Prequel to The Witching Hour. 1500 years prior to Midnight's birth, the previous generation of kirins disappeared from Equestria. This is how it happened.
1500 years ago, a kirin named Storm Vine was the unofficial leader of the kirins. Along with her husband Tempest Flame and most of the others, she fought to protect Equestria from any dangers that arose as knights of the realm. When she wasn't doing that, she was spending time with her adopted daughter and friends, which included the archmages of the Sun and Moon, her elder brother, and a delightful, if somewhat eccentric, trickster.
But, this is not the story of her daily life or her exploits as a knight. This is the story of how it all ended. How one of their closest friends turned against them. How they fought against and eventually defeated him. And how his fall brought them down with him.
This is the story of how the kirins disappeared from Equestria.
Dandelion tuffs shuddered and broke apart as a breeze blew through them. Like little hitchhikers the floating seed allowed the wind to carry them off to Faust knows where. Some would end up only a little ways away and help keep the flower-like weed prolific in the area, much to the chagrin of the gardeners. Others would be blown clear across the countryside, settling down in areas that may not ever have had the plant before. But it was one in particular that landed on a pointy green snout only a little ways off, causing its owner to open her yellow draconic eyes and stare down at it past her black bangs. With a dismissive snort she sent the seed back on its journey to parts unknown while she stayed behind in Canterlot and continued to sun herself.
Spring was a perfect time for sunning, in her opinion. Winter was over and with it the bitter cold that even pegasi would complain about. Animal populations exploded as young were born so as to take advantage of the similar explosion of plant life. The gentleness of the sun and the equally gentle breezes were enough to make any time spent outside feel like heaven, and- “This is BORING!” –and teenagers still couldn’t appreciate the beauty of it all.
Storm Vine looked up from her place on the ground at her daughter. Bright Storm was on her back, all four yellow legs pointing straight up while her tail whipped around, the white tail-mane fluttering in the breeze. Her blue eyes had that bored look only a teenager could have, the kind you wanted to wipe off and tell them to just enjoy the little things in life. “Why are we just laying here?”
“Because the others aren’t here yet and it’s a nice day out,” Storm said with a matter-of-fact tone she knew would drive Bright crazy.
“But let’s DO something!”
“We are.”
“No, we’re laying in the grass!”
“That’s something.”
“ARGH!”
Storm chuckled as Bright yelled in frustration. In a decade or two she’d look back on days like today and wonder why she didn’t appreciate life as much back then. Then again, youth was always wasted on the young.
“What’s dad doing?” Bright asked letting her yellow legs flop to the ground.
“Assisting General Steel Spark with things.” Storm answered as she laid her head back down.
“Isn’t that your job since, you know, you’re the Platinum Knight of Equestria?”
Storm opened an eye and looked at Bright. “Even I get a break now and again, especially when I can simply order your father to sit in for me.” They both got a laugh out of that.
“Don’t tell me the unicorns are starting to rub off on you.” Both mares looked up to see a black wyvern with red-ish-orange streaks on his stomach and similarly colored horns descend on them. He had shrunk himself to fit into the courtyard, but he was still an imposing figure to any normal pony. Good thing neither Storm nor Bright were normal ponies. “I thought kirins were better than that.”
“Uncle Firestorm!” Like a bat out of Tartarus, Bright was up and impacted him with a hug, nearly knocking the wyvern over.
“OOF! And hello to you too,” he said with a chuckle.
“Hey big brother.” Storm walked over and nuzzled the wyvern. “How was the hunt?”
“Did the clan get any hydras!?” Bright asked with the same eagerness of a child asking for candy.
“Yes, we managed to get a couple.” Bright turned to Storm, expectation written across her face.
“Yes, we can join the clan for dinner tonight.” Storm said, watching in amusement as her daughter began cheering.
“Brutes put up one Tartarus of a fight; Thunder’s going to be grounded for a week or two while his wing heals.” Firestorm said as he laid down in the grass with them. He let out a contented snort at the feel of the cool grass on his leathery stomach.
“He’d have fewer injuries if he’d quit running into things head first,” Storm said, getting a nod in agreement from her older brother. “Any news from the other clans?”
“Nothing really worth noting. Marble and Quartz are flying into Canterlot toady; should be flying by any minute actually. Hearth wants me to tell them to visit the clan when they’re done here.”
Storm chuckled. “They’re three hundred years old and he still dotes on them like they were foals.”
“The Flame clan is still lazing about in the desert to the south.”
“Thankfully Tempest isn’t as lazy as his relatives.” They all laughed.
“And the Wind clan is still hob-knobbing with the Crystal Empire. You’d think we’d get a crystal kirin by now.”
Storm nodded. During the events that became known as Hearth’s Warming Eve, a group of earth ponies had left shortly after the leaders and their entourages had, traveling in a more Northerly direction. Using a very powerful crystal gem hey had farmed, known as the Crystal Heart, they created a sanctuary from the windigos and named it the Crystal Empire. The Wind clan had discovered them before they settled down and were amazed at how earth ponies had created such a powerful magical artifact. They decided to stay near these ponies, who were eventually called crystal ponies due to their magical abilities with crystal and new crystal-like selves; something most likely caused by the magic of the heart itself.
“How about the colonies and flocks? Anything out of them?” Storm asked. There had been reports of border disputes between them and nearby pony settlements.
“I can’t be your eyes and ears for everything,” he told her with a dismissive snort.
Before she could respond two large shadows passed by overhead, materializing into two wyverns they all recognized.
“Quartz and Marble are here,” Bright said, watching as the two of them buzzed Canterlot Castle.
Storm let out a groan. “Queen Platinum is going to throw a hissy fit over that; she always does.”
“Might I suggest house-breaking them then?”
Storm’s ears shot up at the new voice, allowing one of them to be clamped on and gently nibbled. The normally stoic kirin let out something like a mix of a yelp and a laugh as she jumped away, then turned on the newcomer. “Or maybe I can just send you to apologize?”
“Another order? I’ve already seen to the general for you today.”
“And I appreciate it Tempest.” Storm said, moving to nuzzle her husband, soon followed by Bright. Tempest Flame was a bright red kirin with an orange mane and tail-mane, yellow eyes like his wife’s, and two pairs of spikes on his tail that curved upwards. Bright’s tail-blade was what looked like a multi-barbed grappling hook, while Storm’s simply looked like a scythe.
As well as having different tail-blades, each kirin was actually a different type based on what tribe their parents were from. Tempest, with his horn, had a unicorn for a mother. Storm, with her much larger wings than either her husband or daughter, was born from a pegasus. Bright, with a slightly thicker build and larger fangs, was an earth pony type. Storm and Tempest had adopted her after she was discovered somewhere between Canterlot and the Empire, after trying for nearly four centuries for their own. While it’s known that hybrids really can’t reproduce, Storm would point out that the harpies, lamias, and other “hybrids” had to overcome it if they were now their own species.
“That or you could ask one of the archmages.” He motioned down the path he’d come down, and Storm could see two mares coming up the path behind him.
“I figured you two would be the first ones here,” she said, meeting them part-way and nuzzling them as if they were family. They might as well have been having grown up and spent the past five hundred years together. If they weren’t different species they could have passed for sisters with how they acted toward each other.
“Issues in the various magical wings kept us busy this morning,” the white mare said, her regalia identifying her as the Archmage of the Sun. “Several happened at the same time in fact.”
“You would think they were all a bunch of foals by the way they were handling the situations,” the blue mare said, annoyance thick in her voice. “They continued to forget basic counter spells all morning. We’ve only just got the wings under control.”
“Some ponies just have off days Luna; you know that," the white alicorn chided her.
“But all at once Tia and on such a scale? Such a coincidence is near impossible! I would bet the moon I raise every night that your coltfriend was behind all of it.”
Archmage Celestia’s cheeks became a pink as her mane. “If he was responsible for any of it, you know as well as I we would have sensed it. He leaves obvious marks on his works.”
“I agree with Luna,” Firestorm said as he bit into a large diamond he had fished from one of the baskets Storm and Bright had brought with them for the get-together. “It sounds exactly like something that draconequus would do for a laugh.”
“As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, I don’t see the need to lambast him,” Storm said, chewing on a piece of rabbit. “I think he’s rather funny.” Bright nodded in agreement while Tempest merely shrugged.
“Thank you Storm Vine; it’s about time someone showed some appreciation for my work.” They all looked around for the source of the voice, then all eyes fell on Celestia’s headdress; a simple tiara with an image of the sun emblazoned on the front. Something the size of a mouse stuck itself out from behind it and grinned at them all. “Besides, who needs to work magic when a few changes in notes and pipe direction will cause just as much chaos?”
Luna and Firestorm shot a look at Celestia, who grinned sheepishly. “That still doesn’t make it right, Discord,” Celestia scolded, though crossing her eyes to try and see the draconequus was more funny than stern.
The draconequus hopped off her head with an umbrella and used it to gently land in the grass, where he grew to his normal height. He was younger looking than his later infamous visage and he ran his eagle’s claw through his tuft of white hair between his horns. “We all know chaos is neither good nor bad, just like the order you’re all so fond of, and you still got a few laughs out of it.”
Celestia rolled her eyes and patted the grass next to her. Taking the hint, he sat down next to his marefriend. “Just don’t do anything that gives any of us more work next time, please?”
“Well, if miss high and mighty number sixteen back there,” he pointed at the castle, “would let me blow in the wind for a bit, maybe I wouldn’t, on purpose or not. I bet I’d even get a fan following who would beg me to display my amazing chaotic abilities.” He snapped his talons, and cameras and autograph books began circling him. “Now now ladies, there’s plenty of Discord to go around.”
Celestia just rolled her eyes again and laid her head on his shoulder, causing the paparazzi paraphernalia to disappear. Blushing slightly, Discord laid his head against hers.
“You are funny Discord, and you probably would gain admirers for your antics.” Luna told him.
“But at the same time Queen Platinum XVI can’t be sending us out to reign you in constantly. We have obligations and cleaning up after you when something gets out of claw isn’t one of them,” Firestorm said.
Discord waved a dismissive lion’s paw and picked up a cupcake. He ate the wrapper, then threw the cupcake away, which turned into a dancing frog who sang all the way to the nearby pond. “First of all, my magic has never gotten away from me. I’m just too good for that.” They all rolled their eyes. “And secondly, then what do you propose I do? I am a being of chaos after all, and doing chaotic things is like breathing for me; it just has to be done.”
“Well, since chaos is just another word for change, why not help the pegasi with the weather?” Firestorm suggested.
“Deciding when and where it will rain at least a week in advance? Not chaotic at all if you ask me.” He summoned a weather chart, most likely directly from the Cloudsdale Weather Bureau, then, hopefully, sent it back.
“Court Jester, maybe?” Bright suggested.
“Believe it or not I did try out for the position when number fourteen sent out a call for one. Let’s just say the nobles don’t appreciate my particular brand of humor.”
“You’ll find your place,” Celestia told him with a nuzzle.
“Easy for someone at the same job for four hundred years to say,” the draconequus muttered. Then his face brightened with an idea. “You know, how about I scratch my daily itch right here with the folks that actually appreciate my work; I promise not to mess with the food this time.”
They all looked around at each other.
“I guess it couldn’t hurt, but you had better keep your word. If I bite into a lump of coal again I’ll make sure you won’t have any fangs in that mouth of yours.” Firestorm snorted a bit of fire for emphasis.
Discord smiled, then bowed. “One lunch and a show coming right up!” He snapped his claws and what looked like several dozen mini Discords appeared around the picnic. “Just sing the first thing that comes to mind,” he told them. They all nodded back at the original and one of them began.
“WELLLLL, Kyle’s Mom is-!”
Discord grabbed the mini-hims, cutting off the song. “I’ll decide which songs you all perform,” he said with a nervous chuckle.
The rest of the afternoon passed by in a string of songs, stories, and the odd chaotic event. The fun only ended when a half-pony-looking creature landed near the group. She was a harpy, a creature with a pony head and body and bird wings and legs. This one was a female, made obvious by the long, pony-like tail she was sporting, as well as the mare-like facial features. Male harpies had bird-like tails. They also came in two varieties; normal and owl. The differences, besides one being nocturnal, was that owl harpies had tuffs on their ears, like thestrals only with feathers instead of fur, and larger eyes. “Platinum Knight Storm Vine, Archmage of the Sun Celestia, and Discord. I’m sorry to interrupt, but Queen Platinum XVI wishes to see you.” She said, bringing up a wing in salute. The leathery armor she wore, bearing the crest of the royal army, shifted slightly from the gesture.
“Well, it looks like your little stunt this morning didn’t go unnoticed after all.” Firestorm and the rest turned towards the draconequus, but he was already almost out of sight down the path Tempest and the alicorn sisters had come down before.
“Discord.” Celestia gave him a reprimanding look.
“Oh, well, I’m sure she doesn’t really need me there. Besides, I already have a prior engagement with the Bluebloods and-” He stopped when he saw it wasn’t getting him anywhere. “Oh for- I’m several times her age! I will not be reprimanded by a baby in comparison again! It’s not even funny anymore.”
“You may out-rank her in age, but not maturity.” Luna said.
Discord only snorted.
“The faster you get it over with, the faster you get back to your appointment.” Storm told him with a smile.
That did seem to brighten him up a bit. “Fine. It’s not like she can do more than slap me on the wrist, anyway.”
“Must you encourage him?” Celestia asked the kirin as they took off for the castle.
“Luna’s right, but so is Discord. Anytime she talks down to me I have to resist the urge to spank her,” Storm said with a cheeky grin.
Several of them nearly fell out of the air laughing.
-----------------------------
"Really, though, Discord; if you want her to stop bothering you then don't give her a reason to," Storm said as she and the draconequus strolled along one of the palace balconies that looked out over the valley below. The meeting with Queen Platinum XVI had been... stressing. Yes, she was queen, but Storm Vine and Celestia had to agree with Discord about not liking to be chided by a pony who was basically a child compared to them. It was all Storm Vine could do to not growl when she berated her for the simple fly-by.
"Me existing gives her reason enough to bother me," he growled. Picking a nearby tulip, he used his chaos magic to turn it into a large wasp. Said wasp proceeded to fly at a nearby pair of patrolling guards and began shooting candy corn from its stinger at them.
Storm Vine sighed. "Discord, if it was up to me, you'd go anywhere in Equestria you wanted to."
He picked another flower. "Well... why can't it be?" He snapped his eagle claw and the flower turned into a simple tiara that he placed on her head.
"Discord... what in Equestria are you talking about?" she asked as she removed the tiara.
"I mean... why don't we immortals take over ruling Equestria? I mean think about it; really!" he emphasized when Storm Vine gave him a look. "Think about it Stormy! We both think Queen Plat-bum isn't right for the job and we know we can do a better job!"
"Surely you jest?" Storm asked with a hint of humor.
"I do not, and don't call me Shirley." The both laughed at the well-aged joke. "But seriously Stormy, think about it! How many times has one queen made a law only for the next one to chuck it out in favor of a new one?"
"At least sixteen," Storm said, some irritability creeping into her voice. "But I would think you'd like that kind of chaos it causes?"
He waved his lion's paw. "It's not the same; it's not fun. They do it because they're greedy and spiteful and it always causes problems between the ponies and other species!" He snorted unhappily. The harpies, lamias, dridders, moth ponies and other species that called this land home before the ponies ran here away from the Windigos all had been pushed back as the pony population grew and grew over the centuries. It was a subject that rankled most kirins' nerves, including Storm Vine, as well as the wyverns, as both had increasingly become the intermediaries between both groups.
Ignoring her grunt of displeasure, he continued. "But if we ruled Equestria, that wouldn't happen because we'd never leave the throne! Or the Round Table, whatever you want to call what we rule from. And everyone would actually be equal! No more nobles, no more being treated like second class, no more unhappy anyone!"
Storm cocked an eyebrow at him. "I could see it now: Discord, a draconequus for the people."
Discord clapped his paw/claw. "Exactly!"
"But who says that the rest of us want that?"
The smile disappeared from his face. "What?"
"Discord, do you really think the rest of us want to rule? At what point has any of us said, "Gee, you know what? I want to rule Equestria some day!"? Besides, do you really believe that us taking over will solve every problem the kingdom has? Discord, that will never work, and deep down you know it." He made to say something, but she cut him off. "Discord, you don't want to rule; you want to be free. I sympathize with you, more than you think, but this talk is not only foolish but more dangerous than you realize. You can call us immortal all you want, but I highly doubt we are. The last thing I want is to be told by the queen to hunt you or any of the rest of us down and bring you to justice."
"And if she does, just refuse!" the draconequus snapped. "You can't let her bully you or lead you around by a leash! You're better than that, stronger than that, and the minute she tries you should paddle her like the spoiled brat she is!"
Storm Vine sighed wearily. She had always felt they'd eventually end up arguing over this very thing. "I have served the crown all this time for two reasons, Discord. The first is because I actually like being a knight, a symbol for others to believe in. The second is because I can use that influence to help change things for the better. If it doesn't work the first time, I still have more chances to try again. If I try to overthrow the crown and fail, I'll never get another chance. Yes, things are less than ideal right now, but it will only get worse if we try something hasty and reckless. Now, promise me you won't talk about this anymore."
"Stormy-!"
"Promise me."
Discord sighed. "Oh... oh, alright! I promise I won't talk about overthrowing Her Royal Fat-Butt anymore."
Storm Vine nodded in satisfaction. "Alright then."
"I even have a token of my honesty," Discord said, conjuring a box into his lion paw.
Storm Vine quirked another eyebrow up at him. "Oh?"
"Yes indeed. It was going to be for you 550th, but I think I should give it to you now instead." Out of the box he pulled out a silver necklace with a pendent shaped like a kirin in flight, with a large, multi-hued gem in the center of the kirin.
"Oh, Discord! It's so beautiful! Are you sure you want to give this to me now?"
The draconequus nodded. "I, Discord, the only draconequus in the world, bestow upon the kirin Storm Vine, this necklace and pendent as a sign of my belief in her wisdom and as a symbol of our friendship that I will not cause trouble for Equestria or for its rightful rulers. This I promise." With that he set the necklace over her head and down around her withers.
Storm Vine held the pendant up so that the light caught the gem, flashing its many colors between them. "And what does it do? I've known you long enough to know it's not just a hunk of jewelry."
Discord smiled guiltily. "In all honesty I actually don't know; I made this one a surprise even to me. All I can say is that it won't blow up in your face."
"That's... reassuring," Storm said, warily letting it back down to rest against her chest.
They stood there in silence for a few more minutes. "Alright, enough with the sappy stuff," Discord finally said, magicing up a banana crème pie. "I say we have fun with the guards!"
"Discord!" Storm Vine called after the cackling draconequus. Things would get better; it was only a matter of time.
They all marched together with Storm Vine, archmages Celestia and Luna, and General Steel Spark in the lead. Arrayed behind them was the Equestrian Army, Storm Clan, nearly half of Stone Clan, and the order of the Equestrian Knights. A small force of wizards brought up the rear but considering their adversary, it was unlikely they'd be of any real help. In fact, most of those present would probably be useless in a real fight, if one broke out, but the hope was sheer numbers might convince him to stand down. Celestia and Storm Vine, especially the kirin, doubted this tactic would work at all.
Before them, the grassy plain between Canterlot Mountain and the Everfree Forest changed from grassland to some kind of checkered floor, the colors ranging from reds to yellows and greens to blues. Overhead, clouds made up of various foods passed by, raining various drinks and making a hazard of themselves to the flyers of their march. Pegasi, harpies, thestrals, and even a few airborne kirin had to break ranks to dodge the flying food. The wyverns fire-blasted any clouds that got close to them with mixed results. Some burned up, some dodged out of the way, and others made it their mission in life to assault their fire-breathing attackers.
And it wasn't just the clouds; animals such as fish and pigs were also airborne, and even those on the ground had to be careful of things such as dancing hippos, acrobatic rhinos, and skipping elephants. None of this, however, could stall their forward momentum and they soon arrived at their destination; the exact center of this chaos realm.
At the center stood a pillar, checkered just like the ground it rose out of, and atop this pillar was a black, gray, and red throne. Upon this throne was Discord, staring nonchalantly out at all of them as if this was the most normal thing in the world. Or, as if he'd expected them. The later, most likely, as Queen Platinum XVI floated past him again, screaming at him about how she'd been right about this very thing coming to pass. She and several other high-ranking nobles floated above his head and around the throne, each held captive in some kind of colored bubble, their various shouts of anger or fear muffled by their prisons.
For a long moment both sides were silent, only the prisoners making any kind of noise. Storm Vine and Celestia simply stared up at the draconequus, hurt, anger, and sadness maring their faces, neither making any effort to hide it. In truth, neither knew what to say to him. They knew Discord wouldn't just back down at their show of force but they didn't want to just attack him either. Both were still trying to figure out what to say to try and make him stand down when General Steel Spark stepped forward.
"Discord, you have kidnapped the queen and several high nobles, ravaged Canterlot, claimed yourself the new ruler of Equestria, and have changed the very reality of the surrounding area. Even if the charge of treason weren't laid at your miss-matched feet, the punishments for these crimes would be severe in the extreme. We are giving you one last chance to release the Queen and her subjects and come along quietly; at least some leniency might still be given if you do." The look on the trapped queen's face said otherwise.
Discord looked over the general, then let out an amused snort. "I expected as much from you, general. It's no surprise you'd come dancing to your queen's squealing and the same could be said of the rest of your army." He turned his gaze towards Storm Vine and Celestia. "But the rest of you? I thought you'd be glad someone finally stuffed an apple in the hog's mouth."
"This isn't a game!" Luna snapped. "You will return the queen at once and face punishment! You've gone too far this time, Discord!"
"This beyond extreme Discord," Celestia said, her voice calm and steady. "If you wanted to leave so badly, why not just do so? You could have simply teleported yourself anywhere in the blink of an eye and that would have been that."
Discord's yellow and red eyes narrowed at his, now more than likely ex, marefriend. "Would that have really been that, Celestia, or do you honestly think little miss high-and-mighty here would have ever let me roam free? As for just leaving, well, I've had another thought."
Storm Vine closed her eyes and prayed to the Makers that this was all just a very bad dream as she caressed the pendent he'd given her. "Discord," she begged, "please, don't tell me you really believe that foolish fantasy. You promised you wouldn't do anything like this!"
Discord's gaze fell upon Storm Vine and turned somber. "I said I wouldn't make trouble for Equestria's rightful rulers and I won't." He stood. "My fellow immortals, for too long we've suffered under the whims of these pony rulers who, compared to us, are nothing but foals! They have looked down on us, respecting us only for our power, and have isolated anyone who isn't a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony! How many times have rookeries needed to relocate, new dens found because old ones are demolished to make room for new towns, new hunting grounds searched for because the ponies find it appalling!? I say enough is enough! We've lived here longer than anypony else and know what the land and its people's need better than any self-entitled royal! Stand with me and we can make Equestria the great land it once was again!" He looked at Storm Vine again. “How many times have you gone to this puffed-up oaf, pleading with her to reconsider some speciest policy only to have her laugh in your face? How many families have you had to look in the eye and condemn because the “queen” threatened you with treason if you didn’t comply? Are you really going to tell me you never thought things would be better if we, those that have lived the longest and know more about this land than anyone else, were the ones in charge? We should be the ones in charge! We should be the ones taking care of the land and everyone upon it! We shouldn’t be taking orders from some stuck up little cow who’s only claim to the throne is a bone sticking out of her head!”
He smacked the orb with the queen in it, sending it spinning and making the queen a screaming blur inside. “Oh yes, I’ve done my homework,” Discord continued. “Do you know that the unicorns, before the Hearth Warming, threatened to not raise the sun out of spite towards the other two races? They were threatening to let the world freeze over, over some taxes! Look me in the eye and tell me that’s the kind of people we want ruling over us!” There were some rumbling from the army. While not a secret, retellings of the story had a habit of glassing over that little detail to make it sound like all three tribes were equally at fault. Having that fact laid bare in this particular setting was a good way to try and turn things in Discord’s favor. “And make no mistake, it IS the unicorns thinking they’re in charge of Equestria. How many earth ponies or pegasi are in the grand court of nobles, let alone how many non-ponies?” A big, red zero appeared next to him with a rather rude sound. “ZERO, THAT’S HOW MANY! That ends today. From this point forward, no species with be elevated above the others! All will have an equal say and equal rights!” He sat back down on his throne. “Are you still going to stand there and tell me I’m wrong?”
“Yes!” Luna shouted. “From where we stand, it looks like you see yourself as more equal than everyone else!” She pointed up at the throne he was seated on. “Unless you want us to believe that’s some random stump you’ve found to rest on? All you’ve ever wanted was power, not equality, and no flowery speeches of “doing this for the greater good” will sway any of us!”
“The wyverns agree with Arch Mage Luna,” Firestorm added, with Hearth Stone nodding in agreement. “You have done nothing before to aid those you claim are less fortunate. You may have brought up some true issues with the kingdom but we can all see through your smoke and mirrors and we will not bend the knee to the likes of you!”
A roar of agreement came from other leaders, leaders of the harpies, the thestrals, the lamias, and all the other races present.
“Discord,” Celestia called out once the calls of defiance simmered down, “I told you, you must be patient! Queen Platinum can be reasoned with if only-!”
“I have been patient since before this thing’s grandmother’s grandmother was born!” He roared, standing up from his throne again. “And with every new queen it’s the same! I’m not to leave Canterlot, I’m not to use my chaos magic unless granted permission! You try being restricted for over four hundred years and tell me how patient you are after that!” He gazed turned towards Storm Vine. “And you? What do you have to say about this? How are you going to condemn me?”
For another moment, Storm Vine was silent, just looking back up at him.
“Perhaps, eventually, you could have convinced me,” she finally admitted, ignoring to the sense of recoil from those closest and the almost uncountable eyes now upon her. “Had the queen been more of a speciest than she already was, had she gone out of her way to hurt anyone that wasn’t a pony, had been more of a tyrant, then I might have agreed with you.” She stood straighter. “But she isn’t that far gone and those of us that have lived long enough remember how much worse it used to be! When the Windigos were driven away, you forget there was a war between the ponies and the peoples already living here that nearly brought them back! That war ended with a peace treaty and ever since we’ve become more and more integrated! You say that no one but unicorns is a noble, but what of the representatives of the various species, what of the mayors who run the towns; how many of them are unicorns? How many in the army are unicorns? Had you just gone out into the world like you kept saying you would, do you really think that any of us could have stopped you? Do you think we really would have just blindly obeyed the queen and go out to drag you back? Had you gone, I would have covered for you! I would have told the queen, to her face, that you needed more freedom and that she had no right to try and confine you to the capitol. Instead, you do this, even when I asked you not to.” She shook her head. “I can’t take your side, not on this, and neither will any kirin. You have no allies here; release the queen and the other nobles and we’ll do what we can to help.”
It was his turn to stare at her in silence for some time. Finally, he sat down, his face one of cool indifference. “Fine then,” he said into the quiet, snapping his talons and making the bubbles disappear. Another quick snap and there was suddenly an army between them, squares of graham crackers, bars of chocolate, and giant marshmallows brandishing oversized toothpicks like they were spears. “Aloha it is. Spare the kirins!” he called out to his dessert army, “dispose of the rest!”
Silently, the food army aimed their toothpick spears forward and began marching.
As a roar of war cries rose from the allied army, Storm Vine shared an anguished look with Celestia. There would be no going back now. The two held the gaze for another second as the tide rushed forward to engage Discord’s forces, then Storm dove into the fray with her brother, husband, friends, and allies, attempting to bring down the rouge draconequus.
-------------------
Storm Vine flinched and hissed loudly as one of the healers placed some medicine on one of her many cuts. “Ma’am, it’ll become infected if not treated!” The healer admonished.
“I know!” Storm snapped, then leaned back towards them. “Just get it over with quickly,” she growled, allowing the stinging medicine to be reapplied. While the pain from the medicine added to her terrible mood, it wasn’t the cause of it.
They’d lost and not by just a hair’s breadth, either. Their combined army had been thoroughly routed by Discord’s sentient snacks, which just seemed to never end no matter how long the battle had been going on for. Even the wyverns and the torrents of fire they would unleash on the sweets never seemed to whittle down their numbers, while their own slowly diminished. She was certain Discord had simply continued to snap more of them into existence while he lazed about on his throne. For him to have been able to just sit there and watch what was going on like it was some mild entertainment at a fair made Storm shiver in both worry and disgust. She’d seen a few troops go down, including one hapless unicorn who’d gotten impaled through the eye. If Discord could watch that happen and not bat an eye, then he truly was lost.
His sugary army had finally pushed them hard enough to break through the lines and the call for retreat had been given. Storm Vine, Firestorm, and Archmage Luna had stayed behind as part of the rearguard to allow the others time to get back to base camp, where they currently were now. She’d eventually been carried in due to the multiple wounds all over her body and her adrenaline finally giving out on the march back. They couldn’t stay here for long, however; Storm was sure Discord wouldn’t just let them run away to regroup.
Something impacted her hard on the side the healer wasn’t working on and Storm’s subsequent roar of pain made Bright let go of her mother and back away. “I-I’m sorry mom but they said you were hurt!”
“It’s alright Bright,” Storm said, trying to ignore the waves of pain her daughter had caused and make her fangs retract. “Where is your father?”
Bright pointed her wing towards the back of the healing area, indicating the command area just beyond. “Meeting with the archmages, generals, and Uncle Firestorm. He said you weren’t in any shape for a war council.”
“Who does he-!?” Storm started, attempting to get up, only for the healer to stop her.
“Ma’am, if you don’t stay still, I will get some soldiers to help hold you down.”
Storm glared daggers at him but, once again, laid back down. As much as she felt she needed to be at that meeting, it wouldn’t do her any good to either fall over right there from her wounds and exhaustion or not be able to follow what was being said properly through the haze of pain. “I need to know what’s going on; what we’re going to do next. We can’t stay here.”
“No, we can’t.”
Both kirins and the healer looked up to see Celestia walking towards them, weaving her tall body through the wounded. “Archmage Celestia,” Storm said, nodding, “what news do you have?”
“Discord isn’t marching on the camp, not just yet, but the leaders agree that he will soon enough.”
“Then where are we to go next? Are we going towards the northern mountains or the southern deserts? We can’t march towards Lunar Bay; the ocean will trap too many of us!”
But Celestia was also shaking her head. “I tried to get them to wait until you were healed and could attend, but they were adamant on making a decision as soon as possible.” The alabaster alicorn sighed heavily. “We threw everything we had at Discord. The wyverns their size and fire, my sister and I all our magic, and an army and plan to trap him. None of it worked.” She looked down at Storm apologetically. “It’s been decided that, for now, the best course of action is to continue retreating and separate into smaller groups as we do so. Hopefully, Discord won’t be able to get all of us in one stroke and enough of us can escape to form a resistance until another plan can be made.”
“No!” This time Storm did get up and knock the healer away. “We can’t do that! It’ll just be easier for him to pick us off one by one like that! We need to stick together and stop him now!”
Something large landed nearby and Firestorm’s head descended to examine his sister. “Storm Vine, are they attending to your injuries yet?” He asked, tilting his head to get a better look at her wounds.
“Firestorm! Quick, get me over to the council, I can’t let them go through with this ridiculous plan!” Storm snapped, taking a few wobbly steps towards him. Bright and Celestia jumped forward to keep her up and to stop her, but the kirin kept them back with her lashing tail and its scythe-like blade. “They need to see reason! We can’t just roll over like this!”
“Storm, there’s nothing else we can do!” Firestorm said, snorting hard enough at her that the wind made her stop. “We tried everything! If he can take all that we brought against him today then there’s no way to stop him!”
“There has to be!” Storm shot back. “I’m not giving up!”
“Throwing yourself at him ‘til you’re dead won’t work either!” Firestorm snarled. “We need time to think of something else! If we split up, he can’t get all of us and those that remain will be able to figure out what to do next! We need you for what’s next!”
“He needs to be stopped!” Storm yelled, her voice hitching. “I can’t let him keep this up! I can stop him, I know it!”
“Storm,” Firestorm said, his voice gentler, “he’s too far gone; you can’t help him anymore. You saw how he reacted to the battle.”
“I can!” Storm protested, though now the conviction was finally leaving her voice. “I can stop him, I can fix this! I just need to try again!” Hot tears were spilling down Storm’s cheeks, no matter how hard she cursed them and tried to stop. He legs also gave out and she dropped to the ground, Celestia, Bright, and the healer rushing over to make sure she hadn’t hurt herself further. “He can’t know he’s won; if he thinks that then there will be no going back! We have to keep trying!”
Firestorm became engulfed in fire, then emerged from it about the same size as Storm. He moved over to his crying little sister and rested his head against hers. “It’s too late for that, Viney. Eventually he’ll become complacent or get cocky and then we can try again, but we have to wait for that first and come up with a better plan for when it happens.”
Storm Vine just shook her head but didn’t say anything more. The healer once again moved in to attend to the kirin’s wounds.
“Luna and I are going to head back to Canterlot to get as many spell and history books as we can, especially from the restricted section. Once we can’t carry anymore we’ll leave for a few secluded spots that very few know about. You and your family can join us if you like.” Her voice became a barely-heard whisper. “At least that’s one good thing about him always being stuck in Canterlot…”
Storm didn’t say anything; she just continued to nuzzle Firestorm and Bright while still unsuccessfully trying to hold back tears. Celestia left, soon replaced by Tempest who gently repeated what Celestia had said before trying to comfort her as well.
-------------------
It was night before Storm was able to move without opening her wounds again, the medicine was a fast acting kind, and while it was still painful they had little choice but to get moving. Celestia and Luna had already left for Canterlot and the army was moving again, heading directly west and planning to splinter off into smaller groups in an attempt to frustrate Discord into giving up the chase.
Although he hated the idea, Firestorm had no choice but to leave with the Storm Clan, following through with the plan to splinter off and Storm watched as the different clans spread out in all directions except due east.
“Which way are we going?” Pudding Stone asked Storm once the wyverns were out of sight. Pudding himself was actually the oldest of the kirins, a good one hundred years Storm’s elder. Her rank as the Platinum Knight, however, and his own general wish to not get too involved in things if he could help it, was what made Storm the de-facto leader of the kirins.
“We can go north, then east, towards the Griffith Isles,” someone spoke up. “He said to spare us; maybe we can help lead him away from the others.”
“And paint targets on our backs!?” Another shouted. “Let’s head west like everyone else! There are islands out in the Lunar Oceans we can head towards!”
“Or even into the Undiscovered West!” another added, “he won’t find us there!”
“We go northwest!” Storm finally said. “We need to stay close enough to be in touch with the other groups. Once a new plan gets put together, we need to be able to hear about it!”
“There won’t be a new plan!” Quartz Stone shouted. “We threw everything we had at Discord today and it didn’t even scratch him! We need to get as far away from here as possible to someplace he’ll never come looking for us!”
“Quartz!” Marble snapped.
“You know I’m right!” he shot back.
“We CAN beat him!” Storm announced. “Just not with brute strength or overwhelming numbers. We need time to come up with something that will work and once we do, we need to be ready. We go to Lunar Bay, dig into the foothills, and move forward from there. If everyone is ready, we fly immediately.” When there were no objections, Storm was the first one into the dark sky, quickly followed by the others. Tempest and Bright tried to fly close and console her, but she’d cried herself out, leaving behind only a stone-cold resolve.
As she flew, Storm felt something beat gently against her cheat. Lifting a hoof, she found it was the pendant Discord had given her. With everything that had happened, she’d forgotten that she’d never taken the trinket off. A new wave of anger and sadness welled up as she touched it. She should have thrown it at him when she had told him she wouldn’t join him. That might have changed things… no, it wouldn’t have changed anything.
For a second, her hoof pushed on the strap keeping it around her neck in an attempt to break it and let the now meaningless bit of metal fall away into the darkness below. The second passed and her hoof relaxed, easing back into its original position.
No, it wasn’t meaningless. It still had a purpose. When they met again and beat him, Storm would give it back to him, formally ending their near life-long friendship. He could look at it every day in his prison as a reminder or take it with him to the grave for all she cared, but he would get it back, and Storm would never have to see him again.
Both alicorns looked up as a figure came sliding into the cave.
“Hold your fire!” Storm Vine said, raising her wings in a gesture of peace, “it’s just me.”
Celestia and Luna looked at each other. “The phrase?” Celestia asked.
“Boy, that pickled banana pie sure was strawberry,” Storm Vine recited, a small grin forming as she finished, “though I would have hoped for kiwi.”
Both alicorns sighed in relief.
“How is the Alicorn Regalia coming along?” Luna asked, her eyes filling with hope, “Is it working as intended?”
The grin on Storm Vine’s face fell faster than a rock and she shook her head. “The whole project is a complete loss.”
The sisters’ jaws dropped. “What… how…?” Celestia asked.
“The Amulet gave the wearer alicorn-level magic, just like we hoped, but it also drove Trickster mad,” Vine explained, sighing as she remembered the pandemonium created shortly after the test began. “As you can imagine, we tried to contain him but there wasn’t anything realistically we could do without either of you there to be on par with him. He made a heck of a show blowing out of the safe house, so we can cross another one off,” they all grimaced, “and after that he went straight for Discord.”
“He didn’t,” Luna said, disbelieving.
“I wish he hadn’t. Discord didn’t even bat an eye when Trickster threw everything he had at him.” She snorted. “He even did the whole theatrical yawn bit and asked him if he was done, then reached out and yanked the amulet off him. Oh, I should probably also mention that the thing won’t come off when you put it on. Trust me, we tried.” Reaching back into her saddle bag, Vine produced the amulet in question. “Trickster’s gone, probably teleported to one of his candy quarries, and he threw the thing towards the gumdrop bush I was hiding behind. Even told me to try better next time.”
Celestia shook her head while Luna took her frustration out on a rock. “Maybe we can start over again, maybe not start with alicorn magic and focus more on flight and strength?”
Vine shook her head. “It’s his magical might we need to overcome. All the muscle and feathers in the world mean nothing if he can just snap his way to victory, and it’s taken us two years just to grow a gem strong enough to equal alicorn magic. How much of Equestria has his chaos magic swallowed up during that time? How much more time will we need to work the madness inducement out of the next one once we get back to where we were today?” She sighed, “I think the regalia is a lost cause. We need to find another way.”
Silence fell over the small group. Even with the Alicorn Regalia Plan being two years old, they’d never stopped trying to come up with other ways of defeating Discord in case it fell through. Nothing they came up had ever been as good as the idea to make average ponies as strong as alicorns, however, so slowly the idea of overwhelming Discord had become the only plan, one carefully guarded until today.
“Is there any idea how Trickster was driven mad?” Luna asked.
“No, but…” Vine tossed the amulet up in her hoof for emphases, “I’ve never liked the look of the thing; it looks evil, even if it’s what the materials look like to start with.”
“We didn’t have much of a choice,” Luna said.
“Well we need a new one!” Vine snapped back, throwing the amulet at the blue alicorn’s hooves. “It’s been two years, Luna, since we started growing this damn thing and another half year on top of that before we even thought to try it! He’s been changing Equestria into some insane dream-scape for two and a half years now at a snail’s pace, which I’m pretty sure is to mock us, and we’re no closer to stopping him then when we first tried!”
Celestia stepped forward, wing outstretched to try and calm their old friend when someone else slid down into the cave. “General Steel Spark, reporting!” he announced, “and can I say to keep it down in here? Who knows when one of that maniac’s minions will walk by.”
Storm Vine turned her anger towards the general. “Says the idiot who bellows his return for the whole world to hear!”
Spark bristled. “I wouldn’t have to worry about such things if YOU had a better grip on his leash!”
Golden magic covered the both Vine and Spark in an instant, freezing them in place and keeping their mouths shut.
“Too much, General,” Celestia said, “FAR too much. No-one is responsible for the choices Discord has made other than himself and I know personally that Storm Vine did all she could to stop this from happening. On top of that you never gave us the password, so for all we know you’re a spy yourself.”
Spark’s eyes left Storm Vines and focused on Celestia’s. They stayed hard and determined for a few more seconds until they looked away in submission. Storm Vine’s remained angry but she also looked away.
“Now,” Celestia said, removing her magic, “the password, General.”
Spark rolled his eyes but said, “Boy, that pickled banana pie sure was strawberry though I would have hoped for an avocado.” Satisfied that he’d gotten his password right, she nodded at him to continue. “The safe house near the Shades Forest is overrun. If we don’t do something quickly, our forces in the east will start getting picked off. We should speed up the Alicorn Regalia Plan at once, possibly even skip the test phases if things look well enough.”
Celestia and Luna shared a glance, then hesitantly looked over at Vine.
“The amulet was a dud,” the kirin explained bitterly, “it drove one of the testers mad, destroyed the safe house we were working in, and the tester tried to take on Discord himself, which failed just as dramatically. We’re scraping the regalia.”
Spark blinked, then began sputtering. “Did the amulet turn you mad, too!? We have no other option BUT the regalia! If your group is so full of idiots that they can’t make gems work, then I will take over the project with my own, competent ponies!”
Again, the golden magic froze them in place, this time catching Vine in mid leap with fangs extended. “Luna, please take the general and begin to go over some of our old plans with him; perhaps this time something will spring out at us that we missed before.” Luna nodded and took the general in her own dark blue magic. As they left, Vine’s eyes followed and Celestia couldn’t help but notice this time they were wet. She waited for another ten-count before lowering the kirin to the floor and removing her magic again. To her surprise, Vine didn’t try and chase after Spark; she only stood there, growling at the tunnel Luna had taken him down as tears began flowing down her cheeks. “He is horrible,” Celestia admitted, “but he’s still the head of the military and a lot of ponies look up to him.”
“Ponies,” Vine spat with far more venom than the alicorn thought her capable of, “they’re the only ones who look up to him. You know he’s as bad as any of the Queen Platinums, right? I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard from creatures escaping Discord’s little blight that he’d leave anyone who wasn’t a pony behind if he could. The regalia was the only thing we ever agreed on! We’re supposed to be united against Discord, not bickering like a bunch of five-year olds!” Her voice hiked and she stamped a hoof. “And what’s worse is he’s right! I should have done something more to stop Discord! He basically told me what he was going to do and I just let him!”
She grimaced as more tears fell and suddenly found herself swallowed in white feathers. “No,” Celestia said with a tone that brooked no argument, “Storm Vine, no-one is at fault for this other than Discord. We did our best with the signs he gave us and we were both doing what we could to influence the queens into changing things enough that he could roam freely eventually. If he couldn’t see that, well, then there was no hope for him then. What we need to do now is stop him before he turns the whole world into a child’s fever dream.”
“You’re right,” Vine choked out, “but I don’t know what to do now. The only plan we had has gone up in smoke.”
“Then we’ll think of a new one. Vine, how long has it been since you saw Tempest or Bright last?” The kirin didn’t answer. “Storm Vine?”
“For nearly a year now,” Vine finally said, still not looking up at her. “I can’t. I promised the next time I saw them Discord would be beaten. I thought the regalia would be done by now but all the setbacks and now this! I can’t face them, not yet.”
Celestia picked up the kirin’s chin with a hoof and forced her to look up at her. “They’ve haven’t seen you in a year. They don’t care if Discord is gone or not; they need you. Go home, see them, see who you’re doing all this for. Use that motivation for the next plan we put into motion.”
Storm Vine looked away, tears done and contemplating. “As soon as you have a plan…” she began.
“We’ll come get you, I promise,” Celestia assured her. “Now, get going and don’t let them wait a minute longer.”
Vine nodded and stepped away. “The cat’s in the bagpipe,” she said.
“And the sister is on the moon,” Celestia finish, cementing the password for next time.
-----------------------------
The waves crashing on the shore and the warm sand under her soothed her nerves like nothing else had in what felt like a life time. Here, on the shore of the North Luna Ocean, one could be forgiven for thinking anything was wrong with Equestria, save a glance to the east where Discord’s corruption could just be seen on the horizon. She let out a growl and let her head rest on the sun-baked sand. It was hard to rest with the constant reminder of her old friend’s treachery.
A gentle nuzzle turned the growl into a growl-purr. “You need to relax,” Tempest chided gently, rubbing the flat of a wing claw up and down her back, “you’ve only been back a few days.”
“Mmm… keep that up and I just might…” Vine warned, her limbs slowly but surely going limp due to the back rub. “Now, tell me there’s a bowl of fresh meat and rubies on its way and that Discord’s given up on this “rule the world” horseapples and I’ll call this all perfect.”
Tempest nuzzled her again. “Gotta burst your bubble on the later and while it’s not on the way, I can cobble something together back at the house.”
She turned to nuzzle him in return which ended up as a deep kiss. “Two out of three isn’t too bad,” she said as she growl-purred into his neck. She wasn’t sure if it was just seeing him again after nearly a year, the closeness, the atmosphere, or all three, but she was suddenly feeling exceptionally… frisky just then. “Makers, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” he said quietly, then chuckled as his gaze wandered out over the water. “You might want to take a quick dip and cool down,” Tempest whispered in her ear, knowing what his wife was thinking, “Bright, Dazzle, and Rust are coming back.”
Vine’s ears flattened as the romantic mood broke. Still, she turned to greet her daughter and the other kirin members of Storm Clan. All three had been hunting off the coast with the wyverns of the clan and despite the interruption she was interested if they caught anything.
“An adult bottle-nosed dolphin!” Bright explained proudly, “we got it back in all by ourselves!”
“And the others got a big whale,” Rust added, licking his lips, “dad says this one is extra fatty, too!”
Both Vine and Tempest licked their lips. Sea mammals tasted even better than land ones and whales and dolphins were extra tasty, especially when cooked properly. They also weren’t easy to catch, so they were an uncommon treat. “I suppose we’ve lazed about in the sun long enough,” Vine said, getting up and shaking the sand off her belly, Tempest following suit. “Time to pamper our bellies.”
-----------------------------
“…And Fire Feather Rookery is doing well,” Firestorm said as he and Storm Vine wandered by the foot of the cliffs by the coast. He frowned as he looked up at a small flock of harpies that had just taken off; a bunch of young ones that were mock-fighting as they headed out to sea, probably to hunt. “Green Feather Rookery is talking about heading into the Undiscovered West. Somehow some of them got it into their heads that Discord’s Blight won’t cross into it,” he shook his head disapprovingly, “which is complete folly.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Vine mumbled, staring after the young harpies as well.
Firestorm looked down at her, then lowered his head and nudged her, which seemed to startle her.
“What-?”
“Do the rookeries, colonies, and others not interest you anymore?” he asked teasingly, hoping to get a rise out of his baby sister. To his disappointment, she only shook her head.
“No, I mean, yes, I’m glad to hear they’re all doing alright.”
“But your mind is back in central Equestria,” he finished for her. He had hoped being here, away from the lands Discord had twisted and surrounded by family would help her recover from the most recent setback. At first it looked like that was indeed the case but now, several days after the clan had brought in a whale to feast on, she seemed almost as dejected as when she’d first arrived. “You know you can always share any concerns you have with me,” he told her, settling down onto the ground.
He knew that she knew that he’d never really liked Discord. From the day he learned how to use his chaos magic, Firestorm felt that the draconequus had acted like petulant child, doing whatever he wanted with his magic rather than putting it to actual good use. True, the many Queen Platinums could have handled things better but he could have made a show of good faith as well. He could have made crops grow large or even speed them up to make multiple harvests per season, served with the military, joined the civil services, heck, even join a theater troupe! But no, that was all beneath one of his talents and he just wanted to roam free as was his “nature” as a being of chaos. Both Firestorm and Luna had agreed he was more a nuisance that anything but their siblings liked him, for some reason, so they held their tongues for the most part. They became a little looser once everything went downhill.
“I know, but…” she shook her head, then walked on a bit past him. She stopped, turned around, came back to him, turned around again and took another few steps, then sat on the ground facing away from him. “I should have thought of something by now,” she finally said.
“You’ve barely been here past a week,” he reminded her, “no-one is expecting a miracle from you like a bolt from the blue.”
“I should have had something else!” she roared, hitting the sand with a hoof. She visibly composed herself but still refused to look at him. “I should have had other plans going in case the regalia failed but I was so sure it could work, that even kirins could wield magic against him, that I dismissed everything else.” She finally looked back at him and he saw that fat tears were rolling down her cheeks. “How can I be expected to lead or even help if I can’t think of anything to contribute or even get Steel Spark to understand we need to work together if we’re ever supposed to win this!”
Firestorm got up and moved to his sister, nuzzling her as he used his much larger body to cover her in comforting and familiar shade. “Vine, you’re putting too much on yourself. Just because you can’t think of something to stop him doesn’t mean you can’t lead others; you’ve proven that ability many times over. As for Spark… well, with any luck Discord will get a hold of him before all this is done and it can be said he’s done something useful in his life.” That got Vine to finally crack a smile. “Then again, I could come back with you and accidently step on him.”
“No,” Vine said, wiping her tears away and stepping back out into the sun, “do that and we’ve got a whole other issue to worry about. I’ll take just one crisis at a time, thank you.”
Firestorm chuckled. “Very well, but the offer still stands.” Then he gave her a serious frown. “And Vine, please take this time to relax and recuperate; you can’t let these worries consume you like this and expect to go back with a clear head, like Celestia and Luna expect.”
Vine looked up at the harpies perched high above, then further down where one of the thestral colonies had taken up residence. The Silverwing Colony, if she had to guess from their colors this far away. Them and so many others depending on her, who would be affected by whatever actions she would take next. “I still don’t know what to do,” she said, as if pleading with him to give her an answer.
“One step at a time,” her brother advised gently, “and never lose sight of your goal. This way, when, not if, you stumble you’ll never get distracted from what’s important. Discord will lose someday, be it by a plan you come up with or someone else’s, by your actions or another’s, but never think you have nothing to add, something to contribute, even if it’s just being the glue that keeps everything from falling apart until that time comes. Everyone always underestimates the glue or the simple nail, until things come undone in the most spectacular of ways.”
She gave him a small smile again. “Hammer being a pain in the neck again?”
“Like a thorn lodged in a place I can’t reach!” Firestorm grumbled, which turned Vine’s smile into a full-blown laugh. Hearing about another one of Hammer Storm’s pitiful attempts to gain control of the clan suddenly made things feel normal again and she liked it.
-----------------------------
“I wish you were staying longer,” Bright said as she helped pack the last of Vine’s things.
Vine raised an eyebrow at her. “Bright, I’ve been here for three weeks. I have to go back sometime.”
“I know, it just doesn’t feel like you’ve been back that long.” She closed the bag she’d been packing. “I really missed you, mom.”
Vine trotted over and embraced her daughter with both forelegs and wings, Bright doing the same in return. “I’ll do what I can to not be gone so long again but things aren’t going well out there.” She smirked, “and you miss me now? I remember just a few years ago you would grumble about how me or your father were always around and how you couldn’t get away with anything.”
Bright chuckled. “I can change!”
Vine nodded. “Yes, and when you finally get a boyfriend, you’ll be back to not wanting me around! Then it’ll swing back to missing me when you have a foal of your own and want some peace!”
They both laughed and hugged again.
“I packed a few of my old story books,” Bright said when they let go, “you can read them at night and imagine you’re reading them to a younger me. You know, before all of… this.”
Vine almost hugged her again, but this time settled on grabbing Bright’s cheeks with the flats of her wing claws. “Do I need to tell daddy to keep an eye on the cookie jar again?” Again, they both laughed. “Really, though, Bright; thank you so much. I know how much you treasure those books.”
She shrugged. “I think you need them more than I do. Besides, I’m going to want those books back at some point, so you have a reason to come back.”
Vine picked up the bag Bright had packed and slung it over her back. “Yes, yes I do.”
-----------------------------
“It’s good to have you back,” Celestia said as she came into Vine’s quarters. The kirin was just finishing unpacking, having ordered a status report on any changes that had happened the minute she’d returned as well as updates on all the programs that had been started in her absence. She’d also butt heads with Steel Spark again over that, him arguing that she had no right to demand anything after being gone for so long and her arguing back that because she’d been gone as long as she had she needed to be up to speed ASAP. Both Celestia and Luna had been glad to see that Vine had kept her head the entire time and it had been Spark who’d left in a huff while Vine had gone right back into the reports without so much as an extended fang.
“I wish I could say the same, but I miss them all over again already,” Vine said as she placed a bunch of books on a shelf near her bed. “Bright was right; it felt like I was barely back before leaving again.” She looked up at the alicorn as soft white feathers laid across her whithers like a blanket.
“We’ll stop him someday,” Celestia promised, to which Vine nodded.
“Yeah, we will. Maybe one of these new projects will have more success…” She shoved the empty bags under the bed, not sounding exactly confident in what the reports had given her.
Celestia, meanwhile, was looking at the books Vine had brought back with her. “Odd reading material,” she commented as she picked one up and began flipping through the pages. “Are you hoping a fairytale about bugbears and plucky maids will have an answer?”
Vine gave her a look as she plucked the book from Celestia’s magical hold and put it back on the shelf. “Bright packed them for me as a way to think of home. If you think my next plan is to get him to walk over a bridge with a troll under it while he’s dressed as a goat, I’ve got news for you.”
Celestia shook her head with a smile as she picked up another one. “Goodness, no, though since we’re just throwing everything at the wall right now… ah, the old tales of Starswirl and his companions! I always loved these stories.”
“So did Bright. Of course, she loved Rockhoof. Even ran around with a shovel for a month digging random trenches.” She rubbed her front right leg. “Grounded her for just as long for the one right outside the front door.”
They both chuckled.
“Hmm… you know, Starswirl really did do and see a lot of things, if not to the exaggeration of these stories. His old journals were in Canterlot.”
“Please tell me that he didn’t really dabble with time spells. If Discord ever figured that out,” she let that hang in the air.
“Oh, no, all of Canterlot’s royal library was removed when he first went rogue,” Celestia assure her, but they still shivered at the idea of the draconequus mucking about with time. “We made sure they’re very far away from his new little realm. The only thing close to a time spell I ever found in them was something that sent you back just a week and that itself looked too experimental to even try in my opinion. There were other things…” she continued to flip through the pages, “Terror of the Sirens, Ponies of the Shadow Lands, The Harmonious Elements…” she stopped flipping through the pages and silently reread the last story title.
“What is it?” Vine asked.
“I recall one journal seeming to reference the gems in this story. I always thought it was some sort of guide to magic stones he wrote himself but now that I recall, these “Harmonious Elements” and their properties sound very similar to what he noted.”
Vine raised an eyebrow. “You mean it’s possible that the story of a bunch of gems that turned a bad witch good when everyone hugged might actually be real?”
“Well, I wouldn’t expect them to work like that, not literally, anyway,” Celestia confessed, “but if what half of what is written here is true and they do exist like his journals seem to suggest, then it wouldn’t hurt to find and study them.” She smiled. “It might even restart the regalia program with much more reliable gems if things pan out just right.”
“Alright,” Vine said, now seriously mulling the matter over, “then, unless you have more confidence in any of these other plans than I do, then I say we start looking over those journals. Maybe there’s some truth to digging ditches fast enough to divert flowing lava. Just one favor if there is.”
It was a familiar scene to Storm Vine, marching through the chaos-infected land with rogue cotton candy clouds and buffalo in tutus all over. The feelings were even the same; cautious optimism that everything would turn out alright and grim determination if it didn’t. What had changed was the reason for it all.
Before, they had come to try and talk a friend down from doing something disastrous with the unpleasant reality that they’d have to fight him if they couldn’t.
Now, they were marching on an enemy with a weapon Vine could only hope would work against him, knowing that if it didn’t this would likely be the final battle for them all. The only question at that point would be just what kind of fate would await them at Discord’s miss-matched claws.
Another difference was that this time they weren’t being assaulted by his various chaotic creations as they marched on his throne. Last time they had been under attack by candy clouds, flying fish, and prancing pachyderms. This time… was eerily calm. Maybe it was because Discord wanted to unnerve them before they got close, maybe it was because he was planning something and wanted to make a big spectacle when they got close, or maybe it was because their approaching group was significantly smaller this time, many either having been caught by or fallen to the chaos or simply not wanting to face him again. Storm Vine couldn’t blame those from the later group; if plan A failed then plan B was just as hopeless. She could understand wanting to be with one’s family when the world came crumbing down around you.
The kirin looked at the saddlebags of the two archmages where their last hope currently resided. It had taken them all the better part of two years to find them, chasing trail after trail, rumor after rumor, and tome after tome of old legends to track them down. Many times the search had led them back into the chaotic lands where, thanks to the corruption, landmarks they were after had become warped to the point of being unrecognizable or were just not there anymore. There had been plenty of close calls during those excursions, including nearly running into Discord himself on a number of occasions. They’d still be looking if it hadn’t been for a group of harpies that had decided to race over the corrupted lands to see if anything stood out from the normal amount of crazy they’d been accustomed to seeing after all these years.
Miracle of miracles, one of them had actually seen something and it had made all their jaws drop when they heard it. In what had been the Everfree Forest, right near where Discord had set up his throne, was a ravine that was just… normal. The chaos corruption had just seemingly left it alone. Steel Spark had proclaimed it was a trap as there was no way Discord would have ever left even an inch of Equestria as it had been. Others pointed out that it probably meant nothing, that leaving something alone in a sea of chaotic corruption just added to the chaos, fitting its definition and thus was in line with his actions. Storm Vine and Celestia knew the chaos creature well enough to disagree with both assertions.
Discord liked to think himself clever and nearly five years of him ruling the corrupted lands had only exasperated that idea but this would be too obvious of a trap if it was one. They’d be practically crawling into his lap where as all the other times had been him nearly stumbling over them as they searched. Yes, he knew they were desperate but even after the catastrophe of the alicorn regalia they had still kept cool heads, so it was doubtful he’d think they’d be reckless now. On top of that the ravine could only be seen from the air and no flyer from their resistance had flown over that particular ground since right after that first route. He’d be relying on them making a wild stunt like the harpies did to even see it and he didn’t have that kind of patience. He also wouldn’t have just left it alone for chaos’ sake. He wanted to corrupt all of Equestria, so he would. A small bit of land so near the epicenter wouldn’t have been left alone just because.
Celestia, Luna, and Storm Vine all left to see the anomaly for themselves after finally arguing down the others, mostly a very vocal Steel Spark, that this could not be ignored nor could they leave it to others to investigate. Like all their previous trips, it had been nerve-racking as they used every ounce of magic and skill to avoid being caught by the many chaotic creatures between them and their destination. Besides them, they had to also sneak past those that had been corrupted by Discord’s magic, grayed-out and acting horrible to each other. All three prayed that once he was defeated, those affected by him could go back to leading normal, happy lives. Even when they finally reached the ravine they didn’t let their guard down; the idea that this was indeed a trap, no matter how unlikely, still kept their senses on edge. Their investigating quickly led them to a cave along the bottom with a faint light coming out of it and when they cautiously looked in they found a sight to behold.
At the back of the cave was a tree or, at least, what looked like a tree. It was made of a blue crystal that sprouted up from the floor with branches that reached out in five directions, each of which ended with a colorful gem with other, smaller diamond-like gems hanging down from the branches like those of a weeping willow. In the center was a large, six-pointed star shape, while underneath that were two more distinct symbols, one of a sun and the other of a crescent moon. The aura it gave off was like a gentle spring breeze, calming and gave one the impression that everything would be fine. Before they knew it they were all inside and staring up at the tree, Celestia and Luna standing closer than Storm Vine.
“It… is the Tree of Harmony,” Luna said softly, as if she was understanding something.
“And those are the Elements,” Celestia said in the same tone, as if something was explaining this to them. Storm Vine didn’t feel like she was being told anything, just a feeling of being calmed, but she trusted her friends and whatever this tree and these elements were, there was no way they were something created by Discord. Whatever they were, they were beyond his power.
Her look of awe becoming one of determination, Celestia flew up to the tree, her horn alight. “Are you sure?” Luna asked as Celestia plucked an Element from a branch. “It almost feels like they are tied to the tree. What if without them…?”
“This is possibly the only means of stopping Discord and returning peace to Equestria,” Celestia said as she eyed the Element. “Even without them, this tree has great power. If the Elements and the tree are truly that closely linked, we can return them after defeating Discord.”
Nodding, Luna flew closer and began gathering Elements herself. Celestia pulled off a second one, then the center shape of the tree glowed and opened up, revealing a second, smaller, magenta six-pointed star. This sixth Element floated over to Celestia, who took it with a nod to the tree as Luna finished picking her third one.
“You want to explain all that?” Storm Vine asked when they landed again by her.
“We don’t know how to explain it but these Elements… they are what we need to defeat Discord,” Celestia said.
“It spoke to us, though that’s not the best way to describe it,” Luna tried to explain, “but we are certain it is the truth.”
Strom Vine looked past them to the tree, giving it another hard once over. “Well, whatever it is, Discord has nothing to do with it and I trust you two, so let’s get out of here with them and put an end to this nightmare.”
As they had made their way back across the corrupted lands, hoping and praying Discord hadn’t noticed anything, Storm Vine couldn’t help but feel twin tinges of hope and apprehension pull at her heart. From what she could sense from her two friends, there was a feeling that, with this discovery, the final battle was upon them. Whatever had “spoke” to them hadn’t done so to her, so she didn’t have the same confidence in these Elements as they did but their confidence in them, a confidence she hadn’t sensed since before Discord took over, made her believe they knew what they were doing. That had sustained her through the trip back, arguing and forming of the final battle plan, and the march back into Discord’s domain.
Now here they were, approaching the small hill where his throne sat, ready to take him on again.
The throne was facing away from them at first but spun around as they reached the base of the small hill, revealing a chuckling Discord and another creature with him. It looked just like a pony but its eyes lacked pupils and instead had swirling circles in their place. She, for it was clearly a mare, was also floating near Discord’s head without any wings or a horn. Storm Vine had heard a few reports of a strange pony assistant helping the draconequus but had dismissed it. Now she wondered if she should have read those particular reports more carefully and if there were more of them lurking about.
“Well, well, well, back again I see. It’s been a while; how about a few rounds of five-pony stud so we can all get caught up?” He produced a deck of cards then bent them until they popped from his eagle claw, fluttering down onto the front row of the group below. Everyone stayed silent, only returning his antics with glares.
“Maybe they’d prefer Pegasus Hold’em, boss,” the strange mare suggested, tossing her own deck of cards at them. Storm Vine kept an eye on the cards scattered on the ground in case the draconequus planted them there deliberately.
“Nah, I’ve got a better idea! How about a game of pin the tail on the pony?” He lifted up his lion paw to reveal a pink, wavy tail. This time there was a reaction as Celestia reflexively looked at her backside and saw he’d indeed stolen her tail. Both he and the strange pony laughed and Discord threw the tail back towards them, the wavy pink mass taking off on its own and reattaching itself to Celestia with a rude noise, which only made the two laugh louder.
Above them, Firestorm snorted in disgust. “Five years of being the “Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony” and you still act like a child.”
Celestia and Storm Vine stepped forward and spread their wings, stopping anyone else from adding to the comment. They wanted to get this over with and comments and arguments would just drag things out. “Play time is over for you, Discord,” Celestia said.
“This farce is done with,” Storm Vine added.
Once they were done laughing, Discord pulled out a sack of… some kind of seed and began eating. He was making a heck of a mess, too, dropping clawfuls everywhere as he dug in, his pony assistant spilling quite a lot as well when he offered the sack to her. “I seriously doubt that,” he said, throwing a loose handful into his mouth, “you lot haven’t been able to even touch me in all these years and now you stroll up unannounced and claim I’m done for? And here I thought you were all too stuffy for jokes.”
Celestia and Luna looked at each other, nodded, then turned and nodded to the others. They all nodded in return and braced themselves, not knowing exactly what they’d be bracing for. They’d never tried to test the Elements out of fear they’d be tipping the chaos creature off. The saddle bags of the two alicorns opened and the six Elements, three apiece, came floating out, the sisters arraying them in front of themselves at the ready.
Discord’s eyebrows went up and he let out a surprised “Oh!” at the sight of them, tossing the seed bag away as he leaned into get a better look at what they’d just produced. “And what have you got there?”
“Looks like those candy rings without the rings!” The mare said, pulling a hoof out from behind her back and showing off a plastic ring on it topped with a ridiculously sized gem-shaped candy on it. “And it looks like they want to taste the rainbow!”
“These are the Elements of Harmony,” Celestia explained as the Elements began to swiftly spin around the two. Storm Vine and a few others had to back away or risk getting hit. As the Elements started to lift the two alicorns off the ground, Storm Vine unconsciously brought a hoof up to her pendant and prayed they’d work.
“With them we shall finally defeat you and return Equestria to the peaceful land it once was!” Luna added.
Discord and the mare just looked at each other and began laughing again. “You should hear and see yourselves right now!” he wheezed out, “those serious expressions while rainbow gems fly around your heads, everyone backing up so they don’t take friendly fire! And you’re all calling me insane!?”
The Elements spun even faster, then a ribbon of rainbow shot up from them and arced up then down towards the laughing pair, neither one seeming to worry about being hit by it.
“Hilarious!” Discord shouted, his lion paw hold his stomach while his eagle claw reached out for the mare, who grabbed it as she nearly fell out of the sky laughing.
The rainbow ribbon hit them mid-guffaw. There was no flinching, no cry of pain to replace the laughter, both Discord and the mare simply became white gray and froze in place. There was a flash of light and a pulse that made them all close their eyes. When they opened them again, they all blinked several times at the scene around them.
It was all back to normal.
Green grass, blue skies, average trees with normal leaves, ponds and rivers flowing with clear water; it was all back to how it had been before. In front of them, instead of a small hill and throne, was a life-like statute of Discord and the mare, frozen in mid-laugh.
“Is… is it over?” Storm Vine asked, hardly able to believe there really was grass under her hooves and not the checkered pattern of the chaos corruption.
“It can’t have been that easy,” General Steel Spark said, also looked around, “all this time fighting for our lives and he folds just like that? There’s still something going on.”
“I can’t sense his magic anymore, general,” Celestia said, walking up to the statue and examining it more closely, then letting out a deep sigh that seemed to come from the deepest part of her soul. She looked over at Luna, who nodded in agreement, then turned back fully to look at them all. “The Elements did it; Discord is finally defeated.”
There was a pause, then a hysteric cheer went up, quickly gaining voices as it echoed all the way to the Canterlot mountains. Storm Vine let out a deep sigh of her own and her back legs slid out from under her. Firestorm made to hold her up with a wing but she waved him off. “I just need a minute,” she said, looking back at the alicorns and then the statue behind them. The nightmare was over, the chaos defeated, and they could all go back to their normal lives, what pieces of them were left. There’d be a bumpy road ahead, putting Equestria back together, but the future was bright again and if they could endure the previous five years, however many were ahead would seem like a cake walk in comparison.
Tears rolled down the kirins face. “It’s over.”
-----------------------------
“And you’re sure you don’t want to be in Canterlot Castle?” Storm Vine asked as she watched several workers apply more mortar to the wall they were constructing.
“As we told you and the others, it would be better to keep the Elements as close to the tree as possible, just in case,” Celestia told the kirin, glancing in the direction of the nearby ravine. “And since we are their bearers, we should stay close as well.”
“Not to mention it lets us distance ourselves from the shadows of the previous queens, which all will appreciate, not to mention letting Queen Platinum XVI live out the rest of her days in peace,” Luna added with a snort.
“All but the unicorns, anyway,” Vine muttered, remembering the fit Steel Spark threw when he was told the newly elected rulers of Equestria were moving the capital away from the seat of power that had existed for more than half a millennia.
With Discord defeated, it had been hoped things would return to how they had been before he took over. However, the “games” he had put Queen Platinum XVI and most of her court through for the past five years had broke them all mentally and none were fit to serve, nor had the queen produced an heir before Discord’s take over to take her place. With it being Celestia and Luna and their powerful Elements that were the ones to ultimately stop him, as well as their leadership of the resistance against him and their ranks as archmages before the time of chaos that was now being called “Discord’s Folly”, it had been decided by the few remaining beings in power that the alicorn sisters should be the next rulers of Equestria.
Even that decision had hit a snag as soon as it was agreed upon.
As Celestia was the older sister, some had proposed that she become queen while Luna, the younger sister, be the new princess. Others, including Storm Vine, had argued that since it had taken both sisters with both their Elements to defeat Discord, they were equally responsible and should rule equally. The ones in favor of Celestia being queen pointed out that there could only be one queen, not two, so ONE of the sisters had to take the title of princess. Celestia herself tried to compromise by saying they could both take the title of princess, however this was also shot down as they argued that only a king or queen could rule a kingdom, not a princess.
One of the nobles in agreement for both becoming princesses then stated that since Queen Platinum XVI still held the title, even if only as a courtesy, that meant that declaring either of the alicorns as queen would technically be treason, making the opposite side mutter nervously. It was further pointed out that since the queen had no heir, the decision that was being made was actually about who her successor would be, meaning that the title of princess going to both Element bearers made more sense and a discussion of succession could be held when the current queen finally passed. In the meantime, both alicorns would rule in her stead in order to get the country back on its hooves. THAT had finally gotten everyone on the same page again.
“Don’t get worked up about General Steel Spark; you know he always comes around in the end,” Celestia told her friend, laying an ivory wing across her back.
Vine sighed and rolled her eyes. “Before Discord went rogue, he was just annoying sometimes. Even now after Discord’s defeat, he’s become practically insufferable. All he does anymore is just argue and argue!” Vine snorted and two small jets of fire flared out. Catching herself and taking a deep breath, Vine reached into her saddlebags and took out a ruby, popping it into her mouth. “Tempest and Bright are moving into the temporary shelters for the new castle town today, so I think I’ll go help them move in.” Both alicorns nodded as she took off and flew off away from the build site back towards the large plains on the edge of the forest. As she did so two wyverns, clearly Marble and Quartz Stone, flew overhead in the same direction, playfully nipping at each other as they went. All the kirins were moving into the castle town, just as they all had originally been living in Canterlot. As they, as a group, had always had been seen as mediators for inter-species issues, it was considered that the best place for them to be was near to where the most complaints would come to. Storm Vine was also essentially the leader of their species and wherever she went, so did they. As she still held the rank of Platinum Knight, her place was by the ruler(s) of Equestria, and so they followed. At least Vine could take comfort knowing that the sisters wouldn’t complain to her about wyvern fly-bys.
“She’s not wrong, you know,” Luna said when they turned back to the construction. “Steel Spark has grown an attitude; understandable while Discord ran wild but now it is becoming a problem.”
“He agreed to us being princesses and moving the capitol,” Celestia pointed out.
“After intense arguing and then only begrudgingly,” Luna countered. “I have also seen him giving non-ponies rather disturbing glares when he thinks no-one is looking. That is both new and worrying.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying he’s developed some sort of grudge against non-ponies?”
“Quite a few sided with Discord when he first took over,” Luna reminded her, “many sighting they did so because they felt Queen Platinum was speciesist, which, let us be fair.” They both raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Steel Spark is also one of the few outside of the ones born around that time that knows Discord was born from his harpy mother’s egg, hatched while his lamia father tended the nest. He might worry what will happen if another draconequus is born.”
“I would like to think that we’ll treat the next one to be born, if that happens, with much more kindness than any of the queens showed Discord,” Celestia said, a note of anger in her voice which she also dispelled with a long, deep breath. “We will not make the same mistakes.”
“No we will not,” Luna agreed, but was still worried. “Should we keep an eye on Steel Spark, just in case?”
“He’s still adjusting to how everything is changing; many are. Once things settle down into a peaceful normal, he’ll become the old Steel Spark again. Leave him be for now.”
-----------------------------
“You’re sure?”
The doctor sighed and nodded. “As I’ve told you several times, her highness is fine physically but not mentally and isn’t showing any signs of recovering, nor is it likely she ever will. If you will excuse me, general.” With that the doctor picked up his bag and left the office.
General Steel Spark grimaced at the door as it closed behind the doctor. He’d been hoping there’d be some hint of recovery, some hope that the queen would recover and put an end to the farce taking shape in the Everfree Forest. He couldn’t trust the sisters, not while they still held the kirins in high esteem and treated the other species as equals. It was the other species’ fault that damn chaos monster had been born, after all! All the interbreeding that had produced Discord in the first place, at least that’s what the mages and wizards who studied him when he was still a foal hypothesized. He’d stumbled across the notebooks on the matter when he had to police the library’s archives long before he’d been made general.
And if one could be born, there was no reason to think another one couldn’t and they’d be right back to fighting for their lives all over again before too long. Those Elements probably wouldn’t work either since the new draconequus would know about them and take care of the archma- the princesses first, leaving Equestria at their mercy.
He could not let another draconequus terrorize the land again.
But what could he really do? Move against even a single group to try and prevent enough hybridization and that damn Storm Vine and her kirins would stop him, with the backing of both the wyvern clans and the new princesses to boot.
The kirins, the Kirins, those Damn KIRINS! No matter what idea he came up with they’d always be an obstacle he just couldn’t overcome! There was even a rumor that some had voiced that they would have joined Discord like so many others did! If only there was a way to take them out of the equation, then he could…
He stopped, staring blankly at the far wall as an idea came to him and grabbed hold of his thoughts like a drowning pony would a life preserver. It was all so simple, so simple that, in one swift act, all of Equestria’s problems could be solved, possibly forever!
He chuckled as he wrote a series of letters to those he trusted had the same outlook on the current situation as he did. When he called in a private to take and deliver the letters, the young pony couldn’t help but feel a shiver down his spine at the glint in the general’s eyes and the uncharacteristic smile on his face.
“Do hurry private,” he’d told him as he left with the letters, “Equestria’s future is at stake.”
Both new princesses looked up as the doors to the newly finished throne room opened and a tired-looking kirin trotted in. “Ah, Storm Vine, you’re back!” Celestia called out, waving with a wing for her to come closer. “How did everything go with the buffalo and the Flame Clan?”
“Fine; everything has been settled,” Vine said, coming up to them and sitting down, her back legs practically giving out. “Once again everything is happy-hunky-dori and everyone likes each other again.”
The two alicorns shared a looked. “I hope that was the last of the issues?” Luna said questioningly.
“For now,” Vine said, “but it wouldn’t surprise me if flare-ups happen again later. Feeling betrayed makes for a Tartarus of a roadblock to forgiveness.”
That was certainly something they all understood. If they were to be asked right then how long it would take for them to forgive Discord for what he’d done, they’d all say it would take at least a thousand years before they’d even consider it. The population of Equestria was having similar issues forgiving but not towards Discord, who they all presumed to be dead. Their problems laid with those who sided with the draconequus during his reign and who were now asking for forgiveness and to be allowed back into their old communities.
Most were being granted this wish as all they’d done had been to bow down and proclaim him their new king for the sake of their own or their family’s safety and had just existed as best they could under his rule. A hoofful, however, had truly turned on their neighbors and actively helped the chaos tyrant in any way he asked, be it chasing down those fleeing the encroaching chaos, raiding bases the resistance thought were secret, or even torturing those they captured. To Vine’s dismay, most of those had been non-ponies and most of their victims had been ponies, their “justifications” being that they’d suffered under the speciesist Queen Platinums and now it was the ponies’ turn to suffer. As one could imagine, this had caused interspecies issues and even groups that hadn’t had anyone join Discord were being discriminated against. Practically the day after Luna and Celestia were crowned Vine and the rest of the kirins had been running around Equestria to apprehend these criminals and mend relations as best they could. Sometimes all it had taken was a cool head of a third party to settle things. Other times… there were now several new communities popping up around where the wyvern clans called home and the few jails there were now had more than just those who sided with Discord in them. It had been more than a month-long ordeal and Vine was starting to wonder what the next nightmare was going to be and when she was going to find peace again.
“Well, let us hope that they won’t happen for a while and they won’t be as bad,” Celestia said gently, laying a snow-white wing on the green kirin comfortingly. “You’ll be happy to know that the houses for the kirins in the new castle town have been finished,” she smiled conspiratorially, “and that Tempest Flame is already getting your new house to feel like a home.”
That did make Vine’s weary frown morph into a smile. “I’m sure he’s doing a great job. As soon as Bright gets back it certainly will be.” She shook her mane and flapped her wings then stood back up. “So, what else needs to be done?”
“Nothing but boring political matters,” Luna said, lifting a document into view with her magic. “Hardly something that needs your immediate attention. Go and spend time with Tempest and Bright when she gets back; you’ve more than earned it.”
“Unfortunately, we both know that some of the most important things for the country are wrapped up in those boring political matters,” Vine reminded her with a sigh, “and since I’m essentially one of the founders of this new era of Equestria, I should really know what’s going on.”
“True,” Celestia said, “but, as your friends, do you trust us to give you a detailed report after you’ve gotten some rest?”
Vine chuckled. “I suppose I do and… thank you,” she said with a nod.
The alicorn sisters nodded as well and turned back to the paperwork they’d been going over before as the kirin slowly trotted back out.
It would have been nice if General Steel Spark could have helped with the small, social brush fires that had been cropping up as of late but he was in Canterlot, putting down fires of his own. Had he not, the remaining and new nobles of the country would have been breathing down their necks about every petty thing they could think of. Everyone was doing their part.
-----------------------------
Tempest stepped back and admired his work. He’d just put the finishing touches on their new house, located in the still developing castle town, and hoped Vine would come back soon. He’d done his best to recreate the home they’d lost in Canterlot but only so much had survived and the new home had a different layout. Even so, it still looked close enough and that, he knew, would be good enough for the mare he loved. He was just thinking of what he should cook when she finally did arrive when something heavy gently fell onto his hips. Whipping his head around, he saw a familiar green and black mass and smiled. “Can I help you?” he asked, shaking his hips gently.
“Shh,” the mare said tiredly, “comfy hips don’t talk… or move.”
“You’re pretty quiet for someone so tired; I didn’t even hear you open the door. Nor do I have any idea how you knew this was our new house.”
Vine grumbled and nipped at Tempest’s hip, which only made the male kirin chuckle. “Left door open, saw you inside, need ears checked,” she mumbled.
“I’ll have to be more careful from now on before anymore weird mares come inside and hug my hips,” he said playfully, patting Vine on the head with a wing, “which, by the way, are less comfortable than a couch or bed I would imagine.”
“You’d be surprised,” Vine grunted.
“Well, it’ll be a lot harder to get dinner started with a full-grown kirin hanging onto me,” he told her and the flick her ear made told him he’d gotten through to her.
“Rainbow gem stew, extra rubies and meat,” she finally said, “and an extra helping of you for dessert.”
Tempest chuckled. “You sure you’ll have energy for dessert?” he asked in a smooth, sultry voice.
The side eye she gave him reminded him of times they hadn’t shared since Discord took over and it sent good feelings to all the right places. “A nap in my own bed and a belly full of good food made by my loving husband? Oh, I think I will.”
They both growl-purred as she got off his hips so they could kiss.
-----------------------------
Steel Spark starred out of his office window in Canterlot Castle towards the city below. The streets of the old castle town were busy with ponies and, thankfully, only ponies. Of course, that had pretty much been the way it had been before Discord’s Folly but there had always been the odd non-pony standing out like a sore hoof. It rankled him to call it the “old” castle town but with the new capitol moving out into the Everfree Forest there was little he could do about it. Even if his plan went perfectly, he doubted the new princesses would move back to Canterlot. At least his plan to appear busy in the old capitol appeasing ruffled nobles was working just as hoped. They’d never expect what was coming.
He looked up from Canterlot and out past the mountain and the plain to the forest. The new castle couldn’t really be made out from here, not by anyone save possibly a harpy and their raptor-like eyes. “Everfree…” he muttered darkly before turning back to his desk, grabbing a glass of amber liquid and taking a long draft of it. Probably the only reason that chaos monster set up his capitol on the edge of it was because of its name as a way to mock the queen and the rightful rulers of Equestria. Well, he certainly wasn’t free anymore, was he?
As he put the glass back down his gaze shifted to the open letter he’d read earlier and he felt his chest ache. His wife, his beautiful, graceful, loving wife had written, begging him to come home, that the war was over and their son, his son, wanted to see his daddy again. A son he thought he’d never get to see and had viewed his birth as a miracle, being been born in the midst of chaos taking over the world. He missed them terribly and almost hurried out the door the second he finished reading. The sight of the reports from his “special division” had frozen him almost as still as Discord now was.
Things were coming together quicker than he’d expected and he would need to act soon. He was doing this for his son after all, so that he and his children and his grand children and his many times great grand children would never have to live in fear of the world being turned inside out by a seemingly all-powerful lunatic, of being on the run from chaotic corruption, of living in fear of once neighbors turning on them and putting them through makers knew what before putting them out of their misery. No, his son needed him here and focused on what needed to be done, so he’d stay where he’d do the most good. He’d understand. They both would. Equestria would.
A soft knocking at the office door and Spark shook himself out of his musing. “Enter,” he said once he positioned himself back behind his desk.
“A report, sir,” a sergeant said, entering and quickly closing the office door behind him. Spark knew the stallion and appreciate that he knew the value of privacy. If anyone outside their circle of conspirators learned what they were up to, there was a high chance they’d be stopped and punished severely. They were most likely going to be punished afterwards, too, but with the deed done at least they would know Equestria was safe. The stallion hoofed him a slip of paper with only a few lines on it. “The last ones are coming home to roost,” he said quietly.
“I’m actually impressed,” Spark muttered, “either our agents were slacking or the kirins are just that good at diplomacy.”
“I hate to say it, sir, but reports lean more towards the later. All our agents needed to do was drop a few words in ponies’ ears and whatever resentments they already had easily flared up. While it looks like some put an end to things through intimidation, most really were able to talk everyone involved down.”
“Almost makes what’s going to happen next seem like a waste. Almost,” Spark said. “Everything is ready?”
“Besides a few officers like yourself not in position to keep up appearances, yes, everything is in position and ready. Even the special weapons have been moved into place without any questions being raised. Someone would have to trip over us to find us,” the sergeant confirmed.
Spark nodded and dismissed him. In a few days time, they’d set the final plan into motion. In a few more days, it would all be over.
-----------------------------
Vine hummed to herself as she made early preparations for dinner that night. Tempest had suggested a large kind of stew he’d learned about from some of the far-flung marshlands of Equestria called “jambalaya” and wanted to see how they’d like it. When he told both Vine and Bright, who had just returned the night before about it, they’d both been hesitant at first but quickly changed their minds when he’d told them that he’d tried it with meat before and a proper pot called for a lot of it. Both mares were instantly hooked and the promise of some gems added in as well sealed the deal. Right then Vine was currently chopping up the vegetables that would be going in while Bright and Tempest gathered the meats, the fresher the better.
She’d just finished when the other two kirin of the house came in with the meat. However, Vine noticed some of it wasn’t butchered correctly. “Just because this is a new house doesn’t mean that I’ll let butchering be done inside,” she scolded, leveling the knife she’d been using as the nearest carcass.
“Sorry Vine, but there’s a problem,” Tempest said, looking back towards the door with a mix of worry and curiosity.
“There are members of the Equestrian army going around saying that they need all of the kirins to come to a nearby clearing. General Steel Spark wants to talk about the recent problems around the country and he wants to talk with everyone at once,” Bright explained.
Vine was about to ask why he didn’t just have them all meet up in the new castle when there was at least the main audience chamber finished that could fit all of them but she remembered that Celestia and Luna had been called back up to Canterlot about something to do with Queen Platinum XVI. On the one hoof, she actually hoped the queen would get better because she couldn’t imagine not being in full control of herself and wouldn’t wish it on even the general. On the other hoof, she hoped that the nobles had come to their senses and simply declared the two alicorns the rulers of Equestria no matter what happened to the queen and end the rumors she and the other kirins had heard about her coming back to power and punishing those responsible for everything that had happened during Discord’s Folly, a.k.a., cracking down on non-ponies for the benefit of ponies. It was part of the reason why so many problems had cropped up right after Discord was defeated. It was highly doubtful it was the later but the queen had been so far gone when they finally got her back the former didn’t seem likely either.
More than likely, Steel Spark just wanted a large enough area to get all their testimonies and then hurry back to Canterlot. She’d even bet there’d be a chariot right behind him ready to go the second he was or that he’d even be sitting in the chariot when they saw him. Well, the sooner he left the sooner they could get on with their own lives. She and the general may not have been at each other’s throats anymore, too busy for that anyway, but there was still an undercurrent of dislike that neither would be willing to stamp out soon. Maybe one day when all of it was regulated to history.
“Well, better get this over and done with then,” she huffed, putting down the knife. “The sooner he gets his reports, the sooner you two can properly handle the meats.”
Bright and Tempest smiled apologetically and followed her out the door. The soldiers who were letting everyone know about the meeting were already flying away over the treetops, probably to let Spark know that the word had been delivered. As they walked through the castle town, they greeted other kirin that they hadn’t seen in some time.
“Ah, Frost Flame! How are you?” Vine asked as a powder blue kirin joined them, the last group of houses falling behind them as they entered the forest. “You were recently by that forest to the northeast, right? The one with those peculiar trees that absorb light?”
“Yes,” the mare said tiredly, “and I have to say that I think an expedition needs to be organized sometime in the future. There’s something in those woods that might be some kind of remnant of Discord’s magic because I’ve never heard of it before. The harpies there can’t explain it exactly but it attacked them after they tried to set themselves up there. No pony settlement should have meant that there wouldn’t be a problem but…” she shook her head. “I just want to relax for a few days. Can’t the general just wait for us to send in our reports?”
Vine sighed. “I know. Stallion stays quiet almost immediately after we announce Celestia and Luna are the new princesses while he “handles” the nobles up in Canterlot and now he suddenly wants reports. Sounds to me like he knew what was going on in the rest of the country and was leaving it all for us to clean up.”
Frost gave her a raised eyebrow. “You think he might have something to do with it?”
“He doesn’t have the resources to cause this much trouble and if he did it we’d be having even more of a headache than what we’ve been dealing with,” Vine said with a shake of her head. “More than likely this is just him remembering we exist and wants to show he still has some kind of power over us. Let him blow hot air and posture like a demented rooster; in the end he’s only making himself look bad.”
The group of more than thirty kirins continued to traipse through the woods until a clearing opened up before them and they could see General Steel Spark and the soldiers who had told them to come waiting for them in the center of it. Wonder of wonders, Vine couldn’t see a pegasus-drawn chariot anywhere in sight despite the soldiers who were with him being all pegasi.
“We have arrived, general,” Vine called out, getting the ponies’ attention when they were close, “let’s get these reports over with as I’m sure you’re a busy stallion, not to mention we have things of our own to take care of.”
Steel Spark looked over at her with a blank expression; an odd look for him even before Discord’s Folly. “Yes, good… I trust everyone is here?” he asked, looking past her as if counting.
“Yes, every kirin is here after putting out fires all over the country, as I’m sure you’re aware of,” Vine told him, letting some of her frustration leak out.
He nodded, sighed, and his eye became cold. “Then we can get this over with.” He nodded to the soldiers with him and they all snapped their wings open.
Vine quirked at eyebrow at both the response and display but a shout from behind made her turn around. Behind them the path they’d come to the clearing on was now full of fully armored, fully armed soldiers, standing as if to block them. Turning back to Spark, Vine saw him unsheathe his sword as well as the soldiers with him. Behind him, at the other end of the clearing, more soldiers were spilling out of the woods, all of them also armored and armed. They came from both sides as well, encircling the clearing and the kirins within. Pegasi took off to block them from the air as well.
“What are you doing, Spark?” Vine asked, calmly getting into a combat stance. Most other kirin were doing the same but confused and angry shouting were prevalent. Tempest and Bright bunched in close to either side of her, whether for assurance or to form up for the fight they just walked into Vine wasn’t sure. Probably for both.
“Discord was the greatest threat Equestria has ever seen,” Spark called out so that even the kirin who were becoming more panicky could hear him. “I know how he was made. For the safety of every pony in Equestria that is and ever will be, I CANNOT let another Discord be born.” He pointed his sword straight at Vine. “That means driving all non-ponies out of Equestria. They won’t leave as long as you all are here, so you have to go as well.” He looked Vine directly in the eye. “And there’s only one way to do that with any kind of assurance.”
“You’re insane,” Vine called back, “any idiot would know that if, by some miracle, another draconequus was born tomorrow we’d never treat it like Discord was. And killing us won’t change anything; everyone was here before the ponies came and none of them, especially the wyverns, are going to leave. If anything, they’ll hunt you down instead and kill you all in retribution, possibly even your families, too! Your own son isn’t even five years old yet; are you ready to condemn him to a wyvern’s fire!? You’re going to start a civil war with this!”
“Equestria will understand!” Spark retorted, “and my son and future generations will thank us!”
“SCREW THAT!” Quartz Stone yelled, he and his sister jumping into the air, “AND SCREW YOU!” Both became engulfed in flames and were wyverns in seconds, roaring at the ponies around them in defiance. In response, what looked like tree trunks flew out of the tree line and impacted Marble. The wyvern’s pained cry died in her throat as she fell back to the ground. “MARBLE!” Quartz screamed.
That seemed to be the signal as the hoard of ponies around them charged and more tree-sized bolts came flying out of the woods. Vine had just enough time to realize that Spark’s attackers had somehow managed to hide anti-dragon weapons in the forest before turning and bringing her tail blade forward to block Spark’s sword. The noise of erupting battle around them seemed to deaden for a second as they glared at one another.
“You should have kept Discord on a tighter leash,” Spark said, still eerily calm, “then you might have lived longer.”
“I will enjoy ripping your traitorous throat out,” Vine growled back, her mouth glowing as fire poured out.
-----------------------------
Xerxes winged his way over the Everfree Forest, lazily catching the thermals as he made his way to the new castle and town being built there. A private in the Equestrian Air Corps, he was on patrol over the plains between Canterlot Mountain and the forest. “Just because Discord is dead doesn’t mean we can slack off!” His gruff, perpetually ticked sergeant had said before sending him out to scout. The new princesses and the leaders of the wyvern clans being in Canterlot was probably why he was out here at all, with the base commander needing to show a presence in the area to look like he was doing his job. It did, however, give him the perfect excuse to slip over to the castle town to visit a certain kirin, so he couldn’t complain too much.
He’d met Bright Storm before the end of the war with Discord and had gotten a ribbing from his squad when they caught him staring at her. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk to her only for the final battle to begin and he thought he’d lost his chance. Then nearly a month later he’d gotten a letter from home telling him about the problems between his rookery and the local farm ponies and how a certain kirin had helped smooth things out between the two sides. Now he felt like he had the perfect excuse to see her and thank her for how she’d helped his family. Maybe some fresh deer and some flying by moonlight?
His daydreaming was interrupted when he heard a loud yelling and roaring coming from ahead. Looking, he saw a pair of wyverns in a clearing not too far off, one falling to the ground with several things sticking out of it. A second later some more of those large things flew out of the forest to either side of the other one and it, too, went down roaring in pain. Flying closer in, he saw what appeared to be a battle kicking off, with a lot of soldiers quickly closing in on a smaller group right were the wyverns had gone down. His eyes went wide with amazement when he saw that the group was made up entirely of kirins and had started coming to blows with the soldiers.
He spotted a green kirin fighting near what had been the front of the group and realized that it was the Platinum Knight Storm Vine. Near her and fighting off several soldiers herself was a yellow kirin he also recognized and his stomach suddenly had a hole in it. “No, no, no, no, no, no!” he yelped, immediately diving down towards her. He didn’t know what he could do with that many soldiers wading into the fight but he had to do something!
His dive was cut short when he realized his fall was taking him right towards the pegasi keeping air cover over the fight. He pulled up, just missing a few of them as he shot pass. There was a yell and the next thing he knew a few of them had started chasing him back up into the sky, looks of murder clear on their faces.
“Oh feathers, what the Tartarus, what the Tartarus!?” Xerxes yelped as he beat his wings furiously to stay higher than his pursuers. His mind raced, not understanding what was going on down below and not knowing how to help now that he was being chased away. Who could help so quickly against those numbers, anyway? Then he remembered why he was out here in the first place.
With three pegasi hot on his tail feathers, he bee-lined for Canterlot.
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“We are tiring of these games, lieutenant!” Luna snapped, her wings spreading wide in agitation. “The five of us have important work to do that does not involve twiddling our hooves and claws while we wait for General Steel Spark to discuss with us about the queen’s health!”
Behind and above her, the three wyvern leaders snorted out their own agitation. “He’s been up here since the princesses were crowned doing makers only knows what,” Hearth Stone grumbled, “what possible excuse could he have for being late to a meeting he put together?”
“And where is the Platinum Knight?” Firestorm asked, eyeing the pony in front of them with suspicion, “she should have been here now as well.”
“The general had a last minute emergency that he had to attend to,” the lieutenant explained, “he said he would come back to start the meeting as soon as he was able. As for the Platinum Knight, he sent a messenger to collect the report of what’s been happening around Equestria lately. The general is just as worried as anyone else but has his hooves full with the nobles here in the old capitol.”
“The nobles,” Sea Flame practically snarled, “are nothing but a waste of space and hot air who sit in their manors, getting fat, and complain about the most idiotic things.”
“These past few weeks have been stressful,” Celestia said, fanning her own wings for attention and taking a step between the wyverns, her sister, and the lieutenant, “for everyone by the sounds of it. Keeping level heads will help see us through this and with far less fighting.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “Truly, sister, they should have named you a saint rather than a princess.”
The alabaster alicorn simply followed her own advice and didn’t respond.
Frustrated, Hearth went out to a nearby balcony for fresh air as the lieutenant also excused himself. He didn’t like how things had been going since Discord’s defeat and while all the kirins had finally made it back home he had an inkling that the problems facing them all weren’t over.
As he mused, he absently focused on a speck in the sky, probably a bird of some kind. As he watched, though, the bird seemed to get closer and, in fact, it seemed to be a small flock of birds. The birds soon became too big to be birds and he suddenly realized that what he was looking at was in fact a harpy and several pegasi, all beating their wings like mad and it looked like they were aiming at him directly. “What in Tartarus?” he said loudly enough that the other wyverns and alicorns heard him. They all followed his gaze out the windows and their own eyes went wide.
“Are they the castle guard?” Sea asked.
“No, they’re the ones getting airborne now,” Firestorm said, pointing out a different group of pegasi getting airborne.
“Wait, that harpy is in the air corps,” Luna said, seeing his uniform, “what are they-?”
“PATRIARCH HEARTH STONE! THEY’RE TRYING TO KILL ME! THEY’RE TRYING TO KILL ME!” the harpy screamed as he flew like a rocket towards the wyvern.
Seeing they weren’t going to catch him, one of the pegasi readied the spear he had and threw it, attempting to take the harpy out before he could get to the Stone Clan patriarch. Hearth quickly reared up and beat his wings furiously, making a buffer of air that threw off both the harpy and the spear, which shot into the hallway and bounced harmlessly of the castle stones respectfully. The three pegasi pulled up while Hearth roared at them. He stayed on the balcony to keep himself between them and the harpy the others were now attending to. They were intercepted by the castle guards who they started fighting with.
“What in Equestria was that about!?” Sea demanded but the harpy was panting so hard he couldn’t speak and seemed on the verge of passing out. Celestia’s horn began to glow and the harpy was engulfed by the golden glow and almost immediately his breathing became steadier. Once he seemed able to he reached into a satchel on his chest, pulled out a canteen, and took a long pull from it. Only then did he seem able to speak.
“They were… they were chasing me from over the Everfree… I was on patrol and I heard a roaring… I saw two wyverns over a clearing in the forest but… one went down and then the other one… they’d been hit with anti-dragon bolts…”
The two patriarchs and one matriarch looked at each other in shock. Only the army had access to those weapons. “Who were they!?” Hearth demanded, coming back inside once it was obvious the castle guards were going to win and detain the others. As far as any of them knew, no-one from their clans were near the new castle except for the kirins. Two wyverns could only mean…
The harpy shook his head and continued. “In the clearing was a large ring of soldiers and when I saw them they were charging a smaller group in the middle.” He looked up at them, eyes pleading. “The smaller group had kirins in it. I don’t know how many, but I recognized the Platinum Knight and her daughter. They were fighting when those pegasi began chasing me. I… I knew I needed to tell you as soon as possible and…” He stopped as Firestorm whirled from the group and pushed past Hearth to the balcony where he took off without a word. Hearth followed quickly behind him as did Sea Flame.
Luna hesitated only a second before she, too, took off out of the castle.
“You’re sure it was the army attacking the kirins?” Celestia demanded.
“Yes, your highness. The ones chasing me had been flying cover; I saw the uniforms clear as day and there were too many to be a camp of bandits with stolen equipment. There’s a good five hundred of them against just about thirty; they need help!”
Celestia nodded. “The Storm Clan is closest. Go to them immediately and tell them what you told us. We’ll have everything settled by then but we’ll need support for the aftermath. They’ll send their own messengers to the other clans.” The harpy nodded and took off with her out of the balcony, peeling away towards the direction of the Storm Clan.
As she attempted to catch up with her sister and friends, the alicorn felt a knot forming in her chest.
-----------------------------
Vine panted and tried to ignore the stinging pain from the many cuts she’d received from Spark’s blade. She could still hear fighting going on all around her, from the clang of steel on tail blade to the whoosh of fire being breathed to the screams and shouts and curses of combatants as they attacked, defended, became injured… and died. There was no way either side wasn’t going to have deaths by the end of this and she wondered how many friends she was going to lose today besides Marble and Quartz, who lasted long enough to take down a great swath of solider with a blast of fire before another volley finished him. While all those sounds were there, she could also tell they were slowly but surely starting to lessen.
By some small miracle, both Bright and Tempest had managed to stay with her instead of getting lost in the sea of battle but that didn’t mean they were any safer. She’d heard them make the same battle noises as everyone else and more than once she wanted to turn and rain Tartarus on whoever was coming after her husband and daughter.
However, Spark just wouldn’t let up, wouldn’t let himself be taken out so she could face a new opponent. It also seemed like everyone was letting the two of them face off against each other exclusively. With how many soldiers there were she should have been fending off attackers from all sides but not another blade or sharp point came for her except his. She suspected he’d told his troops just that and cursed that his ego, bravado, or whatever could be backed up this well.
He was paying for it, though. Like her, his wounds were starting to accumulate. His armor was dented and singed and where there wasn’t armor he bled and patches of fur were burned away. “Damn half-breeds,” he panted, raising his sword again, “just die so Equestria can be safe again!”
He lunged and Vine side-stepped, bringing her tail blade around to catch the blade as he shifted to follow her movements. The blades hit and slid past each other to create yet another wound on each of them. “It will be once you’re dead!” Vine snapped back, forcing Spark back with a gout of green fire. That, too, was becoming less powerful and she knew that if this particular fight didn’t end soon, things would get worse very quickly.
A sudden roar from behind told her it already was and despite herself she snapped her head around to look. Tempest was throwing a soldier away, his jaws ripping a hole in the pony’s whither as he was sent flying but the soldier had done his work and spear was lodged deep into the kirin’s side. Vine felt her blood run cold as he staggered to face the next opponent coming after him.
“DAD!” Bright yelled, briefly knocking back her own foes to turn and help him. Another group of soldiers bore down on the young kirin as she went to help her father and Vine snapped back into action. She caught movement out of the corner of her eyes and whipped her body and tail around, catching Spark as he charged and knocked him away. She cursed as she felt her tail blade only hit metal but ignored it and rushed the soldiers aiming at her daughter. She jumped over Bright’s tail and bowled into them, flaming, biting, tearing, stomping, and generally being a whirlwind of motherly rage as she reduced her daughter’s attackers into screaming casualties.
When she was done with them, she turned back to where he husband and daughter were. She began to rush over when she saw Tempest slumping to the ground as Bright held off his attackers when she saw Spark again. This time he was rushing towards Bright who was too preoccupied to see him coming and Tempest was losing focus as he got closer to the ground.
Once again, everything around Vine seem to dull as she focused in on what was taking place in front of her. She kicked off the ground, not noticing a spear that shot under her as she leapt forward, quickly gaining speed as she charged. Her mouth opened, fangs extended, but to breath what was probably the last of her fire or scream a mother’s war cry she didn’t know. All she did know what that as she closed in Spark suddenly spun to face her, his sword thrust in her direction.
Collision was inevitable but she swore to herself that he would not touch Bright, Tempest, or any kirin ever again. She bit down.
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1They flew over the treetops, wings pounding as hard as the harpy’s who told them what was happening. They thought they heard distant shouting as they finally crossed over the first line of trees but hadn’t heard anything in the past minute. Was the battle already over? Who was left? Thin wisps of smoke guided them in the direction they needed to go and soon they could see a break in the trees. Firestorm was still in the lead so he reached the wood line first. When he did, he suddenly pulled up with a shout of horror and bewilderment and hovered at the edge. Hearth, Sea, and Luna stopped at the edge as well, making similar noises and when Celestia reached them she pulled up short as well, but any kind of noise escaped her at what she saw.
It was a field of death.
Hundreds laid on the ground where they’d fallen, almost every single one of them still. Small fires still burned on the grass and on bodies while dark red blood was splattered everywhere, staining everything, and pooled in large puddles in the grass. All over where places where ponies had seemed to have died in large groups, where, in the center of those groups…
Fire, Hearth, and Sea dove down into the clearing, followed by the two alicorns. Even though the battle had to be over not a few minutes before, the metallic smell of blood was pervasive and Luna was already looking unwell. The smell didn’t seem to bother the wyverns any as they flew, each seeming to have picked out a different spot to aim for.
Hearth was heading to the far end of the clearing where they could now see two wyverns laying on the ground with what looked like tree trunks sticking out of them. Sea was aiming for a spot off to the side, almost to the edge of the clearing, where Celestia could just make out a powder blue patch among dark red blood and metal armor. Firestorm, meanwhile, was diving into the very center of the massacre. Where he was landing, both sisters could see a green body draped over a yellow one.
They landed with Firestorm, who made a keening, horrified sound as he bent down to inspect his baby sister, who had a sword sticking out of her chest. Beneath her, Bright Storm laid unmoving. While there didn’t seem to be much wrong with her on the side they could see, a pool of blood was under her and her wings and legs were splayed out at unnatural angles. Next to them, equally still, was Tempest, a hoof extended toward them as if reaching for them. They hadn’t been aware how quiet everything had been until a quiet, pained squeak came from Vine and they saw her side slightly rise and fall.
Sound came back quickly as Hearth let out a defining, anguished roar and Sea offered up her own shriek of rage as she let out a broiling wave of magenta fire where she was, burning the ground in front of her and giving the scent of blood a new smell to mix with.
“Vine!? Vine, I’m here!” Firestorm said, gently nudging the kirin. Miracle of miracles, her yellow eyes opened but they were unfocused.
“Fi…re…?” she croaked, barely audible over the noise the other two wyverns were making as they found more dead kirin. The wyvern and alicorns moved in closer to hear her as there’d be no way to silence the others.
“Yeah, it’s me. Me and Luna and Celestia. We’ll get you help, so don’t-!”
“Sp…ark…” she continued as if not hearing him, “Spark.. did… he… order…”
Firestorm’s and Luna’s eyes grew wide, then cold. Celestia closed her eyes and grit her teeth. “Steel Spark…” Firestorm growled in a murderous tone neither alicorn had ever heard him use before.
As if in answer to the name, there was a metallic rattling noise behind them. They all looked and their eyes grew wide as General Steel Spark shifted as if trying to get up. The massive bite wound just below his throat, almost cartoonish in how much of him was missing from it, prevented him from rising. It did not prevent him from gasping out some words, however.
“Equestria… is safe…” he told them, “never another Discord… never more chaos… Equestria is-!”
He disappeared as a huge, taloned foot came down on him, a furious sound rising up Firestorm’s throat as he ground his foot into the place the general once was. Celestia and Luna did their best to block out the sickening sound but they’d seen, heard, and smelled too much already, and they had to turn away to be sick. When they were done, Firestorm was nuzzling Vine, tears running down his leathery muzzle.
Vine was still breathing but it was getting slower. Eyes still unfocused, she just barely lifted her head up as they approached. “I’m… sorry… so… sorry… don’t… let… stay… vain…” She laid her head back down on Bright’s body and a few tears fell. “So… sorry… baby… brother… love…” she finally trailed off and her chest stopped moving. They were all silent again, even the noise the other two wyverns were making seemed dull then.
Firestorm raised up his head and let out a roar of loss that seemed to echo through the forest and beyond. Celestia and Luna held each other as more wyverns and other creatures began approaching the horrific scene.
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2The open air grove had not been in the original plans for the new castle, in fact where they were all standing was originally supposed to be a grand hall meant to entertain the nobility that would inevitably visit the new capitol. The new princesses, however, insisted, quite forcibly in fact, that the space be used for something far less cheery but no less important. It was constructed quickly and the grass and plants now growing in it had done so just as quickly with the aid of earth pony techniques. Around the edges of the grove were more than thirty brand new statues, all unique and of one species in particular. Celestia and Luna stood in front of the statue in the center of the half circle, which depicted a very familiar face. There had been some debate as to how to portray the statue’s representative, be it as the exalted warrior in full armor or the more humble mother and wife. It had ultimately been decided to make it a little of both; a proud, defiant stance that was also as if it was protecting something behind it, the look aided by the two statues immediately to either side. They all agreed that the sculptor had gone above and beyond for it, making them almost seem alive. They all felt their friends deserved such magnificent graves, with how things ultimately ended.
“This grove will be from now on known as the Kirin’s Grove,” Celestia said to the assembled crowd of mourners. As if in defiance of the late Steel Spark, the gathering was a complete mix of species, both pony and non-pony, each there to show respect to the now extinct species. They weren’t just random representatives, either, but the leaders of colonies, rookeries, packs and other groups including the two patriarchs and the matriarch of the wyvern clans. They stood with the remaining family members a few of the kirins had, as most had either married another kirin or had no family beyond their clan. “It will stand as a solemn testament to those who helped guide Equestria through the good and especially the bad times. We will never forget what they all have done for us, what they meant to us, and how their passing has hurt us. May we live by their example and aim for a future they would be proud to see.”
Behind her, Celestia could hear the soft *tink* of Storm Vine’s pendant as a soft breeze jostled it against the stone chest it now laid on.
“A noble effort at the end,” Firestorm said a little later once the ceremony had ended, “but minds have already been made up. I am grateful we were allowed the time to be here.”
“Can you truly not stay?” Luna asked, almost begging. In the sky outside the castle, three large, distinct groups were forming in the air, centered around hovering wyverns while non-pony fliers circled them. Below and out of sight, non-ponies that couldn’t fly were also gathering for the long journey they were all about to make. With the death of the kirins, trust between ponies and non-ponies that had been strained by Discord and then the conflicts afterward had broken. Hearth Stone and Sea Flame wanted nothing more to do with ponies and had declared their intention to leave Equestria. That announcement had created a cascading effect to the point that only a few non-pony groups were going to remain. All the others were going to follow the clans. The one possible condolence for all of them was that the kirins had put up one Tartarus of a fight and in the end only a few ponies survived the battle. Those that did, however, had been swiftly taken care of by the heads of the clans or those that came soon after and found ponies breathing. The few not at the battle who knew of it, such as the three pegasi and the lieutenant, had already been executed.
“While I am the patriarch and know my sister’s wishes, the call to leave is almost unanimous, even among the wyverns,” Firestorm said, “there might even be a call to overthrow me if I force the clan to stay, then I’ll have even less of a choice in the matter. Then there are the others under our protection to consider.” He suddenly looked angry. “And what of the traitor’s wife and son?”
“They, or should I say she, was interrogated, and it has been proven she had no idea what her husband was doing. She’d even sent him a noted begging him to come home and see his son,” Luna said. “The same is true for all families of those in the plot.”
“Would you truly take your grief out on the innocent?” Celestia asked.
“My sister and niece were innocent!” he growled harshly. He looked up at the statues of his baby sister, his brother-in-law, and his niece and sighed as the anger blew out of him, replaced by tired grief. “The fool hurt everyone in the end. Perhaps, one day, we can return and I will see them again. For now…” he bent his head forward and the two sisters put their heads against his. When he withdrew he turned and took off into the air, growing to his normal size once he was clear of the castle.
Luna and Celestia watched him go, wings around each other, feeling lonelier than they ever had before.
In the sky, Firestorm saw the Flame clan already leaving in a south-western direction. His own clan was going north by north-east while the Stone Clan was going almost due east. Speaking of the Stone Clan, Hearth flew up to him. “Have you made your goodbyes?” he asked not unkindly.
“I have, though leaving like this feels like betraying Storm Vine and the others, like Steel Spark won in the end.” He took another look at the castle and the grove in the middle of it. “Do you think we will ever come back to Equestria? Will we ever mourn over their graves again?”
Hearth hovered, looking back down at the grove again for a second before diving and banking back towards his clan and their wards. “When the kirins return to Equestria!” he called back.
Firestorm watched him and his clan begin to fly away, then finally returned to his own clan to lead them on their own one-way migration. ‘When the kirins return, eh?’ he thought as they flew. To some it might have sounded like a promise or even a kind of prophecy. Firestorm knew his friend better, he knew what he was really saying:
Never.
In the grove, empty of all but the two alicorns who were comforting each other, Storm Vine’s pendant continued to sway in the breeze, still gently going *tink* against the stone. For a brief moment, it seemed to glow, as if it had caught the light from the fading sun, then went back to normal.
Night would soon fall on a much changed Equestria.
The rain pelted the window and a flash was soon followed by dull booming outside. Even in her weakened, painful state, Summer could still feel thankful that the weather had held out until all the trick-or-treating was done. Yes, that was thanks to the weather ponies of Manehattan, but it was nice all the same. Her bleary mind turned back to the bundle nestled in her forelegs, the cause of her current physical state and the joy swelling up inside her. Her newborn baby was as black as the night sky outside with a touch of blue mane that currently did nothing to hide the little nub of a horn poking out of her forehead. If that was all, she’d look just like any other newborn unicorn, however her daughter also had stubby little leathery wings and her tail was long like her father’s but was covered in fur. The tail had a small mane of its own and at the tip a small ridge of bone stuck out.
Speaking of the father, a large, leathery head nuzzled up against hers, pushing aside the sweat-matted mane that plastered either side of her head. “She’s so tiny,” he muttered as he looked down on the life they had created; life she’d never had dreamed possible when they first met.
“To you, maybe,” Summer muttered, “but she didn’t feel small coming out.” They both chuckled. “What time is it?” she asked. It had been a few minutes since the private doctors had left, claiming the birth was a success and that both mother and child would be fine, with the former needing to be on some medication for the next week at least to deal with the trauma she’d gone through. The new parents also had their contact information in case anything went wrong and Summer’s aids would be in two to three times a day to check up on her as well. She and Windstorm had made sure everything was ready for when the baby was born and what would come after.
“It’s a few minutes to midnight; she made it just in time for her first Nightmare Night,” he told her, nuzzling her again then bending lower to just barely nuzzle the baby. “Such a fun and fascinating holiday; I hope she likes it when she’s older.”
“A night full of free candy? What child wouldn’t?” she sighed deeply as she leaned back into the pillows of her bed that were keeping her propped up. “We still need to name her. We only ever agreed to give her your clan name.”
Windstorm nodded. “I’d hoped to name her after my aunt, dad would like that, but she’s not green enough for the name “Vine”.”
“No, she’s as black as the night outside,” Summer said, looking out the window, then towards the clock that changed from 11:59 PM to 12:00 AM as she watched. “It’s Midnight,” she said tiredly with a smile.
Windstorm followed her gaze. “It is indeed. Maybe we should wait until morning to think of one.”
“No,” Summer said, “her name. Midnight Storm. Rather appropriate, don’t you think?”
He thought for a second, then nuzzled her and the baby again. “Midnight Storm… I like it. Welcome to the world, Little Midnight.”
As if in response, baby Midnight yawned widely, then nuzzled deeper into her mother’s chest. Summer nuzzled her back, then her body went limp as her breathing became a steady rhythm of sleep. Windstorm couldn’t blame her for passing out and marveled how long she’d held on after the birth.
“The first kirin in Equestria in fifteen hundred years,” he muttered as he laid his head down next to his wife and used a wing to cover them in protective darkness. “You’ll mean so much to so many.”
