t matter. I’m not a princess. Princess Celestia has found the ponies who actually deserved that role. Twilight Sparkle and Cadance make better princesses than I ever could.”

The mad-pony began to shake his head wildly, so that his beard went flying every which way in the wind. Then he stopped abruptly and said, “You could have been greater. You could have been the greatest princess of all. If you had only wanted to be….”

“What do you mean?” Hope said quietly.

She wanted to say more, felt the need to say more, but then she saw the dark mass arising from the trees behind the mad-pony.

“Get down!” she said as she pushed him to the snow. The dark mass swooped right over the top of them. Both of them looked up to see the mass forming into one of the Umbrum, a sickly light purple in color. It was the same Umbrum from the hospital.

“Empress Hope, what is taking you so long?” it said in a mocking tone. “You saw that we were going south. Why haven’t you come after us? You always followed wherever we led before.”

Hope tried to maintain her calm. “And which one are you?”

“You don’t recognize me?” the Umbrum mocked. “Oh, Empress, I am hurt!”

“It’s been a while and your faces don’t look exactly how I remember them.”

“Invidia!” the lunatic called out.

“How do you know that?” Hope asked.

“I am Starswirl,” he said. “And I am also mad.”

“He’s right,” the Umbrum said. It made a bowing gesture, but in a mocking fashion. “I am Invidia, my lady, your ever-humble servant.”

“Invidia,” Hope nodded, recalling this particular individual. “We used to go on picnics together. Down to that lake of yellow sludge.”

Invidia reared back. “How I hated those picnics! A thousand years of listening to you prate on about whatever came into your head. Not that there was ever much up there. Which made it all the more tedious.”

“I enjoyed those picnics….” Hope said in barely more than a whisper. She knew that she should not be so hurt by this still, but she was.

“You would….” said the shadow being dismissively.

“But what are you trying to do?” Hope said, recovering herself. “If you want to hurt me, you can do it here just as easily as anywhere.”

“Oh, we do want to hurt you, Hope,” Invidia said. “We want that more than anything. But this isn’t just about you.”

“Then what do you want?”

Invidia did not answer. He just stared at her as though he was pitying an idiot. Just then, a second Umbrum appeared, a smaller one of blue-green color.

“Luxuria wants to rest, but I think we should move,” he said. “We should move before we must confront the Empress.”

Invidia snarled. “Pay attention, you foal! Who do you think I’m talking to?”

The smaller Umbrum turned and saw Hope. A look of shock seemed to fill his eyes. Or at least, that’s the conclusion Hope drew from those dead-looking orbs. It could have been anything, though, if she was being honest to herself.

But then, self-honesty had never been her strong suit.

“Misericordia,” Hope said. “I remember you from the picnics too.”

Misericordia bowed low, his large and ill-formed head nearly touching the ground. “Hail the Empress.”

Invidia smacked him with his elbow.

“Don’t do that!” Hope said.

“Sympathy for the devil?” Invidia responded. “Same old foolish Radiant Hope.”

“Is that how you talk to your Empress?” Hope asked.

“She has a point,” Misericordia whispered to Invidia.

“Shut up!” Invidia responded. “Tell Luxuria to get ready to move. And don’t worry about the Empress. I am your true leader here. Don’t you forget it.”

The lunatic laughed. "You, a leader? Then why do you have the mentality of a slave? No, you look for another leader, still."

The shadow looked from Hope to the other pony. Or, at least that is what Hope thought he did. In their true forms, it was near impossible to tell where the beady white eyes of the Umbrum were actually directed at any given moment.

“Oh, hello,” it said to the mad-pony in the same mocking tone. “Nice to see that our Empress has a friend to bring along. I feel like we already know each other.”

The mad-pony looked up at Invidia, seemingly unfazed. “Coward, coward! Unable to come out of the shadows! The shadow remains in the shadows! The dragon shall seize the eagle in its claws and tear it up. Then a great dome shall surround the world and everything will end.”

“Daft fool,” Invidia said before turning his attentions back to Hope. “We do need you again, my Empress. This time, you won’t get to fail us.”

“What do you need me for?”

Invidia let out one of the characteristically-hideous laughs of that species and said, “Oh, not yet, Empress, not yet. Telling you now would just ruin the fun. But since you don’t want to follow our little hints, I’ll make things simple for you. Come to Las Pegasus.”

“And why would I do that?” Hope asked, incredulous.

Invidia answered, “Because we can find you and hurt you if you don’t.”

Hope shook her head. “I could run away. I could hide from you. There’s all of Equestria to hide in.”

“We’d find you, just like we found you now.”

“How would you do that?”

Invidia seemed to realize that Hope was just fishing for information. He shook his hoof at her. “No, no, don’t be clever. It doesn’t suit you. But let’s just say you have a presence about you.”

Hope was unnerved but did her best not to show it. She had a feeling it wasn’t working. “And if I don’t care about my own safety? Because I don’t, anymore.”

“Then you’ll care about your friends.”

“I don’t have friends. Not anymore.”

Invidia let out a harrowing Umbric cackle. “You became a good liar over a thousand years, it’s true. But you can’t lie to us, little Hope.”

“Don’t act like you know me.”

“But we do. And we know that, for whatever reason, you do not accept what you truly are. You don’t accept that you’re not like us.”

“I’m not like you,” Hope said.

“She isn’t,” Misericordia added. He received another jab from Invidia’s elbow.

But the purple shadow kept his eyes entirely on Hope. “You are. You are just like us. It would go so much easier for you if you just accepted it. But you won’t. You’ll still want to save ponies. You’ll want to save all the ponies we’ll destroy if you don’t. So many, many ponies. One thousand, three hundred, and six maybe?”

It was like a knife in Hope’s heart.

“Besides, you’ll come after us, if for no other reason than to try and make right the mess you made.”

Invidia spoke slowly and let that last part hang in the air. Hope took it in in silence. She had nothing more she could say. But the mad-pony, on the other hand, did find words for the situation.

“Yes, two and one do not always equal three,” he remarked. “But two and two and one can equal one.”

So, they were not good words. But they were words. Which is more than Hope had managed.

“Hope, you have to live awhile longer,” Invidia said, “but we don’t need him. He can die now.”

Invidia signaled for Misericordia to stay back and watch Hope. Then he circled around toward the mad-pony and reared up. But before he could do anything, a blast of turquoise light came from the other side of the glade. Hope looked past Invidia to see Starlight Glimmer.

Invidia also turned his attentions to the new arrival. “Another friend? My, my, with all the problems Hope said she had relating to her own kind, we never thought she’d become so popular. But she’s ours. Do not interfere if you want to live.”

“I need her more than you do,” Starlight answered. “We have a bargain, and nopony is going to cheat me out of it.”

“Starlight, don’t antagonize him!” Hope said. “One unicorn can’t defeat any of the Umbrum!”

“She’s right, you know,” Invidia said. “And I don’t need you alive, either.”

But Starlight kept blasting away, even as Invida was approaching her. While her magic was not showing a great deal of effect, it did seem to cause him to move a little more slowly. This being a small glade, it made little difference.

“Is your horn broken or something, Hope?” Starlight shouted. “Help me!”

“And are you just going to stand there, you idiot?” Invidia snapped at his fellow. “Do something useful!”

“I thought you wanted me to watch the Empress,” Misericordia said.

“I want you to keep her from interfering,” Invidia answered. “Do whatever it takes. Just don’t kill her.”

“Okay,” Misericordia said. Then he looked to Hope. “You’re not going to interfere, are you?

“Is it interfering if I’m your Empress,” Hope said. “It seems like I kinda have a right to get involved.”

Misericordia ran his gnarled hoof against his distended chin. “Huh. That’s a good point. I wonder....”

While Misericordia was busy pondering this, Hope took the opportunity to blast Invidia along with Starlight. The two beams of magic together had a little more effect, and the shadow was beginning to falter.

Seeing this, Misericordia shrugged. “Well, I tried.”

“No, you didn’t, you idiot!” Invidia shouted back. He began pushing forward harder, using all of his might to move closer to Starlight. “And Empress, just for that, I’m going to take my time tearing apart your new friend,” he said.

“No, leave her alone!” Hope responded. “What happened was my fault, not hers, remember? I’m the one you hate!”

“Oh, dear Hope, as much a blockhead as always. It’s because we hate you that I’m going to kill her.”

Misericordia shook his head. "Hate? I don't...."

“Shut up!” Invidia hollered.

Misericordia seemed a little shaken up. Even as hard as the movements of his eyes were to make out, Hope thought she saw him roll them. “Rude....” he said to himself.

Invidia was now just a foot or so distant from Starlight. He was about to swipe down at her when another beam joined the two already striking him. A green beam. Hope looked beside her to see that the mad-pony was also firing at Invidia. And this was having an effect.

Invidia suddenly pulled away from Starlight and flew high into the air. Surveying his opponents, he let out a deep growl and said, “You’re lucky that we’re still weak. I can’t afford to drain my energies playing with you. But when we meet again, it will be different. Hope, you will know despair.”

“I already do,” Hope responded.

“Come on, Misericordia,” Invidia said as he sped away to the south.

Misericordia looked once more at Hope. She looked up at him, unsure why he was staring at her so intently.

“Thank you for standing up for me,” he said.

“Any... any time....” Hope said. That probably wasn’t the right response. But she had been caught by surprise and didn’t know what the right response could be.

Misericordia bowed low and then followed after his leader.

As Hope regained herself, she turned to the mad-pony. “Thank you for helping us. Why did you do it?”

“Lost shadow, lost pony, lost shadow,” said the mad-pony, as though that was somehow supposed to explain things.

He then focused a sharp, penetrating stare on Hope. "He’s not lost, you know," he said. “He’s still with you. Always.”

Hope was confused. “He? Who? What do you mean?”

She never got an answer. Before she had even finished asking her questions, the lunatic ran off toward the direction the Umbrum had disappeared in.

Hope tried to stop him. “Wait! Don’t follow them! They’re extremely….” But the mad-pony was gone. “…dangerous….”

“So, what in Tartarus was that?” Starlight said as she came up beside Hope.

Hope looked to the sky and then to Starlight. “You just met the Umbrum.”

Hope knew that it took much to startle Starlight, but this evidently did. Starlight’s usually unflappable expression came undone. Her eyes grew wide.

“The Umbrum? Your Umbrum?”

“There aren’t any other kinds of Umbrum as far as I know.”

“I thought you said they looked like fairies!”

“I thought they did, once.”

Starlight stared at Hope. Hope recognized that look. It was the same one other ponies at the orphanage gave her when she was little.

“What kind of demented fairies did you dream up as a foal?” Starlight said. “No, don’t answer that. I’m sure I don’t want to know.”

“They’re gone now,” Hope said.

“What were they even doing here? I heard they were all sealed away at the end of the Siege.”

“Apparently not all of them. A few must have got out. They must have caused the power outage at the hospital and then followed us here. The big purple one, he said he was their leader.”

“Okay, one: I don’t even want to think about how you can tell what gender that thing is. And two: What did it mean about needing you?”

Hope shook her head as she looked back to the skies. “I don’t know. But you’re probably in danger if you stay with me.”

“We have an agreement,” Starlight said. “We can still be useful to each other. No shadow monster is going to keep me from getting my part of the bargain.”

“At least we know where we stand,” Hope said. “I was starting to think you tried to save me because you cared. Oh, wait, nopony cares.”

“You just want somepony to feel sorry for you. All life is suffering, Hope. You should have realized that by now.”

“Oh, I have.”

“You don’t seem to accept it. But I suppose that’s an unfortunate side-effect of being too attached to a cutie mark. You should really think about giving yours up.”

Hope turned to Starlight in disbelief. “You really want to do that now?”

“Why not? The shadows are gone now,” Starlight paused and grew more serious. “They are gone, aren’t they? They’re not going to ambush us or anything? Did they say anything about their plans?”

“No. They didn’t say anything.” Yet again, lying came easily. Uncomfortably easily.

Starlight looked to Hope, then to the sky, then back to Hope. “Well, we dealt with them once. We can do it again if they come back. Not conducive to my plan, but my father always said that you have to be ready for anything. Speaking of which, what were you doing with that lunatic of a pony, anyway?”

“Honestly?” Hope said. “That is the one thing I’m having the most difficulty figuring out.”

---

At the cave, Stirring Words and Dr. Fie sat across from each other, the three saddlebags in-between.

“Your loyalty to your comrade is admirable, dear boy,” Dr. Fie said, “but I assure you that, given how long they’ve been gone, the only rational conclusion is that the timberwolves have eaten both of them.”

“You’re not getting Starlight’s sandwich,” Stirring responded.

“Oh, come now,” Dr. Fie said as he levitated the sandwich out of the third saddlebag. “I am not greedy. We can split it, half and half. And then, with our bodies well-fortified for the long trek, we can return to Seaddle and explain to the proper authorities how this whole fiasco has been nothing more than a major misunderstanding.”

Stirring whacked the sandwich down with his hoof. “No. That is Starlight’s sandwich and you are not getting any of it.”

“Fine. I shouldn’t want it anyway. They were decidedly subpar. The tomatoes were your basic garden variety. That mustard was not Dijon and, by the taste of it, did not have a drop of wine in its composure. And I can tell that the radishes were not shipped in from Baltimare. I should not be surprised to find that all the ingredients were entirely local.” Dr. Fie pronounced the word ‘local’ as though it indicated the presence of the plague.

“Well, it wasn’t easy to find Dijon mustard and genuine Baltimare radishes when I was rushing to pack these bags for you. I didn’t realize one of you had such a refined palette.”

“If Starlight Glimmer has such wretched taste in cuisine, I can see how she got to the low point she’s in today!”

“Because you’re just flying as high as a pegasus, aren’t you, doctor?” came Starlight Glimmer’s voice.

Starlight and Hope entered the cave, a bundle of branches floating between them.

“I don’t intend us to stay long, so we just got enough for the night,” Starlight said.

“What kept you two? The doctor here was about to finish your sandwich.” Stirring asked.

Starlight looked to Dr. Fie and her eyes narrowed. “Timberwolves,” she said.

Dr. Fie let out a yelp.

Stirring now turned his gaze to the crystal pony besides Starlight. Standing up, he offered a hoof. “You must be Radiant Hope. I’ve heard so many things about you.”

Hope did not take the proffered hoof. “You’re the one who wrote those things about me in that newspaper.”

Stirring nodded.

“They weren’t true. Princess Celestia didn’t have anything to do with my not becoming a princess.”

Stirring raised a hoof as though to object. “I grant you, that maybe Princess Celestia herself was not involved. That was just a little bit of journalistic liberty. But have you considered that maybe the institution which she represents, the institution of Princesshood, was to blame? The way it’s set up, the deck is stacked against worthy candidates such as yourself. I’m just trying to bring that to light.”

“Bring that to light, indeed!” Dr. Fie said. “I have no respect at all for any pony that tries to hide his inadequacies behind fancy words!”

Stirring continued, “I’m on your side, Hope, just like Starlight is. We don’t like seeing ponies face the sort of discrimination you did.”

“I didn’t face discrimination,” Hope said. “It was my—”

“I mean, the Crystal Empire should be governed by a crystal pony. That much seems obvious to me. But Cadance isn’t one.”

“She’s descended from Princess Amore.”

“Or she claims to be.”

“She doesn’t. I do. I’ve seen them both and the resemblance is undeniable.”

“Put that in your local-ingredient sandwich and eat it,” Dr. Fie chimed in.

“Doctor, I don’t need help,” Hope said.

“But you do,” Stirring said. “You need us to help you overcome the system than perpetuated such injustices against you. We can help make sure that no pony has to suffer those same injustices. We can make all ponies equal.”

Seeing that Hope was about to object to this line of argument as well, Starlight put her foreleg around Stirring and said, “Is it any wonder I have him writing the newspaper?” Then, leaning in so that only Stirring could hear her, she said, “Like I said, leave Hope to me.”

Stirring nodded and smiled bashfully. “Well, anyway, I’m happy to finally meet you. I made you a sandwich, but Dr. Fie ate it.”

“It was unavoidable, dear girl,” Dr. Fie said. “I was on the verge of slipping off this mortal coil and in desperate need of sustenance. Had I not done so, I might not be with you all now.”

“If we could be so lucky,” Starlight muttered.

“It’s okay, doctor,” Hope said. “I wasn’t hungry anyway.”

“What are you guys going to do now?” Stirring said.

“I had hoped to use Seaddle as a base of operations,” Starlight said. “It’s decidedly liberal and the princesses don’t pay too much attention to it. I figured it would be the perfect place to spread our message and prepare to take on Twilight Sparkle. But they’ll be looking for us there, so that’s out of the question now.”

“What you guys need is a big city, some place you can blend in easily enough,” Stirring said. “But also someplace where ponies’ll be receptive to our cause.”

Dr. Fie rubbed his hooves together and blew on them. “Preferably somewhere warm, where life is easy.”

“There’s cloaks in the saddlebags, doctor,” Stirring said. Dr. Fie immediately pulled one out and wrapped himself in it like a blanket.

Starlight rubbed her chin with her hoof. “What city would have everything we need?”

“What about Las Pegasus?” Hope said.

All eyes focused on her. “I know it’s a long way,” she said, “but they wouldn’t expect us to go that far. It’s big enough that we could blend in and, erm, ‘liberal’ enough for your cause. We could accomplish so much there.”

“Didn’t I tell you she’d be useful to us?” Starlight said to Stirring.

Dr. Fie got to his hooves. “There are casinos in Las Pegasus, aren’t there? Casinos where you can win a lot of money very fast?”

“The odds of winning a substantial amount are incredibly low,” Stirring said.

Dr. Fie waved a hoof. “Do not bother me with odds! I’ll have you know that I’ve already devised a full-proof formula for winning at games of chance.”

“You can’t do that,” Stirring said. “It’s not possible.”

“Oh, tut! What would you know about it, anyway? Unlike you, I’m a doctor, so I know about these things.”

“Ignore him,” Starlight said. “Stirring, do you think you can make arrangements for us in Las Pegasus?”

“Well, if I can get my irate boss to give me my job back, getting him to let me go on assignment to Las Pegasus should not be too hard. He might do it just to get rid of me for a while.”

Starlight nodded. “Then the three of us will start tomorrow. What is that inane thing they say? Viva Las Pegasus!”

Hope nodded, but her heart fell. She knew she had gotten what she was after, but Invidia's words haunted her. She was following where the Umbrum were leading. Again. Try as she might, Hope felt like she would never be free.

---

What dangers would our heroines encounter on their journey?

Read on.

Comments

[TheCommunistDog]

Oh this is not gonna end well