My Brave Pony: The Heart of the World

by Scipio Smith

The Guide & The Guard

The Guide

Zecora’s hut was dark, illuminated mostly by the faintly sickly-looking green light emanating from the cauldron bubbling in the centre of the main room within. Painted masks hung from the walls; the shadows they cast behind them made it seem as though pitch black eyes were staring at Twilight from behind them as they hung in such positions as to look down upon her as she sat on the rough wooden floor. Potions filled the shelves, although without labels Twilight could only imagine how Zecora remembered what they all did; plants both local and exotic sprouted in painted pots in the corners of the space, providing a touch of colour amidst the wooden brown.

Zecora herself was cast in shades of green and yellow as the light of cauldron and of candles fell upon the white stripes of her coat, glinting off the many golden necklaces she wore, the bracelets on her foreleg, her heavy, dangling earrings. She said nothing as she poured green tea into two long wooden cups.

“Here, let me,” Twilight said, her horn flaring with magic as she picked up the two cups in the grip of her telekinesis and levitated them across the room to where she sat at the round little table.

Zecora nodded in thanks, before she joined Twilight there. Her movements seemed a little slow, a little sluggish, as if she was somewhat reluctant to actually sit down and start the conversation. When she did sit, a sigh escaped her lips before she spoke.

“You speak of the Heart of the World?” she said. “That is a story very, very old.”

“But you know it?” Twilight asked. “You know what it is I’m talking about?”

Zecora smiled, at least a little bit. “Even now every zebra in both lands, is taught the story of the Empire that used to stand. How it rose, possessed of so much pride; how it grew, how it lived… and how it died. The Heart of the World is a part of that story; great were its blessings, they say, in the days of our glory.” She fell silent for a moment, looking down at the green tea steaming in her cup. She picked it up deftly in one hoof, and sipped from the round wooden cup. “But it is nothing more than a tale, any search for it is bound to fail.”

“Fail?” Twilight repeated. “You don’t believe that it’s more than just a story?”

“A spirit living under the ground, giving gifts to those who come around?” Zecora said. “Even if the truth got a little stretched, don’t you think it’s a bit far fetched?”

Twilight chuckled. “Far fetched is a relative term in this world, don’t you think?” she asked. “I’ve seen a monster of rage and envy become a sad, regretful pony in the blink of an eye; I’ve seen a god create chocolate milk rain and alter the personalities of my friends upon a whim; I’ve seen people fall from a hole in the sky. Is a being of wisdom and power dwelling under the earth so much more far fetched than any of that?”

Zecora drank some more of her tea, and Twilight did likewise while she waited for a response. It was slightly bitter. At last, after aching moments of silence had passed by, Zecora spoke once more, “It’s true that in the world there are many things difficult to believe; but that does not make everything as true as your Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Is it difficult to come up with those rhymes?”

Zecora nodded silently, as she sipped the tea.

Twilight swallowed a substantial gulp down from the cup. “I know that just because some things are true not everything is,” she said. “And I will admit some personal interest in this. It isn’t just academic interest that leads me to search for this-“

“You seek to find the pony and his sister that you lost,” Zecora said. “And whom you now miss sorely most.”

Twilight’s eyebrows rose. “Who told you that?”

“Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity,” Zecora said. “Have each upon occasion visited me.” She did not name which of them had conferred with her about Twilight, and her feelings towards Lightning Dawn; Twilight was left to work out for herself whether it had been one or all of them. She supposed it didn’t matter; it wasn’t like it was a secret; and anything they said was probably done out of love and concern for her. I suppose I’d probably do the same in their position.

“I believe the Heart exists,” Twilight said. “And maybe it’s just that I want to believe but whether that is true or not I believe it exists and I’m determined to try and find it. I didn’t come here to ask if you thought it was a good idea… but, do you think it’s a good idea.”

Zecora shrugged. “An old, old story, as I said; long lost, long forgotten, one might say long dead. No one knows if the tale be true, so how can I say if your quest you will rue? Although if it not counsel on your course you seek, then what can I do for you this week?”

Twilight hesitated, and covered her hesitation by draining the last of her cup of tea. “I want,” she began, but then paused; now that they had come to the point she felt a little nervous. “I suppose… this might sound a little bit… insensitive, but you’re the only zebra I know, the only zebra that any of us know-“

“Is it advice upon the way you desire?” Zecora asked, once more anticipating Twilight’s words. “Or do you to my company on the road aspire?”

“Both,” Twilight said. “Either. A guide would be fantastic, but obviously I can’t drag you out of your home and to the zebra lands; but in any case, anything at all that you can tell me would be… I would really appreciate it.”

Zecora closed her eyes. It was a moment or two before she said anything. “I am the only zebra that you know, but did you ever wonder why it should be so? Why I left those lands to my own, to in your pony forest make my home?”

“I… I guess I never really thought about it,” Twilight admitted. “Plenty of ponies leave home, I did… although I didn’t go quite as far as you.” She frowned. “Are you… is there some kind of reason… did you have to leave?”

“If back to that part of the world I go,” Zecora admitted. “I may not get a ‘welcome home’.”

“Wh-“ Twilight stopped herself from asking why. Zecora was her friend, she trusted that she hadn’t do anything too bad to deserve to be thrown out of her own country and forced to travel far away to Ponyville… wait, a second. “Why Ponyville?” she asked. “I mean… there must have been places closer by where you could stop.”

“Places I could stop and rest and such,” Zecora said. “Places I felt welcome… not so much.”

Twilight winced. After all, it wasn’t as though Ponyville had made her feel particularly welcome either. “I’m sorry,” she said. “We ponies ought to be better than that.”

Zecora smiled at her. “You have a keen mind and a generous heart; you will change the world for the better, if you play your part.”

Twilight laughed nervously. “That’s… that’s very kind of you to say so, but I’m not so sure. I’m just a pony, and no one pony can change the world the way you seem to be suggesting. And besides, it wasn’t even me who was the first to welcome you to Ponyville and accept you as a friend.”

“We change, we learn, we grow,” Zecora said. “Stronger and wiser as we go.”

Twilight’s lips twitched upwards in a smile. “Stronger and wiser as we go.” The smile died on her face. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how bad could it be if you go home?”

“I really, truly, could not say,” Zecora replied. “It depends on how they feel that day.”

“That doesn’t sound like the sort of situation you should be walking back into,” Twilight said.

“But nevertheless go back I will,” Zecora declared. “And help you find the Heart, for good or ill.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You will? But… I mean, that’s great, but you said-“

“Even now, to many zebra folk,” Zecora said, her voice low in warning. “The Heart of the World is not a joke. If you speak too freely there of your quest, there will be some who are less than impressed.”

“Why?” Twilight asked. “You said that it was just a story, don’t most other zebras feel the same way?”

“Some, but not all, it is a little complicated,” Zecora said. “It would take time to get you acclimated. I do not think there is time to explain, before you set out for the great southern plains. Therefore it’s best if I come with you, and help this maze to find a way through. I can explain upon the way, many more things than I could tell in a day.”

“And the risk to yourself?” Twilight said. “The things they’ll do you if you go back?”

Zecora’s smile contained a hint of mischief. “To Zecora they can do naught, just so long as I do not get caught.”

Twilight couldn’t restrain the snort that split apart her lips. “I think it will probably be for the best if we all stay out of trouble. Thank you, Zecora, this is incredibly generous of you.”

Zecora finished off her tea. “Although we did not start off the best, you have supported me through all the rest. Now the pain that you are in I feel, and with it I will try to help you deal. If this will help your hurt subside, upon no other course could I decide.”

That was not true, as much as Twilight appreciated the sentiment. “As I said, you’re very generous,” she said. “I… I don’t know you as well as you deserve, but I look forward to getting to know you better. Welcome aboard, Zecora.”

Twilight took her leave soon after, leaving Zecora to pack up her things for the journey, shut up her house, and generally get ready to go this quest which she had so generously offered to accompany Twilight and her friends upon.

It was enough to give Twilight a little pause, as she left the Everfree Forest and trotted briskly across the meadow that separated the wild wood from Ponyville beyond. Her friends, Zecora, all of them with no real stake – no stake at all, in the case of Zecora at least, and even her friends had little of the same connection to Lightning or Krysta that she had – in this adventure but all of them, nevertheless, willing to dare the distance and the wilds and whatever else might await them in the zebra lands and all for what? For her sake? It had to be for her sake, because it was certainly not for those for whom she was embarking. It was all for her, and that made her feel very small indeed.

Small, and humble, and rather unworthy. Five great-hearted ponies, Spike, Zecora, all about to set off across the face of the world for her. Because she had asked them to. Because she was determined to go and they would fain leave her behind. Because they cared about her.

And she, for all that she professed to care about them, was using that care and that concern to drag them off on a journey with an uncertain end, for the sake of two people they did not know. Because she cared about them, when perhaps she should have cared about her friends more.

It gave her pause, and if Twilight was being honest it made her feel a little selfish inside. She shivered, and turned away from the route back to Ponyville, heading instead towards Sweet Apple Acres, where she knew that she could find a pony who would return her honesty in kind.

She was fortunate that she didn’t have to scour the apple orchards looking for some sign of Applejack, but caught the other pony on her way back to the barn with a long train of apple carts in tow, all of them joined together while the hardy farmpony tugged them along like it was nothing at all, a feat of strength that Twilight wasn’t sure that she could have managed to duplicate with telekinesis.

Applejack came to a stop when she saw Twilight approach, the apple-carts bumping into one another as they each stopped rolling in turn. “Howdy, Twilight. Beautiful day, ain’t it?”

“Yes, yes it certainly is,” Twilight murmured, looking up at the overwhelmingly clear sky above them. A little sigh escaped her lips. “Can we talk?”

“Mind if I keep working while we do?” Applejack replied. “I got to get all these apples packed away, I’m trying to get as much work done as possible before we leave ‘stead of saving it for Big Macintosh.”

That didn’t make Twilight feel much better; in fact it kind of answered the question that she had come to Sweet Apple Acres to ask in the first place. Nevertheless, she nodded. “Sure, do you need some help?”

“That would be real kind of you,” Applejack replied as she resumed pulling, with the greatest of ease, the long line of apple carts into the barn.

Together, the two ponies set-to unloading them, Applejack using her great strength to tip them into the barrels, while Twilight accomplished much the same thing with telekinesis, her horn glowing as she scooped up apples by the load, packed them in, and sealed the barrels. They had gotten about a third of the way through the work, cooperation making light of it, when Applejack said, “I thought you wanted to talk.”

“Right,” Twilight, her horn still glowing with a lavender light as she levitated more apples into the next barrel, sealed it up, and packed it away. The glow around her horn faded for just a moment. “Zecora agreed to come with us.”

“That’s good,” Applejack replied easily, emptying another apple cart. “We could use someone who knows what’s what down there, save us blundering around trying to find the right zebra to put questions to and knowing whether to trust the answers.” She looked at Twilight from beneath the brim of her hat. “You okay, sugarcube? I mean, you went and asked her for help because you thought it would be a good idea to have her along. And besides, a good long road-trip might be just what we need to get to know her a little better.”

“I know,” Twilight said softly. “I’m just wondering whether this is the right road trip.”

Applejack stopped working, wiping the sweat from her brow with one hoof. “What’s eating you, Twilight? Come on now, spit it out?”

Twilight hesitated, but Applejack’s gaze was firm and resolute, and left her with no choice but to speak. “I’m not sure that Zecora ought to be going home,” Twilight said, after a moment. “She didn’t really give me the details, but I’m not sure how welcome she’ll be there with… certain people.”

Applejack frowned. “That’s… that’s her choice I guess. You didn’t force her to come with us, she decided to come anyway. That’s mighty nice of her, but I don’t see why you need to get all upset about it.”

“Don’t you?” Twilight asked. “Don’t you really?” She levitated some more apples into the next few barrels. “Applejack, am I being terribly selfish about all this?”

“Okay, now we get to the point,” Applejack said. “You’re starting to feel guilty about all this?”

“Shouldn’t I feel a little guilty about it?” Twilight replied. “Here you are, rushing to get as many of the chores done as possible before you leave the farm for however long; Rarity shutting up the boutique, Fluttershy leaving her animal friends; Zecora… you’re all putting your lives on hold and all for somepony that you don’t know or… don’t even like,” she added, thinking of Rainbow Dash.

Applejack shook her head. “You talking about that Lightning Dawn? No. It ain’t for him.” She looked Twilight square in the face, green eyes unblinking. “For you, Twilight.”

One of Twilight’s eyebrows rose. “You know that doesn’t actually make it much better,” she remarked dryly. “Just because you’re my friends doesn’t give me the right to demand that you do all of this for me.”

“You’re right,” Applejack said. “It don’t give you that right, and if you thought it did we wouldn’t be real friends, would we?” She smiled. “But you didn’t demand it, you asked for it and we said yes. We said yes because, well, because we wouldn’t be real friends if we let you go off to zebra country all by yourself chasing some legend, would we?”

Twilight sat down. “This… this isn’t really your quest,” she said unhappily, bowing her head so that she saw more of her own hooves and the ground that she did of her friend.

Applejack approached, sitting down in front of her beside the apple carts. “If it was one of us that was lost, you wouldn’t stop looking, would you?”

Twilight looked up. “Of course not, never.”

Applejack nodded. “Then it ain’t no surprise to any of us that you ain’t willing to get up on them, neither. They may not matter to us, but we all get that they matter to you – even those of us like Rainbow Dash who ain’t too happy about it. Heck, I can’t say I liked the fella myself, but I understand that he meant somethin’ to you and, well, that’s good enough for me.”

“Good enough for all this?”

Applejack shook her head. “Twilight, if I let you go off by yourself because the farm couldn’t spare me even for a while do you know how much work I’d get done?”

Twilight hesitated, sure there was a point but unable to see it. “No.”

“Not much, I reckon,” Applejack replied. “On account of how I’d be worried sick about you – and any of the rest of our friends who went without you – going off to who knows where without some pony with their head screwed on straight to keep an eye on you, if I do say so myself. And I reckon if you were to go from door to door then all the rest of our friends would say the same.” She placed one forehoof around Twilight’s shoulders. “So don’t you fret none about selfishness or taking advantage or any of the rest of it. You just make your plans, and we’ll all be ready and waiting when the time comes, okay?”

Twilight smiled, relief in her voice as she said, “Thanks, Applejack. That makes me feel a whole lot better.”

“Ain’t nothing to it but the truth, sugarcube,” Applejack replied. “Now, you mind helping me finish off all the rest of these?”

Twilight did, indeed, help Applejack finish off the rest of these, and with a few more chores around the farm – fixing the gutter, oiling a squeaky hinge, repairing the fence of the south field – before she left, feeling weary in body but refreshed in soul, to make her steps, much more plodding and heavy-hoofed now than they had been when she had emerged out of the Everfree Forest, towards Ponyville proper.

She made her way through the quiet town, waving and saying hello to the ponies that she saw on her way: the flower mares setting up their stall, Derpy with the mail, Cheerilee on her way to open up the school. And soon enough she had arrived back at the library, where a pony in the armour of the royal guard was waiting for her outside.

“Hey, Twily,” she said, as she caught sight of Twilight approaching. “Long time no see, huh?”

Twilight stopped. “Ace?”

Ace grinned. “And I was worried you wouldn’t remember me. How are you doing, kiddo?”

“I’ve grown up enough that you don’t have to call me ‘kiddo’ any more,” Twilight replied.

Ace laughed as she trotted across the distance between them. “You wish. You’ll always be that tiny little filly to me,” she said, as she rubbed Twilight’s head with one hoof.

“Stop that!” Twilight said, as she squirmed out of Ace’s grip. “What are you even… oh no.”

Ace’s smile became positively gleeful in its wickedness. “Oh yes.”

“You’re the one.”

“I am the one,” Ace confirmed. “The number one, that’s why they call me Ace.”

“You’re the royal guard Celestia assigned.”

“To go with you on this wild goose chase to the zebra lands? That’s right,” Ace said. “After all, we know each other and I am pretty good at what I do-“

“Pretty modest too.”

“I am precisely as modest as a pony with my skillset ought to be,” Ace declared. “Which is to say not at all because I have nothing to be modest about because I am all that and a box of doughnuts. All of which made me the natural choice for this job, don’t you think?”

“Hmm,” Twilight murmured. Ace – or rather Sunshine Ray to give her real name, although for as long as Twilight had known her she had always insisted upon Ace for reasons that as far as Twilight could tell boiled down to sheer vanity – was a butter yellow pegasus with a mane as red as dawn, worn tall and straight to form the crest of her gleaming helmet. Sky blue eyes sparkled with mischief. She was tall – tall for a mare, pretty tall for a stallion too come to that, almost as big as Shining Armour – but lithely built, with very slender limbs like twigs that didn’t seem capable of supporting too much weight – a deceptive impression. She had been in Shining Armour’s training cadre, and had come around to the house often enough when Twilight had been a filly, although Twilight hadn’t seen so much of her more recently. “So, how have you been? How’s Blue Sky?”

“Sky’s fine. And as for me, oh, you know,” Ace said. “Long nights in dark hallways, kitchen patrol, the usual guard stuff. Speaking of which, you have to stop making us look so bad saving the world all the time. It’s giving me a real sense of insecurity.”

Twilight chuckled. “Okay, I’ll let you have first crack next time something goes wrong.”

“Or you could just let me save your life sometime while we’re on this snipe hunt.”

“Don’t call it that,” Twilight said, a touch of irritability entering her voice. “Do you even know what we’re looking for?”

“Do you know what you’re looking for?”

“Not exactly,” Twilight admitted. “But I know that there’s something out there to find, I’m not just going there for exercise.”

“No, you’re going there for some boy,” Ace said. She grinned. “That’s what I hear, anyway.”

Twilight sighed. “Did Shining Armour tell you that?”

“No, the princess told me that,” Ace replied. “Not in that way, but I can read between the lines. Shining Armour… does this have anything to do with that time a few months ago when you sent a letter to the princess and she spent the whole night fretting about it with Princess Luna? And then he had to come to Ponyville to talk to some fella?”

“It has everything to do with that,” Twilight said. “How are you and Shining Armor, anyway?”

“Professional, don’t change the subject,” Ace said. “So, do you want to fill me in on what’s going on, Twily?”

“I will if you promise not call me Twily again.”

“No can do, Twily.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Ugh. I suppose I don’t have much choice, do I?”

“You have a choice,” Ace reminded her. “You just don’t have any good choices except to tell me what’s up.”

She was right about that, as much as the fact did not particularly please Twilight. But the difference between ‘only one good choice’ and ‘no choice at all’ was not particularly great as far as she was concerned. “Okay, where do I begin?”

Ace smirked. “Why don’t you start with the boy, that sounds fun?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. She pursed her lips together for a moment. “So how are you and Shining Armor these days?” she repeated.

Ace scowled at her. Twilight allowed herself to look ever so slightly smug.

Ace kicked one hoof against the ground. “Better as friends,” she muttered.

“I’m… sorry to hear that,” Twilight murmured, feeling a little guilty at having put Ace on the spot like this out of nothing more than a degree of pettiness and a desire to get back at the older mare. It had been mean… and unworthy of her, if that wasn’t too pretentious a thought.

“It’s fine,” Ace said quickly. “I like your brother, don’t get me wrong, it just turns out that we don’t like each other like that, if that makes sense. And besides, he’s dating someone else.”

Twilight’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No,” Twilight said firmly. “No, I didn’t.”

“Oh,” Ace said softly. “Well, um, you should probably forget I said anything then.”

“Or you should tell me who she is,” Twilight suggested.

“If Shining Armor wanted you to know he would have told you himself.”

“Come on, Ace-“

“Don’t ‘come on, Ace’ me, Twily,” Ace said. “We’re not her to talk about Shining Armor and we’re certainly not here to talk about my love life, we’re here to talk about you. Come on, stop dodging around already and spill it.”

Twilight looked down at the ground beneath her hooves, her hooves which she kicked back and forth. “I’d rather talk about you,” she murmured. “It’s a little less… well, it’s just…”

Ace sighed. “I’m sorry, Twilight.”

Twilight glanced up at her. “Sorry for what?”

“For making light, for making jokes, for treating this like something I could tease you about,” Ace said. “Little Twilight Sparkle’s first crush. It’s… more serious than that, isn’t it?”

Twilight was silent for a moment. “We never got the chance to find out,” she whispered.

Ace winced. She looked away, turning her face up towards the sun which still sat high in the sky, bathing Ponyville and Equestria in golden light. She flapped her wings for no obvious reason. She bit her lip for a moment. “It wasn’t mutual,” she said.

“Huh?”

“Me and Shining Armor,” Ace explained. “I was having fun… turned out that he wasn’t, or at least not… not in the way that I was. Turns out that I’m not his type. And I’m not saying this to blame him, it’s not his fault, but… that doesn’t mean I’m over it, you know?”

Twilight blinked. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I’m being honest with you,” Ace declared. “So that you’ll feel obliged to be honest with me, you being such a good girl and all. I guess I’m also letting you know that I… I don’t know, it’s a serious subject so here I am: being serious.”

Twilight hesitated. “What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“About Shining Armor.”

“What about Shining Armor, he’s not interested,” Ace repeated. “Do you think I’m going to pine for him? Watch him, and wait for him to realise that I’ve been here the whole time? No. No, absolutely not. That’s not who I am. That’s not who we are. We’re better than that. We deserve better than that. And besides… I’m not going to tell you who she is, but I will tell you that she’s a good girl. Good for him… plain good. So it’s fine… even though I’m not fine, if that makes any sense.”

“I… kind of, I suppose,” Twilight murmured. “All the same, I… I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” Ace muttered. “There, now you know my embarrassing secret, so how about yours? What’s going on? Come on, truth for truth.”

Twilight snorted. “Truth for truth,” she repeated. She paused a moment, and then a moment more. “His name was Lightning Dawn,” she said softly. “And he fell from the sky.”

Ace’s eyes widened. “Fell from the sky?”

“That’s right.”

“From the way you say it I’m guessing you don’t mean he was a useless pegasus who couldn’t his wings properly.”

“No,” Twilight agreed. “He was an alicorn, for a start.”

“An alicorn?”

“And he had a coat… it was like nothing that I’d ever seen before, like… it was like marble, veins of grey and black upon white it was… it was unique, striking-“

“Handsome?”

Twilight shrugged. “What does that even mean? He had a strong jaw and muscles, is that handsome?”

“For a lot of mares, yes,” Ace replied. “And some stallions too, for that matter.”

“As my friend Rarity found out at the Grand Galloping Gala, looks aren’t everything,” Twilight said.

Ace glanced to her right for a moment. “The Grand Galloping- was she the one who hit Prince Blueblood in the face with a pie?”

“I think she sprayed him with cake, actually.”

Ace chuckled. “Tell her that all the ponies in second platoon gave her a stomp of their hooves when they heard about that. Everypony who’s had to guard that guy knows exactly what he is.”

“You could tell her yourself,” Twilight suggested.

“Oh, yeah, I could, couldn’t I?” Ace realised. “But anyway, if looks aren’t everything then what was he like? Actually go back and explain what you mean by fall from the sky?”

“What it sounds like,” Twilight said. “No, wait, not what it sounds like. A hole in the sky opened, torn open with magic, like a portal through which he, and his little sister Krysta, fell to the ground. With a substantial impact.”

“Fallen from where?”

“Another world,” Twilight replied. “Another place, far from here.”

“Another world?” Ace repeated. “Come on, Twily, that sounds like comic book stuff, parallel universe and alternate dimensions.”

“It’s not exactly that, it’s more like… other planets,” Twilight explained. “No, it’s more like that, it is other planets. Other planets that we never knew existed until… until Lightning and Krysta fell from the sky to tell me all about it.”

“What was he like?” Ace asked.

“Stern,” Twilight said. “Stiff. A little proud, a little… haughty.”

“And you liked this guy?”

“But that wasn’t all there was to him,” Twilight went on. “He loved his sister, very much. She meant more to him than his duty, his comrades, he was willing to give up everything for her sake. When he made a mistake he was prepared to work to make it right, and work hard. And there were times when… when he’d almost become a kid again, and take such joy in making cakes or looking at the stars. It’s true that his exterior was a little… unappealing, but underneath was somepony very brave, and very kind. That… that’s why he’s not here any more. He sacrificed himself, to save me.”

“Sacrificed?”

“He’s not dead,” Twilight insisted. “They’re not dead, or at least… at least I don’t think they are. I hope they’re not. That’s why we’re going to the zebra country, to find something – the Heart of the World – an oracle that can tell me if they’re okay, and maybe even how to bring them back.”

“This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”

“They saved my life,” Twilight said. “Without them I’d be… I’d either be dead or worse.”

“What’s worse than dead?”

“You don’t want to know,” Twilight said, as a shiver ran down her spine at the thought of what she had almost done while in thrall to the Shard of Darkness: attacked her friends, attacked Princess Celestia, killed innocent ponies. If it hadn’t been for Lightning and Krysta’s sacrifice… it didn’t bear thinking about.

“And what if he hadn’t?” Ace demanded. “What if you didn’t owe him?”

“Then this would still be important to me,” Twilight said.

A smile pricked at the corner of Ace’s lips. “Then let’s go get them back.”

Twilight smiled. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” Ace acknowledged. “I told you, Twily, you and me aren’t mares who pine, we’re mares who do. So let’s do it.”