Daughters of the Purge

by Nebula Star

Chapter 14: Keeping Promises

Chapter 14: Keeping Promises
***

Transporting the mirror portal back to Twilight’s castle had proven to be a very simple matter, and for the time being it was placed in one of the extra rooms in the residence wing. With the portal closed there really wasn’t any danger, and the residence wing was under guard anyway.

Lemon Hearts had managed to get the castle staff started even with the limited rooms available in the staff quarters. It helped that other than the staff, there were only four residents for the time being, as the guard barracks wasn’t finished yet. Five if you counted Rainbow, but though she was a regular at the castle, she hadn’t actually moved in.

Feather was looking forward to the barracks being completed. It would be good to have the full guard available and not just the bare minimum that were currently staying in the Ponyville inn. Right now, though, something else was on her mind. The fillies had gone out with their friends, with a squad of guards watching over them from a distance of course. She wasn’t sure if they’d realized yet that they had a guard escort wherever they went. Sunset was in the castle, though she was currently in her room practicing magic since she’d spent the past few years without it. Which left Twilight alone with Rainbow, currently in the main study, and while she didn’t particularly want to intrude, the princess had asked her to tell Rainbow, even if she seemed to have forgotten.

Stepping into the study, she found Twilight and Rainbow at the desk looking over the map of Alicorn prisons. “Princess?”

Twilight looked up from the map. “Oh, Feather; you need something? Daring just reported that she’s on her way back, so we were planning out which prisons to check next.”

“Ah, yeah, about that, Princess; you wanted me to tell Rainbow…”

“Tell me what?” Rainbow asked looking up as well.

Twilight looked at Feather confused at first then her eyes widened when she remembered. “Oh, right!”

“I didn’t want you to think I was avoiding it.”

“Oh, no, I’d completely forgotten with everything going on.” Twilight assured her, then cast a quick privacy spell to ensure no one would overhear.

“What’s this about?” Rainbow asked looking between them.

Feather took a deep breath. “To put it simply, I’m a changeling. Princess Twilight found out while we were searching for Apple Bloom a few weeks back, she wanted me to tell you.”

“What, really!?” Rainbow asked looking between her and Twilight seeming confused why Twilight wasn’t more upset. “Where’s the real Feather then!?”

“She is Feather, Rainbow, she made up her identity, she didn’t replace anyone.” Twilight told her.

Rainbow blinked in surprise. “Oh… I guess that’s okay.”

“I left the changeling kingdom years ago. I didn’t like the way things were going, and well, you’ve met the queen.” Feather explained.

“Heh, yeah.” Rainbow smirked. “Couldn’t stand her huh?”

Feather sighed and shook her head. “I decided to try to make my own way in Equestria. Feather was the identity I gave myself then. I uh… kind of panicked the first time somepony asked my name.”

Rainbow snorted, trying not to laugh.

“Yeah, I know, it’s a very generic name. Eventually I joined the guard. I was still stationed in Manehattan when the invasion happened, and I was as shocked as anypony else. I knew the queen was power hungry, but I never thought she’d try something that crazy.”

“It was pretty crazy.” Rainbow agreed. “So, uh… what now.”

Feather shrugged. “Twilight wanted you to know…”

Twilight nodded. “When I found out, she told me everything, and was completely honest about it. So, I told her she could stay on as my captain since she’s been nothing but loyal so far. However, we’re worried that if the Changeling Queen were to find out about her that she’d be considered a traitor, and her life could be in danger. So for now, it’s best that we keep Feather’s identity a secret. I’m going to inform Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but otherwise keep it to yourself, okay Rainbow?”

With a nod, Rainbow looked back over at Feather. “Alright. You’ve been pretty cool so far. So I’ll keep your secret.”

“Thank you, Rainbow,” Feather said gratefully, then glanced at the map on the desk that showed the locations of all the alicorn prisons. “There is one other thing you should know.” She stepped over to the map and pointed to one of the marks far to the west of Equestria. “I already told Twilight, but if this mark is accurate, then that would place the prison directly under the main changeling hive.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Really!? That’s where the hive is?”

“And I don’t know for certain, but I believe the Queen may know about the prison. There were some tunnels deep in the hive that were off limits to all but the queen and a few of the royal guard. Obviously, checking that prison may be a bit more complicated than the others.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow looked at the mark and the name written under it. “Mist, huh? Well hopefully old queeny doesn’t accidentally let him free.”

“I hope she doesn’t… I may have left but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about my former home. There’s a lot of changelings that probably wouldn’t be that bad if it weren’t for the queen. I wouldn’t want them to suffer or be destroyed by one of these ancient alicorns.”

“I can understand that.” Rainbow nodded, then looked over at Twilight. “So I’m guessing we’re not going to send Daring to check that one.”

“Not on her own, no. We’ll continue checking the remaining prisons in Equestria first. When we work our way out that far… I think we’ll have to go ourselves.”

Rainbow nodded. “Gotcha. You know I’ll be with you.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “We’ll have to tell Daring why, but I think it will be a good idea to have her as well, along with a fair number of the guard.” She looked over at Feather. “Would the queen be able to detect you if you accompanied us?”

Feather shook her head. “She has spells that can force us back into our true form, but unless she suspects I’m a changeling already, she wouldn’t think to cast it on a random royal guard.”

“Alright, then there shouldn’t be any reason that you couldn’t come with. Is the hive hidden at all?”

“Not really, it’s just far enough from Equestria that ponies haven’t ever found it.”

“Good, then we can just claim that a scout spotted the hive when we were going to investigate the alicorn prison and we decided to approach them peacefully.” Twilight told her, then took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “It will have to wait, though. In fact, we may have to put checking the other prisons on hold for a while once winter hits.”

“Yeah, that’s true. The ones Daring and I found on the first trip were difficult enough; once everything is covered in a layer of snow it will be all but impossible.” Rainbow agreed.

“Exactly. In any case, I wanted you to know about Feather, Rainbow, but for now, keep it a secret, okay?”

Rainbow gave her a salute. “You got it, Twi.”

Twilight smiled and looked to her Captain. “Was there anything else?”

Feather smiled but shook her head. “I’ll let you two get back to your plans.”

With a nod, Twilight canceled the privacy spell. “Alright, thanks, Feather.”

Feather gave a quick salute and headed back to the guard checkpoint at the entrance to the residence wing.

~~~

Winter smiled following the other fillies as Dawn showed them on a tour of the castle. After a quick crusade as they liked to call them, the rest of the fillies had been excited to see the castle even if it wasn’t finished yet, and Dawn had been just as excited to show them around the parts that were finished. Not nearly as excited herself, she was trailing behind, just glad that her sister seemed so happy. They were in the hall where all the guest suites were when she sensed a complex form of magic being cast in one of the rooms. The room where Sunset Shimmer was currently staying.

Curious, and knowing that Dawn and the other fillies would be safe within the castle, she went to Sunset’s door and knocked. It was only a moment later that the door opened and Sunset looked out.

“Oh, hey Winter, you need something?” She asked, a little surprised.

“No, I was just curious what you were doing. It did feel like some powerful magic.” Winter told her.

Sunset raised a brow. “You could feel that?”

She nodded. “Yes. I know I am young, but I do know a lot about magic. Our mother was not a good pony, but she was a powerful alicorn and didst train Dawn and I in magic every day.”

“Really? Well you might be better than me then. I’m afraid I’m a bit out of practice.” Sunset said with a sigh. “I’ve been in a world without magic for nearly five years.”

“No magic?” Winter asked surprised. “The world where you were really had no magic?”

“Nope, the only magic there was whatever we brought from this side. Now that I’m back though, I’ve been trying to brush up a bit on my magic studies. I used to be one of the most talented unicorns in Equestria…” She sighed. “Now I’m trying to remember everything I used to know.”

“You want some help?” Winter asked. “I wouldst like to keep my own magic well trained.”

Sunset looked at her curiously. “You want to study with me?”

Winter shrugged. “It would be interesting to see what magics are still known, what has been lost, and what might be new. And perhaps we could teach each other some things; I do know more spells than even many alicorns in our time did.”

“Hmm. Well do you know anything about portal spells? Not interdimensional, of course, just from one place to another.”

“Like we spoke of on the train? Yes, they can be useful for transporting multiple ponies without the increased magic cost to do so with teleportation. Though in most cases teleportation is still better.”

Sunset smiled. “And anchored portals?”

“I think in my time they were called gateways. Portals permanently enchanted into an object.”

“Yeah, I thought that was what Twilight meant when she mentioned gateways.” Sunset smirked. “It does sound better…” Stepping back she gestured for Winter to follow into the entry room. “I was actually studying portal spells just before I left to the other world. It was how I came across the information about the portal to that world to begin with. One of the main problems with portal spells is their limited range; even basic teleportation can go twice as far for the same power unless you’re transporting five or more ponies. Even gateways take a lot of power.”

Winter nodded. “Running off ambient magic a gateway large enough for an alicorn would only have enough range to cross half of Ponyville.”

“That’s about right. I knew it was a neglected field of magic, but it sounds like it really hasn’t improved in the last couple thousand years. Back before I left, I was trying to find a way to improve the range, make gateways more useful.”

“If you directly power them, you can get a longer range for a short time.” Winter offered.

“Yeah, but then they can’t be open for very long, and you have to have a unicorn that knows how charging it.” She sighed. “It may be futile, but could you imagine how it would change things if we could make gateways that could reach from one city to another running off of ambient magic alone? Gateways that anypony could use?”

“That does sound very useful if it could be done.” Winter agreed though she didn’t know if it was possible.

“It definitely would, anyway, I was thinking I’d work on it again now that I’m back, but first I need to review everything I used to know; try to remember it all. Fortunately, Twilight has a pretty good library, so I found a couple books on portal spells and was working on reviewing all the portal spells I know.” She gestured to the book open on her desk.

Walking over, Winter took a look at the book and the portal spell it was currently open to. She immediately recognized it. “I know this one.”

“You do?”

Winter nodded and lit her horn casting the spell. The air shimmered in front of her then opened into a hole, at the same time another hole appeared on the other side of the room. Without hesitation she stepped through, crossing the room instantly.

Sunset smirked as Winter closed her portal and walked back across the room. “Heh, yep that’s it. Guess that is one of the most basic portal spells, I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s been around a while. There’s also this variation that has to be cast on a wall.” Aiming at a blank spot on the wall she cast the spell creating what looked like a hole in the wall while another hole opened at another spot on the wall next to them, letting them see themselves from the side. “It’s a little more complex, but a bit safer and more stable than the free floating portal, and doesn’t take any more energy to cast.”

Winter nodded. Without seeing the spell, she couldn’t be sure if it was the same, but she had seen such a portal spell before. “What about this one?” Winter cast another spell and icy blue energy looking almost like flames rose in a circle around her. Sunset watched surprised as she was encased in a dome and seemed to sink into the floor. As soon as she’d vanished from sight and the icy flames winked out, another circle appeared on the other side of the room, and she reappeared seeming to rise out of the floor within a dome that dissipated as soon as she fully emerged from the floor.

“Nope, haven’t seen that one. It’s definitely a different kind of portal,” Sunset agreed. “Is that the one Twilight mentioned?”

“I think so. It is not an open passage like most portal spells, but it is also not quite the same as a teleport spell either. Because of this it will not be affected by wards made to stop most portals or teleportation. You would have to make a ward specifically for it.” Winter told her.

“Really? That’s… huh, I actually hadn’t thought about that, I guess Twilight hasn’t put up any wards yet.” Sunset said looking at her portal that was still open on the wall.

“She does have some basic monitoring wards up over most of Ponyville, and more complex ones over the castle and grounds. But not any to prevent teleportation or portals.” Winter told her having sensed most of the wards when Twilight had first cast them.

“I’d have to move my work, but she probably should at least put teleportation and portal wards around the residence wing.” Sunset said frowning. “Speaking of; she said something about a long-range teleportation array. I wonder if she has time to teach it to me; maybe we could set one up in one of the extra rooms. Make it a designated teleportation room.”

“I have used a teleportation array. My mother made it though and never taught me how to make them myself,” Winter told her.

“Oh yeah, how far did you go?”

“I do not know the exact distance… but probably more than twice the distance to Canterlot from here. And it was not a strain; I could have easily gone much further with the array.”

“Dang.” Sunset said and grinned. “Now I definitely want Twilight to teach it to me. Being able to teleport anywhere in Equestria with a single jump? That would be awesome. For now, though, you think you could teach me that fiery portal you did?”

Winter smiled and nodded. “I would be glad to.”

~~~

Twilight glanced at Rainbow and gave a bit of a smirk as they both heard the sound of more than a dozen small hooves as a small herd of fillies rushed down the hall just outside the door. Then the door opened in the soft golden glow of Dawn’s magic.

“This is the study. Oh, hi Twilight, Rainbow!” Dawn said, leading the herd into the room.

“Hi, Rainbow!” Scootaloo called waving enthusiastically.

“Hey, Scoots!” Rainbow waved back.

“You giving them the tour, Dawn?” Twilight asked, noticing that besides the crusaders, Diamond Tiara was once again present, but this time so was her friend, Silver Spoon.

“Yep!”

“Well, stick to the completed sections, okay. We don’t want to interrupt the ponies working on the rest.”

“Okay!” Dawn said with a nod. It was then that Twilight noticed who was absent.

“Where’d Winter go?” She asked.

Dawn looked back at the other fillies and they all looked around realizing that the oldest of the group was no longer with them. “I don’t know,” she said sounding a little surprised.

“She was with us when we got to the castle…” Apple Bloom said with a shrug.

A little curious herself, Twilight used one of the wards she’d cast over the castle to quickly locate her. “Hmm, looks like she went to talk to Sunset about something,” she said then gave the rest of the fillies a smile. “Well I’m sure Dawn can handle showing you the rest of the castle.”

Dawn smiled and nodded.

Twilight smiled but then remembered something. “Oh, before you go; Apple Bloom, do you know if Rekaj is back?”

“Yeah, he got back yesterday.” Apple Bloom said with a nod. “Why?”

“Princess Celestia still wants to meet him sometime. I’ll have to talk to him about going to Canterlot and set up a time.”

“Oh, okay; I think he said he was going to spend the day in town.” Apple Bloom told her.

“I’ll see if I can find him then.” Twilight told her. “And one other thing; I’m going to have to ask you to only use time magic when absolutely necessary for now, and I’ll be asking the same of Rekaj.”

“What, why?”

“Did your sister ever tell you about the time I went through a portal to another world?” Twilight asked.

Apple Bloom nodded.

“Well we think your time magic might be messing with that portal. It’s not that big of a deal really, but I do think it would be best if you limit yourself to using it as little as possible.”

“Oh… okay then. Ah’ll try not to use it unless Ah have to.”

Twilight gave her a thankful smile. “Alright. Have fun on your tour, girls.”

“We will!” Dawn assured her and led the way from the room. “Come on! The library is next!” She said heading down the hall.

The last to leave were Diamond and Silver Spoon who paused to make a quick bow. “Princess!” before galloping after their new friends.

Twilight watched them for a moment smiling then looked over at Rainbow. “Winter actually left Dawn’s side.” She said softly. “Just here in the castle but still…”

Rainbow grinned putting a wing around her. “Well who wouldn’t feel safe with you around.”

Twilight smiled and nuzzled her neck affectionately.

~~~

Not wanting to forget again, Twilight decided to go ahead and find Rekaj while the fillies finished their tour, so she and Rainbow found Spike and headed into town with her usual guard escort. Fortunately, finding Rekaj and arranging a time for him to meet with Princess Celestia didn’t take long. With Spike’s help they were able to arrange a time for them to meet and Rekaj had assured her he knew the way. By then, though Rainbow had to go check on a few weather tasks, so it was just her, Feather and Spike heading back to the castle.

Talking with Rekaj and arranging his meeting with Celestia had gotten her thinking though, that she’d need to convince Sunset to go to Canterlot soon as well. It had already been over a week since she’d arrived, and she doubted they could keep her being back a secret for much longer. And really, she didn’t want to. Sunset definitely needed to see Celestia; Twilight was certain it would be good for her to close those old wounds and allow them to heal.

Checking her wards when she reached the castle, she found Sunset and Winter were in the library now, while Dawn and the rest of the fillies were in the staff wing. It seemed Lemon Hearts had joined them, probably helping with the tour while at the same time keeping them out of the staff’s way. Trusting her old friend had things under control there, she instead headed for the library. Sunset and Winter looked up as she and Spike entered, and she smiled. “Hey, you two; what have you been up to?”

Sunset laughed softly. “Well we were talking about portals and gateways and sharing spells we know, but then we got talking about comics and graphic novels. I’m surprised you haven’t shown them any!”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “Oh… well I never really got into comics myself.”

“Really?” Sunset said sounding almost shocked. “Wow, I thought all us nerdy unicorns from Celestia’s school would be into comics. I guess that explains why we couldn’t find any in the library.”

“She did get into one.” Spike said with a grin.

“Only because it literally pulled us in!" Twilight rolled her eyes. "You’re still banned from the House of Enchanted Comics, by the way!”

“House of enchanted comics?” Sunset asked.

Twilight nodded. “It's a store in Canterlot."

"What kind of enchantments do they do?"

"Ever hear of Haycarts Method?”

“Yeah.”

“Basically that, except it puts you in the role of one of the characters," Twilight told her.

“Dang, that sounds pretty fun.” Sunset said with a grin. “I might have to check that out.”

“Their comics are licensed but they're all non-canon,” Spike warned.

“Still sounds fun.”

“These comics do sound interesting.” Winter said. “We did have fiction in the past, but never fully illustrated as Sunset describes.”

Sunset nodded. “I was actually kind of hoping I could get caught up. Kind of missed the last few years, you know.”

“What comics were you into?” Spike asked curiously.

“Well there were a few, but the big one was Power Ponies.” Sunset said and Spike smiled.

“You’re in luck, I have every issue all the way up to last month’s.”

Her eyes widened in excitement. “Really!?”

He nodded. “You’re welcome to borrow them, so long as you’re careful. You too, Winter, if you want to check them out.”

“That would be great! When I left it was in the middle of the Mayor Lexia arc where she’d almost turned the entire public against them.”

Spike grinned remembering that particular story arc. “That was a good one,” he told her but didn’t say more knowing she wouldn’t want it spoiled.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I still don’t get the appeal.”

Sunset laughed. “Come on, Twi; you can’t always study, you know. You have to be able to unwind sometime.”

“Hey, I read fictional novels all the time! Well… I guess Daring Do isn’t really fictional, but I’ve read other series as well! I just don’t get the regular comics; they’re all pictures with barely any words per page; there’s hardly any story in each issue!”

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” Sunset countered with a smirk.

Twilight sighed. “Whatever, they’re just not for me,” she said, and Sunset just shrugged accepting that. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you, Sunset, about going up to Canterlot.”

Sunset visibly tensed. “When?”

“I was thinking this weekend,” Twilight told her. “Celestia’s going to find out you’re here eventually, Sunset. You might as well get it over with.”

“Does it have to be this weekend?”

“You’ve already put it off long enough,” Twilight told her firmly.

She sighed heavily but reluctantly nodded.

“Celestia is very kind; I do not think you need to worry.” Winter assured her, having picked up a bit about Sunset’s situation over the past week.

“I know, but in a way, that only makes it worse… after what I did; what I said. I don’t know if I deserve her forgiveness,” Sunset said looking down at the floor.

“Of course you do, Sunset!” Twilight assured her gently. “You’ve come a long way since then.” She smiled. “Sure, you needed a rainbow to the face at one point…”

Sunset snorted, remembering looking up at Twilight and the other five girls that had later become her friends from the bottom of a crater. “Because I’d let myself become a literal demon.”

“But every step since then has been all you.” Twilight reminded her. “You made amends, you made friends, you’ve become a better pony.”

“I like to think so.”

“It’s true. And trust me, Celestia will see it almost instantly.”

Sighing once more, Sunset looked up at her and gave a hesitant smile. “Thanks.”

“I’ll make the arrangements.” Twilight told her then gave a soft laugh. “Hopefully it will be the last trip for a while. I’d hate for us to miss out on the Running of the Leaves or Nightmare Night.”

“Yeah, it will be my first Nightmare Night in a while.” Sunset said, glad to change the subject. In the human world, they have a similar holiday they call Halloween, but unless you get invited to a costume party, adults and even older teens usually don’t dress up. Not like in Equestria.”

“Really? That’s no fun. Don’t worry, Ponyville has a huge party every year, in fact I think the Apples are planning on setting up a haunted maze this year.”

“Great! So I’ll definitely need a costume then; guess I’ll have to come up with an idea.” Sunset said and smiled. “You know, as much as I liked living in the human world, sometimes I think they were way too concerned about looking foalish and often didn’t allow themselves to have fun.”

“Well, nopony is discouraged from having fun at our holiday celebrations!” Twilight assured her. “I think Rarity is working on Pinkie and Applejack’s costumes this week; probably her own as well, but we definitely should get her our ideas for costumes by the time we get back. Perhaps we could talk about some ideas on the train. I really have no idea what I want to be this year.”

“I have to actually think of costumes for ponies; I keep thinking of ideas for the human world.” Sunset said, rolling her eyes.

Twilight laughed softly. “Well, we’d all better think of something.”

Author's Note:

It's been over five years since Sunset last saw Celestia in this story; for her anyway. Just a little less than four years for Celestia. And with only the events of the first EQG movie being canon to this story, Sunset hasn't had a chance being the hero to really help build her confidence.

Comments

[Frazikar]

Sunset hasn't had a chance being the hero to really help build her confidence.

She wasn't much better when 'Forgotten Friendship' aired either ...

[new55]

That was a good chapter goodluck with the next one.