Pericynthion

by Skystrider

Ice

From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subj: Re: Mutual Friend
Encryption Alg#: 341596DRG

Ms. Wiggin,

I’m sorry, but we’ve lost contact as well. I still have reason to believe, however, that our mutual friend is still free. If he attempts to contact us, we will pass along your message.

Regarding the plans of the International Fleet, I cannot speak for the Polemarch and the Strategos. You know as well as I do that the IF is bound by its pledge of absolute neutrality. While the fleet may not intervene on Earth, rest assured that its individual members are not happy with the abduction of their former comrades. Should, say, a group of especially zealous IF Marines happen to take personal action on the matter (wearing civilian clothes, of course), I’m sure the resulting courts-martial would prove inconclusive.

I will keep you updated as the situation progresses. MinCol may not have much in the way of boots on the ground, but we have eyes and ears everywhere.

Graff

☽

“Going straight for the expensive stuff, sir?” Lieutenant Martin smirked as she sidled up to the bar. Minister Graff looked over at her, halfway through pouring himself another drink. She wasn’t an expert, but judging by the label and the remnants of bottle’s seal on the bar, the minister had already burned through 180 credits’ worth of a 300-credit scotch.

“The scientists sure as hell aren’t drinking it.” He motioned behind him at the now-empty lounge. Holo-displays sat idle while the computers continued to run data analysis in the researchers’ absence.

Sarah looked across the empty room behind her. The moon loomed in the lounge’s floor-to-ceiling observation window. At this range, the sun cast its cratered face in sharp relief between light and shadow. Without Earth’s atmosphere to blur and soften the light, the rocks shone with the harsh white of a bleached skull rather than its usual pearly tone. Shivering involuntarily, the young officer turned back towards the bar.

“So where are they anyway? I’ve never seen them all gone at once,” she asked Graff.

“Sent ‘em away,” he replied, motioning vaguely behind him. “Westfall’s had them on a round-the-clock schedule for weeks now, and while I appreciate the effort, the folks working on the mid-shift looked damned near dead when I came in here. They weren’t doing anything the computers couldn’t do on their own, and no one should be up at 3 AM without good reason.”

Martin raised an eyebrow. Was Graff getting soft?

“So why are you still awake?”

The minister swirled the dark liquid in his glass. “Why else? Couldn’t sleep. Why are you up?”

“Same.” Sarah tossed her desk on the bar. An e-mail sprang into view in the holodisplay.

“It seems that you’re important enough to merit the personal attention of the Prime Minister of Australia. Congratulations, lieutenant.” Graff toasted her with one hand while pouring her a drink with the other.

She rolled her eyes. “Everyone’s in a panic now that Ender’s jeesh has been kidnapped. They’re reaching out to anyone with Battle School experience in the hopes of shoring up their defenses. It’s a bloody arms race, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them treat me like a weapon to be fought over and horded.”

Taking the offered glass from the older man, she tossed it back without a second thought. “It’s not as if they gave a damn about me before all this went down. A third-rate Pre-Command washout like me wouldn’t even be a blip on their radar unless everyone else suddenly vanished,” Martin said venomously as she slammed the stout crystal tumbler down on the bar.

Graff chuckled, reaching over to pour her another. “Don’t sell yourself short. You just went through school about ten years too early. I’m also pretty sure that scotch of this caliber is supposed to be sipped and enjoyed, not shot.”

The lieutenant glared at him before pounding the second glass. “I’ll enjoy it when I’m drunk, and we’re going to need a lot more before that happens. And what the hell do you mean ‘I went to school ten years early?’” she asked as she leaned over the bar, fishing for a bottle of her own.

Twenty years ago, Graff might have taken the opportunity to appreciate the view as the younger woman dug through the cabinets on the other side of the counter. Now he simply looked down into his drink, lost in its shifting colors. “Ender would have known what to do with you. When we built his army, we gave him students we had long ago written off as lost causes - even more lost than you, if you can believe that.”

Martin huffed indignantly but the noise was lost amid clinking glass as she rifled through the ship’s liquor selection. Suddenly, she let out a whoop of delight.

“Ha! Dalmore!” She grinned as she swung back into her seat, prize in hand. “You can keep yours, sir, I’m set for the night.”

“Professional courtesy from Sarah Martin… I could get used to that.” Hyrum smirked as he tipped his glass again.

The lieutenant already had the bottle open, but before she started to pour, she reached for a new glass. Don’t want to ruin the taste… who knows when I’ll be able to do this again, she thought to herself. Martin’s face sobered as she measured her next drink.

She thought about the soft-spoken young man she had known so briefly before he mysteriously disappeared. His disarming manner had cut through her defenses so easily… maybe he could have been the leader she needed back then. Her own commander wasn’t a bad guy, but he wasn’t terribly bright either. He respected Martin enough to give her a toon, but that was small consolation for a girl who knew she’d never make commander herself. Sarah’s ferocious reputation did earn her a nickname, though: The Bitch of Bobcat.

“You really think so?” she asked Graff. “That maybe things would have turned out differently if he had been around back then?”

He nodded. “I know so. Yours was wasted talent. The boy could have figured out how to use you… Ender or any of his closest friends for that matter. You would have liked Petra. The only difference between the two of you is that she could keep her mouth shut for about half the time she needed to.”

Sarah frowned. “The name sounds familiar. She was abducted with the rest, wasn’t she?”

Graff’s face hardened and its usually inscrutable mask slipped. For a moment, Martin was genuinely afraid of him.

Then the man exhaled, and the moment was gone. “She was.” Despite his calm demeanor, the minister’s knuckles were white against the tumbler.

Martin sighed, looking at her drink. “What’s going to happen if - when,” she corrected herself, “he gets back? Are you hoping Ender can straighten this mess out?”

Graff jerked back as if he had been slapped, fixing her with an incredulous look. Had he not been gripping his glass as tightly as he was, Sarah was sure it would have fallen to the bar - a waste of very expensive alcohol.

“Are you kidding me? The first thing I’m going to do when he gets back is hand him over to his sister and put both their asses on the next colony ship leaving the system. I should have done it with the rest of them before they even started thinking of home again… then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

The lieutenant was horrified. It was all she could do not to throw her drink in the man’s face. No, she realized as anger surged through her gut, it was all she could do to not smash the heavy crystal over Graff’s head.

“And what about their families?” she hissed, “‘Oh, I’m sorry, it wasn’t enough that we took your children from you, but we have to go and send them hundreds of light years away, and you’ll be lucky to even be alive when they get there?!’”

Graff was unmoved. “You mean those same families that are now frantic with worry, wondering who abducted their children? How about the lucky ones whose sons and daughters have merely been seized by their governments, rather than some third party. ‘Oh, don’t worry… it’s just for their protection?’”

Martin realized he was right, but she couldn’t let it go at that. Unable to defend her point, she instead went on the attack. “So why the hell didn’t you protect them? Biggest fleet in existence, could wipe out life on Earth a thousand times over, but can’t defend a few dozen teenagers? Bloody useful, that.”

The older man just rolled his eyes, turning back to the bar and his drink. “You know as well as I do why we can’t do anything. You think I like sitting out here watching while my kids are treated like pawns in the great international chess game?” Ignoring his own advice, Graff shot the rest of his glass - 80 credits, Sarah guessed.

‘His kids’... The young woman never would have thought Battle School’s grand architect harbored such feelings. His tools, soldiers, students, yes, but not his kids. She felt surprised and ashamed.

“I’m-I’m sorry.” Martin hated saying it, but it had to be said.

Graff shook his head. “No, I earned your resentment. I intentionally pushed all of you to your limits, and I broke many of you in the process. I don’t apologize for that - it had to be done. But I’ve come to realize that each time I fired the crucible that was our happy little community, I left a bit of myself in each and every one of you. Now I only wish I could have protected you from the world we collectively saved.”

We? The woman knew it was the wrong time to pick a fight, but she couldn’t help but say what was on her mind. “We? I don’t remember any of us ‘write-offs’ being involved in the Third Invasion.” Long-soured pride burned in her voice.

Graff turned a sad glance her way as he refilled his glass. “Ender may have been the final product, but every Battle School soldier who went before contributed to his creation and training. With each new class we got a clearer picture of the type of leader we were looking for; the exact skillset and psychological profile needed to defeat the Formic hive mind.” The former colonel stared down into his glass, suddenly much older than he looked minutes before. “You may not have been there at the end,” he said softly, “but your hardships were not in vain. I can say with confidence that Petra would not have made it through Battle School were it not for the lessons we learned from you, and without Petra, Ender wouldn’t have become the commander he was.”

Martin blinked, stunned by the man’s words. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she squinted away the tears that sprang unbidden to the corners of her eyes. Merited or not, she would not cry in front of this man.

“I’d like to meet her then, someday,” she managed.

The man sighed. “Hopefully, you will. One thing at a time though.” He spun around on the barstool to regard the Anomaly, depicted in green wireframe on the main holodisplay.

Desperate for anything else to talk about, Sarah returned to Ender and the current situation down on Earth.

“What if he doesn’t want to go to another colony?”

“Beg pardon?”

“Ender. If he hears about the situation down there, I’m sure he’ll want to save his friends.” At least, I hope he would. Sarah didn’t want to imagine that his personality was a facade, that deep down he was as cold and calculating as Graff had always seemed.

The minister stared straight ahead. “If I have anything to do with it, he won’t hear about the situation back on Earth until his new colony ship has shifted up to speed.”

Sarah’s mouth fell open as she looked back at the man in surprise. It seemed too cruel, even for him. And if that’s what he thinks, then what was all that other crap about ‘my kids’ before?

“So what, he gets to agonize over the news while he’s powerless to do anything about it?”

“At relative speed, even a war lasting an entire year would be over in under ten days by his reckoning. It would be finished before he could even start to process it. Yes, there would be grieving, but it’s far better than the alternative.” Graff did not turn his head, instead choosing to sullenly address the empty room. His eyes seemed fixed on the Anomaly as it shifted in the holodisplay.

“Better than saving the only people outside his family who mean something to him?!” Martin didn’t know Ender’s exact relationship with the others, but she knew from her own past that the best friends are made in hell. She was confident that Ender’s experiences were far more hellish than hers had been.

Now the man turned his gaze to meet hers, his gray eyes unmoved. “And what about the friends he’d have to fight?”

Sarah blinked, not comprehending. “What do you mean? Of course they wouldn’t fight him. What possible reason would they have?”

Graff exhaled sharply. “Come on, Martin, you’re better than this. Think. This isn’t the League War. The Warsaw Pact isn’t trying to take over the Hegemony - the nations of Earth are collectively ignoring the Hegemony and each trying to carve out their own piece of the international pie before the balance of power settles again. It’s a damned free-for-all.”

“So what?” she shot back. “Just because the nations want to rip each other apart doesn’t mean that Ender’s group will lead their armies, especially if they know they’re going up against old friends or even Ender himself.” Even as she said them, the lieutenant started to doubt her own words. What if they never knew a comrade was on the other side? What if they were just charged with designing strategies? The Battle Schooler deep inside of Sarah knew that she’d leap at the opportunity herself in that situation - it was what they were trained to do, and the challenge was invigorating. Who wouldn’t want to take on the world if given the chance?

The man looked at her searchingly, seeming to have picked up on her distress. “And what happens when they have no choice?”

“But-”

Graff pressed on over her interruption. “Have you noticed, despite the rest of the world losing its damned mind recently, that the Islamic nations has been unusually quiet?”

“Not really, but yes, it does sound very odd.”

In any other situation, the man might have smirked, but now he was deadly serious. “I happen to know why. For the first time in hundreds of years, the Muslim world has a Caliph, one that all sects agree upon. Who do you think they chose?”

Sarah remembered bits and pieces of a newsvid from long before she had ever left Eros, another one of the propaganda pieces celebrating the return of Ender’s inner circle. Since the media outlets knew they’d never get to welcome home the hero himself, they had made a big deal out of the arrival of his friends. They always asked the same questions… ‘How is he?’ ‘What’s he like?’ ‘Doesn’t he want to come back?’ before finally asking about the kids themselves. Ender’s jeesh never seemed to bristle at being asked about their commander first - a sign of their esteem of the boy. Every last one had voiced their support of him and asked, on camera, for the powers-that-be to bring him home.

One particular boy with liquid-brown eyes caught her memory. Though his pronunciation of Common was perfect, heavy eyebrows and an olive complexion hinted at his nationality. To Martin’s recollection, he had been a senior commander, even among the brilliant echelons of Ender’s group.

“Alai,” she answered Graff. “He’s Saudi, isn’t he?”

“He is,” the man responded, “and you’d better believe they’re doing everything they can to bring him back. He would have been installed in Damascus, their new capital, within a matter of days… now that I think of it, that might have been the driving reason behind the timing of this mass abduction.”

The lieutenant mulled the idea over in her head. “Wouldn’t he just be a figurehead though?”

Graff shook his head. “Not at all. The reports I’ve seen indicate that the League is willing to do whatever it takes to regain power in the world, if not supremacy. In the months since the end of the war, they’ve gone so far as to broker not only peace but a full military alliance with Israel. If they’re willing to do that, I don’t think they’d have any problem following the decisions of a teenager, especially if they believe Alai will bring them victory.”

Sarah was shocked. “Peace? With Israel? There’s no way - we would have heard it all over the news.”

“Ha!” the minister laughed harshly. “Had America brokered the peace, you’d better believe they’d be broadcasting it, but as it is, they’ve just lost their closest ally in the region and they don’t want to worsen their already tenuous position on the international stage.”

“Still, we should have heard about something as monumental as this. Are you sure they’re really working together?”

Graff nodded. “The League doesn’t want to be seen as a threat until they’ve got Alai calling the shots. What if India gets its Battle School graduates back before they do? The threat of a unified Muslim League might just be enough to trigger a preemptive attack.”

Cold fear settled into the pit of Martin’s stomach. “It’s really that bad? I can’t imagine India ever starting a war.”

“They might when they begin seeing Israeli-made fighters in Pakistan, flying the green crescent of the Muslim League.”

It was too much to comprehend. The world had been in a constant state of fear ever since she was born, but at least it was a peaceful fear. Wars between nations were just something you read about in the history books. The only real war that mattered was the one that would happen in the cold black of space. Now, it was as if all the old nightmares had raised their heads at once.

“Still, if Ender can stop it, wouldn’t that be better?!” she asked the man. “Nobody, not even another Battle School graduate would willingly stand on the wrong side of an army led by him.”

“But at what cost?” Graff took a drink, swallowing hard. “And who’s to say the members of Ender’s jeesh would even have a choice? Do you think even Alai could turn to the 2.5 billion people of the Muslim League and tell them no? And even if he could, what about China? India? The New Warsaw Pact?”

Sarah’s head dropped as she considered the implications. She wanted him to stop, but Graff continued, his voice boring into her ears.

“Some of these nations are not above threatening families to coerce individuals to do their bidding. How long before Han Tzu, Crazy Tom and the rest are forced into taking the field? All it takes is for one of them to break, and then the rest have to consider fighting a defensive war. When faced with the choice of fighting a friend or protecting their families, what do you think they’ll do?”

Martin saw the scenario unfold, much as she tried to deny it. The old man was right, it would play out exactly in this fashion. Sure, there might be some frantic attempts at negotiations, hell, the kids would probably try to call each other directly, try to work something out. But then there would be that one wrench in the works, that one incident to put everyone on the defensive, and then the world would go to hell.

Graff sighed. “Now put Ender into that situation. Even if he didn’t end up tied to the United States - which is a long shot by any means, given that’s where his family lives - he’d end up on one side of the conflict sooner or later, most likely trying to halt the aggressive party or parties. What do you think he’ll try to do to minimize the bloodshed?”

Martin considered this. “Cut the head off the snake - disable the enemy’s ability to direct the conflict or eliminate the agitating elements of the government completely.”

“Exactly.” Graff said with finality. “And what do you think will happen then? War is never a sure thing - even if you’re just trying to disable a headquarters or command facility, accidents and collateral damage are a common occurrence. You tell me, what happens when Ender finds out that he’s killed one of his friends in an attack he ordered? What happens to Ender when he finds out Alai, Bean, or even Petra died at his hands?”

“They’d never fight against him.” Sarah felt lost, not knowing what else to say.

“...and if they didn’t have a choice?”

She had nothing to say to that.

Graff turned back to the bar, emptied the bottle into his glass, and drained it in one long pull. 160 credits.

“That is why Ender can never know what’s going on down below until he’s well on his way to a colony. That is why he can never go home.”

☽

Celestia shivered involuntarily as she entered her chambers, even though a fire cheerily blazed from the hearth behind her bed. Thank goodness Featherduster is so fast, she thought, spying a table heavily laden with food set in the center of the large, circular room. The princess had hastily ordered a spread of ‘everything’ from her hoofmaiden as she exited the throne room with Twilight and her friends in tow. The gray pegasus had more than delivered.

A pink and white three-tiered cake dominated the table - how Featherduster arranged them so quickly, the alicorn would never know. Celestia was beginning to suspect that she simply had a number of them set aside in the kitchens at all times. The rest of the table was divided into quarters, each section loaded with a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains respectively. The final quarter boasted pastries, cupcakes, and pies that looked nearly as delectable as the cake itself. To the side of the table, a trolley held plates, silverware, napkins, a tea service, and a tall pitcher of water.

The princess turned as the other ponies entered the room. Twilight and the others moved as if in a daze, though their dull expressions brightened considerably when they saw the food.

“My little-” she interrupted herself, thinking of all they had seen and heard that day. “My friends,” Celestia decided, thinking nothing else more appropriate, “today has been trying for all of us, and I cannot even begin to apologize for what you have been through. Know that you have all done Equestria an incredible service, and you have my personal gratitude as well as my sister’s.”

Their ears pricked up slightly, but the group remained still. The sight pained Celestia - normally Twilight or Applejack would have waved a hoof, saying it was nothing. Rainbow would have swelled at the praise, and Fluttershy would have just blushed. Even Pinkie just stood there, lost.

“I never expected for the,” she paused, picking her words carefully, “proceedings to take as long as they did, and I certainly did not mean for you to go most of the day without food or drink. You must be absolutely famished. Please… eat, rest, and care not about the time. I insist that you stay with me tonight.”

That got their attention. These ponies weren’t strangers when it came to lodging at the castle, but staying with the princess herself? That was unheard of.

They moved as if in a daze, the food drawing Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie onward. Applejack hung back, confusion on her face.

“Weren’t… weren’t we supposed to give some kind of decision back there? A verdict?” She shook her head, fatigue clearly etched on her face.

Celestia stepped forward, ushering the stalwart Apple on with a wing. “I think we can consider the charges withdrawn. Luna certainly doesn’t consider Ender a danger anymore, and I agree with her.”

Applejack nodded tiredly and drifted to the table, heading towards the apple basket on the fruit side almost by instinct. The alicorn couldn’t help but notice that the basket was from the mare’s own farm.

The alicorn felt Twilight’s presence behind her. Of the group, Celestia’s protege was the most alert, and she was not happy.

Pre-empting the questions she knew were coming, the princess addressed her student without turning around. “Twilight, would you please join me on the balcony?” Levitating two bottles of apple juice from the table, Celestia turned and opened the double doors leading out. She embraced the cool night air as it enveloped her, lifting her mane as she stepped outside.

Softer clicks tapped behind her as Twilight followed. Closing the doors behind them, the princess offered one of the bottles to her student.

The unicorn took the offered drink with her magic, but only looked at the amber liquid even as Celestia took a long draught from her bottle. Only then did she realize just how parched she was.

“Princess,” the unicorn ventured, distress clear on her face, “what was that? Why did… were we wrong to do what we did?” She motioned a lavender hoof vaguely downward in the direction of the throne room.

Celestia frowned. She had been thinking through this conversation during the long trip up to her chambers, but that did not make it any easier to start.

Normally, the alicorn built lessons for the younger ponies around her by creating experiences through which they would learn on their own. It is so much better, after all, to learn something for yourself than to have somepony else simply tell you. After her colossal miscalculations today, however, Celestia reasoned that if there was any time to spell things out for Twilight, now would be it.

She sighed heavily. “Twilight, you never did anything wrong. If there is any lesson for you to learn today, it is that even princesses can make mistakes, and I’m not talking about little things like what happened with Luna a few weeks back.”

The unicorn would usually be full of questions, interrupting her at every turn, but now she just stood there, levitating her drink and looking up blankly. She must be more tired than she looks, the alicorn noted.

“I…” Celestia turned away, not wanted to meet her pupil’s gaze. “My first mistake was not believing my own sister. I am ashamed to admit it, but I thought Luna was simply overreacting.”

Silence stretched for a few moments as the princess regarded the silvery landscape before her. Luna’s moon was bright tonight, so bright that not a single star shone across the sky.

“My sister came to me in the dead of night, flustered, her words tumbling over one another. I could barely understand what she was saying, but she wouldn’t stop until I agreed to call upon you, Twilight, and your friends. Luna wanted a full inquiry - she was scared that she had brought something truly evil right into our midst.”

Celestia glanced back at her student. The unicorn had set down her drink, untouched, and was looking at her with full focus.

“Naturally, I thought she was overreacting as, I am afraid to say, she was wont to do, especially in her younger days. Yes, she had told me what she had seen - that first memory, the one when Ender was very young - but stars help me, it just didn’t register. I’ll admit that I don’t know the human as well as she does, but he did not strike me even as a threat much less an evil entity. I am not often wrong with my assessments of others.”

Finally, the unicorn broke her silence. “So why didn’t you clarify the matter before moving forward?”

The princess smiled to herself, happy that Twilight would have chosen that course of action.

“I should have done that, or more precisely, I should have told Luna to do it herself before coming to me and insisting on such a drastic course of action.” She paused, knowing she needed to tell her student the rest, but not wanting to explain her methods to a pony who still benefited from them. Twilight over-thought things as it was, Celestia didn’t want her looking for a test or lesson in every one of their interactions.

“But…” her student prompted.

There was no choice - she needed to understand this, if only to sleep well at night.

“But the truth is that Luna has not been taken seriously since her return.” She paused, thinking, then added, “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, but that fact stays between you and me.” The alicorn looked back again to make sure that this point was understood.

“Yes, ma’am.” Twilight nodded dutifully.

Celestia turned back fully so she could look her student in the eyes. The unicorn deserved that much, no matter how ashamed the princess felt.

“The castle staff and the members of my court have doubted Luna constantly, second-guessing her decisions while always looking to me for final approval. It grates at her, I can tell, but she has matured to the point where she can understand why this is and why it won’t change anytime soon. Equestria has gone on for over ten generations without her, and our subjects won’t change their outlook overnight. Many in Canterlot still view her as an interloper, an upset in the delicate tapestry of power and privilege the nobility have woven for themselves, no matter how ridiculous it may be. I can command them to show her deference and respect, but I cannot command them to feel it in their hearts.”

Twilight looked surprised at this as the alicorn expected. Her pupil had always viewed her sister with the same admiration she reserved for Celestia herself.

“After the pushback and doubt she gets from all other corners, the last thing Luna needed was for me to turn her down out of hoof. I agreed to her request for an inquiry because I thought it would be a good lesson for her. I honestly believed it would be a simple misunderstanding that would clear itself up in an hour or two of frank discussion. Luna would feel silly for getting so worked up and making a big deal out of nothing. We’d laugh about it, have lunch, and she’d learn to get all the details first before rushing headlong into a decision.”

Twilight looked to the side momentarily, the gears turning in her head. “So if it was a lesson for Luna, why were we there?”

“I didn’t want to get you and your friends involved, but if I didn’t, it would show Luna that I wasn’t treating her inquiry with the gravity it deserved. She’d have known in an instant that it was created for her benefit, and I didn’t want her to feel patronized. At the same time, I thought it would be beneficial for you to see this aspect of my court in a situation that wasn’t a national emergency, like the incident with Discord - a bonus lesson, if you will. As for the others, it would not be a complete waste of time. Your friends bear the Elements, after all, and may some day be called upon to do this very thing again. I never expected it to become… what it did.”

“So what did it become? We were going to let it go after that first memory, at least… I was ready to do that. Then you insisted that we see the rest of his memories as well, and you even made us stay there when he said we could… that we should go!” Twilight’s voice wavered in hesitant anger, as if not sure whether or not she could adopt such a tone with her monarch.

“You are right to feel upset, Twilight.” Celestia bowed her head. “Even well-meaning mistakes can cause pain, as mine have today.”

The unicorn blinked, shocked at herself. “I’m sorry, princess, I-I…”

“It’s quite alright, my faithful student. If our roles were reversed, I’m afraid I would have started with yelling and accusations, and it would have gone downhill from there. Though it may be hard for you to believe, I was once a student too.”

Twilight said nothing, only opening and closing her mouth in silence. Apparently it was too difficult of a concept for her to imagine.

Smiling softly, Celestia continued. “Consider this: before we began, I only knew of the first memory, the one Luna described in haste in the middle of the night. She didn’t tell me about the others until you started down the path of dismissing Ender. I don’t think my sister was trying to hide them from me before; rather, she didn’t realize their importance until it was clear that the first incident wasn’t the cause of the human’s distress.”

The unicorn blinked. “But… how did Luna tell you, princess? I never saw her until the very end.”

Celestia glanced up at the moon briefly. “My sister and I can communicate our thoughts to each other when necessary. It is a very difficult spell, and unless we are close, we can only share the simplest of emotions. Mostly, I can only sense her presence and well-being.”

Twilight stared intently, surprised by the revelation and eager to learn something new about her mentor.

“It was difficult for me to grasp everything she implied, but the message was clear: ‘there is more to this than we know.’” Celestia paused. “You like to take time and think through matters before making a decision, Twilight. Normally, that is a good trait but sometimes you won’t have the luxury of time. There come occasions when you will need to make a split-second decision, and sometimes you will make the wrong one through no fault of your own. What makes a good leader is her ability to recover and make the best of a bad choice.”

The unicorn thought about that for a moment. “So if you had to do it over again, you would have sent us away?” Her voice wavered a bit, as if the concept no longer sat well with her.

“To save you the shock and horror that ensued? Yes. But can you see why I chose as I did?” Celestia held her breath, hoping that Twilight would be able to see past her usual adoration and learn what she needed to from this.

Her student’s jaw worked back and forth as her ears slumped forward, signifying deep thought.

“Well,” she talked through the problem, “it would have invalidated what you were trying to achieve with Princess Luna. If we - the Elements, that is - weren’t needed for the more serious revelations, then we wouldn’t have been needed for the first one, either. That would have hurt her feelings and ruined the lesson you were trying to teach her.”

Celestia remained silent, mentally urging her to delve further.

“...and… and… it would have sent me a message too. As much as I wanted to leave, your letting me go would have been tantamount to saying that I couldn’t handle it. And you…” the unicorn trailed off as the realization brought tears to her eyes.

“...you thought that I could.”

The alicorn draped a wing over her student as she turned them both toward the balcony railing and the magnificent view beyond. “Exactly right, Twilight, and more importantly you did handle it. I never expected what came next, but you did better than I could have ever hoped. All of you did, considering the circumstances.”

Celestia pointedly ignored the quiet sniffle that came from beneath her wing, saving Twilight the embarrassment and allowing her to compose herself.

“There is one other reason you couldn’t possibly know,” she said, giving her student something else to focus on. “A small part of me wondered if perhaps my sister had the right of it all along. What if we were dealing with something truly dangerous, something alien in every sense of the word - so different from my knowledge of others that I completely misjudged his character. That he could be dangerous did not scare me; you’ve seen many deadly creatures even in your lifetime.” Celestia paused to cover a stutter, having very nearly said ‘even in your short lifetime.’ “What scared me was the possibility that he could be dangerous and yet hide his nature from me. I had no idea what to expect, and that, Twilight, is an extremely rare event.”

The alicorn glanced down only to see an expression of shock and surprise in her student’s moist eyes. “I hoped I was wrong. I wanted to see the best in him, but for a little while, I was very glad the Elements were gathered… just in case.”

It took a while for Twilight to form her response. “Would… would you have told us to use them on him, if he had turned out to be evil or dangerous?”

Celestia raised her head and looked out at the dark horizon. There it was, the crux of the matter. Did she even know the answer herself? Cognizant of the fact that the unicorn was hanging off every word she said, and would likely remember this conversation for the rest of her life, the princess proceeded with utmost care.

“I meant every word I said to Ender about letting you decide for yourselves. Today may have started as lesson for my sister, but had events turned down that path - and if we ever find ourselves in that position - know that the decision shall always be yours. I have wielded the Elements twice in my life and each time it carried terrible consequences. I would never force others to do the same against their will, regardless of the stakes.”

The alicorn’s eyes unfocused, memories of long-ago swirling past her in the starless night.

“Had we discovered that Ender was truly a threat, and if the Elements were the only way, yes, I would have recommended that you use them.”

The pair stared in silence for a while, looking out over the shadowy landscape. A soft, crisp breeze ran through their manes.

“Why lie to him then?” Twilight asked.

Celestia blinked, unsure what she meant. “Hm? About why he was there?”

The unicorn shook her head. “No, about prisons in Equestria. I tried to ask you this morning, but you stopped me.”

“Oh.” Everything clicked in Celestia’s mind. “Well, for one, I did not exactly lie. Something told me - most likely Luna’s own link into his thoughts, now that I consider it - that his kind does not use imprisonment the way we do. Tell me, if a town sheriff or one of my castle guards has to make an arrest and lock up a pony, how long does that pony stay locked up?”

“Umm…” the unicorn began uncomfortably, taken off guard by the sudden question. “I really don’t know.”

Her mentor smiled despite herself. “Take a guess… this isn’t a test, Twilight.”

She scrunched her face, clearly not comfortable with the idea of proceeding without hard facts. “Er, just long enough for a judge to determine their punishment? Maybe a few weeks at most?”

“What if the imprisonment was the punishment? That’s the impression I had of what Ender meant.”

Twilight looked back at her in confusion. “What do you mean... just... sitting there? Locked in a cell? What would that accomplish?”

The alicorn shrugged. “I don’t know, but it seemed normal to him. I admit it would have been a workable solution, just locking him away until such time as my sister could send him home. But what if that day never came? What kind of ponies would that make us, forcing him to live his life in a cell?”

“But, it’s what he wanted…” Twilight trailed off. “Was forcing him to reveal his past to us any kinder?”

As much as the question hurt, the princess was immeasurably proud of her student for asking it.

“It may not have been, which is why I am teaching you this lesson today. Sometimes we make mistakes, myself included, and we must do our utmost to rectify them.”

She paused, taking a moment to frame her words. Sometimes how you taught a lesson mattered as much as the lesson itself, and this was especially true with Twilight.

“Ender’s offer - to have us simply lock him up rather than be exposed to the horrors of his past - seemed genuine, but Luna could not fathom how he had come to terms with such a brutal memory. She feared she had brought something dangerous and unknowable into the very heart of Equestria and wanted to see for herself what experiences drove the turmoil in the human’s mind. After seeing the first… killing” she stumbled on the word, “I confess that I was of the same mind. In hindsight, I should have excused you and your friends, no matter what that would have meant for my sister. But in that moment I felt committed, and I decided to continue as we did.”

Twilight started to say something but stopped herself. Silence fell as the unicorn considered this.

“So how do we make things right?” she asked resolutely. The fatigue was gone from her student’s voice; now that Twilight had a problem to focus on, she would see it through regardless of the cost.

Laughing softly, Celestia reined in the unicorn. “We don’t do anything. I’ll not have you taking responsibility for my mistakes.” The alicorn lifted a wing and pointed at her sister’s tower, indicating shadows moving across the glow from the windows. “Luna will take care of Ender. I will see to you and your friends and do whatever I can to help you all understand and process what you saw today.” She paused, the horror of the past few hours washing over her suddenly. “Though to be honest,” the princess spoke seriously, “I’m not entirely sure I can comprehend it myself.” She hadn’t meant to say it, but the need to confide in somepony else was overwhelming, even if that pony was Twilight.

The dull black of the starless sky was much too similar to the simulator she had seen in Ender’s memories. Unbidden, her mind conjured images from that final battle, projecting them into the skies above Canterlot. Where the human had only seen green lines representing a planet, Celestia saw an entire world, much like her own, stretched across the night just beyond her reach.

The blue and green globe cracked. Orange fissures appeared, spreading fire and smoke wherever they touched. The cracks raced outward in a spider-web, and where they met, the globe’s surface collapsed in upon itself, leaving nothing but ash and dust.

The Goddess of the Sun visibly shuddered.

“Princess, are you alright?” Twilight’s voice was etched with worry.

Celestia scowled, angry at her own weakness. Her student needed reassurance even more than she did. This was no time to indulge in fear, but she so dearly wanted to - no, needed to voice the thoughts that raced inside her own mind.

“It’s just… an entire planet, an entire race of sentient life. I cannot even begin to fathom it, and if I cannot, then how can your fr-”

Then it hit her: the alicorns. My own kind, she realized. It wasn’t that Celestia couldn’t imagine a race being wiped out; she was violently resisting the notion because she had seen it happen. I have my far-flung descendants from those days, she thought of Blueblood with a wry smile, and a precious few have ascended in the last few centuries, but none of them are truly like us. For all intents and purposes, our race is as dead as the Ender’s Formics.

Understanding dawned, and the new perspective left the princess feeling immeasurably better if not a little lost in terms of how to proceed. Pre-fall Alicorn history was something she had only mentioned to Twilight in passing, and now was not the time explain her feelings by delving into it.

The unicorn ended up providing the answer. Twilight had turned around and was looking through the balcony doors at her friends.

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about them, Princess Celestia.”

The princess blinked, at first not understanding what her student meant. It clicked when she turned and followed Twilight’s gaze. While she had been consumed with introspection, the unicorn had remained focused on her friends.

Clustered around the table, the other ponies munched happily at the buffet. Applejack rolled her eyes at something Rainbow Dash said while elbowing the orange mare. Fluttershy blushed, smiling softly as she looked down into the mug of tea she held between her forelegs. Pinkie’s eyes slowly came to life as Rarity levitated an assortment of cupcakes around her head. After a few seconds her long pink tongue shot out, snaring one with such blinding speed that the unicorn dropped the rest in surprise. To the delight and quiet laughter of the others, Pinkie caught the rest in her mouth before they hit the floor.

A little subdued, maybe, but they looked almost normal. Celestia couldn’t believe it.

“How…?” she began, gaping at the group of ponies.

Her student looked up and smiled. “I think they’re a bit more resilient than you give them credit for, Princess.”

She still couldn’t quite believe it. “Even after all we saw? I don’t know if I could act so… so... ” Celestia trailed off.

Twilight looked thoughtful. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think they understand it in the same way we do. I don’t even know that I understand it. Like you said, Princess, it’s just too much.”

Celestia looked down at her student, simultaneously surprised at her insight and immeasurably proud of her for it. The unicorn blushed slightly when she noticed her gaze, but continued nevertheless.

“I-I have only known them for about a year, but I’m pretty sure that they’re just letting it all go, and focusing instead on the things that are familiar - the food and each other for one.”

The princess nodded. It was a coping mechanism she knew all too well. Celestia had all but thrown herself into the affairs of state in the centuries immediately following Luna’s banishment. That part was worrisome.

“That is an astute observation Twilight, but it isn’t necessarily a comforting one. They might be fine now, but things like this have the tendency to come back when we least expect them. I do not want your friends to wake up to nightmares of blood and death days or weeks from now, or have memories of today come crashing down after an unexpected reminder.”

Something sparked behind the unicorn’s eye and she suddenly stood up straight, looking back at her friends.

“I think I have an idea, Princess,” she said with an eager resolve and confidence that Celestia envied, “but I might need your help…”

☽

When Ender came to his senses, he had a soup spoon in his hand and was staring down into a bowl of deep brown broth. The youth sat hunched over the main table in Luna’s room, and he had no idea how he got there. Tasting barley, and realizing he felt far less hungry than he had before, Ender surmised that he must have been eating, but couldn’t remember it at all. He looked up and noticed Dusty sitting across from him, staring intently.

She waved a hoof hesitantly in front of his face. “Are-are you back, sir?”

“Back?” he croaked. His voice was thick from overuse.

The maid breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness! When the princess brought you here, you just sort of stood still, staring off into space.”

He looked back down at the bowl. “Have you been feeding me?”

Dusty blushed. “Oh, no! No, no. I helped you to your seat, but you did the rest on your own, just all… woodeny I guess. Mistress tried talking with you but… oh!” The earth pony sat up, wide-eyed. “Oh, right, I was supposed to…” She looked over to the closed balcony doors.

Following her gaze, Ender saw a large form pacing behind the glass. Luna stalked back and forth, the silver moonlight doing little to soften her jerky, agitated gait. Every so often she would stop and shake her head, causing her star-speckled mane to billow outwards and fill the otherwise starless sky.

“I was supposed to tell her the moment you started responding again, but…” she trailed off, looking nervously toward the balcony doors.

As tired as he was, Ender couldn’t help but be amused. He smiled at her. “Should I go out instead?”

The maid shook her head resolutely. “No, you are supposed to keep eating. That’s what she said. I’ll… I’ll go.” Dusty stood up slowly.

Ender watched as she gingerly opened one of the glass doors and stepped through, closing it silently behind her. It took Luna a few passes before she noticed her maid, but as soon as she did, the princess rushed inside, magically flinging both doors open before her. Dusty trotted dutifully in her wake.

Large emerald eyes urgently fixed with his own. “Ender… are you… how…” she started, multiple questions pouring out at once. “How do you feel?” she finally asked.

Numb. Shellshocked. Tired. All of these came to mind, but one seemed to override all the others.

“Blank,” he answered honestly. “Hollow. I don’t know, I just feel spent, like there’s nothing left.”

Her face fell, then twisted angrily as Luna looked down and away. Ender suspected he had just confirmed something she had been worrying over outside.

“I knew I shouldn’t have kept the spell up. I should never have cast it in the first place, and now it’s my fault that you’re-”

She stopped herself, closing her eyes with what seemed to be great effort. He could see her expression shift as she reined in her emotions, ostensibly for his sake. When Luna opened them again they were moist, but her voice did not falter as she spoke.

“Ender, I can not even begin to apologize for what you went through today. Please know that it is my fault, not my sister’s and certainly not Twilight or any of her friends. I was the one who demanded the inquiry, and I was the one who insisted it continue. I will not ask for your forgiveness, but only that you allow me to make amends, and continue to treat the damage that my magic has caused.” She tapped her horn while nodding at his forehead.

“Luna, I-,” Ender began, but the princess continued over him, either not hearing or not wanting him to speak yet.

“Of course,” she raced ahead, “I would completely understand if you want nothing more to do with me, or any of us. I-I’ve thought about it, and I could try to teach my sister or even Dr. Staff to cast the same spell I’ve been using to remove my magic. Anypony you feel comfortable with, really.” She looked to the side, rambling. “Of course, it would have to be a unicorn, but there are certainly many of them here in Canterlot… they would have to have the magical aptitude to cast such a spell, though, and then there’s the translation spell…”

“Luna,” he interrupted more forcefully, jarring her attention back to him, “you don’t have to find anyone else. It’s your magic, and you’re the expert on dreams. I’m sure training someone else would be a waste of time and effort.”

The alicorn looked at him incredulously. “But surely you must be angry with me. How could you bear to spend more time in my pres-”

Ender held up a hand, shaking his head. “Luna, I’m too exhausted to feel anything but tired right now, and even if I wasn’t, I don’t think I’d be angry.”

She blinked, completely at a loss for words. Apparently, this was not a turn of events that occurred to her while she was pacing outside.

The silence stretched for a few seconds, then uncomfortably for a few seconds more.

Ender took the initiative. “Look, can you just tell me one thing?” He paused. “Why?”

“I was afraid.” The answer came immediately and she continued without hesitation. “No, I was terrified, Ender. I was afraid of you.”

He should have expected that, but it still hurt a bit. “Why?”

The alicorn’s gaze fell. Her eyes unfocused as she looked somewhere into the middle distance of the table between Ender and herself.

“The part of Nightmare Moon that scared me the most wasn’t the amount of control she had over me, but rather how willing she was to hurt everypony else. She wanted to bring eternal night to Equestria, no matter what the consequences. She would have killed, and she would have done it using my own hooves. That… that never left me, and when I saw that first memory… your willingness to hurt others, I… I…” she trailed off again, shoulders slumping.

“I saw in you the worst parts of myself, and I lashed out, afraid that I had put Equestria at risk again.” Luna looked up at him, eyes cringing. “I should have asked you, I should have done anything except what I did, but I let my fear rule my actions, and I ended up hurting you in a way nopony ever should.” She glanced out at the balcony. “It is hard enough reliving your bad memories on a day-to-day basis - I could not imagine someone forcing me to do so, and yet that’s exactly what I did to you.” The alicorn hung her head again, unable to meet his eyes. “That is why I don’t ask for your forgiveness.”

“And yet you gave me yours… for all the things I had done.”

Luna looked back up at him, anger and surprise etched on her face. “How could I not? You were tricked, and you acted in self-defense. I allowed my pride and bitterness to rule me.”

“But for all that, you never actually killed, did you? So which of us, then, is more of a monster?” he asked quietly.

She blinked. “I… I don’t see how that matters.”

“It matters because you haven’t taken a life. It matters that you, someone who cares so much about the safety of your subjects that you took the actions you did today, could also find it in your heart to forgive me, even though I have.” He exhaled sharply as he looked down at his bowl. “Silly as it sounds, I think I needed to hear it.”

Ender shook his head. “I’m still working through it all, but no matter how it happened, I think that what happened today needed to happen. Like purging a wound - it’s painful and ugly, but it has to be done before healing can begin.”

“Still,” she responded in a low voice, “what I did…”

“Is nothing worse than what I would have done, had our situations been reversed.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“You don’t? You saw into my mind, princess. You know what I do to enemies… those I perceive as a threat to me or to my friends.”

Luna held his gaze and started to respond but suddenly stopped. Realization seemed to dawn.

“Like what you did to Nightmare Moon in your dream. You had no way of knowing what it would do to her in the real world.”

Ender nodded.

“And if she had somehow broken through to your world rather than pulling you into mine?”

“I would have probably seen her in the same way that you saw me last night, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have wasted time with an inquiry.”

Luna smiled wanly, but the expression disappeared as soon as she realized what he meant. Had Nightmare appeared in his world he was sure it would have come down to a fight… and there was only one way his fights ended.

“Even so, I hope you understand if I still feel badly about today.”

“I’d be more concerned if you didn’t, but...” Ender hesitated, trying to frame his response in a way that she would understand.

Why wasn’t he furious? After having his life laid bare for judgment, the soldier knew he had every right to be angry. At the end of the day, though, it just wasn’t in him. From the monitor to Battle School, his whole life had been lived in front of a camera in one way or the other… what difference did eight more sets of eyes make? Most importantly, behind the veil of fatigue he felt lay a sea of catharsis. For better or worse, the day had alleviated emotional baggage Ender hadn’t known that he carried. Now that he considered it, that was probably the reason: he couldn’t be moved to anger simply because he felt too good.

Well, maybe not good per se, but certainly better.

Less bad is good, right? Ender asked himself tiredly. He wasn’t sure, but he could live with that.

It was only then he noticed the alicorn looking at him. Right, I trailed off in the middle of a sentence. He was more worn out than he realized.

“...but it really is alright. I understand your reasoning, and the end result - at least for me - is positive. Could it have been handled better? Of course it could, but what’s done is done. It’s not like you can go back and undo the past, right?”

Luna was very still, appearing to seriously consider the notion.

“You… can’t go back and undo the past, right?” Ender really hoped she wasn’t going to start talking about magic and time travel - he didn’t know if his brain could take it at this point.

“...not without the possibility of very dire consequences. As much as I may want to, but… no, no, I cannot go back and undo my actions.”

The boy nodded, waving his spoon absent-mindedly. “Then my point stands.”

Lacking anything else to say, Ender turned back to his soup. It had chilled considerably.

“Oh, let me get you a new bowl… Dusty!” she called.

The main doors to Luna’s chambers opened, and the maid stuck her head in from where she had apparently retreated after the pair began their conversation.

“Yes ma’am?”

A fresh tureen was provided, and while Luna was content to simply watch him eat, Ender insisted she join in after an embarrassingly loud rumble came from the alicorn’s stomach. After that, the pair ate ravenously. Though he was still exhausted, the food energized the boy, especially after a whole day without.

As Dusty cleared the table, an idea brightened Luna’s eyes.

“Ender… it’s not nearly enough to make up for today, but I just thought of a much better use for the memory spell - there’s still enough of it lingering for this to work. Would you…” She looked at him hesitantly. “Would you like to arrange the stars?”

The soldier blinked. “Come again?”

☽

They stood side by side on Luna’s balcony, looking up at the starless sky.

“I can accept… barely… that you have the power to move the moon. I’m willing to suspend my disbelief that far. I’ve seen it happen after all. But the stars? Your sister doesn’t even move the closest one, she simply keeps your planet from tidally locking to it.” Regardless of how tired he felt, or how much he had endured through the day, Ender’s interest was piqued. Arranging the stars? This he had to see, especially since Luna seemed to think that he could do it.

A grin flashed briefly in the night. The alicorn was apparently enjoying this too. “Pegasus magic,” she replied, flexing her wings momentarily before tucking them back in along her side. “I can’t move the stars, but I can manipulate the atmosphere just enough to either deflect or magnify their light. There are so many that I can make any shape I want, though I normally keep the major constellations the same so as not to confuse pony astronomers.”

So that’s why they never made sense when I tried to use them for navigation, he realized.

“That they change at all would confuse the hell out of human astronomers, but go on.”

“That’s all there is.” She lifted her head at the blank canvas of sky. “I wasn’t paying attention earlier because… well… you know.” Luna sighed. “All I did was raise the moon. I can do that in my sleep, but the stars take effort and special attention.”

“So where do I come in?”

“I stopped casting the memory spell hours ago, but the link between our minds still exists. I’ll use your thoughts to direct my magic… just think of what stars you want to see and I’ll make them appear.”

It sounded easy enough, but as he thought of it, Ender realized he needed a frame of reference.

“Stupid question, but which way is north, and are we on the northern half of your world?”

Luna nodded and pointed behind her tower. Apparently the view he was used to was a southerly one.

A late autumn-early winter sky in the northern hemisphere… he could do this. Looking in the direction indicated as north, Ender envisioned Polaris.

And suddenly it appeared. The boy blinked in surprise, looking back at Luna.

“Go ahead,” she encouraged warmly.

So he did. From Polaris, he moved on to the Big Dipper, then expanded it to Ursa Major. Ender began to smile as Ursa Minor took shape and by the time he finished Draco - or Dragon as Luna called it, he was filled with childlike wonder. Constellation by constellation, he brought out the stars. It was no wonder that his navigation computer thought that Luna’s world was Earth - the constellations were in the same relative space. The alicorn recognized them all, though their names did not always match. The differences were interesting, though the similarities were even more so. Lyra was the same, but to Luna, Hercules was called Minotaur, and included two smaller “horn” stars. Lynx kept its name, but Perseus became Deer and Cassiopeia became Hawk.

As he neared the end of all the constellations he could remember, Ender asked, “They don’t have to be the same, right? I can make my own?”

He saw her nod out of the corner of his eye. “I do it almost every night. Some astronomers treat it like a game, seeing who can keep track of all the new ones.”

Ender turned towards the moon and blanked out a section of sky to the south. Around it he traced a large crescent.

It was a crude depiction of her mark, the one she wore on her coat, but it was the best he could manage without an existing template. When he envisioned these stars, he noticed they didn’t always show up exactly where he looked. It made sense given that Luna wasn’t creating the points of light, only working with stars that already existed. Ender could tell that the impromptu constellation had the desired effect, though, as he heard the alicorn’s sharp intake of breath. She remained silent as he filled in the shape, lighting as many stars as he could.

The boy turned to her when he was finished, and could see the shape reflected in her luminous eyes - a crescent moon of stars enveloping the natural moon in the night sky. She blinked away tears.

You’re forgiven, Luna. He thought, confident she could still understand him.

☽

“Good morning, Governor,” chirped a synthetic voice. The dulcet feminine tones roused the boy from a deep sleep. “Time is now zero-seven hundred. You are due for council meetings in one and one-half hours. Appointments for today include-”

“Standby,” Ender groaned, sitting up groggily and rubbing sleep from his eyes. The voice cut out immediately, leaving him to examine his surroundings.

Monotone off-white prefabricated walls and modular furniture were broken up only sparsely by what seemed to be homemade decorations. Holodisplays ticked off a steady stream of data on a nearby desk at one of the bed’s two end tables. The soldier blinked in sudden sunlight as a previously unseen window transitioned from the opaque white of the rest of the room to a perfectly clear panel. Beyond, a tiny blue-white star rose over an alien landscape marked by feathery violet trees swaying in the breeze. Floating robotic tenders pruned an orchard of them, scooping nearly invisible fruits into holding tanks as they went.

A door to the right swished open. “Silencing EVIE won’t make your meetings go away you know.” Steam and a familiar voice followed a tall woman out of what Ender assumed was a bathroom. The boy stared, wide-eyed. The newcomer was dressed in only two towels - one wrapped around her body and the other barely containing a mass of rich espresso-colored hair. The knot holding the towel around her head had come undone, and the woman was keeping it in place with an upturned hand.

Seeing his intent stare, she looked at him curiously. “What’s wrong?” she asked, gesturing with her free hand. The movement caused the sunlight to glisten off a wedding band. She held his gaze, liquid brown eyes filled with concern. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Ender blushed fiercely, looking down. What the hell is wrong with me? I’m staring at somebody’s wife.

The boy tried to apologize, tried to think of some way he could explain that it was wasn’t anything personal, just that he hadn’t seen another human in months. “I…” he began, but was brought up short by the sight of his own body.

He was taller, broader. When he raised his arms they felt… longer. Ender stared in amazement at his hands, no longer rough and calloused from months spent surviving in the Everfree. Most startling of all was the solid gold band on his own ring finger.

“I…” He looked up, confusion plain on his face.

“Ender,” the woman’s tone shifted to dead seriousness, “what is it? Did… did the dreams come back?” She climbed onto the bed as she scrutinized his face. The boy could feel the heat radiating from her body.

It was then that he knew who she was. Her face may have changed, her voice may have deepened, but those eyes that were now so close, that expression she wore… she may have grown but it was unmistakably-

“Petra.”

She blinked. “Yes…?”

Ender had no idea where to go from there. With Petra merely staring at him, eyes narrowing by the second, he felt pressured to say something, anything to forestall the sense of dread he felt building. He asked the only question he could think of.

“How… how are you here?”

He would have expected mocking disbelief from the Petra he knew, but this woman’s face fell to worry with a hint of panic. “Ender… I… I live here.” She held up her left hand, clearly showing the ring he glimpsed earlier. “You do remember, don’t you?” Her eyes searched his desperately, and the boy found himself wanting nothing more than to reassure her that yes, of course he remembered, even if it was a lie.

But instead, his mind reached the next obvious question.

“Where is here?”

Petra’s face remained still but a small, sharp intake of breath betrayed her fear. She struggled to keep her voice even.

“Shakespeare, the colony.”

Instantly, everything fell into place. Even as Ender looked around, the room was beginning to fade. Solid white gave way to incorporeal darkness. Petra sat up, startled at the sudden change.

“What’s happening?!” she cried, casting her eyes about the gathering gloom before turning them back on Ender.

Seeing her like this made him sick, but there was nothing else he could do. Once he realized the truth, he couldn’t continue to believe in the illusion.

“You could never have been on the colony ship Petra - you went home.”

She looked hurt, betrayed even, but before Petra could reply, she was gone.

Ender found himself sitting on a dark plain of unbroken slate. Below him, the rock sheared away into a broad fissure, out of which shone a deep cobalt light.

The boy groaned as he stood up, shaking his head to cast off the last lingering remnants of the dream. It felt so real, so… solid. That was the only term he could think of as he looked about at his surroundings.

The dark plain was somehow dimly visible, even though there was no obvious source of light. It disappeared into a gloomy horizon broken only by a light green shape in the distance. Squinting, Ender could make out a tall, narrow V-shape that undulated gently as if swayed by a breeze. It almost looked like…

… a tornado. With that realization, the soldier knew where he was. I’m still dreaming.

The vortex seemed a lot less menacing than Luna’s description had him believe, but the dark plain and a fissure to his left exactly matched what his mind’s eye had envisioned.

If this is my dreamscape, then how am I here, and for that matter, where is Luna? he thought as he walked towards the side of the fissure. Looking down, he saw a smooth mass of energy that glowed with a soft cobalt light - the same as the magical aura that encompassed Luna’s horn whenever she used it. As he examined the substance more closely, Ender noticed that small tendrils had branched off, working their way into the dark slate like tree roots.

That can’t be good, Ender thought. He had no idea how magic worked or what everything represented in this place, but the sight of those snaking blue lines set him on edge.

The soldier cast about, looking again for the princess. This whole place felt real, just the way the dream-version of the Fantasy Game had when they fought Nightmare Moon. Luna was the one who could create dreams like this, so where was she?

As the thought crossed his mind, the substance below reacted. More tendrils rose, twisting past him into the dark. Ender watched as they split apart into tiny strands, no bigger than a thread. The threads multiplied over and over forming a conical weave that stretched into infinity.

That way? Is it pointing me in the right direction? the boy wondered, moving towards the shape. Instantly he felt a pull on his whole body, not unlike the sensation of a teacher moving him with a hook in the Battle Room. Before he could react, the threads shifted from dark blue to white and Ender was yanked bodily into the abyss.

Darkness closed around him and the boy felt as if he were being forced through an aperture entirely too small for his head much less his body. He tried to scream but there was nothing around him, not even air to inhale. There was no space. No…

In a second it was over, but the terrifying claustrophobia was replaced by paralyzing cold. Ender’s first ragged breaths chilled him to the core and brought the soldier to his knees. Shuddering violently, he looked back in desperation and saw nothing but swirling snowflakes.

Gritting his teeth against the frigid air and fighting back what he suspected was his own impending unconsciousness, Ender forced himself to look again.

There. Barely visible against the snow were the last ragged threads of the weave that brought him here. Ender reached out but failed to grab them. Fighting back panic as his vision began to darken into a tunnel of white flecks, the soldier tried one last time, lurching forward with his entire body.

Blissful warmth spread through Ender’s body even as he felt himself come to rest on a thick blanket of snow. Cracking his eyes open, the boy saw that he clutched a tiny cluster of white threads in his outstretched hand. He breathed slowly, embracing air that no longer stabbed at his lungs on the way down. Ender lay still, assessing the situation and giving his heart a chance to slow down.

The first thing he noticed as the shock wore off was that he wasn’t exactly warm as much as he was less cold. The boy’s breath fogged in front of his rapidly clearing vision and the stiff breeze carrying the snow flurries raised goosebumps on his skin. Careful not to lose hold of the threads, Ender raised himself first to an elbow, then to his knees.

Below the packed snow lay cobblestones worn flat by long use. Raising up on his haunches, the soldier noticed that the weave didn’t seem to have any tension. It moved with his hand and seemed to vanish into the air a foot or so away.

A link back to the other place, perhaps? Ender wondered. If so, why didn’t it take him like it did before?

Luna. The realization hit him suddenly. The shock and cold had driven it from his mind - these threads, whatever they were, had appeared when Ender wondered where she was. Had they brought him to her?

Still, the boy mused as he looked at his surrounding and wondered if he was right, it’s all I have to go on, and at least they’re keeping me from freezing to death.

Keeping a strong grip on his lifeline, the boy set forth. In the vague half-light of this snowy world, Ender couldn’t see very far, but by using his tracks in the snow as a guide, he pressed forward in as straight of a line as possible. After only a couple dozen steps, he was brought up short by waist-high wall hidden beneath a berm. Propelled by his momentum, Ender lurched forward, barely catching himself as he struggled to hold onto the tenuous threads.

Snowflakes spun around him and vanished into a black abyss below.

As he shivered, skin crawling with the realization of how close he had been to falling over the edge, the clouds parted to reveal the brightest moon Ender had ever seen. Silvery light pierced the gloom and illuminated the landscape thousands of feet below.

It was Equestria, covered in ice.

Though many features were nearly unrecognizable beneath massive snowdrifts, Ender was still able to piece together the larger landmarks. He was looking at nearly the same view he remembered from Luna’s balcony, only from a much lower vantage. A quick glance behind him confirmed that yes, he was standing in the little plaza beyond the castle’s main gate.

Looking back out over the moonlit landscape, Ender noticed a smattering of golden domes dotting the landscape. As he examined them more closely, trying to understand what he was seeing, one began to flicker before it started collapsing. It switched back on and expanded again almost immediately.

Strange, he thought.

A few seconds later, a smaller dome began to flicker. This one continued strobing on and off, the interval becoming faster and faster until it finally collapsed and winked out. Ender watched and waited for another dome to replace it, but nothing happened - that part of the landscape remained dark.

Leaving the mystery for another time, the boy turned back towards the castle. He had never been here before, but it wasn’t hard to find his way through the main gate. It seemed the castle, this part anyway, had been designed more for petitioners than for any kind of defense. The gate was wide and welcoming - at least the portions of it that were left. There was rubble everywhere, and many of the tapestries and murals showed scorch marks or other signs of damage. Looking up, Ender could see the moon through a large hole in the entry foyer.

His attention was yanked away from the scenery as he stumbled into a guard.

“Oh! Sorry, I-” the words died on Ender’s lips as he saw that the stallion was frozen solid, his face locked in a grimace of pain.

As the boy’s eyes adjusted to the relative gloom of the grand entrance hallway, he noticed similar figures ahead of him.

The guards seemed to have been frozen instantly in place - their forms encased in clear sheets of ice that formed long spikes behind them. The others were… not so fortunate. The further he pressed into the castle, the more civilians he found. Ponies of all kinds had collapsed, only to slowly freeze where they lay. He didn’t know what colors they were in life, but now they all shared a mottled blue-white sheen of powdered snow and ice that glittered in the half-moonlight. Ender was no stranger to nightmares. He had seen his friends and family burned alive and he had been torn apart by grotesquely monstrous versions of his tormentors, but this… this was somehow worse.

He passed a unicorn foal who looked like he was reaching out ahead, calling to another. Following his gaze, the boy found a mare who had pressed on, clutching an even smaller babe. She hadn’t made it very far.

Ender stopped looking closely after that.

The path wasn’t hard to follow. Most of the side passageways were either filled with debris or choked with the bodies of those who had sought shelter in the alcoves. The soldier made his way to the throne room without much difficulty.

The hallway where, just yesterday, Luna’s guard had handed him over to Celestia’s was almost unrecognizable. The massive windows across from the main doors were nothing more than sharp fragments of glass glittering on the floor. The moon hung large in the sky as a cold breeze stirred flurries of snow across the marble. Ender could not move the frozen doors on his own but one hung slightly askew, allowing him to squeeze through the gap.

A bright light greeted the boy as he emerged into the tattered remnants of the throne room. Ender suddenly understood the nature of the domes he had seen earlier. In the middle of the hall stood a slender white unicorn with a pink and white mane. She strained visibly with the effort of channeling magical energy into a golden hemisphere that surrounded herself and roughly two dozen other ponies. Haggard and weary, the others crouched around hastily prepared firepits feeding whatever they could into the meager flames. Broken furniture and torn books were amassed in a central pile of fuel for no fewer than six other fires. Even the beautiful crimson carpet had been cut apart to make crude blankets.

Suddenly, the white unicorn’s knees buckled and the golden shield began to flicker. The other ponies looked up in horror.

“Help me!” she screamed in a high soprano voice, “I can’t hold it!”

Ender rushed in, mindful not to lose hold on the threads he grasped. Perhaps they could grant these ponies the same protection they gave him.

A group of unicorns looked at each other, then at one bulky stallion with a long golden mane. He stared back in wide-eyed panic. “I-I’m not ready yet!” he protested.

“It’s your turn!” one of the others cried, “if you don’t then-”

The dome began to collapse, forcing the ponies on the edge to backpedal quickly. The rest began to whimper in terror. One of the outermost fires winked out the second it was outside the shield.

The ponies seemed to pay no attention to him as Ender charged in. It was only after he accidentally stumbled through a gray earth pony that he remembered that it was all a dream, and he might not actually be able to interact with it.

“Please! Anypony!” The pink-haired unicorn strained against an unseen weight.

“I’ve got it!”

Another white unicorn, a stallion with a blue mane, rose up from behind her. His horn sparked to life as he channeled energy into the shield, expanding it back to its original borders. The tatters of a dress coat whipped about him in response to his magical aura.

The first unicorn collapsed entirely as the others breathed a sigh of relief. The nearest group of ponies stared angrily at the stallion with the golden mane, causing him to hang his head with a muttered apology. “I’ll take it as soon as I can. I’m sorry.”

“‘Prince’ my flank,” scoffed another.

The stallion seemed to draw into himself, but surprisingly, the mare came to his defense. “Leave him alone - he held it longer than any of us.”

Yet another unicorn opened his mouth to respond, but they were all interrupted by harsh laughter from the far side of the throne room.

The knot of unicorns in the center of the shield looked up angrily. One red-headed colt stomped his hoof as if he were about to shout something, but he was quickly silenced by fearful looks and murmurs from the others.

Ender moved through the group towards the throne, trying to spot the source of their fear. That laugh sounded very familiar, and he had a strong suspicion as to who he would find. Sure enough, as he passed through the opposite edge of the bright gold light Ender was able to see through the gloom of the long hall. Nightmare Moon sat exultantly upon Celestia’s throne.

Except, he noted, it couldn’t really be called Celestia’s throne anymore. All the sun sigils had been burned away, as had most of the gold. Instead, silver and violet runes glowed menacingly upon the black rock that comprised the throne’s understructure. Beautiful cobalt moon-and-star tapestries fluttered from the high rafters around this side of the room - they were the only feature of the hall to remain pristine amid the decay and destruction.

The soldier expected a taunt or challenge as he ascended the tiers and approached the dark alicorn, but she acted as if he weren’t even there.

She must be as much a part of this dream as the rest. So where, then, is Luna?

Suddenly Nightmare’s head moved as her eyes tracked something behind him. Turning around, Ender saw that the pink-maned unicorn had come to the edge of the golden shield.

“Your Highness, please,” she said, bowing low, “bring back the sun, if only for a little while. We will surely freeze.”

“Your kind never ceases to amaze me,” the alicorn replied loftily. “After all this time, you still cannot think to beg for anything other than the sun. Even in the face of death, you insist upon your sun worship. Why did I even bother with all this? I should have just wiped all of you miserable creatures out at the start. In fact…” She charged her horn, readying a spell.

“Please wait, your Highness!” interrupted a refined voice. The other unicorn, the stallion with the blue mane who had relieved her, hurried to the mare’s side. If he was here, Ender reasoned, that other unicorn must have recovered enough to take over. “My lady here is simply tired - she worked so very hard to keep us alive. She simply wishes to be warm.” The unicorn bowed low and added a regal tone to his voice. “Of course we all revere your moon, my Queen. Perhaps if you would cast a warming spell like ours, one over all of Equestria, then we might be able to enjoy it properly, without having to focus so much on staying alive.”

Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes, chortling as she shifted to lay on her side across the throne. Lazily waving a foreleg in the stallion’s direction she replied, “Oh, yours is a silver tongue, isn’t it? You may know how to pick your words, but I know they are false. Your heart still yearns for the light and the warmth - they yearn for her don’t they?!” The stallion’s eyes widened as he saw the alicorn charge a spell. He grabbed the other unicorn and started to retreat, but he was too slow. In a flash, Nightmare froze the two of them. Both unicorns now looked liked the guards Ender passed on the way in.

“Let’s see how long you ponies can keep up your charming little shield now that there are two fewer in the rotation.” The black alicorn laughed in delight.

Resisting the urge to stare at the icy statues below, Ender instead drew closer to the throne. His own nightmares often forced him to watch similarly painful events. Considering this experience, the boy now had a pretty good idea as to where Luna was.

As he approached, the threads in his hand began to grow warm even as the spectre of Nightmare Moon started fade and become translucent. Below was Luna, encased in the larger pony’s body. She seemed much smaller, and it took Ender a few moments to realize that she appeared as she had when they first met, back when Luna was running from her other self. The short-cropped blue mane made her seem so… diminished.

We are all children in our nightmares. The words sprang unbidden to Ender’s mind, and he wondered briefly who had said them.

Laughter sounded around him, but Ender ignored it, knowing Nightmare Moon to be no more real than the rest of this place. He had had enough of this dream, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Luna endure any more of it. The soldier leaned in, reaching through the very form of Nightmare Moon to grasp at the smaller alicorn inside.

Luna did not make any movement in response to him. Not even her pupils tracked him as he reached toward her. As he drew closer, Ender saw she was crying. A trail of tears ran from the corners of her eyes, only to freeze as they reached her jawline. An inch-long column of ice had already formed on the soft hairs of her cheeks.

“We’re getting out of here, Luna,” he tried to say reassuringly as he pulled ineffectively at the yoke about the pony’s neck. Nothing moved no matter how much force the boy applied. The collar did not even shift in place. It was as if he was trying to move a solid block of stone.

Ender thought about using his other hand, but he did not want to risk losing the threads. Only then did the idea hit him.

They didn’t bring me back, but what if I brought them to her?

Even as he was bringing his other hand forward, the threads surged forward and encompassed them both in a bright pearlescent weave. Ender grimaced against the oncoming squeeze, but it was over before his mind could fully register it. He blinked in sudden darkness, the bright light of the threads having been replaced by the gloom of his own dreamscape. The boy looked down to see the last of the weave disappear into the pool of blue light.

“HaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHH!” A feral scream startled the soldier. He twisted around, stumbling and falling to his hands and knees in the process. Luna, fully restored to her regular form, glowed with the same cobalt light. She continued to shout, her voice growing louder and louder as she hurled massive spheres of energy into the dark. They disappeared into the same single point into which the weave had pulled him. Something shuddered in the distance, strongly enough to make the ground below Ender vibrate in response. She finally stopped, the glow fading from around her horn and body. Before the boy could say anything, the princess collapsed to the ground and curled into a tight ball.

“Luna?” he called softly as he crawled over to her. She gave no reply as Ender approached, but by the time he gently placed a hand on the back of her neck, the alicorn’s body had started trembling, racked by the occasional sob. Luna buried her face under her forelegs, curled herself even more tightly, and cried

The boy did his best to comfort her, but she was utterly unresponsive. Before long, steady breathing indicated that the alicorn was soundly asleep. A tendril of magical energy drifted from the pool behind him and began to flow into her, but other than a small shudder as it made contact, Luna made no other motion.

Asleep inside of a dream. What does that even mean? Ender wondered as he looked around at his dreamscape. And come to think of it, I’m still here. What am I supposed to do now?

The green vortex twisted silently in the distance, marking time

☽

Bright sunlight knocked the last vestiges of sleep from Ender’s mind. Shielding his eyes, he sat up and looked for the princess. Luna was curled up tightly on the far side of the bed in the same position, he realized, that she had maintained in his dream.

Calling her name softly, Ender tried to rouse the alicorn with a gentle shake. Worry began to gnaw at him when she gave no response. The boy headed for the stairway when progressively louder and stronger attempts had no effect.

“Guards!” he called, flinging open the main doors to Luna’s chambers. “There’s something wr-” Ender’s words died as he registered what was on the other side of the entrance.

Instead of the pegasi he expected, Ender found Celestia herself, a look of surprise on her face. One gold-shod hoof hovered in the air as if she were about to knock.

Hardly missing a beat, the soldier gestured for her to follow. “Princess, it’s your sister. I think something is wrong.” As he led her to Luna’s bedside, the boy gave a brief synopsis of what had transpired in his dreams the night before. Celestia cut him off part way, her manner suggesting that this was not the first time she had heard of that particular nightmare. All she wanted to know was how it ended.

After he related their departure from the dream, the Sun Princess swept past him, enveloping her sister in the warm golden glow of her magic. Lifting the covers of the massive bed, Celestia stretched the smaller alicorn out lengthwise and gently tucked her in. As the aura washed over her, Luna’s face visibly relaxed and she seemed to slip into an even deeper sleep.

When Celestia’s magic withdrew and it appeared that she was finished, Ender ventured, “Is she going to be alright?”

The larger princess looked back and gave him a small, tired smile. “Your concern is appreciated, but unnecessary. Luna will be fine. She is simply drained from…” a darker look crossed Celestia’s face, “from all of her exertions yesterday. I am nowhere near as competent with dream magic as she is, but I suspect that she simply collapsed from fatigue while she was in your dreamscape, trying to reclaim her magic as she has done for the past few nights. I think that’s how you were able to enter her dream.”

“She has that dream often?” Ender remembered how familiar Celestia seemed with it.

The Sun Princess nodded. “I sensed her distress last night, but I was so deeply asleep that by the time I woke up, it was gone. I suspect that was your doing, and for that I thank you.”

“It was nothing she hasn’t already done for me.”

She looked back at Luna briefly before turning fully around and walking past him. “Be that as it may, I came here for another reason. May I speak with you on the balcony, Mr. Wiggin? I would like to leave my sister in peace.”

“Of course.” Ender turned to follow.

☽

The day couldn’t have been any more perfect if Celestia had arranged the weather herself. Sunlight streamed through sparse altostratus bands and cast long shadows on the landscape below. Rather than mar the vast plains of Equestria below, the contrast of the darker lines made its colors all the more vivid. The princess took a moment to soak in the warm light on the balcony before turning to the human.

She spread her wings and bowed formally. “Mr. Wiggin, I must apologize…” she began.

Once she began, Celestia did not slow down, lest she stop and be unable to continue. Carefully and methodically, the alicorn explained her actions regarding the inquiry to Ender the same way she did for Twilight the evening prior. Curiously, she found it easier this time around. Perhaps it was because she did not have to be concerned with what he thought of her, or what he took away from this meeting; she simply had to make amends.

The human’s lack of response was troubling her, though. He didn’t seem angry, but at the same time he was showing almost nothing when it came to nonverbal cues. Even with the differences in physiology, after yesterday’s marathon Celestia was confident of her ability to read at least his basic emotions. Now though, he gave away nothing. Well, there wasn’t anything else she could do. The princess would make her case and let the rest play out.

“I don’t presume to ask your forgiveness,” she concluded, “I only ask that you try to understand my reasons.”

He scoffed, a short guttural burst that rolled over his shoulders as the boy looked out over the balcony railing. “... and yet you have it,” he said after a half second’s pause.

Celestia blinked, not sure she had heard him correctly. He was… forgiving her?

“Beg pardon?”

The human turned around fully, leaning back against the balcony. “I said ‘you have it.’ I forgive you.”

He keeps surprising me. The princess was at a loss, again, because of this… this person. “I… I’m sorry, but after yesterday, everything we had seen, I thought for sure that you would be angry, and that - rightfully so - you would hold it against us. That’d you’d hold...” she fought for the word “... a grudge.”

Ender held up his hands in an exaggerated shrug. “To what end, princess? How exactly would that be productive?” he asked. His voice came across casually, but she picked up on just an edge of fatalism. That worried her more than anything else.

At a loss for how to answer, Celestia fell back on her tried-and-true method of poking at a problem with questions. “What do you mean?”

The boy turned around and gestured at the wide landscape below. “There are not exactly many others out there who could help me get home. I’m not about to pick a fight with the only ponies who can.”

Somehow, that hurt her even more than any angry rebuke or insult. “I - I hope your forgiveness is based on something more than simple utility. As different as we are, that’s still a terrible way to live.”

Ender sighed, shaking his head. “No, that’s not it at all. I’m just being an ass.”

She didn’t understand what a donkey had to do with it, but his tone conveyed the gist of what he meant.

The soldier turned to face her again and leaned back against the balcony. “Honestly, I do forgive you. I’m not just saying that because I want you to get me home.”

“Why?” Celestia legitimately asked. It wasn’t often that she posed a question to which she did not already know the answer.

Ender looked down. “Because I do understand your reasons. No matter your choices and actions, your intentions were good and just.” He raised his eyes and met her gaze. “My people have a saying: ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ I personally think that’s a load of bull. Actions may determine consequences, but they’re not decided in a vacuum. Intentions do matter. Intent is what separates me from every other murderer and war criminal in my people’s history.”

Again, the princess had to rely on the context of the boy’s words to understand him. Loads of steers aside, Celestia had walked the path to Tatarus... many times in fact. She didn’t understand how it related to one’s intentions, but she thought she understood his reasoning.

Ender continued, oblivious to her internal musings. “If I were to judge you by your actions alone, then I would have to judge myself by mine. As you’ve already seen, that wouldn’t lead to a good place.”

The alicorn nodded in understanding. It was a different perspective, surely, but not an incomprehensible one. She was relieved.

“For what it’s worth, your sister said the same thing about forgiveness.” The boy smiled to himself. “And on top of that, she insisted the blame was hers, not yours or Twilight’s or anyone else’s.”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “Of course she did. She’s right, to an extent. I’ll admit she started this, but it was always in my power to stop it. I should have, and never did.”

Ender stepped away from the railing and placed his hands in his pockets. His dress pants were now very wrinkled, presumably from sleeping in them. “Well, it’s good to know that no one is perfect here, not even you.”

She smiled. “I’m sure perfection would make for a very boring existence.”

He returned the smile, but she couldn’t help but notice an edge of weariness to it. “So what happens next?” he asked.

“That is entirely up to you,” Celestia replied, “though I will say there are six anxious ponies on the other side of that door who would like to see you.” She pointed through Luna’s room toward the broad double doors leading to the hall.

“To see me?” Ender repeated, a shadow crossing his face. “I would think that after what they witnessed, they would want the exact opposite.”

“They very much want to make up for yesterday,” she explained, “but to be honest, this is as much for their sakes as it is for yours. You are partly right: they were affected by your story. For now they seem to be taking it in stride, but Twilight believes that spending time with you - seeing you in a different light - will help them come to terms with everything else.”

“And what do the others think?”

“Ah…” The princess looked away briefly. “The others aren’t really thinking along those lines. It wouldn’t even occur to most of them. As far as they are concerned, they’re here to do something nice for you and to have fun.”

He seemed to consider that for a moment before looking down.

Celestia pressed on, not wanting to lose him. “I’d completely understand if all you wanted to do was spend the day alone. Frankly I wouldn’t blame you. You don’t owe us anything, but a few hours with the girls could do them a world of good a few days or weeks from now.”

Ender glanced back up. “Oh, no… I just realized I slept in my clothes. No, that’s fine - just let me get cleaned up first.”

The princess laughed as the tension rolled off her back. Everything had worked out as she wanted. Who knew, maybe today would even be a complete success.

Well, Pinkie Pie is involved. I won’t hold my breath. On that note...

“Just a small word of warning, Ender,” she said, following the boy in from the balcony, “Twilight’s friends can sometimes be a bit, er… enthusiastic. If things become uncomfortable for you, just mention it to Twilight, and she’ll either bring them back in line, or simply call it an early day.”

“Oh?” He looked a bit surprised. “Alright, thanks,” Ender said absentmindedly as he stepped quietly past Luna’s bed and into the washroom.

He really has no idea. Celestia thought about it and very nearly called him back to say she had changed her mind. Then she remembered Twilight’s determination the night before and chided herself. The others have been more than sobered by yesterday’s events. Besides, Twilight will have this well in hoof. Even so…

Before moving to her sister’s bedside, Celestia called in Dusty and gave the hoofmaiden instructions for the day’s events.

Comments

[Nikas]

Ender, meet weaponized friendship in six cute packages.

[Raistlin]

It´s obvious Celestia and the Mare Six have real problem grasping both the concept of genocide on a planetary scale, or that the perpetrator, despite his flaws, is NOT a complete monster. To put it simple, they don´t get the Grey and Gray or the Grey and Black Morality mindsets.

[Mustafa]

I have no words for how excited I am that this story updated.

[More Dakka]

I really like how they are all still trying to wrap their minds around this whole thing.

[Browniel42]

first.

[Nikas]

4581680

It is interesting Celestia doesn't seem to consider one possibility between "He's okay and he's a monster hiding is true nature." That is Ender is of such an alien mindset that he is being completely upfront about his nature, but it is being missed to to mutual incomprehension. And that nature could lead to a situation where Ender considers violence completely acceptable and justified, but the ponies witnessing it are horrified to their core that an alleged rational being could contemplate much less commit such acts.

In short the threat is not the deliberately lurking monster, but two cultures so alien that one can't understand the mindset of the other. Sort of the Formic-Human War through a funhouse mirror.

Other 'fun' interludes, Ender learning about Heathswarming? Particularly if he starts picking apart the sanitized version. I know his military education was truncated and focused, but some bits of logistics likely made it through. And how many died on the journey or because they got left behind is a likely question.

[Cerolas]

Ender has been through Hell, now he must endure Heaven.

[Ether Space]

Wow.
I only discovered this story at the posting of your previous chapter. Between then and today, I've read all you've posted twice. Once, because it was the posting day, and that second time because it struck my fancy.
And then the update comes.
And it was absolutely worth the wait.
Thank you for this marvelous story.

[Rutter]

I understand that it's need in Canon MLP for Black and White characters, but SO MANY FICS have them!
But THIS fic is a nice change though!

[the_sane_maniac]

Oh god, why did this have to tickle my interest?

I really don't want to read this, not because of you or anything but because of ender's game. I am probably pretty lonely with this opinion but I really don't like the book.

I can barely feel sympathy for any of the characters, the characters are horribly bland and simple and the entire book is just a conga-line of angst and misery for no good reason. It's all just this incoherent mess without any real sense of urgency or motivation

Just, ugh... Sorry but I just really don't want to read anything that is within the same postal code as ender's game unless it is a rewrite, preferably made by ProfFartBurger from fanfiction since that guy knows how to pull this off in a good orderly fashion.

Try to convince me otherwise, please because on my own I can't touch it.

[aduck]

This story continues to be amazing. Your portrayal of the various states of minds and their psyche is well written and well characterized. I loved what you have done with Luna's, Ender's, and Celestia's thought process, and hope to see it from the mane six view in the next chapter.

Keep on writing good sir. Keep on writing.

[Virulent Void]

FINALLY. MY WAIT IS OVER. PRAISE THE MOON!

Just kidding. Great chapter, as always. I look forward to the next.

[onlyanorthernsong]

It is my younger brother's birthday tomorrow. One of the gifts I got him is a copy of Ender's Game. So serendipitous timing with the update.

[HIEfan]

Huzzah! Update! I am so very jolly right now!!

[Vaalintine]

Meh, I really can't say I really view any of this with optimism anymore. While they may have all forgiven each other for it verbally, it doesn't really seem genuine, like Ender only really said it to get it out of the way. It's really a shame too, until the "Ender is a complete monster party" things were going so well. Him and Luna still being friends in anything other than name just feels hollow to me now. While I hope there might be some real reconciliation between the two of them, I don't see it in their futures without it seeming forced.

Edit: Wow, that sounded a lot less depressing in my head.

[Ozymandias]

He's forgiven the sisters, since they made mistakes with the best intentions and are repentant. This is good.
But they made mistakes, and they should still try to make up for them even if he doesn't expect them to.

[FinalFan]

Do the arrangements alluded to include a squad of guards with a net to try to capture Pinkie Pie with if when she gets completely out of hand?

[KingOfTheMuffins]

Whenever this story updates, the wizard in the inner sanctum of my mind beckons to my conscience, and I find that this story has updated. Rejoice, mortal-- 'tis the time to read and enjoy, and that is what I have done.

With that being said, goodnight. It was a great read, provided the reader with more information with how the ponies reacted to what they saw and how they ended up interpreting it, and cemented the foundation of the friendship between Luna and Ender. Until next time, ye' gnarly writer!

(if my comment seems a bit disjointed, it's because I've stayed up for about 39 hours as of now.)

Now good night!

[KingOfTheMuffins]

4582273

You should buy him the whole Ender series-- makes for a good read on plane flights or long car rides.

[Queuefka Palazzo]

4582483

You don't see them as kindred spirits? Where Luna's nightmares lie he has tread. By similar experiences they understand each other. Even if only for a short while, they need each other.

I think it'd be hard for either of them to hold a grudge against the other, even if they do have unfortunate miscommunications.

[FinalFan]

I noticed one small error in the text:

That is a astute observation

"a" should be "an", since the following word begins with a vowel sound.

[fiction lover]

oh my beautiful story is back how i missed you Any ways more we must have more your doing a good job dude keep it up

[Requiem17]

I love this story.

[Adin]

I can't tell you how excited I was to see a new chapter of this.

My thoughts: I did feel Ender was rather quick to forgive / get over it. I can understand him wanting to forgive them, but I think there should have been a bit more build to it.

Then again... this is Ender, so it was hardly out of character.

[The Well Dressed Ninja]

4584360 No. Woonagusta. The only gusta used here.

[YbJ]

Well, it's good to know the translation spell still works even though Luna is unconscious.

[XEN0KID]

4582904

[Skystrider]

4586044

More or less - the movie does change some important aspects of the book (mainly when Ender meets the Hive Queen), but you should be good to go.

[Beyond the Horizon]

... Dohohohoho~ A new chapter of my favorite MLP x Ender's Game story? Delightful, good sir.

[Zanec]

This is exactly why I don't glean information about the characters or about whatever world the crossover is merged with before reading them, it would ruin the perspective.

[Ravengt]

4582483 Will sadly have to agree with you. The whole forgiveness scene felt really hollow and kinda forced. Was really looking forward to seeing how everyone resolved this issue 2. Can't speak for others but it made a pretty black stain on a otherwise great fic for me.

4583147 Frankly that makes what happened to him even worse if u think about it since that went beyond a "grudge" as u call it or it should have if ender wasn't so obviously broken.

[Queuefka Palazzo]

4588147

That is the stupidest jumble of words I've ever had the displeasure of reading.

Ender said it himself, context and intent are important. Luna was justified in her actions, and Ender knows it.

She was justified because she had seen The Mind Game, she had seen Ender's vicious side multiple times, she had seen "the maelstrom" of his mind, she had seen some of his memories, and in spite of her affection for him he was still a huge unknown to her. The ponies have routinely dealt with terrible villains in the past. They're allowed to be skittish.

It's like you people aren't fucking reading what's plain as day on the goddamn page. I've seen it before, it pissed me off then, and it pisses me off now. You faggots go into complete moron mode whenever the topics of death or trauma are treated with any kind of seriousness or nuance.

[Nikas]

4587606

Are there any other MLP-Ender's game crossover stories?

[Ravengt]

4588347

Ender said it himself, context and intent are important. Luna was justified in her actions, and Ender knows it.

I've said it before on here but you obviously didn't see that post. This is more than likely a case of Blue and Orange morality as opposed to black and white. Them living in a completely different universe than us and developing under completely different rules, circumstances and laws causes them to have different moral boundaries and understandings in similar situations. I know she thought she was justified but cultural misunderstandings (Closest thing i can think of due to the fact this deals with different universes.) are a thing for a reason. It's not why she did it that i have such a problem with (Even though the very reason stated above means that it isn't your place to judge someones actions based on your current views of wrong or right when they are a completely different species from a completely different reality.) it's HOW she did it pisses me off. Hell from the reaction of twilight and celestia afterwards the method isn't a case of black and white for them as well.

She was justified because she had seen The Mind Game, she had seen Ender's vicious side multiple times, she had seen "the maelstrom" of his mind, she had seen some of his memories, and in spite of her affection for him he was still a huge unknown to her. The ponies have routinely dealt with terrible villains in the past. They're allowed to be skittish.

There are a couple of things wrong with your statement. First is the fact that even though she's seen some of the mind-game(s aftermath) due to what happened previously with nightmare she has no idea what it truly is. At the point where she just discovered the maelstrom and the single memory she checked it's simply a place to her with no real knowledge of why it's important.
Next is the fact that i never even brought any of these points into question. The point i was trying to make is that near instantaneous forgiveness of what is essentially "mind rape" in our culture for hours on end to the point that he was catatonic afterwards isn't believable. I could easily believe him more if he was actually serious about him doing it because he has no other choice since they're his only way home. (and i hope he is)

It's like you people aren't fucking reading what's plain as day on the goddamn page. I've seen it before, it pissed me off then, and it pisses me off now. You faggots go into complete moron mode whenever the topics of death or trauma are treated with any kind of seriousness or nuance.

It's called an opinion and people are allowed differing opinions. I've seen people like you all over the place as well. It's like you take it as a personal insult that others dare to think differently than you do. The baseless insults are a dead giveaway.
Also that last part doesn't even make any sense since it's me taking the topics of death or trauma with any kind of seriousness or nuance that spawned it in the first place. Like you said u might be overlapping your previous experiences a bit too much.

[Skystrider]

4588347
4588872

Folks, while I'm honored that you care enough about my fic to argue these points, please remember that the MST3K mantra (It's just a ____; I should really just relax) applies doubly to fanfic. It's not worth putting insults in the comments. I went back and forth many times about how to handle the issue of forgiveness and reconciliation, and that was one of the reasons this chapter took so long. I plan on putting up a blog post about it if you guys want to see the details on how I viewed it - maybe take the discussion there?

[Queuefka Palazzo]

4588924

You shut up, our conversations about your story are not your business.

[Queuefka Palazzo]

4588872

Hell from the reaction of twilight and celestia afterwards the method isn't a case of black and white for them as well.

Again, did you not read? Celestia wasn't saying she did the wrong thing at the time, she was saying if she had the chance to do it over again, meaning knowing what was going to happen, she would choose differently.

There are a couple of things wrong with your statement. First is the fact that even though she's seen some of the mind-game(s aftermath) due to what happened previously with nightmare she has no idea what it truly is. At the point where she just discovered the maelstrom and the single memory she checked it's simply a place to her with no real knowledge of why it's important.

She saw horrible things in The Mind Game, or did you forget the giant? The maelstrom, no matter what, has always been a big, red flag for her. She's said as much when she explained Ender's treatment. And thank you for making my point for me, by the way. Before the inquiry she didn't really know anything about Ender, which was the problem.

Next is the fact that i never even brought any of these points into question.

I don't think you understand how arguments work. Go read a book.

The point i was trying to make is that near instantaneous forgiveness of what is essentially "mind rape" in our culture for hours on end to the point that he was catatonic afterwards isn't believable.

"Our culture."

Are you really this stupid? Ender does not belong to our culture. He comes from a dystopian future of overpopulation and high technology, where the most prevalent feeling is an existential fear of the skies. He spent most of his life training to be a soldier and a commander, and he'd spent all of his life being monitored. He's an admiral. He's the goddamn Xenocide.

He's not like you.

It's called an opinion and people are allowed differing opinions. I've seen people like you all over the place as well. It's like you take it as a personal insult that others dare to think differently than you do. The baseless insults are a dead giveaway.

Yes, you're allowed to have shitty opinions. The price you'll pay, though, is I will mock you mercilessly.

Also that last part doesn't even make any sense since it's me taking the topics of death or trauma with any kind of seriousness or nuance that spawned it in the first place. Like you said u might be overlapping your previous experiences a bit too much.

None of which excuses you for being a moron, which is my actual problem with you. Quit confusing the issues, it only makes you look even more idiotic.

[Ravengt]

4591537 Yeah, i have no intention of doing this with you. Skystrider Clearly asked us to stop this "argument" and i'm inclined to follow his wishes since this is his comments page.
Wish you a good day.

[Queuefka Palazzo]

4591716

I fail to see how our conversation is any of his goddamn business. Is he your nanny?

[Raistlin]

I´m curious about how Discord (in Luna´s retelling of the Fall of the alicorn race, he seems almost the equivalent to the Serpent of Eden) would react to Ender´s memories. Would he give humanity the high five? Or would he feel frustrated considering they don´t need his help to be "chaotic"?
Probably like this:

[MLai]

4593601
The recent canon revelations (from the studio's Twitter, etc) regarding the Alicorns are that Celestia and Luna are not the only immortal natural-born Alicorns to have existed, and that they actually had a family/ parents/ ancestors.
Now I'm even more firmly entrenched in Skystrider's headcanon of "pre-Fall alicorn history." It lends a tragic majesty to Celestia, and explains much of her intentions and methods regarding ponykind.
Ender doesn't know it yet, but in a way Celestia is a mirror of the Hive Queen whom Ender grows to love.

4589398
LOL talk about Death Of Author. Even though I agree with you, I would think you should be more courteous to the person writing the story you're enjoying. Especially since you're one of the readers who actually understands what he's writing about.

4582483
If Ender can forgive Graff without even being asked to, he can certainly forgive the Princesses. Spool The Anti-Queue is right. You find Ender's reaction "hollow" because you're looking at things from your mindset, not his.

If anything, I think Ender would be more uncomfortable because even the princesses of the ponies don't maintain their station, and would lower themselves to apologize to him. Adherence to hierarchy is important to Ender's world, and he's also not used to ppl being considerate to him and expecting him to open himself up. Figures of authority being nice to his feelings, and treating him as an equal, actually disrupts his constant internal stratagems on how to deal with them.

He would be thinking "Alright alright I forgive you, you're embarrassing both of us. How am I supposed to manipulate you now? You've become an unknown factor."

He answered Celestia like he would have answered some Admiral or President (that he actually liked enough to talk truthfully to), "Look don't worry about me throwing tantrums or something. You know I still need your help; I'm not gonna hold a grudge." Said Admiral (I keep imagining Capt. Picard) would have straightened his uniform stiffly, and said "Well, I'm glad we understand each other, Ender. You're a very mature young man." Instead, Celestia is like "Oh but how do you really FEEEEL?"

"Oh for crying out loud," Ender thought. "What does she want from me? Be all emotional and throw a hissy fit? How do I do this without becoming vulnerable?"

[Queuefka Palazzo]

4597672

Fiiine.

Thanks, OP, for entertaining me with your story. I'd be slightly more bored without it.

But I'll say whatever I damn well want. Authorship does not translate to authority.

[Zanec]

This is probably my favourite(long) fic that I've read so far.
And my favourite comments that I've read so far, dismissing brainless stuff.

[Starscribe]

Be me. Discover Ender's Game Universe. Read EVERYTHING. Also really like ponies, and think "there really ought to be a good crossover for this." But if you're me, you're already committed to a long and grueling story, with no time to write a new one. What can you possibly do?

Discover this absolutely fantastic piece of fiction, that's what. I discovered this at about 10:00PM last night, and didn't stop reading until 5:00 AM when I had finished. Sleep? Who needs sleep when you have a story in front of you that is this absolutely fantastic. I just wanted to get it on record with some of the things I thought while I was reading, because I saw that there were a few negative reviewers out there (whom I disagree with completely), and I know from experience with my own story that 1 negative review can weigh out 50 positive ones.

So this is what I thought. That the story was incredibly faithful to Card's universe, even the extended books that not as many people have read. Even the style was mimicked so completely and so effectively that if you were to say that you actually were Orison Scott Card, I would be far less surprised than I would be impressed. It was clear during the trial chapters that you either had the book handy or a photographic memory, because the dialogue was exactly right. Fetchin' emails were dead on, like I was starting a chapter in one of the later books.

Naturally the story involved the introduction of some pony cannon that isn't true in the show, but I could care less about that. The cartoon is hardly broad enough to cover the sort of things that a fully fleshed-out universe needs, and for the story to have the emotional impact it does the unanswered questions needed answers. I do not fault you for inventing them in the least, and the answers were compelling enough.

I consider this work one of the absolute masterpieces I have read on Fimifiction. Few other authors have managed to captured both universes in such a compelling and effective way, enough that I just put down everything else and have to see what happens to the story.

My one word of criticisms... and it's not a very harsh one... is that during the trial, it seemed that Ender wasn't quite as smart as usual. I guess what I mean is I expected him to try and defend himself on his terms. He fought well and correctly to defend himself on the pony's terms of battle, but Ender rarely lets someone else define the terms of battle for him. It's a distinct possibility that his attempt to change the battle might've failed quickly, with Celestia shooting him down almost at once, but... with as nice as he knows these ponies to be, it seemed a little strange he didn't try to exploit that knowledge. Didn't try to get Luna in the room with them, didn't try to play on the fact he had saved all of Equestria. Didn't try to make any defense at all except in terms the ponies had dictated.

But then, maybe I'm thinking a little too much like Bean. Ender gave up once it the battle room and stopped caring, it's possible he did the same thing here. Or maybe he just gave up enough that he didn't want to fight them and was willing to do it how they wanted. Obviously getting the memories off his chest was in his best interest in the end, but I doubt even Bean would look that far ahead.

Still, for as much as I expected a little more cleverness there, in no way did it take away from the story and the situation it created was interesting and compelling in its own right.

I look forward with great anticipation to the rest of this epic, and hope what negative criticism you have received will not discourage you. In summary, this story was fantastic, easily on par with the "real" Card novels in the series. The "voice" of the cannon characters was effectively captured, as well as the way they behave. I positively loved every section where Ender outsmarted somepony, as he is wont to do, even the simple things like the bathtub scene with Celestia.

You sir have one more dedicated reader.

[Frazzled Pony]

This is really, really great writing and the parallels and differences between the two worlds are great. This is how you write a good HiE fic and Ender is one of the few characters I have seen in a crossover for whom it really makes sense that he gets so many things so quickly. You pay a lot of attention to culture shock and your constant attention to the little things that are lost in translation just adds so much. Also, I may not have read the books and only seen the film, but you do a great effort at explaining events in Ender's in a natural and interesting way. Even if he gets a little carried away with the technical aspects of battles sometimes. But that seems in character, so no complaints there.
And I might be reading too much into it, but there are so many small sentences where I think "huh, that's a parallel to coming pony events", like the mentions of ascension and a lot of other little things that have slipped my mind by now.

One thing though, it strikes me as odd that you are talking about the Muslim countries, when you in the flashback to Enders "victory" seemed to say that outward demonstrations of religion had been outlawed. And any country that identifies more by religious affiliation than by ethnicity or political stance wouldn't agree with forgoing outward demonstrations of religion, considering it is a huge part of their cultural identity. It just doesn't seem like something those nations would ever agree to, same with some other countries, though I might be underestimating the effect of an outside enemy. Either way, you would neatly sidestep it if you just called them the Middle Eastern Countries or something. But that might just be me.

"Sometimes how you taught a lesson mattered as much as the lesson itself, " I like the parallel to "how you win is important". Intent is always important.

All in all, this is a very enjoyable read that I am very happy to have found. Now I just hope it will continue at some point. Happy writing.

[Fancies himself a lurker]

Great story! Makes me want to read the book and watch the movie, keep up the good work I anxiously await the next chapter.

[ThrowawayCin]

4959198 Movie is ok, book is great, books author is crazy.

Pericynthion is a great story so far, but actual interaction with the main six will bring the next portion more closely in line with the theme of Ender handling a team of personalities. I hope that's the way it goes, at least!

[Von Voctavia]

Loving the story so far! Man those Game chapters were INTENSE!

[More Dakka]

Don't you hate it when you remember a story, give it another read through and notice the author hasn't been online for over a month?

[Skystrider]

5181929
I've been away for training. Yes I'm still here and yes I'm still writing. It's slow going due to real-life schedule.