Difficult Questions
One of the least glamorous but most important parts of running a refugee convoy was making sure everyone stayed properly fed. We had a bunch of hungry people, but only so much in the way of supplies to go around. We weren’t in danger of running out of food before we got to safety, but that estimate assumed we used everything somewhat responsibly. Without some supervision we’d probably have people gorging, hoarding, and wasting food, not to mention someone would get lost in the shuffle and miss a meal. We did have a lot of kids, and not all of them had parents looking out for them.
I was in the middle of applying a bit of magic to make sure all the cookpots were at the right temperature when Puzzle came over, putting his hooves as close to the fire as he could without burning his coat. “So what can we expect for breakfast today? Or is this technically lunch?”
“Does kinda fall into that weird middle area between the two,” Strumming agreed, joining him. “Kinda figures, considering how long it takes the sun to come up at this time of year. Plus we wanna use as much daylight as we can, so this is it for food stops until we settle down for the night. Guess the meal classification is gonna depend on what the food is.”
“As long as it's warm this one doesn’t care what meal it counts as.” He scooted a bit closer to the fire. “This one puts up a brave face, but it doesn’t like the cold any more than Kukri. Come to think of it, the Old Mind has never shown much interest in operating in the north. It cannot recall her ever moving against Northmarch or Yakistan, and does not recall any records of her going against the Crystal Empire either.”
“Probably no coincidence the Free Minds decided to set up shop on a bunch of tropical islands,” Strumming agreed. “Though some of it’s probably just the kind of weather you’re used to. Ponies are a lot better at handling the cold, and after a couple years of Freeport weather I was not ready for this.”
“You and me both.” The only reason I’d managed so well was my personal repertoire of spells “Anyway, food. We’ve got stew. Gives everyone something warm to eat, and it’s easy to make in bulk.”
Strumming nodded. “Just toss a bunch of stuff in a pot, then add snow for the water and put it all on a fire. Sounds tasty, as long as nobody goofs and uses yellow snow. Anyway, I want food buddies to eat with, so when are you eating?”
Food buddies. More likely she just wanted dibs on any leftovers. I waved her away. “I’ll get something once everyone else is fed.”
Puzzle frowned at me. “It’s not a big deal for you to get a bowl. This one is quite sure you can manage the campfires underneath the stewpots and eat at the same time.”
“Sure.” I shrugged. “But it’s also not a big deal for me to wait until everyone else has been taken care of. Not like I’m half-starved and in a huge rush to eat right away.”
Puzzle filled his own bowl. “So you’re just not hungry? Or is there some other reason?”
Strumming leaned over and whispered so loudly it hardly counted as one. “I think she’s doing the martyr thing again. You know, ‘I shall go hungry for the sake of the children.’” She filled her own bowl, topping it off until it seemed likely overflow if she so much as breathed on it.
As if to show why that was a bad idea, Puzzle blew on his own soup to cool it off. “That does seem to be a disturbing trend,” he agreed.
I scowled at both of them. “You know I’m right here, don’t you?”
“You’re kinda hard to miss,” Strumming agreed. “See, we were doing this thing where we kinda indirectly discuss what you’re doing wrong instead of getting all up in your face about. Bit less confrontational that way. At least in theory. But if we wanna blunt and direct ... look, helping out the kids is noble and all, but it kinda doesn’t matter if they’re a bit hungry and low-energy ‘cause they missed a meal. Well, I mean, it does, but it matters a lot more if that happens to our one and only battle magus.”
Puzzle nodded. “And in any case, we’re not that short on food yet.”
I groaned and grabbed bowl. “Okay, okay, fine.” I filled it up, though not quite as much as Strumming had. How she’d managed to not spill anything was a mystery. “Happy now? I’m not starving myself, I was just trying to be nice about helping everyone else out.”
“Not so much happy as we’re less unhappy,” Strumming answered unhelpfully.
Puzzle frowned and nodded along. “Mmm, true. There is an ongoing issue it is past time we had a serious discussion about.”
I groaned and ran a hoof through my mane. “Yeah, let me guess, more issues with the convoy? Seems like I can’t go five minutes without something coming up.”
“Not exactly.” Puzzle took a deep breath. “The problem has to do with you.”
“Oh.” I took a big mouth of stew to buy myself some time to think of a good answer. “Why do I have a feeling I'm not going to like this conversation?”
“Probably ‘cause you know it’ll turn into one of those times when we make you face up to a bunch of facts you’ve been trying to avoid and take a critical look back at your past decisions.” Strumming smirked, delivering one last line before diving into her overstuffed food bowl. “You always hate those talks.”
Puzzle followed up on her point. “To put it plainly, we're concerned with some of your actions since coming to Northmarch.” He sighed and frowned down at his food. “No, some of this has been going on well before now, but what happened here has brought it into focus.”
I scowled at both of them, that early suspicion they were going to piss me off now a full-blown certainty. “Care to get more specific?”
“Hard not to notice you’ve been jumping head-first into the noble hero thing.” She frowned and glanced down at my prosthetic. “Or should I say throwing yourself in leg-first? Most folks would’ve taken losing a limb as a good reason to not go rushing back onto the front lines right away. From the way you’ve been acting, I wouldn’t be shocked if you hacked the thing off because it would take too long to heal.”
I didn’t say anything, but something on my face must have given it away. Strumming dropped her stew, the contents rapidly melting a hole into the snow. “Oh. My. Celestia. Are you completely insane?!”
Puzzle’s jaw clenched, and he glared at me. “Explain.”
I groaned. Of course they wouldn’t understand. “Look, it would’ve been a year or more for my leg to heal, and that’s assuming nothing went wrong with it. I could’ve been stuck with something that only technically counted as a leg, and wouldn’t be good for much more than slowly hobbling around. Weigh that against what’s at stake: how many people are in just this one refugee convoy? Not to mention all the other people who would end up dead because I was stuck on the sidelines instead of helping.”
Puzzle groaned. “That explains a great deal. No wonder the Runeseeker-mare left so suddenly—this one can’t imagine she approved of your decision. Not to mention Argentium going along with it.” He frowned. “Actually, this one is surprised by that as well.”
“Needs of the many,” Strumming cut in. “Sure, maybe Bacon’s not quite right in the head, but she’s not wrong about how useful she is in a fight. Far as Argy’s concerned, if she saves even one life by lopping off a leg, that’s worth it. Kinda cold-blooded to let Bacon throw herself on the fire like that, but sometimes leaders have to be pragmatic like that. Only reason we’re so mad about it is because we’re pals with Bacon.”
“Quite.” Puzzle scowled down at his soup. “It’s all well and good to say that it is logical to sacrifice the one for the many, but much less clear-cut when the one being sacrificed is someone we care about.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “As the one in question, I have no intention of being sacrificed.”
“And yet you clearly have been.” Puzzle’s eyes settled onto my missing leg. “There were other measures you might have taken to restore the limb.”
“You mean by trying to find some creature to cut a deal with?” I asked. “Because conjuring up a demon and selling my soul to get my leg back sounds like it’d lead to a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease.”
“There were less egregious masters you could have chosen,” Puzzle countered. “This one does not see how losing a leg is an improvement over doing however many favors one of the other beings might require from you at a later date.”
“I’d still be selling my soul, just to someone slightly less bad,” I shot right back. “We all see how well a ball and chain is working out for Starlight, are you really that surprised I don’t want the same thing for myself?”
“As opposed to your current course of action?” Puzzle pointed to my prosthetic. “That is the price of maintaining total independence while refusing to back down from challenges that are beyond you. No, that is just the start of it. We both know that if Blackfyre shows up again, you’ll try to fight him even in your current state.”
Strumming grimaced. “Bug boy’s right.” She fixed her gaze on me. “Bacon, killing yourself won’t get you wings. Just a hero’s funeral. ‘Cause the way you’ve been running around lately has me thinking that’s the only way this ends. What’s with the death wish?”
“Oh please.” I snorted and turned my attention back to my soup.
Puzzle crossed his forelegs over his chest. “Shall this one start by listing off the injuries you’ve suffered recently, or all the self-destructive actions you’ve engaged in? You’ve gone to the point of permanently maiming yourself when every single thinking being in the universe would have said you could withdraw from the war an honored hero. This isn’t just accepting the risks that come from war—this is something, much, much worse. You know you’re out of your depth, you are horribly injured, and despite that you refuse to back down even long enough to let your wound heal. How exactly do you see this ending?”
“Like I said, death wish.” Strumming sighed and shook her head. “Self-sacrifice is noble and all, but this is starting to feel like something we should have you in therapy for.”
Puzzle grimaced. “The most hopeful explanation this one can find is that you’re hoping that getting yourself heroically killed is what it will take to achieve apotheosis.”
“It is the least crazy way to look at things,” Strumming agreed. “The problem is, we’ve got plenty of historical examples of ponies dying nobly and heroically. They don’t spring right back up after sprouting wings and a horn. They’re just dead. I mean, I guess maybe Sunset could be the exception, but that doesn’t sound like a very smart gamble to me. Especially when we don’t want you dead.”
Puzzle nodded. “Exactly. That’s why we’re talking about this now before this gets any worse. Perhaps you think we are just being irritating or judgemental, but we are genuinely concerned for your wellbeing. Shimmer-mare, we are scared for you right now, because unless you rethink your actions right now you are going to die. Not because of some horrible unstoppable evil, but because your refusal to accept reality can only end one way.”
I finished off the last of my stew, and for a moment I was tempted to just teleport away rather than continue the conversation. They’d probably think I was just running away from uncomfortable truths and chase me down, though. Better to just face them head-on. “So what, you think I’m just throwing myself head first into every bit of heroic mortal peril to try and find something big enough to ascend on?”
“More or less,” Puzzle shot back. “Do you want this one to list off every big monster you’ve thrown yourself at?” He held up a hoof to cut off my response. “And yes, most of the time this one is sure you put yourself at risk to help others, but this one wonders if deep down you always hoped that you would be rewarded with wings for all your good works. In the past that was not a major problem, but now you’re taking it to the point of self-destructive madness. It’s as if you hope that in your most desperate hour when all seems lost you’ll suddenly transform into an alicorn and gain the strength to triumph over Blackfyre.”
“Too bad real life doesn’t work like that,” Strumming murmured. “You don’t get a sudden massive power boost for free just because you really need it. You want to beat Glim-Glam and Blackfyre, you either need to find another way to fake a couple decades of experience or you need to make a dirty deal like Starlight did. Which sucks, but life’s not fair.”
I could feel my patience fraying. “So, what? I’m supposed to just make myself a slave, or give up completely on ever accomplishing anything?”
“Didn’t say that,” Strumming answered calmly. “Just your whole holding out for wings plan has a big flaw in it, especially when you’re trying to play in big leagues right now. Blackfyre can trade punches with Celestia and Argentium, and Starlight’s a lot closer to your mom’s weight class than yours. I mean, I get the idea behind trying to accomplish great things to earn your prize, but right now you’re aiming way too high.”
“It’s not just about becoming an alicorn,” I grumbled. “I do actually give a damn about helping everyone in Northmarch.”
“But if you finally earn the wings you covet, so much the better.” Puzzle frowned at me. “Actually, this one has a question for you. It has known that you wish to become an alicorn for almost as long as it has known you, but there is an equally important matter it is wholly ignorant of. Perhaps because it never thought to ask the question.” He fixed a piercing gaze upon me. “Why do you want to become an alicorn?”
“What?” It took me a minute to actually process the question. It was like asking someone why they liked their favorite food, or their friends. It was as senseless as asking why I kept breathing. “Celestia’s been preparing me for that for half my life. It’s been my big life goal since before my age had two numbers in it. It’s my destiny.”
Puzzle frowned at me. “It’s well established that the White Pony plans for you to ascend. We all know that you have invested considerable time and effort into it, and likely feel you deserve wings after all your trials and tribulations. But why do you want to ascend?”
“Because...” I struggled to find a good way to put it into words. It had just been something I’d taken for granted for so long that it was kind of hard to articulate it.
“Don’t even try to say ‘Because it’s my destiny,’” Strumming cut me off. “If your destiny was something you thought was stupid or not worth it, you’d say 'Screw destiny' and do what you wanted to do. Even if you liked your destiny, that super-stubborn independent streak of yours really doesn’t gel with passively accepting that some nebulous mystic force is moving you towards some fate you have no part in determining.”
“Nor would you care about fulfilling an arbitrary goal you had no part in determining,” Puzzle agreed. “So the question remains: why do you want to be an alicorn? For that matter, what would you even do with yourself after you achieved that goal? Go back to Equestria and reign at the White Pony’s side? You would always be under her shadow, which is no small part of why you left in the first place. Remain in Freeport? An intriguing possibility, but this one cannot even begin to calculate how the world would react.”
“Can’t be just about the power boost,” Strumming continued. “Sure, you know you need it now, but you were chasing after wings long before you realized you weren’t second only to Celestia in magical prowess. I can buy that back when you started off it was all some sort of vague plan to prove yourself to Princess Sun-Mom and make her love you, but I’m sure you've figured out how off that was by now.”
Puzzle smiled and nodded. “Anyone with eyes can tell that you already have that, and likely had it all along. Getting a new set of feathery appendages won’t change anything. You also don’t seem interested in pursuing any sort of rivalry with Princess Cadenza. The few times you’ve mentioned her at all, it seems more like regret than hostility.”
“So seriously, why do you want to be an alicorn?” Strumming demanded. “Not that it’s your destiny, or Celestia’s plan, or because you busted your flank for years trying to earn those wings and now you think you deserve them. Not even because you think it might get you a refund on the leg you just lost. Why is it what you want?”
I sat there and tried to come up with a good answer that would get both of them off my back. It was ... a lot harder than it should’ve been. I guess it wasn’t really something I’d sat down and thought about recently. Why would I? I’d made up my mind years ago, and I’d had plenty of bigger issues to deal with. Like finding a way to get those wings. Not to mention establishing myself in Freeport.
So why did I want wings? I mean, sure, being an alicorn was the kind of thing anyone would like on general principle, but most ponies didn’t devote years of effort to it. Like Strumming said, I’d settled on the goal back when I was a kid who knew it was her special destiny, mixed with some vague notions about how becoming an alicorn would make Celestia officially adopt me and be my new mom. Classic kid logic.
I’d grown up a lot since those days, but the alicorn dream hadn’t gone away. I mean, there were bigger reasons behind it than just the childish fantasies about Celestia. Everything I’d been trying to accomplish would be a lot easier to pull off if I had a set of wings. Nobody would ask Alicorn Sunset Shimmer if she was really up to the task of running a magical academy, and stopping the likes of Blackfyre would be a lot easier if I had more raw power to work with.
Of course, if you listened to Puzzle and Strumming the whole reason I was doing those things was to try and become an alicorn in the first place. Which ... well I wouldn’t say it was all just about that, but I’d be lying if I said I’d never considered that angle. It’s not like I checked my back every time I did a good deed to see if I’d finally earned wings, but if anything was going to earn apotheosis, it ought to be saving countless lives and taking down one of Celestia and Argentium’s oldest enemies.
Then there was my leg. Which ... well, Strumming wasn’t wrong about that. Compared to making me sprout two new limbs, change species, and altering dozens of other things about my magical and biological makeup, restoring my leg to its natural state ought to be a fairly simple thing to pull off. There wasn’t any precedent for it, but I could hope.
Ugh. All this thinking was starting to make me wonder if maybe they actually had a point about me and my so-called issues, which was the last thing I needed right now. I had enough on my mind without adding a ton of self-doubt and hard questions. Too bad there was no helping that at this point; just not having an easy, immediate answer was already enough to have me twisting myself into knots.
It was almost a relief when the Blightspawn showed up. At least that saved me from needing to think about all anything other than surviving the next five minutes.
The battle started with almost no warning. One minute we were all walking along, someone spotted a bit of snow dust getting kicked up behind a large drift, and then the next thing we knew there were a dozen blightspawn barreling down the drift towards us.
The first thing I noticed about them was that none of them were like the first one we’d gone up against. I guess that figured. If Blackfyre liked to twist and mutate his minions there was no reason any two of them had to look the same. Most of the creatures coming at us looked a lot less ... complicated. Just four legs and a spherical body dominated by a huge maw filled with razor sharp teeth. While I was no expert on making twisted monsters, I would bet that those things took a lot less time and effort to make than the big guys.
I’d been worried that when the monsters showed up everyone would go into panic mode and we’d have a mass rout on our hands. Thankfully, all the training and drills we’d been putting them through seemed to pay off. Sure, the civilians were scared out of their wits, but instead of running all over the place they ran behind the militia, who were hastily circling our wagons around to make a wall for spears and archers to hide behind.
As the militia took their positions I moved to mine as well. Inside one of the wagons that wasn’t part of the wall, safe and hidden away. Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan of this part of the plan.
That wasn’t to say I didn’t understand why it was the plan. Between my prosthetic and Starlight knowing a spell that could shut down my ability to teleport I probably wouldn’t be very mobile. If I went and jumped head-first into the battle I could end up tied down on the opposite side of the field from where I needed to be. It made a lot more sense to sit back, observe for a bit, and make sure that when I jumped in it would be somewhere I could make maximum impact. I wasn’t sitting the fight out, I was remaining in tactical reserve.
No matter how many times I told myself that, it still felt wrong to just sit back and watch as archers put their first arrows into the monsters, or the spearmen took the charge. The wall of wagons wasn’t much of a barrier, but it did slow the charging spawn down for a critical few seconds. That was enough to break the momentum of their charge, and it bought the spears a few more seconds to stab them.
It was hard to resist the urge to go rushing in when the first of the spawn broke through our line. I thought about at least contributing a long range spell or two, but before I could several of the spearmen from the second line quickly surrounded the thing, blocking any shot I might’ve had as they contained it in a rapidly closing ring of spearpoints.
I hated this. Hated being stuck on the sidelines, forced to watch as others did all the fighting. Nobody would’ve talked about keeping me away from the fighting as a tactical reserve if I hadn’t lost my damned leg. I had a prosthetic, I wasn’t crippled.
Despite that, I held my position. After all, if I jumped into the fight right now I’d probably earn another stupid lecture about pushing myself too hard to become an alicorn, or how I shouldn’t be jumping into the middle of a battle just to prove that I could still fight despite the missing leg. As if I had any chance of achieving ascension without pushing myself. And who could blame me for wanting to prove myself when I could tell they were all thinking that I was less capable now.
But fine. Whatever. Even if their plan had a ton of stupid assumptions about how much I could do in a fight, the rest of it was still a good plan, and I’d play my part. Not like I was so desperate for glory and a chance to earn my wings I’d screw things up and get everyone killed.
I sat back and watched as Strumming rammed her estoc down the maw of one of those Blightspawn, poking it out the back of the monster’s head. She withdrew the blade, then frowned down at it. “Okay, so right now it’s just expendable shock troops. Any idea where their boss is, Bug Boy?”
Puzzle flicked a knife into one of the spawn’s eyes, then tossed a tanglehoof bag down the creature’s throat to gum its huge fang-filled mouth shut. His opponent dispatched, he pointed towards the hill with his other dagger. “We’re being watched.”
Sure enough, on top of the hill were three blightspawn that were every bit as big and nasty as the one we’d fought outside of Coldharbor. However, the figure that caught my attention was the pony-sized one that was almost certainly Starlight Glimmer. It was hard to tell for sure when she’d picked up a new set of armor to replace the one I’d wrecked the last time we fought, but unless there was another unicorn working for Blackfyre...
She was sitting on top of the hill, watching the battle unfold. Guess that confirmed the little spawn were just cannon fodder. She was testing our defenses and wearing us down with the little guys before she came in with her heavies to finish the job. Those big monsters could probably smash straight through our improvised wagon wall, and while the militia was doing a good job holding so far I wasn’t optimistic about them keeping it together once we lost our strong defensive position.
Evidently Strumming must have reached the same conclusion, since she decided to try and taunt Starlight into playing her hand early. “Hey, Glim-Glam! You gonna actually do any fighting, or are you just gonna hang back and watch since you know Sunset would kick your plot again?!
Even from this distance and with the armor covering her, I could see Starlight stiffen up at the taunt. Strumming always did have a knack for getting under people’s skin. I was just glad to see her doing it to someone else instead of me.
Strumming shot a quick grin Puzzle’s way, then loudly called out to him. “Yup. Told you she’d be too scared to risk it. You know how it is with her type, they talk a good game but as soon as they lose a fight they’ll go off to sulk and whine about it. I bet she drove Blackfyre batty locking herself up in her room and listening to music about how nobody understands her.”
Puzzle winked at Strumming and slipped into cover, while Starlight threw up a spell to amplify her voice. “I think you forgot how things played out. I won the last fight, and now she’s a broken cripple while I’m stronger than ever!”
“And yet, you’re hiding way up there where she can’t get you.” Strumming smirked, and it turned into a full-blown grin when Starlight snarled and started stomping towards the wagon wall. “Oooh, looks like I touched a nerve.”
“If she’s so strong, then where is she?” Starlight unleashed a wave of telekinetic power, smacking two of the wagons aside and scattering the defenders as she made a hole for herself. “She’s the one who’s hiding, not me! I could crush her with a single spell!”
Strumming smirked and threw a few spikes at her. “Sunset’s got more important things to do than bother with weaklings like you.”
“Weak?!” Starlight caught the spikes on a magical shield. “I had her at my mercy last time! And that was after she had to cheat and use some crazy rune magic to boost herself up enough to stand a chance against me!”
“And yet, I took you down.” She threw a second volley, which Starlight deflected just as easily. “Gotta admit, it was kinda funny watching you scream and thrash around like a fish out of water. There’s just something special about taking someone who thinks they’re the big bad destroyer of worlds and breaking them down.”
Starlight snarled lashed out at her with raw physical force. “ Do you have any idea how much that thing hurt? Actually, you will soon, because before I kill you I’m gonna shove that thing so far up your—”
“Someone’s got a vindictive streak,” Strumming chuckled. “I’d warn you about the long-term mental health effects of toxic anger, but in the grand scheme of horrible decisions you’ve made that one’s gotta be close to the bottom.” Strumming flicked a few more throwing spikes at her, and waited until Starlight threw up another shield before she followed up with her special enchanted spike.
Starlight smirked and snagged one of her lesser blightspawn, tossing it right into the path of the incoming attack. The creature let out a shriek when the weapon struck it and sent electricity crackling into its body, and when Starlight set it down it went running away from the battlefield as fast as it could. “You didn’t really think I’d fall for the same trick twice, did you? Shame you’ve only got the one spike.”
“Darn, was hoping mixing it in with normal ones would throw you off.” Strumming shifted to her estoc, coming in with a feinted high slash before doing her best to skewer Starlight.
Starlight snorted and fired off a lightning bolt at Strumming. The pegasus managed to dodge the attack, but that left her off-balance for the following spell that turned the snow beneath her into a slick sheet of ice. Normally she could’ve taken to the air to dodge that, but the wing she’d gotten hurt back in the first blightspawn fight still wasn’t fully healed. “Not so cocky now, are you?”
“Nah,” Strumming agreed, carefully picking herself up. “I’m just being a really good distraction to let Sunset hit you in the back.”
Starlight blinked and whirled around, throwing up a defensive shield. “Where is she?” She lashed out with a broad force blast, probably intending to catch me if I’d been hiding under an invisibility spell, then followed up by conjuring more of those black crystals that shut down my teleport spell last time we fought.
Strumming smirked and pulled out her second spike, the one she’d given me as a gesture of trust a while back. Considering the circumstances, I’d been fine with letting her have it back. “Wow. You actually fell for ‘look out behind you!’ That’s just sad.” She sank the weapon into Starlight’s unprotected back.
Or at least, that had been the idea. But instead of dropping Starlight into helpless writhing, the energy within the spike just cascaded over and around her armor. Starlight turned around, smirking. “Did you really think I wouldn’t be ready for that?” She tapped her breastplate. “Chitin this time, not metal. Not only was it easier for Blackfyre to make in a hurry, it’s organic enough to trigger all those nasty little spells that don’t go off until it hits living tissue.” She grinned and advanced on Strumming. “Go ahead, stab me. I wanna see if the electricity goes back up the sword and gives you a taste of your own medicine.”
Strumming grimaced. “Think I’ll pass.”
“Okay then!” Starlight’s horn lit up, and sent some of those same magic missiles she’d used against me in our duel. Strumming turned and ran, taking advantage of the icy ground to go into a long slide that ended with her burying herself into a nearby snow drift. The snow at least did a good job of absorbing all the spells that had been fast on her tail.
“Running away already?” Starlight crowed. “Just tell me where Sunset is, and you can buy yourself a few more minutes of life! She’s the one I’m actually here for—killing you is just a pleasant little bonus.”
Strumming didn’t budge from behind her cover. “Well gee, since you’re offering me so much in exchange for betraying one of my friends, I’ll definitely tell you.”
“Do you want to die?” She hurled a fireball at the snow drift, turning it into a massive fog bank. “Because unless you start talking you’ll need a stopwatch to measure your life expectancy!”
Strumming came rushing out of fog bank, leading the way with a spear she must have picked up while she was out of sight. She slammed the tip into Starlight’s chest, and while the lightning from her throwing spike arced onto the spear itself the weapon’s wooden haft was long enough to keep her safe. Too bad the spear didn’t seem to have bitten deep enough to get all the way through the armor. “You want me to talk? Make me.”
The helmet made it impossible to see her facial expression, but I could hear the evil smirk in her voice. “Do you really think I can’t?”
There was a flash of light, and the two of them locked eyes. I could recognize the spell even from this distance, if only because I’d used it once a couple years ago to break into a pirate’s mind and steal the plans for his golems.
However, there was one critical difference between then and now. I’d caught Metal Mome completely off-guard with the mental attack, and he didn’t have slightest idea how to defend himself. When I hit Metal Mome, I’d stolen all the information I needed and broken his mind so badly I’d left him as little more than a vegetable.
When Starlight hit Strumming, she was the one who broke.
Starlight staggered back with a scream, and a second later I saw blood dripping down out of her helmet. At least she had the good sense to end the spell before she did any more damage to herself than she already had. She coughed and wiped more blood away from her mouth. “What the buck have you done to your mind?!”
Strumming smirked at her. “Looks like someone forgot the first rule of mental combat. My mind, my rules.”
Starlight grunted and tried to throw a spell at her, only for it to fizzle on the tip of her horn. The only good news for her was that while Strumming had definitely come out ahead in the psychic battle, she didn’t seem to quite be up for charging in to hit Starlight while she was shaky.
The bad news for Starlight was that Puzzle had been waiting for an opening like that to make his move. His invisibility spell dropped as he rushed in, his dagger headed straight for her throat. Starlight didn’t have anywhere near enough time or focus to put up a shield, but her instinctive flinch back put Puzzle’s knife out of line enough for her armor to deflect the stab.
Puzzle didn’t waste any time lamenting the failure of his first strike, reversing his grip and plunging the blade straight down. That strike found a weak spot where two of her chitinous plates joined together, and Starlight shrieked as the blade dug in.
Before Puzzle could twist the knife she lashed out with a burst of wild magic, sending Strumming and Puzzle flying. The attack was far too unfocused to do any damage, but it knocked them both back and bought Starlight a few precious seconds to catch her breath.
Strumming and Puzzle got back to their hooves, but before they could close in on her one of the large spawns that seemed to be her escorts jumped in, placing itself between them and her. Its three heads snapped forward as one, breathing out fire, ice, and acid. Puzzle and Strumming scrambled to get clear of the breath, far too busy surviving to think of going after Starlight again.
However, that left Starlight wounded, still shaken up by the mental battle, bereft of her escort, and now completely focused on her current opponents. If not for those damned black crystals restricting my teleportation I could’ve finished her off before she even knew I was coming. As it was, I had to settle for the other big spawn watching her back, a massive bipedal brute with massive scythe-like talons that could probably cleave me in half with a single hit.
He never got the chance to try. I teleported in right behind him, with Chainbreaker already behind my head and ready to swing down. The sword cut through the monster’s chitin with barely more resistance than a pair of scissors going through paper, and the monster’s head flopped off while the body fell limply into the snow.
I’d hoped to keep the advantage of surprise long enough to hit Starlight herself, but the instant I took down her big ugly monster her head snapped around, and I could hear the hate in her voice. “There you are. I was afraid you wouldn’t be here to see it when my pets ripped those stupid friends of yours into a million pieces.” She lashed out at me with one of her beams of raw destructive force. Evidently she’d already bounced back enough from the psychic clash with Strumming to be able to manage proper spells again.
Or perhaps she hadn’t. Unlike our last battle, this time my ice shield actually survived blocking one of her beams. I guess the new design for my ice shields with sandwiched layers and a bit of space between each one worked. If nothing else, I wasn’t getting cut to bits by shards of my own defensive spell.
Just getting that minor victory made me feel a bit better about the whole fight. “What’s wrong? Is that all you’ve got?” I threw the broken layers of my shield at her as a horde of razor-sharp cutting shards.
Starlight snarled and threw up another of her dome-shaped shields to block the attack, then sent it hurtling toward me like an especially large battering ram. I rolled to the side to get out of the attack’s way, but while I did a good job of dodging it took me an extra secord to find my balance on account of my prosthetic. Starlight was about to take advantage of my moment of weakness with another one of her sledgehammer spells, but I tossed a quick fireball at her face. She blocked it without too much trouble, but all I’d really been trying to do was disrupt her attack spell and buy a moment to regain my hooves.
Starlight snarled and shook her head as I threw a few light spells her way, testing her defenses. “Not quite as strong as you were last time, are you?” I taunted.
“At least I still have all my limbs!” She conjured up half a dozen black crystal spears and sent them hurtling towards me from as many angles.
The was no way I could dodge all of those, so I opted for something a bit less sophisticated and threw a up quick wave of blightfire to intercept them all. “Well, we both know I could beat you with one hoof tied behind my back.” I started to redirect the blightfire towards her, waiting until she started to prepare the same spell she’d used to shut down my efforts at using it in our last fight. Then I pulled a switch, letting the entropic flames disperse while I fired off a quick light blast. Her armor and defensive spells were enough to absorb the hit, but it left a charred circle on the chitin and sent her flying back.
Starlight pulled herself up with a frustrated snarl. “Lucky shot, and not even a hard enough one to matter.”
I smirked and tossed my head. “What was that about how you’d beat me in five minutes?”
Starlight’s horn lit up with the nasty orange glow of Blackfyre’s magic. “You are such an arrogant, self-righteous nag. I would’ve thought Blackfyre ripping off one of your legs would’ve been a lesson in how you’re not half as great as you think you are. We both know you don’t stand a chance against me. I’m three times stronger than you!”
“Maybe you are.” I fired off a concentrated fire beam she ducked underneath. “But raw power isn’t everything. You’re sure as hay not three times smarter. When I beat you back in Coldharbor, it wasn’t because I had a power boost from someone else. All that runestone did was help me unlock my natural potential and come up with a few new ideas.” I followed the fire beam up up with a blast of ice that she leapt over. “I don’t need anything special to beat you, I already have everything I need. But even if I didn’t, it doesn’t matter that you can beat me. Because you’re not just fighting me.”
Starlight’s eyes shot open as Strumming’s spear slammed into her back. The spells I’d tossed Starlight’s way might not have done anything to stop her, but they’d done a great job of clearing out the blightspawn enough to make an opening for Strumming. The spear wasn’t dramatically skewering Starlight all the way through or anything, but the head had gone in deep enough that unless that armor was way thicker than it looked she’d done some damage. The fact that Starlight had gone stiff as a board and wasn’t even trying to fight back seemed to confirm that.
“What pisses you off more?” I asked. “That you betrayed everything you used to believe in by joining up with Blackfyre, or that even after you sold your soul to get more power you still can’t beat me?”
Starlight let out an ear-piercing shriek as her horn lit up, firing energy beams off seemingly at random as she gave into blind rage. It might not have been a very effective attack, but it did make all of us back way off. I wasn’t about to risk getting into a raw power slugging match with Starlight while she had the huge boost she’d gotten by cutting a deal with Blackfyre. The only reason we’d done as well as we had so far was sneakiness, teamwork, and tactics. Not that my pride wanted to admit it, but Strumming and Puzzle had a bigger role in this win than I had. Not that it mattered as long as we beat Starlight.
Starlight erupted in a wave of orange fire that melted a huge patch of snow and scorched the ground beneath her. I could see her eyes glowing within her helmet, and it was the same nasty orange color her magic changed to after she signed up with Blackfyre.
“Oh horseapples!” I threw up another ice shield just in time to intercept the wave of orange-black fire she hurled at me. Strumming and Puzzle tried to go for Starlight’s back while she focused on me, but a second flash of her horn resulted in a towering wall of flames that cut the two of us off from any outside interference.
Starlight snarled and hurled out more black crystals, each of which exploded when it hit the ground. They were landing all around me, and I had no choice but to completely cover myself with an ice dome and try to ride out the attack. It was an absolutely terrible plan. The number one thing we’d all agreed on when discussing tactics for the fight was that I absolutely couldn’t get into a straight slugging match with Starlight. And that was exactly what this was. I was stuck in a fixed position, letting her pound away at me with her superior strength.
Starlight snarled out, her voice taking on a slightly deeper, almost feral tone. “Oh, you are going to pay for this. Maybe I can’t kill you, but it’s open season on every one of these mewling weaklings you’ve been trying to protect. I’m gonna make you watch as I feed every last one of them to the blightspawn! It’s all your fault! I was gonna let them all live, but now ... buck it! Everyone dies!”
I dropped the shield and shot a blast chunk of ice her way to break up her offensive momentum again, but Starlight was too far gone to even care at this point. The ice slammed into her chest hard enough that it had to have left behind nasty bruises if not cracking bones, but she just snarled and kept going despite the pain.
I couldn’t get my shield up in time to completely block her next attack, but I did at least keep the fires from burning me to a crisp. It still knocked me down and singed away a chunk of my mane, but that was the least of my problems. Starlight snatched up one of the fallen spears and stormed over to me. My first instinct was to block her with Chainbreaker, but the blast had knocked the sword out of my hooves.
I’d no more thought that than the sword shot across the ground towards me, seemingly of its own accord. I tried to grab it with magic, but then Starlight slammed the butt of her spear into my horn.
I saw stars, and the spell fell apart completely. She planted a hoof on my one remaining foreleg, just keep me from picking it up that way either. She raised the spear up, preparing to plunge it down into my chest. “You know what? Screw Blackfyre, you’re a dead ma—”
The runes on her back flared up, orange and furious. Starlight froze in place, unable to finish the attack as her master’s geas kept her from following through.
I still couldn’t cast any spells, and she had my one good leg pinned down. So I did the only thing I could: I punched her with the leg I had left. Or rather, the prosthetic.
It wound up working better than I’d dreamed. The metallic framework of my replacement leg broke apart on impact with her heavy chitinous helmet, but one of the steel structural rods remained more or less intact, skittering along Starlight’s helmet until it found an opening to slide into.
One of the helmet’s eye holes.
Starlight fell back with an agonized yowl, clutching at her eye and screaming like a banshee. The wall of fire dropped away, but a second later the remaining blightspawn swarmed around her. Her two remaining heavies immediately placed themselves between her and everyone else, one of them carefully picking her up in its massive clawed talons. Before any of us could even react they started hauling her off.
Despite her injuries, she wasn’t about to leave without getting in the last word. “This isn’t over! I’ll be back!”
I grimaced and watched her withdraw. For a moment I was tempted to go after her to try and finish it, but that wouldn’t end well. We’d be leaving the convoy exposed, and while we’d certainly hurt Starlight she was a long way from helpless. Not to mention that I’d thoroughly wrecked my prosthetic with that punch, so chasing after anyone was the next best thing to physically impossible.
Still, at least we’d survived. That wasn’t much, especially when we’d used most of our best tactics during the first battle with Starlight, and she wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice. And she would be back. Between her natural tendencies and having Blackfyre in her head she’d probably still be in crazy revenge mode too. And we’d have to come up with a way to stop her.
I only had one idea for how to do that, and it was terrible.
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Fantastic chapter. I love how Puzzle and Strumming are making Sunset actually do some self-reflection.
I don't like the sound of that. Sunset's really diving head-first into trying to maryr herself.
I mean, we know they all end up fine (unless these Freeport stories are a separate timeline from the Winningverse proper), but still. Sunset's continued leg damage really raises the question of her appearance in "Lesser Lights" and her visit to Twilight
So... nice chapter. The every decision you ever make is completely wrong because it's not the one we want for you is still annoying but Starlight makes for an epic villainess. Persistent one too. Nice work.
Strumming and Puzzle definitely have a point about that martyr complex. When you're cutting off limbs because that's the fastest way to put your life back in danger, you have a problem.
Also, Sunset has a lot to think about when it comes to why she wants wings. "And then what?" is one of those questions that few people think about when they really need to.
"Hi, pot, I'm kettle!"
I don't think Starlight's getting that eye back any time soon. In the spirit of Redcloak, she just paid her idiot tax. On the other hand, Sunset's out a leg, and I'm not sure if she can get it repaired or has any spares in the caravan. We'll have to see how it goes from here.
9482168
I'm not sure why regeneration would even be that hard compared to some of the crazy transmutation spells they do in the show, but they also wanted to show crippled ponies as fanservice so I guess it's canon.
How is Starlight supposed to get that eye back in time for when she appears on the show?
And I guess the reason Sunset isn't an alicorn is because...she gave up on it. Wow. Not like her.
I really can't bring myself to think Sunset did something that bad by sacrificing her leg. She's doing it to fight a top tier threat for Argentium and Celestia, I imagine they'd be more than happy to make her a new prosthetic that's an epic tier magic item like Shadow Kicker's armour that's a lot better than a flesh leg anyway.
Great battle
i don't get how this will a end freeport is canon to the winningverse yet in future stories no mentions of sunsets leg or starlight having runes or evin scaring from ruins on her back
9482384
Doesn’t matter, this story has an alt.universe tag.
9482820
How did I not notice that before now?
Blackfyre was already quite displeased with Starlight's previous performance.
The next time he 'fixes' her up and sends her back, she might not be in any state to enjoy her revenge.
9482470
In the grand scheme of things, yeah, Sunset's decision was probably the most pragmatic one.
On a personal level, though... Strumming and Puzzle are starting to see how much their (best?) friend is willing to sacrifice for the greater good, with no sign of slowing down. First it's a leg. Then it's an eye, or maybe a kidney. Next thing they know, Sunset's a brain inside a golem powered by whatever's left of her fragmented soul.
To them, she probably isn't that far off from walking the same path as Starlight, albeit for nobler reasons.
I actually really like the idea that sunset's motivation is power and she's doing all this self sacrifice to prove to herself that she is a good person despite her primy motivation. I doubt this is the reason but I think it is neat.
9482820
Not super relevant as all Winningverse has had that tag since about midway through Winning Pony because of minor story tweaks.
9482820 Huh, actually several (but not all) of the Freeport Stories have the A.U. tag, and some of the newest ones don't (Journey of the Lesser Lights, and Princess Twilight and the Disastrously Daunting Delegates for example) ...
Kinda makes doing an "official" timeline a bit iffy ....
9482248
Maybe adding that negative impulses on an already unstable, petty mare wasn't one of Blackfyre's best ideas. No wonder Strumming, Puzzle and Sunset can play her like a fiddle in the heat of battle.
Regarding Sunset's aims, I used to believe her original reason for wanting to become an alicorn was "to be like Mom, and be with her forever."
Its interesting seeing Sunset's friends psychoanalyze her life, just wish they were doing this under better circumstances. I'm not quite sure I'd say Sunset's in need of an intervention, but that is an important question, why Sunset is still trying to become an alicorn. Its not like Sunset's a bad pony (still a far better version than the EQ version was originally) but its possibly troubling how much her good deeds are done just for their own sake or to try to become an alicorn.
Not often I see more ambiguity with the Sunset and alicorn thing, especially as those two have already covered the normal Celestia/mom issues. Especially since we've now seen what Sunset's actual mother was like. I'm not sure if they're overthinking Sunset's recent actions (as a Magus Sunset just might feel obligated), but more accurate than not.
Nice change to a fight, having Strumming and Puzzle take on Starlight. I wonder if all EIS agents have those kinds of mental defenses or if Strumming is just special like that. Strumming's mental health is still in serious doubt but it sure is handy in these kinds of situations. Man, Starlight is sure a recurring boss. Well, its not quite eye for an eye, but maybe close enough. Ironic that its the runes keeping Starlight from just killing Sunset there and now (though that would be less painful than Blackfyre's plans for Sunset). I hope things improve soon, things are getting really depressing.
I mean, immortality should be reason enough to become an alicorn, right?
Loved it! Great chapter, thank you!
She's definitely doing the martyr thing.
Hah.
LOL, no, Puzzle. Losing a leg is not comparably worse than than selling your soul. Sell your own soul if that's your take on it.
Alicorn Archon of Freeport sounds good, but it might be better politically to do the latter before the former.
Hey, blightspawn, a convenient distraction.
Hopefully not!
Nice. If it had worked.
Even better, particularly since this one did work.
Interesting that Skyra's mind is so, let's say, interesting.
Good teamwork, guys.
Whoops.
I knew that the prosthetic was going to come in handy. Hoofy?
Terrible plans are your forte, Sunset, let's get to it.
9506476
Here.
9506476
Skyra is a nickname for her, as she’s Lyra’s cousin and looks like a Pegasus version of her.
9509192
Thank you
9509525
No problem
Well, I suppose the EQG Sunset went through that "trying to be Twilight" phase. It isn't too surprising this Sunset's trying to be Celestia. Of course, it's a toss-up whether the refugee caravan is in less or more danger with her there, given that her arrival is the exact reason Blackfyre's attacking. If she'd left for Equestria and a hospital the Blightspawn would still be around but Blackfyre would likely be relocating once his plan for ensuring Celestia's defeat is a no-go. Sure, she couldn't reasonably deduce that, but a side-effect of that focus on self-sacrifice is a blind spot whenever something's really about her. It hasn't done Celestia much good either over the centuries.
9483023
That does seem to be exactly the path Rising Fire took
So I managed to identify a Scythean and a Typhon heavy warbeasts. The small ones sound like Shredders light warbeasts.
The Scythean is dead and a couple of the little ones too apparently. But Sunset group probably took casualties too but unless Starlight can stock up on more light warbeasts... maybe if they laid a trap but hard to do on the move with limited resources.