Daughters of the Purge

by Nebula Star

Chapter 11: School Days, Wings, and a New Arrival

Chapter 11: School Days, Wings, and a New Arrival
***

Flying over Ponyville, Twilight tried not to look too impatient. She really did. But anypony who knew her at all, which included most of her guard now, recognized that she was just pacing in the air. Feather and a few of her pegasus guards watching patiently from nearby clouds knew exactly why she was as well. Rainbow Dash and Daring Do were due back anytime now.

Having found the third prison toward the end of the first day they’d searched for it, they’d explored it and deactivated the traps as planned the following day, then began the flight back that night. It was now Thursday afternoon and so long as they’d left as early as they’d initially planned; they should be arriving within the hour.

Glancing in the direction they’d be coming from again, Twilight paused as she saw something in the distance, almost at the horizon. Feather looked as well and could just make out two tiny dots. She smiled glad the wait was almost over. Twilight’s sky pacing had been starting to make her impatient as well. If it had gone on much longer she may have had to challenge the princess to a race, futile as it might be, just to get her to stop.

It was only a couple minutes later that the two approaching were close enough to recognize and as soon as she could tell for sure that it was them, she was off. Feather and the guards with her had been ready and followed at a respectful distance.

Twilight crashed into Rainbow, barely slowing enough to avoid injury and the two tumbled in the air for a moment before recovering, still holding each other in a midair hug. A hug that soon became a kiss.

Daring, clearly feeling a little awkward spotted Feather and headed her way. “Geeze, we were only gone about a week…” she commented, rolling her eyes.

“It was a stressful week for her.” Feather told her. Twilight had told her a little about how she and Rainbow had gotten together; and how she’d agreed to give them a chance to see if love would bloom. Feather smiled. Twilight still hadn’t admitted it, but she could sense the feelings the princess had for her marefriend; and while she’d always loved her as a friend, that love was rapidly changing to a far more romantic variety.

Still smiling, she tapped the star on her armor in the center of her chest to unmute herself from the squad channel. “Alright, Delta formation, let’s bring them home,” she said, giving the order for the more distant escort formation to give the reunited couple some privacy. Glancing at Daring she gestured for her to follow taking up her own post in the formation. They still had to wait nearly another minute before Twilight and Rainbow started back toward Ponyville, but none of the guard complained.

~~~

The crystal palace was always quiet late in the evenings. Princess Cadence always tried to spend her evenings with her husband and so preferred holding court early each day and used the afternoons to take care of the other parts of running the empire. Though it wasn’t really an empire anymore. Jade Shard sighed softly, thinking back as he continued his patrol. He remembered when it truly had been an empire; when they had ruled over both the yaks and the caribou. Before the dark king had removed their capital from the world for over a millennia. Now the yaks were their own nation and he doubted they’d accept the empire’s rule again, and the caribou… well they’d moved far from the Empire’s lands.

Not that he blamed them. He’d been one of those forced into the dark king’s service, and though he’d been under the king’s control, he remembered everything they’d been forced to do. He remembered how the dark king had oppressed the non-ponies and destroyed the trust they’d once had in the empire. Once the city had been gone, it only made sense that they would seek to make their own way. And now after a thousand years of ruling themselves, why would they want to be ruled by ponies again.

It wasn’t just them though; there’d been numerous crystal pony settlements beyond the city itself as well; all of which had been abandoned in the millennia since. The crystal ponies that had remained had escaped to Equestria as the northern cold claimed their lands, and within a few generations had lost the crystalline sparkle that the Crystal Heart had given them. He knew that Princess Cadence was supposed to be descended from one of the royal family that had hidden in those outer settlements; but except for when the crystal heart was activated such as during the crystal fair, she didn’t look like it. If it weren’t for her having the crystal heart itself as her cutie mark, he doubted many would have believed it.

She was a good ruler though, and while she wasn’t likely to try and reclaim all the lands that the empire had once ruled, he really couldn’t complain.

“Something wrong?” His partner asked, walking alongside him.

“Just thinking about everything the dark king cost us.”

He gave a soft laugh. “Yeah, well we’re on duty, so don’t let your mind wander too much.”

“There’s no events tonight; the princess has already retired for the evening, and it’s not like any civilians could have hid out in the palace all afternoon.”

“Yeah, but if anyone were to break into the palace for any reason, this is most likely where they’d be.”

“I guess that’s true.” Jade conceded. Their patrol did include the lower halls where the royal vault and other secure storerooms were. “But when was the last time anypony tried to break into the palace?”

He turned the corner and the last thing he saw were two wide emerald eyes before a flash of crimson light filled his vision.

~~~

With a cheer a stampede of foals spilled out of the schoolhouse. Winter almost giggled at the younger foals excitement for the weekend, especially since her sister was among them, along with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Sweetie just rolled her eyes following alongside Winter at a more sedate pace.

As usual for the past week, Twilight was waiting by the road as they left the School house. What was different this time, was that Rainbow was with her. Winter smiled recalling how happy Twilight had been the night before that Rainbow was back, they’d spent most of the evening together, to the point that it had started to get awkward for the sisters and they’d gone to bed early. Not that they weren’t happy about it. They both liked Rainbow and wanted Twilight to be happy, and by the way she was cuddling with the pegasus last night, it was clear that Rainbow made her happy.

Dawn saw Twilight as well and headed her way, Winter and the crusaders following.

“Hi Rainbow!” Scootaloo greeted, running ahead of the rest.

“Hey, Scoots; you been practicing while I was gone?” Rainbow asked, giving her student a smile.

“You bet!”

Twilight smiled and turned to the rest of them. “Hey girls, excited for the weekend?”

“Yeah!” The crusaders cheered along with Dawn.

“And actually, would it be alright if Winter and Dawn hung out with us this afternoon?” Sweetie Belle asked. Dawn took her que and looked up at Twilight with pleading eyes.

“That would be fine.” Twilight told them.

“Bye girls!” Winter looked as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon passed them on their way home. “See you Monday!” Diamond said waving and Silver Spoon waved as well, then they both gave a respectful bow. “Princess.”

“You don’t have to bow all the time girls,” Twilight told them kindly, and waved as they went on their way. Winter knew that their families already had plans for the evening, so they wouldn’t be joining them for the afternoon. Twilight watched them a moment more with a thoughtful expression, then turned back to Winter and the others. “You want me to take your school bags home for you?” she asked.

“Yes, that would be good, thank you.” Winter said levitating her bags off for Twilight to take.

Twilight took them in her magic along with Dawn’s. “Just be home in time for Dinner, okay.”

“We will, Thanks Twilight!” Dawn said.

“Thanks, Twilight! See you later!” The Crusaders all said together and took off down the road toward town, Dawn right alongside them.

Winter smiled and waved to Twilight, then took wing for a moment to catch up.

“So what are we going to do?” Sweetie asked as they headed into town.

“You want to play keep away?” Scootaloo suggested. “I could use the flight practice.”

Apple Bloom grinned and with the mark on her shoulder glowing, her wings appeared. “Sounds fun to me!”

“I suppose I can always use more practice.” Sweetie agreed a little less enthusiastically.

“It doth sound fun to me!” Dawn said, hopping in place, and winter just nodded. She was fine doing whatever the rest of them wanted.

“Great! Race you to the park!” Apple Bloom called out and took off flying.

“Oh you’re on!” Scootaloo shouted taking off as well. Dawn quickly followed with Winter right on her tail leaving Sweetie to gallop after them.

“Hey, wait for me!” she called in vain.

~~~

“So what’s the deal?” Rainbow asked as Twilight rejoined her at the start of the path, practically a road itself, that led to the nearly completed castle.

“The foremare says that I’ll be able to move in by Friday at the latest. So it looks like this weekend is going to be the big move.” Twilight told her.

“Alright, that will give me a few days to check in with the weather team, make sure nopony made a mess of things while I was gone.” she said looking up at the castle. It wasn’t even close to the size of Canterlot castle, but it was still huge compared to anything else in Ponyville. “It does look like a pretty nice place. There’s extra rooms, right? For if you need space for something you didn’t plan on?”

Twilight nodded. “I think there were at least eight extra rooms that weren’t designed for anything in particular. There’s also a dozen guest suites in the wing opposite the staff quarters…”

“You think I could set up a small gym in one of the extra rooms?”

Twilight looked at her surprised. “A gym?”

“Yeah, I mean I’ve always wanted a private gym, but uh… cloud homes and weight benches don’t really mix well. Not without a lot of expensive specialty clouds.” Rainbow told her blushing slightly.

Twilight smiled. “Well, there’s already a gym in the barracks wing, but that’s mostly for the guard. There are a few rooms in the Residence wing we could use for a gym, so how ‘bout we set one up there and it will be our gym.”

“Awesome!”

Twilight smiled and gave her marefriend a nudge. “You know, if you keep influencing me to exercise more, I might just catch up to you.”

Rainbow laughed softly. “All the more reason for me to keep pushing my limits; got to stay one step ahead.” They both took another moment to survey the new castle; more just a palace really but officially it was to be known as Ponyville Castle. With four wings spreading out from a central hub that included the entry hall, throne room, and six towers; it was a sprawling complex. “So what are the plans for the grounds?” Rainbow asked looking around at the large amount of open land surrounding the castle.

“Well most the area in front and around the sides are going to be gardens. There’s also going to be a private garden between the two wings in the back, behind the throne room. But they’re not going to be starting on those until next spring. Back by the barracks wing there’s going to be space for the guard to set up practice fields, target ranges, and whatever else they need. As for the area behind the residence wing, there’s already a small pond there, so I was thinking it might be nice to plant a grove of trees wrapping around the far side of the pond. My bedroom actually overlooks the pond, and I think it will make for a lovely view.”

“Not to mention your own private swimming hole.” Rainbow added with a grin.

Twilight laughed. “That too.” She looked out over the castle and grounds a moment more then with a sigh, turned and started back toward town. “One more week.”

~~~

Winter watched for a moment longer as Dawn worked on her homework, then confident that her little sister understood the concepts, returned to her own. After the fun they’d had over the weekend, Scootaloo especially had been rather dramatic in her dread of returning to school. She understood, she supposed; there were definitely some things that weren’t much fun to learn, and some ponies simply didn’t enjoy the pursuit of knowledge as much as others. But while a few of the lessons did get a little boring at times; Winter didn’t really find school to be as much of a trial as some made it out to be. Even Dawn seemed to mostly enjoy their lessons. Now two days into their second week, Winter was confident that continuing school wouldn’t be a problem.

She had noticed though, that she was the oldest in the class. Most the other fillies and colts were around Dawn and the Crusader’s age. Some even younger. She didn’t know exactly how school normally worked; but she was beginning to suspect that Twilight had made special arrangements so that she could be in the same class with Dawn. If so, she was grateful for it.

There really wasn’t anywhere better for them to do their homework than the main floor of the Library, so they both heard when there was a knock on the door and Captain Feather opened it letting Sweetie Belle in.

“Hi, girls!” Sweetie called, waving.

“Hi, Sweetie!” Dawn called waving back and Winter waved as well. A moment later Twilight appeared at the top of the stairs from the bedroom, having been working on packing.

“Hi, Sweetie!” Twilight called smiling as she started down the stairs. “Ready for your lesson?”

“Yep!”

Winter smiled and went back to her homework, they knew about Sweetie’s magic lessons with Twilight

“Great, let’s see, we were going to start on something new weren’t we? Anything you’d like to learn?” Twilight asked.

“Actually, could you teach me the flutterwing spell?” Sweetie asked and Winter’s ears perked up, that sounded like…

“Hmm. We could work on it. I think you could learn it; but it is a very difficult spell.” Twilight said.

That wasn’t right… Winter looked up from her homework. “The flutterwing spell? Is that a spell to give a pony wings resembling a butterfly’s?”

Twilight looked over at her and nodded. “Yes, have you heard of it?”

“I didst create it!”

“Really?”

“Yes, only it should not be very difficult; Sweetie shouldn’t have trouble learning it.” Winter told her. “I didst make it for… for my friend and didst teach it to her. She was not as advanced as Sweetie but she didst have no trouble learning it.”

Twilight frowned. “Hmm… sounds like your spell isn’t the same one I know of.”

“Dost thou… you have a copy of the spell?” She asked, correcting herself. She and Dawn had been noticing the differences in how ponies talked now.

“Sure.” Twilight said turning toward the book shelves she scanned a few before finding the book she was looking for, pulling it out with her magic. “Here it is.” She said opening the book to the page she wanted and levitating it to Winter.

Taking it in her own magic, she looked at the spell forms on the page and her eyes widened. “This… this is all wrong! I mean it would work, but tis far more complicated than it dost need to be! And the wings this spell would create would be exceedingly delicate!”

“Your spell is easier?” Sweetie asked hopefully.

“Yes, much easier.” Winter told her confidently.

“Could you teach it to me!?

Winter smiled. “I wouldst be glad to,” she said then looked up at Twilight. “Dost… do you have a blank scroll I may use to write down the spell form?”

“Of course.” Twilight said, her horn lighting as she opened a drawer of her desk and levitated out a blank scroll.

“Thank you. It should only take a few minutes to write down.”

Twilight smiled. “Alright, thank you, Winter,” she said then turned back to Sweetie. “In the meantime, how about we review some of the other spells you’ve learned. It's always good to review once in a while to keep the spells fresh in your mind.”

Winter went back to where she and Dawn had been working on their homework and set to work writing out her version of the flutterwing spell. She had no idea how it had gotten so overcomplicated, but then she’d never really taught her version to anypony other than her friend. Perhaps somepony had seen her using it once and had tried to duplicate it? No matter. She could correct the spell now and would be glad to teach Sweetie. It was obvious why Sweetie wanted to learn it; it was the same reason why she’d created it in the first place. With Apple Bloom having a wing spell of her own, Sweetie was the only one stuck on the ground when the five of them were together.

It took a few minutes of work, but she soon had the spellform written out. Scanning over it once more to make sure there weren’t any mistakes, she nodded satisfied and got up, taking it back over to where they were practicing. Sweetie was levitating half a dozen books at once having them follow a complex path in the air. Seeing her though, she quickly sent the books to stack neatly on the center table.

“Here it is.” Winter said, levitating the scroll to her.

Sweetie eagerly took the scroll in her magic and began reading while Twilight examined the spell form over her shoulder. “Oh wow, yeah, that is a lot easier,” Twilight said approvingly.

“Thank you, Winter!” Sweetie said happily, grinning up at her.

Winter smiled in return. “Would you like to get started then? Learning to cast the spell is only the first part after all. I didst design the wings so that they wouldst be easy to fly with, but it doth still take some time to get used to them.”

She nodded. “Let’s get started!”

Winter watched as Sweetie made another attempt to cast the spell. It was nearing the end of her lesson at this point, but she was close. As she watched, the filly was lifted into the air and the glowing magic of the spell began to wrap around her. She’d gotten this far before, but it was the last part of the spell that was the most difficult. On her last two attempts the spell had fallen apart at this point, the cocoon of magic fading away, dropping her to the ground. As much as she wanted to encourage her, Winter knew that concentration was key here, so she simply watched, paying close attention to the magic in case she made any mistakes. This time though, the magic brightened and with a flash the spell completed.

“It worked!” Sweetie exclaimed even as the magic faded enough for them to see again.

Sweetie was floating there held up by her new wings. Mostly sky blue in color with teardrops of purple, pink, green and yellow and all translucent enough that they appeared like stained glass. Slowly she floated down to the floor, and took a moment to admire her new wings.

“Well done, Sweetie.” Winter said smiling.

“They’re so pretty!”

“The appearance was… my friend’s idea. At first, I didst intend to make the spell so that it would give you wings like a pegasus, as Apple Bloom’s spell does. But that was much too difficult, and she didst not want pegasus wings; she didst not want others to mistake her for an alicorn. So instead I didst make these, and didst design them so that they wouldst be easy to learn how to use them. Even so, I do recommend that thou… you practice with them a bit before flying too high.”

Sweetie nodded understanding, then ran over and hugged her. “Thank you, Winter!”

Winter hugged her back. “You are welcome, Sweetie Belle.”

The basement door opened making them both look as Twilight reemerged. With Winter teaching Sweetie, she’d taken the opportunity to work on packing up some of her equipment in the basement. “Oh, you got it to work!” She said seeing Sweetie.

“Yep!”

“Good job Sweetie,” Twilight said giving her a proud smile. “And just in time too, it’s just about time for you to head home.”

“It is!?” She looked at the clock and her eyes widened. “Oh… could we practice flying during my next lesson?”

Twilight nodded. “That would be fine, and then we should probably get started on the cloud walking spell after that.”

“Oh yeah!”

“I would be glad to help thee practice flying as well.” Winter told her.

Sweetie smiled. “Oh, but don’t tell the other crusaders, okay! I want to surprise them!”

“We’ll keep quiet.” Twilight said with a smile and Winter nodded in agreement. “Can I see the spell for a moment to make a copy?”

“Oh sure!” Sweetie said and levitated the scroll over to her. Twilight took it and a second blank scroll and with a flash of magic, copied the spell.

“There we go.” She levitated the original back to Sweetie. “Now you’d better head on home.”

“Okay, see you later then! Thanks again, Winter!” She said and focusing for a moment, dismissed the wings causing them to burst into colorful sparkles that faded away even as they fell around her. With a grin she headed for the door.

“See you, Sweetie! We shall work on flying next time. Shouldn’t take long.”

“Bye, Sweetie!” Dawn called from where she was reading having finished her homework during the lesson.

“Bye, and remember, don’t tell the other Crusaders!” Sweetie called back.

“We shall not tell,” Winter assured her.

Sweetie smiled and with one last wave she was out the door heading home.

Twilight and closed the door after her, then took another look at the copy of the spell she’d made. “This really is a much easier spell. You mind if I add it to my collection? I’ve been putting together a collection of all the most useful spells I’ve come across over the years that I was thinking about publishing as a book eventually.”

“Oh, no, I do not mind.” Winter told her.

“I would list you as the creator of the spell of course,” Twilight told her. “I wonder why it got so overcomplicated. You said you taught your friend the spell, so if she had taught it to anyone it would have been this version…”

“I do not think that my friend taught anypony…” Winter said softly with a deep sadness that caught Twilight’s attention.

“What do you mean?”

Winter looked down.

Twilight moved over next to her and sat by her side, stretching a wing around her. “You want to talk about it?”

She sniffed softly. “Her name was Maple Leaf. I didst meet her… It was during Dawn’s lessons. I was supposed to be studying on my own, but I didst sneak out.” Winter told her softly. “She was the first filly that was ever brave enough to try to be my friend. I didst sneak out many times… For over a year we didst manage to keep our friendship a secret. Then mother found out.”

Twilight gave her a comforting squeeze, as she sniffed again at the tears that came to her eyes. “The next day… she was gone; her whole family. They were just gone. Nopony would tell me what happened…”

Twilight turned and pulled her into a full hug wrapping both wings around her. “Winter, I’m so sorry you went through that…”

“I never should have made friends with her… if I hadn’t…”

“It’s not your fault.” Twilight told her firmly.

With a soft whimper, Winter reached up hugging her in return. That had been what had convinced her that she needed to protect her sister, that they needed to escape their mother. It was when she’d realized that though they were safe from all those who hated alicorns, they could never truly be happy in their mother’s care.

“Winter, you know; you don’t have to worry about Dawn all the time. You could make some friends of your own if you want.” Twilight suggested softly.

Winter sniffed once more. “The crusaders are my friends too…”

“I know, I just meant some friends your own age.” Twilight told her. “Just something to think about.”

She nodded that she understood but held the embrace a moment more. “I did notice that I am the oldest in our class…”

Twilight nodded, not surprised at all. “I didn’t think you’d want to be separated from Dawn, and I thought it would give you some time to adjust to modern times. I was planning on suggesting you move on to secondary school at the start of the next term. I hoped by then you’d be alright being in a separate class from Dawn.”

“I… I do not know…”

“You don’t have to decide right now.” Twilight assured her. “Next term isn’t for a few months, and even then, it will be your choice.”

“I will think about it.” Winter said softly.

Twilight smiled and pat her back once more before releasing her. “For now, we’ve just got the move to the castle to worry about.”

“We do not have much to move.” Winter looked up at her and finally grinned.

Twilight snorted. “Right; I suppose it’s just me that has to worry about it…”

~~~

Looking around the library, Twilight sighed. Already it was feeling empty, and they had only just begun to move her things to the new castle. She was going to miss living here. But especially now, with Winter Belle and Dawn Melody, they needed the space that the castle provided in excess. Still, she’d miss the old tree.

A commotion at the front door stirred her from her thoughts, and she listened for a moment, hearing a shout then a cry of surprise. Curious, she went to see what was happening. Opening the door, she found Captain Feather and two of her other guards restraining another pony. They had her down on the ground, the two guards pinning her on her side while Captain Feather stood over her with a wing blade to her neck.

The pony, Twilight saw, was a unicorn. A unicorn with a golden amber coat and a red and gold mane. She sighed; there was no mistaking that mane. “What are you doing here, Sunset; not getting in trouble are you?”

Author's Note:

Sunset's back!

So yes, EQG is canon in this story, though since this started with a replacement to the Season 4 Finale, only the first EQG is included. So this is the first Twilight has seen Sunset since her defeat.

Comments

[new55]

That was a good chapter goodluck with the next one.