Twilight and her friends chase a conspiracy that has been affecting Equestria since the fall of Discord.
There is a secret in Equestria. A secret the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle doesn’t dare to believe. Like puppeteers pulling on marionettes, they have influenced Equestria for better and worse since the fall of Discord. So far they have been benevolent, but their potential for evil is vast. What’s worse, she doesn’t know their name. She doesn’t know their mission. All she knows for certain is one thing.
A firm frown creased Twilight’s face as she looked over the library like a general would look over a fortress. She was a princess now. She had her wings, her title, and her oddly longer mane. She still wasn't too sure about how important the latter was to her ascension to royalty, but the cut of her mane was the least of Twilight’s concerns.
The library, her home, her metaphorical and possibly literal castle of learning and literature was about to be besieged. They would come with little warning and would swarm like parasprites. She and Spike had already secured every window and organized every shelf. They had done all they could to prepare, but still her nerves were high. This fight was going to be dirty. Some of her books would not survive to see sunset, but it was an attack they would have to endure.
“Spike, what about the card catalog?”
“Sorted and locked,” he replied with a snapped salute.
“And the key?”
Spike lowered his claw to his chest and grabbed the small key that hung from a string around his neck. “Got it right here.”
“Good. Now, we had better—”
A knock at the door made both Twilight and Spike tense. They leapt for an empty reading table, turned it over on its side, and shoved it against the wall before diving into cover. The knocking came again, and then again with greater urgency. Twilight and Spike poked their heads out from behind the overturned table, Spike wearing a pot as a combat helmet.
The pounding on the door became like a beast trying to knock down the whole library. Twilight and Spike hunkered down, braced themselves, and then the door burst open. The clatter of tiny hooves announced the horde’s entry into the library. The siege had begun, and already there were casualties. Books were being pulled from the shelves and dropped to the floor. Spines were getting bent, pages creased.
It was such a horrific sight, Twilight was on the verge of passing out.
Amidst the horde was its master, the mare responsible for bringing the plague upon the library. Yes, perhaps the mare’s intentions were pure. They were both scholars, after all: Twilight of higher magic and the horde’s master of ABC’s. What was happening was a necessary evil, done in the name of broadening young minds.
Still, her kinship with the horde’s master did little to ease Twilight of her pain. Each dropped book felt like a stab to her chest, each dog eared page like a knife to her back. There were bookmarks! She had a big stack of them she gave away free just to prevent the creasing of page corners. But it was all for naught. No matter how many bookmarks were taken, most of them never managed to fulfill their intended destiny of being used to mark a pony’s place in a book.
This was why she wasn't fond of when Cheerilee brought her class to her poor, innocent library.
“Twilight?”
Shaking her head, she slowly stood up from behind her cover and forced a smile. “Sorry, Cheerilee, just... a little distracted.” Twilight used her magic to set the table back upright. “So, what’s the assignment this time?”
“They need to do a short history report on a pony of their choice that they will present in class. Most of them already have somepony selected from a list I gave them earlier, so we’re just here so they can get started.”
Twilight’s smile widened. Reports on famous ponies were amongst some of her favorite to write! It was how she had learned so much about Starswirl the Bearded, like the kind and number of bells he wore on his hat and cape. “Sounds like fun. Who are they doing their reports on?”
“If I remember correctly, Scootaloo is doing her report on the founder of the Wonderbolts, Blue Blitz. Sweetie Belle is doing hers on Beethooven, and Twist is doing hers on the pony who made the first peppermint stick, Mint Mountain.”
“Are any of them doing their report on Star Swirl the Bearded or maybe Clover the Clever? What about Commander Hurricane? Oh, I have a lovely book about an earth pony mare named Quartz Movement. She invented numerous practices that are still used by modern clock makers.”
“Sorry, but none of the students picked any of those ponies.”
Twilight’s hopeful smile fell as she let her head hang to one side. “Of course. Well, Spike, you go help those students over there and I'll head to the other side. Try to keep the books off the floor and keep an eye on that colt with gum. You see one bubble, you do your duty to protect the books.”
“You got it, Twilight,” Spike saluted before jogging off. Twilight was going to do the same, but Cheerilee caught her by the shoulder.
“Actually, there is one student in particular I was hoping you’d help. Apple Bloom has something she wants to do with the report, and I approved it, but it means she needs help picking who to do her report on.”
The hopeful smile returned to Twilight’s face. She still had a chance to share the knowledge she had of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies who had advanced the field of magic, timekeeping, and organization. “Of course, I’ll be happy to lend her a hoof. Oh Apple Bloom,” Twilight sang out.
She found the young farm filly sitting near the library’s encyclopedia. She was flipping through the last book in the sixteen volume collection, which contained information about things whose names started with X, Y, and Z. Still, Apple Bloom turned, smiled, and waved at Twilight as she set the book back on the shelf. She was a filly that knew how to take care of books.
She also knew how crazy Twilight could get if the library wasn't respected.
“Hey, Twilight.”
“Hello Apple Bloom. Cheerilee says you need a little help picking a pony to do your report on.”
“Well, yes and no,” Apple Bloom said as she climbed to her hooves. “I have an idea of the kind of historical figure I want to do the report on, but don’t know any that really fit the bill.”
“Are you looking for somepony famous in the field of Apple’s, or maybe an ancestor of yours? I have a genealogy book that I’m sure we could use to retrace your roots back to—”
“Actually, I kind of wanted to do my report about a zebra,” Apple Bloom explained.
Nonplussed, Twilight leaned in with a cocked eyebrow. “You want to do your report on a zebra?”
“Originally wanted to interview Zecora for my report. She knows more about potions than anypony else I know, and she helped us when that mean mare Trixie took over the town.”
Twilight nodded, recalling times she had been aided by the striped herbalist of the Everfree Forest. “She probably has some pretty interesting stories she could tell.”
“Yeah, but Cheerilee said I had to do it about a ‘historically significant’ figure,” Apple Bloom said, her voice echoing with the frustration of being forced to pick someone else for her report. “Basically, somepony that ain’t around no more. But she also said she’d love to hear a report on a famous zebra if I can find one.”
“Ah, so that’s what you need help with. You need to find a zebra.”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Eeyup”
“Well, I think I can help you out there.” Twilight turned and motioned with her head for Apple Bloom to follow. The pair stepped around the fillies and colts who had taken to reading on the floor. Twilight picked up a few discarded books and, with a careful teleportation spell, took the gum straight from one colt’s mouth and deposited it in the garbage can. Twilight then took a single book off the shelf as she and Apple Bloom continued towards the reading table.
“While zebras are a bit rare here in Equestria, they have their own kingdom that has its own very rich history and culture. They've had their great leaders, great thinkers, and the field of potion making wouldn't be anywhere near where it is today without some of the brilliant herbalists, biologists, and alchemists that came from Savannah.”
“What about zebras in Equestria?” Apple Bloom asked. “Were there any others like Zecora, who came here and helped ponies?”
“There are a few who came here, but there were some that weren’t so helpful,” Twilight answered as she cracked open the book she had picked off the shelves. She set it down on the reading table and helped Apple Bloom up onto a stool so they could both read with ease. “One of the most famous, or rather infamous, zebra figures from recent history is ‘The Phantom.’”
“How’d she pick up a name like that?”
“She was a sneak thief that plagued the eastern coast of Equestria about two hundred years ago, around 900 Anno Concordia.”
“Anno who now?” Applebloom asked.
“Anno Concordia. You know, 900 AC.”
“Oh! Is that what those two letters mean?”
“It is,” Twilight said as she flipped through the book, looking for the page she sought. “Anno Concordia roughly translates to the Year of Harmony, and the start of the calendar aligns with when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna defeated Discord for the first time,” Twilight answered as she flipped through the pages in the book. “Discord’s rule messed up all the old calendars, so a new one was established and was soon widely accepted. From what I heard, it was actually based on an old griffin calendar.”
Twilight abruptly ducked her head, using her hoof to pull down Apple Bloom with her as a book flew over their heads. Spike was already running after it, scowling as Cheerilee scolded the pair of colts who had been fighting over the tome. Still, Twilight kept her calm. She breathed in and out, using the technique Cadance had shown her, before pointing to a page in the open book, a page which bore a lithograph of a wanted poster.
“Still, getting back to the zebra, this is her, ‘The Phantom’. Or, at the very least, this is what police thought she looked like based on eyewitness descriptions. She stole numerous rare, valuable, and magically potent artifacts over her brief career and was never once close to getting caught. One of the items stolen was the Alicorn Amulet, which wasn't seen again until Trixie somehow got her hooves on it.”
“What happened to her?” Apple Bloom asked.
“After plundering Manehatten and other cities on the eastern coast for a decade she just vanished. Some historians believe it’s because Princess Celestia said she would personally join in the search for the thief. Others think she was finally caught and, instead of turning her over to the police, the family she was trying to steal from just... took care of her themselves.”
“Would somepony really do that!?” Apple Bloom asked, shocked by the mere prospect.
“I’m sure that’s just a rumor,” Twilight said with a reassuring smile. “Still, maybe you’d like to do your report on a zebra with a less... criminal history.”
Apple Bloom nodded her head, and Twilight flipped a few pages in the book before revealing another famous zebra. The picture accompanying the text was a photographic copy of an oil painting which, supposedly, was a portrait commissioned by the zebra in question, who was dressed in an equestrian naval uniform and was standing in front of a galleon.
“This is Nephthys, a well respected ship captain from the early 800’s. At the peak of her career, she captained the Lunar Wind on an impressive anti-piracy campaign.”
“She fought pirates!?” Apple Bloom put her hooves up on the table and smiled like she was about to head off on a grand sea adventure of her own.
“Yes, Nephthys was responsible for bringing over a dozen pirate captains to justice over her career during a time when Equestria’s trade ships were under constant assault. She was even going to be awarded a promotion to admiral of Equestria’s largest fleet. But, during her last deployment, her ship came across a violent storm. She was thrown overboard and never seen again.”
Apple Bloom’s enthusiasm died, her smile fading as she looked over at Twilight. “She disappeared too?”
“Well... yeah, I guess she did. Sorry, I didn’t remember that part of the story until now. Let’s see...” Twilight began flipping through the books she had selected, pulling up more historically significant zebras.
Twilight tried to tell Apple Bloom of a half dozen others. She even went as far back as she could, looking up a traveling sage named Wise Word who walked Equestria in the years immediately after Celestia and Luna defeated Discord. She spread her wisdom to help with the reconstruction of the nation. Her words were prized, and she was held as one of Equestria’s greatest philosophers from the era that marked the beginning of Celestia and Luna’s rule.
And yet Wise Word and all the others met a similar fate, disappearing in their youth.
~~~
“Twilight, you've been at it since Cheerilee’s class left. Don’t you think you should take a break and get some sleep? It’s almost midnight.”
“Can’t Spike, I need to figure this out.”
Sighing, Spike shook his head and walked back upstairs. Soon, Twilight’s ears could hear the distant, occasional sound of the dragon’s snore, but she paid it no mind as she continued to look over the numerous notes and books that were laid out before her.
There were of course some exceptions to the rule. A little more than two hundred famous zebras lived to ripe old ages and were properly buried. But, excluding those, there were approximately another hundred that lived and disappeared under similar circumstances. The zebra would show up and start to do good or bad, it changed depending on the situation. That zebra would begin to gain some fame or infamy and then would just disappear.
It all had the smell about it that something larger was going on, like some of the conspiracies Twilight had read about from her book A Centennial Collection of Conspiracies. Now there were some wild theories contained in those pages. Some ponies believed the sun and moon used to move on their own and that Discord appeared because ponies tried to put too much order in the world. Other theories spoke of the existence of large, hairless apes that had a super advanced society millions of years before ponies.
It was all largely nonsense.
And that’s how Twilight’s research had begun. She wanted to prove to herself that the connections she thought she saw were nothing more than coincidence. She had wanted to prove the conspiracy she thought she saw was just her own, overactive imagination getting the best of her logical mind.
Yet, her efforts were proving futile. The more she looked, the more she saw, and the more she saw, the more it seemed possible. Yes, some zebras that she thought were connected to the conspiracy fell away, but for each one she excluded she found two more that fit the criteria.
Rubbing her eyes, Twilight backed up from her desk and levitated a stack of paper into the air around her. Each page represented a zebra she had researched, possessing a name, dates, and facts she felt were important. Some of the pages were also marked in their corners with an X, a sign that Twilight had excluded that particular zebra from her theory.
“Okay, I need to step back and start from the beginning. There are the few hundred most famous zebras since the fall of Discord a little over a millennium ago. Of those few hundred, ninety six died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Of those ninety six, I can rule out a few dozen because of the circumstances surrounding the life of that zebra.” Twilight shuffled away all the pages that had been marked with an X on the upper right corner, stacking them on the table behind her.
“That leaves me with these,” she said, looking across the roughly sixty pieces of paper that still floated in the air before her. “All zebras who disappeared without a trace. They all just vanished or were presumed killed with no body found. They all did something in Equestria’s history. Some were thieves, some were in the army, some protested, and some were just renowned for their skills and talents.
“All were fairly young when they disappeared. All were female. Different builds but none were ever described as having truly abnormal height or weight.” Twilight continued to scan the pages, trying to notice any real similarities between the notes she had made. Then, a few words that existed on every page began to catch her eye.
“Celestia and Luna,” Twilight whispered to herself as her eyes began to dart around. “The Phantom disappeared soon after Princess Celestia announced she’d be aiding in the investigation personally. Nephthys, the ship captain, disappeared before she was to meet Princess Celestia for her promotion to admiral. Wise Word, the wandering sage, disappeared when Princess Luna began to search for her, seeking advice regarding Equestria’s new diarchy.”
Twilight could see a few exceptions, and those pages were each quickly marked with an X and set in the discard pile. Still, the sheer number that remained boggled her mind.
It was like these zebras were disappearing before they could meet with the princesses. Why would that be? Were they avoiding the princesses or being kept away? Were they afraid of the princesses? Were the princesses somehow involved, or maybe the lords and ladies of Equestria’s government? Was there something to be gained from keeping zebras away from the princesses?
Twilight didn't know, and she didn't like it when she didn't know something. Her escapades with Starswirl the Bearded’s time-travel spell was a testament to that. Yet, even thinking about those chaotic few days made Twilight realize she had to calm down. She brought her hoof to her chest and breathed out while doing the cleansing motion Cadance had taught her.
She was calm. She was collected. She would just go to sleep and think about this whole thing in the morning. She took a few steps towards the stairs, her determination to rest her mind and eyes resolute. She’d sleep, have breakfast, and only then would she allow herself to think about it.
Yep, she wouldn't even think about how all those zebras could be part of a grand conspiracy that had existed since Discord’s fall. How some organization could be targeting the zebra, or maybe how the zebra were disappearing intentionally to avoid detection by the princesses. No, she wouldn't think about how a group like that could completely overthrow Equestria’s government and take control if it wanted to.
She just... wouldn't... think... about...
No... she wouldn't...
She would not think about it.
She. Would. Not...
Twilight spun on her hooves before even reaching the first step of the staircase and stumbled right back to her work. She disappeared into the basement and came back with a few balls of yarn and some push pins. She then levitated her notes into the air, starting to link them together with the yarn and pins as her mind whirred.
She was going to figure this out!
~~~
“Twilight? Twilight, darling?” Rarity called out as she knocked at the library door. “I was on my way for a morning coffee when Spike ran by in such a tizzy. I couldn't make out what he was saying. It was something about running to get more yarn from the hobby store. Still, I just thought I’d stop by and see if you were okay.”
Rarity fell silent and strained her ears. She listened for any reply to come from the library. The exterior looked peaceful enough. The tree was intact, the birds were chirping, and there wasn't an angry mob outside. Those were all generally good signs everything was well, but Twilight also tended to be more prompt answering her door.
“Twilight? Are you home?” Rarity called out again, casting her magic on the door’s knob before slowly pushing it open. With the creak of the hinges, the visage of normalcy maintained by the library's exterior fell away. The interior was dark, gloomy, and was plastered with paper. White squares hung everywhere. They were pinned to the walls and suspended in the air. Magic and hoof scribbled notes filled each page, and amidst them were pictures copied magically from books.
And connecting it all, and making the library look like the nest of a giant spider, was yarn. Red, blue, yellow, orange, green, white, black... There was yarn of almost every color going every which way. They were connecting the pages, keeping them held aloft like flies caught in a grisly, yet colorful, web.
Rarity couldn't help but feel a pang of fear as she stepped inside. “Twilight? Twilight, are you in here? Please, do come out.”
Again, there was no reply, and Rarity was forced to squint the further she went. It was so dark. All the windows had been covered, the only light coming from very delicately placed candles. Harsh shadows were cast by the yarn and papers, and subtle movement of the strings seemed to always dance just outside the periphery of Rarity’s vision. “Twilight, if it’s alright with you, I’m going to open a window. I just want to let in a little light. I hope that’s—”
“No!”
Rarity yelped and quickly stumbled forward a few steps before spinning around. Twilight had snuck up behind her, yarn trailing from her back, wings, and horn as a ghastly dress. Her mane was a mess and the bags under her eyes were a clear sign she hadn't slept the night before. And those bloodshot eyes were focused on Rarity, twitching as they glared threateningly. “You’ll ruin the web.”
“Web? Darling, spiders weave webs, not ponies.”
“No, ponies don’t weave webs. But zebras do. Yes, zebras weave the webs. Webs of control. We can’t see it, but it’s there. Yes, the zebras weave a web.”
Rarity took a ginger step back from Twilight. “B-beg your pardon?”
“It’s a web, and a web has to be woven,” Twilight’s eyes began to wander, following different threads of yarn across the room. “It doesn't just happen. There are too many coincidences for it to have just happened. They’ve tried very hard to make it look like things just happen. They make it look like everything is entirely normal. But no, it’s like dominoes. One thing falls into another and into another and into another and into another until... until the truth is undeniable..
“They control everything,” Twilight said, her magic causing a few pieces of paper to light up with her magical aura. “They’ve fought injustice but have also stolen property. They've defended lives but at the same time openly protested the will of the princesses. And the moment any of these zebras are about to meet Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, they vanish without a trace. Yes, some disappeared before that. Some never drew the princesses’ attention. But others did, and they disappeared. There was no body to be found if they supposedly died. There was no trace left if the zebra just walked away. They just vanished—”
Twilight cast her teleportation spell, disappearing with a pop.
“—without a trace.”
Rarity yelped, her own horn glowing as she spun around to defend herself. Twilight had appeared behind her, had whispered her words, and now was smiling and twitching as her eyes darted about the web. In a moment she was to her wings, flying up towards the ceiling. The yarn that trailed from her slipped across Rarity like tiny tendrils, and the fashionista couldn't help but shiver and squirm. She glanced anxiously at the door, fighting the urge to run out screaming, but she instead shook her head and stood her ground.
“Twilight, darling, do you remember the little talk we had?” Rarity asked, watching as Twilight cast a spell upon herself. She stood on the ceiling, gravity inverted for herself, and scuttled about adjusting pieces of paper and threads Rarity had no hope of seeing. “The girls and I promised to take these kinds of things seriously, and you promised to tell us about them. Do you remember that?”
“Of course, but this isn't a problem with me. No, this is a problem with the world. There are zebras steering the course of Equestria’s fate, and it may not just be zebras! Ponies, griffins, buffalo... Anyone could be working with them. It could be a huge organization bent on making us feel like we have a choice in how we live our lives when really we have no choice at all! Did you know Fluttershy was given her cottage? It belonged to her aunt, but then her aunt won the lottery and said Fluttershy could just have it. She literally just gave Fluttershy the whole cottage so she could live on the ground. The odds of both of those things happening are astronomical!”
“What’s astronomical, Twilight, is how wound up you are,” Rarity said, using her magic to try and pull Twilight off the ceiling. “Now, we are going to go talk to the others this instant and you are going to have a proper breakfast.”
“No!” Twilight wrapped her hooves in magic, making them stick to the ceiling as if rooted like a giant tree. “I have to figure this out! These zebras, these ponies, this organization has been benevolent so far, but what if they turn on us?! What if they have Princess Celestia assassinated?! What if they help the changeling queen take over the whole country?!” Twilight gasped. “What if they are already working with the changelings?!”
“Twilight!” Rarity scolded, trying to sound as polite as possible though her voice still carried threatening volume. “If you don’t come down this instant, I promise you, I will take every piece of yarn in this library and sew it into a sweater!”
Twilight froze, turned around like a spider scuttling in her web, and eyed Rarity from the ceiling. “You wouldn't dare. You’d ruin it!”
“Oh, Twilight darling, I would dare. And don’t doubt my ability either.” Rarity lifted a hoof and gently plucked a taut length of yarn near her. “Yes, perhaps knitting is not my preferred medium, but it would take but minutes to make all of this wonderful material into a fashionable yet functional straitjacket. And, even if you managed to stop me from finishing, you won’t be able to stop me before I've done damage to your precious web.”
The pair stared each other down for several seconds, each trying to call the other’s bluff. Twilight began to call magic to her horn and spread her wings, but Rarity was quicker on the draw. In a flash of magic, she took hold of every sharp instrument she could find in the library’s main room. Scissors, keys, old dragon scales, and even a broken bottle from outside were brought to bear against Twilight’s delicate yarn.
It would take just a thought for Rarity to slice a dozen of the important threads.
“So, are you coming down, or do I need to break out my knitting needles?”
Twilight stared Rarity down for a few more seconds before sighing in defeat. She undid her gravity reversing spell, fluttered to the floor with her wings, and landed with her head hung low. “You win.”
Rarity smiled, lowering the sharp objects and moving up beside Twilight. “Now don’t act like that. All I’m asking is for you to take a break and come to the corner cafe with me. We’ll grab some brunch, maybe catch up with the rest of our friends, and you can tell us what all this is about. We’ll even splurge a little and get those cornbread muffins you like.”
~~~
“And... that’s it.”
Twilight looked across the table at her friends. Rarity had been right, getting away from the library and the maelstrom of research she had performed helped. She still thought something was up, that her theories were more than coincidence, but now she was thinking more clearly.
Still, from her friends’ faces, Twilight saw a lot of doubt. Rarity was looking at her like she was wearing some unseemly hat in public. Applejack looked like she had just admitted some great hate for apples. Fluttershy was focusing on her muffin, making short, concerned glances but never maintaining eye contact for long. Pinkie Pie was watching some birds in a tree. And Rainbow Dash...
“This is awesome!”
Rainbow Dash was being Rainbow Dash.
“I don’t know if ‘awesome’ is the word I’d use to describe this, Rainbow,” Twilight said.
“But it’s so cool! It’s just like ‘Daring Do and The Free Bakers’ Mystery!’” Rainbow Dash leapt out of her seat and hovered in the air as she punched, juked, and dodged imaginary enemies. “They probably have a secret hoofshake. And I bet they have friends in high places. They might even be listening to us right now. Yeah, they’ll probably come get us when we go to sleep tonight. They’ll try to kidnap us all, but I’ll get away. Then I’ll come to rescue the rest of you. There’ll be cart chases and explosions and then, when I’ve blown the cover on the whole organization, I’ll have my own book series like Daring Do!”
“Rainbow, did you get hit by lightning again?” Applejack asked. “Cause I swear you sound like you've lost your marbles.”
“That’s just what a Free Baker would say!” Rainbow accused as she landed beside Applejack, eyeing the farm mare with suspicion. “Admit it. That’s why I almost never get any of your family’s cider. It’s all part of the conspiracy!”
“The only thing I’ll admit is that you've got your head so turned around you’re flyin’ backwards.” Applejack deadpanned as she gave Rainbow a little shove, forcing the pegasus out of her personal space. “Just listen to yourselves. Zebras are out to get us? Really? Didn't we already go through this when we were all scared of Zecora and found out she was one of the nicest mares you could ever meet?”
“Well, truthfully, the more I think about it, the more I feel it can’t just be zebras,” Twilight said. “If I were to expand my search and include other famous figures, I’m almost sure I’d find ponies, griffins, horses, and other sentient species that are part of this group. The zebras are just the ones that stood out.”
“No offense, Twilight, but it’s still hard to swallow,” Applejack said.
Twilight sighed, unable to deny that her own theories were starting to seem like insane ramblings. She shifted her gaze to the other side of the table, focusing on Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. “What about you two? You haven’t said anything yet. Do you think I’m crazy?”
Fluttershy began to fiddle with her mane. “Oh, well, I’d never say that, but... maybe just a little confused and, um... tired.”
“Well, I believe her,” Pinkie Pie said as she lost interest in the pair of birds in the nearby tree and focused back on her friends. Still, despite Pinkie Pie’s attentive inattentiveness, Twilight’s face brightened and her frown turned into a smile.
“Really?”
“Yep,” Pinkie Pie chirped, grabbing up what was left of her own breakfast muffin. She tossed it into the air, opened her mouth, and caught it expertly on her tongue. Then, as she chewed, she said, “After all, I’m not feeling anything.”
The five other friends glanced at one another before looking back at Pinkie Pie. “Darling,” Rarity asked, “would you mind elaborating a bit more? What do you mean you don’t feel anything?”
“Well, since Twilight moved to Ponyville, I started getting a few new combos from my Pinkie Sense. I didn't know what they were for a long time. There’s still some I haven’t figured out, but I do know most of them. Like my Doozie Combo, which is when something happens that I wouldn't believe could happen in a million, billion, trillion, quaddradradradrillion years!”
“And that relates to this how?” Rarity asked.
Pinkie Pie giggled, “Well, because I’m not feeling anything. If Twilight was totally wrong, then I’d have gotten my ‘Twilight-is-going-to-be-crazy-today’ combo.”
Twilight’s ears flattened against her head and she sank in her seat. “You have a combo for that?”
“Aw, don’t take it the wrong way, Sugarcube,” Applejack said as she offered a kind smile. “You just make life more interesting for us, that’s all.”
“And we wouldn't have it any other way,” Fluttershy added.
Twilight smiled and gave her friends a nod of silent thanks before focusing back on Pinkie Pie. “So, as you were saying?”
“I was just saying that if you were totally, completely wrong, then I’d have felt that combo already. So, you must at least be kind of right.”
“So there is a grain of truth to some part of Twilight’s theory,” Rarity said before taking a quick, polite drink from her glass of water. “That certainly puts an interesting perspective on things.”
“Yeah, I ain’t too fond of the idea that anyone, be them pony or zebra or whatever, driving Equestria like a cart to market,” Applejack said. “Well, except the princesses, but that’s their job.”
“Yeah, the only things ponies should be controlling are themselves and the weather.” A look of horror then crossed Rainbow Dash’s face. “What if these zebras are the reason why I haven’t gotten into the Wonderbolts yet? I wowed them at the flight camp. What other reason could there be?”
“Now we can’t jump to conclusions either. Pinkie’s ‘lack of sense,’” Rarity said just as Pinkie Pie began balancing her glass of water on her nose. “Or... perhaps I should say, her lack of intuition only tells us some part of Twilight’s theory is true. We, however, don’t know how much or what parts.”
“What should we do then?” Fluttershy asked.
“I say we should help Twilight with her theory,” Rarity proposed. “Help her get the evidence she needs to go to Princess Celestia. After all, if her theory is remotely correct, being exposed to the princesses seems to be the last thing this organization wants to happen.”
“And I know just how to do it!” Rainbow Dash said before quickly flying over to Twilight, paying no mind to the fact her wings were disturbing the napkins and muffin wrappers on the table. “Remember that other book series you got me reading, that one about a secret magic school for earth ponies? In that book, the bad guys all had that crazy snake and skull tattoo. What if this organization has a mark like that?”
“I don’t think it will be that easy, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “Sure, it would make sense. Even if it’s something subtle, members of an organization do usually have a way to identify one another at a glance, especially if it’s a large organization. It’s the same reason the royal guard and sports teams use uniforms. You always want to know who’s on your side. But I don’t know if it’s going to be something we’ll be able to easily spot if it exists at all.”
“Hey, we won’t know until we look. To The Library!” Rainbow Dash said. She fluttered her wings, preparing to sprint off, only to feel a tug on her tail.
“Wait, I don’t know how much the library is going to help,” Twilight said, her magic holding firmly to Rainbow’s tail. “I’ve already gone through most of my books that would have information on these zebras, and I haven’t been able to find much more than short encyclopedia entries. It’s part of the reason I was so wound up this morning. I was hitting up against a wall.”
“Well, your library really is teeny tiny, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said as she gave her nose a bounce, still juggling her cup of water like a sea lion with a ball. “Maybe we should go look in a bigger one.”
“Yeah, like that fancy library in the Crystal Empire,” Applejack said. “That’s the biggest library I’ve ever seen and it’s one of the oldest on account of what happened with King Sombra and the empire’s disappearance.”
Rarity nodded. “Yes, and we could seek out some private collections as well. Fancy Pants knows several ponies in Canterlot who own dozens of artifacts and rare books that they keep solely for their personal enjoyment.”
“See, they got the right idea. We can’t find the answers here, we’ll go to the ends of the earth! We’ll leave no stone unturned. We’ll leave no secret underground lair unsearched! We will uncover The Mystery of the... of the...” Rainbow Dash stumbled a little, then smiled and struck a pose as she landed on the center of the table. “The Mystery of the Zebra Conspiracy.” She then chuckled and looked at the others. “Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
Pinkie Pie eagerly nodded her head and Fluttershy giggled while Rarity and Applejack just rolled their eyes. Twilight, however, was smiling with unbridled confidence. “You girls are right! We’ll uncover this mystery together. We’ll expose this whole organization if it exists and then I’ll present our findings to the princess. And, if there isn’t an organization to be found, we’ll at least prove we have nothing to worry about.”
“So then, where should we start?” Fluttershy asked.
“I’ll need to compile some lists, but I think we need to investigate Equestria’s three biggest libraries. That would be the main libraries in Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, and Manehatten. And Rarity’s right, a lot of Canterlot’s elite have very impressive private collections. One of them may very well have something from one of the zebras we need to look at more closely.”
“Then I’ll write to Fancy Pants immediately, and see if he can’t lend us a hoof,” Rarity said.
“Okay, that leaves the libraries. Applejack, since you thought of it, you should go to the Crystal Empire. Rainbow Dash, you’d have the easiest time getting to Manehatten. Fluttershy, you can go with Rarity to Canterlot and check out the central library there.”
“Oh, what about me? What about me!?” Pinkie Pie asked as she excitedly waved her hoof like a school-age filly in class.
“Pinkie Pie, you... you should probably just go where you think is best. Knowing you, you’ll probably be able to find out a whole lot more if you just do your own thing. But let’s all try to be back here by the end of the week, okay, so we can gather together everything we’ve found.”
The five other mares nodded, and Twilight smiled as she returned their nods. “Yes, we can do this. This plan is perfect!”
“Well, no duh! Any plan is a perfect plan when it means we get to take a road trip!” Pinkie Pie cheered, throwing her hooves into the air. “Oh, I’ll need to bring lots of trail mix, candied fruits, and my harmonica. Oh, and I’ll need to wear my cart-puller hat.” Pinkie Pie reached behind her back and, from nowhere, pulled out a big, cart-puller hat. It was red and white, with a large front bill, mesh on the back, and the words “Convoy to Canterlot” written across the front.
“Breaker one nine two five applesauce pickle barrel, this is Party Pink. Better clear the lanes cause I got a convoy rolling with me. Me, Shy Fly, Rar, Rain, and Buck Jack are all hitting the road. We’re on a mission for Twi Spa. You copy, over?”
“Pinkie Pie, who are you talking to?” Rarity couldn’t help but ask.
“Ah, Ms. Rarity, it’s always a pleasure to see you my dear.”
“Thank you, Fancy Pants,” she replied, politely returning his warm greeting. Rarity had just enjoyed a private carriage ride through Canterlot to Fancy Pants’ estate. The gentlestallion seemed eager to have her visit, especially after Twilight’s coronation. Whether they liked it or not, Canterlot elite now saw Rarity and her friends as very important ponies, despite their eccentricities.
And Rarity did like it ever so much.
“I must say, I was rather surprised to get your letter,” Fancy Pants said as he helped Rarity down from the carriage and showed her into his manor. “I knew we were expecting you for our little soiree next month, but, I wasn’t about to turn down a chance to spend some time with my favorite Ponyville fashion designer. How has business been as of late?”
Rarity smiled. “It’s been wonderful, thank you. My new line is coming along and I just got a few very important orders. Still, we both know I am here on other business.” The doors to the manor opened before them, a butler bowing his head respectfully as they moved inside. “Were you able to fulfill the request?”
“It took some doing, but we were able to gather all the items you listed. Though, I must say my curiosity has been piqued. Just why do you need so many historical paintings and artifacts?”
“It’s for a... let’s call it a research project Twilight is doing,” Rarity answered as Fancy Pants showed her to a room just off his manor’s foyer. It was the estate's sitting room, but all the furniture had been pushed to the sides to make room for numerous easels and a single table. The easels held paintings that had come from private collections across Canterlot. Most of the paintings were shoulder-up portraits of famous zebras with eyes that seemed to watch them as Rarity and Fancy Pants moved into the room. The table was ladened with trinkets and heirlooms from times both recent and long passed.
“Some fine zebra pictures here, if I do say so myself,” Fancy Pants said. “A few decorated military officers, a naval captain famed for her work against pirates, and even a famous philosopher poet, Panyin. From what I’ve read, she was pivotal in ensuring the peace in Equestria after Princess Luna’s attempted coup as Nightmare Moon.”
“Really?” Rarity said, approaching the portrait in question that showed a zebra mare. Her mane was pulled back in a long ponytail and she had on a pair of small, round glasses along with some hoops of gold around her neck. She seemed very thin, a weight likely maintained by a very stringent diet. “How did she do that?”
“Ah, through her philosophical poetry of course,” Fancy Pants answered with a chortle. “Equestria as a whole was given a somewhat rude awakening to how powerful the princesses were. Some ponies were afraid what we would do if Princess Celestia turned against us, especially when they thought Princess Luna, her own equal, was gone forever. Panyin became a respected philosopher not long after that, and was carried into the limelight of politics by her unbending support for Princess Celestia’s rule.
“She is, in fact, the author of a favorite quote of mine,” Fancy Pants mused. “The longer the farmer has served the soil, the longer he has known harvest’s toil, the better he will come to know the land, himself, and nature’s subtle, unforgiving demand.”
“So... your favorite quote is about farmers?” Rarity asked, a bit embarrassed by the fact the quote had gone over her head.
“That would be the literal translation, I suppose. But, as I understand it, the proverb is more related to respecting and trusting in your elders and their knowledge. It was a cornerstone of Panyin’s platform that Princess Celestia needed to remain on the throne. Even before Princess Luna’s betrayal, the pair had ruled Equestria for about a century. They each had and have more experience and foresight than any single living pony.”
“The wisdom of age,” Rarity commented.
“Precisely,” Fancy Pants said with an approving nod. “Though, I must say that Panyin seemed to be a walking contradiction to her own preachings. She was a wise mare for how young she was. It’s a shame she died when she did. I can’t imagine how much more wisdom she could have imparted to this world.”
“She died young?” Rarity questioned.
“Ah yes, a true tragedy,” Fancy Pants said as he used an eyeglass cloth to clean his monocle. “From what I’ve read, she was stolen away from her home in the middle of the night. The authorities of the day always assumed it was perpetrated by those who wished to see Princess Celestia dethroned, but it was a mystery that was never solved. It even happened the evening before Panyin was supposed to meet Princess Celestia.”
“Just like the others...”
“What was that, darling?” Fancy Pants asked.
Rarity lifted a hoof and waved it gently. “Oh, nothing, just thinking out loud. Still, thank you for getting these antiques together. Did you manage to get the books as well?”
“But of course, they are stacked on the table there in the corner and they are yours to read at your leisure. You have the guest suite as long as you need it. And I do apologize again that I could not convince my acquaintances to part with these pieces so you could take them back to Ponyville. Some of these old ponies are right possessive of their irreplaceable artifacts.”
“Rightly so, I imagine,” Rarity said as she looked over a few of the books. “I suppose I should start reading.”
“Oh, that’s a shame, I was hoping I could tempt you into joining me and Fleur in the garden for a light lunch and a bit of croquet. I have some photographers coming to document the portraits, and thought it would be best if we gave them all the room they needed.”
“Well... I suppose I wouldn’t want to be in the way,” Rarity said, trying to keep her composure though she felt like bouncing on her hooves. A private croquet luncheon with Fancy Pants, the most important pony in Canterlot. Yes, Twilight wanted her to read a few of the books to find clues to the conspiracy, but could she really be expected to concentrate on an empty stomach? And what of the photographers? All those flashing lights would surely make it difficult to read.
And so, with a smile, Rarity set down the book and trotted with Fancy Pants out of the room. How could she say no?
~~~
“Oh, thank you very much. I hope I haven’t been too much trouble.”
“It’s no trouble at all. Please, call if you need anything else.”
Fluttershy smiled and thanked the librarian once more before watching her walk away. She was sitting in Canterlot’s central library, sequestered in a corner of the newspaper archive room. Twilight had tasked her with a list of zebras from more recent history, going back only about a few hundred years. There were just short of a dozen zebras on the list, and Fluttershy was to try and find any articles relating to them. And she had plenty to go through. Next to her at the viewing station were dozens of archive films of the newspapers in question.
“Guess I should get started.” She fed the first film reel into the viewer. Like an overhead projector in a classroom, the screen in front of Fluttershy lit up with the text from the article which had been preserved on the film. Using little knobs on the viewer, she was able to advance between the pages and adjust the zoom, but, even as she started, Fluttershy began to frown. She didn’t want to disappoint Twilight, but there were a lot of newspapers to go through.
And the librarian had said she would be coming back with even more.
“Now, Fluttershy, if you're practicing your impression of Twilight for some comedy bit, I’d skip the studying part. She’s much more entertaining when that wound up spring in her head finally pops free.”
Fluttershy hadn’t even gotten through the first headline, but still she smiled at the distraction from her task. She turned around and saw Discord floating around her with his usual manic eyes and equally manic grin. “Oh, hello Discord. How are you?”
“Overworked and underpaid,” he answered as he continued to lounge in the air.
“But, you don’t work, and, if you don’t work, you can’t get paid.”
“And that is exactly the problem. I might be a spirit of chaos, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t mind having a little spending cash. Ponies these days just don’t see the value in a little well turned moment of chaos. That and I just can’t sell my claw clippings like I used to,” he produced a jar of trimmed nails from behind his back, shaking his head as he looked at it. “Draconequus nails were once prized for their use in potions. Now, I can’t get a bit for this whole jar.”
He tossed the jar over his shoulder, causing it to crash to the floor. The nails spilled out, jumped to life, and formed into rank and file regiments. They then began to march, forming a parade through the library much to the librarians’ discontent. “So, what brings you to this boring corner of Canterlot?”
“My friends and I are helping Twilight uncover a conspiracy,” Fluttershy answered, though her words made Discord visibly ill.
“Oh, gag me with a trout. A conspiracy? There are few things in the world I find more distasteful. Ponies try to explain away good, old-fashioned chaos as some evil plan by some big, mysterious organization. It’s insulting and, frankly, upsets my stomach.” Discord swooped around Fluttershy, looking at the newspaper reel the viewer was displaying. “So, what is it this time? Does Twilight think the griffin government is using the fluoride in toothpaste to track the whereabouts of everypony in Equestria?”
“Actually, Twilight thinks there’s an organization of zebras and possibly other species steering Equestria’s government, politics, and public opinion.”
Discord looked at Fluttershy with a deadpanned face. “Really? Zebras? I didn’t think Twilight was such a racist. Hmph, actually makes me feel a little better about how cruelly I was locked away in stone for simply spreading a little chaos.”
“Now, Discord, in all fairness, it wasn’t just a little chaos,” Fluttershy said.
“Okay, true, but really, zebras? Why, I bet there isn’t even a single zebra in that stack of newspaper films that fits what you’re looking for.” Discord snapped his claw, causing the newspaper archives to jump to life. They leapt from the viewer desk Fluttershy was using to a larger table nearby. They stood like children. They shifted, fidgeted, but then all snapped to attention when Discord clapped his claw and paw together.
“Okay, little ones,” he said, his appearance shifting to that of a caring old kindergarten teacher. He held out his claw, and Fluttershy’s list flew to his grasp. “I’m going to read off some names. If any of you know the name I say, I want you to scoot your cute little booty patooties to that side of the table. Okay?”
The archive films nodded, and Discord began to read the names. For the first few names not a single newspaper reel moved. They just kept watching Discord, causing his smile to grow at the thought of proving Twilight’s little conspiracy false. Maybe he’d bake her a cake to celebrate it. Draw a picture of her in a dunce cap in the frosting. Oh, better yet, he’d make a dunce cap out of cake and plop it right on her head. Oh, he was sure she’d love it.
Still, there was more names to read and, after adjusting his teacher glasses, he looked up at the reels on the table. “Okay, how about Green Leaf? Do any of you little film reels know a Green Leaf?”
A few newspaper reels began to move, shifting through the crowd before crossing the table. Discord’s mouth hung open a little bit, and in that moment the joke was over. He returned himself to normal, and with his eagle claw scooped up the reels that had walked away from the others. He fed the first into the viewer, and the headline rose up on the projector screen. It was a copy of the Canterlot Gazette and it was dated 795 AC.
“Everfree Forest Declared Nature Preserve,” Fluttershy read quietly before continuing to the rest of the article. “Just a few months ago Lord Manifest declared his intentions to deforest the entire Everfree Forest. His efforts were bolstered by ponies seeking the promised paychecks and by those who feared the creatures within the ancient forest, which to many stood as an open defiance against the pony way of life. Trees, animals, and the weather all take care of themselves in the Everfree Forest, and Lord Manifest argued it simply wasn’t natural. He said—”
“Fluttershy, dear, while I find your reading voice wonderfully soft and pleasant, I know a much more entertaining way to enjoy this article,” Discord interrupted, a toothy grin spread on his lips.
“Oh, really? What is it?”
Discord’s smile only widened as he extended a paw and set it on Fluttershy’s shoulder. She looked at him curiously. She expected something to happen. For him to snap his fingers and to make something crazy happen, as usual. But no, Discord just smiled and motioned towards the viewer with his head. Fluttershy looked back at the viewer but, as she did, the world around her changed.
Suddenly, she and Discord were in what looked like a small theater. There were soft red seats, and Discord was munching on a box of popcorn. It wasn’t actually filled with popcorn, it instead looked like a bunch of cotton balls. Still, he munched on them all the same as the curtains on the stage began to open.
“Hear me ponies!” A stallion in a black suit and top hat said to a crowd. He was up on a small raised platform on the stage’s left hoof side while the crowd stood in the middle, watching intently. “Progress is the way to the future. We tend the skies. We usher in the seasons. Equestria, the world, is a better place when nature is managed and tended by careful hooves.
“But there is a place where nature is wild. There is a place where the law of the jungle thrives, and any of its monstrous residents pose a threat to the safety of our families. Yes, I’m speaking of the Everfree Forest. That den of evil where trees, animals, and weather defy the natural order that we ponies have spent generations perfecting.
“And I can see the fear in your faces. Some of you may ask what we can do about it. Up to this point, very little. For centuries the Platinum family held the rights to the land the forest stood on, and they refused to do a thing about it. But now, through Celestia’s grace, I have been awarded the land rights to the forest. So now I call to earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns alike. Do you want your work to have meaning? Do you want to earn a wage while making Equestria a safe place? Then sign up with my company, Manifest’s Destiny company, and help us clear every tree, rock, and horrible creature from the Everfree Forest.
“Let’s destroy that forest which has been like a tumor at the very heart of our fair kingdom.”
The crowd of ponies on the stage cheered. Some rushed up, taking clipboards and signing their names to the project. All the while Manifest was smiling and Fluttershy was frowning. “Why would they want to destroy the forest? I mean, sure, some of the creatures in there are a bit nasty, but that’s their home.”
“Well, it’s a bit of a spoiler, but we find out later that Manifest was hoping to mine some of the precious metals that were supposed to be underneath the forest,” Discord whispered. “Now, shhh, your zebra is about to come on stage.”
The scene on stage shifted. Plywood trees were wheeled into place. A crowd of ax wielding ponies came from the left while another group of ponies came from the right. At the head of the group on the right was a long maned zebra with a green bandana and a long, matching dress that was made out of a rough hemp.
“Get out of the way! I am within my rights to cut down this forest!” Manifest shouted from his place at the head of the left hoof crowd.
“Shove off you tree killers!” A pony from the right hoof crowd shouted.
“This forest is a disease! Its creatures and plant life are a threat to any pony that gets close.”
“Don’t speak of these trees as if they are some disease,” the zebra, Green Leaf, shouted as she took a daring step closer. “It deserves life as much as you. It’s a haven of nature, where the world is true. You say ponies must steward the land. Well, now we will truly take a righteous stand. Nature is free! Save Everfree!”
“Nature is free! Save Everfree!” All the other protestors began to chant, starting to walk in a tight circle as they raised their voices. Some of the loggers tried to walk around them, but their picket line expanded and blocked any such attempts. In time, Manifest growled and shouted for his workers to leave, but not until he had sworn that every square inch of the forest would burn as logs in his fireplace.
~~~
Discord’s play of the news article’s information continued. Time and again Green Leaf and her protesters clashed with Manifest and his loggers. Each side grew in force, becoming like two small armies on a great field of battle. Manifest brought in great burly stallions to force the protesters away. Green Leaf and the protestors tied themselves to the trees, ensuring that any logger that attempted to work would have to chop through living ponies. Canterlot Guard began doing patrols over the area, if only to ensure no riots broke out and nopony was hurt.
The climax of the play came on the day of that year’s Summer Sun Celebration. Manifest convinced Celestia to hold the yearly celebration on the outskirts of the forest. He intended to get as many ponies on his side as possible and sent some of his wood cutters into the forest to stir up the animals within. He was going to demonize the forest by instigating a wild animal attack on the Summer Sun Celebration.
But Green Leaf caught wind of his plan and put her own in motion. Her protesters constructed a stage of their own that stood opposite the Summer Sun Celebration. They started early, on the night before the festival. Following the tradition of ponies staying up all night to watch the sunrise, Green Leaf’s protesters put on a show.
Music was played, performances were done. The very ponies Manifest hoped to sway in the morning were being turned against him the night before. And when Celestia arrived to raise the sun that morning, the ranks of Green Leaf’s protesters had swelled. They stood, chanting out “Nature is Free, Save Everfree”, even as Princess Celestia took to Manifest’s stage.
“Manifest, just what is the meaning of this?” asked the actress playing Celestia. She was a short, pudgy mare with a big nose and an even bigger beehive mane. It was probably a pony furthest in physique from Celestia’s regal form. The mare actually kind of looked like Rarity’s mom if Fluttershy was to be honest with herself. Still, Discord was chuckling to himself, and so she wrote off the poor casting of the princess as one of the spirit’s playful jokes.
“I... I’m sorry, your highness. These protestors are just delusional. They are trying to save the Everfree Forest.”
“Last we spoke, Manifest, you gave me the impression these protestors were few in number.”
“T-they were, but—”
It was then a few ponies stumbled out of the crowd of actors. Some were the protestors, identifiable by the green bandana’s they wore. Others were some of Manifest's goons, who looked like they were injured.
“What happened?” Manifest demanded.
“They got hurt doing what you asked them to do!” One of the protesters shouted. “You sent them into the forest to stir up the timber wolves so they would attack the festival. But they ran into a pride of manticores instead. They’re lucky to be alive, and we’re lucky they failed. A lot of ponies could have gotten hurt if they had lured the wolves out here.”
“But that’s why the forest needs to be taken down,” Manifest tried to argue. “It’s dangerous!”
“Wouldn’t you be just as dangerous if somepony went into your home and wanted to tear it down?” A protester shouted back. “Leave the forest alone, it will leave us alone! Nature is Free! Save Everfree!”
“Yes, but... but—”
“Manifest,” Celestia scolded, “nothing can condone you putting the lives of other ponies in danger. Consider your rights to this land revoked for the foreseeable future.”
“But it’s Green Leaf’s fault, your highness. She—”
“Green Leaf saved our lives, sir,” one of the lumberjacks said as he held a nasty scratch on one of his forelegs. “She distracted the manticores while we got away.”
“Then it seems Green Leaf is the one I should commend,” Celestia said as Manifest slunk off stage. “Where is she? I wish to speak with her.”
“She... she hasn’t come back out of the forest yet, your highness,” one of the protestors said. The whole cast grew still and silent at this. The lights on the stage dimmed, and the curtains fell. Discord stood from his seat, smiling and popping his back. And with the pop of his spine, he and Fluttershy were swept back to the library. They were once more sitting in front of the newsreel viewer, as if they hadn’t moved an inch.
Discord yawned, continued to stretch, and bent his body in directions that just weren’t natural. “After that, the guards went searching for Green Leaf, but all they found was the tattered remains of her dress and bandana along with some splattered blood. To say the least, she died to the creatures she fought to defend. A cruel irony, I do suppose.”
“Did they ever find a body? Or bones? Or anything?”
“If they did, the article didn’t say, and don’t take what we saw for absolute fact either. It was an interpretation of the paper, and you know how newspapers like to sensationalize the truth.” He said as he popped the reel out of the viewer and turned it over in his claws. “What difference does it make? She died. It’s the end of the story and an end to Twilight’s conspiracy.”
“No, it actually falls in line with Twilight’s theories.” Fluttershy said, looking to the short list of notes Twilight had given her. “They thought Green Leaf died before she could meet Princess Celestia, but manticores don’t hunt like that. They eat their... catches... wherever they manage to make the... catch. They don’t bother trying to take their food anywhere else, and they don’t eat bones. It’s bad on their stomachs.”
“Oh, Fluttershy, please don’t say it.” Discord had come up beside her, putting his claw and paw together to playfully, and semi-seriously, beg her to stop.
“But it’s true. If the manticores had... caught Green Leaf, then the guards would have found her, or... what was left of her, where they found her dress. The fact they didn’t means Green Leaf matches with one of Twilight’s cases, that the young zebra possibly faked her death before she could meet the princesses.”
Discord groaned, held his stomach with his paw and his mouth with his claw. His cheeks puffed for a moment, but then he managed to swallow down whatever had come up his throat. “Sorry, Fluttershy, but I doubt her royal sun butt would like to hear what happened to the central library if I lost my chaotic cookies because of Twilight’s nauseating conspiracy. Call me when you’re done. We’ll chill and hang like snowboarding bats. Otherwise, I’m out.”
Discord disappeared at this, allowing the library to once more become a quiet sanctum of learning. Fluttershy frowned a little, missing the help he was giving her with the research, but, when she looked back at the viewer, she noticed a small stack of newspaper reels sitting beside it along with a note.
She picked up the note, and smiled a little as she read.
Discord Chaotically,
Twilight owes me 3.141592 favors for helping with her conspiracy. I expect a pie next time I’m in Ponyville.
Fluttershy Dear,
~~~
Rarity was light on her hooves from what had turned into a lovely day. The croquet luncheon had swung into a quick trip into town with Fleur, who had wanted to get Rarity’s opinion on a few things in a few stores. Those few turned into over a dozen, but what an afternoon had it been! Her mind was bubbling with new ideas. She set down a few of her own shopping bags and began to look across the room for something to write with and some paper. She simply had to get this design out of her mind. It would be new, it would be hip, it would be...
Guilty.
Drawing close to the nightstand and lighting the lamp in the guest room Fancy Pants had lent her, Rarity saw a stack of familiar looking books and a note from Fancy Pants. It said the photographs that afternoon had gone swimmingly, and that the photographers would deliver several poster size prints the following morning.
“Oh, Rarity, didn’t you learn your lesson last time?” She scolded herself as she looked across the stack of books. Ideally, she would have wanted to do a few quick sketches before going to bed. She needed her beauty sleep, but her responsibilities, the whole reason she was in Canterlot, tugged at her like Sweetie Belle wanting to play in the mud.
Finally, with a sigh, Rarity quickly slipped into the attached bathroom. In ten minutes she was back out, her face clean of makeup and her body otherwise ready for sleep. But she could not sleep straight away. No, she instead nestled into the covers and picked up the first of the books.
“Let’s see, which one is this?” She mused, using her magic to fetch a list from her bags. She glanced back and forth between the book and list, and then smiled as she found the corresponding entry Twilight had scratched out in her impeccable cursive.
“Ah, yes, the first edition published abstracts from the journal of General Regenold Swiftwing of the Griffin Empire. According to Twilight, there should be a few entries in this edition that were taken out of later versions. Entries dated around 650 AC, when the good general was in Savannah.” Rarity sighed again as she snuggled in and flipped through the pages of the book.
“All right, General Swiftwing, let’s hope you’re worth me ruining my beauty sleep.”
~~~
The Journals of High General Regenold Swiftwing Chapter 8 The Savannah Mare
Regenold Swifting has, at this point, secured his rank of captain after his exemplary display in officer academy. But, as it is said at every graduation of the academy, to stop learning is to give the enemies of the griffin empire the advantage. Regenold took this message to mean he needed to learn from his elders and superior officers.
But some of the dearest lessons that Regenold would ever learn came from beyond the empire’s borders, in the vast kingdom of Savannah.
---
March 17th - 652
This mission is a bucket of fish heads that’s been left out in the sun.
Griffin soldiers should be in service to the nation. We should be patrolling the streets, catching criminals, and aiding in the search for the rogue dragon plaguing our countryside. Instead, my squad and I are stuck babysitting Charles Crosswind, the royal diplomat and pain in the neck. I don’t know how any griffin could be such a layabout. He is a fat bureaucrat who doesn’t deserve his place at the emperor’s side.
But can I say anything to that matter? No, I have to smile and salute this potbellied peacemaker as we haul him all the way to Savannah. I hate Savannah, and I can’t understand why the emperor wants to renew our peace treaties with them.
I wouldn’t even call Savannah a kingdom. It’s a big field of grass with the occasional grove of trees. There are still nomadic tribes who move across the land, and those villages that stay in place are built of sticks, mud, and grass. They pale in comparison to the fine stone towns of the empire.
Their government is a joke as well, as flimsy as their homes. They have a council. They rule by committee, and there is no single, unquestionable leader. The chancellor, who is called the “head” of the council, only runs the meetings. She doesn’t have any more power than the others. To fight a battle, they must put it to a vote. To do anything, they have to put it to a vote. How can they react quickly to anything when they need so many creatures in the same room at the same time just to do a vote?
And their military is the biggest joke of all. None of the species native to the kingdom have a natural ability to fly and their magic is based purely on powders and potions. Equestria may be a peace-mongering love fest, but at least their military has some claws. Us going to Savannah to renew this peace treaty is like seeing a fully armored soldier walking up to a child with a stick and asking the child to make peace.
It just doesn’t make sense to me.
What’s worse, I’ve been separated from my squad. They are in the barracks, where I should be. But no, Chancellor Rogombe and Ambassador Crosswind insist I take a suite in the council hall. Crosswind says it’s so I’m nearby, so he doesn’t have to send a guard or one of my own soldiers to find me. It’s just another example of his laziness. He can’t even wait for me to get word of his next childish request. He needs me right there, like a nanny to coddle him.
But the final insult is the servant who was assigned to me, a zebra mare. By the emperor’s grace, I don’t need a nanny and I am not eating the pitiful excuse of a meal she left for me either. I’m waiting until the diplomate is asleep, till the servant is asleep, and then I am getting a real meal.
Crosswind may be able to order me to stay in this room, but he hasn’t ordered that I have to eat what they give me.
---
March 18th - 652
I absolutely hate this backwards country and its backwards populace.
I went out to get my dinner last night. I actually found a place that sold something decent, and was mildly impressed on how it was served. I was beginning to give them the benefit of the doubt. Then came the time to pay, and the owner wouldn’t take my empire thalers. They wanted lira. What in the emperor’s name is a lira? They were even willing to take Equestrian bits. I saw ponies paying with their native gold coins just a few tables over. But no, they wouldn’t take an empire thaler. I told them to just take the thaler, that I was paying them more than the meal was worth.
That’s when the wildebeest cook and his cronies came out. They were going to take me to the local guard. I told them to shove off. And you know what? I was looking forward to the fight. I was going to sock it straight to the Savannah simpletons who thought they could challenge a captain of the emperor’s army.
But then that blasted Tenabe, the zebra mare who was assigned to be my servant, stopped the fight. She came in with her council hall uniform, and then everyone backed off like we were children about to be scolded by mother for roughhousing. I don’t need anyone fighting my battles for me, let alone such a scrawny zebra mare. She tried to pay my tab. I grabbed her hoof to stop her. My thalers were good enough for that back alley place.
But then something happened. I don’t know what hit me, but I was out cold. My only guess is that the wildebeest cook blindsided me. They must have taken offense for me trying to stop Tenabe. Whatever did happen, next thing I remember was waking up in the suite with this pounding headache. Even writing has been a challenge. And Tenabe is still hovering around me.
She brought breakfast. I dumped it out the window.
---
March 19th - 652
I hate this nation and Tenabe with every fiber of my being.
I demanded Tenabe tell me who knocked me out the night before, and she told me it was her. I laughed in her face. I mean, what self-respecting griffin wouldn’t? A griffin child wouldn’t get knocked out cold by Tenabe, let alone me, a captain of the army. I assumed she was protecting someone at the bar and demanded she tell me who it was.
But she kept claiming responsibility.
So I took her out to the the council hall training grounds, with my own soldiers as witnesses along with some of the capitol’s own guard. I wasn’t going to beat the truth out of this mare without someone to say that she had asked for it. I know these countries like Equestria and Savannah. They are all about treating females with respect and kindness. In the griffin empire some of my commanders are girls and they are the scariest griffins I have ever seen. No female in the griffin empire hides behind anything. If they get into a fight, they are probably the one who started it and they probably won it.
So I told Tenabe we were going to fight, because I didn’t believe she had knocked me out. I made her swear that, once I beat her, she would tell me who had knocked me out. I was sure that would scare her into giving up the truth. But no, she agreed to the fight.
So we fought, and... I lost.
I lost, and I don’t know how! She didn’t defend herself. She didn’t block a single one of my blows. She just kept stepping out of the way. I’d throw a punch, she took a step. I slashed with my claws, she took a step. I couldn’t even get close to her. My own soldiers were laughing at me! I made them pay for it by making them fly patrols, but they still laughed. She still undermined my authority without even hitting me once.
It’s not possible. It shouldn’t be possible, and it won’t be possible ever again.
The peace talks are due to last a month, and I will beat Tenabe in combat by the time it’s time for us to leave.
---
March 26th - 652
One week. One feather-flipping week and I still haven’t gotten close scratching Tenabe. Every morning I challenge her, and every morning we go out to the training grounds. I’ve sent my soldiers at her first. I’ve promised that if any of them can beat her before I do, that I’ll give them my commission as captain for a month. It’s incentive enough to get them to try, and as they try I watch. I watch to try and figure out this mare out. So far, I’ve had no luck, but I’m learning to predict her moves.
And I’m getting closer, I can feel it. I’m training my speed and reflexes everyday. And for once, Crosswinds isn’t being a royal pain in my butt. I think the council hall staff are attending to all his needs, but I’m not going to question it.
She’s fast, but I can be faster. I’m part lion, for the emperor’s sake! Lions hunt zebras, and I’m not about to let this prey animal beat me, the predator. I’ve got the claws. I’ve got the killer instincts. I’m the warrior. She’s just a servant.
I’m going to beat her.
---
March 27th - 652
I landed a hit today. Tenabe blocked it. She then threw me to the ground like it was nothing, like I was nothing.
The fight started out like the others. I attacked, she stepped out of the way, but I was able to predict some of her dodges. I was finally going to catch her. I had a punch lined up square with her jaw and she wasn’t going to be able to step out of the way. It never occurred to me she would actually block it. And then, the next thing I knew, I was on my back, on the ground. I was gasping for breath. My ears were ringing. I might have thought I was struck by lightning in a storm if the sky wasn’t cloudless.
I’ve never been hit so hard before. Part of basic training is claw-to-claw combat. I’ve wrestled griffins twice my size and managed to beat them. That’s how I got accepted as an officer-in-training. I’ve had my beak fractured. I’ve cracked ribs. I’ve busted a wing.
But I’ve never had the wind knocked out of me like that. This mare is not normal. She’s gotten special training. She’s been trained beyond her duties as a servant of the castle. None of the other servants can fight. I know; I’ve tried to challenge some and they’ve been terrified of the prospect. Only Tenabe shows no fear. She’s smarter than the rest. She’s faster than the rest. She’s simply better than the rest.
She is better than me and every other griffin I’ve ever fought.
Has the world gone mad?
---
March 28th - 652
I did not challenge Tenabe to a fight this morning. Instead, she spoke to me after delivering breakfast. She started by asking about griffin empire armaments. She asked about our armor, our swords, our steel. My first instinct was that, for some reason, the Chancellor had asked her to do this. To be a spy and to try and pry national secrets out of me. The thing is, our metallurgy isn’t a national secret. We wear it as a badge of pride. We can craft metal better than anyone in Equestria or Savannah.
I answered what she asked, and then she asked me specifically what I felt made a good sword. I mean, I don’t know how to craft a sword to save my life, but I know what I like. I like it balanced, with a clean, sharp edge and a thin profile. She asked me if I like my swords so strong, so stiff, and so unyielding that they were brittle. I told her that I didn’t. What self respecting griffin would want a sword so brittle that it would shatter the first time you cross swords in battle?
And Tenabe gave me an answer as she departed, leaving both it and my breakfast behind for me to ponder. I don’t remember the exact wording, but I think it was “A griffin who goes into battle with only a brittle blade, who never changes her weapon, will soon beneath a stone be lain.”
A sense of this is taught to officers. If Equestria was to attack the empire, the instructors told us how to counter units and formations. Unicorns needed to be forced into close combat, where their spells would be more difficult. When facing earth ponies, seize the high ground in the sky. When facing pegasi, disperse their clouds and bully them with superior size and stability.
But even those tactics are stringent. Captains, lieutenants, we are all taught to do the same thing against the same opponents. It’s all stiff. It’s all brittle. If even a handful of zebra in this nation’s military think like Tenabe, then they could invade and beat us.
Right now, it feels like the kid with a stick could beat the heavily armored soldier.
Savannah could beat The Griffin Empire.
---
March 29th - 652
Tenabe delivered breakfast again, and with it left a note. She’s offering to teach me, to help me unlearn the brittleness pounded into me by instructors. It must be done at night. She wants me to meet her atop of the cliffs that flank the sides of the capital city of Cliff Wound. There are old stone structures up there. She says they will be part of my lesson, if I am willing to learn.
The sun is setting. I’ve finally decided. I’m going to learn, if only so I can beat her.
---
March 30th - 652
The lesson last night was painful. I got thrown to the ground dozens of times. Tenabe’s lessons are harsh, but in a different way from the empire’s instructors. They were harsh by shouting in your face and making you do push ups for looking at them wrong. Tenabe doesn’t waste time with that. She asked me to fight her, and each time I failed she taught me a lesson.
We only took a break once, to rest and drink water. And as we rested, she told me of the great stone structures that lined the edges of the cliff. She spoke of the legends surrounding the era of Discord, the chaotic spirit who appeared in Equestria and then spread disharmony across the world. Many tried to fight him. From the empire’s own histories, I know the single largest army ever seen by the nation was assembled by the emperor of that era. They stood to face Discord, and that day was also the day the Griffin Empire suffered its swiftest defeat.
Tenabe then went on to tell me the legends surrounding the capitol. There was no way for them to fight Discord at first, so those of Savannah found another way. They bent with Discord’s chaos. The capital of Cliff Wound, only a village back then, hid by covering the whole valley with a series of fabric tarps. The tarps were supported by the stone structures we were training beside and were enchanted to mimic the chaotic landscape that surrounded the valley. If the ground became a checkerboard, the tarps magically changed to match. If the ground became polkadots, the tarps changed to be polka dots.
There was more magic to it, Tenabe assured me, but that the basic tactic was the same. That they kept bending and dodging Discord’s gaze until, finally, someone was able to strike a single, decisive blow against him.
And I can’t help but think that Tenabe told me this story for a purpose. Her tactics when we fought were the same. She bent, dodged, and stepped out of the way of my attacks, changing and following my body movements until she saw her perfect opportunity. And then, when she struck, she did it so quickly and with such little mercy that I was left reeling. I was so utterly defeated that I was at her mercy.
She does not mean to insult the tactics of the empire. There are times when how we think and fight are ideal. She is not asking me to throw away my sword. She is not teaching me to fight with other weapons. She is teaching me only to see that, sometimes, you must change how you fight if you want to have any hope of winning.
---
April 15th - 652
The peace talks are over. It is time to return to the empire. I still can’t beat Tenabe, but she wasn’t trying to teach me how to fight. She was just trying to teach me how to think. To see the world not just through the gaze of the empire. To be willing to break away from the traditional strategies when they aren’t working. She taught me to pick up a shield, a mace, a bow, or whatever weapon when the stiff, sword-like tactics of the empire are insufficient.
I expected to wish her goodbye this morning, to even thank her for pounding the stupid out of my head. She, however, did not deliver my breakfast this morning. I looked, but could not find her before it was time to depart. And Crosswind was in no mood to wait. He whined about getting back to the cool mountains of the empire, but I’ve grown fond of Savannah. I see its merit and its flaws, just as I now see the merit and flaws of my own home. Nomadic tribes and homes of mud and sticks. The whole nation is about being flexible, about being willing to adapt and move to better fit the situation. This makes the stone homes of the empire seem almost impractical.
When I get back, I’m going to drill what Tenabe has taught me into my soldiers.
It’s time for the Griffin Empire to follow the example of Savannah.
---
Regenold Swiftwing did not return to Savannah for the rest of his military career. Still, the lessons he learned from Tenabe became a foundation for his military career. His ability and willingness to try new tactics was taught to his troops, and soon his forces were doing things other officers thought impossible. Still, after retirement, Regenold left the empire on one final mission.
---
February 16th - 695
I can’t believe it’s been so long since I was here, practically a lifetime. The capital of Cliff Wound hasn’t changed. The bar where I first got knocked out by Tenabe is still there and they still won’t take thalers. But that’s okay. This time I paid in liras, which I know all too well is the currency of the nation. The council hall is still the same. To step into one of its suites feels like stepping back in time. The faces are different, of course. The council has all new leaders as do all the servants.
Still, I came to speak with the Chancellor, and asked if she could direct me to Tenabe. I wished to thank her one more time, and maybe even fight her again. I’m still not sure I could beat her, but a griffin, if nothing else, is stubborn. And the Chancellor was glad to help. She had the head servant speak with her predecessor, the one who would have been in charge when I was last at the council hall.
The previous head remembered me and the visit of Crosswind. It was one of the most important days during her career to ensure the peace talks went over well. I asked her if she knew what happened to the servant that had been assigned to attend to me.
It was then the old head servant gave me a blank stare and said no servant had ever been assigned to me.
I laughed and joked. Of course one had been assigned. I gave her the name, Tenabe, but her blank stare only continued. She had never known a zebra named Tenabe. I began to get angry. It was time for the joke to end, but her answer remained the same. She knew no Tenabe and no servant had been assigned to my suite. Crosswind had even requested that I just be left alone, attesting that I would take offense if a servant was assigned.
I never realized the ambassador knew me that well.
I looked back in one of my old journals from those years, just to assure myself it wasn’t all some dream. I found my notes. I saw how brash I was. Looking back, I was like a painter looking at his first drawings. It’s hard to believe I was ever that naive. I was once that bad, that brittle, but she was the one that gave me the tools to reforge myself. To make myself flexible enough as a commander and general to fight for my empire during the civil war, the first time griffins ever had to truly fight against one another.
The sun is setting, and, as I write, I feel the urge to go to the cliffs. I wish to go to the ruins where my lessons were learned. Perhaps there is where I will find Tenabe. Or, perhaps I am only an old griffin getting hopeful in his old age.
I don’t know where she went, but I know she existed. And the empire would not be the same if she had never crossed my path.
~~~
Rarity looked up from the journal, letting it fall against her chest as she stared at the ceiling above her. “I see why this was excluded from later editions,” she mused to herself. “Some griffins probably got their feathers ruffled over a book saying the empire wouldn’t have survived without a zebra.
“Still...” Rarity withdrew a few scraps of paper from her bag and a pencil. She would normally use these supplies to jot down design ideas, but, for this evening, she took notes. Tenabe had influenced the world, like other zebras Twilight suspected, and had vanished suddenly afterward, leaving no trace behind. She fit into the puzzle.
“It’s a shame really that it turned out the way it did.” Rarity set the book down, doused the lights, and snuggled into the bed. “Regenold, the tough military soul, having his ways changed by the exotic beauty that was Tenabe. How they tussled and fought beneath the moonlight, with the lights of the city watching them silently from the valley below. One learning, the other teaching...” Rarity stifled a yawn. “And I bet the general was quite the dashing griffin when he was young.”
Rarity continued to murmur to herself, as if speaking about the book like it was a piece of fiction at a book club. And the thoughts bled into dreams. She stood on top of the cliff face, the capital of Cliff Wound glinting below as the moon shown above. She was a zebra, in fashionable purple stripes of course, and she was teaching a captain something. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed to involve ribbon and fabric. The captain was a griffin though, a purple and green one, but her mind didn’t seem to take any notice of the oddity as her dream played out how she felt Renegold and Tenabe’s time together should have gone.
The rattling of train cars and rustle of ponies with their bags roused Applejack from her nap. She tipped up her hat brim and looked out the train’s window to see the crystalline station standing proudly just outside. She had to admit, it was nice being able to travel by herself once in a while. She didn’t have to wait for Rarity to get all her bags checked. She didn’t have to deal with Rainbow Dash racing to get a particular seat. She did miss Pinkie Pie’s snack stash, but a solid nap more than made up for the sugary treats.
Her legs popped as she stood up and stretched. She was the last off the train, but Applejack was okay with taking her time. The longest part of the trip was over; now it was just a trot over the hill from the station to the Crystal Empire’s outer gate. She joined the herd of ponies walking the road. A lot of them were tourists. Some were business ponies. She even saw a few crystal ponies who looked as if they were just coming home from trips abroad.
Applejack could only imagine that a lot of the ponies in the Crystal Empire were eager to travel and see how Equestria had changed in a thousand years.
Twilight had wanted to write ahead, to tell Cadance and Shining she was coming, but Applejack talked her out of it. She had been on the first train out of Ponyville the morning after they agreed to help Twilight. Any letter she sent by normal means would have been on the same train Applejack was on. The only way to get it there faster would be by express air mail, which was unnecessarily expensive in Applejack’s opinion, or by magic, which would have meant bothering Celestia with the task of forwarding the mail to the empire.
So, despite Twilight’s protests, Applejack had gone to the empire unannounced and, so far, was enjoying being able to plot her own course through the city. There were no guards who met her at the station, no ponies expecting her to check in the moment she arrived. Yes, perhaps she was taking it a bit too easy, but there was no rush. The library and all its books were not going anywhere, and she had until the end of the week to tackle a very short list of names.
In all, the simple farm mare was enjoying being able to go about her business without a lot of of the craziness that tended to follow her and her friends when they went out together.
Still, at the same time, Applejack didn’t let herself wander too much. She found a place to have lunch and then made her way to the Crystal Empire’s library. As awe inspiring as ever, the sapphire toned building stood proudly. The pair of griffin statues that flanked the staircase leading to the front entrance stood silent and vigilant. And, upon slipping inside, valleys of shelves stretched out before Applejack.
But unlike the first time she and her friends had come to the empire’s library, there was more life moving about the stacks of books. Multiple crystal ponies, along with a few other creatures, were mingling about. Some were putting books away, others cataloguing the library, and the rest were just patrons around to enjoy a good book.
“Oh, hello again.”
Applejack turned and smiled at the older crystal mare who was the head librarian, the same mare who had been idly standing in the library when she and her friends first came looking for the empire’s secret to protecting itself. “Oh, howdy there Miss...”
“Lilac Scroll,” the mare replied.
“Applejack,” she said as the pair shook hooves. “Looks like you’ve got this place running like a well oiled machine.”
“Well, it certainly helps when you remember you are the head librarian,” Lilac joked. “So, Applejack, what brings you back to the Crystal Empire? I hope it isn’t anything troubling.”
“A little, but it ain’t nothing you need to worry about. I just have some research that needs to get done for Twilight. It’s on a couple zebras from a thousand years ago.”
“Zebras. Well, we do have an extensive section on Savannah. Do you have some names in particular?”
Applejack nodded, reaching into her saddlebags and withdrawing a short scroll. “Yep, I do got a few, but there are two names Twilight really wanted me to focus on first. Does the name Wise Word ring a bell?”
“Oh, of course. We have the most complete transcription of her speeches, lectures, forums, and philosophy. It was written by a mare who followed Wise Word around Equestria, like an acolyte to her teachings, and that pony documented everything. The original book was given to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and was kept in the archives of the old castle. The first copy made of it was brought here to the Crystal Empire for safe keeping. A wise decision, in hindsight, considering the princesses’ old castle and likely the original transcript were lost to the Everfree Forest.
“We’re just lucky Sombra was something of a scholar before he took over. Other conquerors might have burned such treasured books to legitimize their rule.” A small shiver crawled down Lilac’s spine as she looked across the library, picturing it flames for just a moment. “Though, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he kept the library around just so he could, in time, figure out a way to defeat Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”
“Would a book like that really be in this here library?”
“If it is, then it’s a secret well hidden by the shelves,” Lilac mused, running her hoof across a few nearby books.
“I guess it’d be hard for any one pony to know everything about this place,” Applejack said. “Still, is there any chance I could get a look at that book? I just need to check a few things about what Wise Word did right before she disappeared.”
“I don’t know. It’s in the most secure part of the library. You’d need royal permission from Princess Cadance before I could let you in there. I mean, considering all you’ve done for the empire, I suppose I could sneak you in just this once. But, I—”
“Hey, you don’t need to go bending the rules for me,” Applejack assured her. “I’m gonna go talk to the princess later anyway. I’ll get that royal permission and come back bright and early tomorrow morning.”
“I appreciate it,” Lilac said. “I never knew Wise Word personally, but my mother listened to her lectures numerous times when she was young. The way my mother used to go on about her, you’d think Wise Word was the princess of wisdom. I don’t think I’d be able to forgive myself if I snuck you in and something were to happen to the rare books in that part of the library. Not to say that I think you’d damage anything on purpose. No, I’m sure you’d be careful, I’m just—”
“It’s all right. I know these hooves of mine look rough from workin’ the farm,” Applejack said with a chuckle before looking back at her list. “And don’t you feel guilty about keeping me out either. I’ve got a few other names we could look into until I can come back tomorrow. So, have you ever heard the name Grass Snake?”
The smile on Lilac’s face and the gentle flutter of laughter in her voice drained away. Her whole body seemed to darken, her mane drooping as the shimmer of her coat faded back to a dull, opaque color. It was like Sombra had just stepped up behind her and whispered some dark threat into her ear. “Grass Snake? You want to know about Grass Snake? Why would you want to know about her?”
Applejack cocked her head to one side, noticing Lilac take a step back in fear. “Is everything okay, Sugarcube? You’re lookin’ pale.”
“Applejack, I know you’ve done a lot for the empire and that you don’t know a lot of our customs. But, just like nopony wants to talk about Sombra now that he’s gone, no one wants to talk about Grass Snake. It’s just... too soon.” Lilac snatched the paper from Applejack’s hoof, her smile returning as she latched onto her distraction. “Why don’t we just skip her and go to the others on the list? Ah, yes, I have lots of books about these other zebras. Just give me a moment and I’ll pull them from the shelves for you.”
With that, Lilac was gone, disappearing around a corner and leaving a dumbfounded Applejack in her wake.
~~~
“Applejack, you’ve been so quiet. Is something wrong?”
Snapped out of her thoughts, Applejack looked up from her dinner plate and across the table. After spending the afternoon in the library, she had finally made her way to the castle. Shining Armor and Cadance graciously welcomed her to the empire, their hospitality reminding Applejack of the down home welcome her own family was famous for. They talked about the upcoming Equestria Games and the empire’s preparations. Shining Armor even convinced Applejack to show some of their athletes in training a few tricks she had learned through her years in the rodeo.
But through it all, Applejack’s thoughts kept drifting back to how frightened Lilac had been. She had never been able to bring the subject of Grass Snake back up with the head librarian, but now, as she looked at the royal couple, she couldn’t force the thought out of her head.
“Have I told y’all why I’m even here yet?”
Shining Armor shook his head before putting a bit of food in his mouth. “No. We just thought you were here for vacation.”
“From what we’ve heard from Twilight, you sound like a pony who deserves a lot more time to rest than you actually get,” Cadance added before shooting a quick glare at Shining for talking with food in his mouth.
“I won’t deny, there’s always something needin’ doing on the farm, but I’m not really here to relax. Twilight’s got herself wound up about some conspiracy she thinks is going on in Equestria, and I’m here tryin’ to find some information on it.”
“Is Twilight all right?”
“Well, she was a little bit nutty when Rarity brought her to see the rest of us,” Applejack admitted. “She calmed down though after we all had a good talk about what she thought was goin’ on. Honestly, I didn’t believe most of what she said at first, but now I’m startin’ to really worry something is goin’ on.”
“And why are you worried?” Shining Armor asked.
“Well, Twilight sent me here to get some information on a couple of zebras. For some reason, these zebra are all livin’ their lives and disappearin’ under some very similar circumstances, usually after doin’ some really big things in the little time they were around. But the reason I’m worried is that, when I mentioned a name to the librarian this afternoon, she got as scared as if King Sombra had just walked in the door.”
Cadance and Shining glanced at one another, beginning to share in Applejack’s concern. “What was the name?” Cadance asked.
“Grass Snake.”
A plate clattered to the floor, and the trio quickly turned to see a castle servant standing in the doorway to the dining room. She had been bringing in the dessert tray, but now the slices of crystal berry pie were splattered across the floor and she, like Lilac, looked like Sombra had come back from the dead.
“I’m... I’m sorry, Your Highnesses. I’ll get this cleaned up and bring you more.”
“It’s okay, Ruby Flask,” Cadance said, quickly getting up from her seat and moving beside the servant. “You aren’t hurt, are you?”
“No, princess. I just lost my grip and the tray slipped. The only thing ruined was dessert.”
“Why did you lose your grip?” Cadance asked, even as Ruby Flask began to pick up the fallen tray and plates. “Was it because of that name Applejack said?”
“I-it was, your majesty.”
“Why?” Shining Armor asked as he rose from the table and walked up beside Cadance. “What did that mare do?”
Ruby Flask finished picking up the plates. There was still a big smear of crystal berry pie on the floor, but the bulk of the mess now rested on her tray. “I really shouldn’t say. To talk about her is to invite misfortune. She was an omen, Your Highnesses. She marked the beginning of the end.”
“This has something to do with Sombra, doesn’t it?” Cadance said, speaking to the servant like a mother calming a child after a nightmare. “He’s gone now. You don’t have to be scared of him anymore.”
“I know, princess, but... I really don’t know that much.”
“Just tell us what you know then.”
Ruby Flask shook a little, as if trying to get a chill off her spine. She then turned back to face Cadance and Shining as Applejack came to a stop beside them. “L-like I said, I don’t know much. Sombra had been around the empire for a few years. He wasn’t a tyrant when he first arrived. He was just another unicorn coming to study in the library.
“The first time I saw him was right after I was hired. He came to Princess Amethyst’s open court. It wasn’t the first time he had made his petition, but it was the first time I had been attending to Princess Amethyst personally when he had come to open court. He wasn’t so scary back then. Still kind of imposing, mostly because you don’t see a lot of unicorns with that kind of height and strong build.
“He actually seemed to have such good intentions back then. When he spoke to Princess Amethyst, it was with respect. He was a scholar, and he was in the empire to try and understand the magic behind the Crystal Heart. From the way he spoke, I think he wanted to magnify or replicate its power. That way, the hope and light it spread across Equestria could be shared with the whole world.
“Princess Amethyst denied his request though, like she had every time before,” Ruby Flask continued. “The Crystal Heart is too powerful a relic to just let anypony toy around with it. Still, Sombra never seemed mad. Disappointed, yes, but he always used to respect the princess’s decision.
“He came a few more times. I was in the throne room for a few of them, but then he stopped coming altogether. We didn't’ see him for a year. We thought he had just gone back home and abandoned his research. There were some rumors around the staff that he had just sequestered himself in the library, but we never knew for sure.
“But Sombra did come back,” Ruby Flask said as she shifted on her hooves, like somepony was threatening to poke a sensitive, painful wound with a stick. “And he had Grass Snake with him. He introduced her to the court as his assistant and then went into his research again. I was in the room again, tending to the princess, and Sombra’s presentation started how it usually did.
“But it soon became obvious his research had advanced by leaps and bounds. He knew things about the crystal heart and its magic that nopony else except the princess was supposed to know. Like how the castle acts as an amplifier.”
“The castle is a what now?” Applejack asked, glancing up at the walls and ceiling.
“An amplifier. That is why the castle reacted the way it did when Princess Cadance and the young dragon, Spike, brought the Crystal Heart to the fair. While it serves the purpose of being home to the royal family, the castle’s greatest responsibility is to spread the power of the Crystal Heart across all of Equestria.
“It’s something not well known outside the empire,” Ruby Flask continued. “Sombra, however, had somehow learned or figured out exactly how the castle worked with the Crystal Heart. It was something no one on the castle staff knew about, and, to be honest, there were some rumors that Princess Amethyst herself hadn’t known the finer details.
“It was about then the princess ordered us all out of the room except for her and Sombra. Even Grass Snake was asked to leave, and I was asked to wait with her until Sombra and the princess’s now private audience was over.”
Ruby Flask shivered again, the messy plates rattling a little on the tray. “I did not like waiting with that mare. She was so silent. I tried to make some small talk. I wanted to know how Sombra had learned so much about the Crystal Heart. But she didn’t even acknowledge I was there. I might as well have been a potted plant.”
“We thankfully didn’t have to wait long. Maybe fifteen minutes after we had been asked to leave the room, the doors to the throne room opened and Sombra came out. I expected him to look angry or disappointed, but instead he was smiling. He called to Grass Snake, said they were leaving. She lingered for only a moment, looking back into the throne room, and fell in line behind him. They left, and not long after I heard Princess Amethyst had ordered the guard to keep an eye on them.
“That was the last time Sombra came to the princess’s open court,” Ruby Flask concluded as she turned to leave. “Now, I must go and fetch something to clean up the mess. I’ll have another servant bring you some new slices of pie.”
“Wait, Ruby Flask, what happened after that?” Cadance asked.
Ruby Flask paused just as she was about to leave. She looked back at the princess only once, a deep sorrow in her eyes. “Sombra took over, and Grass Snake made it possible by assassinating Princess Amethyst.” With that Ruby left, no longer able to bear the weight of the memories. In her wake, she left three stunned ponies. Shining Armor and Cadance looked to one another, each trying to find the words to explain what they had just heard.
Applejack, however, continued to sit silently as she had through the whole story. She glared at her plate, hat brim turned down as she thought back to something Twilight had said. Before, the organization they sought to expose had seemed benevolent, but Twilight had feared it had the potential of perpetrating some truly heinous crimes. But now, that fear seemed much more real.
For, if Grass Snake was part of the conspiracy, the organization didn’t just have the potential to do great evil.
It had possibly been the architect behind Sombra’s rise to power.
~~~
Applejack followed behind Cadance and Shining Armor as they navigated the halls of the crystal palace. They hadn’t waited for the new slices of pie to arrive. After a few hushed words between the royal couple, they had asked Applejack to follow them. They worked their way up several staircases, almost reaching the very top of the castle and the chamber where Twilight and Spike had found the crystal heart.
But before reaching the final set of stairs, the trio turned and entered another room. It was about the size of Applejack’s bedroom back home and felt more spacious from the absence of furniture. The walls were lined with square holes, looking like the display racks in Berry Punch’s juice shop, and each held in it a single, self-contained crystal.
“What are we doin’ here?” Applejack asked.
“We’re going to see what Sombra and Princess Amethyst talked about during those few minutes they were alone in the throne room,” Cadance said as she and Shining began to walk along the walls, searching the many crystals contained in the racks.
“Just how’re we supposed to do that?”
“As Ruby Flask said, the castle is much more than just a building. While not as powerful, it is just as magical as the Crystal Heart. And, like Princess Amethyst, I don’t know all of its secrets. The one thing I have learned is that it creates these memory crystals.” Cadance removed one of the gems from the wall and set it out in the center of the room. Then with a touch of her magic, the crystal came to life, displaying a miniature version of the Crystal Empire.
“Hey, this looks like the thing Twilight says Princess Celestia has. She told us about it on the train ride up here when we were comin’ to help y’all deal with Sombra.”
“It’s the exact same kind of crystal,” Shining Armor explained. He too removed a gem from the wall, but promptly put it back after glancing at it for just a moment. “The one Princess Celestia has was smuggled out of the empire so that she and Luna could see what was going on with Sombra. That’s why it’s able to show the transformation of the empire from what it is now to what it was under his rule.”
“These crystals are the memories of the empire as remembered by the castle,” Cadance said as she took the crystal she had activated, shut it off, and put it back in its place. “A honest, unbiased record of this nation and its ponies. And, in rarer circumstances, a silent witness to the goings on within the palace walls as well.”
“Here it is, Cadance.”
Shining held out a crystal he had pulled from the walls, one that was slightly smaller than the others. Cadance took the crystal, looked it over, and nodded before setting the gem out in the middle of the room. Shining did the honors of awakening the crystal with his magic, and, as it floated into the air, it projected the memory it stored against the ground below it.
“Clear the hall, I wish to have private words with Sombra.”
Applejack took a few steps closer, coming to a stop just at the edge of the memory. The scene before her was set in the throne room, and two figures stayed prominently centered in the memory as others stepped away. Applejack was able to recognize one as Sombra. He was not the dark king she and her friends knew him as, but there was no denying who she was looking at. The other pony sat on the throne. She had regal stature, not too different from Princess Celestia and Luna, and had a purple tinted crystalline coat and matching mane.
The sound of closing doors echoed from the crystal. Sombra and Princess Amethyst were alone. And, as Applejack, Cadance, and Shining Armor looked on through the memory crystal, the pair began to talk.
“Sombra, where did you uncover these secrets? The nature of the relationship between the castle and the Crystal Heart is only to be known to the ruler of the empire and is only to be passed down to the heir to the throne.”
“I read it in a book,” Sombra answered. His words were guarded, and he watched the princess with an unflinching gaze.
The princess rose from her throne and stepped down slowly. She began to circle Sombra, like a shark in the water. “That book wouldn’t be called the Crystallinus Silenda, would it?”
“No, I’m pretty sure it came from another book,” Sombra answered, feigning ignorance.
“There is no other book, Sombra. The Crystallinus Silenda is the only guidebook to the magic of the Crystal Heart. It was penned by the first Crystal Queen, and has taught every heir to the throne the secrets of the empire. It is kept locked away in the most secure vault in the kingdom.
“So how did you do it? How did you reach the book?” The princess questioned as she continued to circle.
“Maybe your secrets aren’t as well guarded as you think they are, Your Highness,” Sombra said, his words taunting the princess despite the nonchalant way he had spoken. “And have you ever thought I could have figured it out for myself?”
“And you believe yourself as wise as the first queen? Sombra, when you first came to my court, you were but a humble scholar seeking the truth. What has changed you?”
“The truth, Princess. I finally found it, and I also found it quite enlightening. I mean, please stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The Crystal Empire has for centuries been the crown jewel of Equestria. It has been a beacon of hope and light for the entire kingdom. A separate principality, but still such a strong ally to Equestria the two are practically two parts of the same whole.
“But that’s not how it started, is it princess?” Sombra said, his mouth turning up in a smile. “No, once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, this empire and this castle had a much different purpose. It was meant to be the new capitol of this continent, when Equestria was set to be conquered by the last true crystal king.
“And this castle was going to be what delivered the nation to him. By his own design, King Alexandrite ensured this castle could bathe Equestria and lands beyond in his influence. And, in time, they would all bow to him of their own free will, as if it was as natural as breathing. It was such a brilliant plan. Really it was. All the king had to do was stay on the throne, and the continent would have been his.
“But Equestria caught wind. With the first army ever assembled by the three tribes, a siege was brought against the empire. They offered refuge for any who wished to flee, and fought all the others who remained. As I recall, that winter was particularly cold that year.”
Sombra smiled, chuckling a little to himself. “It was likely the last time the Windigoes got to properly feed before Equestria fell into its comfortable daily life of peace and harmony. Still, the king was defeated, and those crystal ponies that sided with Equestria were given the empire and they chose a new queen. But that still left this castle and its original purpose. It would still send the will of the pony who sat on its throne across Equestria. This castle still sought to make itself the very capital of the nation.
“So, it needed a heart transplant. Something to change its sentiment, so it would wish only to support the empire and Equestria. That’s the truth of the Crystal Empire. Despite its power, the Crystal Heart was never the empire’s greatest weapon. It is and has always been this castle, a castle once made purely of the blackest crystal.”
“So then why did you come back here, Sombra?” Princess Amethyst asked as she circled Sombra still, her eyes glaring daggers at him. “Why did you come if not to petition to gain access to the crystal heart?”
“Just to tell you that you were right,” Sombra said as he turned to leave, walking towards the door as if the princess had been the one gracious enough to get an audience with him. “I never did need to examine the crystal heart to find out the truth. I just needed to be pointed in the right direction and to spend a little time with a wise old king.”
Princess Amethyst paled as she watched Sombra leave. The doors to the throne room opened, and through them Applejack, Shining, and Cadance caught a short glimpse of not just Grass Snake but also a younger Ruby Flask. Applejack squinted, and wished they could look back at the memory again, but Grass Snake and Sombra were already gone and some of the castle staff were coming back into the room.
“Princess, are you alright?” one of the guards asked.
“Yes, just... Please, go tell everypony else that wishes to see me today that I must cancel the remainder of my open court today. Also, please send somepony to the royal mausoleum. Check the casket of King Alexandrite and see if it has been disturbed. I must head to the royal vault for a moment. I will be back shortly and I expect a report on the mausoleum within the hour.”
“Of course, Your Highness.”
The memory stone’s light began to fade, and it floated back to the floor as the memory Applejack, Cadance, and Shining had been watching came to an end. The trio of ponies all looked to one another, their mouths unable to find the words they sought for. In all of the empire’s history they had been told, Sombra had just come to power and ruined the otherwise pristine empire. But the empire itself had a sordid history of its own.
“What do you think he meant by bein’ ‘pointed in the right direction?’” Applejack asked, her mind spinning as she tried to break the silence. “Do you think Grass Snake had somethin’ to do with it?”
“I don’t know,” Cadance answered as she placed the memory crystal back in its space in the racks. “The only one that would be able to tell us that is Sombra himself, and he destroyed any memory crystals the castle made of him during his rule. He probably didn’t want anypony to find out where the Crystal Heart was being kept if they happened across this room.”
“Or that he had boobytrapped it,” Shining commented with a bitter snip.
“So there’s no crystals about what happened after that?” Applejack asked, looking across the hundreds of gems that surrounded them.
“Besides a few here that document how the empire was saved, no. That crystal was the last surviving memory the castle made of Sombra.”
Applejack cursed and stomped her hoof. It was a dead end! Not only was the final fate of the past princess lost to history, but there was still no clear indication of what part Grass Snake had played in it all. She had done something, that much was clear. Sombra had left the empire, perhaps giving up on his research, and then Grass Snake did something. She did something that lead him to understanding the empire’s magic backwards and forwards and may have very well planted the first thoughts of conquest into Sombra’s head.
~~~
The guest suites in the crystal palace were amongst the finest in the kingdom. The beds were soft. The rooms were kept at a comfortable temperature. It was a place that should have lulled Applejack quickly to sleep, especially after the arguably long day she had faced. But sleep did not come to her. Applejack could only lay awake, staring at the ceiling with her maneband and hat resting on the nearby nightstand.
She couldn’t stop thinking of Grass Snake, of what had happened with Princess Amethyst and Sombra. She hadn’t truly believed Twilight when she started talking about her theories. It just didn’t seem real, to think any group of ponies could have such a profound effect on the world.
Of course, she and her friends were a contradiction to that belief. Just the six of them had done a lot of good in the world. They had helped Luna return, had defeated and then rehabilitated Discord, and so many other things.
That realization did nothing to ease Applejack’s mind.
It felt like she was scared of a monster under her bed, something that might not even really be there. The only way to be sure whether or not the danger was real was to uncover the organization, but to do that she needed to know more about Grass Snake. Was she part of the organization or not? And what did that mean if she was? How would the ponies they sought react to their secret being revealed?
Were they putting themselves in danger by trying to contend with these mysterious zebras and any unseen cohorts?
Paranoia was starting to get to Applejack. Her eyes wandered to the corners of the room, and the shadows that surrounded her seemed deeper than they should have been. Her heart began to race, even as she was telling herself there was nothing there. It felt like something just wasn’t right. It felt like she was being watched, like something was drawing close. She sat up in the bed and turned her head as if expecting to find somepony standing just out of the periphery of her vision.
But there was no one. There wasn’t another soul in the room, but the sensation of being watched rested on Applejack’s skin. Then, a sound, a single audible snap. It came from the hallway, and, like lightning unleashed from a cloud, Applejack sprang from her bed and ran into the hall. She looked about, turning her head and ears in every direction. But there was no one and nothing. She couldn’t even see the source of the sound. All was silent, all was still, and yet she felt as if she was not alone.
Then it came again. The sound was further away, but the note was exactly the same. She began to gallop, caring not for who heard her as she tromped down the halls. She chased the sound through corridor after corridor. At each intersection she would stop and listen, and every time the sensation of being watched would press down upon her again before the sound echoed from somewhere in the distance.
She knew she was being lead, perhaps to a trap set by the very zebra she was there to help uncover, but Applejack didn’t let her concerns slow her hooves. She galloped with all speed, showing no fear until, finally, the sounds lead her to a single room. A room she had looked at through the light of the memory crystal just hours before.
She stood in the throne room of the Crystal Empire.
Striding slowly forward, Applejack looked about the room as if expecting something or someone to jump out to attack her. By the tense feeling crawling up her spine, it felt as if she would soon face King Sombra himself. Yet nothing leapt out at her. Only the uneasy feeling continued. A feeling she could not describe. It felt like her sense of balance was off, like the whole world was shifting.
And as she looked out the windows of the throne room, she realized just how true that was.
Like the horizon out of the window on a boat, the world beyond the castle seemed to be swaying. It was not by much. In fact, if not for how tense her mind was, she may not have noticed it at all. But, as Applejack drew close to the window, she was able to get a better sense of what was going on. Further and further the horizon line seemed to tilt, and the further she tilted herself to try and stay level.
It wasn’t the ground that was moving. It was the castle.
And then, just as the castle’s lean began to reach a point where it would truly become noticeable, even if one were away from a window, Applejack heard the sound again. It was clear, crystalline, and it was close. She turned abruptly, ignoring the sensation of the castle leveling itself off again as she quickly trotted to the throne. She knew she had heard it, the sound of something falling against something else, but could not see where it was coming from.
But the sound came again, and, with a quick glance out the windows, Applejack could see the castle had leaned itself ever so slightly in the opposite direction. And this time, she heard exactly where the sound had come from. It was emanating from beneath the throne, and after dropping down to the floor, Applejack was able to see something glinting beneath the royal chair.
It took a little effort to fish the item out. Applejack had to tilt the heavy throne to one side and reach under at the same time. More than once she almost caught her hoof beneath the throne. With a triumphant smile, she held the item in her hoof. It was a memory crystal. A bit dusty, a bit cracked, but it was a memory crystal all the same.
“Okay, how do we turn this thing on?” Applejack said, turning the crystal over in her hooves. She had seen Cadance awaken the memory crystals upstairs, but that required magic. And unless she grew a unicorn horn in that very moment, she wouldn’t be able to activate it herself. Still, Applejack tried her best. She tapped on it, turned it, and even tried to bite on it a moment, like she was trying to open a tightly sealed jar of peanut butter.
Biting on it proved a poor decision, though. The gem slipped free of Applejack’s grip. It clattered down the steps leading up to the throne, and spun to a stop in the center of the throne room. The jolt, however, awakened the magic within the gem. It slowly floated into the air, swaying a little as its light faltered. It was not working as it should, a side effect of the crack Applejack had noticed.
The memory took shape. The throne room was the stage once more, and, once more, two ponies stood in solitude. One was Princess Amethyst, but the other was a zebra. She wore a traveling cloak with the hood pulled back, her long mane draping over her shoulders and reaching down to the knees of her front legs.
“Grass Snake, you dare to * before me after what Sombra * * *.”
Applejack cocked her head, watching as the memory distorted and the audio fell in and out, like a pony speaking as she covered and uncovered her mouth. The gem was damaged, but Applejack watched intently all the same. She hung on every word she could hear and focused on Grass Snake like a hawk.
“Princess, I am no enemy to you * * *. I am * here to * stop * * *.
“One I * * put into motion,” Princess Amethyst said coldly.
“I * not plead innocence for * * *. I’ve * trapped in the web * *. I believed Sombra’s * were pure. I saw him as one to * * a *. Chaos * in these * lands, * order reigns from * * * * *. Discord will return to seek his throne. Already he plots to escape * * * *.
“The Crystal Heart and Castle * strength *, strength that has been lost since * * *. Sombra had the potential to bring it *, to unlock * secrets lost in * * * * *. But just as King Alexandrite fell to the temptation of power, Sombra became corrupted * * * *. The light of the crystal * * cannot stop chaos. Balance with something else is needed * * the world * * *.
“This is the * truth I * to *, something ponies across the land refuse * *. Everything must be * * equal *. Chaos and order together * * * * *.”
Applejack cursed, wondering just how much of the conversation she was missing, but things were getting better. The memories were becoming clearer the longer the memory crystal ran.
“And so you sought to * * * by * him to the tomb of King Alexandrite?” the princess snapped. “You sought to balance the light of the * * with the dark crystals that once defined this castle’s * *! You have only invited doom upon me and my kingdom, and you did so in fear of Discord!? He is sealed, and should he escape * * and Princess Luna will wield the Elements of Harmony against him again. But now Sombra knows the black magic of * * *. With that, he could reshape this castle into what it was under King Alexandrite’s *. He could seize control of the * Empire and Equestria.”
“His power is nothing before the Crystal Heart,” Grass Snake spoke, a calm confidence in her voice. “You can stop his coup * * *. Just keep yourself safe until the * * fair, and afterward you will be * *. The dark magic he holds will be carried away by the light, like the * * * * * * *.
“And what if he should attack before then?”
“As long as you live, his plans are in vain. For that is the castle’s law * * *. It will bow only to the ruler of the empire and to the heirs you chose * *.”
“Well then, I’ll just have to make sure I get put in the will.”
It was at that moment the shadows behind Princess Amethyst’s throne seemed to spring to life, quickly encasing her. Grass Snake rushed forward and reached out to save the princess, but one of the smoky tendrils knocked her away. In a moment, Princess Amethyst was consumed by the magic as Sombra stepped out from behind the throne.
“I should thank you * Snake for luring the princess out of her quarters so late at night, away from her *.”
Grass Snake jumped back to her hooves and, from beneath her cloak, drew a long dagger. “Release her, Sombra, or, * * *, I will * on you * *.”
“A wonderful threat,” Sombra said as he stepped to the side of the throne, the memory finally growing clear. His dark magic receded, revealing the crystal princess was alive. She, however, was not well. The rich, regal purple of her coat was darkening and her breathing was labored. “But, truthfully, you are already too late. The black crystal is poisoning her body even as we speak. Soon, she will be as subservient to me as a slave who has never tasted or even dreamed of freedom. And my first order to her is the only one that matters.”
Sombra moved up close to the princess, leaning into her ear as if to whisper yet speaking loud enough Grass Snake was able to hear him from even the far side of the room. “I order you to proclaim me the new king of the Crystal Empire.”
Princess Amethyst tightened her jaw and seemed to struggle against herself. But then her rebellion faded. Her eyes drooped and her head nodded slowly once before her mouth began to form the words. “I... Princess Amethyst... do hereby relinquish my power as ruler of the empire...”
Grass Snake leapt forward, breaking into a sprint as she raced across the room. Sombra lashed out at her with his magic, but she jumped and dodged each incoming blow as if she was the wind bending through the branches of a tree. She drew closer and closer to the throne, dagger glinting in the moonlight from the throne room windows.
“and... I bestow it... upon...”
With a powerful push of her legs, Grass Snake leapt into the air, her eyes focused murderously on Sombra. The unicorn quickly brought his magic around him, to shield himself from the blade, but then Grass Snake’s gaze shifted. She turned her head and bit down hard on the dagger.
And with the force of her body weight behind it, the blade drank deep of blood, of crystalline blood.
“S-ss-s... S-s-s-s-s....” Princess Amethyst leaned forward, coughing and sputtering as she fell to the floor. Grass Snake drew back, and, for a moment, Sombra’s face was contorted into an expression of horror. The power he sought was slipping away from his hooves, and Grass Snake looked on. She bore no smile nor a frown. She had saved the kingdom at the cost of its most important life.
“Sombra.”
With the last breath on her lips, Princess Amethyst had finished her command, and a smile burst forth on Sombra’s face. With little respect for the dead, he shoved the princess away from the throne and took his seat upon it. Already the castle was responding to him. The crystal of the throne began to warp and darken, and just as the poison had flowed through Amethyst it now swam in the magic of the castle.
“Grass Snake, as my first act as king, I find you guilty of treason against the empire. Your punishment shall be death.” His magic shot out at Grass Snake, this time with murderous intent. She dodged and blocked the tentacles and was starting to make her way to the door. Yet, with a loud snap, the exit closed, the dark poison of his magic already beginning to seize control.
“You’re feisty as always, but I can’t have you warning the ponies of the empire. No, let them sleep, so that by morning I will have already taken over and enslaved their precious minds. In fact, why don’t you go to sleep yourself? A nice long sleep. You can dream about flying. Oh, who am I kidding? You don’t need to be dreaming. I can make you fly right now!”
A toss of his head and Sombra’s magic cascaded across the room, flowing from left to right. There was no where to dodge, no way to block the magic. Grass Snake took it at full force and was tossed into the air. She crashed against one of the windows, the thin, crystalline glass shattering from her body weight. A shout escaped her lips, and her hooves reached for something to grab, but it was all too late. She flew out the window, flew into the cool night air of the empire, and then plummeted to the ground below.
Sombra stood from the throne and moved to the window, looking outside just long enough to see Grass Snake’s body lying limp below. He then smiled, chuckling a little to himself as he went to retake his seat upon the throne. “I do hope the servants don’t mind cleaning up the throne room tomorrow morning. Dear Princess Amethyst made quite the mess.”
Applejack watched all this in utter silence, her heart in her chest and the air cool in her lungs as she just watched Sombra sit on what was now his throne. Grass Snake had killed the princess, but not as part of Sombra’s plan. No, she had brought Sombra back for another purpose, but he hadn’t been strong enough. He hadn’t been able to resist the corrupting nature of the power he had to wield.
When she realized that, Grass Snake had tried to warn the princess. And when Sombra’s plan was in motion, Grass Snake had tried to do the only thing she could to stop him and save the princess from being his slave. Applejack couldn’t stop her eyes from wandering to the steps below the throne.
She stared at that one spot, as if she could see Princess Amethyst’s body lying there.
Perhaps the organization had pure intentions. Perhaps they only wanted to do good in the world. Their methods, however, were flawed, and this flaw had caused them to make a mistake. And it was a mistake that cost ponies their lives and their freedom. One mistake in judgement on Grass Snake’s part had caused it all. She had trusted Sombra, and he had proven too weak.
And for a moment, thoughts of her own friends crept into Applejack’s mind. They had failed before. They had failed during the changeling invasion. It was only by luck that they had been saved by Cadance and Shining Armor. What if they weren’t so lucky next time? What if they trusted somepony else and they turned out like Sombra?
Applejack tried to calm her shaky breathing, tried to ignore the weakness in her knees, but still she felt like she was about to collapse right there. It was scary to see just how far one bad decision, one mistake could go. She would probably have nightmares about what she had seen for months to come.
Even as Applejack began to steady herself, she looked back to the memory crystal. It was beginning to lose power, beginning to reach the end of its memory, but, as it did, the focus shifted away from Sombra. The vision of the castle went to the broken window, and then down to the streets below the castle.
And there, where Grass Snake’s body should have been, was only a smear of something that had been dragged away.
Two days. It had only been two days, but the time had felt like weeks to Twilight. Weeks of just waiting to hear from her friends as she continued to comb her own library for clues. Her web had grown, becoming more intricate as she kept adding pieces of string and shreds of paper. Yarn choked the walls and air. Twilight even had to stretch extra pieces of string to act solely as supports. She had to plan for tunnels through the web so she could navigate with a careful application of her magic or her wings. The only light came from a few strategically placed firefly lanterns, since any real fire was too great of danger to the web.
The exponential expansion of the web was Twilight’s only means of keeping herself rooted. To try and ignore the mystery of the conspiracy was like trying not to breathe. She was fascinated and terrified by the organization at the same time. Why had they originally formed? A few bits of her yarn seemed to hint at a connection to Discord, but she could not tell if it was a pattern or just a coincidence.
So lost was Twilight in her work, she almost didn’t hear the ringing of the clock. Its melodic tones hummed out through the web, lengths of yarn vibrating since she had anchored a few strands to her clock. It was morning. She hadn’t slept again, and even she was beginning to reach her limit. As she listened to the tolling of the bells, she realized how late in the morning it was.
And that the mail pony should have been by the library.
With dexterity born of familiarity, she moved through the web without striking a single piece of string. The library door could not be opened. She had tied a good two dozen pieces of yarn to its knob. Her only escape was through her bedroom window. She pushed it open and poked her head outside. She saw the red flag on her mailbox was up, and, with an adept application of her magic, she brought the mail inside and promptly pulled the window shut, to ensure no errant gust of wind could disturb her work.
Taking the mail, she sat down on her bed and quickly began to flip through the envelopes. The one bill in the stack found its way to Twilight’s desk, joining others that were waiting for the end of the week to be paid. The three letters from stallions trying to woo Equestria’s newest princess found their way to the trash. That left Twilight with two letters: one from Fluttershy and one from Applejack.
She opened Fluttershy’s first, quickly reading over how she and Rarity had been doing in Canterlot. They had each attached notes they had made on some of the zebras they had been assigned to research. Rarity’s notes on Tenabe drew Twilight’s interest the most. This wasn’t the first time Cliff Wound had come up in her research, and Cliff Wound itself was known as one of the few communities that managed to hide from Discord during his rule. Already, her mind was figuring out where the new connections in the web needed to be and what color of yarn she would use.
Twilight, however, didn’t understand why Fluttershy said she had to bake a pie for Discord.
Shelving that mystery as something to be dealt with later, Twilight moved onto Applejack’s letter, which had come with a small package.
Dear Twilight,
First thing I have to say is that you need to be careful with the package. Do you remember that crystal Princess Celestia has, the one she used to show you what the empire looked like? Well, there’s two more of those memory crystals in this box, and one of them is cracked. Cadance says you should know how to turn them on, but you need to be real careful with the cracked one. Cadance says there’s no telling when it might give out, and she wants some historians here in the empire to try and make a copy of it once you're done with it.
The second thing I want to say is that you should be careful, Twilight. The zebra from my list, the one named Grass Snake, she wasn’t just in the empire when Sombra took power. She helped him. Now, I’ll admit, it sure looks like she had a change of heart near the end, but I have to wonder if Sombra would have been able to take over without her. Watch the crystals and take a look at the notes and, hopefully, you’ll be able to make more sense of it than I can.
One last thing, Twilight. This organization we’re chasing probably won’t take too kindly to the idea that we’re trying to expose them. They’re also probably the kind of ponies who would go pretty far to make sure we stay quiet. You’ll know what I mean when you watch the cracked crystal, when you see what Grass Snake did to Princess Amythest.
I had nightmares all night because of that crystal.
So, please, Twilight, be careful and stay safe.
Your Friend, Applejack
P.S. No offense to Cadance and Shining, but I think I’m going to stay in a hotel. I don’t like the idea of sleeping someplace when that someplace is watching me sleep.
Twilight wrinkled her nose at the second odd P.S before focusing on the package. She used her magic to open it gingerly, and, from the wadded up pieces of newspaper, she removed the pair of memory crystals. She looked at them both, inspecting the cracked one with particular care before getting up from her bed. She set out into her web, intending to head down to the basement where there was enough open space to properly view the crystals.
Yet, for the first time since she had constructed it, the web seemed threatening to her now. Applejack’s warning gave fangs to the secret that lurked amidst the strands, the secret she was trying to tie down through the addition of more and more yarn. She almost didn’t want to view the crystals, didn’t want to see what had given Applejack nightmares.
But even if she had been able to ignore the crystals for a few minutes, Twilight would have eventually been unable to stop herself. Critical clues might exist within the crystals, and she intended to draw them out, no matter the cost.
~~~
“Can’t get them like this in Ponyville.”
Rainbow Dash licked her lips as she looked over the tofu dog that, to her, was near perfection. A warm bun, a thick, juicy tofu dog, and all her favorite condiments piled high like the ridge of a mountain. It was a balancing act to lift the heavily ladened bun to her mouth without spilling anything, but, after taking that first bite, she was in her own little moment of bliss.
Which was a welcome break from the monotony she had been suffering.
She had been in Manehatten for two days doing the research for Twilight, and it had not been as interesting or as fun as she had originally hoped. She had thought chasing a secret organization of zebras would be more than just reading in the library. She had thought Twilight would have her chasing down leads and roughing up some ponies to get some answers. But so far, it had just been reading.
A lot of reading.
A lot of reading of very dry, dull, straight to the fact history books by authors that probably couldn’t tell a story if their lives depended on it.
Taking another bite of her tofu dog, Rainbow leaned against the back of the park bench. Her eyes slid shut, and she stretched under the warm sun. It was a beautiful day out, the kind of day when she could fly for hours without so much as a thought. She’d pull some tricks, take a break to swim in a cloud, and then just glide around and enjoy the feeling of the wind.
Her wings fidgeted against her side, eager to make that day dream a reality, but there was still such a mountain of reading she had to do. Normally she wouldn’t care so much. She wouldn’t deny it; she regularly blew off her assigned reading to go flying with Gilda when she was in school. But Twilight was expecting her, was relying on her, to dig up the dirt on the zebras from her assigned list.
“It should be illegal to keep a pegasus cooped up in a library on this great of a day,” Rainbow complained before finishing up the last of her lunch. She bunched up the garbage into a ball and tossed it at the nearby garbage can. It sailed perfectly through the air, an arc that would make any ball tosser proud, and then it proceeded to hit the rim and bounce off onto a nearby bush.
“Oh come on,” Rainbow Dash complained. She got up from the park bench and hovered over to the shrubbery that lined the path. She found her ball of garbage as well as numerous other bits of paper and gunk that had not made their way into the garbage can. There were some old wrappers, a wad of gum, and a flyer for a museum.
Normally, none of those things would interest Rainbow at all, but her eyes were drawn to the flyer all the same. It was black with white lettering and showed a silhouette of the Manehatten skyline in front of a wanted poster. “Museum of Manehatten’s Phantom, the greatest mystery never solved.”
Rainbow’s lips spread into a smile, and she quickly read the address of the flyer before dunking her garbage in the can and heading skyward. The Phantom was arguably the coolest zebra Twilight had asked her to look into. A museum all about her had to be just as awesome. And, in truth, doing just about anything else would beat going back to the Manehatten library and the mountain of books she had left there.
~~~
Rainbow Dash landed outside the address given on the flyer, only to find the building was far less than she had expected. The “museum” was in an older part of Manehatten, in a store front squished between a dry cleaner and an old jewelry store that had been closed for a few years at least. Perhaps not the worst part of town, but definitely a section that needed some TLC.
The name of the place was painted across the windows, and a lopsided open sign hung on the interior of the mostly glass door. She pushed her way inside, an old bell ringing from the doorframe above her head. Unlike the exterior, the interior gave off a much stronger museum vibe. There were glass displays filled with posters and artifacts. Some were a little tarnished, like they had been fished out of somepony’s attic where they had been left to suffer dust and decay. The collection as a whole, however, was impressive.
“Oh, is that a customer? Just a moment, dear, I’ll be right with you.”
From a door behind a counter at the back, a hooved figure walked into view. It was no pony, but instead an elderly zebra. In a brief moment, Rainbow’s sense of adventure spiked. She had followed a forgotten flyer to a tiny, strange little museum in a run down part of the city with an old, non-pony caretaker.
She finally felt she had gotten to the adventure story she had been craving.
The zebra was light, wiry, and wrinkly. A stark contrast to her big, thick-framed glasses. Rainbow could already imagine this mare and Twilight getting along like they had been friends forever. The zebra came right up to Rainbow Dash, a wide smile stretching the wrinkled folds of her face.
“Welcome to The Museum of the Manehatten Phantom, where we house the largest collection of artifacts and paraphernalia related to the mysterious sneak thief, The Phantom. I’m Kalahari, the curator. Would you like an hour or day pass?”
“I guess a day pass,” Rainbow answered. “How much?”
“One thousand bits.”
Rainbow Dash stared dumbstruck at the old zebra, her jaw hanging open. “One thou... are you off your rocker? I can’t afford that!”
“Grandma, what are you doing?” Another zebra, of a similar light frame but decades younger, came out of the backroom. With a few nimble steps, she was up near the elder, injecting herself in the middle of the conversation. “I am terribly sorry,” she said before pausing a moment to glare at her grandmother. “The day pass is just twenty bits.”
“One thousand bits.”
“Grandma, I told you that no pony can afford to pay that.”
“And you should respect your elders and their wisdom, Kalahari. If we just get a few ponies to pay that much then it’s for the best.”
“Wait, you're both named Kalahari?” Rainbow Dash asked, using a forehoof to point between the pair.
“Yes, I’m terribly sorry,” the younger zebra said, shaking Rainbow’s hoof apologetically. “I’m Kalahari Jr, named after my grandmother, who is going to go back to her tea and her book.”
The elder zebra huffed, turned around, and walked towards the museum’s back. But she did not disappear through the door she had come from. She instead stayed at the cash register, standing there attentively, as if there was a dozen customers waiting for her to aid them.
“Sorry about her,” the young Kalahari apologized. “Do you still want the day pass?”
“As long as it really is just twenty bits,” Rainbow answered. She reached into her mane, fiddling with the bit pouch she and many others carried around in their hair. It was a simple way to always have a few bits and always amazed young kids who thought their parents seemed to pull money out of nowhere. “Where does she get the idea that anypony would pay a thousand bits for this place?”
“The museum has been in the family for a few generations. It was opened by my grandma’s grandmother right after The Phantom became a legend in Manehatten. It’s more of a tourist trap than a real museum, but—”
Kalahari winced and quickly turned her head to see the piece of balled up paper that had struck her in the back of her head. She then looked to her grandmother, who was innocently focusing on wiping off the counter with a handkerchief. “But it’s kind of a family legacy, and Grandma’s got it in her head this collection deserves a lot higher price tag than a twenty bit admission.” Kalahari turned, glaring daggers at her grandmother as she raised her voice. “Yes, she thinks we should be charging that when even twenty bits is more than what the city museum charges.”
“The city museum can stick its fine art up its nose,” Grandma Kalahari snapped back as if it was a simple, undeniable fact. “We’ve got real Manehatten history here.”
Rainbow Dash held out the twenty bits. “Well, that’s what I’m hoping for. The Phantom is somepony I need to know all I can about.”
“Well, you came to the right place,” Kalahari said. She took the bits, walked back to the register, and quickly exchanged them for a small ticket. She brought the ticket back to Rainbow, holding it out and revealing that it read “day pas”.
“They were on sale,” Kalahari said, preemptively apologizing for the typo on the ticket.
“Guess it’s a good thing Twilight didn’t come here herself then; she’d spend all day writing the second ‘S’ on all your tickets,” Rainbow joked as she stuck the ticket stub into her mane’s bit bag. “So, think you can lend me a hoof? What I really want to know about is how The Phantom disappeared.”
“Oh, of course, that’s this display case over here.” Kalahari guided Rainbow towards the front of the store, to a single display case. It was filled with newspapers and photos. Most were in good condition. Some looked like they had been left to wither in a closet for a few years before being rescued. The one in the middle, however, had the biggest, boldest headline.
CLOAK OF THE PHANTOM FOUND!
“All the newspapers were running the story about a month after the last appearance of The Phantom. At first, everypony thought it was a hoax, but then the police made a press statement that the cloak was genuine. They found a one of a kind diamond necklace with the cloak, a necklace that was reportedly stolen by The Phantom just before her last sighting. After that, it became a news frenzy. Every paper was trying to find out the truth before the others.
“Did they ever find anything?”
“They all eventually traced the cloak back to a dumpster it was found in. That’s where the rumors started that The Phantom had gotten herself caught during a theft and the ponies decided to deal with her instead of turning her over to the authorities.”
“Which is a load of manure,” Grandma Kalahari snapped from the back of the room.
“Why?” Rainbow asked.
“Grandma believes The Phantom just retired and left the city,” Kalahari explained before turning and slightly shouting over her shoulder. “Which goes against what everypony else thinks.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m wrong. The Phantom retired and left the city to be with her great love. Why do you think she stole that necklace in the first place, the only non-magical valuable she ever took? She took it just so she could leave it with her cloak. She took it so she could leave a message for the whole city that she was done and then left, leaving everything in her lair behind as well.”
Rainbow Dash perked up her ears. “Lair? She had a lair?”
Grandma Kalahari came out from behind the counter, wearing a toothy grin at her victory in grabbing Rainbow’s attention. “You bet she did. Something no history book will tell you is that none of the treasures she stole ever showed up on the black market. The police were sure if they could find The Phantom’s seller they could find her, but they never found such a thing.”
“That’s just because she was careful, Grandma.”
“Sshhh, I’m telling a story,” the elder Kalahari snapped before gently rapping her granddaughter on the nose. “And no pony can keep secrets that well. Even two hundred years later, none of the things The Phantom stole have ever turned up.”
“Actually,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, “the Alicorn Amulet showed up in Ponyville. Didn’t The Phantom steal that?”
“When did that happen?” Grandma Kalahari asked.
“A little while ago. This show mare named Trixie got a hold of it and used it to terrorize Ponyville for a little while. I don’t think we ever found out where she got it from, but she definitely had it.”
Kalahari smiled smugly and prodded at her grandmother with a hoof. “What do you have to say to that, Grandma?”
“Hush,” the elderly zebra said, once more whapping her granddaughter on the nose. “I don’t know where you get such disrespect. It certainly wasn’t your father. He’d never lipped off to me. Anyway, none of the other things The Phantom stole have ever shown up, meaning they are all waiting in her lair, the greatest treasure trove in the city.”
“How great of treasure trove are we talking?” Rainbow asked.
Grandma Kalahari put a leg around Rainbow’s shoulder and then swept her free foreleg through the air. “One of the greatest collections of rare magical artifacts ever assembled. Centuries ago, about the time The Phantom first appeared, the upper class of our fair city started buying up every magical artifact they could find. There were a thousand explanations floating around as to why. My own grandfather thought the upper class were searching for immortality. My grandmother thought they were looking for a way to see the future, so they could always ensure their wealth.
“Yet, no matter the reason, they were buying everything they could get their hooves on.” Grandma Kalahari stepped away from Rainbow, moving with surprising agility for her age. She went to the back of the room, pulled a large binder off a shelf, and then came back. She set the binder out on one of the display cases, revealing its contents of newspaper clippings.
“See, hardly a week could go by without news getting out that somepony had bought something. The Sun’s Eye gem was bought by the Trottingtons, the Alicorn Amulet by the Hoofervaults, and the Scrolls of Harmony by the Rockfellers. Huge bidding wars began to start at auctions whenever one of these artifacts were sold. The record for the largest bid ever made on a single object in Equestria was broken when the Tambelon Bell sold for about twenty and a half million bits.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes went wide. She stared at the scrapbook of newspaper clippings, her gaze fixed on the picture of the Tambelon Bell. “That much?”
“Yes,” Grandma Kalahari said as she turned the pages in the binder. “The Phantom of Manehatten stole them all without leaving a trace, like a ghost in the night.”
“And the lair was never found?” Rainbow asked.
“No, and that’s why my grandmother started this museum. She wanted to put together all the information on The Phantom she could gather into one place. Her personal mission was to locate the lair. You want to see her research?”
“Oh, Grandma, don’t,” Kalahari tried to interrupt. “She doesn’t want to see—”
“Yeah I do!” Rainbow Dash said. “Where is it?”
With a triumphant smile, Grandma Kalahari kept one foreleg on Rainbow’s shoulder, using her as something of a cane as she guided them across the room. “Just follow me into the back. We’ve got it all tucked away where my snippy granddaughter can’t throw it away.”
“That was an accident, Grandma. I thought all that stuff was old bank statements.”
“You knew what they were!”
~~~
“Sorry about Grandma,” Kalahari said as she and Rainbow Dash stepped out of the front of the store. While there was still a few hours of sunlight left, the business day was over. Other shops on the block were closing up, their owners waving goodnight to one another. Kalahari herself put a key in the museum's front door and turned it shut.
“It's okay. She told some great stories,” Rainbow said as she waited patiently on the sidewalk. “The Phantom was so much cooler than I knew. She stole, she fought, she ran, and then she just disappeared without a trace.”
Kalahari turned away from the door as she slipped the shop key into her saddlebags. “Yes, yes, it was all very...” She fell silent, looking around the sidewalk for Rainbow Dash but finding the pegasus was nowhere to be seen. “Rainbow?”
“Boo!”
Kalahari reacted on instinct. She spun, reaching with her hooves and grabbing hold of the thing behind her. Then, with motions given swiftness through repetition and practice, she twisted her assailant around. In the span of a few seconds she had Rainbow Dash pinned on the ground, holding one of the pegasus’s hooves against her back painfully.
“Ow! Hey! Okay! Uncle! Uncle!” Rainbow shouted.
“Oh... oh, I’m so sorry,” Kalahari said, quickly letting Rainbow up. “I didn’t mean to. It’s just, Manehatten isn’t the safest town. A mare needs to know how to defend herself.”
“From what? Ninjas!?” Rainbow asked as she rotated her shoulder.
“No, just... nevermind. Are you alright?”
Rainbow rolled her shoulder a few more times. “Yeah, I’m alright.”
Kalahari breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. The last thing I want Grandma screaming about is that I assaulted a customer right outside our front door.” Kalahari turned and gave a short wave. “Well, thanks for visiting. Don’t be afraid to come back and bring your friends.”
“Wait, where you going?” Rainbow asked, quickly trotting up beside Kalahari as she walked down the street.
“To my apartment.”
“But your grandma says she lives above the store,” Rainbow pointed out.
“Yeah, she does. She lives in the apartment one floor up, but I don’t live with her. We’d strangle each other in a week if we did, trust me. No, I live a few blocks this way.”
“Hey, my hotel's in that direction. I'll walk with ya,” Rainbow said, a broad smile on her face.
“Wouldn't you rather fly?”
Rainbow Dash waved her hoof. “Nah, flying isn't that great.”
“But weren't you bragging earlier about being the best flyer in Ponyville?” Kalahari asked as she finished locking up the shop and stepped over beside Rainbow Dash.
“Oh... well... I was just,” Rainbow tried to stammer out before running a hoof through her mane. “Okay, honestly, I'm kind of hoping I could talk you a little more about The Phantom.”
Kalahari let her head drop to one side. “I may work with my grandmother, but that doesn't mean I'm into this as much as she is. This is just a part-time job for me. I couldn't care less about The Phantom.”
“What!? But she's so awesome!” Rainbow Dash shouted, ignoring the odd looks she was getting from passing ponies as she walked with Kalahari.
“Yes, you said exactly that about a dozen times today, but I'm just not that into it anymore.”
“But you were into it once?”
Kalahari nodded as the pair reached the end of the block, waiting to cross the street. “When I was little, The Phantom's exploits were my bedtime stories. My dad told me all about her. I even went as The Manehatten Phantom for three Nightmare Nights in a row. But... things change, Rainbow. I outgrew her, and I think it’s high time my family did the same. She’s been part of our legacy for far too long.”
“Okay, but you have to admit she was the best at what she did. Getting in, stealing those artifacts, and never getting caught. She’s like a living, breathing Daring Do! You just have to respect her for her skill.”
The street cleared in front of the pair. Kalahari stepped forward, but stopped on the edge of the curb and looked back at Rainbow. “It would have been better if she used those skills for something else. Now, I’m tired, Rainbow, and I’d like to just go home. If you want to hear more from my grandma, come back tomorrow and I’ll give you a discount on another day pass. Otherwise, you should just go back to your hotel.”
Rainbow opened her mouth to protest, to try and convince Kalahari to talk to her a little longer. But Kalahari wouldn’t listen to another word. She stepped away, quickly crossing the street and leaving Rainbow in the dust. Yes, Rainbow could have chased after her. Following a zebra in a crowd of ponies would have been easy, even in the more culturally diverse Manehatten. Still, after receiving the cold shoulder, Rainbow glowered at Kalahari.
“Fine, I’ll talk to your grandma then. She’s the cool one,” Rainbow Dash spat. She then spread her wings and took off, heading for Manehatten’s skies to expend some of her pent up energy and frustration.
~~~
“Mah mah mah. The Phantom is a criminal. Mah mah mah. She’s not cool. Mah mah mah, blah blah blah, I’m so uncool I think a cool mare like The Phantom isn’t cool.”
Rainbow walked out of her hotel bathroom, towel hanging on her head. Her late afternoon flight had helped clear her head, but she was still miffed about what Kalahari had said. “Would it have killed her to talk about The Phantom for a little longer? I was going to leave her alone when we got to her apartment.” Rainbow pulled the towel off her head, hooked it around her hoof, and then began to dry the inside of her ears. “Okay, maybe I was going to try and talk her into grabbing something to eat so we could talk more over dinner, but she still didn’t have to shut me down like that.”
Rainbow tossed the towel through the bathroom door, shut the curtains to block out the street lamps, and flopped down on the bed. She laid on her back, staring at the ceiling. She stifled a yawn, the urge to take her overdue afternoon nap growing stronger.
"Why wouldn't she want to talk about The Phantom? She's got a family legacy all about talking about The Phantom! You'd think she'd be all over it like her grandmother. And they have so much in common. Kalahari and The Phantom are both zebras and they both have crazy skills.” Rainbow rolled her shoulder, still feeling some aches from when Kalahari threw her. “Yeah, they both have skill.
"But no, Kalahari's all 'She's been part of our legacy for far too long. I don't want to talk about her. She's not cool. Meh meh meh meh meh meh.’” Rainbow punctuated her mockery of Kalahari’s response with a “pfffft” from her tongue before her eyes began to droop. “Yeah, if I was here... you couldn't stop me from tal...” she paused to yawn. “... talking about The Phantom. She's almost as cool as the Wonderbolts.
"I bet… if Kalahari wanted… with her skills… she could be the...”
Rainbow’s eyes slid shut, her body lying still as she breathed calmly. The murmurs of her snoring began, like the prelude to a storm that coming in the distance. All was quiet. All was peaceful. All was—
“Wait a second!”
Rainbow bolted up, eyes wide open. In a flash she was out of the bed, out the window, and in the Manehatten skyline. She turned and banked, racing back to the library that had been the bane of her existence the two days prior. She raced in, ignoring the shouts of the security guard about no flying, and flew to the fiction section. She skimmed the shelves, muttering to herself. “Come on, come on, don’t tell me it’s checked out.”
She then smiled, coming across the Daring Do section. It took her less than a second to find the specific book she was looking for. “Daring Do and The Jaded Legacy.”
Rainbow zipped to the nearest table, once more ignoring shouts about no flying. She dropped the book down, flipped it open, and skimmed the pages until she found the section she was looking for.
The climb up to the ancient prison was long and arduous. Daring Do would have rather flown, but with the Dagger Family patrolling the skies, she’d have only clued them in to the location of the prison. Still, with Jade Whisper’s help, Daring Do soon stood at the entrance of the long-forgotten jail, which had been overtaken and reclaimed by the forest that surrounded it.
No pony had walked the halls in centuries, and some of the cells had become home to the wilder inhabitants of the forest. Despite this, Daring Do and Jade Whisper pressed on, checking each cell for the sigil of the Obsidian Palace. Hours slipped by. The hot, midday sun turned the forest and the prison into a sauna. But still they pushed on until, finally, they came to cell with the sigil carved into the wall.
“This is it!” Daring Do said as she stepped inside. “It has to be in here.”
“But where?” Jade Whisper asked. “Where would it have been hidden?”
“It would have to have been someplace the map maker would have been able to protect without being suspicious. A place only he’d be able to get to when the guards came in.” Daring Do’s eyes wandered the cell, eventually falling upon a skeleton hanging from the wall by a pair of chains. Scratching her chin, Daring Do approached the skeleton, gently nudged it out of the way, and began to carefully inspect the wall’s stonework.
“Hey, one of these is loose,” she said, managing to hook her hooves around some grooves on one stone. She pulled, and with a grating grumble, the stone pulled free of the wall, revealing a small space in which rested a scroll.
“You found it!” Jade Whisper cheered, reaching around Daring Do and snatching up the map.
“Yeah, well, sometimes you just have to know where to—”
Daring Do had been wiping the sweat from her brow when she heard the aged metal door of the cell slam shut behind her. She turned quickly, running to the bars just as Jade Whisper wedged a large, heavy timber against the door. “What are you doing, Jade?” Daring Do shouted as her hooves wrapped around the bars.
“Just ensuring my family gets what they deserve,” Jade answered. She gently opened a flap on her saddlebags and placed the map within. “After all, the Daggers were always meant to sit on the throne of the Obsidian Palace. Thank you very much for your help, Daring Do. Once we’ve conquered the world, I’ll be sure to send somepony to let you out.”
“Jade Whisper, you back stabber!” Daring Do shouted. She pulled and yanked at the bars of the cage. Yet, despite their age, the bars still held strong, leaving Daring Do trapped as her traitorous companion left, taking the map back to the rest of the Dagger family.
And from that one section of Daring Do, Rainbow Dash had what she needed.
“There is no doubt about it,” she said as she closed the Daring Do book with a snap. “Kalahari and her grandmother are descended from The Phantom. They’ve been keeping the lair hidden for generations using the museum as a cover and probably getting rid of anypony who got too close.” Rainbow Dash ran a hoof down the book’s cover, her mind drawing one more connection as a frown creased her lips.
“They’re part of Twilight’s conspiracy, and, if I can find the lair, I bet I can prove it.”
Grandma Kalahari glanced up from her book, looking to her window where she had just heard the rhythmic tapping. She was sure she had even seen something, but her old eyes made it hard to be sure. After staring at the window for a while, and, not seeing any movement, she went back to rocking in her squeaky old chair as she turned the page of her book.
Yet the tapping came again, this time with more persistence. She looked up at the window once more, and this time was sure she saw something zip away. With an annoyed huff, she set down her book, unwrapped herself from her blanket, stood from her seat, set the blanket on the chair, and then made her way to the window. Yet she saw nothing there, even when she pressed her face to the glass.
The tapping then came from another window, the kitchen window. Grandma Kalahari started wondering if she was just hearing something, but, the longer it persisted, the more she was sure it was real. She went to the kitchen, went to the window, and pulled it open before looking outside, at the street below.
And then the tapping came from the living room again.
Pulling the kitchen window shut, Grandma Kalahari raced as fast as her old bones would allow to the living room. She pulled open the window there, stuck her head outside, and looked at the street below for the pony that had to be throwing rocks or something. But still she saw no one, and as before the tapping had moved back to the kitchen.
“For Celestia’s Sake!” Grandma Kalahari shouted, racing to the kitchen to finally catch whoever was doing this. Yet, as she sprinted away as fast as her old legs would carry her, her mind skipped a step it had been performing up to that point. She forgot to close the living room window. And it was then, with a triumphant smile, Rainbow Dash flew in. She kept an eye on the kitchen just long enough to be sure Grandma Kalahari wasn’t going to see her and then she bolted for the apartment’s front door.
Rainbow wouldn’t deny, her whole plan for sneaking in relied on the fact that the doors between the museum and Grandma Kalahari’s apartment weren’t locked. If they were, she’d have to abort, sneak out, and try to poke around the museum the next day. But, luck was with her. It was easy enough to undo the deadbolt on the apartment’s front door, and the door at the bottom of the staircase had been left unlocked. She was in.
“Okay, where would they hide it?” Rainbow asked herself, removing a firefly lantern from her saddlebags and holding it aloft with a wing.
Rainbow sifted through the shelves of the storage room, which were crowded with artifacts unfit to be put on display in the museum’s front. Most were too junky or just a piece to an incomplete collection. Others were in simply too good of condition and were too valuable to be put on display without the museum getting more security. The Kalaharis’ even had a cloak of The Phantom, the same cloak that had been left in a dumpster when The Phantom supposedly announced her retirement.
Everything was at varying levels of cool in Rainbow’s eyes, from boring to outright awesome. But the evidence Rainbow was searching for came from the work desk that sat admist the back room’s shelves. A single, large, rolled up scroll that had been placed in a small drawer all of its own. Rainbow took the scroll and spread it out across the desk, the paper greeting her eyes with a map of Manehatten dated around the time of The Phantom. It was marked with meticulous detail. Red lines dotted buildings and rooftops, each noted with dates and names of some valuable item.
“Her escape routes,” Rainbow Dash said, her words a breathless whisper on her lips. “These are all of The Phantom’s escape routes!” She lifted her hoof, following a trail of red ink that had been marked with the word “Alicorn Amulet.” The line zigged, zagged, double-backed, but, like all the others lines, eventually ended with a red X.
“Is that where she got away?” Rainbow asked, leaning in to look at the map more closely.
“Hello? Is somepony down here?”
Every muscle in Rainbow’s body tensed, and her head snapped to one side as she heard a set of hooves come down the steps. How had she been discovered? She hadn’t made a sound. She hadn’t been seen. She hadn’t left a single trace. She had slipped in the open window, flew across the room, opened Grandma Kalahari’s front door, went down the steps, and... wait.
Did she forget to close the front door after going through it?
“Hello? If somepony is there, you should come out now!”
Rainbow just barely had time to dive for a dark corner of the storage room before Grandma Kalahari reached the bottom of the steps. She looked around briefly for somepony, and yet soon her eyes were drawn to the source of a warm glow in the room.
Rainbow’s firefly lantern.
Bullets of sweat poured down Rainbow’s head as she watched the zebra approach the lantern. She hadn’t thought to grab the lantern, the second mistake of her plan that was bringing Grandma Kalahari closer and closer. The old equine regarded the lantern with a lot of caution, as if trying to decide whether or not it was a sign of danger or a sign she had forgotten it was in the store room. Seconds passed painfully, Rainbow watching from her dark hiding place as the old equine nudged the lantern with a hoof.
Grandma Kalahari then reached over beside the desk, picking up a large baseball bat in her teeth.
The hunt had begun.
With ginger steps, the zebra began to circle the room, looking across the shelves as she kept the bat held tightly. She moved away from Rainbow Dash at first, heading towards the far corner of the room.
It was a moment of temptation. Rainbow’s eyes flicked back and forth between the elder zebra and the staircase that would lead to her escape. She could make it. It would be just a jump, a few flaps of her wings, and she’d be out without even being seen. Even if she was seen, she could outrun an old mare, right?
She lifted a hoof to begin her daring escape, but, even in that moment, Grandma Kalahari seemed to freeze, as if she had heard something. Rainbow retreated back, remembering all too well what happened earlier that day.
The young Kalahari had thrown her like a bag of hay that afternoon for just saying boo. If Grandma Kalahari was the master who taught her granddaughter, what did that say about the old mare’s skills? They were from a family of thieves, after all. A lineage that started with the famed Phantom of Manehatten.
For all Rainbow knew, the old equine already knew exactly where she was and was simply waiting for Rainbow to make a move.
Second after second passed, rolling into minutes as Grandma Kalahari continued to search the backroom. She was systematic and efficient, checking the shelves for missing artifacts as well as checking dark corners around the room for anypony that was hiding. And the longer she searched, the more apparent it became to Rainbow Dash that she was going to be discovered.
Rainbow’s heart began to race and her eyes darted around the room. She looked for any means of escape, any opportunity to slip away. The stairs still held the greatest promise, but now the zebra could see the stairs and would recognize Rainbow’s mane and tail. They’d then probably hunt her down, and she’d have to be on the run for the rest of her life from The Phantom’s family if not Twilight’s conspiracy organization as well.
The front door maybe? No, it would be locked. There were no windows opened on the ground floor either. The place was locked up tight. The only way out were the stairs. She had to go for it. Just leap out and fly away. Dye her mane and start a new life in a new kingdom. But whatever she did, she had to start flying right! Now!
CRASH
Rainbow had called to every muscle in her body to make her escape as quickly as she could. She called to her legs to make her jump. She called to her wings to make her fly. But, doing all at once had doomed her. Her wings caught on some of the artifacts near her hiding place, sending them tumbling to the floor. Those in glass cases smashed open, and Rainbow fumbled in the air from the counterforce that had been applied against her wings.
“THIEF!”
Screaming like a banshee, Grandma Kalahari started swinging her head as she galloped at Rainbow Dash. Her glasses fell from her nose, but that didn’t stop her stampede. She swung the bat again and again, each time getting closer to smashing the ball park slugger against Rainbow’s skull.
A daring dive saved Rainbow’s head from the experience of being a home run ball, but the old equine was on the warpath. Up, down, and around the storeroom Rainbow was chased by the spry old zebra. Time and again she tried to reach the stairs, knowing the open window in Grandma Kalahari’s apartment was her ticket out. But each time she was cut off by a swing of the bat.
“HELP! POLICE! HELP! THIEF! BURGLAR! HELP!”
The chase spilled out into the museum front, Grandma Kalahari’s swings growing wilder. The display case near the register was smashed, sending sprinkling shards of glass against the ground. For each passing second, Rainbow feared the bat would finally connect with some part of her body, would bring her down, and leave her at the mercy of the two Kalahari’s as Daring Do often found herself at the mercy of her enemies.
Still, with thoughts of facing an enemy as nasty as one from Daring Do’s rogues gallery, Rainbow’s mind began to search for a way to make an escape Daring Do would be proud of. That meant doing whatever she could to get away so she could beat the bad guys to the punch, even if it meant some collateral damage.
Rainbow stopped dodging and braced herself.
Grandma Kalahari’s bat swung true, hitting Rainbow in the side and causing her to yelp as the bludgeoning blow smashed into her wing. She was on the ground fast, but her hooves reached up for the bat even faster. She grabbed and held on tight, the strain on the zebra’s teeth forcing Grandma Kalahari to release the bat.
With her attacker disarmed, Rainbow quickly clamored off the floor. Her wing ached from the blow. It would be fine in time, but, for the moment, it hurt too much to fly. So Rainbow relied on her hooves, running and jumping onto one of the display cases near the front of the museum. She held the bat in her teeth, jaw tightening as she looked at the museum’s front display window. The thin pane of glass was all that separated her from sweet escape.
And so, gathering all the strength she could muster, Rainbow swung the bat.
~~~
“Surround the building! Pegasi patrol the perimeter. Fuzz, Code Blue, get some officers ready to sweep the building, bottom to top. We aren’t going to let her get away.”
The clatter of glass should have been the announcement of her escape, but it was only the start of something worse. A pair of Manehatten police officers had been passing by when she smashed the front window. Rainbow had hoped that they might understand, might listen to her when she told them of The Phantom’s living legacy... that was, until, she saw they were zebra as well.
And so she had to keep running. Through the streets of Manehatten she wound as the number of police chasing her grew with each passing minute. If she could fly, she could outpace even the fastest of their pegasi without breaking a sweat. But her wing was still sore from taking the hit from Grandma Kalahari.
That old mare could really swing a bat.
“Attention! We have the building surrounded! There is no escape!”
Rainbow crept up to the broken window of the abandoned building, sneaking a peek outside to the herd of police ponies standing in the street. Lights were trained on the building, pegasi were circling the roof, and she could hear the stomp of hooves.
Running into the abandoned building seemed like such a good idea a few minutes ago.
“You have one minute to surrender yourself peacefully! If you do not comply, we will come in after you!”
Rainbow slipped back from the window, trying to calm her panicked breathing as she rubbed her hooves in her mane violently. “Okay, got to think. What would... what would the girls do in this situation. Fluttershy, she’d turn herself in. I’m not doing that. Twilight and Rarity, they’d use magic. I can’t do that. Applejack, she’d go down fighting. I could do that, but that’s not going to really help anything. Oh... come on! Think! Think! Think! Think!”
“Grahahah!” Rainbow shouted. “I got nothing!” Her frustration shifted to anger, and she reached into her saddlebags and took out the map. “This is all your fault, you stupid thing! You didn’t even show me where the lair was! You just showed me The Phantom’s stupid... escape... routes.”
A thought clicked in Rainbow’s mind. She spread out the map on the dirty, dusty floor of the building and aligned it with what she thought was north. Then, she quickly peaked out the window. The police still hadn’t come in, but that wasn’t what she was checking. She was looking down to the nearby street corner, eyes straining to make out the words on the sign.
“23rd and... Hoof Stride Avenue,” Rainbow said to herself before quickly going back to the map. Her hoof ran across the page, searching first for one street and then the other. Finally, she placed herself on the old map, and a smile spread onto her face. A red line came from the street, into the very building she was in, and then crossed over the rooftops. She was on one of The Phantom’s escape routes.
And The Phantom was never caught.
“Okay, probably not the best idea following a really old map, but I am in a really old part of town.” Rainbow traced the line with her hoof, doing her best to memorize the route. She then reached the end, tapping on the big red X. “Phantom, I hope you were as good as they say, because you're my only ticket out of this mess.”
“Your one minute has expired! We are coming in! If you resist, the officers are instructed to use necessary force!”
The sound of a splintering door, followed by the stomping of hooves, reached Rainbow’s ears. She ran quickly to a hallway of the old building and looked down the staircase to see the dozen police officers charging up the staircase. For Rainbow Dash, the sight was the equivalent to the pop of a starting gun. The race had started. First place was escape, anything else would result in the lovely consolation prize of spending time in jail.
Turning and galloping back into the room, Rainbow scooped up the map and stuffed it back in her saddlebags. She then pushed open the window, an evening wind blowing through her mane as she looked over to the nearby rooftop. She traced the escape route with her eyes. There were places where some things had changed, but the older corner of Manehatten seemed largely the same as it had been back when The Phantom was galloping across the rooftops.
“Freeze! You're under arrest!”
The police came in the door of the room just as Rainbow leapt from the window to the nearby rooftop, gliding to a graceful landing. She could at least manage that much with her bat-bludgeoned wing, and it gave her the head start she needed. She could hear shouts behind her. The police were calling to their pegasi to follow her as others on the street began trying to cut her off. But she just kept running, thinking of the map.
“It’s just like a flight camp obstacle course,” she told herself as she leapt over some pipes. She saw shadows race past her, and, looking skyward, she saw the police pegasi closing in. “And nopony beats me at a flight camp obstacle course, even when I’m grounded.”
“This is the Manehatten Police Department Sky Brigade. Lay down on the ground and put your hooves and wings where we can see them. This will be your only warning!”
“Eat old hay!” Rainbow shouted back at the pegasi before skidding around a corner and racing westward. She glanced back, seeing a pair of the so named Sky Brigade swooping in on her. They were so slow. If she could fly, she’d left them all in the dust, but The Phantom didn’t need wings to escape the police and she didn’t either. She could escape too, just like The Phantom did, just like Daring Do would. All she had to do was follow the escape route and, as she looked forward and remembered the map, a smile spread onto Rainbow’s face.
The edge of the rooftop drew near. The building ahead was three stories taller, too great of height difference for Rainbow to jump up. The pegasi police called up from behind her. “Surrender, you’ve got nowhere to go!”
“I’m glad you think that,” Rainbow called back to them. “Because that will make what I'm about to do even cooler.” Rainbow jumped, body arching towards the blunt wall of the coming building as if she intended to fly straight through it, like a ghost. But even Rainbow Dash wasn’t that brash. No, mid jump she shifted her body, bringing herself so she landed on all four hooves against the building. The muscles in her legs cushioned her impact, and then she just let herself fall. She dropped, extending her wings just enough so she glided down the narrow alley between the two buildings as the police pegasi above crashed headlong into the wall.
“Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Better luck next time!” Rainbow called as she landed on the alleyway and continued her escape, dodging dumpsters and fire escapes until The Phantom’s escape route led her once more to the rooftops.
~~~
The chase had been going on for fifteen minutes and it had been some of the most awesome minutes in Rainbow’s life. Every time the police were getting closer, the escape route gave her an opportunity to dodge them and keep running. She ducked under pipes that police pegasi crashed into. She jumped and jived between rooftop vents to avoid unicorn magic blasts. And the earth ponies, they were still just trying to get ahead of her on the ground.
Now, only a couple of police unicorns remained. They were unleashing blast after blast of magic at her, spells she had seen would slap magical cuffs on her hooves and wings. One good hit, and her race was over. And, earlier, Rainbow wouldn’t have worried about it. The escape route had let her dodge and escape the unicorn officers before. The escape route had kept her safe. There was just one looming problem.
She was reaching the end of the escape route.
Rainbow had followed every twist and turn, finding the flow of the route natural, like swimming down a river. But it was all coming to an end. A few rooftops ahead was where the big red X was on the map. That was where the police had lost track of The Phantom. That was where she had made her big escape, and that was where Rainbow Dash didn’t have a clue what to do.
Still, there was no time to stop and think. No time to consult the map. She just had to keep running, juking, dodging, and jumping. Two rooftops separated her and the end of the route, then one. Then she was on the final rooftop, a single long straight away that lead up to the building’s edge. There was no way to simply jump the gap to the next building. A huge road, one of the widest in Manehatten, separated her from the next building.
The magical blasts came from behind her. She felt one graze her mane and she slipped to the left just in time to dodge another. She started running faster, even as the end of the building drew closer and closer. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to jump to. She could only run faster down the long, straight part of the route. She had to race towards the sheer drop, like when she and the other recruits were doing cliff dive takeoffs at the Wonderbolt Academy.
The academy...
Rainbow’s eyes widened with a realization before the smile returned to her face. She hunkered down and sprinted, building up all the speed she could. Her legs pounded the ground. Well-tuned muscles flexed, and her heart and lungs worked feverishly to keep up the pace.
“Stop! It’s a dead end! You can’t make that jump.”
Rainbow jumped all the same. She leapt off the edge of the building, keeping her back legs and wings tucked before arching her body and diving towards the ground. She felt the rush of the air and saw the ground looming. It was just a few seconds of freefall, not like the minutes it would take to reach the ground when you did a cliff dive at the Wonderbolt Academy.
But all she needed was a few seconds.
Moments before she would have gotten a very abrupt introduction to the ground, Rainbow spread her wings. The strain hurt. If she had tried to flap them at the same time, she’d probably have crashed, but that wasn’t the point of a cliff dive. A cliff dive was all about gliding, about maintaining as much momentum as you could from a straight dive to glide as far as possible. It was a lesson taught at the academy to make sure every recruit was flying as efficiently as possible. After all, sometimes the Wonderbolts had to fly halfway across the globe with little chance for rest.
And so Rainbow spread her wings out straight and pulled up, her hooves scraping the ground as she shot across the street like an arrow. She only had to bank a little to line up with an alley on the far side of the avenue, and, before the unicorn police ponies had even reached the edge of the building, she skidded to a stop in the alley.
After taking a few moments to catch her breath and shake out her nerves, Rainbow crept back to the edge of the alley. She poked her head out, just enough to see the two unicorn guards looking down at the street, like they were expecting to see a rainbow colored smear on the pavement.
“Sorry, boys, but looks like I win,” Rainbow said, slipping back into the alley with a confident smile. She basked in the glory of her escape for a few moments, imagining the tales that would be told of how she, a grounded pegasus, outwitted Manehatten’s finest. Maybe she’d become a legend of the city in her own right? What would her nickname be? Would she have—
“Spread out and find her! She can’t have gone far!”
Rainbow looked back, noticing several more police ponies racing up onto the scene. “Okay, maybe I shouldn’t stop running just yet,” she told herself, but then the question became where did she run too? Her hotel was in the direction of the police, and, even if she got back there, she had been seen. How long would it be before she was arrested because of her rainbow mane?
“Okay,” Rainbow said, starting to walk down the alley to keep herself away from the police. “The only way to prove that what I did was all right is to prove that Kalahari and her grandmother are related to The Phantom and know where her lair is. The police would have to let me go if I helped them solve one of their biggest mysteries.” Rainbow groaned. “But I still don’t know where the lair is!”
She rounded a corner, found a few garbage cans that at least had decently clean lids, and spread out the map on top of them. “Okay, let’s think. Maybe... maybe The Phantom was able to do a cliff dive like I did. I mean, zebras can’t really fly, buf if she could, then she would have made the jump the same place I did.” Rainbow put her hoof on the red X that marked the end of the escape route she had just followed. “She would have crossed the street, come into this alley, and then she’d...”
Rainbow paused, arching her eyebrow as she realized her hoof was now resting on top of another one of The Phantom’s escape routes. “Wait a minute. Could she have?” Rainbow began to trace the new escape route with her hoof, following it to the big red X at the end. Like the other, this X looked to be on the edge of a large avenue, something no normal pony or zebra could jump. And across the street from that X on the map was another one of The Phantom’s escape routes.
“She connected her escape routes,” Rainbow muttered to herself, continuing to drag her hoof along the lines as a smile spread on her lips. “She connected her escape routes! That’s... that’s awesome! If she couldn’t lose the police on one route, she could just start running down another one! And if I’m right, then she would have done her last cliff dive... right about... here!” Rainbow tapped her hoof on the final X, the one that was removed from all the others and, across a large street from that X, was a single large building in the very center of Manehatten.
A building the map labeled as “Grand Central Station”.
~~~
The city around Grand Central Station had changed in the centuries since The Phantom had stalked the streets, but the station itself stood resolute. A hub for Equestria’s train network, Manehatten’s Grand Central Station was considered a national landmark in more ways than one. It was a place of travel, a place of history, and a place for random ponies to form flash mobs on a near weekly basis.
But as Rainbow stood on top of a newer high rise which neighbored the aged station, she saw it under a different light. She saw it as a place with a secret, a place that kept something hidden nopony else knew of. The lair of The Phantom had to be somewhere in the station, Rainbow just knew it. It was only a matter of figuring out where.
She had made her own way to the final cliff dive marked on the map, dodging the police who were spreading their search further and further across the city for her. Perhaps they wouldn’t have taken a normal theft so seriously, but Rainbow had made fools out of them and now it was a matter of pride for the officers.
Still, at the moment, there were no police in sight. No officers on the ground or pegasi patrols in the sky. Rainbow had a clear sky and so, for one final time that evening, she leapt from the side of a building, tucked her wings, and dove.
She had to do a little more guess work with this cliff dive. The neighboring building was too new to have been around when The Phantom was alive. So she had to guess how far The Phantom would have fallen and how much speed she would have had when she banked up. In truth, part of the mystery Rainbow hadn’t figured out was how a zebra could fly at all. Instinct, however, told her that The Phantom had some way of cliff diving, of gliding, maybe even of truly flying.
It was a grand kind of escape nopony would expect from a zebra.
When things felt right, Rainbow spread her wings. Her injured wing was now rested from bludgeoning it took from Grandma Kalahari’s bat, and was able to hold strong. She banked up and zipped across the street. She flew towards Grand Central Station, moving like a blue blur against the night sky. She approached the station from the front, the great glass doors and windows shining with the lights that were still on inside. All of the building seemed to be designed to draw ponies into its main entrance.
But Rainbow knew The Phantom just wouldn’t use the front door. Somepony would have figured out her lair was in the station if, for all of her heists, she just walked into the station with valuable artifacts sticking out of her saddlebags.
No, there was something else there, but, as Rainbow Dash glided to the station, she couldn’t figure out what. The station just had its big front entrance and its roof. There weren’t any other doors she could see, nothing that looked like an entrance to a lair. Admittedly, she didn’t know what the secret entrance would like, but she had been sure she’d be able to spot it.
Banking, Rainbow circled the station once, checking around the perimeter. There was a lot of architecture to the station. Lots of statues, a big clock, some columns, but nothing that stood out. In frustration, Rainbow landed, her hooves clattering against the metal roof. She pulled out the Kalaharis’ map, and double checked everything she could think of. She had come at the station from the right side. Maybe she had gotten the dive wrong?
Closing the map, Rainbow lined herself up on the roof with the building she had cliff dove from. She put up her hooves and framed the highrise, trying to picture it lower. “If it was that tall, The Phantom would have dove, then banked, and eventually landed... right...” Rainbow took a few steps to the right, one step back, and then another tiny step to the right, putting herself in the center of one of the large metal plates that made up the roof. “Yeah, right here!” She looked around, expecting something to suddenly spring out to her eyes. A design in the stonework, a secret lever, anything.
But there was nothing.
She was standing right where she thought the Phantom would have landed on the roof. If there was a Daring Do book, the next clue would be right in front of her nose. There’d be an insignia or a puzzle or... something. But there was nothing, simply nothing. Just the old train station with its old metal roof.
Fuming, Rainbow Dash reared back, waving her forehooves in the air before bringing them down in a stomp. “This is such a Ji— Whoa!”
With a snap of metal and a crash, the metal plate Rainbow Dash had been standing on fell down, collapsing and taking Rainbow Dash with it. The landing was hard, Rainbow bouncing off the metal plate and crashing to a wooden floor, the gust of wind from her body and wings throwing a cloud of dust into the air. Rainbow Dash coughed and groaned, feeling the soreness of her rough landing in her chest as she began climbing to her hooves.
“Ow,” she complained before coughing again. The air was stale and smelt like an old bird cage that needed to be changed. A few birds even flew past her, fleeing through the hole she had created in a flurry of feathers. Her eyes burned from the smell and the dust, but she beat her wings to clear the air. Another cough, a sneeze, and Rainbow recovered enough from her rough entrance to look back over her shoulder.
Around the hole she had made, Rainbow saw a pair of metal hinges hanging from the top while, at the bottom, there was a pair of bent latches. Looking closer, Rainbow could see the metal rods the latches were attached to went through the roof and connected with a pair of bolts. Bolts that, on the exterior, stood alone in the sea of big rivets that had been used to secure the rest of the roof’s metal plating.
She hadn’t fallen through some random part of the roof. She had fallen through a door, a hidden door... a secret entrance.
Breath catching in her lungs, Rainbow almost didn’t want to look back. With the way her luck had been today, she had just found some maintenance hatch. But she couldn’t stop herself. Her head and body turned, slowly moving away from the door to look at the rest of the room.
The crawl space formed by rafters of the station was a place forgotten in time. Rainbow saw no way to enter the small space from the train station below. There were no trap doors, no ladders, it was a place that had been sealed off from the rest of the world once the station had been completed.
But what was there made Rainbow’s jaw drop.
She saw a bed, a table, and some chairs. There was a wooden crate with unopened cans of food, on top of which rested a can opener. It was not a place where a pony could live, but it was a place where a pony, or zebra, could hide out for a few days until the heat died down. It was the lair! She had found the lair!
She was standing in The Phantom’s Lair!
And next to the bed and the table, standing adjacent to some of the roof’s supporting timbers, were shelves. Shelves filled to the brim with things that seemed to share no commonality. But there was a single thread that related all the times. They were items Rainbow Dash had seen pictures of only just that morning. They were things both precious and magical in nature.
They were the things stolen by The Phantom.
Rainbow approached the shelves, jaw still hanging open as her eyes filled with wonder. “The Sun’s Eye,” she muttered, picking up the red, near spherical ruby that was the size of her hoof. It felt warm to her touch, and the interior seemed to flow with an energy all its own.
“The Scrolls of Harmony,” she said, placing the Sun’s Eye back on its small pillow before picking up the scrolls. Six scrolls, each emblazoned with a crest. She saw a red one, like her own Element of Harmony, and was tempted to unroll it right there, but then her eyes fixated on something else, something kept in a glass jar. There was a label painted across the rim of the metal lid, words Rainbow Dash didn’t dare believe as she read.
“Discord’s missing tooth,” she whispered, seeing the long fang hanging from a piece of string, as if somepony had purposefully fashioned it into some necklace. “I didn’t even know The Phantom stole something like this!” Rainbow whispered. Each relic was there... or, almost each. Rainbow found one blank space on the shelves, a space that had a shadow in its dust that looked like a square something with big wings.
She wanted to just touch every single thing on the shelf, to hold each like Daring Do had once held the Sapphire Statue, but, as Rainbow moved to the far end of the shelf, she began to notice something on the adjacent timber. Something was hanging from it, and, after stepping closer, Rainbow’s jaw fell open once more.
“The cloak of The Phantom,” she whispered, trying to contain her enthusiasm. It was hung unceremoniously on a single nail, and the threading that had once secured the hood was falling out from the strain of time, but Rainbow didn’t have any doubt. This was the cloak of the Phantom, and without even pausing a second, she reached out to take it.
Slipping it on, Rainbow felt the weight of the cloak. It was heavy, heavier than it looked, but she also heard the clinking of metal. There were metal rods throughout the cloak and a few straps, each just big enough for a hoof. Feeling herself on the verge of discovering something awesome, Rainbow tied the straps around her hooves and then raised her legs.
And as she did, wings made of metal and fabric extended from beneath the cloak. “That’s how she did it! That’s how she pulled off those cliff dives,” Rainbow said, moving her forelegs around a little. “She made herself wings!”
The excitement was at the boiling point. Rainbow couldn’t contain it anymore. She shouted, she hooped, she hollered, she bucked, she ran, she flew, she did loops, she zipped around the hidden lair like a bolt of unleashed lightning.
“I found it! I found it!” She shouted, shooting out the hidden entrance. She flew circles above the station. She did corkscrews, loops, dives, and everything short of a Sonic Rainboom as she celebrated. “I found it! I found it! I Found It! I Found It! I FOUND IT!”
She soared up high, cloak still fluttering around her body as she raised her hooves to the sky.
“I FOUND THE LAIR OF THE PHANTOM!”
“That’s the mare from earlier! Take her down!”
Rainbow’s joy ended in a flash. She turned quickly, tried to escape, but it was already too late. She felt the force of three Manehatten Police Pegasi crashing into her. Soon, she was face down in the lawn of Grand Central Station, being read her rights as other police officers, including a few zebras, closed in around her.
What do you mean this Chapter ends with a Cliffhanger?
====================
“Oh... my...”
Fluttershy took an anxious step back as she and Rarity stood on the front step of the library. They had knocked, gotten no answer, and opened the door to find the library was filled to the brim with tangled, crisscrossing yarn. Through the front door they couldn’t see any sign of furniture or books, just a dark tunnel through the yarn that wound into the library’s depths.
“I knew it,” Rarity said, shaking her head. “I knew this had to be the reason why Hoity Toity was in a fuss about a yarn shortage in Canterlot. We should have known better to just head off without a few of us staying behind to help Spike keep Twilight from going overboard.”
“Do you think they’re still in there?”
Rarity lit her horn and took a few determined steps into the library. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Fluttershy followed a few steps behind, the pair beginning to navigate the labyrinth the library tree had become. Tunnels in the yarn wove around, branching off at odd angles with bits of paper sticking out like fossils of a long forgotten time. It was like an insect nest, with passages going in all directions. Even knowing the layout of the library by memory, it took a few minutes for Fluttershy and Rarity to even get their bearings. A large S bend of a tunnel took them to the basement staircase, and they descended down and checked the lower floor first. When they could find neither Spike nor Twilight, they returned to the ground floor and continued to work their way to the bedroom.
All the while they called out the names of their friends, hoping to hear some reply.
The tight tunnels were claustrophobic, some so narrow only a single pony could pass through at once. The heat inside the library made it worse. With so much yarn about, Fluttershy and Rarity were soon sweating as the temperature in the yarn insulated tunnels rose by their mere presence alone.
They finally made their way to the second story bedroom, their manes and coats dotted with tiny, trailing fibers of yarn as they reached the bedroom door. They pushed it open and finally found a respite from the narrow tunnels. The yarn opened up, now only covering the walls as they reached the heart of the maze.
“I’m going to need an army of lint rollers to get all this off,” Rarity fussed, before turning the light from her horn across the room, letting it glow like a lantern. For the first time since entering the library, the pair was able to see a piece of furniture. Twilight’s bed had been spared from the yarn, though the rest of the bedroom was completely covered. The only exception was a little something that waved and moved as it stuck out from the yarn.
It was a little purple claw.
“Oh my gosh! Spike!” Fluttershy said, quickly rushing across the room. Rarity followed a few steps behind, the pair reaching the place where Spike’s claw stuck out from the yarn. Working as a team, the pair tried to free him from his fabric prison. Rarity spread the threads of the yarn apart while Fluttershy pulled. And, finally, the yarn gave up its prisoner and Spike popped free, he and Fluttershy crashing to the bed.
“Spike! Are you alright?” Rarity asked, quickly moving over to the bed as Spike sat up. He took a few moments to cough up some bits of lint before nodding his head wearily.
“Yeah, I’m alright.”
“What happened?”
“I was trying to get to some of the gemstones I keep in the dresser, but I got stuck trying to reach them. With the kitchen covered it was either that, or I had to find my way out and get something to eat in town.”
“Were you stuck like that long?” Fluttershy asked.
“A couple hours.”
“Why weren’t you trying to call for help?”
Spike began picking bits of lint off his scales and dropping them on a pile next to him on the bed. “Cause I didn’t think anyone would hear. Twilight flew off to get more yarn from Pasture Passover. She said something about getting it straight from the factory. She was going on about needing to add new stuff to the web after getting a letter from Rainbow Dash.”
“And might I ask where this letter is?”
Spike turned and pointed to a piece of paper strung up in the wall with a dozen connections coming off it. Rarity trotted over and read down the brief note before shaking her head. “I guess we shouldn’t have expected any less from her either.”
“What is it? Did something happen to Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked.
“Listen for yourself.” Rarity gingerly removed the page from the yarn that bound it to the wall before turning to face Fluttershy and clearing her throat. “‘Dear Twilight, I’m in jail.’”
Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hoof. “Oh my!”
“‘It wasn’t my fault though,’” Rarity continued reading. “‘I found a couple of zebras here in the city that I know are part of your conspiracy. They run a museum about the Manehatten Phantom, and I’m sure they are related to her. I can prove it too. I snuck into their place and stole a map that lead me to The Phantom’s lair. I actually found the Phantom’s lair. It was so awesome. There was so much cool stuff there. I even found a big old tooth that belongs to Discord. You know, that fang he is missing.”
“I didn't realize he was missing that tooth,” Spike said, tapping on one of his own fangs, imaging as if it wasn’t there. “I just thought he never grew it.”
“Knowing Discord, he probably has spare fangs for any number of inane reasons,” Rarity said before looking back down at the page and continuing to read. “‘But I got arrested by the Manehatten police. They’re charging me with a bunch of cooked up crimes. The stallion in charge of my case is a zebra, and I bet he’s in on the conspiracy too. I think they're taking credit for finding the lair when I was the one that found it. So, you got to get up here and bring some bail money before they do. Your Friend, Rainbow Dash.
P.S. Will you grab me a tofu dog from that cart on 5th and Wheel Street before you come bail me out? The food here stinks and I’m starving.’”
“What should we do? We can’t leave Rainbow Dash in jail, can we?”
“Well, judging by Rainbow’s letter, her time in jail may not be totally undeserved.” Rarity let her eyes glance over the letter again, slowly mulling over the situation before floating the page back to its place in the web. “Still, you’re right. One of us needs to go there and sort out the mess Rainbow’s made.
“So,” Rarity continued, “here’s what I propose we do. I am going to catch the next train to Manehatten. Hopefully, once I’m there, I’ll be able to speak with these zebra museum owners Rainbow mentioned. The simplest way to solve the situation will likely be convincing them to drop the charges, unless Rainbow did something idiotic like trying to run from the police.”
“But Rainbow would never do anything like that,” Fluttershy said before meekly asking, “Right?”
Rarity flashed a smile. “In any case, Fluttershy, I need you to take down this web and do something with the yarn so Twilight won’t be able to use it again.”
Fluttershy turned her head, looking about the yarn choked walls before focusing back on Rarity. “But, won’t she be mad?”
“Yes, she might be a little bit perturbed, but she’s gone overboard and we need to reel her back before she starts covering the whole town in yarn. And I wouldn’t be too worried. If Twilight is as sleep deprived as I imagine, the shock of seeing her web disassembled in any manner should make her pass out for a few hours. It might just be what she needs to clear her head.”
“I don’t know.”
“Come now, Fluttershy, it really is for Twilight’s own good,” Rarity said with an encouraging smile. “Besides, we all know of your wonderful skill with a pair of knitting needles. Surely there must be some little project you’ve been cooking up since Celestia’s art show. Some burst of inspiration for something momentously wonderful you could make with all this lovely yarn.”
“Well... maybe there is something I’ve been wanting to do,” Fluttershy said, fiddling with her mane for a moment. “But, do I really have time to even get started? Couldn’t Twilight come back any minute?”
Rarity stepped up to Fluttershy and put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “I have faith that you’ll come up with something if she does. Now, I have to get going. If my memory serves, the next train to Manehatten leaves shortly, and I need to pack a few things. Spike, would you be a dear and walk with me to my boutique?”
“Sure,” he said, quickly falling in line behind Rarity as she began to walk towards the stairs. “Do you want me to come to Manehatten with you?”
“Thank you for the offer, but no. What I would like is if you would make use of the quills and paper I have at my boutique. I want you to write a letter telling Rainbow Dash and the Manehatten Police Department that I’m on my way. Then, while I’m heading for the train station, I’d like you to take it down to Pastel Pegasus Packages. I’ll give you the bits you need to send the letter same day delivery. After all, what point is a letter of introduction if it arrives after I do?
“And then,” she continued as they reached the front door and stepped out into the light of day, squinting their eyes from the sudden change in brightness. “Then I would like it if you stayed at my boutique. I couldn’t sleep at night knowing my favorite little dragon could get stuck in that tangle of yarn again.”
“Really? You’d let me just stay at the boutique while you're gone?”
“Yes, you are an honorable, trustworthy dragon after all. Who better to watch over my home and business?” Rarity asked as the pair continued to walk. “Still, do try not to eat all my gems. I know you have a bit of a sweet tooth sometimes.”
“I shall eat nary a one, my lady,” Spike said with a respectable bow, as if he was presenting himself to a princess of a far off land. “And should I break this oath, I shall work to replace each missing gem with two.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Now, we’d best pick up the pace. I do have a train to catch. What does one wear when they are going to bail a friend out of jail? Hmmm... I’m thinking a nice fashionable suit will be just the ticket. Something that speaks of professionalism and a cool, level head. About the exact opposite of how Rainbow’s conducting herself, I’m sure. Still, if I might ask, have you gotten letters from anypony else?”
“Applejack sent one. We haven’t heard anything from Pinkie Pie.”
Rarity shook her head. “With Rainbow in jail, I don’t even want to fathom what Pinkie Pie’s gotten herself into.”
~~~
“Row, row, row your boat gently across the ocean. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, isn’t life such a silly notion?”
The tiny rowboat, barely large enough for its single passenger and her bags, crept across the vast Andalusian Ocean with each push from its two oars. A makeshift sail, made of what looked like bedsheets and a overweight mare’s polka dot nightgown, hung limply on its old broom handle of a mast. There was no breeze at the moment to carry the tiny vessel forward, but its passenger, chef, navigator, and sun-hat wearing captain Pinkie Pie just kept rowing and singing to the amusement of any passing fish.
At least, until, Pinkie Pie stopped. She brought the oars of the boat in, spun around in her seat, and withdrew a spy glass from her saddlebags, which were nestled into the front of the boat. “Let’s see, where am I?”
Pinkie Pie spun around, using the broom handle mast to keep herself from tumbling into the salty water. The boat swayed with her motion, threatening to capsize yet never going over the edge. “Ah, it’s exactly as I thought!” Pinkie Pie said, lowering the spyglass from her eye.
“I have no idea where I am.”
Normally, such a prospect would terrify and panic a normal pony. However, Pinkie Pie’s smile didn’t falter. Once more she was back in her saddle bags, rummaging around. She replaced the spyglass next to her emergency confetti popper. Then, she withdrew a black box with golden embroidery, which hung on a loose, weathered string.
“Now what did that pony say?” She asked, holding the black box in her hoof. She sat down in the rowboat, facing the opposing seat. She pulled down her hat and let her voice get scruff as she spoke aloud. “Ah, you’re a pretty pink thing to be flitting about this old gutter of a bar.”
With a quick shift of her body, Pinkie Pie stood up, turned, and sat down in the seat she had just been facing. She then used her free hoof to flick the rim of her hat, pushing it back up as her voice returned to normal. “Oh, don’t be silly. This isn’t a gutter. Gutters are supposed to catch rainwater, and this place has a nice roof on it.”
Pinkie Pie changed back to the first seat and pushed her hat back down. “Ay, that be true, but a gutter is also where ponies like me go to wallow in past glory and tell old stories.”
“Oh, I love old stories! Hey, do you know one about a Captain Bermuda Bones?”
“I can say I know a tale or two about Captain Bones. Salty old thing he was. Never quite as good as I was though.”
Pinkie Pie giggled as though she was truly talking to another pony in the rowboat, not just herself. “You're silly. There haven’t been any real pirates in a hundred years.”
“A painful truth I’m all too aware of.” Pinkie Pie faked a long swig of some imaginary drink before wiping her mouth. “Not many come asking for stories about old Bones. If you don’t mind a curious... mind, what’s your interest in him?”
“I heard he’s the only pirate Captain Nephthys caught but never brought back to port.”
Pinkie Pie laughed in the gruff voice. “Ay, his greatest and last act that was. Still can’t quite compare to my own. Why, I’ve done things that would turn that pretty pink mane of yours white with fear.”
“Oh? Did you tangle with a skeleton crew of ghost pirates?” Pinkie Pie asked, jumping up on her seat. She waved her forehoof around as if wielding a sword. “Did you have a ship battle in the middle of a whirlpool? Did you come back from the edge of the world by flipping an entire pirate ship upside down?”
Pinkie Pie remained silent for a few brief seconds, faked another drink from the imaginary mug, and then let a smile return to her face. “You, love, are just my kind of crazy. Though you missed the part where I found the fountain of youth. Not all it’s cracked up to be, though. It has a whole nasty business where you have to steal away somepony else’s youth. It was too much trouble in this pirate’s honest opinion. That’s why I found my key to a long life of freedom on the seas a much simpler way. A way that involved a beautiful mare. A beautiful, beautiful mare as wild as the ocean.” Pinkie Pie began to bring the imaginary mug back to her lips again. “A beautiful mare I have not seen in a very long time.
“I’ll tell ya the story, if ya like.”
“That sounds super cool, but the only story I really want to hear is Captain Bermuda Bones’.”
“Really? I mean, it’s a grand old tale.” Pinkie Pie began to sit up in the seat, waving the imaginary mug about, even as its contents splattered across the pony on the other side of the rowboat. “Why, you’ll be telling all your friends of my harrowing exploits. Then they’d all be telling everypony else of pony, the stallion, the legend that is the famous Captain—”
“No, it’s okay. I just really need to know about Bermuda Bones,” Pinkie Pie said, shaking her mane to get rid of the splattered drink that wasn’t even really there.
Pinkie Pie faked another long swig of the strong brew, whose odor still lingered freshly in her memories. “Love, you are a torturous sort, taking the wind out of a pirate’s sails like that. Why you want to hear about old Bones anyway?”
“I want to find his ship.”
“For the treasure?”
“Nope, to find out more about Captain Nephthys.”
“Isn’t trying to find Captain Bones a bit of a round about way to learn something about Nephthys? Not to point hooves, the round about way’s served me more than a few times, but even this seems a bit indirect when that old ship of hers, the Lunar Wind, is moored just down the dock.” Pinkie Pie shook her head and faked another drink, sighing in the gruff voice. “Greatest sin I ever did see, turning one of the finest ships on the ocean into a museum. Poor girl hasn’t had her sail flown in decades. To be kept young, but to be unable to do what’s in your heart.” Pinkie Pie had another drink. “It’s the surest way to break a spirit.”
“Yeah, it is kind of sad. Still, Twilight told me to just go where I thought was best, and I thought the best way to find out about a captain was to try and learn about her through the pirates she hunted. And the only pirate ship that wasn’t sunk or commandeered was Beremuda Bones’ Grey Griffin.”
“Ay, another bitter truth in this world. The old Grey Griffin was never found. Captain Nephthys never marked down where old Bones ran his ship ashore, and no one’s had the luck of tripping across the old ship and the treasure she carried. Real shame, old Bones has something of mine. Won it off me in a crooked card game where Bones had the zebra dealer in his pocket. Still, would you say your interest in the Grey Griffin is a purely... academic one?”
Pinkie Pie nodded her head. “Yep!”
“Ah, then lass... how about we make us an old pirate deal?” With a snap of her hoof, Pinkie Pie pretended to take the black box off a belt. She held it in the air in front of her, letting it twirl and spin of its own accord. “See, I got this special little trinket that will help you get where you’re going. You’ll get the answer’s you want, but, in return, I want all the treasure you can find.”
“Twenty-eighty split of any treasure, that’s more than generous for you lending me just a little thing on a string,” Pinkie Pie said, leaning in to glare at the pony on the other side of the row boat.
Pinkie Pie leaned in as well, grinning like a mad pony with anticipation. “Fifty-fifty. Trust me, this little thing is a lot more than it looks.”
“Thirty-seventy”
“Forty-sixty and if there is anything sapphire studded, I get to keep it.”
“Thirty five-sixty five, you get the sapphire studded stuff, and you buy me the biggest lollipop we can find.”
“Ya drive a hard bargain, but it’s a deal.” Pinkie Pie said in the gruff voice, sticking out her leg to shake hooves with the pony on the other side of the boat. Of course, there was no other pony there, but Pinkie Pie waved her hoof up and down in the air all the same. “Now, my pretty pink pony, I just have one question... what is it you want most in the world?”
PInkie Pie ended her one pony show, tipping her hat brim back up before she focused in on the little black box the old pony had given her. She cracked it open, seeing a compass needle spinning inside. “What I really want is...” She watched the needle spin and spin before the little red arrow pointed forward and to the right. Pinkie Pie tried moving her hoof a little and saw the arrow shifting quickly to compensate. She then giggled, and began digging in her bags again.
“Guess that’s what I get for thinking about that giant lollipop. It was so good!” She said, tossing up a few bits of candy from her bags. She caught them on her tongue and chomped them down. A swallow and satisfied sigh later, she focused back on the compass. She watched the arrow spin, her eyes moving with it before it pointed directly to her right.
It was pointing directly at a spout of water just a few hundred feet away from her boat. The first spout of water was followed by a second, and then the water to her right began to well up like a mountain. Pinkie Pie’s smile widened, and she quickly began packing away all her things as the bulge in the water’s surface continued to grow.
Battening down her broom handle mast in the last moments, the surface of the water broke apart as a large whale surfaced, its mouth opened wide. It called out with its whale song, and, as its looming form drew closer, Pinkie Pie could only raise her hooves into the air and shout.
“Yes! This is exactly what I wanted!”
~~~
Pinkie Pie pulled her rowboat up onto the shore just a few hours later. The trip had been delightful, and she quickly looked back to wave at the creature that had chauffeured her to the island. The whale hadn’t meant to eat her. It was just an honest misunderstanding. Still, the whale had known where the island was and gladly carried Pinkie Pie the whole way in his mouth in exchange for a few sweet treats.
It was exactly what she had wanted most in the world when she set out in her little rowboat, to meet a nice whale that would take her where she needed to go and would come back to take her home. The compass really had delivered on the promises of the pony at the bar.
“Thank you!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she continued to wave her hooves. “Wait, I mean... Waaaaooooooooooooo, Wowowowowowoooooooo, whhhhhhhhoooooooooooOOOOOOOOO.”
From the distance, the whale sung back a few notes before diving beneath the surface. A splash of his tale was the last thing Pinkie Pie saw, and she smiled contently at successfully making a new friend. Still, she’d throw Walter the Whale a “you’re my new friend” party later. Right now, she was a mare on a mission.
“Okay, Mr. Uncharted Island,” she said, turning to face the thick jungle that bordered the beach. “I know you know about Captain Bermuda Bones. So why don’t we just make this easier on everypony. Just tell me where to find the boat.”
The trees and underbrush stayed silent.
“Not talking, huh? Well then, you asked for it.” Pinkie Pie withdrew her bags from her rowboat and slapped them on her back. She tied the compass around her neck before shooting a glare at the jungle. “Last chance. You going to tell me what I want to know?”
The trees and underbrush stayed silent.
“All right, then this interrogation is about to get invasive!” Snapping open the compass, Pinkie Pie waited for the red arrow to stabilize. Then, with a high-hoofed march, she tromped into the forest. She purposefully stomped on bushes, snapped branches, and shot dirty glares at every tree, as if playfully expecting the forest to yield its secrets to avoid her physical abuse.
~~~
“Do I need to break out my Apple-Fu on you, because I will.”
Pinkie Pie bared her teeth at the jungle trees. She had been walking for about a half hour, following the little red arrow on the compass. Despite her brutal interrogation techniques, the jungle still hadn’t given up its secret. And now a single, great, ancient tree stood in her path. It was a stout column in a line of brush and vines that climbed all the way to the canopy. A part of the forest Pinkie Pie knew hid a secret.
“Last warning,” she said, rising up on her hind hooves and waiving her forelegs menacingly. “You should know, I learned from the very best. No pony bucks a tree like Applejack, and me and the girls have been helping her every applebuck season since she went a little coco in the loco. My hooves are certified green belt tree bucking machines. Yeeeeah! Watcha! Hiiiiiiyyyyyyaaa!”
Pinkie Pie swung her forelegs in the air a few times. Then, after planting her forehooves in the jungle’s soft dirt, she bucked the obstructing tree hard. Its leaves quaked, and a few birds which had been sitting in the branches above began to shout as they took skyward. Then came the groaning of wood and the shifting of dirt. Pinkie Pie, from a childhood spent on a rock farm, knew the sound and knew what it meant. She backpedaled quickly, as the ground around the tree gave way. The whole, ancient tree began to fall away, tumbling down the deep cliff face it had been growing on precariously. It dragged with it vines, underbrush, and a few cart loads of dirt, clearing a great hole in the wall of vegetation Pinkie had been facing.
“Whoopsie, maybe I need to get my hooves recertified as blue belt tree bucking machines,” Pinkie Pie said to herself as she went up to the hole where the tree once stood. She craned her neck over the edge, looking down the cliff to the small, sequestered cove. Despite feeling a bit sorry for the tree she had uprooted so suddenly, her eyes lit up. For sheltered in the cove was an old ship. And though weather and time had taken their toll, the ship’s fallen figurehead, a metallic, roaring griffin, told Pinkie Pie all she needed to know.
She had found the Grey Griffin.
Not wasting a moment, Pinkie Pie plucked vines from the nearby underbrush, tied them into a rope, and threw it over the edge of the cliff. She then rappelled down, her hooves landing on the soft sand of the cove within seconds of beginning her descent.
“Whoa, this would be an awesome place to have a party,” Pinkie Pie said as she took in the sight of the ship. Large chunks of the ship’s wood was missing. The mast had fallen. The only parts that seemed to have any true luck enduring the elements were metal parts of the ship: the nails, the hull’s copper plating, and the metal figurehead. Still, there was more there than she had expected.
“Alright, Bermuda Bones, what happened to you?” Pinkie Pie asked, climbing up one of the fallen masts to reach what little remained of the deck. Every step Pinkie Pie took on the ship caused the aged wood to groan, and a few boards even gave way under the strain. Still, with her Pinkie Sense warning she was about to fall, Pinkie was able to make her way across the ship and into what remained of its lower decks.
“Let’s see, old kegs, old crates, old chests with...” Pinkie Pie cracked open a chest with a hopeful look in her eye, only for her expression to fall. “ ...nothing but rank seawater and a crabby crustacean inside. Shoot, I thought I’d find a lot more than some old ship when I went looking for Bermuda Bones’ old ship.” She shook her head and continued to jump down through a hole, landing in the sand that had overtaken the ship’s lowest deck. “Maybe my intuition was wrong on this one? Or maybe I read my Pinkie Sense wrong? Or maybe...”
Pinkie Pie trailed off, coming to a stop mid step. Her eyes focused into a gloomy corner of the old ship, and then a smile spread onto her face. “Or maybe I’m just being an Impatient McRestless Pants, because I see something shiny!”
She leapt into the air and dove into the sand, hooves digging like a dog searching for an old bone. With less than a minute of feverish work, she unearthed her prize and held it above her head triumphantly. The golden bits glinted in the column of sunlight that shone through the holes in the vessel. And Pinkie Pie could only smile as she brought the treasure back down to give it a closer inspection.
“A gold and sapphire studded Strombus Gigas, better known as a queen conch shell. Now this is a pirate’s treasure! Oh, wait, is that...? It is!”
Pinkie Pie’s smile broadened as she gazed at the small hole at the spiraling end of the shell. In a flash, she had raced back up to the deck of the ship. She climbed to the very highest point she could find, the splintered railing on the ship’s starboard side. She looked out across the cove, to the gap in the cliffs that lead out to open water. It was a serene scene, quiet and peaceful with only the sound of waves against the shore.
It was a peace Pinkie Pie promptly broke. She brought the golden conch to her mouth, closed her lips around the small hole at the end of the spiral. She then blew on it, causing the conch to give up a single tone, a note that echoed across the surround cliffs. A note that seemed to overtake all other sounds, until it was the only thing to be heard. It was a sound that seemed to expect something, seemed to demand something, seemed to call for something.
Pinkie blew on the conch for as long as her lungs would allow before catching her breath and blowing on it once more for good measure. Only then did she lower the conch to look out at the ocean. She expected something to happen. Maybe the skeletons of the pirates would rise from the beach and then she could ask them what they knew of Captain Nephthys. Or, maybe, the conch was destined to summon ghosts.
But nothing happened. No skeletons popped out of the beach like daisies. No grim, giggling ghosts came out to socialize. The cove returned to what it was, a peaceful scene with nothing out of the ordinary.
Pinkie Pie couldn’t help but pout and glare down at the conch shell. “You are a horrible pirate treasure, you know that?” She said to the conch, as if expecting it to reply as she turned to climb down the ship’s mast and return to the beach. “Sure, you're probably worth a lot of bits, but you aren’t following the rules of pirate treasure. Pirate treasure is made up of gold coins, jewelry, and cool magic things. You aren’t a gold coin, you're too big to be on a necklace, and you're too small to be a hat. That means you're supposed to be magical. What kind of pirate treasure are—”
Pinkie Pie leapt down from the deck of the ship, expecting her hooves to touch soft, dry sand. Instead, she splashed down into knee deep ocean water. The cove was flooding, the water level rising quickly. Pinkie Pie looked around for just a moment, then smiled and nodded at the conch. “That’s more like it,” she said as she climbed back up to the ship’s deck.
The ocean beyond the cliffs turned violent. Waves crashed against the entrance to the cove with such force and frequency that the water driven in never had a chance to flow back out. Inch by inch, foot by foot the water level rose. It crested over the ship’s deck, wetting Pinkie’s hooves and forcing her to higher ground. Soon, only the starboard corner of the ship’s rear deck remained above water, and there Pinkie Pie stood with the conch still in hoof.
“Who calls upon the sea ponies?”
The water near Pinkie bubbled, and slowly, from the depths, an equine figure began to rise. Her features were regal, not unlike Princess Celestia, though her face was more pointed, like the face of a seahorse. A mane of aqua blue, fringed with white, flowed from her scalp and down her back like a cascading waterfall and complementing her lighter blue coat. She rose out of the water until her torso was exposed, though it was easy for Pinkie Pie to see the mare’s large fish tail swishing back and forth beneath the water.
Yet, despite the beauty of the sea pony, there was a coldness in her eyes. She held a trident firmly in her right forehoof as her fin like wings spread, making her look equally more daunting and more beautiful. She was joined by other sea ponies, who were more average in size, but no less threatening with the spears they carried.
“Oh, that would be me, Pinkie Pie!” she replied, waving happily. “What’s your name?”
“Queen Oceania.”
“Oh, a queen! Equestria only has princesses. Though, I guess they really are more like queens. But I guess Queen Celestia just doesn’t roll of the tongue like Princess Celestia does. I think it’s the extra syllable that makes a difference. Prin-cess, Queen, Prin-cess, Queen, Prin-cess, Que—”
The sharpened edges of Queen Oceania’s trident sank into the deck mere inches away from Pinkie Pie’s hooves, cutting off Pinkie’s babbling and forcing her to look into her own startled reflection in the trident’s polished metal.
“I don’t know what fairytales of the sea ponies still roam the dry land, but we are not the playful sprites of the ocean who sing songs and play with bubbles all day. And I do not take kindly to being summoned without reason.” The queen glared down at Pinkie Pie around the edges of her trident’s prongs. “How did you even get to this island? My patrols would have noted the approach of a ship.”
“Oh, I met a nice whale who brought me here. His name is Walter,” Pinkie Pie answered, bouncing out from behind the trident, wearing her characteristically unrelenting smile.
“So you are a treasure hunter, seeking to raid the husk of this old ship?”
Pinkie Pie shook her head as she used one hoof to dig around in her saddlebags. “Nope. I was just hoping to find someone.”
The queen looked back at some of her sea pony guards, who could only shrug their shoulders. “Who did you expect to find upon a deserted island?” the queen asked as she turned back to Pinkie Pie while dislodging her trident from the deck.
“Well, maybe pirate ghosts. I don’t know. I just knew I’d find somepony, and I found you. And... AH HA!” Pinkie Pie withdrew a notepad and pencil from her saddlebags, holding them out triumphantly as if she had just discovered some great secret to the world. She then leapt up to the guard rail of the quarter deck, took a seat, held the notepad in one hoof, and kept the pencil in her mouth.
“Okay, Queen, I need the truth and nothing but the truth. I have questions and you're going to answer them. I want a story, and you're going to tell me one about a pirate named Bermuda Bones and the pirate hunter Nephthys. I want to know what happened. How did the Grey Griffin get stuck here? Why didn’t Captain Nephthys try to take Bermuda Bones into custody? What is the best jolly roger you’ve ever seen? Who would win in a fight between a shark with nothing to lose and a pod of dolphins looking for trouble?
“I need answers, and don’t sugar coat it. I work in a bakery, I know when something has too much sugar in it.”
“I knew the land dwellers would drive themselves insane in time,” Queen Oceania whispered with a shake of her head. Still, after looking down at Pinkie Pie for a moment, the queen nodded. “Very well, but on one condition. I will give you this story if you will give me the conch shell. Is that agreeable?”
Pinkie Pie eyed the queen for a moment, but then nodded her head once. “I’ll talk to the DA about drawing up this deal. But until then, I want you to sing like a bird. What happened?”
“I will not sing,” Queen Oceania said firmly, finding no amusement in Pinkie Pie’s behavior. “But I will tell you the story, though there is little to it. Bermuda Bones won the very treasure you carry in a card game. He brought it here in hopes of entrapping me, and he suffered the wrath of the ocean for his insolence. I then thanked Nephthys for her aid and offered her one favor she claimed a few years later. The End.”
“But... that can’t be it.” Pinkie Pie shifted the pencil in her mouth, using her tongue and teeth to wag it disapprovingly at the queen. “You're holding out on me!”
“That is all you need to know,” the queen snapped back before holding out her forehoof, taking no notice that one of her guards was suddenly pulled below the surface of the water. “Now return the conch to me; no land walking creature is worthy to possess it.”
“No!” Pinkie Pie put a hoof on her saddlebags and leapt down from the quarterdeck’s guard rail. “I won’t give it back until you tell me the whole story.”
“The conch does not—”
In a flash Pinkie Pie drew out the conch, brought it to her lips, and blew. Its tone once more filled the cove, and the sea ponies covered their ear holes as if the sound it produced was much louder than it seemed. Even the queen drew back, trying to block out the sound with her hooves until finally Pinkie Pie lowered the conch from her lips. And, again, in the commotion a few more of the queen’s guards were pulled below the surface of the water, with nothing but bubbles marking their disappearance.
“Well, looks like old Pinkamena Diana Pie has the upper hoof now,” she said, gently bouncing the conch in her hoof. “So this is how it’s going to go down. You're going to tell me what I want to know, and we can all leave here with what we want. Keep trying to hassle me, and my good friend Detective Strombus Gigas is going to play a whole concert for you and your friends to enjoy.”
“Are you... the conch is not a creature with a name!” Queen Oceania snapped, raising her trident threateningly.
“Oh, you hear that, Detective Gigas? That sounded like lip. I think she needs to hear another song. I think we’ll call this one Good Cop, Bad Cop in E Minor.’”
Pinkie Pie brought the conch back to her lips and blew. The cove filled with the sound once more and the sea ponies cringed in pain. Some tried to seize Pinkie Pie. Some threw their spears while others leapt up into the shallow water of the ship’s deck. But Pinkie Pie remained an elusive target, holding the conch in her teeth and continuing to blow. She jumped, bounced, blocked, and otherwise dodged the assault of the queens’ guard, pausing her conch playing only to take a breath.
Other guards disappeared below the waves like others before them, the line of missing sea ponies forming a path pointed directly at the queen.
“Enough!” Queen Oceania finally called, waving her free hoof. “You shall have your story!”
Pinkie Pie cut off her playing, taking the conch away from her lips and quickly returning it to her saddle bags. “See? Isn’t the world so much better when we all work together? Now, why don’t you tell Detective Pie all about what happened. What happened to Bermuda Bones? Was Captain Nephthys involved? Where did all your guards go?”
“What are you talking about, my guards are...” The words in the queen’s mouth died as she saw the empty cove behind her. Except for the half dozen guards who had tried to seize Pinkie Pie and the conch, the rest of her escort were gone. “Where have they—”
“Get down!”
Pinkie Pie leapt from the side of the quarterdeck, grabbing the queen by the neck. The sudden additional weight made the queen fall to one side, and in turn let her dodge the incoming strike. From the water of the cove a grizzly, rusted hook surged out of the water, carrying with it a heavy metal chain. Had the queen not moved, the chain would have hooked her neck and dragged her beneath the water like the guards before. Instead, the hook dug into the rotted wood of the Grey Griffin.
“Whoa, that was a close one! That hook almost hooked you like a well... like a fish. Good thing my Pinkie Sense went off.”
“What hook? I can see nothing but your pink mane!”
“Oopsie, sorry.” Pinkie Pie released the queen’s neck, falling down to the quarterdeck before using her hoof to point to the hook in question. The shock in Queen Oceania’s eyes grew as she realized she had been saved by Pinkie Pie, but before she could vocalize a thank you, the chain connected to the hook snapped taut.
The chain on the hook rattled and clanked as the tension on it increased and decreased. It was the sound of something climbing hand over hand, something that soon pulled itself out of the water and stood upon the quarter deck. It was a minotaur skeleton, with the rags of a captain’s coat hanging from its shoulders. The long chains connected to the hook hung from its shoulders, eventually ending in a glowing, sickly-green lamp which hung where the skeleton’s heart should have been.
“Ah, Queen Oceania, I’ve waited a long time for you to answer the conch’s call,” the skeleton said as, with a sharp yank, it pulled the hook out from the rotten wood it had wedged itself in.
“Oh! My! Gosh! Are you Bermuda Bones!” Pinkie Pie said, her eyes filled with wonder. “I knew I’d meet ghost pirates on this trip!”
“Well, you haven’t yet. Ey, I may look the part but I am no ghost. You have to die first to turn into one of those, and I’ve been alive every day since I was left here. You remember that day, don’t you, Your Highness? The day you cursed this cove so that my ship was pushed back by the waves whenever it tried to head out for open water.
“The day you left me to die!” The eyeholes of Bermuda Bones’ skull flashed alive with green fire. He swung his arm back and forward, causing the hook and the chain to lash out like a whip. The queen, however, was on guard this time. She brought her trident up, and with it a wall of water rose up between her and Bermuda.
The hook was swept away, leaving Pinkie Pie looking on in amazement. “Wow! That was— whoa!”
“Take a deep breath.”
With that little warning, a pair of Queen Oceania’s guards had grabbed Pinkie Pie off the deck. Then, together with the queen, they all dove beneath the water. Pinkie Pie could feel the water racing past her mane, and she did all she could to hold on tight until she felt she and the sea ponies break the surface. She coughed from the little bit of seawater that had gotten in her mouth, then opened her eyes to see what was happening.
She and the sea ponies were currently riding on top of a wave conjured by Oceania. The wave was carrying them with great haste away from the cove, where Pinkie Pie could still see Bermuda Bones standing upon the deck of his old ship.
“Hey! You got my notes wet!” Pinkie Pie complained through the strands of her wet, straight-hanging mane.
“Your notes are the least of our concern,” the queen snapped before she cursed and turned her attention back to conjuring the wave they rode upon. “Bermuda Bones lives by the power of that cursed lantern, which has been fed the souls of his crew, any creature unlucky enough to wander close, and also the souls of my soldiers. He also showed no fear in facing me. I can only imagine he has all the power he needs.”
“All the power he needs to do what?”
“Look behind us.”
Pinkie Pie did just that, fishing out the spyglass from her bags and focusing on the cove. Bermuda Bones was standing at the helm of the Grey Griffin, the lantern in his skeletal chest glowing with a near blinding light. And it was a glow that seemed to be infecting the Grey Griffin. The old ship seemed to be putting itself back together, just barely. The fallen mast rose back into position. Trees from the island were ripped from their roots and used to fill the holes in the hull.
Then, just when the ship looked to be just barely seaworthy, the light from the lantern grew even brighter. Pinkie Pie and the sea ponies heard a minotaur roar from Bermuda Bones, and then, with Pinkie Pie’s jaw hanging slack in disbelief, the old pirate ship began to rise. Like a cloud floating into the sky, the Grey Griffin was given flight by the supernatural power of the lantern. It rose above the edges of the cliff, turned, and then began to fly after them as Bermuda Bones’ laughter filled the air.
“Well, you don’t see that everyday.”
“This is no game!” The queen snapped, her growing panic showing through the cracks in her royal composure. “That lantern was entrusted to us seven hundred years ago by a zebra of Savannah, and for good reason. It is a thing too evil for this world and too powerful for Tartarus. It was meant to stay lost on that island forever. I never imagined Bermuda Bones would find it. But now, if we don’t stop him, no soul in this world above or below the ocean will be safe. It will be another era of darkness, worse than even Discord’s reign.”
“Okay, then we’ll stop him,” Pinkie Pie said.
“It is not that easy. We would have to take the lantern from him, and to do that we would have to first bring down his ship.”
“Sure it’s that easy. We just need to find some help.” Pinkie Pie grabbed the compass around her neck, holding it with one hoof while the other gently touched on the lid. “And, to do that, I just need to want... the right thing.
“Yes, the thing I desire the most in this world is to find a captain who can get us a ship that he or she can then use to bring down the Grey Griffin who can then help us form a plan to get the lantern away from Bermuda Bones.
“Oh, and to never hang from a cliff, because being a cliff hanger isn’t fun.
“Or is it?” Pinkie Pie puzzled as the red arrow of the compass spun round and round.
“Barkeep, a round of your finest rummed cider, or rummed wine, or rummed anything really. I’m not picky when it comes to my libations.”
“No,” the bartender said, turning to look at the pony who had just sat down while letting his levitation magic wash and dry a glass. The stallion was red like the dirty, greasy bandana that was wrapped around his forehead. Though you could hardly see the thing behind his dreadlocks and old, heavily worn captain’s hat. “Your tab’s past due. I’m not giving you a drop of anything, unless it’s me drop kicking you out the door.”
“But mate, that pretty little pink thing was going to cover my tab.”
“For the drinks the other day. Not for the drinks today and not for all the other drinks you’ve had. No, either pay up or get out before I call the police.”
The stallion grumbled, pushed back from the bar, and got down from his seat. “I hope you know, this is a horrible way to run a bar. A bar is a place where rum and beautiful mares should be in high supply. All you have is no-libations and... mediocre mares at best.” The stallion paused to smile at one particular mare who was now glaring daggers at him. “Oh, not you love. You're a pretty little thing. Well, you would be, if you cut back on the cupcakes.”
The hoof of the mare struck hard against the side of the stallion’s cheek, causing him to spin around a bit bewildered. He rolled his jaw and fixed his hat back into position. “Though I can’t say you don’t have a lovely backhoof.”
“Still, I can tell when I’m not wanted,” the stallion said, heading to the door of the bar with dramatic flare. “So I shall depart, though I promise you shall soon miss my colorful commentary on your lives. You shall miss this charming rogue, and shall ever mourn the day you threw out the famous Captain–”
“There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
~~~
The stallion she had met at the bar a few days ago was still cringing in pain when Pinkie Pie came to a stop. He was covering his eyes with his hooves, having been dragged from the cool darkness of his self-named “gutter” to the eye-searing brightness of day. Still, while he shouted and cursed with words Pinkie wouldn’t dare repeat, she had carried him to where they needed to be.
“I found him!”
The stallion cringed and rubbed his eyes with a forehoof, trying to make the spots go away. “I hope you know you interrupted a very important parley involving dealings of the most important... importance.”
“You were trying to get drunk, weren’t you?”
The stallion froze, like a creature caught in a cockatrice’s stare. He rubbed his eyes again, forcing his vision to clear and refocus before turning slowly. He was standing on the pier with Nephthys’ old ship, the Lunar Wind, moored nearby. And floating in the water on the opposite of the pier was Queen Oceania, who was glaring down at the stallion even as a crowd of ponies gathered several yards away.
“It’s been a long time, Sparrow.”
“Oceania... I...” The captain flashed a smile, brought a hoof to his hat, and bowed as he removed it. “You are looking as lovely as ever.”
“And you are the same rum-soaked pirate,” she said in return. “Even if you haven’t been on the ocean for centuries.”
“For my health, your majesty,” Sparrow said as he returned his hat to his head. “The ocean isn’t the safest place when its queen has a trident to grind.”
“For good reason,” she snipped, the grip on her trident tightening.
Pinkie Pie bounded up beside the two, still smiling though it was one of nerves. “Not to get in the way of whatever history you two have, but we do need to get going.”
“The pink one is right,” Sparrow said before promptly turn and starting to walk away. “I have to get going back to that bar.”
Pinkie Pie pointed to the Lunar Wind. “Actually, I was talking about the ship.”
Sparrow kept on walking down the pier. “Museums are not really my thing, but I’m sure you two will have a marvelous time. Oceania can tell you all about the relics inside. They share that trait in common, they do.”
“No, she’s actually really bad at telling stories,” Pinkie Pie said, ignoring the fact Queen Oceania’s glare was now fixed on her as she trotted up behind Sparrow. “And we’re not going to the museum. We’re going out to sea, and we need a captain.”
Sparrow stopped dead in his hooves and spun around slowly. “A captain, you say?”
“Yes. I kind of helped a mad, old pirate skeleton with a lantern in his chest escape from an uncharted island and now he’s coming here to harvest everypony’s souls and take Queen Oceania’s trident. And we need your help to stop him.”
“Ah, I see.” Sparrow turned back around on his hooves, once more turning to leave. “Good luck with that.”
“Are you sure? This is your chance to captain the Lunar Wind,” Pinkie Pie called.
Once more, Sparrow stopped and turned around, managing to strike the same odd pose he had taken when he turned round the first time. “The Lunar Wind. So you have her seaworthy again?”
“No, the ship’s still a museum.”
“Then you have a crew?”
Pinkie Pie shook her head. “No, no crew yet.”
“Then, let me get this straight. You want me to captain a museum with no crew up against an undead pirate that’s coming to cause general havoc and mayhem and the other sort of things undead pirates tend to do.”
Pinkie Pie smiled and nodded. “Yep.”
“Ah, yes... of course,” he said, nodding his head as he turned to leave again. Yet, he came to a stop mid step. A smile slowly spread on his lips, and an old glint came into his eyes. His grin grew wider, showing a few gold teeth as his eyes shifted back to Pinkie Pie. “Sounds like just the thing for a pirate.”
“I thought you’d be interested,” Pinkie Pie said as she and Sparrow turned and began walking back towards the Lunar Wind. “Now, you’d better get to the helm. We’ll be setting sail in a few minutes.”
“I love your enthusiasm, but unless we want to go up against this skeleton pirate... what’s his name?”
“Bermuda Bones.”
“Ah, of course, the one you went looking for. Told you my compass was well worth the treasure split we negotiated. Still, if we’re going to be going against Mr. Skeleton Bones without meeting our own horrible fates, we are going to need a bit more sea-worthy vessel, savvy?”
“Oh, I know, just give me about three minutes and twenty five seconds.”
“You get three minutes and twenty four and not a second more.”
Pinkie Pie saluted Sparrow before quickly turning about and galloping to the end of the pier. There, she jumped up onto the barrel, grabbing the attention of all the ponies who had been looking at Oceania from a distance. “Hey, listen everypony! I need your help with something. Something really nasty is coming this way and we need to get the Lunar Wind shipshape! And we can do it if everypony helps.”
“And why would we just help like that? It’s just an old ship.”
“Why, this just isn’t some old ship. Why, this ship could be...” Pinkie Pie paused a moment, striking a pose as a broad smile spread on her lips. “Hydrodynamic.” She switched to a second pose, her smile only growing. “Emblematic.” Pinkie Pie snatched a large, black jacket from someone in the crowd, just to twirl it around before throwing it in the air. “Ultramatic.”
“Why couldn’t it be Sea Lightning!”
Pinkie Pie started tapping her hoof on the barrel, the beat traveling through the pier and seeming to infect the audience as she rocked her hips. “We’ll clean out the junk but leave crane game on the deck, oh yeah.”
“Keep talkin’, whoa keep talkin’!” The crowd shouted back.
“Fresh carbon fiber sails and riggings right off the shelves, oh yeah.”
“We’ll get her ready! Need to get her ready!”
“With a mast so high, she’ll be scraping at the sky. She’ll be so cool she’ll make any sailor drool, Sea Lightning!”
The crowd was bouncing with Pinkie Pie, stampeding down the pier to the ship’s gangplank. “Go! Go! Go! Go go go go go go!”
“Go, Sea Lightning, you're burning up that nautical mile,” Pinkie Pie sang as she bounded from the barrel that had been her platform to the ship’s bow. “Go, Sea Lightning, you're coasting when the rest are at full mast. You are supreme, ponies will scream, for Sea Lightning!”
“Go! Go! Go! go go go go go go!” The crowd sang along, each hoof, horn, and wing already at work clearing away the clutter the ship had gathered from its years as a museum.
“We’ll get some big cannons and plenty kegs of rum, oh yeah. “ Pinkie Pie wiggled her hips again as she strutted down the guard rail of the middeck. “A new wheel at the helm and we’ll be ready for that Bermuda Scum, oh yeah.” Pinkie leapt from the rail, getting caught by a few of the ponies caught up in her musical number.
“With new rope, nets, and oil, it will all be worth the toil. That old boney pirate won’t be ready for this riot, Sea Lightning!”
“Go! Go! Go! Go go go go go go!”
Pinkie Pie’s song hit its chorus and instrumental interlude. And with the ever growing army of ponies working on the ship, it began to transform before their eyes. The museum display cases that had been placed in its hold were tossed unceremoniously to the pier, to be replaced with barrels and crates of supplies. Cannons were fastened into place, sails hung from the mast. In the matter of a minute and twenty four seconds, the decades were turned back until the old ship was at her pirate hunting prime once more.
And all the while Oceania looked on in stunned disbelief while Sparrow drank from a quickly procured bottle of rum and, on occasion, used his hoof to gently close Oceania’s hanging jaw.
With the work done, Pinkie Pie stood at the top of the gangplank, dressed in a full pirate captain’s ensemble as the other ponies, now looking as pirates, danced and sang with her down the gangplank. “Go, Sea Lightning, you're burning up that nautical mile.”
“Go, Sea Lightning. Go, Sea Lightning!”
“Go, Sea Lightning, you’re coasting when the rest are at full mast.”
“Go, Sea Lightning, Go, Sea Lightning!”
“You are supreme, ponies will scream, for Sea Lightning!”
The other ponies raised their hooves and their voices, singing out like a choral chorus. “Lightning, lightning, lightning. Lightning, lightning, lightning!”
In a final grand pose, Pinkie Pie and all the ponies who had aided in the restoration jumped down to the pier. “Lightning!”
The sails of the ship unfurled, filling and billowing with the wind that had risen from the ocean. And it was then Pinkie Pie’s enchantment over the other ponies seemed to end. They cheered, hollered, and laughed as they began to leave the pier, going back to their business while Pinkie Pie waved to them happily. “Thanks for all the hard work! You all did great!”
Queen Oceania opened her mouth to say something, to try and define what she had seen, but she could only cover her eyes and shake her head. “Insane, everyone on land has gone insane.”
“Nope, just harnessing the second most powerful magic in all of Equestria,” Pinkie Pie answered.
“And to great effect, I must say,” Sparrow added, unphased by what he had seen as he climbed the gangplank. “Top notch repairs. She looks better than I ever remember. But then again, I only really got to see her when she was at full sail trying to hunt me down.”
“Well, the song was really meant about fixing a cart, but I’m glad I could make it work,” Pinkie Pie said as she climbed up the gangplank behind him.
“We aren’t calling her Sea Lightning though,” Sparrow said as he and Pinkie Pie climbed the steps to the quarter deck, Sparrow’s hooves quickly finding their way to the helm. “It’s a disgrace to her proud legend, the greatest pirate hunting ship on the seas.”
“Oh, of course not. That was just for the song. Sure, Lunar Wind is three syllables like Sea Lightning, but the stress on those three syllables is all off.”
“Well good, then we are in agreement. Now all we need is a crew.” Sparrow flashed a smile. “Think you can drum up some proper pirates with another little musical number of yours?”
“Sorry, I Pinkie Promised Princess Celestia I wouldn’t do more than one musical montage in one day. Besides, Oceania was going to use her trident to give some of her sea ponies legs for a little while. She says they know the ropes and the riggings! Which is good, because most ponies really only know the ropes.”
The semi transformed sea ponies began to walk onto the deck at that time, their entire fish tail lower halves changed. They now each had a pair of scaly legs, though in place of a normal pony tail they each still had a fish like flipper extending out behind them.
“Well, despite their less than appealing fishy bits, I suppose that’s as close to proper pirates were going to get in this day and age.” Sparrow gave the helm a small test turn, the smile on his face only growing. “Oh, but she feels ready. First Mate Pink! Let’s get underway.”
“Aye, Aye, Captain!” Pinkie Pie chirped with a salute before turning and shouting to the deck. “Ahoy, all hooves on deck! Cast off get ready to sail! We meet the Grey Griffin in open water beyond the harbor! Ready the guns and hoist the colors!”
The leg gifted seaponies nodded and began to work frantically, and both Pinkie Pie and Sparrow couldn’t help but watch as one in particular clamored to the top of the ship’s highest mast carrying a small black bundle. Up the netting he climbed, reaching the crow’s nest and hooking the flag to its line. Then, all it took was a few good pulls on the rope and the Lunar Wind was flying its pirate flag.
A black flag with pink bones and a skeleton pony head with a big, pink, poofy mane.
“Pink, lass... I don’t think you get the point of a pirate’s flag.”
“I don’t care! That’s the seventh best thing I’ve ever seen!”
~~~
“Ships off the starboard bow!”
Pinkie Pie and Sparrow moved to the right side of the quarterdeck, leaving the helm in the hooves of a seapony. Each withdrew their own spyglass. “I don’t see any ship,” Sparrow complained, only for Pinkie to use a free hoof to nudge his spyglass skyward, to where the Grey Griffin was floating next to the smoldering wreckage of an airship.
“Ah, yes, there it is. Well, it does look like Celestia’s finest didn’t fare so well against Bones. I must say, they just don’t train pirate hunting naval officers like they used to.”
“So, what are your orders, Captain?” Pinkie Pie asked, lowering her spyglass.
“Well, if they were on the water I would order an ahead full sail.” Sparrow lowered his spyglass, tucking it in his jacket before beginning to wave his hooves about. “I would order for the cannons to be readied and, when the moment was just right, I would bellow aloud for all to hear. I would bellow ‘fire’ then you would bellow ‘fire’, and so on and so forth. And then, once ‘fire’ had been reiterated three or, on rare occasion, four times the cannons would... fire. That being the point of the whole charade, you see.”
“That sounds like a great plan!”
“Ah, it is a tried and true method of fighting upon the ocean. Only one problem, our adversary has a significant height advantage.” Sparrow retook the helm of the ship before leaning over to look at Pinkie Pie. “So, my dear First Mate Pink, if you happen to have any suggestions for clipping the Griffin’s wings I would more than gladly take credit for it.”
“Well... I do have an idea involving a mustache, but I think we should start with plan B.”
“Ah, save the best plan in case we need it. Aye, then what is Plan B?”
“We party Pirate Pinkie Pie style!” She said before bringing her hoof to her mouth and whistling. In a flash, some of the crew carried a few large crates out into the center of the ship’s deck. Pry bars were used to remove the lids, showing the heavy munitions Pinkie Pie had picked up. Fireworks, of sizes that would blow a hoof clean off somepony’s leg if mishandled. And there were a lot of them.
“How are fireworks supposed to bring down a ship being powered by supernatural forces?” Queen Oceania asked, the royal sea pony forced to sit back seat to Pinkie and Sparrow’s insanity from a large trough of water at the back of the quarterdeck.
“Oh, they’re not,” Pinkie Pie said. “They’re just meant to invite Bermuda Bones to the party.”
~~~
“You’d think a modern flying ship would have put up a better fight,” Bermuda Bones said to himself as he stepped back onto the deck of the Grey Griffin, wrapping his grisly hook and chain back around his chest. He rattled his bones and walked up the steps of the ship back to the helm. He put one hand on the great wheel and another on the neighboring compass. He gave it a tap, to ensure the arrow was pointing true, then pulled his ship away.
In his and the Grey Griffin’s wake, Bermuda Bones left the wreckage of the S.S. Knight. The airship was clinging to the air with the last breath’s of its life. The balloon that kept it suspended threatened to come undone at any moment. The sides of the ship were peppered with holes from the Grey Griffin’s cannons. And the Knight’s crew lay about the ship, bodies and minds well but souls harvested to feed the lantern which glowed a little bit brighter within Bermuda’s ribcage.
“Now, a few degrees to starboard and—what the!?”
The loud pop drew Bermuda’s eyes to the port side of his ship, where he saw just a few glimpses of something bursting. Soon, another pop came from the starboard side, and those two were joined by dozens of other. And though it was hard to see in the bright light of day, Bermuda took notice of the flakes of fire and smoke.
Moving quickly to one side of the ship, Bermuda Bones looked all around for the source of the attack. Then he looked down, the eyeholes of his skull focusing on the ship to which the many trails of smoke lead. Still, Bermuda’s momentary panic became one of vengeful glee. He knew the Lunar Wind when he saw it, and, while Captain Nephthys had long since passed away, he would take great pleasure in sending her famed ship to a watery grave.
Responding to the will of his master, the ship began to descend as he rushed back to the helm. The cannon ports opened, and all about the ship the lantern’s magic worked. And with a delighted cackle, Bermuda spun the ship’s wheel and pointed the bow straight at the Lunar Wind.
~~~
“She’s come about and is on an intercept course, Captain!” The sea pony in the crow’s nest shouted.
“Good, good! We’ve gotten his attention. He shall come straight to us, and then... we will...” Sparrow turned his head away from the ship’s wheel, glancing between Pinkie Pie and Oceania. “Just how do we put Bones’ bones back where they belong?”
“Separate the lantern from his skeleton,” Oceania said. “He can only command its power as long as he shares some physical contact with it or its chain.”
“Oh, well, that should be easy enough.”
Pinkie Pie rolled her head to the side. “Well, it would be, but Bermuda’s kind of wrapped the chains all around his rib cage. It actually looks really menacing. A really good look for a spooky pirate undead skeleton thing. But it also makes taking the lantern pretty difficult. That and the lantern is inside his ribcage.”
“Well, the good news just keeps on coming,” Sparrow said, still smiling through the sarcasm in his voice. Still, he prepared the Lunar Wind for battle. A spin of the helm, and the ship’s course took a hard to port. Sea ponies rushed to the canons, tilting them up as far as they would go as all eyes were kept trained on the descending Grey Griffin.
“Steady! Steady!” Sparrow called. They watched as the Grey Griffin came within a breath of the ocean’s surface, but it did not land completely. No, it hovered above the waves, keeping the benefit of speed gifted to it as it continued on its course to the Lunar Wind, a course that had changed from intercept to collision.
“Captain, she’s going to ram us! Orders!”
“Steady!” Sparrow shouted to the sea pony crew, his hooves remaining firmly planted on the helm. He turned the ship again, bring her about so the tip of the bow faced the Grey Griffin. The two ships were now racing to one another in a deadly game of chicken, yet neither captain flinched.
“Steady! Steady! Steady!”
“You are going to sink us before the battle has even begun! Turn the ship!” Oceania snapped.
Sparrow glanced over his shoulder just briefly. “Hey, no back seat captaining!” he shouted back, even as his hooves began to turn the ship ever so slightly. The Lunar Wind turned to her port side, and, with a teeth-grinding crunch, the two ships collided. Wood and metal scraped against one another as the two ships slid past, and just when the two ships were board to board, Sparrow raised his voice and swung one of his forelegs.
“Fire!”
The cannons of the Lunar Wind roared, the cannonballs tearing into the side of the Grey Griffin. Wood and metal flung off in a thousand directions, and the Grey Griffin veered off its course by the sheer force of the impact. But not before, with a loud clank of metal, Bermuda Bones had landed his hook in the mast of the Lunar Wind.
Laughing like a demon of tartarus, Bermuda Bones swung on the hook’s chain from the Grey Griffin to the Lunar Wind, a cutlass in his free hand. He took a swing at the sea pony crew as he swung past, laughing all the time as he went back and forth. The sea ponies were forced to flee the deck, jumping overboard just to dodge the swipes of Bermuda’s blade.
And once the deck was cleared, Bermuda released his grip on the chain, landing with a thud against the deck before looking up at the helm of the ship. “Sparrow.”
“Bermuda, it’s been ages. How have you been? Have you lost weight?” Sparrow shouted from the helm.
“Yes, I have, just as you’ve lost your sense throwing your lot in with the queen and that ball of cotton candy.”
“Oh! Cotton candy! Where!?” Pinkie Pie shouted, her eyes darting about in excitement.
“Aye, First Mate Pink might be very... pink, but better to throw my lot in with them than with a pirate that cheats at our time honored tradition of cards.”
“The time-honored tradition is to cheat at cards, Sparrow,” Bermuda shouted back. “You just didn’t cheat well enough.”
“I cheated plenty well, thank you,” Sparrow argued as he stepped away from the helm and began descending the steps to the main deck. “But I at least had the integrity not to bribe the dealer. That goes against the pirate code, mate.”
“The pirate code really is more a set of guidelines than actual rules.”
“Hey,” Sparrow snapped before wrapping his mouth around the hilt of his sword and drawing it. “That’s my line.”
“I can’t help it if you’ve always been second best,” Bermuda laughed before lunging, his cutlass clashing with Sparrow’s sword. Metal clashed against metal and salty curses were thrown back and forth, a full and proper pirate duel like the world had not seen in a hundred years. Pinkie Pie was balancing on top of the guard rail, standing on the tips of her hooves as she watched the fight, not wanting to miss a moment.
“That’s it Sparrow! Give him the old one-two. Wait, look out! Parry! Parry!”
“I know how to fight, thank you very much!” Sparrow shouted through the sword in his teeth before he quickly leapt to one side, dodging a lunge from Bermuda.
“He does know how to fight, but he faces an opponent that will not tire,” Oceania said as she sat up in her troth of water, hoof gripped firmly on her trident. “Bermuda can’t be beaten by conventional sword. We have to focus on getting the lantern away from him.”
Pinkie Pie glanced away from the fight for a moment, pouting like a filly being taken out of a movie theater before the movie was done. But she then sighed and nodded her head. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“Good, now, I think what we should do is—”
“Hold onto that thought for one second.” Pinkie Pie trotted up to the queen, her face once more carrying her sweet, bubbly smile. She stood before the queen silently for a moment, as if intending to speak yet not even putting forth the effort to open her mouth. The pair stared at one another a few moments.
“Hold on for—” Oceania tried to ask, only for her words to be met by Pinkie’s swift actions.
In the briefness of a few moments, Pinkie Pie had reached forward, grabbed Oceania’s trident, turned on her hooves, and threw the great magical weapon. Like an arrow released from a bow the trident flew, and with a resounding thunk the prongs of the trident drove into the wood of the mast.
And stuck between the trident’s prongs and the mast was the hook connected to Bermuda Bones chain.
“What are you doing!?” Oceania shouted, her hooves grasping for the trident that had been there just seconds before.
Pinkie Pie smiled, as if the sense behind her actions was evident to everypony. “Oh, just tying down the leash. Now I got to take this old dog for his walk.” Pinkie then broke into a gallop, drawing the sword from the belt of her own pirate costume. She leapt up onto the guardrail of the stairs that lead down to the main deck and slid on her hooves with the expertise of an acrobat.
On the main deck, Sparrow was still trading blows with Bones, though the good pony captain was backed up against the railing. His shoulder bore a cut from Bermuda’s sword, and the skeletal minotaur was closing in, murderous intent in each step.
“Hey, skull for brains!”
Bermuda turned, only to see the flash of a blade as Pinkie Pie attacked. He brought up his cutlass to guard the lantern, but Pinkie Pie’s aim was not for the supernatural relic. Instead her sword was targeted at Bermuda’s elbow. Her blow was clean, and with a clatter the lower half of Bermuda’s free hand fell to the deck, the digits of his hand still twitching.
“Catch me if you can!” Pinkie Pie sang, dropping her sword and grabbing up Bermuda’s fallen hand. She then bolted for the quarterdeck, laughing all the way until she reached the top of the starboard side staircase. She then spun around and waved Bermuda’s own hand at him, her giggles still filling the air.
With a grunt, Bermuda dropped the cutlass from his one remaining hand. He reached for Sparrow, grabbing up the boisterous pony before unceremoniously tossing him over the edge of the ship. Sparrow yelped for help, but his shout was left unanswered and was soon followed by the distinguishable splash of water.
“Give me back my arm,” Bermuda shouted, using his remaining hand to unravel the chains from his chest, leaving a trail behind him. “Or you will suffer a fate worse than death.”
“Ooo, that’s a good one. I think I felt chills crawling down my spine. But I would have personally gone with something like this.” Pinkie held up Bermuda Bones’ hand, forming its fingers into a playful mouth before rattling it up and down in tune with her own voice. “‘Give me back my hand, and I’ll strangle you to death nice and quick.’”
Bermuda began walking faster and unraveling the chain from his chest with greater haste as he climbed the steps. Yet, just as Pinkie Pie got within his reach, she bonded off across the quarterdeck, reaching the other staircase before continuing her puppet show with the skeleton hand.
“No, wait, I have a better one. ‘Give me back my hand so I can slap you with it.’”
“I am going to make you suffer like no pony has suffered before,” Bermuda threatened, chasing Pinkie Pie to the top of the other staircase. Once more, Pinkie Pie just bounded away. She scampered down the port side staircase and disappeared behind the mast. She then stuck Bermuda’s hand out, pulling off an impressive ventriloquism act.
“‘No, Bermuda, I can’t return to you. For I can no longer be the hand of a pirate. Not when I have found true love!’” Pinkie Pie stuck her own hoof out from behind the mast, speaking in a voice even higher in pitch. “‘Oh, Hanes, you love me that much?’”
“‘Aye, I do Lady Hoofington,’” Pinkie said in the gruff voice she had given to Bermuda’s hand. She then pressed the two together, making kissing noises before giggling and sticking her head out from behind the mast. “Get it, Hanes! Because it’s your Hand and your name is Bones? Hand? Bones? Han-Nes? Hanes? Get it?”
Bermuda offered no witty retort, only the bellow of a bull as he unwound all the chains from his chest, leaving it in a single pile on the deck. He then stomped his hooves and lowered his horns, the impaling tips pointed directly at Pinkie Pie. Bermuda was seeing red in his anger, and there was only one instinct a minotaur, or any part bull creature, had when infuriated.
Pinkie Pie yelped and ran for the front of the ship, even as Bermuda Bones began his charge. Like a runaway train, Bermuda kept gaining speed and was soon closing the gap between himself and Pinkie Pie. All the while the chains connected to the lantern rattled against the deck, being dragged along behind Bermuda as he thundered across the deck.
Pinkie Pie kept running and running until she reached the tip of the ship’s bow, and there she turned around with a fearful look in her eyes. Bermuda was at full speed now. Each step brought him closer to Pinkie Pie. Each step brought his horns closer to drawing crimson rubes from the pink pony’s body. Each step caused the chain connected to the lantern to eat up more and more slack.
When Bermuda was but four steps away he gave one final, triumphant bellow. At three steps away, the chain on the lantern ran out of slack, for the hook was still pinned against the mast by Oceania’s trident. At two steps away Pinkie Pie began to smile as she rolled to one side.
At one step away, the chain on the lantern snapped taut and the cracking of bones filled the air.
The skeletal body that had comprised Bermuda Bones collapsed into a heap on the deck. His skull and horns became imbedded in the ships wood, and Pinkie Pie had to shield her eyes for a moment as little bits of shattered bone sprayed across her body. After a few seconds, it was done, and Pinkie Pie lowered her hoof to see the results of her plan.
Bermuda Bones had, quite literally, reached the end of his leash. With the other end of the lantern’s chain pinned to the mast by Oceania’s trident, Pinkie Pie had lured the undead captain up one side of the ship and down the other, ensuring the chain was wrapped around the ship’s helm. Then, all it took was getting Bermuda mad enough to charge.
Easy enough when you tell a love story about his hand.
And thus, when Bermuda charged, he sealed his fate. For when the chain snapped taut, the lantern was yanked free of Bermuda’s rib cage. It fell to the deck, and, with his connection to the lantern severed, Bermuda’s skeleton simply fell to pieces.
“Oldest trick in the book,” Pinkie Pie said as she stepped around the scattered bones and picked up the lantern. “Okay, maybe not the oldest, but still a classic. Now if only I had some white chalk to mark X on the spot. Then it would have been just perfect.”
Pinkie Pie shrugged, willing to take the moment for what it was before turning her head to the side of the ship. With a splatter and a cough, Sparrow poked his head over the side of the ship. His body and few clothes were drenched with sea water, but he didn’t seem to let it phase him. He scooped up his sword and quickly began to look about.
“All right, no pony panic! I’m back to save the day. Now, where did that old bag of bones run off to? I’ll teach him to throw a captain overboard like a bucket of chum.”
~~~
Ending her journey as it had began, Pinkie Pie sat in a rowboat, her hooves on the oars and her saddlebags resting beneath her seat. The bow of her little ship was pointed to the horizon, where the coastline, the port, and the train that would carry her back to Ponyville waited. Behind her, the Lunar Wind bobbed in the ocean waves, the leg-granted sea pony crew bustling about.
Though, unlike when she set off from the port a few days ago, Pinkie Pie had company. A squad of six sea ponies were swimming alongside her boat, a royal escort from Queen Oceania herself. It was a kind gesture, and it ensured Pinkie went straight back to shore and didn’t go and rouse some other undead pirate to pillage the seas.
As for the queen herself, she was in her trough at the back of the Lunar Wind, waiting for the spell she placed on the crew to wear off so they could all return to the ocean’s depths. Sparrow was also still on the ship, busying himself barking a few orders and sneaking glances at Queen Oceania when he could.
“Huh,” Pinkie Pie sighed, a smile on her lips, though it was a little weak.
“Is something the matter, Miss Pie?” One of the sea pony guards escorting her asked.
“I just realized I never got to tell the queen and Sparrow what I think happened with them and Nephthys. The queen was too busy releasing the souls from the lantern, and Sparrow seemed to really want me off the ship.”
“I do believe Sparrow intends to steal the Lunar Wind now that she is seaworthy again, Miss Pie.”
“Oh, well, I knew that. But that didn’t mean he had to kick me to the curb. I was going to let him take it. A pirate can’t be a pirate without a ship. I just really think those two will be a lot better off if I tell them what I think happened between them and Nephthys.”
“Would you like to stop and try shouting it to them?” the sea pony guard asked.
“No, they won’t hear me that well from all the way over here. The only way they would is if I got a bunch of ponies to sing with me. A song always carries farther, but you sea ponies don’t sing.”
Pinkie Pie sighed again, leaning into her rowing as she contented herself with just getting back to shore. She just kept her eyes on the Lunar Wind, not even noticing two of the guards escorting her disappearing from the water.
But she did notice a tapping. The sound of metal clanking against metal, and, as she turned her head, she saw the guards escorting her were striking spears against shields in a steady, slow rhythm. And, by nature, her own rowing began to fall in time with the beat.
Then the other guards returned, surfacing next to the boat with another twenty sea pony soldiers. And they were all beating their shields, creating quite the clatter that was beginning to draw the attention of Oceania, Sparrow, and those leg-granted sea ponies who still crewed the ship.
“I thought sea ponies didn’t—”
“The queen does not approve of it, but that doesn’t mean other sea ponies don’t enjoy a rousing melody from time to time.”
Pinkie Pie’s face could barely contain the smile that her lips formed. Their beat continued a bit longer, then Pinkie Pie began. A low, dark song that the sea pony guards joined into within a few seconds, their loud chorus carrying the words clearly all the way back to the Lunar Wind.
Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul Yo ho, heave ho Fear those ponies with hearts as black as coal Yo ho, heave ho
They sailed their ships across the ocean blue Bloodthirsty captains and cutthroat crews So many a tale can be told Of their lust for treasure and their love of gold
Pinkie Pie let go of her oars, letting them fall to the water as a few of the sea ponies took to pushing her ship. The whole group began to turn, slowly coming back around to face the Lunar Wind while Pinkie Pie donned a captain’s hat from her saddlebags. She had been looking for an excuse to wear it the whole trip.
Shiver my timbers, shiver my sides Yo ho, heave ho But one wished only to sail the tides Yo ho, heave ho
There was one captain unlike the rest Who wanted nothing more than freedom’s best With a boat, a crew, and a black flag up high He could be happy till the day he died
Yo ho, heave ho
But one fair day, he saved a mare As wild as the ocean and just as fare Three gifts she gave, one he stole Compass, conch, heart, and life untold
Yes, and life untold...
Back on the Lunar Wind, Sparrow had moved to the guardrail of the quarterdeck, his hat tipped back and a wide smile on his face. He watched the display unfolding before him, his crew, and Oceania. The sea pony guards were beginning to swim through maneuvers, forming flanks and columns that shifted and rolled. More sea ponies were joining as well, drawn in to Pinkie Pie’s song like so many before them.
Shiver my timbers, shiver my heart Yo, ho, heave ho This mare and pirate would never part Yo, ho, heave ho
Yet upon the seas was another mare Chosen by the navy with utmost care On the Lunar Wind she sailed the seas And brought many pirates to their knees
Pinkie Pie’s little row boat was pushed to the center of of the swarming sea ponies, who now easily numbered in the hundreds. They were going through maneuvers like a marching band at halftime, forming shapes and patterns, swimming this way and that, all while continuing to sing and slam their shields to keep the beat.
Shiver my timbers, shiver my sides Yo, ho, heave ho Pirates were something she could not abide Yo, ho, heave ho
With a hand of cards she tipped the scale Ensuring old Bones would prevail For with one stone, she sought to claim To end two pirates of glorious fame
Yo, ho, heave ho
And on that day she struck the final nail Telling the ocean mare a terrible tail Bones was left in his tomb to die And across the sea, no Sparrow would fly
No Sparrow would fly...
Queen Oceania, who had been holding her head in her hoof during most of the song, was now sitting up straight in her trough. Her eyes were focused on Sparrow, and he turned to look at her with a similarly shocked expression. They did not look to watch the continued, swirling movements of the sea ponies. But still the song rang true in their minds.
Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul Yo, ho, heave ho That zebra’s heart was black as coal Yo, ho, heave ho
A scorned mare’s wrath is a terrible thing And the zebra used it with poisonous sting She drove a part the two lovers true To trap on land the pirate and his crew
Smiles began to slip onto Sparrow and Oceania’s faces as the sea ponies began to surge together, forming tight ranks and columns like a military march. They brought their shields and spears up in a brief salute and shout, one that Oceania returned with a nod. At that Sparrow called to the crew, having them unfurl the sails. The Lunar Wind was away, sailing off into the ocean while Pinkie Pie and her sea ponies continued their song, as a parting gift.
Shiver my timbers, shiver my heart Yo, ho, heave ho This mare and pirate would never part Yo, ho, heave ho
For years it did stay this way Sparrow never aging or turning grey Bound to the land, a bird in a cage Fearful forever of the ocean’s rage
Yo, ho, heave ho
But love did stand the test of time And as sure as I can make this rhyme They do sail away to a new life blessed This pirate party was the best!
Was the best!
Yo, ho, heave ho!
The last word of the song was shouted by all, Pinkie Pie and sea pony alike. Then came the cheers of a job well done. The guards laughed and congratulated one another. Those who had been drawn in returned to the depths, and soon only Pinkie Pie and her original guards remained. Her rowboat was turned back towards the coast. Her oars were retrieved, and soon she and six sea ponies were rowing along, as if the song had never occurred.
Though, unlike before, Pinkie Pie now wore a happy grin on her face and the captain’s hat on her head. “Now that’s how you end a pirate adventure.
“So, any of you want to help me sing ‘Row Your Boat?’”
“Oh, and then we all sang a song telling what really happened. How Captain Nephthys was the dealer in the card game between Bermuda Bones and Sparrow, and how she made sure Bones won the conch. That way she could stop Bermuda Bones with Queen Oceania’s help, and she could keep Sparrow stuck on land because of how mad Queen Oceania was going to be when she found out Sparrow bet the conch on a card game. And it helped the pair realize Nephthys had split them up on purpose, and so they sailed off together on the Lunar Wind while me and all the sea ponies in the water finished the song.”
“I don’t know, Pinkie Pie. Sounds like a tall tale to me.” Applejack said as she and Pinkie walked from the train station to the library.
“Well, yours was just as tall and shorter. The Crystal Castle, which is alive, helped you find a memory stone. I mean, where were the evil, long forgotten knights of King Sombra’s reign? You should have had a big sword fight and a joust and—”
“Pinkie Pie, I think I had more than enough on my plate, and I didn’t say the castle was alive. I think it’s just enchanted.”
“Yeah, to be alive!” Pinkie Pie shouted, stopping in the street to wave her forehooves in the air.
Applejack rolled her eyes and just kept walking. “Let’s just agree to disagree. Now, come on, we need to get back to the library to— Whoa Nelly!”
Applejack and Pinkie Pie both stopped in their tracks, a large shadow having just passed over them. They and many residents in Ponyville had turned their eyes to the sky, where a big red dragon was coming in for a landing. There were shouts of panic. Ponies were running in any direction that would carry them away from the dragon. Except for Pinkie Pie and Applejack, who were running against the flow of the crowd towards the spot where the dragon was going to land.
The street outside the library.
Applejack tossed her head, trying to urge Pinkie Pie to run just a little bit faster. “Come on, we have to stop him before he... puts on a sweater...”
The pair skidded to a stop after rounding a corner, minds dumbstruck by what they were seeing. The dragon, who was not ravaging the town in search of gems, was instead pulling a sweater the size of a house over his head. It was a wide mixture of colors in a geometric pattern. Perhaps a bit bold, considering all the colors involved, but the dragon seemed to appreciate it all the same.
He smiled, gave a thankful wave of his claw, and then he took off, flying high into the sky before banking and heading northward. And in the wake of his departure, Applejack and Pinkie Pie saw Fluttershy waving a happy goodbye right back.
“What in the wide world of Equestria is going on!?” Applejack asked as she and Pinkie Pie galloped up to the front of the library where Fluttershy was standing.
“Oh, I was just giving that dragon a sweater I made him,” Fluttershy answered sweetly, as if she had just knitted a tiny sweater for one of the friendly, woodland creatures she took care of.
“Whoa, you knitted all that!” Pinkie Pie pointed to the dragon that was now but a small dot in the sky. “Where did you get all the yarn!?”
“And why would you knit a dragon a sweater? Aren’t they always warm cause of the fire in their chests?” Applejack asked.
“Well, unlike most scaled animals, dragons are warm blooded, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get cold like we do. That poor dragon left some of his treasure in a northern mountain, but couldn’t go back to get it because of the weather. So I knitted him a sweater, so he can get his treasure and I think impress a nice girl dragon he mentioned.”
“It did look like a pretty snazzy sweater,” Pinkie Pie commented. “But what about all the yarn!? I’ve never seen that much in one place in my life!”
“Oh, well... while we were all doing our research, Twilight went a little overboard with her web in the library. So, Rarity thought the best thing we could do is take it down and sew all of it into something she wouldn’t be able to reuse.”
Applejack nodded her head, looking at what was now the small speck in the sky that was the dragon. “I suppose that giving it to a dragon as something of a treasure is the best way to make sure Twilight can’t get it back. But where is Twilight now?”
“In the library with Rarity and Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy said, the trio of mares turning and heading for the front door. “Rarity’s helping Twilight put only the most important parts of her yarn web back together. And Rainbow Dash... well, she’s helping too, but... she’s also kind of paying Rarity back for a favor.”
At that Fluttershy opened the door, allowing Pinkie Pie and Applejack to see in. The library was now looking like a library again. Books stacked on clean shelves, the windows free from clutter and letting the light in, and the reading table set out with a few choice stories. And the web that had once choked the library was now a single flat piece of yarn, almost like a quilt. The important pieces of paper were sewn into the fabric and the strands of yarn themselves were woven through one another like a well organized train map.
But that was not what drew Applejack and Pinkie Pie’s eyes. They were instead focused on Rainbow Dash, who was fidgeting and flapping her wings as she held a few free pieces of yarn. She was wearing what could only be described as a business suit, a darker tone of blue than her coat. Her mane was done up in a bun, she was wearing what some might say were fashionable glasses, and she looked like every moment of wearing the ensemble was pure torture.
Applejack couldn’t help herself and burst out laughing at the sight. “Well now, didn’t think Manehatten would get to you that fast, Rainbow.” Applejack paused to clear her throat, and then continued to speak with such clarity and conciseness, one would think she had been raised all her life in the big city. “All it took was three days and now look at you: you are a regular cosmopolitan.”
“Shut up!” Rainbow whined. “I’m not wearing this stuff because I want to.”
“Then why are you wearing it?” Pinkie Pie asked as she bounded up beside Rainbow, using her hoof to gently poke at the pegasus’s side.
“Uh... well... because... it’s a funny story. You see—”
“I had to bail her out of jail,” Rarity said, coming down the steps that lead to the library’s second floor with Twilight a few steps behind her, looking well rested and far more sane than she had been just the day before.
“ What did you do?!” Applejack snapped as her sisterly instincts, normally reserved for when Apple Bloom had done something wrong, became focused on Rainbow.
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Trespassing in The Museum of the Manehatten Phantom, theft of a map from said museum, resisting arrest, fleeing the police, putting a hole in the roof of grand central station, and calling that nice zebra police officer a few very colorful names while you were being interrogated.” Rarity listed off as she approached the web, taking a single thread of yarn and adding one more elegant line to her carefully-woven creation.
“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack snapped, causing Rainbow Dash to flinch like a foal being punished.
“It’s not my fault! The Kalaharis and that police officer are part of Twilight’s conspiracy! They were trying to keep The Phantom’s lair hidden, but I found it! I found the lair and all the stuff she stole over the years.” Despite wearing the business suit, Rainbow Dash found a reason to smile as she brought a hoof to her chest. “I was just like Daring Do. They’re even going to give me some of the credit when the new exhibit opens at the museum.
“I would have gotten a finder’s fee too if somepony hadn’t given it away!” Rainbow’s eyes were fixed in a cold glare on the back of Rarity’s neck.
“Your portion of the finder’s fee was what convinced the Kalaharis and the police to drop the charges, so consider yourself lucky,” Rarity said as she turned away from the web.
“You couldn’t even leave me a little?!” Rainbow Dash snapped. “I could have gotten that flight suit I’ve been eyeing! If I’m going to join the Wonderbolts, I got to get used to flying in a flight suit!”
Rarity huffed and glared right back at Rainbow. “Keep talking about suits, and the next one you’ll be wearing is this pretty pink number I’ve been working on.”
“Girls, enough!” Twilight snapped, putting herself between her arguing friends. “We have bigger things to worry about. Did you forget about the organization we’ve been trying to uncover?”
“Oh! Twilight! Twilight! That reminds me, I have so much to tell you about Captain Nephthys!” Pinkie Pie said with a bounce. “I found out about her and sea ponies and immortal pirates and undead pirates and got to sing two songs! Two! It was the best pirate adventure ever! And it all started when I met this old pirate in a bar.”
~~~
“Tell me your secrets.”
Twilight whispered these words as she gazed upon what was, for the moment, the completed conspiracy quilt. The important information her friends had gathered had been integrated, and the quilt was now surrounded on sides by pictures Rarity brought back from Canterlot. Photographs of old portraits that hung in the private collections of the capital’s wealthiest families.
Those high quality photographs were complemented by rough copies of newspaper articles from Fluttershy, the broken crystal Applejack had found, and some blurry images from the Kalaharis’ museum. In all the information, in all the pictures, the simple theme continued. Zebra, doing things that had some lasting impact on Equestria who then vanished in their youth.
“And are you sure Nephthys still fits the pattern?” Rarity asked as she and the other mares stood a few steps behind Twilight.
Pinkie Pie nodded. “Eeyuperooni! Queen Oceania mentioned that she gave Nephthys a favor, for saving her from falling into Bermuda Bones’ trap. A favor she used a few years later. I had almost forgotten about it because that’s about when Bermuda Bones showed up and everything got super crazy! Still, she said Nephthys disappeared a few years later after being thrown overboard in a terrible storm. The crew never found her body, and I bet it’s because Nephthys used her favor with the queen to disappear.
“But I’m not jumping to conclusions like I did with the Marzipan Meringue Madness,” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “I don’t have any evidence besides what the queen said, so it's just an idea.”
“It’s a good theory, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said as she continued to look at the conspiracy quilt. “And I can feel we’re closing in. We just need to review the facts. First, the organization has existed for a very, very long time. This is proven by what Applejack found in the Crystal Empire. Second, Rarity and Fluttershy’s research showed how widespread the organization is, both in where they operate and how they operate. Third, Rainbow Dash’s experience supports a theory that this organization is alive and well in our modern Equestria.
“And perhaps the most troubling truth is one confirmed by Pinkie Pie and Applejack,” Twilight said as she turned to face her friends. “That this organization is willing to manipulate ponies to turn them against one another and that it is not as benevolent or infallible as I originally believed.
“But all this information alone isn’t enough. We still have no real leads on a way to identify who is part of this organization or how they operate. If I want to take this evidence to the princesses, I need something more solid to go on.”
“Well, I can tell you right now, none of them share a common sense for fashion,” Rarity commented as she looked across the pictures. “Some can pull an ensemble together so wonderfully, but some of the others...” Rarity shivered and glanced at a few pictures that had been secured by Fluttershy from the newspapers in the Canterlot Library’s Archives. “There are just some things that don’t go well with black and white stripes.”
“What about finding some mark they all share, like the whole skull and snake tattoo?” Rainbow asked, recalling part of the conversation which had sent her and her friends to so many different and distant places.
“We haven’t really found enough photographic evidence to try and do that. All of the pictures you brought from Manehatten are blurry glimpses of The Phantom. All of the photographs Rarity brought are of portraits in Canterlot, and all those portraits are from the neck up. There isn’t a single body shot anywhere. The only real picture evidence we have is the broken crystal Applejack found, and the zebra in that one is wearing a heavy cloak. We can hardly see the bridge of her nose, let alone anything else.”
“Well, why would you need anything else?” Pinkie Pie asked, a question that caused Twilight to cock her head to one side.
“What do you mean?”
“I... well, it just seems so obvious.”
“What is it?” Applejack asked.
“Do you girls really not see it?”
“No, Pinkie, we don’t,” Rarity said courteously, “and that’s why we’d be ever so appreciative if you would just tell us.”
“But that wouldn’t be any fun. That whole quilt is like a big game of I Spy! Hey, how about this? How about I give you a hint?”
“How about you just tell us?” Rainbow Dash said, she and the other mares closing in with irritation and curiosity in equal measure.
“Or how about we play Twenty Questions? I could give you a hint if you want, or we could make it a game. How about Twenty Questions? Do you want to play that?”
“Just tell us what it is!” Rarity, Applejack, Twilight, and Rainbow snapped in unison.
“Well, okay, but you four are missing a great opportunity for a game,” Pinkie Pie said as she pushed past her friends and took Twilight’s place in front of the quilt. “Still, if you want to know the answer, then it’s obvious. Even with the limited stories and pictures we have, there is something I can see. I spy with my little eye that...”
Pinkie Pie turned with a flourish and raised one hoof only to stomp it with playful flare. “All these zebra look like Zecora.”
“Beg your pardon?” Applejack said, cocking an eyebrow in confusion.
“They all look like Zecora!” Pinkie Pie said again, even repeating her hoof stomp.
Rainbow Dash groaned and slapped a hoof to her face. “Pinkie Pie, of course they all look like Zecora! They’re all zebras!”
“No no no,” Pinkie Pie said, firmly shaking her head. “I know that, but they really, really look like Zecora!”
“But that’s impossible,” Applejack said. “I mean, most of these zebras are older than Granny Smith. A lot older. There ain’t no way they could all look that much like Zecora.”
“I know. They shouldn’t, but they do!” Pinkie Pie stressed as she quickly zipped over to one of the pictures that was hung near the floor. “But, I mean, look at this one. She smiles just like that one over there, and they both smile like Zecora did when we threw her that surprise birthday party! And it’s not just those two. They all! Look! Like! Zecora!”
“But Pinkie Pie, do you really think—” Fluttershy tried to say only to make a small “eep” when Pinkie Pie stomped her hoof and shouted.
“They all! Look! Like! Her!”
“I can understand why’d you think that, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight interrupted, her voice taking on the tone of a teacher speaking to her students. “I’ve actually done some reading on the subject of visual recognition. Ponies are wired to recognize and differentiate between one another by color. No two ponies have the exact same coat and mane color. There are always slight nuances in shade that our eyes are able to notice.
“But zebras aren’t the same way,” Twilight continued. “They, instead, rely their stripe patterns. The stripes on a zebra are unique. No two zebras have the same markings, and even minor differences in those patterns allow zebras to distinguish between one another in the same manner that ponies are able to identify one another by color.
“It’s just the way our brains are built. So, it’s perfectly natural for a pony to have trouble distinguishing between a bunch of zebras. Zecora would probably have the same amount of trouble if we put her in front of a bunch of pictures of blue ponies with gray manes.”
“I know, I get that, but they! All! Really! Really! Look! Like Zecora!” Pinkie Pie stressed before quickly galloping out the library. The rest of the mares all looked to the front door, wondering just where Pinkie had gone only to see her come back a few minutes later. She was pulling a pink wagon behind her. She was wearing a paint spattered shirt, a burette, and in her wagon she had numerous blank canvases, easels, a brush, a tube of green paint, and a large bucket of black paint.
“Pinkie Pie, what are you—?” Twilight tried to ask, only to get “sshhh”ed by Pinkie Pie. Without a word of explanation, she set up the half dozen canvases and easels she had brought with her. Once that was done, Pinkie Pie then went to each one and painted a rough picture with the black ink. She then went back to each, using a bit of the green ink she had brought with her to add a few final touches.
By the time Pinkie Pie was done, each of the six canvases had been painted with a right facing profile picture of a zebra. The six zebras in question were six of the zebras from the pictures hanging in front of the girls. Each was uniquely identifiable as a different mare. One could tell Captain Nephthys apart from Green Leaf, but the six comparing portraits served a greater purpose. They showed the similar cuts of the jaws, the shapes of the noses, and the pattern of the stripes.
Despite the unique features possessed by each zebra mare, Pinkie Pie’s paintings showed the truth she had seen.
“See!” Pinkie Pie said as she swung her paint brush around haphazardly, painting her own face as she spoke. “They all have those three stripes under their eyes. They all have that big black part on their noses. They all have three black stripes on their manes, and they all have green eyes just like Zecora!”
“B-but that’s not possible. Zebras are supposed to have unique stripes!” Twilight said as she looked across the canvases.
“Maybe the stripes on the rest of their bodies are different,” Rainbow Dash said as she floated in front of the easel which depicted Captain Nephthys.
“That’s a sound theory, Rainbow,” Rarity said as she examined one of the other canvases, “but it’s hard to prove. None of us were able to find a picture of these zebra that shows anything from the shoulders down except clothes.”
“But how can this be?” Twilight asked. “There has to be differences. I’m sure if we measure them we’ll find the spacing is different and the length. I mean, there’s no way to explain why they’d all look the same.”
“Sure there is,” Pinkie Pie said with a smile as she began to sign the six canvases with a big, cursive lettering. “They could all be related. I may not be gray like my sisters or brown like my dad, but I sure am as pink as my Granny Pie was. And she was as pink as her grandmother. Yepperoni, my family has always had a pink pony in it every other generation for as far back as we know.”
Twilight stared at Pinkie Pie a moment, the intensity in her eyes reflecting the thoughts going on in her head. She then looked back at the pictures as the epiphany swept over her. “It’s a family. It’s not just an organization. It’s a family! It makes perfect sense! The stripes on the face are passed down from parents to their children, and even if it skips a generation it resurfaces later.
“It’s the perfect uniform,” Twilight said, marveling a little at the genius of it all. “They don’t have to wear pins, get tattoos, or do anything to identify themselves. They just have their stripes. And what better way to pass down the tradition than through a family? Who better to trust with manipulating the affairs of Equestria than a zebra you’ve trained from birth? And that would explain why they all vanished as early as they did. It was so they could start a normal life someplace and have children of their own.
“It makes sense!”
Fluttershy gently raised a hoof, as if trying to get the attention of a teacher. “Uh... Twilight, wouldn’t that mean that Zecora could be related to these mares?”
“What!? No way!” Rainbow Dash said. “Zecora wouldn’t be part of this. She’s too cool for it. Okay, maybe she did just sort of appear out of the Everfree Forest one day, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“No, but as I recall she’s also helped us out of a few strange pickles,” Applejack argued. “Not unlike some of them zebras in those pictures.”
“But she was in Ponyville when Luna came for Nightmare Night! Twilight said that these zebra do everything they can to stay away from the princesses.”
“But she did stay away from the princess,” Twilight said as her eyes stayed fixed on the portraits, both the ones that were hanging and the ones Pinkie Pie had just painted. “When Luna first appeared, I was with Zecora at the Nightmare Moon statue outside of town. I ran back to the town square while Pinkie Pie and the kids just ran off, but Zecora didn’t go with either group. She ran off on her own, and I didn’t see her again until we took the kids back to the statue. Even then, she didn’t go near it. She stayed back, and wasn’t anywhere near when Luna scared the children again.”
“But I saw her around Ponyville during the festival,” Rainbow Dash said, though doubt had entered her voice. “I scared her with my thunder cloud.”
“I saw her too. She came and bobbed for an apple.”
“But think; was she ever around when Princess Luna was playing the festival games?”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other, their faces silently conveying the fact that they couldn’t remember a moment from that night when they had seen Zecora and Luna anywhere near one another. At the same time, Twilight turned away from the portraits, a nervous fear in her eyes like there was a snake coiling around her legs. The truth was weighing down on her mind, and she felt as if her knees would give away at any moment.
“... and, that’s why, I think we need to consider this a legitimate threat to the kingdom. And that, to exonerate her or to find out what she knows, we should speak with Zecora.”
Twilight stood nervously. It had only been one day since she and her friends had put together what they thought was the truth. A truth that seemed too much to believe. That their friend, Zecora, was part of the conspiracy. That she, like so many zebras in the past, was playing at some larger scheme and perhaps pulling the strings of Ponyville like a puppeteer with marionettes. It shed a harsh light on all the interactions they had shared and the help Zecora had given in more than a few situations.
It was painful to think that a mare she called a friend could do that, that friendship could be used for such a dark purpose.
Still, Twilight had done her best to separate her feelings from the facts and the theories she and her friends had built on those facts. She and her friends had spent the entirety of the previous day preparing. Then, after getting a good night’s sleep at her friends’ insistence, Twilight boarded the train that morning. She had traveled a few hours and waited even more, hoping to be heard. But finally, she had been given what she sought.
With the sun nearing the horizon, with the chefs of Canterlot Castle preparing for the evening meal, Twilight had her audience with both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
The explanation had taken nearly an hour and had become something of a discussion. The princesses had asked questions, and Twilight had answered where she could. She never masked theories as facts, and she never interrupted the princesses. Sometimes, their questions seemed harsh, as if they didn’t believe her, but then there were moments where the princesses whispered to one another, sharing words Twilight could not hear.
Now, it was all laid out, and Twilight stood fidgeting in her hooves and wings, waiting as Celestia and Luna spoke quietly a few steps away. What would they say? For a moment she feared a similar reaction to when she told Princess Celestia of Nightmare Moon’s return. That she would be told to stop looking in her “dusty old books.”
That lead to greater fears that she and her friends were right, and that in the next few days something horrible would happen. Maybe the organization of zebras, or whoever they were, had found out about them? Maybe, when she returned to Ponyville, she’d find her friends and only a threatening note. Maybe—
“Twilight?”
She shook her head and turned to look at Princess Celestia. The princesses had come back over to her and were looking on with worried expressions, as if they had called her name a few times without her responding. “Sorry, I was just thinking about something.” Twilight had to fight the urge to add a bow to her apology. That wasn’t needed anymore. She was a princess too now, just like them.
“It’s all right,” Celestia said, offering a comforting smile. “I can only imagine that all of this has been a burden on your mind. Luna and I also want to commend you for being so thorough with your research.”
Luna nodded her head in agreement. “Yes. To find and flush out this pattern across the centuries is truly a testament to your abilities.”
Once more, Twilight had to catch herself to prevent a bow. “Thank you, but I wouldn’t have been able to be so thorough without my friends. Some of them literally went to the corners of Equestria to help me with this.” Twilight forced down a swallow as she focused her gaze on Celestia. “So, does this mean you want to talk with Zecora?”
Celestia gave no answer. Instead, she used a wing to motion for Twilight to follow her and Luna. The trio crossed the throne room, leaving a small crew of castle servants to start cleaning up Twilight’s research and visual aids. Twilight wasn’t sure what was going on, but she followed the pair all the same. They went through the back door to the throne room, a door Twilight had seen Celestia come out of many times but had never been through herself. And on the far side was a small room, with cushions, a coffee table, and what one might consider a calming decor.
“What is this place?” Twilight asked.
“A sitting room Luna and I use to take short breaks during our open court,” Celestia answered. She motioned for Twilight to sit as she and Luna took seats on two of the other cushions. “It’s far more convenient to have a place to rest this close to the throne room, and it allows us to be courteous to those who came to make a request. It would be rude to have the servants deliver a snack or beverage while somepony is trying to speak.”
Twilight nodded her head, understanding the simple utility of having a little break room for the princesses directly adjacent to the throne room. “But then why are we here?”
“We are here to discuss a few things in private, away from even the ears of the guard,” Luna said, even as a servant came into the room carrying a tray laden with a tea pot, cups, and some small pieces of carrot cake.
“What do we need to talk about?”
Neither Celestia nor Luna answered until the servant who had brought the tea tray had left. Celestia then locked both doors with a small flare of her magic while Luna worked to pour the tea. “Twilight, we agree that Zecora should be spoken to about her possible ties to this organization,” Celestia said. “But, before we seek her out, we feel you deserve to know something.
“Twilight, do you recall the little story I told you when Discord first escaped?”
“Yes, of course,” she said with a nod of her head. “You said that Discord was a spirit of disharmony. That he ruled Equestria in an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness, making everypony who lived here miserable. But after discovering the Elements of Harmony, you combined your powers, rose up against him, and turned him to stone.”
“You were always a good listener, Twilight,” Celestia commended with a smile. “And the details of that story are very true, though greatly paraphrased. Truthfully, while Discord did spend a majority of his time in Equestria, the whole world suffered under his rule. I did not mention it at the time, since I felt bearing the burden of saving Equestria was more than enough weight on your shoulders.”
“But there is even more to the story than that,” Luna said.
“But why is it so important? What does it have to do with Zecora and the conspiracy?”
Celestia lifted her tea cup, not drinking but watching the liquid swirl within. “It is important because, along our journey to becoming alicorns, we were not alone. We were given guidance, much like I have tried to help you along your way to your own ascension.”
“Our guide’s name was Malewa, and we now believe she was a zebra in your conspiracy as well.”
~~~
Malewa told us stories of the lives Luna and I never knew. We were princesses before we were alicorns. We were daughters of Equestria’s royal family, and Malewa was the servant in the castle tasked with our care. We lived carefree lives, and she said we were loved dearly by all of our family, especially so by our mother and father.
We have no way to know if what she said was true, but... I remember that both of us found much joy in the thought of being princesses when we were young.
Yet, that life was nothing but stories for us. The only lives we knew back then were the lives we made in Cliff Wound. We lived with Malewa, considering her our mother despite the difference in species. We knew every street of that city back then. We played games. We had friends. Cliff Wound was our home.
It was a place just so full of life, filled to the brim with so many different creatures. Most were native species of Savannah, but there were others. There were griffins and ponies, deer and horses, and one cranky old moose who lived down the street. They were all brought together by the promise made by Cliff Wound that few other places could offer: safety from Discord.
But even with his looming threat just beyond the city, life was much simpler back then.
“Hurry, Celestia!”
A young Celestia panted a little as she came to the crest of a tall hill. Her mane was a solid, simple pink. There were no wings on her sides and no cutie mark on her flank. She was simply a unicorn filly, who was currently struggling to catch up with her slightly younger sister, Luna, who was bouncing at the top of the hill.
“It’s hard to go fast when I’m the only one carrying groceries,” Celestia said as she reached the top of the hill. She shifted and shook her back, getting the saddlebags filled with food from the market to rest more comfortably while Luna only carried a few things in her own, smaller bags.
“I’m helping!” Luna whined as the pair continued to walk, navigating a street they knew like the tops of their hooves.
“Carrying the carrots isn’t helping when I’ve got everything else.”
“Yes it is!” Luna chimed again, a playful debate between the sisters. “Hey, do you think mother will let us stay up and watch the tarp repair they're doing later?”
“Why do you want to watch that? They’re just patching the hole that opened last week,” Celestia said, her eyes wandering upward. Cliff Wound was a city hidden away from the rest of the world. The sheer cliffs on each side embraced and shielded the city while the tarps that were strung across the top and front of the adjacent cliffs hid them away.
The tarps were rooted to large stone structures and ran across the top of the canyon like stitches in a deep cut. The tarps themselves were magical in nature. They shifted to match the ground around the canyon. If the ground was polka-dotted, the tarp magically changed to be polka-dotted. If the ground was striped, the tarp became striped.
From a bird's eye view, it was nearly impossible to discern the canyon even existed. It was that accurate blending that had kept the city safe from Discord for over a decade.
“I want to watch the magic they use to patch the hole,” Luna said as she began to playfully jump between stones on the path. “That and Mother said we might be able to see some sky before they start working on the patch. Oh, I hope we get to see some stars.”
“What’s so great about the stars?” Celestia asked, continuing to walk normally despite Luna’s playful leaping.
“They’re pretty, and Mother says ponies used to be able to find their way around with them.”
“You used to be able to find your way with the sun too,” Celestia said, smiling along with her playful, verbal prod. “It always rose in the east and set in the west. What more would you need?”
“Mother says the stars would let you know almost exactly where you are if you studied them very carefully. The stars are prettier too. They can twinkle and they used to make constellations. The sun can’t do that, that’s why the stars are better.”
Celestia couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Whatever you say, Luna. Now, come on, Mother’s going to start to worry if we don’t get home soon.”
~~~
“I never thought that you two grew up back then,” Twilight said, too engaged in what she was being told to pay attention to her tea or square of carrot cake.
“We did not simply come into being, Twilight,” Luna said as she set down her own cup.
“No, I didn’t mean...” Twilight tripped over her words. “I just always thought Discord’s rule was... shorter than that.”
“It’s all right,” Celestia reassured Twilight. “From what I told you the day of Discord’s escape, it’s not surprising you believed his reign to be short. But the simple fact is that Discord ruled the world for roughly twenty five years before Luna and I overthrew him.”
“And you grew up during that time, in Cliff Wound?” Twilight asked. “Is that the same Cliff Wound Rarity read about?”
“Yes,” Celestia said with a nod as she used a small fork to pick up a piece of her carrot cake. “The ruins Rarity read about in that book comprised of the griffin general’s journals, those were barely older than Luna and I were back then. They held the great rolls of fabric that covered the crevice the city was built in. I don’t know who was the one that thought of such an ingenious cover, hiding from Discord in plain sight, but it worked. We were safe, and we grew up under Malewa’s care.”
“And when you grew up, that’s when you decide to come back to Equestria and take back the kingdom, right?” Twilight said, as if eager to hear of how Celestia and Luna had bested Discord.
“No,” Luna answered, shaking her head. “As we grew, we began to believe Malewa’s stories were simply that: stories. We would have been content never truly learning of our royal heritage or taking on those responsibilities.”
Twilight looked at the pair in disbelief, finding it hard to believe that they would ever not intend to be rulers of the kingdom. “Then... what changed?”
“We had dear friends,” Celestia said, a frown creasing her lips like there was a pain somewhere deep inside. “And we weren’t able to save them.”
~~~
Like Luna said, we had no interest in trying to overthrow Discord. To us, at the time, that was something the raiding parties might one day accomplish. They were the brave souls who dared to leave the safety of the village and venture out into the world. They brought reports from other towns and harvested from Discord’s chaotic flora and fauna.
We simply had enough going on inside Cliff Wound that we never had desire to look beyond. As we entered our teen years, Luna took on an apprenticeship with a local artisan. She was learning to craft such beautiful things. I enjoyed filling my private time reading whatever book I could get my hooves on, and contemplated becoming a teacher.
Yes, Twilight, I was once a bookworm just like you. Now don’t interrupt.
Now, while Luna and I didn’t wish to see Discord’s chaotic world, some of our friends did. Menboon, a giraffe, wished to gain the respect that came with leaving and returning to the village. He was a middle child from a large family, and sometimes struggled to get respect from his siblings. He sought to change that one day, and in the process made the biggest mistake of his life.
Nessa, my best friend at the time, she was the one that told us what Menboon intended to do. We raced to the outskirts of the village, to stop him. But we were too late. He had already left, going out into Discord’s domain alone, and with each passing second we feared he would never return. So, we did the only thing we could think of.
We went after him.
“Menboon? Where are you?”
Luna and Celestia stepped anxiously amongst the cluster of trees. Though, to call them trees was a bit of a stretch. No two were the same. One had a trunk made of water that flowed against gravity. Another had leaves that were like gummy candies. No two were the same, yet this was the intent. The trees had been taken from across the chaos warped kingdom of Savannah. The forest of chaos had been created to hide entrance to the sanctuary of order that was the village of Cliff Wound.
“Shouldn’t we go get Menboon’s parents, or Malewa? I thought she said you two weren’t even supposed to get close to the edge of town, let alone go outside.”
Celestia looked back, seeing her own friend Nessa following them out into Discord’s land. Nessa was a doe, a female deer, and was normally very sure on her hooves. She was agile, nimble, and could move like a feather on the wind. But outside the village, where the ground was like a bed covered in a soft quilt, her agility was stifled. Their hooves sank, making walking alone difficult.
“Something could happen to Menboon before they could get here,” Luna said. She stumbled ahead of the group, forcing haste out of her hooves on the uncertain ground.
“But where did he go?” Celestia asked as she scanned the horizon.
“He can’t have gone far,” Luna said, clamoring up to the crest of a nearby hill. “Menboon? Menboon! Where are you?!”
“Over here!”
The shout quickly spurred Celestia, Luna, and Nessa to clamor across the quilted ground. They began to scramble down the far side of the hill, but even as they ran the ground changed. The soft, plush quilting became hard, polished titles in a red and purple checkerboard pattern. The trio yelped as their hooves began to slide on the finely waxed surfaces.
Up and down, down and up they slid across the hills, shouting and trying to get their balance again. They only saw glimpses of their surroundings as the land seemed intent on sending them on a roller coaster ride. They saw the mountains that contained the village, and they saw the massive sheets of fabric that hid the valley. The fabric was already changing to match the land’s new appearance, and within a blink of an eye the valley’s covering was indistinguishable from the rest of the mountains.
A sheep of order hiding in the chaotic clothing of a wolf.
Finally, the trio came to a stop and struggled back to their hooves. They had been carried almost a mile away from the village, and Celestia looked back at their home while Luna scampered off to a nearby tree. It was wrapped in vines that looked like licorice, and had four, familiar, brown-spotted trunks.
“Menboon! Is that you? Don’t worry, we’ll have you free in a second!” Luna shouted.
“Be careful!,” he shouted back, his voice coming from the thick canopy of leaves that had enveloped his head and torso. “I tried to break off some of this vine to take back to the village, and it grabbed me.”
“Why would you come out here anyway?” Celestia scolded as she and Luna began to use their magic to pull and rip away the vines. “Did your brothers put you up to this?”
“N-no.”
The faltering in his voice was all Celestia needed to hear to know the truth. “Menboon, you have to stop listening to them. They tell you to do this kind of stuff just so you’ll get in trouble.”
“Hey, don’t be mad at Menboon!” Luna barked at Celestia. “You know how hard his brothers are on him.”
“I do know, and I can’t help but feel this is a poor way to avoid them. It’s dangerous outside the village. What if—”
Celestia suddenly felt a hoof over her mouth and glanced back to see Nessa had pounced on her. The doe had a panicked look in her eyes, as if any sound would bring their death. Then Nessa pointed skyward. Celestia and Luna looked up slowly, and their bodies tensed. The air in their lungs felt like stone and the blood in their veins like ice.
Flying, like a kite on an invisible string, was Discord.
“C-celestia, what do we—”
“Shhh,” she said, motioning for them to step back. They clung close to Menboon, trying to use the leaves encompassing him as cover. “Keep quiet and stay down. We’ll wait till he’s gone by and then go back.”
“What? No! We have to go back now before he notices us!” Menboon whispered, though it was obvious he would rather have shouted.
“We try to go back now, we could lead him back to the village,” Celestia said, trying to quell the tremor in her own voice. “He can sense when things aren’t chaotic. That’s how Malewa got us all out of Equestria. She let herself fall in some of his traps whenever he was close. The only reason he hasn’t noticed us yet is probably because Menboon got caught in this vine.”
“How do you know that!?” Nessa asked, leaning against Celestia as they all tried to crowd as close as they could together.
“Malewa told us, in case Discord ever did find the village. She said we had to run and stay hidden. I never thought we’d... Just stay low and don’t move. I promise, we’ll be okay if we don’t move. Yes... let’s... let’s make a game of it. We’ll have a little fun. The first person to move loses. I bet none of you can beat me.”
“Maybe it would be better if one of us lead him away,” Luna whispered. She had a forehoof lifted, as if she was already getting ready to run. “I could try to distract him.”
“No... no no no, that won’t work! He’s going to find us!” Menboon was beginning to hyperventilate and struggled against the licorice vine. “We have to get away. Get me out of here! We have to run!”
“Menboon’s right. He’ll turn us into puppets or clouds or... I don’t know! I don’t want to be chaotic. I like the way I am. I’m... I’m making a run for it!”
“Nessa, no!” Celestia shouted, but it was already too late. Bounding out across the ground, Nessa sprinted in the direction of the village. She slipped and slid occasionally on the still smooth, polished ground, but she kept her pace all the same. She was desperate. She was in a panic. She needed to get back to the village.
Her desperation was the tipping point for Menboon. Thrashing, he broke free of the licorice vine. The leaves dropped off in clumps, falling on Celestia and Luna. They reached out with their magic, tried to stop them, but again they were too late. Menboon was off, running after Nessa. Their single thought was to get back to safety, to get away from the danger of Discord.
And in their haste, they did not see Discord closing in behind them.
“He’s going to get them! We have to—”
“No! We can’t!” Celestia said. She grabbed Luna with her forelimbs, and pulled her sister to the ground. A moment later Celestia had covered them both with the broken pieces of the licorice vine. Perhaps it was a pipe dream to think that just covering themselves with the vine, when the trap was already disarmed, would save them, but Celestia held onto Luna all the same. She held to her sister, keeping her from chasing after Menboon. And, at the same time, she used Luna as an anchor to keep herself from chasing after Nessa.
“Let go, Celestia! We have to help them! We have to!”
“Quiet, Luna!” Celestia said, her magic glowing as she placed a silencing spell on Luna. “Just... just stay quiet and don’t look.”
But Luna did look. She and Celestia both watched intently, unable to look away and silently praying that their friends might get away. And for a moment, it seemed that they might. Menboon’s long stride gave him a bit of speed and Nessa was bounding more securely. It looked like Discord was having trouble keeping up.
But that was because he was slowing down.
Discord landed on a hill crest, a shirt forming around his torso as a large, heavy ball appeared in his claw. He took a stance, holding the ball in both his claw and paw. He took a few steps forward, walking on the tips of his lower claw and hoof. He then swung his arm, sending the ball rolling across the ground in the direction of Menboon.
The ball caught up and hit Menboon in the ankle, and, in a flash, his whole body came apart. He was tossed skyward, legs and neck separating seamlessly from his torso. They all changed shape, becoming bottom heavy pins that landed and spun against the ground. At the same time a big red “X” appeared in the air, as if on some scoreboard.
Discord was very pleased with himself.
Luna was now crying into Celestia’s chest, the silencing spell making her quiet but doing nothing to stem her tears. And Celestia held her, kept Luna hidden, but she kept watching. She should have stopped, she should have looked away. But... she couldn’t. Her eyes would not shift even an inch.
She had to keep watching.
Nessa had gained some ground when Discord stopped, but the spirit of chaos was catching up. He was laughing. Celestia could hear his voice on the wind, laughing the way only he could laugh. Laughing in a way that grated and scratched against her mind, making her want to scream out at him. She had to cast the silencing spell on herself, just to keep her and Luna safe.
Nessa bounded from the top of a hill, but her body did not drop back to the ground as it should have. Discord’s claw was glowing, suspending her in mid air. The pair were exchanging words. Celestia couldn’t hear what nor read their lips, but Nessa looked scared. She was thrashing, trying to escape, and Discord just seemed to be musing... as if trying to find his inspiration.
He then smiled. Celestia could see it, even from afar. He was smiling as he reached out and touched Nessa on the forehead. In a flash, Nessa’s legs had changed. Above and below her knee joints her legs were now coiled, and when he dropped her on the ground she began to bounce uncontrollably. Springs; her legs had been made into springs and now she couldn’t stop bounding, no matter much how she wanted to.
As Nessa suffered, Discord stayed and laughed. He laughed as Nessa bounded. He set Menboon back up and rolled the large ball again, knocking Menboon over and over again as if playing some sick game.
All while Luna and Celestia remained hidden, hoping beyond hope their friends were alright and that they themselves would not fall victim to Discord as well.
~~~
“Discord eventually left,” Luna said, picking up as Celestia lost the strength to continue the story. “We used our magic to help Menboon and Nessa get back to the village. Thankfully, with time and care, Discord’s magic can be undone. But it takes a very long time and nobody ever seemed the same afterward. Menboon walked much slower, as if afraid he would topple over at the slightest misstep. And Nessa, she didn’t bound around anymore like a deer should. She only walked.”
“Did they stay like that?” Twilight asked, wanting to know more but, at the same time, hoping she was not digging up even more painful memories for the pair.
“The wounds ran deep, but, once Discord was defeated, they did heal. We kept in contact with them over the years. Both of them lived full lives, and were able to bury what happened to them in the past.”
Luna took a sip from her tea before continuing. “But that day, when we returned home, we asked Malewa why. Why wasn’t anypony trying to stop Discord? Why were the village leaders letting him do stuff like that? And she told us it was because no pony could stand up to him. I remember Celestia screaming, saying there had to be a way. And I agreed with her. Neither one of us ever wanted to see anyone, let alone our friends, get tormented like that again.
“That’s when Malewa asked us a single question,” Luna said, her own voice growing a bit distant as she was caught up in the memory of that moment. “She asked that, if we could, would we stand up to him. She asked whether or not we were willing to try and fix the world or if we just wanted to let someone else to do it.”
“What did you say?” Twilight asked.
“We both agreed, without a moment’s pause, that, if we had a chance to stop Discord, we would try,” Celestia said, finally regaining her voice, though it was still weak and quiet. “And that decision changed the course of our young lives. The very next day, Malewa began teaching us and training us. She had us take lessons from almost everyone in the village. Fighting, tactics, magic, and so much more. Our lives became devoted to defeating Discord.”
“But how did you know you could beat him? Did you know about the Elements of Harmony?” Twilight asked.
“No, we didn’t, but looking back I have to wonder if Malewa did,” Celestia mused as she poured herself another cup of tea. “She reminded us of our heritage as princesses, but told us it wasn’t our lineage that would give us the strength to face Discord. We tried to pry more from her, to understand how we would have any chance of beating him, but she did not say. She only kept assuring us that we two represented the one thing that Discord could never defeat.”
“In any case,” Luna said, picking up the story. “Much changed after that day.”
~~~
For ten years we trained in Cliff Wound. We never got our cutie marks in that time, never had a chance to find what we were truly talented at. But that wasn’t so important to us. We knew our talents could wait until the day Discord was defeated, and Malewa assured us they would come in time.
We learned all there was to learn in Cliff Wound. Malewa got us lessons with unicorns, with earth ponies, with other zebra, with giraffes, and with so many who called the village home. By the time Celestia and I were adults, when we were in the prime of our once mortal lives, we were skilled in combat and knowledgeable in mind.
Finally, one day, we told Malewa this. We asked her what else we needed to finally face Discord. And her answer was simple. Malewa said we were still missing something. That, as two unicorns, Cliff Wound could never offer all the strength we needed to face Discord.
It was on that day that Malewa brought forth saddlebags she had kept packed for so long. It was on that day that Malewa told us that the last step of our lessons, the final piece we would need, lay beyond the town that had been our home and our world for all our lives.
It was on that day, with so little warning and no chance for good-byes, that we left Cliff Wound and walked straight into the chaotic world Discord had made.
“I have the firewood, or... at least wood I think will burn.”
Luna came into the small clearing that had become the trio’s camp. Only Celestia was there. Malewa was still away, searching for a source of water. In the meantime, her elder sister had prepared the camp in the chaotic forest they found themselves in. Their sleeping mats were laid out, and she had cleared a firepit in the ground which smelled and had the consistency of wet tea leaves.
Celestia used her magic to take some of the sticks Luna had scavenged, inspecting each one as she began to stack them in the firepit. “Are these branches made of... charcoal?”
“Yes,” Luna said as she took a seat next to the firepit. “I snapped them off of trees that had large, metal leaves that looked like a single wall of a cage. Some of the branches were even burning, cooking a mixture of vegetables skewered on sticks atop the metal leaves. It smelled... wonderful, to be honest. I bought a few back, if you wished to try one.”
Celestia shook her head. “I think I’ll wait to make sure Mother says they’re safe.”
“Is she not back yet?” Luna asked as she continued to pass sticks to Celestia to stack on the fire pit.
“We didn’t pass any clean water all day, and we can’t drink all that prune juice again or we’ll lose another day.” Celestia paused a moment to offer Luna a reassuring smile. “I’m sure Mother is on her way back. Don’t worry.”
Luna nodded, the fire sparking to life between them. The fire grew and, as it burned, changed hue. A side effect of the chaotic materials, the fire was like the northern lights before them, turning and dancing while still providing all important warmth.
“Have you given any thought to what Mother said the other day, about finding our virtues?” Luna asked as she settled in. She was truthfully thinking of Malewa, wondering if she was safe. The chaos of the world could swallow all three of them up at anytime, day or night, rain or shine. But she didn’t want to think about that, so she focused on something else. A tangent to the topic that plagued her thoughts.
“I have, and I think I know one of my virtues.”
“What is it?” Luna asked.
“Well, I was reminded of it earlier today when we traversed that swamp. We had to keep laughing the whole time, like the bubbles in the water and the trees, or the whole swamp would come after us. Remember what Mother did? She made it into a game. We tried different laughs, and even used our laughter to sing a song. She made it a game. She made it kind of fun, and it wasn’t as scary because of that.
“And, I think I have that virtue. The day we faced Discord, I tried to keep Menboon, Nessa and you calm suggesting a quiet game. It didn’t really work but I tried. Maybe I have a virtue of...”
“Playing games when you should be serious?” Luna asked.
Celestia shook her head. “No, playing games to make things... not so scary. To keep everyone calm, to keep ponies laughing and to keep the hope alive.” Celestia sighed and scratched her head. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just reading into this wrong.”
“No,” Luna said, reaching a hoof and gently placing it on her sister’s shoulder. “I like it. A virtue of... hope. Or maybe....”
“Laughter,” a voice said from the forest as Malewa stepped out of the gloom, canteens sloshing with clean water.
~~~
“An Element of Harmony,” Twilight whispered, her words feeling delicate on her lips. She was reminded so much of the journey she and her friends went on for the Elements. Those little moments, where each of her friends showed something special about themselves. A moment where their greatest strength, their virtue of friendship, showed through. “I had wondered... once or twice... whether or not you two had four friends who helped you or if you used the Elements yourselves.”
“It was the latter,” Luna said, the empty tea cups sitting between the three alicorns as the story outlasted their pot of tea. “The Elements were not going to be as strong with just the two of us, and that is likely why Discord’s state as a statue was not as permanent as we thought. But fate was not so kind to us, Twilight Sparkle. My sister and I could only rely on one another, and trust in Malewa’s word that we would be more than enough.”
“So what happened next?” Twilight asked.
“After traveling for two long months, we arrived at our destination,” Celestia said, her words carrying a whisper of the pain in the memories. “On that day, much happened. We found the Elements. We ascended and become alicorns. We faced Discord.”
“And... it was also destined to be the last day we ever saw Malewa.”
Malewa brought me and Luna to a distant mountain range, months travel away from our home. We crossed many miles to get there and hid from Discord more than a dozen times. He seemed to sense we were drawing near to our destination. He was stalking us, his appearances growing more frequent. But Malewa showed no fear, so neither did Luna nor I.
In the mountains, we were brought to an ancient monastery. It was aged and forgotten, left to be reclaimed by the nature. Malewa said the ponies of the old country enshrined a great power within, a power that laid dormant, waiting to be awoken.
Our final test, as Malewa put it, was to enter the monastery and awaken the ancient power, for it would give us the strength to face Discord. And it was a test we would have to do alone as Malewa waited outside. If we chose not to go in, she would understand and take us back to Cliff Wound. It was our choice, and she knew we would make the decision that was best for us as sisters.
To say the least, there was no hesitation or doubt from me nor Luna. We stepped into the monastery together, so that our friends, all the world, wouldn’t have to suffer under Discord for a day longer.
~~~
“Luna, I think I found something.”
Celestia pushed open the large doors magically, the aged wood threatening to break asunder as the hinges groaned through their rust. The effort was taxing, but Celestia brushed it off as Luna trotted to catch up.
“What room is this?” Luna asked, looking about. There were high walls but no ceiling, though the specks of glass on the floor spoke of a skylight that may have once capped the space. In a pentagon shape, five flat walls joined by five thick wooden columns. Against each wall was a pedestal, and upon pedestal rested a large stone sphere. The spheres themselves bore the images of gemstones and sat beneath aged plaques bearing different words.
Luna turned her head, reading the words of each plaque in turn as Celestia moved to narrow podium in the very center of the room. “Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, and... and Laughter.” The last word, laughter, lingered in the air. “Sister, isn’t that the word Mother used that one evening?”
“It is,” Celestia said, starting to circle the central lectern, her eyes focused on lightly engraved words that ran along its circumference. “And listen to this. ‘Here we do enshrine the Elements of Harmony, the greatest magic in known ponydom. May their light return in our darkest hour, brought forth by those ponies who carry the greatest of virtues.’”
“Do you think this is why mother said we needed to discover our virtues?” Luna asked.
“It would seem so,” Celestia said, raising her head from the central lectern. She walked to one of the enshrined stones, focusing on the one that rested beneath the plaque for laughter. “But what are we supposed to do?” She called on her magic, wrapping the stone in a levitation spell... only for a spark of energy to leap from the stone to her horn.
“Celestia!”
“No, it’s okay,” she told Luna, even as the energy traveled down her body. “I’m remembering... all the times we played games together. I’m remembering the times I raised your spirits when you were struggling with lessons. I’m remembering the day we hid from Discord.
“I even remember the time, when we were little, when I made you laugh by pretending I was an alfalfa monster,” Celestia said with a chuckle of her own. It was in that moment the surge of energy that had entered into her leapt back to the sphere, causing it to jump on its pedestal. Then, as if it had only been made of sand, the sphere fell away, revealing a golden necklace with a pink, sun shaped gem.
Gingerly, Celestia lifted the necklace, holding it up to the light. “It’s beautiful. Do you think I’m supposed to put it on?”
“Yes,” Luna said with a nod of her head. “And I bet we’re supposed to do the same with all the others too. Come, try to pick up the stone over here.” She lifted a hoof and pointed to the stone that rested beneath the plaque which bore the word “Generosity.”
Celestia paused only a moment to secure the necklace around her neck before she trotted over to join Luna. Once more, she called on her levitation magic to pick up the sphere. But this time nothing happened. There was no spark of energy, the stone simply lifted off the pedestal and floated lazily in the cushion of Celestia’s magic.
“Is... is something wrong?” Luna asked.
“Yes, I think there is.” Celestia set the stone back down and turned to look at Luna. “I think this one is for you.”
“Me? But—”
“Just try,” Celestia said with a reassuring smile, to which Luna nodded. She stepped forward, to face the stone head on, and summoned her magic. And, as with Celestia’s, the stone sparked to life. The bolt of energy flew to Luna’s horn, sending a shiver down her spine and spreading a smile on her face.
“I’m... I’m remembering things now as well. I remember giving Menboon parts of my lunch when his brothers stole his. I remember putting extra time and effort into some of the crafts I worked on as an apprentice when I knew they were going to someone who really deserved it.
“And I too remember the day we encountered Discord. I was willing to distract him, to give myself up to him, so you and our friends could escape.” As with Celestia, the spark of energy that had entered Luna jumped back to the stone, which turned to sand and fell away to reveal another necklace. This one bore a deep purple stone in the shape of a moon.
“I... don’t understand. Why didn’t it awaken for you?” Luna asked as she took the necklace.
“Remember one of the first lessons Malewa taught us, Luna. Greatness comes when creatures work together in harmony.” Celestia smiled at her sister, a smile both inviting and confident. “That bonds of friendship, kinship, and camaraderie, forged in the pursuit of a common goal, can surmount even the greatest of obstacles.
“Sister, we started this journey together. We faced the years of training together. We both made it our life’s mission to defeat Discord. And now... now it is only together that we can awaken this ancient power. This is the last step.” Celestia extended her hoof. “Will you stand at my side and make me stronger than I can be alone?”
Luna returned Celestia’s smile. She placed the necklace around her neck and, instead of shaking her sister’s hoof, stepped forward to embrace Celestia. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Sister.”
A single spark of energy leapt between the two sisters’ horns, a single spark that heralded the arrival of so many more. The clasps on the necklaces popped open, and their two necklaces flew into the air. The two necklaces were then joined by three more, the other three charms released from the remaining stones.
As Celestia and Luna watched, all five necklaces spun around the center podium. It was there, with a brilliant flash of light, a final sphere appeared. A sphere that turned to dust like it’s brethren, revealing a golden tiara with single, great jewel at its center. It was all beautiful, but it was short lived. In another brilliant burst of light the five necklaces and tiara were gone, replaced instead with two more extravagant necklaces. One was gold with a gemstone in the shape of a sun. The other silver with a crescent moon shaped jewel. Those necklaces flew to Celestia and Luna, attaching themselves to the pair’s neck.
In an instant the pair felt the power surging through them. It filled every fiber of their being and overloaded their senses. They were numb, deaf, and blind to the world, but Celestia had no fear. She knew Luna was right at her side.
She knew that, together, they would be able to face anything.
In time, their senses began to return, only to find they were not in the shrine of the old monastery. They were instead in what seemed like an ocean of lights, floating without ground nor sky. It was a serene place, as if all was meant to be well and peaceful in this one, single place.
“Where are we, Sister?”
“You are where you are destined to be,” a voice spoke to them, causing the pair to turn. Walking up, with the kind of pride only a mother could have for her daughters, was Malewa. The zebra looked upon them both, a smile on her face and a tear in her eye. “You are now ready to set the world free.
“For today you have learned a lesson of harmony and sisterhood. Today, like many before, the Elements will grant you power to do great good.” Malewa’s smile only grew as squares of light began to surround the trio. Squares that showed moments from Celestia and Luna’s life, moments where they demonstrated the strength of their bond as sisters. And as the pair looked on in awe of what was around them, Malewa began to sing in a sweet voice, one that seemed to echo with a power all its own.
You've come such a long, long way And I've been there since your very first day I’ve loved as we made a home I've watched as you have grown I know what you've been through And I can't say all the ways I am proud of you
But it's time now for a new change to come You've grown up and your new life has begun I can't know where you will go I can't know what you'll see But I can say with a certainty That you will... fulfill your destiny
~~~
“The next thing we knew, we were standing before Discord and his throne. We had been made into alicorns, and arrived with the Elements of Harmony about our necks. To say the least, Discord was... surprised. He threw himself at us, giving us little warning. But through the battle we learned of our new powers and, with the Elements of Harmony, we sealed Discord away.”
Celestia, Luna, and Twilight reached a balcony of Canterlot Castle, the sun resting lazily on the horizon. It was time for Luna and Celestia to shift the world into night, and, as they attended to their duty, Twilight looked to the pair, her mind trying to wrap around what she had been told.
“What happened after that?”
“We took to our wings and flew back to the monastery,” Luna answered as she raised the moon. “We wished to tell Malewa the good news and, as a family, return to Cliff Wound to celebrate Discord’s defeat. But... Malewa was nowhere to be found. We searched for decades, centuries... but after that day we never saw her again.”
“But she was there, in that place with all the lights and memories,” Twilight clarified. “Like Celestia was for me.”
“She was.”
“But... but then that would mean these zebras... this organization know how to make alicorns. Do you realize the implications of that? They could overthrow the world if they wanted.”
“Maybe,” Celestia said as she and Luna finished their duties, the moon beginning its path across the sky. “But we should not jump to that conclusion. You have many theories Twilight, and both Luna and I agree that something is going on. We, however, wish to speak with Zecora first before making anymore assumptions. Will you take us to her?”
“Wait, you want to talk to her right now? Like, ‘right now’ right now?”
Celestia and Luna both nodded as they turned to face Twilight. “Yes,” Celestia said. “We would like you to teleport all of us to Zecora’s hut. And, if you feel you cannot, tell us its location so Luna or I may do so.”
~~~
“Now just a splash of water to calm the boil, and soon I’ll see the end of my toil,” Zecora murmured to herself as she tended to her pot. She poured in the fresh river water, causing the boiling liquid within her cauldron to calm and cool. The fire was out, and all the ingredients had already been added. This was truly the final step, to dilute the mixture within, give it a good stir, and then let it set a moment to reach a more comfortable temperature.
“Ah yes, of finer dinners there are few than my forest bounty stew,” Zecora mused to herself as she took a ladle from its place on the wall. She dipped it into the warm stew, using it to spoon a few heaping helpings into a bowl. She then carried the bowl to her kitchen table, licking her lips at the aromas filling her hut.
“There are few things that could improve this food,” Zecora said as she set the bowl down, only to hear a knock at her door and a familiar voice shouting from outside.
“Zecora, you home?”
“But having a guest would surely improve the mood.” Quickly moving over to the front door, Zecora smiled as she began to open it. “Twilight Sparkle, your visit brings me great elation. I have not seen you since you left for your... coron...”
Zecora’s last words fell silent on her tongue as she looked out her door at the three figures standing on her doorstep. Twilight was in the middle, having been the one that knocked on the door, but she was dwarfed between the two tall, proud figures that stood alongside her. Celestia and Luna looked down at Zecora, their eyes stern as the zebra took an anxious step back.
“Um, Zecora, I hope you don’t mind that I brought—”
Twilight’s friendly words were silenced by the loud snap of Zecora’s door slamming it shut in the trio’s faces. There were panicked, unintelligible shouts and clatters within, and the sound of something heavy being slammed against the door. Twilight was stunned, but Celestia was already reacting. Her magic wrapped around the door of the hut, ripping it from its hinges and tossing it to one side.
“She’s escaped out a window!” Luna shouted when the trio found the hut empty.
“Luna, take to the skies. Twilight, stay with me.” At that Celestia turned, her great long legs powering her into a sprint. She raced around the hut as Luna took to the sky. It had all happened so fast Twilight could only stand bewildered, blinking with an arched eyebrow.
“Twilight!”
“Sorry! Sorry! I’m coming!” she shouted, snapping out of her trance. She took to her own wings, flying into the air with Luna. From above it was hard to see anything, but through gaps in the canopy they saw flashes of Celestia’s pristine white coat.
Though that was the furthest concern from Twilight's mind at the moment. “What are you two doing? Why did Zecora run?”
“I promise all will be answered in time,” Luna reassured. “But for now, help us search. We cannot let her get away, or she will vanish into history like so many of the zebras you have studied.”
Twilight nodded, banking with Luna as she focused her eyes on the ground. She couldn’t deny she was a little panicked. She didn’t expect Zecora to just run away at the sight of the princesses. It... was painful, in a way, to see her zebra friend react like that. It meant Zecora was part of the conspiracy. That she was there, in Ponyville, serving some other purpose. That their friendship may have been nothing more than a lie.
Still, part of Twilight wanted to believe it wasn’t true, and the only way to find out the truth was to find Zecora. So she scanned the ground with Luna, eyes searching for even a glimpse amongst the trees of the Everfree Forest. It was hard in the dark of night, even with the moon and stars lending their light, but still she searched.
And then she saw a glimpse.
“Over there!”
Twilight’s one shout summoned Luna’s power like a meteor crashing to the ground. Eyes and horn aglow with her power, Luna cast her spell to the ground. It started simply as a beam of light, which struck the ground a few dozen yards in front of where Twilight had seen Zecora. That light, however, quickly grew. It shot up and out, becoming a wall that curved around and rejoined onto itself as a bubble. It was a shield, and, even from their place in the sky, Twilight and Luna could see that Zecora had been contained within.
“Come, Twilight, we cannot be sure how long my spell will contain her.”
“But she has no magic. How would she—”
The sound of shattering glass cut Twilight off. A large hole had been smashed in Luna’s spell shield, and through that hole the pair saw Zecora leap. It didn’t seem possible that the princess’s barrier could just be smashed. Yet the visible gap was undeniable. How had Zecora done it? What kind of powers did the zebra in the organization hold? Were they in over their heads?
“Twilight!”
Once more, the sharp shout from Luna brought Twilight back to the task at hoof. She flapped her wings hard, rushing to catch up with Luna. They were tracking Zecora through the forest, catching short glimpses of her as she ducked between trees and raced along the Everfree’s paths. Celestia was doing her part as well, slowly gaining ground as she galloped at breakneck speeds through the forest.
“Twilight, how is your aim?”
“With what?” Twilight asked, only to see Luna’s body turning to smoke and shifting and twisting around itself.
In just a few seconds, Luna had become a javelin. Long, lethal, and looking as black as the night in the moon’s pale light. It was surprising to see the moon princess had become an inanimate object, but still Twilight understood. She understood why Luna had asked about her aim, and the thought made Twilight feverishly shake her head.
“I can’t just shoot you like an arrow! I can’t shoot at Zecora! What if I hit her with you!? I could kill her! I can’t do that!”
“Zecora will not be harmed, Twilight. I promise you that, but this action must be taken. We are reaching the denser parts of the forest. If we do not catch her now she will escape,” Luna’s voice snapped in Twilight’s mind as the spear floated beside her. “We must apprehend her, Twilight, if we wish to uncover the truth to your conspiracy.”
Twilight glanced back at the ground, gritting her teeth before finally nodding her head. “Okay!” Her horn flashed to light, great strands of magic flowing around her and the spear-form Luna. The threads wrapped together, took shape, until finally Twilight had formed a giant bow out of magic beside her. She notched Luna on the magical string and began to draw it back as she continued to fly after Zecora.
She didn’t know what she was doing, nor was she sure Luna was telling the truth. She didn’t want to hurt Zecora at all. She couldn’t know for sure if the princesses were trying to shield her from the bitter truth: that catching Zecora was top priority, be she dead or alive. Twilight didn't want to believe it, but she feared it all the same. She trembled, and began to question. She lessened the tension on the bow string.
“I... I...” She breathed heavily a few times, her flying becoming less controlled as she panicked.
“Twilight! You must do it now!”
Twilight flinched, closing her eyes tight and whispering a small prayer. “I am sorry, Zecora.” She then drew the magical bow back as far as she could. She then opened her eyes, focusing despite the panic in her heart. She took her aim, moving with Zecora as the zebra ducked and dodged along the forest paths.
Then, like lightning unleashed from a thundering sky, Twilight let go. Luna was launched towards the ground with a frightening pace, cutting through the trees and disappearing from sight instantaneously.
~~~
Twilight landed a few minutes later. She had not chased Luna down immediately. She had feared what she would find. Had they caught Zecora? Did she just hurt a mare who had helped her and Ponyville time and again? Had she just taken a life? Twilight’s mind buzzed so much she had contemplated just going home and hiding in her bed until Celestia came to find her. But she forced herself to land, following a glow of magic through the trees until she came across the princesses.
As well as an alive and well Zecora.
Luna had transformed herself again after being unleashed from Twilight’s bow, letting her magical smoke catch and bind Zecora until Celestia could catch up. The princess of the sun had then used her magic to manipulate the nearby trees. Zecora was pinned to the ground by roots and branches, but she didn’t seem to be fighting it anymore. She simply stood, her eyes and head turned away from the princesses.
“You caught her,” Twilight said, breathing a sigh of relief that there was no sign of injury or blood.
“Yes, we did,” Celestia said, her voice as friendly and kind as always. “Thanks in no small part to you, Twilight. Thank you.”
“You're welcome,” she replied before turning to Zecora. “So, what do we do now? Do we take her back to Canterlot for interrogation? I mean, she ran from you two. That must prove she’s part of the conspiracy.”
“Yes, Zecora is part of the conspiracy, but perhaps not in the capacity you think.” Celestia stepped towards the ensnared zebra, her voice losing some of its common warmth. “Dozens of zebras across history who have acted, for better or worse, to change the course of this nation and others. Zebras who disappeared in youth, and never two at the same time. Zebras who shared a family resemblance. All very true facts of your conspiracy, Twilight. But one fact stood out to me and Luna, beyond all others.
“The zebras you studied went to great lengths, even faking deaths, to keep away from me and Luna. You felt it was because the zebra organization feared our power or feared their influence would be discovered. Luna and I think the explanation is quite different.
“For who else would recognize an immortal better than another immortal?” Celestia stood directly in front of Zecora, looking down as the smile on her lips trembled a little. “Isn’t that right, Malewa?”
“MaleWHAT!?” Twilight shouted, her voice echoing across the forest for miles and disturbing birds who had been roosting in the trees.
~~~
“Twilight? Twilight, are you alright?”
With a groan Twilight sat up, rubbing the side of her head. “Celestia? Oh... I had the strangest dream. We were chasing Zecora, and then, when we caught her, you called her by your mother’s name. And...” Twilight opened her eyes, finding herself lying on a leopard print blanket in the back corner of a familiar hut. She then winced and looked to Celestia. “And it wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“Come, have something to eat. You’ve been out for a couple hours and it’s past dinner time.”
Celestia guided Twilight to the main room of the hut. The pair walked towards Luna, who was seated at a table that had been set next to Zecora’s bubbling cauldron. Plates with bowls and spoons were laid out across the surface, and Zecora was tending to her cauldron again. She was adding back water and spice, trying to cover the weak scent of burnt food in the air.
“So all that really happened?” Twilight asked as she and Celestia took seats across from Luna at the table.
“Yes, Twilight,” Celestia said with a reassuring nod.
“And you really called Zecora—”
“Yes, I called her by the name Luna and I knew her by over a thousand years ago.”
“But that’s not possible. Zecora can’t be that old. I mean, look at her! She’s... I don’t know, thirty or forty something. She’s not even an alicorn! I thought you had to be an alicorn or some other crazy creature to be immortal!”
“We thought so as well,” Celestia said before looking over her shoulder at Zecora, who still tended to the pot. “But we wanted to wait until you had awoken before asking Malewa to explain herself.”
“So,” Celestia said as she turned her head, “how are you still alive?”
“I suppose there is no hiding nor any point in denying.” Zecora sighed as she turned from the cauldron, carrying a ladle full of the salvaged stew. She began to fill the bowl at each of the table’s place settings, speaking as she worked. “The gift of wings is what you all share, but other signs of immortality can a creature wear. You too know of another who is different in form. He who can summon a cotton candy storm.”
“Discord,” Twilight surmised. “You’re right, but that’s what I meant by other ‘crazy creatures.’ Pinkie Pie met a sea pony princess that was immortal. You... you’re just a normal looking zebra.”
“As a spirit of chaos, Discord stands alone, he lives his duty from skin to bone.” Zecora finished filling the bowls, returning the ladle to her cauldron before taking her own seat at the table. “But this world is about balance in many a way, just as the sun and moon dance each day. The scales must be flat, it is as simple as that.”
“Of course, that’s why we have the Elements of Harmony. They’re meant to stop things like Discord’s chaos?” Twilight said.
“Harmony is having all in equal measure. It’s about accepting flaws and enjoying things you treasure. Order brings stability, safety, but also predictability. In such a world, no pony would strive beyond their ability. For what hope would a pony have to change their lot in life? What hope would they have to end their burdens or strife?”
Zecora stirred her stew a little, leaning her head on a hoof. “Chaos is hope, a chance for things to be changed. A chance that things may not go as arranged. Chaos is the chance to dream, to create, to be free, even if it means we creatures do not always agree.
“The purpose of the Elements is to restore the balance of the world.” Zecora drew her spoon from the bowl, turning it slowly in front of her nose as if appreciating its design. “To ensure things are neither too straight nor too chaotically curled.”
“If the Elements of Harmony aren’t meant to be the thing that counterbalances Discord, then what or who is?” Twilight asked, a question that Zecora offered no answers too. She just remained silent, letting the question hang in the air as she returned to stirring her stew. Yet the silence itself made the truth apparent. Twilight couldn’t help but gasp, cover her mouth, and point shakily at Zecora.
“It’s you. You’re a... spirit of order or something.”
Zecora nodded her head. “That is the truth you’ve chased Twilight, for this and many another night. There is no legion of zebras guiding the world from the dark. Just this one trying to do good by my mark.”
“Wait, how did you know about my conspiracy theory?”
Celestia cleared her throat a little, drawing Twilight’s attention. “Remember, you were unconscious for a few hours. Luna and I didn’t want to question Malewa before you awoke, so we had to talk about something.”
“Okay, but... then. Zecora, that means you were all those zebras in history, even the arguably bad ones like Grass Snake and The Phantom,” Twilight pointed out. “Why would you do those things?”
“Maintaining order can demand I walk the law’s border. Those in Manehatten, who hoarded treasures, did so to delight in power’s pleasures. Those that stood in the upper percent would impose strife on those below without relent. Responsibility and power must go hoof and hoof, and if it didn’t I absconded with that power to my hidden roof.”
“And the Crystal Empire?”
Zecora sighed, turning her head and eyes away from Twilight’s questioning stare. “Though immortal I may be, I still have faults that are plain to see. I believed Sombra could surmount the dark art. I did not think it could poison his heart. That day was one of my greatest errors, and will, at times, still fill my dreams with terror. Perhaps if I had seen the signs, perhaps I could have spared the kingdom Sombra’s crimes.”
“What about what happened with Trixie?” Twilight asked, her voice starting to carry some angry tones. “The Phantom stole the Alicorn Amulet. It should have been in your lair in Manehatten. Did you put it someplace Trixie would find it just to teach me a lesson? Did you do all that just to get me out here so you could train me? Did you—”
“Why did you leave us?”
Luna had not spoken at all up to this point. She had accepted the bowl of stew, but, like Zecora, had seemed content to stare and watch her serving grow cold. But now the moon princess was looking at Zecora, eyes not demanding but pleading for an answer.
“You said we could all go home after Discord was beaten. You said everything was going to be all right. But it wasn’t, because we didn’t know what happened to you.” Luna began to rise from her seat, tears pulling at her eyes. “We thought you were lost or hurt or that Discord had done something to you in those last moments. We searched for decades, visiting every country, city, and village in hopes of finding some creature that had seen you, had heard of you, that knew of your final fate, or even knew where you were buried.
Luna’s horn flashed with magic and her mane surged forward, becoming like a second limb as it grabbed Zecora around the neck. The grip was tight, and on instinct Zecora lifted her hooves to try and pry Luna’s mane away.
“We thought we had failed the mare who was our mother.” Luna lifted Zecora higher, ignoring the Zebra’s flailing legs and struggled breath. “Do you know how many nights we cried over you? Do you know how much I wanted to just talk to you when our rule over Equestria began? We knew nothing of governing nor our powers! You left us to twist in the wind!”
“Luna, stop, she can’t breathe,” Celestia shouted, rising from her own seat.
“Why!?” Luna shouted through tears, too focused on Zecora to even hear Celestia’s pleas. “Why willingly abandon us!? Why willingly avoid us!? If you had been there... if I could have talked to you... maybe I wouldn’t have...”
“Luna! Stop!”
Celestia’s magic flashed, freeing Zecora from Luna’s mane. The zebra dropped to the floor, coughing and rubbing her neck as Celestia and Luna had a standoff, the pair glaring at one another with magic glowing, ready to strike. For a moment, Twilight feared the two would begin to fight right there, but Luna eventually backed down. She turned and stomped out of the hut, taking off to fly in the cool evening air.
“Zecora, are you okay?” Twilight asked, moving over beside Zecora and helping her back into her seat. Zecora nodded, but continued to rub her neck for a moment.
“Just give Luna some time to cool off. Even after all these centuries, sometimes her anger can get the better of her,” Celestia said, though her voice was a bit hollow and the smile had faded from her lips. “Though, she brings up a valid point. Why did you leave, Malewa?”
“In this world of balance,” Zecora said quietly, “nature required my absence. If I do too much, if I lingered too long, the scales would tip in a direction wrong. With Discord defeated, my time with you was at its end. I had to move on and continue to the next road bend. Besides, your new lives and destinies awaited. Like baby birds, your departure from the nest was fated. It was all for the best. If I hadn’t left I, like Discord, would have caused distress.”
“But could you not have at least said goodbye?”
Zecora looked up at Celestia, touching a hoof to the princess’s. “Would you have truly understood? Would you have let me leave for the greater good?”
Celestia opened her mouth, to make some protest, but no words came from her mouth. It was the first time Twilight had ever seen the princess speechless, and it was a silence that Zecora could only nod to.
“It pained me more than you’ll ever know. Many of my tears stained the mountain’s snow. I wish I could have been at your side, to help you and to look on in pride. But you more than any understand the burden of responsibility and command. When Equestria was threatened you faced Luna and took your stand. My duties are simply more than we three, no matter how strong our family.”
Zecora sighed, slowly rising from her seat and stepping away from Celestia and Twilight. “And now I must be on my way. Equestria has seen Zecora for the last day.”
“You're leaving again?! Now?!” Twilight looked back at Celestia, expecting the princess to say something, but Celestia was struggling to keep a straight face as tears pulled at her own eyes.
“Of...,” Celestia coughed to clear her throat and steady her voice. “Of course, Malewa. I understand. Be safe and... don’t worry about Luna. I’ll talk to her.”
Twilight looked back and forth between the two, eyes wide and jaw hanging slack in disbelief. Zecora was leaving, just like that, and Celestia was just going to let her? It just... didn’t make sense to Twilight. If she was in Celestia’s hooves, if she had gone through such an experience with her own mother... she couldn’t imagine how happy she’d be to see her. How much she’d want to just talk to her and catch up. Zecora and Celestia hadn’t even hugged or anything. A single hoof touch, that was it, and she didn’t even want to know how Luna would feel hearing Zecora had just left again.
She had to stop this!
“No! This isn’t right!” Twilight rushed to the door, blocking it with her body and wings.
“Twilight, please, stop. You’re only making this more difficult,” Celestia said, once more clearing her throat to keep her composure.
“No, this isn’t right! Zecora, you taught Luna and Celestia the lessons of sisterhood, of friendship, of family. You taught them that it’s the greatest power in the world and that it can overcome any obstacle. That’s why they believed in themselves, believed they could beat Discord. If the strength of your family could do that, could give you three the strength to hike for months to find the Elements, can’t it overcome this? Surely that wasn’t the only time you’ve regretted leaving behind a life.”
Zecora slowly looked back at Celestia, the pair staring at one another as she spoke. “That time doesn’t stand alone, but never have I felt a greater longing for home. For days spent with two fillies so small, who I cared and watched over till they grew tall. But I am not like Discord, I will not bend the rules for my own reward. My duty in this world is to spread order across every nation and every border.
“So please, I plead to you Twilight, let me disappear into this night.”
Zecora pushed past Twilight slowly, and the young alicorn princess did nothing to stop her. She wanted to have a reason to try and hold Zecora back, but her mind was drawing a blank. It just wasn’t right for her to leave like that, to leave Celestia and Luna again.
There had to be a solution to this. Twilight couldn’t just let Zecora leave, even as the zebra began to walk away from the hut. Friendship, sisterhood, family... all that was supposed to be stronger than this. There had to be an answer, had to be a solution. There had to be a way Zecora could bend the rules like Discord did, or used to. He didn’t do it... so much... anymore...
“Wait!” Twilight called on her magic, and in a flash Zecora was teleported back into the hut. The zebra was bewildered, but didn’t get a chance to regain her bearings before Twilight’s face was barely an inch away from her own. “You can bend the rules now!”
“Twilight, your efforts I can commend, but these rules I cannot bend.”
“Yes you can, because Discord isn’t bending them anymore. Well, okay, maybe he just isn’t smashing the rules to little pieces anymore, but it’s still a major improvement,” Twilight said, a wide, hopeful smile on her face. “Friendship has done what, a thousand years ago, might have been impossible. Discord’s been reformed. Fluttershy managed to befriend him. Sure, he still causes chaos now and again, but now it’s like a hobby. It’s like... it’s like he’s on vacation or he’s retired. Better than that, he’s helping Celestia. Isn’t he?”
Celestia nodded her head, regaining some of the strength in her voice. “He is.”
“Then think about it,” Twilight said, placing a hoof on Zecora’s shoulder. “If he’s doing that, if he’s playing by the rules and even spreading a little order, shouldn’t you bend the rules? Isn’t that what the balance you’ve talked about would demand?”
Zecora blinked a few times, glancing back at Celestia who had the same disbelieving look on her face. Twilight herself was looking between the two, her smile growing as the hope built in her chest. “Okay, I’ll admit, maybe we can’t know for sure. Maybe this is all just a bad idea, but wouldn’t it be worth it to at least try? Wouldn’t you, Luna, and Celestia at least like to spend a few days catching up?”
Zecora turned slowly, taking a seat at the table. She closed her eyes, bringing her hooves to her face. It was a position of meditation and of contemplation. Perhaps, even, Zecora was trying to sense the will of the balance, though Twilight couldn’t be sure. That was one thing she would try and ask Zecora about if she did stay, to explain this balance she followed as if it was a sentient force commanding her.
But she had to convince Zecora to stay first.
“If Discord abides order and peace, can my own journey cease?” Zecora muttered to herself. “If chaos holds a bit of order, can I tread closer to chaos’s boarder?”
Twilight and Celestia drew in closer, both watching Zecora. Second after second ticked by in silence. Twilight could feel the tension building in the air, making her need to fidget. She wanted to pace. She wanted to work on something. She needed a way to vent this nervous energy, but there was no such outlet. She and Celestia could only stand, wait, and watch as Zecora made her decision.
Then... then a smile. A small smile cracked on Zecora’s lips. She opened her eyes and looked to the pair. “I suppose the world won’t die if we want to give it a try.”
Like a fresh, cool, summer breeze after working outside all day, Twilight felt relief washing over her body. She smiled and, when she turned to look, she saw Celestia was smiling as well. Smiling one of the biggest smiles she had ever seen on her teacher’s face as her eyes began to water. In a moment the royal princess of Equestria, Celestia of the sun, had stepped forward to embrace Zecora, the mare she had known so long ago as Mother and Malewa.
It was a moment that left a warmth in Twilight’s, and a moment she wished not to intrude on. She slipped out slowly, creeping out of the hut before taking to her wings and flying into the sky. She found Luna, brooding and fighting tears on a cloud. She told Luna the decision that had been made, and in a flash the moon princess was flying back to the hut.
And, for the moment, Twilight chose to simply rest on the cloud, watching the hut from above and imaging the happy tears, words, and laughter coming from within.
~~~
“Thank you, Twilight. You have shown wisdom beyond your years tonight,” Celestia commended as the pair flew over the Everfree Forest, heading for Ponyville. “It seems I spoke true the day you became an alicorn. Tonight, it was my turn to be a student to your knowledge of friendship’s power.”
“I’m just glad things worked out this way,” Twilight said. “I think I can honestly sleep a lot better tonight knowing the big organization I’ve been chasing is just Zecora. It’s still hard to believe she’s been around even longer than both of you. I wonder if she knows any embarrassing stories of when you and Luna were little?”
“You mean like that story your mother told me about the magic show you tried—”
“Magic show? What magic show? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Twilight said abruptly, waving her hooves nervously before focusing back on Ponyville, which was drawing close. “So, what is Zecora going to do now?”
“First I believe she wants to speak with Discord, to ensure they have something of an understanding. Then, I do not know. She may continue to live here in this hut, even though Luna and I would gladly give her a room in Canterlot Castle. But I won’t be disappointed if she chooses to remain. Just knowing she is alive, just knowing where she is and being able to visit her... it’s practically a miracle in my eyes.”
“That... reminds me of something I wanted to talk to you about,” Twilight said as she and Celestia landed outside the library, whose windows were already dark.
“What’s on your mind?”
“When you and Luna became alicorns, Zecora sang you a song. I realized that... you sang the same song when I changed. Sure, it was a little different, but... And... I guess...” Twilight smiled up at Celestia, stepping forward and embracing the princess gently. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”
“Of course, Twilight,” Celestia said, returning the hug. The pair stayed like that for a few moments before separating. They smiled at one another, the smile of a student and mentor who cared about one another like family. Then, a few final good nights were traded before Celestia took off to return to Zecora’s hut.
Twilight remained outside, watching Celestia until she disappeared from sight. Then, with feelings of pride and joy in her heart, Twilight made her way into the library. She climbed the steps and slipped into bed with a tired yawn, being careful not to disturb Spike. It had been a tiring week, and she looked forward to a peaceful night’s sleep. A peaceful night’s sleep. She’d even sleep in the next morning. Yes, sleep sounded... so good.
“So, how long am I going to have to wait for that pie you owe me?”
Twilight’s eyes snapped open, and she quickly turned over in the bed to see a familiar goat face smiling at her with a snaggle toothed grin.
