The End of Harmony

Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: I don’t own My Little Pony. It’s the property of Hasbro. Yadda, yadda, yadda…

Prologue: The End of Harmony

Trapped inside their last desperate refuge, the leaders of the three pony tribes glared at one another in unbounded hostility. The lines on the cave floor served to separate them just as much as the walls in their hearts. Finally, the tension came to a boil.

“I claim this rock for Pegasopolis!” Commander Hurricane rolled the sole inhabitant of the cave besides the ponies deep into what little dirt composed the last remains of the once proud country.

“Unhand that rock this instant, you scoundrel.” Princess Platinum gestured imperiously, as befitting one of her exalted station, from the dirt and ice forming the entirety of the still graceful country of Unicornia.

Neither of them noticed as Chancellor Puddinghead leapt from the far end of Earth to steal their prize. “Oh look, you found my rock. I've been looking for it everywhere.”

“Hey, you invaded our territory.” Commander Hurricane pointed a threatening hoof.

“Finders keepers, losers weepers.” Came the reply in a sing-song manner only one completely confident of victory would dare use.

“That’s the last straw.” Commander Hurricane put a hoof literally and figuratively over the line.

“Give me my rock.” Princess Platinum’s horn began to glow with the magic that made the unicorns believe themselves superior to the other pony tribes.

“You lost it, I found it.” Chancellor Puddinghead picked up the rock with a victorious smirk.

“Well prepare to lose it!” Commander Hurricane dove at the earth pony who’d dared set hoof in Pegasopolis.

At that same moment, Princess Platinum had yanked at the rock with her magic. Chancellor Puddinghead, however, had managed to hang on with her teeth and was dragged clear of the dive.

The pull continued, until Chancellor Puddinghead’s head met the cave wall with an audible thump. As she dropped her prize and staggered away the rock lifted back into the air.

“It’s mine!” Princess Platinum cried in triumph as the rock floated towards her surrounded by the glow of her magic.

“That rock belongs to Pegasopolis!” Princess Platinum had only a moment to savor her victory before an irate Commander Hurricane tackled her from the side.

The leaders of Unicornia and Pegasoplis began a tussle that carried them across each of the three shrunken nations in turn. All three assistants pressed themselves against the walls of the cave in an effort to avoid being caught up in the war their leaders had begun over a rock.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Puddinghead had recovered from her run-in with the cave wall and had stealthily approached the rock once more. Her opposites struggle carried her her into their view just as she grabbed her prize and prepared to make good her escape. Neither Princess Platinum nor Commander Hurricane were about to let Chancellor Puddinghead so triumphantly abscond with their prize.

“Unhand my rock!” Princess Platinum pulled with magic once more.

The leader of Unicornia had learned from her past mistake. That slovenly earth pony had a most tenacious grip. Deciding that the time for subtlety was past, Princess Platinum yanked the rock as hard as her magic would allow.

Out of control, the rock sped across the cave, taking one of Chancellor Puddinghead’s teeth with it, straight into Smart Cookie’s head.

Earth ponies had long been renown for their physical toughness. Working the fields from sunup to sundown to bring food to the tribes was physically trying under the best of circumstances. No earth pony, though, was tough enough to survive a rock hitting their skull straight on with the full force of a unicorn’s magic behind it.

“Smart Cookie!” The five surviving ponies were all shocked at the violence, but it was Chancellor Puddinghead who had just lost a dear friend.

“You call us barbarians!” Commander Hurricane punched Princess Platinum across the jaw with a hoof trained since birth to excel at pony on pony violence.

“Ruffian, how dare you assault the daughter of the unicorn king!” Princess Platinum growled as she wiped a trail of blood from a split lip. “I’ll show you barbarians just what you’re dealing with.”

A stalactite directly above Commander Hurricane began to crack and groan as the enraged leader of the unicorns got cracking at it, in the most literal sense possible, with her considerable magical prowess.

“Ooooh, you’re gonna glow at me.” Commander Hurricane hadn't looked up to see the very mortal danger she was in at the moment. Heedless of her peril, she began to stalk towards the unicorn princess.

Her follower, Private Pansy, had looked up and seen the danger about to befall Commander Hurricane. As one final crack resounded through the tight quarters, Private Pansy dove towards her leader and pushed her out of the way. The chunk of rock would have been quite lethal had it fallen on her head. Private Pansy’s motion instead carried her forward so the stalactite hit just between her wings.

Clover the Clever, who had until now removed herself from the chaos around her, raced forward and threw the stalactite off Private Pansy and into the wall. She turned Private Pansy on to her side and saw with relief that her sides were still rising.

“I…” Private Pansy’s eyes snapped open, “I can’t feel my wings. I can’t feel my wings! Oh goodness, I can’t feel my wings!”

Private Pansy began to hyperventilate in panic as Clover the Clever tried in vain to calm her down. The unicorn was shoved aside as a recovered Commander Hurricane dashed to her subordinate’s side.

That brought her attention back to Princess Platinum just in time to see Chancellor Puddinghead, clearly mad with grief, lunging towards her with the rock that had proven the downfall of all three tribes. Shouting a warning would have accomplished nothing, Princess Platinum would merely die turning her head. Desperate, Clover the Clever hit Chancellor Puddinghead with a wall of magical force.

The earth pony would normally have survived such an attack none the worse for wear. However, in the close confines of the cave such an attack sent Chancellor Puddinghead into the cave wall at high speeds. Even that probably wouldn't have done the trick by itself, but her neck hitting and snapping on a rise in the cave wall served to end the life of Chancellor Puddinghead.

“Oh no,” Clover the Clever muttered over and over, “what have I done? I... I didn't mean to. She was going to... What have I done?”

“You've won.” Came a strangled response she hadn't been expecting.

“You've beat us.” Clover the Clever turned to see Commander Hurricane cradling a weeping Private Pansy. “We give, you’re on top. Do whatever you want with me, just spare the rest of my ponies.”

“I accept your service.” Clover could immediately tell that something was off with Princess Platinum. The life and fire that had blazed so fiercely in her friend had been diminished by the terrible few minutes just gone by.

“You fought well.” Some might have said Princess Platinum’s voice sounded mature, Clover merely thought it sounded dead. “And you showed loyalty to your fellows. New Unicornia will have trouble for some time until the earth ponies learn their place at the bottom of society. We would have you and yours be our sword and shield against our lessers.”

Clover had known Princess Platinum for years. In all that time she had never once heard her friend use the royal we. The pain on Princess Platinum's face was clear as day though. Clover wouldn't have been surprised one bit to find out that her friend was trying to hide that pain behind the impersonal tone she was using.

“Clover the Clever.” The pony in question very nearly didn’t respond to the summons, the voice coming out of her friend’s mouth was almost unrecognizable.

“Yes, your highness?” Her own voice sounded hollow in her ears. Clearly she hadn't escaped from this terrible cave without her own scars.

“We... No, I need to you do more for New Unicornia than you have already done. This winter must be ended now that the tribes are united. Have you any ideas?”

“I… I think so. My mentor, Starswirl the Bearded, taught me about creatures called Wendigos. They’re winter spirits that feed off fighting and hatred. The more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become. I think they’re behind the storms that have driven from our homes.”

“Then this is our doing.” Clover had no trouble discerning that Princess Platinum meant her doing. “A peaceful end to this storm died in this cave just as much as Chancellor Puddinghead. Is there any other way to end the suffering of ponies everywhere?”

“Maybe,” Clover felt unclean even before the words left her mouth. “The life energy of a pony makes for very potent magical energy. It won’t end the winter, not by a long stretch, but I think... I think I can use the lives we... took to partially seal the Wendigos and give us enough time each year to at least bring in sufficient crops to live on.”

Princess Platinum paused to ponder Clover’s words. The only sound in the otherwise silent cave was the soft crying coming from the now flightless Private Pansy.

“Do it,” came the soft response. Then Princess Platinum walked close enough to Clover for her to see the tears glittering in her friend’s eyes. “And Clover, I’m sorry.”

Twilight Sparkle was the youngest Court Sorceress in New Unicornia since Clover the Clever herself. Many on the royal council expected miracles from her on account of that fact. She felt she was delivering one to them by not smashing their chairs over their thick skulls. It had been a hard winter, all eight months of it, and the common ponies were restless. Reports coming in from the pegasus guard stations in the lower city were disturbing to say the least. The earth ponies in the part of Platinum City derisively called Dirtville were on the verge of rioting.

This latest crackdown on earth ponies without the papers to be in Platinum City would very likely send them over the edge. If the council could bring itself to wait even a single week more most of those ponies would begin returning to the countryside to work on farms during the short spring and summer. But no, the chancellor, Lord Sombra, just had to insist on making the problem worse. Not that he or his lackeys had put it like that. They thought the earth ponies little better than slaves, and were convinced that the day they gave the earth ponies an inch would be followed a week later by the end of unicorn domination in New Unicornia.

Twilight failed to hold in a snort of laughter at the ridiculousness of that thought. If Sombra, Jet Set, Upper Crust, and the others could see the conditions in Dirtville they wouldn't fear for the loss of unicorn domination for another hundred years. Of course, the conditions in the worst part of Dirtville were paradise compared to the rumors about Sombra’s ‘Penal Colonies.’ Twilight knew only enough about those horrible places to know that she wouldn't wish her worst enemy into one. And she feared a number of earth ponies whose only crime was trying to get out of the cold were about to wind up in those dark holes rather than working on farms bringing in food for the rest of New Unicornia.

Twilight Sparkle was hardly one of those strange unicorns who believed that Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever had made a terrible mistake with the segregation of society placing unicorns and pegasi atop the earth ponies. She was, after all, a product of the society that had born and raised her. On the other hoof, she knew how short the growing season was in New Unicornia, and how dearly the farms needed every earth pony hoof and back they could get. Now Sombra was planning to remove dozens if not hundreds of earth ponies from that most important rung of society.

All that added up to another bad winter starting in four months time. That would likely mean more riots, which would mean more earth ponies sent off to those abominable penal colonies. And that would probably lead to starvation among even the unicorn poor, not to mention the pegasi or the luckless earth ponies. Not that Sombra would care. He sat there in the darkest corner of whatever room he was in, darkening the shadows around him and hardly ever speaking a single growling word.

His dark and mysterious silent act had, however, succeeded in sidelining Princess Rarity from nearly all the levers of power. With her father ill, Rarity should have held complete power as regent over New Unicornia. Somehow, Sombra had managed to convince enough ponies to flat out lie that things were not nearly as bad as they seemed. That left him with most of the power in the palace. Twilight could somewhat understand, if still completely detest, his actions. The first thing her friend would do upon becoming regent would be to strip Sombra and his followers of all power. Followed by finding the point in New Unicornia farthest from Platinum City and exiling them there.

Still in a foul mood, Twilight finally arrived at her rooms. The Court Sorceress had a fair amount of space to herself. Most of that space, though, was taken up with the detritus of her various duties. Twilight’s actual rooms consisted of a bedroom that doubled as her study, a sitting room, and a small bathroom.

Finally alone, she allowed herself to sink into her lone couch with an exhausted sigh. Was it too much to ask to be able to walk away from one meeting of the royal council without a pounding headache at the latest draconian scheme Sombra or one of his lackeys had put forth? The answer was obviously yes, or else she wouldn't have had to ask that question.

And just because the world hated her, Twilight’s moment of rest was rudely shattered by a hoof taping on her door. Glaring at the foul piece of wood that had failed at keeping her privacy, Twilight dragged herself to her hooves and somehow made her way to the door.

“Good afternoon Lady Sparkle, I take it the meeting of the council didn’t go well.”

“Just Twilight, Soarin. My mom is ‘lady,' I'm just Twilight.” However foul a mood Twilight was in she would never take it out on one of Rarity’s guards. Not only were they each of them very skilled and deadly fighters. But they were among the hoof-full of ponies Twilight could count on in the palace.

“And no.” Twilight would rather not revisit that hour ever again. “The meeting did not go well. His grand high all powerful infinitely majestic sun that our world revolves around lordship Sombra listened to her highness's objections when I put them forth, and then he ordered the pegasus guards to move into Dirtville this evening.”

“And I take it you’ll be out there?”

“Of course.” Twilight was already floating a heavy cloak towards her that would both cover her horn and keep the cold away. “If I can catch Sombra having earth ponies who have their papers in order deported I can rub his face in it. I’ll never convince the likes of Blueblood, Jet Set, or Upper Crust, but enough council members only follow Sombra because he has momentum. Get a few of those shaky supporters scared and they’ll come running to Rarity.”

“Spitfire and I will wait for you at the gates,” Soarin sighed. “Try not to get killed, kidnapped, or whatever angry earth ponies do to unicorn nobles out there when they’re rioting. They’d make me clean out your rooms, and I don’t want to have to move all that heavy stuff.”

“Complain, complain, complain.” Twilight laughed as she walked out her door. “And here I was going to bring you back a pie for your concern. Let the deprivation serve as a lesson that whining is not tolerated in Rarity’s personal guards.”

Soarin’s cries of sorrow were far too over the top for Twilight to even begin to take seriously.

“I’m serious.” Soarin stopped her at the gate. “It’s dangerous out there. The earth ponies in Dirtville aren't just going to riot, they're near outright revolt. If they find out who you are they won’t care about what happens next, they’ll string you up.”

“I know,” Twilight said, “but I don’t have any choice. I can't ask anyone else to stick their neck out for me like this. I have to see firsthoof what Sombra is doing to the earth ponies. If the price of that is that I get myself into a little danger… Well, I can have an ‘accident’ easily enough here in the castle.”

“We’d all die before we let Sombra or his goons touch one hair in your mane.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. You, Spitfire, and the others need to watch your own backs as much as you watch mine and Rarity’s.” Twilight flipped the hood of her cloak over her horn and set off.

Close to the palace one would never suspect there was any unrest in the city. In fact, through the whole district of the city composing the residences of noble and wealthy unicorns business went on as usual. Twilight walked down broad tree-lined avenues, the trees were evergreens for obvious reasons, with large, well cared for buildings on either side. Ponies, unicorns of course, were already lighting the ornate crystal lamps that would keep the streets lit like day even during the long night. Twilight didn’t think there were so many crystal lamps, certainly not nearly as many ornate lamps, where the unicorns lighting the lamps lived.

Platinum City rested on the slopes of a great mountain. Since its founding it had been laid out on a simple principle, the rich and powerful were literally on top of their so-called lessers. That meant Twilight’s trip to Dirtville was a trip down the social strata that made up New Unicornia.

Even the poorest unicorns lived above the wealthy pegasi, and far above earth ponies of all stripes. There wouldn't be much point to a society founded on the domination of unicorns otherwise. The buildings became smaller, and far less decorated, but even unicorns struggling to make ends meet still had first pick at the best building materials and craftsponies. The city guards also invested much more time and energy in this part of the city than they ever would in even the wealthiest earth pony homes, not that that was saying much. And, while still unlit, there were at least enough crystal lamps to be more than a joke.

The pegasus part of the city was brutally simple. It was divided into the military areas and the not military areas. The function of the former was obvious, keep the earth ponies down and make sure that they knew resistance would prove suicidal, at best. The latter was composed of the many secondary functions pegasi played in society. The weather ponies were an obvious, if occasionally futile, fixture, but pegasi also served as the best messengers across New Unicornia.

The pegasus and unicorn parts of Platinum City were not only metaphorically separated from the earth ponies. Between the lowest rungs of the pegasi and the least worse off earth ponies was a very literal wall. Unicorns and pegasi passed freely back and forth. Earth ponies returning to their homes likewise drew little notice. Those ascending the city were a different case. Hard faced pegasus and unicorn guards closely checked papers, and gave even foals and old mares thorough searches before reluctantly allowing them entry.

Dirtville itself was not the whole earth pony part of the city, though if it kept growing it would be before too many more years, rather it was the name for where the poor among the already impoverished earth ponies resided. It was also where a great many earth ponies who worked on farms during the spring and summer came during the fall and winter. Their presence was technically illegal, but until Sombra had come to power it had been a law only enforced when throwing the book at a pony.

Dirtville was also on the edge of riots verging on revolt. Twilight hadn't made it far beyond the wall before that fact became abundantly clear. Squads of heavily armed pegasus guards moved with grim purpose down the narrow, filthy streets. The earth ponies fortunate enough, if that was the word, to live here moved with a nervous eye down towards Dirtville. A great many homes and shops were already closed, locked, and darkened. Twilight didn’t have to be one of the smartest unicorns alive to suspect that the rest would be following suit before long.

Had she not known exactly where she was going, Twilight could have found her way by simply going the opposite direction of every pony besides herself and the pegasus guards. She would have also known where she was by the unpaved streets that gave Dirtville its unflattering name.

A few guards gave her the occasional glance, most ponies after all wanted to go away from the oncoming riot, but they had larger issues than one strange pony. Finally amongst the very literally unwashed masses, Twilight started trying to find an out of the way corner where she could watch events unfold.

Unfortunately, no one had informed the angry earth ponies of their part in Twilight’s plan. The riot she had been afraid of touched off long before she found an appropriately hidden spot. What exactly touched off the riot, Twilight never knew. Once the riot got going, however, that particular bit of information went straight to the bottom of her list of priorities. Priority one had become survival.

The pegasus guards moved in with armor, spears, swords, axes, bows, and all the other modern implements of doing bodily harm to other ponies. The earth pony rioters seemed to have found an astounding amount of rocks for a part of the city without paved streets. Briefly, Twilight wondered if depriving the earth ponies of just such a weapon had been part of the reason Dirtville had never been paved over. If it was, it had failed, and failed miserably. The earth ponies also had a motley yet obviously dangerous assortment of cobbled together weapons and household implements that could be quite dangerous in the right hooves.

Twilight had never been in battle, but the screams, blood, chaos, and overwhelming stench of fear made her hope quite fervently that she never became involved in one. Also, it was abundantly clear that the roundup Twilight had been planning to stalk wouldn't be happening until enough earth ponies had been killed to cow the others, and if she stuck around too long she was liable to wind up killed as collateral damage.

Running out into the miniature war was not an option. That left running back into the maze of alleys and twisting streets that made up Dirtville. Hopefully, any ponies who saw her would assume she was exactly what she appeared to be, a pony fleeing from the riots.

Twilight never saw the rock that hit her from behind. She supposed it most likely came from a unicorn guard tossing a caught projectile into a presumably empty alley. Whatever the cause, the impact staggered her and forced her to collapse in a snowbank that surely would have been cleared away in the unicorn or pegasus parts of Platinum City. Dazed and rapidly blacking out, Twilight rolled over just in time to see a pony approaching her. She could only muster a feeble effort to pull her hood back over her horn as she saw the other pony gasp in recognition of what she was. As consciousness faded, Twilight Sparkle wondered just how prophetic Soarin’s last words to her would prove.

You Can (Not) Make Friends

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: I cannot dance the Robot. Nor do I own My Little Pony. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Chapter One: You Can (Not) Make Friends.

Twilight was never letting Rarity get her drunk again. Sure she’d said that the last time she’d woken up with a monster of a hangover, but this time she was serious! Her head was killing her, her body felt like it was made of lead, no amount of fun while drunk could be worth this torment.

Had she even made it back to her rooms? It felt like she’d passed out on a bed, to use the term generously, made of the cheapest straw in all Platinum City. Clearly she would have to make sure the guards put a stop to things before they got out of hoof the next time Rarity talked her into a little nightcap. Of course, that assumed Rarity hadn't talked her guards into trying to keep up with them.

“You’re awake?” A voice Twilight didn’t recognize came up to her. “Good, drink this.”

Twilight felt a bowl press against her lips. The water that flowed down her throat was lukewarm, tasted not particularly clean, and it was heavenly. Twilight threw her front legs over her face with a groan of bliss as the pounding in her head receded enough for her to want to rejoin the world of the living. At last she opened her eyes, to see an orange earth pony with green eyes and a blonde mane standing over her.

“Augh!” Twilight screamed in surprise as she scrambled away from her… was captor the right word? She remembered going to see the riots firsthoof, she remembered the rock from nowhere and the pony in the dark, and she remembered Soarin’s warning about what would happen if she was discovered to be a unicorn.

Except she wasn't tied up, and the orange earth pony hadn't made any effort to block or otherwise account for her magic. It also didn’t look like Twilight was in a prison, makeshift or otherwise. Around her was a small space that haphazardly blended areas to cook and eat as well as to sleep and live. This looked like someone’s house, to use the term very generously.

“Relax,” the orange earth pony said, “if I wanted you dead I had my chance when your head had that run in with a rock in front of me. Not hard to recognize the youngest Court Sorceress since Clover the Clever, and not hard to figure out what you unicorns’d do to us if you wound up dead here in Dirtville.”

“Where exactly is here?” Twilight cautiously ventured the question. “And how long was I out?”

“Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes. Rock didn’t hit hard enough to do any real damage. And 'here' is home, or as much home as you unicorns let any earth pony have these days.”

“Twenty minutes,” Twilight said, “Thank you for saving me, but I have to get back out there before it’s too late.”

“No way.” The orange earth pony moved in front of the rickety door. “You were lucky enough for any two ponies that I found your sorry body. Plenty of earth ponies wouldn't care that your friends would burn this whole part of the city to ash if you got killed down here. They’d reckon taking you with us a fair trade. Now I don’t know what a pony like you is doing here, but I’m not about to let you go back out there and get us all killed.”

“You don’t get it. That,” Twilight pointed out the small, dark window, “will keep happening if I don’t go back out there and find a way to stop it. And I promise you, it will only keep getting worse and worse for you earth ponies.”

“So... what?” The orange earth pony clearly didn’t believe her. “I’m supposed to believe that you, the Court Sorceress, are actually some sort of earth pony sympathizer? Awfully good job you do of hiding it behind the roundups, the deportations, making it near impossible for an earth pony to make enough to eat, yeah you just love us.”

“No, I’m not one of those unicorns,” Twilight sighed. “Look, I’ll spare you the unicorn politicking, but Sombra, the chancellor, is running away with power in the government, and he’s the one behind all this. I won’t lie to you, I don’t think the wall should come down or anything like that. Everything you just said, though, that’s destabilizing New Unicornia, it’s upsetting the balance we've lived with since Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever. I don’t like it one bit, and I think it needs to stop. So you need to let me out of here so I can do what I came here to do.”

“Alright.” The orange earth pony smirked. “You wanna take your chances with that? Be my guest.”

Twilight looked out the window to see a mass of earth ponies running by, torch light glinted off a rather disconcerting collection of weapons. If the pegasus guards had kept the riots from spreading they clearly hadn't stamped them out here in Dirtville. She sat back down with a sigh, this was not going even remotely close to plan.

“Y’all can come out now,” the orange earth pony called to thin air.

Or not so thin air, as the lone rug lifted up to reveal a trapdoor being opened from beneath. First to emerge was a green earth pony who looked to be old enough to have known Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever, next came the largest pony Twilight had ever seen, the red earth pony easily towered above any of the guards at the castle, last came a yellow filly who looked to be about Sweetie Belle’s age.

“I’m Applejack.” The orange earth pony, Applejack, pointed at herself. “That’s Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom. Hope you don’t mind, but we figured it’d be best if you didn’t meet everyone till we knew you weren't gonna do some freaky magic and burn the place down.”

“Um no, no burning. Wasn't planning on it.” Twilight was being distracted by the filly, Apple Bloom, who was staring at her in undisguised wonder.

“Wow, a real unicorn! I ain't never seen one up close.” Apple Bloom seemed to have not yet picked up the wariness bordering on hostility so natural to older earth ponies in close proximity to unicorns. “Can you really do magic? Can you, can you, can you?”

Applejack opened her mouth to protest her sister’s youth and ignorance of societal customs. Twilight put up a hoof to stop the other pony before she began.

“I can.” With all the chaos and death going on around her, Twilight couldn't bring herself to be the one to crush this poor filly's innocence. That would happen, but not tonight, and not by her hoof.

Twilight looked around at the meager belongings of the family that had taken her in. She lived rather simply as unicorns went, particularly compared to many of the nobles around the palace. Still, her bedroom alone was half again as large as this room that served as home to four ponies. The injustice of that didn’t quite dawn on her, but she did begin to grasp at how the earth ponies could be as restless as they were.

Finally making a choice, Twilight lifted the table, stools, and all the various implements atop the table and began to float them about the small room in a number of formations. Apple Bloom stared at Twilight's performance in absolute rapture. Even her more jaded elders couldn't quite hide their awe at the spectacle before them. The tiniest few fortunate earth ponies would, on very rare occasions, be in the pegasus part of Platinum City at the right time to witness a travelling show unicorn putting on their show. The earth ponies in Dirtville, however, were far too poor to ever attract such ponies. It was quite possible, even for a pony as old as Granny Smith, that this was the first time in their life they had seen unicorn magic not dedicated to hurting them.

Again, there was a thought nagging at the back of Twilight’s mind, and, again, she plowed on before it could mature.

“Thank you all very much for taking me in. I promise you I won’t forget it. I don’t think I’ll be able to do what I came here for, but when I get back to the castle I can make sure a sizable bag of bits makes its way to you.”

“Nnnoope.” The response came from Big Macintosh.

“Um, what?” Twilight, smart as she was, failed to divine any meaning from the drawn out word.

“Big Mac isn't one for being wordy.” Applejack took off the battered hat she’d been wearing since Twilight had woken up. “What he means to say is thank you kindly, but no.”

“No?” Twilight remained at a loss as to what was happening around her. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but weren't you the one just going on about how hard things are here. You could easily move out of Dirtville, get away from all this. And this isn't some ‘oh look at the poor earth ponies, let’s make ourselves look good’ giveaway. You would have made a lot of ponies around here very happy by dragging me out and letting them string me up. You didn’t, you took a big chance taking me in, and I owe you.”

“A good deed is its own reward.” Granny Smith shuffled forward. “Something you fancy unicorn types would do well to learn. Get that through a few thick skulls up in your mansions and palaces, and you’ll do more good for every pony in this city than a thousand bags of bits would get you.”

Twilight sighed. “Problem is, I’m pretty sure the unicorns doing this to you would agree with every word you just said. Except their definition of a good deed involves a fair deal less cooperation, and more crushing every earth pony into the dirt until the mere thought of disobeying a pegasus or unicorn wouldn't exist.”

“Look,” Applejack said, “we aren't trying to be difficult. It’s just that… well, earth ponies who get mixed up with your ‘unicorn politicking’ tend to end up poorly. Those houses right up against the wall, the ponies inside might have fancier plates than we do and more on them, but everyone else hates them. Y’all pegasi and unicorns laugh at them and call them toadies, and the rest of us earth ponies think they’re selling the rest of us out for a pat on the head.”

“I hadn't ever thought of it like that.” This day had so far proved educational in any number of ways for Twilight Sparkle.

Applejack went on. “Besides, our papers to be here ain't exactly what you’d call in order. Never quite got em signed. Price to get through all the red tape shot up just after we got here. Might be something to do with what’s got you all riled up. And since moving up in the world would get us looked at I think we’re safer right where we are.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. She’d known a great deal of earth ponies living in Dirtville were technically here illegally. She hadn't thought, however, that it might be Sombra’s doing in more ways than one.

“Do you mind if I see them, your papers that is.”

Applejack looked puzzled, but walked over to a cabinet, rummaged around for awhile, and finally came back with an unsigned set of official Platinum City residence papers. Twilight looked around for a quill and a jar of ink. It took her some time to finally spot one in a corner. The thought occurred to her that Applejack and her family were probably semi-literate at best, and, as a result, would only rarely need to try to write.

Twilight uncorked the jar, took the quill in her magic, and flourished her signature at the bottom of the papers. Thinking quickly, she wrote down a date several months in the past where the papers had room for the approval date. She figured it might look a little suspicious to have residence papers coming through on the day of a massive riot.

“Here.” She floated the papers over to Applejack. “It’s not exactly usual for me to sign these things, but I assure you that no one will question my name. You’ll want to keep it out of sight for a few days, at least until the ink has time to dry completely. No one is going to believe I signed that thing months ago if the ink is still dripping off it.”

Applejack stared at her in disbelief. “I… I don’t know what to say. I think this is the first nice thing a unicorn’s ever done for me. I always thought y’all was just a bunch of arrogant, murdering, tyrants.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, Applejack certainly had no problems being bluntly honest with others.

“You did save my life. I’d say that gets you a good deed in return.” Inspiration struck, Twilight used her magic to reach beneath her cloak and remove a small necklace with Clover the Clever’s cutie mark on it. “Here, this is the symbol of the Court Sorceress. If you ever need anything you should be able to use this to get through all the guards to me.”

Twilight glanced out the window, darkness had fallen and the riots seemed to have passed them by.

“I hate to cut and run like this, but I see a chance and I need to get out of here before Rarity sends the whole guard corps in to look for me. They would burn the whole place to ashes looking for me.”

“That’s alright.” Applejack was still looking at the papers in her hoof as though they’d disappear if she took her eyes off them for a second.

Big Macintosh and Granny Smith were also focused on the papers, seeming to not believe their luck. Apple Bloom, however, waved goodbye with a big smile on her face. Twilight waved back and stepped out into the cold. Had she been told at the start of the day that she would wave to an earth pony and mean it she’d have had the other pony sent to a doctor.

That left the little matter of getting out of Dirtville alive. She looked towards the gate she’d come through, only to see a glow over the houses that could only be a sizable number of fires. Applejack had been right that the poorer earth ponies didn’t think kindly of their number who profited by working with unicorns and pegasi.

No gate, that meant she would have to find the nearest pegasus garrison and wait there till things calmed down. One problem, Twilight wasn't a regular in Dirtville and had next to no idea where to look. She thought about ducking back inside to ask, but she’d already imposed enough on Applejack and her family.

Twilight took off more or less at random. She knew roughly where the square was where the riot had started, and she figured that a garrison wouldn't be posted so close to the wall. That meant heading deeper into Dirtville. Normally a dangerous course of action, Twilight figured it would actually be safer since the rioters seemed to be focusing their ire on the more well off, to use the term very generously, among them.

Dirtville had grown up more or less at random, which meant it was near impossible for anyone but a local to find their way through the twisted maze of alleys. Twilight wasn't helping matters by lighting her horn barely enough to see her hooves in front of her. However, between stumbling about in the dark and being outed as a unicorn the choice wasn't exactly difficult, a stubbed hoof would heal, losing her head would prove a bit more permanent.

Only the fact that her own horn was so dim let Twilight spot the golden light rushing down another street. At first, she thought it was a pony using a torch. It was only when she saw that the light didn’t flicker that she realized she was seeing another unicorn. She almost called out, until she realized that a single unicorn out in Dirtville on a night like this couldn't possibly be a guard gone astray. Dousing her horn completely, Twilight allowed her curiosity to get the better of her.

The circle of light moved close enough for Twilight to finally make out the other unicorn from the shadows she’d crept into. Definitely a mare, mint green coat, cyan mane with a white streak, golden eyes, not a unicorn noble that Twilight recognized. Her cutie mark was covered by the heavy cloak she was wearing. Twilight cursed silently, if she could see the other unicorn’s cutie mark she’d have no trouble finding out who she was in the archives back at the palace.

The mint green unicorn ran past Twilight’s hiding spot. Just as Twilight thought she would have to start running to follow the other unicorn, her unwitting quarry skidded to a stop on the dirt street in front of what looked like a small food shop. Twilight craned her neck before realizing she would have to leave her hiding spot to see what the mint green unicorn was doing inside.

Stealth had never been one of Twilight’s strong points. Somehow, through skill or luck, probably the latter, she found another hiding spot that let her see through the store’s front window. Through it she could see the mint green unicorn talking animatedly to a beige earth pony with a blue and pink mane. Finally, the mint green unicorn moved so Twilight got a glimpse of her cutie mark, what looked to be a lyre, or a harp, or some other stringed instrument.

Despite having everything she needed, Twilight found curiosity still rooting her to the spot. Her own views about earth ponies had taken quite the beating over the course of the evening. However, she wondered if she was seeing one of those rare unicorns who believed in true earth pony equality. The mint green unicorn certainly seemed to be concerned for the beige earth pony. And Twilight had a hard time imagining a simple business relationship bringing a unicorn into Dirtville to check up on and earth pony while a riot was raging uncomfortably close.

As if to drive that point home, shouts of anger started floating down the narrow alleys. Twilight decided she had more than overstayed her welcome in this particular bit of Dirtville. For all she knew, the nearest pegasus garrison could have been a block closer to the rioters. She never thought once about going that direction as she took off away from the noise.

Perhaps, Twilight mused as she skulked down the dark street, it wouldn't have been such a great imposition to have asked Applejack where the nearest pegasus garrison was. Even with the streets deserted because of the riot there were a great many places in Dirtville where one could get knifed over a few bits, or where one could get knifed just because the other pony was ornery.

Finally, she ran into one of the rare paved streets in Dirtville. Those were only put down near pegasus garrisons so the soldiers inside could move goods too heavy to fly in. Twilight ran down the street, unashamedly using her horn to light the way. No rioters would dare attack one of these grim stone fortresses shoved into the city. With the drawbridge pulled up, as it was now, the only way in was to either fly, or to somehow make it over the moat filled with sharpened stakes and then climb over the wall.

“Halt!” A voice shouted as she crossed the open square cleared out between the garrison and the nearest buildings.

Twilight knew perfectly well there was a nervous pegasus on the walls with a crossbow pointed at her. She also knew that if that nervous pegasus let fly she would be just as dead from the accident as she would have been if an earth pony less farsighted than Applejack had found her while she was blacked out.

Fortunately, Twilight had a way to calm the pegasus pointing the crossbow at her. She threw back her hood and sent a small flare of sparks into the sky. The reaction was almost immediate, the pegasus turned and shouted down into the garrison. Twilight couldn't hear what exactly was shouted, but a few seconds later the drawbridge began to clank down on its massive chains. The garrison would have been stripped to a skeleton crew to help deal with the riot, and it looked like every pegasus left was waiting at the gate to receive her.

“Am I glad to see you!” Twilight ran at a flat gallop across the bridge, which began to clank upwards almost before she was off it. “I think I used up just about all my luck not being spotted on my way here.”

“I’ll say you did.” A blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane shouldered through the onlookers. “What in the name of Commander Hurricane brought you down here? We've had signs up since this morning at all the gates that unicorns and pegasi should stay out of Dirtville if they want to keep their heads attached to their bodies.”

“Well, things didn’t quite go to plan once I got past the wall. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Twilight Sparkle, Court Sorceress to the Unicorn King. Thank you all for your service, and, on a personal note, thank you very much for taking me in while things are like this.”

Twilight bit down a laugh as the blue pegasus’ eyes went wide as dinner plates as she realized she would have to likewise introduce herself. Twilight couldn't help feeling bad for the other pony. After all, it wasn't her fault that the unicorn stupid enough to be running around Dirtville during a violent riot just happened to be the Court Sorceress.

“Um, Rainbow Dash. Uh, Sergeant Rainbow Dash.” It was quite clear that Rainbow Dash wished she was anywhere but where she was at that particular moment in time.

“Don’t worry Sergeant.” Twilight figured she should put the poor pony at ease. “You’re absolutely right that most unicorns and pegasi have no business being in Dirtville tonight. Now, if you don't mind, I'd really like to get inside and away from this cold.”

Rainbow Dash quickly shooed the other pegasi back to the walls to keep watch for any earth ponies trying to make trouble. Finally, it was just her, Twilight, and a timid looking yellow pegasus with a pink mane who seemed horribly out of ease in the armor of a pegasus guard. Twilight followed as they started walking towards the imposing tower that was the keep of the pegasus garrison. Her mind couldn't help wandering to that mint green unicorn she’d seen earlier tonight. Most unicorns had no business in Dirtville under ideal circumstances, so what brought her to that food shop under circumstances anything but ideal?

Getting into the dining hall and out of the cold was most welcome. Applejack’s home may have been warm in love between the family members, but they didn’t have much in the way of proper heating, and Platinum City in late winter got rather cold after the sun went down. Rainbow Dash took a seat at one of the many empty tables, there looked to be seating for probably as many as a hundred pegasi. Twilight didn’t think there were more than ten or so still guarding the garrison.

“I take it you’re in charge of this place?” Twilight sat down across from Rainbow Dash and the still nameless yellow pegasus.

“Uh, no. Well, yes. I mean I’m in charge until someone who outranks me gets back, which is every other Sergeant here and all the officers.”

Some Post Commanders left their best subordinates behind when a garrison was going to be on a skeleton crew. Others, including this one apparently, left behind their worst. Or, Twilight reflected, the ponies they thought least of. Rainbow Dash didn’t strike her as particularly incompetent, so why had she been left behind?

“I don’t think I know who your friend is.” Twilight pointed to the yellow pegasus. If she could get Rainbow Dash talking about the pegasi she was leading maybe she could gain some useful insights.

“ I’m Fluttershy.” The yellow pegasus mumbled.

“I don’t think I quite caught that.” Twilight was being polite, she’d barely realized the yellow pegasus was speaking when her mouth opened.

“She’s Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash provided the answer. “She doesn't do well with new ponies, or ponies she knows, or really any ponies at all.”

“Um, please don’t take this the wrong way. But how does a pegasus who doesn't do well with ponies wind up at a pegasus garrison in Dirtville?”

“It’s not Fluttershy’s fault that there’s no jobs for a pegasus whose special talent is dealing with animals.” Twilight wasn’t surprised that Rainbow Dash answered. “At least if she’s here I can look after her. And when she does come out of her shell she’s actually great at talking ponies down. I mean we almost had a riot here two weeks ago instead of tonight. Poor Cloud Kicker shot this earth pony on her first day when he wouldn't stop at the bridge for us to inspect his cart. Stupid Lightning Dust wouldn't apologize, kept saying it was ‘a clear sign that earth ponies are inferior if they can’t even follow such a simple instruction from their betters.’ But Fluttershy got out there and got it all sorted out. That earth pony has been delivering stuff here for years and we pretty much wave him through, but Cloud Kicker was alone and she didn’t know that yet.”

“Really?” Twilight had a few problems believing Fluttershy could manage the volume, let alone the willpower, to sort out such a prickly matter.

“Yeah, Fluttershy really, and I mean really, doesn't do well with violence. She's like a totally different pony if she thinks two ponies are about to fight. I mean none of us who are stuck here tonight have ever been too thrilled about smashing in earth pony heads, that’s why Lightning Dust makes us stay behind and makes sure we’ll never see a promotion between all of us if we’re here for the next hundred years. She takes all the pegasi who hate earth ponies like her and says that if the rioters turn up here we can just have Fluttershy talk them into giving up and not murdering us. I hope they do turn up, it’ll show her when Fluttershy does just that.”

Twilight glanced over at Fluttershy, she seemed embarrassed enough at Rainbow Dash’s praise to be seriously considering diving under the table. Still… Her first plan to thwart Sombra had fallen to pieces, but this evening had given her the foundations of a newer, better plan. She’d have to do some thinking, and find out who her mystery unicorn was, but it could work.

“Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, when things calm down a bit I’d appreciate it if you’d take me back to the castle. There are some things I’d like to talk to you about on the way.”

Dedication Has no Reward

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: All I wanted for Christmas was to own My Little Pony. I remain disappointed..

Chapter Two: Dedication Has no Reward

Getting back into the unicorn part of Platinum City was a relief. Watching Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy gawk like tourists at the sights and sounds was plain amusing. And Twilight Sparkle needed some amusement after the night she’d had. Last night had been long, cold, and nerve-wracking, not to mention it had left her with a host of unanswered questions.

Twilight needed a way to defuse the riots before they started. Doing so would hit Sombra’s dire predictions about the earth ponies right where it would hurt most. She hadn't had a way to do that before now, but if Rainbow Dash’s claims about her timid friend were even half true than Twilight Sparkle was in business. The other half of her plan rested on the mystery mint green unicorn she’d seen last night. Even if Fluttershy was as golden tongued as promised, Twilight still had to deal with convincing the earth ponies that it wasn't all some unicorn plot. A unicorn who already knew her way around earth ponies would be worth her weight in bits.

“Thank you both for coming all this way.” Twilight slowed as they approached the palace gates, closed as a precaution against the riot in Dirtville. “I know it sounds like I’m asking a lot of you, and I am, but if we don’t stop this from blowing up it will only keep getting worse.”

“I, I’m still not sure I can do this.” Fluttershy had a tendency to speak into the ground that muffled her words quite effectively. “All those ponies, and all that responsibility, I mean what if I mess up? And what if ponies get hurt because of me? I can’t do it, I just can’t.”

It had taken them a bit over two hours to make their way from the pegasus garrison to the palace. In that time Fluttershy had declared her inability to perform her part in the plan seven, now eight, times. In that same time Twilight and Rainbow Dash had talked Fluttershy down from her panic attack seven, soon to be eight, times.

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash sounded like she was on a script, and having had the same conversation eight times she very nearly was. “You’re not going to do this alone. I’ll be there, Twilight Sparkle will be there, she said she’s going to find some other ponies to help us, I thought you said you liked helping ponies get along.”

“I do,” Fluttershy complained, “but this is so many ponies. When I do it normally it’s just a few ponies, and I already know most of them. This is going to be so many… strangers. And if they get angry they’re going to be angry at me. I just don’t think I can handle that kind of pressure.”

“Fluttershy,” It was Twilight’s turn to play her role in the drama. “The worst that can happen is what will happen if you do nothing. The earth ponies in Dirtville don’t want to riot. They just feel like they’re backed against a wall and they have nothing to lose. If you give them another way out, and I’ll make sure you have one to give them, then I think they’ll take it.”

“Do you really mean it?” Almost like clockwork Fluttershy began to perk up again.

“Absolutely,” Rainbow Dash was, of course, the one to seal the deal. “Listen, I trust her on this, and I have I ever let you down?”

“Well, no. But I’m scared Rainbow Dash.”

“Don’t be.” The play entered its final act as Rainbow Dash put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I mean your special talent is talking to animals, and talking to ponies can’t be that different. You’re like the perfect pony to do this.”

“I am?” Fluttershy’s look towards Twilight and Rainbow Dash pleaded for outside affirmation.

“Of course you are.” Both of them answered in tandem. Yes, they had the whole exercise down to a script.

“Well, I’m afraid this is where I get off.” Twilight turned to face her pegasus escorts. “I wish I could say I knew when I’d need to use your services, but that all depends on Sombra and what he does.”

“Don’t worry.” Rainbow Dash waved a dismissive hoof. “We’re not going anywhere in a hurry, Lightning Dust will make sure of that. Come on Fluttershy, let’s get going.”

With that, the two pegasi took to the air. Fluttershy seemed to be a rather lackluster flyer in addition to not dealing well with ponies.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” Twilight muttered as she turned to walk through the palace gates. There were enemies just as dangerous as any horde of rioting earth ponies inside the great stone walls at the peak of Platinum City.

“You spent a whole night out there, a whole night, and somehow you didn’t find the time to get a pie for a poor, overworked, long-suffering guard who worried about you that whole night?”

Soarin was rewarded with a smack to the back of his head from Spitfire, the senior member of Rarity's guards.

“What he means to say is that we are very relieved to see you Lady Sparkle. When news of the riot reached us and no one knew where you were we feared for the worst.”

“Twilight,” Twilight sighed. “I keep saying this, my mom is ‘Lady Sparkle,’ I’m just Twilight. And it’s good to be back. My little vacation was very educational, but the best part of it has definitely been getting home. Now, I’m betting Rarity wants you to drag me straight to her.”

“Well she didn’t say drag.” Twilight wasn't sure if Spitfire really was taking her seriously. The mare’s sense of professionalism definitely took up space normally used for humor. “But her highness did say to show you into her chambers as soon as you returned.”

“Of course she did,” Twilight huffed. So much for a shower, or a hot meal, or an hour of sleep before she plunged right back into the thick of things.

Twilight’s bedraggled state drew more than a few stairs from the immaculately put together courtiers darting down the halls on whatever oh so important piece of business occupied their attention at the moment. Part of it, a large part, was vanity on their part, and part of it was Rarity’s insistence that everyone in the palace exert some effort on putting forth an image worthy of the unicorns bestriding society.

Twilight had never cared much for either, and after the night she’d had she couldn't care less what she looked like. Sure Rarity would wail about her lack of decorum, but compared to last night Twilight wasn't particularly scared about Rarity.

That was, at least, until she saw Rarity. Twilight didn’t think Rarity had slept a wink last night either. Her normally intricately curled mane showed signs of extensive frizzing, she clearly hadn't sent her cloak off for its morning pressing to remove even the tiniest wrinkles, and Twilight could tell that if Rarity had spent any time combing her coat it had been far less than her typical hour. If Rarity was this haggard then all bets were off about what her friend would do.

“Twilight, darling!” Rarity scrambled to her hooves rather than her normal graceful rise. “You had all of us so worried running off and disappearing like that. That horrible Sombra was already talking about appointing some horrible protégé of his with a terrible ego to your post.”

“Well you can let him know that I didn’t catch anything terminal last night. I’m sure he’ll be overjoyed at the news.” Twilight took the opportunity to flop down on the layer of pillows Rarity had strewn liberally about the floor.

“Indeed.” Rarity waved Soarin and Spitfire away. Twilight wondered if they’d slept at all last night either. “I think I shall also include a pointed reminder that the appointment of certain positions at court, including most specifically that of Court Sorceress, is the exclusive purview of the royal family.”

“Twilight.” It took a distinct effort for Twilight to open her eyes when her name was called. “I’m worried about you. Getting a hoof on the pulse of average ponies on the street has been very useful, and there’s no one else I’d trust beside you to do it. But I’m worried it’s getting too dangerous.”

“Plenty dangerous in here too.” Twilight mumbled into a very soft, very comfortable, oh so tempting pillow.

“Danger you can be protected from.” Rarity was clearly letting emotion borne of worry fuel her. There was no other way she could still be so energetic. “Over the past several weeks, several unicorn nobles with views similar to ours have wound up with what I believe you would call an acute case of being dead. Just last night a number of earth pony fanatics somehow infiltrated the unicorn part of the city and rather brutally murdered Fancypants and his wife. At least that’s the official version, I’m rather certain the attackers started a great deal closer to the unicorn districts, and I have my doubts that they were earth ponies.”

That woke Twilight up. Fancypants was a very well respected unicorn noble, and a unicorn noble who firmly believed that taking too hard a line with the earth ponies would backfire in the long run. If Sombra was both powerful and confident enough to be ordering assassinations like that…

“If Sombra’s capable of taking out a unicorn like Fancypants then I’m barely safer in here than I am out there, the same goes for you. That’s all the more reason to get you proclaimed regent so you can banish Sombra to the moon.”

“Sombra had more than enough support on the council to block that before this latest riot,” Rarity said. “If ponies start worrying that going the wrong way will wind up with them in the ground my father will retain all his useless power until he’s finally put in the ground.”

Twilight could tell how uncomfortable Rarity was speaking about her father’s incapacitating illness and looming mortality.

“Even if that happens it only delays the inevitable.” That Twilight held just as intense a dislike for the topic wouldn't make it go away. “Sombra can’t say you’re illegitimate, or that you’re too young, and by the time he can sham a vote through the council that you’re incapable of ruling and he should be made regent he’ll be halfway to exile on the other side of the world.”

“That assumes we don’t wind up in the ground first. Sombra was quite conveniently fast, a little bit too much for my tastes, with his suggestion of this new unicorn for your position when you didn’t show up right at sunrise. It makes me wonder if Fancypants wasn't the only unicorn who had an unpleasant appointment last night.”

“You’re certainly cheerful today Rarity.” Twilight suppressed a shudder at just what might have happened to her had Applejack not come across her when she did. Twilight owed that family more than she already thought she did. “When was the last time you took a day off, designed some completely impractical dress, and tried to stuff me into it?”

“Noblesse Oblige Twilight, Noblesse Oblige.” Rarity’s smile came nowhere near her eyes. “When Sombra is taking so much from the ponies who look up to us I have to give even more to make up for it.”

Rarity had always been generous. That generosity had been a large part of what had led to them becoming friends when Twilight first came to the palace as a student at the Clover the Clever Academy. Sometimes, however, Rarity had a tendency to carry that generosity to self-destructive extremes. Twilight wondered how painful it would prove when Rarity learned that had to take care of herself to have something to give to others.

“Enough with the moping.” Rarity forcibly and visibly dismissed her gloomy thoughts. “You spent all night out there, and I trust it wasn't for nothing. Have you finally come up with some wonderful, miraculous plan to humiliate Sombra?”

“Come up with, no. Coming up with, yes. It’s still a work in progress, and I have to make sure some of my assumptions will actually pan out. Just as long as Sombra doesn't start sending in the pegasus guards every day to haul out earth ponies without their papers I think we’ll have enough time to put it together. I’ll spare you the details until I have them all worked out. It looks like you have more than enough on your desk as it is.”

That was certainly true. The business of monarchy was never ending. And despite not being officially regent, and therefore having very limited official powers, most of that business fell on Rarity while her father was occupied with the business of dying. Soarin had complained about being overworked, next to Rarity’s poor desk his every day was a vacation.

And Twilight had another weighty item to add to the already imposing pile.

“So, Rarity, how have those defensive magic lessons been going? From what you're saying it doesn't sound like Sombra has much respect for the security of the royal body.”

“I’m in no danger of usurping your position, if that’s what you’re asking.” Rarity snorted at the absurdity of the thought. “The books are useful enough when I have time to read them, and when I can work out all those diagrams and figures and numbers to actually cast the spell, and when Sweetie Belle isn't pestering me about some thing or another. I think I would be much farther along if I had another unicorn showing me how it works. Alas, we've been over this, you don’t have enough time for what I’m already asking you to do, and finding another unicorn we trust enough is looking more and more like a chase for a human, or a flutterpony, or some other mythical creature.”

“I know, I know,” Twilight said. “But you have to make this work. I’m betting Fancypants had guards last night, and look what happened to him. Spitfire, Soarin, and the others would die before they let Sombra hurt you, but I’m worried that that’s exactly what Sombra would do, kill them and then walk over their corpses to kill you. And I might not be there, or I might be in just as much trouble as you, so that’s why you need to get a lot better at defending yourself. If you die it’s over, simple as that. Sweetie Belle will need a regent for years before she’s old enough to rule, and I can’t come anywhere near stopping Sombra from taking the job for himself if I’m alone.”

“Now who’s the cheerful one Twilight?” Rarity shot an accusing glance back at her. “For your information, I am making progress. The simple truth, however, is that we can’t all be magical prodigies like yourself. And I rather suspect there are any number of matters you’re farther behind on than you’d care to admit because of how many balls you have to keep in the air at once.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight sighed. “It’s just that I’m feeling pretty stretched, and hearing about Fancypants gets me thinking about what’s at stake. Things are bad in Dirtville, Rarity. They’re even worse than what I've been telling you before. If Sombra keeps going the way he is we’re looking at a full scale revolt down there within a few years. Putting something like that down would mean stretching our food supplies to the breaking point, not to mention the cost in bits and lives. We can’t let Sombra win. If that means working more than we’re used to, well, sleep is for other ponies. Look, I have one last thing I need to take care of from last night. It’s just something I have to look up in the library to see if I’m on the right track. Once I’m done with that I’ll come back here and we can work on some defensive magic, okay?”

“That sounds lovely. And Twilight, I’m sorry as well. You’re not alone feeling pulled in more directions than any one pony should possibly be able to stretch. And while the thought of my own end is rather discomforting, thinking about Sweetie Belle getting caught up in all this…”

“Getting caught up in what?” Both Twilight and Rarity nearly jumped through the ceiling as a voice from nowhere chimed in.

“Sweetie Belle!” Rarity put a hoof to her beating heart. “Don’t sneak up on us like that, haven’t you learned a thing in all those etiquette classes?”

“Yeah, but what good is talking fancy and knowing which spoon I use first gonna do me without a cutie mark?”

Sweetie Belle’s pout reminded Twilight Sparkle a great deal of Apple Bloom. She couldn't help wonder what it would look like for a unicorn princess to meet an earth pony slum-dweller from Dirtville. The image wasn't hard to conjure up, and it brought a small smile to Twilight’s face. Both fillies still had the innocence of one who hadn't yet grasped how society divided the three tribes. Unfortunately, Twilight couldn't help thinking what would happen once Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom grew old enough to realize that unicorns and earth ponies were supposed to be enemies rather than friends. That made the smile disappear into a tight frown.

“It will help you be a princess of New Unicornia.” Rarity seemed oblivious to Twilight’s mental excursion as she carried on with her younger sister. “A task which has no bearing on cutie marks, I should know that quite well. Finding buried gems is nowhere in the job description of royalty, but everything I learned in those classes has proven its worth time and time again.”

“Sweetie Belle.” Twilight had an idea how to calm down this latest sisterly spat. “Rarity and I are gonna be practicing magic in a little while. I have to go take care of something right now, but if you promise to be quiet and not bother us then you can watch.”

Sweetie Belle’s transformation from over-excited filly to perfectly still was instantaneous. If there was one thing that bothered the filly as much as not having her cutie mark, it was her inability to use magic. Under normal circumstances Twilight would have relished shaping a young mind as her teacher in magic, and it was technically her duty as Court Sorceress. As Rarity had pointed out, though, Twilight already had more than enough tasks in front of her. Teaching Sweetie Belle how to use magic would just have to wait until Sombra was nothing more than a lingering smell around the palace.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Twilight turned to Rarity. “This could take me five minutes to find what I’m looking for, or I could be there all day. Go ahead and start without me if it’s looking like I’ll be in the library awhile.”

Twilight didn’t quite feel like she was stranding Rarity with her little sister as she left, but it was a close thing.

Platinum City had the most comprehensive collection of information in the world. At least that was the case for a unicorn. Pegasi would only ever come here to read a military manual or something related to their job. Earth ponies, well once upon a time there may have been an earth pony or two hired to do some cleaning around the library. The vast majority of them, being illiterate, couldn't have accessed the information even if the doors were thrown wide open.

Twilight sometimes considered the library her own personal fiefdom. Although she was pretty sure the librarians would dispute that claim. It was probably safe to say that she knew the contents of the library better than any pony besides the librarians who staffed it. The cutie mark registry was one of the few sections of the library not among her long list of habitual haunts. It was only useful when one was trying to find out the identity of a pony they didn’t already know, and Twilight knew perfectly well who the banes of her existence were.

It was also, she reflected, increasingly lacking in registering the earth ponies living in the city. The population of Dirtville normally swelled during the winter as earth ponies came in from the country. More and more, though, it seemed like they were staying in the city even without the hope of a job or papers. It was almost like Sombra was herding the earth ponies into Platinum City, but what could he possibly gain from something like that? All Twilight could see was that it would lead to a revolt and earth ponies dying in their thousands culminating in mass starvation among all three tribes. She could imagine no outcome in which Sombra would come out ahead in a situation like that even if he did somehow claim the throne.

Twilight shook her head to drive her morose thoughts from her mind. She was in the library precisely to stop Sombra from doing whatever it was he was trying to do. Thinking about how bad things would be if he won wouldn't do anything to stop him. Finding that mint green unicorn on the other hoof could well prove instrumental to ending Sombra’s power.

That still left Twilight with a rather daunting task. The unicorn registry was regularly purged as unicorns died or moved out of Platinum City. The flipside of that was that the registry was expanded as new unicorns moved in or fillies like Sweetie Belle got their cutie marks. All in all, there were several tens of thousands of unicorns living in Platinum City and Twilight Sparkle had to find one of that multitude in particular.

Twilight immediately discarded the exquisitely gilded book containing the living high nobility. Twilight knew all of them on sight, for better and worse, and the mint green unicorn wasn't among their number. She hesitated briefly before setting aside the larger book containing the lesser nobility. Twilight doubted the mint green unicorn was one of them. Unicorn nobles were the ones most closely wed to the idea of unicorn supremacy, imagining one of them daring Dirtville during a riot to meet with an earth pony strained credulity. On the other hoof, Twilight didn’t know all of the lesser nobility by a long shot, so she couldn't discount the possibility, however remote.

That left the volumes containing unicorn commoners. Twilight hesitated yet again before setting aside the first volume. The registry was sorted by date of cutie mark registration. The first volume contained the oldest ponies who had lived in Platinum City the longest. Twilight hadn't gotten a terribly clear look at the mint green unicorn, but she was pretty certain that her quarry was nowhere near Granny Smith in age.

The second volume cracked open. There was always the possibility that the mint green unicorn was newly arrived to Platinum City and was in one of the latter two volumes, but Twilight didn’t think that a relationship could be built up to the point where a unicorn would go into Dirtville without some years behind it.

Twilight was an exceptionally fast reader, and she remembered exactly what cutie mark she was looking for. It still took her over an hour before she found what she was looking for. Even then, she almost flipped past it from sheer force of momentum.

“Lyra Heartstrings.” Twilight muttered to herself. Lyra was listed as owning a musical repair shop in the lower unicorn part of the city. That didn’t explain why she would be visiting Dirtville, but at least Twilight finally knew who to ask. “And look, we both went to the Clover the Clever Academy, I’d say it’s time for a class reunion.”

Sixteen Weeks

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Would you believe me if I told you I do own My Little Pony? No? Well that’s okay, I wouldn't either.

Chapter Three: Sixteen Weeks

Lyra Heartstrings plucked a single string with her magic. The note resounded through the small room with a purity that could only be brought forth by a caring, expert musician using a well loved instrument. It was a perfect moment, she would have stopped time for a few hours then and there if she had the ability.

The moment ended. Lyra placed the sitar some noble had bought from some exotic land back on the table. The thought of taking the whole day off to simply relish the experience of playing such a strange instrument nearly brought forth a storm of giggles. Playing music, however, did not pay her bills, that was what she fixed the instruments of unicorn nobles with too many bits for.

It was a shame really. She could easily imagine the haunting, alien melodies the sitar could produce in the hands of one of her so-called 'mythical' humans with their long, dexterous fingers.. That was as far as she took the thought. Playing music wouldn't bring in enough customers, waxing about humans or other so-called 'fantastic' creatures would just drive ponies and their bits away.

And if other unicorns knew she was close with an earth pony… Well, she didn’t quite think they’d throw her in Dirtville, but her modest success would certainly melt like the snow in the next few weeks as spring took hold, and it wouldn't come back next winter. No, she wouldn't worry about that. It wasn't like most unicorns spared a second thought for earth ponies except to demand they produce enough food. And the unicorn nobles who made up most of her clientele were more self-absorbed than most. It was rare enough for one of them to pick up or drop off an instrument themselves rather than send some servant.

Lyra was unlike most unicorns in the opposite direction. It was odd enough for a unicorn to care about an earth pony. It was far odder still for a graduate of the Clover the Clever Academy to do such. Most of those self-absorbed unicorn nobles had gone through the Clover the Clever Academy. Somehow, though, Lyra had gone through the academy, on a scholarship of course, and wound up with Bon Bon, very much an earth pony, as the single most important pony in her world.

She suffered the worries typical for a unicorn in her position. At least, she thought she did. Lyra had never met another unicorn who’d become close to an earth pony. No surprise there, it wasn't as if unicorns like herself shouted what they’d done with pride into the streets.

What would happen to her if other unicorns found out about Bon Bon would be unpleasant. What would happen to Bon Bon if other unicorns found out about them… would likely be fatal. It would probably be the same if other earth ponies found out. She’d walked past the charred skeletons of several houses, and ponies, that morning as she’d snuck out of Dirtville. Most of those had been right up against the wall where the few earth ponies who collaborated with unicorns and pegasi lived.

Or, Lyra thought with a shudder, Bon Bon could wind up in a penal colony. She suspected most unicorns wouldn't even know what the words meant. Every whispered rumor she’d heard about those places said that they were where earth ponies went to die, slowly and none too pleasantly. No, she rubbed at tired eyes with her hooves, that wouldn't happen to Bon Bon. Lyra was always careful to the point of paranoia making sure that no one knew she was a unicorn when she went to Dirtville. And she always went to Dirtville rather than the other way around. The thought of Bon Bon sneaking up to visit her was beyond laughable.

Lyra heaved a sigh. This moping was getting her nowhere. She had plenty of instruments to fix for bored nobles. Bored nobles who probably had no idea how to play their instruments, and who only bought them to display them and make like they were some patron of the arts. What good was that degree laying in her closet if she couldn't teach some rich, entitled brats what real music was? The answer was depressingly easy. That degree laying in her closet was a big reason why her clientele was composed of unicorn nobles who payed… Well, not that much, but certainly more than she could have gotten from other commoners.

Going down to Dirtville and visiting Bon Bon always made her mope after she came back to her own comparatively luxurious surroundings. Bon Bon was well off as far as earth ponies went. She wasn't near starvation, she had more than enough bits around to not need any help from Lyra, and she wouldn't be swept up in the next cleanout that came down from the palace, or the one after that, or the one… Lyra wondered how Bon Bon put up with it. She didn’t have to worry about any of those things as a unicorn, and the mere thought had her sick with worry.

Focus, Lyra told herself over and over. Business wasn't booming, but she was far from having a disturbing amount of free time each day. She picked up the next instrument, a Kanun some noble had imported all the way from Saddle Arabia. It needed all its strings replaced, and the wood was in desperate need of polishing. Lyra immersed herself in her work for the next several hours, grateful for the distraction from her own overactive mind.

When Lyra finally did look up it was accompanied by a crack from her neck. Maybe she’d overdone it just a bit. The sun was already creeping down from its noon peak. The unicorns responsible for raising and lowering it would give a few minutes more of light each day until summer, when they’d leave the sun up a bit less each day. That was their problem, Lyra’s was finding herself some lunch.

The bell at her front door chose that exact moment to jingle. Lyra sighed as she turned to go attend her new customer. A late lunch would mildly inconvenience her. A customer meant earning bits to keep having lunch, both late and on time.

“Hello.” Lyra trotted out with a smile on your face. “How can I help you…” Lyra’s throat went bone dry. Standing in front of her was none other than the Court Sorceress herself, Twilight Sparkle.

“Lady Sparkle, what can I do for you, your excellency?” Lyra’s blood was ice in her veins. There was no way her illustrious former classmate, not that she’d likely remember Lyra, would never stop by for a simple social call. The only reason Twilight Sparkle would stop by her shop probably ended up with Lyra in jail, and Bon Bon dangling at the end of a rope.

“Just Twilight.” Lyra didn’t quite comprehend that the first words out of Twilight Sparkle’s mouth weren't fire and brimstone, and her face said as much. “My mom is ‘lady,’ I’m just Twilight.”

“Right.” Lyra held her smile on her face through sheer willpower. “So, um, La... Twilight, what brings you to my shop today?”

“Oh not much, just an impromptu class reunion. I was looking something up in the library yesterday when I saw something that reminded me of you. I looked you up, and here I am.”

Lyra was used to hearing one thing on the surface, and something quite different between the lines. Usually it was something along the lines of how charming it was that she believed in creatures like humans, while the other pony actually thought her irritating bordering on insane. Twilight Sparkle hadn't come by for a chat. Why the guards hadn't burst in already? There were only two entrances to her shop, and it wasn't like she’d make it far if she tried to run up to her apartment above the shop and flee.

“It’s nice to see you’re doing well for yourself.” Twilight Sparkle seemed determined to keep up the cheery act. “Far too many scholarship students get their degree, a pat on the head, and then a swift kick to the rear out the door.”

“Thanks?” Lyra was far too nervous to string together multiple words, two syllables had been a stretch.

The smile dropped from Twilight Sparkle’s face. This was it. Lyra only wished she’d been able to talk to Bon Bon one last time. Maybe they’d put them in cells near enough to hear each other.

“Relax,” Twilight Sparkle sighed. “You’re not in trouble. I’m here alone, and next to no one knows that I’m not locked up in my room right now working on something.”

“What does that have to do with me? I’m just an ordinary unicorn trying to get by like the rest of us.” Maybe they didn’t have proof of anything. If Lyra watched her words she and Bon Bon might just make it out alive.

“Nothing normal had you in Dirtville during that riot.” Lyra’s heart plummeted. All her paranoia had been for nothing. “Like I said, you’re not in trouble.” Twilight Sparkle had no problems reading her thoughts on her face. “If you were, we’d be having this conversation in a much less friendly environment.”

“What… what do you want?”

“I want your help.” That wasn't the answer Lyra had been expecting. “Look, during the riots I was in Dirtville too. I was trying to get to a pegasus garrison when I saw you running by. I was hidden and I wasn't using any magic, so I’m not surprised you didn’t see me. I followed you to that shop and saw you talking with that earth pony.”

“Bon Bon.” Lyra interrupted. “Her name is Bon Bon.”

“Well that’s more than I knew about her at the start of the day.” Twilight Sparkle had a very good poker face. “Is she supposed to be in Platinum City? I can make sure she gets her papers, even if you can’t help me.”

Lyra bit down her answer. Twilight Sparkle had just spoken between the lines again. She was clearly reaching for something from Lyra, but just as clearly, she didn’t want to come right out and say it.

“We met at a noble’s party in the unicorn part of the city, so I’m pretty sure her papers are in perfect order.” Lyra had no idea what Twilight Sparkle was after, but if it could keep Bon Bon safe she’d take the offer without blinking. “You obviously did your homework, so you probably know that I perform music on the side to bring in more bits. It was a few years back, there was a fad sweeping all the nobles, they were being very counter culture with music and food.”

“I remember that,” Twilight Sparkle said. “I wasn't Court Sorceress yet, and Sombra had just started taking over the government. Lots of unicorns thought it was funny, until they realized just what kind of pony he is.”

“Right.” That had all gone over Lyra’s head. “Anyways, I was approached to play some earth pony songs at this fancy get-together. I didn’t really think about earth ponies much back then, so it was just another job. They’d also decided to get earth pony food at the gathering. At least, they wanted something that passed for earth pony food, the real thing uses cheap ingredients and there’s never enough of it. That was where Bon Bon came in. I forget what unicorn she'd been contracted under for that job, he was some big shot who never bothered to do more than occasionally poke his head in.

“I was kind of uncomfortable at first. Working with earth ponies wasn't exactly a major topic at school. I’m pretty sure Bon Bon wasn't having the time of her life being surrounded by unicorns either. The pay was good enough, though, I definitely remember that, even if I probably got loads more bits than she did. Please don’t take offense at this, but plenty of unicorn nobles lump everyone who’s not them as simply ‘lesser.’”

Twilight Sparkle laughed, Lyra hadn't been expecting that. “Oh I agree perfectly with that. I deal with them every day. Most of them have their noses so far in the air I’m always amazed when they can get around without bumping into everything.”

“Um, yeah.” Lyra really hadn't expected that from the Court Sorceress herself. “Like I was saying, the nobles there didn’t have much clue what they were talking about, and they always talked down to both of us about it. I think I was just as surprised as the other servants that we had something in common with an earth pony. For some reason I wound up as the one talking with Bon Bon the most. We didn’t become friends then and there, of course. But she was impressed that a unicorn could play earth pony music and be good at it, and I’d always thought that earth ponies practically ate dirt. That was something in common, and I guess it was enough.

“I started sneaking into Dirtville after that. Bon Bon has never seen my shop. After the party she was practically hustled back past the wall by a squad of pegasus guards. It took quite a toll on both of us at first. We’d been raised from foalhood to hate each other, so finding out that we’re both just ponies, let alone that we'd get along so well, was quite a shock. I think you can understand why we haven’t exactly wanted to run around and tell every pony on the streets the good news. I try to get down to Dirtville to visit her whenever I can, but I’m always very careful about it. I make sure no one sees me leave, and by the time I’m in the pegasus part of Platinum City I have my cloak up so no one can tell I’m a unicorn. It was going great, Bon Bon’s a fantastic pony, and I was able to help her out a lot, at least until you saw me. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Twilight Sparkle sat in silence for several minutes digesting Lyra’s tale. “Spring starts tomorrow.” Lyra wasn't sure what to make of that, not even a little.

“Spring starts tomorrow.” Twilight Sparkle looked Lyra straight in the eyes. “The Unicorn King won’t see the start of next winter.”

That was news to Lyra. From the way Twilight Sparkle had said it, Lyra suspected it would prove a surprise to a great many ponies.

“He has about four months to live, sixteen weeks give or take.” Twilight Sparkle spoke far too matter of factly to not have known for some time. “That’s why I need your help. The Unicorn King has been sick, too sick to rule, for awhile now. But Rarity, his eldest daughter, isn't running things as regent. Sombra, the chancellor, has sidelined her, and he’s behind everything that’s been happening to the earth ponies for the past year and more. In four months, though, that’s all over. Rarity becomes queen, and Sombra finds out what life is like living under a rock. Unless he sidelines her in a more permanent sense first.”

“I still don’t get where I come into all this.” Lyra’s brain was spinning. “This is all high politics and intrigue, and I was only let into the Clover the Clever Academy because they thought I’d look good wedged into the graduation picture.”

“Unicorns are dying,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Unicorns who have moderate views on earth ponies are winding up dead at an alarming rate. I just found out that I might have been slated to have an ‘accident’ during the riots. I won’t lie and say that I think your world where we get along with the earth ponies is what I want. But New Unicornia needs the earth ponies, and what Sombra is doing is just plain wrong. Where you come into all this is that you can be a bridge between me, Rarity, and the earth ponies. I want to calm them down, stop giving Sombra excuses to send in the pegasus guards every other day. I think I have a way to keep them calm, but I don’t know where to use it. You can talk to earth ponies, find out where it’s most likely that Sombra is going to strike next, and you can make it into the palace to tell me or Rarity. No one else could do that. Embarrass Sombra enough and his support will collapse. Things will start getting better for the earth ponies as soon as he’s gone, I can promise you that.”

“I don’t know Lady… Twilight. I’m just a musician who repairs instruments to keep a roof over my head. I don’t think I’m remotely qualified for this. I’m sorry, I wish I could help, I really do, but I think I’ll just make things worse.” Lyra was quite willing to do anything if it meant keeping Bon Bon safe. But this… She’d been right on the dot when she’d said she’d only make things worse, and worse would bring the guards down on Bon Bon.

“Don’t worry.” Twilight Sparkle surprised Lyra, again. “I feel like I’m treading water right up to my horn with this. Dumping it all on you and expecting you to just jump right in was silly. Make sure Bon Bon has her papers in order though. Come talk to me if she doesn't, I’ll make sure she gets some. And Lyra, come up with a way to get her out of Platinum City. Things are going to get worse before they get better, if they get better. Because if Sombra wins I don’t think he’ll care whether or not earth ponies have their papers.”

“Five thirty,” Lyra said as Twilight Sparkle was opening her door. “I close at five thirty. It’s best to go down to Dirtville during the evening rush. No one notices two more ponies going back into Dirtville. I can’t promise you that Bon Bon will be willing to help, but I’ll take you to see her.”

Twilight Sparkle was nothing if not punctual. She’d shown up at Lyra’s door just as she was turning the small sign in the window from open to closed. She also seemed to have some clue what she was doing. Twilight Sparkle’s cloak was far from what Lyra was expecting a unicorn of her exalted station to wear. It was unornamented, dull of color, generally what one would expect from an average pony who cared first about staying warm.

As they left the shop, Lyra stopped to do her usual check to make sure that no one had seen her leave. Part of it was sheer habit, and a not inconsiderable part was fear that there would be a squad of pegasus guards waiting around the corner for a shout from Twilight Sparkle. There were no guards, much to the benefit of Lyra’s heart rate, and no ponies other than Twilight Sparkle to see her lock up the shop and step out into the street.

“Make sure to keep your hood up and your head down once we get to the pegasus part of the city.” Lyra suspected Twilight Sparkle wasn't particularly ignorant of how to get into Dirtville unnoticed, but Lyra was as close to a professional as it was possible to be without being an actual smuggler. “We’re just two ponies going back into Dirtville after a long day of work, nothing to be noticed or remembered.”

Twilight Sparkle nodded. Lyra set off on a slightly different course than usual, no reason to take unnecessary chances. She made sure to avoid the main thoroughfares, and to give no one on the back streets they took any reason to notice or remember them. For her part, Twilight Sparkle seemed to be content with following in silence. Lyra had exactly zero complaints about that. She didn’t dislike Twilight Sparkle, she didn't know her enough for that, but she was an equal distance from trusting her beyond necessity.

“Is there anything I should know before we get to Dirtville?” Lyra had been so engrossed in the silence that Twilight Sparkle’s question nearly made her jump out of her cloak.

“Earth ponies aren't monsters or anything.” Lyra’s heart was getting quite a workout despite a distinct lack of exercise. “Bon Bon is a pony just like you or me, so don’t talk down to her or anything like that. She’s plenty smart, she might not have had the fancy schooling we did, but she still taught herself to read and write when she opened up her shop. That, and I think you already know that keeping your horn covered means keeping your head attached to your body.”

“I've gotten that piece of advice a few times over the last couple of days.” Twilight Sparkle’s response was impressively deadpan. “No touchy subjects though? Having a real conversation with an earth pony is pretty new to me, and I’d rather not blow this by saying something that’s fine between unicorns but turns out to be incredibly offensive to earth ponies.”

“Just what you’d expect,” Lyra said. “Like I said, earth ponies are simply ponies like the rest of us. They’re a bit touchy about parts of history most unicorns are taught to be proud of, but I don’t think you were planning on a history lesson.”

Twilight Sparkle didn’t respond to that, apparently satisfied by the answer. They made their silent way through the pegasus part of Platinum City to eventually join the line of earth ponies going back into Dirtville. Just like Lyra had hoped, they became merely two more ponies going back through the wall after work.

Once they made it into Dirtville, Lyra took the occasional glance over her shoulder. Part of it was a simple routine check to make sure she wasn't being followed, a distinct danger in Dirtville. And part of it was to see how Twilight Sparkle was holding up. For one of such a delicate station she was doing an impressive job. Streets in Dirtville were also sewers and garbage dumps, and they smelled the part. Twilight Sparkle didn't seem particularly offended by the smell, the waste, or the heaps of garbage covering the narrow, dirt streets. Lyra was far from trust, but she began to believe that Twilight Sparkle had indeed been coming down here on some sort of business.

“Here we are.” Lyra slowed as they turned onto the street where Bon Bon lived and worked. “I know I’m not in any position to ask this, but please go easy on her. Earth ponies have it hard enough without getting mixed up in unicorn politics.”

“I’ll try,” Twilight Sparkle said, “but like I said, I think the earth ponies are going to get mixed up in unicorn politics whether they like it or not.”

Lyra walked up to the door and pushed it open. The bell that jangled overhead sounded just like the one at her shop. That was no surprise, she'd given Bon Bon the old bell from her shop.

Bon Bon was behind the counter, scratching away at a piece of paper with a quill. When she looked up, Lyra wondered if her face had looked at all like Bon Bon’s earlier that day. First there was the normal smile for a potential customer, then came the start of a genuine smile as she recognized Lyra, then came shock mixed with fear as she saw another unicorn with her, lastly came the blank face that earth ponies used instinctively when they feared a word out of line might mean their heads.

“My ladies.” Lyra hadn't heard such a feebly subservient tone from Bon Bon in a long time, she didn’t like it one bit. “You honor me by setting hoof in my humble shop. How can I serve such illustrious ponies as yourselves?”

“Hello Bon Bon.” Lyra tried to cut short Bon Bon's panic.

“Yes, that’s me.” Lyra had a particularly hard time blaming Bon Bon for not wanting to give even the tiniest hint that they knew each other. It still hurt having that groveling tone directed at her. “Were you by chance referred by one of the unicorns I've done business with in the past. I assure you, they were all very satisfied customers, and whatever your needs are I can meet them.”

“Bon Bon.” Lyra looked her straight in the eyes. “This is Twilight Sparkle, she saw me last night.” Even behind the counter it was clear that Bon Bon had just seized up with fear. “Relax, she’s not here to drag us off to horrible tortures. She… This is going to take awhile, so it’s probably better if she says it.”

Bon Bon slowly climbed down from her panic. Her eyes, however, were still filled to the brim with fear when Lyra walked behind the counter to put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

“It’s probably better for all of us the less time Lyra and I spend here in Dirtville, so I’ll try to make this as short as I can. Like Lyra said, my name is…” Twilight Sparkle never finished her sentence. At that exact moment Bon Bon’s shop assistant made a rather spectacular entrance.

Pinkie Pie was unbelievably energetic, was compulsively nice to every pony she met, regardless of their own views about her, and Lyra had not thought she would be working today. She was also currently attached to the back of a very confused Twilight Sparkle.

“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh! A new pony! Welcome to Bon Bon’s, I’m Pinkie Pie, and I’m gonna make sure you have the best day in the history of ever!”

Twilight Sparkle’s look of complete befuddlement would have been hilarious as far as Lyra was concerned, had Twilight Sparkle not been a unicorn capable of having Bon Bon and every other earth pony in Platinum City exterminated with a few words.

“Pinkie Pie,” Lyra called out to the writhing, pink ball of energy. “Twilight Sparkle is a… um… she’s here with me. Bon Bon and I can take care of her. So could you please get off her back?”

Pinkie Pie leapt off Twilight Sparkle’s back to land on four quivering hoofs. Keeping Pinkie Pie from bombarding Twilight Sparkle with her own unique brand of goodwill sounded only marginally less difficult than repairing relations between earth ponies and unicorns in Platinum City.

“Um, yes.” Twilight Sparkle looked back and forth between Pinkie Pie and Lyra several times before continuing. “Like I was saying, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m the Court Sorceress, and I need your help.”

Lyra felt Bon Bon tense next to her as she realized exactly who had walked into her shop. She could hardly blame her, Lyra had practically fallen over when Twilight Sparkle had come into her shop.

“And I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie Pie grabbed Twilight Sparkle’s hoof and pumped it with such vigor that it seemed the unicorn was being lifted up and down off the ground with each shake of her hoof. “This is so cool, a new friend! I love making new friends! I get to make them smile, they get to make me smile, we can go out and make all sorts of ponies smile together! Ooooooooh, I’m just so excited I could burst!”

Lyra knew Pinkie Pie could come close to making that last part of her exclamation a very literal claim. She also knew that while an outburst from Pinkie Pie wouldn't attract any attention in this part of Dirtville it would be a whole different matter if Pinkie Pie got excited about making ‘friends’ with a unicorn. In desperation, Lyra looked over at Bon Bon to see if she could calm Pinkie Pie down.

“Pinkie Pie, Pinkie Pie!” Bon Bon was reduced to shouting over her assistant to get her attention. “Lady Sparkle here is a valued customer, and what do we always say about letting customers speak?”

“Just Twilight,” Twilight Sparkle's response seemed a reflex. “My mom is ‘lady,’ I’m just Twilight. I swear, if it would survive in this climate I’d get a parrot and train it to say that whenever someone calls me ‘Lady Sparkle.’ Now, like I was saying, I need your help.”

Lyra listened as Twilight gave Bon Bon, and Pinkie Pie, the same pitch she’d given her. She did note that Twilight Sparkle omitted several details such as the imminent death of the Unicorn King.

“That doesn't sound at all good, especially for earth ponies,” Bon Bon said. “But I’m still not entirely sure where I, or maybe we, come into all this.”

“I need to get out ahead of Sombra. He clearly has a way of finding these large batches of earth ponies without proper papers so he can send in the guards to haul them off, and, in doing so, drive the rest of the earth ponies closer to the revolt he needs as an excuse to deal with the ‘problem’ once and for all. If you can find where he’s likely to move next, I think I have a way to get those ponies out of Sombra’s way.”

Lyra had never seen such a calculating look on Bon Bon’s face. She rather suspected it had been a very long time indeed since an earth pony had bargained with a unicorn on anything remotely approaching even terms.

“I’m all for helping earth ponies survive, but too many earth ponies are just surviving. When they get up in the mornings... what they're doing can hardly be called a life. I’m grateful that any unicorn, let alone one in your position, would actually care about helping earth ponies, but even before Sombra came along too many of us were simply corpses who haven’t stopped moving yet. How do I know that we won’t just exchange one tyrant for another?”

Lyra was extremely well acquainted with the deprivations that earth ponies suffered in Platinum City. Until that moment she’d never grasped at the feelings of hopelessness and despair they lived with each and every day.

Twilight Sparkle, however, continued to surprise her. “I've had a number of conversations with Princess Rarity about this matter and she appreciates that we, unicorns, need earth ponies to succeed if New Unicornia is going to succeed. I can promise you that everything Sombra has done to hold you down will be gone immediately if this works. Her Highness has made that quite clear to me.”

Lyra considered speaking up, Twilight Sparkle had voiced far more reservations in recruiting her to this mad scheme. She kept quiet, with a foul taste in her mouth. If Sombra won it was quite possible that there wouldn't even be any earth ponies left for her to care about. Besides, it had taken her quite awhile to come around from a normal unicorn to where she was. Moving Twilight Sparkle down that road would take some time, but Lyra was nothing if not patient. After all, she had been waiting for years to find a human, she could wait sixteen weeks to change one unicorn’s mind.

“Oh, one last thing,” Twilight Sparkle said. “I don’t suppose you sell pies here do you? I feel like I've imposed on you quite a bit, and one of the guards back at the palace has a love affair with pies. I think he’s particularly fond of apple pie.”

“Um, I think so.” Bon Bon clearly hadn't expected the Court Sorceress to be buying from her shop. It was a shame, Lyra thought, that she couldn't advertise the fact to bring in more business. “Pinkie Pie, I think there should still be a few of the pies we got from Sugarcube Corner yesterday down in the cellar. Would you mind getting one for Lady Sparkle?”

Lyra heard Twilight Sparkle sigh as Pinkie Pie took off in a pink streak of happiness. Sooner than should have been possible for a normal pony, but not for Pinkie Pie, an apple pie was wrapped and sitting on the counter.

“Thank you very much.” Lyra kept silent when Twilight Sparkle laid down far more bits than such a pie would normally go for in Dirtville. “We should get going before some other pony comes in and sees us. Hopefully it will be awhile before I need your help. That means Sombra is having trouble finding earth ponies to drag off to one of those abominable penal colonies.”

Lyra followed Twilight out the door with a sad wave. She hated to drop in on Bon Bon and then run, but she had no excuse for her absence from her own shop, and the consequences if she was discovered in Dirtville…

Their trip back up to the unicorn part of the city was so uneventful as to approach boredom. The guards at the wall didn’t even ask what was in the box containing Twilight Sparkle’s pie when they saw two unicorns.

“Hopefully I don’t need your help either.” Twilight Sparkle said as they reached Lyra’s shop at last. “I know you have plenty of doubts about me. And I’ll be the first to admit that our goals don’t entirely match. But I need you to trust me when I say that thwarting Sombra really will make things better for earth ponies in both the short and long term.”

“I want to, I really do. But…” Lyra left her doubts unsaid as she closed her door on Twilight Sparkle.

Soldiers and Plebeians and Nobles

View Online

Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Insert witty disclaimer saying that I don’t own My Little Pony [here]

Chapter Four: Soldiers and Plebeians and Nobles

“... the presence of earth ponies in Platinum City is carefully regulated for the benefit of the superior pony tribes. The government is aware that there are a great many earth ponies residing in this city who are not in possession of proper residence papers. Each and every one of these ponies is a danger to their betters, and, accordingly, should be considered an enemy of the state. Therefore, in his capacity as Chancellor, and with the concurrence of the royal council, Lord Sombra orders… blah, blah, blah.”

“Well,” Rarity said, “clearly our plans to unseat Sombra haven’t succeeded yet. And Twilight, darling, are you really sure about this plan of yours? You’re going to have a food shop owner and her assistant, who you yourself said was probably insane, brave the most dangerous parts of Dirtville, find these angry, illegal earth ponies, and then somehow get that information to you through a unicorn who has exactly zero experience at subterfuge. Then you’re going to rely on a single pegasus guard who you couldn't hear speak when you met because she was so afraid she was about to bolt under the table. You're going to have this poor pony face down an angry mob and talk them into meekly hiding so Sombra can’t drag them off to those hellholes he calls penal colonies.”

“Well when you put it like that.” Twilight Sparkle grimaced. “Look, I've done more work on this. Earth ponies know that Bon Bon can read and write, that’s a valuable skill in Dirtville, and, as far as I know, the various gangs in Dirtville leave those ponies alone. She can make it into places we couldn't dream of going and make it out. Pinkie Pie is probably crazy, but Lyra says that she’s almost scary good at getting into and out of places while making deliveries, so she shouldn't have any problems either. I am worried about Fluttershy, but none of the pegasus guards at that fort knew I was coming and they all backed Rainbow Dash up. My best guess is that it’s like Sweetie Belle normally versus Sweetie Belle when she knows what her cutie mark is supposed to be.”

“Don’t remind me about that.” Rarity collapsed into her pillows with only the bare minimum of dramatic effect. “Speaking of Sweetie Belle, did you hear about her latest attempt?”

“Yeah, how does a soup ladle, three sacks of goose feathers, and a plunger equal a cutie mark? And what I really want to know is how it ended with Sweetie Belle leaving hoofprints on the ceiling and getting covered in tree sap.”

“I have no idea.” Rarity covered her head with a pillow in exasperation. “Anyways, back to the topic at hoof, you’re absolutely sure this will work?”

“There are no absolutes.” Twilight looked back down at the announcement Sombra’s lackey had delivered to inform them that pegasus guards would be going back into Dirtville to clear out more earth ponies. “But this is as good as we’re going to get with the time and resources we have. If you have any better ideas I’m all ears.”

“I don’t suppose you’d like to be princess instead?” Rarity’s voice was muffled coming through a pillow. “I hear they still have lovely summers down in the zebra lands.”

“I think I’ll pass.” Twilight started walking towards the door. “Should I set everything in motion?”

“Unless you come up with some miracle plan in the next five minutes.” Rarity waved her off from under the pillow.

Twilight stepped out into the hall and started walking back to her room. She hardly noticed as Spitfire silently fell into line slightly behind her. Just one more sign that danger could find her wherever she went.

“I need to slip outside to take care of something.” Twilight spoke quietly enough that anyone trying to eavesdrop would have a difficult time hearing her. “And I’d prefer that fact go unnoticed.”

“I need to have a talk with the guards patrolling the gardens about staying on the stone paths.” Spitfire spoke in a normal, conversational tone. “The head gardener is ready to pull my wings out if they crush any more plants he spent all winter keeping alive. I trust you can make it back to your chambers unescorted Lady Sparkle?”

Twilight didn’t bother correcting Spitfire, she knew a losing battle when she faced one. “I should be safe enough, and I think Rarity would be a little angry with me if I caused you to get your wings pulled out on my behalf.”

Spitfire veered off at the next intersection. Twilight felt the tiniest of smirks take root on her face. It was such a shame that the guards patrolling the gardens would be held up for several minutes on a route that took them beneath her window. What a pity it would be if she snuck out of the castle during those several minutes.

Twilight pulled a length of rope she kept for just such a purpose out from under a pile of paper she had intentionally allowed to build up. It anchored quite well around her heavy desk, made heavier by the stacks of books on top. Then it was a matter of pulling on a cloak to hide her identity, and Twilight was ready to sneak out.

She stuck her head out the window, no guards, that meant Spitfire had found them. Twilight threw the rope, ungracefully shimmied down it, and, once on the ground, used her magic to lift it back into her rooms. Confident that no one had seen her leave the castle, Twilight made her way through the gardens and into Platinum City proper.

Twilight made far better time to Lyra’s shop than she had the first time. Actually knowing the way helped. A bell jangled as she stepped through the door. Lyra's face upon seeing who had entered said, quite clearly, that she remembered Twilight. It would have taken an intellect far less than Twilight's to divine that Lyra did not seem particularly thrilled at her company.

“Something tells me I’m not going to get much more work done today.” No, Lyra hadn't forgotten her one bit.

“Officially you’re being consulted about a concert at the end of summer to mark a successful harvest." Twilight had had to think far, far too hard last night to come up with such a simple explanation. "That way, if you do miss any deadlines you can send the angry nobles my way. Being inconvenienced is beneath them. Being inconvenienced by a higher ranking noble is how their world works.”

Lyra carefully set down a mess of wooden pegs Twilight supposed was some sort of exotic instrument. “And by ‘consulting’ you mean I’m going to be sneaking into Dirtville to ask Bon Bon to risk her life for the highest ranking noble.”

“I know you aren't happy about this. And believe me, if I could, I’d do all this without involving anyone else, but I can’t, and even though Bon Bon has all her papers in perfect order I think she’ll get caught up in this sooner than later.”

“What you do mean?” Lyra asked, concern verging on panic lacing her voice.

“Bon Bon can read and write. That has her well known in Dirtville, and it’s what I’m counting on to keep her safe. Sombra wants to crush the earth ponies into flat out slavery. He knows that if he's ever going to face any real resistance from earth ponies that it will start with earth ponies who can read and write, earth ponies just like Bon Bon Now, if I could find out that Bon Bon can read and write without asking you, what do you want to bet that Sombra could too?”

“Where do I need to ask her to go?” Lyra spat after several long seconds. Twilight reached into her cloak and handed Lyra the notice Sombra’s lackey had given her.

“Burn this when you've shown it to her. If Sombra tracks this back to us we all die.” Twilight disturbed herself with how casually she spoke of her own mortality.

“Twilight, I don’t care if you’re the Court Sorceress and you know all kinds of magic I could only dream of. If Bon Bon gets hurt because of this…”

Twilight flipped up the hood of her cloak and stepped to the door. “If Sombra feels like Bon Bon is his biggest threat you don’t need to worry about me, I'll be long dead when that day arrives.”

Bon Bon waved a polite farewell as Caramel walked out of her shop. The sound of bits clattering into her safebox, the same sound that meant she would have food for herself, was a sound that never failed to please her.

“It’s so nice that he’s sticking around.” Bon Bon had long since become inured to Pinkie Pie sticking her head out of the strangest places. Specifically, her head was protruding from underneath a display of bread. “I always feel so sad when all those ponies leave the city every spring. But then I get to be happy all over again when they come back in the fall!”

Bon Bon made a rather meaningless noise in reply. If everyone was like Pinkie Pie the world would be a much better place. Suddenly, Bon Bon’s thoughts stopped in abject terror as she realized the full implications of what she’d just considered. Lyra and her obsession with humans were sane in comparison to Pinkie Pie. If everyone just wanted others to be happy like Pinkie Pie did the world would be a much better place. That correction brought a satisfactory nod, Bon Bon had restored order to her world.

The rest of the world, however, seemed to be paying no heed to her. Caramel, along with thousands of other earth ponies, should have already left Platinum City to return to the farms around New Unicornia. They were being kept in place by an army of guards at the gates of the city checking that every earth pony leaving Platinum City had their papers to be there in the first place. Those without papers… Lyra, and even Twilight Sparkle, could speak about the Penal Colonies with revulsion and know how wrong they were, but they could never feel the primal fear such places instilled in earth ponies.

“Pinkie Pie,” Bon Bon said, having no doubt that Pinkie Pie would, somehow, hear her. “How are our food stocks? Are we going to make it to the harvest, or do I need to go find some mushroom farmers to top our stocks off?”

Mushrooms illegally grown in the crystal caves beneath Platinum City were the most important reason that earth ponies were able to inhabit the city in significant numbers. Pegasi and unicorns took the vast majority of what came off the farms. The next time they left enough for the earth ponies to survive off of, even without counting the migratory earth ponies, would be the first.

“I think we’ll be okay.” Pinkie Pie’s reply came from the cellar. Bon Bon very carefully didn’t think about how she’d gotten from under the display to the cellar. “Getting that cast off unicorn food from Lyra has really let us stretch things.”

Speaking of Lyra, the door opened at that exact moment without a hoof being laid on it. Bon Bon only knew one pony who would show up at her shop like that. Well, she technically knew two, but she didn’t think the Court Sorceress would be paying her many more visits.

“Pinkie Pie,” Bon Bon considered shouting down to the cellar, but who knew where her assistant had gotten to. “Can you watch the shop for awhile? Lyra’s here.”

Bon Bon had been right that Pinkie Pie wasn't in the cellar. She very, very carefully didn’t think about how Pinkie Pie was coming down from upstairs.

“Hi Pinkie!” Lyra waved from under her cloak, windows offered no protection against passing ponies. “Had any exciting deliveries lately?”

“Yeah! I took a cake to a birthday party yesterday. Can you believe no one there knew how to sing happy birthday? They all had so much fun by the end!”

Bon Bon had clearly asked for Pinkie Pie to allow her and Lyra to go into the back of the shop to speak in private. Neither Pinkie Pie nor Lyra seemed bothered by that as they burned through ten minutes in an increasingly animated conversation that bore increasingly little resemblance to the real world which Bon Bon inhabited.

"Ahem." Bon Bon figured she had to interrupt those two or watch them go round and round all day. Their pitiful looks at being interrupted had long since ceased to have their desired effect.

Lots of ponies thought Bon Bon a grumpy pony. She dared them to spend five minutes in the simultaneous company of Lyra and Pinkie Pie. As far as Bon Bon was concerned, she had the composure and patience of the mountain on which she lived.

At last, Lyra followed Bon Bon back into her office. Really it was more of a glorified closet, a desk, a stool, and boxes of papers were enough to take up almost all the space.

“Something tells me you aren’t here just because you want to talk to me.” Bon Bon took a seat on her stool.

Lyra lifted the hood of her cloak with a sigh. “I had an unwelcome visitor of my own today.”

“Don’t say that.” Bon Bon chided her. “You’re never an ‘unwelcome visitor’ here. I don’t care what brought you here.”

Lyra's laughed a humorless laugh. “Don’t go saying that before I talk. Twilight Sparkle brought me this. She said to show it to you and then burn it. She thinks Sombra is trying to round up a bunch more earth ponies and touch off another riot while he’s doing it.”

Bon Bon took the paper and read through it. Her own schooling had been rather spotty and she made slow going of some of the more heavily legal words, but the point was rather clear. Sombra was not a fan of her kind, and he was doing something about it.

“Bon Bon,” Lyra said softly. “You don’t have to do this. You’ll have to go into the most dangerous parts of Dirtville, and if Sombra or any of the unicorns working for him find out what you’re doing they’ll make you spend a long time dying. I don’t think I could bear the thought of that happening to you.”

“Lyra,” Bon Bon started before stopping to gather herself. “I think you know more about earth ponies than any unicorn in this city. But what you don’t get, what no unicorn can understand about us is what we’we've lived with for countless generations. Unicorns have hated us and been pushing us down since before there was a Platinum City and New Unicornia. Sombra is the worst any of us have ever seen. Princess Platinum at least left us our lives when we fought and lost. If Sombra had been there I don’t think there would be an earth pony alive today. If a unicorn like you or even Twilight Sparkle had been there I think we’d be living in a very different world. And you have her ear. If I don’t screw this up and you can make her see that earth ponies can be far more than unicorns have ever let us be there might be a day where I can come see you in your shop rather than making you come down here all the time.”

“I’d like that.” Lyra smiled as she took back the paper and lit a corner with her magic. “I don’t think you’ve ever heard me play any of the instruments that I repair. And I can only bring a little bit of my research on humans with me at a time.”

“Yeah.” Bon Bon had a sudden, terrifying realization that she needed to leave in the very near future or risk an hours long lecture about humans, and how much Lyra loved her non-existent creatures. “If we’re ever going to see that day I need to get out and do what I need to. You stay here, when I find a big, angry enough concentration of earth ponies I’ll come back and let you know. Then you can go tell it to Twilight Sparkle.”

There was not a lot to do in Dirtville as far as recreation went. That was Twilight’s conclusion after loitering for several hours around the gate into Dirtville where the latest riot had started. Part of that was probably the result of the beefed up security presence around the gate, and the burned out houses nearby didn’t do much for the atmosphere. Most of it, however, was probably the plain fact that earth ponies were too poor to go out for their recreation. When they relaxed it was at home with friends and family.

At long last another cloaked pony approached her. Twilight discretely let the lowest part of a purple leg extend from her cloak. To her great relief, a cyan leg peeked from the other cloak. The exchange was completely silent, no need to draw attention to themselves. Then Lyra went her own way, presumably either back to Bon Bon’s shop or back to her own life.

Twilight set off immediately for the pegasus garrison where she would find Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Her only stop was a brief stop in a foul smelling alley to look at the paper Lyra had given her. Bon Bon, she presumed it was Bon Bon who had done the writing, had rather no frills hoofwriting. Twilight supposed that was the result of teaching herself how to write from cheaply printed tracts. However, before she had time to truly ponder that thought she was once again briskly walking towards the pegasus garrison.

Unlike her last time visiting this place Twilight was able to walk much closer to the imposing structure before being stopped. Luckily, she was stopped by one of the pegasi who had been there the night of the riots. A quick glance under her cloak had her inside the garrison with instructions where to find Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

Twilight could have simply followed the shouting. She came upon a door and silently pushed it open with her magic. There was Rainbow Dash, seething with a sullen anger, and Fluttershy, lips trembling on the verge of tears. Opening the door more showed a turquoise pegasus with a lightning bolt and three stars for a cutie mark doing the shouting.

“Excuse me.” Twilight pushed her hood all the way back and knocked on the open door. “I need to borrow Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy for awhile, do you mind?”

The turquoise pegasus, Twilight had a sneaking suspicion this was the Lightning Dust that Rainbow Dash had griped about during the riot, whirled around in surprise at the intrusion. Her gaze went from anger at being interrupted, to shock as she realized the symbol on the necklace Twilight had let slip out of her cloak, and back to anger.

“You!” Lightning Dust seemed given to shouting. “Thief! You’re the one who stole these two worthless peons in violation of my orders.”

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. She’d been called a great deal of unflattering things during her time as Court Sorceress, thief had never been one.

“Stole?” Twilight decided she’d play the innocent pony for as long as she could.

“Yes stole!” Lightning Dust whirled to vent her apparently prodigious anger on Twilight Sparkle. “I gave cadets Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy explicit orders that they were not to leave the garrison while I was gone. Only when I came back after saving the city from earth pony anarchy I found out that these two were off cavorting on some little vacation up to the palace with Rarity’s whore. Since they clearly can’t obey orders I’m sending them back to the academy.”

So much for the innocent pony act. Twilight could see she was going to have to use the proverbial hammer with Lightning Dust. “One, it’s Princess Rarity as far as you’re concerned. And two, you’re not sending Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy anywhere.”

“Oh I think I am.” Lightning Dust’s smile was positively nasty. “See I have friends in the castle, and they tell me about all the time you and Rarity spend ‘closeted’ in her rooms. Why I bet if you were a prissy little stallion instead of a prissy little mare you two would already have a bastard ready to ruin the hard work of countless generations of real unicorns and pegasi. And since you're just the bitch's little whore, you don’t have any power over me. So why don’t you go crying back to your princess and get her to do something about it? Oh, wait, you can’t! Because ponies like Sombra who actually know how to handle earth ponies and run a government are doing just that. Now get out of here before I have you thrown out of here on that worthless cloak you’re wearing.”

“Let me ask you two questions before I go.” Twilight made no attempt to hide her own predatory smile. In fact, she positively reveled in what she was about to spring on Lightning Dust. “You know who I am, right?”

“Didn't you listen to anything I just said?” Lightning Dust somehow missed the pit she was digging deeper and deeper. “You’re the court whore.”

“You’ll address me as Lady Sparkle, or as Your Excellency.” Twilight Sparkle’s glare had made weak the knees of sterner ponies than a Post Commander with a severely inflated ego. “Because here’s question two, do you know what military rank the Court Sorceress holds? Don't say anything, I’ll answer it for you, I command Princess Rarity’s personal guards. I'll put that in context for you and list off the ponies who outrank me in all New Unicornia. There’s Blueblood, when he gets around to commanding anything, Rarity, and the Unicorn King. So, I’m pretty good at lists and I don’t seem to recall a tinpot dictator of a Post Commander being on that list, do you?”

Lightning Dust stared at her in unabashed horror. Twilight Sparkle decided to turn the screws.

“I asked you a question, Ms. Dust.” Twilight had heard Spitfire chewing out her subordinates more than enough times to know how to use the tone to maximum effect.

“N-no.” Lightning Dust squeaked.

“No, what?” Twilight Sparkle would normally be ashamed of treating another pony like she was Lightning Dust. For Lightning Dust, she could have kept it up all day if she didn’t have other places to be.

“N-no, Lady Sparkle.” Lightning Dust brought out through clenched teeth.

“Very good cadet Lightning Dust.” Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash barely hold in a laugh at that. “And you even took the liberty of arranging your own escort to the academy. Keep it up and someday you might have the makings of a decent pegasus guard. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, if you’ll follow me?”

Rainbow Dash lasted about five seconds out in the hall. “Oh. My. Gosh! That was so awesome! You totally put Lightning Dust in her place. Oh I’ve been waiting years for something like that to happen.”

Twilight managed to maintain her composure despite her heart racing about a mile a minute. “Sombra or Blueblood will have her back here in a month or less. I’ll get you two out of here before that. It means talking to Rarity, but I’m pretty sure we can open up two spots in her guards for you two."

Twilight was rather glad Lightning Dust had decided to chew Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy out in the middle of the keep. She would have plenty of time to calm down while walking back out into Dirtville.

"Quite the Post Commander you two have." Twilight said, wondering how long she could string Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy along before her offer set in. "First time I've heard that particular insult . Usually, that kind of remark involves me, Rarity, and as many drunk, disease ridden earth pony stallions as they care to think of. And rope, if there were half as much rope in Platinum City as these ponies talk about every rope maker in the city would need a new job."

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Rainbow Dash hadn't quite processed Twilight’s earlier words. “Ponies talk about you like that and you’re just… whatever about it?”

Twilight walked right past her. “If you can’t take a mean word or five hundred court politics is not the life for you.”

“Wait!” Twilight smiled as Rainbow Dash finally processed what she'd said and skidded to a halt. “Us, Princess Rarity’s guards? You’re serious?”

“Very,” Twilight never broke stride. “Ponies who share views similar to myself and Rarity have been winding up dead over the past few weeks in very suspicious accidents and breaches of security. After today that’s going to include you two. Besides, keeping Rarity safe goes beyond standing around her in an intimidating circle. What you two are going to do here, today is a big part of keeping her safe. If you can pull this off I’ll be more than convinced that you belong on her guard.”

Rainbow Dash nearly hopped down the halls in excitement. Fluttershy, however, appeared ready to dig beneath the stone floor to escape the mere thought of other ponies relying on her.

“Anyways, lucky as it was that I showed up today, that’s not why I’m here.” Twilight floated the piece of paper Lyra had given her over to Rainbow Dash. “Sombra is getting ready to send the guards back in. I’d bet that’s why Lightning Dust wanted you two out of here today. Here's the best guess I have where he’s going to be striking. So, Fluttershy, I’m counting on you to talk the unregistered earth ponies in that part of Dirtville into going somewhere else until tomorrow morning.”

“Me? Oh, I don’t think I can do that. All those ponies looking at me, judging me.” Twilight Sparkle sighed. Fluttershy had put her and Rainbow Dash through this song and dance before.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash used exactly the same words they’d used in front of the castle a little over a week earlier to talk Fluttershy down as they walked out of the pegasus garrison. In no time at all they were merely a cloaked pony being escorted by two nondescript pegasus guards.

Even if Bon Bon hadn't pointed her in the right direction Twilight likely could have found her way by simply following the angry shouting coming from the gathering of earth ponies where Sombra was planning to send in the guards. She wasn't terribly surprised that the earth ponies knew what was coming. She wondered if Sombra had let it leak in the hopes of sparking another riot.

“Alright Fluttershy.” Twilight watched as Rainbow Dash stopped her friend just before they reached the mass of angry earth ponies. “All these ponies are going to get beat to a pulp or sent off to a penal colony if you can’t get them out of here right now. Are you ready for this?”

“Yes.” Fluttershy mumbled.

“I didn’t hear that, are you ready?” In another life, Rainbow Dash had probably been a cheerleader.

“Yes.” Fluttershy was actually audible, barely.

“Those ponies are going to get sent off to the worst possible place this side of Tartarus, are you ready?”

“Yes!” Twilight hadn't actually believed Fluttershy capable of such volume. ‘I can do this! Those ponies are counting on me to save them, and I’m not letting them down.”

Twilight Sparkle watched with no small amount of amazement as a Fluttershy she’d scarcely imagined flew above the mass of earth ponies assembled below her without a bit of hesitation. Her jaw slowly dropped to the ground as Fluttershy let loose an impassioned speech that touched the hearts of all who listened. In barely half an hour she’d reduced a mob verging on riot into a cooperative bunch of ponies who left the square in an orderly fashion to avoid the guards Sombra was preparing to send their way.

“See,” Rainbow Dash said with a smug look on her face, “I told you she was a totally different pony when she needed to be.”

“I’m seeing it and I’m still not sure I believe it.” Twilight Sparkle had never thought she’d see earth ponies so meekly obeying a pegasus. She had to shake her head several times to collect her thoughts. “Right, we need to stick around to watch what happens next. I want to catch the guards Sombra is sending in roughing up or dragging off ponies who have their papers in perfect order. Most of his supporters aren't fans of earth ponies, but if we can catch him being needlessly brutal we can swing several of them.”

Unfortunately, Sombra, or someone who worked for him, had apparently realized that Twilight might have ponies of her own watching what went on. The guards, in the absence of a riot, and likely with specific instructions, were impeccably polite when checking papers, and hauled off exactly zero ponies that evening.

It was with mixed feelings that Twilight sent Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy back to their garrison. On the one hoof, she counted it a victory that no ponies had been killed or sent to a penal colony. On the other, she realized what an opportunity had slipped by.

Not to mention that she still had a million things to do when she finally got back to the palace. This had been a victory, no doubt about that, but Sombra had made it far harder for her to turn her victory into real political movement. Oh well, a win was a win, even if it didn’t bring down Sombra all by itself she’d still stuck a pin in his hoof.

“Honestly, I’m not sure whether or not I should be surprised that you turned up.” Twilight nearly jumped out of her cloak. She hadn't noticed the orange earth pony wearing a beat up old hat leaning against an old warehouse.

“Applejack!” Twilight had to resist the urge to lift a hoof to her heart. “What the hay are you doing here?”

“Just curious. All those fancy words of yours, I wanted to see if you were willing to put your bits where your mouth is. Gotta say, mighty impressive work you did. Gettin that pegasus guard to talk all those angry ponies down was pretty slick. I've heard enough nice words from unicorns end up just smoke and mirrors over the years. Pleasant surprise to see one of y'all do more than flap your lips.”

“I keep saying this,” Twilight sighed, “but don’t thank me yet. I've got an awful lot of very fragile arrangements keeping it all together, and they could fall apart at any moment. Besides, Sombra hasn't made his move yet. Win or lose, lots of ponies are going to wind up dead when that happens. If he wins you should get as far from Platinum City as you can as fast as you can.”

Applejack doffed her hat with a flat look on her face. “Aren't you the cheery one? My house is practically falling down, I barely get enough to eat, every time my little sister steps out the door I worry if she’s going to come back, and somehow you’re depressing me.”

“Sorry,” Twilight said, “look, you should go home and spend some time with your sister. At least one of us should have a good night.”

Applejack started walking off before stopping. “You know, I think I do owe you a thank you. Even if it doesn't work out, and even if it's for your own reasons, a unicorn actually trying to help us is more than we've gotten for a long time.”

Applejack disappeared quickly into the deep shadows of Dirtville. Twilight looked up into the sky, the moon was merely a bright circle through a haze of clouds. Shaking her head to focus once more she started walking back towards the wall. Along the way a thought kept nagging at the back of her mind, she’d gotten all three pony tribes to work together and the results had been more than she’d dared hope. What truly disturbed her, however, was the idea, at the very edge of her thoughts, that New Unicornia might be so much more than it was if they didn’t spend so much energy holding the earth ponies out of society.

“My, Twilight, you do certainly get up to some interesting things when you’re not in the palace.” Twilight almost jumped out of her cloak a second time in a rather distressingly short period of time. She whirled around to see a cloaked pony casually standing just behind her. The disguise was perfect, except for a few, stray purple hairs sticking out the back of the cloak.

“Rarity!” Twilight whispered in hushed tones. “Are you crazy? Do you know what would happen if you were spotted here in Dirtville? And where are your guards?”

“Why Twilight.” Twilight didn’t need to see Rarity’s face to know the mischievous look it wore. “You’re right here, and, as I recall, you’re my head guard as it were. Besides, you’re not the only one who needs to see what’s going on here firsthoof. It worked better than I’d expected it to from what you told me. If we keep this up I think we have a real chance of showing Sombra what it’s like to watch the government go by and not be able to do a thing about it. That is, if we live through his reaction to tonight.”

“Yeah, when I know how we’re gonna do that I’ll let you know.”

“I’m sure we’ll come up with something.” Rarity spoke with the assurance of one who was used to getting their way. “Sombra can only go so far before I can lock him up for rebellion, regent or no. Oh, before I forget, I found something you might be rather interested in. Before I snuck out of the palace to come down here I was working in the library, oh don’t give me that look, and I stumbled across the most incredible find at the bottom of a pile of old census papers. Waiting for us back at the palace are Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever’s personal journals.”

Killing for God

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Somewhere out there is a universe where I do own My Little Pony. This isn’t it.

Chapter Five: Killing for God

“This is incredible.” Twilight Sparkle flipped back and forth between the pages of the journal in which she had immersed herself for the past several days. “Unicorn scholarship since the creation of New Unicornia has assumed that it was earth pony intransigence that caused the summit of the three tribes to fail. Clover seemed to think that it was a failure on the part of all the leaders.”

In fact, Twilight reflected, Clover the Clever, hero to unicorns everywhere that she she’d become, probably would have been scorned by the society she’d helped to create. Twilight didn’t consider herself particularly soft on earth ponies; she preferred to think of herself as a pragmatist. All three tribes had their place in society, that unicorns and pegasi were above the earth ponies was simply the way things were supposed to be. Clover the Clever, Twilight Sparkle’s hero and inspiration for studying magic had written in no uncertain terms her desire for cooperation on equal terms between all three tribes as her preferred solution to ending the winter that had afflicted ponies in her time. To call Clover's journal a blow to Twilight Sparkle's view of the world would be a gross understatement.

The more she read, the less confident Twilight felt that she knew how Clover the Clever’s story would play out. She’d hoped to find some clues as to how Clover and Princess Platinum had overcome the various challenges on their way to forming New Unicornia. Instead, Clover’s journal was reading like something she'd expect to find hidden under Lyra's floorboards.

Twilight put down the journal with a sigh and rubbed her tired eyes. She couldn't help wondering if somewhere in the library, buried underneath another pile of inconspicuous documents were journals from Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy. They wouldn't be immediately useful to her, but her insatiable curiosity had seized on uncovering what had really happened at the birth of New Unicornia.

Maybe Rarity was having more luck with Princess Platinum’s journal. Clover the Clever, being foremost an adviser, had had far more liberty in her journal to opine and speculate. Perhaps Princess Platinum had concentrated on the statecraft that had brought New Unicornia into being, and that might save it from collapse.

Twilight hardly noticed as Spitfire fell in behind her on the way to Rarity’s chambers. Sombra hadn't yet responded, officially or not, to their success in quelling the latest riot, but Fancypant’s death weighed heavily on Twilight's mind. If Sombra's response was an assassin waiting around a corner Twilight intended to be ready.

Most days Rarity had only one guard outside the door to her chambers. As Twilight approached she counted twelve guards. Normally she would have had a jovial, lengthy exchange with them about the goings on in their lives. Instead, while polite to her, they continued to watch, hard eyed, for any danger coming their way. Being under a potential threat of assassination was no fun at all.

“How’s the reading going?” Twilight wasn't at all surprised to find Rarity engrossed in Princess Platinum’s journal.

“Rather disturbing actually.” Rarity slowly closed the journal. “I’d always thought that Princess Platinum knew exactly what she wanted and knew exactly what she was going to do to get it. Yet here I am reading about how she had no clue what she was getting into when she went to the summit of the three tribes, and how she agonized over the decisions in front of her.”

“I know that feeling,” Twilight sighed. “Clover the Clever would love Lyra if she were here today. They both think that the earth ponies should be afforded equal status to the unicorns and pegasi. These are Clover the Clever’s and Princess Platinum’s journals, the preservation spells on them were cast by Starswirl the Bearded himself, we’re talking about the figures of myth and legend here, and it turns out they were just as clueless as we are.”

“Well not entirely.” Rarity flipped Platinum’s journal open to a specific page she’d bookmarked. “Princess Platinum put a note here, I think it was years after that particular entry, saying that she believed the Wendigos were able to cause the winter because the three tribes had fractured. I would hardly call what we have now unity, but it is a stability of sorts between the tribes. I’m afraid that if Sombra succeeds in driving the earth ponies to revolt the work Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum did to seal the Wendigos will be undone. Four months of spring, summer, and fall are hardly ideal, but if the Wendigos get loose we won’t have four more minutes of spring.”

“I want to jump right to the end.” Twilight huffed. “Everyone knows that Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum were working on something big when they were assassinated. But they took it to their graves, and no one since has had any idea what they might have had in mind, until us.”

“Believe me.” Rarity laughed mirthlessly. “I've had my hoof trembling at the end of this thing more than once. I just keep getting the feeling, though, that I have to read everything that happened to her or I won’t grasp what she was after when she died. Oh, I do have some good news. I've waded through about three forests worth of paper, but I think the transfers for those two pegasi you told me about should come through before long. I’m afraid that as the head of my guards you’ll have to sign enough papers to build yourself a new desk.”

“That’s totally worth it.” Twilight smiled. “And speaking of worth it, I've been thinking, and I might have come up with a big improvement to what we’re doing.”

“Do tell.” Twilight could tell she had Rarity’s undivided attention.

“We've been thinking that the best way to defuse Sombra is to get the earth ponies out of his way, right? Well, Spitfire said something that got me thinking, what if we get the earth ponies way out of his way? As in, the earth ponies should have left Platinum City weeks ago, so let’s help them go. And not necessarily back to their lords and ladies. Instead, let’s send them to nobles out in the countryside who are on our side. It gets them away from Sombra, it makes sure we have the food we need to keep things stable, and giving nobles who support you more power might help swing the council your way.”

“That is certainly attacking the disease rather than simply treating the symptoms.” Twilight could virtually see the gears turning in Rarity’s head. “I do, however, have one big concern. Our forces, such as they are, for such an endeavor are quite limited. Do we really have the ponies to pull this off?”

“If you’d asked me a week ago, I’d have said no. Then I saw them all in action. I can hardly believe that we stumbled across a group of ponies who are so good at what we’re asking of them, but I’m not going to question our good luck. I think we can have Lyra, Bon Bon, and Pinkie Pie running one group while Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash run another. At a few hundred earth ponies per group it won’t be long before we've gotten enough out of Platinum City and out of Sombra’s reach for his whole plan to come tumbling down.”

Rarity thought for only a few seconds before speaking. “I've always trusted you with matters like this Twilight, so if you think this will work then let’s do it. How soon can you get the first group of ponies out of Platinum City?”

“If you’d like,” Twilight said, “I can head straight to Lyra and take her down to Dirtville to see if they think it can happen, and how soon.”

“What are you still waiting around here for?” Rarity seemed genuinely surprised Twilight hadn't already rushed out of her room. “If you pull this off you’ll have all the time in the world to memorize Clover’s journal, and then I’ll let you have Princess Platinum’s.”

That was plenty of motivation for Twilight to set a personal record at sneaking out of the palace.

Lyra gulped down the last of her hay shake with a contented sigh. She had seen off the last of her customers for the day, and with tomorrow her one day off per week she was looking forward to a day to do what she wanted. Maybe she could visit Bon Bon without the fate of New Unicornia hanging in the balance, maybe she could spend the day reading musical journals and getting some practice in, maybe, she grumbled as she heard her door open, she could teach ponies how to read a ‘closed’ sign.

Should she try a diatribe on Flutterponies, or humans, or maybe she could come out walking on her hind legs? No, she’d have to see what kind of pony she was dealing with. Some of those nobles thought they were above all the rules, and with the kind of bits they shelled out she was willing to be open regardless of what the sign on her door said.

“No!” She shouted with an accusatory hoof pointed at Twilight Sparkle as she saw the Court Sorceress standing in her store. “I was in Dirtville just three days ago watching Bon Bon go out that door wondering if I would ever see her again. It’s bad enough that she’s stuck living on streets that double as toilets. I don’t care who you are, I’m not going to let you make that her grave!”

Twilight Sparkle gave her a look as though she’d been called far worse in her time. “I thought we went over this already, I'm likely to end up dead way before Sombra even starts thinking about ponies like Bon Bon. Anyways, as much fun as it is going back and forth with you, I’m actually here to talk to you about an alternative to sending Bon Bon out the door wondering if you'll ever see her again. It still won’t be safe, not by a long shot, but it should be less dangerous than what we've been doing.”

Lyra stared back with eyes full of suspicion. “And by ‘alternative’ do you mean something other than racing the guards into the worst areas of Dirtville?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?” Twilight Sparkle floated Lyra’s cloak to her. “Now come on. I’d rather not explain this new plan twice.”

Lyra didn’t know why she kept following Twilight Sparkle. It just caused headaches for her, put Bon Bon in danger, and it was a miracle her business hadn't collapsed into one of the snowbanks that didn’t get cleared nearly often enough during winter.

No, she knew perfectly well why she was heading down the icy streets of the pegasus part of Platinum City as a spring blizzard started to swirl snow down from the sky. Bon Bon dreamed of being able to come up into the unicorn part of the city to visit her without anyone caring what kind of pony she was. Lyra would march down into the sewage and trash cluttered streets of Dirtville behind Twilight Sparkle a million times over to see Bon Bon's dreams come true.

The guards at the wall had more or less retreated into the gatehouse and most likely didn’t notice two more ponies wrapped up against the cold crossing back into Dirtville. The only good thing about the blizzard, Lyra thought, was that it kept down the stench of unwashed ponies, and of unwashed ponies dumping their sewage onto the streets. The first time she’d come down here to see Bon Bon she’d nearly emptied her stomach from the stench.

Twilight Sparkle had clearly gotten over any jitters she had about being in Dirtville. She walked purposefully down the streets making the turns to Bon Bon’s shop without pause. Twilight's confident, driven stride marked her as not a normal to Dirtville. Lyra couldn't help thinking that her own determined gait likely marked her an outsider as well.

Before Lyra could give the matter much thought, Twilight Sparkle had magically undone Bon Bon’s lock and stepped inside her darkened, closed shop.

“Bon Bon.” Lyra called out, not wanting to be mistaken for an intruder. “It’s me, Twilight Sparkle’s with me too, she’d like to talk about something.”

Bon Bon’s head poked out from behind her counter. She was holding a positively wicked looking knife Lyra hadn't known she owned. As if that wasn't bad enough, Lyra then jumped at a soft bump behind her, only to whirl around and find a sheepishly smiling Pinkie Pie behind her holding a cord of bailing wire that could easily have strangled an unwary intruder.

“We come in peace.” Twilight Sparkle seemed to Lyra as cold as the ice starting to pile up outside.

“Sorry.” Bon Bon slid the knife back behind the counter. “Pinkie Pie had a full body twitch this afternoon. According to her, that’s Pinkie Sense for a doozy coming our way. When this storm started coming in and I closed up the shop I figured 'a doozy' must mean a thief. Some of the earth ponies who haven’t made it out of Platinum City yet are starting to get pretty desperate about food, so we figured it would be better to be ready for trouble if we were going to head it off.”

“Pinkie Sense?” Twilight tested the words. Right, Lyra thought, Twilight Sparkle didn’t know Pinkie Pie very well. “Whatever. How would the three of you feel about gathering together a band of earth ponies, say three hundred or so, and getting them out of Platinum City to somewhere they’ll be safe?”

“I think you’ll start another riot,” Bon Bon said. “There are a lot more than three hundred earth ponies who want to get out of this city more than life and limb, literally. If you go telling them that they have to pick and choose who stays and gets hauled off to a penal colony the next time you can’t pull a quick one...”

“This isn't a one time thing.” Twilight Sparkle used her horn to cast the shop in dim, magenta light. “At least I’m hoping it won’t be. I want you to take those three hundred earth ponies to Ponyville. My brother is in charge there, and he’ll be happy to have three hundred extra ponies working the farms. If it works there I’ll get in touch with other nobles who would also welcome the extra help. I did some homework, and I've noticed that most of the earth ponies still here are from lands ruled by nobles who lean towards Sombra. If we can find them work somewhere else it’ll be a win for all of us.”

“So why am I here?” Lyra asked. “I can’t exactly go door to door asking earth ponies if they’re here illegally and they’d like to escape Platinum City. That would be a great way for me to wind up dead.”

“You’re here for Ponyville.” Twilight pulled some paper and a quill from the top of Bon Bon’s counter and began to write on it. “Ponyville is pretty calm as far as relations between the three tribes go, but three hundred earth ponies showing up without any notice will probably freak even them out. I need you, a unicorn, to talk to my brother and make sure he knows what I’m up to and what I want him to do. I've written it down here, but if the letter gets lost, or he has more questions, then I’m counting on you. So, how soon can you get those ponies out of here?”

“Like I said.” Bon Bon reached into her office to grab her heaviest cloak. “The problem will be getting only three hundred earth ponies to leave with us.”

Twilight’s mind whirled as she struggled back uphill against the blizzard raging through Platinum City. Clover the Clever's journal kept running through her head, sparked in no small part by Bon Bon’s assertion that even in a blizzard that could easily freeze a pony to death she would struggle to limit the number of ponies leaving with her. How bad were things for an ordinary earth pony that the risk of being abandoned to die in a snowdrift was preferable to staying in Platinum City?

Twilight also found herself worried that Pinkie Pie had had such a bad feeling that she’d gotten Bon Bon to go to such lengths to prepare. Twilight was pretty sure that something wasn't entirely right with Pinkie Pie, but Twilight herself had also been feeling like something wasn't quite right since she’d woken up. Even Soarin hadn't made a single remark about pies that day while standing about with an alarmingly grim expression on his face.

Getting back to the cobblestone streets of the pegasus part of Platinum City, and the smooth paving stones of the unicorn part, made no difference in her travel, Twilight was struggling through knee deep snowdrifts by the time the palace lights were discernible through the sideways blowing snow.

Twilight’s first sign that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong while she’d been gone was the simple observation that the gates were unwatched. It wasn't particularly alarming that there were no ponies standing at the open gates, dedicated or not it wasn't safe to stand around in a blizzard. When she saw the gatehouse empty, however, it sent a shiver down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold.

Running back to the castle was an awkward affair that involved mostly taking long jumps over the snow. Her second, much more worrisome sign was the empty foyer just inside the palace. Regardless of the hour, there should have been a servant there to fawn over her every need. Twilight Sparkle had never been one for palace decorum, she abandoned every pretense as she galloped to Rarity’s rooms, loaded saddlebags slapping against her sides.

Twilight's third sign that something was grievously wrong sent her into genuine panic. Spitfire had joked just over a week and a half ago that she would end up with her wings ripped out over some minor disagreement. Twilight Sparkle couldn't keep her stomach from revisiting lunch as she saw Spitfire’s lifeless body laying a room apart from her wings.

Twilight wasn't a particularly strong runner, the position of Court Sorceress called for more intellectual and magical pursuits from its holders, but she thought any of Rarity’s guards would have been satisfied with the time she made through the distressingly empty halls to the throne room. She slid to a halt, and nearly slipped, on Soarin’s blood in front of the massive doors. If her stomach had had anything left in it, she would have lost it at the sight of Soarin’s body on one side of the doors, his blood pooling all the way past the other.

Twilight blinked back tears for both of her violently deceased friends as she nearly blasted the doors to the throne room off their hinges with her magic. Rarity and Sweetie Belle could still be alive. Mourning for those Sombra had killed would have to wait. She dashed into the throne room, and there he was. Sombra had always vaguely creeped her out; the curved, red horn, the semi-fangs, the clinging to the shadows with his growling voice, but none of that did him justice when Twilight saw him. His legs seemed to melt into a cloud of vapor that sucked in the light. His mane literally flowed as bits of it seemed to drift off and disperse without the main body being any less for it. The worst of it, however, was the deep purple miasma coming off his horn and eyes. All the nervousness Twilight had been feeling since noon or so came to a pitch as she saw, and felt, that blasphemous aura permeating the throne room.

“Sombra, where’s Rarity?” Twilight shouted before dry heaving. Rarity’s father was slouched on the throne of New Unicornia, his insides spread all over the steps leading to the throne. “You’re behind all this, aren't you? I’ll see you dead for this!”

Sombra’s response didn't even seem directed at her. “Celestia, Luna! Watch me triumph over your pitiful sun and moon. I’ll rebuild my Crystal Empire here, and this time you won’t be able to stop me. Witness as I make your pitiful ponies suffer my lash for all eternity. I shall be their God and their doom!”

“Great,” Twilight muttered as Sombra continued to scream at the two divine sisters of pony myth. “The most words I've ever heard him say at once, and all it shows is how crazy he is. Well, crazy dead ponies can’t bother anyone.”

Before she could make a move, Sombra whirled about to face her. Twilight thought she could literally see madness in those red tinted eyes overflowing with dark miasma.

“Crystal slave.” Sombra’s guttural voice broke up the words. “No, rebel, dangerous, kill.”

“Oh, this is not going to end well.” Twilight was moving even as Sombra’s horn began to bubble with purple and black pustules of magic.

The bit of floor she’d been occupying erupted in black crystals that seemed to suck in the light. They were also plenty sharp enough to have put more of her on the outside than on the inside. Twilight’s response was rather less elegant if no less lethal for it. A beam of liquid light, pure magical energy, streaked towards Sombra. He didn’t even bother to dodge it. Rather, he seemed to dissolve around the attack into a black mist showing only Sombra's snarling face.

“Come on!” Twilight shouted. “That is so not fair. Where did you learn to do that?”

Sombra, unsurprisingly, didn’t respond to her. Instead, a ring of black crystals burst through the floor around her. Twilight barely dove out of the ring before deadly looking sparks leapt from crystal to crystal.

“Alright,” she panted, “no more Miss Nice Court Sorceress.”

Twilight had a repertoire of spells second to none in New Unicornia. She used every spell in that arsenal meant for killing, maiming, or otherwise meant for causing pain and harm to another pony. None of them seemed to bother Sombra in the slightest. His crystal based assault on the other hoof left Twilight with several nasty cuts dripping blood to the tiled floor.

“This is not working.” Twilight gasped between breaths. She didn’t see any signs of Rarity or Sweetie Belle in the throne room. Nor for that matter had she seen any bodies except Spitfire in Rarity’s rooms. Had they escaped, or had Rarity run to Sweetie Belle’s rooms only to die together?

Twilight wouldn't find out by letting Sombra kill her here in the throne room. The fancy tile exploded into a quite acceptable cover for her escape. Twilight ran back into the empty halls. Several turns led to another pair of brutally murdered guards outside Sweetie Belle’s rooms. Inside, however, she found only Rapidfire’s head on a table, and his body slumped against a chest full of Sweetie Belle’s toys.

Twilight began to hope against hope that Rarity and Sweetie Belle had used the blizzard to slip out of the castle into the howling winds and swirling snow. That meant, however, that she had to find them quickly or else risk the last hopes of New Unicornia and all the ponies in it freezing to death in a spring snowstorm.

Sombra normally had a great many ponies at his beck and call. None of them seemed to be in the palace that night. At least, none of them seemed to be in that particular part of the palace Twilight Sparkle was galloping through.

Twilight burst out of a small door into the blasting snow. She could barely see the end of her snout in front of her eyes. The problem with building Platinum City on a mountainside was that it tended to attract considerably worse winter storms than the surrounding lowlands. Finding Rarity and Sweetie Belle among the swirling snowdrifts could prove as difficult as fighting Sombra.

Twilight immediately wished she’d thought up a different comparison. Fighting Sombra hadn't exactly been a resounding success on her part. That didn’t matter, she thought as she flipped the hood of her cloak back over her head, she’d search Platinum City until she found Rarity and Sweetie Belle or died trying.

After a long day where not a lot had gone right Twilight finally had a lucky break. She found two troughs in the snow, one large enough to accommodate a full grown mare like Rarity, the other small enough for a filly like Sweetie Belle. Neither of them particularly knew how to move around in the snow. Twilight immediately set off after them with the great, leaping lopes that let her cover ground in the snow covered streets of Platinum City.

Unfortunately, spotting two white ponies against a constantly shifting background of white wasn't exactly the definition of an easy task. Even if they’d worn darker colored cloaks during their escape from the palace they would still be swallowed up by the walls of snow swirling through the darkness.

Twilight lit her horn with a bright light to see farther. That… didn’t exactly accomplish much. The blowing white snow merely reflected most of her light right back into her eyes. She kept her horn lit after blinking back tears that threatened to freeze in the cold. Even if the light didn’t do much to let her see further, it might let Rarity or Sweetie Belle see her in the blowing snow.

“T...ht” Twilight scarcely heard her name through the howling winds. It was only after several repetitions that she actually turned her attention to the voice shouting at her through the snow.

Leaping awkwardly through the snow, Twilight ran as much as she could towards the shouting pony she dearly hoped was Rarity. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy weren't what she was hoping for, but they were a welcome sight for sore eyes.

“Twilight.” Rainbow Dash panted under her heavy winter armor. “Lightning Dust showed up this afternoon, and she seemed sure as the sun’s gonna come up tomorrow that she didn’t have to worry about you or Rarity when she started tin-pot tyranting around the place. Fluttershy figured that meant something bad was gonna happen, so we kinda went awol to find you.”

Twilight noticed that Rainbow Dash failed to refer to Rarity as princess, noticed and didn’t care one bit. “Consider yourselves drafted into Rarity’s personal guards. Sombra has launched a coup, so being awol is the least of our worries right now. I couldn't find Rarity or Sweetie Belle in the palace, and I saw what looked like some tracks they’d leave going this way. I’ll light my horn, stay in sight of it and we’ll fan out to look for them.”

Fanning out turned out to not mean very much. The raging blizzard forced Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to stick rather close to still be able to see the light coming off Twilight’s horn.

When Fluttershy found Rarity and Sweetie Belle her voice didn’t come close to carrying over the wind back to Twilight. Rarity’s shrill cries, however, pierced right through the worst the weather could throw at them.

“Rarity!” Twilight stumbled to an ungraceful halt in a snowdrift. “Are you and Sweetie Belle okay? I didn’t see you in the palace, and all those dead ponies…”

“I’m okay.” Rarity looked anything but okay. “Spitfire… Spitfire shoved us out out my rooms as Sombra broke in ranting and raving about some nonsense. We ran with Soarin to the throne room, and then we went through the secret passage behind the throne out of the palace. I remembered enough to keep us moving to avoid freezing to death. Then the three of you showed up.”

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Twilight was ready to collapse into the snow with relief. “After I saw what Sombra had done to your father I was afraid he hadn't left anything for me to find. By the way, meet Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the newest, and possibly only members of your guard. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, there should be a group of earth ponies with a unicorn heading towards Ponyville. I want you to take Rarity and go catch up with them. Take her to Lyra, she should be easy to find, she’ll be the only unicorn.”

“Wait just a second Twilight!” Rarity’s imperious tone was lessened by her shivering. “I’ll not abandon Platinum City or my little sister to that brute Sombra and his thugs.”

“I've got somewhere else in mind to hide Sweetie Belle. We can’t risk Sombra finding both of you at once. He’s using some sort of dark magic that I can’t even begin to grasp at, let alone figure out how to beat. Keeping you two in different places is the best thing I can think of. Now go!”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got the hint. Despite Rarity’s indignant squawks, the three ponies quickly disappeared up into the raging storms. Twilight hoped they would be all right, but they were safer with the weather than they would be here in Platinum City.

“Sweetie Belle?” Twilight turned to the filly. “I need you to be a tough, grown up pony here. We’re gonna have to do a lot of walking through the snow to get where we need to go, but it’ll be safe. Can you do that? Can you be a big pony for me?”

Sweetie Belle was plainly even more miserable than Rarity in the full fury of the blizzard. She had, however, the full measure of pride any full grown mare could possess. Pride or no, Twilight quickly realized that Sweetie Belle had neither the height nor strength to leap through the snow at any sort of pace that would keep them alive and unfrozen.

Twilight Sparkle had carried Sweetie Belle on her back a hoof-full of times back when she’d just started at the palace. None of those times had involved a blizzard or a snow covered cloak. Even with Sweetie Belle struggling to hang on they still made far better time down to the wall separating Dirtville from the remainder of Platinum City.

Twilight never saw the magical attack coming, at least not with her eyes. Her magical senses gave her just enough time to get a shield up to block the beam of light that threatened to bring her career to an abrupt and permanent ending.

“Looks like we're not quite out of the woods yet.” Twilight slid Sweetie Belle off her back. “Close your eyes, I don’t want you seeing this.”

Sweetie Belle had apparently been through enough by that point to not bother uselessly arguing. Twilight turned to face her attackers and hoped the wind would block out the sounds. She’d been rather rudely handled by Sombra earlier that night, and she felt a burning need to salve her own pride.

The three unicorns in suspiciously nondescript clothing strode towards her, confident that her earlier struggles had wearied her. They were right, but Twilight aimed to show them that weary or not, she was still more than a match for any of Sombra’s minions.

Twilight pulled a long, thin needle from her saddlebag. It served no normal purpose, and any pony would have been hard pressed to guess what it did as Twilight began to make it hum with her magic. The hum continued to increase in pitch. Finally, just as it became unbearable, Twilight pointed the needle at one of her attackers and let go of her magic. The hum had been Twilight storing energy in the needle until it contained a staggering amount of force. The poor unicorn on the business end never saw the needle coming his way. All his companions saw was his head being reduced to a fine red mist that swirled away in the snow as his body slumped to the ground.

That seemed to alert the other two to the fact that Twilight was far from helpless. Their horns began to glow as they attempted to charge in tandem across the snow towards her.

Twilight decided to show them just how bad an idea that was. Water, frozen cold enough, could be as hard as steel. Twilight swirled together a pair of icicles, froze them as cold as she could manage, and then demonstrated their effect on the second attacker. He coughed up a few bloody spurts as he tumbled lifelessly into another snowdrift.

The final attacker seemed to realize how horribly outclassed he was, and, in a sudden attack of common sense, decided to be somewhere else. Twilight thought briefly, and then elected to visit upon her last attacker the fate they’d had in mind for her. He was already quickly disappearing into the snow, but Twilight had hardly any difficulty aiming a searing beam of magical light his way. She didn’t look too closely, but it wasn't hard to see his body and his head falling separately to the ground.

She looked around one last time, and, satisfied with the results, turned to Sweetie Belle.

“Okay, let’s go. You can open your eyes now.”

Twilight was confident that the snow had already hidden her grim deeds from wandering young eyes. Even so, she had Sweetie Belle on her back and was making for Dirtville in short order.

The unpaved streets of Dirtville were no place for a unicorn princess. That was exactly what Twilight was counting on in deciding to hide Sweetie Belle here. Sombra and his group of high born collaborators would never think to look for their prey in such destitute surroundings.

Twilight had a little difficulty in finding Applejack’s door through the raging storm, but, still on the safe side of a pony-cicle, she eventually found herself pounding on the rickety planks of wood that she hoped held safety on the other side.

“What in tarnation is goin on out there?” The door opened slightly to reveal a bundle of ragged blankets with an orange head poking out the top.

“Thanks.” Twilight normally would have asked permission to enter, even from an earth pony, but she was tired, cold, and really needed to be on her way.

“You!” Applejack mustered what indignation she could while weighed down by her pile of blankets.

“I’m so sorry to do this to you.” Twilight gently lowered Sweetie Belle’s shivering form from her back. “You were worried about getting caught up in unicorn doings, and here I am, but there’s nowhere else in New Unicornia I can be sure she’ll be safe.”

“What’s goin on here?” Granny Smith creaked over beneath, if it was possible, an even more ragged pile of blankets.

Twilight used her magic to lift Sweetie Belle’s cloak. “Applejack, Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom, I’d like you to meet Her Highness, Princess Sweetie Belle.”

Applejack, Granny Smith, and Big Macintosh seemed somehow even more flummoxed than when Twilight had signed their forged residence papers.

“Ohmygosh! This is so cool!” Apple Bloom leapt out of her pile of blankets to run towards Sweetie Belle. “I never thought I’d have a real, live princess stayin with us!”

For a filly who had just been worrying Twilight about hypothermia, Sweetie Belle’s new found energy seemed miraculous. “I can’t believe it! You don’t have your cutie mark either. I thought I was the only filly my age who still didn’t have one. This is gonna be so much fun!”

Twilight sighed as she turned away from the happy scene. “Tomorrow morning you’re going to hear how a band of earth pony fanatics infiltrated the royal palace itself and brutally assassinated the royal family. You’ll probably hear how they did such horrible things to the princesses that their bodies can’t even be shown. Except for the part where the Unicorn King is dead, that’s all lies. Rarity is already out of the city, but if Sombra finds either of them you can expect that part of the royal family will be dead soon enough.”

“This, this is all way over my head.” Applejack freed a hoof to rub at an imaginary headache. “Are you saying that this is the safest place in all New Unicornia?”

“For now, yes.” Twilight reached into her cloak and brought out a bag and a sheet of paper. “This is a list of all the guard posts out of the city and what should be more than enough to bribe your way out if you need it. The most corrupt guards I know of are a pair of brothers named Flim and Flam. If they haven’t sold their own mother out yet it’s only because they haven’t found a buyer. I hate to run out on you again like this, but the longer I’m here the more danger you’re in. If you do have to run, make for a place called Ponyville.”

“Wait just a second.” Twilight stopped with a groan as Applejack interposed herself between Twilight and the door.

Twilight had been expecting some lecture about dumping unicorn problems on earth ponies struggling to find enough to eat. What she got was Applejack putting on a hat and a cloak that appeared to be several cloaks too worn to use singly sewn together into a passable piece of clothing.

“Sounds like all us earth ponies have a heap of trouble headed our way. And you just made sure we’re public enemy number one in Platinum City. Now I ain’t about to turn a defenseless filly out in the cold, but if we’re gonna be in this much trouble then doggonit, we’re gonna earn it. What I’m sayin is that I’m goin with you.”

“Fine.” Twilight didn’t have nearly enough time to argue. “But you’d better be able to keep up, we've got a long way to go.”

“Race you.” Applejack threw open the door, and with a wave to her family, she bolted out into the cold.

“Sweetie Belle.” Twilight paused at the door. “Be good, stay out of sight, and don’t let anyone know you’re here.”

Twilight slammed the door closed with magic and took off after Applejack into the swirling snow.

A Long Way From Home

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: *This disclaimer accompanied by a musical score* I don’t own My Little Pony.

Chapter Six: A Long Way From Home

As she trudged through the snow, Twilight Sparkle couldn't help thinking about Soarin’s words to her when she’d gone into Dirtville the night of the first riot. There were an awful lot of earth ponies in New Unicornia who wouldn't care about the consequences, they’d consider taking her with them well worth whatever came their way afterwards. What they’d think about taking Rarity with them…

Twilight had never particularly feared earth ponies, feared what might happen if she met the wrong earth pony at the wrong time yes, but not the tribe as a whole. Being surrounded by three hundred earth ponies with only two other unicorns and two pegasi, however, was pushing her serenity on the matter to the breaking point. And she wasn't particularly sure of Fluttershy’s abilities, or Lyra’s willingness to defend herself if it came to it.

No, Twilight forced the thoughts out of her head through sheer willpower. The few earth ponies she’d spoken to had been almost pathetically glad to get out of Platinum City, and more than a few of them had thanked her almost disturbingly profusely for setting it all up. Yet again, Twilight found herself dwelling on the unpleasant question of how bad had unicorns made things in Dirtville for such a dirty, emaciated bunch of ponies to be falling over themselves to brave the cold and wilds for a chance to escape.

“I don’t like any of y’all unicorns.” Applejack, unlike the bulk of her fellow earth ponies, was profusely grateful for nothing, and she was not going to let pass the opportunity to make that fact abundantly clear to Rarity. “That sorceress of yours did me a good turn a few weeks ago, and that’s pretty much my list of good things that have come from unicorns. I can hardly write my name because y’all won’t let us set up any schools, I can’t work on an apple farm, which is my special talent by the way, because y’all have mountains of paperwork for an earth pony to do anything, my little sister can’t go outside to play because y’all don’t give two hoots if our streets are safe, my ma and pa died of a sickness that any unicorn could’ve gotten cured in two shakes of a hoof, but not an earth pony! So, yeah, I guess what I’m sayin Yer Highness is that I’m one subject who does not approve of what you’re doin with the place. And I’ll thank you very much to note that everything I said happened long before this Sombra varmint took over.”

Twilight had no idea how Applejack was still able to muster such energy. They’d run straight through the night to catch up with the band of ponies going to Ponyville. Twilight had long since been reduced to putting one hoof in front of the other. Magic, coherent thought, everything above movement was out of the question as far as she was concerned.

Rarity was handling the situation far better than Twilight could have, of course Rarity had the advantage of not being exhausted unto collapse. “Ms. Applejack, I’m quite grateful for your assistance, doubly so considering the circumstances. But I feel compelled to ask why you aren't simply laying low somewhere in the hopes that Sombra and I will lead the unicorns to our mutually inflicted destruction?”

Applejack let out a deep breath that steamed in the cold before replying. “I think I've made it pretty clear that I’m not a fan, but as bad as you are, Sombra is a million times worse. You neglect us, except when you’re putting more walls between earth ponies and a decent living. Bad as things were before Sombra they've gotten a lot worse since he came. He doesn't think he had a good day unless he came up with some new way to grind our noses in the dirt and take more of what little we have away from us. Some times I think he’d be perfectly happy in a New Unicornia without earth ponies, and I think he’d be perfectly happy to send us all on our way.”

“Well,” Rarity said with considerable equanimity. “I don’t suppose it’s the ringing endorsement I was hoping for, but it’s always nice to know that one could do worse. Although, I suppose I owe you my thanks. I have far too many fawning courtiers who only tell me what they think I want to hear. Being told what one is doing wrong can be worth its weight in bits in the palace.”

“Um, you’re welcome?” Twilight didn’t think that Applejack had quite expected to be thanked after pouring out a lifetime of resentment to the unicorn she and many other earth ponies regarded as a prime symbol of their oppression.

“Twilight?” Twilight was too tired to even jump at the surprise of Lyra suddenly speaking right behind her. “You don’t think Sombra would actually do that, do you? Kill all the earth ponies in New Unicornia I mean. He couldn't possibly be that crazy.”

“I don’t know.” Twilight rubbed at eyes dry from lack of sleep. “It would be a disaster if he did. Most ponies don’t know this, but Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum didn’t just use some incredible spell to seal the Wendigoes and give us summer, they boosted their magic with the life energy from Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie. What’s been keeping that seal up for the past few thousand years, though, is the unity, however strained and uneven, between the three tribes. If Sombra takes the earth ponies out of the equation I’m worried that we’d find ourselves in a never ending winter.”

“Used their life energy?” Lyra sounded ready to vomit into the snow. “How could they?”

“Desperation, I guess.” Twilight dearly regretted leaving Clover’s journal behind. She had so many more questions it might have answered. “Life energy is a disturbing, but incredibly powerful source of magical energy. If you collected enough of it there’s practically nothing you… couldn't… That’s it!”

“That’s what?” Bon Bon, who had been silently walking beside Lyra, asked.

“That’s what Sombra is doing!” Twilight felt a rush of excitement wash away her fatigue. “I fought him in the palace before fleeing Platinum City, and he was using some sort of magic I don’t understand at all. Not to mention that none of my spells seemed to do more than annoy him. Bon Bon, have you ever heard of any earth ponies coming out of a penal colony?”

“Of course not.” Bon Bon looked as though she’d rather forget those places even existed. “If things weren't so bad do you think I’d have been able to get three hundred earth ponies to leave Platinum City at literally a moments notice?”

“I know, I know.” Twilight barreled on, having caught the attention of the ponies nearby. “Think about it though, that’s an awful lot of ponies Sombra is killing. That’s an unbelievable amount of life energy he could be drawing his way if he’s worked out how to. When I fought him, he kept going on about Celestia and Luna, and how they wouldn't stop him this time.”

“That’s what he was shouting about when he came for Sweetie Belle and myself.” Rarity interjected herself into the conversation. “But what does it mean?”

“It means he’s crazy for one.” Twilight had no doubt of that. “Everyone knows that Celestia and Luna are just old ponies tales. But even if Sombra believing in two mythical Goddesses is as crazy as… I don’t know, believing in humans, what matters is that he’s acting on it. He said that he wanted to become the God of ponykind. I don’t know if Sombra can actually pull that off, but the life energy he’s been stealing has definitely given him powers beyond any normal pony. At this point I think you’d pretty much have to be a Goddess like Celestia or Luna to defeat him.”

Twilight heard Lyra taking a deep breath behind her. Right, she suddenly remembered Bon Bon saying earlier to avoid any mention of humans or other pony legends as that could easily set Lyra off on a rant that would end up as an hour or more of her life that she would never get back. However, before Lyra could launch into a furious tirade the air was split by the blood-chilling sound of a pegasus warhorn. Sombra had found them.

Twilight was well aware that earth ponies were far from helpless. Her own experiences during the riots were an object lesson in that fact. This particular bunch, however, was tired, hungry, unarmed, and had been hoof-picked by Lyra and Bon Bon to be as peaceful as possible in order to give the best first impression. They would be nothing more than target practice for a hardened squad of pegasus guards with orders to leave only bodies.

Their only advantage was that it was a fairly small group, no more than a dozen, who had found them. And, with luck, the still falling snow would mute the warhorn enough that any other nearby groups wouldn't hear it and come to their aid.

Deadly, trained professionals, the pegasus guards loyal to Sombra banked over and dove on them. Twilight watched as they unhooked, unlimbered, unsheathed, and unstrung a rather varied assortment of weapons.

“Rarity, Lyra!” Twilight shouted to the two other unicorns. “Get over here, I need to use your magic.”

Linking unicorn magic had several advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage was that none of the linked unicorns could use the full extent of their magical power. On the other hoof, and much more relevant to Twilight’s situation, it allowed the leading unicorn to seamlessly blend what power was available.

Twilight reached out, grabbed Rarity and Lyra’s magic, and started weaving a spell. The pegasus guards would do their worst damage in their initial cycle of dives. They would streak through a group at top speed, swinging their weapons with abandon to cause as much death and panic as possible. If the group scattered, they were all dead. Twilight’s spell suddenly had the pegasus guards struggling as though they were flying through molasses.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted. "Get up there while they’re distracted and see if you can thin their numbers.”

Rainbow Dash took off with a burst of snow. Twilight watched, still holding her spell, as two glinting objects appeared in Rainbow Dash’s hooves. The attacking pegasus guards were mired in a formation that normally would have allowed them to spread chaos. Unfortunately, for them at least, that same formation allowed Rainbow Dash to speed between two of the guards. Spurts of red, and the way they suddenly plummeted to the ground no longer under the effects of Twilight’s spell, said that their attackers were down to ten.

Unfortunately, for Twilight Sparkle, the guards then figured out that her spell didn’t prevent them from flying backwards. She let the spell lapse, no sense in wasting Rarity and Lyra’s magical energy. The pegasus guards circled back to reassess what was suddenly a target with teeth of its own.

“Twilight,” Rarity spoke so softly it was nearly a whisper. “I think we’d be better served if we all split up. They don’t have any unicorns with them, and we have three.”

“Two,” Twilight noted with disdain towards herself. “After fighting Sombra, then his guards, and then not sleeping at all, the only reason I can use any magic is because I’m drawing it from you two.”

“And I don’t think I’d be much use on my own.” Lyra stuck out a hoof for attention. “I have pretty much zero defense training. About all I can do is play sad music at them and hope it makes them feel bad about themselves.”

“Well,” Rarity abruptly broke off from the link. “You two should be able to work together, and I think it’s high time I gave everyone a lesson in just how helpless I really am.”

“Kill the rebel princess and the blood traitor!” Apparently Rainbow Dash hadn't gotten the commander. And while they’d been formulating their own strategy the pegasus guards had been coming up with theirs.

The good news was that the pegasus guards seemed content to ignore the mass of refugees for the time being. The bad news was that they seemed to have focused all their efforts on killing Rarity and, for no reason Twilight could immediately grasp, Lyra.

Twilight shortly thereafter discovered, much to her dismay, that Lyra possessed nowhere near the kind of magical power she was accustomed to working with. That the act of linking reduced the magic available to her even further did exactly nothing to help their situation. Twilight’s first few confident spells directed at the attacking pegasus guards quickly turned into a desperate attempt to keep their insides…. well, inside.

Much to Twilight’s surprise, it was Pinkie Pie of all ponies who came to their rescue. The bubbly, pink pony hadn't seemed to have a mean bone in her body when Twilight first met her. And, rather disturbingly so, Pinkie Pie still didn’t seem that put out by the group of ponies trying to kill them.

“You’re a mean pony, and you need a time-out!” Pinkie Pie sounded more like she was handling an upset foal instead of landing on a pegasus guard’s neck with a sickening crunch that reduced their attackers to nine.

Up above, Twilight heard the clash of metal on metal and looked to see Rainbow Dash occupying two more pegasus guards. A quick glance showed Rarity, and, surprisingly enough, Applejack, holding their own against four pegasus guards. Twilight and Lyra had been holding off four guards of their own until their attackers were abruptly reduced by Pinkie Pie’s entry.

For the first time, Twilight began to think they might just have a chance. They were outnumbered not quite two to one, true. But they had two unicorns to the guard’s none. And Twilight was beginning to learn how to operate under the constraints of Lyra’s reduced magical abilities.

Of course that was the moment everything started going wrong. Applejack was unleashing a rage she’d waited her whole life to vent. But she was tired, even for an earth pony, and she was a rank amateur going up against ponies who trained day in and day out at the art of killing.

Twilight had watched the guards practice in the palace courtyards more times than she could count. One of the most common kills for an axe wielding pony was to use the haft of their axe to trip up an opponent, and then swing the axe around into the exposed chest, throat, or wherever the guard felt like delivering the killing blow. By the ornamentation on the axe, Twilight could tell that Applejack had run afoul of the commander of the pegasus guards. He couldn't possibly mess up such a basic move, and he didn’t.

At least, until Rarity tore the axe from his mouth with a pulse of magic that startled even Twilight Sparkle. The commander seemed so shocked when he turned to look at Rarity that he apparently didn’t even notice the blood seeping from his mouth as a result of several of his teeth making the journey along with the axe.

“You brutes have killed more than enough of my subjects!” Twilight had never seen such a killing glare in Rarity’s eyes. She wondered, not without some fear, just how deadly Rarity could have been had she dedicated herself to grimmer arts. “I’ll not let you lay your filthy, evil hooves on one more innocent pony!”

The pegasus commander shouted something. Twilight assumed it was an order for all his subordinates to concentrate on Rarity. What came forth, however, was a spurt of blood as he found out he was missing several teeth. That distraction was all Rarity needed to open his throat halfway to the back of his neck with his, rather her axe. The pegasus commander collapsed onto a very surprised Applejack and started staining her and the surrounding snow the color of fresh spilt blood.

Lyra looked at Twilight in the hopes that their remaining eight attackers would lose heart at the death of their commander. Twilight knew better, pegasus guards were trained to get angry in such circumstances.

The three guards trying to kill Lyra all had swords in their mouths, and they leapt towards them as one. With a much better handle on her limits, Twilight funneled Lyra’s magic into compressing the snow in front of the center guard into ice, or, more specifically, a spear of ice.

Unlike the hapless unicorn Twilight had used the same trick on the previous night, the pegasus guard had wings to fly away with. However, he also had compatriots close enough on either side that his wings couldn't unfurl completely. He did manage to slow his fall somewhat. It proved enough to ensure that the spear of ice didn’t completely impale him. He probably found that scant comfort as blood began to run down the ice towards the ground and his eyes dulled.

Even before the impaled guard had stopped twitching, a body fell with a heavy thump that shattered the icicle. Twilight, Lyra, and the pegasus guards jumped back in surprise as they realized the body was that of yet another guard missing several organs vital to life, courtesy of Rainbow Dash.

Six attackers left, Twilight thought as she looked to see Rarity outnumbering her attackers one to three. They’d all underestimated what the Crown Princess of New Unicornia was capable of. Twilight was glad that her lesson in that fact, unlike the pegasus guards, would not prove her last.

Six quickly fell to five as Pinkie Pie came out from wherever she’d disappeared to with the same cord of bailing wire she’d had when Twilight and Lyra had visited Bon Bon’s shop. Unlike that encounter, Pinkie Pie proved just how deadly such an ordinary item could prove in the right hooves.

Almost before Pinkie Pie’s unaware opponent had stopped futilely kicking his rear left hoof, Applejack reduced their attackers to four. The pegasus guards had clearly thought her out of action, and Applejack used that advantage to exact a terminal revenge. Applejack had come off an apple farm where, as she proudly boasted, she had bucked apple trees. A lifetime of building those muscles allowed her to kick a tossed up rock hard enough that it fatally embedded itself into the skull of its luckless target.

Rarity completed a trifecta of disaster for the pegasus guards when, using the distraction of the last guard as his companion dropped dead without a sound, she buried her appropriated axe to the hilt in his head.

Even outnumbered and in a clearly hopeless situation the remaining three pegasus guards fought with professional grimness. In another world, Twilight could have respected them for that. In the world in which she lived, Twilight just wanted them dead.

Twilight got her wish. The last pegasus guard met her end as Rainbow Dash opened her nearly from neck to haunches with a taunt about being on the wrong end of talent versus raw genius. Breath steaming in the cold, Twilight cast her eyes all around her waiting for a reinforcing group of pegasus guards to dive on them. Those reinforcements never came, the snow must have muffled the warhorn of the group that spotted them.

“Oh my goodness!” Applejack, already struggling to stay upright, was bowled over by Fluttershy, who was showing more gusto than Twilight had ever imagined she had. “Just stay still Applejack. You've lost a lot of blood, but if I can staunch the flow and you take it very easy for awhile you should make it.”

“Relax sugarcube,” Applejack said with considerable equanimity for a pony in her situation. “This ain't mine, well most of it ain't mine. He’s the one who lost ‘a lot of blood.’”

Applejack somehow managed to free a hoof to point in the general direction of the dead pegasus guards, in particular the commander who had met his end bleeding all over her. Fluttershy looked where Applejack was pointing, and immediately started dry heaving into the snow.

“Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash flew over to her friend as fast as she'd flown to save their lives. “Look at me Fluttershy, deep breaths, come on, I don’t wanna carry you the rest of the way. You still with me? Good, now come on, none of us are hurt too badly and you don’t need to see this.”

Twilight had been rather impressed with Rainbow Dash’s abilities during the fight. It was clear that if she’d advanced on her ability alone, Rainbow Dash would have been a member of the Royal Guards years ago. It must have taken a deep and abiding loyalty to stick by Fluttershy for as long as she had. Not that it was particularly Fluttershy’s fault. She was far too kind and gentle a pony for the world she lived in.

“Guess I owe you a pretty big apology.” Applejack had stumbled back to her hooves and dragged herself, not quite literally, over to Rarity. “I haven’t given you any reason to stick your neck out for me, and that was pretty gutsy what you did back there. I ain't sayin I’m a fan yet mind you, but maybe, just maybe you aren't all hot air.”

“Well,” Rarity twirled the blood covered axe in front of her. “It seemed appropriate somehow to use their own weapons against such monstrous ponies. I meant it when I said I wouldn't allow Sombra to kill any more innocent ponies, and I certainly wasn't about to let his thugs kill a pony worth a hundred of them. Besides, this has all proven very enlightening. We were outnumbered, ill-equipped, and poorly trained in comparison. But, by having all three tribes working in unison we were able to win with only minor injuries on our part. If we make it through all this I do believe I’ll have a great deal of thinking to do about a great many things.”

The refugee earth ponies had gone some distance from the fight, nearly half a mile, but they had little difficulty following so many tracks back to the main body.

“Lyra!” Bon Bon, who appeared to be corralling a number of ponies, started running towards them as soon as they came into view. “Are you okay, you didn’t get hurt or anything did you?”

“I’m fine.” Lyra slouched against Bon Bon as though the other pony were the only thing holding her up. “Exhausted is all, I don’t think I've used that much magic in such a short time in… well, ever.”

“Sorry, I’m just used to having a bit more magic at my disposal normally and it took me awhile to get used to using your magic.” Twilight sent an apologetic look at Lyra. Then, seeing how casually Lyra leaned against Bon Bon, Twilight had a eureka moment. “That’s it! That’s why Sombra told those guards to go after Rarity and you!”

“That’s what?” Lyra took a few shaky steps away from Bon Bon. “I still don’t get why Sombra thinks I’m such a threat.”

“Her,” Twilight pointed a hoof at Bon Bon.

“Me?” Bon Bon asked in utter confusion. “Me what?”

Fatigue forgotten, Twilight started pouring out words. “Whatever Sombra intends for the earth ponies he needs to whip unicorns and pegasi into a frenzy of hatred against them. You two are the single best argument against everything he stands for. Imagine, a unicorn and an earth pony becoming friends and ending up better for it. Lyra, you saw how we held off all those guards by working together, unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony. Your friendship is more dangerous than any army we could ever raise against Sombra.”

Lyra and Bon Bon both took some time to digest Twilight’s words. When they did, Lyra threw a hoof over Bon Bon’s shoulders. “Still totally worth it.”

“Yep.” Bon Bon leaned easily into Lyra.

Twilight decided to leave the two to their newfound sense of power in search of something that needed her attention, or just a place to collapse and close her eyes. Bon Bon had apparently done a top-notch job at getting the group of earth ponies to move in unison and stay organized. Twilight could think of several unicorns with very inflated opinions of themselves who couldn't have done as well.

“Hi Twilight!” Twilight snapped up to see Pinkie Pie surrounded by a group of ponies with smiles on their faces. “I’m just trying to make sure everyone keeps warm with some good old cheer. You look like you could use a good cheering up!”

“Just tired.” That was certainly true enough, Twilight wistfully admitted. “I’ll rest when we get to Ponyville. It shouldn’t be too much farther. Keep up the good work though.”

Twilight stifled yet another yawn as she walked away. Pinkie Pie was definitely an odd pony, but Twilight found it increasingly difficult to not like a pony who measured the success of a day by how many smiles and laughs she got out of other ponies.

“Twilight.” Twilight nearly tumbled to the ground as she turned around to see Rarity walking up to her, followed by Rainbow Dash. “I had a most disturbing realization. If Sombra’s ponies were able to catch up to us, is it that hard to think that a squad or several squads of fast flying pegasi might have reached Ponyville before us, told your brother of my untimely ‘demise,’ and be waiting to jump us as we approach?”

Twilight muttered a number of curses that literally steamed the air. This was her job, she was supposed to have Rarity’s back and she’d done nothing about such an obvious danger.

“Don’t worry about it Twilight.” Rarity had no trouble following her thoughts. “You’re exhausted for one, and you’re handling more than any one pony should ever have to deal with. I've already taken the liberty of preparing a letter to your brother explaining that I’m quite alive, and that any envoys Sombra has sent his way should be treated as the traitors they are. Rainbow Dash has agreed to fly ahead and present it to him. I was hoping you might be able to add something of yours to help convince him that Rainbow Dash is who she says she is.”

Twilight started running through her tired brain for anything she had on her that Shining Armor would know had come directly from her. She closed her eyes to better think, and immediately snapped them open as she felt sleep descending. Her stumble did, however, provide an answer to her conundrum.

“Ms. Smartypants!” Twilight swung her saddlebags around with her hooves to fish for her old toy. “It was a toy I had when I was a foal. I’d meant to leave it with Sweetie Belle when I hid her, but I forgot in all the chaos. My brother should definitely recognize this.”

Rainbow Dash stuffed the old doll into a standard issue pegasus guard satchel, crisply saluted, and rocketed into the air trailing a vortex of snow that slowly drifted apart.

Ghosts of the Past

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: I’m working on a time machine. Until then, I don’t own My Little Pony

Chapter Seven: Ghosts of the Past

"No wonder it took me forever to find this place." Rainbow Dash snorted as she finally started circling down into Ponyville

The town was barely a dot on the map at the edge of the Everfree Forest, and from the amount of green she could see poking through the slowly melting snow covering the ground it seemed as though the citizens of Ponyville were content with the forest marching right into their town. Or not, she reconsidered, as she saw the outer wall surrounding Ponyville. Compared to the tiny inner wall that presumably separated the unicorns and pegasi from the earth ponies, the outer wall made it clear that Twilight Sparkle’s brother was far more worried about what was outside the town than within.

It was terribly impolite, not to mention asking for a crossbow bolt between the eyes, to land within a city or town. That meant Rainbow Dash tumbled to a stop on the ground in a field just outside the main gate instead of in an opening inside the walls. The gates themselves were remarkably solid, made of thick oak that wouldn't have been out of place in the rougher parts Platinum City. The guards on the other hoof weren't even remotely interested in one obviously exhausted pegasus entering Ponyville. Whether that would hold true when she tried to meet with Twilight’s brother…

Rainbow Dash walked through the earth pony part of Ponyville with the trained instincts of a pegasus guard who knew to expect trouble waiting around every corner and in every hate-filled pair of earth pony eyes. Only the earth ponies walking around Ponyville seemed far less downtrodden and desperate than their kin in Platinum City. Their streets were wide and actually paved with cobblestones, the all pervading piles of garbage and smell of raw sewage in Dirtville were absent, the buildings looked as if they'd been painted and maintained since they were originally run up, not to mention looking to have been built with far more care than any building in Dirtville, and none of the earth ponies she walked by looked at her as though they were imagining all the ways they could make her die, slowly.

Rainbow Dash came perilously near to freaking out when she reached the inner wall that led to the unicorn and pegasus parts of the town. Yes there were guards and gates to be shut, but the wood in the gates was visibly rotting, and the guards weren't inspecting a single earth pony passing either way. Even a ragged pegasus clearly from elsewhere elicited only a welcome to Ponyville and asking if they could help her. Rainbow Dash decided against mentioning her destination, not like the guards would believe her. Besides, her brain was finding it more than a little difficult managing a polite greeting of her own.

The inner part of Ponyville was certainly wealthier than the outer town where the earth ponies lived, but with the earth ponies plainly less impoverished and far less ostentation by the unicorns Ponyville had a much less segregated look and feel to it than Platinum City. Rainbow Dash also noticed earth ponies coming and going, seemingly freely, into and out of pegasus and even unicorn owned shops. Come to think of it, she’d seen a number of unicorns and obviously civilian pegasi walking around in the outer town. Ponyville was a weird place to a pegasus born in Cloudsdale and raised in Platinum City.

She was only stopped with anything approaching the caution she was used to at the gates to the castle in the center of Ponyville. Even then, Rainbow Dash could tell it was more from a trained caution than the real expectation of trouble she was used to. These guards were clearly more concerned with sending her to the correct bureaucrat than worrying about any ill she might have planned for the ponies inside.

“Please state your name and business.” The guard who asked her made it sound very much a rote inquiry.

“Rainbow Dash, sergeant in Princess Rarity’s personal guards.” Rainbow Dash still wanted to fly loops whenever she thought about that. “I’m here with a message from Her Highness and Shining Armor’s sister, Lady Sparkle, the Court Sorceress.”

That shook the guards out of their routine boredom.

“Impossible,” one of the guards said with a suddenly hard edged suspicion that Rainbow Dash oddly enough found almost comforting. “A messenger from Platinum City arrived early this morning with news that the royal family has been murdered by fanatics and that Lady Sparkle perished defending them.”

“Well then I guess that makes Her Highness and Lady Sparkle the spriest corpses in the history of New Unicornia, because I talked to them just a few hours ago. I also guess that means I don’t have this letter from Princess Rarity, sealed with the royal crest, for Lord Armor.”

The guards clearly didn’t appreciate Rainbow Dash’s jibe about talking to Rarity and Twilight earlier, but they couldn't ignore the letter she flashed with the seal of the royal family in red wax. Forging the royal seal was all but impossible. It was crafted with the finest unicorn magic, and that magic was kept a very strict secret among the royal family. It was also a very quick way to a short career, to say nothing of a short life. Most important, though, the decision of whether or not Rainbow Dash was what she claimed to be had suddenly jumped way above their pay grade.

“Follow us,” the guards turned back into the castle with wariness radiating from their every step and glance.

Rainbow Dash had never been in the royal palace in Platinum City, so she had no direct comparison to what she saw in Ponyville. It still put the garrison she’d called home for the last several years to shame. The castle in Ponyville was, unsurprisingly, far smaller than the palace in Platinum City. It took hardly any time at all before one of the guards walked through some doors Rainbow Dash wasn't allowed through. After a little while he came back out to stiffly usher her to see Twilight’s brother.

Shining Armor didn’t have a particularly strong family resemblance to his little sister. White coat, neon blue mane, even his cutie mark bore little resemblance to Twilight’s. The eyes, though, one look was all Rainbow Dash needed to know Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor were siblings, the same burning intelligence showed behind both pairs.

“I hear you have something very interesting to show me.” Shining Armor didn’t look or sound like the go-getter pony Twilight had described. Of course, that was might have been because he thought his little sister had just been murdered the night before.

“Um, yeah, er… yes.” Rainbow Dash was rubbish at all this formal etiquette stuff. “I’ll just give it to you. Oh, Twilight said to give you this so you’d know she was still alive.”

Shining Armor’s eyes went wide as dinner plates when Rainbow Dash pulled the battered doll from her satchel. It practically shot out of her grasp in a burst of magic.

“This is…” Shining Armor’s eyes flicked back and forth between Rainbow Dash and the doll.

The letter shot from Rainbow Dash’s grasp even faster when she pulled it out. Shining Armor practically devoured the letter as soon as it touched his hooves. Rainbow Dash watched as his face went from disbelief, to stunned relief, and, as he finished the letter, a steely anger that she never, ever wanted to be on the business end of.

Shining Armor calmly walked to the door and stuck his head through. Rainbow Dash realized that one of the guards must have remained waited outside. A sensible enough precaution if she'd been a fraud and in desperate need of a quick trip to a cell in the dungeons.

“Could you go find Masquerade and escort her to the dungeons? I think she has a few more questions to answer. If she doesn't want to follow you, I won’t shed any tears if she arrives with a few broken limbs.

“It sounds like my sister has gotten you into quite the mess.” Shining Armor closed the door and walked back into the room.

“It’s not that bad.” Rainbow Dash awkwardly scratched at her mane. “I mean it got me on Princess Rarity’s personal guards, and it’s definitely more exciting than sitting around in Dirtville wondering what Lighting Dust is going to come up with next to make my life miserable.”

“Exciting,” Shining Armor snorted, “that sounds just like Twilight. She always has to go around sticking her nose into and trying to fix every problem she comes across.”

“I kinda got that impression.” Rainbow Dash hadn't expected to wind up discussing the Court Sorceress when she woke up that morning. “She seems kinda high strung, what’s she like when she’s not trying to fix everything around her?”

Shining Armor slowly walked over to a pair of windows that overlooked the wild trees of the Everfree Forest. “Ms. Dash, there are things in that forest so terrible that it would drive you mad if you even laid eyes on them. I’d rather face every last one of those monsters down than see the day where my little sister can’t find a problem to fix.”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to say how ridiculous that was. Then she thought about what Shining Armor had said. She imagined Twilight building up all her stress without the outlet of meddling in other’s problems. As the true horror of that thought dawned on her, Rainbow Dash had the sudden urge to find out what the other side of the globe was like this time of year.

“Enough of that,” Shining Armor said. “We don’t use the dungeons very often in Ponyville, but I think we should have a guest waiting for us down there who is probably going to be very surprised to hear what you have to say.”

If Twilight Sparkle had thought that either of them would be able to get up afterwards she would have tackled Rarity with her hug. Somehow, between saving her little sister, fighting off Sombra, and escaping the castle alive, Rarity had found the time to run to Twilight’s rooms and grab Clover’s journal. And in just a few more minutes she would have the chance to read it again.

Before the ragtag group of ponies stood a silent, hollow stone sentinel. The relic of a bygone era that would, once again, shelter ponies from the bitter cold.

“This is fantastic.” Lyra hopped with joy as much as her tired, overworked legs would allow. “Do you know what this is?”

“Well…” Of course Twilight Sparkle knew what it was.

“This is the ancient ‘Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters”” Lyra plowed right over Twilight in her enthusiasm. “It was built just after Platinum City was established by ponies from all three tribes who rejected unicorn and pegasus domination. We call them a cult these days, but they believed that if they worked together, all three tribes, that they could summon the royal pony sisters Celestia and Luna to bring about harmony between ponies. It’s so sad what happened to them.”

“What happened to them? What happened to them?” Pinkie Pie seemed to have missed Lyra’s sorrowful tone at the end.

“The army happened.” Twilight managed to speak first. “In a race between Celestia and Luna, who don’t exist, and the army, which does exist, the real ponies won. They tore down as much of this place as they could as a monument to what happens to those who oppose New Unicornia, and they burned all the survivors alive as heretics. This place is impressive though, it survived not only that attempted destruction, but more than a thousand years of exposure to the elements without any repairs, and it's still in this kind of condition.”

“Oh.” Pinkie Pie’s ears fell against her head in sadness. “That wasn't very nice of them.”

“No, it wasn't.” Lyra seized her pulpit again. “All these ponies wanted was for every pony to be judged by what they can do whether than if they were born with something sticking out of their head or back. It's always so nice to see what the reward for a good deed is in New Unicornia.”

Twilight was more than capable of reading between the lines. “I’m not saying I approve of what they did. I’m all for the three tribes getting along together…”

“Enough.” Rarity interrupted. “If we don't get out of this cold soon you'll be meeting those ponies who were burned here yourselves. Here come Fluttershy, Bon Bon, and Applejack, let’s see if we can spend a few hours here to recover.”

“Well it’s not much.” Applejack trotted up to them. “But it’ll keep the wind and the worst of the cold off of us, and unless y’all know somewhere else between here and Ponyville we can rest up I don’t see any other choices.”

“We need to stop here anyways,” Bon Bon said. “A number of the ponies are starting to show signs of frostbite. They need to get out of the cold and warm up now if we don’t want to be taking off hooves by the time we get to Ponyville.”

“There’s lots of wood lying around,” Fluttershy pointed out. “I’m sure we could build a nice fire to warm everyone up. It would make us feel a lot better too.”

“No!” Shouted the surrounding ponies, even Pinkie Pie.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight suddenly remembered just how timid Fluttershy was. “Normally that would be a great idea. But Sombra is still looking for us. I can’t imagine a better way to tell him where we are than a bright, smoking fire. I’m sure we’ll all get there uncomfortable, but as long as we make it to Ponyville without anyone losing a leg we’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” came the meek response.

Twilight couldn't help but marvel that the drawbridge still worked. She worried anew whether the ancient construction would hold the weight of three hundred ponies crossing it with every hoof that clip-clopped across it. If she’d had the magic, Twilight would have helped it hold up, she didn’t, so all she could do was watch. Somehow, through luck or the incredible skill of the ancient ponies who’d built this place, it held up.

“Ah, that’s better.” Rarity sunk to the ground with a languorous sigh of relief.

Twilight heartily agreed and was about to voice it when she was interrupted by a nearby snore. She looked over to see Lyra already sprawled out in sleep using her saddlebags as a makeshift pillow.

“Guess I took more out of her than I thought.” Twilight chuckled awkwardly.

“Don’t worry about it darling. You’re doing better than Princess Platinum and I are.” Rarity had pulled out Princess Platinum’s journal and was idly hoofing through it. “After you’d left, and before Sombra made a mess of the place, I had some time to myself and I spent it reading through this thing. I've almost made it to the end, and do you know what Princess Platinum, looking back on her life, thought her biggest mistake was? She wrote in bold letters and then underlined it that if she could go back and tell herself just one thing it would be to work things out with the earth ponies and pegasi rather than fighting.”

Twilight desperately wanted to go to sleep, but her best friend in the whole world came first. “Rarity, that wasn't you in that cave. There’s nothing you could have done. Believe me, I've looked for time travel spells before, I don’t think they exist, even Starswirl the Bearded couldn't crack it.”

“Don’t you see Twilight, I’m the villain here. The society I've spent my whole life believing in and standing up for scorns common unicorns like Lyra regardless of what they can do, forces pegasi like Fluttershy into thuggery, and grinds earth ponies into abject misery. Maybe Sombra is nothing more than what I've earned.”

“No way.” Came the unexpected response from Applejack. “Look, whatever your great, great, great grandparents might’ve done to mine, you didn't do it to me. Your great, great times whatever grandma Princess Platinum made a whopper of a mistake, and we've all been payin for it since. And I ain't never gonna be a fan of hers. But you're doin your best to fix it, so I don't see where you go sayin her mistakes matter to what you're tryin to do.”

“It does matter.” Rarity whined. “I’m supposed to represent all New Unicornia, and that means upholding the thousands of years of mistakes we've made. I should just go out there in the cold.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Applejack was faster than Twilight at stopping Rarity from letting her misery get the better of her. “You ain't nowhere near perfect, but you’re the best deal us earth ponies have seen in a long while. You’re actually tryin to make things better, and it’s mighty tough, but I’m trying to let go of what Princess Platinum did. Sounds like she beat herself up plenty without my help.”

“Rarity.” It turned out Twilight could stand up one last time. “Why don’t you go help Pinkie Pie keep everyone’s spirits up. I’m sure you’ll feel better if you’re out there helping the ponies you’re feeling guilty about. I'll put out your blanket and pillow so they're waiting for you.”

Twilight knew how to push Rarity’s buttons after so many years of friendship. It didn’t take her long to see that she’d made the right decision in suggesting Rarity get out among the ponies they were travelling with. Rarity was very much in her element as a social butterfly helping others, and it seemed like Applejack wasn't the only earth pony having second thoughts about their opinion of the princess they’d hated for so long.

Rarity didn’t hesitate a heartbeat to dive in among the dirty, smelly ponies of far humbler station. Twilight wished her own exhaustion could wash away as easily as Rarity’s as she laid out her friend's blanket and pillow. She couldn't see herself wrapping hooves starting to show signs of frostbite without a few hours of sleep in her. Nor did Twilight think she could so easily speak with complete strangers about how much their little siblings irritated them, but how much they still loved them. Of course Twilight was a younger sibling herself, and she could admit to herself that she just wasn't wired for such gregariousness in any event.

Sleep beckoned, and Twilight intended to heed its call, but her mind wasn't quite done. Sombra had been yelling about Celestia and Luna back in Platinum City, and here Twilight was in a castle dedicated to the two mythical sisters. She didn’t believe in such legends one bit, but Sombra clearly did, and if she learned more about what made him tick it might give them an advantage. Twilight made a note to herself to read up on the subject in Ponyville, or even to ask Lyra if all else failed. Lyra was an odd one, but her heart was in the right place, and she was apparently quite knowledgeable about all manner of outlandish stories and tales.

With that taken care of, Twilight finally let her eyelids give in to gravity. Stone floor or no, pillow-less, and wrapped only in her cloak against the cold, Twilight Sparkle was asleep almost before her eyes closed.

“Wake up, sleepyhead!” Twilight’s ideal alarm clock was not Pinkie Pie shouting in her ear, but that was the alarm clock she had, and, Twilight had to admit, Pinkie Pie was good at what she did.

Twilight could have used plenty more sleep, but she could see that the group was already ready to leave. In fact, it seemed as though Pinkie Pie had delayed waking Twilight, Lyra, and Rarity until the very end. Wait, Rarity's blanket and pillow looked not just smoothed out after use as she'd expect, but untouched.

"Rarity," it didn't take Twilight long at all to find Rarity stitching a tear in a cloak that looked to be nearly all stitched up tears. "Did you get even a blink of sleep?"

"I'm afraid not darling." Rarity's bloodshot eyes stated that fact clearly enough. "There are so many ponies here who need my help and I guess I just got carried away."

"You have to take care of yourself." Twilight almost dragged her back towards her unused bedroll. "All these ponies are looking up to you. What do you think they're going to say if you work yourself to collapse and we have to carry you the rest of the way?"

"They'll say that I'm sharing in their suffering, and that I'm willing to give everything, everything to make up for what they've endured for generations." Twilight noted with alarm a dangerous light sparking in Rarity's eyes.

Before she could do anything about it, however, Bon Bon's shout got the group of refugee earth ponies moving once more. Rarity shot her a look that said the topic was closed as far as she was concerned. Twilight begged to differ, but Rarity had already gathered her belongings and started walking before Twilight could continue their discussion.

Twilight grabbed at her pack with an experimental burst of magic. It took more effort than it should have, but her magic was returning, and that was something. She started walking at the tail of the group and pulled out Clover's journal. It had proven helpful in the past, maybe she could dredge up some more answers on the way to Ponyville.

“So can I go back in there and beat her face in?” Rainbow Dash was quite ready to make good on her threat. Masquerade had positively infuriated her.

“We’re the good guys.” Shining Armor didn’t exactly sound thrilled to be turning her down. “We don’t beat faces in unless we have to.”

“She’s a traitor!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “She’s gonna get her head taken off with an axe. What difference does it make to her if her face is beat in before that? It’ll make me feel better.”

“Sombra has already thrown the law out the window,” Shining Armor said. “If we want to keep being better than him, we have to keep following the law. Besides, Her Highness is on the way, it’ll be a five minute trial and then, like you said, her neck and an axe have a date. And she’s already plenty peeved off, she really didn’t like that Commander Whoshisface you were talking about.”

“Maremount,” Rainbow Dash supplied the name. “After the founding of New Unicornia there were still a lot of ponies who didn’t want to live here. Commander Maremount led the pegasus remnants that tried to stay independent. At least until he sold the soldiers under his command out for the prospect of a soft, cushy life in New Unicornia. Some of them found out before he could carry out his plan, and, well… you can probably guess what happened from there. Anyways, story goes that when he got to the lowest, hottest pits of Tartarus he got spit back out with a curse on him. He’s doomed to wander the earth, never knowing rest, claiming traitors and betrayers for Tartarus until the end of the world. Getting compared to Commander Maremount is one of the worst insults one pegasus can give another.”

“Well,” Shining Armor quirked an eyebrow, “I can see why Masquerade wouldn’t exactly like you for calling her a name like that. If only it were that simple.”

“It is that simple.” Rainbow Dash spoke absolute conviction. “She’s a traitor, plain and simple. She’ll get her head cut off and then she’ll spend the rest of eternity burning in a fiery pit in Tartarus. Still too good for her and the rest of those scum following Sombra if you ask me.”

“No one ever thinks they’re a traitor. That’s a label the winners stick on the losers at the end of a war. Even when we’re trying to do the right thing it’s almost impossible for a pony in any sort of position to not be breaking some sort of promise or oath at some point in their life.”

“Sure it is.” Rainbow Dash huffed. “When I joined the pegasus guards I swore to obey my superiors and to protect New Unicornia. So did Masquerade, and she's proud to be following a pony who killed the king to take his job.”

“Didn't you say you ran away from your post to warn Twilight after this Lightning Dust came back and told all of you to stay put?”

“That doesn't count.” Rainbow Dash sputtered. “Lightning Dust got sprung from The Academy, I don’t think she was actually back in command when she was going all tinpot tyrant. Besides, your little sister, who way outranks Lightning Dust, told me that I had to keep Princess Rarity safe, so I was just following that order.”

Shining Armor chuckled. “And what if she wasn't? Sombra or Blueblood probably called The Academy and overruled Twilight. So then your commander, who you swore to obey, gave you an order that would put New Unicornia in harm. It’s not a bad thing, I deal with it every day.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked suspiciously, clearly not liking how Shining Armor was questioning the very foundations of what made her, her.

“You noticed the earth ponies in the inner town and even here in the castle right?” Shining Armor asked just as they walked past one such earth pony. “The law of the land in New Unicornia makes it nearly impossible for earth ponies to get into the inner city without a darn good reason, and there should never be a single earth pony hoof in the castle that's not in a cell in the dungeons as far as the law is concerned. I swore to uphold the laws of New Unicornia when I took over Ponyville, so I’m breaking my oath right?”

Rainbow Dash just glared back at him, sure that he wasn't finished. She was right.

“I also swore to see to the safety and security of the ponies in and around Ponyville. Well the Everfree Forest is just a hundred or so meters from the town walls, and the next time I have enough unicorns and pegasi to guard the outer wall as much as it needs guarding will be the first. That means I’m going to be violating part of my oath whatever I do. I either obey the law and keep the earth ponies in ‘their place,’ or I let earth ponies do things normally reserved for pegasi and unicorns and keep the town and the ponies inside safe.”

Rainbow Dash grumbled. “If I knew where everyone else was I’d so be out of here already.”

“Look,” Shining Armor said in a very conciliatory tone. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. I absolutely agree that Sombra and everyone following him deserves a short step and a long fall. I just think it’s important we remember that they think they’re right, and that we understand why they think they’re right. Masquerade said flat out that Her Highness’ stance on earth ponies would lead to the ruin of New Unicornia. She didn’t deny that Rarity is the rightful ruler of New Unicornia with her father dead, but Masquerade clearly thinks that what she’s doing is saving all of us, and she thinks that’s worth following Sombra for.”

“Doesn't mean I’m gonna enjoy it any less when they do get sent off to Tartarus, bunch of Maremounts.” Rainbow Dash didn’t care that she sounded petulant.

“I’ll be right beside you cheering them on…” Before Shining Armor could continue an aide rushed up to him.

“Your Lordship, there’s a large group of ponies approaching. We think it might be the group Lady Sparkle is with.”

“Have you already put additional guards on the wall in case it’s not my little sister?” Shining Armor immediately began to trot out into Ponyville in a very business-like manner.

“Of course,” the aide replied.

Rainbow Dash wanted very much to take flight and find out if it really was Fluttershy and the others. In a rare moment of caution she decided to stick with Shining Armor rather than race through a town of nervous, armed ponies who wouldn't recognize her.

Thankfully, Shining Armor had a trot quick enough to satisfy Rainbow Dash. She did fly up the stairs to the wall though. No way she was cramming herself in any more tight spaces than she had to, pegasi were meant for the open skies.

The group of ponies was certainly large enough to be the one she’d gone ahead of, and they looked ragged enough to be earth pony refugees.

A few of the ponies came out ahead of the group and Shining Armor shouted something that Rainbow Dash knew she would keep getting enjoyment from for awhile.

“Twiley!”

Sins of the Father

View Online

Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that I don’t own My Little Pony.

Chapter Eight: Sins of the Father

Twilight Sparkle heaved a sigh. She dearly loved her big brother, but did he have to use that nickname where there were hundreds of ponies around to hear? Annoying as it was, Twilight considered her foalhood nickname a small price to pay for the knowledge that she was safe in Ponyville. She’d done more than enough desperate fleeing in the past few days to last her the rest of her life.

“Took you guys long enough!” Rainbow Dash lofted from the walls to fly towards them. “What’d you do, take the scenic route?”

“Not really.” Pinkie Pie jumped in front of Rainbow Dash. “That castle was kinda scenic, but we only stopped there because so many ponies were starting to get all chilly willy. The rest of it was just snow, and snow, and some more snow, oh, and did I mention we saw some snow?”

“Um, yeah.” Rainbow Dash, like most ponies, clearly didn’t know what to make of Pinkie Pie.

“It’s good to see you made it.” Twilight decided to come to Rainbow Dash’s rescue. “Did you have any trouble?”

Rainbow Dash smirked. “Me? Trouble? As if. Sombra had already sent a pony of his own, but after I showed your brother your letters she wound up in the dungeons.”

Rarity snorted in a most un-princess like fashion. “Well, if we needed any more proof that Sombra launched an organized coup I’d say we just got it.”

“Twilight!” The pony in question turned just in time to be nearly tackled by her brother. “I’m so glad to see you. I didn’t know what to do with myself when that pony showed up from Platinum City saying you were dead. Mom and dad would kill me if they knew I’d let you get hurt.”

Twilight couldn't quite hold in a chuckle. “It’ll take more than an insane unicorn using unimaginably powerful dark magic to do me in. I just hope mom and dad don’t think they have to come back from wherever it is they took that archaeological dig team. By the way, meet Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Lyra and Bon Bon are bringing up the rear and making sure we don’t leave anyone behind.”

“Ah,” Shining Armor started as he realized just who he’d been ignoring. “Your Highness, it’s an honor to have you here. I wish it was under better circumstances, but whatever Ponyville can do to help is yours to use.”

“A warm meal and a bed for all these ponies would be worth more than all the bits in the world,” Rarity said. “Twilight, why don’t you take your brother and the others to the castle while I stay here and make sure all these ponies get into town.”

“Um, I think Lyra and Bon Bon have that pretty well covered.” Twilight pointed to the end of the line where the two ponies in question were keeping the mass of ponies from aimlessly milling about. ”Besides, don’t you want to be there when I tell Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash what I found in Clover’s journal? And then we can get you a warm meal and into bed.”

Shining Armor gave Twilight a suspicious look as he raised a hoof in some sort of signal. “Um, right. Anyways, it’s a good thing you sent Rainbow Dash ahead. It gave us some time to start thinking about where we’re going to shove three hundred new ponies. They’ll be in pretty tight quarters until we can get them out to the farms, but it sounds like the worst we have here is still going to be a big step up for them.”

Twilight didn’t miss the pained look that crossed Rarity’s face. Travelling with the earth ponies and getting among them had done something to Rarity. Rarity was normally eager to give of herself to any pony who needed it, but lately her generosity seemed to be morphing into some sort of self-destructive martyrdom complex. It was as if the guilt of a thousand years and more of mistreating earth ponies had come crashing down on Rarity all at once.

The others, unsurprisingly, didn’t know Rarity nearly well enough to pick up on the small cues that caused Twilight such alarm. Twilight forced herself to shove down her urge to give Rarity a good talking to. They were safe for the time being, and after she’d brought Rainbow Dash and her brother up to speed on her plan she would have plenty of time to hunt Rarity down and get to the bottom of what was wrong with her.

Getting three hundred ponies inside Ponyville took not nearly as long as Twilight had feared. As she watched the flow Twilight let herself indulge in a bit of pride for her brother at organizing such a feat on such short notice. She couldn't help noticing, however, just how easily Shining Armor accepted the closeness with which Lyra and Bon Bon worked together. It still pushed against an ever diminishing part of Twilight’s brain to see a unicorn treating an earth pony as an equal.

“Okay,” Shining Armor said as the last ponies left for their temporary homes, “let’s go the castle and hear this great plan you've come up with, little sis.”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she followed Shining Armor. Sure he was probably the only pony who could get away with calling her something like that, but did he have to enjoy it so much?

“Hehehehehe, Twiley.”

Twilight turned her most furious glare only to see it bounce of Rainbow Dash’s mischief filled smirk. Oh, this was not going to end well.

It didn’t take the group long at all to reach the castle at the center of Ponyville. Apparently, Shining Armor had already told someone to gather together a number of chairs in a meeting room for their use.

“Alright,” Twilight began once everyone had taken a seat. “I think I've found a way in Clover the Clever’s journal to beat Sombra. Before she was assassinated along with Princess Platinum, I think they were working on a way to seal the Wendigos once and for all and end the winter.”

Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor were only two ponies, so their reaction wasn't quite so explosive as when Twilight had spoken to a larger group, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

“That’s great!” Shining Armor regained speech first. “So when do the fireworks go off?”

Twilight Sparkle sighed. “That’s the thing. This is, without a doubt, the most complex spell I've ever seen. Basically, Clover the Clever planned to use the innate magic of all three tribes working together in harmony to wall the Wendigos off from our world. But for a unicorn to harness pegasus or earth pony magic, let alone do anything with it, is already a challenge for even the most talented unicorns. Harnessing both at once has always been thought impossible, even if you could get a willing earth pony, and then I'll have to cast the spell. So once I get some food and sleep I’m pretty much going to lock myself in a room with Clover’s journal and figure this all out.”

“Well,” Shining Armor said, “I can give you plenty of time here in Ponyville, but I don’t know about the rest of New Unicornia. Sombra’s messenger said that he’s already ordered mass roundups of earth ponies in Platinum City as well as putting unicorns who are ‘soft on the traitors’ under house arrest. I don’t know about you, but that sounds to me like every pony in Platinum City who might disagree with Sombra and can do something about it. Once it gets out that Her Highness is still alive, and I don’t see how it won’t, I think the only way it ends is with either Sombra or us dead, and that means civil war.”

Twilight knew Rarity was descending further into her own personal gloom before a single word had left her mouth.

“We’ve trapped nearly a third of our population in slavery for the simple reason that they were born with neither horns nor wings. Sombra and far too many ponies would rather see New Unicornia rent by fire and war than give up those slaves. They either don’t know or don't care that the destruction of the earth ponies in New Unicornia will free the Wendigos and doom us all to starvation in ceaseless winter. Maybe it’s no more than we deserve. For a thousand years and more we've wrung our bread from the sweat and blood of other ponies. Maybe Celestia and Luna really are out there, watching us. And maybe this war will be no more than their judgement on us, the woe due to us for perpetuating such abhorrent acts. Twilight, I hope that your plan will end this quickly. Yet, if we have to repay the blood wealth of a thousand years of unrequited toil, and if every drop of earth pony blood drawn over those thousand years must be repaid by our blood… Well, I can only say that either Celestia and Luna are indeed just Goddesses, or that we've reaped nothing more than what we've sown.”

Rarity’s earlier actions had worried Twilight, but had gone unnoticed by the others. Rarity’s speech seemed to have caught the attention of the others, and it had brought Twilight to the verge of panic wondering what her friend might do next.

“Rarity,” Twilight knew that she was the only one who could start pulling Rarity back from the abyss, she fervently hoped the others would jump in and help. “Listen, a lot of ponies have made a lot of mistakes going back a long way. That doesn't have to include you. I know you saw Sombra, so you know that he’s completely crazy. Whatever he does, and whatever the ponies who follow him do, it isn't your fault. I know I told you this before, but I can’t do this without you. When all this is over we’re going to have a lot of things to fix. But if you lose yourself now, then Sombra is the only one who wins.”

“What is there to lose Twilight? A spoiled, whiny dress-maker playing at princess who couldn't even stop a crazy pony from taking her kingdom away from her. I’ll only hold you all back, so let me at least be remembered for doing what I loved most. The ponies who came with us seem to find some hope when I’m out there helping them. If I’m going to be worthless as a princess I can at least end up as a pony who tried to help others.”

Rarity suddenly found herself draped by an excitable Pinkie Pie. “It’s okay! So what if you made some mistakes? I mean we all mess up, and what are friends for if not to forgive you? So I forgive you!”

“I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say ‘friends.’” Applejack pulled Pinkie Pie off Rarity’s back. “But look, I know I've made it pretty clear that I think you've made mistakes of your own, and some pretty big ones at that. Thing is, no one’s perfect, and I still think I was right when I said that you’re the best thing us earth ponies have seen in a long time. So if you wanna burn yourself up in some blaze of glory, fine. But that don’t sound much like the princess who waded into that pony’s guts to save my neck. I think that princess would say that what’s done is done, and she’d be thinking about how she can end this winter and stop that varmint Sombra.”

“But it’s all my fault.” Rarity blubbered with tears pooling in her eyes.

“No, it ain't. It'll only be your fault when you give up.” Applejack, an earth pony from the poorest part of Dirtville wrapped the Unicorn Princess in a hug as the floodgates opened.

“You, uh, you know some weird ponies.” Shining Armor walked over and whispered to Twilight as Rarity continued to sob into Applejack’s arms.

“Rarity’s been under a lot of stress. Her father’s dead, I’m not saying where her sister is, and now she’s staring down a civil war with a genocidal maniac. But, yeah, they’re weird, and, strange as it might sound, I wouldn't have it any other way.”

“So, Rainbow Dash was telling me that you think Sombra has some crazy plan to become God or something like that,” Shining Armor said.

“Something like that,” Twilight replied. “You know that life energy is incredibly powerful, right. Well I think Sombra is killing all the earth ponies who go into those Penal Colonies of his and using the energy to try and change himself into… something. When I fought him back in Platinum City he had abilities that no normal pony could possibly have. I don’t know if he could actually make himself into God or anything like that, but he thinks he can, and he’ll keep killing earth ponies until we stop him, or until the Wendigos get loose and kill us all.”

Shining Armor looked past Twilight to see Rarity’s tears finally drying up. “Well, before we get some food into you there’s probably one last thing you’re going to want to do. Sombra’s messenger is a pegasus called Masquerade, she’s down in the dungeons and I think you probably have few questions for her.”

“I love this place! I love it, I love it I loveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveitloveit!”

Lyra was bouncing about from place to place like a child on a sugar high. A rather impressive feat considering how tired she’d been when they’d arrived at Ponyville. Bon Bon was content to let Lyra do the impulsive tourist thing. Though, truth be told, she felt more than a little like joining in.

“Come on Lyra.” Bon Bon chided without really meaning it. “Ponyville’s not going anywhere, and now that we’re here, neither are we. Those nice ponies at the gates said that they've set up food and beds for all of us, and I for one would just about kill for either of those right about now.”

“Oh all right.” Lyra whined. “It’s just so exciting here. I've never been out of Platinum City before now and I want to see everything I can!”

It was an easy thing to tell the Ponyville locals from the newcomers arrived from Platinum City. Not only did the ponies from Platinum City gawk like the tourists they were, but the local earth ponies acted entirely different. They almost entirely lacked the downtrodden look of their city counterparts, and they had no hesitation to speak to or be spoken to by pegasi and even unicorns.

The ponies from Platinum City also looked as starved as they were, so the prospect of a good meal drew them like moths to a flame. If the local ponies providing food thought anything strange about a unicorn being among the tired ponies lining up for a plate of simple grains they kept it to themselves. The ponies lining up for food had long since become accustomed to seeing Lyra among them and had long since ceased to comment at her walking among them.

“This food is amazing.” Lyra said around a mouthful of roasted oats.

“That’s because you’re so hungry.” Bon Bon retained enough manners to swallow before speaking. “But yeah, nothing better than not eating for awhile to make any food taste good. I wonder what Pinkie Pie and the others who went to the castle are having.”

“Probably some huge feast.” Lyra replied with the certainty of a born cynic about such things. “Way it always goes, shack up with the rich and powerful, and you get their table scraps.”

“I don’t know Lyra.” Bon Bon was used to Lyra’s mercurial nature. “Whatever scheme it was that Twilight Sparkle was cooking up, it sounded pretty dangerous. If that’s the price of having a huge feast, then I’m glad to say that my adventuring days are over. All these ponies are going to have a plenty hard enough time just settling in here as it is.”

“And they’re all going to be coming to you whenever they need help.” Lyra smiled. “Face it, you’re a celebrity to all these ponies.”

“Me?” Bon Bon couldn't hold in her laugh. “You’re the one they’re going to put in the history books. I’m just an earth pony who happened to know a couple of important ponies. You, Twilight Sparkle, and Rarity are the ones who are going to remake this country. I mean just listen to them talk. The Crown Princess of New Unicornia walked with them, suffered with them, and got them through it all. If you weren't so busy poking your nose in everything you saw, you’d have heard all the ponies we came here with telling everyone they met how great they think Rarity is.”

“How can you say that Bon Bon? We’re the ones who made you and all these other ponies have to flee through a blizzard. Don’t get me wrong, I wake up every morning and feel lucky I met you, but ponies like me have spent a very long time doing some very, very bad things to ponies like you.”

“Ponies like you,” Bon Bon poked Lyra with a hoof, “but not you. I should know better than just about anyone else that a horn or wings doesn't mean a thing. All those ponies when we first met were total jerks, but you've got a horn, and you’re the nicest pony I've ever met. So yeah, a lot of unicorns have done a lot of bad things to a lot of earth ponies, and that includes me. But you've only ever tried to help me out, so tell me Lyra Heartstrings, why should I hate you?”

Lyra sat in silence for nearly a full minute before heaving a sigh.

“Okay, I admit it. You’re definitely the smart one. How do you make everything seem so easy?”

“It’s not easy,” Bon Bon grumbled her answer. “There are an awful lot of ponies who would be perfectly willing to hate any earth pony or unicorn just because of what some other earth pony or unicorn did. Like I said, Twilight Sparkle came up with a very dangerous scheme. Even if they hate each other, there are a lot of ponies who would work together to keep that hate going, and those ponies up in the castle are about to get in their way.”

“Well,” Lyra raised her simple pewter mug of water, “all the best to them, but here’s to our adventuring days being over.”

Twilight Sparkle really, really wanted to eat something and then fling herself into bed. Every step she took towards the dungeon and away from food and sleep produced a near mutiny from her body. Just as she neared the door down to the dungeon her stomach finally rebelled with a growl probably heard back in Platinum City.

Shining Armor seemed to feel no pity whatsoever for her as he laughed deep and long. “ And mom and dad always used to say that I was the big eater. Don’t worry Twilight. It’s just one prisoner down there, we’ll see if she knows anything and then you can eat.”

Twilight grumbled several things under her breath that she thought it best the others not able to hear too clearly. “Just open the door already.”

Shining Armor’s horn lit, the door squeaked in its frame, and it stayed put. More effort opened it a little more, but it wasn’t until Shining Armor pulled with his hooves as well that the door finally popped open.

“Sorry,” he picked himself up from where he’d sprawled on the floor. “We don’t use the dungeon very often, but I guess I need to remind the gaolers to do some basic maintenance at least.”

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked. “I know Ponyville is a lot smaller than Platinum City, but you have to have some ponies get thrown in jail every so often.”

“Not very,” Shining Armor said as the group started down the stairs. “To the creatures in the Everfree Forest, unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony all mean the same thing, snack. We have to let earth ponies guard the walls to keep us all safe. Once you've done that, a lot of things that are probably par for the course in Platinum City just won't work here any more. Sure the occasional pony will get drunk and do something stupid every now and then, but it’s just as likely to be a unicorn or a pegasus as an earth pony.”

“Sounds like quite the place to be.” Applejack had long since lost whatever compunctions she might have had about speaking directly to unicorns. “Think I might move me and mine when all this is over.”

“We’ll be glad for the help.” Shining Armor seemed just as willing to ignore all the pesky legal formalities involved in relocating earth ponies. “Cutting back the forest is hard work. All those ponies you brought are going to let us bring a lot of new land under cultivation. But that’s for later, ladies, meet Masquerade.”

“If it isn't the bitch queen and her whore.” Masquerade leaned idly against the wall of her cell. “Come to laugh at me? Well enjoy it, because when King Sombra ascends to Godhood the first thing he’ll do is make you all die the slow, horrible deaths you deserve.”

Rarity walked up to the iron bars. “Tell me, why shouldn't I send you to meet your ‘God’ right now? It sounds to me like you've just admitted to treason, and I’m not in a very forgiving mood right about now.”

“Please do.” Masquerade pushed off the wall to press her face against the bars. “If I have to choose between dying and living in a world where the heirs of Commander Hurricane degenerate themselves by mixing their blood with filthy earth ponies then I’d rather get off while it’s still a world worth living in. You bunch of Maremounts can bring about the end of everything good in pony society, but I don’t plan on being there to see it.”

Rainbow Dash bristled at the insult, but possessed enough discipline to stay put when Rarity raised a hoof.

“Good for you,” Rarity said, “what if I told you that your glorious Sombra’s plan to exterminate the earth ponies will lead to the extinction of all pony-kind? Because that’s exactly what will happen. The Wendigos will get loose from their prison and your ‘pure’ society of pegasi and unicorns will starve.”

Masquerade rolled her eyes. “What part of Godhood didn’t get through that thick skull of yours? King Sombra will have more than enough power to hold the Wendigos at bay. Then all you ponies who think the earth ponies have it soooo tough can find out first hoof by taking their places as slaves to your betters.”

“I think I know what I’m going to do you to.” Rarity smirked rather unpleasantly. “I’m going to sentence you to live. I sentence you to see us succeed and build a better world, to see us prove everything you believe in wrong, to see that what makes ponies good isn't a horn or wings, but what’s inside. Then, and only then, will you get to go meet your ‘God’ in the lowest pits of Tartarus. And do please tell him just how much of a failure he was when you get there.”

“You go to Tartarus first!” Masquerade shoved the apparently broken cell door open. The door was just wide enough to wedge itself to the wall on the other side of the narrow corridor, blocking the helpless Rarity and her would be assassin from the others.

Rarity, however, turned out once more to be anything but helpless. Masquerade dove at her, intent on killing with her bare hooves, only to be struck in the neck with the wooden handle of the axe Rarity had carried since she'd taken it on their way to Ponyville.

“I rather think I won’t.” Rarity used her axe to trip a gasping Masquerade. Then, in macabre irony, she used the exact same attack that the pegasus commander had attempted on Applejack. The edge of the axe buried itself almost all the way through Masquerade’s chest.

“...k you.” Masquerade managed to cough around bloody froth before she found out whether or not she was bound for Tartarus.

The others managed at that point to throw the cell door away from the wall and rushed to Rarity.

“I’m going to have a long talk with the ponies in charge of the dungeon.” All traces of cheer and humor were absent from Shining Armor’s voice. “Then I’m going to find some new ponies to be in charge of the dungeon.”

“Are you okay Rarity.” Twilight frantically looked her friend up and down for any sign that Masquerade might have harmed her.

“I’m quite fine.” Rarity swept the blood off her axe along Masquerade’s leg before putting it back through the loop she’d hung it on. “But I fear it will take forever to get this blood out of my coat, especially without my normal suite of products to work with.”

“She’s fine.” Twilight heaved a sigh of relief that seemed to deflate the others as well. “I think I’m quite done with excitement for the day, let’s go get some food and then get into bed.”

They walked back up the stairs, at the top Shining Armor fixed a hapless guard with a glare and told him to remove Masquerade’s body and then find the head gaoler.

Twilight was looking forward to the meal with an anticipation most ponies reserved for the birth of a child, unfortunately a pony she suspected to be in charge of the kitchens was standing in front of the door back to the meeting room with a nervous look on her face.

“My lord,” she stuttered as they approached, “I’m afraid there’s a problem with the meal.”

“It doesn't matter if it got cold.” Shining Armor waved a hoof. “We spent longer than we planned in the dungeon, and I don’t think any of us will care very much.”

“That’s… that’s not it.” The chef wrung a napkin with apparent worry. “It… the meal… was poisoned. One of the message running boys, Featherweight I believe he was called, snuck a bite off your plate. He fell to the ground choking and kicking. Before we could do anything he was foaming at the mouth, and then he went very still. I think it may have been that pegasus you sent to the dungeons. Some ponies told me they saw her walking through the kitchens shortly before you had her arrested.”

Shining Armor began to curse with considerable ingenuity.

“So, Twilight.” Rarity leaned in to whisper. “Is that where you learned to be so creative with your language?”

The throne room in Platinum City had undergone quite the renovation despite only having been under new management for a few days. Gone were the gleaming white marble tiles, the torches in bright, mirrored recesses, and the gilt furniture that gleamed in the bright light. In their places were fires in low set braziers that hardly managed to cast shadows, crystals jutting up from the floor that could easily impale at a single misstep, and, of course, King Sombra himself.

She approved. Power didn’t come from silly things like accommodation, respect, and compromise. Power came from fear, mystery, and destroying anyone who would dare to so much as think about challenging that power.

“Love what you've done with the place. Much better than those fools who used to run it. So who needs to die?”

Sombra had never been much for words, his recent transformation seemed to have only cut his daily speech quota. A single crystal grew from the ground, in it was a picture of two ponies.

“Kill.” Even for one as tight-lipped as Sombra, nothing more needed saying.

“With pleasure.” She bowed and left the palace with a terrible smile on her face.

Things Fall Apart

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: This disclaimer brought to you by no-one. I don’t own My Little Pony

Chapter Nine: Things Fall Apart

I spoke at length with Her Highness about the plan. We have already managed to surmount one of the greatest hurdles we faced, reconciliation with Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy. It’s rather hard to look a pony in the face after you've wronged them so, believe me. Private Pansy is one of the kindest, most caring ponies I've ever met, a fact I wish I'd have known on that terrible day so long ago. Knowing what I now know, it should come as no surprise that Private Pansy did what she did on that day. Still, it would have brought tears to a stone to see Princess Platinum tearfully beg Private Pansy for forgiveness, and to see Private Pansy grant that forgiveness.

My opinion of Commander Hurricane has also changed a great deal over the years. It has been a long while since she retired after the last of the earth pony rebellions were put down. Longer still since that horrible day that started all of this. Yet, Commander Hurricane still makes the time every day to see to it that Private Pansy lacks for nothing. It is one thing to say that you will look after another for your whole life, it is quite another to make good on that promise. I thought I understood Commander Hurricane’s loyalty merely by her service to New Unicornia. To see her stand by a pegasus shunned by others, however, makes me rethink all I knew about the word. And it makes me wish we had attempted this reconciliation a lifetime ago.

It will be good to have ponies like them around. Princess Platinum and myself are already suffering the cost of success. We've become ‘legends’ in our own time. I could scarcely believe it when the ponies constructing that new school approached me and asked if I would do them the honor of allowing them to name it after me. Me, doing them the honor? I thought myself honored when Starswirl-the-Bearded took me as his student, I thought myself at the height of honor when Princess Platinum asked me to be her adviser and confidant, I can still scarcely think of myself as worthy of having a school bear my name.

And that is why it will be good to have Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy around. Too many ponies these days think that Platinum and I can do no wrong. The rest believe that something is wrong just because we say it. The plan, monstrously complex as it is, is no different. Our devotees think that sealing those horrible monsters once and for all will lift us to the status only held by such myths as Celestia and Luna. Our detractors say that it will only bury us all under winter. Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy have seen us at our worst, but I hope that recent events have shown them the better parts of what unicorns can do.

It is true that I will have to undo the original seal I placed in order to build this new magic, but I cannot see us living forever with this mirage of summer we have now. I almost want to tell those backwards unicorn nobles that once we've used the magic of all three pony tribes to restore the seasons, Princess Platinum will use that as an excuse to give the earth ponies the liberty they deserve. I won’t, Her Highness certainly failed to appreciate it when I made the joke.

I don’t know when I’ll have the opportunity to put more of my thoughts to paper outside of what I have to write down to keep this new spell straight. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. Starswirl-the-Bearded laughs when I say it, but I can feel my advancing years. And I wonder how long we can last before some falling out must happen between those who support Platinum and those who would rather see us freeze and starve than admit that earth ponies are no less than the rest of us.

“That’s it!” Twilight exclaimed with joy. “That’s why Clover’s first spell didn’t work. When Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie were killed they lost the ability to use earth pony magic in the seal. And I doubt that Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy would have been willing to donate pegasus magic either. It also means that Sombra’s plan will never work. He’ll run out of earth ponies to fuel his magic eventually, and then it’s lights out for pony-kind.”

Twilight turned to the wall she’d taken up with papers trying to uncover the mysteries of Clover the Clever’s last spell. It was full of figures, diagrams, and charts that had never quite seemed to add up to a complete, working spell. Until Clover the Clever had reached out across the centuries from her grave to give Twilight her last clue. Oh there were still the details, and they could prove as tricky as any spell ever attempted, but Twilight finally had the full picture of what she had to do.

“Okay, let's go back over this from square one. I have to make absolutely sure that I understand this spell perfectly from start to finish before I can even think about casting it. Clover the Clever confirmed my fears that we’re going to have to let the Wendigos free to seal them back up, so we only have one shot at this. But now I think I know what I have to put into each part to make this work.”

To most ponies, digging into a stack of complex spell-work nearly as tall as they were would have seemed like punishment verging on torture. Twilight Sparkle dove back in with a smile on her face.

Necromancy is a fearful business. It’s a dangerous and unpredictable magic under the best of circumstances, and we will hardly be going into the so-called ‘best’ of circumstances. Yet, I fear we have little choice. Clover the Clever insists that we need to use magic from all three tribes if we are to succeed. I can scarcely make sense of the mountain of spell-work she put in front of me, but she has never steered me wrong before. Even when I've ignored her and steered myself wrong.

No, Platinum, how many times do you have to write this to yourself? Yes you made a terrible mistake when you struck out at Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie. But you have to soldier on if you’re ever going to fix that mistake. Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy forgave you. In fact, it was easier than you’d ever dreamed it would be, and that’s a good sign. Of course you didn’t kill Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy and then harness their life energy to fuel a spell to hold back abominations.

I just hope that their spirits haven’t been consumed by anger and a desire for revenge. Clover tells me that there’s no way to tell before we summon them from beyond the grave, so all I can do is hope. I am also afraid of what will happen to New Unicornia while Clover and myself are gone. Even a unicorn as magically average as myself knows that if you’re going to chance necromancy it has to be where the pony you’re trying to contact left this world.

That means the four of us will be taking a very long trip to a place I’d dearly hoped to never see again. In the past, I've been able to leave Clover the Clever here whenever I left The Capital -I can hardly believe some ponies are campaigning to rename it Platinum City- and be sure that things would be well. However, I see no other choice if we are to have any chance of success.

Still, if the ponies I've wronged above all others can find it in their ghostly hearts to forgive and aid us, then I think Clover’s spell can really work. And if it does it will be proof above all else that the three tribes are meant to work together as equals. I shall not write in this journal again in the country of New Unicornia, for when we return I shall rename it Equestria, a country for all ponies.

“And what if you didn’t return?” Rarity sighed as she flipped through the rest of the blank pages to the back cover. “Well, I suppose I have one hoof up on you. I haven’t been assassinated, yet.”

She’d rather coldly split Masquerade open thanks to adrenaline, but once she’d gotten behind a closed door, Rarity had been all shakes until falling asleep for nearly a whole day. Her only consolation in wasting so much time was that Twilight had woken up three hours after her. Still, who knew how many earth ponies Sombra had killed in that lost day, and who knew where the next would-be assassin lurked. No assassins had shown up for the past week while Twilight labored to decipher Clover the Clever’s last spell, but that was another week of Sombra exterminating earth ponies without resistance.

“Perhaps fate, or the Divine Sisters, or, or whatever is simply waiting until I embark on the same quest as you to gift me the same end. I can see the summation of my own life now; didn’t kill a pair of earth ponies and later came to regret it, but tried all the same to bring equality to the three tribes and got assassinated for it on the same adventure that claimed you. There, I’ll just be an appendix to your biography.”

Before she could go any further, Rarity’s door burst open. She was already reaching for her axe in a panic when she saw that Twilight was her intruder.

“Twilight, darling, whatever brings you here in such a rush?” Rarity looked past Twilight to see that she’d dragged Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie along.

“Start packing your bags.” Twilight almost quivered with eagerness. “We have to go to the cave where it all happened if this is going to work.”

“We?” Rarity questioned. “Wait, you've figured it out?”

“Not a hundred percent.” Twilight waved a hoof to show what she thought of that so-called minor detail.” But I’m confident I can get the last bit figured out on the way. And yes, all of us. It’s going to take magic from all three pony tribes, that’s why Clover the Clever could only put up a partial seal.”

“I don’t wanna be a worm in your apple,” Applejack shouldered her way next to Twilight, “but I’m still not sure this is gonna work. You two really wanna help, I get it, but we’re a long way from ‘complete trust and harmony.’ Didn't you say that’s what we’d need to make this work?”

“Well, yes.” Twilight admitted. “I’m kinda hoping we pick that up on the way. It’s going to be a long, hard trip up into the mountains. If we’re going to make it we’re going to have to trust each other with our lives and work together as a team. Hopefully, if we can get there we’ll have come together enough to cast the spell. Besides, the alternative is fighting a long, bloody civil war to overthrow Sombra and restore Rarity to the throne. Even if we win he’s going to kill off every earth pony left in Platinum City, not to mention the nobles loyal to him will be slaughtering their earth ponies. And that's before we even get started on how many ponies will get killed by the war itself.”

“Okay, okay, I get the point.” Applejack was doubtless thinking of her family back in Platinum City. “But are you sure you don’t wanna wait while we get to know each other here?”

“I'd love to, but I don’t know if we have the time,” Twilight said. “It’s the unity, to use the term a bit generously, between the three tribes that’s keeping Clover’s original seal up. Once Sombra starts really killing off the earth ponies, and unicorns and pegasi start killing each other in a civil war, that seal is going to get mighty thin in a hurry.”

“We’re all going to be the bestest of friends!” Applejack and Twilight Sparkle suddenly found themselves wrapped up in Pinkie Pie’s hug. "Yay!”

“These gardens are so lovely.” Bon Bon stopped to sniff a flower.

Over the last week spring had finally seemed to realize that it was time for the mad dash to summer, fall, and the harvest that would, hopefully, see them through the long winter. The many gardens and open spaces across Ponyville were a riot of greens, yellows, purples, blues, and all the colors life could bring forth.

“Bon Bon, have you never actually seen green stuff up close that’s not food?” Lyra asked. “I can’t believe this!”

“Of course I've seen plants.” Bon Bon realized that she had to nip Lyra’s building apoplectic fit in the bud. “There are parts of Dirtville that no one’s built on. Of course they aren't tended at all, and they usually aren't very safe because gangs and drug dealers take them over. But no, this is not my first time stopping to smell the roses. Besides, lots of earth ponies in Dirtville keep small gardens for food, and we’ll throw in a few flowers just for looks.”

“Oh,” Lyra visibly deflated. “Sorry, I just figured it was one more thing that unicorns wouldn't let earth ponies have.”

“It’s okay.” Bon Bon laughed. “Really, it is. I mean even if I don’t need it most of the time, it’s nice to know that you’re looking out for me. And there are plenty of beautiful places back in Dirtville as long as you know where to go, when to go there, and how not to draw too much attention to yourself. I always wanted to take you, but you kind of come across as a unicorn even under the cloak. It’s the walk, you walk around like you own the place, no earth pony would ever look so sure of themselves for fear of drawing the attention of the guards.”

Lyra blinked a few times before collapsing in a fit of laughter that drew looks from a few passers-by.

“I knew it! When Twilight Sparkle first had me bring her down into Dirtville I thought to myself that the way she just bulled down the street expecting everyone to get out of her way practically screamed outsider. I wanted to ask you if I acted all unicorn-ish too, but stuff started happening pretty fast after that and I never found the chance.”

Bon Bon just rolled her eyes at Lyra being Lyra.

“Come on, let’s go get some food into your unicorn-ish mouth. I saw a cafe a few blocks down the street advertising food with the spring flowers. It’s been forever since I had a daisy sandwich, and I’m not going to pass this opportunity up.”

At first, Lyra and Bon Bon had been nervous going out into Ponyville together. Despite all the evidence in front of them that Ponyville treated its earth ponies infinitely better than Platinum city they were both wary of advertising any sort of relationship. It hadn't taken long, however, to see that earth ponies in Ponyville casually went around with pegasi and unicorns for reasons both professional and personal.

The earth pony waiter at the cafe seemed to take no particular notice of an earth pony sitting down with a unicorn, she merely wrote down their orders with an ease that showed she’d had the schooling denied so many earth ponies in Platinum City.

While they waited for their orders, Lyra and Bon Bon contented themselves with watching the flow of pony-kind up and down the street. Several times ponies who had come from Platinum City waved at them, and a few even stopped to talk. Bon Bon had initially felt some guilt that she wouldn't be following them into the forest and onto the farms, but a pointed reminder that she’d grown up in Platinum City and didn’t know the first thing about farming or wood chopping had silenced her vocal complaints.

Bon Bon had also, much to her embarrassment, become something of a leader among the newly arrived earth ponies. The refugee earth ponies would have run up statues of Rarity and Twilight Sparkle for getting them out of Platinum City if they’d had the opportunity, but those two were off in the castle planning… whatever it was they were planning. That left Lyra and Bon Bon as ponies the new arrivals could bring their problems too. It surprised neither Lyra nor Bon Bon that the earth ponies chose Bon Bon the great majority of the time.

“This place is great,” Lyra said around a mouthful of her hay shake, “I’d move here if I could.”

Bon Bon paused with her daisy sandwich halfway to her mouth as a thought struck her. “Why not? Why don’t we move here? I mean if we never manage to get back to Platinum City we’ll kind of be here by default, but even if we can go back to Platinum City why shouldn't we just pack up what we can and come back here?”

“You really think we can?” Lyra asked. “I mean we’re talking about picking up everything here. All of my customers are back in Platinum City, and so are yours.”

“Definitely,” Bon Bon said. “Even if Twilight Sparkle’s plan works perfectly and Rarity shouts from the palace that earth ponies are equal to pegasi and unicorns it won’t change much. We’ll still be poor, illiterate, and most of the pegasi and unicorns in Platinum City will keep right on hating us. The guards might not arrest us if we wanted to take a stroll around the palace gardens together, but I doubt they’d do much if a lynch mob decided to do the job for them. It’ll be tough, but I want to live somewhere where I won’t be afraid that a bunch of angry ponies will set our house on fire just because we’re there.”

“We’re going to have to find a house first, and that might not be the easiest thing in the world with three hundred other ponies looking.”

“Adventure one of our move.” Bon Bon smiled. “I kinda feel bad though, here we are getting all pumped up about moving here so no one will care about us, and all it took was a genocidal maniac plunging New Unicornia into civil war.”

“Hey,” Lyra grabbed one of her hooves, “Sombra would have done all his crazy stuff eventually regardless of what we did. We got three hundred earth ponies and you out of Platinum City and beyond his reach. I want Twilight Sparkle’s plan to work yesterday so Sombra can’t kill any more earth ponies, but neither of us can do anything about that, so I think the best thing we can do is be ourselves. After all, didn’t Twilight Sparkle say that Sombra thought ponies like us were the biggest threat to everything he wants to build?”

“Pretty hard to think of myself as important.” Bon Bon laid down a few bits for their lunch as they started walking down the street again.

“Don’t say that.” Lyra jumped in front of her with a surprisingly serious look on her face. “You’re important to a lot of ponies, you’re the most important pony I have. Sombra should be quaking in his horseshoes whenever he thinks of you.”

“Hey, look at that.” Bon Bon pointed a hoof in an effort to hide just how flustered Lyra had gotten her. “What’s a big place like that doing abandoned in a small town like this?”

Indeed, a large oak tree was sitting in a spot of cleared out ground. Someone had put a door and windows, and even a balcony on an upper floor, but the windows were dark and the door boarded over.

“Excuse me.” Bon Bon grabbed a passing pony, a brown earth pony stallion with an hourglass for a cutie mark. “What’s with this big abandoned tree?”

“Oh, that,” the stallion said in an accent that neither Lyra nor Bon Bon found quite familiar. “That’s the town library, or it was going to be the town library. A few years back, just before it was going to open some ponies from Platinum City visited, I gather they made it rather clear that opening a library that would serve earth ponies would wind up being very bad for Ponyville. I'm sorry don’t know all the specifics, but I’m fairly new here myself.”

Lyra and Bon Bon thanked the pony and waved him goodbye.

“Bon Bon, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Lyra looked at her with the mischievous look that more often than not promised Bon Bon would end the day giving yet more ponies reason to think she was never happy about anything.

“Um, maybe?”

“They’re not using that tree for anything.” Lyra grabbed her and turned her to face the oak tree. “And I’d say we know a few important ponies around this town who owe us a favor or three.”

“No,” Bon Bon said in disbelief.

“Yes.” Lyra’s grin was taking on manic proportions.

“It will never work.” Bon Bon cast nervous gazes between Lyra and the tree.

“Only one way to find out!” Lyra set off for the castle with Bon Bon quite literally in tow.

Twilight was quite impressed with the stocks of cold weather gear Ponyville had acquired. She’d traded in her cloak for proper boots, a coat that tucked quite neatly into her boots, and a hat that could pull down to cover her face and neck as well. It might have seemed like overkill in Ponyville where spring was taking hold, and it was, but up in the mountains where the Wendigos were sealed spring hadn't been seen since before there was a New Unicornia.

“Here,” Shining Armor walked up to her with a strange looking object, “you might want to take this along too.”

“What exactly is it?” Twilight floated it around. It appeared to be some sort of length of what felt like bone with two slits cut into it and a cord hanging from two holes at the side.

“Eye protection,” Shining Armor said. “Gem hunters going out of Ponyville up into the mountains made them so they could still work during blizzards, and on the rare occasion the sun comes out and shines off all that white snow.”

“Thanks,” Twilight slipped the bone into her backpack. “Now let’s go see if the others are ready.”

“Do we really have to carry all of this?” There was no mistaking Rarity whining, and no door that could hope to overcome her volume.

“Yes, you do.” Rainbow Dash was tightening the various straps of Rarity’s backpack as Twilight and Shining Armor entered the room. “Once we get out of the Everfree Forest, which is plenty dangerous by the way, we’re going to have to carry everything because there’s exactly zero food or stuff to burn for fire once we head into the mountains. Plus we’ll need snowshoes and spare boots and I don’t think you want to be sleeping outside so we’re bringing some tents. Hay, you have the lightest pack.”

“Twilight!” Rarity spotted her. “Darling, could you please do something about these fashion… abominations we've been given? I can accept that when I fled Platinum City I hadn't the time to pick a cloak worth being seen in, but we have the time to prepare now, and I for one refuse to be seen in such a state if it can be helped.”

“Rarity,” Twilight rolled her eyes, “no one is going to see you in that coat and hat combination. By the time we have to wear them we’ll all be crusted over white with snow. I think we’ll all be a bit busy trying to find the Wendigos cave without freezing to death to care about whether or not we’re showing up in the latest fashion.”

“But I’ll know.” Rarity whined.

“No mistakin where y’all got to.” Applejack walked into the room seemingly unburdened by the heaviest pack.

“Um, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Fluttershy slipped in behind Applejack.

“Not at all,” Twilight said, “we’re just waiting for Pinkie Pie.

As if her name were a magical summons, Pinkie Pie appeared. “Come on you sillies, I've been standing outside waiting forever for you. I can’t wait to get out there and start making friends! Oh this is going to be so much fun, I don’t know if I've ever made so many friends at once.”

“You know you don’t have to do this alone,” Shining Armor said as they walked out towards the gates of Ponyville. “I can spare plenty of ponies to help you get through the Everfree Forest and look for this place. Hay, I can spare myself if this is really that important.”

“Hey!” They all turned to see Lyra dragging Bon Bon, quite literally, towards them. “There you are, listen…”

Lyra was cut off as Pinkie Pie grabbed Bon Bon away from her in a tearful embrace. “Oh I’m so sad I have to leave you and everyone else behind. I hate saying goodbye to friends, even if it’s to make new ones! You were the bestest most funnest boss I ever had.”

“It’s okay Pinkie Pie.” Bon Bon took her circumstances in stride. “I’m sure you’ll all be back with good news before you know it. That will make plenty of ponies happy. And when you get back I’ll even let you throw a moving party for Lyra and I.”

“Moving party?” Pinkie Pie gasped. “You’re moving?”

“Yep,” Lyra said in a manic tone that perfectly matched Pinkie Pie. In that moment, Twilight and the others began to understand Bon Bon’s fears of Lyra and Pinkie Pie being in close proximity for any length of time. “We love it here. In fact, any of you think you might be able to pull some strings with yourselves and let us buy that old tree you were going to make a library?”

“Library?” Shining Armor looked at her in confusion. “Wait! Oh, how could I not have thought of that? It’s perfect! You two can definitely have that place, you’ll have to share it with some other ponies for awhile though. It’s going to be awhile before we can build enough houses for all the ponies you brought from Platinum City, and a big place like that is just what we need to start spreading them out.”

“It appears you’ll have your hooves full here for awhile longer.” Rarity seemed to have gotten the whining out of her system and had gone back to being all business. “Besides, Rainbow Dash assures me that six ponies have a much better chance of making it through the Everfree Forest unmolested than would sixty, or however many ponies we took with us.”

“Not to mention,” Twilight Sparkle added, “Sombra is going to keep you busier than you know what to do with before long. Rarity sent out all those notes when we arrived, they should just be reaching their destinations about now, and that means civil war in a few days time.”

Shining Armor grimaced at the thought.

“I appreciate everything, really,” Rarity said. “But one of us has to stay here.”

Rarity pulled an envelope out of her backpack and gave it to Shining Armor.

“A great deal of our problems could have been avoided had my father simply drawn up a will. That’s a mistake I’ll not be making. You, Shining Armor, have to stay here because with Twilight and myself gone you’re in charge of things as it were.”

“I’m what?” Shining Armor looked at the envelope as though it had suddenly turned into a venomous snake.

“If I die, and there’s danger enough ahead, Sweetie Belle will need a regent for years. I’m trusting you and Twilight Sparkle to see New Unicornia safe until she’s old enough to take the throne, and probably for quite awhile after that.”

“Rarity.” Twilight began.

“Oh hush dear.” Rarity put up a hoof to stall her. “I've no plans of dying anytime soon, no more than you do. But, like I said, our problems would be far less had father made it clear when I was supposed to take over for him. Making it clear that Shining Armor is in charge will also ensure that the ponies who rally to our cause will fight under one banner. I have high hopes that this spell will end our problems, but if there is to be a civil war than I certainly intend to win it.”

“How long is this going to take?” Lyra asked.

“It’s probably going to take two, maybe two and a half weeks to get across the Everfree Forest.” Rainbow Dash shifted her backpack. “It’s not that kind of far, but we’ll probably lose a lot of time hiding from the creatures in there. Once we get into the mountains it all depends on how fast we find that cave. Even if it’s not that far it could still take days. I was talking to some gem miners, and they said that if it’s blowing snow and freezing cold and you’re trying to keep a bearing you might go a hundred meters in an hour.”

“It shouldn't take that long once we’re out of the Everfree Forest,” Twilight said. “Both Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever left maps to where they sealed the Wendigos. Things have probably shifted after more than a thousand years, and the weather won’t be any help, but we’ll know the general area to look in.

“One more thing.” Twilight gave a folded piece of paper to her brother. “When we escaped Platinum City I hid Sweetie Belle. I wrote down where on that sheet of paper. If Rarity and I don’t make it back it’s going to be up to you to get her out of Platinum City.”

Shining Armor sighed. “Anything else you need me to take care of while you’re gone? Win the war, save the princess, should I have scones waiting for you when you come back?”

Even Shining Armor couldn't glare at Pinkie Pie’s enthusiastic nod.

“You don’t necessarily have to do this yourself,” Twilight said. “But I left all my notes about Clover’s spell in my room. If we fail, you can always get another group of ponies to learn from whatever we did wrong and try again.”

“You don’t have to get ponies to move into the library.” Bon Bon pointed out. “I’m sure Lyra and I can take care of that, and it’s one less thing you have to worry about.”

“Why can’t you be like these two and actually be helpful?” Twilight snorted at her brother’s humor.

“One last thing,” Rarity said. “Princess Platinum intended to rename New Unicornia had she not been assassinated on her own quest to seal the Wendigoes. I suppose it falls to me to carry out her last wish in that case. Princess Platinum wanted this land to be called Equestria, and she wanted it to be a land of all ponies, by all ponies, for all ponies.”

Such a quaint little town, she reflected. She almost felt bad she was going to set Ponyville to the torch and kill every pony within its walls. Wait, no she didn’t. She looked forward to seeing those sub-pony earth ponies scream their last torment the way another pony might look forward to fine music. She would be almost as glad to see the unicorn and pegasus traitors die as well. Maybe she’d spare a few of them to drag back to Platinum City in chains to face King Sombra’s justice.

“Rest up.” She turned to the rest of her hoof picked band of ponies. Each and every one of them would hardly need the order to start spreading mayhem and killing earth ponies. “We’ll attack at sundown.”

Fire-Forged Friends

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Progress on the time machine is coming along. Until then, I don’t own My Little Pony

Chapter Ten: Fire-Forged Friends

Twilight had known Rarity for years. They’d met as little more than fillies at the Clover the Clever Academy. Rarity was the gorgeous young princess with all the sophistication and glamour Platinum City could produce, while Twilight Sparkle was the magical prodigy from the back end of nowhere. They’d had some friction at first, until they’d learned to see the better parts of each other and become fast friends. During those first few weeks, however, there had been a few occasions where Twilight had contemplated regicide, never seriously. She'd never returned to those kinds of thoughts after befriending Rarity, until now.

“Must we walk through all this dirt, and… nature?” Rarity had a prodigious talent to annoy others with her whining. A talent on full display as they trudged through the Everfree Forest.

“For the hundredth time.” Twilight grumbled over her shoulder. “Unless you've mastered long distance teleportation for multiple ponies, yes we have to walk through the Everfree Forest. And dirt is just one of the many wonderful things that go along with being in a forest.”

“You should keep it down too.” Applejack shouted from well behind Rarity. Not that Twilight could blame Applejack for wanting to distance herself from such an irritating spectacle. “Unless you want a pack of Timberwolves, or a hydra, or an Ursa Major to decide you’re riling them the wrong way and figure that gobbling you up is the best way to get some peace and quiet around here.”

“Hmph.” Rarity pouted her most pathetic, begging for some dashing knight to come to her rescue pout. “I think we've all demonstrated an admirable talent for avoiding bodily harm. This dirt, though, and the smell! I don’t think there’s enough shampoo in the whole of New Unicornia to undo the damage I’m doing to my poor, abused coat and mane. And my last hooficure is already ruined beyond hope of repair. I knew saving this land would mean enduring suffering and overcoming trials, but surely there is not a pony foul enough to wish this kind of torment on even their vilest, worst, most hated foe.”

“Um, yeah, whatever.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes conspicuously enough that Twilight had no trouble seeing it from the front of the line. “From those of us who've had exactly zero hooficures our entire life, and who spend most of our days in smelly, sweaty armor I think you’ll live.”

“You've never had a hooficure?” Rarity grabbed Rainbow Dash by the face in a time Pinkie Pie must have been proud of despite the backpack she was carrying. “Oh you poor, suffering mare. Have any of you ever had even the simple pleasure of the most basic of spa treatments?”

“I don’t think hooficures and deep coat treatments are standard issue for pegasus guards.” Twilight said. “And I don’t remember ever seeing a spa anywhere in Dirtville. Hay, I only went with you when you threatened to have Spitfire and Soarin literally drag me.”

“No? Spa?” For a moment Twilight feared that Rarity might actually swoon.

“I was a little busy trying to find enough food to keep my family alive.” Applejack pointed with considerably less malice than she would have put into the point a week ago.

“I don’t know about these ‘spa’ places.” Pinkie Pie said with an overly thoughtful hoof under her mouth. “Sounds like a lot of sitting and laying around. Just think how much partying you could get done in all that time. And I don’t think that confetti and a mud mask would go well together.”

“Darlings,” Rarity pronounced in her most imperious manner, “when we return victorious and chase Sombra to the farthest reaches of the world we are going to celebrate with a day-long exhaustive treatment at the spa. I’ll see no corners cut, no steps skipped, we will all come out of there with absolutely flawless coats and hooves. I’ll even make sure they style some of those crow’s nests you call manes.”

“Hey!” Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack shouted simultaneously.

Twilight probably never would have noticed the nearly invisible game trail if she hadn't been turning her head back from glaring at Rarity. Their path through the Everfree Forest was shaping up to be three sides of a square as they tried to circumvent the swampy lowlands infested with Hydras and Timberwolves. The local wildlife, however, seemed to have a relatively safe way through those lowlands.

“Girls, come look at this.” Twilight waved a hoof for the others to catch up to her. “I think there might be a shortcut through those lowlands we wanted to avoid.”

“You sure about that sugarcube?” Applejack trotted up to her. “Might just be a trail to a cave, or a rock to sleep under, or something like that.”

“Looks like it goes pretty far back.” Rainbow Dash quickly flew above the treetops. “Darn, can’t see how far it goes. But we've still got an awful lot of forest to walk through if we don’t find a quicker way through.”

“Girls,” Twilight pitched her voice so the still approaching Rarity couldn't hear her. “If this cuts even an hour off our trip it’s an hour that Sombra doesn't have in charge, and it’s an an hour we don’t have to listen to her screaming about her hair, or her hooves, or how heavy her backpack is, or whatever bug just dropped into her path now.”

“Let’s do this!” Pinkie Pie darted off down the game trail before disappearing and coming right back. “Come on you slowpokes, what are you waiting for?”

“I sure hope you’re right.” Applejack watched as Pinkie Pie bounced down the trail in a carefree manner. “I really don’t wanna spend a day walking down this trail, and then have to spend a day coming back. We've been in this darn forest for a week now and I’m ready to be out.”

“I hope I’m right too.” Twilight started down the game trail. “But that’s a week of civil war and Sombra doing his level best to exterminate earth ponies like you. I’d say that if there’s a time to start taking chances with what we’re doing, this would be it.”

Twilight quickly returned to the front of the line. The dim light filtering through the canopy of newly sprouted greenery required a lit horn to assure safe passage.

After about an hour of walking Twilight started to feel confident that she’d stumbled upon a genuine shortcut and not simply a path to an animal’s den. It was an easy walk too, the ground gradually sloped down as they made their way into the swamps at the bottom of the Everfree Forest. If nothing else the smell would have told her. The scent of brackish water wafted on a deceptively gentle breeze and overpowered the sweet smells of spring.

“I don’t know about you,” Twilight said with a remarkably jaunty spring in her step, “but I’m starting to think this really is a quicker way through the Everfree Forest. Cutting through the swamps rather than going around them could cut days off our journey. I bet Sombra would gnash his teeth if he knew we were pulling a stunt like this.”

Twilight looked back with a genuine smile on her face. Rainbow Dash, just behind her, opened her mouth before an odd look crossed her face. Twilight was just about to ask her if something was wrong when Rainbow Dash burst forth.

“Oh goody for you! Let’s all get down on our bellies and grovel that our perfect, glorious unicorn masters have come through for us again. I mean really, you have eyes that work, I bet no pony in history has ever equaled a feat like that.”

Twilight was shocked to say the least. What had come over Rainbow Dash? Just an hour earlier she’d been gung-ho to dive into the swamps if it meant saving some time. Just as she opened her mouth, Twilight started to feel angry with Rainbow Dash. There was no logical reason for it, but a burning rage like she’d never felt before started to burn.

“That’s right you should be grovelling. You’re a guard, you’re supposed to be looking all around you at all times. Way to do your job there. Of course you’re what I pretty much literally scraped off the dirtiest floor in all Platinum city, so I don’t know why I ever expected anything in the first place from a blowhard and a pegasus who wants to make cute faces at squirrels all day.”

“Now girls,” Pinkie Pie hopped up to them with an alarmed look on her face, “that’s no way to… Fight! It’s about time you pegasususususes and unicorns got a taste of what you've been doing to us. I hope those mean old Wendigos come back and bury you under a million gajillion feet of snow.”

“Treason!” Rarity shouted in her shrillest voice, that for some reason failed to annoy Twilight nearly as much as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie did by merely not being unicorns. “I knew you lesser ponies would band together against the master race some day, I've known it all along. I bet you've all been planning this with Sombra from day one. Drive Twilight and I out to this desolate, filthy place and then leave our bodies for the wild animals.”

“Us, work with those dirt eaters?” Fluttershy flew up to Rarity with a scowl on her face. “I bet you’re the one working with Sombra. Take a nice vacation while he does the dirty work for you. Well ha, ha, I’m on to you now. Princess Platinum might have suckered us, but pegasi are smarter these days. The only pony I’m going to trust is another pegasus. The rest of you are drooling idiots and soulless schemers.”

“Big words coming from a pony who’s scared of her own shadow.” Twilight spat into Fluttershy’s face. “Are you sure those weren't too big for that laughing pink moron over there?”

“Moron?” Pinkie Pie screeched, her mane visibly deflating. “Oh, I get it now, you’re both using your freaky powers to do all this. Maybe we’ll just keep all the food to ourselves this time. Let’s see how good your tummies think your backbones taste. You can ask an awful lot of earth ponies about that!”

Rainbow Dash flew up to Pinkie Pie with a dangerous look on her face. “Well if you dumb, inbred earth ponies would just do what you’re told instead of making us pegasi remind you over and over again why you earth ponies lost, maybe there would be enough food for you. But that’ll never happen, earth ponies are numbskulls!”

“Oh look at you, all ready to to use violence at the drop of a hat.” Rarity put the full force of her royal scorn in her voice. “Unicorns are far too graceful and intelligent to ever stoop to such a level, and that’s why it was us who came out on top. I should expect nothing less from you, however, pegasi are brutes.”

“At least an earth pony wouldn't marry their brother just to keep the name in the family.” Pinkie Pie sneered at Twilight. “I saw how you were looking at your brother. Happy to be back in Ponyville, huh? I bet you were happy to get back in his bed. Gonna find a way to marry your little sister Princess? Just what you’d expect, unicorns are snobs.”

“Girls, this ain't right.” Each word from the previously silent Applejack was a distinct effort. “This ain't us. We beat Sombra’s ponies by working together, all three tribes, so what’s going on here?”

“I’ll tell you what’s happening.” Twilight knew on some level that what Applejack was saying made sense, but the anger she couldn't explain simply rolled over it. “We’re finally finding out who our real friends are. Unicorns built New Unicornia in spite of what you other ponies did. It was a mistake to ever think that pegasi and earth ponies could amount to anything, but it’s a mistake we’re going to fix.”

“No!” Applejack seemed to gain confidence as she went on. “It wasn't pretty, but all three tribes built this country. And it’s gonna take all three tribes to save it. Rarity saved my life, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy have been having a great time making the ponies around Ponyville happy, and I can see how proud you are that Rainbow Dash is doing as much as Rarity’s old guards all by herself. Weren't we gonna try to all be friends so we could use that fancy spell of yours?”

“It’s… That’s…” Fluttershy grit her teeth as though she were in pain. “I’m so angry at everyone except Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight struggled through a red haze of anger to send out her magical senses. It was easy enough to filter out the unnatural background haze of the Everfree Forest. All around them, though, Twilight could feel some sort of magic at work. It was familiar, she’d seen it somewhere before, but she couldn't quite place it.

“Rarity.” Twilight suddenly started to feel anger for her friend. But willpower and a reluctance to get angry at her long time friend kept her moving forward. “I need to use your magic.”

It was easy to grab Rarity’s magic, almost as easy as it was to grab her own. Twilight wasn't sure what specific spell was being used on them, so she simply cast the most powerful generic counterspell she could manage. With the full force of her own magic, and Rarity’s added magic, the spell was powerful enough to physically rustle the budding leaves around them.

“Are, are you alright?” Applejack cautiously walked towards them.

“Think so,” Rainbow Dash softly said. “What happened to us?”

“It was a spell,” Twilight said. “Sombra put some sort of trap here. I couldn't feel it while I was under its effects, but now it’s so obvious I can’t believe we walked into it. How did you manage to think through that Applejack?”

“I don’t rightly know.” Applejack shrugged her shoulders. “I think it might’ve been that y’all started acting all funny before I walked into it because I was so far back. But I just knew that what you were sayin wasn't right, that y’all didn’t really mean any of it after what we've been through. Took me long enough, but I finally said something.”

“You said quite something.” Rarity kept rubbing at her head. “I can’t believe we said all those horrible lies about each other, I’m so sorry girls. Do you think this was all a trap? Did Sombra try to lead us down this path into this spells?”

“No,” Twilight shook her head. “I’m more convinced than ever that this is a genuine shortcut. We were lucky to find it in the first place. And if I were Sombra, and I were laying traps to keep any ponies like us from making it to the Wendigo’s cave and sealing them up I’d be putting them on the paths that would get us there fastest. If he can slow us down enough, Sombra will kill enough earth ponies to make the seal fail entirely, and there’s nothing we can do after that except freeze.”

“Well let’s get going then.” Applejack started walking down the path again. “We lost enough time to that trap.”

“Moved into our new house.” Lyra looked over their cots and meager belongings with a nod of satisfaction. “And ahead of everyone else, now we can say that we’re ready for our guests.”

“I don’t know why you sound so impressed.” Bon Bon gestured to the other ponies setting up their own little spaces throughout the great tree. “We had a head start, and it’s not like we have much to move anyways. We wouldn't have anything if it wasn't for the ponies here in Ponyville.”

“Well when you put it like that.” Lyra pouted. “It might not be much, but it’s all ours. And as long as we have guests I want to make the best impression on them that I can. Besides, in a few weeks Pinkie Pie and the others will come back, they’ll have ended the winters, and we can go back to Platinum City and get all our stuff. That basement looks perfect for a room to store all my work on humans and other creatures that ponies don’t want to admit exist.”

“I think it’s going to be mostly your stuff.” Bon Bon’s smile masked a steely inner determination to make sure that certain objects of Lyra’s relating to her more outlandish beliefs suffered terminal misfortune on the trip to Ponyville. “If the ponies in Dirtville haven’t already ransacked my place, it’s only because Sombra has burned down, cleaned out, or looted that whole district.”

“That’s not right,” Lyra grumbled, all fantasies of mythical creatures forgotten. “Just because you’re an earth pony doesn't give Sombra, or anyone else for that matter, the right to just come and take your stuff because they feel like it.”

“Lyra.” Bon Bon put a hoof to her mouth before she could work herself up any further. “I've got a roof over my head, I know where my next meal’s coming from, I know it’ll be enough, and I’m safe. Compared to an awful lot of earth ponies all over New Unicornia I’m living it up. Besides, it’s just stuff, and most of it would have stayed behind anyways. We can only bring so much with us, and face it, your stuff is better. So I’m just going to think that some earth pony who needs it is using whatever I left behind. Now, let’s get out of here and see some more of Ponyville.”

“Okay,” Lyra grabbed their scarves. Spring could be plenty warm while the sun was up, but once the unicorns replaced it with the moon it could still get downright cold.

“Hey, Berry Punch.” Lyra spoke to the purple earth pony sitting by the door enjoying a drink. “We’re going out if anyone wants to know where we are.”

Berry Punch waved at them with her free hoof. Lyra and Bon Bon walked out into the darkening streets of Ponyville. They pulled their scarves tight about them after a few steps, it was cold enough with the sun going down to see their breath.

“Want to go talk to the ponies waiting for Twilight Sparkle and the others to come back from the Everfree Forest?” Lyra asked.

“Maybe in a week or two,” Bon Bon said, “they just left at lunch-time today. If they’re coming back this early I think we’re in trouble. Let’s walk around and see some more of the restaurants and cafes. I want to see if we can find a niche that no one has taken yet.”

“All business all the time.” Lyra laughed. “But sure, maybe we’ll meet some other musicians around town. It’ll get boring pretty quick if I’m the only act you ever have.”

They started walking down the street. Just as they were about to turn their first corner, the library turned home exploded in a fireball behind them. Lyra and Bon Bon watched with disgusted fascination as a branch seemed to rise and float on a growing spurt of flame. As it came down, Lyra grabbed Bon Bon and yanked her forcefully from where the branch came down with a crash.

Bon Bon looked over at Lyra in abject horror. Before she could ask what was going on, a voice shouted the answer, “kill them all! Burn the whole village! Let King Sombra’s enemies know what happens to race traitors and filthy sub-pony scum!”

“We have to run!” Lyra started dragging the still stunned Bon Bon away from the burning remains of their home, now the funeral pyre of some forty ponies who had been living there with them. “Remember what Twilight Sparkle said, we’re public enemy number one to Sombra.”

Bon Bon snapped back to her senses as a tan unicorn with a fiery red and yellow mane stepped into the flickering light created by the burning library. They ducked around a corner as the unicorn was joined by a larger group of unicorn ponies.

“Lady Shimmer,” one of the unicorns said, “the ponies King Sombra most wanted dead should be in that building you just destroyed. What are your orders now?”

“Didn't you hear a word I said?” Lyra and Bon Bon watched as ‘Lady Shimmer’ turned on her hapless subordinate in fury. “I don’t want to leave a single survivor of this miscegenated village. Unicorns soiling their blood with filthy earth ponies is a crime punishable by worse than death as far as I’m concerned. Take only the Princess or her Court Sorceress alive, King Sombra wants to kill them himself.”

“We need to get to the castle.” Bon Bon started pulling Lyra away from the building they were hiding behind. “If anywhere in Ponyville is going to be safe, it’ll be the castle.”

They started running through the streets, only to discover that the attack on their home hadn't been the only strike in Ponyville. As they tried to make their way past a burning building that resembled nothing so much as a gingerbread house they were spotted. Before the unicorn could shout their location, however, a cello swung out of the shadows and right into his face.

A dark grey earth pony with purple eyes and a treble clef for a cutie mark walked out of the shadows holding the mangled remains of her cello.

“Not exactly the way I’d planned to spend my night,” the grey earth pony said, “and not that I regret saving you, but you wouldn't happen to know any ponies who could repair this if we live through tonight?”

“Hi, Lyra.” Lyra raised a hoof in greeting to their saviour. “I was kind of leaving the industry, but if we live through this, I’ll build you a cello so beautiful it will make Celestia and Luna cry when you play on it.”

“Oh, where are my manners?” The grey earth pony said with a start. “I’m Octavia, a cellist by trade, though I seem to have just taken an impromptu leave. I assume you’re trying to get to the castle?”

“Bon Bon,” Bon Bon pointed to herself in a hurried greeting. “And yes, we figured that would be the safest place to be. We certainly wouldn't turn down the company if you’re running in the same direction.”

“Charmed,” Octavia wryly said as she started running down the street.

A few blocks further they were brought to a halt as a bright light flashed out of a side-street. A unicorn in armor that seemed to mark their attackers stumbled out into the street rubbing his eyes. He was followed by a white unicorn with a striped neon blue mane wearing some sort of sunglasses who used his distraction to turn and buck the attacking unicorn in the face.

As he crumpled to the ground, the white unicorn turned and saw them. “Tavi!”

“It’s Octavia, Vinyl, my name is Octavia.” Octavia visibly rolled her eyes at the unicorn apparently named Vinyl.

“Lyra, Bon Bon, meet Vinyl Scratch.” Octavia said as they walked up to the unicorn. “She’s a composer who dabbles in what I can only call music in the loosest possible term.”

“Come on Tavi,” Bon Bon noted that Vinyl Scratch had an almost Lyra like ability to selectively ignore things she heard. “You know you’re glad to see me. Who would make your life fun if I weren't around?”

Bon Bon looked back and forth between Octavia and Vinyl, it was like watching some strange mirror version of her and Lyra. Maybe Octavia had some tips on how to deal with a crazy unicorn, at least she could be someone who finally understood what Bon Bon went through.

Vinyl’s attack, however, seemed to have drawn some unwanted attention. The four of them shortly found themselves running more or less at random, pursued by twice their number of unicorns who seemed to have no problems with causing wanton destruction as they gave chase.

Bon Bon didn’t know how Vinyl saw anything at night through her sunglasses, but she was the one to see a brown earth pony stallion standing at the door to what looked like a watch shop waving them in. Bon Bon recognized him as the pony she and Lyra had spoken to that morning.

“Come on, run!” He shouted at them in an accent Bon Bon couldn't quite place as they go closer. As they darted through the door, he stepped out and waved at the unicorns giving chase. “Oy, you louts, come and get me!”

“Are you crazy!” Bon Bon shouted as he ducked back in the store with a manic grin on his face that made Lyra look like a rank amateur. “They’re going to come in here and kill us all!”

“Just watch this.” He said with such confidence that Bon Bon actually found herself feeling like everything would turn out just fine in the end. “Oh, and hold your breath.”

Seized by that same inexplicable force, Bon Bon didn’t question but filled her lungs with air just in time for the unicorns to come bursting through the door. The brown earth pony smiled and pulled a rope that led to pulleys Bon Bon hadn’t seen. Those pulleys opened a bag that dropped what looked to be a mixture of pepper, chilies, and all other manner of spices guaranteed to make a pony miserable if they came in contact with their nose or eyes.

Even from across the room, Bon Bon could feel her eyes start to water. She could only imagine what those unicorns were feeling like with a face and lung-full of the stuff.

“Come on now,” the brown earth pony said, “let’s get them all tied up and make sure they can’t use their magic. And no killing. I’m sure we'll want to talk to some prisoners after all this is over, and we've got some volunteers right here.”

They managed to tie up the unicorns, and Lyra and Vinyl cast spells that would keep them from using their magic for at least a few hours.

“Well that was exciting.” The brown earth pony gave a knot one last pull before turning to Lyra and Bon Bon. “Oooh, it’s you two. The whole town is talking about you two, got all those ponies here on your own. I can see why, quite the show you put on getting here. Say, want to go down to my basement and see my big blue box?”

Bon Bon was struggling with how to respond to that when the brown earth pony received a smack to the back of his head from Octavia.

“Honestly,” Octavia said. “Lyra, Bon Bon, this is Doctor Whooves, we just call him Doctor. He has a terrible habit of saying something the wrong way and putting his hoof in his mouth. He really does have a big blue box down in his basement, though, it’s quite impressive, but this is not the time to be talking about tours.”

“Right, sorry about that.” The Doctor straightened his tie. “Anyways, off we go to the castle. Come on now, allons-y!”

They followed the Doctor back out into the streets. It looked like the whole of Ponyville was under attack from the number of fires Bon Bon could count. Explosions and screams echoing through the town hammered home that their attackers really didn’t mean to take any prisoners.

They turned a corner just in time to see an armored unicorn laugh as he slit a white and brown spotted colt’s throat. The unicorn turned towards them with a grin full of malicious glee just as a bang resounded from the bell tower of the schoolhouse they’d stopped in front of. The unicorn’s grin turned into a horrified scream as the bell tower came loose and fell on him with a very final thud.

“Oops, sorry.” A grey pegasus with a blonde mane stumbled to the top of the roof. “I just don’t know what went wrong.”

“Derpy.” The Doctor called out to the pegasus. “Glad to see you’re alive, I don’t know who we could count on to deliver our mail if anything happened to you.”

“Hey everyone!” The pegasus apparently named Derpy flew over to them.

Bon Bon wasn’t sure if her erratic flight was the result of her having just crashed into that bell tower, or if it was the result of a very obvious lazy eye. Bon Bon had no intention of asking, Derpy had just saved their lives, and it would have been terrible manners to ask about such a thing anyways.

“Don’t worry about him Miss Hooves.” The Doctor pointed at the tangled mess the bell tower had left when it hit the ground. “If you hadn't come along I promise you he'd beg for this end long before I was done with him. Cutting a life short like that...”

Watching the Doctor speak, Bon Bon had the sudden feeling that she was standing in front of someone impossibly dangerous, someone she didn’t want to anger if she lived to be a hundred and fifty.

They took off from the schoolhouse towards the inner town. The gates had been blown off their hinges, not that they would have done much good even if they’d been shut. The six ponies made their way across a plaza filled with dead ponies, both ponyville locals and their attackers. At the other end of the plaza was a burning wagon and a blue unicorn with a platinum mane trying in vain to quell the flames. The blue unicorn was running back to the fountain at the center of the plaza when her wagon exploded in what appeared to be an unplanned fireworks show. The blue unicorn was blown to the ground by the explosion and didn’t rise.

It would slow them down, but they all took off towards the downed pony without complaint. If they could save a single life, it would be one more pony that Sombra couldn't kill. As they got near enough to the unicorn to see a crescent moon and wand cutie mark Bon Bon could see her sides continuing to rise and fall slowly.

“She should be fine if we can get her back to the castle,” Bon Bon said. “I bet there are a lot of ponies with bruises and broken bones who will be fine after a few weeks of rest.”

“Well I wouldn't bet on that.” The fire from the burning wagon suddenly leapt out into a ring around the six of them and their unconscious cargo. Bon Bon gasped as she saw the tan unicorn from earlier walk through a part in the flames. “I’m actually glad you two survived that tree exploding. I told King Sombra that I’d enjoy this job, and getting to kill you two myself means I’m definitely going to have a good night.”

“Sunset Shimmer.” Bon Bon looked over her shoulder to see Shining Armor walk through the flames surrounded by a magenta shield. “Why am I not surprised to see you working for a monster like Sombra?”

“Shining Armor,” Sunset Shimmer scowled. “I see the ponies I sent to take care of you were miserable failures. You always were the talented one back at the Clover the Clever Academy. Well don't let it be said that I don't know when to cut my losses. Oh well, when King Sombra ascends to Godhood you’re all dead anyways. Maybe he'll let me kill a few of you if I ask nicely.”

A huge column of flame shot up around Sunset Shimmer. When it disappeared she was nowhere to be seen. Even without magic, Bon Bon didn’t think for a second that she had somehow perished.

“Are you all alright?” Shining Armor trotted up to them all the while casting wary glances about.

“I think so,” Bon Bon said, and then pointed at the pony laying on the ground. “She needs to be looked at though. She was right by that wagon when it exploded, I think it was packed full of fireworks.”

“Alright,” Shining Armor said, “follow me. I think I recognize her, she’s a travelling show-pony who came into town a few days ago to put on her show. Anyways, you two are clearly targets, so I think it’s best if you stay in the castle from now on. My little sister would kill me if I let something happen to you after all you've done.”

“That’s okay,” Bon Bon sighed. “After all, we’re homeless… again.”

After so long in the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle wasn't in much of a mood for celebration. Seeing the end of the forest and the start of the mountains, however, made her want to pump a hoof in the air. She would have, except that would have unbalanced her with her backpack and Twilight didn’t feel like having to right herself.

“Everyone’s packs full of food?” Rainbow Dash with her training as a guard had become their reminder of all things necessary for outdoor survival. “I don’t think we’re going to be coming across anything edible up there.”

‘Up there’ was the very tall, very foreboding mountain rage they had to venture into to find where Clover the Clever had sealed the Wendigos. Down at the edge of the Everfree Forest the snow had mostly melted and been replaced by madly growing plants in a hurry to flower and pollinate before the fall freezes started in a few weeks. Even the lowest peaks, however, were still gleaming white with snow that never melted.

“Twilight,” Rarity said, “how’s it coming with Clover the Clever’s spell? Are you going to be ready in time?”

“I sure hope so.” Twilight patted the pocket on her backpack containing the journal and her own copious notes. “After Clover finished writing she must have used the rest of that journal to plan out how she would pull this off. There’s a lot more to it than I originally thought, but I’m making good progress. If we find the cave and I’m not ready yet, I’m confident we’ll be carrying enough food for me to work out the last little bits. Unless anyone else needs to do anything down here, I say we get going. Every minute we stand around means who knows how many more ponies Sombra gets to kill.”

They started trudging up into the foothills after pausing only to put on their boots. Looking up into the mountains, Twilight guessed they would need their coats after the sun went down, and likely during the day after that as they went higher and higher.

After several hours of walking they paused for lunch. A rather unfilling lunch at that, but they’d all agreed that without knowing how long they might be in the mountains they would have to plan for the worst.

“I think we’re gonna need to take a detour. I don’t much like the looks of that snow.” Applejack pointed to a mountainside with a deep trough at the top of a slope. “That snow’s just waitin to come down that mountain, and I don’t fancy being in its path when it does.”

Avalanches were a common enough occurrence around Platinum City that even an uneducated earth pony like Applejack had learned what to look out for and what to do if snow did start moving. They all wanted to go as fast as they could, but treading into an avalanche field was suicide. They would lose time going up and around it, but dying would take more time than a detour.

“Oh I really don’t like the sound of this.” Fluttershy spoke quietly, even for her, as they ascended. Far too close for comfort, they could all hear the snow cracking and shifting. Even if they were theoretically far away enough to be safe it it collapsed, the sound of snow making ready for an avalanche sent shivers up all their spines.

When it did happen, with a mighty roar, even Rainbow Dash let her fear be known to the world. The snow rumbled and boiled down the mountain past them, and only Twilight’s hastily erected shield kept them from being turned white by the roiling powder that swept over where they were standing.

“Well,” Rarity nervously laughed as the last roaring died down, “that was fun. Let’s never do it again, shall we?”

Before the others could reply, another long roar echoed through the mountains.

“The shock from one avalanche can trigger others,” Twilight said. “Nothing to worry about as long as we’re careful.”

The next roar sounded nothing like an avalanche.

“Wh-wh-what if it’s not an avalanche!” Pinkie Pie’s eyes were as big as saucers as she pointed up the mountain.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight looked where Pinkie Pie was pointing. “Oh dear.”

‘Oh dear’ meant an Ursa Major. An angry Ursa Major at that. An angry Ursa Major who seemed to be directing its anger at the six ponies who must have been nothing more than specks to a creature so large.

“Run?” Applejack backed up nervously.

“Where?” Rarity provided a rhetorical answer to a rhetorical question. “That thing could stretch from where it is and catch us.”

“Only one thing to do then!” Rainbow Dash shuffled off her backpack and unsheathed her two curved swords.

“Wait.” Twilight thought she heard Fluttershy mumble something as Rainbow Dash leapt into the air towards the Ursa Major.

Rainbow Dash turned into a rainbow streak as she flew towards the Ursa’s leg. Twilight couldn't see that Rainbow Dash’s attack did any damage, and when she returned Rainbow Dash said as much.

“I don’t think I even gave it a haircut. We've got to find some sort of weak point if we’re even going to drive it off, let alone beat it.”

“Rarity,” Twilight said, “let me use your magic. I’m going to try to hit it with everything I can in a weak spot. Everyone else, look away, this is going to be bright.”

“Wait.” Twilight thought she heard Fluttershy mumble again as her horn began to glow in tandem with Rarity’s.

The beam of light that erupted from her horn would have vaporized any pony that dared to get in its way. It melted the snow beneath it as it passed, unsurprisingly as it would have melted stone just as easily. Twilight could hear the others exclaim how bright it was even behind their closed eyes. Twilight’s beam of magical destruction hit the Ursa Major right in its exposed eye. From the way it rubbed at its eye after the attack ceased, Twilight's all out attack may have risen to the level of an eyelash falling into its eye.

“Well don’t look at us.” Applejack pointed to herself and Pinkie Pie. “We don’t have anything that fancy, and even if we did, we’d have to run up to it. That varmint would squish us flat.”

“Charge?” Twilight shrugged off her own backpack. “If we’re going to die, I’d at least like to die on my hooves. Even if Sombra will never know.”

They all lined up, just as they were about to start running Fluttershy jumped in front of them. “Wait!”

“Fluttershy, what are you doing?” Twilight shouted as Fluttershy flew up towards the Ursa Major.

The Ursa’s growl made all of the ponies on the ground close their eyes so as not to have to see what horrors Fluttershy was suffering. Twilight opened an eye to see a yellow speck floating right up by the Ursa’s face. Suddenly, the great purple monstrosity moved its head in what almost seemed to be a nuzzling motion. Then, against all odds, the Ursa Major simply walked off.

Fluttershy drifted back down with a beatific smile on her face. “That Ursa wasn’t mad at us. It was missing its baby, and it was scared that we’d done something to it. Those troughs in the snow were actually tracks, so I simply pointed it on its way. If we’re just willing to show kindness, there isn’t much of anything in the world that we have to be scared of.”

Twilight’s jaw wasn’t the only one futilely working as they shouldered their backpacks again and set off after a smiling Fluttershy.

The Price of Failure

View Online

Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: If I owned My Little Pony, do you really think I’d be here? No, so I don’t own My Little Pony.

Chapter Eleven: The Price of Failure

Twilight Sparkle flipped back and forth between pages of Clover’s journal. It wasn't, it couldn't be, no way no how. Yet, there seemed to be no other explanation, Starswirl the Bearded had recorded the last entry in the journal.

In a way it made sense. The details of Clover’s and Princess Platinum’s assassinations had always been murky. That in turn had given rise to any number of conspiracy theories about who had done it and why. Twilight was actually somewhat surprised, not at all unpleasantly, though, that Lyra hadn't expounded at length her opinions during their lengthy trip to Ponyville.

Sadly, even Starswirl himself didn’t seem to be sure exactly who had been behind what. The only details he’d uncovered that Twilight didn't recall from her history books had been the knowledge that the assassins themselves had merely been hired hit-ponies.

Twilight couldn't help wondering if that was due to a good cover-up by the ponies behind it, or if it was simply Starswirl being old. She couldn't be exactly sure, but if he’d still been alive when his student was assassinated, Starswirl would have been giving Granny Smith a run for her money in the longevity department.

Old or not, if his journal was to be believed Starswirl the Bearded had gone on quite the rampage upon learning that Clover the Clever had been assassinated. Twilight dearly wanted to find a history book and start trying to corroborate Starswirl’s story, but that wasn't the most important thing he’d left. Clover the Clever had gotten through the vast majority of her spell in her notes, but the last little bit hadn't been written. Twilight had in the process of trying to fill in that gap come to the rather obvious conclusion that climbing a mountain wasn't the ideal time to complete the most complex spell ever conceived. Starswirl the Bearded, if he really was to be believed, had filled in the last pieces of the puzzle.

Twilight wasn't the only one with doubts.

“I don’t know,” Applejack shook her head, “all this fancy mathematics is way over my head. I’m just sayin that it’s mighty convenient that some high fallotin unicorn legend comes along and drops the answer to all your problems right in your lap.”

“She’s right,” Rainbow Dash said. “Sombra does this kind of thing all the time. Point some pony he doesn't like in a direction, only for it to be the wrong direction and they wind up dead in one of his traps. It would be the easiest thing in the world for him to have just carried a one where he shouldn't have and bam, we wind up in one of Lyra’s fairy tales while he’s running the place around here.”

“Not that kind of math, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight chuckled, then shook her head. “But no, if Sombra actually had access to Clover’s and Princess Platinum’s journals, he would have just destroyed them. This spell was the result of more than a decade of work by Clover the Clever. Without Clover’s work to show me the way we’d have zero chance to pull this off. Sombra is a lot of things, none of them good, but stupid isn't anywhere on that list. Besides, without Clover’s journal I don’t think I would have ever come up with something as crazy as sealing the Wendigos in the first place.”

“Maybe you should get a second opinion.” Twilight didn’t know where Pinkie Pie had gotten the magnifying glass that she was looking at the journal through. “Bon Bon always got a second opinion about a lot of stuff I said, and it worked out alright.”

“Sorry darlings,” Rarity apologized, “but I’m the only one here besides Twilight with any magical training whatsoever. And just looking at Clover’s notes about the mere concept of this spell had me remembering things from school that I’d thought long since forgotten. The spell itself might as well be in High Zebra for all I can understand.”

“I can understand it.” Twilight pulled the sizable ream of paper on which she’d checked Clover’s work by more or less duplicating it. “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I might be the only unicorn alive besides Sombra who can understand this spell. Everything Clover the Clever wrote down has worked, in theory. And what I've read from Starswirl the Bearded’s entry is tracking more or less with what I’d sketched out once I realized that Clover hadn't constructed the whole spell in her journal. Just because he might have been pushing really, really old doesn't mean Starswirl the Bearded was any less smart than he’d always been. Applejack, you’d still trust Granny Smith to figure things out even though she’s pushing really, really old, right?”

“Yeah,” Applejack said after sighing in defeat, “but that ain’t the point here. Twilight, we only get one chance at this, you said so yourself. And it just seems a mite too good to be true that all the answers would be in this here book of yours.”

Twilight sighed. “Clover the Clever triple checked her work, she quadruple checked it. You should see the number of calculations that are scratched out and redone in here. I’m willing to bet that when Starswirl the Bearded added his part he went back over her work, and his own contribution has a number of corrections. And now I’m going over their work with a fine tooth comb and triple checking it all over again. What I’m saying is that a lot of work by a lot of smart ponies has gone into this spell. And if this doesn't work it will either be because it’s impossible, or because I screwed up the casting. It’s not going to fail because there’s a mistake in the theoretical spellwork.”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, Twilight felt a tingle of magic in her horn and the world vanished.

Twilight stumbled, and was rudely shoved by what felt like a tree branch for her trouble. She turned to find out just who’d done something so rude only to tumble to the ground as her hooves tangled in the manacles and chains she’d somehow acquired.

Falling to the ground brought something hard, that tree branch again, into her temple and a very rude shout.

“Get up you worthless filth! No one’s going to shed a tear if I spill your guts here and now, so if you want to keep breathing, get moving!”

Twilight finally got a look at her tormentor. It was a unicorn that she’d never seen in her life, and he was wearing armor so full of villainous cliches that the fashion faux paux probably would have given Rarity a heart attack. She wasn't too far off in thinking that she’d been hit with a tree branch, it was, instead, a wooden spear shaft that had been beating on her.

Then she saw the sky. Twilight had seen any number of roiling storm clouds in her years living in Platinum City, but nothing like this. They were a reddish-gray that no natural storm had ever brought forth, and a look said that there was no waiting rain or snow in those clouds. These were no natural clouds, yet Twilight couldn't see any pegasi working on them, so what was responsible for this?

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by a spearpoint taking up her whole vision. One look at the unicorn made Twilight realize that he wouldn't just kill her, he would enjoy every minute of it. She scrambled back to her hooves, a process not made any easier by being chained, and kept walking towards… somewhere.

As she shuffled ahead, Twilight took the opportunity to once more examine her surroundings. She was in a city, it almost looked like Platinum City, but there was no way that could be the case. All the buildings were made from some sort of black crystal that seemed to dim what little sun made it through the blanket of clouds. And the architecture was all wrong. Platinum City had never been full of buildings that would be termed ‘inviting,’ not in the way Ponyville was, but the buildings in this city were downright oppressive.

None of this was right, Twilight struggled to remember what she’d been doing. Something about a mountain, and other ponies, and… a book. That brought forth a rush of memories, but just as fast as they came they vanished in the gloom of her situation.

Twilight’s first clue that she was nearing her destination was the distant roar of a multitude of ponies cheering. What they might be cheering, she had no clue, but Twilight didn’t think for a moment it would entail anything resembling a reversal of her circumstances.

The sight of a large, razor wire fence brought another surge of memory that struggled in vain to take root, and it brought a sense of outrage that stayed with her as she dragged her hooves along the street. Through the gaps in the wire Twilight could see emaciated hooves sticking through. Whoever the ponies in there were, they were starving and desperate for food.

At last, Twilight stumbled onto a broad avenue that led to a massive coliseum. She could tell in an instant that this was the source of the roaring cheer she’d been hearing. Thinking back to the razor wire fence, Twilight had the sudden sense that she really didn’t want to know what the ponies in that arena were cheering about. A none too gentle poke from the spear, however, made Twilight think that she was going to find out what they were cheering about whether or not she wanted to.

Twilight was led through a small side entrance and through a maze of dark corridors before emerging onto a platform filled with plush cushions. If the crowd had been loud outside the arena, they were almost deafening inside.

Down on the dirt floor, Twilight saw two earth ponies circling each other. They were skinny enough that she wondered how they were standing at all, and by the desperate looks on their faces, Twilight didn’t think she would have much trouble guessing where they’d been plucked from.

Twilight looked towards the cushions to see Blueblood lounging in the center. He was surrounded by a flock of mares that Twilight was quite certain had been paid handsomely to be there, and, more than likely, paid to entertain Blueblood in a more personal manner afterwards. Seeing the white unicorn with that insipid blonde mane brought forth another surge of outrage, and deepened the feeling that something wasn't right here.

“I’m bored,” Blueblood languidly said to a pegasus Twilight only belatedly realized to be Lightning Dust. “Kill them both, I’m sure His Majesty is eager to get on to the main event.”

Lightning Dust barked several orders off the edge of the platform. Twilight couldn't hear what she’d said, but when the pegasi surrounding the arena floor raised their crossbows and loosed into the arena Twilight decided that she had a pretty good guess what Lightning Dust had been shouting.

As the two starved earth ponies dropped in a pool of blood, the crowd let loose a deep cheer that put all their previous efforts to shame. These spectators had come here with a deep bloodlust towards their fellow ponies, and seeing it satisfied was pulling at their darkest heartstrings.

The sound of approaching hooves made Twilight turn as much as her restraints would allow, which wasn't much.

“Hi, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie was somehow managing to bounce along, despite being chained like Twilight. Behind Pinkie Pie, Twilight could see her other friends being forced along as well. “Isn't this just the silliest thing you've ever seen?”

“Silly?” Twilight looked back to the arena floor to see armored ponies forcing yet more starved, abused earth ponies into the open. “What on earth could be silly about this?”

“Um, try everything.” Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes as the unicorns down on the arena floor began to channel magic. “I mean come on, we were just on that mountain, and no way meanie pants Sombra could build something like this in a few weeks. He’s totally just messing with us, like that time in the swamps!”

Twilight struggled to hold on to the flood of memories that brought forth. She could see looks of intense concentration on the other’s faces as well. Clearly Pinkie’s words were striking a chord with them too.

“And seriously,” Pinkie Pie snorted in laughter, “have you seen this place? It’s like everything you ever read in a bad horror story. Not that I ever learned to read much. Lyra and Bon Bon tried, but inventory reports and delivery orders aren't very good teaching materials. Oh, I’m going off topic! Girls, we’re still totally back on that mountain, and we’re probably getting all chilly willy if we aren't climbing. So the faster you realize how silly all this is, the faster we can get going again.”

Terrified screams of pain weren't exactly on Twilight’s list of funny things. Pinkie Pie, however, found them the most hilarious thing in the world, or, at least, in this world. As Twilight looked at the earth ponies writhing in their death agony on the floor, and listened to the terrible baying of the crowd, it occurred to her that Pinkie Pie was right. She had such a large blank in her memories between the last she could remember and being here that there was no way it could be real.

It still felt wrong to giggle in such depressing surroundings, but once she started, Twilight found it to be quite infectious. The final nail in the coffin was her surly escort completely ignoring the six ponies rolling on the floor in laughter so hard it was nearly painful. The world dissolved once more into white as Twilight let loose a deep belly laugh.

Finally, a full week after Sunset Shimmer had tried to destroy the town, Lyra could look out the castle window without seeing smoke rising from the ruins of the town. Sunset Shimmer hadn't succeeded at killing Lyra or Bon Bon, or destroying Ponyville for that matter. But she’d come dangerously close to completing both goals.

Most of the damage had been in the outer part of Ponyville where the majority of earth ponies made their homes. Part of that was because it was the first part of Ponyville that Sunset Shimmer and her minions had reached. And part of it was because Sunset Shimmer and her minions were proud to do their part in the noble quest of exterminating the foul, less than pony earth ponies. At least the ponies they’d captured in the Doctor’s shop had smugly bragged about their activities to that effect.

And they’d proudly boasted of their desire to kill Lyra and Bon Bon for their ‘unnatural and traitorous relationship.’ Lyra wished she could say that last part didn’t bother her. She was plenty used to holding unpopular opinions that got her laughed at, but no one had ever tried to kill her because she believed in hairless apes called humans. She’d always known that precious little good could ever come from anyone finding out about her and Bon Bon, but never in her wildest nightmares had Lyra thought that she and Bon Bon would wind up at the center of a civil war that threatened the extinction of pony-kind.

“Looking to see if Pinkie Pie and the others are back?” Lyra hadn't heard Bon Bon come up behind her. “They only left a week ago. If they’re lucky they’re just nearing the far edge of the Everfree Forest.”

“No,” Lyra shook her head and moved away from the window. “I was just thinking that you can’t see smoke from the ruins anymore. Now I guess they can get started with pulling all the bodies out and finally counting the dead.”

“Four hundred,” they both turned to see Shining Armor poking his head in through the door. “I’m not sure we’ll ever get an exact count. Some ponies were simply vaporized, and others are so smashed up by the wreckage that I don’t think we’ll ever get them out. But our best guess is that Sunset Shimmer and her attackers managed to kill about four hundred ponies. The biggest death toll was from the old library, and most of the rest came in the first few minutes of the attack before the locals started to fight back.”

“Four hundred ponies?” Lyra whispered. “Four hundred ponies dead because of us?”

“Not because of you,” Shining Armor said. “Sunset Shimmer would have made a place like the library a target just because there were so many ponies there, getting you two was just a bonus for her. It’s the same with all the other ponies she killed. She hates earth ponies, and she hates this town for taking them in. Now come on, they’re serving lunch.”

Lyra and Bon Bon followed with their heads held low. They’d both been shaken for the last week with the knowledge of just how passionately Sombra wanted them dead. Finding out how many ponies he was willing to kill in his pursuit of them hardly improved matters.

“Okay, stop.” Shining Armor put out a hoof to stop them at the door to the hall where lunch was being served. “I can’t take you two being all mopey for one more minute, and neither can your friends. You see that filly over there?” He pointed to an orange pegasus with a purple mane. “Her name’s Scootaloo. She was born with a rare magical defect that means she’ll never fly, and both of her parents were killed in the attack while they were trying to get other ponies to safety. I get it that you've had a rough couple of weeks, but Scootaloo has had it a lot tougher. You've got friends who are willing to be there if you’ll let them, and there are a lot of scared earth ponies who need your help.”

Shining Armor let his point speak for itself as he trotted into the lunch hall without saying another word. Lyra and Bon Bon looked at each other and sighed. They’d gotten through plenty of rough spots before, though none quite as rough as this.

“I guess we should get going,” Bon Bon said. “If we hide from too many more meals, Vinyl Scratch is going to tie us up and drag us out.”

Lyra knew just how serious Bon Bon was being, they’d quickly discovered that their new friend had an almost Pinkie Pie like obsession with making other ponies happy. To the surprise of neither of them, Vinyl perked up when they walked in and started animatedly waving them over.

“It’s good to see you two up and about again.” Octavia said. The cellist somehow managed to make her simple meal seem as classy as the fanciest Platinum City parties. “If you’d stayed hidden much longer, I think Vinyl was going to form a search party.”

Lyra looked over to see Bon Bon sporting a barely visible smirk.

“Seriously,” Vinyl said around a mouthful of food, “you two looked sadder than the last time I saw someone drop a muffin in front of Derpy.”

“That muffin never did anything to him!” Derpy clearly had neither forgiven nor forgotten the incident. “Who in their right mind throws away a freshly baked blueberry muffin! I don’t think he ever figured out why his mail went to the wrong address for the next six months.”

“I think what Miss Hooves is trying to say,” the Doctor cleared his throat, “is that we’re all aware you’re having some difficulties, and if you need a friendly shoulder to lean on we are all quite willing and able to provide one.”

“Quite,” Octavia primly agreed, “I think I speak for all of us when we say that we’re here for you.”

“You see?” Lyra didn’t need to look at Bon Bon to see the smug look on her face. “I told you moving to Ponyville would be a good idea.”

Twilight wasn't sure she’d escaped the trap for the first few seconds. The world to which she returned was the same saturated white as her escape from the previous one had been. It was only when the sound of the wind and the piercing chill of the cold hit that she realized she was back in the real world, and in the middle of a blizzard.

How long had they been stuck in Sombra’s trap? Even so close to the Wendigo’s cave as they were, a storm like this would easily take a few hours to brew up and move in. Twilight fumbled around in her coat pockets before pulling out the bone eye protection her brother had given them. If they lived through this she was going to owe him a thanks.

Next on Twilight’s list was to make sure she still had all her limbs firmly attached. Moving her legs produced enough sensation to let her know that while cold, she wasn't suffering from frostbite, yet. Moving her legs, however, nearly caused her backpack to come off as it had loosened while she’d been twitching about under the influence of Sombra’s spell.

“Girls! Anyone!” Twilight shouted as she tightened the straps of her backpack. She’d clearly moved while inside the trap, who knew how far they might have gone in their own personal agonies?

The narrow slit cut through the piece of bone, Twilight very carefully didn’t think about where the bone had come from, let her see in the snow without blinking what felt like twenty times a second or so. However, the narrow slit didn’t allow for her to see all that much, so it was a very real possibility that she might wander right past one of her friends.

Twilight started sending out a number of magical flares instead. With luck, they would go by her friends and allow them to follow the trail of flares back to her. It was only a few minutes before she saw something moving at the edge of her vision. Moments later, all five of her friends emerged into her view. Apparently Twilight had been the one to go awry while in her own personal Tartarus.

“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash struggled to fly towards her in the storm. Twilight noticed that Rainbow Dash was also using Shining Armor’s eye protection. “Thank goodness, we thought you’d rolled off a cliff or something.”

“Sorry.” Twilight smiled under her closed up hood. “I’m not that easy to get rid of. Did everyone else come through okay? We need to find somewhere to hunker down and wait out this storm.”

“More or less.” Rainbow Dash landed awkwardly in the snow. “Applejack lost her coat, though, and Rarity gave her hers. I tried to talk her out of it, but you know how she gets when she’s bound and determined to be generous. Then I tried to give her my coat by explaining that pegasi deal with cold far better than unicorns, but, well… same story. Rarity’s using some sort of magic to not freeze, but I don’t know how long she can keep it up.”

Twilight muttered several curses she’d heard her brother use after Masquerade’s attempt to poison them. “Come on. Let’s get back to them and set up some tents to get out of this freezing wind. Then we can figure out what to do about only having five coats for six ponies.”

Despite being able to see the others the whole way, Twilight and Rainbow Dash still almost got lost several times in the near zero visibility of the storm. Thankfully, someone, Twilight suspected Applejack, had had the good sense to start setting up the tents in a small depression in the snow immediately once they were reunited.

“Twilight, darling, how good to see you.” Rarity chattered through lips starting to turn as blue as the eyes behind her own eye protector. “We were all so worried when we couldn't find you lying near the rest of us.”

Twilight wasted no time casting her own warming charm. Having far more power than Rarity to use, Twilight was able to cast a vastly more potent spell.

“Rarity, what were you thinking?” Twilight practically shoved Rarity into a just completed tent. “Unicorns deal with harsh conditions the worst out of all three tribes! Didn't it ever occur to you that you could keep Applejack warm by keeping warm yourself and casting a much more powerful warming charm. I know you want to be generous and help every needy pony you see, but you have to learn that taking care of yourself will leave you with a lot more to give to other ponies.”

“It all worked out in the end,” Rarity said, still rather distressingly blue. “Tomorrow, or whenever this storm clears, we can take turns casting a warming charm and I’ll be fine. Besides, once we seal up those nasty Wendigos for good, I rather think we’ll hardly need coats at all on the way back to Ponyville.”

Twilight fixed Rarity with her sternest glare. “We’ll take turns casting that warming charm tomorrow, but we’ll be casting it on Rainbow Dash. She’s a pegasus for crying out loud, Rainbow Dash can take the cold weather far better than you could ever hope to. Not to mention that she’s in the guard and she’s trained for this sort of stuff.”

Before Rarity could retort, Pinkie Pie burst into the tent and divested herself of her backpack. “It’s getting pretty nasty out there, and we didn’t feel like setting up a third tent. So if it’s okely dokely with you two, I’m just gonna stay here tonight.”

“Make yourself comfortable,” Twilight said. “Rarity here needs all the warmth she can get, so another pony is just what the doctor ordered. By the way Pinkie Pie, that was amazing getting us out of that spell like you did. We’d probably have frozen to death in this storm if you hadn't been there.”

“Oh it was no big deal.” Pinkie Pie giggled as she shrugged off her coat. “Like I said, it was all so silly in there that I didn’t take it seriously for a second. Besides, even if it was real, I wouldn't want to spend my last minutes crying and being sad. I’d much rather enjoy them and be as happy as I could, especially if I’m with my friends.”

Twilight smiled as she pulled out blankets to wrap Rarity beneath. It had been a long shot that they would become close enough on this trip to actually be able to use Clover’s spell. But maybe, just maybe, they could pull it off.

Twilight woke the next morning to a silence so complete it was almost deafening. She slowly unlatched the tent cover and poked her head out. And immediately shot her head back in with a wince. The storm had blown itself out overnight, and the naked sun on all that snow was unbearably bright.

A second trip outside the tent with eye protection went much better. The clear, cold air gave Twilight an excellent opportunity to figure out exactly where they were, and where they needed to go.

“Hi Twilight.” Twilight almost took flight as Fluttershy snuck up on her. Fluttershy’s proclivity for quiet could sometimes border on an almost terrifying talent for stealth. “Is everyone alright in your tent? I took a few basic first aid courses as a guard, but I’m not very good at it.”

“I’m sure you’d make a great medic.” Twilight, for once, didn’t feel like she had to say anything particularly special to say what needed saying to lift Fluttershy’s naturally sagging spirits. “But we’re all fine. In fact, I think we’re all better than fine.” Twilight pointed to a peak not at all far away from where they’d camped. “I'm not entirely sure, but I think that’s the mountain we need to climb to find the cave where Clover the Clever sealed the Wendigos.”

The Beginning of Harmony

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: Climactically! I don’t own My Little Pony!

Chapter Twelve: The Beginning of Harmony

“Wuzzat?” Rainbow Dash staggered up behind Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, still more asleep than awake. Not for the first time, Twilight wondered if Rainbow Dash simply wore what she rolled out of bed with as her normal mane.

“I said, I think we’re where we need to be.” Twilight glanced back at Clover’s map to double check once more. “How do you feel about flying up there to make sure?”

The prospect of flying woke Rainbow Dash up where Twilight’s preferred method, copious amounts of coffee, would have struggled.

“Flying? Do I want to go flying? Do you want to cast magic?” Rainbow Dash leapt a few feet into the air in excitement. “Hang on, I’ll be back before you knew I was gone.”

“Hold up there!” Twilight punctuated her words with surrounding Rainbow Dash in a magical field. “Do you even know what you’re looking for up there?”

“Ah… no.” Rainbow Dash slowly settled back to the ground. “Got something in that fancy book of yours, like some sort of guide to everything you needed to know about magically sealed caves, but were afraid to ask?”

“Um, not that exactly.” Twilight very carefully removed the map Clover the Clever had drawn. “But I do have this map, which you need to treat like it’s made of spun glass because it’s well over a thousand years old. And you’re probably going to want a coat. Haven’t you noticed that it’s pretty cold out?”

“Uh pegasus, deals well with cold, remember?” Rainbow Dash preened.

“Well,” Twilight said, “this close to their prison the Wendigos can affect the weather quite a bit. I’m pretty sure that when you’re up there at their front door it’s going to be cold, even for you. So go ahead and take a coat. Rarity can keep Fluttershy warm with a warming charm, and if this works we probably won’t need to worry too much about coats on the way back.”

“And if it doesn't work we’ll be a bit too dead to worry, right?” Rainbow Dash flew back to her tent. She was trailed back out by an clearly just woken Applejack.

“Hooo, it is cold!” Applejack shivered before tightly closing her coat. “That is the sun up there, right?”

“Wendigos.” Rainbow Dash said bluntly. “Gonna go knock on their front door, then we can kick it in and beat them up so badly they’ll never show their faces around here again.”

“Actually, less beating up and more magically resealing them.” Twilight pointed out in a very academic manner. “I’m not sure you can really ‘hit’ a Wendigo as such. If you somehow managed it I’m pretty sure you’d just come away with a nasty case of frostbite. Now get going Rainbow Dash, even without the Wendigos the weather can be pretty sketchy this high in the mountains, and I’d rather be gone before the afternoon storms start brewing.”

“Brewing? Are we brewing something?” Things must have been dire indeed for Rarity to show her face without going through the extensive routine she insisted on even while trekking through the wilderness.

“Let’s brew up some fun!” Pinkie Pie came bouncing out behind her, mane somehow bouncing into its normal shape as she went. “I wonder if Wendigos like to have fun? I've never tried to make friends with a winter spirit before, so I’m sure it’ll be fun just trying!”

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said under her breath, “go, and go now.”

“Right.” Rainbow Dash saluted flamboyantly before flying off with a rush of snow behind her.

“Okay, maybe it is getting a little cold up here.” Rainbow Dash admitted to herself as she flew up towards the cave Twilight had pointed out to her. “Sheesh, don’t these Wendigos have anything better to do than make things cold?”

Freed from having to trudge through the snow, and with her own prodigious talents, it didn’t take Rainbow Dash long at all to fly to the mouth of the cave. Even before she set hoof on the snow outside, she knew that this was the place. The air practically hummed with the magic that Clover the Clever had used to seal the Wendigos inside. Not to mention that Twilight had been stating it lightly when she said it would be cold, Rainbow Dash could feel her eyelids try to freeze shut with every blink.

“At least I don’t have to stay here.” The air in front of Rainbow Dash turned nearly solid with steam as she spoke to herself. “Just have to remember to remind everyone that we need to cast this spell in a hurry if we don’t want to be ice statues up here.”

Rainbow Dash spread her wings and prepared to take back off, but, before she could ascend, she felt a familiar sickening magic and the world disappeared around her.

The world around her was similar to what she and the others had been subjected to when Sombra had tried to break their spirits. It was similar, but it was somehow different. Different enough, in fact, that Rainbow Dash knew from the start that she was inside a magical illusion. Hopefully Fluttershy and the others were walking up the mountain after her and would be able to get her out of this.

Having nothing better to do, and having no intention of playing along with Sombra’s little game, Rainbow Dash walked over to a rather grim looking bench and sat down to await rescue from her friends. The buildings surrounding her weren't nearly so comically villainous as the ones from the previous illusion. True they were clearly built to intimidate and create a depressing atmosphere, but Rainbow Dash could see someone actually building this city. A very twisted someone perhaps, but a real pony living in the world she inhabited nonetheless.

At first, Rainbow Dash didn’t notice anything to separate the pony approaching her from the shadowy figures moving along the fake street. It was only as the pony actually neared her that Rainbow Dash recognized her as Lightning Dust, but it was a Lightning Dust that she’d never seen. Normally, Lightning Dust had arrogance and pride enough for ten ponies. This Lightning Dust, though, slunk along the ground meekly enough to make Fluttershy look like the very picture of self-confidence by comparison.

“La-Lady Dash.” Lighting Dust stammered in a simpering voice Rainbow Dash had never thought she’d hear. “The daily reports are prepared for you back at your office. I've also brought in that keg of cider like you ordered, polished your armor, distributed your flyers to your fanclub, and I made sure that your chair is made up of those nice, puffy clouds you always like.”

Rainbow Dash looked at Lightning Dust trembling on the ground and started laughing.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Rainbow Dash managed to choke out. “Listen, this is a very nice little fantasy world you’re all living in. But I’m kinda in a hurry to get back to the real world so I can make sure your boss ends up with as much spine as you have.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Lady Dash.” Lightning Dust had never looked at anyone with such wide, helpless eyes, not even when Twilight Sparkle had torn her apart. “Please, please don’t punish me! I promise I’ll work day and night until I can tend to your every need.”

“Just shut up.” Rainbow Dash was getting fed up with this illusion in a hurry. “And go bother someone else. I’m waiting for some actually real ponies, and you’re just annoying me.”

Rainbow Dash had never seen Lightning Dust bow to anyone, much less kowtow deeply enough to eat dirt with every step. Finally alone again, Rainbow Dash sat there and waited for her friends to arrive.

Her wait was short, however, as she felt more than saw another presence approaching. Unlike the mockery of Lightning Dust, this presence seemed vastly more solid. The sky itself seemed to darken as a cloud black as pitch began to seep up from between the paving stones. Even knowing that none of this was real, Rainbow Dash had to fight a powerful instinct from the most primitive parts of her brain to flee this evil.

The cloud soon towered over her. From its depths a face eventually emerged; a face born of Rainbow Dash’s nightmares and that of every other pony.

“Sombra.” Rainbow Dash forced out. He couldn't really be here, otherwise she would be dead, but Rainbow Dash knew that she was really speaking with the traitor threatening to end pony-kind in his mad quest for power.

Her only response was a deep rumble that seemed to pass right through her. No, that wasn't quite correct. As the rumble made its way through her, Rainbow Dash somehow found a certain meaning in it. Sombra was… impressed with her for making it this far. But she and her friends could never hope to defeat him, he would rend them apart with his dark magic if they dared to try and open the Wendigos cave.

“Oh really?” Rainbow Dash fell back on her natural prickliness. “Cause we already got through all your other traps just fine, and we know how to seal the Wendigos for good. Wanna know what I think this is? I think it’s just your last, pathetic attempt to talk us out of stomping your face in so hard that you’ll fly down right past Tartarus and find out where it is they send ponies too bad for even them.”

The rush of hate and anger she felt nearly staggered Rainbow Dash. She saw her friends, insides splayed about and looks of unfathomable agony on their faces. In their eyes, Rainbow Dash somehow knew their last moments had been spent pleading for her help, help that had never come. She saw the ponies of Ponyville being tortured by means too horrible to even think about, all the while having their very souls slowly consumed by Sombra. There was something underneath it all, an invitation to spare herself the pain by joining him.

“We get it.” Rainbow Dash grit her teeth as the words came out. “You’re not a nice pony, and you want everyone to know it. You know, I think you’re just crazy enough to think that you really did fight Celestia and Luna. If you see them on your way down past Tartarus, tell them to kick you one last time!”

The next rush of hate and anger brought Rainbow Dash to her knees. She saw, and felt, two ponies that were incomprehensibly beyond her. One, white coat with a mane that seemed to shimmer like the sky itself, blazed with a fury that felt like the raw sun. The other, darkest of dark blue coats with a mane that held the night sky, held a vastness of power that really seemed like endless expanse of midnight. And there, on the ground and surrounded by a miasma that made what she thought was Luna seem bright by comparison, was Sombra. Rainbow Dash barely knew the first thing about unicorn magic, but even she knew that Twilight Sparkle would struggle on her best day to equal the least of the spells the three ponies cast.

“Well,” Rainbow Dash said as she struggled back to her hooves, “Celestia and Luna beat you once, and we’re going to do it again. And guess what, I’m gonna be one of the ponies that beats you!”

Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself standing in front of the Wendigos cave shouting into thin air. She felt her joints crack as she forced herself to take a few cautious steps. At least she hadn't fallen off a cliff while in Sombra’s illusion.

“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack had quite the set of lungs. “You still alive up there?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash found her voice a bit creaky. “Yeah! This is the right place!”

The others struggled up the last incline and ran as much as they could to where she was standing.

“Are you alright, darling?” Rarity started poking at her with both hooves and horn. “Twilight and I could feel that dreadful magic from all the way down at our tents.”

“I’m fine.” Rainbow Dash brushed Rarity’s hooves aside. “We’re probably going to want to hurry though. I’m pretty sure I was talking to Sombra, the real Sombra. I think he was trying to get me to join him, and I kinda told him to go jump in a lake. Anyways, I think he knows we’re here, so he’s probably on his way and none too happy.”

“Right,” Twilight said in her unflappably businesslike manner. “Rarity, I’ll need to use your magic to bring down the seal. The rest of you, the seal was made with only unicorn magic, so you won’t be able to help until it’s time to build the new one.”

Twilight and Rarity walked to the very mouth of the cave and began to cast magic. The seal came down with far less magic than it should have taken. Twilight knew she needed to concentrate, but she couldn't help worrying about what was going on back in New Unicornia to weaken the seal this much. Suddenly, there was a rush of cold and power that made each of them shiver.

“Seal’s down.” Twilight waved them close. “The Wendigos aren't going to take long to figure out they can leave, so let’s do this and be done.”

Twilight started to reach out to each of the five other ponies with her when a wall of black crystal erupted at the mouth of the cave. From that wall of crystal came the same cloud of blackness that Rainbow Dash had so recently faced down.

“Die.” Came the single word as the horribly misshapen face of King Sombra emerged.

Lyra sat at the window watching the road, more a trail really, leading towards, rather from, the Everfree Forest.

“Waiting to see if they’re back?” Bon Bon waked up behind her with a steaming cup of tea.

“Yep,” Lyra said. “If they didn’t lose any time going through the forest, and they didn’t have to do any real searching in the mountains, then this should be the earliest they could be making it back. And please say that tea is for me. It feels more like the first week of winter than the first week of summer.”

“No way,” Bon Bon stuck out her tongue. “Get your own tea. I hope they make it back soon, though, the weather is really worrying me. Like you said, it should be the start of summer, it should actually be hot out for the next few weeks. Twilight Sparkle said that the seal on the Wendigo’s cave would start failing in a hurry if we fought a civil war. I’m starting to worry that she was right.”

“We’d better not freeze to death in summer.” Lyra turned away from the window. “I still owe Octavia a new cello. Not that I’m going to have the wood for it any time soon, not with the way rebuilding is going to gobble up all the timber around here.”

“Speaking of wood.” Bon Bon got way too much pleasure out enjoying the tea she’d denied Lyra. “I was talking to the ponies who are in charge of drawing up the new plans for the town. I guess they decided that since Sunset Shimmer did so much demolition work for them they might as well take advantage of it to do some better urban planning. Anyways, they said that if we’d like them to rebuild that oak tree, they’ll be more than happy to do it for us. It still might take awhile, but it looks like we’ll really have a home here.”

“Hey,” Lyra smiled at Bon Bon, “I don’t care if we have to sleep on the castle floor every night for the next twenty years. As long as we’re both here, I’m more than happy to call this place home.”

Bon Bon smiled back. “Glad to hear that, but I’m totally gonna tell them to go ahead and rebuild it for us. Oh, and if you’re getting tired of the castle, Derpy, the Doctor, Vinyl, and Octavia all offered to let us stay with them for as long as it takes.”

“Didn't they say they’d already had ponies moved in with them who lost their homes in the attack?”

Before Bon Bon could reply to Lyra’s question there came a great racket from the hall, they both paused to stick their heads out to see what it was all about All they saw was the back end of a number of ponies running towards the front door.

“Let’s go see what it is!” Lyra grabbed Bon Bon, who merely held on to her tea, and started running after them.

The cause of the commotion appeared to be a small band of ponies approaching the gates. Normally, such an occurrence would have gone completely unnoticed. However, Sunset Shimmer’s attack had the whole town on edge, and with New Unicornia plunging into civil war strangers were no longer to be trusted.

Of course, Lyra thought upon seeing the new ponies, there weren't many ways that two fillies and a very elderly pony could cause the town any harm. The only thing immediately off about the group was that one of the fillies was a unicorn while the other two were earth ponies. Lyra hadn't known that anyone besides Twilight Sparkle had been trying to get the tribes to work together.

“Should’ve known I’d find you two here.” They’d apparently beaten Shining Armor to the top of the outer wall. “At least they don’t look very dangerous. Hay, they look colder and hungrier than you did when you arrived.”

They all jumped at a commotion a little ways down the wall. Shining Armor’s horn began to shine with killing spells, while even Lyra made ready the little defensive magic she knew. They deflated with relief, however, when the commotion was revealed to be simply Derpy and Scootaloo, who had been one of those ponies moved in with Derpy due to losing her home and parents.

“Sorry.” Derpy shook off the dust she’d accumulated while crashing. “Scootaloo wanted to see who was coming to town, and I was paying more attention to them than I was to landing.”

By now, the approaching ponies were close enough that those on the walls were able to start making them out.

“Bon Bon,” Lyra grabbed the other pony, “that unicorn filly, doesn't she look familiar?”

“Not really.” Bon Bon shrugged her shoulders. “But unicorns weren't exactly common customers at my store. Why, have you seen her somewhere?”

“Call me crazy,” Lyra said, “but she looks just like portraits of Rarity’s little sister.”

“Maybe.” Shining Armor, who was standing close enough to have easily overheard every word, leaned over the top of the wall. “Twiley did say that she’d hidden Sweetie Belle somewhere in Platinum City. Who would ever think to look for a unicorn princess in Dirtville? But if things are half as bad as it sounds like they’re getting then I can understand why they’d want to get her out.”

“Aren't y’all gonna open up for some cold, hungry ponies?” The elderly green earth pony paused just in front of the gates.

At Shining Armor’s signal, the gates slowly creaked open. Lyra, Bon Bon, and Shining armor raced down the stairs, followed by Derpy and Scootaloo.

“That’s definitely her!” Lyra skidded to a stop. “That’s Sweetie Belle.”

The filly’s eyes went wide with fear before Shining Armor stepped forward. “Don’t worry your highness, I’m Twilight Sparkle’s older brother, Shining Armor. She said that she’d been looking out for you, and I’ll make sure that you’re all taken care of.”

“Only made it out of Dirtville because of that sister of yours,” the elderly green earth pony said. “Wasn't for that bag of bits she gave us and those guard’s who’d sell out their own mother, we’d still be in that city waiting to get scooped up. Even with all that help it was still close. Big Mac said he’d catch up with us when those other guards showed up, but I don’t think he’s coming any more.”

All three of the new ponies suddenly had tears welling up in their eyes. Lyra could only guess that there had been a fourth member of their group who hadn't made it.

“Is it really that bad in the city?” Shining Armor asked.

“Worse,” came the reply. “Whole districts of Dirtville are getting cleaned out at a time. Unicorn guards walk down the streets killing any earth pony they feel like and the rest of us can’t do a thing. At the rate it’s going, won’t be an earth pony left in Platinum City by winter.”

“That explains why things are going so well elsewhere.” Shining Armor put a plaintive hoof to his chin. “Sombra really is putting exterminating the earth ponies ahead of winning the war. Anyways, let’s get some food into you. It won’t be much, and it’s pretty cramped quarters here, but at least it’s safe.”

Lyra looked over at Bon Bon, her look back plainly agreed that they’d be dead by now if they hadn't escaped Platinum City when they had. They started walking back to the castle, Shining Armor having sent Derpy ahead to ask for a meal to be prepared for their new arrivals.

On the way, Lyra saw something that restored her severely battered faith in pony-kind. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and the third filly, Apple Bloom she thought the name was, were running around and playing together long before they’d even reached the inner town.

“Makes you wish we could all get along that well, doesn't it?” Bon Bon leaned in to ask.

“Yeah,” Lyra leaned back in to her. “Maybe one of these days it really will happen.”

No one needed to shout at them to dodge Sombra’s attack, no one needed to shout at them to attack him in their turn, and no one needed to remind them how pressed for time they were. With the seal down they had to defeat Sombra and reseal the Wendigos in a matter of minutes or all pony-kind would perish in eternal winter.

Twilight neatly sidestepped a crystal lance meant to impale her and lit her own horn with deadly magic. She’d been waiting all this time with a burning desire for revenge after Sombra had so easily humiliated her back in Platinum City. It was time to see how he liked being the magically inferior one.

“Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy,” Twilight shouted. “Get up in the air and make him focus on more directions!”

That quickly proved to be a good idea as it appeared that Sombra could only create his dark crystals out of the ground. Attacking Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy the old fashioned way meant taking his attention off the ponies on the ground.

Unfortunately, Twilight and the others quickly discovered that Sombra remained as incorporeal as ever. Disrupting his gaseous body seemed to annoy him, but they needed to kill or permanently incapacitate him, not annoy him.

“Anyone have any ideas?” Twilight skidded to a stop after dodging yet another crystal assault. “I did this song and dance routine with him back in Platinum City and it didn’t work.”

Any response to Twilight’s question was interrupted by Sombra’s next attack. The mountainside erupted with black crystals that launched towards the six ponies. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity quickly threw up a shield behind which they huddled along with Pinkie Pie and Applejack while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took to the skies.

“Die.” At least Sombra was staying consistent with his few words.

“Let’s try punching his face in!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew around above them. “It’s the only part of him that seems even halfway solid, maybe we can hurt it.”

“Good a plan as any.” Applejack muttered. She proceeded to try it out by picking up a shattered crystal and bucking it at Sombra’s face.

It seemed to annoy him far more, perhaps it even caused him real pain. Anywhere else Twilight would have called that a plan to run with. They could simply put him in enough pain that it became too much to keep attacking them. But here, playing for all the marbles, Sombra wouldn't let a little something like excruciating pain stop him. They needed a way to put him down for good.

He also seemed to get angrier and angrier as they kept pelting him in his vulnerable face. The next few minutes were full of hectic dodging and the occasional bolt of light or lump of crystal flying back across the mountain.

The six of them worked as a team better than Twilight had dared hope. She and Rarity were able to blunt most of Sombra’s attacks with their shields, Pinkie Pie and Applejack kept up a constant stream of fire from the numerous crystals strewing the mountainside, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were there to distract Sombra or pick up a pony who needed moving in a hurry.

“Die!” Twilight smirked. Sombra wasn't chillingly stating his intentions, he was raging at them. If he lost his concentration they might find a way to actually hurt him.

“We have to hurry, Twilight!” Rarity shouted over an ice filled gust of wind. “The Wendigos are going to escape any time now if we don’t stop them!”

“Tell that to him!” Twilight shouted back as she rolled away from a plethora of needle like crystals sprouting where she’d been. “I think he’d rather we all freeze before he lost.”

Behind the black crystals covering the entrance to the Wendigo’s cave, Twilight thought she could almost see their ghostly silhouettes pounding at, and pounding down, Sombra’s barrier. Rarity was right, the Wendigos knew their cage was open, and they were eager to make up for lost time covering the world in an eternal winter.

Then Sombra tried a new trick that had them all dodging for their lives. He created a huge number of crystal spikes on the ground and launched them into the air. Where they would come down was anyone’s guess, and all the while he was hitting them with everything else in his considerable arsenal.

Twilight wished she could have said that she was surprised it was Fluttershy who got hit first. The pegasus was the kindest pony she knew, and talented at a great many things, combat, however, was at the very bottom of that list. If anything, Twilight was surprised it had taken as long as it had for a lump of crystal to have a high speed collision with Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash took off after her friend. Despite her best efforts, Rainbow Dash couldn't weave her way between Sombra’s crystal attack before Fluttershy hit the snow covered ground.

Still racing towards her fallen friend, Rainbow Dash almost impaled herself on the crystal cage that erupted around Fluttershy’s prone form as she hit the ground. Rainbow Dash started to kick and pound at the cage, but she might have been pounding at the mountain for all the good she did.

“Twilight” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Get over here, Sombra’s doing something to her!”

Twilight awkwardly jumped and dodged her way between the forest of crystal shards littering the ground. She got over to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash just in time to see Fluttershy encased in a dark yet somehow translucent crystal coating.

“What the hay?” Twilight prodded at Fluttershy with her magical senses. “I don’t know, Rainbow Dash. I could try to blast it off, but there’s no guarantee that Fluttershy doesn't get caught up in it.”

Rainbow Dash let out a wordless scream of anger as she kicked at Fluttershy’s prison. As soon as her hooves touched the smooth crystal encasing Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash found herself stuck to her friend and with that same crystal crawling up her legs.

“Twilight, help!” Rainbow Dash struggled against her encroaching prison.

“Hang on.” Twilight grabbed hold of her and pulled. The crystal growing over Rainbow Dash didn’t so much as crack. Twilight started to throw every spell she could think of at the crystal that wouldn't involve cutting through Rainbow Dash, but to no avail.

Twilight only let go with a gasp when the crystal crept up to the hoof that she was still pulling on.

“Girls, don’t touch that crystal!” Twilight turned around only to let out a moan of despair. Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were all trapped in their own crystal prisons with look of alarm on their faces. From the look of things they’d been trying to reach Fluttershy as well, but hadn't made it.

“Hahahahaha.” The black form of Sombra rose from the ground in front of her. “Die, slave.”

Twilight tried to run towards him, only to find her own hooves rooted to the ground by crystal making its way up her body. The feeling was horrible. It was like ice and death and every bad memory she’d ever had. Looking back at her friends, Twilight realized that wasn't alarm on their faces, it was terror.

She knew it would never work, but Twilight tried nevertheless to cast Clover’s spell. If she could trap the Wendigos and her brother could defeat Sombra’s forces then New Unicornia, no, Equestria would still have hope.

Just as she’d known, Twilight couldn't even start the spell on her own. With Sombra’s triumphant laughter in her ears, the crystal began to climb up her horn and her doom approached.

If only she’d been stronger. Then it hit Twilight. It wasn't brute strength that defeated evil, it was the little things. It was kindness like Fluttershy reaching out to that Ursa Major, or how she’d always taken the time to look out for other ponies on their trip. It was honesty like Applejack always speaking her mind, and when she’d been the one to see through Sombra’s lies in the swamp. It was generosity like Rarity giving Applejack her coat, or even when she’d been prepared to burn herself out to help others. It was laughter like Pinkie Pie helping them laugh off the terrors Sombra had tried to destroy them with, or how she’d always been there to put a smile on their faces this whole time. And it was loyalty like Rainbow Dash sticking by Fluttershy even when she could have gone further on her own, or how she’d thrown Sombra’s offer of power back in his face.

Twilight realized it as the crystal began to close around the very tip of her horn, that was the magic she’d needed all along. And that was the spark she needed. Rarity’s magic rushing into her was nearly as familiar as her own. But it was joined by others that Twilight had never felt. Only as they started to weave together into Clover the Clever’s last spell did she recognize that it was pegasus and earth pony magic flowing through her.

The rush of power through her horn was truly unbelievable. Twilight's eyes glowed a brilliant white with bottomless energy as she felt the countless threads of magic come together and knit the very fabric of reality. As the magic reached its crescendo, Twilight thought she heard at the very edge of her senses twin cries of defeat. Then, it was over.

Twilight staggered on her newly free hooves. It took a moment for it to register that her hooves had been encased in Sombra’s crystal along with the rest of her. In a panic she looked about for Sombra and his next attack. He was nowhere to be found. In fact, the mountainside was completely free of the carpet of black crystals their fight had left.

“Twilight!” Twilight was tackled by Rarity’s diving hug. She was fairly sure that several other ponies were also on top of her. “You did it!”

“We did it girls.” Twilight could only see Rarity’s face at the bottom of the pile, but she knew the others could hear her. “When I realized how special you all are to me I just felt it click. It was like grabbing your magic and weaving that spell was the easiest thing in the world.”

“Well where’s Sombra?” Applejack’s voice accompanied a lightening of the pile.

“I think he’s in there.” Twilight couldn’t point to the cave. “With the Wendigos. Clover’s spell was designed to trap incorporeal beings like the Wendigos, and I think Sombra had actually transcended his physical body enough to get caught up in it.”

“Well they certainly deserve each other.” Rarity voiced what they were all thinking. “So, what happens now?”

“Um, girls?” They all turned to see a very worried Rainbow Dash standing over a still prone Fluttershy.

“I uh, I can’t feel my wings.” Fluttershy’s speech made Twilight sigh with relief, for a terrible second she’d thought Fluttershy dead. Then Fluttershy’s words processed, and Twilight found the terror again.

They all ran over to where Fluttershy was lying. Just a look made Twilight want to throw up. Fluttershy’s wings were at such an awkward angle that it was clear only flesh was still holding them on to her body. Even if they’d been standing in front of the best hospital in Platinum City she likely would have never flown again. Out here, almost two weeks from civilization…

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said with more serenity than Twilight thought possible in her situation. “It actually doesn’t hurt. And I never flew that often. I guess that now I’ll be able to work with the animals like I wanted.”

Twilight numbly collected their belongings for the long trip back. Behind her, Fluttershy slowly got to her feet with Rainbow Dash’s help. If Fluttershy hadn’t been able to walk. Well, Twilight decided to count her blessings. They’d won, but oh the cost.

What Was, What Is, And What Will Be

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Hearth’s Warming Evil

Disclaimer: For the last time, I don’t own My Little Pony!

Epilogue: What Was, What Is, And What Will Be

Their trip back to Ponyville was long and arduous despite their victory. The goings on of the pony world meant nothing to the denizens of the Everfree Forest who regarded all interlopers as simply food dropped on their doorstep. Nor did victory do anything to heal Fluttershy. By the time they made it out of the mountains they were grimly certain that she would lose her wings when they got to Ponyville. As they went through the Everfree Forest they began to wonder if Fluttershy would make it to Ponyville alive.

Sombra’s attack had caused trauma enough. Then Fluttershy had to endure her wings slowly beginning to die without being able to lose them. By the time Rainbow Dash could see the edge of the Everfree Forest from above the trees, Fluttershy was starting to go delirious from pain and likely from infection from her dead wings. Without the training or tools, however, all the others could do was to have Twilight and Rarity cast simple healing spells and a lot of pain numbing charms.

By the time they reached Ponyville itself, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were taking turns carrying an unconscious Fluttershy. They’d all expected to have to forcefully wave off a deluge of celebrations at their return, but the arrived to a subdued Ponyville very much still licking its own wounds of war. They made their way to the distressingly crowded hospital, and then waited several achingly long hours while the doctors worked on Fluttershy.

At long last one of the doctors came out to them. It had been a close thing, but Fluttershy would live. Like they’d all known, though, her wings were a lost cause. Only then did it start to truly sink in that despite the price they’d paid, they’d really won.

Fluttershy spent more than a month recovering from the loss of her wings and the resulting infection. In that time the civil war that Sombra had started played itself out. Without a leader, his forces turned on each other as much as they fought their enemies. And as word trickled out that Sombra was dead while Rarity remained very much alive those ponies still on the fence fell entirely on Rarity’s side.

Ponyville gradually rebuilt itself as well. It took months, well into what should have been winter, but summer and autumn lasted, and the scars on the town faded. The old library, tomb of so many, was rebuilt with the aid of all three tribes.

Lyra and Bon Bon, proud owners of their own cafe and theatre, ended up having no trouble finding acts to draw ponies. In addition to Lyra’s own musical talents, Octavia decided to put on regular performances both as a favor for her friends and as a show of gratitude for the magnificent cello Lyra had indeed built her. Vinyl Scratch’s music kept ponies partying well into the night, even if Lyra and Octavia never particularly enjoyed it. And Trixie, the unicorn they’d saved during Sunset Shimmer’s attack, decided to make Ponyville her new home as thanks to her saviours. She would never admit just how much the destruction of her wagon had to do with that decision.

The Doctor did indeed show them the large blue box in his basement. Afterwards, they would occasionally disappear for an hour or two, yet they always returned festooned with strange and exotic souvenirs. For some reason Lyra never failed to grumble about her lack of success at discovering strange creatures called ‘humans’ upon returning from one of those expeditions. Derpy, the town mailmare, continued on in her role. Reminded of a certain slight once more, she again ‘misplaced’ the mail of a certain pony who had committed unspeakable acts to an innocent blueberry muffin.

Upon returning to Platinum City the first act of the new Queen was indeed to rename the country to Equestria, and to grant to the earth ponies all the rights that had been denied to them for so long. Scarce few earth ponies were left in Platinum City, however, to take advantage of their new Queen’s benevolence. The destruction of earth ponies had been Sombra’s priority, and his lieutenants had continued the massacres even after his death. Indeed, right up until Loyalist forces forced their way through the gates earth ponies had been being marched to their deaths.

The extermination was no so complete in those extended areas that had been loyal to Sombra, but their populations of earth ponies had likewise plummeted. The survivors could only guess at how many of their fellows had been murdered. But all agreed that it would probably be easier to count the living rather than the dead.

To give the new era of harmony between the three tribes a physical representation, it was ordered that the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters be refurbished and completed. With all three tribes working together towards a common goal progress was better than had dared been hoped for. It’s silhouette rose between Platinum City and Ponyville with remarkable speed, a monument to what so many had fought and died for.

All, however, was not well within Equestria. The treacherous Sunset Shimmer, who had escaped following her failed attack on Ponyville, used plans she had drawn up to overthrow King Sombra to instead fouly murder Rarity in the hopes of renewing the war and making herself queen. It was not to be. The revelations of Sombra’s atrocities had sickened nearly all the unicorns and pegasi in whose names they had been done. No more than a few other escaped diehards rose with her, and before long Sunset Shimmer died, screaming defiance and hatred to the very end, on Rainbow Dash’s sword.

The funeral was magnificent, as befit a princess beloved by her subjects before ascending to the sort of status only martyrdom could grant. Ponies from across all of Equestria flocked to Platinum City to pay their last respects to the princess who truly had given all so they might be free. The ornate casket, Rarity would have refused to depart the world in anything less stylish, was displayed in the great courtyard in front of the royal palace. The mourners, however, filled the streets down into the hollowed out remains of what had been Dirtville.

On the platform with their deceased friend were the other five ponies who had worked together to save Equestria. Each a hero in her own right, it was all they could do to keep from breaking down in tears at what they’d suffered after their battles should have been over.

The five surviving heroes each gave a speech of how the departed princess had impacted them, and together they recollected their adventures in saving pony-kind. As they reached the climax all the onlookers were amazed as the moon moved in front of the sun in a glorious eclipse. To the ponies standing in the plaza, it was a piece of theatre unmatched in the history of New Unicornia or Equestria. To the ponies on the platform who had organized the funeral and to the unicorns who moved the sun and the moon it was a terribly alarming event.

Each and every pony in Platinum City, however, was awestruck as two bright points of light began to descend from the covered disc of the sun.

-FIN-

Author's Notes:

Thank you all so very much for sticking with this story from beginning to end. I am indebted to everyone who liked, favorited, commented on, and even just read this story. Without all of you I'm just a guy banging away at a keyboard in a dark room. Well, actually I tend to keep the room fairly well lit when I write, but you get the point.

Also, something that didn't quite make the final cut; Fluttershy didn't make it back in the outline, but it turns out that even I have my limits. There are a number of historical allusions that I drew from for this story, some of them are probably pretty obvious, while some of them are considerably less so. If anyone is interested I'd be happy to do up an info-dump blog post so you can realize just how nerdy I got writing this story.

So thank you all once again, I look forward to seeing you at the start of my next story!

Now I'm going to go catch up on the massive reading list I let build up while writing this.

Hearth's Warming Evil

by Tortfeasor

The End of Harmony

You Can (Not) Make Friends

Dedication Has no Reward

Sixteen Weeks

Soldiers and Plebeians and Nobles

Killing for God

A Long Way From Home

Ghosts of the Past

Sins of the Father

Things Fall Apart

Fire-Forged Friends

The Price of Failure

The Beginning of Harmony

What Was, What Is, And What Will Be