Rain

Episode 1 – Rain

Part 1

Rain. Rain is all it takes, to wash away bad memories. At least that was, what the curled up pony lying on the steps in front of an abandoned house thought.
The nights were dark, lately. The streets barren, the wet stone tiles glimmering in the pale bluish light of the moon. Windows were barred, lamps were turned off. The white-furred pony was the only one outside, cold and alone, her teardrops mixing with the rain. She hoped, rain would make her forget.

Nopony dared to go outside during those hours.

They were too afraid of night raids.

The pony’s name was Noir Disharmony and she used to be the princess of Zir’lan. Used to. Now she was nothing but a target of suspicion and doubt. A few weeks ago, before it all happened, Noir was sleeping comfortably in her bed, deep inside the royal palace. Now she was out in the streets, in a different town, away from the Capital. Forced to evacuate, the young unicorn ended up here, at the border of the zir’lanian kingdom, Coltstone, a small and remote town.
She was too scared to seek help, too scared to look the other ponies in the eye. Not after what happened, not after the princess was somehow the only one that survived.

The red, faint, glowing dot in her green eye was her thing now. It had lit up the night it happened, the night the Blitz happened, and it never quite turned itself off since then. In the dark, it shined like a red star, faint, but always present, at least when the princess was alone.

What happened was simple; they weren’t prepared. Nopony was.

Everypony was celebrating 100 years since the founding of the kingdom. There was a big party in the central square. There were fireworks, drinks and lots of ponies. Noir’s father, Lux Disharmony, the beloved king, held a nice speech, about how much the kingdom had accomplished, about how different and yet beautiful Zir’lan was, but most importantly, about the 100 years of peace that kept it running. Ponies applauded. Noir’s mother, Sonya, was talking with the important guests that had arrived. If only she knew...

Noir was standing on the podium, next to her parents, smiling and saluting.

And yet, 100 years of serenity somehow was too good to be true, even though it should've been true.

The princess started noticing something was wrong the moment an important stallion in a uniform approached her dad and whispered something in his ear. The face Lux had after those words... He left the podium in a hurry, not saying anything. When he came back, the square was discretely surrounded by guards.

Noir kept smiling. If only she would’ve stopped smiling and do something. But no, she kept smiling.

Everypony in the square remained quiet and still, however, once the farmer covered in dirt, with an expression of horror on his face and with his legs trembling, rushed in chased by guards, coming from his ranch on the fields, begging them to listen. That’s when they all panicked. The farmer rambled about a large blue flame crashing on his ranch while he was out plowing. Noir didn’t know what that meant, but seeing her parents' expression... It just seemed like they knew what was coming. They ordered everypony to seek shelter, but it was already too late. Ponies looked up in the sky and saw many more blue flames falling, crashing on the fields outside of the Capital in a cloud of dust and smoke.

Then the screams started. At first, distant, but then closer and closer. The guards were drunk and the army was far away from the Capital. Nopony was prepared.

The machines raided the city. Fast, large, wolf-like metal constructs, with clawed tentacles for tails, dotted with spotlights and railguns. They knew exactly where to target their attack, and went straight for the royal palace. It was night, their blinding lights confused the soldiers. The Wolmetahls, as they were called afterwards, surrounded the central square. There were around seven of them, three stayed behind and opened fire on the fleeing public, and the other four came straight for the royal family. Sonya quickly cast a protective shield around Noir and told her to run, but the princess simply couldn’t move. She remained on the podium, shaking, and witnessed the struggle of her parents as they repeatedly tried focusing their laser beams on the metal monstrosities and dodging their claws at the same time. One of the Wolmetahls fired at Noir, but the beam hit the shield and bounced back into the monster’s eye, frying its computers. The princess hid behind the podium, but still watched, with each really close claw-swipe at her parents shuddering violently.
Lux was the first one to get hit. He stuttered, then fell on the stone tile, but not before slaying three of the robots. Sonya got distracted, just for a second, the moment her husband got hit, but she knew it was enough. The last three Wolmetahls focused fire on her, and her shields crumbled one by one. She felt as her magic wasn’t effective anymore, and shortly after fell as well. The Wolmetahls then approached Noir, the last living pony in the square, guns charging. It was all over for the entire royal family of the kingdom... Except Noir. She should’ve been dead, and yet... She wasn’t.

Everything happened very fast, but the princess could remember seeing her parents lying on the stone tile like it was yesterday. In that moment, Noir had felt something break inside of her. A chain, which kept a hidden side of her grounded, a side that she always had but never knew about.

What had happened next was nothing Noir ever understood.

The princess had closed her eyes, waiting for her demise, when she suddenly stopped feeling fear. Instead, she felt something else, something unexplained. As her eyes opened, that wretched red dot turned itself on, for the first time ever. Noir felt like losing control, as her mouth widened into a smile, and that’s when her disharmonious side took over.

The next thing the princess of Zir’lan knew that night, she had drilled clean holes straight through the machines, with the red lightning that came out of her horn. She walked down the stairs of the podium, her ears twitching, and the machines fell one by one in a pool of motor oil as lightning struck them down in an instant.
After she had finished off the rest of the Wolmetahls, the dot faded, but didn’t disappear. Tears flooded her eyes, as she collapsed of exhaustion and guilt. Guilt that she did not help her parents. Guilt that she was the only one still alive in the square, just lying there, until the soldiers arrived and she ran, too scared to be seen.

Just before she fell, she could've sworn she saw herself at the other side of the square.

The news of the attack, the Blitz, spread like a shockwave, as everypony barred themselves in their homes and announced the end of Zir’lan. Raids followed, night after night of distant thumps and sudden flashes, all across Zir'lan; it seemed as if the machines kept coming out of the very ground. The fields constantly glimmered with their spotlights at night.

And that’s how Noir ended up on the streets. It took one night for an entire kingdom to go down, and it went down without much of a fight...

Thus, the raindrops kept flowing down the princess' black and purple mane. The dot was going to turn itself off one day; that day, Noir would forget.

The rain wasn’t helping though.

“Freakin’ ponybots are behind this, I swear, if I ever see one again I’ll run it over!”

Noir raised her head and looked around, to see where the quiet chatter was coming from. Not far from her down the street, one of those standard issue ponybots that were being manufactured to help with rebuilding was sifting through the rubble of a house that had been destroyed during the raid from the other night. Noir forgot what she was thinking about for a second, but only because she thought she had heard the robot talk. She placed her head onto her front hooves again and closed her eyes.

“They always tell me I’m special, but nopony thought about giving me better assignments than this. I could be a soldier.”

Noir was sure she wasn’t dreaming. The standard issue mark 3 ponybot on the other side of the street was talking. The princess stood up, shivering, and approached the red pony-looking machine. The ponybot turned around on its tracks and jumped.

“Holy mother of screws and bolts, you scared me, young lady!”

Noir’s hoof remained in midair.

“You are talking”, she said. “How are you talking?”

“Ugh”, the bot mumbled then turned around and distanced himself away from Noir.

“No, wait!” She shouted and closed the distance. “What are you doing in the rain?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? What any other standard ponybot does. Rubble-ing.”

“But you don’t seem like standard to me.”

“Aw, thanks. Look, lady, I heard that sentence three times today. I really need to get back to work.”

“You’re going to rust out here”, the princess argued.

“Better rust than get sent to the scrapyard for not doin’ my job, right? They have compressors there, and my tracks get stuck at the thought of those monstrosities. After all, there’s rubble every night to clean, doesn’t matter if it’s raining or not.”

The ponybot expected Noir to leave, but seeing the look on her face... She went through some flummery, he thought, and approached her:

“Look, I’m sorry if I was blunt. I’m Trackhead. What’s your name?”

“Noir”, the princess said quietly.

“Wait. There’s only one Noir I know and she disappeared after the Blitz in the Capital. Are you new around these parts?”

Noir felt anger, but only for a second. Then, all she felt was sadness.

“I... Yes, I’m new.”

“Where are you from?”

“Uhh... Equestria”, she replied after a short pause.

Trackhead lowered his head.

“You are a lucky pony, then”, he said, “Very lucky. Why in the name of Disharmony would you come to Zir’lan?!”

“I... I guess I got lost. I don’t really know.”

“Well, you should leave. It’s not safe for you here. Leave as fast as you can, and tell your ponies to stay away. And don’t stray too far into the fields.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“I don’t know, you’re a talking robot. Shouldn’t you be kept out of the rain?”

“Ah, yes, the rain. I’m fine, young lady. Thanks for the concern, though. Here, let me give you this:”

A small hatch opened in Trackhead’s chest and a robotic arm handed Noir a flashlight. The flashlight accidentally turned itself on, throwing light in Noir’s face. She took the torch, but noticed that Trackhead was shocked to the point of stuck tracks.

“N...Noir, Disharmony?! Your majesty?! Wha...”

Noir was already galloping away, but Trackhead revved his engines and took off after her.

“Wait!” He shouted. “How?! Stop running, please, I’m... I’ll run out of fuel and die!”

Noir paused. Trackhead stopped near her.

“Is that true?” Noir asked. “If you run out of fuel, you die?”

“Uh, no. I don’t even run on fuel. But don’t go away, please!”

“Fine”, she mumbled and laid on the wet grass. They both realized, they were quite far away from the city now.

“We should go back”, Trackhead said lightly. “So, you’re Noir? The princess? How did you survive? I mean, ahem, I’m so happy you’re alive! I mean... I... It’s good to see you’re fine. For some reason, everpony said you were... You know...”

“I stayed away from ponies”, Noir said, then sighed. “I was too scared, of their reaction, of the fact I am the only one that survived...”

Trackhead became sad.

“I’m sorry”, he said.

“It’s fine. Actually it’s not; but there’s nothing you can do.”

Trackhead was about to leave, when he suddenly remembered.

“Actually, there might be something.”

Noir stood up and shook the water off of her.

“What?” She asked.

“My father. Actually, haha, my creator. A crazy guy, doesn’t know how to tie his shoelaces, but he does know a lot about the Wolmetahls. He studies them. You’re a princess, you can actually do something, so you might want the information he holds. We need to pay him a visit. That is... If the ponybot office doesn’t turn me to scrap metal first.”

“We’ll go tomorrow. Right now we shouldn’t be out here”, Noir said, then listened carefully. She thought she had heard something. They both started going back to the city, but the princess wasn’t feeling comfortable. It was as if... Something was following them. She looked behind, but the night was too dark for her to see much. Suddenly, a thump alerted both of them. Noir gasped and quickly hid herself in the tall grass, but Trackhead wasn’t fast enough. He was blinded as spotlights turned themselves on, pointed at him, and Noir could see the Wolmetahl that had climbed down the hill and that was behind them the whole time. It growled and slowly approached Trackhead, whose tracks were stuck of fear. Right when Noir wanted to jump out and help, one of the clawed tentacles picked the ponybot up and the laser scanner above the Wolmetahl’s eye measured him top to tracks; however, after a close inspection, the horrifying machine dropped the ponybot, turned its lights off and left, consumed by the darkness of the night.

Noir slowly stood up, unsure of the monster’s departure, and approached Trackhead, who was tipped on the side.

“What was that about?!” She whispered to him, then levitated him back on tracks.

Trackhead was relieved and cramped at the same time. He spoke quietly:

“I have no idea. Can we just go back to the city now?”

“I approve of that intention”, Noir said, looking behind to make sure the thing was gone.

However, the Wolmetahl knew very well about Noir being somewhere in the grass. It was trying to find a good time to strike, not risking to end up like his friends during the Blitz. It knew Noir had more power than met the eye, and scanned the other to make sure he wasn’t a threat as well. Now, it was a matter of surprise.

In the meantime, at the edge of Coltstone, commissar Storm Cloud, his second-in-command QB and a squadron of pegasi were waiting.

Storm was a young pegasus and not the actual commissar; he was assigned to that position when the official one disappeared the night before. Everypony questioned the decision, simply because Storm didn’t exactly look like an army officer, and ponies said he didn’t have what it takes. Still, he could control clouds, but that was a trait of his necklace rather than his own skill. He had a rough day, no doubt. So rough, in fact, he created himself a raincloud and let it rain over him... To relax.

He didn’t notice that despite the already present rain outside, he also still had that cloud over his head and the soldiers were trying not to laugh too hard about it.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” QB asked him, pointing at the bags of electromagnetic webs on their backs.

“I hope it will”, Storm replied and finally banished the cloud above him. Maybe he knew it was there and just wanted to be double-rained.

“Well that’s not exactly comforting. This crazy scientist of yours... Does he know what he’s talking about?”

“I hope he doe... Yeah.”

QB wanted to start ranting about an experimental plan that could get them all killed, but he noticed movement on the fields.

“There!” He shouted, "commissar, order your soldiers down at the cannon to get ready.”

“No, wait, I don’t think it’s a Wolmetahl”, said Storm and raised a hoof. “Looks more like... A ponybot and a civilian.”

“Great, that’s exactly what we need right now. Civilians in the way. Hey! Lady! What in the hay are you doing?!”

“Hold your fire!” Noir shouted back. “There’s no Wolmetahls around!”

“I wish that was true”, the officer mumbled.

Noir and Trackhead were just about to reach Storm Cloud and his pegasi, when, suddenly, jumping from behind them in front, the Wolmetahl from before came from nowhere. Noir screamed as the thing lifted its laser guns and pointed them at her.

Storm Cloud was stuck. He wanted to give the order, but the words never came out of his mouth. Thankfully, his second-in-command pushed him aside and yelled at the cannon crew to fire. The laser struck the Wolmetahl and propelled it on the side, but the thing stood back up. It didn’t target the cannon, as if it wasn’t even there, it just kept going for Noir and Noir only. It knew, she was the only real threat. It knew what its mission was, as it came just for her. It didn’t matter the cannon was going to kill it; it had a command to execute. Thus, it charged its guns again, pointing them at the princess, but it never fired, as the electromagnetic webs were dropped over it by the pegasi. The thing’s weapon systems were deactivated and it crashed to the ground, immobile.

Noir stood up, covered in dirt, as was Trackhead. Storm landed near them, together with the rest of the pegasi.

“Are you okay?” The commissar asked Noir.

“She’s fine, but you aren’t”, QB said from behind them. “You failed to give one simple order, and this lady would’ve been dead if it wasn’t for me.”

Storm Cloud sighed and turned around, then said:

“Fine, enjoy the rank of commissar, then. It’s what you really wanted, isn’t it?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” The officer shouted, but Storm ignored him. He created a cloud and showered Noir with rain, to clean her of dirt. Noir was once again... Wet.

“Noir Disharmony? You’re alive? Thank the gods!” He shouted and wanted to hug the princess, but changed his mind. “I’m sorry”, he continued, “that I was so weak and didn’t give the order. There’s ponies more suited for giving orders than I am, but we’re very short-staffed. So you survived the Blitz. That... Actually means a lot more than you might think. We have a leader now. We thought we didn’t, but it seems we were wrong.”

“I guess...” Noir sighed, lowering her head.

She wasn’t a leader. She was an unstable unicorn that could turn into a killing machine any second.

“Hey, don’t be sad, we will win this war”, Storm said, looking in Noir’s eyes.

Noir looked back. He was a light-gray-furred pony, with a black-and gold mane and tail, and green, deep eyes. He wasn’t confident in his strength, but he had a good soul.

“Yeah, we will win”, she said, then, after a couple moments of staring at the “sleeping” Wolmetahl, she left.

The princess arrived back at the abandoned house, but this time she didn’t sleep in the rain. She entered the old house and curled up on a pillow, then lighted the fireplace with a spark. The family that lived there had fled the kingdom once the Wolmetahls came, along with thousands other ponies. The nation was falling apart, but there was somepony that could do something, and that somepony was her.

Trackhead stayed behind, in the rain, his ponybot ethics dictating him to not enter the houses of ponies that didn’t hire him.

“Well, nails”, he said to himself out loud, “Look, Track, you screwed up again. She doesn’t care about you, and you didn’t do your job and almost got killed. Great.”

The wooden door opened, with Noir standing in the frame.

“Get inside and shut up. You weren’t supposed to be talking in the first place.”

Part 2

The next day, Coltstone was foggy and quiet. The humid air formed webs of vapor that floated, carried away by the chilly wind, and sun-rays that broke through the barrier of clouds lit them up in a golden aura. Usually, during the day, streets weren’t so barren, but the mere presence of the fog made everypony just stay inside and look out their windows, dreaming of the peaceful times that had come to past. Still, they managed to get some sleep that night, something that didn’t happen very often.

The town looked even worse during the day than it did during the night; a lot of houses were empty, some scorched, some just piles of rubble. Most of their residents had moved to the fortress on top of the hill, which became the new town center, hospital and home of an increasing number of ponies. Surrounding the town, a quick wall had been put together by ponybots. Now, the defense was carried out by civilians; the actual soldiers had left the town to help with the resistance at Sector 0, the only region of the Capital that wasn’t evacuated, a safe haven where the new regent and his makeshift cardboard administration had setup camp. The only authority figures left in town were Storm Cloud, QB, and a disorderly bunch of poorly-trained resistance volunteers, all the strong stallions in the town having enrolled in their crooked lines.

It was silence though, and the ponies were enjoying it, while it lasted.

Noir was also looking out the window, but she wasn’t dreaming about the past, but rather thinking about the future. What was she supposed to do? She was alone, for the first time ever. Alone, in a world that frowned upon seeing her. Zir’lan was falling apart. Should the ex-princess just barge into the regent’s office and declare her status as the heir to the throne? Would they follow her? She could show them her real power, lead them with an iron hoof. Lead what? Smoldering ruins? Was she supposed to just strike all the Wolmetahls with lightning and call it a day? It probably wasn’t that easy, after all, knowing how unstable her disharmonious side was. She needed help, but there was probably nopony that could give it to her.

Noir had a dream that night. She couldn’t remember exactly what she had dreamed about, but it had unsettled her beyond words. The whole thing just didn’t make any sense. Why would they not confirm her death before assigning a regent to rule? Why would they not look for her?

The dream had something to do with snow. Why snow, of all things? In the middle of autumn?

Noir was pulled out of her thoughts when Trackhead, who had left early to help with reinforcing the wall, barged inside the house, apparently excited about something.

“Noir!” He shouted. “You need to see this!”

“See what?” Noir asked and turned around facing him.

“An emissary from Sector 0 has arrived, at least that’s what the other ponies are saying. He’s here to see the Wolmetahl we took down last night. You should go meet him.”

The princess wanted to go, but stopped on the steps in front of the house, hesitant.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea that he sees me, Track, let alone talk to me”, she said.

Noir didn’t have such a great feeling about meeting a pony from Sector 0. You can’t stop gossip.

“Come on, Noir, this is your chance! Just go talk with the guy”, Trackhead insisted.

Noir watched the fog roll by for a couple moments, then sighed.

“Fine, I’ll talk with him”, she mumbled.

They approached the crowd that had formed around the stallion in the uniform, all the ponies throwing questions at him, but it didn’t seem like the emissary was there to chat. The soldiers surrounding him were pushing the townsfolk away, yelling. Noir kept her distance, but she managed to catch a glimpse of the emissary and her heart skipped a beat. She was certain. It was the same stallion that came to her father that night, to tell him something, the night the Blitz happened.

The princess gently pushed aside the other ponies with her magic, receiving obfuscated interjections in return, then stepped right in front of the stallion. The emissary remained still, then raised a hoof to stop the soldiers that wanted to grab Noir.

“Step aside”, the stallion said sharply. “I’m here on important royal business.”

Noir stuttered. That wasn’t the reaction she was expecting.

“Seriously? That’s how you greet your king’s daughter? Where are your manners, officer?!” She said.

The emissary let out a short “heh” and said:

“The king’s dead and so is the entire Disharmony family. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“What?! You don’t recognize me? I’m Noir! Noir Disharmony!”

“Oh really? That’s odd. I just saw Noir in Sector 0 the other day. It was at her funeral.”

The soldiers laughed. The crowd was confused as to what was going on.

“How dare you? My family died in the most gruesome way one could imagine, and this is how you treat me? This is how you treat the last member of the royal family you swore to protect?!” The princess shouted.

“Well how did you escape, Noir?” The stallion quickly asked, looking down at the princess. “Care to tell us, why you ran away when you realized, you were the only pony that survived? Maybe you... Snapped. Maybe it was an accident, and you killed all those poor ponies. What happened, huh?”

The crowd suddenly became silent and everypony turned their eyes on the princess, all of them showing suspicion, all of them frowning.

Noir felt boiling anger choking her. It was unacceptable. She went through so much flummery just so the stallion that used to look after the family could throw more mud at her and accuse her, in front of everypony.

“Do you really want to know what happened?” She suddenly asked him on a lower, threatening tone. Her red dot glimmered faintly.

“Noir, don’t”, Trackhead said from behind her. “Let’s just let the pony do his job here and leave.”

“Go on, I’m more than curios”, the stallion said, ignoring the ponybot and grinning.

“Hey!”

Storm Cloud landed near them, breaking the ice. Noir felt a bit safer, now that he was there, but she didn’t take her eyes off the emissary.

“What’s going on here?” The pegasus asked, looking at Noir, then at the emissary.

“Oh, good, you’re here, commissar”, the latter said.

“No, that would be QB. He’s waiting for you at the fortress. What’s this about?” Storm asked.

“QB? Never heard of him. Did you get demoted?”

Storm Cloud paused. The stallion was getting on his nerves already and was avoiding the question.

“I trust you have business to attend”, the pegasus said. “As I said, QB is waiting for you.”

“Yes, I do”, the stallion replied. “I don’t even know why I got sidetracked. Ah, it was this poor lady here. She thinks she’s the princess of Zir’lan. That’s just sad.”

Storm wanted to leave, but turned around.

“She really is, and I would watch my tongue if I were you”, he said through his teeth.

“Oh, I must’ve hit a sensitive chord. My apologies.”

“Shut the hay up!”

The last words that came from Storm were shouted. He quickly softened up afterwards and clenched his jaw in expectation. The emissary remained calm, but his voice cracked as he said:

“Take that back.”

Noir sighed and closed her eyes. She exploded:

“Cut it OUT you two! We are at war. We cannot focus ourselves on petty things! The Wolmetahls are out there, and they’re getting closer to our families every day! Emissary, I am the princess of Zir’lan. It may seem weird and suspicious, and I understand why you’re acting like this, but there’s really no time for us to argue. The reason I wanted to talk to you was that I wanted to know one thing.”

“What”, the emissary asked phlegmatically.

“What did you say to my father the night he died?”

The other remained quiet for a few moments. He threw Storm Cloud a venomous look and said:

“I told him... That the gates were open.”

Noir shook. A tear fell on the stone tile. She knew now, and she regretted knowing.

“Why were the gates open, officer?” She asked lightly, close to the point of crying.

The stallion sighed. His blindfold of ignorance and prejudgment fell off and he finally recognized the pony before him. It was princess Noir, and he accepted that.

“Because...” He said, “because we left them open.”

Noir lowered her head. She felt warm tears running down her cheeks.

“Look”, the emissary continued, “it was an accident. I’m sorry. I lost my wife in the Blitz, that’s why I was such an ass. I just couldn’t let go... Of the fact you survived and she... Didn’t. Still, that doesn’t change anything. I apologize for my ignorance.”

“It’s fine”, the princess whispered. She wiped her tears off and asked:

“Could you help me with something?”

The stallion frowned.

“What is it?” He said.

“I need to get inside the Capital. Can you get me past the soldiers?”

“The Capital? You mean, Sector 0?”

“No. The lock-down zone.”

The emissary looked around discouraged. He stuttered and said:

“I don’t think I can do that...”

“Please. It’s important”, Noir said.

“I’ll try, but don’t expect anything. Let me do my job here and then we’ll go.”

“Thank you”, Noir said and backed away slowly to let the convoy go forward.

The princess then thought about what the emissary said about the night of the Blitz and started sobbing quietly. The gates had been left open, that was it. If they would’ve been closed... They would’ve had time to evacuate, to muster the royal guard... And her parents... They might’ve still been alive.

Storm Cloud approached her, but just couldn’t find anything to say to her. “I understand what you feel” was plain stupid and a horrendous insult, “I’m sorry” was what everypony said but most didn’t mean, and “Everything will be alright” was probably a fat lie. He thus said nothing, but instead gave her a hug.

The emissary’s name was Aendel Scroll. He was one blunt unicorn, one with a hat through which his horn had punched a hole, a sectorial air surrounding him.

The Blitz had left a scar on his heart like many others; it was funny, wasn’t it, how he then became more and more suspicious and paranoid by the day, surrounded in Sector 0 by ponies all wanting Noir executed or in prison. He wasn’t sure himself, what had happened that night. He had left to round up the royal guard and came back when it was too late.

What was he even thinking? Noir was dangerous. Why did he even let her go, he should’ve arrested her on the spot. And now she wanted to get in the Capital, closer to their safe haven, closer to his majesty, the regent... Why? Still, he wasn’t sure about anything. After all, what Sector 0 said was always half a lie.

The whole thing was off, Aendel thought, the Capital closing its gates, denying any more ponies from entering... The regent, seemingly stupid but somehow still on top of the situation...

But the weirdest thing of all... Aendel could’ve sworn that he saw the princess in Sector 0, on multiple occasions, wearing an eye-patch. Either he was going insane or there were two Noirs, and the latter made as much sense as a pony drowning in air.

“Sir Scroll, I presume?”

Aendel woke up from his thoughts and nodded at the guard. He looked up; the fortress was quite large. It had an inner courtyard, where the Wolmetahl was held. The guards opened the gate decorated with the Zir’lanian banner to allow Aendel to enter, and the emissary reached the courtyard, his soldiers staying behind near the gate.

QB was leaning against the Wolmetahl's cage, in his new commissar uniform, with a shining sword strapped to his hip.

“Well, I’ve been waiting for quite a while now”, QB said, raising an eyebrow.

“I had some other things to deal with”, Aendel replied. “So, this is the Wolmetahl? It’s... It’s quite... Large.”

The emissary barely kept his cool noticing the monster as it growled. It was occasionally slapping its tentacles against the walls of the cage, being otherwise immobile due to the webs and chains.

“Oh don’t worry, it’s harmless right now. As long as you don’t get too close to the cage, that is”, QB said grinning. “I guess you ponies from Sector 0 never saw these up-close, huh? Never tasted their motor oil after emptying a railgun in them?”

Aendel threw him a look and saw hostility in the commissar’s eyes.

“The fact Sector 0 is an impenetrable fortress of a city doesn’t mean we don’t fight the Wolmetahls”, he said to QB.

“Oh I bet. How many did you kill, eh?” The other one insisted.

The emissary didn’t answer. Instead, he took the files that were lying on a table and started analyzing the contents, namely the electromagnetic web blueprints.

“These are the blueprints, yes?” He asked the commissar, but the other one wouldn’t drop the initial question.

“That’s what I thought”, QB said, lifting a leg. His hoof had markings written in motor oil, keeping count of killed Wolmetahls. Aendel could see three black lines, the last one still fresh.

“Admirable, but I find it hard to believe you killed three all by yourself”, the emissary said, continuing to study the papers.

QB’s grin turned into a wry slit.

“How would you know? You royal snobs never use your horn for anything besides opening doors. I don’t even have a horn. I fly above them and drop myself onto their backs, then I cut their tentacles one by one and use their own guns to punch holes in their heads.”

"Good for you", Aendel mumbled.

QB suddenly asked, continuing to grin imperceptibly:

“Why are you here, huh?”

The emissary turned around, facing him.

“What do you mean?” He asked, frowning. “I’m here for these”, he continued, pointing his muzzle at the papers.

“No, that’s not it”, QB said, and approached the emissary. “You’re here for something else, aren’t you? Who sent you?”

Aendel's look turned aggressive.

“I assure you, commissar, I was sent by his majesty, the regent. I don’t understand where you’re going with...”

“Listen to me, Aendel, is it? I was in Sector 0. I know what you and your regent are planning.”

“Oh, and, in the name of Disharmony, what could we possibly plan?”

“Don’t act foolish. You’re here because Noir is here. Do you work for her?”

“As I said, I work for the crown. Noir is no longer the crown so I do not work for her. Can we please discuss these blueprints now?”

“Sure we can. First you’re going to tell me why Noir is not in prison, if you don’t work for her.”

“I don’t have to tell you anything”, the emissary said through his teeth. “Where are you getting at? Continue like this and I’ll arrest you.”

“Why? Don’t you agree she should be locked up?”

Aendel threw the papers back on the table.

“These are fake”, he said, then approached QB. The two ponies were now inches away from each other.

“I have very influential friends, commissar”, he continued, “and they’re all very eager to have a chat with noise-makers like you. Now, I do not know what you’re trying to accomplish, but I’m warning you, I will arrest you if you continue like this. Where are the blueprints?”

“Influential friends, you say? Like Noir Disharmony?” QB said.

“Leave Noir out of this.”

“Why? She might as well be the one behind all this. How do you know she didn’t kill all those ponies that night?”

“That’s a stupid accusation, even for you. Noir lost her parents, her friends and her home in the Blitz.”

“Yeah well, accidents happen. Besides, your friends back in Sector 0 seem to think the same way. There’s bounty-hunters after Noir, fathers that lost their family in the Blitz that want her dead. You would understand, it just looked bad.”

Aendel wanted to argue, but he thought about all that he heard back home and he asked:

“Do you think the same way?”

QB paused. He grinned and whispered:

“Oh I am sure about it. Why else would she hide?”

“Because there’s killers after her?” the emissary said laughing.

“No no, you got it wrong. Why else would she hide her eye? You know... The one that sometimes glows?”

Aendel shook. All those times he saw the princess in Sector 0, or thought he saw her, she was wearing an eye-patch. The emissary tilted his head to the side and clenched his jaws.

“She wasn’t hiding her eye today, though.”

QB’s eyes flashed.

“Wait, you saw her?”

“She was wandering on the streets...”

“Where?”

“Here, in Coltsto...”

The emissary stopped, then backed away slowly, signaling his soldiers to approach.

“Why are you asking?” He said.

QB placed his hoof on his hip, near the handle of the sword.

“It’s just that... We both saw her in Sector 0, didn’t we?” He quickly answered. “Yet, she’s here now.”

“I guess she came here... For some reason.” Aendel said, and with each word felt angrier. QB was maybe not saying something too far off from the truth...

“I just had a brilliant idea”, QB suddenly said, “Why don’t you arrest Noir so you can ask her some questions? She might be using illegal teleportation magic, after all... You wouldn’t want to let that continue, would you?”

QB spoke louder, so that the soldiers and everypony else around could hear. Aendel felt cornered.

“Or... Even better! I’ll arrest her, as the commissar of Coltstone. I’ll report to you whatever I find out”, the commissar continued.

The emissary felt drops of sweat going down his neck. He couldn’t... He promised her he would take her to the Capital... But he had no choice. His authority only allowed him to arrest, not dictate who gets arrested. After all, he was also conflicted about Noir both being in Sector 0 and in Coltstone seemingly at the same time... Teleportation magic was the only logical explanation.

“Am I sensing hesitation on your part, emissary? Come on, Sir Scroll, we both know Noir is as suspicious as a pony with a raincoat on a sunny day! She’s no longer a princess, but a suspect in all of Zir’lan and a reason for ponies to be insecure. You would just be doing the population a favor.”

“You’re sick, Noir lost her family and you want to ruin her life more”, Aendel threw him. “Where are those blueprints?”

“Oh yes, excuse me, Sir Scroll, I have them right here”, QB said and pulled a couple papers out of a pocket, hoofing them over to the emissary.

“Why did you give me forgeries?” The emissary asked aggressively.

“Oh but please do forgive me, I must’ve switched them around. I need those copies for the resistance volunteers.”

Aendel looked at the Wolmetahl once more and then left.

It took him a walk all the way back to the city gates to realize his huge mistake.

He felt it; he felt it going up his spine and triggering every alarm in his head, the shiver of realization, as he rushed back to the fortress only to find the cage of the Wolmetahl empty and all the guards dead. Of course, QB wasn’t among the bodies.

Noir was wandering about aimlessly at the edge of town, alone, just to clear her head. Trackhead had left to continue the work at the wall. The autumn leaves were falling around her like the raindrops the night before, and it was silence, the wind howl being the only thing stirring up the air.
She was waiting for Aendel to finish his work, so that he could finally take her to the Capital. The scientist Trackhead spoke about was really the only pony that could help them at that point...

Noir continued walking, passing the last few houses on the street she was on.

The silence was the only thing that saved her.

She heard everything, the rustling on the roof of a house behind her, the metal clicks, the light thumps...
It happened very fast, the moment Noir jumped to the side, avoiding three large claws that then hit the stone tile with a horrifying sound. She turned around and saw the Wolmetahl, slowly climbing off the house and jumping in front of the princess, tentacles arching forward and its mouth opening, revealing three sets of curved air-cutting-sharp teeth. The princess backed away in fear, not knowing what to do. She screamed for help, but there was nopony around.

Then she felt it. She looked the Wolmetahl in its eye, and suddenly... She felt light-headed, the same way she had felt the night of the Blitz. Her eye lighting up as her dot started burning with the flame of sorrow, she knew what was happening.
The monster growled, circling her like a beast circling its prey. But this prey...

This prey was a wolf dressed like a sheep.

The Wolmetahl made its move; its tentacles swung high up in the air, preparing to strike with the sharp razors attached to them.

Noir hadn’t moved a hoof.

Coltstone lit up red as the lightning coming from the princess' horn lunged at the Wolmetahl like a cobra, punching a clean hole through it and throwing it through the air. Its tentacles swung wildly, before falling to the ground, motor oil pooling under it.

Noir was shaking, as she lied down, feeling sick. Her head flooded with flashing images of the night of the Blitz, her parents, the square... And the dream. She suddenly remembered what she dreamed about; she saw herself... And yet it was somepony else. Somepony very similar, and yet her opposite. It was the same pony the princess saw the night of the Blitz after it happened, standing there, looking at her.

Her name was Snow.

“Hey Noir. How’s it going?”
The princess looked around, blinking as she switched back to her normal self and saw QB pointing a crossbow at her. She wanted to say something, she wanted to fight back... But she couldn’t. She felt a small dart hitting her neck and everything went black.

Double Black & White

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Episode 2 – Double Black & White

“The Disharmony family will remain in the history of Zir’lan as the first true royal family since the Founding, which ultimately had all of its members except one fall as martyrs in the Blitz attack on 7^th of October, 100 A.F (After Founding), the national birthday and the 100-year celebration, respectively. The last remaining member, Noir Disharmony, originally thought to be deceased, was later found to have fled to the border town of Coltstone. Suspicion regarding her hiding led to the former princess of Zir’lan being wanted by Sector 0, the last remaining resistance outpost, but there are reports of her actually being in Sector 0, despite the fact others claim to have seen her in Coltstone around the same time. The princess’ intentions are as unclear as her role in the Blitz, however the regent has denied any investigation attempts and refuses to comment on the matter. Noir Disharmony still being alive does not overshadow the fact that the Blitz and the overall war of fear with the Wolmetahls is an event that will go down in the books as the biggest tragedy Equis has ever seen, and a reminder to all of ponykind that outer space, the presumed origin of the Wolmetahls, can hide fatal secrets. The Wolmetahl invasion will most likely lead to the end of a once full of potential and very young kingdom, Zir’lan, but it also definitely poses a huge threat to all of Equis. Is this the End of ponykind?”

- Zir’lanian News Office, issue 115, page 1, paragraph 1, Biggest threat yet

Sector 0 was not large, even though its huge amber walls and chrome gates gave you the impression it was. It had the population of the entire Capital, compressed into a city barely bigger than Coltstone. Strongly fortified, it was the only place that had not been breached by Wolmetahls and the only safe city left in the kingdom.

Yet its small size meant, if you were to walk around the marble streets on a nice day, most of the ponies in town would see you at least once.

The white-furred pony knew this. She tried keeping the walks outside limited, and got used to a lot of the population yelling and throwing things at her, some even going further, but getting instantly arrested.

The pony looked exactly like Noir Disharmony, besides wearing an eye-patch and having a funny voice, and entire Sector 0 took it for granted that she was the actual princess of Zir’lan.

Nopony ever asked themselves how it was possible, that Noir was in two places at once, but the answer would’ve been very simple. The pony in Sector 0 looked just like the princess, but definitely wasn’t her, and yet... Yet she sat on her throne in the new royal palace, with banners on the walls picturing a different logo from the actual Zir’lanian one, one with a Wolmetahl eye flanked by swords.

Guarding her were two Wolmetahls, standing still, as if they were ordered that way.

The pony had a blank stare, patting her hoof onto the crystal the throne was made from and thinking.

A stallion dressed in a red and gold uniform with the same logo on his arm and a tail made of two long, curved blades, approached the pony on the throne, bowed and said:

“Your highness, we have... Bad news, but also good ones...”

“And now you’re going to ask me which are the ones I want to hear first”, the pony said, with an even and a bit thick voice.

“The experiment was successful, Noir has proven her power once again. The Wolmetahl is dead. However, QB failed to capture her,” the stallion continued.

“I’m not surprised,” the pony whispered. “What happened?”

“The regent got his tail in our business again. One of his sectorials, Aendel Scroll, got to Noir first. QB had no choice but to run away.”

“I’ll deal with the regent. As for Noir, she will come to us.”

“You think she will actually try and find the scientist?” The stallion asked.

“I’m sure about it. Now, go, you have work to do.”

The stallion in the uniform wanted to leave, but the pony quickly added:

“And... Demoon, I trust you will handle the revolution well, yes?”

Razorwing Demoon turned around and said, on a lower tone and with an imperceptible smile:

“It will be done, my queen.”

As far as the authorities from Sector 0 were concerned, the events that took place in Coltstone were unclear. Exactly how the captured Wolmetahl managed to escape its containment was a mystery. Why it went straight for Noir after escaping was also an unexplained thing.

As far as Aendel was concerned, however, the events couldn’t have been clearer, even though when he said his theory out loud it sounded less plausible than a mare having a square muzzle.

QB was obviously working for somepony, and even though it sounded nuts, Aendel was certain he had let out the Wolmetahl and even maybe sent it to kill Noir. How could he prove it though? And who shot Noir, was it also the commissar’s doing?

All those questions were going off like fireworks in the emissary’s head, as he was trying to piece together what had happened, sitting at the table in Noir’s abandoned house. Storm Cloud sat at the other end, even more confused. He wasn’t there when the discussions between QB and Aendel took place, as he had to train resistance volunteers during that time. The two stallions weren’t talking yet; they didn’t trust each other enough.

Noir was sleeping like a log in another room, still knocked out from the tranquilizer the commissar had shot her with.

The silence from before that had encompassed the morning was now interrupted by shouting and exclamations, as the townsfolk gathered around the slain Wolmetahl and were arguing as to who had killed it and how it had died.

Storm tapped his hoof onto the table, coughed and finally broke the silence, although talking quietly:

“You saw the red flash too, right?”

Aendel looked at him raising an eyebrow and said:

“Yes, I did.”

“You know what that means, right?” Storm said even quieter.

“That Noir is dangerous? Yeah.”

Storm frowned.

“That’s not what I meant,” the pegasus argued. “She really has the power to kill Wolmetahls. It just proves she’s our only hope, doesn’t it?”

“It doesn’t prove anything,” Aendel said sharply. “All it does is tell us that Noir is a weapon. An unstable one.”

“Unstable my flank! She killed that Wolmetahl because she wanted to, it wasn’t some coincidence or an accident,” the pegasus whispered.

”How would you know?” Aendel said, looking out the window through the blinds.

“What other explanation do you have? The Wolmetahl just rolled over and died because Noir made a cute face or what?”

“I’m not saying she doesn’t have a hidden power, but the keyword here is “hidden”.”

“The gossip from Sector 0 really got to your head, didn’t it?” Storm said, tapping his hoof harder.

“What? No, actually I never believed their lies. It’s just a series of events that really make you question her integrity.”

“Like what?”

“Her teleporting between Sector 0 and here?”

Storm threw his hooves in the air and said:

“You can’t prove that!”

“But it’s the only explanation. She’s using illegal magic to do business in the Capital without us noticing. What kind of business... I’ll find out.”

“Stop it,” Storm overlapped him. “What you’re doing is painting an image of Noir that just makes things worse. There’s already enough suspicion pointed at her. Did you actually see Noir in Sector 0?”

“I did, and not just once. She was hiding her... Special... Eye.”

“Have you considered that maybe the pony in Sector 0 is not Noir?”

Aendel started laughing lightly. Storm threw him an unfriendly look and laid on his back.

“Oh really? Well, I never knew there were two white-furred princesses with black and purple manes and different eyes, my bad,” the emissary said, still laughing.

“Maybe it’s a pony that looks just like the princess but isn’t actually her!” Storm insisted.

“That sounds oddly specific,” Aendel suddenly said, becoming serious.

“What, you’re suspecting me as well now? Why are you even still here?”

“I have to conduct an investigation as to who attacked Noir,” Aendel mumbled.

“And? Who’s your suspect?”

“QB, but this is the commissar we’re talking about, so I won’t make any drastic moves regarding him yet. He disappeared. I announced him to other cities nearby, but for some reason the regent denies my orders, he acts as if a traitor on the loose is no matter of concern.”

“QB? The commissar? What did he tell you at the fortress?”

“Not much, but he definitely wanted Noir arrested, and he said he would do it.”

“Well, there you go, you have your shooter.”

“Not necessarily.”

“Also why would the regent deny you the investigation?”

“I have no clue. It’s all foggy when it comes to the regent... And whoever might be behind him.”

“Behind him? Are you talking about Noir again?” Storm said sighing.

“Yes, but just hear me out! Maybe... Just maybe, Noir is behind this all. She teleports to Sector 0 frequently and don’t say it’s not true because there’s enough proof, she acts like she’s still princess... And maybe she really is, and she might be giving the regent orders and using him as a puppet.”

“That’s oddly specific,” Storm said smiling.

Aendel remained still for a second.

“Fair enough,” he said, “I don’t need your trust and you don’t need mine. Right now, Noir has two options. Either I arrest her or...”

“Or?”

“I feel like arresting Noir isn’t really a rational choice right now, just because QB wanted me to do so and he seems corrupt. I don’t know what the other option is, honestly.”

Storm looked down for a moment and then said:

“How about you keep your promise?”

Aendel frowned and tilted his head forwards.

“What do you mean?”

“Get Noir to the Capital. It’s what she asked you to do.”

“But I didn’t promise her that.”

“Doesn’t matter. You gave her hope. Don’t take that away from her just because of a theory. After all, you’re just doing what the regent says; not conducting an investigation. You wouldn’t go around arresting ponies without one now, would you?”

Aendel smiled with half a mouth.

“I suppose I could keep an eye on her business once we get there... Overall, excepting the obvious threat of entering the lock-down zone there really is no better course of action,” the emissary said and became silent. Storm entered a blank stare phase, sighing. He felt the need to check on Noir...

“I’m coming with you,” he said.

“Suit yourself. Keep in mind though, we might all just die. The lock-down zone isn’t the lock-down zone for no reason, and the few volunteers Coltstone can provide won’t make for a solid escort.”

Noir didn’t open her eyes right away. She felt like a brick, her limbs heavy and her neck barely mobile, hungry and in pain.

Her thoughts were a scramble, her feelings mixed.

For the first time ever, the princess asked herself about something. Something... About her past... Her real past. First, the red dot, a mark of her disharmonious side... Or something else? Why was her parent’s death the event that triggered it? What was it that gave her that much power?

She knew it now. Her disharmony was three times more powerful than her parent’s magic combined. She couldn’t have gotten that red dot from them... It just wasn’t possible. It wasn’t inherited, nor was it something Noir had chosen to have.

So what was it?!

She couldn’t stop thinking about that pony... Snow... It was as if they were linked by some invisible force. She saw her, the night of the Blitz, only for a couple seconds, before she fell to the ground exhausted.

In the back of her mind, there was a wall of thick fog. But there was something beyond that... Pieces of something alien, unrecognizable.

At the edge of town, she had used her disharmonious side again. This time it had been different. It no longer had simply happened, instead the princess had switched sides almost at will.

Was she really becoming a weapon? Was she... Designed as one?

Noir shivered. Why did she use that word...

Which side was her real self?

That last question she asked herself felt like a rock on her heart. Her chest felt heavy... But then she realized, her chest literally felt heavy. The princess slowly opened her eyes, just to see a pair of blue-tinted glasses inches away from her face.

“Hey there!” The figure said, smiling.

Noir blinked a couple times, just to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. A small, blue pony with red strands was lying on her chest. Noir was shocked at first, but then she chuckled. A familiar voice behind them shouted:

“Noobsie! Get off of her, she’s not your pillow!”

The blue pony meowed and rolled off of Noir, before lying next to another, gray batpony with dark-blue hair and wings, named Tess. They were both staring at the princess, as she got up heavily and saw Storm standing next to the door. He smiled and said:

“Good afternoon, princess. You slept quite some time.”

“What... What happened?” Noir asked. “I... I got shot... The commissar shot me... Oh god, where are we?!”

“It’s fine, Noir, you’re safe. We got to you in time. So you saw him, and you’re certain it was the commissar?” Storm asked her.

“Yeah... I guess? I don’t really know, it’s just that I couldn’t really see straight, from all the flashing... Ugh, forget it.”

“What flashing?” Storm said, frowning.

Noir felt sick again. She approached Storm and said, looking in his eyes:

“What is happening to me?”

The pegasus looked back at her, not sure what to say.

“I don’t know, Noir, but I’m sure you’ll be fine,” he reassured her.

“Am I interrupting something?” Aendel spoke from behind them.

Storm turned around and Noir jumped.

“Emissary! I guess you’re here to conduct an investigation,” the princess told the sectorial.

“Call me Sir Scroll, princess, and no, I’m not here for that. You asked me to get you to the Capital, we’ll leave at dusk.”

The princess let out a sigh of relief. She never wanted an investigation to begin with.

“Dusk? Why?” Storm asked.

“It’s best for us not to be seen,” Aendel replied, looking at Noir.

“What about the Wolmetahls? They come out at night!”

“We just need to get out of Coltstone, then we’ll sleep and continue going at dawn. Pack your bags, princess.”

Noir nodded and exited the house to get some air. She sat on a wooden bench in the small backyard, thoughts still clinging on to her, and watched the shadows of the clouds move across the golden fields. She could see, further away, the small wall. Trackhead was going to return soon.

Trackhead was another mystery to Noir. He was sentient, the only ponybot in the entire kingdom that was sentient. Why and how, she never got to ask, but judging by his initial reaction at questions of the sort, he probably didn’t want to discuss about it.

Noir kept surveying the landscape, as if she was trying to see past the hills and the wall... All the way to the giant ravine that represented the border of Zir’lan. They all felt like they were trapped in a cage with a monster inside... The Wolmetahls had only fallen in Zir’lan.

Why? Why Zir’lan?

Past the ravine, their mysterious neighbor: the Lotus Kingdom, a surreal land that Noir had never seen. Her parents promised they would take her there one day, to meet Queen Efflorence. Of course, that never happened. The ravine was off limits since the Wolmetahls came, the bridges had been blown up to prevent the monsters from escaping Zir’lan. The only way in and out of the kingdom was through a mountain pass guarded by the Great Northern Gate.

They were alone.

Suddenly, Noir felt something pawing her tail. She turned around and saw the blue pegasus from before, named Noobsie. The small pony sat on the bench next to the princess and said:

“I don’t believe what the others say about you. I think you’re noble, and that you could never do what they think you did.”

Noir smiled.

“Oh really? Thank you!” She said, looking at the little fella. “So, where are you from?”

“I’m from here! I live up there, in that cloud, with Tess,” Noobsie replied and pointed a hoof at a slightly lower cloud.

“Woah, you live in a cloud? That’s so cool!” Noir shouted, looking up. “So how come you met Storm?”

“I... I saw the red flash, then Storm and the other guy carrying you over to that old house. I was curious... Sorry for lying on top of you, I just wanted to keep you warm.”

“Ah no worries!”

“So... I wanted to ask you... Is it true, that you can kill Wolmetahls? Don’t answer it if you don’t feel like it...” Noobsie said lightly.

Noir remained silent. She couldn’t; it was true, but the princess didn’t want to say it out loud.

Noobsie looked down.

“I’m sorry, shouldn’t have asked,” she said.

“Oh no, it’s fine, it’s just that I’m not sure myself what I can and can’t do,” the princess replied.

The pegasus shifted closer to the princess and, after a bit of hesitation, hugged her. Noir hugged back, petting the blue pony’s mane. Noobsie started whimpering and said:

“I just asked because... Now with the war... Our house got destroyed by those monsters and... Daddy...”

“Shh, it’s okay.” Noir whispered. “I’ll make it all okay.”

“I want you to kill them all,” the pony said, tears still running down her cheeks.

Noir looked towards the horizon for a few moments and said:

“Don’t worry, I will.”

“Alright stallions, this is an important mission. This is where you use your training. The princess needs a worthy escort, one that can and will defend her flanks no matter what, so my question is, are you up for the task or are we going to have to rely on them snobby sectorials to get the job done?”

Storm was proud of his speech. The squad of around twenty earth pony volunteers started cheering, all anxious for their first real mission, patting each other’s backs and holding their railguns upwards, the sun going down behind them and painting the land in gold.

Deep down Storm knew, however, if something was to go south, their escort will probably not make much of a difference.

The mysterious white-furred pony in Sector 0 entered the regent’s office, high up in the royal palace, slapping a folder on his majesty’s desk and tilting her head.

The regent was a middle-aged stallion coming from a family of farmers, going by the name Zanarius Domini, his real name being Rick. He quickly got up from his chair, heavily due to his fur coat and golden chains, and saluted the princess in a clumsy way:

“Your majesty! I... I wasn’t expecting you... Today... Something wrong?!”

“Rick, open the file,” white-fur said with her calm and rough voice, blowing her black and purple mane out of her eyes.

The stallion tried opening it, but hooves weren’t exactly helpful in that situation, and the plastic horn he had attached to his forehead didn’t exactly possess any magical capabilities. White-fur sighed and flipped open the file with her blue-tinted magic and slapped it in the regent’s face.

“See that?” She asked. “That’s a photo of me in the central square, and next to that is a photo of Noir made around the same time, in Coltstone. Why are those two photos and a nice little article documenting them in the newspapers?"

Rick spent a few moments processing what white-fur had just said and then looked at the photos, stupefied.

“Noir is quite pretty... Of course, not as pretty as you, your majesty! Even though you... Look kind of the same...” He said, starting to sweat.

“Rick, stop being an idiot and tell me why you let the media do this.”

“Well we can just shoot the guy who wrote the article, right?” Rick said, but then slapped himself. “I’m sorry your majesty,” he continued, “I was careless.”

“You’re lucky it won’t matter anymore, very soon,” white-fur said sharply.

“How’s the revolution going?” Rick asked.

“Don’t you ever let your sectorials get in my way again, and maybe it will be going smoothly,” she replied, sighed and exited the office, flanked by two stallions in red and gold uniforms.

“Our deal still stands right? I remain king, yeah?” Rick continued, but never got an answer.

The night arrived with a moist, chilly breeze and more fog. Noir, Aendel, Storm, Trackhead and the escort were getting ready to leave. The princess was staring at the stars, lying on her back in the grass and passively listening to the quiet chatter and rustling that was going on around her. Aendel was establishing a route with the escort commander, having spread a few maps on a table in the backyard. Noir caught fragments from their talk:

“This right here... The shortest route... If we take the main road... Safe from Wolmetahls... Yeah, we’ll sleep... Ranch...”

Trackhead had just found out what happened while he was gone and was just strolling around aimlessly.

Noir heard hoofsteps close to her. Storm laid himself next to her, not saying anything, looking at the stars too.

“Beautiful, right?” Storm said lightly.

“Yeah,” Noir answered. “Is the sky always like that?”

“Full of stars? Yeah, pretty sure.”

“No, I mean was that always there?”

Noir pointed her hoof straight upwards, at a thick band-like zone across the sky that was darker than the rest of it and had no stars, with a narrow red strand through the middle of it that glowed, seemingly moving slowly.

“Oh, you mean the Rift? Yeah... Are you telling me you never noticed it until now?” Storm said, chuckling.

“I don’t know... I guess I thought it used to be narrower.”

“Ha ha, well... Yeah, actually you might be right. It does look like it widened itself a bit.”

“We still don’t know what it is, right?”

“Nah, the Science League is still trying to find out. It’s there for a hundred years though. They say it’s some sort of crack in space-time something. Heh, they sometimes just explain things that are confusing with even more confusing terms. Still, it’s beautiful.”

Noir remained silent, looking at that huge slit across the sky, as if a molten blade had slashed through the fabric of space. She thought she had remembered something... Something from her other past. No, what the hay was she thinking, there’s no other past.

“Hey uh... Noir... I wanted to tell you something...” Storm said with a little tremor in his voice, turning his eyes towards the princess, whose sharp features were outlined by the moonlight.

“What is it?” Noir asked.

“I uhh, I was wondering if...”

“Everyone up! Time to move!” Aendel’s powerful voice sounded through the air.

The escort’s lights were blurred by the fog from a distance. They walked positioned in a rhombus around Noir, Storm, Trackhead and Aendel, scouting the road ahead with their flashlights and keeping railguns at the ready.

“So, after half a mile there’s a ranch. We’ll spend the night there and continue going at dawn,” Aendel said, checking a map.

It was silence, except the sound of hooves on the asphalt. The escort commander kept throwing looks towards Noir, as if something about her was bothering him. Storm noticed and asked:

“Is there a problem, commander?”

The stallion looked at him, seemingly not knowing what the pegasus meant.

“What?” He asked.

“I asked if there’s a problem.”

“Oh no sir. It’s just that there’s something wrong with her eye.”

“There’s nothing wrong with her eye, I assure you,” Storm said sharply.

The commander didn’t say anything anymore. Noir whispered to Storm:

“Is my... Dot glowing?”

“Eh, sort of, Noir. Don’t worry about it though.”

The princess didn’t feel comfortable. Aendel put away his map and started looking around carefully, and the light-gray pegasus had discretely borrowed a railgun from one of the escort members to make him feel safer. The escort commander made a sign and went ahead, to scout the road before them.

“Why didn’t we choose a closer place to spend the night? We’re already far enough from the city that we might just run into a Wolmetahl,” one of the soldiers said quietly.

Suddenly, the commander, who was going a dozen meters ahead, froze. He lied down slowly and shut off his light, signaling the rest of the party to do the same.

“Everyone, lights out! Don’t make a sound!” Aendel whispered.

Everypony turned off their flashlights and lied down silently.

“What’s going on? Oh god, is it a Wolmetahl?!” Another soldier asked, burying his head in his hooves.

“Shhh!” Aendel threw him.

From the fields to the left, light thumps became audible, and in the darkness of the night, Noir could only see the reflections of the moonlight on the metal and the outlines of silently flailing tentacles.

“Should we engage?!” A soldier asked Storm.

“No, don’t, let it pass,” the pegasus whispered.

The Wolmetahl reached the road, its heavy legs stepping with a pneumatic noise on the asphalt, cracking it. The monster stopped in the middle of the road, at around a hundred meters away from the escort commander, and turned around facing the ponies. A loud puff announced its spotlights turning on.

“Oh no,” Storm said, more to himself, even though the rest of the party got the message as well.

The Wolmetahl started scouting with the lights down the road and the moment the rays reached the escort commander, the stallion stood up and yelled from the top of his lungs in the direction of the convoy:

“Everypony scatter! Get off the road!”

The next thing everypony witnessed was a loud thunder accompanied by a flash and a shockwave, and the road section on which the commander was went up in a cloud of fire and smoke. After firing, the Wolmetahl started searching for more targets with its spotlights while moving forward down the road, the white rays sweeping across the fields on either side.

The soldiers got up quickly and scattered, running on the fields and pointing railguns at the monster, their adrenaline going from zero to a hundred the moment they started firing. Projectiles started hitting the Wolmetahl, most ricocheting with a spark off its wolfram plating. Aendel fired his horn and ran towards the low elevation gaps in the fields, together with Noir and Trackhead. Storm was flying above the Wolmetahl, shooting down at it.

The escort backed away slowly while firing, standing on their hind-hooves, as the Wolmetahl approached them, its own guns charging and growling loudly.

“Keep firing! Target the spotlights and the eyes!” One of them shouted.

The shots however missed the eyes by a lot, and only a few of the spotlights were hit and disabled.

Noir made up her mind. No, she thought, she couldn’t just sit and watch. She had to do something, or else all those poor ponies that didn’t know what they were signing up for were going to die.

She was a weapon, after all.

The princess got out of the hiding spot in the side of the hill and wanted to run towards the Wolmetahl, but suddenly Aendel grabbed her.

“Noir! Calm down, you can’t do anything about it!” The emissary shouted, holding the princess in place.

“But I can! They’re going to die, let me go!” Noir shouted, kicking her legs in the air.

“Hey! Let her go!” Storm shouted, having landed next to them.

“Storm, get back, or I swear I’ll kill you!” Aendel spouted at him.

The pegasus wasn’t sure what to do. He saw the explosions from the Wolmetahl’s guns and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he kicked Aendel off of the princess. Noir galloped towards the battle, not looking back. Aendel got up and quickly took Storm’s railgun that was lying on the ground, grasping it with his magic and pointing it at the pegasus.

“What the hay is wrong with you?!” The emissary shouted. “She’s going to die!”

“Woah, Aendel, put that down. You don’t want to do this, come on,” The pegasus said lightly, raising his hooves.

Aendel let out an angry shout and threw the weapon away, then ran for Noir.

The princess shouted from behind the Wolmetahl, trying to get its attention. The monster suddenly stopped, and turned around slowly, growling as it pointed its spotlights at Noir. Its mouth opened and its tentacles arched over him in a terrifying manner, the razors and laser guns aiming at the one pony in the middle of the road.

Noir didn’t hear Aendel’s desperate shouting regarding the second Wolmetahl that approached from the back. The princess closed her eyes; her scrambled mind and memories suddenly ordered themselves, and a flashback crossed her mind for a second;

“Snowy, are you sure this is going to work? You know, it’s illegal, what we’re doing... If The Company catches us... I wouldn’t want to lose you...”

Noir opened her eyes. The dot shined bright, and the second the monster lunged at her, a red flash illuminated the fields and a loud thunder shattered the Wolmetahl’s spotlights, as the lightning cut through it. In that moment, Noir saw the other one in a reflection, but it was too late for her and Aendel, who could not reach the road in time. The princess gasped as the Wolmetahl jumped straight for her, and for a split-second thought she had died and an angel had taken her soul in the skies; then she realized, Storm had grabbed her. The pegasus landed the princess safely, shouting:

“What were you thinking? Ah, thank the gods!”

Although it was very bad timing, they hugged.

“I’m sorry,” Noir said, then thanked him, a tear falling down her cheek.

The Wolmetahl landed head-on into the first one’s corpse, the two monsters clashing with a horrifying sound of torn metal and broken glass. The confused, mutilated beast backed away, shaking the pieces of the other one off its head and ripping the steel beams that had impaled it with its mouth. It then checked to see if its partner was dead, which it was, and proceeded to search around for the princess, limping.

“It’s not over yet...” Storm said. “It won’t quit.”

The torn and broken machine was indeed not quitting. It was enraged, swinging its tentacles wildly.

“Storm, I... I don’t think I can... Do it again... I’m just... So tired...” Noir said, then lied down, coughing. Her head was spinning, her mind once more a warzone.

Storm backed away as the now even more scary-looking Wolmetahl found them. It growled loudly and barely made its way towards them, pieces of it occasionally falling off.

“Uhh... Noir! Get up, we have to run!” Storm shouted and proceeded to grab the princess. He was exhausted as well, however, and no matter how hard he tried to fly with her in his arms, he couldn’t.

Suddenly, an unknown pegasus in armor dropped himself on the beast’s back, a shiny sword bolted to his front leg plate and a railgun bolted to his other leg. The Wolmetahl growled and swung its tentacles over itself, but the pegasus avoided them and shot the railgun into an exposed part of its head, slicing the cables and throwing a small device into the hole. He then jumped off and the Wolmetahl’s head connector area exploded, severing the head from the rest of its body, then crashing to the ground.

Aendel saw the whole thing and had a sneaking suspicion who the pegasus was; and his suspicion was confirmed. The pegasus took his helmet off and they all recognized the commissar, QB, as he punched a hole with his sword in one of the Wolmetahl’s oil tanks and painted an additional line to the three he had on the back of his front hoof.

Aendel approached him.

“You can see now, emissary, that what I’ve been telling you back at the fortress is the truth,” QB said, grinning. He then saw Noir and Storm and his grin faded.

“I am impressed. One would think that if you tried to kill Noir, you wouldn’t save her right after,” Aendel said. “You’re under arrest.”

“Not so fast, Aendel. In whose name are you arresting me?”

“What? In the regent’s name, of course.”

“Oh really? That’s funny. I thought the regent told you to not conduct an investigation. Do you have proof that I attacked Noir?”

“I have her testimony.”

“Oh trust me, the regent couldn’t care less about the testimony of a young troubled psychopath. Sorry, ol’ Aendel, not happening. I would thank me if I were you, your sweet killing machine got her flank saved for the second time by nopony but me. Now if you excuse me, I have business to attend.”

And so, Aendel could not stop him. QB flew away, just like that.

“You won’t get away next time,” Aendel mumbled. He then reunited with Noir and Storm and they all looked around, stupefied due to all that had happened. From all over the fields, out of twenty members of the escort, only seven returned.

They reached the ranch at midnight, injured, exhausted and demoralized. The ranch owners offered them food and a place to rest, as they were going to continue on their way to the Capital.

The whole time they were there, they didn’t speak, they just buried and mourned their friends and stared at the ceiling.

Noir was scared of the escort lashing at her because of the death of their friends. She lied next to Storm and didn’t say a word the entire night... Still, she thought about the flashback she had.

And more came to her slowly:

"Snowy, did you read what it says here?"

“I did, hun, but trust me, it’s going to be alright.”

“It says it can cause memory loss.”

“Ah, I bet once we get... we’ll recognize each other...”

“The Company was charged with crimes they did not commit...”

“...? You mean that planet that popped out of nowhere? Yes, I heard about it...”

“Millions died trying to pass through the...”

“The pony world was never meant to be part of our universe.”

Then, Noir fell asleep.

Snow

View Online

Episode 3 – Snow

“Noir, wake up.”

The princess purred.

“Come on, you guys still have a way to go,” the whisper continued, as if coming from underwater.

Noir finally opened her eyes halfway, yawning. A morning breeze was playing with her mane and the sun was bathing her, healing her tired body. Standing next to her was Noobsie, looking down at the royal pony with a smirk.

“Noobsie? What are you doing here?” The princess asked.

From behind the blue pony, Tess trotted in; the batpony looked at Noir and said, smiling:

“We’re here to help.”

Noobsie hooved Noir a canteen of water. The princess opened her eyes fully and silently stood up before drinking.

“Thanks, but, you could’ve been attacked by Wolmetahls on the way here...” She said.

“Nah,” Noob replied, “we live in a cloud, remember? We just flew over here, the Wolmetahls wouldn’t have suspected a thing!”

Noir gave Noob an insipid smile, then looked around; everypony else was still asleep, aside from Storm and one of the wounded escort members. They were both sitting at a table, chatting discretely - the princess sat down beside Storm.

“Hey Noir,” the pegasus said. The soldier kept quiet.

“Heya, you guys okay?” The princess asked.

The soldier mumbled a “yes” and Storm nodded.

Five minutes of blank staring followed, then the railgunner said, sighing:

“I never would’ve thought I would lose so many friends at once. It all happened so fast... I have no idea what I was thinking, believing those damn Wolmetahls would leave us alone.”

Noir looked down, and after a moment of silence said:

“I’m sorry.”

The soldier looked at her and kept himself from tearing up.

“You’re... You’re sorry?! Like that’s going to change anything!”

“Hey,” Storm said to him, “cut her some slack. After all, if it wasn’t for her, none of us would be left breathing.”

The soldier waved his hoof.

“Whatever. I guess I shouldn’t have enrolled.”

“Doesn’t matter anymore,” Storm said. “You enlisted, so you will continue until the end of your assignment.”

“What would you care?” The conscript said, raising his tone. “You’re a pegasus, you can easily handle those things, just like that ninja guy did with the second one that attacked us; I guess Noir didn’t see that one, did she?”

“The second Wolmetahl was going for her only, it never fired a shot in your direction. Besides, pegasi don’t have it any easier than you do, despite what you would think.”

“Still, she would’ve been dead and then the thing would’ve come for us.”

“But it didn’t. Stop making scenarios; what happened, happened, you can’t change any of it.”

The soldier remained sullen.

“We have to reach the Capital as soon as possible, Noir thinks a certain scientist there could help with the Wolmetahl situation,” Storm added, “so let’s make sure at least one of us gets there in one piece.”

The rest of the party woke up slowly, and they all prepared to leave again, not saying much. Aendel thanked the ranch owners for their hospitality. In the meantime, Noir went over to Tess, who was lying on a hay bed, pensive:

“Hey, can I talk with you for a moment?”

The batpony looked up and nodded, smiling.

Noir laid next to her and said after a short moment of silence:

“Didn’t see you around Coltstone much.”

“Uhm, well, we tend to move a lot,” Tess replied.

“Must be fun, always seeing new places.”

“I suppose, yeah, even though we can’t leave Zir’lan now... With the war and all...”

“Well, Zir’lan is still a beautiful place, even with Wolmetahls in the scenery!”

Tess shrugged with a slight grin.

“I find batponies fascinating,” Noir said, looking down at Tesla’s fangs, a bit jealous.

The batpony chuckled, before suddenly looking with shock at the princess and saying:

“Uhm, Noir, your... Eye...”

Noir frowned.

“What?” She asked.

“Your eye... It’s glowing red.”

“Oh... I’ll be right back - excuse me.”

The princess covered her eye and left in a hurry. She went outside and looked in the well of the ranch. Her dot was glowing strongly, and for no reason at that.

Noir shook her head with a huff. What this was, what was happening, Noir was starting to feel as if it was all a price for the power she’s come to possess, a power she'd never asked for.

“Hey, I’d like you to have this,” Tess said from behind. Noir turned around and hitched at the sight of the eye-patch that was being given to her, before finally taking it and fastening it on her left eye.

“Thanks...” Noir said, not too delighted with hiding her new nature.

“It’s as much as I can do, hopefully it won’t raise any suspicion.”

“Well it’ll definitely raise a lot less than without,” the princess said and displayed an unconvincing smile.

“Everypony, time to roll out!” Aendel’s voice was heard booming over the silence.

“Noir, I’m sure it’ll be okay.”
“Alright, if you say it’s okay then it’s okay.”
“We need to hurry, they will notice us soon. Just step in the cryochamber, fasten those belts and close your eyes… Everything will be fine.”
“Don’t wait too long around here!”
“I won’t. I promise.”

Warning: Authentication error, compatibility may fluctuate. Are you sure you wish to continue? This action may have severe consequences, including memory-loss, death, abnormal connections.
You have chosen to continue. Infusion initialization commencing.

White-fur woke up with a scream. A guard rushed in the room with a sword.

“I’m fine, everything's fine, go back to your station,” the white pony shouted, trying to hide her tears and fatigue.

The guard surveyed the bedroom carefully, squinting his eyes before exiting with slow, prudent steps.

White-fur sighed, taking her head in her hooves. It wasn’t the first time she had a strange, unexplained dream like that. What was all that about?! Why did she feel like she knew Noir before actually knowing her?

Memory-loss. That was the word that really unsettled the pony. Was she going insane?

Maybe this whole thing was stupid, she thought. The Revolution needed a strong leader but she felt weaker and weaker.

A knock on the door startled her.

“Come in,” she said.

Razorwing entered, his sensei-beard looking like it had a mind of its own. He
closed the door behind him, his tail-blades accidentally clacking against the frame.

“What is it, Demoon?” White-fur asked.

“We have news. Noir and her escort are on their way here, they were attacked but QB got there in time.”

“That’s cool…”

Razorwing frowned and tilted his head on the side.

“Uh, are you alright, your majesty?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Bring her here when she arrives.”

The stallion looked a bit worried, then said:

“Also… There’s one more thing. We might want to start the game up, ponies are starting to sniff around and we might lose the element of surprise.”

“Oh don’t worry, we will, once Noir gets here… We will.”

Demoon circled around and left, saluting the guards.

White-fur sighed. No, she wasn’t going to let some stupid dream keep her from following her plans and leading the Revolution to glory… After all, they had already won.

The princess of Zir’lan, her friends and what was left of her escort arrived at the huge chrome gates of the Capital at noon. They were closed due to the lockdown, a couple laser cannons and a few lines of soldiers making sure nothing entered or exited. It was a mess, the entire area; Noir was shocked at the sight of the fields in front of the gate and walls - they were full with ponies, fillies and colts alike, some in tents, some lying down on the grass around campfires, some yelling at the soldiers and throwing stuff, but all waiting for one thing: The gates opening, allowing them to return home. Further away from the camping zone, a simple wall was separating them from the main battlefield, Zir’lan’s army - or whatever was left of it - defending the central area of the nation. Hundreds of ponies, trapped between the sharp teeth of the Wolmetahls and the corruption of Sector 0, with no way out. Storm took Noir under his wing to hide her from view and told the escort to remain alert. Aendel kept silent, clenching his jaws in disgust; it wasn’t the first time he saw this, but every time he did, he lost a bit of trust in the new royalty.

At the gates, the party was stopped by an aggravated sectorial:

“Halt. The Capital is under lockdown.”

Aendel stepped forward and presented a few papers, saying:

“Royal business, I’m his majesty’s emissary.”

The sectorial looked at the papers for a few moments;

“The regent’s emissary, you say? Okay then. Who’s that?” He said, grinning and pointing his hoof at Noir.

“She’s with me.”

“Does she have papers?”

“Are you going to let us in or not?”

“If you tell me who she is, then I might consider doing that.”

Noir pushed in front of Storm’s wing and stepped into view, saying:

“I am the princess of Zir’lan and you will open this gate. That’s an order.”

The sectorial burst into laughter and yelled towards the masses of ponies that were waiting:

“Hey, all of you filthy beggars, Noir Disharmony is here for you!”

They turned their heads and glared. They started shouting.
Noir quickly realised her mistake and softened up. Aendel grabbed the sectorial by the collar and said:

“If you don’t open those gates, I will make your life a living hell.”

“Oh you sure do scare me, Aendel Scroll!” The guard said, grinning. “You know what your beloved sectorial friends say about you? That you’re one big traitor!”

“Oh yeah? Well guess what, I stopped caring the moment the Blitz happened.”

The escort surrounded Noir, waving their weapons in the air and yelling at the ponies to stay away. Storm kept the princess near him. Some ponies had approached and were spouting all sorts of insanities:

“Maybe if they let you, a mass-murderer, in the city, they’ll let us in too, eh?”
“There’s the girl! Nice covering your eye there, is it still glowing?!”
“Oh look, it’s the commissar from Coltstone! Country pegasus found himself quite a bride! I hope you both die!”
“Everypony I cared about died because of you, and here you are, having the guts to show your face!”

The escort and Storm were yelling back, answering with lots of swearing. Noir was shivering.

Suddenly, a loud hiss silenced the crowd; the gates opened, slowly, and the sectorials started yelling at each other trying to understand who ordered for them to be opened. The next moment, everypony screamed, as a Wolmetahl passed through. The intimidating metal beast however did not attack or harm any of the ponies, it simply scanned the crowd with its laser array, the beams sweeping over the ponies below. From behind it, a small group of ponies dressed in red and gold uniforms, with Razorwing Demoon in front, made their entrance. The tail-bladed stallion shouted:

“Everypony, do not panic, the Wolmetahl will not hurt you. I want every one of you to step away from the princess, now.”

Noir, her party, and everypony else were stupefied. Razorwing approached the princess’ group, but the sectorial from before walked up to him and yelled:

“Hey, who the hay are you and what’s the meaning of this?!”

Demoon stopped, pulled out a small gun and shoved it in the sectorial’s face, saying with a calm and collected voice:

“Disappear, now.”

The other raised his hooves and backed up slowly; he shouted at the gate guards to arrest the stranger, but the Wolmetahl growled fiercely at them all and they froze.

Razorwing pushed aside Aendel, who let out a short “hey!”, and fixated Storm with his eyes, saying:

“It’s fine, young pegasus, I will not harm her.”

Storm hesitated, but ultimately stepped aside, prepared to strike if the stranger would touch Noir. Razorwing finally was standing in front of the princess, and said:

“Blessed be the Rift, you arrived safely. I was one step away from sending an entire army to bring you here. Please, follow me, young lady.”

“Follow you where?” She said, confused and hostile.

“To greatness, of course. Also, for you to take care of any business you have in the city.”

“What about them?” The princess asked, pointing at Storm and Aendel.

“They will be waiting for you when you return. Now quickly, her majesty is waiting for you,” Razorwing replied, then, looking at the Wolmetahl, shouted:

“Don’t let anyone else in!”

The beast nodded.

Aendel jumped in:

“Wait a minute! Who are you again? Are you one of the regent’s ponies? How is it that the beast listens to you?!”

Razorwing turned towards him and said:

“No, I am not one of the regent’s ponies. I am one of Noir’s ponies.”

Both Noir and Aendel froze, and Noir felt an ice-cold look from the emissary piercing her. The princess turned towards him and said with a faded voice:

“I swear, I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

Aendel huffed angrily and said to Razorwing:

“You don’t have any authority to take her away.”

“Neither do you to stop me,” the stallion replied.

“Oh but I do, and you’re under arrest for threatening a sectorial guard.”

Razorwing chuckled, then came very close to Aendel and said:

“Very soon, all of you sectorials and your puny attempt at a leadership will come to realize the new world order, and you will taste either the tasteless victory or the bitter-sweet defeat, depending on what side you choose.”

Aendel remained silent and frustrated.

“Come with me princess, we have work to do,” Demoon then said to Noir.

Thus, Razorwing and Noir entered the Capital, followed by the Wolmetahl, and the gates closed behind them… But not before Trackhead could sneak in as well.

“Winter wrap-up, winter wrap-up, let’s do the holiday cheer…”

Ralph Ferron was singing an equestrian song, going back and forth from one side of his room to the other and laughing randomly. His mane was frizzy, his expression erratic.

“Winter wrap-up, winter wrap-up, ‘cause spring is here... Shut up.”

Although he was the only one talking, Ralph then started arguing, aggravated by him telling himself to shut up:

“You shut up! You’re the one that’s always talking, always thinking, compiling extensive strategies to take down the Company or buy an ice-cream, you ugly bastard!”

And he answered as well:

“Well aren’t you the sweetest? Also I don’t like ice-cream.”

“How was I supposed to know that?!”

“Well, you can see my thoughts.”

“Oh, right. You know what, Cronum? I had enough of your thoughts, so just stop thinking. I don’t have room for my own!”

“Ralph, there’s enough room for both of us. Your head is empty anyways.”

“No it’s not, thanks to you.”

“You just called yourself an idiot.”

“No, I just called you a parasite. Get out of my head!”

Ralph stopped walking like a metronome and lied on his bed, burying his head in his hooves. He groaned and slammed the pillow, but to no avail. Cronum was still there.

“Seriously? You have to try harder than that. Try killing yourself, that could work.”

“How about no?”

“We could wake up, there is a chance. We can then take separate templates.”

“No, I’m not risking to not wake up.”

“Heh, you have a choice. I never did.”

“Oh stop complaining about that, you survived it all!”

“Is that an excuse?”

“It’s a fact.”

“Well, I did, but you assholes did something worse than killing me afterwards.”

“And what would that be?”

“What do you think? Using the wrong template and infusing me in your stupid head!”

“Yeah, that is indeed a tragedy. I wish I could kill you.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

“So, miss Disharmony, I believe you have business here in the lockdown zone?” Demoon asked with a cordial tone.

Noir didn’t answer. She was stuck between shock and aggravated confusion. She looked at the Wolmetahl behind them, at Razorwing’s uniform, noticed the strange logo, noticed his tail made of blades.

Demoon chuckled, looking at Noir’s face;

“Oh Noir, there’s so many things her majesty needs to explain to you.”

“Her majesty?” The princess asked lightly, regaining her voice.

“Yes. Our queen. She’s been expecting you for quite a while now.”

“But I thought a regent ruled now, who is she?”

“You will meet her.”

After a while, Razorwing looked at the princess again and frowned:

“Oh but what a shame! Hold still.”

Noir got startled as the stallion removed her eye-patch, exposing her green eye and her strongly-lit dot in the center of it.

“Yes, why hide your power, Noir? It’s beautiful, that red dot of yours. It’s the only thing her majesty never had...” Razorwing said and lifted the princess’ chin up with his hoof.

“Get your hooves off of me,” Noir said sharply.

“Of course,” the stallion quickly backtracked. “So, what brings you to the Capital?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Oh really? Well now, you wouldn’t happen to appreciate the help I offered getting you past those snobby sectorials?”

Noir sighed.

“I just need to visit somepony.”

“I see.”

They kept walking on the barren streets...

… And the more they went deeper into the morbid, abandoned and ghost-like city, the more Noir felt nostalgia stinging her heart like a needle. The streets were familiar; they used to be the streets Noir ran around on as a filly. The houses and tall buildings, now ruins, once glorious demonstrations of power. Around them, there used to be soothed-up ponies, trade caravans, fiddlers and soldiers in shining armor… Now it was all dust, blood and motor oil. Here and there, a dead Wolmetahl, ripped apart by the functional ones for scrap parts, a pile of scorched rubble, a tattered flag sticking out of the ruins, waving in the wind. As they got closer to the center of the city, Noir started feeling outright sick. A tear escaped her eye as she realised where she was;

The central square hadn’t changed in Noir's eyes.

The podium, where Lux had held his speech; the old royal palace in the background; the spotlights pointed upwards; the huge banners hanging on cables across the square… Noir could remember everything in detail…

Razorwing noticed Noir’s state of being and sighed, then said:

“What a tragedy this was, indeed. I will never forget your parents and what they did for this nation, Noir. Keep in mind though, from their ashes… You shall rise and lead. They would’ve never wanted anything else for you.”

Noir kept herself from crying and said with a faded voice:

“You never met them, did you? They never wanted me to be a princess. They always said that greatness doesn’t come with titles, it comes with who you are as a pony and what you do, and that being a princess was just… Risks… Piled on…”

She stopped, whimpering a few times before sighing and wiping her tears off.

“I always hoped I could forget, but it always comes back to me. Maybe all those ponies outside the walls are right; it was my fault,” she continued.

“Oh but please, princess, that is utter nonsense!” Razorwing argued.

“You weren’t even there!” Noir shouted, cutting him off.

“Yes, I wasn’t. However, lots of ponies I knew were, and I mourn their loss just as you mourn yours. I’m sorry, Noir.”

The princess looked away. They left the square, and soon reached Noir’s destination.

The scientist’s house didn’t stand out from the rest, it was just like the other ones; walls covered in ash, broken windows. Noir climbed the cracked steps and knocked at the barred door; nopony answered. She hesitated a bit, then stepped back and broke down the door with her magic. Razorwing, who was waiting for her in the street, shouted:

“Rude!”

Noir froze; the house was a mess. It had been ravaged, stuff was lying everywhere. No sign of the scientist. The princess checked every room and couldn’t find anything important; if there was anything regarding the scientist’s inventions or his findings on the Wolmetahls, it wasn’t there.
She was about to leave, when, suddenly, she noticed the back door was open.

“Psst, Noir!”

The princess jumped, and turned around to see Trackhead hidden in the bathroom.

“Trackhead?! How did you…”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m here because I wanted to see him as well,” Trackhead replied. “He’s not here, is he?”

“No, unfortunately not,” Noir replied.

“Anyways, that tail-bladed guy doesn’t know I’m here, so keep it down. Did you check everywhere for anything he might’ve left behind?”

“Yeah.”

But then a thought crossed her mind. She hadn’t checked under the bed. However, upon ducking, she ascertained that there was nothing there. Standing up, she heard a slight crack in the wood. Frozen in place, she lifted her hoof and noticed that a few of the planks under the bed were slightly elevated. Grasping them with her magic, she removed the planks and took the file that was lying within the floor, a glimmer of hope flashing in her eyes. However, when she opened the file, her smile faded. All there was inside was a document and a note. The note read:

“Ask Trackhead”

Noir felt confused. She flipped the document around and saw written on the cover “T.H.E Company - Project Haermes Equis - Classified”.

Noir felt a shiver down her spine, then another one, then another. The more she read, the more her heart beat faster.

“Noir? Are you done yet? There’s obviously nopony home!” Razorwing’s voice came from outside.

Trackhead threw a look through the window and turned to Noir:

“Don’t trust the tail-blades guy, there’s something off about him… Also, were there always soldiers with you?”

Noir didn’t answer. She had never heard those names before, but they somehow sounded familiar. There were lots of notes scribbled on the papers, but most of it was redacted; it said something about a project, an error in a program... Templates…
Templates. Like the ones in her dreams, but what were they referring to?

There was also a list of seven names, but they were all redacted, two of them having a note written next to them:

“We’re the same and yet we’re not.”

Noir couldn’t understand what any of that meant, and there was too little information not covered by black bars for her to piece together anything... Besides that she had a bad feeling about it all. The notes were apparently scribbled by a crazy pony:

“Get out of my head, you damn evil psychopath!”
“Need. To. Not. Think.”
“He listens to everything, it’s like my mind is an antenna and he is a radio. GET OUT.”
“We will never be the same.”
“What have we done? Not we. YOU.”

Noir stopped reading. She took the papers and hid them in her satchel. Trackhead gasped and whispered:

“Noir! Noir, were there always soldiers with you?!”

Noir frowned.

“Uhm, no, why?”

“Because there’s like an army outside at the moment.”

The princess looked through the window and froze. Razorwing saw her and yelled:

“Princess, exit the house through the front door and don’t make any stupid moves, we don’t want you to get hurt.”

Trackhead said quickly:

“Noir, listen, Noobsie and Tessy are in a cloud above the central square, if you can get there…”

“No,” Noir replied. “I don’t want them to be in danger. You stay here, and don’t make a sound.”

The princess exited the house. Around thirty soldiers in red and gold uniforms, standing on their hind-hooves in a U-formation, were pointing railguns at the princess.

“What… Why…” Noir faltered.

“We had to make sure you won’t give us any surprises,” Razorwing said. “Just follow me and you’ll be alright.”

“Where are we going?”

“Sector 0, miss Disharmony.”

Storm and Aendel were sitting around a campfire, now being part of the aimless masses outside the city walls, not exchanging any words.

A family gave them permission to sleep in their tent overnight, the only family that was remotely being nice to them, as the rest kept blabbering behind their backs.
The night had taken over the fields once more, as the Rift became visible among the stars, its huge orange-reddish flame slowly dancing across the fabric of space.

Aendel was angry and bitter. In his mind, he was right. Noir had planned it all from the start, and was there to collect the bounty. It made sense, after all; she was teleporting frequently to Sector 0, she had plans to take down the regent and assume control, take profit in the Blitz and everything that had happened afterwards… And the Wolmetahls. She had control over the Wolmetahls, even though she tried hiding it. That tail-bladed guy though, his mouth slipped.
The emissary smiled. He had enough evidence to arrest Noir and end this entire charade.
He knew from the start though, but was weak and had let some random ponies make him doubt himself.
He threw a look to Storm, who was blank-staring at the crackling flames of the fire.

Storm, on the other hoof, was worried about the princess, and was ready to take down all the guards and enter the city just to make sure she was okay. He could fly; unfortunately though, the lockdown had established flying-nullifiers as well.

Suddenly, distant thumps broke the silence. The family’s filly asked her mother:

“Mommy, why are there fireworks so far away? I want to see them…”

“Oh, sweetie, those aren’t fireworks…” The mother replied.

They were artillery guns, and soon the fields in the distance started rumbling with thunder and lightning, as the 5th army of Zir’lan was defending the outer border of the region with their lives.

It didn’t take long, an hour at most.

Both Aendel and Storm listened with pain in their souls, as less and less cannons fired, the flames of the resistance dying out as quickly as they ignited...

“We lost the border” was then the phrase everypony pronounced, as some of them started crying, others simply stared at the ground, and others took another shot of alcohol. The radios spoke:

“The western border has been overrun. What’s left of the 5th army will arrive at the Capital in the morning. I repeat; the western front has fallen. Sectorials, if you’re hearing this… Prepare for the worst. This is commander Arnold signing off, I’m going to blow up the charges, hopefully I’ll get some of them as they pass… May the Rift bless you all… It was an honor serving Zir’lan. Hail Disharmony!”

The transmission ended with a loud sound, and the sky above the fields lit up.

“Everypony, shield your ears!” Aendel yelled.

The mother took her filly in her arms and covered her ears, and after about fifteen seconds, the shockwave reached them, a terrifying boom shaking the ground and a gust of wind sweeping the entire area.

“Is everypony alright?” Storm asked around.

Aendel felt boiling anger. He turned to Storm and exploded:

“Do you see it, now?! I was right all along!”

Storm frowned.

“Wha-” He stuttered.

“What do you mean what?! About Noir! It was her all along! This is all part of her grand scheme!”

“But that doesn’t make any sense, Aendel!”

“Doesn’t it? How else can you explain that?!” Aendel yelled and pointed at the clouds of smoke on the fields. “She has control over the Wolmetahls, she always had it. Is it a coincidence that she arrives here, where her center of operations is, and hours afterwards the frontline falls?!”

“Aendel, you’re being paranoid,” Storm said. “Didn’t you hear what the tail-blades guy said? He said her majesty is waiting for Noir, so that means Noir isn’t in charge!”

“Fairy tales! It’s all a cover-up! He said he works for Noir, stop trying to throw water in my face!” Aendel roared.

“I’m just trying to make you see things objectively, for the Rift’s sake!”

“No, you’re the one that’s biased because you love her!”

“What?! No I don’t!”

“Shut up. You think I’m blind?!”

Storm clenched his jaws.

“What does that even have to do with anything?” He asked, sighing.

“It has to do with the simple fact that Noir is against what’s best for this nation and you’re in the way of fixing that,” Aendel said through his teeth.

“Oh, and what are you going to do? Arrest me? You were the one who said the regent is corrupt and that we are alone with this one.”

“Don’t push me, Storm.”

“Right, because you have lots of authority left.”

A few moments of silence passed, then Aendel said:

“I don’t, but the regent does.”

“Don’t,” Storm said. “Don’t do this, Aendel. He might be corrupt, you might just walk right into a trap and feed him information he’ll then use against us all.”

“You know what, Storm? The only time I fell in a trap was when I listened to you,” the emissary threw him and left the camp, heading for the group of stallions in red and gold that came with Razorwing, smoking near the gates.

He approached the group of around five ponies and addressed himself to what seemed to be the highest-ranking one of them:

“Good evening, my name is Aendel Scroll, I am in the regent’s service as his majesty’s emissary and I bring valuable information that needs to be acknowledged by the regent urgently. I know it’s late and I’m aware of the chaos that might outbreak, but it is mandatory that you open those gates.”

The stallion looked at him, raising an eyebrow, and said yawning:

“Even if I wanted to, I don’t have clearance to open the gates.”

“Then who does? Who do I need to speak to?”

“The secretary of the army.”

“Please, good sir, that would take too much time!”

“I’m sorry, but I ain’t fixing what sectorials screw up. Not my problem they closed the gates in the first place.”

“Wait, so, you’re not with the army, right? You’re not a so-called sectorial. You’re a mercenary or a private contractor, right? Who are you guys exactly? I can see your logo, it has to do with Wolmetahls right?”

The stallion approached Aendel and said:

“I suggest you stop asking questions and you forget anything you might’ve heard, for your own sake. Now, what kind of information are you bringing?”

“It concerns the regent only.”

“You know what? I’ll open the gates if you tell me one thing.”

“I thought you didn’t have clearance, but okay.”

“If victory is tasteless and defeat tastes bitter-sweet, what does a draw taste like?”

Aendel smiled. He knew that one, it was an old saying his father used to tell.

“Depends on the cook,” the emissary said.

The stallion laughed and turned to another:

“Open the gates.”

Aendel was a bit uneasy. Why did they suddenly decide to help him? Was it enough he knew some random old saying?

Either way, the huge gates opened, and soldiers quickly closed the way to prevent other ponies from entering, as they all rushed yelling towards the entrance to the city. Aendel looked back, discouraged, the blocks of chrome closing behind him.
He was alone, in a dead city, at night.

Walking on the silent streets, here and there feeling the movement of seemingly docile Wolmetahls behind his back, their eyes glowing in the dark, reminding him of how Noir’s dot glowed, the emissary really started to wonder why he couldn’t have waited until dawn.

He made his way with difficulty to yet another obstacle… The gate to Sector 0. Upon arrival he was told to brush off and that the gates stayed closed at night and that he had to wait until the morning to pass through, and thus the regent’s emissary found shelter in one of the many abandoned houses and barely managed to fall asleep, the quiet thumps of the Wolmetahls and the flailing of their tentacles in the dark outside the windows giving him the shivers.

As for Noir and Razorwing, the gate wasn’t an obstacle.

Even at night, Sector 0 looked a whole lot better than other cities and a whole lot better than any other place in the kingdom. Even though it was small and cramped, it was heaven, being the only city untouched by Wolmetahls… Or the wild type of Wolmetahls, rather.
The lights were brilliant, the buildings and view were amazing, but none of that catched Noir’s attention as much as the fact that the ponies there had a very different reaction to seeing her than the ones outside the Capital. It almost felt off, how they all bowed in front of the princess and clapped their hooves applauding.
Razorwing whispered to her, as they walked down the main boulevard:

“You see, Noir, these ponies may be from Sector 0, but they certainly are not sectorials. They are your ponies… Well, her highness’ ponies, but yours as well. They look up to you, unlike the other rats that dare question your power, and remember; you’re not wearing your eye-patch, Noir. They can see your dot, and they praise it. Our logo is not a Wolmetahl eye, princess. It’s yours.”

“But I don’t understand…” She said. “How is this possible? Sector 0 was always the center of the riot against me…”

“That’s what once was true, and what you were led to believe. More answers will come to you shortly; we’re almost there.”

Noir wouldn't buy any of it. She could see the ponies further away, on the other side of barriers, yelling at her and showing the same hostility Noir was used to. Something was off, and the princess could feel something stirring in the air...

However, she could also feel that they were close… Also feel what they were getting close to. Approaching the huge, new royal palace, passing by decorated Wolmetahls that bowed, somehow, for some reason, she knew who the white-furred pony that she was going to meet was, and she knew, the moment she stepped into the huge throne room, that her flashbacks and her dreams, they were all real... At least that was what she felt, as nothing was really certain.

The moment the princess saw who was sitting on the crystal throne of Zir’lan, a scream escaped her lungs. It was the same pony that she had dreamed about, the same pony she saw the night of the Blitz, right before passing out, and the same pony she once knew… Her name was Snow.

However, the white-furred pony did not have the same revelation concerning Noir. None of it, just a vague memory of something familiar, a spark of light in the dark void that was her erased memory. For a second she also knew... But only for a second, before the spark went up with a puff.

Because Noir had only a part of her memories erased that day, the day she entered the Haermes Equis Project, but Snow had lost all of it.

“Once you lose someone you love, you have two choices: Accepting the loss, or losing yourself too.”