Where Loyalties Lie: Honor Guard

by LoyalLiar

XVI - Sorrow

XVI
Sorrow
- - -

A sharp but gentle prodding brought a slight irritation to Rainbow's side. She felt sore, which was a sure sign that her nap had been interrupted far too early (which was to say 'prior to high noon'). The pegasus rolled over, threw a wing over her face, and groaned. "Not now, Twilight. When'd your horn get so sharp, anyway?"

"Forgive me, Rainbow Dash, but I had been hoping to speak with you."

The mare shot upright to the sound of a familiar but unexpected voice. "Princess Celestia?"

"I am glad you recognize me, Rainbow," the Princess answered with a chuckle. She seemed to have a sort of glow around her, perhaps emanating from the radiant mane she had recovered in the five days of the pegasus' journey.

Seeing the Princess' smiling face, Rainbow's mind raced through a thousand short memories to reach an obvious conclusion. "So is Luna okay?"

It did not take long for the humor to flee Celestia's face. "Do not mistake my joy for success so soon, Rainbow; my sister's life is still in peril. However, you have given her a hope that I had almost feared was gone forever." The Princess lowered her head in gratitude before lifting up with pure focus. "I understand that you're probably still tired, but the doctors need to know everything they can about the seeds you brought back. Are they meant to be the cure?"

Dash spared herself a moment to rub her eyes and shake her head. As she did so, she caught a glance of Celestia's opulent bedroom. Apart from a quick glance to Philomena, and a moment of surprise at the golden flowers hanging from the ceiling, she gave it little attention. The urgency in the Princess' stance, looming over the bed, seemed to dominate the space. "No. They're the poison. Well, sort of." Celestia's brow rose, but she allowed Rainbow to continue all the same. "They're called 'phage seeds'. They… how did he put it…" The pegasus struggled to remember the way it the strange plants had been explained to her, but in place of the thought, she endured a moment of cold regret for the loss of the stallion who had done the explaining.

It must have been obvious, judging simply by Celestia's words. "Is something troubling you?"

"I'm…" Rainbow shook her head quickly to dissolve the thought, before putting on her hardest face. "I'm okay. Anyway, the seeds are like… magic weights. I'm not sure if they actually get rid of your magic, or just use it up themselves, or maybe block it or something. All I know is that if you eat them, your magic doesn't work for a while."

Celestia cocked her head with an even deeper curiosity. "I had thought there was no such thing as a poison that struck at one's mana. These seeds you've found are an incredibly dangerous discovery."

"Well, they're not really a poison. Maybe that's why your doctors haven't heard of them...? I've eaten them before, and so did Dead Reckoning…" Rainbow's voice faltered for only the slightest of moments, but then simply fell into silence as a huge feathered wing wrapped around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Rainbow."

"It's fine, Princess," the proud pegasus lied. The warmth of the solar monarch's feathers made her feel like a foal again, nestling safely in Easy Breeze's down. She forced her mind back to the question she had been asked, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the weakness of sorrow. "Anyway, if you eat the seeds, your magic goes away, but it comes back stronger. They don’t do anything bad in the long run. I didn't even think they could be dangerous until I met with the Griffon Emperor."

"Magnus knew?" An obvious hint of anger found its way into Celestia's eyes, though her face remained straight.

"No, I don't think so. I had to explain it to him before he gave me the wind to get back here faster. But he sort of made everything make sense. I didn't know about you being… ya know, immortal." The mare shrugged, and Celestia's anger faded. "But he explained that it was from your magic. Which I guess makes sense. But then I thought about the seeds."

"But you are certain the seeds were what Masquerade used?"

Rainbow nodded slowly. "That's… kind of a longer story, but what matters is we went to see this freaky elk, and he said some weird prophecy."

Celestia's tone became instantly more serious, wielding the voice she used against Discord. "An elk gave a prophecy? What did it say?"

Dash found no shame in recoiling from Celestia's nearly tangible aura of oppressive force. "It was just about curing Luna - lots of crazy stuff I didn't understand, but he talked about somepony called 'Reconciliation', and that I needed to go to Grivridge to find a poison that wasn't a poison. I guess reconciliation was my old griffon friend Gilda…" Dash shrugged. "But a poison that isn't poisonous had to be the phage seeds."

Celestia's sheer focus retreated softly, replaced once more by her gentle, kindly smile. "You show great intuition and wisdom, Rainbow. I am impressed."

"Now, hold on, Princess. I'm not some huge egghead like Twilight; all I did was make a few lucky guesses and put some stuff together."

The Princess' smile grew ever so slightly wider, but the change was surprising. Rather than her usual diplomatic appearance, Celestia wore almost the grin of a school filly. At its slightest possible description, it belonged to an ecstatically proud mother. "You needn't humble your achievement, Rainbow. I guarantee you that no other pony in all of Equestria could have done what you did." Then the Princess leaned forward and nuzzled Rainbow. In the closeness of the embrace, she was nearly too distracted to notice Celestia's whispered thought. "At least, not anymore." The princess drew back to her full height and gestured toward the door. "You've done everything you can, and more than could ever be expected of you. All we can do now is wait, and trust them. I'll go speak to the doctors with what you've told me, and then I'll return, and we can speak more."

Rainbow shook her head and forced herself to sit up. "I think I'll just come with you."

Whatever her reason, Celestia seemed to appreciate the gesture. "You're welcome to, Rainbow, though if you're still tired-"

"Nah," Dash answered, climbing down from Celestia's enormous bed. "I'm not gonna fall back asleep now - too much is going on."

With no more desire to contest Rainbow's wishes, Celestia turned toward the door and began to walk. It took a near-gallop on the pegasus' part to keep up with the ruler's lengthy stride. She found herself thankful that her legs were less tired than her wings, and so allowed herself to watch Celestia.

The alicorn seemed to have returned to her usual regal state, quite possibly from the hope that Rainbow had delivered. Though swift, her gait was stately and majestic, and her feathers and coat were preened and brushed to perfection. The golden peytral around her neck was polished to a mirror's gleam, and the gilded shoes she wore clicked in time with the perfect rhythm of her passing.

They didn't speak in transit, recognizing that further words would be a distraction from Luna's care. Silence reigned over nearly empty halls of stained glass, pure white marble, and soft velvet wallpaper decorated with intricate patterns.

Rainbow still didn't recognize many of the palace's hallways, but she knew the infirmary when she found it. It seemed as though hospital swinging double doors were a universal constant, from their plain off-white tone to the nearly-square windows with lightly rounded corners set near their top. They swung open at the silent bidding of Celestia's magic, and the pair stepped inside.

A hurricane of doctors surrounded and flitted with a drawn curtain at the far end of the room. Celestia glanced back at Rainbow and offered a short nod. Its meaning was clear. Rainbow stepped to the side of the room as the Princess made her way over to speak with the doctors.

She glanced around the room of empty beds and found to her surprise an equine figure lying near the door, ignored. Rainbow could make out that it was a pegasus, and nothing more. Terrible burns had claimed coat and flesh, leaving behind a charred black mess, whose sole sign of continuing life was a weak but steady heartbeat displayed on a nearby monitor.

She took a step toward the chart hanging from the end of the bed, curious as to the unfortunate pony's identity. A familiar but surprisingly unwelcome voice interrupted her.

"Crap, kid. I owe Marathon twenty bits."

Rainbow forced herself to take a slow breath before turning toward her least favorite guardspony. "What do you want, Crack?" The mare had to force herself not to smile at the heavy cast covering his left wing. "What happened to you?"

"First off, filly, it's-"

"Don't give me any crap about rank or title or whatever the hay you call it." Rainbow didn't even shout; she didn't feel the need. "I didn't see you in Zebrica helping save Luna."

The slight recoil she earned from the bed-bound soldier was worth every word in Rainbow's mind. Thunder Crack's face built up to a deep red beneath his olive coat, before he reluctantly forced himself to discard his anger in the interest of glancing down at the ground. "Look, uh, Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry-"

"Yeah right." Dash shook her head as she walked over to the side of Crack's bed, if only to look him closer in the eyes. "Did Marathon put you up to saying that?"

A long and slow breath moved through his nostrils, and his answer came in the form of an embarrassed whisper. "The Princess did."

Dash released the first genuine chuckle in what she could consider recent memory. It didn't go over well.

"Hey, Private, watch it! Just 'cause I didn't fly to flank-backwards nowhere doesn't mean I didn't do my duty, and don't you dare suggest otherwise." His hoof gestured to his stiff wing. "Do you think I got this falling off a ladder?"

"Really, Crack, I don't care." Rainbow wore a little grin. "I'm not gonna be a guardspony anymore, so you can just shut up about it."

To Rainbow's surprise, Crack's free wing twitched, folding under itself in what every pegasus recognized as a display of shame... or regret. It took the sergeant a glance to his own side to recognize the unconscious motion, at which point he moved to hide it with a stern face. "That's all I wanted in the first place, filly." Then the edge of his tone dropped off just a bit. "Though you are starting to look like one of us. Did my lessons bail you out of one of those scrapes?" He nodded toward the clean scar above her right cutie mark. "Was that a manticore, or…?"

Rainbow quickly decided that she didn't want to bring up the source of that particular wound, and so instead chose to respond with a fire. "Which part of your lessons was I supposed to learn from again? The part where you beat on me for like six hours, or the part where you threw me into a bar fight?"

Whatever reaction Rainbow might have earned was stolen away by the sound of golden hooves approaching from the mass of doctors that was Luna's bedside. "While I do fully agree that Sergeant Crack's made a poor choice in his idea of an education, Rainbow, perhaps you can find it in yourself to forgive him? He has paid no small penance for his actions." Then she shook her head with a glint in her eye. "It's a tragedy that the Private's Reserve will be losing so much business, though." Rainbow laughed, and Crack groaned. The princess, however, continued to speak. "Though of course, how you feel about forgiving him is entirely in your own hooves."

There was something about the way Celestia spoke that turned a gentle reprimand into a crushing load of shame. Rainbow lowered her head. "Yeah, okay. I guess it did help out when I was fighting Gilda."

With her gaze averted, the younger of the pegasi present missed the flash of recognition on Celestia's face. Instead, she only heard the solar ruler speak softly. "You must be hungry, Rainbow, after such a long journey. I'll have the chefs prepare one of your veggie burgers and send it up here. I have some very important matters to attend to now, but I know that my sister is in the best possible hooves." The beaming smile on the Princess' face filled Rainbow with pride, even before a gentle, almost sorrowful nuzzle graced her cheek.

Something about the Princess' comforting contact set the young pegasus off a bit. "Uh, Princess, I get that you're thankful, but, uh..."

The words trailed off as Celestia stepped back. For only a split second, she looked as though she was lost without map or guide. Rainbow quickly found herself searching for the words to an apology, but they came too slow. The ageless ruler smiled politely. "Forgive me, Rainbow. It seems my emotions have shown too frequently these past few days." Then she made her way through the infirmary's swinging doors.

Thunder Crack shook his head, wishing that Celestia had at least done him the decency of mentioning a less humiliating part of his recompense. In the face of enduring Rainbow's (probably justified) words, his anonymous donation to the Canterlot Orphanage in the amount of his full annual salary seemed the least of his concerns.

- - -

Shining Armor found himself sitting in the Palace ballroom, at a large table that was serving as his makeshift desk. He had rid himself of his armor in the interest of what little comfort could be achieved in the face of unrelenting paperwork.

In front of him, devoid of armor or powder as a matter of kindness, were the last three flight-capable pegasus guardsponies in the city of Canterlot. Two sat still, backs stiffened in formal posture, awaiting his word. The third, though, was making the act of writing quite difficult. His horn ignited with a quick bit of idle magic, snatching a paper that was trying to run away from his quill on the wind. He didn't even bother sparing a glance at the wings that had caused the disturbance in the air; if the mare could have done something about the issue, she likely would have.

To his mild irritation, one of his own subordinates raised his voice at her. "Sit down, private." The mare in the formal black evening dress (a stunning match for her burnt orange coat, Shining had to admit) outright ignored him.

The captain glanced up, put on his 'Captain's Face' (a stern but emotionless expression that left its observer guessing), and spoke with an even tone. "I wouldn't worry about it, corporal."

The guard cocked his head ever so slightly. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"You can speak however you like, corporal, but Private Marathon is Honor Guard. It wouldn't do to upset her."

Shining had been banking on the Honor Guard's curious rumored reputation as it passed from soldier to soldier in the Royal Guard barracks. Not everypony had heard the stories, and not all of them believed what was said. To Shining's satisfaction, however, the corporal had and did. His lips were pressed shut firmly, and he spared another awkward glance Marathon's way. She didn't acknowledge the attention.

Shining finished scrawling on his parchment and rolled it up into a scroll which he sealed with wax and magic. "Sergeant Flint, you're to take this Baltimare. At the Royal Guard Barracks there, you should find Lieutenant Mail. If she has a report for me, let her compile it; otherwise I want you back here immediately." The silent pegasus saluted, tucked the scroll into a messenger bag hanging over his flank, and made his way out into the Canterlot sky.

Shining then turned to the intimidated corporal. To his slight shame, he didn't know the stallion's name, but he wasn't about to draw attention to that fact. "This goes to the National Guard Armory in Vanhoover. You're looking for Lieutenant Dice; after that, he'll probably need you to run more messages. He doesn't have as large a company of pegasi as he needs." Grateful to be away from the entirely peaceful mare, the pegasus fled after his companion.

Only when the ballroom was clear did Marathon swoop down and collapse onto the tiny stubs beneath her flanks. "You shouldn't let them think things about the Honor Guard, Captain Armor."

"Please, Marathon, it's just Shining today. I've been on duty too long as it is." The guardspony sighed, and the pegasus mare saw beneath his eyes the weariness of a stallion twice his age. "And from what I've seen in the past few days, an awful lot of the barracks talk about the Honor Guard is true."

Marathon flapped her wings twice, landing directly on her hips across Shining's makeshift desk, where she gave him her most disarming political smile and spoke gently. "You don't like us, do you?"

"I don't mind you," Shining answered. "I find it hard to imagine you not caring about ponies’ lives."

"You didn't get to be the captain of the Royal Guard without drawing blood, did you?"

"That's... not what I mean, Marathon." Shining looked up from his paperwork and sighed. "When I was in Baltimare, I saw Red Ink set a building full of civilians on fire, trying to kill a mare who wasn't even his enemy." The look in the guardspony's eyes was one of fear and hatred boiled into a nameless but potent brew. "And maybe he was overcome by his Empatha, or maybe he just didn't care... but ponies died in that fire."

"Shining, I wouldn't let Red Ink represent us any more than I'd let White Flag represent the Royal Guard."

"She's little better. She decided Soldier On was more important than saving those ponies."

Marathon nodded with sympathy, and then glanced up to the wide mantle that circled the empty ballroom. Shining followed her gaze, and saw the empty space in the even spread of statues where a stallion ought to have been standing. The pegasus spoke softly. "You haven't seen us at our best, Shining Armor. If he were still here..." She let the words die, resorting to simply staring at the empty space.

"We all have to move on," Shining answered.

"Yes we do." She turned back to him and glanced down at the parchment he was quickly rolling up. A forced smiled found its way onto her face. Shining Armor had to admit, it was very convincing. "Where am I moving on to first?"

"Bitaly," he answered, nudging forward his letter. "On the way to Roam, drop that off in Trottingham at the barracks. Then tell my wife she can come home." Marathon's wings spread as she took the letter. Shining called after the mare as she departed. "And if my father in law decides that I need a few more bottles of vintage wine, and they just happen to fall into the ocean, it's no sweat off my back."

His company gone, Shining was finally able to get back to the bluntly immense incident report he was writing. His attention on the document, however, was interrupted shortly by a single loud and incredibly firm knock on the ballroom's interior doors.

"Uh... come in?" he called aloud, wondering if somepony had tried to buck the door down and failed miserably. The fact that he was occupying a ballroom rather than his usual office made the need for permission seem all the more awkward.

The doors opened to a gray mare with a blonde mane and a huge smile. A small bruise was forming on her forehead. "Sorry about that; I was going just a little too fast around that last corner, and-"

"Derpy?" Shining Armor tilted his head to the side in a show of surprise. "What are you doing in Canterlot?"

"Huh? Oh, that's easy!" Her announcement was paired with a brilliant smile, which was then stuffed into a small messenger bag hanging from her side. "Special delivery from Ponyville for-" she paused to put quotes in the air with her forehooves. "-'somepony in the palace'. I figured I knew you, so you'd be the easiest to get a hold of."

"Okay...?" Shining was utterly perplexed as he took the carefully folded letter. The stock of the envelope was impeccable, suggesting some sort of noble as the deliverer. He glanced down at the wax seal and nearly jumped. "This is for the Princess. Who gave you this?"

"Oh, some mail pony from Appleloosa. She said it wasn't any rush, but I had to take a delivery to Cloudsdale anyway, so I figured I'd make the stop. Anyway, it was nice seeing you, Shining Armor, but I have to get back to Ponyville." Derpy's eyes focused for a moment, but their focus was on the ground. The life seemed to fade ever so subtly from her body. She turned and began to fly away.

"Uh, wait!" Shining called. The mailmare turned, and the captain gestured with his horn toward the broad doors on the opposite side of the room. "Those lead out into the gardens. It’s faster than trying to find your way out through the whole palace.

Derpy nodded but didn't say another word in response. Shining might have watched her go if his mind were not on the curious letter in his hand. With a brisk pace, he turned his path toward the throne room.

Despite the fatigue of a week's field work, his stride was brisk and sturdy. Perhaps it was the invigoration of having his magic back to normal. Knowing that somepony had finally come through to help Luna was another large boost. So he carried his head high as he passed the sparse few servants that separated the ballroom from his destination.

The doors swung open with what he considered a gentle prod of magic. Most unicorns would call the action strenuous, if they could manage it at all. He walked forward on the thin red carpet that sat atop the marble floor and bowed.

Celestia sat in all her glory atop a small dais of fountains, her crimson silk-upholstered seat once more providing a delightful contrast to her tri-tone mane. Her attention was on a hoof-servant in a short tie, who was quickly taking dictation.

"I'll be with you in a moment, Captain," the princess called, without turning toward him. A quill scribbled and Celestia shook her head. "That wasn't intended to go in the letter, Record. Continue with 'I look forward to the six of us meeting again shortly, in good health.' Except for Krenn, change the last phrase to 'in good time'. Then have them sent along with the pouches I gave you."

"Of course, Princess." Record time bowed, turned, and swiftly exited the room.

Celestia looked at Shining with her usual political 'mask'. "Did you need a word, Captain Armor?"

"Not myself, no. A letter came, marked for you." His aura lifted the small envelope up to the Princess, who took it gently and opened it without remark. Shining would have excused himself there and then, had Celestia's expression not shattered into one of shock. "Is something wrong?"

She didn't speak at first. Instead, her lips slowly closed, and her gaze hardened. Only after a moment did she begin to speak, with words that Shining wasn't expecting.

"It's from the Commander."

The words made their connections in Shining's heart even before his mind could process them. A waking nightmare swept into his mind, unifying his every fear.

Twilight Sparkle lay in a hospital bed in the palace infirmary. Her eyes were shut, and her breathing soft and weak. Shining could only stand at watch, alongside Celestia and Luna, his parents, and his sister’s friends. They were a crowd of the mightiest and the best Equestria had to offer, but they were helpless against the sound that passed only moments later. A continuous, high-pitched drone and a flat green line were all that served as a eulogy in those first few seconds.

"Twilight!" Shining shouted aloud, turning back toward the door.

"What?" Celestia rose, her wings spreading wide. "Captain, explain."

Shining Armor's ears heard the blunt command, but his mind failed to process them, or even recognize their existence. And so, for the first time in his life, he disregarded a direct order from the princess. His thoughts alone were to protect one of the two mares in the world he couldn't stand to imagine losing. The doors behind him nearly shattered under the arcane force which he expended to open them.

- - -

Rainbow stuffed half her opulent burger into her mouth, too hungry to even care about the (fantastic) flavor. The stretched edges of her mouth were pulled upward into a smile as she looked down at Luna. The doctors had flooded out, and one of the older ones mentioned that they needed to let her body adjust to their treatments before they continued. The pegasus took the opportunity to distance herself from Thunder Crack and reflect on all her effort. Hers was a perfect and unshakeable faith that things would turn out right for the princess of the night.

She glanced back when the doors to the infirmary smacked loudly against the walls they were attached to. A panting, armored Shining Armor ran in, literally sliding to a stop as his shoes failed to claim traction on the linoleum. "Rainbow! I need you, now!"

The mare stood up, wings rising in a show of concern. "What's wrong?"

"I need you to fly me to Ponyville."

Thunder Crack cut in, sitting up in his bed. "Get somepony else, Captain. I don't need the princess on my case more than she already is. Let her rest."

"If there were somepony else, I'd ask them. We've got no time. Masquerade is in Ponyville," Shining's words were delivered in a red-faced fury. "Can you get me there?"

Rainbow glanced back at her wings, though her thoughts were not on her own body. "Yeah. Let's go." She moved for the door, but stopped when Thunder Crack spoke up again.

"Wait, filly! If you're going after her, at least take my armor."

"We don't have time!" Shining responded.

"Do you want her to get killed?" Crack slid out of bed and reached under the medical cot. A heavy golden cuirass and helmet were produced with ease, and he placed them atop the mattress. "Take it, Private Dash."

Rainbow glanced to Shining, and Shining to Rainbow. Then the unicorn stallion's horn burst alight with magic, and the gilded plate armor wrapped itself over Rainbow's body. True to his name, Shining Armor moved efficiently, sparing no more than a few seconds to finish equipping the mare. As he did, Rainbow watched her hooves and legs grow wider and shift to a pale white. Cold metal shifted over her body, changing in shape to adjust to its young, feminine wearer. After the few seconds it took for the magic to do its work, Rainbow found herself indistinguishable from a generic Royal Guard officer. She shot a quick, less-than-meaningful glance to Crack. "Thanks."

"Kick her flank, Private," was the injured stallion's reply, pulling the shoes off his forehooves and tossing them onto the floor in front of Rainbow. She slid them onto her hooves as he spoke. "Guardspony shoes, with a steel lining."

There were no more seconds to be spared on words; Shining literally wrenched Rainbow out of the room by magic, and released her only when he was already moving at a full sprint through the palace's network of hallways. It took Rainbow a moment to catch up, and she did so on her hooves instead of by wing. There was no point getting ahead of Shining when she didn't know where she was going in the labyrinthine corridors. Instead, she spent each step getting used to the heavy metal weapons covering her forehooves.

It took less than a minute for the duo to barrel past all the servants and staff in their way and find themselves in what might have been called a small hangar. Seven chariots of various sizes were arrayed pointing toward a massive opening in the side of the structure. Below, the palace dropped off to hundreds, if not thousands of feet of open space that ended in the foothills of the Mountain of Dawn. Rainbow was never one to be scared of heights, but something about the sheer drop was ominous to her.

Shining didn't spare the opening a glance, instead leaping into the passenger's seating at the back of a small, single-pegasus chariot. "Come on, Rainbow!"

She ducked away from the open space and pulled herself into the harness without a word. Her wings stretched, sore beyond belief but functional nevertheless. Her first flap ended in a twinge of pain, but the second moved the chariots gilded wheels.

The train ride from Canterlot to Ponyville usually took about an hour, with the benefit of speed from traveling downhill through the tunnels of the mountain. An unladen pegasus could make the trip in forty-five minutes, with favorable winds. Full-on racing could let a fast pony cover the distance in thirty, but that was a difficult feat.

Rainbow Dash had little respect for what most ponies thought of as difficulty, however. Records existed only to be broken, when all was said and done. And so, tired and sore and burdened with the weight of an armored guardspony and a gilded chariot, she flapped and pushed and strained and focused. Her thoughts were on her friends, but the picture in her mind was of a decidedly different pony. Her nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed, and she pushed harder still.

In the course of the short trip, she didn't bother trying to speak to Shining Armor. The wind was going too fast past her ears, and she knew there was nothing to say. They had the same goal, and the same purpose. She spared no thought to the memory that she was returning to Ponyville in much the same manner that she had left a week earlier, with a chariot carrying a unicorn.

Shining Armor's mind was not so focused, as he was forced to endure the journey. Though he knew his words could never deter Rainbow Dash, Bearer of Loyalty from fighting to help her friends, thoughts of Going Solo brought difficult questions to mind. What would happen if she got hurt? He wasn't sure he had an answer.

No more than twelve minutes had passed before the pair made their approach. As they approached Rainbow's home, they were met with a thick blanket of gray clouds.

"Is that a thunder storm?" Shining shouted to be heard over the rush of wind past their ears.

"No," Rainbow answered. "They're cirrostratus. Awful thick, though. Hold on, I'm gonna take us down."

"Try not to draw attention," Shining called out, just before they met the gray wall of clouds.

The pegasus embraced the resistance of the clouds, and the wet chill that built over her wings as she plowed through to the streets of her hometown. She had neither the time, nor the inclination to explain the strangeness of seeing such a thick layer of gloomy clouds out any time before the very end of autumn. The thoughts of a weathermare were quickly discarded for those of a guardspony as Rainbow burst through the bottom of the clouds and gasped in shock.

A huge, but surprisingly well ordered crowd was gathered in front of city hall, facing up toward the balcony that stuck off the front of the building. From her trajectory, Rainbow couldn't see what they were looking at, and her mind didn't bother to consider the idea. Her focus was on a more urgent issue - she was pointing toward a painful crash straight in the center of the group. She pulled up and banked aside as hard as her tired wings could manage.

The air rumbled beneath her, and the crowd gasped. Behind her, Shining's seat twisted in the air, struggling and straining to accommodate Rainbow's strenuous dodge. One of the leads to her harness snapped, sending the cart spilling to the ground in a cacophonous crash, just over the heads of the back of the crowd. The other side of her harness, still attached firmly to the broken weight, pulled her down into a tight spin. Ponyville rolled in her vision, as grassy roads and gray skies traded places with each other a dozen times over. Her side hit the ground with what would have been a terrible pain, but Thunder Crack's armor cushioned the blow. She rolled twice along the ground and caught herself on her knees

She glanced over to the wreckage of the chariot, and saw Shining Armor standing in front of the broken pile of wood and gold, completely unharmed. He ran forward toward the crowd, eyes the very picture of focus. His armor shone with an inspiring purple light.

"Everypony, remain calm," were his first words.

- - -

No two minute earlier, Masquerade had been sitting in that crowd, garbed in a thin and rather fashionable dark blue dress fashioned by the Bearer of Generosity herself. She'd spent the day listening to somber ponies speak calmly about the glories and tragedies of a life lost young. Their poetic waxing brought her a sort of sick pride, if only by the knowledge of just how many such lives she had brought to end prematurely. Despite her entirely good intentions for staying in the little backwater town, it was hard for her to stay unhappy as she sat through the service.

Then, to her surprise and relief, something happened. Namely, a golden chariot tore through the low clouds overhead and barreled quickly out of control. She watched alongside the rest of the peaceful docile ponies as the vehicle shattered into a pile of gilded wood and dirt torn up from the ground. The guardspony who was pulling the vehicle took some time to recover from his unexpected roll, but the passenger had leapt out before the wheels even hit the ground.

Shining Armor looked ready to go to war, clad fully in his amethyst shell and wearing a focused scowl. Many criminals would have been afraid to see him approaching, and indeed, a little twinge of the deadliest emotion did pull at the assassin's heartstrings. Her mind, however, did not share in the apprehension. She was wearing the best disguise she had ever made: her own, natural form. Few living ponies had ever seen her real face; she could count them on two hooves. Neither was the captain of the Royal Guard. He could walk up beside her and notice a thing.

To her mild amusement, that was exactly what happened. Shining strode forward through the small aisle in the middle of the crowd, scanning the faces around him. The subtle enchantment she had placed over herself to make her blend into the crowd left his eyes to simply roll across her without any particular attention. If he had been able to recognize her, the spell wouldn't have been enough to stop his focus and determination. The knowledge that he had passed her over left her feeling as secure beneath her magic as the captain was under his legendary armor.

The guardspony who had been pulling the chariot soared overhead, scanning the crowd as well, though in the crowd of black-clad ponies, Masquerade had to imagine her mane would be difficult to spot. After a few laps, the captain gestured to the pony, and he landed atop Ponyville's largest structure, looking down at the massive crowd.

The captain's stride stopped dead directly beside the assassin, on account of a short fizzle and a small pop. Twilight Sparkle, one of Masquerade's private heroes, teleported down from the balcony to stand just in front of her brother. Masquerade could have reached out and touched her without even leaning.

"Shining? What are you doing here?"

His eyes locked with his sister's. "Twilight, take your friends and go home, quietly."

"Why? What's happening?"

He leaned forward and whispered. Twilight's eyes widened, and Masquerade's did as well. She didn't need to hear his voice to read her own name on his lips. It did not take long for a cunning mind to realize his deduction must have come from the letter she'd delivered. She hadn't expected the mail to reach the palace the very same day she handed off Steel's letter, but she the concern wasn't pressing, regardless.

Twilight spoke in response, with words that bore a surprising amount of anger. "Where is she?"

"Let me handle this, Twilight. She might be here for you. Now go!"

After a moment's hesitation, Twilight Sparkle nodded and disappeared with another quick teleportation. The assassin watched at the mare and her friends fled the scene quickly and quietly. Masquerade was almost offended by the insinuation that she would kill one of the bearers of the elements, for any price. Unfortunately, a desire not to be caught left her unable to defend her honor.

She was prepared to simply create a distraction and teleport away, but a nagging thought in the back of her mind stayed her horn. Namely, it was the thought of the two million bits that Shining Armor's head was worth to her. At first, she'd hesitated at the contract, remembering that he too had saved Equestria before. Her contractor could be very convincing, in no small part because he was one of the two ponies who did know her face. His assurances that Shining, like Luna, had to die only made the money easier to accept.

She cracked a tiny smile, and her horn ignited.

- - -

Shining Armor scanned the crowd, though he wasn't perfectly sure what he was looking for. His own horn fought to protect against whatever illusions Masquerade would surely use to hide herself. The crowd was growing antsy as time passed without an explanation from the guardspony. They shuffled an squirmed and stared at him, whispering between themselves their suspicions as to his purpose in their town. The action wasn't making his job any easier. He strode to the front of the crowd, on the steps of town hall. He turned and spoke, quickly and forcibly. "I'm here looking for a criminal named-"

"Masquerade." The voice was gruff and firm, and familiar in an alien sort of way. It belonged to a guardspony standing at the back of the crowd, and it drew the attention of every pony in the crowd, Shining included. A blue-gray pegasus paced at the rear of the crowd, notable more for his garb than his physical appearance. In an army of ponies in dark coats and dresses, he alone wore his black in armor. "I am Commander Steel of the Honor Guard," he continued. "Captain Armor and I have business together." He - or rather, the disguised mare, as Shining was fully aware - shot him a very peculiar glance, seemingly suggesting that Shining not interrupt. He gathered mana in his horn to stop her if she tried anything, but otherwise allowed her to act. The danger to the gathered civilians was too great to risk a stray spell, or worse, a hostage. She'd had ample opportunity to exercise either option, but neither was taken. Instead, wearing the deceased Commander's face, she continued with her orders.

"If you live here, return to your homes. Otherwise, gather near the apple orchards, and report anypony you see attempting to sneak away. The captain and I will be with you shortly." The ponies waited for a moment, until 'the Commander' rose up on his forelegs and bucked a bolt of lightning up into the sky. "Go!" he ordered, and in shock, the ponies obeyed. An exodus of panicked ponies led to the slamming of doors and the galloping of far too many hooves.

Shining had been expecting Masquerade to take a hostage; instead, he watched as the ponies fled, leaving him to face the assassin alone in the town square. He waited until most of the civilians were out of earshot before addressing her sternly. "Just the two of us? Do you want a duel?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Shining Armor. This is an assassination."

Rather than meet her taunt with words, Shining expelled the magic from his horn in a stunning burst. He knew Masquerade could have blocked or dodged; the spell was a throwaway, to learn what he could about the way she fought. The idea that she would simply take the spell was beyond his consideration. His rose bolt faded into the black armor, and Masquerade smiled with the Commander's face. "Too bad for you, Shining. Hurricane's Armor is just as strong as Platinum's Ward." Despite the Commander's lack of a horn, Shining had to call up a shield of his attack was answered with a stone pulled up off the ground, wrapped in a deep blue aura. It shattered on the face of his mana, at which point the shield was lowered.

Shining gathered magic for a similar attack, but found his line of sight cut off by a blur of white, blue, and gold. Rainbow swooped down from on high, throwing a hoof at Masquerade's head with a speed that the guardspony's eyes had trouble following. The assassin, however, did not. By whatever dark magic she used to steal a pony's wings, she darted up from the ground and avoided the attack. Rainbow threw strike after strike, but not a single one even managed to connect. The distraction was dangerous, but it spared Shining the time he needed to gather an immense cloud of mana into his horn. "Get back, now!" he ordered.

Rainbow's white armored body swept aside with surprising speed, giving the captain a clear shot. A dozen coils of purple energy shot forth from his horn, flying in wide swift arcs and turning in midair to prevent her attempt to dodge. He watched as the magic wrapped the pony tightly, sending her tumbling to the ground. "The helmet!"

"On it!" Rainbow swooped down and reached forward with a hoof. It found no resistance, swiping straight through the Commander's face.

"Surprise," said the illusion, before it faded away into nothing.

"Shining, look out!"

The guardspony had seen his error, but too late. He spun in place, expecting an attack from behind. When the ground shook, his magic conjured a domed shield by force of habit and instinct. It did nothing to protect him when the wooden boards beneath his feet shattered, sending him plunging downward into darkness. As the broken planks restored themselves into a flat plane, Shining felt his body rattle against a cold stone floor. His horn burst up with light, but it didn't last long. A sudden slicing pain moved through his neck, in the thin seam where his armor and helmet met, precipitating a howl of agony.

A blue glow lit the walls of the space, which was apparently the basement of Ponyville's town hall. Dusty boxes and barrels were arranged haphazardly about the dark room. A rather small dinner knife clattered to the floor. "Apologies, captain. That was unprofessional of me. You shouldn't have felt anything." Masquerade's hoof pressed down on the side of Shining's helmet, and wrenched it off. It too rolled across the stone floor, producing a sad sound that only barely registered over Shining's agony. He barely maintained the focus to shoot a quick burst of energy without letting the mana grow unstable. It was fast and feral, enough to knock Masquerade back several feet, but not to truly hurt her.

The warm blood seeped down Shining's white coat, between his armor and his body, as he struggled to stand. Magic built in his horn slowly, just quickly enough to throw up a small shield that intercepted Masquerade's next attack. The bolt of misty magic spilled across the rose ward and onto the basement walls, where huge spurts of stone crumbled and melted into glowing dust.

The guardspony then threw the shield itself forward. Unlike the illusion she had conjured, the real assassin lacked the black armor of the Commander, and was instead forced to jump out of the way of the attack. In retribution, a magical burst shot toward Shining's horn, and he only barely managed to duck beneath it. In the momentary distraction, Masquerade's magic wrapped over her own body in a spell Shining didn't recognize."

"Not so easy, am I? In case you don't remember, it took you and Rainbow Dash to beat me in Canterlot, and I was pretending to be a pegasus then." She shot two more bolts, but they too spilled over the shield that was Shining's special talent. "You might as well just give up. If I have to get original, it might be painful." She leapt to the side suddenly, further than the captain would have thought possible for such a small, fragile-looking mare. His shield was barely fast enough to catch the next attack from her new angle. "If you want, I can tell your wife you said you loved her."

Shining's horn nearly exploded with a surge of mana. Masquerade barely managed to teleport aside with her life, as a beam of rose power carved a tunnel six feet deep into the wall opposite the captain. "Stay away from her!"

Masquerade's horn released a stronger glow of its own, and the shards of broken stone from Shining's wrath rose into the air, surrounding him. "If it makes you feel any better, I'd charge more for her than Luna." Her projectiles flew as one. Shining threw up a domed shield, stopping two, but the force of the third was too great for him to stop under the pain in his neck. It shattered on Platinum's Ward , but the force was still great enough to topple the unicorn stallion. His blood spilled onto the cold floor as Masquerade strode forward slowly. "Tell Celestia she has my apologies when you see her."

Shining teleported away just a moment before Masquerade's table knife would have cut through his throat. The sensation of dizziness after such a spell was only compounded by his lack of blood. A quick volley of stunning blasts flew from his horn, virtually without aim. One tagged the mare on her flank, tearing through her dress just below her cutie mark. The white mask of tragedy seemed to be mocking Shining as the assassin stumbled, struggling to balance on three legs. The distraction was enough time for Shining to gather the mana for another spell, but not before Masquerade let her misty magic envelop her own body.

His next spell was carefully aimed, targeting her core directly. His shot flew true, and she made no move to block or dodge, yet the rose ball of energy soared over her shoulder as though it had been misaligned from the start.

"You know, I wonder if anypony will even care that I killed you, after what I did to the princess." Masquerade answered Shining's attacks with lethal blasts of her own, and he rolled to the side in order to save his mana. The action was disorienting and painful, but it allowed him to respond with an attack of his own. A sheer wall of telekinetic force sent the assassin flying, alongside the rubble and boxes that filled the bland basement. Masquerade's magic went out, and the sheer painful noise of a body hitting a stone wall was the only assurance the captain received that he had scored a hit. He focused quickly, conjuring up enough mana to illuminate the room.

Masquerade was simply gone. Immediately, the captain lowered himself, spinning quickly to check in every direction. He could find no sign of his foe, and so he waited, gathering more mana with every passing moment. A small surge was spared to put a shield over the wound on his neck, now that he had earned the opportunity. It wouldn't give him back his blood, or stop the pain, but it would hopefully keep enough in to prevent him from bleeding out in the middle of the battle.

Shining couldn't help but wish he had Twilight present to tell him what to do. He only knew the straightforward, military style of battle. He could pull cunning tricks and fast thinking, but a foe who relied on misdirection and fast, lethal blows was something he had no experience against.

A thought tickled his mind, and he grabbed a huge mass of rubble in his magical grip. A quick, forceful motion sent it spilling over the room. No invisible mare was revealed, thankfully. At least one of the 'impossibilities' of magic he had learned still held true. He paced slowly amongst the scattering of boxes and broken stones, searching for anything out of the ordinary. It was hard to make out fine details by the light of his horn alone, but he focused nevertheless.

Whether by sheer luck or brilliance, the corner of his eye caught something at the last possible moment. One of the crates was clean of dust. He lashed out at it suddenly with a steel-lined forehoof, and found satisfaction that his limb traveled straight through the illusory wood, striking hard at the flesh that could be found beneath.

Masquerade called out in pain, but recovered quickly enough to roll back out of Shining's reach. He sent three more stunning bolts her way, and watched all three fall away from a shield she conjured a mere inch from her muzzle. The fact that she had resorted to blocking his clearly stronger magic meant she was growing desperate. The time had come to finish their battle.

The captain released the rest of the mana he held channeled into Platinum's Ward, producing a radiant red and purple glow across the room. Masquerade watched carefully as Shining Armor lowered himself, pointing his horn toward her. She gathered mana, ready to meet his onslaught, and found herself caught off guard when he charged her outright.

She ducked to the side, as he had been hoping she would. His left hoof caught her shoulder. The contact was brief, and nearly harmless, but it lasted long enough for his quick spell to go off. In a flash of light, the basement was left behind, and a wall of gray clouds surrounded them. They fell together, water and wind rushing through their coats. He couldn't allow her to regain her focus, or her mana. His hooves lashed out with heavy blows to her body, cracking bones and eliciting gasps of pain. He only spared her the assault when they cleared the base of the gray clouds over Ponyville, mere seconds away from a lethal collision with the ground. Two rose shields were enough to spare them death, but the crack of bodies on grass was still painful and audible. Shining gasped, and Masquerade moaned.

From where he was laying, Shining could see Rainbow fighting with all her might to break through the wooden planks that served as a patio for the town hall. She looked over with a stallion's face at the sound of their landing, and her wings flared. "I... got..."

"Not again!" He didn't understand what the words meant. For a moment, his struggling mind fought to process the strange call. Then the fatigue of magic, battle, and the loss of blood swept him into darkness.

- - -

Rainbow Dash roared, flying up on white wings, only to pound down with her full force against the boards that had swallowed Shining. Dents and cracks had begun to appear, but they faded and repaired themselves as soon as the mare pulled back for another strike. She screamed in fury, only to be cut off by a pair of successive thuds, as bodies struck the grass nearby.

She looked over to see Shining Armor turn slowly toward her. His neck had been slashed open, and far too much blood was spilled over his coat. "I... got..."

What he didn't see was Masquerade rise up behind him. She was limping, but Rainbow was able to watch as a dozen other wounds on her torso faded away into bursts of blue magic. Slowly, her hooves lowered from levitating to touch the ground at a mild fall. A similar illusion fled from her horn, revealing a long metal spike - the same one Rainbow had seen the assassin wield against Princess Luna.

"Not again!" she yelled, flying as fast as the moment's acceleration could take her. Masquerade had no idea what hit her, as Rainbow's full-bodied tackle ended in the unicorn being picked up fully and carried off down the streets of Ponyville.

"What the-?" Masquerade was completely lost as the form of a grown stallion carried her upward once more into the air. The cold black metal spike that covered her horn took on the glow of her own fell magic. Rainbow spared one of her forelegs from holding the assassin in order to strike the at the obvious threat. Normally, such a blow would have done away with the magic, but the strange artifact shielded the assassin against the attack. The potent grip of her telekinesis wrapped around Rainbow's wing, stiffening it in place, and sending both soaring mares into a spiraling fall.

The pegasus didn't see where the unicorn landed when she released her grip. She was hoping to regain control of herself, but the effort proved foolish. Masquerade's telekinesis was pulling toward the mare herself, and as she fell toward the ground, a sickening crack issued from Rainbow's right wing. She knew the pain of a broken bone, as she spiraled down toward one of the small grassy hills on the outskirts of Ponyville.

The little knoll in question was called 'Cemetery Hill' by the town's inhabitants. No more than two dozen headstones dotted the grounds. One of them, sitting above a freshly dug grave, welcomed Rainbow to the ground by shattering in half on impact. Rainbow found herself again thankful for the armor she was wearing, well aware that the blow should have shattered her shoulder or neck.

The pegasus struggled to her hooves slowly, only to hear gentle laughter approaching from the direction of the city. "You should just stay down, guardspony. You aren't even worth anything to me. Stay out of my way, and I'll let you go."

"You're not getting Shining Armor," Rainbow answered. Her still functional wing flared, and her eyes bore down with terrible determination.

The indigo mare smiled cruelly. "It's your life to throw away." Then a bolt of magic flew toward Rainbow. She leapt aside quickly, enduring the agony of the motion. Cold, wet air seared her lungs as she panted for breath.

"Give up."

"You can't say that unless you're winning." Masquerade's horn ignited, and then a perfect copy of the mare stepped out of her own body. Another followed, and then a third. They paced slowly around Rainbow's hilltop, watching her closely. The mare struggled to discern the true assassin from her illusions, and found no obvious clue. They spoke together, in three voices bonded perfectly as one. "Anything you want to say before you die? I have to tell Celestia that Luna said goodbye before she fell."

More than anything else, Rainbow needed time. Her mind raced. Can't fly. "No she didn't. She was too focused on making the stars." No Sonic Rainboom.

"What? How do you know that?"

If I ran at her, she'd kill me before I got to the kick, even if I guessed the right one. "I was there, Masquerade. Remember?" I could try to buck lightning, but it might not work... and I'd still be guessing.

The Masquerades cocked their heads, and then hurled a trio of spells at Rainbow. Three misty bolts connected, but only one offered a jerking force to the left, knocking away Thunder Crack's helmet. Between her eyes, her muzzle shifted to its usual cyan, and her radiant mane spilled down her neck. The assassin gasped, and then began to laugh. "Rainbow Dash? You're alive?"

"So is Luna," Rainbow answered with a smirk, knowing exactly where to aim. She stared down at the wrong Masquerade, lining up her hinds legs to strike at the source of the blast to her head. She drew up her hind legs, and bucked with all her might.

The strength did not carry the electric spark, but her desperation did. Her need was unimaginable, not only for herself, but also for Shining Armor and for Luna. The gray clouds overhead rumbled an acknowledgement of her sheer force of will. The air cracked and flashed, and a sheer streak of raw electricity flew free from her hind legs toward the source of the magic. The illusions in front of Rainbow disappeared, and she smiled as she fell to her knees, spent from fatigue and the drain of her Empatha.

Then a laughing voice approached, walking slowly up the side of the hill. "Ever heard of a shell game, Miss Dash?" Despite her tone, Masquerade's face showed clearly that she was furious. "If Luna really is alive, then you made me fail a contract. I don't fail."

Rainbow moved to stand, but she had barely shifted at all when a bolt of arcane force bowled into her side, sending her tumbling down Cemetery Hill. Her wing sent frozen spears of pain into her body as she rolled over it again and again. The assassin followed, seizing both halves of the headstone the pegasus had broken on her landing, and carrying them above her head.

"Normally, I'd feel bad about killing one of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, but honestly, you're already dead to everyone else." Her magic brought the two halves of the broken stone together, and Rainbow cried out in shock and fear. Carved into the smooth surface of the stone was a stylized cloud, releasing a mighty bolt of lightning.

Rainbow struggled to kick another bolt of lightning at the approaching mare, but the energy was no longer within her body. She watched as her death approached, but she didn't truly see Masquerade's glare.

Easy Breeze wrapped a soft, downy wing around her foal. "Mommy will always love you, my sweet little Rainbow. Always."

Masquerades hooves slid through the soft grass, casting aside the turf with each angry step. The fine hairs of her coat were plastered in dust, and a limping rear leg struggled to keep up with her pace.

Papa held his granddaughter tightly as the two sat in box seats at the Cloudosseum, watching the pretty ponies in royal blue and vibrant gold soar at impossible speeds.

"I wanna fly like them, Papa!"

"You will, Rainbow. I'll teach you. I promise."

In the distance, Ponyville saw the first droplets of rain, as the mass of the low clouds finally gave way. A few of the droplets spilled on Rainbow's muzzle.

It had been raining off-schedule the first time she came to Ponyville, too. The only opening for a weathermare she could find, made obvious by the problems with the weather. She hadn't expected her old friend Fluttershy to be sitting there, waiting, as she flew down to the town's grassy streets.

The assassin raised her brutish, blunt weapon high over Rainbow's head. A few pebbles of loose rubble fell from the broken edges of the headstone. She watched it overhead, and tried desperately to move, but her body wouldn't obey her.

Rainbow embraced her five best friends in the entire world, putting on a less-than joyous face at the sappy display, but inwardly wishing the moment would last forever.

Masquerade spoke spitefully. "Goodbye, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow closed her eyes, and the stone came down.

The first thing Rainbow felt of death was a sensation of warmth, and a slight pressure from above. The raindrops stopped, but the pain of her wing and the gentle tickle of the grass against her coat lingered.

A clear, determined voice spoke from above her. "You will never harm another of my subjects, Masquerade."

Rainbow's eyes shot open. Princess Celestia stood over the grown mare as a mother might a foal. Her horn shed a radiant golden light, seizing the broken headstone just above her own tiara. The stone shattered into dust with no more effort than a thought. Masquerade recoiled in shock, and turned to run. Her magic created a dozen doubles, which ran limping in every direction at once.

The princess glanced over them casually, stopping on the third that her eyes met. The illusions faded in a casual burst of the alicorn's magic, and another such action dragged the mare back to face her angry ruler.

The fear on Masquerade's face was unrestrained. Tears streamed down her face as she met Celestia's stony gaze. "P-please, Princess. I'm sorry-"

"Don't plead to me," Celestia interrupted coldly, leaning forward until Masquerade could feel her breath. "I won't be the one deciding your fate. For now, contemplate your crimes."

Masquerade's response was stolen wholly by a blinding burst of golden magic. Rainbow recoiled from the light, squinting, and it still burned through her eyelids. The fizz of arcane power was accompanied by the unusual sound of earthen crackling. For five full seconds, the show of power continued, and then the light faded and the sound stopped.

The wounded pegasus opened her eyes to the sight of a sheer white marble figure, holding her forelegs over her horn in terror and squinting away from the wrath of an immortal being infinitely her greater. It took far too long for Rainbow to recognize that the statue was Masquerade, and when she did, she found fear mixed with her relief.

"Are you alright, Rainbow?"

Dash shook herself, looking up at the alicorn. Celestia stepped aside, allowing the young pegasus to rise.

"She broke my wing," Rainbow answered with an awed, hollow voice. "But Shining Armor-"

"I know," Celestia calmly responded, wrapping her wing around Rainbow once again. "I found him first." Her horn ignited, and a brilliant golden light surrounded the pair. When it faded, they stood at the edge of Ponyville's town square. Five familiar faces had huddled around the fallen captain. As if nothing had changed, Celestia continued her words. "Shining Armor gave me little to work with when he ran out of my throne room without a word. Fortunately, Thunder Crack knew where I could find you. I only regret I did not arrive more quickly."

Rainbow Dash barely even registered the words. Her attention was given to struggling out from under Celestia's wing and running with haggard steps toward the friends she hadn't seen in far too long.

"Rainbow, wait-" Celestia's warning came too slowly to stop the excited pegasus.

"Hey girls!"

Their reactions were cold enough to stop Dash cold. Five heads shot up to look at her. None smiled, at first. They only stared, quietly, sparing quick glances between one another.

Pinkie Pie was the first to shake away her unwelcoming awe. She ran forward and tackled her friend - a motion which gave Rainbow no small amount of pain. "Dashie! You're alive!"

"Ow! Yeah, I-" Rainbow winced and shook herself. "Pinkie, let go!"

"Never!"

"My wing is broken!"

The grip gave way instantly. "Sorry."

In her moment of painful distraction, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy had approached. They stood close to Rainbow with teary eyes and disbelieving smiles. Applejack spoke up first. "Ah can't believe it, Rainbow. We thought y'all was dead. What were ya' doin', puttin' us through that?"

"I wasn't dead - I got hurt, but Celestia healed me."

"Healing magic?" Rarity's brow rose strangely. "Perhaps from the Princess, but I had always heard such a thing was a matter of fiction. Still, if it brings you back to us, I shall suspend my disbelief."

Rainbow nodded. "Then I went to go find a cure for Luna."

Fluttershy let out a surprised little squeak. "That was why you were gone? That's very brave of you."

"Come on, Fluttershy," Pinkie Pie smiled. "It is Dashie."

"No she's not." Five of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony turned as their sixth member strode forward. Twilight Sparkle was furious. Her muzzle was pointed straight into the ground, leaving her eyes to glare out of the tops of their sockets. "This might look nice, girls, but it’s a trick, or a cruel joke, or something. Rainbow Dash is dead."

"Twilight, come on! I'm right-"

"Don't say I!" Twilight shouted, her voice reverberating with magic. "I don't know who you are, but you aren't Rainbow Dash!"

"Twilight, come on. The princess healed me-"

"Rainbow wasn't just hurt!" Twilight yelled. "I know! I saw what was left behind!" The unicorn panted with fury as she walked up to Rainbow's face. "Her skull was in two pieces! Her spine was sticking out the back of her neck. I found one of her wings ten feet away from where she crashed!"

"What?" Rainbow stepped back in fear, stumbling, as Twilight continued forward. Their movement only stopped when Rainbow felt a wide, gentle wing spread over her back.

"Twilight," began Celestia. "This is Rainbow Dash. Your friend."

Twilight's jaw hung low, flabbergasted. "You wouldn't... Princess, please. Don't lie to us!"

"I'm not, Twilight." Celestia looked down at Rainbow with sorrow in her eyes. "I have something to say to all of you; something I had hoped I wouldn't have to say." The solar princess glanced upward into the soft rain falling from the gray sky. "I hope you can forgive me."

- - -

The upper floor of the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville was home to the non-fiction section, but that was not why its inhabitants had gathered there. Instead, they chose the space for its privacy, and because its lack of furniture gave plenty of room for them to gather in a circle, in theory. In practice, Celestia draped her wing over Rainbow as the two sat side by side. Opposite them, the other five bearers waited for an explanation from Equestria's ruler. Twilight had only just taken her seat amongst her friends, after seeing to her wounded brother's comfort downstairs.

The alicorn looked over their waiting faces, and then sighed. "I think that I should perhaps begin this explanation by saying that Twilight was not incorrect."

"But Rainbow is sitting right there!" Pinkie Pie protested. "So obviously she didn't die."

"I'm afraid that isn't as obvious as it might seem." Celestia's head turned toward Rainbow, but jerked back when Twilight gasped.

"Princess, you don't mean-"

Celestia nodded. "I'm afraid I do, my faithful student."

"Can somepony stop skippin' all them important bits an' explain what the hay's goin' on?"

Twilight turned to the farmpony. "Princess Celestia raised Rainbow from the dead."

"What?" The word came from far more than one mouth, Rainbow's included. She alone continued the thought. "You mean I died?"

Celestia looked down at the mare with pity in her eyes. "Yes, Rainbow Dash. Saving my sister's life a week ago in Canterlot cost you your own." Then she could no longer stand to look down into the violet eyes of an innocent mare, and she turned to face the wall of bookshelves behind her student. "You earned your eternal reward, but I had to take it away from you. You were the only pony who knew what had happened with Masquerade atop the Academy tower, and I needed answers if I wanted to save my sister."

"Look, Princess, I'm not seeing anything wrong with this. I should be thanking you, right?"

"No," Twilight answered. "Raising a creature from the dead is cruel, especially for a pony. That kind of magic is called necromancy, and it's forbidden because of what it does." Twilight looked at Celestia with a mix of awe and something like disappointment. "A pony can steal a soul back from the Summer Lands... or Tartarus, in theory, and bind it back to its body. But the body will decay and rot until its nothing but a skeleton, unless it feeds on the meat of its own kind. These undead monsters are often bound to the will of their creators, leaving them without free will of their own."

For just a moment, the dark rivers of Zebrica returned to Rainbow's mind. Twilight, however, wasn't done.

"It's worse for the poor pony's soul, though, because it knows that it's supposed to be somewhere else. There's a constant tug to go back to wherever it was stolen from, but the magic forces it to remain here, in the land of the living."

Concerned friends looked over to Rainbow as she stared up, confused, at the alicorn too ashamed to look her way. Celestia directed her attention to Twilight, and she responded gently.

"You are correct, Twilight, though my methods were not as dark as... many in the past. I was able to restore Rainbow's body fully, without the need for raw meat or the loss of her free will. I softened the return of her soul as best I could, but the call of the Summer Lands is something I can do nothing about."

The comforting wing was lifted away from Rainbow's back as Celestia stood up to her full height. Her hooves carried her to the glass doors leading to the balcony, where she stared out at the rain. It was her hope that turning her face away would keep her from seeing the tears of disappointment on her student's face, and the darkness she fully expected from her sister's savior.

"It had been my intention to return Rainbow to the Summer Lands when her quest was over, so that she wouldn't have to face that pain. I kept what I had done secret because I felt it would be kinder to simply let you think her dead than to give her back, only to steal her away again." She glanced back over her shoulder toward the pegasus for just a second, though in all her wisdom, she saw nothing. "Rainbow, I hid the letters you wrote them. I knew that if I promised you I would deliver them, you wouldn't turn to somepony else to contact your friends. It was cruel of me to force you back in the first place, but I needed my sister, and in my grief, your soul seemed like a small price to pay." The princess hung her head in shame as she finished her words with the two most simple and most familiar she could ever imagine. "I'm sorry."

The six friends shared each other's company without words, as a silent conversation danced between their eyes. Rainbow found herself in shock, barely acknowledging those who glanced her way. It was Twilight Sparkle who ultimately spoke up, turning toward Celestia. "What happens now, Princess?"

The alicorn turned back with a sorrowful gaze. "Nothing has changed. Rainbow's soul needs to go back. It isn't meant to be trapped here in Equestria any longer."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Rainbow's shout was that of an ignored foal, desperate and emotional. "What if I don't want to go back? I still have my friends here, and my life, and my job. I did what you asked! I joined your guard, and saved Luna, and now you think I should just give everything up?"

"I'm sorry, Rainbow, but it will be easier. You have a strong will, but in time, the pull will break even that. I've seen what ponies become when they linger too long in a world they weren't meant for. You don't want that. You don't want your friends to remember you like that."

"No!" Rainbow flared her one good wing, standing tall to face the deity too cowardly to meet her eye to eye. "I'd rather live."

As she stomped away past her friends, Celestia turned. "If it becomes too much for you, Rainbow, you need only come to see me... or my sister, if you can no longer bear to see me."

When Rainbow slammed the library door, its sound faded into total silence. Celestia continued to stare out the window, watching the rain as it tapped against the window. The six remaining ponies remained in place for almost a minute before she spoke again, unprompted. "You can see now why I no longer wield the Elements of Harmony. Where was my honesty, when I told you that your friend was dead? Where were my kindness and generosity when I stole away her reward for my own benefit? Where were my laughter and my magic when I cried alone, unable to save my sister?" She turned slowly, as the pain of looking away finally overwhelmed her fear of the five ponies' silent judgments. "Where was my loyalty, when I betrayed all of you?"

"Princess, I think we all understand," Rarity answered. "Perhaps circumstances were cruel to you, but you made your choices to save Princess Luna because you love her. I fear I may have done the same for Sweetie Belle in your situation."

Celestia smiled sadly, as a few gentle tears rolled down her cheeks, clearly distinct from the rain behind her. "That is the lie I've told myself every night for the past week, Rarity, because it helps me to sleep. The truth is that I saved my sister for my own gain." The turned to Twilight. "Immortality is lonely, and though I fill my life with ponies I love, they always fade in time. Star Swirl. Miracle. Alacrity. Hurricane." An obvious wistful longing carried that last name. "But they fade so quickly. Even Twilight will be gone soon by the span of my life. Luna is my only companion, and banishing her away was the hardest choice I ever made. I could never survive without her."

Nopony responded for so long that, at last, Celestia turned toward the doors once more, spreading her wings.

It was a soft voice, calm and gentle, which stopped her. "What can we do to help her?" Fluttershy asked of her ruler.

"Be her friend. Stand by her. The stronger her ties to her life, the longer she will last."

"And what if something happens?" Twilight added quickly.

"If she dies before my spell is broken, her soul will be trapped here forever." The non-answer was the Princess' only prelude to a single mighty flap that carried her up into the gray clouds. A short burst of golden magic was enough to tell them that she had gone home.

- - -

The day passed in Ponyville beneath the gray rain. Rainbow Dash had asked for time alone, and her friends had reluctantly granted it, only demanding that she make her way to the hospital to have her wing taken care of. Bluntly lying, she told them she'd make the visit. In the somber atmosphere of the rain, the young mare instead wandered the back streets of town, ignoring the locals who were slowly building up the courage to leave their homes and investigate the source of the disturbance they had heard earlier. A few noticed her, or spared surprised looks in her direction, but she offered them none of her own in the constant rain

Her broken wing hung limply at her side, dragging through the mud and shifting slowly from a vibrant blue to a pale white. She'd left Thunder Crack's armor in the library, discarded in disgust at the Princess, her guard, and everything they stood for.

She had only stopped her slow walk when she reached the far side of Cemetery Hill. The grassy mound was large enough to block her resting place from a proper view of Ponyville. She leaned back against the backside of a headstone and stared at the marble statue that had once been a deadly assassin.

"Looks like we both got screwed over, huh?" she asked the petrified mare, her words dripping with sarcasm. "Celestia sticks you in a statue, and I get to look forward to going crazy for the rest of my life. Not exactly the reward I was expecting."

As expected, Masquerade said nothing.

"This whole thing wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tried to kill Princess Luna, you know? It's all your fault."

The statue didn't answer.

"I joined the guard because of you. Shining Armor got hurt because of what you did." Her breath grew ragged and her words punctuated by spite with each passing word. "The Commander, and that other guardspony are dead, and it's your fault. I died because of you." Then she reared up on her hind legs and screamed. "Reckoning is dead because of you!"

Her right forehoof swung around for the most furious blow she had ever delivered. With a thunderous crack, both from the force of Rainbow's Empatha and the shattering of marble, Masquerade's right foreleg fell to the ground beside her petrified body. No scream or cry of pain followed the wound, save Rainbow falling back against the headstone again panting and staring at her hooves. Shame mixed with the anger in her blood, but she did not regret what she had done. She only saw her own reflection in the solid steel shoes. At first, they were marred with mud and grass, but the steady rain soon wiped them clear to show a haggard, tired face. It was the face of a pony filled with grief and fury and determination, and it seemed to her to be all she had left.

The shoes were the last vestige of the guard in her life, in more than one way. As she pulled the first of the shoes from her hooves, she spoke to Masquerade once more. "You know, my dad was a guardspony." The shoe slipped on the grass and landed at Masquerade's hooves. "He was named after these shoes. Steel Lining." The second shoe came off, and she balanced it on her naked hooves as she spoke. "Well, I'm done with him and the guard now. Thanks for nothing, dad." The shoe flew over her shoulder, lost almost instantly in the veil of rain.

Rainbow sat there for nearly an hour longer, before wandering off to find somewhere to sleep. Twilight had offered the library's upper room, and it was as good a site as any Rainbow could think of. The sun set slowly as she stumbled back through town, and she spitefully found herself glad to be rid of its light.

The library door opened at her gentle touch, and she wandered in, dripping and cold. Shining Armor was gone from his earlier place on the couch, and neither Twilight nor Spike were anywhere to be seen in the main room. Only Owlowiscious was present to give acknowledgement to the returning mare. Rainbow paid him no mind as she stumbled up the stairs to Twilight's guest room, where she flopped into bed. Despite the pain in her wing, the sensation of the soft mattress was amazing. She might very well have fallen asleep a moment later, were it not for a clear rapping at the window.

"What?" Groaning, the mare turned over and called out. "Is somepony there?"

"Yes, Lady Dash," came the reply.

A second voice added to the first. "The Princess wishes to speak with you."

The simple phrase incited all of Rainbow's fury. She stood up and wandered over to the window. "Well, I'd rather never see the Princess again, so..." Her words simply trailed away as she saw the alicorn mare sitting in a chariot just outside the window.

"Forgive us if we- apologies, if I have offended you, Rainbow Dash. We were told that we might find you here." Princess Luna smiled gently, nodding toward the two night guards keeping her chariot hovering in midair, as if explaining her use of the regular plural. "Might we come inside?"

"Okay," Rainbow managed to utter, caught completely by surprise. She struggled out of the way as Luna crawled through the tiny opening, followed by her two guards. Rainbow glanced between them, noting that only their genders set them apart.

Luna pulled off a heavy black cloak with her teeth, which one of the Night Guard threw over his back without further word. Revealed, Rainbow could see the damage that the phage seeds had done to her body. She was as small and frail as she had been the first time the two met, after the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Her mane was a short-cropped pale blue, utterly mundane in the way it hung about her face. Her cheeks were gaunt, and even for her normally slim build, there was an obvious lack of muscle on her legs and flanks. A fair majority of her feathers had fallen out, and her eyes seemed more than a bit sunken. Nevertheless, the smile on her face as she embraced Rainbow was a pleasure to behold.

"Thank thee, Rainbow Dash. It is my understanding that you saved my life."

Rainbow noted that the grip of her hug was weak, and that it ended very quickly. Luna then fell back onto her haunches, though still wearing her smile. "I'm afraid I have been feeling my age recently." Rainbow joined in her healthy chuckle, which also ended seemingly too soon. "Perchance the hour is unreasonable to your health, but we- er, I, could not bear to spare the night without showing you my gratitude."

"It's fine, Princess."

She held up a hoof. "Please, Rainbow Dash, you of all ponies have the right to use my name. If anything, I ought bestow upon you a title."

"I felt that 'Lady Dash' was a befitting name, Mistress, but she turned it away," said the stallion of the two Night Guards.

"Quiet," the mare answered. "The princess is talking."

Rainbow quirked a brow. "Third Brother?"

Luna looked between Rainbow and her guards. "So you've met my Night Guard, then?"

The mare nodded. "Just him, Princess. I told him to watch over her, but when she flew across the ocean..." The words trailed off as though their thought were obvious, though Rainbow didn't understand. The obvious question was stolen away when the mare turned back to face the pegasus. "You can call me 'Eldest Sister', by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You too," Rainbow answered cautiously, scratching her head. "Listen, Pri- sorry, Luna. Today's been a really, really awful day, and I'd sort of just like it to be over."

"We know," she answered bluntly. "My sister was in tears when I awoke."

Rainbow's face curdled. "Do you expect me to forgive her?"

Luna shook her head. "Perhaps someday, but not now. Celestia needs to feel the pain in her heart as I once did, or she will not learn from this." At the slight show of surprise on Rainbow's face, the tired princess continued. "I know what she did; I was the one who sent you to rest in the first place. But I understand why you might not want to leave your friends in your youth, and so I offer a solution. When the pain in your heart becomes too great to endure, see me. Should you ever need or want for anything, you need only ask."

"Okay, Luna. Thanks, really."

"You have no need to thank me for my own thanks; we would waste away our days expressing gratitude. But I do have one request."

"Huh? Sure, what?"

Luna glanced to her two guards, and then looked straight into Rainbow's eyes. "My Night Guard needs a captain, and I think-"

"No, Luna." Rainbow shook her head firmly. "I'm done with being a guardspony."

"Of course, but might I ask you why?"

Rainbow nodded slowly. "Being a guard means giving up everything else. My dad gave up his family. Same thing for Dead Reckoning; he didn't have a family or anything. He told me all his friends were other guardsponies. And while I was out there, I didn't get to see my friends either. I'm not giving everything up again."

"We understand," Luna answered, before turning shakily toward the window. She moved slowly, but stopped at the threshold of the room. "But perhaps I might make one more request, Rainbow."

"Yeah?"

"Might you consider me your friend?"

Rainbow smiled and nodded. "Of course, Luna."

"Then sleep well, Rainbow Dash and we shall speak again in time. Know that all of Equestria thanks you, when they look up upon our night."

As Luna and her guards left the library and Rainbow climbed back into bed, she pondered quietly whether the plurality of Luna's parting phrase was deliberate.

- - -

The Commander gasped in agony as his body flopped limp upon the dirt of the wasteland. A gash in his stomach a foot deep revealed his most necessary organs, and it spilled forth the very essence of his life at a rate too fast to stop. The pegasus was too weak to fight back as a bowl of beetles was poured into the wound. Had he any breath remaining, he would have screamed aloud at the pain. Had he any tears, he would have cried. Instead, dry but shaking eyes watched as the tusks of the boar Warchief ignited with divine magic. His own blood dripped from one of the massive tusks, the source of his fatal wound. He only longed that the blow could have gone too deep, or too far, that he might have finally met the end of all things.

Khagan was too old, and too skilled in battle to allow such a mistake. His magic stitched the pony's flesh together, restoring his body moments before it expired. He could still feel the beetles, eating away at his flesh from within. To them he wished speed, knowing that they would be slow about their work.

"Take him back to his cell, and let his guests enjoy their dinner for the night." Khagan gave a hearty laugh. "Perhaps now you finally regret your actions as much as my kind have, Commander. But I doubt it. You still have much to learn of suffering."

The boars shoved the Commander, and kicked him, but he could not have moved if he wanted to. He didn't even register their hard blows against his body. His agony was already beyond his mind's capacity to understand. He was hoisted in a field of magic and carried into a rough tunnel carved down into a dusty red cliff. He'd been lucid enough the first night of his unending torture to learn the path, though the knowledge did him no good with a shattered wing and a broken leg. He couldn't fight, he couldn't fly, and he couldn't run. His only option was to remain, and suffer, until Khagan grew bored enough to grant him death.

His cell was a tiny chamber carved from red stone, nearly devoid of light. A tiny window sat six feet up the wall, too small to crawl through even without its bars. In the mornings, the sun shone through it. He knew perfectly well that such a gesture was another of Khagan's spiteful taunts, showing him a sign of Celestia as if it were a promise of the freedom he would never have again.

When the cell door was slammed behind him, and the boar warriors had left him alone, he pulled himself over to the nearest wall and scratched a second tally mark into the wall. He wasn't sure why he did it, really; it was just something he vaguely knew prisoners to do in fiction. He had no use for the information, except a record of his suffering.

Days in the desert were hot, but it was the nights against that chilled stone, suffering in too much pain to sleep that truly bothered him. He could barely focus as his hoof moved over to his other carving. This one was far more intricate. It had taken him all of the previous night to get the rough shape down. Now he was on to adding a face. Unlike his tally marks, this one gave him the hope of at least someone to speak to, who could perhaps sympathize with his suffering.

Only four short strokes into the carving, he broke through as he had so desperately wanted.

"Is somepony there?"

"Ye...s.." The word was hard to utter, given the lacerations in his lungs.

"Oh, that won't do, 'Commander'. Perhaps you can think better than you can speak."

He struggled to focus through the pain. "A bit, Discord. How is Canterlot?"

"Oh, things are going wonderfully. Luna died, and Krenn and Magnus have gone to war with Celestia trying to claim her gift." Though the Commander's face didn't change from his pained grimace, the spark of concern that flicked through his mind was obvious to the mischievous spirit. "No, I'm afraid your precious, boring civilization is still standing in your absence. And here I'd been hoping everything would go pear-shaped if you weren't around to murder and kidnap the other races into submission. Funny how you'd criticize the assassin for that sort of behavior."

"How do you know about Masquerade?"

"Oh, please. Do you really think she figured out how to get past your security all by herself? That she knew to expect your magic armor, or your lightning?" Discord's laughter rang through the Commander's mind for almost a full minute. "You truly just don't consider the world around you, do you? Does physical danger not intimidate you any more? I bet you're regretting telling me how everything worked in exchange for my leads, aren't you?"

"No, Discord. I don't regret a thing."

"Hah! Excellent! I love your spirit, 'Commander'. It's too bad you aren't still around, though I do have to admit your successor can create some wonderful chaos as well in his own, admittedly rather blunt way."

"My successor?"

"Ah, I don't think I want to tell you about that... Steel, was it?"

"Why not? I'm going to die here. I can't act on it."

"Is that what you think?" Discord's laughter grew stronger still. "Oh, that is just precious. You have no idea."

"I thought you didn't look into the future, Discord."

"What kind of Spirit of Chaos would I be if I never broke my own rules? I hope you weren't looking forward to the end. After all, this is only the beginning."

---

End of Act I

Special Thanks to SatoshiKyu and Roflknief for pre-reading.

Comments

[LoyalLiar]

Here we are: the end of Act One.

It's strange to think back on when I started writing this story during Summer Break, with no idea how it was going to pan out. Here we are now, looking at what could, in several ways, be considered a complete story. I promise you, though, that Discord's words at the end are true. "This is only the beginning."

LET IT BE KNOWN THAT FROM THIS POINT ON, THERE MAY BE SPOILERS FOR ACT 1 IN THE COMMENTS!

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter; so many plot-lines finally finished up here.

I'll probably have more to say as people ask questions, but for now, I'll tell you a little bit about the interlude that I've previously alluded to:

The 'Interlude' is basically just bunch of mini-chapters that explain the events passing the time between Act 1 and Act 2; things like Red Ink's punishment and a Guardspony Funeral are coming up, as is a convenient summary in the form of Shining Armor's incident report (the one he was trying to write when Derpy interrupted him ). They (probably) won't be huge, 12k word things, but they definitely will matter for future chapters. As for why they aren't just part of Act 2, its more of a grouping thing, and it helps the obvious arcs of the story hold together better.

As always, I love to hear your thoughts.

Oh, and if anybody is interested in doing any grammatical editing now that Act 1 is done (perhaps for EqD submission; who knows), contact me! You'll get recognition, as well the opportunity to pre-read (and thus, know what's happening before anyone else) in the future!

-Loyal Liar

[RainbowsAreMagic]

Hmm. Rainbow Dash was SPOILER by Celestia. That makes a lot of sense. The only odd thing I see is that she wants to live, but resents Celestia's action, which seems a little contradictory.

[BoundlessImagination]

Ermagerd.

[_CheckMate_]

so he IS RD's dad

[Tiran]

This is only act 1? Awesome. I'm loving this story. How many acts do you have planned?

[Loyal]

Not commenting on the story, just saying...
Username coincidence.

[repoman]

Wow, if this is just act one, I wonder how big the entire thing will be. I look forward to it.

[djthomp]

Oh hell yeah Masquerade, that couldn't have happened to a nicer mare. *fistpump* Agreeing to deliver that letter for the commander was a huge mistake.

"I won't be the one deciding your fate. For now, contemplate your crimes."

Hmn, seems like we maybe haven't seen the last of her, though it sounds like she'll be waking up without a leg if we do.

[Nopony in Particular]

So Commander Steel Lining of the Guard IS RD's dad, we get another hint at the relationship between Celestia and Hurricane(there is some sort of relationship there), RD doesn't want to be a guard anymore. Too bad fate(or Discord) will throw a wrench in her plans to live a peaceful life until she wishs to pass on to the afterlife. Oh yeah, we have loose ends to be tied up in later acts. I still can't believe this story. 184,000 word(approx.) and it is only Act One.

[Lelouch Vi Britania]

So the Commander is her father, I honestly didn't think he would turn out to be, as much as I wanted him to, so that's awesome. And if what discord says is true, I guess we'll be seeing more of home in the future. Once again, amazing story

[zaponator]

This was absolutely brilliant.
I can't wait for act 2! Was a little disappointed that Dash quit the guard, and never found out about her father, but as you said, this is only the beginning.

[Ruirik]

Well done as always, though that romance tag just got awkward.

Well, here's hoping for a happy ending eventually. No idea how you'd get there, but I'll be along for the whole ride!

[roflknief]

1719986
Seems to me that Dash was mad Tia didn't tell her friends she was alive, didn't send the letters she said she would, and didn't tell Rainbow she died then she was about Tia reviving her.

[Miki]

At least I don't feel as depressed anymore about R.D. She now has a chance at some closure, and that was the primary source of my depression about her state. Hell, it could be possible that she is just too damn stubborn to die and lives her life to the fullest regardless of the fact that she is a zombpony.

[Literature]

This story is beautiful.
Keep up the good work.
That is all.

[Lelouch Vi Britania]

Am I the only one that found masquerade trying to kill rainbow with her own headstone increadably ironic? Especially so if you consider the fact that she's technically a zombpony.

[SatoshiKyu]

1720061
1720127
The answer to this will be made known to you mere moments after the story is tagged [Complete], and not a second before!

[DualThrone]

> PrincessTia used Raise Dead on Rainbow_Dash.
> It's super-effective!

Yeah, life is good right now. Rainbow Dash wins, is awesome, and is undead, all at the same time!

[Mithrandir]

ACT ONE? AWESOME!!! Great story, I can't even begin to describe it!

[dastrdlyW]

End... of ACT ONE!? WHAT!?

Wow. Lookin forward to the rest.

[AnonymousBrony]

I swear, if Masquerade comes back, I will be beyond mad. I hated her so, so much. Celestia shouldn't have wasted time with a statue, and just incinerated her or something.
Oh, and cool story too. I hope to see more soon (very soon). After all, we still have some loose ends to tie up.

[RainbowsAreMagic]

1720303 That does make more sense.

[edgelesspigeon]

Holy smoke. Wow, just... wow. This story is phenomenal. LoyalLiar, you're easily in my top five fanfic authors (not just MLP fanfics, but fanfic in general), and this story is in my top five fics as well. Everything about this story is great. The characterizations, the plot, everything. You even managed to create well-developed and interesting OCs, an incredibly difficult task. Most of all, I love how you write Rainbow Dash. You nail her personality, absolutely nail it. I just wanted to say that I have loved every minute of reading this story, and I can't wait to read the Interlude and Act II. I had the privilege to have started reading "Where Loyalties Lie" when the first chapter was posted, but I had no idea it would turn out to be so good. Keep up the excellent work. And you too, SatoshiKyu and Roflknief

[Shadow Scryer]

End of act 1? Hmhmhm. This should be interesting. Could be wrong, but I don't think Dashie's gonna have a choice of whether she wants to be a guard of not sometime soon.

So I'm not entirely sure, can Dashie still be killed by normal means or does her body have to be completely destroyed now that she's technically undead? I know it's heavily implied it's the first, but I never know for certain with the undead.

[PhycoKrusk]

So, this is gonna be a trilogy sort of deal, right? Cuz, damn.

You sir, are some kind of literary miracle.

[Dracmatais]

After having read this behemoth of a story in two separate sittings (Would have been one but this chapter wasn't out at the time.) All I have to say is you sir are one of those very very rare few that have earned from me a perfect 10/10. I can say that it has been a long long time since I have read a story that has literally managed to blow me away with it's sheer scope and daring to tell a tale of such magnificence. Now before you or anybody else goes thinking that this is merely empty praise below I will be listing just a small number of things that I appreciated very much that added to my like of this story.

First; You took a character that I am all too tired of seeing in Wonderbolt this or Twilight Love Story that and gave her an epic adventure involving politics, Flawed Gods & Goddesses and a veritable pantheon of OC's that are each and every one memorable. You get props for creating a unique tale all its own that isn't particularly comparable to any other Rainbow Dash story. Sure there might be other epic Rainbow Dash stories and I have even read one or two of them(Rainbooms & Royalty as well as Off the Edge of the Map come to mind) But that makes this one stand out all the more for NOT being just another spin off/parody/sequel etc. of a tried and true tale.

Second; Not everything is fixed in the end, The bad guys aren't forgiven & forgotten merely because they apologized. Instead of taking an easy route and having a perfect ending where everything is sunshine and rainbows in the end(No puns intended) we are left with an ending that is perfectly realistic given the events that lead up to it. In short I love the fact that no "Miracle Pill" or equivalent is swallowed to make everything perfect and happy again in the end.

Third; Your introduction to this tale was spectacular! An excellent hook if I have ever read one. Right off the bat you had my attention when you mentioned that our protagonist's story didn't begin until her life had ended. I was expecting some sort of afterlife journey type of story and got something MUCH MUCH better instead. A good plot hook is essential for drawing in your readers and getting them interested in your story, in this you have succeeded well beyond my wildest expectations.

Fourth; Your villains. All of the bad guys were in my opinion true villains each with their own twisted moralisation justifying their actions. I didn't spot one bad guy who felt flat with no character or depth to them. Some of the villains I actually liked a fair bit!(Masquerade as an example.) Good villains are hard to write for in my opinion and you didn't write just one you had quite a few antagonists. Speaking of antagonists that is another related thing that I liked. Some of the antagonists weren't even villains per say. More like people who were desperately trying to do the right thing but weren't succeeding very well.

There are so many more things that I could expound upon but by now I think you get the point that I liked this story a LOT!

Just a recommendation though, You should probably post your interlude chapters either at the tail end of this one and have your Act II be a separate story or place your interludes at the beginning of Act II as a separate story. I say this because as you have commented yourself what you have here could very easily be it's own completed work. You have enough words here for a novel as is. Besides having Act II be it's own story gives you more attention and exposure time, hopefully drawing in people who might want to take a look at anything else you might want to write about in the future that isn't this story.

[Christopher28]

Hmm... so Rainbow Dash has a unconcious yearning for the "summer lands", AKA the pony version of heaven/Valhalla/etc... which, if we trust Celestia's interpretation, effects her in a manner I find strangely similar to how Frodo felt after throwing the ring into mount doom.

To paraphrase, once you are a ring-bearer/zombie pony, you will never be able to be at peace...

So Rainbow Dash will always be feeling this yearning, till she is released from her "zombie curse" and it will wear on her till it becomes too much to bear... but depending on her willpower, and the joy she might find along the way, it might be a long time or a short one before that comes.

Hmm... I wonder if the 'magic of friendship' might offer, if not a cure, at least a balm for her yearning?

The Elements of Harmony themselves might prove some protection for Rainbow Dash as well, giving a possible loophole to the whole, "you can't raise the dead without consequences" trope going on here. Perhaps any of the Mane 6 could be, if need be, be raised in the same fashion... but of course, the Elements might not in fact solve the 'yearning' problem, not to mention the very real danger of losing any chance of an afterlife if they die again while zombified...

I wonder which way things will go? Will Rainbow Dash desend into dispair from the yearning and ask Luna to release her? Will our plucky blue heroine find an 'Elements of Harmony only' loophole in her fate? Are my suppositions all wrong? Only time will tell. I only know for sure that I can't wait to find out.

[Keyesty]

She hadn't expected the mail to reach the palace the very same day she handed off Steel's letter, but she the concern wasn't pressing, regardless.

Rainbow spared one of her forelegs from holding the assassin in order to strike the at the obvious threat.

Perhaps, rewording?
LL, had I learned Equish good enough to tease proof-readers?
Great ending, way to leave readers to yearn for more.

[SatoshiKyu]

1722790

So, this is gonna be a trilogy sort of deal, right?

1724509

Goddammit.

[ShadowSaber1]

That was only act one??!! Holy crap.

Really enjoyed this story at the start I found it hard to get into but In the end I couldn't put it down. Well done.

[Keyesty]

1725059
Don't worry, SatoshiKyu, you two did very well, but I have been bragging (sort of) to LoyalLiar that I can be almost as good as proof-reader. Couldn't disappoint.

[Spiritus Arcane]

See, this is why, if you're gonna use resurrection magic in a setting, you do it the D&D way. First off, there's no soul angst in a standard D&D raise dead. Some BODY shock maybe, from someone flipping the swich from 'dead' to 'alive' (or regrowing it from scratch depending on the circumstances and the spell), but no whole 'living zombie' thing described here. Also, at least in 3.5, you couldn't even be raised unless the person ALLOWS themselves to be raised, meaning soul angst is a non issue anyhow.

Personally, I wonder that if Twilight hadn't gone and spilled the beans, forcing Celestia to come clean, if Rainbow would be having any, or at least barely any, soul angst simply because she didn't know she'd been dead. Well, hopefully she'll learn to deal with it and it won't become an issue til the story's epilogue when Rainbow's like 80 or something...

On the plus side, her rage at Celestia DID result in Rainbow getting to knock one of Masquerade's limbs off. That'll probably be really painful for her when she gets de-stoned for her trial, even if its reattached. Too bad it wasn't her horn though.

Knew this couldn't be the end, since Soldier On's still out there, as well as whoever hired Masquerade to begin with.

[LoyalLiar]

So, first off, I decided that the cleanest way to write this would be to reply to as many of you as possible in one go; however, I ended up with a whole bunch of lines of text reading '>>NUMBERS HERE' and it was hard to keep them straight. As a result, if it seems like I'm not replying to your comment correctly, I likely got it switched up with one of the others; apologies.

1720061, 1720127, 1720294, 1720770, 1721723, 1722061, 1722790>>1725064 1725059: Glad to hear that you've enjoyed this enough to be looking forward to the 'Acts' thing that I... basically just buried at the front of the first chapter, where everyone skipped over it. I have no intention of letting this story go until its done, believe me.

On this topic: TO EVERYONE READING COMMENTS:
1723035 makes a proposal that I find very interesting, and I'd love your opinions on the matter:

Just a recommendation though, You should probably post your interlude chapters either at the tail end of this one and have your Act II be a separate story or place your interludes at the beginning of Act II as a separate story. I say this because as you have commented yourself what you have here could very easily be it's own completed work. You have enough words here for a novel as is. Besides having Act II be it's own story gives you more attention and exposure time, hopefully drawing in people who might want to take a look at anything else you might want to write about in the future that isn't this story.

Now, my original plan was to post everything in a single story (namely, this one); my reasoning behind this was that creating a new story might lose readers who had favorites but weren't aware of the sequel, and that everything would be nicely bundled. However, I do see Dracmatais' point as well; as things stand, I'm a bit conflicted. If I were to create a second story, this one would be retitled to 'Honor Guard' (the name of Act I), and the interlude would be divided between the end of this, and the beginning of the next story (as pro- and epi- logues respectively); some of the things I had planned don't necessarily fit cleanly into this split (notably, Red Ink's punishment that some of you have been clamboring for, but as I've been discussing with Satoshi, that would probably make a nice side-story of it's own anyway). Forgive me for my rambling. Anyway, the split might actually come out looking more clean and 'professional' in the long run, alongside the points Dracmatais' made above.

So, basically, what I'm asking is this: Reply to this comment, or PM me, or something, and let me know what you prefer: A new story for Act II, or a continuation within this Story.

1720010, 1720213, 1720230: See, I'm glad I can finally talk about this; I was afraid to say anything and risk spoilers until it was actually revealed. Anyway, for anyone still wondering, YES: 'Commander Steel' is 'Steel Lining', son of Silver Lining and father of Rainbow Dash. I was surprised when readers guessed and made the connection way back in Chapter One, but thankfully, others were able to resist and keep the suspense up a bit. It was so much fun watching speculation on this topic build as hints were revealed throughout the story.

1720146: Masquerade will appear in some capacity in Act 2, though I make no promises as to the length or significance of said appearances. Escaping from prison is one thing, but escaping from petrification is something else. On the other hand, she is the only lead that the Guard have in trying to find out who was ultimately behind the assassination plot.

1720299: Yeah - I should definitely say something about this, shouldn't I? So here we go: the 'Romance' in this story begins in Act II. It has ALWAYS been intended to begin in Act II; in fact, that was one of the very, VERY few things I knew for certain about the overarching plot going into the story. I still won't say *who*, because it amuses me not to, but I will remind you that, as I have mentioned earlier, both characters in the significant romance are canonical. (That isn't to say there won't be others; I am very much aware of your presence, Shining x Solo shippers ).

1720303, 1722290: Rolfknief is correct regarding the basic idea I was getting at: Rainbow isn't pissed to be alive; she's pissed about being lied to and, more importantly, that her friends were lied to. The fact that Celestia essentially planned to *kill her* after she went through the trouble of saving Luna isn't really a bonus. Neither is the knowledge of what would have happened to her had she died in Zebrica, which brings me to my next point:

1720484 1720591 1725337 1723324 : Holy crap; I knew I was going to get a reaction with the big reveal about Rainbow, but the necromancy in these comments is spreading faster that the T-Virus (or, insert alternate Zombie Virus/Parasite here)! I left a few things vague in Celestia's explanation both due to the emotional stress of the situation (it certainly wasn't an exhaustive academic lecture on the subject, given the emotional strain of the scene), and because a flood of exposition that close to the end of the Act would have brutally murdered the flow and the mood of the scene. Honestly, I was probably pushing things with as much of an explanation as I chose to give.

I'm not going to bore you all with an explanation here in the comments either, except to say that resolving the 'tug' on her soul is one of the major themes of Rainbow's portion of Act II. To respond to Christopher28 in particular, I'll note that there may very well be 'loopholes' to help Rainbow out, but such things do not ever come without a price, and much like a return to life, that price is often steep.

1725337: As an avid player of D&D (Well, Pathfinder, now), I felt I had to respond to this one in particular. Obviously, the 'soul angst' as you've termed it is an issue, but I introduced it in no small part as a means by which to make the raising of the dead carry some weight. Otherwise, why wouldn't Celestia just resurrect Dead Reckoning, or the Commander (given her knowledge on the matter), or even Hurricane (as some of you have noted above)? Don't answer that question.

For the potential amusement it offers, I actually did cull the idea for one sort of 'raising the dead' plot point from D&D... but it wasn't based on Undead at all. If you know how 'Outsiders' as a creature type work, you'll have a fun time with what is perhaps the biggest reveal of Act 2... but you'll have to wait for it.

Amusingly, you may also note that I went rather far out of my way to make sure that I had explained why simply raising Luna from the dead wouldn't work considerably prior to the actual reveal of Celestia's ability to raise the dead.

1722382 It's been a great... what, six-ish months? Maybe a little more? It does seem like forever since I sat down to write Chapter 1 of WLL, and things have certainly come a long way since then. As I stated before, when somebody asked me about my writing experience, I have written other fanfics before (and I want nothing more to do with them, so don't ask). However, given the responses I got on those, its astounding to me that so many people have read and enjoyed Where Loyalties Lie.

1723035: Wow! Thank you very much! I really wanted to acknowledge the depth of your comment here, but apart from what I said above (in regards to having 2+ stories), 'Thank you' is really all I can say. Glad you've enjoyed it.

Oh, and since people have been asking, I'll give this final little tidbit:

1720693>>1722790 - Satoshi isn't quite right here, but I'm afraid a trilogy is thinking just a bit small. Where Loyalties Lie will be either Four (4) or Five (5) acts, depending entirely on how quickly things move in the 3rd. As I've mentioned in a rather roundabout way in previous comments, I am pretty much making things up as I go along (besides the extremely major details, like nearly everything revealed in Chapter 16). I can't tell you what happens to the Commander yet, for example, because I haven't decided myself.

In closing, to everyone - not just commenters, but readers of all types - I say thank you. The story would hardly be the same without its audience.

I'll remind you all again to let me know somehow about what you think in regards to a story split, one way or another.

[Spiritus Arcane]

1728330
Wait...so you're saying that all ponies, and maybe alicorns especially are-

Ok yeah, better not say what I'm thinking lest it turn out to be a major spoiler.

[LoyalLiar]

1728369

No, in fact, it is only one specific pony.

See, Celestia didn't just know how to raise somepony from the dead; she had to figure it out...

And now I'm getting too close to spoiling something for you.

[Tiran]

1728330

I prefer a continuation of this story, but I'll read it either way. I use the favorites to track updates, so using the same story is more convienant for me. If you do decide to go with a new story, would you mind posting an announcement in this story?

[LoyalLiar]

1728428

Oh, I should have mentioned that:

If I do split it, the part of the 'interlude' which will become the 'epilogue' to this will include a link to the next story. I promise.

[RainbowsAreMagic]

1728330 I, too, would prefer to see a continuation as opposed to a new story. I tried doing the whole "new story" thing. You get people who don't read the original, and then downvote because they don't understand what's going on.

[Dracmatais]

1728330

In regards to splitting the Acts you already have my own two cents. As for the rest. I completely understand not knowing what to say when you receive well deserved compliments. You are quite welcome and know that whatever you ultimately decide I'll probably be along for the ride either way. So good luck and have fun writing your story and be sure to thank all the awesome people who help you out for me!

[PhycoKrusk]

1728330
I really do need to recommend a separate story. Unfortunately, it's sort of a Catch-22. It is a valid point that you might get down-votes on a new story because some folks don't go back to read the preceding stories. At the same time, however, I can tell you from experience there have been some stories that seemed interesting to me that I elected not to read because of their word count. Act I of WLL tips the scales at about 185,000 words, which is all-in-all not that bad.

But extrapolating out, that means that, given similar word counts, by the end of Act V, the total word count will be just shy of 1,000,000, and that is a terrifyingly large number. I can guarantee that I am not the only one who might opt not to read it, no matter how well rated it was, because that represents a seeming insurmountable obstacle to finishing it.

[_CheckMate_]

i give yet another vote for a continuation rather than a sequel

-so far this story is a good 9.99/10 (highest rating i've given a fanfic), keep up the good work; can't wait to see what comes next

-will there be repercussions for the deaths of some of these gods (does falkner count as one, i cant remember)? will Gilda have a bigger role? will everyone's least favorite princess face the consequences of her decisions? how will Luna fare with her magic at 200%? how many face-hooves when they realize the quest was unnecessary (since you just have to wait out the seeds)? tune in next time (or several times afterwards) to WHERE... LOYALTIES...LIE!!!

[viofriedsevey]

Lol act 1 complete? This is about to be a biiiiggg story.

[djthomp]

1728330 I would vote for separate stories, largely on the same basis that 1728615 did. 180K words isn't too intimidating, but well over half a million is a whole other story. Plus, it really feels nicely complete as it stands – while there is clearly an overarching storyline going on, the story of this particular adventure is done.

Also, and this may sound like I'm suggesting that you game the system a bit (because I am after a fashion), if you have a large enough fan base going into a new story there's a mild chance you will pick up a spot in the new stories featured box for a day or so.

[Nopony in Particular]

1728330A new story. 1 large one might scare people away!

[LoyalLiar]

1729240

Hey, I've got no issues with that; if anybody else feels like writing 180k words, they can game the system too.

[MellowMabari]

Wow. Just wow. I was totally hooked all throughout this. One thing I don't quite get is how Luna was cured. I know she had been affected by the phage seed things, but why were they killing her? I probably just missed the exposition on that, so sorry if that's a silly question.

And damn, I was hoping it wasn't necromancy. I'm glad Celestia didn't go the whole eating pony flesh route, though. That would've raised a whole slew of other problems. Poor Dash. I liked how you gave her whole resurrection thing weight by doing it that way, though. Like you said, if there were no consequences, there wouldn't be anything stopping Celestia from just reanimating anyone at anytime. I look forward to finding out how Dash manages to deal with it, and how long she lasts (hopefully a while. If the planned length of the story is anything to go by, it should be a good chunk, anyway. Though its hard to say what condition she'll be in for parts of it)

If it makes you feel any better, I never would have guessed that Commander Steel was Dash's dad. I only even got the idea due to speculation in the comments. Although, I'm usually not the quickest on the uptake for certain plot twists, so who knows?

I really hope Dash's friends play a more important role in the next Act - I'm assuming they do, seeing as they'll probably have to help her keep her sanity. And now I'm really wondering about that romance tag. I thought it might be Luna and Dash, but now I'm thinking it could be Celestia/Dash. Celestia did apparently have a thing for Hurricane... I honestly have no idea where that's headed. I know you won't say, but I don't even know if the romance includes Dash at all. Hey, for all I know, maybe Act Two is all about Shining Armor nursing Solo back to health and the crazy whirlwind affair that ensues?

Oh, and as to the question of splitting the story or keeping it all together - I'm not much help. Maybe I'm just weird, but if I see a story with a promising premise, and then see that the word count is absolutely ginormous I usually get a big goofy grin on my face. I love long stories, and finding a promising one that I can just dive into for the foreseeable future is always like striking fanfiction gold. Splitting it up would probably work, too, though. ImplodingColon did it for Austraeoh (another epic Dash adventure) and it seems to be working pretty well. Just let people know in the description and I'm sure you'll be fine. Either way, I'll be reading.

So yeah. Awesome work, and congrats to you and your team of editors/prereaders on finishing up Act One. Its been a thrilling ride so far, and I can't wait to see what you come up with next

[LoyalLiar]

1730887

Thanks for the input; always good to hear from you.

I'll go ahead and respond to your first statement alongside 1728782: Luna was dying from the phage seeds because she (and Celestia, and Magnus, Valdria, Krenn, and Khagan) are are only 'immortal' (in the chronological sense - immune to aging) so long as they have their magic. The Phage Seeds use up the mana of whoever eats them, so they don't have mana anymore for some period of time. Now, normally, you'd be looking at less than 24 hours (Reckoning made a big deal out of the fact that the Commander took 17, for example). Luna, however, has... a little bit more mana than normal ponies, so her mana went away and she started aging up to how old she actually is (~80k years, as per Celestia's explanation). The aging was what was killing her (essentially, by organ failure and outright decay). Had she been able to survive long enough, her magic would have come back on its own. Unfortunately, by the time the phage seeds would have worn off for her, she would have already been dead.

Thus, the clever endgame here is that somehow, Masquerade was able to identify a substance which is only poisonous to the 6 'immortals', and literally nopony else. Because this substance was also foreign and not widely known as a poison (because it isn't), she correctly assumed that most Equestrian doctors would have no idea what it was. Even if they did, they'd also have to know how Luna's magic and her age interact, which is a rather closely guarded secret precisely because of issues like this one. How Masquerade gained this information is likely going to be one of the subjects of Act II.

Hope that helps! Thanks for reading!

-Loyal Liar

[Keyesty]

1728330
Personally, I am for continuation, but there are good points toward sequel as well. Still, continuation have a nice chance to beat "biggest story in Fimfiction.net history" record and I like following such achievements.
For interlude, it depends what Act it connects to more, but I am against splitting it up, or adding as prologue to Act II, mostly because without said Act II in the motion it would feel disjointed (especially if Act II will be released as sequel).
As Epilogue to Act I it will be more in place and will tie some of plot lines while introducing new connections to Act II without giving any hard leads.

P.S. Record is 750K words by the way.

[_CheckMate_]

1730958 so wait then, just HOW was she cured then? all RD did was tell them what it did, i thought luna just timed out (since i didnt see or missed the actual cure or mention thereof)

[Keyesty]

1731099
Most antidotes to natural poisons (snakes and herbs most common) usually made from samples of said poisons.
I don't know what route they went here, but knowing poison is half way to cure. It block mana flow, so may be mana transfusion? I dunno, I will trust doctors to figure something out.