One hundred years after Twilight Sparkle gave her life to defeat Grogar, Thunder Shield is Princess Luna's reserved and grieving student. When Grogar returns, Thunder and a time travelling Twilight must unite to stop him.
One hundred years ago, Twilight Sparkle gave her life to defeat Grogar, the Tyrant of Tambelon. But legend says that she will return, in Equestria's time of greatest need.
Thunder Shield, the last survivor of a destroyed people, is Princess Luna's student, but he is morose and moody, unable to move past his grievous losses and afraid to form new bonds with other ponies. He opens his heart only to Princess Luna and to his fairy friend Kenzi, another orphan of the world who has no idea of where she came from.
When Grogar returns to wreak his vengeance, Thunder must thaw out his frozen heart and open it to other brave ponies if he is to stand against the cruel tyrant. With only a ragtag squad of Royal Guards and a time-travelling Twilight Sparkle to aid him, Thunder Shield must rediscover the magic of friendship to save Equestria from darkness and despair.
And so, after the redemption of Princess Luna and many other adventures, Twilight Sparkle was transformed into an alicorn, and declared a princess by her erstwhile teacher, Princess Celestia. Together with her friends, the five heroes of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle led this magical land into a new golden age unseen since before the time of Nightmare Moon.
But not all was well in the world. For, in order to restore the Tree of Harmony to health and stop the Everfree Forest from consuming all of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle and her friends had been forced to sacrifice the Elements of Harmony, the strongest magic known to pony-kind and the main means by which they had kept the land safe from evil.
And so, now that the power to vanquish them was no more, evil began to encroach upon the borders of Equestria, and the shadows lengthened around that peaceful nation. By far the most dangerous menace to arise was Grogar, the Tyrant of Tambelon, who sought to make all ponies slaves under his dark power and rule unchallenged as god and king. Grogar's heart was black as coal, in his eyes the flames of Tartarus burned, and he could neither be reasoned with nor taught compassion or forgiveness as even Discord had been taught with time. Stronger than any adversary that Equestria had ever faced before, when Grogar entered Equestria the grass withered beneath his cloven hooves, a cloud of darkness and despair trailed in his wake, and all fled in terror of his coming.
All save one.
Twilight Sparkle alone was brave enough to withstand the fear that Grogar spread before him, and accompanied by her faithful friends the greatest hero Equestria had ever known galloped forth to meet him before he could harm anypony else.
On the last night, knowing that she would encounter Grogar on the morrow, Twilight made camp upon the hill now know as the Hill of Sorrowful Partings and bid her friends leave her now, that she might face the Tyrant of Tambelon alone.
"Why do you want to face him alone?" demanded Rainbow Dash, most faithful of all the princess companions. "Don't you think we're brave enough to stand with you?"
"We've always faced these challenges together," urged Fluttershy, for, though she was meek and mild of spirit, she loved Twilight well, and could not bear the thought of abandoning her upon the eve of danger.
Princess Twilight replied, "I know that you have shared in everything that I have accomplished, and without you I would never have been brave enough to come this far. But without the Elements of Harmony there is little you can do to aid me in this struggle, and I couldn't bear it if you were hurt by Grogar in any way. That's why I'm asking you, please, go home. Wait for me, and we will celebrate on my return."
And so, hearts heavy with sadness, her friends departed, and the next day Twilight Sparkle and Grogar met in battle upon the field of Mareinor. What occured between them, what spells they cast, how fiercely they duelled, can only be guessed at, for there was nopony there to bear witness to it. All that is known is that as the day ended a great explosion was heard and Twilight's friends, who had though better of their departure, hastened back as swiftly as they could. They found the field had been transformed beyond recognition, all the grass and soil turned to glass, and no sign of Twilight or Grogar to be found. Though they searched long and hard, they found no sign of their dear friend, and with great sorrow they concluded that she had defeated her adversary only at the cost of her own life.
And the wailing of the heroes of Equestria was terrible and the tears of Princess Celestia were beyond counting and all of Equestria put on solemn black in mourning for the princess they had lost. And since that day the sun has never been so bright, nor the land of Equestria so happy, as it was before Twilight Sparkle fell.
Yet, it is said by some that Twilight Sparkle did not die but simply...went away. And that, in Equestria's hour of greatest need, she will return.
Thunder Shield shut the book and sighed deeply. "Lady Rarity, who... she was one of the five heroes of Equestria, one of Twilight Sparkle's friends. That's why everypony cares so much."
Kenzi fluttered at about eye height to Thunder, her hands clasped together over her heart. "That's so sad," she murmured. Kenzi was a fairy, the only fairy that had ever been seen in Equestria. Today her hair was long and black, devoid of highlights of any kind, and she had also coloured her eyes black for the solemn occassion. In fact, black seemed to be the theme today even more than usual: black jacket over a plain black shirt, a short black skirt and high black boots that went over Kenzi's knees. Only her gossamer wings provided a touch of ethereal white against the darkness. "Which do you think is worse?"
"Huh?" Thunder didn't understand the question, but he was used to Kenzi expecting everypony else to follow her thoughts without her having to say them out loud.
"Who do you think had it worse?" Kenzi repeated. "Twilight Sparkle, who, you know, died; or her friends, who had to keep on living without their best friend?"
Thunder turned his head, half looking away from Kenzi. Thunder Shield was a dirty white, verging upon light grey, alicorn with a light brown mane and bottle green eyes. Like Kenzi, he too wore black, though in his case it was black armour such as the Royal Guard would also be wearing for this occassion. His voice, when it came, was heavy with solemnity no matter how much he tried to keep it soft and quiet. "Which do you think is worse? You must have some thoughts of your own."
Kenzi pursed her lips, they too wear smeared in black lipstick. "I think her friends were worse off. I mean, don't get me wrong, dying sucks and all, but once you're dead, you're dead right? But having to live with that hole in your heart for years? That's gotta suck."
"Yeah," Thunder murmured, bowing his head. "It really does."
Kenzi's face fell. "Gee, Thunder, I didn't mean to...I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking, I shouldn't have said anything. Sometimes I'm such an idiot!"
"It's okay, Kenzi," Thunder said. "Really, it doesn't matter whether you say anything or not. It isn't as if the pain will go away if nopony talks about it." He got up, rising to his hooves and walking out onto the balcony. He and Kenzi lived in one of the high towers of the palace, and from the balcony they could see all of Canterlot, and even as far away as Ponyville, even it seemed very small from where they were. The whole city was still and quiet, the normal bustle of the streets suspended out of mourning and respect. Only the patrols by the Royal Guards and Military Police continued as normal, and even they seemed quieter than was normally the case. Already, Thunder could see ponies gathering along the route of the procession, but they did so quietly and without fuss.
"Personally," he said. "I think that Twilight was worse off for a while, but not anymore. Now it's Princess Celestia who has it worse than anypony."
"Really?" Kenzi asked. "How do you figure?"
"Whatever happens when we die, wherever we go, Twilight was all alone there for years," Thunder said. "Her friends had lost her, but they still had one another. Now they're all together with Twilight Sparkle, all except Princess Celestia who won't ever rejoin them. That's why, today, I envy Lady Rarity: because she's not alone any more." Thunder pressed his head against the cold stone of the balcony rail, screwing up his face as the pain of memories assailed him. He tried not to think about the flames and the smoke, the sounds of screaming. He tried not to think about his mother, shrieking for him to run. He tried not to think about it, but he couldn't help it. "There's nothing worse than being all alone. Nothing."
"Hey, hey," Kenzi fluttered up beside him, near burying herself in his brown mane as she tugged on Thunder's ear with one tiny hand. "You're not alone, yeah? Cause you got me, right? And I won't ever leave you."
Thunder looked at her, and managed to turn his lip upward in something halfway to a small smile. "Yeah, I got you, Kenzi. Just like you got me, always."
Kenzi smirked. "Yeah, always. Unless of course I find other fairies and they out to be, like, way awesomest cool people ever, then I'm ditching your loser flank faster than you can say 'see ya around', you know what I'm saying?"
Thunder chuckled. "Yeah, I do. Hey, Kenzi?"
"Yep?"
"You might want to wash that black lipstick and mascara off, you've gone beyond solemn and into fashion statement."
"Really? Well why didn't you say so earlier?" Kenzi flew over to a thimble full of water placed upon the bedside table, and began to scrub at her face.
Thunder waited for her to finish. The two of them had lived together for three years now, after Princess Luna found them both, and it had reached the point where he wasn't sure he could get to sleep without knowing that his little roommate was right there beside him. The room they shared at the top of the Moon Tower was spartan, with only a bed, a small table on the bedside on which rested Kenzi's bed, washbasin, drinking water, wardrobe and the snack box which nopony was supposed to know about (fairies had certain needs, apparently, though as Kenzi was the only fairy anypony had ever met only she could say for sure what those needs were), a ponikin for Thunder's armour and a single shelf of books given to him by the princess. The rest was only the stone walls, bare and undecorated, without even so much as a hanging to adorn them. That was the sum total of Thunder Shield's life: the armour he wore and the books he read, both given to him by somepony else. The only luxury which he allowed himself was the picture of his family which sat just perched upon the nightstand, intruding as little as could be helped upon Kenzi's space.
The picture was burned around the edges, were the flames had licked at it, and was tear stained in parts from the days when Thunder had not mastered the self-control he now possessed, but you could still make out all of the smiling faces: his mother, his father, Lightning Strike his very best friend; and Thunder Shield himself, smiling. It felt so strange, looking at him smiling, these days when he so rarely smiled at all except to mock somepony. It was disconcerting to remember that there had been a time when he had known joy.
He wondered if Lady Rarity had felt that way, in the end, looking back upon the memories of her youth and wondering that there had ever been a time when she had been happy.
Hopefully she was happy now, wherever she was, and together with her precious friends.
"One day," Thunder murmured. "Mother...father...Lightning...I promise, someday we'll see each other again."
"What was that?" Kenzi asked, lifting her head out of the thimble.
"Nothing," Thunder said quickly. "Just talking to myself."
"Hmm," Kenzi frowned at him. "You know better than to lie to the fairy stinkeye, right?"
"Yeah, I know better than that."
"Well, okay," Kenzi still didn't sound entirely convinced, but changed the subject. "Is it all off?"
Thunder nodded. "All gone. I don't understand why you put that stuff on, though. You can change anything about your appearance at well, can't you just magic on the appearance of mascara?"
"Maybe," Kenzi said. "But that doesn't mean I want to. It's kinda fun putting it on the hard way, you know, trying out new styles and new techniques. Besides, I don't like messing with my face. Hair: yes, all the time. Face: no."
"Why not?"
Kenzi looked at him as though it should have been obvious. "Because it's my face. If I kept changing it, how would I know what I looked like?"
Thunder considered that. "Yeah, that makes sense, I guess."
The door creaked open - Thunder deliberately kept the hinges squeaky so that he would know when anypony entered his room - and Princess Luna strode inside. While it seemed as though everypony else in Canterlot had dressed up for this solemn occassion, Princess Luna appeared to have dressed down, foregoing her usual crown and necklace, her trappings of royalty. It was the the first Thunder had ever seen wear nothing, aside from the few times when he was a young foal and had slept in her bed to help soothe his nightmares. She seemed a shade darker than usual, her mane less airy and fluid, but rather weighted down by the burden of the princess' grief.
Thunder bowed, pressing his muzzle into the cold wooden floor. Kenzi, flying to his side, performed a strange bow of her own that involved bending her waist until her body formed a right angle.
"It is time," Luna murmured. "Come, both of you." Without another word she turned away, not needing to instruct them to follow her.
Kenzi stayed close by Thunder's side as he trailed in Princess Luna's footsteps through the palace corridors. The guards were all garbed in solemn black, all the banners outside - visible through the windows - flew at half mast. Even the curtains had been turned black by magic, just for today.
Thunder had gone through all this once before, with Lady Pinkie Pie, but it still felt so strange. For the palace to be as quiet as it was, for their every hooffall to echo, felt unnatural. It turned a place of life and light into a tomb.
Yet all places become tombs in the end, so why wait?
Some Royal Guards, nightponies with their distinctive bat wings, fell in behind them, escorting their princess down the steps and through the corridors into the main hall, where Princess Celestia was waiting.
"Sister," she greeted Luna, her voice soft yet carrying with it an ocean's worth of pain and sadness in a single word. Celestia turned her gaze on Thunder. "Ah, this must be your student. Thunder Shield, isn't it? And Kenzi?"
Thunder bowed. "Your Highness. I offer my condolences and grieve with you in this sad time. If there is anything that I may do or you should need, I am at your service."
"Me too," Kenzi said. She flushed a little as she became aware that she had said the wrong thing, and corrected herself quickly. "Your Highness, I offer my condolences and grieve with you. I am at your service."
Thunder shook his head minutely. With Princess Luna such breaches of protocol might be overlooked, but with her more remote elder sister it was best not to chance such informality. Thunder and Kenzi had only seen Princess Celestia twice before, and one of those times was on the day of their arrival in the palace. It was hard to believe that she had once played an active role in the rule of Equestria, when now she almost never left her chambers and spoke only to her sister and the First Minister. From pictures of her in the history books, it seemed she had once been a radiant beauty, but now the light had faded out of her, the brightness of her coat dimmed, the colours of her mane faded. She wore a black gown, and around her neck hung a silver locket on a chain. Nopony had ever seen inside it, but whispers - when Thunder bothered to listen to them - said it held a lock of Twilight Sparkle's mane, magically preserved, and the late princess' portrait in miniature.
Celestia stared at them for a moment. "Thank you for your generous offer. I shall consider it." And with that her gaze passed over them. She did not look at anypony else, but stared vaguely into...where? The past? That was Thunder's thought. He believed he recognised the look as one he sometimes found himself wearing when melancholy and nostalgia overtook him.
Luna walked to her older sister's side, but Celestia turned her face away and would not speak to her. And so there was silence in the great hall, silence and darkness and the all-consuming black, until the doors swung open and First Minister Ordered Regulations strode in, flanked by two officers of his Military Police.
The First Minister was an earth pony of slightly lank build, his coat of cobalt colouring, his mane and tail of ocean green, his eyes of grey so dark they were almost black. He wore a conservative suit, dark grey with a black tie, that left his hindquarters and his cutie mark - a bundle of rods with an axe in the middle, an ancient symbol Thunder had learnt was called a fasces - visible to all. His escorts, members of Canterlot's elite Military Police which answered only to the First Minister, were unicorns as all members of that unit were. They did not wear black, but wore their usual banded armour of dark blue with a crimson trim, covered with dark blue cloaks emblazoned with the silver unicorn emblem of the police force.
"Princess Celestia," the minister wore a grave smile as she approached the elder princess, took her hoof in his own, and raised it to his lips. "All of Equestria grieves with you in this dark hour." Thunder had noticed that whether the minister was discussing taxes or grief his voice remained always smoothe as silk and so compassionate one might mistake him for a dear friend.
Celestia bowed her head. "That is a great comfort to me, minister."
"First Minister," Princess Luna's tone was neutral.
The smile did not waver from Order's face. "Highness."
"Is everything ready?" Celestia asked, her voice hoarse with emotion. "Where is Dusk Shine, he should be here for this? Were his unit told to send him here?"
"Fear not, Your Highness, Prince Dusk is outside with Lord Spike and the guard escort," Order said. "I knew that you would not want the last blood relation of Princess Twilight to be absent."
Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, minister. I know I can always rely on you."
The smile on the minister's face did not change. "I life but to serve Your Majesty's will. Everything is ready, if your highness is?"
Celestia hesitated, then nodded. "Let us go."
Princess Celestia led the way. The rest formed in a long procession behind her. Princess Luna came next, as was proper, then the First Minister, then Thunder Shield as Princess Luna's student. Behind him, the Royal Guards, and then the Military Police behind them. As the procession left the palace they found more guards waiting for them, including Prince Dusk Shine, great-grandson of Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armour and, thus, also the last pony living who could claim a blood connection with Princess Twilight Sparkle, even if he was only a cousin. As he was a prince, he took precedence over Thunder Shield - though not Minister Order, since he was only minor royalty - and so Thunder halted and allowed Dusk to slip into the procession ahead of him, which he did with grace, self-assurance and a smug smile which Thunder found grossly inappropriate. An alicorn with a light red coat and a mane of lavender streaked with blue, Dusk Shine never failed to annoy Thunder by his mere presence, though Thunder did his best to master his irritation on this occassion. This was neither the time nor the place.
The great old dragon lord, Spike, a towering figure who loomed as high as some of the tallest buildings in the city, stood at Princess Celestia's side. He said nothing, but his green eyes were filled with tears.
As more guards fell in behind them, the procession waited. They would not proceed until they had been joined by the case of all this melacholy.
The funeral cortege of the Lady Rarity was proceeded by a mare in a top hat and a tailcoat walking slowly in front of the hearse. The hearse itself was pulled by two grey unicorns of the royal guard, and the carriage was of the finest dark wood, ornamented with small flashes of elegant silver. Freshly picked flowers lay atop the coffin. Six pallbearers: two unicorns, two pegasi and two earth ponies, like the bearers of the elements of harmony, walked beside the hearse as it moved slowly down the street.
As the coffin approached, every waiting pony bowed their head respectfully. Then, when the hearse had passed, Princess Celestia fell in behind it, and all the rest followed suit in her wake.
They followed Lady Rarity on her last journey through the streets of Canterlot, streets lined with ponies in thier mourning suits come to pay their last respects to a figure from history. Lady Rarity had been last living connection to a past that, for most of the ponies lining the way to bid her farewell, doubtless seemed as distant and incomprehensible as the era of Princess Platinum must have been to Rarity herself. Reading the history of those days, it was hard to imagine a time when the Military Police had not existed, when there had been no Ministers, when Princess Celestia had ruled Equestria alone, when there had been no wall around Ponyville, no garrison of the Royal Guard. The more recent the history, the more the problems of that era had been emphasised: disorganisation, personal justice and interpretation of the law that verged on vigilantism, cosmic threats to the safety of the country. Yet despite the best efforts of those tomes, Thunder could not help but think that it had been a better time. Nor, judging by the swell of ponies come to pay their respects to the last symbol of that bygone age, was he the only one.
The procession stopped outside the Mausoleum of Harmony, which housed the remains of the other four heroes of Equestria and the empty sarcophagus of Twilight Sparkle. The pallbearers lifted the coffin from the hearse and bore it to the open entrance to the great marble dome, the friezes on wall - depicting the many great achievements of the six legends - looking on in silence as the last of their number was interred.
Princess Celestia stood on the mausoleum steps, looking out over the sea of ponies who gathered outside to witness this moment. They thronged all about the statue of Twilight Sparkle which stood in the centre of the square fronting onto the grand tomb, silent, waiting for their absent Princess to address them for what would likely be the last time in their lives.
"We are here to honour the Lady Rarity, the last of the five heroes of Equestria who, along with Twilight Sparkle, brought this magical land into a golden age of friendship and prosperity," Princess Celestia said, her voice sounding a little rough from disuse, while Lord Spike sobbed quietly beside her. "Those of you who knew Rarity only in her...her twilight years, were very unfortunate. I, who was blessed to know her in the prime of her youth, consider myself privileged to have known her at her best. My abiding memories are of her grace, her ladylike elegance in all things, the grace of her movements, the loveliness of her voice. Above all I remember her generosity, the element, of course, which she bore, her relentless energy and her tremendous creativity in the field of fashion in which she blazed so bright before her abrupt and early retirement. "My first real memory of Rarity, was on a visit to Ponyville. Many things happened on that, most of them relating to my pet phoenix, but my memory of Rarity is that she, of all ponies present, wore a gown. The same gown, in fact, which she wore to the Grand Galloping Gala later that year. That, in many ways, describes Rarity perfectly: always proper, no matter the circumstance. "In her later years, as age wearied her as it does so many ponies, I fear that some found Rarity to be prickly, sharp, snappish even. All I can say is that, after all she had done and all she had been through, she had earned the right to be a little prickly."
Thunder, standing beside Princess Luna on the other side of the coffin, closed his eyes. He remembered, when he was younger, Lady Rarity scolding him terribly for his poor table manners. In my day, no young gentlecolt would ever have been allowed to behave in such a manner. As I am still alive, it is still my day, do you understand you young ruffian? All before striking him across the top of the head with a rolled up newspaper. The only pony he ever recalled her showing warmth too was Lady Pinkie Pie; they had been Canterlot's oddest couple while the latter still lived.
"A little over a year ago," Princess Celestia continued. "I stood where I stand now and eulogised Pinkie Pie, who bore the element of Laughter. With Rarity gone, there are none left of those who assisted Twilight Sparkle in so many of her greatest accomplishments. An age in our history has passed, and Equestria has been left a poorer place in their absence.
She bowed her head so that she was almost touching the coffin, her tears falling upon the varnished surface. "Farewell, Rarity. Please give Twilight my regards."
And with that they bore the coffin into the grand mausoleum, placed it in the stone sarchopagus which bore the Lady Rarity's younger likeness upon it, and sealed the door.
And thus did an age pass.
The mourners had dispersed, the funeral was over, the great crowds had all gone home. The princesses had returned to the palace. Only Thunder Shield and Kenzi still lingered on the mausoleum steps, staring at the now closed doors and the friezes carved into the wall. Princess Luna had commanded clear skies for the funeral then rain afterwards, that the skies themselves might weep for Rarity, and so the rain fell heavily upon Thunder as he sat outside, still as Twilight Sparkle's statue.
Kenzi's fairy wings flickered like flashes of lightning in a storm as she struggled to stay aloft by Thunder's side. "Come on, Thunder! Can we go home now before I drown in all this rain? Do you know that I could choke on one of these raindrops?"
"You go," Thunder said calmly. "I'll see you later.
"No way, what about you? You'll catch pneumonia if you stay out here."
"I'll be fine. I want to stay here," Thunder replied. "I have to."
"Why? Why do you have to sit out here and get soaking wet staring at a tomb?" Kenzi demanded irately.
"I have to console Lady Rarity," Thunder explained. "After all, I'm alive and I don't have anypony, and even if she's dead she has her friends; she can look at me and take comfort from that. Though, to be honest, I'm always hoping that, if I offer consolation to her, maybe she can console me too."
"What?" Kenzi yelled. "What does any of that nonsense even mean?"
"It means funerals make me miserable," Thunder said.
Kenzi's face assumed an expression that was sympathetic, but not overly. "Oh, Thunder, honey; I'm here for you, really I am, but could you please mope around indoors, maybe somewhere near a nice warm fire?"
"I already told you, you don't have to stay," Thunder said sharply.
For a moment there was silence, the only sound the patter of the rain as Kenzi stared at him. "Yeah, I do. Because I'm your BFF, and that's what friends are for, right? Getting sick because you're an idiot."
Thunder closed his eyes and hesitated. "Okay, we'll go. You're right, there isn't a lot of point to this."
"Oh, thank Luna you can still recognise sense," Kenzi said as Thunder got up and began to make his way back to the palace.
The streets were mostly empty on account of the rain, but there were still one or two ponies out and about; and the Military Police were around too, as Thunder and Kenzi discovered when they came across an elderly pegasus mare corner by two unicorns in Military Police cloaks, looming over her menacingly.
"Come on, grandma, you know that it's a toll to use this road."
"Oh, please, I only have enough to buy groceries. My grandchildren-"
"You should have thought of that and planned ahead better, shouldn't you?" one of the two unicorns demanded. "We work hard keeping these streets safe for ponies like you to walk around. Aren't we entitled to a little compensation for all our hard work? Or would you rather we left and let just anything happen to you?"
Thunder growled wordlessly.
Kenzi said, "You're going to get involved, aren't you?"
"Yep."
Kenzi sighed. "Go get 'em, tiger."
Thunder spread his wings and glided the last few yards separating him from the disturbance. "My name is Thunder Shield," he said. "There are a lot of things I hate, but small ponies abusing their petty authority is definitely one of them."
The unicorns glowered at him. One of them said, "Who are you to talk to us like that? We're members of the Military Police!"
"Yeah, nopony messes with us!"
"And I'm Princess Luna's personal student," Thunder said. "Which means there are two ways this can go. First, you can walk away and we'll say no more about any of this. Or two, I can beat you until you give me your names, then I'll report to the princess so she can have your boss discipline you appropriately. I kinda like that option, how about you?"
The unicorn who had been doing most of the talking so far snarled. "Are you threatening us? How dare you threaten the Military Pol-"
He fell silent as, with movement so swift it was practically instantaneous, Thunder appeared between the two unicorns, his wings spread out so that his feathers were touching their necks.
"You guys seem to like saying the name of your branch a lot," Thunder observed. "That must be what they call esprit du corps. Now, as you might be able to feel, my wings are sharp enough to shave scales off a dragon. So I'll ask again, which option do you want to choose?"
The unicorns backed off. "You haven't heard the last of this," one of them called as he fled.
"Thank you," the pegasus murmured. "Thank you so much."
Thunder's expression was neutral as he turned to her, and placed one hoof upon his heart in the traditional salute of the Hipparchian Guard. "To live is to serve."
Princess Luna knocked on the door to Celestia's room. "Celestia? It's Luna. Please let me in." Some hope of that, but at least her sister might open the door to her room.
There was a pause, then the door opened.
"What is it, Luna?" Celestia sat with her back to the doorway, facing the window on which raindrops pattered. Pictures of Twilight and her friends hung on the wall, the only spots of colour in an otherwise relentlessly grim room.
Luna looked around warily, and steeled herself for the argument. "Celestia...you need to get out more."
Celestia did not look round. "Excuse me?"
"You need to leave this room, you need to leave this palace, maybe even leave the city. When was the last time you spent longer than a few hours away from here?"
Celestia hesitated. "I think it must have been-"
"A hundred years ago, exactly," Luna said. "I know you loved her, but this is...it's not healthy, sister. You need light and your subjects need you."
"Are they unhappy?" Celestia murmured. "I raise the sun for them each day, and the government continues in my absence."
"And what a government," Luna cried. "Are you even aware of half the things that are being done in your name?"
"The First Minister-"
"Cannot be trusted so far as I could pick him up and throw him," Luna snapped.
"He serves me well," Celestia said softly. "He is glad to assume the burdens of government I can no longer bear to shoulder."
"Oh, I am sure he is," Luna scoffed. "But these powers were not meant for mortal ponies, Celestia. It corrupts them, as it always has."
"I hear no discontent."
"Because everypony is too afraid to voice it," Luna shouted. "If Twilight Sparkle could see what you have allowed Equestria to become she would weep!"
Celestia stiffened, and Luna retreated a step. "Forgive me, I went too far."
"Yes," Celestia's voice was crisp as fresh-fallen snow. "You did. I think you had better go." "You cannot mourn her forever," Luna pressed on. "At some point enough must be enough. Do you think Twilight would want you shut yourself away in here with only your memories of her company?"
"I think she died before she could tell me what she wanted, before we could..." Celestia's voice broke as tears began to fall. "Before I could say goodbye to her."
Luna let her have a moment. Then she said, "The newest class of Royal Guard trainees pass out in a few times, the graduation ceremony is being held in Ponyville. I'm asking you to go and attend the event. Go to Ponyville, see your little ponies again, let them see you. Do this one thing, and I promise I shall not raise it again for another hundred years."
"And if I don't?"
Luna smirked. "Then I shall pester you until you agree to do something."
Celestia sighed. "Very well then. I suppose you will make all the arrangements?"
"Indeed," Luna said. She glanced at the pictures on the wall. "Great mares."
Celestia nodded. "We shall not see their like again."
"Indeed we shall not," Luna said. "But that is no excuse for not giving anypony else a chance at all."
She turned to go, knowing exactly whom she would send to Ponyville ahead of her to oversee the preparations.
Insidious made absolutely certain that there was nopony around to see her before she transformed. Had anypony been watching, they would have seen what appeared to be a butter-yellow earth pony mare, wearing the attire of a palace servant, be consumed in an eerie green light. And when the light faded, they would have seen a changeling, all spiky angles and holes in her legs, her insect-like wings beating slowly.
But there was nopony around to witness the change, she was certain of that. If there was, she would have killed them.
Insidious stood near the top of a lonely mountain overlooking the garrison town of Ponyville. Beneath her, she could see the new walls enfolding the old town, the numb and function grey of the defences looking incongruent when one could see the old brightly coloured buildings behind, full of heart motifs and saccharine wholesomeness. The old Equestria sat uncomfortably alongside the new, fighting a rearguard action against the proliferation of increasingly lifeless architecture and constant reminders of the parlous state of the once peaceful land.
Insidious chuckled. When Lord Grogar seized power, the last thing that would be said about the new Equestria was that its style was lifeless. They might call it cruel, evil, soul-destroying, but never lifeless.
Insidious was standing at the mouth of a great cave, dug into the top of the mountain. Once, long ago, it had been a dragon's lair, and when they had first arrived they had found a few scraps of treasure left behind. The stratons had eaten it all, of course. What would the rest of them do with gold or jewels?
She could not put off going in any longer. Insidious shook her head, steeled herself, and began to walk inside.
Crimson King Darkness - Insidious was absolutely certain that wasn't his real name, although she couldn't work out why anypony would want to give themselves a name that stupid - was on guard today, sitting near the mouth of the cave reading one of his trashy horror stories. He was a unicorn whose coat was a red so dark it reminded Insidious of blood. His black mane, highlighted with streaks of red which Insidious was sure he dyed in, was all over the place, sticking up in some places, hanging down over his face in others.
"Alright, darling?" Crimson grinned as he saw Insidious coming. "Come to tell the boss how well polished the floors in Canterlot are?"
Insidious eyed him disdainfully. "How long did it take you to think of that? A day? Two?"
"Only a couple of hours, give me some credit," Crimson replied in that high voice and bizarre accent of his that grated on her ears. "And frankly, for someone who has all the time in the world to think of comebacks while you're cleaning out the toilets that one was particularly poor."
Insidious smiled mirthlessly. "Go ahead. Make your stupid cracks. But while you've been sitting on your flank doing squat, I've been working for our master. So you might want to start practicing your curtsy from now on, because I'll be Viceroy when we're done."
Crimson's eyebrows - black, but he had springled silver glitter in them for reasons Insidious didn't even want to guess at - rose. His voice became softer, calmer. "So, it's good news then?"
"The best," Insidious said with a triumphant smirk. "I'm going to give Grogar all of Equestria."
"You will be the golden girl, won't you?" Crimson said, his tone sly. "If you can really do it that is."
Insidious hissed, baring her fangs. "You try, you so much as think about screwing this up, you little poser, and I'll bury you." They both knew, all of the Chosen knew, that when Lord Grogar took his rightful place as ruler of the world then he would name one of them, his favourite, his most loyal and competent servant, as his viceroy. Whomever he named would be elevated above all others and be given kingdoms to rule in Grogar's name when the new order was established. The prize kept them competitive, kept them vying with one another for Grogar's favour.
It also meant they wouldn't hesitate to screw one another over to stop a rival from getting ahead.
"You wound me, darling, you wound me terribly," Crimson cried. "I would never jeopardise the boss's victory. Just because it's your plan doesn't mean you have to be around to see the success of it though."
Insidious hissed again, backing away from him slowly. She waited until she couldn't see him any more - she had rounded a twisting corner in the tunnel - before she turned around. She tried to put thoughts of her jealous rivals from her mind. She would need to present confidence before Grogar.
When they had moved into this cave, they had expanded it to serve as a fitting palace for their master, turning a simple cave into a warren of tunnels descending into the mountain. The throne room, where Grogar held court, was at the very centre of this warren, and so Insidious had to descend through increasingly dark tunnels, dimly lit by a handful of magically glowing amber crystals set into the walls and occassionally augmented by a patch of luminescent blue rock or green slime. The darkness didn't bother Insidious though, her changeling eyes could cut through it easily. This darkness, anyway.
Eventually, she reached the throne room, a long chamber of barren rock, fitting only in size to accommodate Lord Grogar's majesty. It was lit for two thirds of the way by the same magical amber lamps that lit the other tunnels, and Insidious walked down the throne room until the lights stopped.
Stopped was the right word. When it came to a certain point it was as though the light had hit a wall, all illumination from the lamps ceasing in spite of the fact that there was nothing there to make it cease. It was just an invisible line, drawn along the floor and walls: here the light stops, beyond this point the shadows rule.
At the very back to the room, barely visible, sat Lord Grogar himself. He it was who kept the light at bay, he it was who swathed the far end of his throne room in darkness and in shadow. Keen as her eyes were, Insidious could not penetrate the dark that shrouded him like a shield, not even to make out a silhouette. The shadows clung to him like robes, like armour, no, neither of those comparisons did it justice. He was not wearing darkness or shadow as something extraneous to himself. It was a part of him, impossible to tell where Grogar ended and the dark began. It swirled around him, it boiled off him, it defended him from the hateful, burning lights of the world and the gazes of those who would seek to harm him. Only his eyes were visible: two red lights glowing in the dark.
When those eyes fixed upon her, Insidious stopped dead in her tracks and tried - and failed - not shiver. Lord Grogar's gaze never ceased to make her feel as though her skin as being stripped off of her piece by piece, leaving her soul exposed to her master's gaze. She had no secrets from him, he knew her darkest desires and her most private thoughts. For she belonged to him, and there was nothing she possessed that he did not allow her. She had nothing that, ultimately did not belong to him.
"Insidious," Grogar's voice was soft, but it cut through the distance between them as though he had been shouting. "This must be important, for you to abandon the post I assigned to you."
Insidious bowed. "My lord, I have wonderful news. For the first time in a hundred years, Princess Celestia is to leave Canterlot. She travels to Ponyville tomorrow for the graduation ceremony of the Royal Guard trainees there."
For a moment, Grogar was silent. Then the lights went out.
Insidious had been born in darkness. She had grown up in an underground hive where the only light was the faint glow of green cocoons. She could spot a black cat in a coal mine on a night when the moon was obscured by clouds. There was no darkness her eyes could not penetrate; except this one. For the first time in her life Insidious was absolutely blind. It set her whole body trembling.
"You are certain of this?" Grogar demanded. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck, yet she had heard nothing, neither the sound of hooves nor or teleporation.
She kept her face forward, resisting the temptation to look wildly around as she started to sweat. "I am, my lord. I heard Princess Luna issuing instructions for Princess Celestia and herself to fly to Ponyville tomorrow afternoon."
"Why now?" Grogar's voice sounded distant now, as though he called her from a mile away. Once again, Insidious had heard no movement. "She has not stirred from her palace for one hundred years, weeping for Twilight Sparkle." Grogar loaded the name with enough malice to have towered over the mountain where dwelled. "Why does she emerge now? Could this be a trick? A trap laid to draw me out?"
"I don't think so, my lord," Insidious said. "I have heard nothing to suggest that your return is even suspected by anypony, and Princess Luna has made no secret of how dissatisfied with her sister she is. I believe that this is what it seems to be: an attempt by Princess Luna to rouse Princess Celestia from her mourning." She hesitated. "My lord, this is a great opportunity. Away from Canterlot's defences-"
"I do not require my spy to school me in war," Grogar was whispering her ear now, she could feel someone right beside her. "Outside the palace, outside Canterlot, they will be vulnerable. But not undefended."
"Most of the guards of Ponyville are trainees, inexperienced," Insidious said. "And even the older guards will be no match for the powers of the Chosen. I give you my word, none shall hinder you."
Grogar's voice sounded as though it was coming from some distance behind her. "What else do you know? Who else will be in Ponyville that day?"
"The First Minister, he can do nothing," Insidious declared confidently. "And Princess Luna's student, Thunder Shield."
"Student?" Grogar's voice, sounding close enough he was practically kissing her, was a gentle caress upon her skin. "Who is this student?"
He fears another Twilight Sparkle, Insidious realised. "Nopony, just a stray that Princess Luna took pity on. He has no magic, no friends, he cannot threaten my lord's ambitions. The dragon Spike is the only one my lord might fear."
"Fear!" Grogar seemed to be yelling from right in front of her, spittle striking her face from out of the darkness. "I do not fear anypony. I am the Tyrant of Tambelon, the Star of Morning. I laid low Princess Twilight Sparkle and her like is not in the world today. I raise my voice and Tirek himself falls on bended knee. I stamp my hoof and legions of demons arise from the depths of Tartarus. What pony, god or dragon lives that I should be a-feared of, no, I do not fear. I am fear made flesh."
Insidious swallowed. "Indeed, my lord. I shall not make that mistake again."
"Good," Grogar murmured. "Good."
The lights came back on, lighting up the chamber, except for the back where Grogar lurked, shrouded by shadow. He did not appear to have moved off his throne. Had he really been all around her, where he had seemed to be from the sound of his voice? Or had it been nothing but a trick, designed to frighten her?
"Perhaps it was both," Grogar suggested gently.
Insidious meeped. He can read my thoughts? I really hope he doesn't know that- She hastily tried to think of something else.
"You hope I didn't know what?" Grogar asked. "That you though I was afraid of Twilight Sparkle? Or of another like her. I killed Twilight Sparkle, why I should fear one who is a hundred dead and defeated? And if another does think to follow in her hoofsteps, there fate will be the same as hers."
"Of course," Insidious gasped out as he throat dried up. "Please, my lord, forgive me."
"Forgive?" Grogar chuckled. "My dear Insidious, who do you think I am. Gods and tyrants do not forgive. Their clemency must be earned through faithful service."
"I have brought you this momentous news," Insidious reminded him.
"Yes, you did. Would you be my viceroy, Insidious? Would you sit at my right hoof and rule in my name, the first of the Chosen?"
Insidious permitted herself a smile. "My lord, I would love that more than anything."
"Then see you do not doubt my power in future," Grogar growled. The cloud of shadow that enveloped him expanded a little. "Twilight Sparkle was to me as an ant to an alicorn. And yet..."
"My lord?"
"The spell she cast to send me here, one hundred years into the future, left me gravely weakened," Grogar confessed. "Even now, after one whole month in the care of my servants, I have not recovered all of my strength. Yet I will get no better opportunity than this to confront Celestia."
"My lord," Insidious murmured. "What would you have me do? Ask, and it shall be done."
Grogar was silent for a moment. "Bring me any slaves we have. The morning star must feed before it duels the sun and moon."
Thunder Shield, dressed in a padded arming jacket, strode into the ring, a grim expression on his face.
As much as he tried not to get overconfident, he couldn't help but feel that his victory was certain. He had faced all of these guards before, and none of them had ever beaten him.
Behind him, on the edge of the ring, Kenzi waved a couple of tiny flags up and down in the air. "Go Thunder! Woo!"
Thunder smirked a little at her antics, then assumed a stance ready for the fight to begin.
Almost every day he trained in hoof to hoof combat with members of the Royal Guard. For some time now he had been winning every bout. None of them were as good as he was. None of them were as driven as he was. None of them understood why he pushed himself so hard: because this was all he had. Without magic, he had no weapons but his wings and his hooves, and if Equestria was attacked the way Hipparchia had been then he would do what he could to keep it safe. He wasn't a helpless foal any more. His new home would not fall while he had anything to say about it. So he would train, and devote himself to his training to the exclusion of all else, he would make himself the sharpest spear in Princess Luna's arsenal if he had to. It was the least he could do after all she had done for him.
The ring was nothing more than a large sand pit in the middle of the palace armoury. Armour draped over ponikins in the corners of the room, spears were hung on the walls, the air was musty and thick. The sand crunched under Thunder's hooves. He liked it here. He liked the way it wasn't trying to be cheerful. It was what it was, and the armoury was a good place for a weapon anyway.
There were eight royal guards assembled to test him today: two earth ponies, two unicorns, two pegasi, two night ponies. None of them was unknown to him, which was a pity, but he supposed that he must have gone through the entire palace guard by now, there wasn't anypony left he hadn't fought. In place of their armour, they each wore a quilted jacket like his, which would offer mild protection without injuring anypony's hooves the way that punching a breast-plate would have.
His first opponent stepped into the ring: Rock Steady, a powerfully built grey earth pony. Thunder knew that if he left Rock hit him, he would be in trouble, but he also knew that he was faster than the guard was.
"Let's go!" Thunder declared.
Rock lunged for him, his powerful forehooves striking out. Thunder rolled out the way as the hooves hit the sand, then leapt to his own hooves and lunged before Rock Steady could react. Thunder leapt, barelling into the earth pony and then they were grappling, rolling over and over one another in the sand.
Rock smirked as he ended up on top, pinning Thunder beneath his weight. Then his smile faded, as Thunder smirked right back at him.
"Just where I wanted you," Thunder murmured, before he pushed his head forwards into Rock's face with a crunch. Then he kicked upwards with all four legs at once, launching Rock Steady off of him and into the air. Thunder rolled to one side just as the earth pony came down, hitting the sand with a thud.
"Ugh," Rock moaned, unable to rise.
"Yeah, Thunder!" Kenzi yelled.
Thunder got up, spitting sand out of his mouth. "Who's next?"
A pegasi was next. Thunder got him in a headlock and held him there until he surrendered. Then there was a unicorn, who Thunder eventually picked up and planted head-first into the sand. It wasn't that they were unskilled, precisely, they just didn't have his fire driving them on.
One by one they entered the ring, and one by one he defeated them. Eventually the last pony left, nursing his bruises to both body and pride, and Thunder sat down in the sand circle, alone except for Kenzi.
"Oh, come on," Kenzi said, fluttering in front of his face. "You just beat eight guys and you still look miserable! Lighten up, dude, seriously."
Thunder looked down at his hooves. "Why am I doing this, Kenzi?"
Kenzi shrugged her tiny shoulders. "I dunno. I thought you did it to practice."
"But I'm not learning anything new from fighting the same guys over and over," Thunder said. "All I'm doing is inflating my ego, winning fights so I can tell myself how good I am."
"It certainly isn't making you happy," Kenzi said pointedly.
"No," Thunder agreed. "But then again I'm not sure what would."
"Well I wish you'd think of something, dude, because providing all the cheer in this relationship can be a real drag sometimes," Kenzi muttered. "Sometimes it would be nice if you could make jokes while I mope about how much life sucks."
Thunder snorted. "Yeah, I guess I do kinda hog all the angst to myself, don't I? I'll try and let you have a turn some time."
"Well thank you," Kenzi said. "I have my own problems, you know. Like the fact that when you can alter your appearance at will it can take, like, forever to decide on a hairstyle in the morning. Or the fact that I still can't get my mascara right. Or that I'm stuck with the world's whiniest alicorn as my best friend-"
Thunder chuckled. "Now when you put it like that, you only make me realise how much I have to be thankful for. Like the fact that I only ever wear my mane one way. Or the fact that I don't wear mascara. Or the fact that I have the coolest and most understanding best friend in the world."
Kenzi smiled. "You bet you do, sweet cheeks, and don't ever forget it."
"You'll have to teach me your secret some time."
"The secret to what?"
"Being you." By which Thunder meant that Kenzi could bear her real problems, having no idea of where she came from or if she was the only fairy still existing in the world, without complaint while Thunder let his rancour at his sorrows spill out from him with the regularity of a pot boiling over.
"Oh, I'd love to, Thunder honey, but I'm afraid that nopony has what it takes to be me and it would probably kill you to try."
Thunder picked himself up off the ground. "We should probably-"
"There you are!"
Thunder looked up at the stairway leading down into the armoury. There, at the top of the stairs, stood a cream-coloured unicorn, glaring at him from the one blue eye that wasn't obscured by her blonde bangs. She was wearing the blue uniform of the military police: her jacket was double breasted with silver buttons, which would have marked her out as a pony of import even if he hadn't noticed the lieutenant's insignia on her epaulettes or the silver unicorn's head pinned to her collar which designated the Flying Squad, the elite within the elite or so it was said.
Thunder straightened up slightly. "Something I can help you with, lieutenant?"
The unicorn scowled as she trotted down the stairs. Her cutie mark, Thunder noticed, was a star map, the various stars joined by white lines such as a teacher might draw to illustrate where the constellations where.
"You can help me understand what you thought your were doing giving orders to two members of the Military Police!" Her voice was rich, surprisingly deep, sultry almost. And very angry too, angry most of all.
Thunder snorted. "That didn't take very long. Do you teach all your soldiers to go howling to their superiors the moment they don't get their own way?"
"We teach them to report to their officers when somepony interferes in their duties," the lieutenant snapped.
"Their duties?" Thunder laughed. "They were bullying an old mare in the streets, I put a stop to it. Is behaving like petty tyrants part of the job description of the police now?"
"That's not the point," the lieutenant snapped. "You have no right to issue orders to the Military Police! You're not in our chain of command."
"I'm Princess Luna's student," Thunder said.
"That doesn't give you or Princess Luna any authority over the Mil-"
"Yes, yes, Military Police, the awesomest thing since the word awesome," Kenzi said. "We know already, give it a rest."
The lieutenant's bangs parted slightly, allowing her glare at Kenzi with her other icy blue eye.
"Or I could just be quiet and, y'know, hide behind Thunder," Kenzi murmured, fluttering behind Thunder's head and whispering in his ear. "I don't think she likes me very much."
"You know who I am, but I don't know you," Thunder muttered. "It would have been pilot to have introduced yourself before barging in her throwing accusations around."
The lieutenant stiffened. "My name is Lieutenant Stargazer, with the Flying Squad." Her body was lean and taut, defined muscles showing on her legs and chest. Even her face looked more hard than soft. Even her eyes were cold.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant," Thunder said. "My name's Thunder Shield, personal student to Princess Luna. But then you already knew that, didn't you? Was it you want from me? I'm guessing it isn't just a chance to vent."
"I want an apology, delivered to the corps as a whole and to the officers concerned," Stargazer said.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't grovel, not to the Military Police and certainly not when I didn't do anything wrong," Thunder growled. He looked her over again. She looked strong and capable, the Military Police only accepted the top ten graduates from each graduating class of Royal Guard trainees, and entrance to the Flying Squad was by invitation only. And he'd never sparred with her before. "I'll tell you what, how would you like to make this interesting?"
"How?" Stargazer asked warily.
"If you can beat me in the ring, I'll give you your apology," Thunder said. "But if I win, then you have to discipline those two soldiers of yours for their actions to the old mare. Do we have a deal?"
Stargazer stared at the sand duelling ring for a moment. Then a smirk spread across her face. "Are you sure? Don't underestimate me just 'cause I'm in the Military Police."
"I'll try and hold back my disdain," Thunder replied.
Stargazer stepped into the circle, her horn glowing as she took off her uniform coat and put in on the ground a safe distance outside the ring. "So, what are the rules? No magic, I suppose."
"No magic, no flying and no moves designed to kill or maim," Thunder said. "Other than that, anything goes."
Kenzi hastily flew out of the ring, then started waving her little flags again. "Go, Thunder! Show her who's boss!"
"I'm sorry about that," Thunder muttered.
Stargazer chuckled. "It's fine. I just wish I had a cheering section."
"You think you need one?" Thunder asked playfully. "I hope you have a charge sheet ready for those two goons."
"And I hope you've started planning your apology," Stargazer replied. "Now: begin!"
That was usually his line. Thunder smirked. His hooves scraped upon the sand as she settled into position, then dust flew up all around him as he lunged straight for her. Stargazer stood still, ready to recieve him, a mountain in the face of a hurricane.
Thunder roared as he prepared to hit her head on, bowling her over with the force of his charge.
Stargazer's knees bent, her whole profile lowering seconds before Thunder struck. Thunder's charge hit home, but he couldn't account for her ducking and was left a lot higher than she was. Like a kraken erupting out of the deep Stargazer rose, lifting her right side up and rolling even as she slammed one hoof into Thunder's underbelly. Thunder winced in pain as he was lifted up into the air, flipped over Stargazer's back, and planted on the sand with his legs in the air.
Stargazer's one visible eye was cold as she raised one hoof to hit him between the eyes for a knockout blow. Thunder rolled sideways as her hoof slammed into the sand, scrambling to his hooves.
"Surprised?" Stargazer asked.
"They didn't teach you that in training," Thunder replied.
"That's right, they didn't," Stargazer said. "But don't expect me to give away any secrets."
Thunder didn't reply to that, he was more focussed on planning what he would do next. He circled around the edge of the arena, his movements careful and precise, the sand shifting minutely in response to his tread. Deeper inside the circle, Stargazer watched him, turning so as to keep him in view at all times. But she did not attack.
Hmm, I wonder. Thunder went for her again, not with a full-blooded charge this time but with a more probing advance, slower, more careful, just until she came within range of his hooves. He reared up to kick out with his forehooves.
This time it was Stargazer's turn to roll, covering her body in sand as she dived out of the way of his strike. She rose swiftly back to her hooves and counterattacked, one hoof lashing out towards Thunder's face.
Thunder blocked, his hoof aching where it collided with hers, and retreated a few steps. Stargazer did not pursue.
Thunder waited. She did not come. He attacked again, and again she fended him off but did no more than that. Twice more Thunder tested her defences and found them solid, twice more Stargazer would counterattack, but would not follow him when he retreated. She seemed absolutely defensive, with either no willingness or ability to risk herself in attack.
He could use that.
With a howl, Thunder leapt for her, landing on his forehooves before spinning on them, pirouetting so that his hind legs were in position to kick hard for Stargazer's face. He felt something grab his legs and pull on them, Stargazer trying to flip him over her like she had before. Thunder smirked, and bucked like a bull at a rodeo. Stargazer yelped as she was hurled into the air, flying over Thunder before landing on her back in front of him. Thunder reared, his forehooves flying. Stargazer kicked upwards, catching him in the belly and tossing him upwards as all his breath left him. Thunder's eyes began to water as he flew upwards and then landed back again on all fours.
Stargazer got up, panting a little and covered in sweat and sand, and at last she attacked him.
Both ponies rose up onto their hind legs, slugging it out with forehooves flying. Stargazer's blows where like hammers against Thunder's guard, while his every punch was like an avalanche descending. She kicked him on the nose, he got her on the jaw, their guards slipped as they started to have trouble breathing, sweat making the sand stick to their bodies. Thunder's head was ringing, his opponent was a blur, but he kept on going. He wouldn't lose, his pride wouldn't allow it.
And then Stargazer dropped to the ground, raising one hoof in the air. "Okay, okay, I give up. You win."
"Woohoo!" Kenzi cheered. "Suck it!"
"Kenzi, that's enough," Thunder said firmly. He shook his head to clear it a little. "Nopony has ever pushed me that hard before."
"I'm glad," Stargazer said, getting up.
"There's a towel over there, if you want it."
"Isn't that yours?"
"Ladies first," Thunder said in between breaths.
"Thanks," Stargazer said as she levitated the towel over to her and started wiping herself down. "I'll still need a bath, but at least I can walk down the street without looking like a total disgrace. What about you, what will Princess Luna say if she sees you like this?"
Thunder shrugged. "Hopefully she won't see. Now, about those two guys."
"I'll reprimand them for their behaviour," Stargazer said resignedly. "My superiors won't like it, but a deal's a deal. I lost and that's all there is too it." She put her jacket back on. "But don't take that as license to keep interefering in Military Police business. I've got my eye on you, Thunder Shield."
"I'll try and keep an eye out for you two, Lieutenant," Thunder said. "If you don't mind me saying, I think you're wasted in the Military Police, though I can see why the Flying Squad wanted you with skills like that."
Stargazer chuckled. "Actually, I was recruited for the Flying Squad as a tactical planner, my combat skills are strictly secondary."
Thunder's eyebrows rose. She's almost beaten him, and her combat skills were secondary? "You must be one heck of a planner."
"You'd better believe it," Stargazer said, starting up the steps towards the door. Thunder watched her go. She paused in the doorway. "And by the way, quit checking out my flank."
And then she was gone.
Kenzi flew over to hover by Thunder Shield's ear. "Well, she was full of herself. 'Quit checking out my flank.' Huh. As if."
"I kinda was," Thunder admitted.
"Really?" Kenzi exclaimed. "Why, she looked terrible. All that muscle."
Thunder shrugged. "I sort of like the athletic type."
Kenzi raised an eyebrow at him. "You are very strange. I didn't like her."
"Because she had muscle?"
"Because she was arrogant," Kenzi said. "Did you even listen to her?"
"Anypony who can nearly take me in a fight has a right to a little bit of arrogance," Thunder said. "Come on, I need to go wash up."
Fortunately it was not until after he had bathed the sweat and sand off of him that Thunder encountered Princess Luna, attired in all her royal regalia, waiting for him in his room. She had his wardrobe open, examining the Hipparchian armour that her guards had recovered from the wreckage of Thunder's home. Had he caught anypony else snooping around through his things, especially the Royal Armour of his home, Thunder would have given them the rough side of his tongue at least, but with Princess Luna it was, as with so much else where she was concerned, different.
Thunder stood upon the threshold of his room and bowed. Kenzi, fluttering by the side of his head, did likewise.
"Your Highness," Thunder said quietly. "I'm sorry if I kept you waiting. I didn't know that you wanted to see me."
"Indeed not," Luna murmured, not looking at him. "I imagine you wanted a good wash, considering how much more strenuous than usual your workout was."
Thunder blinked. "Princess, you-"
"How could I rule Equestria if I did not even know what went on in my own palace?" Luna asked, turning to face him with a slight smile. "While I cannot approve of regularly brawling with members of the Military Police, I must say I am quite glad you won. I don't know if I could have born the smugness of the First Minister's face if his mare had beaten you."
"I'm glad that I didn't disappoint you, Your Highness."
Luna frowned. "Thunder Shield, there is no need to constantly address me so formally. Princess Luna will do if you must, but will you not consider-"
"Your Highness," Thunder interrupted her, his tone flat and level. "I am very grateful for all that you have done for me. I feel a great affection for you, and I am honoured to be your student. But I had a mother, and even though she's gone I do not want another."
There was silence in the room.
"I see," Luna said quietly. "In any case, I came here with a purpose: I have an assignment for the both of you."
Thunder's eyebrows rose. "An assignment?"
"Tomorrow, a class of Royal Guard trainees will graduate from their training in the town of Ponyville," Luna said. "Celestia and I will be presiding over the ceremony."
"Celestia?" Kenzi exclaimed. "But she's, like, a total shut-in, she never goes anywhere."
Luna stared at her.
"I mean, um, everyone knows Princess Celestia never leaves her room," Kenzi said quietly.
"I am hoping that this ceremony will be the beginning of drawing her out again," Luna said. "It is time that she got out of her room and back into the country."
"Was her room full of cats?" Kenzi asked.
"Kenzi," Luna admonished warningly.
"I'll stop now," Kenzi said, her voice barely higher than a whisper.
Luna cleared her throat. "I am sending you to Ponyville ahead of us, to make sure that everything is in order to tomorrow's ceremony. I have already ordered a chariot prepared and accomodation readied in the headquarters for you."
"Why me, Your Highness?" Thunder asked.
"Because Celestia isn't the only one who needs to come out of her shell," Luna replied pointedly. "A little more than a hundred years ago, Celestia sent Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville with instructions to make some friends. It would be nice if you could make some progress on that front as well."
Thunder said nothing, let the tigthening around his jaw speak for him.
"You disapprove," Luna remarked.
"What did having friends do for Twilight Sparkle?" Thunder asked. "What did being her friend do for Lady Rarity or the other heroes? Twilight Sparkle died alone, and her friends spent the rest of thier lives with broken hearts because she was gone. Princess Celestia has been in mourning ever since because she cared too much. I had everypony I cared about ripped away from me and it still hasn't gotten any better. What does friendship do but open your heart to pain and suffering?"
"Hey!" Kenzi yelled.
"Yes, there is sadness, I will not deny it," Princess Luna said, a soft sigh the only chink in her armour of dignity. "But there is joy as well, happiness and peace and fulfilment. If you had asked Lady Rarity whether she considered the pain of Twilight Sparkle's passing to be worth the joy that being her friend brought into Rarity's life I guarantee she would have answered yes. Nopony can live alone, Thunder. It may be easier to go through life with a heart closed and frozen, but if you do you will find that you merely endure life, you do not live it."
Thunder thought of Lightning Strike, his best friend growing up. He remembered how she'd screamed for help and he'd been too scared to do anything. Just thinking about it made him shudder. He would rather endure than suffer that pain again.
But he bowed once more, and said, "I will do as you command, Princess Luna."
"I can ask no more," Luna replied. "Your chariot leaves in one hour, I suggest you start getting ready. Give my regards to Mayor Scootaloo when you arrive."
"I will, Princess," Thunder promised.
"Good, then I will see you tomorrow. Good luck." And with that, Luna was gone.
The next thing Thunder knew something was burning his ear.
"Agh," Thunder recoiled from the sensation, turning his head to see rainbow-coloured sparks flying from Kenzi's hands. "What the hay, Kenz?"
Kenzi's hair had turned a fiery red. "'What does friendship do but open your heart to pain and suffering?' Dude, seriously?"
"Huh?"
"Am I or am I not your BFF?" Kenzi demanded, planting her tiny hands upon her hips. "Or is that just a game you play to keep me happy? Because I thought that it was you and me, in it together, besties; and now you just turn round and say that you don't give buck about us, about me?"
"That's not what I meant, Kenzi," Thunder said.
"Well it's what it sounded like to me," Kenzi replied.
"But its not how it is," Thunder shouted. "Maybe, in an ideal world, it would be. But this world isn't ideal, far from it, and it turns out I'm not strong enough to be that guy. I can't shut you out, Kenzi. Maybe it would be better for both of us if I could but, I can't. You're too deep beneath my skin." Thunder laughed darkly. "You're my weakness, Kenz."
Kenzi's furious expression melted into one of compassion. "Aww, come here, big guy." She buried herself in his mane, her body warming the top of his head as she wrapped her around his horn. "You won't ever have a reason to regret letting me in, okay? I won't ever give you reason to regret it. You're not getting rid of me, Thunder Shield."
"Just don't get hurt, okay?" Thunder asked, trying to see her and failing. "If anything happened to you...I couldn't handle it."
"Don't worry, big fella, you've got my back," Kenzi said. "Like I got yours."
Thunder laughed. "Yeah, you do, don't you? I suppose, with less than an hour to go, we'd better start packing for Ponyville."
The chariot descended through the clouds towards the fortress-town of Ponyville. Looking at the walls of brown mud-brick, walls as high as a dozen ponies standing on each other's backs and topped with sharp stakes and high watchtowers, surrounding the whole area it was strange to imagine that they had ever not been there, that there had been a time when Ponyville had been a peaceful, quiet settlement. Yet the histories assured Thunder that there had indeed been such a time. In Twilight Sparkle's day, it was said, Ponyville had resounded to the sounds of laughter and song; the princess and the five heroes of Equestria had made it a place of joy and harmony.
No more. Now, Ponyville was primarily notable as a staging point for the Royal Guard, where supplies where stored for rangings out across the central plain, and for being one of the three locations - along with Appleloosa to the south and Tall Lake to the north - where new batches of recruits were based until their training was complete. Even the famous apple orchards, whose fame had once spread far and wide, were mostly gone now, the ground converted to military purposes. Only a fraction of the original ground remained as farmland, while the nation's main breadbasket - or apple-basket - now lay further south.
As the chariot came down, it was easy to see which buildings belonged to Old Ponyville, and which were part of the new military settlement. The older buildings had a rustic charm that could not be completely dimmed by their new neighbours, nor had the bright colours of their paintwork wholly faded, nor the heart motifs been eradicated from all sight. The new buildings had no paint, no charm and certainly no hearts. They were harsh, unadorned and warlike places built for harsh, unadorned and warlike ponies.
Thunder frowned. He had read all the arguments, heard some of them with his own ears from the First Minister when he and Princess Luna...had involved discussions. He knew from his studies every step that Equestria had taken down the garden path to reach this point. He knew all the justifications given for those decisions: the Elements of Harmony where no more, Princess Twilight was dead, there was no champion to defend Equestria and, even if there had been, the survival of the world was too important to let rest upon the shoulders of one alicorn and her friends. The world was a more dangerous place, threats to the safety and survival of everypony where ever-present, therefore the defence of the realm must be ever-present too. With Princess Celestia withdrawn from the cares of state, it was up to ordinary ponies to step into the breach.
Thunder knew all the reasons, and the danger was not wholly illusory: he had accompanied Princess Luna on a ranging along the Unicorn Range, and certainly there were perils out there in the dark and wild: creatures that would devour the unwary, wicked souls who would prey on the weak. But, even when he took all of that into account, Thunder could not help but feel that more had been lost than had been gained.
"This is it?" Kenzi asked from where she sat on top of Thunder's head, holding onto his mane. "This is the town that Princess Twilight came from? It looks terrible!"
"She didn't come from here," Thunder corrected. "She was born in Canterlot, but she lived here in her zenith, when she was at the height of her powers."
"How can anypony reach the height of their powers in a place this run down and miserable?" Kenzi asked.
"It wasn't like that then," Thunder replied. "Not if the books are right, anyway."
The chariot landed, the wheels bumping a little before they scraped across the grass. Thunder leapt off, and saluted the two pegasi who had flown him here. They saluted in return, then took off again, banking back towards Canterlot before Thunder lost sight of them in the clouds.
“So what do you think we’ll actually have to do here?” Kenzi asked.
Thunder shrugged. “Technically you don’t have to do anything; Princess Luna’s instructions were for me. But, to answer your question: I don’t know. I guess we’ll see how prepared they already are once we get inside.”
There was a gate into Ponyville set into each of the four walls, the only ways in or out. Flying over the walls was forbidden. On a post, about a dozen feet from the gate, was nailed a list of all the other things that were also forbidden by royal decree, which Thunder had learned from his time in the palace meant that the First Minister had drawn up a proposal and Princess Celestia had fixed her seal upon it without actually reading what it said.
The list itself was short, the same sort of things one saw in Canterlot: all ponies must be home before curfew, no public gatherings of more than ten ponies except on official business, no private gatherings of more than six, obey the instructions of members of the Royal Guard and Military Police without hesitation, no spreading of malcontent or sedition either by written or by spoken word or any form of communication that could be construed as discontented or harmful to the administration.
Thunder was reminded of something his mother had said to him one day, when she had found him playing soldiers with Lightning Strike. ‘It is a brave and noble thing, to be prepared to fight to protect others,’ she had said. ‘But if all that you can do is fight, if you cannot put down your spear when the battle is over, but must look at once for other battles, then what were you fighting for in the first place?’ He did not entirely agree with her, but that was because to Thunder the question was better applied to peoples than to individuals. For some ponies such as he, who had nothing to live for, it was a noble cause to dedicate their lives to the protection of the more fortunate. But if the whole nation of Equestria did nothing but constantly ready itself for battle then what were its defenders really fighting to protect, and did such a country deserve to survive?
“Harmful to the administration,” Kenzi read aloud. “So does that mean if I yell ‘The First Minister sucks!’ I’ll get arrested?”
“I wouldn’t let that happen,” Thunder said. “But, technically, if anypony heard you then yes, they would have to take you in.”
“Good thing there’s nopony to hear me then, I guess,” Kenzi said. “Aren’t there supposed to be guards on that gate?”
Thunder’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the gaping open gateway. There was nopony in sight, either on the gate or the battlements above. He could just walk right into Ponyville unchallenged and unnoticed.
Thunder sighed. “I think this is the kind of thing I’m supposed to make sure doesn’t happen when the princesses arrive tomorrow.”
Kenzi fluttered near Thunder’s eye. “Maybe they’re just on a break?”
“They’re on guard duty, they don’t get a break,” Thunder said harshly. “Let’s go.” He stomped towards the gateway, Kenzi fluttering along beside him, the beating of her gossamer wings leaving a silvery trail in the air behind her. She had given herself blue-green highlights today, which hung down framing her face, while keeping most of her hair inky black. She was dressed in a padded jacket with a red skirt that stopped just before her knees and platform boots. A tiny sword, about the size of a toothpick, was strapped across her back, though Thunder wasn’t sure what Kenzi thought she was going to do with it. He half suspected that it was there simply to look cool.
They reached the gate, and Thunder looked around. “Guard?” he shouted. “Is anypony there?”
Two ponies hurriedly rushed round the corner of the nearest watchtower and into view. One was an earth pony, with a dark green coat and rose-red eyes, the other a pegasus with a light blue coat and a spiky black mane. Neither stallion was wearing his helmet, though they both still had their cuirasses on. Their armour was white, rather than the adorned and gilded armour of the Guard, which marked them out as trainees. Thunder himself was wearing similar armour, but in black trimmed with the slightest hints of gold.
The two trainees, who looked to be about Thunder’s own age but at nowhere near his level of skill, eyed him warily.
“Um, can we help you…sir?” the earth pony asked.
“You can help me by telling me what in Equestria you two think you’re doing,” Thunder snapped. “You’re supposed to be on guard at this post, aren’t you?”
“Yes sir,” the pegasus confessed.
“Then where the hay where you?” Thunder demanded. His whole body was shaking with anger at these two. “Gate wide open, no guard mounted, are you two kidding me? Did you join the Royal Guard because you thought this was a game? Names, both of you!”
The two snapped to attention. The earth pony shouted, “Rosethorn, sir!” Thunder noted that his cutie mark was a rose which did indeed have several very spiky thorns.
“Sketch, sir!” the pegasus yelled.
Thunder scowled. “I trust you two idiots know why this town has a wall. I trust you know why it has a gate that can be shut. I trust you know why the gate has to be guarded.”
“Thunder,” Kenzi murmured. “Maybe you should take it easy.”
But Thunder was in no mood to stop now. “It’s to protect the ponies who live inside the walls from anypony or anything who might want to hurt them. When they see that armour, they trust you to keep them safe. They trust their lives to you. Do you feel worthy of that trust right now?”
“No, sir,” Rosethorn murmured.
“I should hope not!” Thunder roared. “Because if I had been an enemy I could have walked right through here and started killing. That is why you stay at your post, that is why you keep careful watch, because if you don’t then ponies die! Do you understand me?” Thunder fought to keep the memories at bay: the fire, the smoke, the screaming. Lightning Strike crying out for help, his mother telling him to run, all because the watch had grown lax and the vigil had faltered. That would not happen in Equestria, not while he was around.
“Is there a problem here, sir?”
Thunder started at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. He looked around to see a unicorn of the guard – his armour proclaimed him to be a full guardspony, not a trainee – trotting down the road towards him from town. He was a grey unicorn with a fiery red mane and golden eyes that gazed on Thunder with suspicion. The sir he had stuck at the end of his address sounded forced, present as insurance rather than out of respect.
Thunder snorted. “My name is Thunder Shield, I’m Princess Luna’s personal student. This is my friend Kenzi.”
“Yo, what’s up?” Kenzi said.
Sketch gasped. “What is that thing?”
“This thing is named Kenzi,” Kenzi replied sharply. “I’m a fairy, deal with it.”
“Easy there, I didn’t mean nothing by it,” Sketch said. “I’m sorry, I just…I’ve never seen a fairy before. This is so cool.”
“Oh yeah, you’d better believe it,” Kenzi said, primping her hair and twirling in mid-air. “Coolest fairy ever.”
Sketch leaned in, grinning like an idiot. “Can I ask-“
“Ahem,” the unicorn said. “Perhaps before we get too off track somepony could explain to me what all the yelling was about? Even if you are the Princess’ student, what right does it give you to harass my little ponies?”
“Their royal highnesses, Princesses Celestia and Luna, will be visiting Ponyville tomorrow to oversee the graduation ceremony for this training corps,” Thunder said, side-eyeing Rosethorn and Sketch as he did so. He could scarcely believe that these two would become fully fledged members of the Royal Guard tomorrow. “I’ve been sent here to ensure that everything is in proper readiness for their arrival. So far, I am not finding this garrison up to the proper standards.”
The unicorn stiffened his posture. “If you have a problem with my trainees, you come to me and I bust their flanks over it. You don’t cut out the middlemare and do it yourself.”
“Oh, really?” Thunder muttered. “And who are you?”
“Sergeant Blade Song, 109th Training Corps,” Blade Song said. His cutie mark was a golden harp with a sword running through it. “And if you have a problem you can take it up with me.”
“Okay then,” Thunder growled. “These two ponies give the impression of being lazy, careless and undisciplined. Would you say that they are representative of your unit, sergeant?”
“No, sir, I would not,” Blade Song said formally. “You may rest assured that the matter will be dealt with appropriately.”
“Sergeant-“ Rosethorn began.
“Silence in the ranks!” Blade yelled. “See me after your shift is over and I’ll deal with the pair of you!”
“Yes, sergeant,” Sketch muttered.
Blade stared at Thunder with a level gaze. “Will that be all, sir?”
“For now,” Thunder muttered.
“Thank you, sir.”
Thunder snorted. “Kenzi, let’s go.” He walked off without waiting for her to reply, leaving her to fly after him as he walked into Ponyville.
“Thunder, wait up,” Kenzi shouted. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Don’t those clowns realise how serious their job is?” Thunder demanded.
“I kinda liked that pegasus,” Kenzi said.
“And I’m sure the fact that he gave you a compliment has nothing to do with that at all,” Thunder replied.
“Yup, not at all,” Kenzi said happily.
Not too far from the gate was a signpost giving directions to the barracks, stores, parade ground, town hall and to the Museum of Twilight Sparkle and Friends. Thunder headed for the town hall, Kenzi following along; it was only common courtesy to call first upon the mayor.
The town hall of Ponyville was probably the best maintained building in the whole of the old town. While some buildings had been left derelict, and others had only their own residents to lavish attention on them, there was still some civic resource available to keep the seat of government from though it was going to fall down at any moment. Instead, the hall looked as good as such an old building could be expected too; though it had not escaped the ravages of a hundred years or the fading that seemed to have swept across all of Equestria since Princess Celestia’s seclusion.
Thunder trotted up the steps and knocked on the door with one hoof.
After a moment, the door opened a fraction and a harassed-looking earth pony with a lemon-yellow mane peeked out.
Thunder bowed his head. “Good afternoon. My name is Thunder Shield and I-“
“Ah, yes, Princess Luna’s student,” the mare said. “Yes, Her Highness sent word. Mayor Scootaloo has been expecting you. Loudly.”
“Who is it?” demanded a loud, slightly hoarse voice from inside.
“Princess Luna’s student has arrived, ma’am,” the mare replied.
“Well, show him in here, then!”
The mare rolled her eyes as she opened the door. “Come in.”
“Thank you,” Thunder said, as he followed her into the hall. The inside was already decorated in expectation of the arrival of the Princesses, with royal banners hanging from the balcony and ponies scurrying to and fro to hang up additional decorations. Thunder and Kenzi were shown into a private office just off the main floor, where an ancient pegasus sat in a wheelchair, her orange coat wrinkled and lined, her mane gone so grey and white there was scarce a scrap of purple to be seen. Her cutie mark, Thunder could not see; it was blocked by the chair in which she sat. Her eyes, though, her purple eyes seemed as sharp as that of any younger mare.
“Mayor Scootaloo, I presume,” Thunder said.
“Well of course I am, who else would I be?” Scootaloo snapped. To her assistant she said, “You can leave now, I don’t need assistance to carry on a conversation.”
The mare rolled her eyes as she backed out of the room, closing the office door behind her. Thunder stood still as any statue in the palace gardens, Kenzi hovering quietly beside him.
"So, you're Princess Luna's student," Scootaloo remarked, after observing him quietly for a while. "I can't say I'm impressed."
Thunder heard Kenzi growl, but for himself he said nothing.
Scootaloo turned her gaze on Kenzi. "And who is this?"
"Well at least you didn't say 'What is this' like some ponies," Kenzi spat. "My name's Kenzi, and do you have to be such a jerk to everyone?"
Scootaloo chuckled. "Probably not, but if you'd had to watch your home change as much as I have you'd be a little cranky too." She sighed, looking at one wall and, by her action, drawing Thunder's gaze there too. A flight suit hung there, one of the old Wonderbolt suits from before they were disbanded if Thunder remembered his history correctly. Beside it hung a gilt-framed photograph showing a pegasus whom Thunder recognised as Lady Rainbow Dash in her prime. Beside her stood a young filly who must have been Scootaloo. Despite that it was Rainbow Dash wearing the Wonderbolt uniform, complete with a captain's wings upon her collar, it was Scootaloo who was doing all the smiling in the picture. Rainbow herself looked distinctly sombre, a melancholy in her eyes that Thunder recognised from when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
"Lady Rainbow Dash," Kenzi murmured.
"Just call her Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo said. "She'd have hated being called Lady. But yeah, that's her. My adopted big sister, captain of the Wonderbolts. It should have been the happiest day of her life and she couldn't even raise a smile. Then she quit after two years. After that day, nothing could really make any of them happy."
"Princess Twilight died a hero, saving this land from a great evil," Thunder said. "Wasn't that enough to comfort them?"
"Dead is still dead," Kenzi murmured. "Knowing it was a brave end doesn't help your best friend live without you." Thunder shuffled his hooves a little, unable to meet her gaze.
"Your fairy friend gets it better than you do," Scootaloo said. "Twilight was gone, the how didn't matter. It left a whole in all their hearts. In all our hearts." She looked downwards, her eyes darkening with misery. "If she'd lived, things would have been different around here. She would have stopped a lot of what Equestria has become."
"No matter what mistakes have been made by this country, in the end it still is a country full of living ponies," Thunder replied mildly. "If Twilight had lived, Grogar might have destroyed Equestria. I don't mean to criticise, but I can't help but feel that her friends should have honoured her memory better by living in her name."
"Hah!" Kenzi scoffed. "Say that again when you start to enjoy your life."
"I-" Thunder began, but found he was unable to tell the outrageous lie.
"Exactly!" Kenzi cried triumphantly.
Scootaloo chuckled. "Giving advice is easier than taking it, isn't it?"
"Very much so," Thunder muttered.
Scootaloo chuckled again. "Look at this," she said as she opened up a draw of her desk, and took out a six-sided box, shaped like two hexagonal pyramids stuck together, with six keyholes one on each side. With one trembling hoof, Scootaloo set the box upon her desk.
"What is it?" Kenzi asked. "Looks pretty secure, do you keep your gold in it or something?"
"This box came out of the Tree of Harmony, after they all gave the Elements back," Scootaloo answered. "Twilight was sure that there was something valuable inside, something useful too, but she never did figure out how to get it open. When Grogar came, she thought that what was in the box might give her the key to defeat him, but he didn't give her the time she needed. He moved too fast, hurt too many, Twilight didn't have time to sit around working on the problem."
"Did anypony ever manage to open it?" Thunder asked.
Scootaloo shook her head. "None of Twilight's friends really cared after Twilight died. Me and my friends took the box, we thought we might get our cutie marks if we could get it open, but we lost interest after a while. Apple Bloom kept it as a curiosity, then Sweetie Belle had it, then it came to me. When I go it'll probably get thrown out as worthless junk. I suppose it is worthless junk after all this time, unless you want it?"
Thunder shook his head. "No, thank you madam mayor. I don't need any more ghosts."
"I suppose you're right," Scootaloo said, putting the box away. She affixed the pair of them with a stern gaze. "Tell me, you two, do you believe that the path Equestria has taken is the best road that could have been chosen?"
Thunder and Kenzi looked at one another.
Thunder said, "Honestly, no, I don't."
Kenzi shook her head. "Everypony's so grim, they need to lighten up."
Scootaloo smiled. "If Equestria can be changed for the better it will be up to you young ponies to change it. Remember that."
Thunder nodded. "I will."
"Now, if you'll excuse me," Scootaloo muttered in between yawning loudly. "I'm very old, and I need my nap."
***
The next place Thunder and Kenzi went was the storehouse, to make sure that there were enough supplies to put on a good show for their highnesses. The stores were kept inside a hollowed out tree, that looked as though it had once served a different purpose judging by details like the balcony which had no place in what was a glorified warehouse. On said balcony Thunder could see stacks of lances leaning on one another, roped together with points sticking upwards towards the clouds.
“This doesn’t look like any of the other buildings the guards have put up,” Kenzi said. “For one thing I can actually look at it without wanting to flinch from how ugly it is.”
“They’ve definitely appropriated something else for this,” Thunder muttered, frowning a little. “I think…no, it can’t be.”
“What?” Kenzi asked.
“I think this is the library where Princess Twilight lived,” Thunder said, his jaw tightening. “Yes, a living tree, it has to be.”
“Really? I would have thought it would be a museum or something,” Kenzi said quietly. “I wonder what they did with all the books.”
“I wouldn’t put it past the kind of ponies who would turn a library into a quartermaster’s stores to have burnt the books,” Thunder said, his voice cold.
Kenzi flew out in front of Thunder, turning in the air to look back at him. “This bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“A society without culture doesn’t deserve to survive,” Thunder growled. “If Equestria is nothing but row on row of soldiers then what are they defending? One another? What’s the point?”
“You’re the one who trains like a maniac,” Kenzi remarked, pointedly. “You tell me what the point of it all is. What is it for? Why do you do it?”
“I train so that I can fight to protect others, but I would gladly fight all alone as the sole champion of Equestria if it meant that everypony else could live peaceful lives,” Thunder said firmly. “Strength is only strong if it’s being used in the service of something greater, something finer. To admire strength for its own sake…that way lies horror.” Thunder’s green eyes closed for a moment, memories threatening to overwhelm him.
”No! Why are you doing this?”
“Why? Why? You ask me for a reason? Does the worm ask the bird why he is being devoured? I am the superior mare, set apart from ordinary ponies, elevated by greatness above the petty laws and morals of this world and given the strength and will to transform it! My ability to slay all of these pathetic creatures…is proof that they deserved to die.”
“I don’t want to live anyplace where that kind of attitude is considered normal, or good.” Thunder sighed, shaking his head slowly from side to side to dispel the memory. “Come on, let’s make sure everything is in order.”
As Thunder walked towards the door, Kenzi said, “Do you think Princess Luna wants Princess Celestia to see this? Maybe she thinks that, if Princess Celestia sees what’s going on here, then she’ll put a stop to it.”
Thunder considered that. “That might be what she’s aiming for, but I’m not sure how much even Princess Celestia can really do about this. A hundred years is a little late to try stuffing the toothpaste back in the tube.”
The door to the storehouse was open, so Thunder went straight inside without troubling to knock. Kenzi followed, hovering just over Thunder’s ear. The main chamber was round, one set of stairs leading up to the second floor and a door leading down to the cellar. The room was dark, lit by only a single orange lantern, and cobwebs had made their homes where the walls met the ceiling. Barrels and crates were piled up against the walls, the labels HARD TACK, APPLES, HORSE SHOES or BANDAGES written on the sides in thick black letters. Spears were tied up in bundles like bales of hay; tents were rolled up and piled on top of one another. Everything was covered in a layer of dust which made Kenzi cough and splutter.
“Do you want to wait outside?” Thunder asked. “You might feel better.”
“I’ll be fine,” Kenzi said, though her coughing gave the lie to it.
Thunder heard somepony coming up the cellar steps. Unfortunately, that somepony turned out to be Prince Dusk Shine, levitating a large crate with PROPERTY OF THE MILITARY POLICE written on it in front of him.
“I wonder how the Military Police ended up leaving stuff here,” Prince Dusk murmured to himself before he caught sight of Thunder. “You,” he half whispered, half snarled.
Thunder bared his teeth. “Yes, me.”
Kenzi rolled her eyes. “Oh, boy, here we go.”
Dusk Shine dropped the box he had been carrying. The Prince of the Crystal Empire was a lanky stallion, taller by a head than Thunder was, with a dark pink coat and a purple mane streaked with gold and – one of the few signs of Prince Shining Armour in his appearance – blue. His uniform was pristine, absolutely untouched by the dust all around. Some thought the prince handsome, though Kenzi said his face was too long and Thunder could see what she meant, even allowing for the fact that Kenzi was the only person he knew who thought that ‘he has a face like a horse’ wasn’t a compliment. His lavender eyes narrowed as his posture stiffened.
“What do you want?” Dusk demanded, his voice stuffy, rich and full of Dusk’s great importance and high status.
“Princess Luna sent me to make an inspection ahead of her arrival tomorrow,” Thunder said, running one hoof across the lid of a dusty barrel. “So far, I’m not impressed.”
Dusk’s eyes widened slightly. “Princess Luna is coming here?”
Thunder smiled. “And Princess Celestia, too.”
Dusk swallowed. “Sergeant? Sergeant, get up here!”
“What is it?” a low, grouchy voice demanded, accompanied by the sounds of heavy hoof-falls. “And where do you get off giving me orders?” The quartermaster sergeant hauled his decaying bulk up the steps and glared at the young prince.
“Their highnesses are arriving here tomorrow,” Dusk cried. “We have to get this place presentable.”
The quartermaster rolled his eyes. “Princesses, that’s just what we need. Why can’t those stupid mares mind their own business.”
Thunder’s hoof came down so hard it cracked the floorboards underneath it.
“Now you’ve gone and done it,” Kenzi murmured.
“Hey, old guy,” Thunder snapped.
“Yeah? What?”
Thunder’s voice was sharp as a knife. “My name is Thunder Shield. There are a lot of things I hate, but ignorant and ungrateful ponies showing disrespect to Princess Luna is definitely one of them. Say something like that again and I’ll bounce you down those steps so hard you’ll be out cold for a week.”
The quartermaster opened his mouth, but before he could speak he was silenced by the power of Thunder’s murderous glare. He wilted beneath it, seeming to realise that even a peep out of him would invite an attack.
“I, uh, I’ll go see if I can find a broom,” the stallion muttered, retreating out of sight back into the cellar.
Dusk looked at Thunder. “So, how’s your temper nowadays?”
“He’s handling it,” Kenzi said. “The same as your ego.”
Dusk sniffed in annoyance.
“I see you’ve found somewhere comfortable to spend your training,” Thunder observed.
“Comfortable? Comfortable?” Dusk scoffed. “You think carrying heavy loads around a dusty room is comfortable? Maybe you should try it sometime. Still, I can’t deny that it’s better than being out there on the parade ground. But once I graduate top of the class and join the Military Police, then I’ll be able to experience true comfort, real luxury.”
“Yeah, because defending Equestria is for rubes, am I right?” Thunder asked.
“Just because you’re in a hurry to get yourself killed doesn’t mean the same goes for everypony,” Dusk snapped. “Anypony here would do the same in my position.”
“Then no wonder Equestria is in the state it’s in,” Thunder muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dusk Shine demanded.
“If you don’t want to fight, then that’s fine, but don’t become a soldier so that you can avoid battle and live the easy life!” Thunder shouted. “Anypony who thinks like that is nothing but a coward!”
“Why you impudent little-“
“Ugh, for crying out loud can you guys give it a rest just this once?” Kenzi asked. “Listening to you argue over and over is exhausting! And it’s really boring too; you never come up with anything really new to say to one another.”
Thunder did not concede point, but he didn’t respond to Dusk’s parting shot either. Instead he looked around the stores. “What with all the buildings that have been built for the Royal Guard, why couldn’t you have built a real storehouse and left the library as a library?”
“What do these rustics need with a library?” Dusk asked. “This isn’t the Crystal Empire, it isn’t even Canterlot. What do they want with books or learning here?”
“A society that writes books remembers everything,” Thunder said. “A society without books remembers nothing at all.”
Dusk snorted. “Was that supposed to sound wise?”
“That was a quote from Buttercup the Brilliant, Clover the Clever’s apprentice who wrote down the first records of Clover and Starswirl’s teachings and established the first public library in Equestria,” Thunder said. “You might have known that if there was still a library here.” He turned around and walked away before Dusk could respond.
"Very good," a familiar voice said once Thunder and Kenzi were outside. "But, for the record, the actual quote goes, 'A society that writes books remembers only what it chooses to write down, but a society without remembers nothing at all; every generation must learn anew all the lessons of this world.' Still, I'm surprised you knew even the misattribution, Buttercup the Brilliant isn't well known these days."
Thunder turned around to see Lieutenant Stargazer watching him from around the corner of the storehouse.
"Oh, good, you're here," Kenzi said without enthusiasm. "Awesome."
Thunder smirked. "Did you think that I was just dumb muscle, Lieutenant?"
Stargazer chuckled. "The thought had crossed my mind, but I suppose it was foolish to think that Princess Luna's student would be completely uneducated."
"A little," Thunder murmured. "What brings you out here?"
"Are you stalking us or something?" Kenzi demanded.
"I'm here on official business, just like you," Stargazer replied. "The First Minister will be joining their highnesses at the ceremony, I need to make sure that he won't see anything less than perfection."
"That's a repetition of my task," Thunder said, a touch of affront entering his voice. "Don't you trust me?"
"The Military Police doesn't trust you," Stargazer said. "My personal feelings have nothing to do with it."
"I suppose you're going to tell Dusk Shine he needs to clean up the storeroom then?" Thunder asked.
Stargazer smiled. "I think that the Military Police will trust you to have done your job properly on this occasion, Mister Student."
"Thank you," Thunder said. "Have you done anything that I can trust your judgement on?"
"I've been out to the parade ground, the stands for the dignitaries are almost complete," Stargazer said.
"I won't need to go out there myself then," Thunder said. "I'm not sure I'd want to."
Stargazer's eyebrows rose. "You don't want to see what they've made of the apple orchards? A scholar and a sentimentalist?"
"Call me a pony with a sense of history," Thunder said.
"But, as I understand, you aren't originally from this country, are you?" Stargazer asked. "You're a survivor of the fall of Hipparchia, aren't you?"
Thunder snorted. "Yes." His tone indicated very strongly that Stargazer would not say anything more about it if she valued their detente.
"Then, may I ask, why you care about things like this library or the apple orchards, or any of this. It isn't your country."
"No, it's not," Thunder said sharply. "But it is Princess Luna's country, and I owe her a great debt that can never be repaid. Therefore, her cause is my cause, for as long as I draw breath."
Stargazer regarded him in silence for a moment. "I see. Well, I should get back to work. So should you, probably."
Thunder nodded. "Right. I'll see you around, Lieutenant." This time, he moved first and let her check out his flank as he walked away.
He and Kenzi completed the rest of their inspection, finding that everything was by and large in order, and where it wasn't whoever's responsibility it was was left hastily trying to get it in order before the arrival of the princesses the next day. By the time they were done, it was the early evening, and Thunder was on his way to the barracks to commandeer a bed for the night.
On their way, they past what was unmistakably one of the old Ponyville buildings, a house constructed to look as though it was made out of cake or gingerbread, complete with giant candlesticks on top and a roof designed to look like chocolate sauce. A lot of raucous sounds were coming from inside, and the light that spilled out of the windows was constantly interrupted by the shadows of many ponies.
"Someone's breaking the rules," Kenzi said. "Do you want to do anything about it?"
Thunder frowned. He wasn't in any mood to go and break up anypony's party, but he was a little curious as to who felt so bold as to flagrantly flaunt their disobedience to the law in a town full of guards. "We'll just take a look inside and then we'll go."
He trotted up the steps into the antique building. His green eyes widened as he pushed open the door a little and saw that it was full of guardsponies. They were all wearing trainee white, and they were all eating cakes, cookies, ice cream or various sugary snacks and sweets. Some cider barrels had been stacked up in one corner and were flowing freely, while ponies of all races laughed and talked in perfect happiness together. Thunder watched them in silence for a moment, soaking up the revelry and the contentment coming from inside while he stood outside in the cold, standing at the crack in the door, a sliver of light, warmth and good cheer falling over him in stark contrast to the empty darkness all around without.
At the centre of the merry-making was a blue-black earth pony with a dark grey mane and bright blue eyes dancing on one of the tables, juggling cakes while singing a comic song. Nearby a big red stallion was playing a fiddle, providing accompaniment. Everypony around was stamping their hooves in time with the rhythm of the dance, cheering the pony on as she juggled more and cupcakes without hesitation. The song wasn't bad either.
"This looks like an awesome party," Kenzi said, shaking along with the music. "Why don't we go inside."
Thunder hesitated for a moment. There was a time when he would have gone straight in without a moment's thought, when he would have expected to become the centre of attention, when he would have laughed and sang with the best of them. But that you colt, that young prince, was dead now. A more sombre stallion had taken his place.
"No, we'd only make them uncomfortable," Thunder said, turning to go. "C'mon, Kenz."
"But Princess Luna told you to try and make friends," Kenzi reminded.
"And I will try, in my own time," Thunder said. "Come on, let's go."
Kenzi sighed in frustration. "And it sounded like such a cool party, too."
Thunder began to walk away. He had gone about ten, maybe twelve paces when the door flew open and somepony yelled after him, "Wait, don't go!"
Thunder looked around. The cherry-red mare stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the light spilling out into the evening. Behind her, Thunder could see other ponies crowding around, straining to look.
The mare's blue eyes were large and puppyish. "Aren't you gonna come and join the party?"
Thunder shook his head. "No thanks, I don't want to put you to any trouble."
"It's no trouble at all, mister," the mare proclaimed, her voice high-pitched and happy. "What's your name?"
"Thunder Shield," Thunder answered slowly.
"Well my name's Blueberry Pie, and my great great aunt was named Pinkie Pie and she lived right here in Ponyville with Princess Twilight Sparkle," Blueberry said, talking fast and never pausing for breath. "This place is called Sugarcube Corner and it's where Great Aunt Pinkie used to make all kinds of cakes and hold some of the best parties in all of Equestria! So when I got posted here I just new that I had to fix it up and turn it into somewhere we could have our parties! Pretty neat, huh! Now why don't you come on it and I can introduce you to everypony and we can all become great friends. Then you can have some cake and ice cream and punch or cider or whatever you like because we've got a great selection of everything, most of it baked by yours truly, Blueberry Pie!"
Thunder blinked. "It's a very kind offer, miss, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline. I'm not a huge fan of parties."
"But everypony loves parties!" Blueberry cried.
"Leave him alone, Blue," the big red stallion came to stand beside her, his voice surprisingly soft for such a big pony he practically blocked the doorway all by himself. "He's said he doesn't want to come inside, he doesn't have to."
"But come on, Red!" Blueberry yelled. "Just when somepony doesn't want a party that's usually the time when they need one most! Look at him, doesn't he look like a pony who needs to turn his frown upside down?"
"I said no thank you," Thunder snapped.
Blueberry's face took on a hurt expression. "But why not?"
"Yeah, why not, jerkface?" The window opened and a brown pegasus with a pale, spiky mane squeezed out, his voice loud and angry. "I've heard about you. You're Princess Luna's student, aren't you? Going around telling everypony to work harder." He flew right into Thunder's face. "What's the matter, think you're too good to spend time with us?"
Thunder frowned. "What's your name, I don't think we've met."
"Greatheart," the pegasus said. "Remember that name, cause one day you'll be hearing it everywhere!"
"Will I?" Thunder asked, his voice deadpan. "Frankly, I don't think you've got much of a future in the guard if you can't control your attitude."
Greatheart's face contorted into a snarl. "Why you little-"
"Hit him, Greatheart!" somepony yelled from inside as Greatheart swung at him.
"Yeah, knock him off his perch!" Thunder could have sworn that was Rosethorn shouting.
Thunder shifted his stance, ready to beat Greatheart into the ground, but before he could there was a blur of movement, a squawk, a thud, and Greatheart was lying on his back on the ground while a grey pegasus, her mane dark and her eyes golden, stood between the two stallions.
"Greatheart, that's enough," her voice was cold, devoid of emotion. "Do you want to get in trouble the day before graduation."
"But, sis," Greatheart began.
"It doesn't matter," the mare said. "That's enough." She glanced at Thunder. "I'm sorry about this. But I should warn you, if you try to take this further, I will hurt you."
Thunder grinned. "That's quite all right. I've every intention of letting it lie, Miss-?"
"Sentinel."
"Thank you, Sentinel," Thunder said. He looked at Blueberry Pie, then glanced towards Kenzi. "Miss Pie, I'm sorry to have upset your evening. If the invitation is still open my friend Kenzi here would be more than happy to join you."
"Wait, what?" Kenzi said.
"You said it sounded like a cool party," Thunder said.
"Yeah, for both of us!"
"Are you really that shy that you can't go anywhere without me?"
"No," Kenzi said. "I just...what are you going to do?"
"I think I can manage on my own for one night, mom," Thunder replied. "Go on, enjoy yourself."
"Come on in, Kenzi!" Blueberry shouted. "Then you can tell us all about yourself, because meeting new friends is the best."
Kenzi looked at Thunder, her eyes almost as filled with concern as they were surrounded by mascara. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"
Thunder nodded. "I'll be fine, I promise. Now go have fun."
"Okay, see you later," Kenzi waved goodbye as she flew towards the door, open and inviting. Soon she had disappeared into the light, with Blueberry Pie closing the door behind her. Greatheart and Sentinel also went back in, and soon the sounds of partying had resumed inside Sugarcube Corner.
Thunder stood still for a moment, alone in the dark, listening to the sounds coming from inside. Then, a small smile playing across his face, he spread his wings and flew into the night.
“That’s it, hold it right there,” Sketch said, holding a sketchbook in his forehooves as he sat down in a corner of the old cake shop bathed in orange light.
Kenzi had assumed a coquettish pose, her hips thrust out, one tiny hand on the back of her head. She had turned her hair blue and cut short, save for two long braids hanging down the sides of her face.
“I’m still amazed that you can do that so easily,” Mind Map murmured. He was a pale yellow unicorn with light blue eyes and a golden mane that hung down over one of his eyes, obscuring it completely. He and Sketch stood together in the corner joined in admiration of Kenzi. It was situation that she was not in the least bit unhappy with. “Not even changelings can partially alter their appearance at will like that.”
Kenzi smiled. “Well, yes, I am very special. And very awesome, too.”
“Hold that pose,” Sketch said. “Stop moving around. Stay still for a second. Can you stop beating your wings?”
“Do you want me to drop to the ground and break something?”
“Okay, but don’t move anything else,” Sketch said, picking up a pencil in his mouth and beginning to draw rapidly.
“So you’re really the only fairy in Equestria?” Mind Map asked.
“Stop talking!” Sketch growled as best he could with a pencil in his mouth.
Kenzi rolled her eyes. “Can I breathe?”
The pencil dropped from Sketch’s lips as he said, “No!”
“Don’t you think she’s a little short for you, dude?” Rosethorn asked as he wandered over, a red flush to his cheeks. “And, y’know, the wrong species.”
“Eww, gross!” Kenzi said. “Is that really what you think? Ugh!”
“This is art,” Sketch said with a touch of asperity in his voice. “And unique art, too. Just because you’re obsessed with the mares doesn’t mean everypony else is.”
“I am not obsessed with the mares,” Rosethorn said. “I just like to look at them.”
“None of them seem to be looking back,” Kenzi observed.
“I’m just saying,” Rosethorn said, as if he hadn’t heard her. “That you’re wasting your time with this fairy when there’s a real work of art right over there.” He gestured towards Sentinel, standing on her own in the centre of the room while the party flowed around her.
“You like Sentinel?” Mind Map asked, sounding and looking confused.
“You don’t?” Rosethorn sounded equally surprised. “You grew up with this mare and you never noticed how cute she is?”
Mind Map shook his head. “And…I don’t think Sentinel thinks about that kind of stuff. Since we were kids, she’s only really cared about Greatheart.”
“More to the point,” Sweetpea said as she wandered over to join them. “You wouldn’t have a shot even if she was interested.” Sweetpea was a pegasus of, well, pea green, with a corn-yellow mane and golden eyes.
“You think so?”
“Dude, I just met the two of you and even I know she’s way out of your league,” Kenzi said.
“She is not,” Rosethorn replied defensively.
“Then make your move,” Sweetpea challenged.
Rosethorn opened his mouth, but no words came out. He looked at Sentinel, then at the four ponies and the fair watching him eagerly. “I don’t feel like it right now.”
Sketch and Sweetpea started to laugh. Kenzi turned to Mind Map. “What’s Sentinel’s deal, anyway? She seems as grim as Thunder Shield.”
Mind Map shrugged. “Since I’ve known her, she’s always been like that. But I know that she and Greatheart will always be there if I need help.”
“She does sound a lot like Thunder,” Kenzi said.
“You actually like that guy?” Sweetpea asked. “He acted like a jerk before.”
“Yeah, he can be…that,” Kenzi admitted. “But, once you get to know him there isn’t anypony better to have watching your back.”
Over on the other side of the room, Greatheart was surrounded by a whole crowd of other trainees. Kenzi had been introduced to most of them by Blueberry Pie, but already some of that blur of introductions was becoming indistinct in her memory, and she struggled to remember the names of all those whom Greatheart was lecturing: Rock Salt, Strong Shield…Suri?
“…we’ll be able to start changing things in this country,” Greatheart was saying. “Once we graduate, we can alter the way the guard works. No more ranging, then going back to base. We can retake Equestria from the night and the monsters.”
“You really think that’s possible?” Rock Salt asked. “After all this time?”
“It has been a hundred years since Princess Twilight died,” Greatheart insisted. “Ponykind has regained its dignity since then, we just have to stop being afraid just because we don’t have a princess to lead us anymore. But we each have four good legs, the hearts that have carried us through our training, the bonds with one another we have forged here. If we work together, then-“
“You can all hang together, too,” Dusk Shine drawled. “Face it, Greatheart,” he loaded the name with enough cynical disdain to last a month. “Nopony in the military is going to listen to some punk kid fresh out of training. The chances are you’ll die years before you have a chance to make a difference. The only thing any smart, talented pony can do is join the Military Police, where you have the honour of serving the First Minister and the safety of never leaving Canterlot.”
Greatheart bared his teeth. “So you’re saying we should just give up? Accept that things will never get better?”
Dusk blinked. “Well, yes. I thought I’d made that clear.”
“Oh, no, excuse me,” Mind Map muttered as he tried to get over to Greatheart.
“Well I won’t accept that, not now, not ever!” Greatheart yelled. “I’ll stay alive so I can protect this country with all four hooves, and I’ll save Equestria if I have to drag it to a better place with my teeth!”
“Oh, will you shut up?” Dusk Shine snapped. “I’m sick of this meaningless drivel you keep spouting! You’re just some ignorant hick from nowhere who has no idea of what the hay is going on in Equestria! I’m a prince of the Crystal Empire, so when I tell you something isn’t possible then maybe you should take me seriously!”
Greatheart advanced on Dusk, his wings extended. “I’ll show you who should be taken seriously.”
“Um, Greatheart,” Mind Map stood between the prince and the enraged pegasus. “Perhaps we shouldn’t fight on the night before graduation.”
“Get out of the way, Mind Map,” Greatheart growled.
“Greatheart,” Sentinel’s voice was cold as ice. “Stop this foolishness, at once.”
“Ugh, sis,” Greatheart began, before he was abruptly silenced by a glare from Sentinel’s icy eyes.
“You should both,” she declared. “Be ashamed of yourselves.”
Dusk Shine bowed his head, and for a moment Kenzi thought that Greatheart would do the same, before he slammed his hoof down upon the floor.
“I won’t die,” Greatheart declared. “I’m going to survive no matter what, because I have a dream that I have to stay alive for. And I will become General of the Royal Guard someday. And I will alter the fate of Equestria. That is my vow!
A great many of the other cadets cheered his pronouncement. One who didn’t was Red Delicious, who loomed up over Greatheart and the others.
“That’ll do, now,” he said. “This is supposed to be a party, not a rally.”
“It’s fine,” Greatheart said. “I’m done now.”
But Kenzi noticed that he and Dusk kept their distance from one another for the rest of the night.
As the chariot descended through the clouds towards Ponyville, Luna could not help but notice how nervous Celestia looked. Not for the first time, Luna wondered if the calm, serene Celestia whom she had known in her youth and again after her redemption was not gone beyond all possibility of recall. Was this all there was, a grieving mother afraid of the world beyond her own door? Afraid of her own heart, afraid to love again? Luna prayed it was not so.
Come back to me, big sister. I cannot do this all alone.
“A wall?” Celestia asked, her voice soft but not without concern. “Why is there a wall around Ponyville? When did that happen?”
“Sixty years ago,” Luna replied tersely. “Equestria is not as safe as it once was. Much has changed while you slept, big sister.”
“I see,” Celestia murmured. She said nothing else until the chariot touched the ground. Spike, his great wings making the air hum with their beating, landed heavily beside them.
The guards responsible for their safe arrival were sufficiently skilled to set down the two princesses directly in front of Thunder Shield and Kenzi, who both bowed as Luna and Celestia dismounted. Luna regarded her student and her ward carefully, reading their moods as only she knew how. Thunder was clad in armour, the armour of Equestria, not of his own land, and though his face was a mask of diplomatic expressionlessness she could tell from his stance and from the look in his eyes that he was not happy. Not that that, in itself, was an unusual or remarkable occurrence, but this was not his usual resentment of the world at large. Something in Ponyville had upset him, and from the way he had looked at Luna before bowing he plainly thought that it ought to upset her too.
Perhaps now he will begin to understand. She had sent Thunder here, as she had dragged Celestia here, for more reasons than she had told either of them. Both of them needed to get out of the stifling confines of the palace, both of them needed to begin to live, both of them needed to move forward from their grief but Luna’s concerns were, in truth, larger than the two of them. Equestria needed Celestia to see what it had become, to see what she had allowed her little ponies to sleepwalk into. And Luna needed Thunder to understand what Equestria was, so that he could help her make it something better once again.
Kenzi, on the other hoof, was not upset. She seemed…concerned. She had turned her hair blonde for the occasion, doing it up in an elegant bun with idle strands of golden hair falling from it around her face, and she had foregone her usual choice of outfit in favour of a simple white gown. She kept glancing towards Thunder. She was worried about him, then, about what he would say or do.
“Rise, both of you,” Celestia said softly.
“Is everything satisfactory?” Luna asked.
Thunder’s eyes flashed. “It is the best that we could make it, Your Highnesses.”
“Has the First Minister arrived?” Celestia asked.
Thunder nodded. “Lieutenant Stargazer has already taken him to the parade ground for the ceremony, Your Highnesses.”
“Why must I be here, Luna?” Celestia asked plaintively. “The First Minister can-“
“The First Minister does not sit on the throne, sister, you do,” Luna said, a little more sharply than she had intended to. “Lead the way, Thunder Shield.”
Thunder did as he was bidden without another word, Kenzi fluttering beside him. Celestia walked slowly, but Thunder never moved too quickly or too far ahead. Spike hung back, watching warily, his head and long neck turning this way and that as he guarded the two princesses. Luna kept pace with her sister, her eyes fixed upon Celestia’s face.
“It will be all right,” Luna insisted. “You will enjoy being amongst your people again.”
They were let through the gates without challenge – something which made Thunder snort – and he led them across Ponyville. The ordinary citizens, those who were out of doors, stopped to stare. None of them had ever seen Princess Celestia before in their lives. Probably there were a few who did not even know who she was. They bowed respectfully, but whispers followed them as they passed.
“Would you not like them to know you, Celestia,” Luna whispered. “Did you not always wish to be closer to your subjects.”
“That was before that closeness hurt me so,” Celestia murmured in reply. She looked away from Luna, and as she did so she cried out so terribly that Luna feared she had been struck by some assassin’s dart. But it was not a shriek of physical pain so much as it was a cry of distress, like a bird returning to her nest and find all the eggs smashed to pieces.
Thunder had frozen, and Luna guessed that this was what had upset him, too. She followed Celestia’s gaze, and soon she understood.
The library, Twilight’s library, had been converted into a storehouse for the use of the Royal Guard. The shrine to learning had become a temple to war, the living tree now a housing for the instruments of death.
Spike bellowed in anger at the sight of it, to see the home that he and Twilight had filled with so much warmth now become nothing more than a cold, grim weapons locker.
“It can’t be,” Celestia murmured. “What have they done? What have they done with Twilight’s home?”
“As I said,” Luna replied coldly. “Much has changed while you have slept.”
“But, they can’t do this,” despite the depth of his voice, the gravelly growl that suffused his every word, Spike sounded like a baby once again as he spoke now in disbelief. “They can’t do this to Twilight-“
“Twilight is dead,” Luna snapped. “And while you mourned her your tears blinded you to what was happening across Equestria!” If Luna sounded angry it was because she was angry. She had carried this for years, this mixture of impotent outrage and resentment. She had had to watch this happening, unable to prevent it because Celestia fixed her seal ony any documents she was given by whichever interchangeable, grasping, mendacious First Minister happened to be in office this year. She had never been allowed to grieve for Twilight, dearly though she had loved her, because Celestia had never stopped grieving. She had had to bear the weight of Equestria on her shoulders and every time a piece of old Equestria had been lost Luna had had to feel it as a personal failure because those who should have helped her bear the weight had preferred to dwell on past sorrows than to face their present troubles. Well they had seen it now, and by stars and moonlight she was going to let them know just what a place Equestria was these days.
“You knew,” Celestia said accusatorily. “You knew about this.”
Luna noticed that Thunder and Kenzi, who had been wisely keeping clear of this quarrel, had both begun to listen more intently.
“I did,” Luna said.
“How could you let this happen?” Spike demanded.
“Better to ask how I could have prevented it,” Luna replied. “This is not an isolated case; for all that it is egregious. Come. There is more for you both to see.”
Thunder and Kenzi began to lead on once more, leading the two princesses and the hulking dragon through ponyville and out to what would, once, have been the outskirts of town. Now the same wall encircled it, but even so the buildings fell away. Unlike in the old days, they were not replaced by any trees.
“Is this…” Celestia murmured. “No, it cannot be. Sweet Apple Acres?”
“Now it is simply called the parade ground,” Luna muttered darkly as they stood on the edge of the large open square, an Equestrian flag hanging limp in the still afternoon air. A hundred Royal Guard cadets, or perhaps a few more, stood in ranks before a large wooden dais. Already on the dais stood the captain of this cadet company, Mayor Scootaloo – who rather sat in her wheelchair – and the First Minister, attended by some members of the Military Police. Luna fancied that he looked a little worried.
Good. It is high time you remembered that you answer to a higher power.
Now that the princesses could find their way to the dais quite adequately, Thunder and Kenzi dropped back, following rather than leading now. Spike sat down by the side of the decorated wooden stand, gazing down at all the tiny ponies in their armour, while Luna brushed past the captain and the minister in order to greet Scootaloo.
“Scootaloo! It is wonderful to see you again.”
“It’s great to see you too, Princess Luna,” Scootaloo said with a smile. “Though it might be for the last time.”
“Do not say that, Scootaloo, do not even think it,” Luna said.
“I’m over a hundred years old, Princess, we both know I don’t have long left in me,” Scootaloo replied. “I’ve had a good gallop. No regrets.”
Luna chuckled. “If you can truly mean that, then you are fortunate indeed.” She could still remember, with perfect clarity, when she had first walked in Scootaloo’s dreams and soothed her nightmares. She could still remember teaching Scootaloo to walk in dreams. She could still remember sitting together as they watched Rainbow Dash’s final performance as captain of the Wonderbolts.
No regrets.
“The only thing I wish is that Rainbow Dash could have said the same,” Scootaloo said, a touch of melancholy entering her face and voice. “But she had too many regrets.”
“As they all did,” Luna replied.
Scootaloo nodded. “Princess Luna, I have a couple of bottles of Sweet Apple cider in my desk, from when Apple Bloom still worked the farm. Probably some of the last Sweet Apple left, now that the farm is…this. I’d be honoured to share them with you and Princess Celestia once the ceremony is over, to toast old times.”
Luna glanced back to where Celestia stood over First Minister Ordered Regulations, listening to him try to weasel his way around Celestia’s outrage. “I cannot speak for Celestia, but I will gladly share a glass with you. I shall look forward to it, Madame Mayor.”
Luna wandered back over to her sister.
“Your Highness,” the First Minister was saying. “I understand that you are upset-“
“Upset?” Celestia exclaimed. “I am outraged that-“
“But perhaps this is a conversation that might wait until the ceremony is complete?” Minister Order suggested silkily.
Luna would have preferred to have watched him called out on the carpet right then and there, but Celestia nodded. “Very well. We shall continue this conversation later, in private.” She sounded stern, but Luna wondered just how much of that sternness would survive the day. It was not often she disliked Celestia’s forgiving nature, but this was such a time.
Then the graduation ceremony began, and most of it passed by Luna in a blur. A band played some martial music, the graduating cadets performed some close order drill, and the captain gave a speech so full of boilerplate that Luna tuned him out halfway through his first sentence.
She did pay attention when the names of the top ten graduating cadets were read out, and the cadets themselves invited to step forward: Sentinel, Spiral, Cloudburst, Red Delicious, Greatheart, Dusk Shine, Blueberry Pie, Stratos, Skywatch, and Sonnet. Most likely they would all join the Military Police, the top graduates usually did. Luna studied them, the next generation of the First Minister’s henchponies: they seemed capable, brave, trustworthy even. No doubt power would corrupt them soon enough.
Then it was time for Celestia to make her speech, except that she was not saying anything. She stood in front of everypony, the notes held in the grip of her magic, and said nothing.
Celestia glanced wordlessly at Luna, who took the cue cards in her own telekinesis and stepped forward, even as Celestia retreated.
Luna glanced down at the speech the First Minister had prepared for Celestia. More boilerplate.
She glanced at Thunder and Kenzi, then at the waiting cadets, then dropped the cards. It was time for these young ponies to hear the truth.
“When you have lived as long as I have,” Luna said. “Still less, as long as my sister has, everypony begins to look young. But I look at you, here, today, and I remember that you are young in truth, not just by comparison with a pony as old as me. “You are young, and just setting out on your life’s journey. You have completed your training, but you have barely begun to live. Where you will go, where destiny will take you, not even I can say. All I can do is implore you to remember one thing: every action has consequence. “That is something we sometimes forget, here in Equestria. For we are very fortunate in the land we live in, there is almost always a safety net for any failure, any error, even any catastrophe. Bound together in friendship and harmony, we help each other through the rough patches of life, even as we share in the joys of the smoothe. “But even in Equestria there comes a time for all of us when there is no safety net. There is nopony to take our hooves, nopony to make all our troubles disappear. There comes a time in the life of every pony, no matter how high or powerful, when we must face the consequences of our actions, however great or small those consequences may be. “So I implore you, as you pass from being cadets to guards, from being children to adults: think carefully about what you are doing. Consider the consequences. If you do, and strive ever to do the right thing for your friends and for Equestria as a whole, then I have no doubt that you will leave this world a better place than you found it.”
They began to stamp their hooves, some more reluctantly than others. The First Minister in particular was stamping very reluctantly indeed.
Luna might have said something to him, but before she could she heard the sound of thunder echoing across the clear sky. Except the sky was not clear any more. It was darkening rapidly, dark clouds appearing from nowhere to spread across Ponyville. Spike growled, Celestia’s eyes were wide with confusion, the First Minister was trembling.
“What is this?” Luna murmured.
With a roar, a host of stratons descended from the storm clouds, fangs bared and wings beating. They looked like dragons, small dragons with yellow eyes and no dexterity in their foreclaws, which were lumpen and misshapen things. Howling, they swept down out of the black and fell upon the cadets, scattering them in all directions. Beyond, Luna could see more of the monsters descending on the town as well. Ponies rode some of the monsters, ponies of all three races, directing the assault.
Luna bared her teeth in anger, her horn glowing as she summoned her magic. “Thunder, get Celestia out of here! I will-“
A bolt of black lightning shot down from out of the clouds, striking near Luna’s hooves. A great wave of energy erupted from the point of the lightning strike, passing harmlessly over Luna and Celestia but blasting everypony else off the wooden dais in all directions: Thunder, Kenzi, Scootaloo, the First Minister and his escort, the cadet captain, all tossed aside like unwanted dolls with cries of pain and horror.
Celestia and Luna were left alone, surrounded by a dome of black energy that blinded Luna to anything that might be going on outside.
Luna fire a beam of magic at the barrier, but it did nothing.
“Trapped!” Luna snarled. “Whoever you are, whatever you want, come out and face me!”
“But of course, I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else,” a voice that Luna knew all too well answered her call, and Luna saw a patch of shadows break away from the barrier and slink towards them, shadows clinging to a shape within, a shape which, as it became visible, made Luna’s blood chill.
“Now then, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,” Grogar said mockingly. “Shall we pick up where we left off, oh so very long ago?”
It's ancient name was the field of Mareinor. In more recent times it had acquired the name of Twilight's Stand, or the less respectful it was sometimes called Twilight's Folly. More colloquially it was called the Glass Field. Whatever the name, it was at this place one hundred years ago that Twilight Sparkle, champion of Equestria, had faced Grogar, Tyrant of Tambelon, in a magical duel. By the time the battle was done both Twilight and Grogar had vanished from mortal sight, thought dead by all, and the entire field had turned to lavender glass. Not a single blade of grass grew, and all the trees and rocks that had protruded from the field had turned to sparkling crystal.
So great had been the magic unleashed here that, as in the Everfree Forest bordering on Ponyville, the weather here behaved in unnatural ways, doing what it wanted to do rather than what any pegasus desired. Nor did unicorn magic work as it was supposed to. It was erratic, sometimes more powerful than intended, sometimes less so. For that reason, and for the fact that it was a field of magical glass where a great hero and an even greater villain had destroyed one another, ponies shunned the place. There was no monument raised up to Twilight Sparkle, no monolith to record the date of her last great fight, no statue to commemorate her sacrifice.
The field itself was memorial enough, perhaps.
It was raining upon the field of glass, the water hitting the lavender surface with a series of splattering splashing sounds.
Until the splashing and splattering were interrupted by a pop, as a bright flash of lavender light illuminated the grey half-light of the twilight.
Had anypony been walking upon the hallowed field that dusk, they would have seen Princess Twilight Sparkle lying on the glass, wings spread out, eyes half-open as though she were dazed, legs tucked in, groaning slightly.
Rain landed on her face, and indeed on every other part of her, but it was her face that Twilight shook to get the water off her.
"Rainbow Dash, cut it out," Twilight murmured, rolling onto her side.
The rain continued.
"Ugh, Rainbow I..." Twilight opened her eyes, and took in her surroundings, empty of any pony never mind Rainbow Dash.
Twilight blinked. "Where am...Grogar!"
She leapt to her feet, wings spreading out...and then her hooves slipped on the glass and she fell flat on her belly.
Twilight tried again, more slowly this time, flapping her wings to steady herself upon the slippery surface. She looked around.
"Where am I?" she asked. "What's happened? Where's Grogar? Hello? Is anypony there? Pinkie? Rarity? Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash? Spike? Anyone?"
Twilight shook herself like a dog, for all the good it did her as all the rain that she dislodged returned a few seconds later.
"Where am I?" Twilight repeated, touching her hoof to her forehead and groaning slightly.
An enormous crack, louder than any thunderbolt, split the sky. Twilight gasped as she looked up, eyes wide, to see the southern skyline alight with magic, as dark clouds gathered overhead and lightning lanced down to strike the earth.
"That direction," Twilight murmured. "Home."
Twilight's face became a mask of fear, not for herself but for those who might be in danger, as her wings carried her into the air and towards the sound and fury of the fighting in Ponyville.
***
Thunder clung to the back of a straton, teeth gritted and mane flying in all directions - he had lost his helmet very early on - as the monster tried to shake him off. It roared and bellowed and stomped its feet, flapping its wings as it contorted up and down, but Thunder held on. He would only be in real trouble if the brute thought to roll over on him.
"Ah, shut up you big monster!" Kenzi yelled. "You're giving me a headache! And hold still!" Kenzi's magic wasn't particularly powerful, but she was trying to cast sparks into the straton's eyes. Unfortunately, even when she did manage to hit, it only seemed to enrage the straton.
"Not really helping, Kenz," Thunder murmured.
"Well what can I do?"
"Don't get hurt," Thunder said as he let go of the straton with one hoof - he used his wings to steady himself so he didn't immediately get flung off its back and halfway across town, and started hitting the beast in the nape of the neck with his armoured hoof.
His gauntlet beat against the dark green scales, slamming into the armour that protected the skin underneath, and though the straton roared in even greater fury than before it showed no sign of actually being hurt, any more than Thunder would have been hurt by a fly crawling across his coat.
"Come on," Thunder yelled. "Come on, you're supposed to be weak at the neck, so why can't I hurt you?"
A bolt of blue light erupted upwards from the ground, catching the straton squarely in the throat. The beast roared, then reared, then collapsed on the ground with a thud so heavy that it kicked up a small cloud of dust.
Thunder, who had let go of the monster as it fell, hovered above the unmoving wreck. It wasn't moving. It wasn't groaning. It wasn't doing anything but lie there. It was most likely dead.
Stargazer moved a little closer to the body. "They may be weak at the neck, but they're even weaker from below, I thought you'd know that," she said. "And if you do want to hurt them, then a weapon might help."
Thunder glided down to her. "Normal straton eyes are yellow, all of these stratons have blue eyes, I think they're under some kind of mind control. I'd rather not kill them if we can avoid it."
"If we try and avoid it we're likely to die ourselves," Stargazer said. "Like so many have already."
"But it also gives us a chance," Thunder said. "If we can find the pony who is controlling the stratons then we can release them, and they'll probably leave. Then we can work on getting the barrier down and rescuing the princesses."
"You really think that'll work?" Kenzi asked.
"I think we don't have a choice," Thunder said. "We aren't going to win a stand-up fight, just look how we're doing so far."
The battlefield presented a grim picture. The sphere of black light that had enveloped the princesses loomed large and inviolate, spinning furiously like an upside-down tornado, so black that nothing could be seen within. Thunder had no way of knowing if Princess Luna was even still alive in there.
Don't think that. Don't even consider it. Princess Luna is alive and you can get to her. I won't lose anyone else.
A ruined palace. Fires consuming everything. A beautiful unicorn half buried in rubble, tears in her eyes.
"Run, my son. Run far away, and live."
"No! Mom!"
I can't...I won't...I will save Princess Luna!
Around the sphere, the detritus of the aborted graduation ceremony was strewn: the wrecked stand, the scattered flags...the bodies. Mayor Scootaloo's wheelchair lay on one side, and Scootaloo had spilled out of it to lie spreadeagled on the grass like a rag doll. She wasn't moving, but before Thunder could see if she was alive or not a straton had set on him.
As for the cadets of the 109th Training Corps, many of them were similarly strewn about the ground, blood pooling around their remains. Those had that remains, and hadn't ended up in a straton's belly. Most of the rest of the cadets had fled. Only a few, led by the pegasus Greatheart, still fought on against the giant lizards that assailed them.
And then there was Spike. On his own he was larger than any four stratons, and a match for as many...but he was being attacked by a dozen stratons at once, and the presence of ponies around meant that he couldn't use his fire indiscriminately. He was still in the fight, thrashing and roaring as the lesser creatures ripped and tore at his purple scales, beating at them with his mighty arms and claws as sharp as diamonds, but it was only a matter of time before they brought him down.
"We need to find whoever is controlling the stratons," Thunder repeated. "It's the only way we can win this fight."
"How do you know they're not inside the barrier?" Stargazer asked.
Thunder shook his head. "That barrier is keeping everything inside it trapped inside, it's the only explanation for why neither princess has escaped yet. That means that no spells cast inside the barrier can effect us here, so the straton master must be on the outside, and not too far away either to be controlling so many of them at once. If we can find them then we can turn the tide of this battle in one blow."
Stargazer nodded. "Okay. The First Minister has already been taken to safety, I'm with you."
"Right," Thunder said. "Kenzi, I need you to go back to Canterlot-"
"Oh no, no way," Kenzi said. "I am not just going to run away and leave you to risk your life without me."
"I can't lose you, Kenz," Thunder said.
"I can't lose you, either, and that's what'll happen if I leave you," Kenzi said.
"Thunder Shield's right, you're too small to make a difference-" Stargazer began.
"I may be small, but I'm not a baby, I can fight!" Kenzi yelled. "I can help, if you'll let me."
Thunder sighed. "Yes, you're right, you can help. But not with me. I need you to see if Mayor Scootaloo is alive, and then I want you to find anypony in town, any of the guards who haven't run that far, and get them back into the fight. Persuade them, shame them, whatever it takes. But those guards out there need reinforcements, but Stargazer and I have a more important job to take care of. Then get a message sent to Canterlot and tell them what's going on."
Kenzi snapped off a salute. "You can count on me. And Thunder...don't die, okay?"
Thunder smiled. "I'll try my best."
***
Luna cast a spell, a bolt of dark blue magic leaping from the tip of her horn, only for Grogar to deflect it with one of his black, curved horns.
Celestia fired as well, but her spell was slow and sluggish, it had not only taken her far longer to charge than it should have but it left her breathing heavily as well.
"Pathetic," Grogar growled as he fired two red bolts from his own horns. Luna blocked them both with a hastily conjured shield. It was unkind to say, but Celestia was a hundred years out of practice using her magic for anything more taxing than basic telekinesis, and that mean that Luna would have to bear the brunt of this battle.
She fired again, and Grogar knocked her spell aside so casually that he might have been swatting a fly.
"Pathetic," he repeated. "Are these the princesses who have for so long held Equestria in thrall? How is that this land has survived so long?"
"A magic of which you are and will always be ignorant, Tyrant of Tambelon," Luna spat as she tried to hit him with another spell, to more effect than the last two. "The magic of friendship."
Grogar's laughter was loud and caustic. "Friendship! Oh, Luna. Poor Luna. Sweet Luna. Naive, childish, Luna, how will this great and powerful magic help you now? You are all alone and at my mercy."
"We are not alone," Luna snarled. "We have one another."
"Yes, and that's doing you so much good, isn't it?" Grogar asked.
"Enough!" Celestia yelled, casting another golden spell. "How can you be here, Grogar? You are dead, Twilight gave her life to defeat you."
"She gave her life, that's true," Grogar said. "But defeat me? Did you truly believe that? Were you really so naive as to think that Twilight Sparkle could defeat me, Grogar? I am shadow, I am darkness, I am death and what was Twilight Sparkle to stand against such? She is dead a hundred years and here I stand. Face it, Celestia, your precious protege died in vain."
"No," Celestia whispered, something inside her seeming to break at the tyrant's words. "No, it cannot be."
"Celestia!" Luna yelled. "Do you listen to him! You must be strong, I need you to be strong. I need you at my side."
"At your side," Grogar chuckled. "She has not been at your side since Twilight Sparkle fell. Face it, Luna, she loved her student more than she ever loved you."
"Silence!" Luna snarled. "Your words are poison, Grogar, but they are only words. And words have no power but what their listeners give them."
"My magic has power whether you give it power or not," Grogar replied. "Your powers are weak, you have no friends, you army of slaves is scattered. You will fall to me, as Twilight did, and all of Equestria will swiftly follow."
"Not while I'm alive," Luna said.
"Which won't be for very much longer," Grogar said with an ugly smile.
***
Sentinel screamed with anger as she sped upwards through the dark sky, her wings outstretched like a pair of knives on either side of her, knives that sliced through the scales of the nearest monster and into its eye.
The beast screamed, but not louder than Sentinel was crying out as she turned, dove down, then rolled in the air to bring her back underneath the creature in time to slice its throat.
She kept screaming as she fought. A continuous howl ripped from her throat so loudly one might have thought she did not need to breathe. She screamed and she killed. The rest of the guard, those that had not fled like worms and cowards, struggled to mob a single straton at a time, but Sentinel sliced through them like wheat being cut down by the plough.
She did not fear them. She did not fear their roars, their size, their gaping mouths. She made no effort to avoid the lightning lancing down from the dark clouds above. She thought nothing of the winds surging around her. She fought as if nothing mattered, not even her life, because her brother was dead.
Greatheart...was gone. A straton had devoured him as he had grabbed a spear and rushed towards the black barrier that had encased the princesses. Almost everypony else had been running away, and he had been running towards the fighting. That was the kind of pony he was. And that was why he was dead, because he had not waited for his sister.
And so she fought. She fought like she had nothing left to lose because they had already taken everything from her. If she died, so what? So long as she took some of them with her before she went.
And so, on that night, Sentinel became a goddess of victory, even as she hoped to perish instead.
***
Dusk Shine, descendant of Cadance and Shining Armour, blood relative of Princess Twilight Sparkle, sat in the corner of the store room (formerly known as the Golden Oaks library) and hyperventilated into a paper bag.
He wasn't alone either. Most of his fellow graduating class had shut themselves in the storehouse, crammed in like peas in a pod amongst the spears and armour while they waited for the crisis to pass.
Assuming it didn't just come looking for them instead.
Of all the times this had to happen? Why couldn't the monsters have waited until tomorrow when I could have been in Canterlot with the Military Police? Who would have thought evil would be so inconsiderate?
"Guys, I really think we oughta head back out there," Blueberry Pie said.
Sketch raised his eyebrows sceptically. "Really? You want to go back out to where all the dragons are with all of those teeth?"
"Technically they're called stratons, not dragons," Spiral murmured. She was a light grey pegasus with blue hair and square glasses. "You can tell because stratons don't grow as large, and they can't breathe fire."
"Yes, thank you very much, but did you not catch what I was saying about the teeth?" Sketch demanded.
"But our friends are still out there, fighting," Blueberry said. "We can't just leave them."
"You did," Sketch pointed out.
"Hey," Red Delicious climbed to his hooves, looming large over the other cadets.
"Oh, come on, Red, don't act like your any different," Sketch said loudly. "The two of you are hiding in here the same as the rest of us."
"I know, and I got scared just as much as everypony else," Blueberry shouted. "But we can't just sit here while our friends risk their lives, can we? Is that the kind of ponies that we are? What about what Princess Luna said: strive to do the right thing." She grabbed and spear and brandished it overhead. "Come on, everypony, follow me! I'll take the lead."
Nopony moved.
Blueberry's mane deflated slightly. "Come on, guys, what will you think of yourselves tomorrow?"
"We'll be alive tomorrow," Dusk said sharply, pulling the paper bag away from his face. "Which is more than those idiots out there can say. Greatheart and all his tough talk, what good has it done him, huh?"
"So what, you're just going to sit here and wait to die?" Kenzi demanded as she flew in through the open window. "You're going to cower and hope that the stratons don't find you?"
"Kenzi! You're okay!" Blueberry cried.
"What's going on out there?" Red asked.
"And what are you doing here?" Dusk Shine demanded.
"I came to get help," Kenzi snapped. "Before I heard how little chance of that there was."
"Help for what?" Rosethorn said.
"Mayor Scootaloo's badly hurt," Kenzi said. "She's barely breathing and I can't carry her. And I need everypony else to follow me and back up everypony still fighting."
"Us?" Dusk said. "What about gallant Thunder Shield, what's he up to?"
"Thunder thinks that the stratons are being mind controlled, so he and Stargazer have gone to find the unicorn responsible and stop them," Kenzi said. She drew her two-inch long sword from her back and brandished it in the air. "Listen, if nopony will help me, then I'll have to go back out there all on my own, but I'm hoping that there's somepony here braver than that."
"Come on, Kenzi," Sketch said. "Those things, there just too big for us."
"I'm six inches tall, what's your excuse," Kenzi snapped. She sighed. "Look, I'm going back because my best friend is risking his life out there. So I'm going to be there for him because he means everything to me, more than my life. So if there's nothing or nopony who means that much to you...whatever dudes, I'll see you around." She turned away, her gossamer wings flickering as they carried her back towards the fighting.
Dusk frowned. "Give me a break, was that supposed to be an inspiring speech or something?"
Rosethorn frowned. "Dude, you know she's going to die out there."
"I'm going to die if I go out there!" Sketch said.
Rosethorn stood up. "Yeah, well, I'd rather get eaten than go back home and tell my brothers I was a coward. Blueberry, do you still want to take point?"
"Huh? Yes indeedy!"
"Then I've got your back," Rosethorn said.
"Me too," Red said.
"Ugh, you ponies are impossible," Dusk sighed, getting up slowly. "Come on, ponies, were we trained to cower when danger threatened? Let's move out!" He spread his wings and flew out through the door.
"Hey, I said that like five minutes ago!" Blueberry Pie shouted as she charged forth, with Red Delicious and Rosethorn following where she led.
Spiral pushed her spectacles up her nose. "Well, if we're going to be stupid..."
"May as well be stupid together," Cloudburst said.
Sketch's wings flapped, carrying him up towards the ceiling. "Okay! Are we ponies or are we maggots! Come on chums let's do this!"
"Yeah!"
"Let's go!"
"We'll show those monsters our pony spirit!"
And the 109th Training Corps charged forth.
***
Thunder brought his forehooves together in front of his face to block the kick the dark grey pegasus aimed at him. His armoured gauntlets took the blow, but he was pressed backwards a pace by the force of the punch.
The blood red unicorn fired a bolt of crimson magic at him, and Thunder pirouetted in the air just above the ground, twisting like a ballerina as the bolt flew past him, not waiting to see what it hit as he aimed a kick at the pegasus with his hind legs.
It didn't land, the pegasus got out of the way too fast, countering with another kick of his own which Thunder twisted away from.
They're better than anyone I ever practiced with in the guard, Thunder thought. Who are these guys and what do they want?
He guessed that what they wanted right now was to keep him away from the shed that had bright blue light spilling out from it. Unless he missed his guess - and the fact that two bad guys had emerged to keep him away from it strongly suggested that he had not - then that was where the unicorn directing the stratons was holed up.
Thunder gritted his teeth to keep from smirking. They didn't know it yet but these two had just given themselves away.
Judging by the grin on his face, the blood red unicorn didn't have a clue that Stargazer was hiding nearby, waiting for an opportunity. "You picked a bad part of town to come wandering round, friend. You would have been better off sticking with the dragons."
"Actually," Thunder remarked. "They're stratons."
"Oh, are they now," the unicorn said. "I bet you think you're so clever, don't you? I bet you think you're so much better than me, don't you? Well let me tell you ain't no better than I am for all your fancy words."
"At least I know not to use a double negative," Thunder said.
"Well perhaps you know some kind of lah-de-dah name for the kind of dead you're going to be when I get through with you."
"Just kill him already," the pegasus snapped.
"Haven't you ever wanted to play with your food?"
"Not when the food was going to eat my brother!"
"Oh, relax for crying out loud," the unicorn said. "He isn't going to hurt anypony."
"Cast your spell or I'll snap his neck," the pegasus snarled.
Thunder smirked.
"And what do you look so happy about?" the unicorn demanded.
"I'm not the pony you need to worry about," Thunder said. "Now, Lieutenant!"
Stargazer bounded out of hiding, her horn already aglow.
The blood red unicorn's eyes widened, and his own horn began to glow with crimson aura in the moment before Thunder ploughed into him, hooves striking left and right, smacking in his flesh, driving him backwards.
The pegasus howled as Stargazer cast her spell.
The bolt flew straight and true, striking the shed. The building exploded in a shower of fragments. The blue light died.
"Daydream!" the pegasus yelled, flying swiftly into the remains of the shed. He tossed the wreckage aside, his hooves moving furiously as he dug out...a foal. A unicorn colt, who didn't look much more than ten or twelve years old.
"No," the pegasus cried out hoarsely. "Hold on, little bro, just hold on, I've got you." He took off, flying into the stormy sky and out of sight.
"Hey!" the unicorn yelled. "Hey, Stormy Skies, get your sorry flank back here right now! Hey, Stormy!"
His yelling was drowned out by the roar of a whole host of stratons as the entire swarm, freed from the control of the young colt - was it really him, Thunder could hardly believe it - took off and flew away. In the distance, Thunder could hear ponies cheering.
"And you can come back too! Where do you think you're going?" the unicorn ranted, stamping his hooves and jumping up and down. He abruptly seemed to realise that he was now outnumbered two to one, and Stargazer was now charging up another spell.
"Aha," he said. "Ahaha. Erm. Well." He sighed. "It's been fun playing with you gents, but I think it's time to go home for my tea now. TTFN." He waved his hoof, and disappeared in a flash of crimson light.
"Well he turned out to be a bit of a coward, didn't he?" Stargazer asked.
"A good thing for us, too," Thunder said.
"You don't think we could have taken him?"
"I think we don't have time to mess around with guys like him," Thunder said. "We have to break through to the princesses."
"Right."
***
The magic spell struck Luna on the pectoral she wore around her neck, singing the black metal and tarnishing the moon pattern. Despite the armour, Luna felt the blow like an angry mule's kick as it picked her up through her onto her back, where she kidded across the grass.
"Luna!" Celestia wailed.
Grogar cackled maniacally. "Where is your Twilight Sparkle now, princesses?"
A wave of lavender light passed over everyone and everything, shattering the dome of darkness in which they were imprisoned like glass, moving through ponyville, halting the lightning in its tracks, driving the stormclouds away like sweeping dust off the front porch step.
And, as Grogar's dark magic, turned to so much nothing, Twilight Sparkle strode across the field, horn aglow and wings outstretched, a fierce look of determination in her eyes.
"Twilight?" Luna murmured. "What trickery is this?" Surely it cannot be real.
Can it not? Grogar is here, why not Twilight too?
"Twi..." Celestia gasped, words appearing to fail her completely, her mouth hanging open and her eyes going so wide Luna feared they might pop out.
Twilight did not look at either of them. She said nothing, not to Luna, not to Celestia, not to the crowd of guards who had gathered outside the barrier and now stared in astonishment at she who had caused the barrier to collapse. She kept her eyes fixed on Grogar as she stalked towards him, placing herself between him and the two elder princesses.
"No," Grogar whispered. "No! No, this is not possible! I killed you. I killed you!"
"Leave now," Twilight snarled, her voice as quiet as ice and twice as sharp. "And never come back."
"How?" Grogar roared. "How are you still alive?"
Twilight's horn glowed with even greater intensity, shining bright enough to rival the moon, if not the sun. "Leave now," she repeated. "Or else."
Grogar's face was a rictus of fury, but in his red eyes Luna could detect a trace of fear. He was afraid of Twilight as he would never be afraid of Luna or Celestia, or anypony else. Twilight had not killed him, as had been supposed, but she had put the fear of ages into him all the same.
The tyrant of Tambelon backed away slowly. "Very well, Princess Twilight, I will take my leave. But we shall meet again, not in Ponyville perhaps, but in Canterlot, or on the field battle. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the time that has been newly allotted to you, and appreciate the Equestria you helped to create."
Twilight growled, and Luna could tell that she was about to cast a spell. Grogar must have known that too, for he cloaked himself in shadow, wreathing himself within it, until when the shadows faded he had completely disappeared. The last of him that Luna saw was his face, smiling sardonically as though he had won.
When Twilight finds out what has happened to this country she might well agree with him.
There was silence in Ponyville. For a few moments, it felt as though the world was holding its breath.
"Twilight," Celestia whispered, tears beginning to spring to her eyes. "Twilight you are...you have returned."
Twilight looked back, and as the glow from her horn faded Luna noticed how incredibly weary she looked.
"Princess Celestia," Twilight murmured. "Could you please explain to me...what's...going...on?" Her eyes closed, and she collapsed onto the grass, unconscious.
"I...I don't understand?" Kenzi said. "I thought she died...what just happened?"
"I don't know, Kenzi," Thunder said. "I'm not sure that anypony does."
It was raining on Ponyville. Dark clouds gathered above, pushed together by teams of pegasi with an appropriate sense of mood, the rain falling heavily upon the military buildings, washing away the blood of the battle.
Would that all the consequences of the fight could be so easily washed away.
So many were dead. Of the trainees who had paraded for their graduation that day, a full quarter would not see the sun rise again. That included most of the officers. Mayor Scootaloo lived, but only just; old as she was the doctors did not think that she would last the night.
Ponies moved throughout the grim and silent town. Some dug graves, others collected the detritus of the field. More moved without direction, wandering as though in a trance, their eyes hollowed out and glazed over. Some whispered silent words, words meant for none but themselves, words that nopony else would understand.
Blueberry Pie hated it.
"Come on, everypony," she said. "We're alive, aren't we? Isn't that reason enough to smile a little?"
"Yeah, we're alive," Dusk Shine growled. He was sitting on the ground, legs hunched up, chin resting on his knees. "We're alive because we got lucky. How is that any reason to celebrate."
"Don't say that," Blueberry said. "We're alive because-"
"Because what?" Dusk snapped. "Because we're so awesome? What does that make all the poor saps who died, huh? Not only are they dead, but you're going to say they were bad soldiers, too?"
"No-" Blueberry began.
"Then what?"
A shadow fell over Blueberry Pie as Red Delicious stepped in between her and Dusk Shine. "There ain't no call for you to talk to her that way. I know you're feelin' bad, we all are. No need to take it out on anypony, though."
Dusk snorted, and looked away. "Never mind." He got up and walked off, with a last dismissive gaze in the direction of Blueberry and Red.
"Thank you," Blueberry murmured.
Red shrugged. "It weren't nothing. Perhaps you shoudn't have bothered him."
"I just hate to see everypony looking so sad," Blueberry said softly. She was no direct relation to the famous Pinkie Pie, but her great-grandma Maud had raised her on stories of her famous sister, of how she had brought joy and laughter from one corner of Equestria to the other while Twilight Sparkle lived. Blueberry had only meant Great-Aunt Pinkie once, when Blueberry was young and Pinkie very old and very sad, but she could still remember all of great-grandma's stories, still remember how even the tales had brought her joy, of how she had wanted to so much to bring that same joy that her great-aunt once had.
It seemed she couldn't even raise a smile in a crisis. She wasn't much of a chip off the old block.
"It's a sad time," Red said.
"It doesn't have to be," Blueberry said. "Princess Twilight's alive, and she's come back to save us all, isn't that a reason to celebrate. We should be having a party, not being so gloomy all over the place. Pinkie could have gotten everypony to smile."
"Maybe," Red admitted. "Or maybe she would have known better than to try, at a time like this."
Blueberry remembered how solemn Aunt Pinkie had been, on the one occasion that they had actually met. "Maybe."
Mind Map stood in front of the grave of Greatheart, and snivelled.
His best friend was dead. And now he didn't even deserve to call Greatheart his friend. For how could such a hero be friends with such a coward.
Mind Map had ran. He had seen the Stratons coming, and he had turned his tail and run away. Greatheart had run towards the fighting, but Mind Map had run away from it.
"I'm sorry," Mind Map sniffed, as tears rolled down his face and mingled with the rain. "I'm so sorry. Greatheart, I-"
"Mind Map."
Mind Map stiffened as he heard Sentinel's name behind him. Had she come to kill him, for failing her brother, whom he had called his friend? Had she come to berate him for his cowardice? Had she come to coldly lecture him on how he wasn't fit to be a guard? If so, then she was right. He had only signed up because he didn't want Greatheart to leave him behind, because he had hoped to be able to stand alongside his friend one day. But when the time came, he had shown that he possessed no real courage.
Whatever Sentinel wanted to do to him, she would be justified in doing so. But Min Map hoped she would restrict herself to physical violence, rather than verbal; words could cut deeper than swords sometimes, especially when the words were deserved.
"Sentinel," Mind Map murmured. "I... I'm so sorry, I... I'm sorry that... I'm so sorry that I'm such a coward!"
"Mind Map," Sentinel's voice was surprisingly even, and when her hoof touched his shoulder it was surprisingly. "Calm yourself."
Mind Map gasped, and turned his head to look at her. Sentinel's eyes were not filled with anger or sorrow. Instead they were... flat. Empty, almost. If was as if all emotion had been driven from them, leaving her a blank and empty vessel.
"This is no time to get emotional," Sentinel said, her voice husky and quiet.
"No time," Mind Map said. "How can you say that?"
"What good does it do?" Sentinel asked. "Will it bring Greatheart back?"
"N-no, but-"
"Then what's the point?" Sentinel asked, her voice still soft. "Tears, tantrums, what's the point in any of it. You may as well save your energy for something productive."
"Productive?" Mind Map muttered incredulously. "Like what?"
Sentinel stared at him. "Greatheart's dead. Somepony else will have to save Equestria. He wouldn't want us to give up. We have to inherit his will. Everything you think you're feeling right now, lock it up. Use it to become stronger, and only then will you honour my brother's memory."
"Become stronger?" Mind Map laughed incredulously. "Sentinel, I'm not strong at all. I'm weak. I'm a coward-"
"You're smart," Sentinel said. "Maybe that doesn't matter much in an ambush, but next time, when we're the ones doing the ambushing, then your intelligence could matter a great deal. Or were you just going to give up? Desert, maybe? Take a cushy job in the Manehattan city garrison? Quit being a guard before you've even started?"
Mind Map hesitated before he said, "I was thinking about it. I know that we said we'd all join the Rangers together, but..."
"If you give up," Sentinel said. "Then you really are unworthy to be Greatheart's friend."
She said it without malice, but as a statement of simple truth. And it was perfectly true.
Mind Map hung his head. "I don't want anypony else to die because of me."
"What about the ponies who might live because of you?" Sentinel asked.
"What?" Mind Map said loudly. "How can you say that after-"
"Because Greatheart believed in you," Sentinel said. Her tone softened the merest fraction as she said. "And so do I."
Mind Map sobbed. "Why?"
Sentinel was silent for a moment. Then said, "Because...you were his friend."
Thunder and Kenzi stood guard outside Sugarcube Corner. Princess Twilight had been taken there after she collapsed, and Princesses Luna and Celestia were inside with her now.
"Do you think she's woken up yet?" Kenzi asked, as she sheltered from the rain in the shadow of the bakery doorway.
"No," Thunder said.
"How can you sound so sure?"
"When she wakes up, we'll know about it," Thunder murmured.
"You sound so foreboding," Kenzi griped.
"I know what it's like to have your whole world ripped away from you," Thunder said. "And that's what Princess Twilight is about to experience."
Kenzi blinked. "You think so."
"Think about it," Thunder said. "I doubt she knows this is a hundred years into the future. She doesn't know she's been considered dead for all that time. She doesn't know that all her friends have died grieving for her. She'll have to learn all of that all at once while stuck in a strange place with no friends. That... that's worse than anything I ever had to deal with. When Princess Twilight wakes up... we'll hear her crying."
They had laid Twilight out in what had been Pinkie Pie's old room. It had been covered in a layer of dust, but a quick spell from Luna had banished all of it. She had been surprised to note how many of Pinkie's things were still there: the bed, the stuffed bear, one or two photographs. Pictures of parties long ago. Considering that Twilight was in all of them, Luna wondered why Pinkie had left them behind. Perhaps she couldn't bear to look at them any more.
They had put Twilight in the bed, where now she slumbered. Celestia stood over her like an old and faithful guard dog, looking down at her with such fierce tenderness that Luna knew it would take a small army to move her elder sister from Twilight's side.
"Is it not extraordinary, Luna?" Celestia murmured. "Is it not the most miraculous thing. My Twilight, my brave pony... she has come back to us. At the darkest hour, fate brought her back to me."
"It is, as you say, a miracle," Luna said softly. "And yet..."
"And yet?"
"Yet what will she awake to, but sorrow and grief," Luna said. "Perhaps it would have been better had she not returned."
"How can you say that?"
"I can say that because I am thinking of Twilight," Luna replied. "What kind of life will she have in this brave new Equestria? A life alone, friendless?"
"She will have me, and Spike," Celestia said sharply.
"She has nopony else," Luna answered. She sighed. "But what is done is done, and Twilight has returned."
"We must do all we can for her," Celestia said.
"I fear we may have need to ask more of her than we can ever give."
Celestia glared at her. "Luna, no. No. I will not allow it."
"Is it not her choice?"
"Twilight has given so much already," Celestia said. "She gave her-"
"Life? Clearly not," Luna said. "I know that this sounds harsh, is harsh, but if you could but be the ruler that you once where you would see. Grogar has returned. Who but Twilight has the strength to stand against him."
"We do," Celestia murmured.
"Perhaps," Luna replied carefully. "But we are both grievously out of practice, it appears, considering our showing today. Without Twilight's help we would have fallen."
"After one hundred years, she has returned," Celestia whispered. "After so many tears Twilight has come back to me, and you would have me cast her into the fire once again?"
"There was a time when you would not have hesitated."
"There was a time when Twilight had five brave friends ranged about her," Celestia said. "There was a time when the most powerful magic known to Ponykind belonged to them. There was a time... there was a time when I was a fool."
"That time was not then," Luna murmured. That time was much more recent, if it is past.
"Was it not?" Celestia asked. "Then why did I spend crisis after crisis sitting smug and safe in my gilded tower in Canterlot, using others as my weapons, sending one who was dearer than daughter to me out to fight in my place until she... until she was gone."
"Because you were wise," Luna said. "Because you recognised her worth, her valour, her strength, her compassion. Could such a font of all the virtues, who loved you dear as life itself, have sat idle while you fought, and risked yourself? While Equestria stood in jeopardy. You are not responsible for Twilight's actions, you are not responsible for the perils that she willingly endured, and it dishonours not only Twilight but the memory of all her friends to talk and act as though they were mere puppets jerking in obedience to your will."
Celestia was silent for a moment. She looked away from Luna, and back down at Twilight. "Perhaps," she said. "But I can choose not to expose her to danger any more."
"Do you think she will accept to be coddled by you when she learns what is at stake?" Luna demanded. "Alone or not she is Twilight Sparkle, the greatest archmage since Star Swirl and the best mare to ever walk the lands of Equestria. And so, though it may break your heart, break both our hearts, we have no choice but to put her in the line of peril once again."
"You have grown cold, little sister," Celestia murmured.
"I have been alone, these hundred years," Luna replied. "If I am cold, the burden of these times has made me so."
"Do you want an apology?"
"I want you to do something about the state the country's in," Luna snapped. She sighed. "I am sorry. I should not have lost my temper."
"It is alright," Celestia said. "Clearly much has gone awry while I grieved. But that will change. Now that Twilight is returned... with her by my side we will make Equestria great again."
Provided she does not lose herself in grief, as you once did, Luna thought.
"Oh, some of the new designs I've been coming up with lately are simply divine, even if I do say so myself," Rarity drawled, pausing for only a moment to take a sip of tea. "I must be having a burst of creativity. You all simply must come back to the boutique and see them, I'm dying to see what you think."
"I can't make it right away," Rainbow said. "But I'll be right down once I'm done with Scootaloo. I think she might actually start to fly soon. She just needs a little more practice."
Applejack smiled. "The way Apple Bloom talks about how Scootaloo's doin', you'd almost think it was her doin' it. You've really done right by that filly, Rainbow, I'm proud of you."
Rarity nodded. "Sweetie Belle is just the same. Congratulations, Rainbow Dash, it seems you've been a truly magnificent role model."
"Well, when you're as awesome as I am you owe it to the world to help spread it around."
"Aww, our little Rainbow Dash is all grown up," Pinkie said with a chuckle.
"Pinkie, you're the youngest pony here," Fluttershy murmured.
Twilight smiled. She and her friends were picnicking, the chequered blanket lain out upon the grass and laden down with cakes and sandwiches, each one looking more delicious than the next.
"I love all of you, so much," she murmured.
Everypony looked at her.
"Aww, shucks, Twi, you know we all feel the same way about you," Applejack said.
"I know," Twilight said, in a tone of absolute blissful contentment. "Just... promise me we'll always be this way, together forever, okay?"
The landscape changed. The grass disappeared, the sky vanished, even the picnic was gone from view. There was now nothing more than grey mist stretching endlessly, blinding Twilight to everything but her friends.
"What's going on?" Twilight asked. "Where did everything go?"
Twilight's eyes widened. "Rainbow? Rainbow Dash? Where are you? Where is she? Did you just see that?"
Nopony seemed to have noticed. Or if they did, nopony cared.
"She's only gone to prepare a place for the rest of us, Twilight," Applejack said. "Ain't nothing to get upset over."
"But where has she gone?"
"Hay if I know," Applejack said. "But I guess I'll find out when the time is right." Applejack, too, disappeared.
"Applejack!" Twilight cried. "What is this? What's going on?"
"We're sorry, Twilight," Fluttershy said, her voice soft and gentle like the breeze. "But I'm afraid we can't stay any longer." Then she was gone.
"No," Twilight moaned. "No, please don't."
"Even the most fantabulously fun parties have to end, Twilight," Pinkie said. "After all, if the same party just lasted for ever and ever and ever then there would never be any chance to have new parties, and the old party would just get boring and then they wouldn't be fun any more and a party that isn't fun is so terrible it doesn't bear thinking about!"
"Pinkie," Twilight murmured. "Please stay."
Pinkie smiled. "The party's over, Twilight. But it sure was fun, wasn't it?" And then there was no Pinkie Pie any more.
Only Rarity remained, standing as proud as beautiful as a painting and as graceful as a queen.
"Please don't leave me," Twilight begged.
"I stayed as long as I could, Twilight," Rarity replied. "But it turns out I just couldn't stay any longer. The others have all started without me, but a lady is always fashionably late. We'll wait for you, darling. Don't forget us."
"I don't understand," Twilight said.
Rarity smiled. "You will. Time to wake up, Twilight."
"Twilight?"
Twilight's eyes opened. She was in... Pinkie's room? Yes, it was, but at the same time not quite how Twilight remembered. More sparse, more empty. And no Pinkie. Instead, it was Celestia's voice that called to her, Celestia's face hovering overhead. Celestia's eyes filled with tears.
"Princess Celestia?" Twilight murmured. "What are you-"
"Oh, thank goodness," Celestia cried. "Oh, Twilight... I am so, so glad to hear your voice again."
"Why?" Twilight asked. "What's going on? Why am I in Pinkie's bed?"
Celestia was quiet for a moment. She looked behind her, and Twilight saw that Princess Luna was there, looking unusually stern.
"Princess Luna?" Twilight said. "Why are you here?"
Luna bowed her head. "It is a great pleasure to see you safe and sound, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight sat up in bed. "Okay, now you're both starting to worry me a little bit. What's the matter? What aren't you telling me?"
"Perhaps you should rest for a little-"
"No," Twilight said. "Princess Celestia, I know you mean well, but I'm not a child. I can tell that there is something wrong here. I remember what I saw and what I saw wasn't Ponyville. Why is my home so different? Why were there so many guards but nopony else? Where did the apple orchards go? Where's Pinkie? Where's Spike? Where are my friends? Please, just tell me what's going on?"
Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, and said nothing. She sighed, and when she spoke her voice was solemn and weighted down as if with lead or heavy stones.
"What I am about to tell you will be painful for you, Twilight," Celestia murmured. "But I ask you to be as brave as I know that you can be when you hear it."
A piercing cry of pain echoed out into the night of Ponyville, splitting the skies and striking the clouds. It was a cry of heartache, a cry like the cry of a mother phoenix returning to the nest and finding all the eggs smashed or stolen by vicious dragons. It was the cry of one whose world has fallen down around them, and who has nothing to stand on now that the foundations on which they built their life have crumbled into nothing. It was a wail so loud, so sharp, so heartbreaking that every pony left in Ponvyille stopped to listen to it. Some bowed their heads in grief, some began to weep, some shivered in fear at that cry that sounded almost like a ghost, as though Princess Twilight herself had died of a broken heart when news of her friends' death was brought to her.
Thunder bowed his head, and closed his eyes as the rain dripped out of his mane and down his nose.
"She sounds terrible," Kenzi murmured.
"What do you expect?" Thunder asked. "Everything she loved has just been ripped away from her, and she's been condemned to wander for the rest of her days in a strange land, a permanent outsider, unknown to most, disliked by some, loved by less than a few. That isn't a fate I'd wish on anypony."
Kenzi looked at him with compassion in her eyes. "Will she ever get over it?"