> A Darkened Land
>  by Soundslikeponies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Arc I: The Lost Cloudsdale Scout
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight fled through the dark of the forest with pursuers snarling in her wake. They were wolves—but they also weren't. They had been taken and changed. Their skin had turned to charcoal and large patches of fur had fallen out their coats. Along with their bodies had gone their minds. An insatiable bloodlust now filled their eyes.

They had become darkened.

Too many foes chased her for her to keep track their number. What’s more, her lungs grew raw. Her legs felt made of iron. As sweat stung her eyes, the whispers hissed in her ear, a building pressure in her skull.

Hate. Fight. Kill.

Lessons had taught her about the magic intoxicating the outside air, but nothing had quite prepared her for its pull. With time she had learned to dull its edge so as not to be cut, but she could never be rid of them completely. As she ran for her life, the first voice urged her to face her foe. Face them and kill and kill until she fell killing. The second voice was a low weeping moan, telling her of the futility of her struggles and that she should simply lay down and die.

But to the fear it brought forth, the third voice, she listened. Fear quickened her blood and spurred her legs. Fear might yet keep her alive.

Her ears swiveled to a sound at her side.

A pair of darkened wolves had gained on her left flank. To her right, the forest gave way to a field filled with shoulder-high grass. Inside it her stalkers would be hidden, and so they likely meant to force her to run there.

She was pinched. In a moment they would be on top of her. With little choice, she veered into the clearing. Grass whipped her shoulders, and behind her she could hear the rustle of the wolves entering the grass. The only way to track them now was by that sound and by the movements of the grass.

At the far side of the field, cliffs bordering either side, was a ruin. Its moss-covered stone buildings were lit brightly by the naked moon. Twilight's eyes widened. In there she might find a place to lock herself in so she could buy some time to come up with a plan.

Movement came from the corner of her eye. She looked to see the grass stir to her right, only to hear a rustle behind her and see the same on her left. A pair of wolves moved into position to take her down.

She summoned her magic. A white-hot light emanated from her horn and illuminated the field around her.

One of the wolves leaped and opened its maw, exposing rows of razor-sharp teeth. Anticipating its motion, Twilight turned to it and let forth an explosion from her horntip. A great combustion struck the wolf in the forefront of its chest, and it released a howl of pain and fell to the ground as Twilight jumped clear over top of it.

Her hooves met the ground running, her eyes darting to the second wolf. Reacting quickly to seeing the other fall, it snarled at her and lunged. She reacted just as quick, and with another burst of air and fire from her horn, the wolf was blown back and left to burn among the grass.

A smirk nearly crept up Twilight's lips, but a biting ache in her horn turned it to a grimace. She couldn’t cast many more spells like that, not while her legs sapped what energy she had left. She glanced behind her. There had to be at least a dozen wolves still after her. 

As Twilight got closer to the ruins, she saw they were built over a gorge, which meant there was likely a bridge to the other side. With any luck, there wouldn’t be any more darkened over there.

The grass shortened and gave way to the cold stone of the stairs. Crumbling walls passed her on either side as she galloped up onto a cracked street. The ruins were empty—save the wolves behind her. She turned left, then right, then left again, weaving through the ruins in rapid search of safe haven, but at every sharp turn the darkened wolves’ snapping jaws drew closer to her heels.

As she rounded another building, she spotted what she’d been looking for: a narrow stone bridge without rails, leading across the gorge. It was barely two ponies wide and with a thin and crumbling base. With an end goal in sight, she forced herself to pick up the pace. 

Teeth snapped shut near her rear leg, falling just short of it. The bridge wasn’t far. She spurred herself to go faster, ignoring the pain in her muscles.

Turning onto the bridge, she stumbled, her momentum nearly carrying her over the edge. The misstep froze her on the spot for a split second as she stared at the black chasm below. Air burned her lungs. She couldn't breathe, but she had to keep going. Her heart pumped fast enough to burst as she started, her running sluggish, but she had to make it. It was by an effort of will that she made her body cross the final stretch, sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her. The other side came within reach. Only two steps more.

A snarl came from behind her. She glanced back just in time to see the darkened wolf at the front of the pack leap at her. She drew magic to her horn. Its teeth had nearly closed over her face when she managed to release her spell. 

The resulting flash of light blinded all those in the ruins who looked upon it. A thunderous boom and fire’s sucking hiss followed. Twilight’s body grew weightless from the floor crumbling beneath her. As gravity began to take hold, she watched the wolves that had been on the bridge thrash and twist in the air, nothing beneath them save for the depths of the gorge.

The sight was cut short as Twilight’s vision filled with grey. She had barely begun to fall before her hooves met stone. Her legs buckled immediately in surprise, leaving her chest to absorb most of the impact. What little air her lungs had was forced from them. The motion had all come to an end. She was left lying on a floor, her cheek pressed against the stone while she gasped for air.

Her chest rose and fell with her struggle. Body bruised, immovable, and in shock, she watched the hole she had fallen through, waiting for a darkened wolf to leap down and finish her off. A moment passed. Then another. Nothing came. There was only her: desperately gulping the dusty air of where she had fallen.

In the aftermath, everything was still.

With a groan of pain, Twilight opened her eyes and slowly climbed to her hooves. Her chest and legs were bruised, and the hairs on her cheeks were still singed from the spell she had just cast, but otherwise she was intact. She lifted her head and glanced around to see four cold stone walls surrounding her, the furthest of which had an iron-barred cell door. 

The silence following her spell’s fallout was broken as a distant growling reached her ears. She stood with a stumble, wincing as her legs shook sorely under her weight. Managing to limp over to a wall with a window, she stood on her rear hooves and planted her forehooves against the wall just beneath the sill.

Looking past the window’s iron bars, she saw nearly a dozen of the darkened wolves stuck across the gorge. They paced restlessly, growling and snapping as they watched her, but it was all they would be able to do with the bridge gone.

Twilight limped over to the cell door and pushed it. It stayed firmly shut, whatever locking mechanism it had rattling inside its place in the wall.

With a sigh Twilight let herself collapse in front of the door and curled into a ball. Moonlight poured in through the hole in the ceiling she'd fallen through. It wasn't perfect, but hopefully it would be safe for the time being.

She closed her eyes, her exhaustion finally catching up with her, and sleep took her at once.





"Hey, psst!"

Twilight’s eyes snapped open and she looked up. A light blue pony was looking at her through the hole in the roof, her messy rainbow mane dangling around the sides of her face.

"You're not crazy, are you?" the pony asked with a tilt of her head.

Twilight stared at her blankly for a moment before realizing what was asked. She shook her head. "No."

The pegasus pony smiled. "Oh, good!" she said, then disappeared. There came what sounded like someone rummaging through bags, then the pony returned with a set of rusty keys between her teeth. "I got these off of one of the guards," she said, after dropping them into the cell. "Go on, see if one of them works."

Twilight rose hesitantly, her legs still aching. Slowly, without taking her eyes off the light blue pony, she walked to the keyring, picked it up, and approached the cell door. After a few moments and a couple attempts, one of the keys made the lock click. With a nudge, the door swung open, emitting a biting screech of rusted metal which echoed down the dark hallway beyond.

"Great! I'll meet you around the other side!" the other pony said, leaving.

Twilight stared at the hole until she could no longer hear the pony's hoofsteps. With the door now open, she entered the hallway, her glowing horn lighting the way forward. She walked cautiously, each step as gentle and silent as she could make it, her eyes fixed on the turn at the end of the hall.

As she drew closer to the corner, her ears perked to the sound of approaching steps. She killed her light and dropped to a crouch, inching her way up to the corner. The approaching steps were loud and showed no sign of stealth or caution. She took a deep breath. Her heartbeat stilled as the steps drew near.

Twilight leaped around the corner and knocked the figure to the ground, pinning them. Beneath her hooves was the pony from earlier, her eyes wide. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the pony cried, holding a hoof out towards her. "Hey, it's me! I helped you, remember?"

Twilight snorted, putting more weight on the other pony’s chest. "What do you want from me?"

"Me? Nothing! I just saw the wolves chasing you earlier and thought I'd help you out!"

"I don’t need your help, and I didn’t back there. I was perfectly capable of getting out on my own." Twilight’s eyes narrowed once she noticed the other pony’s blue wings folded over the straps of her saddlebags.

"Yeah, yeah, you unicorns and your magic and everything," the pegasus said. "Why didn't you just teleport through the cell door, then?"

"Nopony has had access to that kind of magic for a thousand years."

The pegasus sat on her haunches, crossing her hooves in front of her chest. "Oh yeah? Then how were you going to get out?"

Twilight's horn glowed white-hot. She whipped around and shot a fireball down the hallway at the cell door. When the explosion cleared, the door and the stone around it were no more. There was only a gaping hole, black and slick with molten stone.

The other pony stared down the hallway at it, blinking. "Oh."

Turning back to the pegasus, Twilight glared and leveled her horn at her, its tip glowing. 

"Hey, watch where you’re pointing that thing!"

"I don't need the help of somepony who hid until the danger was gone, and I most certainly don't need the help of a pegasus."

The pegasus stepped back, her focus back on the tip of Twilight's sword. "Whoa, what have you got against pegasi?"

"You abandoned us all when the night came, and ever since then you’ve been safe up there in the clouds while the rest of us have to run and hide in the dark," Twilight snapped. "Or do they not teach you that part of history anymore?"

"I didn't. I mean, not me, specifically. I'm down here right now, aren't I?" the pegasus said. "Besides…" She stretched one of her wings out, doing so slowly as not to antagonize her. "Look, I'm stuck down here now, just the same as you."

Twilight gave the pegasus a sidelong stare before turning to the wing she held out. A good deal of its feathers were missing, cut from it in a diagonal slash. "Blade wound?" Twilight asked.

The pegasus shook her head. "Animal."

Twilight took her hooves off the pegasus’s chest, backing away. "Sorry," she mumbled under her breath.

The pegasus’s ear flicked as she got back to her hooves. "Huh? I didn't quite catch that."

"It was nothing," Twilight said curtly. "Why are you alone out here?"

"I got split up from my squad. We were being chased by a darkened manticore." The pegasus rubbed her shoulder while staring at the ground. "Soarin distracted it so that me and Spitfire could get away, but now I don’t know if either of them..." She shook her head vigorously. "No, I definitely know they’re out there somewhere. They’re two of the best fighters in Cloudsdale—they must have gotten away."

The pegasus cleared her throat. "So how about you? How’d you wind up out here with those wolves chasing you?" she asked.

"I attracted too much attention while fighting a few of them off," Twilight said, the glow around her horn fading as she brushed past the pegasus. "More came and forced me to run."

"So you’re all on your own?" the pegasus asked. Twilight stiffly nodded. "That's great! Well, I mean, it's not great, but since we’re both alone out here and you seem pretty cool, what say you and I stick together until I find my squad? You could be my sidekick."

Twilight stopped and looked back to find the pegasus grinning. She snorted and continued walking.

Still smiling, the pegasus rushed to catch up to her side. "You came from the other side of the gorge, right? You heading back there?"

"No," Twilight answered.

"Then you could use somepony who knows their way around this side of the woods. Me and my squad flew over this side of the forest." She lifted a hoof and scratched her ear. "Or at least I think we flew over from somewhere in this direction. I sorta got lost when we got separated."

Twilight resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Wonderful."

"I'm Rainbow Dash, by the way."

"Twilight Sparkle."

"So Twilight, what else can that horn of yours do? Does it shoot lightning? Or maybe you can do stuff with wind or water or—"

Twilight rounded on her, releasing a flash of flame from the tip of her horn in the face of the other pony. Rainbow Dash jumped back, her eyes wide.

"Stop following me. I mean it," Twilight ground out, her horn glowing.

Staring at Twilight’s horn, Rainbow Dash swallowed. "But you're my sidekick, right? I'm supposed to look out for you."

Twilight stomped the ground. "I am not anypony's sidekick."

"Partners then?" Rainbow Dash asked weakly.

Twilight did nothing but glare in response.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Look, I've been hiding in these ruins long enough for the moon to complete a cycle. My rations are basically gone and soon I’m going to have to go looking for food. I can't make it out there alone with a damaged wing. You're the first pony I've come across." Rainbow Dash stared at the ground, her ears drooping. "I just want to find my friends. I need to know whether they're safe."

Twilight stared at her, chewing the side of her mouth. She turned to leave, then turned back, then turned to leave again, and then turned back once more. "Fine," she said. Rainbow Dash's ears shot up, and a smile spread across her lips. "But only until we find your friends."

"Of course," Rainbow Dash said.

"And we go where I want to, not where you want to."

"Fair enough."

"And if you slow me down, I'm leaving you behind."

"I won't. I promise."

Twilight took a deep breath and started down the hallway again, trying not to dwell on the feeling that she was going to regret her choice. "Let's go. The dark doesn't wait for—"

Her ear twitched. She heard something, faint and coming from the end of the corridor. 

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Doesn't wait for what?"

Twilight shushed her, trying to focus on the sound. There it was again: sluggish steps and the occasional sound of metal scraping stone. "Come," she whispered, creeping toward the sound.

Peeking around the corner, Twilight saw the source of the sounds further down the hall. It used to be a pony, perhaps a guard given its rusted helmet and sword, but its skin had become burnt, black, and dry. It bore the darkened curse. Whoever it may have once been was gone, their mind warped beyond recognition by sorrow and violence.

The darkened sluggishly stumbled toward Twilight, its blunt sword scraping carelessly against the wall.

Twilight walked around the corner and stared at it. She heard a sharp intake of breath behind her.

"That's the guard from earlier I found the keys on," Rainbow Dash said. "Crud. She must have followed me here."

Twilight looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't kill it?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No, I just got the keys from her and ran."

Twilight turned back to the guard, her horn glowing.

"Hey, wait, what are you doing?" Dash asked.

"I'm going to kill it," Twilight said flatly, taking a step towards it.

Rainbow Dash ran in front of her to block her path. "Woah, woah! You can’t just kill her, she used to be somepony! Even if she’s all messed up by the dark, what if there’s still be some part of her left inside there?"

"You don't have any clue what you're talking about," Twilight said, giving her a stern glare, but Rainbow Dash didn't budge. She sighed, rolling her eyes. "When somepony goes dark, they lose their emotions. Sympathy, joy, generosity, all of them are gone. All they ever feel is hatred, sadness, and desire for violence. They aren't the pony they once were. You can't cure them if they’ve already been corrupted. Even if you remove the darkness from them, the second you take it away, they die."

Rainbow Dash took a step away from her. She glanced back at the darkened still stumbling towards them, then looked back at Twilight. "How do you know all this?"

Twilight glared. "I've seen it before."

The creature's sword scraped against the wall again. It paused in its sluggishness as its eyes fell upon them. The charred skin around its mouth tightened, splitting cracks in it as the darkened bared its lips in a snarl. When it started towards them again, its limping had hastened to a feverish shambling.

After a moment biting her lip, Rainbow Dash stepped aside, allowing Twilight past.

Twilight approached the darkened at a brisk walk. As she drew near, it swung the sword in its mouth, which Twilight ducked with ease. Stepping to the darkened’s undefended side, she conjured a needle-thin blade made of fire and drove it into the darkened's heart. The darkened merely blinked when the blade pierced it, a wheezing breath forced from its lungs.

When the blade of fire dissipated, the darkened collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

Rainbow Dash walked up to the body of the guard, stopping beside Twilight. She looked down at it and gulped.

Twilight glanced at her, then back at the body. "When all somepony can ever feel is sadness and anger," Twilight said, the glow around her horn fading. "They’re better off not feeling anything."

She began to walk away.

"Who do you think she was?" Rainbow Dash asked, causing her to halt. "Before this, I mean."

Twilight stopped and turned, giving the darkened on the ground another look. "Somepony who was too weak for this world," she answered, walking away again with her eyes downcast. "If only I were so weak..."

As she left, she looked back to see Rainbow Dash lingering by the body. The pegasus reached down and closed the guardmare's eyes. Twilight looked back ahead, and shortly after she heard the hoofsteps as Rainbow Dash raced to catch up to her.

> Arc I: The Wanderer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight’s horn glowed, her flame ready. The darkened stallion before her circled for a moment, cautious, flaring its nostrils, but it wasn't long before its anger led it to charge her recklessly.

Twilight shifted her stance and conjured a jet of flame to pierce through the darkened's neck. The blade of heat hissed. The darkened gurgled. Twilight stepped to the side as its charging momentum ran it aground where she once stood. After crashing into the earth, it lay crumpled and still.

Rainbow Dash let out a cry. Twilight spun to see the pegasus pinned against the cliff wall, holding a sword-wielding darkened back with the pommel of her spear shoved against its chest.

Twilight watched the two of them struggle, making no move to help. A scowl crossing her lips. "Kill it!" she shouted, glaring at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash managed a firm kick to the darkened's chest, knocking it on its back and giving her a moment to breathe. She was tiring. Her shoulders sagged from the effort of keeping her weapon risen. She leaned against the cliff wall and rested as the darkened sluggishly began getting up.

The darkened did not let her rest for long before again bearing down on her with its sword. Rainbow Dash brought her spear up in a wide hold and blocked an overhead blow with its length. The sword stopped against the wood of her spear and sat there, quivering as the darkened pushed down on her. Rainbow Dash’s front legs shook with strain.

Twilight summoned her magic and launched an orb of fire at the darkened. The fireball hissed as it sailed through the air and struck the darkened’s side, taking most of its chest with it. Its eyes going blank, the darkened sank to the ground, leaving its sword embedded in the shaft of Rainbow Dash’s spear. Silence filled the ridge, the conflict over.

Twilight clenched her eyes shut while her hooves held her horn, a dull ache coming from it.

Rainbow Dash tipped her head back to rest against the cliff and let out a shaky chuckle. "Life on the road, huh?"

Through the pain, Twilight cracked an eye open to give Rainbow Dash a one-eyed glare.





Rainbow Dash returned to the cave they found and dropped the last branch on top of the others in a pile beside the fire, spitting the taste out of her mouth afterward. She fell back on her haunches and let out a sigh. "That should be enough to last until we wake up. You got a tinderbox or something?"

Twilight tipped her head down so her horn touched the wood. A brief flash of fire shot from her horn, lighting the bed of dry grass.

Rainbow Dash knocked her forehead with a hoof and let out a chuckle. "Well, 'duh'."

Twilight snorted. Lying down by the fire, she rested her head on her forehooves and watched the flames. "It's not as useful as you may think. Fires usually attract more attention than they're worth."

Rainbow Dash held her hooves out by the fire, pulling them back and rubbing them together when they grew hot. "Sure is nice to be warm for a change though, don't you think?"

Twilight gave her a noncommittal shrug. Rainbow Dash turned to her saddlebags and began rummaging through them. Twilight watched as she pulled something out of them, holding whatever it was in her hooves and picking at it. She blew on it and licked her hoof to rub a bit of saliva on it.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash glanced up, blinking. "Cleaning a piece of altoroot, so I can eat it. It had a bit of dirt."

Twilight sat up slightly. "Altoroot?"

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said, showing her the pale, lumpy root in her hooves. She took a small bite from one end of it, chewing thoughtfully. "You wanna try some?"

Twilight nodded. "I've never heard of any plant called altoroot," she said, accepting a piece from Rainbow Dash.

"Well, that'd make sense, given that it grows on clouds."

Twilight's eyebrows rose, and she glanced down at the piece of root in her hooves. She raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. "It grows on clouds?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Sure, how else do you think we manage to live up in the clouds without coming down? I mean, clouds are water, right? And there's plenty of moonlight up there."

Twilight looked down at the altoroot. Putting it in her mouth, she chewed, curious how a plant grown on clouds might taste, but upon finding out, she immediately spat it out. "Blech! It tastes putrid!"

"Sorta like a mix between garlic and ginger?" Rainbow Dash asked, receiving a nod. "Yeah. It's a lot better as a soup."

Twilight rubbed her tongue as the terrible taste was doing its best to cling to it. "How do you eat this stuff?"

"Not a whole lotta choice, is there? Not much grows on clouds. Ponies who go on patrol try to bring things back: mushrooms, potatoes... but it's not enough to live on." Rainbow Dash took another bite of her altoroot, grimacing slightly at the taste. "I've been eating the rations of these I brought for about a month now, ever since we came down here. They're pretty nutritious, actually."

"How much do you have left?" Twilight asked.

"This is my last one," Rainbow Dash answered.

Twilight frowned. She turned over the piece of root in her hooves, examining it. Placing it between her teeth, she took a bite and winced as its bitter tanginess flooded her mouth.

"Hmm," she hummed as she moved the piece around her mouth. "Garlic and ginger. I can see what you mean."

Rainbow Dash bit off another small piece of her root and swallowed. "So what about you? Where are you from?"

Twilight didn't answer right away, instead staring at the fire. She glanced back at her clothes then stared at her hooves, fiddling with the altoroot. "The Crystal Kingdom," she answered eventually.

Rainbow Dash sat upright, eyes wide. "You came from beyond the north mountains?" Twilight nodded. "Whoa..." Rainbow Dash said, sitting back down. A grin spread across her face. "So did you ever visit the Royal University?"

Twilight paused, shifting. "I graduated from it."

"Aw, no way, you're just bucking my cloud!" Rainbow Dash said with an even larger grin, but as she saw Twilight looking serious, her grin faded. "No way. You're not kidding."

Twilight nodded.

"So you're like... what, nobility? A princess?"

"My father is the Captain of the Royal Guard," Twilight said, crossing her forehooves.

"Huh." Rainbow Dash wrinkled her nose. "So if you were all the way up in the Crystal Kingdom, why did you—"

"I'd rather not talk about this," Twilight said, cutting Rainbow Dash off sharply.

Rainbow Dash flinched, her ears drooping. "Sorry."

Their conversation fell to silence. Each pony pointedly avoided the other’s gaze, staring instead into the fire. The wood crackled as the firelight flickered on the walls. Someplace a way off, a bird—maybe an owl—let a shrill cry out into the night. A howl shortly followed, then a blood-chilling scream cut short.

The hairs in Rainbow Dash's tail stood on end. She let out an audible shudder and edged a little closer to the fire. "Did that sound close to you?"

"Not particularly," Twilight said, shrugging. It had sounded a ways off.

"You sure?" Rainbow Dash asked, eyes fixed on the entrance to the cave. Twilight didn't dignify her with a response. Rainbow Dash picked up another of the small logs to place on the fire, but hesitated as she was about to put it on. Twilight spared a glance up. She knew that look: a look torn between fear of the dark and fear of being found by what lurks in it.

"You just put wood on," she said, sparing Rainbow Dash the decision. "The fire is fine for now."

Rainbow Dash froze up at her voice, but then nodded, setting the log down. Sitting once more, she crossed her forehooves and began rubbing her shoulders. "So what's the deal with those things? You called them darkened, right?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Don’t pegasi have a name for them?"

"Not really," Rainbow Dash said, shaking her head. "We usually just call them 'ponies who've gone dark', 'ponies taken by the night', or sometimes in training we just called them 'hostiles'. Ponies up in Cloudsdale don't like to talk about what goes on down on the surface much. It makes them uncomfortable."

"You mean it makes them feel guilty." Twilight snorted. "They aren't ponies, as I said before, but they aren't mindless, either. When a creature becomes cursed by the dark, they share a sort of... symbiotic connection with its magic."

"Symbiotic?" Rainbow Dash asked, her brow drawing an arch. "Wait, you mean it helps them?"

Twilight nodded. "A pony taken by the dark won't starve, won't thirst, and won't die of age. The second you deprive them of the dark magic, though..." Twilight stared into the fire, the light flickering in the reflection of her eyes. "The masters of magic at the Royal University have tried for centuries to undo the curse. It can't be done. The second you deprive them of the dark, they go limp like a puppet with its strings cut."

Rainbow Dash glanced to the side, where her spear lay against the wall. The polished, sharpened metal of its head gleamed by the fire, the light dancing off of it and making it look as though its edge were molten.

"You'll have to kill one of them eventually," Twilight said. "You must know that."

Rainbow Dash looked at her and gave her a weak nod, her shoulders slumped. "In training we're taught to always fly away if we can, never to risk combat if we don't have to. Our job is to look for supplies that could help the city, not fight." She paused, turning back to her spear. "I always wanted to be a great fighter, to be somepony proud and noble, but what we're fighting down here—there's nothing proud or noble about it, just like there's nothing proud about putting down a rabid animal."

"You don't need to be proud. You need to survive," Twilight said, prodding an unlit corner of a burning log into the fire. "If it consoles you in any way, what they have cannot be called living. It's suffering. Ending that is possibly the greatest kindness you could do for them."

"But it's still a life," Rainbow Dash said, but the words came out so weak she had to stop and let out a sigh. "You're probably right."

"It's something you'll realize for yourself in time," Twilight said. She stood, moving to the side of the fire opposite the cave entrance before lying back down. "We should rest. The sooner we do, the sooner we can begin searching again. Will you be alright to take the first watch?"

Rainbow Dash nodded.

"Good. Keep your spear close and the fire low. Wake me in four hours, and we'll switch."





"Hear me sing, sky midnight lake,
Sweet solace and darkened shroud,
Limbs and backs may break,
But hearts shall stay unbowed."

Rainbow Dash startled awake, her last memories having been of those on watch. She felt sheepish for a moment, but in another moment, the singing resumed, closer. And as they drew closer, the chords of a lyre drifted through the woods.

"Forward tells of wrath and fear,
And therein lies the shade,
Whose dark dampens even the ear,
But the horrors shall find me unafraid."

A unicorn of pale green stepped into the firelight outside the mouth of the cave, her eyes closed as she played her instrument.

"On a soul as light as—" She stopped, taking notice of the campfire, and of Rainbow Dash. 

Rainbow Dash reached for her spear. Its point was low, but ready to raise at a moment’s notice. She reached out with a rear hoof and gave a light kick to her sleeping companion. "Twilight—"

Twilight’s eyes were already open. She first looked to Rainbow Dash, then noticed their visitor. Any trace of sleep vanished as she was on her hooves in an instant. The newcomer with the lyre glanced between the two of them, staying her ground.

"Who are you?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Lyra," the newcomer answered. She put her harp away in a saddlebag. "I don’t mean any harm… might I share in your fire?"

Rainbow Dash lowered her spear and started to answer, but Twilight’s reply came first.

"We don’t know you," Twilight said tersely. "It would be for the best if you found another campsite."

Lyra stepped forward, now underneath the roof of the cave. "What is a campfire without music or warm food? My bags have mushrooms and herbs, and I know how to make a soup that warms ponies to the tips of their hooves."

Rainbow Dash leaned over near Twilight and whispered, "Why can’t she stay?"

"We don’t know her," Twilight hissed back.

Rainbow Dash sighed, her stomach gnawing from the words ‘mushroom soup’ being spoken. "Look, lady—"

"Lyra of Lyre," Lyra interrupted.

"Look, Lyra of Lyre," Rainbow Dash said again, "thanks for the offer and all, but like my companion said, it would probably be best if you take yourself off to another campsite."

Lyra leaned forward, peering at Rainbow Dash. "You’re a pegasus," she said, raising her brow.

Rainbow Dash snorted. "So?"

Lyra walked up to and right beside Rainbow Dash. Twilight tensed and pointed her horn at Lyra. Lyra, however, either didn’t notice or didn’t care about the threat as she paid no attention to Twilight while she set down her saddlebags and took seat next to Rainbow Dash.

"You look malnourished. What have you had to eat lately?" she asked Rainbow Dash.

"Altoroot, mostly. Rationing to just one a day. Every third day I have none. I just ate the last one I had." Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure whether she should be telling the stranger all this, but the offer of food lingered in the back of her mind. She caught Twilight’s look of concern out of the corner of her eye and tried to shake it off with a grin. "I’ve had a fair amount of water."

Lyra reached into her bags and pulled out a wooden bowl. Beside it, she set some leaf-wrapped packages. She addressed Twilight. "I understand if you don’t want me here, but I can’t walk away and leave this pony to starve. Let me prepare something for her, and then I’ll leave."

Twilight lifted her head, but remained tense.

Lyra set about making the soup. She removed a banged-up pot from her bag, followed by a water canteen which she then poured into the pot. The parchments she laid out were filled with spices, mushrooms, and onions.

"Judging by the weapon, I gather you’re from Cloudsdale, are you not?" Lyra asked.

"Yeah. Been stranded down here for at least a full cycle now." Rainbow Dash snorted. "First time out of the cloud on a basic scouting trip and everything goes as wrong as it can get."

"There are two things it would do you well to learn from that," Lyra said, taking out a wooden spoon to stir the pot. "Life for those of us on the ground hasn’t been nearly as peaceful as the lives you pegasi lead in Cloudsdale. Your friend was right to be cautious concerning me. The danger here is never to be taken lightly."

Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves in front of her chest. "And the other thing?"

Lyra smiled. "The fact that so long as you’re alive and undarkened, there’s always at least one more thing that could go wrong."

Twilight turned away from the two of them, seemingly trying to go back to sleep, but with Lyra there, Rainbow Dash doubted she really would. The fire let out a hiss and pop, and then the embers settled in.

Rainbow Dash studied Lyra. She seemed harmless, stirring the pot and humming to herself, but the Wonderbolts taught recruits to stay away from all earth-bound ponies. Her rather dangerous first encounter with Twilight came to mind.

"You haven’t really told us anything besides your name," Rainbow Dash said.

"There can be much in a name," Lyra answered with a curved lip. "What do you wish to know? Where I grew up? I’m afraid my story is unremarkable, and quite similar to anyone else who has lived on the surface."

"I want to know why you’re here and where you’re going."

Lyra paused for a brief moment in her stirring. "I’m meant to meet someone—a friend. ‘No matter what,’ she said, ‘we’ll meet again by the oak tree at the crossroads out of town,’ so that crossroads is where I’m headed."

"Town?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Ponyville," Lyra answered. "Or so they’ve taken to calling it. It’s a peculiar basketful of ponies who all wound up stuck out here one way or another."

Rainbow Dash straightened. "Would somepony there know their way around the forest here?"

"Quite possibly," Lyra answered, shrugging. She reached back into her bag, pulling out three wooden bowls, and served the soup. The first bowl she held out to Rainbow Dash, the second she held out to Twilight. "Would our sleeping friend like any?"

Twilight shifted, moving her shoulder into a more comfortable position. She answered curtly, "No."

Putting the third empty bowl away, Lyra took the offered one back and brought it to her lips. "All the more for us," she said, and drank.

Rainbow Dash stared down at her own serving. The soup was a light brown with soft, oblong slices of mushroom cap floating in it. Aroma mingling with the steam triggered a pang of hunger. Lifting the bowl to her lips, she tipped it generously, causing a small amount to drizzle from the corners of her mouth down to her chin. The broth was a heaven-send to her dry throat.

She drank until the bowl had nothing more to offer, then set it down. The sudden change in her throat caused a coughing fit. As she sat there, hacking up the broth she had consumed too hastily, Lyra came over and took her bowl, refilling it at the cauldron.

As Rainbow Dash’s coughing fit ended, she looked up to see Lyra offering her another bowl.



Rainbow Dash wiped her face with her hoof, wearing a sheepish grin. "It’s a whole lot better than the other stuff I’ve had lately." She took the bowl from Lyra’s hooves.

"Given how you look, I’d imagine that means better than nothing," Lyra said, chuckling.

"I guess it pretty much does." Rainbow Dash lifted the second bowl to her lips, drinking slower, and when she’d had enough, she set the bowl down. "So is Ponyville far from here?"

"Within a day’s travel. There’s a trail not far from this cave, if you’d like me to take you there." She leaned over near Twilight. "I know I said I’d leave, but I’d truly appreciate the company! You’ll have me out of your hair before a phase’s passage."

Twilight’s ear flicked. "Noon," she mumbled. "Do as you want."

Lyra blinked. She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Is that her way of saying yes?"

"I think so," Rainbow Dash replied.

Lyra shook her head. "Well, good luck with her. If you want a piece of advice: Friends are your best bet to surviving down here. Ponies who don’t play well with others usually don’t last long." Her eyes briefly darted towards Twilight.

The hair on Rainbow Dash’s coat bristled. Her lips drew tight. "She saved me when I was trapped and alone."

Lyra’s features softened, and her ears flattened against her skull. "Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. I understand perfectly where you’re coming from. I have someone who I’d stick through thick and thin with as well… No, I suppose that’s not entirely true, considering what happened." Her smile grew pained. "It would probably be best if we get some rest. I disturbed you rather late."

Rainbow Dash stared at Lyra. After a moment, she lifted her bowl and finished her soup, before wiping her chin and letting out a loud yawn. "Catching some zees sounds pretty good right now." She looked at Twilight. "Hey, Twilight, you good to change shifts?"

Twilight nodded, sitting up. Already she seemed wide awake and alert as ever.

Lyra lay down, folding her hooves beneath her. "Thank you again for letting me in from the cold. It was a kind thing to do."

"Well, hey, after making that great food, we’ll call it even," Rainbow Dash said with a cheeky grin. Lyra smirked and closed her eyes.

Rainbow Dash soon closed hers as well.





Rainbow Dash woke a half moon phase later to an ear-rending scream off in the distance. It bolted Rainbow Dash awake, causing her to accidentally kick her spear’s point. She cursed and sucked on the wound. At least the pain and taste of copper served to wake her. Although she could have done without the condescending look Twilight had given upon seeing her injure herself in such a stupid way.

As Rainbow Dash stepped out of the cave, she looked around, noticing Lyra was nowhere to be seen. "Huh? What happened to that pony from last night?"

"She said something about thanking you for reminding her of her priorities, and that she wanted to leave early to meet up with her friend," Twilight answered, scanning the woods below their cliff. In the darkness of a quarter moon, it was difficult to see anything below the treetops.

Rainbow Dash folded her forehooves in front of her chest. "Jeez, she left without saying so much as goodbye." Her nose wrinkled. She directed her glare towards Twilight. "You know, it wouldn’t kill you to just be a little bit nicer to ponies. Who knows, you might even make some friends."

"Friends are a burden I’d rather not carry, and I don’t need help," Twilight replied, never tearing her gaze away from what she was doing.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. You’ve said it all before." Her brow furrowed. "If friends are such a weakness, why did you let me travel with you?"

Twilight paused. She turned to Rainbow Dash and examined her from head to hoof, then shrugged. "A lapse of judgment." She started down the cliffside trail to the forest below.

Rainbow Dash smirked, shaking her head as she followed Twilight. "I know what you’re doing. You’re just trying to get me to leave. Well, tough, because it ain’t happening until I repay the debt I owe you for saving my life."

Twilight sighed. "Do as you want," she said.

The forest had grown still since Rainbow Dash woke: not a howl nor any other cry. There lay only the steady groan of trees whose pale wood brittled and dried under the cloudless night. Some had leaves, but most did not. It was how most trees were on the surface. Then again, it was how most everything was on the surface. Pale and starved of light. Above the clouds, Cloudsdale had enjoyed the radiance of the moon’s constant light. It was only ever so dark when the moon was new.

Rainbow Dash paused for a moment, walking up to a tree. She lay her hoof on it. It felt smooth, like the river stones the Wonderbolts sometimes brought back, yet there was something haunting about its touch.

Ahead, Twilight carried on. Not wanting to be left behind, Rainbow Dash dropped her hoof from the tree and ran to catch up with her.

"So…" Rainbow Dash began, causing Twilight to glance over her shoulder. "You really are from the Crystal Kingdom, right?"

Twilight nodded. "I was, yes."

"Was?" Rainbow Dash asked. They came to a tree, wide as she was tall, that had fallen across the road.

"No one crosses the Northern Mountains," Twilight replied without looking, gracefully leaping clear over the fallen tree. "Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to go back."

Rainbow Dash tried to imitate Twilight and make the same jump, only she fell short and had to scramble to get up on top of it. She jumped down on the other side of it and brushed down her coat. "But you made it across once, didn’t you?"

"And I shouldn’t have survived." Twilight turned to her, fixing her with a stern look. "If I were to cross them again, I would die. And if you meet your friends, that is what you tell them: that no one crosses the Northern Mountains, understand?"

Rainbow Dash sat down and leaned back, raising her hooves. "Okay, okay, I get it. I won’t say anything about you to them." She glanced down, spotting a scuff she’d missed, and straightened it out. 

Twilight nodded, satisfied, and continued on the road.

"Sheesh," Rainbow Dash mumbled, getting up to follow her. "So without getting my head bit off, how long have you been south of the mountains?"

"A few years," Twilight answered. "Seven maybe, I guess."

"Seven years?" Rainbow Dash’s eyebrows rose. "You’d have to have just been a kid when you left! You don’t look like you’ve even broken twenty."

"Three years then," Twilight said, irritably.

Rainbow Dash snorted. "Well which is it then? Seven or three? Those two are literally years apart."

Twilight’s hair bristled. "Look, I don’t know how long it’s been. I haven’t kept track of the moon cycles that closely."

"So you hit your head while you were in the mountains then?" Rainbow Dash asked, chuckling.

"In a way, maybe," Twilight said, staring ahead at nothing in particular. "I’d prefer not to talk about the mountains."

"You’d prefer not to talk about most things," Rainbow Dash said. "Think we’re getting close to Ponyville? Lyra said it wasn’t far from the cave."

"Maybe you should ask her yourself," Twilight said, pointing ahead. The road split in three, a signpost marking the paths, and slumped against it sat Lyra, mutedly plucking the strings of her lyre.

Rainbow Dash ran past Twilight, skidding to a halt at the crossroad.

Lyra continued to pluck her strings as though she weren’t there, but only for a few notes more before she let out a sigh and looked up.

"Sorry for skipping out earlier," she said, trying to smile. "What you said the other night really got to me. I wanted to see this place as early as possible." She looked around. "But as you can see, she’s not here."

"Hey now," Rainbow Dash said, trying to give Lyra a reassuring smile. "She could just be late or something. If you just give it a bit of time, I’m sure she’ll show up. She promised you, didn’t she?"

"‘At the crossroad outside home,’ she said. ‘Eleven cycles from today, by the late light of the quarter moon,’ she said." Lyra looked up. The moon hung directly overhead, shining through the clearing at the crossroad. Half its face glowed pale and white, the other half lying in darkness. 

"That is no early quarter moon," Lyra said, her gaze falling back to her lyre. She plucked the strings, a vacant, melancholy tune playing from them. "‘No matter what,’ she said. ‘No matter what.’"

Rainbow Dash took a step back, staring at Lyra with unease. She found her smile faltering. "It’s a hectic world out there, I’m sure she’s on her way," she said. She could tell by Lyra’s look that she didn’t believe it.

In the meantime, Lyra continued to play. She began to sing, "Hear me sing, sky midnight lake..."

Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof, startling Lyra out of her playing. Lyra lowered her instrument, looking up at Rainbow Dash through bleary eyes.

"I know you must be thinking that the worst happened to your friend," Rainbow Dash said. "But you don’t know that. You really don’t. She could just be sick or something. I’m not going to try to make you believe that’s the case, but it could be, couldn’t it? If something is keeping her from being here, I just know it must be tearing her up inside. She is your best friend, isn’t she?"

Lyra nodded, wiping her eye. "The best I could have ever asked for."

"Then you have to wait—wait and believe that if she’s out there, she’ll be here." Rainbow Dash walked over and rested a hoof on Lyra’s back. "You owe her as much. As a friend."

Lyra let out a shuddering breath. She smiled, looking up at Rainbow Dash. "Thank you. It’s been twenty cycles. I’ll wait to see her a while longer."

Rainbow Dash smiled and nodded. "And when we get back from finding my friends, maybe you can introduce us."

Lyra’s smile grew, albeit still pained. "She would like that, I think."

"Great, so I’ll just go get them!" Rainbow Dash glanced around, looking at the three dirt paths leading away from the crossroad and away from where they came. "Which of these is Ponyville again?"

Lyra pointed down the road to the right of where they came from as she raised her lyre once more, picking the strings of a melancholy tune.

"Wait for us," Rainbow Dash said. "We’ll definitely be back."

Lyra nodded and began to sing.

"On a soul as light as the moon,
I wander the deep of night astray,
In hopes I may find you soon,
If not this life, then one far away..."

As her voice faded, Twilight and Rainbow Dash carried on down the road towards Ponyville beneath the glow of the quarter moon.

> Arc I: The Village
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight and Rainbow Dash came across a sign on the forest path. Made of aged oak, it was littered with scratches, with most of the letters carved into it obscured by them. Where it looked like it had once said WELCOME TO, the only word still clear now was the name: PONYVILLE.

"Gee, seems charming enough," Dash said.

"Keep your weapon by your side," Twilight cautioned her. "We don’t know what to expect from this town’s inhabitants."

They continued down the trail past the sign. The woods lay in darkness around them, their leaves and branches blocking out the starlight and moonlight and leaving them guided solely by the light of Twilight’s magic.

"Are there a lot of settlements like this around?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Not many, no. Most of the remaining unicorns and earth ponies took refuge behind the Crystal Kingdom’s magic barrier. Those trapped south of the mountains have not fared so well. Of the settlements I’ve seen, most number ten or fewer."

"How many have you come across since travelling south of the mountains?" Rainbow Dash asked, peering at Twilight.

"Enough to have learned that staying in one for long is almost never a good idea," Twilight answered. "Ponies band together to survive, but numbers attract the darkened. It’s a bad idea to settle down in one area for too long."

Rainbow Dash stared at her hooves, a frown marring her lips. "How long usually before they have to abandon their homes?"

"Not long."

The trail lead them out of the forest to an open field with wheat grass shimmering silver under the moon’s rays. Up a hill ahead lay a farmhouse. The grey of aged wood bled through its original chipped and faded coat of red and white painted on years ago.

Twilight led as they made their way through the wheat fields to the farmhouse. They stopped on the dirt flat outside, tensed and glancing around. A pair of pitchforks sat on an empty hay cart by the house door. There wasn’t candlelight to be seen, nor any sound from within to be heard.

Rainbow Dash’s stance relaxed. "It looks abandoned. Should we poke around inside?"

Twilight nodded. "See if you can find yourself some food." As they walked inside, she glanced at the tools lying out in the open air. "It looks like whoever lived here left recently. They may have left behind some provisions they couldn’t take."

"I guess we should make sure it doesn’t go to waste," Rainbow Dash said with a cheeky grin.

They entered the farmhouse. Inside it was dark. The room’s only light came from between the cracks of a pair of boarded up windows. From it, they could see a wood counter lined with cupboards in a near corner. Spaced a short way from the counter was a dining table with a candle sitting on it. Twilight’s horn glowed as she lit the candle’s wick and brought more light into the room.

Rainbow Dash dove right into the cupboards. "I wonder if they have any jarred fruit, maybe some fruit leather—ooh, what if they have jams!" She let out a giddy chuckle, licking her lips as she flipped through empty cupboard after empty cupboard.

While Rainbow dug around for food, Twilight examined the room. Beside the candle were a pair of books. One looked like a fantasy book belonging to a foal, while the other seemed to be about cooking recipes. The fantasy book lay face down, saving what page the reader was on, yet its spine was unbroken.

"Behind you!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

Twilight’s ears stood on end, her spine stiffening. She barely spun around in time to have the wind kicked out of her, a hoof planting itself firmly in her side. Her eyes clenched shut. The blow left her reeling, and she fell against the table, banging her head against its surface on her way to the floor.

She opened her eyes, blinking. The room swam all around her. She was faintly aware of her assailant standing overtop of her, pointing something long and sharp at her neck.

"What in tarnation do y’all think you’re doing rummaging through our cupboards?"

Twilight’s vision came back into focus. A pitchfork. It was a pitchfork that pointed at her neck. The room swam less. She glanced over to see Rainbow Dash being held against the floor by a massive red stallion. Her gaze drifted back to the pitchfork at her neck, and followed it to its owner. The pony who had her pinned was a mare, Twilight realized: a stranger with an orange coat and a cowpony hat.

"Don’t even think about usin’ your magic here, missy. That horn so much as glows, and you’re gonna find yourself with a new hole to breathe through." The mare inched her pitchfork towards Twilight’s neck. "Now, I believe I asked the two of you a question."

Twilight stared cross eyed at the tip of the pitchfork resting against her neck, swallowing, her lips held firmly shut.

"We were looking for food," Rainbow Dash managed to chew out, her face being pressed into the floor by the stallion’s hoof. "We didn’t think anypony was here!"

"Is that so?"

"I swear!" Rainbow Dash said as the stallion pushed her face into the floor harder.

"You think she’s lyin’?" the mare asked, never taking her eyes off Twilight.

The stallion snorted. "Eeyup."

"See, I can never tell whether a pegasus is lyin’ or not. They got coward’s blood runnin’ through their veins. Makes them natural born liars." The mare lifted Twilight’s chin with the tip of her pitchfork, its point scraping Twilight’s throat. "Now what would make a unicorn such as yourself want to keep such company?"

Twilight glared defiantly, her lips sealed shut. She glanced down at the weapon pointed at her neck. Between the prongs of the pitchfork was room enough for her head. It would keep the farm mare from killing her briefly—but briefly was all she needed.

"She’s just trying to help me find my friends!" Rainbow Dash shouted. The stallion pushed her into the floorboards harder, and she let out a cry of pain.

The mare on top of Twilight looked at Rainbow and sneered. "Now what did I tell you about lyin—"

Twilight forced her head forward in between the prongs of the pitchfork, escaping the pointed ends. The mare’s eyes widened as she started to pull the pitchfork back, but Twilight’s horn was already lit, and a great flash of fire burst from it.

The mare dropped her pitchfork, bringing her hooves up to shield her eyes as it fell to the side, away from Twilight’s neck. She stumbled away from the flame and fell over backwards.

Springing to her hooves, Twilight kicked the pitchfork across the floor and then pointed her glowing horn at the fallen mare.

Eyes wide, the mare stared up at her, making no sudden movements. The stallion, too, had given her his full attention, ignoring Rainbow Dash still pinned beneath his hooves.

Twilight glared at him, flaring her magic. "Release her or your friend will burn up in flames."

The stallion responded by immediately removing his hooves from Rainbow Dash at once, his eyes wide and terrified. Rainbow lay on the ground, alternating between coughing and gasping for air as she was finally able to breathe again.

The stallion moved away slowly, backing up until his rear bumped into the counter. He trembled, frightened as a mouse. "P-please don’t hurt her!"

Twilight looked back to the mare on the floor. She glared at the now-freed pegasus, and seemingly at the stallion for letting her go.

The glow surrounding Twilight’s horn faded. "Let’s go, Rainbow Dash."

The farm mare’s defiant glare vanished. She looked between Rainbow and Twilight with her brow knotted.

"Hold on," Rainbow Dash wheezed, one of her forehooves pressed against her chest. She turned to the mare that had assaulted Twilight. "Have you heard of any pegasi passing by here? I’m looking for a mare and a stallion wearing armor like mine."

The mare took off her hat, revealing a short, tousled blonde mane. She beat the dust out of her hat before putting it back on with a thin-lipped frown. "Afraid we haven’t seen any pegasi besides you in years. The last we saw was when a group of them raided the place that used to be our home." 

The stallion cast his eyes towards the ground as his companion spoke. His intimidating countenance had all but dropped. He shuffled his hooves nervously with his head hung, staring at the wood floor.

"This was only our first surface trip to the ground as a squad." Rainbow Dash stood, wobbling slightly. "We got split up a little over a cycle ago in the forest southeast of this village when a manticore attacked us."

The mare turned away from Rainbow Dash, her lips sealed tightly shut.

"Please," Rainbow Dash said, trying again. "I’m just trying to find my friends."

"So what?" the mare snapped. "Doesn’t it occur to you I might lie about seeing them, that I might lead you off someplace astray? I’ve got nothin’ but a fond dislike of you and your kind."

"Yeah, you could just make something up. Lead me on a wild goose chase." Rainbow Dash huffed. "But I still have to ask. If I don’t, I might never find them."

The mare folded her hooves in front of her chest. "You’re too darned honest for your own good, you know. That kind of honesty can get you killed here, maybe even worse." She chewed her lip, looking between Rainbow Dash and Twilight. After a moment spent examining them, she stood. "I’m Applejack," she said, finally. "This over here is my brother, Big Mac. I don’t know where your friends are, but I know of somepony who might."

Rainbow Dash let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you."

"Can’t believe I’m helpin’ a pegasus," Applejack mumbled. "Before, you said you came in here lookin’ for food, right?"

"Well, yeah, but I couldn’t ask—"

"If you’re about to refuse the offer, I might just take you up on it," Applejack interrupted. "It’d do you well to keep your mouth shut when gettin’ help, seeing as I’m sorely tempted not to give it."

She walked over to the cupboards beside Rainbow Dash. Reaching inside one, she moved a board aside, revealing a hidden compartment. "But if I went and did that, I suppose then I’d be no different than the pegasi cowerin’ up in their clouds."

She pulled her head out of the cupboard and handed Rainbow Dash a package wrapped with parchment and twine. After, she dove back in to retrieve a second parchment package, then two jars. "Fruit leather, staled bread, apple jam, and applesauce."

Rainbow Dash stared at the package in her hooves, then at the second one sitting next to a pair of jars on the counter. She wiped a spot of drool from her chin. "Wait, real apples? Oh man, we don’t get much fruit up in Cloudsdale."

"We don’t get much down here either. What little there takes hard work turnin’ into somethin’ edible," Applejack said. "The bread is dense. If you ration it well between the two of you, could last the pair of you a week, maybe two. That’s all we can spare. I give you this, and I don’t want to see the two of you ‘round this here farm again."

"We won’t disturb you again," Twilight said with a slight bow of her head. "Thank you for your help."

"I’ll try not to eat it all right away," Rainbow Dash said, grinning. "But no promises."

Applejack smirked for a second before quickly correcting her mouth back to a scowl. Shoving past Rainbow Dash, she walked towards the door. "Come on, I’ll show the two of you the way to Pinkie’s place." She paused to look over her shoulder at Big Mac. "Help Apple Bloom out of her hiding spot while I’m out. Let her know the danger’s gone and I’m just makin’ a round trip out to town."

Big Mac nodded. "Stay safe."

"I reckon if either of these two wanted to do me harm, the horned one over here would have already," Applejack said. "But I will."

Twilight and Rainbow followed her abreast, out of the farmhouse and into the open night air. They were led down a winding, overgrown trail opposite the side of the hill they came up. The wheat fields on either side of the trail were silent as the grave, their white ghostly stalks absent of insects or any other life. The sea of them leaned and rocked beneath a hollow wind.

The night seemed even more frigid here, out away from the forest’s shelter. It was hard to tell whether it truly was, or whether it was just the emptiness of the sky, the great expanse of stars above.

It wasn’t until they reached the bottom and the trail flattened out that they began to see houses. Their rooftops were what they saw first. Thatching, pale and white as the fields around them, sat atop the homes. As they drew closer still, it became apparent most of the houses had been long since abandoned. Many lay in near ruins—many more had broken down completely to rubbled heaps.

As they entered the town, a plain-colored mare with a white mane was there to greet them. "Applejack!" she said, walking over to them. "What brings you into town in the middle of the night?"

Applejack arched an eyebrow. "Not quite sure what you mean, Ms. Mayor Mare."

"Why, it should be sunrise any moment. You should go home and get some rest. Start early in the morning." Mayor Mare paused, taking notice of the two accompanying Applejack. "These two aren’t from around here—I should know, I am the Mayor after all."

"No, ma’am, they’re not," Applejack said, gritting her teeth.

"Are they tourists?"

Applejack sighed. She put on a fake smile. "Why yes, ma’am, yes they are. I was just showing them around our lovely, quaint little town." She cleared her throat. "If you could kindly let us get back to it, Ms. Mayor Mare? I’m sure somepony of your position has a lot to do."

"Why yes. Yes yes yes." Mayor Mare fidgeted. She turned and walked away, muttering loudly. "Always so much to do. So much. Paperwork, ceremonies, yes yes. Much to do."

The three of them watched her go until she had walked far out of earshot.

Rainbow Dash was the first to speak once they had started walking again. "Uh, is there something wrong with her? Maybe a bit?"

Applejack wrinkled her nose. "Whaddya mean?"

"I mean she seems a bit… off, you know?"

"You may be right; anypony stuck believin’ in filly tales about the sun like that has got to have lost more than a fair share of their marbles. But so long as I’ve known her she’s seemed mostly harmless. Older folk need someone younger lookin’ out for them. In the end I reckon we’ve all got our own peculiarities. Just some folk more than others."

Rainbow Dash snorted. "I don’t think I have peculiarities in the same way she does."

"Why sure you do," Applejack said, nodding her head. "You got wings, dontcha? That’s a mighty big peculiarity in and of its own self."

"What?" Rainbow Dash refolded her wings. "How is that in any way the same thing?"

"I meet a whole lot more folk with peculiarities like hers than I meet with wings like yours. I’d say that makes them a mighty peculiar thing indeed." Applejack glanced at Twilight. "Your friend don’t talk much, do she?"

Twilight’s ear flicked at her name being brought up, but otherwise made no response.

Applejack wrinkled her nose. "She hasn’t spoke once since she threatened to have me all burnt up back at the farm. For some that might make them a tad uncomfortable."

"You had a skewer at my neck and at the time your ally was suffocating my travelling partner," Twilight said.

Applejack arched a brow. "‘Traveling partner,’ huh? I’m figuring you two aren’t so close. Seems like she’d be a real bundle of fun on the road, too."

"Eh, you get used to it," Rainbow Dash said, smiling. "She talks a bit more to me when other ponies aren’t around."

Applejack shook her head. "I’ll have to take your word for it."

The more they walked, the more deserted Ponyville seemed. One house they passed had a filly and her mother. The pair of them stared as Twilight and Rainbow walked by, the mother clutching her child closely. Their manes were dirty and haggard, their eyes wide and bloodshot, surrounded by the dark circles of many sleepless nights.

Rainbow Dash shivered, tearing her eyes away from their gaze. "So are there a lot of ponies living in Ponyville?"

"Only little more than a dozen, maybe two dozen." Applejack shrugged. "Most ponies in this town keep to themselves."

"Has the town ever been attacked? You know, by the darkened?"

"Once or twice. For the most part the darkness seems to steer clear of here," Applejack said, pushing her hat down on her head. "Can’t really say why it does, but it’s the reason why this town formed."

"Huh," Rainbow Dash said, wrinkling her nose. She glanced at Twilight briefly before turning back to Applejack to ask another question. "So where are we headed, anyway?"

"Pinkie Pie’s house. She can take the two of you to the White Witch. She’s the only pony in Ponyville who knows exactly how to get there."

"White Witch?"

"She’s a shamanic zebra livin’ out in the Everfree forest—the most unsettlin’ of the forests borderin’ Ponyville. I hear noises comin’ out of that forest I don’t ever want to know the cause of. It’s a darkened place full of wrath, I tell you. The trees themselves are alive, inhabited by the ghosts of the lost and tortured." Applejack paused to let out a shudder. "Personally I’d steer clear if I were you. I wouldn’t want nothin’ to do with nopony who calls that place home."

Rainbow Dash trotted up to Applejack and walked shoulder to shoulder with her. "But you think she might have seen my friends?"

"No, but she may have some way of findin’ them. If you’re truly desperate to find your friends, she’s the sort of answer a desperate pony might turn to."

"Come on, it’s not like she’s going to turn me into a newt or anything, right?" Rainbow Dash said, chuckling.

Without turning around, Applejack gave half a shrug, her eyes staying on the road ahead.

"Hey, wait, you don’t think she can actually—"

Applejack cleared her throat loudly. "We’re here," she announced. They stood before a house as large as any of the two near it put end to end. A chipped wooden sign hung from a post, spinning lazily on one chain, as the other was broken. Etched onto the sign was a loaf of bread.

Rainbow Dash wrinkled her nose at the sign. "A bakery?"

Applejack nodded. "According to Pinkie, bakin’ is not so different from brewin’ potions. She visits the White Witch for help with her recipes from time to time. She’s about the only one in Ponyville who’ll step near that cursed place." She leaned in close, pointing at the house and whispering in Rainbow Dash’s ear, "I wouldn’t eat anything here, either, if I was you." She ran her hoof across her throat, making a croaking noise.

Rainbow Dash shuffled away from her, rubbing a shoulder. "Uh, right. I’ll keep that in mind."

Applejack approached the door of the bakery. She stood on its steps and knocked. "Pinkie? It’s Applejack."

"Just a minute!" came a shout in reply. There was some shuffling around, what sounded like pots and pans. The sound of hoofsteps approached the door, then a mare opened it. Her mane was pink and curled and knotted, a rat’s nest sticking out from under her purple shawl. She greeted the three of them with a lip-splitting smile while a pungent, sour-smelling, and smoky odor come from inside the house and wafted over them.
"Oh, hello! New friends!" the mare said, shaking Twilight’s and Rainbow Dash’s hooves vigorously. "I’ve never seen you before, which means you must be new, because I know everyone in Ponyville!"

"So do I, Pinkie. There’s only a wagonful of us," Applejack muttered. "Look, this winged one here’s lookin’ to see the White Witch. She’s searchin’ for somepony she lost."

Pinkie snorted and giggled, covering her muzzle. "Well of course she is! If anypony lost somepony and wanted to know where that somepony was, then they’d look for anypony who’d know where that somepony is, and if anypony would know where somepony is, it’s surely the White Witch." She reached inside her bag. "Cookie?" she offered Rainbow Dash.

"Uh…" Rainbow Dash glanced at Applejack, then shook her head. "No thanks."

"Well, suit yourself." Pinkie tossed the cookie on the ground to their side. "Anyways, come on in. It wouldn’t do if you all stood around outside and caught gaptrout because of me." She turned and walked inside, leaving them an invitation to follow.

Rainbow Dash looked to Applejack once more. "Gaptrout?"

Applejack shook her head. "Ain’t the foggiest." She tipped the front of her hat down. "Well, I best be gettin’ back to the farm. Y’all don’t go dark out there."

"Wait, that’s it?" Rainbow Dash said.

"It’s outta my hooves from here," Applejack replied, then turned and left. Twilight and Rainbow Dash watched her go, until she steadily vanished into the night.

Twilight shrugged at Rainbow Dash. "I guess we go in," she said, and she stepped inside the bakery.

Rainbow Dash made to follow, but a flap of wings gave her pause. A crow had landed by the discarded cookie. It pecked it into crumbs with its beak, then picked up and swallowed them. Not a moment after it swallowed a second beakful, the crow began coughing. It flapped its wings and a series of panicked caws escaped from it.

Rainbow Dash approached it cautiously, her hoof extended out towards it. Just as her hoof was about to touch it, the crow exploded in a plume of green smoke and fire. 

Rainbow Dash leaped back, her eyes wide. As the smoke dispersed upward, a large, fat lizard stood where the crow had been, wriggling and twisting around in the dirt. In its state of panic, it managed to right itself to its feet, then turned and ran away into the forest.

Blinking, Rainbow Dash looked around, hoping to see that somepony else had seen the same thing, but Twilight had already entered the bakery.

Swallowing the newly formed lump in her throat, Rainbow Dash went inside.

In the kitchen, Pinkie and Twilight were both silently waiting for her--or at least mostly silently on Pinkie’s part. She hummed an upbeat tune while prancing across the kitchen area to a black wood stove, a pair of oven mitts on her front hooves.

She opened the stove and pulled out a tray of cookies, much like the one she had offered Rainbow Dash. She inhaled deeply their scent. Her lips pursed and nose wrinkled up as she stared at them.

"Wait, if these are…" Pinkie muttered. She turned to Rainbow Dash, rubbing the back of her head. "Woops. I guess it’s a good thing you weren’t feeling peckish earlier."

She slid the cookies off the tray onto a plate and placed the plate on the kitchen table next to where Twilight stood.

Twilight shook her head. "I’m not hungry."

"Suit yourself," Pinkie Pie said with a shrug. She picked one of the cookies off the plate and ate it in one large bite, licking her lips afterwards.

"So," she said, turning to Rainbow Dash. "How did you and your friend get separated?"

"Actually there were two friends. The three of us got attacked by a darkened manticore, but my wing was injured, so I couldn’t fly away. Soarin’ and Spitfire stayed to help me, but I don’t remember really what happened after that." Rainbow Dash picked up a cookie and gave it a test nibble. She took a seat and stared at it, turning it in her hooves.

"The manticore swiped at me. I think I remember diving into a cave or between some rocks or something to avoid it. I must have hit my head, because everything went black after that, and when I woke up, there was dried blood on my forehead. That was about a cycle ago.

"After we got separated, they probably just flew away. I know they must have come back looking for my body. When they didn’t find it, they probably started looking for me."

Turning to Twilight, Pinkie giggled. "Her optimism sure is refreshing, isn’t it?"

Rainbow Dash’s brow furrowed. "Spitfire and Soarin are the strongest, fastest Wonderbolts in Cloudsdale. They can handle themselves."

Pinkie Pie stifled her laughter and gave Rainbow Dash a warm smile. "Glad to hear that." She walked over to the table and slid the plate of cookies into a tin container. "Well! What say we head on over to Zecora’s place right away? We might as well, given there’s never really a good time to enter the Everfree. Even on the brightest phases of the moon, the forest is teeming with darkness." She giggled. "Besides, I feel like it’s the perfect hour to take a stroll through the woods, don’t you?"
> Arc I: The White Witch
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Light continued to fade as night’s cycle approached the new moon. Between the slimming of the moon and the skeletal branches shading the barren forest floor, a near perfect dark surrounded the path they walked. Were it not for their torches, they would be blind. Even with them, the dark seemed to swallow their firelight with a feverish hunger.

The earth beneath their hooves was packed and frigid, more resembling stone or concrete than dirt. Its dead greyish hue did little to help the comparison. Yet still, roots breached its surface and the pale trees filled the forest as densely as any jungle.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash followed Pinkie Pie, who for the last hour had led them through the seemingly endless and unchanging forest. Every so often she would stop, stare at their surroundings, and change their course.

"We’re walking in circles," Rainbow Dash said, fed up after the dozenth or so such case. "We’re lost, aren’t we?"

Pinkie Pie glanced back at the two of them and smiled. "Nope! We’re following a path."

"We’ve turned around in a full three hundred sixty degrees over the past ten minutes, maybe more. How is that not walking in circles?" Rainbow Dash caught Twilight staring at her. "What?"

"Have you not felt the dark?" Twilight asked.

"What do you mean, ‘felt it’?"

Twilight gestured with a nod behind them. "Look."

Behind them, their torchlight fell off into darkness, but for the first time, Rainbow Dash noticed the darkness was not still. It swam and circled around them like a thousand swarming eels. Every so often a part of it would dart out into the light, before being shunned away by it.

Ice trailed its way up Rainbow Dash’s spine, her breath quickening. Eyes darting around, she now noticed it all: everywhere around them the darkness thrashed. Blood pounded in her ears and she heard a terrible shriek that came from all directions at once.

Then it all vanished. There was a hoof on her shoulder. Twilight’s. She looked up and met Twilight’s eyes, and for a moment every fibre of her being stood still as if under a spell.

Then Twilight spoke. "Breathe."

Rainbow Dash did. Her chest moved, and she gulped in air. With the first movement the rest of the spell broke. The chill receded from her spine, and she could once again move her limbs.

"W-what was that?" she asked.

"The Miasma," Twilight answered. "Otherwise known as the Dark. It’s a magic as ancient as it is vile. Its spread is what has been steadily wiping ponies from this land over the past thousand years, and it’s what originally made the pegasi retreat to their clouds."

"But I’ve never seen or heard of it like this."

"Well, you know. Some places are darker than others," Pinkie Pie said, butting in. "The Everfree forest is one of the darkest. That’s why we haven’t been walking in a straight path, because some places are too dark—even for these torches, so you’ve got to tiptoe around them. As far as walking in circles goes, well, as you can now probably see, the darkness moves."

Rainbow Dash glanced back at the darkness. It was still thrashing and boring into the light. Horn glowing, Twilight’s torch grew brighter. The tendrils coiled away from the increased brightness as if burned.

Twilight looked between Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. "Don’t stray too far from me. If the torches go out, my pyromancy will be the only thing that can save us. In the event of that happening, we’ll have to move fast."

Pinkie Pie gave her a wide grin and nodded, but Rainbow Dash still struggled to speak.

As Pinkie Pie glanced around again, her smile faded. "We should keep going. The dark is always moving."

As Pinkie Pie started forward, so too did Twilight. Rainbow Dash snapped to her wits, raising her torch. Her other hoof ached from walking so long on three legs, but she wasn’t about to be left behind. Not after what she had just seen.

They walked for another hour in silence. Rainbow Dash found herself glancing up at the spider’s web of branches. Thin, pale things though they were, little to no moonlight slipped through them. Whatever did was quickly swallowed by the forest. It made it feel as though the forest was a prison, the branches its bars, and the light which it swallowed its prisoner.

Eventually they came to a crevasse, the depth of which they couldn’t begin to guess. They crossed by a giant fallen palewood whose trunk reached from one side to the other.

There they were, in front of a perfectly circular hut whose thatching seemed to be made of the thinner branches from the trees around it, for above it lay a gap through which the light of the moon poured.

Pinkie Pie walked over to its door, sat, and extended her hoof out towards it. "May I present to you, ponies of the sky and ground, the home of the White Witch!"

The door opened. Out stepped a zebra, her coat as pale as the moon and her stripes a faded gray. Her mane fell down, long and unkempt, around her shoulders, while her neck and left hoof were surrounded by several rings of silver.

She turned to Pinkie Pie and glared. "I have told you not to call me that. I do not appreciate being jest at."

Pinkie Pie covered up a giggle. "Sorry."

Zecora huffed. She turned back to Twilight and Rainbow Dash, arching a brow at them. "And what are these? Why have you brought along two ponies?"

"I’m trying to find my friends," Rainbow Dash said, stepping forward. "Two of them. We got separated a while back. I was told you could help me find them."

"That I might be able to do, but it would dependent upon you." Zecora walked up to Rainbow Dash and began examining her. "Do you have some of their skin? Their blood? Their hair?"

"What? No, I don’t."

Zecora stepped back. "Then I’m afraid I cannot help you there. For at least one of these things would be needed if I were to find where your friends have proceeded."

Rainbow Dash’s ears drooped. "You don’t have any sort of magic that could help?"

"I’m afraid if I’m to divine their location, I would require the aid of a certain libation. That is to say, if I become far-seeing, I must drink of a potion made from their being."

Rainbow Dash hung her head. She could feel a stinging in the corners of her eyes. "So… that’s it then, I guess. Back to square one."

"We should head back to Ponyville," Twilight said. "Figure out where to go next from there."

Zecora brought a hoof to her chin. She stared at Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Her eyes narrowed as her gaze lingered on Twilight. "Why don’t the three of you come inside? There may be some help I can give offering my services as a guide."

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up. She raised her head. "Really?"

"I know the forests around here to each and every tree." Zecora opened the door to her hut and paused in the archway, glancing back at the three of them. "You’re welcome to stay and warm yourselves while I prepare a fresh pot of tea."

Pinkie Pie accepted the offer and stepped inside. While Zecora went into the back of the hut, she stopped in the doorway and held it, looking back at Rainbow and Twilight.

"Zecora might not be able to whip up some cure-all for your problems," Pinkie Pie said. "But she knows this area better than anypony. You should try telling her your story; she might still be able to help."

Rainbow Dash and Twilight glanced at one another.

Rainbow shrugged. "It’s worth a shot, right?"

Twilight nodded, her mouth set in a grim line.

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Nothing," Twilight replied. "Let’s head inside."

The interior of Zecora’s hut was lit by a green flame that sat in a fire pit in the center of the hut’s only room. Over the green flame hung a black cauldron filled with boiling water. Books, potions, and ingredients of every color and shape filled the shelves lining the walls.

Zecora lifted the cauldron off the fire by its handle and laid it on a flat stone to one side of the room. Using a cloth, she tipped the water out of to fill a scratched-up kettle, which she then set aside to steep.

"Now then," she said, joining the rest of them. "For what happened to your group I am most sorry, but if I’m to help you find them, then I must hear your story."

"It was my first time down to the surface," Rainbow Dash began. "Since I was a rookie, it was just supposed to be a day trip. A couple hours, maybe more. We walked through a rocky area containing lots of caves filled with white-capped mushrooms. We were picking the mushrooms from the caves to take back to Cloudsdale, each of us taking separate caves, when I walked into the wrong one.

"I guess I was in the deep end of the cave when I first heard it move. I remember turning around and seeing its eyes glowing in the dark—but I didn’t realize they were eyes at first. I’d never seen anything so big.

"Once I heard it growl, I realized the danger I was in. I ran and flew straight for the exit. With how dark the cave was, I never saw its claws. One moment I was in the air, soaring towards the light at the mouth of the cave, the next I was tilting out of control."

Rainbow Dash hesitated briefly before holding out her wing, showing the diagonal cut that had stripped the wing of almost half its feathers. It looked to have just missed the wing itself. Pinkie Pie gasped and covered her mouth.

"So that’s when this happened," Rainbow Dash said. She frowned at her injured wing and folded it back away. "I managed to crash land outside the cave. Spitfire and Soarin must have heard my shout from just before I hit the dirt or something, because they were at my side the next instant."

Rainbow Dash rubbed her shoulder as she let out a shudder. "Then the darkened manticore stepped outside. Its skin was black and burnt and rough as leather. It was huge—bigger even than the monsters in the stories my mom read to me as a filly. And its eyes were all pale and white and not the slightest bit happy to see us.

"Spitfire took charge and led the way as we ran. Soarin flew around the manticore, jabbing it with his spear, trying to distract it, but his spear couldn’t pierce its hide, and I think it knew I was weakened, because it just kept coming after me. We ran from it for three… five… ten minutes?"

Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut and shook her head. "My memories about what happened next are still hazy. At some point while trying to get away, I dove into a small opening between some rocks and hit my head. When I woke up, the manticore was gone, but so were Spitfire and Soarin.”

Taking a seat, Rainbow Dash slouched and let out a sigh. "I tried looking for them, but a pack of darkened wolves chased me to some ruins, where I became trapped.” Rainbow Dash gestured toward Twilight. “At least until she came along."

Zecora walked over to the kettle and brought it, along with some clay cups, back beside the green light of the fire. As she served the tea, her brow furrowed.

"Before you poked this wasp’s nest, were you able to see a mountain in the west?" she asked, offering them each a cup of tea. Twilight declined when it came to her.

"I don’t think so," Rainbow Dash said, taking a sip. She flinched as the hot liquid burnt the tip of her tongue and blew on it. "It was my first time on the ground. I would’ve been lost without Spitfire or Soarin there."

"Do you remember anything else distinct about this cave-filled area you passed through?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head.

Zecora sat back and sighed. "Then I’m afraid I am once again unable to help you."

Rainbow Dash stared at the surface of her tea. "I just wish I could remember more clearly what happened."

Twilight’s eyes narrowed at Zecora. "You’re lying."

Zecora’s eyebrows raised. "Pardon?"

"You know where the place in Rainbow Dash’s story is. I saw the recognition on your face as she described it."

Zecora grimaced and set down her tea. "True, I may know of where these caves lie, but that does not mean I told a lie. I cannot, in good conscience, indulge your disastrous curiosity, and so I have no intention of helping you find your way back to that monstrosity.

"Rest and live down here while you let your wing repair. Head back to Cloudsdale when you can once more take to the air. That is the advice I would instill. Do with it is as you will."

Rainbow Dash glanced at her back, reshuffling her wings. "It could be almost a year before my feathers grow back. I can’t wait that long to go looking for them, not when there’s a chance they could need help." She clasped her hooves together, gritting her teeth. "Please. Spitfire was like a big sister to me."

"I can’t imagine it’s the same in Cloudsdale," Pinkie Pie said, cutting in. "But down here, everypony has someone they’ve lost. Don’t you have parents? Friends back in Cloudsdale? You have to think of how they would feel if they lost you, too."

"They came back for me," Rainbow Dash said, turning a deaf ear to Pinkie’s advice. Her gaze was set firmly on Zecora. "They could have left me when the manticore attacked me and I couldn’t fly, but they didn’t. I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t at least do the same for them. The two of them mean as much as family to me."

She sat up, crossing her hooves in front of her chest. "And if you won’t tell me where that place is, then I’ll just find it myself, even if it means having to walk to each and every corner of this forsaken forest."

Zecora lifted her teacup and tipped it to her lips, drinking deeply. As she set her cup down, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "If this is truly the path you are set upon, there would be no sense keeping what I know withdrawn."

"The place you seek is on the southern edge of the Everfree, where these pale trees are met with moss and greenery. Travel west along this edge and you shall find your caves." Zecora finished her tea and set the cup down. "And, I hope, not your graves."

Closing her eyes, she reached up and rubbed her forehead as if to stem an oncoming headache. She stood, glaring at Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "Now I must ask that the two of you most expediently depart. Having you linger would only serve to weigh further regrets on my heart."

She shooed them away with her hooves. "So now get out, get out of my den, but see to it you manage to return here again."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash backpedalled towards the door as Zecora forced them out. Rainbow’s rear pushed the door open, and then the two of them were outside. Zecora stood in the doorway.

She faced Rainbow Dash. "If you wish to head south, it is in that direction which you must aim," she said, pointing to her right. She then turned to Twilight. "And you, accursed life, touched by the dark, I never received your name."

Twilight stiffened, the hairs on her coat bristling. "My name is Twilight."

Zecora nodded to herself. "Know that one phase the curse will take its toll. Until then, I shall pray for your soul." 

"Nice meeting you two!" Pinkie Pie shouted from inside, right before Zecora slammed the door.

The two of them stood in silence in the light of the clearing surrounding Zecora’s hut. Beyond where the moonlight poured, beyond the clearing and beneath the shade of the trees, the dark hissed and writhed.

Twilight’s horn lit up and a small flame flickered to life at its tip, lighting their surroundings. She began walking in the direction Zecora had pointed them.

"What was that about?" Rainbow Dash asked, following her into the dark. "‘Accursed life, touched by the dark’?"

Twilight ignored her, plainly wishing to walk on in silence.

Rainbow Dash stepped out in front of Twilight, stopping her in her tracks. "There’s something about you that’s been bugging me that I can’t quite figure out. You rarely sleep, yet you never seem tired. You rarely eat, yet you reject food. Most of all, I still have no idea why you’re helping me or what it is you’re hoping to get out of this."

"I’d rather not talk about it," Twilight said, avoiding Rainbow Dash’s eyes.

"Well, tough. It’s clearly something important, judging by what Zecora said and how you reacted, so you’re going to have to tell me about it if we’re really going to trust one another."

Twilight took a deep breath and let out a sigh. Undoing a clasp, she lifted her robes and lay them to her other side, revealing her flank. Blackness marred her skin. Rainbow Dash initially took it for bruising, but then saw how rough and flaky the skin was, like it had been burned to cinder.

Rainbow Dash reflexively took a step back, her snout wrinkling.

Twilight lowered her robes, covering her marred skin. "‘Accursed life, touched by the dark.’ And so I have been for seven years."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "Come again? Seven years?"

"Seven years that I haven’t wanted for drink nor food. Seven years I’ve spent resisting the voices. Seven years I haven’t aged. One day it will take my life. I’ll become a darkened."

"But…" Rainbow Dash shook her head. "How did this happen?"

"I would rather not talk about it." As Rainbow was about to protest, she continued. "It brings up painful memories, even after all these years."

Rainbow Dash grew quiet. She stared at the ground, kicking the dirt. "Do you know how long you have?"

Twilight sat down, sighing. "No, I don’t. Its growth is sporadic. I could have as many as five years or as little as one."

On that last note, Rainbow Dash fell silent. She walked close by Twilight’s side. The light from Twilight’s horn didn’t travel far, and the dark always seemed to be pressing in.

Several hours passed before Rainbow Dash and Twilight once again saw moonlight. The pale woods of the Everfree stopped abruptly, opening to a field across which greener woods lay. The field was a rich blue-green and ran between the two woods like a river, stretching as far to either side as the eye could see.

Rainbow Dash released a boisterous yawn. "So," she said, smacking her lips. "Should we set up camp in the field? Great big clearing, easy to see if something’s creeping up on us, etcetera."

"No. It’s too noticeable. After traveling through these woods, we would be too exhausted to run if we got attacked by something we couldn’t handle." Twilight snuffed out the flame at the tip of her horn. She started across the field, nodding for Rainbow Dash to follow. "Come on, it’s only a little ways further to the woods."

Rainbow Dash groaned, trudging through the field.





Not far from the treeline, the campfire Twilight had started crackled with burning twigs as Rainbow Dash returned, carrying a large, thin fallen branch. Spitting it out, she began to go about breaking it up into kindling with her hooves.

"You should get some rest," Twilight said as she watched her work. "I can handle it from here."

Rainbow Dash ignored her, continuing to stomp and break apart the branch. "Just because you’re all untiring or whatever doesn’t mean I’m not going to pull my share around here."

"The earlier you get some rest, the earlier we can start west along the field, searching for where it is you and your party got split up."

Rainbow Dash continued to work, gritting her teeth.

Twilight glared at her. "Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash gave the branch one final stomp before giving it a rest. She looked up at Twilight, her head hanging low and her eyelids drooping. "I guess you’re right," she said with a sigh. 

After walking around the fire, she lay down beside Twilight. "I’m just tired of needing help. I needed help when I stumbled into that manticore’s den, I needed help when you found me in those ruins, and I needed help when that stallion had me pinned back at the farm house."

"I wouldn’t have been able to take away their advantage if you hadn’t distracted Applejack."

Rainbow Dash snorted. "Yeah, like begging for them to let us go as my face was pushed into the floorboards is anything to be proud of."

"Maybe not," Twilight said, shrugging.

Rainbow Dash stared into the campfire, the light flickering off her eyes. She let out a sigh and closed them.

"Well, good night," she said, and in the minutes following, drifted off to sleep.

Twilight used her magic to dim the fire—enough to stop it smoking, but leaving the burning coals to radiate their dying heat—and after, wrapped her cloak tightly around her front to pre-empt the cold that would soon follow.

Having settled in, she looked to the sky. The moon sat frozen in its throne among the stars. There it waned, the new moon a mere phase away as the season chilled and clouds crept into the sky. Clouds gathered round for rain, though there looked to be at least one more waking hour’s journey before it would come.

A low growl came from the trees. Twilight’s ears perked. Avoiding any sudden movements, she slowly climbed to her hooves, facing the direction she heard the growl come from.

Out from behind a tree stepped a massive darkened wolf. It stood across the campfire from her, its teeth bared and a low, menacing growl coming from its throat. Froth drizzled from its lips, and light grey fur hung in clumps from its charred skin.

Twilight readied her magic. The power of her pyromancy brought her horn to a faint glow, but she held back, curious as the darkened wolf made no move to attack—nor any move at all. She narrowed her eyes.

There was a wasp-like sting that came out of nowhere as something struck her neck. She winced. Reaching up with her hoof, she felt the spot she was stung, and her hoof came in contact with an object embedded in her neck. She yanked it out and it fell to the ground.

By the light of the fire’s coals, she could see the she had pulled out a dart. Its needle was tinted yellow, its end fletched with white fur.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the darkened wolf standing opposite the campfire. It still stood there, growling. Waiting. Longer than any darkened should.

A hot flash passed through Twilight’s body, followed by a numbness. She tried locking her legs as the muscles in them gave way, but eventually collapsed and fell to the dirt. As a haze overtook her mind, the glow disappeared from her horn. She turned to Rainbow Dash to warn her, but her voice was cut short as she spotted a dart sticking out of her companion’s chest.

As Twilight struggled to keep her eyes open, the darkened wolf approached, a pony limping alongside it. The stranger bent down beside her and stroked her mane.

"There, there," a mare’s voice said, soothingly. "No need to fight it."

Twilight ignored the voice and fought to stay awake, but her struggle proved fruitless as her eyelids grew heavy and she slipped into unconsciousness.

> Arc I: The Hermit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to a spinning room, her vision bleary. Her wing was folded painfully under her side. She slid it free, wincing.

"Oh! You’re awake."

Rainbow Dash’s head snapped up at the soft, unfamiliar voice. It sounded like a mare. She rubbed her eyes, trying to make things less blurry, but to no avail.

"Where am I?" she asked. Her tongue felt numb. "Where’s Twilight?"

A blurred yellow shape—the pony who spoke, Rainbow Dash figured—approached her. The other pony rested her hoof on Rainbow Dash’s head and pressed something firm against her lower lip.

"Drink up," the mare said in a gentle voice, leaning Rainbow Dash’s head back and tipping the bowl against her lips so liquid touched them.

Her head still foggy, Rainbow Dash did as told

She broke away from the drink container with a refreshed gasp. The drink’s sharp taste served to fully wake her up, and she could feel her dizziness already begin to ebb away.

A soft cloth dabbed at where the medicine had run down the sides of her mouth, courtesy of the soft-spoken pony. "There you are. That should leave you feeling all better."

"Thanks," Rainbow Dash said, offering her a grateful smile. Her smile faltered. "But where am I? Where’s Twilight?"

"You’re in my home," the mare said. She hovered a hoof near her chin and hummed. "Twilight? You mean the other pony you were with?"

"Yeah. Purple mane, purple coat. Unicorn. Has a…" Rainbow Dash shook her head, trying to clear it. "Has a pink stripe going through her mane." The room was gradually coming into focus.

"Oh, yes. I know her. She’s resting in another part of my home. I just finished giving her the same medicine. Well, almost the same. I needed to prepare hers a little bit differently."

"Is she alright?" Rainbow Dash asked, sitting up sharply. She was forced to brace her hooves against the floor for support as the action brought about an onset of dizziness. Her stomach lurched. A hoof rested on her shoulder. 

"You shouldn’t try getting up while the medicine is still taking effect," the mare said, gently laying Rainbow down.

Rainbow Dash let out a frustrated sigh, but complied with the other pony’s wishes, not being in much of a state to protest. Her vision was coming back. She could make out the mare’s wavy mane and the color of her eyes. It was then she first spotted the mare’s wings.

"You’re a pegasus!" Rainbow Dash said, the words coming out partially slurred. She stared at the yellow mare in shock briefly, before breaking out into a grin. "What’s your name? Are you from Cloudsdale or Las Pegasus? How long have you been down here?"

The mare shrunk away under Rainbow Dash’s barrage of questions. "Um, my name’s Fluttershy."

"Cool. I’m Rainbow Dash." Rainbow Dash struggled to her hooves, stumbling half a step from the dizziness that followed. Her head grew more and more clear, her words becoming less slurred. "So which one? Cloudsdale or Las Pegasus?"

"Cloudsdale… but I haven’t been up there in a long time."

"Hey, I’m Cloudsdale, too," Rainbow Dash said, pointing to herself. Her snout wrinkled. "So what the heck are you doing on the surface?"

Fluttershy seemed to smile to herself. "I live in this cottage along with all my friends." Her smile grew. "Would you like to meet them?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

Fluttershy looked over her shoulder and called, "Angel Bunny!"

A small, black animal came scurrying from the other side of the room. Once it drew near, Rainbow Dash could make it out as a miniature rabbit. It jumped up on Fluttershy’s back and sat there.

Rainbow Dash reached out a hoof towards it. It leaned forwards, sniffing her, curiously.

"He’s a sooty little guy, isn’t he?" Rainbow Dash said to Fluttershy, chuckling, causing Fluttershy to stifle a giggle. "Almost looks as though he’s been playing in the chimney."

The rabbit bit the hoof Rainbow had extended towards it. Hard.

Rainbow Dash winced and pulled away from it. A few drops of blood trickled down her hoof. "Hey!" she said, turning back to the rabbit to glare at it. As soon as she did though, her glare disappeared, her eyes growing wide.

Black skin. Like charcoal from a fireplace. Its eyes vacant, yet hateful.

Rainbow Dash took a step back and pointed her good hoof at the rabbit in alarm. "That thing is darkened!"

Fluttershy glanced at the rabbit on her back, then turned back to Rainbow Dash, tilting her head. "Darkened?"

"Their skin, when it’s all blackened like that, like it’s been burnt, those are darkened." Rainbow Dash licked her injured hoof before setting it down. "Get away from him! They’re dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Fluttershy repeated, one brow raised. "But all my animal friends are like that. They’re not dangerous."

"All your…" Rainbow Dash began, but paused when she heard a rumbling sound coming from across the room.

Blinking, she noticed for the first time that two dozen pairs of glowing eyes were watching her from the darkness. In the center of the room lay an enormous darkened bear: the source of the rumbling that now steadily rose to a growl. Out of its paws stuck long, razor-sharp claws that scraped across the wood floor.

Rainbow Dash’s pupils dilated, her tongue going dry.

Fluttershy rounded on the bear, scolding it. "That’s enough, Harry! Rainbow Dash is our guest."

The bear stopped and raised its head, staring at her. Then, letting out a whimper, it rested its chin on the floor. Rainbow Dash let out the breath she had been holding.

Fluttershy turned back to Rainbow Dash with an apologetic smile. "I’m sorry. They sometimes get a little worked up around strangers."

"H-how did you do that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Oh, well…" Fluttershy crossed her hooves, rocking forward and back. "Ever since I fell out of Cloudsdale as a filly, I guess I’ve just had a way with the forest critters."

One of the darkened, a ferret, scampered over to her and climbed up her front leg and neck before taking perch in her mane atop her head.

Fluttershy giggled and extended a hoof up towards it. It took the cue to jump onto her hoof, clinging as she brought it down beside her cheek and nuzzled it.

She glanced up at Rainbow Dash and extended her hoof with the ferret towards her. "Would you like to try holding him?"

The ferret glanced back at Fluttershy, then looked at Rainbow Dash. It growled.

"Oh, whoa." Rainbow Dash fervently shook her head with an uneasy smile, thinking of ways to escape the room filled with darkened beasts. "Nooo thank you. I’d probably wind up holding him wrong or something, and besides, animals don’t like me."

"Nonsense, I’m sure you two will become fast friends," Fluttershy said. Before Rainbow Dash could protest, she reached up and placed the ferret in Rainbow’s mane.

Rainbow Dash’s entire body froze as she felt the added weight. Looking up cross-eyed, she saw the ferret, poking down over her forehead to look at her.

"Uh, hey," Rainbow Dash said to it, forcing a broad smile.

The ferret pulled its lips back in a snarl and hissed. It disappeared from her view, and she felt it walking around on her head and digging its claws into her scalp.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Rainbow Dash hissed, wincing as the ferret clawed and climbed its way down the back of her neck—and after, down her leg. It walked back to Fluttershy’s side while still growling at Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy picked up the ferret and placed it back on top of her head, smiling as if nothing had happened. "Would you like something to eat?"

At the mention of food, Rainbow Dash felt a pang of hunger. "Listen, I really need to get back out there along with my friend. We’re looking for two more of my friends that I got separated from."

"You can’t go out there," Fluttershy said, eyes immediately going wide. "It’s far too dangerous!"

Rainbow Dash glanced around the cottage filled with darkened, biting the tip of her tongue to keep from retorting. "Well, that’s exactly why I need to find them. I need to make sure they’re alright."

Fluttershy’s bottom lip quivered. "B-but you only just got here, and what if something happened to you, too?" She started sniffling. "I’ve never h-had any pegasi friends, n-not even back when I lived in Cloudsdale."

Rainbow Dash’s jaw clenched, her sympathy in low supply as her patience wore thin. Her frustrations welled up inside her, and she glared at Fluttershy, preparing to shout at her, but she stopped. A tingle ran down her spine, the hairs on her neck standing up straight. She glanced around the room.

All the darkened creatures gathered in the room had been watching Rainbow Dash intently with eyes full of bloodlust and hate, but now their bodies had tensed, ready to tear and slash and gouge her apart.

Both the anger and the blood drained from Rainbow Dash’s face. She walked over to Fluttershy posthaste, resting a hoof on her shoulder. "Hey now, I-I’m not planning on going anywhere."

Fluttershy sniffed, reaching up and rubbing one of her eyes. "You’re not?" she said, hopefully.

"Not without you, I’m not," Rainbow Dash said, giving her a grin. "Ponies of the feather stick together, right?"

Rainbow Dash’s words teased a smile from the corners of Fluttershy’s lips. "Is that what they say in Cloudsdale?"

"Uh, sure, all the time!" Rainbow Dash said, nodding. "So why don’t we both go and find my friends? They’re pegasi, too, so all four of us should be sticking together."

The smile that was starting to form on Fluttershy’s lips disappeared. She hung her head. "I can’t… I can’t walk."

Rainbow Dash glanced down at Fluttershy’s legs and then back up at her. "What’re you talking about? Sure you can. I’ve seen you."

Fluttershy shook her head, biting her lip. "When I fell out of Cloudsdale I hurt my legs quite badly. I’ve had trouble walking ever since." She took a few tiny steps around to demonstrate, her legs shaking when she lifted them. "I can walk around my home, but I’m afraid I’m not strong enough to do much more."

"What about your wings?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Fluttershy unfurled them. "I use them to get around outside, but I’m afraid I’m not a terribly strong flier. I’ve never been far from my home since flying for more than a few minutes is exhausting. Besides..." She looked around at all the darkened animals in her home. "I couldn’t possibly leave all my friends alone for more than a few moments. They might get lonely and scared."

Rainbow Dash sat and ran a hoof down her face as she sighed. "No, I don’t suppose you could, could you?"

"Sorry," Fluttershy said, staring at the ground and blushing. She raised her head with a smile. "But it’s okay. We can stay here together."

"Can I at least see Twilight?"

Fluttershy looked thoughtfully at her for a moment, then nodded. "I suppose so… I don’t see why not," she said, turning, and nodded for Rainbow Dash to follow her.

She led Rainbow to a set of stairs, and they went up to the second floor. The first door they came across Fluttershy opened. Inside the room, by the door, a darkened wolf stood watch, and on the floor sat Twilight, still wrapped in her robe.

Rainbow Dash felt a smile tug her lips at seeing Twilight alright. She ran over to her side and grabbed her by the shoulder. "Hey, Twilight."

Twilight didn’t react to Rainbow Dash’s touch or voice, her eyes glazed and unfocused.

Rainbow Dash shook her. "Hey! Twilight!"

"Um…" Fluttershy stepped forward. "She may not exactly be able to hear you right now."

"What did you give her?" Rainbow Dash asked through clenched teeth.

Fluttershy flinched at her tone. "M-medicine," she answered. "When I brought her here, she was dangerous. I’m trying to make her better."

Rainbow Dash huffed and turned back to Twilight. She lifted Twilight’s chin so she faced her, but Twilight’s eyes remained spread and unfocused. There wasn’t so much as a hint of recognition.

Rainbow Dash turned to Fluttershy and stomped her hoof. "That’s it! No more of this stupid game. Me and Twilight are out of here."

"But you can’t go! You’re meant to stay here and live with me." She forced a smile across her her mouth, her lips trembling. She walked up to Rainbow Dash, a mad sort of desperation in her eyes as she straddled the line between watery eyes and full blow tears. "Ponies of the feather stick together? Right? Ponies of the feather stick together forever. That means you’re not allowed to leave."

Rainbow Dash glanced around the room. There was a window opposite the door she and Fluttershy had come in through. With the darkness of the late cycle, there was no telling what the landing would be like, especially if she had to carry Twilight.

Fluttershy looked teary-eyed at Twilight’s still form. The corners of her mouth twitched. "Is she the reason you’re upset with me?"

Following Fluttershy’s gaze, Rainbow Dash took a defensive stance in front of Twilight. The darkened wolf in the room with them began growling.

Fluttershy’s trembling stopped. Her whole face spread into an unsettlingly kind smile. "Please step aside. I only need to see her for a moment."

For a split second, the room stood silent and still. Rainbow Dash tensed, preparing to make her move at any moment as she glanced between Fluttershy and the wolf. After a few seconds of their standoff, she decided to make the first move and grab Twilight.

The moment she reached for Twilight, the wolf watching her snapped its teeth and lunged across the room in two gigantic strides, its speed a blur.

Rainbow Dash halted what she was doing, pivoting as the wolf leaped. Her rear legs wound up and snapped out with all the force she could muster. She was rewarded by the sound of bones crunching as her hooves planted firmly in the wolf’s chest.

Limp as a ragdoll, the wolf’s momentum reversed and it slid across the floor, lying still once it stopped.

In one quick motion, Rainbow Dash lifted and slung Twilight over her back in preparation to leave. She turned to face Fluttershy, waiting to see her reaction.

Fluttershy stared at the crumpled form of the darkened wolf, her chest falling and rising with quick breaths. Turning to Rainbow Dash, her eyes had shrunk to mere dots. Her lips pulled back in a snarl, her teeth bared.

A terrible, bone-chilling cry came torn from her lips. The animalistic, howling scream froze Rainbow Dash on the spot. It was a horrible piercing sound the likes of which Rainbow Dash had never heard.

The animals downstairs all joined Fluttershy in her cry. Barking, howling, and squalling. Their chorus rose to a deafening pitch.

Panic gripped Rainbow Dash. Her attention snapped back to the window, back to her plans of escape. She bolted across the room and jumped out the window, blindly into the night abyss. For a few brief moments, she plummeted. Then her hooves met the ground and buckled with shock. The tingling wore off quickly, however, as she heard a door slam open and animals howling after her.

She sprinted away from the cottage, Twilight saddled on her back. Behind her there were shouts from Fluttershy’s pack of darkened animals, searching for her.

Even tired, even weak, she was the fastest pegasus Cloudsdale ever saw, flying or no. As she leaped and dodged through the trees, the howls of the darkened faded. She kept running long after their voices had faded, trying to put as much distance between her and the insane pegasus.

The forest disappeared to a blue-green sea of grass, the haunted pale of the Everfree on the other side. Rainbow Dash ran out into the center of the field, then turned west, heading in the direction Zecora had told them to go.

Rainbow Dash ran west until pain stabbed her muscles with every movement. Until her throat grew dry and her breathing ragged. She didn’t know whether Fluttershy or her animals were still searching for them, but if she didn’t get as far away as possible, she was sure she would find out.

Overhead, the moon continued to fade to new, the land becoming ever more lightless.

The river grass between the two forests seemed to stretch on forever. In the hours Rainbow Dash had spent running west, she wondered more than once whether she was running on the spot. But then, up ahead, there lay a gouge in the earth, a gaping crevasse running across the river grass and well into the two forests. At the gouge the Everfree seemed to halt. Its pale, skeletal trees ran no further than the cliff, and instead the other side of the gorge stretched into a seemingly endless plain of silvery wheatgrass.

In the crevasse she looked around to see familiar structures—a ruin, the one where she hid for nearly a cycle after being separated from her squad, and where she had eventually met Twilight. She knew of someplace safe they could hide.

Her legs felt ready to give beneath Twilight’s weight. If she stopped for even a moment, she had no doubt they would. At this point her momentum was the only thing keeping her going. It only had to last until they reached someplace safe.

The smell of moss and damp stone greeted her as the plains faded. She continued to run through the ruins, until she finally slowed to a stop by the top of some stairs which descended beneath the ground. Legs shaking, she carried Twilight down them, down into a narrow corridor. At its end was a turn and the body of a slain darkened, a hole burnt through its heart.

Her legs moments from giving up, she forced them to walk forward. She swallowed the lump in her throat and stepped over the body. Around the corner lay one last hall, then the melted door of the cell where she met Twilight.

She started towards it, but as soon as she took a step, her leg quivered and she was brought to her knee. The stumble caused Twilight to slip towards the side. Without the strength to regain her standing, Twilight’s weight forced her further off balance and dragged them both down. Unable to prevent her fall, she toppled over towards a wall, cringing as she unintentionally slammed Twilight into it, feeling the weight of the impact through Twilight’s body.

The two of them slid down the wall and fell to a heap on the ground. Tired, exhausted, and pain flaring from every muscle in her body, Rainbow Dash couldn’t prevent it as her eyes slipped shut.
> Arc I: The Crevasse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sound of a cough snatched Rainbow Dash from her sleep. Eyes snapping open, she jerked her head up and whipped around to the source only to find it was just Twilight, having finally woken up.

Twilight sat leaning forward heavily on her front hooves with her head hung. She paused briefly as she glanced at Rainbow Dash, then closed her eyes and bent over as she went into a fit of coughing. Rainbow Dash sat awkwardly, waiting for her to finish. After a dozen or more violent coughs, she seemed to get it under control.

Wiping her mouth with her forehoof, Twilight sat upright and rested her back against the wall. She moved her forehooves experimentally and winced, even as they circled in only a small range of motion.

Rainbow Dash watched her with raised eyebrows. It was always strange to see her weak like this, even if she’d seen it before when they first met. "You okay?" Rainbow asked, "I was worried for a bit that you might have gotten seriously messed up."

"What happened?" Twilight asked, her voice raw and scratchy.

"Some crazy pony kidnapped us and tried to keep us at her cottage." Twilight moaned again. Rainbow Dash tilted her head, her brow knitting together. "You alright? She gave you some sort of dizzying medicine stuff. From what she said, it sounded like she was trying to keep you completely out of it."

"It sure feels like she was," Twilight said. Her chest rose and fell with tiny breaths. Shutting her eyes, managed to bring one hoof up to massage her temple.

Rainbow Dash noticed the side she chose to massage and winced. "I sorta accidentally hit your head against a wall when I was carrying you. I moved us in here when I woke up and found you were still out."

Twilight let go of her head. She leaned to her side and retched, spilling a small trail of stomach fluid in the corner of the cell. There probably would have been more of a mess if she ever ate. She hunched over it, trying to catch her breath.

Rainbow Dash wrinkled her nose and looked away. "Uh, I know you usually don’t eat or drink much of anything, but should I get you something?"

Twilight shoved against the ground, righting herself in her seat. "Water," she said, pausing to take a breath after, "would help the taste."

"I think I can manage that." Rainbow Dash walked over to the wall where she’d laid her saddlebags and rummaged through them. Once she found her canteen, she brought it over to Twilight. "I’ve still got a decent amount left, but try not to waste any."

Twilight nodded, taking it from her. She slipped off the lid and drank a mouthful before passing it back.

Rainbow Dash accepted it from her, taking a drink herself before placing the cap back on it and stuffing it in her saddlebags. She looked up at the hole in the ceiling. The last sliver of the waning moon hung overhead, its pittance of light striking down into their cell.

"We’ll start looking again once you’re better. It doesn’t look like it’s all that long until the new moon. This is probably the safest place to rest up for the time being."

"You should just go," Twilight said. Her coat shined with sweat. "Find your friends."

Rainbow Dash snorted. "And what, leave you like this? Fat chance. I’m not ditching one friend just to go looking for some others slightly sooner."

She sat down next to her bags, digging through the food Applejack had given her. "Besides," she said, eventually settling on a canning jar of applesauce. "If that manticore is still there, I’m going to need you to watch my back. Heck, I’d just rather have you watching my back in general." Rainbow Dash blushed, thinking about how weak that sounded. "You know, just because of my wing and all. Not being able to fly messes up the way I learned to fight."

Twilight gave a slight nod. She grew quiet, as she often did. Glancing around the cell, her eyes rested on the door. "These are the ruins where we met," she said, staring at the melted hole through the door’s prison bars.

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Which means we must be close to where I got separated from my squad. This time I know which direction to go in."

"I came to these ruins from the southwest, through the forest." Twilight was forced to pause as she caught her breath. "Going through, I never saw any place matching the one you described."

"We weren’t near the forest. It was my first scouting run, so we tried to steer clear of danger by staying out in the open." Rainbow Dash sighed, drinking a mouthful of the applesauce. It tasted astoundingly sweet. "But I guess staying clear of danger just isn’t something you can do down here."

Twilight’s ears flattened as she hung her head. Her eyes seemed to stare past the ground.

Rainbow Dash’s brow furrowed. She straightened. "So what about you? What were you doing in the forest to the southwest? What have you been doing at all for these past seven years?"

Twilight looked up at her, then dropped her head back toward the ground. She remained silent. Her mouth curved in a thoughtful frown. Just as Rainbow Dash was beginning to think she wouldn’t get an answer, Twilight gave one.

"Searching."

It was short. Reluctant. Twilight didn’t meet her eyes and instead stared down the narrow hallway past the cell door, looking uncomfortable. She fidgeted ever so slightly. 

Rainbow Dash stored it in the back of her mind to ask about later, but for now decided not to push it. "I guess that makes two of us," she said in between finishing off her applesauce.  "Seven years, huh? Must be pretty hard to find, whatever it is."

Twilight nodded.

"Well, after we find my squad, how about I help look? I’ll be stuck down here, and Spitfire and Soarin will probably be itching to go back to Cloudsdale. I could spend the rest of my time down here helping you find it."

Twilight stared at Rainbow Dash, frozen and blinking. Then her whole body tensed up, and she leaned over to her side to puke.

Rainbow Dash’s lip curled while Twilight retched. She reached into her saddlebag, finding her waterskin, and slid it across the floor.

Twilight took it once she finished expelling what was still left in her stomach. "Do as you will," she said as she removed the cover, coughing. The corners of her lips betrayed the barest hint of a smile as she drank. "I’ve given up on trying to be rid of you."

Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves in front of her chest and huffed, but she supposed it would be the closest thing to a ‘thank you’ she would get.

Twilight stood, her legs shaking slightly, and hobbled over to Rainbow Dash. She paused in front of her, handing the water back with an outstretched hoof.

Rainbow Dash took it and placed it back in her bag. She turned back to Twilight, looking at the way her legs shook, braced in a wide stance that was struggling to hold her up. "You sure you’re going to be alright?"

Twilight nodded. "I’ll be fine. I believe I got rid of most of the poison," she said, glancing back at where she’d been sitting. She faced Rainbow Dash. "We’ve stayed here too long. We should keep moving."

Rainbow Dash felt like protesting, seeing Twilight’s state, but she knew by now the other mare would hate being treated as though she were weak. The stubbornness with which she feebly stood said she wasn’t about to wait around and rest. So with a sigh, Rainbow lifted her saddlebags and strung them over her back.

The two of them climbed through the hole in the cell door, Twilight’s spell having melted the door shut, and then made their way down the mossy stone corridor. The mummified body of the darkened pony from before still lay around the turn where Twilight had killed it. Its lifeless eyes were fixed with rage. Rainbow Dash tried to ignore it, hugging the opposite wall as they walked past, but she still felt a slight chill as she pictured its dead eyes following her.

The corridor opened up, and they stepped outside. Moss, crumbled stone, and the lightless night greeted them.

"How are we supposed to cross when the bridge is gone?" Twilight said, staring to their side at the bridge’s remains.

Rainbow Dash gestured for Twilight to follow her. "I know another way across."

Rainbow Dash led her to a dome-like structure with a large gap in its roof where the stone had caved in. Inside it were stairs that ran around the wall in a spiralling descent. Twilight lit her horn as she peered over the edge, staring down at the pitch darkness of the drop through the center of the stairwell.

"There’s a tunnel down here that leads out to the bottom of the gorge," Rainbow Dash said, starting down the stairs. "I poked my head out the door while I was here last time and saw a matching door on the other side, but I didn’t see much else since I closed it as soon as I saw how many darkened there were outside."

Twilight followed Rainbow Dash. As the light from the surface faded, the stairwell became filled with the echo of their hoofsteps.

"I think this place was once some sort of barracks or something," Rainbow Dash said. She walked near the edge and took a look towards the bottom. "Down there is where I got my that spear I had, after I lost my Cloudsdale one while running from the manticore." She glanced back at Twilight. "I know you’ve got your magic, but do you want to pick a weapon while we’re here?"

Twilight shook her head. "I was never formally taught how to use a weapon. During the time I spent studying at the University, I thought I’d never have need of one."

"Spitfire taught me how to use a spear, but most of what she taught me was how to abuse speed, flight, and reach to attack in a way where a darkened can’t attack back. I’m still trying to figure out how to fight while my hooves are planted firmly on the ground. It messes up everything I knew."

Twilight stared down at her hooves as she walked. There was a lull as neither of them spoke. Their steps filled the silence.

"If we wind up in combat," Twilight said, "will you be able to kill a darkened?"

Rainbow Dash gave a shrug while she walked. "Sure, if push comes to shove."

"Even if they’re ponies?"

Rainbow Dash hesitated briefly mid-step, then continued on. "I don’t know if I want to talk about this yet. There’s still a lot I haven’t made my mind up about—I mean, I don’t know if that’s me."

Rainbow Dash stopped. She turned around. "I want to be like you, I really do. I want to be like Spitfire and like Soarin. All my life I’ve wanted to be like them, and I knew sometimes they kill darkened. I understand it’s a mercy to kill them and that sometimes it needs to be done. I’ve tried to picture myself there with my spear, standing face to face with them, watching it end by my hoof, and I can’t."

Turning back around, Rainbow Dash huffed. "Yeah, yeah, I know it’s stupid, but I don’t feel like I have any right to be making that decision. And so I can’t take somepony’s life, even if they’ve gone dark."

"It won’t be whether to kill or not to kill, it will be to either kill or die," Twilight said. "Maybe as a Wonderbolt you would have been able to avoid it, only coming down for brief day trips to scavenge supplies, but you’re stuck here now. Spend enough time down here and you will find yourself in such a situation. It’s the reality of life here on the surface. It will be them or it will be you."

Rainbow Dash glared back at Twilight. "You don’t think I know that? I’m not some naive filly. I know that it’s dangerous here, and I know completely how easy it is to find yourself in a life-or-death situation down here. It’s not like I don’t think about it, okay? I think about it constantly—and you know what? It scares me. I’m not even afraid to admit it. The thought that any phase of the moon now I might find myself in a some situation where I have no choice but to kill somepony is terrifying. But you know what? Being badgered by you constantly about it, as if saying, ‘Yeah, Twilight, I think I’ll be able to kill somepony now’ would actually mean anything, doesn’t help!"

Twilight blinked, her frown gone and her ears flattened against her head. She opened and closed her mouth, but ultimately nothing came out.

Rainbow Dash huffed. "Whatever. Forget we ever had this stupid conversation," she said, and stomped off, continuing back down the stairwell.

Twilight silently followed.





They continued down for minutes in mute discomfort. Occasionally Twilight would catch Rainbow Dash stealing an over-the-shoulder glance at her, and whenever she did, Rainbow would jerk her attention back forwards, glaring at the walls.

As the seemingly endless spiral of stairs gave way to an end, Twilight looked around. A chill sat in the recess of the ruins. The thick, old stones from which it was built so long ago had frozen deep down in the dark.

Rainbow Dash motioned towards a door on the opposite side of the stairwell floor. "The armory is through here."

The two of them crossed the stairwell floor to the iron door. Rainbow Dash undid the metal latch and gave it a stiff shove. The hinges on it groaned and screeched miserably as it slowly swung open, leading to a larger room.

Twilight glanced about the room’s dark corners, staying by the door. It looked to be a mess hall of sorts. Ten long wooden tables sat in half as many rows while weapon racks lined the walls. Another iron door mirrored lay on the opposite side of the room, though unlike the one they entered, it supported a heavy wooden beam, bracing it shut against the outside.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as she stepped inside the room. "Come on. It’s safe. I made sure to lock up last time I left, so we don’t have to worry about any darkened down here."

Twilight entered and immediately crossed over to the walls to see the weapons. Rainbow Dash closed the door and joined her, following as she strafed the walls. Each weapon rack Twilight came to, she was greeted with the orange-brown sight of rusted steel.

Twilight stopped after viewing all the armaments in the room. The only ones there were blunt, heavily rusted short swords and spears. "Most of these wouldn’t be much better than wielding a stick," she said.

"That still leaves them being better than a stick," Rainbow Dash said, picking up a spear off the wall. She slid it back into the loop in her saddlebag where she carried her old one. She glanced around the room. "I don’t see any weapons that aren’t rusted."

Twilight gave a slight shrug. "I’ll be fine without one. I would sooner rely on my magic than a rusted blade."

"Suit yourself," Rainbow Dash said. She began walking towards the braced iron door. "The way outside is through here."

Leaving the hall, they entered the long and winding corridor. It never branched nor opened to any room, yet every hundred or so paces there was another of the underground ruins thick iron doors.

Eventually they came to a gigantic iron door, its hinges as thick as an entire hoof. At it, Rainbow Dash stopped and turned to Twilight.

"There’s another door like this on the other side of the valley. I’ve only ever opened this gate once. What I saw was… well, I don’t know what happened to the guards that used to be here, but I’m pretty sure most of them are behind this door."

"Darkened?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash gave a nod. "Around twenty. Maybe more. I got a look at the valley and shut the door after seeing how many there were. I didn’t want to stick around to have them notice me." She craned her neck up and stared at the top of the iron door. "I have no idea what could have caused them to all turn or why they’re all out in the valley."

"The dark is constantly moving. In a deep, narrow channel like this, it’s likely that a cloud of it swept through before any of the guards knew what was going on. It would have turned them all dark in an instant." The light from Twilight’s horn flickered and dimmed. "Darkness grows in places the moon fails to reach. It’s a good reason not to explore far from starlight."

"So is there a chance we’ll get turned if we go out there?"

Twilight’s lips thinned in a slight grimace. "I don’t sense the miasma being any denser than normal on the other side of this door. Still, with the new moon it would be best if we don’t linger in the valley."

A sharp snort came from Rainbow Dash. "Not like we’d have any reason to want to." She rubbed her shoulder, staring up at the center of the door. "Maybe we should just head back and walk around this whole thing."

"When I passed through here, this crevasse stretched in either direction as far as I could see. I’d sooner pass through here."

"Okay. So then what’s the plan for getting past the regiment of darkened and getting through the locked door on the other side?"

Twilight walked up to the door and slid its latch open, having to shove the iron widget with both hooves. With the door unlocked, but still closed, she faced Rainbow Dash.

"Follow me and stay quiet."

They slowly eased the door open, a low groan of metal scraping against metal coming from its hinges. The outside was pitch black, the new moon robbing the crevasse of what little light usually reached its depths. With its high walls blocking the night sky, only the light of a few stars reached them.

Twilight was the first to step outside, the light from her horn dimmed to light a minimal brightness.

In the darkness around her, beyond the reach of her light, the moaning of the darkened filled the crevasse. Their voices, thin and rasping, called out to the darkness itself, lost and begging.

Rainbow Dash joined her and shut the door behind them, closing it by the latch outside. Sliding her rusted spear out of its loop, she bit it by the middle. Her stance widened in preparation.

Into the abyss they walked, surrounded by an unseen battalion of darkened. They took their steps slow but with lengthened stride so as to cross quickly and unheard.

They were unnoticed for but a few scarce moments. As they passed through, the moans of the darkened grew more restless, and accompanying their cries in the dark were the sounds of their shambling, of chainmail rustling and of metal plates scraping against one another.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s pace quickened, their hoofsteps growing louder.

Out of the dark ahead of them, a darkened stepped into the light. Its pale white eyes locked on them, its face contorting in rage just moments before Twilight slew it with a blade of flame, melting a hole clear through its chest and the armor it wore. The darkened dropped quietly with its strings cut.

In the darkness, however, the cries had escalated to furious howls of anger.

"Run!" Twilight shouted, breaking into a gallop.

Rainbow Dash followed suit, her head whipping around with her spear at the nearby howling of the darkened. One lunged at her from the side, and she shoved it back roughly with the butt of her weapon.

"More light!" she shouted around her weapon’s handle, barely managing to react in time to shove away another darkened on her other side with the blunted head of her spear.

The light from Twilight’s horn grew, and the visible area around them tripled in size. As its area grew, the light encompassed more than a dozen darkened. Some ambled or limped, falling behind, while others ran with nearly the same speed they did. Some ran at them with spears, some with swords, and many of them with nothing other than a mindless hatred.

Most were behind them or to their sides, as the far wall of the crevasse came into sight. The iron door wasn’t far off of the direction they were running. They angled their course towards it as the few darkened drew close.

Of the three darkened ahead, Twilight engulfed two in pillars of flame while Rainbow Dash charged the third. The two that had been set alight writhed as the fires cooked them in their armor.

Coming into range of the third darkened, Rainbow Dash swung with a sweeping strike, using the blunted head of her weapon like a club. The rusted metal crashed into the darkened’s foreleg and bent it at an unnatural angle. Not stopping there, Rainbow Dash pulled her spear back and spun it around for another sweeping strike at the darkened’s second leg, the heavy spearhead snapping the bone like kindling.

With both its forelegs broken, the broken guard drove face-first into ground.

"Get to the door," Twilight said, her commanding tone rising clearly above the senseless cries of the darkened.

Rainbow Dash ran past her and reached the door, whirling to face the darkened in a lower stance.

As Twilight drew near the iron door, her horn glowed bright, and a bonfire erupted from the ground. Racing across the ground, it spread in an arc around them until the ends of it crashed against the gorge, its flames splashing up against the rock like an ocean wave. An unfortunate darkened who stood in its path became consumed. Dropping its weapon and letting out a shrill cry, it writhed against the flames as they covered.

A living torch, it stumbled about blindly for a brief second. Once it fell, its struggle ceased.

Two more of the darkened grew enraged and attempted to charge through the wall of fire, meeting the same quick and agonizing end. Beyond that, no more tried, though their disgruntled cries could be heard on the other side of the fire.

Twilight faced the iron door, her horn fading to a dimmer light as the flames lit the area. The center of the door began to glow with heat. "Make sure none of them slip past," she said to Rainbow Dash without turning around, her attention fixed on the door.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, standing protectively in front of Twilight with her spear ready. For a full minute, the darkened moaned and howled on the other side of the fire. Whatever sensibilities that remained kept them from trying to cross the fire.

As the melting began to form a hole in the door, Twilight’s magic grew strained. The flame barrier flickered and waned as the wails of the darkened grew ever more frustrated and impatient.

A pair of darkened let out a cry and charged through the fire. One, carrying a sword, burned up and crumpled to a stillness the moment after it landed.

The other, carrying a spear, howled as it caught aflame, but did not fall. With its flesh still burning, it charged at them with the rusted point of its weapon forward.

Rainbow Dash watched it come, prepared with her spear. Sweeping the darkened guard’s weapon aside, she jammed the head of her rusted weapon into the hindquarters of its weight-bearing leg.

The darkened stumbled back from the blow. Fire spread across its skin, and it collapsed.

The hole Twilight was melting had grown large enough for a pony to easily fit through. She stepped through it, careful of its red-hot edges. Once inside, she turned around to look at Rainbow Dash through the hole.

Rainbow Dash hesitated for a brief moment before slipping her spear into the loop on her saddlebags. She stepped carefully through the hole, feeling the proximity of the melted iron from the heat on her coat. Once through, she glanced back outside, where the flaming wall still held the darkened guards at bay. The bodies of the darkened who had tried to pass through the wall of flame still burned, fire flickering across their skin. Rainbow Dash swallowed.

"I can hold the wall for a little while longer," Twilight said, "but we should go sooner rather than later."

Rainbow Dash nodded, and the two of them pressed on down the dark stone corridor, leaving the flames and the cries of the darkened behind.

Like the last, the corridor contained a series of iron doors facing out toward the crevasse. The first they reached was unlocked, and once they had bolted it shut behind them, Twilight allowed the glow around her horn to fade, a scarce pink light remaining.

She leaned against a wall, breathing heavily, but before Rainbow Dash could ask whether she was alright, she shoved away from the wall and righted herself.

"I’m fine," she said, answering Rainbow Dash’s concern. "The poison hasn’t completely left my system yet."

"Well, this might be the last safe place to stop and rest if you’re actually not feeling fine."

"It’s passing," Twilight insisted, and began to walk down the hallway once more.

Rainbow Dash shrugged, following her.

They passed two more iron doors before they reached a stairwell like the one they had gone down. Drops of water fell from above, and as they ascended the stairs, the dripping grew until the sound of rain reached their ears. By then there had become a steady shower of water falling down one side of the stairwell’s open center.

As they reached the top, the stone beneath their hooves became slicked and wet. Rain poured in through a collapsed hole in the roof above, through which only clouds could be seen.

"At least it waited until we made it to the other side," Rainbow Dash said as she stood beneath the hole, rain pelting her. She squinted up at the black sky, flicking her now-damp mane out of her eyes. "So much for staying under starlight."

Twilight pulled her cloak’s hood up to the base of her horn. "The rain should make it harder for any darkened to spot us."

They stepped outside the crumbled tower. The ruins across the gorge behind them were all but swallowed by the night and rain, and the plains which were still ahead lay mostly in darkness. What could be seen of the plains was their very edge, where mute-grey grasses sagged and drooped from the weight of the water dripping down their stalks.

"It’ll be a long walk," Rainbow Dash said. "When I was lost and heading across these plains, it was nearly a full phase before I found these ruins."

Biting the string on the front of her cloak, Twilight tightened it around her collar. "Then we should go now and cross quickly."

Starting down the cobbled road outside the tower, the two of them left the ruins behind and made their way across the plains.

> Arc I: The Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crossing the plains had taken the better part of Rainbow Dash’s waking hours. The already long trek was made to seem longer in the darkness beneath the clouded sky. The rain persisted and had long since soaked the two of them completely, while the wind was no kinder and had picked up once they’d entered the open plain, chilling them to the bone.

The best that could be said of their crossing was that it was uneventful. Between the cold, the rain, and the effort required to keep moving forward, neither of them had spent much of the journey across the plains talking.

Every so often they would pause as there was a cry somewhere off in the distance. Twilight would have them wait until she decided it safe to continue, possibly altering the direction of their path depending on where the sound came from.

The fields of wheatgrass eventually shortened and thinned as they gave way to rockier ground. The earth became riddled with boulders, and the boulders stacked with the dirt to form hills, valleys, and cliffs.

“This is it,” Rainbow Dash said, viewing the rocks. She suddenly backtracked on her words. “I mean—this looks a lot like it could be it. It’s muddier than I remember, but these stones are like the ones I remember.”

“It probably is,” Twilight said, allowing her horn to burn a little brighter. 

Rainbow Dash grimaced. The ground looked treacherous. The last thing either of them needed out in the wilderness, far from any help or resources, was a sprained hoof.

Twilight hummed. “We’re not far now, but we have no idea whether your squad stuck around.”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her jaw shivering. “If they made it out uninjured, then they’ll probably be coming back here every so often to check for me.” She nodded to herself. “At least that’s what I picture Spitfire would do.”

“Checking back at the place where you got split up would be the logical thing to do if they were still trying to find you,” Twilight said. “And from the way you speak of her, I don’t think Spitfire would have given up on you.”

“There’s no way she would,” Rainbow Dash said, shaking her head. “I mean, Spitfire took me through training, but it was also more than that. Our parents knew each other, so me and her spent a lot of time together when I was young. She was like a big sister to me. Then whenever she went, Soarin’ went, too.”

Rainbow Dash glanced up at the rain and found herself thinking about Cloudsdale. So far she had spent over a moon’s cycle on solid ground. She had to wonder whether anyone missed her. She hadn’t really known anypony besides Spitfire and Soarin. Not since her parents had passed away.

“You know, after training I thought I was going to come down here and kick butt,” Rainbow Dash said. “But this place isn’t anything like I imagined it.”

Twilight nodded, solemnly. “I made the same mistake when I set out across the Northern Mountains.”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, but hesitated, chewing her lip. “Have you ever had anyone close to you? Friends? Family?”

“My family was strict and formal,” Twilight said. Her eyes drifted to a far-off place as she gazed back the way they’d come, staring at the horizon. “I once had some friends I was very close to.”

A silence followed with Twilight wrapped up in her thoughts. Rainbow Dash once again saw that sorrowful, haunted look in her eyes and knew better than to push.

“We should probably start looking,” Rainbow Dash said, her words seeming to do the trick of snapping Twilight out of her thoughts.

Twilight gave a stiff nod in agreement as she glanced at their surroundings. “Do you recognize where we are?”

Rainbow Dash looked around again, studying the terrain. “I can’t recognize anything in this rain, but we might as well start searching. When we flew down, these hills had only looked like they covered a couple dozen or so acres. It’s small enough that I bet we could search the entire place on hoof.”

“Let’s start with the low ground and look for caves like the ones by the manticore’s den. We should be safe. With this downpour, the creature is likely staying out of the rain. Once we find the cave, either we’ll find something there, or we’ll try tracking the path you took back to where the three of you became separated."

Rainbow Dash nodded.

Frigid water dripping from their coats, they crossed the hill and headed down into a valley on the other side. The mud, its grass too thin to hold together in the rain, soon covered their hooves up to their fetlocks. Slippery, uneven terrain forced them to move slowly until well within the valley, where the ground grew flat and the soil more compact.

As they searched for caves in the niches and crevasses of the outcrop, the downpour served to hide them as it had across the plains. Rainbow Dash shivered. The temperature had steadily dropped over the past phase. The water that struck her coat felt close to freezing. But it wasn’t time to stop. Not when she was so close to seeing Spitfire again.

A voice which wasn’t either of their own split through the rain. Following it to its source, they came across only a single darkened. It was a pitiful earth pony who sat hunched in the valley with his back against a large stone jutting out of the ground. He had managed to wander far from any home.

Rainbow Dash lowered her spear and approached with caution, following Twilight.

As they drew close it became clear that it posed no danger. It sat on the ground with its mouth open and twitching, sobbing. Its eyes were white as all darkened’s were, but also reddened from crying. Its sobs carried with them no tears, however. From the looks of it, they had long since been spent.

As they stopped right before it, Rainbow Dash stared. It looked pathetic. It looked like it was in agony. She raised her spear and let it rest against her shoulder. “What the heck’s wrong with it? Why is it gasping like that?”

Wordlessly, Twilight approached the weeping darkened with her horn glowing. A thin blade of flame sparked to life in front of her and she plunged it into the darkened’s chest. The blade hissed as it sank into the darkened’s dried flesh, then was dispelled, leaving a gaping hole through its heart. It all happened in an instant.

The darkened wheezed and trembled. It reached out its hoof towards something, somewhere towards the distance in front of it. Then its quiet sobbing stopped. It grew still.

Twilight turned away from it, her lips marred by a grimace. “When the darkness seeps into a pony’s mind, sometimes it takes hold by their anger, sometimes it takes hold by their fear, and sometimes it takes hold by their sorrow.” She walked away from the corpse, distancing herself from it. “Usually it’s a combination of negative emotions, but sometimes when a pony slips and it takes hold, one emotion is much stronger than the others. Most of the time it’s their anger, but sometimes...”

“So then he was depressed when the darkness took hold of him?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“And he’s been suffering it ever since,” Twilight said, staring over her shoulder at the corpse. “Darkened without hatred pose no real threat. Even so, it’s only merciful to give them a quick and painless death.”

Rainbow Dash stared at the slain darkened and faintly shuddered. “Its eyes are so much worse than the angry ones that the other darkened so far have had.”

“They are,” Twilight agreed.

Rainbow Dash walked up to the darkened. Reaching down, she closed its eyes, its wrinkled black lids hiding the look of pain that had been there.

Having reached the end of the valley, they started up a steep slope leading out of it. It was slick with mud, but they slowly made their way up it, searching the mud for stones to use as purchase. As they neared the top, the rest of the outcrop and the other valleys came into view.

Rainbow Dash paused as they reached the top, looking back down at the darkened they had left in the valley.

Twilight paused as well, following her gaze. “You did that before,” she said, pushing on just a little further to flat ground.

Rainbow Dash stood on the slope, blinking. “Huh? Did what?”

“Close their eyes. You’ve done it quite a few times, actually.”

Rainbow Dash gave a half-hearted shrug. “It’s just something Spitfire taught me to do. She told me to do it because most ponies see too much in this life.” Rainbow Dash hesitated. What she said was true, but she felt there was another reason. “I guess it’s because it makes it look like they’ve finally gotten a chance to rest.” She glanced at Twilight. “Why? Do earth ponies and unicorns not do that?”

“No, we do, just usually not for darkened.”

“I guess because I still haven’t stopped seeing them as ponies. They might be messed up beyond anything resembling the pony they once were, but at one point...” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Yeah, I know. It’s something I probably shouldn’t think about. But darkened don’t sleep, right? I figure the least I can do is close their eyes and so they can finally rest—”

As soon as Rainbow Dash finished speaking, Twilight threw herself against the pegasus’ side and knocked them both into the mud. Rainbow Dash immediately started scrambling to get up, ready to give the unicorn who bowled her over a piece of her mind, but a hoof between her shoulders pushed her down into the mud and kept her from standing.

“What the heck are you—?”

“Shh,” Twilight hissed.

Rainbow Dash looked at her to see she wore a grim expression.

Twilight slowly removed her hoof. Calmly, she told Rainbow, “There’s a pony up ahead.”

Rainbow Dash froze. With a minimum amount of movement, she scanned around them. Seeing nothing, she turned back to Twilight to throw her a confused look.

Twilight motioned in the direction of a rock slab beside them. Crawling through the mud on their bellies, they both made it to the slab and pressed their backs flush against it.

“I’ll take a look,” Rainbow Dash said, rising.

Twilight paused her with a touch on her foreleg. “They might not be alone.”

Rainbow Dash swallowed and nodded.

Ears flat and pointed back, she peeked around the boulder. The pony in the clearing below seemed unaware of their presence as she paced along a cliff wall, scrutinizing it. Her coat was an unreasonably clean shade of white for being where she was with mud all around her, and though her mane had flattened with the rain, it showed signs of having once been well-groomed. She stopped, thinking to herself for a moment, then shook her head. As she did so, Rainbow Dash spotted a horn atop her head.

Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight. “She’s a unicorn,” she whispered. “What should—”

A crystalline spike erupted from the boulder between their snouts with a crack like thunder, cutting Rainbow Dash off. They both sat in shock for a moment, staring at the razor-sharp spike, thick as a leg, that had burst forth inches from their snouts.

Twilight was the first to act. Dashing out from behind the boulder, horn glowing, she looked to the unicorn in the clearing, who was staring straight at her. In less than a second, she conjured and loosed a ball of flame, but in another thunderous crack the instant after, a wall of crystal spikes jutted out of the ground in front of the unicorn, and it broke harmlessly against them.

More spikes erupted from the ground around Twilight in a crisscross fashion, grazing her limbs and chest and forming a prison around her. She squirmed. Every part of her body was locked in place, right down to the movement of her head, crystals pressing against her cheeks keeping her looking straight ahead.

Half a second after seeing Twilight become trapped, Rainbow Dash stayed hidden against the boulder, trying to come up with a plan. But before she could set anything in motion, the ground beneath her cracked, and another cage-like pattern of crystals erupted around her and hoisted her off the ground and turned her around, holding her above the rock to look at their attacker.

The pegasus gritted her teeth and immediately tried to struggle against her bondage. The crystal entrapment quickly settled. Its shape locked her limbs in place, leaving no room to move, and her struggles didn’t seem to budge a thing.

Down below, the ground rumbled. A crystal as thick around as a wagon extended slowly out of the ground at an angle towards the cliff Twilight and Rainbow Dash lay trapped upon. The white unicorn stepped onto the crystal, its growth carrying her towards the top of the cliff.

“It’s not terribly polite to spy on somepony, you know,” she said as the crystal bridged with the cliff. As she stepped off, she frowned at Twilight. “Tsk. Pyromancy. How boorish. I do wish the Royal University would acquire better taste in magic.”

Twilight visibly stiffened as the unicorn circled around her crystalline cage.

The white unicorn paused, sparing Rainbow Dash a brief glance before turning her attention back to Twilight. The crystals trapping Twilight’s head dissolved to dust, falling down her neck to the ground.

Her head and neck free to move, Twilight looked behind her at the unicorn, who was staring at her with one eyebrow arched.

“You are from the Royal University, are you not?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

The unicorn huffed. “Answering a question with a question,” she muttered. She cleared her throat and straightened her neck. “Very well, I suppose proper introductions are in order. My name is Rarity. I’m what you might call a gem enthusiast.”

The bonds holding Rainbow Dash and Twilight dissolved completely, turning into a pale sand and running down around their coats.

Rarity gestured to the two of them with a hoof. “And yourselves?”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight glanced at one another. Rainbow shrugged. “The name’s Rainbow Dash. I’m a Cloudsdale Scout looking for the other members of my squad.”

“Twilight,” Twilight said. “Graduate of the University, and I’ve never seen nor heard of magic like yours before.”

“I wouldn’t believe you if you said you had. I’m the only pony who knows how to cast it,” Rarity said, her gaze drifting towards Rainbow Dash as she spoke. Walking over to the pegasus, she gestured to her spear. “Such an ugly thing… May I?”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “May you what?”

Sliding the spear out of its holster, Rarity examined its rusted point. She paused for a moment and sat. The spear lay level as she weighed it in her hooves. Wordlessly, she took the bladed end and placed it against the ground.

Pale yellow crystals grew from its tip and spread across the rusted steel in a fractal pattern, covering it completely. Once the blade had been covered, the crystals shattered to a fine sand and dissolved off the blade. What remained was gleaming steel. The fractals left by the crystals etched in a beautiful pattern along the flat of the blade.

She handed the spear back to Rainbow Dash, who took it with wide eyes.

“Wow…” Rainbow Dash said, examining the renewed blade. Its edge looked sharper than any she had ever seen. “Uh, I mean, thanks, but why?”

“It was distractingly hideous,” Rarity said with a wave of her hoof. “I hope you don’t mind my saying—a downright eyesore for anypony to look upon.”

“That’s it?”

Rarity wrinkled her nose. “Is that not reason enough?” She shook her head before Rainbow Dash could respond, then looked to each of them, smiling. “Well then. Lovely meeting you two. I can’t say it’s every moon’s phase that I get to speak with somepony intelligible and civilized, let alone two ponies both at once, but there is something yet I must search for, and so I suppose this is a quick, but fond, farewell.”

With that, she began to leave.

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash said, causing her to pause. “I’m looking for my friends. We believe they might be around here. Have you seen a pegasus mare with a short orange mane and bright yellow coat or a pegasus stallion with a dark blue mane and lighter blue coat? We got separated when a manticore near here attacked us.”

Rarity spun to face her, one of her delicate eyebrows raised. “A manticore, you say?”

Rainbow Dash leaned forward, feeling an eagerness at her reaction. “Yeah, a darkened one. You know where he is?”

Rarity nodded, pointing in a direction beyond the other side of the clearing. “There was the body of such a creature not far off that way when I passed through just hours ago.”

“Body?” Rainbow Dash repeated, her ears perking up.

“Yes, that’s right.” Rarity grimaced. “A bit of a gruesome sight, too, if I do say so. It appeared absolutely riddled with wounds—must have taken quite the effort to finally bring the beast down.”

Rainbow Dash glanced at Twilight, the corners of her mouth twitching from her barely suppressed grin.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Well, I’d best be off for real this time. I do have an order of business here of my own. I would enjoy if we were to meet again. It’s been so long since I’ve spoken to somepony.” She shook her head, smiling. “Then again, I suppose this land doesn’t look kindly upon such reunions, does it?”

She turned to walk away, but she did not leave without bidding them one last farewell. “May the moonlight shine well upon your travels.”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash watched as she left. The giant crystal embedded in the cliff gradually broke down to dust in her absence. Once she was a mere silhouette in the rain, Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight, a grin spreading across her face.

“Did you hear that? Spitfire and Soarin killed the manticore. That means they’re still out there!”

Twilight nodded slowly, still staring after where the white unicorn went. “If what she said is true, we should go see the body. There may be signs of where your squad went.”

Finding a steep path down into the clearing, they descended and traveled in the direction Rarity had pointed.

It was only a short way before they came across the manticore’s body. Perforations speckled its chest and front legs. Thin trails of dried blood ran from the holes, though most of the blood stemming from the wounds looked to have been washed away by the rain.

“Was it recent?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“It’s difficult to say. It appears as though it had been a darkened for at least a couple hundred years. Its body is heavily mummified, preserved so the darkness can keep it alive. It looks recent, but recent in this case could mean anytime in the past couple months.”

“So who knows when they were actually here.” Rainbow Dash gave a half-lidded look around and sighed.

As she continued to glance at their surroundings, her brow knotted. “These were some of the ones we searched for mushrooms,” she said, pointing at the cave nearest them. Her gaze moved to the further of the two caves, and her hoof lowered.

“That’s the one I found the manticore in.”

The entrance of the it stood twice as tall and nearly twice as wide as that of the other, its black gaping maw large enough to have fit the dead beast. Leaving the manticore’s body, they crossed over to the cave’s entrance and halted in front of it. Rainbow Dash peered into the darkness, her ears faced forward and twitching.

There came a murmur from inside.

“Do you hear that?” Rainbow Dash asked, her ears stiff and listening for more.

Twilight turned her ears to listen as well. The sound came again, and it sounded like—

“It sounds like a pony,” Twilight said, echoing Rainbow’s thoughts.

Those were the only words Rainbow Dash needed to hear. Heedless of the dark, she walked into into the cave.

“Hey, wait a moment!” Twilight cried behind her, but she ignored her and continued inside, the blackness swallowing her. She needed to find that sound.

As soon as the blackness had swallowed her, it suddenly retreated from a light pink glow. Twilight caught up to her, scowling.

Rain leaking through the soil drizzled from the cave roof above. It left trails across the uneven floor in the places where it fell. Its dripping echoed and filled the cave, along with the croaked moaning of what Rainbow was searching for inside.

Rainbow Dash listened to the noise with her ears alert. She could hear its direction, and she pointed to it. “It sounds like it’s coming from over there,” she said.

She took a few steps, then paused when she realized Twilight wasn’t following. Looking back, she saw Twilight looking back towards the light of the entrance, a frown as she appeared to be contemplating.

The sound came again.

“Coming?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently.

Twilight nodded, though it seemed reluctant. Rainbow Dash ignored her behavior, huffing as she continued deeper into the cavern.

The dull roar of rain outside the cave faded, the trickling of water and the inconsistent moans filling its absence. As one faded to the other two, the sounds of whoever—or whatever—it was that lay at the back of the cave became clear, and with it, quiet sobs.

They stood before it now. At the edge of Twilight’s light a figure sat hunched over, something on the ground in front of it.

Rainbow Dash glanced down at her hooves. Faint, washed-away trails of blood sat caked upon the stone before them, stemming from where the stranger sat, still in darkness.

Beside her, Twilight sucked in a deep breath. Slowly, she grew the light from her horn.

The watery blood painted a wide path to the object on the ground, the body of a light and dark blue pegasus.

Rainbow Dash’s breath hitched in her throat. Her eyes widened. She felt her heart begin to race, and her voice cracked as a single, terrifying whisper escaped her lips, spoken by a voice she didn’t even recognize as her own.

“Soarin?”

Dark red marred the blue pegasus’ still chest. The figure sat hunched over his wound, skin black and cracked while the faded remnants of a mane draped about its head. A darkened. Its front hooves rested among the red of Soarin’s coat, prodding at his wound.

Rainbow Dash felt her legs shut down and go numb, unresponsive. She stared at Soarin’s body. She stared at his corpse. She stared at the blood, and she stared at the gaping wound running from his hip to his shoulder, and she knew him to be dead. She wanted to shut her eyes, to pretend what she was seeing wasn’t real, but she had seen, and she knew.

The darkened hunched over him stuck its hoof inside his wound, a throaty rasping noise coming from it.

Rainbow Dash blinked. The spell shattered. She stared at the darkened, the black form hunched over his body, touching it, playing with it. A deep rage filled the pit of her stomach. She primed her ears back and clenched her teeth. Her shoulders shook with fury. The darkened was touching Soarin. He was dead, but it didn’t care. Its cracked hooves were red with his blood.

“You leave him alone!” Rainbow Dash shouted, drawing her spear. She sprinted across the cave to Soarin’s body and upon reaching it, stood on her hind legs, towering over the darkened. She held her spear in both hooves, its tip pointed hovering above the darkened’s neck.

“Back away from him,” Rainbow Dash growled. When the darkened didn’t move or even look up, she repeated herself, the point of her weapon touching its neck. “Get. Off. Now.”

The darkened halted as the steel touched its charred skin. It turned, slowly, to look up at her. Its eyes were pale and clouded, but a hint of their former color still remained. They were an unmistakable orange.

Rainbow Dash moved her spear away from the darkened’s neck. She took a second look at its mane. The ghostly white threads of what mane the darkened had left were still colored with a few orange and reddish hairs.

It looked up at Rainbow Dash, its eyes red and veined. In them, she saw what had filled her nightmares. Her anger vaporized, and she held her spear loosely.

“S-Spitfire?” she asked, choking on the word.

The darkened turned back to Soarin’s corpse, sobbing once more.

Rainbow Dash’s spear fell from her hooves and clattered against the floor as she sank to her knees. She clenched her eyes shut as tears came to them. “No no no,” she said, shaking her head. Her shoulders jerked, and her sobs joined those of the darkened’s as her tears spilled onto Soarin’s chest.

Twilight walked over and stood apart from the three of them with her head bowed.

Rainbow Dash looked up from Soarin at Spitfire. Grief had formed lines around Spitfire’s mouth and eyes, her skin ashen and cracked. Rainbow reached across Soarin’s body and embraced her.

“You were always there, looking out for me. I loved you like a sister,” she said as she sobbed into Spitfire’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.” 

Rainbow Dash knew what needed doing, and she knew she would be the one to do it. Grabbing her spear off the ground, she thrust it through Spitfire’s heart.

A gasp came from Spitfire as the blade pierced her. Her sobs halted, then she grew still.

Rainbow Dash removed her blade, now darkened red, and gripped Spitfire’s limp form. Tears began to freely race down her cheeks, and her head snapped back as an unearthly scream tore through her throat.

> Arc I: The Hallow Cave
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside the cave, beneath the pale pink glow of her horn, Twilight sat in silence. In the time that had passed, the rain outside had turned to sleet and then to hail. The chill from outside had long since clawed its way inside the cave, the water dripping down the walls becoming liquid ice.

In those past hours, Rainbow Dash had hardly moved. She sat before Twilight, clutching Spitfire’s frail form in her hooves. The darkened’s eyes were closed. The expression of agony Spitfire once held had been done away with by Rainbow’s spear. Were it not for the red matting her coat, she almost looked as though she were sleeping.

Rainbow Dash continued to stare at the bodies of her two friends with the stillness of a statue. The tears had stopped some time ago. Her shoulders were sunken. She didn’t move from her spot. Not even as the water and blood in her coat turned to frost and her body became wracked with shivering.

Twilight merely watched, for lack of knowing what else to do. When she had reached her most dire straits, no one else had been there for her. Even if they were, she didn’t know what they could have done. She wasn’t sure if anything could be done, really, staring at Rainbow Dash now, the bodies of her friends by her hooves. It was a scene hauntingly similar to one Twilight would have rather forgotten.

Eventually the cold forced a sneeze from Rainbow Dash. She reached up to wipe her snout, but jerked her hoof away after seeing the blood on it.

Her gaze turned to Twilight, her eyes widening slightly as though she was surprised Twilight was there. She let go of Spitfire and stood.

"She took care of me," she said, her voice raw. "Now she’s dead and I never managed to do anything but drag her down. What did I ever manage to do for her?"

Twilight stood impassive. She couldn’t be a shoulder for Rainbow to cry on. She couldn’t be that pillar of strength. Not when she had failed back when she had been in Rainbow’s place.

Rainbow Dash backed away from the bodies. Her shoulders sagged even more as she stopped a short distance away. "Back in training, there was this other pegasus, and we butted heads constantly. He called me a liar and said I made things up when I told the other pegasi some of the stories Spitfire had told me. He made fun of something I said, and the next second all the pegasi I was originally telling the story to started laughing at me."

She let out a chuckle, humorless and dry. "I can’t really remember what the story was, or how he made fun of it. All I remember was feeling really embarrassed having everyone laugh at me like that. Then Spitfire stepped in and she…" Rainbow Dash wiped her snout, sniffling. "I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore now, does it?"

Fresh tears sprung up as she bowed her head. "Soarin was such a clown, and he always managed to make her smile." Tears trailed down her cheeks. "Damn it. This isn’t funny anymore."

Rainbow Dash gave a choked sob, her body shaking. "And we were the ones who left you down here," she said. "We left you down here to this. The pegasi abandoned everyone else, and for what? So we could slowly starve in the safety of the clouds?" Her voice raised to a shout by the end. She slowly shook her head. "Why is the world like this?"

Twilight felt her darkened curse growing uncomfortably warm. Seeing Rainbow like this brought up memories and emotions Twilight thought she had buried years ago. She could feel that this pegasus before her was on the verge of falling, just as she nearly had all those years ago. Back then, Twilight had saved herself by setting a goal: one that she would not rest nor die before seeing completed.

Looking at Rainbow, she came to a decision. "It wasn’t," she said. "Not always."

Rainbow Dash stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"It used to be that the world was bright. The air wasn’t filled with dark magic, and the moon and the sun spent an equal time in the sky."

"The sun is just some myth ponies tell their foals about as a bedtime story," Rainbow Dash said, wrinkling her nose. "It never really existed."

"I have reason to believe it’s not a myth. There are too many old carvings and murals depicting the sun. Most tree branches are completely barren of leaves, but the old murals depict them covered with leaves, leaves touching side by side all along the branches. They still have those branches, but since the sun is gone, they don’t have enough energy to create as many leaves along them."

Rainbow Dash gave her an exasperated sigh. "If that’s true, then why are you out here? What about the ponies back at the Crystal Empire?"

A frown tugged Twilight’s lip. "I tried to tell them, but nopony believed me. I wasn’t the first to try arguing that the sun was real, and a lot of my research was based on what others found before me. Back then, hundreds of years ago, the crystal kingdom had waged great expeditions into the wilderness in search of the sun.

"But those expeditions were costly, both in resources and in casualties. The kingdom grew increasingly concerned with the state of things inside of its walls. The population was declining. Food was difficult to grow, and so they had to change their priorities.

"However, some ponies refused to let go of their quest to find the sun. Ponies had seen friends perish beyond the walls in order to achieve the information they had. Nearly half of all the kingdom’s soldiers left on a final expedition and never came back. It was a nearly fatal blow to the Crystal Kingdom.

"To speak of the sun now is considered heresy. Ponies who researched it since then have been met with ridicule, expulsion from the academic community, or even exile when they tried to argue their findings. The kingdom was slowly dying, but it wouldn’t survive another mass exodus such as back then. I was lucky enough to come from an influential family, but even they did their best to keep me from speaking to anyone about it."

She sighed after finishing her story. "I researched all I could within those walls. So I came here, searching for answers."

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. "You’re not just yanking my chain here as a part of some sort of overly complicated and cruel joke, are you? You seriously think the sun existed?"

"Not just existed, but exists," Twilight said, making sure her tone was completely serious. "I have reason to believe some part of it is still out there. The White Witch knew of my curse without seeing the mark, and she spoke of divining things. I mean to travel back to the Everfree and see whether she knows anything else."

Rainbow Dash glanced over her shoulder, her ears drooping. The bodies of Spitfire and Soarin lay next to each other, Spitfire’s head resting on Soarin’s shoulder. Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut and tore her gaze away from them.

"You think we can change things to how you say they were? No more fear of the dark? No more struggling to stay alive?" She finished, barely above a whisper. "No more losing ponies we care about?"

Twilight shook her head. "I don’t know," she said. "But I think it’s worth it to find out."

Rainbow Dash started to look back again at the bodies, but paused. Raising her head, she stood up straight. There were bags under her eyes and her whole body shivered. "I said I would help you in your journey if you helped me find my squad." She swallowed. "Well, you did. So I will."

Rainbow Dash relaxed her stance. She stole a glance back at the bodies of Spitfire and Soarin.

"She told me she joined the Wonderbolts because she wanted to create someplace where ponies could feel safe and call home. She joined to try and make Cloudsdale that home, but after seeing what it’s like down here…" The cold forced another sneeze out of her. She sniffled, turning away from the bodies. "The rest of the pegasi might have abandoned you on the ground, but I won’t. I can’t. Not after seeing what it’s like down here."

"You realize that if you agree to go on this, there’s no clear end in sight. I mean to follow this trail I’ve chosen wherever it will lead me, even if it’s to the most forsaken corners of this land." She closed the distance between them and looked Rainbow Dash in the eye. "Are you so readily willing to sacrifice what you have left?"

"What I have?" Rainbow Dash croaked, raising her voice. "The two ponies I cared most about are the ones you see on the ground behind me! I have nothing."

"You are alive and you have a home," Twilight said. "Where I am going, I can guarantee you neither."

Twilight’s words gave Rainbow pause. She stared down at her hooves in thought, her brow creased. There was a slight amount of fear in her eyes, a level of apprehension as she weighed what Twilight had said.

Seeing her change so suddenly, Twilight allowed her gaze to soften. "I’m sorry about what happened. I know the pain you’re feeling right now." She slipped off her travel coat and wrapped it around Rainbow Dash. Her eyes lowered to glance back at her now-visible darkened curse. "I know what it means to lose those closest to you."

Rainbow Dash raised her head. She seemed to mull something over, then nodded. "I want to go with you." Twilight opened her mouth to object, but Rainbow Dash continued, "I don’t want to be alone. And even with how you push others away, I don’t think you want to be alone either."

Twilight’s mouth closed. She fell silent.

"So yeah," Rainbow Dash said, standing taller, "I’m going with you back to the Everfree, or wherever you go."

Twilight hesitated a moment. "If you’re sure of this…"

After a glance over Twilight’s shoulder at the mouth of the cave and the world outside, Rainbow Dash nodded again. "I am. If you think there’s some chance we can change this horrible world, I want to help."

Twilight accepted her answer. She looked past Rainbow Dash, eyeing the two bodies of Rainbow’s fallen squad members. "Would you like to take them outside and bury them? Maybe say a few words?"

Rainbow Dash faced Soarin and Spitfire, her ears flattening. "In Cloudsdale we would have a sky burial and scatter the pegasus’ ashes to the wind. I visited one for a Wonderbolt who died during a trip to the surface. Spitfire was there with me. She called it, ‘Their last flight.’" Rainbow Dash sniffed and wiped her muzzle. "Can I borrow your fire?"


End of the First Arc


> Fluttershy: The Fall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cloudsdale was a sanctuary, they said. A city built upon the highest clouds, as close to the light of the moon as could be. It hovered above a land called Equestria, they said. A place touched of darkness, an unsafe place from which many of their soldiers never returned. But they had to go. Although Cloudsdale could partially sustain itself off of the alto plant farms, the surface had many life-saving medicines, nutritious foods, and valuable supplies.

All Fluttershy had ever known were Cloudsdale’s skies: the small cluster of freezing clouds high and far from anything else. She sat near an alto root patch of a farm by the edge of the city. The bed of moonlit clouds stretched beneath Cloudsdale to every horizon. On days both clear and clouded, she came out here to look down towards Equestria. She often wondered what it was like down there among the trees and found herself dreaming up stories about the ponies who lived in such a place.

She dreamed of the unicorns and their magic, based off all the myths and stories they’d been told in school. She dreamed of cutthroat earth ponies, made cruel and cold from living in the darkness below. She dreamed of the kingdoms shared by both, magnificent cities which spiraled out of the earth.

She dreamed—oh she dreamed—of any place other than Cloudsdale.

“Hey, look, it’s Flapperfly!”

Fluttershy instantly recognized the voice. She flinched, letting out a whimper as Dumb-Bell and Hoops walked over to her. They stood between her and the rest of the cloud.

Dumb-Bell spoke. “So what’re you doing out here, Flapper? Hiding from something?”

Fluttershy blushed at the name they called her. Everypony else had learned to fly long ago, but for some reason she still couldn’t manage anything more than desperate flapping to slow her fall. The lessons she had to take with the others were a constant embarrassment. Today’s test had been the worst. “N-no, I was just, um…”

Hoops rolled his eyes. “Yeesh, it’s a simple question. Hurry up and spit it out already.”

Fluttershy looked down at the edge of the cloud behind her, then at the two bullies in front of her, and began to tremble. “I w-was watching the clouds.” A part of her knew how pathetic she sounded, only making things worse.

Dumb-Bell laughed. “Looking at clouds? We live on clouds! What kind of a dumb thing to do is that?”

Fluttershy lay down on the cloud and covered her snout up with her hooves, hiding beneath them. She could feel the tears beginning to start as she sniffled.

“Is she seriously crying already?” Hoops asked, grinning and sneering. “What a wimp. They should have just held you back a couple years so you could be with the other babies in junior classes.”

The tears began to flow freely. Fluttershy clamped down on the top of her snout with her hooves to muffle her whimpers and sobs. The two older boys just stood there and watched her cry, whispering to one another and chuckling.

Their words and their gazes didn’t hurt nearly as much as when she wondered whether they were right, wondered whether it was her fault that she had never had a real friend, or wondered whether she—as a pony—was inadequate. Cloudsdale was the largest city left, they said. So why did she feel so alone?

She squinted, blurry eyed, and looked up at the two. Dumb-Bell had stopped smiling and now just looked at her with his lip raised in a sneer, but his eyes held what she thought was a bit of hesitation. It gave her pause. She found her tears had stopped, and she once again sniffled.

“Seriously,” Dumb-Bell said, “sometimes it’s not even funny how much of a crybaby you are. You realize you wouldn’t last even an hour down on the surface, right? You’re useless. You should give up on that dream of yours.” He scoffed, turning away from her to his friend. “This got lame quick. Let’s go do something else.”

Fluttershy wiped her muzzle and watched them fly away. As they left, the wetness around her eyes and nose turned chilling in the thin, high-altitude air. Again she was alone.

Their parting comment should have stung, but it was something she had begun to come to terms with recently. Her mother had passed away young, and her father had passed away a Wonderbolt. Cloudsdale’s orphanage was always full, and she fit in there about as well as she fit in at school.

If she could follow in her father’s hoofsteps and join the Wonderbolts, if she could just go someplace else, then maybe… but no. She would never be allowed into the Wonderbolts if she couldn’t show she was a strong flier, and it was beginning to sink in that she was beyond the point of merely being a late bloomer.

Someplace where no one knew her. Someplace she could go and become a new pony. That was the place she dreamed of when she stared down beyond the clouds or up at the ceiling in bed before sleep.

A place where she could make a friend.





Fluttershy returned to the orphanage far past curfew. She could never bring herself to try sneaking back in. Her parents had taught her not to lie.

“Fluttershy,” her caregiver, Ms. WaterPuff, said with her cheeks puffed up, “you really ought to stop coming back so late. It’s important to your well-being and your schooling that you’re well-rested.”

Ms. WaterPuff always moved about with a certain urgency as she took care of children at the orphanage, overcrowded as it was.

Fluttershy bowed her head and dragged herself to her bed. Hers was the bottom of three bunks. The one above her belonging to Whisper, while the top one belonged to Cloudhop.

Whisper raised her head from her pillow as Fluttershy walked over. She looked at Fluttershy, eyes squinted, with a grimace.

“Oh.” Fluttershy paused before her bed, head turned down and away as she looked up at the older filly. “Sorry if I woke you or interrupted you trying to um... fall asleep.”

Whisper rolled her eyes and turned away, pulling the covers up over herself.

Fluttershy turned away from the older girl and hung her head. Silently, she climbed onto her bunk and slid beneath its covers, lying on her side with her cheek burrowed into her pillow. The ponies in the bunk next to hers were all fast asleep. As she closed her eyes, she let out a deep breath and tried to clear her mind of all its hurtful thoughts. 

Then she began to see someplace else. There was a plain—full of grass from the surface—and a pony there with her. They chased each other through the field playing tag, the other pony and her both laughing as they ran. She played as long as she could, until she fell asleep.





Tears dripped down into the cloud at Fluttershy’s favorite place. She sat near the edge, sniffing and whimpering. Down far beneath Cloudsdale the green of trees and brown of the earth ran in long paths across the surface world.

Class had been bad today. As she looked down at the other world below them, she couldn’t keep her eyes from stinging, knowing she would never be able to visit it.

There had been another flying lesson today. Usually she got to sit on the sides during them, but the teacher had told her to try the lessons they taught years below their class. So she was made to do them, all while the rest of the class looked on and laughed to each other.

“Earth pony,” they had whispered to one another with smirks.

She just wanted to be a Wonderbolt: to see the world below, to be looked up to and respected, to be like those other girls who planned to become Wonderbolts. The teacher saw the other ponies mocking her and stepped in, but what she said to her had stung worse than any jeer from her classmates.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know how you can be a Wonderbolt with the troubles you have flying... Maybe it’s time to move on to something else.”

Fluttershy lay down on the cloud, burying her muzzle between her hooves.

“Aw man, what a surprise to find you here again!” Dumb-Bell shouted.

Stiffening, Fluttershy lifted her head, tears still fresh in her eyes. He was walking over to her with his two friends. Already they had grins as they approached her.

“P-p-please, I want to be alone right now,” she said.

“‘P-p-please?’” Dumb-Bell mocked. He turned to his friends. “Hey, you remember from class today? ‘B-b-but Miss Cloudfoot!’ Hah! Maybe we shouldn’t be calling you Flapperfly, maybe we should be calling you Stuttershy instead.”

“Hah, yeah! Stuttershy has a way nicer ring to it!” Score said.

Fresh tears welled up in Fluttershy’s eyes. She stood up and screamed at them, “Just go away!”

The bullies raised their eyebrows at her outburst. Hoops and Score smirked at each other, unable to help themselves from chuckling at her.

Dumb-Bell, however, narrowed his eyes and stepped in close to her, towering over her. “We would, you know,” he said, his words quieting the other two. “We would leave you all alone. We wouldn’t care at all about you, but your garbage flying skills are keeping us back from learning more advanced stuff. Stuff we need when we become Wonderbolts. Do you think we have any desire to be dragged down by you?”

Fluttershy flinched away from him, taking a step back. The courage she had obtained during her outburst fled her. “I… I’m trying my best.”

He took a matching step forward. “If you were really trying, you wouldn’t be so bad,” he said. “Seriously, are you a moron? We’re born to fly. What’s worse is the way you talk about your hopes to join the Wonderbolts, like you’re making fun of everything they stand for. Their sacrifices are what keep this place alive.”

“B-but I never meant to make fun of them,” she said, trying to get away from him.

He followed, staying right in her face. “My brother was a Wonderbolt. He died during a trip to the surface. Do you think you’re stronger than him?”

Fluttershy took another step back. “No! I only meant—” she began, but her voice cut out as her rear hoof dipped instead of meeting cloud. Her other rear hoof near the edge slipped along with it. Gravity took a hold of her.

“Whoa! Hey!” Dumb-Bell said. It was all she heard before she slid off the cloud altogether and fell.

From her back, she stared up at her outstretched hooves above her, and up at the cloud from which she’d fallen. The bullies had flown off the cloud and looked down at her, mouths open in shock. She then realized what they must have: they weren’t experienced enough fliers to catch her. She was falling far at the edge of Cloudsdale, and there was no one around who could save her.

Wind rushed past her ears as she began to plummet. The underside of Cloudsdale raced away from her—or her from it—and by no will of her own, she tumbled from free falling on her back to a head-first dive. She stared at the upside down horizon, a nauseous wave of vertigo filling her.

The ground slowly grew nearer, but she knew it would only be a matter of time and that the closer she drew, the faster it would approach.

She had time, but not much.

Hesitantly, she opened her wings. Only a little at first. The air rushing past violently tore her feathers, jerking and twisting them about.

Details on the ground had become clear. How long had she been falling? A minute? Ten seconds? She could now quite clearly see the ground becoming nearer. There were thousands of the trees she had always heard about. Should she aim for them or find a field? They always said the ground was much harder than clouds.

Clenching her teeth, she angled her wings and desperately tried to slow her fall, but the air rushing past was too much. She could barely keep her wings from being forced completely upward, and within seconds she could already begin to feel her muscles cramp.

The world of the surface met her all at once. One second she could make out the individual branches of the trees, the next she was about to hit them.

Her eyes clenched shut.

Something touched her left foreleg, causing the entire limb to go numb. Smaller branches whipped and scraped the sides of her stomach, and at the same time, the shin of one of her rear legs cracked against something hard and she could no longer feel it. She couldn’t tell where else the branches hit her, or how many did.

It all happened as one flurry of blows, and then with the same sudden ferocity with which it began, it halted, and Fluttershy found herself lying on something hard. She didn’t open her eyes. Her entire body felt hot and made of burning, and the ground beneath her seemed to be tilting uncontrollably.

It felt… It felt as though she should just let go.





Pain.

Her stomach rose and fell with her breathing. Every bit of the motion caused her agony.

Any movement in her left foreleg caused it to feel as though a spike were driven through her knee. Same for the shin of her right hind leg. It was hard to tell what she could or couldn’t move, but with how much everything hurt, she didn’t want to try anything to find out.

She opened her eyes. Dirt. They’d learned about it in class; most of the surface world was made up of it. It was what all the surface plants grew in. She couldn’t believe she was actually seeing it. Great, thick brown things sprouted up out of it. Were those trees? It was strange seeing them up close. They were so big and there were so many of them. From the spot where she rested her cheek against the dirt, they were all she could see ahead of her.

This was that boy’s fault.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. The air grew thin and hard to breathe. She began panting, her legs and side flaring in pain as she did so. Burst of pressure beat down on her skull and hammered against it with every pulse of her veins.

The dark. They had learned about the surface’s poisonous air in class. Fluttershy tried to focus and slow her breathing, but for every breath her suffocation grew, keeping her rapidly gasping great lungfuls of the toxic air.

So many thoughts flashed through her mind, all clawing at one another once she realized she was dying.

If only those three had just left her alone. If it weren’t for Dumb-Bell scaring her, she never would have stepped back off the ledge and fallen off that cloud. If it weren’t for them always bullying her, she wouldn’t have been so scared of him. If it weren’t for almost everypony she met treating her like a burden and destroying her confidence, she wouldn’t be getting bullied.

Then maybe she would have a friend.

You have none.

Tears sprung to her eyes. She didn’t want to die, not when she had finally visited the surface, not when there was so little she had experienced, and not before she knew what it felt like to have a true friend.

She wanted to live. More than anything, in that moment, she wanted to live and no longer be alone.

A wet cough forced its way from her throat with what little air remained in her lungs. It left a bitter taste in her mouth, and when she opened her eyes, she saw she had spat out something black and foul.

With that, suddenly she could breathe. She gasped til her lungs were full. The poisonous taste had vanished from the air, and her thoughts gradually grew clearer.

Pain from her limbs returned. It felt as though dozens of spikes lay beneath the skin of her legs, twisting and stabbing with the slightest move. She looked down between her forelegs for the first time to see the coat of her stomach red and full of lacerations.

Time passed. Fluttershy lay still, barely able to keep herself awake. Everything around her was quiet, not a sign of life. Every now and then a ghost of wind blew through the trees and set the forest alight with whispers. She grew used to the coolness of the soil beneath her.

When she closed her eyes she could almost imagine herself lying in the bed of a home with a fire, someplace far off and safe. 

But then a pain or a chill would drag her violently from it.

She wasn’t sure how long she had lain there in that dark forest, but it was long enough that she no longer knew with any certainty which phase it was.

She floated in that place for some time, with nothing but the loneliness of trees to comfort her. It felt as though she drifted at the edge of consciousness, but she wondered why, in all the hours that she lay there, why had she not slept? She had been without food or water for longer than she ever had, but in her pool of pain she had not felt an ounce of hunger nor thirst.

Had she really died after all? Her bleeding had stopped, and even though she could feel and see, she couldn’t say for certain whether she was alive.

Where there should have been hunger and thirst, she instead felt something foreign fill her stomach. When she concentrated on it, she could feel its presence, but that presence filled her with a horrible dread.

After more than two cycles and less than three, her solitude was broken.

She met it first as a sound: a low rumble she first mistook for thunder, but as her ears twisted in its direction it became clear that it was far too low and near, and she recognized it for what it was: the growl of a giant.

Fluttershy froze and remained perfectly still, unable to run.

Great, heavy steps fell upon the earth with its approach. They stopped just behind her.

She met it next as a touch: something lightly grazing her back. The giant snorted and sniffed at her, and she could feel its warm breath on her coat for several seconds until it stopped.

Finally, it walked around in front of her, and she stared up at it.

It was a massive, hulking beast a fair deal larger than any pony and many times as thick around. Shaggy, thick black hair covered every part of its body except the tip of its nose, which was naturally black all on its own.

It curled its lips back, revealing two rows of sharp teeth, as a low rumbling came from deep within its barreled chest. Its mouth opened wide with a brief but powerful roar.

Fluttershy stared up at it, quivering and frozen stiff.

After the roar, it simply stared at her and, after a few seconds, took a seat on its haunches to watch her.

She licked her lips and cleared her throat, feeling them dry. “Um… H-hello?”

The bear lay down on its front legs, resting its chin on the ground. Fluttershy noticed for the first time the massive claws extending out of its paws, especially now that a set of them rested by her forelegs.

She and the creature stared at one another for some time, her cyan eyes peering into its large pale ones.

Eventually she asked, “Um, are you alone out here?”

The behemoth grunted.

Fluttershy chewed her lip. Looking into the gigantic eyes of the beast; it seemed docile—almost obedient. Once more, hesitantly, she spoke.

“Would you like to help me find a friend?”

> Lyra: The Songspony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even when fraught with worries and hounded by strife, one can always take comfort in a warm fire and the company of those with generous hearts—or so Lyra’s mother had always told her.

But the mountain pass she found herself in was filled with howling gales, willing to snuff out any such fire or warmth. Though autumn had just begun, the reaches of the trail she travelled took her near the very peak of the mountains. It was the harshest, but most direct route through the pass.

As for the company of those with generous hearts, she was alone. Although she had once enjoyed the company of a mare who meant more to her than convention could describe, a pony whose plain smile and simple laugh were more than enough to make her forget the worst of problems, and it was this pony who she sought to reunite with.

Ponyville lay a long way off, but it would be a short journey to see her again.

For now, she travelled the mountain path, cloak and hood covering her, and thought of song as she muttered lyrics:

I set my traps and lay in wait,
The sly white fox took no bait,
He left his prints upon the snow,
A powder trail of where to go,

I grabbed my—

A low rumbling came from someplace in the mountains ahead. She cut short her song and froze, listening, until a moment later when the rumbling stopped. There was a faint, almost indiscernible sound which followed the tail end of it: a sound like somepony shouting. If it indeed really was, Lyra couldn’t make out any words.

It was only once. Then a silence followed.

Resuming her hike, she travelled up the road for nearly half an hour before she reached a proper vantage point from which she could see the rest of the mountains—a cliff that the trail passed along.

Lyra walked to the edge of the cliff and gazed out at the valley.

A gibbous moon hung above with not a cloud in its sky. Below it lay silver mountain peaks and a small woods nested in the cradle of the valley. The trees of the woods were barren of greenery, and through the gaps of their spindly branches Lyra could see an unnatural void of darkness hiding the forest floor, the dark having no doubt gathered in the shade of the mountains. There it twisted and turned, writhing under the brightness of the moonlight.

Around the mountain bend and further down the path, she spotted the site of what looked to be a rockslide. Beside it sat a pale-colored pony who was staring at the devastation the rockslide had caused to the path. It didn’t look like they had noticed Lyra yet.

Lyra leaned over the cliff, looking up and down the side of the mountain to see if anypony else was nearby—and possibly watching her. Once she was satisfied she and the other pony were alone, she sat on her haunches, cupped her hooves to her mouth, and called out to the stranger.

“Hey!”

The pony’s head raised and they glanced around, looking for the source of the voice.

Lyra called out once more. “Hey! I’m over here!”

The other pony spotted her. Turning around, the stranger faced the way back up the path.

“Who are you?” they shouted back in a feminine voice.

“A traveller!” Lyra shouted. “Just passing through!”

“How do I know you’re alone?”

Lyra paused. She looked around herself, thinking. Eventually, she sighed. “You don’t! But I really am alone!”

The other pony didn’t respond or move, merely staring at Lyra for several seconds. But after those seconds, she glanced behind herself at the rockslide, and called out, “Okay!”

“Do you want to come to me, or should I come down to you?” Lyra shouted.

The mare waited for a few moments before answering. “You slowly come down to me!”

Lyra stood and tugged the edges of her cloak out from under her saddlebags. The other mare looked like an earth pony, but she couldn’t be sure, and she would have to be ready to run if this all turned out to be a trap. Life in these lands was hard. Desperation has a way of bringing out the worst in somepony.

She did her best not to let her apprehension show and to maintain a slow-but-steady pace down the path towards the other mare. Even with the possibility of it being a trap, she could not leave a stranger. After all, she had said the words and sworn the oath.

As Lyra drew near the other pony, she saw that stranger was in fact an earth pony. Her coat was a pale yellow green, and the curls of her mane a silver shade of purple. Her stance seemed to be favoring one side, and on the other side, her front hoof was scraped and lightly bleeding.

“That’s close enough!” the mare shouted. She eyed Lyra from head to hoof. “Who are you?”

Lyra placed a hoof across her chest and bowed. “The title given to me was Lyra of Lyre. But you can just call me Lyra if you’d prefer.”

“Of Lyre? A Bardspony?” the mare asked.

Lyra nodded. She eyed the other mare’s injury. “My master taught how to treat a wound, if you wouldn’t mind me helping.”

The mare shot a panicked look down at her hoof, then hid it behind her good leg and took a step back. “Why are you in these mountains? Where is your sign?”

Lyra looked down at the copper pin on the front of her cloak and gestured to it with a hoof. It was a rather modest design: a simple lyre set on a circular rim.

“H-how do I know you didn’t take that from its owner?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Lyra smiled in a disarming manner and responded humorously, “I could show you one of three ways: by singing you a ballad of woeful tragedy and passion, by telling you a tale of great cunning and heroism… or by taking a look at your hoof and dressing your wound.”

The other mare stiffened. Then she brought out her injured hoof, looked at it, and let out a sigh.

“I suppose if you noticed that and still haven’t tried anything, you aren’t out to rob me.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow. The other mare wore a cloak, but besides that didn’t seem to have anything with her. “Even if that were the case, it doesn’t look like there would be much to rob.”

“My husband, Briar, had my saddlebags with him when this part of the mountain collapsed,” the mare said, ears drooping as she gave the pile of rubble behind her a sidelong glance. “He threw me out of the way and then I watched as a river of stones carried him down the mountain, until I could no longer see where they took him.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I just realized I hadn’t given you my name. I’m Thistle.”

Lyra smiled. “I’m Lyra,” she said, taking her saddlebag off and then rummaging through it. “Once again. Just in case you forgot or maybe hit your head during the accident.”

“I don’t believe I did,” Thistle said, tilting her head and giving Lyra an odd look.

“Ah, nevermind. That was just a bad joke. My friend always told me I have a poor sense of humor. She’s the reason why I’m here in these mountains.” Lyra had found what she needed: an herbal oil and some cloth. “You asked earlier and I didn’t reply, but I’m passing through to meet her on the other side.”

“I see…”

“So is it alright if I take a look at your hoof?”

Thistle gave a hesitant nod.

Lyra approached slowly with the oil and bandage so as not to spook her, leaving her saddlebags on the ground where she had taken them off. She came face to face with Thistle, took a seat, and gestured. “Your hoof?”

Thistle offered it to her, wincing when Lyra lifted it slightly for better inspection.

Lyra looked at the mix of blood, dust, and dirt covering her hoof, then met Thistle’s eyes.

“This might be a bit weird, but…” Lyra said. Without further warning, she licked Thistle’s wounded hoof. Twice in one quick motion. She dragged her tongue along the blood, dust, and dirt and then spat them on the ground.

Thistle shifted on her hooves, blushing.

“Sorry,” Lyra said. “I needed to clean it and I didn’t want to use my drinking water.”

“I understand,” Thistle replied, but continued to blush.

Carefully holding Thistle’s hoof horizontal and still, Lyra began placing drops of the herbal oil in the places where blood still showed. Once that was done, she took the cloth she had and wrapped the wounded hoof.

Thistle winced as Lyra tightened off the wrapping. Once it was done, she took her hoof back and viewed the dressing.

Lyra gathered her saddlebags and put them on. “We should probably start backtracking. I saw a path leading down into the forest not too far back.” She turned to Thistle. “Let’s just go at a slow pace while you keep your hoof up off the ground, alright? It should be reasonably healed in a couple hours, but if we encounter any trouble, you might wind up having to use it before then.”

Thistle nodded, and the two of them began their hike back along the trail.





Lyra sat around a table with Bon Bon at the Smiling Horseshoe Inn. The mugs of cider before them were the second round of that night, and both of them were coming up on empty as an entertainer took the inn’s stage.

She was an ash-coat mare, maybe Lyra’s age, maybe older, and she carried a gigantic oddly shaped case with her to the space that had been cleared on one side of the inn’s floor.

“What on earth could be in that thing?” Bon Bon asked, rosy-cheeked off the cider.

Lyra grinned. “Maybe she’s keeping another smaller pony inside it.”

“It looks like an instrument.”

“Or maybe she’s keeping her juggling materials in it,” Lyra chimed in.

Bon Bon continued, ignoring her. “But I’ve never in my life seen an instrument that shape or size.”

Lyra chuckled in anticipation of speaking. “Or it could be a case full of swords and she’s a sword-swallower!”

Bon Bon snorted and shook her head, smiling. “I’ll never understand where you get these ideas from.”

The ash-coat mare placed the giant case on the ground. That was when Lyra for the first time noticed a pin amid the mare’s black mane. The pin had a round frame and was made of copper.

Lyra blinked. “A bard?” she muttered under her breath, causing Bon Bon to look at her.

“Hm? What did you say?” Bon Bon asked.

The ash-coat mare finally reached down and opened the case. From it, she brought out a massive stringed instrument made of wood, taller from base to head than even herself raised on her hind legs.

“Wow,” Bon Bon said, “how does she carry that thing around?”

Lyra watched, transfixed, as the mare picked up what looked like a much larger version of a violin’s bow and held it against the instrument’s strings. The normally rowdy inn fell to a silence. Everypony had turned to the still mare and her instrument, as if commanded by a spell.

Then, with all eyes resting on her, the ash-coat mare started to play.





Lyra and Thistle had made their way back around the winding mountain pass at a slow pace and had taken a trail leading down into the forest nested between the mountains. The lower they went, the more the grass and dirt filled in the sides of the path.

A shriek pierced the air.

Thistle’s ears flicked about, and she looked in the direction from where the sound came. A frown creased her lips.

“What was that? Do you know what made that sound?”

“It sounded like a bird,” Lyra answered. “Maybe an owl, but that’s just a guess.” She tried to offer Thistle a smile. “It’s unnerving when everything is silent and then suddenly it’s not.”

Thistle gave a nod, but the poor mare still seemed to be glancing every which direction in a worried way.

Lyra shifted a step closer, walking right alongside her. “Do me a favor,” she said. “Close your eyes, right now, and take a deep breath.”

Thistle looked at her, then did as she said, and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Good, and let it out.”

She let it out.

Lyra smiled at her. “Now, instead of worrying about what might or might not have happened, start thinking about what we’re going to do. In situations like this you want to think carefully, impartially, and quickly.”

Thistle’s lips tightened to form a thin line as she nodded. “I’ll try.”

“Trying is enough,” Lyra said. “Now where do you think he’s most likely to be?”

“Near the base of the mountain where the rockslide happened.”

Lyra dipped her head slowly. “Riiight, but that would only be if he got either stuck or badly injured. What if he’s not injured? Or what if he’s injured but not completely immobile?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Well, I’m asking you because I don’t exactly know him. After noise from a rockslide like that, it would attract darkened animals and ponies if there are any nearby. Do you think he’d realize this? Can you think of where he would go?”

“He…” Thistle began to say, but paused and thought a moment. “If I were to guess, he would wait for me to come find him, since I would no doubt come looking. If he left we might just miss each other completely. However, if he can move, I think he would try to find someplace safe nearby the rockslide so he could spot me while I search for him.”

“Given that we’re near mountains, there’s a good chance that might be a cave or a high cliff,” Lyra added. “Of course, he might be trapped, injured, or unconscious, in which case he’ll be wherever the rockslide left him. Still, it’s good to have a plan B.”

Thistle smiled, letting out a sigh.

“It puts your mind at ease a bit when you have a proper plan, huh?” Lyra asked with a grin.

“Really it does,” Thistle said. “Did the master you studied under teach you how to approach things in such a way?”

Lyra smirked and snorted. “She was a real jerk, but I guess you could say that.”





The ash-coat mare was in the process of putting away her massive violin instrument, when Lyra finally approached her. She had played until closing, and Lyra had waited.

Bon Bon had waited as well, until the cycle grew late, but eventually she had to excuse herself and go home before she fell asleep on one of the inn tables.

So Lyra finally stood before the mare alone, her eyes bright and wide despite the lateness of the hour.

“That was amazing!” Lyra exclaimed, a broad smile stretching from cheek to cheek. “The way you rocked back and forth with each stroke of your… your instrument, um…”

“Cello,” the mare said, carefully laying the instrument down into its padded case.

“I’ve never seen or heard anything like it,” Lyra said, still gushing. “It fills the air with such deep resounding notes.”

The ash-coat mare nodded stiffly.

Lyra felt her smile falter slightly. “Sooo…”

A slot lay beside the Cello in the case, where the ash-coat mare laid the instrument’s bow, her eyes never once looking up at Lyra.

“My name is Lyra Heartstrings. Over the past two years I’ve taught myself how to play the lyre, and I want to keep getting better.” Taking a seat on the floor of the inn, she placed her hooves together in a pleading gesture. “Could you please teach me and take me on as your student? I know this seems sudden and brash, but I’ve been looking to learn from somepony like you for a while now. I know all about the bards, and I want to train in order to become one.”

For the first time, the ash-coat mare looked up at her.

“No,” she answered.

Lyra winced at the bluntness of her reply, but it wasn’t as though she hadn’t expected it. “Well, what would I have to do to make you say yes?”

The ash-coat mare’s brow furrowed as she closed and latched the lid of her case. “First you’d ask me what is my name.”

“Oh, right. What is—”

“Octavia,” the mare answered briskly, then continued on. “Second you would tell me why you want to become a bard.”

“Um, that’s…” Lyra blushed, knowing what she planned to say next would sound childish. “There’s somepony I care a lot about, and when I play music it always cheers her up. I want to see her smile, and I also know about everything else bards learn and I want to protect her as well as help others.”

“Why?” Octavia asked.

“Because I was alone,” Lyra answered after a brief hesitation. “And terrified. And no one helped me until she did, so I need her.”

Octavia shook her head. “Naive. Vain. In some ways selfish.”

Lyra looked down at the floor, her legs shaking. The other mare’s words carried such a severe authority to them. Even though the ash-coat mare barely looked any older than her, she felt like a kid being scolded.

“But most reasons are,” Octavia added, after a moment.

Lyra’s legs stopped shaking, and she looked, eyes wide. For the first time she realized the inn had become deserted. Not even the owners were around to be seen.

“Third,” Octavia continued, ignoring Lyra’s reaction. “I’m sworn by my oath to pass on the teachings of my master to a fitful student. However, I really couldn’t care less to. Therefore I’m going to simply say you lack resolve. Tomorrow when I leave, I’ll be allowed to carry on as I have.”

“Please take me on as a disciple! I swear I’ll do whatever you ask, whether it’s to stay quiet or work—anything—if you agree to actually teach me.”

“I can’t see your resolve from your words, so you’ll have to show me.” Octavia left her case and stood, turning to face Lyra properly for the first time since their conversation began. “Every time you ask me to teach you, I will strike you. If you wish to show me your resolve, simply don’t stop asking.”

“What?” Lyra asked. For a moment she reconsidered, wondering if the mare was actually insane.

But to some extent so was she for having asked any of this in the first place. There was no other bard to teach her.

“Teach me!” Lyra said, and immediately received a sharp blow across her cheek. She stumbled and fell to the side, forced onto her forward right knee.

She sat there for a moment, reeling from the blow. Her cheek had immediately gone fuzzy and numb, and when she swallowed she tasted blood. It suddenly made her think about how the mare had come into the inn carrying the ridiculously oversized instrument on her back.

Now Lyra had felt firsthoof how heavy that instrument truly was.

Once she had again managed to stand, she coughed, cleared her throat, and raised her voice. “Please teach me!”

The next strike Octavia dealt sent her to the floor.





They followed the cliffs which contained the forest—her and Thistle—searching their way back to where the rockslide had happened. Lyra paused, and so too did Thistle, as Lyra fished a waterskin out of her bag to take a drink. Upon having it, she offered the waterskin to Thistle.

Thistle took it and fidgeted with the threads near its spout.

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share more with me about this mare you’re planning to meet,” she said, before taking a drink.

“Wouldn’t mind to at all,” Lyra replied, and took the waterskin back once Thistle finished drinking and passed it back to her. “What are you curious about?”

“I was just wondering how well you two know each other and how long you’ve been apart.”

“Well, we weren’t finishing each other’s sentences, but she’s my best friend. These past few years I’ve spent without her around it has sort of felt like… like a part of me is missing, I guess. That sounds kinda stupid, but when you spend enough time around someone and then suddenly they’re gone, you realize how much you were used to having them around. It was something like that.”

“Attached at the hip?” Thistle supplied.

Lyra laughed. “Probably even more attached than that. We were like one of those two-headed ogres from the eastern badlands, the ones with one eye each and half a brain between them.”

Thistle stifled a giggle, blushing. “Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh.”

“Why not? It was a joke,” Lyra said with a shrug. “And to tell you the truth, I’m pretty sure the half a brain we had between us was hers.”

“So was the reason you left because of you being a bard?”

Lyra clicked her tongue. “Got it in one.” She reached up and touched the copper pendant on her cloak. “Recently graduated and swore my oath.”

“Then now you’re finally heading back to be with her.”

Lyra smiled. “I certainly hope I am.”

The forest around them suddenly fell under shadow. Lyra stopped and looked up to see a cloud had passed in front of the moon and cut off its light. A blanket of increasingly darker clouds followed behind it, the underside of which formed a rolling bed of storm-drenched turbulence.

“It’s about to rain,” Lyra stated. She looked back down at Thistle, smiled, and nodded. “That means if your husband found a cave or overhang, he’ll probably return to it soon. We should keep following this wall.”

Thistle’s eyebrows furrowed. “And what if he’s trapped in the rockslide?”

Lyra’s smile diminished somewhat. “Then it may have just become more difficult to find him. At least if that’s the case, the rain should bring him water and help—”

“Thistle?” a male voice asked.

Thistle and Lyra both spun their heads around to their sides to see a dark green stallion who was visibly bruised, standing on three of his legs while he nursed the other.

“Briar!” Thistle immediately shouted, running to him despite her limp. She threw her forehooves around him and pressed her cheek against the center of his chest, wetting his coat with tears.

The stallion, Briar, smiled at her through clenched teeth. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see you’re safe, but could we save the hugs for later? I’m pretty banged up right now.”

“Oh! Sorry!” Thistle said, immediately pulling away from him. Then, re-approaching him, she tenderly inspected his wounds. “My gosh, there’s so much bruising… is your leg alright?”

“Yours doesn’t look so good itself,” Briar said, staring at her with a frown.

“It’s just a sprain from when you pushed me out of the way of those rocks.”

“In that case, I guess I am worse off,” Briar said, hissing as he brought up his injured leg to look at it. “I’m fairly certain it’s broken.”

“What about the rest of you? You have so many spots you could pass as a leopard.”

“It’s a lot of bruising. I don’t know if any of it’s serious. The rocks beat me up a bit during the fall, but I was lucky enough that they tossed me aside.”

 “I could look at your wounds and make sure none of your internal bleeding is serious,” Lyra offered.

Briar paused, for the first time turning his attention to Lyra. “I take it you’re a stranger who was generous enough to help Thistle.” He bowed his head. “Thank you.”

“She’s a bard,” Thistle said, lightly touching his shoulder. “She looked at my wound earlier; you should let her look at yours.”

Lyra stepped towards him. “I don’t have anything in the way of supplies, but I can look you over and tell you how long you ought to rest and what parts you shouldn’t move.”

“Please, by all means then,” Briar said, gesturing to himself. “And thank you, again.”

“Well, I swore an oath,” Lyra told him with a smile as she began to properly inspect his injuries.





Lyra stumbled into her home, her face swollen and her side badly bruised. The inside was dark, and grew darker still as she closed the door behind her.

She had officially become Octavia’s disciple. The mare had struck her again and again, but Lyra had not quieted back. Not when her thoughts had become a muddled mess and not when she could barely stand. When Octavia had kicked her leg limp, she had stood with the other three. Then, after a great deal of pain on her part, Octavia had stopped for the night, and told her they would leave town tomorrow.

Tomorrow. The reality of that still hadn’t sunken in yet. Octavia hadn’t taken any pleasure from beating Lyra to the verge of consciousness, but it had been clear there was no sympathy either. Now she was going to spend the next few years studying under her. What on earth kind of choice had she made?

Light caught the corner of Lyra’s eye. In Bon Bon’s room a candle had been lit, and it was soon followed by hoofsteps.

The door to Bon Bon’s bedroom opened and there she stood, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Why are you back so late?” Bon Bon asked through a yawn. She paused, holding the candle out a little ways towards Lyra. She saw her condition and gasped. “By the moon… what in the blazing dark happened to you?”

“It was a test,” Lyra said, forcing a smile. The action made her entire face hurt. “I asked that bard at the inn if she would take me on as an apprentice and she said yes.”

“She did this to you?!” Bon Bon asked, raising her voice. “Lyra this is insane. She… I can’t believe that…”

Lyra walked over and sat, placing her one good hoof on Bon Bon’s shoulder. “I told you it was just a test. She wanted to test my conviction and I could have had her stop at any time, but I didn’t want to.”

Bon Bon shook her head. “Psychotic,” she said, pointing at Lyra. “That’s what this is. You, her, me. I can’t even think straight while looking at you in this state. Is that blood?”

Lyra touched her face then looked at her hoof; on it was a small spot of blood. “Maybe,” she answered.

Bon Bon sat and folded her hooves in front of her chest. “And you want to study under this mare.”

“I do,” Lyra said, letting out a sigh. “Bon. She’s leaving town tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Bon Bon raised her eyebrows. Then, when realization sunk in, she pulled away from Lyra. “You’re planning on leaving here with her tomorrow?”

Lyra’s ears drooped. Looking at the ground, she nodded.

“How long?” Bon Bon asked, her eyes growing misty.

“A few years.”

Bon Bon turned away from Lyra, hiding her face, though Lyra could hear her sniffle. “This was always something you wanted,” Bon Bon said, “to be a bard.”

Lyra again nodded. “Back then, back when you first met me, music was the only thing keeping me sane. But more than that, after you helped me, I wanted to be able to help other ponies in the same way.”

“I’m not a bard and despite that, I still helped you,” Bon Bon said, still turned away.

“And you’re the best pony I’ll ever know,” Lyra replied. “But more than just helping other ponies, I want to learn how to protect them. I want to learn how to protect you. I don’t think I could handle it if what happened…”

Lyra paused and closed her eyes. She swallowed, her throat dry, then continued, “I don’t think I could handle it if what happened before happened to me again. And when Octavia hit me, there wasn’t any anger or regret in her actions. I think she’s a lot like how I once was, and I want to help her the same way you helped me.”

Bon Bon turned back around, rubbing her eyes. She let out a resigned sigh. “It is what you’ve said you’ve always wanted.”

“Yeah.”

“A few years then…” Bon Bon looked at Lyra and put on a smile for her sake. “Send me letters whenever you visit an inn.”

“Of course,” Lyra immediately replied.

“And when you send me your last letter, we’ll meet again in Ponyville. I’ll reply and in my letter set a date, and on that date we’ll meet again by the oak tree at the crossroads out of town. Do you remember the one?”

“I’d never in a hundred years forget it.”

“No matter what,” Bon Bon said, her eyes beginning to shimmer once more. “No matter what, you be there, alright?”

Lyra placed her good hoof over her heart and so she vowed, “I will.”

“I still don’t want you to go.”

“I know.”

Bon Bon jumped forward and hugged her friend, wrapping her hooves around Lyra fiercely. “I’m going to make every moment while you’re still here count.”

“I’d like that,” Lyra replied, returning the hug.





Lyra sat by a dwindling fire in a cave not far from where they had found Thistle’s husband. Briar and Thistle lay opposite the fire, fast asleep in one another’s hooves. Briar’s leg had broken. They would have to wait—possibly weeks—until it healed to continue their journey. 

But that information hadn’t fazed either of them in the slightest when she had said it. The two had been ecstatic to have survived their accident and found one another again. Even now as they slept, they held on to one another tightly.

Moving quietly, Lyra stood and lifted her saddlebags, slinging them over her back.

She didn’t feel tired, and she was never one for farewells. The two had found each other. Now it was time for her to part ways.

As she left the small cave they’d found, she stumbled into the moon’s light. The rain clouds had passed, and now the near-full moon was left to cast its pale glow across the forest and mountains.

She lowered her cloak’s hood, continued on her journey, and resumed her interrupted song.

The sly white fox so he ran,
Fur feet fast as he can,
Across the snow toward his den,
And he ran back home again.