I - Assassination

Where Loyalties Lie
Act I: Honor Guard
by Loyal Liar
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Chapter I: Assassination
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"Rainbow! You—" The air rushed past Rainbow's ears, cutting out most of her friend's words. "—down! I'm not—"

"I'll take us down in a minute, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash shouted back over the wind flying through her mane. "We're not close enough to Canterlot yet."

"No! I—"

The wind felt totally awesome. Awesome enough, even, to drown out the screaming unicorn behind her. "Still can't hear you, Twilight! Hold on!" Dash tilted her wings up, and swept backward into a tight loop. It brought her head close enough to the cart behind her to hear Twilight over the wind.

"—to slow down! Wait, please don—" Twilight's words quickly devolved into a primal scream of panic. The last bit of her attempt to communicate was the result of a simple fact of cart-pulling, with which Dash was not intimately familiar. This fact is summarized very easily. The cart goes wherever the leader goes. In this case, Twilight's scream came from Dash's loop, which rapidly turned into the cart's loop. Judging by her response, Dash didn't mind.

"Why would I want to slow down, Twilight? We're making great time, even by my standards!"

"Because the cart is breaking!" Twilight managed to shout back.

Dash threw a glance over her shoulder, at which point she found herself caught between the guilty desire to laugh, and the heart-stopping fear that her friend was probably about to die. Twilight was barely managing to stand on a pair of wooden planks, each attached to one of the ropes of Dash's harness. Nothing else remained of the admittedly ramshackle cart that they had left Ponyville with. Both planks looked like they wouldn't last much longer. And yet the image of Twilight 'skiing' through the sky, halfway to screaming, was priceless. Rainbow managed to choke back a laugh, and focus on the very real problem. In her mind, there was only one logical solution.

"Don't worry, Twilight! I've got this under control."

Then she sped up.

Passerby in the densely populated park known as Canterlot Square would later describe what they saw as a 'screaming rainbow fireball'. Thankfully, a powerful voice was on hand to take control of the situation on the ground.

"Everypony! Clear a path! Get out of the way!" a towering unicorn stallion bellowed, even as his horn pulled some of the younger park visitors away from the area that would soon be 'ground zero'.

Meanwhile, in the air, Dash pondered why Twilight was screaming so loud. It was just a landing. She wasn't even going that fast.

A deep and resounding impact, bearing resemblance to the noise a wad of dough makes when slammed on a counter-top, was followed immediately by a pair of soul-splitting cracks and a long scraping noise that ultimately evoked the feeling of giant nails on a half-mile long chalkboard. When all the noise was done, the scene was marked only by its sights. They consisted of two young, out-of-town mares lying at the end of a trench one hundred paces long, where the grass of the park had been brutally furrowed and ripped up. Smoke rose from the pile of cinders, splinters, and shattered planks that had formerly been a cart.

Rainbow Dash stood up almost immediately, with a smile plastered across her face. "That. Was. Awesome!"

Apparently, the sentiment was not shared by Twilight Sparkle, who rose to her feet with her mane swept back into what was best described as a purple spike behind her head. This change was accompanied by dirt and splinters covering her face from where she had rolled in the ground, and a generally sour expression.

Dash forced a hoof to her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"Don't you dare laugh! Somepony could have been seriously hurt, Rainbow Dash!"

"Thankfully, no pony was, Twiley. I love your new mane cut, by the way," Shining Armor muttered with an impressively straight face as he approached from the distant, leering crowd. His amethyst-plated armor shone in the early morning light.

Dash couldn't hold it any longer, and she collapsed to the ground again, rolling and laughing in the grass of Canterlot Square.

"Big brother!" Twilight stepped away from the hoof-full of broken planks that had formerly been her chariot, with a deep blush across her face. "Ehehe…"

Shining Armor laughed as he rubbed a hoof across Twilight's head, achieving both a noogie and a quick mane-styling job in a single action. "It's good to see you."

"Uh, Twilight…" In the course of Twilight's reunion with her brother, Dash's rolling laughter had managed to get her quite impressively stuck in the straps of her harness. "…a little help?"

A combination of pink and purple magical auras made short work of the knots, and Dash stepped away from the completely ruined pile of scrap that had formerly been a wagon. "Good to see you, Shining Armor."

"And you too, Rainbow Dash." The muscular stallion's gaze swept over the crowd, which was beginning to reassemble, before he turned to his sister. "Should we head up to the Castle?"

"What about this?" Twilight gestured toward the mess, and the crowd of now quite irritated onlookers whose days at the park had been rudely interrupted. "You aren't here to arrest us?"

"Of course not." Shining smiled, before gesturing his head toward the Palace that dominated the skyline overhead. "I'll get some of the guardsponies to take care of it. Now let's go."

Leaving the crash scene behind them, the three ponies turned their attentions to the Equestrian Capital. Canterlot was brimming with exactly the sort of snobby, nose-in-the-air ponies that made Dash's stomach turn on sight. Thankfully, the summertime sweaters and ironic scarves lasted only up to the drawbridge into the castle proper, where a pair of gold-clad guards kept the masses at bay. Shining Armor stopped at the doors of the castle to whisper something in one's ear.

When he walked back to the two Ponyville mares, Twilight gave him a quizzical glance. "Say, big brother, were you waiting for us? I mean, don't you have somewhere better to be?"

Shining Armor put on a very fake pouting face. "Oh, Twiley, I thought I was your big-brother best-friend-forever. Now you don't even want me to spend time with you?"

Dash groaned as the sibling antics continued. For just a moment, she was tempted to consider the idea of asking Twilight an 'egghead' question, but a pang in the back of her mind told her it would be nicer to let things run their course. It was worth putting up with their cheesy dialogue to avoid another collegiate-length lecture. As Shining Armor continued teasing his sister, he began to lead Twilight and Dash through the Castle proper.

While Twilight and the guardspony captain rattled on and on, discussing everything that came to mind, from the weather, to family, to magic, Dash's eyes remained focused on the palace. The architecture was beautiful, even if it lacked the comforting softness of the buildings back home in Cloudsdale. Everywhere were whites and golds and purples, accentuated by stained glass windows of events Dash barely understood. Occasionally, she caught glimpse of something she had seen, heard of, or even lived through: Nightmare Moon, Discord, the Dragon Wars of twenty years past, and so many more glass memories. It was strange to see Equestria's past unfold, and in a way, even stranger that so much of it was so alien.

The pegasus' attention turned back to her friend and her escort only when they both stopped, at the foot of a tall staircase leading to a pair of aged golden doors.

Twilight stepped toward the stairs, but then stopped, turning back to her brother. "Shining, I appreciate you taking your time to show us around. I just don't want you to get in trouble for skipping out on your duties."

"Relax, Twilight. I can get a little while off if I need it to stay in touch with my little sister. And if there is a problem, I'm sure the Princess will understand if I tell her I was ensuring the safety of her personal student."

"Actually, Captain, I'm quite inclined to believe that my faithful student can take care of herself. She's quite the competent magician, even if her talents aren't as martial as your own."

Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Shining Armor all jumped, as one, and then dropped into bows. In the midst of their conversation, the towering form of Princess Celestia had managed to approach unnoticed from somewhere within the bowels of the sprawling palace. For her part, Celestia wore the smile of a giddy young filly, having pulled off a silly prank.

The unquestioned ruler of Equestria wore her usual golden peytral and tiara. The golden ornamentation served to highlight the pure glow that seemed to be her constant companion.

"None of you need to bow to me, please. You've all done more for Equestria than I could ever hope to repay." Celestia paused while her three subjects rose to their feet. "I've been looking forward to seeing you again, my faithful student. And you as well, Rainbow Dash. Captain Armor, I'm afraid I will have to relieve you of your guard for the time being. I'd like some time to speak with my student, as well as her companion. You should head back to your post."

"Of course, Princess." Shining Armor offered a stiff nod, before turning to walk away. The embarrassment on his face was obvious, even beneath his helmet.

The Princess smiled with the same graceful smile that seemed to always occupy her features. "Thank you, Captain. As for Twilight and Rainbow, if you will please follow me." Celestia turned, moving up the nearby staircase toward the golden doors at its apex.

"I would like to thank you for helping Twilight get here, Rainbow. When I heard that the train had broken down, I was worried I'd have to reschedule my meeting with Twilight. And, of course, Princess Luna would have missed her tonight. I'm sure my sister would be equally pleased to see you for the ceremony."

"Uh… ceremony?" Dash asked.

Twilight sighed. Dash dove for the metaphorical trenches to brace herself for what she considered to be a very literal assault, in the form of one of Twilight's egghead explanations. "I told you about this last week, Rainbow. It's why I needed to come up here in the first place. Princess Luna will be hosting the Royal Academy's Arcane Studies' Awards Ceremony this year, and she invited me after reading some of my work on Emotionally-Based Harmonic Arrays."

"Right. I remember. Sounds fun. So, uh, what now?"

Celestia's smile didn't seem to actually change, yet it somehow took on an obviously apologetic quality. "To be brutally honest, Rainbow, my palace staff is largely busy preparing for tonight's affairs. I don't have much to keep a flyer like yourself interested, at least at the moment. If you can bear to sit with an old mare and her student for a while, I'm sure we can find a topic to discuss that you'll find bearable. After lunch, perhaps my sister can entertain you. I understand she's grown quite fond of racing."

Dash's face lit up like Hearth's Warming Lights.

Celestia, for her part, threw a wink to Twilight, which went entirely unnoticed by the pegasus racer.

- - -

Not far away, Princess Luna paced in her room, staring out at the mid-day sky as her silver-clad hooves tapped against the aging stonework beneath her. It seemed ironic that her dominion over the night did not allow her to get a good night's sleep. Instead, the opposite was true—sleep never came to her. To a normal pony, that would likely seem a blessing, but she knew all too well the stresses that came with sleepless nights and days of ruling and doubting, blending and mixing until she was unsure which was which.

It had been almost three years since the end of her exile. In that time, one of her most important projects was repairing Celestia's influences on the magical education of their subjects. Her older sister showed such an unimaginative favoritism for what she termed 'practical, straightforward' magic that she never seemed to even consider the finer points of the arcane arts. That was to say nothing of her blunt, power-first methodology to casting. It took a wholly unreasonable amount of tiny suggestions and private lessons to various tutors and graduating students, but her efforts had finally paid off. One of her own personal students, Cloudy Mirror, was finally being recognized for contributions to Equestria's understanding of magic. It was a prestigious honor, and one she had every pride in her student for achieving.

Unfortunately, Cloudy Mirror's idea of thanking Luna for her guidance was to set up the entire award ceremony in her honor, and put her in the spotlight in front of countless noble and magically-educated ponies from all across Equestria. It was exactly the sort of recognition that would have meant the world to her a thousand years ago.

The unfortunate truth was that things had changed in a thousand years. With a sigh, Luna stepped out onto her balcony, and looked down over the whole of Equestria. As expected, it was a beautiful day. Almost as if somepony could control the sun itself, and really wanted her to have a good day. Yet another reminder of just how blunt Celestia's methods were.

Luna spread her wings, only to hear a soft cough from over her shoulder. The Princess didn't need to turn to know that the voice belonged to one of the Honor Guard, tasked with protecting Celestia from harm, and now grudgingly also burdened with the protection of her sister. Luna hadn't bothered to learn his name.

"We do not require your company, guardspony."

The stallion’s bladed steel shoes made a series of shallow clangs upon the marble floor as he made his way across the bedroom toward the balcony’s doors. He stopped at the threshold, making sure to keep a respectful distance between himself and the princess. Luna had no fantasy that the distance was actually the product of any respect on his part. "I am tasked with protecting you, Princess."

"Does my sister think I cannot handle myself in danger?" Without waiting for an answer, Luna stepped up onto the edge of the balcony, and then leapt off, wings folded to her side to allow her a faster fall. The shouting that followed her was immensely satisfying.

"Princess, I have to request you return to the Palace immediately!" the guard bellowed over the rushing wind. Giving credit where credit was due, his focus on decorum was impressive in such a steep dive.

Luna shot her wings out at the last moment, pulling up into the steep ascent that the Wonderbolts referred to as a 'suicide rise'. She had to admit, she was disappointed that the Pegasus guard had not chased her. She spun to lose the last bit of momentum from her fall, and then pulled herself back up to the level of the balcony, where the guardspony was waiting.

"We are going to the Royal Academy, to check on preparations for tonight. If you must, you may come along."

No response—not even a correction of the Princess' entirely deliberate use of the royal plural—was offered. Instead, the flight to the Academy was quiet. Far below, however, the midday streets were filled with onlookers who couldn't help but notice how the indigo fur of the princess stood out against the bright summer sky. She could see them pointing, and whispering amongst themselves. A few bowed. Others went about their busy ordeals. It was just as strange an occurrence for the Princess as for her subjects, but arrangements had to be made—and more importantly, Luna desperately needed some space from the overbearing care of the Palace staff. At least the one who seemed chained to her presence remained quiet.

The rough stone walls of the Royal Academy passed beneath her, marking the last of the gawking onlookers. The building inside was a collection of thick round towers—much like the style of the palace, though more reasonably grounded, and with less by way of embellishment. Its wide, rough gray stonework reminded her of the old castle, which lay now in ruins deep within the Everfree Forest. She caught herself neck-deep in nostalgia, and shook off the memories as quickly as she could. There were more important things to focus on.

As Luna soared in for a landing, a stuffy looking Unicorn mare pushed open the front doors of the Academy and wandered out. The mare’s eyes widened considerably as she caught sight of the approaching moon princess.

"Your Majesty! We weren't expecting you so soon. Aren't you a bit out of your element at this hour?"

"If we only traveled out in the midnight hours, we would be hard pressed to ever meet any of our subjects," Luna responded. For a moment, there was silence, as she waited for the correction that never came. It had almost become a hobby, even if the plural wasn't always a deliberate tease.

"Yes, I'm sure. Well, my name is Crystal Ball. I am the headmistress here at the Academy, and your sister's advisor on magical affairs. I've been so looking forward to meeting you. Can I get you anything, Princess?" The entire speech was delivered with well-practice graces that only served to make it clear just how many times the words had been repeated. The nasal accent in which they were offered made the last intentions of the words completely clear.

Some sincerity, Luna thought to herself. "I would like to see the arrangements for tonight's proceedings."

Crystal Ball nodded sharply. "Right this way. "

Empty hallways led past empty classrooms and lecture halls, until finally coming to an similarly empty open courtyard. Here, hundreds of cushions had been arranged in a series of sweeping arcs before an ornately decorated stage, emphasizing Luna's indigo, black, and silver theme. A handful of tables around the edges of the seating area offered refreshments, as well as showing off some of the more visually impressive work presented by students at the Academy.

Luna's focus was shaken away when the mare—what was her name again?—spoke up with another nasal inquiry. "Is there anything we could do to make it more fitting? I'm afraid I had to put Cloudy Mirror in charge of decoration, and he always proves so fond of theatrics. I'll be impressed if nothing collapses tonight."

"It is…" Luna took a moment to sweep it all in. "…magnificent."

"Oh, you don't need to spare my feelings, your majesty. Be honest."

Luna reined in her sense of awe just long enough to shoot a pointed glance at Crystal Ball, who seemed utterly bored with the whole ornate affair. The glare went completely unnoticed. As the red-coated mare rubbed a hoof against her chest, she shrugged. "Well, if you want me to change anything, do please tell me before it gets too close to the event. And I trust you have your speech prepared."

"Of course," Luna lied. Preparing a speech had not even entered her mind.

"Good. Then if you'll follow me again, I'll show you to your box."

Again, the mare guided Luna and her silent guard through the academy. They climbed a long spiral staircase, until finally they stepped out onto a balcony, emerging from the side of the academy wall. It was a good few hundred feet above the ground floor—the sort of fall that would give a wingless pony vertigo. Above and behind her were the crenelations and pointed towers that topped the various branches of the Academy structure. Gargoyles depicting all manner of fearsome creatures decorated the spaces around her, casting a maze of shadows in the now just-past-noon sunlight.

"Are we not a bit far from our subjects?" Luna asked, again turning her attention to the seats far below. "I understand my sister generally sits amidst the other ponies."

"I thought this was more to your style, your Majesty," the headmistress answered. "And I figure it would be a nightmare to be…" Her words trailed off at the sight of the spark in Luna's eyes. "Oh my…"

Luna's response was controlled, and soft, and above all, intimidating. "Pray tell, a what?" The subtle upward inflection of the last word suggested the pause between a bolt of lightning and the crack of thunder. The comparison was made perfectly clear when a bolt of lightning ripped the distant sky; whether it was truly from the Princess' temper, only she could say.

"Er, that is to say, I imagined that both you and the guests might be more comfortable at a… greater distance…"

Crystal Ball edged backward as Luna's eyes began to glow. The control had disappeared; the thunder was sounding. "We are no longer the dark beast that haunts the nightmares of foals! We—"

The slowly gathering darkness stopped when a gold plated body stepped between her and the cowering academic. His eyes were cold, and his stance was ready for battle. She could have read his mind, but the way he looked at her told her everything she needed to know.

They stood for almost an eternity, unmoving, as Luna was silently judged by a council of her own thoughts. There, before her, was a quivering, whimpering mare who saw only the terror that Luna once been, and the stigma she wished she could escape.

"Forgive me," Luna stepped away from the balcony, as a torrent of water surged toward her eyes, yearning to burst free. To have fallen so far over a simple word—a slip of the tongue—should have been below her.

The honor guard turned to Crystal Ball, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "It's okay, ma'am. You're safe. The balcony will be just fine. The Commander would prefer it anyway." Having said his peace, the guard stood up, and walked back to Luna's side. "We should leave."

It took her an eternity to muster even the words to answer him. "Thank you. You were very brave."

The guardspony shrugged. "It was scarier the first time."

- - -

It took Dash almost ten minutes to realize she was drooling over a thousand-bit Pegasus-down pillow. Her interest in the conversation at hand had already passed, as had her interest in the outside weather, the immaculately valuable furniture of the room, and even the phoenix sitting on a perch in the corner.

"If I may, Twilight, I've had a long day of politics already, and I would love to move on to another topic. It seems that Rainbow thinks the same."

"Huh?" Dash asked groggily, cocking her head at the mention of her name.

"Sure!" Twilight answered, giddy in her own egg-headedness. "What do you want to talk about?"

Dash's gaze moved lazily up to the ceiling, where she saw a vast array of vines, decorated in golden flowers. They climbed over a sort of mantle, which separated the room's plain white ceiling from its gold and silver walls. Buried amongst the vines were four statues of ponies Dash didn't recognize, along with more than a few hooffulls of other baubles and trinkets whose purpose she couldn't hope to discern.

"Well, given the subject of the ceremony tonight, I was wondering if you could teach me a bit about illusory magic."

"Teach you?"

Celestia's ever-present smile grew softer. "Illusion has always been difficult for me. In fact, my sister insists that I have let its study stagnate to the point of uselessness in her absence. I was hoping you might have learned something in your studies."

"Well, yes, I guess I know a few things. Umm... Rainbow, come here."

Dash's gaze snapped down from the ceiling when her name was called. At least something was happening. "Yeah? If this is for magic, you can count me out."

"Well, who else am I supposed to use? The Princess is basically immune to my magic, and..."

"Fine, whatever." Dash rose, and paced forward. When she had taken up a spot near Twilight, she sat down. "I'd really appreciate not ending up as a stallion or a mouse or something, if it's all the same to you."

"Oh, you don't need to worry, Rainbow. Illusion magic doesn't actually change anything; it just makes it look like something has changed. It's sort of like lying to the senses. For example, I can make you look..."

Twilight's voice trailing off was accompanied by a glowing light around Rainbow Dash. Slowly it grew into a blinding white orb that encompassed the pegasus completely. The light lingered only for a passing heartbeat, before fading as though it had never been.

"So, what'd you—woah!" Dash was caught completely off-guard by her voice. The primary reason for the surprise was that it wasn't her voice at all. Instead, it was surprisingly masculine. A quick cursory glance at her body informed her that the sound wasn't the only thing that changed. "I'm a guardspony?"

"Not just any guardspony." Twilight levitated a mirror from somewhere out of Dash's sight and set it down in front of her. What the pegasus filly saw was a tall, powerful white unicorn stallion staring back at her with a smug grin. "What do you think, big brother?"

"I know I told you not to turn me into a stallion, but this could be pretty fun." Dash laughed, with Shining Armor's voice, as possibilities poured into her mind. "Make me do some magic, Twilight."

"I can't," she answered. "I mean, I could do magic, but it wouldn't look like it was coming from you. Illusions can't recreate other magic, Unicorn, Pegasus, or Earth Pony. If I turned myself into you, I still couldn’t fly, or even move air by flapping the wings."

"Oh well," Dash muttered, with the stallion's voice. "I could still pull off so many great pranks."

"Illusion is a fine and noble school of magic, Rainbow Dash. It isn't to be used for 'pranking'." Twilight's horn ignited, and it took only a moment for Dash to return to her usual form.

"I do hope you'll tell my sister that, Twilight," Celestia muttered out the corner of her mouth.

"Uh... okay?" Twilight offered, before desperately trying to change the subject. "Anyway, illusion is all about control. It can fool any of the five senses, but it requires great focus to maintain; most ponies can't keep an illusion up while simultaneously using other magic. And... why am I telling you this, Princess? You already know all this, don't you?"

"No, in fact, Twilight, I do not," Celestia answered. "Illusion is one of the great holes in my magical talent, unfortunately. The fact is, my magic does not bend well to illusion."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dash asked. "Isn't it just magic? I mean, I'm a stunt flyer, but I can still fly long-distance or altitude flying if I need to."

"Ah, a topic that you and I can share, while leaving Twilight out of the loop?" Celestia giggled a bit, earning an embarrassed blush from Dash. "I'm only teasing, Rainbow. What I mean is that a unicorn's magic is picky; it varies much more from pony to pony than wings do. I don't say this to sound like a braggart, but my position gives me access to much more magical power—we call it mana—than any other Unicorn. I can do magic that is beyond most other ponies, but it comes at a great cost to my control. I suppose a good comparison would be trying to fly with wings twice as long as your body."

Dash nodded. "I guess it'd be pretty hard to do any stunts that way." Then her stomach grumbled in desire of food; she had nearly opened her mouth to ask for some when the Princess spoke up again.

"Precisely. Also, some ponies favor certain branches of magic; the distinction is based on their special talent, but I'd have a hard time explaining Clover's research without you dozing off. Not that I blame you." Celestia rolled over onto her side, twisting the satin of her large gold cushion. "Suffice it to say that illusions and I don't get along. I tend to put in too much mana. Things end up looking like a bad painting, if I'm lucky."

From there, Princess Celestia and Twilight embarked on a voyage discussing something about the conversation of mana over expensive... something. Sitting around was back to being incredibly boring, but this time, the Pegasus was no longer tired enough to just take a nap. Her eyes drifted around the room, until finally they settled on the dense overgrowth of the ceiling. Dash spread her wings and began to gently flap upward toward the plants.

Two dozen feet up into the tall ceiling, Dash found herself walking on the 'mantle' amongst the statues of ponies and the dense bed of vines. The domed ceiling concealed what seemed to be another whole room atop Celestia's ornate bedchamber. After looking at it for a moment, she realized that the room was designed like a mushroom, with a small 'stem', where the egghead and the Princess were talking, and a cool, colorful overhead with tons of weird stuff to explore. Of course, the exploring could wait until she was done with her snack. She lowered her head to one of the golden flowers, and had nearly closed her lips when a voice interrupted her.

"If you're hungry, Rainbow, you need only ask."

Dash stopped mid-bite, before stepping away from the flower with an embarrassed look. In an attempt to preserve her 'coolness', she walked over to a statue on the very edge of the canopy area and leaned against it, crossing her hooves idly. "I'm sorry, Princess. I'm not really that hungry though."

"Of course not. You're bored. There's nothing to be sorry about, my little pony. I could go for something to eat myself, but I should warn you that those plants are quite poisonous. I know I probably shouldn't keep them where somepony might try to get a snack, but they look so nice, and I so rarely have company here. Anyway," Celestia looked up into the maze of vines and plants, before settling her gaze on the statue against which Dash was leaning. "Commander. Come here."

To Dash's utter shock, the statue responded. As it moved, she felt stone become fur and armor against her own coat. The pegasus soared down in smooth flight, before folding his wings and landing without a sound. The perfect silence of his motion only served to amplify the grunt of pain that followed as his right rear leg fell out from beneath him.

Celestia stood from her cushion, as did Twilight, but the armored guardspony was back on his hooves before either. "I'm fine," he muttered, in a voice that lingered on the verge of growling. "What do you need, Princess?"

"Are you sure you're—"

"I'm fine," he answered adamantly. Dash was struck by the one thing that set him apart from the uniform jet white form of every other Pegasus guard she had ever seen: his armor. Much like Shining Armor's unique uniform, this stallion's armor was covered in what appeared to be a smooth coating of black gems, or perhaps some other material beneath a coat of lacquer. Only its darkness was assured. The armor sparkled only faintly, even in the excellent lighting of the Princess' bedroom. "What do you need from me?" its owner asked.

"I'd like you to take Rainbow Dash to meet with Princess Luna. And send Lieutenant Flag in."

The guardspony acquiesced with a hard nod. "Come on," he growled in Rainbow's direction, before limping in obvious pain toward the door. None of the observers commented on his distress. Dash jumped down, and glided smoothly through the open door. It slammed shut behind her, very bluntly ending her conversation with Twilight and the Princess.

"Please follow me," the guardspony asked, in a voice that didn't ask at all, but instead demanded. He spread his wings and began to fly down the hallway, albeit at a walking pace. Dash followed on hoof, noting out of the corner of her eye how the other palace staff they passed (all three of them) gave her escort a wide berth.

Though she would never admit it, it took Dash some time to build up the courage to speak to him. In the time it took her to prepare herself, they crossed what seemed like a mile of tangled passages and spiral staircases, all in total silence. The stallion certainly didn't seem like the type to talk if he didn't have to. Asking him something like his name would probably just earn a scowl or a grunt. Instead, she tried something more interesting. "So... how'd you do that statue thing?"

"Ask the Princess. It's her magic," he answered, just as briefly as Dash had expected. She had another question prepared, but it slipped from her mind a mere few moments later. The stallion landed before a pair of tall black doors, embossed with swirling silver in the pattern of clouds. Without bothering to announce himself, or even knock, he pushed the portal open.

"After you."

Dash walked into the dark room to find it surprisingly barren. Rather than being divided into walls, the room was a perfect circle. A large, four-post bed dominated one side of the space, while the other had a simple desk of dark wood, flanked by a pair of nearly-empty shelves. Opposite the entrance stood another pair of glass doors that opened onto a balcony overlooking all of Canterlot.

One of those doors hung ajar, and beyond it, Dash could clearly see Princess Luna, with her head hung low over the balcony's ornate marble railing. Her wings weren't really folded at her sides so much as crumpled there. Her hair danced in the breeze of another world, obscuring her face. She barely moved.

Despite not needing her friends gifts to identify the problem, Dash found herself wishing Fluttershy, or even Twilight, were present. Comforting other ponies wasn't exactly her 'thing'. Gilda used to joke that she had a second special talent for putting her hoof in her mouth. Unfortunately, Twilight was a long way away through the labyrinthine palace, and Fluttershy even further. That left only one pony to whom she could turn.

So Dash did exactly that. When she turned around, the Commander wasn't there. She glanced back out the door, into the hallway, but he hadn't fled; he'd simply vanished.

That left her, alone, with the Princess, who still had yet to look up her mid-day view of the glorious capital of her empire.

Dash walked across the length of the room, without further questioning. When the barely-open glass door stood before her, she pushed it open in what she thought was perfect quiet.

"Leave us alone, guardspony."

"Uh… I'm not a guardspony, Princess."

Luna's ears stirred ever-so-slightly that Dash found herself wondering if she had imagined the response. "Then you are brave to come here unannounced. Now leave us alone."

It was a perfect opportunity to escape, and leave the problem to somepony better suited to it. Dash ignored it.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong."

Luna looked up at the rebellious reply, and for just a sliver of an instant, shock overwrote the melancholy inscribed on her face. "Redemption is hard to find in the eyes of other ponies, Rainbow Dash."

"You mean Nightmare Moon?" Luna gave no response, though Dash didn't seem to need one to continue. It was clear what the Princess was thinking, and the young mare responded to it on instinct. "That wasn't you, Princess. We all know it."

"If only ponies could see things that way. But you are wrong. Despite what our sister is so fond of repeating, those sins are ours to bear."

"Well, then I guess you have to show everypony that you aren't her anymore."

"That is the problem. Three years of our best efforts, and yet a tiny slip is all it takes to wipe away our work." Luna closed her eyes. "A mare called us by that name today. Nightmare. We nearly snapped at her." Luna opened her eyes. To Dash's silent horror, teal, slitted pupils were revealed. "Perhaps, we still are a Nightmare."

"Well… everypony gets angry, sometimes, right?" Dash was totally aware that the grin she plastered across her face looked as fake as a flat tree. "Anyway, all you've gotta do is apologize."

"Apologize? I doubt there are many who would accept."

"I forgive you, Princess."

Luna shook her head, then looked Rainbow straight in the eyes with her grim teal slits. "That's easy for you to say. What did I do to you, Rainbow Dash? Perhaps scare you a bit? Tempt you with glory if you would betray your friends?" The Princess of the Night blinked quickly, but the eyes that opened were smooth and kind, and filled with sorrow. "You know nothing of what I've done. Now, I can only beg for redemption." The Princess collapsed again over the railing. In a flat unfeeling voice, she added last words. "You should leave, Rainbow Dash. Tell our sister we appreciate her attempt to cheer us up yet again. Perhaps she will leave us alone this time."

"So you can sit here feeling sorry for yourself? Not on my watch. I didn't get to be Equestria's most awesome pony by moping around. If you want everypony to stop thinking of you as Nightmare Moon, you're gonna have to go out there and do something that makes them see you as Princess Luna instead."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"Well… Isn't there a thing tonight? A party or something?"

Luna looked up, only to be distracted by the glass doors behind her sliding open silently, welcoming a stiff-looking unicorn butler, floating a tray with two cups of tea.

"Courtesy of the Princess," the stallion offered, setting down the tray between them. His next action was to back away while bowing stiffly, as if his spine were flexible only at a single hinge. Luna didn't offer him a glance, but her horn did ignite with magic, lifting both cups, and holding one before Dash, even as she moved the other toward herself.

Dash took her own cup between her hooves and stared at it, hesitantly. She hated tea. It was an egghead drink, and even if reading had proved to be cool, sometimes, tea certainly wasn't getting any tastier. She'd take cider any day, or even water. What was the point in ruining perfectly good water with leaves and dirt, and flowers, and whatever else they put in those bags, anyway?

This particular cup of tea did certainly smell good, however. It was a golden-amber color, probably the result of the golden lining of the cup itself. Floating in the steaming liquid was a beautiful flower that seemed to be made of solid gold.

An eerily familiar golden flower.

Dash looked up with a look of realization and horror, dropping her cup. She lunged forward, launching a hoof out at Luna's drink.

"Princess, don’t!"

The moment of hesitance in Luna's sip was all it took to send a second beautiful porcelain cup crashing against the floor, where it shattered into shards of bladed gold and porcelain.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Poison!" Dash answered in a shout. Her attention had already turned to the inside of Luna's chambers, where the unicorn manservant had stopped, staring at the broken cups. Dash threw the door open without hesitation and addressed the stallion with a shout. "Who are you?"

"Er… Record Time, ma'am. Is something wrong?"

"You bet there's something wrong! What were you doing with that tea?"

"The tea?" The stallion quivered in place, his hair seeming to grow grayer with every passing moment. "I always bring the Princess her tea."

"So you noticed something was different, then?"

"Er… the tea is always different. I don't make it, I just deliver it. Lieutenant Star told me to bring it up, since the Princess had a guest… I guess he meant you. Was something wrong?"

"Where is he?"

"Down in the kitchen, the last time I—" The words were cut off by the burst of wind Dash left in her wake. Embossed ebony doors swung open, then slammed shut, only to be thrown open yet again.

"Wait, Lady Dash!"

"Lady?" The Pegasus turned in midair, and came to a hover as Princess Luna stepped out the doors of her own room.

"Please, explain yourself," Luna demanded.

"Somepony tried to poison you. I only knew because—" Dash shook her head when she remembered her urgency. "I need to hurry if I wanna catch this guy, Princess."

"That is not your responsibility, Rainbow Dash."

"It doesn't seem like anypony else noticed."

"If you are certain that someone is attempting to poison one of us, go to Captain Armor. I will increase security for tonight's Ceremony."

"You're going to go? Even if somepony is trying to kill you?"

"How else can we show everypony who we are?" Luna asked, with the slightest hint of a grin on her face. "Thank you, Rainbow Dash."

Dash's answer was a cocky smile, before she took wing again, soaring out the nearest window and into the Canterlot sky.

- - -

Shining Armor sat rather roughly at his desk, unarmored, with a quill scratching angrily on a scroll in front of him. Deficits, taxes, and pages of reports had replaced battle for the Captain of the Royal Guard. He knew he should be thankful for the peace, but he felt wasted. His talent was protecting other ponies, not accounting.

The room was spacious and welcoming, with chairs for other guardsponies, and a wide desk of thick oak. The wall to his left was covered in the faces of his predecessors, looking down on him, silently judging the twitching of his quill. It was hard to imagine the faces framed in the paintings having sat for the paperwork he had to suffer. They were the names of history books. Famous ponies like Sun Sue and Iron Curtain had saved Equestria a dozen times over in their own days. Would he be remembered like they were?

A pair of stiff knocks on his doors shook off his reflection.

"Please, come in," he stated boldly.

"Are you busy, sir?" The voice belonged to Corporal Blue Shift, a regular who Shining had placed in charge of management of headquarters.

"I said you could come in, didn't I?"

Still on the far side of the door, Blue Shift called back.

"I don't need to talk to you, sir. There's a mare here who insists on seeing you. Says its important. Has to be for you, only."

Shining Armor peaked an eyebrow, though only his predecessors saw it. "Is it my wife?"

"No, some pegasus."

"What's her name?"

Blue Shift didn't answer, and Shining kept waiting until he heard the painful creak of a board six paces down the hall. At first, he'd been tempted to have it fixed, but knowing when ponies were coming and going had proved itself useful in more little ways than one. It certainly made it easier to tell when anypony was trying to sneak in late for work.

It took barely a minute for the creak to sneak through the halls of the Guard Headquarters again. Right on cue, Blue Shift's voice called through the thick door to Shining Armor's office.

"Her name's Rainbow Dash, sir."

"Rainbow? Send her in, Corporal."

No sooner said than done. The door to Shining Armor's office slammed open, making way for a blue blur which proceeded to slam the door shut again. In the process, Shining's jar of ink spilled on his desk, ruining his weekly crime report, and setting more than half the pictures on the wall ajar. Two even fell off.

"Finally! Celestia, that took forever! The stupid guard kept saying I had to file a bunch of reports, but I don't have time for that—"

"Calm down, Rainbow!" Shining Armor shouted, rising up onto his rear legs, and balancing with a forehoof on his desk. It was a surprisingly effective tactic, that was usually reserved for when two groups at 'the scene' were shouting at one another incoherently. He rarely had to use it on a single pony. Then again, Rainbow was very far from being 'most ponies'. "Good. Now, please, calmly explain what's wrong."

Dash took a deep breath, then expelled her thoughts at her usual speed.

"Somepony tried to poison Princess Luna. I think it was her guard, Star something."

"Lieutenant Morning Star?" Shining Armor cocked his head to the side.

"Yeah, I think that's it. He put those gold flowers from Princess Celestia's room in the tea. I noticed right before she drank it. She said to come get you."

Shining Armor hung his head, and placed a hoof to his brow in thought.

"Come on! We've got to go!" Dash insisted. "What are you waiting for?"

"Sit down, Rainbow Dash," he answered, gesturing to a chair. "If this really is Star, and he's still in the Palace, the Honor Guard will catch him. Otherwise, there's no hurry."

"But he'll get away!"

"If he leaves Canterlot, the wall post will know. We're in no hurry, so listen to me closely. I want you to stay here."

"What? But I—"

"Did they only try to poison Princess Luna, Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow's eyes grew wide, and her head pulled back in shock. "I… I…" she struggled for words.

"I didn't think so." Shining Armor's powerful muscles rose up, and then fell just as slowly, in a deep breath. "Where do I begin?"

- - -

There exists in Canterlot Castle's main central structure a room that the Palace Guards refer to as the Gauntlet. The reason for this appellation would not at all be clear to somepony visiting the room to deliver mail, or, say, on a tour. It is a tiny office, with four smooth white walls, a finely furnished but plain mahogany door, and a four-paned window. The space between these walls was filled by an entirely normal office. A short chair, a desk with a healthy scattering of half-organized paperwork, and a handful of gray-feathered quills served to indicate the business-like quality of the area. The only things to set the room apart from the office of an average bureaucrat were a wall covered in portraits, a small pot of ivy by the window, and the black lacquered helmet sitting on a mount in the corner, collecting dust.

Despite its mundane appearance, the room was one of a very few things capable of terrifying Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard. He approached the room slowly, and stopped just outside the door. Inside was the only pony who could be considered his military superior, short of the Princesses themselves. They called him 'the Commander', and so did everypony else.

Shining pushed his way into the room slowly, where he found the Commander staring down at a pile of paperwork on the desk before him. He was an aging pegasus, though still young enough to fight, if the stories his troops told were to be believed. His mane and fur were a sort of gray-blue, though the former had begun to show considerable favoritism toward gray. The slight perking of his ears made it clear that he was aware of Shining Armor's presence. He didn't look up.

Technically, he and Shining Armor were of equal rank—Shining was Captain of the Royal Guard, while 'the Commander' was Captain of the Honor Guard. However, there would not be much point to the word 'technically' if this situation reflected the realities of the situation. In this case, those realities were that Shining Armor was the newest of the Captains to join the four branches of the Equestrian Guard, and that the Commander was… well, even the other Captains called him 'the Commander'. Shining Armor actually didn't know why; there were some questions you didn't ask in the guard, and some ponies you didn't ask them to.

"Sir, uh…" Shining paused for a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. "I got your message. Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

A snort escaped the stallion's nostrils, before he slowly settled out of his chair, and down onto his hooves. "Yes, Captain Armor." The Commander stepped around from behind his desk, with what was obviously a painful limp in his rear right leg, before giving Shining a scroll bearing Celestia's royal seal. "Two of my officers have discovered a likely plot against the Princess."

"Celestia? Or Luna?" It was a question Shining had learned to ask in the time since the latter's return, though it was still a large change from the way he had been brought up. Clearly, the same feeling echoed in the Commander's mind, as his eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the question.

"They anticipate an attack on Celestia. From inside the Guard."

"A guard is going to attack Celestia?"

"I'd love that," the Commander answered, without the short pause that would suggest he was joking. When Shining's face betrayed his worry over the comment, the elder stallion continued. "It would be simple. Celestia is more than a match for any traitorous Guardspony, even if they managed to get past my guard." The Commander turned to the window. "No, I suspect that the threat is to somepony close to the Princess. Somepony more vulnerable."

"Uh, Twilight is coming to Canterlot today."

The Commander's head snapped back, his glare growing even more pronounced. Incrimination was written across his gaze. "How did you get the Princess' schedule?"

"…She's my sister."

A silence that could be born only of perfect awkwardness hung in the air. Finally, the Commander's frozen gaze thawed. "We're thinking the same way, it seems. See to it that your sister and her companion are protected."

Shining nodded, before delivering a stiff salute. "I'll put my best forces on it, sir."

The Commander's face was deadly serious. "Can you trust your best forces? I called you personally because I want you, personally, to protect them. And don't salute. Ever."

Shining put down his fore hoof slowly, then turned, leaving the presence of the Commander behind. It hadn't been as frightening as he had expected, but it was easy to see why the stallion could command so much respect. The way he spoke demanded loyalty, even if it grated on emotions.

The Commander's words slowly wormed their way into the hole left behind by Shining Armor's anxiety about making a first impression. Out in the hall, a pair of passing guardsponies saluted him. He knew one, Sharpened Quill, by name. She had grown up down the street from him in Canterlot. Could she betray the Princess? And what about all the ponies he didn't know nearly so well?

It would be a long walk back to the barracks. The thought of traveling past so many of his own troops, wondering just which ones he could trust was a prospect that grew darker and more terrifying with every passing moment. It easily eclipsed his anxiety over the aging guardspony in the room behind him.

- - -

"So that's why you were there at the park, waiting for us?"

"Yeah." The stallion rose from his chair, and paced to the corner, where a coat of amethyst armor was waiting. "And now I'm glad I was."

"You think he's after me? Why? I mean, I understand Twilight, but why should Celestia care about me?"

"Because you have one of the Elements of Harmony? Because you're important to Equestria? Because you're vulnerable?" Shining Armor shook his head. "We have psychiatrists to try and get into the minds of criminals; I just protect everypony I can. And right now, that means you need to stay here."

Rainbow Dash shook her head violently. "No way. I'm not waiting for somepony to try and kill me again."

Shining Armor lowered his eyes. "This is a guard matter, Rainbow Dash. If you came with me, and something happened… well, to start with, I'd have a very hard time looking Twilight or the Princess in the eye ever again."

"I'm not gonna get hurt. I can take care of myself."

"I'm not sure I can afford to trust you on that." Shining Armor pushed open the door to his office. "Please, wait here. If you need food or something, get Blue Shift to help you."

Then the Captain of the Royal Guard, clad in his namesake armor, strode out the door. He failed to notice the mischievous grin that settled onto the mare he left behind, but he did notice when his door failed to swing shut behind him.

"Shining Armor, do you trust Blue Shift?"

"What?" It seemed like a preposterous question. "I guess… He's only been with the force a few months, but he seems like a good colt. Why do you…?" The Captain's voice trailed off into nothingness, as his eyes grew ever so slightly wider, and his head slowly turned to look down the hallway of his headquarters.

"Then its settled," Dash answered, stepping up next to him. "Where to?"

Shining Armor's skin crawled, as he struggled to settle the sick feeling in his stomach that sometime soon, something was going to go horribly wrong.

II - Sacrifice

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Chapter II: Sacrifice
- - -

Going Solo dressed well below her station in life. Despite the hundred-thousand bits she turned over in black on an average year, her rough-and-tumble vest earned her sneers of derision from the upper crust of Canterlot's insufferable nobility.

Fortunes had turned sour for her in the past few days, however, when one of her wagons of 'discretionary' goods had been confiscated by the Guard. She was thirty big figures in the red in a single day, and it was starting to wear on her nerves. She floated along the road slowly, with heavy wing-beats that slapped the air far harder than was necessary to keep her aloft.

She was headed for her favorite joint in the city - a pasta shop that didn't ask questions when she followed up her spaghetti with scotch instead of some prissy wine. It lay at the edge of the Palace district, putting her pleasantly far away from all her prospective customers, or so she thought.

She looked up when a shadow passed over her head. Nopony was there to be seen, but a moment later, a gust of wind accompanied another pegasus mare - no, barely more than a filly, really - taking up a walking pace beside her. She was a sort of light blue color, that the snooty ponies probably had a better name for, Sea-salt, or something? Whatever. Her incredible mane was more interesting; it was striped in a magnificent rainbow pattern, with each section perfectly separated into its own hue.

"Hey, are you Going Solo?"

"Not if you're asking," she answered, never able to resist a cocky answer. It didn't seem to have gone over well with the young mare, though, who shook her head and wrinkled her nose at the joke.

"Look, I heard you were who I should ask if I was looking for some, uh… you know…"

Going Solo didn't exactly take the words well. She threw her gaze around the area, then clamped a hoof over the mare's mouth, before pulling her into a nearby alleyway.

"Mmmpph! Mmm!"

"Shut up and listen, newbie. If you're really interested in picking up a habit, yeah, I'm the mare to see. But the first thing you've gotta learn is that you don't go talking about things like that in the nice part of town. You'll get picked up. Now, what exactly do you want?"

The dealer lowered her hoof from the other mare's mouth, only to earn an undecided "Uh…"

"I carry a lot of good stuff, you know what I'm saying? Dried Nightshade, Whispersalt, the powdered Rubies dragons get a kick off of… I've even got some beef if that's what you're into."

The mare's face turned from its usual light sapphire color to a funny shade of green for just a moment, before shaking her head. "I can go for some Nightshade, I guess."

Going Solo nodded, flicking open a pouch on her vest, and pulled out a few small bags, filled with purple and white dust. The other item she slipped out clearly went unnoticed, as her 'customer' was too busy staring at the powdered goods. "Let me ask you, who'd you hear about me from?"

"Uhh…" the mare looked around nervously.

"Thought so." The rainbow-maned mare's eyes grew surprisingly wide when she found a bladed horseshoe pressing against her throat. "Who sent you, huh? Was it Grizz again, trying to- what is it he says? Clean up the streets? Or are you with one of the nobles this time? Or the Griffins?"

"I'm… not…" she managed to answer, trying desperately to squeeze out the words without cutting her own throat on the blade.

"She's with me, Solo."

The mare squirmed, feeling the blade press tighter against her throat as Going Solo's turned in surprise to face the approaching stallion. Even beneath the hooded cloak he had covered himself in, his identity was as plain as day.

"Shining Armor?"

"Not expecting to see me again so soon, Solo?"

"Not really, no," she responded with unveiled spite. "Having fun entrapping ponies today? Don't you have anything better to do?"

Shining Armor walked forward slowly, eyeing the smaller, sprightlier pegasus with caution. "I'm not here to arrest you, though you've given me ample reason to do so."

"Well, I'm pretty sure you're not here after what I'm selling, since you already took almost all of it away. So let's cut to the chase. Why are you here?"

"I'm here to offer you a deal, Solo. You let go, and tell Rainbow Dash everything you know about the poison she's going to describe to you, and then answer my questions. Then I let you walk away, with the cart my troops took earlier. You get that stuff out of Canterlot, and its somepony else's problem as far as I'm concerned."

Solo's eyes shot to the rainbow mare, who was still fearfully eyeing the leg holding a blade to her throat. The dealer turned back to the guardspony. "That's a good deal. Too good, in fact."

"You have information that we need. I don't like having your goods on the street, but it's better than the alternative."

The mare nodded. "For arguments sake, what happens if I refuse?"

"I remove your hoof from Rainbow's throat with magic, then arrest you for treason, and conspiracy to assassinate Princess Celestia."

"What? You're joking, right?" Shining Armor shook his head, and a massive weight seemed to settle on Solo's shoulders. Who was crazy enough to go after Celestia? Wouldn't that put out the sun?

"First question. Rainbow is going to describe a flower to you. We need to know what it is, and if you carry it."

The mare pressed against the wall wiggled for a moment, and Solo released her. A hostage wasn't going to do much good against Shining Armor anyway. After a moment of checking her throat for cuts, Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Right, uh... The flower is gold. Not, like, yellow colored; it looks like its covered in metal. It's got petals that sort of curve in, like a tulip, but they don't close as tightly, and they're pointy on the end. So spill the beans. What is it?"

Going Solo wasn't exactly a fan of her tone. "I don't carry anything like that. Sounds like something from Grivridge or Zebrica. The shape might be a lotus or a lily, but I've never heard of a flower made of gold - at least, not an edible one."

She hadn't given them any real information, but Shining Armor seemed satisfied with the answer. "Then has anyone approached you trying to buy poisons in the city?"

"Well, you'd call everything I sell a poison, probably, but most of the time it's just kids looking for a quick high. There was one thing, though. Somepony by the North End - across from Donut Joe's place. It's a run-down old noble's house, but there were a few ponies there. One of them-"

"Breed?"

"Unicorn. A mare, with a black mane. She wanted a bunch of whisper salt. It's usually used to slip into somepony's drink, make them drowsy or whatever. She bought enough to kill somepony, but she asked for it separated out into doses."

Shining Armor nodded. "I appreciate your honesty."

"And I appreciate not getting hung or arrested," Solo answered. "Where can I get my cart?"

"Drop by the station tomorrow morning."

"I'm not going to Guardspony central!"

"Fair enough. It's your cart."

Before she could protest further, the Guardspony captain turned his back, and walked away. His cyan mare-friend followed closely.

"It's a stupid color," Going Solo muttered to herself, before turning back toward the call of precious pasta and scotch.

- - -

"Now, you're going to wait out here. Take a couple bits, go get a coffee." Shining Armor floated a handful of coins up in the air, and gestured with his horn toward Donutopolis, the premier guard hangout in the city of Canterlot. "I'll be back soon."

"But you might-"

"You nearly got decapitated, Rainbow!" Shining Armor slowly realized that his voice had attracted the attention of several pedestrians near their destination. He narrowed both his eyes and his volume. "I'm not about to let you put yourself in danger that way again. I only let you come in the first place because I can't trust the other guards. That doesn't mean I'm going to let you get hurt myself. If you hear something, I want you to fly as fast as you can, and get somepony from the Guard. Tell them that you need a Tactical Squad, and then lead them here."

"But what if-"

"No!" The unicorn stallion glared. "I will bury your hooves in the ground if I have to, Rainbow Dash. I signed up for the guard knowing I'd have to deal with things like this; it's not your job."

With those blunt words, the Captain of the Royal Guard edged his way into the ramshackle doorway that led into the equally ramshackle house across the street from Donut Joe's shop. The mundane looking snack bar was Dash's destination. She walked slowly, wings folded lazily against her side, as she wondered what she might find on the menu inside.

It was just past dinnertime. The sky had begun to turn pink, and everything was quiet in Canterlot. Seven o'clock, and all's well. That was a lie, but it was what the handful of ponies passing in the street seemed to believe. Dash ignored them, and pushed open the door to the restaurant, contemplating only how she was filled with a sort of longing hollowness. The inside of the shop would have been empty, save for two ponies. One was the scruffy owner of the shop itself. The other, a unicorn mare with a cloudy blue coat and a black mane, who brushed past Rainbow in the doorway.

"Sorry," she offered unfeelingly.

"No problem," Dash muttered back, over her shoulder. The motion was small, but it was enough to draw her attention to the mare's destination. She walked straight across the street, without urgency, but with a definite deliberateness. The ramshackle door opened with a gentle tug of her magic.

"Hey, you're one of Twilight's friends, right?"

Dash turned around, to where Donut Joe himself had finally looked up from a coffee mug he was polishing.

"Sorry - just remembered I've got to go."

"Wait, let me-" The jingling of welcome bells accompanied the strike of glass on wood as his door swung shut again.

Dash walked as calmly as she could across the street. Her mind didn't even consider the idea of following Shining Armor's directions. If she did, he'd be dead.

The door creaked open to reveal what had once been a beautiful entryway. A rotting hat rack stood in the corner, leaning on a broken leg. A mostly-crumbled staircase led to an equally destroyed second story. Boarded up doors concealed rooms on either side. In front of Rainbow, an upturned carpet revealed its secret. A trapdoor lead to a basement staircase, which in turn lead to a dark hallway and a door concealing a distant light. There was no sign of the darker blue unicorn. She descended the steps with apprehension, each hoof fall accompanied by a puff of dust and a wheezing creak of ancient, probably moldy wood.

Below, Rainbow couldn't miss the flashes of light and the gasp of two stallions in combat. A sudden crack was accompanied by the shaking of the wall. The door in front of Dash smelled of teak and mold, but with a faint copper undertone. Blood. Gilda had taught her the scent in her youth with a talon to the nose, and she had never forgotten it.

She ran forward, and kicked open the door. It exploded in a burst of splinters, revealing a scene of chaos, which the Bearer of Loyalty had only a moment to take in.

Shining Armor, far side of the room. Bruised face. Bleeding. Tired.

Guardspony. Morning Star? Dented armor, bloodied nose. Wing pinned to his side. Injured?

Wine barrels. Broken glass.

Duck.

The gold-shod hoof soared over her head by mere inches, and it wasn't the sort she knew from flight camp. A blow like that wouldn't end in a bloody nose; it would end in a morgue.

She was under him; his extended leg in midair over her back. She flung herself up, with a hard hoof to his ribcage. It wasn't a proud uppercut, but its strength was unquestionable. It shook her foreleg painfully, but she felt him stagger. He roared in pain, rolled to the side, and lunged. A beam of pink magic burst on his armor. It left a singed smear and a dent, but he didn't even slow down. His wings tensed. His stance lowered, ready to pounce.

Dash waited for the last possible second. She had expected him to take wing, but his running lunge worked just as well. His front legs lifted off the ground, and she threw herself forward. He was ready for a stomp, to crack a neck or a wing or a leg, but she was fast. Much faster than he had expected. She threw herself into his rear legs, and swept them out from beneath him with a wing. He collapsed onto his face. The ringing of a metal helmet filled the room, sliding free of his head. Rainbow spun as quickly as she could, readying a hoof for his jaw, but her motion was too slow. Her head twisted just in time to see a burst of pink light strike true.

The helmet rolled free of its head, like a coin tossed on the street side. Ring, ring, ring, ring… It grew faster for a moment, before its pulse stopped completely.

The head it left behind was a bold blonde, with a long, fiery red mane. Scorches on the stallion's forehead and neck marked his cause of death beyond any shadow of a doubt. He lay still, his eyes glazed over. Dash felt sick. Her stomach recoiled within her, as she stared at the wisps of smoke that rose in the dark room.

Shining Armor limped forward slowly, and placed a calm hoof over the eyes of the late guardspony, shutting his eyes.

"I wish it hadn't come to this."

Dash looked up at the room, taking it in for a moment. There were dozens of old wine barrels, though most of them smelled like they'd turned to vinegar. Shining Armor had apparently been thrown into a wall of wine bottles, as they were the source of the glass that covered his side of the floor, as well as the countless tiny cuts leaking blood across his otherwise immaculate coat. A particularly large piece of glass was slowly pulled from its place in his shoulder with the soft glow of his magic.

In the corner behind the corpse sat a desk, matted in an inch of thick dust, where another broken wine bottle had ruined a beautiful journal. Beside it sat an equally dusty cot, with half-made sheets and a moth-ridden pillow.

Shining Armor took a few slow, obviously painful steps, as the blood in his coat began to dry into a sickening crust. He looked tired, and angry.

"You shouldn't have come." Shining's voice was too fatigued to shout, but the disappointment was obvious.

"I was fine! Besides, you're the one who got hurt."

"That's my job, Rainbow. Now, why didn't you listen to me?"

"There was another pony. A mare. She came in here after you."

"Well she's not here now," Shining Armor sighed.

"Now what?" Dash asked.

"Now, we go to the Academy. We sit through a long ceremony, and pretend nothing happened. Tomorrow, I'll pull some strings and track down this mare you saw. Otherwise, everypony believes everything is good…" The Captain staggered for a moment, but caught himself before Dash could get beneath his weight. "… and that means that everything is."

Dash didn't know what to say in response, so she let the stallion continue with his words.

"You fight well, Rainbow, even if you shouldn't have had to." Shining Armor stepped through the room's sole doorway, and fell sideways onto Rainbow as his hoof slipped on the first step. She struggled to hold him up, until he took back his balance. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"I had a friend at flight camp. A griffon. Are you okay?"

The Captain cracked a quick smile, and ignored the question. "Should have known. You stand like they-" His hoof slipped again.

"Look, let me help you." Dash tried to pull one of his legs over her shoulders, but he pushed her away.

"I can't walk out of here leaning on you."

"Why not? You're hurt!"

"Because you're a civilian, and I'm the Captain of the Guard."

"So?"

Shining Armor finally managed to pull himself up the last step, ending in front of the door to the ramshackle house at the North End of Canterlot. "I know it doesn't matter to you, Rainbow, and that's what I like about you, but there are lots of creatures out there - not just ponies, but Griffins and Elk and Boars and even Dragons, who'd jump all over us if they saw that the Guard had to lean on civilians. It's easier this way. I've got to carry my own burdens."

The Guardspony staggered out the door, and into the twilight air. The sky had turned a brilliant purple, well past sunset, but it was not yet time for the moon to take its stage in the sky. "I could use one favor, though, Rainbow."

"Yeah?"

"I'd really love a cup of coffee. You still have that change I gave you?"

Dash smiled, with a curt nod. "On it, Captain."

- - -

Twenty minutes later, Rainbow Dash sat across a tiny linoleum table from Captain Shining Armor, cupping a drink that could barely be called a 'coffee', swimming with sugar and cream, and buried beneath a mound of whipped cream. Donut Joe had suggested it, noting that it was what Twilight ordered when she aced an exam (or, as Shining Armor put it, whenever she took one). The trial of the previous hour had been as taxing as anything Rainbow had done in a long time, and it seemed to deserve the drink.

The twenty minutes of delay had served ample time for the two to overcome the stress and tension of a literal matter of life and death. Across the table, Shining Armor's straight black cup was slowly growing cold, as he focused his attention on cleaning the glass and blood from his legs. Without looking up, he broke their silence. "Thank you, again, Rainbow."

"For what?" she asked, between sips of her scorching drink.

"You saved my life, down there."

"Well, I wasn't about to just let you fight him alone. That would be totally not cool." She twisted her head quickly, throwing her rainbow locks aside in what she must have thought were a smooth way. They landed in front of her eyes.

After a moment of silence, they both burst out laughing at the ridiculous display. When the pounding of the table finally ceased, Shining Armor leaned back in his seat, and smiled with a contented sigh. "You'd make a great guardspony, you know that, Rainbow?"

The mirth on Dash's face drained away in an instant. "Not my style."

"Hey, I didn't mean anything by it. I know you'd probably rather be with your friends. I bet Twilight would have my head if I got you to move up here."

"Yeah," she said with slow apathy. Rainbow turned to stare out the window beside their table. The purple sky seemed to be changing so slowly. "I don't want to have to make those sacrifices."

The Captain knew better than to press whatever issue was bothering the pegasus mare, so he instead turned his attention back to pressing the wounds on his leg. It wasn't long, however, before another thought crossed his mind.

"Can I ask you another favor, Rainbow?" he managed through gritted teeth, as he focused his magic on manipulating the bloody rag on his leg.

"Sure thing," she answered. The few moments of contemplation seemed to have returned the perky energy to her voice.

Shining Armor set his rag down, and pulled a golden disc out of some concealed part of his armor. It floated slowly across the table, before landing in Dash's waiting hooves. "This will prove I sent you. Tell the guards that I sent you to speak with the Commander."

"The limping one with the black armor?"

Shining nodded. "Tell him what happened."

"Why? He seems like a jerk."

"Because the Princess' security is his job, and it isn't my place to decide how they're guarded. That's all I need, Rainbow. Just the message. Then you can meet me at the Academy."

"Okay." Rainbow glanced down at her drink, then downed the entire thing in a single tip. Before Shining could say another word, cyan wings carried the filly from the restaurant. The ring of the bell over the door was audible only for a moment before Rainbow soared into the open evening sky. She spared a few moments to enjoy the altitude, then set her sights on the palace. No point in wasting time.

In the air, Dash let her mind wander. What would the Commander say? He reminded her of the gym teacher from Flight Camp, only he didn't actually shout. Maybe that was scarier… She just had to tell him what happened though, right? No big deal. They'd taken care of everything. The Princess was safe, and everything was okay.

It didn't take long to get to her destination, even though Rainbow was barely flying at what she would call a 'fast' pace. She landed on the drawbridge leading in to the main doors, where a pair of guardsponies stepped forward.

"The Palace is closed-"

"Yeah, yeah, look, Shining Armor sent me." Rainbow offered the golden emblem she had been given. "He said I have to go see Commander… something."

The armored pegasus scrutinized the emblem for longer than Dash was happy with waiting, before offering a stiff nod. "This way."

For the second time that day, Rainbow was led through the hallways of the Royal Palace; this time, without the obnoxious egghead rants that Twilight and her brother had shared. The stained glass windows that decorated the widest public halls took on a new, more sinister air in the purple light. They passed Rainbow's own depiction twice; the light that shone through Nightmare Moon and Discord alike sent chills down Rainbow's spine.

It wasn't until the guard rounded a corner that a nagging question became an obvious fact.

"This is the way to the Princess' room, isn't it?"

Sure enough, Dash and her escort rounded the corner to the grand hall, where glorious stairs led up toward Celestia's private quarters. "Yes. The Commander's quarters are just down the hall."

"I know the way, then." Dash took off. "Thanks." The guardspony said nothing in response, so she simply flew up to the doors and pushed them open.

Celestia's hallway, with its gold and ivory, was oddly and terribly quiet. It held no stained glass, or windows at all, but instead, was lined with busts and paintings and tapestries, all devoid of label or identification. Though they had seemed fine earlier in the day, their eyes now seemed to follow the cyan mare down the hall. She wasn't about to let something so uncool get to her, though, even if nopony was watching. She shook off the feeling of creeping dread, and strode boldly down the hall, past Celestia's decorated doorway, to a corner.

On turning, it became abundantly clear to Dash just why Shining Armor had referred to the hallway as 'the gauntlet'. A dozen suits of armor stood, polished, along the walls of the hallway. They were gold and silver, black and white, steel and gem, with armored wings and holes for horns, and all manner of other peculiarities. Most interesting, however, was that while the metal of the armors was maintained perfectly against rust and age, many bore gaping holes and gashes; the sort of wounds nopony just walked away from.

At the far end of the hall was a door, marked as distinct only by the quality of its woodwork. Dash approached it with only the slightest hesitation, before she found it looming over her. With a quick series of slight strikes, she knocked. The door creaked open, unlocked and unbarred.

"Uh, hello? Mister, uh, Commander? Anypony?"

It didn't come as any great surprise that no answer was offered, so Dash pushed her way inside. What she found was a totally plain office, with a desk, chairs, and a few other sparse amenities. A doorway on the right wall led to some other room Dash could only guess at. The left wall was covered in portraits of ponies Dash didn't recognize. The only other notable feature was the ivy growing on a climbing pole on the windowsill.

Dash approached the desk slowly, and glanced over a clump of papers, only half-way organized. They looked a lot like weather scheduling forms, only instead of cloud formations, they held an odd assortment of locations and names that Dash didn't dare try to pronounce.

She turned to the window, and glanced outside. The sun was setting, so close to its curtain call that it looked more like a sliver than an orb above the horizon. She would be late, if she didn't find this guy soon. She stepped away from the window, and in turning, knocked down the ivy pole. It tumbled across the ground, spilling dirt from the pot at its base, until it finally came to rest at the foot of the unopened door.

Dash did a quick double take to make sure nopony had seen her mistake, before moving to pick up the plant. It looked no worse for the wear; as well trimmed as it already was. Most of the body was just a long thin stalk, and it barely had any flowers remaining; the only one she saw was a tiny golden bulb. It looked almost as if it had been cast from metal, rather than growing that shade.

She almost gasped aloud when it hit her. The plant! No time to waste, she tried the only door left in the room, only to find it locked. She spun, and kicked it with all her might, in a full, double-hoofed buck. Wood cracked, but did not give. Again, she threw herself against it, and on the third set of kicks, the wood exploded inward.

Inside was a bedroom, but she didn't bother with the time to take it in. There was a body, lying on the bed. A pegasus, and a familiar one at that. Blonde fur stained with blood, and a fiery red mane. The room reeked with the stench of decay. Rainbow's stomach rolled, and her eyes struggled against her will to look away from the horror. When she was finally able to bring herself to look again, painful as it was, she began to see the details. The blood on the back, spread all over the sheets of the bed, did not come from a killing blow; it came from something worse. He had been a pegasus, but without wings, how would anypony be able to tell?

"What… what do I do?" Rainbow's words were strained by the effort it took her to control her stomach. Did she go get the guard? Tell the Princess? Yeah, that made sense. Rainbow turned to walk, but her mind was spinning far faster. The Princess wasn't back in the Palace. She was at the Academy, with Twilight and Shining Armor… and the other guardsponies.

What was the corpse doing here, in the Commander's bedroom? And if Morning Star was here, who had she and Shining Armor fought? The answer that came to mind replaced the bile in Rainbow's throat with ice.

Rainbow turned to the window, and dove through it without a further thought. The glass gave to her force, and she shot off toward the Royal Academy, pumping her wings like she never had before. On a better day, she might have cared about the beauty she left in her wake, as the shards of glass fell glistening through the rainbow streak she painted in the night sky. That day, there was no time to think.

- - -

The Academy arrived in a mere few minutes, which seemed to be the longest in the mare's life. It seemed to fit the depth of the situation. The structure consisted of a massive dark stone tower with looming walls and toothed battlements, patrolled by countless white and gray guards in gilded armor. The only words it added to Canterlot's skyline were 'old' and 'intimidating'. The eyes of the guards searched the outskirts of the Academy grounds, with no regard for the danger that lay within the dark fortress.

Dash rushed to the front doors, where two guards were waiting. Before she could even catch her breath, one of them stepped forward. "Rainbow Dash, Captain Armor has requested we lead you to the-"

"Just tell me where they are!"

The guard's neck pulled back, as his eyebrows rose. "The balcony on the Great Tower, overlooking the Courtyard."

"Thanks!"

She wouldn't bother with the doors; it would be faster to simply fly over the wall. Her wings beat the air as she climbed, corkscrewing up the tower until she found the balcony.

A hundred feet into the air, she cleared the wall of the academy, and gained an astonishing view of the great courtyard. Some three-thousand ponies had gathered before a massive stage. Glowing lights and banners, all decorated in magic to pulse colors and signs, were arranged around a wide area with rows of cushions. A brilliant, uplifting fanfare was playing, from no source the racing mare could identify. The audience paid no mind to the decorations, though. They had all taken their eyes from the stage, staring up at the sky. Above the courtyard a thousand feet over Dash's head, hovering a hundred feet clear of the tallest of the Academy's towers was Princess Luna. Her focus was on the stars, which slowly popped into view, one at a time. There was a little pride to be had as Dash observed the awe with which the crowd looked at her.

Rainbow kept shooting up; a few eyes looked away from Luna's display at the newcomer, but most were too entranced by the power of the Princess of the Night.

Finally, Dash's wings pulled her level with the balcony. Princess Celestia, Twilight, and Shining Armor were all sitting there, along with the traitor himself. Rainbow wasn't about to waste any time. She pulled around, forcing herself into the narrow gap between Twilight and the Commander.

"Uh, Rainbow, what are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"No time, Twilight!" The pegasus thrust forth an accusatory hoof, which she pressed against the Commander's black armor. "Shining, it's him! He's an impostor!"

Rainbow was disappointed when Shining Armor failed to leap into action. Instead, he glanced around awkwardly. "What are you talking about? We already dealt with this."

The looks Rainbow earned from Twilight and Celestia only belied further confusion. The Commander, for his part, wore the same face of all the guardsponies. His perfect white expression grew narrow, but did nothing to betray his dark secret.

Rainbow had to show them. She lunged at the Commander. He responded with all the military training that the imposter should not have had. A stiff wing caught Rainbow's neck, obscuring her vision with feathers and forcing her to the ground. She threw her weight to her left side, trying to stand up, only to bear a blunt, crushing weight on her wings. He was standing on her, and try as she might, she couldn't rise.

"Rainbow!" Twilight cried with shame. "What are you doing?"

"This is the assassin!" Rainbow shouted back, with a volume that would have caught the audience, were it not for the obliviously uplifting tone playing in the background.

With as much force as she could muster, she lunged up at his face. Pain tore through her, as she felt the flesh of her wings rip beneath his stalwart hoof, but the motion did fulfill its purpose. Her hoof struck his face barely more than a glancing blow, but it was enough to send his ebony helm toppling from its perch. Her body slumped again to the ground, and the helm fell with her. Two painful thuds issued into the air, one sharp, the other dull. Both bore finality.

Squinting in pain, Dash waited for the inevitable onslaught. It didn’t come. When she had waited long enough, her eyes slowly slid open. Overhead, they met the gaze of a pair of harsh brown eyes attached to the scarred face of an aging stallion. It was the Commander's face; not the impostor she had been expecting.

He looked down at her, scornfully. "Explain."

"I found the body in your room," Rainbow snapped back. "Morning Star's body. And the poisonous flowers from the tea-"

"What?" Shining Armor stepped forward, horn glowing with potent magic, and pointed straight at the Commander's face. Though she lacked his battle-ready magic, Celestia's face wore a similar judgmental appearance. "I killed Morning Star on North Street, an hour ago."

At that point, Twilight joined the conversation with rapid words that were quickly lost in the flurry of words between the Commander and Shining Armor. The voices into the air tangled a muffled cacophony, only restrained by the unspoken agreement not to alert the crowd below of the royal plot slowly being unfolded over their heads. Only one pony seemed to be keeping her head calm. Without speaking a word, Princess Celestia merely unfurled her wings, and there was silence.

"Thank you. Commander, explain yourself."

To Rainbow's gratitude, he began by taking a slow, stiff step off of her wings, allowing her back to her hooves. "Three days ago, Corporal Reckoning identified a plot from within the Guard against you."

"Why was I not informed?"

"The information was vague, from an unreliable source. I didn't feel the need to trouble you. I informed Captain Armor, and put some of my troops on investigation. They didn't turn anything up. The plot seemed to have died down until today, when Lieutenant Star tried to poison Princess Luna and Rainbow Dash with gilded lotus."

Celestia's face took on more emotion in that moment than Rainbow had ever seen, or even imagined. Her eyes grew wide, her pupils sharp, and something resembling fear overtook her. "Luna's bodyguard-"

"Morning was loyal. He was the pony I tasked with investigating the possibility of a traitor. I imagine he's been dead for more than a week. Captain Armor, you claim that you fought and killed him earlier today?"

He nodded firmly. "Up by Donut Joe's, in that run-down-"

"Details later," the Commander snapped, before turning his gaze to Rainbow. "You said you found Morning's body in my quarters?"

"Yeah. He… He had his wings cut off."

"Common way to deal with Pegasi prisoners," the Commander explained, offering no care for Dash's obvious issues with the fact. "Captain Armor, I was wrong. The traitor is mine, not yours."

"What do you mean?"

"One of the Honor Guard intends to betray the Princess."

"How, exactly, did you decide that?" Rainbow asked, taking a step forward, and puffing out her chest. "I still don't trust you. The body was in your room." She thrust out an accusatory hoof, which pressed heavily against his black armor. He seemed not to have noticed.

The answer came from a source the Pegasus had not expected. "Rainbow, you can trust him," Celestia answered, in as calming a tone as she could muster. "The Commander has been my personal bodyguard for years. I know things may appear to be…" For the first time ever, Celestia seemed to hang on her words.

"Difficult?" Twilight suggested.

"Yes, thank you. Things may seem difficult, but I ask that you give him the benefit of the doubt."

Dash looked back at the stallion, and watched him for just a moment. She still didn't trust him. His wiry gray neck didn't seem to match the powerful, young white body gifted to him by his armor. He ignored the mare's attentions and instead returned his gaze to Shining Armor.

"Take Princess Celestia and the guests back to the Guard Headquarters, as quietly as you can. When Princess Luna is done, we will join you."

"Not the Palace?"

The Commander clearly did not like being questioned, judging simply from the way his face wrinkled up in response to Shining Armor's words. "Has the traitor gained access to your quarters, Captain?"

Shining Armor gave a stiff salute. "Understood. Princess, Twilight, Rainbow, if you could come with me."

"Of course." Celestia bowed to fit her towering head beneath the doorway into the Academy's interior. Twilight Sparkle followed slowly, eyes darting around the room from shadow to shadow.

Dash waited for a moment before following the rest of her group. She turned back to the Commander one last time, and saw him pacing calmly at the edge of the balcony. His every step fell in perfect rhythm, as his head swiveled between a half-dozen points on the wall overlooking the courtyard. There, amidst the towers and the gargoyles and the shadows cast by the lights below, Dash saw guardsponies, clad in golden armor. They watched not Luna, but the crowd below.

"Come on, Rainbow," Shining Armor called from inside the building.

Nodding, Dash broke her gaze away from the Commander, and tried to settle the rumbling in her stomach. Ahead, Twilight and Princess Celestia were walking deep into the halls of the Academy. Dash took to wing to catch up with them. When she landed behind Twilight, the unicorn jumped, and her horn erupted with magic. The pegasus mare barely ducked in time to avoid a burst of pink magic claiming her head. It instead struck the stone wall of the space, where it dissipated harmlessly.

"Watch it, Twilight!"

"Sorry."

Celestia stepped between the two friends, and knelt down to match the level of their eyes. "I think we've all have a very stressful day. I'm very sorry you two had to be a part of any of this. Now, let's get somewhere safe. Things will be better in the morning."

Celestia then returned to Shining Armor's side, leaving the two friends to follow in their shadows. The Guard Captain's horn illuminated the way through the halls, up until the dark hallways gave way to a starry sky. Outside, the streets were empty, marked by street lights, starlight, and a fell wind that settled Rainbow's feathers the wrong way.

Despite the comforting words of the most powerful pony in the world, Rainbow's gut remained less than convinced. In fact, it grumbled audibly in protest.

"You all right, Rainbow?" Twilight asked.

"Not really." She took a deep breath and shook her head. The dread refused to fade. "Something just feels wrong. I still don't trust him."

"Rainbow, everything's going to be fine. Shining Armor is here with us, and so is the Princess. Nopony is going to try anything."

"I'm not worried about us, Twilight. Shining Armor said the traitor was after us, but he tried to poison Luna-" Rainbow stopped mid-sentence, and the silence said far more of her urgency than the words that had preceded it.

"Rainbow, what are you…" Dash streaked into the night sky, without a word of further explanation, leaving her unicorn friend to simply mutter. "…doing?"

The air was irrelevant to Rainbow, for the very first time in her entire life. It didn't feel good, or bad. It didn't invigorate her, or sap her strength with every beat of her wings. Had it not been present at all, she might very well not have noticed, so great was her urgency. She cleared the Academy wall without so much as a glance at its security. The guardsponies looked up at her, but whether because they knew her or because they could not catch her, none bothered to try and stop her.

On what had until only moments previously been the Royal Balcony, the Commander continued his smooth paces. His head swiveled from guard to guard to guard to guard, then lingered on Luna as he turned his body, only to begin the cycle again.

Rainbow approached slowly, hesitantly, and she carried herself low to the ground. Her body was tensed, as half her muscles urged her on, and the rest begged her to flee. The tap of her hooves against the smooth stonework eventually stopped the Commander stopped in his paces. The last chance to flee was gone when he turned to face Rainbow. "What are you doing here?"

"I figured you out, Commander. You told us to leave so you'd be alone to go after Luna."

"Is that so?" The Commander's scarred, twisted face spun itself into a sickening smile. "What do you intend to do about it? Fight me?"

Rainbow hadn't really gotten to that stage of her plan. She was hoping that the answer would have somehow been obvious, but there he was, waiting.

"I'll stop you. "

"Then I suppose you should get started." The stallion turned back to Luna, and put a hoof on the railing of the balcony.

Rainbow took off and shot forward, with her forehooves ready to strike. Despite her speed, she watched what followed as though she was crawling at a snail's pace. A misty blue magic enveloped the base of the Commander's wings, and then with a sickening, elongated ripping, they tore free from his back and flew forward. Flesh should not have made the sound of fabric, but the noise came out nevertheless. A few droplets of blood spilled from the severed ends, but nowhere near as much as ought to have been present. Nausea overcame Dash's stomach, and her will to charge. Only inertia kept her going. She lowered her head, and felt the limp, icy feathers collide against her, battering her before falling almost silently to the ground. Her gaze followed them, and lingered for some time.

When Dash finally looked up, the Commander was gone. All that remained were the wings, and their fallen feathers.

Blonde feathers. Morning Star's feathers.

There wasn't any time to think on this revelation, however, as a powerful kick struck her ribs from the left. Rainbow threw open her wing in response, hoping to catch the Commander. When she spun, no one was there.

She stood, alone, panting with a potent combination of fear, fury, and disgust. She turned, searching the area as quickly as she could, but he was gone. Her focus turned to the gargoyles adorning the nearby roof. They were the perfect place to hide - especially for a gray stallion.

A quick pump of her wings put her amongst the shadows and the statues. She threw a quick glance over her shoulder, before continuing. Luna's magic still enveloped her, apparently keeping her mind from the outside world.

"Good," Rainbow muttered to herself, before continuing slowly. "Stay there, Princess." Whether the words were meant for Luna's benefit or her own, Dash didn't know. Her head twitched from gargoyle to gargoyle, tapping every one that came within reach with a wingtip or a hoof. Each and every one was stone. The further Rainbow went, the more her mind filled in the omnipresent shadows with wispy mirages of the traitorous Captain.

She stepped around a corner, and found herself at the top of the Academy tower. The slope of the roof must have connected it to the balcony below. It was high - nearly as high a vantage point as Princess Luna herself. Offering a quick glance backward, Rainbow saw only the statues she had passed. That left only one possibility.

As quickly and quietly as she could, the pegasus sidled along the narrow stones that led to the stone crown at the top of the Royal Academy's highest tower. She had nearly traversed the crenelated stonework, when a shadow caught her eye to the left. She turned, but saw nothing there.

Still distracted, Rainbow's jaw was suddenly smashed by a hoof from the right side. Bone slipped and skidded against her skull, sending searing pain as her body was thrown to the smooth stones of the tower's roof. She bounced, and rolled, before coming to a stop at the edge of the battlements, overlooking the thousand foot drop to the courtyard below.

When the spots on her vision cleared, Rainbow looked up just in time to see the Commander rear up, and bring both his forehooves down on her right front leg. The pain was indescribable. The limb was broken - maybe beyond repair. Rainbow shouted, but no noise came out. She was alone in her agony, as a dark tunnel began to swallow up the edges of her vision and a faint ringing filled her ears.

"I'll have to thank the Commander for his armor," came a feminine whisper just beside Rainbow's still-ringing ear. Heat rolled over her coat from the closeness of the speaker's breath. "The illusion enchantments are incredible. You looked straight at me and you couldn't tell."

Rainbow struggled to throw another hoof, and was rewarded with a blade against her throat for her efforts.

"Please, don't spoil the fun. I'll tell you, it's hard to layer an illusion under another one - especially one as powerful as a Guardspony's armor, yet it fooled everypony but you. Now it's your turn. You get to be just like a storybook detective, Rainbow Dash. Tell me, how did you figure it out? What gave me away?"

Dash began with a gasp, as frigid air suddenly rushed into her lungs. She didn't recall holding her breath. In the heat of rushing breaths that followed, the darkness and the blur left her vision. They were replaced by an indigo unicorn mare with a swirling black, purple, and blue mane. At the back of her mind, Rainbow vaguely recognized her as the pony she had seen leaving Donut Joe's, following Shining Armor. Now she seemed much more vibrant, though her coat was obscured by the Commander's gold and black armor. Her most prominent feature was the long, jet-black spike covering her horn.

Finally, Rainbow's tongue moved. "I didn't trust you when you disappeared out of Luna's room. But I couldn't prove anything until just now. You screwed up."

"What?"

"When you were pacing, as we were leaving, you didn't limp."

She laughed. A tiny part of Rainbow's mind noted that it was a rather pleasant noise, rather than the horrible stereotypical 'evil laugh' described in Daring Do and Con Mane novels. The thought was silenced by Rainbow's curiosity.

"Why are you doing this? Money?"

"In part, yes, Rainbow. But also to protect Equestria."

"You're insane! Killing Princess Luna is the opposite of protecting Equestria."

"Please, have some maturity. I'm not 'insane' just because we disagree." The blue magic that had claimed Morning Star's wings moved up her horn, enveloping the sharp black spike. "Unfortunately for you, history will prove me right. I'm just finishing what you started, Rainbow. You and your friends."

Her meaning was obvious, and as the lethal spike twisted in midair to point at Luna's exposed neck, Rainbow did the only thing she could think to do. Her wings spread their full length, and with a single mighty pump, she threw herself at the mare. Pain surged again through her broken foreleg, but it was worth it to throw the mare's aim off balance. The spike shot off into the night, and nicked Luna in the leg. All at once, her focus was broken.

Dash landed on three legs and faced down the staggering mare. "Now it's over. Give up."

"Over? Please, look at your Princess and say that again."

As if on cue, the crowd below let out an echoing gasp, channeled upward by a thousand synchronous voices. Luna's wings were failing to beat in the air. Her eyes caught Rainbow's for just a moment, before fluttering shut. With one last final flap, her wings gave in to gravity, and her body began to plummet.

"Hurry, Rainbow. It's me or your Princess. Make your choice."

As Dash took to wing, launching downward after Princess Luna, the last of the assassin's words caught her ears.

"Tell Shining Armor that Masquerade sends her regards."

Dash cleared the tower battlements without a further thought, and her flying instincts kicked in automatically. She tilted herself down, and launched after the Princess, whose eyes were beginning to fall shut.

"Princess!" the pegasus shouted, in a vain hope to keep Luna awake. She didn't respond. She was falling fast - much faster than any pegasus Dash had ever seen fall. The ground was no more than five-hundred feet below now. Nopony could survive that. Dash was racing, actually pumping her wings to accelerate downward, but she was gaining slowly. Far too slowly. It took only a moment's thought for her to realize why.

Luna's wings had folded completely against her side - a bad sign. An unconscious pegasus' wings stiffened, to keep a fall like this from proving fatal. Luna's had grown just as stiff, but they were pinned against her sides instead of spread out, catching the air. Slowly, Dash inched forward, but with each split second, the growing ground got closer and closer. She could make out the individual ponies in the crowd, watching in terror and awe, screaming in slow motion.

There, in midair, a terrible realization hit Rainbow Dash. Even if she did catch up to the Princess, she couldn't lift her. Luna was too large, and Rainbow too tired from all the days flying and fighting. With only one good leg, the idea of carrying her off was impossible. Still, she kept racing down, as her mind raced a different challenge, trying to come up with an idea. She had to do something. Focusing herself into the tightest point she could manage, Rainbow accelerated. As she pushed against the spectrum barrier, it became rapidly clear that she would not catch Luna in time. There were a mere dozen feet between them, but only a hundred between the Princess and the ground.

Time seemed to slow, as another thought came to her. Living up to the title of the 'Fastest Pony in Equestria', Rainbow Dash threw her mad plan into action without considering the consequences. Those consequences would ultimately see the pegasus live up to her more important title - the Embodiment of Loyalty.

Rainbow angled her wings even more tightly than she had before, cutting up into the backlash of wind striking her body. She overlapped her hooves, taking on a slight spin - just enough to overcome the last bit of air resistance. She felt the breaking barrier slip over her body, and knew it was her chance. A last powerful pulse of her wings shot her forward at more than twice her previous speed.

In a burst of color and sound, Rainbow Dash shot past Princess Luna. A ring of rainbow light shot out, catching the falling Princess with its force. Luna's wings were violently thrust away from her sides, even as she was sent sprawling sideways into the crowd. She landed with a dull and painful thud at the foot of a table of refreshments, with a force that nopony noticed next to the shockwave of the rainbow mare.

It was too fast and too close for Rainbow to pull up; too fast even to think about what was happening before she hit the ground, and all thought was stripped from her. All over Canterlot, glass shattered from the ground-level burst of the Sonic Rainboom. All across the Mountain of Dawn, stonework crumbled and fell. Ancient pieces of the Royal Academy crumbled, and the Palace's stained depictions of Equestria's noble history vanished in an instant - the tiniest of prices to save the life of the Princess. Foals screamed, as their parents tried to shield them from the untold chaos that they had witnessed.

The greatest price was not clear until the dust began to clear. The Sonic Rainboom had finally issued forth a mere three feet from the ground. Far too close for even the greatest flier in all of Equestria to pull up. Lying, unmoving in the cracked and steaming crater at the top of the Mountain of Dawn, in the heart of the glorious golden capital of Equestria lay a ball of rainbow hair, blue feathers, blood, and bones. Without having seen what had happened mere moments earlier, it would have been hard to imagine that the burnt and broken body had once been a pony.

It was in this act that Rainbow Dash, bearer of the Element of Loyalty, gave her life to save Princess Luna, and became a true hero of Equestria. And, it is in this act that our story truly begins.

III - Aftershock

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Chapter III: Aftershock
- - -

White walls of pure cloud stretched down an endless corridor. They were smoothed, hoof-puffed, and made from the thinnest of cirrus stripes, threaded together. The doorways set into both sides of the hall, at uniform distance a dozen steps apart, screamed of wealth and class. Above each door was a number, and beside each door a name, set in fine wood carefully mounted in the surrounding cloud.

A mare walked this endless hall, scanning the numbers above the doors for a specific room that she knew very well. She passed the countless rooms, ignoring the warm comfort of the air and the pleasant lighting, until she stopped before her destination. Room 424D was indistinguishable from its neighbors, externally. Beside the door, on a plaque, filigreed letters proudly proclaimed that the room's occupant was one 'Rainbow Dash'.

The mare smiled, and glanced back quickly at herself. Her wings were perfectly pruned. Her pure-white mane had been pulled back into a short neat ponytail. And, of course, her cyan coat was brushed low and smooth, without the tufts of stress and sickness that had been present when last she met with Rainbow Dash.

The door opened with the slightest push, sliding fully open without hitting the wall on the other side. Inside, the room was just as plain and perfectly white as the hallway. Rather than doors, it contained a plush cloud bed, a plain cherry nightstand, and most importantly, a pony. She was sitting quietly, staring out the window nearest the bed. The soft pitter-patter of raindrops masked the hoofsteps of the approaching mare, while an expanding ring of rainbow light spread through the distant sky, countless miles away.

The mare walked forward slowly, smiling as she observed the radiant rainbow mane that decorated the bed's occupant. She looked so wild, and yet, so peaceful, sitting there.

Rainbow Dash only looked away from the sky when she felt a pressure behind her, on the right side of the bed. When she turned, she nearly started crying.

"Mom?"

Easy Breeze smiled, and put a hoof around the neck of her not-so-little daughter. "Rainbow. I'm so, so proud of you."

"What is this place?"

"Does it matter?" Breeze ran a hoof through her daughter's unruly mane. "You're here now." Then came the affectionate nuzzle that Rainbow had missed in her youth. "You've grown up so much since I last saw you. You were so little then; I could still hold you in just one leg. But I bet you don't just want to sit here reminiscing, right? Not when we could be flying."

No sooner were the words out of Easy Breeze's mouth than she shot off through the room's one and only door.

Rainbow rose to her hooves, confused and alone. She felt perfect, devoid of the numbness and the fatigue of waking. Her hooves settled onto the clouds gently, and she began to slowly walk toward the door.

On the other side were clouds; perfect, puffy cumulus clouds over an endless stretch of sapphire-blue water, clear and deep as the eye could see. The air was warm with tropical heat, but a smooth breeze left the temperature invigorating, instead of draining. It certainly didn't match the weather out the windows on the other side of the room. Rainbow took a tentative step through the door, then twisted her head to look behind it.

There was nothing there. No walls or structure to which it attached; it stood on its cloud alone, just as Rainbow felt. She might have stood there for minutes, pondering, were it not for the sharp and welcome voice behind her.

"Let's race, Rainbow."

The younger of the pair had to run forward to catch up with her mother. Once her wings were spread, it took Rainbow no time at all to clear the distance. The two pegasi flew in wide arcs, rolling, diving, and crisscrossing in midair, before the mother said something about speed and shot off into the blue.

Rainbow struggled to keep up - it shouldn't have been so hard. She could outrun the Wonderbolts; her mother hadn't been known for her speed, all those years ago. And that was before she got sick…

Memories came flooding back. Cloudsdale General. A dark room, with a shut door. Outside, Papa was talking to a doctor that Rainbow didn't recognize. They were using big, complicated words. 'Ensefalie-tis'. 'Affairs'. 'Morg'. She didn't like the way they sounded. When she tried to push through to see mommy, Papa scooped her up with one strong leg and held her tight. "Not today, my only sunshine."

It made Rainbow sad, though she didn't understand why.

Rainbow followed after her, her questions growing with each passing moment. Far below, the ocean gave way to beaches, and then grassy plains and rolling hills. The sun never seemed to move from its place just below the crown of the sky. Always, Easy Breeze lay at the edge of her vision, just above the horizon, flying away, never growing closer or farther. Rainbow couldn't catch her, as hard as she tried.

Finally, she stopped. Not out of fatigue, but desperation. She ought to have caught up by then. Below, she saw a cluster of trees. If she wasn't mistaken, they were peaches. She swooped down and found a comfortable branch, before reaching out to the nearest fruit. The tender treat came away from its stem with only the tiniest tug, and found its way into her mouth with no greater struggle. It was succulent, sweet, and perfectly ripe.

No real fruit was that good.

"Something wrong?"

Rainbow almost fell out of the tree. There was her mother, looking not a day older than the last time she had seen her, fourteen years earlier in that hospital - and considerably more healthy.

"I just…" Rainbow struggled to gather her thoughts. "How are you here?"

"What do you mean? I'm always in your heart, Rainbow. Just like I told you."

Rainbow's face creased, trying to process the thought. "Your Enceph-"

"Don't," the mare whispered, as she pressed a hoof against Dash's lips. "You don't need to worry about that now, Rainbow. It's all in the past. For you and I both."

The words felt wrong, but Rainbow decided not to push them. She was already in enough confusion, so she instead turned to another, stranger topic. "What about Dad? Is he here?"

She shook her head. "No, though I wouldn't talk to him if he were. Not after what he did to us." Then her soft but perpetual smile returned. "What are we talking about this for, anyway? We could be flying. I thought you were supposed to be fast."

Rainbow knew all the unanswered questions should have been bothering her, but they didn't. Was it the air? The fresh, open atmosphere? Or perhaps, the thought that she was seeing the mother she lost so long ago?

When Easy Breeze flew off, faster than she had any right flying, Rainbow didn't follow. She instead lingered in her tree, enjoying her solitude while pondering the world around her.

When she was half-done with the fruit, her stomach protested. She was full. She found that odd, since she had not been hungry when she began to eat it. Regardless, she threw the half-eaten fruit over her shoulder and waited for the satisfying splat.

Dash looked down when the sound didn't come. Below her, the grass was gone. Instead, extending to immeasurable depths, she could see only darkness. The peach fell, unhindered, through the vacuum. Slowly, the darkness began to greedily consume the tree.

Rainbow jumped into the air, hoping to fly away from the expanding dark. Her plan lasted until her wings were meant to spread. No warm wind flew through her feathers. In the place of that perfect sensation, her stomach lurched in protest, and she began to fall.

It was the worst feeling for Dash, to fall. She had always hated it her entire life, as the sign that her one special gift had failed her. Every time, without exception, it ended in pain. That was the easy part, though; physical pain. The fear of the fall was where it scared her the most.

That fall was her worst nightmare made manifest. It was falling without end. Most ponies would be worried about the unknown landing. Dash would have welcomed the momentary pain. Instead, she saw nothing. No ground below, no painful crack, just falling forever, on and on, into endless darkness.

Rainbow looked back desperately, hoping to find her wings freed of whatever was holding them. What she saw instead was the greatest of terrors. In place of wings, her body bore a pair of nubs. Clean cuts left only tiny drops of blood on her cyan mane. The wounds were far too familiar. Far too haunting.

A softness pressed against Rainbow's face in the fell chill of the darkness. She turned back to look 'below', and saw shadowed blonde feathers. There were hundreds, floating free, that slid past her face and body with gentle tickling motions as she continued to plummet. The feeling was unearthly, grisly, and left Dash with none of the comfort that a warm wing might have given.

As she fell, more and more feathers pressed against her, until they were less of a loose cloud and more of a choking mass. She couldn't see, and all she felt were their teasing touches. She screamed, and her voice was the only noise in the void.

Then it stopped. First, the falling, then the feathers, and finally, the noise. Something under Rainbow's hooves was hard. Was it stone, or steel, or something else? Everything was still dark.

In the distance, there was a bright light, and then came pain.

- - -

Rainbow shot bolt upright, and almost immediately collapsed against her pillows from the very real pain of the motion. Sweat clung to her fur, and matted down her mane against her face, obscuring her from her surroundings. Thick and heavy layers of fabric weighed her down against an incredibly plush mattress. It was warm. The sun was shining onto her exposed neck and head from somewhere to the left. Her wings, just as wet as the rest of her body, twitched idly, begging for exercise. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt them, present and accounted for. Her next action was to twist her right fore-leg up to her hair, and sweep it out of her eyes. Some instinct told her that the limb should have hurt, or lay useless at her side, yet it heeded her will without question.

When the rainbow mane was swept away, Dash was able to fully take in her surroundings. She lay on an opulent four-post bed of enormous size, spread with blankets and pillows of gold and purple. Apart from the bulges that marked her legs less than halfway down its length, the mare could see two other places where the fabric had been disturbed. One was a huge area of roughly circular twisting, as though something large had been set down. The other was a space with two small groupings of water droplets, a few inches apart.

The room beyond the bed was an opulent and airy space, spread haphazardly with cushions and plates of half-finished food. The walls played host to bookshelves, as well as cases for numerous works of finely finished art. Directly across from the bed was an oil painting, almost twice as tall as Dash herself, depicting Celestia and Luna standing side by side, smiling. The faded tones of the paint, and the peeling of the widest strokes told far more of the image than its actual subject. Few works of art were old enough to have captured such a scene first-hoof.

The top of the painting's heavy wooden frame was obscured by a few strands of ivy hanging down from somewhere unseen, high overhead. Dash leaned forward, trying to get a view of the source of the plants, and in doing so, caught a glance of something else entirely. Perched on the very end of the thickest length of ivy, there rested a flower. It must have been a lily or a lotus or something similar, seemingly made of solid gold.

In that tiny glance at the flower, Rainbow's memories came flooding back to her. Her meeting with Twilight and the Princess in the very same room. Her first encounter with the would-be Commander. The plot, the confrontation… and the fall. The pegasus slowly began to move her hooves across her body, checking for scars or markings. All she could note, instead, was a sharp but quickly fading pain that accompanied her movements. It was a welcome surprise, but it still felt wrong. She shouldn't have walked away from that crash. She was lucky to be alive, but anything less than a fractured skull, wing, and ribs would have seemed like fiction.

Then her mind shifted to Luna, and the assassin—Masquerade, she had said. What had happened, after the Sonic Rainboom? Another quick glance around the room gave no answers to the obvious question, but it did reveal an incredibly opulent veggie burger resting on a solid gold plate to Rainbow's side on the nightstand. She gave it a cursory glance, and smiled. Double pickles, no onions, and an extra thick helping of ketchup. Whoever had arranged the plate knew Rainbow well. It was exactly how she ordered her favorite meal, even if it wasn't usually served quite so 'gourmet'. There wasn't any sense letting it go to waste, especially given the growling in her stomach. She wolfed down the burger as quickly as she usually flew, lacking only a shattering of the sound barrier to set a new record as Equestria's Fastest Eater. 'Sonic Burger-Boom' sounded dumb anyway.

The next step was to go back to what she had been looking for moments before: answers. There obviously weren't any to be found in the empty room; at least, for somepony without Twilight Sparkle's impressive deductive skills. Instead, she rolled (or rather flopped, though she would never admit it) out of bed. After extricating herself from the complicated mess of blankets that had coiled around her midsection, she stepped toward the door of the room.

"Coo!" It was a soft, curious noise, yet for the way it put Dash in the air, it may as well have been a bolt of errant lightning. The pegasus relaxed slightly when she saw the noise's source.

"A phoenix? What are you doing in here?"

"Reeaa."

"You must be Princess Celestia's pet. What did Twilight say your name was? Philo… something? Philha… Philharmonic, that's it! She wanted me to come hear you sing, can you believe that? I mean, not that you sound bad, Philharmonic, but-"

"Wraaoo…" the majestic bird's crow fell down into a disgruntled warbling.

"Yeah, I wouldn't call myself that either. How about Phil?" The phoenix shot her an awkward glance. "I know it's still not that cool, but I've gotta work with what I got. I mean, Philharmonic? What's up with that?"

"Kree!"

"Right, you too. Anyways, I've gotta go try and find the Princess. Catch you later."

Rainbow left the phoenix behind and threw open Celestia's doors. Without so much as glancing forward, she darted out into the Royal Palace's hallway. Things were much the same as they had been the day before, save the surprising lack of servants and guardsponies. The hallway to the left led back toward the Commander's quarters. Rainbow didn't even consider heading that way. She'd seen enough of that room to last her a lifetime. Instead, she turned to the other path, and took to wing. Her speed carried her through the double doors at the far end of the hall, and for her trouble, she found her nose smashed against somepony else's chest.

Rainbow collapsed to a sitting position, and in the awkward silence that followed, the only motion was the swinging of the door behind her as it slowly shut.

The mare standing over Rainbow was not somepony she had ever expected to meet: a mare who could narrowly beat Big Macintosh in a 'being big' competition. She had an off-white coat, an eggshell mane pulled back into a tight ponytail, and an icy demeanor.

"Rainbow Dash? We were not expecting you to be awake so soon." Though it was subtle, Rainbow didn't miss the hints of a Stalliongradian accent. "The Princess wants you. Follow me."

Without waiting for an answer, the towering mare began walking off. On foot, Dash struggled to keep up with her massive stride without running. After a few moments, she took to the air, hovering beside the guide and trying to ignore the sudden twinge of pain accompanying each beat of her wings.

"Who are you?"

"Soldier On."

Rainbow waited a good ten seconds, before it became perfectly clear that the name was all she was going to get. Soldier On didn't even glance over to check that Rainbow was still following. "Okay… Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria, and future Wonderbolt."

"Bearer of Loyalty."

"Huh?" Rainbow cocked her head for a moment, before realizing exactly what was meant. "Oh, yeah, that too, but that's more of a special occasion thing, you know?"

"It's more important."

"If you say so. Anyways, what do you do?"

"I am acting Captain of Princess Celestia's Honor Guard."

"You're the Commander? I thought he was a stallion."

The question earned Rainbow the satisfaction of seeing the massive pony's face change for just a moment. Unfortunately, it was for the negative. Her lips twinged downward, as if bringing up the subject of the black-armored pony had hurt her. "Acting Captain. The real Commander is missing. Likely dead."

Nothing had a hope of quietly smothering their conversation as quickly as the blunt acknowledgement of the grim truth. They continued on their way, accompanied only by the noise of On's hoofsteps and Rainbow's wingbeats. The Palace wound around Rainbow, but its stained glass and towering ceilings seemed less welcome with the subdued sense of urgency she felt. They kept walking and walking, until finally Rainbow couldn't take it any longer.

"How's Princess Luna?"

"Alive," Soldier On answered bluntly, "for now. You will see."

Unfortunately, seeing required Dash to wait through the rest of the winding halls and shadowed corridors along their path. Nevertheless, patience did eventually win through for the young pegasus, as a pair of rather bland wooden doors were pushed open by the leading guardspony. Inside, Dash found a room that she would have expected to find in Ponyville or Cloudsdale, but certainly not the glorious halls of Canterlot's most decorated feature. Sterile white tile walls and a linoleum floor left the enormous space looking at first glance like a bathroom. Within, dozens of blue curtains hung in clumps against the walls, failing to conceal anything of note. The stainless steel fixtures attaching them to the ceiling made it obvious that they were meant to conceal the half-dozen cheap, plastic-lined beds set evenly along the walls. The smells of antiseptic and chalky pills filled the stale, barely-circulated air.

At the far end of the room, one blue curtain was drawn shut, concealing inaudible murmurs of some quiet conversation, as well as a piercing, rhythmic beeping, which followed the rhythm of a heartbeat.

Waiting for no acknowledgement or patience, Soldier On marched across the room, steel-shod hooves clicking sharply with every step, in time with the pulses. Whether she consciously timed her steps or not, the noise led into a sort of grim percussion, with two potent taps of hooves on linoleum escaping into the air between each beep.

It seemed to take an eternity, enduring the noise, before they finally reached the curtain. Rather than draw it open, Soldier On stood up to her full height, drawing her legs together into perfect posture. Only when fully at attention did she speak.

"Rainbow Dash, your majesty."

The curtain was flung open with a burst of gold magic. The force tore part of the blue fabric, leaving it hanging off-kilter from the wall.

Inside the space, Rainbow counted four ponies. The first was Shining Armor, who wore the entirety of his gem-laden armor and stood stiffly at the bedside. When the curtains moved, his eyes widened slightly, and his jaw dropped just as far. Though he obviously intended the question only for himself, the words that escaped his lips were audible to all present."How are you…?"

The second was a much smaller stallion in the white coat of a doctor, standing next to Shining by a white metal machine near the wall - the source of the beeping. Rainbow recognized it as a heart-monitor, though the other various readouts that held his attention meant nothing to the pegasus.

Beside the machine, laying sprawled out on the bed, was Luna. Neither her tiara, nor her ornate peytral were present, leaving her with a much more approachable appearance. Her decidedly mundane blue hair was spread every which way, eerily plain when she should have been surrounded by a starry window into the void. She was breathing softly, but her eyes were closed. With her legs and torso concealed, Rainbow couldn't tell any more about her condition, or the source of the wound which had incapacitated her.

Beside the princess, there was another mare, sitting with her head on the blankets beside Luna's feet. She was tall, certainly, but her long thin legs looked much more like those of a model than a warrior. Her mane, a soft and welcome pink that reminded Dash of Fluttershy's, hung loosely down her back. In places, it was ruffled, and twisted, and it had clearly not been combed in any recent time. Her wings, folded idly against her side, bore off-kilter feathers and obvious kinks. They were the sort of marks that showed after either an incredibly stressful flight, or poor personal care over an incredibly long period of time. Given the circumstances, Dash automatically guessed the former. Meanwhile, her horn bore a burnt tip, though Rainbow didn't have the magical experience to appreciate what that might mean.

It took Dash a double-take to realize that this mare was an alicorn. She lacked the potent size that marked Celestia and Luna, as well as the cosmic qualities of their manes, but the horn and the wings were there. When she spoke, the surprise only grew larger. The mare turned to Rainbow, and eyed her with a look that melded panic and desperation.

"Tell us everything."

It was Celestia's voice.

"Princess, what happened?! You look—"

"I am fine!" Celestia snapped. Rainbow couldn't help but draw back in alarm at the sound of the Princess's anger. It took only that reaction for her to lose the bladed edge that occupied both her voice and her expression. "I'm sorry. I spent a great deal of magic. I am fine, despite my appearance, I promise."

It wasn't enough to really convince Rainbow, but the obvious stress of her voice was enough to get her to play along. "That's good. How's she doing?"

The question finally got the doctor to look away from his charts, and acknowledge the presence of ponies other than his patient. He was a young-ish stallion, for a doctor, with a bone-thin face, who looked as though he hadn't slept in days, nor shaved in weeks.

"She's alive, thanks to you. Her fall resulted in three cracked ribs and rather even bruising on her right side. Externally, she should be fine, but she's been comatose from an unknown cause since she was brought in. We're running tests now to see why."

Nopony said anything for a long while. The doctor just stood there, looking from one face to another, clearly wishing there was something he could do, or at least, somewhere else he could be. At last, Soldier On spoke up. "You should go, Dr. Asclepius."

With that, the tired-looking stallion marched out of the room, pausing only to restore the torn curtain to a half-way closed position.

Once again, the group was left in silence, and once again it was the grim-faced Stalliongradian titan who took the initiative to speak up. "Miss Dash, tell us what you saw. Start when you flew off from the group."

"Okay, so…"

- - -

Masquerade panted not from stress or necessity, but from the sheer exhilaration in risking it all. Of course, nopony was going to catch her. Nopony even had a decent chance of stopping her. She slid the warehouse door shut behind her, and stalked into the dark with a smile on the face she was wearing. It was a unicorn stallion, though she had to look down her nose to remember the colors. Puce? Why had she chosen that?

She shrugged off the robe of magic that enveloped her and swept down rows upon rows of unmarked boxes with abnormal grace, and silent hoofsteps. She couldn't help but spin, giddy as a school filly. She'd done it! The impossible! She'd taken down a goddess, by herself. No one else could claim that; no pony, no elk, no griffin, no nothing. Her work was perfect.

Finally, her horn burst with magic to ignite a pair of torches as her last twirl ended. Sitting in front of her was a cage, and inside that cage, there was a stallion. A gray old stallion, probably forty- or fifty- something, covered in scars and silent, simmering rage. He had been the biggest block to her plan, and it took her nearly a year of work to get him out of the picture. Yet there he was, lying in his cage, his chin laid upon on his forehooves like an old dog waiting on the porch for its master. He didn't even bother looking up to acknowledge her.

"Sorry about the wait, Captain. I know it's been a few days, but I just got so busy up in Canterlot, playing with the guardsponies."

The old stallion didn't respond at all.

"Aren't you going to ask me how it went? Don't you want to know?"

He still just lay there.

"Oh, you're being a spoil-sport, Captain! Unless you're just afraid to hear it. Is that it? Too scared to hear the truth?" She leaned up to the edge of the cage. "Princess Luna's dead. I got her."

"Luna?" he asked, in the same gruff tones she had used so carefully a mere few days prior.

"Why, of course. You don't think I'd go after Celestia, do you? She doesn't deserve to die." Masquerade laughed another of her innocent, youthful laughs. "No, just Nightmare Moon, gone from the world, at the hoof of a mere mortal mare. Maybe they'll build me a statue. Do you think I'd look good in gold? Or maybe marble would be better?"

She leaned up, putting her nose a few inches through the bars of the cage. "I imagine it must feel horrible, knowing that you failed. I'm sorry about that."

He was drugged, of course, so she didn't expect much of a response. The lunging swipe from his right forehoof, therefore counted as incredibly surprising. She pulled back in time to avoid having her head caught against the bars, at his mercy, but she didn't get away unharmed. A bleeding gash leaked down on the end of her muzzle, ruining her otherwise pristine coat. It stung, terribly, but the sheer glee flowing through her dispensed with the disappointment quickly.

"You know I get to decide what happens to you, right? I'd think you'd be a bit more kind."

He responded by putting his head down again, and closing his eyes. She thought of him like an old wolf. He was certainly beyond his best days, but the slow, resigned quality that dominated his emotions and actions concealed a dangerous speed and an incredible ferocity that would snap out at the first sign of vulnerability. That was why she had to keep him drugged. It wasn't a question of if he would escape, but when.

He was losing weight, clearly, and his wings were molting, but he hadn't taken the time or effort to clean them. She'd been drugging his water and his food, but when he stopped eating, she had to start injecting the whisper salt straight into his flank. His resistance to the stuff was admirable. She'd already gone to twice what that drug dealer, Going Solo, had recommended as a daily limit, but he was still 'up and roaring'.

Her magic pulled three tiny white rocks from a bag, and placed them in a glass of water. There, they were stirred into dissolution, and then poured into a syringe. At last, the item lifted into the air at the whim of her magic, and began floating through the bars of the cage.

"You might as well not try to fight this," she whispered. "You know I'll win anyway."

To her surprise, he didn't. The syringe slid sharply into his flank, just above the cutie mark of a steel shield, flanked by bolts of metal lightning. Either he didn't notice the pain of the syringe, or he didn't care. As the soup of drugs entered his veins, he didn't bother moving.

Masquerade found his response to be no fun at all.

"Come on, Captain. You used to always fight this bit. Are you finally giving up?" She smiled. "Here, I thought you were the sort who'd keep fighting forever."

He still just lay there, unmoving. She could see his nostrils flaring, even beneath the scars on the end of his muzzle, but otherwise he seemed dead. There was only one solution. She walked slowly over to the other side of his cage, and picked up a long metal stick - a fire poker she'd found by the fireplace at a hotel suite in Fillydelphia. She clutched it in her mouth (magic just didn't give the same results) and pointed it straight at his back right flank. Where he should have had his other cutie mark, he instead bore a massive fleshy burn. His other minor cuts and scrapes marked him as a soldier and a stallion who wasn't afraid of a fight. On a younger stallion, she thought, they would have been a real turn-on. This scar could never be construed as attractive. Its raw flesh extended from just beneath his right wing all the way back to his flank, and partway down his leg. Masquerade could only guess at its origin, but she knew it was painful. It had also been what revealed her disguise to Rainbow Dash, the ever famous bearer of Loyalty. That cunning little filly had been the one hole in a perfect plan—not that it mattered anymore.

Still, the thought of getting caught by somepony so untrained angered her. So, naturally, she decided to take out her fury on the one subject she still had.

When the poker met the burn, the pegasus screamed in agony, so loud that the cage bars rattled and Masquerade feared she would be caught by somepony outside the warehouse. Of course, that was before she remembered the enchantments she had put down to mask all noise from the structure, and to draw attention away from it.

He added no words to his soulful scream, and in fact, didn't even bother to slide to the other side of the cage. She had to admire his resilience. In that light, she dropped the poker just outside his reach, and walked back to the front of the cage. Again, he chose not to acknowledge her. Too bad. She still felt like tormenting him; just in a different way.

"You want to know the worst part? None of the guardsponies figured it out. Not the gatekeepers. Not your precious Honor Guard. Not even Shining Armor."

"Who did?" he asked. Whether it was a lucky guess, a stab at her pride, or something else entirely, she didn't know. She was just happy she'd gotten him to ask a question.

"Rainbow Dash. One of the Elements of Harmony."

"Rainbow?" The Commander's eyes grew very wide for a very short moment. Then, with a sigh, he lowered his head again to his hooves, and gave into the pain and the fatigue and the chemicals sweeping through his blood. Sleep overtook him gracefully, leaving only a smile on his face.

- - -

When Rainbow's story was finished, it became entirely clear that no meaningful questions had been answered. Knowing Masquerade's name didn't give the guardsponies anything to work with, or anywhere to go.

Celestia, who had remained silent as the captains asked their questions, finally mustered the will to step away from her sister. "Thank you, Rainbow."

"It was just an explanation…" Rainbow muttered back.

Shining Armor had to cover his mouth with a hoof, and even Celestia cracked a slight grin. Only Soldier On seemed unaffected by the sudden spree of mirth. Nevertheless, everypony felt the room warm several degrees as the icy shade of danger was held back, even for just a moment, by the humor of Dash's misunderstanding.

"You saved my sister's life, Rainbow," Celestia clarified.

"Oh. Yeah, well, it was nothing."

Celestia was about to offer a kindly reproach when Soldier On spoke up. "Your Majesty, we don't have time for this."

Celestia glared back. "I have every intention of thanking Rainbow properly for her bravery."

Shining stepped up to the Honor Guard's side to offer his support. His face again went cold, and the mood in the room fell with it. "With respect, Princess, Lieutenant On is right. Equestria needs you now."

"My sister needs me now, Captain Armor. I'm not leaving her alone."

Armor frowned, building up the courage to contradict the Princess. "The press is clambering at the Palace gates, Your Majesty. The Stable of Nobles is demanding a council. We need you."

"And Luna is dying, Armor!" Celestia snapped, as a few more tears fell from her already wet muzzle. "What do you expect me to do? Would you leave Twilight's side?"

The unicorn winced at the low blow, though it didn't stand up long to the force of reason. "Nothing's going to happen to her," Shining Armor protested.

"You expect me to believe that?" Celestia's pitch cracked, before she forced a hoof to her eyes, to clear herself up. She looked embarrassed, and raw, and emotional, and in every other way the opposite of the distant perfect ideal that she usually appeared.

"I can stay here," Dash offered, in her quietest voice. It stopped all noise, save the soft, steady beeping from Luna's heart. "For now, I mean, Princess. If you need to go, I'll stay with Luna."

Nopony actually acknowledged Rainbow's offer. Their silent concord was enough that one by one, they simply left. First went Shining Armor, who offered Rainbow a hoof on her shoulder for just a moment as he passed. Then Celestia left, prodded along by Soldier On. The princess offered a final glance back to her sister, and a desperate, silent plea to Rainbow.

- - -

Shining Armor led the Princess and his new Honor Guard counterpart out of the infirmary and down the halls to the second-nearest private space available. He felt that using Luna's quarters would be in poor taste for the distasteful business that needed to be discussed.

It was time to do the part of his job he really truly hated. It was time to make hard decisions. He had liked being a lieutenant, when the hard calls were somepony else's problem, and all he had to do was be really good at catching the bad guy. Perhaps he liked that part of the job so much because he was the best. When he thought on it, though, it was also the easy part. Decisions were so much more dangerous than criminals. In that moment, he felt sorry for Celestia.

The room in question was a recently-refurbished dining room, still devoid of the distracting decorations (ancient paintings, sculptures older than any living pony, and other novelties) that dominated the rest of the palace. Instead, it simply held a thick polished ebony table, surrounded by ornately carved chairs of the same near-black wood. Holding the door open, he allowed Celestia and Soldier On to enter first.

Celestia didn't so much sit as collapse into the chair nearest the door, at the foot of the elongated table. He and Soldier On took up the flanking seats, and each waited for the other to speak up first.

Shining Armor knew next to nothing about Soldier On, as was the case with most of the mysterious and intimidating Honor Guard. Given recent events, he wasn't about to put much trust in her. Maybe it was the fatigue, or the painful tug of his duty, but he quickly caved in to his own sense of obligation and spoke up.

"Princess, Equestria is falling apart. Everypony saw Miss Dash's Sonic Rainboom; it blew out some of the stained glass windows all the way back here. I didn't want to put out a statement without talking to you first. But, well, they want answers. The press is basically printing rumors at this point." Shining levitated a rolled bundle of papers from some pocket in his armor, and tossed them in front of Celestia. They were the front-page headlines of the biggest papers in Equestria, hailing from Canterlot, Cloudsdale, even as far as Stalliongrad.

Nightmare Moon Returns?

R.I.P: Rainbow Dash, Hero of Equestria

Assassination Plot!

Royal Blunder; Princess Falls Drunk from Balcony

Celestia took a deep breath. "Tell them… what do we tell them?"

"That's the least of the problems," Soldier On responded coldly. "The Stable of Nobles is convening over this. We can let the Royal Guard deal with the masses."

"I'm not leaving Canterlot for a trip to Trottingham," Celestia snapped. "Not now."

Soldier On shook her head. "They're coming here, Your Majesty. So are Lady Valdria and Emperor Magnus."

Shining Armor couldn't help but betray surprise. "The Griffon Emperor? And Lady who?"

"The Ruler of the Elk," Celestia explained, vacantly. "They're coming to see just how weak Equestria is. They want to play the oldest game with me, while my sister is dying." She took a long, slow breath, then turned back to Soldier. "And I'll have to tell them a civilian saved her." She shook her head. "Where is the rest of the Honor Guard?"

"White Flag is on the Grivridge Border, though she ought to be back to Baltimare soon. Reckoning is in Zebrica, and Image is still dealing with the necromancers on the Gallopagos Islands. We have a few leads, but none are promising. Even if we had them all here, we would still be two guards short, with Star and the Commander gone."

Celestia hesitated for just a moment, as if lost in a wistful though, before turning to Shining Armor. He had spent the entire night writing messages, dispersing troops, and throwing around all the force he could bring to bear for what he feared was the greatest challenge he would ever face. The stress had ground his actions into his mind firmly. He outlined, from memory, just how he had allocated all the regional forces and scouts that were scouring the Equestrian Countryside, and exactly what they were looking for. In the end, though, what he didn't say was what Celestia really came to understand. If Masquerade had been able to replace the Commander, and sneak into the Palace undetected, there was no way that a normal guardspony would have any chance of catching her.

He concluded with the hard truth. "The fact is, Princess, we've been scaling back the guard since the Dragon Wars. With Twilight and her friends to handle Discord and… similar problems, I can understand why, but now we're short-hooved."

"What do you propose I do about it?" Celestia asked.

Shining Armor shrugged. "I can increase recruitment, but we don't have time for training if we're expecting to catch Masquerade."

Soldier On offered an icy glance. "Appease the nobles. If we could call on the domain guardsponies, we'd be able to find Masquerade, and make an impression on the Griffons and the Elk."

"What do the Nobles actually want?" Celestia asked.

"They see a power vacuum forming," On replied. "Some of them might be here to console you, but most are here because they want to take up Luna's position if—"

"Absolutely not!" Celestia slammed a hoof on the table, splintering the wood and shaking the room's chairs. "I won't hear them talking about this, hovering like vultures and hoping behind my back that Luna dies!"

On gave a cold nod, though her expression betrayed no sense of empathy for the haggard alicorn. "Your Majesty, I will do everything I can. I'm sure Captain Armor's forces will as well. But you do need to face the possibility that we might not be able to save Princess Luna."

They were the wrong words, Shining Armor knew almost instinctively. Soldier On was brave to have uttered them, but she was about to pay the price. Celestia stood up, and her eyes began to glow a potent white. Worst, though, was her voice. Much like the now-infamous 'Royal Canterlot' pronunciation, Celestia's words were accompanied by an unmistakable echo. However, they were not shouted, but instead stated plainly, as fact.

"Perhaps you don't understand, Lieutenant. Let me make this perfectly clear. Equestria will go to war before I see my sister taken from me!"

Shining Armor flinched back at the impressive display. He'd heard from older guardsponies that 'Tartarus had no fury like Celestia's', but he hadn't had the imagination to comprehend her angry, so far gone was she from her usual tone. It made the stiff posture with which Soldier On stood up to her all the braver. When the arcane force surrounding the Princess began to fade, the Honor Guard spoke up.

"You might go to war, but Equestria won't. Not for her."

Shining Armor was shocked almost beyond words. "What are you saying?" She ignored him completely. What went through Celestia's mind, he could not comprehend. Soldier On simply got up, knowing that she was no longer welcome, and walked to the doors. Only halfway through them did her Stalliongradi accent break again with an uncharacteristic and unexpected tone of sheer anger. "I know something about revolutions, Your Majesty. You walk on thin ice." With that, she let the door swing shut.

Celestia stared at the door, silently controlling her rage. Shining watched her face slowly lose its creases. Then, all at once, she collapsed back into her chair. The fatigue that plagued her body was no more obvious than in that moment, as she sat, resigned to the fact that there was perhaps nothing she could do to help her sister.

"Uh... what was that about?" Shining Armor asked timidly.

"The Honor Guard has never loved Luna..." Celestia's eyes flitted away, deep in thought. Shining knew there was more to the story, but he said nothing on the topic. Instead, he waited, until the mighty and heartbroken ruler deigned to speak again. "What should I do?" she asked, weakly, barely holding on to hope that some answer might be offered. Where was she expected to go for direction when she didn't know what to do?

Shining Armor simply shrugged, trying as best he could to look meek. He knew what he had to say, and unlike Soldier On, he was utterly terrified to say it. "I haven't lived a thousand years, Princess. I only know how to be a Guardspony, really. There are plenty of others like me, and all of us are looking after Princess Luna. But right now, Equestria needs a Princess. And there's only one of you."

Celestia nodded, then stood up slowly. "I think… I think I have a plan. Tell Captain On I'd like to apologize when you see her." Shining's brow rose with curiosity. The Princess's face returned to the plain and passive state it always bore, fixed and unchanging like a mask over the countless years of her life. "Her words may have been wrong, but she was right, as are you. I have to think about Equestria. Do what you can for Luna. Please."

"Are you going to the Nobles?"

"I have to do one last thing for her first, Captain."

- - -

Rainbow sat there, watching Luna breathe in and out slowly. It was sad, the filly thought, that the respect she had finally gained in everypony's eyes had been taken away so swiftly. All of the things Luna had gone through over that one mistake; why couldn't ponies just forgive her? It seemed like the simplest thing in the world.

The heartbeat monitor kept a slow, soft, but above all, steady tempo. The noise was the only thing really keeping Dash any company. She hated just sitting, waiting for nothing at all to happen. So she started talking.

"Hey, uh, Princess. It's Rainbow Dash. You know, the fastest flier…" Rainbow stopped, gaining a new appreciation for the sound of her own words. "I sound really stupid when I say that, don't I? Maybe its like that guardspony said. Rainbow Dash, Bearer of Loyalty." To her ears, the title didn't sound much better. "Anyway, I just wanted to say, I'm sorry. This shouldn't have happened. You did great out there. Everypony loved you. When the doctors get you fixed up, you've gotta' do it again. The sky… thing. I didn't really get to watch. I was a little busy. But I wanna get a chance to see it. So will you?"

Naturally, the Princess didn't answer. She just lay there, slowly but smoothly breathing, her heart beating steady.

Rainbow's ears perked up when the a second noise joined the heartbeat monitor. The clicking of hooves on the linoleum approached her, but without the perfect timing or the piercing weight of Soldier On's steps. Rather than keeping Luna's tempo, they trod on the beats, in an unsteady pattern that brought to mind fatigue.

Dash pulled herself up by the side of the bed, and then pulled back the curtain. There was Celestia, still pink-maned and tired. Mortal. That was a good word, to contrast the way she normally looked. Like she had to sleep, and eat, and worry, in the way that she seemed never to care about when she towered over ponies with her radiant, tri-color mane and her brilliant aura.

"How is she?" the Princess asked. Dash noted that her tone had returned to the calm, smooth, almost musical way in which she normally spoke.

"Nothing changed. The doctor came in to look at the machines, but nopony else came by." Celestia sat down slowly opposite Dash, and just stared at her sister's unmoving face. "Do you, uh, want me to leave you alone with her, or-"

"Stay, please, Rainbow Dash. I came back to speak to you, not my sister."

"Me? About what?"

"Let me start by saying that I owe you more than I can ever repay. If there is ever, ever anything I can do for you, you need only ask."

"Wow, uh, thanks!" Dash smiled wide. "But you already healed me, didn't you?"

The shadow of some hidden thought crossed Celestia's mortal face in that tiniest of moments. Then she spoke. "It would have been wrong of me to make you suffer for helping Luna."

"I was just helping out, and-"

"Rainbow, you-" She had to stop and shake her head, clearing her thoughts. "You very nearly killed yourself, saving Luna. That's a sacrifice I cannot overstate. There are very few ponies who would do what you did for her." The Princess stopped speaking for a moment, and turned to a window behind Rainbow, where she looked out at a beautiful blue day. "That's what makes what I'm about to ask so difficult."

"What do you mean?"

"Rainbow Dash, I won't mince words. I would like you to replace Morning Star as Luna's bodyguard." The Princess' ancient eyes moved away from the sun, and with an utter seriousness that bore the weight of untold centuries, she added her last hoof-full of words. "I need you to join the Honor Guard."

Dash was quiet for a long time. A very long time, in fact; especially for a young mare who usually made decisions on the fly, and knew exactly what she wanted out of life. Never before had she really been faced with a request that caused such internal conflict. She finally came to an indecision.

"Why me, Princess? I don't know the first thing about being a guardspony."

"You saw through the assassin, when she fooled all the guardsponies, Rainbow. You were willing to give up your life to protect my sister."

"I don't think I should, Princess."

Celestia looked down. When her visage rose, it was that of an entirely different pony, not merely tired but ragged and weathered as well. "Rainbow Dash, how old do you think I am?"

It was question Rainbow had neither really considered, nor given any thought to. "Two-thousand?"

Celestia shook her head, looking more tired than ever. "Forty times that, Rainbow, and then some. And despite what all the little fillies and colts think, it isn't all fun and games. For eighty-thousand years, Luna's been my only real friend. With everypony else, I blink, and they're simply gone. Eighty years might seem like forever to you, Rainbow Dash. A lifetime, for a lucky pony, but for me, it's barely more than a drop of water in the bucket."

Rainbow didn't know what to say. She had nothing to say. No experience could compare to that.

Celestia looked back at her, pleading and desperate. "That's why I need you to protect her, Rainbow. She's my only companion. The only one I can count on to be there. If I lost her..."

For Dash, the worst part was that she didn't cry; her face instead went back to looking the way it always did when she made public appearances. Like a mask. Hollow. Empty. Devoid of… anything.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"So that you understand that I don't ask you this lightly. I wouldn't trust anypony else with this, Rainbow Dash. Not Twilight, not Shining Armor, not even…" She closed her eyes for a second, and Rainbow did notice a little bit of moisture, even if nothing came of it.

"Princess, it was just luck. I'm not a detective. I'm not a guardspony."

"If you were, I wouldn't want you," Celestia answered. "Rainbow, yesterday, Luna told me about when you talked to her. You believed in her. You saw past the Nightmare. Even Morning Star didn't give her that. I don't want somepony to just protect her from assassins and monsters. I want somepony who cares about her; who'll trust her and forgive her, and be loyal to her. And you're the only pony I can trust to do that." That blank face stared for a long moment, before it finally drew out its last hoof-full of words. "Is there anything I can do to convince you, Rainbow?"

The desperation in Celestia's eyes pushed her over the edge. She nodded slowly. "If you really need me, then yes. When this is over, and everything settles down again, you find somepony else. Until then, I'll do it."

Celestia smiled, though she didn't understand. It was easy enough for the ancient mare to read Rainbow's face, and know that she wasn't ready to explain. Maybe she never would be. It didn't matter.

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash."

"I… you're welcome, Princess."

Celestia smiled, honestly and warmly, rather than the little thing that she put on for show. As Rainbow watched her without her usual glow and her ethereal mane, it became clear just how often she put on her hollow mask. The smile she had been using all those times simply did not compare. Rainbow felt reinvigorated. Renewed. And, above all, rewarded.

"If you're hungry, I'll have the Palace chefs prepare anything you like. You're welcome to my chambers again for the night, as well. And if there's anything else…"

"Can I get a ride back to Ponyville?" Dash wondered aloud. "Just for a day or two?"

Celestia shook her head slowly. "Luna needs you, Rainbow Dash, and the other guards are too busy to pull a chariot. But if you want to talk to your friends, we do have other ways."

"Like what?"

Celestia smiled knowingly this time. "I'll be back in a few moments." Then she stood up, and cast one more look over Luna's sleeping form. This time, she didn't seem nearly so sad. "Stand tall, Rainbow Dash. You're my hero today. You've helped me more than you can ever know."

The doors to the infirmary swung shut in her passing only moments later, leaving Dash to her own devices. She waited for a long time, and then turned back to the sleeping Princess by her side.

"Do you hear that, Princess? I guess I'm your new bodyguard. That's cool, right? Sounds better than 'fastest flier in Equestria' when I'm introducing myself. Hey, Wonderbolts, name's Rainbow Dash, Princess Luna's Bodyguard." Dash smiled a little. There were certainly upsides to the job. "Yeah, definitely cool."

It wasn't long after that the doors swung open again, and Celestia entered. The golden glow of her horn carried an inkwell, a quill, and a piece of parchment.

"I'm sure you know how this works by now, Rainbow."

Rainbow's smiled, and nodded.

- - -

Dear Friends,
I guess I was hurt really bad, so Princess Celestia told me to tell you all that I'm alright. I guess she used some healing magic on me, or something. Twilight, you should learn that, for next time I break my wing or something.
Anyway, I'm not going to be coming back down to Ponyville for a little while. There's some issues up here that I'm helping with, and I'm kinda not supposed to talk about them. Here's something I am allowed to tell you, though. I'm Princess Luna's new bodyguard. I get the cool armor and everything. I know it means I won't be back for a while, but Princess Celestia promised that I'd only have to stay until things were sorted out. In the mean time, I'll be sure to write so we can keep in touch.
Fluttershy, if you could take care of Tank, that would be great. Oh, and I guess I can't manage the weather anymore, so if one of you could stop by Town Hall, it'd be awesome.
I know this isn't the best Friendship Report ever, but honestly, today's mostly been a blur for me. I only woke up a couple of hours ago. So I guess I'll just say that I love you guys. You're the best friends ever. I'm looking forward to getting everything fixed up here so I can come back to Ponyville.
Until then, I'll keep in touch this way.
Princess Luna's Bodyguard,
-Rainbow Dash

IV - Unwelcome

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IV: Unwelcome
- - -

Honor Guard Master Sergeant Thunder Crack shuffled idly in his armor. It was a nervous tic from a lifetime earlier, which he had learned as a colt facing down his own first experience with a commanding officer. He hadn't felt the uncomfortable shiver in years. To take his mind off the thought, he glanced down at his golden armor. All the straps were in the right places. The little colored patches of his awards and honors sat in perfect standard rows at his left shoulder. He would have passed even the most stringent of inspections, though there was no risk that he would have to face one. The last was a long time ago. It had been ages, even, since he had given one to a row of quivering recruits.

The doctors shuffled past him one by one, bickering amongst themselves. He caught only one word. 'Hopeless' could have described his thoughts as well, but for a very different subject. When the palace infirmary was finally emptied, he summoned up the strength of a soldier's body and walked into the sanitized room.

He outright ignored the dying Princess at the far end of the room. It was the greatest kindness he could bring himself to give. He knew of the poison coursing through her veins, and the assassin that had put it there. His duty told him that he ought to be hunting down Masquerade. A deeper, nameless feeling shouted that he ought to simply leave, throwing aside his armor and his honors in favor of a free life.

Ultimately, he ignored both, in favor of the tiny voice that he had foolishly labeled loyalty. Thunder Crack thought himself the perfect guardspony, yet when he had been given his orders, he refused them outright. He had shared choice words with Soldier On, knowing that they were not the first she had endured in recent hours. Though she was a fine comrade, the new 'Captain' had not earned his loyalty. It had taken softer, more desperate words from a softer and more desperate mare to bring him to where he stood. Nopony could resist the Princess.

His solid steel shoes clicked on the linoleum beneath his hooves as he approached his prey. She was sporting, in a sense, but not the way a guardspony was meant to be shaped. Dense shoulders supported the most well-toned set of wings the Sergeant had ever seen. They were built for flying fast and hard, and taking the stringent pulls of tight turns in tight spaces. Unfortunately, the rest of the mare was thin, and light, and shapely. A decade earlier, he knew his heart would have fluttered for her, and a familiar heat would have built across his body and within his nethers. She truly was cute, even with her untidy exterior. He had known lots of beautiful mares, though, and in time, even settled for the less-than-gorgeous ones. His eyes could only see her as a dumb kid who didn't belong.

He steeled himself, and glanced out a nearby window at the orange tinge on the horizon, where the sun was about to rise. His best guess was five-thirty in the morning. A real guardspony would have been up. Instead, the mare… no, the filly, lay snoring away on a medical cot.

"Wake up, Private," he ordered, at a plain speaking volume. Rainbow Dash didn't even stir. Irritated the Sergeant placed a hoof on the side of the bed, and shook it. "Up. Now." The motion was enough to get Rainbow to idly scratch her muzzle, though it failed to end her slumber.

Thunder Crack took a deep breath, trying to keep his blood pressure low, as his doctor had ordered weeks earlier. It wasn't a common problem for a thirty-six year old stallion, but it seemed to fit perfectly with a former Drill Sergeant.

Finally, he felt he was ready. "Rise and shine, maggot!" he bellowed, at the top of his lungs, as he thrust the filly onto the floor with both his forehooves. She screamed a rather satisfying note, and collapsed in a bundle of feathers and fabric onto the floor.

It took a moment for her to pull herself together enough to even speak. As she struggled to free her left legs and her right wing from a coil of sheets, she finally managed words. "Geez, you think―"

"I don't recall giving you permission to speak, Private! On your hooves, at attention, now!"

It seemed like the sheer shock of everything going on was enough to get her to obey. She finally pulled herself free, staggered a few steps, and then stood with her hooves together, puffing out her chest.

Thunder Crack sighed. It wasn't worth shouting over, but it did remind him of just how far he had to go. "That, Private, is the worst 'at attention' stance I have ever seen. Tuck your wings properly, first." He waited as she glanced back, to realize that her left wing was sticking out to the side lazily. She reached back, smacked it, and then pulled it to her side.

"That good?"

"First rule of being a guardspony, filly. Do not speak to a superior officer unless spoken to."

The filly took on a sort of funny grin. Thunder Crack knew that smile all too well. It had been his life's work to lure it out of young recruits, tie it down, and strangle it in front of their eyes. It was the grin of a pony who thought they were above the chain of command. It was the first thing that had to go in a good guardspony.

Before he could address it, Rainbow Dash spoke again. "What makes you think that you're my superior?"

"My name is Master Sergeant Thunder Crack. You may call me Sergeant Crack, or sir. If you call me Sarge, I put you on the floor. Understood?"

On any normal pony, the threat would have been enough to earn submission. When the smile spread across Rainbow Dash's face, Thunder Crack wondered just what sin he had committed to be saddled with her training.

"Yeah, so you're some sergeant. Big deal. I'm Luna's bodyguard, right? Doesn't that make me the same rank as―"

Two seconds later, Rainbow was laying on the floor, silently clutching a shallow gash beneath her left eye. Thunder Crack glanced down, and noticed a tiny line of sweet red wrapped around the edge of his hoof. Regrettable; he hadn't meant to strike so hard. Perhaps his control was fading. "Don't compare yourself to the Commander. You aren't fit to lick his shoes, filly."

He stood there in silence, floating in her hatred. The warm burning of her eyes brought back old memories, and not all of them were good. Part of him wanted to cry, and part of him wanted to laugh. He still wanted to walk away. The soldier, though, stayed put to fulfill his orders, even if it meant sitting through her hatred. He offered her a leg to pull herself up.

Rainbow glanced down at the leg, still stained at the hoof with her own blood. Her nose wrinkled at the sight, and she rose to her own hooves without his aid. She stood with her legs wide, and her wings folded.

"At attention," he ordered. This time, he didn't have to wait. She slammed her rear legs together so hard that a clap rang out in the room. Her wings compressed even more tightly against her sides. She stared blankly over his shoulder, to something in the back of the infirmary.

It was good enough for Sergeant Crack. He paced idly in and out of her line of sight as he spoke, his hooves tapping out a familiar seven-step pattern. "Understand this. You are nothing like the Commander. You're a little filly with a magic necklace who thinks she's a hero. You're never going to be a real guardspony, no matter what the Princess says. You might be a bodyguard, but your Princess' titles don't mean anything to me, or the rest of the Honor Guard. Do you understand?"

Rainbow's answer was hollow and deflated, with a tinge of bitterness. "Yes."

"Yes what, filly?"

"Yes, sir," she corrected with biting sarcasm.

He offered her a glare to prove he had noticed her tone, though he hadn't the will to correct it. "Good. As of today, you are technically a private in the Equestrian Honor Guard. Your flank is mine for the next twenty-four hours."

“Geez, fillyphile alert,” muttered Dash under her breath.

“What was that, Private?!” shouted Crack.

"I said, what happens then?"

"I'm sorry, did that sound like a question?" Thunder Crack thrust his face so close to Rainbow's that he could feel her slow, steady breath on his currently white coat. "You do not speak without permission!"

In the silence that followed, the Sergeant took a deep breath, and pulled himself away from Rainbow. He could smell determination on her. Her obedience was meant to spite him, to be a slap to his face. He didn't mind. He could live with her loathing, as long as he got results.

"I have been given one day to teach you to fight. One single measly day, in which I'm expected to take a civilian and bring her up to the level of the very best of the Guard. It's impossible." He began his pacing again, paying more attention to the colored bands of honors on his armor than to Rainbow's stance. "But, because I am a guardspony, and they are my orders, I will try." He stopped, to draw emphasis to his next words. "You can quit at any time if this life becomes too much for you. The Princess told me to tell you that. You should consider listening to her. Now, do you have anything to say?"

Rainbow took a long silence before nodding slowly. "If I'm going with you, who's going to guard Princess Luna?"

Thunder Crack was taken aback by the question. It seemed so ridiculous that it took him more than a few moments to muster up a blunt, factual response. "Nopony is going to try anything now."

"That's what Twilight said right before Luna was attacked. I promised Celestia I wouldn't leave her alone."

The guardspony shook his head. "She will be fine. Now come with me, filly. And remember titles. You aren't familiar enough with the Princess to use just her name."

Rainbow stood her ground, shaking her head. "I'm not leaving her."

The sergeant groaned aloud, as his eyes scanned the infirmary. It was a wide enough room for his purposes, though the doctors would be mad. "If you intend to serve on the Honor Guard, it will be by going out into the world and finding her a cure, not by standing around protecting her when she is already dying. We can stay here for now, if you're so insistent, but you're going to have to get over yourself. At least come over here and stand in the middle of the room with me."

"Why?"

"Even when you are given permission to speak, you do not question orders." Thunder Crack gestured to an open space in the center of the room, and then raised a hoof up to his helmet. Almost idly, he tossed the priceless golden guard aside, revealing his true face. The perfect white stallion faded, revealing a head broader and flatter than the 'ideal face' of the illusory guardspony. His mane was cropped incredibly short, colored a dark forest green. The mares he had known throughout his life told him it went well with his patchy olive coat.

His left forehoof then reached across his chest to the opposite shoulder of his armor. With a single tug, he unlatched his defenses, and let them clatter to the ground. His hooves next moved to his own ankles, snapping off his steel shoes. Finally disarmed, a single stride was all it took to step away from the pile of collected armor he had left behind. The older pegasus had to fight to keep his face grim. His every muscle ached for the fresh joy of battle, even if his mind guaranteed that the filly across from him stood no chance.

"Now, Private, I want you to attack me. Show me what you've got."

"In here?" Rainbow looked up at the ceiling. "I can't fly in here."

"So you're only good fighting outside. Can't manage a hallway, or a cave, or just about anywhere you'd actually fight somepony?"

"No!" the mare shouted, defensively. Had he hit a sore spot with her pride? She forced herself up onto her hind legs, steadying her body with flaps of her wings. "I can do this. Just watch."

Thunder Crack stifled a laugh. Her pose was the most ridiculous stance he had ever seen. Certainly, he'd heard of those Neighpon ponies who would fight standing up that way, but she was so far from their grace that he imagined he could knock her over by flapping a wing in her direction. He bent his knees, lowering his center of gravity, and he tightened his wings against his back.

She tried to stare him down, but a life fighting boars, griffons, dragons, and criminal ponies left him cold to her hollow glare. He took a step forward, and then another. She jumped forward, using her wings for an extra push, and threw a hoof for his head. He sidestepped the wide, obvious attack, and gave the filly a punch to the belly for her effort. It wasn't a very solid hit. She was fast. When she spun, and hit him in the side of the neck, he observed just how fast.

In the process of the split moment of thought, he saw a cyan wing sweeping for his head. He ducked just in time to avoid a painful blow from her one strong muscle. As soon as the limb had passed, he jumped. His wings stayed pinned to his sides, avoiding a swipe from the mare beneath him. His left forehoof caught against her spine for balance, and then he fell.

Rainbow struggled beneath his pin. He was standing on one of her wings with one leg, and another pressed against her throat.

"You fight like a griffon," he muttered, releasing some of the pressure on her throat.

Dash gasped for breath. After a few moments drinking in the stale, warm, early-morning air of the palace, she finally looked up at the Sergeant. "Thanks."

He stepped off of her, shaking his head. "That wasn't a compliment. Griffons can swipe with their wings because they have a solid ridge of angled bones at the crest. If I were wearing my helmet when you went for that blow, my head would be fine and you'd have shattered your wing. You've got a lot to learn. We're going to have to start over from the beginning."

- - -

"Right, from the beginning. Imagine what you want to create. Once you've built up the subject in your mind, feel it. Sense it. Explore it. Not just how it looks, but its feel, its smell, its weight." Cloudy Mirror looked up at the mass of students in his lecture hall. His knees told him all too clearly that they wanted to be shaking. He responded with stalwart acting.

Off in the corner, a patient hoof was being raised. "Yes, there, in the back?"

"What elementary charges should we be combining, Professor?"

As soon as the first two words were out of the young mare's mouth, the lecturer began pinching his muzzle with a hoof. "Everypony, stop for a moment. Please, pay attention to this." He waited until the glow of horns had subsided, and eyes were focused on him. "First of all, you can call me Cloudy. I'm barely any older than you, so you can't call me Professor until I've got a beard at least half as long as Dr. Graymane's."

Some of the class laughed, but he meant the comment sincerely. Doctoral degree or no, he was barely twenty-eight; hardly any older than most of his students. Even if it was supposed to honor him, he couldn't stand being put up on a pedestal.

"That's not what I stopped you for, though. I want you all to understand that illusions are an art. This isn't an advanced research course, where your exact formula matters. You can't boil down a good illusion into a recipe and remake it over and over again. Illusions, especially really believable illusions, are fresh, and alive, and unique. You can't know them. You have to feel them."

When everything was quiet, he broke a little smile. It seemed to be that the words he'd borrowed from Princess Luna were just as effective on his students as they had been on him.

The thought of Luna brought new, unwelcome emotions to his mind. He glanced towards the clock on the wall in the corner, and saw something unexpected. A white coat and a blue mane, covered by shining armor.

"And I believe that is all the time we have for today. Class is dismissed. Be sure to practice over the weekend." Most of the students rose up out of their seats, leaving him to shout over the sound of saddlebags being stuffed with quills and scrolls. "Focus on maintaining as many sensory inputs as you can. Next Friday's test will be graded on the number of senses you can support. Extra credit for more than five."

As the last of his pupils pushed through the doors at the back of the lecture hall, Cloudy Mirror wiped his brow, letting his nervousness take firm hold over his mind. Without giving it much thought, he collapsed onto his side on the small wooden stage, at the front of the Royal Academy's smallest lecture hall. He was about ready to fall asleep from stress, and a little voice in the back of his mind couldn't help but remind him of the gray hairs he'd pulled from his mane that morning. Things were going straight to Tartarus. He just wanted to sleep through it all.

After a few moments of precious quiet, he heard hooves drawing closer, echoing into the hollow space beneath the wooden stage. He ignored them until they stopped, mere inches from him. He still didn't bother to open his eyes.

"Are you Professor Cloudy Mirror, Chair of the College of Illusions?"

It was time to make a good first impression.

"Did you not listen to the end of the lecture?" he asked, jokingly. "You can call me Cloudy. And to answer your question, at the moment, I'm the whole College of Illusions."

There was a moment of silence, followed by a simple declaration. "I don't quite understand."

Cloudy Mirror rose to his hooves, despite their rebellion. Before him stood a towering, muscle-bound unicorn clad in armor of polished amethyst and solid gold. Beside him stood a pink Alicorn, standing about his height, but with a slender, beautiful form.

"I'm the only Illusions teacher the Royal Academy has. I do all five classes." He offered a hoof. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain Armor." The guard's hoofshake was incredibly firm, forcing Cloudy Mirror to spread his legs and steady himself, or risk being pulled forward onto his face.

"Nice to meet you," Shining Armor managed to respond. When Cloudy Mirror looked at the stallion, he saw pain and fatigue. Bags had built up under his eyes, and an obviously painful stitch adorned his shoulder. Worst, though, was the charcoal black stain that adorned his horn, spreading almost halfway down its length. Cloudy shuddered to imagine just what sort of spell could use so much magic, or how much it would hurt to have to cast it.

Forcing himself to pull his gaze away from the draining mana burn on the guard's horn, he turned his gaze to his other guest. "And it's wonderful to meet you as well, Principessa Cadenza."

She smiled in obvious appreciation of his use of her native tongue. Thankfully, she didn't respond in kind. He barely knew two-dozen Bitalian words from his trip to Neighples.

"It's an honor to meet the youngest full Mage in the history of the Academy." Unlike her husband, Cadance's greeting was fast, and lively, and probably practiced.

"I hardly deserve that honor, Princess. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. And, if the rumors of your sister in law are true, I won't have the title much longer. Archmage Sparkle has a much better ring to it, anyway."

Cadance laughed, and Cloudy joined in, but the silence that emanated from the Captain of the Guard unsettled him too much to actually mean it. As if sensing his unease, Shining Armor chose the end of their laughter as the perfect time to speak up.

"We're here to talk to you about Princess Luna."

Part of Cloudy Mirror wanted to snap back in sarcasm at Shining Armor. He literally owed his entire life to her intervention, and her tutelage. Every title, every position, and every honor really belonged to her. Why would anypony ever be interested in talking to a washed up, fifth-year undergraduate, if not to learn about the immortal Princess?

"What can I help you with?"

Shining looked around the room briefly. "Is there somewhere more private we could talk?"

No sooner were the words out of the stallion's mouth than the trio of ponies were surrounded by an aura of misty green magic. An audible snap marked the familiar shift of teleportation. When the eldritch glow faded, Cloudy Mirror enjoyed the sound of a pair of gasps.

They were surrounded by the darkness of the void, pierced only by a countless array of stars. A comet roared past Shining Armor's head, and in the distance, a vast nebula slowly swept past a stack of tiny planets.

"Where is this?" Princess Cadance managed to whisper in spite of her awe. She looked everywhere but directly at her host.

"My office," he answered, as if it were the most mundane thing in the entire world. "I won't lie; the ambient illusion is set up to impress my guests."

"It seems to be doing its job," Shining Armor offered, accompanied by a nod from Princess Cadance. "I'm certainly impressed."

"You shouldn't be." Cloudy Mirror closed his eyes, and focused. A sofa and a tall-backed chair popped into existence, sitting smoothly on the same invisible floor on which the three ponies stood. He collapsed rather lazily into the latter seat, and gestured for his guests to make themselves comfortable. "This is really easy magic, Captain. The only reason its impressive is because nopony studies illusions anymore."

"You're fixing that, though, aren't you, Cloudy?" Cadance prompted.

"Luna was changing it. I can't do much on my own." He looked down, as a shade of worry crossed his face. "That's what you're here to talk about, isn't it? What happened at the Awards Ceremony?"

What followed was a long silence, filled with tiny motions. Shining offered Cadance a short glance, and she responded with a tiny tilting of her head. Cloudy Mirror nervously rubbed his forehooves against one another. The Princess' magic pulled a scroll and a wet quill from somewhere that the academic didn't see. Then they sat, no one speaking, until Cadance prompted her husband with a gentle poke. He shook his head, as if clearing his thoughts, then set his tired gaze on his subject.

"Cloudy Mirror, what I'm about to say is a matter of secrecy." He took the opportunity to gather his thoughts, as his words sunk in. "What you saw at the Awards Ceremony was an assassination attempt on Princess Luna's life by―"

The Captain stopped when Cadance put a gentle hoof on his shoulder. "Shining, I think he already knows."

Cloudy Mirror reflected that his lack of surprise must have given him away. Regardless, she was right. He nodded slowly. "Princess Luna introduced me to a few of the Night Guard. One of them told me, last night."

"So you already know about Masquerade, and Rainbow Dash?"

"Yes." There was another awkward topic, which returned Cloudy's gaze to his hooves. "May Princess Celestia guide her way to the Summer Lands."

"Actually," Shining observed, with a rather positive tone, "she isn't dead."

Cadance slapped his shoulder almost reflexively. "Don't joke about…" Her voice trailed off when she saw the truth in his eyes. "You're serious?"

"I spoke to her, yesterday afternoon."

"But, the crash―"

Shining Armor cut off the inevitable. "The Princess is keeping her health secret as well for the time being, though I'm not sure why. She said she'd told Twilight and her friends." Shining shrugged. "That's an Honor Guard matter now. I need to focus on catching Masquerade."

"That's the assassin's name, correct?"

A curt tilt of the captains' head gave the answer. "She used some sort of magic to disguise herself as a guardspony."

"Isn't the armor enchanted? Or do you only hire white stallions with blue manes?"

The jibe was one every guardspony had heard in their day; Shining Armor didn't seem to care. Criminals liked to mutter things about inbreeding and cloning. He'd grown a thick coat for the barbed words, and Cloudy Mirror hadn't even gone far enough to add an edge to his own words. "There are a few suits of enchanted armor; most guards have to put up with powdering their coats when they're on duty. That isn't the point. Masquerade was able to copy faces, and voices."

Cloudy Mirror nodded. "Most of my sophomore students could do that sort of magic."

"For how long?"

The young professor furrowed his brow in thought. "If she was really good, an hour. That's a little better than what I could do. But when you say voices, do you mean that she talked to other ponies while she was using the illusion?"

"Not just talked; Rainbow Dash thought something was up, and she kept up the illusion while they were fighting."

"It's impossible," Cloudy Mirror bluntly stated. "If you're good, you can keep up an illusion while talking, but you can't seal an illusion the way you can other spells."

"Seal?"

Cadance wrapped a wing around her husband as she looked up from her scroll at Cloudy. "He learned magic from the Military Academy. It's funny, the basic magic that he doesn't know. Of course, some of the magic he can do, I can only dream of." The princess then turned her gaze to Shining Armor. "Sealing is when you put more magic into a spell, so that you don't have to keep focusing on it. You do it whenever you cast one of your big shields."

"Oh," was all the stallion could bring himself to mutter. He seemed too tired to be embarrassed by his lack of knowledge. He just looked disappointed. "So you don't know how she did it?"

Cloudy Mirror's response was hesitant. "I have an idea… but I hope I'm wrong. I guess my first question is if anypony saw any strange behavior out… no, that's not the right way to put it." He took a deep breath, and then looked straight into Shining Armor's eyes. "Did Masquerade impersonate her victims perfectly? Or could anypony tell something was off? Even in hindsight?"

Shining Armor mirrored the seriousness in the professor's gaze. "No. It struck me as odd, but the only pony who noticed anything was wrong was Rainbow Dash, but she isn't part of the guard."

"Buck!" The declaration was short, loud, and left his guests slightly stunned. After he regained his senses, his faded green cheeks took on a potent blush. "I'm sorry. That was rude of me."

"What's wrong?" Cadance asked. "What's so bad about what Shining said?"

The illusionist rose up from his chair, setting his hooves down on the invisible floor, amidst the stars. "There are two ways for an illusionist to create a false image. The first is what I described earlier, and what I primarily teach. We call them images, even if they aren't visual. They require continual focus, they cannot be sealed, and they're tiring over long periods.

"Princess Celestia banned the second method of illusion seven hundred years ago from the threat of crime. They're properly known as phantasms, though every text I've ever seen refers to them as nightmares." He gritted his teeth before continuing. "Rather than creating an actual figment in the air, it puts the sense directly into the target's mind. It's a much more elegant form of illusion. You can seal phantasms. They take very little focus, and very little mana. However, they are incredibly dangerous."

Cadance watched the pacing scholar. "How?"

He took a deep breath. "I think it's better if I just show you this. Captain Armor, will you trust me?"

The guardspony rose to his hooves. "Yes."

"What you're about to see, whatever you think is happening, I want you to understand that it isn't real. Just say 'stop', and it will all be over." Cloudy Mirror paced forward, as Shining Armor's mind raced with fear and adrenaline. What was he about to experience?

The academic's horn ignited in misty green once again. He gently tapped Shining Armor's brow.

Princess Cadance watched her husband, wondering just what was happening. At first, he simply stood, stock still and silent. Almost a full minute passed. Then, slowly, his eyes grew wide.

"No!" His scream was pure and primal, as he collapsed to his forehooves. "Stop! Make it stop!"

Cloudy Mirror made to rush forward, where the Captain was rolling on the ground in agony. However, he was stopped in place as a furious Cadance placed herself in between the two unicorns. The alicorn’s eyes were literally shining with rage, and her horn glowed threateningly with an intense amount of power.

"What did you do?!" Cadance yelled, wings flaring as she loomed over Cloudy Mirror.

Cloudy Mirror instinctively drew back. "I promise, he's fine."

"You're killing him!" she responded. A surge of raw force flung the illusionist against the stone wall of his room, though to all eyes, he had simply stopped in the air of the cosmic void. He slowly forced himself back to his hooves, only to be lifted into the air by the same blue aura.

"Cadance, stop." The shock of hearing Shining Armor's voice in the silence left behind by his screams was enough to shock the Princess' magic away.

Cloudy Mirror was dropped to the ground, where he remained with his mouth open as the Captain of the Royal Guard shakily made his way across the room. Tears matted his muzzle, yet he seemed for all the world otherwise unharmed. He had nearly reached the pair when he almost lost his balance in fatigue. Cadance helped him back onto the couch, where his tired eyes locked calmly on the source of his pain. "What was that?"

"The most basic phantasm any illusionist can conjure. I showed you what you most feared. That spell is the reason they are called nightmares."

Shining Armor brought a hoof to his face, wiping away the last of his tears. "Cadance. I saw Cadance, and…" The guard couldn't bring himself to finish.

Cloudy looked away, unable to meet Shining Armor eye to eye. "I'm sorry. To be honest, I'm amazed you broke the spell on your own. Only the most determined of ponies can do that."

"Couldn't you have just told him?" Cadance demanded hotly, still clearly disturbed by the sight of her love's agony.

"This way, he will be more resistant to the magic if he faces it again. His mind will break the hold faster, now that it knows how. Like an inoculation. It also makes it clear just what's so dangerous about phantasms. They can react to the subject, and even be spread over multiple ponies." His horn illuminated, and a simple plastic tray with two cups of tea and a small bowl of candies settled down in midair before Shining Armor. "This should help you recover."

"Thank you," was all the unicorn could manage. Cadance said nothing, though her quill continued to scratch notes as Cloudy Mirror continued.

"I suspect this assassin, Masquerade, placed a phantasm on whoever was closest to her victim. Rather than fear, she conjured up the feeling that everything was normal. Whenever she did something…" He paused to search for words. "…out of character, the phantasm would brush over the mistake in the subject's mind. As long as she didn't go too far, she could never be caught."

Cadance looked up from her notepad, still obviously unsettled by the suffering of her husband. "So, Rainbow was the only one who could see through the illusion because she didn't know the victim personally?"

Cloudy Mirror nodded slowly. "A powerful will can also weaken the effect of a phantasm. That's the only defense an earth pony or a pegasus has. It's powerful magic. And, in the wrong hooves, extremely dangerous. I guess that warning is too little, too late."

"Can you dispel it?" Shining Armor asked.

"It's easy enough for a unicorn. I can teach you in no more than half an hour. The hard part is realizing you're under a spell. Something like what I did was obvious. It isn't always so clear that you're under an enchantment like hers."

"So, what's our best chance of catching her?" Cadance asked. "Is there anything you can tell us?"

Cloudy Mirror again put his eyes on his hooves. "It's hopeless. With that sort of magic, you could blend in anywhere, be anypony, and you wouldn't get so much as a question or an odd look. If you could find her mentor, you'd have something, but Princess Celestia banned the teaching of phantasms a long time ago. I thought Princess Luna and I were the only ones who knew. Well, the only ponies, anyway."

"You think something else would know?" Shining asked, with sudden intensity.

"There are dragons that are old enough, but I have a hard time imagining any that would deign to teach a pony magic. Besides, we don't cast much the same way. They use their claws, instead of horns." He took a deep breath. "No one else is any more likely though. The elk are too far away, and too alien to convince. The boars would never bother with magic that didn't help them fight or build or hunt. They'd sooner kill a pony than teach. Griffons use pegasus magic, so that's impossible." His list trailed on, as his voice and head drooped, and a grim realization settled over the room. One by one, the stars in the faux-night surrounding them burnt out. By the time Cloudy Mirror's muttered words had ended, only the moon remained, floating dead-still overhead.

"Thank you, Cloudy." Shining Armor moved to stand up, only to fall onto his wife's shoulder. After gently putting away her notes, she wrapped a wing around her weakened husband.

"I wish I could have helped more, Captain. Princess, it was a pleasure to meet you."

Cloudy Mirror rose to his own hooves, and his horn wrapped slowly in magic for a final spell that night. With a bright burst, the three found themselves outside the Royal Academy, looking out at the midday streets of Canterlot. As their eyes adjusted to the sun, from the darkness of the nocturnal illusion, the academic walked up to Shining Armor's ear, and whispered a few carefully chosen words, drenched in pure, undiluted terror.

"If you can't save her, please don’t make me take the fall."

Before the Captain could respond, another burst of magic put Cloudy Mirror far away. Never before had he felt so large, and so threatening. The feeling made him sick.

- - -

Nearly a full day later, Rainbow found herself struggling to contain a powerful urge. This urge was to shout in Thunder Crack's face about how much of an idiot he was, and how he didn't know how to fight. She'd have beaten him hours ago, if he had let her use her wings, and fight the way Gilda had taught her. He thought she'd hurt herself, but she'd used the same wing strike on a full grown dragon, years ago, and that hadn't hurt her at all.

Ultimately, the force that gave her the strength to hold back her urge came from the aching pain of the bruises covering her body. A hoof-shaped mark on her shoulder reminded her to keep her balance. A straight jab to her gut warned her to keep low to the ground. One on her neck just said 'shut up'. She didn't feel like getting in another fight, sparring or otherwise, with the bigger, older, and stronger stallion. She contented herself with sticking her tongue out as his back was turned, staring at a rack of suits of armor.

The room glowed with a golden light as the single hanging lamp in the center of the ceiling bounced its light off dozens of polished golden plates. Handling one gently, Thunder Crack pulled down a solid-backed suit of armor. He probably wanted her to get mad, so he could scold her, or fight her again. Instead, she stated the obvious with a grudging and ultimately false attempt at respect.

"That's earth pony armor." When the Sergeant turned around with a raised brow, she hastily added the proper closing utterance. "Uh, sir."

"Yes it is. Thank you, Private, for noticing the blatantly obvious. Is there anything else you'd like to add?" Before even giving Dash a chance to respond, he turned his focus back to the racks of polished golden armor that filled most of the tiny closet.

Her wings ached from the sparring bruises she'd earned, in the process of ripping up the infirmary completely, and then subsequently destroying a small courtyard garden after the doctors had kicked them out (with assurances Luna would be looked after closely). "Well, Sergeant, I'm a Pegasus. I need wing holes."

"You would need wing holes if you were actually good at using your wings."

Rainbow's eye twitched beyond her control. "I'm the best flyer in Equestria. Nopony else can do the Sonic Rainboom, and―"

"And you did a damn good job of nearly killing yourself the last time you used one of those as a guardspony, didn't you?" the Sergeant snapped. "Shut up and let me do my job, and I won't tell you how to show off or shoot rainbows out of your stupid necklace." With furious hooves, the stallion ripped a suit of armor off its rack and dropped it in front of his supposed 'student'. "Get dressed."

Rainbow stared down at the armor in front of her, and then to the locked chains holding the other, more fitting suits of armor in place. Her gaze again returned to the wingless armor, and with a resigned sigh, she began to pull it onto her back. The back of her mind offered the only glimmer of light she could come up with: if she put up with this jerk long for just a few more hours, he'd get out of her mane. Then she'd finally be able to fulfill her promise to the Princess, and get out of the guard altogether.

The gilded armor was a little big around her shoulders, but incredibly tight against her folded wings. She took a few tentative steps, observing the incredible lightness of the armor. Then she glanced down at herself. To her disappointment, rather than a pure white body, she was still the same (admittedly awesome) cyan mare she had always been.

"Uh, aren't I supposed to look like you? Or all the other guards?"

"There are twelve suits―" His words cut short suddenly, and his eyes drifted lazily away. When his tone finally arose again, it had lost the furious power of moments passed, replaced by a slower, brooding displeasure. Dash found herself wondering if he was still mad at her, or if his bubbling animosity was pointed inward. "There are eleven suits of enchanted armor. The guards who have them earn them. The rest use powdered chalk. Not that it matters. The Princess wants you to look like yourself; not one of us. Now latch the armor, so we can go."

She pressed a hoof against the latch on her barrel, and felt the armor lock securely in place. "Okay, sir, what's next?"

"Dinner. And a test. Come with me."

Thunder Crack led Rainbow down the maze of the palace's hallways, offering nods to the servants and guardsponies whose hurried paths he crossed. They, in turn, granted him salutes, bows, and curtseys. To her disappointment, Dash garnered no recognition from these same ponies. Without her wings showing, and with armor covering her cutie mark, she was just some guardspony mare. A nameless face, blindly following orders.

The Sergeant didn't speak again until he was across the palace drawbridge, and out on the streets of Canterlot. "You're probably wondering where we're going."

He was right. From her numerous past visits to Canterlot, Dash knew the Palace had an ample kitchen, with countless chefs making really great meals. Even if it was hard to get a hay burger, she'd learned to love a funny dish which Twilight told her was a 'sue-flay', or something like that. Why go out and pay to eat?

"Yeah, I guess," she said, feigning disinterest.

"Well, I'm off duty as of an hour ago, and I want a drink. So we're headed to the Private's Reserve. It's a guardspony tavern. You can eat there, or drink, or flirt, or whatever it is you do."

"Uh, I don't have any bits on me."

"Shouldn't be a problem. There aren't many mares in the guard."

Rainbow felt her face turn red, and threw a punch at the stallion's face. He leaned to the side, letting the blow collide with the armored back of his neck. Without even breaking stride, he smiled, and let out a little chuckle.

"What the hay do you think is so funny?"

"That was the first decent hit you've given me all day." Almost immediately, he stopped laughing. "It was still garbage, by our standards. Don't let it go to your head."

They continued in relative silence, sharing only the noise of their unshod hooves meeting cobblestone. The unmatched rhythms were left in glorious loneliness around street corners and beneath the lights of the occasional street lamp. Towering spires and rounded vendors were ignored left and right, until the pair reached a poorer part of the town. To Rainbow, it seemed more natural, and far more welcoming. Rough stone held together with mortar formed straight walls, holding simple, welcoming doors and four-panel windows. Warm lights told the stories of parents returning from work and warm tables covered in food. In the young mare's mind, they brought up thoughts of a graying old stallion with a funny moustache and cheeks covered in wrinkles from smiling far too much.

These wonderful thoughts were burst away like the bucking of a cloud when a daydreaming Rainbow Dash walked straight into Thunder Crack's back.

"Pay attention, filly. I'd rather you not embarrass me before we even go inside."

Rainbow looked up at a surprisingly non-descript structure. Double doors were manned by a single stallion who looked like he'd spent years cultivating the perfect five-o'clock shadow for a grizzled action hero. Above his head, a wooden sign with boring red letters proudly proclaimed the establishment to be 'The Private's Reserve'. The words were flanked by a pair of poorly drawn golden helmets, crested with those blue hair things that Rainbow had always felt looked exactly the opposite of awesome. She was thankful, for just a moment, that Thunder Crack hadn't given her a helmet.

The gratitude faded the instant Thunder Crack deigned to speak to her again. "Listen up. I don't feel like saying this twice. We're going in here, and I'm gonna go have some drinks and meet up with whatever other guards were lucky enough not to get shipped off somewhere awful by Captain Armor. We're going to stay until I'm done drinking."

"Okay…" Rainbow muttered, as suspicions of alcoholism rose in her mind. "…sir."

"You don't have to call me sir when we're off duty, filly. Now, the only rule is this one. If you get hurt in there, you're off the guard."

"How am I going to get hurt in a bar full of guardsponies?"

The corner of his mouth turned upward in a grim parody of a smile. "You're as good as gone, filly." Without any attempt, or even inclination to explain himself, Thunder Crack strode up to the bouncer. "Me and the new kid are headed in."

"Does she know the rules?"

"She's not good enough to actually break any of 'em. I'll keep an eye on her."

"Eh, if you say so, Sarge."

Thunder Crack's face curled up in actual anger, made distinct from the falseness of his earlier outbursts only by the fact that he remained quiet. The bouncer looked taken aback, wondering what was about to happen.

Then it hit him.

The sergeant tenderly massaged the ankle of his right foreleg. "Nopony calls me Sarge."

The Honor Guard walked into the tavern without further speech. Rainbow was left staring at the unfortunate bouncer as he slowly pulled himself up from the ground. He took one look at Rainbow, and with something like sympathy in his eyes, shook his head.

"You should look for a new coltfriend," the bouncer suggested, holding a hoof against the left side of his jaw.

Rainbow couldn't help but laugh as she strolled into the Private's Reserve, ready to face whatever Thunder Crack could throw at her.

Almost immediately, she regretted her cocksure attitude. She'd barely laid hoof inside the door when she saw a glass-bottle, half-full of amber fluid, flying toward her face. She ducked just in time to avoid the danger, and for her trouble, felt a mixture of alcohol and backwash splash across her flank.

"Hey, watch it! That was my drink!" some colt at the far end of the room shouted. Rainbow watched as a big earth pony guard picked up a smaller unicorn and slammed him onto a table. The pegasus filly was entranced for a while, watching as the huge pony shrugged off spell after spell, until finally, the unicorn gave up fighting, with blood and drool falling from his muzzle. As if nothing had happened, the earth pony shoved the unicorn onto the floor, fell back into his seat, and continued drinking.

The scene over, Rainbow found herself able to look around and truly take in the room. It was a big area, with wood floors and stone walls. Everywhere were half-armored guardsponies, nearly all stallions. Most were partially white, with goopy spots of other colors showing where sweat and booze had wiped the chalky powder from their coats. They drank, and licked salt licks, and flirted with mares dressed in obviously fake armor of their own, who in turn danced temptingly from table to table, serving drinks. A very young unicorn colt with a vest and tie tended bar.

Everything was lit a warm orange, from tinted overhead lamps. Thick oak tables and a polished bar added color to the scene, though not quite so much as the dented old jukebox in the corner, which still had the tenacity to belt out an old Neighvana hit.

The two strongest senses to assault Rainbow, however, were the heat and the smell. The place was kept warm by a roaring fire in a corner fireplace, and the feeling was impossible to miss, compounding the summer evening heat to an almost unimaginable level. This hot thick air was also home to a terrible stench, mixed from three parts booze, two parts vomit, two parts sweat, and a half-dozen other parts that this chronicle cannot mention for fear of offending reasonable audiences.

Seeing nothing better to do, Rainbow made her way up to the bar and took a stool. The bartender glanced over at her, but said nothing. He was too occupied with his magic, twirling three bottles at once as he poured some complicated, snooty drink that Rainbow could only guess the name of. With all the ice, and the little umbrella, she would probably have named it the Rarity.

He slid the drink down the length of the bar with his magic. Dash almost choked trying to suppress the laughter that followed, as Master Sergeant Thunder Crack looked at the funny pale drink, and then took a long, slow sip. Smug and satisfied, the Honor Guard stared up at the wall of carefully arranged bottles behind the bar, where his eyes lost focus on the world around him.

Dash managed to stifle her laughter by the time the bartender made his way over to her. A rag and a glass floated beside his head, slowly being washed off, as he looked her up and down. Rainbow gave him a look that clearly got the message across. His eyes immediately focused on her face.

"Sorry, I, uh… It's just, we don't get a lot of fillies in her, and I thought you might have been one of the, uh, waitresses. But that's real armor, isn't it?"

"Yeah, real stupid armor too," Rainbow muttered. "I'm a pegasus, but Captain Jackass over there didn't seem to notice."

"We have a donkey in here?" the bartender asked, incredulous. Rainbow shook her head, and pointed out Sergeant Crack. Following the point of her hoof, the colt's mouth formed a small 'o', which was quickly replaced by a look of confusion. "You mean Sergeant Crack? He's a great stallion. Maybe it was just a mistake?"

"Maybe if he hadn't spent all day beating me in the face." Rainbow gestured to the bruise she was sure had formed on the bottom-right side of her jaw. "He doesn't like me. At all. I can't really figure out why."

"Wait, he―"

"Shut up for a second, Happy Hour." Rainbow turned at the sudden interruption to see a strangely familiar guardspony stallion sitting on the barstool next to her. "Get me a Shetland beer, and a salt lick. And a beer for the beautiful filly, too." Upon finishing his order, the stallion turned to the mare seated beside him. "I'm sorry about my buddy earlier. Who throws a bottle at a pretty little thing like you?"

Dash then recognized him as the big earth pony stallion who'd beaten his drinking companion into unconsciousness when she entered the tavern. Her thoughts were cut short when she felt his hoof brush against the inside of her left rear leg. She twisted herself away from his reach, and stared at him with a disgusted, offended glare.

"Who the hay do you think you are?"

Happy Hour was returning with the ordered drinks when the clearly-drunk stallion continued. "Oh, how rude of me. My name's Phalanx. Warrant Officer Phalanx." Rainbow wondered if he was actually trying to turn his title into a Con Mane joke. He continued, ignorant of her thoughts. "And if I'm moving too fast for you, I'm sorry. I love taking things nice… and… slow."

The words were accompanied by both his forehooves reaching around Rainbow's neck, and his booze-soaked breath rushing past her face. Completely uninterested, and also totally disgusted, Rainbow shoved him with both her hooves. For a moment, his flailing hooves almost restored his balance; unfortunately, they were unable to rebalance the bar stool he had been resting on. Both he and the wooden fixture toppled to the floor with a pair of loud thuds. Most of the patrons didn't even look up at the noise.

Phalanx pulled himself up onto shaky hooves, glaring daggers at Dash. "Celestia, how much do you want, filly? Eighty bits? A hundred? You might have some fancy costume armor there, but you don't say no to me!"

"Uh… Phalanx, she's not―" Happy Hour's unsteady voice was cut off when Rainbow spoke up.

"You're disgusting. I wouldn't sleep with you for all the bits in Equestria."

Her unwanted admirer twisted his head to the side, letting some loud cracks break out of his neck. "Never heard of a picky whore before." He took a stumbling step forward, and then another.

"I'm not a whore, jerk. I'm Rainbow Dash. Princess Luna's bodyguard."

"Oh, that's funny. That's real hilarious. Too bad I know a pony named Morning Star, who'd say otherwise. But if you think you're a real guardspony, that means you know how to fight."

Rainbow could see his intentions coming a mile away. He pulled up his right forehoof, practically screaming his intended attack. She was ready to spring up on her perfect wings at a moment's notice, and let him fall on his face yet again.

He lunged, and it was at that moment that Rainbow's conscious thoughts caught up with her instincts. One such thought was that her wings were still trapped beneath earth pony armor. The next such thought was that his leg was really strong, and his hoof really hurt.

She could feel the boards of the floor beneath the plated saddle covering her wings. Her eyes quickly adapted to her new position, where Phalanx was standing over her, a taunting smile on his ugly face. "How much now, pretty filly?"

Standing over a pony like Rainbow was a mistake the stallion wasn't about to make twice, on the off-chance he would recall anything at all in the morning. Dash pressed her front knees into the floor on either side of her body, giving her leverage, and thrust upward into a powerful buck with both her hind legs. The blow connected with the underside of Phalanx's nether region, and with a noise that could only be described a the slow, whimpering whine of a deflating balloon, he collapsed to the floor beside her.

"Is he alright?" Happy Hour asked, when Rainbow sat down at the bar and grabbed the beer Phalanx had bought her. Dash just shrugged in response. The bartender nodded, and smiled awkwardly. "I'm sorry about that. Unfortunately, guardsponies aren't any different than the rest of the stallions in Equestria after a few drinks. Do you want something to eat? You know, to make it up to you?"

Rainbow took a sip of the drink, and almost immediately decided she didn't like it. It was cheap, and flat, and everything that Sweet Apple Acres Cider wasn't.

"I'd love a daffodil sandwich, if you can do that."

Happy Hour nodded, and quickly scrawled down a note on a little flap of paper, which his magic sent flying into the back room. "So, uh, are you really Rainbow Dash?"

"The one and only," Rainbow answered. "Fastest flier in Equestria."

"I heard all about you in the newspapers. They said you were dead. That you snapped your neck and impounded your skull when you saved the Princess."

"That's the first I've heard, though I guess I've been hurt pretty bad before, too. Princess Celestia healed me."

"She can do that?" Happy Hour asked, surprised.

Rainbow answered with another sip of her awful drink, and then an odd look. "I guess so. She can raise the sun and stuff too, right?"

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But, uh, unicorns used to do that too. It just took a whole bunch of them, and some big magic gems. But there's no such thing as a healing spell at all."

"Well, I guess it's something only she can do, then." Rainbow took another sip, stopped to wonder why, and then pushed the drink down the bar, out of her reach. "That's awful. Anyway, I'm not too worried about it. There are bigger things going on."

"Like what?"

Dash's mouth dropped open. "You mean you haven't heard?"

"About what? Nothing has happened since the big award thing at the College. You saved, uh, Princess Luna, right? So what else is wrong?"

Rainbow sat there, staring at him with her mouth hanging wide, until Happy Hour's eyes shifted away from the speechless mare and to something, or somepony, behind her. Slowly, Dash turned to see four colts approaching. Two pegasi, an earth pony, and a unicorn. The largest of the Pegasi was closest to her, and it was he who offered a smile, sans a few teeth, and spoke.

"Hey, pretty filly. If I buy you a real good drink, will you show me a real good time?"

Dash turned back to Happy Hour, then rolled her eyes. She wasn't about to go through the whole fiasco of an argument a second time. Instead, she skipped to the end, pulling up her legs and bucking the stallion straight in the gap-toothed muzzle. He stumbled, and fell back against his friends.

The unicorn reacted first, picking up Phalanx's abandoned drink and throwing it at Rainbow. She ducked under the flying bottle faster than most ponies would have been able to follow, before putting a forehoof straight into the horny stallion's jaw. His magic wavered, and the bottle maintained its original trajectory, flying all the way across the room, before breaking against the head of an older, angry pegasus with a missing ear.

What followed could only be described as Discord's purest dream. Undiluted chaos erupted, in the form of a bar brawl. Stools were thrown, tables overturned, and bottles broken. The entire room went mad.

Rainbow had to admit to herself that it felt good to be on the giving end of some punishment, after her long and awful day. She put her hooves into dozens of guardsponies, dropping some, tricking others, and generally being too fast and too agile for any of the drunks to follow. It wasn't flying, but it was at least enough of an adrenaline rush to improve her mood.

Finally, a few minutes later, half the bar lay on the floor, panting and moaning and vomiting. Things had all but stopped. Rainbow panted, feeling the weight of her armor catch up to her. Her legs were sore, not used to doing the work of her wings. She'd taken a few light bruises, but nothing that cut her skin. In fact, she probably looked the best out of anypony in the bar.

The cracking of glass escaped from the floor directly behind Rainbow.

"How ya' like me now, whore?" The voice was Phalanx's, and it was accompanied by a jagged shard of broken bottle aimed for Rainbow's face. She jumped to the side, but not fast enough.

The next noise anypony heard was the sickening snap of breaking bone, followed by a loud crack as the crude pony was thrown hard enough against the floor that he bounced, before rolling to a bloody, unconscious stop against the nearest wall.

Standing over Rainbow was a large stallion, the likes of whom Rainbow had never seen before. He turned slowly, and shot a glance around the tavern with gold slitted eyes. Veined, leathery bat wings were pinned against his sides. Strange patches of fur clung to his face, marking him as a different creature entirely than a real pony. Black and purple armor covered his gray-coated body.

"What are you doing here, freak?" somepony shouted.

Whoever the strange creature was, he simply ignored the cruel words. His frightful eyes locked on Thunder Crack, who was still sitting at the bar with his drink. "I will now be taking Lady Dash back to the Palace to rest. She has passed your foolish test."

The Sergeant only responded with a nod, not even mustering the will to look at the being that addressed him. For his part, the bat-winged stallion did not move his head. Within their sockets, however, his slitted golden eyes swiveled too quickly, riveting firmly on Rainbow.

She opened her mouth to ask his name, but the words were stolen from her tongue unspoken by his next action. Falling down on one knee, and bending his other foreleg, he prostrated himself on the beer-stained wooden floorboards.

"Are you well, Lady Dash?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess," Rainbow offered, confused.

The stallion snapped up faster than Rainbow thought possible, without the use of wings. It was as if he hadn't gone through the intervening positions; he was on the floor, and then suddenly, he was standing stiffly before her again. "Then we should leave. Please follow me."

Rainbow stared in awe as he just started walking off. It took a shake of her head to clear her mind of confusion for long enough to follow after him.

Outside, the sun had finally set, and the midsummer heat had faded away, leaving a comfortable coolness that soothed the heavy layer of sweat Rainbow had only just noticed building between her wings and her ill-fitting armor. She took the moment of refreshment to gasp a few calming breaths of fresh air, free of the scents of alcohol and testosterone. As her focus returned, her eyes veered from the strange bat-pony creature to the body of the bouncer, snoring unceremoniously on the sidewalk.

The black-furred being seemed to notice her glance as he sat down bluntly on the street. "He informed me that I was unwelcome in this establishment because he did not deem me to be a pony."

Rainbow looked up at her odd protector. "Are you a pony?"

"That is a very… difficult question. Perhaps the first of many. We should not talk here. Come with me to roost, and I shall give you the answers you seek. My kin are not welcome in the streets." He spread his leathery wings and took off, only to stop short a few feet overhead. "You are welcome to leave the armored garb here. That suit is easily replaceable."

Part of Rainbow hesitated to follow this pony, though she had her hunch as to what he was. Twilight had described two ponies like him after Luna visited Ponyville on Nightmare Night. She hadn't exactly believed her every word about the 'bat ponies', but now the description seemed to fit. If he was really one of Luna's guards, he had to be trustworthy… right?

The armor fell to the cobblestones surprisingly quietly. It was with immense pleasure, then, that Rainbow spread her wings and took to the night. She was tired, but the feeling of the cold air rushing past her sore body gave her a second wind the likes of which she had never experienced before. After a dozen or so loops, she turned around to see the night pony hovering a few yards away.

"We shall return to the palace roost. There, your questions can be answered, and you can rest, Lady Dash."

Rainbow watched as he flew on his odd wings, clumsily. He seemed to have too much power in every stroke, leading his body to bob up and down in the cool air as he moved. Nevertheless, he was fairly fast, and the travel went quickly. Their path headed straight for the highest spire of the palace, only to pass it completely and shoot on for the peak of the mountain behind it. No structure lay there to be seen, until they alighted on the bare purple rocks. The bat guard walked quickly on strangely stiff legs, darting around rocks and over small crags on the steep ground.

He stopped at the entrance to a cavern, where he looked pointedly at Dash, and nodded. Rainbow's brow rose, but she wasn't about to let him know how intimidating the dark cave was. Setting a bold foot forward, she strode into the darkness.

Around her, little pinpricks of light appeared. They glowed purple and blue, casting an eerie light around the room. Pillars of purple stone were covered with silver fabric. They spiraled up toward the towering ceiling, supporting layer after layer of walkways carved out of the raw stone.

Rainbow took another step for a better view, and felt plush carpet beneath her hoof. A black rug, dotted with a pattern of silver stars, led from her place at one end of the cavern to an elevated podium at the other. At its center was an enormous gem, audibly humming and pulsing like a beating heart, accompanied by a blue light that waned and waxed with its noise.

"This was meant to be our Mistress of the Night's observatory." Rainbow jumped. She hadn't heard the stallion approach, despite the obvious tones her hooves had made on the stonework leading up to the carpet. Either he hadn't noticed, or he didn't care. "The Sun Queen fashioned it for her. Instead, it was gifted to us, as a home. We call it the Roost."

Rainbow looked up at the creature standing behind her, and thought she saw a hint of pride on his face. "We, like the others of you? What are you, anyway?"

"I am a Night Guard," he stated bluntly. "And yes, Lady Dash, your assumption is correct. We take shelter here."

Rainbow shook her head. "You don't get it. I know you're a Night Guard. I mean what…" She struggled to find the right words, a gift that had often eluded her. "What breed are you? Does that make sense?"

"You ask the correct question, and yet misunderstand the answer. The concept is difficult for us as well as you. Night Guard is not merely my... occupation. It is also my form, Lady Dash."

She stopped to consider the statement for a moment, before her mind locked onto another set of his words. "Okay, well, you don't need to keep calling me that. I mean, I guess it's nice, but Rainbow's fine too. You sound all stuffy when you say things like that, and it's kinda freaking me out."

"Forgive me. It is the nature of our kind to feel kinship with you. You alone protected our Mistress of the Night, when all others were defeated." He prostrated himself again, as he had in the bar. "We owe our every moment to you, Rainbow."

Rainbow took a step back from the bowing Night Guard before her and shrugged, almost by force of habit. "It wasn't that big of a deal, really. I'm sure the other Guardsponies would have done the same thing if they'd realized what was going on."

He looked up at her, glowing golden eyes filled with confusion. "We are not so sure, Rainbow."

"Huh? Isn't that, like, their job? If you aren't going to protect the Princess, what's the point of being a guardspony?"

"We have no doubt that were the Sun Queen to fall, they would have saved her life. Our Mistress, however, does not have their loyalty the way she has earned yours, or ours."

"Well, that's kind of dumb," Rainbow answered. "Loyalty isn't something you should have to earn."

"I would disagree with you, though in this case, that may be foolish."

They stared at each other, as Rainbow found herself unable to interpret any emotion from the face of the Night Guard who stood before her. As she watched him, an obvious question arose in her mind.

"What's your name?"

He looked at her with the first emotion she truly could read: confusion. "I do not…" He looked around the room, as if searching for something in the shadows. "I am Third Brother. Is that a fair name?"

"Uh, yeah. Not as cool as Rainbow Dash, but yeah. What was with the thinking, though? Are you not allowed to give your real name?"

"We are not allowed to keep a real name. Third Brother is my Rank, and Lancer my duty. Either will do."

Rainbow nodded, and then found herself forcing back a yawn.

"You are fatigued?"

"Yeah, I guess, but I'm not about to go to bed now. I wanna know about the Night Guard. You guy's armor is awesome, and this place is cool, even if it is a little creepy. And―"

"Our Mistress of the Night will be better to answer your questions, and both our times are better served protecting her. You are tired, and we cannot waste you. We fear that you are the only pony who can truly save her life, now."

"Me? I mean, sure, I can do it, but―"

"Quiet, Lady Dash, and listen closely, for my time with you draws short this night. What we ask will not be easy, do not misunderstand. But you can go where we cannot. Know that the Night watches over you from afar, and should you require us, we will come to your aid. You may find a cure where our Mistress slumbers, but only the Sun Queen can illuminate the answer. Reconciliation and Loyalty together will save our Mistress."

"What the hay is that supposed to mean? If you know the cure―"

"I do not know the meaning, Rainbow. Only the words. Today has drained us both, for I rose against the sun to visit you." His slitted eyes began to glow, casting a golden light against the blues and purples of the room. "Sleep now, and join our Mistress for the Night. Come the morning, a new challenge lies ahead. Save her."

The golden light filled her vision, and before she could even feel her knees begin to bend against the carpet, darkness and dreams overtook Rainbow's mind.

V - Dishonesty

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V: Dishonesty
- - -

Rainbow awoke to a scratching on her nose. Wind accompanied it, sending strands of her mane into her eyes. She curled further into her cloud, but the gentle sensation would not leave her be. It prevented any hope of sleeping, so the mare stretched her legs, letting her wings enjoy the gentle breeze of a Ponyville morning. Even sitting upright, eyes still closed, it wouldn't leave. She brushed a hoof idly over her face, and felt the surprising roughness of torn parchment.

Her eyes shot open when a gust of wind tore the sensation from her face. The little strip of fine paper was pulled toward an open glass balcony door. The world-class flier lunged after it, catching the tiny strip just before it escaped into the high mountain air.

She wasn't in Ponyville, of course, though she had found her morning on a cloud. The balcony seemed familiar, as did the view of Equestria gazing down from this particular balcony. She turned back to the room behind her, parchment held tight in her teeth. Her hoof met a tiny puddle.

The pool of liquid was a soft brown, punctuated by tiny shards of shattered porcelain, and a single golden lotus petal.

Luna's tea, and her own. They hadn't even cleaned up the spills. Her gaze drifted upward, to the room of blues and purples contained inside the glass doors. Everything about the chamber was exactly as it had been when Rainbow left, charging off after Shining Armor three days earlier. The only change was the unsettling of the sheets on the Princess' cloud bed, a change Dash recognized from her own sleep moments earlier.

She looked back down at the little flower that had nearly cost Luna her life. Everything was quiet until she brought her hoof up and stomped on it. Set on top of the little thing, she pressed down and ground back and forth, until she could feel that nothing but reedy strands remained.

"Why?" The question didn't even mean anything, it was just a raw thought gone rogue in a swamp of memories and tears. All the purpose it ever served was to let a tumbling strip of paper fall from her lips and spin in the air.

It was the text on the other side that caught her eye. The script was plain and straightforward, looking almost printed in its uniformity, save the occasional splatter of ink. She caught it on the tip of her wing and held it up, her eyes scanning slowly.

Rainbow Dash, here is your message, exactly as it was given to me.
You may find a cure where Luna slumbers, but only Celestia can illuminate the answer. It will take Reconciliation and Loyalty together to save the Princess.
I trust your judgment, but do not let the Sun Queen or her guard know of these words. They were not meant for her kind.
-III

Dozens of questions arose, but were quickly washed away in irritation. She groaned and let the scrap of paper fall to the floor. She had better things to do than solve a stupid riddle, especially with somepony's life on the line. Her hooves brought her to the doors of the room, but a quick flick of the handle found them locked.

She was about to run out of the room and fly off the balcony to the main Palace entrance when a noise outside the door caught her attention. Her ears perked again when another followed, and then a third, in a long stream. Voices. She pressed an ear flat against the wood and listened closely.

"...don't see how she could be here. We already checked Celestia's room, right?"

"I'm telling you, the filly quit. About time too." That was the loathed voice of Thunder Crack, just as irate as ever. Rainbow's first instinct was to throw the doors open and hit the stallion in the face. It would prove him wrong, and show that she could fight, all in one awesome move. That plan fell flat, however, the moment that Rainbow tried the door. It was locked from both sides, just as it had been moments before, and she could see no way to undo the latch. Maybe Luna just used magic to get in. Her plan dead in the water, the stunt flier resigned herself to listening in on the rest of the conversation.

"What do you even have against her, Thunder?" The other voice was a mare's, likely not all too much older than Dash herself, though with the slightest hint of a 'proper' Canterlot accent. "Is it because she's Luna's bodyguard?"

He answered first with a growl. "You wouldn't understand."

"You sure? Understanding is usually my job."

What followed was a loud crack, and the sound of porcelain shattering. Dash felt the door shift against the side of her face from a sudden impact. When the ensuing silence broke, Thunder Crack's voice was just as angry as usual. "Keep your nose out of this, Private. I was on orders, and I did them damn well for the warning I got."

The response came incredulously. "So you're telling me Soldier On ordered you to take Rainbow Dash into a bar and nearly get her killed?"

"Captain On and I agreed that we needed to get her off the guard. She tried talking to the Princess, but they still aren't on the best of terms after the Captain yelled at her about Luna. So she told me to solve the problem on my end. I tried to get the dumb filly to quit the usual way, but she was stubborn."

"Oh, I see. So that's when you decided a bar-brawl was the solution."

"One of these days, Marathon, you're going to learn to shut up. But, no, I wasn't just going to throw her into a bar brawl. Everything was under control. I paid off a bunch of the Royal Guards to go hit on her, and pick a fight. Maybe a cut, or a broken leg; just something to keep her out of shape for duty while we solved this issue. I didn't take the real drunk into account, but I was watching in case anything happened. If it weren't for the bat-freak, everything would have gone off perfectly."

The sound of wings beating the air drew closer to the door, and Rainbow pulled back, ready to lunge into Luna's incredibly comfortable cloud bed. To her surprise, however, the approach stopped just in front of the doors, leaving Equestria's fastest pony with perfect clarity for what was said next.

"Fine, Thunder, whatever. If that's what you had to do. Back to my actual question, though, what do you have against Rainbow Dash in the first place?"

"Plenty, but that isn't why we had to get rid of her."

"Why, then?"

Thunder Crack grumbled an answer back in gravely tones. "Because she has a stupid magic necklace, that's why."

"Huh?"

"If she were just some filly that the Princess threw on the guard, it wouldn't matter. I'd put up with teaching her for a week or so, until we could send her off. She'd go off and get eaten by a dragon or stabbed or something, and I wouldn't lose any sleep. Unfortunately for us, this particular dumb kid happens to be the Element of Loyalty. So if we let her stay on the Honor Guard and try to do what we do, her story ends in a wooden box six hooves under. Then what happens when Discord escapes again, or Nightmare Moon returns, or some other god-monster that we can't fight attacks the Princess? Do you think you can talk them out of it, Marathon? If not, as much as I hate to admit it, we need the filly alive."

A long quiet followed, before the mare (Marathon?) spoke up again. "Celestia hasn't considered this? You're sure?"

"She's probably considered it. The problem is that the Princess doesn't care, Marathon. She might not be shouting and threatening war, and whatever else she said to Captain On today, but she still isn't in her right mind. She's more concerned with her sister than she is with Equestria, and that means that we have to pick up the slack."

"So that's why the Nobles are convening tomorrow." The wingbeats stopped. "Are you coming?"

"I don't have time for that sort of thing. Satisfying them is your job, Ambassador." Sarcasm dripped audibly from the Sergeant's voice. "Captain On and I are following up a lead on the assassin."

"She needs to be there. The Commander always came to meetings with the Stable of Nobles."

"Well, she isn't the Commander, is she, Marathon?" He snorted so loud, Rainbow found herself jumping back from the door again. "She's got history with the new Stalliongrad cuh-zar, or whatever they call themselves up there. Princess said she was getting somepony else to fill the spot."

"Who? Mirror Image?"

"Shining Armor." His final words were accompanied by the sound of the Sergeant's hooves wandering their way down the hall and into the distance.

The sound slipped slowly into silence, and Rainbow waited without breathing. Then a key clicked in the door's silver keyhole, and the fear of shame sent the mare across the room and into the bed. As the door slowly creaked open, she pulled the thick down-stuffed covers over her body and pressed her eyes closed.

Again she was forced to rely on her ears, listening to soft wings beat closer and closer and closer, until finally they could be no further than a leg's length away. She felt a hoof press gently against her shoulder, followed shortly by a kind voice.

"It's time to get up, Rainbow Dash." She feigned a yawn and opened her eyes slowly.

Marathon was a younger mare than Dash would have guessed from the accent of her voice; she couldn't have been any older than Fluttershy, and the similarities between the two didn't end at age. The Guard wore her mane long and straight down both sides of her head, though pulled back far enough to leave her gentle smiling face peeking through. Both it and her coat were a warm burnt orange, with the former marked by stripes of yellow and red. Her most notable features were the dress attached to her armor, which thoroughly covered her rear legs and flanks, and the fact that she insisted on hovering, despite the fact that her legs were only a fraction of an inch from the floor of the room.

Rainbow sat upright and stretched her forelegs in a long fake yawn. "Gimme a second, Marathon."

"You know my name?"

"Uh... Sergeant Crack mentioned you yesterday." It hadn't been the smoothest move Rainbow had ever pulled, but it got the desired reaction out of the other mare. Instead of suspicion, she reacted by drawing back a bit.

"I hope he didn't tell you anything too bad about me. Celestia knows he's never said anything good about anypony in his life." She laughed, and gestured to the door. "We're actually pretty late. It took me forever to find you, and Captain On wanted to see you an hour ago."

Dash stumbled to her hooves for the second time in as many short minutes. "Is she down in the hospital room?"

"She's down in the armory waiting to deploy you."

Rainbow was taken aback. "Really? I thought Crack would have me off the Guard for sure."

"Well, I think he thought so too, but here you are. To be honest, I doubt he had much say in the matter. Anyway, if you aren't quitting now, you need to get cleaned up."

"Where am I going?"

Marathon smiled. "I'm supposed to let the Captain tell you, but I guess it can't hurt. Ever wanted to see Zebrica?"

Rainbow's mind pictured the endless jungles and deserts faced in the everyday life of Daring Do. She could almost see the hidden temples and the strange creatures. "Heck yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"

The other guardspony couldn't help but share her new companion's enthusiasm. "All right, then. I've got most of our gear packed, but you need to go down to the armory and see Captain On before you go." Marathon's hoof tapped against the golden breastplate attached to the trail of her dress. "I hear she has something for you."

The Bearer of Loyalty didn't need to be told twice. Her own armor, and going to Zebrica? For the first time since joining up, Dash had to admit that she finally had hope for her time serving in the guard. Compounded with the realization that she was finally doing something to help Luna, it seemed she had finally found her long awaited silver lining. The euphoria carried her down the hall and all the way to the center of the Palace ballroom before she realized that she had no idea where the armory was.

She was also left with no idea that after she left the room, Marathon spotted a strange piece of parchment on the floor, and tucked it idly into a pocket on her own armor.

- - -

Shining Armor stood in full armor, still suffering under days of stress. Cadance's insistence of sleep had done him good physically, but no amount of sleep would let him forget his duty.

That particular morning, his duty took the form of standing in the Royal Palace ballroom, socializing with the entourages of the 'noble' rulers of the eight Domains of Equestria.

His bored eyes had fixed themselves onto the doorway of the enormous room, even as his hooves locked themselves in place beside an ornate punchbowl resting on an equally ornate table. He was grateful the beverage had been spared liquor, simply to give him an excuse to keep his mouth full. That way, he could listen, and nod along, and generally pretend to be listening to what anypony was saying at any given time. The experience of meeting his wife's family had taught him just what Equestria's upper crust thought of a commoner attaining the rank of Captain of the Royal Guard. Hopefully, a mouthful of punch would keep him from saying something stupid, at least until Cadance arrived to watch his back.

He'd been expecting the first encounter of the day to be a so-called 'noblepony'; instead, he nearly spat out the very first mouthful of his punch when a radiant rainbow mane suddenly dropped into his face from above.

"Hey, Shining!'

Quickly swallowing his drink, the Guard Captain took a step back. Rainbow Dash was hovering in the air, just over where his head had been. He couldn't help but notice a few bruises on her shoulders, and a particularly potent one on her cheek, but given normal guardspony training, he wasn't about to comment. "Rainbow, you shouldn't sneak up on ponies like that." He chuckled to himself at a sudden memory. "Especially not guardsponies."

"Why? You thought it was funny."

"Just trust me." Though Shining Armor didn't explain it, the answer had to do with a prior commanding officer, who had responded to an 'eraser in the door' prank by bucking his desk through the office window and charging spear first into the training yard at two in the morning. The overreaction eventually led to six weeks of latrine duty. He hadn't enjoyed it, but at least his magic made life better than it was for his earth pony friend.

The Captain refilled his glass of punch and set it down on the table before he spoke up again. "How are you liking the Honor Guard, Rainbow? I see you got through your first day of training all right."

"I wish. Thunder Crack- sorry, Sergeant Crack, is a total jackass. He spent the entire day just beating on me, and telling me that I couldn't use my wings to fight. He wouldn't even let me fly - how stupid is that?"

Shining opened his mouth, fully intending to comment on standard training procedure for Pegasus guards, due to the risk of wing injuries in combat. Rainbow continued before he could offer his thoughts, however.

"After like the whole day of just doing these stupid drills and getting hit over and over, he took me to a bar and just started drinking. Anyway, I actually-"

"Wait, Rainbow," the Captain demanded. "This bar Sergeant Crack brought you to, was it named the Private's Reserve?"

"Yeah, actually. It was kind of a lousy place, and all these drunk guardsponies kept coming onto me like I was some kind of two-bit-" Rainbow's words were interrupted this time not by Shining Armor's voice, but by the smashing of his hoof against the marble floor. "Uh, you okay, buddy?"

"I'm fine. I'm glad you're fine, I should say. I'm going to need to talk to Captain On about that, though. He shouldn't have taken you there."

Rainbow shrugged. "I came out all right, didn't I? Anyway, if you do need to talk to her, you can come with me. I need to go to the armory, so I can get a suit of my own." She gestured to Shining's namesake gear. "I wonder if it comes in blue."

The guardspony smiled at the naivety of his young friend. "Well, the armory is just through that door, down the stairs, first door on the right." His hoof pointed the way. "When you see Soldier On, tell her that I'll take over your training. I don't want you having to deal with Sergeant Crack anymore."

Rainbow flew off, and Shining's magic picked up his drink again. Halfway across the ballroom, the mare turned back to him and called out loudly. "Thanks for the offer, Shining, but I don't need any more training. I'm heading off for Zebrica later."

The fastest mare in Equestria made it through the door and out of the room just in time to miss the sudden surge of magic from Shining Armor's horn as it shattered his glass of punch into a rain of crystalline shards and droplets of pink rain.

- - -

In the days following her impossible victory, much of the incredible high of her task has worn away. Masquerade's thoughts had gone from a bouncing school-filly to a philosophizing mare. It was probably the endless expanse of desert that surrounded her, giving her nothing to do but think as she walked in the heat.

The problem with being a philosophizing mare was that philosophy didn't tend to get very far without discussion. Given that one of her companions was completely incapable of speech, and the other didn't seem interested, she found herself in something of a bind. Her mind had explored magic, theater, truth, and even that rare and deadly subject called morality. Now she was, to put it bluntly, bored.

She glanced over to the stallion pulling her cart. He was a big thing, but his mind was weak. It had been easy enough to wipe it out completely. She knew he'd never recover, and she had every intention of putting him out of his misery as soon as he was no longer useful. The magic was considered 'cruel and vile', as well as illegal, but on her list of crimes it still couldn't compete with Luna's assassination.

The cart itself was really just a cage with wheels, for those few who could see past the illusion. Inside, the pony called the Commander was glaring at her, surprisingly lucid. She'd had to lower the whisper salt injections after she realized that her supply was running low, but nevertheless his attentiveness was impressive.

"So, Commander..." her words trailed off and she simply let them hang in the dry scorching air. To her surprise, he responded. He didn't offer any words, but he did shift to a painful mockery of sitting upright, with his scarred rear leg sticking out of otherwise perfect posture. "You want to talk?"

He didn't say anything, or move any further. He just sat there, staring silently, judgmentally. Though she did her best to hide the feeling from her face, she had to admit the way he watched her was unnerving.

"I figure I'd like to get to know you a bit better."

"Why am I still alive?"

Masquerade couldn't help but notice that his voice was far drier than it had been in Baltimare. The long trip south had not been kind to his health, even without his own deliberate dehydration. Twice, she'd had to drug him, and then pour the water down his throat herself.

"You're worth a lot of money, Commander. I love what I do, but I still have to make a living. My turn for a question. What's your name?"

"Steel," he stated, eyes searching the horizon.

"Just Steel?"

His eyes didn't even look at her, for almost a full minute, as he craned his head to see through the bars of his cage. When he spoke again, unprompted, Masquerade was caught off-guard. "You're selling me to the Changelings?"

Masquerade cocked her head, trying to read the stallion's face. It was a prospect doomed to fail from the moment it began. She might have been a master of deception, but she could never dream of a poker face as good as his. She relented with curiosity in her tone. "I've never spoken to a Changeling, Steel."

He nodded, having heard the answer he was expecting. "Chrysalis would want Shining Armor more than me."

"Who's Chrysalis?"

"Their queen."

Masquerade smiled, cracking yet another of her jokes at his expense. "I get it, tough guy. You're saying don't love anypony, right? That's how he and his Princess stopped the invasion. That's what you're telling me here, that you're too hard for that sort of thing? Typical stallion, trying to act tough." She shook her rear at him suggestively. "Maybe I could change your mind?" She stopped to take in his response, and found herself disappointed. Steel's eyes were pointed at her, but she felt that he wasn't really seeing her at all.

She found herself honestly sad. No matter how much he hated her, she couldn't help but feel a bond between them, as companions on a lonely road. She thought to herself, wondering what she could say to get him to speak again.

As they progressed, the badlands grew dustier and redder until the entire horizon could be reduced to a block of blue sitting atop a block of red. Her thoughts wandered, and her mind listed, until finally the silence started to hurt again.

"We're going to the boars, Steel. Their Warchief offered me half a million bits worth of their coin for you."

She didn't know why she had said it. As sedated and contained as he was, there wasn't likely much he could do with the information, but it was still unprofessional of her. Talking about contracts was terrible for business.

The moment he pulled himself up again, though, she decided that the trade had been worth it. "Good."

"Huh?" Her first thought was that the price of his head somehow gave him satisfaction, but the way his faced turned down, she knew there was no pride in his statement.

"The boars don't keep prisoners."

By the way he put his face on the floor of his cell, he had decided once again that their conversation was over. Masquerade thought otherwise, and offered a question that she thought was sure to catch his interest.

"Then, for the sake of argument, what happens if your guards do catch me?"

He didn't bother to pick up his head when he answered. "You'd have to face Celestia."

"I have a hard time believing she could actually bring herself to do anything. Aren't I one of her precious little ponies, after all? She forgave Nightmare Moon. Why not me?"

"You don't know her," the Commander told her.

"So I'd burn?" she asked, sarcastically.

"She's more creative." He shook his head, and his eyes looked out on the horizon. "Have you ever seen her statue garden?"

Imagination turned to fear as Masquerade pondered eternity. It took more time that she would have liked for her to remember realities. No matter what sort of company he was, or how he acted, the Commander was her enemy. His words were chosen to produce exactly the kind of fear she had just felt. It was time to turn the tables again.

"Well, Steel, I suppose that would probably scare me pretty badly, if your guards were ever going to catch me. I still don't believe it, but it doesn't matter. Seeing as I was able to waltz into the Palace right under their noses, I'd say they don't have a chance of catching me out in the world."

"You should hope they do. The garden isn't Tartarus." The words sounded strange, coming from a voice so devoid of emotion. Plenty of times in her line of work, Masquerade had heard her name damned from afar. Sometimes, she even had the luxury of standing beside the victim, wearing somepony else's face. The words were always bitter, but it was a flavor she loved above all others. Steel didn't give her the wonderful rush she always expected.

"Well, that's where we disagree, Commander. I know that if Luna had been allowed to live, Nightmare Moon would have returned. I did the right thing. I saved Equestria."

"Maybe you did."

The words stopped Masquerade in her tracks. She watched his face, wondering if he could honestly have meant what he said. She was certain that he sounded sincere, and as she watched him, she began to believe that he might have meant his words.

"So you're saying I'm right?"

Steel shook his head slowly, almost mournfully. "Who decides if you lived a good life, Masquerade?" His eyes, the last part of his body that held the sharp and watchful figure of the Commander, stared straight up into the fiery ball heating the desert from overhead. "All she has to do is wait."

She shook off that lying threat much more quickly than its predecessor. Everypony knew that if you did the right thing, you got to move on. Even Celestia wasn't above that... right?

"Waiting won't save her sister, supposing the poison hasn't killed her already. It isn't going to save you, either."

"I'm not afraid of dying."

"I've heard a lot of ponies say that, Steel. I might just believe it from you. Tell me, though, what would you do if I let you go?"

He looked her dead in the eye, and she knew what his answer was going to be before he even opened his mouth.

"I would take you back to Celestia."

"You're no fun sometimes, Captain. Don't you have at least a little imagination? Let me ask this way. What would you do if you could start all over again? If you could live your life differently? Would you raise a family? Do something you love?"

He lay down onto his side, and lifted his left wing. Beneath it, his one remaining cutie mark was left as plain as day. "I'm a guardspony."

"No regrets? I can respect that."

"One," he answered, looking again as though he could see straight through Masquerade to somepony behind her in the distance. "If I wrote a letter, would you deliver it?"

"I guess... you're not trying to call down your guardsponies on me, are you?"

Steel's answer was to close his eyes and lay back down to his lethargic rest. Masquerade found herself with a strange constriction in her chest. It was a feeling she hadn't felt in years: she pitied him, the first victim since her first to evoke such an emotion.

The feeling was strong enough that it earned the tired guardspony a piece of paper, a quill, and ink. Try as it might, though, pity could do nothing to stop the wagon on its progress toward his end.

- - -

"Yeah, I get that normal suits look this way, but does it come in blue? 'Cause I think that'd be way cooler than looking just like everypony else."

"You don't look like everypony else, Rainbow," Marathon answered, tugging at the dress covering her flanks. "Nopony's going to mistake your mane for somepony else's, I promise."

"Yeah, what's the deal with that? I don't even get armor that let me turn into one of those guardsponies?"

Rainbow Dash flexed her wings for the coming long flight. After days on the ground, though, it would be a welcome change.

"Can't make up your mind, Rainbow? Do you want to look like us or not?"

"Well, if I can't get blue armor, it would be pretty cool to turn into a guardspony. I could prank Twilight so well like that. Can you imagine how she'd flip, if I told her she was late for an assignment?"

Marathon answered with an awkward pawing of the ground. "You mean Twilight Sparkle, right? Celestia's student."

"Yeah, she's a good friend of mine. I sort of figured you'd know her, what with- Whoa!"

The source or Rainbow's surprise was Marathon's removal of her skirt-like fabric. Beneath it, Rainbow was offered a perfect view of a pair of tiny stumps where the guardspony's hind legs ought to have been. She immediately regretted her reaction, when she realized exactly what she had said.

"I'm sorry," Rainbow threw out quickly, hoping to allay some of the damage of her words. It didn't seem to do much. She wondered what Twilight, or Fluttershy would say, and then found herself regretting their absence. "It's, uh... it actually looks kind of cool. Was that from a fight?"

"It's no big deal. I'm kinda used to it, actually. I was born without rear legs. It's why I fly inside, even when I could just be standing still."

"Don't your wings get tired?"

Marathon cracked a snarky smile. "Nope. Why? Do yours?"

Rainbow could smell the challenge coming from a mile away, and put on her game face accordingly. "Well, not usually. Sometimes when I break the sound barrier, you know, things can get a little rough."

"So you think you're a big deal, huh, Rainbow?"

"I don't think, Marathon. I know."

"Them's racing words, Rainbow Dash."

"Anytime, anywhere."

Marathon laughed. "All right then. Zebrica it is."

Rainbow was left slack jawed as the other mare shot forth, taking the early lead in their race. It didn't take more than two flaps of her wings to catch up, but she chose to match her speed, rather than flying ahead.

"Isn't Zebrica, like, a thousand miles from here?"

"Depends on where you're going. We're headed to a base camp on the Congallop river, near the district of Marezambique. It's almost on the southern border of Grivridge, if you know where that is on a map. And it's four thousand miles, give or take."

"So is this going to be like that race they do up in Vanhoover, where it takes five days?"

"If you want it to, Rainbow, you're welcome to. But I'd be pretty embarrassed to call myself the fastest flier in Equestria if I lost a race by four whole days."

The pause that followed wasn't Rainbow struggling with basic math. Its source was instead the mare's difficultly with accepting the implication that followed. "You want us to fly four thousand miles in one day?"

Marathon shrugged. "I do it all the time. We get up in a jet stream and pull a little over five-hundred miles an hour. If you get tired, you can grab a cloud and just let the wind take you. It's easy."

"So you're saying we should fly altitude and distance? What happens if one of us passes out?"

Marathon shook her head. "If you're honestly that worried about it, we can take a little longer and get there tomorrow morning. It's no fur off my back."

"Hey, I'm not backing down, Marathon; I just think you're going a little far."

"Fine. We'll call off the race." She placed her only two legs behind her head, reclining backwards as she drifted lazily through the air. "And I promise what I'm saying isn't as crazy as it sounds. You're in good shape, and even old Deadeye can fly that far with me in one day."

"Who's Deadeye?"

"His real name's Dead Reckoning. You'll get to meet him pretty soon, since he's going to be your partner in Zebrica."

"Why are you flying four thousand miles, if you're not going to stay down there too?"

"It's my job, Rainbow. I'm the Honor Guard courier. Sometimes the Princess has me do diplomacy too, if something needs to be said fast. Now follow me." The mare's wings pitched steeply upward, and she began flapping up into the higher, thinner skies.

Rainbow followed, though her attention was pointed down at the miles of Equestrian soil passing beneath her hooves. Below, the rough scar of land that was Rambling Rock Ridge brought to mind memories of facing down dragons with her friends. She glanced to the side, but Ponyville still seemed so far away. Something inside cried out for her to go home, and leave the guard. Loyalty silenced it quickly.

- - -

Celestia's found herself standing in front of her oversized full-length mirror, when a knock on the door echoed through her chambers. Without turning away from her reflection, the golden light of her horn opened the space to whoever would come inside.

She half-expected Soldier On, or Shining Armor, or even her mane-servant Record Time, with some minor issue regarding the housing of the nobles. Her ears perked when the hooves that approached carried a steady, soft tone.

Like so many things in her indescribably long life, Celestia had the luxury of learning how to hear a pony approaching not by practice, but simply by the passage of time. The talent often served her well, simply because the idea didn't often reach the mind of an average, mortal pony. In this case, the hooves were a stallion’s, older and lighter than Shining Armor. For just a moment, her ears expected the slight pause of a limp to be heard between the third and fourth step, but no such answer came. Was it disappointing?

These thoughts passed through her mind in the span of a mere second, and were wiped away when the experienced and weathered face of her sister's doctor stepped through her doorway and into view of her mirror.

"Dr. Asclepius, I presume."

"Your majesty still isn't tired of that joke?"

"I think we could all use something to laugh about these days." She turned, and then forcibly flipped her mane to get its mundane strains out of her field of vision. No matter how much everypony around her complimented the look, she missed the radiance of her more magical appearance. Sacrifices had to be made, though, and it was by far the least. "Has something changed, or are you headed home for today?"

He smiled in response, and Celestia felt her heart soar with hope in her chest. Even the force of thousands of years of passivity could not keep a matching smile from her face.

"Not a cure, but progress. I was looking at the entry wound. It's actually been healing, just very slowly."

"Is she getting better on her own?"

He seemed reluctant to disappoint her, judging by the pause that preceded his answer. "I'm afraid not. Her condition is still..." His momentary search for the right word paused the beating of Celestia's heart. "...decaying. I've been running every test I could think of trying to find a cause. Her blood-work was clean, her muscles didn't have any outside contaminants, and even her mana was stable. Today, though, when I did an x-ray of the wounded leg, I found something that wasn't there when she was brought in. Specifically, arthritis."

Celestia cocked her head to the side, utterly confused. "What does that tell us, doctor? The poison is targeting her bones?"

"No, Princess, I'm afraid not. The deterioration doesn't conform to sudden, rapid onset damage like might be caused by a corrosive, or a substance which feeds on calcium. It looks like aging. Eighty years of aging."

"So you-"

"How old is Luna, Princess?"

Celestia sighed, facing another of the difficulties of her lifespan. "Luna and I have lived something like eighty-two thousand years. I haven't bothered to check the exact year in some time." As was usually the reaction to such a revelation, Asclepius' mouth fell open. "I trust that information will not leave this room, Doctor. I know that medically, she's always been in her late twenties."

The thin stallion nodded slowly, and then just as carefully removed his glasses. Celestia knew what was coming, from the way that he took the time to look her dead in the eye.

"I'm afraid we have a diagnosis, then, your majesty. Princess Luna is aging to death."

Celestia's eyes were too tired to bring forth new tears, but they did wander away from the young pony's face. "What can we do?"

It was a testament to his professionalism that he was able to bring out his next three words. "I don't know." He stepped close to her, as young doctors were taught to, and offered a shoulder to lean on. The motion seemed hollow when presented to the mare twice his height and three-thousand times his elder. "We don't know of any spell, or any poison that can cause this."

"How long?"

That question did break the doctor's resolve. His eyes drifted to the carpet, and the walls, before settling down the perch of a radiant phoenix sitting on a golden roost near the far window. "I can't say for certain, Princess. At most, a month."

She wished she didn't know ponies so well. She desperately dreamt she had never learned to see through lies so plainly. Though it had long since abandoned her, true Honesty still had its ties in her mind, and those ties sometimes stung.

"I need to know the truth."

He hesitated for the longest fraction of a second in Celestia's life. When he spoke, it almost hurt to listen. "Most likely, a week. Maybe as little as five days."

Celestia could only bring herself to nod, gesturing with her horn toward the door out of the room. Thank you would seem a vile thing to say, after such news.

The doctor didn't move. Instead, he looked Celestia in the eye again, gravely. "Can I ask you something, Princess?"

"If it helps Luna, please do."

"You healed Rainbow Dash, didn't you? If you do have the power to do that sort of magic, why not use it on your sister?"

Just as she had learned to see through others lies, her own tongue had long since mastered the art of deceit. Some were easy, like claiming to enjoy the Grand Galloping Gala, or telling others that she was a mere two-thousand years of age. Others were harder. They forced her to look away, and face the light of her own mournful sun as she spoke them into the world.

"What I did for Rainbow wouldn't work on Luna."

"Wasn't she even more far-gone, though? When you brought her, with her neck twisted around like that, and her spine-"

"Please." Celestia put on her oldest and most trusted mask. Her face turned back from the window and the sun with serenity and apathy. "If there was anything within my power that I could do for my sister, do you doubt that I would?"

He didn't answer her immediately, instead choosing to walk back to the door of the room, which still hung ajar from his entrance. His body slipped nimbly through the open space, only to stop halfway back into the hallway. She couldn't see his face, and her mirror only exposed his white coat and brown tail. His voice carried his parting thought clearly enough, though.

"I'm sorry, Princess. For everything."

Celestia closed the door behind him as he left, and turned back to her reflection.

"Coo?" Philomena titled her head to the side, watching her ageless mistress with curiosity.

"Did you expect me to tell him the truth, Philomena?"

The phoenix answered with a condemning call. "Wraa."

"I know I'm being selfish. Do you think I should just let my sister go? It isn't her time."

"Coo."

"How could he help? He couldn't heal her."

The response was the majestic bird placing her head beneath her wing.

"I am not hiding, Philomena. I'm saving her life!"

"Coo."

Her blood pumping, the ancient princess of the sun turned her attention back to the task of preparing her mane. Yet again, she found herself wishing for a lie, though this time it was to lie to herself. Philomena's taunting tone did not make her wrong. What Celestia had done was unfair. In that way, it was like so many of the decisions behind the rule of Equestria. More than anything, she needed somepony else to shoulder some of her burden, and if not her sister, then who?

A terrible question arose in her mind, one which would not leave her be no matter how hard she tried to force it away. Her mane tangled in its brush as she tugged too tightly, and her mirror cracked when she shoved it with magic to adjust its angle. Finally, with a growl, she turned to her pet once more, bringing to bear the anger that her own immense powers were helpless to save her dying sister.

"What does it feel like?"

"Kree?"

"Dying, Philomena. Does it hurt to die?"

Even the phoenix hesitated, brilliant head brought low in thought and silence. "Wraoo."

Celestia stared, unable to bring forth any emotion at all. "You couldn't have lied to me?"

- - -

Four hours later, Shining Armor was almost prepared to fall to his knees in a prayer of gratitude for his glass of punch. He was standing beside his wife (for whom he had already offered many such prayers) and her family (who necessitated the punch in the first place).

"It's wonderful to see you again, Captain. Grazie, Cadenza." The obese unicorn with the overwhelming Bitalian accent took hold of his own glass of the blessed beverage, and offered a sidelong glance at its liquid. "Tell me, how goes your post in this time of trouble?"

Swallow. "Things are hard." Shining filled his mouth again, watching as his wife wandered off without him into crowds of more tolerable ponies.

"A shame, but I'm sure you're doing your very best to protect us. One must wonder, though, why Equestria has faced so many tragedies in recent years. I certainly don't recall anything so drastic as battle in the streets of Canterlot under Sir Crucible's vigil as Captain of the Guard."

Shining answered first with a swallow. The motion gave him time to bury his anger, and instead focus on rerouting the very obvious goading onto an easy target. "Crucible was from your family, wasn't he?"

"Correct, Captain," stated a surprisingly young mare, wearing a bright red dress with a highly overstated collar. "Our family is known for alicorn children, as I'm sure you are no doubt aware."

The family in question were the rulers of the Principality of Bitaly. The family itself was ruled with an iron hoof by the fat unicorn standing across from Shining Armor, smug lips pressed against a beverage he obviously held utter derision for. His name, Sforzando Eccesivo, was one that Shining Armor had learned to despise from the very first time his wife had taken him home for 'dinner with the family'. Sforzando’s current wife, the Lady Climbing Ivy of Shetland, was a tiny pony, barely any older than Cadance. Judging by the way she carried herself, so stiff-necked and proud, one might have thought her stature to be more in line with that of Princess Celestia herself. She was a recent addition, dating to a handful of months after Shining's own wedding. He had already decided he didn't like her any more than her husband.

Swallow. "Yes, I did notice, thank you." Shining shot a quick, desperate glance to the alicorn in question. His wife was greeting the delegation from some other domain of Equestria that he hadn't bothered to learn, and though her response was a pitying smile, Shining caught himself hoping that they could have exchanged places. "How are things in Bitaly?" He took another drink.

Sforzando answered with his deep and overbearing voice. "Bene. Things have been peaceful. Uneventful, even. Honestly, if things were going any better, one might wonder why we maintain the biggest domain guard in Equestria… or even a guard at all."

Swallow. "That's good to hear. I wish I could say the same." Drink.

Climbing Ivy inclined her head even further than usual, trying to catch the gaze of the towering stallion before her. "Shining, I was hoping to meet your family while we're staying here in Canterlot. Are they around now, or will they be arriving later?"

The question was too much. Shining didn't even bother processing it. "It has been a pleasure speaking with you again, Prince, and meeting you, Lady Ivy. I hope we can talk more in the future." He knew he was a terrible liar, but the words were at least enough to justify leaving the punch bowl in search of anypony else at all.

Much of the words that passed behind his back were lost in the crowd, but he did catch Sforzando's final declaration. "...not a noble."

The sharp shriek from Climbing Ivy cemented his opinion. "What?" Having unsettled the ponies he left behind enough to satisfy his honest feelings, Shining made his way across the royal ballroom, to where Cadance was entertaining a pair of young stallions.

One of the pair, a thin unicorn with a dark indigo coat and a pair of thin oval glasses, glanced Shining direction as he continued speaking at length with Cadance. From the way he dressed, with his elegant gray dinner coat, his quilted vest, and his marigold silk scarf, it was obvious he considered himself a politician.

His counterpart clearly held no such opinion. He was surprisingly short even for a pegasus, with a scruffy jawline on his dried blood-colored coat and a look of quickly growing irritation at being forced to endure the nobles. Shining judged him a guard, not only by the way he carried himself, but by the bulky muscle tone visible even through the heavy black winter coat he wore, with its faux fur collar and its long trail that concealed the stallion’s cutie mark. The black coat said the most, though. Without speaking a word, Shining Armor could recognize a Black Cloak from Stalliongrad.

"...and after that whole sordid affair was over, I had to put aside my magic studies for politics. I assume you have as well, if half of what I read in the paper is true." The unicorn spoke with almost uncomfortably enunciated Equiish, tinged with the slightest hint of a Prench accent. “I must say, things are very different here than at home. It's good to be back in Canterlot." The formal stallion offered a sweeping gaze around the room to indicate his point, and partway through the motion, he spotted the approaching guardspony. "I understand this is your counterpart, Roscherk. Maybe you'll finally have somepony to talk to."

"I doubt," the burlier of the two growled back. Unlike his companion, his words bore the definite touch of a Stalliongradi accent, much stronger than Soldier On's.

"At least have the decency to talk for once." The unicorn looked up as Shining finally reached the group. "You must be Captain Armor. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Shining,” Cadance began, “This is Predvidenie. We studied magic together at the Royal Academy.”

“Please, call me Foresight.” A hoof extended stiffly, though Shining momentarily hesitated to take it. His mind sat on the mismatch between the stallion’s prim Prench accent and his heavy Stalliongradi name. “This is my younger brother, Red Ink."

Shining took Foresight’s offered hoof, and after a brief shake, extended the same leg toward Red Ink. The disgruntled pegasus stared at it as though it were covered in pustules, and made no move to reciprocate the offer. “Roscherk Krovyu is name,” the stallion insisted, though Shining immediately gave up any hope of pronouncing it correctly, and instead stored Red Ink in his mind. All the while, his hoof hung in the air.

"You're going to offend him," Foresight whispered, quite loudly enough for Shining Armor to hear.

"It's fine, honestly. It takes a little more than being quiet to get on my bad side, I promise." Shining had hoped the comment would break the ice with the pegasus. Foresight forced a sort of awkward laugh at the comment, which was quickly and more naturally mirrored by Cadance. Once more, Red Ink did not join in.

Shining finally pulled his hoof back, coughing into it twice the way the other nobles often did when trying to clear the air. "I'm guessing you're the... the Prince of Stalliongrad, Foresight?"

"The title is Tsar, Captain, though as long as you don't say Baron, I'm sure you’ll be forgiven. I’m afraid you’re mistaken, however. I serve Stalliongrad as the domain’s Secretary.”

“Of…?” Cadance prompted.

“Everything,” growled Ink, though he donned a hint of a smile at the comment.

Rather than let the implication float in the air, Foresight picked up quickly. “I manage our finances and trade, and look after the many noble families who call Stalliongrad home. Ink here is the Commandant of our own guard, the Black Cloaks.” A quick gesture was made to Ink’s massive coat, as if the connection weren’t obvious. “The pony you are thinking of is our father, Watchful Eye. I'm afraid I haven't seen him in a few hours. He went off looking for some old friend. If you need him, he isn’t hard to find; there aren’t many alicorn stallions wandering around.”

“An alicorn?” Shining’s brow rose. “Cadance, have you met him? Does he have special magic like yours?”

Red Ink snorted out something that resembled a laugh, and then he shook his head. “Father is ‘alicorn’.” He pantomimed the quotes with wingtips. “Terrible with magic. He struggles to hold fork upright with dinner. You are more strong than him, Armor, I am sure. And as for fly… well, perhaps you are more strong at that too.”

“Ink!” Foresight chided. “Show some respect. The last thing we need is the other nobles having something else to hold over father’s head.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Cadance offered with a gentle smile. “Whether or not he cares for the ponies of your domain is far more important than whether he is a strong mage or a talented flier. I’m certain your father is an excellent ruler.”

This time, it was Foresight’s turn to cough awkwardly into a hoof. The wordless comment drew a raised brow from both Shining and Cadance. After nervously tightening his scarf, Foresight began to explain. “Father is… and idealist, shall we say? I know he has the best of intentions, with his dreams of a domain where all the breeds are truly equal, but sometimes he lets those dreams interfere with harsh reality. Some days, it seems Roscherk and I manage more of the domain than he does.” Foresight’s magic slid his glasses further up the bridge of his muzzle. “Thus, if you have business with Stalliongrad, I would be glad to assist in his absence."

"Thankfully, there's nothing so urgent," Shining explained.

"In time of trouble?" Red Ink's accusing words caught the eyes of all assembled. "You are here making talk and playing politik, while Princess is dying?"

"I'm doing my job!" Shining answered, defensively. "I have seventeen-hundred of the best ponies in Equestria out there looking for the cure."

"The best?" The pegasus let out a chuckle that put fire in Shining Armor's veins. "You should be a joker, Shining Armor. Gold guards are embarrassing. Pegasi do not know even know magic."

Shining's hoof grated slowly and heavily across the marble floor, before he felt a wing on his shoulder. Cadance had stepped up beside him, offering a look of both comfort and warning. Though his skin was thick enough to ignore jabs about nobility and his position, it was something else entirely to insult the Guard. A deep breath gave him enough pause find words again. "The Royal Guard are brave, honorable ponies."

"I am not of doubt that, Shining Armor.” A little grin built on the corner of Ink’s mouth, wrinkling the rough edges of his coat at the corners of his jaw. “But honor and bravery are not skill. Good ponies make bad soldiers."

In that single sentence, Shining Armor decided that he didn’t like the blood-colored stallion very much. "Good ponies are the only kind of soldiers I would ever have behind me, Red Ink.”

"Then we disagree―" Ink’s words were cut off as his eyes locked on something, or somepony, over Shining Armor's shoulder. The pegasus' wings flared from beneath his coat, and his head lowered, ready for combat. The smile on his face widened, though it was no longer a smile of amusement. Shining knew bloodlust when he saw it. Before the unicorn’s eyes, orange flames lit along the crests of Ink’s wings, releasing heat and smoke into the ballroom, and drawing the eyes of every noble present.

Shining Armor turned to the sound of shod hooves clapping loudly against the marble floor. Approaching at a full-on gallop was Soldier On, wearing armor but no helmet. Her glare was locked on Red Ink, and she carried her massive body low to the ground, focused as if ready to strike.

"Рад Вас видеть, Stoikaja." Though Shining didn't know the Stalliongradi words, the snide tone in which they were spoken told him everything he needed to hear. “This is where you are hiding?”

Foresight’s pale rose magic ignited, wrapping a telekinetic grip around his younger brother’s shoulders. “Roscherk, please don’t make a scene.” It was a noble effort, but Shining doubted it could hold the pegasus for long. “This is not the place.”

Rather than answering Red Ink with words, Soldier stopped a dozen of her massive strides away. There followed an audible screech, as the steel shoes at the ends of her enormous forelegs dug into the marble floor like as much loose soil. For a moment, she looked ready to fight there and then, though a glance around the room calmed her nerves.

Nobleponies were turning at the smell of smoke and the crackle of the flames on Ink’s wings. Some of the smarter ones stepped away from the line of pure hatred joining his eyes to Soldier On’s. The enormous earth pony’s shoulders rose and fell twice with heavy breaths, forcing air deep into her lungs. Her forehoof dug at the marble floor. She might have charged, had Shining not stepped between her and the living inferno of Red Ink. Her eyes refocused slowly on her Royal Guard counterpart, and after a moment’s hesitation, she gestured toward the doors leading out of the palace. "We have a lead, Armor. I came looking for you."

He turned quickly back to his wife and the two guests. "I have to go."

“This is not take long…” Ink growled between gritted teeth, straining against his brother’s magic. To Shining’s surprise, Foresight’s horn gathered another spell, and then fired it at the pegasus’ back. The fires on Ink’s wings disappeared, and the stallion’s eyes rolled backward as he fell to his side.

Soldier On took two powerful strides forward, but stopped when Foresight’s horn, still glowing with rich golden magic, swiveled in her direction.

"Please don’t let us keep you," Foresight did not so much beg as order, stepping up to his now-unconscious younger brother with a pant of exertion. Idly, the stallion’s magic fiddled with his scarf again, untying it and then wrapping it into a distinct new knot, but he still found the time to shoot a glare of his own toward Soldier On. “I’d rather not have another political incident on my hooves today, so why don’t you take Stoikaja and go about your business? And in the future, consider keeping war criminals off your staff, Captain.”

Soldier On declined to answer the second apparent taunt, and she showed no hostility toward the elder brother. After a moment of glaring at Red Ink’s stunned formed, she turned away, heading for the doors out of the ballroom. Shining Armor slowly followed her away from the party.

The mare retained her perfect silence and brisk jog until the two reached the palace drawbridge. There she still said nothing, but in passing the palace doors she suddenly let out a vicious kick and a bellow of rage. Having cleared her thoughts, she beckoned that they continue at a full run. Shining was left with only a few moments to process the six-inch deep dent in the gilded steel of the door.

- - -

Six hours of an eight hour flight had passed in total peace and idle small-talk. Marathon's promise had proven surprisingly true, as kindly winds and easy rest had left Rainbow's wings not tired, but refreshed. What she could not shake, however, was the feeling that the flight was growing boring. Having already crossed the Antlerntic Ocean from Baltimare, she had exchanged miles upon miles of endless ocean for further miles upon miles of endless savannah. There was utterly nothing to see, yet she had already run out of cool Wonderbolts tricks and stories of awesome pranks to share with Marathon. For her part, the more experienced guardspony seemed content to enjoy the boring scenery.

"So, uh... are we there yet?"

Marathon shrugged. "Depends where 'there' is. We've been over Zebrica for an hour, but we're still fairly far north from where we're going. Like I said before, we've got about two hours to go."

"Well, I'm bored."

"Yeah, I could kinda tell." Marathon followed the statement by rolling aside, as Rainbow darted forward with a light punch aimed for her shoulder. "Look, don't you have any more crazy stories about your friends? I thought the one about Fluttershy and the weather team was pretty good."

"I wish. Not a whole lot happens around Ponyville most weeks, unless I find some new way to be totally radical, or the Crusaders manage to blow something up." Rainbow entered a rare state of curious reflection, as she realized that she had told every single story in their journey up to that point. "What about you, Marathon? You've gotta have some stories about the Honor Guard, right?"

"The first rule of the Honor Guard, Rainbow, is that we don't talk about the Honor Guard."

"So we're super secret spies, or something?"

"No, it means we don't talk about each other's lives. Everypony on the Honor Guard has secrets, and most of the time, it's easier not to worry about everypony finding them out."

"So, there's actually a super secret reason behind why Thunder Crack has a stick up his butt?"

Marathon laughed, and then shook her head. "No, that's not exactly what I mean. He's just sort of always been like that. If you do somehow get him to respect you, he's a pretty decent friend, but that respect takes a while. Trust me, I know."

"Okay, so then what's your secret?"

Marathon smiled. "If I tell you, Rainbow, you have to promise to tell me yours."

"I don't have a secret."

A cocky grin accompanied the diplomat's next words. "Pinkie Pie promise."

A groan preceded the semi-involved ritual, but in the end, Marathon seemed satisfied. "So what is it? Spit it out!"

"I don't know how to fight."

Rainbow growled in frustration. "That's it? I'm not telling you my dark, dirty secrets for that!"

Marathon put on a teasing voice. "But breaking a Pinkie Promise is the fastest way to lose a friend-"

- - -

Back in Ponyville, an emotionally distraught Pinkie Pie leaned away from Rarity's shoulder just long enough to let the twitching in her right shoulder fade. With a dull, tired voice, she whispered to herself, "Forever."

- - -

After about twenty seconds, Marathon lowered her ear. "It didn't work, Rainbow."

"Well, yeah, we're a couple thousand miles away. I mean, she can do some crazy stuff, but I don't think she can teleport. She just runs fast. What were you expecting?"

"You just made it sound so convincing. Anyway, you said I got to know your secret."

"Right, fine. What do you want to know about?"

Marathon preceded her question by tugging a little strip of parchment out of a pouch or pocket somewhere on the armor covering her chest. "Now, I found this little strip of paper in Princess Luna's bedroom before we left-"

"Whoa, hold on! Uh, I don't know what that is!"

"You're not much of a liar, Rainbow. Why would you be so worried if you didn't know exactly what this said?"

"...Crap."

"Thought so." Marathon stopped, as Dash's mind began trying to find a way in which flying really fast would solve the problem in front of her. Marathon, thankfully, saved her the need. "This isn't a problem, Rainbow. It's not against the law to have secrets. However, I do need to know where you got this. Who is 'three'?"

Rainbow resigned herself to the truth. She had already been caught in a lie once. "He's one of the Night Guards. He helped me out at the bar last night." It wasn't difficult to miss the distrust that flew across Marathon's face at those words. "Is that bad?"

"I don't know. They're kind of creepy. I don't have anything actually against them, but... I just don't trust them."

"The one I met seemed nice enough." Rainbow took a moment to recall the final moments of the previous night. "He talked kind of funny, but I guess Princess Luna does that too."

"That's the thing, Rainbow. They just 'showed up' out of thin air, when Princess Luna came back. They never come out during the day, and they never talk to anypony unless they have to."

"What, so they're like, vamponies or something?"

"I know it probably sounds stupid, but fully trained guardsponies don't just show up out of thin air."

"I don't know." Rainbow shook her head, before her thoughts drifted to a different topic entirely. "I don't get the riddle."

"The what?"

"You read the letter, right? He gave me some stupid riddle, like he already knew how to cure Luna or something, but I had to 'figure it out' first, or something. Besides, it doesn't make any sense. If we want to cure Luna, we should just hunt down Masquerade, right?"

"I don't know much about hunting anypony down, Rainbow." The messenger paused, looking closely at the letter. Then, with a shrug, she handed it to Rainbow. "Luna and Celestia are also the old Bitalian words for the moon and the sun. I don't know much about 'where the moon slumbers', but it probably means that you need to do something during the day."

"What about the other part? Loyalty and reconciliation?"

"Well, they're names. You're loyalty, so I guess go find somepony you don't get along with." Marathon shook her head, and looked dead onward again. "You're right. This does seem stupid. Anyway, look there." She gestured ahead with a hoof. "You can see the beginning of the jungle. We're getting closer."

"Yeah, I noticed. What I want to know is, what are those?"

The 'those' in question were five rough figures on the horizon, flying closer at an impressive speed.

"Manticores or hippogriffs, probably. If they come after us, split up and fly straight up as fast as you can. They can't breathe the thin air the way we do, so they'll pass out if they chase."

"We're not going to fight them?"

Marathon looked over to Dash incredulously. "You're joking, right? First off, in case you couldn't tell, only having two legs makes it pretty hard to win in a fight with a giant monster. Second, my orders are to get you to Dead Reckoning safely. That pretty much means not fighting manticores if we can avoid them."

"Fine, I guess. I just figured that since we're guardsponies..." The thought trailed off into nothing.

"You might be surprised, Rainbow, but most of the Honor Guard doesn't get into a lot of fights. If we're expecting violence, we send Thunder Crack, Soldier On, Mirror Image or the Commander." Her voice dropped to a mere whisper suddenly. "Well, we used to send the Commander. "

"I don't think now is the best time for thinking about that, Marathon. I'm not sure those are Manticores. Look at the one in the middle. It's huge! Do you think it's a dragon?"

"I doubt it. Dragons don't usually like the jungle. Maybe it's a... griffon?"

"Griffons don't get that big. Gilda wasn't that much bigger than a pony, and-"

"Rainbow, relax. We're fine. You'll get to meet someone 'cool'." Before Rainbow could beg any sort of clarification, Marathon began pumping her wings and shooting off at full speed toward the approaching group of supposed griffins.

As the fastest flier in Equestria burned a rainbow trail in the sky, catching up, her vision of the distant fliers grew clearer. They really were griffons. The two on either side of the center were fairly big, with armor on their ankles and - what did Spike call them? - wrists. Between their wings, they carried heavy swords, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. They barely registered in Rainbow's mind, compared to the figure in the middle.

On a basic level, he was a griffon. He was shaped like the others Rainbow had seen in her life, just bigger. His wingspan, like the rest of his body, was two or three times that of his smaller companions. The massive wings were white at the crest, but grew darker as they moved down, leaving behind trailing feathers of utter black. His head was a sharp white, but where the feathers ended and the fur began, his body took on a golden coloration.

Dash might have kept staring at the enormous creature, were it not for a sudden wall of heavy wind opposing her motion. It seemed to come from out of nowhere, yet she hit it like a concrete wall. After recovering, she fought her way forward, feeling her wings tire for the first time in a flight of hours.

Still, nopony was going to beat the best flier who ever lived, and she certainly wasn't going to lose to some stupid weather. Pressing harder and harder with every flap, she tightened herself down into a fine point. She had to fight for every inch, but when her eyes squinted open, they were only a few dozen feet away.

The huge griffon was talking to Marathon, sitting on a cloud that shouldn't have existed in the terrible windstorm. Rainbow couldn't hear their conversation over the air rushing by her ears, but when the huge griffon glanced at her, it stopped suddenly.

"Rainbow Dash, may I present Magnus, Emperor of the Griffons?"

"Uh, sure. I'm Rainbow Dash, faste-" The only thing Rainbow proved to be the fastest at on that particular day was getting hit; Marathon's reflexes were impressive.

"Emperor Magnus, this is Rainbow Dash, Princess Luna's bodyguard, and Bearer of the Element of Loyalty."

"The pleasure is all mine, pony."

When he spoke, Rainbow felt as if the wind beneath her wings was failing her. Her stomach lurched up in preparation for a fall that never happened.

"Emperor, could you spare us a cloud?"

"Certainly." He reached forward with a razor-sharp talon as massive as Rainbow's head, and pinched the air. With a dull rush, like the sound of a vacuum, he simply pulled, and a puffy white cumulus cloud was brought into being, complete with a pair of sculpted seats for the two ponies to rest against.

"How did you do that?" Rainbow asked in awe, too surprised to sit. It took immense factories in Cloudsdale full hours just to make the raw cloud for this sort of a structure, let alone the cloud architect it would take to make it so supportive and fluffy.

"Surely you did not think your kind had a monopoly on clouds. Sit, and we shall speak briefly, but I must be going again soon."

Rainbow simply closed her wings and let herself fall into her seat. It was incredible, countless times better than even the very best work any pegasus had ever crafted. In a word, it was divine.

"This is amazing."

"I should hope so. Marathon, it would seem Luna's little hero knows nothing of the world. Perhaps I should educate her."

"I don't think she's actually been outside of Equestria before, Emperor." Marathon bowed deeply.

"That doesn't mean I don't know about griffons." Rainbow protested. Magnus broke what could have been portrayed as either a smile of humor, or hunger. Marathon merely pressed her face into a hoof, shaking her head.

"Tell me, then, Rainbow Dash, what do you know of my kind?"

"Well, you can walk on clouds and make weather, just like a Pegasus. Your wings aren't hollow boned, so you can use them for fighting." Two statements in, Rainbow suddenly realized she was running out of facts. "Filly griffons are called Griffonesses."

"Better than most of your kind could do, I suspect, but you know very little. Tell me, if you can, what it is that I do in the world."

Was it a trick question? Rainbow thought it was certainly obvious. "You're the Emperor of the Griffons, right? So doesn't that mean you rule the Griffons?"

Magnus answered with a barking, punctuated roar that left Rainbow stunned until she realized it was, in fact, his way of laughing. "You are truly an amusing creature, little pony. Did my laughter frighten you? Do not worry. It is natural for prey to feel uneasy around a predator." He held out the same talon that had snatched a cloud from midair, aloft and palm up. To Rainbow's amazement, a sudden wind surrounded the hand, snapping at it in every which way. Finally, the howling built to a point, and a tiny whirlwind arose in his palm.

"The answer to my question was this. Just as your Princesses raise the sun and the moon over my lands, I give the winds to yours. When you take to wing, remember me."

Magnus laughed again, and spread his wings.

"I must be going. Marathon, I am certain we will speak again in better days. Rainbow Dash, it has been a pleasure to meet the defender of Luna's life. Perhaps we too shall meet again. I give you a parting gift."

As his wings gave a single mighty flap, Rainbow and Marathon felt the cloud beneath their hooves soar off on a might wind of its own. Rainbow turned around to see the ruler of the Griffons and his own guards already almost a mile into the distance.

"Does he really make wind? Like, all wind?"

"Yes, Rainbow. Believe it or not, Equestria had to get all its clouds and rainbows from the griffons too, a few hundred years ago. I know he can be somewhat intimidating, but-"

"Intimidating? That was so cool! I always wondered as a little filly where wind came from." The ecstatic filly bounced lightly in her cloud seat and watched as the jungle flew by below them. Marathon offered her a little smile, and then began to fiddle with the pouches attached to the side of her armor. "You looking for something? I thought you said we weren't going to eat again until we got to Zebrica."

"We aren't, Rainbow. Princess Celestia gave me something for you. I figured since we weren't flying, you should get it now."

The messenger mare pulled from her pouch a roll of parchment, a quill, and a little glass jar containing a rolling green flame. Realizing what they were, Rainbow's day was complete.

- - -

Dear Friends,

Things have been pretty crazy for me. Yesterday was maybe the second-worst day of my life, but today was so awesome, it doesn't even matter. I guess I should start from the beginning, right?

Yesterday, I had to learn how to fight. I was stuck with this awful Sergeant, who acted just as mean as the ones in all the jokes about guardsponies. Anyway, he made me not fight with my wings, and was just sort of a total jerk. I figured I didn't want anything to do with the guard anymore, but I didn't want to let him win, so I just stuck it out.

That night, he took me to a bar, and I kinda got into a fight. Of course, being totally awesome, I didn't get hurt, and I met one of Princess Luna's bat-guard ponies, like the ones from Nightmare Night. He seemed nice enough, even if he was a little weird.

Anyway, today was way better. I got my own suit of armor (even if it is boring, normal gold), and then I flew to Zebrica! All in one day, like 4000 miles or something! Nothing can stop the Dash! While we were flying, I met somebody really cool. I don't say somepony because he wasn't a pony; he was a griffon. And not just any griffon; the Emperor. Just like in Daring Do. I thought he was made up, but it turns out he's not. Plus, he makes the wind, just like how Princess Celestia raises the sun. Even for us. He's huge too, but I guess that makes sense, if you look at how much bigger Princess Celestia is than any normal pony.

I guess if I were writing a lesson about this, here's what I'd say. Sometimes, you have to give things a chance. When Princess Celestia asked me to join the Honor Guard two days ago, I wasn't sure it was such a good idea. Yesterday, I was dead-sure that I should quit. The only reason I stayed at all was because I promised to help Princess Luna. Today, though, I was super glad I stayed. Things are starting to seem pretty cool here after all.

Stay safe and wish me luck. I'll save Luna by the end of the week, or I'm not the fastest guardspony in Equestria.

Princess Luna's Bodyguard,

-Rainbow Dash

P.S.

Twilight, do you know what Reconciliation might mean. As a name? Is there, like, some seventh Element of Harmony that we left in the Everfree Forest or something? I know it's a weird question, but it might help. Thanks.

Author's Note: Special thanks to SatoshiKyu, who has been kind enough to agree to pre-read this and future chapters. If you're interested, as usual, you can look in the comments below for my out-of-setting comments on the process of writing this chapter. Finally, since I basically never do Author's Notes, I'd like to say thank you all very much for taking the time to read. I hope you've enjoyed it so far.

-Loyal Liar

VI - Ignoble

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VI: Ignoble
- - -

Shining Armor, justifiably proud of his fitness, nevertheless found himself panting desperately as he struggled to keep up with the massive strides of Soldier On. The buildings of Canterlot flew past them at an astonishing rate. Crowds of ponies, unaware of the true threat their nation faced, parted with indignation as the two soldiers barreled by.

When the larger mare skidded to a stop, her hooves were set firmly in the sand of the Royal Guard headquarters' large training ground. She seemed both the most relaxed and the calmest of the ponies present. Three other guardsponies were standing together in the yard. Only one noticed the approaching Captains, and he seemed far too perturbed to recall anything as formal as a salute.

"What's going on here?" Shining shouted, approaching the huddled group. His words had been meant for the Honor Guard Captain, but they were answered instead by a surprisingly young filly, one of the three recruits clustered on the sand.

"Captain! Oh, thank Celestia. Okay, so we were just on patrol, doing double-cycles like you ordered, and we'd stopped to get some coffee, so we-"

"Stop," the captain ordered, silencing her with a hoof. His steady gait had brought him into the rough circle of his three subordinates, and what he found in the center told him more than he truly needed to know. Laying there on red-stained wet sand, was the body of a guardspony, liberated from its head. There were a thousand thoughts flying through his mind as he processed the corpse, but the first to gain his focus was his duty to his still-living troops. "The rest of the garrison dispatched to try and track down the perpetrator?” A nod answered his question. “Good. Then you three, go inside. Sit down. Get some water. I’ll speak to you in a few minutes; do whatever you need to calm yourselves."

"But Captain, he's—"

He didn't need to shout; a cold directive was more than enough to override their fear. "That was an order."

As the three terrified recruits shuffled away, Shining took a deep breath and remembered how he had felt standing in their hooves. He shook himself quickly to free his mind of the memory, and set to work. His first action was a burst of magic to clean the powder from the stallion's face. As the chalky substance gathered into a tiny ball, matted turquoise fur was revealed.

A voice slashed through the fog of worries and stresses flooding his mind. Calm, firm, and cold to the dead body lying there in the sand. "Armor, you need to come with me."

He looked back at Soldier On, who stood expectantly at the doorway to the headquarters. If anything was bothering the Honor Guard, her body hid it well. She seemed totally unaffected by the decapitated body a dozen feet away and the severed head three feet beyond. Her apathy set Shining Armor on edge.

"Why were you the one who told me about this, Captain On?"

"Upstairs," was all she said.

Armor shook his head. “You’re too close to this. You knew about an attack on the Royal Guard headquarters before I did. And with the way Foresight and Red Ink talked about you in the palace, I have to know how you know all of this.”

On frowned, though her only other motion was to whip her short-cropped tail back and forth. “Predvidenie and Roscherk are mistaken. The pony they are looking for died five years ago. I’ve served Celestia for five years, and the Commander trusted me.” And then, for the first time since he had met the mare a scant few months before, Shining Armor saw a measure of deep emotion across her features. Her ears sank, and her stiff posture shifted, just a bit.

“Were you close to the Commander?”

As if realizing her weakness, On drew up to her full height. Looking down her muzzle with a piercing green glare, she added “We all did. But now is not the time for stories, and that is all you would want to know. And all we will discuss in the open.”

Though Shining cocked his head at the choice of words, his gut told him better than to press her. Instead, he gestured to the body in the sand. "I'm not done here. This is one of mine, Captain."

She nodded slowly, and then turned to the structure. "Take care of whatever investigation you need. I will speak to your recruits."

"Wait.” Mid-stride, the Stalliongradi froze and glanced back over her shoulder, watching Shining closely.. “I'll take care of them."

Soldier On's tone made it clear that she took offense. "Do you not trust me, Captain Armor?"

The unicorn spared his attention from the corpse long enough to offer a look of pitying judgment in Soldier On's direction. "It’s not that. They just… They need to hear this from me. They deserve that much from me." He turned back to the body, clearing away the powder from the fallen soldier’s cutie mark. His focus was again interrupted by the Stalliongradi mare.

"This will not be my first time comforting after a loss."

Perhaps it was the stress of the crime scene, or the continuing pressure of putting up with the nobles, or perhaps it was the slowly growing realization that he could not save the Princess. Whatever source it came from, Shining Armor's strained emotions brought out the cold, unfeeling truth.

"You're Honor Guard. They might not know what you do,” he said, waving his hoof vaguely in the direction of the barracks, “but I've heard the stories.” Then, standing up from the body, he set himself to face On yet again. “I'm going to be the one to talk to them, because it still bothers me when I see a dead body. Especially this one."

Soldier On allowed herself a deep breath, and then offered him a deep nod. "Who is he?"

"Mark Down. My best friend when I enlisted, all through basic."

"I'm sorry."

Shining wondered if she was as cold as those words had been. Without daring to ask, he stood up, hardening his face. The only thing he was sure of was that he didn't believe her. The words were too hollow, and too controlled. "We should go inside."

Soldier On held the door for him. The captain's purple armor glinted one last bit in the evening sun before it entered the shadowy, empty interior of the headquarters.

In the lobby, he immediately set eyes on the three recruits, sitting on the cushioned benches in the waiting area and talking in hushed tones amongst themselves. One mare had obviously been crying, while the other held a foreleg tightly around her shoulders. The lone stallion of the group stared vacantly into a glass of water as he whispered.

Shining took a deep breath and walked forward as casually as he could manage. All three younger ponies looked up as he approached.

"Captain," the more lucid mare muttered, offering a surprisingly stiff salute. He shook his head and waved a hoof to brush off the formality of the motion.

"There’s no need for that right now, Swish.” The mare’s eyes widened, surprised he knew her name off the top of his head. He let her reaction pass without comment, turning to the crying mare, Private Run. “I understand you ponies have probably never seen something like this before." He took a deep breath, pondering whether they could even believe his words. When they saw him only as a distant leader, it was hard to be a comforting presence. "This is what we fight against, as guardsponies. This is what we protect everypony else from. I'm not going to tell you not to be upset. This hit me just the way it hit you. This shouldn't have happened. But we're facing a challenge now, and we need to stand strong." His hoof grated slowly along the wooden floorboards, the only sound in a quiet, chilled lobby. "I won’t pretend I have all the answers now, but if there’s anything I can offer, you only need to ask."

The crying mare lifted her head, sucked down a sniffling breath, and spoke up in broken tones. "Did you know him?"

The answer was hard. It was Shining's pride that he knew the names of most of the Royal Guard. Even had he not bothered with such focus, he still would have been familiar with the dead pony lying outside. "That was Lieutenant Mark Down. He was one of the best guardsponies I ever had the pleasure of knowing. We went through basic training together."

"He was my brother."

Shining Armor froze up as the world around him was washed away by the world in his mind. Twilight Sparkle sobbed before him. Her face was pressed heavily into Princess Celestia's shoulders, as the monarch slowly lowered a polished wooden coffin into a deep pit in Canterlot Cemetery. The unicorn's body convulsed with every breath. All around were guardsponies, sabers presented in a long tunnel. A horn called, as one of the guardsponies began to speak.

"Captain Armor?"

He shook himself, once more actually seeing the mare sitting in front of him. Her coat was powdered white, not lavender, and the wings on her back could not have belonged to a unicorn.

"I'm sorry. I was just thinking back." He looked around the room again, regaining his bearings, and then slowly let his eyes fall back on the unfortunate mare. "What's your name?"

"P-private Run Down, Captain."

"Run Down, I'm very, very sorry for your loss. I can't tell you that we're going to make everything better, but I'm going to do everything in my power to catch whoever did this. Do you remember seeing anything that might have to do with this?"

The stallion of the group, Sergeant Trove, spoke up to answer. "We were in the yard when he— came back with another guardspony pegasus. I didn't recognize him, but I think he was a Sergeant, from the neck bands. A little while later, another pony came by. He was a unicorn, but I didn't see his rank. He had powder on. After he went inside, we heard fighting, but before we even made it in the doors, Lieutenant Down just came flying..." His voice trailed off as Run Down broke into tears again. He shook his head, leaned forward, and whispered softly. "He was thrown out the window like that, Captain. I think... I think it was your window."

Shining Armor took a step back, as his mind reeled with confusion and concern. His office? "Thank you, Sergeant. Um... Private Down, take some leave. A week, at least. More if you need it. That is an order." He turned back to Sergeant Trove. "Go to the palace. Find Princess Celestia and report what happened here. This is a matter of national security, so your report, as well as my presence in this investigation, are for her ears only. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." After a crisp but clearly regretful salute, he galloped off.

Shining's gaze finally shifted to the other mare in the room. "Private Swish, I need you to head downstairs and bring up a bag." He silently prayed that she knew what he meant.

"Captain, with respect, I'd like to be with Run Down. I think she needs somepony."

The captain of the Royal Guard shook his head slowly, desperately wishing he could grant that request. "We all need somepony right now, Private. The guard can't spare you. Run Down, you should go home. Your family will be there for you. I'll be there as soon as possible to deliver a formal apology." With those final words, Shining Armor stepped away, turning toward the stairs to his office.

Soldier On followed with a heavy gait, waiting until they were up the stairs and out of earshot to speak again. "You have a gift for words, Captain."

"I'm terrible, compared to Captain Vigil.” At On’s cocked glance, he waved a hoof in a short circle. “My predecessor, Captain Unending Vigil. She gave me nearly the same speech, when I’d just made Colonel."

Again, On cocked her head. "What happened?"

"It was during the Griffin border conflict in Zebrica, seven years ago. One of my squad mates had his throat slit by a griffon scout." Soldier On closed her eyes for a moment, and offered only a curt nod. "It was the first time I ever saw anypony die."

"Did they give you leave?"

He shook his head, snorting in bitter humor at the thought that he would ever have left that battlefield willingly. "They couldn't spare me. When I made Captain, she asked me if I remembered what she'd said. She told me I'd have to give the speech too."

"She was a good Captain."

Shining Armor vacantly nodded, already beginning to climb the headquarters stairway toward his office. "At least it was the easy speech." His hoof set down on the squeaky floorboard in the upper hallway. Only a few more steps left. His horn ignited in magic, pushing gently on a door that still hung ajar. It swung smoothly inward.

The office was a mess. His desk and chair had both been overturned, lying at crooked angles on the floor. The wall of portraits was now nearly blank, with only three pictures still hanging soundly. The rest had fallen to the floor, where their glass lay broken in a rough minefield of shards. Some bore fresh blood. His other two chairs, for guests and guardsponies, were broken into planks and cushions, whose padding was spilled into the sea of chaos on the floor. The bookshelves of records and histories on the opposite wall were likewise spread every which way.

In the center of the chaos lay a pegasus stallion, breathing slowly despite the obvious damage to his body. Shards of glass had cut through his coat to his neck, legs, and flank. None were deep enough to cause any real threat, but at a glance they seemed terrifyingly deadly. A heavy bruise was already beginning to form on one of his eyes. The worst wound by far, though, was his left wing, which hung barely connected to the rest of his body at its shoulder. Tendon, muscle, and even bone were clearly visible where feather and flesh had been torn away. The wound had clotted into a nasty mess, but not before coating his entire olive green side in crimson.

Shining gasped. “Thunder Crack?” Rushing to the side of the fallen soldier, his focus returned, and his horn ignited. The body of the injured stallion was surrounded in magic, though it remained unmoved.

"What are you doing?" Soldier On asked, maintaining her unnerving calm.

"Checking for internal injuries” After a few more seconds of focus, his magic faded. “It seems like he'll be fine, though I don't know how well the wing will heal. Go get a medic—”

“They are already on their way.”

Shining’s temper shattered. “You knew he was up here, and you let me spend all that time with the recruits?”

“No,” she answered calmly. “Your guard’s messenger told me there had been an attack, and at least one casualty, so I ordered him to find a medical team while I found you.”

Forcing down two breaths, the unicorn continued to feel his brow throbbing. “Why is an Honor Guard wounded in my office? Why is it every time I turn around in this case, one of the dozen of you manages to be involved somehow?”

“There are six of us now,” On corrected with her unshakeable calm. “Eight before Masquerade killed the Commander and Lieutenant Commander Morning Star.”

“Eight? How could you possibly—?” Shining shook his head. “Nevermind. I don’t want to know. I just need to know what Sergeant Crack was doing here.”

Soldier On responded only with silence. Shining's mind ignored her, dancing a thousand lines of processed thought. Despite what he said aloud, he already knew that Thunder Crack hadn't killed Mark Down, nor had Mark Down been the one to damage Crack's wing. The logic he had given her was simply easier than trying to justify his hunch. The wounds didn't match a battle between two pegasi. A third party had been involved, and the cuts were too clean and at too strange of angles to be dealt by a blade clenched in a pegasus’ teeth. Further, save the steel lined shoes Crack wore, the green pegasus was unarmed.

Able to walk the floor thanks to his own military grade shoes, Shining stepped toward his desk. It was clear the chairs had been smashed when somepony was thrown onto them, hard. That, or his desk or a bookshelf had fallen on them, though that seemed unlikely. A strong unicorn could have hurled a pegasus that hard, but a big earth pony was more likely. His eyes flashed up to Soldier On, before he discarded the idea. The subject would have bruising around the fetlocks, if it was indeed an earth pony, plus whatever blows an Honor Guard and one of the best soldiers in the Royal Guard managed to land in return. She might have hid that sort of wound, but not while running to the Palace and back.

Shining's solid oak desk, laying on its side beside the window, was much more useful. The organized chaos of his paperwork was strewn behind it, and several drawers were hanging open. His magic searched the scene as his eyes analyzed the carnage.

Underneath the desk, he saw something. A little sliver of metal. He casually hefted the heavy wooden surface with his magic, and righted it. The metal then flew free, brought up to his careful examination by the same rose-colored light. It was the fragmented edge of a finely honed blade. It had broken from a blunt blow, thrust directly against something too hard for it to pierce. He'd seen that sort of damage hundreds of times on the broken spearheads of new recruits who tried fancy tricks at the drill range. The only difference was the quality of the metal. He pocketed the shard, determining to speak to somepony who knew more about such a specific topic.

His eyes glanced over the scene once more, and froze on the pile of papers at his hooves. Lines upon lines of text stared back up at him, mesmerizing his eyes with an overload of unread information. Every page sat face up. With a sudden focus, he gathered them into a single pile, and began to read. Each familiar header he tossed away in an idle heap against the floor.

"What are you looking for?"

"Somepony's been through this." His pace quickened. "They were looking for something." Pages flew from his telekinetic grip two, three, even four at a time. About halfway through the stack, he stopped.

... motivated by the Blizzard Revolution. Regardless, this traitor knows where Masquerade is, and is maintaining contact with her.
Given that information, this traitor must have come from one of the other two guards. While I cannot rule out the Night Guard, what I know of them suggests that they would not betray Princess Luna. One of us can ask Princess Celestia about them. However, given this conclusion, I'm led to believe that there exists a real traitor in the Honor Guard. This would explain how Masquerade was able to catch their Captain off-guard and assassinate him unnoticed, especially given his reputation for solitude, and how she was able to establish a time and place to insert herself into the Royal Palace.
It also brings up a big problem. Amongst the papers I got were maps of the Royal Guard's deployment across Equestria. I don't know how they got this, or what their plan is, but I do know that you've functionally emptied Canterlot of the Royal Guard, and that they have at least a level of knowledge regarding the Honor Guard's deployment as well. I can't say this for sure, but I don't think there are that many of them around either.
Shining, we might be looking at something bigger than an assassination plot here. I don’t know how much further it goes—how much further past killing a princess can it go?—but here’s what I’m confident about so far. This isn’t extranational; between what I already talked about and the pile of old bank notes I have from Lubuck, we at least know Masquerade got paid in bits. And although I hate to think about it, this doesn’t seem like the plan of somepony who just hated Luna. Whatever’s happening, I don’t think it’s over yet.
When I'm able to speak to you face to face, we can discuss this further, but I think I might have asked a few of my questions to the wrong ponies. I'll be fine, just like in Zebrica, but if you read this and I'm not around, my best suggestion would be to stay close to Princess Celestia. And don't trust anypony. Your magic should be able to hold off any move anypony might make against her, even if the traitor is Honor Guard. I'm going to see if I can't disappear and find some more information. If you need to find me before I find you, ask Grizz. Don't bring the armor.
Good luck, Shining. Maybe we'll save Equestria again.
-Lt. Down

Shining lowered the page, feeling as though he'd seen a ghost. He could almost hear Mark's cocky voice in his head, especially at the end. Slowly, his eyes moved to Soldier On. The mare was watching him coldly, as if waiting for something. His mind was racing with ten thousand possible reactions, and it took him a moment of blank-faced thought to choose a course of action. Though he didn't channel enough mana to bring a glow to his horn, he readied himself. As casually as possible, he lowered his center of gravity, ready for an attack. Only when he was truly ready for violence did he speak his mind.

"Why is Thunder Crack here?"

On looked away for a moment, but she made no hostile move. "The Commander had the EIS hunting Masquerade for months, ever since she killied Count Cavalier in Prance. One of us, Mirror Image, turned up one of her middle-ponies. We were watching him, hoping to catch Masquerade, or whoever was paying her. But after the move on Luna, I ordered Officer Image to apprehend the middle pony. He ultimately gave us directions to somepony who'd been in contact with Masquerade—”

"Ultimately?" The word sat wrong on Shining's tongue.

Soldier On ignored him. “—before some spell the assassin put on him killed him mid-sentence. With no other leads, we went after the pony he pointed us to. No name to go on; just a description and a location—here in Canterlot. Crack and I marked them. One of them was a unicorn with a white coat and a white mane; probably an illusion. The other one was you stallion.”

“Wait, Mark Down met with your target?”

“I don’t think he knew. I didn’t know he was one of yours until I saw him in the courtyard; he was wearing powder to conceal his coat color, and he was out of uniform. I followed him, and Crack tracked the unicorn. I don’t know what happened with Crack from there, but your friend knew Canterlot better than I do. I lost him near the Royal Academy, so I went to find Sergeant Crack. We'd agreed to meet up at the front of the Palace. I waited there until a messenger showed up, looking for you."

Shining closed his eyes and offered a single nod. Though he had little more reason to trust her, he felt safe enough to release the hold on his magic. Then his hooves began to carry him out of the room.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the Stable of Nobles. I need to speak with the Princess." It was then that an idea caught his mind, one which might have even brought pride to the judgmental politicking of his in-laws. "You're welcome to join me," he told her, in the most inviting voice he could manage, in light of the events of the day.

"No." She offered a glance to Thunder Crack, and then sat down beside the door. "I will wait for the doctors. When he awakens, we can learn who your Lieutenant was talking to. We can go from there."

"Agreed." Shining Armor offered a final bob of his head in acknowledgement of the mare who bore the title of his peer, and then strode out of his ruined office. Rather than fear or sadness, he found his every step brimming with determination. It wasn't an emotion that most ponies would feel, not after the death of a close friend and a deepening threat to their very world. Most ponies weren't like Shining Armor. It wasn't that he lacked sadness or compassion; instead, he had set such feelings aside for when he could afford them. For the first time in days, he no longer faced an issue of decisions and politics. It was time to hunt.

- - -

"This is where we're staying? It's kinda..." Rainbow found herself searching for the right word. Her usual 'lame' or 'lousy' wouldn't cut it; Rarity would probably say something like 'rustic', but that wasn't quite a good word either. She needed something else, something more specific; something like...

"Ramshackle?" Marathon offered. "I know. It used to be a mail station, fifty or so years ago, when ponies were still trying to map the jungle. Now nopony's out here except old Deadeye."

The building in question was a tiny lodge, made of thin planks that were falling off. The roof and walls were overrun with ivy, which made the holes in the ceiling less obvious, but filled the room with funny patterns of light and darkness. Rainbow sat staring into the door-shaped hole that had long-since lost its door, and wondered aloud about something entirely unrelated.

"Why do you call him that?"

"You'll see in a minute, Rainbow."

"No, I don't think I will. He's not here." Rainbow groaned aloud. "Is this really happening? We flew four thousand miles and this guy isn't even gonna show up?"

"Relax, Rainbow." Marathon pulled a bag from over her armor and carried it into the center of the room. There, she opened it, revealing a rather large pile of medical supplies, topped by four enormous daffodil and daisy sandwiches. When the wind from her wings began to disturb the pile, the messenger pony awkwardly lowered herself onto the stumps of her back legs, and folded down onto the floor. "We'd need to eat, even if he was here. Come on. Sit down."

"If you say so." Rainbow nervously moved into the building. "I don't trust this place. It looks like it's about to fall over."

Marathon shook her head, and answered with a teasing voice. "I know it doesn't look so great, but this place has been standing longer than you have. It'll hold up for dinner. Unless Rainbow Dash, Equestria's greatest architect, says otherwise."

"Actually, I do know a little. My grandpa's a cloud architect."

Marathon's brow rose ever so slightly as she took a bite of her sandwich. After a bit of chewing, she broke a quick smile. "Everypony's got their surprises. Well-"

Her words were cut off not by a loud noise or the attack of a surprising monster, but by a little tingling, like bells. The sound was accompanied by a spread of green sparks which coalesced into a scroll that fell gently atop the pile of supplies.

Rainbow and Marathon stared at the letter for a few moments before the faster of the two ponies snatched it up and ripped off the seal.

"Looks like my friends finally wrote me back. Let's see..."

My most trusted Honor Guard
Today, I have received some grave news. Doctor Asclepius, the stallion I tasked with treating my sister, has diagnosed her condition. His assessment came with what I must unfortunately call a deadline. Princess Luna has lost her timelessness; her 'immortality', as many ponies would call it. She is aging to death. The doctor gives her five days before it claims her life.
I know you are already doing your very best, but please, for my sake if not for hers, hurry. There are not many I can turn to, if not you.
-Princess Celestia

Rainbow set down the letter as she pronounced the last words, and simply looked forward. She seemed to forget the jungle, and the food, and Marathon.

"Uh, Rainbow... you there?"

The racer answered by grabbing her sandwich and wolfing it down in two enormous bites. Then, with a powerful determination, she walked out of the little cabin.

"Rainbow, don't go out there! It's dangerous!'

"Yeah, well, I'm a guardspony now. Danger is what we do, right? I promised the Princess that I would save Luna, so that's what I'm gonna do." Rainbow squared herself, and then broke into a run.

Marathon took to wing, struggling to fly after the mare racing on foot into the unknown. "This is stupid! You don't even know where he is!"

Dash didn't feel the need to stop, so instead she shouted back as her running became flight. "Who said I'm looking for him? I'm gonna find a cure for Luna on my own."

"Rainbow, stop!" Marathon pumped her wings, only to see the rainbow trail of her charge pass off into the distance. "You don't know what-"

The words were lost in the wind. Rainbow, for her part, veered past tree after tree, swerving and diving at impossibly tight angles. The speed she maintained through the natural obstacle course would have turned the Wonderbolts green, though at that moment, they were as far from her mind as anypony could be. Instead, her thoughts were of Luna, and Celestia, and a thousand other things that could be going wrong. There wasn't time to wait, especially when Marathon crashed down from the canopy overhead to block her path. "We need to talk, Rainbow."

"No!"

"Shut up and listen!" The intensity of Marathon's shout was enough to convince Rainbow to spread her wings, stopping her flight on a dime. Already, she'd lost sight of the pathetic cabin shelter in the thick trees and vines that surrounded them. The air was a blanket of humid heat and buzzing insects. None of it seemed to matter when the flying mare put her face up against Dash's and spoke in the sharpest, most serious tone to have left her mouth since their introduction. "I get that this seems urgent, but you have no idea what you're doing. You're running off into the jungle without any food or water, or even a plan. Were you hoping to just run into a magic cure-all plant, face-first? You need to stop, and wait. Getting yourself killed won't help Luna. Deadeye will know what to do."

Rainbow hated to admit it, but Marathon was right. She didn't know what she was looking for. Flying off had just seemed like the best way to get it. She still didn't want to wait for some pony that wasn't showing up. "Well, then where the hay-"

The words stopped meaning anything about the time a feline roar escaped the air just a few dozen feet to the side of the pair. Slowly, both their heads turned toward the jungle, and the pair of glowing eyes peering through the thick undergrowth.

"What's that?" Rainbow whispered.

"Manticores. At least two, I think. Just try and back away slowly, but be ready to fly." Her wings beat the air as slowly as possible. "You start going back that way. I'll-"

What Marathon had intended to do suddenly became irrelevant, as one of the monsters lunged out at her. While she moved quickly enough to avoid a lethal claw to her head, the creature's heavy leonine paw landed a heavy blow to her wing. The force sent the messenger into a spiral that ended with a sudden thud, as her face met dirt.

"Marathon!" Rainbow immediately surged forward, straight toward the monster. Its paw swiped again, wide and strong, but too slow to ever catch the racer. Rainbow slipped under the attack with ease, before thrusting a hoof forward into the creature's muzzle. The inertia of her incredible speed was enough to leave the creature reeling, and the opening was all Rainbow needed to get inside its guard. As its wings flared, trying to escape, Rainbow stomped down on its shoulder. The leathery limb seized and crumpled, but before its scorpion tail could strike, the chromatic attacker darted away again.

"What's wrong, big guy? Can't keep up?"

"Rainbow, look out!" Marathon's shouted warning came just in time for the younger of the pair to dodge a heavy-pawed rake from a second manticore, lunging out of the wilds.

"Okay, two of you. Now we're talking." Rainbow twisted her head from side to side, watching as the two creatures paced widely around her, waiting for an opening. They were each larger that the beast she and her friends had encountered in the Everfree Forest - Fluttershy had been right in calling that one a 'little baby kitty-cat'. Rainbow waited, until one of the creatures was straight in front of her eyes, and the other directly behind her. She wasn't really watching them, though; her attention was on her ears.

The creatures both lunged as one, and Dash let herself crack a small smile. It was just like how the Wonderbolts timed the 'Death-Defying Double Dive'; with two ponies flying loops beneath your belly, you couldn't see where your opening in the formation was. Instead, you timed by hearing, and by waiting.

Rainbow's timing was perfect. As the two manticores lunged out at her, she thrust up with her wings, and then thrust out all four legs in a double buck. The sensations on all of her hooves told her that she had scored the muzzle of the back manticore, while her eyes let her know that the other had taken the blow to its neck. That unfortunate creature crumpled beneath her, as she rolled forward to avoid a reprisal from the still-conscious monster at her back.

Its roar of pain was deafening, and the breath that accompanied it blew back Rainbow's mane like a hurricane. It took only a shake to restore her usual style, though, and then her eyes were back on the action. The creature was still circling her, though its comrade had been taken out of the picture. Rainbow wondered what sort of opening it was hoping for. She started walking in her own wide circle, keeping her eyes on the creature.

Then everything in the world went mad. Something small and gray shot out of the jungle to her left. Her head swiveled to watch it. That was the opening the manticore had been looking for. Rainbow was tackled to the side as the creature roared and dove forward fangs first. Rather than her coat, it found empty air.

Dash pulled herself to her hooves with a quick thrust of wind, and found herself staring at the back of another pegasus. The stallion was surprisingly old, with a coat that had long since turned gray, and was now taking a further turn toward pure white. What little remained of his messily-cut mane and tail bore the same colors. His flanks bore a cutie mark of a map, punctuated by a red-dashed line and a bold X.

"You will stop now." His voice seemed to echo in the jungle air, as his focus was locked onto the creature. Rainbow couldn't see his face, but she could certainly imagine it, by the look of pacification and fear decorating the manticore. "Sit down. Close your eyes."

The creature obeyed timidly, curling into a little ball. The stallion walked slowly forward, and then turned his head to some sort of stick poking out from under his folded wings. His teeth wrapped around its end, and with a flick of his neck, he pulled free a long, rounded steel blade. The hiss of metal leaving sheathe did nothing to stop the creature's trembling fear. Instead, it remained still, and nearly silent, as the pony lined up his blade with its neck, and then drew up onto his hind legs.

Something in Rainbow forced her to close her eyes. All she heard was the noise. It began with a hum, and then became more of a whistling, before it ended with the sound of a small splash and a gentle trickle. Then came the hiss again, as the blade was put away. With no small trepidation, she opened her eyes.

"What are you doing out here, Marathon?" The stallion's voice was calm, smooth, and untroubled by the moment's violence.

"Well, looking out for her, right now." Marathon, who was brushing herself off as she took to wing, offered a quick nod in Rainbow's direction. "Actually, I guess she was kinda looking out for me."

The stallion turned Rainbow's way, and for the first time, she saw his face. His left eye was the most noticeable of his features. The orb was a solid blank white, fractured by what looked like a crack. The eyelid surrounding it was marred by three parallel scratches, which ran the length of his face, and partway down his neck.

His other eye, a sharp blue thing with a definite focus, seemed to notice Rainbow's attention. With a smile, he slapped the side of his head. Rainbow recoiled, wings flaring, as his eye flew free, only to be caught deftly by his wing.

"Don't worry. It's just glass." His feathers turned it over idly, inspecting the cracks. "Did you bring me the new one, Marathon?"

"Yeah."

"Good." He pressed the false eye back into its socket, and then smiled as disarmingly as he could manage at Rainbow. "So what's the Royal Guard doing down here?"

He scratched a dirty hoof against the tan safari shirt covering his chest. The garment was itself held down by at least a dozen leather straps and belts that held random tools and bags to his sides. Rainbow couldn't help but feel her eyes gravitate toward the sword beneath his wing.

"You killed it," she whispered.

"What?"

She coughed and cleared her threat. "It was afraid of you, and you killed it."

The stallion gave her a confused stare, and then turned to Marathon. "She's that green?" Marathon answered with a short shrug, which left the stallion to return his one-eyed gaze to Rainbow. "Listen to me, kid, it was him or us, all right? I can stare 'em down for a few minutes, if I keep up my focus."

"That was the Stare? You used the Stare, and then you killed it?"

"I... look, we can talk about this later. What's your name? What are you doing here?"

Rainbow opened her mouth to speak, but Marathon was faster on the uptake. Apparently, after her introduction to Magnus, she had lost the privilege of introducing herself. "This is Rainbow Dash."

"You're the one who tried to take on Nightmare Moon with us a few years ago?" He shot her a cocky grin, ruined by the little splash of blood at the corner of his mouth. "So what're you doing way out here in guardspony armor? Did you join up with the Royal Guard?"

"She's with us, Deadeye."

Rainbow shouldn't have been surprised at the name, having seen his glass eye, but her mind had been too consumed by the bloody sword beneath his wing to process his identity. Realizing he was to be her partner, she recoiled with wings flared. The motion grabbed his notice, and in order to counter her fear, he offered her a wide smile.

"I have to admit I'm surprised that you're Honor Guard, but you've certainly got the fight in you. I'm Dead Reckoning." He offered her a hoof. She stared at it for a moment before realizing he wanted a shake. She shot out her own hoof too fast, trying to deal with the awkwardness of the situation, and found herself slapping his ankle instead. If the motion bothered him, he made no mention of it. "We should get back to the cabin, at least for the supplies. I take it you didn't come out here just to meet me."

The three ponies made their way out of the jungle clearing. Rainbow paused only long enough to glance back at the clean red slit that decorated the neck of the manticore, and the pool of blood gathering around it.

- - -

Shining Armor plodded into the Royal Ballroom with a fire in his eyes and a burning in his heart where he had buried all the other raw emotion of the day. He was a guardspony first; the mourning friend would have to wait. He had resolved not to show the nobles either sorrow or rage. As he scanned the gathered crowd again, he saw them no longer merely as obnoxious rulers, but as sources, and players, and perhaps even conspirators and criminals as well.

Chief among these high-living lowlifes was the stallion who stood chatting with his wife at the far end of the room.

"Blueblood..." Shining uttered under his breath, his tone bearing the disgust of having bit into an apple and found only half a worm. His hooves settled into a steady rhythm as he drew toward the stallion.

"And that, my dear Cadenza, is why we ought to have stayed together after the Bicentennial. I do rather regret the way I came across that night."

"It seems you and I recall the Crystal Ball very differently, Prince. Perhaps we can compare memories some other time, though." Cadance leaned past the theoretically 'noble' Prince, and smiled at her approaching husband. He didn't think much about the fact that he didn't smile back, as his gaze quickly met that of Prince Blueblood himself.

The two stallions, of nearly identical size and strength, met each other eye to eye, and glared.

"Captain." The word might as well have been pronounced 'commoner'.

"Prince Blueblood," Shining responded. "It's always a pleasure to see you."

"I do wish I could say the same, but I'm afraid the sight of you always brings me back to my own days in the guard. I've always felt a pony like myself could do so much more for Equestria managing Canterlot's productive, peaceful ponies."

"I couldn't agree more, Prince. Now, I hate to steal her away, but I need to share a few words with my wife."

"Of course, Captain. I was just leaving." He bowed deeply in Cadance's direction, as Shining resisted the urge to stab him in the flank. When he rose, he offered only a quick glance to the military pony, before striding away with his chest puffed out and his muzzle in the air.

Cadance rolled her eyes as she walked to her husband's side. "I still don't get it. We're married, and he still thinks I might be interested in him?"

"I don't know, Cadance. He's always been like that, even when he was in the guard."

His few, rather unimportant words were enough to clue Cadance in that something was wrong. "Is something wrong?"

For just a moment, the captain considered lying. Ultimately, he knew it would do no good; his wife was more than capable of reading the little twitches of his face. "Do you remember my friend Mark Down? He was at the wedding."

"I think so. He was a pegasus, right? His cutie mark was a checklist?" Shining nodded grimly. The motion was enough to spike Cadance's fear. "Did something happen? Is he alright?"

"No, Cadance. He's dead."

Her mouth hung open for just a moment, and then she leapt onto Shining Armor and clung to him in a tight hug. She pressed her neck tightly against his, and leaned up to whisper in his ear.

"Are you safe, Shining?" It would have seemed a silly question for the Captain of the Guard, were he any other pony. In her eyes, he might as well have been invincible.

"Of course," he lied. He didn't expect to fool her, but he could not bring himself to admit that his life was in danger. "But I'd like it if you left Canterlot, for just a few days."

"What?"

"Just until things settle down here. I'm worried, Cadance. About you."

"I could go stay with Twilight for a few days..."

"Not Ponyville," he whispered. "It's too close. Not back to the Crystal Empire either. Head back to Roam with your family when they leave tomorrow."

"I guess I could do that, Shining, but what about you? Are you sure you're going to be safe? What are you going to do, here?"

He just rubbed his neck against hers, and then stepped away. "I'm going to save Equestria." He knew his tone lacked confidence, but it was enough to earn a smile from Cadance, and that was enough for him. "Now go back to visiting. I have to talk to Princess Celestia." He looked around the room, and then turned back to the pink alicorn before him. "Have you seen her?"

"She came down for a few minutes, but she didn't stay. I think she went to the gallery, upstairs."

"Thank you." He turned away, only to stop in hesitation, turn back, and offer his wife a short parting kiss. "I love you, Cadance."

"I love you too, dear."

His hooves carried him away from his love, up the red carpeted stairs, and through the palace with ease and familiarity. He'd hoped the short distance to the gallery would get him there without any interruptions, but he was quickly learning that there was no hope of going through his day uninterrupted.

"Captain Armor, is that you? Oh, I'm glad I ran into you."

The boisterous, echoing address could only have belonged to the captain's father-in-law. Sure enough, Sforzando Eccesivo approached from a crossing hallway, eyes twitching to the side to ensure nopony was around.

"What are you doing up here?"

"Is that meant to be a warning, Captain? I'll have you know that the Princess opened the entire palace to us."

"I was just wondering. You seem to be concerned that somepony will catch you here."

"Well, to be honest, I would rather that our conversation stay between us." The heavy unicorn gave a final quick look around the barren upper hallway, and then finally returned his attention to Shining Armor. "There's an issue that is on the mind of every pony here today, even if none of them are actually talking about it."

"You mean Princess Luna's poisoning?" Shining raised an eyebrow, and then lowered both into a glare. "Do you know something, Sforzando?"

"Do you honestly think I would be mad enough to try and keep such a secret from Celestia? No, my colt, I don't know anything. That's not what I meant, in fact, though it isn't far from the idea."

"Well, then, what is the point?" Shining pressed. "I need to speak to the Princess, as soon as possible."

"Fine, Captain, fine. I was hoping to speak with you about what will happen in the event that we are unable to save Princess Luna."

Shining Armor's every tiny motion stopped, as his mind drifted back to a grim afternoon two days earlier, when Celestia had broken her eternal calm demeanor for the first time in years in worry over the nobles who were coming to her side.

"What do you mean?"

Sforzando dragged in a deep breath, and then shook his head. "If one of the Princesses were to pass away, their... 'gift', as it were, could be passed on to another pony." It sounded ridiculous, almost like a fairytale. Shining's disbelief must have been obvious to the Prince of Bitaly, who held up a hoof and continued. "A thousand years ago, Princess Celestia told my ancestors this, before she went into battle with Nightmare Moon."

"That doesn't make sense. She used the Elements of Harmony. She never meant to kill Luna."

"Princess Luna meant to kill her." Sforzando took another long slow breath, and his head again scanned the room. Then his tone dropped to a surprisingly forceful whisper. "Do you understand what I'm asking?"

Shining thought for a moment, only to grow angry at the realization. "You're actually asking me to tell the Princess that you should gain control of the moon?" He stepped past the Bitalian ruler, shaking his head slowly. "I think you should forget about it."

"No, Shining Armor. I know you and I do not always see eye to eye, but I do not mean myself. There is somepony we can agree on."

Shining stopped in his tracks, though he did not turn back to face his father-in-law. "...Cadance?"

"Mi Amore Cadenza. My daughter is an alicorn, with experience in leadership, and a kind heart. She helped your sister save Equestria from the Changelings, and she is a personal friend of the Princess herself. She ought to be the perfect choice, but coming from me, it would sound like a stallion trying to take advantage of a dying Princess for his own gain."

"I'm not interested in getting into the politics of this, Sforzando. I'm a soldier."

"The only differences between you and I are the battlefield we fight on, and the weapons we use. I understand that this might seem wrong to you, but your family needs you now. I know you'll do the right thing."

Shining still didn't turn, but he heard the hooves of the other pony walk away down the hall. Part of him felt as though such a statement would be the same as giving up on Luna's life. He shrugged off the thought for later. It wasn't his job to make those sorts of decisions. He needed to find Celestia.

The rest of the walk to the Grand Royal Gallery of Canterlot was short and uneventful. When the Captain reached the door, it opened with only a slight press of his hoof. The room inside wasn't particularly large, and its art was not particularly notable. The vast majority of the pieces were gifts that visitors had given to Celestia, and as a result, the Princess' face was the subject of far too much of the room. Perhaps a desire for contrast was what gave the walls their dark-hued gray paint, and kept only dim chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

Amidst this darkness, an alicorn walked. Shining at first expected the Princess, but it was not her body that strode amongst the statues and the paintings. Instead, as the captain approached, he saw a surprisingly short, thin alicorn stallion with a peculiarly long horn. The shadows of the room gave the cavities of his cheeks a mysterious air, but at the same time drew attention to the rough state of his mane and tail. At first, he seemed not to have noticed the approach of the other pony, with his head craned back, looking up at the wall above all the paintings.

"Good evening," Shining softly greeted.

"I disagree," the stallion answered, with a firm and stately tone. "Our Princess is dying, and I have lost a friend. But thank you for the courtesy." He stepped away, craning his neck to another corner of the room.

After a long pause that felt uncomfortably quiet to Shining Armor, he spoke up again. "I guess I haven't gotten to introduce myself. I'm Shining Armor."

"Watchful Eye." The other pony responded bluntly. "I've heard of you, Captain. My sons had much to say of you earlier today."

"Your sons? Are you the Tsar of Stalliongrad?"

"In title," Watchful Eye answered with as much chill as the wind in his home. "Forgive me if I am not in the mood for such talk."

"You said that you'd lost a friend." Shining scratched a hoof on the floor, knowing how awkward his question would inevitably be. "Was it from the assassin?"

To Shining's surprise, the Tsar nodded. "I am afraid, though, that you already know everything I could tell you. Come here, and tell me what you see." As the captain walked forward, Watchful Eye pointed with a hoof at a point high on the wall.

"It's... a mantle, I guess? With statues on it?"

"Yes. Look at how they are arranged." His hoof moved with his voice, tracing around the room. Shining's eyes passed statue after statue, each about four feet from the next. They all depicted stallions, with rather generic faces, in slate gray. His eyes, as well as the Tsar's hoof, stopped on an empty space just over the door to the room, where a statue ought to have been. Instead, there was an eight foot gap between two statues.

"One's missing?"

"Many rooms in the Palace have this feature, Shining Armor. The audience hall, the ballroom, and even Princess Celestia's bedroom. All are missing a single statue. It was my friend's place, as he watched over the Princess."

Shining looked down at the smaller stallion with sudden curiosity. "You mean the Commander?"

"I never knew him by that name. When we met years ago, he went by 'сталь кромка'. Even then, all the way in Stalliongrad, his mind was on protecting the Princess. When he brought me back here, he showed me these places, where he would sit, blending in with the statues. That was his life. Now he is gone."

"I'm sorry."

"All ponies lose friends, Shining Armor. It is the nature of life. But you did not come here to share philosophy and sadness with me."

"No, you're right. I came looking for Princess Celestia."

Watchful Eye nodded. "She has already gone to prepare for the Stable. You and I will be summoned in a matter of minutes. Until then, you should wait."

"I ought to speak with her soon."

"Nothing will happen to her here, in the Palace."

Shining nodded, and began to wander around the room. All the while, a single thought gnawed at his mind. His eyes looked at the countless pictures of Celestia, no different than how he had seen her his whole life. The tiny plaques beneath the portraits declared that they were hundreds of years old. Could he imagine Cadance that way? His eyes drifted to the other pony in the room. His cutie mark, a fiery red gem in the shape of an eye, watched Shining Armor back. The guardspony couldn't help but wonder at a thousand unanswered questions about the alicorn ruler.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"I do not promise an answer, but I would not presume to tell you what you may say."

"Do you want to take Luna's place?"

The question was jarring enough to tear the alicorn's focus from the empty space above the door, but it did not seem to truly bother him.

"Do you ask this because I have both wings and a horn? I am not a powerful mage, nor a skilled flyer. My life has not lent itself to the gifts of my body. I would gain no use from Luna's power."

Shining nodded, but then pressed the question from a different angle. His mind thought of his beloved rather than the foreign pony before him when he spoke. "What about living forever?"

"I don't want to live forever, Shining Armor. It was the worst pain in the world for me to lose my youngest son. I have no intention of watching the rest of my family grow old and pass away while I am still young." He looked straight at the unicorn, with surprising intensity. "Princess Celestia is a beautiful mare. She could have any stallion in Equestria if she wanted. Have you ever considered why she has no foals of her own?"

To the alicorn's confusion and surprise, Shining Armor nodded, and answered with two simple words. "Thank you." Whatever else was to be said of the strange pony, he had answered the question lingering in the back of Shining Armor's mind.

No sooner did the thought leave his mind, than one of the palace staff entered the room, guiding the two toward the fateful meeting of the night.

- - -

Equestria's fastest flier watched as her only friend in the Honor Guard flew off into the sunset over Zebrica. Every few moments, she would throw a glance over her shoulder to where Dead Reckoning was sitting in the run-down post depot. Marathon had spent the last hour discussing some sort of political stuff, which Rainbow apparently wasn't allowed to hear. Instead, she'd been given some food and sent to sit outside the hut, watching the jungle and waiting. The whole time, she'd been thinking.

She thought of her friends, particularly Fluttershy. She wondered what the meek little pony would think if she knew somepony else had used the Stare to kill a cowering, helpless creature. Though Rainbow had no intention of admitting it, the way that the Honor Guard had coldly killed the creature was still setting her off. Every few minutes, when a noise came from the jungle, she would twitch at it, expecting something to leap out at her. Instead, it would turn out to be the wind, or a small animal, or something else that didn't matter when all was said and done.

She patted the smooth golden armor on her chest, and couldn't help but feel like she was being abandoned out in the wilds. She didn't know this 'Deadeye' pony, and even if he was a guardspony, she certainly didn't trust him.

"Watching her go?" The sudden voice, from no more than a foot behind Rainbow, was enough to shock her into a hover twelve feet in the air, forehooves up and ready to strike. "Relax, kid. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Y-yeah." Rainbow drifted down. Dead Reckoning was leaning against the door of the hut, watching her with his one blue eye. "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you."

"I know. I'm not usually that quiet. Come down, kid. I'd like to talk to you." Rainbow glided down and sat facing him. His missing eye, now replaced with an crack-free orb, seemed to watch her just as closely as the colored, natural one. "I bothered you, when I killed the manticore today." She didn't respond, and in her stillness, he continued. "Don't try and act tough, kid. I'm not going to hold it against you, but we do need to talk this through."

Rainbow nodded, taking a moment to find words. "Why'd you have to kill it?"

"Because otherwise it would have killed us."

"No, it wouldn't. It was afraid."

Dead Reckoning closed both his eyes, and his body shifted up and down in a slow breath. "It was afraid because I used my magic on it. You called it the 'Stare'?"

"Yeah, my friend Fluttershy can do it too. I thought she was the only one."

"Well, the 'Stare' only works as long as you maintain eye-contact. That's especially hard for me, now, so I can only do it for a couple of seconds. I had to end it then."

"Why didn't you just tell it to leave us alone?"

To Rainbow's surprise, the stallion only opened his false eye. Its eyebrow rose high onto his balding brow in something resembling confusion, or surprise. "Because I can't. It's a manticore. It isn't going to listen."

"Fluttershy could tell things to stop fighting. She even did it to a dragon, once."

Dead Reckoning's other eye opened, and he nodded. "Then your friend's 'Stare' is a lot better than mine. That's strong magic. Anyway, do you understand why I did what I did?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"I don't expect you to just be comfortable with me killing something. We don't get much of that in Equestria, thankfully. Out here, though, that's how you survive. It was us or it. Can you accept that?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Dead Reckoning smiled. "Good, kid." He shook his head, and then gestured with a wing into the back of the shadowy structure. "Toss your armor in there and we can get going."

"You want me to leave my armor behind?"

"Unless you really enjoy rashes and sores, yeah. It's too humid in the jungle for metal armor, and nasty stuff will get in your sweat. If you really wanna wear something, I've got another safari shirt in the closet there."

Rainbow didn't need any further motivation. She pulled off her armor and tossed it aside, before moving to the small rack that he'd called a closet. Off its one short rack, she grabbed a tan shirt, and to her infinite happiness, a shallow pith helmet. She didn't need a mirror to know exactly how she looked. Daring Do would be proud. She stepped out of the hut again, where Dead Reckoning was waiting with saddlebags.

"Where are we going?" Rainbow asked, as she let him put the bags on her back.

"There's a mad elk healer who lives a few hundred miles into the jungle. We're going to see if he knows anything about this poison. But first, we have to lay out some ground rules."

"Oh, come on! We don't have time to waste!"

Dead Reckoning started walking into the jungle, gesturing for Rainbow to follow. Their pace was slow, as the stallion seemed to be paying closer attention to Rainbow than his destination. "That's what the rules are for, Rainbow. So we don't wind up wasting our time fighting monsters and falling in quicksand every twenty minutes. The jungle's dangerous. Rule number one is always stay within line of sight of me. Shouldn't be too hard, but it's important for both of us. I expect you to be watching for predators in the jungle." He tapped the left side of his face. "It's pretty easy to blindside me these days."

"Stick together. Got it."

"Good. Second rule is that you do not fly unless you have to, and you never fly above the canopy."

"What? That's stupid! What do all you guardsponies have against using your wings?"

"I've got nothing against your wings, kid. They're nice wings, if I do say so myself." Rainbow flushed with color, and she growled under her breath, as the old stallion let out a little chuckle. "I'm only teasing. There are a set of wing blades in your bag, once I teach you how to use them. The reason you don't fly is because of all the flying monsters in the jungle. Manticores are nowhere near the scariest thing you'll find in here, and most everything will soar up and get you if it can see you up and out in the open."

Rainbow threw her hair back cockily. "Please. Nothing's going to catch me. I'm the fastest flier in Equestria."

Dead Reckoning raised his blind eye's brow yet again. "Well, that's fine, if you say so, but what I want to know is how long you can keep that speed up. The closest edge of the jungle is two-hundred miles west, at Grivridge. You get tired before then, and there'll be something out there waiting to gulp you down. Understand?"

Rainbow groaned. "Fine. No flying."

Reckoning smiled. "Good. Those are the rules. Now, why don't you tell me about how you ended up here?"

- - -

Special thanks to SatoshiKyu for pre-reading.

VII - Guilt

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VII: Guilt
- - -

Shining Armor was ushered by the palace servants into the upper dining room. His memories of the place were still of Soldier On's cold, desperate words, and Celestia's fury. The dark wood and narrow, east-facing windows left the place shadowed, cold, and claustrophobic.

The ponies within didn't help. There were eight ponies, by his quick count, and ten chairs. They were all watching him, quietly. He moved to the only acceptable open seat, halfway down the left side of the table. As he approached, the Princess spoke up.

"That is not your seat, Captain." Her horn, still slender and lethally pointed despite her change in stature, gestured toward the foot of the table. There, he found a padded silver throne, emblazoned with Luna's coat of arms.

"Princess, I don't think-"

"Do not think I intend for you to take her place, Shining Armor." Celestia's gaze, sharpened to a soul-cutting blade, swept across the room, taking in each face in turn. "This place is left empty to remember an absent member of the Stable." A tilt of her head was enough to move him toward Princess Luna's seat.

He acquiesced only to get the lingering gazes of the nobles off his back. Even when he placed himself in the tall, cold, and lonely throne, he could feel the fur of his coat standing on end beneath his armor. It would do him little good in the dark room, where the weapons of choice were bladed words and twisted ideas.

When he was finally settled, the eyes of the group turned as one to the pony on Celestia's right. "I, Powdered Wig, Count of Trottingham and Lord Chancellor of the Stable of Nobles, call this meeting of the Stable of Nobles to order," boomed an overstated, grating voice. It came from a unicorn whose size would have been more imposing were it not for the rolls of weight that covered his unending neck. He placed an overbearingly prideful hoof upon the center of his chest, and opened his mouth to speak again. Out came a burgeoning cough that put flinches on the faces of those sitting opposite him. Another followed, and then a third, and when the hacking fit had finally ceased, the heavy unicorn's vibrant purple jacket was stained with sweat. He took almost no time in catching his breath, however, and his unnecessary tone continued without further incident. "Let all those present state their names and be titles for the benefit of their peers."

Having finished his introduction, Count Wig lowered himself down onto his flank again on his seat to the tune of a painful creak. When his girth finally settled, he gestured with his horn to the stallion sitting on his left.

A stuffy-looking unicorn mare with half-moon glasses settled low on her nose rose up from her seat. A billowing rust red dress tumbled from its place folded on her back into countless ribbons that covered her frame like a waterfall. "Red Warden, Keeper of the West and Duchess of San Palomino."

Then came an old pegasus, wearing a blue necktie over a white shirt. "Silver Lining, representative of the Council of Cloudsdale." His words were followed off by a snort of disparagement from somewhere within the room. The old pony seemed not to have noticed beneath his thick moustache, as his wings were pressed back against their seat.

The next pony, sitting immediately on Shining's right, was one he knew all too well. "I am Prince Blueblood, Defender of the esteemed Domain of Canterlot." The brute that called himself a guardian had, in fact, been a Royal Guard once, though Shining knew all too well that the service was yet another of his dishonest attempts to bring glory to himself and his family. His single term of service had been grudgingly given in exchange for the title he put forward, rather than for any actual feelings of duty or service.

Eyes swiveled swiftly around the room, but Shining Armor was ready. He rose up from the ill-fitting throne and placed a gold-shod hoof over the amethyst armor on his chest. "I-"

"Not now, Captain," Celestia corrected. The reprimand was short and businesslike, and told Shining that some inane rule gave him no right to speak his name. He was perhaps a bit embarrassed, though the pumping blood of his determination more than easily overrode the emotion.

The next mare who rose up to speak bore the curious coloration of a half-breed. Unlike the Cloudsdale pegasus, her words had not even begun to flow when the untraceable sound of disgust was offered to the room. She ignored with clearly practiced pride as she began to speak. "I am Oromo Heartstone, and I speak for Zebrica."

The quiet she left behind was quickly filled by another voice, pointedly shrewd in its every intonation. "Sforzando Eccesivo, Il Principe de Bitalia." The lead unicorn, (whose fat could never be mistaken for anything else), Powdered Wig, glared at him. He responded with a blunt groan. "I am Prince Sforzando of Bitaly, though you all ought to know that."

"Thank you, Prince," Powdered Wig muttered, before gesturing to the final noble.

Shining had come to expect little puffing-up from the alicorn, and that was precisely what he heard. "By birth, I am simply Watchful Eye, but the ponies of my care have chosen me as Premier and Tsar of Stalliongrad." The Tsar wasn't a particularly tall stallion, and he certainly lacked anything resembling real muscle, but the genuine tone of his voice, the slender gauntness of his face, and the length of his peculiarly sharp horn served to give him an air of height, towering over all his peers in the room. Only Celestia remained above him, her plain pink mane and shrunken form still set aside over all others by virtue of her 'divinity'.

Before Shining could wonder about the alicorn any longer, his attention was again stolen by the heavyset leader of the table, whose unmistakably boring tone made the guardspony want to put his face down on the priceless ebony table and take a nap.

"The Stable recognizes Duchess Warden, Representative Lining, Prince Blueblood, Governess-General Heartstone, Prince Sforzando, and Baron-"

Shining was caught unprepared by the sudden response. Anger flashed across Watchful Eye's face, and the alicorn's slender hoof smashed against the polished tabletop with an unforgiving force. In response, the fat Unicorn didn't miss a beat. "...Forgive me, Tsar Eye." Appeased, Watchful Eye removed the offending limb, and returned to his silence. Powdered Wig nodded, and continued his seemingly unending speech.

"We regret that due to illness, Marquise Couture of Prance is unable to attend." He gestured to the empty seat Shining had moved toward on entering the room. "The Stable now recognizes its honored guests. First, and truly foremost, we recognize Her Solar Majesty, the immortal Princess Celestia." Shining couldn't help but notice that as the words were spoken, Celestia's face took on a look of something like irritation.

"And finally, the Stable recognizes Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard." A long pause followed, as the nobles all stared at him again, silently judging. When the unspoken trial was finally over, what seemed like hours later, Powdered Wig lifted his voice yet again. "We are here to discuss a matter of grave importance to the body of Equestria, and how it will affect our subjects. At this time, I yield the floor to Princess Celestia."

"Thank you, Lord Chancellor," Celestia offered with a smile, before settling forward to address the seven nobles in attendance. "I'm not sure what you have heard, so I will simply tell you the truth. Three days ago, a unicorn mare who calls herself Masquerade attempted to assassinate my sister."

Gasps and gaping mouths made it perfectly clear which of the nobleponies already knew the reality of the situation, and which did not. The former made up nearly all the ponies present, and Shining Armor was glad to count Blueblood amongst their number. On the other hoof, the ruler of the meeting, the ruler of Stalliongrad, and the father of Princess Cadance all held straight faces. Given his discussions with both Sforzando and Cadance, it wasn't hard to guess where had learned of the plot. The other two were less obvious. Regardless, the three maintained stony faces, likely afraid that some show of emotion would offend Celestia.

The true ruler of the group continued after a simple raising of her hoof brought silence to the room. "Rainbow Dash, who you may remember as the Bearer of Loyalty, was able to prevent this attack, but a poison still entered my sister's body." Celestia's tone was dispassionate and carried an undercurrent of iron, far from the raw emotion that Shining had experienced two days earlier. "As we speak, Luna lies comatose in the Palace infirmary."

At the mention of Rainbow's name, Shining caught a quick glance of some reaction on the face of Silver Lining, the sole pegasus amongst the group. What the older stallion thought, though, he kept hidden behind tight lips and an implacable face. His reaction was not the one which received the rest of the group's attentions.

"What can we do for you, Princess?" The words escaped the Bitalian Prince's lips so quickly that Shining Armor couldn't help but believe he had been waiting to ask them. Such preparation, and obsession with appearance, certainly fit his father-in-law's tendencies, and he slowly realized that Sforzando might have been trying to build sympathy, for a later, ill-advised request.

"Yes, your Majesty, how can we be of service?" Duchess Warden followed, with not quite the same sudden emphasis that her predecessor had used.

"Calm, please." Celestia requested. "The first way you can assist me is to calm yourselves, and think." Then she waited, for what must have seemed to her to be only a drop in the ocean of endless lifetimes. When all was as silent, as orange light from a slowly-approaching sunset snuck in the windows, she deigned to speak again. "In order to prevent our current issue spilling out of hand, I would ask that you seal your borders."

Prince Sforzando piped up again with his overpowering, near-shouting voice. "Princess, I understand the urgency of the matter, but doesn't that risk sending the wrong message to our neighbors? Not to mention the loss of trade."

"I can deal with whatever political backlash we face, but those borders are not the ones I am most concerned with." Her gaze swept slowly over the table, meeting every pair of eyes in turn as she had at Shining Armor's seating. "I mean for your jurisdictions to close to one another." Her words were met with gasps and shock, but they did not stop or even slow. "Canterlot will reimburse the loss of trade, but until we deal with this issue, this is the only way to contain both the assassin, and the knowledge of her plot."

The ponies at the table started talking all at once, and through their words Shining found himself unable to make out even a single thought. Celestia waited for a few moments, but when the sound showed no signs of relenting, she raised a single hoof and was nearly awarded silence.

Prince Blueblood alone found himself unable to simply shut his mouth. "Auntie, you have to be joking! We can't afford to replace Equestria's trade out of pocket, and I have no intention of seeing my treasury disappear overnight."

Celestia was ready to offer a calm response, but her words were too slow to beat Shining Armor's reaction. The stallion's tone had incensed him, built upon a dozen other tiny factors into a solid shout. He slammed a hoof onto the table, just as Watchful Eye had, hard enough to send the rest of the room's nobles jumping in their seats. "You're worried about money, Blueblood? Are you honestly more concerned with staying rich than you are with the Princess' life?"

Prince Blueblood rose to the accusation, and the two towering unicorn stallions found themselves glaring eye to eye as they shouted at one another. "Listen to me, commoner! I don't-"

Blueblood found himself unable to out-shout the infuriated guardspony. Shining's fury came in three parts: his burning focus on Luna's salvation and vengeance for Mark Down, his anger at the detestable greed of the stallion, and his personal hatred for Blueblood himself. Together, they gave the captain a shouting force to be reckoned with. "How much is Luna's life worth to you, then, Prince? How many bits would you spend to save her?"

Blueblood answered with a surprising ferocity, lifting his own voice to match the stallion he saw as his lesser. "You clearly have no idea what you're talking about, Captain Armor, so allow me to explain myself. I'm not interested in keeping the money for myself. My private holdings are more than enough to satisfy me. The treasury, however, is necessary for Equestria to function. I admit that Auntie's plan might well help you catch this assassin, but it would come at the cost of driving Equestria into the ground."

"Equestria will survive longer than Luna will!" Shining answered.

Rather than a further shout, Blueblood's response was to shake his head degradingly. "Really, Captain? How long, do you imagine? A day? Two? Do you know anything of economics? How many bits do you think travel between the Equestrian domains in a full day?"

"I don't see why that matters, Blueblood." Shining answered. "I'm interested in saving lives, not counting bits."

"Fine. I'll spell it out." The unicorn's prideful tone was borne by a smug, superior smile. "Inter-district trade accounts for three hundred million bits every twenty-four hours. That means Canterlot goes bankrupt in a day and a half. After that, it's the commoners like you who start paying. Jobs disappear. Families go hungry. And you know what, Commander? We get riots. Ponies die. That's the cost of what you and Auntie are asking. Do you understand? Or do I need to use more common words?"

"This meeting will come to order!" Powdered Wig seemed near to passing out from the force he put into his words. "Prince Blueblood, Captain Armor, I must ask that you return to your seats for the time being." His desired were granted with only the slightest modicum of acceptance, but they were granted nonetheless. "Good. Now, Princess, while I understand the concern for your sister, I fear that she is but one pony out of many within Equestria. My fellows, do you have anything to add for Her Majesty?"

"I do." Oromo Heartstone, the half-zebra, straightened in her chair and spoke. "Princess Celestia, your plan is folly." Her tone picked up a sort of musical quality. "Unless of her location, you have some proof, two birds in the bush are not one in the hoof."

"Don't spout your zebra nonsense here, Heartstone," Sforzando derided with a snort of distaste, and utter obliviousness to his own hypocrisy. "Use common Equestrian like the rest of us."

"I think you're missing her point, Prince." Silver Lining, the Cloudsdale representative, turned toward Shining Armor, speaking under his bushy moustache. "Captain, do you know where this assassin is? If so, we could close that jurisdiction, without harming any others."

Shining shook his head. "We have leads, but no definite location."

"Of course he doesn't." Duchess Warden, the blood-colored unicorn mare beside Powdered Wig, lowered her nose to look over her behind the half-moon glasses and glare at Shining Armor. "Canterlot has been nearly conquered three times under this pony's watch, and frankly, the Royal Guard is an embarrassment." Her head swiveled from left to right in an instant, ending with her nose pointing at the Princess. "If you had only made me aware of this disaster a handful of days ago, I could have gathered some of my Rangers, and we would have solved this disaster by now. I propose we find a replacement."

"Do not deride Captain Armor so quickly, Duchess." Shining was surprised to hear Sforzando's voice coming to his defense. "You may be forgetting, but he was able to stop the Queen of the Changelings, when she had even defeated our Princess." The Bitalian ruler looked down the table at his son-in-law, smiling. On another day, Shining might have derided his hypocrisy, after their earlier discussions of his rule, but he wasn't in a position to turn away the help.

"Thanks in no small part to your daughter," Red Warden added, feigning fatigue with her words. "We know, Prince. We've all heard about their infamous wedding. This doesn't excuse the fact that he was unable to prevent the attack in the first place. It also fails to address our real issue, which is how a measure as desperate as closing our borders could in any way assist us."

"My thought," Celestia answered, with a surprisingly harsh tone, "was that isolating Masquerade would allow my Guard to catch up to her, and prevent her from leaving Equestria. I admit the plan is an act of desperation. That's exactly the problem I am facing at the moment, however. I am desperate. If any of you have a better plan, please let us hear it."

The silence that followed was short, broken by the prim and proper unicorn sitting to Celestia's left. "I am afraid that none of us are military advisors, Your Majesty, save the pony to your right. Tell us, Watchful Eye, what do you think should be done?"

The Tsar answered by closing his eyes and bowing his head. "You misunderstand the history of my home. I am not a soldier, nor does my mind follow their tactics. I was only the voice of our revolution. My sons were its planners and its soldiers. They are here, if you wish to speak with them, but I feel that we are spending our time poorly."

Silver Lining turned his head to the side in a mix of confusion and mistrust. "Are you saying that trying to help Princess Luna is a waste of time?"

"I am saying that worrying over Princess Luna is a waste of our time. Let younger ponies bear that burden. Our duty is to give them what they need, and to watch over them, should they fail. That is what we must concern ourselves with."

Shining felt his drive for the hunt rise with every word that left the Tsar's mouth. "I'm not going to fail."

The alicorn broke his focus on Celestia, and turned toward Shining with a fatal focus. "I have no intention of telling you otherwise, Shining Armor. But unless your magic has shown you the future, and guaranteed her health beyond the shadow of any doubt, we must be prepared. Can you do this?"

"You of all ponies should know that reading the future is forbidden, Watchful Eye." Prince Blueblood's derisive correction was accompanied by a wave of his hoof.

Silver Lining, the pegasus of the group, took on a confused expression, but it was the half-zebra who raised the obvious question. "Why should that magic be forbidden? It would most certainly benefit Equestria."

A half-dozen mouths were opened to answer, but Celestia cut them all off simply by setting her gilded hooves gently upon the table. "The future has many possibilities, and until choices are made, all are possible. This is why magic cannot bring a cutie mark before its time; a foal's special talent could be many things, until it is realized."

The Princess then turned her gaze to the room's windows, as she wistfully observed the horizon. "Looking into the future takes away those choices. What is seen, even if it is terrible, and dark, will alway comes to pass. Choice is stolen away, and free will no longer exists." She pulled in a long and dreary breath before finishing her thoughts. "Such magic kept my sister from me for a millennia, when I ought to have only lost her for a day. I will not gamble with her life again."

Shining Armor was shocked beyond words, as his mind was drawn back to his sister. He could clearly remember when Twilight had shown him a simple, dusty greenish-gray book, titled Predictions and Prophecies. Its meaning took on a new light in his mind.

His reflections were shattered when Red Warden's nasally tone again broke the silence of the room. "I suppose that if somepony has to bring up this sordid topic, I shall do it. Princess Celestia, if the worst were to come to pass, what would you have us do?"

Celestia stared blankly forward. Shining Armor was left in the uncomfortable position of sitting across the length of the table from her, and he couldn't tell whether her eyes were fixed on him, or seeing somewhere else entirely. "If it happens, you must tell your ponies the truth, and guard your borders." Her face slowly drifted in the direction of Oromo Heartstone, who seemed just as unsettled by the Princess' attention. Worse, Celestia's tone picked up a hint of intensity as she spoke to the guardian of Zebrica. "Magnus has been my associate for many years, but it is the way of the Griffons to strike when others are weak. You would need to beware of them."

"Do we need to be worried about war?" Silver Lining asked, clearly shaken by the thought. "After what the dragons did-"

Celestia's gaze snapped to him with a sudden focus, and her tone built in strength. "Lord Krenn will not cross me, Silver Lining, after what happened a decade ago. Of all my peers, he I would trust the most. Nevertheless, Watchful Eye, I would expect that you would be mindful of his subjects."

The Tsar nodded in silence, as Celestia moved her focus to Duchess Warden. "You, Red Warden, have the most to fear. Both the boars and the changelings would come across your lands, and both have reason to attack us while we are weak. Should I lose my sister, I will lend you the Royal Guard."

"Yes, Princess."

"Good." Celestia's head swept the assembled ponies slowly. "Is this what you wanted from me? A promise that I would not forget Equestria as I mourned Luna? Or are you wondering about something else entirely?"

Nopony was willing to speak up to the obvious hint. It took a long time for words to again enter the room, and when they did, it was with a trepidation that Shining Armor would never have expected from the boisterous tongue of his father-in-law.

Sforzando leaned forward slowly and stiffly. "Princess, there is... one more matter."

"You want Luna's power." Celestia almost spat the words, and her nose wrinkled as if a foul odor had come to her attention. "I know you aren't the only one here, Sforzando. Say it now. Go on."

Nopony answered, fearing the chance that Celestia might find reason to hate them for the words they chose next. When the Princess found that her prompt was met with silence, she turned her attention to Powdered Wig. Her face lost its hints of anger. To Shining Armor, it was as if she had put on a mask; one which she wore so often that most ponies mistook it for her face. She had the tiniest hint of a soft smile, but her face largely suggested wisdom and serenity. It lacked any sort of anger, but Shining couldn't imagine the feeling had been buried far beneath her surface.

"Lord Chancellor, would you want to be known as 'the Immortal' Prince Wig?"

The heavy pony's rolls of fat quivered under Celestia's seemingly friendly focus. "Well, Princess... that is, if you were to offer it to me..."

"I see." The words were a simple statement of fact, rather than the condemnation that some of the ponies present were no doubt expecting. "What of you, Duchess Warden? How do you feel about the night?"

Unlike Powdered Wig, Red Warden had too much pride to quiver in fear before her almighty ruler. She closed her eyes and straightened herself up. "It would be the greatest honor I could ever receive, Princess."

"Yes, it would." Celestia said nothing more than the simple words, turning her eyes toward Silver Lining. "What of you, Councilor?"

The old pegasus' words were stolen away by the stallion to his left. "Auntie, surely you must be joking! He isn't even a noble, or a unicorn, let alone an alicorn."

"And yet he has more magic than you, nephew. He could raise the moon just as well as I do, if he had to. So tell me, Silver Lining, would you take Luna's place?"

The pegasus was the first of the group to slowly shake his head from side to side. "I would not, Princess."

"Interesting." Celestia turned her head to Prince Blueblood, and she spoke before he could even open his mouth. "You don't need to answer, nephew. I know full-well that you would seize that power in an instant."

Shining Armor readied his tongue, but found himself eternally grateful when the ruler of the sun passed over him, turning to Oromo Heartstone.

The half-Zebra spoke up without being asked. "Such power could bring respect to my land, though at the cost of the Princess, I dare not demand."

Whatever Celestia thought of the zebra words, her face offered no more explanation than it had to the other nobles. Her head swiveled further, to the Prince of Bitaly.

"Et tu, Sforzando?" the ageless alicorn wondered.

"Not for myself, no. I think the gift should belong to my daughter, Cadenza."

Celestia nodded slowly, and then turned back across the table to Shining Armor. "What do you say to this?"

Shining's blood ran cold for a moment, as the fearful ponies in the room turned their eyes to him. His mouth was dry when he opened it, and he sucked in a bitter breath before he spoke. "No, Princess."

"What? Shining Armor,-" the prince's tone sounded betrayed, but Shining Armor cut him off.

"Sforzando, I don't want Cadance to have to watch me get old and die. I don't want to leave her alone forever."

The words were followed by silent contemplation, until at last the Bitalian prince fell back against his chair, shaking his head slowly. Celestia turned to the last pony, Watchful Eye, who met her gaze with a solemn face. "My words will be the same as Shining Armor's, Princess. I would have my sons bury me. I will not bury another of my sons."

Celestia turned back to the group as a whole. "Do you understand why I cannot let Luna go? Anypony could raise the moon. That isn't why I need her; I need my sister because she is the only pony who can ever be there for me without it hurting. If I had to choose another, it would be Twilight Sparkle. She would never fill the part of my heart I hold for Luna, but her company would keep me well in the ages to come."

The Princess turned to Shining Armor, and her mask showed a crack, as the hints of a tear built near the corners of her eyes. The water never fell, but the gentle sparkling it gave in the faint light was unmistakable. "I could never do that to my student, though. I could never take away her friends like that, and force her to live on as they passed away. And so, if I lose my sister, I will be alone. Forever."

Celestia then stepped up out of her throne, head held low. "This meeting is over. Travel home safely, and be thankful for your mortality." As she left the room, Shining Armor couldn't help but hear the soft tap of a single raindrop hitting the stone of the palace.

- - -

"Now duck. Goo-" Dead Reckoning's breath was stolen from his body as a well-toned wing struck him in the throat. He shook his head, bringing focus back to his only remaining eye, and smiled. "You weren't kidding about being fast, kid. You've got some good magic in you."

Rainbow Dash adjusted her pith helmet and smiled wide. "Fastest flier in Equestria, and only pony to ever make a Sonic Rainboom, right here. What's magic got to do with it? I'm not a unicorn."

The jungle pony took a step back from the little field of their battle. His focus turned briefly to the small pond whose shores had become their camp. Ultimately, his hooves carried him to a tall, lanky tree whose roots were covered by a pair of saddlebags. From his own bags, he grabbed a pair of flat crackers. One was thrown Rainbow's way, accompanied by a wry smiled. "Crack didn't teach you any of that?"

"Crack didn't teach me anything, Dead Reckoning. He just kept telling me not to use my wings, like I was an earth pony or something. I don't know who put the stick so far up-"

"That's enough, kid. I get that you don't get along with him, but there's no need to be that mad about it. He's a good pony if you get to know him. He's got his reasons. Also, you don't need to call me Dead Reckoning. Just Reckoning is fine. Or Deadeye, if you like that better. Just don't call me 'Dead'."

The comment was enough to earn a laugh from Rainbow, who then sounded out the names in her head before answered. "All right, Deadeye, if that's what you want, you don't get to just call me 'kid' all the time."

"Deal, Dash. Now, what was I saying... right, magic. So, all ponies have magic, not just unicorns."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, pegasi use magic to fly and walk on clouds. We all have that, though." Rainbow shrugged. "I don't see the big deal."

"Well, that's just because you don't understand how it works." He paced over to the tiny pond whose bank had become their camp, and dipped the tips of his wings into the water. "How hot do you think it is right now, Dash?"

Rainbow looked back to her wings, and the patches of damp sweat that were building on her tan shirt beneath them. The sheer scorching of the sun that broke through the canopy was bad enough, but the humidity was the worst. They brought to Rainbow's mind much more potent words.

The wet heat sapped her energy, and slowed her every step.

"It's pretty hot."

Dead Reckoning turned, and flicked his wings at a tree a few feet away. Rainbow was left with her mouth hanging wide open as the droplets of water that flew from his feathers did not splash down the branches. Instead, they clung to the bark, in the form of tiny icicles.

"Fancy a cool drink?"

"How did..." Rainbow couldn't even finish the words.

"It's just a magic trick," he answered. "It's also not very useful, but it is pretty easy. I bet you can do it. Go stick your wing in the water."

Rainbow couldn't wait; she flew the short distance to the water's edge and dipped her wings. "Okay, now what?"

"Now, you think of something sad."

At first, Rainbow questioned the order. She had to remind herself that it was magic, and it didn't always make sense; nearly half the things Twilight did were way crazier than what she'd been asked. She called into her imagination the ending to Daring Do and the Cove of Candles, where Daring's closest friend, Dodger, gave his life to save the mare. It was an easy thing to imagine, and it had even made Rainbow sniffle a bit. She focused on the picture her mind had made, recording every minute detail, and slowly, the tips of her wings began to feel numb with cold.

She opened her eyes and thrust her wings forward. "Ha!"

Dead Reckoning maintained a surprisingly straight face as a decent-sized splash of water ruined the short mess he called his mane. "I don't think you got the feeling right."

"Well, why should it matter anyway?"

"That's how pegasus magic works, Dash. It's based on how you feel - that's why its called Empatha. Like... hmm... What do you usually think about when you pull off a Sonic Rainboom?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Well, I don't know. Pretty much anything, I guess. I can sort of do it whenever."

Reckoning seemed impressed as he nodded. "When you did it the first time, how did you feel? What made you want to try?"

"Well, I guess I felt like I needed it to show up that stupid colt, and win..." Rainbow's voice trickled off as realization reached her. "Then, the next time I was able to do it, it was to save my friend Rarity."

The scout pony broke into a massive smile. "Exactly! You were able to do that magic because you felt like you needed to. Desperation was the key, until your magic got used to it. Making ice is the same, only instead of desire, it works off sadness."

The young mare gave a slow nod of understanding, and then closed her eyes to focus. Her mind brought her back not to fiction, but to memories. Memories of her childhood, and a long hospital hallway, and an old, friendly pegasus.

- - -

Papa was talking to a doctor pony. His name was Doctor Chart, and Rainbow didn't like him very much. He kept telling the filly that Mommy needed to sleep, or that she had to take her medicine. The medicine always made her sleepy, and she never wanted to play, or even hear about flight camp.

Papa usually brought Rainbow to the hospital, but today, he hadn't been there when school got out. Rainbow was a pretty good flier, though, and she knew the way to the hospital by memory.

Doctor Chart and Papa were talking in big words. Rainbow didn't know most of them, but she imagined Papa was going to be building a new part of the hospital soon. That was usually what he talked about when he used big words. All the grown-up ponies wanted him to give them his clouds, which confused Rainbow, since there were clouds everywhere that anypony could just go grab if they needed more.

All the thought Rainbow put into their talk was unimportant, when her little hooves finally brought her to the tall white door to Mommy's room. The number on the front said 424D, though the little box with Mommy's name was gone. Rainbow pushed against the door, and it started to swing open.

Then she felt a big, strong leg wrap around her middle, pulling her away. She felt a warm coat against her back, and a big bushy bunch of hair pressed against her ears. She knew it was Papa when she felt the way his fuzzy face tickled her.

"Not today, my only sunshine."

"We can talk later." Doctor Chart said, before turning to walk away down the hall.

"Papa, why can't I see Mommy?"

"Because, sweetheart." The words made Rainbow sad. She wriggled in Papa's grip, and his hold wasn't tight enough to keep her. Her little hooves hit the ground, and right away, her wings started beating. Papa usually let her win races, but this time, he wasn't fast enough to catch Rainbow at all. The filly pressed her hooves against the door and darted inside.

The room was empty. Mommy's bed was made, clean and tight, but Mommy wasn't in it. All the paper, and the machines, and the bags of funny-colored rainbow water were gone.

"Where's Mommy?" Rainbow shouted, when Papa came in the door.

Papa didn't say anything, but when he saw her, his face crinkled up, and Rainbow could see that his eyes were getting wet. She was afraid that shouting had hurt his feelings. She ran up, and wrapped her little legs around one of his. "I'm sorry, Papa. I didn't mean to yell. I just want to know where Mommy is."

"Mommy's gone." Papa told her, as his face tickled Rainbow's ears. "Mommy's gone to be with Daddy."

- - -

"Come in, Shining Armor." The Princess' words were accompanied by the doors to her chamber swinging open from within. When his eyes took in the ruler, he was surprised to see the hints of life and color returning to her mane. It was still primarily pink, but subtle hints of green and blue had filled the edges, and every few moments, it would quiver in an unseen breeze.

"You look good, Princess."

She shook her head, not even bothering to meet his gaze. Her focus was on the sun setting outside her window. He noticed her horn glowing with magic to bring about the event. "I've been told that every day for at least a thousand years, Captain. It's just my magic beginning to return. Thank you for noticing, though."

He nodded. "I found something in our investigation."

Celestia turned away from her sun in an instant, and her eyes narrowed into focused points. "Something to help Luna?"

He didn't even have to answer for her to lose her hope. The reality was written as plain as day across his face for her to see. "No, Princess. I'm afraid it's bad news. One of my lieutenants, Mark Down, was killed this morning."

Celestia bowed her head with practiced grace. "I'm sorry to hear that. Where was he investigating?"

"Here, Princess. Canterlot." Her eyes grew ever-so-slightly wider at the revelation. "In my office."

"A guardspony killed him?"

"I’m not sure yet. I doubt it was Masquerade herself; the violence was too… too brutal to match her profile. But I suspect somepony working closely with her. Whether a traitor or an outsider, I can’t say yet. Whoever it was, Mark knew, or at least thought, that somepony was following him. He wanted to get this letter to me before he went into hiding. Whoever killed him must have taken the first page, but I found the second in my office." He unfolded the letter and levitated it to her. As her eyes scanned the words with incredible speed, his explanation pressed on. "I needed to talk to you about the chance that there’s a traitor in our ranks. First off, could it be one of the Night Guard? I don't know much about—"

Celestia's face suddenly became frighteningly cross. The little hint of a smile she usually wore was completely gone. "No, Captain."

"You're sure, Princess? I know they might seem trustworthy—"

"You misunderstand; this isn't a question of loyalty. Those creatures are incapable of betraying my sister. I would rather not speak of them."

Shining Armor was stunned by Celestia's words, and it took him far too much time to put aside his surprise at the bluntness of her speech. It took him a false start to finally begin speaking again. "I... I understand, Princess. If the traitor isn't among them—and there really is a traitor—it means that they're in the Honor Guard."

Celestia nodded. "At least, that is what Mark Down is suggesting. Do you have anything to add?"

Shining took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to do. "Yes, Princess. Soldier On. She was the one to inform me of Mark's death, rather than one of my guard, even though the attack happened in my office. Then there's the fact that she's apparently some sort of war criminal in Stalliongrad, if the nobles there are to be believed. And I understand she is also the acting Captain of the Honor Guard, after the Commander's death."

Celestia nodded as she replied. "I'm tentative to declare her guilty without more solid proof, however. Steel trusted her completely."

It took the experienced guardspony barely a moment to make the connection between the name and the title of Commander. "With all due respect, Princess, the Commander is dead because of the ponies he trusted."

The words seemed to wound Celestia. She looked away from Shining, focusing on her setting sun. He was prepared to apologize, but her words bested his speed. "Yes, Captain Armor. He is. She would also seem the logical choice, with regard to your Lieutenant's comment on the Blizzard Revolution."

"Actually, that's the first I've ever heard of it. What happened?"

Celestia's horn ignited, and the setting of the sun continued. Its momentary pause had likely gone unnoticed across the world. "The Blizzard Revolution was a fortunately brief war in Stalliongrad, going on six years ago, though the story starts long before then. You know that the Domain of Stalliongrad forms our border with the dragon’s homeland?”

Shining nodded only once.

“You must have been a colt when they invaded. The Dragon Wars hardly touched Canterlot, but they decimated Stalliongrad. Ponies were starving, scavengers and gangs ruled the streets. Baron Frostbite told me he needed absolute power in his Domain to fix his worries. I granted it to him.”

“What do you mean by absolute power?”

“Forced labor camps for the earth ponies—” at Shining Armor’s wince, she nodded. “Terrible, but even they agreed at the time. The alternative was starvation. The dragons had torn up our railways, and relaying them in the heart of eternal winter was the work of months, if not years. He tasked the pegasi with that work, as well as hunting down the gangs. And the unicorns he set to work building up shelter, and then rebuilding the burnt out husks of their cities. They accepted it when they were starving and freezing. But when the work was done and things didn’t change—”

As Shining watched, Celestia’s eyes fell. “He became a tyrant?”

“I tried to wean him away peacefully,” Celestia replied, voice drowning in regret. “He wouldn’t hear it. I sent my best ambassador Marathon. Then I went myself. But in the end, I sent the Commander.”

“Alone? I’ve heard the stories about his skill as a fighter, but even he couldn’t just win a war alone.”

Celestia shook her head. “That wasn’t the goal. If I’d sent the Royal Guard, I’d be just the tyrant he was. Imposing rule from afar always ends poorly. The Commander offered an alternative—helping the Stalliongradi populace rise up for themselves. He chose Watchful Eye to be their leader. You may recall the Tsar's reaction to the title of Baron a few hours ago."

"I see." Shining Armor nodded. “Who fought for Frostbite, if the population was being treated that way?”

“Frostbite paid his favorite police very well, and he had a great deal of money in support from the other nobles. He hired a considerable number of mercenaries from Griffonstone.”

Shining nodded yet again. "And Soldier On fought in the revolution?"

"I can’t imagine the Commander met her any other way," Celestia replied. Briefly, she turned her head to the window of her chamber, and her horn glowed as she pushed the sun below the horizon. "But I never knew for sure. She didn’t like to talk about her past; the few times I wasn’t too busy to talk while she was assigned to guarding me, we talked about music or worked on her Equiish. She was quite a good singer.” Celestia shook her head, and in the motion, Shining could see immeasurable fatigue. In his memory, it seemed the Princess had never before lost her train of thought. To her credit, she shifted back to her point quickly. “After Frostbite was overthrown and the last Windigo ran out of hatred to feed on…” Celestia trailed off at Shining’s look of confusion. It took her a moment’s thought to recognize the cause. “The Hearth’s Warming Eve pageant story isn’t as historical as you might believe, Captain. Stalliongrad is the site of the ancient unicorn capital, but the eternal winter that wraps the land isn’t some lingering magic. One of the windigoes from all those years ago is alive and well, somewhere in the tundra. But again, I digress. Steel brought Soldier On back here, perhaps a year or two after the revolution was over, to serve on the Honor Guard."

Shining Armor was shocked. "He recruited a war criminal for your personal guard? And you allowed it? All due respect, Princess, but have you gone insane?"

"I knew nothing about her actions in the revolution. I trusted Steel's judgment, Captain." She turned away from the night sky behind her, and offered a mournful gaze to Shining Armor. "Perhaps that was a mistake." She took on her most serious expression, one Shining recognized from her fateful duel with the Queen of the Changelings. "I will confront Soldier On, Captain. You are to pursue Mark Down's killer. The trail may lead you to Masquerade.”

Shining Armor bowed in acknowledgement of his orders, and then stepped out of his ruler's room, ready to finally face his unknown foe.

- - -

Dead Reckoning had to dodge out of the way when a trio of icicles flew toward his head. Reflexes built over three decades in the field were more than enough to pull him out of the way with ease, leaving the flying spears to shatter against a tree at the edge of their clearing. The broken shards of ice left dancing glimmers of purple, pink, and orange in the fading light of the sunset.

It didn't take Dead Reckoning long to begin an encouraging clap. "I'm impressed, Dash. You learn fast." He looked at the shards of her ice, melting on the dirt floor of the jungle, and compared them to his own effect. She certainly hadn't made quite as much of the frozen water, but her contribution was still amazing, especially given the difference in their experience.

He turned toward the filly standing with her wings in the lake, and his jaw dropped. She shook her head, burying whatever painful memory had given her the ice she used, and looked up at the effects of her magic. "I didn't do nearly as good as you, though," she said, disappointed. Clearly, she hadn't noticed her other effect.

"Maybe you don't have as much control," Reckoning's wing pointed to the water at Rainbow's hooves, "but you do have a lot more raw power. I'm sorry, by the way."

"Sorry for what?" Rainbow looked down, and Dead Reckoning couldn't help but laugh at her reaction. Nearly half the pond was covered in a sheet of thin ice. In the perfect mirror, she gave herself in a little smile, and adjusted her ill-fitting pith helmet. She must have thought she looked 'cool'. It wasn't often Reckoning got to interact with younger ponies, and the immaturity of it all warmed his heart.

As she finally broke away from her own image, he remembered her question. "Well, like I said, our magic is based on emotion. So I'm sorry, because whatever it was you thought of, it must have been really terrible."

Yet again, she obviously felt the need to be tough. "It's nothing." He obviously couldn't see inside her mind, but the ice on the pond was more than enough to make it clear how much her memory hurt. He didn't feel up to pressing the issue, though.

"If you say so. Now, come over here, and sit down, so I can explain a few more things." His wing patted a spot beside their lazily constructed fire pit, before he folded his legs and took a seat himself.

"Aw, but I wanted to try that again!"

The one-eyed pony shook his head. "Don't waste your time. Ice isn't any good in a fight." He could recall times when ponies had tried. Most of them ended up dead.

"You'll never make enough to actually freeze somepony."

"Well, maybe I want to be able to do something besides just hurt other ponies." The words were surprisingly scolding, and Reckoning had to stop, and remind himself that not everypony viewed life through his eye. Said eye wandered lazily toward the ground, as he reflected on how the amazing filly in front of him had wound up out in the Zebrican jungle. He felt the fairest thing to do was not to mention it, and that left his only option in the form of a lazy idiom he'd heard too many times in his own youth. "When you're Honor Guard, it's easy to forget about things like that." It hadn't originally been about the Honor Guard, but she didn't need to know that. Once upon a time, wars hadn't been from fairy tales.

Reckoning was caught completely off-guard by her response to the statement. "So, you don't have a family, or something? At least, some friends? What do you do with your time off?"

He really only spoke to the Griffons and Marathon anymore, and neither of them were delusional enough to ask a question like that. It was so ridiculous that it brought out a laugh, but not the sort he usually gave. He knew almost instantly that the barking, hollow noise he had made was the laugh of an old dying guard who didn't actually think something was funny. He didn't have much way to fix the noise, though, and so settled for explaining himself. "I haven't taken time off in six years, Rainbow Dash. And no, I don't have a family." It wasn't quite true; somewhere back in Equestria, he had a brother, along with at least a half-dozen nieces and nephews. Of course, none of them would welcome a visit from 'Crazy Uncle Deadeye'.

"The rest of the Honor Guard are the only ponies I'd really call friends." He hadn't meant to sound so sad, but he saw pity in Rainbow's eyes. It made him mad. "That's how the Honor Guard works. We give up everything for Celestia. Nopony else matters. No family. No friends. Just duty. I'm damn proud of that." He closed his good eye, so that only his scarred white orb was watching her. It had always struck him as strange that he would never know what that looked like, from somepony else's point of view. Regardless, the griffon talons had taken out most of his eyelid, so closing the thing properly was generally an exercise in futility. "Don't feel sorry for me. I chose the Broken Guard. It's what I do. Anyway, we were talking about magic, right?"

He had hoped to lighten spirits after the grim talk, but Rainbow seemed almost frightened by the sudden shift in his demeanor. "Uh... yeah. Ice magic."

"Right." He nodded firmly once. "Don't waste your time. You've got to figure out what sorts of magic work best for you. It's sort of like a cutie mark; it's based on what you're like, and who you are."

"So what kinds of magic are there? Can I see the future, or teleport?"

They were the questions everypony asked when they learned about pegasus magic, and in his lifetime, he'd answered them a dozen times. "No, you can't. That's unicorn magic, or as its supposed to be called, Arcana. We don't change the way the world works. We bend what's already there to our advantage. That means things like ice and thunder, but it also means animal instincts, for the 'Stare'."

"What about earth ponies?"

"That's the funny one. See, unicorns do magic, and pegasi make magic, but earth ponies are magic. Its called 'Endura'. The sort of things they do are always there, always... on, I guess you'd say. Some earth ponies can make things grow."

"What, like overnight? I bet Applejack would love that."

He didn't know who Applejack was, but given her name, it wasn't hard to guess. Everypony knew somepony from the Apple family. "No, not any faster. When an earth pony that has that sort of magic takes care of a plant, it grows bigger, and stronger, and healthier. You get more fruit, or bigger flowers, or whatever it is you're growing. That's why you don't see unicorns or pegasi with farms. We can't compete."

"I guess that makes sense." Rainbow nodded. "What else?"

"Well, some earth ponies are just really strong, like Soldier On. I've seen her buck through a solid stone wall before. That's pretty common, actually. They sometimes have some other weird, little things too. Lieutenant-" His words stopped, as he remembered the explanation Marathon had given him of recent events. Whatever she said, he still had a hard time believing the Commander was gone. "Sorry, Captain On has this sort of danger sense that I've never seen in anypony else. It's really weird, but she almost never gets hit by anypony who's attacking her, cause she knows exactly where everything is coming from."

"What, like Pinkie Sense?"

Dead Reckoning couldn't resist a sarcastic response. "Well, that depends on what the hay 'Pinkie Sense' is, apart from the dumbest name I've ever heard."

Rainbow opened her mouth to explain, but something stopped her. If Reckoning were to hazard a guess, he would have said that she decided the effort of explaining wasn't worth it. "It's nothing."

"If you say so. Now, back to pegasi. I figure we can try and teach you one more trick before you get some sleep. I figure you could probably learn a thunderclap or a smokescreen pretty easy."

It didn't take long for Rainbow to decide. "Thunderclap. Definitely."

Reckoning nodded. He had expected the answer, though he didn't bother clarifying that it was because of the traits she shared with Thunder Crack. She probably would have reacted poorly. "Thought so. All right, you do this with your back legs. Try and think of something exciting, that gets your blood pumping." He stood up, and flexed his own hind legs, balancing with his wings. "Anger works too, but it's usually pretty hard to get angry on purpose."

Rainbow followed his motions, and then closed her eyes. Reckoning just waited as her imagination conjured whatever exciting thing (or pony, as Crack preferred) would get her blood pumping.

Then the world exploded in light and sound. His chest burned in fiery agony. Everything went bright white.

His eyes opened slowly. The world was still fuzzy at the edges. The first things he saw were the grass, and his hooves. The right one was bleeding, heavily, in two places. Blood was staining his fur, and the grass beneath it.

The air smelt like ozone, from the lightning that was probably still flying everywhere. His ears were ringing, and all he could hear was a high-pitched, constant squeal.

Somepony pulled him to his hooves. Or maybe it was his wings. It was hard to tell. Everything was sore. He pulled up his head, and looked around.

He had fallen in a hole, probably torn up by a unicorn fireball. The low divot had probably saved his life, keeping him out of view of the enemy. It took a hard, painful stretch for him to press up to the side and peek over the top.

They were getting closer. At least six big ones. Three had weapons, one was obviously a mage of some kind, and the last two were the kind that killed with their claws and talons and beaks, like animals. The ringing had just barely started to fade when he heard a clear voice behind him in the crater.

"Get up, Reckoning! You need to be airborne, now!" He spun around, swinging a wing-blade in a wide arc. The mare behind him jumped back in shock. "Watch it, Sergeant!"

"Shut the hell up, Captain!" He hissed. "We've got six of them, coming this way. I can't out-fly that, not in the open."

Unending Vigil was utterly serious when she answered him. "I don't expect you to, Sergeant. Just get them in the air, and Flag's squad will take them down."

It was a suicide mission for anypony else, but that was why she'd called on Dead Reckoning. He flexed his wings and nodded. "Are they ready?"

"Do it."

He shot off into the foggy blue. It took barely two seconds for the first bolt of lightning to soar over his shoulder. He rolled to the side, wings pulled in, and then dropped into a dive, as the second shot over his head. Their mage had good aim, and great reactions, but neither were good enough. The pegasus was going far too fast. He'd made it nearly a half-mile into the sky when he finally saw them following. The griffon's bigger wings were faster, but less agile. The latter made little difference in the open sky, but the savannah of northern Zebrica had few trees or obstacles for an alternative.

The unicorns in hiding below surged up as one. The sky filled with bursts of light. The griffons dropped, one after another. It was probably wrong, but he smiled as he watched them fall. Better than ponies.

A sharp pain in his left wing cut off his pleasure. He jerked back to see the last griffon clutching his wing. They were falling, together, and none of the unicorns were shooting. It took him a moment of agonizing pain, in freefall, to realize why.

It was using him as cover.

"Shoot! Shoot, damn it!" His words were lost in the wind, but he heard the griffon's laugh.

"Not today, pony." Its wings flared out a mere dozen feet from the ground. The collision stole the air from his lungs, and cracked at least two of his ribs. He couldn't get up. The monster stood over him, and pulled back a wickedly sharp talon. Its focus was on his face, on his right eye.

That's wrong... I lost my left eye.

The claw swung forward, and stopped, as a pegasus mare delivered a crushing buck to the monster's face. It recoiled in fear and pain, but she wasn't done. Her rear hooves bucked out again, and with the sound of a thundering cannon, the creature fled into the sky. A single burst of magic claimed its life.

The mare who'd saved his life turned back to him with a mix of anger and confusion.

"Easy Breeze?" He asked.

That's ridiculous; she was never a soldier, and she lived in Cloudsdale.

The friendly mare grabbed him by both shoulders and looked straight into his eye-s.

"What's gotten into you, Reckoning? And how do you know my mom?"

"Your mom was named Easy Breeze too? I didn't know that." Reckoning waved off the strange comment and smiled at the beautiful mare standing before him. "Well, you saved my life there. I didn't know you could make a thunderclap."

"What are you talking about? You taught me that, like, ten minutes ago!"

"I..."

There was no slow fading, no easy transition. He simply blinked, and it was gone. The plains, the Royal Guard, the dead griffons, the fire and the thunder, all disappeared. In their place were the trees and brush of the deep jungle, and the mare standing in front of him was Rainbow Dash, clad in her silly helmet and a slightly torn safari shirt. She looked angry.

"What the hay is wrong with you, Reckoning? I did the thunderclap, and then you totally freaked out."

He blinked the one eye that could, and shook his head vigorously. "You sent me back, Rainbow."

"What?" she snapped.

"It's not your fault. How far is camp?" He hoped his non-answer would get her to drop it. It didn't take much to make him realize it was a stupid hope.

"You only flew a few hundred feet." He turned, only for Rainbow to angrily grab his shoulder. "This way. But that doesn't answer anything. I need an answer."

Reckoning sighed. "I had a flashback."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

He hated explaining. "Your thunderclap made me think it was - Celestia, I don't know, thirty-eight years ago? Maybe thirty-nine now? Anyway, the griffons went to war with us. I thought I was there."

"So you just went crazy?" Rainbow's anger was blurred with concern. "Do you do that a whole lot?"

He stopped walking, and nodded. "Maybe once a week. Usually, if something catches me off guard. Look, we can talk about it back at camp. I need to think."

Rainbow's reaction was a throaty growl, but even with her hunched shoulders and her disappointed tone, she gave the stallion his precious privacy. He spent the next dozen steps wishing the walk wouldn't end. Only one realization came to him as he paced across the jungle, and that was that a very, very old burn on the center of his chest was very, very hot.

When they finally reached camp, he sat down a bare few inches from the fire and bluntly ignored the heat. His hooves and wings idly began unbuttoning his shirt as he waited for the questions to begin.

Rainbow, ever eager to live up to her speed-related titles, didn't waste any time in picking up. "You're telling me that you have flashbacks to a war from forty years ago?"

"Not just that, no. The Dragon War. The Blizzard Revolution. Maybe a half-dozen more." He kept his voice as bland as possible, in an attempt to control himself.

Rainbow nodded very, very slowly. "Right. And these flashbacks happen all the time?"

"Maybe once a week, like I said." He was aware that a grating tone had entered his voice, but he neither bothered to change it, nor cared.

"And you just thought that not saying anything would be fine and dandy?"

The filly's sarcastic tone sent him over the edge. "Listen, Rainbow Dash, I didn't ask to be like this. I've spent my entire life making it so that Equestria can be a safe, happy place for ponies like you who don't even know I exist. Got it? Well, some time a while ago, something inside me decided that I couldn't take it anymore, and I snapped. Okay?"

Rainbow's mouth hung slightly open as the bigger, older pony paced around and thrust a hoof against her chest, pressing her toward the ground. He wasn't about to take her interruptions, or her sarcasm. "I thought it was over. So much for a special talent as a scout when the guard won't take you, but it turns out there was a pony who understood what was up with me. The Commander found out about me, and he let me join up with the Broken Guard, just like that. I was with all the other freaks, keeping our own little secrets, and everything was fine and dandy, until one day I blew that chance too. I had a flashback in front of Princess Celestia, and I hit her in the face. So now, I'm out here in the middle of nowhere, wasting my life playing border patrol on the Griffons, because I'm an embarrassment to everything I've ever stood for!"

He finished his rant panting, with his wings flared and his one eye glaring as tightly as it could. He could feel the veins popping in his forehead, as his heart struggled to keep up with his fury.

Rainbow seemed terrified. It took a great deal too long for Reckoning to realize that the wing blade he had never taken off his right wing was pressed close against her throat. In that instant, the anger and the force were gone, replaced in total by shame. He stalked back to his side of the fire and curled up onto the dirt. "I'm sorry you have to put up with me. You deserve better than getting stuck out here."

He lay there, with his eye closed, and waited for the usual half-sleep that made up his nights to overtake him. It was to his incredible surprise when a warm, gentle wing wrapped around him tightly, and a soft weight pressed against his side.

Rainbow's voice was still shaken, and he could feel her keeping herself away from his bladed wing, but she still had the courage to speak up. "I can't imagine what it would be like to be told you couldn't use your special talent."

He looked over at the mare embracing him, and shook his head. "You've got guts, Dash, to come sit next to me. I shouldn't have shouted at you."

"No, you shouldn't have." Rainbow slapped his shoulder with a hoof. "But I think I'm a cool enough pony to shake that off."

"I didn't warn you. I can't really have expected you to act any differently. What actually happened?"

"Well, when you said a thunderclap, I didn't realize it came with actual lightning." His mind locked onto the words, even though Rainbow kept talking. "I think I hit you in the chest. You were out cold for a minute, but when you woke up, you started calling me Captain, and then you just flew off. I followed you, but a hippogriff came after you when you got above the canopy. I used the thunderclap to scare it off."

"Well... thanks." He put his head down on his hooves. "Can you take the first watch?"

"Sure." She pressed her wing tighter against his side. "Just warn me if you've got any more crazy- er, personal things I should know."

He didn't think the mistake was funny, but he gave her a laugh for comfort's sake. "Not until morning. There's a bag of little black seeds in my saddlebags. Take two before you got to sleep. They'll help you train your magic. And one more thing, Dash."

"Yeah?"

"You're the first pony who's had the guts to stay close to me after one of those. Thanks for that."

The words she answered were so foreign that they had to have been part of a dream. "That's what friends are for."

He slept soundly and calmly, for the first night in twenty years.

- - -

Celestia's quill scratched widely across her page when a thunderous knock shook the door of her study. Her late-night attempt to focus her thoughts and regain her energy had been interrupted. Her letter to Twilight was ruined, and would need to be rewritten. With no more than a thought, it was put aside. She resolved to scold whichever guardspony was standing outside the door, before recalling that Soldier On had yet to report back, and she’d been forced to bar the doors with her own magic for lack of another healthy Honor Guard anywhere near Canterlot to take the place.

With a sideways glance, her magic opened the door, revealing another alicorn flanked by a pair of stallions in heavy black coats.

"Watchful Eye, this is unexpected. And Foresight as well." She was careful not to sound entirely pleased; the nobleponies were supposed to have left. Briefly locking eyes with the smallest of the assembled ponies, a blood red pegasus, she spoke up again. "I’m afraid you’ll have to remind me of your name, my little pony.”

“My name is Roscherk Krovyu.” The words may have been right, but the timing and inflection were off. She doubted the young stallion really spoke Equiish, though that hardly mattered to him. Even in the way he locked eyes with her, she could feel the strength of his magic. He was a soldier, and a talented one at that.

“Red Ink,” Foresight offered. “If you prefer an Equiish name.” In the back of her mind, Celestia idly noted that the translation Foresight had provided was extremely generous.

“What are you doing here, Foresight?” Celestia turned toward the unicorn of the group. “The train back to Stalliongrad left three hours ago."

“I purchased an airship,” Foresight answered, sounding more irritated at having to have spent the sum than proud of the sheer wealth such a purchase required. Beneath his gold-rimmed glasses, Celestia noted the beginnings of the purple bags that would explain his short temper.

The Tsar stepped slightly forward from his entourage. “I shared a small portion of what you discussed at the meeting of the Stable of Nobles. My sons,” Foresight tilted his head briefly in the direction of the red pegasus, “wanted to offer their assistance.”

Celestia caught her lip before it showed a real frown. She’d been hoping they weren’t just trying to garner favors. She opened her mouth, ready for some casual acceptance of the token offer, and then stopped, her tongue paused just behind her teeth. In place of pleasantries, she raised a brow. “What, specifically, are you offering?”

Foresight and Red Ink glanced at one another. The latter spoke up. “Masquerade.”

“Stallions, I will be blunt.” Celestia turned her head away from the group, glancing out the window of her bedroom. “I have fifty-thousand of the best soldiers—” The princess stopped abruptly at what sounded almost like a snort. Red Ink fought and failed to restrain a chuckle behind his wing. “Is something funny?”

Ink shook his head. “Princess, Masquerade is assassin, not old mare needing help to cross street.”

“Roscherk,” Watchful Eye scolded sharply. “Уважение.”

In Celestia’s mind, she heard ‘respect.’

The black-jacketed guardspony shrugged with his wing. “Apology, Princess.”

“What my brother was trying to convey,” Foresight picked up, “is that we are trained to deal with Masquerade in a way the Royal Guard simply isn’t.”

“Are you offering me the services of your Black Cloaks?” The Princess let her shoulders relax, trying to restore calm after Ink’s mockery. “Does your domain have so many guardsponies to spare?”

Red Ink shook his head. “Wrong ‘we’, Princess. I am likely taking squad or two of best soldiers, but not whole guard. But ‘we’ are brother and I.”

Celestia considered the stallions for a moment, and then let her attention settle directly on Foresight. “I would appreciate it if you were blunt as well. I remember Twilight telling me about your skills in dueling club at my school, and I’ve heard more than a few rumors about Ink’s talents. But if I knew where Masquerade was, I would fly out and hunt her down myself. If I knew some spell to reveal her location, I would cast it. What do you offer?”

“Experience.” Red Ink almost growled the word.

Foresight nodded. “Four years ago, not long after Princess Luna’s…” Foresight hesitated nervously. “…return, Stalliongrad was divided.”

“I thought you had finished the Blizzard Revolution before my sister’s return.”

“We had.” Celestia watched as Foresight’s golden magic began to idly fiddle with the scarf he wore in place of a necktie. “But life doesn’t just go back to normal the minute a peace treaty is signed. Baron Frostbite had a lot of money, and we had a lot of hungry farmers who wanted to go back to their farms.”

Red Ink made a noise in his throat; Celestia wasn’t sure it was meant to be a word. All she was certain of was the anger the sounded conveyed.

Foresight spared his brother an irritated glance before continuing—fiddling with his scarf all the while. “The domain needed the money to fix the railroad, and set up a real guard so we wouldn’t be eaten by yetis or vargr or the other things you find in the tundra. Land devoted to storehouses and housing. But the… I don’t want to say ‘common ponies,’ but I’m not really sure what else to use…”

Watchful Eye glanced to his son. “It is a label of honor. Common ponies are more honest than our ‘peers’.”

Celestia caught herself genuinely smiling at the Tsar’s comment, though the grin lasted only a few seconds under the pressure of recent events. “I assume, Foresight, that these hard-working ponies thought they deserved a larger portion of the spoils of battle?”

Foresight nodded. “They wanted it all, Princess. They wanted to carve it up like a Hearth’s Warming pie. It sounds nice, but I’m sure you know that just isn’t realistic. So we tried to explain. But they didn’t understand, or they didn’t listen. First protests, then riots. They wouldn’t listen to me; they started calling me ‘the new Frostbite’. Ink didn’t have any better luck. But they would listen to our youngest brother.”

Celestia’s eyes widened ever so slightly. “I see…” Her eyes glanced back to the window, altogether too aware of what was coming next in the story.

It was Red Ink who picked up. “Masquerade killed Polnoch. Galm’s Elixir. Took his body.”

A wince flashed over Celestia’s face. She knew the poison; it wasn’t fast enough to work on Luna, but for a mortal pony, the pain was excruciating.

“I’m sorry.”

Ink’s response sent a chill down Celestia’s spine. “Let me kill her.”

“Ahem,” Foresight cut in. “Ink, perhaps you should step outside.”

Ink shook his head. “Princess is understanding. If it were Luna—” The other two stallions in the room twitched at the harsh statement, but Ink simply left the thought incomplete, hanging in the air. His only addition was to turn his body fully toward Celestia, and stare straight into her eyes for a few long seconds. With the unspoken question conveyed completely, the harsh red stallion turned away and walked out of Celestia’s presence.

Foresight and Watchful Eye were silent for what seemed like far too long. Celestia wished one of them would speak up, if only so her mind would stop fighting to finish Ink’s parting sentence. Finally, out of sheer desperation, she broke the quiet. “If you didn’t catch her, how did you know it was Masquerade?”

A look of shame and guilt flickered over Foresight’s lightly wrinkled muzzle. “She takes her contracts through intermediaries. Ink and I were able to track down the pony who handle the contract on Polnoch—his name meant ‘Midnight’, if that’s helpful, Princess.”

Celestia nodded, knowing that she needed to hear what Foresight had to say, but hating to watch the suffering it took him to tell his story.

“The intermediary was a pharmacist. Masquerade had used him to mix the poison. When we confronted him… Ink didn’t take long to make him talk.” Golden magic cinched up Foresight’s scarf. “He told us that Masquerade let him keep a quarter of the contract, so he’d be motivated to keep handling contracts. He also told us who’d placed the contract.”

“And who was that?”

Foresight swallowed nervously, and glanced back at the door to the room. “Princess… do you know the name ‘Stoikaja’?”

Celestia felt as if she’d been slapped. “Soldier On?”

“It more literally means ‘Resistant’, but I think that’s the Equiish name she’s been using. In Stalliongrad, she fought alongside us in the Blizzard Revolution. When we won, she led the ponies who demanded we divide up Frostbite’s property completely. When Polnoch started to work out a compromise that would solve our problem, she had him killed. Then she claimed we’d done it, and started up a new rebellion.” Foresight hung his head. “Ink thought he had killed her, a few years back. Hurled her off of Frostbite’s wall. The rebels claimed she was still alive somewhere. We never knew for sure.” He lifted his head. “Not until she walked right in front of us downstairs, dressed like a Royal Guard.”

“She’s Honor Guard,” Celestia explained. “The Commander brought her here.”

Watchful Eye winced. “No. No, he wouldn’t do that. He knew what she did to us.”

Ignoring the alicorn’s pensive struggle, Foresight adjusted his scarf yet again. “I can’t tell you why he brought her here, Princess. You certainly knew him better than I did. But what we can offer you is this. The Commander trained my brother to be a soldier. And with the Commander’s passing, Red Ink might just be the strongest pegasus in Equestria. I don’t say this out of pride—I’m absolutely not proud of my brother for it—but I stopped Ink from fighting Stoikaja downstairs because I know that his fire magic would burn up that whole room, and everypony in it. He’s spent the last four years hunting Masquerade and Stoikaja. He knows how they think. How they run. Where they hide.”

The unicorn forced down a breath. “Princess, if you’ve heard of my brother, then you know his reputation. And a lot of it is deserved. Believe me, I know that he isn’t the most pleasant pony. But right now, he is the best chance we have of catching Masquerade and saving Princess Luna. All we want out of it is the chance to ask her what she did with Polnoch’s body, so we can finally put his memory to rest.”

Celestia nodded on autopilot; her mind was locked on the image of a burly Stalliongradi mare in gilded armor. Had Soldier On really betrayed her?

Foresight paced slowly to the door, and only when it had closed in near-perfect silence did the Princess realize that Watchful Eye was still sitting in her room, as if waiting to be acknowledged. "This information could well save Luna's life, Tsar Eye. I hope you can forgive my earlier terseness. Thank you for bringing your sons to speak with me."

"You need not give thanks. Letting my youngest rest will be thanks enough."

Celestia nodded, slowly. She hadn't yet had much time to speak with the new ruler of Stalliongrad, but his refusal of the offer of Luna's power had earned him at least the potential for the Princess' respect. "Forgive me, but is there something else?"

"Yes, Princess. You saw my son, Red Ink. He is... bloodthirsty."

She chose a diplomatic response. "I’ve known many determined, driven ponies before."

"You and I both know that his actions do not deserve pride. The ponies of Stalliongrad are afraid of him and his Black Cloaks, but rule by fear doesn’t last—certainly not without becoming evil.” The rather small alicorn bowed his head slightly. “He still fights for justice—or at least I force myself to believe that he does. He hasn’t yet fallen to hurting innocents or condemning ponies who disagree with him. But with the way his path is going, I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time.”

Celestia offered a slow nod. "I understand your concern, Watchful Eye, but I'm afraid I don't know what you want me to do about it. I can speak to him on the subject, if you would like, but you are his father."

"My proposal is different, Princess. Whatever else my son may be, he is an amazing soldier. On that front, Foresight told the truth. He learned everything he knew about serving as a guard from the Commander, during the Revolution. But I know that the Commander was not a pony who ruled by fear. And I know that you aren’t either. If the acts Twilight Sparkle has achieved say anything at all, I know you can teach him. Let Roscherk serve you the way the Commander did. After he has saved your sister, you can save him."

Celestia glanced up toward the ceiling of her chambers, and the thin terrace where the Commander used to look down at her from above. Whether she liked it or not, she knew she needed Red Ink’s knowledge, and his skill.

Without speaking a word, the Princess’ gaze returned to Watchful Eye. Slowly, mournfully, she nodded.

Pre-read and edited by SatoshiKyu and Ferrix. Thanks!

VIII - Prestidigitation

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VIII: Prestidigitation
- - -

In the early hours of true night, The Humble Vineyard was not home to many patrons. A waiter approached the one and only guest who still had yet to order. He didn't have to prompt her to state what she wanted. "A plate of spaghetti," the mare ordered.

"Will that be our Spaghetti Tradizionale, or the Spaghetti Spinaci, tonight?"

She rolled her eyes at the question. "The normal one, whatever that is."

"Of course. And to drink?"

"You still have any of that single malt stuff?"

The waiter nodded stiffly. "Does ma'am prefer the Shetland or the Clydesdale?"

"The stronger the better," she responded, with a cocky smile. "That'll be it."

"Of course, ma'am. I'll be back in a moment to take sir's order."

"Sir? What are you talking-" Going Solo's good mood evaporated in a glance at pony approaching her table. Without asking her permission, the towering stallion sat down opposite her, and offered her a stern gaze.

"Good morning, Going Solo."

"Shining Armor." The drug-dealer wrinkled her nose. "Do you even have any non-criminal contacts?"

"Easy missions are for recruits who I don't want in danger."

"There's no need to flatter me," Solo responded, as sarcastically as possible. "I take it you figured out what you wanted after last time we spoke. Where's the cute filly?"

"That's none of your business, Solo. Your info did help us out, though, even if it almost got me killed."

"Yeah, well at least one of us held up their end of the bargain, then." The mare adjusted her vest and glared. "Where'd you throw the thing, anyway?"

"What 'thing'?"

"My wagon! You told me I could go get it and head out, but when I showed up at your stupid headquarters the next morning, they said it had been commandeered for a covert operation."

Shining shrugged, and then shook his head. "I don't remember approving anything like that. I'll take a look when things settle down. Right now, though, I need your help."

"Fat chance of that, Shining. I don't work on credit."

Shining Armor leaned forward and placed both his forelegs on the table. It was a gentle motion, but it drew out the incredible difference in the pony's sizes. "Then you can consider not being arrested as payment."

"What, you're going to accuse me of treason again? I don't think that's really gonna stick. It's not going to scare me, that's for sure."

Shining narrowed his eyes. "I'm not asking a lot."

"I think you're not asking at all, Shining Armor. What do you actually need from me?"

He glanced left and right, making sure nopony was listening. Only when satisfied did he build up the courage to speak. "I'm looking for a pony named Grizz. I think you mentioned him."

Going Solo's face broke into a wicked grin, before she fell back on her haunches. "Grizz? Grizzaloo? As in the Grizzaloo?" She struggled to speak between peals of laughter. "You want me to set you up with him?"

"Do I sound like I'm kidding?" the Captain responded in an entirely serious tone.

It took her a moment to choke down the humor he didn't share. "Well, the way I see it, there's two reasons you could come to me for this. Maybe, you're kidding. If not, it means you sure as hay don't understand the first thing about Grizzaloo." Solo looked up from the guardspony across the table as the waiter placed down a plate of spaghetti, accompanied by an entire bottle of single-malt Clydesdale whiskey. He glanced Shining Armor's way, only to be waved away by a hoof. He left the two ponies in peace with no more than a curt nod.

Shining returned his focus to the mare, who had begun to greedily consume her dinner. "I know he's a minor crime boss, and that some of my guard use him as a source when things are going bad. What else is there?"

"Wllmph..." She gulped down an enormous mouthful before continuing. "Well, you're pretty far-off the mark if you think he's a boss. Grizzaloo works alone, and he's more like a vigilante than a crime boss."

"A vigilante?"

"Well, not the way you'd usually think. He gets his cash running basically a protection racket on good, honest merchants like me." The sarcasm wasn't lost on the captain, who nodded sternly. "Most everypony who works in the shadows answers to him, sort of. He looks down on us, and sometimes he'll force his own crazy rules on us."

"Like what?"

"He'll break your knees if you try to sell to kids. Don't mug anypony poor enough to live in Down Town. That sort of thing. It sounds nice, when you aren't on the receiving end."

"Okay, so what does that have to do with you?"

"Grizzaloo hates me, Shining Armor. He might just hate everypony altogether; I don't know. But I can't just walk up to him and say I want to talk. Or rather, I could, but I like being able to fly on my own."

"I'll take care of walking up, Solo. I just need directions."

Going Solo stopped, and looked around the room nervously. To her satisfaction, the restaurant was almost completely abandoned that night. Her answer still came in a whisper. "He won't see you. Look, we can go together, if you need it that bad, but you've got to make it worth my time."

"If it's that much of an issue, I'll go in armored and just get the information I need the simple way."

"Don't be an idiot, Shining Armor. You think he'd still be out free if he were dumb enough to get caught by a raid? No, it's gonna have to be my way. Meet me on Gravel Street in a few hours. And do something with your coat. You're a little too famous these days to be walking around unnoticed."

Shining nodded and stood up. "Thanks."

Going Solo answered by stretching her wings and rising to her own hooves. "Don't thank me just yet, Captain. Clydesdale scotch is expensive." Before Shining could process the statement, she shot out an open window nearby, leaving Shining to deal with the approaching waiter, and the little black tab his horn carried through the air.

- - -

In the glow of a small but vibrant campfire a young mare sat beside an old and broken stallion. With his every breath, she endured the curious sensation of his coat brushing against hers. She had yet to decide if the feeling was comforting. She could recall feeling the same contact from her grandfather on long nights as a young filly when her wings were just getting used to really flying. She had loved it more than anything else when he carried her high into the sky, further than her still-growing wings could carry her, and then held her in his forehooves and let her look down on the whole world without the fear of falling.

Unlike her grandfather, Rainbow could not bring herself to be truly comfortable with Dead Reckoning. She'd seen beneath the thin veneer of his jokes and the cocky way he carried himself through the thick jungle. She'd seen in the corner of his eye both the cold analysis of a killer, and the stark shine of madness.

It was in spite of these faults that she offered him her presence and her comfort, because she could tell that he needed them. Some part of her offering came out of pity. Some came from guilt at the way she had yelled at him, despite his own error. No small part came from her desire to remain away from the tree line, where her imagination assured her that some dragon or manticore or other beast waited to leap out and devour her at the first opportunity.

Most of her decision to remain at Reckoning's side, though, found its origin at a word that had already begun to lose its meaning for her. A word that in her mind could not possibly be separated from her own destiny, or a vibrant golden necklace buried away in an impregnable vault in Canterlot. Blindly, Loyalty had torn her away from her friends and thrust her into the dense dark jungles of Zebrica, even as it forced her into the one organization that she had learned to truly hate as a child.

It had taken her a long time to realize just how she felt. The night and the jungle had provided such time without resistance. As their campfire slowly became the sole light, save the pale crescent glowing overhead, Rainbow heard nothing but the chirping of crickets and the soft rustling of the wind in the leaves. There was nothing to see, and the only sensation she experienced were the same wind tickling her mane, and the slow breathing of the stallion beside her.

Her first thoughts had been simple, focused on her present situation. Could she trust Dead Reckoning? Could she forgive him? The latter was answered with a simple yes, in the timid voice of Fluttershy. The former, though, was a harder issue. Asking the stallion himself would probably give the best answer.

After those were finished, she imagined herself in Ponyville. No doubt Twilight had found some new book to bury herself in. With the end of summer in sight and applebuck season around the corner, Applejack would be making a stupid bet with her older brother, and then calling in her friends to help win it. Dash could almost see Big Mac's face as the enormous pony stuttered when confronted with his sister's friends asking him to do something embarrassing (or just say ten words in a row). Pinkie Pie had probably come up with a bunch of great pranks. Rainbow entertained how great it would be to freeze Ponyville Lake with her new magic while somepony wasn't looking. The look would be priceless. Rarity was probably up to some insane order again. Maybe she'd decided to make dresses for the Grand Galloping Gala. The plan had been for the six friends to return after their misadventures four years earlier, but Rainbow wasn't sure that was likely anymore. Would there even be a gala this year, after everything that had happened? Finally, Fluttershy could almost be guaranteed to be up to her usual animal care. Her life, out of all Rainbow's friends, seemed the most stable and calm. Whether that was saying much wasn't exactly clear. Then there was her number one fan. The squirt probably still hadn't figured how to get off the ground yet, though that wouldn't stop her from doing more damage than Rainbow ever did crashing into buildings all across town.

Then came reflections on just what she was doing out in the Zebrican jungle, or in the Honor Guard at all. She'd broken her one promise to her grandfather. Papa would forgive her in an instant, even though they hadn't spoken in a few years. She wondered why she hadn't stopped by. The last time had been at the Young Flier's Competition, four years earlier, and that even that had been for no more than a few minutes.

The minor regrets and flights of fantasy were stolen away when the mass of pony beneath her wing stirred. A slow groan escaped his mouth. The stretching of his legs was followed by a series of painful pops and snaps. His eye squinted, taking in the dark of the surrounding jungle. His wings spread for only a moment, before contacting hers. Then his head jumped to the side. He seemed angry, or at least worried, for a moment. Then a genuine smile broke across his face.

"You let me sleep too long."

Rainbow looked up at the moon for the twentieth time that night. It had already passed most of the way into the westernmost quarter of the sky, nearly ready to set for the night. "I guess you needed it. I'm fine."

"First rule of being a guardspony, Rainbow Dash. You take care of yourself, or somepony else gets hurt. Today, somepony else is me, so get some rest."

Rainbow shook her head. "I wanna talk first."

Reckoning was quiet for that. His shoulders sagged, spreading heavy wrinkles across his dirt-stained shirt and his tired and brutalized face. The garment seemed to wear a scowl where he could not, or would not. "I guess I owe you that. What can I tell you?"

"Well, to start with, what do I do if you, uh..." It occurred to Rainbow that 'fly off the handle' wasn't the most gentle of ways to address him. "... if you have another flashback?"

"Just wait it out and keep an eye on me." He shrugged. "Honestly, I can usually take care of myself, but it doesn't hurt to have somepony there. What else?"

"Am I safe?" The question came out too fast, spat out like alfalfa from the tongue of a young foal, desperate to be rid of the taste.

"What?" The question, thrown out as it was, made him draw back in something bordering on offense.

"Well, you kinda said you attacked the Princess... do I need to worry about you coming after me, if something happens?"

He wouldn't even meet Rainbow's eyes when he answered her question. "I've only attacked another pony twice, Dash, and both times it was because they tried to keep me from going after whatever it was that my mind said was the enemy. With the Princess, it was during a meeting with the griffon ambassador. I would have killed him if she hadn't stopped me."

"Oh." The simple utterance was all that Rainbow's mind could think of for an answer.

"Soldier On wouldn't have sent you out here if I couldn't protect you, anyway."

In retrospect, Rainbow would realize that he meant the words simply to placate her. At that very moment, though, her interpretation wrinkled her muzzle. "What's that supposed to mean? I was doing just fine against those Manticores on my own!"

"Calm down, Dash. I'm not trying to say anything about you."

She barely acknowledged the words. "I'm out here to save Princess Luna, not to have you babysit me!"

The pause before Reckoning answered her was disheartening. Again, his eye stayed away from hers. "Dash, that's not..."

"Not what they meant?" Rainbow rolled her eyes, as her anger progressed. "I know. I heard Crack and Marathon talking about it before I left. They shipped me off here because they think if I try to actually help, I'll get myself hurt or killed. It's like they don't even care about Princess Luna!"

"Why are you so worried about her, Dash?"

The question was honest. That fact was what most set Rainbow's face into a state of astonishment and wonder. They too were quickly swept up by the fire of her previous anger. "Because she's the Princess! Because she's dying! Why does it even matter? I'm going to help her."

"Do you have a crush on her?"

Rainbow was struck speechless, earning a potent chuckle from the older stallion. "No, I don't," she protested. He offered her a quirky one-eyed glance, as if accusing her of falsehood. A blush covered her face, not embarrassment at the insinuation. "Really! It's not like I spend a ton of time with her or anything, anyway!"

Reckoning held up a hoof to calm the increasingly excited mare. He waited until her panting breaths slowed to speak up. "I was just teasing. What I mean is, why did you get involved? Why join the Honor Guard? Do you even know her?"

"I..." Rainbow's mind caught up to her tongue. He was right, in a way. All her momentum spilled out in a moment of doubt. "No, I guess not. I really just talked to her once, a couple days ago."

"And she convinced you to give up your whole life to become a guardspony then?"

The fervor and the fury were back in an instant at that question. "Of course not! I'm not giving up my whole life or anything! As soon as this whole mess is over, I'm quitting."

Reckoning's eyes widened. "That's a shame, Rainbow. You'd make a good guardspony with a little practice."

"Yeah, well I'm not going to give up my whole life for it, so sorry. Anyway, that's what I promised Princess Celestia. I'd help save Luna, and then that's it, and I only did that because nopony else was going to!"

"Nopony else? There's the whole Honor Guard for this sort of thing... even if we are running short on members these days."

Rainbow shook her head. "That's what I keep getting told, but it sure doesn't seem like most of you even care about her." A dozen little clues slowly flitted together in her mind. "I hadn't really thought about it. I guess I just kinda dove in headfirst. But now that I think about it, it's like I'm the only one who actually wants to help her for the sake of helping her. She seemed so lonely."

A sudden shift overtook the scout's features. His eye narrowed and his mouth turned grim, not out of anger, but guilt. Rainbow hadn't the slightest hint as to the feeling's source, and his next words only made the emotion more cryptic. "You're right, in a way. She's lucky to have you looking out for her."

"Well, it's only 'til we figure this whole mess out. Then I'm done."

"Fair enough." There was clearly nothing more the older pony had to say on the subject. Reckoning walked away from the fire, approaching the nearby pond. "Want me to wash your shirt while you get some sleep?"

She was quiet for a moment, as her misplaced anger settled to little more than the half-lit flames of their campfire. Afterward, it took a few seconds and a pointed stare from Deadeye to realize she had been asked a question. "Huh? Oh, sure." Rainbow struggled out of the dirty shirt one button at a time. As her hooves and wings fumbled with the fabric, she raised another question. "Reckoning, why did you join the guard?"

He didn't turn around to answer. Instead, Rainbow's ear only clearly heard the echoes of his voice as it bounced across the pond and back, distant and reflective. "I signed up to see the world."

Rainbow cocked her head. "That's it?"

"Do I need a better reason? Sure, it's not deep or surprising, but it is the truth." He gave off a little chuckle, and went back to cleaning his shirt. "Eat two of those seeds in my bag, before you forget."

"Oh, yeah." Rainbow made her way over to the pile of supplies beside the fire, and dug around until she found a rough brown canvas pouch. After loosening the drawstrings, she found eight dozen almost nut-like spherical seeds spilling out. "What are these?"

"Phage seeds. Think of them like weights for your magic. You'll feel lousy in the morning, but they'll make you stronger."

"Hold on!" Rainbow protested. "I'm not taking any crazy magic steroids. I'd never get on the Wonderbolts!"

Reckoning groaned. "They're not steroids, Dash. You'll still be working to get stronger. They'll make you work on less magic, which is harder, but when you're done, you'll be a better flier and better at magic. Just trust me on this, okay?"

"...fine." Rainbow popped two of the little orbs into her mouth and bit down. They were surprisingly juicy, though their taste was reminiscent of overripe kiwis. She decided quickly that she wasn't a fan, and swallowed both seeds with a single exaggerated gulp. The taste lingered on her tongue, thick and lurid. She darted quickly to the side of the pond, ducking her muzzle into the water to clean away the taste.

Once it was gone, her first thought of her surroundings was Reckoning chuckling beside her. "Yeah, I'm not much for the taste either, but if you need something to eat, there's not much better for you. That is, if you can spare your magic."

Rainbow pulled her head away from the pond and looked up at Dead Reckoning. Without his shirt, his chest was exposed, and what it contained left Rainbow speechless. A spider's web of raised black and red burn scars spun over the front of his body, nearly reaching his shoulders on both sides.

Briefly, her mind raced back to a memory of a bolt of lightning and a crack of thunder flying from her rear legs. "Did I do that?"

Reckoning looked down at his chest, and his light laughter died away. "No, Dash. This wound is a few years old now." His wings went back to the water. "I'd rather not talk about it right now, if that's alright. Can I ask you something?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

"Why don't you like the guard?"

The question set off a dozen little alarms in the mare's mind. Her stance curled up slightly, and her response came off defensive and reactionary. "When did I say that?"

"You didn't need to." He gestured with his muzzle toward the way her feathers were peeking up on end at the bases of her wings. "You said something about 'giving up your whole life'." Having made his point, he looked at her, eye to eyes, trying to put on his gentlest face. It didn't do much for Rainbow. "Nopony ever said you had to. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

She stared down into the pond, and saw her own eyes staring back. "It's not a big deal, I guess." Her words were no more convincing to her own ears than they must have been to Reckoning's. "When I was really little, like two or three, my dad joined the guard to fight in the Dragon Wars. He said he'd be okay; promised me, even, but he never came back."

She expected to hear 'I'm sorry', or some explanation of why her father had done what he did for her sake. That was what she always got when she mentioned what little story there was to share. Instead, from Dead Reckoning, she received only a long silence. She spent it staring into her own eyes, daring her long-since dried tear ducts from shedding even a single drop of water.

The reflection was broken some few minutes later when she was suddenly slapped in the face with a very wet safari shirt. "Hey!" She lashed out with a hoof, but the stallion had already jumped back, or something. She shook her head, tossing the garment onto her back. and clearing her vision in a single motion. Reckoning had made his way back to the fire, chuckling to himself as he walked.

"What was that for?" she demanded, angrily.

"To get you to snap out of it. You don't want to hear a guardspony tell you he's sorry, and I didn't want to say it. I didn't make your dad leave, and nothing either of us can do will change it now." He twisted the garment around and tossed it over her back. The water dripped into her wings, sending welcome shivers down her damp and overheated back as he continued. "Anyway, your shirt's clean, so put it on a stick to dry by the fire, and get some sleep. We can talk about something we both like better in the morning." He returned to the fireside and began constructing a simple line to dry his own garment on.

"Right," Rainbow answered with utter falsity in her voice. Then she spun her own shirt into a tight length of fabric. Dripping wet, it wasn't particularly unlike a towel, and staring away, the scout wasn't particularly unlike an inattentive colt in the flight camp locker room.

She treasured the noise Reckoning had made for quite a while as she lay down to sleep.

- - -

Dawn rose over its mountain, illuminating truth from the fuzzy nightmares of foals and the dark sketches of shadows. Canterlot shone in a mournful way, as the average pony began to get the feeling on the wind that the world might be changing very soon. It was an uncomfortable feeling for any and all with the wisdom to sense it, tickling necks and aching trick knees like a terrible warning.

A single pony's fur stood up for another reason, as he paced under the early morning light. Shining Armor didn't feel comfortable in his disguise. Even surrounded by enemies, he would have rather have had just a basic suit of gold armor than be stuck pretending to be somepony else. Off-green powder clung to his armpits and made his horn itch. His mane was tied back and colored some awful red color that he was trying not to think about. Undercover wasn't really his thing; stealth skills were hard to develop when you held a reputation as the strongest mage in the entire guard. Problems were so much easier to solve with diplomacy, reputation, and the occasional show of brute force. He idly adjusted his traveling cloak, a comfortable brown thing he had borrowed from Cadance's closet with neutral enough design not to embarrass a stallion. His focus remained on searching the aptly named Gravel Lane for his contact.

Gravel Lane was the center of low Canterlot, or 'Down Town', as the upper crust referred to it. Located lower on the side of the Mountain of Dawn than the more modern districts of the city, it had once been a mining town taking advantage of the deep gem deposits under the mountain. Both the industry and the thriving town had effectively died when Celestia realized the mining would undermine the Royal Palace and send upper Canterlot tumbling down the steep mountain cliffs.

Everypony knew that Down Town was the capital of Equestria's crime. It was a dark, dirty place, with plenty of dark alleyways to hide in, and shadowy corners in which to enjoy a mugging. In this particular case, everypony was dead wrong, but Shining wasn't about to take the effort to correct them. Instead of criminals, low Canterlot's citizens were simply the desperate poor struggling to eke a living out of the wealthy who lived quite literally above them. It was beyond the captain's comprehension why anypony would remain while the economy of all Equestria thrived, with opportunity for all, but again, it was not his place to change their decisions.

His philosophical thoughts were torn away by the sudden sensation that somepony was attempting to sneak up on him. He felt like startling her, after her rude departure the previous night.

"You aren't very subtle on hoof." He heard the sound of a mare jumping a half-inch with surprise. Knowing he'd scored a hit, he turned toward the dealer with a cold focus. "Where's this 'Grizzaloo'?"

"Whoa, keep it down, uh, Cap." She shot a nervous glance around, only to be satisfied that nopony was watching. "You don't just go throwing his name around, all right?"

"Fine. Now where are we headed?"

"Right over there." Solo pointed to a rather non-descript tavern, and began to walk toward it. "Try not to make me look stupid, okay, Cap?"

He rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Of course."

The door swung open to reveal the sort of seedy bar that authors wrote bad guardspony stories about. That is to say, it was the sort of place that no self-respecting criminal would actually visit, since the guard would be on them in a second. Instead, the patrons were the sort of poor low-city ponies who just couldn't afford to go anywhere better. Nopony seemed motivated to look up at them. They weren't sure that it wouldn't cost them anything. Even in disguise, Shining still felt like he didn't belong.

Amidst the low lights of hanging lamps (at least half of which were burnt out or broken), stone flooring supported wagon wheels for tables and cheap wooden chairs that had barely even been worked enough to remove the bark.

The bartender was a heavyish unicorn mare, with a mane that hung down one side of her head in a series of braids. She was idly polishing a glass, though her actual attention was spent sweeping the room. She stopped only when the disguised guard captain and his guide pulled out a pair of stools and slouched down in front of her.

Going Solo spoke up before the other mare had an opportunity to offer a greeting. "Wee 'Neeps, I'd like you to meet my friend Red Cap."

"Yer' a huge one, aint'cha?" Her accent resembled Trottingham, if the pony speaking simply didn't care about actually being understood. The whole phrase blurred together as if only a single long word had been spoken. "Whatcha drinkin'?"

Shining rarely drank, and when he did, it tended to be the fine Bitalian wines that Cadance's father continually supplied. He'd had to put a wine cellar into their new home, and they still had a backlog of Sforzando's obnoxious gifts. At a tavern, he had next to no idea what to even say.

"A-" he caught his normal tone and continued, "a beer." He forced his usual speaking tone down an octave and added a little bit of grittiness for good measure.

"Just a beer'? Lookin' at you, ya could drink a half a house. Ah've know' enough o' yer kin' ta know when yer needin' somethin' strongah."

"No. Just a beer," he insisted.

"Fine, its two sheeners." She saw Shining's brow raise, as he offered a glance at Going Solo. Wee 'Neeps sighed and rolled her eyes. "Two bits, cahlt, and open yer ears. Now, get tah tellin' me what's bringin a maccin huge bloke like yerself inta' me pub?"

After processing the words, Shining glanced over to a bowl sitting on the bar. It contained a few bits, but not enough to cover the wood on the bottom. He dropped two of his own in, and offered her a smile. "I'm looking for somepony."

"We actually already know where he is, 'Neeps. I'll be taking him back now."

The bartender stared at his two bits in the bowl for a moment, and looked back at him. "Them's right sheeners, I'm tellin ye. Yer from uptown then? With them wee snobby lairds runnin' aboot the place? What kinda pony's one a' you topsiders lookin fer down 'ere?"

Though he kept a relatively calm face, Shining's mind was racing. He hadn't expected somepony to guess that he was from the wealthier parts of Canterlot. He especially hadn't predicted the shine (or, rather, 'sheen') of his coin to give him away. The first explanation that came to mind immediately went out his mouth.

"I did some work up there. Construction. Anyway, I'm looking for a pony by the name of Grizzaloo." He tried to start walking, but Shining felt the sudden ping in his stomach that something about her demeanor had changed as she stopped polishing the glass held aloft by her magic.

"Yer' 'ere for Grizz, uh? Tell me then, cahlt, what kinda' buildin' work do ye' do?"

"Excavation." It was the first thing that came to mind and might also have been the worst of his possible answers. Trying not to be too obvious, Going Solo nevertheless groaned. 'Neeps put the glass down, along with the rag that was attending to it, and looked him square in the eyes.

"Yer one o' 'is diggers, then, I take it? If so, y'ave a right lotta sireage comin' in 'ere lookin' fer' 'im."

"It's important," Solo stated emphatically.

"Right, yah, I'll bet it is, if'n yer willin' ta risk pissin' 'im right off. Ya' head on back now, an' you'll find 'is office on the right o' the 'allway. Jus' try not 'ta scream too loud if 'e breaks yer knees or somethin'. I can' very well 'ave the guard shuttin' down me shop o'er him."

"Right. Thanks." As almost an after-thought, he put a dozen more thirty-bit pieces in her bowl. They'd be mostly enough to cover the fine she'd face if Shining Armor and the Royal Guard had to break their way in later.

The door to the back of the tavern opened and swung with an ear-rending creak. Behind it lay a long and narrow wooden hall lit by two dim overhead lamps. The whole place felt claustrophobic and constraining which did nothing for the Captain's nerves.

He was reminded of the Canterlot Palace 'Gauntlet', walking forward to meet the Commander face to face for the very first time. Like the late guardspony, Shining knew of Grizzaloo only by reputation. The earth pony stallion was supposedly some sort of vigilante and small-time criminal, who really didn't care very much about the guard, so long as they didn't get in the way of 'his' justice. When Shining had inherited the post of Captain, his predecessor had warned him that life was a lot easier if Grizzaloo was allowed to go about his activities unhindered. In exchange for looking the other way for some minor drug trafficking, prostitution, and the occasional assault, the guard received a surprisingly large quantity of tip-offs on 'bigger fish' in the criminal underworld from every corner of Equestria. How this seemingly small-time criminal managed to get this information (and spill it, without losing his neck) was a mystery that Shining didn't have time to investigate.

Because Grizzaloo was a shady figure, though, the upstanding guardspony in Shining Armor had never actually had a chance to meet him. It had been a very long time since Shining Armor had gone into a meeting with a criminal, trusting that the pony wouldn't stab him in the back. Despite Grizzaloo's reputation, the captain viewed him no differently.

"Smooth move, Captain," Solo told him with as much sarcasm as she could drench onto the words.

"I don't get what's so big of a deal about construction work."

Going Solo groaned aloud. "You told her you were a hit pony."

"A hit pony? What? I told her I did excavations. You know, for foundations..." His words trailed off as he realized his own implications.

"Shallow graves, captain. And before we go any further, you're doing the talking with Grizzaloo. He wouldn't listen to me anyway." Judging by the silence that followed, that was all there was to say on the matter.

The door to Grizzaloo's office opened without a horrifying squealing, or any other noise at all. It was perfectly oiled, as though hanging only on air, and it took only the slightest of magical effort to allow Shining Armor's passage.

The inside of the room was a barely more than a broom cupboard, containing a cheap wooden desk cramped into the center of a massive pile of crates. They were stacked nearly to the height of the room's sole light source, a window high above the table on the wall opposite the door. Two of these crates, labeled for the precious inebriating beverages they contained, had been commandeered to serve as makeshift seating on the closer side of the desk. The other end had a real, if also cheap, wooden seat.

In this seat was a pony a little smaller than Shining Armor. His brown coat and brown mane gave him an incredibly forgettable appearance. Making him even less notable, his cutie mark was obscured behind his desk. A rough coat was hanging over the back of his chair, but all he wore at the moment Shining entered was a yellow checkered necktie. He looked furious.

"Hey, what are you doing in here, unich?" The voice that accompanied the phrase was somewhere between extreme gruffness and the sound a gravel-grinding spell would make.

Shining was taken aback at the words used to address him. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me, horn-tugger. You just gonna stand there like a vegetable, or are you gonna tell me what you want?" The stallion's face changed from mild displeasure to controlled rage when Going Solo followed through the narrow doorway. "Ah, Solo, my favorite mile-high clubber. Where are my bits?"

Shining shook off his surprise quickly. "I'm here about-"

"Shut up," Grizzaloo snapped. "I'm working here! Celestia, do you not even know the rules? There's a simple order to this. I talk first, then you go. Once we get you to, step one is you give me your name. Then, step two, I decide whether or not I snap off your-"

His words were interrupted by what could only be described as the sound of a wall exploding from the main room of the tavern. Grizzaloo turned to Solo with sudden focus. "Were you followed?"

"I don't think-"

"Then you're wrong! Both of you, follow me." Without another word, the pony grabbed his coat, and scrambled up the pile of crates behind him. It took only a few seconds for his agile body to reach the window, which he bucked into a dozen pieces with no particular difficulty. "Do you want to get arrested?" Before they could answer, he leapt out the small hole and into the morning air.

Shining offered Solo a quick glance. She nodded, and the two began to make their exit. As a pegasus, it was much easier for her to reach the exit, and he was left to awkwardly force his way up the stack of boxes. Nearly to the window, he heard a loud force collide with the door. Its wood cracked, peeling into the room from some immense force. With the reflexes of a soldier, he threw up an arcane barrier, strengthening the wood from unwanted entry. It wouldn't last more than thirty seconds, but the time was enough to get him out the window.

The makeshift exit led to a narrow alleyway. Shining shot a quick glance around, taking in his surroundings. All he actually processed was Grizzaloo offering an emphatic motion with a hoof, as if pulling the other pony toward him. Shining nodded, and followed the earth pony on a short path around the corner of the building.

"Where's Going Solo?"

"Living up to her name," Grizzaloo explained in a hoarse whisper. "I sent her into the old mines. We'll meet her in a minute, but first I wanna see who these punks are. If it's the new guard captain, I'll break his bucking horn off and shove it so far up his-."

Shining had to stop himself from giving away his cover by protesting that he wasn't behind whatever had happened. Instead, he interrupted with the beginning of a question. "So should I go to her then, or-"

"You're big for a witch doctor. I hope you know how to fight." Grizzaloo placed an ear to the door of the tavern. A smile broke across his face, and then he pressed himself flat against the building's dull brickwork. It took only a moment for the door to fly open.

The pony who leapt out was a burly pegasus with a short-cropped mane and a foul expression. Both his forehooves were covered by bladed steel, and a heavy black coat adorned his frame. Shining might have gone on analyzing the stallion, were it not for his obvious danger. Magic was readied, but it came too slow. A sickening snap issued from the pegasus' left wing, as Grizzaloo brought his forehooves together directly on its central joint. The stallion screamed in agony, low and desperate, from the incredible pain of his broken wing. Shining's horn let loose a burst of magic, more out pity than necessity. It knocked the suffering pony unconscious with ease. The Captain then had a moment to stare at the pony's garment, and recognize it. He had seen two the night before, meeting with the sons of the Stalliongradi Tsar. Given the ruthless anger their leader had shown in casual conversation, their presence in Down Town said bad things to Shining.

"Let's go," Grizzaloo ordered. The unicorn couldn't help but catch a hint of annoyance in the other stallion's tone. Nevertheless, the two darted off into the alleyways of Down Town, dashing from shadow to shadow as Grizzaloo's trained eyes searched for the ponies in dark coats.

After a dozen minutes of running and sneaking, Shining could see the entrance to the old gem mines ahead. It was only a dozen feet from the crooked side street in which they were hiding. He was ready to burst forward when Grizzaloo slammed a hoof into his chest.

"It's right there," Shining protested.

"Yeah, I can bucking see." The criminal gestured toward the other direction of Gravel Street, back toward where the tavern's unremarkable face was still visible in the distance. There, a group of ponies in similar black coats were surrounding a familiar unicorn mare. "They took Tiny Turnips."

"Tiny Turnips?"

"The bartender. She calls herself 'Wee 'Neeps' 'cause she thinks it sells drinks better. It's just as bucking stupid as anything else you witch doctors come up with, but she's a good pony. I'm not letting her get hurt."

"They're not going to hurt her, Grizzaloo. They're guardsponies."

"You know about the bucking Black Cloaks? You're a pile of surprises, bone-face. You're dead wrong, though. They're not like the wimpy guard we've got out here. Stalliongrad isn't a nice place. Just 'cause she's innocent doesn't mean she's safe with them."

"What are we supposed to do about it? There are..." Shining gave a quick count of the cluster of ponies. "...eight of them, and just the two of us." Hoping to avoid a confrontation, he didn't add that he was probably the equivalent of three average guardsponies in a fight. It didn't help that he had no frame of comparison for the Stalliongradi soldiers.

"We do something bucking stupid. Can you teleport with somepony else?"

"Not from this distance."

Grizzaloo laughed. "Be ready to get her when you've got an opening."

Shining had heard words like those before from recruits about to try something that would inevitably get them hurt or killed. He raised a hoof to stop the criminal, only to find himself too late, as Grizzaloo walked proudly forward into plain view, directly toward the mass of Black Cloaks and his own inevitable arrest.

"Hey," Grizzaloo began, before unleashing a particularly potent slur for the Stalliongradi stallions. Suffice it to say that it had curious and likely scientifically impossible implications regarding their parentage, and that it is not fit to be repeated here. Grizzaloo concluded his unique greeting with three more words. "Lookin' for somepony?" he shouted. They turned. In an almost comical fashion, the cluster of ponies gave each other a quick glance. Then, as one, seven of them set off after him. Grizzaloo wasted no time in making himself scarce down another side-street.

The pony who remained with 'Neeps was a thin, almost emaciated looking unicorn. He was unarmed save his horn, which meant it would likely come to a clash of magic were Shining to confront him.

Though he had no desire to deal with the Stalliongradi stallion, Shining needed Grizzaloo's information if he had any hope of saving Princess Luna and catching Masquerade. As ridiculous as the idea was, if Grizzaloo was willing to risk his life and freedom to save 'Neeps, the captain would have to help to earn his trust. Grizzaloo obviously meant for him to simply rush to her and teleport her away. The strategy would have worked well against a pegasus or an earth pony, but another unicorn was a different matter entirely. Instead, a direct confrontation was the best choice. He steeled himself with a single calming breath, squared his shoulders, and stepped out into the street.

Being the large and intimidating pony that he was, it didn't take long for the Black Cloak to spot him. He shouted something in a tongue Shining couldn't understand and didn't bother to even process. The meaning was obvious. They wanted him to stop, and give himself up. Just the way the guardspony stood was enough for Shining to recognize the most common of all orders. Unfortunately for the other unicorn, the disguised captain wasn't about to concede. The rose glow of his mana spread slowly up his horn, building toward a spell. His eyes watched the other unicorn intently, hoping to learn his play.

What the captain of the Royal Guard faced was no simple brawl of telekinesis, nor the fancy duels of pastries or knives thrown between feuding nobles. He and his foe were both real mages, prepared to use every ounce of their magic in ways most ponies would think impossible. There were ten-thousand petty rules to such engagements, but in the end, Shining Armor had learned that it all came down to instincts and intuition. There was little time in battle to be spent wondering what efficiency of ward to guard oneself with, or calculating the rate at which a foe was able to gather their mana. The pony who acted first, and best, would always win.

Shining was that pony. He had always been that pony. In his youth, Twilight had compared the way he fought to their games of chess. Shining was always the white knight, and he always moved first.

The blast of raw mana flew free of his horn. A red bolt of lightning, its purpose was to freeze the other unicorn's access to his mana, effectively ending the battle in a single blow. It collided with a sheer white shield, two feet from the other pony's face, where it rebounded and flew back upon its caster.

Despite the skill of his hard-earned instincts, Shining spared himself a moment to think. There were, essentially, three skills that a unicorn wielded in battle. The first was the speed at which a unicorn could gather mana. It was Shining's weakest talent, though he was by no means weak. The Stalliongradi was evidently much faster, judging by the speed at which he had raised his ward. Most would have had to ignite their horns a full three seconds earlier to rebound the level of magic the captain had thrown.

The ward in question was an embarrassment by Shining's standards, but he dared not raise his own trademark spell for fear that he would be recognized. Countering his spell would take more mana than he could raise before it struck. Fortunately, simply sidestepping it was an easy third option, if one which surprisingly often went unused in major formal duels. Shining took it with no particular note.

The Black Cloak narrowed his eyes when the reflected spell missed. As the faster of the two mages, he gathered mana for another spell, and released an orb of white light. Shining didn't know the spell's name, but he could recognize a direct attack when he saw one. A hit might spell injury, or outright death. It was the sort of spell a guardspony would never wield, yet one which he found himself somehow unsurprised to find coming from one of Red Ink's subordinates. He leapt to the side again, well in advance of the attack, only to watch its trajectory change in midair, continuing toward him.

The second of the three skills of a unicorn in battle went by several names. Some called it efficiency or potency. The term referred to the return that a pony got on the mana he or she spent. Ponies who had seen Shining Armor fight had a different term for the skill. They called it strength, or simply power.

With little more energy than it took most ponies to lift a teacup, Shining's magic hefted a street-side wagon and swung it into the path of the oncoming spell. In a burst of energy, the wagon exploded. Splinters ripped through Shining Armor's coat. Little drops of blood left his shoulders and legs. None were deep enough to truly hurt him, but they did make a clear example of the fact that he was fighting for his own life.

He rolled to the side on the rough pavement of Gravel Street as two beams of magic flew past his head. Though not Shining's equal, the other unicorn was also strong, and fighting without any sort of handicap.

Shining saw his foe's horn ignite for a bigger, stronger spell. His instincts told him he had found a weakness in that action, one which lay in neither strength, nor speed. The third talent was named focus. Magic, especially magic of great or specific effects, required great attention. The greater a pony's focus, the more powerful spells they could bring to bear. Focus had another significant factor, though, which often went overlooked by the average mage.

As the Stalliongradi readied his killing spell, Shining's magic seized control of the cobblestone street between them. Growth magic and raw force together turned the ground into a sheer wall of stone easily ten feet in height. Shining knew the makeshift barrier wouldn't be enough to stop an attack like the one his opponent was conjuring. It was his hope that the other pony knew this as well. In fact, Shining Armor was relying on it.

The Stalliongradi played exactly as Shining expected when he blasted straight through the wall of cobblestone with an incredible light and a roaring cry of power. When the dust and the rubble settled, leaving a battered, but mostly level street, his enemy was nowhere in sight. Worried, the Black Cloak conjured more magic to his horn. Then he felt a hoof collide with his neck from behind, strong enough to put clouds in his eyes and throw his body aside.

Shining Armor was still disoriented from the sudden brute-force of his own teleportation, but he had not the time to waste. He grabbed onto the other pony with simple force, and slammed him against the wall of the nearest building. His heavy black coat settled slowly over his unconscious body after he fell to the ground. In time, his wounds would heal.

The guard captain took only a moment to regain his energy, before turning toward Wee 'Neeps. Though she was mostly unharmed, wearing only a few bruises on her face and shoulders, she lay unmoving. At first, Shining suspected she had been knocked unconscious, but a simple spell told him that the unicorn's magic held her still. It was a simple act to undo the arcane bindings. "Are you alright, Neeps?"

The mare rose up and brushed off her apron from the dirt of the road. Though her body clearly told Shining that she was shaken by recent events, her tone was still firm, proud, and nearly incomprehensible. "I've been better, but ye' 're a class act, savin' me from 'em. How'd ye' survive tha' last blast?"

"It didn't hit me. He put too much focus into the spell he was casting, and not enough into watching me. Right after I put up the wall, I teleported behind him. Too much of his focus was on his spell, so he didn't notice. I got the drop on him."

"Well, tha's might clever o' ye'. Can't say I blame ye' fer puttin' 'im on th' wall like that. Sure don' 'ave much 'onor, for 'onor guard."

"Honor Guard?" Shining's heart skipped a beat. "They're Stalliongradi ponies. They're not the Honor Guard."

"Well, I 'ain't gonna tell ye otherwise, 'cept fer tha's wha' they said they were. They wanted Grizz, but also somepony by th' name o' Soldier On. Can' say I've 'eard tha' one a'fore. Not like 'eadeye, or Mirror Image."

Shining spoke without thinking on his words. "Go home. Stay away from here for a while. Get out of Canterlot quietly, if you can."

"Ye' don' 'ave ta tell me twice, Cap. Thank ye' again." With that, she galloped off into some other part of the low city, out of view of the hunting guardsponies, and the hiding criminals all around. Left alone, Shining Armor turned back to the other end of Gravel Street, where the only thing separating him from the ancient gem mines beneath the palace was the pile of rubble and dust left behind from his battle. He crested the obstacle with a single leap and charged forth into the darkness.

- - -

Rainbow awoke on soft, grainy dirt with an aching in her wings and a sore hollow feeling weighing down her eyelids. It was the same feeling she felt every morning without fail, exacerbated only by the cold and solid ground beneath her, and the barely-lit morning sky that surrounded her. There was only one solution. She flared her wings, and in an instant she was off.

The plan didn't get very far. In fact, she didn't even get off the ground. The dull crunch of her face digging into the dirt was enough to alert Dead Reckoning that she had woken.

It took the older pony a bit of chuckling to struggle out his thoughts. "Was that a nightmare, or..."

"I'm fine." Rainbow groaned, pulling herself up. The sun was a fair way into the sky over the jungle, and the beautiful blue sky was calling to her. She wasn't supposed to fly up past the canopy, but that didn't mean she couldn't at least get off the ground. It was weird that she hadn't just taken off, but even the Wonderbolts had bad days. It must have just been nerves.

She readied herself more slowly this time, carefully adjusting her guiding feathers to the wind and setting up her stance for a jump into the air. She thrust her wings again, more cautiously this time, and again found herself grounded. "What the hay? I can't fly!"

Instead of freaking out - the rational reaction to a pegasus losing her ability to fly - Reckoning smiled knowingly. "I warned you about this last night, Dash. I told you about the phage seeds."

"You said they'd use up my magic! You didn't say I wouldn't be able to fly!"

Reckoning rolled at least one of his eyes. "You need magic to fly, Dash. That's how it works."

"Don't talk like this is okay! You took away my flying!" Rainbow gripped her skull in both forehooves and wondered how she was going to survive.

"You're acting like a foal, Rainbow." Reckoning released his wing's grip on the wooden spoon he had been using to make breakfast, and walked over toward his new partner. "It's only for a few hours, and in the end, you'll be a better flyer for it. Get over yourself and grab something to eat. We're heading out soon."

The filly was having none of his calming advice. "How long do I have to wait? Is a few hours two, or, like five? I don't want to be stuck on the ground..." gulp "...forever."

Reckoning's irritation finally boiled over into humor. He put a wing over his eyes as he let out an exasperated chuckle. "Can't tell you exactly. It depends on how much magic you have for the seeds to 'eat up'. When I eat phage seeds, I go without for probably eight or nine hours. You've probably got more magic than me though."

"More than nine hours? That's not okay!"

Two bowls of thick brown stew were served up in a pair of bowls, alongside paired ceramic canteens. The chef paid no mind to the younger mare who was actively running in circles around his workspace, kicking up dust and dirt with every pass.

"I mean, that's like, a whole day. I'll go to bed, and I still won't have my magic..."

"You already slept off eight of those hours, Dash. It honestly won't be long now. So, please, sit down and eat something."

It was as if he had spoken some sort of magic word. Rainbow stopped mid-pace, slowly folded her wings, and walked over to the little pile of glowing charcoals that had been their campfire. "I guess I can last for an hour, if it means I'll be a better flyer." She lowered her nose to the bowl and offered its contents a tentative sniff. "Oh, this smells good."

"Thank you." Reckoning let Rainbow gulp down a few bites before he spoke up again. "Don't get your hopes up for an hour, though. I'm an old stallion now, and you're still young and fit. If your lightning was anything to judge by, yesterday, you'll be closer to what the Commander takes." Rainbow waited for him to give a number. Instead, he followed words with a long pause, and then a single minor correction. "...took."

Socially dense as she usually was, the stunt flier knew the sore topic when she spotted it. "Did you know him very well?"

Reckoning looked up from his own meal, straight into Rainbow's magenta eyes. A hollow laugh escaped his lips. "Not as well as I should have. I didn't even know his real name. Just 'The Commander'. Then again, even Princess Celestia and Soldier On called him that. He wasn't much for words, but I'd probably be living out my last days in some retirement home, sucking down lemonades and playing bingo if it weren't for him." His distaste for retired life was almost palpable. "When he ate the seeds, it took him seventeen hours to get his magic back. It's the most I've ever heard of."

"But... that's like, twice as long as you..."

"Nopony has ever been as strong as the Commander. I doubt anypony ever will be. That's why he was the Commander. Why it was his job to protect Celestia. Alone." Reckoning's eye refocused, as if suddenly remembering that Rainbow was still sitting in front of him. "Until yesterday, he was the only pony I'd ever heard of who could buck lightning."

Rainbow looked up from her bowl suddenly. "You mean you can't do that?"

"Nopony can do that. I mean, there were stories about it, in the guard. They say Commander Hurricane could do it. You know, from the Hearth's Warming story?"

"Yeah, I remember. I got to play him in the pageant."

Reckoning let out a small chuckle. "Fits you well. They say he could do it; buck lightning without needing a cloud. It was just an old mare's tale, though, until the Commander. And, now, you." Reckoning smiled. "I'm glad I have somepony as strong as you around to protect me, Rainbow."

"Yeah, well then maybe you shouldn't have taken away my magic."

"Just finish your dinner, Dash. When we're done packing camp, we can set off. It's two hundred forty miles to Fallaner's clearing." He closed his eyes, as though the act somehow let him see a map of the dense jungles. "I'd like to at least make it across the Marenia before we camp again, but that means we'll have to make good time over the Ditch." Suddenly, his eyes popped open. "Think you can do sixty miles today, Dash? We'll catch a raft after that."

Rainbow nodded. "Let's get going."

- - -

Shining peeked around corners, keeping his horn alight as he passed by cave after cave of half-mined gemstones. His entire world reflected with the glow of his magic, casting his off-colored face on every wall. It wasn't hard to see why Cadance still had nightmares of the place. It was like the worst kind of carnival 'fun house', only without the pretense of humor. Save the unicorn himself, nothing moved, or skittered, or even breathed. The very air in the mines was dead.

He stepped past a spent mineshaft, complete with rusted tracks, and felt a sudden shift in the air. He wasn't alone. Careful not to change his pace, he continued as though his follower had gone unnoticed. The other pony drew closer, slowly and quietly, until he could nearly reach Shining's back. Only when he heard the sound hooves leaving the ground did Shining Armor turn, snatching the other pony out of the air.

The stallion's body crunched as the incredible force of Shining's telekinesis trapped him against the ground. "Buck! Celestia, you could've just said something! Let me go!"

"Grizzaloo?" Shining released his magic, taking a step back. "You're back already?"

"Nopony can keep up with me in Down Town." He tilted his head back and spoke calmly over Shining's shoulder. "Hey, Mile-High Club, it's your friend. We're finally bucking set."

Ducking out of the shadows, Going Solo swept down from overhead. "Who the hay were they? "

"The Black Cloaks." Grizzaloo explained, gravelly voice soaked in sarcasm. "Stalliongrad's Secret Police. Real nice ponies, even by our standards. Plot lickers and foalnappers, every last one. Thanks, by the way, for leading them right into my bucking office."

"I already told you, Grizzaloo, we weren't followed." Solo rolled her eyes. "Unless you have something else to say about it, Cap."

Shining shook his head. "No. Like Grizzaloo said, they're from Stalliongrad. Anyway, that doesn't matter right now. I still need my answers."

"Really?" Grizzaloo stated incredulously. "You know what, hold on." The earth pony turned his head away. Shining leaned forward to see what was the other stallion was doing with his jacket. The motion of his neck put him well within Grizzaloo's reach, a fact which the criminal exploited by slapping Shining Armor across the face with surprising strength. The guardspony was thrown to the floor of the cave. "Get your head in the game, you dumb, stubborn ass. We're trapped in the gem mines, and it's not like the Black Cloaks don't know we're in here. Unless you know some secret way to get.. out..."

Grizzaloo's words trailed off into echoes and silence as he inspected the hoof he had used to strike Shining Armor. As he rose, the guardspony could see that some of the powder and dye in his coat had rubbed off, painting the normally brown hoof a sick shade of off-green. The less tasteful of the two ponies stood, almost stunned, as his eyes shifted from the color on his hoof to the painfully white spot on Shining Armor's cheek.

"Uh, Grizzaloo, it's not-" Going Solo's words didn't last long.

"Shut up. You." He pointed a hoof straight at Shining's chest. "If you don't want to spend the rest of your life as an earth pony, tell me who you are."

Seeing no point in keeping up the charade, the guardspony ignited his horn, and a simple spell removed the rest of the color from his mane and coat. The pile of disgusting chemicals was deposited on the floor beside a particularly large gemstone, leaving behind a face that had not so long ago decorated the front page of every newspaper in Canterlot. "My name is Shining Armor, Grizzaloo. I'm the-"

Grizzaloo didn't waste the opportunity to cut the bigger pony off by giving him a swift kick to the ribs. Judging by the fact that nothing cracked, Shining knew he had been given mercy, though his side still ached from the blow. "Everypony knows who you are, Captain. You'd have to be living under a rock in Zebrica not to." Grizzaloo ground a hoof into the dirt. "Well, now that we know, let's finish this like stallions."

"What are you talking about?" Shining asked, utterly lost.

Solo groaned, pinching the bridge of her face. "Grizzaloo, he didn't lead the Black Cloaks to you. I told him to come in disguise. He doesn't want to arrest you."

Shining Armor picked up where the mare left off. "You were the last pony that Mark Down talked to before he died. I just need to know what you told him."

Grizzaloo sat down on his flank, quiet for a moment. A shiver slid down Shining Armor's spine when a thin and vile grin broke across the other pony's face. "All right, Captain, let's talk business. I don't want to die, and the Black Cloaks will kill me if I try and get out of this place on my own. So here's the deal. You get me out of these mines alive, and I'll tell you what you want."

Shining nodded slowly and firmly, though he had fully intended to guide both other ponies out of the mines regardless of their information. "Deal, Grizzaloo. Follow me." He lit his horn softly, and turned deeper into the mines.

"Uh, Shining, that's the wrong way out," Going Solo noted.

"There's a secret passage into the Palace deeper in. The Changelings used it, a few years back."

Grizzaloo shook his head. "I can't just go walking around in the palace!"

Shining Armor smiled, and laughed to himself. "Not looking like you do right now, no." With no further explanation, he led them around familiar passages, deeper and deeper toward the innermost shafts. Cadance had been unwilling to head back into the mines, so Twilight had shown him the way. His sister's arcane marks still persisted on the walls, clear as day to anypony who knew the spells to find them. He offered no commentary to explain the symbols as they passed, leaving Grizzaloo and Going Solo to stare at them in awe. Finally, however, the three came to a sheer cliff-face. After taking a moment to gather his mana, Shining teleported the entire group up to the top.

The captain then proceeded forward, to the heavily barred door that offered the only passage into and out of the caves. He only stopped when he heard the sounds of retching. A backwards glance reminded him that his passengers had less experience with teleportation than the experienced mage. Grizzaloo got over his nausea quickly, but Solo took far more time, stepping behind a cluster of crystals to empty her stomach quite audibly.

"Mares." Grizzaloo muttered, offering no explanation for the words. Shining's only surprise at the statement was that it hadn't included any cursing or racial slurs. Regardless, when the pegasus reappeared, she seemed less decidedly green, and far closer to her usual soft blonde coloration. Without a word, she nodded, and Shining turned back to the door. Though it had no keyhole or handle, its lock gave way gently and willingly to the push of his magic, allowing the three into the dark underbelly of the castle.

The very first short hallway ended in a t-shaped fork, and when the group reached it, Grizzaloo took cover at its edge and carefully peeked around.

"Relax." Shining told him. "This is the Honor Guard headquarters, and they're all out searching for the assassin who tried to kill Princess Luna." He neglected to mention the risk of running into more Black Cloaks, as he still hadn't figured out what 'Neeps comment on the Honor Guard could have meant.

"What?" Grizzaloo peaked a brow. "You mean Masquerade's target was the Princess? You're bucking kidding me."

Shining turned to him. "How did you know about Masquerade?"

"You said Mark Down was your buddy, right? He kept asking about her, so I assumed she'd off'd somepony important. Didn't realize she was that high on the food chain, though." He shook his head in a mixture of mild amusement and ever-present displeasure. "Damn."

"Just follow me."

The hallways gave way shortly to an armory. It was long before Shining Armor found himself leaning against the racks of armor in the room, watching as Grizzaloo and Going Solo struggled to powder themselves.

"This is stupid, Shining. They'll recognize us in an instant," the latter protested, as she struggled to get the tragically disgusting substance spread onto her wings.

"First off, there shouldn't be any Black Cloaks in the palace. Just normal guards, who answer to me. They won't look twice at you, and even if they do, they'll listen to me. However, before we go," he turned conspicuously to Grizzaloo, "I need to know what you told Mark Down."

"Well, the way I see it, we're pretty damn far from in the clear right now, Shiner. So, I guess you could say my memories still a little fuzzy."

Shining stepped away from the rack, squaring himself. "Our deal was that I would get you out of the mines, which I already have. What I'm doing now is free, so I hope you're grateful, but regardless, you're going to tell me what I want to know, now."

"There's a pegger up in Cloudsdale, who works a shipping warehouse. Runs some scratch on the side, but he's mostly clean. When we get out, I'll give you his name."

Shining merely closed his eyes, suppressing his aggravation. "Fine." His horn ignited, bluntly applying the last spots of powder behind Going Solo's wings. He let the two ponies squeeze into their nearly-fitting gilded armor, and then gestured toward the door. "Now, follow me. And try not to say anything crude or racist to the Princess."

"The Prin-" Grizzaloo was cut off when Shining Armor put a hoof over his mouth.

"If you want me to get the Black Cloaks out of low Canterlot, I need to speak to her quickly. Also, I'll have to requisition one of my sister's hot-air balloons, and a spell book for walking on clouds. Now follow me, and we'll take care of everything quickly."

Grizzaloo let out a snort, and shook his head. "I wasn't expecting you to be a politician."

"Shut up, Grizzaloo."

The trio made their way up from the armory in the basement, following Shining's perfect memory of staircases, hallways, and enormous greeting rooms, until they came to Celestia's opulent audience chamber. An enormous red carpet covered a slow slope leading up the center of an array of gold and silver basins toward a pair of thrones. One consisted of red cloth on a golden frame. The other, smaller seat was silver, with blue silk for its cushions. Before each seat, the water in the basins was intended to reflect the faces of the paired rulers. At the moment, only the slowly recovering form of Princess Celestia could be seen in reflection. The guard captain couldn't help but notice that both the spaces at the foot of the throne, where the serving Honor Guard were normally stationed, stood empty.

"Captain Armor?" The Princess' voice bore a tone of surprise and confusion. "I was told you had left Canterlot after Masquerade. I'm afraid I have a rather important meeting in a few hours, but in the mean time, I hope I can help you."

"Of course, Princess." Shining Armor bowed deeply, and then glanced back at his companions. Neither had followed the motion. "Recruits..." he hissed through gritted teeth, deliberately loud enough to catch Celestia's ears.

"Don't get your horn in a knot..." Grizzaloo grumbled, though the criminal did fall to a knee. Solo added nothing as she followed suit.

"Rise, please." Celestia told them. "Now, how goes your search?"

"Well, Princess. A contact of mine had given me a target that might lead to Masquerade. In order to pursue, I'll need a hot air balloon, and a copy of the spell Twilight found for walking on clouds."

Celestia's brow rose. "Cloudsdale? Well, I'm certain your sister won't mind if you take the one she left here. Record Time?" The princess' stiff and formal maneservant stepped out from beside the throne and nodded. "Fetch the third volume of Platinum's Tome, and then see that the Captain's transport is prepared. "

Without a word, the unicorn walked briskly past Shining Armor and out of the room.

"Princess, there is one other thing. Well, two I guess, but firstly, are you certain it's safe to be alone here? After everything that's-" Shining stopped when he felt a gentle breeze pass over his back. Only a moment later, another pony had dropped from somewhere overhead in the room, separating the captain from Going Solo.

"Princess Celestia is not being alone. I am here to guard her."

Shining recognized the distinct accent even without turning. Nevertheless, he stepped back, putting some much needed personal space between himself and the unwelcome commandant. "Red Ink. What are you doing here?"

"Commander Red Ink, now, Captain Armor." Shining's stomach twisted as a terrible fear became true.

Celestia spoke up from the far end of the room. "As we agreed, I replaced Soldier On. Red Ink was trained by Steel, and he knows a great deal about Masquerade."

Shining Armor's mind raced. "Then it is true. Your Black Cloaks attacked low Canterlot." Celestia sat forward at the words, but Red Ink spoke first.

"My guard is of not your concern, Armor."

"It is when you cause a civil disturbance and attack an innocent tavern keeper."

"Attack?" Red Ink grinned smugly, adjusting his black coat to reveal the gleaming golden breastplate beneath. Shining saw the stripes and banners of awards on his chest, and the back of his mind was furious that the stallion had the gall to honor himself so boldly. Apparently sensing the anger in the other captains' stance, Red Ink's words were stated strongly and angrily, coming across like veiled threats. "I will be having strong words with my stallions if this is true, though it is not. I think, perhaps, that you and I should speak outside." Not waiting for an answer, the burly pegasus pushed open the doors. "I am taking only moment, Princess. The Captain and I must share knowledge of the assassin. Be watchful."

"Of course." The Princess bowed her head in acknowledgement.

Shining, Grizzaloo, and Solo walked out into the otherwise barren palace waiting room. Pillars and a marble checkered floor defined what was otherwise a boring and empty space. Once inside, Red Ink rolled his neck, eliciting three delightful pops. "I have warn you that good pony is bad soldier, Armor."

"Listen, pegger-"

"Shut up, recruit," Shining snapped at Grizzaloo.

"Buck you, Shining Armor. This ass went after Neeps." Grizzaloo ran forward, obviously readying himself for a mighty buck. From what Shining Armor had seen, Grizzaloo was strong, and fast, and fought dirty. He was a good fighter.

Compared to Red Ink, those traits meant nothing. The pegasus placed a wing on the ground, using it as a pivot to spin his entire body. His full weight was transferred into a single kick from his rear right leg, which connected with Grizzaloo's jaw as he approached. The blow was accompanied by the crack of very literal thunder, which shook the room and put cracks in the ornate stained glass of the windows. The disguised criminal was picked up off the ground and thrown the entire length of the room by the single blow. His body smacked against the far wall, and then slid down the stone surface with a slowly squeaking crumple.

"I am kind to you, crude stallion. In Stalliongrad, you would be dead for your words, let alone your action." With a smile, the new Honor Guard turned to face Shining Armor again. "Your force is lacking even discipline. The Princess and I will be replacing you soon too. You are disgrace."

"I don't attack civilians in the streets. Don't try and deny it."

"Why would I? No, you are too afraid to do what has to be done. That is why you are not real guard. Just police pony in big armor. Bartender is hurt, perhaps. Her wounds heal easily. In exchange, I hunt down Soldier On, and Masquerade, and others. It is good trade."

"We're supposed to protect ponies!"

"We protect Equestria, Captain. Not ponies in it. There is difference. Your 'Commander' taught me that."

"The Commander was a great guardspony." Shining barely knew the stallion, save by reputation. The words were simply meant to challenge Ink's barbaric methods.

"Yes, Captain. Great guardspony. Like me. Knew how to make necessary sacrifice." Ink shook his head. "I should be liking to know two things from you. First, what is in Cloudsdale?"

Shining's response was cold and factual. "Just a name."

"Masquerade is my investigation, now. Do not try keeping secrets, Captain. I will save Luna, since you cannot. I choose lesser of two evils. You deny both choices. Costs are high."

The Royal Guard had to force his hooves not to shake from anger. The stallion standing before him was the very antithesis of everything he had come to believe as a guardspony, and everything he had fought to make the Royal Guard resemble. "I'll show you, Red Ink, that a guardspony can protect Equestria without using fear and intimidation. There's always a higher path."

"I disagree. Perhaps we call it a challenge, then, Shining Armor? Whoever claims Masquerade or Soldier On first wins?"

Shining's first instinct was to deny the ridiculous assumption. Lives were on the line. There was no time for some ridiculous competition. Even as his reprimand was processed, however, Shining had another thought. Staring him in the face was his one clear chance to do something about the pony who had no place leading the Honor Guard. "Loser resigns their command."

The grin that spread over Red Ink's face was almost sickening. "Deal." Shining Armor slid a hoof heavily across the ground, as if readying himself to charge. The motion was made with such strength that it marred the otherwise pristine checkered marble of the floor. When his hoof came up, it slammed against Red Ink's, locking them in a leg-shake. In the grapple, they pressed against one another. Shining was surprised to learn that the slightly smaller pegasus was in fact stronger in his legs. They pressed for a moment, and then released one another.

"I am looking forward already to new Royal Guard," Ink offered, pacing back toward the doors into the audience chamber. "Before I am forgetting, one last question. My guard have not yet returned from mission. How are you already know of my raid?"

Shining turned around, walking away from the other pony. "I keep tabs. It's my job to protect Equestria against ponies like your guard."

Special thanks to SatoshiKyu for pre-reading.

IX - Cruelty

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IX: Cruelty
- - -

"Hey, Reckoning, did you see that?" Rainbow pointed to a shadowy corner of the jungle ahead of them.

"It's on my bad side, Dash." Reckoning turned his head slowly, and then stared into the darkness. "Did something move?"

"Yeah... it seemed pretty big."

"You're not gonna see anything that far back in the shadows. Besides, like I told you earlier, most of the stuff here is afraid of us."

"The manticores and the hippogriff didn't seem very scared of us."

"Yeah, but they also aren't exactly the quietest things in the world. As long as it's not a Barghest, it isn't gonna sneak up on us." Despite the theoretically comforting words, Reckoning's wings sat up a few inches from his back, lightly extended. "How are your wings feeling?"

Rainbow extended her trained limbs and gave them a single flap. Nothing. The surge of vigor that always came with taking to the sky wasn't there, nor was the subsequent rise. "No good. I can't even get a good jump."

"I have to admit, I haven't seen many ponies take this long to recover from phage seeds."

Rainbow and Reckoning jumped in tandem when a third voice joined their conversation, seemingly coming from all around at once. "Kuishi kwingi kuona mengi." Dash had barely blinked by the time Reckoning's wings were flared, his machete clenched tightly in his teeth. He held it only for a few seconds, before dropping the weapon in the sight of the other approaching creatures.

There were at least a dozen zebras. Striped bodies emerged from the shadows and the overgrowth one after another. Most carried spears, though a few had long leather cords, with pouches weighed down by heavy stones. Reckoning's tension lightened slightly when they revealed themselves. Rainbow wasn't as convinced.

"What did he say?" she whispered to her more experienced companion. Though quiet, the words were clearly overheard, for their response did not come from Dead Reckoning.

"To ones who live as long as we, few are things we do not see." A zebra mare, unarmed and undecorated, stepped away from the group. Hers had been the voice that spoke out first, though now it seemed less frightening. She was clearly older than Zecora, with strips of gray instead of black, and a weathered expression. Her eyes seemed wizened, though not particularly welcoming. "White Eye do I know and greet, but another I have yet to meet. Help me now to understand, who made you welcome on our land?"

"Kiongozi, this is Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash, this is Kiongozi, of the Marezambian herd." Reckoning gestured with his wings between the two, before turning his full attention to the zebra. "We're traveling to Fallaner, on a mission for Princess Celestia."

The last few words turned Kiongozi's unwelcoming expression into an outright glare. "Your Princess once gave me her word, that none of you would darken my herd. Now I find another here. Her presence gives me cause to fear. Take her now and go away. You'll see your elk another day."

"What?" Rainbow cocked her head. "What's wrong?"

"Old politics, Dash. The zebras don't like foreigners. I'll explain later. We just need to take another path to Fallaner, around the Marezambian land."

Rainbow shrugged. "Fine, whatever. How far is that?"

"It'll add two days to our journey."

The young mare stomped a hoof on the ground. "Hay no! We can't lose two days!"

Kiongozi cut in. "You are not welcome, mare of the west. Go back to the land that you know best. Only White Eye will I trust, to cross our land as we discussed."

"Listen, zebra-"

"Dash, don't-"

"-if we don't get through here, then Princess Luna is going to die-"

"Control yourself!"

"-so we're going through with, or without your permission."

"Rainbow!"

Kiongozi shook her head slowly. "Her words are spoken, eye of white." The zebra mare then turned her attention to her armed escort. "Keep them now within your sight." Rainbow edged closer to Reckoning as a dozen spears were leveled in their direction. Trying to put up a face of courage and defiance, she swatted one out of the way with her hoof. Two more were quick to take its place.

Reckoning offered a stern gaze to Kiongozi. "She's just a filly. Don't think she's like the others."

"Too many times have I heard that said. I often found myself misled. In morning, we shall make you free, but no more shall you cross our country." With a final, cold glance, the mare turned her back and led the group away. A short but painful prod to the side prompted Rainbow to follow.

Their path went away from the rough trail Reckoning had been following, and straight into the dense undergrowth of the jungle. Steam rose clearly in the air, illuminated by tiny pillars of light that broke through the choking grasp of the treetops.

In their earlier travels, Rainbow had joked about Daring Do's descriptions of the jungle. Heading downhill into the thickest of the plants, she realized their truth. Above, the heat had been bearable, kind, and welcome. It was milder even than Appleloosa or Las Pegasus. In the dark and shadowy lowlands, the heat was far harder and far heavier. No wind broke through the trees and the vines. No precious opening let the dew and the heat out into the open blue sky.

They walked for almost an hour in silence. Reckoning held a stiff posture, eyeing each of the zebras around in turn. The machete usually present under his wing had been left behind in the clearing, and the way that his wing covered the empty sheathe made it altogether too clear that he was uncomfortable being at the mercy of the striped ponies.

Rainbow sidled up against him, grabbing his attention by brushing against his shoulder. He glanced her way, and raised the brow of his blind eye. Rainbow whispered to him, hoping not to gather the attention of the armed zebras surrounding them. "What's her problem?"

"It's a long story," the guardspony whispered back. "Ponies haven't always treated the zebras fairly. Some of them, like Kiongozi, still remember that. You shouldn't have pushed her."

"I thought if she knew why we were here, she would have let us go. You'd think nopony actually cares about the Princess."

"As long as the moon comes up, why do the zebras care who was behind it?" Reckoning's blunt words were followed by a slow turn of his head. "I'm sorry, that probably sounded bad. You did your best, but we can't fight off this many zebras. We'll just have to take the three days."

"We only have four days, Reckoning!" Rainbow's whisper had risen to a barely constrained shout. "That's what Princess Celestia said!"

"Then we've already failed." Dead Reckoning looked up at the branches overhead and sighed. "You'll just have to trust Soldier On and White Flag. If they can't save Luna, nopony can."

Rainbow shook her head, stopping in her tracks. One of the zebras pushed at her with a spear, but she stood her ground. "What happens if the elk has the cure, and they don't? I'm not giving up on her now!"

Reckoning slapped away a spear aimed at prodding Rainbow's flank with his wing, and then prodded her to keep walking. As the two pegasi continued, he responded in a whisper. "Maybe if you hadn't been so adamant, I could have talked to Kiongozi. She used to trust me."

"She sure didn't seem like it."

"Bringing you here was breaking our agreement. She let me go through her lands as long as I was alone. I was hoping we just wouldn't run into them."

Rainbow came to a short but steep cliff and leapt down it. Her wings, generally enough to offer her a calm glide, instead left her collapsed on her face. A handful of the zebras found her lack of agility funny, while at least one offered a taunt in their mysterious tongue. A moment later, Reckoning was beside her, helping her up. Irritated, she pushed him away, and climbed to her hooves on her own.

"Just go on without me. When they let me go, I'll head back up to the cabin and wait for you."

The stallion offered half-lidded eyes, guiltily wishing he could tell her better words. "She thinks I've betrayed her, now. I doubt she'd let me through. Even if they let me pass, I wouldn't leave you behind."

"I'll survive." Rainbow pressed, no longer bothering to look at her partner. "You need to go save the Princess. It's not like they can stop you. Just fly off."

Reckoning missed a step at the words. When he recovered his focus, his gaze and voice were tempered steel and cold stone. "They would kill you."

The mare had trouble believing the words. She never got the chance to question the statement, however, as a pair of Zebra guards stepped up between them, separating the two.

- - -

Shining Armor watched over the edge of the balloon's bucket as his home shrunk away into little more than a glint of gold on the side of the immense Mountain of Dawn. He often left Canterlot on business, but it was rare that he didn't know when he would return. He gave himself only a moment of longing, and then crushed the emotion silently. Ever so quickly, the sands were running out.

He turned around to observe the other two passengers of his balloon. As a means to escape Canterlot, and Red Ink's clutches, both had agreed (insisted, in fact) on accompanying him to Cloudsdale. Grizzaloo sat with a sour expression, picking the powder out of his coat. Going Solo, who had already cleaned herself with the help of a passing cloud, stared off just as wistfully as Shining had, in the opposite direction.

Hoping not to interrupt her thoughts, Shining directed a question at the disgruntled earth pony. "Now that we're out of Canterlot, what's the name of this contact in Cloudsdale?"

"Go Between. Big pegger, with a dirty zeb beard and beady little eyes."

Shining raised an eyebrow, but decided not to give attention to the issue. Instead, he pushed further. "Do you know where we can find him?"

"Do I look like I've got wings? Don't ask bucking stupid questions. I've never been to Cloudsdale. And for the record, I don't trust your voodoo."

"It's perfectly safe," Shining protested, though Grizzaloo seemed not to be listening. The pony offered a tentative glance over the edge of the balloon's little bucket, and then pulled back quickly. "Afraid of heights?"

"Kiss my mark, guardspony!"

"Fine, fine. Forget I asked." Shining Armor rolled his eyes, and turned toward Going Solo. "Uh, Solo, you wouldn't happen to..."

"Not by name, no." She shook her head. "But Cloudsdale's home, even if I haven't been back in a few years. We can track him down."

"We? I thought you were done."

Solo shook her head, and then cracked a massive grin. "I thought so too. Then you picked a fight with that Stalliongradi pony. I want you to win. Call it... casting my vote for the Guard."

Shining nodded. "Thanks."

"It was a real dumb move, by the way," Grizzaloo piped up. "Since we're bringing that up."

Solo glared at the other stallion. "Nopony asked you, Grizz."

"Doesn't mean it isn't true. You don't go risking your whole damn life just 'cause somepony pisses you off."

"I'm not risking anything. I know I'm going to win."

"Look, Captain, just because you're a fairy tale character doesn't mean the whole world is a bucking fairy tale. One way or another, this isn't gonna have a happy ending."

Shining had intended to respond, somehow, but Going Solo grabbed his shoulder and pulled him over to her side of the bucket. Their coats rubbed roughly against one another, as Solo put her forehooves up on the railing of the bucket and gazed out into the open sky.

There in front of them was Cloudsdale in all of its ivory glory. Structures of raw cloud defined by slender pillars and wide swooping curves gave the city an air of majesty and age. To Shining Armor, it seemed almost lost in time, hearkening back to an era only recalled in history books and the foal's stories of Hearth's Warming Eve.

"I used to be a mailmare," Solo told him quietly. "I still know some ponies we can talk to."

Shining spared Cloudsdale his attention to look over the wistful mare beside him. "Why'd you quit?"

"You mean why'd I turn to dealing?" She pulled back a hoof from the edge long enough to gently punch him in the shoulder. "You're not exactly subtle, Captain. I needed the money."

"Debt?"

Solo shook her head, still smiling. "Nothing so poetic. There was a stallion I liked, a guardspony, and I wanted to impress him. He loved the Wonderbolts, so I figured I'd get him box seats. That doesn't come cheap, though."

"I can imagine."

"Nine hundred bits a seat." Solo shook her head. "The show wasn't even that good. I told him I won them in a contest, but he just kept prying. Eventually, he found out."

"Did he leave you?"

"He turned me in. It wasn't a big deal, since I was only carrying nightshade and rainbow juice. Two months and I was out. Good behavior."

"And you went back?"

"Well, the post office wasn't gonna take me. My coltfriend was gone. I didn't have anything else to lose." She stretched her wings momentarily, producing an audible and satisfying cracking noise. "Since we're on the topic, though, what's your story? How'd you end up Captain of the Royal Guard?"

The question had been asked by a thousand bright-eyed hopefuls standing the training yard of the Canterlot guardhouse. He gave the same answer every time. "I worked my flank off."

"Yeah, I bet." She glanced back at him. "It's a pretty nice flank."

He snorted back a laugh, and then shoved her shoulder with his own soft hit. "I'm a married stallion."

"Doesn't stop pictures of you from showing up on all sorts of calendars..." She let the implications of the phrase hang in the air, and then burst out laughing as a broad blush broke over the captain's face. The sound would carry on nearly until they reached their destination.

- - -

It had been almost five years since Princess Celestia set hoof in the little ivory tower on the edge of her school's grounds. Though she had not come alone, the companions she longed for could not be present. Twilight wasn't there, with kindly questions and friendship. Her stoic gray guardian was absent, leaving the room without the comforting security of his ever-present attention. Worst, though, was Luna, whose absence had brought the meeting about in the first place.

"How long has it been, Celestia? Eighty years?"

Celestia smiled at the griffon emperor, one of a very few beings in the world who could truly be said to tower over her. Though she hoped the expression would make him welcome, she could not be said to be anywhere near happiness. "I'm afraid not, Magnus. We spoke after the border issue in Zebrica. That was only seven years ago."

Magnus, your memory is failing. The third voice did not come from a throat, but rather rang out in Celestia's mind without passing through the air of the quiet sunroom.

The Princess looked between her two guests, silently wondering why she had chosen Twilight's tower for her rendezvous with her so-called 'friends'. It was certainly true that the wide glass and marble structure was one of only a few sites that could comfortably accommodate the trio of massive beings. It seemed, however, that everywhere she looked, Celestia saw a reminder of those she wished were present in the place of her peers.

Unable to find respite on anything else, Celestia looked over her guests. Magnus was as proud and potent as ever, with young and regal feathers and a perfectly sculpted physique. His beak idly sampled a few strips of raw beef that the princess had provided with some degree of unmentioned reluctance.

The other guest was always one to unnerve Celestia. Lady Valdria, ruler of the Elk, was not altogether much larger than her kin. Indeed, even without the sheer height of her usual radiant form, Celestia stood a head taller than the hind. The difference was somewhat mitigated by the curiosity of her skull. Elkish stags were known for their proud and many-spurred antlers, each point of which could manage magic in the same manner as a unicorn's horn. Valdria and her line made up the rare few females of the species to bear the glorious curved antlers that gave the species their magical might. Hers in particular were enormous, made up of swooping curves and tiny prongs that often gave the false impression that they were of little threat.

Like most Elk, Valdria did not speak with her tongue. The mouth was considered a private, intimate body part, and to open it in public was rude. Instead, she spoke into Celestia's mind with magic, an effect which always left the ruler of the ponies feeling as though some level of her privacy, along with her constant mask of calm and control, had been stripped away.

It has been many years, however, since so many of us were gathered.

"So many?" Magnus' ensuing chuckle sent books spilling from the shelves. "We are only half our number, Valdria. Krenn still rests in his fiery hole, no doubt counting his hoard, though I know not why Khagan has not joined us."

You truly pay no mind to the world beyond your borders, then, Magnus. Khagan tried to claim Celestia's southern lands, and she crushed him. While it was a somewhat cruel interpretation of the facts, the thoughts were true. Unlike the griffons and the dragons, the most recent conflict between Equestria and the boars had not escalated into war. Instead, it was resolved by three carefully chosen ponies, with the utmost discretion. Celestia was surprised Valdria knew, but few secrets could be kept from a creature who so easily read the minds of those around her.

I was most troubled to learn of Princess Luna's misfortune. I had hoped to speak with her, after her return.

Unstated in words, but made clear by her thoughts, was that Valdria blamed Celestia not only for Luna's absence, but her current peril. Luna had always been more accepting of the Elk, and their ruler. She found less fault in their sudden shifts of nature, and their duplicitous love of half-truths. Perhaps that was why Celestia had not spoken to the Elkish ruler in over a millennium. Both, it seemed, were happy with that arrangement.

"We all have, Valdria. Celestia, though I admire your efforts, I must say you aren't half the artist she is." Magnus gestured vaguely upward. "Looking at the same night sky for a thousand years was less than inspiring."

Celestia narrowed her eyes. "Perhaps if you had actually told her your opinions a thousand years ago, I would not have had to... do what I did."

Perhaps. Valdria's unspoken tone was almost painful, bringing further wrinkles to the brow of the already angered alicorn princess. Tell us, then, what we can do to help her.

"Unless you know of a poison that causes one to age magically, very little." Celestia forced the doubt out of her voice for a moment. "My subjects will save my sister." With every passing moment, her faith in those words drained away.

"Do you speak of the blood-colored male who greeted us? Though he speaks poorly, he stands like a proud warrior."

Krenn led me to believe you had taken a gray pony for a mate, not one of red coat. She did not smile, and no laughter rang out in their minds, but somehow both Celestia and Magnus could both find a teasing tone in the words. I had hoped to meet the pony who finally broke your will.

"You must be kidding. We all know that Celestia hasn't taken a mate in at least eight millennia." Magnus shot a look of piqued curiosity toward Celestia, who nodded slowly. "We would have heard."

Rumor had it that he would be the one to join us if Luna were to pass.

"I do not bear foals," the Princess stated, as a matter of fact. "I have no interest in watching children die while I remain behind. The question is moot. He's dead." She looked over the library's walls of books, expecting to find a mantle of statues emulating his shape. Perhaps she should not have let herself grow so attached. Most of her bodyguards didn't last as long as he had.

You get too attached, Celestia. You would not be so lonely, if you could only learn to let go.

Celestia glared at the elk, bringing forth the hidden statement of yet another callous thought. "Are you saying I ought to let go of Luna as well?"

"Of course not!"

Yes.

"What?" Magnus drew back, wings flared. "I have no desire to see one of our number pass. What hatred do you harbor for Luna?"

All die in time, Magnus. Even our kind. I would rather Luna be allowed to move on and enjoy peace in the next world, than be forced to suffer here further, for her sake. Or do you forget Discord's reign? The silence that followed the harsh thought seemed not only to lack noise, but to hunt it down and butcher it, that even the memory of sound might be forgotten.

Celestia finally could not stand it anymore. She did not break the silence, but instead, broke down herself. No tears were necessary, or bidden. She had spilt more in the past week than in the hundred years preceding it. Instead she simply crumpled, laying down her head on her forehooves and allowing her half-illuminated mane to spread out around her like ink.

"Are you well, Celestia?"

Her heart aches, Valdria explained. The guilt is hers, and she wishes for- The elk's unspoken words dropped off suddenly, and then picked up again only a moment later. I can grant your unimagined wish, Celestia. The mind is open to me, even hers, but I do not promise that you will like what you discover.

"What are you talking about?"

"She can let me speak to Luna." Celestia rose to her hooves, weary but excited. "Please, Valdria. If nothing else, I need the chance to say goodbye."

- - -

The Zebra village was constructed in a sinkhole that to Rainbow seemed like it must have been made by some titanic dragon or ursa major. From their place on the cliff overlooking the hole, Rainbow could see the almost twelve miles of terrain separating her from the opposite wall. Dozens of waterfalls poured down the edges, bouncing in little pools on the cliffs, before finally crashing down into rivers on the jungle floor. There, the winding snakes of water gathered into a massive lake, on whose shores the Zebras had made their home. The hamlet seemed too small to even house the gathering of warriors surrounding the pegasus, let alone a full town. Only a few rough huts and a little pillar of smoke from some sort of fire were visible over the distance. The intervening terrain, like all else that could be seen in every direction, was covered in dense overgrowth and massive trees.

"How do we get down?" Rainbow asked, before realizing that without Reckoning by her side, common Equestria was unlikely to get her any answers. Two of the zebra warriors offered quick glances to one another, before the larger of the two gestured with head to the side. They walked along the rim, and with every step Rainbow wondered if she could summon up enough magic to fly. If she could, escape was nothing more than a quick jump to the right away. If she couldn't, nopony could survive that high of a fall, wings or no.

She tried to rustle her wings and catch the air, but she had to do so without drawing the zebras' attention. Her restricted movements gave no sign, though it wasn't clear if the lack of effect came from a lack of magic, or a lack of motion. Normally, Dash wasn't one for taking the safe and cautious choice, but recent experiences had taught her that jumping off cliffs and towers tended to end poorly. She wasn't particularly inclined to dive face-first into the ground at mach one a second time in her life, even if the first had turned out better than expected. Thus, she was left to walk along with the zebra escort.

Only a minute of walking later, one of the zebras pulled aside some bushes to reveal... well, Rainbow wasn't really sure what it was called. The structure was basically an enormous version of the bucket to Twilight's hot air balloon, decorated in jungle wood and brightly colored zebra masks. Instead of a balloon, though, it hung from a thick rope which traveled to a pulley over the edge of the cliff, before dropping down the sheer height.

The 'bucket' was big enough to hold probably a dozen ponies, if they squeezed. Only half that number actually made it on board, with Rainbow pressed into the middle. Finally given the chance to look back at the rest of the group, the pegasus saw Dead Reckoning surrounded by his own set of zebra warriors. Kiongozi was behind them all, judgmental eyes shifting between the two pegasi and watching both closely.

With a sudden lurch, the bucket began to move. Its travel was slow, but not painfully so. In only a few seconds, it had lurched completely over the edge of the cliff. All that was left holding it up was a rope that Rainbow wasn't completely sure she trusted. Nevertheless, without a choice in the matter, she could do nothing more than hope the strange vehicle would hold.

The ride down was smoother than the pegasus expected, when all was said and done. The smoothness of the ride did little to alleviate the discomfort of her company, however, When they reached the jungle floor, the warriors once more encircled her and prodded her to move.

"Aren't we gonna wait for the others to get down?" The answer to her question came in the incomprehensible zebra tongue, but when words failed, the point of a spear communicated perfectly that the answer was a solid 'no'.

Instead, they continued on for another half an hour or so, making a brisk pace along cleanly cut trails, until at last the village was visible. Rainbow realized why, from afar, the place had seemed so small. Nearly half of all the nearby trees had been adapted into homes, carved out and fitted with doors, windows, and glowing lights. Between the structures, zebras of all ages and sizes went about their business, carrying foodstuffs, crafts, and a thousand other aspects of life as they encouraged their home to thrive. Without exception, they all stopped to look in awe and confusion at the strangely colored, winged creature that entered their midst. Even surrounded by guards, Rainbow was surprised that she was enough to cause some of the little zebra foals to duck behind their parents, and peek out at her only with the most frightened of eyes. She was used to younger ponies being struck into awe by her awesomeness (and occasionally, her radicalness as well), but never before had she really been something to fear. It wasn't a situation she was altogether comfortable with.

As she passed, the older zebras spoke in hushed, poetic words that Rainbow couldn't understand or guess at. Even their opinion, good or ill, was unclear from their tones. All she could be sure of was that she was the topic of their conversation. The whispering was already getting under her coat and making her question their intentions, when the gentle tap of a tiny hoof pressed against her left wing.

She turned suddenly to find a little zebra foal standing with her leg outstretched. A few gold rings covered her neck and ankles, though far fewer than Rainbow usually saw on Zecora. The filly couldn't have been any older than Scootaloo or her friends. She opened her mouth and spoke with another instance of their curious language. "Ambayo mzazi ni ndege?"

"Uh... I don't speak zebra..." Rainbow told her, rather reluctantly.

"She asks only a simple word. Which of your parents was a bird?"

Rainbow shook suddenly when one of the warriors escorting her translated the phrase. "You speak Equestrian? Why didn't you say anything?"

"There is no poetry to your tongue. We would not share it with our young."

Rainbow raised a brow, before deciding that the full meaning of the rhyme wasn't worth her time. "Look, uh, kid... I'm a pegasus. Both of my parents were pegasi too. I didn't have a-"

Before she had even properly finished, the same zebra warrior began speaking at a thousand miles an hour in rich zebra. Rainbow caught the word 'pegasus' used twice, bluntly, and both times the child made a face like she had tasted something sour. When the explanation was over, however, she giggled to herself, and ran off.

"Hey, wait!" Dash called, but her words came too late.

Instead of speaking his directions, the zebra stallion guiding her went back to his stalwart practice of pointing directions with the tip of his spear. Rainbow was thankful that she had yet to suffer a real wound, but the pain was still very real, and quite uncomfortable.

Eventually, the prodding led to the side of the lake that Rainbow had seen from above, where a handful of large mud huts existed without trees to support and disguise them. In their center was a large open space, surrounding an enormous fire pit. Here, more than anywhere else in the village, were countless Zebras simply standing about, speaking to one another and engaging in what could only be called life.

All at once, as Rainbow was forced into the open space, everything stopped. The zebras turned, and stared. The pegasus stared back, before her ever present guide prodded her to a seat on a stump near the fire.

"A place for guests. Here, you may rest." Having said his peace, the stallion sat down beside her, spear still in hoof.

With nothing else to do, Rainbow sat, and waited. Thankfully, said waiting did not last long. Little more than ten minutes later, the sound of arguing could be clearly heard in the distance, approaching the fire circle. She turned toward the approaching sound, and saw Dead Reckoning surrounded by dozens of spears. Ignoring the blatantly obvious threat, he was shouting quite loudly at Kiongozi, who herself seemed barely interested in his words.

"She isn't like them! She's barely even a mare!"

"Do you expect me to be so naive? I know what will happen if I let her leave."

"Don't punish her for something that happened before her lifetime!"

"Why should I not trouble her? Old actions still punish my herd. I will speak no more of this today. Rest now, and be on your way. But know forever, eye of white, you are no longer welcome within our sight."

Reckoning clearly had more to say, but Kiongozi turned her back on him and strode off into the center of the village. The scout stared for some time as the zebra wandered away. Finally, in anger, he stomped a hoof against the ground. Rainbow's wings unfurled when the motion was accompanied by the clear crack of thunder. The motion surprised a great many zebras as well, judging by the number of spears that were immediately pointed Reckoning's way. He muttered a half-dozen words in zebra, which Rainbow had not expected, and the weapons were lowered. From there, it took only a few moments to see him seated on the stump next to his young partner. "Well, that didn't work."

"You're telling me." Rainbow laughed, just a little. "You speak zebra?"

"Really, really badly. I usually offend them, since I'm terrible at organizing the poetry."

"Their language doesn't rhyme, though."

"Not all poetry is rhyming. The zebra language is a language of poetry, and it’s considered rude not to take the time to organize your words. Zebras believe Equestrian is a rude language because the way our words are built make a lot of their usual ways of speaking impossible. They just use rhymes because it's the best they can do."

"Really? Well, I'm not much for the sappy poetry stuff. Are you gonna tell me what's up with her now?"

"Huh?" Reckoning cocked an eyebrow, until Rainbow gestured in the direction that the zebra herd leader had wandered off. "Kiongozi? Oh, sure, I guess. It happened probably thirty-eight years ago, when I was first made a proper scout in the Royal Guard. I still had my eye back then; not too much older than you, really. Anyway, after the war with the griffons, we put up a whole bunch of outposts in the jungle. 'We' being the guard. We put a whole bunch of National Guard ponies there, and they brought their families. After a few years, these outposts turned more into trading posts, hunting and mining out the jungle, and paying off zebra labor with 'cultural advancement'. Basically, they were telling the zebras that all this," he gestured widely to the fire pit and the trees, and the village in general, "was wrong, and our way of living was right."

"What, like the buffalo in Appleloosa?" Rainbow smiled, thinking back to the peaceful (if entirely silly) solution to their little war.

"I don't know a lot about the buffalo, but what I have heard sounds similar. The difference is that the zebras welcomed us... at first. So lots of ponies showed up, with pony ideals and pony traditions. Slowly but surely, the zebras stopped really being zebras, and started looking like just another breed of pony. Some of them were alright with this, but quite a few herds, like the Marezambian herd here, took it as a threat to their way of life. They started fighting back."

"What happened? A war?"

"That's what a lot of ponies wanted, including the military governor of Zebrica at the time. Princess Celestia wouldn't have it though, so instead, she gave the tribes a choice. They could join Equestria, and enjoy the comforts of our protection in exchange for the risk that they'd lose their individuality and their tradition, or they could remain as they were, protected from Equestria's influence but isolated. When a lot of tribes chose the latter, we had to get our ponies off their lands. I was sent into get one of the last stragglers. An ivory trader, named Curt Nod."

"So, what, did you screw up or something?"

Reckoning shook his head slowly. "Things were screwed up a long time before I got there." He was clearly about to continue his story when a motion within the village circle caught his eye. He gestured with a wing toward the far side of the fire pit. "Look at this."

Rainbow followed his direction, and saw a mare not much younger than herself stepping up to the edge of the bonfire. She wore a skirt of dried grass reeds, while numerous golden rings surrounded her neck and fetlocks.

"What does this have to do with your story?"

"You'll understand when I get to it. Even if it didn't, I'd want you to see this. It doesn't happen every day." Reckoning twisted on his stump, turning his body to face the mare at the other side of the fire. Rainbow looked around the gathering and noticed that all motion had stopped. Everypony, or rather, everyzebra, was looking intently at the young mare, who stood tall with closed eyes and intense focus.

Without any sort of warning, she began to hum, and stomp her hooves in an intense rhythm against the packed dirt. The music had an alien beat, which entranced the pegasus mare and found her hooves tapping along. The accompaniment, however, was short lived, as Dash's surprise at the next development left her frozen in place.

The zebra mare leapt into the fire. The flames danced around her coat and mane, even as her hooves navigated the burning wood. Her song continued as her dried skirt caught flame, and the gold rings covering her body melted away. Seemingly unharmed, she continued until the molten metal had peeled away from her flesh, before finally leaping out of the fire. In her new place, she was no more than ten feet from the two pegasi guests. She offered them a confused glance, as if seeing them for the first time, before turning to walk away.

As she passed out of the circle and back into the trees of the rest of the village, all the assembled zebras, along with Dead Reckoning, spoke a single clear word. "Karibu."

"Uh, what about caribou?"

"It means 'welcome' in zebra. That young mare just passed her rite of passage, and became a full member of the herd, as a shaman. We were congratulating her."

"So that was earth pony magic? I thought you said earth pony magic couldn't do crazy stuff like that. They just got strong and grew things."

Reckoning nodded. "That's what proves that zebras are actually a different breed of ponies than earth ponies. They have totally different magic. I'd tell you more, but I don't know very much about how it works. It's always impressive though. Without those gold bands, she's recognized as a full adult, and she has a say in the way the herd makes decisions."

"So... do all the zebras jump in the fire like that?"

"Nope. Just the shamans. A zebra’s rite of passage is meant to prove that they'll contribute to the herd, doing whatever it is they're best at. You could say it's like a test of your special talent. It's a special treat, seeing a shaman's test, though. They don't happen often."

"You've seen this before?"

"Thirty eight years ago, I saw the rite get failed." Rainbow's focus shifted to the fire, and then back to Reckoning's apathetic face. The scout was staring into the fire, seeming altogether unaware of the mare sitting beside him. "You pass, and you're part of the herd. You fail, and you're part of the land."

"That's terrible!"

"It's life, Dash." Reckoning took a long slow breath, and curled down onto his log. "but your reaction is the same as a lot of ponies. That's why they wanted to change the zebras in the first place." Reckoning shrugged. "They only respect their own traditions now. Anyway, you might as well catch up on that sleep you missed. If what you said about four days is true, then this is already over. We can start heading back to Canterlot in the morning."

Rainbow Dash watched as Dead Reckoning followed his own advice and descended into slumber. Then, with pointed attention, she stood up off her log and started walking into the village. Her guard tried to stop her, but she brushed away his spear with a wing. "Let me talk to Kiongozi."

- - -

The infirmary was quiet. Doctors had removed much of the monitoring equipment surrounding the dying princess, knowing at least in theory what condition plagued their patient. Her form reclined on the bed, sad yet serene.

"Your majesty." The Princess turned suddenly, not expecting another presence in the room. Nevertheless, in a bed on the wall opposite her sister lay a fairly familiar face.

"Sergeant Crack. Is your wing healing well?"

"It'll fly again in a few weeks," the sergeant answered with a smile.

"Good," the Princess responded vacantly. She was about to disregard him completely when another nagging thought popped into her mind. "Sergeant, Captain Armor gave me a very curious report on your treatment of Rainbow Dash."

The soldier's face turned surprisingly red, before resuming its olive tint. "I was given a very difficult assignment, to ensure she was prepared for duty in a very short period of time. With respect, I felt that... unconventional methods were called for."

Celestia looked the pony square in the eye. He certainly wasn't like Soldier On or Red Ink; the stallion squirmed under her gaze, knowing he was being judged. "We will speak on this matter in the future, Sergeant. Until then, I have other matters to attend to. Please do not interrupt us."

Celestia then turned back to the doors of the room, and pulled them open with a gentle burst of magic. She'd left the Elk ruler outside thinking to clear the room of medical staff, but the pause had been just as useful for dealing with the Honor Guard. Having resolved the issue, Celestia welcomed Valdria inside.

This place remembers death.

"It has seen many of my little ponies healed, Valdria."

Instead of another move in their game of barbed daggers, the Elk ruler simply changed the topic. Seeing Luna's defeated form at the far end of the room, the hind walked slowly forward. Remember, Celestia, that the mind wanders in a dream. She may not know what has happened. Be gentle to her.

"Please, Valdria, I have no intention of hurting my sister further."

The tips of four points on Valdria's antlers ignited with golden-white mana. A thousand years of history disagree.

Before Celestia could find words for a rebuttal, the world suddenly changed. The Princess was overcome by a sudden sensation of vertigo, as the colors of the infirmary were washed away like ink by a splash of water. Everything blurred together, before fading slowly into darkness.

The next sensation was cold. The heat was sucked away from Celestia's coat, leaving her icy and shivering. Her body felt weightless, floating aimlessly in eternal darkness. She gasped for breath, and found none. Even the sound of her desperate search for air was absent.

This silence continued only for a few spare moments, before pinpricks of light appeared amidst the inky veil surrounding her. Just when her mind recognized them as stars, the feeling of weightlessness faded. All at once, she was falling, and then the ground hit her. Everything was the wrong way up, or so it seemed. The dirt below her felt dry and dusty.

She rose to her hooves slowly, struggling to regain her equilibrium. The world around her was a plane of nearly featureless chalk, stretching on in minor hills and ditches on to the inky horizon. Overhead, amidst the stars, a ball of blue and green hovered low.

Ahead, on a little mound of chalky dirt, a mare sat in a very particular spot. To anypony else looking at it, that place might well have been simply another patch of dust, but to her it was special. From there, she could stare up at the bountiful ball of colors that hovered over her head, offering the only glimpse of life in an endless sea of stars and darkness.

"Luna?"

The mare turned slowly, and Celestia broke into a gallop. Tears were frozen to her sister's face. "Celestia? Why are you here?"

"I came to see you, Luna." Celestia wrapped her hooves tightly around her sister, unfurling her wings to complete the embrace.

Luna simply collapsed into the welcome contact. Between sobs and gasps for breath, she spoke. "What did I do?"

Celestia looked down at her sister in shock, and then embraced her tightly. "What do you mean, Luna? You've done nothing."

"Why are we here again?"

No sooner were the words spoken then Celestia realized the extent of Luna's sorrow. Without releasing her sister, her eyes swept over the lunar plains. Everywhere were tiny marks of pain, torment, and the long slow battle of patience. A small boulder's tiny scratches were in fact tally marks number in the millions. Amidst the loose rock of the plains, one stone was an effigy of her own head. Raw magic had shattered the rest into a thousand pieces, scattered with the wind.

"Luna, you're not-"

"Do not lie to us, sister," Luna wailed, burying her face into Celestia's coat. Even in the icy void, the elder sister felt the fresh tears. "Did we succumb again to the Nightmare? Was it because we killed Rainbow Dash?"

"Luna, no." Celestia pushed Luna away, far enough that they could look into one another's eyes. "You did nothing wrong."

"Then why, Celestia? Why this-" she callously swept a hoof over the barren landscape, "-again?"

"Luna, listen to me. This... this is all a dream."

"A dream?" Luna shook her head. "Our dreams would not do this to us."

"It is all in your mind, sister. Please, believe me."

Clearly, Luna did not believe the words. She turned her head away and gazed up at the floating ball that was the world, in all its color and vibrancy. "You do not have the courage to even admit our sin?"

"Luna, please believe me."

A third voice broke into her pleas. "She will not waste her time with your words, Celestia. Not after the last time she was here." When it spoke, she knew the voice. It remained unchanged, likened unto a diamond razor, coated in ash. For all its refinement, it was both bladed and bitter

The creature that shambled toward her was broken and beaten. Its jet black coat had been roughed and cut into callous hideousness. Its mane hung limply by its sides. It struggled to walk on four broken legs, as a single crippled wing hung limply at its side. Above its tired teal eyes, a shattered stump was all that remained of a once proud horn. Whatever the pitiful creature had been, it was now only a thing of suffering and pain, struggling to continue what little life it had left.

"You?" Celestia shifted herself to stand for battle, horn pointed forward and wings flared. "How are you here?"

"Do you really fear me like this, Celestia?" In the cold of the empty void, it echoed. "Perhaps that is easy to understand. To answer your question, this is what your so-called Harmony has wrought. At first, Magic simply shattered us, pulling us apart bit by bit. When it faltered, Honesty was there to remind it that we deserved every ounce of pain we were suffering. Loyalty called to mind every time we had wronged them. And the Laughter..." Slitted eyes stared off into the void. "...the Laughter."

"And yet here you are." Celestia looked away from the broken monstrosity, and back to her sister. "Luna, believe me, this isn't some terrible punishment. I never wanted to do that to you a thousand years ago, and I would never do it again."

Luna stared at the Nightmare as it approached, and her misty eyes slowly dried. "Sister, we... I would never give in to that jealousy again. Not even if I am forced to endure this place for a millennium more." She elevated her tone, calling upon all the courage she could muster in her time of trouble. "Foul beast, how is it that you still survive?"

"The same reason I was destroyed," the Nightmare responded. "When the damage was finally done, and I had learned to long for death, only then did Kindness speak up. All could be saved, if given a chance. The words were painful, but Generosity insisted I get that chance. And so, instead of destroying me completely, I was left, broken but alive, longing with every minute for darkness to claim me, but it would not come." The Nightmare shambled to Luna's side, and did not sit so much as collapse on shattered knees. "Your loneliness now gave me the strength to come forth."

Luna shook her head. "Do not expect our pity. Whatever we did to be banished once more, we harbor no hatred for our sister."

"You are so young, Luna. So forgiving." The Nightmare shook its head. "So blind to the world around you."

"And in turn, thou art bitter and cold and unable to forgive. We prefer our own illusions." The Princess looked up at Equestria, floating high overhead. "It is no longer our sister's power to force us here. Our judges were six others. If they called down Harmony upon us, it is because we did some evil to deserve it. We shall endure our punishment nobly, and without you."

To Celestia's surprise and happiness, the creature began to fade at those words. Its dark body blurred, and its eyes lost their sharp and hateful focus. Even as its body began to be whisked away by an ethereal wind, however, it spoke up once more.

"Say what you like, Luna, but we both know that we are one. You will never truly be rid of us, as long as you live."

For some time, the two sisters sat staring at the place that their oldest foe had once stood. Celestia occasionally spared a glance at her sister, but Luna's sorrow had turned to a vacant stare, unaware even of her sister's presence. This continued even as the moon spun, bringing other parts of the world above into plain view. Then, without warning, the silence shattered.

"Sister, tell me the truth. What has happened to us?"

Celestia took the time gather her words. Her neck turned, to look once more into the sad and empty eyes of her only true companion. "Luna, you were poisoned."

"Poison?"

"Yes. An assassin tried to kill you while you were bringing out the stars. Rainbow Dash saved you from falling to your death, but the poison was already within you."

Luna's vacant stare was broken by a flash of thought. "I remember... a rainbow, in the night, and a massive sound."

"Her Sonic Rainboom, yes."

Luna turned away from Celestia's gaze, but not fast enough to avoid the elder seeing the sadness that spread over her face. "She gave her life for me? Truly, I did not take her life?"

"No, Luna, she lived through-" the words were cut off by a far harsher tone.

"You said you would not lie to me, sister. I already know she died. Her life passed beneath my moon. I judged her soul." The venom in the younger sister's voice faded in an instant. "I led her to the Summer Lands."

Celestia regretted her words. "Forgive me, Luna. I got so used to saying that. Yes, of course. In any case, the poison has placed you in a coma, Luna. You're dreaming this. It is all within your mind."

"If 'tis truly my mind that bestows this suffering upon me, surely you are no more than a figment of my imagination as well."

"No, Luna. Valdria let me come here, to speak with you."

I cannot join you, Celestia. To enter myself is beyond my power. Do not make her expect me to appear.

Electing not to acknowledge the voice of the elk aloud, Celestia stepped closer to Luna and changed the subject. "Our subjects are working to find a cure, Luna."

"Who, sister? Which of our subjects could forgive us enough to truly do such work?"

Sensing the pain and the guilt in her sister's words, Celestia answered with the most comforting name she could produce. "Rainbow Dash is searching for a cure as we speak."

Realization dawned over Luna's expression, and her wide eyes turned to her sister. "Surely, Celestia, you didn't steal her reward from her?"

Celestia's response was to guiltily look away. For no small time, silence held their conversation. When the elder sister finally spoke, it was after a long breath, and it came in quiet words. "Luna, she knew about the assassin. I needed to hear what she had learned. I needed her help."

"Did you at least tell her friends?" Celestia's response was only to look away further, earning an even more emotional question in return. "Didst thou tell her?"

"I..." Celestia sighed, and forced herself to look back into her sister's eyes. "I wanted to keep attention on saving you, Luna. Rainbow was so willing to help. She even agreed to be your new bodyguard."

Luna clearly wasn't sure how to feel about the revelation. Her eyes closed, but not in sorrow. Instead, she retreated into introspection, wondering to herself about what she had learned. Finally, an answer of sorts came into her mind, and left her mouth slowly. "Tell her I said thank you."

Their conversation was cut off momentarily by a voice in the elder sister's mind. Celestia, she cannot hear me, but I warn you that my magic can only hold a short while longer. Finish whatever words you have left.

Celestia shook her head. "You'll have to tell her yourself."

"Then why are you here at all? Why not simply cure this poison and pull me from my slumber?" Luna almost immediately realized how her tone must have sounded, for she recoiled upon herself and hid her face behind the flow of her cosmic mane. "Forgive me, sister, I merely meant to say that if all goes wrong, remind her that her efforts hath not been in vain."

"Luna, we will save you. I will."

Luna's response nearly shattered Celestia's heart. "I am not the only pony in the world, sister. If we have to leave the world, do not forget our subjects in mourning." She smiled. It was a bittersweet thing. "Do not think I forgot Hurricane."

The humor of the statement fell in sorrow. "Luna, I love you."

"I love you too, big sister. Thank you."

As the world began to blur again, and the stars and the moon faded into colors, one more of Luna's words reached her sister's ears.

"Goodbye."

- - -

Rainbow Dash found herself in a large room, not unlike Zecora's residence in the Everfree forest. Colorful masks adorned the walls, along with a bed in the corner, and nearly a half-dozen seats. In the largest of these, centered against the far wall, Kiongozi sat, her weathered face judging Rainbow before she could even speak.

There were no other zebras present. Even the guard had remained at the door. Only the old mare and the young pegasus were there, watching each other coldly. The zebra elected to speak first.

"Rainbow Dash, your words are more? Why is it that you darken my door?"

"I wanted to make a deal with you. Reckoning and I need to keep going so we can save Princess Luna."

"We will not let outsiders go. Our lands are closed, our answer 'no'."

"Yeah, that's what you said earlier. I get it." Rainbow broke a cocky smile. She had a plan. "So you only let members of your herd walk around on your land. Is that right?"

"Yes, young mare devoid of rhyme. Now speak your mind, and stop wasting my time."

Rainbow hadn't expected such a harsh response. "Okay, geez. I want to take a Rite of Passage."

"What?"

The pegasus waited for only a moment, but apparently, there was some unspoken Zebra rule that single words were not required to rhyme. Either that, or Rainbow's proposal had been offense enough to warrant an answer devoid of 'poetry', as if that would somehow offend her. "I want to join your herd. Then you'll let me and Dead Reckoning go on, right?"

"The words you speak are right and true, but why should my herd welcome you?"

"Uh, because I'm awesome?" Clearly, that particular reason wasn't a winner for the zebras any more than the Wonderbolts. "Well, for starters, you don't have anypony who can fly, and I'm the best flier in Equestria. Well, right now, I'm the best flier in Zebrica, but that's sort of a picky way to-"

"Shut your mouth, please, Rainbow Dash. I'll hear no more of your self-obsessed trash. I see no reason to let you try, and join our herd, so no say I."

Seeing her proposal failing, Rainbow broke out her last-ditch plan. "So you're just going to judge me before you even get to know me? I guess I should have expected that. That's pretty much what happened to Zecora, before my friends and I met her." She waited for a moment, and then turned to leave.

Her hooves were no more than a single stride from the doorway when Kiongozi spoke up. "Wait!" To Rainbow's shock and immense satisfaction, the name worked. Though she was still unsure what had caused Zecora to leave, she was grateful that it wasn't something that would cause trouble at the mention of her name. Instead, Kiongozi spoke up again. "Tell me, then, o mare of the sky, what is it that we shall judge you by?"

"Well, didn't I just say? Flying! You know, looking up high! Plus, I can do tons of cool moves!"

"Stunts and tricks do not benefit the herd. We have no interest in welcoming a bird."

"Huh, well, okay then. I guess I'm also a guardspony."

Kiongozi's brow rose, and then settled, in the span of no more than a second. A little glint hit the corner of her eye as she nodded. "Very well, miss Rainbow Dash, I see you wish to make a splash. I warn you though, that danger lurks, high above, on crested perch. Look to the north, at great Kilimarejaro. There you will find the site of our sorrow. A wyrm of hunger most uncouth has stolen from us a most promising youth. Rescue her, and bring her home, and then you will be free to roam."

Rainbow pumped a leg, smiling as widely as she could. "All right. I'll get Reckoning, and we can-"

"If you intend to show you are grown, on a Rite of Passage, you must go alone."

The mare shrugged. "Fine. Just go rescue a zebra filly from a giant worm monster, and we're on our way. Got it!" She ran out the door and began to speak rapidly to the warrior stallion there, before Kiongozi could correct her deadly misunderstanding.

- - -

Shining Armor's hoof trembled. This was the moment of fate. Failure would spell his death. Victory was only the first step on a long and dangerous road.

"Oh, come on! I can catch you if it doesn't work!" The captain lurched forward out of the hot air balloon after a sudden shove from Going Solo. To his infinite relief, the clouds remained solid beneath his footing.

"You could have killed me!"

"Please, Shining, there are like a thousand pegasi here. You'd be fine."

"Well it still would have been safer to take this slowly." He picked his hooves up and down, feeling the spongy material that had no reasonable business holding his body weight. "Okay, come here, Grizzaloo. I'll need to do your hooves to."

"Yeah, I'd bet you'd like that." Grizzaloo growled, before stepping up to the edge of the bucket. As Shining began to work his magic, the crude stallion shot an angry glare at the all-too-innocent grin decorating Going Solo's face. "Solo, if you touch me, I'll rip your wings off."

"You're no fun, Grizzaloo."

"I have tons of fun," he answered bluntly. "Buy it behind the foundry for ten bits. Guess that's behind me, now that the crazy Stalliongradi pegger-"

"Watch your language!" Solo protested. "This is Cloudsdale."

Grizzaloo retorted by rolling his eyes. "-wants my head."

"Right." Shining Armor awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck. "Well, uh, Solo, you know Cloudsdale better than we do. Where are we headed?"

"The central post office is this way. Follow me."

Thus, a pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony set off on a path that ought to have been completely impossible for two of their party. Along the way, Going Solo pointed out structures of note, from tourist attractions like the Cloudosseum and the Weather Factory to more mundane but significant structures like Cloudsdale General Hospital, or the City Council Building. All the while, the captain afforded himself the time for basic questions, satisfying his curiosity while keeping the group moving at a brisk pace. Pulling up the rear, Grizzaloo muttered a steady stream of commentary under his breath, none of which would bore the intellectual or moral significance to be worth repeating.

At last, at the end of the long strip of clouds that was Mane Street, the trio reached a towering structure emblazoned with a blue and white logo of an envelope, stamped with a pegasus wing.

"And this is it. Equestria's central post office. Tons of mail goes through here every day." Solo held the door open. "After you."

Shining Armor walked in first, rolling his amethyst-armored shoulders as he looked around. He'd been expecting something administrative and impressive. Instead, it was just a particularly pale, puffy version of a totally normal post office. It even had one of the obnoxious numbered-ticket dispensers that always seemed to dispense two tickets when you pulled one out. Fortunately, for whatever reason, the building was almost totally empty. Only a single clerk was working at the counter. A middle-aged pegasus mare, she flicked a hoof toward her patron without looking up from her work. "Welcome to the post office. Letter or package?"

Shining was always astounded at the level of apathy that could find its way into voices of public servants. "Actually, I was just hoping to get some directions."

"Look, sir, we're not the tourism office. This..." Her voice trailed off when she finally looked up. "You're, uh, a unicorn."

"Yes, ma'am, I am." Shining told her, in the most pleasant voice he could manage. "I am Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard. I'm here on an investigation, and I was hoping you could let my companions and I speak to some of the workers here."

"Oh, uh, yes, of course, uh, Captain, sir." She stumbled on her words nearly as badly as she stumbled over her own hooves, trying to make her way to the access door that led into the rest of the structure. Finally, after a great deal of fumbling, she managed to get the passage cleared. "Have a nice day."

"I hope so," Shining responded, before heading back into the building proper.

The next room was something of a culture shock to Shining Armor, for one simple feature. The entire towering structure, from floor to ceiling, consisted of that single room. Stacked along the walls, layers of terraces made up the various 'floors', but rather than a staircase and walls, a central column of open space was designed to allow access between the various floors. Dozens of pegasi darted up and down in the free air, moving from floor to floor with packages and bags of letters. The sheer quantity of activity was staggering.

Shining only broke his gaze from the amazing scene when a hoof tapped him on the shoulder. "Huh?"

"I thought it was pretty crazy my first day too," Going Solo explained. "I'm gonna go find somepony we can talk to. I guess just sit tight, since you can't follow me."

"Yeah, go ahead." The captain watched as Solo flew up into the mass of wings and mail and was immediately lost in the crowd.

"Living this high does something to their brains," Grizzaloo stated rather bluntly. "They're all morons. Especially the mares."

"Sometimes I wonder why anypony even puts up with you, Grizzaloo. Anyway, you won't need to worry about it. As soon as we have Go Between's information, we can get back on solid land."

Grizzaloo shot Shining Armor a weird look. "You think I'm bucking helping you with this? I'm not in it for a good time, unich. I like my life just the way it is, and sticking around with you just means I'm more likely to run into that filthy bucking guard that almost broke my jaw."

Shining Armor returned the words with a rather unfeeling glance. "I'm not holding anything against you, Grizzaloo. You gave me the information I wanted. If you want to charter another balloon back down to the ground, you're welcome to."

"Yeah, well, thanks for the bucking permission." Muttering something else under his breath, the earth pony wandered away. Left to himself, Shining Armor was content to watch the winged ponies flit back and forth overhead, until Going Solo returned alongside a gray mare.

"Shining Armor, this is, uh, Derpy. Derpy, this is Captain Armor."

The captain nodded. "Have I... met you before?"

"Oh, yeah!" A wide smile broke over the gray pegasus' face, as one of her eyes wandered away. "I was at your wedding. Well, at least, the one that didn't go so well." She glanced away hurriedly, and for a moment, her gaze aligned with itself. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you for real. How can I help? Do you need something delivered?"

"Actually, I was just hoping to get some directions." Derpy seemed to deflate at the words. "We need to find a pony named Go Between. Do you know anypony by that name?"

"Mr. Between? Yeah, I do mail for him every once in a while. He gets lots of big packages; they're real heavy." The mail-mare's face scrunched up, as she pantomimed the carrying of a heavy package.

"Uh, yeah, I can imagine," Solo muttered, humoring her friend. "Anyway, where does he live?"

"I don't know where he lives, but he has a big warehouse next to the weather factory. I think that's what all the packages are for; most of them are funny chemicals like what they use to make clouds and snow and stuff." Derpy nodded. "Like, one time, I had to bring him this huge box of cotton candy powder, and I wondered what it would taste like." She looked straight down at the floor, clearly saddened by the memory. "When it doesn't look like cotton, it isn't very tasty."

"I imagine not." Shining Armor smiled. "Well, you've been very helpful, miss Derpy."

"Oh, it's no problem. I love helping. Oh, do you want me to tell your sister anything?"

Shining pulled back his neck in surprise. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Well, one of my main jobs is to deliver all of the mail to Ponyville that comes through here. That's where I live, after all." She smiled. "So if you want me to tell Twilight anything, just give me a message."

"Oh." Shining closed his eyes, and thought for a moment. "Just tell her I said hello, I guess. Tell her I'll come visit her soon, when things quiet down." Derpy gave an overenthusiastic nod, falling forward onto her face. Shining smiled. "Thanks."

"It's no problem!" With refreshed vigor and apparently no sense of embarrassment, the curious mare darted back up into the thick of things.

"She was a nice mare," Shining observed.

"Probably the nicest pony here, but you have no idea how much trouble she causes." Going Solo shook her head. "We should get going, right?"

The captain gave a short but serious nod, and then adjusted his armor. A sinking feeling in his gut told him that he might shortly be needing it.

- - -

Thunder Crack watched the Elk leave alongside the Princess, feeling rather concerned for his continued job security. On the one hoof, he knew he had done what was clearly best for Equestria. The Elements of Harmony would have been protected, Rainbow Dash would have been out of the Honor Guard for good, and everypony would be back to trying to catch Masquerade. On the other hoof, he had basically put not only a trainee recruit, but one of the Bearers of Harmony in danger, in a drunken brawl with a bunch of guardsponies. Sure, there was no way she was going to get permanently injured with him watching, but somehow he felt like he was going to have a hard time getting Princess Celestia to believe that.

He gritted his teeth. It shouldn't have even been an issue; the Honor Guard did worse things on an almost weekly basis. It wasn't just permitted; it was expected. Of course, the whole point was that Princess Celestia didn't find out about what was going on, but what else was going to happen when Shining Armor started shoving his muzzle in their business?

Finally, he came to a conclusion. The entire situation had hit the fan when the Commander died. He wouldn't have let any of this happen. Tartarus, he probably could have just convinced the Princess not to let the filly on the guard himself. Of course, if he or Morning Star were still around, the assassination plot would probably have failed too and the whole thing would be a moot point.

Crack rolled his eyes. He wasn't much of a deep thinker anyway. 'What if' was for White Flag and the Commander to deal with. He hated being stuck in bed, waiting for his wing to heal while the rest of the Honor Guard was out getting things done. He wondered if Corporal Reckoning had snapped at the filly's annoying stunt flying obsession yet.

The sergeant's particularly shallow introspection was interrupted when the doors to the palace infirmary opened, revealing a familiar and welcome face.

"Marathon!" He sat upright, before momentarily regretting the action when his wing gave a surge of pain.

"I heard you were awake, Sarge. I just got back from Neighples."

Crack groaned aloud. "Don't call me Sarge, Marathon."

"Had to take the opportunity while you were too bandaged up to do anything about it." Marathon let out a soft laugh. "I brought you some real Bitalian wine, though the doctors said I couldn't bring it in here."

The sergeant shook his head disappointedly. "Stupid civilian doctors. Do they think I keep my liver in my wing? Well, thanks anyway. How was Corporal Reckoning?"

"You don't have to be so stiff about his name, Crack. Deadeye's doing well. Rainbow didn't take too kindly to him killing a manticore when we showed up, though."

A minor chuckle issued from the sergeant. "I bet she didn't. He didn't eat it, did he?"

Marathon shook her head, before donning a rather predatory grin. "Manticore tail is actually a Griffon delicacy, though."

"Disgusting." Crack's nose furrowed, trying to keep out an imagined smell. "I was kidding, Marathon."

"I know. I didn't care much for it, but when you're an ambassador..." She let the thought linger just long enough to earn a reaction from Crack. Then, smiling, she focused on him. "What happened to you while I was gone? Finally lose a bar fight?"

"Maybe." The stallion shrugged, and then found himself again regretting the motion. "Last I recall was trailing somepony back from Grizzaloo's hideout. You know who got into me?"

"You mean you don't remember?" Marathon was worried at the statement. "Soldier On found you like that. We were hoping you could tell us."

"If he could remember, he would not being alive." Crack's head shifted suddenly toward the new voice as it entered the infirmary. Into the room walked a bulky pegasus with a blood red coat and a long black jacket. Beneath the garment, his chest was covered by a standard issue golden breastplate, covered in a dozen medals and decorations.

"Who're you?" Crack asked as the other pony approached.

The other pony's accent identified him nearly as clearly as his name. "Captain Red Ink."

The name was familiar enough when paired with the knowledge that he was from Stalliongrad. "You're the Czar's son, right?"

"Tsar," Ink corrected, ignoring the hypocrisy of his own broken Equestrian. "Now, though, my family do not matter. I need one thing from you, Sergeant. Where is Soldier On?"

"I don't know. I've been out for almost a day now. Even if I did know, why should I tell you?"

Marathon butted in. "Uh, Crack, you see, apparently Shining Armor figured out that there was a traitor on the Honor Guard."

"Yeah, I know. Masquerade impersonated Morning Star, and then the Commander." Crack nodded. "Doesn't explain why Stalliongrad here is going after the new Captain."

"No, besides her," Marathon continued, only to be cut off by a far stronger voice.

"Stoikaja-" He spat on the floor. "Soldier On is traitor. She betrayed the Princess, and hid Masquerade. I am replacing her."

"Soldier On betray the Honor Guard?" Thunder Crack was dumbfounded. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he actually laughed. "I'm not sure who you think you are, Red Ink, but you're pretty far off the mark if you expect me to believe that."

"I don't care if believing. You want to prove to me she isn't traitor, you point the way. I know how to find where she runs when pressure rises. I just need to know starting point. Where are friends in Equestria?"

Crack forced himself to sit upright. "Well, sir, if that's what you're looking for, she's probably somewhere in the palace. Seeing as we're her friends, if you even have that word in Stalliongradi."

"Crack, I think-" Once more, Marathon's words were stolen by her commanding officer.

"No, Private," Ink interrupted. "Leave us. I will explain." Crack stared in confusion as Marathon heeded the other pony's command, leaving the two angry pegasi alone in the infirmary. Everything was silent as the swinging doors twisted, back and forth, back and forth. Only when they had truly stopped did the Stalliongrad soldier speak up. "You are very mistake about me, Sergeant Crack. I know from past that Soldier On is criminal, but I am not deciding she is traitor. Princess decided that. Shining Armor decided that. Soldier On proved it herself when she disappear. So now, I catch her, to save Princess." He gestured with a foreleg at Luna's comatose form. "This is one warning. Only warning. I am Captain of the Honor Guard now."

"Yeah. Right."

"Believe or don't. I can be dismissing you easily. No concern of mine. You will tell me where Soldier On goes in Canterlot in time of trouble, and we are done."

Crack shook his head defiantly. "I don't know what you think, Red Ink, but Soldier On is not the traitor you're looking for. She wouldn't do something like that. I know her."

Red Ink shook his head, and walked closer, stopping directly at Thunder Crack's bedside. "You are being blind, and I do not care. Justify how you wish. You will be telling me the truth, easy way or hard way."

"I'm not stabbing Soldier On in the back for you, Ink. She was a great guardspony."

Ink's patience was waning; it showed in the crease on his brow. "My brother plays politik." Ink rubbed a forehoof against the breast of his coat. "I prefer a blade to words, but I do not like to be hurting my own troops."

"You don't scare me." Thunder Crack stated plainly.

Red Ink smiled, and gestured to the far side of the room. Without looking, the sergeant knew that Luna's comatose form occupied the space in question. "Princess is sick and sleeping. Try not to wake her."

Then the Stalliongradi soldier lifted a hoof, and leaned down on Thunder Crack's left wing.

Special thanks to SatoshiKyu for prereading.

X - Chaos

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X: Chaos

- - -

Kilimarejaro's summit rose as three sharp peaks, not altogether as far away as Rainbow had expected. In the distance they had seemed refined and polished reminiscent of the spires of Celestia's tiara. Closer inspection gave them the rough edges and the sheer steepness of jagged teeth, like one might find within the mouth of a foul predator.

Two miles below, Rainbow Dash rose from a brief rest at the broken doorway of an ancient stone structure. Her zebra escort glanced over as she rose, and nodded slowly. His hoof casually pressed a rough canvas bag of fruit in her direction. With a smile and a nod, she pulled out a particularly large, greenish banana.

"Are you sure that this is wise? Of those who enter, everypony dies. If you wish to endanger yourself it is your right, but saddened will be Eye of White."

Rainbow cocked her head. "What, cause of the monster?"

"Your foe is a true danger yes, but-"

"If you're just speaking in rhymes to be polite, you don't have to." Rainbow smiled as disarmingly as she could manage. "You aren't going to hurt my feelings."

He stopped, and looked away pensively. After a moment the zebra frowned. "There are traps, I understand. My ancestors believed the spirit of the temple needed to be protected from outsiders, in order to earn its blessings."

"Was that so hard?"

"The challenge isn't why I was wary. The poetry is-" he stopped just as the final word was about leave his tongue. "It is proper."

"Whatever. You said there were traps. Are we talking, like, trap doors, or spikes out of the floor, or what?"

"I do not know. The temple is ancient." When Dash turned toward the doors, he added a hasty further warning. "You should not go."

"Aw, you were doing so well." Rainbow shook her head. "Anyway, I think I can take care of this. Even if I can't fly yet, I'm still really fast, and I do know a few tricks." She neglected to mention they came from a foal's book series. "Pass me my hat, and I'll get this filly out. What's her name, again?"

"Mzungu."

"Mah-zoon-goo. Got it. Okay, well, wish me luck."

"I shall return to the village at nightfall, if you do not return. I hope you survive long enough to learn."

Rainbow shook her head and responded sarcastically. "Thanks for believing in me. See you in a few." Then she pulled down the pith helmet on her head and strode into the ruins of the temple.

Her first steps were defined by the light leaking in from the shattered stones of the entrance. It carried her a dozen feet into the structure, where a pair of semi-circular stone doors barred the way in further. They bore the clear marks of some sort of decoration, but the ravages of the ages had stolen away all definition, leaving only a bruised and uneven surface that seemed, at most accurate, to have been some poorly-made mockery of the equine form.

The doors opened after no small effort on Rainbow's part, ancient hinges finally giving in to raw knee grease and athletic talent. Dust settled from their sudden motion, leaving behind a passageway into the structure. To Rainbow's surprise, the obvious hallway leading deep into the side of the mountain was lit by tiny magic lights, casting the hallway a faint and depressing blue. The mare took a spare moment to analyze the walls and the floor. She saw no obvious arrow holes, nor hinges where a trap door might lead to a short fall and an untimely demise. No fire was likely to burst out of any secret chambers, nor snakes descend from darkened corners. With a tentative step, she placed one hoof inside the structure.

Nothing happened. She took another, and then another. As soon as she released the doors, they swung shut behind her. A moment of panic was alleviated when a gentle test of her hoof confirmed that they could still be opened from within. Swinging doors seemed unusual for an ancient zebra temple, but they weren't trying to kill her, and as such she was prepared to leave them be.

Each step carried with it a rough flagstone, covered in moisture and the occasional stain of mold. The air was musty and thick and hot above all else, drawing sweat from Rainbow's skin and a sagging pace from her hooves. The hallway progressed on into the shadows, as far as Rainbow could see and farther still. A steady pace carried her forward, interrupted only when she passed the first of the magical lights. The little ball of ethereal glow, devoid of any flame or electricity for a source, shifted in tone from a deep blue to a Tartarian red that only served to darken the surrounding statues. The pegasus turned, spread her wings, and waited. Somewhere nearby, water dripped. All other noise the echoing shadow could bear was the sound of the mare's own breathing, slow and steady.

She forced herself to focus. It was just a light. Nothing had gone wrong. No reason to start talking to herself or freaking out. It wasn't even a trap. Just some strange magic. She closed her eyes for a moment in thought, then pulled off her pith helmet and tossed it down the hall. Sure enough, whenever it passed a light, the light's color changed. Forty feet of hallway were coated in the red of a fire too dark to truly burn, but too pale and lifeless to resemble blood. When nothing further happened, she proceeded forward to grab her hat.

She stopped to a sort of clicking that issued from further down the path. It was organic, clearly, reminding her of an insect with far too many legs. She watched the darkness for some few moments, and for her trouble, earned not a single sight of motion or life. Relaxing, she walked forward a dozen more steps, and reached down to claim her hat.

Before her eyes, the moss and mortar that held the heavy stone bricks of the floor together cracked. She lunged back, and flared her wings. Had they borne her flight, her reflexes might have been fast enough, but instead, the lights all went out as one, and she felt herself fall into a pit of pure darkness. Wind rushed past her, accompanied by the crashing and crunching of stone becoming rubble. Then it hit her, with a heavy stone pressing into the center of her spine and pounding out of her a single sharp and piercing gasp of pain.

She lay there, unable to move for the pain, for some time. How long, she did not know. Darkness surrounded her in all directions, accompanied by the less faint dripping of water, and the occasional sound of some vermin or creature skittering. That, and the breathing, ever present, echoing from somewhere further within. She thought it was her own, echoing back, until she held in a breath and heard it as it echoed without a prompt. Something else was in the shadows with her. Its breath was deep. Its lungs were large.

As the throbbing of her wings and back subsided, she began to feel the rest of her surroundings. The pile of rubble beneath her was dry and dusty, but the stones that had retained their flat smooth surface were moist and slick and, most notably, cold. Not unlike the sensation of placing one's head against a sheet of metal, their frigid wetness drained away the heat of her body, leaving her feathers twitching and shivering as they struggled to preserve her.

She rose slowly, regretting every motion. She could still walk, and her wings still worked. Were it not for Reckoning's seeds, they still would have flown. She only suffered the regret of the pain that seared through her legs with each and every subtle shift.

A slow tickling sensation slid against her hind right hoof. Startled, the leg shifted, producing a sickening crunch, and splattering some foul-smelling liquid onto her hoof. She pulled her hoof away from whatever it was, and jumped away, landing some unknown distance into the darkness. She couldn't even see the nose on her face, until all at once, the tiniest of changes rewrote her entire world.

A single torch ignited above her, revealing her surroundings, as if prompted by her unspoken desires. Her pile of broken stones and rubble had come to rest in the center of a intersection. Two hallways stretched of in four directions, each one spreading into the darkness. She turned to each, but found not a single distinguishing feature. All were cold stone blocks, bearing little bits of moss and roots peeking through the subterranean walls. All the tiny noises had stopped, giving deference to the inexplicable island of light. Rainbow looked back at her rubble again and saw what remained of a centipede, at least two feet long, crushed onto the rocks. Its sewage-green blood stained her rear hoof. Finally, Rainbow looked up. There was the hole, eighty feet overhead. If she waited, and nothing went wrong, she could still fly out.

Waiting, however, was no more an option in that moment than it had been in the Marezambian village. If anything, her urgency was only compelled further by the quiet but constant sounds of life that were slowly returning in the aftermath of her fall.

Her mind asked what Daring Do would do, but the answer wasn't very promising. Ten years of hard-earned education in archeology separated the fictional pony from her real counterpart, and without such an education it would be hard to know if the zebras gave special recognition to a particular cardinal direction.

Instead, Rainbow looked over her choices again, and was surprised by a single change. Another torch had ignited, a hundred feet down the length of another of the nearly-featureless stone shafts. She eyed it cautiously, but it made no change. It burned as though it had always been ignited, though Rainbow knew the idea was ridiculous. Torches burnt out. It only took, what, an hour or so?

Rainbow glanced over her options once more, and then set her gaze again on the path set aside by its light. If nothing else, she could at least see an ambush coming in the light. The mare then remained still only long enough to retrieve her pith helmet, before moving on into the shadowy passages of the temple.

With each step, Rainbow's trepidation grew. Lights appeared again and again, guiding her path, although they were hardly necessary, when she found her way devoid of forks or crossroads, or any choices at all. Instead, the path listed aimlessly back and forth, at times coiling upon itself or twisting in ways that seemed to make no sense at all. Its only reliable constant was the slow but steadily growing upward slope that accompanied each further step. Something was clearly wrong, yet the mare could imagine no better plan than to simply continue forward. Behind her, the path had faded again to darkness as the torches went out.

Her steps finally came to rest at a pair of gem-encrusted doors not unlike those that had first blocked her passage to the entrance of the structure. Their pattern was a swirling figure, looking for all the world like a snake painted into the shape of a zebra. It was long and slender, and its one solid gold eye, marked with a ruby for an iris, stared menacingly back at Rainbow.

"So... this is the worm monster? Kinda weird looking." Her eyes listed lazily up to its face, and the terrible horn and fangs that decorated its brow and mouth. "Yeah, you heard me. You're weird looking." She raised her hooves, as if to strike the stone. "You got something to say about it? Cause after the Dash is done with you, you're gonna think twice about foalnapping zebras." She threw a quick flurry of punches, and one particularly vigorous thrust ended in her hoof lightly tapping the door.

"Always so ready for violence?"

The voice had been masculine, deep, and smooth, with a quality of mystery. Rainbow dropped to all four hooves and lowered herself, wings flared. "Who's there?" She had hoped her voice would come out brave and intimidating, but her first syllables were instead punctuated with what might have been called a squeak. "Who said that?"

Instead of a verbal answer, she found a response in the slow but steady shift of the doors as they swung open of their own accord. She backed away, only to have the last light of the hallway behind her suddenly fall into darkness. All the light she could claim to know was leaking between the crack in the doors. The glow was strong enough to force Rainbow to squint. Warm air rushed over her, tickling her wings and softening the ache in her spine.

When the assault on her eyes finally abated, her vision was filled with an enormous, well finished square room. Zebra spears and shields decorated the walls, along with colorful striped banners of smooth canvas that seemed to bright and too clean to match the age of the structure. Beneath the banners and the weapons, every surface of the walls and ceiling was carved, with intricate details too fine to be made out at Rainbow's distance.

A smooth floor of wide white-stone tiles framed the room's only central feature. The pegasus was inclined to call it an altar. A single stone mass composed of a dozen different textures and materials had been somehow put together, creating a basin at the feet of a statue, some seven feet tall. Like the doors to the chamber, the statue was encrusted in a thousand jewels. They seemed tacked on at random, creating what ultimately resembled more of a disco ball than a valuable and ancient idol.

Rainbow removed her makeshift hat, and rolled it across the floor. It failed spectacularly to be impaled on foot-long steel spikes, or engulfed in a torrent of flames, or pierced by a hail of arrows, or fall into a pit of angry piranhas or crocodiles. Instead, it spun like a dropped bit, before finally coming to rest at the foot of the altar.

The mare put a gentle hoof down on the first step into the room. Nothing happened. Her step was followed by one, and then another, and then a third, until finally her pacing carried her to the side of the towering statue.

"For goodness sake, I thought it would take you all day to walk over here."

Rainbow quite literally jumped at the voice, landing at the side of the misshapen idol. "Who said that? Who's there?"

"Oh, you've forgotten me already?" A quiet 'tsk'ing accompanied a swirl of fog, as the transparent effigy of a brown furred serpentine body came into being. "It's only been, what, four years? Forgive me, but time is so hard to keep track of when you're stuck playing lawn ornament."

"Discord!" Rainbow pulled her hooves up. "How did you break free?"

"You know, that's the thing: I'm still actually sitting in Canterlot, right now." He pulled back his leonine paw, and then brought it around at Rainbow's face. The unexpected slap passed right through her without any contact. "See? Just a figment of your imagination." He let out a twisted chuckle, causing Rainbow's stomach to turn. Then his yellow and red eyes glanced around the room. "Where is this, anyway?"

"Zebrica."

Discord's left eyebrow rose, stopping its motion only when it had traversed not only his brow, but the goat horn atop it. Then his elongated face broke into another smile. "Right, this place. Can't say I'm a fan of the art, but what can you do? A bunch of terrified creatures worshipping an all-powerful spirit, and their art makes me look like a foal's imaginary friend." He idly snapped his fingers. To Rainbow's relief, nothing happened, save the strange collection of noises that issued from his digits. "Thanks again, by the way."

Rainbow stuck out her tongue at him. "That's what you get for messing with us, Discord."

"Ever the cunning linguist, I see." Discord shook his head. "You know, as much joy as it gives me to see you here, I didn't just show up to trade insults."

"How are you here at all?" Rainbow asked.

"I'm anywhere you see my face, Rainbow Dash. The statue gardens. This forgotten zebra temple." He reclined in midair, folding his mismatched hands behind his head. "Even the stained glass windows in dear sweet Celestia's palace." The sarcasm in his voice was punctuated by the echoing of the room. "Not that I can do much, other than talk, at the moment." The 'thumb' of his talon then gestured toward the statue on the altar. "First thing I'd do was turn that into chocolate mousse... or maybe bring it to life. You know, some opera would do wonders for the ambience here."

Rainbow's little patience had run out. "What do you want, Discord?"

"Fine, fine, no small talk. It's not like I came four thousand miles to say hello... Anyway, you're down here to save Luna, right?"

"How do you know that?"

"Oh, Rainbow, you don't get it, do you? I'm Discord! You know, chaos, disharmony... strife?" He gestured idly with his hands at each word. "I know whenever some really juicy chaos happens, and my word, that whole fiasco with Luna, well, it was the juiciest." His fingers snapped, accompanied by the audible quacking of a duck, but nothing else changed. "Darn it, that would have been an excellent opportunity for some lemon juice. In any case, you are down here in the jungle because you want to save Luna, right?"

"Yeah, so what? Are you gonna try and kill me or something?"

Discord shook his head. "Killing ponies isn't really my thing, Rainbow. Life has so much more chaos in it than death." His grin grew frighteningly wide, showing off all of his teeth. "After all, I could have just plucked your head right off last time we met, if I wanted to. But I don't. And I especially don't want Luna to die. She's still my favorite of the six to play with, and I'd hate to have her running off so soon. So I'm going to give you some advice."

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Well frankly, Rainbow, because you don't have much of a choice. Even the little power I have through this stone was enough to get you down here, and now I know the only ways out." He snapped his fingers again, and this time, they were accompanied by the sound of stone grinding slowly against stone. Rainbow's attention was drawn to the far side of the room, where a pair of carved stone panels were sliding away to reveal passages further into the temple structure. "I might have lied when I said I couldn't do anything, but what's a little white lie between friends?"

"You're not my friend, Discord."

"And here I was hoping you could find it in your heart to forgive me." He shook his head, and returned to his usual carefree, mocking grin. "The left passageway leads to смог."

She repeated the word exactly as he had said it. "Smog?" It was Rainbow's turn to raise a brow in confusion. "Is that the name of the monster?"

Discord merely nodded, before continuing his explanation. "The other path leads out of the mountain, to the south. If you take it, you'll be no more than two hours flight from the elk, and Luna's cure."

"So he really does have the cure?"

Discord laughed aloud, and shook his head. "That would be cheating, Rainbow. I have no idea. There's no good chaos in looking at the future and coming up with - ugh - plans." He took a moment to stick a long avian talon down his throat, as if gagging. "Those are your options."

Rainbow looked between the two passageways. "I told the zebras I would rescue Mzungu."

"You're going to get yourself killed if you go that way. And, maybe you don't believe me, but I'd much rather have you around long enough to see you betray your friends." He pushed the tips of his fingers together, creating a steeple-point in front of his face. "So, really, go save her. Path's right there."

Rainbow took a single step toward the path he offered, before stopping again. "What about Reckoning?"

"What about him? Even if you weren't already out here alone, you'd be better off without him." Discord pulled, seemingly from thin air, a green army helmet and a smoking cigar, both of which he quickly put to use. His voice took on a gruff, world-weary tone. "You see things in the field, kid, and they're not all pretty. Sometimes, they make you go pretty darn crazy. Best thing for somepony like that's just to take a hit to the head, and enjoy a long dirt nap."

"Can't you just give a straight answer?"

"Uh, no." Discord shook his head, as if correcting a child on a minor mistake. "It is me after all. Worst case scenario, he gets killed, but if you go down that other passage, you're going to be the one who ends up underground. Now, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got a caller on the other line, and I think I should really take it. Good luck!" With a snap of his fingers, the draconequus was gone.

"Right..." Rainbow closed her eyes, shook her head, and turned toward the left path. "Like Discord would actually want me to be safe." She stopped only once on her path, to grab a shield from the wall. To her surprise, it was actually a single piece, crafted out of the same wood as the spear behind it. Shrugging, she looped it over her right foreleg, and continued on into the mountain.

- - -

Shining Armor and Going Solo strode side-by-side into a towering cloud hangar adorned with radiant blue letters. Pan-Equestria Shipping Services. The serif-adorned font left a bit to be desired in terms of interest, but such advertising probably didn't matter for what essentially existed as a glorified middle-mare's storage facility.

"Fifteen years ago, this was the Wonderbolts winter training facility." Going Solo gestured upward at the roof a hundred feet overhead. "I guess they didn't like the noise from all the weather factory machines, though."

"Explains the size." Shining Armor was barely interested in her tourist facts anymore, however. It was time for business. "Are you armed?"

Solo shook her. "All I had was a bladed shoe, and I had to drop it when you gave us the guardspony armor. I know they're probably a little big, but you could let me borrow one of yours."

Shining Armor shook his head sternly. "Guardspony horseshoes don't come with blades. Just a steel lining, to protect the hooves from broken glass and debris. I didn't mean for you to fight; I was just checking. Just keep your eyes open, and if something happens, stay back."

"Hey, I'm a lover, not a fighter." Sarcasm pervaded the endearing look she offered the stallion. They walked forward into the warehouse, where aisles of crates were stacked on strangely solid platforms of smooth cloud. A few pegasi flitted overhead, but on the ground, Shining and Solo found themselves effectively ignored. Still, each time one of the other ponies came into view, the pegasus mare found herself watching them closely, expecting some sort of dirty trick. "Do you think something's actually going to go wrong?"

Shining Armor answered with a noncommittal grunt. "If this Go Between actually is the contact for Masquerade, he'll know that he's just as guilty as she is. I'll offer him a lot of leniency if he talks, but he might just jump to conclusions."

"And all these other ponies?"

Shining actually let out a little chuckle at her concern. "I'd be willing to bet no more than two of them are even in on it. More than likely he's working alone. There is a reason we call that sort of thing a conspiracy theory."

"Yeah, well sorry I asked." Solo continued following for only a few moments more, before gesturing ahead with a hoof. "That looks like him, if Grizzaloo's description was right."

The stallion in question was a pegasus of at least Shining Armor's height, with a lean frame that seemed mismatched with his sculpted musculature. A lazily-trimmed goatee dominated his squared jaw. His eyes, seemingly almost pure onyx, were obscured beneath a massive brow. He gave a sidelong glance as the other ponies approached, but his concentration remained on the clipboard he held between his forehooves. "Fancy outfit, buddy. What are you doing in my warehouse?"

"Your warehouse? So you're Go Between, then?"

Shining's question was met with an exasperated groan, as the pegasus put down his clipboard. "Yeah, that's my name. Now who are you?"

"Captain Shining Armor, of the Royal Guard. I have some questions for you."

Though it was subtle, and well hidden in the shadows beneath the stallion's brutish brow, Shining's guardspony instinct could not possibly have missed the quick, instinctual glance toward the warehouse's rear side. The motion confirmed his suspicion of a second exit.

The pegasus spoke up. "Yeah, uh, what do you want? I'm kinda busy here, but we can meet up later if-"

"I don't think that will be necessary," Shining interrupted. "I don't have many questions, but I do need them answered as quickly as possible." The unicorn gave a subtle nod to Going Solo, as close as he could come to a warning of what he was about to do. "Now, I just want to say that I'm not trying to accuse you of anything right now. I just need answers."

"Right... right..." Shining watched as Go Between's wings began to beat more rapidly.

"I was told you were the pony to talk to if I wanted to meet somepony named Masquerade."

He didn't say anything to respond. Instead, the pony turned and fled, pumping his wings as fast as they would carry him. Shining's horn gathered mana. It took only a few seconds to collect enough for his magic to reach out, ready to grab the other stallion.

Then came the pain. It might have been indescribable, had he not faced exactly the same magic from Cloudy Mirror. His attention turned to ending the spell, even as his face contorted in agony as he collapsed to his knees.

"Are you okay?" Going Solo rushed to his side, wrapping a wing around him and trying to help him up.

"Fine..." Shining answered through gritted teeth. "We're on the right track."

"What happened?"

"Masquerade put a spell on him, so that if somepony tried to hurt him with magic..." He shook his head, grateful for a lesson he had learned not a full three days earlier. "It's just an illusion. A nightmare. Pain, all over, but it isn't... real." He drew a breath through gritted teeth. "She can't actually hurt me." He focused, turning his magic inward, and the pain was relieved. He spared himself two panting breaths and then stood upright again. "Solo, stay close."

"What are you talking about? He just got away!"

"If he just flew off, everypony in the city will have seen him. Just because he has wings doesn't mean he can outrun everypony." Shining took a tentative step toward the structure's rear wall. When his leg failed to give out beneath him, he broke immediately into a brisk jog. "He's still here." Shining's horn began to gather magic as he ran. He only stopped when one of his legs shot straight through the floor. "Whoa!"

"What was that?"

"Used too much magic," the unicorn answered. "The spell letting me walk on clouds uses up a lot of my focus."

"Then let's get help. You don't need to take him on your own."

"If we leave now, he'll get away." Shining recast the cloud-walking enchantment on his hoof, and then broke into a full gallop. "We do have to do this now."

"We don't even know where he went!"

Rather than finding a door, Shining Armor simply barreled through the wall of the structure, horn-first. Given that it was only his hooves which offered resistance to the clouds, he left only a few tiny holes to mark his passing. Only a moment later did he realize that the same path was not so easily open to Going Solo. Construction grade clouds weren't the sort of thing you just flew into, as she had explained. He momentarily considered waiting, but he didn't have time to lose.

Outside, the sun was blindingly bright, and the only safety that spared Shining's eyes from its glare was the shadow of the towering series of buildings next door. Trained eyes noticed a disgruntled security pony brushing himself off from the cloud he had been thrown down against. Seeing his trail, the guardspony took a spare moment to gather the mana for a teleportation, followed by a swift prayer that he wouldn't fall through the clouds when he arrived.

He blinked back into being on a long bridge of clouds, flanked on both sides by white pillars. Ahead, a blue and white structure was surrounded by black storm clouds, which threw lightning at random every few moments. Ahead, the guarded door was decorated with bolts of lightning, though the sign overhead simply read 'Caution'.

The weather factory's door guard, on seeing another stallion approaching at a run, spoke up forcefully. "Hey, who the hay-"

"Shining Armor, Royal Guard." The older pony started getting out of the way too slowly, and found himself again face down in the cloudy streets of Cloudsdale. "Sorry!"

The cloud door failed to open for the unicorn. Instead, he again gained entrance horn-first, feeling no more than a wave of moisture as his armored form stepped through the barrier. Inside, the structure was a massive storm, quite literally. A thousand yards of floor space were covered with purple machines which spewed rough black clouds into a single enormous mass against the ceiling of the room. Its shape reminded Shining of a 'do not disturb' sign one might find at a hotel, complete with the hole for the handle. At the far end of the space, a huge hole in the floor opened onto a field of free-floating storm-clouds that hung in open space over the mile of clear air that separated Cloudsdale from the surface. Every few seconds, the edges of the hole glowed with lightning.

Shining Armor didn't have much more time to take in the room. A bolt of lightning struck the ground only a mere few inches from his muzzle. He felt the fur of his coat stand on end. His head shot in the direction of the attack, and saw Go Between struggling with a pegasus in a white lab coat over a small puff of cumulonimbus.

"Everypony, out! Now!" Shining bellowed. Before waiting to see if his words had any effect, he let fly a quick blast of his own magic. It was simple enough, and light enough on mana that he didn't have to worry about his hooves. Unfortunately, it was also slow enough to be easily avoided.

Go Between ducked between the towers of thunderclouds, in the opposite direction of the fleeing workers. Shining ran after him, only to be stopped short with the pegasus bucked a pillar of the rising cloud-stuff. Three bolts of raw lightning flew free, striking all around Shining at random.

The suspect dove for the hole in the floor. He was only a hundred feet away, at most. Shining had one shot. Without hesitation, he threw the simplest and most basic of guardspony hexes. He felt his hooves sink into the clouds, but his magic did not give way. The bolt of rose lightning struck Go Between in left wing, freezing the limb and leaving the pegasus spinning to a stop on the ground. Shining's mind was again wracked with the pain of Masquerade's illusion. He was ready, and a quick burst of magic was all it took to shake off the obvious falsehood that wracked his nerves.

Feeling the softness of the clouds beneath his feet, he knew he couldn't afford any more magic. With no other option, he galloped forward, ready to bring his hooves to bear on the stunned pegasus.

Go Between rose shakily to his feet just in time to take a hard right hook to the jaw. "Go Between, you are hereby placed under arrest and charged with treason and conspiracy to commit murder. Surrender and this will be easy." Shining Armor's warning fell on deaf ears, as a surprisingly powerful hoof slammed against his knee, stealing his footing. He leaned to the side when another blow was aimed for his neck, and instead felt a deadly horseshoe strike the armor on his shoulders. More than one experience had taught him what a blade felt like pressed against armor. Before it could be brought to bear on his neck, the unicorn leapt backward.

"I'm not going with you," Go Between shouted, over the cracking of thunder. "Just let me go."

Shining's answer was to slowly shake his head from side to side. "I can't. I promise, we can deal with things gently, if you'll just give up."

"Gently?" The desperate pegasus laughed. "After what you just charged me with?" Before Shining could stop him, the other pony ran to a nearby cloud machine and grabbed another puff of black thunder. "Just walk out of here, Shining Armor. Leave, right over there, and leave me alone."

The captain took a single slow step toward his adversary. Go Between pulled back a hoof, ready to kick the cloud and send a bolt of lightning flying in Shining's direction.

"Please, Go Between. I don't want anypony to get hurt."

"Then just leave!"

Shining took another step, and to his relief, Between only answered by taking a step backward. They continued this dance for two more steps, matching each other pace for pace.

The fourth step, though, ended differently. The air turned to ozone. A crack of white, like the edge of torn parchment, burned through Shining Armor's vision. He felt the raw heat on his chest.

The sensation that followed was stunning in its own right. He'd expected to be thrown across the room in a burning agony. Instead, his armor glowed with a raw red light, and his horn surged with a calming warmth. Had the energy come from a unicorn's spell, Shining would not have been surprised; that was the purpose of the gemstone coating to his equipment, after all. He had expected the attack to be warded off, but the absorption of its pegasus magic gave him a new advantage. A new well of mana was his to draw upon.

He put aside his new discovery to look the other stallion coldly in the eyes. "It's over now, Go Between. Let go of the cloud, and come quietly."

"Yeah..." the pegasus answered with a hollow voice. "Yeah... go quietly. Safe. Easy..." He took a step forward, and then his deep brow furrowed even more heavily. The captain saw the feather's of his left wing twitch, the first movement since his stunning spell took effect. "No, I don't think so."

The whole world seemed to slow for Shining Armor. He called out the magic that his armor had absorbed, forcing it together into a stronger stunning spell than the one that had tagged Between's wing. At the same time, his hooves began running toward the grounded pegasus. Between himself also broke into a run, toward the hole in the room's floor. Lightning tore through the air, and thunder cracked.

Shining let his overpowered stunning spell fly as a ball of rose magic. It was aligned perfectly, straight for Go Between's core.

The pegasus was ready. He flared his wings, killing his gathered momentum in an instant and allowing the spell to fly freely passed his head. Before Shining could gather any more magic, the other pony's wings were spread, and his body was over the hole. He let another bolt fly, but missed by a fair few feet, as the flying stallion's agility was too much for the unicorn's aim.

Shining came to the edge of the hole as Go Between dove. Below, a field of storm clouds hovered in the air, a few hundred feet below the 'floor' of Cloudsdale's weather factory, and at least a mile above the grassy plains below. Go Between dove until the top two layers of scattered clouds separated him from Shining Armor. Once he felt safe with the barriers he had put between himself and the captain, he spread his wings into a glide, letting his lagging left wing rest.

The nearest of the clouds was at least thirty feet away laterally, and another ten feet down. Without hesitation, Shining took the galloping leap.

For a split second, the unicorn knew what it was to fly. Wind rushed past his face, and the raw power of the sky shattered the air around him. Ahead, his target was getting away, still flying slowly from the sluggish answering of his left wing. The race was on.

The unicorn landed on the black cloud, and felt the sheer power of the lightning dancing on his hooves. The sensation was tantalizing, but the captain couldn't spare the time to enjoy it. Shining leapt from cloud to cloud above Go Between's head. He knew he wouldn't land a spell between the clouds, and he wasn't ready to risk sending his lead plummeting to his death on a bad wing. Instead, he spent the last of the magic from his armor teleporting from cloud to cloud, covering the distance. Then he ran, and jumped, waiting for the opportunity.

It came no more than thirty seconds after the captain caught up with his prey. Ahead, Go Between's path went over the top of a particularly large storm cloud. It would support both ponies, enough to keep them from falling to their deaths.

He ran forward, and leapt down into the open air. Go Between continued his steady glide, passing right into Shining's reach. The captain brought a hoof down on the back of the other stallion's neck, ready to bring them both falling smoothly and steadily into the cloud below.

The plan worked perfectly, until Shining Armor's steel-lined shoe met the unguarded flesh of another pony. The accumulated electricity of a dozen bolts of lightning spread through the bodies of both ponies. In a searing burst of pain, Shining's world turned white, and then suddenly black.

- - -

A trio of stallions in long black coats lined in fur walked in a heavy stilted silence through the halls of Canterlot's palace. At the lead was Red Ink, who also served as the source of the group's silence. The very first rule of being on the Commandant's guard was not to speak out of turn, and the seriousness of this rule could only stand to be further stated when he was in a bad mood.

Red Ink was in a terrible mood. His usually crisp stride had fallen into a forced stomping march, and his wings sat on his back in a twisted wedge. Were he wearing his wing blades, he would have been only a moment's motion away from decapitating any of the servants they passed in the hallways on their journey toward an unclear destination.

Like most of the Black Cloaks, the earth pony named Molot was young for a guardspony, in his late twenties. He was also in the strange position of being somepony whom Red Ink considered a personal friend. Perhaps it was for this reason that when the irate Honor Guard captain let out an pained growl, that Molot broke the very first rule.

"What's wrong, Commandant?" he asked, in rich Stalliongradi.

Ink glanced over his shoulder without stopping his stride. "I almost had that... that блядь, and then she slips between my hooves. Now I am to stay here, honoring the Princess' wishes for peace and happiness, when I should be using my real talents to solve this mess."

"I thought you said that your mentor led his guard the way you do."

"I did." Ink took a moment to reorient himself in the still-unfamiliar halls of the palace, before continuing his discussion. "But the Princess trusted his judgment. She does not trust mine."

"That is only a matter of time, though," Molot offered, hoping to placate his commander.

When Ink's unshod hoof next struck the stone, the masonry cracked beneath his force. "A matter of time is what let Soldier On get away when I should have had her. The same is true of Masquerade. This is my chance to claim them both, and I won't risk that chance playing nice with all the other ponies."

The other pony in the trio was Serp, an even younger pegasus with wild hair and a scruffy chin that he desperately wished would grow into a real beard. His shaky but enthusiastic voice broke into their conversation. "Why did you not break the pegasus to find her then?"

Ink's gaze rotated slowly to his other companion. Most who knew his reputation would have wilted under the gaze, but Serp took it as a matter of pride. "You mean Thunder Crack? Firstly, because he is one of us. On may have earned his loyalty, but my mentor taught him, and as such he is valuable. He will come around when he learns the truth of her treason. Secondly, Serp, is because I cannot break him."

The look on the young stallion's face suggested that Red Ink might as well have denied the existence of the moon. "But you have always said that you could break anypony."

Ink's frown grew ever more pronounced. "Anypony can be broken, in time. The secret is knowing how to hurt them. Pain would not break the sergeant. I would need to know what he truly cares for. That is why we keep secrets. Even the Princess must have something she could not stand to lose. I do not have the time to dig up his secrets. So instead, we are heading to a different sort of prisoner."

Molot raised a brow. "Commandant, if I might speak freely, we are headed the wrong way to get to the dungeons."

"We are not headed to the dungeons." Ink's face betrayed disgust. "You would not keep a real prisoner in those cells. They are good only for rabble and fools. They are easy to break out of."

"So there is a better cage?" Serp seemed intrigued by the suggestion. "Did your mentor tell you about this?"

"In a way." Ink pressed his hooves heavily against a pair of gold and purple doors. "He often told me that he would come here to think. Now be quiet. I would not have you interrupt me here." The doors slammed open, and both Molot and Serp were surprised to find that their path had taken the trio outside, into the massive gardens built onto the cliffs behind the palace.

Though neither of his subordinates understood his path, Ink's steps carried him slowly but surely toward a very peculiar statue, in the far corner of the garden. He passed dozens of statues, wondering with every glance whether or not they shared the same peculiar secret as the one at his destination. It was the sort of punishment he would use as a threat, in a heartbeat, but it seemed to cruel to be a tactic of Celestia's kind heart. Perhaps it was possible he had underestimated her.

He stepped to the foot of a towering, and rather malformed statue of a hideous beast. Although he could not actually read the common Equestrian plaque below its mismatched feet, he knew what it said. "разлад" Without another word, he lifted a hoof and pressed it against the cold stone of the statue.

The chill of the stone send shivers up Red Ink's leg. Before his eyes, the world was plunged into shadows. Darkness surrounded him, consuming his vision until even the statue and his own leg disappeared from his vision. His body shook with cold, a sensation he had long since learned to ignore from the ice of dozens of his homeland's winters. Wind blew against his exposed coat, burning as only the chill of the wind could. In it, he felt the cold wetness of snow, coming to rest on his body and melting into little droplets of water.

After the feelings came the sounds. Water was dripping somewhere nearby, eking out the last bits of motion it could before the chill locked it in place forever. The wind howled, and then went back to gentle whispering in a patter only its maker could comprehend. And, above all else, there was a song. Dozens of voices lifted up, calling out in the crisp tongue of Stalliongrad and joining together. Ink should have known the words; he knew that he knew them. When he had come face to face with Soldier On, it had been that same tune that he hummed, slow and mournful, knowing that the notes would hurt her as no blade or hoof ever could. Yet in his mind, it was as if the lyrics had been stolen away, and he could not remember why he even cared for the music.

The smell of crisp cold air and the smog of foundries came next. Compared to the warm, gentle air of Canterlot, the pragmatic stench was a welcome taste of home. Stalliongrad didn't pretend to be something it wasn't; it was a place for workers and common ponies to make their lives without worrying about what others thought of them. Some thought it was unwelcoming or cruel, but Red Ink loved it because it was genuine.

The last thing to return was his sight, and it brought with it a countless list of questions. Red Ink stood on the rough concrete path that surrounded the meager garden of his father's home. It had been ages since the little square of dirt had grown any plants. Father had often told him of how Mother loved to grow vegetables there, somehow keeping the frost away from all manner of gentle plants. Ink only knew it as a patch of dirt and rocks, but he had loved it just the same as a place to have snowball fights with his brothers, or to run around in the summer, when the snow melted and the three colts could explore the world around them.

Red Ink was not surprised to see his home, though his memories of Stalliongrad covered the entire city. It was special, in a way that the rest of the city lacked for him. It alone was defined by his long-lost youthful innocence.

What the captain was surprised to see was the other pony standing at the far end of the garden, staring out at the rising sun. Ink recognized him as he might have a photograph. The stallion was probably no more than forty. His blue-gray coat had begun to show the slightest favoritism for the gray, but his mane was still a sheer and healthy black. His flanks bore cutie marks of plain gray shields, placed carefully beneath and between bolts of lightning that also looked as though they had been forged of metal. Though his muscles were lean, and his wings well trimmed, the way he sat gave him a tired air of age that surpassed the truth.

"Mentor?"

The other pony turned around, looking straight at Red Ink with a pair of tiny red eyes, looking as though they had been painted on a yellow canvas. "Hahahaha! You really believed me for a second, didn't you? Oh, that's too rich. Just, priceless."

A sudden anger overtook Red Ink. Without another thought, he took to wing, ready to strike the taunting creature. Discord, still wearing the form of the late Commander, waved a hoof dismissively. A gust of wind threw Ink against the wall of his home, accompanying a loud crack. "What's wrong, Ink? Afraid your underlings will see some emotion out of that face of yours?"

The pegasus responded by rising to his hooves and charging on foot. "You're really going to try and fight me? Physically? Please, Red Ink, you might as well be trying to drown a fish." Discord's limbs stretched and grew until he had assumed his original form. "Oh, but where are my manners? I'm Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony. Red Ink, I have to say, I'm a big fan of your work. The way you dealt with all the dissenters after your Revolution really warmed my heart." Laughing, the spirit collapsed backward into midair. "Now, what brings you to my... residence?"

The soldier scraped a hoof on the icy ground. "I need to know where Masquerade and Soldier On are."

"Yes, I bet you do." Discord looked around, as if checking to see if anypony were looking. Then he leaned down, still a dozen feet away from Red Ink, and held both his mismatched hands to his mouth. His words came out in a whisper. "Why should I tell you?"

The pony pondered the words for a moment, putting together his best common Equestrian. "Because I otherwise will be making life unhappy, Discord." Red Ink put on his most intimidating face, and received laughter in return.

"Wow. At first, I thought you were just angry. I didn't realize you were actually this thick. Look, Captain," he added a particular touch of sarcasm, along with a sloppy salute to the word. "Let me explain something. You can't hurt me. You can't touch me. And you certainly can't scare me." He snapped his fingers idly, and Red Ink jumped forward when a slimy... something brushed against his back. "I can scare you, though."

After regaining his composure, the hard young pony turned a disappointed and furious face toward the spirit. "So I have wasted time?"

"Oh, no. Not at all, no. I am just..." Discord looked away, with a finger on his chin. When he looked back, he spoke with a decidedly different tone. "I am looking for trade if you are wishing answers."

Ink's glare grew narrowed. "Do not mock me."

"Why not? I mock everypony else. Anyway, I imagine you're probably wanted to do things the way he did." Discord's lion paw momentarily gestured to the edge of the garden, where a wispy figure of the Commander appeared for a mere moment. "It's pretty simple. I like to hear a good story. He used to tell me about all the ponies he met and the things he did. That's how I know about you, after all." The Draconequus grinned. "So you tell me something personal, and maybe a bit chaotic, and I'll consider telling you what you want to know."

As Ink pondered the demand, Discord snapped his fingers. Before the floating spirit, a table appeared, holding a few bottles of fine Bitalian wine, a bowl of little white beans in split green pods, and what appeared to be a grilled duck liver. The Draconequus' tongue flickered in and out for a moment, before he glanced over to his guest. "Care for something to drink?"

"Do not tempt me." Red Ink shook his head. "What do you gain from story?"

"Well, entertainment. It's boring being a lawn ornament for a few millennia, even if I still do get to peek in on all the fun chaos that goes on in the world. But I also do have my uses for information. You can cause quite a bit of chaos with just the right few words."

"And you are telling me where to find them?"

"Think of it this way, Ink. If I didn't tell you, would you come back to tell me another story later?" Discord offered his most genuine smile, and spread his hands as if trying to appear welcoming. "So, if you're up for it, tell me about your brother."

"Foresight?" Ink shrugged, rolling the fur collar of his signature coat. "He is bureaucrat. Politician. Loves his-"

"No, no, no." Discord shook his head. "I don't care about him. Your boring brother isn't the reason you're trying to kill Soldier On or Masquerade, is he? There's no fun to be had listening to his story. No, I want to know about the third brother. What was his name...?" The spirit scratched its head, feigning ignorance.

Red Ink took a deep breath and settled himself. Although the idea of the discussion was discomforting, it would do not dishonor to his brother's memory to describe him. "Midnight was pegasus. Younger brother. When we were young, we flew together..." The broken language trailed off as Ink looked up. Overhead, his memories were dancing for both himself and the Draconequus to see. Figments of a pair of pegasus colts spun around each other in the air, struggling in a friendly fight.

They froze, just as Red took the advantage and flew overhead. Discord looked to the grown stallion expectantly. "You have to keep talking. That is how a story works, after all."

Ink nodded coldly. "He got his cutie mark first, when was very young. Five? I can't remember." The transparent little colt looked at his flank in awe. A burst of white light and magic revealed the mark of a shield, emblazoned with a crescent moon on a field of stars. "He saved me when I got lost flying in the dark. Always good at finding ponies, tracking them. Perceptive. Came in handy during revolution. We were guardspony together, in Baron's army first. We were fr..." He hesitated on the word, as if unsure whether it belonged on his tongue. After a few moments of silence, he chose another word. "Brothers."

Two older colts wrestled together on the ground, considerably more aggressively. Red Ink was the larger, bearing on his flank the mark of a quill, tipped with the point of a sword. A line of bright red was drawn behind it, though whether it was blood or merely ink, none could say.

"When we grew older, father taught us politik. He saw how unfair Baron was. His voice showed many others." The memory shifted to a massive crowd of ponies gathered in the garden. Standing with his back to his home on top of little more than a wooden crate, Watchful Eye shouted silently at the gathering. At his hooves, his sons listened intently to his words. "We started revolution."

Ink had been expecting to see more of his memories pan out before him in sepia silence. He would have known the first battle, and the fires in the snow. Instead, the scene froze, and the voice that spoke up was not his own, nor Discord's.

"Red Ink! What do you think you are doing?"

He turned in recognition of the voice, and immediately dropped into a bow. "Princess."

"There is a reason I did not suggest going to him first in search of information, Captain." The Princess' tone was not so much angry as disappointed. "Come with me." Her horn ignited in a potent golden glow, which tore open the air at the far side of the 'garden', leading out into the warm late-summer afternoon of Canterlot.

"Well, it was nice to see you too, Celestia. Are you sure you want to be going so soon? I was just getting to know your new 'best friend'." The Draconequus' eyebrows rose and fell over and over in rapid succession.

"Neither Red Ink nor I have time to waste on your lies, Discord."

"That really is a shame." The spirit smiled. "There are so many things I could tell you. For example, at this very moment, your precious Bearer of Loyalty is considering throwing away the gift you so kindly gave her by fighting a dragon in Zebrica."

Celestia's gilded hooves stopped halfway to her own portal. "How do you-"

"You spent quite a deal of magic on that, didn't you?" Discord's leonine paw gestured to the dull pink mane the Princess was sporting. "I have to say, I do love your new look, though I still think you should have left it the way I styled it a few years back." As if to make his point, Discord conjured a perfect statue of Celestia's form, rearing back in fear and surprise. His knuckles idly rapped against its flowing mane. "It was quite... slimming."

The Princess planted her hooves firmly in the snow, shooting the spirit a defiant gaze. "Answer me, Discord! How do you know about Rainbow Dash?"

"Oh, Celestia, isn't it more fun not knowing how it all works? That's what I've always thought, anyway." The mirth dropped from his voice for a moment. "You should probably be grateful, too. If I'd just bothered to look at the future and actually plan my return, I could have burnt your stupid letters, and then I'd be ruling the world right now." After the dull diatribe, he snapped his fingers, conjuring a storm of tri-toned lightning. Ink didn't recognize the colors, but they were all too familiar to the Princess. "To answer your ever-so-polite question, Princess, I gave your precious subject a choice between going to her death, and betraying a friend. I was rather hoping she'd run off and save Luna at the cost of his life, but I confess that I didn't get to see the end. Your precious Captain interrupted me. So now, again, I'm trying to give him some advice that will save pwecious widdew Woona."

Celestia shook her head and turned away from the mischievous spirit. "He's playing with you, Captain Ink. We should be going."

The pegasus followed the towering alicorn toward her magically formed exit, only to stop at the barricade when the desperate being shouted one last warning. "Soldier On is on her way to Baltimare, looking for somepony named 'Hard Boiled'. If you hurry you can catch her."

Ink nodded, unable to resist a parting word. "Perhaps we speak again."

"We'd better!" Discord shouted, as the exit to his own pathetic realm faded from sight. "You still owe me a story!"

- - -

Rainbow's passage rose from carefully crafted stones into unshaped raw rocks. With each step, the unfamiliar weight on her foreleg reminded her of the weapon she was carrying. Ahead, some strange monster separated the pegasus from a cure for the Princess, if Discord was to be believed.

Fortunately, the journey was short, and ended with a small step into a little cavern. An overhead lamp gave light to what seemed to be a storeroom. Shelves covered every surface of the natural walls, holding up countless mysterious items, only half of which were labeled in a language the mare couldn't understand. They held her attention only momentarily, however, as a clearly audible voice could be heard through the door at the far side of the room.

"That smells magnificent, Mzungu." The tone of the speaker was rough and coarse, and far too deep to belong to any pony or zebra Rainbow could imagine. Her ears perked, recognizing the name of the zebra mare she was searching for. Moving as quietly as she could with the spear on her leg, she edged up to the door and placed an ear smoothly against it. The voice continued. "Give it three turns, counterclockwise."

After a moment of silence, "It still seems too acidic, Smog."

Rainbow was confused. She was speaking to the worm monster? And what did they mean about acid? With stealth carefully learned from years of pranking with Pinkie Pie, Rainbow cracked the door and peeked through.

The cavern contained two relatively small figures, though the statement was only true for one because of the enormity of the cavern. The first was a zebra mare, probably five or six years Dash's younger. Gold bands clinked loosely on her neck and legs with each movement as she stirred a smoking golden cauldron with a long silver ladle.

Across from her, sitting atop a huge pile of gold, was a titanic dragon. Blue scales ranging from near-black to the bright tone of Rainbow's own coat adorned his hulking form, which filled most of the cavern. Little bursts of smoke slid out of his nostrils with each of his slow breaths, but judging by the focus in his reptilian eyes, he was clearly awake.

The dragon drew in a deep breath, and then locked up. Slowly, his eye shifted to look in Rainbow's direction. The pegasus froze in place.

"My, my. A visitor? Come closer, little pony. I won't hurt you."

Rainbow's wings flared up, and she tried to look as tough as possible. Having been confronted, there was only one thing to do. "I'm here to rescue Mzungu. Let us leave and I won't have to hurt you."

The dragon looked to the young zebra, and the pair shared a laugh strong enough to shake the cavern. Rocks tumbled from the ceiling. "You are misunderstanding the situation, pony. I am 'Could', and this is Mzungu, as you already know. What is your name?"

Rainbow cocked her head sideways, thoroughly confused. She'd been expecting a 'worm monster', not a dragon, and one that was willing to talk instead of simply frying her with his breath was more surprising still. "Uh, I'm Rainbow Dash. Isn't your name Smog?"

The dragon nodded. "смог, yes." The change in intonation was subtle, but nevertheless evident. "I know it sounds like one of your words, but I am not named for haze or mist or smoke. Still, you are welcome to call me Smog if you wish. Names mean little, in any case."

Mzungu slowly walked closer, abandoning the golden pot she had been tending to. "You're really a pegasus... Are you from Cloudsdale? Or Canterlot? What's it like? Oh, how is my Equestrian? Do I sound terribly backwards?"

"Please, Mzungu, do not drown her with your curiosity. There will be much time for you to talk, but I imagine that her journey has left our guest hungry. Do you care for rassolnik?"

Rainbow looked between the faces of the dragon and the zebra. They certainly seemed friendly enough. With a slow, loping gait defined by the spear on her leg, she made her way over to the two. "Uh... I don't know? What's rassolnik?"

"The only pony dish I know how to cook," Smog answered. "Cucumber and barley soup, which I am told it quite hearty. It contains no meat." One of the dragon's dexterous fore-claws grabbed a rough clay barrel near the door (nearly as big as Rainbow herself), and pulled out a few dozen red vegetables. Without any particular pomp, he tossed them into the golden pot. "It should be ready soon. Now tell us, Rainbow Dash, why you have come all this way to 'save' Mzungu?"

The pegasus nodded. "It's kind of a long story, really. I'm here in Zebrica trying to save Princess Luna..."

The story continued for a few long minutes, even as Mzungu gathered bowls from the storeroom that marked Rainbow's passage, and returned to serve their dinner. Dash's description of her battle with Masquerade earned a look of incredulity from Smog, while Mzungu seemed entranced by every word of description the pegasus offered of her distant homeland. Often, she tried to interrupt with a question, but at each heading, Smog held up a claw to silence her. Rainbow explained her journey to Zebrica, and finally concluded with her encounter with the Marezambian herd.

When the story was over, Smog let out a hearty chuckle. "You've had a terrible misunderstanding indeed, Rainbow Dash. I am the 'worm monster' you've been sent to slay."

"But you're not a worm."

"The word is wyrm. A subtle distinction, I will admit, but in my tongue, such distinctions are common. It is the term of my species for a dragon that has grown to their full size naturally, rather than through an overgrown horde and a greedy desire for everything they see. Few of our number survive to such great age. But that is not the great misunderstanding. You see, I did not kidnap Mzungu."

When Rainbow looked her way, the zebra nodded. "I heard about the dragon on Mt. Kilimarejaro, and I came to learn from him."

"Learn from him?" Rainbow again found herself confused. "What, like cooking?"

"As you are no doubt aware, the Marezambians are quite... xenophobic." When Dash's confusion at the word was made clear, the dragon continued. "They distrust outsiders. Mzungu wanted to see the world, and learn its ways."

"I heard all sorts of stories about pony medicine when I was younger, and I wanted to learn how to use it to help my tribe. But Kiongozi wouldn't let me go."

Rainbow nodded in understanding. "So you ran away, and came here?"

"Yes. That was almost two years ago. In that time, I have taught her much, but soon she will need to go out and see the world herself."

"I'm so excited to go!" The zebra positively bristled with happiness at the thought. "Can you take me with you, when you leave?"

"Uh, I don't know... I guess?" Rainbow shrugged. "I'm not really thinking about leaving any time soon. Like I said, I need to take you back to the herd, so I can save Princess Luna."

Smog looked to the far cavern wall, where a sizeable hole gave egress to the open air. "You are already here on the mountain, free of their control. Why not simply go on your own?"

"I can't. Dead Reckoning is still with them, and I'm not sure what they'll do if I abandon him."

Smog nodded. "This is troubling indeed. However, I fear that if Mzungu returns, they will hold her, unable to leave. I am hesitant to send her back."

"Come on!" Rainbow cried out in agitation. "Do you not understand? Princess Luna will die if I don't go!"

"And you think it would be any better for Mzungu if she were forced back to her herd?"

Rainbow nodded firmly. "Of course! She wouldn't be dead."

"I'd be stuck there!" Mzungu shook her head. "I don't see why you don't just fly down there and talk to Fallaner yourself!"

"I'm not leaving Dead Reckoning behind!"

"What does this other pony mean to you? By your account, you have only known three days, at most."

The pegasus looked at the dragon like the monster he had been made out to be. "Why should it matter how well I know him? I'm not going to risk him getting hurt or killed when she can just come back with me."

Mzungu clearly had an incensed response, but Smog silenced her with a single raised claw. Only when the young zebra had calmed did his slit-eyed gaze settled firmly on Rainbow. His attention felt heavy, and tiring. "Let us not let emotions define our actions, Rainbow Dash. Think calmly for a moment, and listen to me. In your culture, there exists a concept known as the Duel to the Mark. Have you heard this term?" Rainbow shook her head to indicate her ignorance. "This is no surprise. Such activity was more prevalent in the past. Once, there was a time when your kin would resolve their disagreements with violence. Proud ponies would battle one another to determine who was in the right. The cruelest of these traditions was the Duel to the Mark. Two ponies would fight, and the winner would strip from his... victim, the purpose of their existence." A claw gestured toward Rainbow's cutie mark. "Often, amongst unicorns, it would end with a shattered horn, or stolen lands. Anything that could be done to humiliate and destroy the loser. To lose was considered a fate worse than death."

"What does that have to do with this?" Rainbow asked. "I don't want to hurt her; I just need her to head back so Reckoning and I can leave."

"And do you truly believe that when she in turn tries to leave, she will be permitted to?" The wyrm shook his head, stating bluntly his own interpretation. "You would deny her everything she believes in, and it would be unfair of me to let you force that on her. It would be as cruel as stripping her of her own mark."

Something inside the pegasus snapped at the words, and she in turn snapped at Smog with her own. "Life isn't fair! I never wanted to be a guardspony, but here I am! And if she has to go home to make sure that nopony gets hurt, then that's too bad for her." Rainbow stood up and took a firm step toward the Mzungu. An enormous blue fist smashed down between the two equines, sending fissures through the stone of the cavern floor.

"This is not your choice to make, pony."

Mzungu spoke up. "If she really needs me-"

"Don't be convinced to give up your dreams over this. It is your life, and I won't see your free will taken from you." With a rumble and low grow, the titanic creature rose up to his full height, the top of his head scraping the cavern ceiling. "You are no longer welcome here, Rainbow Dash. Choose now if you will lose your Princess or risk your partner, but you will not steal my student from me."

Rainbow's mind was a boiling pot of a thousand emotions and ideals. Pride, rage, and loyalty stood foremost amongst them, drowning out the tiny voice of fear and reason and desperation. The mare stood tall and defiant, looking up at the enormous creature, whose jaws could devour her in a single easy bite. Her face turned to steel, and a subtle energy built behind her eyes.

"I've had enough of everybody getting in my way, Smog. Try and stop me." Without waiting for a response, she took off at a stilted gallop toward the zebra mare.

"I do not enjoy this," was Smog's entire reply, as a fiercely sharpened foreclaw was swung down toward the running mare. Rainbow had been expecting the attack; she leapt to the side, using her wings for the bit of extra distance she needed to clear the length of his hand.

She might have screamed in joy, under better circumstances. The air beneath her feathers bent to her will, launching her forward nearly the full length of the cave. Though faint, a trail of rainbow marked her passing. Her magic felt tired and worn, as though she had spent the last full day in the air instead of on the ground. Nevertheless, it was there.

Smog glared at the sudden motion, and then brought his own enormous wings to bear. A surge of wind to rival any hurricane filled the cave, sending Rainbow spinning into its wall. She recovered just in time to see his claw again moving toward her, and with desperation, she leapt between his fingers.

A pump of her wings put her in the air, but it wasn't truly flying; instead, she felt more like she had simply taken a huge jump, followed by a glide. Still, the speed was enough to swoop down toward Mzungu.

"Get off me!" the zebra shouted.

"Sorry, but I have to do this" Dash wrapped her legs around the zebra's core, and pulled up. Her grip was strong, but her wings and her magic still weren't ready for such a load. With a sudden change of trajectory, the two fell to the ground, where they rolled to a stop in a heap.

This time, Rainbow wasn't fast enough to avoid Smog's grasp. The needle-points of his massive clawed fingers held her gently but firmly, as she was lifted to his head to meet his gaze. Along the way, she bit and beat and bucked and even stabbed at his claws, trying to loosen his grip. The thick scales covering his body resisted every attack.

Finally, she came face to face with the dragon, looking at level into his face. His brow narrowed coldly. "I am sorry, Rainbow Dash. You must leave her alone."

"I can't!" Rainbow protested.

"Then this is the end of your journey."

What followed was a slow draw of breath, and then the dragon's mouth opened wide. Rainbow's conscious mind was filled only with the horror of the heat to come. She needed to do something, or without a doubt, she would die. She lunged forward as far as her free upper limbs would allow, seeking to harm without thinking. The spear on her leg moved forward with her, unguided by will beyond the instinct to survive at all cost. Flying free of its ancient straps, torn from a temple wall only hours earlier, it soared through the air. Whether by chance or fate, its path flew directly for the wyrm's wide right eye.

What followed was a strange and terrible silence. No great gout of blood or gore flew from the wound. The shaft simply sank into that reptilian eye, leaving only a tiny red drop to mark its passing. The golden orb swallowed the entire weapon, hiding it from view somewhere deep within the recesses of Smog's skull.

Suddenly, sharply, and firmly, the dragon's breathing stopped. Rainbow felt his grip loosen, but at the same time, his body froze up. She struggled free as he began to tip forward, and found herself gliding down slowly as a fell crash echoed the collapse of his body onto his golden hoard. A hail of coins and a wave of precious metal slid suddenly across the cavern floor, and when it ceased, all was silence.

It echoed how Rainbow felt. Empty, cold, and hollow. What was she supposed to do next?

"You... you killed him..." The trailing pain in Mzungu's whisper was hidden behind a stalwart face. There was anger in it, along with the crippling sorrow, but both were subdued and muddled. She didn't sneer or cry or shout. She looked Rainbow straight in the eyes, and shook her head slowly. Disappointment flowed freely from the look.

"I didn't want to."

The zebra looked at the corpse of her mentor, and stated her response coldly. "That won't bring him back."

"I'm sorry."

"Nor will that." She turned to the cavern's external opening, and took a hesitant step forward. "You won. The strong triumph. We should go."

Part of Rainbow wanted to protest. She had been protecting herself. She had been protecting Dead Reckoning. If Mzungu had just come with her, it wouldn't have happened. If Smog had given in, he would still be alive. She didn't want to kill him. She didn't enjoy it. She wished there had been some other way.

She knew better than to say any of those things. They were words meant for her own benefit, not the zebra's. The sorrow, or grief, or whatever else was to come of her actions, would be paid for another day. Rainbow Dash's way was to get things done. To help others. And so, steeling herself and putting aside her emotions as best she could, the mare strode forth into the light of day.

Outside, Mzungu's hoof was tracing something in the dirt. Rainbow knew the characters as the zebra language, though she had no hope of reading them. She watched them traced slowly and softly, knowing that they would last only through the first rain or snow or wind to claim the mountain. She didn't ask what they said. She didn't have to.

"You wish to know?" Mzungu again spoke coldly, trying to hide her emotions just as Rainbow had, but failing.

"The old story here, the mountaintop sage.
They saw only a monster, plagued of cruel heart.
Few understood the wisdom he might impart.
His words and experiences, the gifts of his age,
were stolen away when we were torn apart.
Now here he remains, a corpse in a stone cage.

Farewell, amongst the Smog of death.

You Could have been so much more."

XI - Confessions

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XI: Confessions

- - -

The weight on Rainbow Dash's back could not be said to come from heat of the jungle, or the steady fatigue of her slowly returning magic. Compared to the immateriality of her burden they were as solid and tangible as stone and yet as light as the wind. The mass came from the sorrow that had slowly built with each step down the side of the three-pronged mountain. Now, off the barren rocky cliffs and back amongst the dense undergrowth of the jungle proper, it was almost enough to stop her every step. Yet despite the massive pain of her guilt, her lips were held still and quiet. Her silence might have been said to be a testament either to the sheer oceans of her guilt or to the steady resilience of her carefully controlled apathy. Neither view was true. She was quiet because she had no desire to further hurt the zebra mare who walked in silent mourning beside her.

Partway down the mountainside, the pair had encountered Rainbow's guide. The pegasus had nodded in acknowledgement of his presence, but said no more. His rhyming questions were left unanswered and unfulfilled until the whole of their recent memory was overflowing with their corpses. It took him some great time to realize that neither had the desire to speak, and when the idea finally sparked he too was claimed in the rampant contagion that was their implacable silence.

It persisted from the mountaintop into the village, as the sun passed noon overhead and continued is inexorable approach, marking another day closer to Luna's impending demise. As the only companion Rainbow would acknowledge, it wordlessly compared with her reflections of her struggles on behalf of that ticking fatal clock. Four days had passed since she reluctantly joined the Honor Guard, and in that time, Rainbow Dash's world had fallen apart alongside the Princess of the Night. Now, Luna had little more than two days to live, and yet even that urgency did not seem to justify what had happened. Why had she done it? Over and over the burning orb demanded an answer. It echoed Dead Reckoning's question: why? What unimaginable force had pulled her into the nightmarish mess that was her quest? What loyalty did she owe Luna? They were hard questions, but their contemplation served as a welcome distraction from the far more brutal lingering doubts of why: why had she done it?

Dash threw herself so boldly into the exploration of these thoughts that she did not realize the plodding path carved by her hooves until a dozen voices called out from around her in unison.

"Karibu."

She quite literally jumped, and for the first time since awakening, her wings held her aloft. There, she eyed the zebra villagers with ire and violence, ready to strike out at the attack her instincts and her overloaded nerves insisted was sure to come. Instead, the village beat the hooves on the ground in a thundering applause. To them, the action was that of a stranger returning victorious from battle with a great foe, rescuing a lost friend and family member. It took the pegasus some time to realize what they believed they had seen. The cheering bolstered her spirit, though only a little. She gave an easy flip and quick spin before her wings began to demand rest. Her magic, it seemed, still needed time to return.

When she landed, they swarmed around her, asking questions in a tongue she could not understand. She tried to be accepting, but her body would not listen. Her wings bunched against her sides, doing their best to hold the cheering crowd at bay. They might have continued in their choking throng until her control broke completely, were it not for the sudden crack of thunder.

It was impossible, surely, and for that alone, it grabbed the attention of the entire village. The air over the jungle might have borne the signs of a storm, or at least light rain, but there was no lightning to be seen on the horizon or otherwise. Stranger still was that the noise had come from amidst the crowd, traveling up into the air instead of falling down to the ground.

Then the crowd parted before a scowling old stallion with a bleeding cut on his shoulder and a single eye that had been clenched down into a furious bloodthirsty glare. Dead Reckoning's anger was palpable, turning the air around him to a fine and sickening haze and cutting him a clean swath as he passed the zebras. When his clear eye settled on Rainbow, though, his fury broke like a wave over rocks. The lines of sweat and fury faded from his face, replaced by the happy smiling wrinkles of a stallion his age. For just a moment, Rainbow saw her grandfather, but Papa's thick whiskers were nowhere to be found beside Reckoning's brutal claw scars.

"You're alive. Oh, thank Celestia." It came out airy and desperate, like a gasp, as though he hadn't drawn breath in her absence. Deadeye looked over his younger partner, and took a few careful steps forward, until he stood by her side. There he stood, analyzing her, for more time than she cared to mention. With each passing moment more and more of his rich aged smile faded away. Unlike the zebras, he had come to know her former spirit, even if only for a day. The vibrancy of her personality was enough to tell him that something had changed. She knew that he knew. To her surprise, he made no comment, nor gave any acknowledgement to what had happened. Instead, he turned into the crowd, scanning their faces with a surprising alacrity. Finally, his gaze locked onto the mare he had been searching for. "Kiongozi. She fulfilled her Rite."

"Indeed she did, as I was sure. I'm not the one who doubted her."

He didn't actually say anything to respond. Instead, he gently slid a wing over Rainbow's back, and began guiding her toward the center of the village. Without really intending to, she forced his embrace away. A little bit of guilt slipped out of her eyes at the action. He nodded, acknowledging her desire for privacy, even amongst the throng of zebras. Together, the pegasi made their way into the fire circle.

Kiongozi approached Rainbow next, along with Mzungu and the zebra shaman who had leapt into the fire only mere hours earlier. The last of the three held a rack, containing six carved wooden bowls, their contents obscured by ornate lids of ivory. Mzungu shot Rainbow another look of detached hatred, implying that the pegasus was beneath actual anger. Trying to avoid the unspoken accusation, Dash locked eyes with the elder Zebra. Kiongozi outright beamed back, either unaware or uncaring of the brutal battle of wills going on in her presence. She craned her neck back and spoke to the herd.

"This mare who came into our fold has proven that her heart is bold. Surmounting such a task was hard. We welcome her amongst our guard. Though wings you wear upon your back, inside your soul is white and black. You've saved our lost without delays, and for such an act you have earned our praise. Now, Mzungu, speak your mind, for she who brought you back to our kind."

The younger zebra looked over the crowd slowly and surely, and then set her gaze on her leader. Her words were not meant for Kiongozi, however. They had been pondered, weighted, and bladed, so that they would best cut through Rainbow's already struggling soul, even if she could not understand them. "Wewe walikuwa sahihi kuhusu wao."

A murmuring of confusion spread across the crowd. Without the hesitation that ought to have been present, Rainbow turned to Dead Reckoning. "What did she say?"

He hesitated for a moment, but the pause did not last long. "You were right about them."

Rainbow slowly turned back to Kiongozi, who had begun to pelt Mzungu with questions in zebra. All were met with a blank face and silence. Finally, the leader had enough, and turned to the shaman who stood beside her. "We give our gift to one so brave, before she moves on with another to save."

The shaman nodded, and wordlessly began to open the jars. Their contents were brilliantly colored pigments, in each of the colors of the rainbow. Without further word in Equestrian or Zebra, Kiongozi and the shaman dipped their hooves in the red ink, and approached Rainbow. Their hooves pressed gently, yet firmly against her brow, and in a smooth motion, bestowed upon her head a vibrant red stripe. A dip in a bucket of water gave them clean hooves to handle orange, and so on. In a mere minute, Rainbow bore the marks of a zebra, from purple lines around her hooves and flank, to a brilliant red upon her face. Though her mind was still addled, and her soul still troubled, the act was enough to pinch up the corners of her mouth.

"Thank you."

"We deserve to be thanking you, as surely will others when these days are through." Kiongozi padded Rainbow on the shoulder. "South by river leads your path, but beware lest you face the Griffon's wrath. Once your path to the lost elk leads, be thee ware on what he feeds. Should from his home you solve your quest, fly back home, as you do best. But remember, for so long as you rule the sky, to visit your herd, should you pass by." As she spoke, she gestured with a sweeping hoof toward the path out of the village.

Rainbow nodded but said nothing more. The sun wouldn't wait for her to wallow in the praise she wasn't sure she deserved. She took to wing, darting out of their sight in a trail of rainbow brilliance. Her magic carried her only a short duration by her usual measure, but the immense speed that had earned her both her name and her purpose made the most of that little time. She was well clear of the village when she finally settled to land; in fact, she had nearly reached the edge of the enormous sinkhole. Above her, the gondola elevator would bring her back up to where their journey had been interrupted. How had it only been a few hours? No more than six, by her haphazard glance at the sun. It was well past lunchtime. Despite her only food being the fruit her zebra guide had offered before entering Discord's temple, she wasn't particularly hungry. Perhaps it was the knot in her stomach taking up all the space where food ought to have been stored.

She felt a surprising gust of wind, followed by the audible sound of flapping feathers behind her. Hooves dropped onto the ground hard, and immediately approached. Dead Reckoning sat down beside her. "What happened?"

"I'm fine."

"I didn't ask how you were feeling. I asked what happened."

"I don't want to talk about it." That was how it went, right? He'd say something witty and insightful, or make some sort of metaphor, and everything would be better, like magic. That's what stallions his age were for.

He looked at her for a long time, inscrutably, before laying down on his belly and spreading his wings. It was then her turn to stare at him in confusion, though it lasted only a few seconds before he finally spoke. "Climb onto my back."

"What?"

"Your wings still aren't up to flying up that cliff, are they?" He gestured to the sheer height above them.

She looked upward, and then back to her companion. "You think you can carry me up that height? Aren't you, like, fifty?"

Dead Reckoning's response was a healthy vibrant laugh that took away some of the sharp edges of the world. "I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment. I guess we'll just have to see how many ponies you can carry when you turn sixty-eight."

She was flabbergasted, and so remained still until he prompted her again with his wing. Gentle steps put her over his back, and with hesitation, she wrapped her forelegs around his neck. He rose up beneath her, and then spread his wings wide, and they were off into the sky.

"I imagine it’s probably been a long time since you've had somepony to fly you around like this," Reckoning observed, before letting out a little laugh. "Or maybe not. Do you have a special stallion back home in Ponyville?"

"No." Rainbow spoke the word barely over the sound of the wind rushing past their ears.

He cocked a little grin, half-heartedly adding another question. "Maybe a special mare?" Another of his little laughs broke into the air when she shook her head. "It's always weird for me to think that's acceptable now. Not that everypony hasn't been pairing off that way since the dawn of time; the publicity is all that's really new." He shrugged. "Just an old guardspony rambling. What do you want to talk about?"

Rainbow shook her head 'no'. Reckoning nodded slowly, tilted his wings wide to the left, and began to circle the sinkhole, at a level height with its rim.

"Where are you going?"

"You're not fit to go tromping through the jungle when you're too busy wondering if you did something wrong. So we're just going to fly, and relax, and chat, until you're ready to get whatever it is off your chest."

Rainbow looked off for a long time, and finally pulled the knot out of her gut. Words spilled out of her like water from an uncapped faucet. "I killed a dragon."

"I knew that." Reckoning answered.

"How?"

"When you've been a guardspony for almost fifty years, you learn what some things look like. You had the face on." He settled into a shallow descent, forcing Rainbow to slide closer on his back, until their necks were pressed together. His unkempt short mane tickled her chin. "I want to know why you did it."

So she told him. Hesitantly, at first, she gave him the tale of the hours she had been gone, from her journey into the ancient zebra temple to her surprising meeting with its unexpected 'god', and finally, her encounter with the wyrm. Reckoning said not a word during the entire tale, letting the raw emotion and pain flow out of the young mare on his back, and accepting it fully without judgment or comment.

"...and the spear just went straight into his eye. I didn't want it to; I wasn't even thinking. I just needed to stop the fire, and his eye was right there, and I didn't have any other way, and-"

"I understand." Reckoning curved into a steep bank that Rainbow had to admit she envied, given his age. It was well within her capabilities, but that didn't mean it was easy. When the tight turn had been completed, the elder pegasus swept up out of the zebra's sinkhole and into the thick canopy of the upper jungle. There he flew in silence for another few hundred feet, before dropping down to the floor on the edge of a rapidly flowing river.

She scrambled off his back, at which point he turned to look straight into her eyes. "You were defending yourself," came his first observation.

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

His brow rose slightly. "I'm not trying to make you feel better, Dash. You've killed another living, intelligent being. You're supposed to feel bad." Rainbow found herself stunned by the words, and so he continued his speech. "That's what tells you you're still a good pony inside. What you're feeling right now that you shouldn’t be, though, is guilt; I can tell that it’s eating you up inside. So think about this for a second: did you start that fight?"

"I tried to grab Mzungu-"

Reckoning's gaze grew sterner as he interrupted. "Did you make the first attack?"

"No, but-"

"And did you try to kill him?"

"I didn't mean to, but-"

"No, Rainbow Dash, there isn't any 'but'. Those are the facts. That's reality. You were trying to be a good guardspony. You were trying to save lives. My life. Your princess' life. Sometimes, that means making choices like forcing the zebra to go home. Not many ponies could make that choice. It might not have been nice, but what you did was right, Rainbow. Do you understand the difference?"

Rainbow took a deep breath, and then nodded slowly. "Yeah. I guess. I still don't feel much better about it though."

Reckoning shrugged. "That's something you have to get over on your own. Every guardspony... well, at least the Honor Guard all have our own way of dealing with it. I'd tell you to go fly around if it were safe. As it stands, we've got to get moving if we're going to save your princess. Just remember what we talked about."

Reckoning then broke out into a steady gait along the riverbank, following the gentle but swift waters as they curved and bent into the depths of the jungle proper. Their path didn't go very far, however, before the older pony's machete cut through a wall of vines to reveal a small but sturdy dock tied up to a pair of canoes. "Here's our path to Fallaner," the scout observed, before climbing down the bank of the river and approaching one of the boats. Its paintings and attention to detail made it obvious that it was a zebra craft. It was more than large enough to accommodate the pair comfortably, and so Reckoning climbed aboard. "Hop on and we can get going."

She followed his directions, and with another swift chop of his machete, the rope holding the canoe in place was no more, and their journey had begun. Dash sat down at the back of the craft and rolled her shoulders, making herself comfortable. Reckoning, meanwhile, stood in the center of the boat facing downriver. His wings were cutting strange motions in the air, turning the craft as the speed of the water carried it along its journey.

"How come you all call her 'my princess'?"

"Eh?" The one-eyed scout glanced over his shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I thought it was just Thunder Crack being a jerk, but then you said it too. Luna is just as much your Princess as she is mine."

Reckoning broke away from looking at her and forced his eye dead-forward. "I'm not her bodyguard." The lack of confidence in the statement belied an obvious lack of honesty. Rainbow could almost see the strain in his body as he tried to make himself believe his own words.

"You're lying to me, Deadeye."

"Dash, you don't want me to answer that question."

Confrontationally, she flared her wings and rose to walk toward him. The canoe shifted in the water, adjusting to the change in weight. "Why not?"

The scout shook his head firmly. "Just drop it."

"Tell me!" she pressed.

His scarred brow twitched, but his tone remained under control. "It's not something you'll want to hear right now. Not after this."

She rolled her eyes, before all-but yelling into his face. "Just tell me!"

"It's none of your business!" His voice had developed into a heightened growl.

"Like you having flashbacks was none of my business?" It was a cheap shot, but Rainbow felt she needed to know.

"Fine!" He whipped his head around, putting his scarred face so close to Rainbow's that she fell backward onto her haunches. Gone was the friendliness and the usual humor in his voice, replaced with a blunt fervor that seemed to border on bloodlust. "You want to know so bad? Don't interrupt me."

It took a moment for him to regain control of his emotions, and he took the opportunity to seat himself. The boat drifted lazily as he spoke with a calm tone that was nevertheless so full of spite that it almost hurt to listen to. "The reason we call her 'your princess' is because we don't want anything to do with her. Every single one of us joined up before she came back, and we all swore our oaths in front of Celestia alone. Then she showed up out of the blue, and-"

"Is this about Nightmare Moon? Really?" Rainbow set her teeth together. "So she made it nighttime for a while and scared everypony. Big deal! It's not like-"

Reckoning didn't interrupt with words. The fury in his eyes left his body through his legs, which cracked into the air in a powerful kick. The sudden burst of thunderous sound sent birds into the air overhead and brought total silence to the two ponies. His magic released, Reckoning slowly shook his head and set his gaze on Rainbow, and for the first time in the entire conversation, it was clear that his anger was directed at the young mare, rather than the distant dying princess. "You have no idea what she did to us."

"What?"

"I shouldn't blame you for not remembering, Rainbow Dash." The way he delivered the words suggested that he did nevertheless. Dead Reckoning drew in a deep breath, and then released it. He turned his back to the mare and began to again guide the canoe with his wings. "But you were there."

- - -

The early-morning mid-summer air in Ponyville was pleasantly warm, and not a cloud troubled the still-dark sky. Standing on the balcony of the town hall were three identical stallions, bearing golden armor over their sheer white coats. They watched over a crowd of tired but excited ponies who were making their way into the biggest event their tiny town would ever see.

"Good to have you back, Corporal Reckoning."

"Good to be back, Star." As some curiosity of the enchanted armor, only one of Dead Reckoning's illusory blue eyes actually tracked his glance toward Morning Star. "I have to ask, though; why exactly am I back?"

The third pony present let out a little laugh. "I don't see why they wouldn't want you back, Deadeye. It's not like anything went wrong the last time you were at a Summer Sun Celebration."

That particular international incident replayed in his mind, and Reckoning was glad that the illusory form of the pony he was supposed to be couldn't blush or scowl at her. "Clever, Loose."

Despite wearing a stallion's body, Warrant Officer Loose Cannon was clearly riled up by the distasteful use of her first name. Her wings flared for a moment, before a smile broke over her broad white muzzle. "That's funny, Reckoning. I heard that's what we should be calling your sweetheart up in Cloudsdale."

"That's enough, both of you." Morning Star's command was heeded instantly, a sign of the respect he commanded. "I want your attention on the crowd."

All three guardsponies looked down over the edge of the balcony, watching as stallions and mares of all shapes and sizes flooded into the town's largest structure. Though the welcome break from the desolate solitude of the jungle was nice, Reckoning had to admit that as his eye searched the crowds for threats, he found himself bored. "How long have you two been waiting for me?" he inquired, hoping to strike up some sort of conversation.

"Since yesterday afternoon." Star answered. "We charioted Twilight Sparkle down here. You know, the Princess' personal student?"

"I'm not that old, Star. I remember Twilight, even if I never actually met her. What's she doing down here on her own?"

"Apparently, she organized the Celebration." Star shrugged. "We stopped watching her after we dropped her off. We've been digging up threats since then. Which reminds me, if you see a pink earth pony mare, or a blue pegasus mare, and either has saddlebags, let me know."

"Threats here? You're joking, right?" Loose Cannon butted in, gesturing around. "I didn't turn anything up on my rounds; hard to have a real nutcase in a town of forty ponies."

"Not a real military threat, but I'd just as soon save the embarrassment of a practical joke to the Princess." Star wore a brief smile that belied his imagination, before it was stolen away by reality. "Don't get comfortable; something’s going down here. The Commander's been on edge since this morning."

Loose Cannon shot a quick sideways glance to the two stallions. "You know why, right? I heard he just got back from a mission."

It wasn't much of a surprise that Reckoning hadn't heard; news didn't get to Zebrica very often. It was, however, a big deal when the Commander went out to deal with something himself. That was, after all, what the entire rest of the Honor Guard was for. He was, therefore, incredibly surprised by Morning Star's clarification.

"He went to south to Suida. He took Lieutenant On and Lieutenant Flag."

Reckoning's jaw dropped. "Soldier On *and* White Flag? Are we going to war with the boars?"

"No, of course-" Star's attention was torn away by a glance at a little orange filly darting around on a scooter. He put on his best guardspony voice as she shouted down toward her. "You're going to have to leave that outside, kid."

The filly moped a bit about the demand, but complied without further fuss. Having resolved the dire threat that a child's scooter presented to their nigh-immortal ruler, Morning Star turned back to Dead Reckoning. "We wouldn't be having the Summer Sun Celebration right now if we were looking at a war, Corporal," Morning Star responded calmly. "I'm sure their business was peaceful."

"Yeah, right." Loose Cannon nickered, holding a hoof to her (momentarily masculine) mouth to avoid a further break in composure. "Keep telling yourself that. But on that topic, why the hay is the Celebration here? Look at this place!" Reckoning took in the surroundings. It was pretty small; barely more than a village, bursting at the seams from the number of visitors who had swept down from Canterlot. Cannon continued in a mocking voice. "Welcome to Ponyville, Capital of Nowhere, population twelve."

Morning Star responded deadpan. "It was the Princess' decision, Cannon."

"That doesn't make it right, you know, Star. Remember when she made Flag stand in as Princess Platinum in the Hearth's Warming pageant?" The other two identical white stallions shared a small chuckle at the thought. Yet another inside joke Reckoning had missed in exile.

He shook his head, before his eye locked onto an incredibly unexpected sight. "Is that... a dragon?"

"What?" Morning Star's gaze snapped to where Reckoning was pointing. The creature in question was much smaller than he had feared. "Oh, yeah, that's Spike. Not a big deal. The purple mare there is Twilight Sparkle. He's her assistant, or something."

Reckoning laughed. "Wait, are you telling me that little dragon is the one we freaked out over when it broke through the roof of the Princess' school?"

"Yeah. Strong magic runs in their family." Star smiled. "Rumor has it that her brother is going to replace Captain Vigil."

Suddenly intense, Reckoning turned away from the baby dragon and the young mare. "What happened to the Captain?"

"Nothing, she's retiring." Loose Cannon smiled as wryly as she could manage. "You might try it some time, geezer."

"Again, Officer Cannon, that is quite enough." Morning Star nodded to the structure behind them. "The Commander is inside with the Princess; we should take up position in the crowd. I remind you that this is a public event, and unless something happens, we are currently representing the *Royal* Guard. No scaring the civilians, and no magic. Restrain yourselves."

The pegasi moved swiftly, as was their nature. The room was filled to brimming with ponies; after the floor and balconies had been filled, some of the civilian pegasi had taken to the air, in a way that strictly violated Royal Guard security protocols. Fortunately for them, the Honor Guard were more forgiving, especially in a backwater town like Ponyville.

At the front of the room, a small raised platform, a brown mare with graying hair addressed the audience. "Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!" Ponies cheered, though the guardsponies were too busy sweeping the crowd to join in. "In just a few moments," she continued, "our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year!"

Reckoning felt Loose Cannon lean up against his side. "Twenty bits says the Commander is standing behind her, and nopony notices."

Looking up at all the rafters, railings, and decorations in the room, the scout nodded. "You're on."

Unaware of the betting going on in her audience, the Mayor's speech continued. "And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria..."

"Eyes up." Morning Star ordered.

" ...Princess Celestia!"

A fanfare played, curtains were raised, and a sudden shock swept the room.

"What?" Loose Cannon tensed her wings.

"What's going on, Star?" Reckoning hissed.

"I don't know." His wings spread out wide, ready to wield magic instead of take flight. After a moment of desperate scanning, he nodded toward a particular part of the crowd. "Look at Sparkle." He gestured toward the Princess' student, who was staring up at the glass roof with a terrified expression on her face. From where they were standing, the guardsponies couldn't see what had frightened her, but they already had enough evidence to know something was going on.

As ponies bickered and whispered in fear and shock, the three trained soldiers turned to one another. Star was again the first to speak. "We don't know if this is real. Remember, keep calm. We don't need the crowd involved. But arm up."

"Are you sure this isn't just one of her pranks?" Reckoning asked hurriedly.

"If you'd seen the Commander this morning, you'd know," Cannon answered bluntly. In the course of the discussion, she had shod her hooves in blunt steel. "I'm heading into the back." Without another word, the youngest of the three guards was off into the air.

"This can't be good.”

The Mayor raised her head and spoke up, trying to gather the crowd's attention. "Remain calm, everypony, there must be a reasonable explanation!"

"Ooh, ooh, I love guessing games! Is she hiding?"

"If the Princess or the Commander were fighting, we'd have seen something, right?" Reckoning's body flared, as his instincts screamed out about an unseen danger. Every few moments, his head would duck or bob or shift suddenly, but nothing came of the erratic motions.

Morning Star nodded. "It's too quiet, I'm heading back. Watch the crowd."

The pegasus guard was beaten to the mark by a young white unicorn, who very-nearly shrieked her discovery as she emerged from the Princess' back room. "She's gone!"

"Ooh, she's good."

The rest of the crowd gasped almost as one. Meanwhile, Loose Cannon soared back from one of the Town Hall's less focal side-doors. Clutched against her body with one foreleg was a lacquered black helmet with gilded trim and a short black crest. Both the other guardsponies recognized it instantly.

"They're gone. I'd bet the Princess teleported them." It was a desperate statement, devoid of any actual faith. The helmet told all. Something was very wrong, in a way none of them had ever faced before. Instincts honed over years began to kick in, ready to organize a search for the culprit. No longer did the crowd or the decency of control matter. The Princess had been threatened. Only blood could pay that toll.

Another set of gasps drew their attention. What followed was a swirling of mist around the uppermost balcony. The white mare darted down the stairs in fear as the guardsponies assessed the situation.

"Unicorn magic?" Reckoning asked.

Morning Star nodded, even as he pulled a pair of thick, stony black shoes from his armor and placed them on his forehooves. They were lodestone, a rare and powerful mineral known to disrupt mana, but incredibly dangerous to whatever unfortunate pony was on the receiving end. As he adjusted his equipment, the Lieutenant continued to give directions. "Unicorn. Cannon, you and I are going to close to melee; I'll try and take the horn; you go for body blows. Injure, don't kill. We need her to find the princess. Reckoning, I want you to-"

The commands were cut off by a burst of light and a crack of thunder, before a frighteningly familiar being burst onto the stage.

"Oh no... Nightmare Moon!"

"Is that...?" Reckoning began, unable to bring himself to finish the thought. It was hard to have grown up in Equestria without recognizing the face, even as stylized as it was usually depicted. An annual holiday at the end of the harvest season made sure of such a fact.

"It's Nightmare Moon!" Cannon hissed, before flaring his wings. Morning Star held out a stiff arm, and the gung-ho mare heeded his restraint.

"How do we know that isn't the Princess?" the Lieutenant snapped.

"What?" Reckoning was momentarily rendered speechless. "You're joking, Star! Look at her! Didn't you ever go out-"

"No joking, Cannon!" Star barely kept himself from yelling. "She's the Princess' size; not like a normal alicorn. And she has the magic mane. I don't want to risk hurting her if she's been, I don't know, possessed or something. Hold back, but be ready. As soon as we have the information, we move." Seeing a familiar glint in Loose Cannon's disguised eyes, he added another few words. "That's an order."

Nightmare Moon spoke, with an echoing tone that froze the blood and chilled the hearts of even the hardened soldiers. "Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious little sun-loving faces."

"Not the Princess!" Cannon hissed to her commanding officer.

"Quiet!" Star answered, in a barely-restrained whisper.

Some insane, brave civilian mare with a vibrant rainbow mane rose up into the air, shouting at the intimidating being. "What did you do with our Princess?!" Reckoning and Cannon shared a glance when the mare then attempted to charge at Nightmare Moon head-on, only to be stopped by another pony who bit her tail.

Nightmare Moon unleashed a hollow chuckle, responding sarcastically to what she clearly deemed an insignificant threat. "Why, am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?"

"Ooh, ooh, more guessing games! Um, Hokey Smokes! How about... Queen Meanie! No! Black Snooty, Black Snooty-"

"Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years? Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?"

When Twilight Sparkle spoke up over the murmuring crowd, everything else fell into silence. "I did. And I know who you are. You're the Mare in the Moon – Nightmare Moon!"

The crowd gasped in shock, their fears realized and stated as fact. This creature was the terror of their childhoods, come to feast on their flesh."

For her own part, Nightmare Moon seemed amused. "Well, well, well, somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why I'm here."

Twilight gave a subtle nod, struggling to speak. "You're here to... to..." The words wouldn't come.

The evil alicorn gave off another laugh. "Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!" Her overdramatic laughter was accompanied by a storm of fierce lightning that descended from the misty aura overhead, an extension of her ghostly mane.

The Mayor pointed a commanding hoof at the mare, bellowing at the top of her lungs. "Seize her! Only she knows where the Princess is!"

She had no true authority over the Honor Guard, but the prompt was enough to push Loose Cannon over the edge. She took off into the air, flying straight for Nightmare Moon. Star and Reckoning followed suit, unwilling to let their comrade face the danger alone.

"Stand back, you foals!" Nightmare Moon ordered, turning their way. Her slitted, feline eyes winked with the power of a terrible magic, and the storm around her grew. Then the magic grew, obscuring her eyes with raw light. The shadowy aura surrounding her stopped their flight too far away for any of them to even strike at her archaic turquoise armor. Star's special shoes were making slow headway through the force, but Reckoning and Cannon were held still. The latter, defined more by her focus on battle than a fear of the unreal mare before her, struck her forehooves together for a thunderclap.

Nightmare Moon found the magical attack amusing, and broke out again into her sickening laugh. As she did, the sound was echoed a dozen times. Bolts of pure electricity danced within the shadowy veil, until at last, they were let free.

Cannon took the first hit; being flung back to the far side of the room. Reckoning didn't last much longer, as a searing bolt of arcane energy struck his chest. He could feel his golden armor ignite like fire, as searing power coursed through his chest. He was thrown across the room as well, though only the shift of his body weight let him know this was the case. The pain of the electric shock had stolen from him sight and sound and even the feeling of the air and the stone against his coat. He skidded painfully to his side, and the world returned only just in time to see Nightmare's umbral aura flee through the open doors. The brave rainbow mare charged after the fiend, shouting "Come back here!"

When Dead Reckoning finally rose to shaky hooves, it was with the help of a white coated mare bearing a red cross for a cutie mark. "Are you all right, officer?"

He tried to tell her 'Yes', but all that came from his throat was a desperate wheeze. His hooves revolted, and he barely kept his stance thanks to his wings.

"Corporal!" It was Morning Star's voice, which was followed closely by his welcoming support under the scout's other wing. Propped between the two ponies, Reckoning was able to stretch his legs and endure the brief but unimaginable agony that accompanied the motion.

"I'll live," he managed to mutter through gritted teeth. "How's Loose Cannon?"

The civilian smiled. "Your friend is out cold, but I don't see much by way of burns or damage. I'll look at him in a moment, but you were awake, so we had a bigger risk of shock and trauma."

Reckoning shot a quick glance at Star, whose slow but steady nod told a very different story. Slowly, the two guardsponies turned to their third companion. Loose Cannon, still garbed in magic armor, was slowly twitching on the floor of Ponyville's Town Hall. Her form showed no burns or scarring; just a pristine white coat. Unlike the civilian, both guardsponies knew it for what it was: an illusion.

"Miss, thank you for the help, but I think you should get home." Morning Star's directions sounded more like a desperate plea.

"With respect, sir, you and your, uh, team, are in no condition to-"

Reckoning ripped his helmet off and threw it to the ground. She gasped as his face changed, but the fear didn't last long. Her eyes met his one with the force of raw magic, and he spoke bluntly. "Leave us alone. Go look after the rest of the town."

Without a word, she turned and fled. No sooner had the doors swung shut than Reckoning crumpled, with his wings folded.

"Are you actually okay, Reckoning?"

"Staring a pony takes too much magic." He answered, forcing himself up again by balancing on Star's back. "Did she hit you too?"

"The lodestones took most of it." Star answered. "But I don't know if I'll be flying distance for a while."

The two then exchanged a moment of awkward silence, before an unspoken consensus was reached. With a slow limp, Lieutenant Star helped Dead Reckoning make his way over to Loose Cannon's fallen body. They both knew what they would find underneath; the illusion pervaded above all else. Star's forehooves gently undid Cannon's claps. Even before they were done, the stench of burning hair filled the air.

- - -

Dead Reckoning looked down at himself in a canoe, deep in the heart of the Zebrican jungle, and realized that one of his forehooves was clutching the scar he had received that day. His words had trailed off for a moment, and so he shook himself to regain his focus. "You don't want to know what she looked like." He then turned around and sat down facing Rainbow Dash. A sudden fatigue had set over his body. He didn't feel like anything else needed to be said.

Rainbow's expression was unreadable, and indescribable. Had he shattered her hero? Or perhaps himself? The answer would no doubt come soon.

When Rainbow's voice finally arrived, it was defensive, coming off as almost a shout. "But... but that wasn't really her! Nightmare Moon was a different pony! A monster! Luna would never kill somepony else!"

"Would you believe that if it was your friend? If it was Twilight Sparkle?" Then, abruptly, the hatred was gone from his words and his body. He didn't so much loosen as simply collapse, with shoulders sagging and neck barely managing to hold his head aloft. "I don't know." The old soldier didn't put any sort of emotion into the acknowledgement. "I'll do this with you. I'll help you save her, but I'm doing it for Celestia, because it's my duty." He turned toward the front of the boat, looking out at the river. "And I don't have to like it."

- - -

Shining Armor awoke in rather mild pain that wormed beneath the flesh of his right front fetlock. He could feel bandages covering the same hoof, as well as a needle attached to his neck. The beeping of machines and the sterile scent of the air completed the scene of a hospital room, even before he opened his eyes.

It was surprisingly bright when he did finally take a look around. White puffy clouds were everywhere, and everything. Cloudsdale was familiar, though it took him a bit longer to remember the spell that had let him wander on their white surfaces.

"Hey, he's awake!" Shining turned in bed to a pair of occupied chairs occupying the wall of his room. The first had momentarily held Going Solo, who was now hovering beside the guardspony with a smile. "You feeling alright, Shining?"

"For what I just went through?" He let out a confident laugh. "Can't say it's that bad, no."

"Good!" She walked up to him, smiling, and then without warning, struck him as hard as she could manage on the shoulder of his (previously) unwounded leg.

"Ow!"

"What were you thinking, leaving me behind like that? And then you go running into a lightning factory wearing metal shoes? Are you insane?"

"Yeah, actually. Thanks for that." He had to admit, it was a good punch. He rolled his shoulder, and then bluntly rolled out of bed, catching himself on three hooves. It was strange to realize that the spell holding him on the cloudy surface was still alive and strong. "How long was I out?"

"Just a couple hours. The doctors actually said you would have woken up sooner if you weren't so sleep deprived. You're lucky. Some second-degree burning, but nothing that won't heal if you stay off the hoof."

He nodded, pulling the injured appendage closer to his torso. "Did you bring me here?"

She shook her head. "Well, not alone anyway. Not long after you set off half the thunderheads in Cloudsdale, the Wonderbolts showed up." Then she put on a teasing smile. "If you weren't so heavy, I might have been able to take you up here myself."

"Funny," he replied straight-faced, in a deadly serious tone, before a little bit of a smile broke onto his lips. "So, did they grab Go Between?"

"Yeah. I guess you hit him pretty hard; they took him upstairs for x-rays. I can take you up. The Wonderbolts are up there, watching him. I didn't know they were guardsponies."

"They barely are," Shining answered, with more of a joking tone than actual derision. "They're all in the National Guard. We mostly use them for recruitment posters, honestly, but every so often they get called in for first-response on something when we need it done fast."

"Yeah, but you're married now." Going Solo ducked out of the room before Shining could respond. The limping unicorn rolled his eyes, but took the time to replace his enchanted armor before following after her.

It didn't take too long to navigate up two floors and down a long hallway. Fine cloud architecture of pillars and perfectly smooth walls supported baby-blue doors set apart only by their numbered plates and the clipboards of medical information attached to each. The door they were actually after was quite obvious, set apart by the blue jump-suited pegasi flanking it. At his rather painful approach, they turned and saluted.

"At ease," Shining muttered, upon reaching a decent speaking distance. "Is he awake?"

"Yeah, but he hasn't said anything to us," answered the larger of the two, a light gray stallion with a green and white striped mane.

Shining had to force himself not to yell at the pony for his lack of disciple in addressing a superior officer. It was an old guardspony saying, that the sun could burn out and the oceans dry up, but a real guardspony C.O. would still be shouting. The thought earned a quiet chuckle, before he approached the door to Go Between's room. "You've been on duty long enough. Tell your, uh... Captain?"

"Yes, sir. Captain Spitfire," answered the stallion on the other side of the door. "I'll go get her."

"No, don't bother. Just tell her to meet me in front of the hospital in an hour."

"Got it." With curt nods, the two Wonderbolts flew off, earning irate glares from the medical staff they passed. Left alone, Shining and Solo spared each other a quick glance, before opening the door to their prisoner's room and stepping inside.

Apart from a decidedly raised shaven spot on his neck, Go Between wasn't much worse for the wear. Said raw flesh bore a small burn, but it was the sort that would clearly heal in time, perhaps even without leaving behind a scar. He lay, hoof-cuffed to a hospital bed, with an obvious fear on his face. Shining paced up to his bedside rather directly, but did not address the accused. Instead, his horn released a faint stream of mana, which slowly poured over and through the other pony.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to learn something about Masquerade's magic." Shining focused on his sixth sense, absorbing the strange inputs from the base of his horn. To describe them was to explain a painting to the blind, or music to the deaf. With each second, his brow creased deeper and deeper, until his face broke into an outright scowl and his magic ceased to flow.

"What's wrong?" Solo asked. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," he snapped, before shaking his head to regain his composure. "In a better world, we'd have time to talk to my sister about this, but I guess I'll just have to make do."

"What did you learn?"

"Masquerade put a spell on to shield him from unicorn magic. It's an illusion of pain." He neglected to add that the magic was completely beyond his comprehension. It looked to his mind like the sort of thing Twilight would bring home from studying theory with Celestia. Once more, he found himself regretting his lack of a more formal magical education.

Shining gently tapped Go Between on the side. His eyes squeezed open slowly to look upon the guardspony and his companion. Almost immediately, he tried to flee, only to realize the bonds holding him to his bed. When the futility of the action settled in his mind, he relaxed and sighed, clearly giving up. In that frail, collapsed state, he muttered under his breath. "What do you want?"

"Masquerade," Shining stated forcefully. "I need her location."

"Is it worth letting me go?"

Shining took a slow breath. "It'll be up to the Princess, but I might persuade her to leniency-"

Go Between interrupted with a fierce shake of his head. "I'm looking at the gallows no matter what, guardspony. I know what I did." His face grew grim. "So you undo these cuffs right now and let me walk away scot free, or you'll get nothing from me."

Shining leaned forward with intensity in his face. "Princess Luna is going to die, Go Between! Tell me what you know!"

He responded with a stern refusal. "I'm going to die, Captain. You know what I want, so let me go, or you'll get nothing."

"It's not happening." Shining Armor shook his head. "I'll put in the good word with-"

"Your 'good word' isn't worth two bits to me. As far as the law cares, I killed Luna, just as much as Masquerade or whoever hired her did, so screw your 'good word'. I was dead the minute you caught me."

Shining shook his head slowly. Going Solo tapped the guardspony on the shoulder, and then cocked her head toward the room's door. He allowed himself to be led out into the hospital hall, where the pegasus pulled the cloudy door firmly shut. All around, orderlies were moving about casually, glancing at clipboards or calmly making their way between patients who needed to be seen. It clearly wasn't an urgent wing, and the quiet was a welcome break from recent events.

The guardspony's moment of relaxation was stolen away by his unlikely companion, who posed a curious question.

"Why don't you give him what he wants?"

"Because he actually did it!" Shining literally yelled the words, gathering the attention of several of the pegasus orderlies. He glanced around awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck with a hoof. "Sorry."

Solo chuckled when the medical staff finally decided that the accidental outburst wasn't worth pursuing. "It's fine. He's pissing me off too, but we need to get him to talk, right?"

"Not necessarily. He'll have to have a file or a reference somewhere in his home, or his warehouse, or something that we can follow up on. The issue is time."

"You said three days, right?" Solo cocked her head to the side. "Is that enough?"

"I don't know." Shining's gaze danced nervously around the sterile hospital hallway. "If he knows where she is, we'd be fine, but he might just be another middle-pony. If it takes two days to dig something up, that would be too much. I don't want to be gambling with a life in my hooves, but I also don't want somepony like him out on the streets again. We might never catch him."

Solo nodded, and then looked away awkwardly. "You know, we, uh... we could do it Grizzaloo's way."

"What?" Shining wore his most confused expression.

"You know... good cop, bad cop? Rough him up a bit?" The smuggled glanced around quickly, and then leaned up to Shining's ear to whisper. "Break his wings?"

"Absolutely not," the guardspony responded, refusing to acknowledge the temptation Masquerade's spell offered. "That's what my argument with Red Ink was about. I won't have the Royal Guard be known for intimidation, let alone torture."

"Yeah, but isn't it worth saving Princess Luna?"

Shining Armor shook his head slowly. "Once you cross that line, even for something like saving a life, you've destroyed the reputation for the entire guard. Especially for me, as the captain. Then the other guardsponies will see that it was okay, and soon enough, you have Red Ink or the Honor Guard."

"The Honor Guard?" Solo raised a brow.

Shining shook his head and smiled as disarmingly as he could manage. "Just guardspony stories. Rumors. Forget I said anything."

"Right..." She let the syllable hang for a moment. "Well, we have to get Go Between to talk somehow. If you won't hurt him - and I'm not saying you need to, just a thought - you might have to give him what he wants." She closed her eyes in thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "Got any ideas?"

A reluctant sigh gave her the answer she was looking for. "No, you're right. Saving the Princess is more important than punishing him. I'll make the deal."

Together, the two returned to the stallion's hospital room, where he looked to them with a mixture of hope and amusement. "Had a nice talk?"

In a burst of magical power, Shining's horn ignited, shattering the cuff on Go Between's right foreleg into a mangled mass of metal. A moment later, the second followed suit. The pegasus tried to fly for the door, only to find himself caught in the grip of equally potent magic.

"Where?" Shining's demand was sharp and plain.

"I don't know." Between answered, bluntly. "But there's a mare in-" his words were cut off by a glow of midnight blue magic, which engulfed his skull and emanated in brilliant beams from his eyes. His mouth hung open, obviously trying to scream, but no noise escaped his lips. Desperate to stop whatever was happening, Shining thrust his own magic into the rampant spell. His was a simple dispelling charm, powered by the force of his power rather than knowledge and focus.

For his efforts, the guardspony was once again seized by the illusion of unknowable pain. It was far stronger this time than when the spell had overcome him in Go Between's warehouse. Between the magic holding his hooves to the cloud floor, and the telekinetic energy suspending the pegasus in the air, it took some time to gather the focus and the power necessary to undo the torturous magic. His flesh burnt and his blood boiled. Knives tore through his chest and legs. A thousand times over, brute force tore his horn from his head. Blunt blows shattered his legs. Unlike the unfortunate pegasus, Shining's throat was quite capable of unleashing a horrified scream.

It all ended at once, for no clear cause. He was barely standing upright and tears poured from his eyes. As the armored stallion felt a comforting wing wrap around his neck, his only thought of happiness was that the pain had not been as bad as what Professor Cloudy Mirror had shown him the first time Shining had the misfortune of facing such a spell.

"Are you alright, Captain?"

Shining's still-unfocused eyes jumped toward the surprising voice. It hadn't been Going Solo's. Instead, a bright orange mare stood beside him, garbed in a vibrant blue and gold jumpsuit. It still took him far too long to put two and two together.

"Uh... Spitfire?"

"Easy, Captain. On your hooves." The Wonderbolt helped the unicorn to rise, where he was able to take in the sudden changes to the hospital room. Go Between lay slumped on the clouds. He looked tranquil; only Shining's sight of the magical glow told him that the conspirator was stone dead and not merely sleeping.

The wall had been completely taken down. Puffs of cottony white hung in the air as the pegasus equivalent of rubble. Apparently, the Wonderbolts had been in too big of a hurry to use the door.

At the far side of the room, Going Solo was laying on her chest in hoofcuffs, pinned down by a pair of other highly trained stunt fliers. "Oh, you're up?" she observed sarcastically. "Think you can get these two off me?"

"She's..." Shining put a hoof to his forehead at the sudden onset of another pang of pain. "She's fine, stallions. Let her go."

He didn't pay any particular attention to the awkwardness that ensued, instead having his focus drawn to Spitfire. "Now, Captain, are you okay?"

"I'll survive," he answered bluntly. "I've been through worse."

"What actually happened to you?" the mare pressed. "I've never heard somepony scream like that, and-"

"Unicorn magic. It was just an illusion; none of it was real. Unfortunately, it was real for him." He took a deep breath, glanced down at Go Between's corpse, shook his head. "He was our lead on the mare that tried to assassinate Princess Luna."

One of the other pegasi let out an incredible gasp. "Somepony tried to-?!" His words stopped when Shining's telekinesis clamped his muzzle shut. It wasn't quite as elegant a solution as Twilight's zipper, but it had always proved effective against rebellious guardspony recruits.

"We've been keeping it quiet for a reason," Shining muttered. "We didn't want somepony like this one getting ahead of us." He gestured to the corpse. "Not that it matters now. Uh... Captain Spitfire?"

Were circumstances better, she might have laughed at his confusion. "Between us, its Lieutenant. Don't use that title much."

"I can imagine. In any case, I need you to get whatever guardsponies you can and do a full investigation of the Pan-Equestria Shipping Services warehouse, as well as Go Between's house. You're looking for any sort of criminal contacts, but especially for references to somepony named Masquerade."

"I'll get on it," Spitfire told him firmly.

"This is time sensitive, Lieutenant. Make it your top priority."

"Of course." She nodded to her subordinates, who followed her to the room's now quite open wall. They spread their wings to fly, but Spitfire hesitated at the last moment. "Oh, by the way, Captain. Mr. Lining wanted to have a word with you."

"You mean Silver Lining? The Councilor?"

"Yeah. He has an office on Hurricane Boulevard, though I understand if you're too busy."

"No, I'll check it out. Let me know if you turn anything up."

"Yes, sir." With that, the pony shot off through the hospital wall in a blaze of fire. A moment later, Going Solo approached Shining. "So... what do we do now?"

"Pray that they find something in his offices, or that something comes up."

Solo nodded slowly, then gently prodded Shining out of the room with her wing. As they walked through the hospital, she nuzzled against him consolingly. "I don't know if it will help, but I'm gonna go talk to some other ponies I know around town. It's not likely, but they might know something about him we can use."

Shining Armor offered her a grim nod of acknowledgement, and then continued his slow pace out of the hospital. Something about the way he carried himself, even walking on three legs, caused the medical staff to leave him about his business. Nopony even addressed the grim unicorn, instead fleeing from his path as he continued on a depressingly single-minded path.

His hopes were falling apart around his ears. His investigation had hit a truly dead end, and what was likely the most important case of his career was all-but lost. He feared Luna would die. He feared Red Ink would be proven right. He feared the assassin would get away. His fears permeated his steps, so much that the world seemed to fade away, save the strip of cloud that led him toward his unfamiliar destination.

When he reached the place, it was as if the ornate script of the sign were taunting him.

Lining and Co. Design and Architecture

It was hard to see the 'silver lining' to the death of his one and only lead. Ignoring the sign, the unicorn made his way into the building.

A pair of glass - no, transparent cloud? - doors opened at the slightest touch of his shoulder into an opulent waiting room containing a dozen seats, a desk of cloud made to resemble fine dark wood, and even a small fountain.

"Can I help you?" The secretary, a middle-aged pegasus mare with her mane pulled back into a tight bun, looked up from her papers and gasped. "Ah! A unicorn?"

"Captain Shining Armor, Royal Guard." Shining put on a smile that he felt exactly the opposite of inside. "I'm here to see Councilor Lining."

"Oh, of course, Captain." He gestured with a wing toward the door beside the desk. "He's in the end office. Straight ahead, you can't miss it." She offered him a gentle smile. "Oh, and he prefers mister Lining."

"I'll keep that in mind." Resuming his slow gait, Shining trod through the indicated doorway and progressed down the hall.

Like the rest of the structure, the cloud here was of an almost unbelievable detail. In the hallway, the walls bore the color and texture of waves, letting soft blues and vibrant whites ebb and flow across their perfectly smooth surface. Hanging atop the walls were dozens of paintings in expensive frames. Most were of impossible looking structures with towering spires and magnificent pillars. Others showed the faces of pegasi, labeled with little plaques of names and dates Shining neither recognized, nor cared about. The last door at the end of the hallway again opened at a gentle push, revealing another large room.

Though the door swung completely silently, Shining knew his presence had been noted when a voice from a further room called out to him. "I'll be with you in a moment."

The unicorn looked around the room, and after a moment's contemplation, found himself a comfortable seat. In point of fact, the way that his back sank into the cushion of pure cloud was a luxury he would likely never forget. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, allowing him to truly appreciate the room.

There were more wonders here amidst the furniture, but the one feature that caught Shining Armor's attention most pointedly was an enormous portrait of a stallion, hanging in the center of the largest wall, opposite a pair of windows. Nearly as tall as Shining himself, it portrayed a formidable stallion with dark gray fur and a steel blue mane. His face was largely devoid of emotion, but his keenly focused eyes told the story of a potent will and an unimaginable determination. Decorating his head was a lacquered black helmet, with gilded edges.

Shining heard another pony approach, but didn't look away from the portrait. It was impossibly familiar.

"I see you've noticed my painting. Do you like it?"

"Is that the Commander?" Shining asked, finally tearing his eyes away to look at Silver Lining.

The aging pegasus wore an impressed grin beneath his bushy moustache as he nodded. "I'm impressed you recognize Commander Hurricane so easily. Most pegasi don't." Shining decided not to mention that he had intended an entirely different 'Commander', instead allowing the councilor to continue his speech. "He's my ancestor, by some crazy chain of parents or something, but Pegasi don't usually care much for that sort of thing. The Princess gave it to me as a gift after I did a contract for her, and I didn't want to put it in some dusty storeroom." Then he laughed. "I'm rambling, aren't I, Captain? Please, step into my office."

The two made their way into a much smaller room off of the lounge, occupied by a real wooden desk and three seats. The walls were densely packed with shelves of colored cloud, holding books and models and reasonably sized pictures taken with a real camera instead of painstakingly painted over the course of hours.

"I'm glad you could take the time to visit me, Captain. First of all, I heard you'd been hurt in the cumulonimbus factory. Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I suppose, Councilor Lining." The answer was far from the truth, though the ill sensation Shining was experiencing had nothing to do with wounds from that battle.

"That's very good to hear." The stallion nodded, smiling. His mane, tail, and moustache were a surprisingly rich black for the clear age that showed in the wrinkles worn into his face by a healthy lifetime of smiles. His coat was a gray that much better fit his age, though judging by its sheen, it might have always been that color. "You can just call me Silver, Captain Armor. Or Mr. Lining, if you like that better. I'm only even on the council for business reasons."

"All right." Shining took a slow breath. "How did you know I was in a fight there?"

"Well, I do own a sizeable share of the factory." The old pegasus shrugged with his wings, a rather strange sight for Shining Armor. "Not that I run anything there, but it does cut costs if you're able to buy clouds from yourself. I imagine you don't want to be stuck hearing about my business, though. Tell me, since you've found time to come visit me, have you caught this 'Masquerade'?"

Shining looked away slowly. "No. I'm... working on it."

"I see. Well, then, if I can be of assistance, please let me know."

"I doubt it, Silver." Shining allowed himself another long slow breath, before his mind finally gave in. "I came to Cloudsdale looking for Go Between. He was one of the contacts used to hire Masquerade."

"Go Between? Honestly?" The architect spared no effort in the expression of his surprise. "I mean, he was never much of a social pony, but he seemed like a decent stallion-"

"Most criminals are." The back of Shining's mind laughed at the idea, reflecting on the hooffull who had held his company in recent days. "He was my lead on Masquerade, but she had placed a spell on him. He died before he could tell me anything."

The old pony didn't show quite as emotion as Shining had expected, but the sorrow he offered did seem genuine. "That is... tragic. Well, I wish that I could tell you more, but I never got to know many of the stallion's business partners myself."

"That's fine," Shining responded, having expected nothing more. His eyes wandered lazily around the room, before diving into sudden focus at a tiny picture framed on a shelf just over Silver's shoulder. "Is that Rainbow Dash?"

Silver's tight-lipped frown turned into a proud smile as he turned in his seat toward where Shining had gestured. With gentle hooves, he pulled the picture frame off the shelf and set it down on the desk. "Yes. My granddaughter. She's actually why I asked you to come see me."

There was a sort of awkward pause before Shining's mind ground down its gears. "You're Rainbow's grandfather?" He found himself staring at a picture of a familiar blue filly, much smaller but with the same defiant hunger for fame in her eye, straddling the back of a younger and happier Silver Lining.

"Yes." The architect glanced away for a moment, wistfully. "We don't speak much anymore. She's too busy with her friends, saving the world and flying around. I still worry about her." He took a slow breath that seemed to suggest his actual age, before his eyes firmly returned to Shining Armor. "I've heard rumors from the newspapers. Some say my granddaughter died; others tell me she saved the Princess with another Sonic Rainboom." He laughed gently and bitterly. "I even read one that said she'd joined you on the guard."

"Is that funny?"

The humor on his face died slowly. "Probably not to you. It's a long story. What I want to know, Captain, is the truth. Where is she?"

"I don't know where she is, but she's very much alive." Shining smiled, momentarily proud to be the bearer of good news for once. "She's joined up with the Honor Guard trying to... are you all right, Mr. Lining?"

The sudden pause in his explanation was brought about by the pegasus' eyes pressing shut. It took him almost a minute to regain his composure, during which Shining simply sat quietly. At last, the old pony opened his eyes. The wrinkles of his face remained tightly pinched as he spoke. "I will be fine. It just brings back bad memories. My son - Rainbow's father - died in the Dragon Wars when she was very young."

"I'm sorry."

"He did what he thought was right." Silver slowly picked up the picture and restored it to its place on the shelf. "It's good to at least know that she's alive. Thank you for that, Captain. If you do see her soon, tell her I'd like to see her."

Shining arched a brow. "If you don't mind my asking, why don't you just go visit her in Ponyville?"

"An old stallion's foolishness," he answered. "I... well, it's no particular secret that my business has been very successful. When Rainbow was younger, I tried to... help her make way onto the Wonderbolts. Nothing as blunt as just bribing them, of course; I still wanted her to succeed on her own virtue. But I hired her private flying instructors, and I bought her the old Wonderbolts training hangar for practice. Eventually, she decided it was too much. I hurt her feelings. She wanted to make it on her own, so she just flew off." He glanced out the window, wistfully. "I suppose in the end, I've just been afraid that she won't want to see me."

Shining wasn't quite sure what to say, as the older stallion looked away with a sorrowful expression. A small thought nagged at the back of the guardspony's mind, however, and after a great deal of effort, it was finally able to make itself known.

"You said you bought the Wonderbolts training hangar? Is that the same building Go Between was using as his warehouse?"

The spark of curiosity was enough to pull Silver Lining out of his shallow sadness. "I think so, yes. After Rainbow left, I sold it to him." A little spark of recollection danced in his eyes. "Actually come to think about it, there was something strange about that. Hold on." Silver Lining turned around, pulling out a particularly old three-ring binder, labeled only with a set of dates. He set the book on his desk and began flipping through it quickly, until with a sudden smile, he found a particular page. "Yes, that's right. I had been expecting a bank statement, but Go Between came forward offering to pay in cash."

The statement, perhaps the biggest red flag of criminal activity in the world, earned a raised eyebrow from the Captain of the Royal Guard. Silver Lining shook his head. "I know, it sounds dirty, but it is legal. I went out of my way to keep records on the payments. Look at..." His words trailed off, and then without further word his hooves twisted the binder around and pushed it forward so that it sat in plain sight right in front of Shining Armor.

The guardspony read off where the pegasus' hoof indicated. "Transfer from the First Bank of Equestria in the order of... one-hundred-thirty thousand bits?"

"It's an expensive structure, captain. That's not the point." His hoof slid down a line, and Shining continued.

"Paid by order of Masquerade Ball; West City Branch, 1403 West Monument St., Baltimare." Shining's eyes looked up from the page slowly, as an incredibly wide smile spread across his face.

With a chuckle that shook his shoulders, the old pony nodded. "Glad I could be of service, Captain. Remember to tell Rainbow when you see her. And good luck."

Shining smiled, pulling the paper out of the file and tucking it into his armor with magic. "This was all the good luck I've needed."

- - -

Thunder Crack's wing stuck out at an odd angle in its cast and sling, making it hard to sneak around. Nevertheless, at every corner, he gave a quick glance to check for Red Ink's lackeys, or the doctors who would inevitably scold him for being out of bed. His journey was a short one, as the infirmary wasn't any great distance from the Honor Guard's underground section of the palace.

To the guardspony's relief, all of the Stalliongradi soldiers were away in the field, giving him easy access to the Commander's office. He walked past his own quarters - a small room with a desk, a bed, and little else - without pause. The living spaces of his other 'real Honor Guard' companions also passed without note, leading to the very end of the hall. There, the guardspony did stop before a set of a dozen broken, battered, and destroyed suits of armor. Crack didn't know the names of the ponies who had died wearing them, but he did respect them. They had been the old commanders, the rare and heroic ponies who did the job nopony else could. It was a sad thought to think of the gilded armor of black trim being put in place on one of the stands.

Tossing away the emotion, Crack pushed his way into what had recently become Red Ink's office. The inside was still exactly the way the Commander had left it. His half-organized, procrastinated paperwork spilled over the desk. Behind his virtually untouched chair, a massive chart detailed which two or three Honor Guard officers were tasked with protecting the Princess when he was forced to be absent. The Sergeant noticed quite bluntly that the final column of the chart depicted a flourishing script, detailing how he and Morning Star had been scheduled to be present during the Royal Academy Awards Ceremony. The text clashed with the Commander's blunt, scratchy script, and it was obvious even at a glance who had made the change.

Thunder Crack was again forced to discard his emotion and keep his attention on his self-assigned mission. He walked over the chart and tore it from the wall. Behind it was a small cabinet, bearing a few small vials of green fire. Beneath each was a careful label.

Dead Reckoning was written in simple script beneath the first. The next two, which read Flying Ace and Loose Cannon held no vials, a rather cold testament to the sacrifices they had made. Marathon, Mirror Image, Morning Star, and then the one he was looking for.

Soldier On. He removed the vial tenderly and set it down on the desk, before claiming a quill and a scrap of paperwork with a blank back. He set about his work quickly.

-On,
They're saying you betrayed us, and honestly, I'm not sure what to believe. If it weren't from the Princess, I'd say it was bullshit, no questions asked. I asked her about it, when she came to visit me in the infirmary - the first part of chewing me out over Rainbow Dash - and she told me you killed another guardspony. I won't just assume you didn't have a reason, but Shining Armor's office?
I know how close you were to the Commander - obviously, not that way, but for whatever he did for you in Stalliongrad - so I have a really hard time believing you'd screw him over like this, let alone Morning Star. The Princess dug up some old files, though, on you and Red Ink, and I was surprised what they'd said. I underestimated you.
I won't do it again. In the end, I'm really writing this because I don't want Red Ink to catch you, traitor or no. He's a jackass and a psychopath who doesn't understand the difference between making the hard choices we make and just taking the easy way out every time. I want him out of the Honor Guard. So I'm writing this to warn you. The servants say he's headed to Baltimare in search of you. If that's where you are, keep your head down. And if you really did betray the Princesses, you and I will be seeing each other again soon. Don't look forward to it.
-You know who wrote this.

His letter completed, Crack rolled up the message and shoved it into the vial. The fire consumed it almost instantly, sending it off through the air as a little trail of smoke. Then, without further action, he clamped a hoof down on the vial. It didn't take long for the fire inside to go out despite its magic.

Satisfied with his work, the guardspony returned the empty vial to its place on the hidden shelf. He was right about to replace the chart that served as a covering, when something caught his eye. Beside the scratching that read Soldier On was another name, one that he didn't clearly recognize. It began with Steel. The guardspony laughed as he closed off the hidden cabinet and strode away. He finally knew the Commander's name, and all he could think to mutter was a simple question.

"Like horseshoes?"

Special thanks to SatoshiKyu (~~Edit: who is amazing beyond all possible forms of articulation~~ Re-Edit: Who thinks he is very clever for playing with the text at the end of the chapter that I don't usually pay attention to) for Pre-reading and 'Editing'. Silver Lining's Logo created using http://cooltext.com/.

At the behest of my pre-reader as well as myself, I observe that there is a comments section below, and encourage you to make use of it. I love criticism almost as much as he loves discussion.

Thanks again for reading! I hope you've enjoyed what we have so far!

XII - Perils

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XII: Perils

- - -

Baltimare, the City of Charm, glowed in the light of the setting sun. The smell of salt and the scent of water were ever present as one walked its streets. The city straddled the great Maressissippi river, standing tall over the mouth of the river as it spilled forth into Horseshoe Bay. To the north, the city was prim, and proper, and old. It had the decency - or perhaps, the utter boredom - to slow down and grow calm as the day wound to its end. Old buildings of brick and plaster spoke to a noble and enduring history as one of the oldest cities in the Domain of Canterlot.

Beneath the river, a different story was told. Nestled just above the seemingly endless depths of the Hayseed Swamps, South Baltimare sprung to raucous and vibrant life with the setting of the sun. There, music was played and food served not in fancy restaurants and family homes, but on the streets themselves. Time could be made for anypony, and a story was just as good an introduction as a name. It was the sort of place where you could be anypony you wanted, and also the sort of place that, if you wanted, you could be nopony at all. It was where ponies went to disappear, and for that trait, it had drawn the attention of a singular pony with a curious reputation.

Hers was a cold and analytic visage, plastered across a royal blue face. Over its top was a rough long mane of pure and icy white, matching the disheveled appearance of the south river's usual street wanderers. Upon her flank, a banner of the same pale tone hung frozen in the midst of a potent gust. Nopony paid her any mind for how well she blended into the crowd. A shadow would have had a harder time passing unseen.

She walked past a pair of stallions engaged in the city's music, one blowing wildly into a trumpet as his partner's magic strummed a lively guitar. By ear, she picked out a healthy helping of flats - B, E, A, D, and even a F that shouldn't have borne the lower tone. The trumpet was out of tune, though she decided better than to correct its player. The little errors added a life to the sound that had always seemed absent from Canterlot's 'flawless' music.

She snapped down the last of her petty excuse for dinner. The bowl of gumbo, rich in spices, had been reduced to a single chunk of fried seaweed, slathered in batter pleasing and yet painful to the tongue. She rolled the food between her teeth, tempting out the subtle flavors. An equally subtle frown spread across her muzzle. It was clear the 'secret blend' of spices that the merchant had espoused was nothing more than dried chilies mixed with oregano and garlic powder. She had been hoping from something new and local to try in her own cooking.

"Ooh, lookit that!" somepony cried, gesturing up into the faint orange sky. The dialect was that of a swamp farmer, known for their cocoa and cotton. Its exclamation drew her attention toward the distant Mountain of Dawn, where Canterlot hung as an almost mocking reminder of the past. Closer and higher in the sky, two lines of fire traced their way across the sky, surprisingly close together.

"Pegasus trail," she muttered under her breath, intending only to be heard herself. "Fire based, but without obvious military application." Her brow furrowed. "Wonderbolts? Here?" Their trajectories were on an obvious path toward the city. "Surprisingly close together... a chariot? Meaning passengers. Wonderbolts pulling passengers. Full speed. Train is too slow. Who would the Wonderbolts..." Revelation came before the rest of the words were necessary. With a sullen glance around, she began walking toward the river.

Like the harbor streets, the river was lined with shops and stalls and clubs, bouncing and glowing with lanterns and music. Here, above all else, the southern half of the city was its own entity. She had to force her way past more young ponies dancing incredibly close than she knew what to do with. In the back of her mind, she recalled the city's population growth. Its source was blatant.

Finally, she reached the water, where docks stuck out into the river like the jagged teeth of the deep-swamp ponies. Only a few actually held any vessels, and of those, only one had a pilot. He was a lanky, buck-toothed stallion with a wide-brimmed hat and an enormous smile. It only grew as she approached. "Well, missy, it's real pleasure 'avin a customer tonight. Where we goin'?"

"Across the river." Her voice came out in a perfectly controlled Canterlot accent: succinct, pointed, and business-like.

"Yeah, I'll bet. T'ree bits." She handed him the money without comment and stepped calmly onto his little barge. "T'anks." His hooves slipped into fabric straps on a pair of oars and without further ado, he began to move them across the calm but powerful river mouth.

The mare watched the approaching city as her eyes tried to guess the chariot's landing site. It was nearly into the city, and as soon as it reached the roof level, it would be out of her sight. "They'll need information. Town hall district gives lots of sites, as well as landing space, and-"

"You say sometin'?"

"Nothing important," she lied. "Just enjoying the city."

"The city what's fun's back where we left. Up 'head's just borin' stuck-ups." She didn't respond, and so he again felt the burden to break the silence. "Wha's your name, miss?"

"No concern."

"So you call yourself 'No'? Or ya prefer Concern?" She gave him a dead look, only to realize from the obvious humor on his face that he understood her perfectly, and chose his response for humor. She noted once again not to underestimate the locals' linguistic comprehension because of their accents, before turning back toward the north with her thoughts.

The rest of the ride was quiet, as the stallion finally seemed to realize that she had no desire to speak. The water carried them to the other shore, where a finely organized pier waited. Dozens of spaces were open to pull up, but that didn't stop another mare with a carefully styled bun in her mane from running up to the edge of the dock. "You can't dock here! This is private property!"

"The river ain't nopony's property. 't ain't proper," the pilot shouted back. The blue mare was inclined to agree. Who could claim as property what they could not hold in their hooves? And yet, how many times had her own tongue staked such a claim in hypocrisy and bitter fact?

Such high thoughts soared unnoticed through the golden sky, far above the sight of the dock-keeper. "I'm not arguing with you about this, swamp pony! I'll get the guardsponies if you try-"

In the course of her diatribe, the boat had gotten considerably closer to the pier. The passenger spun in the wing like a cresting dolphin. Glimmers of sunlight danced on her unbound hair, catching the eye and defying the heart. Her landing on the still dock was almost bittersweet. Before the dock manager could regain her composure, the other mare whipped out a small golden badge in a burst of white magic, and flashed it. "I am a guardspony. Now, please get out of my way." She walked up the dock, putting her hooves in marching order without actually waiting for a response. The words would have taken too much time. Her last act on the pier, as she approached firm land once more, was to glance back over her shoulder. The other mare was ferociously biting her own lip and struggling in vain to maintain a calm demeanor. With a casual burst of magic from her horn, the guardspony's disheveled mane became a neat bun, perfectly replicating the dock's manager.

The path from the river to City Hall was particularly short, even given the marginal traffic of ponies traveling from work to their homes. They were business mares and bureaucrats, young and old. All seemed cut from the same mold. Short, tight manes gave little sign of individuality. Marble faces, little more than busts mounted upon shoulders, stared unfeelingly into the prospect of another day of business-as-usual. None sensed the chameleon in their midst. The guardspony walked with them, sharing their hoof steps and mirroring their faces. She had no need to, but the action was more a part of her in those days than any name or belief. Her duty defined her, and it demanded such actions.

She saw her goal plain as day around a simple corner. The throng of civilians clustered like ants to a picnic around a golden chariot. Wings told her of pegasi. Blue jumpsuits said more. They told her she had been right. Life was suddenly and unexpectedly gathering in front of the ancient white structure that defined the city's government, forcing city officials to squeeze through a rabid crowd as they continued what would be a long night of work.

They had been why she joined the guard, and yet she couldn't help feeling as she looked upon the masses that she was somewhere high, and looking down. Perhaps it had just been time. Guardsponies said it happened to be the best. When they had said it, they were already talking about her.

A trained eye and a sharp mind together knew better than to examine the throng. Whoever had come along through the sky was smart enough to have left the herd. So, instead, she passed her eyes over the whole open square. Little planters played home to tiny well groomed trees, and bushes as reserved as the manes of the northern city's ponies. At the edge of the cobblestone square, closed storefronts had given up selling the little trinkets and tourist traps that every great city peddled in droves. Only a sparse few restaurants remained. One, a corner cafe with a ivy-covered wooden trellis over its entrance, seized her attention. The object of her focus was a gentle purple glimmer in the glass - a reflection whispering of an old but familiar memory.

Her hooves guided her to the building. A flash of her badge got her past the waiter who stood in the entrance offering seats. He even went so far as to point out directions, all of which she ignored. Her hooves fell heavy on old wood and plush carpet as she wandered the walkways left between the finely carved wooden booths until at last she came upon them.

A stallion's voice slowly became audible over the murmurings of the other tables. "...but the kiwis are a bit overpowering. How's your meal?" His back was turned, concealed by the tall seat of his booth, but the gemstones glimmering on his forelegs gave away his identity all the same.

The other mare wasn't a guardspony. It was clear enough by the actual comfort she allowed herself sinking low into the cushioned back of her seat. Pegasus wings were folded over a rather boring brown vest. Her hooves moved quickly, devouring a salad as if in fear that it might rot on her plate. There was no chance the food was being tasted, and in that regard, she had wasted the careful labor of an excellent chef. She paused from her voracious feast only long enough to plunge a brown fluid down her throat, before answering her companion. "Good, now that the waiter got over himself and brought me my Scotch. I swear-" The pegasus mare finally saw the approaching unicorn. "Hey, do we know you?"

The purple armored pony leaned out of the stall to glance the unicorn's way. He too was a unicorn, but their similarities ended at the bases of their horns.

"Captain Shining Armor," she observed, as his face confirmed her suspicions. "May I join you?"

"I'd like to know who you are first," he told her bluntly. She noticed and subsequently ignored the glow building on his horn. His trust was only an introduction away.

She sighed, and then turned away from him. He saw her eyes shoot every which way, darting pointedly towards the darkened nooks and crannies of the cafe in concern. Only after her search was done did she bring a hoof to her horn in a stiff salute. Her form was perfect enough to seem almost lifeless. It brought to mind figure 1-01a in the Royal Guard training manual. The biggest picture in the entire book. "Second Lieutenant Flag, Honor Guard."

Shining's response was the one she had dreaded. His eyes widened, though her fear was spawned of the glimmer in his eye that suggested recognition amidst surprise. "Wait, you're-"

"I assure you that whatever stories you've heard about me are true, Captain." She barely resisted the urge to lean into his face as she stated her words bluntly. "They are also in the past, and right now we have bigger issues to deal with."

"You're Honor Guard?" The pegasus mare briefly turned to Shining Armor, even as she shied away from Flag. The motion was small, subtle, and instinctual. What she saw in Shining's face, Flag couldn't guess, but only a moment later the other mare turned back. "What kind of stories are we talking about?"

It was Flag's turn to bear confusion, which she expressed with a slightly raised eyebrow and a judgmental expression. "If you had heard my story, you would have recognized me by name." Her voice was short when she explained, tired of the thousand repetitions that had defined the last decades of her life. "It has nothing to do with the Honor Guard. I was the one wearing Platinum's Ward when it happened."

The pegasus cocked her head. "Platinum's Ward?"

Flag wasn't surprised, though she still gave out a sigh at the necessity to explain the intricacies of the guard like a common Drill Instructor. She really couldn't fault the pegasus though; the name wasn't well known outside the guard. She reached over to Shining's chest and rapped twice on the amethyst cuirass covering his body. "This is Platinum's Ward." She glanced over to Shining again, offering him a small smile. "The armor of the most powerful mage in the Guard. That used to be me, going on fifteen years ago, but it's hard to compete with the Paladin of Canterlot." She noted the blush that appeared on Shining's cheeks at the use of his informal nickname. Without addressing it, she turned back to the pegasus mare. "I have to wonder who you are, to be traveling with the Captain."

Shining held up a hoof before Solo's somewhat sarcastic manner could put her into confrontation with the no-nonsense elder guardspony. "Lieutenant, this is Going Solo. She's my... uh, consultant."

"I see..." Flag turned around, grabbed a chair from an empty table with magic, and settled it down at the end of the table. "Do we really have time to eat?"

"Hey, lay off!" Going Solo slapped a hoof on the table. "I haven't eaten since last night!"

Flag resisted the urge to comment on the poor manners of the way she shoveled her food into her mouth . Instead, she raised both her forehooves in a placating gesture. "Sorry. If we are going to take the time, I suppose I should ask what you recommend."

"Scotch," Solo muttered sarcastically, before taking a gentle bite of a dandelion sandwich.

Shining Armor rolled his eyes, gesturing down to his bowl, a mixed array of a dozen brightly colored citruses. "The tropical fruit salad is excellent."

"All right," she noted, deciding against commenting on the tragic lack of freshness to be found in the so-called 'tropical' fruit of Baltimare. Flag waved down a waiter between his rounds and gestured to the bowl. He gave a short nod before wandering off. No words were necessary. Turning back to the Royal Guard and his so-called consultant, Flag pressed her hooves together on the tabletop. "We've traced Masquerade to Baltimare. It's my understanding that she has some sort of residence here, as well as a dead-drop that she uses to communicate with her clients without having to actually meet them. It took me a long time to squeeze that much out of the city's small-time crooks and dealers." Ever perceptive, Flag's eyes noted the slight glare that passed Going Solo's face. She made no mention of it as she continued. "I know the place is on the river, probably on the south side. I was working some traces when I saw you coming in. You really know how to make an entrance."

Shining Armor gave a quick glance outside, where Spitfire and her 'lieutenant' (a National Guard corporal) were still signing autographs around the golden chariot they had used to transport their superior. "It was the fastest way to get here," he told her, by way of explanation. "We were in Cloudsdale this morning. We'd found one of Masquerade's... middle ponies, essentially, named Go Between. We took him in," the guardspony held up a bandaged hoof, "but she'd put some sort of an enchantment on him. When he tried to tell me how to reach her, the spell killed him."

Flag's brow rose slightly. "A sealed spell? Was it Clover's Cunning Contingency? My research suggested she didn't have any academic background, but if we knew some of her repertoire, we might be able to establish a dueling style." For just a few moments, Shining Armor thought he was listening to his sister, as Flag's monologue ran on. The similarities crashed to a jarring end when she conclude her thoughts. "That sort of knowledge would make it much easier to eliminate her."

"Eliminate her?" Shining drew back, shocked out of his thoughts of family.

"As per our mission, yes. Find and kill the assassin known as Masquerade." She looked straight into Shining's eyes calmly, as if it were the most regular command in the world. "Were you hoping to take her alive?"

"O- Of course!" Shining stuttered out of sheer shock. "We need Masquerade alive so we can find a cure for whatever poison she used on Luna!"

Flag shook her head. "Captain On told me the doctors would have one a cure by tomorrow morning." Reacting to the shock on his face, the Honor Guard continued. "The Princess has the best doctors in Equestria, Captain. Are you honestly surprised they'd be able to heal Princess Luna?"

Shining took a slow breath. "White-"

"It's Flag," she snapped, as her nose wrinkled and her brow dropped into a glare. Her chair momentarily tilted beneath her as she leaned forward forcefully. "Lieutenant Flag."

Going Solo broke out into uncontrollable laughter. "You're a guardspony, and your name's White Fl- mmmph!" The sudden disappearance of her lips and mouth altogether resulted in perhaps one of the strangest sounds Shining Armor had ever heard. The smooth patch of her coat where the orifice ought to have been pushed out rapidly as the mare's tongue felt for an opening. She was clearly panicking.

As the glow surrounding Flag's horn faded, her enraged gaze turned toward the smuggler. When she spoke, her tone was calm and factual, a complete contradiction of the twisting wrinkles of fury that had covered her face. "Going Solo, I'd appreciate the opportunity to talk to Captain uninterrupted. This is guardspony business, which means lives are at stake. Frankly, as a civilian, guardspony business is none of your concern. So you're going to be quiet and keep your mouth shut, or I'll leave it this way." Then, with another flash of magic, she undid her terrifying spell, leaving Going Solo to gasp as her forehooves investigated the flesh of her face.

"Are you insane?" Shining asked an a forced whisper, contained only out of the interest of avoiding public attention. "What if you hadn't been able to undo that?"

"I will always be able to undo that," Flag answered calmly, though her face still bore the rage of moments only barely past. "Form the morphic matrices of the soft tissue into an Everfree Net, and then wrap it over the limbs or orifice in question." Seeing Shining's confused expression, she shook her head and sighed. "That's second year magical theory at the Academy, Captain."

"I'm not my sister," he mumbled. "I never went to the Royal Academy. All the magic I know I learned at West Horn, or by figuring it out myself, and I wasn't even in Officer Training there. I joined the guard as a Private."

Flag seemed taken aback. After a moment of silence, she looked at the floor. "I see, Captain. I didn't mean to insult you. Given Twilight's skill, I suppose I just assumed... The point being, the spell I used was entirely safe. It's a restraint spell, usually used on the legs, or the wings of pegasi. It was still improper of me to use it in such a manner, and for that, you both have my apologies. I would, however, request the matter of my past be dropped. Celestia knows it's already been brought up between guardsponies more times than anypony could ever care to hear."

"Accepted, Lieutenant." Shining gave a short and serious nod. Solo seemed less convinced, but a glance from Shining eked out a slow nod from her as well. "Though there's something you need to know. I used your first name because I thought it would be more comforting, so I'm sorry for that. There's no really easy way to put this, so I'll just say it. Soldier On is the guard traitor."

"What." The single word wasn't snapped out or asked incredulously. It wasn't even a question. It simply stated, in perfectly clear terms, that Flag didn't believe a word of what she had been told.

"I understand it might be hard to believe, but please listen to me. One of my Lieutenants was killed two days ago. He was trying to tell me about a traitor in the Honor Guard, with unfinished business from the Stalliongradi revolution."

"The Blizzard Revolution," Flag observed, nodding. "But On wasn't the only one who had a part in that. Dead Reckoning ran a few extractions in Stalliongrad back then, and Loose Cannon was friends with one of Baron Frostbite's sons."

"I don't recognize that name..."

"We picked her up out of the Wonderbolts. Doesn't matter, though. She died five years ago. Not really the point. Do you have any sort of evidence that says Soldier On was the one behind all this?"

"You just gave it to me," Shining Armor answered, unfolding a letter from his armor and placing it on the table in front of White Flag.

She didn't look down at it. "Luna is still dying," was her observation.

How she had deciphered the guess from looking at his expression, he would never know, but she was right nevertheless. "Yes, and the doctors can't even identify the poison, let alone create a cure. Soldier On and I were told to find Masquerade so that we could interrogate her to reveal the poison. If Masquerade dies, Princess Luna dies with her."

Flag sighed, turning around in her seat to stare at the restaurant. Baltimore's ponies were coming and going, eating their food and drinking their beverages. All the while, they were completely unaware of the treachery revealed quietly in their midst, driving a cold and unyielding fissure into White Flag's gut.

The waiter approached, levitating a bowl of fruit salad down onto the table in front of Flag. "Your dinner, madam."

"Thanks." Her utterance was cold, but she felt it better than saying nothing at all. Without a word, the maitre d' wandered off. Flag turned to her food, levitated a few bites into her mouth, and then swallowed slowly. She'd barely tasted anything. "Let's say it's true, for argument's sake. What do we do about it? Does On want Masquerade dead so that there won't be a cure for the Princess? Do we still prioritize Masquerade, or do we go after On to make sure she doesn't reach her first?"

"If we go after Masquerade, we might run into Soldier On in pursuit; we have to make finding the cure our first goal."

"Agreed, but we do have an advantage: there are two of us. I think it might be more advantageous for us to divide our efforts."

"I'd like another unicorn present if we actually do find Masquerade here," Shining protested.

"If you do actually find her in the city, I won't be far away." Flag gestured with her horn toward the opposite side of the large open square in front of Baltimare's magnificent city hall. "But either way I'll need to go alone to Soldier On. She knows you're after her, but she might still trust me. That, and if your 'consultant' crosses On, she'd end up a splatter on the wall."

Going Solo rose to her hooves, balancing her upper body on the table. "Look, guardspony, I've been in worse scrapes than you can probably imagine, and I'm still walking around, so you can shut your trap about me. You don't know me!"

Flag took a deep breath as if preparing to shout back, but her next action was to silently look straight at Going Solo. Her eyes traced up and down her body, taking in little details of her vest, hooves, and facial features. The whole action took twenty seconds at most, and ended with the Honor Guard speaking aloud. "You're a mediocre flier, for which you were made fun of as a foal. To compensate, you flap too hard when you fly, leaving you with strong wings but terrible agility and wing control. You're a Nightshade user, and judging by the dozen pockets you've failed to conceal on the inside of that vest, I'd say a dealer as well." The flinch on Solo's face was proof enough for Flag, who continued unabated. "You're a street-fighter. You learned in Cloudsdale, starting with the wings - probably against the bullies who made fun of your flying - which explains the way you fold them when you're standing still. You think you're tough because you've been in a couple brawls while you were selling, and..." Flag glanced down at Solo's hind hooves. "... you've been to prison for a short time. You don't know pegasus military magic, or even how to make something as simple as a mist screen." Concluding her thought, she shook her head. "You have no idea what Soldier On or Masquerade would do to somepony like you. You're welcome to think that I'm a 'bitch', since you probably already do, but I'm trying to look out for you here. Armor and I are career soldiers. You'd get in the way, and you'd get hurt. Worse, you'd get him hurt trying to save you."

Going Solo stepped out of the booth and walked away. Flag barely paid any attention to her passing, and Shining's cry of "Wait!" came too late and too softly to deter her retreat. When the doors shut behind her, Shining gave an angry look to Flag. "Was that really necessary?"

"I just saved her life, Captain. If she hates me for it, I will gladly live with the burden. Have you seen Soldier On fight? Her Endura rivals your Arcana."

"What?"

"Endura. The proper name for 'Earth Pony' magic, also used by Boars, Buffalo, and Griffins. I hope Arcana is obvious." Her tone made it perfectly clear that the short explanation had been a nuisance. She returned quickly to the topic at hoof; "Frankly, that mare shouldn't have been here to begin with. I wouldn't fight Soldier On myself without some sort of advantage, but even you ought to be careful around her."

Silence fell on their dinner like rain when the short explanation was done. "You didn't have to be so rude to her." The captain's response was plain and simple, hoping that facts might be the best way to reach the Honor Guard lieutenant. Flag seemed unaffected.

"Everything I said was true, and I didn't say anything you didn't already know. You had her introduce you to Grizzaloo, didn't you? At least he might be fit for what you're doing."

"How did you-" Shining stopped midsentence, choking down his words. "This doesn't matter. I found a bank account here in Baltimare owned by a Masquerade Ball. Once I talk to Solo, I'll see if I can track down an address."

"Masquerade Ball?" Flag seemed to almost chew on the name. "I had heard 'Masquerade' was her full name. Check the city records building for 'Ball' with a false first name. You might turn something up that I hadn't. If you need resources or a place to stay, we keep a safe-house at 147 Dawn Way, Apartment C. You might want to put Solo there if you go check out a potential site. Masquerade wouldn't hesitate to kill her any more than she will hesitate to kill you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to catch a train."

"A train?"

"Soldier On is coming in on the 7:52 from Vanhoover. I'll restrain her, and then find you." She rose to her hooves , put back her chair, and then turned back to Shining Armor. "One last question, Captain. If On has been removed from command, am I...?"

It took him a moment's thought to realize what she meant. Then, firmly, he shook his head. "The Princess picked another Stalliongradi pony - a pegasus named Red Ink. He's the Tsar's son. Kind of a-"

"We've met," Flag noted. "It's a relief."

"A relief?" Shining's brow rose. "He's not exactly what I'd call the best commanding officer..."

"He isn't me."

"But you were supposed to be the best-"

She cut him off with a raised hoof. The slight folds of her muzzle and the fire in her eyes said everything about her mood that she kept hidden from her voice. "Yes, Shining Armor. I was. There's no point dwelling in my past. You're that pony now."

She was halfway to the doorway when Shining Armor placed a hoof on her shoulder. She braced herself for his sympathies and turned to look at him.

His face was not one of sympathy; it was cold and hard and above all else, determined. It was a face she had seen a thousand times on Unending Vigil, and the Commander. It was the face of a leader. A face she had forgotten. He spoke to her bluntly. "Were you friends with Soldier On?"

Flag had to think about her words, before nodding. "We all were, Captain. But you and I both know that the mission comes before friends. Good hunting." Walking out the door of the restaurant, White Flag reflected on the Royal Guard's young captain. The amethyst armor fit him better than it ever had her.

- - -

The 7:52 from Vanhoover was pulled into Baltimare station by a team of five titanic earth ponies at precisely 7:43 P.M. Standing in front of the door of the second passenger cabin, an excited and yet angry pegasus began to lose patience as he waited for the doors to be opened.

His brown trench coat sat uncomfortably over his back, lacking the space to properly conceal his wings. Most ponies would probably assume it was from discomfort, but the truth was very different. Red Ink's signature black coat was in fact probably the cheapest thing he owned. He'd bought it the same day his brother died, on a whim. It had been on sale in the store window, a size too small and of far too thin a material to actually keep away the cold of a real Stalliongradi winter. It had cost three bits, and over the years that tiny investment had come to represent his devotion to his cause. In Stalliongrad it meant strength and power, and in that way it was more comforting than any fabric.

Princess Celestia had given him the trench coat when he asked her for a disguise. It probably belonged to the Commander, or perhaps even his predecessor. It smelled of age and money, and its thick and comfortable fabric left Ink feeling like he had betrayed what he felt he represented. It also seemed altogether ridiculous, reminding him of the detective stories about hard-boiled sleuths and hysterical dames that a young pony might buy for just one bit at the local shop. That was to say, in his eyes, that it looked almost fictitious. Nevertheless, without any basis on 'fashion', he was prepared to trust Celestia's judgment.

When the doors swung open, he stepped off in a hurry. Serp and Molot followed behind, leaving enough space to suggest the three ponies weren't connected. Molot had cleaned up well, wearing no armor or clothing at all, and wearing only horseshoes for a weapon. Serp, ever on the edge of attacking ponies at random, wore a necktie that hung only half-tightened around his neck, along with a business coat that failed completely to fit with his personality. Like Ink's coat, its only purpose was to conceal the razor sharp blades lining the crests of his wings, and in that, at least, it fulfilled its purpose.

Ink ignored his lackeys and marched into the city. He had nearly left the train terminal when a passing unicorn rather bluntly slapped him in the chest with a newspaper. He glared at the offending periodical, and then turned back toward the mare, but she was gone. He might have merely passed off the incident, had his eye not caught Stalliongradi characters written in bold red across the folded face of the paper. Careful not to give away his wings, he clutched the newspaper in his teeth and carried it to a waiting bench, where he unfolded it with his hooves and began to read.

Extra:
Luna's Paramour Revealed!
Reports from a confidential source within Canterlot Palace reveal that Princess Luna's sudden absence from current politics is the result of the Princess being with foal! Now several months into her pregnancy, the Princess has reportedly withdrawn from public life in order to avoid social pressure on the foal. Why would she keep it a secret? While unconfirmed currently, rumors suggest that a former Guard Captain is the father, and that his dismissal from service by Princess Celestia herself is related to the affair.
A castle butler, who wished to remain anonymous, had this to say:

Ink ignored the false, and bluntly libelous report, scanning down the page until he found the first of the Stalliongradi characters, clearly intended for him. They were, after all, written in his namesake.

*Captain Ink, my name is Lieutenant Flag. You may not remember me, but we met at the Grand Galloping Gala six years ago, following your victory in the Blizzard Revolution. I understand you are now the Captain of the Honor Guard, and as such, I assume that you're here in Baltimare searching for ex-Captain Soldier On.
She was on the train with you; I'm not sure where yet, but we have an advantage. On still believes that I think she is the Captain. That is to say, she has no idea that I have met you. As such, I will be able to lead her into an ambush. South of the river, there is a place called the Chocolate Market. Go there, and find the Skylark Building. It's an old, mostly run-down apartment complex. Go to the top floor and wait. You're welcome to stick your two companions wherever you want, but I'd encourage you to keep the other pegasus out of sight.
I apologize for giving you orders, but we only have one chance at this, and I don't want to lose the opportunity. Obviously, we can't be seen talking, or she'll know. When you're done reading this, fold up the paper, stick it under your leg, and carry it out of the station. Do not leave it behind, or throw it away before you get at least a few blocks away.
I hope you've got my back, Captain. I can't take Soldier On alone.*

"Nice to have competent subordinate for a change," Ink muttered to himself, tucking the paper into his jacket. Without hesitation, he set a course for the Chocolate Market, leaving behind the train station.

Standing next to the third of the passenger cars from the front, White Flag spared a momentary glance to watch him go. The 'easy part' of her plan had been taken care of, and now she needed only to find Soldier On. Ink's appearance on the train was almost miraculously bad, guaranteeing that the cunning traitorous Honor Guard would have found somewhere to hide or get off the train. Knowing On, though, Flag was certain that she had arrived somehow. The strong, silent mare was known amongst the Honor Guard first and foremost for her tenacity. She never left a job undone.

Her scan of the remaining cars revealed that On was not onboard. Disguises worked well for colors or mane-styles, but the earth pony's enormous size wasn't easy to conceal. The reality, however, was that nopony was on board at all, save the conductor. He gave her an odd look until she flashed her badge, at which point his concern disappeared.

Stepping back out of the train and onto the platform, Flag shook her head. None of the ponies who had crowded off the train could possibly have matched her target. "Nopony is that good..." she muttered, as the gears of her mind spun with possibilities. She scanned once more over the train, from its caboose to the four tired earth ponies harnessed to the engine.

"Four?" A smile broke over her face, and she laughed aloud. "Of course, the Stalliongradis make the trains run on time. Clever, On." A moment later, her eyes located a small door at the far side of the station, labeled 'Staff Only'. Casually, she began to make her way over. It took only a slight touch of magic to unlock the door, and with a gentle push, it swung open on well-greased hinges. Behind it lay a short hallway with at least four doors, leading to a sharp corner. She took two full strides into the back area, before a sudden pain met the back of her neck. Her mind raced, exploring the dull colors of the linoleum floor and the plaster walls as they blended together in an instant. Whatever painter had produced the scene then added shadows, here and there, steadily increasing until the whole world was plunged into darkness.

- - -

The moon reached its peak in the sky when the unfortunate burly stallion stopped walking abruptly. The cart shook, shedding its excess speed. Its unwilling passenger was thrown forward, his coat striking the bars around him. He was roused instantly. A warrior's eyes adjusted quickly to the dark, pulling in the shapes in the shadows. They were somewhere in the desert. The location was impossible to tell, when sand stretched on to the horizon infinitely in all directions. Masquerade was standing beside his cell, facing down a dozen boars. The simple fact that they weren't already fighting told him the creatures were more than simple bandits. In the middle of the group was the only boarish face he recognized.

Most boars were about a little bit bigger than griffons - a head and a half over an average stallion, with a fair deal more breadth. He stood easily three times that height, with tusks that hung nearly to the ground before scything back up a full foot. Their shape suggested that they could pull the belly out of a pony with no more effort than falling asleep, even before one considered the deadly serrated barbs that had grown on their tips.

"You brought him?" The enormous boar's voice was deafening when it was heard, but it grew more quiet in the memory, until the it was hard to remember that he had spoken at all.

"The first of many, Warchief Khagan. Do you have my money?"

"I will never understand you ponies, and your obsession with the soft metal." The boar looked across his kin. "Steel is more valuable than gold." At least one laughed in a guttural tone, but the fading light made a count impossible.

"Clever." Masquerade shook her head. The Commander couldn't see her face, but his mind draped mild annoyance over it. "I'd say that everypony has a price, but I'm not about to disagree with you. Where is it?"

The boar's tusks shone with a fuzzy brown aura, though the Commander knew that in a moment, none would be able to recall the presence of magic at all, let alone the color. A bag was levitated off the back of a smaller boar, and dropped in front of the assassin. Already, he had forgotten the hue of the aura.

"Perfect." Masquerade must have been looking at the bag hungrily, desperate for its contents. She didn't even bother checking the bag, instead lifting it onto her own back with her distinctly black magic. "Does our arrangement still stand?"

"Hunt his friends until there are none left, pony. But first, free him. I would make him stand before me and answer." Khagan's blunt, boorish snout curled up, pulling his lip away from his teeth. They were big, spade-shaped yellowing things, visible for their color and their despicable appearance even in the dim light.

"I had to drug him. He's asleep now. He won't be standing for a while."

"You are mistaken. Is she not, 'Commander'?"

He hadn't thought he'd been noticed, but such was the perception gifted to the ageless. Steel answered by rising shakily to his hooves. Masquerade turned toward him, and he saw her face wore surprise and concern. He gave her a cold nod, though even he wasn't sure what it really meant. It simply felt right. Without warning, his rear left leg gave out beneath him, and with a sharp crack, his jaw collided with the wooden floor of his cell. The boars laughed. All save Khagan.

"I had expected better. Tell me, pony, if the stories of you are true, who placed a wound upon your body?"

Steel didn't answer. His wings helped lift his body, and with all the strength he could muster, he stood proud. He couldn't afford the weakness of the fatigue that made the world swim in front of his eyes. Masquerade's whisper salt had all-but broken him. Even at his best, he couldn't fight one of Celestia's peers. The pride of trying had led him to that night. It had finally come to costing his life.

In a sense, he was calm with the thought. He'd grown tired of waiting.

Khagan's tusks skipped magic altogether, and smashed the iron bars of the cage holding the Commander into broken pipes and splinters as if they had been toothpicks and twine. Then, he stared at Steel and simply waited.

The pegasus took an unsteady step forward, and then another. Finally, his hooves met the edge of the cage, and he stepped free for the first time in weeks. His wings brought him down, leaving him to land carefully on the sandy, dusty ground. The boars encircled him.

"Are you prepared to pay for your crimes?"

In defiance, Steel held his tongue. Khagan roared out a bellow that echoed into the night and memory in equal proportion. Steel waited for it to rot its way out of his mind, and then turned to Masquerade.

"Will you deliver my letter?"

"Look at me, pony!" Khagan's demand was feral, and almost desperate. Steel ignored it.

Masquerade looked between the boar and the pony, and then offered a slow nod. "Yes."

"Then this is it." Steel swept his right forehoof in a semicircle in the sand. The motion ended with the limb outstretched, and his body lowered to the ground, weight shifted away from his crippled leg. His wings unfurled slowly, resisting his every sudden motion. The world swam as his blood shifted and his heart sped up, readying itself to once more wield his special talent.

Khagan, the boar a mere step away from divinity, laughed. "Do you intend to fight me? You've grown proud sitting by Celestia's side. I will enjoy this."

He didn't speak, but the curt nod of his chin was plenty of answer. The mirth left Khagan's face, replaced with focus. The boars were warriors as a race, bearing both the Arcana of unicorns and the Endura of the earth ponies in heaping measure. They were shaped for battle, with heavy bodies that could take all manner of punishment and walk away even before the gifts of their magic. Pegasi, masters of Empatha with its flight and speed, were their natural foe, more agile than a boar could follow and able to flee into the air where their strength made no difference. Even then, a battle of magic was a battle of attrition, and every time it would be the boarish ruler who won out.

What little advantage the Commander might have had was lost to the drugs flowing through his veins. He might be able to fly over a short distance, but not fast enough to evade the Warchief's magic, nor strong enough to turn his own Empatha against the boar. His challenge was doomed from the start, but not all battles were fought with the goal of winning.

His wings gave him speed not upward, but straight toward the boar, aided by a three-legged lunge. Khagan was prepared, bringing up his tusks just as Steel had hoped he would. Shining Armor or White Flag might have called it a chess ploy, but Steel never played the game. It was too easy to start thinking of comrades as 'pawns'. Instead, he likened his plan to his own duty - making a sacrifice for the betterment of Equestria. In the desert, his sacrifice was his wing, and its loss was painful. The tusk collided hard, with force brought on by a magic beyond mere muscular strength. The limb was thrown out of its socket and broken in the same searing pain. Its trade came a moment later, when he landed a blow on Khagan's skull with his forehoof. It would have been a felling blow against a pony, and even the average boar would not have walked away easily. Against the titanic strength of the boar Warchief, it did next to nothing.

The momentum of the lunge and the collision sent the Commander spinning in midair, and with a heavy collision, he landed on the sand atop his injured wing. He was grateful that the whisper salt numbed his pain. Even without full sensation, black and white dots filled the edges of his vision. He knew he couldn't pay them any mind, and years of instincts kicked in when the pain overrode his thoughts. He was low, and Khagan was large. It wasn't much, but his mind pulled out an opening. He carried the roll until he was left lying on his back in the space beneath the towering boar's belly. There, he lashed out with the three legs that could manage, landing blow after heavy blow against Khagan's ribs. His speed came from desperation, and his strength from a lifetime of dedication. They made a powerful combination. Blood was drawn and a rib broken in the sparse few seconds before an aura of magic tore the warrior out from beneath his opponent by his tail. The arcane grip swung him a dozen feet into the air, and then smashed him against the sand like a whip.

That single blow, between his skull and the densely packed desert sand, ended the battle. Merely the sound of the collision was enough to make the fact clear. Steel felt his other wing break, along with at least one of his ribs and his right foreleg. He struggled to draw breath between the bouts of pain that surged through his body like the lightning he had once been known to wield.

Even laying on the ground, bleeding and beaten, the Commander had yet to admit defeat. As Khagan stomped forward with heavy footfalls that shook the spinning world, Steel focused his emotions. Spasms of pain only built on his determination, and as slowly as he could, he dragged both his hind legs through the sand. The motion was defined only by its sheer agony. The rolling of his hips twisted the broken spurs of bone in his chest, sending shards of rib tearing through muscle and flesh. He couldn't even see for the pain, but the beating of the Warchief's approaching hooves told him that his one and only opportunity was approaching. When his legs were finally contracted, and his focus as tight as it could ever be, he lashed out.

One leg extended. One too few. The burn that had claimed his cutie mark, and his skill as a warrior had also claimed his life. Without both legs, the magic didn't come. The lightning wasn't there. The stunning blow that might have bought him a swift death in retribution simply didn't come to pass. One leg shot out, in a weak buck, a foot too far to even land a hit. He'd been counting on the lightning for one last time in his life, and it failed him.

"F... Finish..." The horizon leapt up and down, blurring against the night sky. "...finish it."

"You wish to die, 'Commander'? Such a tragedy. I thought you might last longer before you begged."

"I..." His words failed beneath his ragged breathing.

"Yes?"

"I... don't... beg..."

"Oh? We will have to fix that." Khagan glanced to the other boars. "Take him back. Treat his wounds. In the morning, I will break him again."

"What?" Masquerade's face wore a shocked expression. "You said you'd kill him! I didn't agree to torture."

"If I had simply wanted him to die, I would have had you kill him amongst his kind. If I were to kill him, his Princess will send his soul to a life of peace and happiness. I want him to suffer, the way my kind suffered at his hooves. Body, heart, and soul. He will watch helplessly as you and I eradicate everypony he has ever cared about. Then, perhaps, I will end him. Go away, pony, and bring me the others, if you can still stomach the work. I may permit them quick deaths."

Masquerade forced herself to look at the broken, bloodied pony who lay on his belly on the sand. She gritted her teeth, hardening her heart and steeling her resolve. The chill brought to mind harsh winters spent in the icy hell of the dragons, learning her craft. This was what she wanted. This was her life. She wouldn't turn back. She couldn't let her resolve be broken.

She walked over to Steel's side. Khagan watched her with curiosity, but a casual motion of his own hoof stopped his entourage from approaching to hold her at bay. The pegasus looked up at her, and his gaze was shocking. She'd expected pleading eyes. She'd expected him to ask her to kill him. To stomp on his throat or spine, or wield her magic, and simply end it all there. Instead, his glassed-over orbs were just as cold and just as unfeeling as the first time she had laid eyes on him. Though his breathing was ragged, he took the time to draw up words.

"Did he... kill... Luna...?"

The assassin glanced back at the creature, and then shook her head. "He only wanted you."

"Good..." Steel's shattered chest shook with a hint of a laugh that was smothered almost immediately by its pain. "Equestria...safe..." A droplet of blood traced its way out of his ear, and down his cheek. His tongue flicked at it idly. "No war... Go..."

Even for her lifestyle, and her forced detachment, Masquerade was sad to see the noble guardspony as he faced his brutal end. "Goodbye, Steel. I was glad to know you. I'm sorry."

His face, covered as it was in sand and blood, nevertheless rose from the ground to look her in the eye. His voice struggled with the words. "Not... my..." As the last escaped his lips, he collapsed to the sand, unconscious. " ...friend..."

Masquerade walked away from the only contract she had ever ended without killing the target. It was the only contract that had ever left her with a regret.

- - -

Shining Armor watched as a sullen and angry Going Solo pushed her way into Baltimare City Hall. The few ponies left at that late hour fled out of the way of the angry pegasus, though the actions were likely motivated by deference to the armored unicorn who followed her. Marbled floors led to a polished dark wood desk, where an aged stallion with spectacles watched the approaching storm.

"Solo, I'm telling you, just drop it."

"I have!" the smuggler answered furiously, before turning on the old unicorn behind the desk. "We're with the Royal Guard. We need to find a pony named Masquerade Ball."

The stallion didn't miss a beat. "Can I see your badge, miss?"

"Can you... aargh!" Through gritted teeth, the pegasus roared, slamming her hooves on the wooden counter. The sound gathered every single set of eyes that still lingered in the room. "Just tell us!"

"I cannot release personal documents without proof of membership in the Royal Guard, or a search warrant signed by a Magistrate or seated Judge. It's the law."

Shining Armor strode up to the bench. "Solo, please, calm down."

"I am calm, Shining! Thanks!"

Growing tired, Shining responded with the voice she often offered him. "Yes, I can see that. Now, relax and let me deal with this." The real guardspony turned to the old stallion. "Captain Shining Armor, of the Royal Guard." He indicated to the small seal emblazoned on the shoulder of his armor - a suitable substitute for a badge. "We're looking for records, particularly of residence, for anypony with the surname 'Ball', especially attached to 'Masquerade'."

"Of course, Captain. Let me see what I can dig up for you." The old pony turned around and ducked back into one of the many doors behind the counter.

Business dealt with, Shining turned back to Going Solo, who was hovering in midair with her forelegs folded across her chest and her back turned to her partner. "Solo, what's wrong? Really? Red Ink said worse things than Flag did, and you didn't-"

"She's right."

"I'm sorry?" Shining's brow rose. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm useless here. You're the real fighter. You have a guardspony badge. You're smart, and clever, and everypony does what you say. What do you really need me tagging along for?"

Shining Armor heard the wounds in her voice, and answered with his kindest tone. "You've helped me more than you know, Going Solo."

"How?" He was silent. "Tell me how." He didn't answer. He couldn't give her one. "All you needed was somepony to help you meet Grizzaloo, right? You agree with her, don't you?"

"What? No, Solo, I'm just worried that-"

Solo turned and looked Shining straight in the eyes. The force of her gaze was enough to stop his words. He could feel the pain in her eyes. Her voice was firm and demanding, suggesting a hidden strength standing up under her emotions. "You think I'm going to get in the way, don't you? You think I can't help you. That's why you left me behind in Cloudsdale."

"Solo, I-"

"Tell me I'm wrong." He was quiet again. "Tell me!"

Shining looked away. "It's my special talent, Solo. I protect other ponies. I'm a guardspony."

"And who watches out for you?" Her voice cracked with emotion. "Who guards the guardspony?"

He heard in her words another voice, one he had lied to bluntly in order to spare her pain. "Are you safe, Shining?" Cadance had asked. He'd told her he was. He'd lied, the same way he lied to Twilight, and his parents.

"Nopony," he told her slowly, admitting the truth. "Sometimes that what it means to be Captain."

Tears built up beneath Solo's eyes, but they didn't spill down her face. She held them in, leaving her only with an angry expression. "I guess you don't need me, then." Once more, Shining Armor's words came too late to stop her from flying out of the room and into the Baltimare night.

"Mares..." The voice suggested understanding instead of sarcasm. It held a sympathy that Shining did not want to hear. He turned toward the old clerk, who was approaching with a few sheets of paper. "Is she your wife?"

"No." The Captain collapsed onto his flank, staring as the swinging doors slowly lost momentum. His armor felt suddenly heavy, and he regretted his every word. He knew what he should have said. "Just a friend." He wished he'd said that sooner. She'd been there to stand up for him, to support him, and to heighten his mood. Without her, the fatigue and the stress of his mission suddenly fell onto his back. His mind, kept from wandering thoughts, drifted to Cadance and Twilight. Loneliness gripped him in a city of millions.

"Well, if she's a real friend, she'll be back." The old pony smiled. "I promise."

Shining nodded, though his face still wore a frown. "Thanks."

"Well, I found what you were looking for. Ms. Ball - the paper just says 'M.' for a first name - has an apartment off no more than two blocks from here. Another pony named 'Mystery Ball' owns a house on the south side of the river. Judging by the size, it sounds like one of those old all-white plantation mansions. There's a lien on the property for unpaid excavation work, and a number of reports by neighbors demanding that the grounds be maintained."

"Perfect." Shining smiled, though he failed to put much feeling into the expression. "Thank you."

"My pleasure to help a guardspony." The clerk gave a stiff bow, before looking back at Shining. "Are you certain she's 'just a friend'?"

"Yes," Shining stated firmly. "I'm married. Why?"

"Just a misinterpretation, I suppose," the aged stallion answered, before pulling a key out of a drawer behind his desk. "I've got to close City Hall now, Captain, unless you need anything else.

Shining allowed himself to be ushered outside without resistance, where he was finally able to clear his mind. The chill in the night air was plenty to sweep away uncomfortable thoughts and bring back to mind his mission. He glanced down at the paper he had been given, and then magically folded it up and tucked it into his armor. The spell seemed slow to rise, and felt draining on his horn. He made a note of his own magical fatigue - the inevitable effect of a long mission - and then began trudging down the street.

True to the clerk's word, the apartment building in question was only a short distance away. It was a modern structure of sleek glass and stone, towering into the sky with an opulent penthouse apartment at its crown. A pony in a light jacket and a tie stood at the door, holding it open for the few residents who had yet to make their way home. Shining walked past him without a word, receiving a curious glance in turn.

There were a thousand words to be said about the furnishings of the lobby, from its marble floors to its hoof-crafted trim. He ignored them all, walking with swift determination, never allowing himself pause to contemplate the danger he was approaching. Stairs sloped upward in smooth stone and polished wood. He only saw his path. Two floors. Three. Six. He didn't think between counting until he reached eight. The target. His goal. The door to the hallway of small apartments was locked, but it offered no impediment to a guardspony's kick. The splinters spread over his steel-lined shoes and he felt pure, unadulterated nothing.

The sheet of paper read 812, and so did the door. More interesting than the number plate was the scraped paint on the doorframe. It had been forced in, and an incredible force at that, as the deadbolt had been ripped clean out of the wall. He pressed on the door as gently as he could, swinging it silently open.

The bliss of the absence of sensation was gone with his first look down into the room. His brain swam in a cocktail of adrenaline, focus, and desperation. Soldier On stood over two bodies. A pair of ponies lay still and dead. One more pony, a stallion, was breathing quickly as the traitor stared him down in relative calm. He could do nothing but watch in awe as her hoof rose and fell. The sound was terrible, but brief. He moved toward her, gathering mana. Focused eyes and gentle breaths were broken by the noise of his approach. Words weren't necessary, but his tongue threw them out anyway, not bothering to ask for permission.

"Soldier On, by the authority of Princess Celestia and the Domain of Canterlot, I place you under arrest for treason against your crown and country, and for murder."

"Armor?" Her legs straightened beneath her, restoring her to the advantage of height. He'd forgotten her size, but it offered him no intimidation. He'd fought larger monsters. Magic was his shield, and at times, a sword as well. "What are you doing here?"

She wasn't wearing armor at all. Her coat bore the color of eggshells, but none of their fragility. It glowed with the tone of roses alongside his rising magic. The fatigue from earlier rose in his mind, but he forced it down. Bolts, like thunder, flew toward her from point blank. She sidestepped two, faster than any pony ought to have been able to react. The third she struck mid-flight with her right forehoof, inches away from her muzzle. As the rippling waves of mana spilled down her coat, she stared at the limb, failing to bend her ankle. She had no idea that the spell would have paralyzed the whole body of a normal pony. Her blank stare seemed confounded.

"Did you kill these ponies?" She looked down where he gestured, and then nodded. The lack of remorse on her face turned a thousand Royal Guard rumors and gossiped stories into frigid fact. A sea of hot, wet bile surged up his throat, stopping just behind his mouth. It didn't come from corpses; he'd seen enough of them in his time. He forced himself to focus. "You'll receive a fair trial in Canterlot." Truth and justice murdered compromise. "Give up."

She shook her head. "No time. They have Flag."

"Who-" He smothered his own question. It was a ploy. It had to be. He'd let his guard down, and then he'd be just as dead as the other ponies. He stepped back, channeling magic into his horn. The mana fought against his call. When his glow built up again, Soldier On's gaze was one of disappointment.

"You aren't going to listen to me?" Before he could even consider an answer, she moved.

The battle began with a tempo that outpaced any Shining Armor had ever known. Soldier On's hooves moved heavily, providing a bass beat like war drums. Allegro was the order of the day. Their deadly dance began with On lunging into the air off her left leg. There, she seemed to float, as Shining's magic added a blare of brass to the percussive undertones. Spells struck Soldier On dozens of times; she ignored them all. Her limp right hoof came down on the second beat, sending a ringing pain through Shining's skull. His jaw bounced off the floor on the half-step, long enough a time for On to land and grab onto the Captain's neck with her left foreleg. The third beat of the first measure was a shift of her weight, leading to a crescendo of pain as he was hurled across the room. Drywall cracked and dust covered his pristine armor.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Then surrender." Shining rose to his hooves, feeling the building headache that came from drained magic. He didn't have nearly enough left to fight as he would like. It left one option he would have rather avoided, but it was all he could do. She was charging him.

It was strange for the rather large unicorn to be the smaller of combatants, but the difference gave him a distinct advantage. Her next blow came from a curving swing, taking the long path to his side to build momentum. He ducked, hearing the hoof whistle through the air just above his neck. Then he rose, with a blow of his own, to her jaw.

She blocked his next blow with her own foreleg, and the contest evolved into a grapple. There, Soldier On's advantage was undeniable. Even with a limp leg, she was pressing him backward. He ducked and spun, and used every trick he'd ever learned on the Royal Guard training field. She anticipated and countered them all as though he were a raw recruit. He needed magic to beat her, and for magic, he needed space.

She gave it to him, painfully. Rising up on her hind legs, she lifted Shining by his torso, and then tossed him into the air. The motion was too fast for him to avoid, and his shift to the side only left his belly exposed instead of his back. As he fell back toward the floor of the apartment, she stepped forward, and reared up on her forelegs.

The buck that followed would have felled a tree.

Shining was thrown a full twenty feet to the far wall of the room, where he not only crashed into, but through the drywall. He rolled across the floor of the next room as the world spun in his eyes.

He rose with her next step forward, bruised but not beaten. Platinum's Ward had kept his bones from breaking, but it paid off the debt with his already weakened magic. Tired and lacking focus from the pain, Shining had to hope the raw power of his spell would pay off. He let his part rest for a beat, as Soldier On turned toward him. There wasn't so much a hole in the wall where had passed, as a complete lack of wall. A section easily as wide as two grown stallions had been torn away and broken into dust on the floor. Through the gap, he could see his opponent approaching quickly. His magic slowly built in volume as she ran forward. Two, three, four seconds, all passed in peace.

Then she reached him, and he could wait no longer. The spell he chose came of desperation and an instinct for survival. His magic scythed through the air in a rose arc. Its target was On's chest. Only a leg's reach away, she leapt to the left. Her body curved in midair, pulling herself away. The motion passed like lightning. There were pegasi who wished they could move as fast as the traitorous titan. Nevertheless, the spell cut too close. Its raw mana touched her right ear, halfway up its length. The noise might have been a whisper, but the drip of blood was unmistakable. She paid it no mind for as long as it took to bring a hoof around upon the Royal Guard. Her blow struck the crown of his head, throwing him downward onto the floor again.

He considered rising, but the pain throbbing in his head, and the fatigue in his horn warned him otherwise. If he could have won the battle, he would have done so already. Without his full magic, he simply wasn't her equal.

"You tried to kill me." Her hoof felt the smooth cut where half her ear had been taken away. Her face bore almost no expression, save a slight widening of her eyes. "I didn't think you had it in you, Captain, but your Arcana is weaker than I was expecting." Shining Armor let out a little gasp that might have become a word. The noise stopped when he felt an overbearing weight press against his exposed throat. "Do not speak. Listen." Her limp hoof was pulled up limply by its shoulder until it pointed toward the trio of corpses. "The stallion was the last link in the chain to Masquerade. He has records of contracts, but not customers. Flag will know how to use the body to track the assassin, provided she survives the night. I will arrange that, so do not try to stop me. I won't hesitate to kill you if we meet this way again."

Her hoof was pulled away from his throat, a necessary tool in walking away. As the earth pony approached the door, Shining found his voice in accusation. "Why did you do it?"

She didn't feel the need to turn around and face him when she spoke. "Believe what you want."

- - -

A boar, a griffin, and a pegasus walked into a bar. Going Solo eyed the latter of the three from her seat in the corner, but otherwise paid no mind to the potential humor of the situation. She hadn't come to gawk at barflies and regulars. She'd come to forget.

Her glass was still half-full, as her usual self would put it, though she was more inclined to label it half-empty at that moment. She would have loved to drown her thoughts of Shining Armor, and his uptight 'good cop' act, and his smile, and his incredible musculature...

She took a long drink, leaving her with a quarter-full/mostly-empty glass. Forget Shining Armor. He didn't want her, and she certainly didn't want him. Besides, in a bar like this, she was certain she could fine a pony just as big and welcoming, who'd be all-too-happy to climb into a comfortable bed with her and help her forget. She contemplated a mare, briefly, but there wasn't any interest even in the thought of the young rainbow thing from a few days earlier. No, it was definitely a stallion night.

She wished there had been that pony sitting at the bar. He would have been a pegasus, with big strong wings and the sort of jaw you could slice bread with. His tail would be well kept at the top, but if your eyes traced it down, you'd find the end to be rough and dirty and glorious. And his flanks would be built like boulders, thick and tough like you could almost take a bite out of. He'd turn and look at her, and his mane would flit out of his eyes, and he'd smile the way nopony else in the entire world could smile. The way Shining Armor smiled.

"No!" She yelled, smashing the table. At a Baltimare bar, nearing midnight, none of the patrons even bothered affording her a glance for the outburst. Her stallion wasn't there... or was he?

She glanced to the newcomers. He wasn't sitting at the bar, ready to offer that perfect smile, but the pegasus was surprisingly handsome. He and his non-pony companions had climbed into a stall in the far corner, waiting for service. She looked down at her glass, shrugged, and drained it. The flavor wasn't worth writing home about, but the splash of heat in her throat was exactly what she needed. She got to her hooves and made her way over.

"...so then I says to him, 'ey, no , ya got it all wrong. I'm the replacements.' And this stupid chef gives me this crazy look, and 'e's like 'then who's sick'?" The three mismatched creatures shared a healthy laugh, before the pegasus stallion continued. "So I slipped in a figured out which table it was, and nopony even-"

The boar slapped his shoulder, cutting off his story. It took only a simple gesture to draw their collective attention toward Going Solo. It was the griffon who spoke to her first, with a surprisingly clean tone. "Can we do something for you, miss?"

She put on her friendliest smile, though inside she caught herself wondering if it looked fake. "I figured I could do something for your friend, actually. Can I bother you for a drink?"

The pegasus and the griffin shared an easily-read glance. The pegasus put his forehooves behind his head and leaned back, as the griffin slid to the side to make room. Their third compatriot, the boar, looked at the griffin with disgust. "Honestly, Alexandros?"

The griffin shrugged. "She's got wings, hasn't she?"

The pegasus, in turn reached forward and slapped both simultaneously. "Let's watch how we're talking in front of a beautiful mare, alright boys?" His focus then turned to her. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Going Solo."

"Not tonight," the griffin whispered, placing a talon over his beak that utterly failed to muffle his comment. The pegasus slapped him again.

"Sorry about Alexandros. He can be a bit forward, but he's a great guy when you get to know him. My boarish friend here is Bataar, and I'm On A. Mission."

"Really?" She leaned up to his ear teasingly. "Can't you take a break?"

He laughed. It had a nice tone, but it wasn't like Shining's. She shook her head as he spoke. "Well played... something wrong?"

"Just something stupid. It's no big deal. You were telling a story... are you a chef?"

He glanced quickly to his friends, his smile disappearing momentarily. It returned wider than before, though only slightly. "I used to be a short-order cook, but I got out of that business pretty quick. My friends and I are contractors."

Bataar spoke up. "We're a lot more efficient than an all pony team."

"That we are," Mission replied. "You should see some of the things Bataar can lift. He's like a living construction crane."

"And a jackhammer," Bataar added, with a tone of sarcastic annoyance. "And a drill. And a cart. And-"

"I think she gets the point," Alexandros interrupted. "What do you do?"

"Me?" Solo shrugged. "Nothing interesting, really. I manage acquisition and distribution at a general store in Canterlot."

"Corporate?" Mission raised a brow. Solo had to imagine there weren't many corporate mares slumming it in Baltimare bars at midnight. "Well, if it brings in the bits, that's all that matters." He wrapped a wing around Solo's shoulders. "Speaking of acquisitions, though, I gotta ask something. Bataar, did you get that contract figured out?"

The boar nodded. "The train, you mean? Yeah. I was a little worried, since it showed up early, but the Stalliongradi didn't give me any trouble."

Alexandros placed one of his talons firmly on the table, gathering their attention. "Is this something we should really be discussing in present company?"

"Oh, come on," Mission protested. "It's not like she's gonna get her feelings hurt if we talk shop a bit. And, if she does..." his words grew slower, as he nuzzled her neck. The sensation of his warm breath filled her with life. "...I know a few ways to make her feel better."

She flicked him with a wingtip when he started to nibble. "Let's get some drinks first."

Mission nodded, turning to his griffin friend. "Beers to start with, I think."

"Start?" The little bit of fuzz at the front of Solo's mind spoke for her. "I'm already on my third Scotch..."

Mission's brow rose before a laugh escaped his chest. "Fair enough. Looks like we'll just have to catch up. You heard the lady, Al."

"Yeah, I heard." The griffin stalked away, leaving the pegasi and the boar behind.

"So, Mission," began Bataar, stumbling over his words with his heavy tongue. "Now that the, uh... now that purple and the brain are done, do we go for Stalliongrad, or head for the Ball?"

Mission smiled. "I think we've already taken enough contracts in Baltimare. We'll just wait for my cooking to settle, and then head out. I'll drop off Shiney-Hiney, and you take care of the smarty-pants."

Solo rubbed up against Mission. "Shiney-Hiney? Who's that?"

"Oh, a friend of ours who dropped by to do a survey for a project. He's a big-shot unicorn from Canterlot."

Shining...

Solo smiled seductively. "You know, Mission, I'm not so sure I'm thirsty after all. I'm actually just feeling tired." She let her breath slide over his ear.

The pegasus wasn't about to let his opportunity pass. He shot up a bit faster than Going Solo was expecting, though still maintaining the wing around her shoulder. "I have a hotel room just up the street from here."

Solo nodded, tight-lipped, and allowed the 'contractor' to lead the way. She paused in her journey out only long enough to grab a table knife. It would have to do.

- - -

Going Solo believed in pleasure before business. Perhaps this was why, not so long later, she found herself pressing a hoof down on Mission's shoulder, straddling him on the cheap hotel bed. His eyes were unfocused, still dwelling in the pleasure of mere moments past. They didn't see the mare pull out a knife, or bring it to bear on his throat. He was only dragged out of his blissful reverie when he felt the cold keen blade press through his coat against his flesh.

"Whoa, what-!"

"Shut up," Solo ordered. "What did you do to Shining Armor?"

"Shining Armor? How do you-?"

"I asked you a bucking question!" she yelled, taking a page out of Grizzaloo's book.

"Uh..." The stallion was panting in fear. "I... I poisoned him."

"With what?"

"I don't know! Please don't hurt me!" The crack of his voice turned his masculine tones into almost pitiable whining. Almost.

"Then don't lie to me!" The hoof that wasn't keeping pressure against the knife slapped Mission across the face. "What did you use?"

"I don't know! She just gave me a jar..."

His words dissolved into panting sobs. Her muzzle wrinkled in disgust. "Really? You're going to start crying now?"

"I can't tell you!" He answered. "She'll kill me! She put a spell on me!"

The idea was all too familiar. "Masquerade?" Solo's intensity only grew. "Where is she?" He didn't answer quickly enough. She leaned down, inches from his face. "Where is she?"

"I don't know! Really! I'm just a thief. I tried to break into her house on the south of here. All she wanted was for me to was poison Armor so he wouldn't 'get in the way'. We had to have him done before the train got here."

"Train? What train?"

"Bataar knows. There were these guardsponies we had to capture, alive. Bataar already got one, and we were using her as bait for her friend. We were allowed to just kill Armor, if he got in the way. I don't think the poison will actually kill him. That's all I can say. I promise. Don't kill me."

Something about that particular plea was comforting. Solo reached back with her free hoof to the short post at the foot of the bed, where she had discarded her vest. In the process of slipping it on, she grabbed a few whisper salt crystals. They slid into her own mouth unnoticed, before dissolving in her saliva. Then she leaned forward and gave him the deepest kiss she had shared in the entire night. His eyes went wide in a potent mixture of fear, confusion, and arousal. It took a moment for him meet her exploratory tongue, but when he did, she handed him all of the potent drug she could manage.

She pulled back, eased up on the knife, and smiled. He smiled back. Then she punched him in the face. Once, twice, and on the third time, he collapsed. She got off his body, throwing the covers over his exposed form, and brushed herself off. His company hadn't been calming, but it had brought relief and answers. She moved over to the window, removing the deadbolt and leaving a small opening to allow later access from the outside. Then, she turned back to the door and ran away. There was no time to lose.

- - -

Thanks to SatoshiKyu for pre-reading.

Feel free to comment below - but if you've got errors to correct, let me know via private message (so we don't clog the comments with errors I then go on to fix).

I don't pretend to be the most talented artist in the world, but if you want to see some of my renditions of the characters, check out my DeviantArt account. Let me know in the comments who you'd like to see next.

On that note, since I've gotten a few questions, people are welcome to write derivative fics, color my pictures, or generally just do whatever you want with this work, so long as you credit me, link to the fic, and let me know (because I want to see too!)

Wondering why there was no Rainbow in this chapter?
Look forward to a Special Nightmare Night chapter, coming soon!

XIII - Prophecies

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XIII
Prophecies

- - -

"Get up, Dash. We're nearly there."

The young mare shook the sleep off herself, discarding the fear of a baseless nightmare. "It wasn't my fault. It wasn't." The little chant had been her companion as they sailed along the river for hours, every time her mind wandered. The time had been hers entirely; Dead Reckoning's rousing voice had been the first he had spoken to her since his story ended, apart from a handful of short commands. He would tell her to lie down in the boat from time to time, or to go over to the shore and hide amongst the brush. She obeyed wordlessly, and he chose not to explain himself. She was entirely content with his silence.

Some anger at his stance toward Luna still lingered in her chest, though the more she thought about it, the more she had a hard time justifying her feelings. Despite what he thought, he was still helping her. In the end, weren't his actions what counted? It was a hard question for her to answer, and whenever her mind drew toward a solution his final thought would ring out in her head.

What if it were one of your friends? What if it were Twilight?

It must have been that question that brought about the nightmare, and its answer was not forthcoming. The mare set the thought aside and rubbed her eyes, before pulling herself up into a sitting position.

The river was dark, and the thick canopy of the jungle blotted out most of the light from the sun. Worse, a thick cloud of steam and mist had gathered over the water, leaving only a wispy silver view of the future. The air was wet and cold, and the utter blackness was both claustrophobic and infinite at once. For a moment, Rainbow thought she saw a pallid white pony's face staring at her out of the darkness. She squinted, leaning toward it, but the mist had swallowed up the form.

Then came another, in the corner of her eye. She swung her head around, but it too had vanished. Fear overcame her anger at the scout, though she had no desire to make the emotion known. "I saw somepony, Reckoning."

She'd expected a chastising rebuttal, but instead, he nodded. "We're getting close."

"Are there ponies here?"

"In a sense." Reckoning's eyes scanned the mist with sudden intensity, not looking at Rainbow as he spoke. "You'll see in a moment."

So they continued on, with Reckoning's wings and the passing of the boat in the water the only noises anywhere nearby. In the distance, the chirping of insects and the rustle of leaves in a gentle breeze added only the suggestion that something else nearby was being very quiet. Rainbow found her gaze jumping from side to side, catching glimpses of pale ponies who fled before she could identify them.

Without any obvious sign, Reckoning's wings gave a sudden heavy flap. They were accompanied by a gust of wind strong enough that Rainbow could easily guess its magical nature. She didn't have long to ponder the thought, though, as the gust that slowed their boat to a crawl also blew away all the fog in their path, revealing-

"Skeletons!" Rainbow jumped backwards with the cry. There were dozens, fully assembled and mounted on sticks and branches sticking out over the river. Almost all of them had belonged to ponies.

"Quiet!" Reckoning ordered in a forced whisper. "You'll get us killed."

Rainbow drew back, closer to the older pony in their tiny boat. In her own whisper, she looked him straight in the eye. "What happened to them? Who killed all these ponies?"

Reckoning gave her a surprisingly dispassionate look. "They're all zebras. All but one. And Fallaner killed them."

"What?" Rainbow struggled to control her volume. "We're going to talk to this... deer thing, and he just kills ponies?"

"If anyone has a cure, its-" Reckoning stopped himself to the sound of clicking and scraping bones. Rainbow saw his eyes narrow. Both his eyes.

Her attention shifted to where his remaining eye was pointedly staring, and there she froze. The skeletons had turned. They were watching the boat. As it drifted along, the empty sockets where their eyes ought to have been followed. With pained jerking motions and the awful grind of dry bone on bone, they pulled themselves away from the trees and began to follow along the river banks. Two, then three, then five on a side, they followed. Eerie grins were plastered across their fleshless faces, suggesting hunger more than humor.

Without speaking a word, Reckoning slid his hooves into the pockets on the front of his shirt. Shoes with thick steel lining were drawn, and slid onto his hooves. His voice spoke in a hoarse whisper. "Don't panic. Don't scream. Keep your hooves away from their mouths. And stay in the boat."

Through her shock, Rainbow’s natural reaction was to put on an air of confidence. The shakiness in her voice betrayed her true emotions. "They're just Nightmare Night skeletons, right? Lots of little foals dress up like that."

Reckoning's response was stiff, and stern, and openly fearful. "They're enemies that can't die, Rainbow. They don't get tired. They don't give up. Be ready."

As if the words had been a cue, the mass of dry corpses moved into the water, slipping almost silently beneath the water's surface. In the murky depths they faded. Reckoning folded his wings, allowing the boat to drift, and turned his back to Rainbow. "Watch the front. I'll manage the back."

Rainbow lost the rest of his words in a shriek of surprise when a yellowed head lunged out of the water to snap at her. The canoe lurched violently, barely staying upright. Frigid, dirty water splashed over the young pegasus' face, leaving the red dye of her striping to run down her body. Her response came in a wide and wild swing that caught the creature across the side of its face. Its skull shifted to the side, no longer aligned with the rest of its body, but it seemed quite plainly like it had not noticed the attack. The soaked bony nubs where its hooves ought to have been scrambled for a grip on the sleek wood.

Reckoning wasn't going to give the creature a chance. With a full stride of force, he brought his right forehoof across in a heavy strike. Its skull fractured visibly, as part of its brow crumbled away into nothingness. Unable to resist the force, the dead zebra splashed backward into the water, and the canoe shifted again.

The old scout rubbed his own shoulder before turning back to the back of the boat.

"You okay?" Rainbow asked.

"Getting old," he responded. "Now keep an eye out. You never-"

Reckoning's back hit the floor of the canoe, held down by two full skeletons that lurched out of the water. He didn't scream, though there was a sort of shout that escaped his lips. His energy, though, was spent in fighting back even before his conscious mind had realized what was happening. The old pony swung wildly, striking with all four legs and both wings, and in the end, none of it did a thing. Teeth were moving closer to his neck with every passing moment, as if savoring the inevitable progression.

The fastest pony in Equestria was no longer overcome with shock. She moved quickly, striking with her forehooves in tight jabs, putting her weight behind every blow. Thunder Crack's lesson paid off, where Gilda's younger teachings would have failed for lack of space. When one of the skeletal figures was thrown off balance, Rainbow lunged forward shoulder first and bull-rushed it out of the vessel.

Weight shifted suddenly, aided by the dead in the water. Reckoning was freed from beneath his other assailant, but at a terrible cost. As one, both ponies were plunged into the frigid murky waters.

For Rainbow, up and down lost all meaning. She hadn't taken a breath, and her lungs burned with the sudden need for air that wasn't coming. All around her were leaves and bubbles and nightmares. Their hard bodies brushed against her, surrounding her. She felt an agonizing, rending pain in her back right leg, and the water became warm. She lashed out, and her hooves met bone, or stone, or whatever other horrors lurked in the water.

They grabbed her and held her. She struggled, but the water resisted her every motion. Her blows landed too soft and too delayed to change the fact. Slowly, but surely, she was being dragged down. Soon, the feast would begin.

Her lungs burned. Her chest ached. Her leg bellowed. In the depths, all sensations were muffled. Darkness deeper even than the muddy river began to encroach on her vision. Soon, all was black and white. Bones and shadows, icy in their shared desire to claim her, constricted their noose. All that was left was the wait.

In those moments, Rainbow was truly afraid. Her fear was not for herself - at least, not alone. Visions of her friends flicked through her mind. Twilight. Applejack. Pinkie. Rarity. Fluttershy. What would they do without her? What about Luna? What about Papa?

In the mists of her slowly dying heart, the river faded away, and she was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere welcome and comforting. Home.

The Golden Oaks library was always where they met. It was easy and accessible, but it also bore a special significance for the six friends. In that passing glimmer of her imagination, though, the warmth of their company had faded into a mournful sepia light.

Twilight, ever the leader, stood apart from the tight circle of friends, looking to each of them in turn. Her face was hollow not from a lack of emotion, but from not knowing how to truly express the depth of her sorrow. Dried tears matted her violet coat at the base of her muzzle, but her eyes in the presence of company were restrained, and controlled. Somepony had to be strong, and she had resolved it would be herself.

She was not alone in her unbending resolve. Applejack sat alongside Pinkie Pie, holding her with a foreleg as the usually ecstatic mare sobbed into the farmer's shoulder. Tears fell from her eyes, but not in a sobbing, screaming torrent. They were quiet, and respectful, as was the tight-lipped frown that decorated her face. More could be said of her demeanor by the change in her appearance than the way she kept her face. The constant companion of her hat was gone, and her mane and tail both sat free and untamed. The true, unending foundation of the mare's strength had given out, and she had changed.

Pinkie's mane hung long and dark, broken from its cheer by a pain that seemed as though it would never go away. Concealed behind the curtain of pink, she let her emotions flow freely. Perhaps there was no more to be said - Pinkie's brokenness was open and unrestrained, drowning out the aura of cheer that normally marked her presence.

Rarity and Fluttershy were together, though in the dimmed light, it was hard to tell where one mare ended and the other began. They huddled together in plain but quiet sorrow, held back by their natures rather than their choices. Pain marked their expressions.

Twilight was speaking, though the words were muffled. Her usual rapid words were congealed, moving with the speed and inevitability of a glacier. At times, they paused to draw resolve, and when they returned, they would mark a pain in the eyes of all the ponies present. Rainbow wanted nothing more than to comfort them. Though she could not see herself, nor recognize her own presence, she reached out a hoof toward her friends.

Something strong and hard, and yet somehow comforting, pulled her away. She turned back to it, and watched as the walls of curved bookshelves gave way to murk and mist and a growing but painful ill green light. It was hot and cold all at once, and in every way, uninviting to her spirit. Yet the comforting sensation pulled her forward.

The sound of water breaking in a splash filled her ears, followed by coughing and a burning pain. She knew the two were related, though the sensation of her own lungs belching forth water and mud and muck took some time to be realized.

She was freezing, soaked to the bone and freezing beyond her own understanding. Even in the dark and the mists of the night, it was the jungle. And yet, when her hoof reached out wildly, she felt ice.

The darkness drew back from her true sight, slowly, revealing first a wet coat of dark green so faded as to be called almost pure gray. It was attached to a leg that rose up to meet a flank bearing the mark of a map.

Her lungs surged again, and water spilled out in greater quantities. Her head spun, but sensation returned. She wished it hadn't. Everything hurt, and cried out in agony and discomfort, all at once.

"Are you okay, Dash?" Cold metal hooves pressed against her side, rolling her over onto her back. Desperation filled the familiar voice of an old stallion. "Please, kid! Not after coming this far!"

She tried to speak. Water came out, and her tongue rejected the taste of dirty water. There was noise, though, a gurgling cough, and it was enough. He pressed against her, and while the sensation was terrible, it expelled more of the sickening mixture, ushering air in its place. They pressed again, and again, and the pain in her chest fled away, replaced by the comforting chill of air. Reckoning's head moved over hers, lowering slowly

She tried to press him away, but the fuzzy feeling at the end of her hooves left her to slap him across the muzzle instead. "Watch it."

He clutched the side of his face out of surprise, and then broke out into hearty and heart-warming laughter. "Oh! Oh, thank Celestia. Rainbow, you're alright."

"Yeah, I-" Rainbow clutched her side, suddenly feeling winded. It took a number of deep breaths for her voice to return. "I think I'm fine now. What happened?"

"I..." Reckoning shook his head, displaying the width of his ear-to-ear smile. "I thought they'd gotten you. They didn't keep me in the water; I don't think they were expecting me to start swimming as fast as I did. I had to fight a few off, but not enough. I was expecting half. I thought they might have you under, so I went back in."

Even in her semi-delirious state, Rainbow found pause with his words. "You went back?"

"I... Yeah. I wasn't going to leave you behind, Rainbow. But by the time I pulled you out, you'd been under for almost three minutes. I thought you were dead."

"Thanks," Rainbow whispered, before her ears perked up in search of approaching threats. "What about the skeletons? Are they still after us?"

Reckoning gestured to the river, mere inches from the young mare's head. It had been frozen into a solid block of ice as far as her eyes could see, before fading into the fog. Here and there, a skull or a skeletal hoof extended out of the ice, but none moved.

"You did that?" Rainbow's jaw hung loose when Deadeye nodded. "But I thought you said ice was about feeling..."

In the silence that followed, Reckoning gestured along the riverbank and began walking. Rainbow followed for two steps, before a seizing pain in her flank sent her to her knees. The scout turned back at the noise, and rushed to Rainbow's side. "Are you okay?"

"I think so. One of them bit me."

The scout's mouth opened ever so slightly, and his eye flashed to her flank. With a sudden step, he was beside her, and there, his expression returned to calm. "We'll need to clean the wound, but it should be fine." Then came his wry little grin, and he turned to look her in the eye. "There'll be a scar, though. You're looking more and more like an Honor Guard every day."

"Thanks," the mare muttered back, unmotivated to put forth the effort for sarcasm. Besides, a scar would look cool, right?

"I lost most of my supplies in the river, but I'll do what I can to clean it up. For now, if you're feeling up to it, just fly with me. We're almost there."

"Finally somepony decides I can fly." Rainbow took to wing enthusiastically, hovering at what would normally be Celestia's head-height. "But, uh, he already tried to kill us. Don't you think we should try something else? Maybe we should visit somepony else?"

Reckoning shook his head from side to side. "I wish I knew somepony else we could talk to, Rainbow, but this is really it. If we want a cure for Princess Luna, it'll come from him. So, if you want to turn back, this is the last chance."

She shook her head firmly. "No way. Not after we’ve come this far."

"Then the next step is getting him to give us a cure. If he thinks we're boring..." Reckoning took a slow, mournful breath. "He is a carnivore. Do not show fear. You'll see worse things than the skeletons before this is over. Just remember why we're here. If he offers you food or drink, take it. You don't want to seem rude. But don't actually eat or drink, and don't say anything if I do. Stay at my side unless I say otherwise. If I tell you to be quiet, be silent. If I tell you to run, leave me behind and head for the zebras. And if I tell you to kill him, do not hesitate." Reckoning's hoof slid along the outside of his machete's sheath, where a second compartment fell open. Out of it came a pair of gold and steel blades, arced in the shape of pegasus wings. "Or we will both die." Rainbow nodded firmly, as Reckoning helped her don the weapons. "Pray we don't need these."

The mare brought her wings down into the straps, lifting the masterfully crafted weapons onto her body. Their straps connected to her shoulder and the crest of her wings, leaving them with full movement and only a slight unfamiliar weight. Her hooves trembled as she fastened the weapons onto her body. It will be fine. The feel of the metal sent shivers down her precious feathered limbs. You're doing this to help Luna. It will be fine. Buckles and clasps locked the blades into place with a click for a blunt finality. You can do this, Rainbow Dash. It will all be fine. Weapons in place, she took again to the air, hovering as he walked alongside. The path was devoid of life or motion, and the only sounds were wings beating air, and hooves striking dirt.

Dead Reckoning spoke up again, softly and faintly, some dozen minutes later. "Look up ahead."

Rainbow acknowledged him, and saw a gnarled dead tree sitting on the edge of the river. Strangely warped holes served for windows on at least three floors, letting out an eerie green light like that she had seen in her drowning vision. Stripes of dark sticky red adorned the blackened wood, and the scent of death filled the strangely stagnant air. Hanging from the side of the dead tree by vines and ropes and chains was a final pony skeleton, with a perfectly round hole in its forehead. Beneath it, a warped and twisted door marked the entrance to the structure without actually sealing it.

"That was a unicorn," Reckoning explained, gesturing to the dead pony. "I told you about him before. His name was Curt Nod." The scout shook his head. "Fallaner probably already knows we're here." The two approached slowly, but the remains were still. Nothing happened when they reached the door, and for Rainbow, the suspense was perhaps the worst part of it all. "Remember," he whispered, before knocking hard, three times.

The scream that rose in response was enough to chill Rainbow's blood and shake her concentration. Though she could still see, her mind lost any ability to process the world around her. Everything was a blur of sound and meaningless color and pain. When it finally settled, some unknown time later, the world was dark and inky around the tree, and the door was open. The stench was not just of vague death, but of rot and decay. Sharp and pungent scents of coppery blood and burnt flesh mixed together into a noxious gas that hung visibly in smoky streams within the unnatural green light.

Reckoning put a single hoof into the building, but shot a glance back to Rainbow before he continued. Tentatively, the younger pegasus nodded, even as she choked back her emotions. In Ponyville, amongst her friends, Dash had prided herself as a mare of courage and directness. Here, thoughts of her reputation seemed as far away as her home itself. The quivering of her stomach, which longed to empty itself from the smell of rotten meat, made the chill settling into her wings all the worse. She could feel her heart beating, far too close to her throat. She stood close to Reckoning, feeling the warmth of his coat, and looked to him for courage. She found him wanting. Though he did not quiver or jump, his head swiveled wildly. She saw violence in his one eye, but it was not the violence of a guardian or a soldier. His was the threat of a cornered animal - deadly, but uncontrolled.

Together, the two walked into the first room. Black shadows danced over rounded green walls in a space filled with bookshelves. To Rainbow it seemed a twisted parody of Twilight Sparkle's home, where none of the cases were level and even the books seemed warped away from smooth covers. In the corner, the skeleton of an owl sat on a wooden perch that stuck out of the wall itself. When they took a further step in, it hooted.

Rainbow gasped, barely able to keep herself from shrieking aloud. The sudden noise left Reckoning with his machete clutched between his teeth. After a moment of waiting for a threat, he sheathed the weapon and called out. "Sa farn palan, Fallaner! Tolo hi!" Reckoning's aged and blunt tone sounded strange wrapping around the twisted words of the Elkish tongue. His words echoed far more than the tiny space had any business permitting.

Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo, Nim Hen. Rainbow did let out a muffled scream as a chorus of distinctly male voices spoke in her head. Her gaze shot around the room, but no one was there. Le no an-uir nîn?

The sound of the door slamming shut issued from behind them, and when they turned toward the sound, they found no door at all. Smooth wood marked their place of entrance.

"What did he say?" Rainbow turned desperately to the older stallion when no answer was forthcoming. "What did he say?"

Before Reckoning could respond, the voice returned. Pedich Arasen? The voice shook Rainbow, going silent and then returning a moment later. No? Perhaps your tongue will do then. Can your mind hear us, young one?

"Y- Yes," Rainbow managed to force the words out, looking around desperately for a source. "Are you... the owl?"

You ought to have told us we had guests, Dead Pony. It is rude that we should speak in a tongue most unknown to her. You are one most curious, young pony. Your name is.

It took a spare moment to recognize the question, and another to gather an answer. "Rainbow Dash. Uh... Bearer of Loyalty."

Reckoning glanced her way at the declaration and shook his head, but the words could not be taken back.

Loyalty, we shall call you, then. Such is the weight of but one small prophecy on your back, amongst many. We are surprised you can still walk under such a burden. Come and find us, that we might grant your will. But first we must be entertained, for lonely are our days with only the shadows of former lives for company. We sense the beginnings of a friendship between you. We wonder if it can survive the truth? Come forward, if you dare.

Rainbow and Reckoning shared a glance before nodding shortly. At their show of certainty, the invisible hand of Fallaner opened their path. The wooden floor of the room stretched and warped, crackling like bones and fire. Out of its center, a wide hole was opened, revealing a spiraling stairway downward into the same fell green light that filled the rest of the space. Reckoning went first.

The stairs led down and down and down, taking far too long to traverse. When minutes or hours had passed and all sense of depth and distance were lost, the end finally came - and a surprising ending it was. Double doors, purple with trimming of gold, presented a sudden barrier to their motion. Around the doors, cream colored walls and thick wooden beams supported a wall connecting to the edges of the stairs. Deadeye lifted a hoof to the doors. Rainbow grabbed the limb, stopping him.

"I recognize this," she observed.

"And?"

"It's Ponyville," Rainbow answered. "Town hall."

Reckoning locked up, lowering his hoof. His eye glanced toward the door, as if he could somehow see past it. His head drifted lazily toward the handle of his machete, though the weapon remained undrawn.

Rainbow tried to wrap a hoof over her companion's shoulders. He batted it away, not even looking at her as he completed the motion. A heavy blow escaped his nostrils and the heat formed a visible cloud in the air. With surprising strength, the stallion threw the doors wide open and walked inside.

Truly all that could be said of the scene was that it was too familiar. Banners of blue, purple, and gold hung from the ceiling. A massive crowd waited excitedly for a show they would never get. They didn't know the terror that was approaching.

As Reckoning strode forward, golden armor appeared on his body. The scruffy, dirty fur of his face was replaced with smooth white. The only trait that could tell him apart from the crowd was the sheath still hanging from his side. He approached two other guardsponies with a deadly focus.

Rainbow ran to catch him, only vaguely aware that the dirt in her coat, and the wound on her flank had both faded into thin air. "Wait, Reckoning!"

"Hey, who's the kid, Deadeye?" It was strange to hear the mare's voice coming from a stallion's body, and even stranger to consider whom it was meant to belong to. "She looks familiar."

Reckoning twitched at the voice, closing both his illusory eyes. He couldn't bring himself to answer the voice he had lost five years ago, so the other guardspony did instead.

"She's Easy Breeze's daughter, Warrant Officer Cannon. Looks just like her." Rainbow recognized his voice from an incredibly short and fateful meeting in a Canterlot wine cellar. Lieutenant Morning Star wore a frown on his narrow white muzzle.

The stallion's face on the mare broke into an uncharacteristic smile. "Oh, I remember her! She was Captain Coil's-"

"That's enough," Star snapped. "Cannon, you will not embarrass the Guard in front of a civilian with coarse language. As for you, miss Dash… I don't know what business you have with the Corporal, but it will have to wait."

"But I-"

"Go," Reckoning ordered. "See your friends."

"Reckoning, don't do it! She-"

Morning Star stepped toward Rainbow, leaving his companions behind. Instead of the stallion's voice, he spoke with one that had previously not been heard, instead passing into the mind. "You must allow your companion to make his own decision. We already know your resolve, Loyalty, but the dead must face a day of reckoning."

Rainbow tried to resist, but her wings flew her off against her own will. The sensation sent a chill through her, as if her heart had been stolen away. She was put into her place above Applejack, facing toward the balcony where a forgotten phantom would soon emerge. In sheer resistance, her focus remained on Reckoning. She watched helplessly as he spoke to the others. She watched the way his eyes stared at Loose Cannon, as if he looked upon a ghost. She saw the way he glanced toward Fluttershy, waiting for her fanfare to start. Most of all, she saw the way his head slid toward his machete, desperately.

Then came the music, and the curtains, and the gasp. Then the building shadow, and the darkness, and the crack of thunder. And then, worst of all, the laugh.

Her ears didn't hear her friends. She couldn't. Her entire attention was on one pony, and one pony only. Reckoning's weapon was drawn, ready and waiting. She hovered over Applejack, and pulled up her tail. The tiny motion would make all the difference.

Ponies were talking. Nightmare threatened them, declaring her rule. Reckoning drew his weapon. Four guardsponies charged, as one: Lieutenant Morning Star, Warrant Officer Loose Cannon, Corporal Dead Reckoning, and Private Rainbow Dash.

The lightning gathered in the swirling mist. It promised pain and agony. Reckoning cut against the wall of air, but it wasn't enough. Lightning struck, and Rainbow felt it alongside her partner. To her surprise, it was real. It burned, and seared. The stench of her own burning coat filled her nostrils. The world spun. The hard floor slammed into her shoulders.

The crowd screamed and flooded out the doors. Rainbow watched them go as she lay on the ground, chest burning and eyes watering from the smoke. Their legs rushed past her face, barely parting to make way for her fallen form. Legs with coats of blue and purple and green and yellow. And then, finally, legs clad in blue-gray steel, over a jet black coat. Legs that stopped beside her fallen body and spoke with a sickeningly familiar tone.

"Would you challenge me without the Elements of Harmony? Do you think your friendship with him is enough? Do you even truly know him?" Nightmare Moon gestured toward Dead Reckoning, as the old pony rose tenuously to his hooves and claimed his weapon.

Rainbow tried to stand, and for her effort, she was thrown across the room with no more than a flick of Nightmare's magic. Her wings stopped her from colliding with the wall, and hovering in midair, she turned.

"Reckoning, don't do this! Just let it go!"

Your kindness is misguided, Loyalty. We gave him a choice: his lost friend will be restored, if only he chooses to let the moon die. The balance must be maintained. His choice is made.

The old pony walked forward, wearing the form of a young soldier. Only the blade in his teeth mirrored his age. It was chipped, and bloodied, and above all else, cruel. Rainbow could still hear the sound of the dying manticore in her ears as Reckoning stumbled forward, placing one aching hoof in front of the other.

"Only one of us can survive, guardspony." Nightmare's taunt was accompanied by a growing storm above her head.

Reckoning nodded, slowly and firmly.

His blade clattered to the floor. His hoof ripped away his helmet, revealing determination on an aging face. With spite in his voice, he declared himself. "I swear now to serve on in the fullness of my ability, to protect my princess and ruler, Celestia, in life, limb, heart, and soul, and by doing so, to offer my protection to her subjects and her nation, until death or weakness claim from me the ability to serve. Nothing shall I hold above this oath. Not family, nor friends, not pride, nor property. Equestria and Celestia are my wards, and I shall guard their honor with all that I am. This I swear."

Nightmare laughed. "How sentimental. But are you so old that you cannot tell me apart from your precious princess?"

"No,” Reckoning answered, staring at the dark being eye to eyes. "But killing you would hurt Celestia, and break my oath. I can't put Loose Cannon ahead of that, and I can't put myself ahead either." The guardspony's wings flared. "So kill me."

"Very well." The storm grew stronger, as lightning crackled.

Then it struck, accompanied by a scream. "No!"

Rainbow's legs had moved without her conscious thought. They lashed out in midair, a paired buck that sent a flash of pure white electricity across the room. It struck Nightmare Moon in the back, leading to a sudden burst of light.

When the shine faded, Ponyville was gone. The burns faded away. Reckoning's armor disappeared. The two ponies stared at one another for some time, both wanting to speak, but lacking the words.

Do not fear the reproach. You have learned of one another, and gained. Such is the benefit of a healer, and a teacher. And you have several.

Rainbow finally found words, but they weren't for her partner. "What the hay was that?" Her head looked up at the ceiling of the small round wooden room. "I don't know what you think you're 'teaching us', but you should just come out already!"

We are only a room and a secret away. We wonder which will be harder to traverse.

"Rainbow, please, calm down." Reckoning had finished sheathing his weapon, and began to approach his partner. "Being angry will just make this harder."

"You're not mad?" Rainbow shouted back. "He tried to kill you! And he offered to bring somepony back from the dead if you killed Luna!"

"I would never have taken the deal," Reckoning answered. "I wouldn't do that to her memory."

"Yeah, well fine. But what's with trying to be a story book hero? Kill me? Really?"

"Rainbow, if somepony has to-"

"No! Absolutely not!" The young mare shook her head firmly. "We're both walking out of this place. You dove into the river after me when all those skeletons were there, and you expect me not to try and do the same for you? Maybe you don't get what Loyalty means, Reckoning, but I do. We're leaving here together, one way or another." With that declaration, she turned to the wall of the room, where a rather plain wooden door offered them further passage.

"That's not how it works, Dash."

"Well, that's how it's gonna work now, Reckoning. I don't leave friends behind."

The guardspony sighed, but followed after his companion to the next doorway. Rainbow pulled open the door as he approached, hoping to stave off a conversation. What she got instead was a terrible shock at the next room. It was a massive tube, in essence, whose every wall was covered in swirling, screaming green energy. Floating amidst the magic were seven severed heads. Every single one belonged to an elk, and as they flowed in the great spiral, they shifted to stare at the ponies.

The door opened partway up the wall at one flat end of the cylinder, to a long but precarious walkway wide enough only for a single pony to walk at a time. The path spiraled as it went, until it reached a door at the far side of the tube, almost a hundred feet away. The far door was upside down, and its walkway approached from above.

Simply staring at the scene made Rainbow sick. Her hoof stretched out, catching the doorframe.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine,” Rainbow answered, shaking herself. "Let's just go. You walk, I'll fly."

"No," he ordered, grabbing onto her back with a hoof as she tried to take off. "I've seen this sort of magic before. It messes with gravity. Down is always toward the path. If you try and fly next to it, when it turns, you'll go plummeting."

She stared at the swirling green mana, listening to the caustic hissing it gave off as it spun, and nodded. Her steps were slow, but steady. As she moved forward, gravity spiraled with the path, leaving the walkway to always fall 'beneath' her hooves. This way, she continued along the path, ignoring the pain in her flank from her earlier wound, until the door was finally beside her.

Reckoning reached her side only moments later. It opened on a field of clouds, stretching off into a blue horizon in all directions. There was no ground beneath the mass. The pegasi shared a confused glance, before stepping onto the puffy white surface.

It took only a few more moments for Reckoning to speak up, calling out to their unseen host. "No. No, Fallaner, don't you dare."

"What? What's happening?" Rainbow turned back to her companion, finding his body and face a full twenty years younger, at least. Apart from the rough patches of his coat, and the depth of gray in his mane, little had changed.

We told you of a room and a secret. You have found the room, and now your companion must share his secret. Tell her of your corruption, Corpse. Tell her why you feel the need to protect her.

"What does that mean? Huh? Why don't you just come look at us face to face, creepy deer?"

"Rainbow, please." Reckoning sighed. "Look at your tail."

"Why should that..." Her words stopped to the sight of pure cloudy white. On her flank, where a tri-tone bolt of lightning ought to have been seen, there was instead a puffy white heart. "My... mom?" She turned back to Reckoning. "Okay, what's going on?"

Reckoning looked around, searching for anything of note to stare at. Ultimately, the blank sky held no answers, and he met Rainbow's questioning gaze. He spoke with a voice much younger and smoother than his own. "Rainbow, do you... do you know what your mother did? For a living?"

A worry settled over Rainbow. "She was a tour guide. For Cloudsdale."

Age started to reappear on Reckoning. Slight wrinkles appeared on his face. "That's... who told you that, Rainbow?"

"Papa. My grandpa. Why are we talking about this?"

Because we find it amusing, Loyalty, and because Honesty is one of your friends. Yet Carcass has been keeping from you an important truth - one which he may not yet know the significance of.

Reckoning aged again before her, as his coat faded and the wrinkles on his face grew deeper. "She doesn't need to hear this, Fallaner. This is cruel."

"What is it?" Rainbow asked. "What's so secret about my mom?"

Tell her or we will.

"Fine. Rainbow, I-" He stopped. "Your mother-" Again, his words froze on his tongue. "You-"

"What?!"

The stallion offered the answer slowly, forcing out each agonizing word. "Easy Breeze was a prostitute, Rainbow. That's how I knew her." Reckoning sighed.

"Wait, but you said I reminded you-"

Fallaner's laughter broke into Rainbow's mind as Reckoning waved his hooves in the air to banish the thought. "Not like that, Rainbow. Never like that." His full age returned as he collapsed to the floor. "Your mother was one of the kindest mares I ever knew. She wasn't detached or cold, and I got to know her outside of... her work." Deadeye's gaze shot to the distant sky. "I imagine Fallaner wants you to think that I'm nothing more than a perverted old stallion who only cares about you for your body. But I owe it to her to look after you. And you have so much of her spirit, Rainbow. Fierce, and righteous. You believe in your own causes." Reckoning shook his head as the last thought left his lips. "You're a better pony than I'll ever be."

The truth was that the revelation didn't hurt as much as Rainbow might have expected. Even if it was the truth - and the young pegasus had grown to trust Reckoning's word - it didn't make her any worse of a mother. It didn't make her any less loving. It didn't make her death any less tragic. Rainbow's memories remained unchanged, and so she opened her mouth to offer consolation to the old pony. The elk interrupted.

Then you have satisfied us, and earned our answers.

The clouds spun and the bright blue sky became an unnatural green mist. Stone blocks and wooden walls rose from nowhere to assemble walls and floor. Soon, nothing of the sky remained, and only a small round room contained the two ponies. Their loneliness did not last long.

A bubbling shadow gathered together near the wall opposite the door, forming into a vaguely equine shape. Its legs were too slender, however, and atop its head lay a rack of antlers, bearing twelve points. When the form was complete, the shadows peeled away to reveal a creature out of Rainbow's nightmares. Fallaner was a dark brown creature, his coat covered in old stains whose origins Dash did not care to guess. Red tips adorned the dozen spear-headed tips of his antlers, leading down to a pair of black orbs that served as his eyes. From there, his muzzle led down to the most terrifying part of his body. Fallaner lacked a lower jaw completely. Instead, beneath his nostrils, a bloody mass of scar tissue and matted fur let his tongue hang down freely in the air, beneath a single row of rotten teeth. There were things in them, though with the poor lighting of the room, Rainbow could only guess at their nature. Almost immediately upon arriving, the elk's head swiveled in the younger pony's direction.

Would you care to dine?

Rainbow hesitated, and though the elk's hanging tongue remained still, something about him told her that he had noticed. She remembered Reckoning's words, but it still took a moment's pause to draw forth determination. "Yes. Uh, please."

And you, Late Stallion?

Reckoning's blind eye twitched, a sensation which must have caused considerable discomfort, judging by the way that his coat tensed against Rainbow's side. "Of course, Fallaner."

It is good. We shall break bones together, and be friends. Perhaps even mages, for such is the spirit of friendship. Yet it is tragic that one of us shall not leave this place alive. Four of his antler spurs began to glow with the same sickly green light as the rest of the malformed shack. Two smooth wooden plates and two heavy pewter goblets came into being. They settled down slabs of... something... before the two ponies, accompanied by a viscous opaque liquid suspiciously devoid of scent beneath the ever-present fumes of rot. A moment later, a third such plate appeared in the air before Fallaner. His jawless tongue began to lick at the food, accompanied by a pained and guttural sound escaping his exposed throat. Enjoy. We are glad to have guests. Now, tell us what it is that our humble talents can do.

A hoot escaped the skeletal owl as it entered the room from some knot in the woodwork that Rainbow hadn't noticed. She lurched away from it, bumping against Reckoning's side.

Do not mind him, Loyalty. His is a magic your kind have forgotten in time, though by the smell of your breath, I know some still remember it. Necromancy. The speaking to, and binding, of dead souls. He will not harm you against my will, unlike those unfortunate zebras who begged us for immortality. Now tell us a request.

Rainbow looked down at her plate, and then back up to Fallaner. Still licking his sickening meal, he nevertheless left his focus on the mare. "We need a cure for Princess Luna."

To give an antidote, the patient must first suffer a venom. Your question is wrong, Loyalty, for you misunderstand. For what you call a poison you also do not. I could pull from you what you seek, but you could not take it with you. Not without great cost.

Fear kept Rainbow from asking for an explanation for just a moment, and in that time, the elk's focus shifted to Dead Reckoning. Still his licking continued, followed by the slow but steady slurp of liquid passing into the hole at the back of his throat. You would know of our nature, would you not? Why we feast and cause others pain, when we call ourselves 'healer'? Why we take pleasure in the discomfort that our questions cause you? It is a simple curiosity to appease. The tips of Fallaner's antlers ignited. Rainbow spread her wings as a glowing green mist traveled from them toward Dead Reckoning, but the other pegasus held out a hoof to calm her. Closing both his eyes, he took a deep breath and relaxed. Both creatures stood still for a moment, until at last, Reckoning's eyes opened.

"We will tell this story within a mind that is not our own, for within our own minds, it is fractured and broken. Once, one of us was called Unque, which means 'Hollow'. He was a Fallaner - a healer - of great skill, even in his youth. The magic of elk cannot heal wounds with any great efficiency, and so his mastery of herbs and words earned him fame. One day, however, another of us came to him bearing a sickness. His name was Nai, and his illness was not of body, but of mind. Unque sought and sought for a means to cure the suffering of his patient, and in time, he stumbled upon an answer. For the soul of a body is different from its mind, and so Nai could be free from his burden if only the two could be separated. Of course, Nai would need a new body - one without such the bonds of madness. Unque had only one to give."

Reckoning paced to Rainbow's other side, eyes watching the young mare closely. "Nai was killed, and by Necromancy, his soul joined with Unque's. What the Fallaner did not know was that the moment the soul left the body, it was judged. And so it was guided into the Great Forest that our Lady Valdria gives us, just as your Princess grants you the Summer Lands. When Unque stole it away, the soul felt an uneasiness. It longed to return to where it belonged, but it did not know how. This sensation, this irresistible pull, drove Unque closer and closer to the madness he had sought to cure. To him, there was only one solution. There existed only one way for him to continue giving his gifts to the next generation. And so he killed himself, and bound his own body and soul together, just as he had Nai's. And so we became Fallaner - a body belonging to none, and the souls of many. In time, more came to us, seeking cures that no other could offer. Where we could, we healed them. Where we could not, we allowed them to join us. And now another comes."

Reckoning stopped, and clutched his head. "What? What happened?"

We used you to tell a story, Carrion, and we also read your mind. We recognize the fragmented pain that tarries within you, and offer you a cure.

Rainbow stepped forward, spilling her rotten beverage. "No, Fallaner. You're not going to do that to him!"

Did you learn nothing from the dragon you murdered, Loyalty? Do you still not comprehend his words? Without a clear mind, the Body cannot fulfill the purpose it bears stamped upon its back. Stifled, the soul grows hollow and hungry. Is my alternative not better than to live a life of madness and regret? To grow old and weak not only in body, but mind? Do not question me, Loyalty, for this is something we must do. We shall restore you, and then you shall both have the answers you seek. Now, remember not.

The green mist again surrounded Reckoning, and gently, he fell to his knees. Rainbow ran forward, hoping to stop the dead elk, but her hoof passed through Fallaner as though he were no more than a ghost. In our tongue, we are called Healer. The irony that we could not heal ourself lingers on our heart. Even our jaw remains undone, showing to our kind the most intimate of our secrets. What, Loyalty, can you do to change the future? Know that your magic alone is not your strength. We tell you of prophecies, Loyalty, for they are made in your name. Remember this well, for you shall hear it only once.

"What? Prophecies? I already got one, and it doesn't make any sense. Just tell me how to cure Luna!"

Then Fallaner spoke, aloud, in a tone that tore into the world painfully and brought tears to Rainbow's eyes.

"The Heir of the Storm rises with the Moon.
Their fates are entwined with that of their kind.
Should the heir not stand, then falls doom.
And all it takes is a promise signed.

For an ancient lie lays in plain sight;
a child lost to a forgotten recollection
Reconciliation knows the plight,
but will not share it for her protection.

A choice must be made by one so small
She bears witness to the death of Royalty
To undo damage, she sacrificed all
One cannot have Honor without Loyalty."

The elk's head nodded forward limply, but then swiveled up to the sound of steel leaving a sheathe. Reckoning's mouth clutched his machete, and the green light glimmered frighteningly off the white orb of his false eye. He looked... hungry.

"Uh... Reckoning, what are you doing?"

"Stay back, Easy Breeze," he muttered around the handle of the weapon. "Let a guardspony handle this."

"Easy Breeze?" Rainbow shot a glance to Fallaner, who seemed entirely calm, and then back at herself. Just as she expected, her Rainbow colors had returned. But if she didn't look like her mother, then...

"Look out!"

The warning came soon enough to spare the elk a quick death, but not before Reckoning claimed one of the creature's antlers. How the blade had touched him, Rainbow couldn't guess, but the severed, bloodstained appendage fell to the ground alone. Fallaner's open throat howled in agony, flailing wildly. Deadeye drew closer.

"No, Reckoning!" Rainbow flared her wings and lunged at the other pony. A mighty right hook struck the scout's face, issuing the crystal clear crack of shattering glass. Dead Reckoning was thrown head over hooves into the cold wall. His weapon skittered across the floor, coming to rest a dozen feet away.

You saved us... me, Loyalty. Instead of a chorus, Fallaner's mental tones carried only one voice, issuing from the glow of a single antler prong.

"Yeah, well you still need to tell me how to cure Luna."

His mind is in the past, and my methods cannot undo it. I... have destroyed him... He resisted me. Now you must finish it.

"What? I'm not killing him!"

I prophesied true when you entered. One of us would not leave this place. You are armed and he is not.

"No!" Rainbow would have said more, had Dead Reckoning not managed to rise from the pile of books. His false eye had shattered in its socket, and the shards of glass had embedded themselves in the surrounding muscle. A venous web of his blood trickled between the shards, before spilling down his face along the three fissures of the scar that had claimed the eye in the first place. His muzzle was contracted in fury, and his remaining eye thirsted for blood.

"How could you, Breeze? Betray Equestria for them?!"

"Reckoning, this isn't happening!" Rainbow shouted. "It's just another flashback!"

He cannot hear you, Loyalty. Flee. Your wings are swifter, but he is a hunter. Only a lead will save you in the jungle.

Reckoning drew back on his hind legs. Fallaner's remaining antler glowed with green magic, but it was unable to restrain the old pegasus. Reckoning spread his wings and flapped, once. A thin mist filled the room, consuming his magic yet again. It was enough, though, to blind Rainbow to both the monstrous elk and her maddened companion.

"How do I save Luna?!" Rainbow shouted into the fog.

You already hold the guide in paper, Rainbow. Luna slumbers west of here, at the great ridge. You asked the right question, and now only need the right-

Through the mist Rainbow could see nothing. Her senses were guided by hearing, first and foremost. What she heard, echoing in the room too small to bear echoes, was the noise. It began with a hum, and then became more of a whistling, before it ended with the sound of a small splash and a gentle trickle. She remembered the exact sound from the night she had first met Reckoning. Only one thing changed this time: a dull, fleshy thud. Something heavy hit the wooden floor.

Rainbow's thinking mind froze up, knowing the death without even seeing the body. Somewhere in the mist, he was watching her. "Okay, Reckoning. Everything's okay now."

He didn't answer. That was the worst part. Her wings twitched. Her ears flipped around, hoping to catch a sound. Nothing happened for five whole seconds. The scent of rot continued to pervade the cold, wet air. Ten seconds. The swirling of fell magic could barely be heard through the room's single door. Fifteen seconds.

Wind whistled over a blade, and she spun. The blade at the crest of her left wing caught Reckoning's weapon on its point, no more than an inch from her neck. She looked him square in the eye, and in the reflection, she could have sworn she saw a griffon staring back. She didn't have time to think on it. The collision had been painful, and she could feel an ache from the strength of his attack on the crest of her wing, but the blade hadn't reached her flesh. Thrusting with her stronger wings, she threw the other pony back long enough to make a break for it in the mist.

She quickly found a wall, and from there felt along it blindly, as quickly as she could, searching for a doorway. It took too long. She heard the cut through the air, and leapt to the side. A shallow cut drew a line over her cutie mark. Warm wet blood spilled over her right flank, worsening the wound already placed there earlier. The pain was intense, but she couldn't take the time to think about it, or the next strike would kill her. She rolled forward, before throwing herself toward another wall at random.

Her hooves found a doorway, sitting open. Without a thought, she leapt through it, out of Deadeye's magical mist, and into the long tube that held the swirling vortex of Fallaner's green magic. She moved forward along the spiraling path as quickly as she could, but the risk of a wrong step was too great to run.

Reckoning came out of the mist behind her only moments later. "Traitor!" His hooves ran on the winding surface, uncaring of the risks it presented. Dash turned just in time to meet his approach, blocking another of his slashes with the blades on her wings.

"Why, Breeze?"

"I'm not going to hurt you, Deadeye. I'm not fighting." Rainbow paced backwards, keeping herself low as she watched his approach.

Reckoning responded with a dozen cuts, swinging as wildly and quickly as he could. Rainbow struggled to keep up with the speed and sheer strength behind his attacks. One attack came too close, putting a cut on her brow. Blood seeped down into Rainbow's left eye, and she squeezed it shut.

Still he continued, and with each block, she realized his advantage. Wings weren't meant for guarding, and despite her speed, the natural advantage of his blade would leave her dead if she didn't do something.

Her mind came first to his earlier words. "You're defending yourself."

She ducked under a slash aimed for her neck, and then slapped him with the open flat of one of her wings. Though buffeted, Reckoning did not relent.

"You're trying to save lives."

He slashed at her, and when she parried, his steel-shod hoof hit the base of her wing. In agony, it crumpled to her side. She leapt back to avoid his next attack.

"My life."

He watched her, in exactly the same way a tiger would watch a canary. He paced forward slowly, testing how close she would allow him. Rather than attacking, she yielded ground with each step.

"Your princess' life."

His sudden lunge caught her unprepared. She managed to leap to the side, narrowly, but the action cost her balance. She barely stayed on the walkway, leaning heavily out into open air over the vile green mana as Deadeye stepped over her.

"Sometimes, that means making choices."

She saw her opening. She could have caught his throat with her bruised wing. He wouldn't have expected it in the slightest. It was her only sane chance. In that moment, though, she saw Smog's eye, and she heard her own promise to Reckoning. "We're both walking out of here together."

Instead, she waited. He pulled back his machete, ready to end it all, and she made the only choice she could.

She jumped.

A torrent of arcane wind seized her wings, spinning her in midair. She flapped heavily, forcing herself to ignore the bruise Reckoning had given her. Still she fell, dropping like a rock. The green energy grew closer, and with it came the scent of rot and acid. Closer and closer it came, until her wings caught a crosswind, mere inches away from the surface of the deathly substance. She shot forward on the momentum of her fall, and pulled up toward the walkway.

With every foot forward, she felt gravity shift, buffeting her and skewing her path wildly. Her mind couldn't follow the changes, and so it was only her instincts as a flier that saved her. Up, and then across, tilting her wings forward for pitch, and then diving 'up' toward the exit. She looped over the path twice not out of desire to show off, but because she had no other choice. She saw Reckoning running for the exit as well, but his old legs were no match for the speed of her wings. She soared through the door with twenty feet to spare, and continued on wing until she reached the narrow spiral stairs at the far side of the room.

Upwards she ran, stumbling as her wounded hind flank resisted her motion. She could hear Reckoning's hooves behind her as she climbed, though the echoing sound gave no indication of his distance. Only that he was behind, and that if she stopped, he would be behind no more. Upward she continued, desperate and tired, until she came to a little library. Her only thought was of the door out, and her thanks were unimaginable when she found it restored to its proper place. She glanced back, to see Reckoning cresting the top of the stairs. With no more time to wait, she darted out into the darkness of the jungle.

The very first thought that reached her mind was Reckoning's rule about flying - one of the very first things he had told her. Predators have a harder time seeing you if you stayed beneath the canopy. An agile flyer, Rainbow could only pray it would work on the pony who had given the advice in the first place. A rainbow trail marked her blur into the thick foliage of the Zebrican jungle.

The last she heard of Dead Reckoning was a muted shout. "How could you?"

She flew a least a mile in seconds, not caring about her direction or her surroundings. Finally, the pain in her wing and her flank overrode her desperation, and she simply fell onto the branches of a small tree. Once there, it only took her moments to pass into a heavy sleep, haunted by the cannibalistic elk and the cruel question of her former partner.

Special Thanks to SatoshiKyu for Pre-Reading

XIV - Reunions

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XIV
Reunions

- - -

Solo soared through the chilled air, reveling in the sharp contrast it offered to the warmth that had filled her flanks only minutes earlier. North Baltimare had been a city slumbering in the night, and while the south was lively in the darkness, even its lights had been left behind. All that was left was the great swamp, and the little tendrils of civilization struggling to burrow into its depths.

The furthest of these bastions of order and organization visible over the towering canopy of elms and maples and willows was a white manor-house. The patches of moss visible on the crumbling shingles and holes in its roof suggested that it would soon give way to the reclaiming vines and roots of the swamp. In the meantime, it was a place of dark shelter and secrecy, removed from anywhere that decent ponies would dare set hoof.

There were no guards, because such a thing would be stupid. The road leading up to the structure was completely unmanageable, as overgrown and dense as it was. Only wings let the young Canterlot smuggler approach, and even then she did so out of desperation.

She needed to find Shining Armor, but the task was made difficult by their previous rough parting. She had no idea where the captain had run off to, and her hopes of tracking him from city hall had been shattered by a Closed sign. That left only one lead, provided by her unfortunate partner. It led to the creepy, run-down house, where a little light was visible between the rotting rafters. She soared down toward it slowly, until she could make out a faint whispering. To avoid drawing attention to herself, she landed on a sturdy-looking beam. It creaked loudly under her weight.

"What was that?" The voice was gruff and loud, but also familiar. The sound of steps on loose floorboards brought a recognizable griffon into view. Solo had met him no more than two hours prior, under less serious circumstances.

"This old house is falling apart, Alexandros. It's just the boards." The second voice was boorish (or, more accurately, boarish), and bellowing. "Do you have the lodestone cone?"

"Right here," the familiar griffon answered, producing a rough cone of dark gray rock from beneath his wing. He walked back toward the boar's voice, accompanied by the sound of floorboards croaking beneath a shift in his body weight. "But we don't need it yet, right? She's out cold."

"Hitting someone over the head isn't a science, idiot. She could wake up soon, and I'd like to be out of here before she does." Solo had to guess the voice belonged to Bataar, the boar of the strange trio she had met earlier in the night. "Where in the Void is the thief? He was supposed to be back by now."

"If I had to hazard a guess, probably rutting the brains out of that ponyess." The griffon's speech hovered over a rather awkward pause. "What do they call their females again?"

"Mares, Alexandros. And if we're planning on working in Equestria any more, you should take the time to learn that."

"Bah. The ponies don't even have wars anymore. What kind of work are we likely to get here? Give me my own kind any day."

"Say what you like, but Masquerade pays well."

"I still don't trust her. You saw what she did to that big pony we brought her. Makes my feathers stand up."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't-" The words stopped instantly to the sound of a loud wooden creaking. Solo froze in place, but she knew all too well that the sound hadn't come from her own support. Something else was there. The boar picked up his words a moment later. "I'm gonna go check it out. You watch the unicorn."

The sound of a door opening on rusted hinges served as the prelude to the boar's slow steps. With only one of the criminals left in the room, Solo saw her chance. She gripped her stolen knife between her teeth and dropped down through the hole in the ceiling, using her wings to soften her landing. There was still a sound, which ought to have attracted the griffon's attention, were it not completely overridden by a far more potent noise.

The scream was the boar's, and it was sharp and pervading in the relative quiet of the massive house. However, perhaps most notably, it was also very short. With the griffon Alexandros distracted by the sound, Going Solo took the opportunity to dive out of sight behind a dusty plastic-covered couch nearby. As she moved, she caught her first decent glance at the full room, though it only lasted for a moment. All she cared to note was the scattering of furniture, and the unconscious unicorn crumpled over in an armchair. White Flag looked terrible, with a massive bruise rising from her neck, just above the shoulder.

Solo crouched down behind the couch, and pressed her head against the floorboards. The damp smell of mildew was strong, but the little crack of vision between the bottom of the couch and the floor was worth it. Alexandros' paws and talons paced slowly toward the door, though her vision ended at their ankles.

He was perhaps halfway across the room when the motion became irrelevant. There was no better way to describe the event than to say that the door exploded. A shower of splinters and dust erupted from the former entryway, followed by a short gasp of pain. The griffon stepped back, as heavy hoof-falls moved forward out of the cloud.

It was clearly a pony. An off-white coat ended in four of the largest hooves Solo had ever seen, all covered in bladed steel shoes. Their strides forward were secure, steady, and intimidating.

"Bataar!" Alexandros shouted. The hooves moved forward. The griffin shuffled back. "Look, you can take him. Just let me go."

"What were you planning to do with her?" The voice was surprisingly female, given the likely size of its owner. Solo had trouble imagining a mare attached to those massive hooves.

"I'm not-"

One of the enormous hooves lifted off the ground. Bataar screamed alongside a crisp *snap*, not unlike a cracker being broken in half. A moment later, something long, curved, and white fell onto the floor. Solo had to stare at it for a moment to recognize it as a tusk, snapped off at its very base. Her heart skipped a bit in surprise.

"Answer me." The mare's voice was the only calm noise in the room, yet it came across clearly over the gasping of the griffon and the bellowing of the boar.

"Suida," Alexandros answered. "We were taking her to Suida."

"Thank you." The mare's leg shifted, and Bataar fell to the floor. Almost immediately, one of her hooves was lifted, out of Solo's line of sight. It returned to the floor wet, following a muffled gurgling and a small puddle that began to grow around her hooves. As if ignorant of the wet red mess adorning her fetlocks, she began to walk toward the griffon.

"What? St-stay back!" He was clearly desperate. He moved to the chair where Flag was lying, unconscious. One of his talons rose from the ground, no doubt wrapped around her throat. "I'll kill her. Let me go, and you can have her."

The mare's response was calm and collected. Her left forehoof slid smoothly out of its shoe. The weapon sat momentarily on the ground, but it did not go undisturbed long. What followed was hard for Solo to track from her hiding place, especially given the speed of it all. A hoof stomped in the back of the shoe, flipping it into the air the way one might bounce a bit. As it lifted up, the mare turned around, bringing her back legs to bear. They were lifted up in what one might call a buck, preceding the ringing clarion call of metal striking metal. Then there came the clear whistling of a blade speeding through the air, which ended in an almost indescribable fleshy nose. The whole process took less than a second.

Alexandros collapsed to the floor. The mare's shoe was buried all the way through his throat, deep enough to be touching his spine. She walked over to him, retrieved the bloodied shoe, and returned it to its place on her hoof. She didn’t even bother to wipe it down. Then she turned. "Come out, mare. I know you're there."

Solo locked up, simply unable to move. The hooves came closer, stopping immediately on the other side of the couch behind which she had intended to hide her presence. Then, with little more effort that one might expect it would take to sneeze, the furniture was gone, and Going Solo was hidden no more.

The other mare was an earth pony, with a short but loose eggshell mane hanging down her off-white coat. Her body matched her hooves in its enormity, towering over Solo by not only a head, but a fair portion of a neck as well. She spoke again in her calm contralto. "Where is Masquerade?"

"I don't know!" Solo shouted, leaping backward with her wings. "I'm not with them. I was trying to find Captain Armor."

"Can you prove that?"

"Uh..." The word betrayed Solo's lack of confidence in the face of the towering killer. The earth pony strode forward slowly, closing the gap Solo had made with her wings. She realized it had been the wrong choice when she glanced up and realized that the earth pony now stood between her and the hole in the ceiling that was her only easy escape route. She very-nearly panicked when she felt cold, musty wood against her back. There was nowhere else to go.

The pegasus and the earth pony both turned to the sound of a unicorn's voice. "Wait, Captain." White Flag stepped down out of her dusty chair onto shaky hooves, and held up a leg that seemed to indicate a reprieve. Alexandro's blood dripped from her face, having fallen there from the earth pony's fatal attack. "She's... not one of them. Damn, the boar hits hard."

"You'll survive," the 'Captain' responded. "Did they do anything permanent?"

Flag shook her head quickly. "They didn't even drug me. Amateurs. Got lucky sneaking up on me like that. I was expecting you." The rolling of her neck produced a series of very distinct pops, as her spine settled back into place. Then she slid a hoof over her face, wiping away the sickening red. "Nothing like a splash in the face to wake you up. Captain, the civilian there is Going Solo. Armor needed her as an in to Grizzaloo, and I understand she's been accompanying him. Solo, this is Captain Soldier On, of the Honor Guard."

Recognizing the name from numerous mentions in Shining Armor's company, Solo found herself unable to do anything more than stare at the pony in awe. It was much easier to take White Flag's earlier warnings seriously while standing in front of the mare. "You're...?"

"You've heard of me?" On focused her attention back on the civilian pony, and her unusually placid expression twisted into a frown. "What are you doing here in Baltimare?"

"We thought Masquerade was here," Solo blurted out, hoping to grab the attention of the two soldiers. "But Shining was poisoned."

"What?" Flag's drowsiness was swept away in the shocking statement.

"That would explain a lot," Soldier On muttered aloud, though much more to herself than the other two present mares. "He's north, across the river. Summer Sun Apartments, number 812, when I last saw him." On took two heavy steps toward the door before Flag stepped into her path.

Flag seemed surprised at her comment. "You aren't coming?"

"No. I'm going to Suida to kill Masquerade."

Rather than gasping out in shock, the older of the guardsponies pressed a hoof onto her muzzle in annoyance, just below her horn. "I hope you aren't thinking of trying to fight her alone. She killed the Commander."

"It wasn't a fair fight," On muttered coldly and, above all, factually. Solo took sudden notice of the analytic scowl that seemed to spread down from White Flag's horn across her royal blue face. Ignoring the tactician, Soldier On moved to the wreckage that had once been a door. "I'm leaving tonight."

"Wait!" White Flag yelled, with a tinge of desperation. "If you're going that far, at least come with us to the safe-house and gear up. You'll need lodestone shoes to fight a mage like her."

"Fine." The earth pony stomped out of the room.

Solo moved to follow, only to be caught by White Flag's outstretched leg. The desperation of past moments lingered in her expression, and her voice whispered forcefully. "When I tell you to go, you're going to fly north of the river and find Shining Armor. I have to take her in alive, which means there's going to be a fight that you wouldn't survive. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I got it." Solo spread her wings to slap away the guardspony's leg, accompanying the motion with a cynical glare. Flag responded by donning a blank expression and making her way down into the ancient house.

- - -

Shining Armor stumbled down the road. He'd popped the shoulder of his left foreleg back into place, yet it still felt off. Even that lingering trouble was nothing, however, when compared to the awkward void he felt in his horn. It had taken him almost an hour to wander down to the docks and hire a ride across. In that time, his magic ought to have begun to regenerate. Instead, he felt completely spent and empty. The painful stress of having overspent himself was absent, leaving him wondering exactly what was wrong.

He'd stumbled his way to a huge, open-air marketplace, totally devoid of shoppers at one in the morning. Oil streetlamps ignited his path, but the side streets were paved with shadows. He was aiming for the Honor Guard safe-house that White Flag had given him directions to, though the aches across his body kept suggesting that just about any hotel would do just as well.

When his leg stumbled again, near the center of the market square, he decided it was time for a break. A huge fountain decorated the center of the area, and with very little effort, he sidled over to it, leaning against the low railing that held in the water.

A glance upward saw Shining face to face with a smoothly sculpted stone dragon. Four indistinct guardsponies stood atop the corpse, while a fifth held a spear that had been driven home in its neck. Unlike the others, her face was revealed beneath a helmet as both distinct and familiar. Shining didn't know the history of the statue, but he recognized the mare. In the haze of fatigue, his mind wandered to the day he had first met his predecessor, Unending Vigil.

The statue portrayed her as young and bright-faced, though Shining knew better. Even during the Dragon Wars, the Captain had looked like she was pushing sixty. He'd heard it had been her intent to retire those twenty years ago, but that was before White Flag's incident.

Shining Armor's thoughts were swept away as his ears perked to the sound of wind flowing over wings. His eyes glanced upward to observe a dark red pegasus flying toward him in a rather tacky noir-style trench coat. A moment later, the stallion landed at only speaking distance away.

"Captain Armor. It is you truly. I am surprise you are here." The Stalliongradi's tone was short and emphatic, suggesting urgency.

"Red Ink." Shining nodded, casting a firm glare in his counterpart's direction. "Are you here for Soldier On or Masquerade?"

Ink seemed surprised by the question. "Mine guards say that Masquerade has not been in Baltimare for weeks at least. But I have tracked On here, and I intend to claim her." The Honor Guard looked over Shining's body, obviously noticing his bruises. "I see you have tried once already. You are still alive and your horn is still attached, so perhaps I am giving Royal Guard too little credit."

"Glad to see your opinion of the Royal Guard has improved."

"You misunderstand me, Armor. I am meaning you. Royal Guards is still pathetic. You alone are decent fighter." Shining's face furrowed into a frown that Ink bluntly ignored. "That is why I make offer to you. I have ambush set up for On, here, in coming hours. White Flag is leading her here soon. If you will help me, we have better chance to take her living."

Shining elevated an eyebrow in surprise. "You want my help?"

"Personal grudge are stuff of foals story book. I did not live through Revolution by trying to be hero, fighting things on my own - well, save dragon. But that is different. I am not fool enough to think I will be better stallion for taking On alone. I find satisfaction when she is brought justice, not by humiliating her myself." He chuckled. "That would only be pleasure. If you are helping me here, perhaps we forget our bet on her, and consider only Masquerade."

Shining was about to comment on his lack of magic when the sound of heavy shoes hitting cobblestone echoed up the street leading south from the market. Ink's head shot toward it, and then he took to wing. "Already? Listen, Armor. Many shop buildings here. Get her inside one, and grab oil lantern. I will take care of rest."

Ink shot into the sky, leaving Armor alone to rest against the fountain, and struggle for magic that would not come.

He saw them approaching, three wide. Soldier On was in the center. Her mane hung down loose over her neck, rather than the tight ponytail she'd worn earlier. The change did a surprising deal to help hide the absence of half her right ear. Otherwise, nothing about the mare differed from their previous encounter, little more than an hour past. She fixed Shining with a surprised gaze and turned toward him.

The second of the approaching group was White Flag, who remained completely unchanged since they'd spoken over dinner. She seemed concerned to see the captain resting against the fountain.

It was the third mare approaching, however, that put a knot in the guardspony's stomach.

"Shining?" Going Solo muttered aloud, before darting forward in the air. "Are you okay?"

Shining Armor gasped in pain when the pegasus mare tackled him in a tight hug. The sore bruises on his chest screamed in resistance, though the pain faded to a sort of warm comfort as the mare embraced him. He leaned back to answer the motion, before Cadance's face flitted through his mind. With a sudden discomfort, he pushed Solo away. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because Masquerade had you poisoned," White Flag responded, walking forward slowly to join in the conversation. "She's gunning for us. Guardsponies, I mean."

"Poisoned? I feel fine..." and then he stopped. "My magic."

"I'm sorry, but what?" Flag asked. "There's no such thing as a magical poison."

"My mana has been low all day, Lieutenant. I think that might be what she means. Not a 'magical' poison. A poison that targets mana."

Flag clearly disagreed with the idea, but On pushed the smaller unicorn mare aside, moving forward to stand over Shining Armor. "Such a thing does not exist if you are very strict in your concept of a 'poison'. But I guarantee you that Shining will survive the night. Ask Reckoning when you next see him, and he will explain further. As for you, Armor, it seems I was mistaken about your weakness."

"His weakness?" Solo shot the towering guardspony a curious glance. "Wait, you knew about this?"

"Who else could have given him those bruises?" The Stalliongradi mare responded, gesturing to the scuffs and raised spots on Shining's legs and neck. "While we are speaking of this, Flag, I suggest you stop playing ignorance. I don't know if you truly still have faith in me, or if Armor here thought this would make a good plan to capture me, but you cannot take me alone, and he has no magic."

Flag was quiet, staring down at her hooves. Soldier On glanced between her and Shining Armor, before turning away. "It is good that I am no longer a guardspony, anyway. It would be inconvenient if I started another war with the boars." Her hooves carried her north, toward the river.

"Wait!" Armor yelled, standing up. "Soldier On, if you really aren't behind this, then tell us how to cure Luna!"

The earth pony didn't turn, though she did stop pacing for a moment. "I do not know. Though I would not tell you if I did. Perhaps you can ask your sister, if you do not understand. For now, my only advice is this. Luna will die. Feel free to blame me, or Masquerade, but do not blame yourself. Equestria will need somepony to look to, and Celestia will not be up to the task. When you look for her conspirator or the pony who killed your friend, though, you are right to look to Stalliongrad."

She trudged forward until the flapping of wings arrived on the wind. Her head shifted upward, and spoke simply. "I almost feel that I should have been expecting you, Red Ink."

"You weren't? I am imagining you expected to get away here with revolution like you try in Stalliongrad. Thought you could be overthrowing Celestia?"

Soldier On stomped. The cobblestone beneath her hoof cracked, releasing dozens of stone shards. She trapped one under her shoe as she spoke with fury in her voice. "You could never understand my loyalty to the Princess, Ink. I do not expect you to. Today, I will free Stalliongrad and Canterlot both from your oppression."

"You are intend to fight all of us? Armor, Flag, and I? You would be smarter to try and run, like you always were doing in Stalliongrad. Many times I saw your flank darting into alleyways."

Soldier On stomped on the rock. As it flew upward, she spun and bucked it toward Red Ink. He dodged with surprising speed, keeping his forelegs folded across his chest. "The Honor Guard taught me a lot, Ink."

"You mean the Commander did? Do not speak as if you were to be known to him."

Soldier On responded by lowering herself to the ground. "I have had enough of your words. When you are as broken as your lying words, I will kill you."

"Confidence is surprising, I think. Do not worry, On, I shall sing you lullaby when you are gone."

Armor watched as Red Ink flapped forward to hover directly over Soldier On. She rose to her hind legs as he folded his wings and simply dropped.

By his guess, she ought to have decapitated him in the first blow. Her bladed shoes aimed for his neck, but he twisted nimbly as he fell, using his wings to twist in ways Shining thought impossible. Rather than holding himself up and striking at On, Red Ink let himself fall all the way to the ground. Landing on all fours, the bulky but relatively small pegasus was much lower than Soldier On's balancing form. His wings flapped once, sending his shoulder into her belly forcefully. The attack tipped her onto her back, and he leapt atop her.

On kicked at him, but Ink was too fast. For each attack the huge pony offered, he landed two swift strikes to her face. Blood began to trickle down her muzzle. Realizing her plight, Soldier On pressed a hoof down on the cobblestone of the Chocolate Market's streets. Her incredible strength threw Ink off her chest, even as she rolled over onto her hooves. Her opponent caught himself in midair with his wings, and landed level, ready to continue the fight.

"Your assistance is being welcome, now," Ink muttered in Flag and Shining's directions. The taunting tone of his humor had disappeared from his words, replaced with grim seriousness.

Soldier On slid a foreleg over her muzzle. When the blood was wiped away, Shining Armor was stunned to see no wound formed at all. The mare's flesh and coat were perfect, uncut and uninjured, save the little stains of blood that remained. He'd never heard of such magic in an earth pony before, and the idea was troubling.

This time, it was On's turn to go on the offensive. She galloped forward with massive strides in Ink's direction. He lowered himself, ready to strike. She continued until he was within striking distance, and then leapt into the air.

Ink's bladed wings covered him, ready for a strike. It took him half a second to realize that nothing was coming, but in that time, Soldier On had cleared his body, and made her way at a sprint toward a nearby market stall. Though her head was turned away from the fountain, she nevertheless managed to duck perfectly in time to avoid a trio of stunning bolts thrown from White Flag's horn.

"Don't do this, Flag!" On shouted, as her hooves decimated the stall. Beams and planks shattered at her strikes. "I don't want to have to kill you."

"But you want to kill Princess Luna? You claim to be loyal to Celestia, yet you'd sacrifice her sister for revenge?" Flag's horn ignited again. Soldier On leapt away with a long plank tucked under her leg like a lance, as the rubble of the rest of the stall assembled into a trio of wooden ponies.

Seeing her distraction by the simple golems Flag had created, Red Ink flew quickly to stand behind the traitorous mare, flanking her with the wooden ponies. On shot a quick glance over her shoulder, and then turned back to the original threat. When the effigies leapt at her, she grabbed the first tightly with both forehooves and spun. The rough, jagged hooves of the other two tore through her side and back like claws as she completed her motion, throwing the third at Red Ink. He dove out of the way, and then charged forward. With On's focus on the two wooden creatures, Ink was able to leap onto her back and wrap his forelegs around her throat in a chokehold.

Even in that terrible position, Soldier On fought on almost unhindered. Her hooves smashed through the golems as if they had been made of mud rather than wood. Shattered into splinters, their magic faded, leaving the ex-guardspony to face her rival. Rather than struggle against his grip, On simply flipped backwards, intending to smash the smaller pony's body between her own form and the hard ground. Ink released his grip and slipped out from under the large mare, though not before her entire weight smashed down on his left rear leg.

Ink's wings pulled him away, though he landed limping. As the scowl on his face spread, he shook his wounded limb to regain its motion. Then the pegasus flew to the fountain and landed in the water. His eyes flickered briefly to Shining. "Help me, Armor."

The unicorn stood up as Ink shot back into the air, trailing drops of water. Shining's attention was stolen away by a tapping on his armored shoulder. He glanced back to Going Solo, who was staring at him with obvious concern. "Shining, don't! You don't have any magic. Let's just leave!"

The captain afforded himself a deep breath before responding. "I can't, Solo."

"What?"

Shining Armor nodded slowly, pacing forward toward the battle. Though it was clear that Going Solo had more to say, she held her tongue as White Flag approached. "Captain Armor, your magic is stronger than mine." With no more explanation, she placed her horn against the polished amethyst of his armor. Platinum's Ward glowed and hummed with the infusion of raw mana from Flag's glowing horn, and Shining could sense the energy building at the base of his horn. Flag had given him a surprising volume of mana, and with that, he was ready.

On the far side of the marketplace, Red Ink took a heavy blow to the jaw from Soldier On's elbow. Thrown aside like a ragdoll, his absence gave the Captain of the Royal Guard a clear shot.

One, two, three, and four shots were directed from Armor's horn, all aimed for the traitor. Rather than face the onslaught, she leapt behind another of the open-shuttered stalls and took cover. When the bolts had stopped, Armor took a moment to regain his focus as Red Ink stood up.

On's voice called out from her hiding place. "Don't forget my warning, Shining Armor. Stay out of this!"

"I can't do that. Surrender and come out peacefully."

"I know the guardspony speech, Armor. Save your words."

Red Ink laughed, but rather than jovial and taunting, his tone was hollow. "She is afraid now. Too many of us for her to handle. Like wounded animal. Dangerous. We finish it now."

Armor gave a curt nod, and Ink flared his wings, revealing the thin blades across their crests. White Flag nodded as well, and the three approached On's hiding place.

The market stall exploded as On emerged. Her hooves sent a pair of bladed shoes flying in the direction of the two approaching unicorns. By instinct, Shining threw up his most potent shield. The metal weapons bounced off the rosy arcane surface, but through his horn, Armor felt their force. There was mana behind their strength - no mere muscle could give such an attack, even from Soldier On's hulking build.

In the time it took Shining to lower the shield, the traitor charged at Red Ink. Rather than ducking back or shielding himself from the unrelenting force that was Soldier On, the commandant answered by charging himself. They struck like freight trains, and the power was clear in the way their muscles rippled on impact. Ink brought both his forehooves together against the sides of On's skull, smashing her ears and drawing blood with each blow. In exchange, On's still-bladed right forehoof scraped across Ink's chest just below the neck. A stretch of fur and skin as wide as Shining's muzzle was ripped off of the stallion, leaving behind a gaping wound of blood and muscle and exposed ribs. He stumbled backward, and Soldier On might have killed him there, had Armor not intervened with another shield.

"Damn it all!" Red Ink roared, before his furious scream lost all language together, becoming a twisted mess of growling and shrieking. His wings carried him up to one of the nearby oil lamp streetlights, which he smashed with his bare hoof. The glass cut his arm, but that was nowhere near as frightening as the flaming oil that spread across his body.

Shining, Flag, and On watched in stunned silence as flames engulfed the Honor Guard captain's body. His ruined trench coat burned into ashes, and the glowing orange blades on his wings fell away as the straps holding them in place were incinerated. The fireball that was Red Ink swooped down toward Soldier On, no longer bleeding.

"You'll pay!" he roared, as a wave of his wing sent a massive wall of fire toward the mare. It was magic Shining Armor had never seen, nor conceived of. His horn ignited, but this time it was aimed at the fiery stallion.

"Stop it Ink! We need her alive!"

White Flag ran alongside Shining, and her own magic formed a shield around Soldier On. Shining might have criticized it on the practice field, but at the moment, it held against the firestorm that issued from Red Ink's furiously flapping wings.

"She doesn't deserve to live!" Ink roared back. When the pegasus found Shining's magic pressing against his wings, he turned his flames toward the captain of the Royal Guard. Shining saw the fire coming, and made himself a shield. The tight bubble of rose magic was surrounded on all sides by tongues of red and orange flame. The guardspony waited, but only the crackling of fire could be heard, and it did not let up.

Shining felt his borrowed magic growing thin. Every moment he held off the flames was a moment that White Flag's gifted magic dwindled, and his shield would not hold when the mana was no more. He put his whole focus into his defenses, but it would take an outside intervention to save him.

His ears perked to a familiar voice, overtaken by the fury of battle.

"Don't you dare hurt him!" The flames let up as Going Solo shouted at the flaming pony. The smoke parted just in time for Shining Armor to see the smuggler buck Red Ink across the face with both hooves. He winced at the pain that crossed her face as her hooves ducked into the fire, but the twist of his neck was enough to spare the captain a fiery death.

Though the blow was strong, it did little to the rage that dominated Red Ink's whole being. His eyes locked onto Going Solo, and with the full force of his flying body, his foreleg was brought across her face in a forceful smack. Even from the ground, Shining could hear the crack that accompanied the blow. Solo was thrown through the air, and Red Ink sent a wave of flame after her. Her face crashed through a window, and in her wake, the structure was set aflame. Innocent voices screamed, and the unbridled hatred in Red Ink's eyes faded. The fire covering his body grew less intense, revealing his form beneath. Though his thoughts were his own, the commandant still ignored the flaming building, in favor of Soldier On. "Your hooves, On! Your blood!"

She offered no answer, instead focusing on ending the last of the brick golems White Flag had made to restrain her. Aware of the attention she'd earned from both Red Ink and Shining Armor, the traitorous guardspony turn toward a nearby building and ran. Rather than stop at the wall, the earth pony lowered her shoulder and plowed through the bricks like they were paper.

"Just like the Changeling Hive!" Flag shouted. "You two, keep up!"

"But Solo-!"

Flag cut off Shining's protest. "I warned her, Armor. We have to move now!"

Red Ink, body still trailing flames, darted into the hole in the wall. Shining Armor saw White Flag offer him a last glance, before turning to follow. "She knows we're on to her. She's trying to escape like she did in Suida!"

As his companions left, Shining turned toward the burning building. Skylark A artments. The 'P' was missing, leaving an awkward space beneath the wall of climbing flames. Shining hadn't expected a wooden building to burn so quickly, but he didn't have time to lose on contemplation. The window was on the fourth floor, out of seven. Three right of the door. With the count in his mind, the Captain of the Royal Guard charged inside.

Almost immediately, he could feel the mana in the air. Whatever Red Ink had done, the fire that burned in the structure was unnaturally hot and powerful. Its smoke was thick, and choking, and it filled the lobby in a dense haze. Shining prepared a light shield over his muzzle, hoping to keep in as much fresh air as he could, and then made his way to the stairs.

Up he ran, two floors, until a wall of flames blocked his path. He knew his shields could carry him through the fire, though how long they would hold, he was not sure. Instead, he turned to the third floor hallway and broke into a run.

The ceiling was burning, and smoke filled the hall. His eyes burned, but he couldn't spare the magic to shield them. Heat and sweat built beneath his armor. His eyes darted from door to door, reading signs for room numbers, until he came to a little arrow next to a jagged line. Stairs. He broke into a full gallop, knowing every second was a chance his companion wouldn't survive.

His hooves faltered at the sound of crying, in two pitches. His eyes wandered toward the stairs, but his decision was made before he even turned back. He ran, listening and hoping as the sound grew louder. Overhead, beams creaked and flames crackled. Here and there, patches of the plaster on the ceiling fell away to reveal beams and heavy boards. He ducked them as best he could and continued on, until at last he reached the source of the sound. The door gave in with a strong buck, though Shining felt himself panting at the effort.

Inside, two foals - a colt and a filly - were bawling their eyes out in a crib. Shining glanced around, but could find no parent nearby. Without a moment to spare, he pulled both the babies onto his back with magic and cast a simple ward to hold them in place. The drain on his magic was light, but every drop mattered.

He ran out of the room and further down the hall. He'd nearly reached the stairs when one of the overhead beams fell. A wall of fire, it blocked his path almost completely. His mind raced. Breaking it would take too much mana. Lifting it away, more still. He had only one option.

A quick burst of his mana created a shield tailored against heat. It wrapped around his own body, as well as that of his passengers. He felt Flag's gifted mana growing scarce, but he had no other option. He stepped back, and then ran forward and leaped through the flames. After that, the stairs went quickly.

Up a single flight of stairs, he was confronted with terror. The fourth floor was painted in orange tongues that lapped up the walls and ceiling until nothing was safe. Worse, with his detour, Solo's room was at the far end of the hall. He focused himself, took a single deep breath, and charged.

His shield grew weak as the fire lapped at his coat and mane. His hooves fell fast and hard against the weakened floor, which shifted and cracked under his weight. Twice he was forced to leap over wide holes, and left only to pray that the ground on the other side would hold.

He knew he'd reached her room when he found a doorway without a door. Instead, a pile of ashes marked the direct path of Red Ink's fury. Inside, the flames had died down into a pile of cinders and holes in the floor. A pile of glass surrounded a charred and bloodied body that barely resembled the smug pride that exemplified Going Solo. Shining Armor wasn't sure whether the water on his face was from the smoke pressing against his eyes. He ran forward and threw the unconscious mare over his shoulders alongside the two sobbing foals, and turned back to the door.

Then the wall collapsed completely. A thousand pounds of rubble and flame poured down on the far side of the room, blocking off all hope of escape with flame and wood and plaster. Shining's mouth hung open, too decimated to even make a noise in response. His simply stood there, wondering why.

He turned back to the broken window, but shook his head at the thought. He had nowhere near enough magic to teleport down. He might survive a four story jump himself, with luck and a good roll, but the foals and Solo would not.

It was then that Shining Armor felt his armor's glow fade. He hacked as a surprisingly calm breath was accompanied by the burning scent of acrid smoke. The temperature he felt grew suddenly hotter, as though he had stepped into a furnace. It was with those sensations that his hope faded.

"Sh... Shi... ning?" The broken, gasping voice over his shoulder grabbed his attention, and he turned back to the awful scent of burning hair, and the grim sight of black scorched flesh covering a once beautiful robin's egg blue coat. Solo's eyes were red and her lashes covered with ash. "What...are..."

"Quiet, Solo."

To his surprise, she slid forward softly. A short, dry, and ultimately unsatisfying peck landed on his lips. When she pulled back, her chapped, cracked lips were smiling. "Tha...nk... you..."

"Hold on, Solo!" Shining screamed. Though she struggled to obey, her eyelids fluttered shut, and a soft breath brushed over the dirty coat of Shining's shoulder. "Damn it!"

The guardspony's head darted around the room, searching desperately for an exit. His bruised and tired form moved to the nearest wall, and he pulled back a hoof. A swift strike put a dent in the wall, but it wasn't nearly enough to create an opening. He pulled back and struck again. Again. Again. His hoof ached. Smoke filled his lungs as well as his eyes, and tears dripped down his cheeks.

It seemed all hope had faded just before the cracked wall collapsed. He hadn't struck it. He stared, in shock, as an opening hung before him. "Thank Celestia."

"Not yet, Captain Armor," a mare's voice added, stepping out of the flames. "Follow me."

"Soldier On?"

The earth pony didn't answer, instead breaking into a run toward the nearby staircase. Shining followed without the luxury of questioning her motives, though the fatigue in his legs and the weight on his back left him much slower than the mare.

All around him, the building collapsed. They reached the main stairs, where fire had blocked his path before. Soldier On walked away from the fiery doorway to a nearby wall. Without hesitation, she smashed it down with a two-legged buck. Rubble rained down on her head, but the dust cleared with a new way out, a short jump above the descending stairs. Shining followed the path gratefully, and then broke into as much of a run as he could manage.

Never before had the frigid night air felt so welcome. The market was filled with the unfortunate denizens of the apartment. A sobbing mother saw Shining leave the building and rushed toward him. Her words were hollow in his ears, as the foals were pulled off his back. He spent his first few moments coughing and hacking, blinking and trying to restore vision not dominated by orange and red.

Solo's weight was removed from his back. It took him a moment to realize that Soldier On had taken the burnt mare. The traitor stared at the burning building with something like remembrance spilling over her face. The orange glow turned to amber against her coat, dancing in patterns across her face.

When the Captain had recovered his breath, he spoke to her. "You came back for me?"

"Not you. The children." Soldier On looked into Shining's eyes, and he saw in her flat, expressionless face the most pain that he could ever imagine. "You are a good guardspony, Shining Armor. I wish I had the luxury to be the same."

"Why...?" Shining struggled with his words. "How did you-?"

"It is very easy for me to buck a hole in a wall, Shining. It is also easy not to go through one. Ink still has not learned how I escape him." She growled. "Feel free to tell him when you see him next. He'll laugh when you speak of this." Her hoof gestured to the flames.

They sat there in silence, as Shining found himself too tired to move. When he could bear the burden of his curiosity no longer, he spoke up. "Tell me, Soldier. What did you do?"

On sighed, and shook her head. "Nothing. That was my treason. I remained silent." Her huge shoulders rose and feel with a deep breath. "Take your friend to Canterlot. Whether you seek a doctor or an undertaker, the best are there." She rose with the greatest of ease. "A train leaves not long from now. I'll take you there."

Shining stood, and followed. "Soldier On... why are you doing this? Why help us? Why let Luna die?"

"You see the world through foal's eyes, Shining Armor. All black and white, without gray. It's easy to see why ponies would follow your white over this." Her hoof gestured to her own off-white coat, stained a bitter gray by the smoke of a burning building.

Shining looked down at the smoke and ash and soot that stained his own coat and wondered just how far he would have to go to find the truth.

- - -

Rainbow awoke to the sound of an avian scream. It issued forth from the dense jungle, echoing amongst the mist and the tree trunks until the pegasus could not discern its direction. She only knew it to be nearby.

The sun was on the verge of rising, and its orange glow had already ignited the sky overhead, giving enough light to inform her that she had slept too long. Her tree was less hospitable than a cloud, as the aching in her lower back and wings testified. When she quickly rolled over to sit upright, the paired wounds on her flank erupted in agony. A crust of dried blood could be felt covering the upper part of the white cloud depicted on her right side. Though she'd been roused by the sound, the weight under her eyes told her that true rest hadn't reached her body.

She watched the mists, listening and waiting. From time to time, the cracking of a branch or a muffled gasp would escape the wall of hanging water, though nothing could be seen save shadows. When the silent pauses were broken, she realized the sounds were coming closer.

Her options flashed through her mind tragically briefly. The blades on her wings were still present. She could try to fight, but she had no intention of drawing blood after what she had seen, and if the threat did turn out to be Reckoning, she wasn't sure she'd be able to hold him off again. Without knowledge of where the echoing danger was approaching from, let alone other dangers, running into the mist was suicide. Staying still spelled the same grim future. That left only one choice. Her wings spread swiftly, as she recalled the last words of a dying elk. You already hold the guide in paper, Rainbow. Luna slumbers west of here, at the great ridge.

A second scream of the same voice stopped Rainbow before she could take off. It was close - no more than a dozen feet beyond her vision. She stood perfectly still, trying to avoid any tiny noise, and squinted into the darkness. A moment later, something struck the trunk of her tree, and she barely maintained her balance. A glance down was all it took to steal the warmth from her body. She saw blood, spilled across the ground, and a severed wing. It was huge, too big to belong to a pony, though the feathers were in the same layout. Its brown tone suggested a griffon. A moment later, a wet gurgling confirmed her suspicions, as a griffon body was flung into vision.

"Kill him!" a feminine griffon shouted.

Rather than a voice, the words were answered with a bloodthirsty roar. Rainbow didn't dare wait any longer, and so she leapt up into the air. Her wings, weighted down by their blades, panted through air that seemed too thin to support them. Her desperation pushed her forward when her muscles could not, slicing through the fog until she escaped above the canopy of the trees. A glance down saw only mist and leaves, thick enough to protect her from whatever horrors had been lurking so close by only moments before.

The next step was to set her path. The sun rose in the east. The fact was known to every weathermare in Equestria, and she was the best. Rainbow turned her back to the glow of Celestia's fiery orb, spread her wings, and soared.

Where her legs and back ached, her wings instead screamed of glory and pleasure. For the first time in days, she was truly free. Open, beautiful blue stretched out above her in all directions, as a weak wind rustled her dirty mane and bloody tail. A muted red diluted the streaking blur cast by the loose hairs, leaving her usually inspiring trail tainted with grim overtones. She paid it no mind, as her eyes were too busy scanning for the predators Reckoning had warned of. First and foremost in her mind was the scout himself. The sight of his empty eye socket, bleeding from a dozen shards of glass, still lingered in her mind. She'd promised him that they would leave together. Though she knew he'd made it out safely, the thought of leaving him alone in the jungle trapped within his own mind felt like she had failed him. Admitting there was nothing she could do to help him was a bitter pill to swallow, and it stuck firmly in her throat, lingering on the verge of tears.

A strange beast that Rainbow didn't recognize roared up out of the jungle. Wide wings spread from its leonine back and body. Rainbow half expected a griffon's face, but instead its head was bald, like that of a monkey. Its fanged teeth and wrinkled flesh roared, but it gave up quickly when it realized it had no chance of catching the young mare.

She soared on for nearly an hour without further pause. What next made her stop was not a threat or an encounter, but simple awe.

Gilda had told her of Grivridge. She had called it 'a big canyon', but the words were as insufficient as comparing the ocean to a teacup. The problem with calling Grivridge a canyon, it seemed to Rainbow, was that canyons had floors. Instead, she seemed to have found the seam of the world. The sheer, steep rocky cliffs in front of her dropped down miles and miles, until fog and shadow obscured the vertical surfaces. Carved into the walls of the rock, she could see the facades of little villas and dens, with barrel vaulted doorways and rounded edges. Jutting out of the stone were heavy logs forming terraces with bazaar-like stalls and shops.

And then there were the griffons. From high above, Rainbow recognized them only as dots of gray and white and black and brown. They flew up and down, in and out of the little holes that made their homes, in the untraceable chaos that was life.

The mare might have flown down then and there, were it not for the sudden and unexpected pressure of a talon that clamped down on her neck.

"A pony? Oh, this must be my lucky day."

Dash struggled, but the griffon's grip was tight and strong. The creature lifted her, and turned her around to face it. He was a stallion griffon, and large at that. More than a head over Gilda's height, his beak was short and wide, and the feathers cresting his head had been forced back to stay out of his angry golden eyes. Black fur covered his lion hindquarters, where they weren't concealed by scaly armor and an immense axe.

"Hey, let me go!"

"Oh, I don't think so, spy. Ponies aren't welcome in Grivridge. The Legate will decide what to do with you."

"Hey!" Rainbow slapped at his arm with her forelegs, but her blows seemed to bounce off him like calm waves. She moved a wing, and with surprising speed, he grabbed it by the shoulder. The pain that followed was intense, though no real damage had been done. After gasping, Rainbow struggled to explain herself. "I'm not a spy! I came here to help Princess Luna!"

"I am not the one to decide the truth of your words, pony. Though if you wished to be believed, you might not have come armed." His talons moved to the straps of her wing blades, stealing them away. He tucked them into a folded pocket of his scaly armor, and then produced a length of chain from the same container. Dash watched uncomfortably as he twisted it with one talon until he had produced a strange, slipknot-like loop. Despite Rainbow's struggles against his action, he slipped it over her head like a collar. His free hand maintained tight control of the rest of the length of chain. "You are welcome to try and escape me, but if you fly off too fast, this will snap your neck. Now follow me, or I will kill you myself."

She was released rather bluntly and without warning, falling to her rump on the dirt. Her hooves briefly tested the bindings, but a sharp and painful tug prevented her from loosening them. Disgruntled, she took to wing, and followed after the insisted creature. "What's the big deal, anyway?"

"If you truly do not know, you are humorously undereducated. Our kinds were at war not even a full six years ago, pony. Now silence yourself, and do not waste words on my ears."

They soared downward, slowly, toward the masses of griffons below. They looked up as Rainbow approached, and gawked in awe and amusement as she was led past them like a disobedient pet. With every sideways glance and mocking glare, heat built in her cheeks and a fire of anger grew in her stomach.

On closer inspection, the moving shapes weren't all griffons, however. A surprising number of zebras lived amidst the rocky outcroppings, as well as at least a few cows and pigs. They seemed weak, and downtrodden, with ribs showing and bony malnourished legs. Those few who could muster the will to look up at Rainbow did so with sorrow and envy, and in their gazes, she saw broken spirits and desperation.

To what little she could call fortune, however, their destination was not far by wing. A forum of arches and pillars had been carved from the stone of the near cliff wall, centered around a towering circular structure with latticed beams supporting an overgrowth of ivy, and tiny openings serving as a small excuse for windows. Her militant guide landed at the edge of the forum and essentially dragged her along.

The heavy wooden doors of the central structure gave way to a huge circular room. What Rainbow would have called torches provided light on the dark gray polished stone that made up the floor, walls, and ceiling. Some sort of paint added a hint of color here and there, but in the faint light, the dull colors only seemed to depress the room's unwilling occupant.

At the far side of the space, a chair that bordered on a throne was centered on a raised dais. Lounging in it, lazily leaning to the side, was a rather small female griffin garbed in blue. Her talons were busy picking through a bowl of meat on a small table beside her seat. Idly, she flipped some tiny giblet into her open beak before she allowed her eyes to flit up to the pair of approaching beings. She saw the griffon guard, turned back to her food, and then shot a glance back again in surprise toward Rainbow. Almost immediately, her entire posture changed. Her wings folded properly behind her back, and she sat upright. Her bloody talons released her snacks and wrapped tightly over the arms of the chair.

"Is that a pony, Malthus? Not a zebra?"

"Yes, Legate. I found her sneaking around the West Ridge at the Dawn Mark."

"Hey, I wasn't sneaking-"

"Silence, horse," the Legate snapped, leaning forward. "He is not the one we've been looking for."

"She!" Rainbow yelled, only to be fixed with a furious glare.

"Last warning, pony. Now, Malthus. Was she armed?" He nodded, tossing Rainbow's wing blades onto the floor. They slid with a sort of hissing noise across the polished stone, coming to rest at the foot of the Legate's dais. She glanced at them with amusement, picking one up and handling it as a child might with a new toy. "Blades for your wings... I suppose they would make a passable substitute when your kind lack talons. Now, ponyess, as you have so bluntly told us, what is your name?"

"Rainbow Dash," she stated boldly. "And I'm here to save Princess Luna. I'm not a spy, or whatever you think I'm supposed to be."

The Legate tapped the tips of her talons together as she rested her elbows on the arms of her seat. "The Emperor mentioned that name, though I don't know much of its owner. Tell me, Rainbow Dash, what are you saving this 'Princess' from? Why come armed and unannounced? And who are you to be sent on such a mission?"

Dash nodded. "She was poisoned, but the doctors don't know what with. I'm..." She hesitated for a moment, before speaking with renewed vigor. "I'm part of the Honor Guard, so I got sent out to find a cure."

"An Honor Guard... A soldier, in fact. Most interesting." The Legate turned to Malthus, and a smile spread across her beak. "So much more fascinating than a zebra. Malthus, bring me that chain."

"What?" Rainbow flared her wings, resisting as the cold metal around her neck was pulled toward the dais.

"A specimen as unique as you will make an excellent prize when I meet with the Praetorians tonight. They will decide if you represent the threat of a pony invasion. Perhaps I'll give you to the Emperor, though I confess the idea of keeping you for myself is tempting."

"I- I'm not some pet! Let me go!"

"Let a pony free in Grivridge?" The Legate laughed. "You'd be torn to pieces in seconds. Our kind live long enough to remember the dishonors you caused us."

Rainbow struggled, and twisted, but Malthus was stronger. As she was slowly pulled forward, an idea tickled the back of her mind. She crouched forward on her front legs, and aimed a double-legged buck in the griffon's direction. Pain surged from the wounds on her flank, but she ignored them in desperation. She got a crack of thunder, as she had intended, but the bolt of lightning meant to accompany it was nowhere to be found.

The Legate rose suddenly, wings flared. "An aeromancer?"

Malthus lacked her surprise, and tugged on the chain. Rainbow was pulled toward him painfully by her neck, leaving her off-balance long enough for his talons to pin her wings. He stepped forward onto her belly, and the lion's claw at the end of his hind leg pressed against her skin. Her struggled died quickly, unable to shake the massive weight of the creature above her. They might have remained there for some time in silence, had the doors of the chamber not slammed open, rattling the torches overhead.

"Legate!" From around Malthus' leg, Rainbow could see a half-dozen heavily armored Griffons limp into the room. One was bleeding heavily from a bash on his brow. Another was missing a leg entirely. Haphazard bandaging covered most of them, though one smaller creature near the rear of the group seemed unharmed. It was her voice that spoke up next, hesitant and confused.

"Dash...?"

She knew the voice, almost too well to be believed. "Gilda?"

The Legate looked down at Rainbow, confused. "You know... shut up, both of you! Centurion, report!"

"We were attacked, Legate. We were doing deep border patrol, on your orders. About a ten minute flight out of the elk's swamp, it started getting really foggy. It was weird... Aeromancer Grathus couldn't do much about it. Then something came at us."

The lead griffon's eyes hinted at fear as he continued. "It came out of the mist. We thought it was the elk at first, but it was too small, and it could fly. We lost three legionaries before we even got a good look at it. It was a pony."

The legate's eyes narrowed in Rainbow's direction as she spoke a simple word. "Continue."

"His face was all bloody, like he'd been in a fight, and he held a sword in his mouth."

Rainbow's eyes widened, and almost immediately, she regretted the action. The Legate leaned down to the side of her face, running a talon under her chin. "I saw that, pony. Is he your friend, this ghost in the mist? What is his name?" Dash held her tongue, until the Legate grabbed the chain around her neck and yanked on it. A choking pressure stole the pony's breath, putting dots in her eyes as she gasped for air.

"Stop it, Legate!" the young griffon yelled, stepping forward from the wounded crowd. To Rainbow's surprise, the pressure relented, allowing her to turn her head toward the speaker.

Without her purple eye shadow and the wide bang of feathers hanging down over her eyes, Gilda looked older, and also angrier. Her body was covered in thick steel plates, adorned in places with spikes and thin blades. A thin purple scarf was coiled around her neck at the collar of the armor.

The Legate glared. "Centurion, who is this griffoness?"

"Legate, my apologies, this is Agildania, daughter of Legate Tressius."

"I don't need you to talk for me," Gilda snapped at the heavily decorated griffon who seemed to be the leader. "And the whole name is so lame. Just 'Gilda' for me."

The Legate pinched her nose. "Tressius' daughter. Delightful. I have no interest in playing politics now, Gilda, so if you would kindly go back to your company, I will refrain from troubling your pet until matters have been taken care of."

"I-" Rainbow's words were cut off by Malthus leaning very heavily on her chest, forcing the air out of her lungs in a single gasp.

"Thank you, Malthus," the Legate observed. "Centurion, continue."

"Yes, Legate. He was old, and he was missing an eye. At first, we tried to fight him conventionally. He was very fast, though, and he faded into the mist whenever two of us tried to get to him. After we lost three more, and suffered injuries on six, we ordered a retreat."

The Legate moved back to her throne, wearing a surprised expression. "Surely, Centurion, you don't mean to tell me you lost five legionaries to a single aged pony?"

"With respect, Legate, they weren't mine to lose. I've been a Centurion for all of twenty minutes. Centurion Damios was the first casualty. Senior legionary Severus, his successor, was next. And, with apologies, we lost eight legionaries."

The Legate glared at the assembled wounded soldiers, and then slammed a talon down in a fist on the table beside her seat. Her bowl of raw meat spilled across the floor, as the vessel itself shattered into tiny shards of porcelain. She said nothing.

"We... we think he's the one you wanted. He had the map on his flank, as you said, though I didn't get a good enough to look to see where it was meant to go."

"That is... fine, Centurion. Of all days, today is the best to bear such news. The Praetorians will be arriving shortly, and they will make pleasant game of a hunt for this... insipid creature. In the mean time, you and your survivors are to return home. Inform the new most senior legionary that I intend to see them about filling the gaps in your ranks. As for 'Gilda', stay here. We need to discuss the fate of this creature." Her talon flicked briefly in Rainbow's direction.

There was a long silence as the griffons poured out of the room. Rainbow watched them go from her place on the floor. With every wound, her mind saw Reckoning's machete dancing back and forth, drawing blood without mercy or remorse. The thought was frightening. She now knew he was alive, although in his current state, she wasn't sure whether or not to consider that a good thing.

When the doors to the chamber slid shut, the Legate had removed the wing blades from the floor and placed them behind her seat. As Malthus pinned the pony, she linked the chain leash onto a hook on her throne, and then gestured loosely with her hand. Malthus seemed to have understood the motion, as he stepped back to allow Rainbow breath. She rose to her hooves, taking in gasping breaths.

The Legate, as usual, took command of the conversation. "So, Gilda, how do you know this animal?"

"Hey, lay off, Legate. Dash is cool. She's not gonna flip out or anything."

"Given her compatriots behavior, I'm not inclined to believe that. But you haven't answered my question."

"Right. Yeah, okay. So, you know how the ponies wanted hostages after the Jungle War?"

The Legate's brow rose. "Your father volunteered his own daughter?"

"He thought it would give us an in, y'know? So I could be cool with them, if we needed to get something done on their turf. Anyway, I got shipped off when I was just a cub, and stuck with this lame pony suit - er, uh, like a Senator for them - who was in charge of making clouds in one of their cities. I hated it, until one day he took me to one of his meetings. There was another one of their bigwigs there, who had a granddaughter about my age. And that was her." Gilda pointed toward Rainbow. "Rainbow Dash."

"I see." The Legate tapped the tips of her talons together slowly. "So your knowledge of her was only from your youth?"

Dash allowed herself a nervous gulp, realizing there were about ten thousand ways that Gilda's next words could bite her in the flank.

Gilda shook her head. "Nah, I caught up with her a couple years back. Must have been three or four, but a lot sooner than back then. I had a hard time fitting in up in Grall when they finally let me come home, so I wandered around for a long time. I went back to see Dash, figured I might just stay with the ponies, since I knew 'em so well." The young griffon shot Dash a quick glance. "She was still as chill as ever, but the town didn't work out so hot for me."

"I see," the Legate repeated. "And yet I find it unlikely that this pony would turn up armed, mere miles away from a site where another armed pony attacked and killed a scouting patrol of legionaries."

"Armed?" Gilda laughed. "Yeah, right. Dash wouldn't hurt a fly. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've seen her slap some dweebs and bullies around fierce - heck, I taught her how to brawl myself - but she'd never kill anything. It's not in her."

Rainbow turned away from the Legate and Gilda, hoping to hide the shame spreading over her face. Neither seemed to notice.

"She tells me she was sent here to cure a 'Princess Luna'. Do you know that name?"

"Huh?" Gilda nodded. "Yeah, I've heard of it. She's like the Emperor, you know. Another god. Celestia's little sister, who she trapped on the moon for a long time. Actually, I heard Dash here was the one who saved her in the first place, so I guess it would make sense."

At those words, the Legate glanced down at Rainbow. A curious and troubling look spread across her face. "Very well, Agildania. For now, the pony is your concern and your property. Return her to me this afternoon for my meeting with the Praetorians, though, or I will have you face Tribunal." The Legate slipped the chain from around Rainbow's neck and dropped it on the ground. "And I expect her back unharmed. A winged pony is valuable."

"Yeah, thanks," Gilda muttered. "Come on, Dash, let's bounce."

"Right with you," Rainbow answered, though her tone lacked much of its usual confidence. The events of the last hour, let alone the night that preceded it, had left her far too shaken and unsettled to focus on her coolness.

Outside the round structure, Gilda almost immediately sat down and looked into Dash's eyes angrily. "Now that that stiff is out of our feathers, what the buck are you doing here, Dash?"

"Just what I said! Princess Luna is dying, and I need to find a cure."

"Okay, so why come to Grivridge?"

"That's... kind of a long story, G."

"I bet." Gilda shook her head, clearly annoyed. "You look awful Dash. Do you want to go get something to eat?"

It didn't take long for Rainbow to build up an enthusiastic nod. "Yeah!"

"Then follow me. But don't think you and I are all okay just because I bailed you out back there. You're still a lame flip-flop, Dash, unless you're about to do something to change my mind."

To tired to care, Rainbow merely shrugged.

Thanks to SatoshiKyu for pre-reading.

XV - Betrayal

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XV
Betrayal
- - -

Dash watched Gilda's flight for the first time in five years. There were subtle intonations to the way she flapped, and the way her feathered head cut through the air. Rather than the grace of their youth, the armored griffon had given way to flying by sheer muscle, beating her way through the air one pump of her wide wings at a time. The little scarf around her neck trailed behind her like a second tail, darting up and down as her eyes glanced from side to side.

Those five years ago, Rainbow wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong with the griffon. Now she knew better. Though most of her motions were to maintain their wholly unnecessary speed, Dash could read her other actions as well. The glances from the edge of her eyes, and the soft twitches of her wings betrayed fear and paranoia. Something was wrong, and the trouble it placed on Gilda's soul left her only barely aware of the unexpected companion she had once called a friend. Dash followed in silence, watching and thinking on her own problems.

The sun rose slowly over the sheer rocky walls of Grivridge like a guillotine. They'd been flying down the chasm, without words, for more than an hour. It was past noon, and the shadows of the cliff walls had shifted to the other side of the paired rocky precipices. Given only a few more hours, the solar blade would hang at its full height over Luna's neck, and a simple drop would spell the failure of Dash's mission. Everything seemed fragile for the mare, as her mind raced in search of an answer to a riddle she couldn't really bring herself to believe in. Fallaner's dying words demanded that Rainbow find the right griffon, and the right question to ask. The goal seemed as futile as finding 'the right grain of sand' on a beach even without the time limit. It seemed that even the fastest pony in Equestria might not be fast enough to win this race.

Gilda stopped short in midair so suddenly that Rainbow didn't even notice until her muzzle plowed into the griffoness' armor.

"Smooth move, Dash."

"Thanks, G," Rainbow muttered back with equal sarcasm. "Why'd you stop?"

"We finally lost him, so we can talk. C'mere." Without further explanation, Gilda rolled sharply to the right and began a swift dive toward the cliff wall. Before Dash could even cry out, it seemed she would smash her face against the solid stone. Instead, her wings folded at the last possible moment, and her body ducked into a thin crag. After a moment of trepidation, Rainbow followed. Even despite her smaller size, Rainbow had to tuck her wings in to fit through the hairline fracture in the sheer wall of the ridge. Inside, the space was much wider, with enough space for four or five griffons to stand side-by -side in each direction. A rough table and a pair of seats were carved out of the same stone, while a wooden bed with a thin mattress dominated the far corner. A heavy metal chest defined the largest of the remaining features, which were scattered haphazardly around the messy and poorly-lit space.

Gilda glanced over her shoulder as she walked toward the chest. "This is my place, Dash. You can crash here for a minute." Then her talons set to work digging through the box. Without a word, the pegasus took one of the two cold stone seats beside the table, where she afforded herself a moment to catch her breath. In the pause, Gilda made her way back from the box with a pair of shoddily-crafted clay plates. One was topped with a rather meager selection of jungle fruits, while the other was a near-overflowing smelly pile that could only be near-rancid meat. "Eat up."

Dash looked down at the platters set before her, and felt her muzzle wrinkle with disgust. Rather than comment on the pitiable excuse for food, she lifted her head to look Gilda in the eye. "What did you mean back there? About 'losing him'?"

"Well…" Gilda paused to toss a scrap of rather rigid flesh into her beak, before continuing around the food in her mouth. "…the Legate sent her friend to follow us. That's why we're in here."

Dash glanced around. "So did you just find some cave?"

A muffled roar slipped through Gilda's chewing. She swallowed, sending a shockwave through Rainbow's gut. "This is my home, Dash. I dug this place out of the rock with my bare claws."

"Whoa, really?" Rainbow turned toward the walls, squinting in hopes of making out the scratches on the stonework.

"Well, fresh legionaries don't exactly make enough money to buy slaves." Rainbow's strange expression at the words was clearly noticed. "Yeah, that's what the Legate wanted you for. Just like all those cows and zebras in the Legate's forum."

Rainbow didn't express her shock or her offense for lack of any suitable words. Instead, after a long pause as her rational mind utterly stopped, she posed a simple question. "Why don't they run away?"

"Where to? Off the cliff?" Then Gilda did something which, in Rainbow's mind, finalized the rift between them. With a callous heart, she laughed. "Sometimes they do, but most of them would rather live."

"That's terrible."

"And it's not when ponies do it? Cows and pigs are too stupid to live their own lives."

Dash snorted. "We don't enslave them. We take care of them!"

"Yeah right. The only difference between ponies and griffons is that we don't bother pretending to be nice."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Gilda!"

"I don't know?" Gilda pushed herself up on the table, as her voice rose to a shout. "Look in a mirror, Dash. You didn't spend two years flying around Equestria looking for somewhere to live. You were safe being a total flip-flop in Ponyville with your lame friends and your rich grandpa. You have no idea what ponies are like!"

Dash looked straight into Gilda's eyes, though she maintained control of her own voice. "You're wrong, Gilda, but if that's what you want to think about me, that's fine. Just tell me where I can find a healer or something, and you'll never have to see this 'flip-flop' again."

Gilda stood up and walked over to the thin crack offering the room its only glimmer of light. Her body obscured most of the light, leaving Rainbow watching her silhouette from the shadows. Slowly, the griffoness peeked her head out and glanced left and right along the enormous walls of Grivridge. Her head ducked back in quickly, and she turned toward Dash once more. The motion seemed to have calmed much of her temper. "You can't leave now."

"Why not? Is he out there? And why do you care?"

"Cause I still owe you for flight camp." Gilda's expression hardened. "And that’s it. Now shut up and listen. A few days ago, a pony broke into the Palace of the Winds, and tried to kill the Emperor."

"Masquerade!" Dash gasped. "Is she still here?"

Gilda's brow rose. "Whoever it was got away, after killing one of the Praetorians."

"Yeah, I bet. She's a dark blue unicorn mare, with-"

"It wasn't a unicorn. Only aeromancers can get to the Palace of Winds." Gilda shook her head slowly. "That's why the Legate made such a big deal about the stallion you were with. The Praetorians probably think he did it."

"Reckoning couldn't have done it. He's been with me for three days."

"If you say so, Dash." Gilda shrugged. "But what I'm telling you is that if you're around when the Praetorians show up in this territory, they'll torture you, and then they'll probably turn you over to the emperor as a slave. You've got to get out of here."

"But I can't leave yet, Gilda! Not until I have a cure."

She groaned. "Don't be an idiot, Dash! Who cares if the princess dies? Wasn't she, like, evil or something anyway?"

"She's not evil!" Rainbow rebounded. "And I've come way too far to give up now."

Gilda stared for some time, before offering a frown. "Look, I can take you to see the Legion Apothecary, but after that, you've got to get lost."

Dash nodded slowly. "Thanks, G."

"Whatever." The griffon grabbed the rest of her food and tilted it into her mouth in a single swallow. Then, without further pause, she leapt out through the tiny crack of a door into the open air.

- - -

The pegasus and the griffon soared in tandem along the titanic stone trench of Grivridge, sparing each other mixed glances as their wings pumped together. They'd been flying for only a spare few minutes when Dash finally felt the need to speak up.

"So, how'd you end up as a guard, G?"

"Were called legionaries, Dash. We don't 'guard' things. Just fight wars."

Ignoring the grim undertone, Dash nodded. "Sure, whatever. I didn't think you'd care about a name. How'd you end up as one of those?"

A short sigh preceded the explanation. "Well, after you ran off from Cloudsdale, I flew around Equestria, trying to find a job. I worked weather a few places, but none of them really worked out. Eventually, I went back to your grandpa, trying to figure out where you'd flown off to. And then…" Her voice trailed off. "Anyway, after Ponyville, I went back to wandering. It took me two more years to give up, and everywhere I looked I saw your ugly mug on all the newspapers. The Young Flier Championship, Discord, the Changelings - I just couldn't take it. So I said 'screw the treaty', and I just flew back here. Took forever, since I didn't know the way. I jumped airships from Manehattan to Mareocco, and then walked and flew the rest."

"That's a long distance."

"You think I don't know that?" Gilda snapped, before shaking her head. "A hydra almost ate me, but another griffon bailed me out. A centurion named Gaius. When he heard who I was, he took me back to see my family." The griffoness flared her wings suddenly, but this time Dash was fast enough to stop a head-first collision. "This is the place."

The pair swooped through the carved archway of the griffon legion barracks, only to earn the surprised glares of no fewer than forty griffon forms. Most were male, and heavily armed, but their numbers were great and chaotic enough to make their distinctions unclear.

"A pony!" One of them yelled.

"Hold your horses, Merro; she's with me." Gilda flared her wings to accompany the utterance.

One of the other legionaries gave out a short caw that Rainbow only later recognized as an expression of humor. "Hah! Agildania brings one of her friends into Grivridge. The Centurion was right; she is more pony than griffon."

"This is no laughing matter," another stated, drawing a short, thick sword. "Have you not heard of what happened at the Palace?"

"Back off!" Gilda flared her wings and roared. "I've got her on the Legate's orders! She has to be checked before the Praetorians arrive." A few of the griffons stepped forward, and she answered by audibly scraping her leonine claws against the stone floor. "If you doubt my words, you can take it up with her." The legionaries held their places for a moment, but ultimately relented. Seeing her victory, Gilda barked out another demanding question. "Where's the apothecary?"

"He will return to his quarters when he returns, Agildania." The cluster of soldiers parted, allowing Dash and Gilda to walk together, slowly. The pegasus couldn't help but draw close to her old acquaintance, finding fear in the hungry eyes and hateful talons of the horde of young, violent griffons. Keeping up her part, she folded her wings stiffly and walked tall with the military posture Thunder Crack had taught her in one of the few lessons she'd bothered to recall.

The passage of multi-layer palm bunks beneath heavy stone passed by what seemed aptly described as a legion of griffons, before finally reaching a long narrow hallway lit by little balls of luminescent moss. Their blue-green aura gave the series of small offices carved from the rock an ominous appearance, hanging above Rainbow's head at a height too great for the comfort of ponies.

The second to the last carved archway on the right opened to a room of strangely shaped glass jars and cabinets. All these objects were centered around a stone slab which seemed oddly bare without the living pony sacrifice Rainbow almost expected to be present. The bloodstains were there, after all.

Trying to take her mind off the uncomfortable setting, Dash turned back to Gilda. "What did they mean about 'more pony than griffon'?"

The topic clearly angered Gilda, as she sat down on her rump and folded her arms across her chest. "They think it's funny. I'm the 'pony-griffon', and the 'vegetarian', and all sorts of other dumb shit that griffons say when they think they're better than you. It all started with my dad."

"Your dad?"

"Yeah." Gilda laughed. "You're not the only one with awful parents, Dash. After Gaius helped me fight the hydra, he took me back to my family. My dad was pretty surprised to see me, but he figured out pretty quick that I wasn't 'exactly what he wanted'."

Dash cocked a brow. "Uh, like…?"

"It's weird to see slaves and meat when you grew up with ponies." Her words were awkward, stilted and forced. "Anyway, he shipped me right off to the legion, to 'prove I was a real griffon'. So here I am."

"Uh…" Dash watched Gilda with a mixture of empathy and regret. "Sorry."

All the lights went out abruptly, followed by a sharp, short, and terrible scraping noise, eliciting a small jump and a spreading of wings. The sound ended in a burst of flame, wrapping around an outstretched talon. "Apologies. I was not expecting guests, least of all an equine. Allow me a moment." Behind the talon, in the orange glow of his own flaming limb, was an ancient male griffon. Though a thick coat of feathers covered what would otherwise have surely been a wrinkled face, the bushy rough white beard on his jaw was enough to testify to his age. A pair of perfectly rounded spectacles hung low on his beak as he squinted. With a callous flick of his hand, the fire on his talon shot off in a tiny ball, colliding with a pile of logs set into the far wall. When they ignited, Rainbow recognized a fireplace. "I normally just let the moss work, to avoid the smoke, but I confess it can get rather cold within the office. Now, set her down on the slab and I'll get to examination."

"We're not here for me," Dash muttered.

"Oh? Then tell me, what is a pony doing in Grivridge? In the midst of legion quarters, no less. How can I possibly be of assistance to you?" His voice croaked and creaked as his bespectacled eyes wandered the room, glancing at jars.

"I need to know about how to cure something. Like, a poison, but not a poison."

The strange words got the old griffon's attention. "Is it or isn't it? Am I expecting a disease or poison? A parasite, perhaps? Vitamin deficiency?"

"Well, we thought it was a poison, but Fallaner said it wasn't."

The griffon's reaction was sharp and pointed. "Do not defile this place of healing with that name. He knows nothing of proper healing. Bloodletting, ichors, the four humors - all are lost on him in the interest of his magic. I would imagine he doesn't even know how to treat a common cough." The rambling ended with an upturned beak and a snort. "I frankly do not care about what advice that creature gave you. Describe the condition."

Dash recoiled as the griffon's face moved slowly closer to her own. "Uh, okay. Um, she's getting older. Like, aging to death."

"Wings molting? Beak decay? Or merely internally?"

"I don't know. She's not a griffon, doc."

"Doctor?" The griffon smashed a talon upon the table, eliciting a sharp crack. "How dare you? I am an apothecary!"

"Whoa, calm down!" Gilda demanded, stepping between Dash and the furious healer. "She didn't mean anything, apothecary. Relax."

After a moment of panting that devolved quickly into painful wheezing, he nodded. "Of course. I should have expected a pony would fall for the trap of near-synonimity, given their relative intellectual capacity. I-"

"Hold on," Dash pressed. "Are you calling me stupid?"

"Well, not so bluntly, but I suppose so. It’s a well-established fact that griffons have larger brains than ponies, and-"

"Hey!"

It was Gilda's turn to focus on Dash, and she did so by swatting the pegasus on the nose. "We don't have time for this, Dash. Just tell him what he wants."

After rubbing her sore muzzle, Dash nodded and continued. "Right. So, it's not a griffon. The sick pony is Princess Luna."

"Princess? One of your political leaders, then? Of course, I should have suspected. Who else could have the clout to send one of your kind on a journey here?" The griffon adjusted his spectacles. "So, this pony is suffering from aging? I suspect the implication is that the effect is unnatural. Tell me, what is her age?"

"Oh…" Dash stopped to think, as her mind wandered back to Celestia's begging request that was now almost a week old. "Like, eighty-thousand."

The griffon cocked his head. "Do ponies measure time in simply days? I suppose that would be reasonable. But, no. That still makes…" His talons twitched in the air, performing a silent calculation. "Two-hundred nineteen and a few years to spare. Yet most ponies live only half that. Are you certain the subject is not an Elk?"

"No," Dash explained. "And that was years. Eighty-thousand years."

"I don't take kindly to fiction. No creature lives that long."

"She's Celestia's sister. The Princess. Like, uh, Magnus."

At those words, the apothecary lowered his spectacles, looking at Rainbow from above the round frames. "So an immortal god, like the Emperor, is aging to death? Because of a poison that is not a poison?"

"Yeah. I know it sounds crazy, but-"

"Madness and magic are two very different things. Tragically, my experience lies in the first, and you have clearly described the second. I can tell you this. There is no magic, or at least none within the power of mortals such as we, which can control time. Neither is there any plant or mineral which can do the sa-" He stopped. "Well, not in the sense you've described. I understand the dragons have a type of rare gem which can congeal time, but that is neither here nor there. Regardless, the concept of aging some creature to death is an impossibility, even before one considers the idiocy of trying such a concept on a god. I cannot offer you a diagnosis, but I might be able to offer you a prescription."

Dash's eyes widened in surprise. "What, like a cure?"

"Not a cure, per se, but at least something which will treat the condition until you can identify it. You see, griffon legend speaks of an ancient pony secret, called the Fountain of Youth."

Dash's brow quirked, recognizing the name from Daring Do. "Where you drink the water, and it makes you younger?"

"Many had thought it was a mere rumor, until our legion learned that its guardian had arrived on the edge of Grivridge."

"Guardian?"

"There is a pony who bears the map to the fountain on his very flesh and fur. We call him the Guardian, though his true name is-"

"Dead Reckoning?"

The apothecary removed his spectacles from his face, folded them gently, and set them atop the stone slab. Only when the laborious action was completed did he finally speak. "-unknown to us. Though, I suppose, that statement is no longer true."

Dash, for her part, sat stunned with her mouth hanging loosely open. "The Fountain- The Fountain of Youth? Deadeye's cutie mark is a real map?"

"Do not quote me, pony, but that is what our kind have learned passed up from pony to zebra to griffon."

Dash turned to Gilda slowly, and the griffoness responded with a blank look. "This… is…"

"Awesome! This has got to be what they meant!"

Gilda rolled her eyes. "If it'll get you out of Grivridge, that's fine with me. Let's get going."

"Yeah!" Dash darted to the door, turning back only momentarily to offer a parting "Thanks" to the apothecary who had returned to adjusting his eyewear.

As the pegasus made her way back down the long hallway of the legion quarters, the joy in her heart turned to fear. Rather than the griffons awaiting her ahead, however, her spirit was concerned with the idea of confronting Reckoning again. She wondered if his madness had finally settled, or if it even could. There were too many unanswered questions, but like all so many of her problems, the only answer was to confront him head-on. She forced thoughts of his bloody empty eye-socket from her mind as she strode past the griffon legionaries and their bunks, setting her shoulders with determination.

She was prepared to leap straight out into the air when Gilda forcefully grabbed her by the mane. The pain in her neck was emphasized all the more by the momentum of her flapping wings. "Ow! What the hay, G?"

"Look!" the griffoness hissed, pointing with her free talon. Dash followed the extended limb, staring out into the air.

A half-dozen enormous but unarmored griffons cut through the air like blades. Their distance and speed made it hard to pull apart individual details, but Dash recognized the huge swords they carried between their wings.

"Those are the special guards, right? Magnus'?"

The pegasus was rewarded for her memory with a curious glance from her former friend. "You recognize them? Well, whatever. They're the Praetorians. The best legionaries. They work for the Emperor personally, and they hate ponies. If they're here, they'll be expecting me to bring you back to the Legate soon." Gilda took a deep breath, waiting for the warriors to pass out of sight. "Listen up, Dash. I bailed you out here, so now we're even, got it? There's nothing left between you and me, and I don't really want to see you again. Now, you fly back out to that jungle and you go cure your Princess or go back to your lame friends or whatever, but don't come back here."

There was a hardness in Gilda's gaze that didn't leave a lot of room for discussion. Nevertheless, something in Rainbow's heart stirred. She hadn't wanted such a blunt parting of ways. "I'm sorry, G."

"Whatever, Dash. Just get lost."

The simple, blunt words were a bitter pill for Dash to swallow.

- - -

Shining Armor barreled up the main streets of Canterlot with such speed and force that the noble ponies screamed as they leapt out of the way. He passed three hospitals without so much as a hesitation, knowing that the mare resting across his back could only be treated by the best. Normally, those ponies worked at the hospitals he left behind, but he knew where they had been summoned to, and what patient they were serving.

He offered the palace doors no more courtesy than he had the civilians milling about in his way. A burst of magic quite literally slammed them open, and he ran through before the same force swung them back shut again.

His hooves screamed for rest, but somehow, his mind thought that a single second might be the difference, and so he ran on. The stairways did not slow his speed, and corners did not give him pause. In his time of need, he would have put the guard's fastest sprinters to shame.

He spared magic altogether and bucked open the doors to the palace infirmary.

"What are you doing?" a doctor shouted, furious at the sudden noise.

"She needs help!" the captain answered, carrying Going Solo's burnt form to the nearest free bed and setting her down gently with magic. "Please, doctor!"

Seeing the stallion's obvious distress, and the relatively little change in the Princess' condition, the doctor made his way over. Upon getting a better look at the mare, he gasped. "What happened to her?"

"She was in a fire in Baltimare, a few hours ago."

"Hours? Don't they have hospitals in Baltimare? She could have died on the way!" The physicians protests were accompanied by a very rapid set of tests and glances at the various burnt parts of her flesh. His horn ignited briefly and he spoke aloud. "Get Dr. Graft and a burn trauma unit to the Infirmary, stat!"

"Wait!" Shining leaned forward.

"Please let me do my job, Captain."

"You don't need a burn team for this. Its magical trauma."

The doctor simply stared for a few moments, and then his horn ignited again. "Dr. Asclepius, we need you urgently." When the glow faded, his face was blank. "I… I've never heard of anything like this. Fire magic?" Then he took a deep breath and turned to the captain fully. "I'll have to ask you to leave now. The risk of infection is already higher than I would like."

"But-"

"Out! Now!"

Shining nodded grudgingly and made his way into the hall. There, on a convenient bench, he finally found a moment to sit down, pull of his armor, and take a long breath. And on that bench he waited, until a pair of simple words cut through his thoughts like a chilled wind.

"Captain Armor?"

His breath froze in his throat. It took all his willpower to turn his head toward the all-too-familiar voice. "P-Princess?"

She sighed, knowing the answer to her first question simply by the tone he had addressed her with. "I take it you found no cure."

"No, Princess." Lowering his head, the captain of the Royal Guard gave a sigh of his own. "I was unable to apprehend Masquerade, or Soldier On. I got a civilian wounded, and I-"

"-did your best."

Shining looked up as a huge wing wrapped around his shoulders. He had to admit, much of Celestia's form had returned. Only the very base of her mane retained its mundane tone. What surprised him most, however, was that her sagacious words of comfort had returned.

"With respect, Princess, my best was not enough."

"Sometimes, nopony's is." Celestia shook her head. "But there are still ponies who can save my sister, and I have faith in them as I do in you."

Unsure what to say, Shining nodded. "How long does she have?"

"At least until tonight - tomorrow morning, I suppose. After that, nothing is guaranteed." The Princess glanced to Shining and then leaned close to him. "What about yours?"

"I made a stupid mistake," he answered. "She was a contact on the trail to Masquerade, and I let her come along, and she got hurt." He pondered mentioning Red Ink's role, but ultimately held his tongue. There were reports for such complaints and accusations, but neither had its place in that solemn hallway.

Celestia smiled, but the look on her face was sadder than that of any bawling filly. "Your sister once came with me on a trip to northern Zebrica, to meet with the Governor. While we were there, I gave her some money, and she used it to purchase a local fruit she had read about in a book, from a local market. I felt such an exercise would be good for her. Unfortunately, it was less than clean, and less than ripe. She became very sick, and I feared that something terrible would happen. But when I tried to take her back to Canterlot, she wouldn't let me. She told me that I still had a job to do. I still had to go talk to the Governor." Celestia's smile grew less sad with each passing word. "She proved she was the strongest little filly I had ever met, in her own way. And I remembered a very old lesson."

She leaned over to Shining's ear, and though there was nopony else around to hear her words, they came in a whisper. "Everypony gets hurt, but how we get better is what makes us better ponies."

Shining nodded, though he wasn’t sure he understood perfectly. "Why not just heal her, like you did Rainbow Dash?"

The smile faded altogether, and the Princess' face became stern and cold. "We will all speak of that soon, one way or another, Shining Armor. But know that you would never want me to heal your sister, or your friend, as I did Rainbow."

Shining stared at his ruler until a doctor came charging into the room. As the doors swung open and shut behind him, he could see Luna's face in the farthest bed. Her cheeks seemed skeletal, caved in to deep pits, and her eyes were sunken and wrinkled. It was hard to understand how she was even alive at that very moment, and his hope for how long she could continue faded with each slow twist of the swinging doors.

- - -

The safari shirt clung to Rainbow's chest, stained with sweat and mud and torn by twigs and undergrowth. She'd been looking for hours, but she didn't pretend to be a master tracker, or even particularly perceptive. She knew she would have been having a hard time, even if Reckoning's hooves were somehow restrained to the ground. She'd seen a few clumps of his hoofprints, marking his passing, but they were unconnected and even their direction seemed to point randomly.

All the while, her heart jumped at every stray noise and twisted against every odd note of a bird's song or a monkey's call. Worst of all was how few they were, as though the usual animals had been replaced by something larger, smarter, and deadlier. Was he watching her? Waiting for her to appear, or to leave herself vulnerable?

Her wanderings had twice brought her to the edge of Grivridge, and both times she had shied away before some griffon could sneak up behind her again. Another of her little jaunts had found her way back to Fallaner's swamp, where now lifeless skeletal corpses had gathered in a clump against the dam left behind by the frozen river. The place had lost much of its unnatural appearance, but Rainbow still couldn't stand to be in its presence any longer than she absolutely had to.

Instead, she ran along what she thought was the edge of the ridge, keeping in mind that Gilda and her scouts had seen him somewhere nearby. She kept within the tree line, away from griffon eyes, but every step bore the omnipresent weight of mortal danger.

Her path had continued for some time, but it stopped bluntly when the pegasus ran unexpectedly out of the thick shrubbery. A huge circle of trees, at least a mile across, had been cut down. They left behind dry and dusty tan dirt and rough gray stone. Wind ripped through the enormous clearing, rustling Rainbow's mane and leaving her feathers twitching. The nearly gale-force winds would be hard to fly in for the average pony. Her head turned toward their obvious source, and her jaw dropped.

Hanging in the air, unsupported by bridges or foundation, was an enormous palace. The structure resembled the architecture of Cloudsdale, if marble were chosen as a replacement for clouds, and everything were scaled up to double its usual size. Beautiful pillars of pure white supported a slanted roof upon which were built terraces of the same pale material. From between the pillars came billowing winds that force Rainbow to squint as she beheld the structure.

Struggling against the wind, failing to even get out over the edge of the cliff, and elderly pegasus panted with a machete clutched tightly between his teeth. Even with the blood matting his already rough coat, Rainbow would have recognized him anywhere. She didn't pretend to know what to expect, and so instead folded her wings and walked toward him.

"Hey! Deadeye!" Her shouts barely pierced the wind, but the second was enough to gather his attention. The old pony turned, revealing a grisly sight. Shards of glass still stuck out oddly from his empty eye socket, and the blood they had left behind had filled the three scarring lines down his cheek. Upon seeing Rainbow, his gaze grew hard and cold. His neck twisted suddenly, sheathing his machete, and then he stomped toward her.

"You brought them here?" It took Rainbow a moment to realize that Reckoning's fury was directed over her shoulder, rather than directly at her.

"Who…" The words simply failed Dash as she turned back. Seven griffons approached, and in their own ways, all were familiar.

"Your plan worked," the figure in the center of the formation observed, glancing to his right. "Impressive, given the short period you had to think." Considering his company, he was a surprisingly small griffon. Plain brown fur and white feathers left him difficult to separate from the rest of his species. His defining traits were the short, broad blade that was slung beneath his left wing, and the scarred stub of an elbow that marked the premature end of what otherwise should have been his left hand. Balancing on his remaining talons and two broad paws, he offered Reckoning an analytic gaze. "Did your legion do that damage to him, Gilda?"

Her answer wasn't forthcoming, however, as Rainbow spoke first. "Gilda!" The pegasus mare's thoughts were overridden by rage. She leapt into the storming winds and pointed herself down to strike the being she had once called a friend. Her motion was too fast for the griffoness to follow, and would have been a solid blow, were the two alone. Instead, however, reality reflected itself in the form of the three-legged griffon's intervention. He moved quickly, lunging forward and thrusting out a long wing. Its bony, striking crest collided with the mare's forelegs, cutting off her momentum and sending her spiraling toward the tree line.

"Sorry, Dash," Gilda muttered unapologetically. "I knew you'd find him."

"You betrayed me!" Rainbow's words were pained, and ferocious.

"I-" Gilda was cut off when Gaius wrapped his legs around her and pulled her to the side with a massive beat of his wings. A moment later, the space she had filled was sliced in two by Reckoning's machete.

The other five griffons, who had previously made no move whatsoever, stepped forward and drew the heavy blades they kept between their wings. Rainbow recognized their large, muscle bound forms as the Praetorians, and her heart skipped a beat before settling into cold focus.

Seeing the threatening forms, Reckoning reacted by flapping his wings. Rainbow could see the thick fog clouds that his Empatha gathered together, but they were no match for the heavy and pervasive wind. Desperation entered his one-eyed gaze like a cornered animal, watching as the Praetorians surrounded him.

"Hold!" Gaius yelled, balancing surprisingly well on his hind legs as he motioned an open palm toward the mare. "Rainbow Dash, correct? Gilda, the Legate, and I have negotiated your release. You're free to leave Grivridge." Without waiting for a response, he turned to Reckoning. "You - pony! - drop your sword and surrender. We promise you a fair trial."

Reckoning growled, as his focus flitted from one griffon to another, and then another. Then, to Rainbow's surprise, his mouth opened, and his bloodstained blade fell to the dust. One of his wings twisted to his back right leg, around which he had cinched the half-saddlebag that had survived in recent turmoil. As it fell to the ground, freeing him of an unbalancing weight, his focus shifted to Gaius. "Why would you bother with a trial in war?"

Gaius clawed at the dirt beneath his own feet. "A war? So you admit it, then?"

Rainbow saw what was coming and spoke up. "You don't understand! He has flashbacks. He doesn't mean-"

"Save your breath, Easy Breeze." Reckoning spat the words with fury, before drawing back his head and spitting literally on the dusty rocks. "Take your friend's gift and get out of my sight."

Gaius nodded. "Gilda, take your… acquaintance, and leave."

"No way!" Rainbow ran toward Reckoning, hooves kicking up a storm of dust. She only stopped, with a sudden pain, when Gilda's arms wrapped around her torso. The griffoness' claws drew little drops of blood, but they were in no way the source of Rainbow's fury. "Get off me!"

"You'll thank me for this!" Gilda answered through a gritted beak. Her wings carried them out over the jungle a good several hundred feet as her greater size and strength contained Rainbow's struggles. Finally, in a mixture of desperation and fury, the mare punched at Gilda's wing, and the two fell through tearing branches and battering leaves in a tangled mess of fur and feathers. When they rose, covered with mud, their eyes met in fury.

"Get out of my way, G!"

Gilda answered by rising onto her hind legs and calling out in equal fury. "I owe you a debt, Rainbow, for when we were kids, but now it's over. I can't let you try and save that pony."

Rainbow stepped forward, flaring her wings. "You can't stop me."

Gilda shook her head. "Bet I can." Her next action came without warning, as she lowered herself onto all fours and broke out into a full-on charge. Dash leapt into the air, but Gilda had built up too much momentum to be avoided. The pegasus was tackled out of the air, and the griffon pinned her to the ground. There, she pulled back a fist of talons, and brought it down on Rainbow's nose.

The force was incredible, even given the griffon's greater size. Rainbow's vision blurred for a moment, and she tasted blood in her mouth. Before Gilda could bring about another attack, however, Rainbow struck. Four punches of fury and necessity struck Gilda's throat, just above the neck of her armor. Recoiling and gasping for breath, she released her hold on the pegasus. Rainbow wriggled free and began to flap her wings wildly as she broke into a run. The mud flew from her, but Gilda recovered before the mare could take flight.

The sound was strange and foreign. It came as a sort of thumping that passed through the air in a circle. She didn't recognize it as it flew toward her until a cord wrapped itself around her left wing. Three times it coiled, until the heavy weighted balls at both ends of the cable came together in restraining her. Behind the pegasus, Gilda shouted.

"Don't you get it, Dash? I'm saving your life! Those are the Praetorians! They'll tear you apart!"

"And what about Reckoning?" Rainbow turned around to face her betrayer. "Why, Gilda? Why stab me in the back? We were friends"

"Maybe because you screwed me over!" the griffoness roared back. "Do you think I like being the 'pony-griffon'? If I help bring him down, I'm a hero. I'll finally be done with ponies, and you and I can be out of each other's lives forever. Why do you care about him anyway?"

"He's my friend!" Rainbow answered with equal force, before lowering herself and pawing at the ground. "Though I guess you wouldn't understand that."

Gilda opened her mouth with a response, but the young pegasus had decided that the time for words was over. She charged forward with her wings pinned to her sides. Gilda answered by rearing up onto her back, readying both her fists of talons for a fight. She loomed over the approaching pony, but Rainbow had forgotten fear. She only saw red.

Had Applejack seen what transpired, she would have been proud. Rainbow leapt by her legs alone over one Gilda's hands. Her fur stood up with the force of its passing. Before a second attack could be made, the mare's hooves were on the ground again. She pressed both forehooves into the ground together, rotating her body around the pivot they made. Even as her momentum carried her sliding in the muddy jungle soil, her hind legs were brought to bear on Gilda's exposed torso. A single buck was all it took to throw the griffoness off balance.

A tree shuddered from the sudden collision, but it did not break. Rainbow ran forward, throwing attack after attack at Gilda. She caught herself quickly, blocking some kicks with her might wings and allowing others to strike against her armor. The vicious battle ended with a swift backhand that threw Rainbow onto her back.

"Leave!" Gilda shouted.

Wiping the dirt off of her bloodied muzzle, Rainbow answered simply. "I don't leave my friends behind." Then she ran again.

Gilda's armor was too strong for the mare to best without a weapon, but her mind knew in its own little way that she had one. Wrapped in a tight bolas, her left wing bore just the force she needed, and so she brought it to bear. The strike crumpled Gilda's guard and left a dent in her armor. Both combatants howled in pain.

Thunder Crack's angry words echoed in Rainbow's mind as she staggered backward. "Griffons can swipe with their wings because they have a solid ridge of angled bones at the crest. If I were wearing my helmet when you went for that blow, my head would be fine and you'd have shattered your wing." While his threat hadn't come true for breaking her bones, the pain was all too real. She shook her head and folded her wings again.

Gilda cracked her talons aloud, shaking her head with a sneer spread across her beak. "Did you forget who taught you how to fight, Dash? This is the last time I'm gonna warn you."

Dash nodded and closed her eyes, thinking back to the first day she'd become a guardspony. Lessons taught by a furious pony through a curriculum of bruises and shouting came flooding back into her hooves.

It was Gilda's turn to go on the attack, and she did so with the furious pounce of a griffon legionary. All four of her legs were brought to bear, ready to claw and rake at Dash's wings until the mare gave in. She was expecting running, or standing to fight. The pegasus chose neither. Instead, a small and altogether subtle step was enough to avoid the first of Gilda's attacks, leaving the mare in the low space between Gilda's belly and the jungle floor. There, she lashed out in short, swift strikes. Her targets were flesh, anywhere she could see. Knees. Elbows. Neck. Thighs. She rolled and attacked and squirmed, striking again and again until the tips of her cyan hooves took on a tinge of a different color. She only stopped when Gilda's wings flared to leap away.

Rainbow rose once more, and turned away from the muddy mess and her former friend. Her wing began squirming free of the bolas as she hustled toward Reckoning.

"Damn it, Dash!" The words didn't stop the mare, but the hissing of steel leaving a sheathe did. Gilda clutched in her talons a small dagger, no longer than the hair of the pegasus' mane. "Don't make me do this!"

Rainbow turned and shook her head. "You don't have to."

"Yes I do!" Gilda's words were as hateful as they were desperate. "What else do I have left?"

Gilda moved, and Dash did as well. The pegasus was, as always, faster. Her hind legs bucked on an instinct she didn't know she had, a dozen feet away from what would have been her target. White light spread across the trees, and a crisp crack split the air. Then Gilda fell, alongside gentle breathing and the scent of burnt hair. Dash shook her head, wishing she knew the answer.

Rainbow's mind was too concerned with Reckoning's fate to spare further thought for Gilda. She was still alive, and the mare could no longer bring herself to care about anything more. She finally broke the cable on her wing, and took off toward the wind-swept clearing.

As she shot past the tree line, her eyes took in a thankful sight. The Praetorians were fighting Reckoning, who danced between them with an agility that their larger bodies struggled to match. He had felled one, but the panting of his chest clearly displayed his fatigue.

On the far side of the clearing, near the sheer edge of the cliff, Gaius's wings were on fire. The talons of his sole hand held a bowl of water, which stirred in the roaring storm behind his back. As Rainbow ran forward, his appendages met the bowl, bringing forth a cloud of sheer white steam that billowed thicker than any cloud.

"Look out!" Rainbow shouted to Reckoning. The old pony turned just in time to see massive talons of mist reach out for him, and a pump of his wings carried him out of the way.

"Breeze? I thought- nevermind. Thanks!" The words were offered well through the machete the scout had gripped tightly in his mouth, though whatever else he might have said was cut short by the oncoming blade of another of the Praetorians.

Rainbow ran forward to join the fray. It was a heroic motion, but also one that wasn't perfectly thought out. She leapt into the air toward the griffons, and then stopped to the sensation of what could only be called a warm chill gripping her body. She looked back to see Gaius' steam wrapping around her.

"Breeze!" Reckoning shouted, as Rainbow's plight stole his attention. The mere moment of distraction was enough for his blade to be knocked away, and the Praetorians to fall upon him. He roared in fury, struggling beneath their grip, but even a young pony had no hope against the strengths of the four might griffons.

"There is no point in struggling, Rainbow Dash. Only a stronger Empatha can break the cage, and you lack the discipline to control such potent emotions."

Ignoring his words, Rainbow struggled against the veil of steam, but against her hooves and neck its durability rivaled solid stone. Only her wings were free to move, but even their rapid flapping could do nothing beyond lift her hooves a few sparse centimeters from the ground. Neither the little gusts they produced nor the fierce storm sweeping over the clearing from the depths of Grivridge could do anything to disperse the dense cloud.

Instead, Rainbow was left to watch, helplessly, as Gaius turned back to Reckoning. The old pony struggled against the griffons pinning him to the ground, and all the while, his fury was echoed as much in his eye as the aged yellow teeth he revealed behind peeled-back lips. The prelate looked down with calm and respect, and in return he received hatred and malice. The griffon drew his short sword and weighed it gently in his sole remaining hand of talons. A few calm steps balancing on his hind legs by the use of his strong wings brought him to where Reckoning's machete had fallen. He placed a paw down on it heavily, considered it for a moment, and then kicked it along the dirty stone ground. It bounced twice, with soft metallic clanging that barely bested the noise of the wind, before coming to a rest a mere foot from Reckoning's face.

"Release him," the prelate commanded. Reckoning was released, as the griffons spread their wings and pulled away from their prisoner.

Even in his fury and his madness, Reckoning could see some sort of danger in the griffon he was facing. Gaius was calm and patient. He walked back and forth, eyes always locked on his opponent. The pegasus rose to his hooves with deliberate and slow motions before claiming his machete. His empty eye socket, already half-collapsed on its glassy contents, narrowed in hatred.

Then the peace shattered into pieces. The old pony charged as fast as he could manage. Rainbow had to begrudgingly respect the blur of gray as it slammed into the griffon. For a pony of Reckoning's age, such motion ought to have been impossible. Gaius, however, was expecting nothing less. In fact, as sparks flew from the thin line where the blade of Reckoning's machete met the flat of Gaius’ gladius, the griffon seemed almost disappointed. With the force of his wings and the weight of his shoulder, he leaned into the parry. The old pegasus was thrown backward, landing on his hooves in the dust a few feet away.

Their parting was short lived. The prelate took his moment of advantage to lunge forward at Reckoning. Rather than locking their blades together, he attacked in a furious storm of strikes, forcing his foe's neck to bend at odd angles to deflect his more dexterous wrist.

Rainbow could see Reckoning recoiling with every strike. There was magic in Gaius' strikes; Endura that seemed unnecessary given Gaius superior size and youth. In desperation, Reckoning took a leap backward, allowing the prelate's blade to pass just under his throat. The motion was risky, but it should have given the pegasus time to react. That time, however, was nowhere to be found.

Gaius spun on one hind leg, and drove his other paw forward in an immense kick - a buck ending in a deadly claw. Two short lines of blood appeared on Reckoning's right shoulder, staining his gray coat as he was tossed backward again. This time, in a gasp of pain, the old soldier failed to catch his hooves.

Sensing weakness, the prelate lunged like a feral predator. Reckoning rose toward the attack, twisting his neck to bring their blades together. The motion seemed futile, to Rainbow. There was too much force behind the plunging strike of the griffon for Reckoning to stand any chance. No pony's neck could stop that strike.

Steel met steel not with a ring or a clang, but instead, with a crack of thunder. For just a moment, the air between the blades compressed. What followed was an invisible explosion of force that changed the direction of the howling wind for a moment. It was Gaius' turn to be thrown off balance. His sword skipped from his talons as he spun head over tail, landing in the dust.

Reckoning's advantage lasted only moments, however. As he flew forward on tired wings for a killing blow, Gaius' talons traced a circle in the ground. The dirt and loose stone rose up, sending what might have been called a small sandstorm into Reckoning's eye. A coughing fit accompanied by the screaming of a thousand pebbles grinding at his empty socket sent the machete bouncing to the ground. This time, Gaius felt no need to re-arm his opponent. Even before the magical storm had stopped, the griffon had brought a rear paw around in a wide kick. Adding to the pain of the blinding storm, the old pegasus was thrown through the air like a ragdoll by the sheer force of the attack. He landed crumpled on his side, struggling desperately with both hooves to clean the mess of dust and rock from his face.

He was not fast enough. Gaius pounced atop him, and lifted the same rear leg. It came down once, twice, and then three times upon Reckoning's left wing. Each strike was audible in force above the constant storm. The stone beneath the wing cracked under the force, and on the third blow, the pony's flesh broke as well.

The sound, crystal clear despite the howling wind, seemed to Rainbow like that of a branch freeing itself from a tree in a roaring autumn storm. It was crisp, and clean, save for the scream of unbridled agony that shot forth over Reckoning's tongue. A shard of jagged white bone thrust its way free of the feathered flesh of the pegasus' wing, accompanied by a small burst of blood.

As Gaius' talons closed around Reckoning's throat, Dash could see tears pouring from behind both his closed eyelids. Her heart screamed in empathy, but all her struggles could do nothing to stop the choking grip of the prelate as he carried the scout to the edge of the ridge.

The griffon leader spoke loudly, calmly, and with a solemnity that a less distraught Rainbow Dash might well have respected. "For the crimes you have committed against the Griffon Empire, you are given to the Great Chasm. Have you any words before your final flight?"

Reckoning nodded slowly, and squeezed open his good eye. As tears ran down his broken face, the old soldier turned his gaze away from the prelate, and toward the distant form of his young partner.

"Tell the Princess 'I'm sorry'… Rainbow."

The surprise of her name stole the air from the mare's lungs, and she was given no time to gather her thoughts. Gaius thrust Reckoning forward, and spoke loudly and clearly. "Fly, now, elder, if your wings will carry you."

Gravity seemed to react slowly as Rainbow screamed. Reckoning slipped downward. His wings fluttered helplessly against the air, but his shattered side could not carry his weight. And so he continued downward.

The edge of the ridge first stole his hind legs from sight. The gray fur seemed more faded than ever before, as if he were nothing more than a frame from an old film. Grayscale. Blurry. Unable to move beyond a single pose. His tail went next, short and stubby and still filled with the brambles and dust of his adventurous life. Then his cutie mark, the sole remaining color on his weary coat. She had forgotten all about the map, and in watching it disappear, she felt a hope fade along with it.

She flapped her wings as he went further and further. Every beat took the greatest ounce of her energy. Her cage may have protected her body, but it was tearing apart her soul. In agony, she cried out again, though the winds stole her words.

His brown shirt, stained red with his own blood, was swallowed up by the void. The rough mane and the poorly-shaven roughness of his neck's coat passed next. And in a moment, all that was left was his smile, and his one smiling eye.

Her heart skipped a beat as she realized what she had seen. His smile was the same one he had worn the first day she had met him, when he thought it funny to pop his glass eye out and scare her. It was the smile he wore when he turned a splash of water into icicles and earned her amazement. It was the smile that he had worn on his face when she first erupted from Fallaner's river, and he saw that she was still breathing. In a few tightened muscles and a subtle upward twist, his muzzle spoke more volumes than any library. And, in a single instant, it too was gone.

As tears met Rainbow's face, she felt something in her wings. It was a sensation she hadn't felt in five years, borne of emotion, and magic, and desperation. Her mind recalled Luna's fall, and the mare could only think that she would not fail again. And so, wielding Loyalty even in the face of death, she flapped once.

The explosion was louder than all the world, and yet to Rainbow's ears it was silent. She flew as fast as she had ever before, mocking the griffon's ideas of possibility, yet to her own mind she was barely moving at all. Reckoning was still falling, and she still could not see him.

Gaius barely turned in time to see the streak of rainbow. Dash merely pushed him aside. His jaw shattered and his body was thrown back amongst his kin. Rainbow saw nothing; heard nothing; all her mind was focused on the dive.

Below her, plunging into the eternal, dark void, Reckoning fell. She stretched herself toward him, and to her surprise, she sped up. The motion seemed to take eternity, as she reached in futility for the falling pony. His eyes were closed again, but he still wore that smile.

Then she felt something - a heavy force, gripping her sides. It pulled back, and even the might of her wings and her sorrow were not enough to stop it.

"Let him go, Rainbow Dash."

She answered with tears and a shaking of her head, but her body was helpless to resist. She watched as the gray body was slowly swallowed by the black. All the world's noise was gone.

- - -

Rainbow existed in a state of hollowness, drifting between waking and sleeping. In recent days, she had seen death. She had even dealt it herself. But never before had it been to a pony. Never before had it been to a friend.

Magnus had pulled her back from the void by force, and her tiny body was no match for his enormous strength. She was so far gone in shock that she hadn't even recognized the griffon ruler until he pulled her back to his palace, floating alone in midair above Reckoning's shadowed resting place. There, she had struggled, screaming and fighting to try and dive back down until Magnus's magic simply placed her into sleep.

She awoke in a small room, with a glorious platter of greens and plants, and a comfortable cushion on which to sit. A large window of clear polished glass showed her that the sun had set over the ridge. It had been two days of stress and outright battle since she had eaten a proper meal, and yet rather than hunger, she felt almost sick. She just stared at the plate, hollow and quiet.

It took her a long time to admit that she barely knew the stallion. She'd seen into his mind, and his past, and more besides, but in the end, it had all been three days. Why, then, did she feel so attached to him?

Perhaps it was that with him gone, she felt completely alone. Her eyes were dry as she asked herself what she was supposed to do next. She had no map, no cure, no solution; only two words from a dying stallion, and a little smile. They seemed too little.

She barely turned when the room's door creaked open. The enormous form of the griffon emperor came first, but the creature that followed brought creases to her brow and rage to her heart.

"Why are you-"

"He wishes to offer his apology, Rainbow Dash." Magnus gestured to Gaius, who nodded slowly. A huge, bloody bruise on his jaw was the only change from his earlier appearance. Slowly, he prostrated himself before her, bowing his beak until it touched the floor.

"Why doesn't he say something, then?"

"You broke his jaw, as I understand," the emperor responded. "You fly with more strength and spirit than any of my own kind."

"I wasn't fast enough," Rainbow answered sullenly. "Again. Why did you have to kill him?"

Gaius lifted his head, but Magnus held out an arm to pause the prelate. "You have done as you must. Leave us, now." Gaius nodded, and then reached beneath his wing. Rainbow watched as he placed a single familiar pouch on the floor, and then turned toward the door. It was Reckoning's. Rainbow moved toward it, ignoring the retreating griffon. The ruler waited for his servant to pass through the door before continuing. "Today's death was regrettable, but unavoidable."

Rainbow looked up from the pouch in her forehooves with a wounded expression. "You could have let him go!"

"No, I could not." His rumbling voice sounded for a moment regretful. "He killed eight of my wards this morning, and another only minutes ago. Whether he did so from madness or hatred is irrelevant. Would you have me face my subjects and tell them that I forgave their killer? To let him go on living would be to start another war between your kind and mine. I have no intention of seeing such bloodshed, but my hand can be forced."

"But… he didn't want to; he didn’t have a choice."

"The world is cruel, Rainbow. I can look in your eyes and tell that you know this. At times, we make cruel choices, in order to spare harm to the ones that we care for and guard. My prelate made such a choice, but he did so with honor and respect."

"He broke Reckoning's wing and threw him off the cliff!" Rainbow screamed.

"As is our custom. When a griffon grows so old he can no longer fly, how is he to navigate the ridge? And so such a beloved elder makes his final flight, diving to the depths and embracing the world I have made for my kin."

This new perspective stole some of the barbs from his parting, but Rainbow still hurt inside. Her hooves flicked open the pouch, and watched as a bunch of petty supplies fell out. Most were perishables - random plants and fruits and seeds. Only a little compass, and a yellowed map, left with a wavy texture from drying after a dunk in Fallaner's river, seemed to bear any of the spirit of the fallen pony. She tucked the things away again and leaned the open bag against her leg before answering Magnus' words. "So… he's gone then? To where griffons go when they die?"

Magnus shook his head. "His soul goes to your Princess, Rainbow Dash. As the sun shines overhead, he will go to be in Celestia's care. You can ask her if you wish to know more; I do not judge the souls of your kind. I will not do you the disservice of pretending to know more."

"I…" Rainbow honestly had no idea what to say, so she instead looked up at the emperor and nodded. "Thanks."

"For the Bearer of Loyalty, I would do nothing less." The enormous griffin rose, and his back cracked twice. "Forgive me; I spent too much mana in coming here, and my body shows a mortal age for it. Rest, preen, and eat. Your body shows fatigue. When my youth and your health are returned, I will spare you a wind to travel back to your homeland."

At first, the words passed through the young pegasus' ears without reaching her mind. A subtle nagging hint, however, broke through the ice of her sorrow. "Age? I thought you didn't…" Rainbow's words trailed off as she noticed the gray tinges on feathers that she recalled having formerly been a sharp black.

"For myself, as well as your Princesses, our immortality is tied to our magic. Perhaps you recall the appearance Celestia bore recently, with a mane of plain pink. That is her mortal form, revealed by potent magic. I too have spent my share in walking along the winds to arrive here from the land of the Elk so quickly."

The nagging thought progressed, remembering Celestia's letter. She opened one of the breast pockets of her muddied safari shirt, only to pull forth an unreadable mass of soggy parchment. A sigh escaped her lips as she dropped it on the plush, luxurious carpet. "If you spent all your mana, what would happen?"

"Perhaps you misunderstand the magnitude of our power. I cannot imagine such a feat of power, though perhaps Krenn might..." The emperor looked away momentarily. "I imagine we would face a mortal death."

"So if a poison took away all your magic-" A hint of excitement blurred with the melancholy in her voice by the time he cut her off.

"You concern yourself with Luna?" Magnus nodded. "Just as you said before, yes. Though I was not told of age, I assure you that Celestia knows this fact as well as I; she would have been aware of such a reality. But she and I both know that no such poison exists."

"Are you sure?"

"I would not lie; I have no more intention to see the young Princess die than you do."

Rainbow nodded. "Sorry. I just-"

"Do not dare apologize for the sacrifices you have made, Rainbow Dash. No true griffon could accept such an apology. But know that your life is important as well - or do you think Discord would have spared my kind?" Magnus stepped up to the doorway and offered a flourishing bow. "I see in you a true warrior."

"What?" Rainbow looked down at herself, muddy and bloody and beaten, having been unable to save her partner and her friend. "Why?"

"Because when you fight, it is to save lives, rather than to end them."

As the door creaked shut, the Magnus' words shifted in Rainbow's mind until they were different words entirely.

"You were trying to be a good guardspony. You were trying to save lives. My life. Your princess' life. Sometimes, that means making choices."

"No," she answered aloud, wishing to turn and see Reckoning standing behind her. "No, I chose wrong. I couldn't save you, and I can't save Luna."

"She's lucky to have you looking out for her."

"I failed!" Rainbow moaned. "Even if I found a cure tomorrow, I couldn't get back in time!" Her hooves smashed against the table, spilling her platter of perfect greens across the floor. A few grapes and nuts rolled into the still-open lid of Reckoning's sole remaining saddlebag. Her hoof moved in, trying to sort out the food from his keepsakes. Her hoof stopped on a rough brown canvas bag. She nearly skipped over it, but then turned for a second look.

"A poison… that isn't a poison…"

A shining ray pierced through the icy surface of her sorrow. She called it hope. It put a tiny smile on her face, and part of her heart hoped it would look the way his did. Then she cinched the saddlebag to her leg, turned to the door, and took flight. Magnus would have to give her the wind early.

- - -

The little bell above the doorway of the Carousel Boutique rang gently, as a mare stepped out of the rain. It was rather too late for such a customer, but the truth was that the owner hadn't been sleeping. Rarity could hear it pouring even from her workspace, upstairs above the main showroom. "I'll be with you in a moment," came the owner's call, rather more deflated that one might usually expect even at the unreasonable hour. She carefully stitched the last bit of black thread for a dress she intended to wear herself, and then walked down the stairs.

She knew she wasn't looking her best, and hoped the customer could forgive her. What point was mascara if one knew it was going to run?

"Welcome to the Carousel Boutique," she began, as her hooves met the ground floor. Across the room from her was a young indigo unicorn mare, wearing a black mane with blue and purple swirling highlights. Though she had no intention of saying it aloud, Rarity always detested the combination of black and blue. It was the nagging of an old rule of fashion that she couldn't seem to get out of her head. Instead, she took note of the water sopping the mare's coat, and shook her head. "I'm so sorry for the weather. Can I get you a towel, perhaps, or a heater?"

"It's no issue," the mare responded as her horn ignited with misty blue magic, and in only a moment, all the water across her body was gathered together into a rather large raindrop at the top of her horn. She pulled open the boutique door quickly and tossed the ball away. "See? All dry."

"Yes, that's impressive magic. I could never maintain that level of focus. You might want to speak with Twilight if you're a mage."

"Tragically not," the mare answered, turning to the side to reveal her cutie mark. It was a pale white mask, bearing a frown upon its muzzle. Rarity recognized it from theatre as the symbol for tragedy. "I'm an actress of sorts. In any case, I understand that I might be a little late, but I was hoping to commission a dress."

Rarity knew she could easily finish such a project; the only concern was its purpose. "For tomorrow?" The mare nodded. "Then come over here and I'll take your measurements." Rarity's magic claimed a length of measuring tape and went to work.

"There is something else I've been hoping to do while I was here in Ponyville," the actress noted, as Rarity's voice found itself without the usual urge to chat up the customer. "Do you know where I can find a decent mailmare?"

"I can give you the address of the post office."

"I'm afraid this letter has very specific instructions." The mare called forth some more of her magic, and pulled a blank white envelope seemingly from midair. "It’s a will."

"Oh, I see. Well, there is a mare I can direct you to when you're done, Miss…"

The actress thought for a moment and then smiled. "You can call me Ms. Ball."

- - -

The sky was dominated by twilight; though the sun's light shone over Equestria ahead and to the left. The colors it painted across the sky reminded a tired, hungry and aching mare of the friends she had left behind not altogether too long ago. On the very edge of the horizon she could see a blur of pink, starting light and gentle like Fluttershy's mane, before devolving into the darker coat of Pinkie. The underside of welcome white puffy clouds bore the purples and lavenders of a dressmaker and a librarian. At the very edge of the light, a farmer's warm orange brought to mind the smell of apples.

She could see Ponyville if she looked down; it was a few dozen miles away still, but that would be an easy flight even on an empty stomach and a tired body. She knew, however, that her mission was urgent, and her package a desperate hope. She couldn't allow herself the distraction she longed for. Instead, her neck was locked toward the spire of the Mountain of Dawn. There, glorious ivory Canterlot hung and stretched forth, yearning for the sun. It wouldn't be long now.

Though her eyes resisted the temptation of home, they did wander to the horizon to watch the rising sun. The welcome freedom of flight without desperation or fear of death was almost a foreign sensation; the last time she had gone without practicing her stunts for so long was under the duress of a broken wing, years past. Now she was free again, and the cold morning air was the only thing managing to hold her awake and together.

Magnus' wind had carried her over the ocean at a speed she had never even imagined. Trailing a brilliant rainbow and outrunning the sound of her own passing, Rainbow had felt herself push against another, far stronger barrier . She had no idea what could have caused it, and so the question was tucked away for Twilight later. Luna's cure took precedence over all.

The tailwind had failed at the shoreline, high above Baltimare. From there, Rainbow took to a slow glide, feeling the resistance of her own body and magic after such an outpouring of energy. She knew she'd be in Canterlot by the time the sun pulled itself fully free of the horizon. A sideways glance was meant to affirm her idea; it proposed something altogether different instead.

The sun should have risen. It had been waiting on the edge of twilight for ten minutes, but the orb did not come into sight. A chill rushed down Rainbow's spine, but not for lack of heat. Celestia was never late. A slow breath filled her nostrils. "It's just some mistake. Lots of stress. Maybe I'm just getting worked up, like Twilight always says…"

She glanced over again, and saw no change. Nothing at all had moved. Her wings skipped a beat, and her stomach jolted as she dropped a few feet. Rather than recovering, she moved into a dive, pushing again with all her might. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

No matter how hard she worked, her body was too tired to bring forth another rainboom. Instead, she dove for all the speed that she could, and then pulled up with furious wingbeats. The speed was still impressive, but her fear was that she had been too late before she even began.

Rather than the steady pace of comfortable flight, Canterlot grew as if the mountain itself were coming forward to meet Rainbow. The wind ripped through her mane, leaving it flowing backward along her neck. She forced herself to ignore the aches for a few moments more, watching as the railroad tracks and the foothills passed on the ground half a mile beneath her.

Then, in an instant, she was over the city walls. Early risers looked up at the speeding mare overhead, bloodied and torn and seeming far older than she had been five days earlier. She didn't even notice them. Her body pulled down toward the huge wooden doors of the palace, flanked by a pair of guards. They saw her coming and glanced at one another, but she didn't have time even to explain. Her shoulder was lowered, and the doors flew open.

The shake that the blow dealt to her in own body in retribution was the final nail in her endurance, crumpling her wings and leaving her to slide across the marble floor of the entryway on her belly, struggling to pull up Reckoning's bag. The two guardsponies from the door rushed over to her fallen form, ready to bark orders. She spoke first between gasps for breath.

"This-" The world swam before her eyes, growing murky and distorted. "-'s Luna's…"

Sleep claimed its victim without further protest.

- - -

In a place devoid of time, a stallion spared himself a moment of irony. He had to admit that the image of a landscape of puffy clouds and glowing light had always seemed to his mind just a bit tacky. Nopony joined the guard wanting to see the world and then found themselves only satisfied by the perfect bits. It was the dirt and the rocks and the leaves and the water that made things feel real. Clouds always lacked that grit.

Something about what he was seeing was somehow different, though. The clouds seemed puffier, fuller, rounder than he had seen in years. He wondered what the cause could have been, as he closed his eyes.

"Dead Reckoning?" The voice was gentle and beautiful, but also clearly surprised. He recognized it instantly, and turned stiffly. His right forehoof snapped into a salute.

"Reporting for duty, your Majesty."

Celestia stood before him in all her glory, glowing radiantly with all the colors in her mane. A sad smile sat on her face. He decided immediately that he did not like it.

"You may call me Celestia, Reckoning. You've earned that right. And you owe no more duty to me, or anypony else."

He smiled, and laughed. "I'll always be a guardspony, Celestia. And you can call me 'Deadeye'." And at the name, he realized what had changed. Slowly, he brought a hoof in front of his face. His coat was a well trimmed green, fitting the jungle perfectly. He blinked, with both eyes, and his smile grew just a bit wider.

"Very well, Deadeye. You gave your life to serve, thankfully, and for that, you have my eternal thanks. You can go now, to the Summer Lands, and rest."

He cocked a brow over the eye he had been missing not long before. "To be honest, Celestia, I never really liked sitting around and resting. I signed up to the guard for adventure, and I wasn't done before." He flexed young, supple wings. "Now I feel like I could take on the world."

"Then perhaps adventure is what you will have, Deadeye. I cannot tell you exactly what awaits, for I cannot go myself." She offered him a little grin as she lowered her head to nuzzle the back of his. It was a luxurious feeling - the comfort she could never give to soldiers in life. "One way or another, things can be arranged."

"I'd like that," Reckoning answered, spreading young wings and rising into the sky. "I think I'd like that a lot."

Apologies for the lateness of this chapter; it seemed like every day something came up right when I sat down to get some writing done. Now that it's out, I'd like to give a special thanks both to my continuing pre-reader SatoshiKyu, and a new member of the WLL team, Roflknief. I can't stress enough how much of an impact a good pre-reader can make on a story like this; I couldn't produce what you read above alone. To I guess that's what I'm thankful for this time of year.

I'm also very thankful to have great readers who take the time to share their thoughts and criticisms with me; I encourage the use of the comments below, where you might very well find some of my own thoughts, if you're interested. As we move very quickly toward bringing Act I of Where Loyalties Lie to a close, I guess I'd like to close by saying that this has been as fun for me as I hope it's been for you.

-Loyal Liar

XVI - Sorrow

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XVI
Sorrow
- - -

A sharp but gentle prodding brought a slight irritation to Rainbow's side. She felt sore, which was a sure sign that her nap had been interrupted far too early (which was to say 'prior to high noon'). The pegasus rolled over, threw a wing over her face, and groaned. "Not now, Twilight. When'd your horn get so sharp, anyway?"

"Forgive me, Rainbow Dash, but I had been hoping to speak with you."

The mare shot upright to the sound of a familiar but unexpected voice. "Princess Celestia?"

"I am glad you recognize me, Rainbow," the Princess answered with a chuckle. She seemed to have a sort of glow around her, perhaps emanating from the radiant mane she had recovered in the five days of the pegasus' journey.

Seeing the Princess' smiling face, Rainbow's mind raced through a thousand short memories to reach an obvious conclusion. "So is Luna okay?"

It did not take long for the humor to flee Celestia's face. "Do not mistake my joy for success so soon, Rainbow; my sister's life is still in peril. However, you have given her a hope that I had almost feared was gone forever." The Princess lowered her head in gratitude before lifting up with pure focus. "I understand that you're probably still tired, but the doctors need to know everything they can about the seeds you brought back. Are they meant to be the cure?"

Dash spared herself a moment to rub her eyes and shake her head. As she did so, she caught a glance of Celestia's opulent bedroom. Apart from a quick glance to Philomena, and a moment of surprise at the golden flowers hanging from the ceiling, she gave it little attention. The urgency in the Princess' stance, looming over the bed, seemed to dominate the space. "No. They're the poison. Well, sort of." Celestia's brow rose, but she allowed Rainbow to continue all the same. "They're called 'phage seeds'. They… how did he put it…" The pegasus struggled to remember the way it the strange plants had been explained to her, but in place of the thought, she endured a moment of cold regret for the loss of the stallion who had done the explaining.

It must have been obvious, judging simply by Celestia's words. "Is something troubling you?"

"I'm…" Rainbow shook her head quickly to dissolve the thought, before putting on her hardest face. "I'm okay. Anyway, the seeds are like… magic weights. I'm not sure if they actually get rid of your magic, or just use it up themselves, or maybe block it or something. All I know is that if you eat them, your magic doesn't work for a while."

Celestia cocked her head with an even deeper curiosity. "I had thought there was no such thing as a poison that struck at one's mana. These seeds you've found are an incredibly dangerous discovery."

"Well, they're not really a poison. Maybe that's why your doctors haven't heard of them...? I've eaten them before, and so did Dead Reckoning…" Rainbow's voice faltered for only the slightest of moments, but then simply fell into silence as a huge feathered wing wrapped around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Rainbow."

"It's fine, Princess," the proud pegasus lied. The warmth of the solar monarch's feathers made her feel like a foal again, nestling safely in Easy Breeze's down. She forced her mind back to the question she had been asked, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the weakness of sorrow. "Anyway, if you eat the seeds, your magic goes away, but it comes back stronger. They don’t do anything bad in the long run. I didn't even think they could be dangerous until I met with the Griffon Emperor."

"Magnus knew?" An obvious hint of anger found its way into Celestia's eyes, though her face remained straight.

"No, I don't think so. I had to explain it to him before he gave me the wind to get back here faster. But he sort of made everything make sense. I didn't know about you being… ya know, immortal." The mare shrugged, and Celestia's anger faded. "But he explained that it was from your magic. Which I guess makes sense. But then I thought about the seeds."

"But you are certain the seeds were what Masquerade used?"

Rainbow nodded slowly. "That's… kind of a longer story, but what matters is we went to see this freaky elk, and he said some weird prophecy."

Celestia's tone became instantly more serious, wielding the voice she used against Discord. "An elk gave a prophecy? What did it say?"

Dash found no shame in recoiling from Celestia's nearly tangible aura of oppressive force. "It was just about curing Luna - lots of crazy stuff I didn't understand, but he talked about somepony called 'Reconciliation', and that I needed to go to Grivridge to find a poison that wasn't a poison. I guess reconciliation was my old griffon friend Gilda…" Dash shrugged. "But a poison that isn't poisonous had to be the phage seeds."

Celestia's sheer focus retreated softly, replaced once more by her gentle, kindly smile. "You show great intuition and wisdom, Rainbow. I am impressed."

"Now, hold on, Princess. I'm not some huge egghead like Twilight; all I did was make a few lucky guesses and put some stuff together."

The Princess' smile grew ever so slightly wider, but the change was surprising. Rather than her usual diplomatic appearance, Celestia wore almost the grin of a school filly. At its slightest possible description, it belonged to an ecstatically proud mother. "You needn't humble your achievement, Rainbow. I guarantee you that no other pony in all of Equestria could have done what you did." Then the Princess leaned forward and nuzzled Rainbow. In the closeness of the embrace, she was nearly too distracted to notice Celestia's whispered thought. "At least, not anymore." The princess drew back to her full height and gestured toward the door. "You've done everything you can, and more than could ever be expected of you. All we can do now is wait, and trust them. I'll go speak to the doctors with what you've told me, and then I'll return, and we can speak more."

Rainbow shook her head and forced herself to sit up. "I think I'll just come with you."

Whatever her reason, Celestia seemed to appreciate the gesture. "You're welcome to, Rainbow, though if you're still tired-"

"Nah," Dash answered, climbing down from Celestia's enormous bed. "I'm not gonna fall back asleep now - too much is going on."

With no more desire to contest Rainbow's wishes, Celestia turned toward the door and began to walk. It took a near-gallop on the pegasus' part to keep up with the ruler's lengthy stride. She found herself thankful that her legs were less tired than her wings, and so allowed herself to watch Celestia.

The alicorn seemed to have returned to her usual regal state, quite possibly from the hope that Rainbow had delivered. Though swift, her gait was stately and majestic, and her feathers and coat were preened and brushed to perfection. The golden peytral around her neck was polished to a mirror's gleam, and the gilded shoes she wore clicked in time with the perfect rhythm of her passing.

They didn't speak in transit, recognizing that further words would be a distraction from Luna's care. Silence reigned over nearly empty halls of stained glass, pure white marble, and soft velvet wallpaper decorated with intricate patterns.

Rainbow still didn't recognize many of the palace's hallways, but she knew the infirmary when she found it. It seemed as though hospital swinging double doors were a universal constant, from their plain off-white tone to the nearly-square windows with lightly rounded corners set near their top. They swung open at the silent bidding of Celestia's magic, and the pair stepped inside.

A hurricane of doctors surrounded and flitted with a drawn curtain at the far end of the room. Celestia glanced back at Rainbow and offered a short nod. Its meaning was clear. Rainbow stepped to the side of the room as the Princess made her way over to speak with the doctors.

She glanced around the room of empty beds and found to her surprise an equine figure lying near the door, ignored. Rainbow could make out that it was a pegasus, and nothing more. Terrible burns had claimed coat and flesh, leaving behind a charred black mess, whose sole sign of continuing life was a weak but steady heartbeat displayed on a nearby monitor.

She took a step toward the chart hanging from the end of the bed, curious as to the unfortunate pony's identity. A familiar but surprisingly unwelcome voice interrupted her.

"Crap, kid. I owe Marathon twenty bits."

Rainbow forced herself to take a slow breath before turning toward her least favorite guardspony. "What do you want, Crack?" The mare had to force herself not to smile at the heavy cast covering his left wing. "What happened to you?"

"First off, filly, it's-"

"Don't give me any crap about rank or title or whatever the hay you call it." Rainbow didn't even shout; she didn't feel the need. "I didn't see you in Zebrica helping save Luna."

The slight recoil she earned from the bed-bound soldier was worth every word in Rainbow's mind. Thunder Crack's face built up to a deep red beneath his olive coat, before he reluctantly forced himself to discard his anger in the interest of glancing down at the ground. "Look, uh, Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry-"

"Yeah right." Dash shook her head as she walked over to the side of Crack's bed, if only to look him closer in the eyes. "Did Marathon put you up to saying that?"

A long and slow breath moved through his nostrils, and his answer came in the form of an embarrassed whisper. "The Princess did."

Dash released the first genuine chuckle in what she could consider recent memory. It didn't go over well.

"Hey, Private, watch it! Just 'cause I didn't fly to flank-backwards nowhere doesn't mean I didn't do my duty, and don't you dare suggest otherwise." His hoof gestured to his stiff wing. "Do you think I got this falling off a ladder?"

"Really, Crack, I don't care." Rainbow wore a little grin. "I'm not gonna be a guardspony anymore, so you can just shut up about it."

To Rainbow's surprise, Crack's free wing twitched, folding under itself in what every pegasus recognized as a display of shame... or regret. It took the sergeant a glance to his own side to recognize the unconscious motion, at which point he moved to hide it with a stern face. "That's all I wanted in the first place, filly." Then the edge of his tone dropped off just a bit. "Though you are starting to look like one of us. Did my lessons bail you out of one of those scrapes?" He nodded toward the clean scar above her right cutie mark. "Was that a manticore, or…?"

Rainbow quickly decided that she didn't want to bring up the source of that particular wound, and so instead chose to respond with a fire. "Which part of your lessons was I supposed to learn from again? The part where you beat on me for like six hours, or the part where you threw me into a bar fight?"

Whatever reaction Rainbow might have earned was stolen away by the sound of golden hooves approaching from the mass of doctors that was Luna's bedside. "While I do fully agree that Sergeant Crack's made a poor choice in his idea of an education, Rainbow, perhaps you can find it in yourself to forgive him? He has paid no small penance for his actions." Then she shook her head with a glint in her eye. "It's a tragedy that the Private's Reserve will be losing so much business, though." Rainbow laughed, and Crack groaned. The princess, however, continued to speak. "Though of course, how you feel about forgiving him is entirely in your own hooves."

There was something about the way Celestia spoke that turned a gentle reprimand into a crushing load of shame. Rainbow lowered her head. "Yeah, okay. I guess it did help out when I was fighting Gilda."

With her gaze averted, the younger of the pegasi present missed the flash of recognition on Celestia's face. Instead, she only heard the solar ruler speak softly. "You must be hungry, Rainbow, after such a long journey. I'll have the chefs prepare one of your veggie burgers and send it up here. I have some very important matters to attend to now, but I know that my sister is in the best possible hooves." The beaming smile on the Princess' face filled Rainbow with pride, even before a gentle, almost sorrowful nuzzle graced her cheek.

Something about the Princess' comforting contact set the young pegasus off a bit. "Uh, Princess, I get that you're thankful, but, uh..."

The words trailed off as Celestia stepped back. For only a split second, she looked as though she was lost without map or guide. Rainbow quickly found herself searching for the words to an apology, but they came too slow. The ageless ruler smiled politely. "Forgive me, Rainbow. It seems my emotions have shown too frequently these past few days." Then she made her way through the infirmary's swinging doors.

Thunder Crack shook his head, wishing that Celestia had at least done him the decency of mentioning a less humiliating part of his recompense. In the face of enduring Rainbow's (probably justified) words, his anonymous donation to the Canterlot Orphanage in the amount of his full annual salary seemed the least of his concerns.

- - -

Shining Armor found himself sitting in the Palace ballroom, at a large table that was serving as his makeshift desk. He had rid himself of his armor in the interest of what little comfort could be achieved in the face of unrelenting paperwork.

In front of him, devoid of armor or powder as a matter of kindness, were the last three flight-capable pegasus guardsponies in the city of Canterlot. Two sat still, backs stiffened in formal posture, awaiting his word. The third, though, was making the act of writing quite difficult. His horn ignited with a quick bit of idle magic, snatching a paper that was trying to run away from his quill on the wind. He didn't even bother sparing a glance at the wings that had caused the disturbance in the air; if the mare could have done something about the issue, she likely would have.

To his mild irritation, one of his own subordinates raised his voice at her. "Sit down, private." The mare in the formal black evening dress (a stunning match for her burnt orange coat, Shining had to admit) outright ignored him.

The captain glanced up, put on his 'Captain's Face' (a stern but emotionless expression that left its observer guessing), and spoke with an even tone. "I wouldn't worry about it, corporal."

The guard cocked his head ever so slightly. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"You can speak however you like, corporal, but Private Marathon is Honor Guard. It wouldn't do to upset her."

Shining had been banking on the Honor Guard's curious rumored reputation as it passed from soldier to soldier in the Royal Guard barracks. Not everypony had heard the stories, and not all of them believed what was said. To Shining's satisfaction, however, the corporal had and did. His lips were pressed shut firmly, and he spared another awkward glance Marathon's way. She didn't acknowledge the attention.

Shining finished scrawling on his parchment and rolled it up into a scroll which he sealed with wax and magic. "Sergeant Flint, you're to take this Baltimare. At the Royal Guard Barracks there, you should find Lieutenant Mail. If she has a report for me, let her compile it; otherwise I want you back here immediately." The silent pegasus saluted, tucked the scroll into a messenger bag hanging over his flank, and made his way out into the Canterlot sky.

Shining then turned to the intimidated corporal. To his slight shame, he didn't know the stallion's name, but he wasn't about to draw attention to that fact. "This goes to the National Guard Armory in Vanhoover. You're looking for Lieutenant Dice; after that, he'll probably need you to run more messages. He doesn't have as large a company of pegasi as he needs." Grateful to be away from the entirely peaceful mare, the pegasus fled after his companion.

Only when the ballroom was clear did Marathon swoop down and collapse onto the tiny stubs beneath her flanks. "You shouldn't let them think things about the Honor Guard, Captain Armor."

"Please, Marathon, it's just Shining today. I've been on duty too long as it is." The guardspony sighed, and the pegasus mare saw beneath his eyes the weariness of a stallion twice his age. "And from what I've seen in the past few days, an awful lot of the barracks talk about the Honor Guard is true."

Marathon flapped her wings twice, landing directly on her hips across Shining's makeshift desk, where she gave him her most disarming political smile and spoke gently. "You don't like us, do you?"

"I don't mind you," Shining answered. "I find it hard to imagine you not caring about ponies’ lives."

"You didn't get to be the captain of the Royal Guard without drawing blood, did you?"

"That's... not what I mean, Marathon." Shining looked up from his paperwork and sighed. "When I was in Baltimare, I saw Red Ink set a building full of civilians on fire, trying to kill a mare who wasn't even his enemy." The look in the guardspony's eyes was one of fear and hatred boiled into a nameless but potent brew. "And maybe he was overcome by his Empatha, or maybe he just didn't care... but ponies died in that fire."

"Shining, I wouldn't let Red Ink represent us any more than I'd let White Flag represent the Royal Guard."

"She's little better. She decided Soldier On was more important than saving those ponies."

Marathon nodded with sympathy, and then glanced up to the wide mantle that circled the empty ballroom. Shining followed her gaze, and saw the empty space in the even spread of statues where a stallion ought to have been standing. The pegasus spoke softly. "You haven't seen us at our best, Shining Armor. If he were still here..." She let the words die, resorting to simply staring at the empty space.

"We all have to move on," Shining answered.

"Yes we do." She turned back to him and glanced down at the parchment he was quickly rolling up. A forced smiled found its way onto her face. Shining Armor had to admit, it was very convincing. "Where am I moving on to first?"

"Bitaly," he answered, nudging forward his letter. "On the way to Roam, drop that off in Trottingham at the barracks. Then tell my wife she can come home." Marathon's wings spread as she took the letter. Shining called after the mare as she departed. "And if my father in law decides that I need a few more bottles of vintage wine, and they just happen to fall into the ocean, it's no sweat off my back."

His company gone, Shining was finally able to get back to the bluntly immense incident report he was writing. His attention on the document, however, was interrupted shortly by a single loud and incredibly firm knock on the ballroom's interior doors.

"Uh... come in?" he called aloud, wondering if somepony had tried to buck the door down and failed miserably. The fact that he was occupying a ballroom rather than his usual office made the need for permission seem all the more awkward.

The doors opened to a gray mare with a blonde mane and a huge smile. A small bruise was forming on her forehead. "Sorry about that; I was going just a little too fast around that last corner, and-"

"Derpy?" Shining Armor tilted his head to the side in a show of surprise. "What are you doing in Canterlot?"

"Huh? Oh, that's easy!" Her announcement was paired with a brilliant smile, which was then stuffed into a small messenger bag hanging from her side. "Special delivery from Ponyville for-" she paused to put quotes in the air with her forehooves. "-'somepony in the palace'. I figured I knew you, so you'd be the easiest to get a hold of."

"Okay...?" Shining was utterly perplexed as he took the carefully folded letter. The stock of the envelope was impeccable, suggesting some sort of noble as the deliverer. He glanced down at the wax seal and nearly jumped. "This is for the Princess. Who gave you this?"

"Oh, some mail pony from Appleloosa. She said it wasn't any rush, but I had to take a delivery to Cloudsdale anyway, so I figured I'd make the stop. Anyway, it was nice seeing you, Shining Armor, but I have to get back to Ponyville." Derpy's eyes focused for a moment, but their focus was on the ground. The life seemed to fade ever so subtly from her body. She turned and began to fly away.

"Uh, wait!" Shining called. The mailmare turned, and the captain gestured with his horn toward the broad doors on the opposite side of the room. "Those lead out into the gardens. It’s faster than trying to find your way out through the whole palace.

Derpy nodded but didn't say another word in response. Shining might have watched her go if his mind were not on the curious letter in his hand. With a brisk pace, he turned his path toward the throne room.

Despite the fatigue of a week's field work, his stride was brisk and sturdy. Perhaps it was the invigoration of having his magic back to normal. Knowing that somepony had finally come through to help Luna was another large boost. So he carried his head high as he passed the sparse few servants that separated the ballroom from his destination.

The doors swung open with what he considered a gentle prod of magic. Most unicorns would call the action strenuous, if they could manage it at all. He walked forward on the thin red carpet that sat atop the marble floor and bowed.

Celestia sat in all her glory atop a small dais of fountains, her crimson silk-upholstered seat once more providing a delightful contrast to her tri-tone mane. Her attention was on a hoof-servant in a short tie, who was quickly taking dictation.

"I'll be with you in a moment, Captain," the princess called, without turning toward him. A quill scribbled and Celestia shook her head. "That wasn't intended to go in the letter, Record. Continue with 'I look forward to the six of us meeting again shortly, in good health.' Except for Krenn, change the last phrase to 'in good time'. Then have them sent along with the pouches I gave you."

"Of course, Princess." Record time bowed, turned, and swiftly exited the room.

Celestia looked at Shining with her usual political 'mask'. "Did you need a word, Captain Armor?"

"Not myself, no. A letter came, marked for you." His aura lifted the small envelope up to the Princess, who took it gently and opened it without remark. Shining would have excused himself there and then, had Celestia's expression not shattered into one of shock. "Is something wrong?"

She didn't speak at first. Instead, her lips slowly closed, and her gaze hardened. Only after a moment did she begin to speak, with words that Shining wasn't expecting.

"It's from the Commander."

The words made their connections in Shining's heart even before his mind could process them. A waking nightmare swept into his mind, unifying his every fear.

Twilight Sparkle lay in a hospital bed in the palace infirmary. Her eyes were shut, and her breathing soft and weak. Shining could only stand at watch, alongside Celestia and Luna, his parents, and his sister’s friends. They were a crowd of the mightiest and the best Equestria had to offer, but they were helpless against the sound that passed only moments later. A continuous, high-pitched drone and a flat green line were all that served as a eulogy in those first few seconds.

"Twilight!" Shining shouted aloud, turning back toward the door.

"What?" Celestia rose, her wings spreading wide. "Captain, explain."

Shining Armor's ears heard the blunt command, but his mind failed to process them, or even recognize their existence. And so, for the first time in his life, he disregarded a direct order from the princess. His thoughts alone were to protect one of the two mares in the world he couldn't stand to imagine losing. The doors behind him nearly shattered under the arcane force which he expended to open them.

- - -

Rainbow stuffed half her opulent burger into her mouth, too hungry to even care about the (fantastic) flavor. The stretched edges of her mouth were pulled upward into a smile as she looked down at Luna. The doctors had flooded out, and one of the older ones mentioned that they needed to let her body adjust to their treatments before they continued. The pegasus took the opportunity to distance herself from Thunder Crack and reflect on all her effort. Hers was a perfect and unshakeable faith that things would turn out right for the princess of the night.

She glanced back when the doors to the infirmary smacked loudly against the walls they were attached to. A panting, armored Shining Armor ran in, literally sliding to a stop as his shoes failed to claim traction on the linoleum. "Rainbow! I need you, now!"

The mare stood up, wings rising in a show of concern. "What's wrong?"

"I need you to fly me to Ponyville."

Thunder Crack cut in, sitting up in his bed. "Get somepony else, Captain. I don't need the princess on my case more than she already is. Let her rest."

"If there were somepony else, I'd ask them. We've got no time. Masquerade is in Ponyville," Shining's words were delivered in a red-faced fury. "Can you get me there?"

Rainbow glanced back at her wings, though her thoughts were not on her own body. "Yeah. Let's go." She moved for the door, but stopped when Thunder Crack spoke up again.

"Wait, filly! If you're going after her, at least take my armor."

"We don't have time!" Shining responded.

"Do you want her to get killed?" Crack slid out of bed and reached under the medical cot. A heavy golden cuirass and helmet were produced with ease, and he placed them atop the mattress. "Take it, Private Dash."

Rainbow glanced to Shining, and Shining to Rainbow. Then the unicorn stallion's horn burst alight with magic, and the gilded plate armor wrapped itself over Rainbow's body. True to his name, Shining Armor moved efficiently, sparing no more than a few seconds to finish equipping the mare. As he did, Rainbow watched her hooves and legs grow wider and shift to a pale white. Cold metal shifted over her body, changing in shape to adjust to its young, feminine wearer. After the few seconds it took for the magic to do its work, Rainbow found herself indistinguishable from a generic Royal Guard officer. She shot a quick, less-than-meaningful glance to Crack. "Thanks."

"Kick her flank, Private," was the injured stallion's reply, pulling the shoes off his forehooves and tossing them onto the floor in front of Rainbow. She slid them onto her hooves as he spoke. "Guardspony shoes, with a steel lining."

There were no more seconds to be spared on words; Shining literally wrenched Rainbow out of the room by magic, and released her only when he was already moving at a full sprint through the palace's network of hallways. It took Rainbow a moment to catch up, and she did so on her hooves instead of by wing. There was no point getting ahead of Shining when she didn't know where she was going in the labyrinthine corridors. Instead, she spent each step getting used to the heavy metal weapons covering her forehooves.

It took less than a minute for the duo to barrel past all the servants and staff in their way and find themselves in what might have been called a small hangar. Seven chariots of various sizes were arrayed pointing toward a massive opening in the side of the structure. Below, the palace dropped off to hundreds, if not thousands of feet of open space that ended in the foothills of the Mountain of Dawn. Rainbow was never one to be scared of heights, but something about the sheer drop was ominous to her.

Shining didn't spare the opening a glance, instead leaping into the passenger's seating at the back of a small, single-pegasus chariot. "Come on, Rainbow!"

She ducked away from the open space and pulled herself into the harness without a word. Her wings stretched, sore beyond belief but functional nevertheless. Her first flap ended in a twinge of pain, but the second moved the chariots gilded wheels.

The train ride from Canterlot to Ponyville usually took about an hour, with the benefit of speed from traveling downhill through the tunnels of the mountain. An unladen pegasus could make the trip in forty-five minutes, with favorable winds. Full-on racing could let a fast pony cover the distance in thirty, but that was a difficult feat.

Rainbow Dash had little respect for what most ponies thought of as difficulty, however. Records existed only to be broken, when all was said and done. And so, tired and sore and burdened with the weight of an armored guardspony and a gilded chariot, she flapped and pushed and strained and focused. Her thoughts were on her friends, but the picture in her mind was of a decidedly different pony. Her nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed, and she pushed harder still.

In the course of the short trip, she didn't bother trying to speak to Shining Armor. The wind was going too fast past her ears, and she knew there was nothing to say. They had the same goal, and the same purpose. She spared no thought to the memory that she was returning to Ponyville in much the same manner that she had left a week earlier, with a chariot carrying a unicorn.

Shining Armor's mind was not so focused, as he was forced to endure the journey. Though he knew his words could never deter Rainbow Dash, Bearer of Loyalty from fighting to help her friends, thoughts of Going Solo brought difficult questions to mind. What would happen if she got hurt? He wasn't sure he had an answer.

No more than twelve minutes had passed before the pair made their approach. As they approached Rainbow's home, they were met with a thick blanket of gray clouds.

"Is that a thunder storm?" Shining shouted to be heard over the rush of wind past their ears.

"No," Rainbow answered. "They're cirrostratus. Awful thick, though. Hold on, I'm gonna take us down."

"Try not to draw attention," Shining called out, just before they met the gray wall of clouds.

The pegasus embraced the resistance of the clouds, and the wet chill that built over her wings as she plowed through to the streets of her hometown. She had neither the time, nor the inclination to explain the strangeness of seeing such a thick layer of gloomy clouds out any time before the very end of autumn. The thoughts of a weathermare were quickly discarded for those of a guardspony as Rainbow burst through the bottom of the clouds and gasped in shock.

A huge, but surprisingly well ordered crowd was gathered in front of city hall, facing up toward the balcony that stuck off the front of the building. From her trajectory, Rainbow couldn't see what they were looking at, and her mind didn't bother to consider the idea. Her focus was on a more urgent issue - she was pointing toward a painful crash straight in the center of the group. She pulled up and banked aside as hard as her tired wings could manage.

The air rumbled beneath her, and the crowd gasped. Behind her, Shining's seat twisted in the air, struggling and straining to accommodate Rainbow's strenuous dodge. One of the leads to her harness snapped, sending the cart spilling to the ground in a cacophonous crash, just over the heads of the back of the crowd. The other side of her harness, still attached firmly to the broken weight, pulled her down into a tight spin. Ponyville rolled in her vision, as grassy roads and gray skies traded places with each other a dozen times over. Her side hit the ground with what would have been a terrible pain, but Thunder Crack's armor cushioned the blow. She rolled twice along the ground and caught herself on her knees

She glanced over to the wreckage of the chariot, and saw Shining Armor standing in front of the broken pile of wood and gold, completely unharmed. He ran forward toward the crowd, eyes the very picture of focus. His armor shone with an inspiring purple light.

"Everypony, remain calm," were his first words.

- - -

No two minute earlier, Masquerade had been sitting in that crowd, garbed in a thin and rather fashionable dark blue dress fashioned by the Bearer of Generosity herself. She'd spent the day listening to somber ponies speak calmly about the glories and tragedies of a life lost young. Their poetic waxing brought her a sort of sick pride, if only by the knowledge of just how many such lives she had brought to end prematurely. Despite her entirely good intentions for staying in the little backwater town, it was hard for her to stay unhappy as she sat through the service.

Then, to her surprise and relief, something happened. Namely, a golden chariot tore through the low clouds overhead and barreled quickly out of control. She watched alongside the rest of the peaceful docile ponies as the vehicle shattered into a pile of gilded wood and dirt torn up from the ground. The guardspony who was pulling the vehicle took some time to recover from his unexpected roll, but the passenger had leapt out before the wheels even hit the ground.

Shining Armor looked ready to go to war, clad fully in his amethyst shell and wearing a focused scowl. Many criminals would have been afraid to see him approaching, and indeed, a little twinge of the deadliest emotion did pull at the assassin's heartstrings. Her mind, however, did not share in the apprehension. She was wearing the best disguise she had ever made: her own, natural form. Few living ponies had ever seen her real face; she could count them on two hooves. Neither was the captain of the Royal Guard. He could walk up beside her and notice a thing.

To her mild amusement, that was exactly what happened. Shining strode forward through the small aisle in the middle of the crowd, scanning the faces around him. The subtle enchantment she had placed over herself to make her blend into the crowd left his eyes to simply roll across her without any particular attention. If he had been able to recognize her, the spell wouldn't have been enough to stop his focus and determination. The knowledge that he had passed her over left her feeling as secure beneath her magic as the captain was under his legendary armor.

The guardspony who had been pulling the chariot soared overhead, scanning the crowd as well, though in the crowd of black-clad ponies, Masquerade had to imagine her mane would be difficult to spot. After a few laps, the captain gestured to the pony, and he landed atop Ponyville's largest structure, looking down at the massive crowd.

The captain's stride stopped dead directly beside the assassin, on account of a short fizzle and a small pop. Twilight Sparkle, one of Masquerade's private heroes, teleported down from the balcony to stand just in front of her brother. Masquerade could have reached out and touched her without even leaning.

"Shining? What are you doing here?"

His eyes locked with his sister's. "Twilight, take your friends and go home, quietly."

"Why? What's happening?"

He leaned forward and whispered. Twilight's eyes widened, and Masquerade's did as well. She didn't need to hear his voice to read her own name on his lips. It did not take long for a cunning mind to realize his deduction must have come from the letter she'd delivered. She hadn't expected the mail to reach the palace the very same day she handed off Steel's letter, but she the concern wasn't pressing, regardless.

Twilight spoke in response, with words that bore a surprising amount of anger. "Where is she?"

"Let me handle this, Twilight. She might be here for you. Now go!"

After a moment's hesitation, Twilight Sparkle nodded and disappeared with another quick teleportation. The assassin watched at the mare and her friends fled the scene quickly and quietly. Masquerade was almost offended by the insinuation that she would kill one of the bearers of the elements, for any price. Unfortunately, a desire not to be caught left her unable to defend her honor.

She was prepared to simply create a distraction and teleport away, but a nagging thought in the back of her mind stayed her horn. Namely, it was the thought of the two million bits that Shining Armor's head was worth to her. At first, she'd hesitated at the contract, remembering that he too had saved Equestria before. Her contractor could be very convincing, in no small part because he was one of the two ponies who did know her face. His assurances that Shining, like Luna, had to die only made the money easier to accept.

She cracked a tiny smile, and her horn ignited.

- - -

Shining Armor scanned the crowd, though he wasn't perfectly sure what he was looking for. His own horn fought to protect against whatever illusions Masquerade would surely use to hide herself. The crowd was growing antsy as time passed without an explanation from the guardspony. They shuffled an squirmed and stared at him, whispering between themselves their suspicions as to his purpose in their town. The action wasn't making his job any easier. He strode to the front of the crowd, on the steps of town hall. He turned and spoke, quickly and forcibly. "I'm here looking for a criminal named-"

"Masquerade." The voice was gruff and firm, and familiar in an alien sort of way. It belonged to a guardspony standing at the back of the crowd, and it drew the attention of every pony in the crowd, Shining included. A blue-gray pegasus paced at the rear of the crowd, notable more for his garb than his physical appearance. In an army of ponies in dark coats and dresses, he alone wore his black in armor. "I am Commander Steel of the Honor Guard," he continued. "Captain Armor and I have business together." He - or rather, the disguised mare, as Shining was fully aware - shot him a very peculiar glance, seemingly suggesting that Shining not interrupt. He gathered mana in his horn to stop her if she tried anything, but otherwise allowed her to act. The danger to the gathered civilians was too great to risk a stray spell, or worse, a hostage. She'd had ample opportunity to exercise either option, but neither was taken. Instead, wearing the deceased Commander's face, she continued with her orders.

"If you live here, return to your homes. Otherwise, gather near the apple orchards, and report anypony you see attempting to sneak away. The captain and I will be with you shortly." The ponies waited for a moment, until 'the Commander' rose up on his forelegs and bucked a bolt of lightning up into the sky. "Go!" he ordered, and in shock, the ponies obeyed. An exodus of panicked ponies led to the slamming of doors and the galloping of far too many hooves.

Shining had been expecting Masquerade to take a hostage; instead, he watched as the ponies fled, leaving him to face the assassin alone in the town square. He waited until most of the civilians were out of earshot before addressing her sternly. "Just the two of us? Do you want a duel?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Shining Armor. This is an assassination."

Rather than meet her taunt with words, Shining expelled the magic from his horn in a stunning burst. He knew Masquerade could have blocked or dodged; the spell was a throwaway, to learn what he could about the way she fought. The idea that she would simply take the spell was beyond his consideration. His rose bolt faded into the black armor, and Masquerade smiled with the Commander's face. "Too bad for you, Shining. Hurricane's Armor is just as strong as Platinum's Ward." Despite the Commander's lack of a horn, Shining had to call up a shield of his attack was answered with a stone pulled up off the ground, wrapped in a deep blue aura. It shattered on the face of his mana, at which point the shield was lowered.

Shining gathered magic for a similar attack, but found his line of sight cut off by a blur of white, blue, and gold. Rainbow swooped down from on high, throwing a hoof at Masquerade's head with a speed that the guardspony's eyes had trouble following. The assassin, however, did not. By whatever dark magic she used to steal a pony's wings, she darted up from the ground and avoided the attack. Rainbow threw strike after strike, but not a single one even managed to connect. The distraction was dangerous, but it spared Shining the time he needed to gather an immense cloud of mana into his horn. "Get back, now!" he ordered.

Rainbow's white armored body swept aside with surprising speed, giving the captain a clear shot. A dozen coils of purple energy shot forth from his horn, flying in wide swift arcs and turning in midair to prevent her attempt to dodge. He watched as the magic wrapped the pony tightly, sending her tumbling to the ground. "The helmet!"

"On it!" Rainbow swooped down and reached forward with a hoof. It found no resistance, swiping straight through the Commander's face.

"Surprise," said the illusion, before it faded away into nothing.

"Shining, look out!"

The guardspony had seen his error, but too late. He spun in place, expecting an attack from behind. When the ground shook, his magic conjured a domed shield by force of habit and instinct. It did nothing to protect him when the wooden boards beneath his feet shattered, sending him plunging downward into darkness. As the broken planks restored themselves into a flat plane, Shining felt his body rattle against a cold stone floor. His horn burst up with light, but it didn't last long. A sudden slicing pain moved through his neck, in the thin seam where his armor and helmet met, precipitating a howl of agony.

A blue glow lit the walls of the space, which was apparently the basement of Ponyville's town hall. Dusty boxes and barrels were arranged haphazardly about the dark room. A rather small dinner knife clattered to the floor. "Apologies, captain. That was unprofessional of me. You shouldn't have felt anything." Masquerade's hoof pressed down on the side of Shining's helmet, and wrenched it off. It too rolled across the stone floor, producing a sad sound that only barely registered over Shining's agony. He barely maintained the focus to shoot a quick burst of energy without letting the mana grow unstable. It was fast and feral, enough to knock Masquerade back several feet, but not to truly hurt her.

The warm blood seeped down Shining's white coat, between his armor and his body, as he struggled to stand. Magic built in his horn slowly, just quickly enough to throw up a small shield that intercepted Masquerade's next attack. The bolt of misty magic spilled across the rose ward and onto the basement walls, where huge spurts of stone crumbled and melted into glowing dust.

The guardspony then threw the shield itself forward. Unlike the illusion she had conjured, the real assassin lacked the black armor of the Commander, and was instead forced to jump out of the way of the attack. In retribution, a magical burst shot toward Shining's horn, and he only barely managed to duck beneath it. In the momentary distraction, Masquerade's magic wrapped over her own body in a spell Shining didn't recognize."

"Not so easy, am I? In case you don't remember, it took you and Rainbow Dash to beat me in Canterlot, and I was pretending to be a pegasus then." She shot two more bolts, but they too spilled over the shield that was Shining's special talent. "You might as well just give up. If I have to get original, it might be painful." She leapt to the side suddenly, further than the captain would have thought possible for such a small, fragile-looking mare. His shield was barely fast enough to catch the next attack from her new angle. "If you want, I can tell your wife you said you loved her."

Shining's horn nearly exploded with a surge of mana. Masquerade barely managed to teleport aside with her life, as a beam of rose power carved a tunnel six feet deep into the wall opposite the captain. "Stay away from her!"

Masquerade's horn released a stronger glow of its own, and the shards of broken stone from Shining's wrath rose into the air, surrounding him. "If it makes you feel any better, I'd charge more for her than Luna." Her projectiles flew as one. Shining threw up a domed shield, stopping two, but the force of the third was too great for him to stop under the pain in his neck. It shattered on Platinum's Ward , but the force was still great enough to topple the unicorn stallion. His blood spilled onto the cold floor as Masquerade strode forward slowly. "Tell Celestia she has my apologies when you see her."

Shining teleported away just a moment before Masquerade's table knife would have cut through his throat. The sensation of dizziness after such a spell was only compounded by his lack of blood. A quick volley of stunning blasts flew from his horn, virtually without aim. One tagged the mare on her flank, tearing through her dress just below her cutie mark. The white mask of tragedy seemed to be mocking Shining as the assassin stumbled, struggling to balance on three legs. The distraction was enough time for Shining to gather the mana for another spell, but not before Masquerade let her misty magic envelop her own body.

His next spell was carefully aimed, targeting her core directly. His shot flew true, and she made no move to block or dodge, yet the rose ball of energy soared over her shoulder as though it had been misaligned from the start.

"You know, I wonder if anypony will even care that I killed you, after what I did to the princess." Masquerade answered Shining's attacks with lethal blasts of her own, and he rolled to the side in order to save his mana. The action was disorienting and painful, but it allowed him to respond with an attack of his own. A sheer wall of telekinetic force sent the assassin flying, alongside the rubble and boxes that filled the bland basement. Masquerade's magic went out, and the sheer painful noise of a body hitting a stone wall was the only assurance the captain received that he had scored a hit. He focused quickly, conjuring up enough mana to illuminate the room.

Masquerade was simply gone. Immediately, the captain lowered himself, spinning quickly to check in every direction. He could find no sign of his foe, and so he waited, gathering more mana with every passing moment. A small surge was spared to put a shield over the wound on his neck, now that he had earned the opportunity. It wouldn't give him back his blood, or stop the pain, but it would hopefully keep enough in to prevent him from bleeding out in the middle of the battle.

Shining couldn't help but wish he had Twilight present to tell him what to do. He only knew the straightforward, military style of battle. He could pull cunning tricks and fast thinking, but a foe who relied on misdirection and fast, lethal blows was something he had no experience against.

A thought tickled his mind, and he grabbed a huge mass of rubble in his magical grip. A quick, forceful motion sent it spilling over the room. No invisible mare was revealed, thankfully. At least one of the 'impossibilities' of magic he had learned still held true. He paced slowly amongst the scattering of boxes and broken stones, searching for anything out of the ordinary. It was hard to make out fine details by the light of his horn alone, but he focused nevertheless.

Whether by sheer luck or brilliance, the corner of his eye caught something at the last possible moment. One of the crates was clean of dust. He lashed out at it suddenly with a steel-lined forehoof, and found satisfaction that his limb traveled straight through the illusory wood, striking hard at the flesh that could be found beneath.

Masquerade called out in pain, but recovered quickly enough to roll back out of Shining's reach. He sent three more stunning bolts her way, and watched all three fall away from a shield she conjured a mere inch from her muzzle. The fact that she had resorted to blocking his clearly stronger magic meant she was growing desperate. The time had come to finish their battle.

The captain released the rest of the mana he held channeled into Platinum's Ward, producing a radiant red and purple glow across the room. Masquerade watched carefully as Shining Armor lowered himself, pointing his horn toward her. She gathered mana, ready to meet his onslaught, and found herself caught off guard when he charged her outright.

She ducked to the side, as he had been hoping she would. His left hoof caught her shoulder. The contact was brief, and nearly harmless, but it lasted long enough for his quick spell to go off. In a flash of light, the basement was left behind, and a wall of gray clouds surrounded them. They fell together, water and wind rushing through their coats. He couldn't allow her to regain her focus, or her mana. His hooves lashed out with heavy blows to her body, cracking bones and eliciting gasps of pain. He only spared her the assault when they cleared the base of the gray clouds over Ponyville, mere seconds away from a lethal collision with the ground. Two rose shields were enough to spare them death, but the crack of bodies on grass was still painful and audible. Shining gasped, and Masquerade moaned.

From where he was laying, Shining could see Rainbow fighting with all her might to break through the wooden planks that served as a patio for the town hall. She looked over with a stallion's face at the sound of their landing, and her wings flared. "I... got..."

"Not again!" He didn't understand what the words meant. For a moment, his struggling mind fought to process the strange call. Then the fatigue of magic, battle, and the loss of blood swept him into darkness.

- - -

Rainbow Dash roared, flying up on white wings, only to pound down with her full force against the boards that had swallowed Shining. Dents and cracks had begun to appear, but they faded and repaired themselves as soon as the mare pulled back for another strike. She screamed in fury, only to be cut off by a pair of successive thuds, as bodies struck the grass nearby.

She looked over to see Shining Armor turn slowly toward her. His neck had been slashed open, and far too much blood was spilled over his coat. "I... got..."

What he didn't see was Masquerade rise up behind him. She was limping, but Rainbow was able to watch as a dozen other wounds on her torso faded away into bursts of blue magic. Slowly, her hooves lowered from levitating to touch the ground at a mild fall. A similar illusion fled from her horn, revealing a long metal spike - the same one Rainbow had seen the assassin wield against Princess Luna.

"Not again!" she yelled, flying as fast as the moment's acceleration could take her. Masquerade had no idea what hit her, as Rainbow's full-bodied tackle ended in the unicorn being picked up fully and carried off down the streets of Ponyville.

"What the-?" Masquerade was completely lost as the form of a grown stallion carried her upward once more into the air. The cold black metal spike that covered her horn took on the glow of her own fell magic. Rainbow spared one of her forelegs from holding the assassin in order to strike the at the obvious threat. Normally, such a blow would have done away with the magic, but the strange artifact shielded the assassin against the attack. The potent grip of her telekinesis wrapped around Rainbow's wing, stiffening it in place, and sending both soaring mares into a spiraling fall.

The pegasus didn't see where the unicorn landed when she released her grip. She was hoping to regain control of herself, but the effort proved foolish. Masquerade's telekinesis was pulling toward the mare herself, and as she fell toward the ground, a sickening crack issued from Rainbow's right wing. She knew the pain of a broken bone, as she spiraled down toward one of the small grassy hills on the outskirts of Ponyville.

The little knoll in question was called 'Cemetery Hill' by the town's inhabitants. No more than two dozen headstones dotted the grounds. One of them, sitting above a freshly dug grave, welcomed Rainbow to the ground by shattering in half on impact. Rainbow found herself again thankful for the armor she was wearing, well aware that the blow should have shattered her shoulder or neck.

The pegasus struggled to her hooves slowly, only to hear gentle laughter approaching from the direction of the city. "You should just stay down, guardspony. You aren't even worth anything to me. Stay out of my way, and I'll let you go."

"You're not getting Shining Armor," Rainbow answered. Her still functional wing flared, and her eyes bore down with terrible determination.

The indigo mare smiled cruelly. "It's your life to throw away." Then a bolt of magic flew toward Rainbow. She leapt aside quickly, enduring the agony of the motion. Cold, wet air seared her lungs as she panted for breath.

"Give up."

"You can't say that unless you're winning." Masquerade's horn ignited, and then a perfect copy of the mare stepped out of her own body. Another followed, and then a third. They paced slowly around Rainbow's hilltop, watching her closely. The mare struggled to discern the true assassin from her illusions, and found no obvious clue. They spoke together, in three voices bonded perfectly as one. "Anything you want to say before you die? I have to tell Celestia that Luna said goodbye before she fell."

More than anything else, Rainbow needed time. Her mind raced. Can't fly. "No she didn't. She was too focused on making the stars." No Sonic Rainboom.

"What? How do you know that?"

If I ran at her, she'd kill me before I got to the kick, even if I guessed the right one. "I was there, Masquerade. Remember?" I could try to buck lightning, but it might not work... and I'd still be guessing.

The Masquerades cocked their heads, and then hurled a trio of spells at Rainbow. Three misty bolts connected, but only one offered a jerking force to the left, knocking away Thunder Crack's helmet. Between her eyes, her muzzle shifted to its usual cyan, and her radiant mane spilled down her neck. The assassin gasped, and then began to laugh. "Rainbow Dash? You're alive?"

"So is Luna," Rainbow answered with a smirk, knowing exactly where to aim. She stared down at the wrong Masquerade, lining up her hinds legs to strike at the source of the blast to her head. She drew up her hind legs, and bucked with all her might.

The strength did not carry the electric spark, but her desperation did. Her need was unimaginable, not only for herself, but also for Shining Armor and for Luna. The gray clouds overhead rumbled an acknowledgement of her sheer force of will. The air cracked and flashed, and a sheer streak of raw electricity flew free from her hind legs toward the source of the magic. The illusions in front of Rainbow disappeared, and she smiled as she fell to her knees, spent from fatigue and the drain of her Empatha.

Then a laughing voice approached, walking slowly up the side of the hill. "Ever heard of a shell game, Miss Dash?" Despite her tone, Masquerade's face showed clearly that she was furious. "If Luna really is alive, then you made me fail a contract. I don't fail."

Rainbow moved to stand, but she had barely shifted at all when a bolt of arcane force bowled into her side, sending her tumbling down Cemetery Hill. Her wing sent frozen spears of pain into her body as she rolled over it again and again. The assassin followed, seizing both halves of the headstone the pegasus had broken on her landing, and carrying them above her head.

"Normally, I'd feel bad about killing one of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, but honestly, you're already dead to everyone else." Her magic brought the two halves of the broken stone together, and Rainbow cried out in shock and fear. Carved into the smooth surface of the stone was a stylized cloud, releasing a mighty bolt of lightning.

Rainbow struggled to kick another bolt of lightning at the approaching mare, but the energy was no longer within her body. She watched as her death approached, but she didn't truly see Masquerade's glare.

Easy Breeze wrapped a soft, downy wing around her foal. "Mommy will always love you, my sweet little Rainbow. Always."

Masquerades hooves slid through the soft grass, casting aside the turf with each angry step. The fine hairs of her coat were plastered in dust, and a limping rear leg struggled to keep up with her pace.

Papa held his granddaughter tightly as the two sat in box seats at the Cloudosseum, watching the pretty ponies in royal blue and vibrant gold soar at impossible speeds.

"I wanna fly like them, Papa!"

"You will, Rainbow. I'll teach you. I promise."

In the distance, Ponyville saw the first droplets of rain, as the mass of the low clouds finally gave way. A few of the droplets spilled on Rainbow's muzzle.

It had been raining off-schedule the first time she came to Ponyville, too. The only opening for a weathermare she could find, made obvious by the problems with the weather. She hadn't expected her old friend Fluttershy to be sitting there, waiting, as she flew down to the town's grassy streets.

The assassin raised her brutish, blunt weapon high over Rainbow's head. A few pebbles of loose rubble fell from the broken edges of the headstone. She watched it overhead, and tried desperately to move, but her body wouldn't obey her.

Rainbow embraced her five best friends in the entire world, putting on a less-than joyous face at the sappy display, but inwardly wishing the moment would last forever.

Masquerade spoke spitefully. "Goodbye, Rainbow Dash." Rainbow closed her eyes, and the stone came down.

The first thing Rainbow felt of death was a sensation of warmth, and a slight pressure from above. The raindrops stopped, but the pain of her wing and the gentle tickle of the grass against her coat lingered.

A clear, determined voice spoke from above her. "You will never harm another of my subjects, Masquerade."

Rainbow's eyes shot open. Princess Celestia stood over the grown mare as a mother might a foal. Her horn shed a radiant golden light, seizing the broken headstone just above her own tiara. The stone shattered into dust with no more effort than a thought. Masquerade recoiled in shock, and turned to run. Her magic created a dozen doubles, which ran limping in every direction at once.

The princess glanced over them casually, stopping on the third that her eyes met. The illusions faded in a casual burst of the alicorn's magic, and another such action dragged the mare back to face her angry ruler.

The fear on Masquerade's face was unrestrained. Tears streamed down her face as she met Celestia's stony gaze. "P-please, Princess. I'm sorry-"

"Don't plead to me," Celestia interrupted coldly, leaning forward until Masquerade could feel her breath. "I won't be the one deciding your fate. For now, contemplate your crimes."

Masquerade's response was stolen wholly by a blinding burst of golden magic. Rainbow recoiled from the light, squinting, and it still burned through her eyelids. The fizz of arcane power was accompanied by the unusual sound of earthen crackling. For five full seconds, the show of power continued, and then the light faded and the sound stopped.

The wounded pegasus opened her eyes to the sight of a sheer white marble figure, holding her forelegs over her horn in terror and squinting away from the wrath of an immortal being infinitely her greater. It took far too long for Rainbow to recognize that the statue was Masquerade, and when she did, she found fear mixed with her relief.

"Are you alright, Rainbow?"

Dash shook herself, looking up at the alicorn. Celestia stepped aside, allowing the young pegasus to rise.

"She broke my wing," Rainbow answered with an awed, hollow voice. "But Shining Armor-"

"I know," Celestia calmly responded, wrapping her wing around Rainbow once again. "I found him first." Her horn ignited, and a brilliant golden light surrounded the pair. When it faded, they stood at the edge of Ponyville's town square. Five familiar faces had huddled around the fallen captain. As if nothing had changed, Celestia continued her words. "Shining Armor gave me little to work with when he ran out of my throne room without a word. Fortunately, Thunder Crack knew where I could find you. I only regret I did not arrive more quickly."

Rainbow Dash barely even registered the words. Her attention was given to struggling out from under Celestia's wing and running with haggard steps toward the friends she hadn't seen in far too long.

"Rainbow, wait-" Celestia's warning came too slowly to stop the excited pegasus.

"Hey girls!"

Their reactions were cold enough to stop Dash cold. Five heads shot up to look at her. None smiled, at first. They only stared, quietly, sparing quick glances between one another.

Pinkie Pie was the first to shake away her unwelcoming awe. She ran forward and tackled her friend - a motion which gave Rainbow no small amount of pain. "Dashie! You're alive!"

"Ow! Yeah, I-" Rainbow winced and shook herself. "Pinkie, let go!"

"Never!"

"My wing is broken!"

The grip gave way instantly. "Sorry."

In her moment of painful distraction, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy had approached. They stood close to Rainbow with teary eyes and disbelieving smiles. Applejack spoke up first. "Ah can't believe it, Rainbow. We thought y'all was dead. What were ya' doin', puttin' us through that?"

"I wasn't dead - I got hurt, but Celestia healed me."

"Healing magic?" Rarity's brow rose strangely. "Perhaps from the Princess, but I had always heard such a thing was a matter of fiction. Still, if it brings you back to us, I shall suspend my disbelief."

Rainbow nodded. "Then I went to go find a cure for Luna."

Fluttershy let out a surprised little squeak. "That was why you were gone? That's very brave of you."

"Come on, Fluttershy," Pinkie Pie smiled. "It is Dashie."

"No she's not." Five of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony turned as their sixth member strode forward. Twilight Sparkle was furious. Her muzzle was pointed straight into the ground, leaving her eyes to glare out of the tops of their sockets. "This might look nice, girls, but it’s a trick, or a cruel joke, or something. Rainbow Dash is dead."

"Twilight, come on! I'm right-"

"Don't say I!" Twilight shouted, her voice reverberating with magic. "I don't know who you are, but you aren't Rainbow Dash!"

"Twilight, come on. The princess healed me-"

"Rainbow wasn't just hurt!" Twilight yelled. "I know! I saw what was left behind!" The unicorn panted with fury as she walked up to Rainbow's face. "Her skull was in two pieces! Her spine was sticking out the back of her neck. I found one of her wings ten feet away from where she crashed!"

"What?" Rainbow stepped back in fear, stumbling, as Twilight continued forward. Their movement only stopped when Rainbow felt a wide, gentle wing spread over her back.

"Twilight," began Celestia. "This is Rainbow Dash. Your friend."

Twilight's jaw hung low, flabbergasted. "You wouldn't... Princess, please. Don't lie to us!"

"I'm not, Twilight." Celestia looked down at Rainbow with sorrow in her eyes. "I have something to say to all of you; something I had hoped I wouldn't have to say." The solar princess glanced upward into the soft rain falling from the gray sky. "I hope you can forgive me."

- - -

The upper floor of the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville was home to the non-fiction section, but that was not why its inhabitants had gathered there. Instead, they chose the space for its privacy, and because its lack of furniture gave plenty of room for them to gather in a circle, in theory. In practice, Celestia draped her wing over Rainbow as the two sat side by side. Opposite them, the other five bearers waited for an explanation from Equestria's ruler. Twilight had only just taken her seat amongst her friends, after seeing to her wounded brother's comfort downstairs.

The alicorn looked over their waiting faces, and then sighed. "I think that I should perhaps begin this explanation by saying that Twilight was not incorrect."

"But Rainbow is sitting right there!" Pinkie Pie protested. "So obviously she didn't die."

"I'm afraid that isn't as obvious as it might seem." Celestia's head turned toward Rainbow, but jerked back when Twilight gasped.

"Princess, you don't mean-"

Celestia nodded. "I'm afraid I do, my faithful student."

"Can somepony stop skippin' all them important bits an' explain what the hay's goin' on?"

Twilight turned to the farmpony. "Princess Celestia raised Rainbow from the dead."

"What?" The word came from far more than one mouth, Rainbow's included. She alone continued the thought. "You mean I died?"

Celestia looked down at the mare with pity in her eyes. "Yes, Rainbow Dash. Saving my sister's life a week ago in Canterlot cost you your own." Then she could no longer stand to look down into the violet eyes of an innocent mare, and she turned to face the wall of bookshelves behind her student. "You earned your eternal reward, but I had to take it away from you. You were the only pony who knew what had happened with Masquerade atop the Academy tower, and I needed answers if I wanted to save my sister."

"Look, Princess, I'm not seeing anything wrong with this. I should be thanking you, right?"

"No," Twilight answered. "Raising a creature from the dead is cruel, especially for a pony. That kind of magic is called necromancy, and it's forbidden because of what it does." Twilight looked at Celestia with a mix of awe and something like disappointment. "A pony can steal a soul back from the Summer Lands... or Tartarus, in theory, and bind it back to its body. But the body will decay and rot until its nothing but a skeleton, unless it feeds on the meat of its own kind. These undead monsters are often bound to the will of their creators, leaving them without free will of their own."

For just a moment, the dark rivers of Zebrica returned to Rainbow's mind. Twilight, however, wasn't done.

"It's worse for the poor pony's soul, though, because it knows that it's supposed to be somewhere else. There's a constant tug to go back to wherever it was stolen from, but the magic forces it to remain here, in the land of the living."

Concerned friends looked over to Rainbow as she stared up, confused, at the alicorn too ashamed to look her way. Celestia directed her attention to Twilight, and she responded gently.

"You are correct, Twilight, though my methods were not as dark as... many in the past. I was able to restore Rainbow's body fully, without the need for raw meat or the loss of her free will. I softened the return of her soul as best I could, but the call of the Summer Lands is something I can do nothing about."

The comforting wing was lifted away from Rainbow's back as Celestia stood up to her full height. Her hooves carried her to the glass doors leading to the balcony, where she stared out at the rain. It was her hope that turning her face away would keep her from seeing the tears of disappointment on her student's face, and the darkness she fully expected from her sister's savior.

"It had been my intention to return Rainbow to the Summer Lands when her quest was over, so that she wouldn't have to face that pain. I kept what I had done secret because I felt it would be kinder to simply let you think her dead than to give her back, only to steal her away again." She glanced back over her shoulder toward the pegasus for just a second, though in all her wisdom, she saw nothing. "Rainbow, I hid the letters you wrote them. I knew that if I promised you I would deliver them, you wouldn't turn to somepony else to contact your friends. It was cruel of me to force you back in the first place, but I needed my sister, and in my grief, your soul seemed like a small price to pay." The princess hung her head in shame as she finished her words with the two most simple and most familiar she could ever imagine. "I'm sorry."

The six friends shared each other's company without words, as a silent conversation danced between their eyes. Rainbow found herself in shock, barely acknowledging those who glanced her way. It was Twilight Sparkle who ultimately spoke up, turning toward Celestia. "What happens now, Princess?"

The alicorn turned back with a sorrowful gaze. "Nothing has changed. Rainbow's soul needs to go back. It isn't meant to be trapped here in Equestria any longer."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Rainbow's shout was that of an ignored foal, desperate and emotional. "What if I don't want to go back? I still have my friends here, and my life, and my job. I did what you asked! I joined your guard, and saved Luna, and now you think I should just give everything up?"

"I'm sorry, Rainbow, but it will be easier. You have a strong will, but in time, the pull will break even that. I've seen what ponies become when they linger too long in a world they weren't meant for. You don't want that. You don't want your friends to remember you like that."

"No!" Rainbow flared her one good wing, standing tall to face the deity too cowardly to meet her eye to eye. "I'd rather live."

As she stomped away past her friends, Celestia turned. "If it becomes too much for you, Rainbow, you need only come to see me... or my sister, if you can no longer bear to see me."

When Rainbow slammed the library door, its sound faded into total silence. Celestia continued to stare out the window, watching the rain as it tapped against the window. The six remaining ponies remained in place for almost a minute before she spoke again, unprompted. "You can see now why I no longer wield the Elements of Harmony. Where was my honesty, when I told you that your friend was dead? Where were my kindness and generosity when I stole away her reward for my own benefit? Where were my laughter and my magic when I cried alone, unable to save my sister?" She turned slowly, as the pain of looking away finally overwhelmed her fear of the five ponies' silent judgments. "Where was my loyalty, when I betrayed all of you?"

"Princess, I think we all understand," Rarity answered. "Perhaps circumstances were cruel to you, but you made your choices to save Princess Luna because you love her. I fear I may have done the same for Sweetie Belle in your situation."

Celestia smiled sadly, as a few gentle tears rolled down her cheeks, clearly distinct from the rain behind her. "That is the lie I've told myself every night for the past week, Rarity, because it helps me to sleep. The truth is that I saved my sister for my own gain." The turned to Twilight. "Immortality is lonely, and though I fill my life with ponies I love, they always fade in time. Star Swirl. Miracle. Alacrity. Hurricane." An obvious wistful longing carried that last name. "But they fade so quickly. Even Twilight will be gone soon by the span of my life. Luna is my only companion, and banishing her away was the hardest choice I ever made. I could never survive without her."

Nopony responded for so long that, at last, Celestia turned toward the doors once more, spreading her wings.

It was a soft voice, calm and gentle, which stopped her. "What can we do to help her?" Fluttershy asked of her ruler.

"Be her friend. Stand by her. The stronger her ties to her life, the longer she will last."

"And what if something happens?" Twilight added quickly.

"If she dies before my spell is broken, her soul will be trapped here forever." The non-answer was the Princess' only prelude to a single mighty flap that carried her up into the gray clouds. A short burst of golden magic was enough to tell them that she had gone home.

- - -

The day passed in Ponyville beneath the gray rain. Rainbow Dash had asked for time alone, and her friends had reluctantly granted it, only demanding that she make her way to the hospital to have her wing taken care of. Bluntly lying, she told them she'd make the visit. In the somber atmosphere of the rain, the young mare instead wandered the back streets of town, ignoring the locals who were slowly building up the courage to leave their homes and investigate the source of the disturbance they had heard earlier. A few noticed her, or spared surprised looks in her direction, but she offered them none of her own in the constant rain

Her broken wing hung limply at her side, dragging through the mud and shifting slowly from a vibrant blue to a pale white. She'd left Thunder Crack's armor in the library, discarded in disgust at the Princess, her guard, and everything they stood for.

She had only stopped her slow walk when she reached the far side of Cemetery Hill. The grassy mound was large enough to block her resting place from a proper view of Ponyville. She leaned back against the backside of a headstone and stared at the marble statue that had once been a deadly assassin.

"Looks like we both got screwed over, huh?" she asked the petrified mare, her words dripping with sarcasm. "Celestia sticks you in a statue, and I get to look forward to going crazy for the rest of my life. Not exactly the reward I was expecting."

As expected, Masquerade said nothing.

"This whole thing wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tried to kill Princess Luna, you know? It's all your fault."

The statue didn't answer.

"I joined the guard because of you. Shining Armor got hurt because of what you did." Her breath grew ragged and her words punctuated by spite with each passing word. "The Commander, and that other guardspony are dead, and it's your fault. I died because of you." Then she reared up on her hind legs and screamed. "Reckoning is dead because of you!"

Her right forehoof swung around for the most furious blow she had ever delivered. With a thunderous crack, both from the force of Rainbow's Empatha and the shattering of marble, Masquerade's right foreleg fell to the ground beside her petrified body. No scream or cry of pain followed the wound, save Rainbow falling back against the headstone again panting and staring at her hooves. Shame mixed with the anger in her blood, but she did not regret what she had done. She only saw her own reflection in the solid steel shoes. At first, they were marred with mud and grass, but the steady rain soon wiped them clear to show a haggard, tired face. It was the face of a pony filled with grief and fury and determination, and it seemed to her to be all she had left.

The shoes were the last vestige of the guard in her life, in more than one way. As she pulled the first of the shoes from her hooves, she spoke to Masquerade once more. "You know, my dad was a guardspony." The shoe slipped on the grass and landed at Masquerade's hooves. "He was named after these shoes. Steel Lining." The second shoe came off, and she balanced it on her naked hooves as she spoke. "Well, I'm done with him and the guard now. Thanks for nothing, dad." The shoe flew over her shoulder, lost almost instantly in the veil of rain.

Rainbow sat there for nearly an hour longer, before wandering off to find somewhere to sleep. Twilight had offered the library's upper room, and it was as good a site as any Rainbow could think of. The sun set slowly as she stumbled back through town, and she spitefully found herself glad to be rid of its light.

The library door opened at her gentle touch, and she wandered in, dripping and cold. Shining Armor was gone from his earlier place on the couch, and neither Twilight nor Spike were anywhere to be seen in the main room. Only Owlowiscious was present to give acknowledgement to the returning mare. Rainbow paid him no mind as she stumbled up the stairs to Twilight's guest room, where she flopped into bed. Despite the pain in her wing, the sensation of the soft mattress was amazing. She might very well have fallen asleep a moment later, were it not for a clear rapping at the window.

"What?" Groaning, the mare turned over and called out. "Is somepony there?"

"Yes, Lady Dash," came the reply.

A second voice added to the first. "The Princess wishes to speak with you."

The simple phrase incited all of Rainbow's fury. She stood up and wandered over to the window. "Well, I'd rather never see the Princess again, so..." Her words simply trailed away as she saw the alicorn mare sitting in a chariot just outside the window.

"Forgive us if we- apologies, if I have offended you, Rainbow Dash. We were told that we might find you here." Princess Luna smiled gently, nodding toward the two night guards keeping her chariot hovering in midair, as if explaining her use of the regular plural. "Might we come inside?"

"Okay," Rainbow managed to utter, caught completely by surprise. She struggled out of the way as Luna crawled through the tiny opening, followed by her two guards. Rainbow glanced between them, noting that only their genders set them apart.

Luna pulled off a heavy black cloak with her teeth, which one of the Night Guard threw over his back without further word. Revealed, Rainbow could see the damage that the phage seeds had done to her body. She was as small and frail as she had been the first time the two met, after the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Her mane was a short-cropped pale blue, utterly mundane in the way it hung about her face. Her cheeks were gaunt, and even for her normally slim build, there was an obvious lack of muscle on her legs and flanks. A fair majority of her feathers had fallen out, and her eyes seemed more than a bit sunken. Nevertheless, the smile on her face as she embraced Rainbow was a pleasure to behold.

"Thank thee, Rainbow Dash. It is my understanding that you saved my life."

Rainbow noted that the grip of her hug was weak, and that it ended very quickly. Luna then fell back onto her haunches, though still wearing her smile. "I'm afraid I have been feeling my age recently." Rainbow joined in her healthy chuckle, which also ended seemingly too soon. "Perchance the hour is unreasonable to your health, but we- er, I, could not bear to spare the night without showing you my gratitude."

"It's fine, Princess."

She held up a hoof. "Please, Rainbow Dash, you of all ponies have the right to use my name. If anything, I ought bestow upon you a title."

"I felt that 'Lady Dash' was a befitting name, Mistress, but she turned it away," said the stallion of the two Night Guards.

"Quiet," the mare answered. "The princess is talking."

Rainbow quirked a brow. "Third Brother?"

Luna looked between Rainbow and her guards. "So you've met my Night Guard, then?"

The mare nodded. "Just him, Princess. I told him to watch over her, but when she flew across the ocean..." The words trailed off as though their thought were obvious, though Rainbow didn't understand. The obvious question was stolen away when the mare turned back to face the pegasus. "You can call me 'Eldest Sister', by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You too," Rainbow answered cautiously, scratching her head. "Listen, Pri- sorry, Luna. Today's been a really, really awful day, and I'd sort of just like it to be over."

"We know," she answered bluntly. "My sister was in tears when I awoke."

Rainbow's face curdled. "Do you expect me to forgive her?"

Luna shook her head. "Perhaps someday, but not now. Celestia needs to feel the pain in her heart as I once did, or she will not learn from this." At the slight show of surprise on Rainbow's face, the tired princess continued. "I know what she did; I was the one who sent you to rest in the first place. But I understand why you might not want to leave your friends in your youth, and so I offer a solution. When the pain in your heart becomes too great to endure, see me. Should you ever need or want for anything, you need only ask."

"Okay, Luna. Thanks, really."

"You have no need to thank me for my own thanks; we would waste away our days expressing gratitude. But I do have one request."

"Huh? Sure, what?"

Luna glanced to her two guards, and then looked straight into Rainbow's eyes. "My Night Guard needs a captain, and I think-"

"No, Luna." Rainbow shook her head firmly. "I'm done with being a guardspony."

"Of course, but might I ask you why?"

Rainbow nodded slowly. "Being a guard means giving up everything else. My dad gave up his family. Same thing for Dead Reckoning; he didn't have a family or anything. He told me all his friends were other guardsponies. And while I was out there, I didn't get to see my friends either. I'm not giving everything up again."

"We understand," Luna answered, before turning shakily toward the window. She moved slowly, but stopped at the threshold of the room. "But perhaps I might make one more request, Rainbow."

"Yeah?"

"Might you consider me your friend?"

Rainbow smiled and nodded. "Of course, Luna."

"Then sleep well, Rainbow Dash and we shall speak again in time. Know that all of Equestria thanks you, when they look up upon our night."

As Luna and her guards left the library and Rainbow climbed back into bed, she pondered quietly whether the plurality of Luna's parting phrase was deliberate.

- - -

The Commander gasped in agony as his body flopped limp upon the dirt of the wasteland. A gash in his stomach a foot deep revealed his most necessary organs, and it spilled forth the very essence of his life at a rate too fast to stop. The pegasus was too weak to fight back as a bowl of beetles was poured into the wound. Had he any breath remaining, he would have screamed aloud at the pain. Had he any tears, he would have cried. Instead, dry but shaking eyes watched as the tusks of the boar Warchief ignited with divine magic. His own blood dripped from one of the massive tusks, the source of his fatal wound. He only longed that the blow could have gone too deep, or too far, that he might have finally met the end of all things.

Khagan was too old, and too skilled in battle to allow such a mistake. His magic stitched the pony's flesh together, restoring his body moments before it expired. He could still feel the beetles, eating away at his flesh from within. To them he wished speed, knowing that they would be slow about their work.

"Take him back to his cell, and let his guests enjoy their dinner for the night." Khagan gave a hearty laugh. "Perhaps now you finally regret your actions as much as my kind have, Commander. But I doubt it. You still have much to learn of suffering."

The boars shoved the Commander, and kicked him, but he could not have moved if he wanted to. He didn't even register their hard blows against his body. His agony was already beyond his mind's capacity to understand. He was hoisted in a field of magic and carried into a rough tunnel carved down into a dusty red cliff. He'd been lucid enough the first night of his unending torture to learn the path, though the knowledge did him no good with a shattered wing and a broken leg. He couldn't fight, he couldn't fly, and he couldn't run. His only option was to remain, and suffer, until Khagan grew bored enough to grant him death.

His cell was a tiny chamber carved from red stone, nearly devoid of light. A tiny window sat six feet up the wall, too small to crawl through even without its bars. In the mornings, the sun shone through it. He knew perfectly well that such a gesture was another of Khagan's spiteful taunts, showing him a sign of Celestia as if it were a promise of the freedom he would never have again.

When the cell door was slammed behind him, and the boar warriors had left him alone, he pulled himself over to the nearest wall and scratched a second tally mark into the wall. He wasn't sure why he did it, really; it was just something he vaguely knew prisoners to do in fiction. He had no use for the information, except a record of his suffering.

Days in the desert were hot, but it was the nights against that chilled stone, suffering in too much pain to sleep that truly bothered him. He could barely focus as his hoof moved over to his other carving. This one was far more intricate. It had taken him all of the previous night to get the rough shape down. Now he was on to adding a face. Unlike his tally marks, this one gave him the hope of at least someone to speak to, who could perhaps sympathize with his suffering.

Only four short strokes into the carving, he broke through as he had so desperately wanted.

"Is somepony there?"

"Ye...s.." The word was hard to utter, given the lacerations in his lungs.

"Oh, that won't do, 'Commander'. Perhaps you can think better than you can speak."

He struggled to focus through the pain. "A bit, Discord. How is Canterlot?"

"Oh, things are going wonderfully. Luna died, and Krenn and Magnus have gone to war with Celestia trying to claim her gift." Though the Commander's face didn't change from his pained grimace, the spark of concern that flicked through his mind was obvious to the mischievous spirit. "No, I'm afraid your precious, boring civilization is still standing in your absence. And here I'd been hoping everything would go pear-shaped if you weren't around to murder and kidnap the other races into submission. Funny how you'd criticize the assassin for that sort of behavior."

"How do you know about Masquerade?"

"Oh, please. Do you really think she figured out how to get past your security all by herself? That she knew to expect your magic armor, or your lightning?" Discord's laughter rang through the Commander's mind for almost a full minute. "You truly just don't consider the world around you, do you? Does physical danger not intimidate you any more? I bet you're regretting telling me how everything worked in exchange for my leads, aren't you?"

"No, Discord. I don't regret a thing."

"Hah! Excellent! I love your spirit, 'Commander'. It's too bad you aren't still around, though I do have to admit your successor can create some wonderful chaos as well in his own, admittedly rather blunt way."

"My successor?"

"Ah, I don't think I want to tell you about that... Steel, was it?"

"Why not? I'm going to die here. I can't act on it."

"Is that what you think?" Discord's laughter grew stronger still. "Oh, that is just precious. You have no idea."

"I thought you didn't look into the future, Discord."

"What kind of Spirit of Chaos would I be if I never broke my own rules? I hope you weren't looking forward to the end. After all, this is only the beginning."

End of Act I

Special Thanks to SatoshiKyu and Roflknief for pre-reading.

Epilogue I - The Incident Report

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Epilogue I

The Incident Report

Celestia glanced to the side at the little bundled scroll that fizzled into being beside her head. She claimed it with her magic, and glanced up to the rafters. The Commander's absence still felt strange, given how much of his life he'd dedicated to sitting in that spot. She spread her wings and slouched back in her throne, accompanying the motion with a long, slow breath. Only in total solitude did she dare commit an act of such bare and obvious fatigue, though she might have acknowledged the need in the Commander's presence.

Even stranger than his specific absence was that there was nopony else around. The broken remnants of the Honor Guard were in no fit shape to defend their Princess. Marathon was out carrying messages for Shining Armor, while White Flag and Mirror Image had yet to return from their respective missions. After those three, only Thunder Crack remained both alive and loyal. Celestia had to admire his stubbornness, trying to stand guard beside her with a shattered wing that was barely still attached to his body, alongside a myriad of less threatening cuts and bruises.

He'd argued that she needed somepony present if she were going to open the castle to petitions—it was impossible to perfectly check everypony coming in, and the risk would be too high after recent events. Celestia agreed, and simply declined the day's petitions, for the tenth day in a row. Then she ordered him back his room in the infirmary to rest. After that, there was only the occasional servant to peek in on her.

She hadn't come to the enormous room for any official business; honestly, her purpose had been to stare up at the missing space between the statues and contemplate what Equestria had lost to save her sister. But there was the letter in her grip, still begging for her attention. Reflection could wait. The parchment unfurled without protest.

Princess Celestia,
I got your letter here in Ponyville, courtesy of Spike, so here's hoping the response reaches you just as easily. I rolled up the report you requested from me (with more than a little bit of editing from Twilight), but it's on different paper, so I hope it reaches you as well; it isn't perfect, but it does contain all the information I have access to. If not, let me know, and I'll see about having a copy delivered. I'm sure you already know some of this material quite well, but it might help to refresh you if you've been staggered by the aftereffects of this as much as I have; in any case, I made the small edit you requested.
In response to your questions about Rainbow Dash, she seems as good as anypony could possibly expect. She's a tough mare, although given what's happened, her desire for space seems completely understandable. She didn't want to speak to me very much, but I did offer her an invitation to the funeral; though we still do need a formal date. In any case, she actually swore at me when I said we'd be burying the Commander—I'm not totally sure I understand why—but when I brought up Corporal Reckoning, she relented. I do note, however, that she asked if you would be there. I told her that was probably to be expected. She told me to tell you that she didn't want to talk to you there.
I know you probably didn't want to hear that at all, but I imagine it's better you know than that you try to talk to her and... well, I guess I'm not in much of a position to be giving you advice on other ponies’ feelings, am I?
As for nicer matters, I got a letter from Cadance yesterday; she knew Mark (Lt. Down), so she'll be joining us then as well. My shoulder is healing wonderfully to be honest, and I should be back to Canterlot in two day's time at most. However, Twilight has been unbelievably helpful managing the Guard and getting everypony back to their regular posts—I wish I had somepony half as competent around; I might actually be able to see the surface of my desk some days!
I've kept a few of my investigators and scouts searching for Soldier On, but given my experience with her (as you'll find in the report) I doubt she's much of a threat to Equestria as a whole.
I do have one request for you, though, Princess: I assume somepony has told you about the civilian I brought into the Palace with the severe burns. She's a very important contact of mine, and I want to make sure she gets the best treatment possible. I understand that it would have been more appropriate to take her to a real hospital, but given that you had the best doctors in Canterlot all gathering in the Palace Infirmary to begin with, I decided that would be the best place to get her healed. The last I had heard, however, she was still in critical condition. I can't help but feel responsible for her injuries, so I ask you to please do your best to take care of her. If any expensive treatments are required, I will gladly cover their costs.
Oh, also, thank you for arranging the Commander's records for me. Though it took Twilight, Spike, and I almost a full day to get them arranged in something resembling order, they did fill in several holes—particularly with Soldier On. Unfortunately, he seems to have spent about as much time writing reports as he did on organizing them: none. Either that or he kept a large portion of them somewhere else. There are enormous periods where he simply didn't keep record of any events at all; particularly around Princess Luna's return.
Regardless, thank you, Princess. I think we might finally be making progress.
- Captain Shining Armor, Royal Guard

Equestrian Royal Guard Case Summary & Record
Incident 0424-DP96
Compiled by Cpt. Shining Armor, with Commentary by 'Deputy' Twilight Sparkle
August 10th, 1452 A.S.

Of A Nightmare Sown

To whichever of my successors may read this, I hope you can forgive the title—when I asked my younger sister about the very earliest events of this enormous fiasco, she insisted I attach a 'mystery novel' title.

'Deputy' Sparkle here—that's so much fun to write!—transcribing and assisting 'Captain Armor's' report.

Normally, at this point, you would be reading a list of victims, charges, and dates, but due to both the extensive time and staggering quantity of serious crimes committed, I feel the narrative does a better job of explaining the issues.

On June 14th, 1452 A.S., a fluctuation was reported in the Changeling Detection matrix constructed around the Canterlot Palace by 2nd Lt. White Flag (HG) and Sgt. Mirror Image (HG). What little records the Honor Guard keep indicate that due to the absence of both mages, ~~Cmdr.~~ Cpt. Steel Lining (HG) reported to the site: the upper access hallway connecting Princess Luna's observatory to her quarters. Though this is speculation at the moment, this is likely the time at which Masquerade killed ~~the Co~~ Cpt. Lining, and replaced him by donning Hurricane's Armor.

Apologies to whoever is reading this for the scratch-work, but I'm taking this down as dictation with a quill with 'Starswirl's Illuminating Dictation', which tries to record exactly what is said aloud. As such, I have to go back and cross things out because 'Captain Armor' keeps calling this Captain Lining 'the Commander'.

Princess Celestia reports that starting around that date, th Cpt. Lining began to take frequent leaves from his position as her bodyguard, ordering 1st Lt. Morning Star to fill the position. She reports further, that this did not arouse suspicion for her or the Honor Guard because such activity was regular for The Commander (Cpt. Lining's 'nickname', that I cannot seem to stop using) in times of danger, such as immediately prior to the Nightmare Moon incident, during the Blizzard Revolution in Stalliongrad, and during the Griffon Border Crisis in Zebrica.

I remember him acting like this from when I used to live in the Palace with Princess Celestia. I never knew him very well, of course; in fact this is the first time I have ever heard his name. Nevertheless, it's certainly not hard for me to believe the Princess didn't suspect anything.

From that point, things remained quiet in the palace until August 1st, when the Royal Canterlot Academy's 'Arcane Studies Awards Ceremony' (or the 'Neighbel Prizes', as they are colloquially known'). Masquerade, still in the guise of Cpt. Lining, summoned me to his office. I was informed of a threat, but advised that it was likely against my sister or one of her friends—she even went so far as to suggest that somepony attacking one of the Princesses was a ridiculous notion. Given (seemingly) valid evidence, combined with fear for my sister, I focused my attention on the threat that had been presented. Magus Twilight Sparkle (my sister) traveled to Canterlot later that day, accompanied by her pegasus friend Rainbow Dash, due to the failure of the local train system. I left them in Princess Celestia's care and returned to my work hunting for this potential danger.

At approximately 4 P.M., Rainbow Dash was advised to visit Princess Luna in the hopes of challenging her to a race. Instead, Rainbow prevented a first attempt on Luna's life, trying to poison her with Gilded Lotus, a highly poisonous plant found natively in Suida. The butler who delivered the poison (in Princess Luna's tea) informed the young mare that the beverage had been delivered by Lt. Star, suggesting he was the traitor. In fact, an autopsy of Lt. Star's body determined he had been killed by suffocation. Mana burns directly on his lungs indicate the cause of death was Arcana, occurring approximately twelve hours prior to this event.

Thankfully, at Princess Luna's urging, Rainbow came to me rather than trying to confront the supposed traitor. Knowing that Lt. Star's alleged treason would be within Cpt. Lining's purview, I ordered extra security for the night's event and the palace as a whole, but decided not to intervene myself. Instead, it seemed obvious to me (based on the false information Masquerade had provided) that we were looking at a conspiracy, and that Lt. Star had not acted alone. Based on this information, I took Rainbow Dash to accompany me as we visited a contact of mine.

It took some time to locate her, but by 6:30 P.M., Rainbow and I identified Going Solo, a small-time drug dealer in the central Domain of Canterlot. After a short altercation with Rainbow, Solo was able to inform me that she had sold a full, lethal dose of Whisper Salt, ordering it in small doses (likely to avoid suspicions of its use as a lethal poison). A rough description was provided for a mare who, in retrospect, matched Masquerade, along with a location that I could expect to find her.

If she had access to rare poisons like Gilded Lotus and Phage Seeds, why buy Whisper Salt from a drug dealer? Research shows that even in cases of overdose, it has only a 17% fatality rate... maybe she didn't actually want to kill somepony?

Oh; Shining says she probably used it to capture Cpt. Lining alive, and kill him later. I wonder why she'd want to do that, though?

By the time we reached the site, it was almost 7 P.M.; expecting danger, I ordered Rainbow to remain outside. It took some coaxing for her to agree, and I entered the structure. Almost immediately, I was met with a rather obvious trap door leading downward into the building. I investigated the hidden basement, until another pony snuck in from behind and accosted me. Though this pony appeared to be Lt. Star, I now believe it to have been Masquerade under the disguise of her illusory magic. Given her apparent lack of military training, her hoof-to-hoof fighting skills were excellent. I took a shod blow to the face, and a second to the neck that drew blood. Despite this, as Masquerade was unwilling to reveal herself by using Arcana, I had the advantage. It was during this battle that Rainbow Dash intervened; her distraction gave me a clear shot which I believed had killed Lt. Star.

Meanwhile, after a short break to eat with Rainbow Dash, I staunched my wound and made my way to the Royal Academy in order to provide further protection for both my sister and the Princesses. Seeing the obvious threat ended, I gave Rainbow Dash my badge along with directions to report the events to the Commander.

When I arrived at 7:47 PM, I found the Commander present; I simply assumed that Rainbow would learn he had left the palace and return directly to us. I further decided that making the Princesses and my sister aware of the security issue would be unnecessary and inappropriate—nearly triple usual detail of guardsponies had arrived at the site, watching the crowd from the convenient battlements of the former castle that had become the Academy. Instead, I sat through the opening speeches while keeping my own eyes open for trouble. During this time, Princess Luna took to the sky over the audience, dramatically calling forth the night stars. Nothing went wrong until Rainbow returned from the Palace at 8:12, obviously concerned. She almost immediately attacked the Commander, and was quickly subdued.

Thankfully, Princess Celestia's cooler head prevailed, and she managed to extract an explanation regarding the presence of both the Gilded Lotus, and Lt. Star's body, in the Commander's quarters. Rainbow managed to remove the helmet of Hurricane's armor from Masquerade, but the assassin was clever enough to layer a further illusion of the Commander's true face beneath that of the helmet. Having seemingly proven her innocence, Masquerade continued to pose as the Commander, informing me that there was a traitor in the Honor Guard who intended to attack either Twilight, Rainbow, or one of the Princesses. In order to prevent panic, he advised that I take Celestia, Rainbow, and Twilight back to the Royal Guard headquarters, while he remain with Luna until she finished raising the moon.

Now, at this point, it might be prudent of me to explain why I agreed to this proposal. First of all, Princess Celestia vouched for Cpt. Lining's honesty, which was in my mind a powerful sign of faith. Secondly, though, was my assurance that Cpt. Lining could handle the situation if something did go wrong. He ~~has~~ had a very significant reputation within the guard, built up over a seemingly long career (though he looked to be no more than forty-five...?). Regardless, even back when I was just a recruit, there were stories about 'The Commander' and his incredible skill in combat during the Dragon Wars. He was something of a legendary figure within the guard, and so it didn't take very much for me to believe that he could successfully protect Princess Luna alone in the event of an attack.

In any case, I began to accompany the Princess, Twilight, and Rainbow back to HQ; we weren't long on our way, however, when Rainbow Dash turned back.

The following then concerns what Rainbow Dash later informed us about what had happened: apparently, the Commander had at some point in his career suffered a severe wound to one of his rear legs, which left him with a serious limp. During our parting, Masquerade had failed to maintain her performance of this trait, giving away her identity as an imposter. As such, Rainbow went back, and the two engaged in a short battle. Though Rainbow was ultimately correct, her lack of military training left her unable to combat Masquerade successfully; the assassin was able to poison Princess Luna while she was still in midair, using some magical artifact which we later identified as 'the Alicorn's Horn', a part of a set of potent but cursed charms (a description of the item can be found in the appendix).

Princess Luna dipped into what would prove to be a fatal fall, and Rainbow's only means of saving her was to perform a 'Sonic Rainboom' (her term), which produced an upward lateral shockwave which canceled much of Princess Luna's momentum.

- - -

Celestia's eyes jumped down the report, past an enormous segment which Shining Armor had apparently redacted following Twilight's edits. Beneath it, his report continued in a slightly different tone.

- - -

Its cost was a near-supersonic collision with the ground. Rainbow Dash was seriously injured, to the degree that non-medical ponies who witnessed the event erroneously believed her to have died on impact.

Princess Luna was hospitalized, comatose and growing worse despite the fact that the Alicorn's Horn which had stabbed her was no longer in her body. I lack any formal medical training, and as such my summaries on this topic will be brief. Preliminary tests were inconclusive, and the medical staff faced a great deal of difficulty in reaching a diagnosis as they were unsure how many of the Princess' symptoms were a result of the poison, and how many the result of her own unique magical powers and immortality.

Princess Celestia was able to assist in Rainbow Dash's recovery, and the next morning—August 2nd at approximately 8 A.M.—she summarized the above events for us: Princess Celestia, myself, and then-2nd. Lt. Soldier On (HG), who was the highest ranking of the surviving Honor Guard. After a brief discussion, we as the Guard settled on a course of action of hunting down Masquerade as quickly as possible, on the assumption that she would likely know of a cure, or at least a name for the poison or malady she had inflicted on the Princess.

I immediately made an appointment with Magus Cloudy Mirror, the instructor of illusion magic at the Royal Academy. He gave instructive lessons on Masquerade's likely magical influence (see her profile, below), and taught me a counter-spell for her most direct attacks.

Professor Mirror is a genius when it comes to illusions, but his academic rigor in explaining the subject leaves a bit to be desired. He could be a valuable resource for teaching the Royal Guard about illusions in the future, though.

During this time, Rainbow Dash volunteered herself for service in the Honor Guard and was briefly given the rank of Private. She has proven reluctant to discuss her own events during this period, and the tragic death of her partner (Cpl. Dead 'Deadeye' Reckoning) leave my account of her actions third-hoof at best. However, her part in saving Princess Luna's life cannot be overstated, and so I shall do my best to summarize her involvement within my knowledge.

Rainbow spent most of that day (again, August 2nd) receiving rather brutal hoof-to-hoof combat training with Sgt. Thunder Crack (HG); it is neither my place to comment on his methods, nor do they fall within the purview of this report.

~~Wait, what's that supposed to mean? Oh, am I supposed to be writing this...~~

The following day, August 3rd, Luna's chief doctor (Asclepius, MD, PhD, HPP, ECE, etc...) produced a strange diagnosis: the Princess was aging to death. Having no better alternative, he gave her his best guess of five days to live, much as he might an elderly pony in hospice. At this point, the burden of a cure fell almost solely on the guard, but I was unable to move out and pursue a cure; I had obligations at the Council of Nobles, and so was left to simply dispatch those guardsponies I could contact, and hope that one of them might track down a suitable lead.

One such pony was 1st Lt. Mark Down (RG), who identified a lead suggesting a traitor in the Honor Guard, beyond Masquerade's replacement of Cpt. Lining and Lt. Star. He further suggested that the traitor was Stalliongradi. In hindsight, his suspicions obviously pointed toward Lt. On, but at the time, my focus was directed toward the new Honor Guard Captain appointed that night: Cpt. Росчерк кровью (I assume this to be Stalliongradi for 'Red Ink', as that is the Equiish name he uses). Formerly the Commandant of the Stalliongradi Guard, known as the 'Black Cloaks', Cpt. Ink has a well-deserved reputation for inspiring fear by cruelty. Unlike Sgt. Crack, this is a matter that involves this report, and I will expound upon it further as its significance arises.

Uh... that translation is... pretty generous. On the other hoof, I wouldn't go by Росчерк кровью if it were my name either. I certainly wouldn't choose it as a name for a foal.

Shortly prior to the formal meeting of the Council of Nobles, but immediately after my introduction to then-Commandant Ink, I was informed of an incident taking place within my office at the Royal Guard Headquarters by Lt. On. I traveled to the site and found Lt. Down dead, hurled out my window into the training courtyard that it overlooks. After consoling the recruits who I had left stationed there after my previously mentioned dispatches, I headed up to the office, where I found a seriously injured Sgt. Crack, and the latter half of a letter from Lt. Down (which provided the information I listed above).

That night, Cpt. Ink was appointed, due to his previous encounters with Masquerade by my understanding, though the Royal Guard Archives have no record of her activity in or around Stalliongrad. Then again, given that we have record of only two other cases involving the assassin, I am prepared to accept his word on the matter. We further reached the conclusion that Soldier On was the traitor who had killed Mark Down, and added her to our list of potential leads on a cure for Princess Luna.

The next morning, August 4th, at dawn (~7 A.M.?), I followed a lead to a somewhat well-known miscellaneous criminal and enforcer named 'Grizzaloo' (Archive ID #003592), who in turn directed me to Cloudsdale where I would find a Smuggler and Drug Distributor named Go Between. Before I was able to secure transit, however, I was confronted by several of Cpt. Ink's 'Black Cloaks', who had been outright assaulting civilians in order to attain the same information I already possessed. I ended up in an altercation with one, whom I incapacitated.

The Black Cloaks, named for the heavy winter coats they wear, have a reputation in Stalliongrad for incidents like this. Despite (or because of) the fear they inspire, though, they are generally treated as heroes within the Domain of Stalliongrad, and the city itself in particular. Also, Grizzaloo? I thought Росчерк кровью was bad.

Similarly that night, Pvt. Marathon (HG) finished escorting Rainbow Dash to meet with Cpl. Reckoning in Zebrica. From there, I have literally no knowledge of her actions until the 7th, so I shall simply note that she and Cpl. Reckoning acted in pursuit of a cure for Princess Luna.

Later that same day, I reached Cloudsdale, and after a confrontation, I was able to apprehend Go Between. I confirmed that Masquerade had been in contact with him, but when I attempted to interrogate him, he was killed by an enchantment she had placed in his subconscious mind.

At this point the trail was dead, and I thought Masquerade had simply gotten away, until I had a rather fortunate encounter with Councilor Silver Lining (the famous cloud architect); after some small talk, he informed me rather accidentally that Masquerade had provided credit for the warehouse which Go Between had purchased from the Councilor. Masquerade's bank statement led to Baltimare, so I acquired the assistance of two of the Wonderbolts, and traveled there.

That night, at a time I have since forgotten, I met Lt. Flag, whom I knew by reputation but whose acquaintance I had never made. We ate dinner together, during which time I was apparently poisoned by either Masquerade herself, or somepony working on her behalf. At the time, I was unaware of the event, but I now believe that I was targeted by 'Phage Seeds', as Rainbow Dash would later describe them. Regardless, at the time our conversation seemed peaceful. Lt. Flag knew Masquerade had some sort of a 'base of operations' in Baltimare, but further informed me that Soldier On would be arriving in the area shortly. She had a trap set, but required my help, which I agreed to cautiously. In the intervening time, I acquired an address for Masquerade from the bank, and set about investigating it.

To my surprise, however, Soldier On was there, apparently for the same purpose as I was. We engaged in combat. Due to the poisoning effects of the phage seeds, and the incredibly confined space which lent the advantage to On's Endura, I was severely outmatched. She had the full opportunity to kill me, but instead spared my life. She then traveled away, apparently to save Lt. Flag from Masquerade's influence.

- - -

Celestia's brow inclined as Twilight's horn-writing grew slightly shaky, obviously concerned by the harm Shining was describing to her. It was a strange sign to see her emotions reflected in the writing of a spell, but with the young and potent Bearer of Magic, the Princess had long since learned to accept what would otherwise seem impossible.

- - -

Very late that night, or perhaps early the next morning (August 5th), I encountered Red Ink, who was more interested in following On's trail than Masquerade's (due to some obvious past conflict between the two), and had made his way to Baltimare for that purpose. Flag, On, he, and I met in a large market area rather by accident, at which point the three of us attempted to capture On.

I note that the potency of her magic cannot be underestimated. While I was forced to rely on mana from Platinum's Ward due to the phage seeds I had been poisoned with, I was nevertheless fighting as best I could; Flag did the same, as did Ink. She certainly struggled against us, but the fact that she was even able to flee when outnumbered so severely marks her as a considerable danger.

In any case, partway through this battle, Red Ink released his full Empatha. He clearly specializes in fire magic, which is naturally attuned to its user's anger and rage. Thus, when a civilian interrupted our conflict, he responded by not only attacking her, but setting fire to a large apartment building. Whether this was out of uncontrollable anger or an actual lack of care for the lives of civilians I do not know, but regardless, such action is unforgiveable of a guardspony. Further, his actions forced me to allow Soldier On to escape, as I instead focused my attention on assisting the evacuation of the building.

Wait, he just Apologies; Captain Armor had to remind me that it wasn't my place to make comments on this particular issue.

During this event, I was stunned to find that Soldier On had doubled back on both Lt. Flag and Cpt. Ink, and returned to help as well. Seeing not only that she was helping civilians, but that I was frankly incapable of confronting her on my own without mana to speak of, I allowed her to assist and then leave without further confrontation. I note that she headed in a westward direction, but given Baltimare's location that information was likely worthless within an hour. Prior to her departure she did tell me that her treason was not something she had done, but something she chosen not to do. Whether or not we are prepared to believe this statement remains to be seen, but it suggested to me that she was aware of the poison Masquerade had used, if not the plot itself, and chose to say nothing. Her motivations for this action elude me.

I returned to Canterlot, where I spent the remainder of August 5th managing an enormous pile of reports from across Equestria dictating that my squads had failed to find a cure. Nothing of note happened to me that particular day, though I am aware that in some capacity Rainbow Dash passed the time in the Griffon capital of Grivridge, a portion of which was spent in the company of their Emperor, Magnus. That night she discovered the Phage Seeds (or realized their significance) and flew back to Canterlot, arriving just after midnight on August 6th.

From this time, I assumed the intense urgency of locating Masquerade had been largely lost—while still obviously a threat, her capture was no longer a matter of life and death for Princess Luna. As a result, I began sending out dispatches to return the Royal Guard to regular postings and duties; this activity was cut off by a rather surprising letter delivered to me by a civilian mailmare, but addressed by the royal seal to Princess Celestia. I delivered the letter, and she revealed that it had apparently been sent by Cpt. Lining. At the time, I assumed it meant he was alive - though that was not the first thought on my mind. Princess Celestia has since informed me that while the contents of the letter were personal, they affirmed her suspicions as to the late captain's fate. As tragic as this realization has been, I can at least be thankful that we aren't looking at the security risk of his considerable military knowledge (let alone whatever secrets the Honor Guard has been hiding) falling into unknown, hostile hooves. All this information, however, was less pressing than the small connection I made at the very moment of the Princess' statement, however.

At this point, I must confess that I acted rather rashly: I knew that the letter had been delivered from Ponyville, and also that Masquerade was the only pony in a position to either forge a letter from Cpt. Lining or deliver a genuine one posthumously. As a result my assumption was that Masquerade was in Ponyville, most likely attempting to assassinate one of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. In fear for my sister as well as interest in my duty, I immediately enlisted Rainbow Dash's help in traveling to Ponyville. We arrived at approximately 1:30 P.M., and began to search for the target. Our arrival gathered quite a bit of local attention and I was forced to address the crowd, ordering them away from the site. To my immense surprise, and for reasons I still do not understand, Masquerade assumed the guise of Cpt. Lining and assisted me in this matter. Only when we were alone did she reveal herself, bluntly stating her intention to kill me (her words suggested that somepony—or perhaps someone is the correct term—had taken out a contract on my life, as well).

I'll spare you a blow-by-blow account, instead summarizing that Masquerade ultimately had me outmatched; while she had clearly fought a military trained unicorn before, I had no experience in battle against an illusionist, let alone one of her skill. I quickly received a severe wound to the neck, and in desperation, engaged in 'Iron Curtain's Gambit'. For those unfamiliar with the attack, it consists of teleporting both oneself and one's opponent high into the air, and then readying a counter-spell for when they attempt to levitate or teleport. Normally, there is a terrible risk that both parties will die, but I knew I had enough mana invested in Platinum's Ward to survive the landing without slowing down myself. I instead devoted my full attention to ensuring Masquerade could not do the same; I failed to notice the phantasm she placed upon me, and as a result, believed that she had died on impact when in fact she was able to descend calmly by levitation.

Iron Curtain was the Captain of the Royal Guard almost 750 years ago, during the Woodland War against the Elk. He used his 'Gambit' to defeat one of their major commanders, and turn the tide at the Battle of Lothlorielk Falls. Since then it's been taught as part of both military history and training for the more violent types of magical duels.

Following this altercation, Rainbow Dash saved my life by attacking Masquerade directly, and was in turn saved by the timely intervention of Princess Celestia herself. While I likely would have objected at the time to her involvement with such a dangerous opponent (especially with Luna's fate still unknown), I can now say with the benefit of hindsight her power was likely necessary to best the deadly combination of Masquerade's illusions and the power of the 'Alicorn's Horn'. She was petrified, and the resulting... object(?) is now in the custody of the Royal Guard.

Threat Analysis of Subjects:

Masquerade (Ball?): Unicorn, female. Age ~25. Dark blue (indigo) coat. Black mane with highlights in dark blue and dark purple. An average 3'2" at the shoulder. Cutie Mark depicts white frowning mask, as often seen on theatrical productions. I have been able to find no formal record of her birth or education; Cpt. Red Ink alleges she learned Arcana studying with a dragon named 'загадка' (Draconic for 'Enigma' by my understanding).

That translation is correct; загадка was a famous wyrm scholar who made some significant progress in the research of divination and predestination magic. Given the way he wrote, I'm surprised he'd teach magic to somepony like Masquerade, though I guess it's possible that he didn't know what she was going to do with it.

While no longer nearly the threat she had once been, Masquerade may still pose a significant escape risk when/if released from her imprisonment (an action I fully recommend in order to interrogate her regarding the other members of this conspiracy). A lodestone ring fitting would provide an adequate initial security measure, but her considerable magical talents suggest that her likelihood of saturating the stone and attaining escape would not be a matter of if, but when. I've sent orders for the remnants of King Sombra's 'void crystals' (almost four times as magically absorptive in nature as lodestone) from the Crystal Empire to be shipped to Canterlot for use in improving our dungeons and prisons in general, as well as for her specific containment.

In terms of combat ability, Masquerade 's favored tactic seemed to be a misdirection or illusion to leave the target vulnerable, followed by a single fatal strike. Her incredible talent with 'nightmare' illusions (as outline by Professor Cloudy Mirror), which were otherwise mostly unknown within Equestria due to Royal ban, was functionally irresistible to the average guardspony. As for a method of dealing actual damage, she seemed to favor some sort of heat- and age-based disintegration spell. She also used a great deal of indirect, telekinetic attacks based on rubble, blades, and whatever else she could find present; I attest, however, that this may have been due to her familiarity with Platinum's Ward, and her realization that a direct attack might only have made me stronger. I note that she only attempted her actual magical attack against me after she had managed to remove my helmet.

Though I wasn't present to see the spell, the description seems rather similar to ancient accounts of Dismal's Infernal Decay—though knowledge of that spell has been lost for more than a thousand years. Then again, a similar story could be told for 'Nightmare' Illusions. Her style overall resembles classical Bitalian Arcane Dueling, which emphasizes Focus and Speed over Power.

Ultimately, too many questions remain unanswered on this subject; an addendum, if not a full second report, will be written once I or another guardspony have had the opportunity to interrogate the subject.

Soldier On: Earth Pony, female. Age 30. Off-white coat. 'Eggshell' mane. Cutie Mark depicts a pair of inter-linked horseshoes. Stands nearly 4'1" at the shoulder; currently missing approximately half her right ear (my doing, from our first encounter in Baltimare)—though it may have healed (see below). Born in the Domain of Stalliongrad under the name 'Стойкая' (meaning 'Resistant', or 'Durable'), though formal records were lost during the Blizzard Revolution. Records of her life are conflicting and spotty until the Revolution, during which time she fought on behalf of Stalliongrad's reigning Baron, Frostbite. After his defeat and execution, she led a continuing resistance against Tsar Watchful Eye. Her motives for this resistance are unknown, as are the reason that she ultimately left to join the Honor Guard. Cpt. Lining only notes that "It was hard to convince her to leave her homeland, but she knew that her corpse wouldn't do any more good there." Tragically, his notes end there.

Wait, 4'1"? That's as big as Big Macintosh. How does she hide? You'd be able to see her over most wagons, let alone in a crowd.

Thankfully, information on her military skills are more complete, even within Cpt. Lining's incomplete set of records. On demonstrates incredible Endura, which is devoted almost entirely to her physical strength. She also displays a mild 'danger sense' and a magically accelerated rate of healing and recovery. While it still takes her an extended period to recover from most serious wounds, she demonstrates virtually no fatigue, able to stay awake and alert for as much as a full week without rest (provided sufficient food and water). This incredible magic may have been cultivated by phage seeds beyond its natural levels, though at the moment this is no more than speculation. Regardless, Cpt. Lining notes that she displays "No capability whatsoever in the cultivation of produce, being no more effective at farming than the average pegasus or unicorn."

In hoof-to-hoof combat she is familiar with Stalliongradi 'Sambo', though my personal encounters suggest that she both favors and is more proficient in the 'Trottingham Hoof-Boxing' style taught to Royal Guard recruits—albeit with a much greater focus on full-draw bucking and full body-blows than concern for her own defense. Despite her size, she is very fast, and also surprisingly flexible.

Outside of direct combat, Soldier On exhibits a peculiar skill in evasion and stealth, particularly in urban environments (likely a skill learned after the Revolution in Stalliongrad). In point of fact, she told me herself that she made a habit of kicking a hole in a wall, and then simply not going through it, in order to misdirect pursuers.

In terms of her motives for her treason, I have very little information. The first piece is that she is not directly hostile to other guardsponies—even those trying to apprehend her. She only fought me after I attacked. This statement is untrue of Cpt. Ink, due to their past conflicts, but nevertheless suggests that, free in greater Equestria, she does not pose a threat to the civilian population. Lt. Down suggested that the Blizzard Revolution may have had an effect on her reaction to Princess Luna, although given that the Revolution itself predates Luna's return, I fail to see a connection. The second part of her motive I have been able to gather comes from Cpt. Lining's profile of her. He says, in a description of his choice for Luna's bodyguard, that "while she is invalid as a choice for the same ultimate reason as most of the rest, the source of her hatred is unique." I suspect that, given Cpt. Lining's death, his meaning will only be discovered if we are able to ask Soldier On herself.

Continued Risk Assessment: In the immediate period the potential risk to Equestria seems very low. As described above, Soldier On is unlikely to pose a threat to Equestria as a whole, and her favored methods would make it very difficult for her to return and strike at Princess Luna directly without being detected by the guards I have stationed at the Palace.

However, in the long run this incident has revealed and affirmed a number of gaping security threats both to Canterlot and Equestria as a whole. The first and foremost concerns are Masquerade's so-called 'nightmare' illusions. While the royal ban on these spells is completely understandable, the fact that they have not been taught or studied leaves the Guard with a virtual inability to defend itself or Equestria against such attacks. Her methods have obvious parallels with the changeling invasion of three years past, however, and I hope that we will perhaps be able to adapt the Academy's changeling detection spells to help deal with similar illusions. On the other hoof, the fact that Masquerade was able to deliberately trigger one of these spells suggests that perhaps she (and others) could be aware of them enough to bypass their defenses. In point of fact, I am nowhere near a skilled enough formal mage to deal with this issue, but it does need to be addressed in some manner.

You don't give yourself enough credit, Shi- Captain Armor. Even if you didn't go to the Academy, you know an awful lot more about magic than the average unicorn.

I also observe that Cpt. Lining's methods apparently left some rather large gaps in the Honor Guard's integrity. While I do observe that his contributions in the past were integral to Equestria's security (notably, it was he who alerted me to the unknown threat that would prove to be the changelings, three years ago), his loss left the Honor Guard to essentially crumble in upon itself. In the future it seems apparent that some sort of redundancy, or at least a sharing of knowledge, be maintained between the Honor Guard and the Royal Guard.

Perhaps the most tangible—and at the same time most elusive—threat is that Masquerade was most likely hired to kill Princess Luna. While we cannot guarantee that she was not acting alone, several clues point to her having some sort of sponsor: notably, her possession of the 'Alicorn's Horn'. Unfortunately, like the rest of its set, the Horn's location was unknown prior to Masquerade's attack, and we therefore lack the ability to trace it back to a conspirator. Thus, for the moment, the assassin herself seems our most likely means of identifying the 'contractor' behind this conspiracy.

Actually, I know where the Alicorn's Amulet is; a... rival(?) of mine challenged me to a duel using it; I'll see if I can get in touch with her and find out where she got it from, though I'm not sure how far the trail will go.

Appendix—Artifacts:

The Alicorn's Horn: Part of a set of ancient mana focusing charms; Princess Celestia suggests they are 'older than pony civilization', and that they were made for Princess Luna as a means by which she could fight Discord, prior to the discovery of the Elements of Harmony. There are five pieces: the Horn, the Crests (essentially blunted Wing Blades), the Tiara, the Amulet, and the Hooves. Two (the Tiara, the Amulet) serve as both mana reservoirs and focusing matrices for all three types of magic. In laypony's terms, any pony could put either of those items on, and find their respective magic increased both in quantity and potency.

Wait, if there are four hooves, wouldn't that make nine pieces? I guess it makes sense to consider them just one for convenience, but it could be misleading. Do they not function without all four? That would fit the pattern of other major multi-piece magical devices, like...

The other three items: the Horn, the Crests (which are in fact paired by a small silver chain), and the 'Hooves' (metal boots) serve to enhance a specific type of magic: Arcana for the Horn, Empatha for the Crests, and Endura for the Hooves. They are thus only usable by their respective types of ponies, or by an alicorn.

All the items are cursed in their own unique way (I do not pretend to know the sources of these enchantments; the Princess only explained that they were not present when the items were created). When the item in question is de-petrified, I intend to have it turned over to the Royal Academy for research, but for now, its curse is yet another unknown in this enormous puzzle.

The Alicorn's Amulet (or Alicorn Amulet—I've seen it referenced as both in texts) corrupts its wearer, driving them to use its power more and more, often in cruel or arbitrary ways. I checked the text which described the amulet's curse, but unfortunately, its description of the other items was even less helpful than what we've already recorded here.

Hurricane's Armor & Platinum's Ward: Though these are two very different items, I list them here together for their surprising similarities. Hurricane's Armor and Platinum's Ward are magical suits of armor designed originally for the ponies in whose honor they are named: Commander Hurricane and Princess Platinum III. Both are physically resilient suits of armor designed to endure both direct physical attacks and to absorb mana directed harmfully toward the wearer. Hurricane's Armor achieves this by what I was surprised to learn was a coating to smoothed 'void crystals'—the same dark crystals later used by King Sombra to enslave the crystal empire. Platinum's Ward is an adamantine shell covered in plates of pure amethyst—the gem with the best overall capacity for the absorption of Arcana. Both store the mana they absorb, but to very different purposes.

Hurricane's Armor was given to him by Star Swirl the Bearded in exchange for his historical defense of the unicorn kingdom at the time (this predates the 'Hearth's Warming Eve' story by some twelve years). I had previously believed that the armor created an illusion on the wearer, but Princess Celestia explained that this was not the case. As the armor was designed for a pegasus wearer, it functions on Empatha rather than Arcana, by physically transforming the wearer into one of the four classical elements at their directive, or to survive a dangerous attack. Each form (Fire, Water, Earth, and Air) had its own strengths and drawbacks, but for now, I shall spare the full details. Cpt. Lining, the last owner of the armor, favored the 'earth' form, using it to disguise himself as a statue and slow his metabolism in order to remain on guard over the Princess for days at a time. Since its creation, the armor has undergone a number of small changes—most notably, it now has the ability to disguise its wearer as a 'generic guardspony', much like some of the older suits of traditional Royal Guard armor. The whereabouts of Hurricane's Armor are currently unknown, and will also need to be acquired from Masquerade; it is likely, however, that whoever hired her is now in possession of this potent artifact.

So the Commander actually turned into stone? I suppose that explains how he could sit still for so long. When I was learning how to control my telekinesis, Princess Celestia taught me how to fold paper airplanes. After I had about one hundred, she picked a few up with her magic, and started throwing them at the Commander. He just ignored them, but when I threw one, he swooped down and grabbed it out of the air like lightning. I used to think it was so much fun.

Platinum's Ward was Commander Hurricane's gift to Princess Platinum III, who succeeded him indirectly as the third Commander of Equestrian Guard, which would go on to become the Royal Guard. Since then, it has been passed down amongst the highest ranking and most powerful unicorn in the Royal Guard, and it is now my honor that it remains in my possession. Platinum's Ward serves as an enormous reservoir for Arcana, and also creates a simple barrier against incoming physical attacks, so long as it contains enough mana to do so. I learned recently that it can absorb attacks of Empatha as well as Arcana. Such threats are thankfully rare enough that I had no prior need of the information.

Princess Platinum III, better known as 'the Warrior Princess' to make her distinct from her predecessors, was rumored to be the offspring of Hurricane and one of the unicorn nobles in early Equestria. While research suggests that accounts of his virility and copious... activity... are likely overstated, he certainly did show a fondness for Platinum III, training her to be a warrior and allowing her to lead the Equestrian Guard in his old age. While it is well known that Hurricane commissioned the armor for her, the actual creator is unknown. By the time of her birth, Hurricane was nearly sixty, and Starswirl was long dead. Probably the best theory of modern archeologists suggests it was designed by Clover the Clever, but then actually assembled by one of her apprentices, due to her untimely death during the Eruption of Krennotets, in A.o.E. 29.

Looking back, I kind of got off topic a lot. Are you sure you don't want to redo this, Shining?

No. I need it done now. Also, your spell is still on.

What do you mean my

<<< End of Incident Report >>>

A huge thanks to my pre-readers once again, and to Keyesty, who has graciously agreed to assist me in the Russian translations for WLL.

Epilogue II - The Funeral

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Epilogue II

The Funeral

"We gather here today in remembrance of four lives given freely for the protection of countless more." The words sounded hollow and over thought, as if the speaker was less concerned with the words’ sincerity than the emotion they provoked. "We owe it to them not to stand in mourning, for they are in a better place now." Her eyes glanced over the gathered, clad in black. All was silence and memory, but tears were few. "We share in sorrow not that they have moved on, but that we are left behind. And so, instead, we remain behind in the knowledge that we shall someday be reunited with them."

Celestia, resplendent in her full glory, glanced to the small stage that had been set up in the Palace gardens. There, three ponies were waiting. A subtle nod brought the first forth.

Shining Armor's face was beleaguered with mixed emotion. He wore his radiant cuirass, but its usual glow appeared muffled even beneath the towering shine of the sun. His helmet was absent, exposing the bare glow of his horn. At his side he levitated a small, beautifully engraved urn. Swirls of gold mixed with the stone to create a lively design, the vivacity of which seemed almost out of place in the garden’s somber atmosphere.

The captain set the urn down at the edge of the stage, and then looked up slowly. "My name is Captain Shining Armor. I stand my vigil in remembrance of Lieutenant Mark Down." He had heard them a dozen times before—the traditional opening words of a guardspony’s last rites. Yet for the first time, the words bore weight. "Thinking back, it seems almost a lifetime ago that Mark and I met in training. I doubt I would have made it into the guard without his help; he knew far more about magic than I did." Shining smiled awkwardly. "After graduation, we served together whenever we had the chance. We fought shoulder to wing in the Zebrica campaign, and did so again in Bitaly later that same year. We busted crime rings and dragged out spies all across Equestria. But I would be doing him an injustice if I let his memory amount to just battle."

The guardspony glanced to a family of pegasi sitting on his far left, and gave them a short but meaningful nod. "Mark Down loved Equestria. He loved meeting ponies, and seeing places. He loved life. He told me once that protecting that was the reason he'd joined the guard. So that everypony else could enjoy it the same way that he did. And whenever he wasn't on duty protecting what he loved, he would lead me out into the world and show me it. We visited nearly every city in Equestria. We met beautiful mares, and ate expensive foods. In time we had gone so far together that we reached the top. I had no intention of taking the post I now hold without him at my side, as my right hoof. The thought of him not being there in days to come still shakes me to my core."

In the crowd, Cadance bore a faint smile, though Shining could see the sorrow buried under her face. She was being strong not for his sake, but for the young mare she held under a wing. Mark's younger sister, Run Down, was sobbing gently as she listened to the captain's words.

The words he had earlier composed, with no small assistance from his wife, were a struggle to pull forth. He furrowed his brow and summoned up the last of his resolve, determined to give his friend a worthy sendoff. "I could tell you stories until we were all gray maned and wrinkled, but I think that it’s most important to remember this about Mark: he died the way he lived, protecting what he loved. And I don't think he would have given that up for the world." He allowed the final thought to hang in the air for a moment before glancing around the crowd. "Do any others hold Mark in their memories?"

His eyes shot first to the other four Royal Guards in attendance. They shook their heads slowly, having no words to add to their captain’s. And so, calmly, he turned toward Mark's family. His sister Run was still too overwhelmed with emotion to speak, and his parents simply shook their heads. For a civilian ceremony, it might have been odd, but Shining could understand. They were nearly the only civilians present, and the mass of gathered guardsponies was certainly intimidating when one wanted to share personal memories. Recognizing the silence, Shining's magic claimed the urn at the front of the stage.

A flip of his head tossed it into the air. It soared upward with an intense momentum, seeming as though it would never stop. Before it reached its peak, however, the unicorn captain fired off another spell. A rose bolt collided with the marble urn, sending glowing ashes across the sky in a display like fireworks.

Celestia whispered gently from her seat at the foot of the stage. "As his soul goes on to better places, we return his body to the sky, that it might soar amongst his kin forever."

Shining spared her a glance as he made his way off the stage to rejoin the gathered mourners. Without word or signal, the next pony followed.

- - -

In Luna's eyes, Marathon's form was exposed and bare. The younger princess had never seen the diplomat without a flowing dress or at least a skirt. That day, though, she was garbed in a golden cuirass alone; her missing legs were plain to see below the winged scroll that was her cutie mark. She placed her urn at the forefront of the stage, and bluntly sat down behind it.

"My name is Private Marathon. I stand my vigil in remembrance of Morning Star." The diplomat spoke in soft tones, loud enough to be heard but quiet enough to be overridden by the strength of memories. "I remember him as the perfect guardspony." She twisted the corners of her lips up into the slightest hint of a smile, pretending that the happiness of the memory could somehow counterbalance the strain of the event. "From the day I joined the guard, he was the one I always looked up to. Like any good guardspony he could be hard and serious, but life around him made our jobs a lot easier." She glanced to the other three Honor Guard who had remained both loyal and alive over the past weeks. "We remember him playing cards with us, drinking and laughing and sharing our time off together. And when he was on duty, he had our respect."

Marathon took a deep breath, and turned toward the Royal Guards and the civilians present. Her gaze swept over every present pony, save Luna herself. It wasn't a surprise. "In his own way, he was the soul of the Honor Guard. He kept us alive, and tied us back to remind us why we do what we do. When I joined seven years ago, he told me that the Honor Guard was like a family. And in that family, Star was our big brother. He looked out for us, worrying about not just if we were going into danger, but also about how we were feeling. He cared about us, and about keeping us safe. There's a saying, back from Commander Hurricane's time: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who guards the Guard? And the answer I will always remember is that he did."

The guardspony spread her wings, glancing once more to her peers on the highest branch of Equestria's Guard. "I say these words not only for myself, but by the agreement of my companions. Before we send our brother on his way, are there any who wish to remember him alongside us?" Marathon clearly expected nopony to step forward—she already had the agreement of the Honor Guard, and all of Morning Star's immediate family had preceded him in death. Therefore, when she moved toward his urn, she was caught off-guard by the tap of hooves approaching from the side of the stage.

The Honor Guard shared uncomfortable looks. Thunder Crack, as blunt as ever, furrowed his brow and wrinkled his muzzle into a cruel scowl. White Flag and the unicorn stallion she sat beside were more subtle, but their distaste for her involvement was no less present. Only Marathon maintained an even face, and even she did not show gratitude for the Princess' motion.

Luna saw them; that much was clear. She hesitated when her eyes met theirs, and one of her hooves took far too long in its progress toward a reasonable step. But the Princess would not be silent. She carried herself without assurance, but she carried herself nevertheless to Marathon's side. And there, she looked out at the crowd, avoiding the gazes of her harshest critics. Her words came slowly, forcing themselves out without the burden of her more comfortable archaic tongue. "I... remember Morning Star."

Thunder Crack actually had the gall to try and rise. The unicorn stallion sitting between him and White Flag wrapped a foreleg over his shoulder and very nearly tackled him back into a sitting position. No words were said, and very little noise was made. Some of the other mourners didn't even notice, but Luna did. Her eyes ran away quickly, as if to acknowledge a justified shame.

"I never truly learned his name. He had been assigned to me, and I considered him a burden rather than a friend. But he endured. He endured us at our– at my worst. He was with me for five years... he never once complained. And when danger came, he gave his life." The younger princess, suddenly aware that she had no final thought for her words, glanced awkwardly across the crowd and turned away.

- - -

Rainbow Dash, who sat at the far side of the stage holding the last of the urns, felt her heart crumble in sympathy. It overrode her distaste for the entire ceremony, and the butterflies that were dominating her stomach. Twilight had helped her prepare her own speech, but it was spilling out of her mind at a speed to rival her own flight. She struggled to focus on it so hard that she completely missed the shattering of Star's urn, the result of a single blast from the Honor Guard's unicorn mare.

Marathon flapped slowly off the stage, offering Rainbow a short pat on the shoulder as she passed. Rainbow gulped, nodded, and strode onto the stage. An urn filled with plain sand was her companion. It was the best substitute that could be found for the ashes of a body resting at the bottom of Grivridge.

His armor fit almost comfortably, despite having been sized for a stallion. She'd resisted at first; she still insisted she was done with the Guard. They told her that only a guardspony could stand vigil for another, and so she had agreed quietly to don the golden plate once more. They told her it was his. He had left it in Canterlot the last time he had worn it, five years earlier in Ponyville. The burns of lightning had deformed the golden plates that formed its chest slightly, but nevertheless clearly. Without even thinking, she knew they would fit perfectly over the spider-web of burns she had seen beneath his shirt. She discarded the thought only as a measure of respect for Luna.

"My name is Priv..." The syllable dragged itself out, but she could not bring herself to use the title. She shook her head, dislodging the last of her practiced speech, and started again in her own words. They would not be eloquent or beautiful, but they would be honest and heartfelt. "My name is Rainbow Dash, and I stand vigil for Corporal Dead Reckoning." Nopony commented that she had broken from tradition. She had earned respect enough for that. She sucked down a breath of warm August air and began to speak. "I didn't know Deadeye long. We only met two weeks ago. But I knew him. He was my partner." She glanced to where her five friends had gathered, in support for her rather than sorrow of their own. "He was my friend."

She pictured the quirky smile that wrapped across his jaw, deformed on the far left by the ancient scars of a griffon's talons. "Reckoning was an adventurer. It was his special talent, and what he always wanted out of life. That's what drew him to the guard, and why he wouldn't quit, no matter what." The words were close to what she had prepared, but they were also her own. "He lost his eye, and he got old, and he even started to lose his mind, but even with all that, I don't think I've ever known somepony so alive."

For just a moment, she thought she could see him standing there in the jungle. He slapped the back of his own head, and his eye popped out. She had gasped, and he had laughed, harder and heartier than ponies a third of his age. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that to me, Deadeye wasn't really a guardspony. He was a great pony, who just sort of was a guard too. But I don't remember him for how he fought, or how he stood stiff. What I remember most about him was that he cared. I barely knew him for a week, but in that time, he was open to me like we'd known each other forever. And I guess that's why it hurts so much that he's gone."

Rainbow looked out over the crowd. Her friends wore somber expressions, but they hadn't known him. It was the Honor Guard who shared the greatest sympathy with Rainbow's words. They nodded slowly, admiring her reflection on their lost friend. She spoke up again. "I guess that's what I wanted to say. Does anyone else... er, is there anyone else who wants to remember Dead Reckoning?"

The Honor Guard shared a glance amongst themselves, but none moved to step forward. The rest didn't move. Rainbow quickly spared a look toward Reckoning's brother, though she expected nothing. He had wanted nothing to do with his brother in life. The appearance of both he and his family was the result of obligation, and nothing more. After the moment for response had passed, the mare cupped Reckoning's urn in one foreleg, and shot up into the air.

The mourners watched in silence as the rainbow blur shot into the sunny sky. No sooner had she been lost to the sky, though, than she ducked down again. Her rapidly beating wings sent her toward the ground far faster than the marble urn. Mere feet from the ground, Rainbow turned and drew back her hind legs in tandem. On that clear sunny day, all across Equestria, ponies saw a bolt of lightning fly upward into a cloudless sky from the peak of the Mountain of Dawn. The sand that served as a replacement for honest ashes scattered on the winds to the far corners of the world. Without a word, Rainbow returned to the ground. She could conjure no more fitting memorial for her friend.

She skipped the stage altogether, landing at the edge of the stage, and walking slowly out to the crowd. For the first time in her life, she was glad when nopony applauded. It would have seemed unfair.

- - -

Far away from where the young mare landed, a cloaked and hooded mare sat behind a statue of Commander Hurricane, rearing up in stone armor. She had stood strong through the whole ceremony, as still as the statue that concealed her from view. When Celestia moved back to the stage, carrying the fourth and final urn, though, the mare suddenly collapsed as if beneath a great weight.

Unaware of the observer, Princess Celestia's gilded hooves tapped gently across the stage, and she set down the urn softly. "I am Celestia, and I stand my vigil in remembrance of the Commander."

The mare's voice was nothing more than a whisper, yet she spoke just the same. "My name is Lieutenant Soldier On, and I stand my vigil in remembrance of the Commander."

The monarch sat down slowly, and looked directly at the broken remnant of her Honor Guard. "What does a name really mean?" Soldier On heard the eloquence in the words, but she also detected their artifice. "I do not call my defender Steel Lining now, any more than I would in his life. It was not truly his name; only a label he endured, as he endured so much more." Celestia glanced to the sky. "Too much."

There was a motion in the crowd, but it went ignored. Instead, Soldier On nodded, remembering the pains that the Commander had endured. Cuts and scrapes where dragon claws and changeling horns and so much more had torn his flesh and spilt his blood. Yet the fact that made him great was that he had endured. The wounds always proved shallow, in time. Only one scar had ever truly clung to him.

The traitor's eyes jumped to the crowd as a red pegasus in a heavy black coat leaned forward in interest. A scowl spread across the mare's face. Red Ink and his usurping father had no right to bear witness to the Commander's memorial.

Celestia paid no attention to Red Ink's minor motion. Her gentle words continued, unabated. "The Commander was a stallion who saw only the prize, and paid no mind to the cost. He was a guardspony because his own life was not of value. He kept few friends–only those who could help him in his task. Family would have been a burden, and so he passed on it entirely."

Soldier On caught a subtle motion from within the small cluster of young mares that composed the Elements of Harmony. The soldier had been a mother, once; she knew what pain looked like even from afar. To approach and offer comfort was beyond her, and so she wished peace only from afar, even as her ears continued to listen to her closest friend's eulogy.

"Few knew him by his face, and even fewer knew him by his name. Yet each and every one of us owes no small part of the peace we enjoy to this one stallion, who paid for so much of it not with his death, but with his life." Celestia lowered her head to stare at the urn for a few spare moments before continuing. "Without family, his memory is shared only amongst the few of us who have gathered here today. I urge you to hold on to that memory, as we move on from this place and this moment." She glanced across the crowd of listeners she was aware of, gazing into each of their eyes. "Do any of you wish to share in his memory?"

After far more than a moment's silence, Tsar Watchful Eye rose. Soldier On's scowl grew deeper yet as she watched the small alicorn summit the steps to stand beside a mare twice his height. Celestia gave him a knowing, comforting glance, but he seemed to spurn the gesture.

"In Stalliongrad, we have a word for a pony who makes sacrifices to help others. In Equiish, that word is 'hero'. I met the stallion I knew as сталь кромка more than twenty years ago, and the first thing I saw in him was that he was a hero. In those days, the dragons had darkened the sky with scales and fire. His arrival was the first ray of hope my home had enjoyed in months. I would have lost my wife and my sons, were it not for his presence."

"How dare you speak of family?" Soldier On's hoof pressed down on the statue of Hurricane so hard, the stone began to crack. Only the noise drew away her forceful hoof, fearing that it would draw attention to her presence.

The Tsar paced slowly, and then sat down on the very edge of the stage beside the urn. "I had wished in those days to call him my friend. He resisted, because in his mind to be a friend was to give up time he could have spent helping others. He had no family, and so I offered to share mine with him. He was a mentor to my sons, a protector to my family, and a friend to me." The Tsar bowed his head. "I will remember him fondly, and well."

After a moment of silence, clearly offering the stage to another speaker, the Tsar retreated. Only a moment later, five ponies took to the stage. The four remaining Honor Guard gathered around their new Captain. It brought Soldier On a bit of pride to see the pain with which Red Ink moved¬–the result of the scar she had left across his chest. Though it was concealed by a thick black sash, it was present just the same. The satisfaction was not enough, though, to offset her anger that Ink was standing in her place.

Red Ink took the Commander's urn between his hooves, and then glanced briefly toward Celestia. She nodded, and a golden glow wrapped around her horn. The pegasus shot into the air, trailing smoke as he carried his predecessor into the clouds. It took longer for Ink to climb than it had Rainbow, but the journey was short nevertheless. Nearly stolen from view by the glare of the sun, Red Ink's silhouette dropped the urn. Celestia's magic grew suddenly stronger, bearing threat and focus together into a brilliant spear.

Having found her last closure with the Honor Guard and Canterlot, Soldier On turned and left, feeling a chapter of her life drawing to a close with each and every step.

- - -

After it was done, they gathered around small tables, chatting and sparing each other brief and meaningless glances. One table sat five miserable ponies. The sixth of their number, Twilight Sparkle, had gone to her brother, confident that Rainbow would be taken care of in the company of four other friends. Each of the four struggled to find some words that might magically solve her problems. The exercise was painful, heavy, and in Rainbow Dash's eyes, completely unfair. She stared down at a plate of greens, and then forced her head up enough to look to her friends.

At least one noticed. "How ya' holdin' up, Sugarcube?"

"Fine," Rainbow lied.

Rarity patted her friend on the shoulder. "Your friend, Mr. Reckoning, sounded like a delightful fellow."

"Yeah." The simple word was as dead as he was. "He was."

Trying to cheer up her friend more bluntly, Pinkie Pie's voice joined her friends. "That lightning trick was pretty awesome!"

"He taught me it."

What followed was an awful, truly painful silence amongst the Bearers. All save Rainbow looked to one another, each wishing that they knew what to say. None did, and so instead, a paltry lunch was eaten and discomfort hung in the air like a fog.

Finally, in silent outrage and her oldest friend's suffering, Fluttershy leaned forward across the table and looked directly at Rainbow. "Uh, Rainbow, I just wanted to ask... if it's okay... do you want to talk about your dad?"

A brown hat swiveled toward the speaker. "Uh, Fluttershy, I don't think her pa has anythin' to do with this."

Rarity followed the motion. "I do have to ask what you mean."

"Yeah, Fluttershy." Determined not to be left out, Pinkie Pie spoke up. "What gives?"

"Oh, well, you see... it's just that when Rainbow and I were fillies growing up in Cloudsdale–"

Rainbow put a hoof down on the tabletop. She'd meant nothing by the action, but the plates on the surface jumped at the force. "My dad died in the Dragon Wars when I was a foal," Rainbow answered, spite leaking into her words. "Big deal. I got over it a long time ago."

"Now hold yer horses, Rainbow. Why 're ya gettin' all worked up about this?"

"I'm not!" she answered, with another slam of her hoof. Fluttershy's drink spilled, and the timid mare retreated from the edge of the table. Even in her awful state, the fright she had instilled earned her a slight condemnation from Applejack. Overborne with emotion, the mare clutched her mane and gritted her teeth. "Fine, whatever. I'm gonna sit alone for a bit."

Before they could answer, she turned around and strode away. There wasn't much distance, but in the somber quiet, nopony was willing to call after her. Abandoning them was liberating in its own way, though Rainbow knew in her heart that the feeling itself was twisted and wrong. She didn't care. She needed the space.

She trotted away from the other tables, toward a statue labeled 'Victory'. The marble mare standing with the fabric flag was quiet. That alone made her suitable company for Rainbow as she collapsed onto her flank and forced a trio of deep breaths into herself.

It wasn't long, however, before hooves approached. They beat the ground with a deep bass tone, likely coming from Applejack's powerful legs. She didn't bother with even so much as a glance backward. Perhaps this was why she was surprised when a strangely masculine, heavily accented voice greeted her.

"You are here to be getting space, I expect? I could not stand the politik either." The pony who spoke was an all-red pegasus who seemed to have packed too much muscle onto his naturally small frame. A heavy black coat with a lining of rough gray fur around its neck covered most of his body, with only tiny slits for his wings. "I am..." he hesitated before settling on a series of words. "...Red Ink."

"Rainbow Dash," the mare answered plainly. "What's with the pause?"

"I am imagining you do not want to hear about my rank. It is good. The Princess is... unhappy with me. That is why I am here, apart from others." Ink donned a devious but subtle smile. "My brother is reminding me that it is bad form to start an 'altar-cate-ion' with Shining Armor while at our mentor's funeral."

Rainbow's curiosity was piqued, despite her buried anger at the stallion in question. "What was he like?"

"The Commander?" A real, honest smile replaced the devious grin, though it quickly faded as the stallion remembered his loss. "He was... more than mentor. I had many tutors in my life who taught me to be educated. To be 'diplomat'. One even tried teaching Equiish." He laughed at his own broken language, and even Rainbow nearly smiled, but that emotion and the sound it accompanied were fleeting. "Mentor was not like them. He taught me to be a stallion. To fight. To sacrifice. He was... like father to me."

Without a word, Rainbow stood and walked away.

- - -

Shining Armor paced away from the Down family as they prepared to leave. His hooves carried him softly to his wife, who was sharing quiet, comforting words with the Tsar and his eldest son. She turned away from them when she noticed his approach. "Shining, how are you doing?"

"They're fine, Cadance. Run is doing–"

"No, Shining, how are you doing?"

The captain reacted to the question as though he had been physically struck. After a brief recoil, he set his eyes properly on the mare and smiled. "I'm fine, Cadance."

"If you're sure." She sounded unconvinced, but nevertheless chose to return her attention to Watchful Eye and Foresight. "Tsar, this is my husband-"

"We met a few weeks ago, Princess," Watchful Eye interrupted. "But I do appreciate your effort to introduce us. Captain Armor, I am glad that I find you in good health. My sons and I were very concerned when we read about your confrontations in the newspaper."

Shining nodded gratefully, as was expected, though he knew that at least one of the Tsar's sons was the source of his own wounds in the first place. "We've nearly wrapped up the case. We've caught Masquerade, thanks to the Princess, so all that's left is to figure out who hired her."

"Be careful with her, Shining Armor. She can be dangerous even within a cage. She slipped between my hooves once in the past."

"We're taking every precaution, Tsar. Believe me when I say that I have no intention of having to fight her again."

Cadance spoke up rather suddenly. "Why don't we talk about something a bit more peaceful? Tsar, Foresight, how is Stalliongrad these days? I haven't been since I was just a filly."

"Just the same as it's been for a few thousand years," Foresight answered with a smile. "Nothing really changes at home. I confess I have much more interest in your new home, Princess. I'm something of a student of magical history, and I was fascinated to hear that the Crystal Empire had returned from the mists of the past."

"Well to be honest, with King Sombra out of the way, it isn't a true 'empire' anymore. Soon, we'll just be the Crystal Domain."

"And you shall have a seat on the Stable of Nobles," the Tsar observed. "Forgive me if I seem crude in this, but I had been hoping you might replace your father instead. Our meetings could do with your more gentle touch."

Shining nodded in agreement, recalling the horrors of that small room and the nobleponies within. Cadance laughed gently at the two stallions. "I'd be the first to admit my father can be overbearing, but he means well."

The Tsar spoke in firm agreement to the larger alicorn. "As, we must hope, do all the members of the Stable. Still, I confess to surprise in hearing that your 'empire' might well become the ninth domain of Equestria. Was Saddle Arabia not in pursuit of that position?"

"I may be mistaken," Foresight began, "but my understanding is that Saddle Arabia's southern lands are still contested by Warchief Khagan of the boars. I assume Princess Celestia does not wish to risk conflict and bloodshed by posing a formal claim to the land, even if the Tusk Rot has left the Boars in little position to fight a war. Tell me, Princess, am I right?"

Shining and Cadance whirled to find not one, but both ruling princesses of Equestria approaching in perfect silence. The elder met Foresight's gaze and offered him a slight nod. "It isn't simply a matter of whether we could defeat the boars with violence, though, my little pony. I have no intention to see bloodshed at all if I can avoid it. We have already seen the passing of too many guardsponies. But forgive my interruption."

"It's probably better that you did, Princess," Cadance answered. "We were growing dangerously close to discussing politics."

"'Tis better, then, that we save thee from such a cruel fate." Luna spoke in a straightforward tone, missing the subtle humor of the comment completely. "Tsar Eye, there are a few matters that I would discuss with you, if but a moment can be spared."

"Certainly, Princess," the Tsar answered.

As the pair of alicorns walked away, Cadance called out the larger mare. "What you said for Morning Star was beautiful, Princess."

"Nay, 'twas shameful. My words were meant for comfort, and yet instead they caused pain as they so often do. Perhaps someday I will learn silence." Luna strode away, leaving four ponies behind.

"Wow," Shining muttered. "Is she alright?"

"She will be in time, and with a few kind words. I do not look forward to the less kind words that I must share with others. It seems that my Honor Guard are unwilling to forgive her past, and their new leader has a matter of his own that we must address." A quick diplomatic smile graced her lips, trying to do away with grim subjects. "This is not the time for that sort of talk, though. I had merely come to see that you were handling the passing of your friends well."

With that, the eldest of all ponies walked away with her steady gait. Three remained behind.

They simply sat in silence for some time before Cadance once more broke the ice. "If it isn't too much trouble, Foresight, do you know what business your father has with Princess Luna? I don't mean to pry, really, but it seemed like something more than just the speech was bothering her."

"Well, let me answer the question you really mean to ask." Foresight turned toward the distant edge of the gathering, where Luna and Watchful Eye were quietly addressing one another. "I do not know what is bothering the Princess. It is not the funeral, however. Princess Luna did not have any attachment to the Commander in the way that Princess Celestia did. In point of fact, he despised her utterly, though I do not know why."

Shining was stunned by the admission. "Wait, the Commander-"

"Reflected his subordinates, only more so. I am not going to pretend he is a hero the way my father and brother do. Perhaps it is true that we would have lost the revolution without him, but he was just as much of a blunt instrument as Red Ink. Their only difference seemed to be that my brother seeks out conflict and derives enjoyment from it."

Foresight turned back to the empty stage. "My father is a reformer and an idealist. My brother is a warrior. He shared both their traits. But I am, to use a blunt term, a bureaucrat, and we did not see eye to eye on many thing. I don't bother aspiring to greatness or fame. The silent gratitude that Stalliongrad continues to run day after day is enough for me. That, and my books. Which brings me back to Princess Cadance's question. Princess Luna is not troubled by her business with my father, but in all likelihood, she is simply borrowing a book from our libraries."

"Doesn't the Canterlot library have all the works she could ever need?" Shining asked.

"If she wanted something written within her the span of her reign, though I suspect she might simply remember such a thing. My father maintains Stalliongrad Castle, and thus he is in an informal sense the librarian of its library. It is home to many of the ancient scrolls and treatises of the ancient unicorn kingdom 'Unicornia', which predates the rule of the sisters. Sometimes father is even kind enough to allow me access to the old tomes and scrolls, though their age makes handling the parchment a risky endeavor."

"Wow." Cadance turned to her husband. "Sounds like Twilight's paradise."

"You mean the Bearer of Magic, Twilight Sparkle?"

"My sister," Shining explained.

"Ah. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but father has kept the vaults and libraries sealed since we claimed the castle. Most of the books are likely mundane, but there is dangerous magic to be found in the scrolls under the castle. Father's predecessor, Baron Frostbite, made use of it. We don't want to risk a rogue mage, so only father has access. As I said, he is kind when he permits me to read even simple scrolls. On that matter, actually, I have a request for you two."

"Uh," Shining turned to his wife, and she nodded briefly. "Go ahead?"

"Would you allow me to peruse the library of the Crystal Empire? I've been hoping to for years since it reappeared, but my time has been precious in Stalliongrad until recently."

"I don't see why you need to ask," Shining answered awkwardly.

"It's a public library," Cadance explained.

Foresight cocked his head in confusion before his eyes widened. "Even with Sombra's records? Or are those kept somewhere else?" He stopped, scratching the back of his head with a hoof. "I'm sorry, that most likely made me sound quite suspicious. My interest is in the climate magic that protects the capital from the snow. It could be very beneficial to Stalliongrad, as you can likely imagine."

"Of course," Shining answered, seeing the Stalliongradi diplomat and historian growing flustered and nervous under his own words. "Actually, you're welcome to join Cadance and I; we're heading north tonight."

"Really?" Foresight's nervousness tumbled away, replaced by subdued excitement. "Thank you very much. I'll inform my father and make arrangements." Cadance and Shining watched the pony wander off, as they found themselves recalling where they were, and why they had gathered there.

- - -

Rainbow sat in front of Discord, simply because he was far away from where anypony might come to speak with her. She didn't bother touching the statue, for she had no more desire to hear his voice than any of her own friends. She simply sat there, staring at the tortured look of the draconequus.

It didn't take long for her solitude to be interrupted again by a pair of soft but steady wings.

"Um, Rainbow, I just-"

"Fluttershy?" Rainbow let out a little growl as she rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings earlier, but–¬"

"Just stop." Rainbow turned back to Discord and sighed. "I'm sorry, 'Shy. I thought I was over him, but he just keeps coming back, doesn't he?"

The butter yellow pegasus sat down beside her friend and gave her a gentle hug. "I'm sorry, Rainbow. But it might help if you talked about it, instead of keeping it to yourself."

The mare rolled her eyes, but her reluctance was bested by the warm foreleg wrapped around her shoulders. "Well, when I was really little, we didn't know what had happened to him. He left before I had even turned one."

Fluttershy shared in Rainbow's sorrow. "That must have been awful. Do you remember anything about him?"

It took the braver of the two pegasi a moment to build up her courage. "All I remember of him is his voice, singing to me. Otherwise, all I've seen is pictures." The mare shrugged, trying to get rid of Fluttershy's foreleg and the memories all at once.

The Bearer of Kindness refused to allow it. "And then he ran away and joined the guard?"

"He was already a guardspony even before I was born. But he was supposed to have retired. When he left, Mom started telling me that it was just because of the war. That he'd come back some day." Rainbow's squinted for a moment, to keep her eyes as dry as possible. "When she was dying, she kept asking me and Papa if he'd come home."

Fluttershy did not interrupt with words, but her hug squeezed tighter as the story grew more difficult for Rainbow.

"Papa didn't want to get my hopes up. He warned me that dad might have died. But Gilda told me something different. She said he just didn't care, and that he'd probably run off to get away from the responsibility." The first of the tears leaked down Rainbow's face. "I almost believed her, until Papa got the letter. And then I finally thought I knew. Dad had died. He'd left Mom alone and died, and that was it. I was mad at him so much for that. It took me so long to get over it, but I finally did."

"And then all of this..." Fluttershy's thought ended in a tighter embrace still, bringing both her wings into the hug as well as her forelegs. "I'm so sorry, Rainbow."

"It was so much easier just thinking he had died. But to find out now that Gilda was right, and he was the Commander the entire time..." Rainbow shook her head as Fluttershy moved toward her again. "I'll survive," she muttered, in spite of Celestia's warnings. "I always do, right?" The words were accompanied by a small grin, meant more to cheer up her friend than to honestly indicate Rainbow's own well being. "Just give me a while to sit and I'll be fine, okay?"

"Okay, Rainbow. If that's what you want. It wasn't fair of him to keep that secret from you."

As the pegasi wandered off in their own directions, neither heard the silent laugh that issued forth from the statue they left behind.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash. The 'Commander' was really your father? You can't even begin to imagine the things I can do with that."

- - -

"My faithful student, is something wrong?"

Twilight Sparkle approached Celestia and then sat down on the grass in her black dress. Rarity might have screamed at the misuse of the fabric, but Twilight honestly intended to disintegrate the garment as soon as the funeral was done. It had been designed for Rainbow's funeral, and that came with too many awful memories to overcome.

"A lot of things are wrong, Princess."

Celestia's brow rose in concern, and she took a seat beside her student. Together, the two stared off at the statues of the garden as they spoke.

"Tell me what has been going on in your life, Twilight. How are your studies?"

Twilight looked up at Celestia, who tipped her head as if urging her to speak. "Well, if that's what you think we should talk about... My thesis is set up, though I haven't touched in a few weeks. I need to find a... well, this sounds awful, but a 'control group'."

"Meaning somepony who doesn't have any friends?" Celestia seemed contemplative for a moment, and then she spoke suddenly. "I'm sorry, Twilight. Please hold on a moment." The Princess closed her eyes, though a dim golden glow escaped from beneath their lids. Twilight had seen the process before, though never from so close. It lasted all of a minute, but when it stopped, Celestia seemed somewhat drained.

"The Summer Lands?" the student asked knowingly.

"Yes," Celestia nodded. "A guardspony from Los Pegasus. Please forgive the interruption. You had something you wanted to say?"

"I wanted to talk about Rainbow, Princess."

Celestia shuddered as if suppressing the urge to rise, but nevertheless managed to hesitantly nod, as if providing permission for Twilight to continue.

"She's been acting odd lately. Always wanting time alone. I know you said that her..." The words trailed off utterly, before a shake of her head restored Twilight's resolve. "You know. Anyway, you said that wouldn't be a concern for at least a few months. It might be something else that's bothering her, but that's the problem, Princess: I just can't figure anything out."

Hesitation filled Celestia's voice. "It may very well be something that happened in her journey, Twilight. Unless she tells you what is wrong, I don't think there is much that you or I can do to help."

Twilight's face scrunched up in the peculiar manner that denoted deep thought. It remained that way for all of five seconds before deflating in an exasperated groan. "I just wish there was something I could do to make things better. My magic doesn't seem like much use here."

Celestia extended a wing, wrapping it around her student's shoulders. "Perhaps there is something to be learned from this. Let me see..." The Princess paused in thought. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, today I learned an incredibly important lesson about friendship. I was worried about my sister, and I tried to do my best to fix everything with my magic. Unfortunately, sometimes magic isn't the right answer. Sometimes, it can make things worse, instead of better. I hurt somepony who hadn't done anything wrong, because I thought that I was strong enough to simply make the problem go away with a thought and a spell. Though things turned out well, they did so in spite of my magic, rather than because of it."

"But Princess, if Rainbow-"

Celestia's gold-shod hoof was elevated to produce silence. "Luna didn't need to come back. She would have been happy. Equestria would have survived. I had to have her back because I was selfish, and couldn't stand to be alone. Now she is here again, suffering for my sake. So, the lesson I learned is that magic isn't always the answer. Sometimes, the only magic that can solve our problems is friendship. For once, your faithful student, Princess Celestia."

Epilogue III - Moving On

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Epilogue III

Moving On

Hearth's Warming Day fell on December 18th that year. After the glorious Canterlot Pageant of the previous night, silence seemed a welcome thing. There was a brisk chill to the air, and the soft snowflakes falling through the air set a perfect scene for cuddling with family in front of a roaring fire.

Rainbow Dash knew little of those fires, or the comforting embrace of wings. It had been so many years since she was in Cloudsdale for Hearth's Warming that she couldn't even remember how the Cloudosseum looked beneath a layer of snow until it was right in front of her. She alighted on the cloud sidewalk in front of the building. All the while, her eyes followed the little families and couples that made their way inside for the Wonderbolts show. Watching them go by, she felt once more a sensation that had dominated her life since her return from Zebrica. She was the odd mare out, set apart by random circumstance and fate. In this crowd, it had nothing to do with friends worried for her soul or the sorrowful absence of a mentor. Instead, Rainbow was marked apart because she was alone. No mother or father to spread a wing over her back. No stallion or mare to hold her cloud and share in the heat of welcome bodies. Nopony at all.

A single blue ticket decorated with a bolt of yellow lightning slid free of her jacket pocket, and was easily pinned beneath her wing. She walked up to the line entering the building, and presented it without word. A quick rip, and only a tattered stub remained.

"Box seats on Hearth's Warming? You've got friends, kid."

Rainbow shrugged as the stallion motioned her to pass. Even after fifteen years she still knew the path by heart. Turn right past the concession stands. Grab a free candy cane from the mare at the orphanage charity stand. Drop three bits in the little can. Right again, and up the stairs. Then all the way around the round structure to reach the big rooms. Fancy walls of transparent cloud rather than glass permitted heat for the plush seats and couches within. Rainbow knew every room; she'd helped to build them. Of course, that had been a ten-year old filly who probably spent more time getting caught under hoof than actually moving the project along. Still, for her, it had been heaven in its own way.

She moved up to the door and found it unlocked already. A simple push was all it took to enter. Inside, the clouds had been colored and arranged in a glorious Wonderbolts theme. Six bottles of gourmet root beer were arranged in a diamond on the nearby countertop, separating the seating area from a mini-bar stocked with all manner of drinks. She ignored the subtle offer of what had once been her favorite beverage and wandered toward the seats.

Rainbow wasn't sure of what she had been expecting, but it had been something. Anything. Instead, the seats were empty. Three opulent cushions played host to nothing more than the memories of happier ponies in better years. The disappointment was nearly palpable.

A raucous voice came popping over the loudspeaker. "Fillies and Gentlecolts, welcome to the Cloudosseum!" The crowd roared in response, and when they settled, the stallion continued. "I hope you're all having a wonderful Hearth's Warming Day so far. But I promise, it's about to get better. Without further ado, I present… the Wonderbolts!"

The roar came again from the crowd, but Rainbow could not bring herself to join in. For just a moment, she glanced back at the door. The thought of leaving and abandoning the show was tempting for perhaps the first time in her entire life. In the end, she collapsed in a plush cloud seat, unsure of just why she had done so. It only felt right.

"Today, performing for your pleasure, we have Fleetfoot!" The roar of the crowd was deafening, though Rainbow could clearly hear the whistling of wings through the frigid air over the noise.

"Rapidfire!" Again, the crowd roared, but the pegasus mare merely shook her head. Without even thinking, she identified the performing members as the Wonderbolt's 'first' team. When the announcer spoke up, she joined him.

"Gale Force." Her mumbled words matched the voice over the speakers perfectly. "Then Soarin' and Spitfire."

"I see you know your Wonderbolts, ma'am." Rainbow jumped at the surprisingly close origin of the voice, and turned toward it. Though a stallion, he wasn't who she had been expecting. A faded green stallion in a blue formal shirt balanced a round silver platter on his wing, and offered it to her hesitantly. "I was asked to deliver this to you. It seems you have an admirer."

Rainbow nodded, gesturing to the little end table placed nearest her seat in the opulent box. The stallion set the tray down and then immediately made his way back to the door. "Happy Hearth's Warming."

"You too," Dash answered rather flatly. Her eyes were locked on the contents of the tray. A tall slender milkshake glass played home to a root beer float, decorated with a vibrant peppermint stick. A faded foam hoof proclaimed support for Wonderbolt Captain Wedge. A tiny envelope completed the assembly. Clean, sparse script spelled out her name across its otherwise blank face.

Her hoof dragged the envelope open first. Two papers spilled out onto the silver and cloud. One was a carefully folded letter on common paper. The other was smaller and stiffer. Thin card stock decorated with a glossy sheen proclaimed words that Rainbow recognized almost easily.

Quiniela: Cpt. Spitfire, Sgt. Fleetfoot; 15 Bits. Redeem only at main counter.

"Now that we've introduced the team, it's time to see some flying!"

Rainbow's eyes shot up from the betting ticket to see all five Wonderbolts scream by outside her window in a perfect wedge. Their trails of smoke and the scream of the wind over their wings sent an old thrill through her heart. A little smile wound its way onto her lips as she watched the mostly-familiar performance. Most Wonderbolts shows were brimming with new maneuvers and daring stunts, but the Hearth's Warming routine was a classic too precious to be tampered with.

Her hoof reached out to her side without really thinking. The root beer float came back to her, permitting a soft sip. Though the flavor of peppermint didn't mix well with the rich taste of the soda, it did hearken back to the sweet tooth of a five–year old filly who couldn't bring herself to care about the conflict of sensations.

The foam hoof was surprisingly old for a disposable item. She couldn't help but wonder where it came from, and how it had been dug up. The name it recorded belonged to a retired pony, who'd led the legendary flying team when Spitfire was barely a recruit. Captain Wedge was a legend amongst fliers, though his days racing through the clouds were over. The thought of an old pegasus giving up seemed strange in memory of Reckoning.

She tossed away the sorrowful thought, and turned her eyes back toward the show. The four edge-fliers had peeled away from Spitfire, leaving the leader alone as she shot straight up into the air over the Cloudosseum. What would follow was a trick known only to a rare few even amongst the Wonderbolts' ranks. The 'Skull Dive' consisted of powering straight downward toward a solid plate of fortified cloud, or in other venues, stone. The performer would spin as they dove, producing enough raw G's to send even the most hardened flier into unconsciousness. At the last second, instead of pulling up, the daring mare or stallion would literally stop, snapping into an even hover mere inches from their death. In a sense, it was a magic trick. Rather than something to impress the audience which was easier to understand, its attraction lay in its mystery. As a filly, Rainbow had spent years wondering just how it was done.

There was a subtle crack in the air as Spitfire's brilliant orange mane began to slice through the wind just ahead of her wings. Though it wasn't sonic, the sound bore no less weight. Rainbow's eyes were peeled tightly as she watched, wondering at the possibilities. Yet for all the years that had passed, one thing remained the same. Spitfire's wings snapped out at the last possible second, and Equestria's Fastest Flier was still at a loss as to how the trick was done.

"Rainbow?"

The mare froze at the sound of the familiar voice. It was tired, and old, and she hadn't heard it in years. "Papa?" It took her a moment to build up the will to turn around and look at him.

Silver Lining sat rather sheepishly in the doorway to the seating box, eyes locked in the floor midway between himself and his granddaughter. "It's been too long, Rainbow. I–"

His words were cut off by the tight embrace of the younger mare. "I've missed you."

He stiffened for a moment, and then his warm breath and bushy moustache both brushed past her ear. She moved to step away, but he held her tight. "I almost didn't come."

Rather than bother with words, Rainbow nuzzled the side of his neck. "Why not?"

At the question, the older stallion released his granddaughter and found himself staring at her hooves, unable to look her in the eye. "I was afraid you wouldn't want to see me."

"Well, that was dumb, Papa." They shared a soft laugh, and then Rainbow gestured toward one of the puffy cloud seats her grandfather had no doubt built with his own hooves. "Come on."

Silver Lining removed his expensive gray jacket, revealing both his naturally gray coat and the puffy silver-white clouds that marked his special talent. The garment was placed gently on a firm cloud coat rack, alongside his muted red scarf. Finally ready, he sat down beside his granddaughter and stared out at the Wonderbolts. "Did I get the right bet for the race?"

"You could've gone for the Exacta," Rainbow answered calmly. "Spitfire never loses these days."

"You could beat her," Silver Lining responded.

"Yeah. Well, I actually did, a few years ago." A sudden grip of regret claimed Rainbow's heart as she turned toward her grandfather. "The Best Young–"

"–Flyer Competition? I've been there every year since you left, hoping to see you. I was there when you did the Sonic Rainboom. I couldn't believe it."

"Why didn't you come see me? Why didn't you say anything?"

Silver shook his head slowly. "You were with your friends, and the Wonderbolts, and the Princess. I didn't feel like I had any place intruding on your life."

"And what if I want you to be part of my life?"

Beneath his moustache, Silver Lining wore an enormous grin. "Then you've got me." The grandfather turned back to his jacket, and a little of his happiness faded. "I've got something for you, by the way." He rose, and with both his neck and a wing, produced a surprisingly large box from the folds of his coat. It was polished wood, at least two feet wide and half as tall. Though it lacked any sort of wrapping, its purpose was obvious as he set it on the little side-table beside Rainbow's root beer float and the huge foam hoof.

"What's in that?"

"Something I always meant to give you when you grew up, if you ever cared. I heard you joined the Guard, Rainbow, so I figured now was a good time." He pulled open the lid, revealing three rows of radiant, glimmering medals and colorful ribbons. They lay between a scroll and a rather plain but sturdy knife. "These were your father's. I know what you think about him and what he did to you, but it was time you had them."

Rainbow placed a hoof, closed the box, and shook her head. "It wasn't about me, Papa. It was about Mom. And I'm not with the Guard. It was just for a little while. Just a week."

"I'm glad to hear that, Rainbow, but these are still yours." He shut the box, and set it on the ground beside her seat. It took a moment for his eyes to return to the show going on outside their window. "Maybe we should talk about something better. Remember when we used to come to the shows? You always knew who was going to win."

Rainbow nodded. "I was too young to bet, but you always bought me the tickets anyway. And then I'd tell you about all the moves, and all the fliers’ signature tricks from those cards you kept buying me…"

"And you'd ask me to teach you how to fly." He chuckled. "It really has been a long time since I knew anything about flying that you didn't."

She looked him in the eye and smiled. "Let's go, Papa."

"What?"

Rainbow hopped to her hooves. "Flying. You and me, like when I was little. Come on."

Silver Lining was shocked. "You want to leave a Wonderbolts show before it's over? What did you do with my Rainbow Dash?"

"Papa, I can out fly the whole team now. Hay, it won't be too long before I'm out there myself. I know you never really liked sitting through these shows. So come on."

Rainbow found herself waiting as Silver Lining pulled on his scarf and jacket. Neither her grandfather's slow and steady movement, nor the wing he put over her shoulder to pull her close had changed in the years since they last spoke. "You're wrong, Rainbow. Maybe I never really cared about the team or the stunts, but seeing you smile that way made me the happiest pony in Equestria."

As the ponies walked out of Cloudosseum and into the gentle snow of Cloudsdale, Rainbow nuzzled her grandfather's neck. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Papa."

- - -

Hearth's Warming Day fell on December 18th that year, and it could not have come on a more beautiful morning. Though the air was brisk and chilled atop the Mountain of Dawn, loving families within their homes had no concern for the chill or the snow.

One small family was gathered in a warm living room, seated on couches and chairs around a roaring hearth. Five ponies smiled at one another over warm cocoa and eggnog, soaking up every minute of pleasant conversation.

"So Shining, what happened to your shoulder?" Nightlight asked his son, taking notice of the subtle white bandage that nearly blended in with the stallion's fur.

"Just something from work," Shining answered, placing a gentle hoof on the itchy wound. He saw no reason to trouble his family with how deep the wound had cut, or how close it had come to stealing away his life.

"You've been busy, haven't you, Shining?" his mother, Twilight Velvet, pressed. "The Crystal Empire and the Guard? I have to wonder how you do it."

The stallion shrugged, before wincing slightly at the motion of his shoulder. His head ducked to the side, nuzzling Cadance briefly. "I've been busy enough dealing with the Guard. She's the one doing all the real work of running the Empire."

"Oh, it's not so bad. Pretty soon it won't even be an Empire anymore; just another Domain of Equestria. I have plenty of ponies helping me out, too." Cadance smiled at her in-laws as her magic set about distributing the presents from beside the fireplace into convenient piles for their recipients. "Why, just a few weeks ago the Tsar of Stalliongrad and his son left. The accountants and bookkeepers tell me Foresight was incredibly helpful in accounting for the thousand years they were missing."

"Oh my," Nightlight began, suppressing a chuckle at perhaps the most boring description of a pony in the world. "He sounds like your kind of stallion, Twilight. Maybe you should try and meet him."

The younger Twilight rolled her eyes at her father and shook her head. "If he's anything like his younger brother, I'm not sure I want anything to do with him that way." She and Shining shared in a brief but knowing glance. "And really, I'd appreciate it if you didn't try and drop hints about my love life, Dad."

"Oh, come on, Twilight. He's only teasing." Cadance turned from her sister-in-law to her husband and smiled softly. "They already got one of their kids married. No need to hurry now."

The little peck on Shining's nose was appreciated, but the awkwardness of anything more intimate in his parents presence caused the bold guardspony to address them. "Dad, why don't you start, since you're oldest?"

"Well, I never…" he responded with an obvious humor, before his magic began to gently undo the wrapping paper. The object within shifted gently to his pressure, curling and bending like fabric.

"Who's it from dear?" Twilight Velvet encouraged with a less than subtle nudge to her husband's midsection.

"Oh, who cares, dear? It will probably be obvious anyway. I have to guess it's from Shining and Cadance, since it clearly isn't a–" his hooves tore away the last of the paper to reveal a "–book."

The younger Twilight placed a hoof over her lips to conceal a slight laugh. "I studied some illusion spells to help Shining on a case this summer, and I figured I'd make use of them."

"Always our little mage," Nightlight answered with a proud smile.

"Archmage in a few months, if what I hear is true," his wife added. "What book is it?"

The stallion levitated a pair of glasses onto his nose and squinted down at the spine of the work. "A Traveler's Guide to Bitaly, Trottingham, and Prance. Thank you very much, Twilight."

"Just wait 'til Mom opens hers," the young mare answered.

Clearly excited, Twilight Velvet grabbed the envelope sitting atop a long box in front of her. It opened with barely any effort, revealing a pair of glossed paper slips. "Are these airship tickets?"

"For your thirty-fifth," Twilight answered. "There are hotel reservations and a few other goodies to go with them. Shining pitched in too."

The guardspony answered her with a wink, keeping quiet the truth that he had covered more than three-quarters of the cost himself. The salary of a librarian was, after all, not much in comparison to that of a Royal Guard Captain and co-regent to an empire.

"You really shouldn't have–"

"Please, Mom, we wanted to." Shining smiled, before his attention was stolen by a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," Cadance answered, hopping up with help from her wings before anypony else could really react. Shining couldn't help but watch her wander off toward the front door of their Canterlot home. Only when she was out of eyesight did he turn back to his packages.

He had chosen a long, thin box from his parents and pulled it up onto the couch when Cadance called to him from the door. "It's for you, Shining. One of your guards."

Shining grumbled incomprehensibly as he rose from his seat. "…better not have to go running down alleys on Hearth's Warming morning." His magic lifted his helmet and cuirass from their place on the armor mannequin he kept beside the door, though both clattered to the floor when he saw who was waiting for him.

"Hey, Shining." The mare's voice was hoarse, but her smile was genuine.

"Cadance, go ahead back in. I won't be long." The unicorn let his wife pass, and then welcomed the 'guardspony' mare into his entryway. Her coat and mane were both cropped incredibly short, and beneath their color, he could see the raw red and char black of painful burns. A heavy coat of rather rough wool covered her body from the cold, but her wings sticking out the sides clearly showed a shortage of healthy feathers.

She glanced over his house with a sort of awe. "They pay you guardsponies this good? Why didn't you just buy me a new wagon?"

"Maybe I liked your company," Shining answered with a soft but gentle smile. "What are you doing here, Going Solo?"

She shook her head. "You say that like you aren't happy to see me. Don't worry, I won't take long. The doctors just let me out. Said I was finally fit to walk again, even if it takes a month or so more for my wings to get back. They called it a Hearth's Warming present."

"It's good to see you're okay," Shining responded.

"Well, mostly. There are a few places on my belly where the coat won't grow back, but that's the worst of it. They said I had you to thank. So that's why I'm here." Then, to Shining's horror, she leaned up to his face and kissed him straight on the lips. "Thanks."

"Solo, you can't–"

"I know," she answered, turning back to the door. "That's why I had to, just once. I figure I'll head out of Canterlot, maybe find myself a place over the ocean. They say Prance is nice in the winters."

"So you're just going to go back?" the guardspony asked. "Selling on the streets?"

"It's what I do, Shining." The mare shook her head. "What else do I have?"

"You'd make a fine guardspony," Shining answered.

Solo turned with a confused glance. "You're joking, right? I can't really fight, and I almost got you killed."

"Fighting isn't what makes a good guardspony, Going Solo. It's about in here." Shining's hoof tapped the center of her chest gently enough to spare her any pain. "And you've got more of it than most recruits I've ever met. I can teach fighting, and detective work, and whatever else you need. But I can't teach that."

She shook her head slowly. "I don't think it's for me, Shining. I should get going. The train for Trottingham leaves in a few minutes."

She turned, and made it halfway out the door when Shining's sight found him forced to speak up. "You sure about that, Solo?"

She paused briefly. "Yeah. Why?"

"I never saw it under your vest before, but your cutie mark says otherwise."

She glanced back at the black spade symbol displayed point up on the thin fur of her flank. "Maybe staring at my good side has you confused, Shining. My special talent is making stupid gambles. You already know my story. It hasn't worked out for me so far."

"I don't think so." Shining stepped forward, walking out the door until he was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the mare. "I think it says you were born to be a guardsponies partner." His magic tugged his amethyst helmet out into the cold, and from within the brim, he produced a pair of playing cards. The Ace of Diamonds, and the Ace of Spades. "My friend Mark Down and I ran off with these from a casino in Neighples when we were still recruits. We kept them in our helmets for good luck." He replaced the Ace of Diamonds within his own helmet, but then held out its pair to the young mare. "We were partners for as long as we had them."

"You want me to have this?"

"Call it a Hearth's Warming present," Shining answered.

"I can see how you hooked a Bitalian Princess," Solo laughed. "Alright, fine, give me two more good reasons why I should join up with the Royal Guard."

Shining paused for a moment in thought, and then turned back to his home. "Because then you can spend Hearth's Warming here with me instead of on a train alone. And because I still have that bottle of Shetland Scotch you made me pay for in August."

Without a word, Going Solo allowed herself to be ushered into Shining Armor's house. The guardspony shut the door on the frigid December morning and accompanied his newest recruit back to meet his family, grateful for hard-won peace and precious company.

The End

I'd like to offer a final special thanks to my pre-readers SatoshiKyu, Roflknief, and DarkPhoenix once again, as well as thanking Kawasakikx125 for his fantastic cover art, and Keyesty for her assistance in translating the Russian language.

The support of these fine individuals as well as readers like you makes writing a real pleasure. I hope you've enjoyed the story (and imagine that, two-hundred thousand words later, you probably have).

If you're looking for more to read, here are a pair of links:

Where Loyalties Lie: Ghosts of the Past: Act 2 of Where Loyalties Lie.

From Stalliongrad With Love: For those of you wondering what ever happened to Red Ink, and whether or not he finally got the punishment he deserved from Celestia, you need look no further than this.

Once more, thank you all. It's been great so far, and the rest of the acts can only go up from here.

-Loyal Liar

Where Loyalties Lie: Honor Guard

by LoyalLiar

I - Assassination

II - Sacrifice

III - Aftershock

IV - Unwelcome

V - Dishonesty

VI - Ignoble

VII - Guilt

VIII - Prestidigitation

IX - Cruelty

X - Chaos

XI - Confessions

XII - Perils

XIII - Prophecies

XIV - Reunions

XV - Betrayal

XVI - Sorrow

Epilogue I - The Incident Report

Epilogue II - The Funeral

Epilogue III - Moving On