Chapter 1: Prologue (updated)

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You turn on an old 1980’s style tv, it just shows some white noise, but eventually clears up revealing a unicorn mare with red and yellow hair, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, recording herself on the tape currently playing.

“My name is Sunset Shimmer.” She says, sitting down at a table, facing the camera. “I am currently getting ready for a trip and I may not survive. So, I’m leaving this tape as a sort of... time capsule for those who just happen to be watching, whether the world changes or not. For those of you who do not know of the change that happened, or did not happen, let me tell you A brief history of what has happened now:

“Several years ago the land of Equestria was a beautiful place, fields of green stretching as far as the eye can see, patches of forests full of cute woodland creatures, and the cities dotting the landscape filled to the brim with ponies living in perfect harmony, earth pony, unicorns, and pegasi alike, and when that harmony became threatened, six heroes arise to ensure the protection of their harmony, each wielding a magical element of the harmony they protected so dearly. Applejack, wielder of the element of honesty; Rarity, wielder of generosity; Rainbowdash, wielder of loyalty; Pinkie Pie, laughter; Fluttershy, kindness, and finally Twilight Sparkle, wielder of the element of magic. Together they defeated some of the greatest threats to Equestria. But then one day Twilight Sparkle went mad, claiming that she alone could wield all of the elements and ensure perfect harmony for all of eternity, if they would just obey her every command and never question it, but her friends disagreed with this, and so, seeing that they would not hand over their elements willingly, she killed them all and took their elements as her own adding to her power, though some stories say that two of them managed to escape being murdered, that’s what I’m about to find out. .

“After hearing of her transgressions, Princess Celestia, my-” she paused and swallowed, “...former teacher, confronted her prized student about her plans and pleaded for her to stop. Even though Twilight was only Celestia’s student, Celestia was defeated, killed by her own prized student.” Sunset put her right elbow on the table, pressing her cheek into a closed fist, as she slowly scratches at the table with her other hand, letting out a groan through clenched teeth, “Even with all her power, many of the people of Equestria would not bend to Twilight’s will, so, that’s when she employed the spirit of disharmony and chaos, Discord.

“Twilight made a deal with Discord saying that he could have his free reign of Equestria outside of her capital in exchange that he follows her every command and allow safe passage to anyone who wishes to join her in her capital. He agreed. And that was when she established her capital ‘Elysia,’ a city island floating high above the land, higher than Cloudsdale, and bigger than any city before, and Discord ravaged the outer lands, turning it into a wasteland, declaring it more fun to see social chaos than his typical chaos on logic. To satisfy his new taste of social chaos, he has made resources extremely scarce. The resources that he does leave lying around in the wasteland are usually guarded by monstrous creatures, minotaurs, manticores, and the like, and only the major factions spread throughout can obtain such resources easily, leaving only three kinds of ponies who can survive in this wasteland alone: those who are scavengers, those who are bandits, and -” three little girls jump up in front of the camera, one girl had purple hair and orange skin and feathers on her wings, the second had hair of two lighter tones of purple than the first and white skin and horn, and the third had red hair, yellow skin, and a big red bow, all saying together,

“Those who become friends with the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“GIRLS!” Sunset yells. The three girls all giggle as the one with the bow turns off the camera, ending the tape.

Chapter 2: Loads of Trouble (updated)

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A black “1982 Ponyiac Trans Am” model hovercraft drives across a large desert while the song “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” plays on its stereo system. Sunset Shimmer, wearing a pair of sunglasses and her leather jacket, drives the craft. In the passenger seat lies bags of lacrima crystals, magical gems with the power of elemental attunement. On the floor lay a box of magazines for her Ruger SR9 she keeps in her pocket dimension.

Sunset’s craft approached a caravan. When she reached the vehicle, she stopped the car, turned off the stereo, and got out to talk to the owner.

“Ah, Sunset Shimmer, my favorite customer and my most valued supplier of lacrima crystals.” said a red-haired stallion with a blue and white vertical striped shirt and a boater hat, his clothes nice and clean, in contrast to his vehicle. His vehicle was a mobile home hovervan, modified to house an inventory and a fold-out stage on the side. The paint was a tan-ish white with rust breaking a fine line down the van’s middle horizontally.

“Flim~,” she said slowly with a tone of familiarity. “Always with the buttering up of the customers, I see. Where’s your brother?”

“Oh, I sold him to some mayor of some hopeless settlement trying to become the next Elysia.” He said nonchalantly, cleaning a broken glass bottle with a dirty rag.

“Aw, it’s so sad when you have to let go of family members like that.” She said in a mock pouting voice.

“It sure is, sweetheart.” Said Flim as he hopped into his caravan and opened up the fold-out stage with the podium. “What’ll it be today, missy?” he says, leaning on the stand.

“How much for this?” she says, handing him one of the bags filled with lacrima crystals.

Flim weighed the bag in his hands. “About 800 bits.”

“What?! This much should be worth at least 2 thousand bits!”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but you’ve brought a bunch of small crystals, and we all know that a single crystal of the same weight is worth more.”

Sunset growled, “Fine, I’ll take it then. Just let me get the rest out of my car.”

Flim turned around and went inside his van as Sunset opened the passenger door of her car and gathered up the rest of the goods into a small plastic crate. Just as she was ready to pick it up, she heard the sound of a lever-action rifle loading behind her.

“Goin’ somewhere, Sunset?” said the pony behind her in a very familiar and haughty voice.

Sunset Shimmer put her hands up and turned around to face her aggressor. “Trixie...” she said, “Long time, no see. How’s it been?”

“Oh, not so bad. Considerin’ you stole my car after you abandoned me- the Great and Powerful Trixie~- on our last job together.”

“Your car? I won that from you in a card game while we were waitin’ for our train to arrive.”

“Well... Trixie knows you cheated.”

Sunset closed her eyes and turned her head away slightly, “You have no proof.”

Trixie grumbled as she changed the subject, “Never mind that. Queen Chrysalis has put a bounty on your head so large that every bounty hunter in Equestria will be lookin’ for you. Lucky for you, I- the Great and Powerful Trrixie~- found you first, and that’s the only reason why you ain’t a corpse yet.”

“Look, if this is about the money I owe her, tell Chrysalis that I-”

“You’re too late. You should’ve paid her when you had the chance.”

“Yes, but this time I have the money.”

“Chrysalis is through with you. She ain’t got no time for smugglers. Especially ones who drop everythin’ at the first sign of Twilight Imperials on board.”

“Those guys are everywhere now. Do you think I had a choice?”

“You left Trixie for dead, to be killed by those purple-belly imperials while you made your getaway in Trixie’s car.”

“MY car, and to be fair, it is a really shiny car.”

“You can tell your story to Chrysalis after Trixie takes her car back.”

“Over my dead body.”

“That would be ideal, but Chrysalis wants you back alive,” she paused, “but she didn’t say in what condition.” Trixie reeled back her rifle to hit Sunset with the stock, “Trixie has been lookin’ forward to this for quite some time.”

“I’ll bet you have.” Sunset then points her right hand at Trixie, and, in a flash, a magic circle, glowing red and yellow, appeared around her hand, at her wrist, and the tip of her finger then her Ruger manifested. It fully materialized in less than a second, and Sunset immediately pulled the trigger and fired at Trixie. She disappeared in a puff of pale blue smoke and reappeared behind Sunset. Trixie then put her rifle around Sunset's neck in a chokehold.

“I see you have improved on your magic,” said Sunset, her free hand on the rifle around her throat, straining to keep the gun at bay. “But so have I.”

Sunset lifted a foot, summoned a knife at her heel with the same magic that summoned her gun, and stomped on Trixie’s foot. Sunset dematerialized the blade after stabbing Trixie through the foot. Trixie had loosened her grip on the weapon around Sunset’s neck. This allowed Sunset to headbutt Trixie with the back of her head, jerk the rifle out of her hands, get some distance and shoot Trixie in the leg.

As Trixie was lying on the ground, writhing in pain, Sunset appraised the rifle. "Nice gun." She said, "I'm keeping it." She dematerialized it, putting it in her weapons stash. Sunset then walked up to Trixie and placed a foot on Trixie’s leg where she was shot, pressing down just enough for Trixie to feel more pain.

As Sunset was reveling in inflicting pain on the great and annoying Trixie, she saw Flim’s caravan driving off, engine roaring with a large cloud of dust trailing behind.

Sunset looked in the opposite direction and saw a massive cloud of dust on the horizon. Sunset’s eyes widened as her heart sank and her skin went cold.

“Reavers.” Sunset said aloud. She moved her foot off of Trixie's leg.

“Please take me with you!” Trixie pleaded as she grabbed hold of Sunset's foot, fear evident in her eyes, “I promise I won’t turn you over to Chrysalis!”

Without hesitation, Sunset responded, “I don’t have time for this.” She kicked Trixie’s face, releasing her grip on Sunset’s foot, jumped into the car, accidentally turning on her stereo, and drove off. “Highway to Hell” playing on her stereo system.

Having managed to not attract the reavers’ attention, Sunset arrived at her hideout. A plain-looking concrete shed that actually sprawled out considerably underground, enough to be considered a house if one wanted to call it such.

“Damn Trixie, trying to kill me.” Sunset said as she put the car in park, “Cost me a big payout too.” she got out of the vehicle, “AND Flim took that bag of goods with him without paying me!” She huffed as she slammed the car door and stormed towards the entrance to her hideout. She stopped when she saw that the door was considerably ajar. Sunset summoned her gun and entered her lair carefully.

Apparently, the intruders had turned on all of the lights while they were in here. Though it was hard to tell what they searched through if they even touched the place, the place was naturally a mess. Still, it was apparent to Sunset that some of her tools and scrap parts she collected were missing.

She walked deeper into the hideout, towards the vault. She was at the last corner before she reached it when she heard music starting to play, a guitar, then there was singing, “Hey (hey) What’s the matter with your head? yeah...”

“Sweetie Belle, will you turn that off!?” said a filly’s voice with a country accent. Sunset peered around the corner to see three fillies dressed up like they were part of a ridiculous 80’s rock band. One was wearing a black jumpsuit with pink flames at the cuffs and a black bandana with cartoony white skulls designed all over it, holding back her red hair. Another was also wearing a jumpsuit, but it was hot pink with neon lime green tiger stripes and flames at the cuffs, and her hair was a scruffy greyish purple mess. The third was wearing a dark purple jumpsuit with alternating tiger stripes of magenta and cyan with an opening in the back for her wings. Her purple hair was also a scruffy mess.

“Why?” Sweetie Belle said as she paused her music. “There’s no one else here. Right Scootaloo?” she turned to the one in the purple suit.

“Right, and if there were, we would hear my door alarm go off. So quit your worrying Apple Bloom.”

“Did you remember to close the door?” said Apple Bloom flatly.

“Of course. How forgetful do you think I am?” Scootaloo said, crossing her arms.

“You mean the one you left open?” All three of the intruders’ hearts sank immediately when they heard Sunset’s voice. Slowly, they all turned to face Sunset, who was currently pointing her gun at them.

“I don’t know who you are or why you are here, and I don’t care. I just want you to give back anything you have stolen from me and hand over your valuables.”

“Very.” deadpanned Apple Bloom.

“What?” said Sunset Shimmer.

“The answer to her question. I think you are very forgetful, Scootaloo.”

“Well, would a forgetful pony have remembered this? FLASH BOMB!” and Scootaloo quickly pulled out a small black sphere and threw it on the ground. A bright flash came forth, blinding Sunset, the others having averted their eyes just in time to not be affected.

Apple Bloom grabbed a canister that was in the already opened vault, tossed it in her bag.

“Let’s take this tin can and get the hay out of here, now!” She said as Sweetie Belle, with magic circles of pale green around her hands, cast a spell that transformed them into quadrupedal ponies, and they dashed off towards the exit. Sunset recovered from her blindness quickly enough to see the intruders turn the corner, and she chased after them.

Apple Bloom was about to jump over a table when the transformation spell wore off. She tripped, allowing Sunset to be able to catch up and grab hold of her, getting an arm around Apple Bloom’s neck and the gun pointed at her head.

When they reached the car, Sweetie Belle used a spell to unlock Sunset’s car. Scootaloo got in the driver’s seat to hotwire it. When Scootaloo got the car started, she and Sweetie Belle looked for Apple Bloom, only to see her with Sunset Shimmer on the inside of a chokehold with a gun pointed at her head.

“Get out of the car now, or your friend gets it.” Sunset demanded.

“Just get out of here, girls! Don’t worry about me.” Apple Bloom shouted to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

“Quiet, you little...” said Sunset.

Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo with wide eyes. “You heard her! Put it in drive and hit the gas!”

“What!? No! I’m not abandoning Apple Bloom!”

“Apple Bloom said she’ll be fine, and that woman’s going to kill us if we get out of the car now!”

Scootaloo forcefully grabbed Sweetie Belle by the collar of her jumpsuit and stared her right in the eyes. “I’m not abandoning my friends.”

They held eye contact for several seconds before Sweetie Belle took in a deep breath and gently placed a hand on Scootaloo’s and gently pried her hand off, “OK. I’m with you.”

Scootaloo released her grip, turned off the car, and got out with Sweetie Belle.

“OK, we’re out now. Now let her go.” said Scootaloo.

“Let her go? I said, ‘Get out or she gets it.’ not, ‘Get out and she goes free.’”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other hesitantly. “Well, what do you want us to do?” said Scootaloo.

“Get inside.” said Sunset, motioning to the entrance of her hideout. The two girls complied, they entered with Sunset close behind.

Sunset closed the door, released Apple Bloom, and hit her in the back of the head with the butt of her gun, knocking her out. Sunset then quickly knocked Scootaloo out in the same manner.

When she went for Sweetie Belle, her hands glowed a light emerald green. She had cast a levitation spell, throwing the gun out of Sunset’s hands. Sunset then quickly placed her hand over Sweetie Belle’s head and, her hand glowing yellow, cast a sleep spell. Sweetie Belle collapses onto the floor, and Sunset is left breathing a little heavy after casting that sleep spell.

“Well, that went easier than I could have hoped for.” Sunset said to herself as she dragged the unconscious bodies, one by one, into a separate room.

---

“Psst, Sweetie Belle, wake up.” Sweetie Belle heard fuzzily, but she didn’t do anything about it other than moan. She was elbowed hard in the side, startling her awake.

“I told you she’d kill us!” Sweetie Belle instinctively screamed as she awoke. Apple Bloom just rolled her eyes at this, and Scootaloo’s eyes were darting around the room.

“Where are we?” Sweetie Belle asked. They were all tied to chairs, sitting back to back, in a small circle. The room was small, dusty, and smelled of gun oil. The smell of gun oil made Sweetie Belle nauseous, while Scootaloo would be basically on a high if she weren’t afraid for her life and tied to a chair. There was a work table in front of Apple Bloom, which she concluded was where the odor was emanating from. Behind her and to her left was Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo was to her right with the door. The door opened, and Sunset Shimmer entered the room. She was holding a case in one hand.

Looking over at the now awake Sweetie Belle, Sunset Shimmer says, “Oh good, you’re awake. You’re lucky that nothing broke when you threw my gun out of my hand. Otherwise, you would have woken up with a bloody nose by now.” She set the case on the table, opened it up, and began to put the pieces of a disassembled gun together.

“What do you want with us?” asked Apple Bloom.

Not slowing down movement in assembling the gun in front of her, Sunset responded. “I want to know why you broke into my house and tried to steal a stupid little container. What’s so special about it?” Having finished assembling the gun, Sunset loaded a magazine in it and slid the rack. Sweetie Belle felt a cold wave flow over herself when she heard the weapon become loaded and was beginning to sweat. Scootaloo winced and froze in place with the ‘clack’ of the sliding rack.

Apple Bloom, however, retained a calm exterior, “Ah’ve heard stories about what could be inside it: treasure, a treasure map, a cup that once held Celestia’s blood, a bunch of stuff, even Twilight’s heart, padded with dirt.”

“And what do you think is inside it?” Sunset said as she turned around to face Apple Bloom. A small click echoed in the room, signifying that the safety on the gun was turned off.

Apple Bloom didn’t say anything for a moment as she just glared smugly at Sunset Shimmer. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Sunset’s patience had run thin. She came up to Apple Bloom and punched her across the face. Sunset then grabbed Apple Bloom’s hair, pulling her head up to face her right in the eyes, and pointed her gun at Apple Bloom’s throat. “I’ll ask you again. What do you think is inside it?”

Sweetie Belle snapped and blurted out an answer, “We think it holds a map to find our sisters!”

Sunset stared at Sweetie Belle incredulously. Sunset lowered her head, let go of Apple Bloom, removed the gun from under her chin, and tried to stifle her laughter. She stood up and couldn’t contain it anymore. She burst out laughing, wiping a tear from her eye, “That is the dumbest and sappiest thing I have ever heard. What’d you do, get lost at the mall?”

Sunset continued to laugh before she spoke again, “Do you really think you’re so special that a random tin can will help you find your sisters?”

“Well, I hope so. Otherwise, we almost died here for nothing.” Scootaloo said with venom in her voice.

“We didn’t almost die, Scootaloo.” said Apple Bloom, clearly irritated.

“You’re right, and so is Sweetie Belle. She IS going to kill us, so we ARE gonna die!” said Scootaloo.

“Well, if you would have listened to me and kept driving away from here, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Now would we?” said Sweetie Belle.

“I couldn’t just leave Apple Bloom for dead like that. I’m not a heartless robot like you.”

“HEARTLESS ROBOT!?” squeaked Sweetie Belle.

Sunset snickered.

The three of them continued to bicker amongst each other before Sunset stopped to find this amusing.

“Will all of you just SHUT - UP!” Sunset yelled, and everypony fell silent. Sunset then took a deep breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose then chuckled a little bit. “Even if there is a map that will lead you to your sisters in that can, how are you three going to open it?”

“Twist the cap off?” said a nervous Scootaloo.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at Scootaloo. “Really? ‘Twist the cap off?’ That simple, huh? Why do you think there are so many stories surrounding that canister? Because so many ponies have had it in their possession, and not one has been able to open it.”

“Yet.” said Apple Bloom.

“And I suppose you’re special - how?” Said Sunset Shimmer gesturing to Apple Bloom with her free hand.

“We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” Apple Bloom said proudly.

“And that means - what, exactly?”

“Well - Uh...”

Sunset shook her head, “Forget it. I’ll let you take a crack at opening it, just to entertain the off-chance that you can. But none of you are going to leave this room alive unless it is open. And if you do open it, I get the treasure inside, if it has treasure or leads to treasure.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Shouldn’t we split the money four ways since there are four of us and we are helping?” protested Sweetie Belle.

Sunset came face to face with Sweetie Belle and pointed her gun at her, the muzzle resting on Sweetie Belle’s nose. “I don’t think you’re in a position to be making demands here.” Sunset smiled; Sweetie Belle gulped.

“Don’t worry, scary lady. Ah promise that if there is treasure inside it, you can keep the treasure, or if it leads to treasure, we will help you find it and then let you keep it.” Apple Bloom said.

Sunset smirked at Apple Bloom’s comment, gave out a noncommittal “Hmph,” holstered her gun in her pocket dimension, and walked out of the room.

When Sunset came back into the room, she had the canister in hand.

“Here you go, squirt.” Sunset said as she tossed the canister into Scootaloo’s lap, Scootaloo giving out an “Omph” as it landed in her lap. Sunset went behind the Crusaders and untied Scootaloo.

“Alright now.” Sunset said, “No funny business, otherwise you’re all dead.”

Right after she untied Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo said, “Done.”

“Wait, what?” Sunset said as she turned to Scootaloo and saw the canister open. She was stunned; she rushed over to where she could keep all three girls in her line of sight and stared directly at Scootaloo and the opened canister.

“But - how - how did you- ?”

“I twisted the cap off.” Said Scootaloo nonchalantly.

“But - but - the number pad, the sliding mechanisms, the archaic symbols, were those all just for show?”

Scootaloo analyzed the canister’s exterior. “Apparently.”

Sunset frowned at this, eyelids drooping, and swiftly took the canister from Scootaloo’s hand, looked inside it, then poured out the contents into her own hand: a small, square, green, and silver stick. Sunset tossed away the now empty container to her side.

“What’s that supposed to be?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“It’s a flash drive. It probably has something on it.” said Scootaloo. “Let’s plug it into a computer to see what’s on it.” Scootaloo reached for the flash drive in Sunset’s hand, but Sunset pulled out her pistol and aimed it at Scootaloo. All three of the Crusaders recoiled back in surprise. “Whoa! What’s the big idea here? Why are you pointing that at me?”

Sunset paused, then she relaxed her arm a little bit, not moving her aim away from the nearest Cutie Mark Crusader. “Sorry. I’ve just become sensitive to personal space, especially with something of possible immense value.” She then outstretched her other arm, handing the flash drive over to Scootaloo. “Don’t cross me, or I will not hesitate to shoot you and your friends. Any one of you cross me and -” she motioned with her free hand, moving her index finger across her throat as if it were a knife. The Crusader’s eyes widened, and they swallowed in fear. Sunset, seeing that she has established fear in the three little girls, opened the door out of the room and motioned for them to go through first. “Go all the way down this hallway, and the computer will be to the left once you enter the room.” The Crusaders complied and walked out of the room, followed by Sunset Shimmer.

They entered the room with the computer adjacent to the room with the entrance to the entire building, plugged in the drive, and booted up the computer. Lines of light, vivid green text on a black background quickly flowed across the screen. The screen was promptly filled up with paragraphs that flew out of sight, too fast to be read, if you could even understand its system’s jargon. All four stared intently at the screen. Sunset Shimmer standing over the Cutie Mark Crusaders, with Apple Bloom to her left, resting her hand on Apple Bloom’s left shoulder. Sweetie Belle stood to her right, resting her other hand on her shoulder while holding her gun. Scootaloo sitting in a chair directly in front of her. Scootaloo directed the computer to open the files stored on the flash drive when the lines of seemingly random text stopped flowing through the computer screen. There was only one file to open, and when it opened, a program started running and started to generate a picture on the screen. The image was heavily fragmented, large pieces of what seemed to be a map spread throughout a blank background.

“Is this some sort of encryption?” asked Sunset.

“No, this is it unencrypted.” replied Scootaloo.

“Is the file corrupted?”

“No…” Scootaloo opens up the file again using a text editing program. “This is only one piece of a bigger picture. There’s still a consistent pattern throughout all the lines of code between the massive amounts of zeros separating them. See?”

Everyone but Scootaloo leans in and squints at the computer screen as Scootaloo scrolled down the pages. Sunset broke the silence that came from this intense focusing, “How the hell can you see a pattern in all of that?”

Scootaloo shrugged, then smiled and leaned back, putting her arms behind her head. “I guess I’m just that awesome.”

Sunset stood up straight, taking her hands off the other's shoulders and backing off a couple of feet. She took a deep breath. “Well, make yourselves at home. There is a room that you three can sleep in down that hall and to the right.” she said as she started to walk away, putting away her pistol.

“Wait, yer letting us stay?” said Apple Bloom as she turned to face Sunset Shimmer with wide eyes. Sweetie Belle was also taken aback by this, and Scootaloo fell over backward in her seat when she heard that Sunset was going to let them stay with her.

“Are you serious?” Sweetie Belle nearly screamed as she stared at Sunset in shock.

“Don’t get too excited. You’re only going to be staying here until we find out whatever that map may be pointing to. You three are going to have a strict curfew and are going to be locked in that room until I decide to come and get you.”

Scootaloo raised her hand, “What if you have to go to the bathroom.”

“I’ll leave a bucket that you are gonna have to clean up yourselves.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other with cringed faces, showing disgust. This fact did not deter Sweetie Belle from looking at this in a positive light. “This is going to be the best - sleepover - ever!”

“That’s going to be a generous way of putting it.” Scootaloo said dryly.

“Especially if any of us hafta go to the bathroom.” Applebloom added.

“Well, it’s about that time.” said Sunset Shimmer, looking at a nonexistent watch on her wrist, “Let me introduce you to your new room... and get that bucket for ya.”

Chapter 3: Uninvited Guests

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It was morning, and Sunset Shimmer had gotten up early to make sure that the brats she locked up yesterday couldn’t get into any sort of shenanigans that she wasn’t ready for. She unlocked and opened the door to find the Crusaders sleeping peacefully on the floor, Apple Bloom curled up in a ball, Sweetie Belle lying on her back, and Scootaloo was lying down on her stomach. Sunset slightly cringed when she saw the Crusaders, she had forgotten how ridiculous their outfits looked. Shortly after recovering from her cringing, the Crusaders had already woken up and acknowledged Sunset Shimmer.

“Good Mornin’.” said Apple Bloom, rubbing her eyes.

Sweetie Belle sat up, stretched and yawned loudly, “Good morning everyone.”

Scootaloo lifted up her head from the floor. “Mleh.”

Sunset leaned against the frame of the door, looking at them as if she was supposed to be impressed and clearly wasn’t. “Squirt, you’re coming with me. Red; Marshmallow, you two are going to stay here for now.”

Still drowsy from just barely waking up, Apple Bloom said, “Now wait just a darned minute.” pointing lazily at Sunset Shimmer. “Who’s ‘Squirt,’ who’s ‘Red,’ and who’s ‘Marshmallow?’” she said as she circled her finger around, pointing at the three of them that Sunset may be referring to.

“You, with the wings, you’re ‘Squirt.’ Come with me. You two can figure out your names for yourself.”

“We have actual names you know.” said Scootaloo, picking herself up from the ground; dragging her feet as she walked over to Sunset.

“Don’t care. Now, let’s get to work on figuring out if the piece of the map that we have has any clues on how to find the other pieces.” Sunset said as Scootaloo slowly made her way past the door and Sunset closed and locked it behind them.

Halfway down the hall, Scootaloo finally said, “You know, we may be working together on this for a while, so we should probably get familiar with each others’ names. My name is Scootaloo. What’s yours?”

Sunset just ignored Scootaloo until they reached the computer that Scootaloo was working on yesterday and plugged in the flash drive again. As Scootaloo was sifting through the data on the drive, Sunset asked, “How do you want your coffee? With cream or sugar?”

“Ooh, sugar, please.”

“Too bad. You’re getting black coffee.”

Scootaloo pouted and got back to work. Sunset was at her coffee machine, that produced stuff more like bitter black sludge that was sure to wake anyone who dared to ingest it. She was pouring out a second cup of this sludge when she noticed the sound of a great rumbling coming from outside, she could also hear the slight clanking of small pieces of metal coming from throughout the house. The trembling and the clanking of metal grew louder and louder, then suddenly stopped. Sunset dropped everything she was doing at the moment and started running to Scootaloo at the computer, then the front door exploded with a loud ‘KA-BOOM!’

---

“Are you sure we should cooperate with her? We don’t even know her name.” said Sweetie Belle, “She could kill us at any time.”

“Yes, but she’s had many chances in which she could’ve killed us,” said Apple Bloom, “but she hasn’t, which means she needs us, and we need her.”

“For what?”

“Scootaloo has the skills to decrypt the map and there be more like that out there. If this woman could to do that herself, she would have, and then would not have a reason to keep us. And if Ah’ know Scootaloo, she will refuse to do anythin’ unless we- her best friends- are by her side, which will help keep the two of us alive.”

“We aren’t by her side right now.”

“We’re close enough. Plus, she has a fully functional car that can get us to places we need without having to stock up for weeks in order to even reach the closest town. She is also super scary, which should hopefully keep some people off of us as we travel through towns, and she is the only one who can drive the car by herself.”

Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement. “I do like her car.”

“Yeah, it looks nice, how does it look on the inside?”

Sweetie Belle was about to speak but was immediately interrupted with a loud ‘KA-BOOM!’ coming from outside of their room.

“What’s going on out there?” said Sweetie Belle with wide eyes, filled with fear. “Did she kill Scootaloo?”

“Ah’ don’t know.”

A little bit of time passed before they got their answer and the door then opened, revealing Scootaloo with a set of keys in one hand. She was breathing a little heavily. “Come on, we gotta get out of here. I know another way out.”

---

“KA-BOOM!’ The front door exploded into many burning splinters. Scootaloo was startled by this. Sunset Shimmer ran into the room and came up to Scootaloo.

“What’s going on?” asked Scootaloo.

“Hold on.” Sunset then peered into the other room and saw a figure walk in through the massive amount of smoke with bulky armor that made it look like it had no neck, a mask that had four tubes coming out from behind it and into the armor’s back just below the base of the neck, and looked like it had a gas mask built inside of it, overall making it look less pony-like. The armor was steel gray, with indigo highlights, a blue stripe down the middle of its head, and the symbol on its left shoulder was a blue shield with a yellow lightning bolt on it; the figure also had an exposed pair of yellow-orange wings, indicating that he was a pegasus. Six more figures came in with similar looking armor, but did not have a coat of arms like the first figure and was almost stark white. All of them were holding a sort of rifle in their hands. Sunset’s eyes widened and she inhaled sharply, she turned back to Scootaloo and said, “Shut everything down, take the drive and get the hell out of here. There’s a secret exit in the back of the vault. You should be able to open it when you find it.”

“Who is it?” asked Scootaloo.

“It’s the gorram Empire. That’s who. Now take the map with you and get out of here.”

“What about my friends?”

“There’s no time. Just go.” Sunset turned around and lifted up her hand, summoning a magic circle of red and yellow around her hand, she reached through the circle, and whipped her arm slightly backwards, summoning a combat shotgun into her hands, fully loaded and ready to kill anyone that stands in her way. The summoning of her weapon gave Scootaloo enough time to quickly and successfully pickpocket Sunset for her keys, after which Scootaloo ran off to where her friends were being kept.

“Find the drive!” said the winged, decorated figure, its voice distorted into a deep, mechanical one, “And leave no stone unturned until you’ve found it.”

The others began to spread out as Sunset jumps into the room and fires a round at the head of an unlucky invader that happened to be in front of her. He fell over backwards, dead from the concussive force.

The winged figure then lifted up his hands, halting all other movement, and took off his helmet, revealing his face. He had the same skin color as his wings, and his hair was of the same blue his armor bore, his hair was spiked up and was slightly blown back.

“Sunset Shimmer, how nice to see you again.” he said, trying to give off a warming smile.

Sunset smiled, “Flash, Flash Hundred Yard Dash.” She dropped her smile into a stoic expression, “Can’t say the same for you.” and kept her gun aimed directly at Flash Sentry’s face.

Flash’s smile didn’t fade, “Aw, come on now, I’m sorry I couldn’t come visit more often, being the Captain of the Royal Guard for Empress Twilight takes a lot of time out of my day, I thought you would have missed me some.”

Sunset maintained her stoic face, “Well, you were dead wrong.”

“Oh well. Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, why don’t you hand over the map and we’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

He sighed and dropped his smile, “If that’s how you want to play this, so be it.” he put his helmet back on. “Kill her.” The other armored guards lifted their weapons and trained them on Sunset.

Sunset flicked a hand forward and cast a spell that flashed a bright light, blinding Flash Sentry and everyone else in front of her for a brief moment. When Flash recovered his sight, he saw that Sunset had disappeared and left a grenade at his feet. He jumped back, using his wings to give him give him a bit of a boost, but could not go very far due to how heavy his armor was, and avoided the subsequent explosion. Unfortunately, it killed two of the guards he came with. When the dust settled, the other guards were still standing around. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Flash said impatiently, “Find the map and kill that witch.”

One of the guards spoke up, “Are you sure you want to kill her? She’s kind of hot.”

Flash stared at this guard, came up to him and gave him a heavy handed, armored backhand smack to the face making a loud ‘Clang!’ once the armored hand made contact with the armored head.

“Right, kill her, got it.” the guard responded, and with that him and two other guards marched off deeper into the building.

Flash took a deep breath. “I really need to talk to Empress Twilight about getting a new donor for these clones.”

Sunset Shimmer was hiding around a corner with a sledge hammer, waiting for the next fool to cross her path. A guard walks in front of her and she immediately nails him in the crotch with her hammer, causing him to recoil in the sudden change momentum, then she reeled back and delivers and uppercut with her hammer to his head, knocking him over backwards. Sunset lifted the hammer over her head and brought it down hard on the fallen guards head, crushing it. Her hammer then dematerialized in a glow of red and yellow, leaving only a massive dent in the guard’s helmet where his head should be.

Another guard rounds the corner, spots her and fires an automated rifle at her. Sunset jumps out of the way, but was still hit, once in her side and several down one leg, nothing lethal but still hurt like Hell. The guard was about to move in to deliver the final shot when he noticed the flash drive they were looking for lying on the table next to a computer. He broke pursuit, claimed the drive, and returned to Flash Sentry. “Sir, I have the package.”

“Good, has your target been eliminated?”

“No sir, not yet. Should I eliminate her now?”

“Not necessary. We have what we came for, let’s leave. Empress Twilight wants this in her hands as soon as possible.” Flash radios the other guard, “Cancel pursuit and return to Elysia.”

“Roger, roger.” and the guards marched off towards the door. Meanwhile, Sunset was lying on the floor, bleeding out through her bullet wounds. Sunset was dragging herself across the floor, to try to get to a good vantage point for when the guard, inevitably she thought, came back to finish her off. She had gotten to the wall on the other side of the room, leaned up against it, summoned her pistol and aimed at the guard, only to find that there wasn’t one there. She held her position, but the pain was beginning to become too much for her and she couldn’t stay awake for much longer. Soon enough, she passed out.

---

Flash approached the throne room on Elysia. The doors were huge, they stretched 12 feet tall, were made of heavy marble and had gold trimming. The throne room itself was massive, the ceiling was twice as high as the doors. Large stained glass windows lined the wall on one side of the room, the windows gave the room a deep reddish tint. Large marble pillars were set in between each of the stained glass windows several feet from the wall and had a twin on the exact opposite side of the room from center. At the far end of the room from the door was a throne, elevated by a short flight of wide stairs.

In the throne sat a robed figure, dressed in dark lavender with dark magenta highlights and subtle gold trimming, her dress was long and her sleeves were loose, very regal-looking. The figure’s hair was dark purple with a magenta stripe, it was long and was kept in a small bun in the back with a tail extending down from that, her bangs were flat, cut in a straight line out of her line of sight. She had large wings that were lavender with a darker undercoat, her skin was also lavender.

Flash Sentry approached the robed figure sitting on the throne.

“Flash.” the figure said, “I take it you found the flash drive?”

Flash kneeled before the figure, took his helmet off and bowed his head, “Yes Empress Twilight. I have retrieved the drive as you commanded.”

“Good, good.” said Empress Twilight. “Soon we shall see what secrets it holds and crush any resistance that dares defy me.”

“I doubt there is anyone in Equestria who would dare defy you milady.”

“Oh, dear, you flatter me.” Twilight said as she flicked her hand flirtatiously at Flash and placed her chin in her hand as she looked out towards the nearest stained glass window with a calm smile.

“Unfortunately, when we opened the drive, we found that what we were looking for had been erased.”

Twilight snapped her head to the direction of Flash Sentry and pounded her fist on the arm of her throne, her wings flared up menacingly. “WHAT?!” she exclaimed.

---

Sunset groaned as she woke up after having a splitting headache that caused her to pass out earlier, she also felt a comforting tingling in her left leg. She opened her eyes to see Sweetie Belle kneeling over her wounded leg, Sweetie’s hands and Sunset’s leg were glowing a pale green.

“Oh good, you’re awake.” Sweetie Belle said, “You’re lucky nothing broke otherwise I’d have put you into a coma with that sleep spell.” she continued jokingly.

“Har, har.” said Sunset. She eyed Sweetie Belle for a moment, “What are you doing?”

“Healing you.” Sweetie Belle said, not breaking her concentration on the wounded leg.

“Why?”

“Well, Apple Bloom promised you that we would help you find whatever that map was pointing to, and she’s not one to go back on a promise, especially if she brings her friends into it. And Scootaloo is not one to abandon a friend for any reason, so when Apple Bloom drags her into a promise with her, she stays by her side on the matter. And me, well, I found someone who needed help.” Sweetie Belle then gave a soft smile at Sunset.

“How generous of you.” Sunset said as she leaned forward, outstretched an open hand over her leg and her hand started to glow red and yellow. Sweetie Belle caught Sunset’s hand, stopping the glow.

“Don’t.” Sweetie Belle said. “You lost quite a bit of blood. If you try to heal yourself now you may pass out again from exhaustion.”

Sunset retracted her hand, leaned back and after a moment of silence began to say, strenuously, “Sunset...”

“NO! DON’T GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT!” screamed Sweetie Belle, as she grabbed Sunset’s shoulders and began to shake her violently.

Eyes wide, Sunset grabbed Sweetie Belle’s wrists and pried them off her shoulders and yelled, “I’m not dying you idiot!” she took a deep breath to calm herself and continued, “That’s my name, Sunset, Sunset Shimmer. One of your friends asked me for it earlier.”

“Oh.” Sweetie Belle said as she retracted her hands awkwardly and put them back to the task of healing Sunset’s leg, “Nice to meet you Sunset Shimmer, I’m Sweetie Belle.”

“Nice to meet you too... Sweetie Belle.”

Just then, Scootaloo entered the room, “Hey, Sweetie Belle, is everything OK? I heard screaming.”

“You.” Sunset said, pointing at Scootaloo, “Do you still have the flash drive?”

“No.” Scootaloo said with a straight face.

“You lost it!” Sunset yelled, straining to get up but was stopped by a sharp pain in her side where she had been shot and Sweetie Belle attempting to hold her down.

“No~,” Scootaloo replied calmly, “I left it for them to take, but I did wipe everything off of that drive and moved it onto this one.” Scootaloo said holding up another flash drive. “Leaving only a special surprise for them when they try to open it. Hehe.”

---

A man was dancing on screen with a microphone in front of him, “Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down...”

“This is what we found when we opened the drive.” said Flash Sentry with an open hand directing at the computer screen, a looping video of Rick Astley singing “Never gonna give you up”.

Twilight stared at the computer screen, arms crossed as she breathed slowly, contemplating on what she will do next.

The room they were in consisted of many computers and their monitors, with people in white coats at nearly every single one of them, often getting up, moving around and trading places with each other as the computer screens scrolled through an endless stream of data.

Twilight lifted her hand and, with the sound of a low rumbling bass, a ring of purple magic manifested around Flash’s neck, lifting him up into the air and choking him. Nearly everyone in the room paused their work for a moment, before promptly ignoring Flash’s predicament.

“You have failed me miserably Flash.” the Empress said as she turned to see Flash struggling against the magic around his neck and flailing his legs wildly. “But I am willing to give you a second chance.” she continued as she dropped Flash Sentry onto the floor with an unceremonious ‘thud,’ landing on his butt and falling over to his side, coughing to regain his breath. “But this time you will be accompanied by my apprentice.” Twilight gestured towards behind Flash Sentry and another woman in a robe approached them. Her robe was similar to Twilight’s but looked more like a cape, was of a pale pinkish-purple color, had cyan highlights and no gold anywhere. Her hair was a lighter purple to Twilight’s and had an aquamarine stripe and was kept in a high ponytail and her bangs were swept to one side, matching the curl of her tail. “Flash Sentry, meet Starlight Glimmer.”

Flash immediately shot up to stand in attention to Starlight Glimmer and bowed, “Pleased to meet you, Starlight Glimmer.”

“Hm.” Starlight responded, eying over Flash Sentry before turning to Twilight. “You called me, Master?” she bowed to Twilight and both she and Flash stood back up.

“Yes, Starlight. I want you to accompany Flash here to retrieve a flash drive for me.”

“Over nine months with no communication from you, and you call me now to play fetch?”

“Is that a problem?”

Starlight looked at Flash again, then back to Twilight and with a straight face and said, “No.”

“Good. Now off you go, and be sweet to Flash please.” Twilight walked out of the room, her high heels clacking against the tile floor as she walked down the hall.

Flash turned to Starlight and Starlight looked over him once more. “What does my master see in you?” she says and exits the room walking down the hallway.

Three hours later, Flash and Starlight arrive back at Sunset’s place, with transport trucks parked behind them.

“Alright men…” Flash was just about to motion for his men to move forward but Starlight put her arm in front of him, signaling him to stop.

“No.” she said. “Let me handle this.” Starlight walked into the building.

When Starlight entered she saw that the place was a mess, junk strewn all across the floor, several mounds of it at the edges of the walls. When Starlight entered the third room, she saw Sunset Shimmer standing in the middle, her back towards Starlight. Starlight flicked her right hand outwards and with a “snap-hiss” sound, a cyan beam-sword extends out from her palm and she takes a swipe at Sunset Shimmer, only for it to pass harmlessly through her.

“An illusion spell?” Starlight said to herself.

The image of Sunset Shimmer turned around to face her would-be aggressor, “So sorry I wasn’t here for you to actually kill me Flash, but don’t worry I’m sure you’ll still have a blast.” the image grinned and dissipated like a mist.

Starlight heard several beeping noises coming from all around her and she noticed small lights blinking for a moment before everything exploded around her, causing the building to collapse.

Flash was standing around looking bored and irritated until he heard explosions go off and the building in front of him collapse. Flash jumped forwards a little bit before he started to pace around in a panic.

“Twilight’s apprentice just died. What am I going to do? What do I tell her? Will she kill me if I do tell her? She will most assuredly kill me if I don’t tell her and she finds out later. So in that case, do I just run away and join one of these lawless factions in the wasteland? Do I-” he stopped when he noticed rubble starting to move. A cyan bubble grew from underneath, when it slowly surfaced over halfway up, it silently popped, sending the rubble that had continued to lay on top of it to be thrown very far, revealing Starlight to emerge unscathed, merely dusting off her shoulders as she walked towards Flash.

“Well, looks like this mission’s a failure.” Starlight said with a flat tone and neutral expression when she reached Flash.

“Oh God. What am I going to do?” Flash said, starting to panic again.

“You are going to tell her what you found, a destroyed house.” she said, seemingly without emotion.

“Oh no, I’m not going to take the blame for this. You’re the one who blew up the house.” Flash said, pointing a finger in Starlight’s face.

“Our target had already set explosives around the place and set to trigger after her message to you was finished being delivered.”

“Wait, she left a message for me?” Flash said a little too eagerly.

“Yes. She said that she was disappointed that she wasn’t around to see you die. Quite frankly, I’m starting to share the feeling.”

Flash glared at Starlight. “Whatever, let’s just report this to Empress Twilight.”

“You go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you.”

“Oh no. You’re not dodging Twilight’s punishment that easily, you’re coming with me, now.”

Starlight began to force-choke Flash with her magic.

“Or later.” he managed to say and was quickly let go. “But we’re going to report this together.”

“Unless you and your men wish to join me in my mediation, I suggest you go on without me.”

Flash stared at Starlight for a moment, and his expression soured at the thought of his men trying to meditate, and how annoying they would be when they failed. “OK you win, but you’re going to have to get back on your own.”

“Fine by me.” Starlight waved her hand to a group of guards and they rolled a motorcycle off of a transport truck. “I brought my own ride.”

Flash looked at the bike then back to Starlight and raised an eyebrow at her. “Whatever.” he said as he walked away and waved a hand dismissively. “Have fun mediating.” Flash and the guards boarded the trucks.

“One more thing.” Starlight said before Flash drove off for Elysia. He looked at her with curiosity. “The target apparently knew your name. You wouldn’t happen to know hers, would you?”

“Sunset Shimmer.” he said flatly. “Why?”

“I just wanted to put a name to a face.”

Flash rolled his eyes and signaled the driver to go, and they drove off, leaving Starlight alone to mediate.

Starlight sat down in front of the crumbled house, legs crossed, hands laid face-down on her knees. She closed her eyes and took deep, controlled breaths.

Minutes passed in silence as Starlight meditated, then she opened her eyes“New Pegasus, huh?” she stood up and smirked, “I look forward to our meeting, Sunset Shimmer.”

Then Starlight heard the cock of a handgun behind her head, followed by a proud, raspy voice, “You know Sunset Shimmer?”

Chapter 4: To New Pegasus

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“New Pegasus?!” Cutie Mark Crusaders exclaimed in unison.

“Yes,” said Sunset Shimmer, packing a few things into the trunk of her Pontiac hovercraft. “That’s where we’re heading.”

“But we’ve heard bad things about that place,” said Scootaloo.

“Like what?” asked Sunset, closing the trunk.

“Like, ‘You’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy,’” said Sweetie Belle.

“And who told you that?” Sunset asked as she leaned towards Sweetie Belle, expressing mock curiosity.

“Ah think his name was Ben or somethin’,” said Apple Bloom.

Sunset rolled her eyes at this and walked back inside the house.

“Why do you want to go there anyways?” Apple Bloom continued.

“There’s a bar called the ‘Mos Equuis Cantina,’” said Sunset as she and the Crusaders walked to the room where the Crusaders were locked in overnight.

“I have a… friend there who runs the place, and he may be able to give me a lead on where to find the next piece of the map,” she said rummaging through the wooden crates in the room.

“And if you three are going to even be seen with me, you are going to need to take off those stupid suits, wash off your makeup and wear something else. Got it?”

“Yes ma’am,” all three Crusaders responded.

Sunset picked up a small, magenta-red long-coat from inside one of the wooden crates.

“Here, Marshmallow, wear this. It looks just your size and is laced with lacrima, which should enhance your magic.” She tossed the coat to Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle caught the coat and started to admire it, an open smile grew on her face. Her smile quickly faded as she noticed the lacrima crystals laced into the garment glimmer, shining off of the coat like brilliant jewels. She could feel her eyes begin to swell and a tear started to fall down her cheek.

“Are you OK Sweetie Belle?” said Scootaloo, putting a hand on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder. Apple Bloom approached closer, ready to comfort her crying friend.

Sweetie Belle quickly wiped the tear off her face and whispered in a raspy voice, “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s nothing.” She began to hold her new jacket close to her chest.

Sunset did not notice this and opened up another crate full of clothing and left the Crusaders to find a new set of clothing to wear.

When the Crusaders were finished picking out their clothes and washing off their make-up, they joined Sunset in her car. Scootaloo sat in the front passenger seat. Sunset only allowed Scootaloo in the front seat because she was the least annoying of the three and the most valuable to her. Scootaloo was wearing cargo pants, a sleeveless, black hooded jacket, and a pair of black shoes. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were in the back seats of the car. Apple Bloom was wearing a big red bow on the back of her head, a blue denim jacket with a light green shirt underneath, a pair of blue jeans with a hole on her left knee, and a pair of brown boots. She still had her black bandana with cartoon skulls on it but was wearing it around her neck. Sweetie Belle was wearing the magenta-red long-coat Sunset gave her with a pink and white horizontal striped shirt underneath, she had a small hair band that matched the color of her new jacket. She was also wearing blue jeans and a pair of magenta-red boots with yellow straps.

“OK, looks like we’ve got everything we need,” said Sunset Shimmer. “Now, off to New Pegasus.” She started the car and drove off towards the horizon.

Several hours had passed since Sunset and the Crusaders set off for New Pegasus. It was now midnight, and they were low on fuel. Sunset was using a spell to keep the car going, which massively increased the fuel efficiency of the vehicle, but caused a substantial drain on her energy. The car would go on only as long as she could keep herself conscious enough to cast the spell.

Sunset had been using this spell since about halfway on their journey. The Cutie Mark Crusaders all fell asleep pretty quickly when the trip began, much to Sunset’s relief. What she dreaded most was that she would have to hear the three little girls’ annoying voices constantly throughout the whole trip, asking “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” and she would have to kill one or more of them accidentally-on-purpose, if only, at least, to shut up just one of them.

She was getting exhausted from casting the spell and quietly stopped the car, so as to not incur her worst nightmare. She was planning to take only a quick breather but felt herself slowly drifting off to sleep and was struggling hard not to fall completely. She needed to put as much distance between her and her old safe house that night before reaching the next safe house she had in mind. No doubt Flash had already triggered the trap she laid out for him in the other house, and if he survived, he’d be looking for her with a vengeance. She wasn’t afraid of him so much as the army he can have stand behind him…

Sweetie Belle quietly woke up and noticed Sunset’s labored breathing in her efforts to keep herself awake and started to cast a spell, a spell that transferred her magic energy to Sunset to help her stay awake. At first Sweetie Belle merely hovered her hand over Sunset’s shoulder to transfer her magic energy. A trickle of a pale green mist of magical energy flowing from her hand onto Sunset’s shoulder, but she was getting impatient with the slow process and she lowered her hand to touch Sunset’s shoulder. As swift as a viper’s strike, Sunset’s hand shot up and grabbed hold of Sweetie Belle’s wrist as soon as Sweetie Belle made physical contact with her shoulder and was gripped tightly. Sweetie Belle covered her mouth to prevent herself from screaming and waking the others.

“What do you think you’re doing?” whispered Sunset, her voice seeping with venom.

Removing her hand from her mouth Sweetie Belle whispered back, “You looked tired, and I can tell that you’re using your magic to run the car, so I thought that I would give you some of mine. You know- so you could keep driving.”

Sunset pinched the bridge of her nose with her other hand, squeezed her eyes, and took in a deep breath. She opened her eyes and shook her head to keep herself awake, but her eyelids were getting really heavy and she blinked several times, the time her eyes spent closed getting longer and longer with each blink. She gave a heavy sigh and released Sweetie Belle’s arm. “OK,” she said. “Go ahead.” and she relaxed in her seat, closing her eyes.

Sweetie Belle’s hand then softly glowed a bright pale green, brighter than when she was trying to do it discreetly, and laid itself on Sunset’s shoulder and a thick magical mist of the same pale green color flowed from Sweetie Belle’s hand and over Sunset’s body. Sunset could feel herself becoming lighter and straining less to stay awake, while Sweetie Belle could feel her body getting heavier and heavier with every passing second.

Sweetie Belle’s hand slid off of Sunset’s shoulder and she let out a really big yawn as she laid back into her seat. “Well,” she said, restraining a second yawn. “Good luck.” and, like a rock, her head fell onto the seat and she was out.

Sunset looked back at the now sleeping Sweetie Belle, fully awake herself, and she reached into the pocket behind the sleeping Scootaloo’s chair and pulled out a blanket, levitated it over Sweetie Belle and covered her with it. Sweetie Belle nuzzled into her new blanket and got comfortable again. Sunset smiled and felt compelled to give the other two blankets, but seeing as she only had one, the feeling was thrown out the proverbial window quickly. Sunset then quietly got the car moving again and she resumed their journey to New Pegasus.

Sweetie Belle woke up and saw daylight coming in through the car’s windshield. She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and stretched, the blanket that covered her rolling off. She took note of the blanket that covered her, remembering that she didn’t have one when she fell asleep. She also noticed that the car wasn’t moving and that no one else was in the car with her. She folded up the blanket as neatly as she could, set it down, and got out of the car. She stepped out to the inside of a garage that looked old and mostly abandoned, the ground was weathered and cracked, as were the windows. The garage door was closed but some light was coming through the windows on top. There was another door leading into the house.

Sweetie Belle walked through the door that leads into a kitchen/dining room and saw Sunset Shimmer, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo sitting around a table, looking at a map.

“New Pegasus is really far away,” said Apple Bloom, “Are you sure ya don’t have anyone else closer who may know where another piece of the map is?”

“No, he’s the only one I trust to be a reliable source of information on this matter,” said Sunset Shimmer. “Besides, he probably doesn’t know that there are more than one of them, or that they’re pieces of a map, so it may be tricky to get this information from him without divulging what it really is. But I can worry about that when we get there. For now, we need to worry about having the supplies to get us there. If we were to head there in a straight line we would run out of supplies in the middle of nowhere,” she said pointing towards the center of a vast open desert marked on the map, separating their current location and New Pegasus. “We’re going to have to visit several independent outposts in-between here and there to fill up on food and gas, and, if we are lucky, run into some trading caravans with sufficient goods, hopefully, while also avoiding any Alliance or raider gangs along the way.”

“Good morning,” said Sweetie Belle as she took a seat at the table.

“Good morning.” they all responded, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo giving back welcoming smiles, while Sunset just looked up from the map for a brief moment before she immediately looked back down to it.

“So,” Sweetie Belle continued, “Have you all had breakfast yet?”

“Now that you’ve mentioned it, no, we haven’t, and Ah’m getting pretty hungry right now,” said Apple Bloom, putting her hand on her stomach.

“Me too,” replied Scootaloo.

Sunset rolled her eyes at this. “All right, I’ll go see if I can find something downstairs.” and she rolled up the map, put it inside her jacket and walked out of the room, leaving the Crusaders alone at the table to talk amongst themselves.

Sunset went downstairs, searched around for a few minutes, found a small box full of cans of Spam and brought it back upstairs. When she entered the kitchen, she saw only Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sitting at the table.

“Where’s Squirt?” she asked.

“Scootaloo?” said Sweetie Belle, “Last I saw her, she went out that way.” Sweetie Belle pointed towards the door to the garage behind her. “Said something about hearing sort of rattling in the car last night.”

Sunset gave out a sigh and placed the box of cans onto the table. “Don’t eat all of it.” she said before exiting through the door.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at the cans of Spam with looks of suspicion. Apple Bloom picked up a can, opened it, and smelled it.

“Hand me a spoon, would ya?” she said.

Sweetie Belle said nothing as she turned her head slowly to face her friend to give her a look that was a mix of disgust and concern while maintaining an air of suspicion.

Sunset entered the garage where her car was parked and spotted a pair of feet sticking out from underneath the vehicle. She grabbed an ankle and aggressively pulled Scootaloo out from underneath the car, dragging her body against the concrete floor.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Sunset said with her eyes narrowed, piercing into Scootaloo’s eyes.

Scootaloo recoiled in fear a little, eyes wide, her heart already in her throat from being pulled out from underneath the car so violently. “J-just fixing the car a little bit. Th-that’s all.”

“Fixing it how?” she held her stare.

“It was making a lot of noise last night, I thought I would take a look and see if there was anything wrong.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t hear anything unusual.”

“Well I did,” Scootaloo sat up, “and I found a couple screws loose which I just barely finished tightening before you pulled me out. I was also planning on taking a look at the engine to see if there’s anything else I can do there.”

Sunset’s stare stood firm, “Like what?”

“Increase fuel efficiency when powered by magic. Sweetie Belle told me what happened last night.”

Sunset stood up and crossed her arms, “What did she say?”

“She told Apple Bloom and me how she helped you stay awake until you got us here, and that you’re the one who gave her the blanket she woke up with. And you told me she found it herself,” she pointed accusingly at Sunset.

Sunset broke eye contact and gave a light, nervous chuckle. “So,” she returned to Scootaloo, “You think you can do it?” she shifted her weight onto one foot.

“Improve the mileage? Pfft. I’ve made cars in much worse condition than this able to run on fumes for a couple hundred miles, which got increasingly difficult as Sweetie Belle’s cooking got better. So this should NOT be a problem.” Scootaloo stood up proudly, then her eyes widened after she realized the last thing she said, and her stance lost its proud look, “Please don’t tell Sweetie Belle anything I said to you about her cooking.” she smiled nervously.

Sunset laughed softly, “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me, sister.”

“Sister…” She lowered her head, “That’s what Rainbow Dash used to call me. Before she… disappeared.”

“Rainbow Dash?” Sunset thought to herself, “Why does that name sound somewhat familiar?”

“We weren’t really sisters but she always treated me like one. She was the best sister I could ever ask for. The other kids would always make fun of me for being a Pegasus that couldn’t fly. She always believed in me, even when no one else would. She was the best flier I have ever seen. Even before we met, I looked up to her as someone I need to become. She would keep encouraging me to keep trying, and then, one day, I would be as awesome as her. I wanted to be just like her.”

Sunset opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the distinct smell of something being burned, she tensed up and looked towards the kitchen. Scootaloo lifted her head when she smelled it too, but when she saw that the smell came from the kitchen, she shrugged it off.

Sunset burst into the kitchen, followed by a calm Scootaloo and saw Apple Bloom eating out of a can of Spam with a spoon in her mouth and five empty cans in front of her. She froze and looked at Sunset as if she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Sweetie Belle was at the stove and a large pillar of smoke was rising up in front of her.

“What is going on?” said Sunset, “Is something burning?”

“I’m cooking us a meal.” replied Sweetie Belle in a sing-song voice.

“Cooking what?”

“The Spam.”

Sunset pressed her temples with her right hand. “You don’t cook Spam.”

“Don’ try ta stahp her,” Apple Bloom said, mouth full, she swallowed, “she’s burnt orange juice before.”

Sunset looked up at Apple Bloom, mouth agape, “How-?”

“That happened ONE time!” retorted Sweetie Belle as she held up an index finger, glaring at Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes and held up two fingers. Sunset turned to Scootaloo with a look that said, “You weren’t kidding. Were you?”

Scootaloo gave an “I told you so.” look in response.

“Here, want a bite?” Sweetie Belle said, giving Sunset a can filled with a lump of a black mess.

Sunset held the can and stared at it in confusion, trying to figure out if there was still Spam in there or if it was a condensed cloud of ash that Sweetie made while trying to cook the Spam. No, not even a cloud of that size, condensed, would be enough to fill this can, maybe it has a piece of squirrel in it. But where would she even get a squirrel? And would Sunset even want to eat such a squirrel? And why a squirrel?

Sweetie Belle handed Sunset a fork. She grabbed it hesitantly, and took a bite of the black mass. Once she pulled the mass off the fork and into her mouth, she immediately opened it back up, stuck out her tongue and let the wet pile of ash roll off her tongue back into the container before going into a fit of spitting the charcoal flavor out of her mouth.

“Ugh,” Sunset moaned and looked back at Scootaloo, “I thought you said she got better at cooking.”

“This is better,” said Scootaloo, arms crossed, eyes half closed.

“Yeah, before, you would have probably been convulsing on the floor an' spilling out last week’s lunch with that bite,” said Apple Bloom, waving the spoon around as she explained.

“Hey~!” Sweetie Belle put her hands on her hips, sticking her lower lip out.

Sunset was now using her fork to scrape the flakes of ash clinging to her tongue, groaning loudly through the entire process.

“Never… do that… again!” she exclaimed afterward.

After Sunset successfully cleansed her tongue of burnt Spam by gargling vinegar, she and the Crusaders packed up some supplies and continued on their way to New Pegasus.

Chapter 5: The Train Job

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Two days ago:
A motorcycle was roaring at high speed across the open desert. The figure on the motorcycle was dressed in an all black motorcycle suit, complete with a black helmet with a dark tinted lens, and a brown leather satchel at his side. He was being followed by several armored cars that were slowly catching up.

The armored cars had members of Twilight’s Royal Guard leaning out of the windows and firing their guns at the cyclist. The cyclist took one hand off of the handle bars and a ball of vermillion red magic accumulated in his hand and grew. When the ball of magic was as big as his head he lobbed the ball of magic, backhanded, at one of the cars chasing him and it hit the hood on the driver’s side and exploded in spectacular fashion but did little except create a large dent in the hood and make the driver swerve severely for a moment before straightening back up and resuming the chase.

The terrain quickly changed from a sandy desert to dry grasslands so the landscape got quite a bit more interesting. The cyclist gained an advantage in this new terrain, for his vehicle was designed to be able to handle rougher terrains like ones you would find in these dry grasslands, while the armored cars had to steer wider than the cycle around some of the bigger mounds of dirt and thick rooted plants, so as to not give the vehicle more damage than necessary.

The chase continued to alongside a short cliff face with a train running beside it down below. Another cliff face was coming up, dropping off into a chasm with a bridge for the train tracks spanning across it.

The cyclist was running beside the train and just as he ran out of ground, he steered himself into the direction of the train, jumping off his bike, letting it fall into the chasm below and landed on top of the fifth cart from the front.

He looked back and saw all of the armored cars stop at the edge of the cliff and ceased their fire. They turned around and he opened the hatch on top of the cart, saw that there was no one in it, just a bunch of cargo. He dropped down into the cart and sat down his satchel and took off his helmet, revealing his brilliant vermilion red hair, and long goatee, wearing silver, round, thick rimmed glasses on his light-orange skinned face. He took a moment to catch his breath, and placed a hand on the back of his helmet. His hand glowed brightly and his helmet dematerialized. With his hand still glowing he swept it over himself from top to bottom and, in a glow, his clothes changed from a black jumpsuit to an orange shirt, dark blue jeans, dirty white shoes and a long brown leather cloak covering him up. His cloak bound around his neck by a round blue gemstone with four short bars of silver radiating outward on one side of the gem.

“Alright Sunburst,” he said to himself. “I know that didn’t go exactly as planned but let’s see what we can do now.”

He knelt down to reach into his satchel and pulled out an unopened canister with archaic symbols and sliding mechanisms all over it.

“This would probably be easier if I could figure out how to open this thing.” Sunburst said as he fiddled around a little bit with the sliding mechanisms on the canister.

He looked at one end of the canister, holding his hand over it, shining ultraviolet light, saw a glowing picture of a cloud with three parallel lightning bolts coming out of it.

“I especially wonder what this means.” he mused.

Sunburst put everything down and looked through the window of the door to the other cart ahead of him. He saw members of Twilight’s Royal Guard fill the other cart.

“Gāisǐ de.” he muttered to himself in Manedarin. “Those húndàn are here too. As long as they don’t know I’m here they shouldn’t be looking for me.” Still looking into the other cart, he notices a mother and her child walk past the squad of guards from the other side and towards the cart he was in. He took a step back and let the two pass, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. They passed him and exited to the cart on the other side. He looked around to make sure the coast was clear - enough - and took a look around the cart itself and noticed a crate marked with the red cross of Nurse Redheart. She and her crew were dedicated to helping people no matter who they were, and they were good friends with the rebellion he’s in.

He opened up the crate and placed the canister inside, hoping that if anything happened to him on this train, when the crate gets to Nurse Redheart and she opens it up, she would know what to do with it and give it to the rebels. Sunburst closed the lid and walked to the cart where the mother and her child went and had a seat.

Meanwhile, in the third cart from the front, two women were sitting across from each other. One woman with red and yellow hair was waiting patiently, while the other, with platinum hair, was fiddling with a stack of cards, mostly doing fancy techniques of moving a card in and out of one’s hand to help cheat at a card game.

“Give it a rest will ya, Trixie? Can’t you just accept the fact that I beat you in a game of cards and you lost your car?” said the one with red and yellow hair.

“No, Sunset, because the Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t lose at cards. Trixie knows you cheated somehow, and I’m still contemplatin’ on how you did it.” she said with a scowl as she continued to play her card tricks.

“Great, you do that while I go secure our package and keep your cut if you don’t keep up.” Sunset said as she got up and headed for the back of the train.

Trixie groaned and got up to join Sunset, putting her cards away, giving up on her endeavor to expose Sunset as a cheater.

They entered the fourth cart from the front and were met with a team of Royal Guards. Both Sunset and Trixie froze in their tracks.

“Hi.” Sunset said, putting on her best poker face, even better than when she played with Trixie earlier.

The tension was high for Sunset and Trixie, but was relieved slightly when a mother and her child entered the cart and was passing through uninhibited. So Sunset and Trixie went on their way passed the guards to the next cart on the train.

When they got to the next cart Trixie closed the door behind them and turned to Sunset and, in an angry whisper, said, “What the hell is a platoon of Alliance soldiers doing on board this train!?”

Keeping calm, Sunset responded, “I don’t know, but seeing as they’re just lettin’ anyone pass by means they ain’t guarding the cargo.”

“Trixie supposes you’d want to get out of here as fast as possible.”

“Hell no. Stealin’ cargo under the nose of trained guards will make them look real foolish-like. Heh. I’d do this kind of job for free.” she smiled.

“Can Trixie have your cut then?”

“No.”

“If you die can Trixie have your cut?”

“Yes.”

They walk up to the crate marked with the red cross of Nurse Redheart.

“This is one of the boxes Chrysalis sent us for.” said Trixie.

“Alright then. Let’s snag ‘em, bag ‘em, and get out of here.” Sunset said as she knelt down in front of the box and placed a small slab of stone on top of it, rotating a piece of the metal frame on it, making it latch on top of the crate. Sunset then placed two fingers in the center of the stone’s face and made the runic symbol on the stone glow like her hand and the crate shrank down to the size of a clay brick. Trixie did this to one other box and held this one herself.

Sunset looked outside the window and saw her new car driving by. “Looks like our ride is here.” she said as she stood under the hatch on the roof. “Gimme a boost.”

Trixie complied and Sunset opened the hatch and crawled out onto the roof.

Just then a member of the Royal Guard came into the cart and saw Trixie holding one of the boxes they were planning to steal.

“Freeze.” he said pointing his gun at Trixie. She panicked and activated a heavy smoke screen, making the guard cough so much he could not focus on firing his gun, giving herself some time to be pulled up by Sunset.

“Pull me up.” she said holding out a hand for Sunset to grab.

“Gimme the loot.” she said.

Without thinking, Trixie threw up the small crate she had in her hand and Sunset caught it.

“Thanks.” Sunset said as she closed the hatch and welded it shut with her magic.

Trixie stood there stunned for a second.

“Sǐle nǐ, nǐ wú shānyáng de suǒyǒu wú mǔ shānyáng!” she screamed at Sunset.

After Trixie was done cursing at Sunset in Manedarin, she remembered there was a guard behind her smoke screen and started running away from him, but not before the smokescreen cleared up enough for the guard to confidently start shooting and fired off several shots from his automatic rifle. He missed every single shot. And Trixie managed to escape into the next cart.

Sunburst heard the cursing and the gunshots, and got up to investigate. When he got to the door he was immediately pushed aside by a fleeing Trixie.

“Out of my way!” she said as she was sprinting down the aisle. Sunburst at looked where she was running from and saw a guard raise up his gun, ready to fire, and Sunburst instinctively raised up a magic barrier to protect himself from incoming fire, which came. When the firing stopped and the guard started to reload his gun, Sunburst opted not to wait and see if that was meant for him and ran off in the other direction, same as Trixie. Quickly, more guards became active and started running through the aisles of the train carts.

Trixie had reached the end of the train, an empty caboose, she turned around to where the caboose connected to the other cart and charged up a playing card in her hand with magic and threw it at the connection, it embedded itself into the metal and started to glow brighter and brighter. Trixie retreated into the caboose and just as Sunburst opened the door before reaching the caboose, the card exploded, disconnecting the carts and blowing Sunburst back, hitting his head hard on the floor. He laid there on the floor unconscious as the guards caught up and saw no sign of Trixie or the cart she just hijacked.

The guards identified Sunburst as a member of the Rebel Alliance and was taken into custody, delivered to a rather large triangular airship.

Chapter 6: Badger

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Sunset and the Crusaders arrived at New Pegasus. Several traders were living on the outskirts, and Sunset took the opportunity to do some trading with them, to fill up on gas, supplies, and favors in case things got ugly.

Sunset left Apple Bloom and Scootaloo at the hovercraft to make sure that no one would steal it; they were told to “kill anyone who even tried,” and for a backup precaution, Sunset enchanted the ignition so that if she doesn’t lift the enchantment first, the engine will not start.

The Spam she carried with her had little bargaining power except as a sort of standard form of currency, aside from bits but she reserved the few bits she had on hand for emergencies only since she didn’t get paid for her last job. Sunset would have to trade 8 cans for one box of ammunition (whereas she would just have to pay 3 bits for the same amount). Fortunately for her, she currently did not need ammo so much as some extra gas for the car. She could trade about 3 cans of Spam per gallon of gas. Since they weren’t in any real need for gas, it was easier for to haggle the vendors in the added ability for her to simply walk away from an inadequate deal.

In the middle of her search for a good gasoline vendor, with Sweetie Belle in tow, Sunset spotted an old unicorn man selling lacrima crystals, and vials of Dust (the powdered form of lacrima). Sunset walked over to the lacrima vendor.

The old man selling lacrima crystals spotted them.

“Hello there,” he said in a warm, welcoming tone. “Come here, my friends.”

The man wore a large brown cloak with a hood over his head, hiding the upper half of his face. The skin that one could see was of a light gray, and his beard was of short, blue and cerulean hair.

“Is there anything of interest here that you’d wish to purchase?”

Sunset approached the stand, “What intrigues me more than the purchase of a few lacrima crystals is the fact that you have so many out in the open in a place like this and you still have all of them. How come it don’t look like you’ve been robbed yet?”

“Oh, believe me. They’ve tried. And they quickly learned that robbing my stand is as foolish as robbing a fully stocked ammunitions store.”

Sunset raised her eyebrows in intrigue.

“Really?” she pointed to the crystals on the table. “These are weapons? I thought lacrima crystals were for utility and medical purposes?”

“True, but I have many of them installed inside mechanisms that allow the lacrima to be used in more... offensive ways.”

“Show me something,” Sunset said, crossing her arms, pretending to be unimpressed.

The man pulled out a rapier from underneath the table. The entire sword was made of a snow white steel. There was a six-round revolver cylinder in between the grip and the blade with an arrowhead-like guard encompassing it.

“This sword, named ‘Myrtenaster,’ is designed to be able to use Dust to imbue elemental properties into the blade,” he said as he split the grip from the cylinder, opening it like a Webley revolver and inserted a small vial of white Dust into one of the chambers. He closed it, flipped the sword over in the air, grabbing hold of the blade to hand it to Sunset with the hilt facing towards her.

“Try it for yourself.”

She took the sword in hand, weighed it and swung it around to get a feel for it.

As Sunset was assessing the sword, the old man turned to Sweetie Belle.

“Is there anything of interest here for you, little one?”

“Not from what I can see.”

The man sifted through a box he had at his side. “Well, how about this?” The man held out his hand. In it was a bracelet with three little, light blue, elongated diamond-shaped lacrima crystals linked together at the sides with a small silver chain. The cut of the gems had a circular shape in the center with eight faces radiating from the circle.

These crystals, as they were laid out in the man’s hand, sparked something in Sweetie Belle’s mind. Suddenly, she eagerly spat out the words, “How much?”

The man gently grabbed Sweetie Belle’s hand and placed the bracelet in her opened palm. As the jewels glowed brighter, he wrapped her fingers around the bracelet and whispered, “No charge.” He smiled as Sweetie Belle clenched the bracelet close to her chest.

Then Sweetie Belle was hit with a bit of inquiry, “What exactly does it do?”

“Not much of anything, really.” the man responded, “It just looks pretty,”

Sunset finished appraising the sword and handed it back to the man by placing it on the table. “Interesting, but swordplay ain’t my forte. What else you got?”

The vendor brought out a short, gold arm bracer with multi-colored lacrima crystals embedded into it like decorative jewels.

“This is designed to consistently cast a spell that is programmed into it without conscious input from the wearer.”

“And what kind of spell is programmed into it?”

“Nothing yet, but I would advise you not to use any projectile spells...”

They spent a few minutes going through the old man’s inventory and Sunset walked away with having purchased an automatic spell casting bracelet, and 2 boxes of hollow-point bullets.

Usually, she doesn’t use hollow-points, but these bullets, however, were filled with Dust in their hollow tips, allowing for a special yield to be added to these rounds. (She had one box of fire Dust points and one of ice Dust.)

Sweetie Belle walked away from this with her new favorite bracelet.

As they were walking back to the car, Sunset noticed at how Sweetie Belle was looking at her new bracelet. She was in a sort of trance, it was as if she was looking at something far away that used to be so close, she had a look that was a mix of happiness and sadness, a look of longing, and of hopelessness.

Eventually, Sunset’s curiosity got the better of her, and she asked what was eating Sweetie Belle, knowing full well she’d probably regret asking.

“Huh? N-nothing. What makes you say that?” Sweetie Belle responded rather abruptly.

“I’ve seen that look before. You miss someone.”

Sweetie Belle stopped, frozen in her tracks. tears started to form in her eyes.

“It’s just that...” she said, “This just reminds me of my sister...”

“Oh great. Not again.” Sunset thought to herself as she stopped and turned around to pay attention, or at least pretend to.

“She was obsessed with gems like these, and would often put them on many of the dresses she made. Beautiful and elegant, just like her dresses and the gems she collected.” a tear fell down Sweetie's cheek. “And these gems, in particular, look just like her cutie mark.”

“Her cutie mark?” Sunset asked.

“Yeah, three gems that look just like these on the back of her hand. What’s yours?”

Sunset pulled down the collar of her shirt, partially revealing a shimmering sun on her right shoulder, under her collarbone. “I always thought cutie marks were a silly thing.”

“How’d you get it?” Sweetie Belle asked eagerly.

Sunset glared at her. “That’s none of your business.” she turned around to walk off, expecting Sweetie Belle to be done talking, but Sweetie Belle continued to speak.

“Rarity was the best...”

At this point, Sunset just droned out the rest of the conversation as they walked back to the car. But one thing stuck in her mind. “Rarity... Why does that name sound familiar?”

Eventually, Sunset, with the Crusaders in the passenger seats, reached a building with a sign that read, “Mos Equus Cantina.”

“So, yer’ friend works in that there building?” said Apple Bloom.

“No, he owns ‘that there building.’” Sunset responded, mocking Apple Bloom’s accent. “And I wouldn’t call him much of a ‘friend.’” She unbuckled her seatbelt. “OK. Now, Red, you’re coming with me.”

“I’ve told you before, mah name is Apple Bloom.”

“And I thought I’ve clearly expressed myself that I. Don’t. Care. Now get a move on. I have business to attend to.”

Sunset and Apple Bloom entered the cantina. The place smelt of old cider. There were various groups of people sitting around tables, in booths, and at the bar discussing different things with each other. The band in the cantina was playing some kind of jazz.

The bartender, a tall, pudgy man, was polishing a glass cup when he spotted Sunset and Apple Bloom. “Hey!” he said in a slightly gruff voice. “We don’t serve their kind here.” he pointed at them.

Sunset was puzzled by this and said, “Excuse me?”

“That earth pony filly,” he replied, and pointed at Apple Bloom again, and nearly everyone in the cantina paused their conversation to look at the commotion. “She’ll have to wait outside. We don’t want them in here.”

Sunset noticed everyone staring at them but replied to the bartender, “Well, if you could just mind your own gorram business and ignore the kid we shouldn’t have a problem, now should we?” she said, ending with a smile.

The bartender scowled and went back to polishing his glass.

“‘Sides she’s not here for a drink, so you shouldn’t have to serve her anyhows.” Sunset said walking up to the bartender and continued in a hushed tone, “And I’m here to see Badger.”

The bartender paused for a moment and quirked an eyebrow at Sunset. “You sure you want to do business with Badger again?”

Sunset winced at this. Taking a deep breath as if she had experienced a jolt of pain.

She recovered her composure as she said, “He knows where to get somethin’ I’m looking for.” She glanced over at the glass the bartender was polishing and nodded towards it. “Pour me a Clydesdale, Jack.”

He put the glass in his hand away as he pulled a slightly smaller one out and poured out a bottle of Clydesdale Whiskey into it. “I heard he bailed out on a deal with you last time.” he handed the glass to Sunset.

Sunset shot a glare at him. “You know what I said about minding your own gorram business?” She took the glass and chugged it down. “You should really get that through your thick skull.” she handed the glass back to him and took a seat on a stool further down the bar.

Apple Bloom followed Sunset and sat on a stool next to her. The bartender gave an angry glare at Apple Bloom. When Apple Bloom noticed this, she recoiled a little bit, startled by the man’s expression.

Sunset glanced at Apple Bloom, then the bartender and said to Apple Bloom, without facing her, “He don’t like you sitting there Red.”

Apple Bloom did a sort of double take as she tried to face Sunset, as her fear was trying to keep her attention back on the bartender, he looked ready to reach over the bar and grab her by the neck and throw her out.

“OK?” she finally said facing Sunset, but her eyes still on the bartender.

“He don’t want you here in the first place, but since you are here, and you ain't gonna buy anything, he doesn’t want you sitting in a seat that could be filled by someone who WILL buy something. Dǒng ma?”

“Uh...”

“Just get out of the chair.” Sunset exasperated.

Applebloom complied with Sunset’s command, and she sat down at the foot of Sunset’s stool, leaning up against it.

The bartender relaxed and said, “I’ll go get Badger for you.” and he handed Sunset a refilled glass of Clydesdale Whiskey and called for a coworker to man the bar for him while he was away.

Apple Bloom took in a deep breath, smelt the cider in the air and, much to Sunset’s dismay, spoke, “This place smells like old cider. Just like what my siblings and I used to make...”

Sunset grimaced chugged the glass of whiskey she had in hand, then called to the temporary bartender, “Joe,” she said as placed the glass on the other side of the bar from her.

Joe came over with a bottle of Clydesdale Whiskey to refill the glass, but before he left Sunset placed a hand on the bottle, and said, “I’m gonna need you to leave the bottle.” She slipped three bits over the counter, and Joe discretely picked the bits up and placed them in his pocket.

Sunset was working hard to make sure she was walking the fine line of being on the edge of drunkenness so that A: she would not pass out before negotiations. B: recover quickly when she started to deal with Badger, and C: drone out whatever the Hell Apple Bloom was saying at the moment.

After a while Apple Bloom stopped talking and Sunset started to relax and nurse her headache she gained in the middle of all that, and yet, still no word from Badger.

Meanwhile, a bald man wearing a flannel shirt with torn sleeves, revealing a cutie mark of two crossed shotguns over a beer bottle on his right shoulder, a pair of jeans with holes at the knees and mucked up dress boots, and holding a mug of beer in one hand. He yelled at the band playing to shut up because, apparently, he had something important to say. It really wasn’t.

“A toast! For today is an auspicious day,” he said when he got the band and to room to quiet down, waving the mug he had in his hand around. “Today was the day when Empress Twilight Sparkle killed that incompetent Princess Celestia and defeated the bunch of scumbags that called themselves ‘The Wonderbolts,’ along with her. I’m talking Elysia day!”

A random man in the room responded with a half-hearted “Yeah!” when he finished, and the speaker took a seat next to Sunset.

“Joe,” Said Sunset. “‘nother glass.” Joe filled up Sunset’s glass.

“You gonna drink to Empress Twilight Sparkle’s achievement with me?” the man said.

Sunset said nothing and simply downed her glass, and she didn’t even give the man a look.

“You didn’t toast.” he said.

Sunset smirked at this and turned her head to face the man when she saw Jack signaling her that Badger was ready to see her.

She gave a deep sigh. “Love to carry on this conversation, but I’ve got business to attend to.” she got up and kicked at Apple Bloom to get her to stand up and walk with her to meet Badger.

As Sunset and Apple Bloom walked over to Jack, Sunset spotted a Pegasus woman, with hot pink skin and electric blue hair, with a cutie mark of two blue lightning bolts on her right cheekbone, wearing a brown fliers coat, pants and combat boots, walking in her direction. Sunset put up her hand to the woman’s shoulder as they met to stop her. Sunset pulled out four bits from her pockets and held them up to the woman she just stopped.

“Four bits to go punch that guy in the face for me.” Sunset offered the stranger, and she dropped the coins into the woman’s open hand.

The woman raised an eyebrow, scoffed and said, “Honey, I aim to misbehave.” and she put the coins into her pocket. And she walked away, giving a pat on Sunset’s shoulder.

“What was that about?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Nothin’ you need to concern yourself about.” Sunset said as she turned around for a brief moment to glance at the woman she just paid to go beat up that man as she took a seat next to him, then continued to follow Jack to Badger.

They followed Jack into a weakly lit room, almost all of the light that illuminated the room was coming from the outside through the heavily shaded windows. Any artificial light was reserved for the corners of the room and a desk. Behind the desk sat a short pegasus man. His face had a 5 o’clock shadow except for his chin. He was wearing a dark suit and necktie, without an actual shirt underneath the tie, with a small branch of cranberries pinned to the lapel of his suit, and a black bowler hat.

Spread throughout the edges of the room were burly men armed with automatic weapons, all had their eyes on Sunset and Apple Bloom, in case either of them decide to do anything funny.

“Sunset.” the man in the bowler hat said with a slight Braytish accent.

“Badger.” she replied, crossing her arms and leaning on one foot.

“What brings you on by? Still complaining about the payment from last time?” he said as he started to idly rotate an apple peeler, slowly skinning the red apple that was placed in it.

“Hard to complain about a payment that I didn’t receive.”

Badger chuckled lightly.

“I’m here looking for some information.” Sunset said as she shifted her weight to her other foot “I was hoping you just might have it.”

“And just what kind of... information... are you askin’ for?”

She shrugged. “Rumors, mostly. Rumors about the ‘unopenable canister.’ The ownership of which has a tendency of changin’ from time to time.”

Badger stopped peeling the apple and raised an eyebrow. “Treasure hunting again are we? I thought you gave up on that.”

“Yeah, well. Difficult to resist the prospect of money. Am I right?”

Badger simply sat there with a critical look on his face as looked at Sunset up and down, then he looked at Apple Bloom. Leaning forward, putting his elbows on his desk, he said, “This has nothing to do with the kid, does it?”

Sunset shot a quick glance at Apple Bloom, returned to Badger and said, rather quickly, “No. Why?”

“Well, I was just curious. What’s an earth pony doing in my bar where I have explicitly said ‘No Earth Ponies Allowed’?”

“That ain’t none of your gorram business.” Said Apple Bloom confidently.

“Well now.” Badger said as he sat up, got up out of his seat and walked towards Apple Bloom. “Looks like the little one can talk.”

Apple Bloom nervously backed up a bit as he approached.

Badger stopped short of where Apple Bloom originally stood and knelt down some to get closer to her eye level. “And she’s got a sharp tongue.”

Sunset stepped in between the two and brought Badger’s attention back to her. “You’re supposed to be dealing with me, Ǎi.”

Badger stood up straight and, still shorter than Sunset, looked up at her in the eyes, shrugged and said, “I got nothin’ for you.” and he returned to his desk.

“Aw, come on Badger.” Sunset said indignantly. “You’ve always got something.”

“Last I heard of it, it was in Alliance hands.” he sat down. “Then some random fellow came by and stole it.”

“He didn’t leave some kind of name, or tell? He didn’t brag about stealing from the Alliance?”

“Nope. All my intel could gather is that he was wearing an all-black suit and helmet while riding a motorcycle.”

Sunset held her hands up in frustration. “That’s it?!” she shook a little violently. “You have given me dozens of useless information before, and now all you give me is a man in black on a motorcycle!?”

“Oi!” he said. “That was the last confirmed location of the can, and now it is lost to the winds. Besides, I thought you didn’t like getting involved with the Alliance.”

There was a moment of silence as Sunset returned to a neutral stance, only now noticing that the guards had their weapons raised by her little outburst.

Badger broke the silence with, “We’re done here. Men, escort these ladies out.”

The men around the walls broke their formation and walked towards Sunset and Apple Bloom.

Sunset started walking aggressively toward Badger as she said, “Oh no. We’re not done yet-” and she was interrupted by two men grabbing her upper arms and picking her up, walking towards the door. “You haven’t told me everything you know!” she finished.

As the two men carried Sunset out, Apple Bloom shrieked as a third man picked her up by the back of her jacket with one hand and carried her out with Sunset with ease.

Chapter 7: Taking up passengers

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Sunburst’s cell doors hissed as the pneumatic locks on the door released, and the door slid open. Sunburst turned his head to see who came to visit his cell.

The person to walk in first was Starlight Glimmer.

Sunburst jumped up onto his feet immediately when he saw her. “Starlight?” he asked, surprised to see her.

Starlight stood there for a moment with a flat expression then she responded with a hard punch to his gut and then she grabbed his throat by one hand and slammed him against the wall, holding him up a couple inches off the ground on the wall. When everything stopped moving so fast Sunburst could see the pure rage that filled Starlight’s eyes as she held him still.

Starlight was charging a ball of cyan energy behind her to ram into Sunburst’s face when a voice came from just outside the cell door.

“Now now Lady Glimmer.” Another figure followed the voice behind Starlight. He was dressed in a grey suit with darker grey lapels, wearing high ranking military bars on the left side of his suit. He had long blonde hair and sky blue eyes. Overall he had an air of being a pompous, entitled prick. “If you kill him now, we won’t be able to get any information out of him.” he grinned.

Starlight glared at the pompous prick as she released her grip on Sunburst.

Sunburst’s feet touched the ground, and he started gasping for breath as he rubbed his throat. Starlight didn’t even move away before she turned around to give a good punch across Sunburst’s face, knocking him back onto his cot, then moved to stand behind the pompous, her arms crossed and glaring daggers at Sunburst.

“Good to see you too,” Sunburst said as he recovered from being punched in the face. “What do you want?”

The pompous spoke. “I am Admiral Blue Blood. I want you to tell me the location of the rebel base.”

Sunburst chuckled. “What the hell makes you think that I’ll tell you anything? You gonna torture me or something?”

Starlight started to move towards Sunburst but was stopped after one step by Blue Blood, holding up a hand, signaling her to halt.

Starlight glanced at him, then begrudgingly took a step back.

Blue Blood grinned. “I have my ways,” he said as he motioned with his other hand for something to come in.

He stood aside as a floating black metal sphere hovered into the room. It had dull lights flickering all over its exterior and several antennae pointing backward from the grill that looks to be its front. Attached at the bottom of the sphere was a short metal arm that held a syringe filled with a clear liquid.

Sunburst slowly reared back as the machine buzzed and slowly hovered closer to him.

Blue Blood’s grin got wider, and Starlight cracked a grin as she watched Sunburst with intentness.

A bar fight was going on as the two men were escorting Sunset and Apple Bloom off the premises, but the brawl didn’t hinder the men from completing their task.

Apple Bloom was thrown out first. She was literally airborne for a couple seconds, screaming and flailing her arms before she landed face down in the dirt a few feet away from the entrance. Sunset quickly followed suit, as she was tossed out similarly, but backward, falling on her butt. Landing away at equal, if not less, distance away from the door as Apple Bloom.

Sunset groaned as she got up and dusted herself off. Then she yelled some profanity in manedarin at the men that threw them out and were now back inside the bar.

Sunset continued to speak profanity in manedarin as she grumbled to herself and started dragging Apple Bloom, by the collar, on her way to the car.

At the car, Scootaloo was sitting down while holding her arm out, being wrapped in a bandage by the lacrima vendor from earlier, with Sweetie Belle sitting opposite of the man from Scootaloo.

When Sunset saw this, she immediately dropped Apple Bloom and rushed over towards, the one who she viewed as her most valuable asset out of the three Crusaders.

“Are you OK?” Sunset asked Scootaloo, kneeling in front of her.

“Yeah, I’m OK,” Scootaloo replied. “Just a little roughed up from a couple of loudmouths trying to steal our stuff-”

“My stuff.” Sunset interrupted.

Scootaloo blinked, internally questioning the necessity of the outburst, before continuing, “Anyway, they tried to break into the car, but I stopped them. They gave me a nasty cut on my arm here.” she pointed to her arm that was currently being bandaged by the hooded man, “Then this guy here showed up and summoned an awesome light sword-thing and cut off one of their arms!”

“Well, I’m thankful to see that you’re ok,” Sunset said as she stood back up.

“I’m fine too. Thanks for asking.” Sweetie Belle grumbled under her breath.

“Thank you, sir,” Sunset said facing the man in robes.

“Think nothing of it.” The man said as he waved a hand in dismissal. “I’m just glad that I was here at the right time to save this little girl’s life.” Sunset took a step towards the driver seat when the man continued to speak, “By the way, do you know a good driver for hire?” the man asked her.

Sunset took a step back and faced the man a bit. “I can drive. What’s the cargo?”

“Only passengers. Myself, one other we’ll pick up later, -and no questions asked.”

Sunset quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms, shifting her weight to one foot. “You in some kind of local trouble?”

“Let’s just say I’d like to avoid any Alliance affairs.”

“Well now, that’s gonna cost you a pretty bit. Eleven hundred bits, all up front.”

“Eleven hundred bits?” asked Sweetie Belle. “He could buy his own car with that.”

“Well, who’s gonna drive it, kid?” Sunset said, facing her briefly then returned to the man.

The man waved his hand to calm Sweetie Belle. “I’ll pay you two hundred now, plus fifteen when we’re done.”

“Seventeen hundred?” Sunset pursed her lips and nodded. “You’ve got yourself a driver.” and she shook the man’s hand. “Ready whenever you are.”

Sunburst, his hands cuffed, was being escorted to the bridge of the aircraft. He entered the bridge and saw a large window spanning almost the entire length of the wall, while every other wall was lined with consoles, a man at nearly every one of them all facing towards the center of the room. He then saw the familiar faces of Admiral Blue Blood and Starlight Glimmer, the Admiral held his hands behind his back while looking out the window, while Starlight had her arms crossed, leaning against a console.

Looking out the large window, he could see the bow of the airship. It was almost four hundred meters in length, two-thirds of the ship was split into two broad prongs, the inner walls being perfectly parallel to each other the outer walls angled to make a triangular shape, and giant rings spanning the length of the gap every several hundred feet.

Admiral Blue Blood turned around and acknowledged Sunburst’s entrance.

Sunburst was led past Starlight to Blue Blood. “So,” he said, “I see Twilight’s personal lap dog wanted to see me personally. I could smell your stench once I left the elevator.”

“Charming to the bitter end.” The admiral replied. He then turned to Starlight, “I can see why you two were friends.” he pointed back and forth between Starlight and Sunburst. “I was quite surprised to see at how fast she was to second the order to terminate your life.”

Sunburst gave a heavy sigh, “I’m not.”

Blue Blood continued, “Before your execution, I invite you to be my guest to a ceremony that will signify this battleship to be fully operational. No city, town or village will dare oppose the empress now.”

Sunburst chuckled, “You can't beat a man the same way you beat a horse, because the harder you beat a man, the taller he stands.”

“Not after this demonstration!” Blue Blood shot back, “In a way, you have chosen the first target to be destroyed by Empress Twilight’s own hands. Since you are reluctant to provide us with information on the rebel base, I have chosen to test Empress Twilight’s new destructive power on your home village.”

Sunburst cocked his head. “Do you even know the name of my home village?”

Blue Blood blinked, “Well, no. As it stands right now, I don’t think it even has a name, but Lady Glimmer can confirm that this is indeed the right place, since you two grew up together in said village.”

Sunburst looked to Starlight, and she nodded sternly.

Sunburst swung his head back to see the windows blacked out and a view screen lowered, showing they were indeed targeting his home village. Taking a step forward, he pleaded to the admiral, “No, please, it’s a peaceful village, they have done nothing, you can’t possibly-”

“You have another target?! A military target?! Then give me a location!”

Sunburst looks at the viewscreen showing his hometown, breathing heavy.

“I grow tired of asking this question.” the admiral said, looking down at Sunburst and stepping closer, forcing him to back up into the now standing Starlight Glimmer. “Where is the rebel base?”

After giving one final sigh, he hangs his head and says, “Appleloosa, they’re at Appleloosa.”

Blue Blood lifted his head and smiled, “There, you see Lady Glimmer. He can be reasoned with.” He turns to a man at a console, “Continue with the operation.” he presses and holds a button. “You may fire when ready, your majesty.”

“WHAT!?” Sunburst exclaimed.

“You’re far too trusting my good man. Appleloosa is far too remote a location for a proper first demonstration, but don’t worry, we’ll get to your friends soon enough.” he slowly paces away.

Sunburst starts to lunge hopelessly at Blue Blood but is stopped when Starlight jumps ahead of him and, with a sharp snap and hiss, a cyan blade of light appears at his throat. Sunburst freezes and watches helplessly as men around the room chatter back and forth all the while flipping switches, pressing buttons, and turning dials.

Meanwhile, Empress Twilight was standing on a small platform at the base of the fork in the ship. The platform was raised to center her position to the rings spanning the craft, giving her a clear view of the village.

She had three jewels floating around her, one orange in the shape of an apple, one red in the shape of a lightning bolt, another a purple diamond.

An intercom buzzed, “You may fire when ready, your majesty.”

Twilight smirked and held out her hands to the sides, palms facing up, and mechanisms on the wall behind her came to life. Glowing with her energy, the devices moved in large circular motions, making an ever-changing, spinning giant magical circle.

The three gems circling her flew backward to the magic circle and stationed themselves at three out of the five empty smaller circles of the larger circle, all of which were orbiting the center of the circle in the same direction.

As time went on, Twilight maintained her pose, and the glow became brighter, and the rotation of the mechanisms became faster. Within sixty seconds everything reached its peak and Twilight reeled her arms back, palms facing forward, and thrust them forward, sending a massive beam of energy from her hands through the lenses in front of her. Three more rays emanated from the jewels and burst forth as well, their trajectory aimed to meet Twilight’s beam at the first lens between them and the bow of the ship. The three lasers had become one and flew through the ship to the final lens in front and balled up before continuing at a different trajectory towards the center of the village. When the beam made contact with the ground, a massive mushroom-cloud of dirt and flying debris instantly took its place with the sound of a gigantic explosion threatening to rupture her eardrums.

The shockwave sent enough debris up in the air that it managed to scratch and crack a few of the lenses lining the center of the ship, enough to hinder any future uses until fixed and caused minor scratching to the underside plating of the vessel.

Starlight faced the view screen and lowered her arm, her beam sword dissipated, and Sunburst fell to his knees, tears were flowing down his face as he looked to Starlight.

“Why?” was all that he could say, before she turned to look at him, her eyes showing no emotion. “Why would you do this?!” he screamed walking closer to her on his knees. “Why would you let your home be destroyed? Your family... your friends!”

Starlights eyes flared with rage as she kicked Sunburst across the face, sending him flying a couple of feet before landing on the ground unconscious.

A couple of guards picked him up and dragged him back to his cell, while Blue Blood issued an order to send a reconnaissance team to Appleloosa.

Meanwhile, Starlight stormed off to a training room and set it to maximum difficulty.

Sunset decided to stop in the middle of nowhere and set up camp to rest for the night. The sun was hardly close to setting, but better to start when there was light then try to set up when you can’t see.

To her surprise, camp got set up much faster than expected, leaving a few hours before the sun actually sets. She decided to take this time to clean her guns, laying out her cleaning kit on the hood of her car. Meanwhile, the Crusaders decided to ask the old man a few questions.

Along the way there, the old man agreed to teach the Crusaders how to use a sword. With Sweetie Belle, notably, he taught her more magical spells and techniques on how she could summon her own “lightsaber.” Despite her best efforts, Sweetie Belle could never get one to form, all she could get was some sparks to fly out of her hands.

The man told Sweetie Belle not to worry for he, “feels that the force is strong in her.”

Sunset coughed, “Nerd!”

“What was that?” asked the man, genuinely curious.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just that a sword that you can hardly summon is no match for a good gun by your side.” Sunset said as she chambered a round in the handgun she had just finished cleaning and tossed it into her pocket dimension and pulled out another gun and began to field strip it.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had their swords facing each other. No movement was made for several moments, then suddenly Apple Bloom swung a downward strike, Sweetie Belle blocked and swung left, Apple Bloom parried. Apple Bloom’s next move was striking, in quick succession, Sweetie Belle’s right hand, and calf. Sweetie Belle recoiled in pain, shaking the struck hand and hopping briefly on the leg that wasn’t hit.

“Point: me.” Apple Bloom said, resting her sword on her shoulder, “18 to 1.”

“Come on Sweetie Belle, you gotta step up your game,” Scootaloo said, sitting in the dirt off to the side, her arms wrapped around her legs to let her chin rest on her knees, she was getting bored of Sweetie Belle’s insistent losing streak. “You’re not going to get any better if this keeps up.”

Sweetie Belle let out an angry sigh. “I know that! I’m trying the best I can!”

The old man then spoke up, “I suggest you go again, but this time focus on your blocking, let go of your conscious self,” he picked up a bandana and wrapped it around Sweetie Belle’s head, covering her eyes. “... and act on instinct.”

Sweetie Belle let out a laugh. “Aw come on. With this over my eyes, I can’t even see. How can I fight like this?”

“Don’t believe in yourself. Believe in the me that believes in you.” the man responded.

They all quirked their heads, then Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom posed themselves back into their fighting stance. Scootaloo got up, grabbed Sweetie Belle by the shoulders and repositioned her to face Apple Bloom properly and waved a hand in front of Sweetie Belle’s face to make sure that she really couldn’t see and sat back down.

Sunset had stopped what she was doing rested an elbow on the hood of the car, her chin in her hand. She wanted to see how this ridiculous idea would end.

A few moments of silence passed before Apple Bloom made her first move. She gave out a sharp exhale, feigning an attack, which Sweetie Belle moved to block in the absolute wrong direction. Apple Bloom smirked, then quickly swung horizontally, striking Sweetie Belle in the shoulder, she recoiled in pain.

“Stretch out with your feelings.” the man said.

Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and raised her sword, signaling she was ready.

Apple Bloom’s smirk never wavered, until she swung again.

*CRACK*

Sweetie Belle had successfully blocked an overhead attack coming from her left.

Apple Bloom was briefly stunned in awe before she quickly swung two more times.

*CRACK CRACK*, each coming from a different direction.

Sweetie Belle had blocked both attacks with ease. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and even Sunset Shimmer stood where they were, staring slack-jawed at the blindfolded child swordfighter.

“See? You can do it.” said the old man as Sweetie Belle took off her blindfold.

Sunset shook her head composed herself. “I call that lucky.”

“In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.”

“Good against another child is one thing, but good against a professional is something completely different.”

Suddenly, the ground shook beneath them momentarily. No one got hurt, but the old man seemed to have taken the unexpected earthquake the worst, he looked like he had a hole punched through his stomach in the middle of all that.

“Are you OK?” Scootaloo asked as she moved to prop up the old man.

“Yes, yes. I’m alright,” the man said. “I just felt a great disturbance, it was as if a thousand voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.”

The Crusaders look at each other worriedly, Sunset gave an inaudible scoff, and when the man said not to worry about him and get back to training, they did.

Starlight Glimmer was pacing back and forth around a large, round, shiny black conference table in the center of the room. Twilight was sitting at the head of the table, in the middle of Starlight’s looping path. She had her feet on the table, fondling the red lightning bolt jewel in one hand between her fingers, like a pirate with a cursed gold coin, with the two other gems floating at her shoulders. Every time Starlight passed by, Twilight would spare a glance at her apprentice, then return her attention back to the red jewel. Admiral Blue Blood was sitting a couple feet away from the edge of Starlight’s pacing, mulling over information on an electronic tablet.

Twilight eventually spoke up, “What has gotten you so nervous, my apprentice?”

Starlight stopped her pacing at the opposite end of the table from Blue Blood and faced Twilight. “I am not nervous, master.” she said calmly and coldly, “I’m just tired of waiting for us to kill that wong ba duhn.”

“Language.” interjected Blue Blood, not looking up from his tablet.

“You wanna go, pretty boy!?” Starlight yelled at Blue Blood, stomping a foot in his direction, her fists clenched and doused in a cyan fire, her eyes also burning with the same flame.

Blue Blood calmly set down the tablet, raised his hands as if surrendering, faced slightly away smugly, saying, “I wouldn’t dare challenge the apprentice of Empress Twilight Sparkle - killer of Princess Celestia.”

“And don’t you forget it.” Twilight responded smugly then turned to Starlight, “Be patient my apprentice. You will have your chance to kill him soon enough.”

Just then, a guard walks into the room. Everyone turned their attention to him, and Starlight’s fire died down.

“My liege,” the guard said facing his empress, “we have just received word from the scouting party from Appleloosa. They report that there was evidence of a rebel base within the town, but has been abandoned for some time now.”

The admiral slammed a fist down on the table and jumped up from his seat. “He lied! He lied to us!”

“I told you the fool would never cooperate.” Starlight deadpanned as she crossed her arms.

The Admiral glanced at Starlight then barked an order to the guard, “Terminate him. Immediately.”

Starlight perked up at the sound of the order. “Master, permission to execute the prisoner personally.” she said eagerly.

Her master simply smiled as she said, “Permission granted.”

With that Starlight burst into a brisk walk out the door, followed by the guard, whom she pushed out of the way as she went through the door.

Admiral Blue Blood then heaved a heavy sigh as he sat back down in his seat and pinched his brow to a furrow.

“Isn’t she just adorable when she becomes full of bloodlust like that?” Twilight asked her subordinate, as she now fondled the blue diamond jewel in her hand. “I’m so proud of her.”

The admiral groaned. “Yes. Now if only she could find her way around here on her own.”

Starlight had barely walked fifty meters down the hall when she suddenly stopped, causing the guard behind her to nearly collide into her.

She turned to the guard and said, “Do you know the way to the detention center?”

“No ma’am.” he replied, standing stiffly at attention, afraid of what she might do to him for almost running into her. “This is my first time here and I just barely arrived from the docks to deliver the scout report. Also, I haven’t seen any maps on the way over here.”

Like a whining child complaining about an annoying sibling to their parents, the apprentice yells, “MASTER~!” as she walks back to the direction she came from at the same speed she came with.

Chapter 8: The Midnight

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Sunset, her car loaded up with passengers, was driving through desert grassland. She was very thankful that everyone was keeping quiet and not disturbing her. That is until a massive dust storm was spotted directly in front of them.

Apple Bloom, who sat in the front passenger seat, was the one to break the silence, “Uh, Sunset? That sandstorm ahead of us looks a might big. Don't cha’ think we should try to go around it?”

Sunset didn’t even acknowledge Apple Bloom as she pondered over how she was going to handle this dust storm ahead of her.

“No.” she finally said. “If we try to go around it, it’ll catch us anyway, and we may lose our way in the middle of it, but if we keep heading straight-like, the storm will pass over quickly, and it’ll be out of our way.”

Apple Bloom and the others didn’t question her decision as Sunset pressed down harder on the gas pedal, accelerating the car to meet the dust storm head-on.

They made contact with the edge of the storm. The car felt like it had suddenly been bogged down. It felt as though they were driving through sludge.

Some time passed with complete silence and no visibility before they were greeted by a large piece of lumber that grazed against the side of the car, scratching up some of the car's paint and taking out a side mirror. This caused Sunset to over-correct and careen them off a short, steep cliff. Consequently, this activated the dumbest safety features installed in a hovercraft or any other vehicle for that matter. An automatic shutdown for angry drivers.

Obviously, this “safety feature” did not help the driver calm her nerves. Instead, the driver jumped out of the car screaming long streams of profanity at it, all the while kicking at its disabled propulsion jets in the middle of a nasty dust storm, that was luckily dying down for the sake of her health. The old man wanted to cover the little ones’ ears from the profanities, but he just didn’t have enough hands.

Resigning his control over their fate, the man gets out of the car and asks Sunset what she plans to do next.

Sunset crossed her arms, still fuming about the automatic shutdown. “I don’t rightly know, but I’m fixin’ to leave this piece of gos se and walk the rest of the way on foot.” she put a hand to her face and dragged it down, raking her fingertips across her face, as she let out a breath of deep agitation. “I just hope we ain’t too far now.

The man looked past Sunset, the dust storm having nearly wholly settled. “We’re close, but it’s a little... higher than I’d like it.” he raised a hand to point to something behind her.

Sunset turned around and saw a triangular airship floating in the sky. She recognized it to be part of Twilight’s royal army. She turned back to the old man. “You said you was heading to a village.”

“I was, and we have,” he responded, motioning to look at the area around them.

Sunset looked perplexed, then she had a look around and noticed that there was rubble of several buildings around her and a worn out sign barely reading “Bakery.” She quickly realized that they had reached their destination. Only now that destination was utterly destroyed.

“But now, if you want your money,” he continued, fixing his gaze on the airship, “you’re going to have to help me find my man aboard that ship.”

Sunset grimaced, glancing back at the airship. “That- shouldn’t be too hard. If he’s a passenger.”

“He’s not.” he said, not breaking his gaze upon the airship, “By now he’s a prisoner on board, and we’re going to break him out.”

“Now hold on just one damned second!” Sunset yelled as she summoned a pistol, grabbed the man by the collar and pointed her gun underneath his chin. “I usually don’t ask questions about my clients' agendas, but now that you are dragging me into said agenda I want to know a few things: Who are you and who do you want on that ship?”

The man hardly looked phased by the gun pointed at him. He glanced at the firearm before looking at Sunset dead in the eyes as he sighed and answered her question. “My name is Shining Armor. I’m a member of the Rebel Alliance, and the man I'm looking for on board that vessel has crucial information that can help us take down Twilight’s empire.”

Sunset was slightly taken aback by this. She let out a short laugh, let him go and holstered her pistol.

“Well then,” she said, placing one hand on her hip. “If you told me that we were gonna break a man with such valuable information out of an Imperial prison you could have gotten me to do this job with only half of what you're currently paying me.”

Shining Armor blinked. “But- I only hired you to transport us.”

She shrugged. “Eh, I'd've joined you anyways. So, what’s the plan?”

“Well, the plan was that I was going to sneak on board with some of my men-” he glanced at the ruins around them, “But I assume that they are all dead now. So I'm going need to rely on you and those three girls to help me."

"Woah Woah Woah! Me AND those three!?" Sunset objected, pointing at the Crusaders. "They're kids. They're gonna to get in the way and get themselves killed. And I would very much like to keep them living right now."

Shining looked at the kids she was referring to. "They look to me like the kind of children that would follow someone into danger if it looked exciting enough." he turned back to Sunset. "So if we don't bring them, they will follow us anyway and make things even more complicated, but if we bring them along and make them part of the plan, I believe they will be helpful."

Sunset looked like she had been slapped across the face with a live fish, glancing back and forth between him and the Crusaders. She then finally stared at the Crusaders for a couple seconds, remembering back to when they broke into her house, then she finally conceded.

"Alright, you win. But you're paying me a couple hundred extra bits, and the orange one with the wings is stayin' right by my side. Dǒng ma?"

He gave a curious look at her but then shook away his curiosity. "OK then. Bring them out so we can discuss the plan."

The Crusaders looked out the window of the car, watching the old man talk to Sunset Shimmer. The old man made them promise to stay in the car no matter what happened. So when Sunset pulled a gun on the man, they got extremely anxious but, true to their word, they stayed in the car.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Scootaloo asked the others, her head resting on her crossed arms, as she was leaning on the door.

They see Sunset point to them with a dubious look on her face.

"Ah'm gonna take a wild guess and say it's us." Apple Bloom said, half standing in front of Scootaloo, leaning against the back of the front seat, her bow touching the roof of the car. "Apparently it's not a happy subject."

"What does that woman have against us?" Sweetie Belle growled, sitting in the middle seat, behind Scootaloo, her arms crossed.

"Oh Gee, I don't know," Apple Bloom said sarcastically, looking at Sweetie Belle, "We broke into her house, attacked her on our way out, and almost stole her car."

"I mean besides that."

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes and returned her gaze to outside, seeing Sunset walking up to them.

Scootaloo lifted herself off the door so that she didn't fall when Sunset opened the door.

"Alright. Come out you three. We've got a job to do."

"What do you mean by ‘we’ and 'a job'?" Sweetie Belle asked, quirking an eyebrow at Sunset.

Sunset sighed. "I mean: You're part of my crew, and we're going to be breaking a man out of prison on a flying airship."

"I don't remember joining your 'crew.'" Sweetie Belle said as she used air quotes around the last word.

"Well, you're a part of it now. Now shut up, get out here, and pay attention."

A small hovercraft descended from the airship, heading towards the crater that used to be a town. When the craft landed, the hatch opened, and two men in heavy power armor walked out of the ship and started patrolling the area. Both men's power armor was colored blue, one lighter than the other, both had a big yellow square painted across the faces of their helmets.

"Why did you want to come down here again?" said the one with the lighter blue armor, his voice distorted electronically through his helmet.

The other’s voice was also distorted by his helmet, but he had a more chipper tone than his partner. "I want to get a souvenir," He walked out of the ship towards the reduced town.

"And why did you have to bring me?"

"Because I would have been lonely searching for a souvenir out here all by myself."

"Couldn't you have bothered Tucker for this instead?"

"He's not as fun as you are, Church. So, are you going to help me find a good souvenir in all this rubble, or not?"

The one in light blue armor sighed and muttered, “I hate you Caboose.” under his breath and followed after him.

Caboose brushed some rubble off a small jewelry box.

"Hey, Church! Look at what I found!" he opened it up and found only five bottle caps inside.

"That's the tenth box we've found with only, like, three bottle caps inside of it!" Church complained. "We even lockpicked a small safe and found like what seven caps?"

"Actually it was eight caps and a nightgown."

"Who would actually lock that kind of stuff up? I mean that's just ridiculous!"

He was about to say more, but something grabbed his attention, a small clattering of rubble, there was someone else here.

"Did you hear that?" Church asked.

"Hear what?"

"I'm not sure, but it's coming from over there." Church pointed to a wall that was miraculously still standing after the massive explosion that decimated the place earlier.

Both men approached the wall carefully, guns at the ready. Church was leading; after he turned to check behind the wall, a knife was plunged into Caboose's neck. He screamed loudly in pain as he was quickly dragged behind the wall from Church's current position. Church swiftly turned around and was blinded by a bright flash of light, his gun wrenched out of his hands and a knife now stuck in his throat.

Sunset cleaned off the last bit of blood that was staining the armor she was about to wear, Shining Armor already suited up in the dark blue suit, adjusting his helmet.

"Do you think this is really going to work?" asked Sweetie Belle, from the driver's seat of the hovercraft. "I mean, is this armor even the right size for you?"

Sunset took off her boots and slipped on the light blue armored pants. She swayed her hips, checking her range of motion. "Yep. I think so."

Sunset got a little help from Shining Armor with putting on the chest plate, but once she got it on, it fit her perfectly, especially considering her breasts. Once Shining Armor and Sunset Shimmer were all suited up they loaded up Sunset’s car to “impound” it and flew the transport craft up to the airship they learned to be named “The Midnight” and Empress Twilight’s personal flagship for her armada. After passing some lazily done security detail, Sunset and Shining swapped their armor for the more generic stark white color variant and suited up the Crusaders in junior officer uniforms and headed for a nearby control room.

When Starlight Glimmer had returned to The Midnight from Sunset’s safe house, she brought along a unique individual. This individual was identified as Trixie Lulamoon by Empress Twilight Sparkle. Trixie had once challenged the Empress to a magic duel sometime before she became an alicorn. Trixie was alive, but she had clearly seen better days, she had several large, bleeding gashes across her entire body and crude body piercings made from pieces of rusty metal on her lips and face. This was a clear sign that of an encounter with Reavers and, surprisingly, her psyche didn’t completely break down into utter insanity. The doctors say she may not be able to make a full psychological recovery, but she may recover enough to be able to function within normal society. Physically, though, Trixie would need to undergo major surgery. Her right eye, her entire left arm, and both feet had become infected beyond repair and thus would need to be surgically removed before the infection could spread any further.

As the Empress was guiding her apprentice to the detention center, they were discussing their plans for Lulamoon. Though the wannabe sorceress Trixie did defeat Twilight in their first magic duel with the help of the alicorn amulet, only to later be outsmarted into losing the talisman by the very stage magic she practiced, the Empress had no plans for retribution against the weak and pitiful Trixie. Recalling Trixie’s encounter with the alicorn amulet and her survival against a reaver encounter, a fate nopony survives even if one isn’t medically deceased, Twilight theorized that she may be able to find something of value within Trixie.

“Prepare to transport Miss Lulamoon to the Kamane-o offshore research outpost. I believe she’d be of use there.” Twilight commanded a passing medical officer as they made their way to the detention center.

“Why?” Starlight questioned, “Isn’t that the place where we create our soldiers? If all she needs are cybernetic replacements why can’t we do that here?”

Twilight didn’t break her pace or look at her apprentice as she spoke, “I don’t plan on merely replacing her lost limbs if it comes at no benefit to me. She survived a Reaver encounter, actually SURVIVED a reaver encounter. Stories say that even if you survive an encounter with the Reavers... you don’t.”

Starlight quirked an eyebrow. “I don’t see how this makes her any valuable.”

Twilight appeared unfazed as she continued to expand her speculation for keeping Trixie, “It appears that Trixie has gained a resistance to mind-altering magic - be it her personality, her experience with the alicorn amulet or a combination of the two - and you of all ponies should know about the reavers, because-” she suddenly froze in place and sucked in a deep breath as her eyes went wide.

Starlight stopped and did a double take as her master disappeared from her side only to find her several feet behind, staring off into space. “Master? Is everything alright?”

“I sense something... familiar. A presence. A presence I have not felt since-” a wicked grin spread across Twilight's face as she spontaneously burst into a pace that Starlight struggled to keep up with at a casual pace. Twilight looked like a predator on the hunt.

An imperial officer sat in his chair, staring at his console screen, being utterly bored out of his mind. He rapped his fingers on the table as he frequently shifted his focus of vision from what was on his screen to the reflection of the screen, seeing three other guys working behind him. He began to doze off when a buzzer sounded, signaling that someone was at the door, the only door, to this room - other than the bathroom. One officer that was already standing walked over to the door and opened it to reveal two soldiers in white armor and three female junior officers, one pegasus, one earth pony and one unicorn, standing behind them. The two soldiers entered the room wordlessly.

“Can I help you?” the officer who opened the door asked the two soldiers.

They said nothing as one of them pushed a button that closed the door behind them, leveled their guns at the officers and began shooting, quickly killing all four of them.

Sunset and Shining Armor removed their helmets after they let the disguised Crusaders in once they had cleared the room of possible hostiles, locking the door afterward.

“You know," said Shining Armor, "with all this gunfire, I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole ship knew we were on here by now.” as he set his helmet and gun down on a nearby table and began taking off the rest of his armor. No one noticing a startled look on his face as he sucked in a deep breath.

“Bring them on. I’d prefer a straight fight.” Sunset said nonchalantly as she tossed a dead body laying on a console aside and began browsing the ship’s map for the detention center.

Shining glanced about, seeing no one noticed his... hiccup, he set about searching the computer for a way to shut down the outer defenses to allow for their escape, the Crusaders joining him.

“Found the detention center.” Scootaloo said aloud, “Only one prisoner,” she blanched, “and he’s scheduled for execution, immediately.”

“Well, glad we made it when we did,” Sunset said as she turned away from the computer screen and put on her helmet. “Where is it?”

Scootaloo traced a finger on the screen, counting the decks and finding the area labels. “Uh... deck 5, section D. Cell number: 05-25-77.”

“Alright. Squirt, you’re with me. Red, Marshmallow, you two are staying with him.”

Shining felt his gut wrench for some unknown reason but knew he had to convince Sunset to take the other two with her as well.

“No,” Shining spoke up, “They’re all going with you. They’re a team, and you don’t split up a team like this.”

Sunset glanced at Shining Armor, her face unreadable through the helmet. She groaned, “Fine, whatever. Just none of you get yourself killed out there. OK?”

All three girls nodded vigorously as the four of them went on their way to the detention center.

Shining Armor was left to himself as he found the core for the defense systems. Deck 13, section C. Ditching his armor, he left the control room sneaking about in his brown cloak.

When Sunset and the Crusaders reached deck 5 section C, the Crusaders had stacked themselves on top of each other in a totem pole fashion. Apple Bloom was at the bottom of the totem pole, being the strongest of the three, Scootaloo at the top, being the lightest. All the while Sweetie Belle cast an illusion spell to make the three of them appear to be one giant hairy humanoid creature that looked like it could rip your arms out of its sockets if you made it upset. To the relief of anyone who would see this creature, it appeared to be handcuffed.

“What is this... thing doing here?” said one of the four Imperial officers in the main room of the detention center, a pegasus woman of relatively high rank.

“Prisoner transfer.” Sunset responded, “Ordered here over an hour ago.”

The woman cocked her head. “I wasn’t notified of this. I’ll have to check this with my superiors.” she waved a hand, and two other men walked up to the hairy being.

Scootaloo let out a howl akin to a dog gargling water as Sweetie Belle made the illusion swing its arms wide, causing the men to flinch as Sunset yelled, “Look out! He’s loose!” and began firing at the officers. She quickly killed the two that were closest to the Crusaders, trying to escort them to a holding cell. The other two officers were behind consoles that they immediately used for cover once Sunset started firing at them. She managed to get one on the far side of the room as he peered up to take a shot at the Crusaders, while she flanked the last one and shot her down as she was cowering. All the while the Crusader had managed to split up and shoot down the security cameras with the guns salvaged from the first two dead officers before Sunset finished.

Once everything had quickly died down, Sunset ordered Sweetie Belle to go release the captive with Apple Bloom grabbing a rifle to cover her, as Scootaloo looked into locking out anyone else who wanted to get in, and Sunset covered the communication lines.

“Hello?” came the comm line. “Can anypony hear me?”

“Yeah, we can hear you,” Sunset said, pretending that everything was alright.

“We heard gunfire. Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, perfectly fine, just a malfunctioning rifle. We’re all ok... How are you?” she chuckled nervously to herself.

“We’re sending down a team to make sure everything is ok.”

“Uh, negative, negative. We have a, uh, radiation leak. Very large, very dangerous.”

“What? Who is this? What is your identification number?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Jiānguǒ dào zhè.” She backed up and fired a spray of bullets into the communications console, destroying it. “I never liked small talk anyways.” She turned down the hall where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle went down, “Girls! We're gonna have company!”

The two of them got the message and quickened their pace. Seventy-five, 76, 77! As Apple Bloom kept a lookout, Sweetie Belle opened the door and saw an orange stallion with red hair and large silver-rimmed glasses laying down on his bed, staring at the ceiling with his hands behind his head.

Once he heard the door open, he turned his attention to Sweetie Belle and furrowed his brow.

“Aren’t you a little young to be visiting prisoners on your own?”

“What?” Sweetie Belle looked down at herself remembering the uniform she was wearing. “Oh, my uniform.” she took off the hat she had been wearing as part of her disguise. “My name is Sweetie Belle, and I’m here to rescue you.”

The man slowly sat up in his bed, not really buying what Sweetie Belle was saying. “You’re who-now?”

“Sweetie Belle. I’m here to rescue you. We’re here with Shining Armor.”

The man jumped up from his bed. “Shining Armor!? Where is he?”

“Come on.” Sweetie Belle quickly led him out of the room as Apple Bloom followed, continuing to look behind their backs in case anyone unfriendly showed up.

“Name’s Sunburst, by the way.” the man said as they jogged down the hall to the main room. “Nice to meet you Sweetie Belle.” he turned to Apple Bloom. “And you?”

“Ah’m Apple Bloom.” she responded.

“Nice to meet you too Apple Bloom.” Sunburst smiled.

Once Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Sunburst reached the main room with Sunset and Scootaloo, Sunset and Sunburst locked eyes. Sunburst gave a surprised gasp while Sunset gave a hateful sneer.

“You?!” they both yelled at each other. “What are YOU doing here?”

Chapter 9: Family Reunions

View Online

The Crusaders looked back and forth between Sunset and Sunburst.

"You two know each other?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Sunburst gave a drawn-out sigh as he smiled meekly and rubbed the back of his neck, "It’s been a long time hasn’t it, Sunset?"

Sunset crossed her arms as she grumbled through gritted teeth, "Not long enough."

Sweetie Belle was about to speak up when a rapid beeping came from Scootaloo’s console, grabbing everyone’s attention.

"We’ve got company~!" Scootaloo shouted.

"Get behind me!" Sunset shouted as she raised an automatic rifle at the elevator doors, which promptly exploded in a bright flash of light, causing everyone to avert their eyes for a second as they retreated back down the corridor. Bullets began pouring in as Imperial soldiers waded through the massive amount of smoke created by the explosion that opened the elevator doors. Sunset fired back, covering Sunburst and the Crusaders as they withdrew into the hall. Finding good cover behind a pair of structural pillars, Sunset and Scootaloo were on one side while Sunburst, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom were standing across from them. Sunset occasionally peaked out from behind the pillar to fire a random spread to kill or dissuade any soldiers coming down the hallway.

"What's your escape plan now?" Sunburst yelled over the noise of constant gunfire.

"Shut up, you!" Sunset yelled at Sunburst as she peeked out again to fire another volley of bullets.

Sunburst huffed and rolled his eyes as he looked at the grate behind Scootaloo. His horn lit up as a magic aura enveloped his hands, and a modified Taurus Model 85 appeared in them. The gun's modifications were a brass coating, a longer barrel, and a more rounded grip. He opened up the revolver's cylinder, took out a crystal bullet and charged it with his light-yellow magic. The round was reloaded and chambered before it was fired at the grate behind Scootaloo, exploding and creating a hole in it, startling everyone around him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Sunset yelled.

"Somepony's gotta save our hides," Sunburst responded as he walked to the other side of the hallway, taking three blind potshots at the soldiers as he went along, and jumped down the newly opened grate.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom shared wide-eyed glances before they jumped down after Sunburst without a word. Sweetie Belle followed after them but stopped just short of jumping in.

"Get in there!" Sunset commanded.

"Oh Faust, it smells!" Sweetie Belle complained.

"Get in there! I don't care what you smell!"

Sweetie Belle was leaning in the opened grate head first when Sunset side-kicked her in the butt, causing her to fall, screaming a shrill screech all the way down.

After a short moment, Sunset followed suit, managing to kill a couple guards before she made her escape down the chute, diving head first.

---

Shining Armor walked down the halls of Deck 13 at a brisk pace. He was continually casting a spell that stretched out around him to detect any oncoming personnel who may sound an alarm if they were to see him. Unfortunately, this made him a beacon to the uneasy presence on board, a presence he was uncomfortably familiar with; a presence that was closing in on him ever so slowly with each passing moment and he knew it. He also knew he would have to face this presence eventually, but first, he had to make sure that his friend and his rescuers could get off this ship alive.

Shining found the door to the external defenses computer core. His detection spell informed him that no one was in the room, so he entered. The room had rows of monitors lining the walls and out in the middle. Shining approached one of the screens in the center of the room, pulled out a large neon green crystal from a pocket in his cloak and stabbed it into the display, causing sparks to fly out of it. As the crystal sat in the broken monitor, it began to glow as sharp, squared, magic tendrils emerged and stretched across to other screens. The tendrils reached into the computers and caused lines of text to appear on the displays, the lines appearing longer and faster with each second before, one by one, the screens turned blue with a static wall of white text. Satisfied with his work, Shining walked out and shut the door as the green crystal began to shine a bright white before self-destructing, exploding into smaller, almost imperceptible, shards, leaving only blue screens of death and an empty hole in a broken screen.

The uneasy presence had gained a lot of ground during the time Shining Armor spent sabotaging the defense systems; for all intents and purposes, he could feel the presence as if it was right around the corner. Shining wasted little time in making his way towards the docking bay.

The presence was still closing in on him; he knew he could not evade it forever.

He was prepared.

---

Sunset got up from where she landed, "The garbage chute, what a wonderful idea," she said, her voice drenched in as much sarcasm as she was in sewage. "What an incredible smell you’ve discovered!"

Sunburst groaned as he rolled his eyes, wiping off as much solid garbage as he could off of him. Apple Bloom was holding up Sweetie Belle as she struggled to keep the contents of her stomach inside her stomach while Scootaloo was tampering with the door trying to get it open.

"Now," Sunset continued, "We’re presumably stuck inside a trash compactor with no way of shuttin’ it down from the inside, and we are goin’ to be crushed to death - if a xuèxīng garbage monster doesn’t decide to drown us first!"

"Oh, would you stop!" Sunburst snapped. "Now is not the time for this fèihuà! We need to focus on getting out of here before any of that happens!"

Apple Bloom helped Sweetie Belle set herself down on some high ground, as far away from the water as she could. Sweetie was breathing laboriously, her eyes watering from the exertion of control over her gag reflex and the sheer stench of the place.

"While we’re waitin’ fer Scootaloo to open the door," Apple Bloom stated, getting impatient at the two's bickering and not wanting it to go any further, "Why don’t we try to get yer romantic issues out of the way?"

Sunset and Sunburst looked at Apple Bloom in disbelief.

"Gross!" they both yelled out loud.

"That’s my brother!"

"That’s my sister!"

Apple Bloom smacked her lips, "Oh..." and she awkwardly turned back to comforting Sweetie Belle, who managed to slow her breathing back to a regular pace.

"So," Sunburst began, turning around to face his sister, "What brought you to my little prison cell? Not checking in to see how your dear younger brother is doing, I'd wager."

"I was hired to save your scrawny little pi gu." Sunset sneered. She then waved a hand dismissively, "You're just lucky that my employer didn't say who you were. Otherwise, I might not have taken the job, and you would be executed by now."

"Oh, is that all?" Sunburst scoffed, "You didn't miss me? You didn't come and save your little brother from execution because you love him? You didn't come back to apologize for leaving home, without a word!?" he practically screamed that last question.

Sunset raised an eyebrow, "What's it matter? You pretty much had the easy life. Mom and dad always gave you everything you asked for. You never got in trouble for anything. They always showered you with praises. You got into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns just because you got your cutie mark. I was ignored by mom and dad for three months after that, it was like I didn't even exist and I had already gotten into Celestia's school, and I earned my spot, gorram it! You slacked off on all of your studies every chance you got!"

"At least I didn't kill mom and dad!" Sunburst snapped.

Sunset recoiled, "What are you talking about?"

"When you didn't come home that hearth's warming eve mom and dad started to get worried. 'Oh, she'll be fine.' They said, 'Probably just hung up on her studies, being a good student and all. She'll be here tomorrow.' A week went by, then a month. Nothing. Not even a note in your room saying when you left or why. They were heartbroken when they realized that you were never coming back. One day, I came home and found mom and dad passed out drunk on the floor clutching a picture of you in their hands. At least, I thought they were passed out, but their eyes were open, bloodshot, face stained with tears. Even as I moved them for the first few moments, it seemed that they refused to take their eyes off the picture they had in their hands." he sniffled and wiped his nose with a sleeve, a decision he immediately regretted afterward as he gagged at the rancid smell.

Sunset was breathing raggedly, trying to process just what she had been told and not to be overcome with emotion, a skill she learned quickly when working with ponies such as Badger or Flim and Flam, but now she felt that her poker face was at its limits.

"H-how are we on the... d-door, Squirt?"

Scootaloo eyed the arguing siblings briefly before wordlessly touching the ends of two cut wires, opening the door out of the garbage-filled room. Sweetie Belle bolted from her perch and out the door, taking deep gasping breaths of clean(er) air, everyone else following suit, albeit at a less vigorous pace.

---

Shining Armor was walking at a hastened pace down a hallway. He was a short ways away from the hangar when the presence he had wanted to avoid his entire visit on this ship was right in front of him only a few yards away. Twilight Sparkle. Shining's pulse skyrocketed as he came to a sudden stop in his tracks at the sight of his now evil younger sister.

Twilight was standing imposingly as she stared at Shining with a sinister smile while Starlight managed to catch up with her master and paused to catch her breath.

Starlight took note of Shining Armor, "Is this the presence you sensed?"

"Yes," Twilight said slowly, "Shining Armor, my B.B.B.F.F."

Starlight tilted her head quizzically.

"Big Brother Best Friend Forever." Twilight clarified.

Shining’s eyes narrowed. "You don't deserve to call me that anymore."

Twilight put a hand to her chest as she feigned hurt. “Hurtful~. Are you not my big brother? The only one in fact; it’s easy to be the best when you’re the only one, just look at me: Best Princess.”

“You’re no princess, Twilight. You’re a tyrant. And there’s still Cadence.”

Twilight held up an index finger, “Empress,” she corrected, “-is my official title. And your wife? She will be dealt with rather easily- if past experience is anything to go by.”

Shining snarled.

“Yes, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, ruler of the Crystal Empire and best foalsitter I’ve ever had, will be dealt with especially easily once you’re out of the picture. Without you, there will be nopony other than Cadence herself that can hold up a shield that can withstand a bombardment that my armada can deliver. Not that your shields would survive against my new weapon-” Twilight gasped as a realization hit her, “Is that why you’re here? To destroy my superweapon?” she gave a sinister chuckle, “You’re more delusional than I give you credit for, Shiny. Of all the stupid things you have done in your life- ha!- this has to be the dumbest thing I can think of.”

Shining said nothing as he continued to stare at Twilight with deep, controlled breathing.

Twilight frowned, “You’re no fun anymore.” She nodded her head towards Starlight, “Kill him.”

Without a word, Starlight lit her magic cyan blade, closed the gap between her and Shining Armor in the blink of an eye and attacked with an overhead blow. Which Shining nimbly dodged out of the way as he pressed the elevator call button. Starlight snarled as she redirected her next attack into a horizontal slash. Shining summoned a light cerulean blade with his magic and successfully caught the attack as he held his sword upside down.

“I see you’ve learned how to summon a lightsaber, Shiny.” Twilight said, observing intently from the sidelines, “Only extremely powerful unicorns- or moderately powerful alicorns- are capable of pulling that off. I should have known you would have figured it out eventually. What, with all those comic books you’ve read.”

Starlight pressed down on her sword, inching the crossed blades closer to Shining’s body. He could feel the heat emanating from the clashing blades as if they were threatening to burn his skin underneath his clothes. Shining gave a slight groan under the pressure that was pressed upon him before pushing back, his military training giving him an advantage in being able to overpower Starlight in physical strength. Starlight skidded backward about a foot before she let off, jumping back several more feet, giving Shining Armor the breathing room he was looking for as he shifted his sword hand upright, using his non-dominant hand to wave a “come at me” taunt with two fingers. Starlight didn’t take too kindly to the taunting gesture as she rushed at Shining, with an underhand diagonal strike. Shining charged forward as well. Seeing she was expecting him to meet her with a crossing blade, he instead opted for a magic-assisted boost to his speed, managing to outpace the swing of her saber as he spun his body around Starlight’s, barely avoiding physical collision as he flicked a finger behind her ear as they passed. Starlight flinched and stumbled a little after feeling the sharp pain behind her ear. She turned to face the cause of her injury to see him smirking as he held his sword at the ready, and could hear Twilight trying to stifle a snicker. Ok, now Starlight was pissed. Her sword briefly flashed a blood red as she lunged at him yet again with another overhead strike and Shining blocked it with his sword held horizontally over their heads.

“You’re being predictable,” Shining said to Starlight as if he were talking to a student of his own. “If you want to win a fight like this,” he continued as Starlight let off and came back with another, anticipated, horizontal strike, “You’re going to have to learn to change things up every so often.”

At that moment the elevator bell dinged. Twilight spared a glance at it. “Your elevator is here.” she joked.

“It’s not for me,” Shining replied as he pushed off Starlight and began going on the offensive, attacking from multiple angles, never the same angle twice. He continued to push Starlight back towards the empty elevator before essentially throwing the sword out of her hand and thrust forth his other hand as a shield materialized, knocking Starlight into the elevator and pinning her against the wall. Shining dematerialized his sword and reached into his cloak and pulled out a translucent black crystal and threw it like a dagger it into the elevator, embedding it into the floor. “It’s for her.” A black aura grew from the crystal like a pulsating light when the shield holding Starlight against the wall dissipated. Once her full weight was back on her feet, there was a loud shriek of straining metal as the elevator lurched downward by an inch. She looked down at the crystal, then back up to Shining as he waved a casual two finger salute and the cables holding the elevator snapped. The cabin fell faster than gravity should have been able to pull it, the shrieking of the failing emergency brakes quickly decreasing in volume as the elevator descended.

The doors closed like nothing had happened as Shining Armor stepped back. As he was catching his breath, he almost didn’t notice a light raspberry blade coming for his head. He ducked out of the way as the blade embedded itself into the wall, sparks flying everywhere. Twilight nonchalantly pulled her sword out of the wall as she turned around to face her brother, who managed to dodge-roll his way behind her.

“Now the cycle is complete.” she began, quoting one of Shining’s favorite movies, mimicking the movements of the original speaker, “Once I was the student, now I am the master.”

Shining gave a short huff of a laugh before getting up to his feet, resummoning his sword and responding with, “Only a master of evil, Twilight.” and he swung at her, beginning a duel between the two siblings that made its way to the hangar.

---

Sunset, Sunburst and the Crusaders all scurried out of the trash room, dried themselves off and shed their disguises if they were wearing one. There was a long kept silence between Sunset and Sunburst as they made their way to the hanger. No one was sure if it was the sibling quarrel from earlier or the necessity to be stealthy that kept everyone quiet. Nevertheless, it was quiet, and it felt awkward.

Sunset, at the head of the group, peaked around the corner to the hangar and spotted the transport hovercraft holding her car. Unfortunately, the hangar was filled with a small group of soldiers. Though they were idling about their business, they were all armed and potentially dangerous in an encounter.

“Dà shǔ,” Sunset muttered. “There’s quite a bit of them. Enough to make it difficult for us to get to the ship with my car.”

Sunburst peaked his head around the corner with Sunset and spotted the only craft that was carrying any sort of other vehicles. “A Ponyiac? You came here in that hunk of junk?”

Sunset groaned to herself as she rolled her eyes. “Shut up. I’m gonna need your help taking these guys out if we’re goin’ to make it to my car.” She raised her gun, ready to aim down the sights.

Sweetie Belle tugged at Sunset’s jacket by the elbow. “But what about Shining Armor?” she whispered. “We can’t just leave him here.”

Sunburst nodded. “She’s right. You came here because of him. It’s only fair that you bring him out with us. I’m not leaving without him.”

Sunset turned around to hide behind the corner, followed by Sunburst. “Who ever said life was fair? We might just have to leave without him if he doesn’t show up soon.”

“No,” Sunburst said sternly, “We are waiting for him; we are not going to leave without him.”

“Great.” Sunset said exasperated, “Now, we just need to secure our exit before somepony decides to move it. And secure it to where it doesn’t attract the attention of every guard on board before we manage to get out with him.”

Sunburst put a hand to his chin and stroked his beard. “OK, I agree that we’re going to need to secure our exit discreetly if we’re going to be waiting for Shining Armor. But how are we going to go about that?”

Sunset sighed and pressed a hand to her temples, “I don’t know. But you have two minutes before we just go in and leave.”

Scootaloo looked around the corner. “Uh, guys? They’re leaving.”

Everyone stopped their thoughts as they looked around the corner and saw that the soldiers were all walking towards something at one end of the room, away enough from them that they could easily sneak about to secure their escape. So they went. They were all most of the way there before Sunburst, and the Crusaders glanced at what got all of the soldiers’ attention, only to see Shining Armor and Twilight in a duel, their blades clashing with a loud sparking noise.

“Shining?” they all- sans Sunset- asked quietly as they took a few steps towards the fight.

Shining spared a glance at Sunset, Sunburst, and the Crusaders as a sad smile came across his face, and he felt his heart swell. He stood straight up with his feet together as he held his sword pointing upward before him as he took one last breath before Twilight swung her blade at his neck, successfully killing him. His body disappeared into the aether, and his clothes fell into a small pile where he once stood.

“NO!” Sunburst and Sweetie Belle screamed, grabbing the attention of the audience of gathered soldiers. All of whom began to fire at the heartbroken ponies.

“Gāisǐ de,” Sunset grumbled as she gave cover fire from the hold of the transport vehicle. Sunburst, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom immediately ran to the hovercraft while Sweetie Belle still stood there, shocked. It took the shouting of her two friends and Sunburst to snap her out and get her running to the escape vehicle.

“Sweetie Belle! Come on!”

Twilight walked over to the heap of clothes laying on the floor in front of her and casually stamped her foot in the pile, confirming that there was nothing else there. She turned her attention to the escaping ponies and began walking towards them.

Sunset noticed Twilight coming towards them and shot out a control panel that closed the thick steel blast doors between them. When Sweetie Belle got in the hovercraft, they took off. They were followed, not long after, by a pair of TIE Interceptor pilots. The TIE Interceptor craft was a relatively new model of Twin Ion Engine aircraft in Twilight’s armada, its wings were pointed forward with the shape of two sets of prongs, each prong bolstering a small laser cannon along with the two guns mounted on the cylindrical cockpit.

Sunset could hear the screeching roar of ion engines approaching fast.

---

In her bedroom, Cadence was tossing and turning underneath the bed sheets. It seemed like she was having a nightmare. Cadence was in a lightsaber duel with Twilight. Twilight pushed Cadence back with slow, methodic, powerful swings of her sword, all the while smiling a devilish sneer. Cadence deflected another attack when everything slowed to a halt, and her saber ceased to move, and she could no longer take her eyes off of Twilight as the raspberry blade swung across her throat. Cadence jumped up from her bed, breathing heavy as she held a hand to her mouth and began to cry. She didn’t have a nightmare, it was a vision; she saw Twilight kill her husband.

“Mommy?” Cadence heard the voice of her daughter, Flurry Heart, coming from the slightly opened door of the bedroom, letting in the ambient light of the dimmed crystal torches from the hallway.

Cadence brushed her bangs out of her face as she composed herself and looked at her five-year-old daughter. “What wrong, sweetheart?”

The little girl rubbed her eyes. “I had a bad dream.”

Cadence was silent for a moment, she suspected that it must be the same dream she had. “Come here, Flurry.” she bade her daughter as she adjusted herself to a sitting position and patted the area of the bed next to her.

Flurry walked up to her mother in the dimly lit room, and she was hoisted up into her mother’s lap and partially covered with the sheets.

Cadence wrapped her arms around her little girl firmly as she rocked side to side, trying to comfort herself as much as she was her daughter.

Half a minute passed in silence before Flurry spoke. “I dreamed that daddy died,” she said in a monotone voice.

(I was afraid of that.) Cadence thought to herself. "Really?” she rested her chin on her daughter's head, “What happened?"

"A scary purple mare with a pink stripe in her mane killed him." Flurry answered, "They were sword fighting, then daddy stopped fighting, then she cut his head off, and then he disappeared, except for his clothes... Was that the Boogie-mare you told me about?"

Cadence couldn't help but snort out a little chuckle. "No. No, sweetheart, that was not." (Close enough, if not worse.)

"When's daddy coming home?"

Cadence sighed. (He's not.) "He - should be home tomorrow morning."

Cadence’s grip loosened as she leaned back and Flurry Heart craned her head to look at her mother as best she could, a tear crawling down the side Cadence couldn't see.

“Hey,” Cadence said, suddenly perking up, looking her daughter in the eye as best she could in the dark, “Why don’t we start your swordsmanship lessons tomorrow, even if daddy doesn’t come home by then?”

“Really?” Flurry almost began to jump up and down with elation, one of her wings nearly hitting Cadence in the face, “I’ve been waiting FOREVER for those! Can’t we start now?”

Cadence chuckled as she pushed Flurry's wing down. “No, Flurry. Now, we must get some rest. If you are going to begin your training, you’re going to need as much energy as you can to learn from your instructor. So let’s get some sleep.” she commanded, motherly, as she telekinetically closed the door of her room.

“OK~.” Flurry relinquished as the both of them sank into the bed, pulled the covers up, and snuggled close together for the rest of the night.

Chapter 10: The Crystal Empire

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Rogue Sun chapter 10: The Crystal Empire

Sunset could hear the screeching roar of ion engines approaching fast.

“Take over!” Sunset commanded Sunburst as she jumped out of the pilot’s seat.

“Wh-what? I don’t know how to fly this thing!” Sunburst protested as Sunset shoved him into the seat.

Sunset set her little brother in the pilot’s seat. “You’re a bright kid. Why don’t you use one of those Ph.D.’s you probably got in school?” she said as she gave a backhand love tap on his cheek as she left the cockpit.

“YOU were the star student- I’M A FLUNKIE!!!” Sunburst shouted over his shoulder. He then took a deep breath as he took the controls. “And I know for a fact that NEITHER OF US TOOK FLYING COURSES!”

“Quit your babying and fly this damn ship!” Sunset yelled from the cargo hold as she put on some magnetic boots, strapped a harness to herself, tied her car down, using the boots attached to the ship’s floor, and began opening the cargo bay door as music blasted from her car radio.

[Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC]

As the song played and the door was opening, Sunset spotted a large crate and grinned widely when she opened said crate and discovered that it contained some unique ammunition cells.

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo hung back in the cockpit, just on the other side of the door and away from the veritable vacuum threatening to throw everything in the hold out into the open air.

“What’s she doing?” Sweetie Belle asked, glancing between Sunburst and Sunset.

Sunburst turned his head a little to catch a better ear on the music, playing surprisingly clearly. “I’d say she’s lookin’ to ‘shoot to thrill.’” Refocusing on the skies ahead of him he spotted some large black clouds, often flickering with a little bit of light. "Sunset," he spoke through the ship's intercom, "I'm takin' us into some storm clouds. Hopefully, we can lose them in there. Be careful."

A big smile broke out on Sunset's face. "This is gonna be fun." and the doors were now fully opened.

All you women who want a man of the street

Don't know which way you wanna turn

Sunset hefted her weapon that was now loaded with the special ammunition. A DOOM class gauss cannon. She had been waiting for a special occasion such as this to finally use this weapon, the occasion being the proper ammunition to load it with. This thing was effectively collecting dust in her pocket dimension for the longest time.

Just keep a coming and put your hand out to me

‘Cause I’m the one who’s gonna make you burn.

She fired her first shot and a bright blue pulse of a superheated metal spike flew out of the barrel, through the sky and hit dead center of one fighter’s right wing, exploding on impact and tearing off the entire wing with it.

According to the pamphlet that came with the gun, “While the gauss cannon has a high damage potential, it demands a fair amount of accuracy from the user.” And now that the second fighter has an idea of what’s coming, it begins flying in a more erratic pattern, making accuracy that much harder for Sunset, as he began to fire back.

Sunset fired three more rounds as Sunburst piloted them through the storm clouds. All of them missed. The first one barely clipped the fighter’s left wing, merely causing superficial damage with sparks flying off harmlessly. The second one was heading straight for the cockpit before the pilot performed a barrel roll (or was it an aileron roll) to the side, barely avoiding the projectile.

“Could you just shoot down him already!?” Sunburst yelled to Sunset.

Sunset grunted as she loaded her third shot and just before she pulled the trigger, the ship jolted as Sunburst weaved around a lightning bolt that appeared just before him, causing Sunset to miss her mark by a mile.

“I would, but your fancy flyin’ is making this difficult!” she yelled back as she loaded up a fourth shot but never got to fire it as a lightning bolt struck the edge of the opened platform, jostling the ship, and shorting out Sunset’s mag boots. The deactivation of the mag boots activated her harness and drew her back towards the relative safety of cargo bay interior. The sudden pull of the harness caused her to lose her grip on her gun halfway across the room as she flew backward. The gun clattered on the floor and began to skitter across it slowly towards the opened door. Slamming into the far wall, near the doorway to the cockpit, Sunset shook her head to quickly regain her senses as she stretched out her left arm toward the gauss cannon, hand, and horn alight with her magic as she enveloped it in a telekinetic grip and sent it flying into her opened hand. The momentum of the heavy firearm coming into her grip revealed an injury she didn’t realize she had over the adrenaline of almost losing her possibly new favorite weapon and chance of survival in this aerial pursuit. A massive burn on her left bicep and potentially several bruises everywhere else. Though mostly superficial, the wound hurt enough to where it made even holding the gun virtually impossible.

“Gah!” Sunset yelped, gripping her arm as much as she was gripping the gun.

“What’s wrong?” Apple Bloom asked, rounding around the doorway. She looked at the burn on Sunset’s arm, part of her jacket around her wound still smoldering. “Oh my...”

Sunset looked at Apple Bloom with one eye squinted in pain. “Here- urk- use this.” She yelled over the wind as she painfully lifted her arm to hand Apple Bloom the gauss cannon.

Apple Bloom took the gauss cannon and hoisted it rather easily for a girl her size, but looked perplexed. “Me? Why me?”

Sunset shrugged. “You’re right here. And you can hold it up real easy. Why not? But you are goin’ to have to get further out there if you want a change of hitting that guy.”

The earth pony’s face began to pale at the thought of having to get closer to that vacuum leading to thousands of feet up in the air and having to face down a fighter jet alone out in the- relative- open.

Sunset got up and unstrapped the harness from herself. “Don’t worry. I’ll hook you up to the harness.”

Well, that’s one worry lessened.

Sunset strapped Apple Bloom into the harness as she continued to yell over the wind, “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time for you to put on some mag boots. So you are goin’ to have to approach carefully and activate the siege mode before you go over the edge. If you activate siege mode while you still have ground below you, it should hold you in place.”

~And now we’re back to square one.

Sunset finished strapping the harness onto Apple Bloom as she took a deep breath and slowly strode forward to the TIE fighter, careful not to slip and lose her footing. Sunset was controlling the harness reel, slowly unreeling it as Apple Bloom reached the edge of the platform. Once she did, Apple Bloom flicked the switch on the gauss cannon that turned on ‘siege mode’ and saw the barrel open up and feel as if the entire gun locked its physical position into space- relative to the ship. Apple Bloom’s breathing was quick as she looked down the sights, struggling to take aim at the remaining aircraft. Suddenly there was a voice inside her head.

”Stretch out with your feelings.”

Apple Bloom blinked, her eyes darted around in hopes of finding the source before she centered them back on the assailing aircraft.

”Let go.”

She blinked again. After a short pause, she flicked the switch to siege mode back off. She felt the ground slowly slipping out from under her as she closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

“What is she doing?!” Sunset said to herself.

The noise around Apple Bloom seemed to disappear as she focused on only her breathing. Two seconds later her eyes snapped open, and she pulled the trigger. The recoil launching her into the rear bumper of Sunset’s car. But, be it luck or fate, the shot made its mark, hitting the aircraft dead-center of the cockpit, causing it to explode like a brilliant display of fireworks.

“I got him!” Apple Bloom yelled proudly.

Sunset slammed a big red button to close the cargo bay door as she slowly reeled Apple Bloom back in. Once the door was sealed, Sunset went about unhooking Apple Bloom from the harness as the other two Crusaders joined them in the room.

“Did you see that?!” Apple Bloom yelled excitedly.

“Great job- don’t get cocky.” Sunset said as she undid the last latch holding the harness together.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Scootaloo chimed.

“You were all like- pew- and he was all like- KABOOM!” Sweetie Belle, oh so eloquently, recounted, pantomiming her choice of onomatopoeia.

“Hey.” Sunset interjected as she took her gun out of Apple Bloom’s hands and interdimensionally pocketed it, “What about me? I shot one down too.”

“Yeah, but your explosion wasn’t as big as hers.”

Sunset scoffed as she threw aside the harness, picked up a first-aid kit, and sat down in the co-pilot seat next to Sunburst as she began to apply first-aid to the burn on her arm. By the time Sunset had applied the burn ointment and wrapped her arm in gauze, Sunburst had navigated them out of the storm cloud.

Sunburst glanced at his sister and said, “You want to take over now?”

Sunset reclined in her seat, letting out a relaxed breath. “No. You seem to be comfortable flying now. Right?”

He grinned as he tilted his head and nodded, “Yeah, I think I’ve got the hang of this. Wanna see me do a barrel roll?”

“No!” Sunset jumped up in her seat, pointed at him and shook her head.

Sunburst chuckled at his joke; Sunset relaxed again, laying back in her chair.

A moment of silence, save the Crusaders in the background, passed before Sunset spoke up again. “Where are we heading?”

“The Crystal Empire.” he responded

“Is that where I'll get paid?”

Sunburst spared a glance at Sunset. “Is money all you really care about now?”

Sunset rolled her head on the headrest to face Sunburst. “Straight A’s and perfect attendance can take you only so far in the real world.” she rolled her head back to facing forward, “Less so now that the entire educational system has been shot to hell.”

Sunburst let out a gruff exhale as he focused his sights back on the sky in front of him. “If money is all you want, then it’s money you shall get.” he grumbled irately. His grumbling was a little louder than he liked, because Sunset ‘hmph’-ed a short fit of laughter as a response.

---

The Crusaders were in a group hug as they were dancing around in a circle and squealing with excitement.

“I can't believe we survived that!” Scootaloo said.

“Ah can’t believe that Ah shot down a fighter jet!” said Apple Bloom.

It was Sweetie Belle’s turn, and she began to slow down her pace in dancing as her face fell from one of excitement to one of sadness, “I can’t believe that Shining Armor is dead.”

The dancing died out in the other two friends after that sentence was uttered. Everypony in the room felt the air get heavy with despair. They all sat down on the floor, leaning against the car. Sweetie Belle sat in the middle with Apple Bloom on her left and Scootaloo on her right. Sweetie Belle pulled out a small magical device from her jacket pocket. The device was a thin slab of shiny black stone with four large buttons on its side and two small glowing circles imprinted on its broad face. She presses the second button from the left and, with an audible click of the button, some music began playing.

[I’m not in love by 10cc]

I'm not in love

So don't forget it

It's just a silly phase I'm going through

When Sweetie Belle heard those first three lines of the song, she blushed a little and shifted her eyes to see if her friends noticed. They didn’t, both of them were too busy staring at the ground in front of them to even notice that Sweetie Belle started playing her music again. Sweetie Belle always liked listening to her music whenever she felt sad, or to help calm her nerves, or to get her excited, or just about any other excuse she could possibly think of.

“There wasn't anythin’ we could’ve done.” Apple Bloom said, as she lifted her head and rested it against the car door. She looked to her right and saw Sweetie Belle pull her legs closer to her chest and wrap her arms around them, resting her nose in the space between her knees as she stared at the device she held. As water welled up in Sweetie Belle’s eyes, Apple Bloom shifted her sitting position closer to Sweetie Belle and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in to comfort herself as much as she was trying to comfort a crying friend. While her arm was outstretched, Apple Bloom tapped Scootaloo on the shoulder and waved her in to help give Sweetie Belle a hug, which Scootaloo complied.

The three of them sat together in silence as the music continued to play.

---

“We’re there.” Sunburst said.

Sunset woke up from her nap, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, stretched and yawned loudly.

“The Crystal Empire, huh?” she said as she took in what sights she could see. A ginormous central tower apparently made entirely of crystal with a network of roads spreading out from it like a spider web or a snowflake. Houses dotting each city block like little pebbles compared to the foot that was the central tower. Where the urban area stops a lush open field of green grass surrounds every bit of it for a two-mile radius outside the city limits, a single river cutting through the landscape before ending directly at one of the roads and going into the aqueduct system. And a mountain range surrounding it all. “Looked better in the brochures.”

Sunburst scowled while barely looking at her through the corner of his eye. He let out an exasperated sigh as he turned on the radio and began transmitting a message. “‘Crystal Spire’ this is ‘Red 5’ reporting in, requesting permission to land.”

There was a period of static before a response. “Red 5 acknowledged. You will be escorted to landing pad 3 on the south mountain ridge for inspection.”

“Acknowledged.” Sunburst responded as he banked the ship to head for a landing pad built into the side of a mountain in the southern range.

They made landfall and Sunset, Sunburst, and the Crusaders all stood at the door, equal distance apart, as it opened. The doors opened to a mixed group of soldiers- earth ponies, pegasus, and unicorns- all dressed in crystalline plate mail armor and standing in a line as they held rifles at the ready to shoot down any unwanted surprises. Everypony on the ship held up their hands in the air as two soldiers from the ends approached the group and began inspecting them for anything suspicious before calling them clear for entry and proceeded to examine the rest of the ship.

As the line of armed soldiers dissipated a small, light magenta alicorn filly with curly magenta hair and arctic blue highlights wearing a hot pink princess style dress burst through the line and ran up to Sunburst. The alicorn filly was closely followed by a pale pink, full-grown alicorn mare with a mane that was violet with rose and pale gold streaks, wearing a teal blue dress with cobalt blue highlights and gold trim.

“Uncle Sunburst!” the little filly yelled excitedly.

“Flurry!” Sunburst responded just as much excitement as he scooped her up into his arms. “Oh! How’s my favorite little alicorn?”

“I missed you so~ much!” she said wrapping her arms tightly around Sunburst's neck, almost choking him.

He returned the hug, gently patting her on the back. “I missed you too Flurry.”

Flurry Heart released her grip on Sunburst as she pushed off from him to face him directly in the eyes, and with a straight face she asked, “Where’s Daddy?”

“Uh...” Sunburst looked to the other alicorn approaching, she shook her head as she waved a hand across her throat, “He- he’s still out there- somewhere. He said he had to take care of some other things first. Sorry, Flurry.”

With a straight face, Flurry blinked, glanced downward and said in a monotone, “OK.” she perked up and looked towards Sunset, “Who’s the scary pony?”

“Ah knew it wouldn’t be jus’ me.” Apple Bloom whispered to her friends.

Sunset crossed her arms, shifted her weight onto one heel and quirked an eyebrow at Flurry and her bluntness.

“This- is Sunset. She’s- my sister.” Sunburst said hesitantly.

“Your sister?” Flurry tilted her head quizzically before a huge smile grew on her face, “Does that mean she’s my aunt?”

Sunburst chuckled, “Well, if I’m your uncle, then it stands to reason that my sister would be your aunt.”

“Yay!” Flurry Heart exclaimed as she jumped out of Sunburst’s arms and fluttered over to Sunset. Expecting Sunset to catch her, Flurry stumbled a little bit as she landed on her feet when Sunset took a step back and didn’t catch Flurry. Flurry looked up at Sunset and could see a face that was a mix of confusion, annoyance, and disdain. Walking up to her, slowly, Flurry Heart reached out a hand to try and take Sunset’s, but Sunset merely craned her neck backward as Flurry approached. Flurry recoiled her hand as she and Sunset stared into each other's eyes for a long three seconds before Flurry turned around, smiling, and ran towards the Crusaders; introducing herself.

Sunset let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

Before Sunburst could say anything, the adult alicorn approached and spoke up.

“Sunburst.” she said, embracing him in a hug, “I’m glad you made it back alive.”

“Me too, Cadence.” he replied, returning the hug. “Oh! Princess Cadence, this is my sister, Sunset Shimmer.”

Cadence broke the embrace and faced Sunset, approaching her with an outstretched hand. “Sunset, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Sunset merely lifted a hand out of her crossed arms and waved ‘Hello’ with a forced smile before returning to a neutral state. “So, Sunburst has mentioned me?”

Returning her hand to her side, Cadence responded, “Yes... only once.”

Sunset furrowed her brows, wondering why that was the case, but then brushed it aside as she remembered their little... scene in the trash compactor.

Sunburst quickly ran up to Cadence as he glanced back at Flurry to make sure that the little alicorn couldn’t hear what he was about to say next: “Cadence, about Shining Armor. Did you know-?”

“-That he is dead?” Cadence finished, turning her head to Sunburst. This stunned both Sunset and Sunburst.

“How did you-?”

“I saw it in a dream, a prophetic dream- of sorts. It was more like a vision. And Flurry Heart saw it too.”

Sunburst glanced at Flurry, who was cheerfully talking to the Crusaders. “How do you know? If she really did, she wouldn’t be acting like this... Would she?”

“I know because she told me last night. She said it was a bad dream.”

Sunset took a step forward, Cadence and Sunburst turned their attention to her. “Shining Armor was her father, wasn’t he?”

Cadence nodded, “Yes.”

“When do you plan on telling her?”

Cadence was silent.

Sunset subtly shook her head, “You can’t hide this forever. News of a dead parent will get to their children eventually.” She glanced at Sunburst. He opened and closed his mouth slowly as he subtly nodded in confirmation.

Cadence lowered her head in contemplation for a few seconds before she whipped it up, looking Sunset in the eye. “I’ll tell her this afternoon.” she declared. “Until then, I’ll take Flurry to those swordsmanship lessons I promised her last night.

Sunburst stuttered, “D-do you think she’s ready for that?”

Cadence looked sternly in Sunburst’s eyes. “After what happened to her father. Yes, she has to be.” she then relaxed as she began to walk off, “Why don’t you take our guests on a tour around town? I’m sure the young ones would love to see more of the Crystal Empire.”

“Hold it!” Sunset interjected. Cadence paused. “I was promised payment for bringing this little dweeb back.”

Cadence turned to face Sunset. “And you will be paid. How much did Shining Armor promise you?”

“Seventeen hundred bits.” Sunset said flatly.

Huh. He actually followed my budget for once.

“Very well then.” Cadence said aloud. “You shall be paid in full. Just let me gather the funds while you take the tour.”

Sunset gave a wry smile as Cadence gathered her child’s attention and the both of them flew off towards the town.

Sunburst clapped his hands together. “Well then! Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo; Sunset. Allow me to give you a grand tour of the Crystal Empire.”

“Here we are at the outskirts of the Outer South district,” Sunburst said as they approached a line of houses on the fringes of the rural area and the urban area. “Better known as “the Warehouse District.” Here, you will find... mostly warehouses. While the majority of the warehouses are built closer to the center of the district, you will still find plenty of warehouses scattered throughout; inbetween many of the residents of the place...”

While Sunburst continued to give his tour, he was interrupted when a pony shrouded in a heavy, tattered cloak carrying a crate full of groceries bumped into him, spilling the crate’s contents all around them.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there.” Sunburst said as he and the Crusaders began to help pick up the pony’s groceries.

“Oh, no worries. This happens all the time.” the pony said in an old, straining, gruff voice as he waved a gloved hand.

Just as quickly as the groceries had been spilled, they had been picked up. The old stallion then grasped Sunburst by the back of the neck, pulled him in and whispered something in his ear. Sunburst didn’t move any further for a few seconds before the old stallion thanked him for his help and walked away with his crate full of groceries, Sunburst smiling and waving goodbye.

Sunset had decided not to help with picking up the groceries, but in that time she could not help but notice a few peculiarities about the stallion. The entire time she could never see his face, not once did the stallion make eye contact, not even when saying thank you, this was unusual behavior for both townsponies and oldtimers. Even though he had gloves on, Sunset could tell that his fingers were unusually slender for a pony, and everything he grasped at suggested as if he expected the things to wriggle out of them out of its own volition. While his slouch did suggest that he was old, Sunset could tell that if he were to stand at full height, he would stand a full two heads above her. A veritable giant among ponies, but his frame was too thin for a pony with possible gigantism.

“Who was that?” Sunset asked.

“Hmm? Oh. Nopony.” Sunburst responded nonchalantly. “Just some old pony getting their groceries.” He smiled as he resumed the tour.

Sunset narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she followed Sunburst and the Crusaders. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a blur move across the rooftops.

---

Empress Twilight was in her private quarters overlooking the horizon where her prisoner had escaped to. Her face was the definition of serene, with a glint of cold and calculating; the jewels floating around her matching that serenity.

A ring came from the door, a signal that somepony was requesting permission to enter the room. “Come in.” she responded.

Starlight Glimmer entered the room, looking none worse for wear after her experience with a falling elevator. Granted, she levitated herself out of the elevator about halfway through the fall after managing to destroy the gravity-amplifying lacrima crystal with a blast of her magic.

“Our spies in the Crystal Empire have spotted- HIM.” Starlight reported, “Do you want them to engage?”

Twilight smirked, “Yes. Tell them they may engage- him- with extreme prejudice. Prepare an invasion force, we strike the Crystal Empire tonight.”

Starlight said nothing as she nodded her head and began to walk out of the room.

“And have them deliver a message for me,” Twilight added, “Be sure to tell- him- I said ‘Hi.’”

Starlight silently nodded again and left the room, leaving Twilight alone to her thoughts.

“If you wish to wake the dragon...” Twilight said aloud, as the blue diamond jewel hovered into her hand, “... then give him fangs.”

---

Back on the tour of the Crystal Empire, Sunburst had guided his group through a couple other districts, and they were now in the shadow of the central tower. He was taking his sweet time too, and Sunset was getting impatient that she hadn’t gotten paid yet. The sooner she gets paid, the sooner she can leave this place. Not that there was anything bad about the place specifically, she just didn’t want to be anywhere near that mockery of an alicorn named Flurry Heart. Sunset had been told by Celestia herself that one had to do great things to become an alicorn. What did this child do that was so great? And how could she have done so at such a young age? It was more of an insult to Sunset, personally, than it was to anypony else, including Cadence.

Sunset’s mind wandered back to the old stallion with the groceries before another pony ran up to them, calling for Sunburst’s attention before stopping just short of running into him, panting to catch his breath.

“Crystal Hoof." Sunburst said, "Where’s the fire?”

“You’ll never guess who was in the bar earlier today!”

Sunburst quirked an eyebrow, “Princess Cadence?” he responded sarcastically.

“Well, yes. But it was who was there before that.”

“Who?”

Crystal Hoof opened his mouth when he was interrupted by a loud explosion coming from the central tower, and a loud, ear-piercing roar rang through the air afterward. Everypony could see a giant purple dragon with a pale green underbelly and lime green spines crawl out from the smoking hole in the tower and down the side. A thick black smog spewing forth from its maws and a gash in its left shoulder as a purple haze trailed its eyes.

It jumped down from its great height and fractured the crystal ground as it landed. Many ponies ran away in terror; more were shocked at the sight of what they were witnessing as the dragon let out another great roar and exhaled a torrent of black smog with sparks of purple and green swirling within in a random direction.

“Him.” Crystal Hoof answered, pointing at the dragon.

Chapter 11: The Dragon part 1

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The other day, at the Mos Equus Cantina in New Pegasus

Some jazz was playing while two ponies were playing a game of Canteese checkers with a teenage dragon sitting off to the side, observing the game passively as he drank apple cider from a wooden mug. One pony was a short pegasus mare with hot pink fur, an electric blue mane, a cutie mark of two parallel blue lightning bolts on her right cheekbone; she was wearing a brown flier’s coat, and combat boots. The other pony was a taller pegasus stallion with pale blue fur, and navy blue mane, wearing a blue flier’s jacket with yellow lightning bolts accenting the edges of the sleeves and large brown patches stitched onto the shoulders.

A unicorn stallion passed by and discretely slipped a strip of paper into the mare’s hand as she moved a blue peg on the board within the six-pointed star shape the holes made on the round plank of wood.

The dragon, with purple scales and green spines wearing a sleeveless, open leather jacket with no shirt underneath, a pair of blue jeans, and black boots, eyed the mare and the moved piece. “That’s a risky move there, Cap'n.” he said as he took a swig of his cider.

“Yeah, well, I like to live on the edge.” she responded giving the dragon a smirk.

The blue stallion looked up from the board at the smaller pony and said nothing as he moved a single red piece six times across six blue pieces in a zig-zag pattern, removing said blue pieces from play.

The dragon snorted. “He got you there good Cap'n.”

The mare sat up straight and sighed. “I’ve been thinking of takin’ some real estate a bit further from that edge as of late.”

The stallion chuckled softly, “Have you learned nothing from your time in the Wonderbolts, Firefly?”

“Mostly drills from you and Spitfire, Soarin,” she said as she moved another blue piece on the board. “I slept through the strategy classes in the academy.”

Soarin sighed in defeat as he observed the board for a couple seconds before moving one of his own pieces.

They heard someone yelling at the band to shut up. Everypony (and dragon) turned towards the interruption in the music and saw a bald, drunk unicorn stallion causing the ruckus. The drunkard claimed he had something important to say. It really wasn’t.

“A toast! For today is an auspicious day,” the drunk began.

“Suspicious?” the dragon said quietly. “What day is it? Tuesday?”

“Today was the day when Empress Twilight Sparkle killed that incompetent Princess Celestia and defeated the bunch of scumbags that called themselves ‘The Wonderbolts,’ along with her...”

Soarin gave a worried glance at Firefly as her face hardened. After five seconds of silence from her, she got up and walked towards the stallion, who was now at the bar.

“Firefly...” Soarin said.

Firefly turned around for a second. “What? I’m just getting a drink.”

“Come to think of it: What month is it?” the dragon said to nopony in particular.

Firefly made her way to the drunk idiot. As she did a unicorn mare with light orange fur and a red and yellow mane, who was followed by a yellow earth pony filly with a red mane and a bow in her hair, held up a hand to Firefly’s shoulder, pulled out four gold coins and said, “Four bits to go punch that guy in the face for me.”

The bits were poured into Firefly’s open hand as she raised an eyebrow and responded with, “Honey, I aim to misbehave.” and Firefly pocketed the cash as the two adult mares continued to go about their respective businesses.

When Firefly reached the drunkard, she took a seat next to him on the other side from where she approached, ordered a drink, and wordlessly took a sip.

“You didn’t toast either.” the unicorn said.

Firefly glanced at him at the corner of her eye. “Didn’t see a need to.” and began chugging the drink.

The stallion’s face sneered as he shifted his weight and looked over the much smaller pegasus mare. “You know, the coat you wear looks an awful lot like what them Wonderbolts wore. Are you one of them?”

She set down her glass and glanced at him again. “It was on sale.”

“Heh. Well, the Wonderbolts were a bunch of pisspots and pansies.”

Firefly banged her hands on the table, stood up from her stool, flared out her wings and faced the drunkard. “Say that to my face.”

The drunk slowly turned to face her, and stood up himself, towering over her. “I said ‘You’re a bunch of pisspots and pansies.’ What are you gonna do about it?”

Firefly flashed a grin as she relaxed her demeanor and folded her wings. “Nothing. I just wanted you to face me so he can get behind you.”

The drunk turned around and got a sucker punch to the face by Soarin, knocking him out.

Firefly tilted her head and smiled. “Drunks are so cute.”

Firefly and Soarin turned to face the rest of the room and saw everypony slowly getting up, looking to be raring up for a fight.

“How Shi Sung Chung.” Firefly expressed in Manederin as she and Soarin were trying to slowly back up into the bar counter. “Spike!”

“Hey! I didn’t fight in no war.” the dragon at their table responded. He lifted his mug of cider. “Best of luck though.” and he drank the rest of his mug.

With a loud crash, Firefly was thrown out the front window. She tumbled across the ground and pulled herself up onto her knees with miraculously few cuts on her wings and body as she pulled out an enchanted roll of paper from her pocket.

She pressed her thumb onto the wax seal, and the parchment glowed. “Vera...” she spoke into it, her voice cracking, “We could use some back-up here. A grand entrance wouldn’t go amiss.”

The stallion that Soarin punched at the beginning of the bar fight stomped through the front doors of the bar and was heading straight for Firefly. Firefly jumped to her feet and staggered backward, slipping the small scroll back into her pocket. The drunk threw a wide left hook, which Firefly easily ducked under then propelled herself forward to throw a jab at his gut, doubling him over. She then used her wings to maneuver herself away and up a few feet before propelling herself down with a left hook of her own, the punch connecting and toppling him over. She winced from the pain in her wings. She could barely reach the small shard of glass that she pulled out from the wrist of her left wing.

Soarin came out of the bar after having tossed a guy through the door, it was another pegasus. The other pegasus got to his feet; Soarin told him to stay down by punching him across the face with a right jab, kneeing him in the groin, and bringing an elbow down on his neck. He turned around and caught sight of a unicorn trying to stab him with his horn like a rhinoceros. Soarin managed to dodge from a direct hit as the unicorn tumbled over him. Soarin pressed a hand to his face as he discovered that he had a nick across his cheek, the fine cut drooling blood like a dog’s saliva. Both got up from their tumble, and the unicorn charged again, this time Soarin caught him by the neck as he skidded backward, the sharpened horn an inch away from his nose.

“It like Hoofapest all over again. Isn’t it?” Firefly called out to her former superior officer as more patrons began pouring out of the bar.

Soarin gave an incredulous look at his former subordinate as he was attempting to choke out the unicorn in front of him, managing to bring him to his knees. “You and I remember Hoofapest very differently.” and he punched the unicorn pretending to be rhinoceros's face with a right jab, knocking him out.

Firefly took out another patron by jumping up, using her wings for an extra boost, and stomped both feet into his face and sent the back of his head to the ground. Two more patrons came at her as she jumped off from her latest victim, using her wings to gain some extra distance. She growled through the pain in her wings. “Ugh. Is Spike even awake?”

In an explosion of emerald green flames, two pegasus stallions and a table flew through the door as Spike stormed out with his leathery wings flared, green fire pouring from his maws and encompassing his closed fists. A pegasus tried to run up and punch Spike in the face, but Spike was having none of that and punched him first, sending the poor stallion flying across the street with green flames trailing behind his face. The stallion was alive, of course, pegasi can survive lightning strikes walking away only with singed fur, and a dazed state. However, this punch did leave the stallion with a broken jaw.

Spike paced away from the door, the fire in his mouth extinguishing as he lined up with the two pegasi he came with and turned around, backing away from the growing mob of angry bar patrons aimed solely at them.

The Imperial holiday announcer had gotten up and pulled out a revolver and aimed it at Firefly.

“Now hey, hey! Them’s ain’t kosherized rules.” Spike argued.

“Someone ought to put you down, dogs.” he responded.

A diamond dog patron that was standing next to the un-kosherized gunslinger said, “What the hell?”

“Shut up.” the unicorn turned back to Firefly. “Any last words?”

Firefly looked up at the sky as she stood up straight, placed a hand on her hip and used the other to scratch behind her head. “You know? That’s frequently a hard question to answer. There are so many good ones to choose from.”

At that moment, the roar of an engine caught everyone’s attention as they saw a 1969 Dodge Charger model hovercraft came roaring down the street from a block away.

“Looks like our ride’s here.” Firefly said plainly, and Spike quickly took in a deep breath as he held his fists over his mouth, one in front of the other like he was using a blow dart launcher, and he blew fire through them, releasing a wall of fire that surrounded the mob in front of them, preventing the crowd from advancing. The Charger turned sharply to its left, slowing down as it was drifting. The trio ran up to the car, and without it slowing down, hopped up on top, each using their wings to boost their jump onto the roof, and crawled in through the open windows as the car sped off in the direction it faced after its drift.

Firefly was in the front passenger seat, with Soarin sitting in the seat behind her and Spike behind the driver.

“Whoo! That was fun, wasn’t it?” Spike said, enthusiastically loud, looking back to make sure that they weren’t being followed.

Firefly took a deep breath and exhaled a soft chuckle as she looked at their driver, “What took you so long, Vera? I almost got shot.”

The driver was an earth pony mare with pale rose fur, baby blue eyeshadow, and a well-conditioned light cerulean mane, she wore a thick white headband that hid her hairline and a tan denim jacket with a burgundy-red shirt underneath and tight blue jeans. She glanced at her passenger with a smile, “You said you wanted a grand entrance, Cap'n. I had to get in the right position to pull that off.”

“I said ‘a grand entrance wouldn’t go amiss’ not ‘take your sweet time planning out the perfect drift in the Charger.’” Firefly snapped back with a smirk.

Vera just rolled her eyes as she continued driving. She did a double take as she took a second glance at her captain and saw her slightly bloodied wings. “Are you OK captain? Your wings look beaten up. Lotus or I are going to have to take a look at that, make sure nothing’s going to get infected. And, if you get blood on the seats, Button Mash is going to be very mad at you.”

Firefly waved a hand dismissively, “The seats and I will be fine Vera, just keep driving.”

Vera took a look at her rear-view mirror to confirm that they weren’t being followed and slowed down as she took a left turn down a street towards the air-docks, where they parked their airship.

Vera drove her captain and crewmates into the air-docks of New Pegasus, passing by the myriad of privately owned airships docked there. Many of the ships there were old models that used hot gases trapped inside one or multiple large fabric envelopes, but their ship and a few others were relatively newer models which used a trace compression block engine, others used Gurstler engines, both engines capable of producing lift in its turbines without the need for lighter-than-air gases.

Vera drove up and into the cargo hold of their airship, a Serenity-class transport ship. If you squinted just right, the ship would look like some sort of chimera with a firefly’s glowing rear end, a horse’s head, and whatever the heck would have cylindrical wings. Many would call this ship a piece of “gos se” but Firefly affectionately named this ship “Mal.”

Vera parked next to a hot rod red 1962 Chevrolet Corvette model hover car in the cargo hold. The Corvette’s hood was up with a brown coat teenage colt working on the insides. The colt looked up from his work, revealing his moderate scarlet and light orange mane, oil-stained face, t-shirt with orange and white horizontal stripes and a propeller beanie with lime green blades. He picked up an oil rag that was laid aside on the hood and wiped off his hands and face as he approached the other car. “Did we get a new job, captain?” he asked as said captain and everyone else got out of the car.

“Yes we did, kid.” Firefly responded, holding up a slip of paper between two fingers and walking further into the parked airship.

“Awesome.” The colt quietly elated. “Oh! Hey! Hey, Vera. Aloe! How was the handling on Ghost Rider?” He asked as he jumped up and down on his approach towards the driver.

Aloe stopped and shifted her weight to one side as she placed a corresponding hand on her hip, and she smirked at the colt with a chuckle, shaking her head, “You and your names for these things.” she said to herself. “‘Ghost Rider’ handled beautifully, Button. Except that he was pullin’ a little to the left.”

Just as she finished that sentence, Spike shut his door, and a loud bang shot out followed by the whirring down of an engine as the Charger’s left rear end began to sag.

“That wasn’t me.” Spike said defensively.

Button Mash gave a frustrated sigh. “Did you go drifting, again, Vera?”

“It was only one turn.” Aloe said defensively, crossing her arms. “And the Cap'n wanted me to make a grand entrance rescuing their flanks.”

Button raised an eyebrow.

“Ok~... I did a short track while I was waiting for the Cap'n and the others to be done at the Cantina.” she conceded. “But the part about the grand entrance was true.” she held up an index finger as she pointed out her one defense.

Button Mash threw up his arms. “You know how hard that is on the tyres! We can’t afford to replace these things every time you want to go drifting!”

“As~ much as I’d love to continue this conversation,” Aloe interjected nervously, “I have to go tend to the Cap’n’s wings. They told me she was thrown through a window.” and she briskly walked away after Firefly.

“If she got blood on my seats I’m going to be very upset with her!” Button called out after Aloe.

“Noted!” Aloe responded, not turning around or slowing down.

Button stared at the dead tyre before he glanced at Spike and motioned a request for a helping hand. “Help me get the parking jacks up.” he said as he opened the driver side door, got in and moved the gear shift from ‘N’ to ‘P.’

Spike grabbed hold of the dead tyre and gently lifted it level with the rest as the parking jacks slowly moved into place.

“Damnit!” Button yelled once the jacks were fully extended, “She got blood on my seat! Thankfully, not a lot. But still! It’s going to take days to clean this out! Next time I talk to her - why I’ll-”

Spike walked up to Button sitting in the driver’s seat as he rested an arm on the roof, “You’ll what?”

Button hesitated, “I’ll - give her a stern talkin’ to - that’s what.”

Spike chuckled as he lifted his arm and walked over to the Corvette. “So, how’s the Corvette comin’ along?” he said as he was about to place a hand on the aforementioned vehicle.

Button got out of the Charger, and slammed the door before calmly, and sternly, saying, “Don’t touch Lola.”

Spike raised his hands in the air and slowly backed away from the vehicle named Lola and chuckled slightly, “You’re very fond of your vehicles ain’t chya?”

“Only the ones I’ve spent days on end simply fiddling with the mechanisms and all, just for the heck of it.” Button approached Lola and picked up a half inch crescent wrench and began tightening a bolt in the engine compartment. “Then add on the hours modifying each car to be able to carry heavy loads while being inconspicuous-like and you’ve got a hefty investment I’d like to see survive more than 2 jobs with you or Aloe at the wheel.”

“Ah come now, Turbo, that ain’t fair. Comparin’ me to Vera.”

Button pulled himself out of the engine compartment and closed the hood. He raised a hand holding up his index finger as he began to iterate the story of the both of them first drove a car on a job, “On Aloe’s first job with us, as the driver, she blew out all four tyres effortlessly. And do you know who else did that on his own job?” he pointed his finger at Spike, “You. And you two wonder why I never let you touch either of the cars unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Or if the cap’n orders it.” Spike mumbled.

“Or if the captain orders it.” Button amended.

Spike chuckled as he ruffled Button’s hair, knocking off his hat. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll go check on what job the Cap’n’s got for us.” and he walked away.

Button smirked as he playfully grumbled incoherently to himself and knelt down to pick up his hat. When he put his hat back on and stood up, he noticed a distortion in the reflection on Lola. It was fingerprints. And not just any fingerprints, a dragon’s fingerprints, a whole hand at that. Button scowled, let out a low groan, and got a clean rag to wipe off Spike’s grimy handprint.

Firefly, Soarin, and Aloe entered the cockpit of the ship. Aloe stood leaning against the wall just outside the doorway towards the center of the room, as Firefly stood closer to the center of the room and Soarin stood right behind the helm. Sitting at the helm was a light cerulean mare with a pale rose mane - very much an inverted color scheme from Aloe - she also wore a thick white headband and tight blue jeans, but she was wearing a long sleeve, button up, flower print blouse. The blue mare turned around in her chair, saw Firefly and Soarin, flashed a bright smile at Soarin as she got up from her seat and wrapped her arms around Soarin’s neck as they embraced each other in a passionate kiss.

The mare release Soarin from the kiss as she said, “Glad you made it back, honey.”

“As am I.” Soarin said as he engaged another kiss.

Firefly tapped her foot impatiently for a couple seconds before she coughed to get their attention. “Lotus, Soarin, if you two are done, I’d like to get back to business.” she said as she held up the slip of paper given to her earlier that day.

Lotus backed out of the kiss and looked at Soarin’s face, spotting the cut he gained from their little brawl earlier. She cupped her hands around his face, lightly brushing a thumb over the cut under his right eye. “Oh, honey~, what happened?” Lotus looked to the captain with a deadpan glare, one eyebrow raised. “Have you been getting my husband into trouble again?”

“Wha-uh! First of all, I’m insulted that you think that and secondly, I was just having a friendly drink." Firefly crossed her arms as she looked up and away offended. Then she quickly added, "Thirdly, the other guy started it.”

“Funny,” said Soarin, slowly taking his wife’s hands off his face, “How we always find ourselves at an Imperial friendly bar come Twilight Time looking to have a drink.”

Firefly smirked and shrugged. “It’s become a tradition by now.” she held up the slip of paper again. “Now, about our business.”

Lotus rolled her eyes as she plucked the paper out of Firefly’s hand, opened it, went to the console and plugged in the coordinates that were written on the paper.

Lotus hadn’t bothered to sit down as she plugged in the coordinates into the console as she was purposefully bending over in such a way that gave her husband an excellent view of her tail end; said tail sashaying ever so slowly. Unfortunately, Soarin’s line of sight could also line up with anypony who stood just in the doorway to the cockpit, or dragon in this case.

Spike had just barely entered the room when Lotus began entering the coordinates, and he gave a wolf whistle at the right moment when she was finished. Lotus gave a startled shriek as she shot her posture straight up and placed her hands over her butt as she turned around and gave Spike an annoyed glare. Her husband followed her gaze with his own death glare as he had his arms crossed and looked down at the dragon, making Spike immediately regret his decision to wolf whistle at this married mare, again.

While Spike managed to maintain composure over his body language, Soarin could see a drop of sweat beading down the side of his head and determined that his death glare had worked and so turned his attention back to his wife without so much as a backhand slap to Spike, this time.

“Idiot.” both Firefly and Aloe muttered under their breath.

“Well,” Lotus interjected, “Now that I have the coordinates set, and seeing that it will take us a good long while to get there. Can somepony take over flying the ship?” she walked up to Soarin, gave him a seductive glance, grabbed a firm hold of his jacket, “I need this stallion to tear apart my wardrobe for me.” and began to yank him down the hall.

Soarin gave an amused grimace, then a helpless shrug when he looked at his captain with a dopey smile and said, “Work, work, work.” and was carried off by his wife to their room.

Spike watched the couple as they walked past him, then looked to Aloe and nodded to her with a toothy grin.

She rolled her eyes and gagged a little. “Not even in Luna’s dreams, sulfur breath.”

Spike feigned hurt as he turned his head to the side as if he had been slapped.

Firefly paid no attention to Spike’s antics - if she noticed - and sighed as she scratched behind her ear and shook her head, softly chuckling at the married couple that walked out. She hissed when she nicked a cut that she found behind her ear.

Aloe jumped up from the wall, “Captain, you should let me take a look at that.”

“I’ll be fine~.”

“Captain...”

Firefly snorted out a sigh in frustration. “Ok. Get Button up here to pilot the ship.”

“What? Why not me?” Spike said.

Firefly raised an eyebrow, “When Button gets here, he can tell you why himself.”

Spike waved a hand. “Nevermind. He’s already told me today.”

“Good. Now that that’s out of the way-” Firefly was interrupted when Button Mash entered the room.

“Hey, I heard a scream. What happened?”

“Nothing, Button,” Aloe said. “Just Spike being a dumbass.”

“Ah...” Button nodded, “Lotus?”

Firefly and Aloe smirked as they nodded in confirmation. Spike threw his hands up then to his side as he rolled his head and gave an exasperated groan.

“Well,” Firefly began, “since you’re here, Lotus is busy with her husband, and nopony else who I trust to fly this ship is.” she glanced at both Spike and Aloe. “You’re goin’ to need to fly the ship to the destination set on navigation.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Button saluted and jumped into the pilot’s seat. He reached overhead, flicked three neighboring switches in succession, and pulled back gently on the steering wheel, causing the ship to slowly lift into the air.

When the captain and Aloe left the room to head to the infirmary, Spike kneeled next to Button in his seat as the ship turned past the sun setting on the horizon. He sighed. “What do you think?” Spike asked, “Me and Aloe - a guy like me and a mare like her?”

Button turned to face Spike, an eyebrow raised and his lips pursed as if trying to hold back a fit of laughter. After a couple seconds, he inhaled sharply as he shook his head slowly and said flatly, “No.” then faced forward.

Spike smirked as he sighed once again, then muttered under his breath, “Not the first time I’ve been told that.” He gave Button a pat on the shoulder as he walked off to his room.

Chapter 12: The Dragon part 2

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“I don’t like this.” Said Soarin as he stood in an open field next to Firefly, a few yards away from the edge of the Everfree forest. “Not one bit.”

“Relax, Soarin. Hardly anything ever comes out of the Everfree forest, and I’m pretty sure the stories exaggerate what’s actually in there.”

“Timberwolves and manticores, I can handle. What concerns me is that we know next to nothing about this contact.”

Firefly sighed. “You’re such a big worry wart. You know that? Besides, if he/she/it plays anything funny we have Vera and Spike just over that hillside with a good line of sight on the entire area.” she pointed a thumb backwards to the hillside where Aloe Vera and Spike were sitting watch, looking down their rifle scopes to their captain and her first officer.

Soarin grunted as he faced parallel to the imaginary line designating the border of the Everfree forest to the rest of the world.

A gust of wind picked up, and a cloud of dust washed over in front of Soarin and Firefly’s sight. Once the dust settled, a figure in a black cloak was revealed to be standing several yards away in front of them.

Soarin and Firefly flinched at the sudden appearance of this cloaked figure, beginning to go for their weapons.

“Do not pick up your firearm, for I mean you no harm.” the figure said in a deep, yet feminine, voice as they held up their hands to show that they were unarmed.

Soarin and Firefly relaxed a little. “You got somethin’ for us to deliver somewhere?” Firefly asked, almost yelling to get her voice over the distance.

“Indeed I do.” the figure said as she pulled a small dark brown wooden box from behind and inside her cloak as she walked closer to Firefly and Soarin, who started walking closer themselves.

When both sides were at arms’ length from each other, the cloaked mare handed Firefly the box. The box was made of a very dark colored wood and had an engraving of three elongated diamond shapes on the lid.

“I take based on your reputation, you do not do an interrogation of your cargo?”

Firefly looked up and handed the box to Soarin, “Not so much. It tends to slow down the processes. Where does this need to go?”

---

Spike was in the cargo hold, punching a punching bag. Since the captain announced that they would be heading to the Crystal Empire to deliver the package, Spike had voiced his preference to not be on the ground team during their time there.

“Nu-uh! No way! Not gonna happen!” Spike had said as he negotiated with Firefly while taping a gun to his bare side with medical tape. “I don’t like the idea of goin’ in there empty-handed. I may have made myself a few enemies while I was thereabouts few years back.”

Firefly rolled her eyes. “Why are we still discussin’ this?” she said flatly. “The job is to deliver the package to the Crystal Empire, so that’s where we’re goin’. I’m going to need my Dragon Slayer with me-”

“Don’t call me that.” Spike snapped with an unusual calm in his voice.

Firefly blinked, and tilted her head, looking affronted, but quickly let the comment slide. “-with me at all times during this job, we ain’t ever been to the Crystal Empire before so I need all the muscle I can get. ‘Sides, why are you even bothering strapping a gun to your side? You can breathe fire for Luna’s sake.”

Spike blinked and looked away in shame at his gap in logic.

“Take all that off and let’s get ready to go.” Firefly had said with finality.

Spike scowled as he begrudgingly tore the mask of tape off his body, ripping it off like a bad bandage. A couple of scales were pulled off with the tape; he had given the faintest of whimpers whilst managing not to shed a tear.

Spike felt a faint echo of the pain he endured taking off his improvised gun strap, but a pit in his stomach formed when thinking about the title Firefly used.

Dragon Slayer.

He began to throw his punches harder at the punching bag as his eyes became unfocused and the sound screaming began to fill his mind, about a hundred voices. The screaming slowly became louder, and he responded with punching faster and harder, fire subconsciously licking out from his maw.

Then the screaming of thousands of unfamiliar voices flooded his mind, before total silence not one second later, including the mere hundred earlier. Spike froze after landing the next punch once the silence settled in and an icy chill flowed down his spine. (What the Hell was that?)

“Spike?” he heard suddenly as he felt something touch his shoulder. On instinct, he reeled around and swung his arm in a wide arc almost hitting Lotus in the face with a fistful of green fire. She managed to duck down and avoid the punch, tripping, giving a high-pitched startled shriek as she fell.

Spike was panting and in a cold sweat when he realized that he was no longer punching the bag and was thankful that he missed the new target as he extinguished his flames.

“Lotus! Mā de! I’m so sorry. I-I-I didn’t know you were there.” he moved to help her up.

Lotus took Spike’s hand as she got up, taking deep breaths to slow her heartbeat after a possible brush with death. “It’s OK. Obviously, I was interrupting something. I’m the one who should be apologizing.”

“N-no, it’s fine Lotus. I’d- rather not be thinking about that anyways.”

Lotus stood straight as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her shirt. “You’ve been awfully quiet ever since the captain announced that we’re going to the Crystal Empire, not even talking to Button about future Ono plans, or flirting with Aloe.” She said that last bit with a chuckle. She then looked at him in the eyes. “What’s wrong? Why do you not want to go to the Crystal Empire?”

Spike did not make direct eye contact. He continually shifted his gaze as he spoke. “I- made a few enemies there, what more is there to say?”

Lotus craned her head around to try to gain eye contact with him. “A few enemies wouldn’t normally stop you from going back. In fact, I’ve seen you look forward to some. What makes this place any different?”

Spike was silent, his eyes shifting left and right as if looking - desperately looking - for a way to escape this conversation.

Lotus sighed, giving up on looking him directly in the eyes entirely. “I understand now that it must be personal and that you don’t want to talk about it. But if it’s going to affect the job in any way, I’m certain that the captain would very much like to know about the matter.” she patted him on the shoulder and walked away.

Spike said nothing as he nodded and turned his attention back to punching the sandbag.

---

The crew had arrived in the Crystal Empire, managing to bypass customs with some credentials they obtained from their current employer as a private transport vessel, which proved, on paper at least, that they were in no way related to Twilight’s Empire.

“You will not be able to open this crate.” the mysterious figure at the Everfree forest had said to Firefly and Soarin. “For it will only open to whom it is connected by fate.” she tapped the symbol engraved on the lid.

“They will have this mark?” Firefly asked.

The figure shook her head. “No, and you need not look for this pony, for they will find you, as determined by destiny.”

Firefly shook her head in frustration as she and her crew walked down the side of Main Street towards the town center, leaving only Lotus behind to keep an eye on the ship. They would occasionally ask every other pony they came across if they recognize the marking on the box. (Why must this one be so cryptic?) Thankfully, the client paid them up front for this job, so it could take however long it was necessary to complete this perplexing task.

Eventually, Firefly looked to Spike and asked a question that had been burning in her mind ever since they left the ship. “Seriously. What’s with the getup?”

Spike glanced over himself; he was wearing a heavy tan coat with a hood, a hat with earflaps underneath the hood, and a pair of goggles. All of this on a beautiful summer day. “What? I don’t want nopony recognizin’ me is all.” he tugged on the hood to make sure that it sufficiently obscured his face.

“Come on, Spike,” Button said. “It’s been years since you’ve been here last, right? I don’t think anypony’s gonna recognize you.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “How many dragons do you know?”

Button opened his mouth; thought about it, then shut his mouth. Then an orange-scaled female dragon walked by, completely ignoring the group while she was having a conversation with another pony she was walking beside. Button discretely pointed to her and grinned at Spike. Spike just rolled his eyes as he adjusted his hood and continued walking.

“Even so,” said Firefly as she slowed her pace and looked up at something in awe, “I’m thinking it might not be so hard.” and all the crew’s eyes landed on a crystalline statue of a dragon holding up a heart shape in one claw with the other at his hip. Even though the figure was of a baby dragon and had no wings, the resemblance between Spike and this statue were uncanny enough for the crew, sans Spike, to stop and stare at it slack-jawed.

“Shèng shǐ,” Aloe said holding a hand to her face, her pinky finger idly drifting into her mouth, “This is what going mad must feel like.”

Soarin glanced around before returning his gaze to the statue, squinting both because the sun was in his eyes and to make sure he wasn’t just seeing things.

“Look,” Spike whispered harshly, “I crossed the Princess here, OK? I don’t know why they would make a ruttin’ statue of me in the middle of town square! So, we could stand around playin’ art critic all day to this eerie-ass piece of work, or we could get on with our increasingly eerie-ass day.”

“I don’t know~,” Firefly said, “Mare said they would come to us, and I believe this spectacle warrants a moment of consideration.” she turns to Spike briefly and smirks.

“I think they really captured his essence.” Soarin mused aloud to the crew.

“He looks kinda... dopey to me.” Button Mash mused in response.

“That’s kind of what I meant.”

Spike rolled his eyes and walked off in a huff, “Whatever. I’m going to the third nearest bar and getting a drink.”

Idly, the rest of the crew turned to follow Spike, all of them finding it difficult to tear their eyes away from the curious town centerpiece.

The crew sat at a table in a distant corner of the “Radiant Cobb” bar. Spike was still glancing about nervously, even more so since the statue and shied away whenever another dragon happened to pass by. At one point while inside the bar, Spike had to scare off a little colt, who - Spike deemed - was staring at him for too long. Thankfully, the colt didn’t attract any extra attention as he ran out startled. During their time waiting patiently for their unknown contact, Button got curious for a taste of beer.

He promptly and violently spat out his first sip. “Āiyā! This tastes like- like-”

“Pee?” Spike deadpanned.

“Yes! Why does anypony drink this stuff?”

Spike casually held up his crystalline glass of the offending drink, staring at the semi-translucent liquid. “When you’ve had a sorry excuse for a day, most ponies use this as a way to drown out those feelings to make them feel better, for a while.” Spike took a swig of his drink. “‘Course yer likely to feel worse the next day because of a splitting headache and a growing list of things you done the past few hours that wouldn’t think you would do.”

Button furrowed his brows as his eyes shifted between Spike and the glass in front of him before slowly pushing his glass away with both hands.

“Well, I’d say that was almost responsible of you, Spike,” Firefly said, “scaring Button off alcohol like that.” she then took a swig of her drink.

Spike snorted a little chuckle as he lifted his mug to take another gulp. And that was the moment a musician took the stage with his guitar and began his song, the first line of which had Spike so startled he snorted his beer through his nose and had everypony else at the table in rapt attention.

“Spike~, the Brave and Glorious Spike.”

https://youtu.be/8omJvCrwRdY

Everypony in the bar gave the troubadour their undivided attention with a brief cheer and applause.

“He may have been a babe

But he’s got a heart of gold

Stood up to King Sombra

And gave him what for

Our love for him now

Ain’t hard to explain

The hero of the Crystal Empire

The Brave and Glorious Spike

Our Spike saw the crystal pone’s tremblin’

He saw the fear in their hearts

And he saw that tyrant king takin’

Their livelihood and leavin’ despair

So he said, “you can’t do that to my ponies.”

He said, “you can’t crush them under your hoof.”

So Spike strapped onto Twilight’s back

And in 10 seconds flat

Stole the Crystal Heart from his tower.”

“Spike,” Firefly said, her eyes locked onto the singing musician but leaning towards Spike, “You care to shed some enlightening on this development?”

Spike, his back towards the singer, said nothing as the nervously shifted his eyes left and right, before he hastily replied, “Nope.” and he takes an even bigger gulp of his drink.

“No...” Aloe mused as she ran her hands through her hair, consequently slipping her headband off, “THIS is what going mad must feel like.”

“He may have been a babe

But he’s got a heart of gold

Stood up to King Sombra

And gave him what for

Our love for him now

Ain’t hard to explain

The hero of the Crystal Empire

The Brave and Glorious Spike

Now here is what separates heroes

From common folk like you and I

The Brave and Glorious Spike

With dear Twilight trapped

Had to jump out high with the Heart

Cadence lifted him mid-flight

And they filled the Heart with love

The dragon they call Spike

He saved us from spite

And filled our eyes with stars

He may have been a babe

But he’s got a heart of gold

Stood up to King Sombra

And gave him what for

Our love for him now

Ain’t hard to explain

The hero of the Crystal Empire

The Brave and Glorious Spike!”

The crowd whooped and hollered as the song ended. The crew slowly turned their heads towards Spike, trying to wrap their heads around the fact that they were now basking in the glorious company of this “Brave and Glorious Spike.” Aloe, however, was massaging her temples as she began to rock back and forth in her chair.

Spike, for his part, was sweating bullets. And after he couldn’t take the incredulous staring of his crewmates, he jumped up from his seat and briskly walked out the door.

If he were sweating 9mm bullets before, he was sweating .308s now as he faced a massive crowd gathered at the door, his hood managing to be pulled off by a bypassing patron in his hasty exit and leaving his goggles back at the table. And who was at the forefront of this crowd? None other than the colt he supposedly scared off earlier, smiling.

Somepony from the crowd spoke up, “It’s him! That’s Spike the Brave and Glorious!” The crowd cheered and applauded before Spike bolted back inside and headed straight to the bartender and ordered a glass of the sourest beer available.

Spike began chugging down the glass of soured beer before somepony came in and explained to the bartender who he was currently serving.

The bartender immediately slapped the glass out of Spike’s grasp. “The Brave and Glorious Spike will not have any of that xióngmāo niào!” Spike looked at his suddenly empty hand wide-eyed then to where the glass flew and back to the bartender. The bartender pulls out something from underneath the counter. A bottle of whiskey. “He drinks the best whiskey in the house!” and he holds the bottle high as everyone in and outside the bar cheered as loud as they could.

The bartender poured Spike a glass of the best whiskey in the house, and as Spike lifted up the small glass, he heard the cheers of the crowd die out. It became so quiet that he could hear the clicking of high heels on the stone floor from the door to the establishment. The clicking stopped when it was directly behind him.

Spike, having not taken his drink yet, dared to turn around and came face to face with a pink alicorn mare with a violet mane and gold streaks.

“Spike.” she said with a straight face and monotone voice.

He smiled meekly. “Princess Cadence.”

Firefly and her crew jumped up from their seats and reached for their weapons. Spike held up his free hand to signal for them to stop. They froze; not sure of what must be going through Spike’s mind.

Cadence spared a glance at the ponies drawing their weapons before taking the glass Spike had in his hands. “So! The Brave and Glorious Spike has returned?” she said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear her. Then she raised her voice, “This calls for a celebration!” and she downed the glass. “Drinks are on me!” and she threw the glass down on the floor. And, like the sound of a gunshot, when the glass shattered the cheers of the crowd returned to its previous volume like it was never interrupted. Cadence then pulled Spike into a hug, and Spike hesitantly returned it.

Firefly and the rest holstered their guns and shoved their way through the crowd of ponies to Spike.

“What the Hell just happened?” Firefly asked Spike.

“Princess Cadence is giving you free drinks of the best whiskey in the house?” he nervously responded once he was out of Cadence’s embrace.

“I can make that out quite plainly, but -”

“How the Hell are YOU~ a hero?!” Aloe interjected, her mane beginning to fray.

Cadence furrowed her brow and stepped closer to Aloe. “Spike is the most kind-hearted and selfless dragon I know.”

Aloe let out a long snort before it evolved into loud guffawing. Then, stone-faced, said, “I need a drink.” and walked in between Spike and Cadence to the bartender. She plucked the mostly full bottle of whiskey out of his hand, and hastily said to Cadence, “You’re paying for this, right?” and without even waiting for a response, she started chugging the bottle down managing to empty half of the bottle before she had to come back up for a breath, her step already beginning to stagger.

---

Spike explained to Firefly and the rest of the crew that he lied to them about crossing Princess Cadence. After Aloe went through five more bottles of whiskey, everyone decided that it was a good time to get her back to the ship. So Firefly, Soarin, and Button took Aloe back to the ship and left Spike with Cadence as she escorted him to the room he would be staying in for the duration of his visit.

Cadence opened the door to Spike’s room and made a sweeping motion with her arm as she did so. Spike gave an impressed whistle. The room was large, well decorated, and had an excellent view of the east section of the Crystal Empire. The room was three times as tall as he was and about as big as the cargo hold of Mal, if not bigger. The bed was a queen size bed with crystal blue sheets, the windows had curtains of a similar color and were made of shiny crystal silk, and the wardrobe - well it was made of crystal too, nearly everything is made of crystal here in the Crystal Empire, especially in this room.

“So, what do you think?” Cadence asked.

Spike wiped his mouth to cover up the fact that he was salivating just a little before he responded. “Great!” (Too great...) “Listen, you don’t have to do this-”

“Nonsense!” Cadence interrupted. “You’re the hero of the Crystal Empire and a dear friend. Which reminds me, there’s somepony I want you to meet. I’ll be right back.” and with a poof and a flash of blue, she teleported away.

Spike heaved a sigh as he looked around the room. “What did I do to deserve this?”

Another poof and blue light signaled Cadence’s return, but this time with an alicorn filly standing by her side, she was wearing white fencing gear and was carrying a protective mask and wooden sword in her hands.

“Spike, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Flurry Heart.”

The filly’s eye grew wide as she dropped her mask and sword and gasped. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Are you Spike the Brave and Glorious!?”

Spike let out an embarrassed chuckle then took a proud stance. “Yes, yes I am.”

A miniature sonic boom thundered through the room, and in the blink of an eye Flurry already tackled Spike, pinning him against the opposite wall, cracking it, as she bear hugged at his neck, squealing like a fanfilly. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

“Choking! Not breathing!” Spike croaked as he used all his dragon might attempting to pry the filly vice off his neck, but to no avail, and the wild beating of his wings were threatening to break the glass of the window beside him.

Luckily, when a blue aura enveloped the adorable little python, she let go of the poor mouse-dragon, allowing Spike to breathe.

As Flurry hovered in Cadence’s telekinetic grip, Spike coughed and gasped for breath and Flurry continued her fanfilly squealing.

“Flurry Heart. Behave yourself.” her mother scolded as she let the little fanfilly down onto her feet.

Flurry only nodded rapidly in response until her feet touched the floor, then she said, “My daddy, Shining Armor, has told me so many stories about you, Spike!”

Spike rubbed his throat as he smiled at his most adorable fan, softly chuckling heartily. “Has he now?”

Flurry nodded her head so hard it half looked like a bow. “Mmhm! You’re my second favorite hero next to him! My favorite story is the one about you and him in the dragon lands! The day they started calling you ‘The Dragonslayer’!”

That title again:

Dragonslayer.

Screams echoed through his mind briefly before he shook them away.

“Oh... R-really? Hey, where is Shining Armor, anyway?”

Flurry briefly glanced at Cadence, who had an apprehensive look on her face.

“He should have been here this morning.” Flurry said chipper and quickly, “Uncle Sunburst said he had some other things to take care of.” she smiled widely and put her hands behind her back, “Can you tell the story of you and daddy in the dragon lands?”

“Maybe later kiddo. For now, I think I want a nap. It’s been a really stressful day so far, and I need some rest.”

Flurry deflated. “Ok. Maybe when you wake up from your nap?”

“Eh-h, maybe.” Spike responded, hesitantly.

Flurry smiled brightly, then walked back to the door, picked up her mask and sword, and disappeared in a flash of light yellow magic after waving goodbye.

Cadence chuckled as she paced closer to Spike.

“Cute kid,” Spike commented. “How long has she been an alicorn?”

“From birth.”

“No way,” he said in a lighthearted manner, “Is that even possible?”

“Apparently.” Cadence paused, “Hey, is something the matter? I saw how you reacted to her telling you what her favorite story was.”

Spike froze. “What about you? I saw how you looked when I mentioned Shining Armor. Did something happen?”

“He’s- dead.”

“I’m... sorry... How did you find out?”

“I had a vision.”

“Does Flurry know about this?”

“No...”

“You can’t hide this from her forever.”

“You’re not the first one to tell me that today.” she looked down and to her right for a moment, then back up to Spike, “Now, your turn. Tell me your side of the story of you and Shining in the dragon lands.”

Spike crossed his arms, “You heard what I said to Flurry: after my nap.”

She scowled at him. “Ok. But I expect a full explanation.” she turned to leave the room.

“And you’ll get one. And then you can introduce me to this ‘Uncle Sunburst’ of her’s. I didn’t know you had a brother.”

Cadence chuckled, “He’s not. He’s a friend of the family. Have a good nap.” and she shut the door. Spike then closed the curtains, took off his jacket and let out a big yawn as he stretched. That’s when he heard the door open again, this time a pony in a heavy, tattered cloak that covered everything but the black gloves he was wearing, entered the room.

Spike looked at the pony curiously. “Can I help you?”

The pony shut the door behind him and locked the latch. “Yes, I believe you can.” The pony threw a small disk that landed against Spike’s collarbone and thin, steel tendrils sprouted out from all sides of the disk. The threads wrapped all around Spike and began moving him like a mechanical puppet, it forcibly moved him to take two steps back, then down onto his knees with his arms outstretched backward and his head fixed upright.

“Wha? Who are you?” Spike asked.

The pony took off his hood to reveal that he was in fact not a pony, but a dragon, with red scales and a yellow fin atop his head, one of his eyes had no pupil and a scar going down the middle of it.

Spike paled. “Garble!?”

---

Lotus Blossom opened the bay doors as the rest of her crew, sans Spike, walked in. Half-dragged, half-stumbled by Soarin in Aloe’s case.

“Did chu know?” Aloe slurred loudly, “That Spiek is a bonafide folk hero? *Hic* He gots a song an’ ev’rythin’!”

Lotus cocked an eyebrow. “Sis, you’ve been drinking too much.”

“That may be, but that don’t make it any less the case.” Firefly stated plainly as she approached Lotus.

Lotus craned her neck forward, blinked several times, her mouth gaping like a fish out of water. “Are-are you serious? OUR Spike?”

“Eeyup,” Soarin stated as he guided Aloe through the cargo bay as she giggled and stumbled all the while.

“Pft-he-wha-.” Lotus sputtered incoherently, “What did he do, exactly? Save the princess’ cat from a tree?”

“Technically, she saved him - after he jumped out of a tower,” Button interjected, “but he was recovering an artifact that was necessary to the survival of the Crystal Empire which was hidden away by the previous evil king. And, there are many more stories of his ‘Brave and Glorious’ escapades.” he held up a fairly thick book with a red hardback cover and a minimalist portrait of Spike’s baby face on the front. “This is ‘The Complete Collection of Spike The Brave and Glorious’ adventures in the Crystal Empire - abridged.’”

Lotus looked at the book with interest as she plucked it out of Button’s hand and opened up to the first page. “Did you read anything interesting about our favorite dragon?”

“I skimmed through the whole book and what I found most interesting was the last entry. He was on a job with the Princess’ husband, Shining Armor, in the dragon lands to stop a civil war from breaking out. It ended with a skirmish, but when the dust settled, all the dragons in the vicinity were dead, and Spike disappeared himself shortly afterward.” Lotus immediately began flipping the book to the last chapter. “And you’ll never guess what the title of that chapter is called.”

“The... Dragonslayer.” Lotus read aloud.

Right as she finished, an explosion rumbled in the distance followed by an equally loud roar. Everypony turned to see debris fly from the central spire and smoke pour out from it. Firefly picked up a telescope and focused on where the explosion and roar came from. She saw a giant purple dragon with green spines, black smoke spewing from its maw and its eyes trailing a purple haze as it scaled down the tower before jumping off to the ground. She collapsed the scope and pressed a button, shutting the bay doors. “Lotus! Get this bird up in the air and take us to that tower.”

Lotus slammed the book shut and passed it to Button, slowly but surely making her way to the cockpit. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t rightly know, but it looks like Spike has gone feral.”

---

“Oh, so you remember me?” Garble said with a manic smile, tilting his head. “I’m surprised you can remember that many victims back.”

“I thought you were dead!”

“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Garble chuckled while tilting his head to the other side. “Tch. But no, I’m here.”

Spike snorted. “Are you here to kill me?”

Garble closed his eyes and sighed, his smile disappearing, “I’d love to, but sadly, I’ve been hired to do something else. And honestly, after Twilight explained her plan to me, I’ve since bought the idea that this would be a much more delicious revenge.”

“Twilight?”

“Yesss. Who knew that a pony like her could be so devious, especially to one that is surmounted to be her bastard child. She says ‘Hi.’ by the way.”

Spike growled. “What do you want with me?”

Garble opened one side of his cloak and pulled out one of many knives he had underneath, all of which were gnarled pieces of sharpened obsidian, glowing with a purple haze. “This is a Ganglari knife.” Garble explained as he knelt down to face Spike at eye level. “A special kind of dagger designed by Twilight Sparcake herself. I’ve been told it contains a dark magic that clouds a victim’s mind with sheer rage once it is stabbed into them and melts into them. They also told me that its effects on dragons are especially - potent.” Spike winced as Garble waved the knife dangerously close to his throat. Garble let out a low chuckle. “So, I’m goin’ to stab you with this, let the magic take its hold and release you onto this pathetic excuse for an empire and burn it to the ground,” he said almost gleefully. “Then, whatever survivors are left will tell the tale of when Spike ‘The Brave and Glorious’” he spat the title with venom. “went feral and killed everyone he said he’d protect after having abandoned them for years.”

Spike took a shallow breath, “Why are you doing this?”

“Why?!” Garble growled as he grasped at Spike’s spines at the back of his head and pulled back a little bit pointing the Ganglari at Spike’s nose. “I oughtta’ slice your throat with a normal knife for that. You killed my blood brothers! And it was through their blood that you earned the title ‘Dragonslayer,’ was it not?”

Spike was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

Garble relaxed some as he chuckled darkly, which then grew into uncontrollable laughter as he slapped a hand on his forehead. “You and your stupid pony ideals. Thinkin’ that saying you’re sorry will fix everything. We dragons- real dragons- don’t apologize for anything, we do what we want and destroy anything that gets in our way!”

“Even if it was going to hurt innocent ponies AND dragons!”

“The only dragons who would get hurt are those who followed Ember! And those dragons were weak just like her, and they all deserved to die for their weakness! Putrifying the image of the dragon race with their ‘mercy’ and ‘forgiveness’ and ‘friendship.’ Pleugh!”

Spike snarled.

“But enough about me. It’s time for you to contribute to the image of the dragon race. By destroying an entire pony kingdom!” Garble plunged the knife into Spike’s left shoulder.

Spike screamed in pain as the steel wires went slack, allowing him to collapse onto the floor, and desperately grasp at the knife that now melted into his wound.

Garble, pleased with his work, walked over to the window, opened it, and chuckled. “Thank you for your compliance. Your compliance shall be rewarded.”

Spike stared at Garble with hate-filled glowing green eyes and loosed a torrential breath of black fire just as Garble jumped out the window, blowing out the wall. Spike followed where he thinks Garble went as he quickly grew in size, easily outgrowing the room he just blew a hole in, as he crawled down the tower and landed on the ground.

Chapter 13: The Dragonslayer

View Online

Sunset, Sunburst, Crystal Hoof and the Crusaders covered their ears as the massive dragon roared and began rampaging through the city.

“Is that- who I think it is?” Sunburst said in awe and shock.

“It’s Spike- The Brave and Glorious, yes,” Crystal Hoof said with equal shock, “but something’s not right...”

“You mean other than he’s a sixty hoof rampaging monster?!” Sunburst exclaimed.

“He looks more like fifty to me.” Sunset quipped.

“Not. Helping.” Sunburst snapped.

“W-what do we do?!” Crystal Hoof screamed, and he began to hyperventilate, taking breaths in between nearly every other word, “We’re - under - attack - by the greatest hero - in the history - of the Crystal Empire!” He took in a real deep breath before he let loose a high pitched wail, curled up into the fetal position and began rocking back and forth.

Sunburst lightly kicked Crystal Hoof’s side. “Dude, get up you’re embarrassing me.”

Crystal Hoof was in hysterics. “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIIII-HAHAHA-IIIIE~! And you’re concerned about me embarrassing you in front of your marefriend!?”

“I’m his ruttin’ sister!” Sunset snapped.

“Doesn’t matter! We’re all still going to die~!”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Sunburst yelled as he picked Crystal Hoof up by his shirt onto his feet and gave him a little shake, “Is this what Baz Maert, the changeling paladin, would do?!”

“Why are you bringing up my OnO character now?” Crystal Hoof half deadpanned half whined through a waterfall of tears as he hung limp in Sunburst’s grasp.

Sunburst just ignored the question. “Would he cower in the face of danger here?!”

Hoof blinked as the stream of tears stopped, leaving only shimmering eyes, “...No...” he whimpered.

“Then what would he do?!”

Hoof jumped out of his slump (and Sunburst’s reach), wiped his eyes, and he stood upright in a proud stance, “He would fight!” he then held up an index finger, “But I don’t have any weapons or back-up so I’m going to go make sure we get some!” With that, Hoof ran off in the opposite direction of the dragon, a cloud of dirt and dust trailing him.

Heads tilted to the side, Sunset and the Crusaders stared at Crystal Hoof’s shrinking figure as he continued to put more distance between him and the dragon.

Sunset was so stunned she forgoed using any swear words in her next statement, “What. The hay. Was that?”

Sunburst seemed to beam with pride, “Just the usual rousing speech I give to our party whenever we encounter something difficult.” then he gave a slight sigh of disappointment, “However, with my luck, he may just be running away to lock himself up in his room. It’s what he did that one time he played as a rogue.”

Sunset clamped her eyes shut as she pressed some fingers to her forehead, then realized the din of destruction and chaos happening right behind her. “OK, I am not going to stand around here and wait for that overgrown lizard to kill us, so I may just follow your friend to as far away from here as possible, and I’m takin’ these kids with me.”

“Good idea.” Sunburst responded, “But we should find Princess Cadence, make sure she’s safe and secure.”

“She’s an alicorn princess. I’m sure she can handle herself. That, and she should have a contingent of guards keeping her and her child safe.”

“And secure.” Sunburst quickly added.

“And - secure.” Sunset hesitantly added.

“Wait!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “We’re just going to leave? We’re not going to stay and help anypony?”

“Do you have a death wish or somethin’?!” Sunset responded, “We can’t fight off a dragon that size! And I’m not risking my tail to fight a dragon to save a town I barely know if I’m not getting paid for it! I still haven’t gotten paid for my last job.”

“Then we must find Cadence quickly.” Sunburst said.

“What’s that?” Sweetie Belle said as she pointed to an aircraft circling around the dragon.

“(A serenity class transport vessel?)” Sunset thought to herself.

----

Lotus flew the ship in close to the now gargantuan and feral Spike, keeping enough distance to stay out of reach of any physical attacks, and strafing in a counterclockwise direction keeping the window pointed at Spike so everypony in the cockpit can see.

“Das a big ass- *hic*.” Aloe blinked. “-Dragon. I said dragon. Das a big dragon.”

Soarin gave a concerned glance at a still drunk Aloe sitting in a chair opposite the pilot’s seat in the room, before returning his attention to the dragon they were circling. “What happened? What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know.” Firefly answered. “This ship doesn’t have any firepower to force him down and we don’t have the capacity to effectively evacuate the citizens from the area.”

Button was flipping through the book about Spike.

“What are you doing?” Aloe drowsily asked Button.

“I’m hoping there will be something familiar in here that could help us with our situation.”

“Nerd! *snort*”

Button gave Aloe an annoyed glare before slamming the book shut. He grumbled, “I’d like to see you come up with a better idea.”

“Maybe we can just... talk to him?” Lotus said hesitantly.

All eyes turned to her; Aloe began drifting off to sleep and kept jerking her head up when it started to become too heavy to hold up, giving a “Harumph” sound when she did so.

“W-when Aloe and I worked in a spa in Ponyville a dragon popped up out of nowhere and ponynapped one of the residents, a frequent customer if I remember correctly, it seemed as though they managed to talk it down before it shrunk down to the size of a baby dragon.”

Firefly blinked. “And you think that will work here?”

Lotus shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. Right?”

Firefly contemplated this, then nodded. Alright, you get me in close. My wings are still sore from the other day. I’ll see if I can talk him down.”

Soarin turned to his captain. “Are you sure about this? He doesn’t seem like he’s in the talking mood.”

Firefly gave a slight frown. “He usually never is.”

Lotus swung the ship around, opened the cargo bay doors, and got Firefly, standing at the edge of the platform, close to Spike’s face.

“Spike? Can you hear me?” Firefly yelled over the wind and the engines.

Spike seemed to take notice of the craft getting close to his face and slowly turned to face it directly, eventually staring Firefly right in the eyes.

Firefly began to sweat. “(Zhòumà. What was I thinking? I don’t know what to say!)” “Spike? Why don’t you shrink back to normal size and explain yourself as to why you are now terrorizing a city.”

The dragon’s giant eyelids blinked slowly before he gave a loud bass growl, reeled his head back. Firefly could see him charging up a breath of black flames.

“Mā de.” she said plainly.

Thankfully, Lotus could see it too and tried to swerve the ship out of the way, but Spike’s breath attack managed to hit one of the engines hard enough to where they would be unable to stay airborne for very long. But the sudden movement also tossed Firefly off the platform and hurtling towards the ground.

“Lā shǐiiii!”

----

“Oh no!” Sweetie Belle said out loud when she saw Spike attack the ship floating in front of him and a pony fall out from the ship. She immediately ran towards the falling pony and began casting a levitation spell. The pony was falling so fast already and was likely too heavy for her to effectively lift at any speed, but she tried anyway. The pony’s decent did slow down significantly, not only because of Sweetie Belle’s spell, but the fact that this pony had wings, altering their momentum in a more horizontal direction, making it a very rough landing. Any rougher and the pony would have probably had several broken bones when she tumbled across the ground in front of Sunset Shimmer.

“Ugh...” the mare groaned as she pushed herself off the ground, slowly getting to her knees as she shook her head. “That was fun.” she said dryly to no one in particular.

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all ran up to the fallen mare. “Are you OK?” they all ask.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she responded. She groaned and huffed a shallow breath as she started to stand up and put a hand on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder. “Thanks for being helpful back there, kid. I probably would have broken more than a few bones if you hadn’t helped.”

“Glad I could help.” Sweetie beamed as she steadied herself to help the mare up as more weight was being put onto her shoulder. “Are you sure you should be standing right now?”

“Relax, kid. I’ve been through worse.” once she was up on her feet, she gave a low groan as she stretched, a few of her joints popping. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small scroll with an enchanted wax seal and pressed her thumb against it as she held it up to her mouth, “Lotus, Soarin, Button, Vera, anypony. Can you hear me? Is everypony alright?”

There was a brief moment of silence before the parchment glowed and a young male voice could be heard coming from the paper. “Yes captain, we hear you, everyone’s alright, just a little shook. Though Mal’s grounded for the time being.”

The captain gave a relieved sigh, “Good.” then she looked at the giant Spike as he lumbered off to continue his destructive rampage, “Spike, you’re going to have a lot to answer for if Mal can’t fly after this.”

“Just who do you think you are?” Sunburst said antagonistically, “Saying that the Brave and Glorious Spike has to answer to you?”

The mare turned to him with half-lidded eyes, “I think I’m his captain, and that he’s a member of my crew. However, I also think I’m going mad with all this talk of the ‘Brave and Glorious’ Spike, so, you have me there.”

Sunburst bristled at that last comment and was about to take a step forward to retort but Sunset put an arm in front of him.

“You can defend your hero- that is now attacking your city- later, after we find Cadence and I get paid.” Sunset said.

“You’re looking for Princess Cadence?” the pegasus mare said, stepping forward, ”She’s an old friend of Spike’s, she might be able to help calm Spike down. Better than I could at least. Let me come with you.”

“Ok,” Sunset said exasperatedly. “Just don’t get in my way.”

“Follow me.” Sunburst said as he ran towards the spire, everypony following him.

Apple Bloom looked over the pink pegasus as they made their way to Princess Cadence. “What’s yer name, miss?”

The mare glanced at Apple Bloom, “Firefly. Your’s?”

“Ah’m Apple Bloom. An’ these are mah friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Those two over there are Sunburst and Sunset Shimmer.”

“Nice to meet you.” Firefly smiled at Apple Bloom. She turned her attention to Sunset, “Say, you look a mite familiar. Ain’t you the one that gave me four bits to punch that one guy in the face?”

Sunset spared a glance back at Firefly. “I think so... Did you do it?”

“Heck yeah, I did. Well, Soarin got to him first, and that started up a bar fight. But I still punched him in the face for ya’.”

Sunset smirked, “Looks like I got more than what I bargained for.”

Firefly smirked as well and glanced back at the Crusaders, spotting the bracelet Sweetie Belle was wearing. “Button,” she said into the enchanted scroll, “do you have the package with you?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I know what the client said, I can't help but feel like I found who we’re looking for. Meet me at the spire as soon as possible.”

When everypony arrived at the base of the tower, Cadence was already there issuing orders to groups of soldiers. Once the last group received their orders Cadence turned to the oncoming group and greeted them.

“Captain Firefly, I’m surprised to see you here. Where’s the rest of your crew?”

“Well, as you know one of them is now a giant dragon rampaging through the city. But the others have been shot down by said rampaging dragon. Thankfully, they’re all still alive.”

Cadence let out a breath. “That’s a relief.” She then looked to Sunburst and noticed something, dark, about his eyes. His iris’ flashed red, the sclera of his eyes green.

Both ponies’ eyes widened when Sunburst sneered and pulled his gun on Cadence. Just as he fired, Firefly managed to grab his right arm and pull it up, the bullet missing Cadence by an inch.

“What are you doing!?” Firefly and Sunset yelled at Sunburst, who only responded with a snarl as he tried to use his other hand to punch Firefly. She blocked the punch with her forearm, then wrapped the same arm around his and locked his arm to where she threatened to bend his elbow backward or dislocate his shoulder.

“He’s under the influence of dark magic!” Cadence yelled. “He’s not himself!”

Sunset got behind Sunburst and looped her arms underneath his and put him in a Nelson hold, allowing Firefly to loose her grips and back up a bit.

“Five bits to punch this guy in the face.” Sunset quipped.

Firefly put her fist into her other open palm. “Do you want a bar brawl happenin’ afterwards?”

“Nah, a good hard punch to the face will do just fine.”

Firefly threw her punch, but Sunburst managed to twist himself to where Firefly punched Sunset in the face instead, making her lose her grip.

Firefly froze for a moment. “I’m not getting those five bits, am I?”

“No!” Sunset snapped, her eye already beginning to swell from the punch. “No you’re not!”

Sunburst let out a low growl as he turned his attention back to Cadence, the dark magic showing prominently in his eyes as he leveled his gun at her. Suddenly, a cricket bat met the back of his head and he collapsed onto all fours, losing his grip on his gun.

He groaned and slowly stood up as he rubbed the back of his head. “What happened?” he asked before Firefly pinned him with his back against a wall and an arm over his throat. His face turned a shade red, then he saw a gun pointed at his face by the same mare that held him against the wall.

“Hold him still.” Cadence commanded as she ran up to Sunburst.

Sunburst turned towards Cadence and the signs of dark magic flashed across his eyes before he flinched in pain and shut his eyes tight, the purple haze still managing to seep out through his eyelids.

When Cadence reached Sunburst, she put both hands on his face and her eyes flashed a bright white as her horn glowed with her magic. Sunburst let out a pained yell as his eyes shot wide open and green consumed his eyes as it grew brighter before it faded away. Once the green light and purple haze left his eyes, his face relaxed, his body went limp and he fainted.

As Sunburst’s unconscious body was taken off on a stretcher, followed by two crystal pony guards, Sunset was in a tizzy. “What was that all about?!” she yelled at Cadence.

“Sunburst was under the influence of dark magic.” Cadence said calmly, not fazed by Sunset’s response. “This has Twilight’s handiwork written all over it.” she held a hand to her chin thoughtfully, “She must have been able to figure out how to plant an undetectable piece of dark magic within somepony to control their actions.”

“Do you think that’s what happening with Spike?” Firefly asked as she sat down with a crystal pony unicorn behind her casting a spell to help heal her wings.

“I believe so. And just like Sunburst, I’m going to have to come into physical contact with him.”

“Great.” Sunset groused. “Now you are going to have to run up and touch a giant rampaging dragon. Talk about a suicide run. Can I at least get paid first?”

Cadence looked at Sunset sternly. “You will be paid what you’ve been promised after this ordeal is over. More if you help us now.”

Sunset groaned. “Fine. What do you need me to do?”

Sunset was scowling as she drove a hovervan. “I cannot believe that Cadence made me bring those three with me while we’re searching for your crew.”

Firefly glanced at the Crusaders in the back seat. “Are you talking about the kids back there? They don’t look that bad to me.”

Sunset gave a deadpan look, “You obviously haven’t tried the unicorn’s cooking.”

“Hey! I’m not that bad.”

“You’ve burned juice! JUICE! How does one burn juice like that?! Not even a dragon can burn juice!”

Sweetie Belle pouted. Firefly stared at Sweetie Belle with wide eyes and pursed lips before turning away in a trying effort to not burst out into laughter.

“I should have raised my rate for having to bring those three along.” Sunset grumbled to herself.

----

Meanwhile, Cadence had mobilized her soldiers to either evacuate all nearby buildings or help detain the feral Spike. If there was to be any hope at all for Spike to return to normal Cadence had to be at the forefront of the unit tasked with occupying and detaining Spike.

Cadence was panting for breath as she held up a magical barrier, shielding herself, her soldiers and the buildings with fleeing citizens behind her as Spike loosed a torrent of black fire upon them. Holding up the barrier against Spike’s attacks was taking a lot out of her, and it was beginning to come into question whether or not Cadence would have any energy left to expel the dark magic out of Spike. Cadence had herself too preoccupied with holding up the shield for the escaping citizens that she had missed several opportunities to advance on Spike and take him down, estimating that he would have been able to attack again and harm civilians before she could reach him.

“My queen- er- Princess!” a guard behind Cadence stuttered.

“Yes, soldier?” Cadence responded, unable to call him by name because she couldn’t turn around to see his face, but could mentally narrow it down to a changeling refugee by his slip of the tongue.

“All nearby structures have been cleared of civilians.”

“Good. Signal for the advance and get back to your squad.”

The Changeling blew into a horn to signal for the advance. Cadence dropped the barrier and fired an energy beam at Spike’s face, disorienting him for the other soldiers to have a head start on surrounding the dragon. Once surrounded from all sides, including two levels from the air, every soldier leveled their spears at Spike and the spearheads began to glow with the color of lacrima that was embedded at the end. The sharp steel edging of the spear being only 25% of the entire spearhead, primarily functioning as housing for the lacrima crystal. While the ground troops, consisting of unicorn, earth pony, pegasus, their crystal counterparts, and some disguised changeling refugees, had a variety of lacrima spears ranging from fire to ice; to earth and wind, the pegasus and crystal pegasus troops surrounding him in the air wielded mostly air and lightning lacrima spears, their natural magical aura and the lacrima boosting each other's elemental power. Everypony fired in unison for the first volley. This did nothing but scuff the dragon’s scales, as they continued to fire at their individual paces.

Spike merely snarled as he turned his attention to the greatest concentration of ice lacrima users and fired a breath attack. Most managed to run out of the path of the attack, but several earth pony soldiers came together, pulled their shields in front of them, some planting the shields into the ground. The earth lacrima crystals within their shields activated and, pooling magic from the other guards and shields, created a magic tan-colored barrier that protected the shield bearers and other soldiers coalesced behind them. Meanwhile, dozens of pegasus troops with lightning lacrima spears rallied together in one spot behind Spike and they pooled their power together to be fired in a single blast. A loud crack of thunder rang out as the blast hit Spike and actually made him lurch forward a bit from the blast. He retaliated with another breath attack at the flying pegasus troops, managing to kill or ground more than half the squad.

Cadence had her breather, and now she was ready to go in and expel the dark magic from Spike. With a spear made of pure lacrima infused with her magic in hand, she knelt down into a runner's ready position then leaped forward with a soft ‘boom’. It was very much a straight shot for Cadence as she flew directly for Spike’s face just as he was turning past her direction. The firing stopped and everypony froze once Cadence’s hand touched the bridge of Spike’s nose between his eyes, and Cadence immediately cast her spell. A bright flash of white emanated from Cadence’s hand and blinded everypony in the vicinity.

Once the light settled, all could see that nothing happened.

“What?” was all Cadence could say as she hovered in front of his face.

Unphased, Spike let out a low growl and he swung his head, batting Cadence away, sending her flying far away.

----

Sweetie Belle rubbed a hand on her upper arm apprehensively as she stared out the vehicle window, watching the buildings pass by.

“Where are you now?” Firefly said into her communications scroll.

“We are holding our position about 50 yards away from the cra- rrrrough landing site.” came a more mature male voice over the scroll.

“I see you. Continue holding your position.”

A brief moment of silence passed before Sunset spoke up, “You a military mare or somethin’?”

Firefly glanced at Sunset. “Wonderbolts.” she waved her scroll. “Soarin here used to be my superior officer.”

“Huh,” Sunset responded as she pulled the hovercraft up to the group of ponies standing underneath a lamp post that she presumed was Firefly’s crew.

Firefly opened her door and jumped out. “Is everypony alright?”

“Yes, captain.” responded the tall, muscular light blue pegasus. “Some bumps and bruises but otherwise alright.”

Firefly nodded, then turned her attention to a brown earth pony colt. “Button, do you have the package?”

“Yes, captain.” He pulled out a dark wood box from behind him and handed it to Firefly.

Firefly took the box, fiddled with the latch for a moment and found that it wouldn’t budge despite the appearance of no locking mechanism. She then walked over to Sweetie Belle’s door and opened the door. “I’m not rightly sure,” she started, “but I think this is for you.” she handed Sweetie the box.

Sweetie looked at the wooden box and, upon closer inspection, saw what looked like her sister’s cutie mark engraved on top of the lid. She quickly snatched up the box and set it in her lap, slowly caressing her fingers over the engraving before she flipped the latch with a soft “click.” She took a deep breath before she opened the box and found a large heart-shaped ruby with a small thumb drive set next to it in the foam padding. She handed the drive to Scootaloo next to her and picked up the ruby in her hands, the daylight glistening off its cut edges. But before Sweetie Belle could form any cohesive thoughts about the ruby, a loud ‘boom’ sounded off just across the street from where they were. Everypony ran to the newly formed crater and, as the dust settled, found a battered Cadence laying inside.

“No.” Cadence whispered hoarsely as she laid inside the crater, “It should have worked. The dark magic. It’s too strong. How-?” she was interrupted when a dragon’s roar was uncomfortably close, about three blocks away.

The raging dragon, followed by a diminished line of guards, stared down the group of ponies surrounding Cadence in her crater and began advancing towards them.

A paralyzing fear gripped everypony there. Sweetie Belle clutched the ruby close to her chest, and that’s when it started to glow. She looked down at the jewel and felt something inside her rise up and overcome the paralyzing aspect of the fear she felt. She looked to the dragon barreling towards them and stepped forward in front of the group.

“Kid?! What are you doing!?” Sunset yelled as Sweetie Belle cooly walked in front of everyone.

Sweetie Belle thrusted the ruby forward and held it slightly above her head as if offering it to the dragon. The dragon slammed his feet to the ground as he came to a grinding halt in front of Sweetie Belle, tearing up the street as he did so, and the jewel began to glow brighter.

Cadence, having seen Spike stop his rampage, signaled the order to cease fire until further notice as she watched the young unicorn begin to tame the dragon.

The green from Spike’s eyes faded away to a pale red, matching that of the ruby. He lowered his head closer to Sweetie Belle and the ruby as his throat let out a low thrumming noise, almost like he was saying a name. He breathed out a soft snort of hot breath and he began to shrink back to normal size.

Everypony was astonished at this turn of events as the fifty-foot dragon turned to little under six feet tall. He was on his knees, the mist in his eyes was still there but now the glow of his eyes was a light red and there was a knife stuck in his shoulder violently emanating the black smoke of dark magic.

Spike gasped as he realized he was in control over himself now. He reached for the dagger in his shoulder, and with a pained yell, pulled it out, stopping the violent outpour of dark magic smoke in his shoulder and eliminating the haze in his eyes. He was on all fours gasping for breath as he clutched the dark, gnarled knife in his hand. He looked up and saw a bright red glow dissipate from a large heart-shaped ruby and the pony holding it up, his sight very hazy.

“R-Rarity?” he breathed before he collapsed to the floor.

Chapter 14: The Battle of the Crystal Empire part 1

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“R-Rarity?” Spike said breathlessly as he collapsed to the floor.

Cadence shakily got to her knees as Firefly and Lotus ran over to Spike. They flipped him onto his back as Lotus put an ear close to his mouth. “He’s breathing.” She stated as she then lightly pressed two fingers against his throat to check his pulse.

“Damn it!” came a voice from the rooftops, “Damn all you stupid little ponies!” The owner of the voice then roughly glided down with his leathery wings as he held a filly hostage in one arm and a black knife in his other hand.

“Flurry?!” Cadence yelled.

Spike groaned as he sat up to look at the captor. “Garble?”

Sunset, Firefly, and Soarin pulled out their pistols and aimed them at the fillynapper.

Garble raised the knife to Flurry’s throat. “Ah ah ah. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Let the filly go,” Soarin demanded.

Garble cocked his head to the side as he grinned. “Boy, aren’t you very demanding?” he straightened up and motioned to Spike, “Kill the Dragonslayer and hand me the pony with the ruby, then we’ll talk.”

Sweetie Belle nervously glanced between Soarin and Garble before Firefly spoke up. “I don’t think so.” Sweetie Belle gave a sigh of relief.

Garble growled. “You ponies. You think you’re all so very special with your FRIENDSHIP or whatever. Thinks it makes you strong, huh? Feh. What a stupid thing waste your time on. That’s why we dragons - real dragons - don’t waste time with making friends when we could be defeating our enemies.”

“Garble, stop.” Spike managed to say, straining to sit up straight, “This has nothing to do with them. Let the kid go, and I’ll come with you so you can kill me yourself.”

“Oh, but isn’t it always about them!?” Garble spat back. “All other races are savage, unrefined, or unenlightened. The ponies will be the savior of all creatures.” he said sarcastically. “Fat lot of good it did in the dragon lands. Wiped out an entire clan.”

“That was your fault.” Spike weakly snapped back.

“It was YOUR claws through their throats; YOUR fire burning their bones! You claimed you were going to help us, but even if you didn’t kill them all, we still would have been left to become weak. Just. Like. You.”

Spike smirked. “Then why do you need a hostage?”

Garble sneered, then it morphed into a sinister smile. “Maybe I don’t. I only wanted to torture the little princess. For her to see her ‘hero’ become a monster, then she became a bargaining chip to get me out of here alive because Twilight’s plan failed, but now she’s just a distraction from me killing you - and after I kill her, I’ll kill you if it’s the last thing I do!”

Garble raised the knife to stab Flurry but before he could plunge it into her neck two shots rang out at the same time, and Garble’s head reeled backward, and he dropped Flurry Heart and the knife. He stumbled back a couple steps as Flurry ran away from him, some rope binding her wings to her back and her hands together. Garble regained his balance as he brushed a hand over his forehead and pulled out two little lumps of lead covered with a small amount of his blood. Growling like a savage beast, he bellowed, “Damn you!” as he lunged forward at Spike, his hands popping with small bursts of fire. Garble then heard a loud ‘pwiii’ and Garble’s world was engulfed in a bright blue light.

Cadence huffed for breath as she held both arms forward with her wrists facing each other and palms spread outwards vertically, smoke rising from both hands. All that was left of Garble’s head was a charred stump that used to make up his neck. As the headless body fell to the ground in a head all Cadence could think of was, “(NO-body threatens my baby girl.)”

“Mommy!” Flurry Heart yelled as she ran towards the crater that Cadence was in.

“Flurry!” Cadence tried to stand up but fell back to her knees. Soarin glanced at Cadence and immediately put his gun away to pick up Flurry Heart, who was still in her fencing uniform and barefooted and brought her safely to Cadence before cutting the ropes and allowing Cadence to scoop up her daughter in a hug.

Firefly and Sunset put away their guns as Sunset glanced around. “Who else took the shot? ‘Cause I know I shot first but...”

“Are you kidding me?” Firefly said. “Obviously, I was the one who shot first. Tell her Spike.”

Spike looked at Firefly with a tired expression. “Captain, I wasn’t paying attention as to who shot first. I was busy trying to save your lives, I hardly even knew she was there.”

Firefly looked to Lotus, who gave an embarrassed smile and shrugged. Firefly huffed and rolled her eyes.

Sunset clapped her hands together. “Now! About my pay.”

----

Sunset loaded up her pay, a box full of bits, in the trunk of her car as the Crusaders were trying to convince her to stay and help the Crystal Empire fight back Twilight’s incoming invasion force.

“No. Rutting. Way.” Sunset told the Crusaders with finality as she shut the lid to the trunk. “I’m not suicidal. My money’s no good if I ain’t alive to spend it.” She opened a passenger door. “Get in.”

“Why do WE have to go with you?” Sweetie Belle complained, “It’s not like you need us to spend your money.”

“Yeah, she’s right.” Apple Bloom chimed.

Sunset pointed between Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. “You two can stay if you want. In fact, I’d rather you did. Her on the other hand,” she points to Scootaloo, “I need her to crack the codes inside these flash drives.” she holds up the drive found in the wooden box with the ruby heart. “We might have more to find, and if you two are still alive after that and have gathered enough scratch, I might bring her back to you, alive.” she then smiled sardonically. “Given that she doesn’t annoy me to the point where I’d have to kill her just to have peace of mind. Get, in.”

Scootaloo huffed out a groan. “Here.” she held up a small device that was held together with some duct tape, had exposed wires, a small incandescent light bulb screwed in at the top and a small LCD screen with a radar on the display. Sunset gingerly took the device. “It’s a radar to help you find that last drive. I noticed that both drives emitted the same kind of radio signal, even when they’re not plugged in. This is tuned to that frequency and should lead you right to that last one. It is also programmed to break whatever code may be in those drives, all you have to do is plug the drive into this device and hook the device up to a computer, and it will do the work for you.”

Sunset looked at Scootaloo skeptically, then turned on the device and held out the flash drive and waved Scootaloo’s device around a little bit and saw that the radar pointed directly to the drive no matter which way she turned it. She glances at Scootaloo and the Crusaders. “Alright. You’re free to go.” They gave hushed cheers and came together in a group hug before running off, likely to sign up to help fight Twilight’s imperial army. Sunset watched the three girls scamper off and rolled her eyes. She scoffed as she got into her car. “Buncha’ weirdos.” She said to herself. As she turned the ignition key, there was a knock at the window. It was Sunburst. He had a bandage wrapped around his head, possibly from the concussion Sunset might have given him, or it could have been from the dark magic, who knows. Sunset rolled down the window.

“Leaving already?” Sunburst said, leaning on the car door with his arms crossed. “Not going to say goodbye to your little brother?”

Sunset kept an indifferent face. “You know that I’m not very good at goodbyes. ‘Sides, I have my money, I know where I’m goin’ next. I have no more need to stay here.”

Sunburst sighed. “You know they loved you, right?” he went to put a hand on her shoulder but was instinctively swatted away, “Mom and dad?”

Sunset snorted a laugh, continuing with her indifferent face.

“I... I used to look up to you, you know? You were always the better sorcerer than I was.”

A sardonic smile cracked across her face as she laughed again. “Really? Then why did mom and dad make you their favorite child right after you got your cutie mark?”

“I don't know- I was young and still growing, I hadn’t had many successes at the time. You were already accepted into Celestia's school, - and our parents were idiots. Remember when we went to that Daring Do amusement park, mom had our ENTIRE trip planned out, down to how many bathroom breaks we would take per day? And then when we told her when we weren’t sticking to her plan for just a moment, she completely flipped out when she couldn’t find us afterward, even though we told her we were going to be by the cotton candy stand?”

“Oh yeah.” Sunset snickered, a genuine smile creeping across her face, “And you stuck to that bathroom plan long after we came back. You told me you almost wet yourself on several occasions.”

Sunburst chuckled. “Yeah. Good times.” he put his hand on her shoulder. “I love you Sunset. You’re my sister. Nothing can ever change that.”

She put her hand on his for a couple of seconds before gently brushing it off and shifted the car into drive without saying a word.

----

Spike was resting in a hospital bed, comfortably taking a nap when a knock came at his door. “Come in.” He said as he stretched. It was Firefly and Soarin.

“Hey, Spike.” Firefly said as she entered the room. “How ‘ya feelin’?”

Spike sat up and rolled his shoulders. “Feelin’ good, all things considered. How’s everypony else?”

“A banged knee, a few scratches here and there. Nothing major.”

“Except for a few guards you killed,” Soarin added.

Spike paled a little bit.

Firefly waved a hand dismissively. “Everypony here knows that you weren’t yourself. It was quite clear to many residents of the Crystal Empire that it was impossible for the ‘Brave and Glorious Spike’ to kill all those ponies of his own free will.”

Spike shrank into his bed. “And what of the others? What do they think?”

“Dunno. Never really talked to any of them. I just know that there are likely some out there.”

“That’s always the case, isn’t it?” Soarin shook his head, “No matter what happens, somepony’s gotta be a contrarian, even if it benefits no one, not even themselves. And they gotta drag so many others with them.”

Another knock came at the door, and Spike welcomed Cadence and Flurry Heart in. Flurry Heart bounced towards Spike’s bedside with a big smile on her face, obviously undisturbed by the earlier encounter with the “bad dragon” as she put it.

“So, what now?” Spike asked as he ruffled Flurry’s hair.

“Now?” Cadence said. She took in a deep breath “Now we prepare for an invasion. Our scouts have spotted a large fleet moving in towards us. Including Twilight’s new flagship and weapon ‘The Midnight’.”

“What kind of weapon we talkin’ here?” Firefly asked.

“A weapon of mass destruction. According to Sunburst’s account, it can wipe out an entire town in one blast.”

“Impossible.” Soarin said, “The only thing that can produce that much power would be the Elements of Harmony.”

“She has four out of the six. Twilight’s a clever mare and has plenty of resources, she’s figured out by now how to harness the power within the Elements without needing them all together.” Silence filled the room. “More will be explained in the mission briefing if you wish to join us.

“We’ll be there.” Firefly affirmed.

----

Sweetie Belle scrolled through her music selection as she remembered the mission briefing.

The Crusaders had been sitting in the front row and off to the far side of the briefing room, all doing different forms of nervous fidgeting. Sweetie Belle was twiddling her thumbs, Applebloom was rubbing her fingertips against her nails, and Scootaloo, giving the least nervous outward appearance, sat back with her arms crossed as she was tapping her foot. Everybody else in the room was murmuring amongst themselves.

“Why are they letting three kids in on this? They’re gonna get killed. I didn’t think we were that desperate.” one dragon murmured among his crystal pegasus peer.

“I heard one of them was the one who stopped the Brave and Glorious Spike’s monstrous rampage.” The pegasus responded.

“Can that pegasus filly even fly? Her wings look kinda small.” murmured another in a separate conversation.

“I don’t think they’ve fully grown in though. What do you think?”

“I’m wondering if that earth pony filly has her strength fully grown in too.”

The murmurings continued. Most were not about them, but all the Crusaders could hear were the ones about them and their doubts. The murmurs stopped when a portly pegasus with a mustache and high ranking officer’s marks entered the room and stood in front of a black board.

“As you know,” he started, “A significant force of Twilight’s Imperial army is headed our way. What you may not know is that Empress Twilight’s brand new flagship and superweapon will be among them, with her at this lead.”

Most everyone mumbled something after the mention of the superweapon.

“Fortunately, thanks to agent Sunburst and the late Prince Shining Armor,” everyone shared a moment of silence, “we have obtained enough information as to the construction of the flagship, and thusly its weak points.” the frame of the board behind him lit up briefly before showing a top-down wireframe display of Twilight’s flagship. “Because it is an airship ground assault will be impossible.”

“I coulda told ya that.” a dragon in the audience mumbled.

“Yes, thank you for that private.” The dragon shrunk in his chair. “As I was saying, this is a high priority target that is going to have to be dealt with in an air assault.” the wireframe model rotated to focus on its side guns. “However, its broadside armaments are too heavy for our conventional aircraft to get through but too thin for them to successfully defend against small fighters.”

“So are we going to have to shoot a lacrima torpedo at an exhaust port or somethin’?” a pegasus inquired.

“Not necessarily.” the portly stallion had responded. “While we believe that is an option, we’re unsure if it will cause enough damage to disable the ship. But if we can have a few infiltration squads infiltrate the ship itself on foot and plant bombs in two of these three power generators located here,” the wireframe rotated back to a top-down view and highlighted three points near the aft of the ship, “We may be able to destroy the ship.”

Sweetie Belle selected the song “Cherry Bomb,” and she zipped up a black leather jacket she got from the armory.

“Each infiltration squad will be composed of three ponies-” the stallion had said.

A dragon in the audience coughed.

“Three - individuals.” the stallion amended. “Usually I would say: composed of a pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony. But considering that the races that are in our population are now more diverse, I’ll change that to a pilot, a magic user, and armed support...”

Scootaloo wiped a pilot’s helmet lens clean. She then stared at the helmet, admiring the sleek look the black headpiece gave, even without anypony inside of it. She put the headgear on and entered a flying simulator.

“The pilot, obviously, will pilot the craft carrying the team to the target zone. Once on the ground, so to speak, she will lead the team to the final target point...”

Apple Bloom pulled back the bolt on her automatic rifle and chambered a round from a new magazine. She looked down her sights and down the shooting range. A clean target with a pony silhouette was at the other end. Apple Bloom took a deep breath and as she exhaled, pulled the trigger and emptied the magazine of 30 bullets.

“The earth pony- or armed support- will be charged with watching the team’s back and provide suppressive fire if need be...”

Sweetie Belle tugged on the hem of her jacket, adjusting it to make it more comfortable. She then reached into her locker and pulled out a Colt 1911, released the magazine, glanced at the bullets inside, and put the magazine back in. When she racked the gun, a bullet flew out, and she awkwardly jumped to grab the shell rolling on the floor and clumsily put it back into the magazine. After a sigh, she made sure that the safety was on and put the gun in the holster at her tail.

“The unicorn- or magic user- has the most important job here. She’s the one to carry the bomb...”

Sweetie Belle shuddered a shaky breath as she walked down a hall in the crystal spire, having recently left from her tutorial on how to handle and set up the bomb they were to use. She was alone at the moment, her friends preparing for their own jobs on the same mission.

Sweetie Belle rounded a corned when she almost ran into Cadence. “Princess Cadence!” Sweetie Belle said, startled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

Cadence just smiled. “It’s alright. I was actually looking for you.”

Sweetie Belle blinked. “For me? Really?”

“Yes. Come with me.”

Sweetie Belle followed.

Sweetie Belle followed Cadence to the sword fighting training room. There were several kinds of ponies there and a couple of dragons, a few of the ponies were wearing lab coats, many were holding a clipboard and a pen in their hands.

“I understand that you traveled with Shining Armor for a while,” Cadence said as they approached the group of ponies.

“Yes?”

“Did he give you training in something?”

“Yes. He taught me and my friends a few basics in sword fighting.”

Cadence chuckled softly. “He always did like teaching something when he could. Even if it was small and wouldn’t be remembered for long.” One of the ponies in the lab coats handed Cadence a silver cylinder that one could easily wrap one hand around with a small red button on it and a small white lacrima crystal. She turned around to face Sweetie Belle. “You’ve heard how alicorns and some powerful unicorns can summon a blade made of light, right?”

Sweetie Belle nodded.

“Well, our engineers are working on a way for less powerful unicorns to be able to have such a weapon, and theoretically, other races with less active magic as well.” Cadence presented Sweetie Belle the items in her hands, holding up the cylinder first. “This is the mechanism that will allow the projection of your light sword.” she then held up the crystal, “and this is its power source.” she placed the crystal that was the size of her thumb in Sweetie Belle’s hand. “But first, this lacrima crystal must be attuned to your magic signature, so clear your mind and focus on the crystal in your hand.”

Sweetie Belle closed her eyes as she did what Cadence told her. Sweetie’s horn glowed with her pale green magic and enveloped the crystal in her hand. Slowly, the color of the crystal itself turned to match that of Sweetie Belle’s magic. And, as if told by the crystal itself, Sweetie Belle stopped and opened her eyes.

“Amazing,” Cadence said. “Usually, it takes a unicorn hours for a crystal of that size to tune with their magic. You did it in a minute.”

Sweetie Belle gave a sheepish smile.

Cadence opened the cylinder and handed it to Sweetie Belle. “Put the crystal here.” she pointed to an empty spot in the middle of the contraption.

Sweetie Belle took the cylinder, placed the crystal in its appropriate spot and put everything back together.

“Now, activate it.”

Sweetie Belle pressed the button and with a snap and a hiss a pale green blade shot out from the cylinder, almost singeing her hair.

“It works!” Cadence said excitedly. “Let’s test it.” Cadence motioned Sweetie Belle to the fighting ring off to the side.

Sweetie entered the ring and held her lightsaber ready. Cadence stood at the other side of the ring and summoned her own lightsaber, without the mechanism of course.

“Ready? Go!” an instructor announced, everypony else in the room turning to watch the match.

The match didn’t last long, for once Sweetie Belle’s blade clashed a third time with Cadence’s, her sword immediately sputtered out and died.

Cadence gave a sigh of disappointment as she let her blade die out. “Darn. I thought they had that fixed by now. Well, at least it lasted more than one hit. Take the crystal out, and we’ll give you a new conduit later.” She then took the broken, empty conduit and handed it to a pony in a lab coat. “Get some rest.” she told Sweetie Belle, “We still have 18 hours until the invasion begins.”

Later, when Sweetie Belle was in her quarters, she laid back as she held her lacrima crystal that was imbued with her magic above her face, staring intently at it. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had said that it was so cool that she had a magic crystal that was imbued with her magic like that. Thinking back of her time with Shining Armor Sweetie Belle shot up in her bed, crossed her legs into a meditating position and held the crystal in her open palm as she concentrated on trying to summon a blade herself again, without the conduit.

Sweetie Belle closed her eyes, and the crystal’s glow began to shine brighter, and a translucent spear of light slowly grew from her palm. She could feel that the sword was not at full length and could do nothing but serve as a fancy light. Sweetie Belle tried harder to fully form a blade, and the light grew brighter before receding entirely back into the crystal and sparking a little bit. Sweetie Belle sighed in defeat as she threw herself back into her bed holding her crystal out to the side in a clenched fist before setting it on a nearby nightstand and covering it with a piece of cloth. “(I hope we survive tomorrow.)” she thought to herself as she covered herself up with a blanket and set to get some shut-eye before the next day’s adventure.

Or suicide mission.

Chapter 15: Battle of the Crystal Empire part 2

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Sweetie Belle stared out at the snow-covered horizon of the frozen north as they were flying south to intercept Twilight’s incoming invasion force. Sweetie Belle breathed deeply, as she noticed that there was heavy fog all around them. As it had been half an hour since they left the base, and still no contact yet, Sweetie Belle thought back to earlier that morning, she had entered the locker room where her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders had started gearing up before they were to be called out to action.

“Mornin’ Sweetie Belle.” Apple Bloom greeted as she adjusted herself in her suit. “Did ‘ya sleep well?”

“Good Morning.” Sweetie Belle responded as she stretched. “Yeah, I did all things considering.”

“I know what you mean,” Scootaloo chuckled as she zipped up a boot. “I didn’t think I could sleep with all the anticipation of the action that’s going to happen later today.”

“Really, Scootaloo? We’re going to fly right into a war zone. We’re probably going to die.”

Scootaloo’s smile thinned considerably as she sighed and nodded her head before standing up and placing a hand on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder. “I know that. But we’re doing the right thing, right? If we don’t fight, even more ponies will die.”

Sweetie twisted her face skeptically as she tilted her head to the right. “Is there really going to be that much of a difference between us joining or not joining? I mean, we’re not trained for this, most of what we learned was done just barely yesterday.”

“Hey, I scored pretty well in the flight simulator for my first time.” Scootaloo pointed a thumb at herself.

“But you still scored somewhat below average compared to everyone else.” Apple Bloom smirked.

“Shut up Apple Bloom.” Scootaloo half whispered half growled through her teeth.

Sweetie Belle chuckled as he brushed off Scootaloo’s hand. “What about you Apple Bloom? How did you do in your training?”

“Ah learned a lot about gun control: use both hands.” she deadpanned. “Ah also learned that bein’ able to breathe really helps with yer aim. Slow and steady breaths, jus’ relax an’ don’t hold it. Improved quite a bit after learning that tidbit of information. Your turn Sweetie Belle.”

“I just learned how to set up the bomb and defuse it if need be.” Sweetie Belle waved a hand dismissively, “Nothing strenuous.”

“You do realize that that bomb is very important to our mission, right?” Apple Bloom said, holding up a pair of pinched fingers to help emphasize her point.

“I know that, but still, you can only do those drills so many times before you start falling asleep just thinking about it.”

Scootaloo chuckled. “Hey, did Cadence give you a new lightsaber?”

“No not yet, and I still have no luck trying to summon it on my own. Even with the lacrima that’s supposed to help.” She looked down at the magic crystal tied around her neck.

“Well, let’s not worry about that now.” Apple Bloom said, “I’m sure you’ll get it someday.”

“(If we survive that long.)” Sweetie Belle had thought to herself, a thought she repeated to herself while flying.

Sweetie Belle was then pulled from her thoughts when Scootaloo’s voice came over the radio. “...I see them! We have a visual on the enemy!”

Another voice over the radio responded, “Affirmative, Phoenix 1. Wave 2 is now en route.”

Sweetie Belle shuddered a breath as she gripped her controls. “Here we go. Now turning back now, is there?”

“Enope.” Responded Apple Bloom plainly.

“Not a chance.” Scootaloo intoned with a tint of excitement.

Sweetie Belle felt their fighter pick up speed as Scootaloo made a beeline for the flagship that was in the lead.

“Here they come.” somepony said over the radio. Sweetie Belle could hear the screaming of several ion engines, adding to the noise of their own.

“Hold on to your breakfast!” Scootaloo said as she performed evasive maneuvers around the oncoming enemy fighters and their fire.

“Careful Scoots, we’ve got one on our tail.” Apple Bloom said.

“Take him out Sweetie Belle.” Scootaloo encourages.

Sweetie Belle turned the gun around to face their pursuer. Once the target was in her sights, she felt a chill run down her spine, as if this fighter, in particular, exuded great anger and hatred with their presence alone.

---

“Lady Starlight,” an officer said, “we’re picking up fighters on our scanners.”

Starlight turned to him and approached his console to confirm that what he was saying was true. “Small fighters. Too small for our onboard defenses to fight against huh? Well then,” She smirked, “launch a squadron of fighters and bring them down.” She then looked out to the oncoming fighters’ direction they were coming from, and her smirk faded somewhat. She felt something, a seedling of strength that could grow into something bigger, she felt... a little threatened. She tilted her head curiously. “And prepare my personal fighter, I wish to join the fight myself.”

“Are you sure you want to do that, Lady Starlight?” Admiral Blueblood said from behind her, “Empress Twilight left you in command of this bridge as she prepared the weapon.”

Starlight turned on her heel and got within half a foot of Blueblood before she spoke. “And being in command means I can delegate certain responsibilities to others whenever necessary,” she said with an edge. “Just be thankful that that pony is you. I know how much you want to be the one to command this ship. So enjoy it while you can, I won’t be gone long.” and she walked off the bridge and to the hangar where her fighter was docked.

---

“Sweetie Belle!” she heard Scootaloo yell, “Shoot him!”

Sweetie Belle shook off her sense of dread as she squeezed the trigger and bullets flew from her turret to her target. Some hit, but most grazed off the heavier plating the enemy fighter sported.

Scootaloo flew close to the exterior of the flagship and weaved inbetween the massive turrets that were unable to target them in tight twists and turns, hoping to lose their pursuer just enough to get around and get a clean shot, all the while being mindful not to fly directly in front of the massive gun barrels.

“You know, this would be a lot easier if you would quit it with your fancy flying.” Sweetie Belle shouted to Scootaloo. “Just who are you trying to impress here?”

Scootaloo was unable to answer when their pursuer fired their weapons, and magic energy pulses grazed their right wing, and another glanced off Sweetie Belle’s window. Sweetie Belle tried to retaliate with some fire of her own but the enemy nimbly dodged with an aileron roll.

Scootaloo growled. “He’s gaining on us.”

---

Starlight rolled out of the way of some oncoming fire. She quickly straightened out and slowly closed in on her prey, she fired a few magic energy pulses that glanced off the pursued craft. Starlight smirked as she readied to fire the finishing blow.

“I have you now.” She said to herself. Her aim centered on her prey and her weapons became fully charged. But before she could fire, her craft jolted as her left wing was blown off and she went into an uncontrolled spiraling descent.

---

“What was that?” Apple Bloom asked as she saw their pursuer go into a death spiral.

“Doesn’t matter,” Scootaloo responded. “I see an opening for us to get inside, I’m taking it.” Scootaloo veered out, away from the flagship, then turned back towards it, landing on top of a gaping hole in the ship’s side and used their grappling hooks to anchor their craft firmly into place. They all exited the fighter from the bottom and slipped directly into the enemy flagship to make their way to their objective.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were tip-toeing through the hallways of the Midnight. Scootaloo was up in front of the group, leading with a semi-automatic rifle, Apple Bloom was in the back watching behind them for any unwanted followers with her automatic rifle loaded and at the ready. Sweetie Belle was inbetween them, a bomb in her backpack, a pistol in one hand, a map in the other and her lacrima tied around her neck.

“Take a right here.” Sweetie Belle whispered to Scootaloo.

Scootaloo stopped to peer around the corner, causing everypony to silently run into each other. Scootaloo glared back at Sweetie Belle, who only gave a sheepish and embarrassed smile in response. “Are you sure we should go through there?” Scootaloo asked. “It’s a pretty open space.”

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Well, it’s what the map says, so...”

Scootaloo gave a nervous “Eh.” as she led the way.

They seemed to be doing well at being stealthy, all things considered. Of course, they hadn’t actually seen any-

“Down there!”

Nevermind.

A firefight broke out between the Crusaders and some of the crew on board. Thankfully, once the guy shouted “Down there!” he gave his spot away, and bullets flew, yes they flew, from the crusader’s guns blowing them all away~ay~ay. Well, Sweetie Belle managed to blow that one guy away with a nice, clean headshot, everyone else in the room was well behind cover, including the Crusaders, as they became stuck what essentially became a form of indoor trench warfare.

Sweetie Belle sat with her back against her cover, clutching her gun to her chest, and shuddering deep breaths as her first kill replayed in her mind. If she slowed it down enough, she could see all the little drops of blood that flew out from the impact of the bullet to his skull, and her imagination lost its reigns as she could picture his dead body on the floor and a pool of blood forming around his head, slowly growing. Sweetie Belle threw up at the image.

“Hey, are you OK?” Scootaloo asked, her voice barely audible over the noise of gunfire.

Sweetie Belle wiped her face with the back of her hand as she continued breathing in shuddered breaths. “I- I killed somepony.”

“What?”

“I killed somepony!” Sweetie Belle screamed, tears welling in her eyes.

Scootaloo glanced in the direction of the oncoming fire and to Apple Bloom, who gave a concerned look that communicated to Scootaloo, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ before she returned suppressive fire and Scootaloo returned to Sweetie Belle, embracing her with a one-armed hug. “It’s OK,” she said in an almost whisper, “we’ll get through this together, we just gotta survive this, right?”

Sweetie Belle sniffled as she nodded her head.

Scootaloo released her as Apple Blood ducked down to reload.

“Crap!” Apple Bloom said. “Their closing in on us!”

“Have you killed any of them?” Scootaloo asked.

Apple Bloom shook her head.

Sweetie Belle was torn between feeling thankful and uncomfortable.

However, the noise of gunfire rose sharply before falling down to silence just as fast. The Crusaders looked to each other in confusion.

After five seconds of silence, somepony whistled sharply before a familiar voice said, “Hey! Is anypony else in here?”

The Crusaders jumped out from their cover and looked at the source of the voice with wide, incredulous eyes. “Sunset?!”

“Ah, there you are. Come on, let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

April Fool's day Chapter: The End

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”Sunset!?" The Cutie Mark Crusaders screamed.

"Ah, there you are." Sunset said nonchalantly. "Hurry up and let's blow this popsicle stand."

"Yeah!" The Crusaders cheered.

And no sooner did they cheer than when four shots rang out, killing all four of them.

Standing behind Sunset was Trixie, the barrel of her gun smoking.

"Order 66 has been executed." She said into a communicator.

"Good." Responded Blue Blood. "You may fire when ready your majesty."

Twilight nodded to herself as she lit up the sky with her magic and completely obliterated the Crystal Empire.

In short, everyone done died.
The End.

Chapter 16: Battle of the Crystal Empire part 3

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Sunset couldn’t see anything, but the sounds of gunfire and screams filled her ears as she groped around, feeling only dirt and rubble between her fingers. Her vision slowly came to her as she could see the blurry forms of houses on fire and ponies running away from something. Once her vision cleared, Sunset looked to what the ponies were running away from and saw an army of iron clad soldiers marching down the streets of the Crystal Empire, mowing down innocent ponies with their rifles, and aircraft above them raining down bombs, setting houses and streets ablaze.

Sunset turned to run with the crowd of scared ponies, fear having overtaken her. As she ran, she nearly tripped over somepony who died right in front of her, shot in the back with one ear blown off as well. Even more ponies fell around her as she ran. She had gotten to town square when the sky dimmed, and all the crystals around her reflected a purple light. She turned around and saw the source of the light, it was coming from an airship, a familiar ship, The Midnight. A ball of sinister, purple, magical energy had formed at its bow and was growing in size, its brightness rivaling that of the sun. Sunset covered her eyes from the blinding light. Once her eyes adjusted to the intensity, a spear of energy shot out of the ball of magic. Sunset followed its trajectory until the spear hit the spire in the center of the Crystal Empire, an even brighter flash consumed Sunset’s vision from the light being reflected and amplified by the crystals that just about damn near everything in the Crystal Empire was made of.

When the light receded, the spire was gone, and she found herself standing in the middle of a crowd at a public ceremony. An execution. A firing squad.

Sunset slowly weaved her way to the front of the crowd and saw six ponies with sackcloth bags over their heads standing in front of the firing squad. A stallion with white fur and a blonde mane, wearing a grey suit, holding himself with an air of importance began walking behind the line of masked ponies and started taking the bags off their heads one by one.

The first pony was revealed to be Firefly, her face covered in cuts and her mane frazzled, a stoic expression on her face. The second was Princess Cadence in a no different situation from Firefly. The third was Apple Bloom, fourth Scootaloo, then Sweetie Belle, then finally Sunburst.

Sunset began shoving her way forward as she picked up her pace, her feet becoming like lead. She heard the grey-suited pony say something as he lifted an arm high in the air and the line of soldiers raised their rifles, taking aim at the prisoners. Sunset struggled to move faster. Her feet became heavier.

The commanding stallion shouted something, lowered his arm swiftly, and the thundering crack of bullets filled the air.

Sunset jolted awake from her nap in her car just before the entrance of the underground tunnel to outside the Crystal Empire. She groaned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she stretched. She looked out the window that was facing south and could see the approaching armada through the dense forest of trees.

“(Those kids must be getting ready to go on their suicide mission by now.)” she thought to herself. “Well, time to go.”

She started the car and looked to the armada again, reflecting back on the dream she had earlier. “(I should do something to change that.)”

Sunset grit her teeth and looked away, “(Why should I care?! It’s not my fault that they’ve gone to go get themselves killed!)”

Sunset’s face softened. “(But what about all those innocent ponies that will die if they fail?)”

Sunset once again looked to the approaching armada. She growled under her breath. “Tā mā de.” she quickly muttered as she put the car into drive, slammed on the gas and turned herself around to go back down the tunnel toward the Crystal Empire.

---

“Sunset?!” The Crusaders yelled in shock.

“Ah, there you are.” Sunset said, ignoring the girls’ surprise, “Come on, let’s blow this popsicle stand.” She waved for them to follow her as she turned around to face the other two mares that were with her, Firefly and Aloe Vera.

“All clear.” Firefly said as she lowered her gun from pointing around the room, searching for more enemies.

“Here too,” Aloe said as she checked the hall they came from.

“OK,” Sunset said as she pulled out her map. “If we continue down that hallway we came from we should reach our destination in... five minutes?”

Firefly glanced at the map and nodded. “We can make it in four.”

“Alright,” Sunset put away her map. “Let’s get going then, time’s a-wastin’.” and the two mares began to walk off.

“What about them?” asked Aloe, pointing to the stunned crusaders.

Sunset turned around as Firefly scouted ahead, she glanced at Aloe then looked to the crusaders and held up a hand in confusion. “You comin’ or not?”

The three girls shook themselves out of their stupor and ran up to Sunset.

“What’re ya doin’ here, Sunset?” Apple Bloom asked.

Sunset smirked, “I came back to have a piece of the action.” she ruffled Apple Bloom’s mane. “Couldn’t let you girls have all the fun.” she turned to Sweetie Belle. “Now, let’s plant that bomb and blow this tā mā dì dìfāng so we can all go home.”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes sparkled then she held up a pair of fists and nodded with determination, giving a “Hmph!” for emphasis.

---

“Two minutes until the target is in firing range.” an automated voice reported over the intercom on the bridge.

This news made Blue Blood smirk; his tail twitched in excitement.

His mood was only slightly soured when a subordinate came with his own news. “Sir, we’ve been getting reports of rebel infiltration aboard the ship,” he stated clearly, though his nervousness was evident in his voice, “Should I prepare a shuttle for you and Empress Twilight in case of evacuation?”

Blue Blood looked to the inferior officer appalled by his suggestion. “Now? Right before our moment of triumph?” he looks away disdainfully, “I think it improper to bother the empress with something as trivial as a few rebels on board. Now, return to your post.”

The subordinate merely nodded and did as he was told.

---

Scootaloo and Firefly took the front of the group while Apple Bloom and Aloe guarded the rear. The Crusaders took the further edges, as the grownups could shoot over them without interfering with the other’s line of sight. Sweetie Belle and Sunset split their roles as Sweetie Belle almost exclusively looked at the map and Sunset equally assisted in keeping an eye out for more enemies from both in front of and behind the group.

“Rogue 1, this is Red 5. We have set us up the bomb.” came a voice over Firefly’s ear.

Firefly tapped her communication earpiece. “Red 5, this Rogue 1 and-” she looks to Scootaloo and whispers, “What’s your handle?”

“Phoenix 1,” Scootaloo whispers back.

“-Phoenix 1.” Firefly continued into her comms. “Copy that. We’re almost in position. Good work Spike.” she cut off communication and glanced back to Sweetie Belle. “We are almost there, right?”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Right behind this door.”

There was nothing special about the door, other than it said: “Authorized Personnel Only.” Lucky for them, the doors open outward into the room they're about to enter. Firefly stood ready to knock down one door as Sunset summoned an automatic rifle and stood ready at the other. The two glanced back and saw Apple Bloom and Vera facing forward now, guns at the ready along with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Everyone gave a silent nod. Sunset and Firefly faced each other and nodded once more before silently counting down from three before kicking the doors with all their might and immediately began scanning the room for somepony to shoot at and some cover to hide behind. They found the enemy first and sprayed a rain of bullets as the group split into two- Sunset, Scootaloo, and Vera to the left; Firefly, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to the right- and made their way to the closest available cover. There was more resistance than expected, the Imperials must have caught on to their plan. Both halves of the group were hiding behind almost pyramidal stacks of four steel crates that gave Firefly, Sunset, and Aloe full cover while standing up behind the “top” of the pyramid.

Peeking out from their cover every so often, Sunset and Firefly managed to thin the returning fire some, enough to where now the enemy was getting smart and finding better cover.

“There are probably seven guys left.” Firefly to the rest of her immediate team. “And I’m out of ammo.

One of Sunset’s hands flashed orange as she tossed a smoke grenade in front of them, then threw a magazine to Firefly. Firefly caught the magazine, let the empty one fall to the ground as she slapped the fresh magazine into her gun and chambered a round. Sunset then tossed another smoke grenade to Firefly, who caught it and clipped it to her belt.

Firefly peered around her cover and saw that sight was sufficiently obscured between them and the enemy as she nodded to Sweetie Belle. “Alright, let’s get you in close and set up that bomb. Red, cover us, and when it’s clear, catch up with us.”

Apple Bloom groaned, “Not you too! That’s not mah’ name!”

Firefly held up a hand apologetically, “I swear, after we survive this I’ll be sure to memorize you and your folks’ names and their dogs’.”

Apple Bloom grunted then turned her attention to giving cover fire for Sweetie Belle and Firefly, waiting for when the smoke begins to clear away.

Firefly turned to Sweetie Belle.

“My name is Sweetie Belle,” Sweetie said quickly and flatly.

Firefly paused and looked Sweetie Belle dead in the eye. “Belle, now is a very inappropriate time for this, OK?” she jerked her head to the direction of the generator. “Let’s get moving.”

Firefly and Sweetie Belle stalked around the smoke cloud to the generator. Firefly was leading; keeping a keen eye out for any sign of Imperials. The smoke began to settle, and Sweetie Belle could see a ladder that leads to where she needed to plant the bomb. Firefly shot at sompony that was on the platform above that ladder, his head rocked back as he fell backward and tried to grip the railing to keep him standing, but his weight became too much, and he ended up flat on his back as his arms went limp. Firefly scanned the above area for any more enemy contacts. When Firefly didn't find any, Apple Bloom had caught up, and they all began to climb the ladder. When they reached the top, they saw Sunset, Vera and Scootaloo on the other side coming towards them. They met in the middle of the platform and found a small alcove that held a console and was the ideal spot to plant their bomb.

Sweetie Belle holstered her gun and took off her backpack that was carrying the bomb, she opened it up and pulled out a grey box that was about the size of a shoebox with large face bevels, a carry handle at opposite ends, and lots of buttons and flashing lights. (Seriously, why do you need so many buttons on a bomb?) Sweetie Belle placed the box above the console’s screen, and it magnetized itself into place. She pressed a few buttons, and a big green LED turned red and slowly began flashing.

“Great job, kid,” Sunset said with a smirk. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.” and they head out for the door.

However, when they approached the door gunfire poured through and managed to nick Firefly in the shoulder. They retreated to the other side of the cover they used when they initially entered the room. Sweetie Belle huddled against one of the crates as the sound of guns firing and bullets pinging off the metal crates filled her ears, even consuming the expletives Firefly, Sunset and Vera were all shouting. They managed to halt the enemy’s advance at the door but their return fire was extremely heavy and whenever one fell down two more took their place, both with more firepower than the one before. It looked like there was no way out. Sweetie Belle began hyperventilating.

“Breathe, Sweetie Belle.” said a voice inside her head, Shining Armor’s voice.

Sweetie Belle twitched, and she turned her head to find the source of the voice. Once she realized it was all in her head she slowed down her breathing some, the surrounding noise becoming quieter. “Stretch out with your feelings.” Shining’s voice continued.

Sweetie took a deep breath, and that’s when Sunset, standing right beside her, shouted in pain and fell on her backside, clutching a bleeding shoulder. Sweetie Belle’s breathing quickened.

“Breathe.” Shining’s voice said, firmer.

Sweetie Belle clamped her eyes shut as she sucked in a shuddering breath and grasped at the lacrima around her neck. Her breathing quickly became smooth, and her face softened.

Sweetie Belle exhaled once more, and her eyes shot open. Focused, determined. She stood up and walked out from cover during the rare lull in gunfire. She turned to face the oncoming army and tore the necklace off, and with a snap and a hiss, a lightsaber came to life.

The soldiers paused for a second, looking to each other for a brief moment before firing at the little girl in front of them.

With the grace of a dancer, Sweetie Belle swung her blade in short arcs. With the finesse of a seamstress, she wove the sword in such a way that the bullets deflected off the edge and often into another soldier. With a gaze of stone, she made the last soldier standing wet his pants and run away with his tail between his legs.

“Woah.” Apple Bloom breathed.

“Shèng shǐ.” Firefly agreed.

“That- was- Awesome!” Scootaloo yelped as she and Apple Bloom ran up to Sweetie Belle, now collapsed onto her knees and lightsaber dissipated, taking in shaky breaths as she laughed with her friends.

“How did you... do that?” Vera asked Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle looked up to Vera. “I don’t know.”

“Well that’s all fine and dandy,” Sunset said as she stood up to walk out of the room, still clutching at a bleeding shoulder. “But we best be getting out of here quick-like, so we don’t go down with the ship.”

“Right.” The Crusaders said in unison.

---

“Target is now in range.” Blueblood heard the automated voice say on the bridge.

Blueblood smile grew wide as he leaned over a console, pressed a button and said, “You may fire when ready, your majesty.”

A purple light lit up at the front of the ship and began to glow brighter. Once the brightness reached its apex, Blue Blood heard an explosion, and the ship suddenly shook and the light died out.

“What happened?!” demanded Blue Blood, gripping a guard rail to hold himself up.

“There was an explosion in one of the reactor rooms!” a subordinate responded from his console. “It must have been the rebels!”

Blue Blood walked up to the subordinate’s console. “Impossible.”

Another explosion, now the consoles and various other conduits began to spark, and the one Blue Blood stood in front of exploded. He gave a wilhelm scream as he flew across the room, tumbling over the railing.

---

The ship shook, and sparks flew out from the walls as the Crusaders got back into their fighter. Scootaloo started the engine, and they flew off. They heard a third explosion and looked back to see the behemoth that is- was The Midnight slowly descend to the ground as stacks of smoke billowed out from every open pore of the ship.

“We won.” Sweetie Belle said breathily. “Our first battle and none of us died.” She started laughing, it caught on to Apple Bloom, then to Scootaloo and became louder between the three of them. Scootaloo then whooped in excitement as she accelerated to the Crystal Empire with dozens of other rebels craft following behind her.

---

Later, fanfare was trumpeting as several rows of rebel soldiers stood at attention with an empty column separating the army of soldiers. Cadence stood on a raised platform in front of them, Sunburst and other generals at her side with Flurry Heart standing next to Sunburst and carrying a large box that she insisted on holding for the ceremony.

Nine figures began walking down the empty column from behind the soldiers, each in groups of three. The first group was Spike, Soarin, and a cyan unicorn mare with a red mane by the name of Carol Lines. The second group was composed of Firefly, Aloe Vera, and Sunset Shimmer. The third and final group was the Cutie Mark Crusaders. One by one each group approached Cadence, and they each received a medal, pulled from the box that Flurry Heart was carrying.

Sunburst opened the box and handed Cadence one of the medals, which in turn she gave to Spike, Soarin, Carol, Firefly, and Aloe, in that order.

“Thank you for your help in the recent battle against Twilight’s Empire.” Cadence had said to them individually.

“It’s good to be back.” Spike had said with a smile.

“Glad to be of service,” replied Soarin.

“You’re welcome.” Carol Lines said with little emotion.

“Been lookin’ for a way to strike back against Twilight’s Empire. ‘Twas nothing.”

“What the capt’n said.”

Cadence chuckled at Aloe’s response as Sunburst pulled the next medal for Sunset Shimmer and Cadence motioned for him to give it to her instead. Sunburst was caught off guard by this but presented the medal to his sister anyway, who graciously accepted it.

“Thank you for coming back,” he said.

“I only came back for my treasure trackers,” Sunset responded as she nudged her head towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “‘Twas purely self-interest.”

Sunburst huffed out a small chuckle as he smirked and nodded. “Right...”

Sunburst was about to pull another medal for the Crusaders, but seeing that Sunburst got to present one, Flurry Heart wanted to give one too. Sunburst was halfway through chiding Flurry for her childish behavior when Cadence quickly capitulated to avoid her making a scene that would have inevitably ensued, reasoning that if she made Sunburst give a medal to his sister, she could allow Flurry to give one... or three.

Most everyone chuckled at how cute Flurry was acting as she presented the last three medals to the Crusaders, speaking loudly and giving each one of the three a hug, all of which were returned in kind. Those in the audience who weren’t laughing were somewhere between a smirk, a snicker or a smile.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders then began to glow as a breeze picked up and swirled around them, then after a bright flash of light, it appeared that nothing happened. However, Sweetie Belle instinctively looked to the back of her right hand and found something that wasn’t there before.

“My cutie mark!”

Scootaloo felt a tingling in her right shoulder. She lifted her sleeve and found the same thing.

Apple Bloom also found one on her right forearm.

All three marks looked like a coat of arms, it was a shield with three vertical stripes of red, pale pink, and purple. However, Sweetie Belle’s mark had a light purple music note at the center of a darker purple five-pointed star in the middle of the shield. Apple Bloom’s mark had a heart in the middle of an apple on her shield, and Scootaloo’s had a lightning bolt in a wing; both sharing the same color scheme as Sweetie Belle’s.

After showing off their new cutie marks to each other the Crusaders gave each other a high-five.

“Well,” Cadence said to the audience while facing the Crusaders, “it looks like we have a cute-ceañera to celebrate tomorrow.”

And now that everyone had their medal, and the Crusaders had their marks, the line of medalists all turned around, and the fanfare reached its peak as the crowd began to cheer.

Chapter 17: Epilogue

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Starlight had been sent spiraling out of control after she got hit. Her ejector seat was jammed, so she had to use her magic to force open her dead craft to escape. Using her telekinesis, she ruptured the glass in front of her outward, the wind suddenly filling the now open cockpit, slamming her further into her seat and whipping her hair all about. Starlight then unbuckled her seatbelts and, with the assistance of telekinesis, jumped out of her aircraft.

Starlight was several thousand feet in the air without a parachute, but she did not seem bothered as she stared cooly at the ground below her for about a minute. One particular rebel aircraft then became unfortunate enough to fly right under Starlight at the right moment and have her land on their canopy like a spider. She then pulled back one arm, balling a fist and charging her fist with magical energy threw a punch that shattered a hole in the glass large enough for her to reach in and rip the poor pilot out of his seat and take his place. Unfortunately, there were two other ponies in this fighter, and one had the audacity to try and shoot her with the gun mounted on top of the craft.

“Lā shǐ.” Starlight grumbled to herself as she stared down the barrels of the mounted gun. “I shouldn’t have killed the pilot so soon.”

The guns fired, and Starlight pounced forward at the gunner avoiding all the bullets as she sliced the barrels off with her lightsaber and stabbed the gunner in the face through the glass.

The plane, for absence of a pilot, then slowly began to roll, forcing Starlight to pace along the side of the craft to stay upright and not fall off, using her magic to lightly magnetize her feet to keep her from slipping. She casually met the other gunner on the plane and sliced him in the back through the protective glass as she paced past him and back to the cockpit.

It became a minor struggle for Starlight to get back to the pilot seat as the plane’s spiral became faster, but she got herself into the cockpit and righted the course of the aircraft. And that’s when she saw the first explosion on The Midnight, the bright purple light from between the forks of the ship flickered then disappeared. Starlight grit her teeth and forced her hijacked aircraft to go as fast as it could back up to The Midnight.

---

The Midnight suddenly shook, disturbing Twilight’s posture, causing the jewels to fall from their place. Twilight outstretched her hand and caught the jewels with her magic, floating them back to around her shoulders. She gritted her teeth as she pressed a button on her communication earpiece.

“Blueblood! What in the Hell is going on?!” No response. “Blueblood! Answer me!”

“Admiral Blueblood is dead your majesty.” another officer responded. “Rebels have made it on board and blew up all the reactors, overloading several consoles on the bridge, including the one that killed Blueblood.”

Twilight sighed a low growl and looked down at an approaching aircraft. Sensing that it was her apprentice, she leaped off the platform and off the exploding battleship and onto the passing, commandeered plane.

“What should we do, master?” Starlight tried to yell over the wind, not sure if Twilight could actually hear her.

Twilight said nothing, but the anger Starlight felt off of her master managed to tell her to fly to their nearest outpost in the Frozen North.

---

Twilight and Starlight made their way to their Imperial outpost. However, both were so livid at their loss that both neglected to inform anypony of their approach, particularly in a hijacked rebel craft. So they were summarily shot down and had to make a crash landing.

When they made their landing, Starlight still had the courtesy of using the runway to land, but both she and Twilight jumped from the craft with a telekinetic boost, leaving the plane to carve a burning gouge into the pavement.

When Twilight and Starlight’s feet met the pavement, the few soldiers that happened to be patrolling the premises saw the mistake the anti-aircraft gunners made as they all came up to them and asked if the empress and her pupil were ok.

The only response they got was an angry glare from the empress to the highest ranking officer that had verbally asked the question. Her eyes burning a furious green as purple smoke violently wisped out from her eyes and every single stallion around them grasped at their throats, choking, as they were all levitated into the air.

Twilight let them go after a while, some of them collapsed on the ground, all of them gasped for breath. She made her way to the communications tower at a brisk pace, with Starlight following closely behind. Clearly, the empress was angry; as when a heavy transport truck had moved in her way she brushed it aside using her telekinesis, nearly toppling it. That, and when she got to the door of the communications tower she blew the door off its hinges and entered. The burning hatred in her eyes died shortly after as she walked over to the communications officer and ordered him to make a call.

Sweat was dripping from the lieutenant’s brow. “T-to who do you w-want t-to m-make a c-call, y-your majesty?”

“Get me Commander Moondancer.” she was surprisingly patient with the lieutenant considering how she blew the door down earlier. The lieutenant then asked Twilight for her communications priority code and patched her through to her desired recipient.

A minute later, a cream colored unicorn mare with a red mane and purple highlights appeared on the screen. Her mane was tied back in a messy bun as her bangs hung in a loose mess. She wore a pair of cat-eye frame glasses with some tape across the bridge, and her uniform was slightly unbuttoned, revealing the light grey shirt she wore underneath. She seemed to be answering from an office, judging from the camera angle and the pencil cup at the edge of the screen.

“Greetings Empress Twilight,” Moondancer said with a neutral expression. “How may I be of service to you today?”

“The invasion of the Crystal Empire has failed, and The Midnight has been destroyed,” Twilight said bluntly.

Moondancer was taken aback by this, she jerked her head back and blinked but otherwise her face remained unchanged. “I take it that idiot Blueblood was left in charge?”

Twilight turned to look at Starlight from the corner of her eye.

Starlight flinched a little before standing in strict military attention and bowing her head as low as she could. “I left Admiral Blueblood in command while I had to address some... other things.”

Twilight looked away from Starlight. “You can explain yourself later, my student. As for now,” she looked back to Moondancer. “I take it you’ll be pleased when I say that Project: Skull Child now has the highest priority for completion.”

Moondancer smirked as she leaned forward and placed an elbow on the desk and her chin on her fist. “Most definitely, your highness.”

“And in light of Blueblood’s death, you have been promoted, Admiral Moondancer.”

Moondancer’s mouth dropped open a little as her eyes widened, but quickly regained composure and sat up straight and then bowed as best she could. “Thank you, your majesty. I won’t let you down.”

“Let’s hope not. Dismissed.” Twilight said as she reached out to hang up.

“Oh! A couple more things, your majesty.”

Twilight pulled her hand back. “Yes?”

“I would like to inform you that the Winter Sorraia project is now field ready.”

Twilight smirked. “Good. And the second thing?”

Moondancer shifted uneasily in her seat. “With the information we have learned about one ‘Trixie Lulamoon’ I would like to request a temporary reinitiation of Project Freeprancer.”

Twilight contemplated this for a second. “Granted.” Moondancer face lit up at the news. “And, considering how sentimental you are with your pet projects, I take it you already have a time table for completion and a name for the new agent?”

“Yes ma’am. Agent Mane will be field ready in six months.”

“Good work, Admiral. If that is everything, you are dismissed.”

Moondancer nodded her head and the transmission cut out.

“W-will that be all, your majesty?” the communications officer asked.

“Yes, that will be all,” Twilight responded as she walked away.

The lieutenant nodded, shakily returning back to his work.